//------------------------------// // The Pinnacle // Story: Seekers of the Epitaph: Frozen Wastes // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Bella, Jaqueline and the others spent a day resting after their adventure in the lower section of Utgarde Keep. Vice Admiral Keller was debriefed about what happened and was amazed that the group was able to take down one of the Lich King’s winged harbingers. Defeating the leader of the attacks on Valgarde was certain to cause the vrykul attacks to lose their edge but defeating a val’kyr was sure to send a message to Arthas. In regard to the threats that remain in the Howling Fjord, there were still several accounted for. The Forsaken continued their inhumane experiments, however their main enemy was still the same as the Alliance. The motives of the iron dwarves in the northeast were still unknown at this time, though they had been subjugating stone giants for some unknown purpose since the giants were traveling north toward Grizzly Hills. A group of pirates who set themselves up in the southwest appeared to be minding their own business so they were left alone. Keller believed that the time was near for them to drive the Scourge out of the region. Since their fortress in the northwest, Gjalerbron, was dismantled by some adventurers recently, the only Scourge presence left in the region was Utgarde. Knowing that they would be attacking the pinnacle of Utgarde soon, the party was ordered to get some rest for tomorrow. Talia couldn’t help but wonder how they keep getting into the messes they get into. It all started when they had to hunt down a bunch of diseased mammoths and take their pelts. However, none of them had the skills necessary to take the hide from a mammoth so the village had to offer the services of one of their hunters to skin the animals for them. This was followed by them wandering around the area collecting jars of toxic dirt from around the City of En’kilah so they could cure the hides with it for a stealth operation to infiltrate the city. Once they had the cloaks, they had to scout the buildings in the city while avoiding the abominations who could somehow blow their cover. They discovered several important individuals in the buildings. One appeared to be a large crypt fiend while another seemed like it looked less like an undead nerubian and more like a scarab beetle the size of a timber wolf. The third was an undead elf mage. Deciding to take some initiative, they decided to take out these individuals and take back to camp whatever they had on hand. Taking down the crypt fiend and the elf were easy but they didn’t have much knowledge on the beetle-like nerubian but found that its shell was thick. They had to use Talia’s demons and Farra’jin’s elementals to crush the creature. From their persons, the group found three scrolls. Opening them, the group read the words “Shabtir bakh sokhen”. They took the scrolls to the village chieftain and translated the words somehow, which surprised the group since they had no idea anyone was even capable of translating the spider language. The chieftain translated “The servant bows to the master’s authority”. With the words, they would be able to access the Scourge transporter at the bottom of the city that would take them to the necropolis floating above the city where the leaders were. Unfortunately, with the deaths of the priests from earlier, the city was on high alert and their cloaks were no longer effective. For Talia, it was better this way since she hated everything about that cloak to the point that she nearly fell into her Canterlot noble mentality. The group tore through the defenders composed of abominations, ghouls and gargoyles while they searched for the teleporter which was not far from the entrance. Using the words, the group stepped onto the teleporter and appeared in the center of an eerie stone structure. The immediate area was guarded by skeletal mages who were quickly dispatched. A pair of darkfallen death knights were distracted by Talia’s demons while everyone rushed the pair as a group. After clearing out the entire area, the group wasn’t sure if they defeated the leader or if those death knights from earlier were the leaders. They considered that their work was done until Lokosh spotted what appeared to be a teleporter just above the teleporter they arrived in. He decided to test it out and disappeared. The others followed him quickly where they entered another chamber. This one had a lot more darkfallen death knights. Once again the group was forced to deal with the elven death knights. Some of them subjected them to painful diseases and others tried to chill them to the bone. Feloma shot most of the death knights in the head while Farra’jin had his water totem cure their illnesses. They soon reached the upper level to the chamber via the stairs and found a darkfallen who looked different from what they found in the necropolis so far. This one wore blood red robes with teal gems embedded. The elf looked at the group and clicked his tongue in disappointment. “Pathetic! My servants let a bunch of riffraff run rampant through my necropolis? Are death knights even worth keeping around anymore?” He sighed. “No matter, if I must dirty my hands then so be it. Come mortals and die by the hands of Prince Valanar!” Talia sent her demons to attack Valanar but were quickly