Seekers of the Epitaph: World of Azeroth

by Xarmar13

The Eye of the Tempest, Part 2: Tempest Bridge

The entire keep was in an uproar after the destruction caused by the detonation of the Void Reaver in The Crucible, which no longer existed because the section had been completely annihilated.

With an alert blaring throughout the tower, the party had to hurry back toward the east wing where blood elf troops were coming in through an adjacent corridor. Bella could tell at a glance that these soldiers and spellcasters wore better quality armor in darker colors of crimson and black.

“Don’t underestimate these guys,” Raida warned. “That armor marks them as members of the Crimson Hand, Kael’s elite guard.”

The guards wielding hammers were blood knights who threw hammers of light at the party while the centurions wielding spears tried getting close so they could use a spinning attack where they flung arcane sparks at them. The robed spellcasters carrying black staves attacked with shadow magic and empowered their fellow spellcasters. The guards carrying swords turned out to be battle mages who specialized in frost magic.

Stella and Mena faced the battle mages. While the dracthyr could counter most of the battle mages’ spells, they also knew spells that required no time to cast at all which prompted Surprise to put a complete stop to their casting using silencing spells. Even without their spells, the battle mages were still skilled with their swords. Surprise pulled out a dagger and avoided a few swings while she cut into their legs to make them collapse on the floor. When the mages were weakened, Stella telekinetically pulled the mages together and incinerated them with a Flamestrike spell.

Talia and Farra’jin fought the robed priests who called themselves inquisitors. The shadow magic seared the warlock and shaman but Talia’s felhound devoured the shadow magic from them. Farra’jin struck them with fire, frost, lightning and earthen magics but the priests managed to protect themselves with bubbles of light while they directly attacked their minds with shadow magic. The felhound put an end to that by temporarily blocking their access to that type of magic which gave Talia the chance to burn them with every fire spell she knew.

Flutashe grabbed the spear of one centurion as he began his spin before she grabbed his head and hurled him into an already spinning centurion which resulted in the thrown elf getting shocked by arcane energy and a deep wound as the spear tore through his armor. Feloma knocked the spinning elf off balance with an explosive arrow at his feet which sent him flying toward Flutashe who punched him hard into the floor. Another spinning elf had his spin interrupted when his spear was blocked by Lokosh’s shield. A heavy chop from his ax tore through his armor and delivered a grievous blow.

As it turned out, Raida’s black crystals were good at blocking holy magic which prevented the blood knights from healing each other or the other Crimson Hand members. Bella was able to throw her shield without worries of retaliation thanks to the demon hunter. The shield shattered the crystals but also devastated their armor. She finished them off while they were weakened with several blades of light impaling them.

The party continued their run toward the bridge of the ship. In the east wing corridor, they found that the protective gate in the adjacent corridor was down which explained the Crimson Hand troops reinforcing the hallway. They took the new route which put them against more Crimson Hand soldiers who were dealt with like before.

The party entered another doorway into another large room where there were not only Crimson Hand soldiers, but they were also accompanied by the officers like the one that they fought in the entry corridor. Fighting them proved to be a little more difficult with the addition of the officers, but not much so.

As they fought, they were being observed by five figures in the back of the room where the ship’s main controls were. One of them was wearing heavy plate armor that was shaped to make them look like a demon carrying a fiery battle ax. Another wore the crimson and black armor of the Crimson Hand but he carried a red crystal hammer and a black and brass shield with a large spike on it. The third wore crimson and black robes and carried a red crystal staff with bright red magic circles around it. The fourth wore black armor that looked demonic with shoulders that looked like a miniature furnace while wielding a bright red dagger.

The final figure wore ornate crimson and black robes with gold filigree. His crimson cloak wrapped around his body under his scarlet mantle. His blonde hair was very long and radiant as the sun. Three flaming verdant orbs floated over his head.

“It would seem that we meet at last, intruders,” Kael’thas said. “Though for one of you I should say that we meet again. Now what would Lord Illidan’s pet lapdog be doing with a bunch of invaders? Are you actually betraying him?”

“You can drop the act, Kael’thas, Lord Illidan knows about your betrayal to the Legion,” Raida shot back.

Kael’thas shrugged, “It’s not like I kept my affiliation with them a secret. It’s a pity that some of my people do not share my vision of the future. That old fool Voren’thal refused to see that the only path that my people can take is to drink in the power of the Legion. Any other would inevitably lead them to starvation.”

