Uh, Randyll, it's really easy.

1) Darion gets the Ashbringer from Daddy. This will happen in Ashbringer Comic #2 or #3, probably #3.

2) Darion plunges the Ashbringer through his chest in a final, desperate attempt to cleanse it. This will almost certainly be the climax of the Ashbringer Comic. The attempt backfires and while it frees Alexandros' soul, it damns Darion instead.

3) Darion becomes the new leader of the DKs. See the DK starter line.

4) Darion throws the Ashbringer to Tirion in an act of desperation. Tirion's raw awesomeness cleanses the thing.

5) To ensure that Tirion and his ship are not buried under angry undead, Tirion travels to Northrend disguised, and the Ashbringer is taken seperately. Irulon explains as much when you turn in the last quest. Somehow, the bearer of Ashbringer gets waylaid on reaching Northrend and is taken into Utgarde.

6) The player quests in Catacombs happen. The Ashbringer is recovered and brought back to Tirion who can now reveal himself openly and start kicking ass.

It really isn't that hard to track the events.

The parts leading up to 5 were clear enough, in fact, they've been all over this thread for a multitude of pages. I think my wording of the first post was a bit bad, my mistake. I didn't mean to wonder how the Ashbringer came into existence (it's already at page one), so if you thought I was trying to iterate what's already been said a hundred times, I apologize.

What I meant was from an analytic perspective, with the whole thing was that how exactly is it possible for someone to lose something like this, with all of it going unnoticed? Surely being one of the most important artifacts and one of the rare weapons that can (supposedly) put a dent in the Lich King's armor. With him being so powerful he is, he'd surely notice its presence in his own backyard. Why is the place surrounding it crawling with undead, when it's presence make them run away from it if anything?

I was wondering why such quests are in place, as to discuss the actual point for their existence. The whole thing seems absurd, only to serve as having every player interact with the artifact - does that justify it?

Also I recall reading Ashbringer #4 (the climax you're referring to) deals with the LHC battle, according to the synopsis on blizzplanet.

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It does seem random that the carrier of the Ashbringer gets waylaid and ends up dead in some dungeon without Arthas noticing, but hardly beyond the realm of possibility (assuming the undead around it are not reporting to Arthas but are simply random unaffiliated undead such as show up all over the place) since the whole point of the endeavour was to prevent Arthas from noticing either Tirion or the sword. Ashbringer is given to someone relatively unprotected on the logic that Arthas will not think to look closely at someone relatively unprotected. The carrier falls afoul of some completely mundane catastrophe (shipwreck or Vrykul raid/pirates). Arthas still has no idea Ashbringer has come to Northrend and though the Argent Crusade knows the sword is lost they don't want to make a big fuss about it because Arthas would notice...

I'm not sure that undead would have any special reaction to the Ashbringer if it's just lying on the ground. One of the dialogues in the old LHC actually emphasized that it was the man (i.e., Alexandros), not the sword, that was the source of its power (and presumably Tirion qualifies as well, but the sword alone doesn't necessarily do any harm to undead).

Also worth noticing are that Ashbringer doesn't destroy all undead - Forsaken and Death Knights both do just fine around Tirion. It also doesn't seem to be a passive effect, it's something that actually happens during combat - in one of the questlines in Icecrown, you get to see the sword in action.

The dialogue itself is pretty ambiguous. It even implies that Blizzard had already outlined the story of its recovery way back (or even before) when Naxxramas was released. It would make sense though, they couldn't incorporate it into contemporary lore back then, so they waited until WoTLK to finish it.

I guess you just have to be a badass holy warrior, such as Tirion, to wield the Ashbringer efficiently.

Putress is trying to create a plague that destroys everything, not turn living into zombies.

Given that the quest you can get in Shat to take the light infused thing to your race's leader prompts "Frozen Shades" to start whispering you about the Lich King, it's a fair bet he's involved.

Yes but aren't the Light infused artifacts meant for combating the Necropoli while Putress "deals" with the plague?

If you're Horde, the Dual-Plagued Brain you get also whispers about serving the Lich King and other such things. And it's the brain of a zombie which is infected with another plague to combat the Scourge plague. Presumably the second plague it's infected with is the precursor to the "Kill everything" plague we see in the Wrath Gate machinama.

I really appreciate that the PCs become unwitting pawns to Putress's plot - that the plague became so bad that they didn't even think about who they were helping along the way.

Is there any link in WotLK between the Putress polt and the Grimtotem plot? I ask because the Thunder Bluff version of the quest has you talk to someone in Magatha's tent. I know that she had allied herself with some forsaken previous to this, but I didn't know whether it continues at all in Wrath.

This is exactly what I was trying to suggest in the Plague Thread, and to be honest it's a really awesome way to introduce his character. Out of nowhere, when things are at their worst, this miraculous Apothecary appears to save us all from the Lich King. To someone who doesn't already know what the future holds, Putress certainly portrays himself as someone who will be instrumental in the fight against The Lich King. There was always a small detail at the back of my mind bugging me - how did he get away with it all in the first place? In light of his recent "heroics", this certainly takes him off the suspicion radar and grants him the trust he needs. Pretty much everything makes sense now, and I'm excited to see what will be unveiled in the next few weeks.

