This article or section contains lore taken from Warcraft novels or short stories.

Darian Thunderhammer, a human paladin, stumbled into Auberdine heavily wounded. Though not mortally injured, he was incapable of continuing in his mission investigating the ever-growing Darkstrand Cult at the Tower of Althalaxx. He was a capable fighter, and was expected to fare well against a few cultists. However he hadn't expected the intervention of demons. Somehow, the warlock leading the cult had become powerful enough to command over a dozen felhounds: a major threat to the region. Darian used adventurers to find the source of this the cult's power increase, but he knew that a frontal attack would have been suicide. He asked adventurers to infiltrate the cult by disguising themselves as members. The adventurers found that Athrikus, the leader of the cult, had found a powerful gem that allowed him to summon and control demons far beyond his own abilities. They knew if they could destroy the gem, the demons would turn on their former master.^{LoM 13}