![](http://cobalt-company.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images/writing:2024-05-06-interlude:danger-in-desolace-part-3/style="margin:/medium.jpg) |
| Details |
| Author: | Alli |
| Summary: | Meeting up for the first time after the Cataclysm, the Cobalt Blade ventures through a changed Desolace, and then heads to remove a corruption that has been newly summoned back to the center of Maraudon. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Arc: The Cobalt Blade
Thalstan walks into the inn in Nijel's Point, the agreed-upon meeting spot for the Cobalt Blade, and looks around to see who's here.
Tadget waves at Thalstan.
[Tadget]: So. That happened.
[Thalstan]: Aye. End of the world, almost. But we're still here.
[Tadget]: I turn my back on you guys for FIVE minutes.
[Thalstan]: I… hope we're all still here. Ye heard from Zaara or Ves?
[Tadget]: Ves is sleeping over there.
Tadget points at Vesyllah.
[Zaara]: Hello.
[Thalstan]: Oh, good. *Thal heaves a sigh of relief.* And Zaara!
[Zaara]: I am Zaara, yes.
[Thalstan]: Then Art… was he in Stormwind fer the wave?
Tadget runs over and gives Zaara a sudden fierce hug of whatever body part she can reach.
Tadget hugs Zaara.
Zaara startles slightly as her shin is grappled with.
[Zaara]: Hello, Mayhem. Yes.
Zaara reaches down to pat Tadget's hair tiredly.
Tadget buries her face in Zaara's skirt for a second, then subtly wipes her face on it and pulls away, totally fine, nothing to see here.
Zaara cannot see it, so that works out.
[Zaara]: Everyone is… here?
[Tadget]: I think I see Art over there…
Vesyllah gets up.
[Tadget]: Decided to nap through the apocalypse?
Vesyllah stares blankly at Tadget for a moment. "No," she says dryly.
[Thalstan]: Thank the titans. *Thal murmurs. He looks away for a moment. Dwarvish cover models don't get teary-eyed, you know*
[Arthur]: Zaara! I'm so sorry. I guess we know what made the spirits so angry.
[Tadget]: He made me kinda angry too, to be honest.
Zaara gives a slow, spread-handed shrug, immensely weary. Her own opaque eyes are a little extra shimmery too, to be honest.
[Tadget]: He messed with my stuff.
The world is Tadget's stuff.
[Thalstan]: But we all… we all made it through. The five of us. We're a team.
[Zaara]: Still, they are not — he has broken out, but still the spirits are… in feelings. You must know this. He has… hurt something deep in the world.
[Tadget]: I mean we kinda made it through separately, but I guess any good team is also individually pretty badass.
[Arthur]: Yeah. And now there's a hell of a mess out there.
Zaara nods heavily.
[Zaara]: And the Earthen Ring is being [draenei word].
[Tadget]: Yeah. Those guys. So [draenei word, pronounced badly].
[Thalstan]: What does tha' mean? Super effective and really about to fix everything?
[Tadget]: You're adorable, sir.
[Zaara]: No.
Vesyllah steps down from her bench. "There's no fixing this."
[Tadget]: Welcome to the "everything I care about is irretrievably trashed" club. Booty and I are longtime members.
Thalstan sighs deeply. "Everywhere is fallin' apart. E'en Ironforge. I do no' know… what to do about it."
[Tadget]: Do what the rest of us do. Gnome up and push forward.
[Thalstan]: Right. We have a task today. We still do.
[Tadget]: Yep.
[Zaara]: There is no undoing what is broken. There can be healing to the spirits, if — we can. Find out the hurt. And — *She turns her head to listen to Thalstan.*
Tadget gently pats Zaara.
[Thalstan]: Tervosh found out what was up with the corruption. Bit late, to my mind.
[Thalstan]: Tha' elemental princess o' the earth… somethin’ in Maraudon was workin’ to bring her back.
[Tadget]: What??
[Thalstan]: I guess elementals are like that? Ye don't jus' kill 'em, they get… sent to another plane?
[Tadget]: I thought her being gone was the whole reason this land got better and stuff.
[Tadget]: Maybe she just has to start over sucking the life out of it?
Vesyllah rolls her eyes (it's hard to tell with all the glowing). "I wonder what could have possibly brought her back."
[Thalstan]: It is, an' it was. She was gone for a long while.
[Tadget]: So at least we have some time now. To stop things from going all… desolate again.
[Thalstan]: This is jus' real recent. She's no' had time to suck the life out of it again, and we're meant to make sure she does no'.
