Disclaimer - I do not own Warcraft
Northrend
Just after toying with Arthas, Mal'ganis teleported to his citadel in Northrend, now only waiting for the prince to come to his doom. He entered the throne room of the citadel and sat on the throne. He was due to give a report to Tichondrius and the other dreadlords of the status of Ner'zhul's champion
He thought about his encounter with the prince. The Lich King was right, it was far too easy to break his spirit. He was young, far too young to deal with something like this and both the Scourge and the Legion took complete advantage of his naivete
While he was still reveling at how he played the prince, a cultist suddenly came inside the throne room with a worried look on his face. "What is it?" Mal'ganis asked curiously, wondering what was this about
"Lord Mal'ganis, Prince Arthas is not coming here. From the reports of the shades we left behind at Stratholme, King Terenas has summoned Arthas back to the Capital City and Uther the Lightbringer has burned the ships in the Stratholme harbor." the cultist answered
Mal'ganis was furious at this turn of events. All of his efforts to taunt the prince amounted up to nothing. "So, I guess the prince is smarter than I gave him credit for." he said in a rather calm tone despite his anger. "What is the prince doing now?" he asked
"There were reports that Lordaeron, Dalaran and Quel'thalas are preparing to abandon their lands while many of the citizens will be evacuating to Stormwind and Kul'tiras. Apparently, Prince Arthas is to lead an expedition to the west. Somehow, they have learned about the Burning Legion." the cultist replied
"That's not surprising. They were bound to know about us sooner or later. It would be rather surprising if the elves completely deleted any records about the war that happened ten thousand years ago." Mal'ganis said. Before he could say anything further, six green lights suddenly appeared, indicating that the other dreadlords were now here. "Leave." he ordered the cultist, who bowed before leaving. As soon as he left, Mal'ganis' colleagues appeared, which consisted of Tichondrius, Anetheron, Mephistroth, Balnazzar, Detheroc and Varimathras
"Mal'ganis, what is the status of scourge?" Mephistroth demanded to know
"Things have become rather complicated." Mal'ganis said but he wasn't afraid. There was no reason for him to be afraid
"What? Have you failed? Was the scourge discovered? You better have not screwed up, Mal'ganis. Archimonde will have all our heads if we fail here." Anetheron said out
"Calm yourselves, brothers." Tichondrius said and calmed down the two raging dreadlords. "What happened, Mal'ganis?" he asked, looking at said demon
Mal'ganis summoned a hologram of the eastern kingdoms using fel magic so that he could begin his report. "What has happened is both a mixture of both good and bad news. I'll start with the good news. The Cult of the Damned have infiltrated everywhere, even here in Quel'thalas." he said while pointing at the specific area on the hologram. "From the reports I received in Stratholme, our cultist has already gained access to the Sunwell itself. We also have infiltrated even Dalaran, so we have eyes and ears nearly everywhere."
The other dreadlords listened intently. This was not what they expected when they heard some complications. "So, what exactly is the complication?" Varimathras asked
"The summoner, Kel'thuzad, has been killed in the Lich King's plan to acquire a champion and was buried somewhere around Andorhal." Mal'ganis answered, shifting the hologram. "His plan to acquire a champion also ended up in failure. The paladin, Uther, has burned the ships that Arthas would have used to travel here and it wasn't long before the king was able to summon him. According to our spies, they are planning an expedition to the west and abandon their lands while also travelling to Kul'tiras and Stormwind." Mal'ganis said and made the hologram dissipate. "Someone is working against us and tipped off Uther about our plans." he concluded
"This someone is probably the same guy that told the orcs to leave." Tichondrius commented
"This is a damned disaster. Archimonde is gonna have us all butchered once he finds out the summoner is dead." Detheroc said in an angry tone
Anetheron and Mephistroth shared this sentiment but another one among them thought otherwise. "I don't particularly see the problem. In fact, I see this as an absolute win, in the long run at least." Balnazzar said and surprised all the others
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Mephistroth asked and noticed that Varimathras, Tichondrius and Mal'ganis had caught on to Balnazzar's plan
"Have the cultists been discovered?" Balnazzar asked
"No. The only ones discovered were the ones that were used in the trap for the prince." Mal'ganis answered
"Then this works in our favor. We can have the cultists join in on all the expeditions and cause chaos later when we need. Ner'zhul's champion wasn't really relevant to our plans in the first place. We will just have to retrieve the summoner's body and have our cultist in Quel'thalas smuggle us in directly to the Sunwell." Balnazzar explained
"And what about the book? We still need it for the summoning." Mephistroth pointed out
"That isn't a problem as well. We have cultists even in Dalaran. We can have them locate the book and the moment we receive its location, we retrieve it ourselves. In fact, this might even be better than if Ner'zhul had a champion as we will be able to do multiple things at once and make alterations based on the immediate situation." Varimathras further explained the point of Balnazzar. "All we really need is the summoner anyway and the champion doesn't mean much in the long run."
