Chapter Summaries

Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s troops found a golden pearl and hundreds of others while searching the Murloc settlement, but he declined to raid nearby villages because his forces had to remain ready to support the mission. Alleria and Sylvanas’s army continued its march as Gryphon Rider reports revealed the weakened Orc retreat and its Death Knights’ icy route.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk opened a Murloc treasure chest and found a golden pearl among six pearls hidden in a clam shell.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered his soldiers to search the settlement, and they demolished huts and confiscated more than three hundred pearls.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk turned down a suggestion to sweep nearby Murloc villages so the Gryphon Riders could rest and remain available for support.
• Alleria and Sylvanas led the elven Expeditionary Army Corps on a full day's march and camped on dry ground after dark.
• Gryphon Rider reports said the Orc force had been devastated by fire, fewer than a third of its troops remained, and between fifty and a hundred Death Knights led the retreat by freezing their route with Path of Frost.

The Elven Expeditionary Burning Legion and Daelin’s officers struggled to understand why the surviving Orcs were retreating northwest through the swamps. Alleria and Sylvanas planned to move west along the main road and awaited Daelin’s decision on how the allied armies should proceed.

• Alleria told Daelin that the elves could not catch the Orcs in the swamps, where their Death Knights used Path of Frost to clear a route.
• Alleria and Sylvanas agreed the elves would march to the main road and head west, isolating the Orc remnants from the main Orc force while avoiding a reckless pursuit.
• Sylvanas argued that the elves should avoid fighting the Orcs head-on and protect their own forces, citing Brother-in-law’s advice; Alleria rebuked her and warned that allied armies had to advance and retreat together.
• Daelin convened his senior officers after receiving the elves’ report, but they could not explain the Orcs’ retreat or agree on what it meant.
• Daelin told his officers that the elves planned to reach the main road the next day and were waiting for his decision, prompting the officers to discuss their next move.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk sent Gryphon Riders to secure the orcs’ abandoned catapults while Alleria’s forces continued their pursuit of the retreating orcs. Alleria rejected Daelin’s request to intercept them directly and instead planned to block their route southwest and await his troops.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk ordered the remaining Gryphon Riders to seize the abandoned catapults near Menethil City, with bombs and a company of Alleria’s troops to support them.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk sent his fleet back toward Menethil Harbor, and the ships left the southern coast as murlocs surfaced in the water.
• Alleria dispatched four hundred Rangers to assist at the catapult position and allowed the Gryphon Riders to go ahead, provided they answered any call to support the Expeditionary Army Corps.
• Alleria received Daelin’s request to intercept the retreating orcs, but Sylvanas urged her to ignore it and follow their original plan.
• Alleria told Daelin that death knights using Path of Frost were moving the orcs too quickly to catch, and said her army would block their southwest route while awaiting his forces for a joint attack.

The Elven Expeditionary Burning Legion pursued the Orc remnants through the marshes, then stopped when the Orcs began building fortifications. Alleria and Sylvanas weighed attacking at once against waiting for Daelin’s army, and chose to advance slowly while harassing the Orcs and urging Daelin to hurry.

• The elves followed the Orcs’ trail through the marshes and avoided areas tainted by the death knights’ lingering dark energy.
• Lor'themar sent word that fighting had begun at the Strait of Hormuz, and Alleria told him to monitor the battle and retreat if needed rather than risk another encirclement.
• On the tenth day, Gryphon Riders found the Orcs camped at the old Raptor excavation site and building defenses, so the elves halted to consider their next move.
• Sylvanas advised Alleria to wait for Daelin’s army, while Alleria worried that delay would draw blame and give the Orcs time to fortify.
• Alleria decided to have the Gryphon Riders harass the Orcs, advance slowly, and send Daelin a message urging him to march faster.
• Sylvanas wondered aloud what Brother-in-law would do if he were there.

Sylvanas and Alleria joked about Yu Lin Bloodhawk prolonging the orc war to keep his authority, and Sylvanas volunteered for an air raid to help the orcs find defensible ground. In Menethil City, Yu Lin signed an order sending supplies and gryphon riders to the front, then realized his bodyguards had all left him behind.