“Or maybe you haven’t tried hard enough and gave up too easily,” Raida countered. “If you looked hard enough you would have found an alternative.”

“And what would that serve other than to prolong my peoples’ suffering? As we speak, more of my people are withering because our addiction is too much to control. We need a solution now, and Kil’jaeden was the one to provide it.”

“Lord Illidan has a means to sate the hunger of your people, it’s how he got so many demons to side with him against the Legion.”

“Even if that were true, the fact that he squanders that power to tame demons instead of feeding my people shows that that mongrel doesn’t have my peoples’ interests in mind!” Kael’thas snarled. “Our future is with the Legion and the future of all who oppose them is death! Selama ashal’anore (Justice for my people)!

“It seems that your attempts to steer me from my present course have failed, so now you can take your grievances up with my advisors. Let’s see how your nerves hold up against the Darkener, Thaladred!”

On cue, the warrior clad in demonic armor with the fiery battle ax responded to the call to action. “Prepare yourselves!” Thaladred shouted as he began to slowly approach the party. His footsteps rang with heavy thuds as he moved, showing that his armor must have been extremely heavy. As he approached, the party spread out to see what he would do next. They found that his gaze was fixed on Farra’jin. Lokosh, Flutashe, Raida and Bella used their usual tactics to gain Thaladred’s attention, but he ignored them completely in favor of stalking toward the shaman.

The warrior proved unusually strong as a swing from his ax sent the four melee members of the party flying away toward a wall. Raida, Bella and Flutashe used their various means of flight to break their momentum while Lokosh flipped around and kicked the wall to launch himself toward the stalking warrior. While he managed to strike a heavy blow against Thaladred, he continued to ignore everyone but the target of his gaze.

Realizing his fixation, Farra’jin shifted into a spectral wolf form and fled from Thaladred while everyone else attacked him with their spells and attacks.

However, when he realized that his prey was going to lure him around until the others finished him, he shifted his gaze toward Mena and began stalking toward her.

By this point, Thaladred’s strategy was plainly obvious for everyone to see and they also realized that his armor was such that they could see that he gained immense strength in exchange for mobility. Because of this, it was easy for the party to stay ahead of him whenever he shifted his gaze.

In the end, his armor couldn’t hold out forever and the elf within couldn’t win in a battle of attrition. Once Raida stuck her warglaive through Thaladred’s chest, he collapsed with a ground shaking thud.

Kael’thas sighed in disappointment, he should have known better than to allow that buffoon to have his armor enchanted in that way. Well, he wouldn’t be missed. He then turned his attention back to the party. “You have persevered against some of my best advisors…but none can withstand the might of the Blood Hammer. Behold, Lord Sanguinar!”

The armored elf carrying the hammer and shield responded to the call and rushed toward the party. “Blood for blood!” he shouted. As he got there, he unleashed a bone-chilling roar that caused the party to run away for a moment.

Sanguinar then tried attacking Stella but Lokosh broke free of his fearful compulsion first and slammed into his right side. Unlike with Thaladred, this enemy paid attention to who was attacking him.

While his attacks were swift and merciless, that was all Sanguinar had going for him. Once Farra’jin set his earth totem to protect them from his intimidating roar, he was just a simple warrior who only knew how to hit stuff with a hammer. With attackers around him blocking or avoiding his attacks, he couldn’t do anything else as those further away blasted him at range.

Kael’thas rolled his eyes at the poor performance of that advisor. If he had drained a naaru’s power when he could have, he would have stood a better chance. The fool believed that his skills were enough and this is where it led him.

Alas, it was time to send out the next advisor, “Capernian will see to it your stay here is a short one.”

The female elf in robes reacted to the call and began channeling fire magic. “The sin’dorei reign supreme!” After sending out a fireball that Bella blocked with her shield, Capernian placed a shield on herself to prevent any unwanted interruptions to her casting.

As Bella, Raida, Flutashe and Lokosh moved in to attack her, Capernian unleashed a powerful arcane explosion which sent them flying back to the entrance of the room. This informed them that only those who could attack at range were going to be able to reach her.

Changing tactics, Raida switched to casting shadow and fire spells alongside Talia and the other spellcasters while Flutashe switched to her wildkin form and assaulted the mage with solar and lunar magic.

