Weeks had passed since the attack on Shadowfang Keep. Since then, Thanatas had left the four Equestrian Liberation Front members to their own devices as they sought means to improve their equipment and skills.
After the attack on Shadowfang Keep, Thanatas left for the Undercity to report that the source of the worgen menace had been taken care of and the remaining beasts had gone into hiding after knowledge of Arugal’s death had spread. Sylvanas was pleased that her Forsaken could finally lay claim to the fallen forest as they were one step closer to reclaiming the lands once held by the Kingdom of Lordaeron. Her sights would soon be focused toward the region of Hillsbrad and the Western Plaguelands to the east of Tirisfal Glades, but that matter would be for another day.
The death knight soon returned to Orgrimmar to report to Thrall and Vol’jin that the situation in Silverpine was now under control. The warchief expressed his gratitude for her assistance before dismissing her, promising to summon her again once a new matter needed to be dealt with.
Lokosh returned to the continent of Kalimdor to explore new regions and gather materials from the various mineral deposits in order to craft the best weapons he could with what was available. He wasn’t confident in his ability to craft armor so he gave the materials to whoever could craft him better armor. Having some foresight, Lokosh crafted a pair of axes for himself in case someone else decided to volunteer to take on enemy aggression.
Groun tried to improve his bond with nature but the animal spirits saw through his guise and refused to grant him their blessing. However, the floral aspects of nature saw the soul inside and gave him a special blessing that few druids ever received. He gained the ability to shapeshift into a tree form that gave him the ability to nourish the ground he walked on regardless of the state of nature around him.
Talia improved her demon roster by summoning and subduing a succubus and felhound.
Farra’jin returned to Kalimdor following the suggestion by that one troll he met at the Sepulcher. He traveled down the east coast of The Barrens and found the hut of Islen Waterseer who sent him further south to meet a female orc named Brine who had him travel to distant places for water. He traveled to a nearby watering hole, then he had to travel all the way to the Eastern Kingdoms continent to gather water from a well in a Forsaken town called Tarren Mill in a region called Hillsbrad Foothills which was southeast of Silverpine forest. Traveling back, he then had to gather water from a fountain that was somehow still working in some night elven ruins in Ashenvale Forest. Thankfully, he was in a world where mages made a killing to create portals to cities when the alternatives were zeppelins and boats. The travel time of either ranged from weeks to over a month.
The shaman was growing aggravated from all the traveling he had to do and was further aggravated when the water samples were mixed together in a vial before he was sent back to Islen only to have to go all the way back to Silverpine Forest for the final part of his water trial. It was there that he had to defeat a plague-corrupted water elemental and purify its remains with the last of the water.
The elemental was so grateful that it didn’t care that the shaman was an imposter in the shaman’s body. It gave Farra’jin a shard of water for him to take to Islen so she could give him his water totem.
He was quickly called upon by his trainer to find a tauren named Prate Cloudseer to be tested for his air totem. As he traveled there, he had to wonder what far off place the tauren would send him and groaned as he traveled to the region known as Thousand Needles, beyond the southern edge of the Barrens.
The region was a red rock canyon with many stone spires, some of which were precariously balancing giant boulders. At the east end of the canyon was a salt pan. The region was largely inhabited by large cats, centaur, harpies, and kobolds with the salt pan being inhabited by large tortoises, vultures and large six-legged lizards called basilisks. Atop some of the spires were a few tauren tribes. The salt pan was home to a goblin and gnome collaboration called the Mirage Racetrack where the two races raced their vehicles throughout the area. The salt pan also bordered the Tanaris Desert.
After some searching, Farra’jin found the cave where Prate Cloudseer was located. There, he learned why wind had always been his favorite element as the tauren simply gave him his air totem, no questions asked.
As he pondered on what he would do now, he received a psychic communication from Lokosh. The orc sounded irritated. “Desert, Greenpeace, Crystal, where are you three?”
“Chillin’ out in the Barrens,” Groun answered.
“Currently in the Undercity planning my next course of action,” Talia answered.
“I’m in the Thousand Needles region. I just received my fourth and final totem,” Farra’jin answered.
“Alright, Desert, you stay in that region for a while, see if you can spend a few days at the inn at Freewind Post,” Lokosh ordered. “I’ve just been contacted by our mutual acquaintance. It seems that we’re about to get our next task.”
“How is it that we only ever do something interesting whenever that woman gets involved?” Farra’jin asked.
“Right now, we have no leads whatsoever as to the locations of the seven fragments. All we can do is strengthen our hosts while we wait for a lead to pop up,” Talia explained.
“What if they left the galaxy?” Groun asked.
“Our leader has been using the fragment we have to track the other seven. It only gives him a general idea where they are but it’s enough to narrow the search pattern to a few worlds and realms as compared to an entire universe.”
