Chapter Summaries

Yu Lin Bloodhawk prepared the Elves for another Orc attack while trying to understand the enemy’s silence, then used a Gryphon Rider Bodyguard’s advice to anticipate a nighttime assault. The Orcs attacked with disciplined shield formations that blunted the Elven Mages’ Blizzard, leaving the Elves facing advancing steel fortresses.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the Rangers to prepare Gnome Land Mines and Poison Needles, while keeping the Elven forces ready for the Orcs’ next attack.
• When the Orcs remained inactive, Yu Lin Bloodhawk arranged for part of the Elven force to rest and ordered the Rangers to keep their armored Battle Pets close.
• Gryphon Rider Bodyguards reported that Wolf Riders were heading toward the border, and one predicted the Orcs would attack at night to negate the Elves’ use of colored linen strips.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk consulted the Gryphon Rider Bodyguard about possible Orc tactics and gathered his commanders to plan their defenses.
• After nightfall, a hundred Orc Shield Infantry escorted three Warlocks and a Shaman toward the Elves in disciplined formation.
• The Elven Arcane Mages cast Blizzard, but the Orcs raised interlocking shields that blocked most of the icicles and advanced as steel fortresses.

The High Elves broke through three Orc iron shield fortresses with Concussive Shots and attacks fired through the resulting gaps. The fourth fortress withstood their assault long enough for its Warlocks to summon three Infernals, forcing the Elves to retreat.

• The Elf combat commander ordered Rangers to stagger the front shields with Concussive Shots while other Rangers and Arcane Mages attacked through the gaps.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the Rangers disrupted the first Orc formation, then Arcane Shots and area spells destroyed it and two more fortresses, killing three hundred Orc Shield Infantry, nine Warlocks, and three Shamans.
• The fourth Orc fortress endured the Elves' spells, and an Arcane Mage detected that its Warlocks were summoning Infernals.
• The combat commander ordered a retreat, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk withdrew with the others as three Infernals crashed into the ground where the Elves had gathered.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk helped the elves fight off three Infernals, killing one with four Arcane Shots to the head. After recovering from the mana drain, he sensed that the remaining Infernals’ knee joints were close to breaking.

• The acting commander ordered the elves to focus their attacks on the three advancing Infernals and called for the Dwarf Gryphon Riders.
• The Rangers and mages slowed and attacked the Infernals, while Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked the battle commander where their weak points were.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk fired four Arcane Shots at a slowed Infernal’s head, killing it, then drank a Mana Recovery Potion after exhausting his mana.
• The acting commander rallied the stunned elves, and they intensified their attacks on the two remaining Infernals as the Orcs advanced their ironshield fortress.
• After the dizziness faded, Yu Lin Bloodhawk sensed that the remaining Infernals’ targeted knee joints were riddled with cracks.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk discovered that arrows lodged in an Infernal’s damaged knee could make its leg crumble, while Gnome Land Mines devastated the Orcs’ Iron Shield Fortress. The remaining Orc formations halted and regrouped as the Elves pressed their attack.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk shot three arrows into an Infernal’s cracked knee and ordered the Elves to stop attacking it so he could test his theory.
• The Infernal’s knee crumbled under its weight, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk directed the Elves to attack its head.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk embedded three arrows at critical points in the second Infernal’s leg, then warned that Orc Shamans might heal it.
• Five Gnome Land Mines exploded inside the approaching Orc Iron Shield Fortress, killing or wounding most of its packed heavy infantry.
• The second Infernal fell as its leg gave way, while the remaining Orc Iron Shield Fortress formations halted and gathered into two lines.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s forces struggled to stop the orcs’ Infernals and advancing iron shield fortresses, which the Shamans kept healing. After considering retreat, Yu Lin spotted a possible way to disrupt the formation and ordered the elves to dig up the narrow road at Gourd Waist.