repelled by a kinetic blast that sent the demons flying away and followed up with several black lances that destroyed them in a single wave of his hand. Feloma’s arrows met a barrier that protected the darkfallen prince. Her pets tried to attack him but he sent the beasts flying off the platform. Summer and Autumn would have met the same fate as Talia’s demons but Feloma’s arcane arrows intercepted the san’layn’s black lances. It was when the group started to work together that Valanar began feeling pressured as Farra’jin’s earth elemental was large enough to keep him from seeing Talia casting a fire spell that caused fire to rain on him. His barrier blocked it but the fire distracted him long enough that the earth elemental got close enough to punch his shield. The force of the earth elemental’s attack was enough to shatter his barrier. Valanar staggered from the blow which gave Talia an opportunity to summon her felhound to sneak past the elf’s defenses while he was distracted. The darkfalen was not completely distracted but the demon successfully drained a significant amount of his magic before he speared them with a shadow lance. As he did the same to the elemental, he was slammed in the chest by Lokosh who charged at him through the dust that was kicked up when the elemental was destroyed. The orc jumped away in time to avoid a volley of arcane arrows that pierced Valanar’s chest. He coughed up blood but then ended up pinned to the wall by several more arcane arrows. One last arrow struck him in the head to bring an end to the undead prince. The group took a few minutes to rest before leaving the necropolis from the way they came. Flutashe’s dreams were once again disturbed by the cries of more Loa. However, this time there was one that came from someone whom she was familiar with. A wild god who was revered among the night elves. “Ursoc…” she muttered in her sleep. The Wild God was famous for his bravery and tenacity, especially during the War of the Ancients. He and his spiritualistic brother, Ursol were two of the most powerful Wild Gods to walk Azeroth. The druid also heard cries of pain from Loa further north. There were a lot more of them this time. The cries came from a snake, unlike the one from Zul’Gurub, a snow leopard, a polar bear, a mammoth, a wind serpent, unlike Hakkar, and a rhino. Flutashe had a sinking feeling that it may already be too late. Unlike the last cries for help, these were either faint or distorted. Then her thoughts turned to the trolls who were likely the ones responsible. She trembled in barely contained anger on her bed for several minutes as she struggled to regain control of her emotions. Raida was in the bed next to her sister and she could pick up on the rage within her. She sat up in her bed and looked toward her enraged sister. “Deep breaths, sis. I want you to explain to me why you are angry without waking everyone up.” Flutashe was thankful that she still had the presence of mind to be mindful of others when she felt like screaming and she didn’t want to disturb everyone just because she was in a bad mood. After ten minutes of taking deep breaths, Flutashe began to explain her dream and how it and her previous dreams related to Loa led her to making an effort to rescue them. Raida stayed quiet during the entire time her sister vented and listened patiently. Her time training under Illidan had taught her patience since acting hastily can give an inner demon a weakness to exploit. It also helped that she learned this skill since she had to clean up after her master’s mistakes sometimes. Raida took a deep breath and told her sister what she already knew. “You know that we can’t just rush to the north to rescue a bunch of troll gods. We already have our hands full dealing with the Scourge and we don’t have enough information on the northern regions yet to push the campaign in that direction.” “I understand,” Flutashe replied. “I just feel so helpless that we can’t do anything to save them and I still don’t understand why these trolls would torture the gods they were supposed to revere.” “Right now, we need to focus on our priorities. First we need to secure this region and establish a strong foothold, then we need to aid the Alliance forces in Dragonblight. We can push into troll territory after that.” It saddened her that she couldn’t uplift her sister’s dejected mood. Then an idea hit her. It was dangerous, but after how well they thrashed those vrykul in Utgarde, she felt a little confident in the combat strength of her friends. “I have an idea, let’s run it by our friends and see how they feel about it. Once we defeat King Ymiron, we’ll see about splitting up. I’ll go with you and we can go punish those evil trolls together.” Raida suddenly found herself pinned on her bed from her sister pouncing on her. She could feel the warmth of the embrace as she chuckled and returned the hug. The party was rested and ready to go before the sun rose. Raida and Flutashe explained the situation that was going on further north and offered a suggestion of splitting up to deal with more threats. Surprisingly, Stella seemed more than willing to go along with this. She gave the reasoning that her home city of Dalaran had recently literally uprooted itself and teleported to a region in the very center of Northrend. Her main concern was that she found out that the Blue