//------------------------------//
// The Molten Core, Part 2: Jailors of the Windseeker 
// Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth 
// by Xarmar13 
//------------------------------//

As the party exited from Magmadar’s cavern, Flutashe bid the juvenile core hounds who followed her farewell before they jumped into the magma lake below and swam away, instinctively remembering who belonged in which pack. She knew that they would likely be in trouble for attacking one of the flamewaker leaders and she didn’t want them to be in more trouble than they already were.

Everyone watched the strange yet somewhat adorable scene and said nothing until the hounds were gone. Bella was the one who spoke first, “Flutashe dear, they aren’t going to come back seeking revenge for us killing their patriarch, are they?”

“Hm? Oh, no they won’t. Magmadar isn’t even dead in the traditional sense,” the druid explained. “When an elemental dies outside of the Elemental Planes, they are sent back, as you know. Core hounds are also fire elementals so any that we kill simply get sent back home. The little darlings who left will probably become companions for the dark iron dwarves one day, after we take care of Ragnaros, of course.”

“How did you get them to obey you?” Stella asked.

“It’s just a skill I’ve had since as long as I can remember. All I have to do is give them a stern look and they seem to treat me like I’m a pack alpha. It only works on animals though, and apparently animal-like beings like core hounds. There seem to be exceptions though, like Magmadar.”

Stella’s eyes widened, “‘Apparently?’ You didn’t know if this skill worked on core hounds?”

Flutashe deadpanned, “I’ve spent my whole life in the forests of northern Kalimdor, I’ve never had the opportunity to test that skill out on anyone who wasn’t an animal of flesh and blood.” A thoughtful expression then appeared on her face, “It also has an effect on weak-minded sapient people but only enough to give them a brief pause.”

“Maybe we can test that out on an ogre one day,” Bella offered.

Once the party crossed the two bridges again they moved deeper into the volcanic cavern. On the way they had to face more molten giants as well as more firelords and lava rock elementals.

As they moved deeper they also noticed that some of the giants looked a little bigger than others. These larger giants were also a little tougher and disrupted their stances by stomping the ground and causing tremors. 

There were also more of the mature core hounds roaming the cavern but Flutashe managed to make them leave the area. She couldn’t force them to attack their fellow elementals because they were still loyal to Ragnaros and Flutashe had a feeling that her ability might weaken if she became too forceful with them.

The ceiling of the cavern lowered somewhat as they moved deeper. A number of stone pillars formed by long-hardened magma dotted the area. One lava surger decided to have some fun by repeatedly running around one pillar. It was unfortunate that the party had to ruin the elemental’s fun by smashing him but there was no room to go around him without drawing the attention of more firelords and lava annihilators.

It was in the middle of this section of the cavern, in an alcove to their right, that they located the guardian of the second rune. This was a reddish orange flamewaker accompanied by four bright orange flamewakers wielding tridents.



“One of those five is not like the other, and his name is Gehennas,” Thanatas said. “Just like Lucifron, this guy has his own curse to inflict. Also, he’s a huge fan of Talia’s Rain of Fire spell.”

Talia rolled her eyes, “Great, so we have to stay mobile to stay out of the flames. What about his escort?”

“Thankfully those four aren’t as magically inclined as Lucifron’s guards, but they know a trick to stun everyone around them by slamming their fist into the ground.”

Even when the flamewaker leader spotted the intruders running around and engaging the elementals around him, he didn’t move from his post as his duty was to guard the rune next to him. However, he was still able to cause them some issues by casting his Rain of Fire near their locations.

The shower of flaming rocks forced the party to dodge while some suffered a few burns which were easily healed. They didn’t dare attack Gehennas yet though as they needed to ensure that the nearby elementals didn’t notice the battle and come running, lowering their odds of success.

Gehennas noticed Flutashe convincing a nearby core hound to leave the area which confused him at first since the hounds were supposed to be loyal to his master. Whatever the druid was doing to those minions, the flamewaker considered her to be a huge security risk.

Once the area around Gehennas was sufficiently cleared, the party slowly advanced toward the flamewakers until Gehennas felt that he could safely attack them without moving too far from the rune he was guarding. He stayed close to the rune in case the enemy tried something sneaky to destroy it while his back was turned. He had four other guards with him but he couldn’t be sure they were up to the task.

