User:Joshmaul/Saavedro of Stratholme/Invasion of Northrend/Assault on Ulduar

After many weeks of preparation, Saavedro of Stratholme finally joined renowned explorer Brann Bronzebeard and his army of explorers and Kirin Tor magi in a second attack against Ulduar. During the first assault, Brann was run out of the city by Kologarn, a gigantic stone construct that guarded the pathway into the observation ring that overlooked the most important room in the entire city - the Prison of Yogg-Saron. Now Brann had returned, and - with known adventurers like Saavedro at his side - was more prepared for the perils of the titan city.

Saavedro had aided Brann in retaking the Forge of Wills, and had destroyed Loken in revenge for his treachery. But within Ulduar, Saavedro would see his worst nightmares made manifest. He realized that the whispers of Yogg-Saron were at their loudest here the moment he stepped inside...

The Siege: Breaking Into Ulduar
After his departure from the First Fleet, Saavedro joined up with a group assaulting the gates of Ulduar, taking two siege tanks and two demolishers, each with a driver and passenger, and two choppers. Saavedro was given the task of riding one of the reconstructed motorcycles - he was saving up money and supplies to build one of his own, and this gave him an idea of what to expect.

On Brann's order, the protective shield around the base camp at the gates of Ulduar was lowered, and the attack began - both expedition forces and fellow mercenary soldiers, breaking through the various beacons that summoned iron dwarf reinforcements to defend Ulduar. Saavedro and his fellow on the other bike ran circles around the iron dwarf forces, laying oil slicks for the demolishers to ignite, consuming ranks of the enemy. Upon reaching the inner gate of the city and defeating its guardians, a huge mechanized tank known as the Flame Leviathan came out. Once again, the choppers were given the task of setting oil slicks in front of the mechanical monster to be ignited. With the siege engines' power leading the way, the Leviathan was nothing more but scrap. Saavedro, as the only grand master engineer present, was given the honor of taking the usable parts from its remnants when the artifacts were claimed from it.



Now inside Ulduar proper, they approached an open region known as Razorscale's Aerie. The location's namesake, an iron-plated proto-drake, circled around them. This drake had once been Veranus, the trusted companion of Thorim; when Thorim was captured, Loken had Ignis the Furnace Master place iron plating on her scales to make her stronger. Accompanied by Brann's engineers, the fighters once again took the lead. The expedition engineers repaired harpoon guns with the intention to bring Razorscale to the surface so that they could ground and destroy her. It took some effort, but eventually, the team was successful in their effort to bring down the beast.

Continuing further in, Saavedro saw another enormous construct known as the XT-002 Deconstructor, which seemed to have something of a childlike personality. It reminded Saavedro of Patchwerk and Meathook, abominations he had defeated in the past (literally, in the case of Meathook), which talked about playing with its victims; Meathook, like the XT-002, referred to the attackers as "new toys". After enduring the XT-002's tantrums and its powerful bombs, and destroying the heart that "beat" in its metallic chest, they moved lastly into the Colossal Forge, the domain of Ignis the Furnace Master.



Saavedro knew well that Loken had called on Ignis' skills to create two very fearsome enemies, and he knew this would not be easy. After clearing the Forge of enemies, the party stood before the Furnace Master and brought him into the fray. He grabbed the raiders and threw them into the slag pot he carried with him, forcing the burning raiders to seek the cool water to remove the fiery effects. He called up flame jets from the floor that interrupted spells - Saavedro was careful to time his healing so that he was not impeded by the flames. All the while, all hell was breaking loose around them - Ignis raised "soldiers of the Iron Crucible" to fend off his attackers, but to no avail. Ignis was destroyed, ending his ability to create iron soldiers for his now-dead master, Loken.

The siege of Ulduar was now over, allowing further access to the city. After claiming Ignis' bounty, Saavedro and his comrades teleported deeper into Ulduar, entering a grand hall that made Saavedro think that this is what Uldaman would have looked like were it intact...

