User:Joshmaul/Saavedro of Stratholme/Invasion of Northrend



The long-awaited war in Northrend has begun, and Saavedro of Stratholme made his way to the front lines to take on the Scourge on their own turf.


 * The Nexus War: On the Front Lines
 * Against the Scourge
 * Facing His Personal Demons
 * Into The Mountains
 * The Final Battle for Naxxramas
 * The Invasion of Ulduar
 * The Tournament of the Argent Crusade
 * Icecrown Citadel: Last Stand of the Lich King

Plagueshadow: The Second Scourge Invasion
Saavedro had visibly aged in the year-and-a-half following the opening of the Dark Portal. He had grown a beard, which (along with his braided hair) had turned stark white, and there were more lines on his face after the battles in Outland. However, his strength had not failed him, nor had his senses dimmed. He would need all his strength in the weeks to come, for his greatest fear had been realized: The Scourge had returned to the realm beyond the Plaguelands.

Two years earlier, following the return of Kel'Thuzad, thousands of Scourge footsoldiers had spread throughout Azeroth, laying siege to the capitals and to vital locales throughout the known world. Taken aback by the frontal assault, the Alliance and the Horde rallied to battle the invaders. At Stormwind, Saavedro and his friend Marcus Jonathan dueled the Scourge warlord Vorian Tanis, a general who had fallen to Arthas at Andorhal, and defeated him. Vorian's defeat had broken the siege, allowing for the destruction of Necropolis Malramas - Vorian's floating fortress outside the gates of Stormwind.

This time, however, their plan was much more subtle...and much more insidious.

Down With The Sickness
A strange sickness had broken out across Azeroth and was carried by unsuspecting adventurers into Outland. Alliance, Horde and Sha'tar alike fell victim to the ailment, which eventually killed them - and raised them as the mindless dead. Plague ghouls rose throughout the world, overcome with a desire for brains, and killed all in their wake. Even Saavedro himself became infected upon his return to Stormwind from Outland, but through his own will and the power of the Light was able to avoid the final descent to undeath. His comrades were not so lucky.

Realizing the worst was yet to come, Saavedro received a message from the Argent Keeper of the Rolls at Light's Hope Chapel, calling him immediately to the Eastern Plaguelands to receive new orders. Donning his Argent colors once more, Saavedro flew immediately to Light's Hope, where he received his instructions.

The Blood Prince of Karazhan
The Violet Eye had sent word that strange magic had been detected within Medivh's tower of Karazhan, connected neither to the Guardian or to the Burning Legion that had made their home in the tower. Their scouts indicated that the source was an elven prince named Tenris Mirkblood and that he was a servant of the Lich King. Seeking to find out exactly what he was up to, Saavedro was dispatched immediately to Karazhan to investigate.

Entering with a party of veterans that had braved the tower's dangers in the past, Saavedro located a hidden chamber directly above the Livery Stables - a chamber containing tanks of blood. Within was the evil prince, who immediately attacked. Though grievously wounded, the party rallied and destroyed Mirkblood, allowing them to fully investigate the chamber. On the worktable inside were orders directly from the Lich King himself. Having ascertained his purpose, Saavedro returned to Light's Hope and immediately went back on the front lines against the Scourge invaders.

Valiance: The Invasion Begins
Having observed the construction efforts in Stormwind, Saavedro was delighted to see the finished product - a fully functioning harbor, which would allow more direct access between the capitals of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, with the path of the Bravery (the vessel that ran between Menethil Harbor and Auberdine) diverted to the new harbor. Another vessel, a steamship called the Kraken, would provide entry into the western reaches of Northrend - the Borean Tundra.

King Varian's unexpected and much-celebrated return had opened up new possibilities for the war in Northrend. Varian himself commanded the Valiance Expedition, the Alliance war effort against the Scourge, and Saavedro decided that "Valiance Keep", the expedition's main headquarters, was where he would begin. He reported directly to General Arlos, the keep's commander.

Hidden in Plain Sight
Saavedro had been asked to retrieve some first aid supplies from onboard the Stormbreaker, another steamship docked right in the center of Valiance Keep, for a soldier wounded in the Scourge siege. Upon stepping below decks, however, Saavedro discovered a hidden shrine to the Scourge - and an infiltrator from the Cult of the Damned right next to it. Killing the cultist and discovering what was going on, Saavedro reported it to General Arlos.

