#mycomancer | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sekhisadventures · 7 months ago

Text

Wolves of Different Breeds

Mycomancer Cavern, Hallowfall

Gnolls. Somehow gnolls had arrived in Khaz Algar and had allied with the fungarians, and now were threatening to overrun all Hallowfall with their mushroom-man allies. A whole gang of them was charging towards the exit to the cavern, the fungarians bringing up the rear, as Samantha and Nitika stood in their path.

“Don’t worry Nitika, we can take them easily!” grinned Samantha, “Right Annulus?” she asked, glancing to her side.

Standing there was a large four-armed feline woman with three eyes, nodding to her as she replied, “Yletulosba Ahtnamas! Yeht t’nod dnats a ecnahc tsniaga su!”

“Right!” she nodded, gripping her daggers tightly as Nitika called upon her power, splitting herself into both the golden winged form of Dawnhoof and the shadowy tentacled form of Darkhoof at the same time.

“There’s a lot of them, but it’s a good thing I found out about my other selves! Midnighthoof! Noonhoof! Supperhoof! To me!” she called out as a pure black Nitika, a totally dazzling white Nitika, and a Nitika who was somewhat late in the evening but not necessarily too late materialized next to her.

The lead gnoll roared and pulled a horn from his belt, blowing a loud note as the cavern rumbled, and a whale shark erupted from the subterranean river running alongside the path, a spout of water bursting out of it’s blowhole.

“Don’t worry guys! Me ‘n my fire buddies will stop ‘em!” came Sekhi’s voice from behind them as she floated into the air, a pair of smoked glasses covering her eyes as her fingers ran over the strings of not her fiddle but a goblin made electric guitar, striking a loud chord as two massive portals to the Firelands appeared behind her, a swarm of fire elementals erupting into the cave to join the fight.

“You can do it everyone!” came a high-pitched voice as a tiny pink elekk floated past them, a huge smile on it’s face, “I believe in you all!”

Then they heard chanting and glanced to their side to see Magni, once more the diamond Speaker of Azeroth, doing a sort of stomp-walk next to them. He would take a firm step and raise one arm in a fist, then take another firm step and swap which arm was raised as if mimicking a machine’s movements. With each step he chanted, “Th’ woun’s! Th’ woun’s! Th’ woun’s!”

“Right everyone, lets get ‘em!” grinned Sam.

Meanwhile, in reality…

Sekhi, Samantha, and Nitika lay on the floor in a heap, their faces covered with some strange yellow dust-like substance, all three of them laughing hysterically. Next to them was the large dead form of some sort of huge monster of swamp plants and fungus.

“Boom! Fwoosh! Fire elementals!” giggled Sekhi, waving her arms over her prone form, her eyes unfocused.

“Now Breakfasthoof! Now Latenightsnackhoof! Now Leapyearhoof!” cackled Nitika, her chest heaving as tears streamed down her cheeks from laughing so hard.

“G-guys! Hey guys!” gasped Samantha, “Annulus… hehehe… Annulus says… none of this is real… that the mushroom monster we killed when we… hehehehe… when we got here… was made of hallucinogenic fungus… hehehe… ‘n when we killed it, it burst ‘n got all of us…” she wheezed, “What a buzzkill, am I right?!” she laughed hysterically, kicking her legs. “… oh shit now she’s pissed at me…” she giggled.

Nearby lay Brann Bronzebeard, his beard and face coated in the same spores as he mumbled, “… m’ spoons… m’ spoons…” under his breath.

Dornogal

Loren Fullmoon sat outside of the Inn, staring in amazement as she watched a knot of people with the Explorer’s League talking outside of their temporary headquarters. After the success of the Dragonscale Expedition, the Explorer’s League and the Reliquary had decided to continue working together and thus the Explorer’s League now counted both members of the Alliance and the Horde among it’s number.

A pandaren woman was talking animatedly with an orc who wore a sturdy pair of leather pants and a cotton muscle shirt, a climbing hook and rope dangling from her belt. Next to them was a dwarf holding a map in his hands, a rather old one that was likely found very recently in some long forgotten archive given the thick layer of dust still clinging to it. Lastly a Nightborne woman was nodding, doing something unknown with a strange device she was holding that seemed to occasionally glow, flicker, or otherwise react to the stimuli she was giving it.

