Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth

by Xarmar13

The Molten Core, Part 4: Lair of the Firelord

The volcanic caverns of the Molten Core placed a heavy toll on the unprepared. The heart of the volcano was deep beneath the surface of Azeroth and guarded by the fiery servants of the ruler of the fire elementals.

Ragnaros the Firelord slumbered beneath the magma awaiting the day he returned to full strength. Being outside the Firelands had done him no favors as the elemental energies in the mortal plane were not strong due to the weak connections of the elemental planes to the mortal world; an aggravation brought about by the usurpers.

The elemental lord dreamed of returning to the surface to bring about his fiery vengeance against the creations of the usurpers. After all, Azeroth belonged to the elements since the day the world was formed. All life on the planet was his by right to consume in flames.

The Dark Iron Dwarves, failed creations of the usurpers, would serve as fodder for taking the brunt of moral resistance while his forces move in and set their flammable holdings ablaze.

With his masters imprisoned, he would be able to claim all of Azeroth for himself, reducing it to a blackened volcanic world as it was meant to be. His fellow elemental lords would do nothing but watch as he charred the land, ignited the air and vaporized the seas. That time would soon come.

For now, he must rest and regain his strength.

---

With the party, Zoias now included, ready to move on, they began their long backtrack through the volcanic caverns that they had to fight tooth and nail to get through as they faced countless elementals in their quest to defeat the Firelord.

The victory over the majordomo of Ragnaros had driven the flamewaker into a corner and forced him to retreat in order to awaken his master from his centuries-long slumber. All that remained for them to do in the cavern was to reach the lair of Ragnaros and face him in combat; a task easier said than done since they were in for a long walk to fight one of the most powerful beings that they had ever fought.

Now that the majority of the cavern was devoid of elementals, save the core hounds who were swimming around in the lava and pretending the party wasn’t there, they had time to look around the volcanic caverns and glanced at the pools of magma with more of it flowing into them. They saw stalagmites blowing ash into the air and stalactites looming over their heads.

As they returned to Shazzrah and Baron Geddon’s chamber, they returned through the tunnel and entered Garr’s chamber. They moved right from there and entered the pillar-riddled area where they fought Gehennas.

Not far in that area is where they saw the passage that they had not explored yet. A single lava surger ran in and out of that passage. He didn’t last long.

The party took a deep breath and moved inside, still trying to psych themselves up for the coming battle.

The chamber they entered was huge and round. The party noticed some strange markings on the walls of the chamber that resembled the runes that they had doused earlier. Most of the area was magma with the rock forming a spiral toward the center. It was at the center of the spiral where they spotted Executus.

They moved along the spiral and took out the few lava surgers that remained. It wasn’t long before they reached the center of the spiral. Executus appeared to be in a state of meditation but his tense body language gave him away, as if he was about to do something he really didn’t want to do.

Thanatas gave a look at the party, silently asking if they were prepared for the fight. Some hesitantly nodded while others were more determined. The death knight figured that this was the best she was going to get.

With a glance and a nod to Zoias, Thanatas told Zoias that they were ready. The elementalist approached the flamewaker.

Executus sensed their presence as they entered the chamber. Part of him was hoping that they would have seen sense to flee and quit while they were ahead, but alas. He really didn’t want to disturb his master over such a matter but with the Core now reduced to those in the chamber and the cowardly hounds who stayed out of the fighting, this situation could no longer avoid the attention of his master.

“The Firelord and his brethren once held sway over this entire world, mortal. As a servant of the Old Gods, he fought against the Titans for domination of this planet. The victorious Titans banished my master and his brethren to the Elemental Plane, there to remain imprisoned until the end of time.”

Zoias deadpanned at Executus, “Are you really going to give me a history lesson? We already know about the folly of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan and how your master’s return from the Firelands decimated the surrounding lands. One day I shall face him in his own realm and claim his essence from his extinguished corpse. But that day isn’t today, today we send him back to his realm and end his threat on the mortal plane. Now, summon him!”

Executus glared in defiance to the elementalist but soon relented as he turned his attention to the pool in the center of the spiral. “Very well.” He began channeling the spell of awakening to bring his master above the magma. “Impudent whelps! You’ve rushed headlong to your own deaths! See now, the master stirs!”

Executus finished the spell and in moments, the magma began to shift and bubble violently as something below stirred. A colossal vortex of fire erupted from the center of the magma. The upper part was reshaped into an armored torso before two smaller vortices emerged from the torso and developed into arms with metal bands forming on the upper arms and wrists, the ends forming into three-fingered hands. The shoulders appeared like wings of flame. A head soon formed with a face of molten rock in the shape of a skull. Fire rose violently from his head. In his right hand was a glowing orange and brown spiked hammer.

