So, things didn't exactly go as planned. Sure she asked for a living being, but she didn't expect them to give her nothing but the map and a kindly kick in the ass. Ludrasa was not one to bellyache about setbacks, but she still didn't look forward to using her own blood to use the vessel Faust gave to her. She held it as she looked to the dune where this ruin had been ripped from, her single eye giving a quick look over of the place. It was definitely old, probably older than Azshara's Empire. The only reason she guessed this was because the only statue she could see was not of any known major highborne nor of Queen Azshara herself. It was practically a rule that an estate of this size absolutely contained a statue of the Queen.
She shook her head, giving one more glance to the vessel. She set her satchel down in the sand, placing the vessel firmly in the wet ground next to it. She snapped a few spells overtop her possessions. Deftly, she picked up the materials she needed. With a spring in her step, she jogged toward the entrance of the building. It was still mostly typical of Highborne architecture, magical ivory stone holding it together even after ten thousand years of being abandoned and open to the elements. Though the color and life that once made these drab white walls shine had long since been eaten away, there were still signs that someone lived here years ago. The entryway was the only room that the light of the midday sun reached, leaving little for Ludrasa to truly investigate.
She did, however, locate signs of the mercenaries and adventurers that came before her. Corpses, mostly. That and a bloody trail that lead into abnormal darkness. Her magic senses picked up the smell of dark magic, a tell tale sign that either something dead or something old lurked further within. She came to the first body, a young blood elf, who was apparently killed instantly. There was no look of shock or pain on her face, her body clearly sprawled as if it simply dropped. Ludrasa couldn't see any obvious injuries on the surface, so she placed her hand over the elf's body. After a quick spellcast, she saw exactly what happened. The elf wasn't magically inclined, so a powerful shadow spell melted her brain. She'd seen the "Finger of Death" mentioned once or twice, mostly attributed to the horrifying Defiler of the Burning Legion.
So, either this was that same spell, or the threat at hand hypnotized or even infiltrated their mind. She decided to check a few more bodies, keeping her eye trained on the door as she moved. The second body's head was broken like a watermelon, whatever the person was beforehand didn't matter anymore. What they were was splattered around, their body showing signs of a struggle. The blood was not fresh, but it was black. She noted that the brain was still taken, as she could not locate its remnants. Finally, she glanced to the final body, blood still fresh. A young orc with brown skin, Ludrasa reached out to check if her matter was gone too.
She did not expect the orc to reach out and grab her on the wrist.
To say Ludrasa almost blew her head off wouldn't be completely true. She totally would have if she could've drawn her gun in time, but the orc gave her a look that told her that would be a terrible idea. The orc let go, falling back and grunting in pain. She glared at the injured orc, "The hell was that for? I was making a hypothesis and a battle plan…"
"Ludrasa?" The orc's voice was familiar.
"By the stars… Ora-Ur? What the hell are you doing out here? I didn't take you for a mercenary type… unless these guys are those Ashbound people you talked about when we fought together." Ludrasa reached out her hand to help Ora up.
The orc took her hand, standing rather easily. It seemed she didn't suffer anything near as negative as the other two bodies, "No. I didn't know them. Dead when I got here, the two I came with went further inside. Could say I wanted to help the Landing out."
"Why help them? They're not that needy, you know." Ludrasa snorted, "Are you still trying to be a hero?"
Ora glared, "I am not trying to be a hero. Is it so bad to do good things? And anyhow… I need money to survive on this world."
"Competition?" Ludrasa said with a snarl, a snarl that almost made poor Ora-Ur drop into a fighting stance. That was until she heard the nightborne begin to chuckle, "We can split the reward. Whatever killed these two and your buddies is probably pretty old and ugly. Strong, too."
"It is strong. I think I was able to survive by sheer luck." Ora began to wrap her long ponytail around her neck, flipping her hood up after she was finished.
