|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Sept 22, 2021 15:04:44 GMT
September 21
Whitewind Company and Allies Follow Alleged Brinebreaker Underboss Straight to Proof of Crimes With Aid of Unexpected Guide, Make Citizen's Arrest, Gain Information of Terrifying Plot!
Another Tuesday night saw another Whitewind Company (with a few outside contractors, as per usual) excursion into Boralus to investigate the Brinebreaker Gang. Nahlia “Nah” Lifebloom, Cletcher Tidebringer, and Natasha Ebonlocke of the Whitewind Company, as well as Carilina Halverson and Maya Maxwell of the Voyagers, returned to the middle-class strip of Hook Point along the waterway to the Boralus Seawall to follow up on their final remaining lead… and the final remaining Brinebreaker Underboss.
It’s been a true war of attrition to date, with four original members – two Draenei and two Illidari – having moved to parts unknown, as well as Brinebreaker underbosses and numerous Brinebreaker thugs and toadies alike all in the Boralus Stockade at the foot of Stormwind Keep, on the far side of Hook Point. Bringing in outside contractors looking for a bit more work has always been a policy of Lady Cellica Whitewind’s, but now, after such attrition, it has become almost a need. The contribution of heroics from outside contractors has been great since the Whitewind Company’s inception, from Arivanna Bloodroot and Sujin Slumberdrift in Uldaman the very first night, to Maya Maxwell and Cari Halverson these days, all those in between, and, in a surprise move last night, one more friend met along the way…
This Tuesday night saw Whitewind and Friends arrive at the foot court of Hook Point by flight, touching down to make their way to their next lead on foot to be less conspicuous. The Black Marketeer, confirmed as the final remaining Brinebreaker Underboss, had been described by orphan Rob Braxton as a “scrawny git with a short black ponytail,” and, according to the boy, was a frequent patron of Lemptheby’s auctions. The Company, having seen someone with this description causing mischief at Lemptheby’s auctions some two weeks prior already, was hoping to see him again this night and follow him to some hopefully incriminating proof of his misdeeds, then squeeze the next lead out of him.
According to eyewitness reports, the man was, indeed, present as usual at Lemptheby’s auctions… and so was someone else!
Skylie Hassell (Stormwind regular and a good friend of the group) a short but powerfully muscular warrior woman clad all in bladed plate that would make a Wrathguard jealous, was spotted drunkenly arguing with… none other than the suspected Black Marketeer! Apparently the man had set up his own stall and was trying to swindle auctiongoers into buying fake replicas of expensive weapons, or weapons of great renown. Skylie, known for having a temper as severe as they come to match an otherwise heart of gold for dear friends, seemed ready to leap across the counter and seize the skinny man by his throat. Indeed, her slurred profanity and lengthy streak of Gilnean insults directed at the man made it seem like violence would take place right there at the open-air auction house!
When the group came across her swearing at their next lead, they were quite taken by surprise! Skylie’s temper, after turning to spot her friends, evaporated in an instant, though she still had a few more choice words to describe the swindler to them. Nat, blushing and seeming to resist the urge to plug her ears at the language used by Skylie, invited her to sit with them at Lemptheby’s auctions. Skylie accepted, and Nat spoke in a low voice only the group could hear to explain the entire investigation to date to Skylie. Skylie didn’t seem surprised that the swindler would be mixed up in something like this.
What followed next was a bidding war on a battleaxe that, according to Lincoln J. Lemptheby, had been wielded in the hands of an orc warrior in the sands of Vol’dun. The orc, according to the story, had wielded it to battle against a defecting Tauren paladin and a Worgen druid. Witnesses report that Skylie, lover of axes to the point of having battleaxe blades welded onto most pieces of her armor, perked up in an instant, and that Nah seemed to be smirking in a reminiscent manner, as though having been involved in the story in someway, though she didn’t bid. Lemptheby started the bidding at five hundred gold. The suspected Black Marketeer entered into a bidding war with Skylie, and, to everyone’s surprise, the smallest member of the group, Cari. Cari soon stopped, content to let the alleged Brinebreaker underboss and Skylie slug it out. The Brinebreaker seemed to only be there to cause mischief and drive up prices, and didn’t want to make the final bid himself, so he was content to let Skylie win it at the inflated price of six hundred and ten gold pieces, especially after having made the mistake of calling her “axehead,” which, according to other auctiongoers interviewed later in the evening, resulted in a drunkenly confused, slurred, hiccup-filled retort of, “Dun't ye DARE call me an axe-head, ye fookin' bampot. Bet ye couldn't tell a fookin' halbard fo' a true axe. Why dun't ye piss off so oi dun't punch ye in thae bawface?"
The skinny man stood up on his absurdly long legs after that, hastily making his exit. The group lingered for a short time in another confused moment in which Skylie was holding out her hand for her new axe, staring from the depths of her bladed helmet at a rather intimidated Lemptheby before throwing fully six hundred and ten gold pieces at the man, which scattered all over the small stage, Nah offering with a mischievous smirk to collect all the gold pieces, picking his pocket before the man eyed her like a hawk as she picked up the gold and didn’t pocket any of it, Skylie dragging the new axe off through the wood floor and scarring it up, and Nat moving to Lemptheby to give him a small pouch of gold to cover the scarred floor. Witnesses are unsure as to who came out on top after the chaotic moment.
With the group now at a safe following distance, they watched as the skinny man proceeded on to the food court, as seemed to be his habit (as he had done this last time as well). Watching at a safe distance, the man ate his meal and left almost no tip at all. Skylie earned herself a smile from the waitress after the man left, heading over to her and providing a much better tip before turning to leave with the group to follow their suspect to his next location.
The man headed up the slightly inclining road to Scrolls and Noble, Hook Point’s bookstore, where there was something of a fuss going on outside. The skinny suspect went into the bookstore to browse, and Nat was left standing outside and blushing quite deeply as she stared at a man sitting and signing books outside. It turned out that the man was none other than Noah Scribeson, signing copies of his latest Steamy Romance Novel. Nat, face scarlet and ears burning, seemed unwilling to leave the spot for a moment, as though she wanted something embarrassing. Finally, with an even deeper blush, she pulled out her own copy of Stormy Seas to take it to Scribeson for a signing, under the guise that they needed to be in this line so as not to raise suspicion at being seen waiting on their suspect. With knowing smirks and snickers, the group followed Nat into line, purchasing their own copies to get them signed.
In the confusion, the Brinebreaker suspect left out another door, and the group very nearly missed him heading up towards Bo’s Crab Shack. The group followed him up after their books were signed, but, reaching the restaurant’s outdoor tables overlooking the waterway, they didn’t find him anywhere at first, though, after a moment, several members of the group saw him getting into a boat at the dock below them as they peered over the small cliff. Hastily, the group went back out onto the road, around Bo’s Crab Shack, and down the stairs to the dock, negotiating a price to follow the man.
As they did so, Rolfe Braxton’s boat came around, making his fish-selling rounds as he called at various docks from Hook Point to the Ashvane Company Yards. The man was heading in a completely different direction, or they might have rode with him. As it was, Nat spoke up suddenly, drawing a correlation and showing surprise that they hadn’t drawn it several weeks ago. Rolfe Braxton… Rob Braxton… The woman in the locket Rolfe had lost and Maya and Cari had found had turned out to be Joan… Rolfe spoke of having lost a wife and son when the Kul Tiran fleet had been lost in the mists of the sea a few years prior, and Joan had said her husband and son had gone missing at around the same time… It seemed that, at some point, the group had a happy reunion to facilitate, which would be muddied by the bad news about Joan. Still, it remained a mystery how Joan had lost Rob, who was actually nearby in Dampwick Ward the entire time, and why Rob believed himself to be an orphan. A group Nat was resolved to solve. But, for now, more pressing issues were at hand. The group climbed into the man’s boat at the dock below Bo’s Crab Shack, ready to give chase.
It was here that Skylie’s addition to the group turned out to be a true lifesaver. According to the man piloting the rowboat that ferried the group away, Skylie had seen the man in the Crosswind Commons, a small district adjacent to Mariner’s Row, behaving suspiciously and had followed him around for a while, spying him heading into the Crosswind Commons post office as well as a cartographer’s shop to talk about maps to the proprietor. At her instructions, the small boat’s owner pushed off from the dock and rowed them around the waterway, under an ornate stone arch bridge that lead to Upton Borough, around a seafaring vessel, and to a shabby dock at a small boathouse. Pointing at a boat present with a childish-looking skull carved into it to make it look like a pirate ship of some sort, Skylie, swaying drunkenly, said that this was his small craft. Skylie led on from there.
Turning left first, swaying dangerously, the plastered woman was seen leading the group toward Mariner’s Row rather than Crosswind Commons, even stopping to greet a mule (“Hhhhey… …hic! …mule… yer cute…”) for a moment before pressing on. Left she turned into an alley, spotting a rather tall pile of crates stacked into a pyramid where the alley opened up into a small mud-puddle-filled square. Climbing to the top, somehow not drunkenly tumbling off, Skylie pretended to reach into a pocket and pull something out. Miming peering through a sailor’s telescope like a ship’s lookout (though she seemed quite serious), the drunken warrior woman peered around the square. Slurring that she spied a mud puddle, she climbed back down, still somehow keeping her footing. Staggering over to the puddle, she found a footprint (though the entire square was muddy footprints), and nodded, pointing onward. She led the group to a dead end next, where the seafaring craft they’d rowed past earlier was moored. Stating she’d just wanted a gander at the ship, she doubled back, heading right up some stairs and along a boardwalk around a few somewhat shabby buildings. The route took her back to the point in the road along Mariner’s Row that they’d first started at – Skylie, seeming at first to have been a savior, had instead been a drunken guide leading them in circles! Insisting that this was good, that she had found familiar-looking roads, Skylie led them persistently onward. Back into the alley she went, past the stack of boxes… and right back to the ship she staggered. This time, she turned right, following the boardwalk around to… the Crosswind Commons Post Office! Skylie had done it after all!
Entering the little shop, the group saw it was crowded and chaotic, with only one man attending to all the clamoring customers’ needs. In the chaos, the group was free to look around. What stuck out the most was a very visible envelope in one mail tube with the large, angry-looking red B of the Brinebreaker Gang on it as a wax seal. Nah, having never had any qualms of swiping things, deftly ambled over and lifted the envelope. Bringing it back to the group, she read it out loud. A customer interviewed later in the evening, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported that it was a letter from a man named Biff to a man named Marcus Brinebreaker, stating that some sort of map was being made as ordered, with the locations of several things items to be marked upon it. The group agreed that no good could come of this, and, following the confused, drunken staggerings of Skylie Hassell once again, the group found themselves once more going around in circles until Skylie led them to Lost At Sea, the cartographer’s shop!
Nah once again attained the clue for the group, with the large, angry-looking red B once again being spotted atop the center of a large map of Upton Borough, which a woman named Elsa Donovan, a shop employee, was making marks upon according to the coordinates in a letter, which also sported the Brinebreaker B atop its center. Nah engaged the woman in conversation. It seemed she was reluctant to sell the map, as it was being made for a client, rather than something to be stocked on the shelf of the store and sold to anyone. Nah showed the woman the envelope with the letter with the red wax B seal she’d found at the post office, adopting a Kul Tiran blue collar accent and proclaiming herself to be with the organization, and that ended up being enough for the woman to be willing to give her the map, though, as it was merchandise, the price still had to be worked out. She also said to tell Biff from her that he was a “licentious cur.” Biff seemed to be the name of the last remaining underboss, the one that had visited her earlier in the day, the one Skylie had followed. Skylie produced the coin, forty silver and eleven copper. It seemed Lady Whitewind had much reimbursing to do before this investigation was over!
Proceeding outside with the map, the group headed right, over a plank bridge that Skylie had led them over to reach the shop before. It was rickety and not nailed down, though the group (even the horribly uncoordinated Nat) was able to make it back over again. No sooner had they done this, though, than the skinny suspected Black Marketeer, likely coming to collect the completed map, arrived with two equally-scrawny toadies. Recognizing the group from the auctions earlier, the man stopped before heading in to the cartographer’s shop.
Nah had that look in her eye again. The smirking look of troublemaking she usually wears when something particularly mischievous is about to happen. Whispering to Nat, and then to Cletcher, she nodded, as though giving them instructions to be carried out when she gives the word. The pair nodded.
Nah next started calling out a long string of insults across the plank bridge to the three, with Maya catching on and joining in with a grin. The three scrawny men were taken aback at the insults, and started hurling them back across, though they were no match for Nah and Maya’s ear-scorchers. Growing angry, the men stalked across the bridge, their sleeves rolled up, their fists raised. Sure enough… upon the forearm of the skinny man with the small black ponytail was the Brinebreaker brand!
Nah grinned wickedly when the men were all three on the bridge, smirking at Cletcher with a nod. Cletcher, the tall, powerfully built Kul Tiran with the huge belly, unslung his proportionately massive hammer and smashed it into the bridge, sending all three men into the shallow, rocky water below! Thigh deep in seawater, and with twisted ankles, the three roared in pain as shattered plank splinters rained down all around them. Nat carried out her part next, with Cari rushing forward to help. Together, Nat and Cari focused frost spells into the water, freezing the men in place! Now rooted up to their thighs in frozen seawater, the men were decidedly less bold. Nah, threatening with a smirk to leave the men frozen where they were with the attendant frostbite and hypothermia, left the men quivering in their boots for more than one reason. This, plus a change to a massive bear form by Maya, had the men terrified enough to talk. Biff, the underboss, began speaking rapidly. A question on Marcus Brinebreaker’s whereabouts yielded as little as the other two underbosses had, revealing only that “the boss loved clubbing,” and could usually be found in some busy club or other. He also spoke of vague knowledge of some plan of Marcus Brinebreaker’s to hide things all around Upton Borough, marked on the map Nah had swindled off the Lost At Sea employee. Biff didn’t seem to know what the items were supposed to be, only that they were to be hidden there the following week. Further snarls and roars from Maya had the man ready to soil himself, but still, no further information was forthcoming. It seemed the man genuinely didn’t know. It seemed that Nah and Maya had scared all the information out of the man they were going to.
A Kul Tiran guard patrol happened by on mounts next. Their leader dismounted and stalked up the stairs to the group, staring open-mouthed at a Brinebreaker gangster, evidenced by the brand on his arm, and his toadies standing around a bunch of shattered wood and frozen in ice up over their knees. The leader told the group they’d take it from here, and called his men up with their pikes to break the men out of the ice and take them to the Boralus stockade.
The group, meanwhile, having a bit of time left to them still, proceeded over to the stockade as well. The Collector, they agreed, should be long recovered from his explosive bowel evacuations by now, and ready for questioning. Traveling across most of the city, the group found the Collector in a cell looking morose. The massive man, even bigger than Cletcher, stood to his full height of nearly seven feet when he saw Maya, slowly beginning to piece things together. Maya, with her friends Cari and Nat, here to visit him in the stockade to question him, when it had been Maya that had brought him something to drink, shortly before his embarrassing restroom problems. Slowly, comprehension dawned upon him, spreading across his large face, which twisted into a sudden snarl. Threats were hurled at Maya, and, when Cari said she’d made the potion, at her as well. Maya responded by shifting into her fearsome cat form, charging at the bars and swiping madly at the bars, as though ready to knock the cell door right off its hinges and charge at the man to rip him to pieces. The man, used to intimidating small orphans, gave a squeal of fright at the sight that sounded like the screeching he was doing in his restroom the previous week, prompting a snicker and a taunt from Maya (“Awww, am I not pretty anymore?”) Now, just like the other three underbosses, the Collector was ready to talk.
The man revealed the most worrisome information gained in the entire investigation… He did, indeed, know what was to be hidden at Upton Borough next week: the eight Xs on the map marked the locations of eight bombs to be planted around the district! Further prompting from Nah revealed them to be Azerite bombs! If these were to go off in the locations indicated, all of Upton Borough would be destroyed! The Collector also revealed a final clue on the whereabouts of Marcus Brinebreaker: his favorite place was apparently “where a lot of kelp grows or something.”
The group, having gotten all the information they sought at that point, moved away to confer. Nat brought up the clues they had to date concerning Marcus Brinebreaker’s location: he never leaves Hook Point, he enjoys parties and being surrounded by women, he attends clubs frequently, and his favorite place to go apparently had kelp growing all over. Cari, in a stroke of brilliance, put the clues together first. The Kelp Club! A club in Hook Point infamous for women who danced in ways they wouldn’t be allowed to in public, where parties always seemed to be occurring, and it was right in the heart of Hook Point!
The group now had their work cut out for them. Stop the bombing next week, then raid the club the following week to stop Marcus Brinebreaker himself, once and for all...
*****
Participants:
Nahlia “Nah” Lifebloom Cletcher Tidebringer Natasha Ebonlocke Cari Halverson Maya Maxwell
and
Special guest star: Skylie Hasell!
All participants gain +1 favor with Lady Cellica Whitewind
Whitewind Company gains: Upton Borough Bomb Map Whitewind Company gains: Letter from Biff to Marcus Brinebreaker
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Sept 29, 2021 17:03:02 GMT
September 28
Whitewind Company And Allies Unravel Bomb and Treason Plot, Save Upton Borough From Total Destruction
The Whitewind Company and allies returned to Boralus again for a somewhat different expedition than usual, frightened, anonymous eyewitnesses around Upton Borough reported. This time, rather than investigate the Brinebreakers or interact with them in any way, it was, instead, a mission to catch and stop a district-wide bombing plot!
The plot in question was to be foiled by the witnessing of a scheduled planting of Azerite bombs all around the Boralus District of Upton Borough, then following behind to surreptitiously recover each explosive and take it to a pair of Mechagnomes in Hook Point for diffusion. The Mechagnomes in question, Serafim Springwheel and Chance Cogswaddle (already known to the Whitewind Company from several weeks prior when they’d loaned out their gyrocopters to the group to reach the rooftop that the sniper/hitman underboss had shot at them from to investigate the site), had been contracted by Whitewind Company ally Calleigh Silversong, an influential Kul Tiran woman with business ties to Lady Cellica Whitewind, to diffuse the bombs once all eight marked on the map (swindled into the group’s possession by Nahlia Lifebloom the week prior) had been recovered and brought to them.
Witnesses say the group, consisting of the aforementioned Calleigh Silversong, her subordinate (as well as fellow Kul Tiran, Whitewind Company employee, and Silversong representative) Cletcher Tidebringer, company researcher Natasha Ebonlocke, and outside contractors Maya Maxwell and Carilina Halverson, infiltrated by way of flying mount to land at the Proudmoore Keep flight master, only just uphill from Upton Borough. Dressed to impress, the dapper-looking group in their respective fancy dresses or Kul Tiran uniforms, made their way to the gate into Upton Borough from there. This being the only entrance by land into Upton Borough besides traveling right through Proudmoore Keep grounds from Hook Point, it was deemed the only possible entry point by Brinebreaker gangsters wishing to bring in a heavy payload of Azerite explosives.
With the plan to observe the gate from an out-of-sight waterfront bench just around the corner from the gatehouse, the group observed several individuals entering the district, on the lookout for Brinebreaker thugs. The first through the gate was a trio of Kul Tiran guards, riding leisurely through on handsome, well-groomed horses. One was white, one was black with a white star marking on its forehead, and one was brown with white legs and a white muzzle. The guards' uniforms were absolutely spotless, no doubt under orders to keep themselves much more presentable for Upton Borough than the guards of the slums needed to be. Though they rode with their heads held high and proud, as did their mounts, they spoke no word and kept their heads on a swivel, fully alert. These guards were obviously considered elite and were likely well-paid.
Minutes later, another group of footsteps were overheard coming through the gatehouse. A heavyset, round-cheeked Kul Tiran woman appeared, strolling through in decidedly expensive-looking clothing. Her full, luscious mane of brilliantly blonde hair, tumbling down her shoulders in bouncy waves, could easily make any princess cry in shame, as could her healthy-looking brood of fully eight children. Four boys and four girls dressed as well as princes and princesses strode along either side of her, four to each side, all holding hands, with the eldest two boys bringing up either flank. They seemed quite well-behaved and well-mannered as they conversed in eloquent Common with their mother, and all had mild white-collar Kul Tiran accents. Most present couldn't help but watch them parade by, speaking of going shopping for their father's birthday surprises.
A Kul Tiran Fleet Commander marched briskly through next, making long strides with his long legs. A short, regulation high-and-tight haircut of salt-and-pepper hair was partially obscured by his green tricorn with gold trim, and his naval officer’s uniform was immaculate, perfectly pressed, his gold buttons polished to a sheen that was almost painful to the eye. He was speaking in crisp commands to an aide who seems to be dictating a patrol boat’s report through an inlet around Drustvar. The aide was scrambling to keep up, writing in a flurry with a sea-green quill. A second aide was carrying a large box in his arms, with a bag apiece dangling from either hand. The pace the officer was setting had the aides scrambling to keep up with their feet as well, and this pace soon carried them off toward the Kul Tiran Naval Academy and out of sight.
The traffic this far seemed to be quite upscale, prompting Nat to exclaim how easy it would be to spot Brinebreaker ruffians attempting to smuggle bombs through the gatehouse. Sure enough, a trio of rather rough-looking youths made their way through the gatehouse next!
A quartet of young men swaggered through the gate next, speaking amongst themselves of going to Pinky's Groggery for drinks and seeing what "the pickings look like this fine eve." Local pedestrians overhearing the young men report that the pickings, from their speech, seem to be women. They seemed to be ready for trouble, or to cause it, with the rapiers at their belt. They were well-dressed, to an extent, but not quite to the match of the rest of the Borough's denizens. Their hair was slightly unkempt and their faces featured thick scruff, and they seemed to already be quite boisterous before drinking a single drop, ready to show the world how tough they were.
The young toughs, spying the three young women in their fancy dresses, as well as the much more matured Calleigh in her pristine Kul Tiran ensemble and tabard, stopped on the spot, leering and making several lewd suggestions and offering invitations that embarrassed Cari and Nat, angered Maya, and caused Calleigh to sigh with what seemed like boredom. Maya put a stop to it rather quickly, transforming into her worgen form and snarling. Screeching, the suddenly not-so-tough young men turned and fled down the street.
The group wondered at the possibility of those being the Brinebreaker gangsters they were looking for, but soon ruled it out, as these young hooligans carried nothing along with them, and the information from the previous week indicated that the bombs would be both smuggled in and immediately planted by the crew bringing the Azerite explosives in. Settling back into their places, the group returned to staking out the gatehouse.
