Chapter Summaries

A trap left by Kel'Thuzad damaged Ansirem's mage tower, but Dalaran's magical barrier remained intact because its node had been moved to Jaina's tower. As the city relaxed during several days of Scourge harassment, a much stronger explosion shook the Violet Citadel on the fifth day.

• Kel'Thuzad's trap exploded near Ansirem's mage tower, badly damaging it and alarming the mages about Dalaran's barrier.
• Antonidas revealed that the barrier node had been moved to Jaina's mage tower, then confirmed Sandor's suspicion that a Scourge spy had planted the trap.
• Ansirem demanded an investigation, and Dalaran tightened security around mage towers and other important locations.
• The Scourge limited its attacks to routine harassment, causing many lower-ranking mages to grow confident and use the undead as targets for spell practice.
• On the fifth day of the standoff, a powerful explosion shook the Violet Citadel at the center of Dalaran.

Ye Ting suspected the Scourge had infiltrated the Dalaran Vault from underground and stolen Gul'dan's Skull, so he pressed the Council of Six to open it. The seal was lifted, and the people at the entrance were shocked by what they saw inside.

• After a tremor beneath the Violet Citadel, Ye Ting rushed to the Dalaran Vault and learned from its guards that the rumble had come from inside.
• Ye Ting ordered the guards to summon the councilors and sounded the alarm, then deduced that the Scourge might have bypassed the vault seal and stolen Gul'dan's Skull.
• Antonidas, Ansirem, and Modera arrived, and Ye Ting argued that they needed to investigate the vault despite Ansirem's doubts about Dalaran's magical barrier and Modera's objections.
• Antonidas decided to open the vault, and he, Ansirem, and Modera used their magical keys to release the seal.
• The vault door opened, and Ye Ting and the others were shocked by what lay beyond it.

Ye Ting and the Dalaran mages discovered that nerubians had collapsed the treasury and stolen Gul'dan's Skull and the Scepter of Sargeras, likely with help from a former councilor. As they pursued the thieves through a hidden tunnel, Modera's spell triggered a mysterious mechanism.

• Ye Ting identified the web-covered pit beneath Dalaran's treasury as the work of nerubians and led the others down after the thieves.
• Ye Ting and the mages found most of the treasury's ordinary wealth buried in the pit, while the vaults holding Gul'dan's Skull and the Scepter of Sargeras had been emptied.
• Antonidas determined that the two artifact vaults had been opened by unraveling their defenses, and Ye Ting suggested that a former councilor had helped the enemy.
• Ye Ting found a concealed tunnel, and Modera swept away its covering rubble with a powerful Mage Hand spell.
• The spell disturbed the treasure and debris around them, triggering a mysterious change in the treasury.

Ye Ting, Ansirem, and Modera escaped a trap in the treasury while Antonidas stayed behind to fight the molten metal monster. After defeating it, Antonidas realized Kel'Thuzad had once been his student and entered the dark passage, vowing to kill him.

• Modera triggered a trap that sent treasures and rubble flying at the group, but the mages protected themselves.
• A molten metal monster formed and blocked their way, but Antonidas told Ye Ting, Ansirem, and Modera to go ahead while he stayed to fight.
• Antonidas summoned a giant water elemental to hold back the monster, letting the others escape through the steam.
• Antonidas froze the metal monster with a powerful Blizzard and recognized it as one of Kel'Thuzad's creations.
• Antonidas admitted he had once protected Kel'Thuzad after he broke taboos, then entered the dark passage and vowed to kill him.

Ye Ting, Modera, and Archmage Ansirem followed the Nerubians’ tunnel into Dalaran’s sewers and realized the city’s magical barrier might be bypassed through its drainage system. Ye Ting reassured Ansirem that the Scourge could not smuggle in enough forces to conquer Dalaran, and Ansirem identified Lake Lordamere as the sewer outlet.

• Ye Ting, Modera, and Archmage Ansirem followed the Nerubians’ tunnel until it opened into Dalaran’s sewer system.
• Ansirem realized that the Scourge had entered Dalaran through the sewers, exposing a potential weakness in the city’s defenses.
• Ansirem explained that the magical barrier allowed sewage out and filtered incoming matter, while Ye Ting suggested enemies might disguise themselves as water to pass through.
• Ye Ting reassured Ansirem that deceiving the barrier would be costly and could not bring enough Scourge forces into Dalaran to conquer the city.
• Ansirem told Ye Ting that Dalaran’s sewers emptied into Lake Lordamere.

