Return to Northrend

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.