User:Joshmaul/Saavedro of Stratholme/In-Game Accomplishments/Continued Accomplishments
This is a continued listing of the in-game accomplishments of Saavedro of Stratholme.
Terokk: The Final Confrontation
Saavedro had heard much of the arakkoa god Terokk, through his battles against the veils of Terokkar and deep in the bowels of Auchindoun. As part of his ongoing duties with the Sha'tari Skyguard, he received very interesting information that could possibly tip the balance against Skettis at last. While on a bombing run, Saavedro is downed by a monstrous kaliri and lands on an arakkoa structure above the island known as Terokk's Rest. Having drunk an elixir of shadows, he could see the talonpriest Ishaal, accompanied by two time-lost priests. In a long, bloody battle, Saavedro defeated Ishaal, and picked up an interesting book...the almanac of Ishaal. Intrigued, he took it to Sky Commander Adaris at Blackwind Landing, who sent him to speak to Rilak the Redeemed in Shattrath.
Rilak revealed that the book predicted the return of Terokk, and revealed the names of the adversaries that had to be defeated in order to summon Terokk. Returning to Adaris, he was informed that his involvement was done and it was now a military matter. However, Saavedro was approached by the captive arakkoa Hazzik, who helped him in his battle in Skettis. Accompanied by the Anaithnid, Saavedro returned to Skettis and defeated the adversaries, taking parts from them to create a time-lost offering. It then became time to battle Terokk himself.
The first attempt to battle the arakkoa demigod ended in disaster; the second attempt, many months later (with Saavedro now much more powerful and wiser than he had been) proved to be long and grueling, but ultimately successful. After his victory over Terokk, Saavedro reached an exalted reputation with the Sha'tari Skyguard that battled the forces of Skettis, and earned the right to wear their colors in battle. Several months later, Saavedro was also granted the right to ride one of their nether rays into battle. He chose a silver one which he named Argentius.
The Arcatraz and the Old Gods' Harbinger
With his healing services once more called on, Saavedro mounted his gryphon and returned to Tempest Keep, where he and a small group entered the prison satellite known as the Arcatraz. Over their time in Outland and elsewhere, the naaru who had originally controlled the Keep had captured many dangerous creatures and kept them in cells in this fortress. When Kael'thas took over Tempest Keep, he placed Warden Mellichar in control of the Arcatraz. Yet something went wrong; Mellichar began releasing the "inmates" from their cells, and now they had full run of the satellite.
Saavedro and his party encountered some truly disturbing adversaries, including voidwraiths, mutated monstrosities, and creatures that resembled maggots bursting from the corpses of the blood elf guards. Upon reaching the inner cell block, they discovered what had happened; Mellichar's mind had been taken over by the being in the largest cell of all, something that probably would not have happened had the Keep remained under naaru control. When the party arrived, Mellichar thought that they were with Kael'thas and that the Prince had found out he had been releasing prisoners, but when he realized they weren't Kael'thas' agents, he said that he would tell the Prince that THEY, not he, released the prisoners. The final confrontation was with the being who had taken his mind...the Harbinger Skyriss, a Qiraji agent of the Old Gods - malevolent beings that sought to destroy everything, including the Burning Legion. Skyriss was released from his prison, then proceeded to kill Mellichar. After some initial difficulty against the powerful Qiraji, who used his powers of mind control, fear and deception, the party defeated the Harbinger, who warned that he was merely one of infinite multitudes...
Saavedro took a powerful scroll from Skyriss' broken carapace and took it to Shattrath City, where it was delivered to a buyer who had requested it from the Consortium...
Trial of the Naaru: Tenacity
Part of the reason for entering the Arcatraz, in addition to destroying Skyriss, was to locate and free Millhouse Manastorm, a gnome mage who had been trapped in one of the stasis cells of the Arcatraz's containment core - not far from the gigantic cell holding Skyriss. Upon the cell being opened by Mellichar (who was dismayed that a "lowly gnome" had been the "creature of incomprehensible power" he had unleashed - and of course, the gnome took offense to the "lowly" part), Millhouse provided his assistance to the party that was battling Skyriss, eventually destroying the Harbinger.
A'dal had asked Saavedro to free the mage from the Arcatraz in order to pass one of four trials, given after the recovery of the Cipher of Damnation - the trial of tenacity. The paladin was commended for his efforts.
Words of the Eternal: The Cipher of Damnation
Over his travels in Outland, sometime before his sojourn into the Arcatraz, Saavedro had battled the legions of Illidan in Shadowmoon Valley to obtain a powerful artifact known as the Cipher of Damnation. This potent magic had been used twice in the history of the world: First by Emperor Thaurissan to summon Ragnaros the Firelord and raise Blackrock Mountain from the depths of the world, and then again by Gul'dan to sunder the earth of Shadowmoon Valley, raising the volcano that bears his name.
