Ironmaw (IC--Closed RP)

Lore World's End Tavern: Role-play and Fan Fiction
109

As the first naga was beginning to heft itself onto the deck, a massive hand wrapped around its head, lifting it up. The naga struggled, trying in vain to make the tauren release his grip. Huulto grabbed the base of the naga’s neck with his other hand, then twisted. A sickening crunch announced the swift, though perhaps not painless, death of the naga. Huulto wasn’t finished though. He twisted the head the other way, then pinned the body down with his hoof. Then, he pulled, separating the head and most of the spine from the body. He lifted the severed head, and then rumbled out a challenge backed by Ursoc’s primordial strength and dominance. “Those of you who wish to die, naga, slither forth, and I shall grant this desire!”

His voice boomed across the deck, and shortly thereafter, he discarded the head, and began shifting shapes. His body lowered, his hide thickened, and his mane grew longer. Before long, a giant bear with seven braids in its mane, each terminating in a red feather, marked with red, vine-shaped ink across its fur, and hulking large enough to maul a doom guard even without druidic prowess, Huulto growled at the naga.

112

Ezari ignored the growing conclave of folks at the entrance to the below decks. Instead, she made her way farther down the hall, hopeful that rooms towards the back would be more unoccupied. She opened the door to one of the rooms on the right and found herself a small cabin. It did not appear occupied yet.

“Odd…” Ezari barely noticed the objects within the cabin, her eyes instead focused on the porthole. A mist was coating it in a way she could not see out. She stepped towards it and thought she saw a shadow. Ezari reflexively took a step backward. Unnatural. It sent shivers through her body as she stared, transfixed on the porthole, half in the room and half in the hall. She crossed her arms across her chest as she stared as if protecting her heart.

113

“Ah, I see.” Tolbyas smiled at her and looked around. The void elves were off somewhere and he intended to find one of them. Ezari had most likely went into a room. Such a confrontation would make him the bad guy in any sense. No, he would find the other and inquire to their conversation.

“Hi. Tolbyas.” Tolbyas put a hand on his chest indicating himself. He saw movement at the end of the hall. His eyes scanned the area and he could see Ezari half in a room. She seemed frozen, facing into the room. Was something in that room?

Tolbyas tilted his head as he looked at her. He stepped around the gathering. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “That one is a little off her rocker, I am going to see what is up.” He chuckled and then called out to her. “Ezari? Everything okay?”

The priestess didn’t move, her eyes still staring out the porthole. Tolbyas made it behind her and looked over her shoulder. He squinted out the little window she seemed so fixated on.

“Fog? Out on open waters?” He scowled. Ezari still didn’t respond. “Ezari?” Tolbyas went to put a hand on her shoulder and felt a bolt of pain in his head. “Ouch!” He put his hand to his forehead as a massive headache spread from ear to ear.

“Look, woman. I am going to investigate this fog.” Tolbyas’s eye twitched in pain. “You can just stay as a statue here.” With that, Tolbyas came back towards the group and made his way up the stairs.

As he reached the others, he laughed. “She seems fixated on some fog outside. I am going up on deck to look around. Seems odd for there to be dense fog in these waters.” He smiled through the headache at those there and pressed on up the stairs. The farther he got from Ezari, the less pain throbbed in his brain.

114

The long, mournful note of a warhorn broke through Bryah’s thoughts. She raced on to the deck of the ship in time to see serpentine shapes reach the ship and start to try and climb on board. In seconds, her hands had fitted an arrow to her crossbow and readied it to fire. Before she could send the arrow towards its target, a large tauren male lifted the naga into the air and swiftly ended the creature’s existence.

A smile crept onto her lips as she watched him challenge the naga. The bull had guts. Challenging that many naga was not something she would do. She lifted her shoulder and sent Scarlet into the air. Bryah inclined her head towards the naga and pointed to her own eyes. The bird took off and dive bombed the closest naga, pecking at its eyes while Bryah placed a well-aimed arrow in the neck of another that had managed to avoid the enraged bear form druid by climbing onto the ship from the other side.