“Regardless, as long as working with her will bring us closer to the fragments, I’m willing to swallow my pride and work with her. What say the rest of you?” Lokosh asked. The rest voiced their agreement along with Gemini, Windwhisper and Misty, some more begrudgingly than others. “Alright, we meet up with Farra’jin at Freewind Post. Thanatas will meet us there.”
A few days passed since the four last communicated. Groun arrived at Freewind Post, a tauren village at the top of several bluffs in the canyon, half a day after Farra’jin. Lokosh arrived the next day while Talia arrived the day after that after paying a mage to make a portal to Thunder Bluff, the city that was closest to Thousand Needles.
Once the four were finally gathered, they waited for Thanatas to show up. The death knight in question appeared a few hours later and led them to a place at the post that was away from eavesdroppers. Once satisfied, Thanatas began, “Seems the warchief has another task for you four, one that will show if you are ready to handle the threat I told him about a while back.”
“Get on with it!” Talia demanded.
“Typical pushiness from a former noble,” Thanatas mocked. “Alright, this is about assisting the Steamwheedle Cartel, a neutral goblin cartel that caters to the Horde and Alliance equally for the sake of profit. They have four establishments. One is the pirate town of Booty Bay, then you have the town of Ratchet in the Barrens and the town of Everlook in the northern snowy region of Winterspring. The one we’re going to is Gadgetzan, located at the entrance of the Tanaris desert. Apparently they are having trouble with the local trolls, among other things. Gadgetzan has many enemies in the desert such as a fleet of pirates who established a town on the east central coast of the desert, nomadic bandits who have been stealing their water, and two hives of giant insects called silithid.”
“So why are we not asked to deal with the other threats?” Lokosh asked.
“While the pirates and silithid are numerous and organized, they are also far away from the town itself while Zul’Farrak, the capital city of the Farraki Tribe, also known as the Sandfury, is only a couple of hours west of the goblin town. The pirates and bugs can be dealt with by a few treasure-hungry adventurers.”
“So we’re going to be invading a troll city?” Groun asked.
Thanatas shrugged, “If you can call it that. It’s more like a bunch of huts among the ruins of a city. I never could understand why so many tribes of trolls choose to squat among the ruins of their former civilizations.”
“Wait, did you say ‘Zul’Farrak’?” Talia asked. Thanatas turned her head to her and nodded in affirmation. The warlock continued, “During my travels these past few weeks, I entered a thinly forested region that the locals called The Hinterlands, filled with a feral variant of those pathetic griffons. I encountered a rude tribe of trolls there and one of them begged me not to take their sacred mallet. Needless to say I did. After forcibly interrogating some more trolls I found that I needed to empower the mallet atop their sacred city so I could use it to summon some sort of hydra loa in some other troll city on the other side of the world.” The warlock pulled out the strange mallet in question. “They called it the Mallet of Zul’Farrak.”
“Ah, if you have the mallet then we have everything we need to clear out the place. Let’s head to Gadgetzan,” Thanatas said.
It was nightfall by the time the group traversed the canyon and the salt pan known as the Shimmering Flats. At the southern edge of the region marked by mountains, the mountain pass into Tanaris was marked by torches.
Once they crossed the pass, they were next to a town surrounded by sand-colored stone walls and a peculiar entrance that looked like the gate parted like a pair of scissors. A giant wrench served as a sign above one gate. The sound of clanking from shoddy machinery could be heard. As the group entered the town, the cold of the desert night quickly turned into a warm one, which was likely courtesy of some goblin-made heaters. The group made a quick mental note to stay away from those as goblin technology tended to be unstable and often exploded.
The center of the town had a large combat arena made of thick logs and steel grating which the goblins used to promote matches against whatever got captured and shipped to them…or was used to settle disputes.
Inside the town were a number of gadgets that the goblins were working on and/or showing off. Since the sun was setting though the goblins had simply left their machines out for the night and went to bed.
One goblin, however, was not asleep. He instead approached the group of newcomers with a look in his eyes that he might have found some new money for the town. “Greetings all of ya! I’m Marin Noggenfogger, and I’m the guy who’s gonna be runnin’ this town one day!”
Thanatas snickered to herself as the goblin’s statement was more true than he believed. “So are you an agent of the mayor or someone trying to get us to empty our pockets by selling us something?”
“This isn’t just ‘something’, this is my newest concoction that will make me the richest goblin on Azeroth!” He presented a vial full of a dark green fluid. “I present the Noggenfogger Elixir!”
“Maybe another time,” Thanatas dismissed. “We are here on business related to your troll problem.”