He was every bit as terrifying in person as he was in Bella’s vision.

“Behold Ragnaros the Firelord!” Executus cried. “He who was ancient when this world was young! Bow before him, mortals! Bow before your ending!”

Ragnaros was slow to awaken from his slumber. Being abruptly awoken after several centuries was not how he pictured his bid for global conquest to begin. He stared at Executus for a moment then took notice of the band of mortals who were standing before him. Wait, mortals? What were mortals doing in his home? Why had his servants not taken care of this pitiful infestation?

Still, for his majordomo to awaken him in the company of mortals, he better have a good explanation since he was on the verge of taking his flame and grant him his eternal death. “Too soon! You have awakened me too soon, Executus! What is the meaning of this intrusion?”

Executus trembled before his master’s bellowing voice. Even when he was speaking normally his voice was always loud enough for everyone in the cavern to hear it. “Th-these mortal infidels, my lord! They have invaded your sanctum and seek to liberate the dwarves and steal your essence!”

That was the last thing the Firelord wanted to hear from his majordomo. His minions should have been able to handle a few pitiful mortal insects. He had to wonder why Geddon and Garr weren’t handling this mess. He reached out with his senses to find that not only were the core hounds out of place, they were the only other elementals here aside from the soon to be dead majordomo and the pests around him. The runes of warding were extinguished which was further proof that his minions were incompetent. He was going to need to fully reorganize his armies once he destroyed the filth that dared defile his sacred Core. First though…

“Fool! You allowed these insects to run rampant through the hallowed Core! Now you lead them to my very lair? You have failed me, Executus! Justice shall be met, indeed!” He then grabbed the flamewaker who flailed in his grip before the elemental lord opened his mouth wide. Waves of flame were rapidly pulled from the majordomo who begged his master not to take his flame, but the Firelord would not listen to failures. In moments, the flame of Executus’ soul was ripped from him and consumed by the cruel demigod.

Everyone readied their weapons. They knew he would soon attack so the spellcasters positioned themselves on a strip of land farther away from the Firelord.

With that unsettling business completed, Ragnaros turned his attention to the pests that have infested his lair. He raised his hammer and readied his flames to exterminate them. “Now for you, insects! Boldly, you have sought the power of Ragnaros! Now you shall see it firsthand!”

With that, the battle was joined! Ragnaros made the first move by slamming his hammer down toward Flutashe who rolled to the side. Those farther away started launching spells at the Firelord. Bella, Jaqueline and Lokosh began striking at the fiery vortex of Ragnaros’ lower body with their weapons.

Given that the Firelord was too large to properly block his hammer strikes, Lokosh started using two axes to fight while dodging hammer strikes.

It was quickly noticed that Lokosh’s weapons were starting to glow red from slashing at the magma body of the Firelord. Bella and Jaqueline noticed the same thing with their weapons. Ragnaros’ body was hotter than a forge, so melee attacks against him were damaging their weapons. Flutashe had to constantly fortify her paws in bark in order to withstand the heat enough for her to attack.

Ragnaros shouted as the melee fighters barely dodged a horizontal strike from the hammer, but the shockwave from the strike sent them flying back toward the others. Mena and Stella made sure they didn’t fall into the magma.

The party quickly recovered with Lokosh making a huge leap to Ragnaros with Flutashe leaping over the magma. Stella carried Bella back while Jaqueline followed Lokosh’s example. Stella had to duck to avoid a flying splash of magma that the Firelord threw at her.

Ragnaros began thrashing about, causing magma to fly from the molten lake around them. The magma began to rain on the land, causing burns on their skin.

Sophia had to quickly wipe away any magma that splashed on her since while she was naturally resistant to intense heat, she wasn’t an Equestrian dragon. She made a note to herself to look for one such specimen at some point so she could assimilate that trait.

Thanatas was frustrated that she had to dodge magma as well. She could have gone into her Burning Dead Mode which would have given her protection from Ragnaros’ fiery attacks but it would also make her attacks fire based which Ragnaros would be immune to. Such a scenario would be a stalemate between the two of them and Ragnaros was the type to get bored easily and run away if he saw something he couldn’t burn. On the bright side, even the Firelord’s intense heat wasn’t hot enough to heat up her special blade.

Another downward strike from Ragnaros, except this one was aimed at Zoias who didn’t dodge but held up her ax instead. To everyone’s surprise, including Ragnaros, the massive hammer’s strike was blocked and any momentum from the swing was halted. Zoias didn’t move an inch from that strike. “How is this possible!?” he asked.

