Scorched Earth Policy

**Scorched Earth Policy** refers to an incident wherein Maelydra Starfire attempted to carry out the work of the Cult of the New Day, by plunging the world into the flames of the Firelands.

## Background

Previously, the Order of Ashfall joined with a coalition of likeminded heroes and organizations to help bring peace to Duskwood. During the course of this, they discovered that, in fact, Beletene Moongraze's ultimate intention was to use the Twilight Grove to merge the layers of the Emerald Dream with the waking world, overwriting it and "cleansing" it of all sapient beings. He was defeated, and died terribly when the backlash of his machinations merged him with the Mother Tree.

However, not all of his Cult were destroyed with him; Maelydra Starfire, a young druid obsessed with Beletene, swore vengeance upon the coalition, and all the world. With the help of a shadowy figure, she began to prepare her plan: Instead of using the Emerald Dream to replace the waking world, she would open an unstable rip along each continent, and permit the Firelands to spill over into Azeroth, consuming it.

*For further details, see Dark Dreams Incident.*

## Phase One (March 17 - 28)

Maelydra's plan was notably more complex than the past two plans. By some means thus far unknown, she gained the power to create flame ascendants, melding fire elementals with mortal creatures. These would help her create the spatial tears on all of the continents and unleash the laws of physics of the Firelands upon Azeroth. The mortal creatures, the shadowy figure suggested, should be outcasts, with grudges against the more civilized peoples of the realm.

Maelydra's need for petty revenge was sated by another means, provided by the figure. She exchanged these powers for trinkets and relics in volume, tasking her newfound minions with unearthing and providing them. Those were stored all together, and the figure would arrive and curse them with "improbability". Those, she passed on to intermediaries, who themselves transferred them to dealers around the world.

One of those dealers was Selianatha Daybreak, a ren'dorei warlock seeking to live a normal life after a long history of dabbling in darkness. Many people purchased the trinkets through her, and then began to experience these terrible outcomes--including Neapolitan Butterchurn, who received a trinket as a gift from Natalie Snippenclip.

Soon enough, however, the Bad Luck Charms escalated to nearly killing several of their owners, and angry customers returned to Selianatha's shop to seek a refund. She discovered then that these items had soulbound themselves and could not be simply relinquished; at this point, she swiftly summoned the guard and the Mage District's experts. In the spirit of cooperation, she issued a recall notice to her customers. An investigation began, which came to the attention of Jeremaias Auromere, as a magistrate.

After tracing information regarding the origins of some of these trinkets, he discovered a correlation with strange population movements in the regions of Feralas, Uldum, and Stranglethorn Vale. Suspecting foul play, Auromere convened a meeting, graciously hosted by Tragan Monroe of the Phantom Legion, for those who might be interested in aiding.

## Town Hall Meeting (March 29)

The meeting convened on the evening of March 29, with many organizations present--most of them concerned by the bad-luck trinkets their members had received. Auromere laid out the information regarding the trinkets, shared the means invented by the magi to reverse the soulbinding, and answered questions regarding the tinkets, Daybreak, and the current situation.

After discussion, the attendees determined to investigate the three points of origin of these items, and split into three teams.

## Phase Two (April 1 - 11)

### **Defense: Nor'danu Barrow Den**

The First Legion, the Order of Ashfall, the Greyshields, and the crew of the *Skylance* determined to lend their aid to the druids of Feralas. There, they were informed that the Firestar Ascendancy had already been conducting their rituals on ogres, gnolls, and renegade druids in the region. At the same time, communication had ceased with the Nor'danu Barrow Den, a druids' stronghold.

The party moved swiftly to strike against the Firestar Ascendancy, escorting a trio of druids to imprison Maelydra's lieutenant within the barrow and starve him out. The maneuver was successful, decisively placing Nor'danu in the possession of the druids, and a gnoll was captured.

However, Kristo Marris decided, late during the night, that he would take upon himself the interrogation of the gnoll prisoner. Without consulting with Sir Tolath Barthalomew (the commander) or the local druids (the hosts), he inflicted terrible acts upon the gnoll until the gnoll died--in agony, and having no useful knowledge that could be extracted. Realizing that there may be consequences to himself, Kristo fled back to the *Skylance* and left Sir Tolath to placate the druids.

Though the druids were opposed to the Firestar Ascendancy's presence, this act of needless cruelty resulted in the team being "invited" to leave. Auromere reassigned them to join the team at Behmaset.