“Oh, yeah, those bozos are bad for business. If you guys are lookin’ to invade their city, be on the lookout for another adventuring party led by some jerk named Sergeant Bly. Apparently Bilgewhizzle, the chief engineer and mayor of this town, is steaming because the guy stole his precious invention, the Divino-matic Rod. The chief engineer needs it to find new water sources to build his water pumps over. As much as I wanna charge you for that info, I’d prefer not to die of thirst if Bilgewhizzle can’t find more water.”
Noggenfogger walked off, leaving the group to find the local inn which was in a long building on the east side of town. The sleeping arrangements were a bit pricey because goblins were like that, but the beds were worth the gold coins spent.
The next day the group gathered their provisions and proceeded west from Gadgetzan. It wasn’t long before they saw the first signs of their new targets. Sandfury trolls were similar in body type to many other tribes of trolls with their tall, lanky bodies while the males were hunched over and had larger tusks than the females. The difference was that sand trolls like the Farraki Tribe had tan to light brown skin, blending to the sand around them. Farra’jin’s skin was a dirty teal since he was a cross between two tribes of trolls.
The sand trolls in the area spotted the group and some started throwing axes at them while others started channeling fire spells. A few of them pulled out daggers and started running toward them.
Groun summoned roots beneath the feet of the dagger wielders and trapped them in place before dragging them back to the other trolls. The fire casters redirected their fire spells to burn Groun’s roots which left terrible burns on their feet.
Lokosh blocked the axes with his shield and slowly advanced toward the trolls. With the orc providing cover, Talia began ordering her felhound to devour the magic of the fire casters before the demon placed a seal on their minds long enough for her succubus to charm the minds of the dagger wielders into stabbing their allies in the back. This forced the fire casters, who freed themselves of the demon’s seal, to incinerate the dagger wielders.
By the time the casters focused on the group again, Farra’jin set down his water totem to create a dampening field which weakened the power of their fire spells. The casters soon noticed that their fireballs were shrinking during transit to their targets and were merely sparks when they hit, doing next to no harm to the group.
Lokosh got into melee range of the trolls and cut them down.
Thanatas smiled as she saw the group in action. “Glad to see you took my advice, since you will need those improved skills to brave this place. These trolls are skilled warriors and know how to fight unlike the savage style of the worgen.”
Groun and Farra’jin had worried looks on their faces and gulped as they heard that. Lokosh and Talia took on more determined expressions.
With the immediate area cleared out, the group proceeded toward some troll ruins which was pretty much a roofless building with an entrance and an exit which led into a narrow valley where Zul’Farrak was built.
Just beyond the archway was a trio of sand trolls talking to each other. One had navy blue hair and wore faded purple robes while the other two had scarlet hair and wore red armor.
The trolls saw the group enter and engaged them. The blue-haired troll started channeling dark magic while the other two charged in with their claymores. Lokosh charged in and bashed his shield against the enemy warriors, pushing them back slightly. Talia’s felhound disrupted the caster’s spells but the caster stayed back to shake off the disruption. Groun used his roots to drag the caster toward Lokosh.
While Farra’jin was blasting the warriors with fire and lightning, one of the warriors managed to get past Lokosh’s defenses and leave a bleeding cut on his shoulder. That was when the warrior did something strange. He channeled some dark magic and started pulling blood from Lokosh’s wound. The blood was consumed by the warrior and any injuries he sustained from Farra’jin were being reversed.
In reaction to this, Talia began pulling the life force from the troll while her succubus wrapped her whip around the troll’s throat to strangle him. It wasn’t long before the warrior withered and collapsed. Groun quickly healed Lokosh’s wound before the other warrior could use the same trick.
Talia and Farra’jin used their fire spells to quickly incinerate the other two enemy trolls.
With the first group dead, the group turned to the death knight who watched the action. “What in Tartarus was that?” Talia asked.
“Looks like their warriors are trained to use blood magic to steal vitality from their enemies,” Thanatas answered. “This practice is frowned upon by certain tribes since it relates to the powers of an evil loa who was responsible for unleashing a blood plague that infected and killed thousands of trolls many millennia ago. It’s one of the darkest forms of dark magic out there and it’s capable of many things, including necromancy. There are plenty of tribes out there who are desperate enough to practice blood magic.”
The group shuddered at such disgusting magic, including Talia who used forbidden dark magics in the past herself.
With that knowledge, the group proceeded deeper into the valley where they encountered another type of enemy wearing masks, maroon robes and scarlet gloves. They also carried crude wooden sticks. When they were fought, they put down totems that emitted a yellow glow that enveloped their allies, mending their wounds. Farra’jin quickly blasted the totems while the others handled the healing troll, a witch doctor as Thanatas informed them.