Ragnaros took a closer look at the mortal before he looked at the weapon. He was visibly shocked when he recognized the weapon. “That ax, it looks just like Therazane’s ax! How did you claim her weapon?”

Zoias smirked as she reveled in the Firelord’s shock. “Not just her weapon, I also have a piece of her essence flowing through me. My power over earth is greatly amplified as a result. Just imagine how strong I will be once I have the other three, including yours.”

“Impudent insect!” Ragnaros roared. “I shall crush you and take that power for myself!” Ragnaros’ attention was focused on Zoias as the two repeatedly clashed weapons. With her control over earth, the elementalist could block the attacks from the massive hammer without getting pushed back. With her being the target of the Firelord’s aggression, the others were able to go on the offensive.

Of course, his attention wasn’t entirely focused on Zoias since he still used some of his powers to attack the others. He still caused magma to burst from the pool and shower the platform with it. He also caused a small eruption under Talia, sending her flying backwards along with Groun and Farra’jin who were next to her. Thinking quickly, Zoias caused a wall of rock to erupt from the molten lake and harden. The three slammed into the wall but were able to slide down onto solid ground. Talia’s felguard tossed her and her two comrades back into position.

Ragnaros had enough with exerting himself over a bunch of mortals. Using his power to animate flame, he called out to the caverns around him. “Come forth, my servants! Defend your master!” He then sank into the magma as a large number of fire elementals emerged from the magma.

Stella and Thanatas unleashed their frost magics to put out several elementals. Stella also conjured a water elemental to fight another fire elemental. Farra’jin summoned an earth elemental to fight another fire elemental while Talia’s demons faced three more. Zoias eliminated several fire elementals by slamming her ax onto the floor which caused the cavern to tremble. Several loose stalactites fell on two of them. Sophia slashed through the bracers of three elementals which banished them. Jaqueline, Bella and Surprise killed at least one each.

When the elementals were defeated, Ragnaros grew infuriated by the mortals’ persistence and rose from the magma. “Enough! I will finish this!” he exclaimed.

Ragnaros attempted to smash Bella with his hammer but Zoias used her earthen teleport to get in the way of the Firelord’s attack and blocked it, much to his aggravation.

Thanatas saw that the Firelord was getting frustrated and Zoias’ resistance was making it worse. They needed to finish him soon before he decided to quit the battle and withdraw, rendering their efforts in the Molten Core meaningless. “We need to hurry and finish this!” Thanatas called out to the party.

Bolstered by their hopes of victory, the party unleashed everything they had against the fiery demigod. With Zoias keeping his melee swings at bay, he was forced to rely on his power over the elements to attack the others but most of the attacks were dodged or the harm was mitigated with Groun and Bella using their magic to heal the burns.

Every now and then, Groun would cause roots to emerge from the volcanic ground to wrap around Ragnaros’ arms. Even though he easily burned through them, it still slowed his attacks to where the others could get more hits in.

It was when Lokosh’s and Jaqueline’s weapons were on the verge of melting that Ragnaros’ body had cooled enough for Thanatas to effectively summon an armory of swords imbued with frost magic before she launched them into the Firelord’s body. The elemental lord growled in pain as the blades cooled his body further. A beam of icy blue dragon magic only worsened his lowering body temperature.

Ragnaros could hardly believe that he was actually losing to a bunch of mortals. Even though he was only able to use a fraction of his true power in the mortal plane, it should have been enough for him to crush the meddlesome insects. Instead, he was beginning to feel the pull of his home realm calling to him and with each chilling blow, the call became stronger and more irresistible. He refused to let his plans end this way. He was finally free of the elemental plane after being trapped there for hundreds of thousands of years. He was finally going to reshape Azeroth in his own image.

And yet these mortals were about to ruin all of that by sending him back to the Firelands.

In one last desperate move he used the last of his power to summon a swarm of meteors to destroy the land around him and flood the chamber in magma. This would force him to slumber for a thousand years to regain what he lost in this one battle, but it was better than being sent back to that accursed plane.

The meteors crashed randomly through the area and crashed into the walls, causing more magma to come flooding into the chamber. Some impacts caused the land the party was standing on to become floating islands which were slowly sinking into the magma.

Thanatas needed this fight to end now before it was too late. She created a sphere of concentrated frost and hurled it at the Firelord. Upon impact, Ragnaros, who was out of strength at that point, felt a biting chill all over his body. The chill pushed him over the edge as his form destabilized. “NOOOOOO! I will not go back! Do you hear? I will not go back like this!” Despite his cries of protest, his form vanished into thin air, leaving his hammer, which fell into the magma pool, behind which was also slowly disintegrating.

With the Firelord banished, Zoias quickly collected what little essence of Ragnaros off the hammer that she could for later.