The next sounds in the gatehouse were the sounds of a single horse trotting and the rattling of a heavily-laden cart. The group watched as a fine horse-drawn cart, trimmed with shimmering Stormsilver, rolled through next. Two Tidesages, one older man with far more ornate robes than his much younger companion, rode through, the younger one driving the older one, according to his station. The pair had pulled their hoods up to partially cover their bearded faces as they come along, conversing in low tones as the wagon, covered by a large blanket to hide its contents, bounced along The cart was pulled by a rather expensive-looking dapple grey horse, the favored mount of the sea priests.
The two rode close enough that plenty enough conversation was overheard. The younger acolyte was uncertain about whatever their task was that night. The older Seacaller was reassuring the young man that the Tidemother’s wisdom was unquestionable, even when it didn’t make sense in the moment. The young man still seemed uncertain… then he prompted the giveaway of the most crucial bit of evidence in the entire investigation yet!
The young man questioned WHY the bombing of Upton Borough must be done, not only destroying the most beautiful part of the city, but also causing substantial loss of life. The Seacaller responded that, with the destruction of Upton Borough, the nobles and the wealthy in the district would take up residence elsewhere, leaving Upton Borough a third slum, which would allow the Brinebreaker Gang to move in and take the territory for their own. The alliance of the Tidesage – still a singular figure of reverence among the Tidesages despite the vague, generalized title lacking any particular distinction – with the Brinebreaker Gang (and, indeed, the Tidesage’s absolute control over Marcus Brinebreaker and his men) would allow the Tidesage a foothold right at the front door of Proudmoore Keep. With the Lord Admiral Jaina Proudmoore still missing, her mother Lady Katherine, historically known to be a pushover, would be vulnerable to attack! The Tidesage would move on the keep, her powers over the seas preventing naval assistance as she killed Lady Katherine and took the Kul Tiran throne for her own, all in the name of the Old One. Given many of the Tidesages’ previous allegiance to N’zoth, it was quite plain (regardless of his prior vanquishing by powerful adventurers) to whom “Old One” reference was!
Shocked by the full scope and plan of the Tidesage for the Brinebreaker Gang and, indeed, all of Kul Tiras, the group even witnessed firsthand as the young man stopped the cart at a suspiciously abandoned cart not far inside the district from the gatehouse (which was also marked and numbered as the first X on the map Nah had swindled from the cartographers the week prior), went around behind the cart as the two men spoke of the plot, and withdrew a large, heavy-looking packaged wrapped in paper, climbed up the abandoned cart with it, and deposited it in the front-left corner. Still sounding deeply troubled by the plot, the young acolyte nonetheless climbed back into the cart and drove toward Upton Borough’s fountain, where they made the next stop after passing well out of earshot.
Cletcher Tidebringer, large as he was, climbed into the enormous abandoned cart easily enough, soon finding the bomb and bringing it back to the group. Nat, the lone member of the group with any engineering expertise, soon declared the Azerite bomb to be well out of her level of engineering knowledge. Her soulmate Celeste McCullough, she said, would likely know what to do to disarm this bomb, but, with her not on the case, they’d definitely need the Mechagnomes Calleigh had contracted out to diffuse these.
The Azerite bomb itself was made up of several sticks of Azerite explosives that resembled sticks of dynamite. The bundle had fuses that were tied together to make one large fuse that fed into the back of a pocket watch converted into a bomb timer. What puzzled Nat most was an intricate, delicate wiring that ran from the pocket watch timer’s internal workings, through its case, interwoven along each fuse, and disappeared into the blasting caps at the end of each stick of Azerite explosive. Unsure of what would happen if the fuses and their intricately woven wirings were simple snipped free, or pulled free, of their explosives, Nat left the bomb to Calleigh, who was adamant about keeping the bomb for safekeeping. The group all agreed she would be a careful caretaker, and Calleigh took the bomb into her possession as the group made its way to the second X on the map, the fountain that the Tidesages had stopped at.
Maya found the next bomb while Nat kept watch to distract any passers by that might question what the group was doing (though none did). An open, empty, upright barrel in a suspicious pile of barrels and crates deposited on the otherwise pristine Upton Borough street yielded up the find. Calleigh again took the bomb into her possession.
The third X was uphill, then left through an alley, where the flower garden sits in an enclosure. This bomb puzzled the group. The X was here on the map, and listed as number three, and the Tidesages already seemed to be past this stop. But the bomb was nowhere to be found! The group shifted its search outside the small enclosure, with Calleigh eventually finding an open door outside and around the back that led to a cellar. The group descended the stairs into the dark cellar and searched again. Cletcher, demonstrating his usual knack for perception that had marked his contributions to the investigation since the very first night, surprised and confused the group by thrusting his arms into a haystack and rummaging around. Sure enough, the astute thought yielded results. The third bomb was found!
The group proceeded down the other side of the hill from there, to the spot marked number four on the map. The Cupola Café, an open-air restaurant that catered to nobles, Kul Tiran Naval Academy cadets, and wealthy merchants, seemed to be the Tidesages’ next stop! A haughty-looking host sniffled snobbishly as the group approached, announcing his approval for their dapper attire, which certainly was much more suited to this establishment than the two rude Tidesages in their drab robes that had barged in not too long before. Further helping the group’s cause was the presence of the ever-influential Kul Tiran Calleigh Silversong, who soon had the group marched into the café and was already gossiping away with the young, bored-looking woman working as the café’s bartender. Several juicy tidbits of gossip were yielded, including a seemingly mutual acquaintance named Jordy, who had, once again, cheated on his wife with a “Dampwick Ward tramp.” It seemed that Jordy had an unsavory habit of visiting the slums with a pocketful of coin and the intention of visiting residents who made their coin in what few ways they were able to. Yet another sad story of the Boralus slums to add to orphans bullied into pickpocketing and petty theft, the young couple who thought they could afford a baby but ended up having twins and were considering, heartbroken, giving one up for adoption and keeping the other to love and nurture and raise, and, most personal to the group of all (whether an individual in the group loved or loathed her, and despite the fishy circumstances of her last few years), the murder of Joanessa Seaslums. Quite soon, however, the gossiping bartender was telling Calleigh of a pair of Tidesages that had paid her to hide a package wrapped in paper. The young woman, seeming to revere Calleigh, gave up that bit of information, yet, keeping her word to the specific bargain with the Tidesages, would not give up the location of the package. She did, however, begin flirting shamelessly with Cletcher, pointedly not watching Calleigh as Calleigh helped herself to the back of the bar, peering under the counters until she found the fourth bomb. Bidding her goodbyes to her young friend, she dragged off a flustered Cletcher, who was holding a bottle of Starhook Special Blend in one hand, and the young woman’s communicator frequency information on a piece of paper, complete with a few little hearts on it, in his other hand. Cletcher, surprised at the forward nature of the young woman, stumbled away bashfully in Calleigh’s firm grip as the group moved toward X number five. Number five turned out to be Pinky’s Groggery, an open-air tavern frequented by Nat and her friends as a Deathrolls venue, much to the chagrin of Nat and her friends. Once again, Calleigh conversed with the bartender, this time the well-known and popular Nicolas Moal. Nic confirmed that a pair of Tidesages had visited for a short time not long before, and that they’d bribed him to keep quite about their business there. Even though Nic was visibly worried enough not to tell what had happened, Cari, with the use of a mana crystal she’d attuned to Azeroth’s lifeblood, made her way behind the bar to a pair of open sacks of barley. One had a suspicious dip in the middle of it, as though something had been forced through it to be hidden. Sure enough, a moment later, she was pulling out a fifth paper-wrapped package. Stepping outside to confirm yet another bomb, the group then turned toward the sixth X on the map. A short walk beyond the front stairs of Pinky’s Groggery was Dock One Exports, a popular store among homemakers. The group searched the expensive store thoroughly under the guise of shopping, but to no avail. Again, this X seemed to be on a different floor. Calleigh, keen on gossiping, remained downstairs with the shop’s manager, an apparent friend by the name of Nina Martinei, who seemed to gobble up gossip even more than the Cupola Café’s young bartender. Meanwhile, while the store’s manager was thoroughly distracted, the group made their way upstairs. Nat and Cari had a blushworthy moment in which they realized that the bedroom they found upstairs was the one they had drunkenly entered with Nahlia Lifebloom and fell asleep in after a particularly boisterous game of Deathrolls, mistaking it in their inebriated states for the room of an inn. As Nat searched the sitting room, blushing too much to search the room she’d passed out drunk in, Cletcher and Cari searched the room while Maya stood watch. The pair looked under the bed, and Cletcher muscled out a sixth paper-wrapped package. Nat, ironically looking quite sober, reflected upon what could have been if the Tidesages had been a couple months ahead of schedule. They could have slept right on top of a bomb! The group departed Dock One Exports after that, consulting the map and proceeding to the large bonfire behind Fireside Anchors, where the seventh X was marked. This bomb was poorly hidden, and might have caused quite an alarm if found by one of the many frequenters of the quiet, hidden, peaceful little spot, if Calleigh hadn’t spotted it first behind a slightly ajar giant pillow. Calleigh secreted the bomb away, and the group moved through the alley to the front of Fireside Anchors to proceed to Goldman’s Café, the eighth and final spot marked on the map. Calleigh quickly questioned a rather busy-looking shop worker inside, who indicated that the Tidesages had, indeed, been there, and had wanted the empty top floor to themselves for a short time. Proceeding to the top floor, the group searched around. Calleigh moved behind the book-strewn couch, the only spot up here that seemed large enough to hide something the size of an Azerite bomb. Sure enough, there it was, the final bomb!
The group moved out to the balcony next, looking across the canal, across Hook Point, to where the Mechagnomes were, ready to set out to have the bombs disarmed, their mission complete.
No sooner had they voiced their next move, however, than the Tidesages and the horse-drawn cart could again be heard! The Tidesages' cart was audibly clattering somewhere out of sight around a corner or on an adjacent street. Over the clatter, something about a "secret ninth bomb" and "much more of a rocket bot than any toy should ever be" could be heard in the older man's deep voice. The group descended Goldman’s bakery and coffee shop tower quickly, darting out into the road. One surprise, unscheduled, unmarked bomb was somewhere here in the district, and time was ticking on the pocket watcher timers! Cletcher, once again demonstrating his surprisingly astute nature, puzzled it out first. “Toy,” the man had said. Tucker’s Toys! The bomb was likely planted in one of Bangle Wobblebonks’ Clockwork Rocket Bots! The group dashed to the toy store, where Bangle quickly recognized Nat and Calleigh, inquiring as to whether they were there for the season’s hottest seller, a seal cub plushie with wide, adorable eyes and realistic whiskers. She seemed disappointed when the two women informed here they were there for a Clockwork Rocket Bot, stating that two Tidesages had also been interested in the out-of-season toy, and had even tinkered with one without asking or paying for it. She’d taken the thing upstairs for repairs that night afterward, she said, as it was making an additional ticking noise it wasn’t supposed to. Cletcher made his way upstairs, finding the bomb tucked away in a compartment in the toy robot’s chest compartment and bringing it downstairs. The group thanked Bangle, with Nat promising to return for a seal plushie soon, and the group, now short on time, quickly made their way to the Mechagnomes on their flying mounts, hoping the ingenious little folk could diffuse the bombs on time.
Moments later, the group was swooping down upon the boardwalk the two Mechagnomes worked on, assembling and releasing to the skies what was practically a small air force of Hovering Copters, small engines with propellers atop them that carried supplies suspended by ropes to and fro. Serafim Springwheel immediately hopped up to the task, examining the first of the nine bombs with a laser beam emitting from the lens over her mechanized right eye. She named a lengthy list of parts and their origins, cataloguing them away in her mind, proceeding from there to turn the pocket watch over. Four hex-head screws held the back cover on. Serafim raised her mechanized right arm, her hand’s palm up and facing the pocket watch timer. A small door clicked open in her tiny right palm, from which four hex-head screwdrivers shot out and smacked into the back of the delicate pocket watch timer and caused a series of alarmed gasps and flinches from those looking on. The screwdrivers whirled left in a blur, and, seconds later, the screws were clattering to the boardwalk, the back covering free and dangling in nerve-wracking fashion on the intricately-wired fuses. Meanwhile, the timers on all nine bombs showed twenty-two minutes remaining!
Serafim scanned the intricate inner workings of the pocket watch timer with her laser beam, suddenly tensing up, exclaiming, “Oh… Oh my… Yeah, that’s not good…” which was one of the last things anyone present wanted to hear. Then, after a long moment of hesitation and laser beam scanning, Serafim raised her left hand, the first two fingers flatting out and forming a pair of tiny wire snips. She snipped one red wire within the pocket watch. Just like that, the minute hand on the pocket watch advanced by fifteen minutes. The timer was suddenly down to seven minutes remaining until detonation!
The group’s tension was instantly visible. Calleigh was speaking sternly at the Mechagnome, who was speaking sternly back. Nat had gone rigid as a board. Maya was comforting Cari, and Cletcher had taken out his bottle of Starhook Special Blend and was taking a rather lengthy pull from the expensive Kul Tiran whiskey.
Serafim, however, had returned to her work, once again scanning with her laser beam. Suddenly grinning with satisfaction, she muttered something about how simple the timer was. She popped out a few cogs inside the timer. The minute hand sprang forward again by quite a bit… thirty seconds left until detonation!
Serafim sat back, scratching her head in consternation. She then smiled once more, now confident she realized how the timer worked. She began launching into what promised to be a long-winded dialogue on how this bomb reminded her of something her grandmother once designed, though, with ten seconds left, she was cut off by a glare from Calleigh and returned to work. Five seconds left. Four… three… TWO…
Serafim popped out an additional cog, which caused the intricately-woven wiring around the fuse bundle to fall out of the back of the timer.
“AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHH!” screamed Serafim leaping to her feet with her mechanized hands high in the air.
“AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!” screamed Nat, stamping rapidly in place and shaking her hands in front of her face.
“AAAAAAAAAUUUUUGH!” Serafim continued to screech. “WHO’S THE MECHAGNOME?! I’M THE MECHAGNOME! YEAH THAT’S RIGHT BABYYYYY!”
“AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGHHH!” Nat continued to scream, before marching over to Cletcher with what Hook Point resident witnesses say was a “hollered F-bomb,” and snatching the bottle from his hands, giving it a shockingly long chug.
A moment later, with Serafim doing an excited jig on the spot, the group was settling down, most clutching at their chests as Serafim celebrated. She’d done it! She’d disarmed the Azerite bomb!
Fifteen minutes later, with Serafim now knowing how the bombs were wired up, the ninth and final bomb had been diffused, with only two of them having dropped to the final seconds. The rest of the group, looking quite frazzled as Serafim danced around the boardwalk in celebration and self-satisfaction, was absolutely ready to call it a night by that point. Maya and Cari bid hasty goodbyes to the group and were soon on their way out to find someplace to try and settle their nerves for the evening. Nat remained with Calleigh and Cletcher, escorting them as they carried the disarmed Azerite explosives to Boralus Harbor Master Cyrus Crestfall for safe storage and/or disposal. With that task done, the group retired for the evening, a major disaster narrowly averted.
However, much more remains to be done. What had started as a night seeming to be one week away from taking down Marcus Brinebreaker in the Kelp Club ended the way Kul Tiran plots always seemed to: in the words of Lady Whitewind in her job listing over the summer for this contract, “There’s always a bigger fish.”
The Tidesage awaits justice.
*****
Participants:
Calleigh Silversong Natasha Ebonlocke Maya Maxwell Carilina Halverson Cletcher Tidebringer
All participants gain +1 favor with Lady Cellica Whitewind
(( Great googley moogley, I feel I have gone nuts with the screenies. Good? Bad? Let me know if you want to see a change! Thank you for reading! ))
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Oct 7, 2021 14:11:22 GMT
October 5
Whitewind Company and Allies Infiltrate Kelp Club, Positively Identify Marcus Brinebreaker, Apprehend Brinebreaker Kingpin, Discover First Lead to The Tidesage!
A potentially perilous situation faced the Whitewind Company and allies Tuesday night as they returned to Boralus to deal with Marcus Brinebreaker Kingpin Marcus Brinebreaker once and for all. The group consisted of Nahlia Lifebloom, Natasha Ebonlocke, Cletcher Tidebringer, Carilina Halverson, Maya Maxwell, and, soon after, Rylee Mhorrigan, a close friend of the group who came in a short time later to assist. The mission? Raid or infiltrate the Kelp Club, apprehend Marcus Brinebreaker, and bring him to justice!
The group inserted near Bo’s Crab Shack, where was located an alleyway into the slums of Hook Point via a boardwalk that leads directly into the heart of Brinebreaker Territory on a level with the second floor of the area’s buildings.
It is also the boardwalk that covers the entrance to the Kelp Club.
The group made their way in through the boardwalk, coming down the stairs on the other end and right near the entrance to the boardwalk. Peering in through the entrance gap in a wooden fence upon which are hung everything from archery targets to a large poster of a rather handsome woman, the group was able to scout the entrance to their objective.
A handsome pair of mahogany doors flanked by a massive, burly Brinebreaker Bouncer on one side, and an exceptionally ornate and expensive-looking candelabra on the other side hint at the possibility that the owner of the Kelp Club might be the wealthiest person in all of Hook Point, more so even than Lincoln J. Lemptheby and his auction house. Eyewitnesses in the line say that the burly Brinebreaker Bouncer looked at the group with a curl of his lip, sneering at the approaching collection of people that don't appear to belong in such an establishment. With that, the group backed around the corner again and assessed their attire. With the Kelp Club’s reputation for being a rather low-brow establishment, the group changed their garb to somewhat more revealing outfits. Cletcher maintained his dapper Kul Tiran outfit, coming along as what seemed to be the muscle and protection for a group of women making their way through dangerous territory. Now prepared, the group approached again.
As the group approached nearer, a fancy-looking host's podium with a chair and a plush, expensive-looking couch was spotted standing outside the doors as well. Locals also report that there is also the faintest hint of a mildew smell; it's plain that the boardwalk above doesn't entirely stop the heavy storms of Boralus from leaking rain down. There was plenty of mud to tromp through as well. Meanwhile, the Brinebreaker Bouncer was refusing to let a rather good-looking young woman bring her boyfriend in with her, insisting that she herself was "overdressed," and that the young man wasn't getting in at all. The resulting argument was holding up a rather antsy line of people waiting behind a velvet rope. The group went through the winding partitions that lead up to the velvet rope to join the back of the line. Thanks to the pickiness of the Brinebreaker Bouncer and the ensuing arguments, the line took quite some time to move forward. When at last the group reached the front of the line, the Brinebreaker Bouncer looked them over. He nodded approval at the lightly-clad women, but held up Cletcher with a hand, denying him entry as he, according to witnesses in the line behind the group, looked at Cletcher’s right forearm. Likely, he was denying Cletcher entry for his lack of a Brinebreaker brand being shown on that arm. During the inevitable argument, however, he did seem to show appreciation for Cletcher’s immense size and fancy attire, so he relented, on one condition. Cletcher must best him in an arm-wrestling match!
The group (and indeed the antsy line behind them, not being fans of this bouncer) was anxious for a Cletcher win here. The beefy Brinebreaker Bouncer flexed his heavily-tattooed arms and led Cletcher over to the host’s podium. Two huge elbows pounded onto the podium as Cletcher and the bouncer faced off, the crowd’s cheers bringing those just inside the Kelp Club doors over with curiosity. These, too, immediately began cheering against the Brinebreaker Bouncer.
The Brinebreaker Bouncer got an early lead in, laughing at Cletcher and calling him a wuss. The taunting was premature, however, as Cletcher let out a groan and pushed back, bringing his arm from being bent to the right to a return to the upright position. Steeling himself, Cletcher pushed harder, and the Brinebreaker Bouncer’s taunts stopped – he was losing now! One more final effort from Cletcher later, and the Brinebreaker Bouncer’s thick, meaty fist was pounded to the podium! Victory Cletcher!
The crowd inside and outside the Kelp Club cheered for Cletcher and jeered the disliked bouncer’s defeat. Without much of a glance as those jeering him, the bouncer clapped Cletcher on the back with a grin, commenting that he hadn’t met his match at arm wrestling “in a dog’s age,” and waved him and the rest of his group inside.
The Kelp Club, according to interviewed partiers, was packed and busy. People were already drunk. It appeared to be mostly Brinebreakers and young women from the middle and upper classes, slumming, with the odd young woman obviously from the slums also in attendance. A bar brawl was going on the near wall to the right, and, from the chatter of a few men and women watching it, it all started over a pair of brothers arguing over which one of them smokes more cigars than the other. The two brothers in question were brawling hard while calling each other all sorts of revolting, nasty, and perfectly true and applicable names. Those around them drunk enough to join in were also brawling, unbeknownst to the two brothers, who, in their blind rage, had awareness only for each other. Men and women alike were throwing hands with obscene gusto. Meanwhile, the rest of the Kelp Club was full of people drinking, men talking to women, and men hungrily watching women on the decorative stage who, scantily-clad and steadily becoming more and more so, were dancing for all to see. Exposed forearms of many men showed the angry red B of the Brinebreakers branded onto their forearms, though none appear to be as prominent as the Underbosses, and none at all appeared to be the leader of the entire gang.
Nah, ever on the lookout for mischief and fun, commented that this was a “hoppin’ place” with a smirk. It wasn’t long before men and women alike were hitting on members of the group, with two women in particular approaching Cletcher and getting what eyewitnesses referred to as “all touchy-feely” with him after his feat outside with the Brinebreaker Bouncer. Cletcher seemed both bashful and quite distracted, being hit on heavily by women for a second straight week. Meanwhile, the rest of the group was distracted by Rylee Mhorrigan’s sudden appearance at the door. More help had arrived!
The group eventually disentangled itself from those looking for a good time rather than a long time, wandering down the short flight of stairs to the club proper. Nat, blushing, kept her eyes averted from the stage as the group began to drift about and mingle. Mostly just eavesdropping, the group also ended up enjoying the party scene a bit as well. The huge bar brawl was still going on in the near right corner to the bottom of the stairs, with spectators rather than people trying to break it up. It seemed that some were even betting on some of those in the mass melee. Eyewitnesses report that a nightly “mosh pit” is a Kelp Club tradition.
Nah approached what witnesses termed a “cat fight” suddenly erupting on the dancers’ stage. She had that look in her eye that denoted fun and mischief to be had or witnessed, and went to the fight as a moth drawn to a flame. After overhearing the women argue as they fought, however, she returned to the group, reporting that the women were each accusing the other of having turned in someone named “Biff.” Cari was there too, also listening in as she watched the fight, and she reported the same thing Nah did. Biff, Nat reminded the group, was the name of the Brinebreaker Underboss that had handled the black market activities of the Brinebreakers, the skinny one with the small black ponytail! It seemed that the Brinebreakers still didn’t know who was picking them apart – good news for the group here in the Kelp Club, surrounded by that same gang!