• The orcs summoned sixteen Infernals, which rose from craters in front of their iron shield fortresses and advanced toward the elves.
• The Dwarf Gryphon Riders arrived and struck the Infernals with Hammers of Moradin, but Orc Shamans healed them from behind the shield formations.
• The Infernals cleared the elves’ minefields while their fel fire neutralized the poison needles, and the iron shield fortresses continued advancing.
• The Temporary Combat Commander asked whether the elves should fall back, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk acknowledged that their Incendiary Bombs alone would not be enough.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk saw the fortresses struggle through the Infernals’ craters and ordered the elves to make the narrowest stretch of road at Gourd Waist uneven.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk exploited the uneven ground to stall the Orc Iron Shield Fortress formations while Elves and Wildhammer Dwarf Gryphon Riders attacked their Infernals. After the allies destroyed seven Infernals, the Orcs began advancing again, and Yu Lin ordered the High Rangers to use only as many Arcane Shots as needed.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recognized that the scattered Orc formations would struggle to stay aligned on uneven ground and ordered his forces to watch for the Orc main force advancing.
• Yu Lin directed the Wildhammer Dwarf Gryphon Riders to focus their attacks on one Infernal at a time while the Elves and Orc Shamans contested each other with damage and healing.
• The Gryphon Riders killed six Infernals, but Orc formations converged to bring more Shamans within healing range and resumed advancing.
• The Gryphon Riders nearly killed a seventh Infernal, and Yu Lin and six High Rangers destroyed its head with simultaneous Arcane Shots before the Orc Shamans could save it.
• Yu Lin told the High Rangers that three Arcane Shots would have sufficed and ordered them to use only the number he specified next time.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk led Rangers in precisely timed attacks that destroyed several Infernals despite the Orc Shamans’ healing. As the elves retreated to Small Gourd Belly, his group landed one last coordinated attack and withdrew, exhilarated by the kills.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk coordinated six High Rangers and two Arcane Attack Mages to destroy an Infernal’s head before the Orc Shamans could heal it.
• The elves kept delivering finishing blows to the Infernals, and an Orc commander ordered more Infernals summoned to drive them back.
• When Yu Lin Bloodhawk learned the elves were retreating, he gathered twelve mid-ranking Rangers to attack another Infernal under the Wildhammer Dwarf Gryphon Riders’ assault.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk timed nineteen Arcane Shots to pass through a gap in the Infernal’s raised arm and shatter its already damaged head.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk led his group back toward Small Gourd Belly as a Wildhammer Dwarf Gryphon Rider complained that the explosion had nearly hit him.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked the Rangers whether taking potshots felt good, and a High Ranger said destroying an Infernal with one arrow was deeply satisfying.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the elves lured the orcs’ Infernals into Small Gourd Belly and attacked them with magic, Gryphon Riders, and High Rangers. With twelve Infernals still standing and his High Rangers low on mana, Yu Lin told them to conserve their Arcane Shots.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk devised a plan for Gryphon Riders to bomb the orcs’ iron shield formations at Gourd Waist when rough terrain forced gaps between their shields.
• The elves retreated as the orcs advanced, then surrounded twenty Infernals in Small Gourd Belly while elven mages kept Orc Shamans from reaching them.
• One hundred Wildhammer Dwarf Gryphon Riders attacked the Infernals with their Hammer of Moradin Machine Guns as the elves cast focused spells.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk led six High Rangers in exploiting openings in the Infernals, helping bring them down until only twelve remained.
• After the six High Rangers spent most of their mana, Yu Lin told them to use fewer Arcane Shots, though one Ranger insisted they could keep shooting.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s forces destroyed the Orc advance through Gourd Waist with Gryphon bombs and Elf magic while finishing off the Infernals. The Orcs halted their assault for the rest of the night, and Yu Lin prepared traps in case they attacked again.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk directed the Elves to cripple the Infernals’ legs while preserving their mana, as the Elves and Wildhammer Dwarf Gryphon Riders reduced the Infernal force.
• Six Gryphon Riders bombed six Orc Ironshield Fortress formations advancing through Gourd Waist, scattering the front ranks and wounding the rear ones.
• Elf Gryphon Riders dropped Incendiary Bombs on the damaged formations, and Elf Mages followed with Rain of Fire that killed more than six hundred Orcs.
• The Orc Chieftain refused to send troops into the marsh or through the trapped, uneven passage, and watched as the Elves killed the remaining Infernals.
• After the Orcs stopped attacking, Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered a Five-Element Poison Needle Trap placed in Small Gourd Belly and Gnome Land Mines buried at Gourd Waist.
• The Elves stayed alert through the night, but the Orcs did not attack again.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the elves eased their standoff with the orcs by exchanging gifts and trading goods across Gourd Waist. The bartering ended when the elves’ Temporary Combat Commander discovered they had traded away many recovery potions, including Mana Recovery Potions that could strengthen the orcs’ spellcasters.