“None shall touch this rune while I draw breath!” Gehennas shouted.

“Does that mean you wish to die of asphyxiation?” Thanatas shot back.

Since the death knight spoke first, he slithered toward her and tried to bash her with his staff which was blocked by her runeblade.

Meanwhile, Lokosh, Flutashe, Jaqueline and Bella each grabbed the attention of a flamewaker guard. Groun kept his distance from the ones holding the flamewakers’ attention to use his nature magic to heal anyone who suffered lucky blows. Stella, Surprise, Farra’jin and Talia focused their spells to take down Bella’s flamewaker.

Things turned dicey when all four flamewaker guards set their left hands ablaze and punched the ground, sending their targets flying into the wall. With their defenses lowered, the guards tried to move in for the kill but Groun was ready for that as he wrapped their serpentine bodies in roots. They struggled with the plants long enough for the four to recover and resume their fights.

Gehennas noticed that his guards were slowly losing their fights so he lent them some aid by summoning showers of fire over the spellcasters which forced them to abandon their attacks to avoid being burned alive. Groun was becoming overwhelmed by the number of people he had to heal by himself.

Since Gehennas decided to play dirty, Sophia made things easier for the party by jumping onto the shoulders of Bella’s flamewaker and grabbing him by the horns on his head. The flamewaker tried to grab the templar to throw her off but Sophia jumped off while holding onto his horns. Her unnaturally heavy weight proved too much for the flamewaker’s neck, ending his life with a loud snap.

“Thank you for the assistance, Sophia,” Bella thanked as she moved to Groun to assist him with healing.

Gehennas tried raining more fire on the spellcasters and the healers but Sophia was having none of that this time and protected them with a psionic dome shield. The others didn’t question the ability in the middle of a battle so they focused on taking down Jaqueline’s flamewaker. While the guards tried to stun their targets again, Groun and Bella’s support ensured that nothing would come of that again.

It wasn’t long before Jaqueline’s flamewaker fell to his wounds followed by Flutashe’s then Lokosh’s targets. Gehennas was alone.

The flamewaker leader wasn’t going down easily and while Thanatas continued toying with him, which he noticed and became furious over, the others soon came to assist in taking him down.

Gehennas started using his anti-healing curse and his Rain of Fire all over the area but Sophia’s shield held strong and rendered the curse pointless since he couldn’t burn anyone.

Out of moves, the battle with the flamewaker leader soon wound down with Gehennas rendered helpless to the party’s onslaught. It wasn’t long before he collapsed and joined Lucifron in the Firelands.

The party took a few minutes to regain their stamina after the fight. “Great teamwork everyone!” Bella cheered. The others nodded with Mena showing the most enthusiasm.

“One thing ah gotta know is how yer so strong, Sophia?” Jaqueline asked. “Ah saw how hard you kicked that giant back at the entrance an’ now ya twist that one giant flamewaker’s neck like it was nothin’. That strength of yours ain’t human!”

That was when the party’s attention turned to Sophia. She saw the patient looks on the Alliance group’s faces as they awaited her explanation for how she was so strong while the Horde group secretly smirked as they wanted to watch her squirm.

Explaining that was going to require some convincing half truths which she felt wouldn’t be convincing enough with Jaqueline in earshot. Instead, she removed her mask to show her leporine face to everyone for the first time. The Horde group showed no surprise since Talia knew what she looked like from the first time she encountered her as Crystal Silicon. The Alliance group had mixed reactions: gasps of surprise from Bella, Stella and Mena, and a raised eyebrow from Jaqueline. Flutashe stared at her with wide eyes in wonder that Sophia could almost swear were twinkling, as if she saw the most majestic creature ever. Sophia became a little uncomfortable around the night elf druid.

Suppressing her discomfort, Sophia looked at the group again. “I can’t show you the source of my strength but I can at least show you my face and let you see why I would conceal it in the first place.”

The Alliance group nodded in understanding and let the matter of her strength slide for the time being.

“Be ready everyone,” Thanatas warned. “We will be up against Ragnaros’ top lieutenants next. First will be Garr, a lava rock elemental the size of a molten giant.”