Once her shield broke, Capernian was vulnerable to attack again. In desperation, she hurled balls of fire on the party which started fires around the room. However, this only lasted a few seconds before Stella began controlling the fight and countering her spells. She lasted thirty seconds before she succumbed to the bombardment from the party.

Kael’thas couldn’t blame the now fallen astromancer since she really did try her best without incompetence getting in the way, unlike the last two. He would have to be careful of the mage in their group if he was forced to get involved.

Time to send out the last advisor, “You have proven worthy to test your skills against my master engineer, Telonicus,” Kael’thas said.

The black armor-wearing elf responded to the call. “I will make you all pay for destroying my workshop!”

Telonicus proved that he was going to be more formidable than Capernian as he activated a device on his wrist that caused spells that were sent at him to bounce off. He then pulled out a rifle and began shooting at the party. The shots were either blocked by shields, physical or magical, deflected by weapons or dodged.

While he was keeping them distracted with his shooting, Telonicus released some small mechanical drones on the floor which latched onto Bella, Flutashe, Farra’jin and Feloma. With a push of a button, the four of them seized up as their bodies failed to respond to their commands. Because of this, the others were forced to block attacks for them.

Mena, as small as she was, spotted the issue and pulled out her tools where she got to work detaching the drones off their victims. Using her engineering knowledge, she was able to reprogram the drones to attack Telonicus instead. However, with the barrier still being an issue, the drones took to interfacing with the shield by releasing their high voltage payload onto it which caused the engineer’s shield device to overload and shut down.

With the shield down, Telonicus resorted to pulling out bombs and priming them before hurling them at the party. Unbelievably enough, Mena was running around grabbing the bombs and tossing them back at Telonicus at speeds that a gnome with short, stubby legs had no right being that fast. Needless to say, his plan backfired as numerous explosions damaged his armor and bloodied the person within with shrapnel.

Once the last of the advisors were defeated, the party turned to Kael’thas who was frowning, but his calm expression suggested that this was far from over.

“Give it up, Kael’thas, it’s just you against us,” Raida said.

Kael’thas simply laughed as if she had forgotten something important. “It seems that you need to be put in your place, you seem to have forgotten that I was an archmage of the Kirin Tor, once upon a time.”

With that declaration, Kael’thas unleashed a barrage of fireballs which were partially blocked by shields but the force behind them was so overwhelming that it sent everyone flying back toward the entrance to the room. He then took control of Feloma’s mind who ended up firing a barrage of arrows at the party. Some of them were explosive and pushed them back to the wall. To ensure that they couldn’t counterattack, he then unleashed a wave of arcane energy that made the party dizzy, including Feloma who fired several arrows all around her. Some flew close to Kael’thas but a barrier prevented her attacks from harming him.

“As you can see, there is a world of difference between what my advisors could do and what I can do. I could easily snuff you out, but what fun would that be? Perhaps I should let my tools do the talking.”

With a short cast, several familiar and unfamiliar weapons manifested before the prince, floating in the air but moving around as if they were being wielded. What appeared was the ax that Thaladred used, the three-leafed shield with a spike that Sanguinar used accompanied by a long triangular-looking sword, a pair of daggers that gave off a crimson aura like the one that Telonicus wielded, a golden mace that looked like a two-pronged fork with a purple sparking crystal between the prongs, the crystal staff that Capernian used, and a purplish-gray longbow with an energy string between the ends.

Stella attempted to cast an arcane disruption spell to deal with the weapons but was forced to cast a shield instead when several fireballs were flying toward her. The shield barely held.

“Ah ah ah…” Kael’thas said. “Let’s not have you disrupting my fun, little whelp. You shall have the honor of entertaining me while your friends play with my toys.” He then looked toward the templar and death knight observing from the back. “As for you two, this show has become an exclusive event, and you’re not invited to watch.” Before Sophia or Thanatas could react, he teleported them out of the keep. He knew that it wouldn’t keep them away for long, it did give him some time to have his fun without any potential interference from them.

With Stella keeping Kael’thas busy, the rest of the party fought against the floating weapons. Feloma faced the bow, Lokosh faced the ax, Bella faced the shield and sword, Raida faced the daggers, Mena fought the mace, and Talia fought the staff.

