Rise of the Homunculi

Basic Summary
Dates: December 38 L.C. - January 39 L.C.

Commencing with a mysterious darkness enshrouding the Senate chamber during an otherwise normal meeting, the Senate was thrown into turmoil as a series of unexplained events threatened to destroy the organization from within. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Senators, the Cabinet of Ministers were replaced by Legion crafted homunculi-- implanted with the memories of the real Ministers, who themselves were kidnapped and in stasis on a Legion ship above Azeroth. Through the brave work of the Senators, they foiled the plans of the Legion saboteurs and infiltrated the Legion ship to save the lives of the Cabinet. However, while the homunculi have been defeated, the seeds of mistrust have festered inside the ranks of the Senate, and it will take some time to repair.

Full Summary
11/25/2017 - Introduction On November 25th, 38 L.C., the Senate meeting was interrupted by a sudden and unexpected event that thrust the Senate chamber into a magically induced state of total darkness. Unable to have any form of illumination pierce this veil of shadow, the Senate members present could do nothing except hear the indistinct muffled noises reverberating throughout the hall. Unable to pinpoint the source of these sounds, some Senators began to think quick on their feet to walk toward the center and stand back to back in a defensive position. However, as soon as this idea was relayed to the other members present, the muffled sounds ceased simultaneously, and the darkness was lifted from the chamber shortly thereafter. Upon first glance, nothing seemed different at all, all the books, artifacts, knick knacks and members were seemingly unharmed. But in the aftermath of this befuddling event, the question remains:  what happened in the darkness?

12/2/2017 - The Arcane Vault After a series of anomalous readings being picked up from the Arcane Vaults, a team of senators went down with Ministers Demes and Pyrestaff to ascertain the cause of the disruption. Upon entering the vaults, the senators witnessed a disturbing array of flickering lights, indistinct sounds, and coming face-to-face with an amorphous creature that emitted loud, piercing shrieks. Managing to get one contained after it attacked some of the senators, the group made their way to a vault that contained items stored for the Kirin Tor’s museum, as well as other various magical artifacts. Inside the vault, however, they met the amalgamation of the amorphous creature, which surprisingly did not attack the group. But it was when they decided to capture the creature in the hopes of not setting off the Vault defenses or breaking any of the artifacts, did the same darkness set upon the vault as before, not letting any light pierce its veil of shadow. When the darkness lifted the amalgamation was gone, and everything seemed once again to be untouched. Given that, the senators went for a debriefing in the Senate chamber, which is where the real consequences of the night were revealed. In the middle of the debriefing, Minister Demes received word from the Guard performing a sweep of the Vault that several items in the room that the senators were trapped for a few moments had been replaced with fakes, and an item stored in secret was removed as well: an experimental plague that was retrieved during the Northrend Campaign. Who stole it, how, and  why?

12/9/2017 - Prison Break Following the disappearance of Minister Demes and his unusual disconnection from the Senate ring network, Interior agents responsible for ensuring his safety managed to trace his location to the classified Department of Magical Defense facility, the Labyrinth. With a secret report provided to the Chancellor from one of these agents, Chancellor Brisby led a team to locate and bring home the missing Minister. Upon arriving at the facility, the team quickly discovered that the Labyrinth had seen some kind of assault, with no agents or guards in sight. Entering a seemingly long hallway, those who went ahead found themselves suddenly behind the others, which they realized was the result of the hallway forming an endless loop. Only by discovering the hidden panels beneath the stone walls could they morph the hallway with the Chancellor’s credentials, giving them access to other parts of the facility. With the Labyrinth in a mild state of disrepair following the apparent assault, some of the holding cells were unlocked, causing some of the most notorious and psychotic prisoners that the Kirin Tor wouldn’t trust to keep in the Violet Hold to escape. Facing off against a mad shadow priest who revels in the sounds of tormented screams, to an old lady who specializes in tormenting her victims through the creation of voodoo dolls, the Senators fought their way through the dizzying facility to find the Minister. Eventually, after morphing the hallway to the correct part of the facility, they came upon Minister Demes, who was found bound and gagged in heavy anti-magic gear, and hanging upside down from the ceiling. With the Senators having saved the Minister, it only led to more questions than answers. Who or what replaced him, are there more? How did it or them access such secret information? And with the faux Demes so realistic, one needs to ask themselves:  who can you trust?

1/2/2017 - The Hold Opens With the holidays having passed by rather uneventfully, it all came crashing down soon after the New Year. With the Guard having slowly disappeared from the streets of Dalaran for weeks, the magnum opus of these disappearances culminated in the quiet opening of the Violet Hold at two bells in the afternoon. With no guards in sight, not even those of the Hold, Level 1 and 2 prisoners began to slowly make their way out of their former prison. Those who performed a preliminary investigation of the Hold quickly discovered that with no sign of struggle, it appeared as if the prisoners had simply been let out of their cells, and subsequently out onto the streets. Shortly thereafter, a Fel Lord took control of Krasus Landing, a group of drunken revelers commandeered the Beer Garden, and an angry gnome who takes after the Manastorm family had a little too much anger-fun in the Market. With the portal system taken offline to prevent further prisoners from escaping, the Senate was dispatched to deal with these three threats before being able to investigate why exactly the Violet Hold just opened up out of nowhere. After all, something is not so easily done. Once the threats were dealt with, Senator Shadesong led a party of Senators into the Hold to figure out whether anything could be discerned, and using Minister Pyrestaff’s access codes, realized that it was Salazar himself who opened the Violet Hold, in-person. Revealing himself to the group, he explained to them what he was.. or rather, he showed them by cutting his hand. But instead of blood that came out, it was a green liquid that oozed. He was a homunculus.

