[Alliance] Chapter Two: Session Twenty-Nine
September 17th, Night
The group arrives in the interior plateau of the Sunwell plateau. Walls surround them on all sides, and there are long walkways and balconies winding around it. Each have a small garden in them devoted to a different aspect of elven culture. Ordinarily, these sites were places of pilgrimage that would draw Thalassian people into contemplation. However, now it’s bathed in the red of the churning sunwell in the darkness.
Whispers are starting. Guards have started to assemble and move to inform their chains of command and figure out their next orders.
Jaina immediately turns to a nearby pond, informing the group that she’s going to try and bring as much backup as she can as she begins to summon a water elemental. Buffing spells begin to be put in place.
Gil uses primeval awareness, and he senses a lot of humanoids. There are dozens in the courtyard and dozens more inside the plateau itself. It’s virtually impossible to tell who are friends or foe. There is only one demonic presence presently, which is coming from the plateau itself. There are a few other demonic presences back toward the city.
Gil informs the others, and he puts protection of good and evil on himself. Vincent puts poison on some of his weapons.
Vel sends Kael’thas: “Nine of us arrived at Plateau. Preparing for assault. Portal attempt likely. Will aid in delaying warlocks for as long as possible.”
Kael’thas informs her that he is on his way. The teleportation circle was destroyed.
A magister tries to stop them as the group heads off, but Jaina informs him there isn’t time as they push ahead. They reach a balcony, and Jaina leaps into the air and blinks upward. She lands on the overhead balcony, and Uther is also teleported up to the balcony as she swaps places with Uther.
Uther throws down a rope, and the rest of the party scrambles up. The water elemental sees a trickle of water, and it splashes into it as it rides upward the stream to the balcony.
The area they arrived on is known as the Apex Point. There are four spellbreakers and two large arcane constructs, which are gold and silver with red embleming.The royal crest of the Sunstrider house are on them.
One of the spellbreakers taps his glaive on the ground and tells the group to halt. He tells them that the Sunwell plateau is off limits from anyone but Belo’vir and those he brought inside.
Jaina said there wasn’t time, and Uther says that the safety of the Thalassian people as a whole is more important than their own safety. One of the spellbreakers says they will send word to ask if their passage is permitted.
But in that moment, there is a massive keening as a massive phoenix sails overhead, and lands. Kael’thas steps off in full armor. “Is my word permission enough for them to pass?”
The spellbreakers freeze, and immediately step aside.
Kael’thas calls to Al’ar to keep an eye on things and ensure that no one else enters after them unless they know for sure they can be trusted. The phoenix keens again and circles.
Kael’thas orders two of the spellbreakers to stay on watch and not let anyone pass unless Kael gives the word, and he takes two of the others with their arcane constructs. Kael leads the way as the group starts to run into the plateau.
As soon as they pass through deep, wine red curtains as they go further. They notice the curtains are spattered with blood. Some of the caretakers of the Sunwell are crumpled across the ground in the antechamber that leads further down.
The grisly sight before them fills Uther with an uncommon rage. Gil and Vel clearly see a trail of death heading toward toward the Sunwell.
As they get about 20-30 feet in, they see massive windows that provide a scene to down below. The sunwell is roiling. Down below, there are a number of individuals standing amidst a great deal of bodies. The guise of Belo’vir runs a dagger through another magister, and he looks up at the group and smiles.
They run down into the chamber.
Belo’vir: “Welcome. Welcome. You’ve arrived just in time.”
Kael: “You can can the act, Dar’khan.”
Belo’vir laughs, then bows as he removes a hat, revealing it to actually be Dar’khan.
Dar’khan: “Welcome to the fun, everyone. You’re just in time for the main act.”
Vincent draws his bow and lifts it, and then all the individuals in the room jump into combat stances. Vereesa also lifts her bow. She fires, and the arrow strikes Dar’khan. She immediately draws another arrow, but he catches it--however it does impale his hand instead of his face.
Arator uses his channel divinity, allowing all his allies within 30 feet to dodge as a bonus action. He then runs forward, and there’s a flicker out of the corner of their eyes, and Arator just narrowly ducks out of the way of a blood bone dagger.
Kael’thas hurls a firebolt at Dark’han, and his body begins to churn with fire as he uses combustion.
Vincent fires an arrow at Dar’khan, and it hits. However, the poison doesn’t take hold.
The sunwell begins to crackle and roil, and the air becomes thick with oppressive arcane energy. Something may happen if spells are cast.
Dar’khan, to Vincent: “Good shot, my boy. Lets even these odds a bit more.”