Nah drifted over toward two chairs positioned in front of a roaring fireplace, in which two Brinebreaker men with women draped over them like scarves were conversing in a low voice. Nah quickly returned with the news that, though the men were speaking vaguely so as not to be obvious with their topic to their women, it seemed that a second attempt to bomb Upton Borough was to be made! The plan was merely awaiting Marcus Brinebreaker’s approval to move forward!
After hearing Nah’s second report of eavesdropping, Nat tried her hand at it as well. She wandered near two women who appeared to be discussing plans themselves. When she returned, she reported it appeared that “the Boss” wanted dinner and dessert, the latter of which made the women grin and giggle at each other. Nat blushed at the obvious meaning, but got through it anyway. It seemed that the women might lead them directly to Marcus Brinebreaker!
The group let the women go ahead of them a bit after that, hanging back to not draw attention to their following. The women went up the flight of stairs to the plank floor with the bar, off to the cook’s corner for food, then down a somewhat darker set of stairs at the far right corner that seemed to lead below the club. As the group headed toward the stairs, however, two massive Brinebreakers hopped up off a couch set to its right, blocking the way, telling them the stairs were off limits. The group backed off, formulating their next plan. The next plan turned out to be a visit to the cook’s corner, where several platters of crabs and lobsters were laid out along a countertop and still steaming. Nat gasped, her eyes going wide – it seemed that the Brinebreakers had moved in on poor Joanessa Seaslums’ crab traps!
The group found themselves stopped by the cook next. Rylee saved the moment, pretending to be women directed to bring dinner to “the Boss.” The cook, suspicious that a second group was coming for the boss’s food when he’d already sent some down, nevertheless didn’t deign to deny additional food to the man, especially knowing what “dessert” meant as he looked at the lightly-clad women. Cletcher covered for being a male by being the designated mule, carrying the most and heaviest of the load downstairs. With that, the group made their way past the stairs’ guards again.
This time, the guards saw more of “the Boss’s” food, eyed the women and their dress, and waved them downstairs as the previous women returned topside, looking put-out – it seemed “the Boss” didn’t want dessert until after dinner. Meanwhile, one stair guard was telling the group to hurry with a smirk, stating that “the Boss” liked his food like he liked his women… hot. The comment drew blushes, smirks, and frowns from different members of the group as they made their way downstairs.
Reaching the bottom, the group observed the most plush scene in all of Hook Point, and a very large man who looked like he was quite used to such lavish settings. A handsome mahogany desk sat at the far wall, facing the stairs. A massive bag of gold lay on the desk, spilling across it a bit. The other side held a candle, and, in the middle, the very large man, sitting on the end of the desk eyeing the steaming food across from him on a countertop alongside the stairs, appearing to be waiting for it to cool. Behind the man on the desk sat two massive mahogany chests, an expensive-looking painting of Stormsong Valley scenery in between. The chests held large piles of gold and silver coins, expensive-looking candelabras, and, on one, a padlocked treasure chest. A fancy writing desk with a blue quill sat in the corner, two tall bookshelves (mostly bereft of books) sat left of that with maps tacked onto the wall in between, and, further left, the largest, cushiest-looking couch in the establishment sat across from the countertop with the steaming seafood platters. At the end, on the far left wall, there was a full-length mirror in the corner, and, in the middle of the wall, one more large mahogany chest with another elaborate candelabra on top that held several bottles and jugs of various liquors and spirits. In the middle of the floor lay sprawled an enormous bearskin rug. In short, “the Boss’s” office was a tribute to excess in the heart of a filthy, muddy slum in which people starved.
Nah and Rylee (in a move that wasn’t much of a surprise to Nat) and Cari (much to Nat’s surprise) took center stage in the opening flirtations to greet the self-important-looking man, a man so big, he nearly rivaled the Collector in size, and who bore a black mustache nearly as fancy and dapper as that of Mordale Corven, a close friend of the group. Soon after, Cari was on the couch, patting the cushions next to her as she smiled over at the lone Brinebreaker on his desk.
Nah, meanwhile, seemed to be fishing for confirmation as to this lone Brinebreaker being Marcus Brinebreaker. She called him “Boss” at first, which seemed to make the man swell with pride as he nodded approval at Nah’s acknowledgement of his greatness and authority. Cari, catching on, began calling him “Boss” as well. Nah took it a step further after that, smirking and going for the throat.
"What, do folks not call you by that?” she asked with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. “Who goes around calling their own boss Marcus or Brinebreaker-senpai or whatever? ...Wait, that second one might've been a mainlander term only."
The lone Brinebreaker 's chest swelled even more at that. He looked to be slightly off guard now as he spoke. "Aye, I earned it, I did! I spent a long time becoming Marcus Brinebreaker, Leader of the Brinebreaker Gang, and personal envoy of the Tidesage!"
Nat gasped, and Maya’s enchanted tattoos were lighting up... Marcus Brinebreaker had just positively confirmed his own identity and role as not only the leader of the Brinebreaker Gang, but also that he was, indeed, being controlled by The Tidesage! Luckily for the group, Marcus Brinebreaker didn’t notice either woman's reaction, focused as he was on Nah, Rylee, and Cari. It was a short time later that he was on the couch, Nah and Nat in his lap, Cari sitting next to him, and Rylee standing nearby. Maya seemed to be working on controlling her months-long anger with this man, and stood a small distance off, and Cletcher hung back entirely, still on the staircase and keeping a keen eye on the situation. Rylee, Nah, and Cari were continuing on the flirtations, distracting the man and throwing him off his guard more and more, and Nat was simply trying to stop blushing at her predicament on the Brinebreaker Kingpin’s lap. Rylee covered whatever was about to happen next by putting out most of the lights, offering to the Brinebreaker Kingpin to “help set the mood” as she doused nearly all the candles around the room. Marcus Brinebreaker was indeed distracted, mostly with Nah, expressing an interest in beautiful exotic women and sweeping Nah’s Kaldorei figure with his eyes a bit more than he did the rest of the women present. Nah, enjoying the fun and mischief, knowing Marcus was about to be “punked” pretty hard, took it in stride, continuing on with her mischievous fun of flirting and distracting the man.
After a time, Cari, sitting on the man’s left, went for her wand, slowly. Marcus Brinebreaker, looking off to his right a bit at Nah still, never saw it coming. Cari pointed her wand at Marcus Brinebreaker, muttering a spell, and…
Marcus Brinebreaker, in that instant, looked off to where Maya was standing alone and silent. He was just in the process of reaching for her hand when he froze solid – Cari had just locked Marcus Brinebreaker in time with a chronomancy spell!
With Cari now locked in on her chronomancy channeling, the rest of the group immediately sprang into action, ransacking the man’s office. Rylee found what appeared to be a list of Brinebreakers being considered for promotion to Underboss, apparently to replace those that had gone missing. Nah found a complete ledger of Brinebreaker member names, from Marcus Brinebreaker at the very top, to brand-new members at the bottom. The list also indicated which members had been forced into joining instead of joining up of their own volition. Nah next found a letter to be sent to whichever Brinebreaker got the promotion to Underboss that would oversee the Upton Borough bombing. There not being an Underboss to oversee the task explained why Marcus Brinebreaker had not yet approved the next bombing plan. Cletcher, meanwhile, was amusing himself “doing punchings,” beating the Brinebreaker boss for him to feel it after the spell wore off. Cari, frowning and looking away and wincing at the sound of every hit, stated that this was wildly unethical, not to mention would lead to confusion, as, in his mind, he would instantly be going from sitting next to Cari with Nah and Nat in his lap and reaching for Maya’s hand… to being somewhere else entirely, suddenly feeling the pain of a beating he doesn’t remember ever getting. The Brinebreaker Kingpin, meanwhile, still reaching out for Maya’s hand (though she had moved away by this point), simply sat frozen on the couch, bobbling around like a statue swaying dangerously on its base as Cletcher pounded him, delivering a few blows to what Cletcher referred to as “the grundle.”
Rylee, meanwhile, was now dragging the padlocked treasure chest across the room that had sat on the larger mahogany chest behind Marcus Brinebreaker’s desk. She searched the Kingpin for his keys, finding them, and decided to open the chest after they’d gotten out of there. In the meantime, she added a punch of her own to the Brinebreaker Boss’s “grundle.”
At the mention of getting out of there, the group was faced with the next obvious obstacle… Carrying off Marcus Brinebreaker, frozen like a statue, as well as his treasure chest, right through the Kelp Club and out the front door, then out of Brinebreaker Territory. The next obvious solution was decided upon. Rather than fight their way out, the group merely allowed Cari to open up a portal to Boralus’ Tradewinds Market. From there, the group mounted up, the Brinebreaker boss tossed unceremoniously over Onyx as Nat ferried him and Cletcher on her netherdrake’s back to the Boralus Stockade with the rest of the Brinebreaker Underbosses.
Upon landing in the Stockade yard, a Proudmoore Officer approached the group. The stern-looking Kul Tiran woman snapped orders crisply, demanding to know what all this was, though her eyes immediately went to Marcus Brinebreaker and his angry, red B branded on his forearm.
Upon learning that this was Marcus Brinebreaker himself, the Proudmoore Officer immediately led the group not to the ground-level cells, but rather, down into an open cellar door, through a lengthy series of tunnels, and down to what she referred to as “the black cells.” Here, no lights were lit. Prisoners of the absolute worst sort sat here in total darkness, except for when guards passed with torches. It was here Marcus Brinebreaker, and other inmates just as bad, awaited their sentencing or lived out their life imprisonment terms. A Proudmoore Interrogator appeared soon after, though it was granted to the group, per Rylee’s request, to be the first to question the man – the issue of locating the Tidesage was still at hand.
Rylee then opened the treasure chest, causing Nat to blush at its contents. There, in the chest, were seemingly souvenirs of every bit of “dessert” Marcus Brinebreaker had ever enjoyed. The saved undergarments of various-sized women, upper and lower pieces, filled the chest to the brim. Rylee, frowning, dumped the chest all over a nearby table in the hall of the black cells, now striking gold – the bottom of the chest was littered with well over a year’s worth of correspondence, much of which was with the Tidesage herself! Nah, meanwhile, smirking her mischievous smirk, pretended to be more interest in the undergarments themselves. Kleptomaniacal tendencies ever at the surface, she rifled through them, swiping the odd item when the Proudmoore Officer and Interrogator weren’t looking, whether they fit or not, simply for fun.
Cletcher and Nat came over next, the latter pointedly avoiding the undergarment pile and blushing, wanting to rifle through the letters. The letters encompassed everything from orders given to confirmation from underlings of orders received and followed to maps and codes and even a few love letters to and from various women. Most of the correspondence was clearly incriminating, giving definitive proof that Marcus Brinebreaker had done everything he’d been accused of.
Rylee, still unsatisfied that she’d found everything and noticing that the Kingpin’s chronomancy spell was wearing off, demanded of the suddenly wincing, cringing, confused man to tell her what else they might find in this chest. The Kingpin, in his surprise and confusion, seeming to be feeling the pain of Cletcher’s beating now, let slip that there was a false bottom in the chest. Rylee felt around the bottom of the chest for something to grab to pull the false bottom loose, but felt nothing. Rather than puzzle it out, however, she merely flung the chest at the stone wall, shattering the box and causing the false bottom to pop loose. The Kingpin, looking devastated and beyond confused as his sudden change from feeling great and partying to feeling beaten, being confused, and all his souvenirs out on the table to be rifled through, had had enough – tears poured down his face at his fate, but none were moved by it.
The shattered treasure chest, meanwhile, had spilled still more letters. These were quite telling – they were from the Tidesage herself!
The Tidesage’s letters were sometimes in Common, other times in a language written in other characters than the normal letters used in Common. These characters looked evil somehow, appearing all the more so from the shadows that danced across the pages when viewed. Rylee, remembering Nat’s peculiar condition of sometimes speaking in what had been confirmed by other associates as Shath’Yar, languages of the Old Gods, without realizing she was speaking it nor knowing how she’d come to acquire this language, handed Nat one such letter. To no one’s surprise at this point, Nat was able to read the letter, remarking that it appeared to be written in ordinary Common to her.
Reading over the letter, Nat reported that it appeared to be dated well over a year ago, detailing to Marcus Brinebreaker how to begin meeting in secret with The Tidesage. A Kul Tiran ship, it seemed, patrolled the bay in between Tiragarde Sound and Drustvar, the captain of which was “susceptible,” though the letter didn’t mention to what. Marcus Brinebreaker was to board the ship and watch the shores around the bay for a small fortification that defended the shore and a bridge near the water. From this small fortification would come a flashing light. Once spotted, that was the time to look for a rowboat. Following the rowboat would lead Marcus Brinebreaker to the next step of meeting the Tidesage in secret. The group now had their next lead!
Another such letter was one Nat had been particularly keen on looking for. It was the letter containing the orders from the Tidesage to bomb Upton Borough. Before long, the group had found it! In this letter, the Tidesage ordered Marcus Brinebreaker to bomb Upton Borough with Azerite explosives stolen from the confiscated stores of such munitions from the old Ashvane Company. The bombing, just as the Tidesages who had planted the bombs last week had stated, was to be done with the intention of ruining Upton Borough, turning it into a slum. With no one wanting anything to do with the slum of Upton Borough any longer, the Brinebreaker gang would be free to move in, giving the Tidesage a foothold right at the front door to Proudmoore Keep. With Jaina still missing, a combined attack of Brinebreakers and Tidesages on the Keep would overwhelm it, kill Lady Katherine Proudmoore, and allow The Tidesage herself to take the throne for her own. From the throne, she would rule Kul Tiras, converting its citizens to followers of the Old Ones, from which the Black Empire could rise once more.
Concrete proof of High Treason not only by the Brinebreakers, but by the Tidesage and her followers as well!
It was with mixed feelings that the Whitewind Company and their allies celebrated their success in the contract they’d taken on months before – to investigate allegations of organized crime perpetrated by Marcus Brinebreaker and the Brinebreaker Gang, and, with proof, take down Marcus Brinebreaker himself. The group had FINALLY DONE IT!
But, dampening the celebration some was the grim realization of what Lady Whitewind had posted in her job listing for this contract early that summer…
There's always a bigger fish.
*****
Participants:
Nah Nat Cletcher Cari Maya
And special guest star, Rylee Mhorrigan!
Whitewind Company accomplishes: Contract: Marcus Brinebreaker
Whitewind Company receives: Contract Pay from Kul Tiran Government as reward
Whitewind Company gains Lead: Letter Detailing How to Meet The Tidesage In Secret
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Oct 14, 2021 12:42:28 GMT
(( There was no event on 10/12, due to player schedules not lining up this week. We will resume 10/19! ))
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Oct 20, 2021 18:40:38 GMT
October 19
Whitewind Company and Allies Follow New Lead to Begin Search for The Tidesage, Experience Odd, Unexplained Occurrences, Seem to Return Soon After Setting Out The Whitewind Company and outside contractors returned to Boralus again last night, though they did not linger in the city long. Nahlia Lifebloom, Nickol Moonbloom (Nah’s adoptive mother, a Kaldorei priestess of Elune, along to assist with her priestly abilities), Natasha Ebonlocke, Maya Maxwell, Rylee Mhorrigan, and Carilina Halverson all entered Boralus by way of portal from the Sanctum of the Sages in the Tradewinds Market. Witnesses at the Kul Tiran Naval Academy report that the group crossed the city to the Naval Academy port to seek a harbor patrol boat, the LAS Derek’s Vigilance, that had been waiting on them. After the boat’s captain was paid, he brought the group aboard to do their own patrol mission as they came along for the ride.
The boatswain aboard the harbor patrol boat reported that the group was seeking a clue from a letter they’d found along the course of their investigation of the Brinebreaker Gang. The letter directed them to find a person by way of riding this boat and looking for a certain small, fortified lookout bunker near the coast that guarded a bridge over a river that fed into the bay. This report tracks with the letter reported to have been found in Marcus Brinebreaker’s chest on the previous expedition that was written by the Tidesage, reportedly in Shath’Yar, detailing how he was to find her for the first time: board this patrol boat, look for a small, fortified bunker near the shore that guards a bridge, and watch from there for a rowboat, then follow the rowboat. The boatswain reports that there were a few possible structures that the group had pointed out, but only one fit all the criteria. The aptly named Vigil Hill boasted one such structure that overlooked a small harbor that sported a pier with three dockings, as well as a bridge leading over a river that marked the border with Drustvar, as well as the Old Drust Road that leads to the bridge. On the other side, Hangman’s Point, a Drustvar gallows used for public executions, could be seen.
The boatswain assisted in loading the group into a rowboat and lowering them to the bay’s surface, along with a couple of members of their own crew to row. The sailors rowed the crew to the desired harbor, waiting there for their return.
A Vigil Hill witness reports the group climbed the hill and visited the bunker, peering out over the bay from the structure’s thin visor, soon apparently spotting a rowboat and emerging from the building, though the witness had seen no such boat themselves. The group, however, confident that they’d found the right one, descended the hill, boarded the waiting rowboat once more, and quickly gave chase to the other rowboat they’d spotted.
It is here that reports become quite confused.
According to the two sailors, the group was chasing a rowboat that they themselves could not see, but the group appeared to be able to see quite plainly. Then, in the middle of the harbor, the group seemed to not be able to see the boat anymore. According to them, the boat that the sailors never saw to begin with had vanished into thin air, and the group merely returned to the LAS Derek’s Vengeance and returned home, their expedition over!
However, judging from Whitewind Company debriefings after the fact, it seemed that much had transpired between one second to the next… somewhere from one to two hours’ worth of events had taken place in between a sailor saying one thing, and immediately following it up with another sentence in the same train of thought! Neither Natasha Ebonlocke nor the sailors seemed to have been present for whatever went on, and Natasha seemed to be quite put out that the group seemed to be saying that the expedition was over already when it had hardly begun!
The rest of the expedition group seems to have grown concerned when Nat, suddenly standing up in the boat, seemed to be feeling quite unwell. Immediately following that was proclamations of feeling great and wanting to party. The ill feeling and the happy, excited feeling flip-flopped back and forth in her demeanor for a bit, until the part that desired to have fun and apparently felt great took over for good. Nat, in a rowboat, in the middle of the bay with no land nearby anywhere, declared that they were at a tavern, and that she was going in for a drink. The rest of the group, quite confused, couldn’t figure out why Nat thought there was a tavern nearby, but Nat insisted that there was. In the next instant, Nat was completely enveloped in the roiling shadows that sometimes were glimpsed flashing through her face and eyes. The instant after, Nat declared she was getting a drink, and walked right off the edge of the boat! She sank deep, deep into the water, and did not resurface.
The group had barely enough time to register shock and concern before everything around them went black. There was nothing around them, no boat and no water under them, no sky above them. Shadows had completely taken them all!
What happened next was even more bizarre.
The shadows around the group disappeared, and the group found themselves deep in the water, surrounded by the bones of a massive creature’s ribcage. Reports of the size of the skeleton seems to rival that of Galakrond, the enormous ancient protodrake whose remains can be seen in Dragonblight in Northrend. A tavern does, indeed, seem to be present, with a pair of Pandaren dancing hard on the bar to music that seemed quite lively being played from behind the bar. A disco ball dangled overhead from an enormous rib bone, lighting up a massive sea giant who was sitting against the bone and calling for more ale time and time and time again. Lost anchors, jellyfish, and people of all races, ranging from the drab to the scantily-clad to the snappily-dressed, seemed to be everywhere along the inside of the giant dead creature. The people were either dancing to the music, or else seated at tables all along the dead creature’s insides that, for some reason, had canvas roofs, despite being in the water. Through it all swam an orca, whom some tavern patrons were referring to as “Corky.”
What was most bizarre was that the scene didn't seem realistic down here. There were tavern goers everywhere, not seeming to care that they were completely submerged in water with no way to breathe. Sea creatures and land creatures alike cavorted together as the lively music played from the band behind the bar, and neither sea creature nor land dweller noticed a single member of the group suddenly just appear at the bar. Everyone there kept repeating the same motions and conversations... over… and over… and over… and over again…
Then the group spotted Nat. She was okay! She was dancing up a storm down there! Her movements were crisp, measured, and precise, the dance flowing as smooth as the currents. She displayed perfect balance, movement, and grace as her arms and legs, hands and feet all worked in unison with her hips and torso. Her hair and dress billowed out around her in the water, and she looked like she was having the time of her life! Maya was the first one to notice that this was not like Nat at all, knowing Nat was never one for dancing gracefully, and, indeed, having slapped her own self in the face twice before falling down right on her rear at a previous dance party.
The group tried and failed repeatedly to get a response out of Nat, but she didn’t seem to notice the group’s presence any more than did the rest of the tavern’s patrons. She did, however, burst into song as she gleefully danced to the tavern band’s lively music. The lyrics, as best as could be recalled in the mission debriefing afterward, were thus:
♪A live whale swims through a dead whale's belly♪
♪Why? There really is no telling!♪
♪You've a task, though it seems dorky♪
♪Swim on up and go kiss Corky!♪
The group was quite perplexed at Nat’s song, and continued trying to get her attention. All attempts at trying to get Nat to recognize them failed, and Nat simply repeated the song again until the group spoke amongst themselves, beginning to look around for the orca the tavern patrons had been calling “Corky.” Rylee swam up at that point, putting herself in the orca’s path to catch onto a fin. The orca whisked Rylee off at a high rate of speed while Rylee attempted, and eventually accomplished, a kiss for Corky.
Nickol, meanwhile, was using one of a priest’s less-celebrated abilities: psychic powers. Prodding through Nat’s mind, she searched for what could possibly be going on in there, and was not rewarded kindly for her efforts: A vision of a vast, ancient city, the construction of which does not remotely look familiar, flooded her mind. Temples dotted the cityscape, and screams of terror and agony spewed forth from each. The sky was dark, and massive gouts of flame rose from enormous braziers all over the city. The vision was short, and then the psychic connection broke off.
Rylee, meanwhile, was swimming back from Corky to cheers and gleeful laughs and applause from Nat, who immediately burst into song again. The lyrics, as best as could be recalled during Whitewind Company debriefs, were thus:
♪Here within these hallowed halls♪
♪There hangs low a disco ball♪
♪Below this, the ale is danker♪
♪There's no way you'll hoist this tankard!♪
Rylee, meanwhile, was trying to get Nat’s true persona back to the surface by attempting to make her blush, calling for her to disrobe as she danced. Nat seemed not to notice, and the group had no choice but to play along once again.
