//------------------------------// // Hellfire Peninsula // Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Around the outdoor command center on the Azeroth side of the Dark Portal were a number of supplies and troops, including a few officers. Mena and Bella stood at the base of the dark stone portal structure. Both were patiently waiting for their other friends before they crossed over into Outland. They were a little disappointed that Jaqueline wouldn’t be joining them on this adventure. “So Mena, how has that other presence in your mind been lately?” Bella asked, trying to strike up a conversation to relieve the tedium. “Well, Surprise has been grouchy for the past few days, but that’s normal for her as far as I know,” Mena answered. “I think the lack of action has been putting her on edge and she gets snippy whenever I try to ask her what’s wrong. Maybe some fighting in Outland might get her to calm down but I don’t know; I’m not an expert on Surprise.” “That’s…good to know darling, but I meant the other presence in your mind.” “Violetta? She’s been pretty quiet ever since she gorged herself on that Old God. Last thing she said was that she was gonna take a nap while she was digesting.” Bella was about to reply to that but stopped as she saw Flutashe approach with a group of druids. “Flutashe, dear, so glad you could make it!” Bella greeted cheerfully. Flutashe smiled and stopped in front of the pair. The other druids proceeded toward the portal. “Hi Bella and Mena, so you two are going to Outland too?” “Of course darling, we wouldn’t miss this adventure for the world…or two worlds,” she tittered. Flutashe’s smile brightened even more, but quickly pulled back as she considered what she wanted to ask them. “Since we are both going to Outland, do you mind if…” she trailed off. “Dear, you don’t need to ask to join us, you are our friend.” “It’s not that, it’s just…have I ever told you that I have a twin sister?” Bella stroked her chin as she tried to recall, but nothing came up, “I don’t recall…” Flutashe nodded, “My sister’s name is Raida Lunarwind. She was one of the best soldiers to graduate from the academy years ago. She was a very confident woman who could inspire those she commanded. I looked up to her. Growing up, I was normally shy and reserved, but she protected me from bullies.” “So what does that have to do with Outland?” Mena asked. “Well, the last mission Raida participated in was a hunt for The Betrayer alongside Maiev Shadowsong, one of our best wardens. Maiev and Raida chased The Betrayer to Outland and haven't been seen again.” “Ah! So you want us to help you find out what happened to your sister? You know that it’s likely that…” Bella didn’t finish that sentence. Flutashe sighed, “I know she might be dead, The Betrayer has been known to be ruthless. I still want to find something of hers for me to bring home.” Bella smiled gently at the druid’s resolve, “And we will do everything in our power to help.” Flutashe returned the smile, “Thank you!” Just then, Stella teleported next to the others, startling them. “Sorry! I was running a little late and I knew you girls were going to Outland too and I overslept and…” She paused as she noticed that someone was missing. “Where’s Jaqueline?” “She isn’t coming darling, duties with the Argent Dawn,” Bella answered. Stella sighed, “Right, so from what I’ve heard from Sophia, King Varian is having her oversee operations in Outland so we won’t have her assistance during most of the campaign unless she believes we’re about to be going up against a very tough opponent.” “It’s probably for the best,” Mena shrugged. “Wouldn’t wanna be getting complacent with her holding our hands all the time.” “In that case, we might need to consider finding someone to join us,” Flutashe suggested. “Normally, adventurers get together into groups of five to explore dangerous places. Before, we could have gotten away with just the four of us since Sophia was supporting us. We can’t rely on her anymore so we should invite a fifth person to join us on our adventures.” The others voiced their agreement. “Shall we?” Stella offered. With that, the group proceeded into the Dark Portal to Outland. As they entered, the Alliance group noticed that the portal was under attack by waves of felguards with a giant pit lord in the distance. While they wanted to help, one of the commanders refused their assistance, saying that they could handle the demons for a while and that they should report to Honor Hold. Reluctantly, the group accepted this and borrowed four gryphons to fly around the demon invasion and land in Honor Hold. The place had seen better days. Most of the walls were still standing, but the white stone was burnt in many places and were showing signs of erosion. Other places within the walls were an inn, a stable, a mage tower, a blacksmith, the ruins of a barracks, and a keep that served as the command center. A huge stone monument stood in the center with the inscription of a Light-blessed hammer on the sides. The group proceeded into the keep to report in. There they discovered that the commander was a veteran of the Second War and one of the missing expedition members from years ago, Danath Trollbane. A statue of him stood in the Valley of Heroes in Stormwind. Before the expedition, Danath’s hair and beard were dark brown with the top part bald. That was twenty-two years ago. Now his hair had completely grayed out. The group entered the war room and were quickly noticed by Danath and his advisors, one of them was a draenei. “Good, you made it,” Danath said. “I was told by that strange rabbit-looking girl to expect you. At first I had my doubts about her and her claim that she was sent by King Varian Wrynn of Stormwind. Glad to hear that the city is still standing, by the way. So if you’re Bella Cartier and company, then we can get started.” “What would you have us do, commander?” Bella asked. “First, I need to brief you about