Chapter Summaries

Felix Walkpatin led the Stonemasons' Guild to the harbor, where Katrana Prestor handed over weapons for their rebellion. After the stonemasons left, Katrana had imprisoned goblin merchants killed and ordered her guards to frame them for smuggling.

• Felix reassured Dudmore and the other stonemasons, then climbed out of the sewers alone to meet Katrana at the harbor.
• Katrana revealed weapons and armor in several shipping containers and told Felix to remove them within an hour.
• Felix returned to the sewer entrance, and the Stonemasons' Guild members took the weapons in orderly batches.
• After the stonemasons departed, Katrana's dragonkin guards brought her to imprisoned goblin merchants in a warehouse.
• Katrana had the goblins killed and instructed her guards to stage the deaths as a violent confrontation after an illegal weapons trade.

Felix planned Operation Spark, telling the stonemasons they would seize Stormwind City while secretly intending to use the uprising to escape through the Valley of Heroes and make for Westfall. He and Vladimir also suspected Baros Alexston of betraying them and arranged to watch him overnight.

• Felix assigned Joseph and himself to lead an uprising in Old Town, while Bazil would rescue Chairman VanCleef through the sewers and Dudmore would plant explosives in the Mage Quarter and Trade District.
• Lightfinger warned that the Valley of Heroes would be difficult to take, and Vladimir cautioned that the Wizards' Guild could teleport reinforcements into the city.
• Felix named the operation Spark, ordered the brothers to assemble at four the next morning, and privately told Joseph and Bazil to keep watch on Baros Alexston.
• Felix claimed Baros might have been bought off by SI:7 after noticing his reaction to Bolvar's offer of an earldom and learning that he had met Wishock and Duke Lescovar.
• Felix and Vladimir privately acknowledged the rebels could not defeat Varian's professional army or withstand intervention by the Alliance, so Felix planned to draw the Valley of Heroes guards away and lead the brothers through it to Westfall.

Felix led the Stonemasons' Guild brothers out of the sewers to begin a rebellion in Old Town, driven by the bloodshed at Cathedral Square and the nobles' abuses. After the guild killed a patrol, Felix ordered Thuros Lightfinger to fortify a street while the others hurried toward the dukes' mansions.

• Felix gathered the exhausted Stonemasons' Guild brothers in a sewer and rallied them to make the city's rulers pay for the deaths at Cathedral Square.
• Felix and the guild members emerged from the sewer and ambushed three patrolling soldiers in Old Town.
• Thuros Lightfinger and the other brothers killed the soldiers before they could sound an alarm.
• Felix ordered Thuros Lightfinger to set up weapons and Goblin bombs on a tavern roof to block the city defense forces.
• Felix led the remaining guild members toward the dukes' mansions before the command headquarters and SI:7 could react.

Felix struggled to advance through Old Town as the Stonemasons' Guild forces faced fierce resistance from Stormwind's defenders and noble guards. He used a Goblin Bomb to break the enemy's hold on a tavern, leaving the guild able to continue its assault.

• Felix rejected attempts to go around the enemy and ordered the guild to use shovels and wrenches in the cramped houses.
• A messenger reported that Stormwind soldiers had entered the tavern, and Felix went there to reinforce the defenders.
• Lightfinger said the guild could no longer hold the street, so Felix had Benny Blanco tie a Goblin Bomb to a rod with a slipknot.
• Felix swung the lit bomb through a second-floor window, where it exploded and killed or wounded many Stormwind soldiers.
• Felix led the guild brothers in a charge through the tavern, and Lightfinger said he now knew how to use the bombs.

Felix’s uprising gained ground as the Stonemasons’ Guild attacked the nobles’ estates, while VanCleef returned to lead the fighters. Queen Tiffin tried to calm the guild with promises of wages and clemency, but a mason challenged her over the workers killed in Cathedral Square.