• Alleria and Sylvanas joked that Yu Lin Bloodhawk would avoid danger and keep the orcs alive to preserve his influence.
• Sylvanas explained the story behind the phrase “keeping the enemy alive to preserve your power” and suggested they try it with the orcs.
• Sylvanas said she would join the gryphon riders’ air raid and help the orcs find a defensible position, and Alleria approved the attack.
• A gryphon rider brought orders to Menethil City, and Yu Lin agreed to have rangers transport bombs and supplies for Alleria’s forces.
• Yu Lin signed the order allowing the gryphon rider bodyguards to leave for the battle, then called after them when he realized he would be left without their help.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk visited the imprisoned Death Knight to drink and question him about the Succubus, provoking an angry denial about his past. Meanwhile, the Gryphon Riders reached the Elven Expeditionary Burning Legion’s temporary camp, but Alleria delayed the march to rest their gryphons and await ammunition.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk drank with the Death Knight and learned that he had studied Demonic as a warlock who offered his soul to demons.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk asked the Death Knight whether he had slept with a Succubus, and the Death Knight angrily ordered him out.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk joked that the Death Knight’s reaction was proof of a scandal, then hurried toward the Succubus’s cabin as the Death Knight shouted after him.
• The Gryphon Riders landed at the temporary camp early the next morning, and Alleria postponed the march until noon so their gryphons could rest.
• The Gryphon Riders lacked ammunition, while supplies carried by Elf Rangers and Proudmoore’s Human Soldiers were still days away.

Sylvanas and Alleria debated whether to lure the orcs into a defensible mountain valley, then the elven force began its marsh march while its gryphon riders ran low on ammunition. Daelin joined the expedition, and Alleria explained that further supplies would arrive slowly.

• Sylvanas reported that a hidden mountain valley offered the orcs strong defenses, and she and Alleria discussed the risks of driving them there.
• Sylvanas decided to lure the orcs into the valley and withdraw the elves to Menethil City if needed, and Alleria agreed to follow her plan.
• The gryphon riders bombed the orcs' construction positions as the Elven Expeditionary Burning Legion entered the marshes.
• After three days in the marshes, the gryphon riders had nearly exhausted their limited ammunition.
• Daelin joined the Elven Expeditionary Burning Legion, and Alleria explained that ammunition would arrive first at the roadside gryphon camp before more supplies came by wagon.

Daelin and Alleria’s forces advanced through the Wetlands toward the orc excavation site, pausing to let their exhausted troops recover. At the gryphon riders’ camp, Sylvanas learned that Yu Lin Bloodhawk was studying Demonic with a death knight and grew furious over his flirtatious practice phrase.

• Alleria told Daelin that the orcs had built a wooden palisade at the excavation site, and Daelin agreed the army could not bring cannons through the Wetlands.
• Alleria persuaded Daelin to let the exhausted troops rest after reaching dry ground rather than press on immediately.
• The combined forces reached the temporary camp, where the soldiers rested while the gryphon riders continued their raids from farther back along the main road.
• Sylvanas heard from Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s bodyguard that Yu Lin was studying Demonic to become a virtuous, well-rounded young man.
• The bodyguard revealed that Yu Lin practiced Demonic with a succubus and often said, “Hey, beautiful, give me a wink,” prompting Sylvanas to curse him.

Sylvanas failed to question Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s Bodyguards while the Elf Gryphon Riders continued harassing the Orc camp and delaying its fortifications. The Orc Chieftain feared the Alliance’s ground forces would arrive before the defenses were ready and recognized the danger posed by the combined human and Elf armies.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk’s Gryphon Rider Bodyguard fled from Sylvanas rather than answer her questions about the Succubus, and the other Bodyguards avoided her as well.
• The Elf Gryphon Riders continued bombing and harassing the Orc camp by day and night, forcing the Orcs to build fortifications only during brief lulls.
• The Orcs grew furious at the high-flying Gryphon Riders but lacked weapons capable of threatening them.
• The Orc Chieftain worried that the Alliance ground forces would arrive before the Orcs could finish their defenses.
• The Orc Chieftain recalled the fires at Menethil City and Loch Danmor valley and judged the Elves to be a dangerous threat behind Proudmoore’s human army.

The Orc Chieftain moved his army to a hidden highland plain behind the excavation site while leaving defenses in place to deceive the Elves. As the Allied Army approached, Daelin ordered a dangerous scout of the fog-shrouded valley, but Sylvanas refused and told the Gryphon Rider to claim the Orcs were there.

• The Orc Chieftain learned of a narrow trail to a highland plain and ordered the Orc army to move there at night while construction at the excavation site continued as a decoy.
• The Orcs taunted the Elven Flying Forces as the Gryphon Riders' inaccurate bombing caused only a few casualties.
• Alleria and Daelin resumed the march with their forces, but the mounted Elves moved faster than the human infantry and repeatedly waited for them.
• The Gryphon Riders reported that Orcs had vanished from the excavation site and that dense fog prevented them from scouting the valley behind it.
• Daelin identified the fog as a likely Fog of War spell and asked Alleria to order a scout, but Sylvanas refused and told the Gryphon Rider to report that Orcs were in the valley.