Looking below the disco ball, they saw the enormous sea giant, who referred to himself in the third person as “Tankard” in his repeated calls for more ale. True to the lyrics of the song, there was no way they’d ever lift this tankard! Cari, however, found a way! She took note of the thick ropes of the fish netting over the sea giant’s shoulders, and came up with a plan. Fetching more nearby rope, presumably from a shipwreck whose bow overhung the ribs of the giant dead creature, she suggested tying it to the giant’s fish nets on his shoulders and tying the other end to Corky. After Nah and Maya went along with Tankard’s demands for more ale, fetching more from the bar to take to him, they next tied a rope apiece to Tankard’s shoulder nets, swimming up to catch Corky to throw the other ends in a lasso around his tail. In the next instant, Tankard was yanked right off the sea floor, hoisted by Corky, and taken for a ride! It seemed he was having quite a bit of fun!
The group returned to Nat, their next task complete, only to find an eerie surprise awaiting them.
Nat was now floating much higher in the water above the bar, no longer dancing. Her eyes were shut, her head tilted back quite a bit. Her arms are spread, her palms facing up, a peaceful expression on her face, as though expecting some gift from the heavens. Gracefully, she floats here for a moment, bobbing slowly, gently, in the current, her hair and dress still slowly billowing out around her.
Suddenly, Nat jerked upright, her eyes opening wide in terror and agony! She peers past the group with unseeing eyes, her arms still outstretched, fists clenched tightly. She grits her teeth hard for a moment... then SCREAMED! She began writhing about in a frenzy, clawing at herself in a rapid panic, screaming still and thrashing about, her blood-curdling screams of terror and panic and agony piercing the group’s ears! Meanwhile, the other tavern patrons continued in their revelry, noticing not a single thing!
Next, after a long moment, Nat suddenly quieted, unconscious. She sank through the water back to the bar, still unnoticed by the other tavern goers. She was absolutely engulfed in the roiling shadows of the Void now. The group dove toward Nat anxiously, kneeling in a circle all around her as Nat lay, quiet and still, on the bar. The group hastily flew into a flurry of activity. Cari had her mana crystal out from her pack, attempting to siphon off shadow from Nat and into the crystal. Rylee was asking Nickol if she knew Tidesage prayers to ward this off, and she and Nickol both tried this. Maya and Nah were tearfully attempting to shake Nat awake and get her to respond to them, even going so far as being willing to take on a bit of the Void corruption themselves to get it off her. Nah herself had dropped to the bar’s surface to take Nat’s unconscious form into her arms.
In each case, the group each met with the same response: Nat, though still seemingly completely unconscious, would sit upright in a quick, jerky motion, eyes and mouth opening wide, Void shadows spewing forth in thick, roiling clouds from there to fly into their faces. Each time, the group witnessed the same vision Nickol had earlier: A vision of a vast, ancient city, the construction of which does not remotely look familiar, flooded her mind. Temples dotted the cityscape, and screams of terror and agony spewed forth from each. The sky was dark, and massive gouts of flame rose from enormous braziers all over the city.
Just when it seemed all was hopelessly lost and Nat would never return home alive, she suddenly darted to her feet, conscious again! Smiling and laughing gleefully once more, she clapped excitedly.
"Come on, lovely friends! FUN!" she said, giggling once more and suddenly darting away through the water. "She calls! She calls for me! She calls for us all! We're going to have SO much fun together! And we don't even need BODIES! Let's GO!"
Nat swam quickly, darting through traffic in the tavern inside the dead thing as quickly and gracefully as a dolphin, disappearing into an underwater cave at the tail of the giant dead thing that the group could have sworn was not there previously. The group followed, eventually emerging from the water in the underwater cave to dry land.
It was here they found their next spooky, eerie surprise.
Nat sat at a campfire, the flames of which appear to have the odd kraken tentacle-shaped gout of black flame occasionally appear at one edge or another. When one stared long enough, they noticed that there are eight places in the fire these sprout up from, circling the outside of it like a kraken's tentacles might surround a doomed ship. Nat is smiling happily at the fire. Shadows flash all along her visage once or twice per second, yet she gives off no shadow herself from the campfire. There is no evidence of anyone else having brought this dry wood down and taken the time to set up this campfire, either. Nat, still smiling happily, begins speaking rhythmically, as though reciting poetry.
Now, another task, now, another puzzle!
Now, a beast with whom you'd not nuzzle!
If to find me you still wish...
Travel next where there are no fish!
That's right, snowy mountain white
Best get there when there's still light
Through the house, enter the cave
Mind you don't track mud; behave!
Puzzle out the trick door
The answer is in the floor
Be sure to make the right choices
And above all, heed not the voices!
Nat recited that final line in a rather sinister-sounding singsong voice, grinning a grin as sinister as her singsong-chanted final line. Shadows obscured her eyes utterly, making it appear that her eyes were made of the dimly glowing shadows themselves.
The group uneasily started speaking amongst themselves of snowcapped mountains in all three of Kul Tiras’ regions. Judging from the spooky goings-on thus far, and the description of a cave hidden behind a house, the group made a guess as to it being Drustvar, though there seems to be more information needed to actually locate this house, if, indeed, it does exist. However, with the letter in Shath’Yar to Marcus Brinebreaker from The Tidesage describing that going along this route initiated by following the directions therein, it seems like this is the correct route, bizarre occurrences aside, to finding The Tidesage, so it was decided that more information will be pursued in some way.
Suddenly, without warning as the group spoke, thoughts were springing forth unbidden into the group’s minds. These thoughts had no voice, and, indeed, made no sound at all, not even just a sound heard within one’s own head. It merely seemed to be a thought that formed, unbidden, on its own, each time it happened. The voiceless thoughts whispered doubts into the group’s minds. Doubts about friends. Doubts about lovers. Doubts about loyalty and cruel treatment sure to come and abandonment to follow. Doubts about the fate of the world. Each time, most of the group seemed to totally ignore the voiceless thoughts, though Nickol combated them valiantly with her own psychic whispers, arguing against the thoughts in the group’s minds and whispering her own reassurances.
Maya, meanwhile, was attempting to rouse Nat from her trance. Shifting into her bear form, she approached Nat quite closely and roared at her as loud as she could. Nat’s response, quite out of character for her, was to giggle, and then crawl forward… directly into the fire. She sat down within the flames, prompting the eight black gouts of flame that sometimes appeared in the shape of kraken tentacles to all appear at once and remain there. As the flames licked up around Nat, they didn’t seem to burn her at all, and the black tongues of kraken tentacle-flame coiled themselves around Nat, with two in particular, one on each side of her, coiling themselves around Nat’s hands and forearms like snakes and roiling around like the real versions of those slithering reptiles might. Nat giggled as she played with the kraken tentacles, stating that the scary bear could never get her in here. Though Nat had finally given off her first response to a group member aside from Rylee’s completed task of kissing Corky the orca, it was still a response that was not at all like her. The shadows continued to swirl and roil around her countenance even as the black kraken tentacle flames danced around Nat’s still-unburned body.
With the group despairing once again of ever snapping Nat out of it, an impossibly deep voice suddenly shouted from out of nowhere, speaking one single word of command!
“AWAKEN!”
With that, the group once again found themselves surrounded by nothing. No longer did they sand on the rocky ground of an underwater cave, nor did they see each other, Nat, the spooky fire, or even their own bodies. All was blackness, all was void, and they seemed to be held up by absolutely nothing at all. The void was hot, stuffy, suffocating, and none of them were able to see or hear another person. Their own voices seemed to be stifled immediately after any spoken word. Then, quite suddenly, just when it seemed the group would suffocate, a refreshing sea breeze swept over them, and a scene materialized around them again!
"...from back there in the lookout bunker, then ye think ye lot should go back in there an' look fer it again? Mayhaps we come and search for it with ye, even."
The group found themselves back in the rowboat with the LAS Derek’s Vigilance without much in the way of warning or explanation, still floating there in the middle of the bay. The sailors seemed to still be in the moment hours ago in which the rowboat they were pursuing had only just disappeared! Nickol, asking for clarification on what the young man had just said, got the sailor to repeat his suggestion of going back to the lookout bunker to find the rowboat again, as that's where the group had spotted it from just a few minutes prior.
Rylee seemed confused by this, according to reports from one of these sailors, and asked if anyone had timed their dive, which confused the sailor, as the group had certainly never dived or even mentioned leaving the boat at all!
Nat also seemed confused, especially as Nickol spoke of a new lead concerning a trick door somewhere. When Nat asked where she had gotten a new lead, Nickol didn’t answer her, which left her looking even more confused. The group had the two young sailors return them to the ship, despite protests from Nat that they’d only just begun this week’s expedition, and the group retired to the ship’s mess hall for drinks to discuss the night’s strange clues. The group still agreed that Drustvar seemed to be the next place to visit. With that, the group took a portal to Stormwind, conjured by Cari, ending the night’s event. The night was ending entirely too early, according to Nat, who insisted they’d only looked for five minutes, and still had no idea where the group had gotten this “trick door in Drustvar” lead. The group, perhaps to avoid scaring Nat, never explained to her what happened, and thus, the night ended.
It would seem that next week’s lead will involve caves with entrances hidden by houses, if such a one can be found. If this isn’t an intentionally misleading clue by The Tidesage, then the group would seem to be one step closer to tracking down their most dangerous foe to date. More dangerous, perhaps, than even the kraken they’d encountered aboard the Whitewind’s Grace early that summer!
In the meantime, spooky occurrences abound, dread voices speak, and the shadows of darkness continue to descend upon Natasha Ebonlocke…
*****
Happy Halloween!
Participants:
Nahlia “Nah” Lifebloom Natasha Ebonlocke Nickol Moonbloom Maya Maxwell Rylee Mhorrigan Carilina Halverson
Whitewind Company gains Lead: Trick door located on a snowy mountain in a house obscuring a cave entrance?
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Oct 27, 2021 17:17:00 GMT
(( Warning! The following post features a somewhat dark, horror-themed storyline that may not be suitable for all readers! If you’ve been following the story via this forum thread and would like a mild version for a story update instead, feel free to contact me in the OOC threads of this site, or ingame, for an overview of the story’s progression! Either way, Happy Halloween/Hallow’s End, and enjoy! Thank you for reading! ))
October 26
Whitewind Company And Allies Journey to Drustvar to Follow Up on Dream-Given Lead, Find Trick Door in Abandoned House, Brave Haunted Caverns!
A grim tale unfolded last night as the Whitewind Company and allies, a group consisting of Natasha Ebonlocke, Maya Maxwell, Cari Halverson, and Rylee Mhorrigan traveled back to Kul Tiras to follow up on the previous week’s lead, as mentioned by Nickol, to find a house with a trick door on a snowy mountain. As many houses on snowy mountains as there are, however, the group’s information was thin as they went home from the previous week’s expedition.
According to Whitewind Company debriefs, however, more clues presented themselves that very night, taking the form of strangely vivid dreams. Each member of the group had had a dream similar to everyone else’s, and each was rich in detail. They each centered on a snowy mountain. The house on this mountain was viewed by three members out of last week’s five. One member’s dream came from within the house, which was cold and empty, though it was unclear whether it was on a snow-capped mountain or not.
Maya’s dream was of a horse-drawn cart she rode through a forest of small trees with dead leaves to the foot of a path climbing a snowy mountain. This forest path, however, seems to be infested with wicker men and wicker bears, the same as those from the gladiator fight that happened in Boralus during the early weeks of the Brinebreaker investigation, and each of these had a goat's skull for a head. The road eventually turned out of the forest and climbed a barren, snowy mountain, and the dream ended at the climb.
Cari had dreamed of being on an archaeology expedition, alone. She was atop a snowy mountain, digging through old ruins, when suddenly, the rocks all around her sprang to life! They were forming around a somewhat darker-skinned people, wielding some sort of dark, shadowy magic that allowed them to control the earth, the trees, and the beasts of the mountain. They were forming ranks against an invading force of what looked like Gilneans, though these Gilneans – none of them bearing the Worgen curse – wore military uniforms that predated most of what was on record on Gilnean military uniforms through the ages in the Dalaran library. They seemed to match descriptions and sketches from Dalaran’s library of those around the era of the Fall of Arathor, and they flew the Third Kingdom flag. The Gilnean army marched toward the primitive natives’ army. Battle erupted all around Cari, and she was caught in the thickest of the fighting! The dream ended after a horrifying opening sequence of steel and dark magic!
Rylee’s dream was of a lovely, pristine, isolated timberframe home on the side of a snowy mountain. The house was build against a cliff, and had another cliff off to its left that had a steep drop to the icy rocks below, as she looked out the front door. The mountain to the right slopes down more gently, and it is here that the path from the road up to a more clearly-established dirt road that climbs the mountain to its peak. This house's path, however, seems to be infested with yeti... and worse... walking, moving, angry, violent human skeletons!
Nat’s dream was of precisely the same house, though she looked upon it from the front yard. She was searching hard for someone, though she didn’t know who it was she was searching for. She only knew she must enter the house at the base of this cliff on this snowy mountain.
Nickol’s dream was also of precisely the same house, only from a bird’s-eye view, and in the middle of the night. Elune shone down the house on the mountainside, just down the mountain from a snowy town at the mountain’s peak. In Elune's light, the snow sparkles like the stars in the sky, a doe grazes at a bit of grass poking through in the trees nearest the house, a mountain goat climbs the steep rocks... and the roof of the house twists into a grotesque goat skull, opening its shadowy eyes and looking right into Nickol’s own!
The final piece of the puzzle was Nah’s dream. She dreamed of entering a house against a cliff on a snowy mountain. A burlap sack was in her hands as she gleefully strolled through the house. Somehow, oddly enough, though much to her delight, expensive-looking shiny things just sort of kept falling off of other things and into her sack! The house in question was cold and empty However, seemingly from far, far behind a bookshelf in the back of the house, many whispers in an unfamiliar tongue reached her elven ears. The whispers sounded like those of some sort of ancient, outdated language. This language was not the eerie language Nat sometimes speaks without realizing it, but rather, something quite different, though no less dark.
With the dreams shared, the group decided to investigate Drustvar first, even though all three Kul Tiran regions had snowy mountains. This decision was based on the wicker men and wicker bears with goat skulls in Maya’s dream, and the goat skull in Nickol’s as well.
Upon arrival in Boralus, the group wasted no time taking flight and winging it across the bay to Drustvar on a direct course for the peak of the tallest mountain in the region. At its peak, there was no town to be found, as in Rylee’s dream, as the comparatively needlepoint peak was not even sufficiently large enough for a single small house. Peering around off the peak, however, they spotted a town not far away, at the base of this particular spire.
Soaring down from the peak with all speed, the group found themselves in the snowy mountain village of Arom’s Stand. They explored around a bit, first taking the road west out of the town. A crimson forest lay on one side, and smooth slopes on the other. The road here quickly descended into grassy slopes devoid of snow, and there was no evidence of a timberframe home with a snowy yard against the base of a cliff. The group went back to Arom’s Stand to try a different route.
Next, they ascended the rocky slopes to the south, flying their mounts up and over the rise. Here, they suddenly found themselves amidst the ancient ruins of the Drust town of Gol Osigr! Cari, startled, recognized the ruins immediately – these were the very ruins from her dream, and the runic golems there were precisely the same as those summoned by the primitive natives and their dark magic! Cari puzzled out the primitives in her dream to be Drust, doing battle with the first Gilnean explorers to settle here. The ruins were alone on a cliffside, however, with no clear road to any isolated timberframe home, so the group turned once more back to Arom’s Stand, although they felt quite sure now that they were on the right track!
The final road out of Arom’s Stand led north, down a third slope. This road ran some length down the road, passing a smaller path that headed up a hill on the left, and soon came to a forest of small trees that looked precisely like the forest in Maya’s dream, and the road coming out of it and up this mountain matched it as well!
The group headed back the way they came, intending to check out that side road they’d passed on the way down the mountain. This road, quite soon, led not only straight through a pack of yeti, but through angry, violent human skeletons as well, just like in Rylee’s dream! With the group still being mounted and in flight, the wild yeti and the bewitched skeletons were bypassed, the group electing to follow the side path to see if it matched the ones in Rylee and Nickol’s dreams to the house Nickol, Rylee, and Nat had dreamed of.
The group was correct! This was precisely the same timberframe house against a cliff the group had dreamed of! They sneaked up near the front porch, pondering their next move, electing to hide behind a nearby cart while Maya assumed her cat form and stealthily prowled up to the window to recon the interior of the home. It was empty! The thick dust of years of neglect rested upon everything. The group approached after this news, trying the door. It was locked! It was here that Nah, with her endless troublemaking tendencies and centuries of proficiency in picking locks and defeating other such security systems in order to swipe shiny things, was missed quite clearly. Maya attempted to pick the lock with a claw, but ended up breaking her claw. She next assumed her worgen form and gave the door a good, strong kick. The door rattled in its frame, but held fast. Cari made her attempt next. As Maya lamented the now-uneven lengths of her claws, Cari froze the door’s hinges with frost magic, then quickly changed to superheating them, causing them to suddenly shatter! A light shove later, and the door fell inward. They were in!
The group entered warily, peering around. The interior seemed much like Nah described: cold, empty, and full of shiny things, and books lay haphazardly on tables, one of which Rylee opened, perusing its contents. This house also matched in that whispers in an ancient language, vastly different than the Shath’Yar Nat sometimes unwittingly spoke, came from behind a bookcase in the back of the house. Rylee approached the bookcase as the others searched the house for anything of interest. Rylee noted that one book on the shelf held significantly less dust than the others. She attempted to pull it out, though only the top of the book pulled back. The bottom seemed to be affixed in place by something. As Rylee pulled the book back, however, the bookshelf itself suddenly slid far to the right, revealing its secret! The group now found themselves staring out the back of the house, right into a dark cave’s opening!
Cautiously, the group made their way down the back stairs of the house and into the cave. As they did so, previously unseen torches burst into flame around them! Cari noted that the cave seemed to be reacting to their presence. What’s more, the whispers of the ancient language, which the group puzzled out to likely be ancient Drust, just like the primitive natives in Cari’s dream, were now loud enough to sound room-conversational.
Just then, a rattling and clattering suddenly echoed through the cave. A large swarm of bones flew through the air from the rocks alongside the cave’s floor, forming two wicker men and a wicker dog, all three of which possessed goat skulls for heads!
The four adventurers sprang into action. Maya, still in her worgen form, swiped forward powerfully with one clawed hand. The nearest wicker man, fragile in its assembly, shattered! The bones and goat skull burst from the vaguely human form, flying down the cave’s downward slope.
Cari attempted a fire spell to scorch the wicker dog. Scorch it did, though the blackened bones of the wicker dog didn’t seem to feel the pain of the fire, and held fast.
Rylee flicked her skull-tipped staff at the wicker dog next. The staff struck the wicker dog quite violently, shattering it just like Maya had the first wicker man! Again, the assembly of bones and goat skull burst from their form and went clattering down the downward slope of the cave floor.
The final wicker man charged at Maya, attempted a swipe of sharp claws at her. Maya caught the thing’s forearm in a tight grip, crushing it, and her worgen form’s roar blasted the goat skull off the thing’s neck. The wicker man, having lost his head, also lost his form, the bones all dropping on the spot, following their fellows in rolling down the slope with a loud clattering. Victorious in their fight against the cave’s entrance guardians, the group proceeded further down inside.
More torches alongside the cave burst into flame as the group passed, and it was here the next eerie surprise was encountered. Maya and Nat heard whispers. Not Shath’Yar, not even the ancient Drust language the group had heard upon entry of the cave, and coming from behind the bookcase, but rather… Common!
“Pssst…” the voice said. “Hey… Hey, you… Hey… C’mere… Over here… C’mon over here… Only just behind here…”
The voice seemed to be coming from behind a large boulder on the right, and Rylee and Cari didn’t seem to hear it. Nat and Maya cautiously went around the boulder, peering around it to find…
…Nothing.
There was no one there, no one to have spoken any language, and the voice had suddenly stopped as soon as they looked behind the boulder.
Feeling rather unsettled, the group proceeded further down into the cave. The cave opened up into a wide cavern with a flat floor that no longer sloped. Most of it was covered in a massive puddle of water. In this puddle was what looked like a gate matching the arched gates of the ruins they’d seen near Arom’s Stand. The group approached the water, though they wisely decided not to touch the water’s calm, still surface. They did, however, each peer into it, seeing a perfect mirror of their own reflections, remarkably clear in the light of Cari’s wand as she held it aloft. Suddenly, Maya and Rylee gasped, backing away. Maya growled and snarled, her worgen form taking charge by instinct. It seemed that the two had been peering at their pristine reflections, just as Cari and Nat had, when suddenly, their reflections SHATTERED as a young boy, pale as the full moon, cold, clammy, and soaking wet, appearing to be a corpse left in the water for over a week, burst through, trying to grab their faces! Nat and Cari looked at the water, but there was nary a ripple to be found! Maya and Rylee only saw still, motionless water where the quick flash of the apparition had been, as though nothing had happened at all. Feeling vaguely unsettled, the group backed away from the water’s edge, peering around.
Another tunnel opened up from this room off to their left, sloping down, as before. Again, a voice in Common could be heard, and this time, they each heard it.
“Psst… Hey… Hey, you… Yeah, you, hey, c’mere… Over here… Only, just behind here… C’mere…”
The group made their way around another boulder on the right side of the tunnel, peering behind it…
…Nothing. Again!
Feeling increasingly unsettled, the group moved onward. The next stretch of tunnel leveled out, and another water vast puddle of water was in the way, this one with a massive pile of human bones and human skulls off to one side, and the spine and ribs of a rather large creature of some sort along the other, its horned skull and fanged maw lying on the far side of the puddle. The group had no way to get past this puddle without touching the water save for heading all the way out of the tunnel, cutting down trees, and milling wood for a bridge. Obviously not having that kind of time, they resigned themselves to tromping through the water. Rylee and Maya, the two skilled fighters of the group, led the way, followed by Nat, with Cari bringing up the rear.
SPLASH!
The water behind Cari suddenly erupted! A woman was suddenly standing behind Cari! Her long, stringy black hair was pasted to her head, neck, shoulders, and face, with much of the top, sides, and back of her head bare between each hair. Her skin was the color of the full moon, just like the boy in the previous puddle. Her torn, worn, thin white gown hung around her skeletal frame in tatters. Her face was equally gaunt, looking hollow and stretched tight over jaw and cheekbones. Her ice-blue eyes bulged from her head, however, and they were locked on Cari… just as her hands were!
The woman had hold of Cari’s left forearm from behind her, and was pleading with her with steadily increasing panic.
“Please! Don’t leave me here! I don’t want to be alone here anymore! Please, come down with me! DOWN with me! Please, come join me, stay with me forever! PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE HERE ANYMORE! COME DOWN INTO THE WATER WITH ME! STAY WITH ME FOREVER! JOIN ME! STAY FOREVER! AAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!”
The woman was sinking back into the puddle as she spoke, her cold, clammy, skeletal hands locked around Cari’s left forearm, her skin feeling rubbery and vaguely slimy. The more the woman screamed, the deeper she sank, until Cari was nearly bent double!
