User:Joshmaul/Saavedro of Stratholme/Invasion of Northrend/Teetering on the Edge

As he continued the fight, Saavedro felt himself giving in to his rage and hatred against the brutal and implacable enemy he faced. When he arrived in Northrend, he was attired in armor and weapons imbued with the Light. Now, he looked more like an orc or a barbarian warrior than a paladin, and also started to act like one. Fighting with the strength (and finesse, or lack thereof) of a crazed demon, Saavedro began to cut a bloody swath throughout Northrend from the Grizzly Hills to Sholazar Basin. His enemies referred to him as the Oncoming Storm....a divine destroyer who was on the edge of madness.

The blurring of the line between Light and Shadow began in the Grizzly Hills and Drak'Tharon Keep with the treachery of Drakuru - but it did not end there...

Shadowfang's Legacy: The Return of Arugal
At Amberpine Lodge, a small settlement in the Grizzly Hills, Saavedro was tasked by Lieutenant Dumont - the post commander - to locate a cedar chest taken by the Horde and return it to one of the local trappers' camps near the lodge, in exchange for their services. The trappers readily agreed to aid the Alliance, but Saavedro was suspicious; the man he had given the chest to had almost said something else. Still, with the pact made, Saavedro returned to Amberpine, where he was sent next to the small town of Silverbrook. There, he met with Envoy Ducal, who - along with Sergei, a camp leader - sent him to slay marauders from Conquest Hold besieging the town. Sergei, in particular, seemed out for blood - in fact, after returning to camp after clearing out Conquest Hold's troops, Sergei handed him his skinning knife and told him to actually skin the orc leader, Sergeant Bonesnap.

Aghast but reluctant to dissolve the pact, Saavedro located and slew Bonesnap, and was about to do his grisly duty when a captured trapper stopped him. Her name was Sasha, and she told the paladin that things were not as they seemed...that the people of Silverbrook weren't exactly "people" anymore. To prove it, he went to a house in Silverbrook, where a scout from Amberpine was held. Scared at first - thinking that Saavedro was "one of them" - the scout realized that Saavedro was there to rescue him, and take Ducal's horse back to Amberpine. As they fled Silverbrook, Saavedro was horrified to discover that they were being chased by worgen...and suddenly realized this was what Sasha meant. Keeping them at bay with firebombs, Saavedro reported this terrible find to Dumont, who ordered an immediate attack against a trapper camp led by Vladek.

While he was there, Saavedro found the journal of a man named Mikhail who had lived in Silverbrook. Sasha, it turned out, was his daughter, and he had sent her away when he realized that a "Wolfcult" had taken hold in Silverbrook. The last entry indicated some kind of activity inside the Hollowstone Mine. With this information, Dumont sent Saavedro to report to the Westfall Brigade Encampment, where he was reunited with his old friend Gryan Stoutmantle - now a captain in the Alliance army and leading troops in Northrend, thanks to Saavedro's efforts against the Defias three years earlier.

The Perpetrator Confirmed
Stoutmantle sent Saavedro on to the mine, where he met the foreman, Petrov. It seemed that his miners were afflicted by the curse of undeath and needed to be burned when they were killed...otherwise they would keep returning. Petrov was reluctant to do so himself, and Saavedro understood that reasoning - these were his comrades - so he did so himself. Afterwards, Petrov mentioned that the miners had refused to join the Wolfcult, so they were made an example of by its leader...Arugal, the former Dalaran archmage who had been killed by Ordevaas Portalseeker nearly two years earlier.

Captain Stoutmantle believed that Petrov was crazed by the trauma of watching his comrades become Scourge, but Private Arun - who had overheard the conversation - was not so sure. To that end, Arun sent Saavedro to an old blind woman named Ruuna, who resided near the failed world tree Vordrassil. The old woman asked for dust from the gossamer wings of the local moths to create a potion that would induce a vision.

Upon drinking it, Saavedro found himself in Silverpine Forest, just outside the village of Pyrewood at the foot of Shadowfang Keep. A grave dug near the ruined gate had been exhumed, and four shadowy figures stood around it, pumping energy into the ghost floating above it - the shade of Arugal. Saavedro recognized two of them immediately: Prince Keleseth, who had been killed by Saavedro and Joshmaul in Utgarde Keep weeks earlier (in another of their rare moments of unity against a common foe) and his brother, Prince Valanar, who had been killed by Saavedro and Ordevaas in Naxxanar shortly before then. The other two were also darkfallen princes of the San'layn, Prince Atherann and Prince Theraldis.

