//------------------------------// // The Dragonkiller // Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Things settled down for a while after Stella and the others returned to Shattrath. With the Legion’s plan to use Karazhan as a stronghold thwarted, they had time to plan their next moves. On their list of things to do, they needed to secure the means to infiltrate Serpentshrine Cavern where the naga base of operations was located. With the mechanical waterfall in the way, the only entrance was blocked. As much as Stella didn’t trust the caged naga in the Slave Pens, he had the only means of getting them in there that they knew. The naga requested the Fiery Signet they recently acquired from Nightbane as well as the Earthen Signet which was in the hands of the father of the gronn. There was also the matter of infiltrating Tempest Keep. The key into the naaru fortress was held by A’dal who wanted them to complete a series of trials, three of which they had completed so far with the fourth one being that they had to kill the pit lord in the depths of Hellfire Citadel, Magtheridon. On top of that, they heard that every means of getting through Illidan’s frontal defenses at the Black Temple had been for naught. It seemed that it would take a lot of sacrifices just to get an infiltration team into the temple. However, they would worry about that once Akama was ready to make his move. Speaking of Akama, Flutashe still needed to make her report to him. Raida went with her in case Akama asked her to do something that would require assistance. During their flight, Raida was surprised by her sister’s flight ability. She found that she was much faster in the air than any of her fellow demon hunters. In fact, she felt a little challenged. Raida smirked, “Gotta say sis, I’m actually impressed with your flight speed. Think you can keep up with me?” “Raida, we have a long flight ahead of us. I don't want to exhaust myself before we get there.” She said that, but her instincts were also drawing out her competitive side. “How about we race to the border then pace ourselves the rest of the way.” That put a smile on the demon hunter’s face. “You’re on!” The two ended up flying across the length of Terokkar Forest and its dark landscape. The overall flight only took an hour at their speed which would have taken five hours for a normal flight. In the end, Raida won by a head but Flutashe made her work hard for that victory when she passed her several times. The two took a break near the border to catch their breaths. Raida soon found herself laughing. Flutashe looked at Raida in confusion, “What’s so funny?” “Heh, you’re the first one in a long time who pushed me to do my best in a flight race. I never thought that it would be my sister of all people who would make me try my hardest.” Flutashe was silent for a moment as she considered things. “I guess I have changed somewhat. Usually, I am not the competitive type. I suppose with all the animals I can turn into, it’s given me a boost to my confidence.” “Well, wherever this change came from I wouldn’t worry about it. If anything, it’s made you an even more awesome sister.” Flutashe blushed a little at the complement and a small smile graced her face. After a few minutes the two resumed their flight which took them through the majority of Shadowmoon Valley where they landed in Warden’s Cage where Akama was. They took the underwater path to the broken leader’s location where they saw him as well as his prisoner who was sitting in a corner pouting. “You have been gone for some time,” Akama said. “Did you find Udalo in the Arcatraz?” The two sisters nodded. Flutashe made the report, “Udalo was long dead by the time we got there. One of the prisoners drove the warden mad and had him release the prisoners. He was eliminated along with the source of his manipulation. As for Udalo, we had his body burned due to circumstances best left unsaid. Before he died, he scratched the word Atam’al on the floor beneath him.” Akama flinched as he realized something. “Atam’al…yes, of course! It all becomes clear now.” “Care to enlighten us?” Raida asked. “We need the Heart of Fury.” “You mean the crystal being guarded by the Shadowmoon Clan? Lord Illidan told me something about it being some holy crystal that can increase the holder’s aggression and strength. It can also be dangerous in the wrong hands so he had the crystal concealed in dark magic.” “All of the Atam’al Crystals can be dangerous if wielded improperly,” Akama said. “The crystals were once a gift from the naaru during our exodus from Argus. Now we must return the crystals to them. Someday we shall, starting with the Heart of Fury.” Raida sighed in resignation, mainly because she was depriving her master of another resource. But Illidan did wish for her to assist the broken with his rebellion. “I’ll go get it…” she said resignedly. She left Warden’s Cage by herself since the fel orcs guarding the crystal might react to her sister’s presence. It was a short flight to the Black Temple where she landed on the northern terrace. The orcs saluted her as she