Return to Northrend

After a close escape, The Lamplighters attempt to find allies in the cold North.

### Performers

The Lamplighters The Vrykul Fleet

The Nerubian Court

The Kalu'ak

### Location

Northrend, The Vrykul Fleet

**The Return to Northrend** was the first campaign section in the overarching Fourth War storyline and followed a short time after the conclusion of the Curator Campaign. It began in March 2019 and concluded in June of the same year. While nominally taking part during the events of the Fourth War Campaign (and its cause was a direct result of the actions of the Fourth War villains), the antagonists and environment of this campaign were different enough to warrant its own campaign section that marked an interim separate from the main campaign at the time.

## Prologue: T.A.R.O.T Reading

After narrowly escaping the assault on the Seeker's Library in Dalaran City, a wounded Control and the Agents of the Lamplighters took shelter with T.A.R.O.T members in the Dwarven capital of Ironforge. However, Alliance Command had heard the report concerning Control and their wondrous caches of information and analytical mind. While they were still recovering, they pressured T.A.R.O.T's leader, Loxley Tinkertine, to transport both the Director and their Agents to Stormwind City where they could directly impact on the war effort. Despite the Gnome's assurances that he would ensure the Agents were allowed to remain neutral, he knew that Ironforge was not safe and that the Sylvanas Loyalist Institute would eventually intercept Control without protection. A compromise was reached: while Tinkertine would ensure their transport to Stormwind, the Lamplighters would remain under T.A.R.O.T's jurisdiction and they would be allowed to operate as they saw fit.

Unfortunately, the plan went awry. The Loyalists somehow learned of the plan by T.A.R.O.T to transport Control via the Deeprun Tram and set an ambush to capture them and kill the Agents en route to the Human capital. Though the assassins were unsuccessful, tensions between the Lamplighters and their precarious ally boiled over, and the Agents demanded to be free of them, refusing to go to Stormwind.

Despite knowing what it would mean for him to do so, Loxley Tinkertine decided to do the honourable thing and allowed the Lamplighters to go, and seek refuge in a hidden base in Northrend, far from the clutches of both the Loyalists and the Alliance Command. He sealed the deal by commanding his forces to destroy all of T.A.R.O.T's gathered data about the base's location once the Agents had departed.

## Friends in High Continents

 After relocating to the region, the Lamplighters declared it to be the new Lamplighter HQ, where a recovering Control took up residence and began to shape it into a formidable stronghold. However even with all their preparations, Control knew that a determined response from either Alliance Command or the Sylvanas Loyalist Institute would certainly mean their defeat. The Lamplighters' greatest strength had been in its ability to make friends and established friends amidst disparate groups, and Control knew they would need allies more than ever to help them recover. They bade their Agents to travel across Northrend and contact the natives of the region, to aid them in their own struggles so they in turn would be able to help them should the need ever arise.

To that end, the Agents made contact with the Tuskarr of The Kalu'ak and the still-living remnants of the Nerubian Court and its Underempire. While the first were much more receptive of the visitors and readily gave aid in exchange for their involvement in their hardships, the Nerubians were untrusting and reserved towards outsiders. After a deft bit of diplomacy (conducted while the Lamplighters' diplomat in question was incredibly drunk at that) the Nerubians gave them what they believed to be an impossible task: recover the lost Crown of the traitor-king Anub'arak from a Frost Wyrm in the heart of Northrend. Baiting a trap for the Wyrm, the Agents chased the undead Dragon across the wastes until they were able to weaken it to the point where it could be slain. Narrowly killing the beast, they were able to recover the Crown, which both surprised and impressed the Nerubian Court with their actions.

In return for their efforts, both groups agreed to support the Lamplighters, the Tuskarr by harassing and landing vessels approaching via the sea and the Nerubians offering scouts to web the approaches to Lamplighter HQ in times of conflict. Equally, some Agents made contact with the Oracles of Sholazar Basin as their crystal magics could also be useful in assuaging approaching troops from venturing closer to the location of the base, and were met with some slight success (if finding communication with the Gorlocs themselves a little befuddling).

## The Vrykul, the Kvaldir, De Stroggel

Though their new allies' contributions were small, in the event of an assault they would prove invaluable to Control's survival. However, the Lamplighters knew that they would also need extra warriors if they stood any chance of standing their ground and not fleeing once more. There was only one group that was active on the continent, or rather around it, that they knew could be relied upon for martial strength of such caliber: The Vrykul Fleet. They had previously had good relations with the Fleet, as well as Lannael Ven'Renn, an active Lamplighter Agent, been previously made a Drottinn of the Fleet itself in honourable combat. An envoy was sent to find them at once while they completed the other tasks the groups had set before them.

