Tormeron's events: the Stories

[Gergel]

(2015-02-17)

The trip from Kaskala towards Icecrown went unremarkably. For the first ten minutes. After that, however, unusual things began to happen. Take, for example, the golden skull found in the middle of the road within a bone pile. Clara was, of course, the first to pick it up (treasure!). It felt odd, creepy and magical, and to everyone's incredible surprise Clara just decided to hand it over to someone else. That "someone" being Chepi, who in turn felt a magical emanation from the skull. Just a small one, as if it were a soulstone with someone's soul inside and trying to escape. The general consensus was "when in doubt - Thelarwen¹" and Chepi dropped the skull on the ground to be destroyed.

Except they never got that far. All of a sudden several arrows landed before and among them. Despite some people's derisive comments it was quite clear that the arrows were well-aimed and, as warning shots, had missed on purpose.

A group of blood elves approached. In quite an arrogant manner they claimed that they had been the ones who had killed a skeleton (thereby producing that pile of bones on the road) and now they demanded its loot. Which is to say, the golden skull.

Just as people began to debate whether they should just give the skull to the elves, or claim they didn't have the skull, or fight the elves, or to go to the pub, the conundrum was solved by a large group of zombies who showed up at that moment and made a beeline towards the elves with the clear intention of causing grievous bodily harm.

Just as people began to debate whether they should just proceed and leave the elves to their fate, or also attack the elves, or go to the pub, Aroona, Sharh and Thelarwen (clearly the most heroic ones of the group) promptly ran into the fray to do some good wholesome fun-for-the-whole-family undead-smashing. With a sad sigh, everyone else followed at a safe distance.

Most of the zombies fell easily before the onslaught of two druids and the death knight. A few blood elves were killed, most ran away, and the last one was grabbed by a group of zombies who attempted to carry him away. Aroona and Thelarwen would not have that, of course, so Aroona changed into her birdform and snatched the elf from the zombies while Thel did what Thel does best. Zombies fell right and left, except for the last one who turned out to be made of sterner stuff. Which is to say, apparently metal. Thelarwen's sword strikes did negligible damage. The fight would probably have dragged on for days and weeks, if it hadn't been for Serendipity (who froze the zombie to the ground) and Chepi (who tossed a fire spell and a bomb for good measure). There was a big boom, a gust of flame, and the zombie melted into a puddle of what looked like molten metal.

The rescued elf was somewhat confused at first and assumed the group were agents of the Scourge. He regained his senses soon, however. He turned out to be quite friendly and, more surprisingly, apparently knew Thelarwen. Not personally, but they had faced one another in battlefield long time ago and the elf held the death knight in high regard. He too was an enemy of the Scourge and the necromancers, and so he politely requested to be allowed to join the company in their mission. There was a bit of grumbling from less Horde-friendly members of the group, but those folks calmed fairly quickly and the elf became a member of the party.

The road wound on and on towards Dragonblight. There was a brief encounter with two gnomes sitting on a bridge and waiting for the icy river below them to melt. These were assisted by Serendipity who sat her purple firebird down on the ice and melted a hole into it. And another encounter with a goblin who was looting some dead bodies near the road, who was simply bypassed.

By that point the group had already left Borean Tundra and entered the outskirts of Dragonblight. Just around the Azjol-Nerub area there was a skeleton sitting on the road quite calmly and reading a book. Not a propped-up bundle of bones with a book in its hands to produce a macabre display, but an actual animated undead being who was doing some light reading.

"Hi," it said. "I'm Joe, I've got a riddle for you. If you answer right, you get the book, if you don't, you die..."

Why would the travelers even bother with such a random sidequest? No one could answer that question. It would have been easy to just go around "Joe" and continue forward. Or try to destroy it. And yet, almost everyone stopped and began to discuss the riddle with full earnestness.

This is how the riddle went: "I am in our body, I am in the air, I am but a remnant of someone. I am neither alive nor dead. I am used by almost all, yet not everyone uses me. I am not an element. A few amongst you have me in them."

There was quite a bit of discussion, and the consensus provided the answer of: "Magic". (Which probably pleased Serendipity to no end.)

That answer, presented by Clara, turned out to be... correct! There was no fighting! No killing! Instead, Joe the skeleton peacefully handed over his book and wandered off.

Powerful winds began to blow as Clara opened the book. At first, just gusts from every direction. Then, a whirlwind centered around the Rogue. This kind of a development scared the poor still-treasureless woman and she threw the book away. It fell in the snow, still open, and the whirlwind around it gained strength. Thelarwen was as stoic as always, however, as she waded through the whirlwind (heavy plate armour helped keep her on the ground), picked the book up and slammed it shut.

Now that this distraction was over, the group finally proceeded forward again. By the end of the day they wound up in a small abandoned village near a river, where they set up camp, and would go forward the next day.

(Which is to say, next Tuesday, real-time.)

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¹ When in doubt - C4.