Realizing how bad the situation was, Ruuna sent Saavedro to the White Pine Trading Post, to meet with Sasha. There she held a Wolfcult member named Anatoly prisoner as she searched for her sister, Anya. In order to convince Anatoly to reveal Anya's location, Sasha handed Saavedro a tranquilizer dart and sent him to capture Anatoly's wife, Tatjana, in Solstice Village. While there, Saavedro also slew several of the Wolfcult hunters. With Tatjana in tow, Anatoly revealed that Anya was being held in the wolf den on the other side of the mountain - but when asked where Arugal was, he transformed and charged, only to be shot dead by Sasha.

Entering the den and finding Anya alive, the little girl revealed they were taking her to "Badmoon Isle", which Sasha took to mean "Bloodmoon" - a large island off the east coast. Realizing this was their opportunity to take on Arugal, Saavedro and a draenei shaman Saavedro had allied with in Silverbrook made their way across the Grizzly Hills to the coast, and (thanks to the shaman's magic) water-walked across the channel to Bloodmoon Isle. There, Saavedro could see a solitary tower that resembled the front gatehouse of Shadowfang Keep back in Lordaeron, and knew that was where Arugal had his lair.

Arriving on the island, Saavedro and his ally confronted Arugal's lieutenants - the worg Goremaw, the worgen Selas, and the Wolfcultist Varlam, Hand of Arugal - before proceeding into the tower itself. There they were aided by Sasha as they destroyed Arugal's cultists, then the ghost of the renegade archmage himself.

Saavedro left the encounter with a thirst for revenge against all who were taking advantage of innocents and slaying honorable soldiers. Realizing he had left a matter unattended to in Dragonblight, Saavedro immediately went west to the icy plains.

Abbendis: The Last of the Old Guard


Eligor Dawnbringer, an old comrade from the war against Naxxramas in Lordaeron, had requested Saavedro's services for a critical mission: To slay High General Abbendis, the last surviving founder of the Scarlet Crusade.

Months earlier, Artimus Devaneaux, Battlelord Velenkayn and several other death knights had united under the command of the Lich King and Highlord Darion Mograine for an assault against the Scarlet Enclave, the last uncorrupted portion of the Eastern Plaguelands, on the coast east of Tyr's Hand. Through their efforts in plaguing the towns of Havenshire and New Avalon, then leading the armies of Tirisfal and Hearthglen into a trap, the Scarlet Crusade was all but annihilated.

Abbendis had realized that Lordaeron was lost, and her writings claimed that she had been called on by the Light to take herself and all she deemed worthy across the Great Sea to Northrend. Settling on the Forgotten Shore, the "Scarlet Onslaught" - as they were now known - built the city of New Hearthglen and began their offensive against the Scourge on their own turf. While their troops would probably be put to use, Eligor realized that Abbendis herself was too dangerous to allow to live. Aided by Artimus Devaneaux, Saavedro rode to New Hearthglen and encountered beings that disturbed him - "raven priests" who wielded shadow magics, and even death knights who wore the Scarlet emblem. The Scarlet Crusade, the most fanatical zealots to ever wield the Light (albeit a corrupted form of it), had become the very thing they had meant to destroy.

Entering the Cathedral and dealing with the Scarlet guards, Saavedro was astounded to see a face he had seen on a statue in the Scarlet Monstery standing next to Abbendis: Admiral Barean Westwind, the commander of the Scarlet Fleet. Westwind was believed to have been killed on this very coast, and yet here he was. Before he could discover that mystery, however, Abbendis charged. Aided by the shaman and even by warriors of the Horde (including his friend Ordevaas Portalseeker), Saavedro kept the High General at bay. Light, Shadow, Arcane, Elements and Nature united in the ultimate assault, and Abbendis fell dead to Ordevaas' axe. As Saavedro approached her body, Westwind commented that she had served her purpose - then laughed at the paladin and challenged him to seek out the Admiral in Icecrown...if he lived long enough to reach it.

