User:Joshmaul/Joshmaul the Warlock/In-Game Accomplishments/War in Northrend



Joshmaul the Corruptor's reign of terror did not end with Zul'Aman or Magtheridon. After his butchery laid waste to the Legion forces in Outland, Joshmaul was recalled to the Undercity by order of Sylvanas Windrunner, to join the Horde Expedition that would face the Lich King. Onboard the zeppelin Cloudkisser, the Corruptor at last set foot on the continent of Northrend...

The Plague Test: Howling Fjord
The Cloudkisser arrived at the Forsaken outpost of Vengeance Landing, located on the coast of the Howling Fjord in eastern Northrend. As Joshmaul enjoyed the protection of the Forsaken and had aided in their plague trials, this seemed the likely place to begin. As it was a military rather than scientific outpost, Vengeance Landing did not have full laboratory equipment, but had begun to work on the plague cultures anyway. Trouble was, the plague samples from Undercity were on a ship at the bottom of the North Sea, off the coast. Seeking to regain those samples, Apothecary Lysander sent Joshmaul to obtain them - only mentioning the potential danger after he had returned them. After an agent was added to the mix, Joshmaul rode a Forsaken bat and dropped the plague on the heads of the sailors of Stormwind's North Fleet.

The results were less than heartening; Apothecary Ravien arrived to report on the plague's effects, and they included nausea, lack of equilibrium and severe stomach pain - an effect similar to food poisoning. Lysander was annoyed at how little the plague had done; Joshmaul was furious that his time had been wasted in such a manner. Realizing that they did not have the required supplies, Lysander gave Joshmaul a sample of his plague to deliver to the town of New Agamand, to the west, which was prepped for the rigors of plague-testing. The Forsaken had inflicted a plague on the vrykul town of Halgrind during one of its tests; Chief Plaguebringer Harris, who took the plague sample from Joshmaul upon his arrival, sent the warlock to claim the blood of Thorvald, the chieftain of Halgrind who had fled before the Forsaken attack, and mix his blood with the Vengeance Landing plague mixture. The result made the already-ill vrykul turn on one another, but did not dissolve them as it was designed. Nevertheless, Harris was pleased with the result and - after sending Joshmaul with abominations to incinerate the plagued vrykul - was ready to deliver the batch to Venomspite in the Dragonblight, far to the west.

The Plague Test: Dragonblight


Harris named his concoction the "Forsaken Blight" and gave Joshmaul a sample of it to deliver to Venomspite - on another bat, courtesy of New Agamand's flight master, Tobias Sarkoff. Upon his arrival, Joshmaul delivered the plague sample to Chief Plaguebringer Middleton, who experimented on the sample to make it inert - it required a reactive agent, which would dissolve the bodies of its victims into shapeless piles of goo. That reactive agent, Middleton explained, was the residue from the ghosts of Alliance troops on the Forgotten Shore. Nearly a decade before, Arthas had led and later abandoned these men on the shores of Northrend during his hunt for Mal'Ganis, and their ghosts still haunted the battered shores. Joshmaul went at his task like a man possessed, consuming souls and destroying ghostly forms to claim the residues. Next, he journeyed to the Emerald Dragonshrine to collect the crystalline tears of dying green dragons as a vessel to hold the activated plague.

Before he went into the field, Joshmaul tested the plague on a prisoner of the "Scarlet Onslaught" from nearby New Hearthglen; the plague failed to have the effect Middleton desired. Infuriated, Apothecary Vicky Levine - sister of a vengeful Forsaken at the Bulwark, who had unleashed termites on the Scarlet Crusade's lumber mills - threw a vial of the blight at her unlucky assistant...who did turn into a pile of goo. Joshmaul was pleased that it had the intended effect, at least - it would dissolve undead. Now to bring it into the field...

The Final Test: The Carrion Fields
Middleton gave Joshmaul a blight spreader, a catapult specifically built as a delivery system for the plague, and instructed him to ride around the mountain and into the Carrion Fields outside the Alliance fortress of Wintergarde. The citadel had come under attack by the necropolis Naxxramas, returned from Lordaeron after Kel'Thuzad's temporary defeat there, and the Scourge had raised the dead from the mausoleums beneath Wintergarde to besiege the Alliance. While reluctant to aid the Alliance, Middleton and Joshmaul both agreed that at least they were within reasonable distance. Taking the controls of his blight spreader, Joshmaul rode to the field from Venomspite and launched his attack. As promised, the plague was utterly lethal and horrifically quick, destroying the undead who came in contact with it. With the final test successful, Joshmaul personally delivered the perfected Forsaken Blight to Dr. Sintar Malefious, the grand apothecary leading the effort in Northrend.