Tadget salutes you with respect.
[Tadget]: On it!
[Thalstan]: I guess the hints o’ corruption was somethin' related to the summoning? An' now he's quite sure she's back.
[Tadget]: Very excited to actually be doing some murders for a good cause, sir.
[Thalstan]: So we'll ride fer Maraudon. I've heard th' land's changed. Maybe we'll see what it is we're ta preserve.
[Vesyllah]: Swell.
Tadget unpacks Tailwind.
Zaara breathes in deeply.
They ride out of Nijel’s Point. At first, Desolace looks the same as always. Soon, though, they approach a lush, green area near the center. It’s clustered around a large tree.
[Arthur]: What's that?
[Tadget]: What the actual—
Arthur points ahead.
[Thalstan]: This area looks much the same, but…. Whoa.
[Zaara]: No!
[Zaara]: It is –
[Tadget]: I thought that was a mushroom cloud at first. Would've been more on brand.
[Arthur]: I'm pretty sure this…oh boy.
Vesyllah glances up and around at all the growth, but otherwise doesn't react.
[Thalstan]: Grass? All over…
[Tadget]: Seriously what the freaking torque.
[Zaara]: I think perhaps… perhaps because of what we have done in the earth here? To cleanse the water?
The group considers this as they pass through the outskirts.
[Thalstan]: An it cuts off right here. Like they've got some force o' life that's spreadin' from the center.
[Tadget]: Maybe we should stop in there.
Thalstan nods at Zaara.
[Arthur]: Oh sure, let's.
They head into the heart of the greenery.
[Thalstan]: Purple flowers…
Vesyllah groans. "This has 'druids' written all over it."
[Thalstan]: Whoa… this is like a proper kaldorei place.
[Tadget]: Yep, it's the Cenarion Circle all right.
[Arthur]: Oh, let's just traipse into the brand new jungle that wasn't even here a month ago! That seems fine.
They find people inside.
[Tadget]: Kaldorei and Tauren. So yep.
[Vesyllah]: A moonwell…
Arthur relaxes when he sees the Cenarion Circle banners.
[Tadget]: Whenever you see Kaldorei and Tauren hanging out together in a suspiciously verdant paradise you can bet it's a druid party.
[Zaara]: Trouble, I will tell you if the thing is too wrong, yes?
[Thalstan]: Then mayhap when we get rid of the elemental threat in the heart o' Maraudon, this'll spread even faster.
[Zaara]: But this is only… newness.
[Arthur]: No party like a druid party.
Tadget giggles at Arthur.
[Thalstan]: Cause a druid party makes a forest.
[Vesyllah]: Gimme a minute.
Vesyllah heads over to the ramp up to the moonwell.
[Tadget]: 'Kay.
[Tadget]: She's gotta do elf stuff I guess.
[Thalstan]: Might be they've got ta do somethin' sacred wi' water. They love water, aye?
[Tadget]: I'unno.
Tadget has not been reading the memos about Cobalt Blade being a symbol for Alliance diversity.
[Tadget]: You know, the cool thing about this is that no old people can be like, 'You don't know what a REAL disaster is like, sonny!!" anymore.
Thalstan watches a blue giant moth flutter by.
[Thalstan]: Oh, aye. I think I know a real disaster now.
[Thalstan]: I feel like a veteran, I think.
[Tadget]: I wasn't there for the Sundering, but this has gotta be at least CLOSE.
It isn't.
Vesyllah finishes her prayers and returns to the others.
[Tadget]: Done with elf stuff?
[Vesyllah]: Yeah. Done with 'elf stuff'.
[Thalstan]: Alrigh', let's get on ta Maraudon.
[Tadget]: Boy, those thunder lizards look perky.
[Tadget]: Even if it is weird druid juju, I am kinda liking this whole situation.
As they get closer to Maraudon, the greenery stops. We’re back to the same drab greyish dirt as always.
[Thalstan]: This bit near Mauradon looks almost like before.
[Thalstan]: It really is like there's some other power keepin' it from healin'.
[Tadget]: The centaurs objected to elf redecorators I guess.
[Tadget]: The Cenarion Circle showed up with brochures and swatches and the centaurs were like "no" and ate them.
[Zaara]: It is like a… what do you call? When there is a wood in you?
[Tadget]: Um Booty…?
[Tadget]: That's called 'a good time.'
Thalstan eyes Zaara in surprise.
[Zaara]: Yes? Do you know this? What, no!
[Zaara]: It is the little wood, in the skin? Very stings.