what’s been going on in Outland since we closed the portal over twenty years ago. When that filthy orc shaman Ner’zhul opened a bunch of portals that tore the planet apart, me and my comrades escaped the destruction by going through one of them. Some of us ended up getting separated, namely General Turalyon and Ranger General Alleria Windrunner. Haven’t heard from them since. The rest of us returned to what remained of this place and stood guard over it. Me, Kurdran and Khadgar are what’s left of the leadership.” “Do you know where I can find Khadgar?” Stella asked. “I’m on a mission from the Kirin Tor to find him.” “If he’s not doing anything reckless right now, he might be with the refugees and war veterans in Shattrath. There’s two ways there and both lead you through a nest of ravagers.” “Ravagers?” Flutashe asked. Danath ignored the inquiry and continued, “Things have been tough around here, chief among them are the fel orcs, an army of those monsters who are so drunk off of that nasty green stuff that they ended up mutating. We got another army of those monsters on the other side of their base of operations, Hellfire Citadel, but somehow we managed to broker a non-aggression agreement with those beasts. Dunno how long that’ll last.” “He’s referring to Thrallmar, the Horde base on the other side of the canyon separating our two bases,” Sophia said as she walked into the room. She rolled her eyes at Danath as she leaned against a wall next to a doorway. Stella silently acknowledged the templar before she returned her attention to Danath. “Anything else?” Stella asked. “Flutashe mentioned someone called The Betrayer is supposed to be in Outland.” “Ah, yeah, From what the reports say, the fel orcs fall under the leadership of Warchief Kargath Bladefist who reports to someone they call Lord Illidan.” “That’s him, Illidan Stormrage, The Betrayer,” Flutashe said. Danath continued, “Anyway, he has the fel orcs based nearby in Hellfire Citadel as well as naga forces doing something to the ecosystem in Zangarmarsh west of here. They’re led by someone named Lady Vashj. North of here is a place once known as Faralon, now it’s a region enveloped in a storm of nether energies called Netherstorm. We have our former elven allies basing themselves there under the leadership of the prince of Quel’thalas, Kael’thas Sunstrider.” He silently muttered the word ‘traitor’ under his breath. If the party heard his muttering they showed no signs of it. He decided to ask them something that had been botherin him, “By the way, can any of you tell me why there are elves among the Horde that we aren’t supposed to be fighting right now?” “Well, you see darling, it’s complicated,” Bella struggled to explain. “It seems that the high elves now call themselves blood elves after Lordaeron’s crown prince fell to darkness and destroyed his own kingdom before he sacked Quel’thalas. The ones who remained either joined Kael’thas here in Outland or remained in Quel’thalas and ultimately joined the Horde.” “Prince Arthas Menethil!? Lordaeron’s destroyed!? Seems a lot has happened since I’ve been here.” Danath paused for a moment and sighed. “Let’s move on to what’s been happening the past few days. My forces and Thrallmar led our own strikes against the fel orc base of Zeth’Gor to the east and burned it down. We’ve had some minor issues locally, such as Colonel Jules getting possessed by a demon; our draenei friends were able to save him with an exorcism. West of here is the settlement of Falcon Watch which Thrallmar claims as part of their forces and the Temple of Telhamat to the northwest is home to some of our draenei friends. “One of the more disturbing reports I received was of a giant red crystal that dropped from the sky in the northwest reaches of the region. A number of rock giants roamed the area but were quickly disposed of. Those night elves, as they are called, helped get rid of it using some plant stuff that I couldn’t even begin to understand. One adventurer encountered an image of a blood elf who admitted to dropping the shard there as part of some experiment. The elf called himself Pathaleon the Calculator.” “So where do we fit in?” Bella finally asked. “We need to make a move against Hellfire Citadel. They are the biggest threat right now. Sophia made a deal with the Horde to where they will assault the citadel ramparts while we take advantage of the confusion to perform a scouting mission and find out what they are up to. Particularly, I want all of you to investigate the tower in the back of the citadel known as the Blood Furnace. Our mages’ scrying spells can’t penetrate the wards inside and I want to know what’s going on in there. Head west toward the back wall, there should be an old siege tower there you can climb to reach the entrance to the Blood Furnace. In exchange for clearing out the ramparts, we have agreed to share the info of what we find in that place.” Bella took in the details of Danath’s body language. She could sense the discomfort and the tensing of his jawline, as if he was doing his best to refrain from grinding his teeth. It was obvious to her that the commander was against the idea of trusting the Horde for anything but she kept quiet about it. “Very well commander, we will be ready once the Horde makes their move.” Danath nodded, “Good luck in there.” Lokosh, Farra’jin, Groun, Talia and Feloma flew wyverns from the Dark Portal to the settlement to the north of Hellfire Citadel, Thrallmar. This settlement was composed of an inn, a barracks, a kennel, several guard towers and an alchemy tower where the forsaken and blood elves perform their experiments in alchemy and enchantments. One of the officers who was drilling a squad of troops directed the group to the barracks. Lokosh led them inside to find an orc with a wolf cowl over his head and wielding a strange-looking battle ax that had numerous jagged points on the head. He stood next to a map of the region