moved toward the crystal on a nearby pedestal. Illidan gave the fel orcs guarding the temple a different source of felblood apart from Magtheridon which helped to keep them loyal to her master. She was glad that there weren’t many intelligent orcs like Kargath running around who might incite rebellion against Illidan, it made keeping them in line much easier. An orc riding a nether drake descended on her position and landed near her. She recognized the orc as Shadowlord Deathwail who was in charge of guarding the crystal. He gave her a wary look. “Do you have business here, Lady Raida?” he asked. “It’s time for the crystal to be moved, Deathwail. Lord Illidan wishes to have Akama deliver it to the next location,” Raida said. “Where is the missive for these orders?” he demanded. “I see no reason to inform you of anything, orc. You are speaking to Lord Illidan’s second in command so you are well beneath me on the chain of command. Since your charge is complete, you will report to the training grounds to instruct our fighters.” Deathwail snarled at her but quickly relented before he silently ordered his drake to fly toward the temple. Raida grabbed the Heart of Fury and flapped her wings to take off toward Warden’s Cage. On the way, the crystal showed her how powerful she could become but she knew that this was nothing more than temptations from the crystal that were better off resisted. Once she returned to Akama, she handed over the crystal to the broken who experienced the crystal’s temptations before he resisted them and placed it in the Medallion of Karabor. “Please, take this away from me. Give it to A’dal. Flutashe, this medallion is my promise to you and your friends that when the time comes to face Illidan, I will be on your side.” With their business done, the two flew back to Shattrath. The flight took several hours and they would have to rest at an inn before they proceeded to the next part of their journey. Before they did that, they handed the medallion to A’dal. The item vanished in a flash of light which they figured was their way of holding things since they technically had no hands. What the two weren’t expecting was that A’dal gave the two each a vision. Flutashe saw herself and her friends aiding Akama and Maiev in infiltrating the Black Temple. However, she didn’t see her sister among them. Raida received several visions. She could see her fellow demon hunters kneeling before a human who looked like he had seen plenty of battle yet seemed important, like a king. There were some of her kin, more specifically the blood elves, kneeling before the Horde warchief as well. Her final vision was herself, standing triumphant over a foe her master failed to defeat. She couldn’t make out who it was she had defeated, but the feeling that this villain defeated her master was there. Neither of them had much of an idea as to what the visions meant. For Raida, her visions seemed like impossible dreams. It seemed like the Illidari were serving the Alliance and the Horde. The last vision made even less sense. She had a feeling of who the defeated figure was, but she couldn’t believe that she would triumph over someone who defeated Lord Illidan in single combat. Raida put these thoughts aside for the time being and focused on the present. The two sisters regrouped with Stella and the others at the Aldor Inn where they discussed their experiences in private with the others. The next day, the party decided what they would do today to advance their campaign against the Illidari. The only options they really had at this point were taking down Gruul and claiming his Earthen Signet or taking down Magtheridon and completing A’dal’s trial. As they were considering their options, Sophia offered her input, “The fact is, Gruul and Magtheridon are going to be tough to defeat. We will need the assistance of Thanatas’ group from this point onward. Gruul is a fierce opponent who once held his own against the Black Aspect himself and Magtheridon is a high ranking pit lord whose might is in the same league as Mannoroth.” “Weren’t they on a mission to hunt gronn?” Bella asked. “They finished a few days ago. Thanatas has them on standby in Blade’s Edge until you are ready to take on Gruul. Since they can’t get around as well as you can due to a lack of mounts capable of flight, let alone any mount at all, we felt that this would be easier on them.” That made sense to the group, though they did hope that they would find themselves some transportation at some point. “Alright, I have an anchor set up at the Evergrove in Ruuan Weald in Blade’s Edge, so we can meet the Horde there,” Stella said. Once everyone was ready, Stella opened the portal and they stepped through. Sophia made sure to inform her cousin that they were coming so that she should get the Horde group mobilized. The group spent the next few hours admiring the scenery of Evergrove. There were only a couple of buildings in the area which was also composed of a moonwell and a small pavilion. The area was occupied by Cenarion druids, a Son of Cenarius, an ancient, some Alliance officers