[Horde] Chapter Three: Session Twelve
Appearing Characters: Arthak Saurfang, Azgadaan, Felendren, Halno, Karim, Levia Blackflight, Nyxxa, Sadras, Samaara, Shadreen
Appearing Creatures: Arcane Elemental, Arcane Wraith, Living Spell, Pale Orc, Unicorn, Warpstalker
Appearing Locations: Falthrien Academy
December 5th
Waking early, the Warband stirs before the crack of dawn. Nyxxa and Levia tell Arthak of the pale Orcs they saw.
Azgadaan suggests they skip breakfast and eat on the way up, and he hands out flesh jerky from the book he’d found. Arthak agrees and suggest that they skip straight to the top to subvert Cho’gall first. They can explore after they flush out the pale orcs. The Warband agrees and heads out.
Azgadaan explains that he may turn people into animals if they seem to be weary. Arthak seems less than enthusiastic.
The Warband begins their ascent. As they go, Levia looks to Nyxxa.
Nyxxa bites her lip
Nyxxa gestures to put her arm around her, but then she withdraws, remembering that Levia doesn’t like hugs. Levia clearly appreciates this and heads out.
The warband continues, they pass through the halls of the Sanctum of Statics across the causeway. The causeway is interesting, as they’ve been rather straight paths. This one’s stones twist and turn, flexing small and large. It’s not deadly immediately, but they must travel in a single file lines.
The stone path seems to beg them to fall off, sometimes tilting and becoming small underfoot. The pathway, itself, runs about 85 feet across, but it winds and curves, extending the journey.
As they consider their path, Azgadaan offers that he can take people across one or two at a time by transforming. Sadras offers that it may not be time saving. Azgadaan then offers to teleport he and Arthak, as they aren’t very dextrous. Arthak prefers teleporting. No one wants to fall to their death, after all.
The path provides 3 major obstacles, the first is warping stones (much like a Hotwheels track). The second is where it narrows out exceptionally, requiring balancing across. The third is where the road slopes at a 45 degree angle, boding some degree of climbing skill.
Samaara goes first, attempting to climb the first segment. It’s high and tall, but she is able to bridge the three after some time with relative ease. The party makes it with no trouble.
The second area, the thinnest zone, Halno notices that there is something strange in the air. He is able to detect something but it remains unknown. As he passed over the sections, he notes that the magic is in a greater sense of flux. Magic could make the path flicker. The ambient magic here seems rather unstable. Halno lets Azgadaan and Arthak know. Everyone balances well.
The rest of the party presses onto the third area. While Levia looks at her wings, wishing they would carry her, Nyxxa begins to cross. She sails across with ease. Samaara slips and Nyxxa is able to catch her and they head to safety. Sadras squints and smirks, she kneels down, and places her arms on the walk way. She then drops down, hanging on the walkway from underneath and crawls her away across as though she was on a playground. Sadras feels the stones ripple, but she is able to hold on and make her way across. Halno takes out paper, he jots down a few notes, and then he ties them to his staff.
Halno finishes up and leaves Levia behind. His dead legs carry himself across with relative ease. He then stops himself from tearing up his notes, just written, as he sees what is ahead. Levia, too, makes it across easily.
Lastly, there stands the 45 degree angle. They opt to take a running leap.
Nyxxa presents a rope. Halno goes for a jump and then he slides down, scrambling to catch onto the edge. He slips right off the incline. The rope helps to catch him. Sadras is able to catch him-- though their fishing with Halno as bait. He’s pulled up, and he continues across. Slowly, surely, he gets across.
Levia goes next and clears it easily. Nyxxa, too, carries onto the end. Sadras goes next, sliding off the edge, but she makes it.
Azgadaan has backed up, far enough away, and begins to cast his spell. He becomes a Kongamato, a large birdlike creature with leathery fin-like wings. Bird-Azgadaan awkwardly walks towards Arthak. Taking off, Azgabird takes Arthak across while holding him in his talons.
