Chapter Summaries

Yu Lin Bloodhawk arranged for the Seaside Plain to become a free trade district and prepared to take Alleria and the Old Cleric to Kalimdor to find a way to suppress arcane addiction. After the fleet reached Proudmoore, Daelin welcomed the expedition and joined Alleria and Yu Lin Bloodhawk to discuss military matters.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk told Alleria that Quel'Thalas would settle in Quel'Danil Mountain Valley and keep the Seaside Plain as a free trade district under Elven control.
• Alleria insisted that Yu Lin Bloodhawk take the Old Cleric to Kalimdor and arranged for Lor'themar to relieve Sylvanas; Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained that they needed to find a way to suppress arcane addiction before the expedition to Outland.
• Alleria and the Expeditionary Army Corps sailed from Shalandis Isle toward Proudmoore, while Jaina told Lady Daelin that she thought Yu Lin Bloodhawk did not like her.
• After six days, the fleet reached Menethil Harbor, and Daelin welcomed the expedition; Lor'themar and Owl Rangers sailed onward to relieve Sylvanas.
• Daelin hosted a banquet for Alleria and Yu Lin Bloodhawk, which turned into a military conference in the Council Chamber.

Proudmoore learned that two orc legions had entered the Wetlands with ogres and terrifying death knights, prompting its leaders to prepare Menethil Harbor’s defenses. Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained the death knights’ origins, then drifted into thoughts of seafood while the officers planned.

• Five elven gryphon riders reported that two orc legions had entered the Wetlands with ogres, huge wagons, and human-looking cavalry whose icy hooves froze the marshes.
• Daelin condemned the apparent human cavalry, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk identified them as death knights created by placing Shadow Council warlock souls in human warriors’ bodies.
• Alleria, Daelin, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk discussed the danger of the death knights, the unknown contents of the ogres’ wagons, and Menethil Harbor’s defenses.
• Alleria noticed Yu Lin Bloodhawk smiling as he imagined seafood dishes and asked what he was thinking about.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk avoided Alleria’s anger by leaving to cook, while Sylvanas arrived in Menethil and revealed that the orcs were hauling catapults toward the city. She also reported that the Alliance’s position in Arathi remained dire, leaving both fronts bracing for a major battle.

• Alleria sent Yu Lin Bloodhawk away from the officers’ meeting, and he spent several days buying seafood and feasting with his bodyguards.
• Alleria came to see Yu Lin Bloodhawk but found him drunk; she left angrily and avoided him for three days.
• Sylvanas flew into Menethil on Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s gryphon and told Alleria that the orcs were hauling catapults toward the city.
• Sylvanas explained that she recognized the catapults from the orc positions south of the Strait of Hormuz, prompting the officers to question how the orcs would find stones in the marshlands.
• Sylvanas reported that the Alliance’s defensive line in Arathi remained under severe pressure, despite large numbers of troops guarding the strait’s northern shore.

Alleria brought Sylvanas and a group of officers to Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s home, hoping he might suggest how Proudmoore could counter the orcs’ catapults. Yu Lin served them hot pot, but the chapter ended before he gave any military advice.

