Hellscream’s Eyes Blind to Forsaken Blight Havoc

The Blackwell Courier - Issue #3 . . . February 24th ((2012))

Hellscream's eyes blind to Forsaken blight havoc

By Tobbes S. Blackwell

The grounds once known as the Hillsbrad Fields have been fortified, and while the walls obscure most of what goes on inside, the unnatural green fumes and smell of pervasive rot suggest the testing of horrible weapons.

Nearly a year has passed since the horror we remember as ‘The Wrathgate’ occurred, and now the shadows which led up to that day press close again - this time dangerously close to the lands we call home.

The Forsaken, a kingdom of former Scourge undead, has laid claim to the heart of fallen Lordaeron since the end of the Third War. With their hated enemy the Lich King slain and the Horde campaign in Northrend drawn to a close, Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner has led the Forsaken to a new era by fortifying their holdings and bolstering her people’s numbers with fresh, reanimated corpses through the dark arts of her Val’kyr servants.

But even with these defensive measures being put into effect, growth requires time and it seems the Banshee Queen means to buy more of it with sinister, reckless, and inhumane strategies. All of this begs the question: is Hellscream really watching?

Countless leagues across the ocean, Horde invaders fight against Night Elf defenders for control of Ashenvale’s resources. Dor’danil Barrow Den, located in the southeastern region of the vast forest, is a series of underground tunnels home to Kaldorei druids slumbering within the Emerald Dream. After falling behind the advancing battlefront, the dens were assumed to have been left alone due to the harmless and helpless state of its inhabitants.

The premise outside of the barrow dens lies quiet, but it has not always been so.

Kayneth Stillwind, a Night Elf alchemist and cook stationed at Forest Song to the northeast, learned from a vision this was not the case and that the sleeping druids had been poisoned. A capable adventurer was sent, returning with several bottles of poisons and disease developed at Dor’danil and research notes on the Forsaken’s merciless work.

“The documents detailed how the Forsaken tested their poisons on the vulnerable druids, resulting in a severing of their spirits within the Emerald Dream with their physical bodies. Most of the sleeping brethren turned insane as a result, while a handful had their spirits released as hostile lingering apparitions.” Stillwind said.

However, it should be noted that to dismiss this incident as a random act of cruelty would be a naive underestimation of Forsaken depravity.

“The atrocity came as a hard blow to all of us... but it was more than just an attack on our morale - the very nature of the experiments reveal that the Forsaken were testing for our brother’s weaknesses and seeking a way to release disease into our lands.” Stillwind said.

Back at the Eastern Kingdoms, refugees are spreading the word of more overt destruction originating in the Hillsbrad Foothills. While Southshore has often held skirmishes against their undead enemies from Tarren Mill, the town was caught off guard by a desecrating assault that devastated soldier and civilian alike.

Alliance defenders were decimated by the use of the Royal Apothecary Society’s “New Plague,” despite the alleged orders within Horde leadership for production to cease immediately following the Wrathgate incident. All that remains of the town now are corroded ruins and lingering pools of unnatural toxicity.

It's doubtful that Horde or Alliance will see use of this desecrated land, which  bears little resemblance to the gem Southshore once was, for many generations to come.

In the chaos that followed, town leaders led fleeing survivors away from Southshore. A minority of the citizens traveled east, toward the Arathi Highlands. The main party made their way northwest, to the Hillsbrad fields. However, the unprotected farms had also been taken over hours before and many of the exhausted refugees were helpless again before the Forsaken’s following onslaught of chemical weapons.

The remaining exodus continued to a temporary shelter at the ruins of Fenris Keep, though it did not take long for the Forsaken to divert their forces nearby at the Silverpine Battlefront. The survivors found themselves in a situation desperation cannot begin to describe.

At the urging of Gilnean Liberation Front (GLF) leaders Darius Crowley and Ivar Bloodfang, the refugees embraced the worgen curse by drinking worgen blood. This move protected the survivors from being raised as Forsaken, for the Val’kyr can only reanimate humans to undeath.