Meanwhile, Maya, Rylee, and Nat had turned and dash back through the puddle to pull Cari away, with Nat and Cari screaming in terror nearly as loud as the ghastly woman was. It took the combined strength of all three of them, but they succeeded in pulling Cari free of the woman’s deathgrip on Cari’s forearm! As they lurched through the puddle to get out of the water on the far side, they looked back. The woman wasn’t there, and there was no sound of her voice to be heard anywhere. Even the water where the woman was standing seemed as though it hadn’t been disturbed in an age.
The group proceeded onward with grim determination from there, following the cavern as it met a sharp bend to the right and began to slope upwards along this bend.
It was here that the next sinister surprise struck. A wind, bitingly cold, blasted past the group, sweeping along the tunnel with a force that nearly blew the torches out. Worse, the group carried with it a maniacal cackle, as though some deranged, gleeful killer were approaching a victim with a large knife! When the wind blew past the group and disappeared, the laughter blew away with it, and the group was left in silence… with one addition.
Left behind by the demented, cackling blast of frigid wind was an aura of pure, abject terror felt so deeply that it was almost palpable! The fear aura hindered the group from then on, negatively affecting every attempt each member of the group tried. The fear aura pervaded the mind and made heads whip about in every direction. The group’s fear was visible as they proceeded up the ramp that curled around the next bend. Nat was trembling, Cari was in silent tears and borderline hyperventilating, and Maya and Rylee were creeping along, hyper-alert, as though expecting death itself to emerge from any one of the shadows around them and drag them off.
The next sound the group heard as they climbed the curving slope was the sound of water boiling in a pot. The further they went, the louder it got. Then, without warning, the source of the sound appeared, directly in front of Rylee and Maya! A young girl, around eight or nine years old, was on all fours in front of them. Her hair was even blacker than Nat’s, she had impossibly pale skin the color of the full moon, just like the other specters the group had passed, and the style of her white nightgown was like something from centuries past. Her pale skin and sudden appearance out of nowhere, however, was not the most bizarre and startling aspect!
The girl, still on all fours, was singing along in a sing-song voice as hair grew from her head at the speed of a waterfall, tumbling into a moderately-sized cauldron of boiling water in front of her. As her hair grew rapidly and went into the pot, she sang along in a playful, sing-song voice, “My HAIR is CHURNing! My HAIR is BOILing! My HAIR is CHURNing! My HAIR is BOILing!” over and over again. The pot never seemed to fill to overflowing with all the hair growing into it, and the water boiled and bubbled away noisily. The girl’s face was completely obscured by her hair as it fell in front of her face and into the pot, though her hands, different from the rest of her body, appeared to be those of a corpse that had been rotting for weeks, gooey and grotesque. Rylee, seeming unsure of whether to be revolted, terrified, or laugh at the scene in front of her, moved forward, offering to help the girl. The girl stopped singing at that, though her hair continued to grow from her head and cascade into the pot. She looked up, the hair parting around her face.
The girl’s face was much like her hands, rotted, gooey, and grotesque. Bits of the flesh fell off her face as she turned her half-rotted eyes up to look at Rylee. She smiled happily, giggling and asking, “Would YOU like to boil TOO?!”
Maya and Rylee took up defensive stances at that, with Rylee demanding the child move out of the way, and Maya telling the ghoul to come at them.
Seeming to take Maya’s words for an invitation, the child stood to her feet, staggering a bit as her hair continued to grow from her head at the pace of a tumbling waterfall. Her arms outstretched, she staggered toward Maya, hair piling all around her and dragging along behind. She resumed her playful, cheerful, sing-song voice as she stretched out her ghoulish, rotted hands toward Maya, her fingers wriggling like worms.
“PLAYtime is STARRRTing! YOU’RE going to boil WIIIIIITH me!”
Maya roared at the ghoul, swiping a massive, clawed worgen paw at one of its outstretched hands. Miss! Her hand moved right through the ghoul’s hand as though it wasn’t there, and the child continued singing playfully as she came for Maya!
Rylee, seeing that physical attacks wouldn’t affect the ghoul, opened the book she picked up off a table in the house that hid cave’s entrance, reading from it aloud and speaking a command to the ghoul to begone to Thros, the Blighted Lands. The ghoul, whether by the command or pure coincidence, promptly disappeared on the spot. As with the previous two specters, it simply vanished. There was no flash of light, no explosion, no fading, no anything. It was simply there one instant, coming for Maya with its sing-song voice, and no longer there the next. The cauldron and all the hair she’d grown had disappeared along with it!
The group gathered their wits about them, finding comfort, confidence, and resolve in each other’s presence. Setting out up the curving slope of the cave once more, they soldiered on.
At the top of the curving slope, the cave opened up into another cavern, this one with another old Drust ruins gate at the far side. Torches on either side of this suddenly burst into flame, casting dark shadows into the cavern on the other side of the gate, which seemed to hold some sort of furniture, though it was difficult to make out from here.
Just then, as the group proceeded forward, the cavern began to rumble and shake! Boulders rattled on all sides of the group, adding to the noise. Next, the boulders suddenly flew through the air on their own to block off the gate, forming a boulder golem over twenty feet high!
The boulder golem immediately leapt forward, bringing its clasped boulder fists down for an overhead smash against Nat! Nat erected a frost barrier hastily, which absorbed most of the damage and prevented it from being fatal, though the force of the impact still knocked her down and raised a knot on top of her head the size of a chicken’s egg, which bled freely.
Adding to the terror of the giant boulder golem was the sudden appearance of a swarm of spiders! The spiders, a somewhat translucent red-orange color with bodies the size of toy marbles, swarmed the floor, walls, ceiling, boulder golem… and each member of the group. The torches reflected off the massive swarm of spiders to make the room seem to glow the same red-orange as the spiders as the group swatted at themselves in a fruitless attempt to get the spiders off of themselves.
Maya next shifted into her bear form, charging forward to place herself between the boulder golem and Nat. Cari, seeing Nat get seriously hurt by boulders penetrating her frost barrier somewhat and smashing her in the head, stopped her swatting at the spiders and raised her wand, pointing it at the boulder golem. Condensing and cooling the moist air of the cavern, she fired a heavy lance of ice at the golem’s torso.
The ice lance struck true! The golem was struck in its elemental core, blasting apart most of its torso and causing its boulder arms to fall off and clatter lifelessly to the floor. Rylee, druid student that she was, attempted a moonfire cast. The moonfire scorched the top of what remained of the boulder golem’s torso, blackening it around the impact site, though it didn’t appear to cause any actual damage.
The boulder golem responded to the attacks with its legs, no longer possessing arms. The golem stomped forward with its left boulder foot, sending a shockwave forward toward the group! Maya, still in bear form, absorbed the damage with her thick hide and thick fur. Cari, standing behind Maya, was safe. Rylee and Nat, however, took a tumble as the floor shook beneath them, each of them hitting their heads hard on the rock floor.
Nat was now seriously injured, two knots rising from her head with the first still bleeding. Appearing to be quite dazed, possibly concussed, she focused on the exposed elemental core of the boulder golem, blasting it apart with a flurry of ice shards. Much of the rest of the torso was blasted apart, and the boulder legs fell off the torso, clattering to the cavern’s rocky floor as lifelessly as the arms had. The torso was now left to merely roll around on the cavern floor.
Which it did, with gusto.
The torso made a mad dash at Rylee, rolling across the floor rapidly, even as Maya shifted back to her worgen form and attempted to heal Nat, and Cari passed out on the spider-infested floor from terrified hyperventilation. Maya, not being a specialist in restorative spells, was able to do little more than bring Nat back from the brink of critical condition, reducing the knots and stopping the bleeding with her spell. Meanwhile, Rylee was smashed into by the rolling boulder golem’s torso, its last remaining piece, and thrown backward. The boulder golem attempted to finish her off by rolling over her prone form, but Rylee cast a spell of entangling roots at it and stopped it dead in its tracks. The boulder golem rolled this way and that, eventually ripping free, though it returned to its assigned post at the door rather than attempting to roll further away from its post.
The fear aura in the cave intensified twice at that point, first when the screams of hundreds of people being tortured erupted from the cavern walls all around them, joined by the gleeful, cackling laughter of their torturer, and again when the emaciated drowned woman that had tried to drag Cari below the water earlier appeared again, rounding the bend behind the group and approaching the group, still screaming at the top of her lungs for them to join her in the water forever and not leave her alone. The cacophony was borderline deafening, and absolutely terrifying!
Nat attempted another attack, a hastily cast ice lance, though with her concussion, the spell missed by a wide margin and struck the ceiling harmlessly, shattering and sprinkling down to the floor without harming a single spider up there.
Maya snarled at the boulder golem, calling it a “glorified paperweight,” then cast a powerful starsurge spell at it. The powerfully arcane strike blasted the last remaining piece to bits. The boulder golem was defeated!
The way through the old Drust arch gate was clear! The group approached, with Maya carrying the still-unconscious Cari. Rylee was alongside, with Nat bringing up the rear. The spiders, screaming woman, and the voices of the tortured and the torturer added quite a bit to the terror of the cavern, and the group was desperate to be done here and escape.
Just as Maya and Rylee reached the gate, however, they were shocked by an invisible barrier erected over the opening! They were trapped between it and the screaming, emaciated drowned woman approaching them, with no way out! Maya and Rylee recoiled from the shock, and Cari was jolted awake, yelping in startled pain.
The next surprise came as the screaming, soaked, drowned woman came steadily closer, dripping water in puddles all around her. The contact with the barrier had caused a solid gold brazier with a gleaming silver knife in it to appear out of nowhere, as though an invisibility spell had come undone. The group seemed confused by its sudden appearance, until Cari noticed something… the razor-sharp edge of the silver knife had hints of bloodstains on it!
Maya seemed to know what to do at that clue – she strode forward, picked up the knife, and cut her own palm, clenching her cut hand into a fist to squeeze blood into the brazier. Nothing seemed to happen, and the screaming woman was nearly upon the group! In desperation, Nat picked up a spider-covered rock and threw it at the barrier. The rock flew right into the next room, completely unimpeded!
The barrier now clearly down, Nat, Maya, and Cari darted through the arch and into the next room as Rylee turned to fend off the woman. As the trio went into the room, however, the spiders immediately fled from their bodies, sprinting from the room with all speed! The trio, noticing this, called out to Rylee, who was still outside, ready to fight the approaching water ghoul. They beckoned her into the room. Rylee, noticing the spider-free zone, turned and darted into the room as well.
As Rylee entered the room, the last one to do so, all the terrifying events going on at once suddenly ceased! The spiders disappeared as instantly as the earlier ghouls had, along with the screaming woman and the voices from the walls of the tortured and the torturer. The palpable fear aura was gone as well! The group now found themselves in a calm, quiet cavern. The furniture they spied in here earlier turned out to be of late Kul Tiran design, and fairly knew. There were three bookshelves and a table, as well as a torch that burst into flame on the right side of the table and at the left of the left-most bookshelf. The group peered around, searchingly.
With the terrors of the cave and its three caverns all now seemingly gone, along with the fear aura, the group found themselves calmly able to search with ease. Rylee and Maya, both in their worgen forms, were sniffing about at something that had alerted them, then declared that they were not alone. The vaguely familiar scent of a human female was only just detectable by their worgen noses.
Maya next spotted a hastily-drawn sketch of a Tidesage, robed and hooded as the sea priests usually were. The figured appeared to be the form of a human female. As she held it up, the sketch suddenly began moving around! It appeared to be moving in the very room they were in, picking up the torch to the left of the left-most bookcase. As it did, the matching torch in the room flared up intensely!
The group was confused by this at first. The sketch reset itself. The Tidesage woman again stood in a room like the one the group now stood in, and again went to grab the matching torch in the room. Again the torch’s real counterpart flared up intently! Maya, thinking hard, went over and grabbed the torch.
Just as Maya grabbed the torch, the scent of the vaguely familiar human woman intensified slightly in Maya and Rylee’s worgen noses, and a woman dressed as a Tidesage appeared in the far corner of the room! She carried a torch identical to Maya’s, and began speaking to the group. Her hood was pulled low over her face, and the shadows from her torch flooded what bit was visible, concealing her identity. She began speaking. Her voice was eerily familiar, just like her scent!
“Well done,” the woman said. “I knew you’d make it through. It’s why I hand-picked you. I knew from the moment I met you that you’d have the mental and emotional fortitude to do the deeds I will later be commanding of you.”
Nat was instantly hypnotized, approaching the woman and standing right in front of her, motionless, expressionless. Maya tried waving her hand in front of Nat’s face, even snapping her fingers several times, but got no response at all whatsoever. Nat was wholly riveted by the Tidesage, watching, listening, not even blinking.
“Deeds that few would dare perform,” the Tidesage said, still speaking. “Deeds that will rebuild Kul Tiras, and, indeed, the world, and help restore the Black Empire to power!”
“NAT!” Maya tried desperately. “This is just a voice! Don’t listen to it! Do you really want to see the Black Empire, of all things, succeed in returning?!”
The Tidesage was still speaking, not listening to Maya’s protests, paying no heed to Rylee, who was suggesting burning the sketch of the Tidesage to make this latest specter disappear, not seeming, indeed, to notice anyone else in the room, though Nat still stood motionless and unblinking as she listened.
“Forgive me the trial of the tavern in the deep waters, and the trial of the cave in the Drust mountain,” the Tidesage was saying. “These were but to ensure that you did, indeed, have the mental and emotional fortitude to brave anything, ANYthing, and follow me to the end.”
Maya’s head seemed to be spinning with ideas. Ideas such as this vaguely familiar woman being Joanessa Seaslums, who was actually dead, were voiced, though there was nothing present to hint at their validity. The Tidesage continued speaking.
“Well done, Marcus Brinebreaker,” the Tidesage continued. “You have completed your first task in finding me. The next task will be one to test your logic, one that will push your deductive reasoning abilities. As before, I will visit your unconscious mind to present you with your next clues.”
Maya blinked as she looked from Nat to the Tidesage, appearing taken aback.
“This is… a message… for Marcus…?” she managed to get out.
“Until then, hold the faith!” the Tidesage continued. “The Proudmoores are but the first obstacle. They will soon fall, and the Old Ones will rise to power once more!”
“This is... a stored illusion magic message… stored in a sketch…?” Cari puzzled out as the Tidesage continued her monologue. Rylee, about to set a torch to the drawing to rid themselves of the specter of the Tidesage, paused, looking to the others. Nat remained frozen, hypnotized.
“It has to be,” replied Maya. “But then… what human did I smell?”
“Until then,” continued the Tidesage. “Continue on with your operations in Dampwick Ward and Hook Point. I will send support to you as needed. Farewell, Marcus Brinebreaker. Until we meet in person.”
At that, the Tidesage, like all the horrors of the cavern, was simply… no longer there. No poof of smoke, no flash of light, no fading away. She was simply just… no longer there.
“Well, if that was Joan,” Maya continued on her earlier line of thinking. “Then the Tidesage is dead. And Marcus Brinebreaker is imprisoned in the black cells.”
“In which case,” Cari mused along with Maya, “I would be right in my previous thinking that Joan was the Tidesage, messing about with Nat’s head.”
“And what in all the wilds was I smelling?!” Maya said next, frustration at the confusing situation etched into every feature.
Nat, meanwhile, was blinking about in confusion, cleared from her hypnosis at the disappearance of the Tidesage.
“What the heck…?” she asked, peering around the room. “How did I get over here? Ohmigosh! Where did the Tidesage lady go?!”
“We can explain later,” Maya replied. “But the illusion actually just had a message for Marcus B-…”
Maya was suddenly cut off at that instant, however, as the walls, floor, and ceiling of the cavern shook violently, a deafening rumble of shifting stone roaring through the cave! Bits of rock and clouds of dust were tumbling from the ceiling!
“CAVE-IN!” shouted Maya. “OUT! OUT NOW!”
Maya scooped up Nat after Nat’s frightened reminder to the group that she can’t run. With a shout to Rylee to grab Cari, the two worgen sprinted from the room as the ceiling fell in behind them. The two worgen women sprinted across the outer cavern, carrying their passengers, then darted around the curved slope to the left. They splashed through the puddle that the screaming, emaciated drowned woman had emerged from, though no specters or ghouls stirred at the group’s intrusion. Through the another cave, out into the first cavern, where the ghoulish boy had reached out at Rylee and Maya, unseen by Cari and Nat. No ghouls were here, either. Making a right, they proceeded up the somewhat steep slope of the entrance tunnel, the cave falling in all around them. Another scare here! A massive boulder, the size of the torso of the boulder golem from earlier, rattled free of the ceiling, landing right in front of Maya. The boulder rolled down the slope at Maya, who darted around it, and then at Rylee, who also sidestepped it. The group saw light at the end of the tunnel next. The house! Emerging only just on time at the house they’d broken into earlier, the group came to a stop, the worgen returning their friends to the ground as the cave-in settled, obscured from sight with a massive cloud of ancient dust.
“I don’t think I can take much more of this…” Cari managed to get out.
“Now what do we do?” Nat asked.
“We leave this place for good,” Rylee declared.
Nat nodded turning around. She jumped, startled… the dust now clear from the cave-in, she was able to see into the cave once more… and it was perfectly intact! It appeared that there had never been a cave-in at all! And something seemed to be drawing her back in…
“Nat!” Maya called after her as she began making her way back down. “Get outta there! It’s unstable!”
Nat snapped out of it, returning to the entrance with a confused blush. The group agreed then, it was definitely time to fly back home. The group darted back through the house, off the front porch, and mounted up on their flying mounts once more, rattled to the point that a portal home didn’t even seem to occur to them. A short time later, they were back to Boralus, proceeding through the Sanctum of the Sages to the portal to Stormwind maintained there.
The group emerged from the Mage Tower in the Mage Quarter of Stormwind City moments later, tiredly saying their goodnights and wishing each other luck.
What was to follow next was surely the aforementioned clues given to unconscious minds, which meant that more dreams were coming this night… *****
Happy Halloween!
Participants:
Natasha Ebonlocke Carilina Halverson Rylee Mhorrigan Maya Maxwell
Each participant earns +1 favor with Lady Whitewind
The Whitewind Company gains Lead: To Be Determined in dreams soon to come!
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Nov 3, 2021 13:36:17 GMT
November 2
Whitewind Company and Allies Pursue Dreamed Lead, Find Estate House Without Roof, Solve Logic Puzzle Within, Await New Dream Lead
It was a short time that the Whitewind Company and allies were in Boralus last night, according to eyewitnesses around the Tradewinds Market, and they were at half strength. Natasha Ebonlocke, Carilina Halverson, and Maya Maxwell appeared in the Sanctum of the Sages and soon flew out of the city, heading north.
According to Whitewind Company debriefings, however, they were soon joined by Nahlia “Nah” Lifebloom, and her adoptive mother, Nickol Moonbloom.
Whitewind Company debriefings unveiled that Nat, Cari, and Maya flew from the city to land a short distance away, discussing dreams they’d had in a quieter setting in the foothills of the mountains north of Boralus. Just as they had prior to the previous week’s events, the adventurers had experienced intensely vivid dreams, all of which bore remarkable similarities, though first mentioned was the fact that the message from the Tidesage last week had stated, among other things, that this week’s task would be one set to test their logic and powers of deductive reasoning.
Maya’s dream had been of a mountain rising on a peninsula that somehow reminded her of a favored beach somewhere on the continent. From the depths of the water surrounding the peninsula, however, an enormous kraken, bigger even than the one she’d helped save the Whitewind's Grace from, suddenly burst forth and climbed the mountain. Nearly equal to the mountain's size, the kraken obscured the mountain almost completely from view!
Cari dreamed of a stone wall. At first, the wall made her think of old Gurubashi ruins in Stranglethorn Vale, as the light of the sun shone brilliantly off of the green leaves of thick vines that grow all over the wall. But then she noticed that the wall is Kul Tiran in design, and, to top it all off, the stone busts of what looks like a well-to-do Kul Tiran family were lying in a pile at the base of this wall.
Nat had dreamed of a rich family's house. The inside was filled with piles of gold and silver and expensive-looking art. However, the house had no roof! The home was in shambles, with the piles of gold and art all over the floor along edges, leaning against the wall. The art was waterstained and the silver was tarnished. In one corner, a blunderbuss rested upon a tripod, aimed at the skull of a human skeleton sitting in a chair. The skull had a hole in its forehead and in the rear of the cranium. It was pretty obvious what's happened here, but... where was the roof?
The initial trio decided to follow Maya’s idea, which was that the kraken was a Stormsong sigil. They focused on the mountain with the kraken on it first, obviously the first landmark anyone would pick out. They took to the skies again and flew north once more. Soaring across the verdant, rolling plains, Nat flew northwest, while Cari and Maya, the former mounted on the latter’s druidic owl form, flew northeast. Nothing resembling a kraken was to be seen in the east-west mountain range separating Stormsong Valley from the rest of the continent, though Cari and Maya’s northeastern route did follow one train of thought from Cari: the Shrine of the Storms was in that direction, and that was definitely a place to find kraken-related things.
Nat, meanwhile, was in communication with Nah, who seemed to have come out of hiding to help, due to a dream of her own. Nah had dreamed of a well-to-do home in the shadow of a mountain, with a view of the sea out of windows on three sides of the house. It was somehow raining inside the house, however, as the house had no roof. There was quite a lot of stuff in here to swipe! Piles of gold and silver and expensive-looking art. A lockbox to pick and look through. Yet the skeleton in a corner with a blunderbuss on a tripod pointed at its skull looked pretty ominous, as did the shadow of the mountain suddenly doubling in size after a roar of something from the sea… The dream had prompted her to come with all haste to Stormsong Valley herself at the day and time she knew her friends would be going to investigate.
Cari and Maya spotted the landmark they sought without much delay, as the landmark turned out to be quite literal. The mountain the kraken had climbed in Maya’s dream turned out to be the mountain at the Shrine of the Storms, into which had been carved a monolithic kraken that obscured much of its peak and marked the shrine the Tidesages attended to. Cari contacted Nat on the comms channel they were keeping open for the purpose, calling Nat to her location. The group checked out the mountain and its carving, then peered around a bit more, searchingly.
Cari next spied a shape like a house through the stormy mists off to their right and far below. The group made for the house, a handsome little manor home, around which the stormy winds this close to the Shrine had blown the trees to a permanently bent position, as though the wind was still howling through them at hurricane force. When the group got close enough, they knew this must be the house… It had no roof!
The group walked into the ruin through the doorless front door, investigating immediately. The Stranglethorn-looking wall in Cari’s dream was immediately explained; the wall on their left was high and overgrown with vines. Busts of a well-to-do family lay haphazardly strewn at its foot.