As they explored the caverns they saw a tunnel opening with a lava surger patrolling into and out of it. The party was tempted to explore it but Thanatas stopped them from doing so. “We will be back here later. Until then, there’s no good reason to explore it.”

With that, the party moved deeper into the caverns until they emerged from the forest of magma pillars and into a massive room. A pair of core hounds were wandering around while two groups composed of firelords, lava annihilators and molten giants were seen.

They also spotted a large number of lava rock elementals. They were wandering around a small area of the room as if they were guarding something. The group was composed of many smaller rock elementals and one massive elemental that was as large as a molten giant. If Thanatas’ brief description was accurate then the huge elemental was likely Garr. They also figured that if that was the elemental in question then his patrol patterns would make sense if he were wandering around one of the runes.



The party stayed away from Garr while they dealt with the other elementals in the area. As it turned out, the molten giants in the chamber were of the tougher variety and often caused tremors with their stomps, disrupting their attacks and briefly leaving them open to attacks from the firelords and lava annihilators. Sophia and Thanatas made sure the fights didn’t get out of hand.

While they were defeating the elementals, Thanatas gave them a rundown of what to expect with Garr, warning them of his aura which makes people move slow as well as his ability to dispel enchantments on everyone around him periodically, meaning that they would have to face the full brunt of the oppressive heat of the Core. The smaller elementals liked setting people on fire and had extremely volatile forms, meaning that when their forms destabilized, the aftermath was a powerful explosion that would send everyone flying. She also warned them of any small elementals that Garr would create during the fight which would behave like suicide bombers by running up to someone and exploding.

Apparently, Garr didn’t like the death knight giving away information about him as he ordered his minions to attack the party as they were finishing off the last of the elementals in the chamber. He sent several after Flutashe when he saw her ability to command the core hounds, deeming her a threat. While his minions moved in, he remained where he was and pounded the ground, causing pieces of the floor to fly upward. He then bound the rocks into more rock elementals which he sent after the party.

The sudden aggression from Garr was a surprise to the party as they barely put up their defenses when they made contact with the elemental minions. Farra’jin focused his water totem on providing resistance to the heat and flames in anticipation for Garr’s spell-breaking ability since it didn’t work on enhancements being passively generated by totems.

As the fights began some of the elementals began glowing brighter. The melee fighters moved away while Groun held their bodies in place with roots. However, the fighters underestimated the explosion radius and were sent flying anyway. Lokosh and Bella flew into a distant cavern wall while Flutashe slammed into a pillar. 

Jaqueline flew between the pillars and landed hard on the floor and rolled a distance more until her momentum was halted by Gehennas’ corpse. She managed to get up and checked herself for injuries. Finding that only her pride was damaged, she grit her teeth and made the trek back into the fight, “Dagnabbit,” she muttered.

Garr stayed near the rune and continued producing more volatile elementals to send at the intruders. Even when the party tried fighting around the minions to get to the elemental leader, they found that his slowing aura was making any attempts to attack him a futile effort. The moment an elemental reached one of them they blew themselves up and sent them flying away.

It was clear that Garr was not playing fair and was content to let his endless minions do all the fighting for him. His aura made sure that any counterattack was thwarted before they could get into range to get a hit in.

Thanatas had enough of Garr’s cheap tactic and summoned an army of chemically volatile ghouls who leapt onto the elementals and blew themselves up before they reached the party, destroying both.

However, both kept summoning their own minions and both armies kept blowing themselves up on each other. It became clear that the fight would become a stalemate since the party still couldn’t get to Garr without getting caught in the explosions.

Noticing this, Sophia decided to break the stalemate with brute force. Rushing into the line of exploding ghouls and elementals, she grabbed one of the elementals by its chest fragment and hurled it at Garr. The elemental lieutenant was taken off guard by this as his own minion blew up against his body, sending him backward a little.

The minions saw this and began moving to attack the templar. The ghouls stopped attacking as they witnessed the rabbit girl hurling the elementals at their master like a bunch of grenades while staying out of Garr’s slowing aura. The explosions started to blast fragments from Garr’s body. As he noticed this he abandoned his strategy but still endured the explosions from the remaining minions.

