Paving The Way [Pre-Cata]

[Sol]

Deathguard boots tramp down the Silverpine road by the hundreds.

Those last remaining holdouts of living humanity batten down the hatches and prepare for the worst.

Dead men in purple cloaks with officers' spurs at their heels boldly proclaim that the Way is being paved.

But where does the road lead?

Identicial letters printed like pamphlets circulate through the cities of the Horde.

Noble Friends of the Forsaken, Honoured Brothers and Sisters of the Horde,

In light of recent events, we have determined that it is past time for us to reach a permanent resolution to what some are calling 'the Matter of Lordaeron'.

You are all cordially invited to attend a meeting of officers, partisans and patriots at the Sepulcher at tomorrow's noon hour, where I pray that we may reach a conclusion of mutual satisfaction so that prompt action may be taken for the betterment of our nation.

With our new, acting Warchief's blessing and in our Queen's name do we hope to proceed.

With kindest regards,
Valmar Lakenstrad
High Executor of Her Majesty's Deathguard, Fourth Brigade, Hand of Vengeance

Paving the Way . . . To A Future is scheduled to start in the Sepulcher at 12PM Server Time, Tuesday the 15th of January.

[Delta]

Spoiler:

[Sol]

And so the army advances, to thunderous applause. It seems they will not be halted this side of divine intervention. The way is treacherous, but you will pave it, and what stones you have to work with.

In the name of peace, there will be violence.

In the name of justice, atrocity lies ahead.

In the name of a future, they will hearken back to the horrors of the past.

But who could know for all that noble talk? Of all the flimsy promises and bold proclamations made that day, only one rings deadly true to all ears:

Like for like. Reciprocity. Harm returned for any harm taken.

The same force that conquered a swathe of Northrend for the Horde now marches down through Silverpine to peaceably assert the rightful claims of the nation that founded the Alliance. Do they really expect to go unopposed?

Of course not. It's only a matter of time.

But run along. The future won't win itself. You stand at the head of an army, at the precipice of a new age of war . . .

. . . and you have a road to build.

Paving the Way . . . To Ambermill is scheduled to start on the soon-to-be-constructed Forsaken Front at 12PM Server Time, Thursday the 17th of January.

Spoiler:

The Custom Patch is highly recommended in order to get a complete experience out of these events. We will be decorating and furnishing the Front with flavour items that are only available if you're patched up, although it is not obligatory by any stretch.

[Sol]

Spoiler:

Just head due south on the road from the Sepulcher. It's impossible to miss.

Big thanks to my total bestie Caravan for covering me big-time and doing a huge chunk of the building last night while I had to study for the exam I had this morning.

[Sol]

Surrounded, Ambermill stood defiant.

There would be no surrender. There would be no submission. They would not bend before the demands of tyrants. No terms could be reached between the negotiating parties.

And so it shrouded itself behind the same magic its sister city had after the Defiler tore it down, waiting for its moment.

The path looks a little clearer. The next target is Pyrewood, but . . .

New orders are trickling down the chain of command.

From the highest echelons of the Horde's leadership. The plans are changing. The path is shifting.

A port, they say. Secure a port on the Lordaeronian subcontinent, to secure a supply route to the Frostwolves and the orcs of Hammerfall and the Revantusk and the Horde's myriad other allies thereon.

A supply route for the Forsaken, even.

Well. It just so happens that High Command has just the port in mind . . .

. . . they, who had ignored the screams of the dying when the Scourge came, who had neglected to offer aid or shelter to their neighbours of millennia in their darkest hour . . .

Weren't they told, on Tuesday, to tear down their Wall and make peace with their neighbours? Surely it couldn't hurt to help them dismantle it.

The stones are falling into place.

Paving the Way . . . To The Wall is scheduled to start at the Forsaken Front at 12PM Server Time, Saturday the 19th of January.

[Sol]

It takes about five minutes to load an Apothecarium self-propelled catapult with a single round of its appropriate payload and prime it for firing.

It takes about fifteen minutes to draw up a decent firing trajectory with precision.

It takes about half a second for the leaden ball to reach the Wall from the catapults in their current position.

Now they're firing day and night. Three of them. Firmly in place. You paved the way for them, to be sure.

Pieces flake off the old masonry with every successful impact. It was crumbling into disrepair before the Forsaken even advanced, a decrepit monument to a proud kingdom's paranoia.

Now, they have reason to be afraid.

Nobody has heard a word from inside Gilneas in nearly twenty years. Worgen crawl over from the far side of the Wall and back by the day, a forboding message unto themselves.

Who can say what awaits behind that Wall? Another campaign's problem.

As Hunger grows behind the icy eyes of our veteran commander, the noose draws tighter around dear little Pyrewood.

