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[OOM: The Dark Portal is destroyed and the forces of Azeroth must seek shelter on the world of Draenor.]

The Door does not open.

Instead there's a flash of purple light in the form of concentric, oval rings. An older man in dusty blue and silver robes and holding a staff appears at the center of them and for a moment he looks terribly confused. His eyes start to glow the same shade of purple as he looks around, stopping when he spots the Window. The glow fades as his mouth falls open.

Then he grins. "Ha HA! I knew it! Modera owes me a drink!"

[OOC: Open all weekend!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I ended up in the middle of a brawl, nothing too bad. Yes, something like that."

Khadgar winces in sympathy. "I'd offer my assistance were I a priest. Alas, healing is one of the few things I can't do."

"Priests can heal on your world? Oh, what's sorts of things can you do?" That's an unusual combo.

"They can, through the Light. Shaman and druids can as well.

"As for myself, I'm a mage. Fireballs, teleportation, decursing, that sort of thing." He tilts his head as a strange, outlandish thought occurs to him. "Magic does exist in your world, doesn't it?"

"No, there's the Force but its not magic. Its not a part of my life but in stories, it can do things that seem magical. Teleportation, how far can you move from one place to another?"

Hyperdrive can move across great distances but it requires time, a ship and the right engine.

He can't imagine a world, a reality without magic. How...everything? The very physical nature of reality? Perhaps Cassian is mistaken. Perhaps Khadgar is going to spend a week in the library trying to understand this.

"Well I don't mean to brag but I've personally opened portals to other planets." He totally means to brag. "And of course that's how I arrived here. Though I suspect that wasn't entirely my doing," he admits.

"You have? But you don't have other ways to travel between the planets?" That's odd.

"If you want to go to a new planet you would need one of the draenei's ships. Portals require you to know where you're teleporting to, or to at least have someone on the other end who can stabilize it for you. You can't teleport someplace you've never been.

"That's how we've eluded the Legion for so long. There's currently no one on Azeroth willing to help them open a portal the size they would need, nor have they managed to find us on their own."

Edited 2018-01-17 18:12 (UTC)

"That's something. How many people can open those portals?"

How many people are trapped without that ability?

"Any mage can open a portal," Khadgar explains. And technically, anyone can be a mage. "How long they can maintain it and how far they can open it depends on the mage's ability. Mages can work together to supplement their power, if needed.

"Warlocks can also open portals," he adds reluctantly, "however they use fel magic to do so."

"How is fel magic different than other magic? That makes sense, working together is always better,"

That's interesting that anyone can do that.

He sighs heavily. "I mentioned earlier that fel is corruptive. It's also immensely powerful and addictive. It's powered by life, any life, and even souls, using up and destroying them completely. Prolonged use of fel magic kills the very land it's practiced on.

"It's no longer forbidden to use, not since the Legion reopened the Dark Portal, but it's still strongly discouraged. It's a very dangerous magic."

"Kriff, that's horrible," And yet not that surprising that there's magic that would destroy through its power, "Of course and those who would choose to use it are the ones who don't care about the danger for the power it would bring."

He's seen that with the Empire and the ones who will do anything for control and ambition.

Khadgar reluctantly nods. "There are a few who are able to control themselves, but overall yes."

He suddenly looks very troubled.

"What's wrong? You look like you just had a bad realization."

Khadgar slowly nods.

"I think I may have made a very grave mistake today," he says, solemn and grim. "We freed Gul'dan. We had no choice, the Iron Horde was using him as a conduit, but we freed him. And just...let him go." He runs a hand over his face for once feeling as old as he looks. He hasn't really had a chance to process everything that happened today and determine the consequences.

"Gul'dan was the orc responsible for the old Horde's fel corruption," he explains, anticipating Cassian's question. "He's the orc that sold out his people to demons, that presented Grommash with the blood. He cut them off from the elements, forced their children to adulthood through fel magic, and nearly wiped out the draenei. He ruled the Horde through a puppet, used them to invade Azeroth, and abandoned them to pursue a powerful artefact when they had nearly destroyed us and needed him most. He is, in short, the most evil orc ever known.

"And we just...let him go. An alternate version of him, yes, but he's already a warlock in this reality."

He looks a little defeated.

"What else would you have done with him? Did you have someplace to imprison him?"

From the way that Khadgar's talking, killing this orc wasn't an option, which is a choice Cassian respects. Its not a choice he often gets but that's the nature of his life and work.

"We probably would have killed him," Khadgar says unhappily. Sorry to disappoint you, Cassian. "We likely would have had he not immediately teleported away."

Its not that big a disappointment, it explains more about how Khadgar works,

"Can you track him at all or now you wait for what horrible thing he does next?"

"I'm not certain," he answers, looking thoughtful. "Tracking requires having something of his to use. I'll ask Ben if he grabbed anything, he's the one that broke the seal. If not..."

If not then he has to wait for the next horrible thing. Gul'dan is already a warlock, already serving demons. He will surely be up to something.

"If he was in the seal, you said then there's probably something left. Its hard not to leave traces of yourself,"

Cassian works hard not to so the Empire has no idea he exists so he knows how hard it can be.

"I may be able to sneak back and find something. He was being kept under the Portal itself, though. The chamber may be collapsed."

He perks slightly.

"However his Shadow Council were also being used as conduits but held in a safer location. I may be able to track them more easily."

"People were being conduits for him?" There's something Cassian's missing here.

"No, they were all being used as conduits for the Soul Engine powering the Portal. Gul'dan is the most powerful of them, though I mustn't underestimate Teron'gor or Cho'Gall either."

"Soul engine, kriff,"

The more questions he ask, the less sense this makes other than that this world is almost as bad as is just in magical ways.