Guild Stories: The Tree of Life

Hello, my still faithful (I hope) blog readers. Since we’ve started the guild, I’ve been writing up summaries of our stories there on the guild Discord, but I never published them out to the public. I figured people would be interested in hearing what happened to Krasha since, so I’m sharing the Discord summaries here.

OOC

Verroak Krasha arrived in Orgrimmar to find his new group of minions on the Horde side and offer them a job people of Alliance races would not be able to do easily – venture into Suramar and acquire fruits of the arcan’dor. His long-standing research attempted to free the blood elf race of their mana addiction for good. Not just substitute it with the Sunwell, or other sources of magic, to cure it for good. To further work on his research, he needed the fruit of the arcan’dor, which he knew cured the nightborne of their hunger.

Our first contact was a slimy merchant named Marian Lulian. As it turns out, a group of corrupt guards just came into his shop and took some of his rare gems “confiscating” it. After being pushed a little by a ruthless death knight of ours, Glysra, he confessed the fruit has been stolen by a group of thieves known as Tunnel Snakes. He’d tell us more, but only if we chase the guards and retrieve the confiscated goods. So we did, and in spite of our best attempts at parlay, it’s come to blows and we massacred the guards at a pier near the market. Once we took the stolen goods back, Marian gave us the information we needed to retrieve the stolen fruit for ourselves.

We delved into an old ruin where the Tunnel Snakes lived, or rather once lived. Now, they were all killed by an assailant that would soon prove to be more corrupt guards, and their blood elven allies. We found the sole remaining Tunnel Snake, Mordial, and as we dispatched his torturers, he offered to help us in dealing with the rest. Deeper in, there was a powerful blood elf spellbreaker, talking to the true leaders of this organization – a nightborne Arcanist Nasadra and a blood elf Magister Renethras. As their projected images dispersed, the spellbreaker attacked and we were forced to kill him. Glysra was now pissed by the interruptions and vowed to kill the two leaders, while we still needed to find more fruit.

First, we left Suramar in pursuit of the blood elf magister. In Silvermoon City we encountered a former apprentice of his, fired for accidentally killing his dragonhawk. As she was quite a mess, we had to bribe her, and our paladin Lillianei convinced her to change her life. However, she did reveal that another warlock who lived nearby was still in contact with Renethras. Once we met the other warlock, a former demon trainer, he resisted briefly, before spilling the beans on Renethras. Turns out they were religiously worshipping Kael’thas as the Sun King who became something far more powerful after his death, and would return one day to save Silvermoon and burn the rest of the world. Then his goons attacked us again to try to stop us, but after we dealt with them, Rommath himself showed up and told us they too want to get rid of the fanatical magister and they’d arrange their forces in a way to help us deal with him.

We went deeper into the blood elf lands, to the Isle of Quel’Danas itself, where Renethras’s Firewing zealots occupied a sanctum. In the middle of it, they were performing some profane ritual, connecting them to Shadowlands themselves. While we dealt with some of the people protecting Renethras, the ritual almost succeeded. Renethras briefly contacted Kael’thas, but as the latter was still undergoing his torture in Castle Nathria, he believed the voice of his former follower to be a phantom summoned by his torturers and refused, as the spell collapsed. The magister was furious and tried to kill us, but despite his powerful magic, we succeeded in destroying him.

While we gathered some fruit from the magister’s room, we needed much more. Glysra got wind of a raffle being held in Suramar, offering four of the arcfruit to the lucky winners, and a chance to avoid their certain withering. Attending the raffle were, among others, our “friend” Marian Lulian, the thief Mordial, and a lady near to withering, Jourie Ravenoak. As it turned out, the raffle was sponsored by our nemesis, Arcanist Nasadra. After we listened to her rant against Thalyssra and the Horde, we bought our tickets, only to be informed by Mordial that the whole raffle is rigged, and the real fruit is behind held above. He convinced us to sneak away to steal the fruit, but Marian noticed us. Luckily, after a brief distraction, Marian was stunned and hidden in the bushes.

Reaching the fruit on the ledge above, we found ourselves surprised by the rafflemaster Shyloque, who warded the area to stop thieves. Thankfully, he was a very simple spellcaster and could not handle our assault. Once we gathered our fruit and Mordial ate one, happy to finally be free of the hunger… he suddenly turned to ice and was shattered. Nasadra was just inside the building and her powerful ice magic could pretty much one-shot anyone. However, Meelah succesfully stunned her long enough for us to run away.

A while later, Glysra followed Nasadra to a building on the Concourse of Destiny, while Meelah brought back an amulet with an enchanted fire elemental essence to protect us from Nasadra’s magic. After confronting the guards, we found out these were not bought off by her and in fact came here with Silgryn. After we informed them of Nasadra’s treachery, we entered the building together, only to find Silgryn already confronting her. Nasadra revealed her true plan – killing half of Suramar, because there would never be enough arcan’dor fruit to save everyone. Silgryn found that understandably insane, but Nasadra was offended and attacked. Although Silgryn protected himself well enough, he was wounded and ran for help, while we confronted the arcanist.