Sylvanas secretly urged Alleria to hasten the Allied Army’s advance before the Orcs could abandon the excavation site, and Alleria persuaded Daelin to send the cavalry and elves ahead. When they arrived, Sylvanas revealed that the Orcs had retreated toward the mountain, leaving their Death Knights behind to defend the site.

• Sylvanas coached a Gryphon Rider to give a vague reconnaissance report and sent Alleria a secret letter describing the Orcs’ retreat.
• After the Gryphon Rider reported the next afternoon, Alleria convinced Daelin to leave the infantry behind and advance quickly with the Paladins, cavalry, and Elf Forces.
• Alleria and Daelin reached the excavation site after two days of forced marching and saw Gryphon Riders bombing the Orcs’ wooden defenses.
• Sylvanas met Alleria and Daelin and explained that the Orcs had gone up the mountain at night, leaving their Death Knights behind to cover the retreat.

Daelin, Alleria, and Sylvanas prepared to attack the orc remnants trapped at the excavation site, where Death Knights had raised fragile undead from the buried dead. After elven gryphon riders bombed the site and blasted open the orc defenses, Daelin and Alleria ordered the allied forces to charge.

• Sylvanas explained that the Death Knights had raised numerous undead from skeletons buried at the excavation site, and Daelin realized the remains were likely those of prisoners who had died there.
• Sylvanas said the undead were fragile and poorly equipped, then returned to coordinate the incoming second wave of gryphon riders.
• The allied forces marched toward the orcs' hastily built defenses and waited until roughly a hundred gryphons arrived overhead.
• At Alleria's signal, the gryphon riders bombed the excavation site and destroyed the wooden gate and fences with large bombs.
• Daelin and Alleria shouted for the attack as the human cavalry charged through the breach.

The allied human cavalry and elven forces attacked the orcs at the Quarry, but endless waves of skeletal undead slowed their advance. Alleria reorganized the elves to push through the skeletons and reach the cavalry, while the battle between the humans and orcs remained fierce.

• Daelin led three hundred Paladins and more than a thousand human cavalry through the breach, smashing through the first ranks of skeletal undead.
• The undead slowed the cavalry until the riders collided with a solid wall of orc infantry, which managed to stop their charge.
• Alleria saw the cavalry fighting the orcs and questioned why Sylvanas's gryphon forces had not cleared away the undead.
• Alleria ordered armored gorilla and tiger battle pets to lead the elven assault, with dire wolves, rangers, and mages following toward the human cavalry.
• The elven battle pets smashed through the fragile skeletons, while the rangers found their bows ineffective and often attacked with sabres instead.

Alleria’s elves advanced through the skeletal undead, changing tactics after gorilla battle pets proved more effective than the mages at clearing them. Daelin regretted engaging the orcs too soon as his cavalry suffered heavy losses, while Alleria’s main force approached unseen.

• Alleria ordered the mages to use area-of-effect spells while the Rangers protected them, and the elves advanced through the skeletons.
• The gorillas used Thunderstomp to shatter the skeletons, prompting Alleria to send the mages back and have the gorilla unit clear the way in turns.
• The gorilla battle pets rapidly crushed a path through the undead, while the mages withdrew, dejected.
• Daelin regretted attacking the orcs before the elves could join him after losing three or four hundred cavalrymen and becoming separated from the elven infantry.
• Daelin hoped the elven main force would arrive, unaware that Alleria’s troops were already close behind the skeletal horde.

Alleria’s elven forces turned the battle against the Orcs and Skeletal Undead, while Daelin pursued the fleeing Death Knights. After ordering the elves to finish off the Undead, Alleria reflected on how powerful the Steel Torrent could be against them.

• Alleria arrived with the elven vanguard, rebuked Daelin for acting impulsively, and ordered the elves to attack the Orcs and defend against the Skeletal Undead.
• The elves overwhelmed the Orcs, and the human cavalry killed every surviving Orc soldier.
• When red smoke signaled the Death Knights’ escape, Alleria sent Gorilla Rangers and Tiger Rangers southwest to block the mountain road.
• Daelin led the Paladins through the Skeletal Undead toward the road, with the elven spearhead clearing a path for them.
• Alleria ordered the Mages to stop attacking and considered how a Steel Torrent charge could destroy a vast horde of Undead.