### **Assault: Behmaset**

Meantime, Sir Sauldrik Thelenmore took up leadership of the team traveling to Uldum. At Ramkahen, the Knights of Solidarity, the Ashborne Accord, and representatives of the Duchy of Rosemore gathered to speak with the local military commanders. They would later be joined by the team from Nor'danu.

There had been significant population movement in the region. Wastewander bandits, leper gnomes, and outcast tol'vir had been scouring the old Schnottz outposts, and had gathered significant gear to fortify the Orsis city of Behmaset. The Firestar Ascendancy had been operating here, creating ascendants.

The city's layout necessitated a direct, staged assault. The team initially struck at the temple that lay outside of the city walls, destroying a Wastewander chieftain who had become an ascendant. But the nearby gate was magically sealed to prevent the team's further entry--which meant that they would require additional assistance from Ramkahen. That assistance came in the form of an Uldum Watcher, a semi-sapient stone giant that fired solar energy.

The Watcher lent assistance during the first assault on the city proper, destroying the shield generators while the team traded fire with archers lining the walls. Within the South District, they discovered and slew a leper-gnome ascendant--who demonstrated the power of the Firestar Ascendancy, nearly slaying the team.

Another magical barrier was erected by the Ascendancy's magi, preventing passage from the South to the North District, generated from the Western District. Orsis mystics conferred with the team to create a plan: The team would strike into the West District, and destroy whatever was maintaining that barrier; as soon as it was done, the mystics would create a new barrier, thus controlling the passage and permitting the assault team to strike at a time of their choosing.

The assault team moved into the West District, a detachment skillfully providing a flanking attack on a set of archers holding the bridge from above, while two people on gryphons carried out bombing runs farther into the enemy's stronghold. This proved particularly successful, and the West fell swiftly.

The final attack was against the North District, where the team met with a particular challenge: a wall-mounted mask that fired similar energy to the Watcher, but this time on anyone in the plaza before the Firestar Lieutenant's holdout. The team called in the Watcher, now recharged, and unleashed a strike against the mask that melted it to slag. With their backs now protected, the team moved against the Lieutenant himself, slew him, and claimed victory.

A captive was taken from the Wastewander survivors. Calling himself "Seth", he described how the cursed trinkets were kept in a single warehouse, not to be disturbed; his confession helped to clarify the mystery of these items. Further information was had from the Lieutenant's effects, pointing the coalition to the identity of the mastermind, and Maelydra's overall plan. But no knowledge of her current whereabouts could be divined, so the team awaited further instructions from the rest of the coalition...

### **Subversion: Zala'mah**

Fort Livingston was the nearest convenient outpost to the source of the trouble in Stranglethorn Vale, and this is where the Phantom Legion, the Embershield Protectorate, and the Unbroken would gather. Here, they learned that the Firestar Ascendancy had taken up residence in the ruins of Zala'mah, an old Gurubashi city; local troll tribes, ogres, and Venture Company goblins (former or current, this is not known) had fallen in with the Ascendancy's plans.

Given the size of the force and its fearsome composition, this team, led by Auromere, would have to take a more circumspect approach. The goblins of Booty Bay, along with the Daggertusk tribe of jungle trolls, would provide support and assistance, while the team made calculated strikes to foster discord and stir up old hatreds within Zala'mah.

The first viable target to present itself was a caravan of ogres, carrying an offering of artifacts and trinkets so their chief could Ascend. Their path would carry them over a bridge, which the team sabotaged with explosives. As the ogres crossed the bridge, the team destroyed the bridge, weakening them for an ambush attack. Victorious, the party took the cargo and left "clues" that trolls had been responsible.

The second night of operations took the party into Zala'mah itself. Zol'kiri's tribesmen infiltrated the city, and planted telemancy beacons in strategic locations. One of these was conveniently near the trolls' enclave. Using Deconsolodation zappers lent to them by Baron Revilgaz's representative, which had the mark of the Venture Company rather than the Steamwheedle Cartel, the party moved into the enclave and began to collect the trolls' supplies and offerings.

