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| Details |
| Author: | inkie |
| Summary: | Blue Squad returns to the Temple of the Jade Serpent to see what steps they can take to help make amends for last week's disaster. It turns out the Temple very much needs their help, and they can make some pretty direct amends. |
| Rating: | M for Mature 17+ |
Atley marches up to the tavern in Paw'don Village. "Hullo', then."
Shine nods at Atley.
Erixa raises a hand in greeting. "Where are we off to today?"
Oranna waves hello, fixing her braid and tossing it behind her.
"We're making for the Temple. We'll arrive in full force, and see wot' needs doing," Atley says.
Shine nods again and checks he has all his knives with him. This check takes longer than you might think.
"I hope there is something we can do for Yu'lon," Erixa says, frowning. "With her regeneration postponed."
Oranna nods, chewing on her bottom lip as she pats down her bags, her gun, her bags again, Befound, and one more check of her bag.
Befound just s t r e t c h e s out her claws. She IS full force.
Bran wanders over, beaming at the group.
Atley nods at Erixa. "I'm certain there is. She'll find something for us to do. We're fortunate she's about and a friend to us.
"Right then. All squared away — let's get moving. We'll fly," Atley says.
Shine glances at Oranna.
Oranna sighs as she buckles up her Big Girl flying pants. Metaphorically. She doesn't actually have flying pants.
The roads leading up to the temple itself are oddly empty today, and the doors of some of the little painted huts and outbuildings are shut. The sky is oddly overcast.
Atley squints and looks around before he starts marching into the Jade Temple Grounds.
Erixa looks around warily for signs of the sha.
Oranna looks up nervously at the sky. "That's… do ye think that's a portent?"
Atley shifts his gaze upward, squinting one eye. "Perhaps."
Oranna is not reassured by this, but she was already thinking it, so it's an even wash.
Bran is quiet and thoughtful.
Shine glances down at a sudden scuffling presence at his heels and does a slight double-take.
"Is safe today for tanuki?" Erixa asks, glancing at Shine.
Shine looks up at Erixa. "I don't know. I did leave him at home." He looks down at Bun. "You're supposed to be with Lena," he admonishes the tanuki.
Bun looks unrepentant.
Atley glances over a pauldron at Bun and grunts.
Befound rumbles with feline approval at Bun. Yes, good, Not Snack. Stealth progress is noted.
Oranna glances at Bun, then at Befound. "Make sure nothin' happens, aye, lass?" she mutters to the snow leopard.
Befound looks Profoundly Insulted, as if any apprentice of hers would ever not be good enough to not let something happen to himself.
Bran sighs softly as they approach the temple; he looks at it the way most would look at their significant others.
The temple courtyard is empty as well.
Atley glances around. He clears his throat and raises his voice. "Hullo'!"
"Where is everyone?" Erixa mutters, her frown deepening.
"LO THERE!" Bran bellows cheerily.
The calls echo, but there is no reply.
"Workin' on the research maybe?" Oranna hazards, looking around.
"We should go in, interrupt them," Erixa nods.
"Must be inside, then," Atley says, marching up the steps. He raises a fist and rasps on the gate three solid time.
"Or maybe just battenin' down the hatches," Bran says, practicing his sailor speak. He's been studying the Navy, I guess.
Just inside the temple’s entrance, a priestess in green and ivory is engaged in urgent discussion with a bare-chested monk. The grand doors that open into the temple’s inner courtyard are closed. There is no sound of voices other than these two, no trainer calling or chatter of trainees.
Oranna looks nervous.
Shine looks impassive, which might be nervous.
"Stay sharp," Atley mutters to the squad before he marches up to the pair of pandaren.
Oranna looks sharply nervous, which is the same as regular nervous but with her gun out.
"Well met," Atley greets, shrewd gaze flitting between the two.
The pandaren priestess turns at once. “Oh, thank goodness!” she cries. “The foreign heroes! Have you come to help us?”
"Aye!" Bran says cheerily.
"We have… Wot's going on?" Atley asks.
The priestess makes a despairing gesture. “The temple’s purity has been jeopardized by the Sha’s escape. Even now, the three masters struggle against their doubts. Can you find and help Wise Mari, Liu Flameheart, and Lorewalker Stonestep?”
Atley knits his brow and draws Thunderfury and his shield. "We can."
Finding people! Oranna breathes out a sigh of relief. That she can do.
"Ohhhh… their doubts…" Bran whips out his journal and takes some quick notes.
The monk beside her has been listening gravely. Now he bows. “Travelers. The legend of your deeds in the Jade Forest has already begun to grow. Perhaps you will now add to that legend.
“There is an ancient pandaren saying: ‘With deep doubt comes deep wisdom.’ I daresay you are all about to become wiser: The Sha of Doubt itself has infested the Heart of Jade within the temple. It must be destroyed.”
"It came in here, then… the big doubt monster," Erixa says quietly.
The monk nods at Erixa.
"We've got thes," Bran says confidently. The anti-sha of anti-doubt.
Oranna seems surprised to find out that she's about to become the deepest wise person on the planet.
Atley nods slowly and sets his jaw. "We'll take care of it. Stay here and stay safe. We'll send any survivors to you."
"I… does it boost the wisdom if I doubt that it'll be great wisdom from doubt?" Oranna mutters.
Bran chuckles softly and pats Oranna.
Atley looks to the open door. "Let's get in there, then. Be ready for anything."
"I am certain that we are equal to this," Erixa says to Oranna. "Hold to that, maybe?"
Bun has never doubted anything in his life. This may explain a certain lack of wisdom.
Oranna might doubt, but SUNBEAM is full of confidence, so that's probably good enough.