This explanation calmed the three raging dreadlords as they realized it wasn't all that bad
"How soon can we act on this? Do we even let the humans leave?" Detheroc asked eventually
"Whether the humans are able to leave or not is irrelevant. You forget that the orcs were also headed to Kalimdor. It is inevitable that they would meet and they can kill each other for us or they take their war to the night elves and fight them instead. However, we act as soon as we have the book's location. I will personally retrieve the summoner's body and ensure his reanimation." Tichondrius ordered
"We haven't been directly involved in direct attacks for a long time. As insurance, we should alter the summoning for a bit." Varimathras suggested
"How do you propose we do that?" Detheroc asked
"Instead of summoning Archimonde himself, we could have the summoner bring in Kazzak and Mannoroth instead. The humans will be launching a full scale assault with whatever forces are not on the expeditions on us if we are summoning and we will need some additional power if things go south." Varimathras said
"If we do that then the summoning will be delayed. Summoning Archimonde is already going to take an hour at most." Mephistroth argued
"That is true but at the same time, those two will be able to hold the altar longer than we would be, or at the very least ensure that the humans cannot cheese their way through." Balnazzar agreed
"Then it's settled. We summon Kazzak and Mannoroth first before we summon Archimonde." Tichondrius decided on the final decision
"That still leaves us with one loose end..." Mal'ganis trailed off. "What about the dwarves that landed here some time ago?"
"Leave them. They're not a threat to us anyway and it would be amusing to see them freeze to death. If they start posing problems, kill them." Anetheron said with a wicked grin on his face and the others agreed to it
While they have salvaged the situation, the dreadlords were still worried of what Archimonde would do once he finds out about this
The Black Temple, Outland
Archimonde was at the peak of the black temple, gathering his forces for the invasion. The Legion had decided to use Outland as the staging ground for the invasion. This way, they would not unnecessarily reveal their other weapons and allowing them to save them for later. The fact that the world was shattered after Ner'zhul's reckless actions only allowed the Legion to have an easier time taking over. At the moment, Archimonde was busy ensuring that Legion gunships that would be joining in on the assault when suddenly, a doom guard appproached him and informed him that Tichondrius had some news. The eredar grew curious as to why he was being contacted this soon and dismissed the doom guard before contacting the dreadlord, who gave him a rundown of the change of plans. The eredar was not pleased at all but it was better than nothing. "You dreadlords better keep control of the situation or I'll feed you to the fel hounds." he threatened before cutting off the connection
"Problems?" a voice asked. Archimonde looked where it came from and saw his fellow demon lord, Kil'jaeden, come down from the temple's upper levels
"Ner'zhul's plan to get a champion failed and the dreadlords decided to personally retrieve what we need to enter. I sometimes wonder about their competency since that was supposed to be a simple job. How hard can it be to trick a mere mortal." Archimonde sighed before explaining the rest of the situation and noticed that Kil'jaeden wasn't exactly bothered. "You don't seem concerned?"
