The Druids of the Fang

Cenarion Circle Druids

To no one's surprise, the caves formed a huge maze. Far worse than the Crone's cave, where I was almost lost. And there were many wild animals, but for us druids, they didn't pose the greatest of dangers.

We went through some tunnels, sleeping some animals along the way, until we found a large lake and the entrance to another tunnel, which continued the cave. A flickering yellow light after a turn, in the darkness of the tunnel, slightly illuminating the surrounding stones. We walked toward the light and found a Tauren on the edge of a small fire. He soon introduced himself:

“Hello! I am Muyoh, who are you?”

“We have come on behalf of the Cenarion Circle in search of Naralex the druid,” Tonga replied. “I am Tonga, and these are Nara, Broomn, and Darsok. What are you doing here, Muyoh?"

“By the holy spirits, I'm glad you're here! I came with Naralex and four more druids from the Cenarion Circle to assist in the Barrens' restoration ritual. Naralex ordered me to stand guard while he and the others conducted the ritual. I began to notice that something wasn't right when the beasts coming from inside the cave began to look, shall we say, different. I tried to contact Naralex, but I was stopped by the other four, who now behave very hostilely and call themselves “The Druids of the Fang.” Since then, the corrupted animals of the Emerald Dream have been coming out and populating the cave. Unfortunately, we'll have to eliminate the Druids of the Fang so I can conduct the ritual that will awaken Naralex."

Tonga definitely took the lead.

"Let's organize ourselves like this: I will take the form of a bear and confront the animals we find. Muyoh, Broomn, and Darsok sneak in, killing them one by one. Nara will stand in the rear, take the form of the Tree of Life, and ensure our healing. Thus, we can even face an army of beasts. I hope we can also face the druids."

I remembered, then, the elixirs we received from Helbrim. Darsok, Muyoh, and I took that of agility; Nara, that of increased healing power; and Tonga, that of stoneskin. Myuoh also cast on all of us the Mark of the Wild, a known magic of the druids to increase our abilities and our life force. Ready, we set off.

The Awakening of Vocation

Tunneling in, Tonga was ahead attracting all the animals. Swiping its claw horizontally, it hit all of them, dealing them severe damage. Darsok showed unusual agility with his poisoned daggers. Muyoh and I were ruthless with our claws and teeth. But what really caught my eye was Nara's role. I had never seen a Tree of Life in action, especially in a real fight against multiple enemies. As I attacked those animals, I couldn't fully divert my attention from the tree. Gracefully she swung her branches as she spread healing to all of us, especially to Tonga, who was catching a lot of the animals. It was possible to see Tonga's leather, although hardened, have wounds opened by the right and fierce blows of the animals. Next, Nara's magic quickly healed the wounds and fully restored the hide. I felt at that moment that this was my vocation. I decided that I would seek the teachings of the Path of Restoration.

Going down the tunnel where we met Muyoh, we soon found a large chamber with a ravine. A small watercourse ran very slowly from west to east. There was also a large tunnel in the north direction. Muyoh said that we would find Naralex there, but that we needed to purify the cave of the corrupted spirits first.

We went down to the water and headed towards the spring. We passed through a crevice and the cave seemed to offer us a whole new wing to explore. Surprisingly, we spotted a night elf who wasn't any of the four we were looking for. Just like the animals, the elf attacked Tonga as soon as he saw it. But we were prepared. Muyoh and I attacked him too and he toppled over.

After we defeated him, we went to try to understand who he was and where he came from. He attacked Tonga with a well-known druid magic, Wrath. This led us to conclude that the corruption of the Emerald Dream had taken that elf and driven him into the cave somehow. And with some purpose. There would surely be more like him and we would face great resistance to Naralex's awakening.

We continued down the tunnel and as we ascended, we encountered more and more giant serpents and druids. The tunnel took a long turn and led us to a chamber where we spotted one of the Druids of the Fang, Cobrahn. Several snakes walked around him, as if protecting him. And they did! As soon as Tonga approached, Cobrahn and his snakes attacked him, just like the other elves and beasts had done previously. We had no alternative but to shoot them down.

Darsok searched the chamber and found a ravine that allowed him to monitor, from above, the crack that gave access to the ravine below. We concluded that Cobrahn already knew we were coming, had seen us arrive. Surely the others had already been alerted.

We went down the gully and back to the ravine. We resumed the course of the water, but this time in the opposite direction. We crossed the ravine, the stream running slightly to the south. Just as we were reaching the end of the ravine, coming back from the tunnels, there appeared Anacondra, another Druid of the Fang. Again we were attacked without question, by her and by some kidnappers who accompanied her. Again, our teamwork was very efficient and we were able to eliminate them without difficulty.

We followed the tunnel from which Anacondra exited, soon arriving at a huge chamber. The beauty of this place was astonishing, many plants and small waterfalls scattered everywhere. The sound of the waters falling through the rocks was confused with a charming and relaxing melody. I got distracted by such beauty, but not for long. As we passed among the plants, we were attacked by a very numerous group of small plants with spiny vines that were used as whips. There were so many that Tonga couldn't attract them all, each of us was attacked by three or four of them. Nara needed to use a more powerful magic, Tranquility, to be able to heal everyone at the same time. As we struggled with those corrupted plants, a huge monster appeared and attacked us as well. It looked like a clump of seaweed, was the size of three Taurens, and was very strong. Tonga quickly ran up to him and stopped him from attacking the others. Muyoh and I prioritized protecting Nara, while Darsok went to help Tonga with the monster. Once we got rid of the smaller plants, Muyoh and I joined Darsok and managed to subdue the monster.

