Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth

by Xarmar13

The Sunken Temple

Questions filled the minds of the group as they wondered how Sophia was able to single-handedly defeat a giant shark that was powered up by a blue dragon, but they also knew that she was a powerhouse when she wanted to be and let the matter slide.

With the shard of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands acquired, Stella began channeling her magic to open another portal. “There’s a keep that was established by the Kirin Tor after the Second War after the Dark Portal imploded and turned most of the swampy region known as the Black Morass into a barren wasteland. Have any of you heard of it?”

“I’ve heard of it, darling,” Bella responded. “You’re talking about Nethergarde Keep which stands in a place known today as the Blasted Lands. While expensive, the threat of another invasion from the Horde made the costs worth the expenditure. Though nowadays, with the Portal silent, the Kirin Tor studies the residual effects it had on the land.”

Stella nodded, “I can take us to Nethergarde since Dalaran keeps records of its anchor points. It’s not far from the Swamp of Sorrows to the north of it, but we need to be careful not to wander too close to the Horde outpost of Stonard since I doubt they will be friendly toward us.”

With the final incantation, Stella opened the portal to the keep and everyone traveled through. They emerged inside the mage tower on the bottom floor which was likely established that way so any Dalaran workers would be able to get to work faster.

The group emerged from the tower to witness the keep with their own eyes. They saw two barracks to house a decently sized garrison along with a blacksmith and a stable that was filled with horses. The soldiers wore purple tabards with the Kirin Tor eye symbol. The entire keep was surrounded by stone walls to keep out intruders on the ground.

Beyond the walls, the barren wasteland of the Blasted Lands featured nothing but red rocks and soil but unlike Durotar this was unnatural. The land was forever scarred by nether energies because of the implosion of the Dark Portal in the center of the region. Demonic cultists and ogres made their homes in these lands .

Due to the harsh conditions of the region and the threats they faced, the party noticed that the denizens of Nethergarde were wary of their arrival. Stella paid them no mind as she led the party out of the gates.

For some reason though, Mena felt like she couldn’t leave the grim-faced defenders like they were. She always had a stash of supplies hidden somewhere for whenever someone needed cheering up and the people of Nethergarde needed it badly.

Within minutes, the whole keep of Nethergarde erupted in merriment as the mages and soldiers drank ale and socialized, mostly voicing their complaints about how awful being assigned to Nethergarde was.

The uproarious cheer drew the attention of a warband of nearby ogres who tried to take advantage of their distraction to siege the keep. They were cut down and blasted by the guards who treated the defense of the keep like a game of how many ogres they could kill. Humiliated and down to a third of their number, the ogres retreated.

The party lasted for several hours but Stella and the group left the keep once the ogres retreated. They didn’t travel very far before they reached the border to the region to their north.

The Swamp of Sorrows was almost the exact opposite of the Blasted Lands. While the boggy swamp and the wasteland were once the same region, the Dark Portal implosion ultimately divided the region in two. The swamp was a grim reminder of what the Blasted Lands used to be.

The group had to be careful in this region, the Swamp of Sorrows had no Alliance presence here and nothing but enemies in the form of predators and Horde. There were also rumors of a mysterious tribe of creatures that appeared humanoid but behaved like feral creatures.

Taking extra care not to encounter any Horde patrols on the road, the group navigated through the swamp in search of what they were looking for. Flutashe shifted into her bird form and flew around the swamp looking for their destination.

It wasn’t long before she spotted what appeared to be a huge lake with a sunken building in the center of it. She flew back to her friends and led them there.

As they started at the temple in the middle of the lake, Jaqueline asked Flutashe a question, “Any idea what’s in that temple?”

“I can’t say for certain, nothing has been reported from this place for centuries, so if there are green dragons in there they may either be dead or have been corrupted by the Nightmare. It’s also possible that the Atal’ai survived Ysera’s wrath and have regrouped in the temple.”