along with a blood elf who appeared to be advising him. The elf pointed in the direction of the group before the orc beckoned them closer. “So you’re the veterans of Ahn’Qiraj. I am Nazgrel, chief of our warchief’s security and leader of this expedition.” “Lok’tar, Nazgrel,” Lokosh responded. “We are here to assist with the expedition. Where would you have us?” Nazgrel chuckled, “As much as I would want you keeping an eye on the humans of Honor Hold, I have a more fitting task for your area of expertise. Right now, we have a non-aggression agreement in place while we focus on the Legion and the crazed orcs of Hellfire Citadel. The demons seem to be focused on the Dark Portal but they are a diminished threat now that their portals are destroyed. “The threats to the west are also diminished. We had reports of a giant red crystal crashing in the western reaches. The scouts reported seeing an image of a blood elf near the crystal.” He gestured to the elf next to him. “Magister Bloodhawk here has informed me that the image was one of their prince’s advisors. The crystal has been dealt with. There were also reports of a powerful eredar to the northwest of us. He has been eliminated. “More importantly, we located a settlement belonging to those who were left behind during the First War. These orcs are ones who never drank of the felblood, allowing them to retain their brown skin. They are known as the Mag’har; the Uncorrupted. The warchief has been notified of this and preparations will be made for his journey to Outland.” Nazgrel’s anger rose for a moment but took a deep breath to reign it in. “Now we need to make good on our end of a bargain we made with Honor Hold. I am sending you five to assault Hellfire Citadel. You will focus on clearing out the ramparts and providing a distraction for the Alliance agents to infiltrate the depths of the citadel. See to it that the Alliance fulfill their end; they agreed to inform us of what lies down there.” “It will be done, Nazgrel,” Lokosh said. “Go with honor, and bring back proof of your victories against anyone you believe is important.” The group left the barracks and proceeded out of Thrallmar where they spotted a canyon to the south that led up to a crudely, yet solidly made stone structure. The building rose nearly a hundred feet from the bottom of the chasm to well above the cliff. The structure was mostly stone framed with black metal and some spikes. A wall extended from the citadel to the northern mountains. A few red-skinned orcs were patrolling the walls. The group found a path to the citadel walkways nearby and proceeded through, dealing with any bloodthirsty fel orcs they encountered. It was once they passed through an open doorway along the walkway that their mission began. Sophia observed the Horde team entering the Hellfire Ramparts. She also spotted the Alliance team moving into position, waiting for the word to move in. However, Sophia was more focused on her psychic communication to the employees of the Sphere Institute. “So, you’re certain that she’s here?” “Yes, we picked up her signal once the Portal opened.” Twilight answered. ”I have no doubt that Rainbow Dash is on this world. Though something concerns me about her status. The long range readings tell me that there’s something off about her. We need to find her so we can run a scan.” Sophia turned her attention to Thanatas who was overseeing the citadel from a different angle. “So Thana, is there anything particularly dangerous in this place that would involve us?” “For the most part, no,” Thanatas responded. “These fel orcs aren’t anything they can’t handle and their warchief is on the wrong side of his prime. He can still be a threat if they aren’t careful though. It’s what lies in the deepest depths of the citadel that we will have to get involved with. But that is for a later time, exploring the Ramparts and the Blood Furnace will be a good warm up for their Outland adventures.” “So what is in the depths?” “That’s for me to know and you to find out,” Thanatas giggled. The fel orcs fought with brutality as they did their utmost to kill those they deemed the “False Horde.” Though they were still simple orcs who fought like typical rogues or warriors. Lokosh held the orcs’ attention when he declared that they weren’t worth wasting his energy fighting. Talia set a rogue on fire before she sent them running away with her Fear spell, causing them to crash into a few supply crates and setting them on fire. Feloma showed off her marksman skill by shooting the warriors through their heads. Further inside they encountered armored warriors wielding oddly-shaped axes along with warlocks and archers. Lokosh charged the archers while Feloma fired a few arrows into the chests of the warriors since they weren’t smart enough to wear chest armor. Talia’s felhound countered the fire magic of the warlocks while Farra’jin electrocuted them. They quickly discovered that the orcs here patrolled the ramparts with wolves. Feloma decided to use this against her enemies as she released her pheromones into the air. The wolves smelled the scent and howled, confusing the orc handlers. Feloma smirked, “Eat!” she commanded. The wolves quickly turned on their handlers by going for their throats first. Being caught off guard, the orcs couldn’t put up a proper defense before they became dog food. One orc tried to call in more wolves while a pair of warriors tried to distract the party. This backfired spectacularly because Feloma’s pheromones turned the wolves into the huntress’ pets. Several more orcs were eaten alive before the wolves were put down. As the group trailed through the path of blood and carnage, they heard a grizzled voice nearby. “Do you smell that? Fresh meat has somehow breached our citadel. Be wary of any intruders.” They soon came across a number of tents and wagons along with many supply crates lying around being guarded. Talia and Farra’jin had a devious look in their