User:Joshmaul/Saavedro of Stratholme/War in the High Places

Reconnaissance and Reckoning: The Battle in the Basin Continues


After allying with the Oracles, Saavedro returned to the center of the Basin, to the aircraft landing at River's Heart. A pilot named Vic, sent by Professor Calvert to survey the Basin from the air, asked Saavedro to accompany him, and he agreed. Lifting off, Saavedro saw a sight that troubled him - legions of Scourge pouring in from Icecrown, more than he had seen while aiding the Oracles. In fact, one Scourge made things complicated for them - an undead bat attacked from the air, and Saavedro was forced to take the controls. Having learned the basics of how to handle an airplane from the gnomes at Fizzcrank Airstrip, Saavedro struggled to maintain the plane's stability as the flaming engine reduced visibility. He was able to land it safely, however, earning Vic's gratitude. The experience taught him the basics of "cold weather flying" - and as a result, he called for his nether drake, Tanith, to be brought to him from Outland. The nether drake adjusted relatively quickly to the cold of Northrend. Feeling secure on his companion's back, Saavedro flew to a region of the Basin near the Avalanche, where he met the Avatar of Freya - and his friend Ordevaas Portalseeker, himself adjusting to being "flighted" in Northrend.

Both paladins were told that in order to beat back the Scourge, they had to retrieve a Titan weapon known as the Etymidian from Un'Goro Crater, which had also been a Titan testing ground (hence the similarities Saavedro had noted). While Ordevaas activated the waygate to Kalimdor, Saavedro battled the forces of the Cult of the Damned. Together, they aided the Etymidian in his battle against the walking dead, destroying legions of Scourge and hopefully ending their incursion in Sholazar for good.

The Search for Brann
Flying into the Storm Peaks, Saavedro encountered the Frostborn - a group of "frost dwarves" that resided in their ancestral home of Frosthold, hidden deep in the mountains near the border with Icecrown. But their King, Yorg Stormheart, was strangely familiar to Saavedro...and he began to have suspicions as to why in his service to the Frostborn.

Members of the Explorer's Guild, of which Saavedro was an honorary member, had allied with their frost dwarf cousins. Their allies, the Earthen, had recently been driven out of Ulduar, and Saavedro came to their aid. Most importantly to the Guild, however, was the location of their star member, Brann, the youngest of the brothers Bronzebeard. Shortly before Ordevaas encountered him in Ulduar, Saavedro was hot on Brann's trail, discovering a strange communications device similar to the draenei projectors he had seen on the Azuremyst Isles and the makeshift prison in Telaar in Nagrand. Saavedro was half-expecting to see an iron dwarf or some kind of Titan construct on the other end...he was surprised to see that it was none other than Brann himself.

Brann was on the trail of an artifact called the Keystone of Norgannon, left behind by the great Titan millennia ago. The Keystone had been split into three parts: the binding, the shell and the core. The shell was located in a region of the Terrace of the Makers known as the Inventor's Library, hidden there by a "Watcher" named Mimir. In order to gain access, Saavedro took pieces of the Inventor's Disk, a datadisk to access the library mainframe, from the mechagnome guardians that surrounded the Library. With the disk in his possession (with data written on it by the floating databanks around him), Saavedro entered the Library and inserted the disk, activating the holder of the shell - another mechagnome, Archivist Mechaton. Seeing that Saavedro was not Mimir and in possession of the disk, the mechagnome attacked, and Saavedro was forced to destroy it in order to obtain the shell.

With the shell in his possession, Saavedro delivered it to the Explorer's Guild members in Frosthold, who then sent him to King Stormheart. The Frostborn King, cautious, agreed to give his support if Saavedro would undergo the Frostborn rite of passage - slaying a creature larger than he was as proof that his size was not a limitation. Saavedro warily agreed, and was transported on the back of a Stormcrest eagle to a region near the Terrace of the Makers and defeat a massive construct known as the Iron Watcher. On the way, Velog Icebellow, the eagle's rider, told him about King Stormheart, how he had been wandering with no clue as to who he was, but had come to the aid of the frost dwarves in slaying a massive jormungar. Remembering the vision he had seen in the Frostmourne Cavern in Dragonblight, Saavedro realized exactly who the King was...

Slaying the Iron Watcher with a borrowed stormhammer, Saavedro was successful in his trial, and King Stormheart pledged his aid. Though he didn't know where the core was, King Stormheart knew who did - sending Saavedro to find a hermit named Drom Frostgrip, who maintained the "old ways" of communing with the Titans. Finding Drom dying from a stormforged iron dwarf ambush, he revealed that he spoke often with a watcher named Creteus, who resided near the "Engine of the Makers" in the center of the Foot Steppes to the east. Taking Drom's signet ring from a stormforged monitor, Saavedro journeyed to the Engine and showed it to Creteus as proof of his affiliation.