"We are equal to this. This how we undo wot's happened at the Serpent's Heart, you lot. We make up for that today — now." Atley growls.
Bran takes a deep breath, and a gleaming aura of golden symbols appears around him, lingering and following him as he goes inside.
They have hardly taken two steps into the corridor before what looks like a sha in the form of a water elemental flows toward them.
Atley charges the corrupted elemental. It collapses into a puddle of bubbling, harmful, Sha-corrupted water. "Watch it — !"
Oranna makes a eurgh sound as a half dozen sha droplets explode from the sha.
Shine skips back with a curse.
"Ah… the water is more angry today," Erixa says. "I hope Mari is not injured."
"Brannagen — we've a body." Atley says, nodding at a fallen jinyu.
More of the corrupted elementals wash swiftly toward them. Each explodes into droplets and puddles of smoking, sha-tainted water on death.
Oranna keeps well out of the fray, shooting from the back row.
Atley raises his gaze to other fallen jinyu. "We've many bodies…" he corrects.
"Oh no, and they are already so few…" Erixa bows a head in respect.
Bran approaches and attempts a resurrection or three. He shakes his head sadly.
Oranna looks from one intact body to a nearby skeleton. "That water… it stripped the flesh right off."
Shine makes the same grim survey Oranna does. He says nothing.
"Let's steer clear of it," Erixa says.
Atley scowls in thought. "Aye. Keep your space."
Bran is quieter than usual, focusing on his connection to the Light.
Oranna sucks in her chest as much as she can as they skirt around the water on a bridge.
Erixa looks up to see Mari at the center of the water room, but he does not look friendly.
"Oh! That's…" Oranna starts and then squints at the jinyu.
Brannagen frowns.
Today the water in the labyrinthine pools that run through the room seems… different. It has a shifting, oily cast to it.
"Dane… something's…. something's not righ'," Oranna says nervously.
Bun hides behind Shine's boot and gives a tiny growl.
"I would avoid touchin' any water ef I were you," Bran says solemnly.
Atley squints at Wise Mari and nods slowly. "Aye…" His gaze lowers to the water. "Avoid it."
Erixa nods. "It seems very… sha."
"Step lively, you lot," Atley says.
Erixa hops over the water.
Oranna steps heavily.
Atley marches up the ramp and squints at Wise Mari. "You're not yourself, Waterspeaker. Stand down."
Bran looks dubious that this is going to work. Stop bringing that energy, Bran.
The jinyu sage at the center of the chamber is swathed in strange shadow. He turns a baleful gaze on Atley. "You dare disturb these waters?"
"Atley," Shine warns, one hand on a knife hilt.
"Do ye not remember us?" Bran says. "We're friends, we helped ye."
Erixa raises a placating hand, but doesn't speak.
Atley realizes he's not exactly talking to Wise Mari anymore. He raises his head. "Aye. We dare."
Oranna shifts back, shouldering her gun, her lips in a tight line as she starts to breathe carefully in a sniper's cadence.
"You will DROWN!" Mari howls, and raises his arms. A shield like a giant bubble surrounds him. The water all around them begins to churn with violent shadows.
Atley grits his teeth. "Stay out of the water — Oranna, test that shield! Erixa, Shine, mind the flanks!"
Erixa draws her sword, instantly blazing with light, and looks to Oranna.
Shine swears and vanishes, only to reappear a moment later with a stagger as his foot lands in some of the corrupted water. He hisses and then vanishes again.
"Ach," says Bran, and steps away from the edge of the stone tile he's standing on.
Oranna shoots at the water bubble uselessly. She sticks another bullet type in the chamber, and it too reflects off. "He's got it too powerful! But no one can keep a thing like that up forever. Probably. I think?"
"Aye! We'll wear him down!" Atley calls out.
Bran's hands are suffused with golden Light; he takes a deep breath, visibly centring himself as the chaos around him intensifies.
Mari laughs at Oranna's assessment. "You will not live long enough to know! Spring to life!"
At his command, another black-swirling water elemental, far larger than those in the corridors, roars to life from one of the nearby pools. It surges toward the group.
"Spring ta — " Oranna starts to question, and then it's answered. "Oh."
Erixa whirls towards it, watching her footwork, and attacks with her light-augmented blade.
"Eyes up!" Atley says. He bangs on his shield a few deafening times to get the elemental's attention and steps away from the pools.
Bran looks briefly like he really, really wants to pause to sketch the elemental. He does not. People need healing.
Oranna shifts focus to the oncoming elementals, which are not bullet proof despite being made of magical water for reasons still in research of Azeroth mages.
They are not sword-proof or Light-proof either.
Atley slashes at an elemental as it approaches, carving through it. "Watch the fountains!"
Shine appears behind the elemental once its full focus is on Atley. He buries both knives in its back and this time remains impassive as some of the creature's water splashes over one of his knuckle-wrapped hands. There is a certain flicker in his eye, though, that suggests it was not painless.
Erixa turns, noting the various fountains as points of attack.
Bran moves with surprising swiftness for a guy made mostly of rocks. He's clearly been training with the pandaren, judging by some of his moves as he dodges tainted splashes.
"Behold the power of the water!" cries Mari. "Let death wash over you!"
Befound hisses as the water strikes her fur, the poof of it slimmed down as her fur grows sleek with evil water.
Atley shields himself from a water splash and scowls at the Royal Seal of Lordaeron on his shield as the Sha energy trickles off of it.
Bran seems to trust Oranna to see to Befound's needs, focusing his healing on the sapient members of the team.
Erixa stays just out of range of the water, ready with a Hand of Protection should anyone seriously need it.