• Alleria asked Sylvanas how Proudmoore should deal with the approaching orcs, but Sylvanas refused to think through the problem and suggested asking Yu Lin Bloodhawk.
• Daelin proposed visiting Yu Lin for a meal and possibly for advice, and Alleria reluctantly agreed to bring the officers.
• Yu Lin, who had been preparing hot pot, welcomed the group after Alleria said they had come because they were hungry.
• Sylvanas tried to enter the kitchen to ask Yu Lin where the orcs would get stones, but Alleria stopped her and told her to wait.
• Yu Lin served hot pot with raw meat and vegetables, and Sylvanas asked him for wooden chopsticks instead of a knife and fork.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk served Sylvanas and the others hot pot after arguing with Alleria about whether chopsticks or knives and forks were more civilized. Over dinner, he told them the story of the Feast at Hong Gate and began explaining a passage from The Art of War, leaving Sylvanas asking how to apply its advice about caution in warfare.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk argued with Alleria after she called chopsticks barbaric, then gave Sylvanas a pair and defended eating with them.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk served broth to Sylvanas, Alleria, and the others, and the group relaxed as they ate and drank hot pot.
• Sylvanas asked about the Feast at Hong Gate, so Yu Lin Bloodhawk told the story and explained its meaning.
• Sylvanas asked who won between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained how Xiang Yu's arrogance and failure to value capable people contributed to his defeat.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk quoted and explained a passage from The Art of War, and Sylvanas asked how to exercise caution and examine matters closely.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained how timing, terrain, and popular support shaped the war, then joked with Sylvanas and the officers about what the Orcs might launch at Proudmoore. His idle speculation about flammable projectiles alarmed the gathering, while the conversation ended with Sylvanas teasing his idea of attacking with mud.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk argued that the Orcs had the advantage in timing and battlefield morale, while the defenders had stronger terrain and broader support, and should defend until the Orcs lost momentum.
• When Sylvanas asked how to fight at Proudmoore, Yu Lin Bloodhawk admitted he did not know how to conduct a war, and Alleria criticized his lengthy talk as useless.
• Sylvanas asked why the Orcs had brought so many catapults, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk noted that they could launch things besides stones.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk suggested that burning wine or oil could set Menethil ablaze, prompting Alleria and the officers to recognize the danger.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk joked that he would use marsh mud to make the walls slippery, and Sylvanas laughed that the attacking Orcs would fall before reaching them.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk described increasingly brutal ways to defend Menethil against an orc siege, and Alleria challenged his plans with countermeasures. He ended by arguing that he would evacuate the city and use fire and naval bombardment to deny it to the orcs, even at great cost.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk proposed using frozen mud and plague-infected filth as catapult ammunition to destroy Menethil and weaken its defenders.
• When Sylvanas suggested gryphon riders could destroy the catapults, Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained how smoke and archers could defend them.
• Alleria asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk to devise a defense for Menethil, and he proposed burying gunpowder where the orcs might place catapults, then detonating it with cannons and attacking survivors with gryphon riders.
• Alleria countered that she could use an Infernal to expose the buried explosives, so Yu Lin Bloodhawk admitted he would have to endure the catapult assault if the orcs avoided plague.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk said he would evacuate Menethil, set it ablaze if the orcs infected it, and retreat by ship before returning to rebuild.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk concluded that he would use his fleet to bombard the orcs until they abandoned the ruins, spending whatever money it took.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk joked with Sylvanas and Alleria about his lack of resources, then learned that Alleria had agreed to send him tens of thousands of refugees. Sylvanas secured food and tents for forty thousand more refugees, clearing the way for Yu Lin to accept them and prepare to travel to Kalimdor.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk and Sylvanas joked about fighting the orcs without resources until Alleria grew angry and left the meal.
• Sylvanas warned Yu Lin Bloodhawk that Alleria might send him more refugees, and he worried that The Hinterlands could not support them.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk revealed that he had planned to travel to Kalimdor with Sylvanas, prompting her to rush out to stop Alleria from making further promises.
• The next morning, Sylvanas brought Daelin to Yu Lin Bloodhawk and arranged six months of food and military tents for forty thousand refugees.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk agreed to take the refugees and arranged their transport to The Hinterlands, where he planned to develop a free trade district under the protection of Troll Armed Police.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and Sylvanas prepared for a voyage to Kalimdor while refugees continued to leave Proudmoore and Menethil Harbor braced for an orc assault. The orcs arrived before the evacuation was complete, and Tyr's Hand refused to accept more refugees amid overcrowding and public-order problems.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk arranged refugee transports and supplies with Admiral Daelin, then discussed plans to travel to Kalimdor with Sylvanas.
• Sylvanas suggested checking whether two ships in Quel'Thalas were ready, and she and Yu Lin Bloodhawk debated how many soldiers to bring on the voyage.
• Over the following days, refugees left Proudmoore by fleet and fishing boats, while the Proudmoore fleet returned from Lordaeron with gunpowder, fuel, and other supplies.
• Sylvanas explained that explosives had already been buried near likely orc catapult positions and that Scorched Earth would be a last resort.
• The main orc force arrived beneath Menethil Harbor's walls and surrounded the city on three sides while the refugee evacuation remained incomplete.
• Tyr's Hand refused further refugees after taking in more than a hundred thousand, citing overcrowding, public-order problems, and too few troops to maintain control.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk reluctantly brainstormed ways for Sylvanas and Daelin to defend the city gate against the Orc army. Daelin approved his layered defenses and ordered them put in place as the Orcs prepared to attack.