Arlos dismissed the matter almost immediately, but Harbinger Vurenn, leader of a draenei delegation sent to aid the Valiance Expedition, was more concerned. Saavedro agreed to aid the draenei in the better defense of the Keep, and retrieved a Cult communique from infiltrators north of the keep. The communique - once translated by one of Vurenn's associates, Vindicator Yaala - indicated that there were three major infiltrators inside Valiance Keep itself. Using the Oculus of the Exorcist that Yaala provided, Saavedro was able to ascertain their identities by the dark magic surrounding them - a kitchen worker named "Salty" John Thorpe, a dockworker named Tom Hegger, and a guard named Mitchells who kept watch over the deserter in the jails. By the time it was done, a clear message was sent to the Cult of the Damned...

Saving Farshire
Outside of Valiance Keep was a small farming community known as Farshire, intended to provide ores and farm supplies for the Expedition forces. However, the infiltrators from the Cult of the Damned had smuggled in a shipment of plagued grain into the town. Valiance Keep sent military forces led by Captain Jacobs to investigate, but they were infected by the plague themselves. There were no more forces to send - so Saavedro was sent instead, and offered his services to Gerald Green. Upon arrival, Saavedro discovered why the troops had holed up in the mine, battled the ghouls scavenging the remains of the town, and converted the harvest collectors as defenders against Scourge attackers.

When they rose as the undead, Captain Jacobs and his footmen shut down the mine and barricaded themselves within. Saavedro was sent to burn the infected grain around the town, and retrieve one last shipment of ore from the mine for use by Valiance's artisans (including Saavedro himself, a Grand Master in the Mithril Order). But first, he had to destroy Jacobs, who held the key to the mine cart release. Entering the mine, Saavedro found and quickly killed the captain and his Scourge-infected footmen, and used the key in Jacobs' possession to unlock the mine cart and led it through the mine to the entrance.

With the preparations made, Saavedro returned to Valiance Keep with the ore taken from Farshire and they were forged into weapons that were delivered to the town. All that remained was to sound the call to arms - and Saavedro did so himself, ringing the bell in the town hall to rally the militia to fight back the Scourge.

En'kilah and Naxxanar: Decapitating the Scourge Leadership in the Tundra
While in Valiance Keep, Saavedro was approached by a workman named Mark Hanes, who said that someone named Leryssa was searching for him. Leryssa mentioned that she had received word from a family friend named William Allerton that her brother, Thassarian, enlisted for Valiance Keep at the same day that Allerton did. The problem with that, Leryssa revealed, was that Thassarian was dead - and had in fact been dead for several years. Allerton worked in the Farshire mine, and so Saavedro entered the mine to find him around the same time he slew Captain Jacobs. He found Allerton dead, his throat slit by a sharp object - a sword of some kind, Saavedro theorized.

Taking Allerton's enlistment card back, Saavedro discovered that Allerton had been part of a group called "Unit S". Curious, Saavedro met with a man named James Deacon in the inn at Valiance, who pointed out that "Old Man Coburn" could probably figure out what Unit S was. In order to convince him to speak, Saavedro had to swim to the bottom of the harbor near Valiance Keep to a shipwreck carrying a shipment of Kul Tiras wine (Saavedro later spent several hours in front of the fireplace curled up in a blanket after emerging from the icy water) to bring back to him. Coburn mentioned that there was a deserter held in the prison hold in Valiance. From the deserter, he learned that they were to negotiate passage with a tuskarr, Ataika, outside the besieged tuskarr capital of Kaskala.

Ataika sent him to an encampment known as Death's Stand, where Valiance troops were staged for battle against the Scourge defending a ziggurat in the Transborea. After clearing them out, Saavedro at last met Thassarian - and realized much to his disgust that Thassarian was a death knight. He was intrigued, however, by the fact that Thassarian revealed that he had met Artimus Devaneaux while he was in Scourge service. However, there were much more serious matters to handle...