The fight played out like normal from that point as Garr stopped creating elementals in favor of personally attacking the party. Lokosh mocked Garr for his failure of a strategy in order to get his attention and he fell for the taunt. The orc dodged Garr’s attacks while everyone else chipped away at his body using their blades or Flutashe’s fangs and claws in her cat form. Surprise unleashed waves of sharpened shadowy energy which sliced chunks off his body while bolts of lightning from Farra’jin blasted his body little by little.

Garr’s body finally destabilized and shattered, leaving a pile of rubble behind while his spirit returned to the Firelands to reform.

While everyone was taking a break from the latest fight and Stella worked on reapplying the fire resistance enchants, Jaqueline chose to comment on Sophia’s strength again, “Remind me never to challenge you to a hay bale tossin’ contest. That strength of yours is on a whole ‘nother level.”

“Noted,” Sophia remarked while she was taking a swig of Stella’s conjured water.

“So that was Garr, is the other elemental lieutenant nearby?” Stella asked.

Thanatas nodded, “Baron Geddon should be on the other end of the next tunnel. Unlike Garr who had a more defensive mindset, Geddon is the more aggressive of the two. He will set fire to everything around him. His most dangerous spell though is one where he attaches a bomb to you that you can’t remove. The resulting explosion will send you nearly as high as the ceiling of this chamber. You will need to keep a close watch on anyone rigged to blow.”

With the warning given and everyone ready to go again, the party moved into the tunnel deeper into the molten cavern. Only a core hound and a lava surger were guarding it. Once they were dealt with, they spotted another chamber, one that was filled with many fire and volcanic rock elementals. However, most of them were smaller than the firelords and the lava annihilators and surgers, but when it came to this place, they knew better than to underestimate anything.

As they carefully observed the chamber from around a corner in the tunnel, they spotted a massive fire elemental about the size of Garr running around like he was in a hurry to be somewhere but wasn’t sure where he was going. It wasn’t hard to figure that the large elemental was Baron Geddon. It would take some careful luring and good timing to lure the small packs of elementals to them without alerting Geddon to their presence before they could engage him. 



However, further complicating matters was a blue flamewaker wandering around the back of the chamber. They had a feeling that he was another of the flamewaker leaders. Taking on Geddon in that chamber became too risky as they risked drawing the attention of the flamewaker.

With that complication, the only viable option they could consider would be to lure Geddon into Garr’s chamber and take him out there. Everyone agreed to this plan so they waited for the baron to hover away.

Once Geddon temporarily went deeper into the cavern, Lokosh grabbed a throwing ax and hurled it at one of the small elementals in the area, drawing their attention when it landed on the head of a rock elemental.

The elemental bombarded the tunnel exit with fireballs, all of which hit only the wall. The pack of elementals gave pursuit to whoever attacked them. Thanatas quickly froze a fire elemental that she considered the most dangerous of them. Talia ended up casting a spell on the other elemental, immobilizing it and causing its form to darken into a silhouette.

Thanatas called out for Lokosh and Flutashe to make sure the rock elementals were not facing anybody but them. As they did, the warrior raised his shield to block a bombardment of fireballs that overwhelmed his endurance and caused him to lower his shield for the last fireball to hit his face, stunning him briefly.

The rest of the party focused on the one who stunned Lokosh, their spells overpowering the elemental who was tougher than they looked but he eventually crumbled. They did the same to Flutashe’s rock elemental.

It wasn’t long before Talia’s spell on her victim faded and the fire elemental regained his color and was able to move again. He raised his arms and prepared to unleash a torrent of flame but Sophia was ready for it as she destroyed the bracers on the elemental, banishing him.

The final elemental finally broke free of his icy prison and afflicted the party with a magical affliction that made things feel hotter all of a sudden. They quickly realized that their resistance to the heat was reduced by the affliction, causing everyone to sweat from the intense heat. However, Thanatas ran her sword through the back of the elemental. Her icy spells quickly chilled him until he couldn’t sustain his form.

Mena dispelled the affliction from everyone at once, bringing relief to the party. While they were catching their breath, Talia demanded to know what those elementals were and why they seemed tougher than what they had faced so far.