and a few guests. The Horde group soon showed up looking none too enthusiastic about what was coming. After having to deal with seven gronn they were fed up with the hunt. At the same time they were thankful that this would be the last gronn they would have to deal with. “So you finally made it to the gronn-killing party, huh?” Talia said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm. “Wait, this was a party? I should have brought my party supplies.” Mena said, either ignoring the sarcasm or being oblivious to it. Talia rolled her eyes. Sophia and Thanatas soon showed up to Evergrove. The druids there were wary of Thanatas’ presence but stayed their hands. “Just like old times,” Thanatas commented. “Except we replaced a warrior with a demon hunter, kind of a trade up, really..” Stella and her friends, except Raida, were unamused by her attempt at humor. The demon hunter was confused by that. “What? Replaced? What is she talking about?” “Last year we adventured with a human warrior named Jaqueline Pomerton, darling,” Bella explained. “She stayed behind on Azeroth because she wished to face the Scourge infesting her homeland.” “Oh.” Raida had no opinion on that so she turned her attention to the matter at hand. “Anyway, let’s get down to the Bladespire outpost. The party took a northern road off the plateau, moving around a devastated arakkoa village and down a sloping path into the canyon. From there they moved north and east where they encountered the ogre outpost which had a number of ogre corpses lying around with a few living ogres looking ready to fight. “Do you really want to fight us with how few of you are left, especially since half your outpost was wiped out by a bunch of ‘weaklings’ earlier?” Sophia threatened. The remaining ogres looked at each other then at the intruders. “What you want?” one of them asked. “The Sons of Gruul were killed by some of the people among us. We are here to challenge Gruul.” The ogres laughed as if they heard the funniest joke ever. One of them managed to get some words out, “You puny things wanna challenge Gruul? He gonna smash you heads. We not gonna stop you since you gonna die anyway.” The ogres parted ways and let the party proceed toward the massive cave entrance ahead. The entrance had the decorations of an ogre mound with wooden spikes and fur pelts. The clearance was larger than the tall buildings around them. They wasted no time going inside the cavern. Once inside, they encountered the elite forces of the Bladespire Clan composed of two armored warriors carrying axes and a two-headed ogre wearing a black mantle and pants that had violet runes on them. Their eyes glowed the same violet color and they carried staves. Lokosh and Bella each challenged a warrior while Raida kept the spellcaster’s attention on her. The warriors proved how strong they were when one of their ax swings hit their shields hard enough that the warrior and paladin’s arms ached from the impact. Surprise, Stella and Talia unleashed their spells on Bella’s ogre while Farra’jin, Feloma and Flutashe focused on Lokosh’s enemy. The warriors swung their axes wide but the group took advantage of their smaller sizes to duck under the swings. The ogre caster saw his allies being slowly overwhelmed so he began to channel light spells to heal them. Groun picked up on the attempt and quickly had some vines wrap around the two heads and strangled them. The vines stopped their spells and forced them to fight to get the vines off their throats. Raida saw her chance and quickly eviscerated who was apparently an ogre priest. The two warriors went down soon after that after Flutashe left one’s exposed back a bloody mess with his spine showing while Stella and Talia set the other on fire before Surprise decapitated him with a Shadow Blade. The group cleaned the blood off their weapons before Thanatas began to explain the area. “This place is actually really small compared to other places you have been to. The only threats here are Gruul and his second, Maulgar, who declares himself the ‘Lord of the Ogres’. Maulgar is in the chamber ahead, accompanied by four of his most elite spellcasters: Kiggler the Crazed, Blindeye the Seer, Olm the Summoner and Krosh Firehand.” “I assume that Blindeye is a priest, Olm is a warlock and Krosh is a mage who specializes in fire magic?” Stella asked. “Yeah, for some reason a lot of warriors and spellcasters like to have their names reflect their abilities which only clues their enemies what they are capable of,” Thanatas said. “So that leaves Kiggler as the unknown…” Thanatas knew that Kiggler was a witch who specialized in lightning magic and hexing people which was similar to a mage using a Polymorph spell. She didn’t tell them because she saw no harm in having them figure that out. The group neared the entrance to the chamber. They snuck a peek into the room to find four two-headed ogres: one having peachy white skin and carrying a priest staff, one blue and carrying a scepter, one dark gray and wearing purple robes and carrying a dark crystal staff, and one red and wearing a runed mantle