Thassarian was sent with "Unit S" - the S, as the deserter commented, clearly standing for "suicide" - to take the Wailing Ziggurat near En'kilah, a former nerubian temple claimed by the Scourge. Thassarian speculated that the Cultist infiltration that Saavedro had discovered in Farshire and Valiance Keep was believed to originate from the Scourge necropolis of Naxxanar, the stronghold of a darkfallen named Prince Valanar - the Scourge overlord in Borean Tundra. He was interrogating a lich called Tanathal in order to ascertain a way to enter Naxxanar and destroy Prince Valanar, cutting the head off the Scourge leadership in Borean Tundra. (However, Saavedro realized - thanks to information from Ordevaas Portalseeker - that a resurrected Kel'Thuzad commanded Scourge forces in the Tundra.) In order to break the lich's will, Thassarian sent Saavedro to locate Tanathal's phylactery, riding on the back of his Acherus deathcharger, Dusk. Defeating the guardians of the phylactery, Saavedro delivered it to the death knight to continue his interrogation.

In order to buy some time, Saavedro entered the Temple City and began slaughtering its inhabitants. When he returned, Thassarian revealed that Tanathal had disclosed the truth - the three high priests of En'kilah held the three power words that were necessary to access the teleporter. They were the darkfallen Andorath, the crypt lord Naferset, and the crypt fiend Talet-Kha, and they resided in each of the three spires that made up the temple complex. It was then that Saavedro allied with a group of fellow adventurers - including another acquaintance of Thassarian from Scourge service - and slew all three high priests, claiming the words of power. With the ability to access the teleport orb in hand, Saavedro and his allies teleported into Naxxanar and made their way to the roof, where Saavedro discovered Leryssa, Councillor Talbot and General Arlos from Valiance Keep. "Talbot" revealed himself to be Prince Valanar, and he had been attempting to undermine Valiance Keep's efforts. With Thassarian and the others in his sanctum, the Lich King himself commanded Valanar to destroy them. Thassarian charged in, and Saavedro and his allies followed suit. With their combined might, Valanar was defeated, breaking his hold on his prisoners. Valanar fled into Naxxanar's interior, where he was hunted down and slain by Ordevaas Portalseeker...

D.E.H.T.A.: The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
In the Borean Tundra, Saavedro met a group of druids from the Cenarion Expedition who had organized D.E.H.T.A. - Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals - as a response to the depredations of Hemet Nesingwary. Saavedro had hunted in Nagrand for Nesingwary's expedition, and thankfully the druids did not appear to know that. D.E.H.T.A. appeared to consider Nesingwary as a hell-spawned demon, and they called him names like the "Extinctionator". Now Nesingwary was in Northrend, and D.E.H.T.A. was determined to put an end to his operations for good.

Because of his previous work with the Cenarion Expedition, Saavedro agreed to aid the druids in ending the hunting of animals in Borean Tundra. He went around and smashed the traps that had snared mammoth calfs, baited caribou traps to snare Nesingwary hunters, and slay said hunters by the dozen - taking their ears as proof. He also encountered the "masters", Nesingwary's lieutenants - Nedar, "Lord of Rhinos", Karen "I Don't Caribou" the Culler, Kaw "the Mammoth Destroyer", and "Clam Master K". With the blessing of D.E.H.T.A., Saavedro slew these hunters, ending their murderous operations. The time came net to take on one of the hunters Saavedro had met in Nagrand - Harold Lane, known to the druids as "the Borean Butcher", and who fancied himself as "the Fur Baron".

When Saavedro had hunted in Nagrand, Lane - under the pretext of a flora-related illness (which turned out to be completely false) - had sent the paladin to do his dirty work by hunting the talbuk population of the "Land of Winds". Now he was in the Tundra harvesting furs, and the druids wanted him dead...believing that Nesingwary would also be there. Travelling west of the encampment to the hunters' camps on Lake Kum'uya, Saavedro cornered Lane near a rock face and called upon a stampede of mammoths - with whom he had previously gained the respect of during the freeing of the calves - that greatly weakened Lane enough for Saavedro to kill him.