eyes as they both had the same idea. Farra’jin called on his fire elemental while Talia called on her fire magic and they began to set everything on fire. The flames quickly spread and the supplies and tents became engulfed in flames. The orcs were in a panic trying to put out the fires that they didn’t notice that they were under attack as the party took advantage of the chaos. They had no idea what hit them. It was then that the voice from earlier made himself known again. “Why is everything on fire?! When I find out who did this they will beg for a swift death!” A dark red-skinned orc wore ornate gold and red armor and they noticed that his hands had been replaced with a sword for his right hand and an ax for his left. He was accompanied by two more orcs in robes and carried priest staves. “You’re in our way,” Lokosh called out. The orc looked at the group and gave a wicked smirk, at least for someone whose lower teeth extended most of the length of his head. “I’m going to enjoy this…” he declared. Despite his claim, the orc, who called himself Gargolmar, did not enjoy the fight. Lokosh’s shield withstood the watchkeeper’s furious attacks. Talia focused her attacks on one priest while her felhound proceeded to drain him of his magic and his life. The other priest tried to heal his ally but Feloma kept him pressured with her arrows. Farra’jin and Groun focused their attacks on Gargolmar with the tauren seeding the cracks in the floor with seeds that he quickly made sprout into a number of vines that tried to bind the orc. Farra’jin’s lightning spells were conducted with Gargolmar’s armor and badly electrocuted him. “Heal me, quickly!” Gargolmar called out. One priest tried to cast a healing spell on him despite the pressure but an alluring scent caused him to lose touch with his senses as he ended up healing the party and afflicting Gargolmar with a shadowy affliction. “Traitor!” he yelled before he decapitated him. The other priest was soon rendered into a withered husk. In one last desperate act, Gargolmar tried to charge recklessly at Groun to impale him on his blades. Lokosh saw this coming and put a foot out to trip him. The orc ended up falling into the burning supplies and caught fire. He screamed in agony until he collapsed on the floor, unmoving. “Think he was one of the important people?” Groun asked. Everyone else shrugged. Farra’jin called on water spirits to put out the fires around Gargolmar. Since they were told to bring trophies of their victories, Lokosh decided to pull off Gargolmar’s sword hand, revealing a stub. Talia reeled in disgust, “These orcs have some truly insane customs, I can’t imagine a life without hands.” “Let’s keep moving,” Lokosh said. Bella, Stella, Mena and Flutashe heard the chaos in the citadel and quickly moved up the siege tower up to the upper wall and down a clear path to a tower with stairs that led them downward into the darkness. A doorway at the bottom of the stairs led into a hallway. At the end of the short hallway, they spotted a group of fel orcs practicing dark magic by summoning imps. A quick blast of light from the paladin burned the imps to ashes and gained the attention of the orcs in the room. A swipe from Flutashe’s bear paws caused lacerations on the chests of some of the orcs. Burning shadows from Surprise exacerbated their injuries. One armored orc ended up completely disintegrated by a beam from Stella. Once the orcs in the room were dead, the group proceeded up a long flight of stairs. Bella’s eye for detail allowed her to pick up on the distorted space often caused by amateur rogues. A wave of light quickly revealed the sneaky orcs before they were quickly dispatched and sent on a long and bloody trip down the stairs. Once they reached the top, they dealt with two more armored orcs the same way as the rogues before they entered the next room which contained more orcs summoning imps. Bella quickly incinerated the imps while Flutashe showed the orcs her method of brutality by crushing them with her anthro cat form. Unknown to them, a figure completely concealed in a cloak was observing the group. The person saw that this group seemed pretty strong for them to handle the fel orcs so easily. She watched as they proceeded up a ramp, dealing with the guards who belonged to the Laughing Skull Clan, known for being more deranged than other clans. The warlocks in the place belonged to the Shadowmoon Clan, known for their practice of dark magic. Of course, that demon that she absorbed held far more knowledge of dark magic than anything the Shadowmoons knew. She was also aware that the citadel ramparts were under attack but she didn’t care about that. These fel orcs were a liability to her master’s plans in the long run. The Bleeding Hollow Clan and the Bonechewer Clan who guarded the ramparts were just as insane as the other clans. The two clans may have shared the same origins at one point, but the difference between the two clans was who could handle their void better than the other. Bleeding Hollows turned that darkness to power while Bonechewers simply went insane. Raida sensed a lot of void energies coming from the gnome which seemed to have split her mind and developed into a separate personality: one who wielded light magic and the other void. The black haired female seemed to wield the Light much like Kael’thas’ blood knights. Raida learned about paladins from the Alliance expedition to Kalimdor. Her time with them was brief, but she did learn about warriors who could wield the Light. She had to wonder how they could do so without the ability to steal it from a naaru like the blood elves did. The purple-haired girl was an oddity. She had never seen anything like her. In one instance she looked like an elf, the next she looked like some sort of human-shaped dragon with pink scales. She used magic like your typical mage but then there were abilities that no normal mage would be able to wield. Red flames