My San’layn scenario. Part #1
Where have the San'layn been?
Back when Arthas was the Lich King he was having trouble controlling the Nerubians. He’d send small armies into the many Nerubian tunnels and underground cities but none would return. They were starting to become a thorn in his side.
Then one day the Blood King Seregaran made a proposal. He offered to take care of Arthas’ little thorn in return for control of the Temple City of En’kirah and any and all spoils from their conquest of the Nerubians.
Arthas was loth to send in the San’layn. Not because they weren’t up to the task but because the Blood King, and all San’layn for the matter, were rather immune to his powers of control. They were as complicated as Sylvanas had been if not more but he had to take care of this problem so he relented and made the deal.
Some time had passed with the Blood King sending communications every now and then about their progress. It appears that the San’layn were well suited to taking care of the Nerubians. They were making far greater strides toward eradicating those tiresome spiders then the combined efforts of all of Arthas’ armies previous attempts. But that would change in the coming months.
Over the next couple of months Arthas received less and less communications from the San’layn. It appears that they just so happened upon one of the Nerubians cities that at the time was housing a huge fighting force. They were hard pressed by the sheer numbers the Nerubians were bringing against them and asked Arthas for a small strike team to take out their king and scatter the army.
Arthas mused the thought over for some time before he finally decided upon a decision. He decided that he would destroy the entrance to the underground tunnels. The San’layn would keep the Nerubians busy and destroying the entrance would ensure that none would be able to harass him. Plus, the Blood King would not be able to collect the Temple City of En’kirah, which the Lich King had plans for.
So Arthas had the entrance to the underground Nerubian tunnels destroyed sealing away the Blood King and his San’layn army along with any Nerubians that would survive.
Why haven't they contacted anyone?
Two months had passed since the Blood King had heard anything from Arthas. In fact, not one runner had returned in over a month. Either the Nerubians were picking off their communications or something had gone terribly wrong. It was true that they were very deep inside the tunnel system but the longest they ever went without a return communication was two weeks. So the Blood King decided to use some of his immense power to try and contact those outside the tunnels.
It took far more power then the Blood King would’ve liked to have used but it was a necessity. He reached the Blood Prince Dreven who was surprised because he was told by Arthas himself that the king did not make it. The king now understood that it was Arthas’ treachery that had been at work and not the Nerubians.
When he informed Dreven that he was bringing his army out Dreven informed the king that the entrance was destroyed by Arthas to “keep the nerubians from getting out.”. The king gave Dreven the very important quest of finding allies to help clear the entrance and get the king back to his people.
Around this time a group of adventurers had fought Arthas in Ice Crown Citadel, destroyed Frostmourne and defeated him. But in the process the power that was contained inside of Frostmourne was released and became trapped in the Ice Crown atmosphere. The power was so great that magic spells faltered and magical communications were not possible.
And so the San’layn were trapped below ground, against a huge Nerubian force, with no reinforcements in sight, no way to communicate with the outside world and their only hope in a Blood Prince named Dreven.
Why are we now hearing about them in Shadowlands?
When Sylvanas broke the Helm of Domination and opened a way into the Shadowlands it also acted like a drain. All the magical energy that was trapped in the Ice Crown atmosphere was drained into the Shadowlands. All of the negative effects dissipated when the veil was broken. And the lines of magical communication restored.
The San’layn having tried numerous times before to communicate with the outside world did not know that their magical prison was broken. They had gathered together all the most powerful mages they had including the Blood King to try one last time to communicate with someone . . .anyone.
When they had all gathered their power they released it into the Blood King who let lose with the most powerful magical communication to date. It covered the entirety of Azeroth and more.
Had the magical barrier still been in place it would’ve possibly gotten through as a whisper but with the barrier removed it was a tidal wave of magical energy that assaulted the mind of every living thing on Azeroth. Most beings fell unconscious from the attack but some, that have shielded their minds, were still brought to their knees.
And so all of Azeroth knows of the San’layn now.
How does the unlock scenario go Part #1?
Now that every living thing on Azeroth knows that the Blood KIng is trapped and in need of help there are those that are looking to aid and those that are looking to harm.
The San’layn that have been in disguise in Bolvars’ ranks are now looking for allies. They know that Sylvanas possibly had Dreven killed and has betrayed them but she has grown too strong and the San’layn still think the Horde is their best bet at a strong ally. Plus, the Horde now has a target on her for killing Saurfang and kidnapping some prominent leaders.
They start by contacting individuals that they think are sympathetic to them. That is when the player characters get contacted.
“Psst, over hear.”
" What do you know about the San’layn?"
" Would you be willing to help us out?"
" We would be great allies."
So the San’layn that contacts us asks us to find more sympathizers. After that they instruct us that we’ll need to find a demolition expert. We find some crazy goblin that’s willing to build an explosive big enough to open anything but we have to first get him a date with a female tauren. What is with these male NPC’s and female taurens?
So we get him a date and he says he will build us the explosive but he doesn’t have enough gun powder. He needs us to either take some from the Horde cannons around Orgimmar or steal some from the Alliance.
- If we steal from the Horde we become flagged as traitors and can’t use any Horde vendor for X amount of time. We also will need to acquire the invisibility potion, used later on, from an alchemist vendor but it won’t appear in their inventory till after we steal so can’t buy ahead of time.
- If we steal from the Alliance we get a potion that we’ll use later on for free.