The Antechamber: The Overlook of Yogg-Saron


Teleporting into the Antechamber, Saavedro followed his comrades stealthily up the stairs to the path into the Watchers' sanctum, guarded by a huge stone giant called Kologarn. Researching records after making his way out of the city, Saavedro learned that Loken had also requisitioned the services of Ignis to create this monstrosity in order to keep anyone from freeing the Watchers or reaching his foul master. Careful to evade the powerful laser beams fired from the giant's eyes and surviving being squeezed nearly to death by his monstrous right arm, the party destroyed said arm several times before then turning and taking the left - and then destroying Kologarn himself. His head fell from his body to rest not far away, and his body filled in the gap in the bridge.

Walking to the end of the bridge, Saavedro looked down at the broken glass dome and chains he saw before him - the shattered prison of Yogg-Saron. Patrolling the Observation Ring around the Old God's prison was another Titan named Auriaya, accompanied by feline sentries. After some attempts, Saavedro and company were able to destroy her.



Returning back towards a group they had missed, the party entered a hall where resided three large iron constructs - the iron dwarf, Stormcaller Brundir; the iron vrykul, Runemaster Molgeim; and the iron giant known as Steelbreaker. They were collectively known as the Assembly of Iron or Iron Council, and they guarded the entrance to the Archivum, the knowledge center of Ulduar. Steelbreaker, being the obvious target, was destroyed first, as the druid assigned to keep his attention endured the powerful Fusion Punch. Once Steelbreaker fell, Molgeim began casting a powerful rune of death in the floor, which would destroy anyone unlucky enough to be caught up in it. Once he fell, the Stormcaller unleashed powerful lightning tendrils, one of which wounded Saavedro almost to the point of death, shortly before the iron dwarf fell. The Antechamber of Ulduar had been cleared, and the way to the Archivum - and to the corrupted guardians of Yogg-Saron - was now open...

The Keepers of Ulduar: Jailors of the Death God


After the defeat of Auriaya, the party circled the Antechamber, finding four passages leading out to the domains of each of Ulduar's Watchers - Hodir, Freya, Thorim and Mimiron. Yogg-Saron's influence grew stronger as Saavedro made his way through the echoing halls, and he feared that the Watchers themselves may have been corrupted. He knew that Thorim's proto-drake companion had become something monstrous after Ignis' tampering...what powers fueled the corrupted Watchers themselves? The paladin believed if he and his companions were strong enough to defeat the Watchers, they would have a chance in resisting the horrors spawned by Yogg-Saron's evil presence.

He was soon to find out as he and his comrades entered the Halls of Winter, wherein resided the powerful frost giant Hodir. Saavedro had aided the Sons of Hodir, the ice giants of Dun Niffelem, in recovering Hodir's artifacts and doing honor to the great Watcher, but he was now preparing to take on a far more formidable opponent in Hodir himself - empowered by the Titans themselves, he would be among the greatest challenges Saavedro had ever faced. Enduring the biting cold and powerful runes of frost and light, the party were able to defeat Hodir and bring him back to himself. It was then that Saavedro realized that the Watchers had indeed been corrupted by Yogg-Saron, requiring their defeat to bring them back to their senses - and that they would need the aid of all four of them in order to face, and finally defeat, the Death God.

Moving along the ring once more, Saavedro entered what seemed like a botanical paradise within Ulduar's halls and recognized it immediately as the halls of Freya, the Watcher empowered by Eonar to preserve life. Saavedro was reminded of what he had seen in Sholazar Basin and in Un'Goro Crater, and remembered the tasks he had done for an avatar of the very being he now had to defeat. Within the great Conservatory, Freya had three Ancients empowering her. One-by-one, they fell before the powers brought to bear, and the warriors of the Alliance moved on into the center where they would face Freya herself. In a long battle against ancients, flayers, and Freya's own formidable powers, they were eventually successful in their task.

Third came the one that Saavedro most dreaded - Thorim, the mighty lord of the Temple of Storms. He had been captured by Loken during a battle that was originally supposed to be the reckoning between the brothers, but instead was a trap laid by the demented prime designate - guided by his twisted master - to lure Thorim into Ulduar. Saavedro entered what appeared to be a great arena, iron dwarves seated in tiers surrounding it. At the position of honor was Thorim himself and - much to Saavedro's surprise and horror - Thorim's dead wife, Sif, who appeared to be alive and well. Saavedro knew that this was nothing more than an illusion, intended to control Thorim and use him to prevent the adventurers from breaching Yogg-Saron's inner sanctum. The Stormlord's entertainment proved to be formidable - a great jormungar and a runed colossus were among the enemies that they faced, along with legions of iron dwarves pouring in from the ampitheater's seats. Then Thorim himself entered the battle, unleashing the power of the storms against his foes, lightning firing from the walls. Eventually Thorim was defeated, breaking the spell of the Death God, and he pledged to aid the adventurers in the final battle against Yogg-Saron.

