Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth

by Xarmar13

In the Hall of the Dark Iron, Part 3

With Marshal Reginald Windsor and King Varian Wrynn on their way out of the city, the group of Stella, Bella, Jaqueline and Sophia began the long trek back to the manufactory to continue their journey through the depths of Blackrock Mountain to meet with Emperor Dagran Thaurissan to convince him to return Princess Moira Bronzebeard.

Bella gave a quick prayer to the Light to grant mercy to the poor souls who got between King Wrynn and his son.

After fifteen minutes, the group had returned to the west garrison and prepared to enter the manufactory.

While the workshop was in a chaotic mess during their first visit, the whole place was trashed this time. Lab tables were smashed, a few gnome and dwarf bodies lay on the floor, damaged golem parts littered the floor as well as a few of the formerly hanging hooks. However, it appeared that the majority of the workers had evacuated the place. The inactive remains of the golems that Sophia had controlled through a specialized parasite were found in pieces across the left and right rooms. Any evidence of Sophia’s tampering had died and crumbled to dust.

“Dang, ah don’t know how those things went outta control like that, but they sure made a mess,” Jaqueline commented. Sophia wasn’t about to tell the others about what really happened. No need for the others to see her as she really was, not yet anyway.

“The right room should have an exit that should be our path to the Grim Guzzler,” Stella informed.

The group carefully navigated around the disaster area and quickly spotted the exit. Looking outside the room, they spotted a bridge that was guarded by four large fire elementals; two at each end.

Knowing how strong the elementals they fought in the west garrison were, they needed something to help them deal with their intense fire attacks.

Stella attempted to assemble some nearby damaged golem parts together into a functional golem. The work was shoddy without knowledge of dark iron sorcery but she would have to make do.

She sent the rickety golem against the elementals while Bella and Jaqueline ran in behind it. The paladin caused swords of light to burst from the ground beneath the front two elementals which damaged their forms. Jaqueline dared not slashing her sword too much against the fiery beings unless she wanted to risk heating up her sword and causing it to bend. The warrior made a note to ask Stella later to enchant her weapons and armor to increase their heat tolerance.

Stella channeled more ice magic in an attempt to cool off one of the elementals. It took a fair amount of magic to produce enough ice and at least two minutes. The melee group bought her enough time to unleash a sphere of ice which crashed into the elemental and banished it. Unfortunately, the ice was nearly completely melted from striking one elemental and hardly did anything to another.

With three powerful fire elementals still fighting the group, Sophia didn’t like their odds at this point so in order to even things out, and keep the more observant members of the group from becoming suspicious of her inaction, she quickly moved in and sliced through the bracers of two of the elementals, banishing them and leaving them with one left.

In a vengeful rage, the last elemental unleashed a wave of intense heat that forced Bella and Jaqueline to take cover behind the makeshift golem which crumbled to pieces. The last vestiges of its attack flew past the golem and struck Stella’s robes.

The mage blocked the attack with her right arm which saved her face but caused the sleeve of her robes to catch fire. In a panic, she patted down the flames and blew on it in desperation.

That was when the strangest thing happened.

When Stella blew on her robes, a blast of frost emerged from her mouth and put out the flames while placing an icy glaze on her slightly singed sleeve. She yelped in surprise and stumbled backward as she had no idea how she did that nor how it was possible for her to do that.

Sophia was the only one who had a look of concern for the high elf mage as the others were too busy with the fire elemental and guessed that a frost spell backfired.

“Midnight, what is going on with Stellaglim?” Sophia inquired.

“Hang on…huh?” Midnight’s confused tone left the templar more than a little concerned. “That’s strange, I just examined her magical signature, but it doesn’t match a high elf or blood elf at all. It’s draconic, but at the same time it’s more chaotic than most dragons.”

“That might explain the frost breath, but how come this surprised her? Aren’t all dragons supposed to remember they have a breath ability?”

“She’s either suffering from a case of amnesia or she was raised on the belief that she was a high elf from birth. There might be other theories, but now isn’t the time to examine her origins.”

“Right, we can look into that later,” Sophia agreed. Since this matter had the possibility of throwing the group synergy off balance, she quickly ended the last elemental herself.

Once the battle was over, Bella and Jaqueline ran back to the mage to check on her. “Darling, are you alright? Did one of your frost spells backfire?”

“I…I don’t think so. All I was trying to do was put out a fire on my robe and when I tried to blow on it, frost came out.” Stella was still shaken up about what happened but Sophia had to remind them of their mission.

“We can look into this new development later. We’re not safe here. The sooner we get to the emperor, the sooner we can go help King Wrynn.”

