Icecrown: Level 79 - Tuesday, May 3, 2011

After stumbling through an entire content and possibly doing more harm than good, you've finally arrived in Icecrown, the doorstep to Icecrown Citadel, which is where Arthas resides.  

Of course, getting to it isn't as simple as just walking up to the front door.  Icecrown Citadel lies in the south, near the center of the zone, and you are only able to enter from the southeastern corner, after the disaster at the Wrathgate in Dragonblight.  Your entrance to ICC is blocked by a large mountain, and the vrykul city of Ymirheim, so you have to take the long way around.  And because there wasn't enough in your way, giant gates are located every so often to block your progress.  

The first foothold in Icecrown is the Argent Vanguard, where Tirion Fordring Argent Crusade have managed to create a base of operations.  You help them ward off nerubians and waves of undead forces, and even establish a new base, Crusaders Pinnacle, in the nearby mountains.  

After your success, you report to your faction's next base. However, due to the giant gates, and fields of Scourge forces, they aren't on land...they are flying high about Icecrown in airships.  The Alliance's Skybreaker...

and the Horde's Orgrims Hammer.  

From high in the air you are given missions all around the zone that have you striking at all of Arthas' operations in order to render him as defenseless as possible once you finally attack the Citadel.  You free several of his high-level minions from their servitude and take over their base, the Shadow Vault, as a staging ground for the friendly death knights of the Order of the Ebon Blade.  

You are able to dismantle the Fleshwerks, a ghastly factory where Arthas is able to churn out abominations and flesh giants...

Stop the production of a floating necropolis....

Cut off Arthas' support from the giant vrykul by shutting down their major city and bases located throughout the zone...

And help your ground forces by thinning out the Scourge forces between the gates.  

Eventually, you are given a task to set off a bomb underneath Icecrown Citadel.  Something goes wrong, however, and you are thrown into a deep pit, and when you come to, well...things start to get a little weird.  

In your attempt to find a way out of the pit, you come across an object, and immediately upon touching it, you recoil in pain, and immediately hear a whisper telling you that you shouldn't have touched it.  It turns out that the whisper came from a boy nearby.  

The boy, named Matthias Lehner, informs you that "he" knows that you touched the object, and is coming to get you.  He helps you portal back to the surface, where you are reunited with your forces, who thought you were dead.  This doesn't stop you from sending you on your next mission, however, and you are given a siege engine and told to kill as much Scourge as you can.  The little boy appears again, however, and tells you that no matter how many you kill, you can never win.  He then shows you how Arthas killed his own forces and raised them up as Scourge and how he was able to raise the frostwyrm Sindragosa from death. His message is that no matter how many soldiers you send to kill Arthas, they only increase his forces.  Finally, he meets you in the Court of Bones, just outside Icecrown Citadel, to show you Arthas' encounter with Illidan on his way to the Frozen Throne.  

Lehner tells you that despite winning the battle, Arthas realized that his heart was making him weak, and upon becoming the Lich King, removed his heart and cast it deep into the heart of Icecrown where it stayed...until you touched it.  Now remembering its presence, Arthas is seeking to reclaim the heart and keep it safe.  You inform Tirion Fordring of this, and he comes up with a plan to steal the heart while it is being transferred from its resting place to a place in Icecrown called the Cathedral of Darkness. 

You and Tirion disguise yourselves and infiltrate the cathedral.  As the procession enters with the heart, Arthas appears, able to see through your disguises, and confronts Tirion.  Tirion determines that any chance that Arthas could be redeemed is gone, and in one swift motion, destroys the heart, stunning himself and dramatically weakening Arthas.  

Armed with the realization that brute force is not the answer to stopping Arthas, Tirion creates a large tournament arena in the northern part of Icecrown, and begins the Argent Tournament.  Its purpose is to determine which of the Horde and Alliance heroes are most worthy to face Arthas in Icecrown Citadel, and who will give the Argent Crusade the greatest chance at victory.    

Storm Peaks: Level 78 - Monday, May 2, 2011

The largest zone in Wrath of the Lich King, the Storm Peaks does a nice job of setting up several storylines that will lead you into Level 80 dungeons and raids, and provides you with a few characters to become familiar with.  It's also a very cool looking zone.  

For most players, your first stop will be in the neutral goblin town of K3, located in the southwestern part of the zone.  

The goblin inhabitants are on an expedition to strip mine the valuable Titan relics that are located within the mountains, but are having trouble with the local inhabitants, including snobolds and magnataurs, giant bull monstrosities.  

You gather supplies for the goblins, put down some land mines between the town and the enemy forces, and even go into their base cave and blow it up.  Eventually, you receive a quest to rescue one of the town's goblins from a nearby mine.  

