//------------------------------// // Rise of the Blood Loa, Part 1 // Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// With Eranikus saved from the clutches of the Nightmare and the green shard of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands secured, the group proceeded to Tanaris to give Anachronos the shard. Traveling by their previous route, they soon arrived at the Caverns of Time where they presented the shard to the elder dragon. “I am glad to know that Eranikus has also survived his tragedy. With all shards united once more, I will be able to reform the Scepter,” Anachronos said. “A thousand years have passed and just as it was fated, those who shall lead their people to a new age now stand before me. The Old God trembles, young ones, it fears your coming. It fears the coming of the Huntress of the Void, the fiend who is using your gnome friend as a vessel. “When the time comes and your people are ready, come to me once more and I shall grant you the Scepter of the Shifting Sands.” Using his magic, Anachronos aligned the shards together and with one sandy blast of his breath, undid the damage that Fandral Staghelm inflicted upon it, rendering the Scepter whole once more. “For now, return to your people and aid them in their preparations, we shall speak again soon.” With that, Stella opened a portal to Stormwind. Once everyone was through, the portal closed and the group proceeded to the inn in the Trade District where they rented a few rooms for the night. That night, Flutashe quickly rose from her bed gasping loudly, a cold sweat trickling down her body. She panted for a minute before Stella, who was sharing the room with her, rose from her slumber. “Bad dream?” the mage asked. The druid remained quiet for a few moments while she regained her wits. “I…I don’t know. I saw faces I’ve never seen before. They were animal-like and they were all crying out in agony. A bat, a snake, a spider, a tiger and a panther. It almost felt like they were calling out to me.” “How unusual,” Stella mused. “Maybe there might be something to your dream. Would you mind if I peered into your dream? If these animals are calling out to you, maybe I can use the Emerald Dream to locate them.” “It’s worth a shot.” Flutashe then lied back down in her bed. Sleep came with difficulty after she was woken so abruptly so Stella had to assist her with a sleep spell. Flutashe had the same dream again. The five animals were screaming in pain. In an effort to gain more information, the druid tuned out the cries and looked around the dreamscape. She noticed a lush jungle filled with exotic plants, the stone ruins that appeared of troll design and in the distance, she noticed a pyramid with a massive scarlet serpent with wings and scythes for arms. Before she could learn anything else, the vision blurred and faded to black. Flutashe woke up again to find Stella sitting at the foot of the bed with a tranced look on her face. This trance broke a second later as she shook her head. “Do you know where it’s coming from?” Flutashe asked. Stella nodded, “I was able to glance through the Dream to find the source. There appears to be a jungle south of Duskwood.” “You mean Stranglethorn? That place is crawling with trolls.” “Yes, I also noticed that creature on the pyramid. I could feel his power and it was terrifying.” “There’s only one place that could have a pyramid in Stranglethorn, the Gurubashi capital city of Zul’Gurub. Explorers mapped out the whole jungle except for that place.” “From the malice I could sense from it, I don’t think we can afford to let the matter be. With the Alliance and Horde preparing for the war in Silithus, they can ill afford this complication. For now though, get some rest, Flutashe. If we’re invading a troll capital city, we’re going to need all the rest we can get.” Flutashe nodded and returned to sleep. Thankfully, the dream didn’t haunt her again that night. The next morning, Stella and Flutashe explained the dream to the others. They also made sure they understood the danger such a creature could have on the world, especially with the ongoing efforts to prepare for the war in Silithus distracting the Alliance and the Horde. “So you’re sayin’ that we gotta take this critter out before he becomes a problem?” Jaqueline asked. Flutashe nodded, “We believe he is somewhere in the Gurubashi capital city of Zul’Gurub in Stranglethorn.” Mena put on a plinth helmet that nobody knew where she got it from. “It’s off to the jungle!” she declared. Once they were stocked up on supplies, Stella opened a portal to Lakeshire since that was the closest anchor Stella had available for their trip south. They