//------------------------------//
// Ahn'Qiraj, Part 2: Scarab Terrace 
// Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth 
// by Xarmar13 
//------------------------------//

Last night was not as restful as the party would have liked. For the first few hours of their sleep, they felt an oppressive atmosphere bearing down on them. Their dreams were full of horrifying nightmares of sudden death, betrayal by their allies, and other things that would have made them paranoid when they woke up in the morning and made them waste their energy.

That was until a powerful dark force drove away the pressure. The force said one thing before their dreams returned to normal, “̸̨̺̪̠̓̀̀Ȃ̵̛͙̰̑ ̸̧͙͓̭̻̄̃l̸̫̕ī̶̝̗̪̬͕͆̆͌̉ţ̴̦̩̮̖́̑̿t̷̞̣̤̦̀͂͜͠͠l̴͍̓̀̚͠ë̶̞̮̙ ̸̮̈́e̴̢͈̬̬͒̀̆̀̇a̴̮̝̥͋̌g̸̨͉̅͗̈e̶̖͎̭̺͒͂̏̈̚r̷̮̠̍̉͗ ̸̤̈͒ẗ̷̛̮̞́͛̽o̸̬̦̣͇͇͊̔̈́͒͝ ̵̢̲̻̥̄g̷̛̗͙͉͙͌̑͝ę̷̥̟̖̞̅̎̔̀ẗ̷̮̩̥̣́̊̍̑̕ ̸̢͈͛̍̅̊͠ẗ̶̙̻̰͖́̎̚͝h̴̢͓̭͊̋͂̊́i̷͚̱͖͌̋͠n̶̠͔̆͋́̈́g̴̨̟͆̔͗ś̶̮̮̠͎ ̸̱̫̝̼̞͠s̵̜̺̀t̴̫͖̭̭̟̿̌͑͘a̷͓͎̹̠̓̆́r̸̲͚̱̄̍͝ͅt̴̼͗ͅȩ̷͈̬̿d̶͔̼͇͉͗͌̕̚͜,̵̬̿͊̀͊͌ ̶̢̗̰̦͚̈́̓a̶̠͙͆͌̾̚r̷͈̈́ȩ̶̩̞̟̈́́̑̾͜ ̴̝̪͇͔͙͊̃͝y̶̝͓̆̿͝o̵̧͇͔̖͑̍͆ư̵̙͎͕̋̋̄̈?̵͓̮̝̞̳͋͛͒̕͠ ̸̜̪̻́̈̆̕͝P̶̩̈́͆͝͝ȅ̴͉͖̀r̸̳̥̞̋͋̆͒̔h̸̠̣͍̰̭̿̓̂̆̾ȃ̶̝̙̫̂͂͑͝p̸̡̧͚̣̪̏̀̄͌̚s̸̡̲̍̅̐̂ ̴̞͙̣̆̌ͅẙ̶̮̭͖̉̕͝ǫ̸̙̤͓̕ṵ̶̢̬̣̀͐̕͘ ̶̰̖̤͔̑̐̊̆̈́ͅw̵̱͍̠̬̎͋̑͝i̶̺̪̲͈̫̓s̵̨̱̀̏̒h̵̻͎͎͛̄̋͊͜͠ ̷̢̙̜̎͠ṭ̵̼̣͖̍̈́ơ̶͖̯̠͇͑̄͂͠ ̸̧͖̜̯͌̇͗̊̐b̵̤̳͊̾̚͝͝ȅ̸̱͝͝ͅ ̴̠̲̳̄͂̓̄̎͜d̸̮͋è̶̘̹̼͎̮͑v̵̦̦̺̌ő̸̯͑͘ȗ̷̝̣̟̼r̸̩̻͓̱͛̀̈́e̸̮̞͌d̵̢̻͔͘͜ ̶̜̅h̴͙̹̳̟̓̀͒̅͛ė̵͕̻̰̺̺́̊r̸͖̅é̵̯̖̜ ̴̛̠͇̫̘̓͠a̸̢̠͇̟̿́̄̔ṅ̷̜̣͖̦̳̇̽͝ḓ̷̛̘̞̻͉͛͐̃̚ ̷̥̻̝̐̎́ṅ̴̲̠͕͈͒̾̀͘͜o̸̮̼͙̬̊ẅ̸̦̾͒͊͝?̴͕͈̌̎̅͊”̵̰͕̳̱̇̿̏͘͜ The pressure faded completely after that.