Joshmaul saw the fruits of his labor several days later. On a hill overlooking the Court of Skulls in the shadow of Angrathar the Wrath Gate, Joshmaul witnessed Grand Apothecary Putress unleash the Forsaken Blight upon the armies of the Alliance, the Horde and the Scourge. While annoyed that Putress had betrayed Sylvanas to conduct this test - as Sylvanas remained Joshmaul's most accepting patron - Joshmaul was ecstatic to see the result; all of his hard work had been worth something after all, and now the Forsaken had a weapon against the Scourge...and any other enemy of the Corruptor.

Death and Dark Rebirth


During the Alliance and Horde sieges of the demon-controlled Undercity after the Battle of Angrathar the Wrath Gate, Joshmaul did not participate in the Horde campaign against Varimathras. In the period shortly before the Alliance began its attack, Saavedro of Stratholme wandered into the empty throne room of Lordaeron, seeing the place for the first time in nearly a decade and despairing at the events that had led to its current state. As Saavedro approached the throne of Lordaeron, Joshmaul walked in behind him and gained the upper hand, preparing to slay his enemy when he was tossed across the room by a death grip from Artimus Devaneaux. Changing into his demon form, Joshmaul charged into Artimus, and warlock and death knight became locked in combat. As Joshmaul ran at his enemy with clawed hands swinging, Artimus held out both of his runeswords into the oncoming demon-warlock, who collided with such force that the blades went right through him, bringing him out of his demonic metamorphosis. Staggering across the room and leaning against the throne of Lordaeron, Joshmaul warned his enemy that "you will not have this day" before he slumped dead to the floor.

News of Joshmaul's death spread quickly through both the Alliance and the Horde, as well as to the Steamwheedle Cartel. The dead of Booty Bay had been avenged, and both sides took comfort in the fact that they had brought down a powerful enemy. The grateful Cartel delivered the thousand-gold bounty to Saavedro, who in turn gave it to Artimus. However, there are some who are not convinced that this is the last that anyone will see of the warlock; among them are Saavedro himself, as well as Warchief Thrall. They were later proven correct...

A Forsaken death knight named Shankolin Blightpath, who eerily resembled Saavedro, appeared in the Lordaeron throne room after Saavedro and Artimus went to fight alongside King Varian in the battle for the Undercity. Shankolin possessed a dark artifact - the head of the Avatar of Joshmaul, acting as a "living" soulstone that contained the Corruptor's essence - to bring the warlock back from the dead. Months after the battle for the Undercity, attacks against certain individuals linked to Saavedro - either directly or through one of his allies - were becoming increasingly common. They were later confirmed not to be the work of an impostor, but that of a resurrected Corruptor...

First, as he regained his strength after weeks spent in death, Joshmaul ambushed Caedus Netherfist, a Kirin Tor investigator, while he was searching for nerubian sinkholes to provide valuable intelligence on the nerubians' movements. The psychic trauma of the fierce attack left the gnomish sorcerer in a coma, and he died almost a week later. In Outland, tipped off by Shankolin, Joshmaul attacked Deathlord Koschei and General Settra in the Bone Wastes near Auchindoun; Settra left with a missing hand and a scorched tabard, but Koschei died of his injuries not long after. Finally, near Voldrune in Grizzly Hills, Joshmaul faced his would-be assassin, Artimus Devaneaux. The Corruptor's surprise attack wounded the Baron so severely that it was thought that he too would die (again). But with the aid of his iron will and the skill of Stormwind's physicians, he was able to survive, though he took care not to exert himself for several days after he recovered.

With the attacker positively identified, Joshmaul revealed himself to Thrall and the visiting Lord Kel'theris, carrying on his blackmail of the Warchief by threatening civil war from the warlock guilds - of which he was a principal spokesman - if the Horde did not turn a blind eye to their practices. Thrall, angered and disgusted by the position he was forced to take, nonetheless agreed in order to maintain Horde unity. With the matter settled, the Corruptor returned to Northrend, where both orc and blood elf hoped he would die a painful (and permanent) death...

Timeshift: The Journey to Naxxramas


In order to bolster his alliance with Artimus Devaneaux, Saavedro of Stratholme made a deal with the bronze dragonflight that would allow him to return to the point where he first entered Naxxramas, so Artimus could accompany him. There was just one problem: This allowed Joshmaul, now strong enough to endure the dangers of Kel'Thuzad's citadel, to accompany them...

The Corruptor's luck held strong as he made his way through Naxxramas as part of the Horde contingent that destroyed Naxxramas' legions, gaining priceless artifacts to strengthen his powers. Even Kel'Thuzad himself was forthcoming as he yielded up his wand; this was the most powerful item Joshmaul had obtained, and he was determined to put it to good use. Leaving the past stronger than he had been in the future, Joshmaul has become a very real threat to both Saavedro and Artimus...