“Bloody amazin’…” whispered Loren as Nelen came out of the inn to the table she was at carrying a large mug of freshly delivered Thunderbrew Ale for her and a smaller mug of herbal tea for himself. He rarely drank as it made it harder for him to keep his bestial side under control.

“Hm? What is?” he asked as he sat the drinks down, then took a seat himself.

“That…” she gestured to the group of explorers. “Horde ‘n Alliance actually workin’ together. Back when I came from those four’d be tearin’ each other limb from limb by now.”

Nelen nodded, “Some of the older ones still say we shouldn’t let old grudges go… but they mostly get drowned out anymore. After what we fought in the Shadowlands it became really clear that there were far bigger threats to both the Alliance and the Horde than each other.” he replied, taking a sip of his tea. He was still in his human form, preferring not to shapeshift unless he had to. If for no other reason than his worgen claws would wreck most any book he tried to read.

Loren shook her head, “Just… really bothers me that we came so bleedin’ close ta this in me own timeline, but… aye… Jaina didn’t swoop in ta save Andy ‘n th’ others at th’ Undercity. We never found out where th’ fel she was. From there it all went ta shite.”

Nelen sighed, “Yes, well… happily Anduin survived, and the war ran it’s course until Sylvannas ran off to the Shadowlands with Zovaal.” he replied, “Never found out why she sided with him either. Edwood tried asking her at Oribos before she was condemned to the Maw, but she didn’t give him a straight answer. Just asked if it mattered at that point.”

Loren snorted, “Aye… guess it didn’t fer me either. Not much left on th’ ol’ dustball where I’m from.” she replied.

Loren’s version of Azeroth was one of the apocalyptic timelines. In her’s the war between the Alliance and Horde escalated beyond the point of no return, ending when a mana bomb had been unleashed upon Orgrimmar that had caused a chain reaction that led to the destruction of both the Alliance and Horde, as well as most of Azeroth itself. Dareley and Mola’raum had once commented that true all-out war between the factions would destroy Azeroth. Loren’s home timeline was proof of it.

“Nelen, Imma be honest with yez…” she nodded, taking a pull from her mug. “Even if yez do manage ta top this ‘Nyloc’ bugger ‘n get th’ thing ta send us all back… I ain’t goin’. Even if I gotta fight that wee gnome-dragon ta stay.” she nodded meaningfully.

Nelen sighed, “I don’t blame you. Really, I don’t see any problem with it myself. Your own timeline is on it’s last legs anyways, and whats one more worgen going to change here? I suppose Chromie would be better equipped to answer that than I would, but… yeah. The Bronze Dragonflight might insist on it, but I’d argue your side if I had to.”

The two sat in silence for a moment, thinking on that as the group of explorers they were watching began to head towards the gates of Dornogal, likely following the map they’d found to treasure, danger, or knowing the League, both.

“So… any of th’ rest o’ th’ family make it out?” she asked finally as her raven, Morri, swooped down onto the table, cawing at them both. It had been out hunting, but then it had been years since any of them had this much food to eat. Loren had stuffed herself full during their first night on the Glittering Prize, actually winding up a little sick afterwards from how much she overate.

Nelen shook his head, “None that I ever found. Admittedly I didn’t stay in Darnassus long as I’d already had an invite to join Avalon from Shalandrae by then… but… yeah.”

Loren sighed, “None o’ ‘em eh? Wee Stephanie? Ol’ grandpa Frankie? That arsehole Uncle Roger? None of ‘em?” she asked.

Nelen shrugged, “Not that I saw… though knowing Roger I wouldn’t put it past him to still be running feral in Gilneas.” he smirked.

Loren snorted a bit, smirking, “Aye that’d be ‘im alright…” she nodded, then she looked at him, “Gotta ask too… some o’ yer mates keep givin’ me funny looks. Any idea why? I ain’t seein’ ‘em lookin’ at th’ others that way…” she frowned.