“Sophia mentioned that these Atal’ai worshipped Hakkar the Soulflayer, but how dangerous is he?” Bella asked.

Flutashe sighed, “There’s a lot we don’t know about the loa since that is part of the trolls’ history. Though this particular loa was so evil that even the original tribe, the Zandalari, feared that his return would be the doom of the whole world.”

They looked at the huge structure in the center of the lake. The building itself was of troll design and shaped like a pyramid with each layer of dark stone able to be walked on like a platform. A large staircase extended up to the top of the temple. Each layer had carvings along its face that have faded due to the swamp’s murky atmosphere. Atop the structure was a massive stone square with the corners extending outward and held up by four pillars. The unsunken parts of the temple were covered in vines and moss.

Not wanting to waste time, Stella wove a group teleport spell and brought everyone to the entrance of the temple atop the structure. Once they were ready, they entered the building and immediately proceeded down three flights of stairs.

They soon came upon a flooded area that was completely submerged. Unsure about how far they would have to swim to find breathable air again, they let Flutashe scout ahead as she dove in and shifted into her sea lion form. She swam a short distance to find a chamber that was mostly flooded but the water didn’t reach high enough to reach the chamber exit. She returned to her friends and led them forward, surfacing once they entered the chamber and swam toward the other end of the chamber.

The interior had vines growing all over the ceiling showing that the place had fallen into a state of disrepair. There were also a quiver of giant cobras who had taken up residence in the temple which they were forced to fight because they were being affected by dark magic and Flutashe’s ability wasn’t getting through to them.

“Dang trolls and their voodoo…” Jaqueline muttered.

Dealing with the cobras was no problem for the group and they were able to proceed.

They entered another chamber that featured a pit full of bones where they found more cobras and a slime monster that Stella incinerated with her fire magic. They continued down a hallway fighting more of the same.

It was easy to get lost in the temple passages so Thanatas had to guide Sophia through the correct passages using the psychic link in order to reach the main part of the temple.

Adding to the cobras and slimes, they soon encountered the fanatical survivors of the Atal’ai trolls who had, from what they saw, been practicing necromancy due to the mummified trolls wandering around.

Bella’s light magic quickly incinerated the unholy abominations while Jaqueline deflected the Shadow Bolts being fired at them by Atal’ai priests while Surprise’s shadow magic destroyed what was left of their minds.

Their path continued while dealing with zealous trolls and their risen minions until they came across a square chamber several floors in depth with a bottom floor that appeared to house some sort of eggs.

Sophia led the group down a flight of stairs to the middle level before entering another doorway leading downstairs into another area.

It was then that Sophia felt a strange sensation, as if the world had become distorted for a moment. When she asked about the strange distorted feeling to Thanatas through the psychic link, Thanatas sighed in exasperation.

“Another one of these? Yeah I felt it before too when I was exploring a keep in Silverpine Forest with Crystal and the others. It seems to be a glitch in the data that takes the form of a temporal distortion. In other words, the present and the future versions of that place have temporarily swapped places in the timeline.

“Thankfully, this can work to our benefit since the old version had a lot of twists, turns and side passages that made navigation a real hassle. In the version you’re in, many of the passages had collapsed at some point and the lower levels were completely submerged in water that drowned anything that lived down there. This made exploration a simple process of exploring three rooms instead of looking through every nook and cranny for what you’re looking for.”

“Don’t worry you two, the software patch is nearly finished and should be ready to deploy after this latest adventure,” Twilight said. “It should make sure the distortions won’t appear anymore.”

“So how bad did the distortions get?” Lyra asked.

“The worst was probably facing one guy at Shadowfang Keep,” Thanatas replied. “Somehow, one of the bosses there got switched up to a higher difficulty variant that could have easily wiped out my party members.”

At the bottom of the stairs, they entered a long, empty hallway that featured rubble blocking several side passages. The overgrowth of vines and moss covered much of the stone interior. Reliefs of troll faces lined the walls.

