Warforged Legacy

First Sightings

Pre-Operation Notes

Alright. The commander has requested that I fill out a more formal report for this operation before we start our investigation in full. It's been a while since I've had to write something like this up, so bear with me.

It's been months since our triumphant victory on Draenor and for the most part everyone, myself included, have been enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation. Well, relatively speaking. There's always some new contract or dealing or business to take care of somewhere, but at least it doesn't involve constant bloodshed. But I digress.

Not too long after Draenor, some whispering began in warlock circles. Barely noticeable at first, but as these months have gone by, they've become much louder and more frequent. Rumors that someone (And of course they never say who) has started recruiting Warlocks to gather in Kalimdor. Apparently they're searching for something, and need a lot of magical manpower to do it.

At first I dismissed this as unimportant scuttlebutt. Just another wannabe cult leader who tries to unite the Horde's fel users, gathers a bunch together, disagreements arise, aspiring cult leader is deposed or killed, and things go back to normal. Happens all the time. But after months going by and the rumors only getting louder, I was beginning to think that this one may not go away so easily, and they may very well be up to something bigger than usual.

With our recent foray into Darkshore and seeing the spirits of the dead, including that of an Illidari demon hunter of all things, it became impossible to ignore. Someone, or some group is using the dead in their search of Kalimdor, and there's only one place on the continent where a large number of Fel-users can congregate without people noticing: Jaedenar, the last stronghold of the old Shadow Council of Azeroth, located in scenic Felwood.

My suspicions were confirmed when I tried getting in touch with one of my most knowledgeable contacts: Xalsin, a satyr who's been a Felwood local since before the First War. Not only did he refuse to answer any of my missives or requests, it seems he's disappeared from my warlock circles entirely. SOMETHING is going down in Jaedenar, and with all this attempted cloak and dagger, it's clear that whatever they're doing doesn't have the Horde's best interests at heart.

I've called in a favor form Grazz to lend me some the Warforged Pact's old reliables to go into Jaedenar and check things out.




Post-Operation Notes

I was right, Xalsin and his warlock buddies have definitely gone rogue.

A team consisting of myself, Huuza, Invar, Eronya and Zu'beh made our way into Jaedenar. No sooner than arriving at the enclave we began to see dozens of ghosts raised by the warlocks, spirits ripped between this world and the next, floating intangibly with nowhere to go. We wouldn't know why until later.

The five of us fought through the front guards of the conclave, leading up to a group of more elite fel-users and their demon pets performing a ritual to raise another spirit using a corrupted moonwell. After a brief skirmish, we were able to disrupt the ritual and capture their apparent leader, an old goat of an Orc warlock named Strongfist (Because of course an orc with a shriveled up arm would be named that) and through some... persuasiveness from Zu'beh, we got Xalsin's location before I disposed of him.

****

We didn't have much time left. Many more warlocks with Jaedenar had heard our battle, and were mustering their forces to find us when we found Xalsin. He was as affably arrogant as ever, mocking us and even daring to ask the others to join them as enforcers, which was unanimously refused of course.

Still, he wasn't known as a powerful fel-user for nothing. He created a ring of fire around us to delay until the main force of Fel-users would find and surround us. At first he literally danced around us, none of our attacks able to touch him. However eventually Invar and Eronya managed to land critical blows on the bastard, and from there Huuza, Zu'beh and myself followed suit. Still, the satyr gave as good as he got. When he was on his last legs, he unleashed a spell that took out all but Zu'beh and Eronya.

From what I was told after I was knocked out, Zu'beh played his trump card and raised the bones of the dead in the room into an army of ghouls that tore Xalsin limb from limb. But before he was destroyed, Xalsin sent out a wave of black energy that hit all but Eronya, invading us from the inside. I don't feel any different, but that means nothing. I'll study up and perform every counter-curse and ritual I know. Xalsin's too crafty to have gone down like this so easily.

****

Still, this mission was a success. Xalsin let slip the warlock cult's objective: They were looking for the spirit of a Night Elf Warden, though he didn't say what for. He also mentioned their next target: The Shrine of Aessina in Ashenvale. Said they had already corrupted it and were moving there now.

We booked it out of Jaedenar from there back to safety. I don't know what's so important about the ghost of a Warden that would need so many Fel-users, but we'll have to make plans to check out the Shrine. This isn't over yet.

Pre-Operation Notes

Thanks to our Druid companions of the KMG, we've managed to establish a report with the Cenarion Circle members stationed at the Shrine of Aessina.

****

I don't know what foothold the rest of the Warlock Cult have established in Ashenvale, but the Circle has to be warned, and if Xalsin's ramblings had any truth, we'll need to find any corruption there and cleanse it. The Shrine's head guardian, a dryad named Ellynia, has agreed to meet with us. I only hope we get there before the Cult does.



Post-Operation Notes

Failure. We've failed in more ways than I care to admit.

