User:GoldenYak/Stygian Armada

The Stygian Armada is a raid instance in the Reign of Azshara Expansion Concept. It features 8 bosses and is the first of two raids in the RoA-1 raid tier, with the Palace of Azshara having higher difficulty. The Styigan Armada is a vast fleet of ships bearing the forces of the Drowned Legion for the lands of the living in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. The fleet must be sunk before they can ravaged the heroes' homelands.

Background
The Drowned Legion has built a colossal armada of warships using the innumerable hulks and sunken vessels found in Sailgrave and the Stygian Expanse. Holds filled with stygian warriors, these ships will sail to the kingdoms of the living and unleash a nightmare of undeath. The Drowned Legion must be stopped - the only chance for victory is to defeat their lord and master, Pluton.

Swordmaster Thanatos
Captain of the stygian vessel Kraken's Bane and bearer of the great blade Eternal Sleep, Thanatos was a vrykul warrior in life who perished at sea in battle with a ferocious sea serpent.

Ozumat, the Undying Fiend
The great father of all kraken, Ozumat was sent by the Old Gods to serve Queen Azshara in her mad ambition to capture Neptulon. Once Ozumat had completed his task, Azshara turned him loose to prowl the waters around Zin-Azshari. Ozumat menaced the shore-line of Sailgrave until it was slain by heroes of the Alliance and the Horde. Ozumat's great carcass was washed away into the depths, where it was raised into undeath by Pluton as a beast of war.

Ranos Mournstar
Captain of the stygian vessel Sorrow Reaper. A night elf sailor who was lost at sea thousands of years ago. Ranos was to have wed his beloved bride upon his return to Kalimdor, but his ship was swallowed by a terrible storm. His beloved waited on the coast of Kalimdor for Ranos to return, but as the years passed her hope died, and she hurled herself from a cliff into the sea. Ranos, his spirit wracked with guilt over his broken vow, could not find rest, and he rose as one of the stygians. His misery has become a terrible strength, making him a mighty champion of the Drowned.

Charon - Ferryman of the Drowned
Pluton's second in command and captain of the stygian vessel Scythe of the Waves. Charon is a powerful necromancer, and he has crewed his vessel almost entirely with mindless undead skeleton warriors under his mental control.

Bacchus the Rotten
An undead mako, captain of the vessel the Red Maw. Centuries ago Bacchus was a vicious raider and pirate who specialized in attacking the vessels of surface dwellers. Many ships were sent down to the deep by Bacchus and his raiders, swelling the ranks of the Drowned. But one day a pack of stygians, some of them Bacchus' own victims, rose up on a black ship and sent the mako to death. Now Bacchus serves the Drowned.

The Black Fathoms - Acheron, Cocytus, and Phlegrethon
The Order of the Black Fathom are a coven of powerful undead sorcerers that serve the Drowned Legion. Acheron, Cocytus, and Phlegrethon were dispatched across Zin-Azshari to serve the designs of Pluton, and were slain by heroes of the Alliance and the Horde. However, their spirits were bound to Pluton, and he has returned them to their tormented unlife to serve him once again. The Black Fathoms now pool their powers together to unleash hell upon the heroes who defeated them before.

Scyllan, Queen of Decay
A great serpent-hydra of the deep sea, once a favored pet of the Old Gods. Slain in a great battle lost to history, the beast's rotting carcass was raised into undeath by Pluton. Scyllan follows the stygian fleet beneath the waves, rising up to attack the heroes of the Alliance and the Horde fighting to stop the armada.

Pluton, Lord of the Drowned
Pluton stands atop the great vessel Despoiler, bearing a great grey-metal blade in one hand and the Lantern of Lost Souls in the other. The power of the lantern, a relic on par with the dread blade Frostmourne itself, fuels the black fleet - only if it and its bearer are destroyed can the Legion of the Drowned be stopped. But with the power of countless millennia spent in darkness and hatred festering in his heart, Pluton may well be truly unstoppable.

Storyline
The heroes arrive at the stygian shipyards too late to stop the launch of the armara. However, they are aided by unlikely allies - namely, the ghost pirates of the Dame Risque - in boarding the stygian vessels. The heroes and the pirates are able to discover the soul-binding crystals that enable the stygian ships to sail and destroy them, sinking several vessels. However, the stygian flagship, the Despoiler, soon moves to engage them. The crew of the Dame Risque sacrifices themselves to deliver players onto the Despoiler for a last-ditch assault on the leader of the stygians, Pluton himself.

During the battle with Pluton, players are able to weaken his control over the soul-binding crystals animating the Despoiler, freeing the spirits of the dead trapped within them. Pluton begins to lose control over the lost souls, weakening his command of the armada. With the stygian ships vulnerable, Horde and Alliance vessels arrive to intercept them, devastating the stygian fleet. The Despoiler is blasted by cannonfire and sinks beneath the waves, taking Pluton and his forces with it back to their watery grave, while the heroes retreat to the safety of their faction's flagships.

Mythic Only
In Mythic difficulty, the battle against Pluton temporarily halts after the appearance of the Horde and Alliance fleets, as an image of Queen Azshara suddenly appears in the stormy skies overhead. Taunting the heroes and Pluton for their petty squabbling, Azshara conjures a massive typhoon that engulfs the three fleets, Horde, Alliance, and stygian alike. The rest of the battle against Pluton is made increasingly desperate by the churning waves and crashing lightning, as well as the appearance of naga forces that attack the heroes.

The resolution of the battle is the same, with the Despoiler and Pluton sinking beneath the sea. Afterwards players regroup aboard their flag-vessels, this time making a desperate retreat from the storms caused by Azshara. With the evidence of her mastery over the oceans starkly apparent, the forces of the Alliance and the Horde must re-double their efforts to end her threat.