[Alliance] Chapter Four: Session Twenty-Eight

Appearing Characters: Aramar Thorne, Arthas Menethil, Broll Bearmantle, Elissa Cross, Iphy, Jarod Shadowsong, Kilnar Goldensword, Livii, Lunara, Makasa Flintwill, Muyoh, Naralex, Remnii, Riff, Rokhan, Samaara, Serena Bloodfeather, Seria, Tae'shara Sunwatcher, Tae'thelan Sunwatcher, Telagos, Tol'vas Moonshadow, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner, Velen, Zen'tabra

June 20th - June 25th

During the time in Gadgetzan, Remnii takes an evening to dream Velen. The wrinkled smile of the Prophet Velen greets her in the crystalline chamber that she frequently meets him in, though perhaps later than Remnii would have liked.

They embrace, and Remnii spends some time informing Velen of everything that had happened.

Remnii smiles.

She pauses, mulling over her words.

Remnii massages her temple and leans forward onto her knees. Velen places a hand on her shoulder.

Remnii smiles and leans her head against Velen’s shoulder, and then she takes a deep breath.

She chuckles mirthlessly.

Remnii strokes Velen’s cheek.

Velen smiles.

Remnii thumbs over Velen’s cheek one more time and touches her forehead to his.

Remnii continues going into her plans moving forward, and Velen informs her that the draenei had not been staying in one place for long. They are presently staying with a small group of dark trolls, but they are going to likely move on to somewhere else in the Barrow Deeps as he worries they are taxing their resources.

Velen then takes Remnii’s face in his hands.

Remnii nods.

He gives her a kiss on the forehead, and Remnii starts to tear up.

They hug, and the dream starts to fade away. Remnii awakes with happy tears in her eyes.

The group also gathers together so that Remnii can [Commune] and ask a few questions. Remnii lays her crystals around her, and then begins to ask questions.

She hears the song of the naaru, and she hears the chimes go into a major key: Yes, of a sort.

She once more gets a confirmation of yes.

The song, however, stops, indicating that the information is beyond the reach of the commune’s knowledge.

Remnii returns to the waking world with her answers.

Aramar ponders the answers for a moment.

Aramar nods.

Aramar fetches the sketch, and Remnii pulls out the new scrying focus she had purchased. She starts to channel her magic through it, but the orb remains clouded. There does not seem to be any sort of connection.

Remnii looks to Aramar.

Aramar nods, clearly disappointed.

She looks to Makasa as well, who looks angry at the entire business.

The group nods, and Vel conjures a [Sending] ritual.

Up in the Overgrowth, Tol’vas presents the idea of trying to reach the grove of Cenarius to Naralex.

Naralex considers.

June 25th

The group prepares to return to the Overgrowth in the afternoon and bid farewell to those that are staying in Gadgetzan. Livii does not give Remnii a hug yet, but she does see Remnii off at least. Telagos is also present (in his human form) to say goodbye to everyone.

Aramar and Telagos shake hands. Telagos’s arm is no longer in a sling. Kilnar also is there to bid them farewell, and Tae’thelan is there to see off Tae’shara before he floats off to take care of his other business.

With a smile, Kilnar takes Vel’s hand and gives it a squeeze before backing off to watch the group teleport.

She throws her hand towards the ground, and with a swirl of blue energy and shining magic, the group reappears nearly exactly where they had teleported from in the first place.

It seems a lot of work has gotten done. There are more than a few treants wandering around helping, and it does not take long for the away-party to regroup with the others. It’s fairly hot and humid, though thankfully the trees provide shade from the otherwise oppressive heat. There will likely be rain showers later on in the evening.

Aramar immediately goes off on what he found out about Malus--in that he is actually his uncle Silverlaine Thorne. Vel also fills in the details Aramar had missed, and also informs Zen’tabra and Seria that Zalazane is, in fact, a lich of sorts.

Vel looks to Seria.