• Daelin asked Yu Lin Bloodhawk to arrange transport for forty thousand refugees from Menethil to The Hinterlands, and Yu Lin agreed.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk, Sylvanas, and Daelin climbed the city wall and surveyed the Orc army gathered outside.
• Daelin described how Orcs had breached Stormwind City, and Sylvanas pressed Yu Lin Bloodhawk to suggest a safe way to defend the gate.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk proposed building a log barrier behind the gate, using fire against a battering ram, and placing cannons behind the barrier as a last defense.
• Daelin praised Yu Lin Bloodhawk's plan and summoned someone to begin carrying it out.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk suggested escape ropes for Menethil Harbor’s gun towers, and Sylvanas ordered them installed. She then had rangers block his way and insisted he stay to help fight the orcs, leaving him protesting that he was her brother-in-law but not yet married to her sister.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk warned that people in the gun towers could be trapped during an Infernal attack or an orc assault and proposed hanging ropes down the city-facing sides.
• Sylvanas accepted Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s suggestion, and Daelin ordered men to deliver rope to every gun tower.
• Sylvanas teased Yu Lin Bloodhawk about staying with them, and he joked that she might make his sister a widow.
• Sylvanas had two rangers prevent Yu Lin Bloodhawk from leaving and explained that his ability to spot enemy weaknesses would help the defenders.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk offered to fetch gryphon riders or return when the battle began, but Sylvanas rejected his attempts to leave.
• Sylvanas reminded Yu Lin Bloodhawk that he was not yet married to her sister.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk joined Sylvanas’s mobile defense squad and avoided a house that was destroyed in the Orcs’ dawn attack. As the fog-shrouded assault struck the city walls, the defenders tried to organize their response, and the Orcs began battering the gate.

• Sylvanas told Yu Lin Bloodhawk that he would serve as deputy captain of her mobile squad with twenty High Rangers, and he protested being drawn into danger again.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk camped beneath the city wall instead of sleeping in the house Daelin had found, and Sylvanas and the Rangers camped there too.
• At dawn, a heavy projectile demolished and set fire to the house, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk and Sylvanas realized they had narrowly escaped being buried inside.
• When Orcs attacked through thick fog, Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the defenders to clear the fog and target Orc spellcasters who might summon Infernals.
• Sylvanas told Daelin to make the human soldiers hold their positions, and Daelin ordered them to defend the walls and prepared the reserves.
• The Orcs’ catapult fire struck the city as the Elf Mages dispersed some fog, and a battering ram began pounding the gate.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk and the defenders repelled the battering ram with explosives after an orc shaman’s lightning killed many soldiers, but the blast left Yu Lin temporarily deaf. As Sylvanas searched for help, infernals appeared to threaten Menethil Harbor’s walls beneath storm clouds.

• Daelin ordered the defenders to fire grapeshot and throw oil and torches at the battering ram, but the flames failed to stop it.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recognized that an orc shaman had unleashed lightning, which struck and killed dozens of human soldiers on the battlements.
• The explosives thrown from the wall detonated, destroying the siege engine and leaving Yu Lin Bloodhawk severely deaf from the blast.
• Sylvanas supported Yu Lin and called for a healing mage, while Daelin said the defenders could not tell whether the shaman had died.
• Sylvanas heard warnings about infernals and saw storm clouds gathering over Menethil Harbor as soldiers and mages fled the walls.

Orc catapults and more than eighty Infernals devastated Menethil Harbor’s walls while orcs stormed the breaches, pushing the defenders toward collapse. Alleria ordered the gryphon riders, mages, and Bloodhawk Burning Legion to counterattack, but an orc lightning spell struck the soldiers surrounding an Infernal.

• Sylvanas stopped Daelin from firing blindly at the hidden catapults and urged him to focus on the Infernals until the fog cleared.
• More than eighty Infernals crashed into Menethil Harbor’s walls, destroying sections and opening breaches for orc infantry to climb through.
• Human shield infantry struggled to hold the Infernals back as orc catapults fired into the city and defenders fought spreading fires.
• Alleria ordered gryphon riders to bomb the orcs, mages to attack the Infernals, and Bloodhawk Burning Legion reserves with armored battle pets to assault the breaches.
• An orc shaman’s chain of lightning struck the human soldiers surrounding an Infernal, dropping them amid screams.

Alleria killed an Orc Shaman and his four shield escorts, while human Paladins stunned and attacked an Infernal on Menethil's wall. As the orc assault continued under spellfire, Alleria still had no word of Sylvanas's strike team.

• Alleria blasted an Orc Shaman's shield formation with an arcane arrow, then killed the Shaman and three surviving Orc Warriors with rapid shots.
• Four human Paladins stunned an Infernal with Hammer of Judgment and surrounded it as Human Soldiers advanced against the Orc Infantry on the battlements.
• Alleria asked the Owl Rangers where Sylvanas's strike team was, and they replied that they had not seen it.
• Elf Mages dispelled the fog and revealed Orc Infantry shield formations sheltering spellcasters at the base of the wall.
• Orc Shamans and Warlocks struck the defenders with Lightning Webs and Seed of Destruction, while human Paladins healed the Human Soldiers.
• The orc assault stalled under the Allied Army's attacks, and Human Soldiers clashed with Orc Infantry across the narrow battlements.