• After discovering the Poison Needles had been replaced by Linen Strips, the orcs and elves held their positions across Gourd Waist for three days.
• When an orc sent Yu Lin Bloodhawk a note asking both sides to stop shooting, Yu Lin agreed, and the soldiers gradually moved closer to the buffer zone.
• An Owl Ranger traded Magic Spring Ham for dried Jamfruit, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk recognized the fruit’s underwater-breathing effect and confiscated it.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk offered the orcs lesser Life Potions in exchange for dried Jamfruit, prompting the Orc Chieftain to collect the fruit and both sides to begin bartering.
• After elves traded dozens of Lesser Mana Recovery Potions and even more Lesser Life Recovery Potions for orc goods, the Temporary Combat Commander ordered the trading stopped and confronted Yu Lin Bloodhawk.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk suggested retreating, but an elven Gryphon Rider arrived from the rear before the commander decided how to respond.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk's forces withdrew after helping evacuate the Wildhammer civilians, leaving Gnome Land Mines behind for the Orcs. At Menethil Harbor, Yu Lin met Alleria and Daelin Proudmoore, then promoted his expensive Paladin equipment as the Alliance's war preparations continued.

• After the Wildhammer civilians reached Menethil Harbor, Yu Lin Bloodhawk and his officers buried the Gnome Land Mines and withdrew under cover of darkness.
• The Orc Chieftain found the elves gone and discovered their warning flag about more than two hundred buried mines.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk returned to Menethil Harbor, where Alleria praised his forces for holding off the Orcs for more than ten days.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk deflected credit for the campaign to the acting battlefield commander, while Daelin Proudmoore asked about the battle and its casualties.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk told Daelin Proudmoore that his fleet protected trade and advertised six hundred rare-grade Paladin equipment sets being forged for the Alliance.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and Daelin discussed moving refugees from Menethil Harbor to The Hinterlands, where food supplies were already stretched by a growing population. The chapter left Yu Lin Bloodhawk considering how to reorganize labor and farming to feed them.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk told Daelin that dwarves and High Elves had begun crafting six hundred Rare paladin armor sets, though he did not know who would buy them.
• Mez'dra said half the Wildhammer people had been sent off and asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk to provide temporary housing, while Yu Lin worried about feeding the newcomers.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed to use Daelin's transport ships to carry Wildhammer people to The Hinterlands, and Daelin asked him to take in more refugees from Menethil Harbor.
• Daelin proposed sending fifty thousand people, but Mez'dra explained that Quel'Danil already supplied food to about four hundred thousand people, including trolls and refugees.
• Daelin said Southshore and Tarren Mill were overcrowded and refugees from Arathi lacked confidence in their defenses, prompting Yu Lin Bloodhawk to consider reorganizing The Hinterlands' labor and food production.
• Alleria asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk what he was thinking about.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed to take in refugees from Proudmoore, provided Daelin supplied rations and a list of names, and Daelin offered to pay. Yu Lin and Mez'dra planned settlements for the Wildhammer Dwarves and decided to begin building a fortress at the entrance to Quel'Danil Mountain Valley.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk considered feeding more people and suggested buying food to ship to the Hinterlands, while Alleria worried about their dwindling funds.
• Yu Lin agreed to accept refugees from Proudmoore and asked Daelin to send shipbuilders and provide three months of rations for each refugee; Daelin eagerly offered to pay.
• Daelin asked to send his wife and daughter Jaina to the Hinterlands, but Yu Lin advised him to send Jaina to Dalaran or Lordaeron instead.
• Alleria went with Daelin to meet Jaina while Yu Lin and Mez'dra discussed how to settle the Wildhammer Dwarves.
• Yu Lin and Mez'dra tentatively assigned the Harbor to children and elderly dwarves and Quel'Danil City to dwarves who could forge weapons, then planned to build the Valley Entrance Fortress with the elderly dwarves overseeing troll workers.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk discussed food and relocation plans, then tried to dissuade Alleria and Daelin from sending Jaina to the Hinterlands by pointing out its lack of schools and proper teachers. Jaina admired Yu Lin and misinterpreted his joke about his value, leaving him embarrassed as everyone else laughed.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk and his companion planned to keep people at the harbor, reinforce Aerie Peak with dwarf soldiers, and relocate residents there gradually once construction and food production improved.
• Alleria brought Daelin, his wife, and Jaina to Yu Lin and said she had promised to take them to the Hinterlands.
• Yu Lin raised concerns about Jaina’s education and manners, but Daelin and his wife agreed that she would be happier among other children than alone in a palace.
• Jaina called Yu Lin amazing after Daelin praised him for helping feed four hundred thousand people, while Yu Lin insisted he was only a nobody.
• Jaina worked out that Yu Lin’s thousand pieces at ten gold coins each were worth ten thousand gold coins and declared him expensive, prompting everyone but Yu Lin and Jaina to laugh.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the others evacuated people from Menethil Harbor to the Hinterlands while Jaina amused the fleet with her antics. After arriving, Yu Lin Bloodhawk began planning their next steps, but officials told him nearly sixty thousand newcomers needed housing.