As his spell is cast, there is a surge of energy around Azgadaan. Beneath him, he sees a silver lining under himself-- Water Walk has been cast upon himself due to a wild magic surge. Unfortunately! He’s completely terrified of water! He can see the sea as he flies, and there’s a shiver down his birdy spine. No water for Azgabird.
The pair land safely on the other side, Azgabird releases Arthak back onto the ground. Azgadaan remains as Azgabird for the time being, trying not to waste his spell. He’s very slow in this form and the hallways make it hard to navigate.
As they approach, they can hear growling and snarling. As they get in closer, they see something semi-familiar. They see three creatures-- they’re long, scaled, and horned, creatures. Two of them have legs and arms of an emaciated Orc. They’re pulling the limbs apart. While they look like Warpstalkers from Draenor, their eyes are burning green. They’re pulsing with fel magic. The three Warpstalkers look to the party, snarling.
Nyxxa, with glaives out, puts them away, draws her bow, and knocks an arrow. She’s able to ping one of the creatures. Their forms ripple as they hiss. The one that is hit, it solidifies again. The others seem to disappear ambiently as they charge.
One of the creatures begins to sprint, it leaps into the air, vanishing. It then reappears and reaches to bite Nyxxa. It bites into her legs. The fight rages on with varying degrees of success. The creatures blink in and out, and the party reacts, attempting to make them materialize and fight.
Azgabird swallows one’s head, ending the first of the trio. He also successfully ends the life of another.
The remaining Warpstalker is attacking Halno as Arthak goes to finish it off. Arthak does hit it, but it exacts revenge and bites into Arthak in turn. Samaara is able to shoot it dead, as it was bleeding heavily, too.
Azgabird retrieves the body of the third Warpstalker, and dumps it at Samaara’s feet.
Sadras notes that they could spare a moment to take something off of the creatures. Arthak argues that Cho’gal’s forces are still out there and they should keep moving, clearly concerned.
The party moves on, then. They note a translocation orb, but it’s likely dangerous to use. On the right side, there are four directions. They lead to the Hall of Conjuration, Enchantment, and Universalism. On the far end, they see a door that is closed. It's notable, as it’s one of the only doors they’ve seen.
Azgabird horks up the Warpstalker’s head onto the Pale Orc’s corpse. Levia frowns.
Azgabird is still too large for the hallways, but he still has to go slow. They can see a tree symbol on the door, the boughs and leaves seem to form into a book between the leaves. As they approach, Arthak’s badge makes the roots begin to glow on the door. The glow carries from the roots to the top, depending on how he is standing.
Arthak reaches out, touching the badge to the door. There is a pulse, the hands on the sigil open, as do the doors. Looking inside, he can see a narrow chamber that leads into an enclosed space, 10 feet in diameter. There’s a clear glass. Looking up, they can see the officiate.
Stepping in, Arthak feels his body become weightless. He begins to float upwards, as do the rest of the party as they enter. Nothing carries them, but they float. Within 25 seconds, they come to the top, they’re let onto their feet. Azgabird struggles to fit, but he carries on.
It seems more refined in how fancy it is. It is largely enclosed. Looking left and right, the Warband sees a hallway. Directly forward seems to be a lift. The chamber can go out to left or right. There ware doorways on the side-- Halno knows them to be offices for teachers and staff.
The lift in the center leads to the Headmaster’s office. They can see another door beyond, 3x the size of the one in Synergetics. Halno knows it to be the reliquary. They keep any sort of magical artifacts there that don’t have a home/kept for safekeeping.
Halno points to the Reliquary, but he’s looking up at the same time.
The two bicker a little, as Halno’s want is clear.
Arthak can see a space to place his hand. The spaces/offices are locked. Still, they step into the lift, and they feel themselves begin to float. They start slow, then they’re thrown to the side. It’s a less smooth ride. The magics are warping, stones rip out and break the teleportation spell.
They make it up and see two more paths. One is 50 feet away, and the other is 100. Beyond it, they can see a view chamber. It’s a semi-circle section that heads off in either direction. Levitating in the air, they see a magnificent crystal. It’s a sickly green color, there are cracks that run through the thing. It’s easily 30/40 ft tall. All around the semi-circle, they can see a transparent viewing glass. They can overlook the grounds and the crystal. Even further, the ban'dinoriel does shimmer.
