//------------------------------// // Trial of Strength: Second Half // Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// After a couple of days, the Horde party arrived in Blade’s Edge Mountains. They were told to stay on the eastern roads of Zangarmarsh to make sure they arrived at their correct destination as the western road would have taken them to the same region, but they would be in Alliance territory. They traveled through the swamp and headed north past Cenarion Refuge and a Horde outpost near a dead section of the swamp that looked like a lake used to have been there. The wildlife there suffered because of the lack of water but the group could do nothing for their plight. They traveled up a mountain pass and into a spider-infested tunnel that ultimately led into a forest inhabited by wolves and a warped species of chimaera with two heads and smooth, vibrant skin unlike the scaly and furred variant known on Azeroth. The wolves paid them no mind which hinted that they were trained by the local Horde. One or two chimaera pushed their luck before they reached their destination. They quickly learned that the town they entered was known as Thunderlord Stronghold, once home to the Thunderlord Clan of orcs until they became corrupted by the fel. Now the Horde claimed the place as a stronghold in Blade’s Edge for their war against the Bloodmaul and Bladespire ogre clans who were being led by two Sons of Gruul. Standing near the town center was an unusual-looking orc. He lacked the green color of one who drank felblood or inherited from their fathers, but it wasn’t quite brown like most mag’har. In fact, it was more of a sand color. He was also bulkier than the orcs around him while not looking hunched over like a dire orc. He wore the skins of animals for a loincloth, boots, gloves, right shoulder armor and a cowl. “Greetings travelers, I am Rexxar of the Mok’Nathal and I am the leader of this expedition,” the unusual orc said. “Mok’Nathal? I’ve never heard of that,” Lokosh said. “Not too many have, my kind are half breeds, descended from orcs and ogres.” A brown bear next to Rexxar began to brush up against him. Rexxar chuckled, “Heh, how could I forget to introduce you, Misha? You are my closest companion.” Misha hummed in satisfaction. “Getting to the topic of why we’re here…” Talia began impatiently, “We were asked to bring down the remaining Sons of Gruul. We have already dealt with two of them and the remaining five are supposed to be in this region.” Rexxar frowned in thought, “I see, the ogres in this region are led by Gorgrom and Goc while two others, Grulloc and Maggoc keep to themselves. Grulloc lives at the end of the canyon below us guarding a sack that seems to be of interest to an associate of mine while Maggoc wanders the Scalewing Shelf above us. I don’t know where the last son, Skulloc, is as my methods of tracking him are ineffective.“ “Is there anything you can provide us for our fights against these gronn?” Feloma asked. “It took everything we had and then some to take out Durn and Slaag.” Rexxar thought for a moment while looking at the town around him. “Very well, I shall assist you with Grulloc. He is not far from here and I need that sack that he’s guarding.” Lokosh and the others were glad for the extra assistance, but they weren’t certain if their chances were much better with a half breed and his bear accompanying them. Rexxar led the group to the back of the town where they descended down a small pass that led into the canyon. At the bottom, the group quickly took notice of a large building standing next to a watch tower, both crudely built out of an ogre styling of uncut stones and pointed logs. “What is that?” Lokosh asked. “That is the Circle of Blood Arena where warriors face other warriors in honorable combat,” Rexxar explained. “It was originally made to entertain the ogres with hazards added to make things more entertaining.” The group moved east from the arena but they only made it a short distance before they heard someone yelling for them. “Wait! Don’t go that way! A dangerous gronn lives there!” The figure running toward them was a two-headed ogre with red skin. The party prepared themselves for a fight but as he neared them, he stopped to catch his breath. Unsure what to think of the ogre, Lokosh decided on a diplomatic approach. “We are already aware of the gronn, we are going there to slay him.” “I hope that you are able, my people have been under the oppressive rule of Gruul and his sons for far too long,” the ogre said, leaving the group confused. “You don’t want the gronn ruling you?” Lokosh asked. “The Bloodmaul Clan where I once came from has an ongoing rivalry with the Bladespire Clan but they have the advantage over us because they have the favor of Gruul and his seven sons. The Bloodmaul chieftain entered into a desperate alliance with one of the sons, Gorgrom, to avoid being annihilated. The chieftain has recently been killed and the clan’s future is uncertain.” “Okay, two things,” Feloma