• Jaina joked with Yu Lin Bloodhawk and insisted her father should buy him to help feed Menethil Harbor, while Alleria teased that she had already bought him.
• Ten thousand ships departed Menethil Harbor, and two days later Alleria's elf fleet arrived with additional transports and warships.
• The elves and Wildhammer Dwarves boarded the fleet, while Yu Lin Bloodhawk and Mez'dra discussed why the orcs had not attacked; the orcs were actually waiting for reinforcements.
• The fleet carried Alleria, Jaina, and her mother to the Hinterlands over five days, with Jaina entertaining everyone aboard.
• After landing, Yu Lin Bloodhawk met with Mez'dra and the officials to discuss preparations, but they warned him that the settlement lacked housing for nearly sixty thousand arrivals.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk struggled to house the huge influx of humans and Wildhammer Dwarves, clearing buildings and relocating troops in Quel'Danil City. While arranging accommodations, he discovered that trolls had planted countless tong millet trees outside the city and villagers were grafting breadfruit onto them.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk assigned the Proudmoore humans to villages and ordered construction crews to build homes, while he arranged temporary housing for the Wildhammer Dwarves and Expeditionary Army Corps elves.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the Council cleared habitable buildings in Quel'Danil City and moved the Military District troops into crowded quarters on the first level to make room for the dwarves.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk kept the Wildhammer Dwarves apart from the humans because he feared conflict and another riot among the newcomers and existing residents.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk noticed a vast grove outside Quel'Danil City and learned that Evil Spikes and the trolls had planted tong millet trees for years under his old orders.
• An officer told Yu Lin Bloodhawk that villagers from Elf Village were grafting breadfruit onto the trees, and that the planting had stopped only after the Vilebranch trolls left the valley.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk inspected the grafted breadfruit trees outside the city and learned that some were already flowering, delighting him with the prospect of an early harvest. He also agreed to build villages for Old Elf Village residents and their relatives, though housing was temporarily tight because Wildhammer Dwarves had arrived.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk toured the vast groves of grafted breadfruit trees and learned that villagers were pruning branches to graft onto more Tong Millet trees.
• An old villager explained that the grafted trees were growing quickly and that some had begun producing flower buds.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk examined a tiny flower bud, and the elves confirmed it was genuine, making him overjoyed.
• An old villager asked whether Old Elf Village residents could move to the area, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed to build several villages for them and their relatives.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk remembered that Wildhammer Dwarves had made housing scarce, but promised to gather workers to build an elf village so the new arrivals could move in.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk organized work on the tong millet groves, weapons production, and Wildhammer Dwarf settlement while planning a fortress at the entrance to Quel'Danil Mountain Valley. At a Council meeting, he proposed turning the valley into Quel'Danil City's secure hinterland, and the measured tong millet acreage thrilled the councilors.