Alleria kept the elves out of Daelin’s battle while the Rangers fought the Skeletal Undead for combat practice. After resting, the elves watched the cavalry finish off the remaining Death Knights and discussed the difficulty of taking the mountain pass.

• Alleria ordered the Elf Mages not to attack as the Elf Rangers fought the Skeletal Undead with sabres, while the Mages watched and criticized them.
• Alleria learned from an Owl Ranger that Daelin’s cavalry had engaged the Death Knights and that the elves guarding the Mountain Path had not joined the fight.
• After the Skeletal Undead were destroyed, Alleria ordered the elves to rest for ten minutes and then led them to watch the battle against the Death Knights.
• Alleria and Sylvanas watched the human cavalry fight the seven remaining Death Knights without intervening.
• Sylvanas told Alleria that the narrow Mountain Path could not be taken safely without Flying Forces clearing the orc defenders, and Alleria decided to wait and hear Daelin’s view.

After repeated failed assaults on the Mountain Pass, Alleria persuaded Daelin to withdraw when a large orc force entered the Wetlands and threatened Menethil City. Sylvanas arranged surveillance but remained troubled by her choice to leave the pass unoccupied and preserve the orcs as a threat.

• Alleria argued that the Allied Army should stop attacking the Mountain Pass and withdraw to defend Menethil City from twelve thousand orcs entering the Wetlands.
• Daelin accepted the withdrawal after Alleria warned that the orcs could seize Menethil City and isolate his army.
• Sylvanas returned to the gryphon camp and ordered continuous surveillance of the Wetlands orcs and the remaining orcs near the Northwest Mountain Summit Plains.
• Sylvanas worried that she had endangered the Alliance for her own benefit, despite knowing she could have occupied the Mountain Pass before the orcs discovered it.

Sylvanas sent Yu Lin Bloodhawk a letter after reconsidering her plan for the Orcs, while Yu Lin interrogated the captured Succubus Amelia by making her his maid and language tutor. Yu Lin opened Sylvanas's letter as Amelia stepped aside under the watch of his guards.

• Sylvanas chose not to evacuate Mages and Rangers by Gryphon, then wrote Yu Lin Bloodhawk a letter about her frustration over the Orcs entering the Wetlands.
• Yu Lin received Sylvanas's letter while questioning the Succubus, who explained why demons had learned the High Elf language.
• The Succubus said her name was Amelia, a name Yu Lin had given her because demons concealed their true names.
• Yu Lin had offered Amelia a choice between serving as his maid and teaching him Demonic or being handed over for interrogation, and she chose to serve him.
• Yu Lin asked Amelia to guess who had written the letter, then opened it as she stopped massaging him and stepped away.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk read Sylvanas’s letter and wrote back, advising her that her choices had protected the high elves and that the Elven Expeditionary Burning Legion should remain in the Wetlands. Meanwhile, Alleria’s Allied Army raced south through the marshes toward Menethil City as a large orc force advanced north, threatening to cut them off from the main road.

• Yu Lin Bloodhawk laughed at Sylvanas’s troubles, then burned her letter and denied to Amelia that he enjoyed seeing her suffer because he hated her.
• Yu Lin Bloodhawk wrote Sylvanas a reassuring reply, arguing that the Wetlands offered the Elven Expeditionary Burning Legion a safer position and that her actions served Quel'Thalas.
• Alleria led the Allied Army south toward the Wetlands’ main road while the orc force advanced north, and gryphon reports grew more frequent as the armies drew closer.
• Daelin recognized that his depleted army could not stop the twelve thousand orcs and feared that, if they reached the main road first, the Allied Army would be forced into a long march through the marshes.

Alleria and Daelin’s forces returned toward Menethil City while Sylvanas’s gryphon riders bombed the orcs advancing through the Wetlands. Sylvanas reached the Aircraft Carrier that evening and learned that her lord was interrogating the Succubus.

• Sylvanas, Daelin, and Alleria assessed the danger posed by the orcs in the Wetlands, while the orc survivors on the Highland Small Plains stayed put.
• Alleria received Lor'themar’s report that the Strait of Hormuz Defense Line had collapsed and most Allied troops on the Arathi front had been killed or scattered.
• Alleria and Daelin reached Sylvanas’s temporary gryphon camp, where six hundred elf rangers and Menethil City wagon drivers were waiting.
• When Sylvanas’s gryphon riders did not return, Alleria ordered the Allied Army to pack up and march toward Menethil City.
• Sylvanas’s gryphon riders caught up with the marching army and continued to Menethil City, where Sylvanas asked an elf soldier where her lord was.
• The elf soldier told Sylvanas that her lord was interrogating the Succubus.