[Tadget]: Oh, splinters.
[Thalstan]: Oh! Aye, that makes more ense.
[Zaara]: Yes. It is like splinters here in the land.
[Tadget]: Ouch.
They pass through a portal and find themselves at the top of a waterfall in the enormous grotto of Maraudon.
[Thalstan]: Whoa, now this is a new part.
[Thalstan]: I think this is th' way, down the waterfall.
Tadget sighs at Stolid Snapjaw.
[Tadget]: If your friends jumped off a waterfall would you do it too?
They all jump off the waterfall. So… yes?
[Thalstan]: This place is really wet.
[Thalstan]: My greaves are bound ta rust in all this water.
[Tadget]: This is why wearing metal is dumb.
Zaara is looking dreamy.
[Thalstan]: It is a lot better fer blockin' swords.
We fight some diemetradons.
[Tadget]: Die, metradons!!!
[Thalstan]: There's some of those earth elementals!
[Thalstan]: I suppose we can leave th' living things alone as much as we can.
We dodge around some of them.
[Tadget]: Kinda smells gross in here. All mildewy.
[Thalstan]: I don't doubt it, enclosed space an' water.
[Tadget]: Smells like my brother's socks.
[Thalstan]: I hope we'll know the corruptin' elemental when we see it.
[Thalstan]: Well, I bet Zaara will.
[Tadget]: She'll prolly know it before we see it.
[Zaara]: Yes.
We find some elementals, at least.
[Thalstan]: Are these ones corrupted er jus' ornery?
[Zaara]: Angered. By the corrupt one.
[Tadget]: People need to chill about corruption. If you get angry about corruption you're just gonna be angry ALL THE TIME.
[Thalstan]: It's good ta clean it out, but aye, anger is not so useful.
[Zaara]: Ahhh, this one is so angry. He is fire inside!
[Tadget]: A little bit of anger can help give a stab some extra oomph, but just being mad about every single little corrupted elemental princess or gigantic rift in the earth or irradiated city just gets exhausting.
[Thalstan]: Anyway, maybe if we knock 'em down, they'll come back less angry. Once we've handled the corrupted one.
Thalstan nods at Tadget.
[Thalstan]: Let's get this one then, Zaara.
[Tadget]: 'Kay.
Tadget stabs the rocks.
We knock him down, so he has less fire inside.
[Tadget]: I have to say, fighting these guys is not really satisfying for a person such as myself.
[Zaara]: It is not an angry to be angry. It is because of the pain and troubles. It is like when a hurt clefthoof tries to charge.
[Thalstan]: I hope we can make a cleaner place fer 'im ta come back to.
[Tadget]: By stabbing rocks.
[Thalstan]: Aye, by stabbing rocks.,
[Thalstan]: This place is huge. You could make a dwarf city down here.
[Tadget]: Dont' give them ideas.
[Tadget]: They'll start digging and unleash some new eldritch horror.
[Thalstan]: Aye, probably right.
[Zaara]: It is so water. Dwarves are not water.
[Tadget]: Dwarves are SO not water.
[Thalstan]: Wouldn't tha' be a thing? If there were water dwarfs.
[Thalstan]: I'd say Bronzebeard are stone. Wildhammer are air. Dark Iron are fire.
[Zaara]: But no water.
[Tadget]: Maybe there is a secret water dwarf clan.
[Thalstan]: Aye, maybe there's a long lost tribe o' water dwarves?
Thalstan nods at Tadget.
[Zaara]: … I wonder does it mean there is, yes.
[Tadget]: Murlocs.
[Tadget]: Murlocs are water dwarves.
Tadget giggles at you.
Thalstan laughs.
There are more diemetradons.
[Tadget]: These guys are a long way from Un'Goro Crater.
[Thalstan]: How do you reckon they got here?
[Zaara]: In the waters under the earth.
[Tadget]: So they're swimmy li'l guys.
[Thalstan]: The… ground water? Like they were talkin' about in Tanaris?
[Zaara]: Swimmy little guys. Yes.
[Zaara]: There is water all under the land, rivers and lakes and seas. Like this.
[Thalstan]: An' then it wells up, I suppose, in diff'rent places.
[Tadget]: One time there was a whole lot of water in Ironforge, too, hehehehe.
[Tadget]: Mages, amirite?
[Thalstan]: Oh, aye? The portal mishap?
[Tadget]: One for the record books.
[Tadget]: Imagine being that guy and having your name in every textbook forever.
[Thalstan]: It was four years ago, an' I remember it like yesterday.
