Aftermath ((open tavern RP after Leikos' transfer))

[Theotaz]

Theo hurried out of the garden at a dead run back to the his own hall. Muttering to himself (to young old troll, to young. And just terribly fierce wid de temper!) Kheliosrham was in the main hall reading again as usuall as Theotaz ran through muttering about pretty blue hair. Svalina looked out from the scriptorium where she was doing reserch on the known occupiers of Sunwell Plataeu in preparation for the upcoming expedition. She turned to Khelio with a questioning look. Khelio just shrugged. "Tesera, very pretty as trolls go. Theo still appears to have blood in his veins yet." Svalina's mouth made a mou in surprise. "Theo??". "Yes Theo, Sva, just think of all the Death Knights we know. Most are lost in thier martial passions, but not Theo. He works so hard at regaining what he once was. His warmth, and his passion for life is very strong my sister. I am unsurprised".
Svalina considered this a moment. "Honestly, I don't think he has an even small chance. I mean, Come on Khe, Tesera? She would skin him alive!!!". A deep earthy laugh erupted out of Kheliosrham. "Sva you just don't know alot about trolls. What ever you do, don't pester him or try to help in any way. Trolls have had thier own way of doing things for thousands of years. There is no rushing such a thing. Just watch and see what develops. You might want to talk to Lah. If nothing else I would love to hear what happened to get him.." Khelio's ears perked to a blood curdling scream in the distance. She grinned.. "and her in such a lather. But please sister mine, be discrete!". "Svalina thoought for a moment. "well, I did have some books that Lah might find of interest. I should take them over, yes, yes, and soon" Khelio giggled. "Oh absolutely, ummm, let me know if your..reserch.. uncover anything of interest!" Grabbing a bag of of scrolls and her robe, Svalina hustled out of the hall. Kheliosrham just grinned and picked up a letter she had recieved that day from her youngest sister.. Stasha.. who had been inducted into the horde for training as a hunter. She would follow the young one with interest. There might even be a few pieces of Theo's old gear that would be of use. Summoning Dulucre, she gave him instructions for Stasha's support. She quickly penned a note recommending the Stasha see the arms master in Thunder Bluff to get firearms training at her earliest opportunity. Sending Dulucre off she resumed her previously interrupted reading.

[Tasera]

"I need a drink sistah." Tasera said in a strait mumble. Her temper had cooled after having difficulty tying her gear up, never the less getting into all the mail and leathers after the sharp rage she was in. Looking around Tasera just sent the heap of gear flat onto the grassy surface of Lah's garden and sighed. She looked over the dress, making sure one of the few nice pieces of clothing she owned did not get ruined her blind fury. She mumbled and looked back up at Lah, "Dere be sumptin' else I came here ta tell you."

Turning around near the stoop, Tasera found her bags, in the largest the tops of three rolled scrolls could be seen. Tasera glanced back to her close friend and nodded when she noticed the bemused expression of the elf change to that of a more serious tone, probably on behalf of seeing the scrolls that she brought out from the most recent mission. "Yeah dese be da ones dat we got from da tower in Darkshore. When I heard da news on de wind about ya runes over your dresses. I checked da scrolls den my my armors." Tasera promptly brought a single scroll out, then she grabbed the hem line of her own dress and compared the faint runs on the clothing to those on the scrolls, "Dey are too similar ta be ignored, dese arn't an ancient lost language or anytin', dese are runes too, and dis is as far as my own personal knowledge can be takin' us, we need ta get someone else ta look at dese runes. At least I don't tink da ones on da scrolls are active or anyting. "

Remembering after a brief moment earlier what it was that she also wanted, Tasera peeked back up as Asarelah, " Yous got any Ale? Or jus your frilly blood elf drinks?" She gave a sly grin.

[Asarelah]

Lah was glad to see her sister calmer than she had been just a few moments before, and the red glaze of blood lust fading slowly from Tasera's eyes. Laughing over her shoulder at Tasera's remark, Lah headed toward the kitchen, determined to find something more potent than the "frilly elven drinks" which she had in ample supply.

"Hmmmm, there was some Rumsy Rum Stout left over from that last fishing trip... I wonder where I stashed it??" she thought to herself.

Just as she was about to open her pantry, she heard Tasera call out a greeting to someone knocking at the front door. Listening carefully, she could faintly hear Svalina chattering away about some records she wanted to bring to Lah's attention.

"Ah, well then. Best get three glasses..." Lah smiled as she gathered up some sturdy drink vessels, fit for strong troll grips, along with the skin of Stout and headed back toward her parlour.

