Wrath of the Lich King Prologue: Before the first session

Hey team! Since this blog was created a little into the campaign, i'll make these notes by the session and make the first bunch within the next few days on holiday.

Note: this is a pathfinder campaign, not D&D, specifically.

They are very close, pathfinder is more of an enhanced D&D 3.5.

I wanted to make a custom campaign based on the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. However, I changed much of what happens, and what happened - including events, characters, and character endings/beginnings.

I created multiple base classes, archetypes, prestige classes, as well as races to fit the setting.

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This is the plot intro (simplified) that I gave my four players. Only one has played the World of Warcraft game.

Image credit: Jian Guo

"At the end of the third war, the lich king fused his soul with Arthas Menethil, to become the one true lich king wielding Frostmourne, the blade that hungers. A contingent of the undead were restored of their life giving way to the forsaken, led by the ‘banshee queen,’ Sylvanas windrunner (Who joined the horde). Since then, Arthas conquered Northrend and had not crossed the sea since. Silent for ten years.

One year prior to the start of the campaign, monsters allied with the lich king, and undead themselves, have come ashore at multiple places in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms (Shores of the Wetlands, Durotar, the Barrens, Teldrassil, Tirisfal Glades, and Elwynn Forest) have caused thousands upon thousands of deaths. Due to the isolate nature of the lich king, this was confusing at first, until he arrived to Stormwind itself to slay the king’s son and generals by his own hand, only to mysteriously leave the king and its city intact. He did the same on the shores of Durotar, slaying the warchief’s brother, Grommash Hellscream, along with burning half of their capital, Orgrimmar.

With the alliance and horde capitals (Stormwind and Orgrimmar, respectively) in ruin, burned and broken by the throngs of undead, the leaders are left with no other choice. This act of war enraged the King, Varian Wrynn, to declare war on the lich king in Northrend. He sought a treaty with the Warchief of the horde, Garrosh Hellscream. Despite his brutish tactics and ruthless attitude, Hellscream agreed to the treaty, as long as it meant one thing: The slaughter of every undead under the lich king’s control.

Image credit: Shuohan Zhou

The Alliance and Horde launched an attack on the Wrathgate, the front door of the Lich King’s territory of Icecrown.  During the attack, the two armies began to fight amongst one another as a plague was unleashed by the apothecary society of the forsaken (a part of the horde), which instead of killing those on the field themselves, it actually caused the all sides to descend into madness, making them kill friend, foe, and faction-rival alike. Infighting forced the two factions against one another, causing a slaughter of the two armies and a descent between the two. Only a few select warriors escaped the slaughter of the wrathgate, either stranded across the territories of Northrend, or held by different factions. Those captured and fled across the sea descended into madness, unable to give answers as to what happened.

Some say the plague caused the madness, others have theories that have much darker tones of old gods or demons—or the power of the lich king himself. Other leaders say the forsaken and the horde planned it all, sacrificing their own to kill both enemy and alliance members alike, but the horde see a far different story of betrayal from within, and struggle to discover who the loyal ones really are.

In the wake of the defeat, the Aliiance and Horde go to pick up the pieces of what’s left, trying to discover the truth behind the wrathgate, as well as bring more forces from their homeland."

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Now, that's all I gave them, along with the races in-game, as well as a few extras that I created. They had the map of Azeroth, and options to be from any race I provide, any class, and any alignment. Their only requirement was to have chosen to cross on the second journey to Northrend alongside the Horde and Alliance factions, led by Tirion Fordring, who leads the Argent Dawn. (And co-leads the Ashen Verdict) They begin their story at 7th level.

My players are as follows:

Soren Corvinus, a Drakken (dragon hybrid race I created), who has mysterious powers over death (is the death knight class, based on WoW) but was not given the powers from the Lich King, but instead from a mysterious source)

Magnus, son of Magnus, son of Magnus, a frozelia (frost vrykul descendant race I made) that is a Dervish (a class I made based on the Dervish from Guild Wars)

Fish Breath Bard, a blood elf (from WoW), a pirate but also inventor and thief who stole the first revolver. (Pirates are a mix of gunslinger and swashbuckler from pathfinder, with some pirate flavour in there)

Rosalia Thornwood, a sylvari (based on guild wars 2) pack lord Druid (pathfinder archetype, I didn't make this).

When the first session begins, they land at the beach of Vengeance landing! The next post will be the classes and races they use which I made, based on pathfinder rules, and flavour from other games.

Check the new posts for the races, classes, and new session posts!