Nyx

Jalos Lavalocks the II sat in the clan hall of his once great family; deep in the mountains of Dun Morogh a few peaks over from mighty city of Ironforge near the marshes of the Wetlands. The old dwarf sat there stroking his red beard that was now streaked with grey, listening carefully to every word said. Before him stood two other dwarves, one was the powerful and highly unpredictable paladin, Airey Lavalocks. She’d dyed her hair black to hide the grey he knew, but if he didn’t know she was 165 years old, he’d have never guessed it.

The other person was a strapping young dwarf whose dark hair was all his own, Burdier Lavalocks Junior, or Junior as most called him. Junior was only about 30 years old, barely bearded. However, he was a wise young lad, wise beyond his years. Jalos attributed the wisdom to the boy’s bitterness in life.
He wasn’t as rowdy or rambunctious as the other dwarves his age because he had something to prove. Jalos raised Junior as his own, when his mother, Airey, felt the calling of the light and left to become a Paladin of the Silver Hand. Burdier Senior was hardly a fitting father and he disappeared when the Scourge invaded Stratholme when Junior was twenty-three.

“Listen, ye think ye can just waltz back in here after twenty some odd year and tell all o’ us to just house a lunatic archmage in our derned prison? Ye think this is tha’ Violet Hold? We ain’t got tha’ number nor tha’ resources ta be housing a criminal of the caliber o’ Loistradyn V’lasha,” argued the young dwarf boy. “The lass is bonkers! Why’d ye even bother capturin’ her alive anyway?”

“I don’t expect ye tae understand, lad,” explained Airey.

“O’ course ye don’t, seeing as how ye left me by me self fer twenty some odd years tae go gallivanting’ round tha’ derned world. Uncle Jalos, ye gonna let her get away with this?” asked Junior looking to his Uncle who looked briefly at the pained expression on Airey’s face at the biting comment of her son.

“Junior, I’ll take care o’ this, ye go on and relieve them folks down at the guard tower leadin’ up tha’ pass,” said Jalos. Junior gritted his teeth and turn about, signaling his squad of soldier to follow. Then it was only Airey and Jalos in the room. “He’s right ye know. That half-elf lass yer bringin’ here is gonna bring ruin on this clan. She can’t stay…”

“I know a way tae remove her powers,” explained Airey distractedly. Jalos instantly knew what troubled her.

“How’d ye think he was gonna react, Airey?” asked Jalos rhetorically. “Ye had a derned child out of wedlock with a hooligan from that Coalheart clan and then left tae be a war hero fer 20 years. O’ course he ain’t gonna be too fond o’ ye.”

“I know, brother, I know…” was all Airey could muster in response. He was right; Junior had every reason to hate her in the world. She’d failed in every definition of the word mother to her own son. She just adverted her gaze to the ground and stood silent for a few moments.

The old dwarf then let out a sigh. “I know ye already know all o’ this stuff, Airey, so I’m guessin’ ye had some kind o’ plan?”

At that, Airey seemed to sober up. “Aye, that I do, though ye probably won’t like me plan no more than Junior.”

“Whoa boy…” said Jalos as he covered his face with his palm.

“While I was trying tae figure out a way tae reverse what them cultists done and stumbled across an old friend o’ mine from tha’ Outlands,” said Airey as she pointed towards the door. In walked what appeared to be a High Elf male in a lavish blue outfit with blue hair. Jalos instantly figured out the color scheme.

“Ye out of yer blasted mind! Ye brought a Blue Dragon here intae our Clan hall!” Jalos leapt from his seat, drawing his great double headed axe and standing on guard.

The dragon-in-disguise held up his hands to calm the dwarf patron. “I’m not here to tear apart your clan hall. Malygos is dead, our war is over.”

“Jalos!” exclaimed Airey as she motioned for him to sit down. With a grunt, the patron sat down and she continued. “This is Kilygos. We met in Outlands. I helped them study tha’ Netherdrakes out there, some dangerous stuff still I made friends with’em.”

“I am here to aid Airey in return for the aid she gave us,” reassured the dragon-elf.
Jalos paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes at the two of them. “Go on.”
Airey motioned for Kilygos to continue. “Well as you know my people are adept at hunting mages, as such we’ve developed certain “techniques” to aid in their defeat.”

“Ye mean murder,” corrected Jalos.

Kilygos narrowed his eyes, but did not disagree and continued. “I will use one of these techniques to removes the archmage’s ability to cast arcane magic, making her nor more than a common prisoner, allowing you to keep her here while Airey and I research to find a way to reverse what was done to her.”