"Watch that shield — ! He can't hold it forever!" Atley yells.
Oranna scopes from elemental to shield, experimentally shooting at it again.
Abruptly, Mari cackles. "Come in, then! The water's fine!" His bubble shield vanishes, and he begins channeling a spell like a beam of mingled water and darkness. He attempts to aim it at the squad members.
"That is manifestly untrue," Bran says as he hops frantically to keep up with the squad.
Erixa dodges to the side, and turns her attention to Mari.
Atley charges in, trusting his legs to automatically vault over the water to get into melee range. "Keep moving! Don't let him hit you!"
Shine sidesteps swiftly, ducking ahead of the spell's slow channeling.
As the water beam approaches the hunter, Oranna starts moving, managing to keep firing as she circles around and around, trusting that someone will yell at her if something comes up close.
Atley keeps one eye on the others and their placement as he runs around Mari.
Bran gets slapped in the face with the beam, briefly knocked on his arse, but once it has passed him he hops back up without even using his hands. He heals himself, then turns his attention back to the others.
Befound chomps viciously at Mari's leg. You splash Befound??? YOU SPLASH BEFOUND LIKE THE SPRAY BOTTLE? OH, OH JAIL!
At last, a fish person Befound is allowed to eat.
Mari staggers and the spell sputters and then fails. Mari drops weakly to his knees. "The darkness… clears…."
Befound goes to chomp him again.
"No!" Oranna scolds, lowering her gun.
Atley stares, eyes narrowed.
Bran sighs sadly as he gazes upon the jinyu, his glowing hands lowering and fading.
"Oh, no — Bran? Is he —?" Oranna asks.
Mari sighs. "I peer into these waters and my reflection… is empty." He folds gently onto his side in the water and is still.
Befound unchomps Mari's robe. Oops.
"Mari, hold on," Erixa says, lowering her sword. "We have a Bran."
Bran shakes his head. "I can feel his despair from here. The Light canna reach him."
Atley stomps into the water with an exhale. "Well fought." He inspects Wise Mari's corpse.
For the sake of the others, Bran does go through the motions of attempting a resurrection, but it's as he said. Even visibly, the Light doesn't touch the body.
Erixa looks down at Mari, stricken. "The sha even stop him from returning."
Oranna sighs heavily with a resigned devastation.
"It reminds me o' that battlefield in Northrend…" Bran says bleakly.
"He was friendly before," Erixa says. "I will remember him so."
"Aye. His last moments don't define the whole of 'im," Bran says with a slow nod.
Atley shakes his head. "Death must be preferable to Sha enslavement. Especially for this wise one." He briefly shoulders his shield to close Wise Mari's eyes. "We must be prepared that this is the fate of any others we come across."
Oranna's eyes are bright with tears as she turns away, resolutely gripping SUNBEAM and following the others.
Bran gently pats Oranna.
"All squared away then, are we? None of us injured?" Atley asks.
Shine steps away from the group and examines his sha-damaged handwrap. He shakes his hand, flexing his fingers, then glances at Bran and nods respectfully.
Oranna swipes at her face. "Not… not physically, no," she says.
Bun chirrups. He is also uninjured, thanks for asking.
The door at the far end of the chamber is barricaded to the group.
"We'll have to find another way," Atley says.
"Maybe through the library," Erixa suggests, recalling the layout from last time.
They cross the now-tranquil water chamber in silence, and move down the hall toward the Temple’s other wing.
"Steady, and breathe. Our enemies here aren't physical, only," Atley warns, though he still scowls.
Oranna nods. "Aye, I ken," she says to Dane.
"Think o' Thalstan, Boomer," Bran says softly. "Or anythin' else that brings ye joy. Best ye can."
Oranna gasps with horror at the sight of the library.
"Damn," Shine says, and steps back from the sight of the corrupted sages ahead.
"Ach…" says Bran as he spots the corrupted Pandaren he was talking to mere days ago.
Erixa looks at Bran in concern, and echoes, "Think of happy things. Pandaren lass. Scrolls."
Bran nods resolutely at Erixa.
"Actual sha in there," Shine observes.
Atley squints with disgusted assessment.
Oranna looks through her scope. "Those…masks?"
Indeed, two of the pandaren sages are wearing eerie masks, and juggling fire back and forth carelessly on the balcony.
"Aye. Wearing something… Start in on the one on the right. Bring these pandaren peace," Atley says.
They kill the two masked and maddened sages and move into the library along the upper balcony approach.
"Accccccccch," says Bran as the full situation of the library becomes more apparent.
The scene within is… even weirder than their first glance foretold. Fluttering threads of sha energy flit through the air. Around the corner of the balcony hovers a gigantic fish suspended in a bubble.
"Is that… a… fish?" Oranna asks.
Erixa looks at Oranna, puzzled, and then sees the fish. "Ah. How?"
Befound growls happily. ANOTHER FISH SHE IS ALLOWED TO EAT??
A familiar voice bellows, “You there! In the rafters! My sacred library has become possessed by the Sha!”
Atley looks over the ledge. "Lorewalker Stonestep — he's still fighting!"
Erixa brightens with relief when Lorewalker Stonestep calls out. "He sounds himself."
Shine looks over the railing as well, and surveys the darting, fluttering sha. "Did… the fucking moths get sha'd?"
Atley squints at one of the flying Sha and nods once. "Looks that we. Let's get to the Lorewalker."
Bran points toward a massive tiger on a landing nearby. "Befound, tha' one's all yers," he says gently to the spotted cat.
"If animals can get shaed, then maybe… bugs and fish, too?" Oranna guesses.