The group slowly pushed forward through the narrow valley and into a wider area. The ruins had a number of partially buried pots that were bigger than they were. A giant idol with ruby eyes stood in the center. Two pillars with braziers on top stood at either side of the idol with piles of skulls near them. The walls to the left and right were decorated in ancient carvings with a series of overhangs carrying small braziers. Large scarab beetles roamed the area among the trolls. The archway to the next area had a few bone decorations hanging from them.
The group drew the trolls to them a few at a time and eventually cleared out the area.
Continuing down the only path available to them and dealing with more sand trolls along the way, the group soon reached a fork. The area had more toppled sand-colored ruins and giant pots and shrines. There was also a fountain in the center of the area that had three basins. It was dry and some shadowcasters were doing what they could to pull more water from the ground.
A new enemy appeared in this area among the other types. These wore black leather armor, carried scimitars with bows and arrows on their backs.
As the group fought the new enemy, the shadowhunters, Lokosh was still a little shaken about the strange blood magic that was used on him earlier. He didn’t want something like that to hit him again so he raised his shield with intent to deflect the arrows the more distant shadowhunters were firing at him while the closer ones continued hacking away at his shield. The warrior noticed one of the trolls about to cast something so he prepared to deflect that. The result was as successful as it was hilarious.
Lokosh deflected the spell back at the troll who was surprised before he was struck by his own spell. A thick cloud appeared briefly over the troll’s visage before it disappeared and in the place of the troll was a frog. Thanatas pulled the frog to her with her magic and crushed the poor amphibian in her grip before she tossed it aside. The frog soon turned back into the crushed remains of the shadowhunter.
After that the group dealt with more of the trolls in the area, being mindful of that odd spell the shadowhunter used before.
The group took a moment to catch their breath while Thanatas informed them about the spell. “There’s a typical form of voodoo for you, trolls who are trained in such arts tend to have the ability to place hexes on you which briefly transform you into helpless animals.”
“Perhaps these trolls have more useful spells than I thought they did,” Talia mused as she imagined turning the Equestrian princesses into frogs and stepping on them.
“So which way do we go from here?” Groun asked.
“This place loops around so whichever direction we go, we will eventually wind up back here after encountering everything else in these ruins,” Thanatas informed.
“Let’s go right then,” Lokosh decided. The others shrugged and followed the warrior deeper into the ruins.
The next area they entered was a small settlement of two huts made of wood, stitched leather and skulls on the posts for decoration. A large metal cage stood near the right hut with a stand containing a number of tools which were likely used for interrogations. A bonfire acted as the area’s only defense from the cold desert nights. A large drum and a smaller drum stood next to the left hut. In the nearby cliffs were a number of smaller dwellings built into the cliff face.
The group decided to sneak past the small settlement while the trolls in the area were talking to each other. As they entered the archway to the next corridor, they were spotted by a red basilisk who gave chase. Further down the corridor were a few more trolls patrolling the corridor. Not wanting to get pincered, Lokosh led the group through an opening in the wall and into the hills. The patrol didn’t notice them so they only had to deal with the basilisk who ended up losing a few teeth when they got their face smashed by the warrior’s shield before Talia’s and Farra’jin’s magics destroyed the creature.
Deciding to explore the hills, they still ended up fighting more trolls and basilisks before discovering a cave that had a cauldron and a few wooden cages inside that seemed to contain small basilisks. A few piles of skulls decorated the interior. There was also a troll inside petting one of the basilisks. This one wore leather armor with fur lining and carried a wooden mace that looked strangely like a totem.
“That’s Antu’sul, the basilisk breeder of the Sandfury Tribe. He’s a shaman so watch out for his totems. His pets may also interfere. Watch out for their gazes, it’s like a watered down version of a cockatrice’s stone gaze with the effects being brief, but used strategically, it can turn the tide of battle against you pretty fast,” Thanatas informed.
As everyone moved closer, the troll’s impressive vision sighted the group from a fair distance. “Lunch has arrived, my beautiful children. Tear them to pieces!” Antu’sul called out.
Thanatas helped the group out this time by summoning a few troll zombies to keep the basilisks busy while the others focused on Antu’sul.
The breeder used healing totems and a type of earth totem that held them in place with tendrils of sand, The totems were quickly broken while the enemy shaman struck random members of the group with converging rocks and lightning bolts that jumped to each group member. Groun’s healing skills had improved since Shadowfang Keep so he was able to keep up with the shaman’s attacks.
Farra’jin put an end to Antu’sul’s spells by placing a wind totem near the group’s feet. Whenever the breeder cast a spell, the totem absorbed the spell, leaving the group unharmed. Antu’sul tried to heal himself once he started taking too much damage but a slap from Lokosh’s shield stopped that.
Soon the breeder fell and his pets scurried into the hills, giving the group some breathing room.