A hermitage of the old and the stubborn under the ostensible protection of the Kirin Tor by way of Ambermill. But we all know what became of Ambermill.

And yet strangely nobody panics. Nobody pleads. Nobody of Pyrewood bats an eye as the siege begins -- they just look on from the wooden palisade and mutter about having lived through worse.

Soon, you will correct their misconception.

Paving the Way . . . To Pyrewood is scheduled to start at the Forsaken Front at 12PM Server Time, Tuesday the 22nd of January.

[Sol]

A road can take you down many paths.

Spoiler:

Be mindful of where you tread.

Tonight, 12PM ST

[Sol]

We marched with intent to peacefully annex the town. As peacefully as we tried to annex Ambermill, at least. No undue blood was to be shed.

The living humans of Pyrewood were under the ostensible protection of the Kirin Tor; and those remaining bastions of humanity in the south and over the water would not take kindly to a Forsaken massacre of their northern cousins.

So you went in, under cover of night, to hasten their surrender. To demonstrate, without shedding a drop of blood, the power of the Forsaken over living humanity.

But it turns out that they weren't quite as human as we'd thought.

You went in to burn their stables. Neutralise their cavalry. But one of those things running at full speed can easily keep pace with a galloping horse.

You went in to sabotage their smithy. Eliminate their armouries. But their teeth and claws are as sharp as any blade.

You went in to poison their well. Weaken the populace. But their hardy constitution and bestial vitality may prove sturdier than that.

The isolated backwater of Pyrewood Village didn't turn away travellers hoping to stay overnight out of fear of the Plague, like they'd always said.

They didn't lock and bar their doors every night to keep our burglars in that sleepy little burg, like they'd always said.

They didn't keep all those chains in their houses to restrain beasts of burden, like they'd always said.

Documentation recovered from the bowels of Shadowfang Keep reveals the extent of this deception. A letter marked with Greymane's royal seal instructs the mad Archmage Arugal to bolster the defences of Gilneas against the undead.

And look how well that worked out. The worgen curse was spread through Silverpine under Gilnean sanction. Spread to Pyrewood. Suddenly, the morality of this situation becomes a lot less . . . grey.

The situation in Pyrewood must be resolved with haste. Any potential pockets of resistance to the Forsaken advance must be stamped out immediately if it is to proceed on schedule.

And you, my friends, have a few dogs to bring to heel.

The siege breaks on the morrow, and you will be first through the gates.

Paving the Way . . . To Victory is scheduled to start at the Pyrewood Siege Camp at 12PM Server Time, Thursday the 24th of January.

[Sol]

The Lordaeron Herald

Victory at Pyrewood!

The Lordaeron Herald is privileged to report that the settlement of Pyrewood Village has finally submitted to an unconditional surrender after a week-long siege. The siege, beginning as an attempt to briefly bring this settlement of old Lordaeron once again under the centralised rule of the kingdom's rightful monarch, was a carefully orchestrated affair designed to minimise loss of life and unlife on both sides of the conflict. However, the revelation after a small night incursion that every man, woman and child in the settlement was infected with the Worgen Curse complicated the matter, and necessitated swift and decisive action to bring the siege to an end.

The town's gates were broken by a direct hit from a ballista bolt, and the breach was subsequently widened by the heroic actions of a vanguard consisting of volunteers and partisans. In a single charge that scattered the defenders, they weathered volleys of musketfire and thrown rocks, sticks of dynamite and pots of burning oil before facing off against living human and transformed worgen defenders alike. In the process, they secured a fighting foothold for the main body of Forsaken and Kor'kron troops to further penetrate the rebellious town's defences.

While the vanguard proceeded directly for the town hall, fighting down the heavily fortified main thoroughfare through a host of well-entrenched and well-armed defenders, squads of Forsaken and Kor'kron troops swept from house to house, securing the town building by building. Junior Executor Morana Corenderle met true death in action during the siege, valiantly leading her troops from the front as a house they'd entered to secure was destroyed from within by a cache of dynamite. There were no survivors from the blast. The Lordaeronian casualties are estimated to rest in the region of forty-three Forsaken souls in addition to the Junior Executor, but the orcish contingent and the volunteer vanguard are both said to have survived to a man.

After the main body of our forces had begun securing the town, the defenders were peaceably suppressed through the deployment of a chemical incapacitant. After the town hall was breached, a negotiating party was sent in, consisting of the vanguard and led by High Executor Valmar Lakenstrad, the overarching commander of the campaign, and Ranger-Captain Armalia Shadowstrike, its head of scouting and reconnaissance. There, they found the town's non-combatants and the surviving members of its ruling council. The Herald can report that they secured a bloodless surrender in which Lord Mayor Morrison of Pyrewood formally renwed his lasting fealty to the crown of Lordaeron, bringing Pyrewood decisively back under our control.

