Azshara

Precious few remember Zin-Azshari. Precious few remember the Kaldorei Empire at all, let alone the glorious and glamorous capital. The earliest Night Elves built the city of Elun'dris on the shores of the Well of Eternity, but only when it blossomed into an empire did the Kaldorei rename the city Zin-Azshari, the Glory of Azshara. But after the war of the Ancients, after the Legion first came to Azeroth and the gravity of the queen's desecration buckled the land and caused the city's bulk to shear from the tectonic plate and plunge into the endless dark of the ocean, the despairing survivors came to know it more simply. Not a glory, but a reminder of the hollowness of empire, and glory, and arcane obsession.

Now, it's simply Azshara. But even with all its ancient Kaldorei glory sunk into the ocean forever, the land is not devoid of natural beauty. Some quirk of its proximity to the Well of Eternity las locked the flora of the region in perpetual autumn. Tall polyathias, noble oaks, and swooping juniper trees with fabulously curved trunks all sport majestic boughs crowded with leaves of oranges, reds and yellows. Even the grass has an unnatural, but not unlovely fall hue. Supposedly, the region is especially lovely when the sun is rising over the sea in the east, turning the whole realm into fields of burnished and glowing gold.

Walking along the scrappy dirty road down from the mountain pass from Orgimmar, each of you is now as far north in Kalimdor as you have ever been with each step, rather than returning home the way you came as you had planned. Fortunately, you aren't losing time: early in the morning before your departure, one of Lady Proudmoore's apprentices visited your tent to impart to Isaera two things. The first is a ceramic disc fired from a mana-rich clay and engraved with a spell that will create short-lived portal to Theramore. The second is a reiteration of Jaina's assurance that, when Isaera stops by, she will receive the texts and components she needs to start inscribing the chapter's portal anchor at the tower in Ratchet. The upshot of it all is, as long as you aren't delayed by several days here in Azshara, you'll arrive back in Ratchet faster by portal and ship than you would have if you had left immediately and taken a combination of ship, zeppelin, and marching.

Once again, you find yourselves walking into the wilderness looking for lost heroes. These are not freshly minted cadets out to get themselves into trouble; these are adventurers at least somewhere close to parity in expertise to your party. They had somewhere important to be, and were travelling a safe rout. What could have befallen them, or else possessed them to deviate by days and miss what was anticipated to be one of the most important diplomatic events in modern history - and the culmination of the Opal Collocation's noble goals?

You missed today's sunrise by several hours and it's near to noon as you follow Roshorn's ambling bulk off the road to the small lake Mennar. A modest, glistening freshwater lake accruing from a stream from the mountains you just passed, the water is the most obvious place for travellers to water their horses on the way through. A collection of chalk-white marble ruins are scattered around the lake's rim and some in the water itself. Column and stairs broken from their ancient belonging sit tilting half out of the sand. A lone tower, its outer masonry worked and fine beneath the weathering, stands sealed and leaning slightly south west; like a poorly tended gravestone for the ancient glory of the elves.

A small rugged hut sits next to a rough cut timber jetty over the water, suggesting at least one long term occupant; and a gated paddock in the golden grass stands empty beside it.

The bear man growls out in his impenetrable shaman-tongue, relying on Jakk'ari's translation.

"If my Opal clan made it this far, they surely stopped here. Perhaps... there is sign of their passing. Or no sign, to suggest instead they diverted earlier on the road..." He plods along the bank of the beach, sniffing and looking about for confirmation.

Spoiler: OOC:
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You're on the hunt. You can begin your investigation however you like, checking out any of the nearby features and looking for signs of the Winterspring Chapter!