He launches a hand into the sky, and black tendrils begin to erupt from it as a bunch of dark objects hit the ground. They are blood bone daggers. The tendrils go and start to rip the bodies of the magisters apart, raising them as skeletons.
Dar’khan then runs forward to close the distance with Arator.
Gil fires an arrow at one of the traitorous farstriders. Her form begins to shift and melt away. It’s instead the black-robed form of Telina Mirthbrook. She laughs, grabbing the arrow, and it rots away to dust. Gil fires again, and the arrow skins past her face, and blood begins to streak into her eyes.
Tess runs forward and attacks the elf that had tried to ambush Arator. She nicks it as one of the sunwell guardians run forward, but at the last second, it slams into Vereesa instead. The spellbreakers behind them get a darker tone in their eyes as it becomes clear they were not as loyal as they seemed to be originally. Valeera rounds on the one that attacked, striking with her dagger.
Telina begins to move forward, and she reaches a hand out, chuckling. She tries to use drain life on Vel, and Vel attempts to counter it, but in that moment the arcane construct behind her counters her counterspell. However, the drain life spell doesn’t get through Vel’s barrier.
Uther ducks by the Sunwell guardian, and it smashes into the pillar as Uther swings his hammer at one of the spellbreakers. However, the spellbreaker blocks both his strikes with his large shield.
The water elemental whelms over to Telina, and envelops her in her body.
The battle rages on. Vel tries to cast frost nova, but the sunwell begins to interfere. She instead activates the lantern of revealing on her hip, bathing the group in a pale blue light that reveals invisibility.
In the distance, the far magister begins to weave some sort of spell.
One of the spellbreakers runs at Uther, and attempts to bite him, fangs suddenly appearing, but it misses..
Jaina casts tidal wave, brushing a bunch of skeletons aside, and the second homunculus jumps on Vereesa.
The second magister across the way also begins to cast a spell, and the bloodbone daggers begin to float as the magisters pen themselves in a wall of force. The blood bone daggers begin to float forward.
Kael’thas uses flamestrike on a chunk of enemies. The energy around the section of the battlefield conjures with fire, and there is an outburst of flame. Several of the daggers drop to the ground, and the traitorous captain is nothing but ash.
One of the animated daggers slices at Tess, but she narrowly avoids the hit.
Vereesa backs away, and then unloads some shots into the spellbreaker.
Arator uses bless on himself and several other people, and a skeleton tries to hit him but fails.
Vel pushes through the pain of the sunwell’s mana flare, and drops a frost nova on the enemies gathered around Arator. Several of the daggers clatter to the ground, the magic animating them leaving them.
Gil pings Dar’khan with two arrows, but he maintains the spell on danse macabre.
Telina snaps her fingers and casts banishment on the water elemental. However, it succeeds. Telina is furious, and she hurls a firebolt at Jaina to try and knock her concentration off. However, as Jaina is pinned to the pillar by the spell, she is suddenly consumed by fire, and disappears.
A swarm of bats appears again, and Jaina reappears, and drops to the ground. The water elemental is now uncontrolled.
The Sunwell roils, and arcane lightning lashes out. It hits several enemies, obliterating them. Some allies also get hit.
The water elemental, the enemies around it now dispersed, goes for Vel. however, it’s fists clang off an arcane shield. The traitorous spy swings in at Vel, and her blade connects with her ice barrier. However, the spy is blasted back with the frost energy.
Dar’khan tries to throw a necromancy spell on Arator, but Kael counters it. Dar’khan laughs maniacally, commenting that he wasn’t going to let them win if they had any shot of winning, and he then plunges the dagger into his chest, and he falls dead, the blood pooling around him.
Valeera cuts into the spy on Vel, and Vincent runs for the fallen spellbreaker. He snatches up the amulet, and begins to command the sunwell guardian.
Uther continues to try and swing at the remaining homunculus, but it continues to block with its shield.
The sunwell guardian that Vincent is commanding starts to move over to Telina and the water elemental. Gil brings Jaina back up.
Vel runs over to Uther and grabs him, teleporting them both into the wall of force with the two warlocks. They shout in surprise.
Jaina lightning bolts Telina and her water elemental, and then moves behind Gil, thanking him for reviving her.
The spy disengages and goes for Tess.
One of the magisters by Vel and Uther tries to shoot off an ice storm. However, Uther and Vel manage to avoid the brunt of it.
The sunwell roils, shifting the feeling of arcane energy in the air as it contorts it into both amplify and dampen magic.
Tess gets hit with some more dagger strikes, and she comments that she doesn’t believe all of them are real.
