Part 1: The Lunar Sphere
Participants: Tinwëtar, Melaniel, Kathene (DM & Magistrix), Sinrall, Ialluen, Ilaei, Talasandra, Alylia
Mission report 1 – Feathermoon Stronghold, Feralas
Date: 11th of Sellistre, 2018
Summary: Following orders from the Sisterhood of Elune, the Nightblades set out towards the Ruins of Isilden to investigate the rumours of Nightborne activity in the area. Their orders are to find out what the shal’dorei are doing in Feralas and remove their presence from kaldorei lands…by force if necessary.
The night’s mission also acted as Outrunner Starsinger’s Sentinel trial. She was to come up with a plan of action, lead her fellow Sentinels in executing said plan and hopefully achieve the objectives they were after.
The Nightblades rode out in tight formation towards the Tower of Estulan. Outrunner Starsinger was taking extra precautions and had the Sentinels on high alert. Once they reached the tower they left the sabers to continue towards the ruins on foot.
Once they got closer to the ruins they found a pile of badly burned treants. No weapon had been used to slay them, instead the treants had been burned alive with the aid of silvery purple arcane flames. The Sentinels were enraged by this discovery, but Outrunner Starsong advised caution and had two of their number scout ahead. It turned out that the Temple was being carefully guarded from the front, and lest the Sentinels wished to make their presence known immediately they would have to find another way in.
It was decided that they would try a stealthy approach, and thus they crept up alongside the Temple’s eastern wall. Once there Ilaei Wildblade coaxed vines to grow up the side of the Temple, so that the Nightblades could climb up to the top.
Once they were at the top, they could see that the Temple entrance was also guarded by three arcane archers, situated on a ledge above the doorway. The Nightblades tried to neutralize them quickly, but while they succeeded in ending the shal’dorei archers, they were not quick enough to completely avoid raising the alarm.
Inside the Temple they were faced with three arcanists channeling their power towards a lone figure in the middle of the moonwell. The figure was protected by an extremely strong arcane barrier, and she was using all her power in an attempt to break open the podium in the middle of the well. A fight broke out, and the Nightblades eventually managed to kill the arcanists as well as the arcane elementals they summoned. But it was too late. The magistrix in the middle managed to break open the podium and steal a sacred relic that had been hidden beneath it. A relic from ancient times, called “The Lunar Sphere”. Priestesses back then had used it’s powers to amplify their own magic and rituals.
In the end the magistrix fled by teleporting to her ship that was anchored off the coast of Feralas, and the Nightblades hurried back to Feathermoon to pack and find a vessel that would be fast enough to pursue the shal’dorei…since “The Lunar Sphere” could not be left in the enemy’s hands.
Part 2: The Radiant Jewel
Participants: Tinwëtar, Melaniel, Kathene (DM), Sinrall, Ialluen, Ilaei, Talasandra, Aariam, Seilenna, Thindis, Gendric, Faradael
Mission report 2 – Abandoned dock house, Suramar City
Date: 12th of Sellistre, 2018
Summary: Having asked the Moonsun family for aid, the Nightblades boarded Sinrall’s ship, the Red Scale, and set their course towards the Broken Isles and Suramar in pursuit of the Lunar Sphere. Onboard the ship the Sentinels were introduced to a pair of sin’dorei who the Moonsuns had enlisted to act as spies on their behalf. The Nightblades were not entirely comfortable with this notion, but grudgingly accepted that it might prove advantageous to have two spies who could move freely about the city without rousing any suspicion.
The ship eventually laid anchor just off the coast of Suramar, and the Nightblades and their allies made their way to the shore without incident. After a short trek through the strange, red forest the group got their first glimpse of Suramar City. Many in the group were stunned by its beauty, while some were not as impressed – recalling a time when the city had been a crowning jewel of the Kaldorei empire.
As they approached the city they saw a fairly sizeable, but slightly rundown, dockside house that would be a perfect staging ground for their operations in the city. The only problem being that it was occupied. The elves observed the shal’dorei who made use of the house and could eventually determine that they were smugglers of fel objects, warlocks and quite clearly Elisande supporters.