From where he rested, Blaze let out a loud squawk, wanting to join the battle. Bryah kept him where he was. The dragonhawk was a firebreather. Not something that you want near a battle on a ship if it’s made of wood. He had also exhausted himself getting her to the ship in the first place and needed time to recover before she allowed him into battle.

Bryah placed another four arrows into naga that had gotten onto the ship before she had a chance to look around. “Where the hell are these coming from?”

115

Runas was still on edge after nearly getting caught. He’d managed to remove the plague - or he hoped, the plants seemed to destroy whatever was inside - so they captain should be happy about that. Proving his worth one step at a time! He was concerned about the sound of that horn, however, as he made his way onto the upper deck.

The sight that greeted the Vulpera was not what he expected: sea-snake people climbing over the sides of the ship! “Sea Sethrak?!” the fox man whispered to himself as he reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a yellow-green vial. He applied the liquid onto his daggers and put the bottle away before taking hold of each hilt, preparing himself for battle.

As one female-ish-looking snake came crawling up the side Runas jumped onto the railing in front of her before stabbing his left dagger into her face. She started spasming and fell off the ship as the venom set to work. The Vulpera had found a way to keep some of the ‘bite’ in Akunda’s Bite flowers for use in his venom, sometimes shocking the system of his foes to incapacitate them.

Runas leaped back as a larger, uglier fish snake swung its polearm at where he’d been standing, barely dodging the blade before landing on the deck of the ship. He lunged forward and stabbed into the beast’s chest with one dagger, dragging it as he started to circle to cut a large gash in the naga. A strong back-hand strike knocked the Vulpera away as the snake man tried to recover from his wound. He hissed before a dagger was lodged in his forehead, the fox man holding only one now as his foe slumped to the deck, twitching. Runas groaned as he climbed to his feet, his ribs aching from the impact. He would certainly feel that in the morning he concluded as he pulled the dagger free.

But the battle was only just beginning. No rest for the wicked and no mercy for snakes!

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116

Huulto snorted in amusement at Runas. “You fight the naga like a beast possessed!” He complimented, his ursine lips curiously not following his voice, as he mauled an advancing myrmidon. He spotted a siren beginning to cast a spell, but before he could intervene, he watched a trident skewer the foul witch, who slid off the deck and into the water.

He turned to follow the path of the trident, and saw a dark-scaled head, completely unlike the other myrmidons, dip beneath the waters. He held no doubts that was a naga, but given the cries of ‘traitor’ coming from some of the naga assailing the ship…

Perhaps this had been one of the Coilskar who served the Illidari? It mattered not, there was still a battle at hand. Myrmidon after myrmidon answered Huulto’s challenge, and he brought down each with savage vim and vigor.

117

Lynara took in the seen as the naga assaulted the ship. It wasn’t long until she was atop the mast. From this vantage point she had perfect sighting of the battle. She first saw a few naga coming up from behind Bryah. Her first arrow impacted the beast square in the eye before it erupted with dark magic, exploding the naga’s skull in a shower of pulped bone and dark red. She loosed the second arrow impacting the naga right as he raised his weapon for a swing. The explosion of dark magic severed the beast’s right arm making him easy prey for the other sailors and soldiers on the ship to take out. From the corner of her eye she spotted the sea witch sending an arcane blast of power her way. She sprang from her perch as the magic splintered the wood she had once been on. She landed on the deck with a roll and smoothly was back upon her feet.

She spotted said sea witch get skewered on a trident from another naga. Unusual but altogether not unwanted. It just made her job easier. She took in the scene and began to unleash a volley of arrows upon the assaulting naga.

120

[quote=“Myorga-wyrmrest-accord, post:67, topic:65108”]
Myorga thought about whether or not to introduce herself to the doctor. One one hand, he appeared to be friendly enough, but on the other hand, he was a blood elf and she had no idea of how to introduce herself.
[/quote] Kalithos looked over to the woman and gave a polite bow “Good day miss,is there something I can help with? Seeing as we’re most likely on the same mission,I’m more than happy to be of help in any way.” He flashed a polite smile only to get addressed by Tolbyas whom he had been speaking to on the way thus far.