As much as the two wanted to rebuke the templar for her callousness, they knew she had a point. The three stood back up and continued their journey.

Across the bridge, the group entered a building that Stella had called the “Grim Guzzler” earlier. Just as the mage guessed, it was a tavern teeming with dwarves who were so inebriated that they couldn’t tell that four intruders had entered the tavern.

The tavern was vibrant with patrons. Jaqueline thought she saw a goblin among them alongside two trolls and a tauren. To their left was what appeared to be a storeroom for beer kegs. When the group moved up the stairs they spotted several things: a door which they discovered was locked from the inside, a succubus serving drinks to the patrons, a golem who looked like it was programmed to be a bouncer, a green-skinned gnome was acting as a bartender and a smaller storeroom was at the end occupied by a dark iron dwarf who was keeping an eye on the scene and appeared to be the only dwarf in the place who wasn’t drunk.

The dwarf in question beckoned the group over to him. The others stared at the dwarf for a moment before Sophia shrugged and walked over to him. The others followed.

Once they were in the storeroom with him, the dwarf addressed them in a low voice. “Ye four are lookin’ ta get past the tavern, aren’t ye?”

Everyone nodded in affirmation while Stella responded, “You’re the first dark iron dwarf we’ve seen that hasn’t tried to kill us.”

“Not all dark irons are tainted by the cultists lass, I’m a member of the Thorium Brotherhood. We’re a group of dark irons who want nothin’ ta do with the Twilight’s Hammer an’ we make sure our wayward brethren dun cause too much trouble while offerin’ our blacksmithin’ services ta those who can afford em’.

“So how do we get through here without causing too much trouble?” Stella asked.

“Several ways lass, Plugger the bartender holds the key ta the backdoor. Ye can pick his pocket fer the key or ye can just take it from his cold dead hands. If ye wanna set him off, ye can steal his wares from the table. Either way, the patrons won’ like that one bit an’ ye’ll have yerself a barfight on yer hands. If ye start killin’ patrons, security is gonna come knockin’ an’ ye’ll have ta deal with them ta get out. Yet another way ta get out is ta get Private Rocknot over there…” He pointed to the dwarf in question. “...so drunk on Dark Iron Ale that he’ll go into a drunken frenzy and start smashin’ kegs lookin’ fer more ale. The one at the end looks ready to burst and it’s in the perfect position to smash the door open. Phalanx, tha golem over there…” He pointed to the golem. “...won’ like seein’ the door smashed so it’ll start guardian’ the door an’ ye’ll have ta fight it.”

“I think I have a better idea that keeps the heat off of us,” Sophia declared. She looked at the dwarf, “Do you have a piece of paper and something to write with?” Confused, the dwarf handed her what she wanted. She then wrote a message on the paper and handed the dwarf his writing quill back. “The rest of you meet me at the door,” she ordered before she turned invisible with her Shadow Walk.

Stella, Bella and Jaqueline obeyed the templar’s order.. A moment later, Sophia appeared next to them, putting a key into the lock and turning it. With a soft click, the door opened and the three of them filed out of the building.

Putting the next phase of her plan into action, Sophia stealthily rushed down the stairs and rolled up the key into the note she wrote and dropped it at the feet of the goblin at the lower level of the tavern. Confused, the goblin picked it up and found the key. He then unrolled the note. “What is this? ‘If you are reading this then I am dead. Please deliver my head to Yuka Screwspigot at Flame Crest for a reward.’”

As the goblin was trying to figure out what the letter meant and why it mentioned his sister, the gnome upstairs, Plugger, screamed in fury. “My pockets were picked! No more beer for anyone until this mess is sorted out!”

As Sophia slipped out the door, she altered her voice to that of a female dwarf before she yelled, “Everyone, tha goblin stole Plugger’s key! Get him!”

Upon hearing that, the goblin’s pupils shrank as he realized how screwed he was. “Uh oh!” He barely got a word in before he was blasted by Shadow Bolts and brutally pummeled by a tavern full of angry drunken dwarves.

“Oh my dear cousin, I am so proud of you. That was just pure evil!” Thanatas gushed.

“He did deserve what was coming to him though. I’m sure you already knew about the bounty on his head by Baron Revilgaz of Booty Bay and how much his sisters wanted to cash in on his head.”

“Yeah, but the way you handled that was so devious.”

“I do admit, that was something that I would have seen myself doing once upon a time,” Sarah commented.

Sophia closed the door to the tavern shortly after the sounds of violence erupted from inside. She then walked down the stairs into the central part of the city to find her friends in combat with some elite dwarven soldiers and some hostile civilians. They had no problems dealing with them.