Seria nods. The most she had interacted with him was when he helped her mother give birth to her--but beyond that, she had primarily observed him from a distance. However, he had survived Zalazane’s attack, and he had left with the Darkspears that had fled to Zandalar.

She explains that the mutations were, in fact, a perversion of nature, and it seems to be outside of the Dream in origin.

He pulls out a leather satchel. There is a bowl that seems to be made of wood, and inside are beautiful emeralds. There are a handful of other emeralds inside. He hands it over to Tol’vas.

He offers the group the items from the serpent lords, and Tol’vas takes the serpent-scale armor.

He then leans forward and adds quietly.

Naralex heads off.

Remnii nods.

Remnii gives a dry smile.

Remnii looks to her left and right.

He looks at Zen’tabra and Seria.

Seria nods as well.

He pulls a carved idol out.

He looks to the Overgrowth.

Remnii had been examining the idol while he spoke. It had been clearly scarred by fel magic, and the only sorts of people that could fix it were people intrinsic to its creation.

Her eyes also flicker to Vel.

She places a hand on his shoulder.

She places the idol back in his hand.

Broll nods.

Remnii smiles, and then nods.

He puts a hand on Remnii’s shoulder and gives a gentle squeeze, which Remnii squeezes in turn.

Vel follows after Broll. He seems in good spirits following the conversation.

She uses [Minor Illusion] to show an approximate image of a wisp.

Vel listens and looks at the illusion.

Broll blinks.

As she shows him the tattoo she sees that it has begun to glow. She sees a light behind Broll dance through the shadows of one of the trees before it disappears again. She hears a quiet sparkling sound.

He looks around, with a bemused chuff.

He sighs.

Vel offers a small smile.

As Broll leaves, she hears the same tinkly sound from behind her. There’s a wisp, that floats there before swirling around her, then flits into the air before disappearing.

The group heading into the Emerald Dream gathers together, and Elissa also suggests that Uther come along as well. Muyoh fills in the last slot to accompany Naralex.

Tol’vas closes his eyes and focuses on the Scythe, and he starts to focus on the stories he heard of the Emerald Dream and the Grove of Cenarius. He remembers what it was like to be in a place close to the Emerald Dream, but then he starts to hear the low rumbling of thunder. He reaches out for the location in the Dream, and he gets a single ray of sunshine--he can sense it's there, but it won’t be easy to bring him and his fellows there.

Broll squeezes Tol’vas’s shoulder and he casts [Guidance] in preparation. Seeing the tenuous nature of the situation, Vel approaches behind them.

She casts [Enhance Ability] on Tol’vas as well before stepping away.

As Tol’vas opens his eyes, they are bright green. Vines start to circle around the scythe, and spread around the group in a swirling emerald vortex. The lightning of the felstorm starts to crackle, and Seria adds her strength to Tol’vas’s, and there is a flash of lightning and the group vanishes.

There is a roar of thunder, and Tol’vas is able to find the singular safe pathway. Then they’re through, and are standing in the midst of the Emerald Dream. There is a perpetual, starry sky above that defies expectation and beauty. There is a trickling of water--almost a song--and they find themselves just outside an islet of land. Everything seems so perfectly curated, the water almost inviting those who walk the path to cross.

There is a fluffy rabbit that looks up to the group, and a small set of wings flutter in surprise, two tiny nublets of antlers crowning its head. It leaps across the stream, a lily pad growing beneath it to carry it across.

Tol’vas and Seria’s ears catch a sound, and they rapidly realize they are not alone. Remnii feels something sharp firmly touch the square of her back. Remnii squees quietly, and Tol’vas and Seria sees figures shifting in the wilderness. There are women with leaf-like armor and wild hair with deer-like bodies: dryads.

The largest dryad Tol’vas had ever seen is standing behind Remnii. She is wearing simple wooden and leaf armor, and she has two massive elk-like horns and a wild mane of green hair. Vines and flowers adorn her hair, and her keen eyes look down at Remnii, and then the rest of the group. She has a spear out, touching the square of Remnii’s back.