followed the road south across the Everstill Bridge and traveled south at the fork toward Duskwood. As they entered the evil-infested woods, Bella and Mena used their light magic to not only help them see the roads but to give them a bit of warding from the dark forces that creeped around in the woods. They passed through the wary town of Darkshire full of citizens brave enough to live there while on the lookout for feral worgen and other things that went bump in the night. Stella set up an anchor there in case she needed to come to this town in the future. The group continued to follow the road past undead haunts and worgen dens. Some tried to attack them but were quickly crushed by the party. Once they reached a fork in the road that led south, they took it and followed a mountain pass until the landscape became brighter and the humidity began to spike, informing them that they were entering the Stranglethorn Jungle. It was difficult to tell which was worse, the volcanic environment of Blackrock Mountain or the sweltering jungle of Stranglethorn. This didn’t matter to the party as they proceeded with their mission. It was known that Zul’Gurub was off the main road to the east so they had to proceed through the unpaved jungle to reach their destination. On the way they encountered numerous tigers and panthers, but Flutashe’s skills with animals prevented any unnecessary combat. They soon reached a narrow mountain pass with a large troll-made structure built around it. The structure was defended by a few guards and also served as the only entrance to Zul’Gurub making entry difficult. As the group moved closer to the guards, they began pointing their swords at them while taking up combat stances. “Ya best be movin’ along strangers, if ya know what’s good for ya,” one guard warned. “Is this the entrance to Zul’Gurub?” Bella asked, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. “Ya mon, now begone with ya! I not be tellin’ ya again.” If the two guards had taken into account how many intruders there were, they might have suspected something but they failed to do that and were completely unaware when Sophia ran her blades through the backs of the two. “Alright, let’s get in there and try to find those animals who are in pain,” Flutashe said. “And take out that creature who lurks inside,” Stella added. As they moved toward the entrance of the Gurubashi capital city, Thanatas gave Sophia a brief rundown about what they were facing. “That creature is known as Hakkar the Soulflayer, an evil loa who unleashes disaster wherever he goes. “Millennia ago, some foolish Zandalari trolls attempted to summon Hakkar but the summoning was interrupted, unleashing a deadly blood plague that killed thousands of trolls before it was contained. He’s known as the Loa of Blood. “Nearly two thousand years ago, the Gurubashi worshipped him until they found out his true nature and turned against him and those loyal to him, likely with the aid of the Zandalari. The Atal’ai are a sect of Gurubashi trolls who were devout worshippers of the Blood Loa and sought to summon him to the mortal plane.” “Does this mean that our involvement in the Temple of Atal’Hakkar is related to what’s happening now?” Sophia asked. “Afraid so, chances are someone claimed the essence of Hakkar after you killed his avatar and brought it to Zul’Gurub where they could summon him at his full power.” “So this means that we’re cleaning up our own mess…” Sophia groaned mentally. Once the group entered the valley that Zul’Gurub was built into, they proceeded down some stone steps and began fighting a few of the defenders. There were few defenders to contend with but they knew that there would be a lot more where that came from deeper inside. They crossed a rope bridge where they faced a few more defenders before they found their path forking. One led up a hill while the other led across another rope bridge. Looking around, the group quickly spotted a pyramid in the center of the city as well as a massive red serpent-like creature sitting atop it. It appeared to be the edifice and creature from Flutashe’s dreams. Flutashe gasped as she heard a shrieking scream coming from up the hill. She turned to look in that direction while the others, who didn’t hear the scream like she did, were debating which way they should go. “I heard a scream coming from up the hill!” Flutashe said. “Are ya sure? Ah didn’t hear anything.” Jaqueline responded. The others voiced their agreement to the warrior. “Maybe it’s a druid thing,” Sophia guessed. “Or maybe it’s another gift unique to Flutashe. Either way, we should investigate.” Flutashe was relieved that the templar supported