"Or are these… did it sha stories?" Erixa ponders.
"Inanimate objects can get shaed???" Oranna asks.
Erixa peers at a crane on the far bridge.
"Wowwwwwww," Bran breathes. "I'm gonna need ta take some notes if there's time."
Atley squints at the fish in its floating bubble. "We need to consider every inch of this place infested. Fight on."
As they kill the sha ahead of them and then move in to attack the fish, it recites part of a nursery rhyme in a warbling sing-song:
‘Tis hard to decipher his true wish.
He often seeks a lordly dish
To serve upon his table.
Erixa almost laughs as the fish talks in poem. "It is stories, isn't it?"
Befound chomps the fish spouting poetry.
"Quick Befound, eat it!" Bran says with a wild laugh
Atley squints at The Talking Fish, and then Erixa. "You're saying this thing is from a story book?"
Shine stares at the dead fish, stares at Erixa, nods slowly.
"It sounded story," Erixa says. "Did it not? And if not… why flying talking fish?"
"Let's let Befound have a wee snack break while I write some o' this doewn," Bran says.
"No, she cannae eat what we fight, not really, but — " Oranna says as she takes out a proper fish to toss to the snow leopard, who eats it greedily.
“See how they pour from every letter of these sacred scrolls! Corrupting them! Defiling them!” cries Lorewalker Stonestep.
"After we save the Lorewalker. He needs us," Atley says.
Bran takes a few rapid notes before moving on.
It is unclear what the giant silvery crane on the bridge is meant to represent, apart from a now-dead giant crane.
"I do not know enough pandaren folklore… to know what to expect," Erixa says, looking ahead.
"A hozen… a beetle… and a tiger. This must be a tale," Atley growls.
Oranna squints at the hozen. "Aye… well this is like a nightmare," Oranna says, scoping the hozen.
Bran is suddenly radiating with such ecstatic curiosity that he seem utterly impervious to Sha.
“I beseech you, kind strangers!” shouts Lorewalker Stonestep. “Cleanse this place of their foul presence! Lay our stories to rest!”
Blue Squad defeats the no-doubt-edifying tale of the beetle, the hozen, and the tiger, and head down the steps to the library’s ground floor.
"There!" Atley points. "That corrupted scroll, spitting all this shit out."
Lorewalker Stonestep himself is locked in battle with the blackened, shadowy scroll as sha energies spew forth from it.
"Ach, we gotta destroy a– all righ'," Bran sighs.
Erixa eyes a weeping pandaren rising out of dark mist on another giant scroll.
"Great, all that effort ta not shoot at the scrolls afore," Oranna mutters.
Lorewalker Stonestep casts a wild-eyed look at the approaching team. “You must destroy the source of the corruption! Quickly, before our cherished history is erased altogether!”
"Destroy that scroll!" Atley yells.
When the whirlwind sha energies fail to shake Blue Squad’s attack, the corruption in the scroll turns to a new tactic. A scene begins to unfold around them in the library: Five brilliant objects like small suns burst into life at the far end of the room, and a pandaren warrior climbs from the scroll.
“Oh, my,” says Lorewalker Stonestep. “If I am not mistaken, it appears that the tale of Zao Sunseeker has come to life before us!
“According to the legend, long ago, there were five suns that burned brightly in the sky. When the winds blew, their intense heat caused great wildfires. Crops wilted, villages burned, and families wandered endlessly to seek refuge from the flames…”
The five ‘suns’ begin suddenly to spit gouts of flame, striking indiscriminately at the people, at the floor, at the shelves….
Zao Sunseeker yells, “I can allow this no longer!” He turns to face the suns, his staff poised combatively.
"That mask again," says Shine grimly.
“The fires, they are burning the library!” exclaims the Lorewalker. “Please, heroes! Purge this evil before the temple crumbles to ash!”
With the aid of the figment of Zao Sunseeker, Blue Squad manages to destroy the five suns. And then Zao turns to them.
“The blistering heat must have dulled my senses,” he sneers. “Mirages! All of you!”
Lorewalker Stonestep yells, “Zao has become corrupted too! Please, fight him with dignity…”
Blue Squad fights him with, uh, dignity, I guess? They dignify him to death.
Lorewalker Stonestep sighs heavily. “Zao was a true champion of our people. How sad it is to see his story tainted by the sha. I am relieved to see justice served to his memory.”
Erixa looks down at the masked pandaren curiously. "Was he an… actual pandaren, or a story?"
Oranna shakes her head. "Both?"
"Must've been from the tale," Atley says, eyeing the body uneasily.
Bran is busy frantically scribbling in his journal, eyes alight.
"Said 'according to legend,' which is history shorthand for 'Who knows?'” Shine shrugs.
"He's got a mask on, as well." Atley observes.
Shine nods at Atley.
"Tha' has ta be something, right? The masks…" Oranna wonders.
"It must mean something, yes," Erixa nods. "To be on more than one."
“You have my thanks, heroes,” says the Lorewalker. “You have given peace to this sacred temple.”
“Now, off with you!” The Lorewalker turns his back abruptly and sits, folding himself into a lotus position. “I require meditation before I begin the restoration ritual.”
Erixa eyes the meditating Stonestep. "Well, if we learn from Cho, nothing we say or do can disrupt Stonestep now."
"Let's press on," Atley says, nodding with approval at the cleared library.
Bran heaves a sigh of relief. The scrolls are safe.
Oranna also looks relieved, and a little chagrined by all the stray bullets that likely flew into books.
Atley exhales through gritted teeth. "More dead."
Bran looks less relieved at the sight of a dozen pandaren corpses.