The Absent Watchers
Creteus gave Saavedro his mobile databank and sent him to the temples of the Peaks to attempt to find their watchers. The Temples of Invention, Winter and Order were intact, though there were differences: The Temple of Invention, the domain of Mimir, was crawling with mechagnome guardians that had been corrupted by an "unknown source" (presumably the iron dwarves), the guardians at the Temple of Winter - all servants of Hodir - were dead, and the Temple of Order, the sanctum of Tyr, was lined with vrykul shields and weapon racks, but no signs of habitation. Freya's Temple of Life, near Dun Niffelem, had been completely destroyed; the databank indicated that it had been a creature of similar size and power to Freya, leading Saavedro to believe that Loken - the traitor of the Pantheon - may have been responsible.

Returning with the information, Saavedro was sent to the Frigid Tomb to the southeast - a slight jaunt a-dragonback - to claim the Core of Norgannon from the chest guarded by the Eternal Watcher. Destroying the Watcher and opening the chest, Saavedro reverently took the core, untouched for thousands of years, and made his way out. As he did, the Frostborn informed him that the stormforged iron dwarves had discovered what he and Creteus intended and had come in force to stop them. Making his way to the cave entrance, Saavedro leapt onto the waiting neck of Tanith and flew to Creteus, bringing him the core. The final part of the Keystone was Norgannon's Binding, a piece found deep within the Engine of the Makers...and it was there that he met Brann in person for the first time.

Reunited, And It Feels So Good
With the full Keystone in hand, Brann took the controls of his flying machine and prepared to take himself and Saavedro to Frosthold to meet King Stormheart. As they made their way slowly from the bottom of the great Engine, they were ambushed by the stormforged, who leapt onto the wings of Brann's airplane. Axe in hand, Saavedro fought off the iron dwarves as they leapt one-by-one onto the plane, and were tossed one-by-one off of the plane by his skilled axe strokes - all the while maintaining his balance on the wing he was standing on. As soon as they reached the surface, it was a straight run to Frosthold. Along the way, Saavedro and Brann mourned the loss of Creteus, who had fallen to the stormforged, but took comfort in the fact that he had completed his task, which was what he would have wanted.

Arriving in Frosthold, Brann confirmed Saavedro's suspicions: "Yorg Stormheart" was in fact the presumed-dead Muradin Bronzebeard. The talk of his brothers brought some of Muradin's memory back to him, enough to realize his family connections. As they talked, they were joined by their elder brother Magni, the King of Ironforge. Magni was ecstatic to see that his brother lived after they had all believed him dead for nearly a decade, and impressed at the place he had carved for himself among the Frostborn. As they discussed what he knew, one particular memory came back to Muradin's mind: The memory of Arthas...the memory of his treachery. Deciding to set things right, Muradin pledged that he would find Arthas - now the Lich King - and bring him to justice. Reluctantly but willingly, Magni let him go. Brann, Keystone in hand, made his way to Ulduar to follow up on his leads...leaving Saavedro slightly bewildered at what had just happened.

Secrets of the Wintergrasp Vault


During the back-and-forth battle for control of the Wintergrasp region, Saavedro became embroiled in yet another battle against the Horde. It seemed that even with the Lich King lurking just over the mountains in Icecrown, old hatreds died hard. When Saavedro arrived, the fortress was in the hands of the Alliance, and a legion of Horde siege engines was bearing down on their walls. One such siege engine was the Flame of Silvermoon, a demolisher driven by Saavedro's old friend Ordevaas Portalseeker, fighting alongside his allies for dominion of the region. Saavedro, using a rocket-propelled goblin grenade launcher and not realizing the identity of his target, destroyed Ordevaas' demolisher and left the blood elf on the field to escape the fiery remnants of his machine.

When the battle was over and the Alliance maintained their hold on Wintergrasp, Saavedro was approached by a group of treasure-hunters to enter the vault beneath Wintergrasp Fortress. Curious, Saavedro agreed and joined his allies in exploring the hidden chamber, guarded by a giant named Archavon the Stone Watcher. Weapons and spells at the ready, the group attacked, destroying Archavon's warders and then the giant himself, taking his treasures. Saavedro idly wondered what else was down here, but left with the satisfaction of another conquest for the Alliance.