"Tell me more. This thing can use potent shadow magic and popped that guy's head like a melon. You survived, so clearly you fought it and saw it." Ludrasa turns to study the rest of the room, listening to Ora-Ur.
The orc looked at her hands, "Well, it is fast. It strikes hard. I don't recall it using any magic, though. I think it is a magical being." She flexes her fists, "My electricity had no effect on it."
Ludrasa was studying the blood on the ground when she heard that, "A Null Magic aura, huh? Fast and strong, nullifies magic, and is wrapped in dark magic itself. Ora, did it have a face?"
"From what I saw, yes and no. It wasn't a faceless one, but it didn't exactly have a traditional face. A sort of… stinger? It had a stinger on its face. A pair of eyes, for sure." She tapped her foot, thinking. Snapping her fingers in a moment of recollection, she blurts out, "Stars! For some reason I remember that it had a starlike property to it!"
"Stars and a stinger. You just described a Mael, Ora." She took a lick of the blood.
"A what?" The orc's brow quirked.
"A mael. These things are rare! The Void has its own plethora of monsters, and Maels are in the ranks of some of the uglier ones. We've been lucky to only ever see two or three on record, but to skip a long history lesson, they inject you with a shadow spell to melt your brain so that they can physically devour your self. They gain knowledge and strength from eating brains, so much so that some maels are actually intelligent." Ludrasa grunted, "This one's blood isn't acidic enough, though. It's probably just a juvenile that got sucked here through our conflict with King Alsgabar and that Lord fella."
"So, what do we do? I hit it pretty hard, even if my magic had no effect on it. Do we go for help or…?" She shrugged at Ludrasa, as if asking the nightborne to answer her question for her.
Ludrasa bit down on a crystal, drawing a circle with chalk on the ground. She looked up, words somewhat muddied by the obstruction between her teeth, "Well, de way I shee it… we godda hun' dat ting down." She spat the crystal on the ground, her saliva appearing to deep into the crack in the gem. Her spit was mixed with some sort of powder and a fruit of some sort, "And I've got the means to locate it. We've just gotta be ready to kill it when we reach it."
"What are you doing?" Ora squinted at the magic circle.
"Well, this is nothing. I suppose I'd rather these bodies not stand back up because they need vengeance upon this beastie, and well… they deserve a proper burial." The circle turns green, the chalk coming alive into vibrant roots. They stretch out for the bodies, wrapping them tightly. Down into the sand they were drawn, a slight bloom of light escaping their bodies as they were devoured by the beach. Flowers suited for such an environment grew over where the sand had been disturbed. Suddenly, the austere ruins had their life and color restored to them. Such a morose thought, that death was the source of the return of life to an area.
Ludrasa turned to the yawning doorway that lead into the creature's lair, "Further in, then? We should get this done before nightfall. I'd rather not open the hunting space to the entirety of Azshara."
"Wait, do you mean this thing's only been here-" Ora gets interrupted.
"My hypothesis isn't concrete, but this thing wouldn't leave survivors. I have a feeling that there was something else going on here, and whatever it was invited a mael into our realm. Potential occult activity? Perhaps a few warlocks. It could have even been ghosts. Highborne, even as banshees, don't know how to let go of their hunger for power." She smirked, "Though what is certain is that your friends could still be alive, as the blood on the entrance there is mael blood."
"You can tell that by taste?" Ora grimaced, "What kind of mercenary are you?"
"I'm the best kind, Ora. I'm a professional." She winked, but… she always winked. She didn't have a second eye to make the motion correctly, so things just ended up looking fairly strange.
"Right. So, before you tell me your plan, allow me to tell you what I think we should do." Ora stood in front of the entrance, looking further into darkness. Unusual for a highborne estate, there were proper hallways that seemed to have originally been above ground. The walls were pretty stable, as well, and were even painted! Years of being underground had preserved the lower areas fairly well, it just seemed the entrance was blasted by the elements.