The sight of the sprawled bodies on the terrace brings Shine up short again.
"Oh no — " Oranna gasps. "Bran, are they — ?"
"Try wot' you can, Brannagen, then we're turning back," Atley says.
Shine watches the shadow-smoke of the sha waft off one of the corpses, and then glances at Bran.
Befound sniffs at a dead priest's hand and then sneezes.
"The battle at Serpent's Heart was just the start of tragedy," Erixa says, looking around at the bodies.
"And the beginning of a strategy, I warrant. The Sha of Doubt was aiming for this place from the start," Atley theorizes.
Erixa eyes the sha energy swirling around a jade serpent statue.
"Keep your space from that," Atley needlessly warns, eyeing the statue.
Bran is peering at a body and… sketching.
"Do ye think… is it using the jade like a focus, an evil focus, for sha?" Oranna wonders, looking up at the tendrils on the centerpiece jade.
"I cannot say. Trying to corrupt as well," Atley says.
"I en't real familar wi' the properties o' jade," Bran says. "I need ta look into et."
Ahead of them they hear cries and the clash of weapons. They hurry through an arch to find a handful of temple warriors locked in battle with some of the sha.
Atley points with Thunderfury. "Jade Warriors! Still upright! Get them some help!"
"Alive!" Erixa sounds delighted.
Bran gets his healy hands ready.
Blue Squad enters the fray, and cuts down the first trio of sha.
Oranna gasps as the sha flings something at her, shattering her resolve.
Bran tries to dispel the thing that got flung.
Oranna's gun lowers as she grabs at her chest, but the sha effect releases, leaving her just pale and sweaty.
The sha fall, and the pandaren warriors turn to bow breathlessly. “We must regroup before the Sha attack again!” one of them says.
Shine nods at the regrouping warriors.
Atley nods at the warriors. "Steady on —!" He turns to another battle.
The pair of warriors head determinedly deeper into the temple.
Erixa dives into the next fight to help the living pandaren.
Oranna shoots another sha trying to break her resolve right in the mouth.
“The Sha are too many!” one of the warriors cries. “We must flee while we still have the chance!” He grabs one of his comrades by the arm and the two of them dash in the direction of the temple gates.
Shine looks after the fleeing warriors, his brow knit.
The remaining warrior drops his sword despairingly. “Priestess Flameheart has betrayed us,” he says. “The temple is lost.”
"Betrayed?" Erixa repeats, frowning.
"Priestess Flameheart?" Oranna repeats after Erixa.
The warrior is not taking questions at this time. He chases after the other two, toward the distant gates.
"Priestess Flameheart… the sha must've gotten 'er," Bran says grimly.
Atley shakes his head in thought. "A willing follower of Sha…?" Atley growls.
"That's…." Oranna shakes her head.
“Your forces are weak!” cries a voice.
Shine slips back into shadow as the corrupted priestess leaps lightly from a balcony above and lands in the courtyard’s center.
Atley squints. "That'll be her, then. Fight as one."
Erixa stares grimly at the sha-corrupted priestess.
Oranna scopes in, loading blasting shots into her gun.
Bran gazes at the pandaren woman, briefly distracted.
Atley charges in. "Bring her down!"
Erixa charges in behind him to help bring her down.
Bran takes deep breath and strikes a very deliberate pose of Tranquility.
Serenity, one might even say.
Shine flashes into sight behind the priestess as Atley closes in on her.
Liu Flameheart fights with relentless mastery of unarmed combat. She pummels Atley's shield for a time before she backflips and kicks him away. Channeling chi, she sends a blast of catastrophic energy in four different directions.
Shine dives to the side to avoid it.
Oranna notices the flame wall only because it overwhelms her view through the scope as she startles — she doesn't dodge the first one in time.
"Oranna — !" Atley calls out, observing her in his periphery as he charges back in.
Bran tosses a heal Oranna's way and calls out encouragement to her in Dwarven.
Oranna pats wildly at the fire on her armor for a second, and then her eyebrows, still intact. "My eyebrows are fine!"
She gets her gun back up, watching now for the chi blasts.
Bran continues to be distracted by the beautiful and deadly pandaren, a little. But he manages to keep people healed reasonably well despite this.
Liu Flameheart battles for a time, smashing against Atley's shield, before she kicks him away again and strikes the ground with a fist. Lines of burning chi energy branch out in four more directions, threatening the squad.
Erixa barely manages to dodge the chi, and stutters to a stop for a moment to look at the lingering energy on the ground.
Oranna dodges the blasts with a mutter, keeping her eye on the fight.
Bran was not expecting the ground under him to become Harmful, and it takes him a minute to realize he also needs to heal himself. And move.
Shine shadowsteps out of the way of the chi and back to Liu Flameheart's side. He announces his presence there with a knife.
"The heart of the Great Serpent will not fall into your hands!" Liu Flameheart screams, and tosses Atley away yet again, like a fully armored ragdoll. She strikes a perfectly poised meditation pose, hanging in the air, and from her flows the misty form of Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent.
Bran gasps!
Liu Flameheart snarls, "Jade Serpent, GRANT ME STRENGTH!"
Shine stumbles back from the visage of Yu'lon, momentarily bewildered.
The summoned Yu’lon turns viciously on the squad.
Atley charges back in to strike at the serpentine form.
Oranna looks morally conflicted, but for one reason or another, this Yu'lon is attacking, so Oranna shoots.
Shine continues to hesitate, uncertain. Bun zips in to bite at the trailing tail of the serpent. No doubts here!
"Bring it down!" Atley booms.
Erixa is given pause for a second time, but then she reluctantly joins battle against the Yu'lon spirit.