Lordaeron's Legacy: Return to Valgarde
After destroying Prince Valanar, Saavedro travelled back to Stormwind to maintain his links between the Alliance on the mainland and the forces in Northrend. Flying to Menethil Harbor, he saw a new vessel, the Northspear, arriving at port. This ship, an icebreaker like the Kraken, ran to the port of Valgarde, the main Alliance encampment in eastern Northrend. Valgarde was founded by Prince Arthas and the army he led to Northrend in the hunt for Mal'Ganis; it was here that, several months earlier, Saavedro and his allies hunted Artimus to the vrykul settlement of Wyrmskull at the base of Utgarde Keep. Now, with the lines between the southern continents and Northrend now open, Saavedro returned to Valgarde and immediately put himself at the disposal of the Expedition forces there.

Crossing the waters to Wyrmskull once more, Saavedro was given the task of freeing prisoners held by the Dragonflayer vrykul. He also retrieved a bag of reagents from a ship that sunk at the bottom of Daggercap Bay for a friend of Jaeden'laek's, a draenei shaman named Thoralius the Wise. Taking an incense burner to Wyrmskull, Saavedro saw a scene in a longhouse that disturbed him...

The Truth of the Vrykul


Saavedro was given a vision dating back at least fifteen thousand years, prior to the Sundering and indeed to the existence of many mortal races. He witnessed a vrykul man and his wife concerned over the "deformity" of their new child and feared that Ymiron, the king of the vrykul, would execute them if they spared it. The wife ultimately decided to spare the child and hide it from Ymiron's wrath.

As he left the longhouse and made his way out, Saavedro suddenly felt a rush of power as he was pulled off his feet and brought before a towering figure. As the giant began speaking to him, recognizing the shamanistic power and commenting how he would eventually serve him in the end, Saavedro realized that this was none other than the Lich King himself, showing his dominance of the spirit world in Northrend...personally. The Lich King so severely wounded Saavedro that even the best healers in Valgarde thought he would die. However, with only his iron will and the efforts of Anchorize Yazmina, Saavedro survived, though he would bear scars across his body for the rest of his life.

After the close call in Wyrmskull, Saavedro was sent further away into Howling Fjord, to the vrykul settlement of Nifflevar. Here he bore witness to another vision from the ancient past: King Ymiron speaking to his subjects, calling upon them to kill any "deformed" infants and blaming the Titans, those who had created them, for their "curse", resulting in their deformity. Saavedro - through his investigations of Uldaman - speculated that like the Earthen-to-dwarf transition, the vrykul may have been direct ancestors of the human race. How they remained undiscovered since before the War of the Ancients, though, he was uncertain.

Into Utgarde!


With Prince Valanar dead and the power of En'kilah broken, the Alliance forces in Borean Tundra could rest somewhat easy. However, Saavedro knew his job was not done. Valanar's brother, Prince Keleseth, was the master of the Scourge in the Howling Fjord, and ruled from the vrykul fortress of Utgarde. In addition to Keleseth, a leader of the vrykul called Ingvar the Plunderer commanded the raids against Valgarde; he was also to be killed.

With his orders in hand, Saavedro rallied support and entered Utgarde Keep, the party making their way into the Furnace of Hate - the massive foundry on the ground level of Utgarde - and beyond into the Reavers' Hall. There, Prince Keleseth met with Dragonflayer strategists in their efforts to dominate the Howling Fjord. Charging in and slaying all four vrykul in the room, they grappled with Keleseth and endured attacks by skeletons the darkfallen prince was raising. After a hot, quick fight, Keleseth fell dead, severing the Scourge leadership in Howling Fjord. But it was not the end...not yet.

Continuing on, the party made their way up winding staircases and tunnels until they encountered a pair - Skarvald the Constructor, who was building a tunnel from Utgarde, and the necromancer Dalronn the Controller. It appeared that the two fought constantly against each other, but they fought the party together - with no avail, as both ended up dead. Continuing up yet another set of stairs, they eventually reached Tyr's Terrace (which made Saavedro wonder about the naming of Tyr's Hand, back in Lordaeron) and came face-to-face with Ingvar the Plunderer. Though he was quickly defeated, their victory was short-lived...as a val'kyr, Annhylde the Caller, arrived and resurrected Ingvar as one of the undead in the Lich King's service. After a brief, bloody battle, the undead form was destroyed - and with him any chance at serving the Lich King, as well as any semblance of leadership in the siege of Valgarde.