The crystal pulses not only with fel green magic, but they can see shadowy cracks.
They’re not alone here. In front of the crystal, a figure stands before the crystal, channeling a shadowy beam into it. The magic runs through him. It warps reality around him. He seems to distort space and time around him.
He has long, pointed, ears and clothing of Elvish origin. The clothes are slightly armored in a tunic, white pants, and black boots. His hair shifts with energy. It becomes clear that he’s not a high elf. His skin is dark violet, a colorless void that absorbs light around him. He smiles a wide smile, teeth almost too bright in his shadowy tones.
He holds his hands out to either side, his heartbeat pulses in the air.
The energies in his hands break. A shockwave pulses around him, and a hole in his hand is visible. The glass behind him breaks and yet floats around the area. The chamber is alight with magic, as the Warband can see magic coalescing into two, large, opaque, creatures much like the wraiths they’d fought. Yet, these ones are solid.
Nyxxa steps up, bow drawn, and launches an arrow. The arrow sails true, but the arrow moves on its own. It pierces his hand instead, and the thing is pulled into the hole in his hand. Another arrow strikes him. Nyxxa then moves to an archway and awaits the party.
Arthak runs forward, activating his Frost Rune. His brands glow blue and he can feel his muscles harden, they seem to freeze and crackle with energy.
Wild Magic: Sadras experiences a wild magic surge, she resists sleep. By Felendren, a Unicorn pops into the battlefield. Halno, beneath his garb, just a hint of his skin is showing. He can see said skin seems to be a bright shade of blue. One of the Arcane Elementals casts a spell and it bounces to Arthak. Arthak can now fly for an hour.
Felendren releases tentacles erupt from his hands, they dig deep into the ground. It brushes past many of the party members as they spill from his hand into the ground. The tentacles provide difficult terrain. They eek up through the ground, writhing and grasping at the Warband.
Azgabird steps forth, flying down at Felendren. He is still hovering above.
The Unicorn, flippig’ out, tries to strike at Felendren. Felendren lets it go, as he’s got bigger fish to fry.
Halno, rapidly growing tired, moves to Blink out of the tentacles. He passes them with ease.
Levia goes, followed by an Arcane Elemental. The wraith heads straight for Halno, walloping him for a chunk of damage twice.
Nyxxa moves forward, weapons drawn, to meet an Arcane Wraith head on. He weapons connect twice, and they seem to not do as much as they could. Somehow, the creature is partially resistant. She backs up after her attack, placing space between herself and the wraith.
Another wraith drops Arthak's fly effect.
Samaara turns her attention to a Wraith, she stealths and sneaks towards it. Hopping up, she launches a shot at it. It connects.
Levia casts Spiritual Weapon. She summons it behind a wraith, and the weapon proceeds to miss. Still, carrying on, she also launches a fireball at the other wraith (that’s closed with Halno and Nyxxa)
The unicorn uses Dispel Evil and Good, still upset about what happened. But, she readies herself in defense.
Just then, through some of the broken ceiling, the Warband catches movement. Crawling down from the ceiling below, a Pale Orc descends suddenly! It sees everything happening; Unicorn, Warband, Felendren, etc. It opts to attack the Unicorn!
Another Pale Orc descends as the Unicorn gives itself a shield by means of a legendary action.
There are three factions in the fray, now.
Azgabird, using his flyby, moves to attack Felendren. He attacks him with his beak, about to bite him. In that moment, Felendren activates a shield around himself. In retaliation, Azgabird attempts to grapple the elf. He succeeds and goes in for a last hit that misses.
Two more pale orcs join from the ceiling. One pale orc has bright glowing rune on himself. He speaks in a language that seems to defy reality. A rune of black magic appears before him. Suddenly Azgabird goes blind for the next minute.