Deciding that this was enough proof of evil, the Nightblades and their allies attacked the shal’dorei just as they were about to begin some sort of summoning ritual. The nighrborne were quickly slain, and the Sentinels and the Moonsuns set up camp in the rundown house. They burned all the fel objects and made a thorough search of the house. The search yielded a wardrobe full of old, but still useable, nightborne clothes…something that could, perhaps, prove useful in the future.
Part 3: Onboard the Tidewaker
Participants: Tinwëtar, Melaniel, Kathene (DM), Sinrall (sin’dorei spy), Ilaei, Aariam, Aliannari, Faradael
Mission report 3 – Abandoned dock house, Suramar City
Date: 14th of Sellistre, 2018
Summary: Disguised as a Nightborne retinue, the Nightblades and the Moonsuns headed to the Suramar docks in search of Magistrix Duskveil’s ship; the Tidewaker. Upon arrival they noticed that there were several points of interest around the harbor, and they decided to split up.
Ilaei headed off to a ship that seemed to be unloading all manner of artifacts of kaldorei and kalimdor orgigin. Aariam cozied up to a local artist to ask about the painting he was creating. Faradael and Aliannari were approached by an orcish Horde recruiter and Tinwëtar and Melaniel gossiped with one of the dock’s many merchants.
A common bit of gossip seemed to be that the Tidewaker had had a kaldorei stowaway onboard, much to Magistrix Duskveil’s chagrin. The Magistrix hadn’t noticed her presence at all, until the stowaway had tried to escape the ship in Suramar’s harbor. The stowaway had since then been dragged to the dungeons close to the Arcway.
Another rumour that was floating around, was that Magistrix Duskveil had brought back an artifact of awesome power from her travels to Kalimdor, and that she would put it, and other precious artifacts, on display during a party that she would be hosting in a few days. The Nighblades also learned where Magistrix Duskveil’s estate was located, but not the exact date of the party.
Upon leaving the docks, the group was approached by a dockside clerk who wished to offer them a gift; a bottle of Arcwine from the Duskveil Vinyards…another lead for the Nightblades and their allies to investigate.
Part 4: From Beneath You
Participants: Tinwëtar, Melaniel, Kathene, Aariam (Agam’adil), Sinrall, Ialluen, Ilaei, Talasandra, Seilenna, Alylia, Julian, Faradael
Mission report 4 – Abandoned Shrine, Suramar
Date: 16th of Sellistre, 2018
Summary: After having learned the date for Magistrix Duskveil’s party through one of their spies, the Nightblades decided that they would try to find the kaldorei prisoner first. Once again they donned their disguises and headed into the city.
According to rumour the prisoner was held in a cell close to the Arcway. The Nightblades and their allies thus made their way towards the guard barracks right above it. Once they arrived they faced their first obstacle; a pair of guards were keeping watch at the entrance. But with some quick thinking from Faradael and Julian they managed to convince the guards to leave so that they could all enter safely.
As they were about to head down the last corridor that would take them to the staircase leading to the dungeons the group saw some strange lights sweeping through the room. Upon closer inspection it turned out that the lights were emitted from an enormous arcane construct that was situated on a platform between the two staircases. it was periodically scanning the room for intruders and seemed to be able to sense arcane energies as well.
The group had a few close calls before they actually made it to the bottom of the stairs and by that time the construct had definitely taken note of their presence and gone into defensive mode. The bigger part of the group kept the construct occupied, while the rest sought out the prisoner and released her. The prisoner joined the fray and was, to everyone’s horror, using shadow magic to defend herself.
Once the construct fell it was revealed that the prisoner was, in fact, Agam’adil Glaivestar. She had been pursuing the nathrezim that had tricked her and the Nightblades back in Feralas and the trail had led her here. Shocked and angry the Nightblades grabbed Agam’adil and escaped through a portal before the Nightborne guards descended upon them.
Part 5: Masks and Casks
Participants: Melaniel, Kathene, Sinrall, Aariam, Ialluen, Ilaei, Talasandra, Seilenna, Meirawyn, Thindis
Mission report 5 – Abandoned Shrine, Suramar
Date: 19th of Sellistre, 2018
Summary: The night of the Magistrix’s party arrived, and the Nightblades divided in two. One group would enter her estate in disguise to search for the Lunar Sphere or clues to its whereabouts, while the other would infiltrate the Duskveil vineyards on the farr side of Suramar, searching for information on the Magistrix’s plans.