and carrying a staff with a red glowing gem. There was also one of those spiked, savage-looking ogres like the one Flutashe and Mena saw in Blackfathom Deeps. The ogres were having a conversation. “What we gonna do boss?” the dark ogre said. The party figured he was Olm the Summoner. “Wit da other gronn dead, we can’t rule da Bloodmaul or Boulderfist Clans like we used ta. Dey might go to war wit us.” “I’m not concerned with the other clans,” the savage ogre, Maulgar, dismissed. “Gruul alone can keep the other clans in line. We may not be able to extend our influence like we used to with the Sons of Gruul dead and many of our clan as well, but we will rebuild. As long as we serve Gruul, the victories of those pitiful Alliance and Horde are meaningless.” “Oh, okay,” the red one, Krosh Firehand, said. “Guess dat why you da boss.” “I’m your king!” Maulgar corrected, emphasizing his claim. “Right, you da king.” the white one, Blindeye, affirmed. “Our clan da strongest in Outland ‘cuz of you and Gruul,” the blue one, Kiggler said. The party decided they had enough of listening to their brain cell-killing conversation and worked on their strategy. Once they worked it out, they proceeded into the chamber where the ogres quickly noticed them. “Intruders? You will regret setting foot in Gruul’s seat of power,” Maulgar said. As the ogres moved in to attack, Stella got Krosh’s attention by bombarding him with icicles. The pyromancer began throwing fireballs at Stella who blocked them with a shield before returning fire, only for Krosh to put up his own shield. Maulgar ended up facing Lokosh as his opponent when the orc rammed his shield into his gut before leaping toward the chamber entrance. Raida attacked Olm while Flutashe attacked Kiggler. The ogre warlock was hard pressed to hit the demon hunter with anything because of her evasiveness while Flutashe proceeded to maul Kiggler in her cat form. She endured the arcane lightning being cast by the witch. Everyone else focused on Blindeye. He appeared to not know any offensive spells like normal priests did but he could be a threat if he was allowed to heal the other ogres. In the end though, Surprise was left to deal with the ogre priest while Bella, Farra’jin, Talia and Feloma went after Olm. The ogre warlock summoned a felhound to assist him who only ended up brutally destroyed by Raida’s and Talia’s demons. Olm ended up burned to ash when he was attacked by elemental, magical, and fel fire all at once with a few explosive arrows for good measure. Maulgar saw his warlock turn to ash before he taunted the group, “I’m not afraid of you!” Blindeye found himself under pressure from the gnome who easily dodged his staff swings. Her small stature made fighting her more difficult. At one point he attempted to heal Olm while he burned but a Silence spell prevented that. She then took control of the ogre who shared the one brain cell between them and healed the other fighters. Once she was through, she used her shadow magic to incinerate the one brain cell the ogre had. Krosh and Kiggler were not doing well. Because of Flutashe’s shapeshifting abilities, his Hex spell was useless. Krosh was not as skilled in magic as he thought he was and found himself vulnerable to Stella’s spells many times over the fight because she kept stealing his shield spell before being bombarded by fire, frost, arcane and, for some reason, acid. Kiggler was so distracted by the druid that he failed to see a pair of arrows that pierced their eyes and lodged themselves in their brains. The witch collapsed to the floor, never to get up again. After Stella obliterated Krosh, everyone focused their attacks on Maulgar who proved to have durable skin as he took their attacks and still kept fighting. He performed a Whirlwind technique with his warhammer which knocked Lokosh away. Maulgar kept spinning while pursuing others but they stayed away from him. Eventually, he stopped spinning before he got too dizzy and put himself at an even greater disadvantage. His technique didn’t help him and he was accumulating damage fast. Defiantly he shouted, “You will not defeat the Hand of Gruul!” He then charged at people like a rampaging bull while slamming into the cave wall. Everyone dodged his attacks and kept attacking him from a distance. It was when he looked in Thanatas’ direction that he made his last mistake. He charged recklessly at the death knight who moved slightly to the side and avoided the charge while holding her blade out, leading him to have a deep gash into his gut. He collapsed to one knee before glaring daggers at the undead. The last things he saw were countless hovering swords pointed at him before they quickly converged and turned the ogre king into a pincushion. Choking on blood, Maulgar still managed to say one last thing before he expired, “Gruul...