Another pale orc runs up and attacks Azgabird by leaping upward and casting inflict wounds. As the orc touches Azgadaan, he feels a dark energy seeping into him from his leg.
Felendren looks around the chaotic battlefield, and he looks at Azgabird with a smile. He laughs and reaches out toward the bird with the hand wielding unstable energy. The energy roils, pulling on Azgadaan hard. His body is drug toward the black hole, as the two are grappled together.
The Warband watches as Azgabird vanishes, sucked into the Wind Tunnel, Inuyasha style.
Azgadaan, still blinded, cannot breathe in the space in Felendren’s hand. He feels his body being crushed, as he returns to his Eredar body. A pair pale orcs joined him in that space.
The Arcane Wraith attempts to lay into Levia, but fails to hit her. The other Arcane wraith wallops on Halno, sending him spinning. Halno is now unconscious.
Arthak is wrapped up in the floor tentacles. His is able to tear out of them and move to safety. As he does, though, Arthak’s vision goes dark. He is damaged, but he vanishes into that same liminal space.
Halno, reeling from the hit, stands up again. He dusts himself off, managing to stay up by his own abilities. He casts Death Coil upon himself to heal, though it does not manage to heal much. Trying to help himself, he hits himself with his scepter, and it also hardly heals him.
As Halno stands, he also avoids damage, but finds himself floating in the void with half of the Warband.
Nyxxa looks to Levia.
Nyxxa casts Step of the Wind and whooshes towards the void elf. She applies Hunter’s Mark to him. One strike connects with Felendren, and he reacts with his shield spell again. She then backs off a bit, hanging out with the Spiritual Weapon Levia had conjured.
As Nyxxa readies herself, she slips, falling into the portal as well.
Levia is the only target left, sans Sadras. The Arcane Wraith attacks and hits her for significant damage. Levia remains standing.
Sadras remains stuck in the floor tentacles. Thus she attempts to break out of the grapple, she is unable to move.
Sadras, too, is sucked into the void.
A pale orc still attacks the unicorn like people aren’t fucking vanishing.
The Void Crystal pulsates around them. Reality shifts, colors are absolutely inverted for the next turn.
Levia looks around, there is no one to heal but herself, as Samaara remains standing. Levia tries to cast the spell, but the magic explodes off of her hand instead of landing true. With wide eyes, Levia watches as the energy coalesces a massive, glowing, piece of energy that looks like a Lightning Creature they saw below.
This magic creature looks like a glowing white, much like her magic, she cocks her head at it. Otherwise, she commands the Spiritual weapon to hit the wraith attacking her. It connects.
Halno floats in space, but then is spit back out. As soon as he hits ground, Halno attempts to cast Vampiric touch, it does not hit due to his shield. Halno pushes through the shield with a spell push. He seems damaged, but not as much as he could be. Halno, too, heals up after the spell.
Halno fails his corruption check.
The unicorn, still there, is able to teleport itself to the fuck away from here.
The Pale Orc that had been attacking the Unicorn, without a target, goes for Halno, but misses.
Felendren holds his hand out, raising his hand. Frigid magic coats his hands, Cone of Cold charging, but he seems to be stalling the spell’s release.
The pale orc with glowing runes rushes with a glowing hand toward Halno. He casts silence around Halno and in an orb behind the death knight.
Azgadaan isn’t blinded anymore, he sees himself in nothingness, even with working eyes. He can see glimmer stars far away. There’s an inky blackness that opts to simply crushes his body.
Another rune-marked pale orc is spit back out and goes straight for Halno. Another blast of Arcane energy from another regular pale orc blasts Halno, and he is back unconscious.
Another pale orc comes and beats the shit out of Halno when he is down. Two death saving failures.
Samaara, still out of the portal somehow, pings pale orcs for damage to attempt to keep them from Halno. She lands two hits well.
From behind Samaara, bursting out from the door suddenly, the three Ethereals that they’d met from the night before spill into the room.
One of the Ethereals teleports forward, poofing onto the other side of the tentacles.