With his success in the Vault of Archavon, Saavedro received an urgent communique from Wintergarde Keep. A group of warriors had come together in the Carrion Fields, led by the draenei shaman Eluulna. Their target was the necropolis that floated in the air above the Fields, spilling forth its legions to besiege Wintergarde...a necropolis that Saavedro had seen often in the skies above Stratholme for two years. Their efforts ended in a great victory for both the mortal races in general and for Saavedro in particular.

The Real Battle of Icecrown


Basking in his victory against Kel'Thuzad, Saavedro left Naxxramas behind and flew across the wastes into Icecrown to finish what he had begun there. His ally Thassarian sent him to the three gates that protected Icecrown Citadel from a ground-based attack, weakening the defenses and destroying whatever forces had mustered there, undead and Cultist alike. His path of destruction through Icecrown eventually brought him to a region known as the Fleshwerks, where the Scourge put together their abominations and other creatures. Among the experiments Saavedro encountered were "spiked ghouls", footsoldiers with broken shards of saronite embedded into their bodies, instead to be super-soldiers in a fight against the Ebon Blade.

Destroying Doctor Sabnok - the ghoul specialist - with his own creation, "Patches", Saavedro was next sent to explode the abominations using burning skeletons within the Fleshwerks, and also to destroy their supplies of blood and embalming fluid. With their supplies destroyed and their legions laid waste, the Fleshwerks was ripe for attack by a combined Argent/Ebon force. First, he had to reassemble the unfortunate Crusader Olakin Sainrith, ripped apart by the frost wyrm Ghostwing and used to create abominations. Taking Olakin's body parts from the abominations facing the combined force, Saavedro stitched him back together in the Sanctum of Reanimation. With that done, Saavedro met several Ebon Blade knights and joined them against the Fleshwerks' greatest creation: The flesh giant Morbidus, the Lich King's "harbinger of death". The Lich King appeared and derided their efforts as futile, and commanded Morbidus to destroy them - which did not end quite in the way the lord of the Scourge expected.

With the Fleshwerks' legions all but eradicated, Saavedro travelled next to Jotunheim. He had duelled several vrykul champions and even defeated a great hero, Iskalder, whom he had awakened, captured and allowed to be possessed by Lady Nightswood - a banshee he and Ordevaas had freed during the battle for the Shadow Vault. In order to gain the attention of the val'kyr Vardmadra, who was the arbiter of the honor duels, Saavedro faced the possessed Iskalder and defeated him...allowing Lady Nightswood to possess Vardmadra. She would ready him for his next battle - against Overthane Balargarde, the ruler of Jotunheim, who resided at his self-named fortress on the cliffs of Icecrown.

The Duels of Valhalas


Possessing the val'kyr arbiter, the banshee arrived as Saavedro blew the horn at the top of Balargarde Fortress to signal a challenge. The Overthane did not feel that Saavedro was worthy, but the presence of "Vardmadra", and her command that he would indeed face the paladin, changed his mind. About halfway through their battle, as they laid into one another with everything they had, the Lich King arrived on the scene yet again and the vrykul showed their respects to their master. Seeing that Nightswood had possessed Vardmadra, the lord of the Scourge slew the val'kyr and ordered Balargarde to destroy Saavedro - an order that turned out to be unfinishable for the Overthane, who fell dead at Saavedro's feet. Before teleporting away, the Lich King warned that "the frozen heart of Icecrown awaits", leaving Saavedro to wonder what the future would hold in the battle against the Lich King...

With his victory over Balargarde, Saavedro returned to Nightswood - back in her guise as "the Bone Witch", a vrykul seer - who informed him that his triumph had reached the ears of the val'kyr of Valhalas. Once again, just like Nagrand and Zul'Drak, he would fight in a great arena against powerful opponents. His ally in the fight against Balargarde, the draenei shaman Najya, accompanied him to Valhalas and stood behind the Regent as he faced the challengers of Valhalas. His first challenge consisted of the skeletons of six fallen vrykul heroes. Next came a nerubian vizier from the depths of Azjol-Nerub, followed by the hyldnir Sigrid Iceborn, whom Saavedro had defeated at the Savage Ledge in order to gain a name for himself among the vrykul fighters.

After finally slaying Iceborn, Saavedro faced the foul flesh giant known as "Carnage", and destroyed it after a tense battle. Then came Thane Balahogg, also called Thane Deathblow, who believed that only vrykul were worthy to fight in Valhalas. Saavedro and his allies set about proving him dead wrong. The next battle, Saavedro realized, would need some heavier firepower. Fortunately for him, his ally Najya had an ally of her own: A draenei death knight named Xendeth, who followed the path of the unholy much as Artimus Devaneaux did. Arriving from the Shadow Vault, Xendeth agreed to aid Saavedro against the final opponent: Prince Sandoval, who came directly from Icecrown Citadel itself. The Blood Prince was a formidable foe, but Light and Shadow combined to destroy him, solidifying Saavedro's reputation and earning him the title of Champion of Valhalas.