It started out well enough. Legren, Dusthorn, Minzel, Huuza, Eronya and Clorg accompanied me to the Shrine, where we met Ellynia. She told us that the Cult had indeed set up shop at the nearby Fire Scar Shrine, and had been regularly sending teams to patrol around the shrine. However, the Circle had apparently been fighting them off with little difficulty, and no Fel-user had yet to actually reach the Shrine. According to her, the place was corruption free.

****

It was then that the attack began. A small army of warlocks and demons began charging at us in a frenzy to attack the shrine, first sending a wave of suicide bombers to soften us up, followed by the main force. That first wave did a number on us, most of us wounded by the blasts, despite us taking the majority of them out before they reached us. Despite our wounds, everyone performed admirably, clashing with the next wave with little effort.

****

It wasn't until we had nearly finished with the second wave that we realized it was all a ploy.

Xalsin. That black energy that he had used before his death had placed parts of himself inside us. Despite my efforts to detect to destroy whatever he had done, the black energy violently emerged from myself and Huuza, and found their way into the Dryad, possessing her. The bastard had told us his next target knowing we would be trusted enough to be welcomed into the Shrine. And now he had a bona fide forest spirit's body and power, the perfect thing to find the spirit of a Warden.

****

Xalsin bounded over us and ran past the remaining warlocks, forcing us to deal with the remainders first and give chase. But by the time we managed to defeat the invading force and fight our way through the guards of the Fire Scar Shrine (Dusthorn in particular fought with a fury I'd expect from a fel orc himself), we were too late. Xalsin had already managed to raise the spirit of a warden, and was creating a portal to take him somewhere. To make things worse, he had summoned two infernals and doomguards to protect him while he did it. To make things even MORE worse, every time we managed to kill one, Xalsin would use the gate's energies to revive them!

****

In the end, though Huuza and I managed to take down the two infernals for good, we were unable to stop Xalsin from completing his portal, partially due to Minzel's observer unwittingly strengthening it. He and the Warden Spirit made it through, closing the portal with explosive force behind them. Nearly all of us were badly wounded and the remaining doomguards were destroyed in the blast.

Legren blamed me for all this happening. Though I highly doubt he could have done any better, I know he's at least partially right. None of my spells or rituals detected or pulled out Xalsin's energies, and now he's got a new Dryad body and he has what we wanted.

****

The only bright spot in this whole sordid affair is that Dusthorn was able to recognize where the portal led before it closed: Deepholm. Why he's gone there I can't say, but with the Warden spirit in hand his goal has to be near completion. I've already sent out some of the KMG's scouts to scour the place to find them. Their findings can't come fast enough.

Pre-Operation Notes

Word still hasn't arrived from the scouts of Xalsin and the cult's location in Deepholm. This leaves us with a rather aggravating amount of free time on our hands.

After our recent performances fighting demons, I've come to the conclusion that we've grown rusty in the months of peace since Draenor. The Horde's warlocks alone can't be expected to deal with the stronger demons on their own, despite our knowledge.

As such, I've decided to take advantage of this free time to hold a training session with our non fel-users and teach them the basic weaknesses of demons for any future encounters. My pact assistants have eagerly agreed to assist in this endeavor, having had little to fight these past few months as well. I'll be sure to reign them in if things start getting near fatal, but they won't be pulling their punches. Hopefully with a bit of practice, the Warforged Pact will get back up to speed.


Post-Operation Notes

Hoo boy, this is worse than I thought.

Turnout was quite good, Grazzug, Huuza, Invar, Alyarra, Invar, Krolbrim, Urgarok, and a new recruit of the Scythe, Swerto, all attending. If nothing else, they also recognize the need for this practice. One by one, I had them all fight my demons after a brief teaching explanation of each. They all seemed to grasp the lessons, but when it came to execution...

My imps dodged circles around them, It took most of them to attack the bracers of my voidwalker, and even more to take out a single Felguard, and that's not even getting into my abyssal and terrorguard.

Even with Swerto's impressive swordsmanship and Krolgrim's well-placed aim, if it weren't for us taking breaks to heal after each demon, there would certainly have been fatal casualties. I know my demons are good, but if this is any indication, we'll need a LOT of work to prepare for future actual threats.

****

In particular, Grazzug's performance worried me. I know that he's been busy being a father of two, but he was damn near apathetic toward the training, and practically ran away from my succubus, a demon Huuza dealt with in the blink of an eye! I don't know what the reasons for that are, but this is not what I expected from the orc who's saved my hide on more than one occasion.

****

The training lasted well into the night, and everyone has now realized the severity of our state. The commander has agreed to help me hold more training sessions, one every day until word from Deepholm comes through. We have a lot of work to do. Lets get started.

Pre-Operation Notes

Word's finally arrived from Deepholm. It turns out the reason our scouts took so long? They had to spend days running and hiding.

From an army.

Not just a squad of suicidal distractions like we faced in Ashenvale. More than a hundred warlocks and demons, gathered around the large titan waygate in the southwest. The so-called "Master's Gate." Apparently they've done something to it. Corrupted it or changed where the gate leads somehow.