1/4/2017 - Hellissa's Reveal

Receipts to Charities: Dalaran Orphanage: 145,000G Homeless Pet Care: 134,000G Homeless Citizen Fund: 142,000 Dalaran Rehabilitation Clinic: 17,000G Dalaran Youth Center: 122,000G Dalaran Children’s Reading Program: 10,000G Kirin Tor Marmot Ball Team: 6,000G Feeding the Hungry: 19,000G Inner Beauty and Self Inspiration: 8,500G Dalaran Veteran Fund: 9,200G

Purchases: Fine Crystal Plate Set (returned) 15 Tailored Dresses (non-refundable) 3 Diamond Necklaces (returned) 6 Gold Jeweled Rings (returned) 4 Jeweled Braceletts (returned) Fine Silverware Set Scotch and other various aged liquors. (Missing now)

Bonuses to Each Senator: 10,000G (Some returned)

Notes Found:

"Can I be saved? What am I even, I'm falling apart."

"They are all my friends now. I can't hurt them. I can't do anything anymore. I like them. They are all so kind."

“I don't understand what I am anymore. I'm tired. I'm so tired."

"I'm sorry I lied, Oli, I wanted to be friends. I'm a monster though, I can't be your friend. An abomination. I'm not real."

"I'm betraying everyone that cares for me, I can't live like this. I have to step down. I can't lie to them."

"I'm sorry I lied to you I tried to tell you. I don't know if I can be saved if I have no free will. Am I like this? Is this me? I don't know."

"I don't want to die, but I'm a monster. There's no one to save me, I can't be fixed, I'm leaving, and I'm sorry. I don't want to die. I really wanted to help."

"I JUST WANTED THEM ALL TO BE HAPPY. I LIKE THEM. I REALLY DO."

"They'll be so happy, I can make them happy, please be happy."

"I wanted to be human, I didn't pick this. I don't know what I am. No one is going to care, they think I hurt them. I loved them. I'm sorry, IMSORRYIMSORRYIMSORRY."

1/5/2017 - Vanidicus Reveal A leaked memo may be found...

+++WAR MINISTRY CENTRAL DATA STORAGE RECOVERY: SECTOR/PLANETARY/ EVENT: DALARAN/AZEROTH/ORGANIZATIONAL COMPROMISE+++

+++QUERY: MAGE-COMMANDER LOCATION+++

+++QUERIED MECHANISM: REPLACEMENT OF LEADERSHIP BY LEGION AGENTS+++

+++SUBQUERY: MEANS OF REPLACEMENT+++

+++SUBQUERY COMPLETE: COMPROMISED TELEPORT BEACONS+++

+++SUBQUERY: ENGAGE AUGERIES TO LOCATE COMPROMISED LOCATIONS+++

+++SUBQUERY COMPLETE: \\TERTIARY// BEACON POINTS TO MEDICAL FACILITIES COMPROMISED...BEACONS NOW OFFLINE+++

+++QUERY COMPLETE...>>ERROR<< MAGE-COMMANDER LOCATOR BEACON OFFLINE...AUGERIES ENGAGED...+++

+++PRIMARY TASK 01: RECOVER MAGE-COMMANDER +++

+++Eye Watch Over you+++

General Alert to all war ministry personnel and combat personnel under the authority of the Ministry of War of the Magus Senate of Dalaran, report to your designated captains for immediate muster. The following emergency orders are now in effect:

1.) All War Ministry Personnel are to confirm identity by means of blood inspection. Failure to do so will result in court martial and hold time. 2.) All War Ministry Personnel are to assume security level 2 until such a time the Chancellor or Minister of War issues a general stand down. 3.) All War Ministry Vaults are to be sealed and guard doubled. Tertiary battlemage squads on Argus Reserve are hereby reassigned to vault duty. 4.) Ordinatii and general access codes are hereby revoked and scrambled according to cipher PR-ZQ-1.

Below you will find a briefing on in progress events:

On the fifthof the first month of January, it was uncovered that an entity has been masquerading as the Minister of War and Mage-Commander (addressed here on out as FMC, or False Mage-Commander). At this point it is assumed that the FMC swapped places with the MC (Mage-Commander) roughly one month ago and has been operating under guise of the MC until this point. Soldiers petitions regarding their deployments should consider this memo an explanation for the inefficient and meandering battle plan of the last month and all petitions and lodged complaints on the matter are hereby canceled.

The reveal happened in the presence of the Senators, in which a body of them were summoned to the arcane vaults. From within the vaults the FMC had used stolen access codes to obtain a previously captured homunculi sample from Stormwind and attempt to throw suspicion off of himself. In tow with the FMC was anouther compromised battlemagi by name of Thompson. The location of the true Thompson is unknown at this point, if he is seen moving around the city, alert the guard or your Captain before acting.

In an attempt to deceive the senate, the FMC utilized a divination device tuned to detect Homunculi by the [REDACTED] not possessed by them. In this attempt, the FMC allowed himself to be detected by the device, but deflected blame unto the false Thompson by slaying him and revealing him as a Homunculi.

It is fortunate that senators saw through his ruse, after taking the device from the FMC and examining it for themselves, the invalidity of the device was discovered, and under questioning, the FMC fled.

At this time it is known that the FMC remains within the city, potentially attempting to disrupt the War Ministry. It is assumed that any and all knowledge posessed by the true Mage-Commander is at his disposal, do not approach the entity.

* The briefing goes on for several more pages and details a wide variety of battle protocol and corrections to Argus Strategem from the Office of the Acting Minister of War.*