Following their briefing and preparations, the group of Thanatas, Lokosh, Farra’jin, Groun and Talia began to leave The Sepulcher for the southern parts of Silverpine forest, heading to the keep where the master of the worgen resided.
Their exit was momentarily paused when the group was approached by a darkspear troll with green hair. He was wearing a brown shirt and brown gloves with black leather vest and pants and ankle wraps instead of shoes since all trolls go barefoot.
“Ey mon, one’eya be a shaman, ya?” the troll asked.
Farra’jin turned to face the troll to respond, “Ya mon, why ya be askin’?”
“Ha ha! I knew it! I can tell from your eyes dat you seem seasoned enough dat you be ready to take on de trials for ya water totem. Seek out da tauren Islen Waterseer at her hut overlooking da sea along da coast of da Barrens and south of da goblin town of Ratchet when ya can.” The troll turned and walked away.
Farra’jin was dreading what he was going to do later. He had to travel between the Barrens and Durotar for his fire totem. He had a sinking feeling that this Islen Waterseer was going to send him across much further distances before the ordeal was over. He was no stranger to going across Equestria on business trips, it was another thing to do so when there was little profit from it in the end.
With that diversion over, the group resumed their journey south. Along the way, the group was attacked by a few mindless undead and some worgen. Talia reduced the undead to ashes with fire spells while Farra’jin electrocuted the worgen. Lokosh finished off any who got too close. More undead tried to flank them from the other side of the road but Groun managed to call on what healthy roots were left in the area to hold them down long enough for Talia to incinerate them.
Further south, the group spotted what looked like a small town to their left that was being patrolled by living humans in purple robes. Thanatas recalled that the Kirin Tor mages had an interest in the abandoned town because it was sitting on a dormant ley line and they were trying to reactivate it. She could only guess why and it might have had to do with powering up the city of Dalaran which was not far from the town. However, the activities of the mages were of no interest to her.
At the next fork in the road, they took a right and headed toward a village that they were warned was inhabited by cursed humans who transformed into worgen at night.
As they made that turn however, Thanatas was tackled from behind by a large form. The other members of the group witnessed a black-furred worgen rush at the undead from behind at a speed faster than they had seen any other worgen move so far.
The worgen would have begun to claw at the death knight but his instincts kicked in and he jumped off of her, only getting a few scratches when Thanatas deployed her wings in her attempt to impale him. As the undead was getting back up, the worgen looked at the other members of the group and howled in challenge before rushing for Farra’jin.
Lokosh intercepted the charge but was overpowered and knocked back. Talia called her voidwalker which punched the beast in the face only for him to retaliate by slashing the demon with his claws. He followed up by pointing his palm at Talia before his palm glowed black and Talia as well for a moment. The warlock felt something odd within herself before she realized that the beast had placed a curse on her. Assessing herself, she figured that it wasn’t the worgen curse.
Groun caused roots to burst from the ground beneath the worgen which bound the beast’s arms and legs. While the worgen was struggling in his binds, Lokosh delivered a series of furious slashes with his ax before smashing his face with his shield, knocking a few teeth out for his efforts.
Talia bombarded the beast with shadow magic but had to stop her attack as a wave of intense pain struck her suddenly. She recognized the source of the pain as having the same magical signature as the magic the worgen struck her with earlier. She could have broken the curse with her equestrian magic but she couldn’t access it with the Azerothian body she was currently inhabiting. She turned to Groun, “Groun, can you try to cleanse my spirit of this curse?”
“No can do, it’s taking all my concentration to keep this guy restrained,” Groun answered.
Growling in frustration, Talia set the worgen on fire, weakening the bindings while Farra’jin followed the warlock’s example and inflicted a burn on the beast with his Flame Shock. The worgen yelped in pain before Lokosh rammed into him with his shield, knocking him back. Groun called more vines to wrap around the beast which added kindling to the fire and spread the fire along every inch of his body. After a few moments the worgen finally succumbed to his injuries and collapsed on the ground.
Farra’jin worked on putting out the smoldering remains with water spirits before Talia received another painful reminder that she had a curse on her. One glare at the tauren and an awkward laugh from said tauren later, and he managed to cleanse the warlock’s spirit of the curse with a natural remedy.
