Warcraft: Duskwood

Year 25, Day 3

As much as all the information that the Commander of the Night Watch had given us was interesting, that didn’t change the fact that, ultimately, my goal here wasn’t Blueprints or helping out these townsfolk, but bonding with new lands. I still wasn’t fully certain what the criteria were for a patch of ground to qualify as a land, nor what determined if the land had any special abilities, but it felt reasonable that more magically significant lands would be more useful. Some of my best lands were Slaughter Swamp, one of the densest nexus of dark magic I’d ever seen, and Shadowcrest, the ancestral home of a wizarding family covered in ancient wards and housing a number of powerful magical creatures and artifacts.

Thus, I wanted to bind the most magically significant patch of this cursed forest, and my instincts told me that was probably going to be this ‘Twilight Grove’ with its enormous, ancient tree and apparent otherworldly portal. Perhaps afterwards I’d consider looking into some of these other locations or even clearing out some undead, but I had already been in this Plane for more than two days and I really wanted to go get myself a land. Getting established here would do me no good if I was forced to planeswalk away and never managed to find my way back.

Thus, when the four of us––Cinder hidden under a disillusionment charm––set out from the village early the next morning, we didn’t head towards any of the cemeteries or other notable locations. Instead, we headed into the forest, walking just until we were out of sight of the village, and then Kent wrapped us in his flight spell and I disillusioned the entire thing.

After some discussion, we ended up leaving Count Vertigo behind. Despite his excellent taste in clothing, he was just a wealthy muggle with a toy. He hadn’t even built or designed his ‘vertigo wave headset’ himself, instead purchasing it from some more clever muggle through an intermediary.

I had considered just dispelling him and being done with it, but ultimately decided against it. The man had been relatively agreeable last night, and had happily given me the information I needed to access a small fortune in cash, precious metals, and government bonds. His only request was to help put him on the throne of whatever small muggle nation it was he was the former heir of. I’d told him I’d consider it. Perhaps if the original ever died, I’d even be able to go through with it. A few imperiuses, some obliviating, and job done.

Instead, we’d left him back at the house with instructions to try and detain anyone that tried to sneak inside. I doubted he’d actually end up doing anything––anyone powerful enough to get through the wards would be able to wipe the floor with him––but maybe I’d be pleasantly surprised. If nothing else, I’d know it through my spark if he was killed.

We floated up above the treeline, then higher and higher until we could see the ring of small mountains near the center of the forest. We didn’t stop until the forest beneath us was an indistinct sea of brown and dark green, and we could see the leafy boughs of a truly colossal tree just barely short enough that it wasn’t visible behind the rocky, sparsely forested peaks around it.

Then we shot forward, the tiny village we’d come from falling away behind us until it was lost amongst the carpet of trees. “You know, I expected that flying with magic would be more interesting than this. But instead, it’s just like being in a Bullhead except I can’t walk around and I don’t have a scroll to entertain myself with.”

“Can’t you already fly yourself?” Glynda asked sharply. “I’ve seen the other Maidens do it. You should know what it's like already.”

Cinder scowled. “Unfortunately, I was only ever half a Maiden, and it wasn’t like I had anyone to teach me how to use my abilities. I figured out what I could, but I never really got past levitating around using the wind.”

Glynda snorted derisively. “Here I was overestimating you. And you thought you’d be a match for any of our strike team.”

Cinder was about to fire back but I shushed them before they could keep arguing, not even bothering to look up from my book. Darkshire didn’t have a library, but Althea’s family did have a small, private collection. Most of it was rubbish, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a book on the Light and another about Fel magic. I was pretty sure the latter was either illegal or frowned upon, judging by the fact that its outer cover labeled it as a book of recipes. I wasn’t sure why they had such a book, or if they even knew that they did, but I wasn’t going to look a gift abraxan in the mouth.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“You can argue later. If you’re bored, you can keep going through the records Althea gave us. And anyway, this shouldn’t be a particularly long flight.”

“About ten, fifteen, minutes,” Kent helpfully chimed in.

“Exactly.”

Cinder grumbled quietly, but eventually fell silent when I shoved the aforementioned records into her hands.

As we drew nearer, I closed my book and tucked it back into my bag, studying the earth far below us curiously. That was a big tree. A really big tree. Its trunk was as thick around as a large house and it towered over the surrounding forest like a man surrounded by mice. If you hollowed it out, you could have probably fit the astronomy tower within its trunk with room to spare.

It was also a very magical tree. Magic flowed up its roots and through its trunk in slow, ponderous rivers. There was a nexus in the magic near the base of the tree, a whorl in the otherwise smooth, one-directional flow that seemed to move inward and then vanished into nothingness. I assumed that was probably the portal, though I couldn’t really make it out from all the way up here.

I was definitely taking some samples from that tree. Would a wand made from such a magically saturated material even need a core? I had no idea, but if I managed to gain the Blueprint of a proper wandmaker, I was sure they’d be happy to find out. I was quite happy with my own yew wand, but my children would eventually need wands of their own, and I wanted to give them every possible advantage that I could.

We began to descend, darting between huge branches as we pathed towards the forest floor. There was a small, paved footpath leading towards the base of the tree, lit at frequent intervals by flowers that glowed like lanterns, and we angled towards it, wanting to once more approach the tree on foot in case there were other people about. If this was indeed a portal, it warranted that there could be people who used it, and I’d rather not get into a fight with any non-sleeping druids.

We landed just off the path. Despite the ever present darkness, the ground here was covered in a layer of lush green grass, each blade glimmering with just a hint of magic. The trees too, even the small ones, looked much healthier than the ones outside this valley. They were leafy and grew straight and tall, nothing like the half-withered growth around Darkshire.

I knelt curiously beside one of the lantern-like flowers. It was rather lovely, pale white light glowing from the center of its petals and reflecting off its shimmering leaves. I wanted to take a sample, however the flowers were growing at even intervals along the path and only along the path, meaning they’d likely been planted here.

Well, if I successfully managed to bond this land and it produced Green mana, Peach would probably be able to take a sample without damaging the existing flower. Otherwise, well, the remaining flowers would be plenty to illuminate the path.

We cautiously continued down the path, keeping our eyes and other senses peeled. This area seemed like it was separated from the rest of Duskwood and thus likely didn’t have any undead or worgen about, but there was no knowing what other dangers might be lurking nearby.

It was a good thing we had. Glynda saw it first, but it didn’t take the rest of us long to spot why she’d urgently gestured for us to stop. We could see the base of the tree in the near distance, along with the small stone structure that had been built at the end of the path. There was also a small hut of sorts off to one side, blue light pouring from its open doorway, but none of that was what had caught Glynda’s attention.

Instead, that would be the huge, acid-green dragon lounging on the roots of the great tree, its eyes closed and its head resting on its two front legs. It was hard to judge scale from this distance, particularly against the backdrop of the oversized tree, but I guessed that it was at least as tall as the regular trees flanking the path, and probably twice as long without counting its tail. Its head was crowned by a number of horns, and there were more along its snout and jutting from its chin.

I was shocked that I’d somehow managed to not notice such a huge blob of magic, but looking closer I realized that it was blending in with the magic of the tree beneath it. The energy was nearly of the same color, and flowed just as sluggish, with only my relative closeness allowing me to make it out now. That, combined with the canopy above it and the trees growing around it, hid it perfectly from above, despite its green scales standing in sharp contrast to the brown of the trunk.

Well. That certainly complicated things. The dragon looked like it was asleep, but I had no doubts that it would quickly awaken if we got too close. Nothing I’d seen on the maps or in the books had mentioned any dragons that lived around here. Ugh.