her and was glad that the others decided to go along with her decision when they unanimously decided to investigate the hill. As they climbed the hill, they were ambushed by a dire troll. Flutashe was able to match the bulky troll’s strength with her own in her bear form which left him distracted long enough for the others to attack him from behind. Atop the hill they discovered a number of Gurubashi witch doctors and a swarm of large bats with some being ridden by trolls carrying highly flammable liquid. It was while they were fighting the witch doctors, bats and bat riders that something strange happened. While Bella, Stella, Mena and Jaqueline were fighting the witch doctors, Flutashe unleashed a powerful roar that stopped all bats in their tracks. The bats landed on the ground and spread their wings in what appeared to be a bowing gesture which also knocked the bat riders off their mounts. The druid was taken aback by this gesture since this had never happened before. Out of curiosity, she approached one of the bats. “Tell me, you were serving the trolls until you bowed to me, why this change in behavior?” One of the bats let out a series of squeaks and shrieks which Flutashe nodded to. “Oh, oh dear. That’s no good. Don’t worry, we will free him from that monster.” As the others finished off the trolls in the area, the bats flew off. With renewed determination, Flutashe approached the group. “It seems that the cries of pain were coming from several of the loa in the area being tortured by that monster on the pyramid. It’s doing so through the high priests in the city.” “Loa?” Bella asked. “What are those?” “They’re ancient wild gods who receive their power from the devotion of their followers, mostly trolls since the religion is primarily practiced among their culture,” Flutashe explained. “So we’re up against a god this time?” Stella concluded. Flutashe nodded in affirmation. “Let’s get going, the first priest is nearby.” Once the area was cleared, they looked around to find it was a dead end room with a bunch of bamboo in the center. Mena quickly spotted a figure standing atop a wall overlooking the area. The figure was a female wearing black robes and carrying a feathered staff that emitted a black aura. Her hair was gray and her shoulders had a darker, scalier appearance compared to her paler gray skin. “Fun fact about Zandalari trolls, those dark and scaly parts of their skin set them apart from other troll tribes. Plus the males stand upright compared to other tribes.” Thanatas lectured to Sophia. “Only you would lecture about biology at a time like this,” Sophia shot back. “Anyway, that’s High Priestess Jeklik. She is a Zandalari loa priestess who is a devout follower of the bat loa Hir’eek. Expect her to do bat-related things.” Jeklik soon spotted the intruders and called out to her loa. “Lord Hir’eek, grant me wings of vengeance!” She then transformed into a humanoid bat garbed in a black mantle and bracers that somehow didn’t cut part of her wings off and glided down to the floor to engage the group. Flutashe quickly gained Jeklik’s attention, though as she did so her mind was invaded by a strange squeaky yet masculine voice. “Please, sever my bond with this priestess. Hakkar’s control over her is too strong. He drains my strength through her. Make it stop!” Flutashe gasped as she heard this. “She’s being mind controlled by that creature on the pyramid!” She dodged several swipes from the claws on Jeklik’s feet. “Do we have any way to break his control without killing her?” “Violetta says that she needs to consume at least one Old God before she can break the control of a divinity,” Mena said. “Ya got any mind tricks that might help, Sophia?” Jaqueline asked. Sophia shrugged, “Sure, I’m always up for a little psychological warfare.” Her eyes glowed blue as she focused her mind on Jeklik’s mind. The priestess unleashed a shrieking sound that gave Flutashe and Jaqueline a brief case of tinnitus. Before she could attack again, Jeklik suddenly flapped her wings and backed away from everyone. She then began clutching at her head in pain. The pain soon caused the priestess to lose her concentration and she reverted back to her original form. Jeklik rolled on the ground shouting about the pain for several minutes before she stopped and began breathing heavily. She then suddenly realized that she was in control of her body once more. “It can’t be…I am…free from his control? Impossible…” Flutashe reverted to her night elf form and walked over to the priestess. She held out a hand to help her. “Are you okay?” Jeklik looked up at the night elf. She hesitated for a moment before grabbing her