An odd looking sword dropped into the sand next to Antu’sul’s body. Lokosh picked it up to examine it. It looked like the hilt might be made of wood with leather binding. The pommel forked in a hollow half circle. The body of the blade was sand colored with symbols near the end while the edge fanned out at the end before dipping inward at the tip.
As the orc examined the blade, he had a strange feeling that the blade was incomplete for some reason. He kept the blade in his backpack for safekeeping.
The group moved forward, crossing another breach in the wall and into an area infested with scarabs and a single troll walking around. The troll had green hair and wore orange leather armor with thick lines of green on his pants and gloves. His staff had a pointed black crystal on its head. Thanatas also sensed that the troll was undead but didn’t really care about that info.
As the group engaged the troll, the scarabs around the room began converging on the group and tried to bite them. Talia made it rain fire while Farra’jin used his fire totem to unleash waves of fire all around it, incinerating the insects.
Meanwhile, Lokosh was keeping the troll, Theka, busy. The undead troll’s attacks were weak but he soon showed what he could do when he tried to channel the pestilence in his body. He unleashed a smelly green cloud from his palms and enveloped the warrior with it.
Lokosh’s body suddenly felt hotter than before and his vision was getting a little blurry. He fought through whatever the troll hit him with to the best of his ability. Thankfully, Farra’jin noticed the orc growing a little pale and figured that his ally was infected with some sort of disease. He placed his water totem next to Lokosh and the cleansing effects enveloped the warrior. Lokosh felt incredible relief as the water washed over his body and purged the disease from his system.
As the group continued blasting the troll, Theka became desperate and wrapped himself in shadow. The first thing the group noticed was that Lokosh’s strikes were bouncing off the troll’s form. Talia soon found out that her shadow spells were doing nothing to him either. However, she noticed that all of Farra’jin’s spells were still hitting Theka so she switched to using her fire spells.
Before long, Theka was nothing more than a charred corpse.
Once again, Thanatas clapped for the group’s accomplishments. However, she soon made it clear that she was clapping for Farra’jin. “Well done figuring out that Lokosh was infected by the troll’s disease. But before we continue, I want to inform you four about various types of status effects in this world.
“One of the more common are poison attacks, often coming from venomous creatures or poisonous plants. With Farra’jin’s water totem, that should be no problem. Then you have diseases unleashed by undead like that piece of charcoal.” Thanatas pointed at Theka’s corpse. “Magical afflictions should not be mistaken for curses. However, given that both are magical in nature it can be difficult to differentiate the two. Groun has the ability to purge curses from his allies while for those afflictions that he cannot, you will have to rely on Talia’s puppy to drain the affliction from your body. There are other types but there isn’t much you can do about those except to use your healing spells to keep your allies from bleeding out.”
“Glad we have a solution for the status effects, I guess,” Groun said, sounding unsure.
The group proceeded through a narrow passageway and ended the life of a solitary witch doctor as they proceeded into the next area.
The next area was a burial ground. Thanatas could sense the corpses of trolls everywhere in the area buried in shallow graves beneath the sand. In an alcove in the center of the area was a troll who wore the attire of a witch doctor with red and black robes, wooden shoulder pads made to look like masks and a white wooden mask over his face. The alcove itself had a large bubbling cauldron along with a metal cage with a post holding the witch doctor’s implements of torture. There was also a dry trough on the other side of the witch doctor’s sanctum.
Thanatas recognized the troll as Witch Doctor Zum’rah who used the dead of the city to do his bidding.
And he was just asking for a poetic death in Thanatas’ eyes.
With a malicious grin on her face, she encouraged the group to move onward and ignore the witch doctor who didn’t seem to care that they were moving deeper into the city as long as they didn’t enter his sanctum. Once the group moved on to the next narrow passage, Thanatas remained.
Zum’rah gave the death knight a wary look while with a sadistic grin on her face, Thanatas raised her sword into the air and unleashed a huge wave of necromantic energy throughout the burial site. Within moments the troll zombies beneath the sands emerged from their shallow tombs.
Zum’rah was amazed at how much power the death knight used to raise so many dead but before long that awe turned into full-blown terror as Thanatas pointed her sword at the witch doctor. Within moments, he was swarmed by a large number of troll zombies. He tried to regain control of the corpses but his magic wasn’t powerful enough to overpower Thanatas’ necromancy. His eyes only showed despair as his last moments were of his own minions literally tearing him limb from limb before another zombie ripped his head off.
The group soon found themselves in what seemed like the heart of the city as they saw a large number of huts, a few on the ground and a lot more built into the walls of the city. A large number of Farraki trolls were patrolling the area, some were shadowhunters patrolling alongside a basilisk.
One of the trolls noticed the group and called for everyone to assist him with dealing with them. Soon, the entire square started running after the group.
