One Night in Karazhan, and the World (of WarCraft) is your Oyster
The latest Hearthstone adventure (not expansion!) has been announced, and this one should be the best to come yet; One Night in Karazhan is the theme of the next adventure!
For those of you who might not remember back to the mountains of WarCraft lore, Karazhan is the home of Medivh, who is the sixth, and current, Guardian of Tirisfal. The Guardian of Tirisfal is a role given to a specific champion, who is tasked with the important task of secretly fighting the Burning Legion, which is a hoard of space-aliens and demons that seemingly has no end.
Of course, the timing of the release of this adventure could not be more perfect; Medivh and Karazhan were focused on very heavily in the recently-released WarCraft movie, and the upcoming World of WarCraft expansion (Legion) will return focus to the modern day, and Medivh will play a huge part in the story to come.
Karazhan is a huge, lavish tower belonging to Medivh, and prior to accepting the position as the Guardian of Tirisfal, Medivh was quite Gatsby-like in his life. Medivh liked to party a lot and enjoy himself (or so he was written), and typically had large, lavish parties at Karazhan. So, the theme of the new expansion will combine Medivh, his tower, and the patrons/residents of Karazhan, all while delivering some new content to Hearthstone players. Of course, the “One Night in Karazhan” theme is also a nod to the song “One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head, and the entirety of the adventure seems to have taken on a disco/70’s theme. The storyline behind the Adventure will be that Medivh has gone missing, and it is up to the player to defeat each boss and subsequently find where Medivh is.
There will be four wings in Karazhan (keep in mind the theme will be “One Night in Karazhan,” so the Karazhan we will be exploring in Hearthstone will be different from the readily available one that you can visit right now on World of WarCraft). These are the Parlor, the Opera, the Menagerie, and the Spire.
If you need a quick refresher, the Parlor is the lower level of Karazhan and was where all the guests were entertained and most of the party was thrown. Karazhan also had an opera house, which was one of the most memorable boss fights of all time in World of WarCraft – definitely expect to see the return of The Big Bad Wolf, Romulo and Julianne, and the Wizard of Oz, starring Dorothee and the evil Crone. The Menagerie is the location for all of the mythical and magical beasts under Medivh’s watchful eye, such as magical rats, large spiders, and their caretakers. The Spire represents the very top of Karazhan, which is where the intrigue really starts to take off; the Spire represents the ascent into the “twisting nether,” which is essentially a void in time and space where the Burning Legion travels through. The Spire will consist of Karazhan’s final bosses, including Prince Malchezaar. However, Blizzard has done something very special for this adventure and included an additional prologue mission, which will come out a full week before the release of Karazhan and will not require any purchase whatsoever.
With the release of the new adventure, we will get all the typical goodies; new legendaries, new cards, a new game board (hopefully better than Whispers of the Old Gods’ board), and a new portal mechanic. The new portal mechanic has not been specified upon yet, but the focus will be on playing spells that will unleash magic and summon a variety of random minions to the field.
Karazhan is an otherwise notable name and place in the world of WarCraft (no pun intended), so this should make for quite an exciting tale. Karazhan has been receiving a lot of love lately, as in the upcoming Legion expansion, players will revisit Karazhan to obtain their artifact weapons, as well as visit the tower for various storyline purposes relating to Medivh and the imminent invasion of the Burning Legion.
Karazhan has been confirmed with a launch date of August 11, meaning the arrival of the adventure is in less than two weeks, so make sure to start saving your in-game gold now. The first wing launches on August 11th with openings every subsequent week after (until all 4 wings are opening, meaning the last wing opens on September 8th). Each wing will be available for 700 in-game gold, $7.99 per wing, or the entire adventure can be purchased for a lump sum of $24.99. Amazon Coins CAN be used on the Hearthstone Adventures as well, and will reward you with a rebate for the purchase.