Feloma repeatedly dodged arrows made of energy and retaliated with shots of her own. Summer and Autumn attempted to attack the bow with Summer breathing fire on it and Autumn biting it. However, an invisible force around the bow used Autumn like a club and threw her at Summer, knocking them aside for the time being while it continued firing arrows at the hunter who moved away to gain some distance. The bow had an impressive range and seemed able to shoot across the room.

While the bow advanced toward Feloma to corner her, she fired several explosive arrows at it. One of them exploded on the floor beneath the bow which sent the weapon back a distance. Feloma raised an eyebrow in confusion, then decided to experiment. She fired a shot slightly to the left of the bow which caused the weapon to move erratically. “So, there is an illusionary figure wielding you.”

An idea formed in Feloma’s head. She then charged some arcane energy into her bow along with something else that caused the arrow to emit a pink haze. She fired the arrow at the same place she fired before. The result was as she had hoped. The arrow struck the illusion holding the bow and turned it pink. The magic within the arrow caused it to behave erratically before it turned toward the party, or more specifically, the other weapons.

While the others were busy fighting the other weapons, they saw several arrows strike invisible places next to the weapons which caused them to move as if the wielder stumbled. This was followed by several pink arrows from Feloma which struck the illusions wielding the other weapons.

While all this was going on, Stella dodged and defended herself from Kael’thas’ fiery magic. She threw her own spells of fire, frost and arcane but the blood mage’s shield was very durable. A Disintegration Beam took Kael’thas by surprise and destroyed his barrier. Stella tried to capitalize on this but the blood mage summoned several fiery pillars around her which forced her to back away. He then formed another shield and resumed his onslaught.

What he really wasn’t expecting were the weapons that he sent after the others attacking him. The bow fired several shots that severely damaged his barrier with the other weapons poised to strike as well. Seething anger crept onto Kael’s face as he realized that his own weapon illusions had turned against him somehow.

“Enough of this!” He dismissed the illusions which caused the weapons to drop on the floor. “It would seem that you are trying to overwhelm me with an unfair numbers advantage. I can see that you fools need another lesson.”

“We’ll beat whatever you send at us,” Raida said.

“Perhaps I have underestimated you. I had thought my advisors to be incompetent, but it would seem that it is the other way around. I may actually need to try a little harder, just like my advisors should.”

“It’s not like they can try anyway, since they’re dead,” Talia said.

“True, but that can be easily rectified.” He then cast a light spell on the fallen advisors. Within moments, the wounds on the dead elves were healed and the four of them rose from the floor.

“Uh-oh!” Raida exclaimed. She had a very bad feeling about this. Taking on the advisors one by one was bad enough, if all four of them attacked at once they were going to have a bad time.

Thinking quickly, Raida grabbed the fallen weapons off the floor and raced around the party handing one to as many as she could. She gave the bow to Feloma, the ax to Lokosh, the shield to Bella, the staff to Talia, the mace to Mena, a dagger to Flutashe and Groun and kept the sword for herself. She didn’t like using weapons other than her warglaives, but this was a tight spot and she needed to be willing to try anything.

When Talia channeled her magic into the staff, she emitted a red glow. As she did, the others felt as if a pair of wings had protectively wrapped themselves around them. When Feloma pulled on the energy string of her bow, she found that she was able to form energy arrows out of thin air.

The moment Capernian went on the attack, she hurled fireballs at everyone. Some dodged but others took a glancing blow. Mena quickly healed any who ended up hurt. Surprisingly, when another wave of fire was sent at them, it didn’t hurt nearly as much. They weren’t sure why, but Mena had a feeling that the mace she was given was adding a special effect to her healing spells.

The party took care to avoid Thaladred and his stalking while they faced other advisors. The magical field deployed by Talia’s staff rendered Sanguinar’s shouting as just that so he was still not threatening like before. The field also ensured that Telonicus’ toys couldn’t affect them anymore.

For the first time since the fight began, Kael’thas appeared to be losing his cool as he found that his weapon collection had been turned against him. “You intruded upon my palace and now you so brazenly use my own weapons against me? I will not allow this insult to go on any longer!” As the blood mage began casting a spell to banish the weapons, he let his guard down as he was struck in the chest by a draconic tail.

Knocked back to the bridge controls, Kael’thas coughed as he tried to regain the wind that was knocked out of him. He growled at the dracthyr who appeared to have a smirk on her face. “I thought I was still entertaining you, your highness.” she spat.