They were now back in the central area of the city with the Black Anvil below where they were a while ago, except this time they were on the other side of the area.

Only one entrance could be accessed from where they were and Stella knew that they were still going the right way. Entering the building, they proceeded down some stairs and into a large chamber. The inside of the room had a grated walkway through which thick smoke rose from. Along the edges of the room were seven metal plates with strange symbols that glowed orange. Midnight quickly informed Sophia that they were flame runes.

Standing in the center of the room was a naga-like creature with orange scales and a serpentine body. Numerous unsteadily straight gray horns extended from the top of his head and along his spine. Numerous spikes grew along the length of his arms with a few more along his tail. Like the female naga, this one had a flat face. Long tendrils ran down from where his cheeks were. He carried a flaming trident with a two-pronged pommel.

“And here we have your first encounter with a flamewaker, a race of fleshbound fire elementals who serve as the upper echelon of Ragnaros’ forces,” Thanatas informed.

The four of them quickly entered the chamber before the flamewaker slithered after the group in a charging motion. Jaqueline met his charge and blocked his trident with her sword. She bashed the flamewaker’s face with her shield, forcing him to back off. Jaqueline wiped the sweat from her brow from the heat she felt from the elemental’s weapon.

The flamewaker chuckled wickedly before he channeled his magic into the seven runes around the room. Each of the seven runes produced a small elemental that moved toward the flamewaker. When one got close, he absorbed the elemental and grew in size a little. Reacting quickly with that new information, Stella quickly bombarded the chamber in ice which destroyed the small elementals.

However, the runes produced more elementals which meant that they needed to kill the flamewaker before he absorbed too many elementals. Bella assisted Jaqueline in rushing the flamewaker while Stella focused on unleashing frost magic on the lesser elementals. However, with the elementals approaching the flamewaker by seven places through the room, some of the elementals were getting to their master and empowering him.

Stella became increasingly frustrated because her frost spells weren’t enough to stop the elementals. Bella was forced to back away and focus on supporting Jaqueline with her spells as the warrior was being struck by heavier attacks over time. The mage wished she could have done better to stop the elementals and in her desperation, tried to replicate that breath thing she did earlier, only instead of frost, sand sprayed from her mouth. While it wasn’t frost like she hoped, the effects were just as good as the bracers of some of the elementals rusted along with three of the runes in the room, disabling them.

Sophia had a feeling that Stella was going to need some time to adjust again so she acted by unleashing powerful bolts of psionic lightning which shattered the remaining four runes and cutting down the last of the elementals, cutting the flamewaker off of his power source. Bella charged her hammer with Light and slammed it into the side of the elemental’s head, stunning him long enough for Jaqueline to cut off his head. Sophia was glad that the other three were too focused on the battle or themselves to notice the lightning.

The fighters put away their weapons and tended to the once again shocked Stellaglim curled up on the floor. “W…What?! I-I thought ice was supposed to come out of my mouth, not sand!” What is happening to me?!”

Sophia took a more gentle approach this time to get the mage to calm down. “Calm down Stella,” she spoke softly. “I think I have an idea about what is happening to you and I have a hunch that we will find the answers on this mountain. Between conjuring flames that cause flowers to bloom, mist that puts people to sleep and a sand breath that causes things to corrode, I have a feeling that you might not actually be an elf. If I’m right, then you are probably able to channel the energies of the five dragonflights.”

“W…Wait, what? The five dragonflights? But…but I’m just a high elf. In order to do that I’d have to be a dragon in disguise. But I don’t remember having a dragon form…” Sophia could sense another panic attack coming from the mage so she used her psionic powers to soothe her mind.

“Which is why we will help you find the answers about yourself. We will start by exploring this mountain. If the Black Dragonflight are here in large numbers then this area must be important to them and we might find something if we look hard enough.”

Stella took a few deep breaths and meditated to calm her mind. After several minutes of this, she got back on her feet, her determination renewed. “Alright, I’m ready to continue.” She stared at Sophia before she added, “But I’m holding you to your word.”

Just past the chamber, the group entered a short tunnel which led into a room with two levels with equipment meant to handle molten metal. One corner of the room appeared to be the source of the lava flowing into the room which flowed underneath the floor of the upper level where the group came in from. Occupying the room were a number of dwarven mages and a few golems which looked red hot. The group guessed that the room was a foundry meant for fortifying golems with metal plating.

Sophia turned to Stella again, “A good step to accepting this new part of you is owning this new part of you. Try thinking of something to calm you down, maybe your state of mind might determine what breath you use. We will probably have to find someone later to help you learn how to use your powers.”

