After months of hunting down traces of the Dreadlord named Krath’ul, in order to assist the members of the Order of Aetlas -survivors of the Alliance Expedition to Draenor, the Ardent Circle has finally met their enemy in battle. An all out assault against the demon’s sanctuary, however, turns out to be a desperate fight for survival as the tides are turned, a trap is revealed, and doom is cast upon the knights and their allies as they fight not just to defeat their enemy, but to save themselves from oblivion in the final hour.
The full outline for the campaign can be accessed here, but the following is a more simple synopsis.
Part 1: The Order of Aetlas
The story originates with the destruction of Draenor, and the desperate hours endured by the Alliance Expedition. Seeking to escape the destruction of the world, a platoon of Azeroth's finest, under the command of Hauldon Aetlas, an Archmage of the Kirin Tor, were ordered to blindly jump through one of the countless inter-dimensional rifts opened by the Orc Ner'zhul. While their act of desperation spared them the destruction of the world, it required a sacrifice, and Aetlas himself stayed behind to prevent any of the Horde from following suit.
On the far side, the survivors, calling themselves the Order of Aetlas in honor of their commander, found themselves stranded upon the barren husk of a world that had, eons ago, been scorched by the Legion's flames. Infested by the Old Gods, this world, Alars’arasjh, had met the only fate suitable in the eyes of the Burning Legion.
Now a wasteland, devoid of all life, the Order sought refuge in the ruins of a temple, within which they came face to face with a relief of the Titans; the Talon of Norgannon, though at the time - none new of it, or its purpose.
Thinking firstly to their own survival, they hunkered down in the ruins and contemplated their plans, only to be forced into battle once more as one of the Nathrezim, Krath'ul, arrived with a host of his demonic ilk. The Legion's assault was swift, merciless, and cruel, and of the forty some survivors, only a dozen managed to escape; but it left them with many questions.
The first was what manner of monsters were these fiends, and the second - was how were they discovered? In truth though, it was entirely by coincidence that the confrontation had occurred, for Krath'ul sought the Talon, and it was fate and misfortune that the Order had sought refuge in that very same temple.
Escaping through portal after portal, the Order sought to return to Draenor, or Azeroth, taking time to recover on distant and strange worlds as they fled from the slaughter.
Having acquired the artifact he sought, Krath'ul thought to return to his business, but the thought occurred to him - what if his prey returned? What if they had seen, or learned? With that nagging thought in mind, the Nathrezim gave chase, bounding through portal after portal in pursuit, catching the Order time and time again, and over a hundred years - he whittled the forty, down to ten, and then seven.
Many of the survivors weren't slain in their battles against the Dreadlord, however; in particular, Kaldius Rivenworth was one of those captured, and brought to the nefarious Dreadlord's private domicile where he was subjected to years of torture, until his soul was finally stripped from his skin. Like most of the Nathrezim, however, Krath'ul had the gift of skin-walking, and he took the form of Kaldius, and sought out the survivors once more, this time with a disguise.
Feigning escape, Krath'ul, as Kaldius, reunited with his companions, one of only a few who ever managed to escape.
Years passed, and the Order finally returned to Azeroth at just about the time of the Cataclysm, and each of those who had endured, and survived, sought to return to a life of some normalcy; but for those who walk so close to oblivion - there is rarely such an opportunity.
Part 2: The Ploy
Biding his time on Azeroth, the Dreadlord took advantage of access to the Kingdom of Stormwind, and countless orders and companies, always mindful to carefully mask his presence and plots, but there was one thing that had kept him from striking out at the targets he had initially chased across the cosmos; they had the potential to lead him to greater items of power - and that was not to be thrown aside.
Coming into the company of Wrynn's Hospitallers, a fellowship of Knights, the disguised demon tricked the well intended fellows to aid him, as Kaldius, in reuniting the surviving members of the Order of Aetlas; the goal, and the purpose, to take the advantages they had, the lessons they had learned, and hunt down the Dreadlord Krath'ul. Gathering up other allies, including those of the Westridge Brigade, there was, at least in their minds, a fighting chance of defeating the insidious Nathrezim. Most importantly, however, the Hospitallers were convinced on the grounds that a Dreadlord with a Titan device was far too dangerous to be left unchecked.
This venture took the Wrynn's Hospitallers, later the Ardent Circle, after their reformation, across not just Azeroth, but to other worlds - retracing the steps of each member of the Order of Aetlas as they shared a part of the historic, and troubling journey on their return to Azeroth. Their journey took them to many worlds, including back to Alars'arasjh, where the Circle came across the Titan console that had served as a holding device for the Talon of Norgannon.
Returning to Azeroth with the console, the Circle sought to learn what they could from it about the Talon, and other artifacts, but none took as much interest in this as Kaldius, Krath'ul in disguise. As the Circle believed they were strengthening themselves, preparing themselves to battle the Dreadlord, he himself was preparing to undo all that they were so carefully cobbling together.