“It would seem that I have toyed with all of you long enough. Anar’anel Belore! (By the power of the sun!)” With a quick gesture, he summoned three phoenixes who flew toward Stella. Acting quickly, she summoned three ice elementals and sent them on a collision course with the fiery birds with three arcane elementals following behind. The collision between the elementals and the elemental birds resulted in a trio of explosions. What remained when the smoke cleared were three burning eggs. With prior knowledge of phoenixes, she suspected that the birds would be reborn again if the eggs were left alone, which was the reason for the arcane elementals as they detonated themselves on the eggs which shattered them.

The battle against the advisors was winding down as Feloma shot a bomb thrown by Telonicus and sent it flying back to its owner. One blast cracked his armor, another shattered it, a third turned the engineer’s body to a blackened mess as a pained scream signaled his demise.

Farra’jin’s elementals assaulted Capernian who tried blasting them back with an arcane explosion. The elementals were blown away but were replaced by Talia’s demons who broke her shield. The mage tried raising another shield but was unable to do so as Surprise cast a silencing spell on her. Before she could recover, Capernian was set ablaze by fire and burning shadows while Talia’s felhound moved in and devoured her mana, followed by the remains of her life force.

With the actual threats down, the party turned their attention to Thaladred who was unable to catch up to his enemies because of his heavy armor. Seeing what they could do to armor, Mena took the remaining explosives from Telonicus’ corpse and threw them at Thaladred. At first his armor endured the blasts but his armor soon cracked and shattered in the back, exposing the elf’s flesh. The warrior’s gaze was focused on Feloma so he was unable to see the attack from behind coming as Flutashe and Groun ran their daggers through his back. Several blasts of lunar and solar energy made sure the Darkener wasn’t getting up again.

With his shouts ineffective, Sanguinar was nothing more than an elf swinging a hammer around. A few seconds later, he was a charred corpse on the ground.

Kael’thas soon realized that his advisors were down again and the entire party was poised to attack him. To make matters worse, Thanatas and Sophia returned to the bridge. The smug looks on their faces only added to his frustration.

The blood mage placed Lokosh and Bella under a mind control spell to force them to fight each other. He then raised a barrier before he began channeling his most powerful spell. It took time to cast but his barrier would keep him safe until he cast it. He was confident that none of them would be able to survive the spell.

“Stab the controlled people with the daggers!” Thanatas called out. Flutashe and Groun reacted quickly and attacked the paladin and warrior with the daggers. They were quickly freed from the spell while Mena healed their injuries. Thanatas then called for Bella to use the shield to block Kael’thas’ spell. By the time Stella was able to break through the blood mage’s barrier, he fired his Pyroblast spell which Bella moved in the way of where she raised the shield. The protective enchantments on the shield completely blocked his spell.

By this point Kael’thas was beginning to grow desperate. His best spell was blocked, his phoenixes were useless while the dragon girl was around and they knew how to get around his mind control spell. Even if he regularly used his Flamestrike spell, they would simply move out of it since the spell was area specific.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. He needed more power to crush the intruders and he knew where he could get some. It was risky since there was a very real chance that the backlash of drawing in so much power may lead to him withering. However, it was either that or they would defeat him and complete his utter failure to save his people.

“I did not come this far to be stopped!” Kael’thas snapped. “The future I have planned will not be jeopardized! Now you will taste true power!” He knocked everyone away with an Arcane Explosion before he began to levitate toward the ceiling of the bridge.

“What in the Light’s name is he doing?” Bella asked.

“Something desperate, it looks like.” Talia commented.

Stella could feel an arcane reaction from Kael’thas and it seemed to be pointed toward the ceiling. Was he planning to shatter it? But why? She thought about it a moment later before her eyes widened in realization. “He wouldn’t!”

He would. With a blast of arcane energy, Kael’thas shattered the ceiling of the bridge along with several statues of himself which allowed the energies of the arcane storm outside to seep inside the room. The blood mage began drawing in large quantities of nether energy into his body. His body doubled in size, strained by the huge quantities of nether energy within him.