Their moment of relief was interrupted by the clapping of metal on metal nearby. The group looked to see Thanatas applauding them for their endeavor. “Well done you four. Excellent teamwork. At first I was somewhat worried that you might not be ready to face the horrors of Shadowfang Keep, but defeating a Son of Arugal, one of the most powerful strains of worgen in this forest, tells me that you might have a chance.”
“I can’t tell whether you’re being sincere or sarcastic,” Talia noted.
“Call it what you want, now let’s get up to the keep and deal with the mad wizard.”
The group approached Pyrewood Village but turned when the road forked right. They entered a small mountain pass which curved left and ended before a lowered drawbridge with the entrance to the keep on the other side.
Shadowfang Keep was built on the side of a mountain with the road and the keep entrance separated by a small chasm making the drawbridge the only means into the keep. Any invader would wonder why the drawbridge was not raised to discourage intruders while some theorized that the mechanism was broken or the lord of the keep wanted it lowered to allow his lupine children to run free.
Regardless, the five crossed the bridge and entered the keep.
Once inside, they quickly found that the entrance to the courtyard was blocked by a portcullis. The entryway had a set of stairs that led to the portcullis with a few broken or rotten barrels lying around.
On the other side of the portcullis was a cornered forsaken who appeared to be dressed as a deathstalker. He was surrounded by a number of wolves and worgen and looked prepared to have a last stand with the beasts.
That was until a man teleported in. The man wore black robes with spiked dark gray shoulderguards that had an eerie green glow to them. His face was covered by a black mask and he wore a silver and yellow headpiece with a purple gem in the center. His staff was black with a magically bound green flame on top of it with a black spiked ring rotating around the flame.
The man cast a glare at the forsaken. “I have changed my mind, loyal servants, you do not need to bring the prisoner all the way to my study, I will deal with him here and now. Vincent! You and your pathetic ilk will find no more success in routing my sons and I than those beggardly remnants of the Kirin Tor. Your moldering remains will serve as a testament to what happens to those foolish enough to trespass in my domain!” He then set the forsaken on fire with a spell and watched as whatever Vincent called a life flickered out and was left as a motionless smoldering corpse. Satisfied with his work, the wizard teleported away, likely to his study.
Somehow the group’s presence went unnoticed and everyone but the death knight breathed a sigh of relief.
“Was that him?” Lokosh asked.
Thanatas nodded, “Yep, that was Arugal alright. And we have to get through his army of worgen and wolves to get to him.”
Lokosh, Farra’jin and Groun gulped before looking around the entrance again. They found that the only way forward appeared to be through a room to the right side of the entrance. A worgen and a silver-furred wolf walked down the staircase just inside the room and spotted the intruders. Acting quickly, Groun caused roots to burst from the stone floor to grab the wolf by the throat while Lokosh engaged the worgen. Talia and her imp bombarded the worgen with shadow and fire spells respectively while Farra’jin electrocuted the worgen. Surprisingly, it didn’t take much to bring down both beasts.
“Wow mon, compared to dat Son of Arugal, dese ones were noting,” Farra’jin commented.
“That’s because Arugal keeps his most powerful pets closer to him while the small fry guard the entrance,” Thanatas informed. “Also, fair warning, this keep is haunted. I could sense the lingering necromantic energies from the mountain pass. There are likely a bunch of ghosts wandering around.”
“Ghosts?!” Lokosh said in surprise. “That’s not good, my ax and shield may not be able to touch the fleshless spirits.”
“Which reminds me…” Thanatas then pulled out her sword and pointed it upward before a black bolt of lightning struck the ground and opened a small black hole through which a skeletal warrior rose. The ax and shield it carried seemed to glow with magic. Lokosh could tell from a glance that the weapon and shield were of good quality. His experience as a blacksmith told him that the objects were made of mithril.
With a wave of her sword, Thanatas commanded the skeleton to drop its weapon and shield onto the floor before it disappeared into the floor again, leaving the objects behind. She addressed the group with a serious look on her face. “Consider this a freebie. I’m only giving you this because you needed something to help with the ghosts around here. It will be up to you to find better equipment for your future adventures. I suggest you heed my advice on this if you all want to live long enough to find what you’re looking for.”