Thinking strategically, Lokosh had everyone move back into the narrow corridor. Once they had enough of a distance to work with, Lokosh had Farra’jin place his totems strategically with the fire totem in front of them unleashing magma on the incoming wave of trolls with his earth totem next to his fire totem shackling the feet of the trolls to slow them down. His air totem was set to absorb incoming spells while his water totem was set to assist with healing if the wave got too close.
Talia prepared to make fire rain before the totems while she summoned a felguard to provide one last line of defense before they reached the group.
Groun was in his tree form to provide healing and to summon roots to control the battle.
Thanatas looked at the group with pride as she saw the fruits of their progress into becoming an effective adventuring group. Because of this, she pointed her sword behind her then to the west. Once she did that, she watched as the quartet held the line against a large wave of trolls.
As the trolls came, they found themselves being pelted by balls of fire, the spellcasters panicked as their robes caught fire. The others tried to fight through the blaze and get out of the fire quickly but soon found that they were slowly walking toward the edge of the fiery barrage while waves of magma slammed into them. One shadowhunter was smart enough to fire arrows at the totems which disabled their effects while the elemental spirits within the totems returned the objects to their wielder.
The trolls grew closer but the felguard started moving in and cleaved his ax through the armor of the trolls and biting into their flesh, leaving deep gashes and leaving them bleeding profusely. With the witch doctors being too busy putting out their ignited robes, the fighters soon fell over and bled out.
Soon only a few blood drinkers remained as they finally managed to kill Talia’s felguard, sending him back to the Twisting Nether until the warlock was ready to call on his contract again. The last of the wave of trolls reached Lokosh but by then their numbers were so few that they were easily manageable by the group.
With the trolls dead, the group returned to the square. Looking around, they noticed that only two trolls stood in the center of the square next to a bonfire. They were looking at the nearby pyramid with a long staircase to the top. One wore a green and black robe. His green hair matched his robe. The other wore black armor with blue feathered shoulders to match his blue hair. He also appeared to be in a state of rotting which told the group that he was undead.
The two were too distracted by what was going on at the top of the pyramid so it was easy to ambush them. Rushing forward and before the robed troll had a chance to react, Lokosh managed to drive his ax into the back of the troll. Death came quickly for him.
The undead troll became fully alert because of this and readied his mace for combat against the warrior. What he wasn’t expecting was for Talia and Farra’jin to set him on fire with their spells. His rotting flesh only made him more flammable and he quickly turned to ash.
With the two dealt with, the group decided to climb up the long set of stairs to find out what was going on.
After an exhausting climb up what seemed like a thousand step pyramid, the group panted heavily, except for Talia who was undead and wasn’t capable of exhaustion, and looked around the summit to find an altar of some sort with five cages.
Three of the cages were open and in front of them was a dead orc male wearing black and red robes and a black eyepatch. Next to him was a staff with a black crystal on its head. There was also a dead human female wearing studded brown leather armor and two knives on the floor next to her body and a dead female dwarf wearing jet black and scarlet robes and a wooden club with jeweled decorations at the head next to her body.
The remaining two cages still had people in them. One was a human male wearing plate mail on his chest, arms and feet while carrying an ornate sword and a standard-looking shield. His brown hair was done in a spiked manner. The other cage contained a goblin wearing red studded leather armor and carried a blunderbuss along with some equipment that appeared to be useful for crafting explosives.
“Please, you have to get us out of here!” the human begged. “The executioner was in the middle of killing us when he was suddenly called away for some reason. Get us out of here before he comes back! I’ll give you anything!”
It was pitiful how the human behaved, but they had better things to do than entertain the guy. Of course, they also considered that he might be Sergeant Bly since the group that was with him seemed like an adventuring party. Since they hadn’t come across any other non-trolls in the city it had to be them.
Lokosh walked up to Bly’s cage and narrowed his eyes at the sad-looking man. “Give me the Divino-matic Rod and I’ll let you out.”
Bly looked nervous through the bars of his cage. It wasn’t hard to notice that the man started to sweat. “Uh, w-what are you talking about? I-I don’t know about any rod. Nope! Not me! What about you Weegli?”
The goblin stared daggers at the human. He looked very irritated with him. He then looked at the group. “Yeah he’s got that rod you’re lookin’ for. He was hoping to use it to find water sources and sell the rights to them to Gadgetzan for a hefty profit.”
Bly stared daggers at the goblin, mouthing the word “traitor.”
Weegli continued, “The chieftain of the Sandfury is behind that locked gate in the square behind you. Let me out and I can blast the door open. And just because I hate this sack of manure, I’ll even give you a bomb for free to use on him.”