began. “One, we don’t care about what happens to you or those two clans. We came here to kill gronn so saving your Bloodmaul Clan is only a side effect of that. Two, you are unusually well spoken for an ogre. You’re the first ogre we’ve seen who actually sounds like you’ve had a basic education.” Instead of being insulted, the ogre actually laughed jovially. Feloma had given what was effectively an insult and he took it in stride. Once the ogre was finished laughing, he spoke, “I don’t know if I’m smarter than most ogres, there are those who say I am wise. It’s why they gave me the nickname Mog’dorg the Wizened. If I do seem smarter, it’s because of the apexis crystals in this region. Most ogres don’t pay much attention to them but the sound they make opens my mind to a world beyond eating, sleeping and fighting. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter why you are killing the gronn, both clans will benefit in the end once they’re gone regardless.” “Do you have anything useful to say?” Talia asked, her patience wearing thin. “We already know about four of the five in this region and we killed the two who aren’t here. So if you know where we can find Skulloc we would appreciate it.” “Ah good, then you may be able to handle yourself against Grulloc,” Mog’dorg said. “With Durn and Slaag dead and possibly Grulloc soon, my people may have hope. Skulloc keeps himself well hidden using dark magics taught to him by an ogre warlock named Vim’gol the Vile. You will need to steal his grimoire and use it at Soulgrinder’s Barrow near the Bloodmaul Camp north of the arena. It’s the only way to lure him back to this world.” “And where will we find this Vim’gol?” “There is a ritual area of fire and brimstone just off the road near the border to Faralon to the east. You may run into Maggoc on your way there. Just keep following the eastern road north until you’re near the border and you should be near the ritual area. You need five people standing in circles of fire to summon him and to weaken him if he decides to empower himself.” “I know where Maggoc is,” Rexxar said. “So we must continue north from where we will find him?” Mog’dorg nodded. “Thank you for this information, we shall put it to good use.” After giving his farewells, Mog’dorg returned to his post which was on top of a nearby watchtower, apparently. The rest of the group continued east where they spotted the massive gronn not far away. “Be careful,” Rexxar warned. “These creatures can slay dragons with their bare hands. The carcases above us are victims of their might.” He pointed up and the others looked to where he was pointing and saw a grizzly sight of at least half a dozen dead black dragons, fully grown from their appearances. They were impaled on the countless long stone spikes along the cliff that gave the region its name. The party recoiled from seeing such a sight. “These are the ones who fell before Gruul the Dragonkiller. Their bodies serve as a testament to the gronn’s supremacy here.” The party gulped and looked at the nearby gronn who was standing in front of a sack while holding a dragon skull in one hand, admiring it as if it were a trophy. They readied their weapons and prepared for a tough battle. “Let’s go!” Rexxar declared. He then charged in with the others not far behind. Grulloc soon spotted the coming attackers before he set the skull down next to the sack and moved to engage. Lokosh and Misha each attacked one leg with Talia, Feloma and Farra’jin shooting from a distance. Rexxar delivered a hard slash to Grulloc’s left arm with his jagged axes which caused the gronn to roar and turn his gaze to the mok’nathal. Grulloc used his right hand in an attempt to smash Rexxar but the hunter moved out of the way before he delivered another slash to his right thumb, producing another deep cut. Seeing that the half breed was causing more damage than he was and the bear was producing the same result, Lokosh grew frustrated and began slashing harder, deepening the cut with each slash. He realized that he needed to train harder for the future. Rexxar whistled, calling another of his animal companions to his aid. This one was a large boar who was about as large as Misha. The boar pawed the ground before charging. The gronn didn’t pay attention to the boar until it was just under him and too late to stop it from slamming into his gut, causing Grulloc to roar in pain which Feloma capitalized on with an explosive arrow into his mouth. As the gronn began to cough up the smoke from the explosion, his head was lowered enough that Farra’jin’s earth elemental was able to punch him in the face several times, causing Grulloc to lose a few teeth in the process. Grulloc locked his fists together and quickly smashed the elemental but was taken by surprise when an arrow struck him in his eye, blinding him. He began to flail blindly but the attackers were able to easily dodge his attacks. With the gronn blinded, the party was able to strike harder against him without worry of any intentional