Once he landed back on the floor, he cast a spell that removed the gravity in the room while launching everyone into the air. He then summoned clouds of nether energy to attack them while they were helpless in the air. However, Mena seemed to be having fun with the zero gravity environment and moved as if she was swimming in it. The rest of the party followed suit and continued striking the blood mage from a distance while avoiding the clouds. Kael’thas retaliated with beams of nether energy which Groun and Mena were forced to heal.

What they weren’t expecting was for the blood elf to manipulate the gravity in such a way that he could force them in other directions. He even forced them toward a cloud, believing that this would finish them off.

With the group helpless to Kael’thas’ gravity manipulation, Sophia and Thanatas were beginning to think that they might have to intervene. However, something happened that not even Thanatas expected.

“This is for blowing up Kirin’var and sealing me in my tower, you bastard!” shouted a familiar voice as a certain mage teleported in and planted a strange device onto the prince’s chest and floated to the floor.

What happened next was hell for Kael’thas. The device reacted to the nether energy in his body and began to ignite it. The prince screamed with what air he could manage as the searing pain occurred throughout every inch of his body. This broke his concentration and the gravity spell canceled. Those who could fly or float did so while they assisted those who couldn’t to the ground.

Kael’thas fell to his knees and grasped at the device on his chest. He pulled with all of his strength but he couldn’t get it off. The pain was blinding and he nearly passed out a few times as the nether energy in his body burned like fuel. Purple flames escaped from his eyes, nose and mouth.

While the prince was suffering, Stella walked over to the mage who was watching him burn. “Vargath? Is that you?” she asked.

“Indeed, ever since he trapped me in that tower, I was thinking up ideas to get back at him,” Vargath said.

“Where did you get that device from?”

“Well, after you and your friends cleared out the Mechanar, I looked around the place for anything I might be able to use against Kael’thas. I happened upon one of these nether ignition devices which I believe was a component of those mana bombs he was so fond of making. I took one and thought that it would come in handy.

“When I saw you and your friends invading the keep, I tailed along behind you while invisible. Once you began fighting the traitor, I waited for an opportunity to strike. Imagine my surprise when I saw him draw all that nether energy into himself. He practically set himself up.” Vargath laughed.

Stella slowly nodded as Vargath told his story. Right now, she was more interested in seeing how long it would take for that device to burn through the nether energy.

While Thanatas was watching the prince suffer like a sadist watching her victim, she took a moment to glance at Sophia to ask her what may have been a stupid question. “Did you know that he was tailing us?”

Sophia looked back, “Huh? Oh, yes. I could read his mind from the beginning of our exploration of this place. I picked up on his thoughts of revenge against Kael’thas so I figured that if he got the chance to make his move, it might prove to be an amusing finale to this assault. He did not disappoint.” Thanatas chuckled.

The burning lasted a few more seconds before Kael’thas’ body began to turn pale and his muscles began to thin. His features showed signs of emaciation which, as Feloma knew, was a sign of withering; a terrible fate for any elf. When the last of the energy fled his body he fell flat on the floor, unmoving.

Once the party was sure that the elf wasn’t getting up again, Mena moved up to him and searched the pockets of his robe where she found the near empty vial of water that she was looking for. She handed it to Stella who placed it in her pocket dimension with the other vial.

They didn’t bother checking to see if the elf was actually dead. If he survived the experience of burning from the inside out, it would be a miracle.

Regardless, they had what they came for so Stella opened a portal to Shattrath, Everyone stepped through and the portal closed behind them.

A few minutes later, a lone shivarra entered the bridge room where she spotted the withered remains of Kael’thas. She ran over to him and turned his body on his back. The shivarra winced as she saw the state he was in.

“My, they really did a number on you, didn’t they. Are you even still alive?” she asked, kneeling over him. No response. She shrugged and stood back up to leave the chamber. “Pity, Lord Kil’jaeden will not be happy to hear this.”

Suddenly she was grabbed by the ankle. The shivarra turned around and saw the emaciated prince staring at her. “Magic…” he weakly said.

“Oh good, perhaps we can salvage this after all,” she said. She pulled out a large green crystal. “You’re lucky that my master has one more use for you. Fulfill it, and untold fel magic will be yours to feed your people for all eternity, fail and he will ensure the extinction of your entire race.”

She thrust the large crystal into his chest.

Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed the Tempest Keep chapters. I'm afraid that the next raid to be visited is one that many players complained about. Mostly it had to do with how it was set up from what I heard.