[quote=“Tolbyas-wyrmrest-accord, post:65, topic:65108”]
“Ominos indeed.” Tolbyas smiled at the man. He was still wary of the sin’dorei, but more because he could not place where he knew him from. He filed the thought and looked out at the sea. “Seem’s we’ve found one ship.” Tolbyas chuckled.
[/quote] “Well that’s a relief,sooner we get this mission done the better the chances are to find survivors and mayhap the root of what’s been causing havoc to the area.” He looked to Myorga once more giving a polite bow “Should you or anyoen else need anything,I’ll be in my cabin making salves,tonics and doing an extra inventory check,I’m sure it won’t be long until we are able to proceed.” The good doctor hummed a tune while cleaning his glasses and making his way to the cabin door. Kalithos placed his glasses back on and noticed a strange fog in the horizon “Strange…when I made queries before boarding they never made mention of any potential storms…”

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121

The challenge was incredibly effective, drawing the ire of several naga warriors that had slithered onto the deck. Hissing angrily, they rushed at the tauren ursine with tridents flashing, only to quickly meet their ends at the druid’s teeth or claws. For every one that fell though, another took its place as the onslaught continued.

Though Huulto was keeping a good chunk of the naga forces contained, there were too many to corral in such a small area. The naga that were aboard the ship seemed to be melee fighters, busily pestering the crew and successfully dragging a couple of hapless sailors overboard. What they had in numbers though they lacked in armor–most wore only a minimum of light mail armor best suited for speeding through the depths rather than protection from serious injury.

The winds began to shift noticeably at altitude, slowly forcing the sails to swing around and further alter the ship’s course as the crew remained occupied down below with the naga forces. The air tingled with electricity as the sky continued to darken with a brewing storm, though nothing about it seemed natural. Rather, a quick investigation from observant eyes would yield the focus of the spell to be some kind of ritual being conducted by naga sirens further away from the ship.

122

The quel’dorei turned his attention to Myorga, one eyebrow raised. “By all means, fire away, though I’m not sure there’s any way to avoid the fog at this rate.”

Mithrian frowned, peering through the spyglass once again. “At the rate the blasted thing is moving in, it’ll be upon us within minutes. MEN! LIGHT THE LANTERNS AND STAY ON THE ALERT! THERE’S TRICKERY ABOUT!” he cried, returning the spyglass to his side and beginning to walk back towards the ship’s wheel.

Lanterns to the fore and aft of the ship flickered to life as the crew carried out the captain’s orders; the sails being taken in a bit to slow the ship’s speed. A tense air fell upon the vessel, with snatches of hushed speculation flitting about the crew. Naga? A freak storm? Some sinister trick of the Horde? A ghost ship? No one really seemed to know what to make of the situation as the fog bank continued to approach, though many were certainly spooked enough.

123

Rudy the rat was still at a loss, really. His entire mission in life had failed. There was a new group, including the one he recognized as his creator, but… where was there to go? Probably back to her, but still. Did he want to? Maybe there was more to see.

In the meanwhile of slowly becoming the first Socrates of the rats, pounding feet coming towards him caught his attention. “Oi, Rudy! You’re still around!” Lux grinned as she scooped the rat up, and looked at him. “…Huh. Usually they don’t last this long…” She shrugged with a smile. “Ah well. C’mon, buddy. Some weird stuff goin’…”

"MEN! LIGHT THE LANTERNS AND STAY ON THE ALERT! THERE’S TRICKERY ABOUT!"

She looked over with a blink at the captain. Well, at was good they’d be able to see in it. Seriously, what could that even be? Probably something troublesome. Maybe it was whatever took those ships they were off to find…? “C’mon, Rudes. Might as well go 'n find Lucille.”

Lucille nodded to both Khalloy and Tolbyas as they introduced themselves. She stumbled a bit on the chicken she presented. That was definitely… unexpected. She stifled a snicker at the idea of it worst came to worst, they wouldn’t have to resort of cannibalism immediately. …Or at all, considering they had mages on board… and probably food…

“Oi! Luce! Look who I found!” Lucille’s thoughts were broken into. Lux was marching along towards her, casually brushing through the group, holding up the rat. “Rudy! I dunno why he’s still alive, but hey! First time I’ve ever made somethin’ that didn’t explode.”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to respond to that.”