At the end of the hallway they entered a huge circular chamber that featured a pit that contained several piles of giant bones, possibly draconic in origin. Wandering the chamber were numerous groups of green dragonspawn and green whelps. Sophia could tell that their minds were clouded so there was a fair chance that they were hostile.

“I have a feeling that they are in a ‘kill first and ask questions later’ state of mind,” Sophia warned.

Flutashe nodded, “The stench of the Nightmare permeates throughout the temple. They’ve been down here too long, there’s only one mercy we can grant them.” She then shifted into her bear form while Bella and Jaqueline drew their weapons. Stella quickly went through any spells she knew that would be useful here. Her Sleep Mist ability wouldn’t work on green dragons.

Once they began to engage the Nightmare-crazed dragons, they had to quickly dodge the globs of acid the green whelps were spitting at them while the hooded dragonspawn threw bolts of Nightmare-infused natural energy at them.

Other than the acid and corrupted nature being thrown at them though, the group’s experiences in Blackrock Spire made them quite adept at dealing with dragonspawn. Even as more groups came to reinforce their brethren, Stella made sure they weren’t facing overwhelming numbers by flying around setting up barriers of flame which forced the dragonkin to look for a way around while their brethren were cut down with ease.

This continued for a while until all crazed dragonkin were pulled into the fray and soon put down.

Once the chamber was cleared, the group took a breather while they figured out where they would go next. Counting the hallway they emerged from, there were five passages they could check; a would-be sixth was blocked by rubble. If their sense of direction was correct, the western part of the chamber had two passages, the southern part had one that was blocked off by a barrier of dark magic and the eastern part had one passage.

Since either the left or the right seemed like viable choices, Bella took out a gold coin and had Jaqueline call it; she called heads for east. Bella flipped the coin, caught it and saw that it landed heads.

They then proceeded down the hallway and turned a corner to find a chapel of sorts with a number of Atal’ai cultists in attendance. A troll with a navy blue mohawk and wearing purple and blue robes was preaching something about immortality to the Atal’ai in exchange for bringing Hakkar into the world. Standing next to the preacher was a withered looking troll, likely a zombie, carrying a jagged green shortsword.

However, what the preacher said filled the group with concern, “Soon, me brethren, soon we will have all that we need to fully bring Hakkar into Azeroth. Our chosen harbinger has traveled de world seeking de tools and reagents needed to construct his vessel of rebirth. He goes now to summon de avatar of our master who shall fill de vessel with his essence and bring it to Zul’Gurub where de loa will give their power to finish his rebirth!”

If what the preacher said was true, then the situation was more dire than they thought. It sounded like they were on the verge of summoning Hakkar the Soulflayer and this was trouble they didn’t need right now given that the Alliance and Horde were focused on preparing for the war in Silithus.

As they prepared to leave the area, the group had a bad stroke of luck when one of the cultists decided to get up from a pew and turned around in time to spot the party. His eyes widened before he shouted “Intrudahs!” and drew the attention of every troll in the chapel. It wasn’t long before they were beset upon by a small army of trolls carrying axes or preparing to cast dark magic.

This wasn’t anything they hadn’t faced before so Flutashe’s claws and Jaqueline’s blades tore through the flesh of the melee attackers while Surprise countered the casters’ magic with her own. Bella’s hammer and light magic crushed the dead among their enemies and Stella burned the rest.

As the cultists began to fall, some of them manifested a spectral apparition that creeped toward the party members. Bella attempted to blast the spirit with Light but nothing happened. The warrior’s blades passed through them as well. The spirit lashed out at Jaqueline who blocked the attack with her swords but was thrown back a fair distance.

“What in the sam hill is that thing?” Jaqueline demanded.

“You can’t attack that,” Thanatas said through the link. “Just stay away from it long enough and the apparition will go away on its own.” Sophia relayed this information.

Just as Sophia said, after a few moments of avoiding the ghost it faded out of existence.