Victorious, Saavedro took Ingvar's head back to Valgarde, and he was rewarded for his efforts. With Ingvar dead and the battle in Utgarde won for the time being, Saavedro continued on with his service in the frozen northlands...

The Titan Myth Deepens: Fizzcrank Under Siege
Returning to the Tundra, Saavedro arrived at Fizzcrank Airstrip, a gnome settlement under siege by its own machines. A mecha-gnome construct created from Titan parts, known as Gearmaster Mechazod, began turning gnomes into clockwork robots. This was termed as a reversal of the "Curse of Flesh", an ailment of sorts that affected the races created by the Titans, transforming the rock-skinned Earthen into modern dwarves and the apparently-robotic gnomes into flesh and blood. Though he was aware of the Earthen-to-dwarf (and trogg) de-evolution from his venture in Uldaman, Saavedro dismissed the robot-to-flesh gnome theory as a sick fairy tale...until he saw it himself.

Collecting spare parts needed by the gnomes to fix their transporter and converting both renegade robots to serve the Alliance and mechagnomes to flesh again, Saavedro was eventually given the task of finding and destroying Mechazod's lieutenants, who resided at Fizzcrank's pumping stations. With the lieutenants taken care of, Saavedro had one last task - to enter the main pumping station, discovery Mechazod's research, and destroy the Gearmaster himself.

On the Front Lines
Travelling from the Tundra to the east, Saavedro arrived in the icy Dragonblight, legendary as both the home and the graveyard of the five dragonflights - and strategically important as the front lines against both the Scourge (with the gate to Icecrown and the entrance to Azjol-Nerub) and the Blue Dragonflight (with their surge needles in the Moonrest Gardens and their efforts to corrupt mages - offering them power in exchange for the betrayal of their fellows.

Saavedro first arrived at Wyrmrest Temple, the most sacred site of all five dragonflights, to ensure that he would be allowed passage there. To his surprise, the other four dragonflights - even the black dragonflight - had united in the Wyrmrest Accord at the behest of Korialstrasz, consort of the Dragonqueen Alexstrasza - whom Saavedro and most other mortals knew as Krasus. Among the dragons he met there were Itharius, Ysera's prime consort whom Saavedro had met in the Swamp of Sorrows, and Chronormu (or Chromie, as Saavedro knew her), the bronze dragon investigator in Andorhal who had aided in both redeeming Joseph Redpath and defeating Araj the Summoner during Saavedro's service to the original Argent Dawn.

In the Service of the Kirin Tor
Despite his antipathy towards mages, Saavedro recognized that the Kirin Tor fought a common enemy, and even decided to wear their colors into battle (as a member of the Alliance, to which Dalaran showed greater favor, he was granted this right almost immediately). To that end, Saavedro joined up with Archmage Modera, one of two survivors of the fall of Dalaran (Krasus was the other) and one of the city's leaders, who projected herself at an encampment known as Stars' Rest. Their primary concern was the nearby Blue Dragonflight, who had set up a powerful device called a "surge needle" to hit the ley lines and redirect their power to the Nexus.

The Highborne spirits of the Moonrest Gardens rose up against Malygos' mage hunters, as the surge needle had been set up right in their midst. Angered by this intrusion, the spirits immolated them. Modera sent Saavedro to rifle their bodies for some proof of their plans. After pacifying the spirits of Moonrest by slaying mage hunters and their minions (and the arcane elemental Arcanimus, raised from the surge needle's power), Saavedro found plans on a dead mage hunter from Malygos himself, addressed to the blue dragon Goramosh. The Ethereum - the former ethereal ruling caste, which had been practically destroyed by both Saavedro and Ordevaas in Netherstorm - was attempting to ally with the Blue Dragonflight against the mortal races. Saavedro's next duty was to assassinate Goramosh and Wind Trader Mu'fah, the Etherum ambassador, to prevent the accord. However, Goramosh's dying words indicated that the accord had already been reached...