"Go ahead. I'm all ears…". She giggled a bit, wiggling her larger than average elven ears.
The orc was not amused, "Well. This thing is a hunter born of the Void. Though my homeland has never seen one of its specific kind, we've dealt with enough horrors from beyond that I feel like I can make a judgment on the best move we should take. It attacks the head, pierces the forehead with its stinger. It's extremely fast and very strong… so, I say if it's single minded and fast; it'll very likely ignore danger to go in for a swift kill. I'm big. I'm obvious."
"You want me to shoot it while you hold its attention, don't you." Ludrasa frowned a little, biting her lip. She nodded, "A fair idea, actually. It's a bit straightforward, but…"
Ora stepped into the hallway as Ludrasa trailed off. The elf loaded her rifle, following close behind. Their proximity to the bay of Azshara was fairly helpful in narrowing their hunting ground, as half of the estate was drowned by dark sea water. Murky thanks to sand and stagnation, it was incredibly unlikely that anything but bacteria and a few crustaceans lived in those pools. Ludrasa lit a few lanterns with her magic, Ora carrying Elemental fire in one of her hands. The building was still intensely dark, but their efforts allowed them enough visibility to properly investigate.
Ora headed near the pool, jabbing two fingers into it to test the quality. Her elemental skill was quite nice to have in such a situation, though Ludrasa was not quite sure why she'd test the water out of all things. She, herself, moved to search the rest of the estate. It was mostly to find an entrance to what she was sure was an underground lair. She prodded the walls, moved subterranean foliage to the side, even glancing through shattered tiling to locate a hole. She didn't leave the second room, however, making certain Ora was still within her vision.
Ora drew her fingers through the water, "The water is unwell. Tainted blood rests within it."
"So?"
"It could be a clue that we have to swim to find its lair." Ora pulled her fingers from the water, stepping away from the pool. She looks to the mercenary, "I still think we should search the rest of the building before moving onwards. Even if we only have a few more hours, we've got ample time."
Ludrasa nodded, "True. Though by what your own words, things might have changed. Your allies, what were they like?"
"A goblin from town and a warlock. It wouldn't surprise me to find the warlock alive, all things considered." Ora grunted, "He is a skeleton, after all. Nothing to suck out of his head."
"But the goblin, what were they like?" The mercenary's brow furrowed.
"He was a veteran of a few trade wars. Knew a lot of history." Ora shifted her weight a bit, "Oh. I see what you're getting at."
"Our mael might've eaten enough smart juice to grow his own intelligence." She snapped her fingers, "Meaning we absolutely are going to look at the rest of this place before we go swimming. Old highborne artifacts could play really nicely in a fight against a semi-intelligent Void spawn."
"Are you certain?" The disbelief was palpable in Ora's voice.
Ludrasa smiled, "No. That's what makes it more fun." The elf waved Ora over towards the next doorway, which lead into a smaller set of rooms. It was clear now that the room they had entered was some sort of nexus to the rest of the building, a nexus potentially lacking in portals and other sorts of things that used to carry people around it. A mercenary wouldn't care too deeply on the status of spires or fellow estates, but the kind of person this mercenary was definitely sad that the old gates no longer could activate. Three rooms sat connected to the hall.
Ora carried on forward to the last room while Ludrasa entered the first one she saw. The mercenary entered the room, and much to her excitement and excellent sense for highborne building layout, she found herself in an old armory. Though it appeared most of the weapons were gone, there were still a fair few shelves lined with backups as well as a few sets of old fashioned armor resting in near perfect condition near the back. She hurried over to the weapon racks, sifting through them in record time.
She placed her rifle into its holster, grabbing a fairly mundane halberd. She tested its weight against the suit of armor, seeing that it was pretty strong. Though she wished so dearly to sell a pristine set of highborne plate, she also wanted to know if this non-magical weapon was good enough to pierce a monster's skin. Seeing that she almost cut through magical plate, she felt fairly confident that it would do quite well enough. A sword of similar composition and a few daggers were also added to her arsenal. Safety was not quite the feeling she felt, but it was close enough for her tastes. She headed out to search the next room, waiting for Ora.