Another attack soon followed on the keep, and the diminished remnants that swam across Lordaeron Lake and made their way to safety became known as “Hillsbrad Worgen.” According to Wesley, currently an aforementioned Hillsbrad Worgen and formerly a stable master in Southshore who made it out with nothing but clothes and his rapier:

“We are very likely the last human survivors of the settlements in Hillsbrad. The second party that fled to Arathi may have made it to Thordadin’s Wall, but the Forsaken now squatting at the wall’s entrance suggest they never made it any further.”

And not much farther from the setting of this last story, the GLF and 7th Legion forces united on the Gilnean Battlefront face blight-hurling plague launchers from the Forsaken opposition. This has come as a surprise to many, who expected the battlefield where Garrosh Hellscream himself was rumored to have visited to be acting in strict accordance with the ban on use of the New Plague.

Following the betrayal of the undead Vincent Godfrey, this former Gilnean lord was chased and assaulted in Shadowfang Keep. The keep itself was spared, to serve as a reminder of everything that happened, and its halls still contain trace residue of toxic chemicals unleashed in the struggle.

Samples of the leftover chemical residue were procured from both the battlefront and the neighboring Shadowfang Keep, and sent from the GLF to be examined by a gnome specialist within SI:7 who must remain anonymous. According to the unnamed gnome:

“Tests proved that the substances retrieved from Gilneas were in every way similar to the recorded properties of intact blight samples brought from the Wrathgate, though they were very diluted. The latter samples were brought to a secure lab in Stormwind following the incident, tested thoroughly, and destroyed soon after.”

Admittedly, it was a step in the right direction for Garrosh to crack down on Royal Apothecary Society experimentation by stationing a legion of his Kor’kron (elite orc warriors and bodyguards to the warchief) at the Undercity. But what their careful eye fails to discern, is how the Apothecary’s work can continue at full speed as long as they go unsupervised elsewhere in Lordearon!

One of the most recent examples has newly emerged from adventurer accounts in the Hinterlands (though it stands the reason there may be many more similar stories yet unheard of). At the heart of the region a Forsaken outpost has been established during the aftermath of the new sundering, on the ruins of the Witherbark troll village Hiri’watha. The camp can plainly be seen with an array of testing and research equipment, and locals have grown curious to what motives these visitors have in mind.

The Witherbark trolls of Hiri'watha have mysteriously disappeared, and the Forsaken have set up vile machinery in their place.

According to Melborne Ironstride, seasoned Gnomish warrior and assistant archaeologist, there is a connection between the suspicious newcomers and the recent death of a troll god.

“I went on a separate path from my family for a while to seek after troll artifacts from the ancient Amani Empire. I heard that one of the three remaining tribes in the Hinterlands, the Witherbark tribe, were growing weak and that their ruins were mostly abandoned, but I was shocked to find their largest settlement of Shadra’Alor undefended.

Investigating inside, I discovered about two dozen forest trolls corpses scattered about. Some were diced into indistinguishable pieces with short blades, and others were deteriorated by powerful shadow magic that left them in a pool of their darkened blood and liquefied brain matter.

But what really caught my attention was the mythic, gargantuan remains of an Amani spider god, with a massive chunk of flesh surrounding his poison glands carved open. Luminescent, magically infused venom dripped from its mutilated maw to create a small puddle below where the grass wilted black. But the puddle was small enough to suggest that the majority of the venom was harvested. Fresh tracks led outside Shadra’alor - scattered, two-toed footprints spread off in all directions, but an orderly party with small, boot shaped prints with thin skeletal appendages led in the direction of Hiri’watha’s ruins.” Ironstride said.