Saavedro was tasked by the Earthen Ring to pacify the enraged elemental spirits that resided in the Valley. When that was done, he was sent into the mountains to Oronok Torn-heart, who (after a series of small errands) tasked him to find the Cipher of Damnation. The Cipher had been split into three fragments and were hidden among the various bases controlled by Illidan's forces.
For the first fragment, Oronok sent Saavedro to his son Grom'tor at Coilskar Point, near the only source of fresh water in Shadowmoon Valley - which was, of course, controlled by the naga. The first fragment was locked in one of the many chests that littered the area, and the naga had keys - so Saavedro was tasked with slaughtering naga in order to obtain this key. With the first fragment in hand, Saavedro continued on his quest, to find the second.
Arriving at Illiari Point, Saavedro discovered Oronok's son Ar'tor had been killed, his body held in stasis - but his spirit still ready and willing to aid him. First, Saavedro had to recover Lohn'goron, the longbow of the Torn-heart family, which he did easily. The Cipher fragment itself was held by Veneratus the Many, a powerful beholder and servant of Illidan. Aided by the spirit of Ar'tor, Saavedro destroyed the beholder and took his reward in hand, taking it back to Oronok.
The third proved to be the hardest to obtain. Sent to Oronok's son Borak, at the bridge between Wildhammer Stronghold and the Sanctum of the Stars, Saavedro learned that an envoy named Icarius was sent with important messages from Illidan in the Black Temple. Icarius, Borak found out, was addicted to bloodthistle, and made a stop near the bridge to obtain it (in secret, as Thistleheads were the subject of disdain from the already-arrogant blood elves). Borak also knew that a Broken named Tobias the Filth Gorger, who resided in Lower Shattrath, made a business of trading rotten arakkoa eggs for bloodthistle. Luckily, there were arakkoa ruins located near the bridge and Saavedro quickly found an egg suitable for the Filth Gorger.
After making the trade, Saavedro returned to Shadowmoon Valley and helped Borak lay the trap for Icarius, defeating him and taking the missive from his corpse. It was a short message from Illidan to Grand Commander Ruusk at Eclipse Point. Putting on his best impression, Saavedro was able to convince Ruusk (intimidate would probably be more accurate) to transfer the fragment to Dragonmaw Fortress, where it would be placed in the hands of Zuluhed the Whacked - who, unknown to even Illidan, was already dead - by a nether-drake rider named Ruul the Darkener. Taking this chance, Saavedro gathered a party and ambushed Ruul west of Dragonmaw Fortress, killing him and taking the final fragment. With the Cipher restored, all that remained was to speak the words of damnation...
Travelling to the Altar of Damnation where an aspect of Gul'dan was forever trapped, Saavedro steeled himself and read from the Cipher of Damnation. Beneath his feet, the earth shook violently as the vile spell left his lips, until finally a monstrosity stood before him: Cyrukh the Firelord, the Dirge of Karabor. As the Firelord stood before him, Oronok and his surviving sons, Grom'tor and Borak, came to Saavedro's aid and went into combat with the fire giant. In the end, he was unable to withstand such a withering assault, and he was destroyed. But a symbol of fire entered the air, as the spirits were released from his grasp...the symbol of a Thalassian phoenix.
After defeating Cyrukh, Saavedro received a letter from Khadgar in Shattrath City:
Saavedro,
The Cipher of Damnation is indeed a powerful incantation. Ancient and chaotic, the cipher itself has been responsible for many tragedies in the history of our worlds. That is to say, it is not unique to Draenor.
The burning symbol you saw was the mark of Kael'Thas. His knowledge of the ancient words explains much.
Your discovery has roused the naaru. A'dal has requested your presence in Shattrath City. Should you choose to come, seek me out at the Terrace of Light.
Humbly Yours,
Khadgar
Securing the Celestial Ridge
While in Netherstorm battling Kael'thas' minions, Saavedro was approached by an ethereal trader named Marid, who sought to do some rather covert business with him. Marid sent Saavedro to locate a teleport power pack hidden in a mine designated Access Shaft Zeon, beneath the exploded ruins of Manaforge Ultris. Saavedro did so - burning the withered corpses of the blood elf defenders as he did - and located both the power pack and a Protectorate agent named Ya-six. With his aid, Saavedro destroyed the one responsible for the withered corpses, a void creature called Arconus the Insatiable.