The next room was once what appeared to be a treasure room. The treasure was all missing, much to her surprise. This place must've been underground for millennia, only the Cataclysm and recent elemental upheaval drawing it out of the ground. Considering that the armory was intact, how could someone have drained the treasure room already? Ludrasa looked to the floor, to the strange tables set in multiple corners, as well as the ceiling that seemed to possess a magical focus. The floor was engraved with runes that she'd seen a few times, as well with runes that she'd never seen anything the likes of. Those tables had tubes and vials littered across them, letters and notes sprawled everywhere she looked.
A warlock must've been using this place as their haunt until the mael arrived. Ludrasa's prior knowledge of fel rituals told her that the runes on the ground were set perfectly for an intonation ritual, where song and dance would be used to invoke an older spirit of the land. These things typically invited imps and the likes, so she wondered why so much care was taken in creating such a large focus. Certainly only a single soul gem would be required for such a rite.
Things didn't add up, so she headed to collect a few scattered notes. Most of it was gibberish, though the paper was in relatively good shape. It seemed that a memetic magic protected much of the wording on these pages, but some of the later ones lacked it. It seemed the warlock was caught off guard, potentially by the mael. She found a name, however. As well as credentials and a certificate. This was a blood elf professor from a rather controversial Academy of Magical Study on the coast of Quel'thalas. His name was Sorn Redmoon, a tenured professor and warlock who prided himself on his mastery over chaos.
Someone commissioned him to investigate something, something that drew the elf out here. What that something was appeared mostly vague due to the memetic shield he put up, but Ludrasa felt as if she could be able to dispel them without ruining the text beneath. That was for later. She put down the notes, picking up a letter off the ground. Luckily, it was a cipher of a few of the unknown runes on the ground. Sadly, it was also damaged heavily by blood. She sniffed at the blood, licking it as soon as her nose came up with nothing. It was the elf's blood, for sure.
After reading a bit of the cipher, she could make out a few words in the incantation. She spoke them out loud, to make sense of them. "Master of Mist, Lord of the something Tower on the Something side of Elune… And the rest is incoherent without the rest of the cipher. Unlucky."
Ora's voice filled the room, "Quite a puzzle. Should write those runes down and collect those notes later, huh?"
Ludrasa nodded, "Yup. Find anything?"
"Fresh corpse. A staff." She tapped it, "I assume the corpse is probably of the man who set all of this up?"
"Likely. Doesn't particularly matter to me if all you found on him was his magical medium. Funny enough, mediums that aren't enchanted actually hurt things with anti-magic barriers better than normal weapons. Useful for our current enemy, eh?" Ludrasa turned around, "My gun's mostly useless against our foe. Decided to pick up a few weapons from the supply closet. You need anything stabby?"
Ora shook her head, "I prefer a good staff and my fists."
"Weird philosophy for an orc, but I'll take it. Less sharp weapons flailing around, the better." She snorted, "Ready? Or do you wanna check out the northern hallway?"
"I'm as ready as I can be, Miss Sheiza." With Ora's consent, Ludrasa jogged back into the nexus. To the sunken section of the estate she looked, the glow of her eye reflecting from the dark pool. She took her boots off, leaving her cloak and jacket on a nearby stone. Ora left her cloak on the same stone. As they both looked into the water, they felt no apprehension. As strange as it was, a team had been built in the ruins of a forgotten estate. The Fist of the Storming Star and the Violet Panther could rely on each other down there.
Still, they steeled themselves for battle. The mael was waiting for them behind a veil of black water. Black water and even blacker magic was at play, and Ludrasa knew she'd need to investigate this further. That warlock may have given her a new job to follow.