counterattacks. Rexxar dealt several deep cuts to Grulloc’s arms and caused him to lose strength while the attacks on his legs were becoming too much and he soon fell over. Rexxar dealt one last strike with a jump into the air and a heavy downward chop that landed deep into the gronn’s skull. The gronn stopped moving after that. Three down, four to go. With the essence of an extraplanar being and hope that the arcane fallout from Stella’s little stunt didn’t cause any further damage to the ruins or the land, the dracthyr and the party moved far enough away from the magical residue to open a portal. However, she didn’t intend to return to Shattrath just yet. Instead, she opened a portal to Coilfang Reservoir, thankful that she remembered to place an anchor there or the journey there would have been very bothersome. The rest of the party were not sure why they were back in the underground cavern beneath Serpent Lake in Zangarmarsh so Bella voiced their concern. “Stella, why are we here? I thought we would be returning to Shattrath.” Stella nodded in understanding, “There isn’t much point in returning to Shattrath yet and we can rest here since it seems that the Cenarion Expedition has this place secured.” She pointed to the night elf and tauren guards around the cavern who were taken by surprise for a moment until some of the guards recognized the party and ordered them to return to their patrols. “A’dal’s Trial of Strength requires us to face not only Murmur but the leader of the Coilfang Naga outside Serpentshrine Cavern, Warlord Kalithresh.” They soon spotted a broken walking toward them. “Greetings travelers, I take it that you are the group who rescued Naturalist Bite.” They nodded. “I am Mortog Steamhead, the Expedition is preparing for an assault on the Steamvault and should be ready in a few hours. Bite, Rayge and Claw are looking forward to working with you.” “Any luck on getting past that waterfall curtain?” Stella asked. “Afraid not, there appears to be a device next to the waterfall that will trigger if anyone who isn’t a naga gets near it. They end up either crushed by the waterfall or blasted away by a torrent of water. We tried disabling the device itself but there appears to be a failsafe that would cause the waterfall to deliver lethal amounts of pressure constantly. We were lucky that the device reset or we would be forced to find another way into the Cavern, if there were any.” “Then it seems that we really do need that one naga’s help in getting past the waterfall,” Stella mumbled. “We can worry about that later,” Mortog continued. “For now you may rest and we shall commence the operation to infiltrate the Steamvault in a few hours.” The party accepted the broken’s offer and spent some time eating some fruits offered by the Expedition before resting in some bedrolls that the Expedition provided. Flutashe gave one of the druids her notes on what she learned about the fauna of Terokkar Forest and the fel-tainted wildlife of Shadowmoon Valley before she joined the others. A few hours later, a druid awoke the group from their slumber, informing them that it was time for their operation. They returned the bedrolls to the druids before readying themselves for the attack. They joined up with Bite, Rayge and Claw as they stared down the cavern next to the waterfall. Once they were prepared, they proceeded into the carved cavern past some abandoned naga supplies and turned the corner. The short passage quickly led into a large chamber that was partially flooded with some bushes growing from the cavern floor. A massive machine was lying on its side and appeared incomplete. The residents of the chamber consisted of a large number of naga along with a few groups of water elementals and a few fungal giants who reeked of rot and decay. The party was no stranger to the stench given off by fungal giants but this was almost overwhelming. How the naga could tolerate that smell none of the party could figure out. Still, they had to endure the smell to move forward. They began by attacking the nearby guards and engineers. With the eight of them, they were defeated quickly. A nearby fungal giant moved to engage them but Raida and Loki blasted the creature with fire which proved that the giant was highly flammable. Whatever was causing the smell only added fuel to the fire. A group of water elementals soon took notice of the group and attacked. This one was composed of one large elemental and four smaller elementals. All five of them attacked by chilling parts of their bodies to freezing before releasing icy bolts at the party. Claw used his bear form to knock away the bolts with his paws. Stella counterattacked with a few fire spells followed by a molten breath which caused the elementals to evaporate a little while Flutashe grabbed the bracers of the smaller elementals in one swift motion of her cat form and crushed them in her paws, causing the elementals to return to their natural state. Bite assumed a wildkin form and bombarded the large elemental with searing