I suspect some elements of phasing will also be introduced as the Lich Kings' assault on Azeroth continues. Putress will eventually disappear from Shattrath City and arrive in The Undercity to conduct the final stages of his plan. I'd say all of this will be revealed in the coming weeks.

I thought it was mostly settled? The Grimtotem leadership in its official capacity is a peaceful part of the Horde in Thunder Bluff but the Grimtotem nation is xenophobic and genocidal to everyone else outside of the Forsaken that are helping them. In-game there's a questline where you go to the Tarren Mills depressive to get a poison or something specifically for the Venture Co., which makes sense because the Grimtotems hate goblins and centaurs most of all.

Cairne's letting it slide even despite the kidnapping of "impure" Taurens/destruction of Horde structures because the Grimtotems weren't risking making things worse with the Alliance, and because he is outclassed by Magatha magically although she is very old.

Only thing unresolved is after Dustwallow revamp quests we know the Grimtotems are slaughtering Alliance now and Cairne has to do something about it. Magatha's just a fairly selfish individual without a grander deeper intention than "getting new weapons," and the evil Forsaken and Grimtotem mesh well because they both want to see everyone else leave them alone, even if it means killing them. The Royal Apothecary Society is in roughly the same place as the Grimtotem, really starting to test the patience of their sovereign

I love this latest invasion, and I'm sure it's not over yet(Burn curse you Orgrimmar!)

The Horde really has a nice little build up with Thrall & Hellscream before the invasion starts in Orgrimmar, and watching Sylvanas/Hellscream/Thrall/Saurfang slaughter everything that moves is very nice.

I found it interesting that Hellscream seemed to be the stronger out of the two Orcs, though perhaps Thrall held back.

Varian is over in Stormwind raging quite a bit, and he's quite strong. I'm saddened that Magni isn't in Stormwind since he had a large part to play in the WoW Comic in getting Varian back to his seat. I'm not as surprised to not see Valen or the Night Elves there. Lorewise I suppose the Humans and Humanity have a bigger bone to pick with the Scourge then the Night Elves/Draenei(These 2 factions seem to concern themselves with demons more often).

I was very happy to see Broll & Valeera out there with Varian as well, it's a nice touch, though Valeera could certainly use some fashion tips, her clothes are just clashing all over the place.

I think her clothes are modeled after the action figure that is part of her origins as seen here - Image:Valeera.jpg - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

Am I the only person who is dismayed that Garrosh beats Thrall in the arena? I realize that Thrall is years removed from being a gladiator, but one-on-one combat was always his forte, and the perpetually underachieving Garrosh seems ill-suited to besting Thrall in combat. Given that Arthas is forcing his hand anyway with the attack on Ogrimmar, it seems like the loss is an unneeded justification for sending Garrosh to Northrend, and it also sours the long-term relationship between the two.

He's certainly come a long way from the emo kid we saw in Garadar, hasn't he?

I wouldn't consider Thrall defeated until it's over, and that duel never ended. You don't get to be as good as Thrall without having a little strategy, and lulling an angry orc into a false sense of victory is surely one of the oldest tricks in the book. Either way, the fact that it was close but unfinished really adds to the tension between Thrall and Hellscream, which I absolutely think is intentional, given Hellscream's tendency toward the bloodthirsty way of getting things done in Northrend, regardless of whatever orders may have come down from Thrall. I think this event set him up as a loose cannon rather nicely.

I was also amused to see Saurfang Bladestorming like crazy.

Do note that Thrall had a very much full mana bar when the fight was interrupted. He's a Shaman, he's got healing spells. I don't think he was just blustering when he told Garrosh "we'll finish this another time."

There's also the concern that Thrall certainly doesn't actually want to hurt Garrosh, whereas Garrosh probably isn't thinking about it that much. So Thrall was almost certainly holding back, even if only subconsciously.

I would also argue that Thrall was distracted; his connection to the elements might have been screaming "SCOURGE!" while he was trying to focus on the fight with Garrosh. The Scourge are an affront to the Elements, after all. Note that Thrall looked at his weakest just when the Scourge attack was announced.

I think that Garrosh is getting played up here simply so he can play a greater role later: his gossip text shows that he's falling for Arthas' trap, moreso than any of the other NPCs we can interact with during this Capital Attack event. His death at the Wrath Gate also does something important: note that special attention is paid to Frostmourne sucking the essence out of Garrosh after killing him. If Garrosh doesn't come back as a boss in Icecrown, I'll bet he plays a role in the perpetuation of the Lich King after Arthas himself is killed.

EDIT: Right, sorry! I did totally mix up Garrosh Hellscream and Saurfang Jr. Of course, my point still stands that Frostmourne drank the essence of a Mag'har warrior at the Wrath Gate, and that will probably come back to haunt the good guys later.

Garrosh doesn't die at the Wrathgate, Saurfang the Younger does.

Isn't it Saurfang the Younger at Wrath Gate, not Garrosh?