Kil'jaeden merely shrugged his shoulders before leaning against the wall, watching more gunships enter the temple. "I wasn't exactly convinced on why Ner'hul needed a champion in the first place. I was surprised that it was the dreadlords who suggested and asked for my permission and not Ner'zhul himself."
"So, you're saying that Ner'zhul has his own goal?" Archimonde asked curiously
"I would be surprised if he didn't. We had to torture him for a very long time before he agreed to serve us again. The fact that he was the one that came up with the plan to get a champion and not the dreadlords only solidifies the thought that it was his idea in the first place otherwise the dreadlords would have just picked any random creature." Kil'jaeden stated before thinking about it more. "In fact, I think this would work out better if the dreadlords personally do the job."
"The only way I can see that is if they manage to get their claws on the book. The dreadlords never liked getting their hands that dirty." Archimonde pointed out
"That is true but they would still rather get their hands dirty than get fed to the fel hounds." Kil'jaeden said with amusement. "Besides, if the dreadlords are doing it themselves, then they will be able to keep control better than if it was Ner'zul's champion. That orc is a bit too cunning for a mere pawn and I would be surprised if he isn't up to something."
Archimonde put a hand under his chin and thought about this for a second. "Do you think he will try to sabotage the invasion?"
"Oh I'm pretty sure he will. I had suspicions that it was his idea to get a champion, which would seem odd considering that we did promise him to let him off the leash if he played his part but the dreadlords suggesting we get him a champion threw off that suspicion, which was probably the intention all along. Ner'zhul probably realized that we had no intention of keeping our word and that once he fulfilled his purpose, he would just be disposed of." Kil'jaeden said before making a very serious face. "Archimonde, once you get to Azeroth, be very careful about the Scourge. I'm not sure how he'll do it, but I'm sure that Ner'zhul would try something."
"I have my doubts on how he would be able to do that. He lacks a champion and most of his minions are far weaker than our own. His strongest would probably be the summoner but only after we have brought him back. If Ner'zhul is serious about sabotaging the invasion, then that attack will come from somewhere 'zhul is gonna play the part of a loyal pawn so we will have no reason to get rid of him." Archimonde reasoned, pointing out Ner'zhul's inability to move or even do anything directly
"It's not like getting rid of him is an issue for us but Ner'zhul is playing on the fact of how much potential the Scourge has. You should probably keep a close eye on what he or his minions do." Kil'jaeden warned, something that Archimonde had heeded
"That still leaves the question..." Archimonde said and aroused Kil'jaeden's curiosity. "How did the humans know about us? From what we know, the humans have been in peace since the orcs' defeat and they never suspected someone was behind the scene."
"The elves should have known about us. That war ten thousand years drew a lot of attention where even dragons joined in so it would be stupid if the elves chose not to keep a record of that somewhere." Kil'jaeden pointed out. "The bigger question is, why did the elves decide to reveal our existence to the humans now."
"Someone is working against us but I highly doubt it would be the Scourge. Ner'zhul might not want to play his part but this would only compromise his position. Whoever is working against us is someone we haven't encountered thus far. The dreadlords even suspect that this someone is the same person that warned the orcs." Archimonde argued back before leaning against the wall himself. "This would be a lot easier if we could just destroy this world."
"Not only that, this someone knows how to hide his tracks. Whenever he made a move, it went completely unnoticed. I suspect that this individual is somehow familiar with us." Kil'jaeden added before heading back to the stairs. "Just be very careful when you're there. We might have the element of surprise but someone is clearly aware of us and our plans."
"I wonder if the night elves have something to do with this." Archimonde wondered aloud. "Now that I think about it, that's improbable. They've probably just kept in their forest, hoping that we would never return."