The water elemental and sunwell guardian begin to fight each other. The sunwell guardian goes for Telina, slamming into her through the water elemental.
Arator heals Tess with lay on hands. Kael’thas swings around with felo’melorn, driving it through the spy.
The other magister with Vel and Uther casts greater invisibility on himself, and the animated objects clatter to the ground. However, as he smirks, he realizes the light coming off of Vel prevents him from becoming invisible, and palpable panic is apparent on his face.
Vel smiles.
The rogue sunwell guardian swings in at Vincent, and he whirls around on the spy, but misses.
Uther swings his hammer into one of the magisters, and he hears ribs crack. He then goes on the second one, upswinging with his momentum to bring his hammer across the second one while green flames splash onto the first one. The remaining magister is not looking very good. The wall of force drops.
Tess drops the spy finally.
The water elemental begins to glow green, and a voice warbles from inside. It sounds like there is a voice superimposed over Telina. The water elemental bursts outward.
Voice: “This girl has proven herself quite useless. Perhaps a more direct intervention is required.”
Telina is standing where she was, but she is much larger. Her arms and limbs are now long claws. She has huge black wings, and tattoos in eredun on her body. She starts to hover, and she takes off.
The air crackles, and flares of localized energy ripple around everything as it uses mana flare again.
Vereesa finishes off the last homunculus, and her missed arrow whirls around and goes for Telina instead. It bites into her. Valeera goes for the amulet, and seizes control of the second sunwell guardian.
Jaina focuses her energy on the now demonic Telina, but she just barely passes. Kael’thas also tries to banish Telina. But he fails. Arator compelled duels her.
Vincent fires off an arrow at Telina’s wings, and she drops to the ground.
The magister that remains holds her hands up in surrender.
Telina stands up, then flies back up into the air. She goes as high as she can, then scans the battlefield. She looks down at Arator.
Telina: “If you’re so inclined to offer yourself to the table, who am I to deny you?”
Kael attempts to counter, but fails. The energy pierces straight through his chest with no discernable hole. Arator crumples to the ground.
Gil blinks to Arator, and is able to stabilize him.
As the magister drops to the ground in surrender, Vel whips her wand of arcane missile off her hip and unloads it into Telina. The nine missiles ping into Telina, and with the last one, she drops to the ground and starts to contort, screaming and shouting that they haven’t won as she drifts into unconsciousness.
Valeera goes over and slits Telina’s throat to silence her, and her body lulls, now lifeless.
Vel and Uther drag the magister over to the others.
The tattoos on Telina’s body suddenly flare to life. Gil sees them, and they seem to say a number of words in eredun. Blood. Mark. And one that appears to be a name.
Then the marks vanish, and there’s a deep laughter.
Energy spikes out from Telina’s chest, and then coalesces like an opened maw and shoots directly at Valeera. The energy slams directly into her chest. It disperses into her body. Valeera releases a groan of pain. The tattoos then burn into her flesh and she drops to the ground unconscious.
The magister says they need to run. The sunwell continues to crackle and shift. From the very center, expanding slowly and then quickly, the blood red transforms into a sickly fel green.
Telina’s body is almost dust. The very edges of the portal are smattered with blood as it is drawn into the sunwell.
Gil asks Kael if they can regain control with the Sunwell. Kael said that it is technically possible, though they would have to take control of it.
Uther takes a knee and sends out a prayer for guidance.
Kael reaches out a hand to start to channel through the sunwell, and Vel follows suit.
They are able to sense that there is someone or something else that is trying to force the portal open. But they can push back.
Vel asks if there are any other mages in the area, and Kael says that whoever they can trust may be trying to push through. Vel then suddenly feels someone trying to push, and she immediately tries to push back. She feels the fight begin.
Next Jaina steps up and tries to push back as well. The energy continues to shift and change. The green ignites even brighter.
As Uther is praying, he starts hearing something on the edges of his perceptions.
Energy washes over those attuned to the Sunwell, and Jaina needs to back off. Vel’s breath catches in her throat, and she can’t breathe. She hears her heart beat in the back of her head. Then it slows. And she feels herself lose it, and she feels a surge of energy again, and she keeps herself focused on the Sunwell. Gil feels his acorn burn on his chest.
Vel tries to push back again, and this time the power is much stronger. There is a laughter echoing through. But her connection is temporarily broken. She tries to reconnect.
Kael tries to push back this time, and it seems to become a stalemate. Gil also starts to help push back.
Vincent goes over to the surrendered magister and tries to force her to help. She said she can’t or she’ll die, and Vincent retorts she will die regardless. She refuses to help and tell him to just kill her then. Vincent shoots an arrow through her throat.
