The Face Beneath the Crusader

The ruined streets of Stratholme led into two hostile centers. Rivendare held the undead side; the Scarlet Bastion offered a different enemy under the apparent leadership of Saidan Dathrohan. The paladin’s identity concealed what the crusaders served.

Adventurers pushed through the bastion and confronted its Grand Crusader. The encounter forced Balnazzar to abandon his disguise. The trusted figure had been a dead man’s body used by a dreadlord.

This was not the culling Arthas had carried out years earlier. It was a later struggle over the city’s surviving strongholds, revealing that opposition to the Scourge did not by itself make the Scarlet leadership safe to trust.