Muradin and his soldiers disembarked the Skybreaker and we followed. The platform we were on led directly into the heart of Icecrown Citadel, so it was likely to be heavily guarded. Sure enough, the guardian the Lich King assigned to its defense would prove to be an unparalleled challenge; the son of High Overlord Saurfang, who fell to Frostmourne at the Wrath Gate and was risen again to become a death knight named Deathbringer Saurfang.

Muradin, in his zeal, charged the undead orc and was taught a harsh lesson as Saurfang Jr. began to choke the life from him and his soldiers. He then turned his attention to us. Saurfang Jr. was strong in the powers of blood and used it to steadily increase his strength. He tossed out a blood nova at random and placed a deadly mark on random victims, which did incredible damage. He also frequently summoned a handful of blood beasts that would run out and try to bite his enemies; each successful bite would increase Saurfang's power even further.

It took ALOT of damage, and a few people perished thus causing him to regain some health, but we claimed victory in the end. Muradin and his soldiers were freed from his grip, and had only a moment to recover before Orgrim's Hammer swooped in to the side of the platform. High Overlord Saurfang stepped off alone and moved forward, setting Muradin on edge. After barely coming out of the airship battle in one piece, he wasn't about to let the orc pass, but Saurfang would fight tooth and nail to retrieve the remains of his son. Through either pity or warriors' respect, Muradin stayed his hand.

Just then, a portal from Stormwind opened and out stepped Jaina and King Wrynn. The King ordered Muradin to stand down and let Saurfang pass, and after the elder orc said a few sad words over his son's body, he collected it and approached the gathered Alliance leaders. He thanked them for their restraint and King Wrynn explained that all the stories from the survivors of Angrathar said that Dranosh Saurfang had shown unrivaled courage at the battle, and deserved a hero's death. As Jaina admired her King for the first time in a long while, Orgrim's Hammer departed and the Alliance set up a small camp to prepare for the next phase of the Icecrown assault.


Check out another victory pic in our Gallery.

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Bear ass rockets ftw.

With the ground floor cleared out, we took one of Icecrown's teleporters to the battlements somewhere far above. The Alliance and Horde strike teams had already arrived and were already at each other's throats. After helping our faction drive off the Horde, the commander in charge ordered his troops to take up defensive positions around the walkway where the Skybreaker was docked. The Scourge was already assaulting the perimeter and Muradin was on deck, making preparations to take the airship even farther up the Citadel.

We got on board and Muradin signaled his crew to take the ship up and away. However, the Horde were not so easily intimidated and their own airship, the Orgrim's Hammer, pulled up on our port side out of nowhere, guns blazing. Muradin ordered his gunners to return fire and a great airborne battle had begun. A goblin engineer along for the ride gave some of our forces rocket packs that allowed us to jump across to the Hammer's deck with surprising efficiency. Unfortunantly, the captain of the enemy ship was High Overlord Saurfang himself and his legendary ferocity in battle didn't lose any strength in the air.

While one of our death knights occupied Saurfang, our melee took out goblin conscripts that were firing rockets at our ship. Just as we finished with them, a portal at the stern brought in a blood elf mage that froze our cannons solid. We took out the mage just as some more Horde soldiers teleported in to the Skybreaker.

The battle raged on, each captain exchanging insults and each ship sustaining heavy damage. Finally, Orgrim's Hammer began to explode and Saurfang ordered the Horde to retreat. The Skybreaker finished its journey and docked at the mid-level of Icecrown Citadel.

You can see the pic of us surrounding our spoils chest in the Gallery!

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We traveled further up, circling the base of the spire. Off to one of the adjoining rooms we found a prime target for further weakening the Scourge; the lair of Lady Deathwhisper, who had become supreme overseer of the Cult of the Damned since the demise of Kel'Thuzad. What was once a female follower of the dark arts in life had become a powerful lich in undeath, and Lady Deathwhisper was sharing her knowledge with a packed room of eager students.

After we got rid of the cultists, we started our attack on Lady Deathwhisper. Unfortunantly, her mana shield protected her from any kind of harm, and she used the opportunity to summon wave after wave of her best cultists to break our coordination. It was tough, but we succeeded in bringing down her shield. When it broke, she came at us with a fierce determination, firing off frostbolts every few seconds and manipulating the minds of our peers, turning them against us. Eventually, though, she was destroyed like the lichlord she replaced.

Another pic can be found in the Gallery.

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Despite barely surviving our run-in with the Lich King, we decided to join the main assault force at the bottom of Icecrown Citadel. Tirion Fordring and Darion Mograine were at the base camp of the Ashen Verdict, along with Muradin Bronzebeard and representatives of the Alliance. Skeletal constructs called the Damned were constantly probing the camp's defenses, and Tirion realized they would have to keep pushing forward if they were to hold any ground.