Dragonflight had recently declared war on all mortal spellcasters and they were likely to make a move on the city in the near future. They soon agreed to split up into three groups of two. Flutashe and Raida would explore the regions to the north while Stella and one other would protect Dalaran for a time, leaving the last two to provide aid to the Alliance forces in Dragonblight. Following the meeting, the group utilized their various means of flight. Raida and Stella deployed their wings, Flutashe shifted into her bird form, Bella and Mena summoned their wings of light and Jaqueline blew her whistle to summon Winona. The group was caught by surprise when they saw that Jaqueline’s faithful companion was a skeleton of a gryphon. The death knight explained what happened which was responded with a group hug for her and Winona. Once the moment was over, the group took flight and flew around the towering vrykul keep for any other entrances. It took them some time before they found one atop the cliffs halfway to the top. They landed near the entrance and made their final preparations before they moved in. Once inside, they proceeded through a narrow entryway and found themselves in what appeared to be a treasury filled with all sorts of valuables from gold coins, gems, priceless statues and artifacts. A number of skeletons were digging through the piles of loot that the vrykul had accumulated over the centuries. “This appears to be where the vrykul leave their tributes to King Ymiron,” Bella noted. “Not a very safe place if you ask me, this hoard is right next to the entrance,” Mena commented. The skeletons appeared to ignore the group as long as they stayed away from the loot which was fine by them since they were not here for the riches. The greedy adventurers could have that if they wanted. They encountered their first sign of enemies further inside the treasury in the form of several vrykul and an abomination. A female among them used shamanistic spells to heal her allies so Stella quickly incapacitated her while the others overpowered the vrykul before ending her. The abomination was as strong as their build suggested but they were also slow. The main bother was a disease it tried to inflict on one of them which Mena quickly cured. Leaving the treasure room, they walked onto a terrace where they encountered more vrykul and abominations who were dealt with the same way as the first group. They soon reached the end and entered another chamber on the upper level. Looking down from the walkway, they saw a large number of vrykul observing some event going on. A single female vrykul appeared to be staring into a large mirror at the stage. Jaqueline could feel the familiar dark aura coming from it. “Ah sense Arthas,” she quietly told the others. Soon an image of the Lich King appeared in the mirror and the female vrykul knelt down to him. “My liege! I have done as you asked, and now beseech you for your blessing.” Arthas’ deep, gravelly voice resounded through the halls, “Your sacrifice is a testament to your obedience. Indeed, you are worthy of this charge.” He then pointed his sword at the vrykul, a powerful wave of dark magic emerged from the tip of it and enveloped her. Her skin turned pale and her robes were replaced by armor similar to what Annhylde wore. A pair of black wings that faded to white at the tips emerged from her back. “Arise, and forever be known as Svala Sorrowgrave!” Once the ritual was over the vrykul watching the event left the room to resume their duties. Svala stared at her new body and felt the incredible power within her. She felt that she could crush anyone who dared disturb the reign of her master. “This sensation is beyond my imagining. I am yours to command, my king!” The party soon found that their presence didn’t go unnoticed by Arthas as he spotted them on the upper level. “Your first test awaits you. Destroy our uninvited guests!” Svala then looked where her master looked and spotted the intruders who decided to proceed down the stairs to the auditorium floor where they could fight the newly dubbed val’kyr. A wicked smirk formed on the part of her face that was visible under her helmet. “I will be happy to slaughter them in your name. Come, enemies of the Scourge, I will show you the might of the Lich King!” She then pulled out a large sword that was slightly longer than she was tall. Jaqueline charged in and clashed blades with the val’kyr. While the death knight was afflicting her with diseases, Svala fought back by causing the nearby braziers to unleash flames on her and her friends. Stella maintained a ward that blocked the flames from getting to them. Svala soon found the death knight overpowering her with her powerful strikes and was pushing her back. She decided to distract her enemy by summoning one of her friends, the gnome, to the altar on the stage and summoned a copy of her blade to drift downward toward her. To make sure the gnome didn’t escape, she summoned several banshees to maintain a paralysis spell on her. “What will you do now, death knight?” Svala taunted. “Uhh, a little help here?” Mena pleaded. “Playin’ dirty, huh?” Jaqueline responded by summoning a ghoul that she sent to annoy an abomination in the nearby corridor by throwing a bone spike at them. Angered, the abomination chased after the ghoul and paid no mind to their surroundings as the