While Ragnaros was gone, the danger was still there as magma slowly filled the chamber. Lokosh and Jaqueline were able to leap from platform to platform to reach the chamber entrance while Mena was able to levitate over the magma to safety. Flutashe shapeshifted into a bird and flew to safety. Stella had to carry Bella to the entrance. Farra’jin had his earth elemental carry him to safety through the magma, the elemental being able to endure the heat. Groun and Talia were carried in Sophia’s psionic power with Thanatas using her skeletal wings to take flight and get to safety.

With all of them at the entrance, they quickly ran back toward the entrance of the Core. The magma continued to fill the chambers, leaving everyone to race for high ground with the magma on their tails.

The magma stopped rising once they reached a high enough elevation. The party continued toward the entrance unmolested. They breathed a sigh of relief now that the threat of the Firelord was finally over. Each of them sat on the floor catching their breath.

After a few minutes, Zoias got back on her feet. She saluted the party’s bravery before she started walking away. “Well, my job here is done. Good luck on your future adventures.”

“Wait, aren’t you going to help us defeat Nefarian?” Bella asked.

The elementalist shook her head. “Nah, you guys have this. I only came here to gain favor from Neptulon by sending Ragnaros back to the Firelands. The enemies you will face in the upper spire are powerful, but they won’t try to melt your weapons and armor. Later everyone!” A pillar of earth wrapped around Zoias before it submerged.

The party headed toward the exit of the cavern and saw the bridge that would lead them to Shadowforge City.

They considered using the rift to leave, but they were surprised when they saw Emperor Thaurissan and Moira standing outside the cavern, as if expecting something.

As they approached, the royal couple approached the party. The Horde party was confused by this since the last time they heard, the Dark Iron Clan was at war with everyone else. Seeing Thanatas, relaxed as she was, told them that something happened that they were out of the loop of. They decided to simply listen in.

Thaurissan broke the silence, “Is it done?”

Bella nodded in response, “Indeed, Ragnaros has been driven back to the Firelands. That should give you some breathing room for political reforms while you work on rooting out the cultists.”

“Aye, while we won’ be truly free from his grasp until he is dead, at least Ragnaros can’t enforce his rule effectively. It’ll be some time before we can drive out the Twilight’s Hammer, but now we can begin.

“As fer the lot of ye, I’ve commissioned one of me finest blacksmiths, who has not been converted, to forge ye some new armor and weapons out of our special dark iron as a reward. Come, I know a secret route through the city that will avoid any unwanted attention.”

The party followed the emperor to a secret shop where Thaurissan shook hands with another dwarf. He explained that the matter was to be kept top secret from the rest of the city. The blacksmith agreed to the commission fee before he started taking measurements of the party members who wore plate mail and examined their preference for weapons. Once satisfied, he grabbed all of the material that he needed before leaving.

Curious about his technique with the mineral, Bella and Lokosh asked Sophia to help them secretly follow the blacksmith so they could learn from him by watching. The templar wrapped them in her Shadow Walk before they followed the worker.

Over several hours, the blacksmith toiled away at the famous Black Anvil where Sophia fought Lord Incendius before. The two observed his technique in secret and figured how they could improve their own.

Once he was satisfied with his work, the dwarf returned to his shop where he presented the weapons and armor that he made. Those whose weapons were damaged in the fight against Ragnaros ended up replaced and their armor was of a much better quality than they imagined. Bella promised to design everyone’s armor after they returned from Blackwing Lair.

“Between the armor and learnin’ from me smith, I’d say we are even now,” Thaurissan said, shocking the two blacksmiths. Thaurissan smirked when he saw their reactions, “Ye didn’ think I’d suspect that ye’d try to spy on me smith, did ya?” Thaurissan laughed uproariously. “Anyway, off with ye now, ye got a dragon to kill.”

The party returned to the entrance of Molten Core through the secret passage before Stella started channeling her magic into the rift again, sending everyone back to the center of the mountain. They were careful to traverse the narrow paths and climb the chains back to the ringed pathway.

As intense as their adventure through the Molten Core was, they were only halfway through their adventure in the mountain. Now they would need to return to Blackrock Spire and face the leaders of the Dark Horde and the ancient master who ruled them.

Author's Note:

Sorry this one took so long to get out, been fighting an illness for the past few days and I think the entire household got it. It's mostly killed my motivation to write during that time. I'm slowly getting back into the groove though.

Anyway, we conclude their adventures in Molten Core here with the defeat of Ragnaros and now they have to fight their way through the lair of the Lord of Blackrock.

Next time: Upper Blackrock Spire and their first meeting with a theatrical villain.