Nodding, Stella took a moment to imagine things that calmed her down. She went with her teaching sessions with her master, Rhonin.

As a heated golem patrolled past the entrance, Stella took a deep breath and released it all at once toward the golem. It came out as a ruby-tinted flame breath which only aggravated it into attacking.

Jaqueline blocked the golem’s punches with her shield, but she was feeling her shield heat up with each punch and its body was heating up her armor. “Ya might wanna try thinkin’ about somethin’ else,” she quipped.

Hastily, Stella tried to think of other things that might get her in the right state of mind. She settled on reading books in her room this time. When she tried breathing on the golem again, Jaqueline was pulled out of the way by Sophia before the mage released a torrent of frost from her mouth. The icy blast struck the molten construct and rapidly chilled the body until its joints froze. Bella used her hammer to smash the joints and caused the golem to fall apart.

Using that breath took a lot out of Stella and her friends noticed that so they decided to not use that ability too much.

Instead, Sophia and Bella would deal with the dwarf mages while Jaqueline handled more heated golems with Stella falling back to her frost magic which still saved the warrior from having her weapon and armor heated as the spells cooled the golems before she froze and hurled icy spears which shattered the unprotected joints.

Soon the group cleared out the foundry and moved down some stairs into what appeared to be a tomb with seven sarcophagi and the ghost of a dwarf before each one. Each one wore a set of scarlet robes. The door on the other side of the tomb was locked so they had to figure out how to open it.

“This is the Summoner’s Tomb, the burial site for the seven sorcerers who helped Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan summon Ragnaros to Azeroth. They also served as the patriarchs of the Dark Iron nation. I think it’s pretty obvious what you will have to do to get through this room.” Thanatas then hummed a dirge over the link.

“Leave this place or challenge us,” one of the dwarves said.

Stella channeled magic into her hands in preparation for a fight. “Who are you?”

“We are The Seven. Ye are not kin to the Dark Iron. If ye wish to pass, ye must challenge us.”

“And what does this challenge entail?” Jaqueline asked.

“One on one. One a’ ye must challenge all seven of us. For each of us that falls, the next one shall attack. Prevail against all seven of us an’ ye may pass.”

“Then ah’ll be the one to challenge you. Bring it on!”

“Jaqueline, what are you doing?” Bella asked.

“Don’t interfere girls, Ah’ve got this.”

At Jaqueline’s declaration, the dwarf who had been speaking called out, “Ye have challenged The Seven, now ye must die! Anger’rel, unleash yer fury!”

From behind them, one of the dwarves moved from his sarcophagus and ran toward Jaqueline. This one carried a sword and shield.

Bella, Stella and Sophia moved to the edge of the room and watched the two warriors fight it out. Both were using a sword and a shield. The sound of metal clashing with metal rang numerous times in the tomb.

Eventually, she managed to move the dwarf’s shield out of the way and left him open to a kick to his face. Anger’rel roared in fury and attacked with more fervor. However, his anger had also dulled his skill and left him with plenty of openings, one of which led to his sword being knocked out of his hands. He placed as much of himself behind his shield in an attempt to protect himself from the taller warrior’s attacks while he retrieved his weapon but in his carelessness, he didn’t notice Jaqueline moving behind him until she stuck her sword through his back.

With that blow, one of The Seven fell. “Seeth’rel, entomb her in ice!” the speaker called out.

This time a female dwarf to the right of the speaker started acting. She placed a protective enchantment on herself which gave her an icy blue aura. She then started casting a bolt of frost at Jaqueline who had her shield ready. When she released the Frostbolt, the warrior thrusted her shield forward which deflected the bolt and caused the spell to bounce back at Seeth’rel.

The dwarf grunted as the bolt struck her. In reaction, she placed another enchantment on herself which enclosed her in an icy blue bubble. “Ye won’t get me with the same trick twice,” she declared.

Jaqueline moved in to close the distance between herself and her target. Seeth’rel smirked when the warrior was within striking distance and quickly trapped the warrior’s feet in ice when she unleashed a wave of frost around her. Jaqueline managed to strike at the dwarf once which was blocked by her staff. The dwarf then ran away to cast more bolts of frost at Jaqueline who deflected them back at the caster. However, the bolts were absorbed by the barrier.

“She’s using a Frost Ward spell which provides her with protection from frost magic,” Stella said. “There’s only so much the shield can take before the enchantment fails.”

Soon, Jaqueline managed to free herself and charged at the mage again. This time she slapped the dwarf in the face with her shield to disrupt her concentration before she ran her sword through her.

Two dwarves down, the speaker called the next one. “Dope’rel, ye know what ta do!”