Ye Ting, Ansirem, and Modera followed Nerubian tracks through Dalaran’s sewers while trying to determine whether the creatures were leading them away from the sewer exit. They reached a large crossroads where the stolen artifacts’ excavated earth had been dumped, and Ye Ting found an important clue among the tracks.

• Modera complained about the damp, dark sewers and the undead as Ye Ting led the group along glowing Nerubian footprints.
• Ye Ting explained that Nerubians were living, intelligent creatures that might have a civilization of their own.
• Modera wondered whether the Nerubians had split up or laid a trap, prompting Ye Ting to ask where the sewers connected to Lake Lordamere.
• Ansirem identified the sewer exit on Ye Ting’s three-dimensional model, and Ye Ting realized their route was not heading toward it.
• Ye Ting, Ansirem, and Modera continued following the tracks and reached a spacious sewer crossroads piled with fresh earth.
• Ye Ting searched the chaotic tracks at the crossroads and found a crucial trace.

Ye Ting, Ansirem, and Modera tracked the Nerubians through Dalaran’s sewers to the exit at Lake Lordamere, where Modera destroyed the spiders blocking their path. They found tracks showing the enemy had already left with the artifact, but the three mages continued in pursuit to stop the demon-summoning plan.

• Ye Ting led Ansirem and Modera through a hidden passage, explaining that the foul smell and sewer routes helped him identify the Nerubians’ escape path.
• The three reached Dalaran’s main drainage channel and followed the Nerubians’ webbing toward the sewer exit.
• Ye Ting, Ansirem, and Modera found floating ice at the exit and confronted a formation of enormous Nerubians.
• Modera attacked the Nerubians with a barrage of Fireballs, destroying the group while Ye Ting and Ansirem watched.
• Ye Ting saw that the Nerubians’ tracks led away from Dalaran and concluded that the enemy had likely already taken the artifact.
• Ansirem and Modera agreed to continue pursuing the enemy to prevent its plan to summon demons.

Ye Ting, Modera, and Ansirem encountered the Crypt Lord and its nerubians while pursuing the stolen artifact, then faced the legendary lich Kel'Thuzad. Antonidas arrived and confronted his former associate, confirming Kel'Thuzad was behind the attack on Dalaran.

• Ye Ting sensed underground tremors and realized the target they were chasing might be waiting nearby.
• A massive Crypt Lord emerged from the ground with nerubians surrounding Ye Ting, Modera, and Ansirem.
• Ye Ting concluded the artifact was not with the nerubians and prepared to move on, but a lich blocked their way.
• Ye Ting recognized the lich as a legendary foe, and the lich identified him as Sandor Liver and boasted that Dalaran's destruction was inevitable.
• Antonidas arrived and confronted Kel'Thuzad, accusing him of causing the events threatening Dalaran.

Antonidas revealed that the lich behind Dalaran’s troubles was his former colleague Kel'Thuzad, and the two prepared to fight. Kel'Thuzad had set the trap with death knights ready to use Anti-Magic Shell against Dalaran’s mages.

• Ansirem and Modera realized that Kel'Thuzad had masterminded the Cult of the Damned’s rise and the Scourge’s successful attacks on Dalaran.
• Kel'Thuzad learned that Antonidas had suspected his identity and wondered why he had been allowed to steal the artifact.
• Antonidas mourned Kel'Thuzad’s transformation into a lich, while Kel'Thuzad praised the Lich King for granting him new life.
• Antonidas raised his staff to destroy Kel'Thuzad, and Kel'Thuzad accepted that their reunion would end in a fight to the death.
• Kel'Thuzad revealed that he had prepared death knights whose Anti-Magic Shells could counter mages’ short-range spells.

Antonidas, Ye Ting, Ansirem, and Modera fought Kel'Thuzad’s undead forces on the lakeshore, with Antonidas pressing toward his former student. Modera analyzed the death knights’ Anti-Magic Shells while Ansirem’s Wall of Mana destroyed the first death knight to cross it.