*cough*...will crush you!” “That takes care of the chump, let’s move on to the more interesting prey,” Thanatas said. The party silently moved forward. The next tunnel was more of the same where they faced several more groups of ogres until they came upon a far more spacious chamber that had a number of thick wooden poles placed all around the room. The entrance had a wooden gate that was designed to seal off the chamber. Standing in the center of the room was a gronn. Unlike the others Lokosh’s group fought, this one had red skin instead of brown or gray. He may have looked similar to the other Sons of Gruul, but they weren’t going to let their guards down against the most powerful gronn in Outland. “Fair warning, don’t let this fight drag on too long,” Thanatas said. “The angrier he gets, the bigger and more destructive he gets.” Proving her point, Gruul smelled the air in front of him as he faced the intruders. He frowned, “Gruul smell blood of offspring,” he said in a deep, rumbling voice. “Murderers of my children, come and die.” His barely controlled anger erupted and he grew to nearly twice his original size.” “I suggest spreading out and surrounding him,” Thanatas offered. Not wanting to question the death knight’s strategy based on her track record, the party fanned out while keeping someone capable of healing spells near their allies. Lokosh and Flutashe charged in with the druid in her bear form. The gate closed behind them when Gruul slammed the floor with a fist and caused the gate’s locking mechanism to come loose. Dodging attacks proved difficult for the warrior and druid due to Gruul’s current mass and would become more difficult as he continued to grow. His body currently took up about a third of the total space in the massive chamber. As Gruul grew larger, their attacks were becoming less effective with all of them becoming more like tiny insects to him. Thanatas was starting to wonder if killing the gronn’s sons was a good idea in the first place since that gave him a significant head start on his anger growth. Even Raida's destructive combo wasn't doing much more than leaving shallow cuts. For once, Thanatas wasn’t sure how to proceed from here. She was thankful that there were still few enough of the group that even when he performed his infamous combo of creating a shockwave that sent everyone flying back before he used a strange power that caused all of them to become petrified in stone before a loud roar from the gronn caused all of their stone prisons to shatter. The group was spread far enough apart that the explosive force of the shatters didn’t hit anyone with stone shrapnel. “This is not going like I hoped it would,” Thanatas said. “Their attacks are hardly doing anything at this point. Might as well be a few flies against an elekk.” She looked to Sophia, “You have any bright ideas?” Sophia watched the fight progress with a smirk on her face. “Almost there…” she muttered. Confused, Thanatas tried looking in the direction her cousin was looking. Gruul’s mass had taken up a little over half the chamber’s overall space. She then saw that his back had nearly reached the ceiling. After another minute, Gruul’s back made contact with the ceiling. From that point, his colossal size became a disadvantage as the lack of space had become a hindrance to his movement. He couldn’t slam the ground by jumping anymore. The gronn was so blinded by his anger that he couldn’t see that his own anger was being used against him. Even as he touched the ceiling he continued to grow. While this limited his mobility, it also destabilized the structural integrity of the chamber. At this point, the only thing keeping the cavern from collapsing was the big red support pillar known as Gruul. “Okay…he’s pressing against the ceiling. Now what?” Thanatas asked. “Now, it’s my turn.” Sophia positioned herself behind Gruul. Now that he was unable to move around so much, it was time to break him. She crouched down as she prepared for a big leap toward Gruul’s lower back. She kicked out and was flying through the air like a ballistic missile as she reared her right arm back for a punch. Upon impact, Sophia’s punch, added with the pressure of the cave ceiling adding immense pressure to his back, was more than the gronn’s spine could take. The discs in his lower back cracked, then shattered, exposing the now damaged nerve cords within. As Gruul roared in intense pain, the templar then deployed an energy blade and sliced into his lower back and finished the job on his nerve cords, forever denying him the use of his legs. The shock from the loss of use of his legs had knocked the gronn out of his angered state and shrank back to his original size. Thanatas summoned a few giant bones to hold back the now collapsing cavern. Gruul gave the templar a hateful stare, “What did you do to Gruul?” he demanded. “Don’t worry, you won’t have to go without the use of your legs for long,” Sophia assured. “Now, I’m going to loot your face. I hear adventurers covet your eye and teeth as well as a dragon’s spine you keep around.” Gruul still struggled to avoid the sadistic act that the templar promised him by using his arms to try and crush her but she dodged the swings. Sophia frowned as she saw the gronn flail around. Her frown quickly turned into an innocent-looking smile as she looked at her cousin. “Doctor, I