Arthak appears again from the void. He takes a forward position and gets real large. A large man. The runes on him begin to glow, with every step, he gets bigger. His tusks double in size and spikes grow from his back like some kind of avatar of battle. Lorge.
He opts to rage, Arthak channels his fire rune as he bites into Felendren. Landing into the void elf multiple times, brutality, it makes Felendren drop his concentration on his Cone of Cold. Instead, the void elf casts shield to make Arthak miss at least once. After the ordeal, Arthak’s opponent isn’t looking so hot-- half of his hit points dropped in one turn.
Karim, an Ethereal, moves forward, casting Haste upon himself. He fails his check, thus his spell fizzles and creates a floating mass of whispy energy, different from the one Levia created. Instead, Karim dashes forward.
The other Ethereal also casts a spell that fails, Misty Step. It creates a little vortex, stones erupting from where he ran, and he opts to dash up after his friend.
The Living Cure wounds casts a spell on the closest living creature-- Levia. The little spell floats around, searching for wounded creatures.
Azgadaan remains in the void. He sustains a large amount of damage in the void. He is slowly becoming a singularity. He feels himself, too, running out of air. Azgadaan tries to cast a spell, it fails.
Nyxxa is spit out, checks on Levia, and runs to help the others. She stands over Halno’s body for a moment before charging at Felendren. She strikes true, and Felendren doesn’t look so good.
Karim tries to fight off the Pale Orcs, and he casts Thunderwave. Leaping up, he punches the ground, and goes to fight the other Arcane Elemental. His strikes fail.
Sudden Wild Magic effects: Halno’s effects waive him off, as does Sadras’. One Ethereal gets one that cannot be seen. A Pale Orc lights on fire, as do a number of others. Anyone within 30 feet of him catches on fire. There is no god. Halno, Felendren, Arthak, and Nyxxa all catch on fire too. Arthak gets a Wild Magic surge too-- The energy coursing around him, and the fire from his rune, chaos magic storms around his fist. He suddenly knows he can cast choas bolt within 30 ft of himself.
Arthak aims at Felendren, and he misses.
Samaara, not sure about any of this nonsense, continues to try and deal with the clump of pale orcs. She aims. She hits.
The Living Misty Step casts Misty Step on the LIVING HASTE. It fails, because it doesn’t have a body.
Another pale orc leaps on Felendren’s back, trying to strike at the void elf, looking to sever his hand. It fails.
The Living Haste looks for a victim. It targets the Living Cure Wounds with Haste. It whips around, and the Living Cure Wounds is shimmering QUICKLY.
Felendren, still wrapped in fiery chains (from Arthak), and on fire, screams. Loudly. He collapses, charred, and burning-- failing one death saving throw.
The Living Cure Wounds can’t cast the spell again and it heads over to Felendren-- sensing a great deal of suffering. It doesn’t like suffering.
Fire is still being sucked into Felendren’s wind tunnel. It’s on extreme suck.
Halno gains one hit point, and then drops back down to zero because he’s on fire. It’s hard out here.
Levia, as a bonus action, calls the Spiritual Weapon to hit the surviving Arcane Elemental. She moves closer to the party. She gestures to the remaining Orcs and flags Arthak down, readying Path to the Grave on the Pale orcs.
Sadras appears again, very confused. She attacks the Arcane Elemental.
The Ethereal Raider also attacks the Elemental. He hits it all three times with fancy man scimitars, dealing some degree of damage. Another comes up to help, and it sucks cause it misses.
A Pale Orc runs up to Felendren, also trying to fuck up his Wind Tunnel. He manages to sink his teeth into the void elf. The screaming stops. There is a tearing sound. Felendren’s hand, still pulsing with energy, is in the Orc’s mouth.
Eye contact is made with Arthak. The pale orc attempts to get out.
As the Pale Orc gets ready to leap off the side, ANOTHER figure appears. The Watcher is floating in front of the Orc. She attacks the pale orc with his chew toy. Shadowy energy washes over him as she grabs the orc by the throat. With her free hand, the Orc catches the Void Elf hand.
Azgadaan, still inside, takes cold damage. He is dropped from the damage.
