Krashpoint: Fighting back

After having been confronted by my father, or rather as it turned out, by the Void God X’aaztre, we all knew we had to go on the offensive. I was already doing my part back on past Draenor. It was mostly uneventful on my side. Moros at one point flew off to stretch his wings and returned a few days later, claiming he got in a fight with the Dragonmaw and feared he inspired their name. One human-looking, snake-eyed Timewalker went off to watch the Veil closely and got mauled by something, we still don’t know what. Other than that, we were mostly watching and researching. But as we were watching, other people were in much deeper trouble.

My cousin Skreah, who previously met the King in Yellow a few days before, invited Anachronos to share with him all she knew about the monster. That, and I also think she was trying to bed him but he was either oblivious or just as disgusted with her as I am. Despite the interruptions of a hamsterling lawyer from our world, they finally talked about what little knowledge of him reached Azeroth. He was innately tied to a strange place called Carcosa, either a dimension or a planet far off among the stars. Rumors said it’s a Void Lord, an actual one, and one of the true masters of the Old Gods who sent them forth to corrupt our universe. If that was true, it would spell really bad news for us. A true Void Lord taking a foothold in the material universe would pretty much mean the beginning of the end. She also told Anachronos of a harpy who was a kabal courier who accidentally read some material relating to X’aaztre and went absolutely mad. The two decided to look for the harpy to find out whether her madness makes any connection to the enemy.

They found her in a psychiatric hospital. More specifically, the Lost Cases Ward of the Peace War Memorial Hospital in Undermine. Apparently Marin Noggenfogger sent the harpy there to get better treatment. Little did he know, the ward was headed by a very special kind of creep. Some goblin “doctor”, Theo Pental, who cared little for the good of his patients. It took a bribe to let Anachronos and Skreah into the ward. Then, he kept making sexual jokes at them, and implied he would let them abuse his patients due to the amount of money he got. That combined with Skreah’s history with psychiatric hospitals in the changed timeline only made her very uncomfortable, as she told me.

They finally found the harpy patient, but she wasn’t very responsive. Attempting to talk to her normally yielded little, and when she finally spoke up – only after physically touching her – she was speaking gibberish. And I don’t mean just speaking in Shath’yar. Even the words translated into Common made little sense. Yes, I know, that’s normal for Shath’yar. I know that it has a completely different syntax and grammar and needs interpreters to guess at the meaning. Skreah was doing that though, and she had to guess what the harpy was talking about. What they learned wasn’t very new. Tarakan was just a host for something much bigger, something that really lies on Carcosa, and if it’s allowed to run rampant, would spell doom for the universe.

As they spoke, the door suddenly slammed shut behind them. Our good doctor Theo Pental was paid off by someone even richer. Apparently the Venture Company really wanted to get their hands on a bronze dragon and an arakkoa. As there was little reason they would really want that, it was obvious X’aaztre was pulling the strings behind the scenes. No, the goblins weren’t working for him, at least not knowingly. He simply once again caused a butterfly effect by changing a small detail in the past that led to Venture Company wanting to capture them. They underestimated my cousin and her dragon ally though, as Anachronos altered time on the door, leading it to crumble from age. As they broke out, Skreah immediately jumped to punish the goblin doctor. Pushing void tentacles into his brain, she effectively lobotomized him, putting him in the same place as his former patients. I’m told she proceeded to hand the hospital over to Isha to take proper care of the patients, and took the goblin for herself. I think he calls himself Reek now.

Meanwhile, X’aaztre’s Chrono-Lords continued to move in the past in his plans to mess with history. He sent the Chrono-Lord Theta to the Vault of the Wardens, not long after Illidan’s body was interred there. As usual masquerading as the charming rogue calling himself the Doctor, he convinced Maiev Shadowsong he’s there to inspect the prison, although I’m told it took a lot of convincing. Thankfully, Maiev is sufficiently paranoid and kept close watch over him. He kept insisting to go towards Illidan’s place of “final” rest, and finally met two Timewalkers there, who Anachronos sent to protect Illidan’s fragile past. Showing his true colors and attempting to convince Maiev the world will be better off without Illidan, he attacked the Timewalkers. They sent out their alerts to the Caverns of Time but were too slow. Theta killed the two, and proceeded to shatter the crystal imprisoning Illidan… only to find out it was a fake. The real one was moved after Anachronos warned Maiev.

In that time, that human warlock Prella arrived. Three times over. In three different versions. I don’t know what she uses to change her face, but the three were too busy arguing with each other to stop the Chrono-Lord, until they heard Maiev fighting Theta. The night elf warden proved herself resilient enough to withstand the attacks long enough for that threesome to finally settle down and intervene. Claiming the Chrono-Lord an imposter over the “real” Doctor, they attacked him with temporal magic, revealing his true face. That of a Yellow Creeper, a spidery aberration from Carcosa who serves X’aaztre. Together, the four were able to kill the monster, only for it to regenerate before their eyes and take a new face. Thankfully, the Unspeakable One was disappointed with his servant and pulled him back to Carcosa for punishment. Illidan was once again safe. In a manner of speaking.

We have now stopped X’aaztre’s plans to change the past and found out where he’s from. Isha, deciding to work with us out of her naive sense of duty for the greater good, found out what she could from that Xa’tac necromancer we knew and could finally direct us to Carcosa. All that remained was the final assault to put the end to X’aaztre’s temporal machinations once and for all.

To be continued…