The doors to the Lower Spire section of Icecrown opened, and a small army of skeletal warriors and undead nerubians were already taking up positions there. The Lich King scolded Fordring, saying that he could have become the Scourge's greatest champion, but now that "honor" was going to belong to someone else, someone so powerful in the ways of the Light that he had been able to withstand untold atrocities done to his body and soul...and it was then that Highlord Bolvar Fordragon screamed in defiance of the Lich King.

The revelation was unbelievable but created a spark of hope; as Muradin pointed out, if Bolvar was alive and still uncorrupted, it might be a way to end hostilities between the Alliance and Horde. At the very least, Muradin owed King Wrynn the return of his best friend in whatever condition he was still in. Muradin left to make preparations for taking the Skybreaker to the upper reaches of the Citadel while we cleared a path through the ground level.

After fighting through countless undead, we reached the base of the spire of ice that led up for miles, directly to the Frozen Throne. Guarding the spire was Lord Marrowgar, a multiple-headed monstrosity made of bones. Marrowgar wielded a large axe and used it to great effect; he would frequently spin all around the room, slicing his axe in a whirlwind of steel while sending out jets of frost-flames in all directions. It took some effort, but we succeeded in our first challenge along the path to the Lich King.

A victory pic can be found in the Gallery!

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While the Ashen Verdict attacked Icecrown head-on, a secondary plan was being pushed forward in the hidden passages of the Frozen Halls. Jaina Proudmoore was put in charge of an Alliance strike force consisting of the champions of the Argent Tournament. Their task was to dismantle the Scourge holdings from within Icecrown, behind enemy lines.

The first sector was called the Forge of Souls. It was here where the weapons of the Scourge were imbued with the souls of the lost and the damned, and the caretaker of the facility was a necromancer named Bronjahm. He had the power to bend captured souls to his will and augment his magic, but in the end he was dispatched. After moving further in, the team reached the chamber of the Devourer of Souls, a foul creature of pure malice. Once it was destroyed, the path out into the saronite mines was opened.

The Pit of Saron, as the quarry was called, held huge deposits of the dark mineral that the Scourge used to build their weapons of war. A death knight named Scourgelord Tyrannus watched over the quarry from atop his frostwyrm, Rimefang. When Jaina's team broke out into the open, Tyrannus used powerful magic to slaughter them in an instant, then raised them into undeath. Jaina was horrified at the loss and sent us out to cross the quarry and defeat Tyrannus. Along the way we fought and defeated his lieutenants, a flesh giant named Forgemaster Garfrost and Krick, a leper gnome that rode a plague eruptor named Ick. When Krick lost, he pleaded for his life in exchange for giving us valuable information: a secluded chamber called the Halls of Reflection was beyond the Pit and that it housed Frostmourne. Jaina hoped it would also have the secret to defeating the Lich King.

Tyrannus arrived in time to kill Krick before he could divulge any more information. After chasing him up the side of the quarry, we finally battled him while Rimefang fired blasts of ice at us from above. When Tyrannus fell, all the Alliance soldiers that we rescued from enslavement came out to thank us but then Sindragosa, the matriarch of the frostwyrms, flew in and Jaina managed to teleport us to safety an instant before the entire army was wiped out by a frost blast. Despite the overwhelming guilt and anger she felt, Jaina pressed on and we followed into the Halls of Reflection.

The frigid hallway we teleported into led directly to Frostmourne's altar. As the blade spun silently in the air, Jaina attempted to commune with the souls locked within it. To our surprise, one of its first and most powerful victims appeared; Uther the Lightbringer. Arthas's former mentor warned Jaina of the danger Frostmourne presented, and told her to flee before the Lich King found out about her intrusion. He said that there was nothing left of the prince she once loved or the paladin he once taught and called a friend, and that his demise could only be done at the seat of his power, the Frozen Throne.

Uther also presented us with a warning; if the Lich King was destroyed, the Scourge would run rampant across the face of Azeroth, so someone would have to make the ultimate sacrifice and take Arthas's place. Just then, the Lich King himself arrived and sent Uther's spirit away. He grabbed Frostmourne and summoned his two bodyguards, the death knights Falric and Marwyn - captains of their prince in life, they had become faithful servants of their king in death. They had lost none of their martial prowess and were also masters of some powerful, dark magic but we won in the end.

Just then, Jaina called for help from up ahead. We found her locked in battle with the Lich King in the center of the chamber; a dark, twisted mirror image of Lordaeron's throne room where Arthas murdered his own father. Jaina was severely weakened and accepted she could not win, so she opened a passageway for our escape. The Lich King stormed after us, using his power to create ice barriers to block our path. While we dealt with the undead minions he sent our way, Jaina removed each barrier he created. However, the path led to a terrace outside with no safe exit and we prepared to make our last stand. It was to our extreme fortune that the Skybreaker airship arrived in the nick of time and blasted the tunnel's exit to rubble, sparing us from the Lich King's wrath. Jaina apologized to us for her reckless pursuit of Arthas; she had to look into his eyes one last time and know that he was beyond redemption.

Apologies for the long write-up (three full instances!), but you can see a picture of Frostmourne in all its glory in the non-raid section of our Gallery.

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