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This article is a player character biography page The contents herein are entirely player made and in no way represent official World of Warcraft history or occurrences which are accurate for all realms. The characters and events listed are of an independent nature and applied for roleplaying, fictional, speculative, or opinions from a limited playerbase only. |
This is a list of Zherron Shadowhowl's in-game activities after Gilneas.
The Hunt for Vincent Godfrey
Zherron joins the Bloodfang pack in Shadowfang Keep to kill the traitor Lord Godfrey
His studies of his druidic powers and a task given to him by the Cenarion Circle in Moonglade would eventually bring him to Shadowfang Keep in Silverpine Forest. There, Zherron learned that Lord Vincent Godfrey, a nobleman who had turned on Greymane and committed suicide when his plan failed, had been resurrected by the Forsaken. But he had also turned on them, shooting and killing Sylvanas Windrunner, who was brought back by her val'kyr handmaidens. Godfrey and his lieutenants, Baron Ashbury and Lord Walden - both of whom had been killed by Zherron and his fellows during their attempted coup - had fled to the abandoned keep. Shadowfang, he learned, had been the home of the Gilnean mage and patriot Arugal, who had aided in bringing the worgen back into Azeroth from the Emerald Dream.
The Cenarion Circle had tasked Zherron with collecting materials to craft a staff fit for a druid of his power - deathless sinew from Godfrey's undead minions, moontouched wood scattered around the courtyard, and potions from Lord Walden's laboratory. To that end, Zherron journeyed back to Lordaeron and entered the keep to collect his materials and bring justice to Godfrey for his betrayal of Gilneas. At the same time, he encountered a Darkspear troll named Fer'jai, who was also a druid and on a similar mission from the Cenarion Circle; Fer'jai revealed that he had been conscripted by the Forsaken - as part of the spying duties he had been given by his employer, Master Taeril'hane Ketiron - to fight against the Gilneas Liberation Front, a duty he performed reluctantly. Despite his race, affiliation to the Horde and admitting to have attacked and killed some of his people, Zherron warmed to his brother druid, and fought at his side as they cleaned out the halls of Shadowfang, room by room - the Darkspear troll favoring his tiger-like form, while Zherron blasted away with the powers of the sun and the stars.
After braving the hardships of the cursed keep, they confronted the traitor in the room formerly occupied by Arugal within the ruined keep, and after a brief and bloody battle, destroyed him once and for all.
VanCleef's Revenge: The Return of the Defias
With Sentinel Hill besieged, Zherron faces Vanessa, the daughter of Edwin VanCleef
When he arrived in Westfall, shortly after the retreat from Gilneas, Zherron had been called to investigate a grisly murder scene on the road from Elwynn Forest. Theodore and Verna Furlbrow, and their horse Old Blanchy, had been brutally murdered. Stormwind investigators, led by Lieutenant Horatio Laine, were sent to find out who was responsible; what made things worse is that Westfall was practically lawless, with transients rising up everywhere. Deciding to use a little intimidation - he was a worgen, intimidation came naturally - Zherron learned that rich-looking humans had been responsible for the Furlbrow murders, and found clues that the Furlbrows had received death threats. His path took him to the Saldean farmhouse, which had become a haven of sorts, with Farmer Saldean and his wife Salma cooking Westfall stew for those who needed it.
Salma Saldean decided to help the people out further and sent Zherron with a pot of stew to her adopted daughter Hope at Sentinel Hill, to feed the transients outside the town's newly-built walls. He was also put to work by Marshal Gryan Stoutmantle, returned from Northrend after the fall of the Lich King, to help fight off gnoll attackers and discover who was responsible for their recent uprisings. As he investigated, Zherron noticed a strange female figure, almost like a shadow given full form. The trail finally brought him to Moonbrook, home of the Deadmines that had been the hideout of the Defias Brotherhood. Consulting the draenei shaman Thoralius the Wise, Zherron undertook a vision quest to five years earlier, where he saw the Defias leader, Edwin VanCleef, fighting the forces of the Alliance come to slay him. After VanCleef lay dead, a little girl stepped out from the wheelhouse of the massive warship that VanCleef had ordered built as his weapon against Stormwind. Before the vision faded, the druid heard the girl speak a single word: "Daddy". VanCleef, unbeknownst to anyone, had a daughter...