“We think we can find a way tae reverse what was done, Jalos. If we can’ that same magic could be used tae heal the minds o’ all them folks that went crazy in the Saronite mines,” explained Airey.

“How do ye know ye can trust that derned dragon? This could be some ploy tae get in and kill King Bronzebeard fer all we know, asides we don’t know if there are anymore o’ them Cultists left, sis. Fer all we know, there could be a derned army o’ them lookin’ fer their nut-job prophet. We just ain’t got the people fer this,” reasoned the patron. “Why do ye even want tae save her anyway? She’s just some miserable half-elf. From what I heard, she’d probably be better off put out o’ her misery.”

“There’s been too much tragedy in this world brother. I think Ms. V’lasha is an innocent victim o’ a higher power and there’s been too many victims. Lets at least try an’ save one o’ them, please,” begged the dwarf woman, who knelt before her brother begging with him. Kilygos knelt and put a hand on the old dwarf’s shoulder. Jalos let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

“She can stay in our prison, but only in the derned prison an’ only if ye take away her powers first thing. Now get yer scaly friend out o’ here,” grumbled the old warrior and covered his face with his palm at the absurdity of allowing this. Junior wasn’t going to be happy.

Airey got up and smiled, wiping away some tears she’d been hiding. “Thank ye.”

“Don’t thank me, just get that lunatic disarmed an’ in jail,” ordered Jalos. Airey nodded and exited, Kilygos following her. The patron knew he had likely made a mistake, but he couldn’t tell his Sister no. She’d just run off and house that mage with someone else less prepared. Jalos smiled. It seemed the Lavalocks were about to be a the brunt of a battle they didn’t start yet again. Hopefully, this one would cost less lives.

______

Loistradyn stood atop the bridge way in the Blades Edge Arena. Below her, dozens of bodies littered the ground. She laughed hysterically as a magical storm of ice rained down upon the victims of the ritualistic mass sacrifice. Icicles a foot in length and sharpened to a point stabbed through their bodies and pinning them to the ground as they flailed about and eventually died.

Several of her own followers wishing to join in the sacrifice leapt into the vicious blizzard and were killed, feeding their souls into her as the ritual continued. Shadow magic roiled up around the body of the Archmage. The shadows coiled around those nearby like a living being. Caelion had not leapt into the storm, instead choosing to remain by the Matron’s side and protect her in case of intrusion. The shadows felt his body up and down as though examining him. Their touch was cold, painfully so. He recoiled from them and looked to the arena entrance, the one the Goblins they had paid off had locked. In walked a group of soldiers bearing a tabard he did not recognize.

Lois then glanced at them in surprise and muttered “Kendal…” under her breath. However, she could not halt the ritual, not when it was so near completion.

“Kill them!” she ordered. Timberbrook took the initiative along with two others still left. The Blackstone soldiers and cultists battled for several minutes, until at last her children were all slain. Lois hastened the speed at which she cast the spells for the ritual, but a blast of shadow magic from behind interrupted her. She fell to her knees, stunned, and the world went black.
______

The impact of her head seemed to startle her from her dream state. Lois slowly opened her eyes and quickly discerned this was not the Blades Edge Arena. It was some dingy prison cell. She attempted to speak but realized quickly she was gagged and shackled, with her finger tied together as to prevent her from making the complex gestures required to cast arcane magic. She then spared a glance to her captors.

“Dwarves…” she thought. That could only mean one person, Airey Lavalocks. The question was why she was alive and not dead. The door opened across the room and in walked Airey escorted by a high elf who either really liked the color blue or was a blue dragon.

“Looks like yer awake,” commented Airey as she smiled warmly at her. Lois stared daggers at the woman. “Open the cell and take the gag off.”

The guard opened the cell and cautiously took the gag off the archmage. Airey and Kilygos walked into the cell as well.

“Careful, them mage folk can spit fire so I hear,” said one of the dwarf guards as he kept his rifle trained on the half-elf.

The other guard looked to him in shock. “Ye tell me that after I take that derned gag off of her?! I could’ve been killed,” Airey held up her hand to silence them.

“How ye feelin’ Lois?” asked Airey.

“Like tearing out your heart and offering your misery to the Serpent Queen,” replied the archmage angrily.

The dwarf women let out a sigh and shook her head. “This fellow here is Kilygos, as ye probably guessed he is a blue dragon and he is here tae help me cure you.”