Nelen sighed, then sat his mug down, “I can probably guess. None of them have mentioned it to me directly but…” he gestured at the table and, in a flash of arcane light there was an image of a worgen woman standing there. She wore long full body robes and had a pair of horns growing from her forehead, along with a pair of large wings sprouting from her back. The image of her cackled manaically and flexed it’s claws, grinning menacingly up at Loren.

“Hm… who’s that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Her name was Dissonantia. She was a part of Avalon once, helped me escape from Gilneas back when we first regained our sanity… but she betrayed us at Zereth Mortis and tried to kill us all before fleeing into the Twisting Nether. Turns out that she was the Witch of Blackwald Forest.” he explained.

Loren stared at him, her ears sticking up in shock as her muzzle fell open. Unlike Nelen she rather preferred her worgen form. “Bullshite… yez is tellin’ me th’ ol’ stories was true?!” she asked in shock.

Every kid in Gilneas heard legends about the Witch of Blackwald Forest, though none of the stories had agreed on exactly what she was. Sometimes teenagers, older kids, and even adults would go into the Blackwald to try to find the witch to prove their bravery. The lucky ones returned shaken but alive with stories of the terrifying depths of the forest, the wild animals that lived there, and the sounds in the distance.

The unlucky ones had run afoul of wild animals, fallen down ditches and wound up stuck with broken or sprained limbs unable to get home, got lost in the wilds and starved, or other terrible fates.

The truly unlucky ones had met Dissonantia.

“True and worse. She was over a century old that we were able to determine, and she’d stayed alive by performing a rite of soul cannibalism. She’d use fel magic to tear a person’s soul out of their body, then consume it to extend her lifespan.” he frowned, waving his hand as the image of Dissonantia burst into motes of arcane light, scattering into nothingness. “After she betrayed us she began to attack us while we were on the Dragon Isles last year, until we got lucky. Aziguni’s brother, Malgum, was taken captive by her… but he escaped and brought us the secret of how to break into her lair in the Nether. We fought her, and we defeated her.” he nodded firmly.

Loren nodded slowly, “Aye… ‘n seein’ another worgen lass so soon after prolly wigs ‘em out a bit.” she replied.

“It doesn’t help that she had the same thick Gilnean accent you do. Your voices are different, but you do sound quite similar to her.” he pointed out. “I wouldn’t worry about it though. We only defeated her very recently and the memory of her is still fresh in everyone’s minds. They’ll get over it. I think the real reason is that we’re all just… well… Dissonantia was a powerful warlock, one of the most powerful I’ve ever encountered… and I’ve fought the Burning Legion.” he nodded.

“Aye… I get yez… you lot beat ‘er, but is she really dead?” she frowned. She had fought her share of fel magic users in her own timeline before the world was destroyed for her, she knew that they had ways to cheat death.

“Well, the way she died left nothing but a charred skull sitting on a rock in the Void…” he nodded, holding up a finger, “… but three of her minions escaped. A wrathguard and an incubus might not be able to bring her back, but she had a felsworn demon hunter on her team.”

Loren looked up thoughtfully, folding her arms over her middle. “I dunno a ton ‘bout fel magickin’… but… I’m pretty sure yez need a body ta come back ta life no matter wut spellin’ yez do.” she said.

Nelen nodded, “Edwood said as much when I asked him a few months back, but… well… she could summon a small army of demons, was half-demon herself when we killed her, and she had even done things like control a black dragon with fel magic. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had some sort of backup plan incase we ever managed to kill her…”

Loren nodded, taking another drink from her mug. “Mmm…” she murmured.

As they thought on that Nelen glanced up and saw two figures walking towards the Explorer’s League base. One of them was unmistakable to anyone who had met him before, the young prince of the dwarves Dagran Thaurissan, but the other one…

Nelen stood up, “Leza!” he called out as she paused in mid-step, looking up at him.

“Oh! Um… h-hi Nelen!” she giggled a bit nervously, “Um, Dagran, this is my teacher Nelen Fullmoon…” she nodded, walking towards him as her ears folded back anxiously.

“Oh? Pleased ta meetcha Magus.” nodded the dwarven teenager. “Leza here helped me out with a few relics that were givin’ us some trouble. She’s quite talented with them.”