Returning to Sentinel Hill, Zherron reported this finding to Marshal Stoutmantle, only to find that a well-equipped army of rogues and assassins had suddenly appeared. Stepping out from the tower, Hope Saldean revealed her true name: Vanessa VanCleef. For the last five years, she had worked towards taking revenge on Stormwind. Deciding to spare Zherron for his unwitting aid to her cause, Vanessa ordered her followers to burn Sentinel Hill to the ground. Realizing the situation was dire, Marshal Stoutmantle ordered Zherron to flee by gryphon to Stormwind, to report the situation to King Varian himself.
Returning to the Deadmines on King Varian's command, Zherron and a team of Alliance troops penetrated the labyrinth and made their way aboard Edwin VanCleef's juggernaught, now equipped with large cannons. Takign these cannons and turning them on the Defias troops, they made their way up to the wheelhouse where VanCleef had met his end, hoping to find Vanessa. Instead, they found first the worgen Admiral Ripsnarl - known as James Harrington before he took his worgen name, he had joined the Defias after the flight from Gilneas - and the murloc Cookie, now styled "Captain" Cookie and believed to be the decoy Kingpin. With the Admiral and Cookie dead, the ship was in their grasp...but of Vanessa, there was no sign.
There's No Place Like Home...Except Maybe Duskwood
With Darkshire aflame, Zherron joins the Night Watch as they face Abercrombie the Embalmer and a recreated "Stitches"
After finishing his business in Westfall, Zherron travelled southeast into the murky forests of Duskwood, a place that reminded Zherron very strongly of Gilneas. Arriving in the town of Darkshire, Zherron was deputized by the Night Watch, the Duskwood militia. Subject to the orders of Althea Ebonlocke, daughter of Lord Mayor Ello Ebonlocke and commander of the Night Watch, Zherron went into the woods, hunting down undead monstrosities and corrupted beasts...as well as feral, mindless worgen that had plagued the region for years.
At the ruined tower at Beggar's Haunt, he met an alchemist named Abercrombie, a kindly old man with a dark secret. Five years earlier, Saavedro of Stratholme - still new to his duties as a paladin - had been duped by this man, known as the Embalmer, into providing very powerful reagents to build a monster that would terrorize Darkshire. Though the creature was destroyed before it threatened the town, Abercrombie himself remained at large. Zherron, as a newcomer to Duskwood, was oblivious to his true identity, and willingly provided the same materials - a spool of ghost hair, zombie juice brewed from rot blossoms, ghoul ribs, and a crate of dead things retrieved from ogres - to someone he assumed was just an eccentric old hermit. Upon bringing a letter to Lord Ebonlocke, however, Zherron flew into a rage as he realized he had been duped - and the Embalmer was on his way, riding on the shoulder of the reconstructed abomination known as "Stitches".
Aided by Darkshire's town guards, Zherron and a handful of others faced the abomination in combat and destroyed it. Knocked to the ground by the force of the attacks, the Embalmer was crushed beneath the grotesque mound of fat and sinew, ending his threat to Darkshire once and for all.
The Brothers Mistmantle
Zherron stands at the side of Tobias Mistmantle as he learns the truth of his brother Stalvan's crimes
After destroying the Embalmer and his creation, Zherron journeyed to a house on the eastern edge of Darkshire, where he met with a fellow survivor from Gilneas named Tobias Mistmantle. Formerly one of Lord Crowley's lieutenants in the Northgate rebellion, Tobias had come to Darkshire in search of his brother Stalvan, a schoolteacher who had journeyed out from Gilneas many years before. While teaching in the Stormwind area, he became infatuated with one of his students, Tilloa, who - despite her flirtatious manner with him - eventually spurned him for another man, calling him "a nice old man". Enraged, Stalvan took an axe and killed Tilloa, her suitor and likely her entire family. Living alone in his madness in a house outside Darkshire, his body rotted along with his mind and he became a hellion who terrorized Darkshire, until he was defeated by forces of the Alliance.