Lokosh and the others nodded respectfully at the death knight as the orc discarded his copper weapons to pick up the mithril ones. The new armaments felt a little heavier which was to be expected for the material. The warrior gave his new weapon a few test swings to get the hang of wielding it. His experience with weapons helped him adapt quickly. Satisfied with the feel, Lokosh advanced up the staircase with the others close behind.
Looking around the area, it appeared to be some sort of livery given all the piles of straw on the floor which likely served as makeshift beds for the wolves. More wolves and worgen came down the staircase on the other side of the room. Lokosh saw this as a chance to try out his new ax. With each swing, he cut deep into the wolves’ flesh. Talia used her voidwalker to draw some enemy aggression off Lokosh while she unleashed curses and dark magic on the beasts. She avoided using fire magic because the last thing they needed was the area being set on fire. Farra’jin focused on using elemental water to heal the bite and claw marks the group sustained while Groun channeled his power into the wooden floor which caused it to grow sharp thorns beneath the paws of the beasts, causing them to yelp and bleed.
Once the beasts were dispatched, the group proceeded up the stairs into a small hallway. There was a door at the end which Farra’jin looked through. “Looks like da courtyard be beyond dis door,” he said. Try as he might though, the door was locked and didn’t seem to budge when he slammed into it.
“Before we start breaking doors like barbarians, let’s see if there’s a means to get the door open,” Talia said with a groan.
The group approached an opening in the hallways they ignored before and dealt with more wolves and worgen in the room beyond. The room had several support pillars with more abandoned crates and barrels around them. A stairway to their right led to a lower level in the room that seemed to act as a small prison with three cells. The group was careful enough to look down at the prison to find it guarded by more wolves and a maroon-colored worgen.
“That’s Rethilgore, one of the few worgen in Arugal’s army that the mad wizard even bothered to remember the name,” Thanatas informed. “He’s tougher than the minions around him but he’s not as strong as the Sons.”
Lokosh nodded and with a determined look in his eyes, walked down the stairs to the prison and shouted at the worgen in challenge. Rethilgore rushed for the orc in addition to the three wolves around him. Thanatas jumped from the second level and dropped her sword through one of the wolves, catching the other two by surprise long enough for the death knight to pull the sword out of the carcass and slice the head off another. The third wolf pounced for the undead but was caught in midair by the throat in Thanatas’ necromantic magic. Rethilgore was being kept busy by Lokosh so the wolf was on its own. Using her magic, Thanatas conjured a second blade in the likeness of her own which floated in mid air before shooting through the beast’s skull, vanishing the moment it stopped. Blood sprayed freely from the wolf’s skull.
Meanwhile, Lokosh was enjoying having a decent weapon and shield in his hands again while Rethilgore attempted to slash at his shield. With the supporters dead, the other three moved to the lower floor of the prison to attack the worgen from behind. Talia winced when Rethilgore pointed a hand at her and she felt her life force being ripped from her. Having enough of being a victim of worgen magic, she opened an empty prison cell and ordered her imp to quickly fill the cell with straw. The imp obeyed with all the ability it could muster.
Seeing what her associate was planning, Groun caused a long vine to grow from the wooden floor and wrap around Rethilgore before it hurled him into the cell. Talia closed the cell before Farra’jin ignited the straw in the cell, burning the beast alive as it yelped and cried in agony. Once Rethilgore was no longer moving, Farra’jin called on water spirits to put out the flames.
“Died in a fire huh? A shame you couldn’t do much worse to him,” spoke a voice from one of the other cells, a forsaken deathstalker.
“More Horde scum? Why did I bother taking this assignment to spy on that maniac!?” cried a voice from the remaining cell, a human in robes with long gray hair. “Look, if any of you have some common decency, can you please let me leave this place in peace?”
As tempting as it was to just kill the offending human and be done with him, it might be counterproductive for Thanatas’ long term plans to do so. She was also thankful that the others had no interest in the hostilities between the Horde and Alliance. The four moved away from the stairs to free and allow the mage to climb the stairs and move toward the entrance.
“Why would you let the human go free?” the deathstalker demanded. “He was of no use to us alive.”