Alleria’s defenders briefly pushed back the orcs at Menethil’s wall, but the Death Knights unleashed black smoke that revived the dead and turned the battle against the humans. Alleria ordered the mages and Rangers to counter the zombies, Death Knights, and climbing orcs as the defenders faced collapse.

• Alleria ordered oil thrown onto the orcs’ shield formations while the elves attacked the orcs who had reached the battlements.
• Human heavy cavalry identified as Death Knights emerged from the fog and revived fallen soldiers with black smoke.
• The reanimated dead attacked their former comrades, spreading panic and throwing the Human Soldiers into chaos.
• Alleria ordered the human Shield Infantry to hold formation and directed the mages to burn the zombies and freeze the orcs below the wall.
• A Ranger told Alleria that the Death Knights were difficult to hit at the wall’s base, so she ordered the Rangers to focus their fire and the fire mages to prepare Rain of Fire.

Sylvanas and Yu Lin Bloodhawk led a strike team to help defend Menethil City’s walls from the Infernals. Yu Lin Bloodhawk devised a way to stun each Infernal and bring it down outside the wall, and the first one toppled onto the Orcs below.

• Alleria learned that Sylvanas and Yu Lin Bloodhawk were behind the city gate treating his injuries, then heard that the Gryphon Riders had arrived.
• After recovering, Yu Lin Bloodhawk joined Sylvanas and twenty High Rangers as they hurried north toward the Infernals attacking the wall.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk recruited six human Paladins and showed them how to use Hammer of Justice to immobilize an Infernal.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk directed three High Rangers to shoot the weakened knee of the stunned Infernal, then told the Paladins to break its leg.
• The Infernal fell rigidly over the wall and crashed down on the Orcs outside.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s squad and the allied army exploited fire and coordinated attacks to turn back the orcs’ assault, though the death knights and catapults remained threats. Alleria ordered the defenders to finish the enemies on the walls and focus their attacks on the Infernals’ heads.

• The paladins immobilized Infernals with Hammer of Judgment while Yu Lin Bloodhawk directed rangers to target their legs, bringing down twenty-seven.
• Gryphon riders and elf mages set the orcs and undead outside the walls ablaze, forcing the death knights to retreat and cutting off enemy reinforcements.
• Orc catapults launched blocks of ice at the walls’ exterior to melt the flames, while Alleria ordered the allied troops to kill enemies on the walls before the fire died down.
• An elf ranger spotted the orc catapults, and the Owl Ranger reported that Sylvanas’s squad had ten Infernals left before reaching the allied forces.
• After hearing how Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s squad fought, Alleria ordered paladins to take turns immobilizing Infernals and mages to target their heads.
• The paladins turned their attention to the orcs and undead between Hammer of Judgment strikes, while elf mages focused powerful attacks on the immobilized Infernals’ heads.

The Allied Army cleared the battlements, but a dispute over burning human corpses led Alleria to ask Daelin for a decision. After Daelin sided with his soldiers, Sylvanas, Alleria, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk secretly prepared an escape route for the Elf Forces.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the human Paladins to help finish off the remaining enemies as the Elves destroyed the Infernals, Orcs, and undead on the walls.
• Alleria ordered the bodies thrown into the fire to prevent the Orc Death Knights from raising them, but the human soldiers burned only Orc corpses.
• Sylvanas urged Alleria to let Daelin decide what to do with the human dead, and Alleria sent him a letter describing the choices.
• Daelin replied that he supported his soldiers' handling of the bodies, and Sylvanas, Alleria, and Yu Lin Bloodhawk met privately in a Gun Tower.
• The three planned a secret retreat route, and Elf Rangers across the city received and discreetly followed their instructions.

Alleria, Sylvanas, Yu Lin Bloodhawk, and Daelin discussed when to trigger the explosives planted beneath the Orc Catapults, concluding they had only one chance to destroy the siege engines. The Orcs began a new assault with ice projectiles, then advanced behind fog as the defenders rushed back to the walls.

• Alleria and Sylvanas studied the Orc Catapult positions and weighed waiting for the southern Catapults to arrive before detonating the explosives.
• Daelin reported that the city gate had been battered down and described the temporary barricade built behind it.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk reasoned that the Orcs would return their southern Catapults to the northern position if it was destroyed, and Daelin realized the defenders had only one chance to attack.
• The Orcs bombarded the walls with huge ice blocks, forcing Daelin to order the soldiers and Elves to shelter inside.
• After the bombardment ended, Daelin and the others returned to the walls as Orc infantry advanced behind fog released by Shamans and Warlocks.