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 » 05 Mar 2015, 13:57

(2015-03-03)

Flying mounts are highly useful.

Only Arthuron seemed to be fond of camping in the wilderness. Most others started to appear from wherever they had decided to spend the night. Some from Dalaran, some from even more distant places. Even Lilandris and Ajulae managed to catch up to the group, but their addition came at the cost of Chepi, who apparently had decided to stay in the pub.

After re-gathering, waiting for the stragglers, giving a short heads-up to the newcomers and so on, the party was on their way again. In a surprising turn of the events, Icecrown turned out to be considerably warmer compared to Dragonblight. In fact, it was unusually warm. The immediate cause -- or possibly an effect -- appeared to be a cloud of vapor in the distance. It was small, tightly-packed, and hung quite close to the ground. Clearly something to be investigated.

In the middle of the cloud? An undead dwarf. A quite unfriendly one, although not openly hostile to begin with. "It failed us, it betrayed us all," he kept mumbling to himself and only barely noticed the new arrivals who were looking at him. But when he did notice, he was not happy.

The dwarf raised his hands. The ground quaked. Skeletal corpses and ghouls began to emerge from all around the travelers. "Your light can't heal me, your good manners don't help me! You deal with my demons!"

There was nothing they could do but fight. The dwarf cared nothing for attempts to talk to him. And so they fought.

Warm wind turned into a deep chill. The cloud which had been warm only a short while earlier, now became icy and freezing all around the adventurers. The ghouls and skeletons were easily dispatched, but the undead dwarf himself proved to be of sturdier stock. Even Thelarwen's swordswomanship was not quite good enough to punch through his defenses. In the end, combined attacks from all around the dwarf would probably have worn him down, but the necromancer clearly decided not to fall quite so easily.

A huge skeletal giant shambled out of the mists. A blue orb of icy-cold energy glowed in its midsection. The skeleton attempted to step on Clara and Aroona, but of course the two easily dodged. Aroona immediately proceeded to climb up the bony leg in order to try and push the power-orb out of the skeleton, but with little success. Even with Thelarwen helping to pull the orb from the other side with her Death Grip spell, the orb failed to budge. For the moment, all firepower was aimed at the giant. A blast of holy fire from Lilandris set its head aflame, and then it finally dropped.

The dwarf cackled mirthfully. "Goodbye!" he waved at the group. And then fiery boulders began to rain from above, apparently shot from strange fleshy catapults a short distance away. "My own creations," the dwarf seemed proud.

The adventurers dodged and fled from the hot rocks which were dropping in all around them. Lilandris tossed a grenade at the catapults to silence them. And all of a sudden, several blood elves appeared out of nowhere to add their firepower. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Joe the skeleton was there again, standing near the elves and just... watching. Lilandris' holy handgrenade made a most satisfying kaboom. Catapults and their handlers were all blown to bits. Anything that was still moving was turned into pincushions by the elves' arrows.

Joe wandered up to the dwarf, who stared at him with bewilderment. "What stands before me and can't control me?" Joe asked. And the necromancer could only stammer: "How?..."

"I suggest you kill him now," Joe nodded to Lilandris. The draenei did not hesitate, she promptly pointed both hands at the dwarf and blasted him with a ray of holy fire. Joe and Thelarwen took a step back and shielded their eyes from the burning radiance. There was no protection from such a blast for the necromancer. His armour and body burst aflame. By the time the Lightmancer's attack waned, the dwarf was charred and broken.

"Agh... Thel!.. Finish him!" Lilandris gasped with exhaustion. Only the dwarf's necromantic magic appeared to still be holding him together. And so the death knight pushed out with her own anti-magic shell, as well as her sword. There was a brief soundless flash of magic from within the bubble... and then the undead dwarf dispersed into a pile of ash.

Joe the skeleton walked up the remains. "I'm free..."

"I've led you all here for a reason," Joe continued. "It might seem evil what I did. For I was the one who made these staves you broke. But I did it because of him... I left clues on the way for the way to the dwarf. He never thought I can overpower his will. The way I got free of his possession is due to his own arrogance. He held too many. And he couldn't control us all at once. I found my freedom when I riddled you first. The chain that linked me no longer seemed to control me."

"What now?" Thelarwen asked. Joe looked back up and at the group. "What is free and has no plans of yet?" he riddled once more. "I shall see until when my bones shall last!" and with that he turned and walked away from the silently-staring adventurers. Even Lilandris did not seem intent on stopping him.

There was now only one last loose end to wrap up. The reminder came in the form of three elven arrows hitting the ground just in front of Lilandris. The blood elf, their erstwhile temporary companion, was standing a few paces away with a few newfound companions.

"I believe you still hold something of mine. I still want the golden skull."

Thelarwen dug the object out of her pack. "You could have just asked. Instead of firing arrows," she said admonishingly. "Oh but it's a trademark!" the elf responded with a laugh. "You would never recognize me without the arrows, would you?"

There was no reason to fight the elves for the skull. It had, after all, come from an undead skeleton that the elf's previous group had killed a few days ago in the Borean Tundra. Clara, Chepi and Thelarwen had intended to destroy it anyway. So the death knight handed it over to the elves without regrets. Perhaps this gesture would increase their reputation at least a little bit among the blood elf community, and yield respect instead of disdain.

And now it was over.

All battles fought. All enemies destroyed. All details wrapped up. The adventurers sighed with contentment and wandered off on their own paths. It had been a busy few days. It would be good to be able to relax for a while, go back to Stormwind or Dalaran or Crystalsong Forest and get some rest. Maybe in a week or so they might gather and finally start that Northrend-discovering expedition they had originally planned. Perhaps Grizzly Hills would be a nice place...
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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