Despite the incident, the party still woke up with the energy and focus to accomplish their mission. They made their morning preparations before checking in with Varok Saurfang and letting him know that they were about to set off into the city of Ahn’Qiraj. Varok informed them that he had scouts observing the movements of the three hives in the region and kept him updated on their movements. For the time being, the roads were clear so they had a clear path to the ancient city.

Traveling on horseback, the party arrived at the gates within an hour. The tall, hexagonal gate loomed over them. Beyond them, they would be on their own against the remnants of the Qiraji armies. 

The party collectively gulped and took a deep breath and let it out before stepping foot beyond the gate.

Surprisingly, the first area within the city was completely empty of defenders. There was only a small crater in the center and two paths before them. The left path led up a ramp while the right path let up a set of stairs.

Lokosh turned to Thanatas who he figured had knowledge of the layout of the city. “So, which way do we go?”

The death knight placed a couple of fingers under her chin as she thought about which way they should go. She knew that her daughter was getting impatient since they were now in the territory of the Old God, but she also figured that a little warm up would be necessary before they moved against the temple, which was up the stairs. Thanatas had a feeling that they would need it.

She pointed to the path up the ramp. “We continue south into the ruins.” Dealing with Rajaxx was more important right now since he could launch another assault while they attacked the temple.

Going with her decision, the party proceeded up the ramp and south into the city ruins. The next area was mostly empty save for a pair of qiraji gladiators guarding the doorway into the next area. After battling with this type of enemy for ten hours yesterday, these qiraji proved predictable to the ones from before.

Once the gladiators were defeated, the group glanced into the next room to discover something that caught Thanatas off guard. In the timeline she remembered, the next room was supposed to be filled with groups of silithid wasps and a type of qiraji that was not present in yesterday’s battle. Instead of these types of enemies flying around in an almost organized chaotic fashion, they discovered an organized group of qiraji patrolling the area with several gladiators and the aforementioned qiraji type. One of them was a larger qiraji gladiator in bluish gray chitinous armor. Groups of silithid wasps still buzzed around the area.

The group quickly hid behind a wall to avoid being discovered. The party could see the look of confusion on Thanatas’ face which meant that something she had not foreseen had happened.

The death knight quickly tapped into the psychic network hoping to find an explanation. “Twilight, what is going on? The Qiraji are behaving unlike how I remember them. One of General Rajaxx’s officers is patrolling the next room when the remnants of them are supposed to be with the general planning their next move.”

“You can probably blame your cousin for that.” said a voice Thanatas wasn’t expecting.

“Discord? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked. “And what do you mean?”

The draconequus who suddenly appeared in the control room thought for a moment before he detached his head and tail before tossing them into the air. The tail landed on the floor first. “To answer the second question, Little Miss Monty Python Reference gave the evolved termites quite a scare when she unleashed the Swarm on them. It was very entertaining to watch though it had the consequence of forcing their general to recall his officers back to the city to mount a defense against them. Things like this happen when you cause large impressions on the history of the world.

“For your first question, why would I miss out on such a delightfully chaotic event?”

“So this means that things will be a little different from what we know?” Sophia shrugged. “I don’t mind it anyway, a little uncertainty on the battlefield makes things more interesting.”

Despite the minor alterations, Thanatas was still confident that the city still contained what she remembered it containing. “Let’s keep going.”

As they entered the next area and prepared to face the patrols of silithid and qiraji, a deep voice echoed throughout the ruins, “The walls have been breached! Rajaxx, the intruders have entered the Scarab Terrace!”

This was followed by a gravelly yet familiar voice, “Warrant Officer Zod, Lieutenant Jo-rel, intruders are near your positions! Annihilate them!”