that burned enemies and healed allies reminded her of the flames of the Red Dragonflight but then she summoned a green mist which put a few Shadowmoon warlocks to sleep, a power not unlike that of the Green Dragonflight. At one point she even sped up time for her allies which was something that mages could do, but she had a suspicion that there was Bronze Dragonflight magic involved. What in the world was she? However, most of her focus, and the main reason for observing this group, was the druid among them. Raida recognized that pink hair from anywhere. She had no doubt who she was. She figured that she would be here since those Cenarion Circle druids were here to investigate Outland’s wildlife, something that would have greatly interested her from how she remembered her. Two questions popped into her head that she didn’t know the answer to. Why was she here in Hellfire Citadel murdering orcs? More importantly, how did she get so strong? That two-legged cat form was utterly mauling those Shadowmoon orcs and the Laughing Skulls were getting planted in the walls. If this was what the night elves were teaching the druids these days, she would have considered trying to be one years ago. Raida felt proud that Flutashe was coming into her own and had friends who had her back in these situations. It was too bad that she couldn’t properly introduce herself to them. She was a demon hunter, one of the most hated types of people on Azeroth. For all the demons she killed in her life, it would never prepare her to face her sister’s look of disappointment. Still, she had to introduce herself to them in some way, Lord Illidan was determined to have the contingency plan in place should the worst case scenario occur. The forces of Azeroth were strong, but they weren’t prepared to do what was necessary to destroy the Burning Legion. These invaders were probably Kil’jaeden’s move against him, to lure them to Outland unwittingly and let them do all the dirty work. With the fel orcs and Kael’thas’ treachery while claiming their association with the Illidari, there was no way to convince Azeroth that the Illidari weren’t their enemies. She noticed the group was about to attack that mo’arg demon who did so many pointless and wasteful experiments on people. Mo’args were from the same species as felguards except more intelligent and were mainly scientists and engineers. They had that green substance flowing through their barely held together bodies that were holding on with iron stitching. Mo’args were known to replace their body parts with mechanical enhancements. This one, known as The Maker, couldn’t put up a decent fight if he tried. The dragon girl caught one of his explosive beakers that he tossed at her and hurled it at his face which made Raida chuckle as the explosion knocked him back. Flutashe didn’t bother using her cat form and instead tore through the mo’arg’s stitchings with her bear form’s claws while the paladin created a shield which protected them from the green fallout. She kept that barrier up until they found dry floor again. The group proceeded into the next room with Raida secretly in pursuit, treading across the green fluid. Raida had no idea that a small invisible mechanical drone was observing her. On the other side of that drone, a certain blue rabbit was performing her scans. Lokosh rushed two Bonechewer guards who protected the doorway into a tower. Feloma ended them quickly. The group proceeded up a spiraling staircase in the tower until they reached an upper level where they found four Bleeding Hollow warlocks empowering a Bonechewer fighter who was nearly foaming at the mouth. Talia had her felguard rush in and decapitate one of the warlocks while Lokosh slammed his shield into the fighter’s face. Groun grew a few vines which strangled two more warlocks while Farra’jin bombarded the last warlock with fire and lightning. Lokosh held the rabid fighter against a wall while Feloma’s lynx, Autumn, ripped a leg off which made the orc turn his head to her and that earned him two arrows in his eyes and an ax to his now shattered skull. They exited the tower into an open area that was occupied by a large number of orcs and their wolves. Feloma’s pheromones evened the odds as the orcs were now forced to deal with the intruders as well as their rebellious wolves. Feloma shot a few warlocks in the throat to prevent them from casting while Farra’jin called on his fire and earth elementals to defend him. Groun focused on healing who would be injured while Talia unleashed a number of fiery and shadowy afflictions on every orc in sight to weaken them. To reduce the effectiveness of the enemy warriors, she also placed a curse on them that made them feel too exhausted to move properly. The chaos soon came to an end and the group was soon left with two options to take for paths. Feloma noticed a new type of demon at the end of the right path while a strange-looking drake flew around the left path. Lokosh pulled out a gold coin and called heads for the demon and tails for the drake. The coin landed heads. With their path set, they headed through the right path, dealing with a few warriors and a couple of warlocks. This demon had black skin and cloven hooves for feet. He appeared to have two heads. The upper head was cylindrical-shaped with a set of teeth that nearly went all the way around his head while sporting six twisting horns and some diamond on his forehead over what appeared to be empty, dead eyes. The second head was part of his torso with a colorful flame coming from its mouth and eyes. His wings were extended. “Your insolence will be your death,” the demon declared. The group spread out around the demon and attacked him from multiple angles. He tried summoning a felhound to assist him but Talia’s felhound moved to intercept and attack the pup the demon summoned. She wasn’t worried about her hound because he was more seasoned. The demon tried placing a dark spell on