Shine joins the fray at last at Atley's command.
Befound swipes at Yu'lon's tail like a cat toy.
Bran is lucky that his own job is fairly straightforward.
Liu Flameheart screams, "The cycle must continue — the Jade Serpent must be REBORN!"
"Yes," Erixa calls, bewildered. "We are on same side there. Stand down."
The spectral Jade Serpent flickers before Liu Flameheart and then dissipates into mist. Liu falls to the ground, unmoving.
Erixa kneels by her immediately, and says, "No, wait…"
Oranna lowers her gun, her features tight. "Did we jus'… was that really the — did we jus' end the cycle?"
Shine gazes unhappily at Oranna and then down at the dead priestess too.
Erixa shakes her head. "We can't have. Yu'lon could not be regenerated by sha. She was… confused?"
Befound licks at a paw.
"Seems like the sha has a way o' takin' truth an' twistin' it," Bran says soberly.
"Was it jus'… then… I don't understand what's going on," Oranna says.
Atley shakes his head. "I refuse to believe it. Not until we hear it from Yu'lon herself." He gestures to Flameheart. "She was driven to this by desperation to serve her master."
"The sha is more dangerous than I thought," Erixa says, rising. "Not only drawing on bad things, but twisting the good."
Atley grunts and lays Thunderfury down, kneeling to close Liu Flameheart's eyes.
"Driven by doubt. She doubted our ability to help, an' so the sha whispered to her that we were the enemy, only she could save the Serpent." Bran shrugs. "My best guess."
"In one, I warrant," Atley says to Brannagen.
"Ef the sha could make solid enemies out o' storybooks, o' course et could make a pretend serpent from her thoughts, aye?" Bran suggests.
"Do ye think… is that why maybe… do ye think they pushed people ta attack by the jade statue ta break it, ta make it so that they could try ta rebirth Yu'lon in sha?" Oranna asks no one in particular. "Corrupt the cycle, break the strength keepin' the sha at bay?"
Bran nods at Oranna.
Erixa looks to Oranna in horror. "Rebirth in sha. That would be a terrible thing."
Shine nods grimly.
Atley looks over at Oranna too, brow knit underneath his helmet.
"Well I thenk we did our part in 'stoppin' et," Bran says warmly.
Erixa nods at Bran. "I hope so."
"May well have been it," Atley says. "Let's press on. The true evil in this place still lives."
Oranna chews at her lip, worrying it as she worries the rest of her with those kinds of thoughts.
Befound has no worries. Head empty, claws sharp.
"Don't fash," Shine says gently to Oranna.
Oranna looks up at Shine and makes a try for a smile. "I'll try. Helps when we're movin' and workin' at least. Then I'm jus'…breathin' and shootin'."
Shine nods understanding.
Bran gently pats Oranna.
"I can feel me own doubts nibblin' a' the corners of the mind…" Bran murmurs. "Good I trained wi' the pandaren so much before thes."
"We are still alive, we are still together, and we have our minds." Atley declares, before eyeing the trio of Sha waiting restlessly on the sanctum steps.
"Interestin' to see what the sha keeps tryin' with me, though," Bran observes. "Points out weak places I need ta shore up."
"Start in on the one in the center, first." Atley says.
They start in on the one in the center and then finish with the other two. That makes three more dead sha.
Shine, poised at the top step, gazes through the temple doors and then takes one swift step back down to look over his shoulder at the others.
Atley marches up the steps and squints at the Sha of Doubt. "… I'd know that pretty face anywhere."
Erixa trails to a stop, staring. For a moment the expression goes out of her face.
Shine is also expressionless now, because he is abruptly invisible. Bun does a belligerent little hissing-scrabbling sort of dance on the tiles.
"Oh… well at least…it's not the size of a mountain?" Oranna tries.
Bran cracks his knuckles in a very (not) priestly way.
Erixa shudders and looks to Dane for direction.
Bran takes slow, even breaths.
Befound seems impervious to doubt, the sha presence making whooshing sounds as it flies by her cat ears.
Oranna starts sweating rivulets.
"Its fengers have fengers…" Bran murmurs, totally not stealing that description from Athena.
Atley speaks without taking his gaze off of the Sha of Doubt. "This thing's power isn't only physical. I'll draw its attention. Shine, Erixa on the flanks — Befound as well. Oranna, unload everything you've got. Brannagen, keep us alive and sane."
"Sane," says Bran a bit weakly. "Aye…"
Erixa nods, drawing her sword. There's a brief hesitation, and then the Light flares around her.
Oranna wipes at her face and starts loading in her ammo. "It's jus' another thing. It's got eight eyes at least, ye can hardly miss that," she mutters to herself.
"Listen to me. This thing expects to break our hearts with doubt before we even engage it!" Atley says, voice rising. "Are we going to let that happen?!"
"Nae," Bran says, but a bit feebly. The thing… really is kind of terrible.
"No?" Oranna sorta asks, sorta says.
"No, sir!" Erixa shouts back.
"No," murmurs Shine quietly from the shadows. Shouting is not his style.
Atley points Thunderfury at the Sha. "This cunt is going to have to kill me to get me to stop."
Oranna breathes in… breathes out. Sniper shots. She shoulders her gun, finger on the trigger.
"COME ON, then!" Atley charges in, shield raised high.
Bran breeeeeeeeathes.
The monstrosity raises clawed arms and surges to meet Dane, laughing in a way that seems to resonate in the stones around them.
Atley gnashes his teeth and lets out a roar of defiance.
Bran goes a shade paler.
Erixa moves to the flank as directed and commences the attack, teeth gritted, face resolute. She doesn't roar.