ghoul weaved around the banshees while the golem barreled through them, disturbing their spell. Mena quickly jumped off the altar and returned to her friends while the ghoul stood on the altar where the abomination grabbed them and tried to crush them in their grip, not noticing the sword above their head. The ritual sword came down on the stitched golem and caused it to explode. Svala ended up distracted by the blood and viscera of her ally on her which gave Jaqueline an opening to knock her sword out of her hand. The val’kyr directed the flames of the braziers at the death knight while she retrieved her sword but Jaqueline cut Svala’s wings off when she wasn’t looking and finished her with a powerful slash. With a fatal wound, Svala stared at Jaqueline in disbelief. She came so far only to die just as she attained her goal which was beyond frustrating for her. “I did not come this far…to…” was all she could voice as her last breath left her. The group spared no time to pity the val’kyr and continued forward through the small corridor and into a small break room inhabited by vargul and wolves. The latter felt Flutashe’s aura and turned on the undead vrykul. They proceeded up a flight of stairs and the wolves at the top took down more of the vargul while the group proceeded into the next room. They entered a hall that looked like a display room for various creatures that the vrykul had conquered in the past. The left side of the hall displayed a giant worgen like the ones the Horde group talked about in the past as well as a giant worm-like creature with icy blue hair running along its length and claws along its sides. On the right side was a giant snarling furbolg and a rhino. At the far end of the room was another creature that they had never seen before. This one looked like a centaur with the thick fur of a wooly mammoth and tusks to match. He carried a spear in his hand. After the wolves dealt with the vargul in the room, Mena noticed a strange device near the furbolg statue. While she was curious as to what it did, she decided it was best to leave it alone. For all she knew, it would cause the statues in the room to come to life and drag herself and the others into a series of unnecessary fights. The others agreed to that sentiment and left it alone. Leaving the trophies be, the group walked out of the hall and onto another terrace where they were quickly noticed by a vrykul with icy blue skin and beard. His armor appeared to be growing icicles which seemed unusual for the area. While the temperatures in southern Northrend were very cold, the region wasn’t that bad. The vrykul stood next to a blue proto drake. “What mongrels dare intrude here?” the frost vrykul shouted. “Look alive, my brothers! A feast for the one that brings me their heads!” He then mounted his drake and took to the air. Raida and Stella took off after him. Bella, Mena, Jaqueline and Flutashe remained on the ground to face the hordes of vargul charging after them. Using her dragonhawk form, Flutashe breathed a torrent of flame that incinerated many of the undead who charged at them before they pushed forward. In the air, the frost vrykul, Skadi, was not used to fighting his enemies in the air as he preferred to attack his foes from above using his drake. He did the best he could to block the flying elf’s attacks but he couldn’t focus on her and the dragon-like being at the same time. He was forced to dodge bolts of fire and arcane while fighting the girl with the strangest weapons he had ever seen. Whenever he changed targets, the cowardly dragon thing vanished from his sight while his mount received a deep cut for his troubles. Skadi’s woes only got worse when he found enemies on the terrace using the harpoon launchers against him. Avoiding them and the dragon thing’s attacks were testing the limits of his drake and he was quickly losing. Two harpoons struck home in his mount’s hide and the proto drake was beginning to flag. He knew that his mount wasn’t going to last much longer but he was too far away from the terrace to make a leap back so he tried to close the distance with what time his drake had. It wasn’t much time at all as Raida sliced the proto drake’s left wing off and forced Skadi to make a desperate leap to the terrace. For a moment he thought he might barely make it, but Stella teleported him a little further out to make sure he didn’t make it. “Cowardly motherless knaaaaaaaaaaaaaves!” he called out as he fell from a high altitude to his death. As high up as he was and with nothing but land beneath him, there was no surviving the fall. Raida and Stella landed near the others and proceeded onward. After taking down a few more vargul, they carefully moved down a flight of stairs that had parts of them broken off. They tore apart an abomination that guarded a landing. The area they were in seemed like it hadn’t seen proper maintenance in a very long time with all the cobwebs and broken stairs. Piles of snow accumulated in the next room that had a few more vargul and an abomination. Beyond the room they found themselves in a room that was better maintained and guarded by a few more vargul. The room didn’t have much in it save for four longboats with dragon heads carrying lanterns at the bow. At the back of the room, they saw a single vrykul with a large helmet with huge horns sitting on a throne with a pair of