"That's true and no one even noticed any elf that isn't the same color as the high elves. Tell the dreadlords to speed up the invasion. No more nonsense about this champion of Ner'zhul." Kil'jaeden said before leaving
Archimonde watched his fellow demon lord and close friend leave, keeping in mind their discussion about how this invasion is going to be complicated. He then walked up the stairs up to a balcony which overlooked the forces he had gathered for the invasion
Andorhal, Six Days Later
Over the last few days since the culling of Stratholme. Arthas wasn't given a punishment due to the fact that it was partly the paladin's mistake for not noticing anything and not even doing anything. There was a lot of backlash from those who didn't take part but Uther himself personally gave his argument that Arthas was right given what he had discovered and the information that the high elves had shared. Since then, they have all been preparing their ships, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the Burning Legion would arrive. Even though many objected and wanted to simply check the plagued grain, in the long run, it wouldn't really matter as those that only want to check the plagued grain didn't understand that the Scourge is not the real enemy
The Scourge in the meantime, had moved all of their necromancers to hide among the populace. A few of them infiltrated in the expeditions, more near the graveyards. Apparently, no has realized that burning the corpses would deny the Scourge their resources if graveyards were exhumed and burned and that the humans would buy themselves more time as most of the Scourge's resources were situated in Northrend
In Andorhal, Gavinrad the Dire was assigned to guard Kel'thuzad's tomb. It was pretty boring as nothing ever happened there. The Scourge so far, have done nothing to retrieve his body since Arthas had killed him. That was about to change
As Gavinrad was still guarding the tomb, one of the soldiers assigned to him approached. Gavinrad was worried as the soldier looked to be in a panic. "What is it? What's going on?" he asked
"Lord Gavinrad, it's the undead. Andorhal's gates is under siege right now." the soldier said while catching his breath
"What? They're after the necromancer's body no doubt." Gavinrad concluded before grabbing his warhammer. "Let's move it soldier and don't give the undead what they want." he said before quickly leaving the tomb along with those who were with him in the tomb, not noticing that the soldier didn't leave the spot he was on
The soldier watched him go and when he was out of sight, he suddenly grinned and his eyes glowed green for a split second. He approached the tomb, grabbed an urn which he had stolen when everyone was preparing for the expeditions, and began chanting
When Gavinrad reached the gates of the town, he was surprised when there was nothing going on
"Lord Gavinrad? What's going on?" one of the guards asked
"Is the undead attacking? Didn't you send someone to report to me that we are under attack?" Gavinrad asked in confusion
"I apologize sir, but no one has left his post since the guard duty shifts. We have all been here since earlier." the guard answered
As soon as those words left the guard's mouth, Gavinrad's eyes went wide. "We have been deceived. The necromancer's tomb." he said before running back the direction he came
When he and the rest of the guards arrived, the saw the soldier who approached Gavinrad earlier covering up the urn and the tomb wide open
"Whoever you are, put it back in the tomb." Gavinrad said as he assumed a battle stance along with the rest of his troops
The soldier merely laughed this off as he put down the urn. "I would relish the chance to slaughter you but unfortunately, I am on a time table so I would let you live if you let me go."