The party looked around again. It wasn’t hard to figure that there was another patrol of qiraji nearby if Rajaxx had mentioned two names. They soon spotted the second qiraji patrol to their south but they seemed to be searching the wrong area.

As quickly as they entered the room, however, they were beset upon by a group of silithid wasps. One slammed its body into Groun and knocked him back a few meters, two others delivered a poisonous sting to Bella and Jaqueline with two more having their stingers dodged by Lokosh and Mena.

Bella used her light magic to purify the poison within herself and her fellow human before they engaged the giant wasps. Not only did they have to dodge or block the stingers, but they also had to be careful of the clawed legs.

Dealing with the wasps wasn’t difficult but they were still taken by surprise as nobody saw them coming.

The commotion ended up drawing the attention of the qiraji patrol who quickly moved to attack. “Kneel before me, mortals! Kneel before Zod!” the larger one cried.

The gladiators accompanying Zod had black chitin with a maroon layer covering most of their torsos and legs. However, while the gladiators fought with brute force, the smaller qiraji fought differently. Based on their body shape, they appeared to be female humanoids. They wore black breastplates and navy blue baggy pants with matching sleeves that concealed their hands. A navy blue veil covered most of their faces from the eyes down. While they appeared like a human female, their insect parts were on their feet, hands, head and back. Their feet were alabaster white with two jet black claws for toes, their hands were scythe-like claws that specialized in cleaving flesh, two large clawed appendages grew from their shoulders, thick antennae grew from their heads along with a pair of compound eyes on the sides. Large insect wings grew from their backs to allow them flight.

The female qiraji, which Thanatas called battleguards, were as swift as they looked. They were able to rapidly fly around the battlefield and their attacks were wide so they could slash more than one person. Jaqueline’s swift attacks were barely able to keep up with one battleguard.

One battleguard focused on attacking Jaqueline long enough for Surprise to ambush her with a Shadow Blade spell that sliced her wings off, grounding her. The shock on her face lasted long enough for the warrior to capitalize on the qiraji’s unbalanced state and finish her off.

Sophia had no problems keeping up with the other battleguards. In a split second, she was able to slice off their wings before Talia and Farra’jin set them ablaze one by one. Their clothes only made them burn easier.

Flutashe, Lokosh and Bella protected the party from the onslaught of the gladiators. The orc warrior was able to block the attacks from their large pincers while counterattacking with ax slashes to his legs. Flutashe used the bulk from her bear form to absorb the impacts from her gladiator’s attacks and waited for an opening before she shifted into her anthro cat form, vanished momentarily, and slashed at a weak point in their back before she grabbed them by the shoulders and suplexed them into a stone wall, breaking their armor. Bella pounded and slashed at her gladiator until his shell cracked before she used her swords of light to impale him.

All the while, Thanatas faced Warrant Officer Zod. The qiraji officer wasn’t much tougher than the other gladiators and his combat experience was lacking since she was able to avoid his telegraphed attacks. As the death knight saw the other battles wind down, she decided to stop dodging and used a corrosive rune to run her sword through the gladiator’s chitinous shell and through his heart. His insides dissolved from the magic and he collapsed in a few seconds.

As the battle against the squad began to wind down, more wasps flew in to attack. Stella dealt with this threat herself as she unleashed numerous pillars of fire below the giant insects and incinerated them from inside their shells. Other wasp groups she dealt with by placing traps in the form of rings of frost that froze anyone who entered their small area of effect. Many more wasps ended up frozen solid before she called on earthen spikes with her black essence and shattered them.

Soon the terrace was cleared of insects and the party was able to move forward. They moved south toward a stone structure with a pair of floating obelisks. A set of stairs leading to a lower area was guarded by a pair of gladiators. The lower area featured a pit of sand along with writing land coming from the silithid hive structures and the chitinous tendrils that towered above everything but the tall stone walls.