Lokosh quickly agreed to the deal and had Talia open Weegli’s cage with her fire magic. Weegli then handed the bomb over to the orc. “I’ll get that door open real quick.” The goblin then ran toward the gate in the plaza. He planted a barrel of explosives in front of a wooden gate with a tiki mask on it. Once the charge was set he lit the fuse and backed away a fair distance and waited for the fireworks which came a few seconds later. When the smoke cleared, the gate was destroyed and the path to the Sandfury chieftain was wide open.
Meanwhile, Lokosh gave the sniveling human a wicked grin as he repeatedly juggled the bomb with one hand. “Alright! Alright! I’ll give you the thing! Just don’t hurt me!” Bly cried. He slipped the Divino-matic Rod through the bars of his cage with Lokosh grabbing the device. He then handed Bly the bomb and a match. “What am I supposed to do with these?”
Lokosh chuckled sadistically, “Anyone with a brain should be able to figure out what they need to do with what you got.”
With that, the group walked down the pyramid, leaving the sniveling coward behind.
With the way open, the group proceeded past the destroyed gate. They entered another narrow corridor that was guarded by a pair of shadowhunters who were quickly dispatched.
Unfortunately, the death cries of the shadowhunters could be heard in the next area which was occupied by a number of basilisks and cobras. The beasts entered the corridor to face the intruders. However, the narrow corridor made them easy prey for Talia’s Rain of Fire spell and Farra’jin’s Magma Totem, burning them alive.
The moment the group entered the small central area where the chieftain was, they spotted him and one other. Both wore blood red armor and while the chieftain wore two red pauldrons, the other wore one. The chieftain wielded a staff while the other wielded an ax.
Thanatas recognized the chieftain as Chief Ukorz Sandscalp while the other was Ruuzlu. Taking them out would make sure that the Farraki wouldn’t be bothering the goblins for a long while, but she had something else in mind to really break the tribe’s will.
Having enough of the intruders in his presence, Sandscalp and Ruuzlu charged in after the group. “Dis desert be mine!” Sandscalp shouted.
Lokosh roared in challenge to the two trolls but only Sandscalp faced the warrior while Ruuzlu ignored the call and went after the others. Farra’jin deployed his earth totem and set it to mitigate any damage caused by Ruuzlu’s ax swings. Farra’jin and Talia quickly focused their attacks on the chief’s attendant.
Groun saw an opportunity when Ruuzlu tried an overhead chop on Talia. Calling on the roots, he grabbed the troll’s ax and stopped his attack. With Ruuzlu wide open, a barrage of attacks from the warlock and shaman quickly incinerated the attendant.
Meanwhile, Lokosh was still keeping Sandscalp busy. Upon seeing his close friend fall, Sandscalp went into a blind rage and started bashing his staff against Lokosh’s shield until the warrior found an opening and swiped his ax into a weak point in Sandscalp’s armor.
Exposed and still enraged, Sandscalp was wide open to a joint attack from the party. The attack became too much and was forced back into a wall before he slumped over and collapsed.
Thanatas clapped for the group for their performance. “Well done, you’ve certainly crippled the Sandfury. But before we leave, we have one more thing I’d like to get done. A little further into the city and we’ll find a pool where the last target is located.”
“If da Sandfury are crippled, why do we need ta do more?” Farra’jin asked.
“There’s crippling and there’s breaking one’s spirit. Killing the beast these trolls have been worshiping will certainly do that,” Thanatas explained. “A crippling effort will only get the trolls to back off from Gadgetzan temporarily, if you want something more long term, you break them.”
The group groaned as they had little choice but to heed the orders of their boss.
On their way out, Lokosh discovered a hilt buried in the sand. He moved to pull it out and discovered that it looked identical to the sword they found off Antu’sul. It also seemed incomplete. He pulled out the first sword and held it close to the second. The moment the two were close to one another, a dark force pulled the two weapons together, forming something new. The weapon was double the size of the other two and had become a greatsword. It still fanned out at the edge while the body of the blade as well as the hilt were black. A pair of shadowy skulls revolved around the blade.
Lokosh had a feeling that the blade would be useful so he placed the blade into a holder on his back.
The group proceeded further into Zul’Farrak, after proceeding through another corridor, they found an area that had a giant pool in the center of it. Strangely, they also spotted a horde of troll zombies feasting on the corpses of a large number of trolls.
The group moved in with their weapons ready but were stopped by Thanatas as she held out a hand in front of them. “It’s alright, they’re with me.” They soon realized that they were the zombies that Thanatas raised from the burial ground. It wasn’t too hard to figure that the Sandfury were caught off guard because they thought the zombies were on their side.
While the zombies were having their feast, the group inspected the pool. It was very deep and was walled in by the same type of stone blocks that built the city. At the south end of the pool was a large gong with two piles of skulls and two ritual torches. An offertory bowl and a jug sat next to the gong.