Bloodbane: The One That Got Away


Saavedro, Xendeth and Najya took to the skies after defeating Prince Sandoval, flying across Icecrown to a construction site northeast of Icecrown Citadel. There, the Scourge were constructing a new dread fortress they called Malykriss, the Vile Hold. The saronite used for the spiked ghouls of the Fleshwerks had come from this site, their chief metalworking center. Malykriss, intended as a replacement for Acherus, was being constructed purely of the foul metal used to build the Lich King's fortresses. When complete, it would be virtually indestructable...

The Knights of the Ebon Blade had sent Saavedro here earlier to aid the Ebon Blade's "recruiting efforts" - turning Scourge death knights to their service, and undermining the Malykriss operations. Taking control of a geist that could leap great distances, Saavedro sabotaged the construction by giving the abomination guardians a "gift" of the Scourge's own explosives, destroying gargoyle sentries, and starting fights between the lesser undead and the vargul, who still possessed enough of themselves to despise being used for manual labor. With chaos running rampant through the Malykriss site, the Ebon Blade ordered the assassinations of the leaders of the death knight legion that was supposed to call Malykriss home: The Host of Suffering.

First were the three riders: Rokir, the rider of the unholy; Sapph, the rider of frost; and Baelok, the rider of blood. With Xendeth and Najya at his side, Saavedro confronted each of these riders and endured their full fury, the powers of both the elements and the Light maintaining his life while he fought against them. With all three dead, their steeds riderless, he was given the last task: Assassinate the commander of the Host, Orbaz Bloodbane. Bloodbane, as it turned out, had been a knight of Acherus, part of a trio - Thassarian and Koltira Deathweaver had been the other two - sent behind enemy lines to locate Abbendis' courier coming from Hearthglen. When Fordring defeated the legion of Acherus at Light's Hope, Bloodbane fled, remaining in Scourge service while Darion Mograine and the others had turned against the Lich King.

Flying to the "breach" in Icecrown's defense - the chamber above the Forgotten Depths - Saavedro saw the place in total chaos as death knight fought death knight for supremacy. Eventually, he was able to locate Bloodbane and - with the help of his two comrades and some others he encountered there - he struck. As the battle continued, Darion Mograine arrived to seek revenge against the coward, taunting Bloodbane and saying he couldn't even lead a group of mindless skeletons. With the Highlord's power behind them, Saavedro and his allies slew Bloodbane and left the Host of Suffering leaderless.

Mal'Ganis: Cleaning Up Arthas' Mess (Again)


Saavedro was no stranger to demonically-possessed Scarlets, and both Ordevaas Portalseeker and Artimus Devaneaux had raised questions regarding the seemingly-ageless Admiral Barean Westwind - the Scarlet leader who had stood alongside Abbendis and did nothing while she was slain in the cathedral in New Hearthglen, commenting that he would meet his enemies in Icecrown "if they lived that long". Calling upon the night elf hunter Floresca, Saavedro travelled with Najya to Onslaught Harbor and slew the resurrected High Abbot (now Archbishop) Landgren, who had committed suicide when confronted by Ordevaas in New Hearthglen and been brought back (most likely by Westwind). After killing the newly-minted Archbishop, Saavedro used the device given to him to open a death gate for Lord-Commander Arete, the Ebon Blade commander who had sent him against the Onslaught, so he could question the soul of the slain Scarlet leader. The Archbishop's soul, just before being banished to the nether for eternity, revealed that there was a hidden cave on the island that Onslaught Harbor was set on, and that the Admiral was hiding there.

Journeying to the cave, Saavedro was disturbed to see the place infested with warlocks and demons, all wearing Scarlet colors...it appeared that Westwind had no moral scruples at all, as he had earlier seen death knights in Scarlet tabards as well. He was soon to discover why while facing the Admiral himself, using Arete's nullifier to bring down the Admiral's magic shield. As the shell collapsed, the form of Admiral Barean Westwind became that of a beast long believed to be dead, the plague-master of Stratholme: The dreadlord Mal'Ganis, thought to have been the first to fall to Frostmourne. Battling him with their combined might, Saavedro and his allies managed to beat the demon to within an inch of his life. Mal'Ganis took the opportunity to open a portal back to the Nathrezim Homeworld and escape, warning that he would have his revenge on the Lich King and on those who had defeated him...