rays of sunlight and moonlight which caused the elemental to evaporate even further. The druid was relentless and didn’t stop casting until only the bracers remained. They didn’t have time to rest though as more naga and fungal giants noticed the commotion and attacked. Raida and her demons continued burning down the giants who struggled to put out the flames using the water in the chamber while the others overpowered the naga. It took them a little while but they finally cleared the chamber of Coilfang forces. However, they soon noticed a small circular chamber at the top of a ramp at the far end of the chamber. Rayge snuck over to the chamber to scout it and quickly returned. “There appears to be a single female naga guarded by two water elementals. They seem to be guarding some sort of device.” The group nodded and followed the druid to the chamber which appeared to be a vertical half pipe with a grated floor. Some crates and a water tank were in there aside from what Rayge described. “That may be Hydromancer Thespia from the reports,” Rayge said. “She is very good at controlling water.” Thespia heard the druid talk and moved to investigate with her elementals at her side. She quickly caught sight of the intruders. “Surface Dwellers!” she hissed. She then ordered her water elementals to attack. Raida quickly banished one elemental to another plane of existence temporarily while her demons and Flutashe attacked the other elemental. Claw held Thespia’s attention while the rest attacked her. Truth and Heartswell quickly slashed apart the elemental’s bracers and caused it to disperse. Thespia quickly found herself overwhelmed, even as she tried creating localized lightning storms and magically crushing the lungs of some of her enemies, they easily moved away from the lightning while the gnome broke her spells. Knowing that her life was about to end, she gave one last declaration, “Our Matron will be…the end of…you…” By the time the other elemental returned from the other plane, it could only watch as its master was savaged by the claws of several druids. With its master dead, the magic binding the elemental came undone and the elemental dispersed. “That seemed a little too easy,” Stella noticed. “We did outnumber her greatly,” Bella replied. “Whatever the case, the lower chamber is cleared out. Now we must move to the upper chamber,” Claw said. Suddenly, a faint rumbling sound could be heard somewhere in the cavern along with the sound of a nearby machine humming. The party looked at the machine that Thespia was guarding and saw Mena tampering with the controls. “Huh, so that did something, I think…” “What are you doing?” Bella asked. “I dunno, I saw a blinking button on this thing and something told me that I needed to push it,” Mena said. “Without knowing what it did?!” Stella asked incredulously. “You could have gotten blown up if that was a self-destruct button!” “A machine designed to blow up? I doubt the naga would take after goblins. Besides, it would be silly for someone like Thespia to guard something that was designed to explode.” The others sighed in exasperation but decided to drop the matter and move on. As they moved toward a tunnel that would take them to the upper chamber, Stella took note of the deep pool nearby. She suddenly remembered Khadgar saying that he hid a key fragment in a deep pool and since the rest of the chamber appeared to be shallow water, that left the nearby pool as a good place to look. Remembering how Raida cast the spell before, she cast the water breathing spell on herself before diving in, to the surprise of the others. She swam deeper and deeper until she finally reached the bottom of the pool. Looking around she spotted a canister like the one she saw in the Shadow Labyrinth. As she swam close to it, she opened the canister to look inside only to barely turn away her head before a surge of arcane energy erupted from it, knocking her back a fair distance. An arcane elemental like the one from before appeared before her. However, with her blue dragon essence she was able to draw in the arcane energies and stored it inside her body for a time until she found someone to unleash it on. Just like before, a fragment of a key remained where the elemental once was. She swam to the bottom of the pool to pick it up before placing it in her pocket with the other fragment. She now only had one last fragment to find. Stella emerged from the pool a couple of minutes later and swam to shore. “Did you find something?” Flutashe asked. “Yeah, another key fragment. It was right where Khadgar said it would be.” As they resumed their travel, Bite spoke, “Lady Flutashe, may I ask you something?” “What is it?” Flutashe asked. “Where did you learn that unusual cat form? All of us are trained to use the same form bestowed upon us by Moonglade’s Saber Spirit. I also saw that serpentine form you used against Quagmirran a few days ago.” Flutashe nodded, “Actually, those forms came from unorthodox sources. During my adventure in the troll