The fighting continued for another minute before the preacher, Jammal’an, joined the fray with his undead servant. Stella unleashed a torrent of red flames that quickly incinerated the rotten troll and left Jammal’an to fight. The prophet managed to cast a few Flamestrikes on the ground around the group before Jaqueline overpowered the prophet’s defenses and rushed him with a flurry of attacks. He didn’t last long.

With that distraction dealt with, the group hurried back to the central chamber where they found the southern path now opened.

“Which way do we go now?” Bella asked.

“The western path leads to the chamber where the Atal’ai summon the Avatar of Hakkar, we might be able to stop him in time if we hurry!” Sophia relayed.

Not questioning how Sophia knew where the chamber was, the group hurried across the central chamber and into a corridor on the western side.

On their way to the chamber, they ran into a number of winged serpents. The creatures lashed out at the group with one trying to bite Jaqueline only to get a mouthful of sword. Flutashe had considered trying to calm the creatures but realized that it would be a futile attempt when she discovered that the serpents were the children of Hakkar and they would never turn on their father.

Once the serpents were cut down, the group proceeded into what appeared to be a ritual chamber with a pile of bones in the center. The bones were configured to appear as a winged serpent with a circle of candles around the skeleton. Four taller candles and four braziers adorned the corners of the room.

A pair of giant portcullis sealed the room the moment the group entered with a single troll wearing black robes with a red outer layer along with a sand-colored vest standing near the bones.

The troll cheered as they came inside. “Haha! I was hopin’ for some sacrifices to come wanderin’ in here. You be helpin’ me or ya corpses shall be used to feed de Blood God. You will aid in de ritual by slaying de bloodkeepers as they come.”

“And why would we do that?” Stella asked.

“Either ya help or de snakes eventually wear ya down. De choice be your own!” He then raised what appeared to be an egg over the pile of bones before it began to glow. A series of glowing green magic circles appeared around the ritual area. “My masta, I am Yeh’kinya, your humble servant. I present de vessel of your rebirth and beseech you for de presence of your avatar.”

Once the ritual began, Yeh’kinya vanished in a puff of dark smoke, leaving the group to deal with whatever came.

A quiver of cobras emerged from the magic circles along with a winged serpent. Neither were tough opponents but it annoyed the group that they had to help with the ritual to avoid being overwhelmed.

Jaqueline cut down the serpent who began to spill blood on the floor. Sophia collected the blood with her psychic power and used it to douse one of the braziers. This caused a transparent image of a skeletal winged serpent to appear over the bones.

“I taste the blood of life!” a voice rumbled. The group didn’t have time to consider where that voice came from as more cobras appeared. After some time, another bloodkeeper serpent appeared and was brought down where its blood was used to douse another brazier.

The process was repeated two more times before the magic circles faded and the skeletal serpent fully manifested. “Hakkar lives!” the skeleton proclaimed before he began attacking everyone around him.

Flutashe’s hide absorbed the blows inflicted by the serpentine avatar while Jaqueline’s attacks smashed the bones that composed its frame. Stella bombarded the creature with arcane magic while Mena and Bella worked their light magic to banish the dark magic that composed the loa avatar. At one point did the avatar attempt to take control of Jaqueline’s mind but Sophia’s psychic protection prevented such an attempt.

It wasn’t long before the avatar collapsed back into the heap of bones that it once was. The group looked around for any sign that Yeh’kinya might return but showed no signs of doing so.

With no other option than to leave the giant pile of bones alone, the group left the chamber and returned to the central chamber.

As they entered, a pair of green drakes flew into the temple from a hole in the ceiling. Flutashe gasped when she recognized the pair. “I know who they are, they’re two of the young drakes who were put under Eranikus’ command: Dreamscythe and Weaver! There should be two others nearby, Hazzas and Morphaz.” She would have gone to greet them but quickly remembered that the dragons here have likely succumbed to the Nightmare like their master.

Her fears were confirmed when Dreamscythe spoke, “You know not what you do! We must destroy you for your own good!”