Nelen smiled at the dwarf, “Happy to hear it, I like to think she’s learning magecraft well. Though, I am surprised to see you here Leza. I wouldn’t have thought your parents would have been alright with you returning to Khaz Algar with everything going on.” he pointed out, turning his gaze to the vulpera.

Leza grinned awkwardly, “Um… w-well… I might’ve… um… not… gone home yet?” she shrugged, “I mean, I met Dagran on th’ way to th’ portals ‘n we got talkin’ ‘n he had lotsa neat stuff to show me ‘n… um…” she trailed off as she saw Nelen’s expression. Next to him Loren began to laugh, taking a drink from her ale again.

The magus was frowning at her, his eyebrow raised. It was very much a ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’ look. Wordlessly he reached into his pouch and pulled out his gemstone, then drew the rune for Joyful Song on it.

A moment later Sekhi’s visage appeared over the gem’s surface. “Heya Nelen!” she yipped cheerfully. The group had returned from Mycomancer Cavern by now, and had made a sort of unspoken agreement that they wouldn't mention to anyone what had happened.

“Sekhi… I need your help with something in Dornogal. I have a young vulpera girl who needs an escort back to Orgrimmar.” he nodded firmly as Leza let out a loud fox-like whine, her cheeks coloring visibly through her fur. “Might want to bring Nitika, she may need a very firm escort.”

“… Leza never went back huh?” asked Sekhi, her voice hinting that she somewhat suspected she might not.

“No, she did not. I’m looking right at her.” he replied.

Sekhi sighed, “Yippin’ sis… Imma be there soon.” she replied, then the gemstone went dark as her image vanished.

“Nelen! I was gonna go… eventually…” she whined.

“Yes, I’m sure once Dagran and his uncle ran out of titan relics to research you would have gone straight home. Given that we’re sitting atop one of the biggest titan installations on Azeroth I’m sure that would have happened eventually… give it a year or twelve.” he replied.

Dagran chuckled, “Ye didnae tell me yer parents were waitin’ on ye…” he smirked at Leza.

“I mean… yanno… parents…” she shrugged.

“Aye… I may have gone explorin’ a few times without lettin’ me Ma know… ‘n she gave me a right earful when she found out too.” he grinned, “If yer parents are okay with ye comin’ back though, I’d welcome yer help with any other finds we get.”

Leza felt her cheeks burn under her fur, “I mean… I’m an adult… technically… they can’t really stop me…” she muttered, though the image of her mother Risala flitted through her mind. Her mom could be quite the disciplinarian when needed. It came with raising four kits.

Dagran nodded to Nelen and guided Leza back to the Explorer’s League outpost to wait for Sekhi, and possibly Nitika who had become friends with Risala and would have no issues simply throwing Leza over her shoulder and carrying her back to Orgrimmar if needed, to arrive to collect her as the magus sat back down and sighed. “This… is why I never had kids.” he sighed.

“Eh, c’mon Nelen. I’m sure ye’d be an okay dad.” smirked Loren.

Nelen rolled his eyes, “I spend my days travelling across Azeroth, fighting back world-ending horrors, and getting attacked by…” he counted off on his fingers, “A cannibalistic warlock, a magister who has basically weaponized the concept of sibling rivalry and her personal assassin, a sha-possessed insane pandaren and her death knight partner, and a time travelling sorcerer. Yes, father of the year material, that’s what I am.”

Loren chuckled, “Bah! Lotsa timelines out there boyo! I’m sure in one of ‘em yez had a lovely bouncin’ baby.”

“Yeah, and she was born with one eye because I bedded an ogress because it’s the timeline where I’m bloody mad!” he replied, rolling his eyes.

“Don’t knock it till yez tried it.” she replied, taking another drink of ale.

Nelen snorted, then paused, then looked at her and raised his eyebrow, “Wait… are you implying that you’ve…” he began.

Loren grinned at him, a wide toothy grin as her fangs shined in the sunlight. “A lady never tells.” she laughed.

#warcraft #warcraft fanfiction #adventures in azeroth #world of warcraft #the war within

1 note · View note