This time a male dwarf to the speaker’s left acted, drawing a pair of swords. Seeing this, Jaqueline decided to meet him blade for blade by putting her shield on her back and drawing her other sword.

Dope’rel proved to be more nimble than he looked as he struck at the warrior with precision attacks that often got past her guard and gave her a cut to her face while others nicked her armor. He tried to spin his way behind Jaqueline to stab her in the back but she ducked under the strike and kicked backwards, knocking the dwarf off balance with one of his legs knocked out from under him. She then spun around and dealt a powerful horizontal slash that was poorly parried by the dwarf and sent him on his back. Jaqueline quickly capitalized on this and plunged both of her blades into the dwarf’s chest until he stopped moving.

Three down. “Gloom’rel, show her the might of dwarven blacksmithing!”

Suspecting that the speaker was going to attack last, Jaqueline turned her attention to the lower level of the chamber where four of the tombs were, one no longer having a dwarf near it after she defeated Anger’rel. Looking at the lower level, the dwarf to her left pulled out a bastard sword and charged her.

Jaqueline switched back to her sword and shield and clashed blades with the dwarf. Gloom’rel’s attacks were heavy but slow. Her shield was able to block his attacks but they pushed her back a little. A lunge from the warrior overpowered her opponent’s stance and threw him off balance with her on top of him with her shield pressing against his face. She plunged her sword into Gloom’rel’s right arm which was holding his sword and while leaving her weight on the shield, drew her other sword and plunged it into his chest.

With four of The Seven down, Jaqueline sheathed one sword and picked up her other sword and her shield before the speaker called out the next dwarf. “Vile’rel, show her why yer the terror of The Seven!”

Another male dwarf moved away from his tomb. He began by channeling dark magic which made Jaqueline reel as she felt her mind being assaulted. She grunted and shook her head. Vile’rel enclosed himself in a bubble of Light which confirmed that the dwarf was a priest.

With this confirmed, Jaqueline switched to her dual sword stance and delivered numerous slashing attacks which broke through the dwarf’s shield and dealt numerous cuts on his body. Another mental blast stunned Jaqueline long enough for Vile’rel to cast a light spell to heal his wounds.

Using both of her blades to deal a heavy attack, Jaqueline dealt a grievous wound on the ghost’s phantasmal body. He tried to heal the wound but the warrior kicked him in the chin to stop him from channeling magic. She then followed up with thrusting one blade into the dwarf’s throat which silenced him for good.

Once the priest fell, Jaqueline faced the one she knew was coming next, a female dwarf with a battle ax. “Hate’rel, unleash yer wrath!”

Jaqueline and Hate’rel charged at each other. Once again, blades clashed as the two fought for dominance. Despite her weapon, Hate’rel’s attacks with the battle ax were fast, which had Jaqueline on the defensive. The warrior didn’t expect the dwarf to mutter words of channeling as dark energy gathered in her left hand. Jaqueline barely moved out of the way in time for the dwarf to unleash a bolt of shadow magic at her face. Based on what she had seen so far, she figured that Hate’rel was a hybrid fighter and spellcaster.

Hate’rel decided to protect herself with a bubble of shadow magic which protected her from Jaqueline’s attacks for a few moments before the bubble shattered and the warrior spun around to turn her back on the dwarf who was preparing another Shadow Bolt. Hate’rel didn’t realize until too late as she unleashed the Shadow Bolt before the shield on Jaqueline’s back sent the bolt back at her face. Jaqueline took advantage of the resulting stagger to spin around again and horizontally cut the dwarf in two from the waist.

With six of The Seven down, Jaqueline turned her attention to the speaker who enchanted himself with an aura of shadow to protect himself as he prepared for battle. “Now ye face Doom’rel, leader of The Seven!”

Doom’rel demonstrated his skills as a warlock by summoning a trio of voidwalkers to attack the warrior while he stood back and attacked from a distance.

Facing three foes at once, Jaqueline attacked wide, striking each void demon with each slash. She made sure to avoid the punches and clawing attacks from the void minions. She soon realized that the voidwalkers shared the same weakness as fire elementals and began slashing at the bracers on the minions’ arms. As she did that, she felt intense pain as her body ignited as a result of Doom’rel’s spell. Acting quickly, she destroyed the bracers of the void minions and banished them before she rushed for the warlock.

Jaqueline found that her attacks were not as effective as they could be. She wondered about this until Stella warned her that the warlock placed a curse on her that weakened her strength. However, without his minions, Doom’rel was not as threatening as he could have been. The warrior’s attacks left cuts all over the dwarf’s phantasmal body which caused energy to leak out of his body. He did his best to block more of her attacks with his staff and tried to channel dark magic to get the warrior to back off but Jaqueline punched him in the face to prevent that before she cut his head off.