Knowing where they were, Thanatas turned to Talia. “This is the place where we use that hammer you found. Once you hit the gong with it, be prepared to fight a hydra the size of an Equestrian one.
The quartet gulped and hesitated for a moment before Talia slowly approached the gong. As she walked, she pulled out the Mallet of Zul’Farrak from her backpack, deeply regretting ever stealing the thing in the first place. She soon stood before the gong, mallet in both hands. She hesitated as fear gripped her heart but quickly banished it as she focused on her thoughts of revenge against the princesses and let that be motivation to help her with this task.
Banishing her fears, she raised the mallet and struck the gong.
Everything went quiet for what felt like an eternity. That was until they spotted bubbles rising to the surface of the pool. The stream of bubbles slowly moved to the far end of the pool and about halfway a white beast’s head arose from the surface, followed by two more. Sea green dorsal fins traveled the length of the beast’s necks.
Soon its main body surfaced. Its gigantic body soon caused tremors as it walked. The creature had two legs to walk on, a tail longer than its long heads and three heads. Its scales were white with a sea green underbelly.
Not wasting time, Thanatas ordered the zombies in the area to attack the monster known as Gahz'rilla. The creature felt the zombies pulling at its scales and quickly jerked its body to shake off the zombies.
Using the distraction, Thanatas ran in and used her blade to sever the beast’s left head. The other two cried in agony as one of its brother heads was dead. The death knight backed away and used her wings to get some distance from the hydra while the others attacked it.
At the same time, Talia unleashed her demons and ordered them to attack the creature. The hydra’s scales were durable so her attacks didn’t do much. She then decided to assault the open wound where the severed head used to be and assaulted that part with her shadow spells. The spells struck the tender area and made the beast roar in pain before turning its hateful glare to the warlock.
Groun called roots from the ground to wrap around the right head, causing the beast to choke a little. Lokosh decided to try his new weapon out as he leaped on the hydra’s back and leaped toward the struggling head. Using his new weapon, he was able to sever the right head.
Now left with a single head, Gahz’rilla raised its left foot and stomped the ground hard, sending shockwaves through the area and causing the walls to tremble. Everyone else was sent flying backward. Thanatas recovered using her wings while Farra’jin called on the winds to slow the falls of himself and his allies.
Once Lokosh recovered, he began charging back toward the hydra, raising his new sword in the air. Thanatas took to the air and dove for the beast while at the same time Lokosh leaped at the beast’s final head. The two struck simultaneously and Gahz’rilla lost its final head in one scissor-like motion. Headless, the hydra’s body went motionless.
After a few moments of catching their breath, Lokosh, Farra’jin and Groun cheered in celebration for felling a huge beast. Talia instead decided to approach the death knight with a question.
“I’ve always heard that hydras regenerate their heads when one is severed. Why didn’t this one?”
Thanatas looked at the warlock and smirked as she got into lecture mode, “Most Azerothian hydras aren’t like that. They’re simply three-headed beasts. The ones that do, however, are quite ancient and almost never have their bodies above the surface. Hydras like that have also developed specialized heads, different colored heads for different specializations. For example, red heads breathe fire while blue heads breathe frost. There could even be purple heads that breathe raw mana. Those are the types who can regenerate heads and create extra ones. We may one day encounter one of those. In fact, I’m sure we will.”
Talia sighed as she considered the likelihood that Thanatas knew of future events which would at least make their lives a little easier. She returned to her celebrating allies to unenthusiastically take part in it.
With the Sandfury trolls defeated and the survivors going into hiding, the group proceeded back to the entrance of the ruins and back to Gadgetzan. With the mission complete and the Divino-matic Rod returned, Thanatas left the four to celebrate their victory while she sank into the shadow realm and headed to Orgrimmar.
Later, Thanatas was inside Thrall’s chamber. By now the warchief and his advisors were beginning to get used to seeing the death knight in the room.
However, Thrall had a more pressing matter to deal with and he was growing impatient with Thanatas’ agenda so he asked, “What’s the status of the group of adventurers that you are training? Are they prepared?”
Thanatas gave her report on the events of Zul’Farrak. Vol’jin had mixed feelings about the matter since they were still his fellow trolls, but he had made his choice to make the Horde his family long ago. The Sandfury tribe was only one of many tribes who refused to stop living in the past. What happened to them they brought on themselves.
Soon, Thanatas concluded her report. “So yes, I think they’re ready to take on this challenge.”
Thrall hummed as he closed his eyes in thought. He reopened them a moment later and nodded in understanding. “Very well, you are to guide this group to Blackrock Mountain and hunt down the leader of the Dark Horde, Dal’rend Blackhand, along with any who have supported him. See to it that the Dark Horde can never rise up again.”
“It will be done, warchief.”