Vel reconnects and tries to force through, but she is blasted back by the force from behind and her connection is once again severed.
Jaina reconnects.
Kael’thas struggles to fight back, and he is able to blast through. The energy of the sunwell shifts and twists. Moments later, from the very core of it, there is a bright red core that starts to expand in the Sunwell itself.
Meanwhile, Uther hears a chime. Breaking glass. And nails on chalkboard. But they are similar to what he’s heard before.
He hears single words.
“Run.” “Live.” “Fight.”
And there is a very different, distinct presence take over on the other side of the portal.
Then the portal begins to rend itself open, harder, and stronger than it did before.
Uther: “It’s over. We’ve lost. We need to leave NOW.”
Vincent grabs the hat of disguise from Dar’khan’s corpse, and he commands the sunwell guardians to hold the line.
Kael’thas: “You can’t expect me to just leave my people, Uther!”
Uther tries to convince him to leave and fight another day.
Vel tries to keep pushing back, but then someone reaches out to her telepathically. “You’re the one fighting back. Perhaps you should see what you’re fighting against.”
And then she sees the scene on the other side of the portal. A massive army, and there’s a tall woman in an immaculate dress with piercing red eyes. And a string of red energy connects them.
And then Vel is blasted backward and is sent reeling across the ground.
Voice: “Hmph. I’ll remember you, Thalassian child.”
Uther tries to push back, and the telepathic voice reaches out to him.
Voice: “There’s something familiar about you. Something familiar indeed… oh Jaina. It’s been far too long.”
Uther maintains his consciousness. Kael’thas starts to push back, the two moonkeys swirling around him. Suddenly there is a blast of energy, and Kael’s connection is broken and he staggers back. The power blasts his connection aside.
Uther: “Kael’thas, you are still alive. We have lost this battle. Fight for your people. The enemy is coming through, and if we die here, we can’t fight anymore.”
Jaina: “He’s right, kael. Whatever is doing this, it’s gone too far. We need to retreat.”
Kael: “Then we need to get out of here NOW.”
Arator flash of lights Vel to consciousness.
The Sunwell breaks and cracks as Kael disconnects. Uther and Gil attempt to do one final push. They fail. Vel shouts at them that they need to get out. Three people isn’t gonna stop the army that awaits on the other side.
Jaina goes to teleport them all out. The last thing they see are a green hand reaching through the portal, and the roar that comes out of a fanged maw as Vel glimpses the beginning of the army on the other side.
They reappear in the teleportation circle in Kael’thas’s palace.
Away from the glow of the sunwell, they see Valeera with pallid skin and ashy white hair and green burn marks. She’s tossing and turning. Uther examines her.
Vel also looks different. She has burn marks on her flesh from arcane kickback, and her hair is now stark white. Her heartbeat is slower than it was.
Vel: “We need to see what’s going on outside.”
Uther: “Rendevouz with the defenders. See what we can help with with defending.”
An imp is running at them full bore as they start to run. As Gil knocks an arrow, a bolt of energy bursts apart. Two sets of feet run toward them.
Astalore Bloodsworn and Vorenthal Starseeker.
They recognize Velameestra and Uther. Astalore reaches out to Kael’thas for orders. They start to make plans. Astalore says some should get to Falconwing Square and start evacuations, and they need to get the moonkey from Kilnar. Vel says she will go to Kilnar’s.
They make plans, and Vel uses her sending stone earring to message Talath: “Quel’thalas invaded. Evacuating starting. Likely to Dalaran. Get Rhonin. Get others. Get everyone prepared for refugees.”
Talath is panicked but informs her he will alert as many people as possible.
Jaina and some of the others head for Falconwing Square, while the party loops around to go for Kilnar’s. As they approach, a wall of energy erupts around it. One of the guards tells Velameestra to stand back, and she demands to see Kilnar. He goes and gets her, and Kilnar informs Vel that she sent the moonkey ahead with Esara to the greater elfgate to prepare to rendezvous with Kael’thas. Kilnar tells them to be safe and get out.
They start to dash off in pursuit of Esara, and Gil tracks her passing. They head for the royal exchange, and they hear screaming as something explodes. Esara had apparently run for the arcane sanctum along with another farstrider.
There are shouts of battle from a deep and bassy voice. There is a makeshift barricade with an upturned cart. Esara and Lirath are firing off potshots at orcs that are piling through another portal that had opened in the arcane sanctum. Six orcs are rushing forward, one of them garbed in raggedy purple and black robes with a staff with an unknown creature as well as a felguard.