With the last dwarf finished, Jaqueline collapsed in exhaustion. Bella moved over to her and used the Light to heal her injuries. They took a break and ate some of their food they brought with them, some of which Sophia pilfered from the Grim Guzzler while the gnome wasn’t looking.

“That was quite the impressive feat, Jaqueline.” Bella complimented. “The Wildhammer Clan has taught you well.”

“Thank ya kindly Bella,” Jaqueline responded between breaths. “Them dwarves really gave me a workout.”

After about ten minutes of resting, the group was ready to move forward. With The Seven defeated, they proceeded past the formerly locked door and into a hallway that went in two directions. One led to a door, which Stella told them would lead to the Lyceum. The other was a bridge that was guarded by six large fire elementals. For such heavy security, they felt as if there had to be something important beyond it.

“What does the map say about that path?” Bella asked.

Stella pulled out her map and ran her finger along it. She raised an eyebrow in confusion. “It looks like the map doesn’t show what’s beyond the bridge. It says that the area is where something called the Black Forge is located. I read a little on Dark Iron lore in Dalaran. Apparently, that forge is the only one in the world that can produce enough heat needed to refine a mineral called dark iron. This mountain is also the only place on Azeroth where deposits of this mineral are located.”

Sophia briefly scouted ahead and found the forge in particular on a grated path off to the side from the bridge. Lava continuously flowed around it. “That still doesn’t answer what’s on the other side of the bridge.”

Stella sensed something familiar nearby but was too distracted by the map to realize it. Once she put the map away, she focused on what she was looking for. In moments, her eyes widened in realization. “Wait, I think I’m sensing a rift on the other side of the bridge. It might be the destination point.”

“If that is true, then if the elf from before was right, then that way leads to the lair of the Firelord,” Bella concluded.

“We might have to venture there at some point. Hold on for a moment.” Stella suddenly disappeared in a bright and loud flash of light. Sophia looked past the bridge to find the mage looking around. Thankfully, the fire elementals weren’t paying attention to what was going on behind them. After a few moments, Stella found something on the ground and picked it up. In another flash she reappeared behind her teammates.”

“What did you find?” Bella asked.

Stella pulled out what appeared to be a gemstone from her pockets and showed it to everyone. “I think this might work to attune us to the rift.”

Bella’s jeweler nature made itself known to everyone as she stared at the gem in the mage’s hand. Everyone could tell that the paladin had stars in her eyes. “May I see that for a moment? I want to examine it.”

Uncertain to the reason behind Bella’s sudden bout of passion toward the gem, Stella still handed it to Bella.

The paladin quickly snatched it from her hand and examined it in detail. Her expertise in jewels and eye for detail helped her to understand that the gem was flawless. Not a single crack or misplaced cut anywhere. She then decided to use her ability to witness visions through gemstones to see if any truths could be uncovered.

As she peered into the gem, her eyes turned completely white. Soon, the paladin’s mind was filled with images.

A lava-filled cavern like the ones they had been traveling through.

Fire elementals and earth elementals made of volcanic rock.

Giants made of volcanic rock and magma.

Giant two-headed beasts with molten skin with spiked iron collars with chains dangling from them.

Flamewakers of different scale colors roaming around.

Metal plates with glowing runes.

The last vision was of a colossal fire elemental with a lower body like a magma tornado and an upper body with numerous binding rings on his arms and around his neck. His shoulder armor and head armor were designed to look like flames. His head looked like a flaming skull made of molten rock. In his hand was an ornate orange and dark brown spiked hammer.

From the vision alone, Bella could feel how powerful the elemental was and she knew that he was far more powerful than anything they had encountered so far. They would need more allies if they hoped to bring down that monster.

As quickly as it began, Bella’s vision returned to reality. She then breathed heavily as the experience took its toll on her. “I saw…I saw what awaits us down that way. *huff* We would need more allies before we could venture in that cavern without it being suicide.”

“Don’t worry Bella, we will find some allies before we go down there,” Sophia assured. “For now, let’s head into the Lyceum.”

Returning to the hallway, the group approached the door. Sophia halted the group as she sensed many minds on the other side of that door. Hundreds, maybe thousands of dwarves likely awaited on the other side.

“Hey Thana, I need your expertise. How are we supposed to get past the Lyceum with a vast army of dwarves on the other side?”