Tobias, as soon as he managed to escape Gilneas with his King and comrades, travelled at once to Duskwood to discover the truth, and found the townsfolk reluctant to speak of Stalvan. Zherron, his curiosity piqued as well, entered the town hall and asked Clerk Daltry for records pertaining to Stalvan, only to learn that the feral worgen of Duskwood had raided Darkshire's town hall, shredding precious records and carrying more into the woods. Deciding to take a gamble, Zherron journeyed into the woods, fighting the ferals as he went (tasked by emissaries of Master Jonathan Carevin, who resided in the largest house in Darkshire, to stem the tide of worgen threatening Darkshire), to retrieve the pages of information pertaining to Stalvan - some faded away, some covered in mud...and some even spattered with blood. It was Stalvan's personal journal, and it told the story of his love for Tilloa and the rage he felt at being spurned. With the completed journal in hand, Zherron returned it to Tobias, who - horrified to discover his brother's actions - gave his ring to Zherron to deliver to Madame Eva and discover the truth.
Eva instructed Zherron to take the ring to Manor Mistmantle and invoke the power within to summon Stalvan. Confronting the undead wretch that had once been his brother, Tobias demanded to know why Stalvan had chosen this path. Seeking to anger his brother and cause him to give in to the mindlessness, Stalvan taunted his brother and sure enough Tobias went into a killing rage, taking his worgen form and charging into Stalvan. Zherron, offering support with his magic, did likewise, until once again Stalvan was left broken on the floor...
The Return of the Hakkari: Venturing into Zul'Gurub
Zherron in the Gurubashi capital of Zul'Gurub
After leaving Duskwood, Zherron ventured into the northern jungles of Stranglethorn Vale to battle the forces of Colonel Kurzen. The Colonel himself was long dead, killed by his own men, but his troops still haunted the north jungles, and the rebel camp near the Duskwood border continued to fight off their threat. While in Kurzen's encampment, Zherron discovered a raptor hatchling that followed him intently through the jungles. Intrigued, the druid brought it back to the rebel camp and began to look to its care.
While exploring troll ruins southwest of the camp, the raptor hatchling picked up a large troll skull, and Zherron was tasked with finding a way of reanimating the essence within by providing a host body. This proved to be a dreadful mistake: The skull belonged to Bloodlord Mandokir, a powerful servant of Hakkar the Soulflayer who had been killed in Zul'Gurub several years before. With physical form again, Mandokir cornered the encampment and demanded the raptor hatchling, which was called Ohgan'aka - daughter of Ohgan, Mandokir's raptor friend, who had carried him into battle when he was slain. After Mandokir retreated into Zul'Gurub, Zherron travelled to Fort Livingston, near the great Sundering that split Stranglethorn Vale in half, where a draenei priestess conducted a ritual to let him see through the raptor's eyes...and eventually take control of it to bring it out of Zul'Gurub.
Though it seemed the plan would be successful, Zherron (controlling Ohgan'aka) was caught at the gates by the spirit of Jin'do the Hexxer, overseeing operations in the once-abandoned city. Though the spell was broken, Zherron learned that the Hexxer planned on resurrecting the slain high priests - Jeklik, Venoxis, Mar'li, Thekal and Arlokk - in a crazed bid to bring back Hakkar, who had been destroyed with the aid of the Zandalar trolls. Grimly determined to prevent that from happening, Zherron ventured into Zul'Gurub and put a damper on that plan by destroying the body of High Priestess Jeklik and seriously damaging the body of High Priest Venoxis, escaping via an airship from the Explorers' League encampment in the Cape of Stranglethorn before Jin'do unleashed his fury.