"So be it. Attack." Gavinrad ordered but as he and his troops were suddenly hit by a horde of bats. The paladin was the only one left standing after the attack and he was injured from the magic. "Who are you?" he demanded to know while he was bleeding badly
The soldier didn't bother to respond as another soldier suddenly pierced his sword right through the paladin. Gavinrad looked behind and was shocked. "What..." he said before he was kicked off the sword. He wasn't unconscious yet so he noticed when the two soldiers suddenly glowed green and transformed into creatures with large wings, horns and talons
"Let's get out of here, Tichondrius. The humans will notice something is off if the paladin fails to report for the day." Anetheron said in a demanding tone despite Tichondrius being higher rank than him
"Not just yet." Tichondrius said before firing a powerful red lightning bolt at the paladin, completely destroying his body. "We'll leave no trace of them." he finished before green energies surrounded them and they vanished
Quel'Danas Isle
While Tichondrius and Anetheron retrieved the body, Dar'khan Drathir and another mage approached the guards to the Sunwell. The guards noticed them and wondered what they were doing here
"Magister Drathir. We were not expecting you here. Something we can help you with? And who is your companion?" one of the guards asked. All the guards were curious why they were here as they weren't supposed to be here at a time like this. All magisters were supposed to be helping in the evacuation and only the High King was supposed to be in the Sunwell area. Not even the Ranger General was allowed here right now
"Answer us, magister. You have your orders to help the evacuation. Why are you here?" another guard asked
"Is that any way to speak to the magisters?" Dar'khan's companion asked
"You are not a magister. We know who the magisters are and you are most definitely one of them. Who are you and what are you two doing here, now?" that same guard asked, growing more suspicious by the minute
Dar'khan just sighed at this. He knew things would get ugly if they got the timing wrong. The other mage grew annoyed and just killed them all with a single bolt of red lightning, dropping them all instantly
"We should have just done that from the very beginning." the mage said
"It won't be long before someone notices we are here. The king placed wards in the event something goes wrong. I hope you know what you're doing otherwise we're going to get killed for nothing." Dar'khan said before leading the way inside
The two of them soon arrived at the Sunwell itself, observing in awe at the amount of power it had. Now, this situation was out of their hands as their only job was to get entry into the Sunwell itself
"Dar'khan, get out of the Sunwell, now." a voice called out from behind them. The duo looked behind and saw King Anasterian, Grand Magister Belo'vir, Rommath and a lot of rangers
"Last chance, stand down, now." Anasterian said, readying Felo'melorn
"Is that Felo'melorn? It's been a while since I've seen that blade." Dar'khan's companion commented with amusment, not caring about the fact that they were outnumbered
His statement confused everyone present, minus Dar'khan. The mage saw this and decided to enlighten them. Green energies surrounded his body and he transformed into his true form, which was that of a dreadlord, much to the elves' surprise. This was even the first time Anasterian saw a dreadlord with his own eyes
The dreadlord, which they didn't know was Mephistroth, suddenly disappeared. The elves all panicked before suddenly, multiple shadowy images of the dreadlord appeared, their energies in the form of black energy heading towards each of the images. Thinking quickly, Anasterian used Felo'melorn to launch a huge wave of flame, completely dispelling the images and knocking back Dar'khan, as well as everyone else. They all survived but were greatly injured from the attack
This act also forced Mephistroth out of hiding but instead of being annoyed, the dreadlord had an amused expression on his face. "Ah it seems that the rumors of that runeblade is true, the very same runeblade wielded by Dath'remar Sunstrider so long ago." he commented before putting Anasterian to sleep
All the elves attacked with the two magisters using their arcane magics. Dar'khan quickly used the powers of the Sunwell to prevent them from casting any spells, being the one closest to the Sunwell while Mephistroth quickly launched a horde of bats at the rangers, killing most while injuring the rest
The two magisters prepared to fight to the death against the traitor and the dreadlord except a red bolt of lightning hit Anasterian, instantly killing him and disintegrated his body. Everyone looked where it came from and saw two more dreadlords arrived
Knowing they were outmatched, the two magisters quickly recovered Felo'melorn and teleported out as Dar'khan's spell wore off. They were almost killed as Anetheron quickly used his magic to bind them in place but Belo'vir was able to dispel it, barely, and forced Rommath out, telling him to tell Kael of what happened and he sacrificed himself as Dar'khan killed him but in the process, the ancient elven runeblade was left behind