“There aren’t many trained soldiers in that room. It’s mostly just reserve troops who haven’t been properly trained. Still, their numbers would be too much for your friends in a straight-up fight. You need to light the two braziers on both sides of the next door. The braziers only take a special flame and the torches holding such flames are being carried by dwarves in red armor and scattered around the place.”

“Understood, this calls for some stealth.” Once Sophia knew what to do, she addressed the group. “Wait here and gather your strength. I’m going to work on opening a way forward.”

“Are ya sure you can handle that yourself?” Jaqueline asked.

Sophia winked at the warrior. “This is my specialty, just trust me.”

With that, Sophia used the black key to open the large double doors just enough for her to pass through. The mage, warrior and paladin did their best to take their minds off their concerns for their friend but the worries refused to be banished nor pushed to the back of their minds. Several minutes passed and Jaqueline decided to risk a peek past the door to find more dwarves than they ever knew existed beyond that door. None of them had any idea how they were going to get past the room without bringing a sea of dwarves down on them.

After fifteen minutes of worrying, Sophia returned through the door while wiping the sweat from her brows. “Wow, that took a lot of effort to get the doors open without being discovered.” She then had everyone gather near her as she wrapped her allies in shadow. “Stay close and don’t wander too close to a patrol. This is already tricky enough to navigate.”

Jaqueline, Bella and Stella stayed close to Sophia as they navigated their way through the crowded area. They came close to making physical contact with a few dwarves as they made their way to the far door. The dwarves were still looking for whoever lit the torches but never entered the doorway themselves since they knew the punishment for entering the throne room unbidden.

The Lyceum was a massive room supported by nearly a hundred pillars with a small pit area in the center. The room was patrolled by hundreds of dark iron dwarves and only a few of them wore red armor. Near the door on the other side of the room were two platforms containing a brazier and each one was guarded by a large fire elemental.

After several close calls, the group finally made it through the room and through another large set of double doors. They entered a hallway with a number of alcoves that were occupied by golems with cannons for hands. In the hall was a figure like the ones Bella saw in her vision: a giant made of volcanic rock and magma.

The giant took up a fighting stance. “Emperor Thaurissan does not wish to be disturbed! Turn back now or face your doom, weak mortals!”

Everyone noticed the golems in the room along the walls, filling their minds with dread that they would have to contend with a large number of them along with the giant. That was when Bella noticed the bolts at the golems’ feet and the hoses attached to their backs. This led the paladin to suspect that the golems might be functioning more like turrets than attack units. This meant that they needed to focus all of their efforts on bringing down the giant.

The group charged in. Jaqueline slashed away at the giant’s ankles while dodging his stomps. She also ducked under any swipes from his hands. Bella used her hammer to smash the other ankle while Stella unleashed her ice magic.

As the fighting started, the giant roared, activating the constructs in the room who began randomly unleashing torrents of flame from their cannons. The group was thankful that the constructs were not firing all at once but they still had to be careful whenever a construct facing them started firing.

Eventually, one construct did start unleashing fire on them. Stella managed to counter this by placing wards on everyone that blocked the flames to a certain extent. However, the wards were enough to keep the flames away until the construct stopped firing.

The giant didn’t have any tricks to use so the fight was a matter of avoiding being crushed and slashing and smashing away at the ankles until the giant toppled. After that, Sophia delivered the final blow by slashing his head in two.

The constructs continued to fire even after the giant fell so Stella shielded everyone with anti-fire magic until they reached the large set of doors on the other side of the hall.

It was then that they realized that their journey had nearly reached its end. They were now in the throne room and the emperor sat on his throne with a female dwarf by his side. She was the only dwarf in the whole city who didn’t have ashen skin. Her red hair was done in space buns and she wore a scandalous pink and gold dress with a pair of leather armbands and a pair of sandals.

Emperor Dagran Thaurissan wore decorative robes of black and white with gold filigree. He wore a red vest and red and gold mantle. His long, thick black beard and mustache were tied with silver rings. On his head was a silver circlet with a ruby sphere in the center.

Thaurissan glared at the invaders coming into his throne room and shouted to everyone in the throne room with him, “Soldiers, senators, ambassadors, come to the aid of the throne!”

Soon a massive number of dwarves and cultists started to converge on their position. The senators and ambassadors prepared shadow and fire spells to use against them while the soldiers charged at them with bastard swords or aimed their blunderbusses at them.

By this point, Sophia was getting sick of the place and herded her allies back into the hallway and around a corner from the door, forcing the ashen tidal wave to chase after them.

The templar decided to use another of her abilities she kept hidden from the others. Once the dwarves started emerging from the door, Sophia unleashed a storm of psionic electricity in the doorway, electrocuting many dwarves to death. The ones who didn’t get caught in the storm stayed where they were until it passed, enough time for Sophia to rush in and decapitate the emotionally shocked survivors.