Fern Gully was given a disguise, and tasked with deflecting patrols. This he did successfully once, but the second time, they returned with a witch doctor, who saw through the disguise and attacked. As the party defeated the patrol, the witch doctor drank a potion to mutate himself into a dire troll, and the battle became in earnest. Finally, Brusselos finished off the troll with a terrible blow, and Jeremaias disguised the wound as the aftereffect of an explosive charge. The team left a few Venture Company items about, and then departed via the telemancy beacon once more.

The next foray was into the north side of the city, again via telemancy. A small team arrived next to a building that had been refitted as a boiler room; overpressuring the boilers, they set fire to this district, creating a diversion. As the population of the adjoining enclaves moved to gawk at the fire, this team then moved to adulterate the ogres' food stores with rage potion.

A second team moved into the Venture Company's enclave, and began smashing up equipment and planting evidence of theft. However, they had not accounted for a single sleeping goblin, and he awoke and attempted to raise the alarm. Fortunately, the diversion was significant enough that no help came for him, and he and his shredder were defeated. This team then returned to the extraction point.

The sabotage team was trapped on the other side of the mob of onlookers. They attempted to pass through the crowd unnoticed, but bumped into several of the residents. Quick thinking, though, led to them mimicking the voices of trolls, ogres, and goblins, and stirring up the crowd to fight one another. They escaped through the general brawl that ensued, and rejoined the main team for extraction.

That brawl never ceased, drawing the resident lieutenant out to try to impose order several days later. This was the opportunity the team had been waiting for. They entered the city once more via beacon, and as the Daggertusk and Steamwheedle forces joined in against the bulk of the city's residents, the team moved directly against the lieutenant. After a fierce battle, the lieutenant was slain, and the city pacified at last.

Searching the central "temple" of Zala'mah, Jeremaias discovered documentation that revealed the place where Maelydra would begin her terrible work: the Charred Vale in Stonetalon Mountains.

## Phase Three (April 12 - 14)

The coalition gathered once more in Farwatcher's Glen, and on April 13, moved to disrupt Maelydra's ritual. After descending to the Charred Vale by hippogryphs and ravens, the magi and elementalists of the coalition pooled their power to create a blizzard over the Vale, weakening the fire elementals who swarmed the area. The coalition then moved in to strike against Maelydra and close the rip she had begun to open.

Maelydra, surprised but undaunted, fled to Windshear Crag; the heroes followed, only for her to trap them in the dry-tinder woods through a forest fire. The coalition all escaped relatively unharmed, but lost their quarry in the process. Tired and overheated, they moved up to Selanaar, a town within Ashenvale, and let the scouts track Maelydra.

On the 14th, their rest was disrupted when fire elementals entered Selanaar and attempted to set it alight. The elementals were defeated and the fires put out, and in the meantime, Aldorae Starseeker detected Maelydra beginning her work again. Following this beacon of sorts, the coalition located her at Thunder Peak, another point of instability from the Shattering, and disrupted the creation of yet another spatial tear. Enraged and frustrated, Maelydra performed an unnecessarily dramatic backflip into the lava, and used it as a sort of highway to take herself to the top of Mount Hyjal--to the gate of the Firelands itself, the Throne of Flame.

## Firestar (April 15)

And the heroes followed her, to Nordrassil. There, they were joined by six shaman, who would bring the power of the other elements to counter the oppressive heat of the open lake of lava.

When they arrived at the Throne of Flame, they were seen at once, and Maelydra opened up a massive barrage of lava and fire on the shaman. Auromere conjured a massive shield of Light, protecting the shaman while they, in turn, protected the coalition force. And thus, into the fire the coalition descended.

Maelydra, calling herself "Firestar, Herald of the Cleansing Flame", summoned increasing swarms of fire elementals to guard her, but as the coalition broke through each wave, she began to absorb the elementals to enhance her own power.

Eventually, this worked against her; she exceeded her ability to contain and control her mounting power. The coalition retreated behind a powerful elemental shield as her body destabilized, unleashing a firestorm that nearly claimed the lives of the stragglers.

And thus, Maelydra Starfire, last of the Cult of the New Day, perished.

## Aftermath

The coalition retreated to Nordrassil to heal their wounds and reflect on their victory. In one case, three types of magic came together in an unprecedented show of solidarity, to save the life of a dying void elf. This was a sign to the coalition that, despite their differences, they could do great things together.

Meantime, among the remains of Maelydra was discovered yet another curious gem, the Heart of Determination. This being the third such relic to be created or recovered from these adventures, Auromere's suspicions were piqued about a common cause between them.