The fight ended on top of the building, as Nasadra summoned ice elementals and a massive hailstorm, trying to ruin the city. Thanks to our protection and the help of Jourie, a warlock as it turns out, she could not easily kill us, and we managed to strike her down and disperse the storm she summoned. Glysra brutally murdered her in the end, and Silgryn came back just in time to see the result. As he promised before, he rewarded us with what whatever we’d ask for – and that’s the arcan’dor fruit.

We departed the city to let it recover from our… activities and succesfully delivered the bounty our boss wanted.

Infinite Azeroths: Flashpoint

The gathered heroes stood opposite the newly arrived villains. The Arbiters. Lords of the Nexus. The true benefactors behind Kairozdormu’s recent rampage across the timelines. And behind them, a nexus of arcane energies that brought them here. A hole in the fabric of reality. A rift to another realm. A realm that even Chromie, a bronze dragon, found to be outside of her knowledge. She came to see all realms anywhere within the universe, past, present or future, this timeline or another. And yet this, for the first time in a long while, was a complete mystery to her. What is this Nexus? Who are these Arbiters? What do they want? Why would they erase from existence such an uncountable amount of lives?

“I know all the questions racing in your head,” The Arbiter in the center, Lord Order, responded without any hint of emotion in his voice, “and I know the answers to all of them. But all in the right order.”

Shaman Dezco frowned at the response. “Do you have no conscience?” he said. “Do you know how many lives were lost forever because of you?”

“Yes,” another Arbiter, Lord Reason, responded, “We know the exact number of lives lost. And no, we have no conscience. We have abandoned such… obstacles to true success when we became what we are now.”

Infinite Azeroths: There But For the Grace of the Light

Zin-kalim, the capital of the Kaldorei Empire, over 12,000 years ago. Inside the higher levels of the glorious, marble palace a little girl paced around nervously. When she noticed a bird sitting on the window-sill, she runs up to it and scared it off. Near her, two royal guards stood guard before a large, glided door. Standing almost motionlessly, they only kept looking at the little girl. They were visibly unnerved by her constant pacing, and yet remained motionless, as was their duty. In their minds, they were just counting time for their shift to be finished. Suddenly, the little girl noticed something – a tall, handsome night elf male was slowly approaching. The guards remained motionless, but watched the new arrival carefully.

Then, the doors behind them opened. A male midwife with a bloodied apron came out, cleaning his hands on a piece of cloth. The girl momentarily stopped walking around and looked at the man. The midwife smiled.

“Congratulations, princess Aszune, you have a sister. Your mother wishes to call her Azshara.” The newly arrived male approached them all and without speaking a word, he kept just looking between them. The midwife looked at him, not recognizing the person. “Who would you be?” the midwife said, “The herald to bring the news to the people?”

The guest smirked and spoke up with an eerily echoing voice. “In a way. I am a herald… of your doom.”

Infinite Azeroths: the Soulflayer

Timeline: Azeroth-47
Character: Vol’jin, Avatar of Hakkar

The view from the top of the pyramid was breathtaking. Quite literally, in fact, as countless lives have been taken and countless souls have been sacrificed to the Blood God. Vol’jin sat comfortably on the richly adorned throne at the very top, as the priests brought yet another human sacrifice before his altar. The human stopped wrestling with his captors long ago, because he knew there was no point to it. He had just one thought – in one, final act of defiance he would look the troll chieftain in the eye and spit him in the face. But when the human raised his head and looked into the eyes of Vol’jin he saw something he could not comprehend. Madness. Ancient hysteria. A thirst for blood that could rival only the Old Gods. The eyes of the troll chieftain were no longer his own – now there was only Hakkar.

Constants and Variables

We found ourselves in a version of Stormwind far more diverse than we would guess. Cities were full of races delegated to be monsters normally. Furbolgs, arakkoa, mogu, even races that are part of the Horde were walking freely in a human city. Walking across the Gilnean District that took place of the park, we found a Worgen scholar and asked him for some details. Krasus was one of the first people I asked about, and the scholar was certain Krasus was an elven archmage of Dalaran who disappeared mysteriously some time during the Cataclysm – around the time he died in our timeline – and Rhonin was still the Grand Magus. Even more surprisingly, Broxigar was still alive and well, and an advisor to Warchief Dranosh Saurfang. All this pointed to the fact here they never went back in time. That resulted in some vastly different personalities… which apparently resulted in Alliance and Horde working together?