Feloma that would have discharged dark energies against her allies but they were too spread apart for that to work properly and Groun made sure the huntress was kept healthy. It wasn’t long before the demon was overpowered by the group and kneeled. With one last defiant look he spoke, “It is…not over.” Lokosh cut off the upper head while a series of stone shards impaled his chest head. They looked at the dead demon for a few moments in contemplation. “He seems important,” Lokosh said before he used his ax to chop off the demon’s left hoof. Raida observed from the shadows as Flutashe and her friends traveled down a hallway where the fel orcs infused their prisoners with felblood. They easily cut down the Shadowmoon warlocks and engineers who tested out their landmines on them. The dragon girl remotely triggered the mines by striking them with icicles. The unfortunate prisoners also had to be eliminated since the felblood had driven them mad. They entered another room at the end of the hall that appeared to be blocked off by a barred door made of twisted spikes. There were also a number of prison cells that held a number of freshly converted fel orcs mindlessly waiting for their first kill. Seeing this barbaric practice for herself, Raida was more sure than ever that these orcs were not worth what Illidan invested in them. He would likely be mad at her for this but she really didn’t care at this point. This was not the image of the Illidari that she wanted to give to the Azerothians. Once the party cleared out the orcs, they turned their attention to the giant lever in the room and the observer demon beyond the door. As they moved to pull it, Raida called out to the party, using the pendant her master gave her to conceal her voice. “Be careful, pulling that lever will release the prisoners in the cells around us as well as the demon you will soon face.” Bella, Stella, Mena and Flutashe quickly turned around to see the cloaked figure. They tensed and moved their hands to their weapons as they believed that they were in for another fight. “Who are you?” Bella demanded. “A warlock. I can help you against the prisoners while you take care of the observer.” “Thanks, but no thanks,” Stella declined. “We have no idea if we can trust you. You could be related to these fel orcs for all we know.” “Then perhaps one of you can assist me, someone who could deal with these orcs with or without me, like your druid friend.” The group looked at each other, a silent conversation occurring. None of them were willing to trust some stranger who showed up out of the blue to offer assistance. However, given the circumstances, they knew that regardless of what happened, someone had to pull that lever and bring everything being held back by the bars into the room. They knew that Flutashe could handle the orcs by herself while they handled the demon. What they weren’t sure of was whether or not the mysterious stranger would stab them in the back or not. They would have to keep a close eye on them during the fight. With no other options, Flutashe moved closer to the stranger while the others pulled the giant lever on the floor. With a click and the sound of metal grinding, every door in the room opened, sending in a large number of fel-incenced orcs and the giant observer demon. Raida figured that the three of them could handle Broggok, all he did was spit poison everywhere. He didn’t even know any ocular abilities like most of his kind could do. She saw her sister shift into her cat form, which Raida briefly gushed about while the others weren’t looking. With her sister going into action, she decided to get started too by summoning Truth and Lady Heartswell, her wrathguard and shivarra. “Truth, cut down those orcs to my right.” She pointed at the cell. “Lady Heartswell, the left side is yours.” “It will be done,” Truth said as he charged in with both swords ready. “As my lady commands,” Lady Heartswell said. Raida groaned as the shivarra had unknowingly given the others a small hint about her identity as they revealed her gender. “Great, first battle and my demons reveal a piece of the puzzle. At this rate it won’t be long before my sister realizes what I am…” she thought. Raida made it rain fire over a group of orcs who were exiting one of the cells before she turned around and fired a large bolt of shadow and fire magic that exploded and sent several orcs flying. Flutashe grabbed one of the flying orcs and used him as a club to knock away several more orcs. She spun around and threw the orc toward Raida by accident. “Watch out!” she cried. Raida saw the orc coming and smirked before she fired a Chaos Bolt which obliterated him. Meanwhile, the others were having no problems with the demon. Bella was the one facing his wrath but took care to move back whenever he dropped a cloud of poison. She gracefully avoided his bites while getting in a few hammer bashes that knocked out some teeth. Surprise struck each of the observer’s eyes with sharp shadow needles which lodged themselves there and started draining the life from the demon. With Flutashe handling the orcs and Bella keeping the demon’s attention, Stella took offensive and supportive roles at the same time. Her red flames healed Bella when she took a hit while she used her magic and dragon essence to blast the demon. Once the last of the fel orcs were obliterated by Raida, the other three were just about finished with Broggok. With that threat dealt with, the group turned toward the one who they were still unsure was a threat or not. “Now that that’s done, perhaps you may enlighten us as to who you are.” Raida knew that they were going to ask this, but she still struggled to come up with an answer. “I…uhh…” When it came to leading troops, she was always confident in what to say. However, her biggest weakness revealed itself whenever she was in the presence of her sister. She looked at the others but couldn’t bring herself to look at