Tormeron's events: the Stories

[Gergel]

More trouble in Teldrassil. Things must have been serious because Adrenus clearly stated that they would not be going to a picnic. Someone had clearly not been too happy about the snooping and blood-elf-capturing that the adventurers had done a few weeks back. Adrenus had received a letter which claimed to be from the Sentinels, stating:

"Greetings,
"We've seen some of you in the woods of teldrassil and your handling of the blood elf.
"We do not approve of your methods of aprehending the suspect and not giving her to the local authorities.
"We suspect that you might be involved in some illegal dealings with some rogue elements in the teldrassil area.
"We ask you not to interfere anymore with our inner affairs!
"Yours truly,
"The Sentinels"

However, when Adrenus had made inquiries, the Sentinels denied ever having sent such a letter. Clearly it had originated from a person or a group which did not appreciate someone meddling in their leather-stealing-plans.

A few steps out of Darnassus' borders there was an incredibly obvious trap on the road: a pile of leaves and twigs. Which Aroona promptly stepped on and then fell into the pit below. She barely escaped falling onto a set of sharpened spikes by shape-shifting into her bird-form and flying off.

Two sets of footprints led away from the trap. One set down the road towards Dolanaar and another off into the woods. In an incredibly convenient fashion, it turned out that there were two people in the group who were both prepared to lead a few people off along one of the two trails.

Ajulae, Aroona, Lilandris and Tessliana went into the woods. Many horrible awesome adventures happened.

Adrenus, Chepi, Clara and Thelarwen went down the road.

The trail of footprints disappeared quickly. After all, one can only carry so much mud on their boots. But on the other hand the group then encountered a weeping night elf woman. Her husband, she said, had departed from Dolanaar that morning and never returned. Local Sentinels merely dismissed the report with the claim that the husband was just late, but the poor woman was quite beside herself with worry. This immediately derailed any plans the group might have had, and everyone hurried down a dried-up riverbed towards where the woman claimed her husband had gone.

As soon as they were out of sight of the woman, there was a gunshot, a scream, and when everyone hurried back to where the woman had been, they found her dead and decapitated. A bloodied note was stuffed in her mouth saying simply: "You meddled." At which point they decided to meddle some more and follow the trail of blood.

The trail led again back along the riverbed that they had already travelled once. A bloodied dagger was stuck in the ground very close to a small lake, and that's where the assassin's (or assassins') trail ended. A scent of demonic magic was in the air and clearly noticeable to Chepi. It led closer to the lake.

And another thing that was close to the lake was not a thing at all but a person: a badly wounded night elf man. He was clearly terrified and pointed a loaded shotgun at the party. While Thelarwen attempted to talk him down, he just ended up fainting from blood loss. Fortunately Adrenus was able to stabilize his condition for the time being. He would still be needing aid soon, but his life was no longer in immediate danger.

An application of water brought him back to his senses temporarily. He narrated how he had been attacked by two night elves (or what had looked like night elves) and left there to die. The man handed Adrenus a small bottle of water which needed to be delivered to Dolanaar as quickly as possible. There was something terrible in the lake, and the water needed to be analysed.

At which point the "something terrible in the lake" conveniently showed up in the shape of a small mana wyrm which quickly flew off into distance. Followed by a much larger mana wyrm, which decided to stick its head out of the water at the end of a small pier and have a look at the people at the lake shore. It appeared to be slightly peckish, maybe interested in a bit of gnome, and so made a move as if wanting to dine on Chepi. Chepi, of course, was not particularly fond of the idea and reciprocated by tossing an explosive into the water. There was a "boom" and the bottom half of a mana wyrm floated to the surface. Group versus wyrms - 1:0.

Thelarwen reached out to grab the two-meter-long wyrm tail from the water. Another wyrm showed up just then and was clearly not happy with what had happened to its companion, so it popped its head out of the water and dragged the death knight into the lake. Thelarwen would probably have been eaten alive (although that would likely not have actually hindered her in any way), but Clara did not seem overly fond of that idea and jumped into the lake after her. While Thel kept the wyrm busy by wriggling, struggling and using her freezing aura, the rogue sneaked up behind the serpent and did what she does best. Which is to say, stabby-stabby and slashy-slashy. It only took a mere few minutes for Clara to cut the poor wyrm in half. And that was the end of that. Group versus wyrms - 2:0.

And after Thel had washed her armour clean of a pile of wyrm guts which were ever-so-decoratively wrapped around her, the group picked up the unconscious night elf and headed towards Dolanaar. There the man was handed to the care of local healers. Aroona and Lilandris were already there, looking a bit shaken and disturbed.

They had encountered mutated or malformed creatures, discovered several vials of unknown liquid, met a very uncooperative satyr, and then Aroona had eaten it. The satyr. Not much of it, just nibbled on its face peckishly. Then attacked Lilandris, some furbolgs, and was generally being a horrible mindless furry machine of destruction. Nothing unusual. Except the "mindless" part. Until she regained her senses, remembered none of what had happened, and then just generally felt very awful. Must've been the satyr disagreeing with her...

Ajulae had already taken the mysterious vials to Darnassus for further study. So, with nothing more to do, the night was wrapped up.