Firelands, part one

Nearly a year has passed since Silverwolfe and her friends killed the Lich King. The heroes left the icy continent of Northrend after slaying the undead king and experienced a brief reprieve from the violence, enjoying the relative peace in their homelands of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdom on the world of Azeroth. But little did they know of the trouble that was forming beneath their feet.

A long time ago, the titans created the Elemental Plane within the Twisting Nether to imprison those elementals and spirits who tried to destroy Azeroth. This plane consists of 4 regions for each of the elements; The Skywall (air), Deepholm (earth), The Abyssal Maw (water) and the Firelands (fire). Deep within The Temple of Earth in the elemental plane of Deepholm, the Twilight Hammer sect was aiding the dragon Deathwing in his recovery from his last fight with the armies of Azeroth, hammering their new creation of elementium armor onto the dragon.

Deathwing awoke in late fall, erupting from Deepholm into the world above, leaving much destruction in his wake and creating a rift between the Elemental Plane and Azeroth. Elementals imprisoned for centuries poured out and wreaked havoc on the people of the Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor. More specifically, the powerful fire lord Ragnaros ordered his minions to set fire to the World Tree of Nordrassil, a tree sacred to the Night Elves and the last symbol of healing for the world of Azeroth.

The druids of the Cenarion Circle and their Horde and Alliance supporters fought these fiery enemies and not only push Ragnaros' minions away from the World Tree, but managed to set up a foothold in the Firelands. The Avengers of Hyjal, a quickly growing group of warriors, healers and magic users, want to push past the gates of Ragnaros lair and destroy this elemental lord.

Silverwolfe and her friends joined forces with The Avengers of Hyjal and agreed to go in and clean house with the goal of eventually slaying Ragnaros. There are many savage monsters and demons that roam the fiery reaches of this plane and freely patrolling this domain was the hunter Shannox and his 2 animal companions Riplimb and Rageface.



The group was warned of Shannox and his pets and as they were to find out, Shannox was not only a big demon but his dogs were relentless with a penchant for mauling faces. Silverwolfe was given the task of keeping her paladin friend Sabie alive who was fighting Shannox and this was no easy task, given all the cruel tricks this hunter had up his sleeve.



All hunters of Azeroth use various types of traps to capture their prey or snare their enemies and Shannox was no exception. He frequently threw immolation traps that dealt an incredible amount of fire damage when stepped on and made the victim more vulnerable to additional damage. He also threw down crystal traps that encased the unsuspecting hero in a red crystal tomb.


Here an unlucky person is encased in a crystal trap.

Shannox enjoyed toying with the band of heroes and often involved his dogs in this game. From time to time the hunter would hurl his mighty spear for Riplimb to fetch. When it hit the ground, the spear would cause the ground to erupt into fire, causing injury to anyone within 50 yards of the weapon's reach. When the spear was thrown, Riplimb would break away from his enemy (his opponent being Silverwolfe's friend and fellow druid Catballou) to retrieve the spear and return it to Shannox.



Silverwolfe felt for her friends because while she was healing Sabie, she saw and heard the ravages of the dogs. Catballou was able to maintain the attention of Riplimb, but Rageface was uncontrollable, running from person to person, stunning them and knocking them down before tearing at their faces. Before long, Silverwolfe fell victim to Rageface as well.



Luckily her friends were able to keep her alive through the ordeal and managed to pull the dog off the healer. When Rageface was killed, Shannox got angry. He roared and called upon the Fire Lord to increase his strength.



Angsti, the priestess of Elune joined healing forces with Silverwolfe to keep Sabie alive. Shannox was growing weary from his multiple injuries, turning the tides in favor of the group, but the fight was growing more difficult as well, for the more damage Shannox took, the more frenzied Riplimb became at the sight of his wounded master.

When Riplimb was finally slain, Shannox screamed and hurled his spear into the ground, catching the entire group in a wave of molten eruptions.


See all those little fireballs in the background? Yeah, Shannox spear did that and the picture doesn't do the immensity of the fire justice.

In the end, the wounds inflicted on Shannox did him in and the group successfully killed the hunter. There are many more monsters to slay and powerful enemies to defeat in this place. But those are battles for another day. For now, Silverwolfe and her friends are recovering from their injuries and resting before rejoining The Avengers of Hyjal.