On Goramosh's person, Saavedro found a device that turned out to be a teleporter - attuned to the top of the surge needle. Returning to Stars' Rest, then to Moonrest to attune himself to the teleporter, Saavedro activated it and arrived at the top of the surge needle. Slaying several sorcerers there, Saavedro drank deep the details and returned to Modera, who revealed a startling discovery: This projection was of the Arcanomicon, the map to all of the world's ley lines, gifted to Malygos by the Titan Norgannon millennia before. Malygos was using it to redirect the world's power to the Nexus...

In order to find out, Saavedro found a ley line focus and obtained its controls from a human mage, who dropped both the control ring...and a tear-stained letter. The letter, he found out to his horror, was addressed to Archmage Malin in Stormwind...and this was his daughter, Emmy, lying dead at his feet. Dreading Malin's reaction, he delivered it to Commander Saia Azuresteel - leader of Stars' Rest - who sent it on to Stormwind. Saavedro received word from Malin a week later, the archmage expressing gratitude that this letter reached him, and vowing revenge against Malygos.

Determining - after finding two more ley line foci - that the energy was being rerouted to the Azure Dragonshrine, Modera sent Saavedro to Wyrmrest Temple, where he would deliver this information to the leader of the Wyrmrest Accord: The Dragonqueen, Alexstrasza.

Alexstrasza's Command
The letter from Modera was delivered to the Temple Steward, Tariolstrasz, who gave Saavedro a task to aid the Red Dragonflight.

Around the temple were five shrines, one to each of the dragonflights. The Ruby Dragonshrine had become corrupted, and Saavedro was sent to aid a group of warriors from the 7th Legion who had been sent to aid the dragons. In order to get inside and determine its corruption, Saavedro followed the 7th's troops to destroy the Scourge that guarded the way. Entering the Dragonshrine itself, Saavedro gathered acorns from the tree that served as the shrine and used them to give the essences of dead ruby watchers back to the earth, slaying necromancers, and entering the Dragonshrine itself to find a banshee, Dahlia Suntouch - the shrine's former keeper. Destroying her ended the corruption, and Saavedro took a ruby brooch - given to her by Krasus - back to the Prime Consort.

Saavedro returned to Wyrmrest to do battle against the Blue Dragonflight directly - riding a Wyrmrest drake in battle against the blue drakes assaulting the temple. It turned out that the power diverted to the Azure Dragonshrine was intended to empower the drakes enough to assault the temple - an act of blasphemous sacrilege on the part of the blues. In order to tip the balance of power, Saavedro assaulted the Azure Dragonflight itself and destabilized the power eruption from its depths.

Wintergarde: City Under Siege


After staying at Wyrmrest, Saavedro pressed north to Wintergarde Keep, the citadel of the Alliance in the Dragonblight. He was horrified to see a structure he remembered all too well from Lordaeron, floating above what was now known as the Carrion Fields: Kel'Thuzad's fortress of Naxxramas. It had been over a year since Saavedro had walked its halls; the battles within had forced the Scourge to recall it to Northrend, and now that Kel'Thuzad had returned (as Ordevaas Portalseeker had reported from Borean Tundra shortly after Saavedro slew Prince Valanar), Naxxramas was back with a vengeance. The question remained: Who had delivered Kel'Thuzad's phylactery to the wrong hands?

Arriving in Wintergarde's main keep, Saavedro met with his old friend Eligor Dawnbringer, who had been a servant of Tirion Fordring during the initial battle against Naxxramas and had (reluctantly) been party to an alliance between the Argent Dawn and the remnants of the Scarlet Crusade. Once he was settled in Wintergarde, Saavedro was set to work. Wintergarde's besiegers from Naxxramas were led by a lich called Thel'zan the Duskbringer, but no one knew who he had been or where he was.

To that end, Saavedro's old white gryphon, Eithne - a Northrend breed brought over by the Wildhammers and purchased by Saavedro from the Wildhammer aviaries in Outland - was now in service as an armored gryphon intended to carry multiple passengers. Riding on Eithne's back, Saavedro flew over the Carrion Fields and picked up helpless villagers left at the mercy of Naxxramas' legions, and delivered them safely to Wintergarde. He also rescued several trapped villagers in Wintergarde's lower tiers, kept penned by vengeful geists.

As he carried on, Saavedro entered Wintergarde's mine, put down the Scourged miners and recovered their identification, recovered a strange bleeding ore used by the Scourge, and sealed off the mine shafts with explosives.