“Aye, well, that’s whatever. C’mon, some weird stuff goin’ on upstairs. S’like… fog? Clouds? Dunno. Stuff. It’s kinda cool lookin’. The cap’n seems t’think it’s some kinda trick.” Without waiting for an answer, Lux dragged her off, right behind Tolbyas. She continued rambling on about newly forming ideas for what to do with Rudy.

Rudy, meanwhile, just wondered what on Azeroth was actually going on.

124

“So. How’re you doin’ this fine… sail, I guess.?”
“…That works. Anyway! I’m Lux. What’s your name?”

Raiku, still sour from his conversation with Ezari, almost shook his head and walked off, but he could feel the judgmental gaze of Kawisa in his mind.

If you want to get your real form back, we need people to help us. The elf added.

Fine… The dragon mentally huffed.

“We are Raiku-Kawisa of the Burning Soul.” It wasn’t a true title, but one that the pair took a liking to after a Demon Hunter commented their paired souls blazed brighter than most mortals.

“As far as the enjoyment of this voyage it coul-”

MEN! LIGHT THE LANTERNS AND STAY ON THE ALERT! THERE’S TRICKERY ABOUT!

He was cut off by the captain yelling on deck. Finally feeling like something was happening, Raiku was about to dash off. Manners Raiku. Always end a conversation with a proper farewell.

Pompous Elf…

Primitive Dragon.

Raiku turned towards Lux. “We can speak again another time. It sounds like help is needed on deck.” With that, he continued bounding up the stairs until he was back on deck.

The whispers in his mind were extremely agitated by the mist. It certainly was not natural. He walked over to where the captain was. “Anything I should do?” He asked Mithriann. The mist unnerved him.

125

“I don’t trust it. Me ‘n me crew use a mighty similar tactic when we raid other vessels. I create a cover o’ mist ‘n use it t’ mask our approach…” She explained while she had her own spyglass out scanning the edge of the fog. “I ‘ave an ole artifact that I keep aboard me vessel. Its a Kvaldir lantern that burns wit’ an unnatural flame. If yer gryphon has nah yet left fer me ship, I shall go an loot it.”

She said closing her spyglass and storing it in one of her pouches. She did not like her own tactics turned against her. Even her Ghostlight would only be so helpful. It was good when she already knew there was a vessel and she wanted to reach it with no visibility, but the light only showed direction. It did not tell how far away that it would be.

Plus there was always the chance that it was not a ship in the fog…

“Regardless, I needs t’ get me ship ready fer boardin’ th’ fog.” She stated before turning to follow the path of the gryphon rider. “I shall return wit’ th’ Ghostlight.”

126

Myorga nodded and kept it quite short. “During my time in Kul’Tiras I familiarized myself with their culture and they have these sort of mages known as tidesages, sir. Able to hide an entire fleet at sea. I can’t say whether this is what’s going on, but with our proximity to Kul’Tiras, sir, I would definitely say we can’t rule it out.”

Myorga nodded once and then finished, “That’s all sir.”

127

“Nice to meet ya Tolbyas.” She responded. She was about to say more but he seemed more intent on something in the distance as he excused himself. Shrugging it off, she sat around listening to the others exchange a few pleasantries before the captain bellowed out a yell garnering everyone else’s attention.

She dashed up onto the deck to see what the commotion was as a deep fog had now surrounded their vessel. Furrowing her brow she tried to look out into the distance to see what may lay ahead. She wasn’t sure what it was, but seemed rather at ease. They would find out soon enough. She began to mentally prepare herself in case it was trouble.

128

Tolbyas nearly coughed as he inhaled some foggy air. He looked around the deck, unable to make out any details. He stepped out of the way as others ascended the staircase. After a few seconds of adjusting, a few figures were discernible in the mist Tolbyas slowly approached the growing gathering as he tried to see who all was there. Of note, he spotted the void elf from below decks. Tolbyas kept an eye on the man as his own hand hovered over his dagger.