Other dryads start to emerge, and about two dozen make their way out of the trees and bushes.

The druids all look confused.

The dryad blinks and she pulls the tip of the spear away from Remnii. She seems perplexed.

The dryad nods.

The dryad spins the spear around effortlessly, and puts it at rest at her side.

Naralex chuckles.

Naralex seems to recognize the name.

She smiles.

Naralex starts to explain what happened with the Circle of the Fang, and everyone is introduced.

Lunara blinks, and she and several other dryads start to laugh.

She starts to lean on her spear.

The other dryads chuckle again.

Tol’vas is a bit mind-boggled.

Broll nods and looks to Naralex and Tol’vas.

Lunara, however, had seemed rather tight-lipped on the subject of the Overgrowth. She also did not mention anything on the Nightmare beyond a nod of acknowledgement. Tol’vas gets the sense that she knows about it, however, as there is no surprise on her face. However, she had expressed she was glad the Circle of the Fang had managed to overcome the ordeal.

She is suddenly very serious.

Zen’tabra crosses her arms.

Lunara tilts her head, and the other dryads whisper. Naralex gives Zen’tabra an aghast look, and Zen’tabra just grins. Lunara plants her spear in the dirt and crosses her arms.

There is more chittering in sylvan from the dryads about this may very well be interesting.

She looks at Uther, and Remnii seems antsy suddenly.

He looks at Remnii, and Lunara shifts her eyes over to her.

Remnii gives the notes of the kaldorei and draenei conflict and the history behind it and the crash of the Exodar. The dryad seems to recognize the event and put things together suddenly.

She looks her up and down.

Remnii blushes.

Lunara thinks.

She pulls into her flowing hair and produces a beautiful branch of ivy with thorns and flowers. She holds it out to Remnii.

Remnii thanks her.

Zen’tabra whispers in Seria’s ears.

Lunara shoots a look at Zen’tabra and grins before looking back to Remnii.

Suddenly there is a shout in Sylvan, and one of the dryads pop up out of a bush holding the small winged rabbit up. A few younger dryads swarm around and they leap into the woods happily. Lunara chuckles.

The group seems to be largely satisfied, and Zen’tabra grabs Seria’s shoulders.

Seria nods.

The group prepares the magic again, and they find the same hole they had torn through before.

The dryad has bright green hair and autumn-colored hair.

Tol’vas greets her and then they start to transfer themselves once more to the waking world. Suddenly, the group appears.

Aramar had gone to get his Hearthstone deck to play a game with Vel, but before he could turn away, they were back.

Tol’vas gestures to the dryad.

Iphy bounds off to explore the Overgrowth, and Muyoh hurries after the dryad to make sure she doesn’t get into anything while Tol’vas shares the information they had found. Vel immediately tries to corroborate with Tol’vas to see if the source of the disturbance aligned with her suspicions, but Tol’vas is not an expert at maps--however, it’s a wide area, and he is pretty sure that the area falls within her triangulations as well as the fact the original name of the location was Suramar near Val’sharah.

June 26th

The following day, Seria approaches Elissa awkwardly after having retrieved the tattoo ink they got from the caverns.

She is currently painting a picture of Cenarius’s Grove as best as she could remember it.

Elissa immediately spins around.

Seria shows her the ink.

Elissa’s eyes sparkle.

Over the course of the next few hours, Elissa takes the ink and grabs a few of her tools and starts to apply the tattoo. It starts on Seria’s wrist where there’s a snake head. The snake’s body wraps up and around her arm and continues onto her shoulder. From the snake, vines and stems of ivy and roots shoot off the snake as if it is part of a tree, and different kinds of poisonous plants, like hemlock, come off of it like a background that connects to the body of the snake. It’s a dark green, and the color seems to match Seria’s other tattoos despite the difference in color. There is a natural resistance to poisons that starts to seep into her body.