“The back of the Molten Core is teeming with these ‘lava packs,’” Thanatas explained. “You found that they were tougher than what was previously faced and you would be correct. The most dangerous point about these packs is the fact that they can work together. Lava packs are composed of two types of fire elementals: flameguards and firewalkers, while having either two lava elementals or a single lava reaver.

“Lava elementals deliver powerful fireballs that can stun and burn. Lava reavers typically swing wide with their attacks, trying to hit anyone nearby. Flameguards can heat up your armor and weaken its defensive properties while blasting you with a torrent of flame. Firewalkers can weaken your resistance to this heat and throw powerful fireballs to capitalize on that weakness.”

Stella groaned, “Just when we thought we had the minions figured out, stronger ones show up!”

“You will be happy to know that these guys are the worst this place has to offer in terms of minions.”

After that lecture and a small break, they continued drawing in more lava packs while avoiding Geddon’s notice. The packs with the reavers were easier to deal with compared to the ones with lava elementals since the main damage dealers were spellcasters. Soon they managed to adapt to the strategies of the lava packs and were taking them out more efficiently.

Eventually, they managed to clear out enough packs so they could avoid any unwanted reinforcements for the baron. Once they were ready to deploy their strategy against Baron Geddon, Sophia volunteered to get the baron’s attention while everyone else returned to Garr’s chamber to await the battle.

The party eagerly awaited the coming battle. Several minutes had passed since they began their wait. Nothing but the sounds of small magma eruptions and the magma flow could be heard in that time.

They soon heard the sound of a crash followed by Sophia appearing before them, her back turned to them and her front facing the tunnel entrance. “Here he comes…”

Twenty seconds passed since that warning before the colossal fire elemental emerged from the tunnel. Right as he emerged, he sent three spheres that flew onto Talia, Bella and Groun.

A swirling fiery aura was their only clue that they had been given one of Geddon’s bombs. As such, the three quickly ran away from the others so they wouldn’t get caught up in the blast. When the explosion went off and the trio was sent flying high into the air, Mena and Stella quickly reacted by using Leap of Faith to pull Groun safely to Mena while Stella put a Slow Fall spell on Talia to slow her descent. Bella wrapped herself in an impenetrable bubble of light. Upon landing, the shield proved to have an elastic quality which padded the paladin’s fall and negated any damage she would have suffered from the impact. Mena made sure to heal Talia’s wounds and Groun healed himself.

While this was happening, Lokosh, Flutashe and Jaqueline ran in to attack Geddon. However, the elemental began radiating pulses of fire all around him. The melee fighters had to run away while the flames began to sear their bodies. Farra’jin healed their burns with his water magic as they escaped the flame waves. Once Geddon was done radiating, a large area around him continued burning. This forced Lokosh to move in to attack Geddon once more except in a different part of the chamber.

At one point, Geddon placed a magical affliction that burned away the spellcasters’ magical reserves. However, Mena was ready to deal with that as the casters moved in around her before she performed a mass dispel of the affliction, frustrating Geddon.

Since his normal tactics weren’t working, he decided to try placing bombs on everyone but Sophia caught the majority of the bombs in midair but Flutashe, Stella and Farra’jin still caught the bombs. The templar thickened her chitinous armor for the coming blast.

When the blasts went off, the explosions shattered Sophia’s armor but she only suffered minor burns which were quickly taken care of by her natural healing factor. She was sent flying into the ceiling and left an indent there. Once she freed herself though, she hovered in midair by her psionic powers before she unleashed a blast of psionic power at Geddon which did considerable damage to the elemental. Sophia held back though as that was simply meant to be a little payback for the bombs and she wanted the party to deal with him.

As for the others, Flutashe was pulled back to her by Mena while Farra’jin called on air spirits to slow his fall. Stella shifted into her draconic form and spread her wings to descend toward Geddon before she unleashed a chilling beam of magic from her mouth that struck him while he was still recovering from Sophia’s attack.

Finding that his enemies were attacking him from the air, he tried throwing more bombs at them only to be blocked by pillars of ice. The bombs harmlessly exploded against the pillars and shattered them. Geddon looked down at the death knight who stopped his attack and was taken by surprise as a sphere of ice flew toward him. He tried to slap it away which caused it to detonate and freeze a portion of the chamber.