• Kel'Thuzad ordered the nerubians and death knights to charge the four mages, and Antonidas advanced toward him.
• Ye Ting cut down the first nerubian while Ansirem shielded himself and Modera, who blasted the spiders with enhanced Arcane Missiles.
• Kel'Thuzad pulled the surviving nerubians back after Modera’s spell killed many of them, and the Anti-Magic Shell-protected death knights took the front line.
• Modera tested the death knights’ shields with Arcane Missiles, deduced that high-circle spells could overcome them, and began casting one.
• Ansirem completed a Wall of Mana, and the first death knight that entered it disintegrated along with his Anti-Magic Shell.

Ye Ting fought the undead as a melee mage, combining swordsmanship with spells to overcome death knights’ anti-magic shields. While Ansirem and Modera watched in astonishment, Kel'Thuzad sent the Crypt Lord Tefis to attack Antonidas, leaving the old archmage facing a dangerous assault.

• Ye Ting enchanted his sword with [Anti-Undead] and swiftly cut down nerubians while using [Burning Hands] against another.
• Death knights attacked Ye Ting, but he used [Repulsion] to send them sprawling, then slit the throats of two before they could recover.
• Ye Ting continued combining sword strikes with rapidly cast spells, astonishing Ansirem and Modera.
• Kel'Thuzad avoided a direct duel with Antonidas and ordered the Crypt Lord Tefis to attack him.
• Tefis lunged at Antonidas and brought its scythe-like foreclaws down on the old archmage.

Antonidas used Mirror Image to evade the Crypt Lord’s attack, then summoned an arcane construct to stop its Impale and confront it. With the construct engaging the Crypt Lord, Antonidas and Kel'Thuzad were left in a one-on-one fight.

• The Crypt Lord struck Antonidas, but the apparent victim shattered into light as a Mirror Image.
• Kel'Thuzad detected Antonidas’s concealment and blasted the hidden mage with Death Coil, revealing him behind a magical shield.
• Kel'Thuzad sensed Antonidas summoning something and ordered Tefis to interrupt the spell.
• Tefis used Impale to send earth spikes toward Antonidas, but Antonidas completed his spell and summoned a towering arcane construct.
• Antonidas ordered the construct to attack the Crypt Lord, restoring the fight between Antonidas and Kel'Thuzad to a one-on-one.

Antonidas confronted Kel'Thuzad as the battle turned against their side, and Kel'Thuzad revealed his lich-gained powers. Kel'Thuzad trapped Antonidas in Death and Decay, but a crimson spark landed on him just as he was about to die.

• Antonidas taunted Kel'Thuzad over his struggling allies, and Kel'Thuzad vowed to kill him and offer his death to his new master.
• Kel'Thuzad claimed that becoming a lich had let him surpass humanity and unleashed a sudden blast of frost at Antonidas.
• Antonidas used a Wall of Fire scroll to block Kel'Thuzad's Frost Nova.
• Kel'Thuzad chanted Death and Decay, and black roses spread around Antonidas, draining his life despite his magical shield.
• Antonidas began rapidly aging toward death, but a crimson spark drifted over and landed on his body.

Ye Ting saved Antonidas from Kel'Thuzad’s Death and Decay with a spark from Alexstrasza, the Life-Binder. Kel'Thuzad abandoned his ambush and fled after Antonidas stood between him and Ye Ting, and the Crypt Lord escaped as well.

• Ye Ting placed a spark of Alexstrasza’s life-giving flame on Antonidas, restoring his strength enough to escape Death and Decay’s reach.
• Ye Ting warned Antonidas that the flame would not last, and Antonidas hurried out of the spell’s area.
• Kel'Thuzad confronted Ye Ting about the flame, then prepared to attack him.
• Antonidas defended Ye Ting despite his injuries, while Ansirem and Modera cleared away the surrounding undead.
• Kel'Thuzad vanished in black mist, and the Crypt Lord fled underground behind a swarm of decaying locusts.

After Kel'Thuzad escaped, Antonidas collapsed from the effects of Death and Decay and admitted that age and past mistakes had weakened his leadership. He temporarily entrusted the chairmanship of the Kirin Tor Council of Six to Ye Ting, who accepted so he could prepare Dalaran for Archimonde's coming attack.

• Ye Ting dispelled his prepared Stasis Spell after Kel'Thuzad and the crypt lord escaped, then helped the collapsed Antonidas with a life-restoring potion.
• Antonidas blamed himself for failing to stop Kel'Thuzad and for the stolen vault, while Ye Ting and the others tried to reassure him.
• Antonidas said he could no longer lead Dalaran through a rapidly changing crisis and temporarily entrusted the chairmanship to Ye Ting.
• Modera and Ansirem agreed to support Ye Ting, and he accepted the responsibility in order to mobilize Dalaran's resources against Archimonde.
• Modera took Antonidas to recover and reminded Ye Ting that the Scourge had Gul'dan's Skull and might use it to summon a demon.