[Thalstan]: I would've called that a cataclysm, but now I know better.
[Tadget]: Heh.
[Arthur]: Ha! Yeah. Embarrassing.
[Zaara]: What is this who happened?
[Tadget]: So this mage guy…
[Tadget]: He was trying to open a portal into Ironforge.
[Tadget]: For some reason he was trying to open it while standing in the middle of a lake.
[Tadget]: In Redridge.
[Tadget]: And he… forgot to put in a water filter or something?
[Tadget]: And so the whole lake portaled too.
[Zaara]: What? Oh, the poor lake!
[Tadget]: Right into Ironforge.
[Tadget]: Poor everyone involved.
[Tadget]: Except the mage. Torque that guy.
[Zaara]: Torque that guys.
Tadget giggles at Zaara.
[Thalstan]: Aye, it was the Great Ironforge Flood.
[Tadget]: Or the great Redridge Drought.
[Thalstan]: Or that.
[Tadget]: Depending on your perspective.
[Thalstan]: I was a guard at th' time.
[Tadget]: That must've been fun.
[Thalstan]: So Ironforge Flood fer me.
We come across a very large creature.
[Thalstan]: Whoa! Look at that enormous croc!
[Thalstan]: Corrupted?
[Zaara]: Something is rotten inside of his heart.
[Thalstan]: Let's kill 'im.
[Tadget]: Killing is often an efficient solution to this sort of problem, I've found.
[Thalstan]: Aye, but I would no' want to lean on it for solvin' all problems.
[Zaara]: Ohhhh.
Tadget smiles at Zaara.
Tadget can do that, because Zaara won't see it.
[Zaara]: Be aware! It is so close!
[Zaara]: The wood. Splinter.
[Thalstan]: The princess?
[Tadget]: That's good. We're here to yank the splinter out.
[Zaara]: Yes.
[Tadget]: Splinter should beware of US.
[Thalstan]: We're like the tweezers!
[Tadget]: I'm gonna have to get new daggers after this. So much rock-stabbing.
[Tadget]: Ooooh.
[Tadget]: There's flowers.
[Tadget]: Also a big ugly lumpy person.
[Zaara]: Not a person. An elemental.
Up ahead, an image appears by the monstrous earth elemental princess. It looks familiar - it is the ogre from Zul'farrak!
[Thalstan]: Oh no! Hide!
Thalstan hides in a shrubbery.
Tadget whispers, "Or stab? Instead of hiding?"
Tadget is not a Subtlety rogue.
Image of Cho'Gall says: No longer are you bound here, great princess. Have you not heard?
Image of Cho'Gall says: Deathwing has unleashed his cataclysm. The vaults of the Titans grow weak as chaos flourishes. This prison can no longer contain you.
Tadget whispers, "That rat bastard!"
Princess Theradras scoffs.
Princess Theradras says: Watch your tongues, servant of Deathwing. Do you think me a fool?!
Tadget whispers, "Hehe, tongues."
The ogre, indeed, has two heads.
Vesyllah growls quietly, "Servant of Deathwing…."
Princess Theradras says: Terramok is my home, not my prison. The remains of my beloved make it so.
Thalstan whispers, "Did no' her children kill her 'beloved'?"
Tadget whispers "Wow, I guess anyone can get a boyfriend…"
[Thalstan]: At least she's not helpin' the cult…
Princess Theradras says: But do not despair, ogre. I will continue to aid you and your… cult.
[Thalstan]: Oh.
Tadget sighs at Princess Theradras.
Princess Theradras says: It pleases me, after all, to cause such strife in the world above… to shake, to shatter, to swallow and crush…
Princess Theradras says: …but here I shall remain, forever.
| Image of Cho'gall says: Very well. With your permission, Princess.
Tadget whispers, "You gotta be some kind of extreme defective to help out Deathwing."
Princess Theradras says: Go.
Vesyllah clenches her teeth. "She's helping Neltharion and his cult. She dies."
The Image of Cho'gall vanishes.
[Thalstan]: Aye. She dies. She helped to do all these things.
[Tadget]: Oh no, I have to kill something. Whatever shall I do.
[Thalstan]: All the chaos.
[Thalstan]: Kharanos, when I… all the earthquake destruction.
[Thalstan]: It was no' all her, but she helped.
[Tadget]: I'd like it noted for the record that I immediately suggested the killing.
They commence the stabbing of Princess Theradras. She puts up a fight.
Tadget cheers!
[Tadget]: Okay this one's going in the book.