“Because there is currently no war between the two factions and I have no interest in perpetuating the racial hatreds,” Thanatas answered before her gaze toward the deathstalker turned menacing. “And if you breathe a word of this to anyone, your life is forfeit.” She then pulled a lever which opened the deathstalker’s cell door, allowing the forsaken to walk out. The death knight placed a hand on his shoulder which briefly emitted a black aura for a split second. The curse she just put on him would rip the life out of him if he tried to report anything she wouldn’t want reported. “Now would you be so kind as to open the door to the courtyard before you leave?”
The deathstalker grumbled as he walked up the stairs and toward the locked door. “You must be fools to brave the horrors beyond this door.” He took out his lockpicking tools and proceeded to pick the lock on the door. After a few moments his efforts yielded success and the door opened. “There, now I need to report to Hadrec. I wish you luck with Arugal.” He ran off toward the entrance.
As the group stepped out into the courtyard, things got hectic. More worgen along with a black breed of wolf took notice of the group and prepared to attack. Adding to that was a number of wandering transparent humans dressed in regular clothes who looked like they were willing to fight. Lokosh figured that they were the ghosts Thanatas warned them about.
Thanatas did not like the odds right now. The courtyard was teeming with beasts and ghosts and if they all came at once, her four companions’ chances of survival looked bad. The four shared the same concerns.
Just like she feared, they all came after the group at once. With the odds unfair as they were, Thanatas evened the odds by forcing her will upon the ghosts which led to them attacking the worgen and wolves instead. The ghosts quickly cursed the worgen which caused haunting apparitions to manifest and attack the beasts, turning the courtyard into a chaotic battlefield. The worgen cast a protective shield which protected them from spells but the cursed worgen were still assaulted repeatedly by apparitions.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Talia caused fire to rain all over the courtyard and set the wolves on fire while Lokosh cut down the distracted worgen. Talia’s fire soon immolated the worgen once their protective enchantments faded. The courtyard became even more chaotic when one panicked wolf fled into a nearby stable which set the straw inside ablaze and caused a trio of demonic horses to charge out of there and indiscriminately trample everyone in their way, which ended up being the wolves and worgen while the group was still on the stairs to the courtyard. The worgen clawed at the horses until they stopped moving but couldn’t celebrate their victories as the ghosts began grabbing them by the neck and twisting their heads until their necks broke.
Once the beasts were all dead, Thanatas raised her sword and claimed the lost souls until she was ready to send them to the afterlife, or the Shadowlands as it is known in this part of the Eternal Sphere.
The group crossed the courtyard and found two places to explore: a ramp heading to another part of the keep or into an entrance which appeared to lead into a small room, likely a storage room, and beyond. Thanatas made the decision for the group as she needed to make sure the others faced the major threats in the keep.
Inside the storeroom were more ghosts, this time wielding spectral cleavers. Thanatas didn’t bother controlling the ghosts this time and let the others handle the more manageable enemies. Thanks to the enchanted weapons, Lokosh was able to harm the ghosts like they were regular humans. Magical attacks from Talia and her imp along with Farra’jin and his fire totem were able to inflict harm on the ghosts until their essence fell to the floor. The death knight collected the essences into her sword.
The next room was a disturbing sight for the Equestrians. They entered what appeared to be a kitchen with bloody raw meat all over the place. Some pieces were hung from bloody meat hooks hanging from the ceiling while more raw meat was sitting on tables rotting away. One of the hooks had a deer head hanging from it.
Thankfully there were also less disturbing sights in the kitchen as the group spotted a pair of large beer kegs and two cooking cauldrons on the other side of the room. The fires under the cauldrons were still lit for some reason.
The most important sight in the room, however, was the red-furred worgen standing in the middle of the room looking at the intruders and preparing to pounce.
“Ah, Razorclaw the Butcher, probably a chef of some sort before he was cursed,” Thanatas noted.
It turned out that the worgen was no tougher than Rethilgore. Lokosh ended up pushing the worgen back to one of the cauldrons filled with boiling water before Groun grabbed him from behind where he demonstrated his tauren strength and tossed the worgen into the boiling water while Talia’s voidwalker grabbed the cauldron’s lid and bashed his head numerous times with it. Farra’jin collapsed the stove on the cauldron to seal the worgen in to suffer a gruesome fate.
