The Nexus, Part 2

• The Nexus, Part 1

This is my blog, not yours, so this post begins with a pretty decent action shot of my character. Most of her armor comes from the battlegrounds. The quiver she made herself, the shoulder pads are from Zul'Aman (and are the fire-breathing bear heads I mentioned at the time), and the bow is new, a token of thanks for efforts in the Howling Fjord. Like most of the new gear in Northrend, it's a much less gaudy affair than a lot of the Outlands gear, and fits the northern-epic vein, I think.

The early fights in the Nexus are against dragonkin (like the one pictured outside the Nexus in part 1)...

...and groups of mixed-race mages, arcane engineers, and others interested in whatever the blue dragonflight is up to. Some of those mages have demonic hound companions, like this:

We also encounter a chamber full of several groups' worth of frozen adventurers or explores, who frankly aren't as grateful for unthawing as I'd like. In fact we have to fight them as soon as they can move:

In the picture above, you see that the path curves around a raised area on the right. When Tivara turned 90 degrees in that direction, she saw this (and was very glad they didn't have to fight it, too):

And ahead of us...more mystery:

But before we can get there, a smaller passage...

...into another large hall, with that mysterious space from before off to our right:

Some of those glowing runes hang in the air in front of a wall. Others emerge from the wall, floating out and then rising or hanging until they dissipate...

...and the chamber we'd seen past the frozen intruders is filled with them:

I didn't get any good pictures of the ensuing fight with Grand Magus Telestra on the far side of this chamber. It's a fun fight, and I'll hope for better when Tivara and I go back. In any event, past her is a more natural cavern filled with floating platforms connected by stone-like bridges:

Overseeing mana elementals, their tenders, semi- and un-controlled eruptions of mana through portals, and other complication is Anomalus, a sentient gathering of mana and void energy:

I mentioned earlier, by the way, that healers have some things to do when they're not healing. This is druid fun. Amedina (off to the left at the time this picture was taken) has summoned up a Hurricane spell. Clouds form over the area she's targeted and lighting bolts blast every enemy beneath. There's a reason her player keeps asking "Can I AOE these?"

On the other side of the circle of chambers and halls that comprises the Nexus, a tree turned to pure magical crystal:

Indeed, an entire wing of crystal, some of it very much active and interested in repelling us:

Eventually we found and brought down Ormorok the Tree-Shaper, the elemental responsible for the unnatural ecology:

A two-fer from that gauntlet: Tivara inspecting a trapped frost nymph, and Amedina in the midst of casting another Hurricane:

And so we came to the last of the Nexus' chambers, to be confronted with fresh evidence that whatever else he may be, Malygos is a first-rate bastard. He'd captured Keristrasza, a member of the red dragonflight, and was breaking her will with the aim of making her his newest consort. We got stuck with the job of killing her before he could finish the job:

The deed done, we made our way back out to report to the Kirin Tor. They are understandably both curious and alarmed, and there'll be more to do there in days to come.