Ye Ting took Antonidas’s place as acting Speaker and summoned Dalaran’s leaders to prepare for the Scourge’s threat. He announced that Gul'dan's Skull and the Scepter of Sargeras had been stolen and that Antonidas had been gravely wounded, leaving the council chamber in an uproar.

• Antonidas entrusted Ye Ting with the Speaker’s ring and authority.
• Ye Ting returned to Dalaran to prepare for the possibility of Archimonde’s summoning and gathered the city’s leaders in the Violet Citadel.
• Ye Ting took the Speaker’s seat and used his imposing presence to silence the room.
• Ye Ting announced that the Scourge had infiltrated Dalaran through the sewers and stolen Gul'dan's Skull and the Scepter of Sargeras.
• Ye Ting revealed that Antonidas had been grievously wounded by a legendary lich, prompting an uproar among the attendees.

Ye Ting warned Dalaran’s council that the theft of Gul'dan's Skull and the Scepter of Sargeras meant an invasion by demons was nearly inevitable. After silencing the chamber with a mysterious display of power, he announced that Antonidas had made him Acting Speaker and placed him in charge of Dalaran’s defense plans.

• Modera and Ansirem confirmed that Antonidas had been seriously injured and could not oversee Dalaran’s defenses.
• Ye Ting argued that the Scourge and the Orcs behind the earlier artifact theft shared a goal: summoning demons from another world.
• The council erupted into debate over Ye Ting’s prediction, and he silenced the chamber with a forceful, unexplained display of pressure.
• Modera, Ansirem, Kael'thas, and Dreiden confirmed that the Council of Six had agreed that the demons’ arrival was nearly inevitable.
• Ye Ting showed the Speaker’s ring and announced that Antonidas had entrusted him with the role of Acting Speaker and responsibility for Dalaran’s defense plans.

Ye Ting won the support of Dalaran’s councilors and upper ranks and became acting chairman. He announced that he planned to turn Dalaran into a floating city to protect it from Archimonde and the Scourge, and most mages reacted with enthusiasm.

• Dalaran’s older archmages defended Ye Ting against younger critics, and supporters in the hall rallied behind him.
• Ansirem, Modera, Kael'thas, and Dreiden endorsed Ye Ting as acting chairman, settling his appointment.
• Ye Ting accepted the leadership burden and announced his plan to make Dalaran a floating city.
• Ye Ting explained that a mobile, airborne Dalaran could protect the city and serve as a powerful fortress against the Legion and other enemies.
• Most of the mages present welcomed the floating-city idea as a fitting display of magical power.

Ye Ting proposed turning Dalaran into a floating city, and the council worried that designing one would take too long to stop the undead from summoning the Burning Legion. He revealed a tested blueprint based on his experience with Xianyang, leaving the four councilors convinced that construction could begin soon.

• The councilors pointed out that building a floating city would take too long compared with the undead's preparations to summon the Burning Legion.
• Ye Ting assured them he had come prepared and unfolded a blueprint depicting Dalaran as a floating city.
• Ye Ting activated the blueprint, revealing a three-dimensional model with an inverted-cone foundation and a network of magical nodes and force fields.
• Kael'thas and the other councilors praised the design, while Ye Ting explained that simulation tests had already proven its reliability.
• The councilors declared the blueprint made the project highly feasible, unaware that Ye Ting had adapted the plan from his earlier work on Xianyang.

Ye Ting organized Dalaran’s rapid conversion into a floating city by incorporating a bowl-shaped force field into its magical barrier. After one day of work, Dalaran’s basic transformation was complete, with foundation reinforcement left for later.

• Ye Ting took command as acting Speaker and assigned Dalaran’s people and resources to the construction project.
• Ye Ting chose to raise the existing city rather than build it atop a newly prepared floating foundation.
• Ye Ting adapted the magical barrier’s underground force field to separate and carry Dalaran’s foundation into the air.
• Ye Ting enclosed the anti-gravity field within the barrier to reduce its magical power consumption.
• Dalaran’s people worked in three shifts, and Ye Ting completed the city’s basic conversion into a floating city within a day.