Shine appears at the thing’s flank opposite Erixa and hesitates for a moment, assessing where he is supposed to stab it. Unclear. He takes a stab at it.
Befound deep growls, unable to roar, but the bone deep shake of it is palpable.
"Die or surrender," the creature rumble-hisses. "You cannot defeat me." Pools of shadow appear around it and spread slowly, as if from invisibly-dripping ichor.
"Those cannae be the only options," Oranna mutters.
"Mind your footing!" Atley yells, reaching for something on his belt as he survives through a combination of timely deflections and dodges.
Erixa flinches from the shadow pools, faltering for a moment in the attack.
Bran sends out wave after wave of healing Light, like soundless peals from a golden bell. His jaw is clenched, his expression unlike his usual.
Befound cat-twists in the air as she swipes back at the Sha of Doubt.
The monster is a whirlwind of claws and smoke, gazing down malevolently through clouded spiders' eyes. It lashes out with malformed limbs and hideous laughter.
Shine sidesteps shadows, his expression taut with concentration.
"We should… we should maybe run…" Bran says. But does not run. He very much looks like he wants to run, though, even as he continues casting.
Atley finally manages to yank up the Lion Horn of Stormwind. He glares up at the Sha of Doubt and blows the horn as loud as he's able. A deep, rising boom meets the laughter in the air, echoing loudly throughout The Heart of Jade at a deafening volume — which may be the point.
Oranna grimaces at the sound. "I suppose if we're deaf, we won't hear it tauntin'," she mutters.
The sound seems to recall some of the strength to Erixa's limbs, as she redoubles her effort, slashing into the confusing construct with steel and light.
"Succumb to the darkness inside your soul," purrs the Sha of Doubt, and abruptly each person is seized by a chain of shadowy energy. At the other end of each chain, a shadowy clone appears.
Bran completely ignores his Other Self.
Erixa turns to look at the Other Erixa. The other woman smiles at her, but there is no kindness in it. She advances, blade in hand, already assured of victory.
Atley tugs on the chain instinctively before he turns around and spots the charging, shadowy form of himself, Thunderfury and all. He narrows his eyes and rapidly looks to the others before spotting Bran's shadow-self closing in — He winds up and hurls a Thunderbolt [Heroic Throw] at Bran's shadow-self to get its attention.
Oranna gasps as she's shot from behind, whirling in shock to see another self. Unlike the Sha, this other Oranna does actual damage to Oranna. She really is her own worst enemy.
Erixa stands frozen, watching her clone advance.
Shine leaps back, and then reflexively attempts to shadowstep behind his own clone. His clone knows that trick already. Knives — steel and shadow — clash for a moment.
Bran starts murmuring something in Dwarven that only Oranna can understand: over and over, he says, "If this is where I die, so be it. Everyone dies. If this is where I die, so be it. Everyone dies."
Oranna staggers back, shooting wildly at her shadow form, sweating hard enough that it runs into her eyes.
Atley engages in sword and board combat with his other self, and seems to be getting equal to what he's giving. He manages to break away at times to strike at Brannagen's.
The Sha of Doubt sways above them, gloating.
Erixa's clone lashes out with something the opposite of Light, an exorcism of shadow. It strikes Erixa, who curls forward with a grunt of pain. It is enough to strike some resolve in her, and she raises her sword to defend.
Shadow Oranna is missing one thing Real Oranna has — and Befound is a streak of white and black as she tackles the shadow to the ground, letting Oranna get in her proper shots, and the shadow breaks. She breathes in strangely calm breaths as she turns to start shooting at the remaining Shadows.
Erixa slices through her clone with a snarl of rage, and then turns to see how the others fare.
Shine feints to one side and does not actually dodge or vanish; he remains planted exactly where he is. Shadow Shine was not expecting that, and one of Real Shine's daggers hits home. The shadow vanishes soundlessly. Shine turns toward the others.
Bran is still resolutely healing with all his might, though his expression is of a man who knows he is about to die.
Shadow Atley and Atley fight to a savage stalemate, especially with Atley drawing Shadow Brannagen's attention. Shadow Atley grins, raising his own Lion Horn to his lips, eyes narrowing…
Shadow Bran laughs. It sounds like him, but twisted, mocking, wrong.
Erixa sprints over to Dane and Bran to lend her assistance against the shadows.
Shine's dagger catches Shadow Atley in a shadow kidney.
Shadow Atley shatters in an instant underneath the flanking onslaught. Actual Atley raises Thunderfury and slices Shadow Bran down the middle, mid-laugh.
A circle of healing radiates from Real Bran, bolstering everyone in the group.
As the shadows fall, Atley turns back to the Sha of Doubt. "Press on!"
Bolstered, Erixa turns back to the real fight, the massive shadowy monstrosity.
Befound dashes to the Sha of Doubt, aiming for the thing’s disjointed ankles. How v dare.
The Sha of Doubt sways again, lifting massive claws wreathed in smoke. "You cannot escape me." Its resonant purr seems to sound in each person's skull directly.
Bran visibly shudders.
Atley growls out of spite and braces his shield after striking at one of the Sha's other limbs.
Befound joins in the growling in solidarity.
Oranna grinds her teeth loudly enough that if she wasn't firing a rifle, it'd probably be audible.
A rune glows before Erixa's forehead, and she remains resolute.
Shine's knives flash at the creature's flank.
Bun darts in to snap at a trailing tendril of smoke.
Befound snaps her jaws at a tendril near Bun, but she does seem to think the lil guy can take on the sha.
"I am in…" The Sha falters, its sinuous movements slowing jerkily. "I am in… every… breath…."