Seria seems to be somewhat in awe as she examines it.

She continues to admire it.

Elissa beams.

The day falls into night before long, and the moons are starting to rise. The group gathers and Arthas looks over to Tol’vas.

They come and find Vel as the sun sets. Arthas shifts nervously.

Vel produces a little key that she got in Gadgetzan.

She takes the key and sticks it into thin air. There’s a shimmer of magic as spider cracks open into a portal.

Arthas looks to Uther, and then looks down. Uther gives him a reassuring smile and a nod.

The two step in. It looks like an open ballroom that’s been overtaken by vegetation. There are trees and roots as though this mansion has been completely claimed by nature. The sky overhead is an aurora borealis with no moon. There are spectral animals flitting about, deer and foxes and others. In the center there’s a great tree that looks like it can open into a cavern.

Arthas pokes one of the servant deer.

Arthas squints at one and then shouts at it suddenly. The deer runs and Arthas smirks.

Vel steps out.

The door disappears behind Vel, leaving just Arthas and Tol’vas in the demiplane.

Arthas looks up at the aurora borealis in the ceiling.

Arthas takes to pacing for an hour, then two hours. Arthas starts to test the limits of the mansion, getting food and the like from unknown places provided by the animals. But then their blood starts to quicken. Tol’vas closes his eyes and settles into a cross-legged position, trying to center himself and find balance. He can feel the presence of the moon pulsing in his heart. But he is able to keep himself calm.

He opens an eye, and he sees Arthas on his knees, his teeth gritted as he tries to fight against the transformation. But he starts to lose. The hair on his arms starts to lengthen, and his bone structure shifts as he becomes a worgen. Tol’vas steels himself, but he personally has gotten through the worst of it.

Arthas, however, had not succeeded in the fight.

Tol’vas grabs the scythe and stands, prepared to parry Arthas. Arthas’s bright blonde fur is lit in the borealis, and he starts to stalk forward, and bares his teeth at Tol’vas.

But then he stops as the sky light falls over the Scythe of Elune. The worgen form of Arthas recoils in shock and recognition, and he stands up. His ears go straight up, and his eyes widen as he looks at the scythe, and then to Tol’vas.

Tol’vas recognizes that Arthas had remembered him. Somehow. Perhaps because of the scythe, but even in his feral state, he recognizes Tol’vas and opts to not take any aggressive action toward him.

Arthas quirks his head to the side, not understanding, but he sits down in Tol’vas’s presence.

It’s still a long night and Tol’vas maintains a long watch. Eventually, Arthas starts to chase some of the spectral animals. Sometimes the animals run too late, unable to parse what commands he is giving. But Arthas seems to be calmed by the vicinity of the scythe.

Tol’vas opts to talk at Arthas about his personal history, but it’s hard to say if Arthas would remember.

Tol’vas is up the entire night, and fatigue starts to creep across him. Arthas starts to get a bit woozy, and his ears go flat and he starts to lose energy. He then sits down and starts to transform back.

His eyes open groggily.

Arthas starts to laugh.

June 27th

The next morning, Vel opens the door to the mansion. The two of them look tired but no worse for wear.

Vel is pleased with the compliment.

At that moment, a spectral deer comes over with a platter of food.

He takes a bite.

As word begins to spread, throughout the course of the day a non-zero amount of druids poke into the manor to experience the food- including Naralex. A spectral squirrel comes up to him and holds up a pastry.

He takes the pastry, takes a bite. And then another. He partakes of the food then leaves looking bewildered. Most of the night elf druids are likewise bewildered, but they do thank Vel for the food. Most of them have never seen arcane magic before, and only know that it’s dangerous. There is a good bit of culture shock.

The tauren make sure to thank Vel for the meal, as this is more exciting for them.

The group packs everything up and starts to get ready to head off towards the meeting point that Jarod had set. Many of the druids they had saved come to see them off, as well as Naralex and Broll.

Broll looks down and gets a bit choked up, and then he bows.