Being in a volcano, the ice was not doing any favors for the integrity of the cavern as hot and cold acted against the rocks and caused cracks to form around the chamber. This ended in part of the chamber collapsing on Geddon.

Despite the huge cave in on the elemental, Baron Geddon emerged explosively with a roar. Despite this show of ferocity though, his form was destabilizing and it would only be a matter of time before he would return to the Firelands in failure.

However, he had one last trick up his sleeve. If the mortals were going to defeat him, he would take the mortals down with him. This would be his final act of service to Ragnaros before he left the mortal plane.

He began to curl up into a ball and remained immobile. He then intensified the power he radiated to an unsustainable level in preparation for self-destruction.

Thanatas knew about this final ability and quickly yelled for everyone to hit the elemental with everything they had. The melee fighters couldn’t get near Geddon on account that his body’s heat was beginning to overwhelm Stella’s enchantments. Sophia had a high heat tolerance so she was able to slash away at Geddon’s body. Everyone else blasted the sphere from a distance.

Weakened as he was, Geddon was not dissipating easily as he endured blow after blow so he could get his final spell off.

Thanatas and Stella combined their ice magics into a sphere as large as Geddon in hopes of stopping the blast in time. When the sphere reached Geddon, he unleashed his blast which impacted on the overcharged ice bomb. The two blasts began to cancel each other out to everyone's surprise. As Geddon expelled his energy, the ice sphere did the same.

In the end, the two energy sources ran out at the same time and all that remained of the blast area were a pair of massive bracers.

The party collapsed from the intense battle and caught their breaths. They were glad the chamber held despite the blasts of heat and cold. They knew that Ragnaros’ forces were strong, and they had to be amazed that they were hanging in there.

By this point, the party had taken out five of the ten major threats in the Molten Core. They still had to deal with three flamewaker leaders and the leader of the molten golems before challenging the Firelord himself.

Once they had rested and recovered from their battle, the party moved back into the tunnel to move forward.







Meanwhile, at the Rune of Mohn that Gehennas was no longer guarding, Zoias appeared from a pillar of earth next to the rune. She poured a vial of the liquid the water elementals gave her on the rune which quickly quenched the flames and deactivated the rune, just like what happened to the Rune of Kress that Magmadar was guarding.

Noticing the chamber ahead was now vacant, she walked into the chamber and giggled at the damage that her sister, cousin and their friends did to the place.

She then walked to the center of the chamber where she found the Rune of Blaz that was once guarded by Garr and put it out.

A moment of curiosity took her as she inspected the remains of Garr and Geddon. After a thorough search of the chamber, she found what she was looking for; two halves of a talisman that showed the face of an angry air elemental. According to her sister, the talisman halves were the prison of a powerful air elemental named Thunderaan the Windseeker. She placed the two halves in her pockets.

As she was about to make her way to Geddon’s rune, she found the gnome of the group, Mena, staring at her. While she wanted to keep her identity a secret a little longer, this would throw that plan out the window.

What was even stranger was what the gnome said and did next. “You’re Zoias, right? I was told to give something to someone named Auntie Zoias.” Out of her hair fell ten metallic bars that appeared to glow as if enchanted. Zoias had no idea what to expect from that or what she would do with ten bars of the strange metal. “She said that you could claim a bit of the Firelord’s essence before he gets banished back to the Firelands, but only enough to use in crafting a weapon. She also said to seek out a deceitful cultist in the Silithus Desert where you can make him summon the thing imprisoned within the talisman and steal his blade.” With that, Mena left for the tunnel.

It wasn’t hard for Zoias to figure out that Violetta was behind that encounter, which was crazy given what she knew about her. But at the same time, having a blade with the essence of a powerful air elemental might not be a bad idea.

How the gnome had ten bars of enchanted elementium in her hair she would never know.

Once she stored the metal bars in an earthen pocket, the elementalist used her earthen teleport to move deeper into the cavern where she appeared on a narrow bridge. At either end were packs of elementals of various types and off to the side of the bridge was a particularly large molten giant who wasn’t paying any attention to her.

While nobody was looking, she took out another vial and stared at the Rune of Zeth, which Baron Geddon was guarding before, for a moment before she doused the rune with the contents.

The hissing sound of a doused rune was likely to get someone’s attention so she quickly used her earthen teleport to escape the area.