city of Zul’Gurub, the animal spirits that we freed there saw fit to bestow their blessings on me for some reason. Though they were the type who receive power through worship by trolls, going by the term ‘loa’.” Bite’s, Claw’s and Rayge’s eyes widened at such a revelation. There had never been any individuals outside of the troll race who had been bestowed such blessings by the Wild Gods who favored the trolls. What they heard was unprecedented. “If you don’t mind, please keep my unusual forms a secret from everyone else, I’d rather not have such knowledge fall into the wrong hands, especially Fandral’s.” Flutashe requested. “Why would you want to hide such a thing from him?” Rayge asked. “Let’s just say that he and I don’t see eye to eye.” There was more to say but she didn’t want to get into a debate about Fandral’s character here, especially if they still believed in the treacherous archdruid. “Very well then, your secret shall be safe with us,” Claw said. The other two nodded in agreement. The group proceeded up a short, ramping tunnel that curved slightly. At the top they encountered more groups of naga who seemed somewhat tougher than the ones on the lower level. These naga appeared ready to fight them as if they were being expected. The eight of them took on the naga warriors and mages in the room and eventually came out victorious. With the area cleared, they observed the room and found a large number of crates and a path to the right and a door at the far end of the room. To their left was an overlook that showed what went on in the lower levels. The party suspected that was the reason the naga were ready for a fight as they entered. Stella flew over to the door at the far end of the room and felt around for something to open it. To her dismay there were no openings or knobs nor any arcane locks. She had to wonder if it was a door or a dead end. “Maybe there’s another device like the one Thespia guarded somewhere around here?” Mena offered. “Maybe we need to activate both of them to open the door.” Seeing as they had no other options, they decided to cross a bridge into another area of the Steamvaults. It was in this area that they saw something that reminded them of the Slave Pens. A large number of broken slaves were toiling away while they were overseen by a few naga. When attacked, the naga called on their slaves to fight with them. To avoid fighting the unfortunate slaves, Stella froze them in place with ice magic while the slavers were overwhelmed and quickly eliminated. With hope in their eyes, the slaves made a break for the exit when they thawed. They soon entered another chamber which appeared to be occupied by what appeared to be gnome mechanics. There was a large red piece of gnomish engineering in the form of a mecha suit. “Why would gnomes work with the naga?” Bella asked. Mena peered at the distant gnomes and gasped dramatically, “Those aren’t just gnomes, they’re leper gnomes!” The others gave her questioning looks. “Didn’t you all hear about what happened in Gnomeregan? All the toxic gas that sprayed all over the place, I was there when it happened. If it wasn’t for that weird gas I inhaled instead, I’d be one of them. “Are you saying that those ‘leper gnomes’ are the result of being exposed to that toxic gas?” Mena nodded, “Yepperooni! There’s also the fact that exposure to the gas destroys their sanity so they have no sense of morality, and it turns their skin as green as a goblin.” “Yeah, I didn’t think Vashj’s forces would be able to engineer all the pumps and arcane machinery without some help from gnomes or goblins,” Raida said. “I heard that she hired some gnomish engineer who called himself Mekgineer Steamrigger.” Surprisingly, the leper gnomes whom they attacked were not well trained for combat and relied on throwing their wrenches or shooting with their blunderbusses. Some tried casting spells but they were all tossed by Flutashe into a chasm filled with water. If some survived or could swim, they would not be back for a while. All that was left was Steamrigger, who was most likely piloting the mecha, and a few gnomes at his feet. Bite quickly incinerated the other gnomes with sunfire while the others focused on Steamrigger. They were about to get into a big fight when Surprise spoke up, “You guys hang back while I handle this loser.” The others looked at her as if she grew a second head which, in a sense, she did over a year ago but that was beside the point. “Are you sure you want to take this guy on by yourself?” Stella asked. “Yeah, I got this.” The others decided to trust the devious side of Mena and moved a respectable distance away. Steamrigger laughed as he approached the priest with his huge, imposing machine. “You are going to take on this piece of precision gnomish engineering by yourself? You are funny!” Surprise gave a vicious smirk that Steamrigger couldn’t see from his pilot seat. “If you thought that was funny, then you will find this one hilarious.” Dark magic wrapped around Surprise’s hands before