• Felix saw that the Stockade had fallen and the canal bridges had been destroyed, then urged his allies to pressure the nobles and draw the Valley of Heroes garrison away.
• Felix’s stonemasons captured nearby houses and advanced on Duke Wishock’s mansion, where Wishock and Duke Lescovar offered to pay the guild’s wages.
• Felix warned the stonemasons not to trust Lescovar’s offer, and VanCleef arrived with Bazil, Joseph, and others to lead them in demanding the nobles’ deaths.
• Queen Tiffin hurried to the confrontation and claimed Bolvar had gone to Lordaeron for help, promising the workers their wages and protection from punishment.
• A stonemason asked Tiffin whether the brothers killed in Cathedral Square had died for nothing.

After Tiffin was struck by a stone and Stormwind’s forces attacked, Felix led the Stonemasons’ Guild through the sewers toward an escape route. VanCleef chose to stay behind at the Valley of Heroes to cover the retreat, entrusting Vanessa and the guild to Felix.

• Tiffin refused to hand over Marcus Jonathan and tried to calm the stonemasons, but a thrown stone struck her and left her bleeding.
• Dune appeared with Stormwind’s guards and priests, attacking the workers with fireballs as they cleared the streets.
• Felix ordered the guild to retreat into the sewers, where they regrouped and learned from Vladimir that the Valley of Heroes gate had been captured.
• Felix proposed fleeing to Westfall, where Vanessa, Jack, and Morgan were in Moonbrook, and VanCleef agreed.
• As Stormwind’s pursuing troops attacked the Valley of Heroes, VanCleef stayed behind to cover the others and asked Felix to care for Vanessa and the guild.

Felix led the Stonemasons’ Guild to Westfall and resolved to keep the workers’ rebellion from exploiting local farmers. After VanCleef arrived, Felix helped him rally the stonemasons and found the Defias Brotherhood, leaving their ambitions aimed at Stormwind and its nobles.

• Felix led the surviving stonemasons out of Stormwind and across the rivers into Westfall.
• At Saldean Farm, Felix and the guild members waited for VanCleef, who arrived with news of dead and captured brothers.
• VanCleef rallied the stonemasons by describing the nobles’ lavish banquet and their refusal to pay the guild’s wages.
• Felix urged the workers to reclaim what they had built, and VanCleef declared them members of the Defias Brotherhood.
• Felix proclaimed that the workers were the true masters of Stormwind and considered whether rebels could shape Azeroth’s future.

Felix advised VanCleef on how the Brotherhood could survive in Westfall, laying out short- and medium-term plans to obtain food and money. He left VanCleef with a quiet question about a king’s duties, setting up his long-term proposal.

• VanCleef told Felix that Vanessa was safe but the Brotherhood lacked supplies and had no way to support itself in Westfall.
• Felix proposed hunting murlocs, gnolls, and kobolds for food and valuables, while VanCleef trained the Brotherhood’s members to fight.
• Felix suggested ambushing tax carriages and eventually raiding banks in Stormwind City to take money from the Brotherhood’s enemies.
• VanCleef agreed to begin training the brothers and asked Felix for his long-term plan.
• Felix asked VanCleef what a king’s duties were and what a king ought to do.

Felix explained to VanCleef that governments fund public services through taxation and argued that the Defias Brotherhood could replace Stormwind’s nobles by protecting farmers and taxing them. He recognized that winning farmers’ support would take long-term work, so he asked VanCleef to teach the Brotherhood more assassin techniques.

• VanCleef said he wanted to build homes rather than become king, and Felix explained that a king’s job was to allocate resources through officials and taxation.
• Felix argued that Stormwind had failed by refusing to pay the Stonemasons’ Guild, and VanCleef realized that taxation and public services could make a government unnecessary if the Brotherhood provided them instead.
• Felix proposed taking land from Westfall’s farm owners and proving the Brotherhood could protect farmers while charging them less than Stormwind’s nobles.
• Felix recalled Baros Alexston’s farm and considered how difficult it would be to organize farmers who lacked guild ties and had long been ruled by nobles.
• Felix set aside the long-term plan and asked VanCleef to teach him and the other brothers assassin skills such as sustained stealth.