As Broll is getting choked up, so does Remnii. Broll sniffles, but is able to keep it together, and he approaches Remnii and opens his arms for a hug.

Remnii starts to actually sob as she hugs him.

Remnii laughs in good spirits.

Elissa is standing nearby, her arms behind her back. Broll sees her and smiles and opens up his arms.

She also hugs him, and Riff also slams into him to get in on the hug.

There is a pang of happy sorrow as he looks down at Elissa, and then he looks to the others.

They exchange nods, and Seria and Tol’vas use [Wind Walk]. One by one, the group takes off to the sky, and the tauren shout blessings after them. Naralex watches with a smile and crossed arms as they leave.

As they get into the sky, the Overgrowth is quite expansive--spanning hundreds of miles over what was once desert. They head north towards Ashenvale. It’s hot, clear, and muggy, and they take a few pit stops, but they make very good time.

Finally, they get to the edge of where the Overgrowth had reached, and they pass over a massive peak that seems to be one of the taller mountains they have seen. They soar over it, and then head downward. As the sun starts to set, they start to see the trees beyond the Barrens is an endless sea of green and violet, and the high mountains beyond nearly completely obscured by the fog and clouds in the air.

And then they find themselves in the low area of Ashenvale, and they start to fly low--seeking out the grove that Jarod had directed them to. It’s a small secluded grove tucked into the mountains to the west, well off the areas the Sentinels patrol.

They look about, searching for any evidence of Jarod. Something reaches their ears. It’s music that seems to be an old song that Tol’vas recognizes. There is a male voice singing in darnassian, and it’s a take on an old elven nursery rhyme about playing in the light of the full moon and singing with Elune.

A second voice joins it--one that is feminine. The group approaches the sound carefully, and the voice is strange--with an accent that they can’t place. There are three figures. One is a large night saber that is clearly Bard. On a nearby stone is Jarod strumming along to the song on a cittern. There is a third figure sitting in front of Jarod, her legs folded awkwardly underneath her, and there are feathers on the woman as well as a lot of bare flesh.

She seems to be trying to croon out the song.

It’s clearly a harpy with jet black feathers that become purple and then red.

Tol’vas takes the lead and starts to transform out of his cloud form a few hundred feet away, as does the rest of the group. Then they start to approach. Jarod seems to be enjoying himself as he sings, and then he looks up and sees the party. He grins and brings the song to an end.

The harpy hops up and awkwardly shuffles closer.

Her ear twitches and she turns to the group, looking very displeased.

He hands her a small sack, and she pulls out a beautiful gemstone and looks at it in awe.

She takes off into the trees, and Jarod is visibly trying not to laugh. Remnii also covers her mouth.

Jarod gets a bashful smiles.

Remnii has a wry smile.

Jarod smiles.

Remnii’s mouth opens, she then motions to Vel.

Vel takes out the key and casts the spell. The door appears, which she then opens. She gestures inside and brings them inside.

They find themselves in a vaguely octagon shaped room. There is a trunk of a large tree with ashen bark, growing through the ceiling and supporting the floors above. The trunk is surrounded by translucent mana wyrms that flicker around the tree. There are three additional passages that lead off the atrium, sconces with blue light, and three different portals they can see. It’s all lit by this blue glow. It sounds like there is a faint lullaby, but you need to listen for it.

She walks by one of the portals.

Elissa is stary eyed. Tae’shara is speechless. Jarod is stunned. They continue to the western entry.

The water in the room is illuminated as though lit by mana. There’s the sound of trickling water, and a waterfall. There is a cutout above it displaying the night sky.

There is a lot of blinking.

Elissa waves to one of the mana wyrms.

One of the mana wyrms zoops down, transforms into a more humanoid form, then bows to her.

It bows once again and turns back into a mana wyrm, and returns to the tree with the flickering group. Through the doors to the north, there is etched glass that looks like there is warm light filtering through. Vel opens the door to reveal a banquet hall.