As expected of any place with a kitchen, the next room appeared to be a dining room, or a dining hall given how spacious it was. The room was filled with worgen gorging themselves on whatever was made in the kitchen along with more ghostly servants. One ghost stood at the head of the dining room, a balding man with gray hair and mustache wearing a white button-up shirt, red vest, black belt, green pants and black boots. He carried a red scepter that matched the color of his vest.
“The man at the head of the dining room is Baron Silverlaine, former owner of the keep,” Thanatas informed. “He’s not much tougher than the other ghosts.”
“Especially since he won’t get the luxury of time to gather the spirits of the fallen worgen to aid him,” Thanatas thought to herself, remembering his future version.
Once the worgen and ghosts in the room noticed their presence, all of them rushed toward them. While the ghosts were able to chase the group into the kitchen, the worgen were too reckless in their charge and piled on each other to get through the small doorway, blocking it with their bodies and getting stuck.
With only the ghosts to deal with, Farra’jin dropped his fire totem and set it to unleash a powerful wave of fire while the group moved behind Lokosh to provide some shelter from the imminent fire. When the totem erupted, the ghosts were blown away from the totem and Lokosh took some of the fire, singeing his legs which were quickly healed by Groun’s herbal remedy.
With the ghosts disoriented, Lokosh, Farra’jin and Talia proceeded to use their spells and skills to pick off the ghosts one by one. Once the ghosts were thinned out, Talia and Farra’jin proceeded to set the trapped worgen on fire. The beasts backed away and ran around the dining hall chaotically while setting everything wooden on fire.
That was when Baron Silverlaine had enough of the worgen causing a mess and unleashed a wave of shadow energy which put out the fire. The group finished off the ghosts and entered the dining room where they proceeded to finish off any surviving worgen. “Leave this place at once!” Silverlaine shouted before he ran toward the group waving his scepter in the air. Lokosh met the baron’s attack with his shield before he counterattacked with his ax, cutting into the baron’s phantasmal shirt.
The baron inflicted a curse on Lokosh that caused shadows to wrap around him and inflict agonizing pressure on him before he tried doing the same to the others, including Thanatas who blocked the spell with her sword. She gave a deadpan stare at the ghost, “Don’t make me get directly involved, baron. You haven’t felt true suffering until you’ve felt my wrath,” she threatened.
Groun proceeded to cleanse the spirits of his allies of their curses while Farra’jin and Talia unleashed their magics on the noble ghost, overpowering him along with Lokosh’s mithril axe cutting into the ghost’s phantasmal flesh.
Moments later, the ghost’s body broke down into his spectral essence. Cursed as it was, Thanatas lifted the curse on the baron’s essence and absorbed it into her sword.
“How much more to this place is there?” Lokosh asked.
“I’d say we’re close to halfway. Up the stairs and through the hallway to the left we will find the next target,” Thanatas answered.
As they climbed up the stairs to the sides of the head table, Thanatas sensed a darkness much more powerful than anything they had encountered so far, possibly more powerful than Arugal. She had a bad feeling about this.
The group proceeded down the hall on the second floor, dealing with black-furred worgen that were smaller than Sons of Arugal but were stronger than what they faced in the keep so far. Thankfully, the group was getting better at dealing with worgen. Of course, this variety was immune to Talia’s shadow magic. Their howls resonated throughout the hallway and left the group in a daze. Lokosh kept his strength up but Talia and Farra’jin found it more difficult to cast spells. The worgen added injury to their confusion by inflicting them with magical afflictions that caused shadows to sear their flesh.
Groun fought through the confusion and did his best to mend the wounds with nature magic while Talia set the worgen on fire, her imp throwing fireballs to assist. Farra’jin dropped a totem and set it to channel magma from the Firelands, the elemental plane of fire, and unleash it on the worgen. The beasts soon succumbed to the flames and fell motionless to the floor, the shaman then having to use water to put out fires to avoid setting the keep on fire.
At the end of the hallway and up a small set of stairs, Thanatas’ feeling became worse as the group began fighting ghostly soldiers. She used her magic to pull back Talia, Groun and Farra’jin to herself, warning them of the guards’ ability to wail and temporarily disable their spellcasting which was the last thing Lokosh needed.
Once the guards fell and Thanatas claimed their essence, she had the four stay where they were so she could enter the room alone as the power she was sensing was coming from that room.