Taking the power pack to the teleport pad in the Celestial Ridge east of Ultris, as Marid instructed, Saavedro received his next mission: Gather the essences of nether dragons, which would involve killing them. Though he had obtained at least the civility of the Netherwing flight, Saavedro nevertheless carried out the mission as requested. When he returned to speak to Marid again, he was called by a shrouded figure - a projection herself - to bring the essences to her at the northern edge of the Ridge. When he did so, he discovered that the "shrouded figure" was in fact Tyrygosa, princess of the Blue Dragonflight...the brood of Malygos the Spell-weaver. "Tyri", accompanied by a human paladin named Jorad Mace, had come to investigate the rumors of the nether drakes' lineage - the fact that they were the spawn of Deathwing, the ancient and hated enemy of the blue dragonflight.
Seeking to discover more about the nether drakes, Tyri asked Saavedro to collect the eggs of the nether drakes that littered the crystalline structures of the Ridge. Upon doing so, Tyri informed him that Marid, his "former employer", had probably found out about his association with her and Jorad, and so she dispatched the paladin to assassinate him in order to prevent his agents from finding out about their operations. Once that was done, the final challenge - calling out Veraku, the leader of the nether drakes of the Celestial Ridge - was to be undertaken. While normally it would have required allies, Saavedro resolved to undertake this trial himself. Receiving the Challenge of the Blue Flight, Saavedro challenged Veraku, and the two entered into a battle that would prove taxing to the paladin. Keeping up his guard at all times and lashing out with holy energies, Saavedro triumphed, and Veraku fell dead at his feet. This allowed Tyrygosa to take control of the drakes of Netherstorm.
Saavedro would not discover until nearly a year later that Tyrygosa had an ulterior motive in the takeover of the nether drakes...
Gruul's Lair: The End of Gronn Domination
After rising into the ranks of the legendary for his exploits in discovering Karazhan's secrets, Saavedro joined with his brethren from the Order of the Blitzkrieg in their efforts to destroy the last vestige of gronn domination in Outland: Gruul's Lair.
Several months earlier, Saavedro had met an ogre named Grok in Lower Shattrath. From what Saavedro could understand (the ogre was not very articulate), Grok was a member of the Bloodmaul clan of Blade's Edge, sent by an ogre mage named Mog'dorg the Wizened to find aid in the Bloodmaul's struggle against the Bladespire clan, which had set up their encampment around the lair of the nefarious gronn overlord known as Gruul the Dragonkiller. Gruul and his puppet, High King Maulgar, ruled over Outland's ogre clans with an iron fist, and the Dragonkiller often sent his sons to strategic areas to enforce his will.
Before Mog'dorg summoned him, Saavedro had already killed three of Gruul's sons - Durn the Hungerer, Goc and Gorgrom the Dragon-Eater. Upon arriving in Blade's Edge, Mog'dorg sent Saavedro to assassinate the remaining four - Slaag, Grulloc, Maggoc, and Skulloc Soulgrinder. The first three fell quickly, but the fourth proved to be the most resilient. After Skulloc's death, Mog'dorg crowned Saavedro as King of the ogres, and he travelled on to Ogri'la and greater glory.
Now, months after his coronation, Saavedro was studying some of the surviving tomes in Medivh's library in Karazhan when word reached him from Blade's Edge of an uprising led by High King Maulgar on behalf of the Dragonkiller - launching attacks from the safety of Gruul's Lair against the ogres he had freed from gronn dominion. Upon travelling to Blade's Edge, Saavedro encountered an ogre of the Bloodmaul clan near the tower where Mog'dorg stood. Mog'dorg explained to Saavedro that he had been attacked by Maulgar and his council, who had come out to attempt to retain their domination of the ogre clans.
The wounded ogre said in halting Common, just before he died, that since Saavedro had killed Gruul's sons, he could probably destroy Maulgar and even Gruul himself. Upon seeing an innocent die at the hands of such treachery, Saavedro flew into a rage. He vowed to the ogres around him that he would rip Gruul's teeth from his broken corpse and wear them around his neck, to warn anyone who had sided with the gronn overlords and slavemasters: "Cross me and die."
Calling upon the Light to give him strength in the coming battle, Saavedro travelled through Bladespire territory unchallenged - the Bladespire had sworn their allegiance to his offer of freedom, rather than the tyranny of the Dragonkiller - and joined a war party made up of his comrades from the Order of the Blitzkrieg. With the "lightning strike" that their name implied, the war party assaulted the gronn overlord's cavern stronghold and slaughtered its defenders. It dismayed Saavedro to see that several ogres - Bladespire, from the looks of them - still seemed to give their loyalty to Maulgar, and thus to Gruul, rather than to the freedom from their rule that Saavedro and his allies had provided. Remembering that even the holiest of men could become deluded - as was the case with the Scarlet Crusade - the war party expected no quarter, and gave none in return. Eventually, they came face to face with Maulgar and the ogre council that "ruled" the ogres of Outland. "Gronn are the real power in Outland!" the complacent High King shouted, and the party set about proving him dead wrong - literally. Though the battle was arduous, Maulgar and his advisors fell dead at Saavedro's feet, breaking the last tyrannical remnants of the old regime. It then came time to destroy Gruul himself...