the same aura could be seen around Steamrigger’s head. The leper gnome suddenly walked his machine over to the device he was guarding and pressed a button on it. A distant sound of rumbling could be heard again except this time it was followed by stone grinding against metal. Once the device was activated, Steamrigger piloted his mecha toward the edge of the chasm before he jumped into the water while screaming, “I AM A STUPID LOSER!” as cheerfully as he could. Apparently the mecha was not waterproof as the moment the suit landed in the water below, it discharged high voltage electricity. This had the result of electrocuting not only the pilot but also any leper gnomes who failed to swim away. The party had the pleasure to see the light show from a safe distance. Once the light show ended, some like Bella and Flutashe felt sorry for the unfortunate gnome who died in a horrific way but they quickly got over that. Surprise returned to the party while laughing uproariously. They decided not to question the priest’s methods and went back the way they came. When they returned to the previous chamber they found that the distant door was now open and a number of naga were guarding it. The eight of them had no trouble dealing with the guards while they forced their way beyond the door, eliminating more guards beyond it. Once the last of the defenders were defeated, the party noticed that they entered a chamber that had a number of water tanks next to the railing. At the end was a particularly strong looking naga wearing thick chainmail shoulders, chestpiece and gloves. He was also carrying a red glowing trident. “That must be Kalithresh,” Stella said. “A’dal said that he wanted that trident.” Kalithresh likely heard what she said as he burst out laughing. “You come for my trident? You think you can best me simply because you bested my guards? I will crush each and every one of you!” He then slithered forward and delivered a series of swings with his trident which most of the party dodged. However, Rayge was caught off guard by a heavy swing that he failed to dodge properly and was knocked hard into the railing where he passed out. Stella took to the air and fired blasts of red flames at the naga who blocked them with his trident before throwing knives at her with good accuracy. It became too dangerous for her to face him from the air so she quickly landed but not before a knife landed in her right arm. “Argh!” she grunted. Kalithresh readied his defenses before slapping away a few spells thrown at him by Mena and sending them back at her. She was able to dodge the returning spells. The naga warlord was not prepared for swords bursting from the floor which faded quickly. He was forced to back away which left him open to a light hammer in the face. Growling in frustration that he was slowly being overwhelmed, he turned to one of the tanks near him and opened it, downing the contents quickly. He wiped his mouth as he said, “This is not nearly over!” He then found himself slightly larger and the party found that his attacks hit a lot harder when his trident left a dent in the floor. Claw and Bite tried to endure the attacks with their bear and wildkin forms but they were knocked away and slammed into a wall where they passed out. “Squirm, surface filth!” he laughed as he swung his trident around. He felt that he had the intruders on the run and would soon take them down one by one. However, that came to an end when he found that something faster than he could see had delivered a large number of deep cuts all over his body in the span of a second. One last slash cut his wrist holding his trident and forced him to drop it. Breathing heavily as he began to bleed out, Kalithresh looked for his assailant who pulled back her hood. He recognized that rainbow hair anywhere. “L-Lady Raida!? Why?” Raida sighed as she gave him a sad look, “I never figured why you naga were so determined to steal Zangarmarsh’s water. I know that the water is slowly spilling into the Twisting Nether, but this isn’t the solution since it would only kill the wildlife faster and deprive us of a food supply. “But that’s not why I had to kill you. We need that trident so the naaru can give us access to that traitor’s stronghold. You already knew that Kael’thas planned to betray us, Lord Illidan wants me to see to his demise. I don’t know what you did to earn the ire of the naaru to where they would have your demise be used as an objective in some trial of theirs, but I will do what I must to fulfill my lord’s mission.” Kalithresh said nothing as his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. Raida closed her eyes and shook her head. “Let’s go,” she said sadly. Flutashe quickly checked the unconscious druids for injuries but was relieved that they were alright and would recover soon. She wrote them a note to tell them what happened and to include her note in the report before she joined the others as Stella quietly opened a portal to Shattrath to report the completion of the first trial.