vargul kneeling before him. Ymiron quickly spotted the intruders entering his throne room and rose from his seat to rush toward them. “You invade my home and then dare to challenge me?” he growled. “I will tear your hearts from your chests and offer them as gifts to the death god! Rualg nja gaborr! (Stand and die!) The vrykul king called the remaining vargul to his side and attacked the party. The undead vrykul didn’t last long when Flutashe used her cat form to grab one by the leg and used him to bludgeon the other vargul to pieces before she threw him at Ymiron who cleaved him in two. Now alone, Ymiron crossed blades with Jaqueline. The king was surprised that he was having to use considerable effort to push back someone so small and weak-looking. Even worse, he began to feel himself being pushed back. He couldn’t understand how someone from such an inferior stock was overpowering him. In an effort to display his superiority, Ymiron used all of his strength to push Jaqueline back. The death knight gave the vrykul a deadpan look, “Ya ain’t all that smart, are ya?” Before he could question her words, he found himself falling forward when Jaqueline suddenly moved out of the way and caused the king to fall off balance. He rolled to the side to avoid any follow up attacks from Jaqueline and quickly got back up to his feet. Not wanting to suffer further humiliation, Ymiron unleashed an unholy scream that left the group in a daze while he ran up to one of the longboats and began to draw upon a spirit that inhabited it. “Ranulf of the Screaming Abyss, snuff these maggots with darkest night!” Using the power he gained from the spirit, he created an orb that drifted around the room while pulsing with dark energy. It was easy for everyone to avoid it but Jaqueline now had to deal with Ymiron while avoiding the orb. It didn’t take a genius to tell Jaqueline that having three more boats around meant that he could call on three more abilities. She really didn’t want this fight dragging for too long. “Someone wanna take care of the boats around here?” she called out. Ymiron’s eyes widened in horror as he realized their plan. “I won’t let you!” He then turned his attention to the other members of the group and charged toward him, only to have a chain and hook wrap around his arm with the hook digging deep into his wrist. Ymiron shouted in pain before he was yanked back toward the death knight. When he tried to scream and stun everyone again, he found his throat being strangled by dark magic just as he was drawing in the breath to do so. Meanwhile, Raida and Stella went to town on the boats with the demon hunter summoning her demons who proceeded to smash and burn one boat while she torched another in felfire. Stella bombarded the third boat with fire magic before adding her own fire breath for good measure. They didn’t need to demolish the last boat as it was the one that Ymiron was drawing from and once the magic just ran out, the orb vanished. The boat set itself on fire shortly after. Ymiron called upon all of his available abilities and generated a dark aura around himself. When Jaqueline struck him with her sword she was struck by dark magic that burned her a little. In reaction, she activated her Anti-Magic Shield that protected her from the dark aura. The death knight infected the king with her disease abilities while Ymiron struck her with one of his own. Jaqueline ignored the pain and used it to fight harder. She left several deep cuts on the vrykul’s body which bled profusely. She drew upon that blood to empower her blade while using it as an opening to unleash suffering on the king by boiling his blood inside his body. With her blade fully empowered, Jaqueline summoned several phantasmal copies of her blade and impaled Ymiron in several places on his body which made him cough up blood. Knowing that his end was near, he chuckled as he showed his blood-stained grin to his foe. “Even if I die here, I am a warrior who has proved my worth to the death god and to Odyn. The Halls of Valor await me.” He then collapsed on the floor, never to move again. Jaqueline sheathed her sword and shook her head at the dead king. “Ah dunno who this Odyn fella is but if ah were him, ah wouldn’t find ya worthy of anything.” Being attuned to death, Jaqueline saw Ymiron’s spirit emerging from his body. He reached out to what appeared to be a golden light which dimmed and faded. Despair filled his very being before a large number of hands wrapped in seaweed reached up and grabbed his spiritual form and dragged him under what appeared to be a watery vortex. “NOOOOOOOoooooooo…” he screamed as his soul was pulled into the depths. Jaqueline’s attention was drawn away from the scene when a purple hand waved in her face. “Hello…Azeroth to Jaqueline…are you there?” Raida said. Jaqueline took a moment to shake her head and clear her thoughts before sighing, “Sometimes, it just don’t pay to be undead, ya see things that are probably best left never seen.” “What did you see?” Flutashe asked. “Let’s just say that Ymiron is gettin’ his just deserts.” Stella decided to drive the subject in a different direction, “Anyways, we need to get back to Valgarde and make sure we are all ready for the next part of our journey. Since we are splitting up we need to divide the supplies evenly.” Without another word, Stella opened a portal to Valgarde.