However, the returning message was surprising: not only was their plea met with outright rejection but they were informed in no uncertain terms that if they made contact again, they would be killed on sight. This troubled the Agents as it seemed something was amiss on board the Vrykul navy. This was further confirmed when sightings of Vrykul were seen landing on the shores of Borean Tundra. Moving to find them, the Lamplighters found it was their two allies on board the Vrykul Fleet: the former Vrykul leader, Drottinn Brunt and his one-armed Kvaldir brother, Runt. Brunt had been badly injured with a weapon laced with Fel magics and was close to death while Runt pleaded desperately with the Agents for aid. They returned the two brothers to Lamplighter HQ while the Agents administered healing to the former Drottinn.

Runt explained that during their absence, the Jarls had grown unhappy with Brunt's appointment as Drottinn, stewing that it had been the decision of an outsider to place him upon the seat. This was further exacerbated after the Fleet took in the outcast members of the Tideskorn, who had sworn not to follow another God-Queen or God-King and struck out on their own instead. Their leader, Jarl Ubba, had been the loudest voice among the Council of Jarls and had eventually challenged Drottinn Brunt for the title of warlord. In their duel, Ubba had emerged victorious and, being the incumbent ruler, sent his Tideskorn to kill Brunt's brother while he cast the dying Brunt into the sea. Runt had escaped, rescued his brother from the depths and fled.

Though both brothers survived, and it was unlikely that any of the other Jarls would have the strength to defeat Ubba in a ritual duel before his ascension. The ritual, known as "De Stroggel" to the Vrykul, could be attempted by any of the Jarls aboard, and as Brunt was too injured to continue his duties, he swore his brother Runt as the new Jarl of the clan and captain of his ship in the Fleet.

## Preparations and Return to the Fleet

Runt could not take on Jarl Ubba in his current condition, and as per the rules of De Stroggel, he would only be allowed to wear whatever he could craft himself. The Lamplighters quickly began to source suitable materials from all across Northrend in order for him to create the best weapons and armour he could. To that end, they sought out "Ormamudir", a giant Jormungandr and so called "Mother of Worms" in the Storm Peaks for use as armour scales, and sought out the bones of a fallen Frost Wyrm in Dragonblight to use for crafting a weapon. With those in hand, Runt prepared himself for battle and the Agents of The Lamplighters accompanied him back to the Vrykul Fleet.

The warm welcomes received upon prior visits to the Fleet was nowhere to be found on their arrival, and Jarl Ubba himself visited the group, accompanied by his Champion Skann, and he made it clear that Runt and the Agents were being watched closely by the Tideskorn Outcasts. The Lamplighters ensured that Runt was carefully guarded during the few weeks of their stay. and while Runt assembled his weaponry, they spent their time investigating the possible sources of Fel aboard the war fleet. This proved quite a difficult task as the Agents were shadowed at all times by clan members of the Tideskorn.

## The Dreadlord and the Drottinn's Ascension

During the opening ceremony of De Stroggel, when the clans were distracted by the preparations for the bout, Demon Hunter Agent Telrua Skyfang discovered a sudden outpouring of Fel energy aboard the Fleet itself.

## Aftermath

Drottinn Runt rules unchallenged as the new warlord of the Vrykul Fleet. His first act was to immediately expel any Fel-corrupted kin from the Fleet and commanded the remaining Tideskorn Outcasts to reform under a new clan or be assimilated into the crews of other ships. Though the clan rebuilt itself into the new Freehawk Clan, many of its members chose to depart the clan in disgust, leaving their once great numbers significantly diminished.

The collective allies that The Lamplighters gathered to aid them, the Vrykul Fleet included, were true to their word, and the new Lamplighter HQ became both protected and its location a closely guarded secret. The Fleet send reports of activity during their frequent visits through the icy northern waters, the Kalu'ak ships and turtles ferried supplies overland and, though infrequently seen on the surface, messages from the new Nerubian Underkingdom were delivered to Control semi-regularly on otherwise unseen activities. Strangely to note on the last development was the inclusion of information outside of Northrend, leading Control to estimate that either the Nerubians had made contact with other Aqir outside of its empire's bounds, or the Underkingdom stretched much further underground that the initial estimations concluded.

With the Tideskorn Outcasts disbanded, Terror'gar abandoned his identity of Champion Skann entirely. His gathered identity of Rory Sykes proved to be a concern for The Lamplighters given that the Dreadlord now held knowledge that the Worgen Agent had held. Luckily, he did not know a great many of the higher secrets available to the leadership or the more veteran Agents, however this did not mean the Nath'rezim could be discounted. Terror'gar remained hidden with his motives unknown for several years after these events, with his final reappearance only occurring much later.