No. Tolbyas slowly exhaled a long breath. The fog had a way of manipulating thoughts. He turned his focus instead to the edges of the boat. If someone attacked them, it would be from the sides or above. He pulled his daggers free from his hip. To be ready for a possible ambush, Tolbyas took two rags from his belt pouch and a vial. He poured the contents of the vial onto the rags and then wrapped his daggers in them. Poison. Some would claim poison to be a coward’s tactic, but Tolbyas cared to survive by any means he could. Now he needed a target.

129

Ezari stared out the porthole for several more minutes before she suddenly gasped and stumbled forward. Ezari caught herself on the door and panted heavily. She put a hand to her head before she moved into the room further. “What… what happened?” Ezari glanced around the room as she rubbed her arms together. The pinprick of the Light pressed against her skin, which helped cement her reality. Ezari sat on the floor. Her breath was still rapid and heavy. She laid back on the floor, an arm pressed against her forehead.

“Light…” Ezari mumbled to herself. “Guide and protect me.” She stood and rubbed her arms. After a shiver shook through her, Ezari stepped to peer directly out the porthole into the fog outside.

130

He was about to go check up the portal situation, but he heard something that made him slightly worried.

rushing up onto the deck too, the fog appeared out and it made it harder for him to see what is happening, he removed his helmet and put it to the side.
“Fog? i have some experience in fighting in a mist such as this, if it’s kvaldir, than expect a quick strike followed by swarms of there undead slaves.” he mutters as he stepped forward, grabbing his sword and shield in preparation, with his helmet off his vision is better, due to the lack of light but still slightly hard on him.

moment he spot the group he noticed they were looking around, some preparing in there own way, he spots the night elf messing with rags on a few knives, he quietly mutters as he gets near him.

“poison? cowards play, but a wise tactic in this situation.” he mutters quietly, not showing any interest or distaste for it.

Raising his shield too cover most of his face except his eyes, he tightens his grip on his sword, “If this is a horde or what ever doing this trickery attempt at getting us, i am not amused, i rather see who i am facing.”

131

Runas smirked as the bear called out in appreciation of him killing the ‘naga.’ He wasn’t sure where the bear came from, or how it was talking, but he liked it. So these sea snakes were the ‘naga’ eh? At least it wasn’t some kind of sea sethrak like he’d thought before.

The Vulpera darted along the deck, stabbing and slashing at exposed naga flesh or weak areas on their armor in an effort to inflict his venom on as many foes as possible. There were far too many for the crew to handle, but stunning a few with his concoction could be the difference between life and death for more than a few sailors. After dodging a large trident the fox man slammed his blades into the wielder’s chest, using them as a point to climb as he kicked off the deck and jumped up. Runas pulled the blades free as he shot up into the air and buried them into the naga’s eyes, the snake convulsing for a moment before falling to the wooden planks.

There seemed to be no end in sight of these beasts as Runas ripped his blades free from the corpse and charged forward into the fray once again. His sides ached still but the adrenaline dulled the pain greatly. He jumped onto the back of a smaller naga as it tried to attack the bear from behind and reached around its neck to cut the throat of the snake before it could stab at his new friend. Leaping off the naga’s back he landed on the bear, trying to keep his footing as he faced the opposite direction that the beast was. The pair of beasts in the middle of the fray, how fitting, Runas thought to himself in amusement. He wasn’t sure how much longer they could keep this up, though. He was tiring quickly and the snakes just kept coming.

134

The air near the top of the masts began to crackle with electricity; the metal bits in the rigging shimmering now with an eerie blue glow. Thick storm clouds began to roil in the skies above the ship as the winds continued to push the vessel along–products of naga sorcery, no doubt.

On deck, the naga forces seemed to be stalemated with the crew now, with fewer reinforcements trickling in and the enemies left alive the more veteran of the fighters. It seemed, however, the naga had one last trick to play as a brute surfaced in the ocean nearby, tossing deep sea murlocs on board like a child throwing toys. Rather than enter the fray like the rest of the naga forces, however, the murlocs lucky enough to avoid death upon landing made an immediate beeline for the ship’s lower decks.