Discovering Wintergarde's Secret
Saavedro entered Wintergarde's crypt, where nobles were buried, at the behest of the high commanders and met Necrolord Amarion - who was raising the nobles as Scourge. Upon slaying Amarion, Saavedro recovered a flesh-bound tome from the crypt and returned it to the surface without the Scourge slaying him. Though the cavaliers had no idea what the book said, they knew someone who might.

To that end, Saavedro entered Wintergarde's jails where he met Inquisitor Hallard, who was interrogating Wintergarde's mayor, Godfrey Goodard, who had been corrupted by the plague. After Hallard invoked the Light to cause the fiend immense pain, Godfrey broke and revealed the existence of a mausoleum beneath Wintergarde. It was there that Thel'zan resided. With this information, Saavedro was dropped into enemy territory and took the controls of a siege tank, blasting Scourge with ice cannons and sending gnomish engineers to destroy the plague wagons in the Carrion Fields before carrying troops to the mausoleum entrance.

Fordragon's Fall: Thel'zan and the Battle at the Wrath Gate
Finding a dead dwarf named Plunderbeard and his mangled journal in the tunnels, Saavedro recovered the other pages to find the lich's phylactery. The good news was that he found it: The bad news was, it was in the possession of a very large frost wyrm known as Icestorm.

Arriving at the 7th Legion Front west of Wintergarde, Saavedro sent "Wyrmbait", a gryphon rider, to lure Icestorm to where he and Legion Commander Tyralion would be waiting with spearguns to imprison the beast and their weapons and spells at the ready to destroy it. The plan went off without a hitch, and the phylactery was given up. Taking it back to Wintergarde and into the mausoleum, Saavedro prepared for the combat to come. Though Thel'zan had them frozen in place, an old friend had come into the mausoleum himself...Highlord Bolvar Fordragon, the Regent of Stormwind, who commanded the forces at Angrathar the Wrath Gate, the gates of Icecrown.

Bolvar broke Thel'zan's control and revealed that Thel'zan was actually Father Inigo Montoy, a priest of the Argent Dawn...the priest who took Kel'Thuzad's phylactery from the hero that defeated him, and was thus the reason the Archlich - and Naxxramas - returned. Side-by-side, Saavedro and Bolvar faced the lich and (after a hot, quick fight) destroyed him, with Saavedro smashing the phylactery under his boot. With that battle won, Saavedro was called to Fordragon Hold...and sent back to Wyrmrest to meet with Alexstrasza. Before leaving, Bolvar mentioned that the bleeding ore Saavedro had found in the Wintergarde mine had also been used to create this structure.

The Dragonqueen revealed to Saavedro that there was a dragon called Galakrond who had been the progenitor of all dragons - including the Aspects. The Scourge was attempting to raise the bones of Galakrond as the largest and most powerful frost wyrm ever created. Riding another drake into battle, Saavedro incinerated the Scourge there and confronted Grand Necrolord Antiok, who was leading the project. Taking his scythe from him, Saavedro flew back to Wyrmrest, and thense to Fordragon Hold. Upon his return, Saavedro was tasked with standing guard in the hold while Fordragon ventured onto the field to call out the Lich King for his crimes. Waiting with held breath as the Dark Lord came out from the Wrath Gate to confront both Bolvar and Saurfang the Younger, the Horde commander, Saavedro suddenly saw a detonation and a familiar noxious substance he had discovered in the Arathi Highlands and in Howling Fjord: The Forsaken plague, intended to wipe out the Scourge - and the living alike. It slaughtered all who stood before it, and even weakened Arthas himself - who retreated back into Icecrown, where he would stew until he would be destroyed.

Paralyzed with horror, Saavedro watched Bolvar die.

The Battle of the Undercity


The Wyrmrest dragons, led by Alexstrasza, swooped in and incinerated the plague wagons and burned the plague out of the air. Alexstrasza and Korialstrasz descended to the ground to survey the damage themselves. Saavedro came down from Fordragon Hold amidst an army in complete panic - only Alexstrasza's influence was keeping him from giving into his rage. Bolvar was a brother paladin and a good friend, and Saavedro had served him well over the years. There was another who would be just as angered by this: King Varian.