“This is all the corruption of the Emerald Dream trying to stop us from awakening Naralex,” Muyoh said. “We have to get some rest and redouble our attention.”

We had a quick snack to recover and continued to walk down the tunnel. Like the other side of the cave, the tunnel spiraled up, around the large chamber with plants and waterfalls. The path took us from the southern end of the cave to the northern end, where we began to hear two male voices talking. It wasn't possible to understand what they were talking about, it was an unfamiliar language, but they were certainly talking in a serious tone. We didn't hear laughter.

We proceeded cautiously and found a sort of lodging in a corner of the cave. Pythas was there, meeting with one of those unknown druids, probably his disciple. There was also an algae monster standing guard.

This time, we initiated the attack. Tonga surprised them by attacking them all, who fought back by focusing on him. Meanwhile, Darsok quickly eliminated the disciple druid. Muyoh and I attacked Pythas, who also didn't resist for long, leaving us with only the monster to occupy us. By then we already knew it was only a matter of time; the monster was strong and resilient, but it couldn't beat us.

That was the third Druid of the Fang we found, there was one missing. We continued through the tunnel, which kept taking us up and now back south. We made it to a big cliff. From there it was possible to see the large chamber with the waterfalls below. Curious pattern: it seems that "The Creator" loves spirals! :)

A few more minutes walking and we found another chamber, this one all rocky. There, apparently waiting for us, Serpentis with one of his disciples and two giant winged serpents. We kept to the strategy. Tonga attacked everyone, Muyoh attacked Serpentis, Darsok and I attacked one snake each. Snakes, after all, had a terrible poison. Every time I felt a bite, I could also feel the poison circulating in my veins, causing terrible pain and paralyzing my muscles. Nara, in addition to healing everyone, had to administer magic to abolish poisons in me and Darsok pretty much all the time.

When Serpentis was killed, the whole cave shook. It looked like an earthquake! A monster resembling the algae monster appeared, only it was much larger than the previous one. We barely had time to react. Tonga was hit and flung away by the force of the blow. I rushed over to Tonga to try to help him, while Darsok quickly attacked the monster with successive dagger strikes, which apparently only enraged him more. He turned around letting out a deafening roar and struck Darsok, who was also hurled into another corner of the cave. Muyoh, this time, turned into a bear and attacked the monster. Nara immediately focused on healing him. I managed to help Tonga get back on his feet, and we turned into lions to attack the monster as well. Darsok, however, had not returned to combat until that moment. He was still lying on the rocks, not moving.

With Muyoh attracting the monster's attention, we were able to reestablish our combat strategy. After several minutes of extremely tiring combat, we managed to kill the monster. Darsok, however, was dead! My expression didn't hide my panic, we had lost a team member! Tonga took a deep breath and came to me, while Nara was already beginning to focus energy on the tips of her branches.

“Calm down, Broomn. As disciples of the ancestral spirits, we druids are wielders of great powers that you still don't quite understand,” Tonga told me without showing any concern.

Barely had Tonga finished the sentence, a wonderful sound that I cannot describe echoed through the cave, a clear light shone over Darsok's body, and he returned to life. He had a dizzy face and a terrible appearance, but he returned. :)

Naralex

Near where Darsok had fallen, we noticed a well a few feet deep and the water below. As Nara finished restoring Darsok's strength, we decided to jump. The fall was long, and luckily the well was deep enough to cushion our fall. We stepped out of the pit and realized we were back in the ravine, near where we confronted Anacondra.

We climbed the cliff of the ravine toward the main chamber, where Naralex was. Muyoh ran to the center of a circle of torches and asked for a few minutes to conduct the cave purification ritual. It really didn't take long, then he led us to Naralex's chamber.

Reaching the inside of the chamber, I could notice a huge amount of vines and roots hanging from the ceiling. There was water all around, many candles, and Naralex rested on a bed of stone in the center of the chamber. Muyoh approached him and told us:

"I'm going to start the awakening ritual, I need you to protect me until I complete the ritual.

As soon as he began the ritual, the surrounding waters began to bubble. Snakes began to emerge and attack Muyoh. Tonga promptly turned into a bear and stood between Muyoh and the snakes. Darsok was already recovered and, together with me, we attacked. Strange creeping goo also began to rise from the waters. Corruption was trying in every way to interrupt us.

The number of creatures increased and Muyoh continued the ritual. The fight was frenzied, and the more creatures we killed, the more they rose from the waters. Until the whole cave shook again and a huge murloc appeared coming towards us.

Murlocs are humanoid fish of little development, intellectual or physical; they are small and just boring. That one, however, was giant and definitely dangerous. Tonga stopped him before he approached Muyoh. Nara was already turning to Tranquility again, when Muyoh finally completed the ritual.

Fortunately, as soon as Naralex awoke, the monsters disappeared and the contamination of the cave distinctly extinguished in a few seconds.

The strangest thing is that Naralex barely thanked anyone, turned into an eagle and flew away, shouting that he would make new attempts to recover the nature of the Barrens. Muyoh, then, didn't even have time to say anything. He also turned into an eagle and followed Naralex.

The others, we returned to Crossroads, where we left Tonga and Darsok before heading to Thunder Bluff. We had a lot to tell Hamuul. In addition to everything that had happened with Naralex, I had made a decision and could not proceed without Hamuul's help.

I'll tell you more on our next date. :)

See you soon,

Broomn.