“Those who would disturb our master must be eliminated!” Weaver cried.

Stella shook her head in disappointment, “They defend a phantom of their master. It’s sad to see such potential lost at their young age.”

Sophia personally attacked Weaver while the others focused their attacks on Dreamscythe, making sure to avoid the green dragon’s acidic breath. Stella’s ice magic froze Dreamscythe’s wings while a unified strike from Jaqueline’s swords and Bella’s hammer shattered them.

Flutashe and Sophia each grabbed their drakes by the neck and twisted them until they snapped.

Once the drakes were no longer breathing, the party proceeded down the southern passage where they faced a few more corrupted dragonspawn and whelps along with Hazzas and Morphaz who weren’t any tougher than Dreamscythe or Weaver. Flutashe felt guilty for having to eliminate them but she couldn’t think of any way to save them from the corruption of the Nightmare.

As they turned a corner and entered the next chamber, they saw a transparent sleeping dragon along with one other transparent figure. The second one Flutashe recognized right away as he was a night elf with a pair of antlers, a huge beard and wearing the brown and green garb of an archdruid.

Against everyone advising her on the side of caution, Flutashe rushed over to the druid while reverting back to her night elf form. “Shan’do Stormrage!” she cried out.

The image gave a small smile toward his student. “It is good to see you again, my thero’shan. I know you would desire to see me in the waking world once more, but that will have to wait. I know you are here seeking a clue about how to retrieve the green shard of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands. Eranikus will not part with it easily. You already know that he has been corrupted by the Nightmare, a force not unlike the one buried deep within Ahn’Qiraj.”

“A similar force? You mean that the Nightmare and the corruption of the Old Gods may be similar?”

Malfurion nodded, “Eranikus, Tyrant of the Dream, wages a war against us all. The Nightmare follows in his wake of destruction. He wants nothing more than to be brought to Azeroth from the Dream. Once he is out, he will do everything he can to destroy my physical body. However, it is also the only way you can recover the scepter shard. You must bring him into our world.”

“This is a risky plan, shan’do, how do we even stop him once he does manifest in our world?”

“Tyrande and I came up with a plan in case it became necessary to bring Eranikus to our world. He must be cleansed of his corruption and Tyrande will have the power to do so.”

“What would you have me do?” Flutashe asked.

“Return to Darnassus, there is an agent, a wisp, who has been given instructions to set events in motion once he is given word. He will inform Tyrande of our plans without alerting Staghelm.”

“Then you know that Staghelm can’t be trusted? Anachronos told me about how he is blinded by delusions of returning his son to life.”

“It’s worse than that my dear thero’shan. He is the reason I am trapped in the Dream. But do not fret over my fate, I shall find my way back in time. For now, don’t let on that you know of his treachery. He will receive justice soon enough.”

The image of Malfurion faded away, leaving the party alone with the transparent simulacrum of Eranikus. However, since they got the information they came for and the shade was no threat outside the temple, they decided to leave the image be while Stella opened a portal to Darnassus.

---

Meanwhile, back in the chamber where Hakkar’s bones lie, Yeh’kinya appeared in the chamber and stood over the fallen avatar of his master. He sifted through the bones looking for something until he noticed a glowing orb of light. A huge smile graced his face before he gave a triumphant cheer. He then collected the orb and infused it with the egg.

Everything was ready. By now the meddlesome Zandalari tribe will have caught wind of his master’s imminent return and will send several of their high priests to stop them. They will have no idea that they will be wandering into a trap and their loa’s power will be used to complete Hakkar’s resurrection.

Soon the world will feel the might of the Blood God and tremble. They shall bow down to the mighty troll empires like they did in the days of old.

Author's Note:

2 days late, but it could be worse. This chapter sets things up for the rest of this season. After the next chapter, our heroes will be facing the last 3 raid dungeons in Season 1.

Next time: Summoning a dragon and beating it up until it decides to be a good guy.