The group made their way downstairs into the main room, looking at the rest of the area. Expensive-looking art lay all along the walls, and piles of gold and silver were stacked high. This being the last full day of the Day of the Dead, the group spied ghosts around the place. Fortunately, the ghosts completely ignored the visitors, going around the manor home on ghostly tasks of their own.
The group began searching, each according to their own talents. Nah withdrew a small arcane device she’d somehow procured for the investigation from her pocket, scanning for shadow magic. Maya was sniffing around in her worgen form. Cari was giggling at a painting of a Dwarf with a particularly poofy blonde beard, though her mana crystal she often used for such magical tasks would have lent itself well to the cause. Nat, long since a practitioner of fel and shadow (even if she’d elected this year to follow a more socially-acceptable branch of magic in frost), searched around as well.
Maya and Nah were the ones to detect it first. The faintest tinge of shadow magic lingered in the far corner of the room, where the skeleton from their dreams with the blunderbuss on a tripod aimed at its head rested in a chair in front of a desk. Somehow, the bones were still perfectly conjoined, instead of having fallen apart and scattered on the floor around the chair. The blunderbuss had a stout cord tied to its trigger that ran backward to a small pulley wheel, then forward to the skeleton’s right forefinger. The skull had a small hole in front of it, and a rather larger one in the rear of the cranium. It was pretty obvious a suicide had occurred here.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t what the shadow magic was lingering on. Instead, the magic was faintly detectable upon a model of what appears to be a noble's banquet hall resting on the desk. A handsome, finely-dressed man with salt-and-pepper hair sat beside a woman who, despite appearing equally aged, had beautiful blonde hair and bore the figure associated with being a mother of many children. The front of the board was labeled, "Lord and Lady Stormsong, Luthor and Breanna." The banquet table set lower than the Lord and Lady’s table had a row of chairs on one side only, appearing to be one of those that seated its occupants to face the middle of the banquet hall, where the evening’s entertainment would perform. Several carved, finely-painted wooden figurines sat off to the side, lying all in a row on their backs, all with hinges at each joint to make them adjustable. Each of these finely-dressed Kul Tiran men and women had labels that ran thus: Sir Jack the Brill. Lady Michelle Darling. Lady Jill Fontana. Lady Shaela Dawnspring. Sir Darvy Greymist. Sir Malcom Mooring. Lady Mellindra Wayne.
The next item of interest spotted was an extremely aged piece of parchment sticking out from under the model. Nat pulled it out and read it to the group. It was not a happy letter at all, though it explained the skeleton and blunderbuss. The letter read:
Dear Chamberlain Rodgers,
It is with my deepest regret I inform you that I am not long for this world. I have been poisoned by a person or persons unknown as a result of my repeated failures to seat the Lord's household according to their wishes. Their petty squabbles have prompted one among their number to slip an extract of venom from adders and scorpids into my tea. Though I have identified the toxin, I possess not the alchemical skill to develop an antidote, nor do I have the time to travel to find a healer. Even now, I feel my veins afire, and, according to the note written in what appears to be intentionally messy handwriting to disguise the poisoner, I will not have an antidote unless I seat them correctly at banquet tonight. I have since failed time and time to puzzle their arrangement out according to their petty squabbles, even with a model designed for the task, thus I will receive no antidote. Alas that they cannot all be as apathetic as Lady Mellindra Wayne, who cares not where she sits! I do not wish to feel the full effects of the venom's agony, thus I am pulling the trigger, so to speak, on this now rather than later. I can only hope that whoever is given this undesirable task next has a better mind for logic puzzles than I.
It has been an honor serving with you, sir. Thank you for pulling me from the orphanage and giving me a better life. I hope to see you in the next one.
Forever for House Stormsong,
-Mortimer von Lewunhoek
Nat, feeling the same about the skeleton as Cari looked, cast an arcane illusion over it and the blunderbuss to make the items come together in the form of a comparatively-sized steam tonk, then conjured one of her murloc stampede arcane familiars to spirit the “tonk” away into the nearby open cellar doors. The group now had an unblocked access to the model banquet hall and its lengthy table.
A brief interlude occurred here, as Nickol Moonbloom arrived, after a communiqué from Nah. The group now had a wise old Kaldorei priestess on hand for the task, and a good friend.
Remembering the Tidesage’s statement that this week would test their logic, the group realized that poor Mortimer’s last task was now their own. The first clue to the seating arrangement was in the letter: Lady Mellindra Wayne, apathetic as she was, cared not where she sat. The group knew they could fit her figurine in freely, wherever there was a final spot left.
A search of the house ensued next, each looking for clues relevant to the puzzle. Shelves bearing scrolls, a lockbox, arcane scrying, worgen sniffing, anything would work at this point.
A wooden chest with a mundane but complex-looking lock sat off to the far right of the paintings. Nah smirked, a hint of her old self coming back through the tide of malaise that had weighed on her mind for a month. She produced her lockpicking tools from a pocket and set to work, soon smirking again as the lock gave a satisfying click. She opened the chest.
Inside was a note from Lord Stormsong himself to Mortimer von Lewunhoek, telling him that Sir Malcom Mooring and Sir Darvy Greymist are both highly inconsistent in their endeavors. He bids Mortimer to ALWAYS seat these two men either nearest or farthest from himself at all banquets due to glorious victories or embarrassing failures.
Cari, meanwhile, was experiencing a magical illusion in which two men, life-size though they bore striking resemblance to Sir Malcom Mooring and Sir Jack the Brill, talking with warm, friendly gestures in the far corner of the manor. An aura of deep friendship surrounded the pair, and it was clear that these two were very close friends, and had been since birth. The word “inseparable” would be a word that comes to mind to any that saw the two friends.
Nat perused an old journal entry as she searched the shelf of scrolls, eventually finding a journal entry by an unnamed person that had been torn from a book. According to the page, the Lady Michelle Darling was famed far and wide for her stunning beauty, and, as such, was used to getting whatever she wanted, when she wanted it, including always wanting the fifth chair from the Lord and Lady Stormsong, for reasons best known to herself.
Maya’s clue was a rather grisly one. She experienced an illusion of a large cauldron filled with boiling blood and human flesh and bone, bubbling away beneath a note on the wall, apparently written by Lady Shaela Dawnspring to Sir Darvy Greymist. It seems that Lady Shaela is gloating towards her murder victim, Sir Darvy, someone she gave to a cook to boil in a stew and attempt to feed to another she doesn't like, Lady Jill Fontana, who fancies him now. She stated in the letter that she hated always having to demand that fully two other people sit between her and Sir Darvy, who was a former lover that embarrassed her with his failures too many times. It's also clear from the note that Lady Shaela would never sit beside Lady Jill, whose petty jealousy of Lady Michelle's famous beauty she finds irritating.
Nickol found a different shelf of scrolls, and, in them, she found a love note from Lady Jill Fontana to Sir Darvy Greymist, stating that she fancied him ever since he slew the boar that they're having at banquet tonight single-handedly with nothing more than a spear.
The group huddled around the model with their clues next, working out the puzzle. Nat’s clue, the journal entry she found, made one seat easy: Lady Michelle Darling would take the fifth seat down the row from the Lord and Lady Stormsong. Maya had reported her clue as gently as she could to the group. Lady Shaela had to be seated with at least two people in between herself and Sir Darvy, and at least one in between herself and Lady Jill Fontana. Cari reported that Sir Malcom and Sir Jack were best friends, and inseparable, and would want seats next to each other. Nickol reported Lady Jill’s romantic interest in the heroic Sir Darvy after his bout with the boar. She’d want to sit next to him. Nah’s clue stated that knights Sir Malcom Mooring and Sir Darvy Greymist would always be seated on the far ends of the table… but which would be seated where?
Nat wrote all the clues down, withdrawing her inkwell of purple ink, her ravenfeather quill, and a spare bit of parchment to present the clues in a viewable form. She drew a table below this, with seats one through seven down the left side, and the names of the oft-squabbling courtesans across the top. She made a check mark in the fifth seat’s row, under Lady Michelle Darling’s name, for the most obvious clue, then marked Xs in the rest of the fifth row’s boxes, as none of these other names would be sitting there, and more in Lady Michelle’s column of boxes, as she wouldn’t be seated anywhere else.
Nah, intelligent as she was, was already working out the clues at a rapid pace. Nat, wanting to make the list with all caution as she didn’t know if an incorrect seating would result in them being poisoned just as poor old Mortimer had, wanted to slow down a bit and get the logical reasoning behind each placement. Nah began to explain, and Maya and Cari were making contributions quickly as well. Maya seemed to be pleasantly surprised at the cleverness she hadn’t expected of herself, though the rest of the group knew her to be much more so than she let on.
Nat showed the group the clues she’d written down in a list on her parchment, below which was the table she’d drawn up:
1) Lady Michelle Darling always sits in fifth place, for reasons best known to herself, using her beauty to get her way. 2) Lady Jill Fontana never sits beside Lady Michelle Darling, jealous as she was of her beauty. 3) Sir Malcom Mooring is an inconsistent knight, and is to always be either the first or the last in line as a result. 4) Lady Jill Fontana, smitten with Sir Darvy after his heroic feat of strength with the boar, wishes to sit next to him. 5) Sir Jack Brill is Sir Malcom Mooring's best friend, and the two are inseparable. 6) Sir Darvy Greymist is an inconsistent knight, and is to always be either the first or the last in line. 7) There must be at least two seats between Lady Shaela Dawnspring and Sir Darvy Greymist, former lovers, or they will row. She also doesn't like Lady Jill, thinking her jealousy is childish. 8) Lady Mellindra Wayne is apathetic. She doesn't care where she sits.
The logical explanations followed one after the other. Cari explained one of Nah’s first seating arrangements, in which Sir Darvy Greymist would take the first seat: Sir Darvy and Sir Malcom, ever inconsistent in glorious and embarrassing deeds, according to the clue Nah found, were wanted to be nearest and furthest at each banquet, by Lord Luthor Stormsong’s order, and Sir Darvy had single-handedly slain the boar they were feasting on at banquet tonight with nothing more than a spear thrust, a feat of strength for an average knight that possessed no enchanted armor or weapons and was not a renowned hero of Azeroth. Or, as Cari explained it (much to Nat’s blushing embarrassment), it was considered in noble circles to be “big male genitalia energy” to single-handedly spear a boar to death. Nat updated her table, still blushing, showing it to the group.
Nah next stated that Lady Jill Fontana would wish to be in the second seat, next to Sir Darvy Greymist, due to her being so smitten with Sir Darvy after his feat of strength. Nat updated her table again. Maya had the next answer, stating that Sir Malcom Mooring would have to be seated in the seventh seat, as he and Sir Darvy were, according to Nah’s clue, to be seated at opposite ends of the table. Nat updated her table once more, wondering what Sir Malcom might have suffered to have earned the last seat tonight, instead of another return to the head of the table for another of his many heroic achievements. She showed the table to the group.
Maya followed this with the sixth seat being Sir Jack the Brill’s, according to the illusion Cari had witnessed that showed Sir Jack being lifelong friends with Sir Malcom, the pair’s loyalty to each other never in question. Nat filled in her table a bit more. Cari stated that the seat next to that one, the fifth, was already claimed by Lady Michelle. Nah followed that with the fourth seat being Lady Shaela’s seat, who wanted at least two people in between herself and Sir Darvy, and this was the last one with such distance remaining. Another check and X left just one seat remaining! Nah and Cari reached the conclusion of the last remaining seat at the same time: the ever-apathetic Lady Mellindra Wayne would be seated in the third seat, as it made no difference to her where she sat. Nat filled in the last spot on her table. The seating arrangements were set! Nat clarified the seating arrangements with a list from first seat to last seat, below her table of seating arrangements and courtesans:
1) Sir Darvy Greymist 2) Lady Jill Fontana 3) Lady Mellindra Wayne 4) Lady Shaela Dawnspring 5) Lady Michelle Darling 6) Sir Jack the Brill 7) Sir Malcom Mooring
The group reviewed the list, nodding their agreement. Nah and Maya both moved to place the figurines of each courtesan at the table, prompting a debate. It was decided that Maya, currently dealing with a poisoning from an unrelated incident, would hang back, in case of a poisoning similar to Mortimer’s coming into effect in the event of an incorrect seating. Nah moved to place the figurines at the table, referencing Nat’s list to confirm the clues she’d worked out in her own head. The little legs and arms on their little hinges were easy to manipulate and adjust, and, a moment later, all were seated. The group waited with baited breath to see what would happen next…
And nothing did…
Peering around, the group wondered what was next. Then Nat gasped, pointing at the open cellar doors. A faint glow, as though from a candle, was coming from below!
Cautiously, the group made their way to the cellar, which, aside from the candlelight was dark, and entirely covered in the kind of giant spiderwebs and wrapped prey that brought giant spiders to mind. They looked around, finding the source of the glow in the far corner. A figure in a Tidesage’s robes, the same one as at the end of the horrifying cave last week, stood silently, motionlessly. The Tidesage seemed to stare back at them, though, as with the torch she held last week, the candle this week cast dark shadows across her face within the depths of the low-hanging hood that prevented her face from being seen.
It was here the Tidesage spoke, again in an eerily familiar voice, commending them on proving themselves up to the task of solving things intelligently, using their logic instead of their fists to work out a problem. She stated that she’d need them to do this often in the future, for the dark tasks she’d be setting them. Nah, not present at the cave the previous week, had the same reaction the rest of the group had in the cave: to defy the Tidesage’s comments that they would ever perform any task for her, though, just as before, no interruption kept her from talking on, and, indeed, no action or presence of any of the group seemed to be noticed by her. Finally, just as before, she praised Marcus Brinebreaker for getting this far, giving proof to Cari’s explanation to Nah that this was a magically triggered illusionary recording. Nah frowned at the Tidesage, crossing her arms and listening as the Tidesage spoke of next week’s task being one involving stealth, infiltration, and bumping elbows with the lowest of the low. In short, the Tidesage wanted to put Marcus Brinebreaker’s gang to the test, seeing if they were up to the task of consorting with others of their own kind and coming out on top. When she finished, she disappeared without so much as a wave, the way she had the week before: no puff of smoke, no flash of light, no fading way; she was simply there one instant, and no longer there in the very next.
Nat, too, reacted the way she had before: absolutely hypnotized, seemingly unaware of her surroundings, and, when the Tidesage disappeared, she snapped out of it, looking around to see what they’d come for, as though she thought she’d only just then reached the bottom of the stairs to see what the seating arrangement at the model banquet hall’s table had triggered.
The group circled up after that, discussing the Brinebreaker investigation’s odd turns to date. The most alarming development were the many odd incidents and behaviors displayed by Nat ever since shortly after this entire case had opened in the summer: the shadows in her face that flashed once in a great while, the occasional lapses into Shath’Yar, her ability to read it and the odd way she saw it as Common, the strange voiceless thoughts that would pop into their heads, trying to instill doubt in each other and their world, and, even as they spoke, an alarming flash of shadow that covered Nat’s face for the span of time it took to blink an eye: the shadow made her skin appeared ancient and wrinkled, a darker grey than ash, with sunken skin around her eyes that made them seem three inches high, and a shadow in them that obscured the eyes themselves. Wide rows of pointy, needle-sharp, three-inch teeth were bared at Maya, in particular, as Nat snarled at Maya in response to Maya pointing out too many giveaway clues of Void corruption within Nat. The shadow passed as quickly as it had come, which might have led people to think they’d imagined the rapid flash, except that those present had seen it too many times, and this one was the worst yet. Day of the Dead indeed… this image had been much more alarming than the appearance of all the ghosts upstairs that had paid the group no mind.
Nat made promises to continue to seek help, though no one she’d seen yet had offered a cure, and the most promising solution seemed to be to go with Lady Oracula, a Stormwind Ren’dorei friend, to visit her fellow Ren’dorei on Telodrus.
Following this was wild speculation that Joanessa Seaslums, the group’s first major contact in the Brinebreaker Gang investigation, was not really dead, but was, herself, the Tidesage. It would explain the fact that the human woman in Tidesage’s robes had such an eerily familiar voice, but that supposition raised more questions than it answered, for how could a woman, messily, bloodily dead in the streets of the Boralus slums, and seen to be so by a large number of people, turn out to be the Tidesage?
The question boggled the group, yet they remained firm in their belief… all but Nat, who remained resolute in that her old friend had been a good person, constantly feeding the less fortunate of the slums from her missing husband’s crab traps, and wondered aloud whether the group was biased against her for Joan’s infatuation with a former Whitewind Company employee’s mate (who, like an alarming number of Stormwind’s former regulars, hadn’t been seen in months).
The group did, however, find themselves awaiting what must surely be more similar, intensely vivid dreams to come, knowing the next task was at hand, and that a return to bumping elbows with criminals again was sure to come…
*****
Participants:
Nahlia “Nah” Lifebloom Natasha Ebonlocke Maya Maxwell Carilina Halverson Nickol Moonbloom
Each participant gains +1 Favor with Lady Whitewind
Whitewind Company and Allies gain: New lead, to be determined by dreams
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Nov 10, 2021 17:11:56 GMT
(( Note: The following event, as it took a second event night to complete, was not canon on the night that it was held (November 9). It became canon upon completion in part two on November 16. Both nights' events were ICly one single excursion on one single night. ))
November 16
Whitewind Company Follows Dream Clues, Stows Away to Unknown Location, Proves Up to Task of Besting Ne'er-Do-Wells At Their Own Dirty Deeds A sense of some normalcy finally returned to the Whitewind Company and their allies in their most recent mission save for the odd dreams they all seemed to have that tended to combine to paint something of a complete picture. Nahlia Lifebloom, Natasha Ebonlocke, Maya Maxwell, Cari Halverson, and, for the first time, Stormwind City friends Narcoss and Sir Garandor Valorheart, both of the 73rd division of the Stormwind Army, visited Boralus last night to pursue a lead given to them first by the Tidesage, and then detailed vaguely in their dreams. Eyewitnesses in Boralus report that the group was making their way with all haste to the Proudmoore Academy, very hush-hush about their business.
Whitewind Company debriefs report that the mission, according to the Tidesage’s magically triggered recorded message last week that had originally been intended to be found by Marcus Brinebreaker, would be to use stealth, infiltration, subterfuge, and generally bumping elbows with another gang. The Tidesage’s mission, like the two previous ones, had been set for Marcus Brinebreaker to prove he can associate with another gang and come out on top in the encounter.
The dreams were thus: Nah had dreamed she was swindling other swindlers in a pub on a hill overlooking a bustling port town, with the word “swindle” repeating itself occasionally in her dream. Nat had dreamed she’d stowed away on a ship out of a hidden cove near the Proudmoore Naval Academy, with the word “stowaway” repeating itself through her dream. She’d also dreamed she was back in the Boralus slums, attempting to join the Scrimshaw Gang, with the intent of finding out who and where the leader is, so they could be taken down. The word “infiltrate” had been repeated in her dream. Maya had dreamed she was fighting in an arena, with the words “fight dirty” repeating itself in her dream, as well as another dream in which she had been aboard a ship as a special agent of SI:7, Kul Tiran Theatre, with a mission to scuttle this boat and four others like it. The word “sabotage” had repeated itself from time to time in this dream.
With Cari, Nickol, Cletcher, and Rylee being elsewhere this evening, these were the clues the group had to go on. Cari did eventually make it to the group, giving them an important and valuable mage with which to work. For the first leg of the mission, however, Nah, Nat, Maya, Narcoss, and Sir Garandor found themselves navigating a series of boardwalks near the small boat dock at Proudmoore Naval Academy, seeking the hidden cove Nat had dreamed of.
Finding it with a left fork in the boardwalk, the group strolled through a muddy, puddle-ridden hidden cove, striding along a boardwalk until they reached a small boat at the end, where the boardwalk became a small dock. Nat paid for a quiet ride to a passing boat, which they boarded quietly with the help of Narcoss’ ability to extend his shadowy stealth ability beyond himself for a few moments. The group hid, and the boat continued onward, unaware of their new passengers.
The group whispered amongst themselves as they rode, attempting to puzzle out where they were supposed to be stowing away to. Drustvar and Stormsong Valley had already been visited, so one might extrapolate that the one remaining region in Kul Tiras, Tiragarde Sound, would feasibly be the next one up. Other clues involved swindlers in a pub in a port city on a hillside, an arena, and the fact that their destination might be overrun by a gang.
Realization of what this narrowed it down to dawned on the group just as the ship quietly rounded a cliff in the water and revealed a port city on a hillside…
Freehold. The ship pulled up to a dock, and the crew began offloading what seemed to be illicit goods: illegal weapons, spice, and poacher’s goods, including out-of-season prey and heavy loads of ivory. With the crew largely disembarking, the crew emerged from their hiding place, aided again with Narcoss’ stealth aura.
The first task of the evening, according to the dreams, became clear: scuttle this pirate ship, and three others like it! According to Freehold eyewitnesses interviewed for this story, fully four ships docking in Freehold were sank with no explanation as to how it happened! Narcoss remained aboard with Sir Garandor maintaining a lookout, while the rest of the group, joined here by Cari, set about the work of sabotaging the ships. With Narcoss busy sabotaging any and all salvageable goods still aboard the ship, Maya tried first. She took ironwood seeds into the water below deck, planting them and using her druidic nature magic to attempt to get ironwood vines to puncture the hull below the water level. The vines ended up not growing quite long enough. Nat dried next, finding several tarred gaps between planks in the ship’s hull under the water level, attempting to freeze the bit of water between them, as water expands when frozen, and she hoped to burst the planks apart by the rapidly expanding ice. The hull proved to be too stout, however, likely blessed by a Tidesage as Kul Tirans were wont to do.
Cari proved to be the ships’ demise. She conjured a portal between the water and the interior of the cargo hold, immediately flooding the ship with water. Narcoss, sensing the boat was suddenly sinking, took the time to poison a few food and water items before escaping the boat in the nick of time, Sir Garandor hot on his heels. Repeating the process on the other ships, the group succeeded in their second task!
Discussing their dreams once more, it was decided that the top of the hill here would be their next task, as finding a tavern at the top of the hill should be easy enough, and the vantage point would allow them to scout all of Freehold besides. A “borrowed” lifeboat gave them the opportunity to row past all the pandemonium caused by all the scuttled ships, and the group found themselves next on a dirt path that curled around the eastern edge of Freehold, sloping up to the top of the hill. The path fed into a boardwalk, the highest on a multi-level terrace of them, and the only public establishment on that terrace was visible from there. The group entered the pub, finding a bustling establishment full of wood smoke from the enormous hearth, cigar smoke, pipe smoke, and men who were there for drinking and “wenching,” much to Nat’s blushing embarrassment. The group peered around, looking for a swindler to swindle.