As he left New Hearthglen in chaos, Saavedro heard shouts that Abbendis had revealed she had had doubts about the flight to Northrend. He was so disturbed by this encounter that he had not thought to wonder why there seemed to be some kind of shield around Admiral Westwind. With Abbendis dead, Saavedro's focus changed from healing the injured to holy retribution - the same feeling of retribution that King Varian had felt when seeing Thrall, that Alleria Windrunner had felt when her brother was killed by the Horde, even that Prince Arthas felt during the hunt for Mal'Ganis...

Sholazar: The Demons Exorcised


At the behest of Archmage Pentarus of the Kirin Tor, Saavedro journeyed to Sholazar Basin on the archmage's flying machine. As he arrived in the Wildgrowth Mangal, however, he came under attack by the Venture Company, who shot the flying machine down, stranding Saavedro in the jungle. Luckily, there was another downed pilot nearby, who pointed him to Hemet Nesingwary's hunting camp. Despite his prior service to D.E.H.T.A., Saavedro decided to go back on the hunt as a way to sate his thirst for retribution. But everywhere he went, it seemed the Scourge had a tight, rotting grip - and Sholazar, unfortunately, was no exception. With the destruction of the Lifeblood Pillar, the icy death started to come in from Icecrown...

Big-Tongues and Puppy-Men: The Sholazar Basin Wars
As he hunted in the jungles, Saavedro found himself embroiled in a major war between two separate factions: The wolvar of the Frenzyheart tribe, and the gorlocs tribes collectively known as the Oracles. While hunting the black lion Pitch for one of Nesingwary's workers at the Lakeside Landing in River's Heart, Saavedro found himself surrounded by angry wolvar, led by a hunter named Gekgek. Gekgek claimed Saavedro as his new "slave" and ordered him to go to Frenzyheart Hill. Saavedro, though incensed at the very idea, decided to play along - he went to Frenzyheart and acted like the "slave". The Frenzyheart, he discovered, were prideful, self-righteous and (to a certain extent) stupid - which wasn't helped by the fact that they were also fiercely warlike. Nevertheless, Saavedro worked with them to defeat the wasps and gorillas of the Basin before being brought into the main conflict with the Oracles, slaying several gorlocs and desecrating one of their shrines at Mistwhisper Refuge by bringing the wrong power crystal (which, Saavedro noted in his more academic mind, were almost identical to the ones found in Un'Goro Crater).

His service to the Frenzyheart came to an abrupt end when he was caught "aiding" an injured Oracle from Rainspeaker Canopy; Saavedro had originally been sent to capture it, but it was attacked by a ravenous crocolisk from the nearby river. The Frenzyheart shaman Vekjik saw this and, mistaking it for treachery, told Saavedro that if he would be friends with "big-tongues", the Frenzyheart would be his enemies. Dismissing that concern, Saavedro accompanied the injured Oracle back to Rainspeaker Canopy. It appeared that his role in the incident at Mistwhisper Refuge had gone unnoticed - even when he went to the Refuge itself.

After slaying wolvar and reclaiming "shinies" for the shrines, Saavedro met an intelligent, articulate gorloc named Moodle who hailed from the Mosswalker tribe. The Mosswalkers, as it turned out, had been all but massacred by the Scourge that had entered Sholazar via the breach from Icecrown. Aiding Moodle in collecting shards of the destroyed Lifeblood Pillar and finding what Mosswalker survivors he could, Saavedro was eventually sent into the depths of the destroyed pillar - known as the Sundered Shard - to confront the master of the Scourge attack, the lich Artruis the Heartless. Aided by an undead warlock and seriously wounded in the combat, Saavedro destroyed the lich and ended what plans he may have had for Sholazar. With the Scourge incursion halted, Saavedro decided to remain with the Oracles, believing he could learn from them and their preservation of Titan technology - though they had no understanding of its workings.

The salvation of the Oracles - and of Sholazar Basin - brought Saavedro a certain degree of peace. For his efforts in defending the Basin as well as his prior service to the old Argent Dawn, Saavedro's old friend Tirion Fordring personally inducted him into the ranks of the Argent Crusade. With his faith strengthened, Saavedro was himself again as he returned to his battle against the Scourge.