Inside the room, Thanatas looked in the direction of where their next target was supposed to be and found her concerns vindicated. Commander Springvale, the captain of the guard in Shadowfang keep was unlike how he was supposed to be at this point in time. The ghostly paladin’s silver armor was dull and he was carrying a runeblade along with a purple shield with a yellowed white outline and a skull in the center.
This was a very unusual situation as the commander wasn’t supposed to have that appearance until around the time of a certain event years from now. Using her cousin’s psychic network, Thanatas contacted Twilight. “Hey Twi, run a scan of the ghost in front of me.”
It took a few moments before Twilight could get back to her with the results. “That’s odd, it seems he’s being affected by a temporal glitch. Right now his present self and his future self have switched places in the timeline. This might be because the Forge we used to create the galaxy still has some rough spots. I’ll see what I can do to fix this issue and warn Sophia to be on the lookout for any more potential glitches.”
With that done, the death knight turned her attention to the paladin ghost turned death knight ghost. She glanced at the audience in the doorway. “This one is too much for you guys right now. I’ll handle this one personally.”
Thanatas entered the room and raised her sword in the air which released two bolts of necromantic magic onto the floor and opened two black holes from which two giant skeleton warriors emerged. The two readied themselves for a fight. “The death knight is mine, eliminate any who assist him,” she ordered.
Commander Springvale ran toward Thanatas with his runeblade raised and his shield in front of him. Two runeblades of powerful unholy energies clashed with one another. While Springvale had a shield to assist him, Thanatas’ magic was still stronger than his.
She placed a boot on the commander’s shield and kicked him to the back of the room before she blocked the doorway where Lokosh and the others were with a thick layer of ice. With the others now protected from her own power, Thanatas began unleashing more of it, calling forth a biting winter storm. The ice magics tore at Springvale’s phantasmic body. The captain counterattacked by unleashing a wave of unholy energy which would have caused anyone who walked on it to rot but the death knight’s body was well protected from such magics.
Springvale’s next move was to point his shield in front of him and unleash a torrent of unholy flames to incinerate his enemy but Thanatas countered by plunging her sword into the ground and created a null zone that canceled out all magic in its radius.
The captain prepared himself for a counterattack but what he wasn’t expecting was the female death knight creating an arsenal of phantom weapons in the likeness of her sword and impaling him from all angles. His shield blocked the frontal attacks aimed at his torso but that was meaningless as he was repeatedly stabbed in the back, arms and legs. One last phantom weapon dropped through his head. Thanatas finished him by causing the blades to self-destruct with blasts of unholy energy which left the ghost as nothing more than a cursed essence which she decursed and collected.
With the threat dealt with, she shattered the ice on the door and allowed the others in.
“Wow, I can see why Talia considers you a threat,” Lokosh said. “Especially if you were still holding back.”
The others were just as awestruck as Lokosh was, including Talia, despite fighting Thanatas one time.
Looking around the room, the group found it to be a small chapel with the stained glass and what appeared to be shattered pews. Candelabras were placed along the walls at one time. Weathered swords and shields were lying around.
The group exited the chapel and walked down some stairs only to go up another set of stairs and onto the keep ramparts. Thanatas returned to watching the others deal with the soldier ghosts as they advanced toward what appeared to be some expansion to the keep. They moved into the opening into the building and up a small ramp to find a room filled with a few giant bats and a worgen who appeared similar to a Son of Arugal but Thanatas knew who this was.
“Odo the Blindwatcher, a blind recluse who lives in a dilapidated structure hanging over the edge of the keep with his pet bats,” Thanatas thought to herself.
Odo quickly smelled out the intruders and howled, causing the nearby bats to fly in to assist their master.
With the structure as rotten as it was and with straw all over the room, fire was a bad idea as the risk of the structure falling into the ravine below was too great. However, Farra’jin’s lightning spells were quite effective against the flying beasts.
Once the bats were electrocuted to death, Odo went into a rage and started slashing at Lokosh’s shield furiously but the shield held against the onslaught. With the orc’s ax cutting into the worgen’s flesh and Talia’s dark spells burning into the beast and exacerbating his wounds, the worgen became even more furious and slashed harder and faster. Try as he might though, Lokosh’s shield won the battle of attrition in the end and the worgen succumbed to his wounds.