The monster gives a sigh like a rushing wind, and collapses into a smoking pile.
Bran lets out a breath so ragged the sha may well have been in it.
Atley raises his shield to cover his face from the Sha smoke, taking a step back.
Oranna lets out a long breath. Ono, every breath??
Erixa stands still, staring at the pile like it might spontaneously come back to life.
"Well, I'm not gonna hold my breath," Oranna says.
Atley lowers his shield and flips Thunderfury upside down, marching over to the many-eyed face of the Sha of Doubt. He drives the blade into its skull and twists it with a crunching squelch.
Erixa relaxes a hair. It seems dead.
"Doubt this, bastard." Atley growls tiredly.
Shine steps back from the monstrous corpse and watches Dane with clinical approval. He sheaths his knives only when he hears the squelch.
"Welp," says Bran.
Bun does a little shuffle of challenge and growls at the Sha's remains. Fite him now, buddy!
Oranna sits down on the stairs where she's been shooting, shaking hard enough now that she probably couldn't hit the broadside of a mountain.
Befound does a paw-digging burial of the tile at the Sha of Doubt the way she would a turd, and then pads over to Oranna.
"So many lost," Erixa says. "But at least… now the rot is removed?"
Atley rips Thunderfury out and turns to inspect the others with a frown. "Removed, aye. Forever, I warrant. At least this part of it."
"I would say I knew we could do et," Bran says, "but fer a moment there I honestly didna."
Erixa smiles at him. "Whether we could or we could not, we were committed." She seems to think that sentiment is reassuring.
"Aye, at a point ye just realize, retreat is also pretty pointless, so ye just throw all in an' keep fightin', aye?" Bran looks tired.
Erixa nods at Bran. He gets it.
"It wanted us to think we couldn't," Shine observes. "It was persuasive. By its nature, persuasive."
Atley eyes Shine and nods.
"I hate ta say that I doubt we've seen the last, but I doubt that we've seen the last," Oranna says shakily, teeth chattering.
Atley grunts and marches over to Oranna, offering her a hand. "We must return to the monks near the entrance. Tell 'em the deed's done."
Oranna groans as she takes Dane's hand, pulling back up.
Atley casts an inquiring gaze upon Befound as they start walking.
Befound slow blinks back at Dane as she walks next to Oranna.
"The sha are… more clever than I realized," Erixa says. "More… strategic."
Atley then doubletakes Bun and frowns. "… Oi, cheeky."
"A' least we got a better idea what we're up against here noew," Bran says, a bit of cheer returning to his tone.
Erixa nods to Bran again at that. "We will not be so caught off guard next time. And our military will know to take care."
The pandaren priestess and monk are waiting expectantly by the gate. They break into broad smiles at the sight of Blue Squad.
Atley approaches the pair of pandaren. "It's done. The Sha of Doubt is dead — but so are many of the monks, including Wise Mari and Liu Flameheart. Lorewalker Stonestep has survived and was meditating and in good health last we saw."
"Ah." The priestess' face falls. "We saw some of the survivors pass through. I did not realize… but thank you, friends. Thank you."
Oranna sighs, clearly uncomfortable with the gratitude from what seems a lot like failure.
"We'll depart, but remain in the area near Paw'don. Merely send for us if there's anything else that needs doing. Admiral Fallon of the Alliance is sending a crew to assist in salvage efforts at the Serpent's Heart," Atley says.
"I hope that Yu'lon is still well?" Erixa asks, a touch of doubt coming into her voice.
Priestess Summerpetal nods gravely at Erixa. "She is, yes."
"Good. Priestess Flameheart said…." Erixa shakes her head. "I'm glad she is well."
Bran almost manages crescent-eyes at priestess Summerpetal.
"I never doubted you," says the monk with stout cheer. "Funny, though, you don't look much wiser."
Oranna self-reflects on that.
Erixa chuckles, something easing in her expression.
"I assure ye much wisdom was gleaned," Bran says with faux solemnity.
The monk smiles broadly at Bran.
Atley looks to the squad. "Let's move out."
Bran takes a deeeeeeeep breath of the air outside the temple.
Atley takes off his helmet and rakes a hand through sweat-damp hair. He lets out an exhale.
"That's done, then. For now. At any rate. There'll be more," he says, echoing earlier spoken sentiments of the squad.
"We helped," Erixa nods. "It does not mend what was broken, but… help is help."
"Whatever needs doing, we'll do et," Bran says firmly.
Shine nods at Bran's words.
Oranna nods wearily. "Help is help," she repeats.
"Aye. It's a start." Atley says to Erixa, looking over the tranquil and mostly empty Temple grounds. "Dismissed. Be mindful. That was harrowing."
Shine nods again. He looks down at Bun, who looks back up at him, and then he resignedly bends to pick the tanuki up and set it on his shoulders.
"I think the problem is more like ta be that I'm too Mind-ful," Oranna mutters.
"If any would like to join me in meditation in the morning…" Erixa says,"you are welcome."
"Need ta maybe mind-less a bit," Oranna says, setting a hand on Befound.
"I'll come with ye," Bran says to Erixa.
Erixa smiles at Bran. "I will find you, before I begin."
"Do wot' you will then to stabilize. You each fought well. I've placed my life, the life of my children's father in your hands, and you've yet to fail me," Atley explains quietly.
When you put it that way, Dane, no pressure, says Oranna's face.
Shine salutes Atley despite the prior dismissal. It looks a little awkward with a tanuki draped like a complacent scarf across his shoulders.
Atley cracks off a salute in farewell.
Shine and Bun head back toward the kitemaster, to explain to Lena where Bun has been all this time.