Alexstrasza asked Saavedro to take Bolvar's bloodstained shield from the field of battle and return it to the King. To Saavedro's surprise, Jaina Proudmoore - like Varian, the heir of a fallen hero - was standing at his side. Varian was sending both Jaina and Saavedro to Orgrimmar for an audience with Warchief Thrall. Jaina provided a portal to Grommash Hold, where they met with the Warchief...and to Saavedro's surprise, Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, leader of the Forsaken. It would appear that a traitor - Grand Apothecary Putress, master of the hated Royal Apothecary Society - led the attack at the Wrath Gate working not for Sylvanas (and hence for the Horde), but for Sylvanas' demon majordomo, the dreadlord Varimathras. With the Undercity's forces thinned by their numbers being sent to Northrend, Varimathras and Putress had staged a coup and taken control of the underground labyrinthian capital; Sylvanas had run to Orgrimmar to seek aid.

Upon seeing that the Horde had lost the Undercity, King Varian rallied forces to enter the Undercity via the sewers, kill Putress, and reclaim the former capital of Lordaeron for the Alliance. Saavedro was called to serve, as were Varian's friends from his period of enslavement in the Crimson Ring: The night elf druid Broll Bearmantle and the blood elf rogue Valeera Sanguinar. While the preparations were made, Saavedro took a chance and stepped into the city of Lordaeron, standing in the empty throne room for the first time in nearly a decade.

Returning to the front lines with a group of allies, Saavedro received blessings from both the King and Jaina to empower him enough to do combat with the forces within the sewers until they reached the Apothecarium. In order to buy himself some time, Putress unleashed his experiments against the Alliance...all failed experiments. Putress did not stand a chance, and died a the hands of the enraged King. Suddenly, a shout from the direction of the Royal Quarter got Varian's attention: Thrall was also in the city. Rushing towards the sound of that voice, Varian was out for blood - Saavedro right behind him. Jaina, of course, was trying to halt him. But this was the opportunity of a lifetime, and Saavedro was not about to pass it up. Neither was the King.

Arriving in the throne room to see Thrall, Sylvanas and others in the throne room, Varian charged in, Saavedro right behind him, out for righteous vengeance...until Jaina denied them that by teleporting them back to Stormwind. Realizing it was not to be, Varian commanded Saavedro to conquer Northrend for the Alliance...

Treachery of the Scarlet Baron


Several months later, during an investigation of resurgent Scourge activity in Utgarde Keep, Saavedro was confronted by his supposed ally Artimus Devaneaux on the platform where the two men had killed Ingvar the Plunderer. Saavedro managed to escape from the platform by raising his Light-shield around himself and leaping into the freezing water below. After recovering at the inn in Valgarde and returning to the tournament in Icecrown, Saavedro knew that was the end of their association. It didn't end there, however.

Saavedro's honor brother, Ordevaas Portalseeker - now patriarch of the House of Whitehair after his father stepped down - sent the House's best assassin and spy, Euphrati, to tail Artimus' movements. It was that foresight that led to the discovery of an unholy pact between Artimus and Joshmaul the Corruptor, evidently without the knowledge of the Ebon Blade or the Council of Deathlords, the death knight representatives to various zones and factions. However, Artimus' Horde compatriots, allies of the House of Whitehair - General Settra, Ublaz Deathspear, and Deathlord Seekthreed - were able to find out due to Euphrati's investigation. Settra, who was the first to find out from Euphrati's eavesdropping, met with General Oren Tanis in Dalaran and sent him to inform Saavedro. Saavedro and Oren returned to Stormwind, where they called Artimus to account for his actions. As an accredited Horde ambassador recognized by the King, the Whitehair patriarch was also called to the meeting, accompanied by Euphrati.

Artimus' hypocrisy and selfish motives were condemned by the King and by Highlord Mograine, but because of the public scandal that would result if the matter was disclosed, the matter was kept secret. Only those present, plus the three Horde deathlords, would have full knowledge of what happened. However, Saavedro received a protection detail from both the Whitehair House Guard (as an honorary member of the House, being the patriarch's honor brother), as well as SI:7.