Xalsin and some other Orc warlock are leading them.

What they did with the remaining Twilight's Hammer that were there is irrelevant at this point. Time is up. We've been training daily, and now we're going to show the results of our efforts.

We still don't know what they're planning exactly, but one way or another, we're going to find out here. And kick Xalsin's furry behind back to the Nether where it belongs.



Post-Operation Notes

I write this now en route from Orgrimmar to prepare for what's going to be some very dark months. We're going to need these records for the history books.

Huuza, Invar, Legren, Rellka, Urgarok, Valtenath, Grazzug, and myself. That's who came into Deepholm to stop Xalsin and his army from using the Master's Gate.



Right from the beginning things didn't go as planned. As we sneaked around the rock formations to get closer to the gate, Grazzug, Urgarok and I were caught by one of the patrolling demons. That should have been the end of things there, but surprisingly, the orc at the head of the army called us up to him, told his army to let us past.

Of all the orc warlocks of all the cults on Azeroth, we just had to run into the prized disciple of Magrag's cult. The Sons of Corrupted Blood. Moragrag, he called himself. Probably renamed himself that to honor Magrag, the way he talked about him like the ground he walked on was holy.

Still, his blind zealotry was to our advantage at first. While he rambled on, Invar and Rellka managed to sneak the others to the side of the gate. Legren was able to tap into the portal's energies and slowly siphon it to weaken its power.

Unfortunately, Invar rather ironically decided that stealth meant hurling a pack of grenades into the center of their forces.

****

From that point on it was chaos. Moragrag raised a barrier around the portal that he hid behind and called down meteors on us as the hundreds of warlocks rushed the stairs to the gate.

To say our troops performed admirably wouldn't do them justice. Huuza took down foes with one lightning ball each and healed just as much as he dealt, Grazzug and Urgarok stood their ground against an unrelenting tide to defend us, Rellka fought like a wild beast to split enemies apart while Valtenath and Invar matched her with precision. All the while Legren and I tackled the portal.

With his power already linked to it, Legren nearly shattered Moragrag's barrier instantly. Though Moragrag prevented him from finishing the job with a meteor storm, I was able to complete what he started.

****

It was once the barrier was down that things went from chaos to madness. Xalsin took the field himself, his possessed dryad body a decaying, horrifying parody of what it once was. His vengeance was swift, picking me up and breathing fire at me point blank before tossing me aside.

Legren used the remaining energies of the portal to launch a wave of fire at Xalsin, blowing up his own arm with it. Though it certainly hit Xalsin hard, it was the wave of fire hitting the portal that did the most damage.

The energies of the portal that Legren absorbed must have caused some kind of chain reaction once it damaged the waygate, because it because unstable. Starting throwing out huge arcs of lighting and gale force winds all around the area. The warlocks in their army that weren't immediately vaporized panicked and fled. It was just us and Xalsin now, along with a collapsing portal that threatened to suck us in and send us Sargeras-knows-where.

The Warforged Pact didn't waste a second. Invar, Rellka, Urgarok, and Valtenath all leapt into the fray, all of them hitting Xalsin with blades and bullets that would have instantly downed any normal creature. Too bad for us that Xalsin was far from normal at this point. With one fiery swipe, he downed half our numbers, only Grazzug, Huuza, Valtenath and Legren remaining. It was all we could do to just hold on from being swept away.

Valtenath used his holy powers to good use though, his blade leaving scars of shining light in Xalsin's hide. Grazzug and Huuza carved through the beast, cleaving him into three parts only still standing through the demon's stitching energies.

In the end it was Grazzug that dealt the killing blow, smashing, stabbing and knocking back Xalsin into the portal, while Legren stole his soul and placed it into a shard to prevent his escape.

****

And just like that it was over. The portal faded away, and we were alone. Moragrag was nowhere to be found.

From the rantings and ravings the orc shouted at us while we were fighting, its clear now what their plans were, surprising though they may be. They were using the Warden Spirit and their rituals to redirect the Master's Gate directly into the Vault of the Wardens, inside of which were... the Illidari.

Demon Hunters. Trained by Illidan Stormrage himself. The cult was planning to force the demons each Hunter was bound to overtake their hosts while they slumbered in their enchanted cages, then bind them to their will.

I don't know what's more concerning, the fact that they believe they can do that, or that the Demon Hunters still exist in the first place. For that matter, to say that the Wardens keeping them there all this time is disconcerting is a massive understatement.

Worse still, Moragrag had said that they serve a new master, not Magrag. And that this master had already been transported to the Vault before we arrived.

Before we could plan out what to do next, we began hearing loud imapcts from the cavern ceiling, stalactites falling around us. When we rushed back to Orgrimmar from the Temple of Earth's portal, we looked and saw... the skies clouded. Demons falling from them.

The Burning Legion has come back.

May this record, the 8th month of the 32nd year After the First War, serve as a marking point for the beginning of the Third Burning Invasion. May whoever's in charge up there grant us the power we need to stop it.

((For future Posts))