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered Gryphon Riders to measure the tong millet plantings and reassigned the Dire Wolf and Snow Leopard squadrons to protect villagers grafting breadfruit onto the saplings.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk visited the War God Armor workshop and learned the Lyk Brothers had gone to Adventure Island for equipment while Wildhammer Dwarves and elf mages made molds.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk learned Christine's bowmaking workshop had only two hundred workers and decided against recruiting elves from the Harbor villages for now.
• Mez'dra sent thirty-two hundred Wildhammer Dwarf soldiers to Aerie Peak with grain and brought more than ten thousand Wildhammer Dwarves to Quel'Danil City to support production.
• Mez'dra left a hundred Gryphon Riders to survey the valley entrance before returning to Aerie Peak, and the riders began preparing fortress plans.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk presented his plan for a Valley Entrance Fortress and a network of villages and trade areas across the valley, and the councilors reacted with excitement to the measured tong millet acreage.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk redirected workers to secure Quel'Danil Mountain Valley, found a role for the female bears, and promised villages to Evil Spikes and the other trolls. Alleria then asked him to take her and her companions by ship to the front at the Strait of Hormuz the next day.

• The Council postponed construction in Quel'Danil City and assigned workers to build elf villages and a fortress at the Valley Entrance.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk approved Xingluoge's plan to assign the female bears to protect the workers grafting trees in the Mountain Valley.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk praised Evil Spikes for an unknown service, but Evil Spikes could not think of a reward to request.
• After hearing that human fishermen needed village land, Evil Spikes asked for a village, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk promised five villages for him and the other trolls.
• Alleria asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk to take her and her companions by ship to the front at the Strait of Hormuz the next day, and he dismissed the village planner so they could talk.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk persuaded Alleria to send the Quel'Thalas Expeditionary Army Corps to Proudmoore rather than the Arathi Strait, while he planned a separate expedition to Kalimdor. He also revealed plans to fortify Quel'Danil Mountain Valley and turn its vast breadfruit harvest into a food-producing elven homeland.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk warned Alleria that the Expeditionary Army Corps could be isolated or blamed at the Arathi Strait, and urged her to support Proudmoore instead.
• Alleria agreed to consider the plan as Yu Lin Bloodhawk offered two small carrier groups and explained that he intended to travel to Kalimdor to seek a way to ease the high elves' arcane addiction.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk said he would take Zuga and the City Lord Guard to Kalimdor after the Garrison Force replaced them at the fortress construction site.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk told Alleria that 400,000 mu of breadfruit trees had been planted in Quel'Danil Mountain Valley and that he planned to build 300 elven villages there.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained that most trolls and construction workers would be reassigned to build the fortress and villages, with work beginning once the Wildhammer Dwarves finished their plans.