Through the Last Gate
Back | NextFollows on from the Battle of Azjol-Vexis:
https://esarus.net/campaign-1/Two years ago, prior to the awakening of N'zoth and the return of the Black Empire, the Holy Order of Lordain was in a period of dormancy. The 4th War had ended in an armistice, and its crusaders, sworn to defend the lands of the Alliance, set forth to protect the borders as the uneasy peace took hold. It was in this time that their path led them to the undercity of Azjol-Vexis, the lightless domain of the Crypt King Xaxxis.
The Nerubian host within the subterranean kingdom, deep below the mountains of the Eastweald, had recently unleashed their latest creation into the wilds of Lordaeron: the Vexis, a breed of Nerubian with a toxin to rival the inner fire of a paladin, and which loyalist Forsaken apothecaries had taken a keen interest in. To put a stop to the Vexis, the crusaders of the Order and their allies delved into Azjol-Vexis, infiltrated the city and burned its hatcheries before making a hasty escape.
But even then, the Crypt King remained. They sought another way into the city, for the entrance was now believed to be heavily guarded, and through a long, winding tunnel network that breached the loam of the Blackwood they were able to find a quieter, mostly-forgotten entrance to the city. The gate, at first, was locked, but as they watched a shadowy, towering vizier came forth to silently unseal the gate, and disappeared into the bowels of the city as the invaders entered.
When they entered, they found a Nerubian city in the throes of a civil war. The Vexis and the Nerubis were in the midst of slaughtering one another - and themselves - as the human invaders raced to kill their Crypt King. In the dark, before a hexagonal doorway, they killed Xaxxis and plunged Azjol-Vexis into ruin... at a cost. One of their magi, Leuther, had collected the three Shrouded Stones - the sources of power which the Crypt King, the Hierophant and the Grand Vizier had once used to maintain the protective seal on the city, and in killing Xaxxis the ritual of binding had been undone.
That night, by chance, the Corruptor awakened. The moment of his awakening was a clarion call to the deep creatures of Azeroth, and beneath the city of Azjol-Vexis there was no exception. Its prison weakened by the capture of the Shrouded Stones, by the deaths of the Hierophant and the Crypt King, and by the traitorous actions of the Grand Vizier who had given the humans access to the city, the dark secret of Azjol-Vexis had been disturbed from its eternal slumber...
Many months later, the Order of Lordain followed Sir Ortellus down the very same route that he and Sir Nathanael had taken before. The cultists and mind-thralls of Calistan Enright had unearthed the entrance to the tunnel network in the Blackwood, and it was believed that the forlorn undercity was the location of the remainder of the Hoary Key to the Crypt of Arduran.
Tracing their steps back towards the deep city, the Order was forced to contend with Scarlet Crusaders - none other than the Order of the Blood of Martyrs, those who had conspired with Enright to have the Order's knights banished to Outland, unknowingly to be destroyed by the Hand of Kharduum. The attacks were repelled, and the Order travelled ever deeper, eventually reaching the chamber where the Crypt King had been slain and turned to ash.
There they discovered the bedrolls and belongings of Enright's men and cultists, and that they were only a day behind them now. The cultists had not returned to their camp, having dug around the sealed doorway that Xaxxis had died to protect, and having descended down the dark and foggy corridor into the unknown. Thus the Order gave chase...
Down, ever downwards.
The light of torches and lanterns reached out only a few feet ahead of them, illuminating the walls of the tunnel until they, too, disappeared, and after an unknown time the Order found themselves walking in complete darkness. Only the sound their footsteps, their breathing and their heartbeats could penetrate the eerie stillness of the fog-filled passageway, muffled by the dense, dark cloud.
When the corridor opened out into a large, dark cavern, they saw only the hexagonal gateway ahead of them. Vexis and Damned alike stood before it, attempting to seal the doorway, and despite their warnings they, too, were cut down.
Beyond, the tunnel sloped away into the black depths of the world once more, in deathly silence, until the walls took on an oily, iridescent sheen. The twisted at impossible curvatures, angles which should have led to perfect loops, carving a path through non-euclidean space in all-encompassing gloom, but after an indiscernible length of time they were approached. Not by the Damned, nor the Vexis, but by Nerubian of some unknown creed, who proclaimed that they meant the paladins no harm.
Events, until now, had not been ordinary - many questions were unanswered, and these Nerubian, Scourge beasts that they were, offered to answer at least some of them. Guiding them the rest of the way, the foul creatures brought the paladins to a cavern of immense proportions... and equally immense horror.
Illuminated by pearlescent starlight, the innards of an unholy creature stretched out ahead of them. The heartbeat that they had heard ringing in their ears, for the longest time believing it to be their own in the oppressive environs of the tunnels, was no other than the beast that they now stood inside; the putrid, deathly cold air in the cavern pulsed to the rhythm of its beating heart. Enormous, sinewy columns arched high overhead, and beneath them was an ossified ring that extended all the way around the cavity. Frozen within the calcified walkway, the paladins looked upon lidded eyes, fang-ridden mouths, the bulging expressions of tendrils.
Heralded only as 'the dreamer', the Nerubian told the paladins that this was the product of Grand Vizier Zek'thiz's ultimate betrayal of his Crypt King - the awakening of this creature being the very reason why the Order's crusaders had been allowed into the city so long ago. While it lay dormant and deathless now, it was promised that the dreamer, the master of the Vexis' forebears, would awaken once more, when the cycle revolved again.
But for now, the paladins could only retreat to the surface - they had neither the men nor the knowledge to vanquish a Forgotten One of this magnitude, and it had become apparent that the remainder of the Hoary Key was not here in the depths of Azjol-Vexis, nor in the fleshy prison of the dreamer.
Did the dreadlord within Enright know of this dark secret, too? And where was the remainder of the Hoary Key if not down here? Many questions remained unanswered. The hunt went on.
Many thanks to the Blood of Martyrs for their RPPVP in the underground tunnels earlier this week!
For those interested in joining the Order on it’s quest (and, really, we’re only just getting started here!), drop Ortellus or Nathanael a message at your earliest convenience. Send an in-game mail or reply to the thread here 
if you can’t manage to catch us!