hand, allowing the druid to help her to her feet. “You all saved me…I thank ya, mon. My loa is elated that I was freed as well.” Flutashe giggled, “Yeah, I can hear his elation.” Jeklik looked at Flutashe in confusion. “Ya can hear my loa?” Flutashe nodded. The priestess turned around and began behaving strangely, as if she were having a conversation with the air but no words were spoken. After a few minutes of this, Jeklik turned to the druid. “It seems Lord Hir’eek has taken an interest in ya and would like to bestow his blessing upon ya. He says that it is important that you receive his blessing as well as de blessings of de other loa who are being drained by Hakkar.” “Important? How come?” Flutashe asked. Jeklik twirled her wrist in a nonchalant manner, “Someting about destiny or whateva. He won’ tell me anymore than dat.” For some reason, Flutashe recalled the memory of when Aessina sent her on her quest. She was only able to guess what the true intent of the quest was. At first she thought it was about making friends, then she guessed that it had to do with the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. It seemed far fetched, but could the true intent of the quest have to do with meeting other wild gods and receiving their blessings? If so, then why her of all people? All she knew was that she was a freshly trained druid with an unusual gift of talking with animals and, for whatever reason, exerting her dominance as if she were some sort of alpha beast. Suddenly she felt like she knew herself less than ever. Times like this made her wish her sister was here to offer her advice. She may be the same age as her but she often behaved like she was the older sister. Flutashe was snapped out of her thoughts when Jeklik started channeling something in Zandali, the official language of the trolls. A dark energy started forming around the top of her staff and the next moment the energy flew into the druid. For a moment, Flutashe became nervous as her eyesight started to fail her but it quickly returned which made her breathe a sigh of relief. “What was that?” “Dat be de blessing of Hir’eek. He may be a blind old bat but he be a kind one. Ya felt a temporary blindness, dat’s normal when one receives his blessing. Now off wit ya, de other priests and priestesses be needin’ your help.” With that, Jeklik turned into a bat again and flew over the wall and away from the city. Once Jeklik was no longer in sight, the group returned down the hill and crossed a second rope bridge, dealing with more of Hakkar’s loyalists and brainwashed Gurubashi along the way. Not long after they crossed the bridge did they find an entrance to another altar. The inside was mostly occupied by cobras and a few priests of Hakkar. Atop the stairs were a few more cobras and a priest wearing green robes. Flutashe heard another loa’s cry for help coming from the priest. The druid pointed at the priest atop the stairs. “He’s the next one we have to free.” “That’s High Priest Venoxis, another Zandalari loa priest who is the champion of the lesser loa Hethiss, a snake loa,” Thanatas said. The moment Flutashe entered the room, the snakes slithered to the edges of the room which confused the Hakkari loyalists long enough for Jaqueline to charge in and quickly eliminate one of them. Bella and Stella rushed in and dealt with the remaining enemies at the bottom of the stairs. Venoxis noticed the commotion and ran in to attack. Sophia began to use her psionic powers to attack the link between Hakkar and Venoxis’ mind. She soon noticed that this one proved more difficult which led her to conclude that Hakkar was concentrating his control across the other priests and with each priest severed, Hakkar’s control over the others would become stronger. As Flutashe clawed away at the priest while holding back her bear form’s strength, Venoxis transformed into a humanoid serpent with green and brown scales, a tan underbelly and arms. He was wearing dark gold bracers and a mantle. As he unleashed his poisonous abilities which Flutashe was able to resist, Venoxis began to struggle within his mind, as if assuming a form like his loa had made him more susceptible to Flutashe’s dominance and Sophia’s psionic tampering. Within a minute the struggle ended and Venoxis broke free from Hakkar’s control. Flutashe waited for a moment in case the priest was still being controlled. Once she knew that the battle was over, she shifted back to her night elf form. Venoxis stared at the druid for a moment before he spoke, “Ya carry de blessing of Hir’eek wit ya, mon. How can that be?” “I’m not sure myself, Hir’eek said something about destiny.” Venoxis then went through