As the group moved to engage the gladiators, another group of qiraji led by who they assumed was Lieutenant Jo-rel spotted the party and attacked. The party used the same strategy as they used against Zod’s group since the squad had a similar composition. This time, however, Thanatas dealt with most of the battleguards by using her magic to draw them to her before she mortally wounded them with a spinning attack with a disease-ridden blade. Sophia ended up being the one who brutally smashed Jo-rel’s armor with powerful strikes before she channeled psionic lightning into an exposed area and electrocuted the lieutenant like a bug zapper.

As the battle ended, Rajaxx called out to something in the area, “Kurinnaxx, do not allow them to proceed beyond the Scarab Terrace!”

It was then that the sands in the pit shifted until a massive orange silithid with black markings and claws emerged. Its giant front legs looked raised as if used for slashing instead of walking. The remaining four legs were mainly for walking. Its eyes looked small and beady and its chelicerae were black as its claws. The entire length of its body was segmented with its tail forking into what looked like a pincer claw. Overall, it had a slight resemblance to a silverfish.

“What in the Light’s name is that?!” Bella gasped.

“That’s a sand reaver,” Thanatas replied. “It’s a rare species of silithid. They are almost never seen outside of a desert. They are one of the strongest variants, up there with silithid colossi.”

Talia rolled her eyes, “Let me guess, there will be plenty more of these when we attack the temple?”

“When I said they were rare, I meant it. The only other sand reaver that I know of in this city is this one’s brother, Fankriss.”

Kurinnaxx waited patiently for its prey to enter the sand pit. They appeared to be discussing something but that was of no consequence to it. All that mattered was that it was about to get its first meal in a long time that wasn’t another silithid.

A large slitted eyeball floated high above the area observing the intruders. The owner of the eye could see all that went on in Silithus as its power reached the ends of the region. As it gradually regained its power after millennia trapped beneath the land, that reach continued to extend and would spread across Kalimdor in due time. For now, it would observe and decide if the one who challenged it and the others would prove to be a threat.

Lokosh charged in to attack Kurinnaxx. The sand reaver attacked with two of its raised claws which were blocked by his shield only for the pedipalps on its face to swipe at him and knock him back a few meters.

The others began their attacks with Talia, Farra’jin and Stella blasting it with fire. What they weren’t expecting though was one of Kurinnaxx’s legs glowing. The three observed the leg while attacking but failed to pay attention to the piles of sand growing behind each of them. By the time they took notice it was too late and the sand piles burst like bubbles and struck all three of them with sand. Some of the sand ended up in their mouths and made casting impossible until they could spit out the grains. It took them some time to cough up the offending sand.

Often one of Kurinnaxx’s legs would glow, but now that they knew what to expect, the party kept their eyes on the sand around them and moved accordingly whenever they detected nearby shifting piles of sand.

The sand reaver attacked Lokosh relentlessly and struck anyone who got too close to its tail. The party counterattacked with more fire, burning through its segmented armor. Shadow magic weakened the toughness of its armor and assaulted its mind while a certain two-legged cat managed to jump on top of it and rip off one of its segmented plates before she transformed into a snake with arms and bit into its exposed body.

In desperation, Kurinnaxx went into a frenzy and began attacking wildly. It also caused the sand around it to bubble violently which caused sand to be blown all over the area around it. The party kept their distance and continued throwing fire spells at the giant silithid. WIth its body exposed, the fire magic began burning it from the inside out. Jaqueline jumped as high as she could and used the momentum from her fall to deliver a powerful chop from her swords and cut off the end of its tail, reducing its attack options.

Soon, the sand reaver began to combust as the flames from the spellcasters came into contact with flammable substances within its body. Kurinnaxx screeched in agony as the flames ate away at its insides. This lasted two minutes before the sand reaver stopped moving.

The party waited a few minutes to make sure the smoldering insect wasn’t getting up again. During that wait, a bald, shirtless human wearing maroon and black gauntlets, greaves and a black eyepatch along with a squad of night elves approached the group. The human surveyed the trail of corpses along with the burning silithid in front of him before looking at the group.

“I see you all have been busy. I’m Lieutenant General Andorov of the Cenarion Circle, we’re on orders from on high to destroy Rajaxx. Terminate with extreme prejudice if you want to get technical.”