Flutashe. She could come up with a story for the others to believe, but she never once was able to fool her sister, even as they grew up. Bella narrowed her eyes. She had a keen eye for detail, a trait that was inherent in the Cartier family of jewelers and further tempered through her adventures. She noticed that the stranger was avoiding her druid friend on purpose. “Is there something about Flutashe that interests you?” she gasped. “Are you some sort of stalker planning to kidnap her for some sick pleasure?” Raida lost control of herself at that moment as her emotions took over. “What?! Eww! What kind of sick fantasies have you been reading?” In her shock, she failed to notice that a lock of her hair stuck out from under her hood. “Hope it wasn’t that weird steamy romance novel that just came out. Blech!” Despite what she said she actually binge read the book from beginning to end and it took Illidan to pull her away from it. Flutashe spotted the lock of hair. The clues were piling up and the figure’s defensive attitude toward a romance novel convinced her of the person’s identity, since there was only one person she knew who would behave like that and had hair in multiple colors. Even though the figure had disguised her voice, she failed to keep her habits in check. She gave the figure a deadpan look. “Take off the hood, Raida.” “Guess I wasn’t prepared for this,” she thought. Raida chuckled awkwardly but had enough presence of mind to place an illusion spell on her face to avoid showing her true nature to them before she pulled down her hood. “Eheh…guess I’m not a very go-” She was quickly tackled by Fluashe in her night elf form. The others prepared to step in to help but stopped when they realized that their friend was hugging the stranger. “My sister, I’m so happy to see you’re still alive! I had thought the worst when Maiev’s party never returned. I thought The Betrayer had killed you.” Raida winced as she said that, she wished that she could tell her the truth but she was not so naive to believe that her sister wouldn’t be devastated if she found out that she had joined the Illidari and took in fel magic. “Can you get off me? This is going to turn awkward quickly and this is hardly the place for this.” Flutashe suddenly remembered where they were and quickly removed herself from her. “Sorry about that.” She then frowned as she remembered something else she needed to have addressed. “Why are you using dark magic? You know that use of any magic is forbidden in Darnassian society. And what’s with those demons?” This was something that Raida did have an answer for, one that was close enough to the truth without giving away the whole thing. “I had to do what it took to survive, even if I had to befriend demons who, thankfully, weren’t associated with the Burning Legion. Not every demon sided with Sargeras’ dark crusade. I’ve had to fight to survive this dead world knowing I was stranded. I still have my skills from the academy, but it’s gonna take more than that to handle the dangers of this place. I had to learn dark magic from the renegade warlocks around here.” That last part was a lie since she learned those spells from Kael’thas and Illidan but it seemed that they bought her story for the most part. “Well, when you come home just don’t show those powers off around Darnassus or I won’t be able to save you from getting executed,” Flutashe warned. Even so, Raida was still uncertain if she would be returning home. Bella, Mena and Stella relaxed as they witnessed their friend’s casual behavior. Since she seemed to vouch for her, she might be alright to be around. Only time would tell. Once they claimed the hoof of the demon, Lokosh and the others backtracked to the fork and took the other path. Only a few sentries remained who guarded the platform the strange drake was flying around. The sentries were quickly dealt with but whoever was riding the drake took notice of the intruders. The rider yelled to them, “You have faced many challenges, pity they were all in vain. Soon your people will kneel to my lord! Face now his herald, Vazruden!” The drake flew low and allowed the fel orc riding him to jump off. Vazruden wore a dark gray version of Gargolmar’s armor and he carried a polearm that had a red burning blade. As the orc rushed forward, Lokosh charged in to slam him with his shield. Vazruden swung his weapon to meet the warrior’s charge which resulted in their attacks clashing. Neither gave an inch as the two warriors engaged in a shoving match. Vazruden was aware of the others so he whistled for his dragon to attack the others. Feloma attached a stick of dynamite to one of her arrows, lit it and fired it at the dragon. As the beast opened his mouth to unleash fire, the arrow reached his maw. The heat caused the explosive to go off early and the dragon was rewarded with an explosion going off in his face. The dragon was knocked out of the sky. “Nazan!” Vazruden shouted before he redoubled his efforts to knock his enemy away. Lokosh smirked as he suddenly moved out of the way and tripped the orc who had too much momentum and stumbled toward the edge. Vazruden barely managed to stop his motion at the edge of the platform so Lokosh helped him along with a nudge which sent the fel orc falling over a hundred feet into the canyon. Nazan managed to get back up after being stunned by the explosive before preparing to return to battle. Normally, dragons were intelligent creatures but when forcefully tamed they tended to behave like beasts which made them susceptible to attempts to control them, such as Feloma’s pheromones. The fight was over the moment Nazan smelled the alluring scent. While Feloma would have preferred a better looking creature to ride in the future, she decided not to be picky and allowed him to carry her places whenever she wished. To complete the taming, she placed a magical scent marker on Nazan and herself so that no matter where she was, he would come