Arthak is on fire, still.
She offers Arthak the hand. Arthak reaches in, rushing forward. Plunging his hand INTO THE HAND. He gropes around and feels Azgadaan’s forearm.
AN EREDAR APPEARS.
Azgadaan comes tearing out and is very much dying, but he’s at least out of the mysterious black hole.
Arthak uses second wind to try and recoup some, despite still being on fire. With sword in hand, gestures for the Watcher to give him the hand.
The battle is still raging, and an Arcane Elemental attacks an Ethereal and fails to land. A rune-marked Orc reaches out to fight Nyxxa, casting Inflict Wounds and misses horribly.
With the singularity collapsed, and Felendren down, the crystal stops pulsating. Felendren finally dies due to damage.
Karim casts Misty Step and moves to behind Arthak. He points his blade at the Watcher.
The Living Cure Wounds doesn’t get to cast cure.
Levia moves, ready again to cast Path to the Grave when her friends attack. She, too, attacks the Arcane Elemental.
The Ethereals and Arcane Elementals tussle, both remain up.
Arthak looks to the Watcher, wanting the hand.
Arthak, still on fire, is finally able to put himself out.
The void hand looks unstable. Arthak looks around. He maneuvers to knock the hand out of Shadreen’s hands, dropping it off the side. He attacks once, failing to hit her. He attacks a second time, managing to hit the hand out of her’s. The void hand tumbles off the edge.
She sighs as it tumbles over the edge and explodes, drawn into its own singularity
Shadreen looks past Arthak towards Karim and his lot.
Nyxxa remains on fire. She spends time putting herself and Halno off. Finally, less burning.
Tussling continues between Ethereals and Elementals. Sadras helps.
With a flick of Shadreen’s wrist, she casts a shimmering barrier of shadowy magic. She looks around.
She points to the Pale Orcs.
One of the rune-marked pale orcs, otherwise known as a Soulflayer, tries to cast inflict wounds on Arthak. It misses.
Halno is no longer on Fire. He is able to recover one hit point, back up ONCE AGAIN. He rises to find himself still in the Silence bubble. Bad undead get banished to the silent bubble. He moves out of it and is able to cast Blight upon one of the soulflayer orcs. The man who cast the silence is down, thus the bubble vanishes too.
Azgadaan makes a death saving throw and fails.
Samaara snipes through at the pale orcs. Levia releases her Path to the Grave. His body turns black and is extra nasty when the arrow strikes.
A pale orc goes for Nyxxa. And she spins around and is able to spin through the Soulflayer.
Levia goes to heal Azzy, bringing him back up. Once again, he sees Levia staring down at him. He remains down for a moment.
Karim holds the blade out, still, to Shadreen.
Samaara stays back, but the other Ethereals come up, speaking to her in a language they don't know.
The Ethereals move to the crystal.
The Ethereals stop at her words.
Shadreen points at Felendren’s body. Halno searches his body. His body was burnt, severely.
Meanwhile, Azgadaan seeks the Living Cure Wounds, only for it to Cast Cure Wounds on Arthak instead. And POOF, it vanishes with the others.
Halno picks up Felendren’s body and begins to walk away.
Azgadaan, too, leaves the situation.
Karim turns to Arthak, as they all try to leave.
Shadreen looks to Arthak, alone.
Arthak faces Karim and his folks. His sword is still drawn.
Shadreen sighs.
Nyxxa sighs.
Shadreen takes a step towards the edge.
Shadreen takes a step off the edge.
Arthak steps forward, taking the attack of opportunity. He connects. It passes through her wrappings, Karim tries to grab her. Shadreen falls, watching them. She summons a portal and vanishes, the portal closes behind her, casting Planeshift.
Karim goes to Arthak, handing him a small metallic disc.
The Ethereals begin to set magical devices down on the ground.
The magic of the device lets them all feather fall down. The area around them is beginning to change. The Wraiths around are already sluggish. They land in the courtyard they’d entered but a few days ago.
With the job finished, and the target deceased, they head back with their quarry.