VanCleef began training Felix and the Brotherhood’s Rogues, demonstrating how technique and defense mattered more than brute force. Felix then explained how draining Stormwind City’s treasury could leave its army unpaid and drive the soldiers to mutiny.

• VanCleef gathered Felix and the brothers on open ground and assessed Felix’s combat skills.
• Felix attacked VanCleef with his longsword, but VanCleef easily evaded his strikes and pointed out his lack of technique and agility.
• VanCleef disarmed Felix in a flash and taught the brothers to protect themselves and strike only when success was certain.
• VanCleef listed the skills assassins needed to master, including Stealth, poisons, ambushes, and shadow magic, while Felix added pickpocketing, theft, and lockpicking.
• Felix proposed making Stormwind City too poor to pay its soldiers, and Vladimir, Joseph, and VanCleef concluded that the unpaid army would mutiny.

Felix led a group of Defias rogues to scout and attack a nearby murloc village, hoping to secure gold while keeping the Brotherhood supplied in Westfall. After discovering two more villages nearby, he warned that the group risked being overwhelmed, and Joseph asked whether their goal was to take gold or wipe out the murlocs.

• Felix told the novice rogues to wear red face coverings as they set out to hunt a murloc band near the beach.
• Felix's group crossed a hill and watched the murloc village, while Benny Blanco admitted he had barely fought before.
• Felix scouted north and discovered two additional murloc villages beyond the one shown on Lightfinger's map.
• Felix warned the Defias that nearby murlocs could reinforce one another and overwhelm their small group.
• Dudmore asked whether they should return empty-handed, and Joseph questioned whether they had come for gold or to wipe out the murlocs.

Felix drew the Murlocs away from their village so Joseph and the Rogues could steal the gold coins. After fighting off the Murloc leader, Felix saw the Murlocs begin retreating and pursued them.

• Felix explained the plan to lure most of the Murlocs away while Joseph and the Rogues raided their village for gold.
• Felix equipped leather armor and a Stormwind shield, then charged out to attract the Murlocs’ attention.
• Felix led the Murlocs away, killing several as he fought and retreated to keep them chasing him.
• The purple-skinned Murloc leader attacked Felix with its iron fork, but Felix knocked it down with his shield.
• A distant Murloc called the group back, and Felix pursued them, killing another straggler with his shield and sword.

Felix returned safely to the Defias camp after leading the Murlocs away, but the Brotherhood suffered heavy losses in other raids. After Morgan reported the Goldshire money wagon’s schedule, Felix proposed taking its tax money and called the operation confiscation rather than robbery.

• Felix taunted Slardar and led the retreating Murlocs away from the Defias camp.
• Felix returned to Dudmore and Joseph, who confirmed their team was safe but had found only copper coins.
• VanCleef told Felix that another team had been driven off by Murloc reinforcements, one team had been wiped out by elementals, and his own team had suffered injuries fighting a large Riverpaw Gnoll.
• Morgan reported that Goldshire’s money wagon traveled to Stormwind in the middle of each month, and VanCleef rewarded him with the Collector’s Ring.
• Felix proposed targeting Goldshire’s soldiers and tax money, insisting that the operation would be confiscation rather than robbery.

Felix persuaded VanCleef to stay out of the planned ambush and explained why Stormwind City had not yet attacked the Defias Brotherhood. He left VanCleef considering how the kingdom’s internal rivalries and outside threats kept Varian occupied.