The others made a note to ask Sophia how she created a lightning storm later.

“Alright, it’s clear!” Sophia called out. The three entered the throne room again to find only Emperor Thaurissan and Princess Bronzebeard staring in shock at what just happened.

Nervously, the two assumed combat stances. However, Moira stepped in front of Dagran. “I won’ let any of ye hurt me beloved!”

Dagran attempted to assuage the woman, “It’s okay love, I’ll handle this. We can’t let anything happen to the little one, can we?”

“But they’ll kill ye!”

“As long as the heir is safe, that’s all that matters.”

Sophia raised an eyebrow at the scene before her. This certainly didn’t seem like a case of mind control like that one prisoner said. Out of curiosity, she peered into Moira’s mind and found it to be clear of any influencing thoughts, though she did find a few stray thoughts about unusual food cravings.

She then noticed Stella, Bella and Jaqueline preparing for battle with the emperor doing the same. Within moments, the three charged at each other. However, before the four clashed, Sophia appeared between both parties and held out hands to block both of them. “Everyone, time out!” Everyone looked at the templar in confusion before she started explaining. “This matter deems investigating before we make any foolish judgements.” She turned to Dagran. “We need to confirm whether or not Moira is under a mind control spell.”

Dagran gave a scandalous look of outrage at the accusation made against him. “How dare ye make such a claim to me! I would never do anything like that to the woman who gave me hope for the future.”

“He’s right, I love him of me own free will,” Moira added.

“Then you wouldn’t mind if Stella confirms this?” Sophia asked.

“Do yer worst, I have nothin’ to hide,” Moira proudly proclaimed.

Sophia looked at the mage and nodded to her. Nervously, she approached the princess as she still believed there could be some treachery going on. Once she was in range, Stella performed a scanning spell on the princess to check for magical tampering. After a few moments, the spell faded and she returned to the group. “She’s clean. It’s either Durnholde Syndrome or true love.”

“I haven’t been a prisoner long enough to develop Durnholde Syndrome ye daft lass!” Moira growled.

“There’s still the whole takin’ people prisoner along with the torture and arena murderin’,” Jaqueline mentioned. “Why shouldn’t we kill ya because of what ya done?”

“What do ye expect me to do, openly rebel against me slaveholder?” Dagran rhetorically asked. “Me people are all slaves ta that Elemental Lord in the Core. If he wanted, he could wipe out the entire clan in an instant. To make matters worse, those cultists who worship Ragnaros are all subvertin’ me people an’ leaving me with fewer options. As long as they believe that I am his willin’ servant, me people are safe.”

“Which is why we need ta bring in outside help,” Moira offered. “We need powerful adventurers such as yerselves to venture into the Molten Core and rid us of that fiery menace once and fer all.”

“Which will have to wait until I can get these bozos to Blackrock Mountain,” Thanatas added through the link, referring to the Horde party that was accompanying her. “In the meantime, you should probably return to Stormwind and deal with your evil noble problem.”

“We’ll see what we can do,” Sophia responded to the princess. “We originally came here to recover some evidence we needed to oust a corrupt noble who we suspect might be a black dragon in disguise.”

“Aye, ye be talkin’ about Onyxia, sister ta that scoundrel Nefarian who claims ownership of Blackrock Spire,” Dagran said. “We’d owe ya one if ye could deal with him too.”

As the group began to make their leave, with Stella creating a portal to Stormwind, Moira stopped them to say one last thing. “If ye ever see me father, tell him that I’m not under a spell and that I have truly fallen for a dark iron. If he don’t like it, he can stick his complaints up his daft arse for all they’re worth. More importantly, tell him that he has a grandchild comin’.”

With the message received, the group entered Stella’s portal, preparing for a confrontation that had been a long time coming.

Author's Note:

So many things packed into one chapter. Stella having an identity crisis, Bella learning what they are in for in the next few chapters, a goblin getting horribly maimed, Jaqueline getting to show off, and a tragedy averted.

Yes, Dagran Thaurissan is still a terrible person for all the abductions and executions through the Ring of Law and the conflicts with Ironforge. However, he is still the political leader of the Dark Iron Nation. But the main reason I had Thaurissan spared is for the sake of the unborn child. I'd rather not see the kid grow up without a father like he will in canon. With any luck, having a wife and an heir to two thrones might help to curb his unpleasant traits and who knows what else this event might affect in the future.

Anyone wondering what Flutashe and Mena are doing? Find out next chapter.

Next time: a confrontation that has been a long time coming.