[Ulua]

Thousands and thousands of Scourge lay before the tiny group of adventurers. All immune to the freezing wind of Icecrown. Ulua and the the servants of Nyx were backed up against a cliff wall outnumbered beyond any hope. The small tower of Crusader Pinnacle was to thier back, ablaze with green magical fire. Argent Crusaders lay wounded or motionless. The scourge were in no hurry to advance on the few survivors of the first battle. Instead they stood back, snarling, howling, chewing on the lifeless remains of those who had fallen. Waiting.

"We will use the artifact." Ulua stated

All of Lady Nyx's servants nodded in aggreement as Ulua pulled it from the small ivory box it had been placed in. She raised it above her head, feeling the power it possessed. The artifact started a small electrical hum, barely heared above the howling wind. As it began to hum, it began to flash a pulsating light, much like the heartbeat of the defenders. Pump-pump. Pump-pump. PUMP-PUMP. The scourge, mindless and pure evil began to advance.

And the pure silence, as if the artifact was about to inhale.....

CRACK!

The sky opened up to view the night stars and from the heavens thousands of bolts of energy fell upon the scourge, exploding, sometimes imploding, within seconds. The ground shook and the snow turned black from the ashes of dead-undead. Giant scourge were brought to their knees and destroyed.

Soon the battle field lay silent and the small group of adventurers still held the top of Crusaders Pinnicle.

They gatherered around the artifact. And now they knew its true power.

Ulua imagined all the possiblities. The fire. Stormind ablaze... Ironforge leveled... The great Elven tree toppled....

Then she was falling. Falling for seconds, minutes, the artifact floating next to her....No! come back...

And that was when her head hit the floor of her bedroom and woke her from her dream. Coughing gasping for air and confused....

She let out a laugh.

"Bah! stupid girl. We wouldn't be so lucky"

[Asarelah]

Asarelah came to a dead stop, her burden of refreshment meant for her sisters forgotten. The gentle breeze sneaking in her kitchen window had suddenly turned frantic, waffling the draperies this way and that. Concentrating, she turned her ear toward what message the insistent wind was trying to impart, listening with keen attention.

“Ulua surrounded by powerful dreams?? The artifact unleashed against a Scourge Legion?? What mischief is this??” Lah muttered to herself.

“That is it, the end, the last straw. I shan’t stand idle by while my Tribe is under siege!!” she screamed back at the wind, as if it were to blame.

Slamming the refreshments down on the nearest surface, she all but ran in to the parlour, nearly colliding with Tasera, who had leaped to battle stance the instant Lah’s shriek came echoing in to the room. Despara already curling into a feral leap was ready to rip out the throat of any attacker troubling her Mistress’s dear sister.

Not seeing any one hot on Asarelah’s heals, Tasera relaxed slightly, motioning Despara to heel. “What’s dis, Lah? Yous bein chased by da wind?”

“No, no… not being chased… being tormented…. By the wind…. by all these puzzles. Now Ulua is beset, sucked in to dreams of power. And that is enough! We must find the answers.”

Lah looked squarely at Svalina, who had come quietly to a stand at Tasera’s shoulder, a bemused look on her face. “Sister, tell Theotaz that his information on the nature of the Blood Runes was of help, but it didn’t answer all the questions that keep coming to light.”

“We must find Bael’spar, and find him at once. I have sent messages in every way I can imagine, and still he has not come forward. Tell Theotaz, tell Ulua. I shall warn Elder Eyesore, and the Tribal Counsel. We MUST find Bael’spar!”

[Theotaz]

Svalina nodded her understanding and turned to leave. Hesitating, she turned back a moment. "Sisters" she stated. "In but a few hours we shall be at Quel'Danas and hammering down the gates to the sunwell reborn"
she took a breath. "there may be some information within the library at the sunwell. I will take this message to Theotaz and the guild council with all dispatch. Prepare yourselves, we go to battle the minions of the Burning Legion in but a few hours. I shall be with the vanguard proceeding to the sunwell. Maybe we shall have answers, mayhapes not. Clear your minds and your hearts, horrifing tasks await us. I fear for my part a distraction. Bael is not ready to be found. I do not know why he has chosen to isolate himself but there is a reason for it." she glanced at the scroll she had brought. "Those scrolls tell of the Human, and of a world called .. Sanctuary.. of the bright heavens and the burning hells and of the battles fought.... and of humanities escape from that world. there are writings of a great city of scorcery called Lut'Golain and of demons not unlike the burning leagion. It is all of another time and another universe not of the titans making.
what I see there terrifies me. Please read them. " Svalina left hurrying down the way to the guild hall.

[Theotaz]

((aside and addendum Bliz has said that humans basicly appeared out of nowhere.. In the Bliz Diablo universe humans are THE major race. the rest are monsterous semi intelegent types or minions of demons....
It seem that Bliz will never tell us where humans came from.. but it seems as good a scource as any. so I'm taking an educated or inspired -- depending on your viewpoint- guess..))