running when she called for him. With Vazruden at the bottom of the canyon and Nazan now Feloma’s pet, Lokosh realized that he had nothing to use as a trophy to show to Nazgrel. He shrugged and decided that his word would have to suffice in this case. With the entire area explored, it was time for them to return to Thrallmar. With Raida officially in the party, they proceeded into the next room which had a few Shadowmoon warlocks and a few blue-skinned felguards wandering around. The warlocks appeared to be enhancing the demons’ strength with some sort of spell that didn’t last very long. The party engaged the warlocks and felguards, Flutashe leaving a deep wound on the chest of one felguard. Stella prevented the warlocks from casting while Surprise attacked their fel-addled minds. Raida obliterated a felguard with a Chaos Bolt while Bella incinerated another with the full force of the Light. One warlock in the next room had summoned a pack of imps as a display of his power. That was when Loki snuck into the imp pack and lied to them about a loophole in their contracts that they could exploit which resulted in the imps turning on their summoner, bombarding him with Firebolts and incinerating him. The imps ended up suffering the penalty for turning on their summoner and burned to death. Loki returned to his master with a snicker, feeling proud about what he did. The party soon found themselves descending down a curved hallway that ended in a small room with more Shadowmoon warlocks and felguards with orange skin. While the demons were tougher than the previous kinds, they were still taken down easily and the warlocks quickly fell as well. “How long do you think your pathetic sorcery can hold me?” bellowed a deep rumbling voice. “Swagger all you like Magtheridon, we can hold you for as long as we need,” declared another voice confidently. It sounded like it came from the next room. Peering inside, the group saw a huge chamber. Most of the floor was one huge crude grate with a stone platform in the center. Standing on it were five Shadowmoon warlocks performing a protection ritual that had them fire beams of shadow magic at each other to where it formed a star. In the center of the star was a single fel orc in robes performing his own ritual. A barred doorway was the only way forward. More importantly, as they looked below the grate they discovered what they suspected was the source of the Fel Horde’s felblood. The level below appeared to contain a pit lord, a massive lizard-like, centaur-like demon with a giant pair of wings that lacked the capability to give the massive creature flight. He had two huge horns on the sides of his head that went down to his chest and pointed upward. Atop his head and down his back was a trail of green fire. He had armor plates on his shoulders and in front of his barrel. Raida knew he was here but was able to act surprised to keep up appearances. The others gulped. “Is that…?” Flutashe began. “Yeah, the fuel source of the Fel Horde,” Raida finished. “I once heard that there used to be a pit lord who ruled outland before Illidan but became decadent and complacent with his unchallenged position which made him easy prey. Now he serves as a source of power for Illidan’s fel orc army.” “We need to find a way to take him out and cut off the supply,” Stella said. Raida could take out Magtheridon herself but she couldn’t afford to blow her cover. She knew that they weren’t ready to deal with him yet either. “We’re not prepared to handle a powerful demon like that yet but we can give the Fel Horde a huge setback by killing the main orc in the room. Without him, the Fel Horde will have to divert a lot of their magical resources to keep the demon restrained. We can deal with Magtheridon another day.” Reluctantly, the others agreed to Raida’s proposal. Readying their weapons, the party moved in to attack the orcs in the room. The orcs were forced to attack the intruders, calling them fools and ignorant whelps for trying to disrupt the ritual. However, the group couldn’t care less about that and slaughtered the warlocks, leaving the main orc remaining. The orc noticed his protection was gone and saw the cause. In anger and frustration he was forced to halt his ritual. “You fools have no idea what you’re doing! You’ll ruin everything!” The orc began channeling shadow magic but Stella countered that cast. He then had to conjure a dark shield to protect him from Raida’s Chaos Bolts which left him open to Flutashe headbutting him and knocking him to the floor. He sat up but didn’t try to get up. The group cautiously moved closer to him. “Closer,” he mumbled. The group continued closing in on him. “Come closer…” Raida’s eyes widened as she remembered who the orc was. Keli’dan the Breaker was a ruthless orc who would trick his enemies to move toward him before he casted a powerful fire spell. Hastily, she summoned Truth, Lady Heartswell, Seeker and Leech and had them quickly throw the others back before she took a strong leap backward herself just in time before Keli’dan finished his spell. “AND BURN!” A fiery wave erupted from his feet that caused a large scorch mark on the platform. The demons were badly singed but they would recover. Raida quickly ended the fight by hitting him with a Chaos Bolt which blasted a hole in his chest. Keli’dan gasped in vain, coughing some of the last of his precious air he had remaining. “Good…luck. You’ll need it,” he said ominously with his last breath. With the ritual interrupted, the pit lord began to break free of his bindings. The party didn’t want to be here when he did. Thankfully, Mena found a switch that opened the gates into a crudely carved tunnel. The party rushed through the passage not finding any resistance and soon found themselves back at the entrance of the Blood Furnace. Not looking back, they quickly climbed up the stairs of the tower. None of them wanted to be there when the pit lord went on a rampage.