Vesyllah prays as she fights, "Warriors we shall be, for thee Elune, for thee…"
[Thalstan]: Fer once, Valor and Vengeance require the same things.
[Vesyllah]: Power hath descended forth from thy hand…
Tadget cheers!
[Vesyllah]: That our feet may swiftly carry out thy command
[Vesyllah]: So we shall flow a river forth to thee
[Vesyllah]: And teeming with souls shall it ever be
[Vesyllah]: In the name of the Mother, the Night Warrior…in her blessed light.
The fight concludes favorably for the Cobalt Blade. Less so for the corrupted earth elemental princess.
[Tadget]: This isn't going to be your new thing is it Vengeance?
[Tadget]: Poetry?
Vesyllah snarls, "It's a prayer."
[Thalstan]: Respect fer other cultures, Mayhem.
A ghost hovers behind them.
[Tadget]: I've heard some people pray, quietly, like, to themselves, in their minds.
[Vesyllah]: My holy mission is not a quiet one.
Tadget lets out a long, drawn-out sigh.
[Arthur]: Is—are you a nature spirit?
Zaetar says: Do not be alarmed. I am Zaetar, son of Cenarius.
Tadget looks uuuuup and uuuuup and finally notices the stag guy.
[Tadget]: Sup Zaetar, we're the Cobalt Blade.
[Arthur]: Cenarius! Oh wow.
Zaetar says: Thank you for slaying her once again.
Zaetar says: Long ago, I made the mistake of mating with Princess Theradras, a powerful earth elemental aligned with the Old Gods - that selfsame elemental you have just slain.
Vesyllah nods reverently to the spirit.
Zaetar says: Our children, the centaur khans, slew me mercilessly, and my spirit was trapped here.
[Tadget]: Kids are the worst.
[Tadget]: I fully expect mine to slay me mercilessly one day.
[Zaara]: What?
[Tadget]: Especially that one.
[Tadget]: Sorry, go ahead, sir.
Zaetar says: As you can see, my mere presence here has resulted in a bloom of glorious life, despite her presence. Now, perhaps one day you will venture to Desolace and find the entire region a verdant Oasis, free of the taint of the Old Gods.
Zaara bows before Zaetar's Spirit.
[Tadget]: About that.
[Thalstan]: I hope so, sir. Keep up the good spirit work. The druids outside are with ye.
[Tadget]: Some of your druidy friends are working on that as we speak.
Thalstan nods at Tadget.
[Vesyllah]: They have even constructed a moonwell.
[Tadget]: Lots of flowers and stuff. You'd like it.
[Tadget]: So maybe be at peace or whatever?
Zaetar says: That is wonderful to hear. Perhaps one day I will be reunited with them in spirit, despite the mistakes I have made.
[Arthur]: It's very beautiful.
[Tadget]: We all make mistakes, it's okay.
Zaetar says: What you have done, and what you tell me, does bring me peace.
[Arthur]: Couldn't you…just go?
[Arthur]: There isn't anything left here to hold you. Can't we spring you loose?
[Tadget]: I guess he's gotta be ready.
Zaetar says: I have never been able to leave this place. But perhaps, with her gone… I will try.
[Tadget]: Cool.
[Thalstan]: Ye do that, mister.
Zaetar's spirit fades, as his attention seems to be caught on something elsewhere. Something beautiful.
Zaara 's eyes shimmer again.
[Tadget]: Oh wowwww… Zaara did you feel that?
Zaara nods.
[Tadget]: I couldn't feel it but I saw his face.
Thalstan rubs at his eyes. It's probably allergies, all this blooming around him.
[Tadget]: Sometimes murder is the right thing to do.
Tadget has taken the right lesson from all this.
[Thalstan]: I think we did good here, Cobalt Company. Aye, in this case, murder helped.
Tadget grins at Thal wickedly.
Arthur grins. "This might have been the best thing we did."
[Thalstan]: I hope we do many wonderful things. *Thalstan smiles back at Arthur.* In th' future.
[Arthur]: Time will pass. Something will move in here. Maybe they'll be harmless. But if not…We'll leave the maps at HQ in case someone needs to clean up.
Thalstan nods. "Good thought, Trouble. In case trouble returns."
[Thalstan]: In the meantime, all have yer hearthstones?
[Zaara]: Yes.
Vesyllah nods.
[Arthur]: Here we go! I have orphans to show around.
[Thalstan]: Show them the best places. *Thal grins and pulls out his hearthstone*
[Tadget]: Later taters.
The group vanishes to their homes.