[Tasera]

Another battle had passed and another day with it. Tasera had with her more scrolls covered with the fine imprints of runes they found in Azshara. She hadn’t been looking forward to the research to say the least. The troll had been exhausted after the recent days events. First, the battle against the irritating alliance. Then she and her kin charged blindly into Naxxramas, defeating its lord with swift blows. And now, she is here, sitting, wracking her brain over strange designs that most hunters would never attempt to understand. Yet she has been learning, and slowly she had been training her eyes to understand the unique patterns that made up different styles of runes. With this newly formed understanding, she was fairly sure that these runes where not the same as those that decided to place themselves over her clothing and Asarelah’s.
When she came to that conclusion a completely blank look came across her face, then her head lurched forward, and in a loud clunk, her forehead made contact with the table. She remained quiet for moment, before her teeth gritted.
“STUPID RUNES. WHAT DA HELL IS UP WIT DIS?! GAH!” Her usual temper flared up and she nearly threw the table over in her aggravation. The easily enraged troll stood up in a rush and began to pace back and forth in the room of the inn. Crossing her arms and mumbling inaudible curses in the troll language under her breath.
A loud thunking noise could be heard on the wall, followed by the muffled noises of an orc, “I’m tryin’ to sleep over here shut the hell up!”
If she were a cat, her fur would have stood on end right now. All these irritations! She growled a “Sorry!” and sat on the bed in her room of the Inn. She glanced outside, it was already well dark and she didn’t even realize it. Standing there for a moment, she could start to hear the clamoring of the bar hounds below in the tavern.
She let out a long sigh and grabbed her nightclothes. Tasera sat on her bed before getting undressed and pondered for a moment. She needed to find a permanent residence. This inn hopping was getting old very quick, and having to carry all those books and scrolls wasn’t helping her situation any more.
She stood up, walking over to the candles that lit the room, and promptly blew them out. Shimmying out of her shirt and pants, and into her night garments was easy, but then she had to move to her bed. She tiptoed cautiously, but something caught her foot and she fell, landing face first on the ground. “GAH!”
The orc in the other room pounded on the wall again, “I said shut the hell up!!” he yelled.
Tasera’s temper flared once more, “DAMMIT! “

[Asarelah]

Asarelah looked up from the enchantment she was crafting on her lovely new Cape won from the Tribe’s assault on Naxxramas yesterday evening, glancing out the window, to see a very grumpy Tasera trudging dejectedly up her garden path. The look on her beloved sister’s face was such that even the brilliant sunflowers smiling all along the walkway were at a loss to brighten Tas’s sour looking continence. Before Tas could even get to the door, Lah dropped the cape on her desk, and raced to the kitchen in search of something to drink, with a bite in it.

“Thank god I kept that Captain Rumsey’s Lager… bitter tasking stuff!! I don’t think she would like my Caraway Burnwine. Even though it’s fiery flavor is hot to the tongue,” Lah muttered to herself. “I best feed her too!” she thought, reaching for the platter of Beer Basted Boar Ribs that Lah had prepared earlier that day. “Meat and Lager… what more could a troll want? Even a quarrelsome one!!”

Lah hurried with the repast quickly back to her study, and laid it out on a serving cart just before Tasera’s pounding knock echoed through the tidy, well appointed cottage. Tasera all but fell trough the door, as Lah opened it, Despara right on the heels of her Mistress.

“S’matter Sis?” Lah asked, motioning Tas to the parlour, knowing her surly sister well enough not to bother with trivialities.

“Bloody Orc, beatin on de wall of me room all night. Nuff to wake da dead. Yellin fer ME ta shut da hell up. Sorry bastard makin more noise den I kin take!!” Tas all but snarled. Then her nose caught the scent of spicy meat, and she made a beeline for the cart of goodies Lah always seemed to come up with on the spur of the moment. Grabbing the ale skin, Tas didn’t bother with the sturdy ale mug Lah had set beside it, but lifted the skin to her mouth, gave it a hard squeeze, and glugged the stream straight down. Wiping her mouth with the back of one hand, she grabbed some ribs in the other, and they were gone in a blink.

“Well, it sounds like you didn’t get much sleep. No wonder you are so cantankerous today!” Lah chuckled. “When are you ever going to stop rambling around and settle down? Life in an Inn is such a drain. No way to rest. No roots.”

Lah tapped her mouth with the tip of one finger, thinking. “Tasera, you need to move in with me. There is ample room in my cottage, and I would be happy to put you up in my guest room. And that would give us heaps more time to try and fathom what it is with all this rune mischief. We are always together anyway!”

“What say you, Sis?”

[Baelspar]

Mittens licked angrily at his wound. One of the young rangers had shot him in the flank. It would have been nice had the ranger been aiming at him, that would have shown promise and talent. Instead, he had managed to bounce the arrow back over a rock and into the poor linx. Then again, maybe it was time to quit letting Mittens nap during training sessions with the younglings.