believe that the patient is not being very cooperative. Would you mind assisting me in restraining him?” “It would be my pleasure, doctor.” Thanatas responded, knowing she could use that line since her cousin got those degrees in genetics and anatomy. The two each grabbed a thick wooden pole that was sharpened at a point before they walked over to Gruul who still tried to swipe at them. Sophia moved in first while avoiding the swipes before she found her opening and impaled his left hand into the cavern floor which caused part of the chamber to collapse, the rubble falling on his restrained arm. Gruul forgot about his other arm long enough for Thanatas to impale his other hand. The gronn’s agonized roars resonated through the cave and more rubble fell on him. The party watched in horror at what was happening to the gronn. Even Raida cringed at the torture Gruul was receiving. The sick and twisted show only got worse as they saw Sophia beating out his teeth before she grabbed his eyeball and ripped it out of its socket. With that done, Sophia decided that the show was over. She grabbed another massive wooden stake before she leaped up and aimed at the spot on Gruul’s back where she expected the heart would be before she hurled it into and through his back and into the ground. Her precision skills had served her well as the stake went through the targeted organ. “These are the people you’re allied with? Are you sure they aren’t with the Legion?” Raida asked. “This is why they prefer for us to handle these fights,” Stella said. “They figured that our attacks weren’t doing anything to him when he was as large as he was so they stepped in. While they got the job done, our punishment is watching them sadistically torture him to death.” “We need to be able to defeat Magtheridon ourselves, if only for his sake,” Flutashe said. “I think I’ll skip dinner tonight,” Lokosh remarked. The others voiced their agreements. Remembering the reason they came here, Stella began looking through the pockets of Gruul’s loincloth. After several minutes of searching, she finally pulled out a ring that looked like a magenta rock with a loop on it. Once they returned to Shattrath, both parties decided to go straight to their respective inns and rest in beds, hopeful that they didn’t have nightmares that night. Sophia and Thanatas stood atop a mountain that overlooked Shattrath where they were certain that they would be safe for them to make contact with Sphere. It was time to see if the company owner had any new information. “Twilight, did you learn anything from Princess Cadance?” Sophia asked. “Yes, apparently there was another pegasus in that earth pony village that she grew up in,” Twilight began. “The pony’s name was Misty Wing and she became best friends with Cadance during her time there. She told me that they did many fun things together and the townsponies referred to them as ‘The Rose-Feathered Duo’. “They were together when they confronted the enchantress, Prismia. When the necklace that the enchantress wore enhanced Cadance’s love and helped her to convince Prismia to change her ways, she ascended to become an alicorn. “She never said if anything happened to Misty, but if this really is the same pony as the one working for the ELF, then I suspect that she absorbed some residual magic which affected her differently.” “Any clues as to how this magic affected her and helped to extend her lifespan?” Thanatas asked. “Not really, Sweetie Drops went through some old case files and discovered some unsolved cases; one of which had been going on for centuries. “That case involved ponies visiting strip bars with the victim being found as a withered husk. The club owners denied having seen any suspicious ponies but some unicorn detectives did find that the owners and employees had their minds addled by strange magic. “This didn’t happen very often. In fact, cases like that have popped up every few decades. However, the incidents came to a halt a few decades after the advent of cloning technology.” “I think I can make a conclusion based on what you told me, princess,” Thanatas said. “It sounds like whatever magic affected Cadance had given Misty abilities akin to a succubus.” “You think she became a demon?” Twilight asked. “No, she probably just gained the abilities of one without becoming one. Succubi are known for using their charm magic to enchant those around them into becoming their servants. They also feast on the lust of others to sustain themselves. Though I think in Misty’s case, I suspect that she had been keeping herself alive by draining the life force from other ponies. When cloning technology had reached a point where the ELF could use the copies to extend their time on the mortal plane, she likely started using that method instead of draining more victims. She likely knew that her old ways were risky and affected her chances of getting caught.” Thanatas could sense that Twilight was cringing, “I hope you’re wrong. If this is true, then Cadance will be heartbroken to find out that her best friend from the village had been doing terrible things.”