Once inside, you are unable to find the missing goblin, but you do come across a friendly woman in vrykul form named Lok'lila who informs you that she has been imprisoned by the mine's inhabitants, a race of female frost vrykuls known as the Hyldnir, and needs your help to escape.  In exchange, she can take you to the missing goblin.  

You perform a series of quests that help you gain the trust of the Hyldnir, and are able to obtain the key and set Lok'lila free.  She meets you on the other end of the mine, in the Hyldnir village, and is able to disguise both of you.  

She then informs you that the missing goblin has been pressed into the Hyldsmeet, a deadly competition where the winner is awarded the honor of becoming the wife of Thorim, a titan watcher known as the Lord of Thunder.  (This all gets pretty Norse, so just go with it.)  The goblin is weak, and will not survive the completion, but Lok'lila suggests that you take its place.  Some of the tasks in the Hyldsmeet include hand-to-hand combat, mounted combat on polar bears in the Pit of the Fang....

and the final event, the Drakkensryd, an aerial battle where you jump from your own drake to one of your enemy's, defeating them, and repeating until you are declared the winner.  This final event takes place around the Temple of Storms, located high on a mountain peak, where Thorim himself is observing, albeit distractedly.  

After you are declared the winner, you remove your disguise and introduce yourself to Thorim.  He's in a mood because years ago his wife was murdered by his treacherous brother, Loken, who pinned the whole thing on the ice giant clan known as the Sons of Hodir, who live in the nearby ice valley of Dun Niffelem.  

This isn't the first that the player has heard of Loken.  Back in the Grizzly Hills, he was the mastermind behind the iron dwarf forces who were creating massive iron golems.  Enraged after the death of his wife, Thorim waged war on the Sons of Hodir, and withdrew to the mountaintop to mope.  However, he is stirred by your presence and vows to avenge his wife and mend fences with the ice giants.  He begins by sending you to help the ice giants in their ongoing battle with the evil iron giants, and once you are successful, has you bring his broken armor to the king of the ice giants for repair.  

He also has you help him reclaim his flying drake mount.  

The king of the Sons of Hodir accepts Thorim's apology, and presents to him his old weapon, a giant mace that the Stormlord flung away in anger.  Emboldened by the support of his old allies, and with his mount and weapon restored, Thorim flies off to confront Loken near his fortress of Ulduar.  

Everything is going well until Loken reveals a hidden power, and Thorim is rendered helpless.   He hints at his power being bolstered by a 'new master' and has Thorim and his drake taken prisoner to his stronghold of Ulduar.  Then Loken reveals that he was the woman in the mine, and orchestrated this entire plan to lure Thorim away from his seat of power in the Temple of Storms so that he could be taken captive.  Yes, you have once again blindly followed quests that led to the suffering of others.  

The Dwarven town of Frosthold gives you a chance to actually do something useful for people for a change.  You make a good impression on the frost dwarves that live there, and their king, Yorg Stormheart by clearing out some hostile harpies nearby and feeding the friendly eagles that circle overhead, for example.  Eventually, Yorg decides to make you an honorary frost dwarf, and sends you off on an initiation.  En route on a flying gryphon, your escort fills you in on how Yorg came to be king of the frost dwarves.  

Then he drops you on a cliff ledge and has you battle a giant iron dwarf.  

When you succeed, you return to Yorg, and having proven your worth, he aids you in a long quest chain to find an ancient Titan artifact.  During your task, you meet up with Brann Bronzebeard, the adventurous brother of the King of Ironforge, Magni.  You are successful in helping him recover the artifact, and he accompanies you to Frosthold to thank Yorg personally for the help.  When he meets the king, he is astonished to find that it is his long-lost brother, Muradin.  It turns out that Muradin was with Arthas on his expedition to Northrend, and was with him in the cave when he found the cursed blade, Frostmourne, which completed his descent into madness.  Muradin was thought dead in the explosion that occured when Arthas took the blade, but he was merely struck with amnesia, and was left wandering the Storm Peaks, where the frost dwarves found him.  Soon, Magni arrives from Ironforge, and the brothers are reunited.  

 However, the reunion doesn't last long.  Yorg/Muradin is determined to settle the score with Arthas, and sets off on his quest to get his revenge on the Lich King.  

Finally, in the northern part of the Storm Peaks is the giant Titan city of Ulduar.  This structure houses two 5-person dungeons, the Halls of Stone, where you accompany Brann Bronzebeard on a journey for more information about the origin of the dwarves and the background of the Titans, and the Halls of Lightning, where you are able to deliver justice to Loken for all of his crimes.  

Finally, Ulduar awaits, a Level 80 raid for those brave enough to take it on...