“There’s been a slight complication in that plan, Lieutenant General,” Sophia slowly stated. “It seems after those creatures completely halted the invasion, Rajaxx went deep into the city and left his officers to guard the route to him.”

“All the better I suppose,” Andorov shrugged. “We can root out the entire chain of command as we go so they won’t replace him so easily after we kill him.”

“Welcome aboard then, I guess,” Stella said with clear uncertainty in her voice. She could only hope that they could handle themselves against the Qiraji.

They moved beyond the now charring corpse of Kurinnaxx to continue their exploration of the city. The wall to the south eventually led to an opening to the east which led into the next area, which was occupied by five patrols of qiraji, each led by an officer.

“Captains, Kurinnaxx has failed us. The intruders approach your position!” Rajaxx called out from somewhere. The patrols went on alert and began actively searching for the party. Once they were certain the intruders were nowhere to be seen, the five squads turned their attention to the doorway to the Scarab Terrace.

“Come forth intruders, and face us!” one of the captains called out.

The party and Andorov snuck a glance into the area to determine a plan of attack against the Qiraji captains. It was clear that once one spotted them, the rest would know. The question was: would they all come at once or would they be arrogant enough to come one group at a time.

Andorov gave one last look at the patrolling captains before he turned to the others, a grim look on his face. “If it bleeds, we can kill it.”

Thanatas rolled her eyes at the officer’s words. “Enough with the lines…” she thought to herself. “Let’s just get in there and crush these bugs!”

Everyone soon rushed into the terrace to fight the patrols. The five captains noticed them with only one group charging in while the others stood back and waited their turn. However, the party wasn’t playing that game. Instead, Flutashe and her group engaged the attacking group while Lokosh and the Horde group engaged another squad. Andorov and his elite soldiers engaged the third squad while Thanatas and Sophia each attacked one of the two remaining squads.

Flutashe’s speed in her empowered cat form allowed her to challenge the battleguards in terms of speed but their lack of experience in facing anything like her gave her every opportunity to slash them from every angle. The female qiraji didn’t have time to analyze the druid’s attack pattern before she inflicted deep lacerations and dismemberments upon them.

Her friends fared just as well as Bella faced the gladiators with Jaqueline, Mena and Stella. The dracthyr froze and shattered the captain. Surprise exploited vulnerabilities in the qirajis’ armor and sliced them with shadow blades. Bella struck a qiraji hard enough with a hammer of light that she shattered its carapace before the Light burned the abomination. 

On the Horde side, Farra’jin was messing with the winds which interfered with the flight ability of the battleguards and forced them to land to avoid colliding into each other where they had their feet bound in roots that wrapped around their bodies and crushed them. Talia summoned a sayaad who used her demonic magic to seduce the captain into fighting his allies while the warlock focused on burning the other gladiators with fire. Farra’jin’s fire elemental added to the warlock’s attacks while the shaman delivered bolt after bolt of lightning to electrocute the brutes. Once the subordinates were dead, the sayaad had the captain rip his own heart out.

Andorov and his squad proved that they were no slouches in combat as the soldiers easily faced the battleguards and clipped their wings and felled the gladiators. Andorov took out a pair of double-bladed axes and displayed his nimble movements as he attacked the weak points in the captain’s armor before he felled him.

Thanatas and Sophia defeated their squads in seconds with the death knight displaying her skeletal wings and slamming the tips into the ground, casting a spell that caused numerous giant bone spikes to erupt beneath the entire squad and impale them all at once. Sophia needed only one strike as she empowered her right blade to create a ten foot long blade of psionic energy before she completely faded into the shadows. The captain and squad looked around for their target but were unable to locate her. The paranoid qiraji moved into a circular formation to avoid being taken by surprise. This proved futile as the strike came in an instant, with the templar appearing in front of the captain with her back turned and her blade back to normal. The captain thought nothing had happened but was quickly proven wrong as he and his entire squad fell to the ground, their heads and upper torsos severed from the rest of their bodies.

“This cannot be!” Rajaxx yelled as he saw the last of his captains fall. “Moam, devour them; magic and all!”