From this encounter and the Ironstride’s past encounters with the Forsaken, Melborne asserts that this cannot possibly be interpreted as some rogue’s ambition to acquire a strong poison or an alchemist’s pursuit for creating a harmless potion. “I may only be a beginner in troll archaeology and I’m still learning, but I know this: That venom is divine in nature - it has enough potency to kill an entire legion of healthy men. Clearly the Forsaken are up to something evil.” Ironstride said.

Orendil Broadleaf, a healer and alchemist at Maestra’s Post, Ashenvale expresses a similar sentiment in regards to the Forsaken’s interest in powerful ingredients. North of the sentinel protected outpost he watches, Forsaken agents have set up labs on the site of a forest ancient’s death; Bathran’s Haunt.

The great forest defender’s fall has resulted in a unique herb known as Bathran’s Hair, and the agents have used this as well as other local flora for malicious ends, even corrupting the surrounding forest. And while reports tell of a strong presence of orc overseers keeping an eye on these Forsaken, it is unclear what (if anything at all) they are restricting and whether they will actually hinder the agents from developing new chemical weapons. Fortunately, an unnamed hero was compelled to burn the remains of the fallen ancient and halt further harvesting of the reagent.

With the ancient's remains destroyed, Bathran's Hair will no longer sprout from the earth. But the amount already harvested is unsettling to the overstretched forest defenders, and the tolerance of the orc overseers raises more questions.

“I hope that whatever the Forsaken are devising from [Bathran’s Hair] will not be turned into a weapon. The herb is a very strong ingredient with natural power, and it can offer great spiritual healing if consecrated by Elune’s Light. But I don’t believe the Forsaken are looking for spiritual healing, I expect their intention is to pervert nature’s power for their own selfish ends.” Broadleaf said.

According to Lady Hoteshem, battlemaster and tactician of the League of Arathor, this dependence upon chemical weapons of the Forsaken is a threat that can’t be ignored.

“Chemical weapons are more affordable than other conventional methods of warfare, far easier to transport than any army, and can be released into a target population with effective discretion. It’s especially concerning that the Forsaken agents can distribute their weapons to rogue groups that work apart from their undead kingdom at large. This possibility, coupled with the very real lingering forces of Twilight Cultists in southern Lordaeron sharing ill will for the Alliance, results in the central Eastern Kingdoms region becoming a powder-keg poised for total war.” Hoteshem said.

However, this is not a story to invoke senseless fear or hopeless panic; this is a story to report the truth so it may be dealt with and confronted.

The Forsaken as a kingdom are a wicked and depraved people. They insult the blessing that is life with their merciless experiments and desperate use of necromancy for “reproducing” their numbers. They scoff at any reverence toward the Holy Light of their living relatives and past forefathers, driving any who still hold to the faith out of their unholy kingdom. Clinging to the wayward ways of the shadow and unwilling to seek any opportunity for atonement in this world they are now only wanderers in, they pervert nature to mirror their corruption and carve out a home for themselves with war and terror.

Large vats of the diluted blight still lie abandoned behind the Gilneas wall, from the incursion the Forsaken led before they were pushed back. The chemicals require careful handling for transport and disposal, and the guerrilla GLF units cannot spare such a luxury with the Forsaken watching on the other side.

But all of us, despite our shortcomings, still carry that gift which is the mortal good will that they so eagerly discarded. We know well enough not to compromise our ethics to their level. We still embrace what is good and present in nature, and we stand together as a united Alliance while the Dark Lady pridefully uses the rest of the Horde and dishonors their trust. We know what it means to be (and for some of us, to stay as) human.

The first plague of undeath, though more a product of necromancy than a true disease, was just as threatening as any Forsaken blight - yet the determined efforts of many heroes brought an end to the Scourge’s cold grip all the same. We shall do so again, if necessary. But until then, whether faced with underhanded tactics in war or horrors wrought through twisted magic, it is the duty of every citizen of Stormwind and the Alliance to vigilantly watch for injustice, expose deceit, and thwart the schemes of darkness wherever they are found.

Stay strong Stormwind, and show our enemies we have nothing to fear!