She smirks at Tae’shara and Makasa. Makasa fist pumps.

Vel is confused but stashes that away for later.

The first floor atrium is nearly a mirror to the ground floor, though there are chairs and side tables around. There’s an open space where the tree grows through, and the mana wyrms circle around it on this floor too, and up all the way to the top.

She looks to Tol’vas, Seria, Riff and Jarod.

She continues walking around, a little nervous as she’s the center of attention right now. But also a little excited as she put a lot of attention into this. She walks over to another room that has light filtering through similar to the banquet hall below.

Remnii is silent, but her tail is moving.

All the doors are labeled, there is a place for Arthas, Uther, Elissa, Tae’shara, Aramar (those two are next to each other, but Vel is not acknowledging that they are next to each other), Makasa, Remnii and Samaara (whose rooms are also attached). Each room has been customized. Each room has a fireplace and a ceiling with a lattice cutout that displays a sky that’s lighting is adjustable.

Arthas and Uther’s rooms look pretty similar- based on Uther’s bedroom and what she remembers from Lorderon Keep. Arthas's has a fur on the bed and floor. There’s a dummy he can beat up if he wants to.

Arthas lays down on the bed.

Elissa’s room has a little garden in the corner with sunflowers and daisies, because she can never decide which ones are her favorite. There’s an easel set up. The bed has a yellow bedspread with a green rug underneath it. It’s still based on Lorderon, but it’s more based on what Vel knows Elissa likes.

Elissa walks in and starts chewing on her fingers, before making a high-pitched scree. She grabs Vel’s hands excitedly.

Vel smiles.

Aramar’s room is based is based on his home back in Lakeshire. There’s a desk with quills already set up for mapping. There’s also spaces where he can hang maps he’s working on.

Tae’shara’s room is set up with more conventional high elf architecture. The lanterns are blue. There’s also more stuff for writing and some tomes. All tomes in this manor are books Vel has read, which is a lot.

Makasa’s room looks like a ship, with a hammock and a bed. There’s the faint sound of waves crashing as background noise.

She points at the bed.

At some point, she had grabbed a bottle from the bar and she sits on the hammock and just drinks.

Remnii and Samaara’s rooms are attached. Inside those rooms are mirrored. But Remnii’s room has more pillows and conventionally soft things. The room is illuminated with crystals. Samaara’s doesn’t have a mirror. Remnii mills around her room for a second. Vel hears Remnii approaches her for a hug, but stops herself.

Remnii’s eyes are glassy.

Vel opens her arms in anticipation and the two hug.

Vel nods in appreciation and continues to the portal again to direct those that wish to see to the third floor. She looks nervous about it.

The portal itself on the third floor looks like it’s coming out of a boulder. The entire third floor looks like it’s a grove. There are little fairy lights around. There are other trees growing up into the ceiling. Basically the edges of this room opens up into sky that is also able to change like the bedrooms. There is a pond with the sound of peeping frogs. The sound of a living wood is in this room. Jarod recognizes there is a boulder that looks very similar to the one on top of the mountain. When he opens it, there is a cutout of what she remembers of his hideout.

A soft sad smile appears on his face.

Tol’vas has never seen some of the trees like these.

Seria nods.

His tail has shown up at this point.

Riff then changes the sky several times.

He grabs Elissa, transforming into his Blood Serpent form and flies down through the hole. Elissa squeals happily.

The group files their way down into the study, and Jarod sits down.

Tol’vas sighs.

He looks to Vel.

Jarod blinks.

Tol’vas gives a brief summary of the War of the Satyr and the worgen.

The group agrees. He goes to Remnii.

Jarod claps his hands together.

He goes to politely ask a servant where the kimchi is, where the servant replies he can get it for him. They go back and forth, Jarod wanting to get himself so as to not trouble the servant. He gets into a short debate with the creature before finally relenting.

This page was last edited on April 25, 2023, at 06:27 PM

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