the same strange gestures that they saw Jeklik go through. He seemed to be conversing with his loa. He soon turned his attention to the druid. “Ya’ve been blessed by numerous lesser forest spirits and Hir’eek. It be unprecedented for loa to bless those who don’t follow them. It seems deres someting special about ya, someting dat de loa have a great interest in. My loa, Hethiss, wishes to give his blessing to ya as well.” The priest chanted in Zandali and Flutashe briefly felt her skin becoming scaly and her upper canine teeth becoming sharper and longer until she had to be careful to keep her tongue away lest she pierce it. As quickly as the transformation came, it went away. “Wit de blessing of Hethiss, ya can now shapeshift into a serpentine form at will.” With his business taken care of, Venoxis fled for the entrance to the city, poisoning every troll defender to death whenever any got in his way. The party left the altar and continued through a corridor, dealing with more Hakkari priests and controlled defenders. Flutashe exerted her dominance over some serpents who considered getting in their way but moved aside instead. One serpent pointed the group to a passage that went uphill and then branched to the left. Following that, the group found themselves in what appeared to be a settlement in the city. Dealing with the Hakkari loyalists was more time consuming than difficult. Flutashe tested out her new serpent form where she found herself shapeshifting into a feminine version of what Venoxis turned into except her scales were black as night with a gray underbelly. Light gray scales formed crescent moon markings along the sides of her tail. Flutashe proceeded to spit globs of venom at each of the oncoming attackers which made sure all enemies were poisoned by the time they reached her or her allies. Their weakened bodies made them easy to defeat. Once the settlement was cleared, the group proceeded further, entering another enclosed area that had a number of raptors who appeared to have been starved into a frenzy which prevented Flutashe from communicating with them. She and the others were forced to put them down along with the guards. At the end of the area was a small pyramid with a troll at the bottom of the stairs bowing. The others looked up to find a troll in heavy scarlet armor with a red mohawk riding an orange armored raptor. “That troll atop the pyramid is dangerous,” Thanatas warned. “Bloodlord Mandokir is his name and one-shot kills is what he likes to do. Whoever he casts his gaze upon is under a very real threat of getting eviscerated by that huge sword he has. They will not survive the attack.” “I doubt he has ever fought someone like me,” Sophia replied. “Given that psionics aren’t a thing on Azeroth, that’s pretty obvious.” Disposing of the troll at the bottom of the pyramid was trivial, but it did attract the attention of Mandokir who strode down the pyramid on his raptor. Once at the bottom, Mandokir dismounted from his raptor mount and ordered him to attack Mena. “I’ll feed your souls to Hakkar myself!” he declared. Jaqueline ran in with both of her swords ready to engage the Bloodlord while Flutashe briefly attempted to converse with the raptor only to discover that he was unconditionally loyal to Mandokir. The warrior clashed her blades with Mandokir’s sword. Jaqueline soon found that the troll was abnormally strong and his attacks were heavy but this only pushed Jaqueline to fight harder. A strike suddenly unbalanced Jaqueline long enough for him to thrust his sword forward. The warrior managed to move an inch to the side to get cut in the left side. Mandokir pulled his sword away and left his foe with a grievous wound but Jaqueline used that to her advantage as she headbutted the large troll under his chin before she aimed a sword for his heart. Mandokir dodged and ended up with a few tendons under his arm severed, slightly weakening his attacks. Meanwhile, Flutashe fought with the raptor, who she learned was named Ohgan. The raptor’s talons were strong but the druid’s hide was tough. Using her cat form, Flutashe used her agility to leave deep claw marks in places where the raptor’s armor didn’t cover. She used precise slashes to cut into the leather straps that held the armor together. Stella was able to pull the severed armor pieces off which allowed Bella to make more effective strikes on Ohgan’s head, knocking a few teeth loose. Ohgan was the first to fall as he was bled out from Flutashe’s numerous strikes. Seeing his beloved companion fall, Mandokir went into a rage. Not caring who he attacked, he set his gaze on Stella who was channeling a fire spell to use against