When we get him his gun powder he gives us the explosive. Now the San’layn contacts us again and tells us where to go to use it.
We head over to Northrend and near the Temple City of En’kirah we find a rock cluster. We set up the explosive and have to wait 5 minutes because the crazy goblin put an extremely long fuse on it so as to not blow us up. Wasn’t that nice of him.
Of course, we were followed by Sylvanas’ creatures. And to make matters worse the Alliance has gotten wind of what we are up to and wants to stop us. Now we are in a three way battle and we have to wait for the fuse, lol.
Luckily Sylvanas’ creatures and the Alliance use sweeping attacks that if they hit anything it provokes them. You just have to do some dancing around to get them to fight each other and pick off the stragglers. Or you could lead them to the explosive and have them blow up and hope you don’t die in the process.
when that is all done the San’layn appears again and gives us instructions to go in and see if there is any Nerubian resistance. As we head in we are ambushed by the Nerubians. After we fight them off we have to return to the San’layn and let him know it isn’t safe.
Part #2 will have the continuation.
I’m still writing but figured I’d post what I have so far. Had to stop because I have been typing for about 2 hours now and need a break. I think I’m only about half way through.
Nice catch. That is rather weird and I didn’t even catch that. But my weapons always float on my back in-game so probably overlooked it like I do while playing.
Part #2
Unlocking scenario Part #2
We return to the San’layn and inform him/her that the Nerubians had ambushed us. To which he/she says well need an invisibility potion to get past them. If we stole from the Alliance we have one but if we stole from the Horde we have to go back to Orgrimmar and get one from a specific vendor.
The San’layn also gives us a list of 4 other items we’ll need in order to get to the Blood King. The invisibility potion and 3 of the 4 items on the list will allow us to do things normally only San’layn can do. The other item will ensure the Blood King joins the Horde if we make it that far.
With the potion in hand we head into the tunnel drinking it before we get to where we were last ambushed. We sneak past any further ambushes and into a rock formation that looks like spikes coming up from the ground and stretches for some distance. We can’t tell how far the rock formation goes being that it is underground and hard to judge.
The San’layn asks us to stop a minute while he/she figures out what to do next. As he/she is working things out they inform you that San’layn can turn invisible naturally (possible racial, an invisibility that lasts say 10 secs with a 5 - 10 min CD). It is one of the ways they’ve been able to survive down here for as long as they have with no reinforcements.
For the next part the San’layn asks if we have the potion of bats which was one of the items on the list. We show him/her the bottle and he/she nods. Drink it and lets follow me. At which point the San’layn transforms into a swirling cloud of bats (flying form racial) and slowly begins to ascend. We drink the potion and poof we are turned into a bat. It takes a little bit of time to get use to the transformation but then we are off, following right behind the San’layn.
As we are flying the San’layn informs us that the Nerubians drop from the ceiling above that rock formation and so it was not safe to walk. But they leave bats and other creatures alone so that is why we are flying. He/she also informs us that the San’layn were normal BE’s that were cursed. Somehow Arthas was able to modify a poison from a bat God named Karmazots to turn anyone bit into a cross between a bat and undead creature. It was an eternal hell meant to chain us to Arthas’ beck and call.
Little did he know that my people are stronger of will then normal races are. We are far harder to control and the older we are the less his power has a hold on us. Most can brush off his mental demands with little trouble. I’m sure he just loves communicating with us. chuckle
We fly for some distance when the San’layn mentions that our potion will be wearing off soon and so we should land or have a rather horrible death. He/she continues by saying it wouldn’t be just the fall that would be horrible but also the things the soul would see and endure once we were dead. We asked what they meant but they would not elaborate more on it.
After landing, in what appeared to be some sort of village made out of husks, the San’layn tells us they need to rest a bit and if we could keep watch. They have been going none stop once they heard the Blood Kings request for help and hasn’t rested in quite some time. We agree and he/she is fast asleep.
As we are waiting we hear strange noises and see some strange things scurrying by but nothing to alarm us. Then as if from right beside us we here “They have killed our brother/sister and is thinking of how to eat him/her.” And from our left we here “It must die.” that sounded like a rising wind mixed with a banshees wail.
We leap up and turn in one fluid motion pulling our weapon out at the same time. And what do we see but two more San’layn. Both of which are female but each has a look of disgust and anger with it turning more toward rage each second. And they seem to be looking less and less human and more and more monstrous. When all of a sudden there are now two huge humanoid bat shaped creatures where the two, rather attractive, female San’layn were.
Continued tomorrow in Part #3
EDIT: Here’s what I did for my vampire elf today. Didn’t spend as much time as I did a couple weeks ago but I think I got more done. 
`https://imgur.com/KGwjdDe
Happy with how the bat form is coming out but not wild about the elfs hand position or maybe the shape. I think I over did it with her lashes also. And now that I will be able to see more of the bat forms wings I might keep the wings as is. Still undecided. Really like the way the orb looks,though it is darker then I want it, plus it’s on its own layer so I can move it anywhere and not ruin the picture.
Very nice catch. Probably won’t change it but we’ll mark it here as changed to a curse.
They’re even less relevant to mainland Azeroth. How the heck would they eat if they were allowed to go to Azeoth for longer than temporarily? I think it’s even less realistic to think, therefore, that they should be an allied race. Just my personal opinion, of course. When we have a vampyr race right here that’s been perfectly operational on Azeroth and can survive on it.