“I don’t need cured. You think because I do not agree with the tenant of your fickle light that I must be diseased… How typical. You should have had Kendal’s flunkies kill me instead of capturing me. That was the logical course of action. Now you endanger these people by holding me in a prison. How long do you think you can keep me at bay here? I’m an Archmage. You can’t keep me gagged and shackled forever or I’ll die and when I get my chance, I’ll escape and kill you…” she said before being interrupted with a slap across the face from one of the dwarf guards.

“Ye won’t be threatenin’ me folks while I’m here!” growled the guard who struck her.
Loistradyn hissed, but complied.

“Your imprisonment will be made a lot easier when I am done with you, Loistradyn V’lasha, only child of the Lady Sycxmistrala V’lasha and Rastilar V’lasha,” stated Kiygos, which drew a half surprised look from Lois. “Yes, I knew your parents though of course you were not even a thought on their minds at the time.”

“I hardly care for whatever non-sense you have for me. The only family I have is through the faith of Ula’Tek. What was before then is irrelevant,” commented the Half-elf, dismissing the dragons claim to have known her parents. “You will not reach my ‘heart’ with nostalgic words.”

“My you are a stubborn creature, much like your atrocious father,” chuckled the dragon, “But your resolve is about to be tested.”

Airey turned her back and walked out of the cell and stood facing away from them. Lois took that as a bad sign.

“As you know, my kind waged war against your kind, mages that is,” began Kilygos. “Containing you folks proved to be rather troublesome. Unless we stored you in difficult to create magic containment fields, your kind would always teleport away or some such. In response to this, my brothers and sisters in the flight devised a means to imprison your kind on a much larger format; we simply had to take the magic out of the equation.”

Fear rose slightly in the stomach of the archmage, but she willed it down, staring hatefully at Kilygos.

“I admire your determination. I will explain to ritual to you, since you are a scholarly sort, you’d have the knowledge to appreciate it’s complexity even though you are about be its victim,” commented the blue dragon.

“Only a fool admires the beast that eats them,” said the Half-Elf curtly.

“You see, my flight figured a way to simply remove the ability of mages to remember how to cast the spells they spent a life time learning,” continued Kilygos as he prepared himself for the ritual, ignoring Lois’s comment about fools and beast’s that eat them. “We simply probed their minds until we found the part that activated the Arcane energies in the area, then rewired their mind to force them to lose the knowledge. A simple solution, but the war was nearly over by the time we perfected it to not kill the mage we used it upon.”

“You do not frighten me, dragon. Whatever you do to me, my goddess will unleash upon you a thousand fold,” warned Lois.

“How bold, are you certain you are not a Black Dragon?” chuckled Kilygos. “I appreciate your warning though. Allow me to offer one of my own. This ritual is extremely painful; I suggest you bite down on this…” He then stuck a wood bit in her mouth, which she promptly spit out. “Suit yourself.”
The dragon’s hand was then placed on top of Lois’s head and he began chanting. She could feel the arcane energy probing her mind. It was a tingly feeling that bordered on tickling. For several minutes, the dragon stood there chanting. She could feel as time progressed that the tingling was becoming more and more focused on a specific spot in her mind. If only she could cast a ward or two, she thought to herself.

“I have it…” said the blue dragon, trailing off as he finished and looked to Airey. She nodded, and Kilygos began to chant louder and with more force in his voice. The arcane in the air stirred with raged it felt like and great arcs of purple energy erupted from the shoulder of the arm the Kilygos had on Lois’s head. The beams arced into the skull of Lois, who immediately screamed in agony. She could feel the knowledge being torn from her mind. Blood ran freely from her nose, ears, mouth, and even around her eyes. The sheer pain was like nothing she had ever experienced. Just when the pain reached its peak, she drifted out of consciousness.

“How are you, sister?” said a voice in the darkness.

“Goddess!” exclaimed Loistradyn as she frantically looked around in the dark for the source of the voice.

“I am here and I have been watching. I am very disappointed in you…” said the voice in the darkness, almost mockingly.

“I failed you, sister, I am worthless…” pleaded Lois but the voice in the darkness replied angrily.

“Hold your tongue! It is not your failure that bothers me… you sought to supplant me,” chuckled the voice of the Serpent Queen. “You thought you could harness my essence and use it to increase your own meager power.”

Before Lois could come up with a lie, she felt a multitude of snake bites her on her limbs and throat. She tried to scream, but it merely came out as a crackly breath. Her whole body burned with pain to the point she thought she was going to die, but she didn’t.

