Cracked but not Broken

After long and grueling combat, the raid team of Acheron took a much needed break.  We were weary from the constant warfare, the loss of our fellow warriors, and the tiredness that only comes from giving it one’s all.  We had faced if not killed the evils of our world.  There was a growing malaise in the team.  There was a felling that we were fighting the same fight against the same evils that we had fought before.  We took off our helms, sheathed our daggers, and hid our shields.  We moved on to other endeavors. Some of us became mercenaries in other lands fighting a different fight.  Some read books, made music, drank, smoked, and ate away new found freedom.  It was a glorious time.

However, like many Raiders there was this hungering, this nagging feeling in the back of our minds.  With the announcement of the discovery of Pandaria and the promise of new adventures and treasure, many of us knew what that nagging was.  It was time to raid again.  Word started filtering out, saviors started returning, and preparations began to once again step into the breach.

Simple clothes were replaced with heavy armor and enchanted robes.  The working tools of daily life were set aside in favor of weapons of war. Axes were sharpened.  Swords were oiled. Staffs were dusted off. Fur was brushed and feathers preened.

The Raiders of Acheron knew their first target. We could not sit idle and allow Deathwing, in his heroic levels of madness, to unmake all of Azeroth.  We had stood up to Algalon the Herald of the Titans and prevent the world from being remade.  How could we stand on the sidelines while the Old Gods used one of our Greatest Champions to destroy all we held dear?

Storming the ruins of the temp that once held the great Wyrmrest Accord, the servants and generals of Deathwing’s unholy army were punished for their transgressions against the people of Azeroth.  Facing the Destroyer for the final battle, Acheron stood firm in face of the tortured and corrupted body of the former Earth Warder.  We knew Neltharian was truly gone and would do whatever he could to end all that we held dear.

Once again we met with great allies. The Aspects, those great dragons touched by the Titans themselves, promised their aid in releasing their brother from his torment. In place of the once mighty Black Dragon stood a simple Orc.  His humility hid a power as immense as the one he replaced.

Deathwing began his final assault on Azeroth. Empowered by the very essences of the great dragons, we fought back.  The unstoppable force of the Destroyer met the unmovable object of my fellow heroes.  Even the Elemental Lords were afraid of the fight.  We had removed Al’Akir from the battlefield ourselves before we lost our way.  Neptulon has been missing since we saved his domain from within the Throne of Tides.  The Stonemother had become our ally after events in Deepholm but was in no position to help us.  Only Ragnaros was unaccounted for.  We foolishly allowed him to live; an oversight that would be rectified should we save the world from Deathwing.

In a final push Acheron held the Destroyer long enough for the Aspects and Thrall, now known as Go’el, to combine their energies with the Dragon Soul itself and annihilate Deathwing.  We had all sacrificed but Alexstrasza, that great red leviathan; Nozdormu, master of time; Ysera with eyes wide open; and Kalecgos the Spellweaver; gave up the power that made them the Aspects.  With this, many heroes would kick back and return to the life of leisure we so recently vacated.

 

 

In appreciation of what we had risked and won for Azeroth, the Life-Binder rewarded Acheron by assigning her Handmaiden to support us in future endeavors.  She loves to fly at night!

 

 

 

 

Unfinished Business

This was not to be our fate.  We knew there was things left undone.  In previous times, the raid had lost many of our battle hardened fighters and we lacked the experience and cohesion needed to assault the Elemental Lord of Fire and Deathwing’s own Consort.  Ragnaros escaped the wrath of Acheron when we cleansed his elemental plane and saved the re-growing World Tree.  Returning to the Firelands one last time, we faced Ragnaros in Sulfuron Keep, his throne and power base in the elemental plane of fire.  This would not be like the last time we fought the Firelord.  Back in the depths of the Molten Core, he had been summoned too soon and he was was weak.  Now, he have come too late and his full power has been realized.

Even with Deathwing gone, Ragnaros fought us for the future of Azeroth.  There was no hope that Ragnaros would join us in protecting the world as Therazone had done.  Charging to the very heard of Sulfuron Keep we challenged the Firelord.  It was time to end this age old conflict.  Just when we thought we had triumphed, Ragnaros pulled his trump card.  We had underestimated how much additional power and strength came with the throne.  Instead of cooling into death, Ragnaros erupted renewed and stood upon two legs and brought the assault to us.  As things looked bleak and many of us thought we were surely out matched, the demi-god Cenarius and Archdruids Malfurion Stormrage and Archdruid Hamuul Runetotem reinforced our fight.  With renewed determination we pushed back and unlike the Fiery Core simply defeating the Firelord would be insufficient.

In his very home, Ragnaros would die.

 

 

 

We had thought the Lady Sinestra had died at the hands of her own brood when Dargonax burned away, but as half a millennia before when all believed Korialstrasz had killed Sintharia, she lived to change and plot her revenge.  Hidden Deep within the Bastion of Twilight Sinestra kept watch over the clutch and brood of the Twilight Flight.

From the time we first spied her in Shadowmoon Valley through Acheron’s fight against the Twilight Cult we were ill equipped to handle Lady Sinestra and she knew it.

Deathwing was gone and Acheron knew it was time to dismantle the remnants of the Twilight Cult.  We chose to start with the one pulling the strings from the shadows.  Zzeraku and the kidnapped and tortured eggs of the other flights deserved to be avenged and the horrors of Twilight Flight had to be destroyed.

 

 

Teamed with Calen the time was right to put one of the last Black Dragons to rest.  Though raw power seemed to overwhelm the dragon, she attacked with such cunning that a single mistake by our team could lead to our ruin.  Sinestra was no fool.  Although corrupted and crazed she was as cruel as ever and sent drake and dragonkin alike to distract us from our goal.  Calen was lost but his sacrifice hasted our victory and ultimately prevented the growth of the Twilight Flight.