((This is the beginning of the ongoing Mok'gun questline. We'll be rp-ing ingame, and participants are welcome to post their parts of the story afterward.))

Lord Itharius Calls!

A green fog settled on Stonard causing an obvious lethargy in all the inhabitants. The smithies' hammers took trice as long to strike the anvil, grunts crawled across the courtyard at a snail's pace, and as Xibalbah turned to look at Breyk, the wind rider master, the wyvern's wing-beat slowed as if Nozdormu himself had suspended the sands of time. Before she could process the situation, the sky above Xibalbah went dark and the drone of a thousand wings built to a deafening roar. Defensively, she called upon the goddess Bethekk and shapeshifted into a shadow panther, tail twitching side to side, eyes scanning the camp.

Within seconds, Stonard was filled with emerald whelps alighting on every available surface, with hundreds more hovering in the courtyard, fanning out to form a huge circle. Xibalbah looked on from where she crouched as a tremendous draconic shadow enveloped the camp, growing more and more distinct until a giant emerald drake materialized in its place. Xibalbah let out an inadvertent gasp as the drake landed: "nearly as large as da fabled aspects demselves!" she thought. Almost imperceptibly talons retracted, wings pulled into the body, long golden hair flowed down in place of the magnificent crown of scales and horns that had been there just moments before as the drake slowly took on a shape reminiscent of one of the highborne, but the eyes-- the eyes were different. It was the eyes that belied the humanoid form.

"Xibalbah, do come out and speak with me, if you please. This pretense gets us nowhere, and the information I have to convey is far too important for such games."

With a quick murmur of thanks to Bethekk, Xibalbah drew herself up to her full height and approached the dragon.

"Excellent!" he exclaimed, a sense of mirth briefly breaking through the obvious tension in his voice and manner. "Now, I'm afraid I have dire news for Stonard…"

Embers shot into the blackened jungle sky, causing shadows to dance all around. Again the vision dematerialized just as the emerald dragon was about to deliver some crucial piece of information. Xibalbah wanted to roar her frustration to the loa, but First Home was a sacred place, known only to Shadow Hunters of the Darkspear, and she refused to give in to such disrespectful behavior. "Da loa be lettin' Xibalbah see what she ready ta see," she muttered through gritted teeth. "It be my task ta finish dis vision."

With a sigh, Xibalbah began packing her things as the fire died down. The flight back to Stonard was a long one, and she had much to do when she arrived. She would need to request an audience with the Warchief, and the Mok'gun needed to be notified of this vision as quickly as possible. It would be their job to help her solve this mystery, to piece together the puzzle of the green dragonflight.

The murky waters surrounding the Sunken Temple outside of Stonard threatened to engulf Xibalbah. Within seconds she transformed, and instantly the pressure on her lungs ceased and the darkness gave way to shimmering emerald waters through which she slipped effortlessly. Her heightened senses allowed her to navigate the underwater ruins, gliding under tumbled columns and around half-formed walls with grace and fluidity, as if she too, belonged to this place. Faster and faster she swam, driven by some unknown knowledge seated deep within her psyche, until at last she rounded a corner of cascading stones from a fallen archway and spotted a glimmering artifact perched--untouched and unchanged despite its years underwater--atop a small, blue pearl-inlaid pedestal. The moment Xibalbah grasped the artifact, she knew it held great importance, touching a place deep within her, stirring up a mixture of awe, dread, and desire. Without pause she burst out of the water taking flight into the fetid swamp air, a shower of water droplets rolling down her back, the artifact clenched safely in her clawed foot.

As soon as she alighted safely back within the walls of Stonard, Xibalbah summoned the Mok'gun, describing her research and the quest that brought her to the Pool of Tears as she placed the artifact before them. Upon closer examination, Atal'ai markings were clearly visible.

"Dis be bad voodoo! Somet'in' be comin' from da sunken temple-- somet'in' even da green dragons can't contain, mon," she warned, and even the tauren spirit hunter, Manolin, agreed that the aspects had been restless. "Dese Atal'ai trolls, dey be messin' wit' da blood god, Hakkar."

Xibalbah sighed deeply and began speaking in low tones, "Many years ago, dey try ta raise da Soulflayah into da material realm in return for his powah. Dey seek ta control all da Gurubashi empire, all da jungle troll. But da Zandalari… my fathah's tribe… put an end to dis madness. Dey convinced da othah trolls of da dangah dis blood god represent for all da world if he be brought here ta feed, and da trolls went ta war, mon. Legend has it dat Ysera herself rained vengeance on da Atal'ai who escaped to da north, smashin' deir temple into da ground, and dis… dis artifact here is proof of dat, mon. Dose ruins in da Pool of Tears are, indeed, da ruins of Atal'Hakkar!"

Gasps went up all around the group gathered before the Ha'gosh, yet all nodded their agreement as the archaeological evidence was irrefutable.

"Somet'in' be stirrin' up da blood god aftah all dese years… and Xibalbah be t'inkin' dat it have some connection to da trolls in Zul'Gurub. Da Darkspear… my mothah's tribe, my tribe… be old enemies of da Gurubashi, as you know, but da news from Zul'Gurub is not good, mon, and it be comin' from all cornahs of Azeroth, not just da Darkspear." Xibalbah paused and looked around at the group, assessing the responses written across their faces.

Nodding at those before her, she continued, "Da time may come dat we be needin' ta investigate Zul'Gurub for ourselves, but for now, we need ta see what be comin' from da sunken temple and why it be seekin' at Stonard."