“I will not allow you to escape my punishment for you so easily as to allow you to simply die,” cooed Ula’Tek. “Instead of being too terribly angry, I am more proud of you. Your ambition and lust for power is commendable. After all, that was how I gained the power I have now, stealing it from the Old Gods who thought me their servant. The difference was I was not stupid enough to be caught…” At last, a dim light shined on her. Lois was then face to face with the truest form of her goddess, Great White Serpent. Her slit eyes stared amused at the half-elf as she writhed in silent agony on the ground of the goddess’s dream world.

“I accepted you as my sister, but that did not imply we were equals,” explained Ula’Tek who then slammed her great tail onto the back of the half-elf, knocking what little breath she had out. “You are my subordinate, the most powerful of them granted, but still a servant. Now you, a servant, has betrayed my trust.”

“For…give me,” begged Loistradyn through strained teeth, which drew a smile from the Serpent Queen.

“Forgiveness is for heretics and weaklings, sister,” laughed the goddess. “I do not keep you alive because I forgive you, but because now I own you. You can no longer draw on the power of the arcane, which means that all of your power must now come from me…” The Great White Serpent then shrank to a mere twenty feet in length and then coiled herself around Lois as her body finally became paralyzed from the snake venom. The goddess coiled tighter and tighter until the half-elf could barely breath.

Ula’Tek then nudged then pulled on the helpless woman’s sleeve with her maw, exposing the flesh on her shoulder and staring hungrily at it. Despite this, Lois thought the massive white serpent was the most beautiful creature she ever saw. Perhaps Kilygos was right in that one can appreciate the elegance of something terrifying, even as it is about to be done to you.

The goddess laughed slightly, as though she had been reading Loistradyn’s mind. Perhaps she had been. However, with a hiss, the goddess bore her fangs changing from an image of beauty to a visage of horror. The pearl white teeth were 5 inches in length and dripping with black venom. Faster than the half-elf’s eyes could follow, Ula’Tek’s fangs stabbed painfully into her exposed shoulder. As quickly as it had happened, it ended and she began to fade out of the dream world, the final message of the goddess echoed in her mind. “You can never betray me again… gather your followers and take refuge with the Lady Sylvannas Windrunner and her allies. Though they are not of the Slithering Way, you will treat them with respect. From there we will build a mighty empire and topple the heretics of the Alliance…”

_________

Lois opened her eyes and looked around in a terrified state. A cold sweat had accumulated on her and she shivered as a result of it. She checked herself for signs of a snake bite, but there were none. Bits of dried blood still laced her face from the ritual the blue dragon had done to her. The two guards stood watch over Lois still. Moonlight permeated the cell from her small window. She’d been out quite a while she reasoned. She tried to recall how to cast a minor arcane spell, but found herself unable to do so and it even pained her slightly to try to think about it.

The goddess had said that all of her power from then on would have to come from her, which meant she would have to cast magic like the Loa priests had done when she was a child. She ran a series of spells through her head she had seen cast from troll priests before. She chanted the words quietly and focused her energy on herself. She felt the minor healing spell run through her and relieve most of the pain in her head. It worked. Now she had to think of an escape plan, but before she could even begin to think on it, a bolt of shadow magic erupted from the darkness and struck one of the guards. Without a sound other than the collapse of his body, the dwarf died. The other guard just sat there for a second.

“Ye know fakin’ death won’t get ye out o’ guard duty,” said the dwarf calmly. A green beam then shot out and slammed into the chest of the dwarf. The dwarf grunted in pain and tried to level his gun at the source of the beam, but it was too late. The dwarf withered to his very bones, his life essence torn from him.

Loistradyn then stood up and walked to the cell door, for only her hands were shackled together now. From the hallway emerged a warlock garbed in Deathmist Regalia, wielding a scythe. The half-elf’s face froze in shock.

“Lanalyn Darwen,” she exclaimed.

Lanalyn grinned at Lois, her red eyes gleaming beneath the sinister hood of her outfit. “How the mighty have fallen,” said the human warlock surprisingly dryly for her facial expression.

“I’ve not seen you since Da Fon’Thraze joined the Republic of Valiance,” said Lois examining to Lanalyn to make sure she was in fact really there.

“I’ve been bidding my time, Warlord,” Lanalyn said, stressing the title she had assumed long ago while leading Da Fon’Thraze. “I grew curious about you. The cursed burn on your back… it’s finally healed hasn’t it.”