"You're late." Dar'khan said in a reprimanding tone
"We couldn't teleport here directly. There's a powerful shield preventing us from doing just that so we had to make do with arriving outside this isle." Tichondrius explained
"Hardly matters. Let's get this over with before we have to deal with more elves." Mephistroth said and Tichondrius dumped the contents of the urn into the Sunwell
The Sunwell, which was usually golden in color, suddenly changed into a black purple one and it shrieked. As this operation was done in secrecy, no one in the entirety of Quel'thalas figured out why they were suddenly feeling empty. A few seconds after the contents were dumped, the visage of the Arch Lich of the Scourge appreared, and Kel'thuzad was finally reborn. Surprisingly, the lich didn't comment about his rebirth at all
"Good, that's over with. Let's get out of here before the elves come back." Anetheron quickly said, not really in the mood to deal with more elves
"What about me?" Dar'khan asked, realizing that the dreadlords had no intention of keeping their word
"You have played your part." Tichondrius said before firing a red lighting bolt at him. Dar'khan barely managed to survive, which didn't go unnoticed before Anetheron finished him off
Kel'thuzad watched this with disgust. While he could sabotage the summoning itself, he knew it would only put the Lich King in more danger so he decided to play along and wait for further instruction. As soon as Dar'khan was killed, the three dreadlords, along with the lich, all vanished, leaving only the dead bodies in the Sunwell isle
Rommath, who was injured, barely made it out and quickly went over to the Farstrider base in Silvermoon where Kael and Sylvanas were. When he arrived, he quickly informed them of what happened. They quickly went back to the Sunwell and saw nothing but the corrupted Sunwell and the dead bodies
Dalaran
Dalaran, was not safe from all the chaos that had happened on this day. They had their own problems as the Cult of the Damned were able to locate Medivh's spellbook and the moment they did, this entire operation was launched with the dreadlords bypassing any armies using their abilities to possess bodies. At the moment, only Antonidas remained of the Council of Six, minus Kael as he was not present, as Balnazzar, Detheroc and Varimathras all infiltrated the city. The battle was even at the beginning as the council thought they were only fighting two dreadlords but it was only a distraction as Balnazzar went to retrieve the book while Detheroc and Varimathras kept them busy. As soon as Balnazzar took advantage of the distraction and killed the remaining council members, Antonidas quickly fled the scene, knowing he was outmatched
The three dreadlords then looked to the hills outside of Dalaran and saw the other three dreadlords from Quel'thalas already preparing the altar for the summoning
Getting out from the center of the city was going to be difficult as it was without a doubt that someone would have noticed by now. Fortunately, this is what they were counting on. Not more than five minutes after the three saw the altar of summoning, the gates of Dalaran was under attack by not unly the undead, but also orcs, specifically the Blackrock Orcs. Mal'ganis had recruited them to their cause to launch a full scale assault on Dalaran. With the massive attack, all soldiers in Dalaran had to focus on the undead attacking the gates while protecting the mages so they can create portals to get the citizens out to safety. This distraction allowed Balnazzar and the others to get out with the book and take it to Kel'thuzad
In this chapter, it's mostly the consequences of Uther's actions, on the Legion's side at least. As said in the previous chapter, it's basically the prologue arc and it's mostly gonna contain some summary of the changes
I decided to have the dreadlords disguise themselves as ordinary citizens. They're supposed to be good at taking down civilizations from the inside so why not make it their role in this changed story. They may seem that overpowered, as is the Legion based on what I wrote last chapter but that's not necessarily the case. That's only for now because the Burning Legion is something that the mortals didn't know about and thus, have no clear idea how to fight and fighting something you don't have a clear idea is usually gonna end up in a brutal defeat. The gunships mentioned are basically the ships the demons used in WoW Legion, such as the ones Kil'jaeden summoned in the Tomb of Sargeras trailer. I just called them gunships because it seemed lame to just call them as 'Legion Ships'
Also, the part about how it was the dreadlords who suggested it to Kil'jaeden, I'm not a hundred percent sure about that and I couldn't really confirm it. The reason I wrote it that way is that a couple years ago, I saw a video that explained the events of chronicles and that Ner'zhul was the one who got the dreadlords to get a champion. If it's not then whatever
That's about it for now. Remember, the real story starts after the Battle of Mount Hyjal