Sholazar Basin: Level 77 - Sunday, May 1, 2011

Located in a valley between the Borean Tundra and Arthas' home of Icecrown, the Sholazar Basin is a lush, tropical jungle that is a nice break from the frozen landscape that makes up most of the Northrend content to come.

You receive a quest in Dalaran to try and locate the missing legendary hunter, Hemet Nesingwary, who was on his way to Sholazar to hunt the ultimate game when he was last seen.  You get a ride in by plane, but it is quickly shot down by Scourge winged demons.  You survive by landing in a tree, and make your way to the nearby Nesingwary camp.  

The settlers here are also stranded, so you help out by borrowing some supplies from a nearby strip mining operation.  

This unlocks the flight plan in and out of the Basin, so you can come and go whenever you want.  

Despite having met Nesingwary in both Stranglethorn Vale and Nagrand in the past, and performing multiple tasks to earn his praise, you are still subjected to the same multiple hunting quests in order to proceed here.  Some of the quests are the traditional "Go kill a lot of animals.  I mean like, 30 each..." style, and others have you reanimating the bones of a long-dead creature to find out where you might find the ultimate game in the Basin. 

You eventually find out that the ultimate game is a fiery protodrake broodmother, so you and Nesingwary capture a mammoth mount, ride it into battle, and kill the drake.  

The main threat in Sholazar Basin comes from its proximity to Icecrown.  A giant glacier has overcome the northeastern part of the zone, and giant Scourge abominations are making their way in.  

A Titan watcher, named Freya, has left her giant avatar near the Glacier to help protect it from the encroaching Scourge.  She tasks you with seeking out the reason that the Scourge have been able to neutralize the Titan pillars which should have protected the area.  

At a nearby camp, you find your answer.  The Cult of the Damned, agents of Arthas, have been bombing the pillars in order to weaken the Basin's defenses.  

Some of the pillars reach high into the sky.  

Freya has a plan, however, and guides you to a massive gate in the southern part of the zone that teleports you to a matching gate in Un'Goro Crater, back on Kalimdor.  

There, you encounter the Etymidian, a giant weapon created by the Titans, that you are able to control.  You ride it into the Glacier, and are able to turn back the Scourge forces, and force them out of Sholazar Basin. 

Zul'Drak: Level 76 - Saturday, April 30, 2011

The home of the Drakkari trolls, the zone of Zul'Drak combines frozen tundra with burning forests, and has no shortage of challenges for players to overcome. At the Argent Stand, the blessed knights of the Argent Crusade have set up a base to repel the Scourge, who are invading from Drak'Tharon Keep.  

The Argent Crusade have managed to put aside their differences with the death knights of the Ebon Blade, who are stationed at Ebon Watch not far away.  

While doing some standard "destroy X scourge," quests for these groups, you come across a mysterious necklace.  You give it to one of the death knights who determines that this item was intended to reach you as a trap.  After neutralizing the threat inside (which would have turned you into a mindless ghoul,) you are sent to find out who set you up.  Your search takes you to The Reliquary of Agony, 

and the floating necropolis above...

where you find an old friend waiting for you.  

Yes, Drakuru, now an overlord for Arthas, ensured that the necklace fell into your possession in order to use you once again.  You pretend to play along with him, doing some menial tasks and building his trust, all the while trying to get an idea of what he's up to.  Eventually, you find out (army of giant trolls infused with the power of blight crystals), and turn on him, using his creations against him.  

In desperation, Drakuru calls to Arthas for aid.  Arthas shows up, but enraged at Drakuru for failing him and being unable to see through your ruse, beheads him.  He spares your life, however, for providing him with some amusement, and tells you that you will see him again.

Meanwhile, the remaining living Drakkari, who have gone mad due to the Scourge invasion, have begun to sacrifice their animal gods in an effort to stop the undead.  Naturally, this has thrown things completely out of whack, and some emissaries of the wise Zandalari Tribe in Stranglethorn Vale have arrived to try and stabilize things.  

The Zandalari send you to the altars of the various animal gods, which are scattered throughout Zul'Drak, to see which gods are alive, and which have already been sacrificed.

Some of the gods are too far gone to do anything for, like the giant polar bear god...

but others, like the leopard god, Har'koa, are still able to be rescued.  

Eventually, after visiting the altars of the various animal gods and saving who you can, (and helping put to rest those you can't,) your road leads into Gun'Drak, the capital of the Drakkiri, to try to stop the crazed troll clan.  

Like Nagrand, Zul'Drak also features an arena where parties of players can take on increasingly more challenging fights in an effort to win glory and powerful weapons in the Amphitheater of Anguish. 

Presented without comment, here is a picture of a colossal abomination that usually startles everyone their first time through Zul'Drak.