Loistradyn narrowed her eyes at Lanalyn. “How could you possibly know that?”

“I know much about you and your goddess,” chuckled Lanalyn as she pulled out the Hakkari brand used on her as a child in Zul’Gurub. “The magic from this tool faded recently, once you were converted to this faith of yours the ‘Slithering Way’ as you call it.”

“I’m not going to ask how you retrieved that, nor how you know all of this,” stated Lois. “Why are you here?”

“Ah… to the point as you always have been,” commented Lanalyn as she opened the cell door and walked in. The warlock drew as dagger and shoved the half-elf against the wall, covering her mouth to hold her in place. Lanalyn then slammed the dagger directly into Lois’s thigh, her screams muffled by the warlock’s hand.

“You’ve lost your powers, this a prime time to get revenge for all the threats you made against me while I was in your employ. No longer can you threaten to obliterate me with your magic, because you have none… You are a worthless piece of filth now, a common person as was I when you took me in. You thought you could be my master forever, but now look at you…” smiled Lanalyn as she pulled the dagger out and stabbed her again on the same thigh. She screamed and tried to squirm away, but the full human was larger and stronger than she was. When Lois stopped screaming, Lanalyn removed her hand.

After a few moments, Lois wiped away her tears and gathered her breath. Blood soaked her pants, but she muttered a small healing spell to keep herself from dying, unbeknownst to Lanalyn.

“If you’ve come to kill me then do it, coward,” taunted Lois as she leaned against the wall, favoring her injured left leg.

“Where would the fun in that be, besides I’m not here to kill you. I’m here to help you…” she tailed off at the end with a smile.

“You are doing a great job so far,” replied Loistradyn sarcastically.

“Oh that was just a spot of fun before we leave,” laughed the warlock, who then pulled out a scroll and began to read it. A small portal opened up next to them once she finished. “Looks like they found
Airey,” laughed Lanalyn, as an alarm bell went off down the hall. “That damned dwarf was far too trusting even back in the old days of Da Fon’Thraze. She really thought I had turned over a new leaf when I came here to talk to her. Made it all the easier to slip into her bedroom and ram a dagger in her heart while she slept. Now let us go.”

A part of Lois knew she should feel sorrow for the loss of the dwarf who’d been like a mother to her, but that was a part of her that was nearly completely dead. She instead grinned at the death of the woman who orchestrated her capture. She followed Lanalyn through the bizarre portal and into the world that lay beyond, the dimensional door closing behind them.

_________

Airey lay there in her blood soaked sheets. Lanalyn had turned on her as she should have guessed would have happened. Her faith in the goodness of people was her downfall after all. Jalos barged past the crowd of clerics trying to save her.

“Airey! Ye derned fool! I told ye this was gonna happen!” exclaimed the dwarf patron, holding his sying sister’s hand.

Airey chuckled weakly. “Aye ye did…”

Another person barged out of the crowd, it was Burdier Junior, her son.

“Mum!” he shouted as he ran over to her. “Ye derned fool! I told ye this was gonna happen!”

Airey laughed heartily at the déjà vu, but coughed up blood as she did so.

“Save yer strength sister! We’re gonna get ye out o’ this!” ordered Jalos, though he didn’t sound so sure.

“It’s too late, brother…” she spoke, trembling.

“Don’t say that! Yer gonna be just fine!” said Junior, tears streaking his face. “I love ye, mum, though I ain’t never said it afore.”

“I know Junior, I’m sorry fer never bein’ there fer ye, but this… is tha’ life o’ a paladin,” explained Airey as she reach up and stroked Junior’s face.

The room stood quiet for moment as Airey’s face contorted in pain.

“Promise me, ye won’t get revenge…” said the paladin.

Junior and Jalos looked to each other.

“Promise me dern it…” she reiterated.

“We promise…” said Jalos. With that, Airey’s labored breathing halted. The great dwarf patron said a prayer to the light and Junior, just cried. Kilygos stood at the foot of the bed in his elven form, saddened at the sight of his dead friend.

There, Airey Lavalocks, Former Knight of the Silver Hand and matron of the Lavalocks clan died at age 165.

________


Loistradyn stepped out into the goblin arena of Blades Edge Mountain. Lanalyn had lined up the bodies off all the members of the Children of Slither cult in a row. Shackled nearby were two blood elves that Lanalyn was apparently keeping for some reason.