At first, Saavedro was awed and somewhat frightened at the immense size and strength of the Dragonkiller, the greatest of all of the gronn. With the war party assembled inside the inner chamber - having killed several more gronn-priests and lair brutes on the way - the gate shut behind them, and the final battle with Gruul was on...a battle that would determine the freedom of the ogre clans, and make good on Saavedro's promise that he would take Gruul's teeth and wear them as a trophy around his neck to warn against any who would subjugate the clans. Gruul fought with the desperation of the condemned - his death was already a foregone conclusion, as far as Saavedro was concerned - but the war party managed to survive his power. He turned them to stone, he brought the ceiling down around them, he smashed them, he threw them around the room, and he grew to such immense size that he threatened to collapse the entire cave, killing them all - but nothing seemed to matter. In the end, Gruul the Dragonkiller, gronn overlord of the ogres of Outland, fell dead. The battle took less than ten minutes.
Kneeling next to the head of the Dragonkiller, mouth open and tongue hanging out, Saavedro took his hammer from his belt and - one by one - knocked out the gronn's teeth, stringing up the smallest of them, and placing the resultant necklace around his neck. When he stepped out into the harsh air of Blade's Edge, the ogre clans raised their man-sized fists and their weapons into the air, acknowledging the triumph of the one they now called their King.
Upon returning to Shattrath, Saavedro remarked to High Priestess Ishanah that Gruul had just been the beginning. He vowed that he would one day destroy Magtheridon and end the operations in Hellfire Citadel; defeat Illidan's lieutenant, Lady Vashj, and leave the naga of Outland leaderless; defeat Kael'thas Sunstrider and reclaim Tempest Keep for the naaru; and perhaps even defeat Illidan himself. "The possibilities are endless, and I intend to follow them to the end," Saavedro said.
The Fall of Dimensius
Returning to Netherstorm, Saavedro - having done battle against the void creatures of the exploded Manaforge Ultris - was called upon by members of the Protectorate. Long ago, a void lord called Dimensius the All-Devouring came across the Ethereal homeworld of K'aresh and conquered it, and the Ethereals spread out throughout the Twisting Nether. A group of renegade Ethereals known as the Ethereum - formerly the ruling class of K'aresh, and still led by Nexus-King Salhadaar - were consumed by vengeance against Dimensius, so much so that they began to use the very void powers that had caused them to spread out throughout the universe. Ultris - though it had been one of Kael'thas' bases - was destroyed by a void conduit that opened due to negligence on the part of the blood elf defenders, allowing Dimensius to enter Outland.
The Protectorate, in addition to keeping the vengeful Ethereum at bay, was also seeking a way to defeat Dimensius. Professor Dabiri, a Protectorate scientist, tasked Saavedro with recovering fragments of Dimensius' essence from the void creatures surrounding Ultris. Once that was done, he was loaned Dabiri's nether drake to take the phase disruptor - assembled using the fragments of Dimensius - to close the void conduit that had heralded Dimensius' arrival in Outland, and also made him invulnerable to attackers. After the conduit was destroyed, Commander Ameer - leader of the Protectorate - called upon his best troops, the Avengers, to prepare for a final assault on Ultris to vanquish Dimensius. Saavedro met with their commander upon returning from Ultris:
"Fleshling, I am Captain Saeed of the Protectorate and these soldiers that stand by me are my avengers," the ethereal commander introduced himself. "We await orders from the fleshling who destroyed the void conduit. On that fleshling's word, we will make our way up to Dimensius' lair and wait for the word to make a final strike! Too long has it been...the void lord will soon face our combined might!"
To that, Saavedro replied: "I am that fleshling, Saeed. Let's go!"
Dismounting from his gryphon and breaking into a run, Saavedro led the ethereals up the slope into Ultris, destroying any void creatures that stood in their path, until finally coming face to face with the void lord himself. Giving the final order to attack, Saavedro, Saeed and the Avengers drew their weapons and charged in. The battle was fierce, and many of the ethereals fell victim to Dimensius' power, but the void lord could not withstand the combined assault and was thus destroyed utterly, leaving nothing but the armored plating that surrounded his shadowy form.