The structure rocked a little as the beast fell to the ground. The expansion was rotten and had become unstable. With urgency, the group hurried out of the building and back onto another section of the ramparts.
From there, the group had to deal with more ghost soldiers which were no problem for the group at this point as they advanced toward a tall tower. “We’re nearly there,” Thanatas declared. Arugal is at the top of this tower. His strongest breeds of worgen are here too so be prepared for the worst.”
With renewed determination, the group entered the tower and proceeded down a set of stairs into a large room that was teeming with worgen. More importantly, they encountered Sons of Arugal in this room as the worgen in question moved with the same speed as the one they encountered in the forest. Farra’jin used his earth totem to slow the movements of the Sons they encountered while Lokosh held the line against the vicious assaults from not only the worgen but also a few ghost wolves.
The Sons tried to place their painful curse on the party but with the experience they gained from dealing with the worgen, Groun had more freedom to cleanse the curses from his allies, leaving Talia and Farra’jin free to use their fire magic to burn the worgen while doing their best to avoid all the straw in the room.
They advanced, moving up a set of stairs, through an overlook, down some stairs to a raised section of the room while dealing with more worgen and ghost wolves, and finally up a walkway and out of the room, dealing with another Son at the exit.
After climbing another spiraling staircase, the group entered what appeared to be a small laboratory or library of some sort. A pair of braziers decorated the entrance with green flames while a large shackle and chain lay next to the biggest wolf they had ever seen.
“That’s Arugal’s favored pet, Fenrus the Devourer,” Thanatas informed.
The wolf heard the undead’s voice and turned to face the group, letting loose a thunderous roar that caused everyone to cover their ears. Lokosh recovered quickly enough to raise his shield as the huge wolf tried to clamp its fangs on the orc. Lokosh’s counterattack with his ax left a deep gash in the beast’s muzzle, causing him to leap backward and try his luck with the others who were entering the room. Before he could attack Groun, Lokosh charged forward at breakneck speed and bashed his shield on Fenrus’ face, causing him to let out a yelp. Fenrus glared at Lokosh with eyes full of hate.
With his full attention on Lokosh, the group used their usual strategy of Lokosh tanking the blows while Farra’jin and Talia incinerated the wolf. Despite his size, Fenrus was nothing more than a simple wolf and he fell like one. Fenrus let out one last cry before the light in his eyes faded.
Apparently everyone in the keep heard the beast’s death cry because a familiar voice above them spoke, “Who dares interfere with the Sons of Arugal?” He looked down at the group before weaving dark magic into the room, causing the shadows to coalesce into voidwalkers who proceeded to indiscriminately attack the group with their claws. Arugal assisted by hurling powerful bolts of shadow at the group.
Thankfully, the minions were not tough at all and Lokosh managed to deflect one of the mage’s bolts back at him which forced him to teleport away.
The group proceeded through the exit door and up another spiraling staircase which led to the second floor of the same room where Arugal was moments before. They proceeded around the edge of the room and into another exit door and another spiraling staircase, dealing with a couple of worgen along the way.
Finally, they reached the top of the staircase and entered another livery occupied by wolves and another red worgen.
“Wolf Master Nandos is in charge of the wolves of Arugal’s army,” Thanatas informed. “The mad wizard himself is just beyond the door behind him.”
At last the group had finally made it to the top of the tower. All that stood between them and Arugal was one last worgen and his pack of wolves. Given their experience, the group had no trouble dealing with the wolves but this also angered Nandos who charged after the group.
As they fought the worgen, his ability made itself known in the form of casting a spell on one of the dead wolves, causing it to rise up again and attack everyone. Groun caused roots to burst from the wooden floor and wrap around the wolf while the others focused on taking down the wolf master.
It wasn’t long before the beast fell and a key that was in his possession fell to the floor. Thanatas picked it up and unlocked the door the worgen was guarding. Once the door opened, the final chamber lay before them. Given the broken flooring above the stairs, it could be assumed that parts of the room collapsed a long time ago from age. The lower floor had a small lab table as well as one on the platform Arugal was standing on. Three Sons of Arugal guarded the lower floor with the mage daring the group to attack his precious children.