“Welcome to my humble abode!” laughed the warlock. Lois was less amused, this place being a reminder of how she failed in her attempt to harness the power of Ula’Tek.

“Do you wonder why we came back here?” asked Lanalyn excitedly.

“I assume you are going to tell me,” replied Lois as she limped over towards the bodies.

“You spoil my entertainment again and I’ll just kill you,” warned Lanalyn. Loistradyn’s glimmering blue eyes, the eyes of a high elf, stared hatefully at the back of Lanalyn. “But yes I am going to tell you. You see I watched your sacrifice with great amusement. Your followers willingly marched into their doom simply because you fooled them into believing it was for the glory of Ula’Tek, but I could tell by the format you were attempting to steal her power not borrow it. You are so much fun…” teased the warlock. Lois remained un-amused.

“After Kendal’s soldiers, Alyana I believe her name was, came in and spoiled your fun, I stuck around and examined the bodies of your comrades. I found that your goddess did not allow them to pass on to the afterlife. Which means she still has need of them here, but what I wonder?”

“What indeed,” grinned Lois behind Lanalyn.

“I discerned there was only one way to find out, to resurrect your comrades and see what it is they do,” reasoned Lanalyn. “ Following this drama should provide me with boundless entertainment I decided. I took you along to put you all back together again. I could stand the thought of such a perfect group designed to create chaos could perish so easily.”

“How do you plan to resurrect them?” asked the half-elf.

“With a bit of necromancy…” with that Lanalyn set about casting.

She pulled out two soul shards and set to work, first on Timberbrook and Amyia. Their bodies floated into the air swirling around each other.

“They won’t be needing these…” commented Lanalyn as their corpses dissolved into dust, leaving only the spectral outline of their souls in the air. The souls looked as though they were screaming as they started to change into some kind of monsters, a banshee and a phantom respectively Lois quickly realized. The two captive Blood Elves exchanged worried glances, but could not move for they were tied up.

After several moments, Amyia and Timberbrook’s souls completed their metamorphosis into the horrifying visage of a banshee and phantom. With a mental command, the two monsters floated over and possessed the bodies of the two Blood Elves who screamed at their approach.

Without wasting time, Lanalyn diverted he attention to Caelion’s body. She used a different approach here. She shot a purple beam into the body of Caelion. The Night Elf’s soul thrashed about agonizingly as the warlock pull it out and hurled it into the body of a dead blood elf paladin that had been lying on the arena floor. The corpse woke up and stood up looking about confusedly, newly created first generation death knight. Lois smiled at Lanalyn’s work as she drew out a small vial of green liquid.

“I’ve something special in mind for your little rogue friend, Beliand,” said Lanalyn as she opened the vial.
“Stay back unless you too wish to be become a monster.” Lanalyn poured the vial into the mouth of Beliand’s corpse and took a step back. Timberbrook and Amyia had managed to free themselves and walked over to Lois. A confused Caelion also follow. Together the group watched as Beliand’s flesh seems to rot and decay before their very eyes, a green mist oozing out of her. Finally, she stood up and looked about, a newly christened Forsaken.

“Marvelous work…” complimented Loistradyn as she looked over to Caelion, giving him a mental command.

“Kill the warlock,” ordered the Half-Elf.

“Yes, Mistress,” replied Caelion aloud as he death gripped Lanalyn onto his sword. Lanalyn looked down at the massive object protruding from her chest in confusion. Her face then contorted in pain as she yelled curses at Loistradyn and then went limp. Caelion kicked the dying warlock off his blade as she fell to the ground in a pool of her own blood.

“You… bitch...“ growled Lanalyn, spitting up blood.

“Your usefulness to the goddess is at its end, Lanalyn Darwen,” laughed Lois as she turned to her group of monsters. They were a dreadful sight to behold, especially Beliand.

“Come. We go to Brill to wait to seek audience with the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken. There we will rebuild our empire. I will explain along the way…” ordered Loistradyn as she marched out, her battered group in tow.

Behind her, the dark magic of Lanalyn’s Soul Stone stirred, resurrecting her fully once they were out of sight.

Lanalyn rose to her feet. "Oh yes... this will be a lot of entertainment," she cackled and began to walk out the other exit to the arena."

(( This is the after math of our RP event with House Blackstone resulting in the Children of Slither going to seek refuge in the Horde. From here, we will spring board our RP on the forums. There will be another part tacked on when the group arrives in Brill tomorrow to show the formation of <Venom Dynasty>. ))