Damaging the Timeline

Previously on Arakkoa Chronicles: Doing Sargeras’s Bidding

So there I was, in the middle of Dalaran, now ruled by Kel’thuzad, who was conspiring with Sargeras to create a plague of undeath that would easily completely ravage this world. Remember, on this Azeroth there are no paladins to stem the tide. There is no Prophet Medivh to warn the leaders to leave for Kalimdor. If the Scourge rises here, this Azeroth will left completely destroyed, and when the time comes, the Burning Legion will invade what remains behind and finish the deal. There isn’t even a Lich King that could use an equivalent of Arthas to rebel against the Legion. And I was expected to help these events to come.

I was in no hurry to actually go see Kel’thuzad and went for the Dalaran libraries to find some kind of spell that would help me get to Kalimdor and to Caverns of Time. Yes, I would leave this world to devastation – it’s not my world, in two different ways, and I didn’t want to damage the timeline that wasn’t mine either. Unfortunately, as I was looking through the books, I met Krasus, aka Korialstrasz, the consort of the Lifebinder, still alive in this timeline. As you might expect, the goddamn OP protagonist saw right through my human disguise and ordered to arrest me. Only by telling him I have information about Kel’thuzad’s treason he recalled the guards – but still forced me to go with him.

I was brought to his office in the Violet Citadel where together with Rhonin they began to interrogate me. Seeing this as a chance for getting out of the whole “helping destroy the world” thing, I told them the truth. That I’m an alien AND I’m from an alternate timeline, and that Sargeras is now inside Prince Anduin and sent me to help Kel’thuzad devise a plague of undeath that will bring forth Legion’s invasion. Although it sounded like a pretty tall story, some of the details that I shouldn’t know in this timeline convinced them. In the end, they decided they would get me a transport to Kalimdor if I help them save Jaina – still alive, but comatose.

When I arrived with them to Jaina’s chamber, she appeared barely alive. Very pale, very shallow breath – yet there no was immediate danger to her life, as she was in a stable condition for a while. I took a sample of her blood and with one of the simplest test, I found that Kel’thuzad must have created a unique contagion specifically for these cases. It was mostly made from Nether ingredients, making me unique suited to treat her. You see, no one in that universe, barring Kel’thuzad himself, would be able to help her. As I lived for long years on Outland, a continent consumed by the energies of the Twisting Nether, I gathered (and still had with me) plenty of nether-infused herbs, just the right thing I needed to combat this contagion. These herbs just don’t exist in this timeline.

So I started working. Treating her took me better part of the day, because I had to find all the right ingredients in all the right amounts, but in the end, she started stirring and her skin got its color back. Finally, late in the evening, she woke up and started screaming at me, thinking I’m some monster Kel’thuzad summoned, but Korialstrasz quickly calmed her down and explained everything. That’s when she explained how she got in that position – she found proof of Kel’thuzad’s dealings with Sargeras and his plague laboratory. The archmage quickly stabbed her with a needle full of his new contagion and took charge of the city, to make sure no one stops him anymore. Unfortunately for him, his plan was just ruined.

With Jaina still weak from weeks in bed, Rhonin and Krasus left her under my care and went to confront Kel’thuzad. I don’t know what exactly transpired, but soon after they entered his chambers, a lot of lights and noise started coming out of his windows. When the two mages came back a couple of minutes later, they explained that Kel’thuzad is dead, but he didn’t go down without a fight. As he was dying, he apparently told them they’re too late and the Scourge is already spreading. Rhonin thinks he was bluffing, but Krasus wants to make sure he wasn’t.

Nevertheless, I waited for the next day and the two mages fulfilling their end of the bargain. Before I could leave, I was however called to testify everything I knew about the situation before the Council of the Six and some special guests. The remaining five archmages gathered together to choose the new sixth. At the same time, King Kael’thas got wind of the recent events and arrived in Dalaran with Ranger-General Sylvanas Windrunner and one of his top magisters, Aethas Sunreaver. Additionally, Uther was transferred to Dalaran from Alterac. When I was called in to the Council chambers, Aethas was already made a member of the Six, and Kael’thas, Sylvanas, Uther and Turalyon were listening to my explanations.

At first, Uther didn’t want to believe me, but after Jaina told him how “selflessly” I treated her (really, I was doing it for my own gain), he agreed to listen. After I explain Anduin’s true identity, the Six agreed they must act to stop their plans. As their first move, they sent Uther with Turalyon back to Stormwind to unmask Sargeras, while I was given the passage on a goblin ship going to Kalimdor, currently docked in Southshore, occupied by Dalaran-friendly forces after the battle I witnessed couple of days prior.

I don’t know how Uther’s and Turalyon’s mission went as I quickly proceeded to Southshore. Once on board with the goblins, I could finally drop the human disguise, as the goblin crew was informed what I was, and in Kalimdor it would be pointless. I mean, they were informed I’m a bird person from a “far away land”, not an alien from an alternate reality. I finally left the Eastern Kingdoms to their own devices and my return home wouldn’t take much longer.

Next on Arakkoa Chronicles: The Road Home