It didn’t take long. A table on the far end of the tavern held an obvious cardshark, a boisterous Kul Tiran man and his quiet friend seated with frothy steins and a deck of cards. The man was calling out to passers by, inviting all and sundry to take a seat and help him learn to play Poker, a game he insisted he was new to and wanted to learn to play.
Nah and Narcoss, the two in the group best at sneaky dealings, accepted one such invitation and had a seat. Cari, noting the man’s friend getting up and moving to lean against the wall behind Nah and Narcoss, went up to the balcony overlooking the cardshark’s chair to get her own look at his hand. Nat took a seat in front of the fireplace, her comms units at the ready, and Maya sat with her, watching Cari for any signs. Sir Garandor kept the bartender and others distracted with stories at the bar. The game began.
Narcoss drew the best hand, before any cheats involved. Three Jacks! Nah and the cardshark bantered back and forth. It didn’t take long for the cardshark to attempt his cheat. He dropped a few cards from his hand on the floor, deftly making it appear to be an honest accident. When he sat back up, however, Cari noticed his cards had changed. He had a Royal Straight! Cari, signaling Maya on her communicator, relayed this information. Maya leaned over to whisper to Nat, who relayed the information on her own comms unit she shared with Nah. Narcoss played his hand deftly and kept the cardshark distracted. It became apparent, however, that the group’s lack of any of their own cards up their own sleeves made swindling this swindler a dicey proposition.
The pub’s bartender, more astute than he let on, reported to this journalist that Nat took action then. She walked innocently up to Nah, greeting her best friend warmly and asking her what she was doing. Nah responded with a smirk that she was in a card game, wagering gold. Nat peered at her hand, exclaiming loudly that a Royal Flush Straight with all Hearts looked so very beautiful! The Kul Tiran cardshark’s friend was unable to see Nah’s hand, which she was playing close to the vest, and was unable to confirm or deny with any signal, leaving the cheating cardshark to grumble and fold. Narcoss folded as well, and Nah won the hand! As Nah scooped in the gold, Nat patted her best friend on the shoulder and exclaimed, just as loudly, that it was too bad Nah didn’t have that beautiful hand. The cardshark looked outrage at having been fooled into folding, spluttering and stammering and obviously uncertain as to whether the innocent-looking girl had done that on purpose or not.
The man also inadvertently gave the group their next clue. Speaking of a bout at the Ring of Booty at the eastern edge of town, he unknowingly brought to the group’s mind the dream Maya had had of “fighting dirty” in an arena. The group took their leave then, with Narcoss and Sir Garandor needing to head out on business of their own. Nah, Nat, Cari, and Maya headed to the Ring of Booty. Here, they met a fight promoter who told them the fight was not at the arena this time, but rather, beyond the arena. The group was to follow the path out the east side of the arena, which became a boardwalk leading out to an intersecting boardwalk that ran around the eastern cliff of the town. Overlooking the sea from here, they noticed a couple of old ships jammed together side-by-side. To their surprise, four men were up on the crossbeams of the central masts, standing almost like tightrope walkers, two per ship, and each pair was fighting the other! Worse, the loser of each fight was thrown from the mast, crashing to the deck below with a clatter audible all the way up here! The crowd cheered and jeered, the two victors swinging down impressively from the mast to collect their winnings.
The other fight promoter, this one down on the shore near the ships, announced the win in impressive fashion, then called loudly for the participants in the night’s Freehold Women’s Mast Walk to come forward.
It was instantly clear to the group who the two fighters would be. Nah and Maya were powerful fighters in their own ways – Nah, the sneaky rogue, and Maya, the big, strong worgen.
The two made their way down the hill quickly, speaking quietly of Maya’s dream urging her to “fight dirty,” followed anxiously by Nat and Cari, two far more bookish sorts who both opted to just watch from shore, with Cari watching with baited breath and Nat covering her eyes with her hands, peeking from between two fingers and whispering a lengthy string of, “Ohgoshohgoshohgosh…”
Maya and Nah shimmied on up the masts of either ship to loud cheers and jeers from the crowd, joined shortly by the reigning champions, a Quel’dorei woman and a Kul Tiran woman. Maya drew the Quel’dorei, and Nah the Kul Tiran, and the fight was on!
The fights took place simultaneously, according to the fight promoter interviewed for this story. Both bouts were fought dirty, just as Maya’s dream had suggested. Pockets of sand were thrown into eyes. Other items were withdrawn from pockets and chucked at opposing heads, attempting to knock them off the mast. The Kul Tiran woman pulled off her tricorn and attempted to slap Nah over the head with it while simultaneously trying to obscure her vision with it over her head, landing a stab of her blunted, dull tournament rapier into Nat’s abdomen. Nah took a hard hit from the rapier to the gut, but managed to block the tricorn and rip it out of the woman’s hands. Eyewitnesses in the crowd claim that something shadowy glowed under the hat, and some speculate that Nah had used some sort of shadowy taint she seemed to be affected with in her punch to the woman’s gut. Other eyewitnesses report the flash of some sort of shadowy blunt metal object in Nah’s clenched fist. Either way, the fight was dirty throughout, just like Maya and the Quel’dorei, dueling on the other ship’s mast, where Maya was tossing a few more ironwood seedlings to snare one of the Quel’dorei fighter’s feet to the crossbeam after having taken a handful of sand to the face from the elf.
The fights drew on at length. As the sun set, the Quel’dorei woman succeeding in kicking Maya into the vertical beam of the mast behind her, while Nah had leaped over the Kul Tiran with a flip and came down with a kick to her rear, sending her sprawling onto the crossbeam to hang on for dear life with all four limbs. Maya’s response to the kick had been more pocket sand, which caused the elf to stagger wildly on the mast and fall! The vines she was tangled in snapped, and the elf was only just able to hang on by catching a rigging of rope on the mast as she fell. Both reigning champions were now clinging to the masts in desperation! The Kul Tiran woman, obviously having spent quite some time in Freehold, withdrew a mousetrap, of all things, from within the front of her shirt and threw it at Nah in desperation. Maya, meanwhile, clawed ferociously with her worgen claws at the rope rigging the Quel’dorei was clinging to, severing it and sending her opponent falling hard to the deck, far below! On the other ship, Nah dodged the mousetrap, stomping hard on the mast and shaking the Kul Tiran woman loose from her own deathgrip on the crossbeam, sending her falling hard to the deck of ship below with a resounding, echoing crash! The fight was won! Maya and Nah were now the reigning champions of the Freehold Women’s Mast Walk! Would they return one day to defend their title? Only time will tell!
As the sun sank below the horizon, darkness fell on Freehold, though it was no less bustling. Indeed, the favorite port of pirates seemed to increase in activity. It was now time for the final remaining dream to be fulfilled: infiltrate the local gang, or, in this case, a pirate crew, identify and locate their leader, and overthrow him! The group felt confident in their ability to achieve this goal, having done so once already with Marcus Brinebreaker. But where to start?
The group found a lucky break with the fight promoter. The man invited the impressive fighters to meet his crew’s captain and join up, advising them to go and visit Captain “Big” Willie Johnson. Nah commented that the man was obviously compensating for something, causing a blush from Nat.
The group ostensibly accepted the fight promoter’s offer, making their way back up the hill to find and infiltrate the captain’s crew…
To Be Continued…
*******
Participants:
Nahlia Lifebloom Natasha Ebonlocke Cari Halverson Maya Maxwell Narcoss Sir Garandor Valorheart
All participants gain +1 Favor with Lady Whitewind
The Whitewind Company and Allies gain: +1 Notoriety with Freehold
The Whitewind Company and Allies gain: Lead: Captain “Big” Willie Johnson
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Nov 17, 2021 19:36:25 GMT
November 16
Whitewind Company And Allies Infiltrate Pirate Crew, Locate And Defeat Pirate Captain, Crew, Gain Tidesage's Next Task
Reports continue to come in from events in the field from last night’s excursion into Freehold by the Whitewind Company and allies. Nahlia Lifebloom, Natasha Ebonlocke, Rylee Mhorrigan, Carilina Halverson, and Maya Maxwell evidently caused quite a stir in Freehold, and eerie occurrences continue to happen.
The group continued up the path sloping up the hill to the town proper from their fight on the ships, continuing on to their next task: Infiltrate the rival group, take down their leader, and prove that the group was up to the task of rubbing elbows with the best and brightest of the bottom of the barrel, and coming out on top.
All agreed to change their attire before coming up into the town proper, most taking on the appearances of privateers in order to fulfill the task of infiltration. Cari, however, elected to dress more regally to force the locals’ hand in getting her to the aforementioned Captain “Big” Willie Johnson by declaring herself to be a “queen” of the seas, and a pyromancer, coming to take over the town, stating that she’d burn all who stood in her way. They strolled freely across the town, filtering through a crowd of rough, rowdy, boisterous seafarers, they reached the Dead Man’s Tale on the opposite side of town. Entering, they found a rather skinny man named Venrik.
A confused Venrik juggled conversations from the visitors to the tavern, though he seemed to have eyes for Nah, who had dressed up most thoroughly as a flashy pirate captain, complete with tricorn, and looked quite stylish. Her form-fitting clothes had Venrik’s eyes on her throughout most of the conversation, and eyewitnesses in the little bar report he was keen to dote on her, even supplying her with free wine. Rylee busied herself with dinner, opting for sausage links between the choice of that and ribs as the special. A glass of wine went with it. Maya, in the tavern in her cat form, was fed quite a few sausages by Rylee. Cari refused the tavern’s fare, which seemed beneath the palate of such a queenly woman. Nat drew amused looks by ordering milk, as she’d had spaghetti for dinner earlier, but then made something of a clever save by ordering it to be poured into a goat skull mug. Venrik juggled his costumers as best he could, responding to Maya’s roars and Cari’s commanding presence in an intimidated tone when they asked where the Captain “Big” Johnson could be found, stating that all he knew was that the Captain was always near his big pile of gold, though he didn’t know where that was.
The Whitewind Company and friends left Venrik thoroughly rattled as they exited the Dead Man’s Tale, increasing their image as genuine privateers in the eyes of those in the town that witnessed their exploits. The plan was now to find a high vantage point on the mostly hillside town and see if a large pile of gold might be spotted somewhere. The rooftop of a nearby establishment served the purpose, and the group climbed to the top. It didn’t take long – a brilliant, shiny mountain of gold was spotted spilling from the hull of a ship that appeared to have taken a tsunami ride to the top of the neighboring hill. A long rope bridge connected the two hills, bridging the span over the gap between the two hills high in the air over a strip of water and mud.
Wasting no time, they made their way back down the stairs to the ground, strolling across Freehold in a manner they intended to be confident and carefree, as though they belonged there, and, as before, none of the pirates or other rowdy seafarers questioned their presence.
That all changed once they got to the bridge. Captain Johnson apparently spied their approach, ordering that they stop and not attempt to cross the bridge. The group, however, led by “Queen” Cari (atop a “borrowed” horse she’d found tethered behind another pub) riding in their midst, sauntered onto the bridge without missing a beat. Captain Johnson ordered three heavies across the bridge to stop them, and the group found themselves facing off with three large Kul Tirans, each the size of the Collector in Marcus Brinebreaker’s gang, right in the middle of the bridge.
The bridge groaned and swayed and creaked under the weight of so many people and a horse. The wind, gusting up as it was, didn’t help. The stand-off on the bridge commenced regardless, both sides making demands of the other to get out of the way and off the bridge. Cari attempted intimidation, asking the leader if he dared the wrath of the phoenix. The seemingly uneducated man was confused, stating that he’d paid Phoebe fair and square, and that she was now working the boardwalks of Booty Bay anyway. The confusion was making him quite angry.
The man, evidently leader of the buccaneer bruisers, lost his patience quite early in the affair. Before long, he was shouting to his subordinates to attack! Maya, now in her bear form, stood beside Nah, with the rest of the group blocked from view. The three all attacked Maya first, and Maya was able to shrug off two blows before taking a kick to the underside of her bottom jaw. Maya, amused at first that the trio of meatheads were dumb enough to try and fistfight a bear, took the kick to her jaw and roared in fury.
Nah responded to the attack quickly, whipping out one of her blades and cutting one of the ropes on the side of the bridge. She leapt off the side of the bridge, drawing gasps from both sides. The bruisers kneeled at the side of the bridge to look at the water and mud far, far below, not knowing that Nah had swung under the bridge and was already completing her swing up the other side. Nah, always one for style points, swung upwards, arced through the air like the rising sun while slapping her own rear, and had her flintlock pistol out for a shot into the lead bruiser’s left knee. The Kul Tiran men had turned around on time to see Nah reappear and all but drool over her for a fraction of a second, but not in time to react, and their leader’s scream joined the echoes of the pistol shot ringing through the seaside hills. Nat finished him off with a flurry of ice shards, and the man dropped and didn’t stand again, groaning quietly on the planks. One of the others turned to attack Nah, who had completed her swing on the other side of the two remaining Kul Tirans, and the other leaped through the air, spread eagle, trying to crush Rylee to the bridge, who was bringing up the rear. The man missed, overshooting his jump and crashing to the bridge, causing it to creak and groan and sway even worse now that Nah had cut one of the handle ropes. It was a lucky break for him, as Rylee had her fist raised at an angle calculated to have the man’s nethers land right on it if he hadn’t overshot his jump. Meanwhile, Maya and Cari were attacking the other man, Maya swiping a bear paw the size of a trash can lid at his face, and Cari opening a portal from the water onto the bridge, just as she had when she scuttled the ships, deluging the man with a torrent of seawater.
Nah, Maya, and Cari soon dispatched their fighter, with Cari soon riding the man down on her horse, sending him diving off to the side, which, unfortunately for him, mean right off the side of the bridge! The man cartwheeled through the air as he fell, screaming the whole way, crashing into a mud pit that was the only thing that saved his life, though bones were clearly heard breaking. Meanwhile, Rylee and Nat finished off the other with a combination of Nat’s frost magic and Rylee chucking a pilfered trident she’d found on a rack during their walk. The fight ended shortly after it began, the three enormous bruisers clearly overmatched.
The bridge, as it turns out, was also overmatched.
A long creak and groan filled the air in the immediate vicinity, and the three remaining ropes were stretched and fraying right before their eyes. Planks began to drop to the mud and water far below, one by one, slowly at first, but then more and more fell, and the damage was starting to accelerate toward the group. Cari kicked her horse into a gallop, careening toward the far side. Maya assumed her druidic owl form and flew forward. Nah, Rylee, and Nat sprinted for the end of the bridge, with Nah escaping the falling bridge just on time with her grappling hook. Nat, never having been a runner, and Rylee, who had been bringing up the rear the whole time, dived for the deck, grabbing on to rope and plank and clinging for dear life as the bridge finally snapped and swung toward the cliff of the hill. Crashing with a resounding clatter into the side, the two exhaled a sigh of relief and climbed to the top of the bridge, cresting the clifftop with help from their friends. Undaunted, they continued on, the knowledge that the Tidesage must be stopped before something terrible could happen strong in the forefront of their minds.
Captain “Big” Willie Johnson was above, standing on the deck of the ship that was spilling the gold, gems, chests, weapons, and, in one case, an impressive life-size statue of a Kaldorei, wrought from solid gold. The group proceeded up onto the terrace the treasure was on, sauntering up to the ship. A woman was there with him, they could see now, counting his gold. Captain “Big” Willie Johnson’s First Mate, Rosie Palms, paid them no need, even after the fight, the bridge collapse, and the dramatic escape. The Captain, meanwhile, was blustering and posturing, giving his utmost effort to frighten the group away.
What he didn’t realize was how much worse than a pirate captain and his first mate the group had already seen, and how unintimidated they were by him, especially as they outnumbered him. The group strolled right into the hole in the hull of the smashed hilltop ship, heading up the stairs and sauntering right up onto Captain Johnson’s big deck, facing off and ready to do battle!
With blustering and posturing having failed him, Captain Johnson pulled out a flintlock and a cutlass. Nat acted first, with a quick frostbolt to First Mate Palms’ chest. Maya followed suit, charging at First Mate Palms and swiping with an open claw, wounding the pirate further. The pirate woman attempted a weakened kick as she struggled not to black out from the attacks, aiming her kick at Maya’s lower legs. Maya, still in her bear form, shrugged the blow off and smashed the woman in the back of the head with an enormous paw, putting her out for the count!
Meanwhile, Nah, Cari, and Rylee were teaming up on “Big” Willie. The pirate was immediately overwhelmed, suffering a pistol shot through the leg, ice spells from Cari, and Rylee smashing things over his head or chucking heavy treasures at him. Nat joined in after the First Mate Rosie Palms was downed, channeling a frigid ray of frost into Captain Johnson’s chest, and Maya was swiping with her claws again. The pirate captain made an impressive stand for a very brief moment, aiming shots in every direction, but the group soon put him in the dark, with Nah and Rylee combining for the knockout blows. Rylee, who had picked up an ornate cutlass from within the treasure pile, slapped Captain Johnson across the side of the head with the flat of the blade only a moment after Nah fired a shot that would remove any claim “Big” Willie would have on his moniker. The fight was won!
As the group caught their breath after the three intense moments, they began to look around, though Rylee was focusing on reassembling the unconscious Captain Johnson and healing him up so he wouldn’t bleed out, giving the group the opportunity to turn him in to the Boralus stockades for a bounty. The rest wondered, meanwhile, how the Tidesage would appear to them this time, as this was usually the part where she appeared and greeted them and gave them their next task.
Sure enough, a rustle of robes was heard from somewhere below. This time, instead of appearing in the shadows with facial features obscured with deeper shadows from a torch or a candle, the Tidesage obscured her features by appearing to be speaking from the gold statue. Nat, meanwhile, had frozen in place, seemingly hypnotized and utterly unresponsive, just as with the previous appearances by the Tidesage. The rest of the group looked over the edge of the ship at the statue… which, wearing the Tidesage’s robes, appeared to have turned its head and was looking right up at them!
The eerily familiar woman’s voice spoke to them once again, still seeming to be a message recorded for Marcus Brinebreaker, whom the Tidesage eventually mentioned by name again. The voice commended them once again for a job well done, and for proving themselves up to the task of besting any rival gang. The Tidesage stated that their next task would test their wits under pressure – puzzles and other tasks to be resolved correctly the first time, the failure of which might well prove fatal. The Tidesage’s robes disappeared off the statue in the blink of an eye after that, and the head seemed once again to be looking forward, just as it always had. Nat snapped out of her trance and seemed to still be looking around for the Tidesage to appear, hoping to finally not miss it due to the weird trances. She seemed quite disappointed when she was told it had happened again, but mostly, she was keen to hear the Tidesage’s next task description.
Following that update, the group discussed helping themselves to the treasure around them. It had, after all, been stolen by the ones they were liberating it from to begin with, and to leave it to finances criminal organizations seemed such a waste. Nat summoned a portal to Stormwind, channeling it into the Whitewind Company bank vaults, and Cari summoned a portal to the Voyager’s town, Waypoint. The Voyager comms were quickly blowing up with calls for an explanation for the sudden appearance of a massive hill of gold in the Waypoint town square by their leader, Alexon Cross. The Voyager trio, Cari, Rylee, and Maya, went to go and deal with that after having stuffed their own pockets (and pants legs, sleeves, and shirt fronts, in Rylee’s case) with treasure, not to mention having kicked the gold statue through the portal. Nat and Nah loaded up as well, heading back to Stormwind City with their own bank errands to run now.
As the group said their goodnights to each other, the sense of accomplishment and a job well done settled over them, and homes beckoned, though the thought of the strange, shared dreams with similar messages sure to come also rested in each of their minds. What would the next task turn out to be, and where would it take place? Only time will tell…
*******
Participants:
Nahlia Lifebloom Natasha Ebonlocke “Queen of the Seas” Carilina Halverson Rylee Mhorrigan Maya Maxwell
All participants gain +1 favor with Lady Whitewind
Whitewind Company gains: Lead soon to come: Linked Dreams
|
|
|
Post by Natasha Ebonlocke on Nov 24, 2021 16:34:30 GMT
November 23
Whitewind Company And Allies Follow Dream Leads to Island Fortress of Tol Dagor, Survive Series of Deathtraps, Defeat Shadowy Apparition, Expect Most Important Dream Leads Yet Soon!
Eyewitnesses report the return of the Whitewind Company and friends to the city of Boralus once again last night, though it was here that eyewitness accounts end and information from in-house debriefings begin, though there were eyewitness accounts of Stormwind residents listening to the group recount their dreams to each other.
Nat had dreamed of an island out at sea. It was raining heavily there, and the sun never shined. Everything was muddy and wet and damp, and there were even the remains of a shipwreck on one side. Nah dreamed of a muddy island, upon which was built a massive structure. For some reason, she had wanted to break into this place, and she were walking around it, looking for a weak point to enter, thinking of the trickster's tools she'd need to bring along for the purpose. Cari dreamed that she was sailing on a ship, and she was the captain. The night was stormy and very foggy, and the water was full of large rocks. She was standing on the quarterdeck keeping the helmsman updated on course heading orders, all based on Maya's sightings from her place in the crow's nest, where she had taken the role of ship's lookout. Maya, similarly, had dreamed she was a ship's lookout, standing high up in the crow's nest and trying to carefully guide her ship through a foggy night. She spotted a massive structure built on a muddy island, which sported a lighthouse up at the top. She was trying to guide the ship to the lighthouse carefully, watching out for rocks and seeking a safe harbor to guide the ship into. Nah came to the conclusion of Tol Dagor, and the rest of the group agreed that the old island prison fortress made sense. Cari summoned a portal to Boralus, and the group, along with an interested friend, walked through it to the Kul Tiran capital.
The group, consisting of Nahlia Lifebloom, Natasha Ebonlocke, Maya Maxwell, Carilina Halverson, and another Voyager, Zoe Helton (not counting a very late appearance by Rylee Mhorrigan hours later) emerged from the Sanctum of the Sages, the room containing Boralus’ city portals, and immediately looked east, their faces grim. Eyewitnesses state that it was for good reason; one of the group mentioned Tol Dagor, and everything in that direction was obscured in one of the most severe-looking thunderstorms in recent memory. A massive thunderhead could be seen on the eastern horizon. The clouds ranged from fluffy white, thousands of feet up, rapidly darkening to fuzzy, distorted dark grey and black, right on the sea level itself. The clouds were that tall, but also stretch left and right as far as the eye can see. It didn't look like the most inviting thing to sail into...
The group wasted little time talking, boarding a waiting ship and sailing toward the thunderstorm, leaving the safe harbor of Boralus far behind them. As they approached the thunderstorm, the clouds, high and wide as they were, blocked out the sun on far side of them. Shortly thereafter, the ship began to toss and roll in the suddenly roiling waves. The heavy fog rolled over the ship, and the fine mist mixed with the ocean spray to dampen those aboard before they even enter the rain.