Finally, Saavedro and company journeyed down into the domain of the final Watcher, Mimiron, the great inventor who had built the Flame Leviathan and the XT-002 Deconstructor that Saavedro had destroyed earlier. Mimiron intended to use the party as part of a weapons test as the price of their destroying the XT-002. First was an upgraded version of the Flame Leviathan, the Leviathan Mark Two, which possessed greater firepower, including a powerful plasma blast. After destroying the tank's turret, next came the VX-001, an anti-personnel assault cannon that could fire incredibly rapidly, and also release a barrage of powerful lasers. Finally came Mimiron's aerial command unit, a larger, flying replica of Mimiron's own head, unleashing bomb bots and other machines. After defeating it, Mimiron's creations combined to create V-07-TR-0N, a super-powerful machine of titanic (no pun intended) proportions. As Saavedro struggled to keep his comrades alive, the others destroyed the segments of the machine. After the last pieces fell, Mimiron was the last of the Watchers to be freed from the haze of Yogg-Saron's sorcery.

The way to the Death God's sanctum was now open...but Saavedro questioned himself at this point: Would he risk the long, slow descent into the realm of insanity?

Descent Into Madness: The Death God's Playground


With the defeat of Mimiron, the doorway leading into the lower chambers - to the Prison of Yogg-Saron itself - opened, and the Watchers, now ready to return to their tasks despite their weakness (having just been defeated by a rather determined force of mortal champions), pledged to aid their saviors in the final battle against their one-time prisoner.

As they entered the now-open doors to Yogg-Saron's inner sanctum and entered a great hall, Saavedro was horrified to see pure, unrefined saronite breaking up through the floors of the room, proof of Yogg-Saron's hold on Ulduar. Also disturbing was the presence of the Twilight's Hammer cultists and three of the Faceless, one of whom was the largest that Saavedro had ever seen - General Vezax, guardian of his master's prison-sanctuary. The General was a monstrous creature who seemed to make magic itself stand still, not allowing his enemies to regenerate their energies to face him. Saavedro took in the powerful essence of raw saronite vapor to replenish himself, and maintain the life-forces of his comrades. After a long and grueling battle, one that left Saavedro physically drained, Vezax fell dead.

Saavedro had a feeling of trepidation as he made the next steps past the body of General Vezax, down a ramp to a teleporter, much like he had seen throughout the city - and a great pit in the ground, bubbling with pure saronite in liquid form. Circling the pit were Hodir, Freya, Thorim and Mimiron, coming to the aid of the mortal champions against the Death God, and floating above it was a vrykul woman called "Sara". Saavedro, having been deceived by Loken in a similar form and knowing well the powers at his opponent's disposal, knew this to be a manifestation of Yogg-Saron. As they entered the "prison", the faceless guardians of Yogg-Saron began to emerge. Others manifested from bodily contact with Saavedro and his allies, requiring much greater exertion in order to destroy them all. As the exploding bodies of the guardians damaged "Sara's" form, Saavedro felt a rumbling beneath his feet as the monstrous form of Yogg-Saron himself, the Beast of a Thousand Maws, emerged from the pool of liquid saronite.

After being forced to retreat from the nightmares of the Death God, Saavedro became obsessed with destroying the creature. Despite having broken off contact over a year earlier, Saavedro decided to call upon old allies in a time of need. Using a special engineering device that delivered mail from anywhere on Azeroth, Saavedro sent a desperate message to his one-time rival, Justicar Pittspotts, a member of the Council of the Eternal Order. The paladin agreed that "somewhere down the line" he would return to Ulduar with Saavedro to destroy the Old God, an effort to finally bury the hatchet between the two men.