Nethergarde Keep

"Would this experiment be about making a potion?" I asked the kid.

"Ye-... N-no!" The kid panicked not knowing if his father meant for anyone to know what he was working on.

"Well, since he is busy can you just leave this for him? Its a communicator that we can use to talk to each other later." I said while leaving the runic bead with an ancient vibe to the kid.

The kid took the bead and became fascinated by how cool it looked, "So cool! I will let dad know!" He said while closing the door on our faces and running upstairs.

"Well then... lets go to Nethergarde Keep!" I said to my party while shaking my head with a wry smile.

I didn't expect to not be able to speak to Karlain, but we had no time to lose, the earlier we found the exiled mage I had in mind, the quicker we would have somewhere to grow in peace.

So we departed west, to the region past the Redridge Mountains and Lakeshire, we would go south as soon as we reached the Swamp of Sorrows.

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The road to the Swamp of Sorrows was often raided by gnolls, but since they were not able to do anything to us and since we could fly over most danger, it became a very quick and tranquil journey.

Only after we reached the Swamp of Sorrows did I start to feel like the land was not very healthy, it looked dying and weak.

The Dark Portal was created using fel magic, this type of magic would often scour the land and make even the most fertile valleys into barren deserts.

To the south from this swamp was the place where the invasions of the Horde first started, the Guardian Medievh while possessed by the lord of the Burning Legion, Sargeras, opened the gateway between Draenor, the world of orcs and ogres, and Azeroth.

Usually there was a huge common plane that connected all worlds, it was the Twisting Nether. This was often the refuge of demons and fel beings, including the Burning Legion as a whole.

The Twisting Nether was like a energy storm that was all around the planets, it usually had a different plane only caoable of being accessed by brute force.

Everytime a magical disaster great enough would happen in the world, it would tear the dimension and open holes to the Twisting Nether, making a gateway for demons.

The Dark Portal could only be closed and opened, for the hole to the Twisting Nether will still remain until it is somehow mended.

The planet of Draenor for example was made barren with the use of fel energy, and was almost wholly destroyed when Ner'zhul attempted to open more dark portals to invade more fertile worlds.

It now was even called Outland, a land forgotten by the Burning Legion for the most part, there were only vestiges of the Draenei, the Horde and the Alliance Expedition on the other side, atleast for now.

Since the portal was set up the region of Black Morass, which was a marshland that encompassed both the Swamp of Sorrows and the Blasted Lands to the south, the remaining swamp was renamed to the Swamp of Sorrows, while the barren scorched land to the south was named the Blasted Lands, a fitting name.

Faraway we could already see in the southeast the fortress of Nethergarde Keep, created by the mages of Dalaran to not only study the fel magic of the Dark Portal but also to keep watch over the rend that connected to the Twisting Nether.

Many of the inhabitants of this place were soldiers and mages, civilians would never come close to this militarized zone.

Stormwind was the one responsible for supplying this Keep, its caravan would often have to fight against the gnolls and trolls that remained in the area.

In this case our disguises as mages would be very effective, it was a bit hard to explain the tauren of course but nothing that illusions can't fix.

We quickly landed somewhere not too far and began to make our way into the keep.

I decided to present ourselves as researchers of the dark portal to the guards, and they let us mages in.

There was little a soldier knew about mages, also the keep was often visited by mages to receive either supplies or research.

We soon came to the lodgings reserved for the mages that often visited this place and began to ask around for Daio, known also as The Decrepit.

"You are looking for Daio? That second rate mage who made his whole team die just because of curiosity? I wouldn't recommend it if I were you." said a snobby high elf, he clearly didn't have a great opinion of the exiled mage.

"Yes... Thank for your advice, but would you still be able to tell me where he is?" I asked holding back my irritation.

"He only comes once in a while to restock... he usually just roams around in the wasted of this fel cursed place." He said while thinking that it was hard to find rational people in this place.

As soon as we left I felt a gaze land on us, it felt like someone with some power had taken notice of us... Even worse was that its disgusting gaze as locked unto Selia.

As I let my Spirit flare up in response, Selia had already cast a frostbolt at whoever was peeking.

Aaaah!

A shout came from high in the mage tower, the mage soon sounded an order to arrest the mages that attacked him.

I responded by beaming lighting from the air and charring a region all around him, making sure to not hit him, while saying, "Hold your filthy gaze to yourself you perverted old man, or you might respond to the Kirin'tor for being such a corrupted fool."

Soon after I mentioned the Kirin'tor the mages around that were looking to apprehend us stoped and didn't want to get involved anymore. This Archmage that was trying to throw his weight around could only do so because none could get enough proof to denounce him, if he were to imprison someone related to the Kirin'tor he would most likely get exposed, and they with him.

Seeing that none was obeying his orders the old perverted archmage glared at us with a vindictive look, before going up to his tower.

"It looks like he won't be leaving it be... good, it will be a good training opportunity." I said to Selia while marking the archmage with a small amount of earth spirit.