Tormeron's events: the Stories

[Gergel]

The village high up in the mountains between Feralas and Mulgore was an idyllic place once. Its residents ignored the long-winded ongoing conflict between the Alliance and the Horde and lived together in harmony: humans, elves, trolls, tauren. But simple life tends not to last on Azeroth.

As indicated by the letter that Adrenus held, something was attacking. An unstoppable creature made of light (but not the Light) that killed men, women and children without remorse.

It was quiet for the moment when the group of Adrenus' champions gathered. The locals were barely maintaining a shield spell over their village. Upon being questioned, they pointed the group towards an old troll woman at the edge of the village.

The attacking creature was unstoppable and unkillable. Or so the troll said. "We disagree," the adventurers argued. They had probably seen worse. The old troll did not argue much, merely offered them advice and bits of voodoo magic to assist them. Even though the creatures she described existed partially in the mundane spacetime, to fully communicate with them it would be necessary to enter the "ghost plane".

This sounded very familiar to those who had been present on the night of the excursion into Stormwind Keep and the following visit to the Cathedral.

The troll handed each person a crystal whose magic, she explained, would transfer them to the ghost plane. The effect would be brief, she cautioned, and each person could only enter the plane once. She then directed the group towards a small gap in the mountain wall where a path curved towards Feralas. Without any better ideas, that was where they travelled.

It didn't take long before the first sign of trouble: a terrifying inhuman screech which sounded like a multitude of voices shouting in unison. Just beyond the range of the failing shield was an indistinct shapeless creature. As it approached, coldness fell on the group. Whoever tried to touch it or even go near it felt the chill of death. Even people's innate magic was flickering.

The creature did not appear to be hostile, however. It made no threatening movements, merely stood and screeched at the rather disturbed adventuring party.

"Maybe we would hear them better in the Ghost plane?" Tessliana suggested. It was as good a time as any to use the crystals given by the old troll.

Lilandris was the first. As expected, once in the ghost plane the screeching became entirely understandable speech. Once Lilandris' minute was up, Thelarwen followed, then Aroona. Their brief discussions with the mass of souls that made up the creature can be summarized thus: the creature itself had not attacked the locals, the souls within it desired to leave the worldly realm but were afraid of a "he", who would be found back at the village, and that they very much desired the destruction of "him".

With that, the creature disappeared and the adventurers hurried back to the village. Their fears were confirmed when they saw a fire and smelled the overpowering stench of death. Bodies were everywhere. Only one villager was still alive although badly injured: the old troll woman.

The group's healers did their best to heal her wounds and stabilize her condition. They could not have foreseen an entity of darkness emerging from the troll and taking control of her body. Speaking in two voices, she laughed at the possibility of being defeated, manifested dark conjured swords and armour, and proceeded to attack.

Aroona, Thelarwen and Xailla met the attacks at close range, while most of the rest of the group fired their weapons and cast their spells from behind them. It was a battle much like any other battle, until Lilandris was hit by a shadowy bolt of energy and struck down.

That enraged Aroona, who promptly shapeshifted into a stag and rammed the troll/entity into a nearby totem pole with her horns.

Seeing the close contact with the freezingly cold entity begin to injure Aroona, in turn made Thelarwen abandon caution and physically tackle the troll's body away from Aroona. She grabbed ahold of the struggling entity, ignored the freezing cold (not much of a deterrent to a death knight who uses freezing spells, including Icebound Fortitude, in her everyday arsenal), and turned its immobilized body towards the rest of the group so they could shoot it with all they had.

They received sudden and unexpected help from the creature comprised of souls they had interviewed earlier. Apparently having lost its/their fear of "him", it/they also charged the entity inside the troll. The onslaught finally tore the dark spirit from troll's now-lifeless body.

The dark entity turned its attention on Lilandris and attempted to overpower her. Its touch chilled the Lightmancer and numbed her body, she barely escaped being consumed or possessed, but this effort exhausted her to unconsciousness. Aroona and Thelarwen leaped in to help. To everyone's relief the creature began to dissipate and die. And with the damage Lilandris had done earlier, and the final efforts from the rest of the group, it was finally destroyed.

In the aftermath, everyone could see the souls from the "soul conglomerate creature" swirl around them and ascend into the sky. There were no sounds, but it was clear that they were incredibly grateful. Lilandris woke up from her unconsciousness, but was strongly affected by the experience and shaken for several days.

And finally, unexpectedly to everyone, a man emerged from the wreckage of the village. Apparently he was the one who had summoned them there, and profusely thanked everyone for their help at saving them... even though they had utterly failed to save the rest of the village.