To infiltrate the party, Ialluen took on the role of Lady Moonglow, a shal’dorei astrological researcher. Kathene and Aariam posed as her handmaidens, while Meirawyn and Seilenna played her capable bodyguards.
Despite lacking an invitation, Ialluen was able to talk the group’s way inside, where the Magistrix was hosting an exhibition of artifacts and treasures plundered from the ruins in Kalimdor. Seeing ten thousand years of kaldorei culture reduced to curiosities for haughty highborne brought anger and disgust, but the Nightblades kept to their discipline and began to seek out the Lunar Sphere among the exhibits. Though the Sphere was too heavily guarded to take, the Nightblades stood among the crowd as the Magistrix presented it to the gathered shal’dorei, proclaiming it would soon restore Suramar to greatness with a power that would rival the Nightwell.
As the revelry in the estate continued, Captain Glaivestar led her small group to infiltrate the Duskveil vineyards. The first thing they learned about was a special portal that would lead to a secret laboratory somewhere in the city. The portal could be opened from anywhere, but to do so would require seven discs set in a specific pattern.
A quick search in a small study belonging to the creator of said discs revealed five out of the seven. Each disc was inscribed with a distinctive pattern – a map of the city, phases of the moon, eyes masked in darkness, patterns of flowers and leaves, and a circle of books and scrolls.
The only guards in the vineyards were the two who had been fooled by the Nightblades before, and they were disgruntled by the fact that they had guard duty while the others were celebrating. As the Nightblades spied on, one of the guards decided to grab a fresh bottle from Duskveil’s latest harvest and enjoy himself, to the other’s protest.
While the infiltration team continued their attempts to enter the Magistrix’s private office, the pair of guards came upon them but were quickly overwhelmed by Ilaei’s bear form and Talasandra’s quick strikes. But while the sentinels were busy questioning them, the guard who drank the wine started to fidget, then shiver, and eventually burst grotesquely from the inside, his remains glowing blue and gold. It was discovered that the batch of arcwine in the warehouse had been poisoned.
In a more pleasant moment across the city, Aariam was able to briefly bond with one of Magistrix Duskveil’s handmaidens over a thankfully safe bottle of arcwine, learning that she was disenchanted with her mistress who seemed to have become bitter since her travels in Feralas. Using these feelings, Aariam managed to pry from her the phrase that would open the Magistrix’s study in the vineyard – which could then be relayed by the Nightblades’ moonstones to the group waiting just outside of it.
Ilaei, Talasandra and Thindis entered the Magistrix’s office to search for more information, while Captain Glaivestar went to the warehouse to burn its contents down before they could harm anyone else. As the Nightblades made their escape, they recovered an old diary, and some incriminating letters from one of the Magistrix’s handmaidens.
At the Magistrix’s party, the remaining two discs – one depicting a dying tree, the other an eredar warlock – were discovered by Meirawyn and Seilenna, along with their creator who seemed to be in some trouble with the Duskwatch for use of fel magic in their creation. The disguised sentinels’ efforts to take charge and claim the discs were met with suspicion, but once Seilenna drew the guards’ attention to the burning vineyard across the city, their panic left an opening for the Nightblades to recover the final two discs. The party was brought to an abrupt end as the Magistrix left to deal with the situation, and the Nightblades were able to escape amid the rising chaos.
Part 6: Eclipse Over Suramar
Participants: Tinwëtar, Melaniel, Kathene, Aariam (Agam’adil), Ialluen, Talasandra, Thindis
Mission report 6 – Sheltered Cove, Suramar
Date: 21st of Sellistre, 2018
Summary: The discs retrieved from Magistrix Duskveil’s party seemed to be some kind of key to activate a portal that would take whomever stepped into it to her secret lab. The lab where she had been preparing the azerite poisoned goods to distribute around Suramar.
It took the Nightblades and their allies quite some time, and a lot of debating back and forth, to figure out the correct placement and combination of the discs to open the portal. But once they succeeded the portal immediately sprang to life and they could all step through it.
On the other side they found the secret lab, as well as lots of crates with poisoned goods prepared for shipment. They took note of this before heading further inside, since their main priority was to stop Magistrix Duskveil and the Nathrezim she had presumably allied herself with.