As the Circle learned more from the Console, they uncovered knowledge of something called the Shard of Sanctuary, a device potentially capable of counter the Talon of Norgannon's abilities. Seeking it out on the sliver of some fragment of some world, isolated in the Nether, called Ergos, the Circle and the Order of Aetlas recovered the device - and began to unlock its secrets. Also on that world, they discovered waygates, similar to those on Azeroth, but unused, and untouched for time near immemorial.
Believing themselves ready, and having gathered the survivors of the Order once more, the Circle struck out at a Legion world, seeking to recover information about Krath'ul domain, and learned of his ship - The Harbinaax. Stealing a Keystone, and escaping from the Legion world, the Circle and the Order gathered their allies, and prepared to open a gateway straight to the Dreadlord's vessel.
Thus far, all had gone as intended. The Order gathered in one location, their powerful allies in tow, a new device to be claimed and taken advantage of, and dozens of new skins to wear should the Dreadlord return to Azeroth - and now, they were all journeying to the one place none of them would be safe.
Part 3: The Trap
As the Circle and the Order both gathered and breached through the portal to the Harbinaax using the keystone, they found themselves in the lower portions of the vessel, and came first upon the Soul Engine, a twisted place where the souls of the Legion's victims were endlessly tortured, their misery fueling the powerful vessels that ferried the Legion's soldiers to the worlds they assaulted.
It was in this chamber that the trap was sprung, and the Order, and the Circle, came face to face with the one spirit they could not believe was there; Kaldius Rivenworth. The sorcerer who had been walking amongst them, guiding and helping prepare them for the fight against Krath'ul, had in fact been dead, and for decades, no less; they had been deceived, and as their focus turned towards the Dreadlord who still wore the dead man's skin, the flames in the chamber were put out - leaving the gathering in absolute darkness.
And then a gasp from the back as Tabberny, a survivor of the Order of Aetlas, vanished. A moment later, from the ceiling, her dropped, a noose strung about her neck as her whole body was engulfed in fel flames, burning her alive as the Dreadlord's laughter echoed through the chamber, and Kalidus vanished.
The trap had been sprung, and like a lump in their throats, the Circle and the Order realized that all of their plans, all of their secrets and preparations were no secret at all, and were wholly folly.
But there was no retreat, and there was no escape; there was only a confrontation ahead that would end with their deaths, or the downfall of a cunning and devious demon.
Part 4: The Battle
Racing through the ship, following the demon's voice, the heroes of Azeroth burst onto the command deck of the Harbinaax, and waged a battle of absolute chaos against the Dreadlord. Unleashing both fel, and the magics of the void, Krath'ul warped and twisted the minds of the heroes, setting friend against friend, and loosing the aberrations from the beyond to weave destruction unlike anything that had yet been seen.
In the fury of the battle, however, the crystals controlling the Harbinaax's transit were destroyed, and the vessel was thrown from its trajectory, though in close proximity to its destination; Ergos - the sanctuary of the Order of Aetlas for so many years as they hid, the place of holding for so many more treasures of the Titans, and an untouched, verdant oasis in an otherwise chaotic and lifeless void.
The Harbinaax tumbled into orbit, and then the atmosphere, the battle on board the ship turning to one without gravity as the vessel tossed and turned, breaking up as it plummeted, and then crashed.
The heroes of Azeroth were scattered about the crash sight, countless dead - impaled upon the jagged wreckage, and others too weak to get themselves up; but a few did endure, and a few did persist, and it was these valiant souls who carried on the battle.
Fel flames spread all across the crash site, tainting the otherwise pristine landscape - and rifts to the void were torn open, bringing utter chaos to the rift world. The apocalyptic battle raged on, and the lives of nearly all the Order's members had been snuffed out, and a dozen from the Circle as well.
In the end, though - using the Shard of Sanctuary, the Circle and their allies were able to negate the powers of the Talon, and at long last were able to cast down the Dreadlord, and end his existence. Krath'ul was slain.
The victory, however, was soured; Ergos was crumbling - the boundaries shielding it from the chaos of the Nether and the Void had been breached, and demon fire tore across its surface; the Circle needed to flee, and they escaped through the way gates that had been found.
Krath'ul, even as he died, had burnt the refuge and sanctuary of his prey to a husk.
The Circle, their allies, and the very last survivors of the Order, only three of the some forty, returned to Azeroth, and left Ergos to an uncertain, but grim fate.
Now with two Titan devices, the Circle returned the items to the Titan Keepers on Azeroth, defying both the Kirin Tor, and the wishes of some of their own members, feeling that there was no safer alternative than those commissioned by the Titans themselves to watch over their creations.
In the wake of the battle on Ergos, many within the Circle have struggled with serious traumas, a result of the terrors unleashed upon them, and the deaths of so many so dear to them. Krath'ul's deception and manipulation and plotting had done more damage to the Circle than any dozen deaths alone. Distrust and unease were commonplace, and as the Circle returned and tried to set their focus forward, the echoes of Krath'ul, of all their failures, continued to haunt them.
The hunt for Krath'ul, and the tale of the Talon of Norgannon, had come to a close - but not all journeys are so neatly resolved.
(DMed by Vanforth)