A gravelly roar resonated nearby just before four centaur-like constructs emerged from a doorway to the west. The constructs were made of obsidian that was roughly cut. From the shape of it, it walked on paws and had a large pair of wings that had a gold color at the tips. A band of bronze was worn on their waists and one of their paws. Their heads bore a feline shape wearing a headdress of similar design.

“This will be interesting…” Thanatas commented. “Looks like we’re about to face some of the Qiraji’s secret weapons.”

“Secret weapons?” Andorov questioned. “That wasn’t in the intel you gave us.”

“I didn’t expect you to come this far with us,” she countered. “Obsidian destroyers are very durable and are known for draining magic from people and the air around them, making them effective against warriors and spellcasters. The mana they draw in accumulates until it exceeds their bodies’ capacity to contain it, then releases it all explosively.”

Once they knew what they were up against, the group planned around the abilities of the black stone creatures. Jaqueline switched to her shield and faced the three of the statue monsters that emerged from the entryway along with Bella and Lokosh. One of them stood back and watched the action. As expected, their weapon strikes hardly damaged their durable skin but the magic from the others was still able to damage them.

The spellcasters felt a pull of their own magical wellsprings as the obsidian destroyers stole some of their magic. As the fight progressed, their stone bodies began to glow dimly. That glow continued to brighten over time. The party knew that they needed to finish them before they accumulated enough to release it all, but they also felt that the destroyers showed no signs of breaking down.

Stella couldn’t risk the destroyers unleashing so much magic and feared that it might kill some of her friends. For that, she called on her blue essence and started draining magic from the statues and accumulating it in her right hand. The constructs didn’t care that they were losing mana since their endless hunger was insatiable anyway, but they did notice the growing concentration of mana coming from the dracthyr and ignored the other fighters in favor of feasting on the growing ball of magic.

The party saw this before in Molten Core so instead of pursuing the obsidian destroyers, they took cover to the side. Stella watched the others and lightly chuckled before she frowned and unleashed the accumulated magic into three bolts of raw arcane energy.

The high thaum blast disintegrated the statues where they stood since they weren’t designed to take in so much magic at once. Smoking scorch marks and obsidian dust remained.

As the smoke cleared, the group looked back at the damage but only for a moment as they spotted the one statue who stood back entering the area.

“Moam shouldn’t be too tough if you can exploit its weakness.” Thanatas said.

It wasn’t hard to exploit Moam’s weakness thanks to Stella. Once the dracthyr realized that the biggest weakness of the obsidian destroyer was the fact that if it couldn’t take in mana, its biggest threat was no longer an issue. Stella took back every drop of magic it tried to steal from the others and prepared to blast it like the others. 

Moam hardened its body to defend itself and made it nearly indestructible but that rendered it immobile as well. Using what little magic in the air it could find, Moam created three elemental constructs made of arcane energy. However, those three were quickly drawn into Stella’s growing attack, adding more fuel to the fire.

Adding in her own disintegration beam from her mouth, Stella fired it and the arcane energy at the statue. Moam was obliterated in the blast while chunks of obsidian scattered into the sand around it.

Once Moam was rubble, the party decided to explore the area the obsidian creatures came from. That plan was changed though as a pair of colossal anubisath warriors emerged from the sands and struck the wall with such force that the doorway collapsed, blocking that route.

“Looks like Rajaxx don’t want us goin’ that way,” Jaqueline commented.

“That path was the shortest way to the Watchers’ Terrace where the biggest threat in the ruins resides,” Thanatas said. “There is another way there, but we will have to go through more threats along the way.”

“That’s probably what Rajaxx wants,” Bella said.

“He’s probably stationed his remaining officers along that route,” Flutashe figured.

“Which means we can cripple the military structure of the Qiraji in one fell swoop,” Sophia added.

“Let’s get going, I don’t want to be in this infested city any longer than necessary,” Lokosh said. Farra’jin, Groun and Talia voiced their agreement.

With that, the party proceeded down the only path available to them as they moved deeper into the city.