Currently, our soldiers are bolstering the town's diminished defensive force against the worgen threat while acting as a martial constabulary to ensure the Queen's laws and decrees are abided. A military tribunal is being established to try and sentence known rebels within the town. The punishment for high treason remains true death.

It is known that a turn of events within the town shortly after the capture led to High Executor Lakenstrad being temporarily relieved of duty in the Dark Lady's name. Lakenstrad, a former Field Marshal in the armies of King Terenas who first made his name in the Second War, had recently returned from several years MIA in Northrend and had only months ago been reinstated into the Queen's service. Speculation as to whether these experiences are affecting his command is rife, but the Herald is assured that this incident stems from a small, momentary lapse of professional decorum. The High Executor is expected to resume his post over the weekend after an official debriefing.

Forsaken High Command has unveiled plans to posthumously decorate Morana Corenderle with the Cross of Peace, Lordaeron's highest military honour last awarded to heroes at the eve of the Second War's conclusion. Traditionally only issued to soldiers and officers who fell in battle and served with distinguished valour and honour, this would mark the first occasion since the coming of the Scourge on which a military decoration used in Lordaeron before the fall has been issued to a Forsaken soldier.

The Royal Apothecary Society is said to be working through all hours to determine a permanent solution to the worgen curse.

The Lordaeron Herald encourages its readers to take a minute of silence in mourning the fallen, but to take heart in our hard-won victory and celebrate our heroes. Silverpine is ours. For Lordaeron!

The Herald would like to publicly honour the volunteers who served in the Silverpine Campaign with distinguished heroism, herein listed in a roster compiled for our use by High Executor Lakenstrad:

Spoiler:

Ms Lucerne Chambers, of Lordaeron
Ms Lobelia Falkenrath, of Lordaeron
Mr Septif Gilderbane, of Lordaeron
Mr 'Stoic', of Lordaeron
Mr Damien Moore, of Lordaeron
Mr Flavius Sulla, of Lordaeron
Mr Kameran, of Lordaeron
Mr Anton Lightbane, of Lordaeron
Mr Jared Richter, of Lordaeron
Mr Malachai, of Lordaeron
Ms Eva Somerley, of Lordaeron
Ms Lendri Sylvian, of Lordaeron
Mr Atius Mardonius, of Lordaeron
Mr Orne, of Lordaeron
Ms Atley Hanlon, of Lordaeron
Mr Meronnath, of Lordaeron
Kharneth Skulltaker, of the Warsong
Ms. Milyana Sunsinger, of the High Kingdom
Lord Thalion Novalight, of the High Kingdom

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. . . and do you think the Alliance will stand idly by?

Paving The Way will conclude on Sunday the 27th of January with To War, starting at 12:30PM ST.

[Sol]

It's easy to win a war, the chroniclers say. The measure of a conqueror, rather, how well he wins the ensuing peace.

Tell me, what manner of conqueror do you think Lakenstrad was? Capturing Silverpine was childs' play compared to the prospect of keeping a firm hold of it.

Insurrection. The denizens of Pyrewood transformed and rose up as though at some esoteric signal. They were put down, but at great cost.

Lord Mayor Morrison is dead. His throat was torn out by a member of his own misbegotten pack, as some kind of twisted vengeance for his collaboration. The proxy by which the Forsaken had intended to govern their most recent acquisition is gone, and with him died any prospect of a peaceful cohabitation.

It seems that beasts wearing the skins of men can never live amicably alongside civilised Lordaeronians. At least not when those civilised Lordaeronians have laid waste to their homes and scattered their families, erecting alien banners bearing a dead elf's face to mark the territory as theirs. For all your claims to be the true heirs of Lordaeron, you were as alien to these Gilneans as any monster of the Scourge.

Perhaps the answer to the worgen question lies behind the Wall.

But the plot thickens. The mark of the Seventh Legion has been discovered in Silverpine.

Covertly, they armed the populace of Pyrewood against the Horde. Covertly, they marshaled their defenses. Covertly, they instigated the uprising that nearly cost us the settlement.

A High Executor faces dishonourable discharge for criminal incompetence, his final duty to pin the medal upon the truly-dead breast of his most beloved and trusted subordinate.

The Alliance is watching. Waiting. They bide their time, preparing to strike from the shadows.

Your battle was hard-won, but it is the first of many. War has come to Lordaeron. The kingdom's fate and future will be decided in the coming clash of steel.

Corenderle and her brigade of martyrs are but the first heroes to fall.

But for the time being, you can savour your victory. You have seized the forest. You have secured the route.

You have paved the way for an army to march.

And the path will soon be trodden.

. . .



Deathguard boots tramp down the Hillsbrad road by the hundreds . . .

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Paving The Way has come to an end, but the struggle is far from over. Stay tuned for future storylines.