him. He wasn’t about to allow that to happen so he left the fight against Jaqueline to focus on murdering the dracthyr in one strike. The mage braced herself for the lethal blow. It never came. Sophia intervened and blocked Mandokir’s strike with her wrist blades. The Bloodlord pulled his sword away and tried to kill the templar with a powerful horizontal slash but the templar grabbed it with one hand. With an innocent smile, the bunny templar used her other hand to bypass Mandokir’s defenses and stabbed him in the same place he stabbed Jaqueline. “And here’s the interest!” she declared as she stepped on the troll’s right foot and left it a bloody mess. What she didn’t show when she stepped on Mandokir’s foot was that she grew a large number of tiny, sharp chitinous spikes through her shoe and turned his foot into a pin cushion. Since trolls never wear footwear this was more devastating. She made it look like she simply crushed the Bloodlord’s foot to the others. Mandokir attempted to use his regenerative abilities to heal his wounds, an ability inherent in all trolls. However, he soon came to realize that the bleeding was not stopping and his ability was being blocked somehow. What the troll didn’t realize was that the spikes grown by Sophia were also laced with a special poison her body synthesized. Sophia remembered one time a while back when she was alone, she snuck into SI:7 headquarters and tasted every type of poison used by their agents so her body could develop an immunity to them and to be able to create it herself. Among them was a poison that restricted the body’s healing process. With his regeneration negated, Mandokir’s movements became sluggish and he started taking attacks that he could have dodged. Stella and Surprise’s spells slammed into him. Jaqueline moved behind the Bloodlord and plunged both of her swords into his chest which punctured both of his lungs. Mandokir coughed up blood just before Bella dealt the finishing blow by summoning a sword of light that impaled his chest and out the back of his neck. Mandokir collapsed onto the ground once the blade disappeared. The group took time to regain their breath as they put their weapons away for the time being. “By the Light, that was one tough feller,” Jaqueline said. “Indeed, I hope he wasn’t a loa priest,” Bella said. Flutashe shook her head. “No, if he was then his raptors would have listened to me. These were tamed and trained raptors we were dealing with.” The party backtracked through the settlement and down the hill they climbed. As they neared the passage entrance, they instead took a left down another passage where they took down another dire troll before discovering that the area beyond was filled with giant webbed eggs; spider eggs. Flutashe could hear the cries of another loa nearby and it wasn’t hard to conclude that the priest tied to the spider loa was nearby. The spiders nearby spotted the group and pleaded with the druid to save their loa, whom they called Shadra. With the spiders staying out of the way while placing their hopes on the druid, the priestess, Mar’li, was without her more dangerous means to attack with. In desperation, she shapeshifted into a giant humanoid spider with six legs and a pair of arms. Her abdomen was black with green markings and she wore a black mantle. With her in her beast form, Mar’li was more susceptible to Flutashe’s dominance and Sophia’s psionic tampering. After a few minutes of fighting Flutashe in her bear form, Mar’li reverted to her troll form, freed from Hakkar’s control. “Bless you all, I am free from Hakkar’s control.” Suddenly, Mar’li went into a trance state. She stayed still for a minute before she addressed the group again. “Shadra has told me that she is willing to reveal one secret in addition to giving de druid her blessing.” “Secret?” Flutashe asked. “Ya mon, Shadra is de loa of spies. She knows many secrets. Whenever ya see a spider, they be gatherin’ information for Shadra. She also knows what ya did, blue rabbit, in Stormwind.” “Impressive…” Sophia said with a little awe in her voice. “I wish that I could recruit this spider loa to my covert ops division.” she thought to herself. “So what is this secret?” Flutashe asked. “Shadra knows de reason de loa are given’ ya their blessings. Your destiny was foretold in a prophecy uttered by de mada of Azeroth’s wild gods, de weava of de Dream. If ya wanna know more, ya gotta find her and ask her yourself.” With that said, Mar’li bestowed Shadra’s blessing upon Flutashe before she transformed into her spider form and skittered up the walls and out of sight. The priestess had left Flutashe with more questions than answers.