Tormeron's events: the Stories

It's happy hour, the alcohol is flowing. It's time to pull up a tankard of ale, bottle of wine for the ladies and regail tales of heroism and grandeur.

Topic/Postby Gergel » 27 Feb 2015, 10:06

Arthuron is working for the enemy.

That was the only answer that made sense. Why else would he lead the group from the relative safety of their campsite, and the calm weather around it, to a precipitous path that led to an abandoned village surrounded by unsurmountable cliffs and covered in blasting winds and stinging snow?

"I know exactly where we are going!" said the druid. "Where are we going, Thelarwen?"

The death knight had no idea, but because their fearless treehugging leader asked her to, she guided the group to the best of her abilities. The group was forced to turn back only when they reached the literal end of the road at a few deserted huts. There was a sound of bones clacking together in the wind but nothing could be seen. A shrill laughter rose over the winds. Aroona thought she smelled something, but whatever it was, was impossible to locate because of the weather. Everyone grew more and more alert and alarmed. A battle seemed imminent... but there was no battle. Even when they turned and went back the way they had come from, there was no attack.

Just as they turned and headed back the way they had come from, there was a sound of coins clinking. Clara's ears, of course, perked up immediately. Could there really be treasure this time? The kind that's not cursed, or shaped like a skull, or being held by a giant flying purple people eater?

The wind let up a little. As the adventurers neared the edge of the village, a strange well-dressed gnome wandered out of the blizzard. He took a look at the group, grinned unnervingly and offered a deal:

"Wanna gamble for my riches? I shall conjure 3 cups, in one of them is a golden bean. If you guess right, you win the treasure: a chest full of gold. If wrong? Your soul is mine then."

Clara threw what was left of her caution in the wind. Quite literally, considering the gales around them. If there was a chance for treasure, she would gamble with her soul! Gamble she did, and lost. And that did not come as a surprise to anyone: it was the timeless shell game con. Everyone prepared to battle for Clara's soul, which was apparently about to be sucked out by the gnome. Sadly (for Thelarwen) or fortunately (for everyone else) the gnome decided that discretion was the better part of valor and teleported out of there. Or perhaps he was never there to begin with, only an illusion. In any case Clara still had her soul safely tucked away inside her body and was intent on keeping it that way.

With the distraction over the party moved further away from the village. There was a rope bridge they needed to cross, but that went quite smoothly despite a few ominous creaks. No one fell into the river below, nothing attacked them, and it was quite safe to proceed again.

Just then Joe the skeleton popped up out of nowhere again. With a new riddle. "What makes no footsteps and rides no mount but moves through these lands as one of us?"

Thelarwen was quite tired of these constant interruptions by that point. "Wind. That is my answer. If it is correct? Excellent. If not, then I am aching for a battle."

Apparently the answer was wrong (and since Joe did not volunteer the correct answer, which is highly suspicious, we will never know the truth...) so the death knight gleefully prepared for the promised battle. Sadly it was a rather easy one, with only a few skeletons attacking the group. Those were dispatched with incredible ease.

Most of the group as well as their blood elf companion were quite aggravated by their endless stops. The adventurers now did their best to push on along a local road which was leading towards Icecrown. For a brief moment they were attacked by what seemed to be unseen ice giants in the blizzard firing huge arrows at them. Those were fortunately content with merely driving them from their land and did not pursue nor attack.

Sadly there was only a short length of clear track before the next interruption. That interruption came in the form of a large pile of tuskarr corpses lying in the middle of the road. Just as the group reached them, something started to reanimate them. The dead bodies stood up. Reached out towards the adventurers. Began to advance. Chepi tossed a mighty fire spell. And that was, fortunately, enough to dispose of the undead walrus-people. Only their blood remained on the ground. Animated, bubbling blood. That was quite enough of that, decided Thelarwen and used her Blood Boil ability to cause an almighty explosion of literally boiling blood all around them. Which was quite unpleasant, but what can you do... Then there was a growl and a rumble, and a considerably larger amount of undead tuskarr began to rise out of the snow all around the group.

Had Thelarwen been alone, she would have braced herself and fought. But because there were people she cared about in the group, not all of whom were good at fighting, not all she could have watched over simultaneously -- the choice was clear.

"Run."

Run they did, for a long time. The masses of tuskarr zombies were left far behind, and after a while they could stop to catch their breath. To their surprise the group discovered that they had reached the outskirts of the Alliance fortifications next to Icecrown walls.

There was a small debate about how to proceed. A few people argued that it would be safer to go on foot, circle through Crystalsong Forest and from there, through the Argent Crusade camp, into Icecrown. The other side insisted that such a long trip was pointless and that they should requisition gryphons from the Alliance camp (and the blood elf would find his own way to catch up with the team). In the end the matter was put to vote and those in favour of flying won the day.

So Arthuron and co. walked up the hill through the Alliance forces into the local gryphon corrals. Any suspicion the stationed guards might have had was immediately replaced by a respectful salute the moment they saw Thelarwen in her Argent armour. Clearly the death knight was a familiar face. There were no arguments whatsoever when she asked to borrow a small squad of gryphons in order to carry the group across the wall into Icecrown. The birds were immediately brought out, riders prepared, and everyone was ferried to a secure spot just past the walls. However, because of severe weather conditions, the riders explained, they could not be carried much further. Still, that was more than enough to get the group on their way.

They made camp where they had landed. Night was falling and weather was becoming worse. They would wait the night out and move on next morning.

(Except for Thelarwen and Florence, who sneaked away in their usual manner.)




Next week! Chepi gets a cold and decides to stay in Dalaran (because the player is going on vacation). Who will save everyone with fire spells? Will Serendipity respec into fire? Will she need to throw snarky comments for two? Will the adventure finally conclude? Will Thelarwen propose to Florence while kneeling on a mountainous pile of undead and cultist corpses? Will Aroona's penguin turn out to really be Lilandris in a cursed polymorphed form? Will Arthuron turn out to be Adrenus in disguise? Stay tuned and find out! Same RnP time, same RnP channel!
What kind of sick individual burns a book full of perfectly good dark arts?!
- Darkscryer Raastok
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Gergel
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