Chuckling to herself about the worst arrow shot she had witnessed, Tifani secured her belongings for the walk back to Silvermoon City. It was an important walk. On the road from Sunstrider Isle to gates of the city itself, one could see the force of war that had been visited upon the Sin'dorei. Lost in contemplation, she missed the guard running up to her.

"Ranger Instructor Tifani," panted the guard, "those of your guild are seeking out Grand Master Engineer Bael'spar Mon'tisto. *gasp* He isn't in his workshop...*gasp* And no one has seen him."

"I've known him since he was assembling his first nuts and bolts. I'm sure that I can find him."

Tossing Mittens a bit of fish to keep him out of trouble, Tifani mounted her hawkstrider. She rode off for the city. A few arrows were released to stop some of the Dead Scar's scourge infestation as she passed, a job to never be finished. Skillfully, she maneuvered her steed past vendors and beggars alike. In hardly any serious amount of time, she was in the "workshop" of her childhood friend.

To the eyes of a stranger, the oppulent beds and couches looked well slept-in and used. Tifani knew that Bael'spar had Yaen'gohl artistically mess his living areas so that it looked as though a party was just in progress no matter what room Bael'spar was in. The one place that this didn't apply was the workshop. Every surface was meticulously maintained. All the tools of the engineering trade were ensconced in their proper holders. Only a few papers were scattered about his workbench along with a work in progress.

Looking at the drawings, she could see how he followed the directions, which were in no language she had ever seen. There was some complicated pictographic printing accompanying all the drawings. The picture showed a cat twisted into an "L" shape which looked as though it was to be shoved uncomfortably upon the extended leg of another larger cat. The small cat figures on the workbench looked like that step had been taken. Bael'spar was always a bit touched.

The other drawing was not by Bael'spar's hand, but of Yaen'gohl's. It was a carefully penned document that mapped out the Nyx Library...in an odd fashion. Tifani had been in the Library, but had never seen the aisle shown on the map. The red line from the entrance led past where she knew a wall to be. Grabbing the map, she headed to Orgrimmar.

The trip seemed to be trying to the "injured" lynx. With her supply of fish running low, Tifani went straight from the zeppelin tower toward her bank, but the sight of an oracle drew her from her goal of gathering more fish. Tifani walked up to Aitana and explained what had transpired on her end, and where she thought that Bael'spar was in accordance to the map that she discovered. The Nyxers in attendance all made their way to the Library.

Awaiting them was not the pale figure they were expecting. In place of the gazetteering rogue, there was a not so unknown stranger. For those that had followed the Lady Nyx for a longer period of time, the face and person was that of Maledicta.

"Have you seen Bael'spar?" asked Aitana to the senior Librarian.

"Would that I had not..." began Maledicta, "or more that I had seen him sooner." She pulled a book that was half incinerated. "This is part of his handywork."

"Bael'spar wouldn't burn a book." intoned Aitana.

"Yeah, how else would he keep his tables from rocking?" derided a voice from the gathered.

"He has been coming here since he found where all the schematics are stored." Maledicta led the Nyxers deeper into the Library. "With Yaen'gohl's assistance, he found his way into L-space...and hence to where all the universe's knowledge is maintained. I think that Yaen did it only to keep him busy." Turning down an aisle which should have ended in a wall...shelf upon shelf of book stretched on down the infinite paths of the Library.

"Den let us go forth, he be easy ta find. Dem pink boys like da pretty smells." Tasera's core hound was stopped in its place by a wall of ice.

"I would wish that he would be that easy to find, but he is going to be doing a lot of moving, for he has many books to find." Maledicta raised up the burnt tome. "Bael'spar got lost in L-space. Since he could not find his way out, he started a fire for whatever reason crossed the matted betwixt his ears that he refers to as his brain. Only then, did I learn about what he had been up to. Yaen'gohl is in the process of receiving reprimand for allowing a civillian entrance into our sacred space. He will be collecting fines and returning thousands of overdue books from hundreds of libraries. Bael'spar is accompanying him, so that he can obtain a copy of every book that he burned for the Grand Library. Hopefully, his lesson will be learned."

Tifani was conflicted. He had brought this on himself, but the punishment might stray in to the realm of cruel and unusual. Some secrets needed to be revealed.

"Um, Miss Librarian," started the hunter, "don't you think that's too much?"

"To replace what one has destroyed? I think not."

"Well, how will he know what he's replacing?" With a deep breath, she let loose Bael'spar's biggest secret. "You know that he can't read, right?"

"If he could read, then he would have found his way out," Maledicta explained. "His punishment might also make him a better person...though I do have my doubts." With a gesture, the L-space portal closed. "I offer what aid I may, but for now, Bael'spar and Yaen'gohl are appeasing the forces of Knowledge."