KA-BLAM! A powerful thunderclap vibrated the entire ship, followed immediately by a lightning flash that was sending bolts striking in every direction! The ship constantly rose high in the air, then slid down a wave, then again high in the air, again sliding down a wave, over and over again, as torrential rains pound the ship and further thunderclaps and lightning strikes rattle the ship and make hairs stand on end! The lookout suddenly shouted out, "LAAAAND HOOOOO! LIGHTHOUSE IN THE DISTANCE! IT'S TOL DAGOR!" Shortly thereafter, the shallower waters were tossing the ship significantly less, and the group was lowered down on a rowboat. Two stout Kul Tiran men battled the riptides with their oars to get the group to where they need to be. The group makes landfall in a tiny inlet after a time, soaked to the bone and shivering. They were quite eager to get inside!
As the group rounded the corner, the battered, broken remains of a krolusk the size of a stagecoach can be seen near the sewer grate entrance. The sewers themselves are locked tight, a grate closed over the entrance and padlocked shut with an enormous lock. There is no key in sight. The smell coming from the sewers hasn't been diminished since Tol Dagor's last usage; indeed, it seems to have intensified by an order of magnitude.
The group conferred, and agreed it would be easier to get in through the sewers than trying to blast the massive, fortified front doors. Approaching the foul-smelling grate closing off the sewer, they looked for a key lying around to the padlock. Of course, there was none present. Nah smirked at that. She sauntered confidently up to the padlock, reaching into her bag of tricks and fishing out her lockpicking set. Working quickly, as she wanted to get out of the storm as much as everyone else, she worked the pins inside the lock expertly, and soon, the awaited click of the lock sounded. The lock snapped open, and Nah discarded it into the mud with a snicker, darting inside. The group followed eagerly, though the foul-smelling air was overwhelmingly bad.
The air inside the sewer was unbreathable! Urine and feces and the corpses of dozens of rotten mice and a few dead men are the only things the group could smell. There appear to be three options: Straight ahead, the shortest route to progress on out of the sewers, though it seems to be locked by an overhead grate. Straight back, leading back outside, abandoning this night's quest. Left, a far, far longer trip, wading through sewage and rotten bodies of man and beast, with the promise of even more around the corner. The group quickly elected to turn left and take the long route, hoping to wade through the sewage and dead things faster than it would take Nah to pick another lock. Every couple segments of sewer pipe, however, the group became more and more sick, especially when they reached one segment that was flooded waist-high with water that wasn’t just water. Rushing past this most unpleasant and unwelcome stretch, they found themselves at the corner they’d spotted, which itself went to another corner. Rounding that corner as well, the group finally found the end of the pipe, sloping up and out of the pipe and into the darkest dungeon of Tol Dagor.
This dungeon smelled horrible as well, though the hint of fresher air was wafting into the room from the other end. It also had more dead men. Skeletons lay strewn around, with skeletal arms hanging by themselves from shackles affixed to the support pillars. The group hurried past, still trying to get over the nausea of the sewers. At the back right of the room, beyond an opening in a wall of bars, they found a closed, locked door, through which they could see a staircase going up. This one was locked as well, however, and worse, it didn’t have a lock that could be picked!
FFFWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHHHH! The rush of many pipes full of water suddenly echoed through the room! The four pipes on the sides of the room, two per side, both sounded like the floodgates of a dam had been emptied through them! Sure enough, frigid seawater was suddenly pouring through them! THIS FLOOR WAS BEING FLOODED!
Quickly, the group scanned around the door, attempting to ascertain how to unlock it and escape the room before they were drowned. Zoe Helton, encased in plate armor as she was, was particularly adamant about escape. The water was rising fast; it was now up to their slightly elevated bit of floor, sliding across the stone!
Maya and Cari observed the compass on the floor as they looked down at the water. There was something not quite right about it… It was not pointing north, and, what’s more, it could be moved! Maya slid the point of the compass with her foot over to where Cari was standing to indicate where North was. CLICK! The door unlocked, just as the water was starting to flood up over knees! Wading through the roiling water, the group went through the doorway. The water was now up to chest level! Nat kicked off from the bottom, swimming rather than wading, hoping to get out of the staircase a bit quicker by riding the tide. Soon enough, however, the water stopped! Having been rigged to flood to the top of that room, it ceased at the level of the top of the second flight of stairs. The group traveled up the rest of the stairs, cold, soaking, dripping, wringing wet, and still smelling of sewage, though the rushing water had blessedly washed most of the sewage away.
The group emerged from the hallway staircase into another open area. This one appeared to be a cellblock! Cells lined the walls on either side of the room. A table with two stools stood in the near right and far left corners. The center of the room was a long, wide gap, protected by a railing, from which the calming water of the recent flood could be heard coming from below. The group entered the area warily, peering around searchingly.
Nah spotted a note next, lying on the floor near the table. It read, Hey Moe, Jes Howlis says we gotta take them hostages and ransum all them mans back to there familys when the riot starts, yeah? He had me rig the door so that we can open it when the gards aint lookin, see? I stole the stuff to do it with and hid it all in the secret room behind Johnny's cell. And dont worry about no one findin it. I rigged every portion of the pipe to kill introoders. This gonna be the loudest door unlockin ever! --Jimmy
Nah brought the note back to the group, reading it with a snicker, adopting a blue collar Kul Tiran accent, and reading it in a manner that portrayed the unknown Moe and Jimmy as lovers. Nat blushed, giggling, though she paid attention to the clue with the rest of the group. It seemed that a secret room behind a cell hid the method of unlocking the door to the next upward-bound staircase, and this room was somehow booby-trapped!
The group began wandering about at that point, searching cell after cell for hidden rooms. Twice, they found cells that had a wall knocked down on one side, though it only led into a neighboring cell. Soon enough, however, Nah found the correct cell. Nat found Nah in a side room that wasn’t a neighboring cell, but rather, a hidden storeroom of some kind. It was empty, save for a pair of air tanks, diagrams, and a small control panel of levers. It all seemed Gnomish or Mechagnomish in design. Perhaps the Ashvane Company had imprisoned an offending Mechagnome or three?
In any case, the group gathered around Nah as she held up the schematics. It appeared that each segment of pipe, as well as the way from this room into the pipe, was sealable by a round hatch door, resembling those found on Gnomish submarines. The schematics also showed that one tank was filled three-quarters full of poison gas, and the other was for clean air, though it was empty. The display at the control panel showed poison gas in the first and third segments of pipe, as well as a room at the end of the pipe, each of which was sealed. The schematics stated that it takes one quarter tank of either poison gas or clean air to fill one segment of pipe, or the room. Cari and Nat put their heads together, coming up with a plan. Two strong people would go through the pipe, as the note’s mention of “loudest door unlocking ever” seemed to indicate heavy explosives. The poison gas and air would have to be juggled around, as the three-quarters full poison gas tank could only fit one segment’s worth in it, and the clean air tank was currently emptied into the second segment. Maya and Zoe opted to brave the poison gasses and retrieve the explosives. Nah stood by the tanks and control panel, holding up the schematics for Cari and Nat and keeping a lookout. Cari and Nat worked out the situation, first pulling the poison gas into the poison gas tank from the first segment, allowing Zoe and Maya to open that hatch, step inside, and seal the hatch behind them. Now keeping in touch over their comms technology, Cari had Maya and Zoe go ahead and open the hatch to the second segment, the one with the clean air in it. The air was thin, but the air from the first hatch, having rushed in from the control room the other three currently occupied, supplemented it to fill the segment. Zoe and Maya moved into the second segment, sealing the hatch behind them. Nat siphoned the remaining clean air from the first into the clean air tank, then fed it from there into the second. The first was now devoid of air of any kind. Nat next emptied a quarter tank of poison gas from the poison gas tank into the first segment of pipe, freeing up room in the tank to siphon out the poison gas in the third segment of pipe, which she did next. The third segment was now devoid of air of either kind. Maya and Zoe opened the hatch into it, the air from their segment rushing into the third. Closing the hatch behind them, they let the others know that they were now in the third segment. Nat siphoned the air from the second into the tank, feeding it into the third after. She then emptied a quarter tank of poison gas from the tank into the second segment, freeing up room to siphon poison gas out of the end room. Once the end room was clear, Cari gave the go-ahead to Zoe and Maya to enter. The pair did so, reporting that they’d found a small keg of Azerite explosive apiece, each one the size of the largest steins the Blue Recluse had to offer. The hatch to the third segment of pipe still being open, they simply reentered and shut the hatch to the room behind them. Nat took the clean air from the room and added it to their segment, then emptied a quarter tank of poison gas back into the room, giving the tank room to take on poison gas from the second. With the second segment clear, Zoe and Maya moved into it. Nat pulled the air from the third segment and added it to what had gone with Maya and Zoe into the third, then made room in the poison gas tank for more by feeding a quarter tank into the third segment. She then pulled the poison gas from the first segment. With the control room, and safety, on the other side of the third segment, that was all that needed to be done with the controls. Zoe and Maya went from the second segment into the first, the clean air coming with them into the previously air-bereft segment. Nat opened the hatch, welcoming them back from the dangerous pipe and cheering for them. Explosives procured!
The group headed to the doorway to the next upward-bound staircase. Maya and Zoe placed their kegs at the stout door, which, as did the last door, had no lock visible for Nah to pick. Nah got to have her fun “unlocking” the door anyway, drawing her flintlock pistol, which sent everyone else scrambling for cover. Nah took cover as well, taking careful aim and firing right into one of the powder kegs of Azerite explosive.
ka-BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!
The explosives detonated as the pistol ball smashed into one of the kegs, blasting the door to smithereens! The stout fortress shuddered and the bars of all the cell doors rattled loudly, but the structure remained strong! The door upward, meanwhile, was now open!
The group emerged at the top of the stairs, finding themselves rather blocked in. Looking around, they realized they were on another cellblock floor. The way ahead, however, was BLOCKED! A portcullis on the left was raised, and another one ahead was not. Turning left, the group spied cluttered boxes and barrels stacked from the floor to the ceiling, making the entire route through blocked... except right over a large grate in the floor. One nearby barrel had a note nailed to it. It read: A2, A1, B1, C1, C2, C3, D3, D2, E2, E1.
Being quite suspicious at this point of being funneled over a storm grate that barely covered a hole that dropped to who knew what doom, the group hung back for a moment. Nat stepped forward, peering at the grate more closely.
Five rows of three one-yard-square segments of grating was built over a grid. She approached the near left grate, cautiously pressing down on it with one foot.
Setting foot on one immediately set off a rumble! A whir of a chain could be heard, and then, THWAP! A crossbow could be heard firing! A bolt flew into the room from a hole in the wall through the far door! Nat gasped, losing her balance and falling over, luckily dodging the crossbow bolt in the process. The grate was rigged!
Nah and Cari, noticing the note, went over for a closer look. Nah yoinked it off the barrel it had been tacked to. The pair worked it out. Five letters, but the numbers only went to three. Five rows, three grates per row. Three columns. Nah nodded once, still looking down at the note as she approached the gate. Cautiously, she stepped on the near-middle grate, figuring this must be A2. When nothing happened, she stepped fully onto the grate. Still nothing! Nah looked back at the note. A1 next. She moved on to it. Nothing happened this time, though Nat had triggered a crossbow when she stepped on it first instead of A2. Smirking, Nah turned and proceeded to B1. The group followed in her footsteps, one per grate segment, and the five of them resembled a snake of sorts, winding along. A1, A2, B1, C1, C2, C3, D3, D2, E2, E1, and off the far end, and safety!
The group peered into the hall that led to the next upward-bound staircase. The crossbow bolt had come from in there! Maya pulled an apple from her bag and tossed it into the room. Nothing happened! Zoe, encased all in plate as she was, decided to walk into the room. As before, nothing happened! The staircase now seemed to be safe, now that the grate had safely been traversed. The group proceeded on.
As the group proceeded up the stairs, Maya suddenly perked up. In her worgen form, she was sniffing around quite a bit. She reported she smelled fresh-cooked seafood, an entire banquet’s worth! Suspicious, she and the group moved up the stairs, having been certain up until now that they were alone in this abandoned prison fortress on this muddy, stormy island.
When they reached the next floor, the smells reached everyone else’s noses. The smells of this floor were wonderful! An exquisite array of perfectly prepared seafood dishes could be spotted near the dining area and bar of the Officer's Quarters, which this floor plainly was.
The group made their way through the Officer’s Quarters, finding themselves at another series of storm grates, this time, used as a bridge. After their experience on the previous floor, they were wary, and Zoe went first again. She stepped gently on the first middle grate… nothing happened! She stomped harder. Still nothing! She made her way onto the bridge fully… still safe! She went grate by grate, and, though she set off no booby traps, she did find that the bridge was in a state of disrepair. Two of the grates she stomped on popped loose and fell, and a third one began to sag. Carefully, she guided the group across the bridge, finding those grates that were still fairly secure to walk across. In short order, the group was across the bridge. They turned right, looking around the Officer’s Quarters closely.An expensive, fancy-looking wood floor, a cozy, comfortable sleeping quarter with many creature comforts, a spacious armory, and the most tantalizing buffet of a wide variety of seafood over near the bar made this floor the opposite of everything the previous floors were. The group hastily made their way toward the bar and dining area, though, as they had expected to be alone in this abandoned fortress, they were very wary of the decadent seafood feast laid out seemingly just for them. Everything looked quite nice, admittedly, as though a well-deserved respite was at hand... until, though the allure of food, the group noticed the cannon in the far corner turning to face them... Shouts of alarm rang out among the group as they all darted to take cover. ka-BLAM! The cannon fired! The seafood buffet table was obliterated, as was the painting hanging over it. The group peered around the corner, and they could see a cannonball rolling along the floor on its own near the cannon. The cannonball rolled right up the side of the cannon, up along the barrel, and rolled into the opening, clanking home in the dark depths of the cannon. Alarmed, the group wasted no time, darting out away from the dining area and bar and through the door that led past this room that was in between themselves and the cannon. They found themselves in a small, dark hallway, narrowly avoiding the next thunderous blast of the cannon!
The group looked outside the far door. It opened up into an outer balcony of Tol Dagor. A collective groan went up; it was still storming hard outside!
Then the storm was immediately forgotten… Lining the walls of the balcony outside were even more cannons, and these were turning to aim right through the doorway and into their little hall!
Sprinting outside, they narrowly avoided another thunderous blast behind them that filled the hallway with fire and blasting debris! Darting forward (Nat used Blink spells as much as she could to keep up, not being able to run without falling down very well), the group made their way past the nearest cannon. Zoe, getting an idea, jumped up onto the cannon, bouncing around and presenting herself as a shiny, elevated target in her brilliantly polished plate armor. Sure enough, the cannons aimed at her, though the one she was on aimed itself at Nah. The rest of the group ran with Nah past the point where that cannon fired, which fired at Nah only a fraction of a second before it was blasted to pieces by the other cannons! Zoe leaped heroically from the cannon at the last possible moment, sprinting along and repeating the process, cannon by cannon, as the group screamed and ran from blast after blast after blast! Zoe succeeded causing the cannons to destroy themselves. The group rounded two corners, dodging cannons that fired and exploded as they went, until they found themselves in an empty room with a high ceiling. The door past it was locked, though this one had another simple lock on it!
Nah stepped up to this door, reaching for her bag of tricks again. As before, the simple lock was defeated in moments with a smirk and a snicker. Nah stowed her lockpicking set, and the group peered cautiously outside.
ka-BLAAAAMMMM!
Yet another cannon fired from the other end of the balcony outside!
The cannonball whizzed right between members of the group on either side of the door, blasting the wall on the fire side of the room. As it had since the first cannon shot, the stout fortress held strong! The group darted outside, Zoe once again doing her cannon dance, forcing cannons to destroy themselves. Darting around one last corner, Zoe did one last cannon dance, and now, finally, on the last cannon, she was only just too slow. The cannon she was on detonated underneath her, sending her flying into a staircase and breaking her arm! Maya did her best to set it, taking the time to heal Zoe and everyone else up, as everyone was still close to done from all the unbreathable sewer air at the beginning of the exploration through abandoned Tol Dagor.
As Maya worked, the group was joined by a latecomer, Rylee Mhorrigan! Unexpectedly, she dropped out of the sky, landing among the group and explaining her dream of having been approaching a muddy island with a foreboding sense of dread as she spied a strong fortress, knowing, somehow, in her dream that this was a fortress few ever exited once they were dragged into it. Tol Dagor had come to mind, and she’d flown to join the group with all speed once she’d figured it out!
With the group’s injuries mostly healed (Zoe’s arm was in a splint of Maya’s fashioning still), and their spirits bolstered by the sudden appearance of their friend, the group ascended the final pair of staircases to the building’s roof.
What they saw there sucked the wind right back out of their sails again.
A towering, twenty-foot-tall shadowy apparition of the previous warden, Overseer Korgus, was walking around the edges, pointing at cannons. Each time he did, it would fire! Spotting the group, he begins pointing cannonballs into all six cannons mounted around the roof, loading them up! He'd fire soon if not stopped!
The battle started immediately! Nah and Nat filled the torso of the apparition with flintlock pistol balls and flurries of ice shards, with the apparition being formed of such thickly congealed Void that physical attacks actually seemed to hurt it! Cari, meanwhile, was sabotaging the nearest cannon. A pair of portals, one in front of the cannon and one above it facing downward, appeared poised to catch a cannonball and portal it right back into itself! Maya and Zoe attacked with claw and sword. Korgus attempted a cannon blast at Nat, who was standing near enough to Zoe and Nah that the shot landed in their midst and blasted debris and shockwave into all three of them! Nah darted out of battle then, sabotaging another cannon by filling it with small explosives she contained in her bag of tricks. Any shot fired from this cannon would explode right in the barrel! Rylee sent Sunfire blasts at a pair of cannons on one side, detonating them both! Zoe leapt heroically through the air next, bringing her massive two-handed sword down in a powerful forward arc, splitting the apparition right down the middle, causing it to comically walk around in circles as its two halves flopped around, sagging nearly to the floor on either side of it. It attempted to fire the cannon Cari had rigged with portals, which, predictably enough, caused it to shoot itself and explode! Three left! Meanwhile, Cari attempted a Dispelling of the apparition, which succeeded in ripping it the rest of the way in half! The apparition disincorporated at that, with the late Overseer Korgus’ voice drifting away on the winds, lamenting the lost chance to use a new form of Azerite ammunition he referred to as, “Azerballs.”
The remaining cannons went idle at the disappearance of the apparition, though Nah still had fun detonating the explosives in the one she’d rigged and blowing it to the moon. Converging, everyone checked to make sure everyone else was alright, and more healing was done by Maya.
At that point, Nat froze in place, cutting herself off in mid-sentence. The rest of the group, knowing by now that Nat freezing in place as though time had stopped meant that there would be a Tidesage recording somewhere, looked around. Nah was already looking up to the top of the lighthouse with a frown. The others looked up, and, sure enough, a human female’s figure, shrouded in Tidesage’s robes, was peering down at them! The flying mounts were summoned, with Cari mounting Maya’s back as Maya took on her owl form. Up to the top of the lighthouse they went, landing mere feet from the Tidesage. The Tidesage, as always, had a method of keeping her face hidden in shadows, which this time were caused by the brilliant lamp of the lighthouse just to her right, causing her low-pulled hood to overshadow her features completely. The eerily familiar voice of the woman, familiar to all but Zoe, spoke.
“Well DONE!” she said. “WELL done indeed! I knew you'd manage every task! Mental fortitude. Emotional fortitude. Logic. The ability to bump elbows with the worst of the worst, and come out on top. And survival and a cool, thinking head in the face of mortal peril! You have shown yourself to be worthy of the tasks I shall set before you in the near future. Tasks that, more and more, shall reveal to you my plans. Tasks that will lead to the glorious return of the Black Empire!”
“And now, Marcus Brinebreaker, I will reveal myself to you at last. One final tasks remains to you. You need simply pay attention to your next dream, and those of your subordinates, just as you have all along... and they will lead you straight to me. When we meet in person, I will reveal the full scope and glory of my plans to you! ALL THE WORLD SHALL TREMBLE AS THE OLD ONES RETAKE THE SURFACE!”
As with the end of each previous magical recording, the Tidesage suddenly just… disappeared! No fade. No flash of light. No puff of smoke. She was simply there one second... then simply... not there in the very next! Zoe had had her middle finger erected at the Tidesage’s magical recording, and the rest of the group had listened closely to the message, then began speaking. This was it! The tasks were all complete, and now, at least, they’d meet the Tidesage in person! Looking over the ledge of the lighthouse tower pinnacle, they saw Nat, far below, still seeming to be frozen in time mid-sentence. They flew back down to her, and she unfroze, finishing her sentence as if nothing had happened. She blinked afterward, noticing everyone was suddenly standing in a different spot than they had a second ago. Knowing the time-lapse thing had happened again, she sighed, asking what the Tidesage had said. They filled her in, then began speculating on who the Tidesage could be. Nat found herself a little flabbergasted at Rylee’s suggestion that the Tidesage could be the mother she’d lost in Darkshire when she was a young girl, though she had nearly as hard a time accepting Cari’s explanation. Cari still seemed adamant that the Tidesage was none other than the late Joanessa Seaslums, Nat’s dearly departed friend she’d hung out with sometimes in between investigation days when they’d first met her as their primary source of leads on the Brinebreaker Gang.
The debate ran for some length of time, with Nat finally admitting some of the more suspicious things. They’d found Joan’s picture in Rolfe Braxton’s missing locket, tying him and the orphan boy that looked exactly like her, Rob, together as a family of three. Why had Joan, who seemed to know everything that went on in the slums, not reunited her family, letting her husband and son each believe that their family was dead? Why, when she’d turned up murdered, did her body, according to Maya’s worgen form sniffing, not carry her scent? Why had the blood Maya scented on the murder weapon not smelled of Joan’s scent? Why had Joan taken on the surname Seaslums, instead of keeping the surname Braxton, her married name?
Another source of consternation was what the group would find next week when they followed their next dream lead to the Tidesage. Would it be an anti-climatic dead end, if it were Joan all along? Had they been following the old recordings of someone who had passed away, only to find a room that no longer housed a living Tidesage somewhere, and the threat of a Tidesage was no longer present? Had the last month or more of searching for the Tidesage been for nothing?
They’d find out in a week!
********
Participants:
Nahlia Lifebloom Natasha Ebonlocke Carilina Halverson Maya Maxwell Zoe Helton Rylee Mhorrigan
Each participant gains +1 favor with Lady Whitewind
Whitewind Company gains: New Lead: Tidesage Location! to be determined by future dreams
|
|