Talia fired dark magic at one of the Sons which caused all three to rush toward her. The group fell back to Nandos’ room where Lokosh managed to slam his shield into the lead worgen while Farra’jin used his earth totem to slow their movements while attacking with his fire totem and spells. With the attention off her, Talia unleashed fire and dark spells on the trio of beasts while Groun kept Lokosh healthy while cleansing the Sons’ curses from his teammates.
The fight took several minutes but the group finally managed to bring down the monsters, leaving Arugal alone.
The mage glared daggers at the group before shouting, “You shall serve in their place!”
Everyone entered the room just as Arugal closed and magically sealed the door behind them. Lokosh leaped over to Arugal’s platform to engage the mage in melee combat. Arugal managed to block each of the orc’s ax strikes with his staff while channeling powerful bolts of darkness at the orc which were agonizingly painful to the warrior. Groun’s herbal remedy spells managed to keep up with the mage’s dark magic.
Arugal teleported to a tiny platform on the other side of the room which was only large enough to hold one person which allowed him to continuously fire his bolts of dark magic at everyone while Groun was beginning to wear down.
The dark mage had enough of the druid’s healing antics and afflicted Groun with a minor version of the worgen curse which was only temporary. Groun screamed as he felt his body transforming against his will. His bovine features rapidly became canine and his hooves transformed into paws. His hands grew claws and his teeth became fangs. His consciousness soon faded and he found himself a prisoner in his own mind.
At that moment, a wave of sheer terror entered his mind. It wasn’t concern for his allies that he felt as he knew they were capable, but the fear felt baseless, as if he was terrified of something but he didn’t know what.
After what felt like ages, Groun’s consciousness returned and his body had returned to normal. He also realized that he was a distance away from his allies. Before Arugal could blast him while he was by himself, Groun caused thorns to sprout from the platform the mage was on, causing him to scream in pain and forced him to teleport to another platform.
Groun regrouped with the others after that. “What happened to me?” he asked.
“You turned into a bloodthirsty worgen so I had to keep you occupied with a fear spell,” Talia replied. “Let’s end this charlatan of a mage before he has a chance to try that again.”
To ensure that Arugal couldn’t teleport outside Lokosh’s attack range anymore, Groun caused thorns to sprout on all of the small broken platforms in the room, much to Arugal’s frustration.
Arugal tried to curse someone again but Lokosh was ready with a shield slam to his face before he rammed the mage with the shield and body slammed him into a wall. Arugal fell off the wall and kneeled onto the floor where he was soon burned and electrocuted by Talia and Farra’jin respectively. Arugal was too distracted by the pain to notice that Lokosh had his ax ready for the final blow which ended up separating his head from his body.
As the mage’s head rolled on the floor, the group breathed a collective sigh of relief, glad that this adventure was over. The spell that held the doors closed came undone with the mage’s death, allowing everyone to leave the now empty keep.
It was at this point that Thanatas took her leave of the group, but not without parting words. “Well done everyone, I shall take the head to Sylvanas to show the mage is no more,” Using her necromantic magic, she pulled the head into her hands. “We shall meet again soon. In the meantime, take my advice to heart and find some better armor and weapons. You will be facing much tougher foes than this guy soon and I would hate to see all of you fail your little mission before it really began.”
“Answer us this, why even bother to help us when we know you would find our headquarters eventually with or without using us?” Talia demanded.
A smile crept on Thanatas’ face which soon became full laughter. “It is true that we could eventually find it and of course Sphere already knows who you are. So here is where the deal comes in. We have our own mission objectives in this world and they are of the Alliance. We intend to see them protected until they fulfill their destinies. So our offer to you is this: assist us with our mission and we stay out of your way for yours. Sound fair?”
“You mean to ask us to assist your objectives with their adventures? What does this entail?” Talia asked.
“We won’t occupy all of your time with their adventures, just the ones that would ultimately require a small army to defeat. You might even find what you’re looking for in such places.” Thanatas slowly walked toward the exit. “I look forward to the next time we meet. Until then, keep working on getting stronger.”
Thanatas enclosed herself in a cage of bone and slipped into the floor, leaving the rest of the group unable to find words that could best describe their situation. As much as Talia’s pride told her to not take the death knight’s advice out of spite, common sense managed to score a victory in her mind which would have left a bitter taste in her mouth if she could taste. In the end, everyone sighed in resignation and agreed that the next few years on this planet were going to suck.