Further in they did, indeed, find Magistrix Duskveil…but the nathrezim was nowhere to be found. The magistrix gloated to the Nightblades of her achievements as well as of her plan, telling them how bringing them here had been her plan all along. She wished to spark a war between the Shal’dorei and the kaldorei…and the Nightblades’ actions in Suramar would help fan the flames of that conflict. Stealing the Lunar Sphere had merely been the bait to bring the Nightblades to Suramar…not that the artifact wasn’t useful to her, it was and immensely so. Scattered about the room were three azerite crystals, crystals that were used to power the Lunar Sphere that was hovering in the middle of the arena. The Sphere was glowing with vast amounts of azerite and shadow energy and it was channeled towards crate situated all around the room. Magistrix Duskveil was using the Lunar Sphere to poison the food!
The Nightblades and their allies engaged the magistrix in combat and it was soon revealed that she was, in reality, the nathrezim in disguise. During the fight she revealed her true form and used various shadowy tricks in her bid to keep the Nightblades off her. As the fight wore on and the Azerite crystals around the room were destroyed, arcane wards were activated. The activated wards made the arcane auras in the lab increasingly unstable and caused all manners of strange effects, such as timewarp, flight and change of sizes.
In the end the Nightblades managed to beat the Nathrezim back, but once again she managed to escape…but not before gloating one last time about the shipment of poisoned goods that was already on its way to the Suramar markets. At this point the energies in the lab had reached the point where they suddenly erupted into a massive explosion. Only the Priestesses’ clever use of the Lunar Sphere saved the group from total annihilation.
The explosion had alerted the Duskwatch and just as they charged into the room, the Nightblades managed to escape the ruined tower on their hippogryphs.
Part 7: Act of War
Participants: Tinwëtar, Melaniel, Kathene, Aariam, Ialluen, Talasandra, Seilenna, Meirawyn, Alylia, Thindis
Mission report 7 – The Red Scale, Suramar
Date: 21st (23rd) of Sellistre, 2018
Summary: The Nightblades regrouped on a beach outside Suramar and had an intense discussion about what to do next. Some of them wanted to escape Suramar and leave the Nightborne to their fate, whereas some wanted to at least make an attempt to destroy the shipment of poisoned goods. Either way their actions would anger the Nightborne and would most likely be seen as an act of war.
The discussion raged back and forth, but in the end it was decided that they would at least try to save the Nightborne from the horrible fate of dying to azerite poisoning. After the wounded had been patched up they, once again, headed back into Suramar and set their sights on the marketplace the Nathrezim had mentioned.
They landed their hippogryphs on the roof of one of the taller buildings and surveyed the area for any sights of the crates. It was still early and the merchants were just beginning to set up their stalls and goods for the market day ahead.
After having scanned the marketplace the Nightblades and their allies noted that there were several suspicious-looking crates with the Duskveil seal scattered about the marketplace and it was decided that they would have to destroy them all before civilians started flooding in to do their shopping. They also noted several gondolas filled with crates belonging to Magistrix Duskveil making their way towards the docks.
The Nightblades attempted to set one of the gondolas on fire with a well aimed arrow, but sadly it didn’t take and only managed to alert the Duskwatch to their presence. Having revealed their position, the Nightblades had to flee to another rooftop and this began an adrenaline-filled chase along the roofs of Suramar. Eventually they found a roof that was safely out of sight and they could concentrate on the marketplace once again.
From there several things happened in rapid succession. Civilians had begun wandering the market and some of them had even tasted the food and drink provided by the looks of things. Spurred on by the urgency of the situation, the Nightblades began firing flaming arrows at the market stalls, setting several of them on fire. This caused the civilians to panic and the Duskwatch had to concentrate on getting the people to safety.
Eventually the Nightblades made it down to the ground to destroy the last few crates of poisoned goods and ended up in a fight with a group of Duskwatch soldiers. Forced to defend themselves the Nightblades slew the Duskwatch soldiers, destroyed the crates and once again escaped the scene on the backs of their hippogryphs. But while they may have saved many innocent lives, their actions had definitely fanned the flames of hatred between the two races. While heroic, their actions had most certainly been seen as an act of war.
This marks the end of the “Eclipse Over Suramar” campaign.