• VanCleef wanted to join the Defias Brotherhood’s first ambush against Stormwind soldiers, but Felix told him to gather information on Gold Coast Quarry instead.
• Felix warned VanCleef that attacking a quarry owned by the crown could provoke Stormwind’s army, while targeting Earl Ridgewell’s property might not.
• VanCleef denied that the Defias had killed Queen Tiffin, but Felix argued that Varian believed they had and asked why the king had not retaliated.
• Felix explained that rivalries among Stormwind’s leaders, corruption, and threats across the kingdom prevented Varian from focusing on the Defias.
• Felix described King Terenas’s efforts to dominate the Alliance and said Lordaeron posed an external political threat to Stormwind City.

Felix explained to VanCleef why Varian feared Lordaeron’s ambitions and why the Defias Brotherhood needed to exploit divisions within the Alliance. VanCleef agreed to keep the Brotherhood’s operations limited and put Felix in charge of attacking Goldshire’s cash wagons.

• Felix argued that Stormwind’s lesser nobles might welcome Terenas Menethil, while Varian and Bolvar had reason to fear losing their power and safety.
• Felix explained that Varian distrusted the Menethils despite his gratitude to Lordaeron, and VanCleef realized the Alliance’s political rivalries could endanger the Brotherhood.
• VanCleef asked whether Varian was also struggling, and Felix said Varian had to tread carefully until Lordaeron fell.
• Felix advised VanCleef to limit the Brotherhood to small operations such as attacking the Gold Coast Quarry and cash wagons, while avoiding Sentinel Hill and Moonbrook.
• VanCleef assigned Felix the attack on Goldshire’s cash wagons, and Felix demanded full control over choosing the participants and keeping the operation secret.

Felix led the Defias Brotherhood in ambushing a Goldshire tax convoy on the road to Stormwind City. The attackers killed the escorts and seized control of the money wagons, though the fight was still underway.

• Felix briefed his brothers on the ambush plan, assigned them code names, and led them toward Goldshire under cover of darkness.
• Two days later, the convoy traveled late through Elwynn Forest with about twenty soldiers and hired adventurers guarding it.
• A red-masked Defias member blocked the road, and the Brotherhood attacked after a soldier charged him and had his throat slit.
• Felix and Joseph fought through the convoy while Lightfinger killed an adventurer who tried to escape and warn Stormwind City.
• Dwarven musketeers opened fire from a money wagon, but Felix and Joseph killed them and helped Jack overpower a guard.

After the Defias Brotherhood captured the adventurers guarding the money wagons, Felix argued that they should be killed to prevent them from reporting the robbery. The group voted to release them instead, and Felix sent them away after they promised to keep silent.

• Felix and the rogues subdued the adventurers, moved the prisoners and three money wagons into the woods, and Joseph inspected the cash.
• Felix proposed killing the captives, while Dudmore and others argued that the adventurers were ordinary people working for a few coins.
• Joseph suggested releasing them, but Felix warned that they might alert Stormwind City and bring the garrison, SI:7, or city guards after the group.
• Felix put the decision to a vote, and the majority chose to release the prisoners.
• Felix questioned the adventurers one by one, then let them go after they swore not to report the robbery.
• Felix urged the rogues to hurry back with the money, hoping they had not lost their chance to return safely.

After robbing an Alliance money carriage, Felix and the Defias rogues carried their loot toward Westfall but found Westbrook Garrison heavily guarded. They planned to sneak across at night, though Felix’s unease grew as his exhausted companions failed to report in, and he heard movement in the forest.

• Felix ordered the rogues to hide the bodies and carriage, then led them toward Westfall with the stolen coins.
• At the Mirror River, Felix spotted twelve guards and three cavalrymen at Westbrook Garrison, far more than before.
• Felix and the others rejected crossing by a long detour, swimming past Riverpaw Gnolls, or attacking the garrison directly.
• Felix proposed waiting until night, then having him and Joseph set a fire in the stables while the group crossed with the loot.
• Seeing that the exhausted rogues were falling asleep, Felix sent Joseph to keep watch with him and asked Vladimir to report if the guards left.
• Several hours later, Vladimir had not appeared, and Felix heard rustling in the distant forest.

Felix overheard SI:7 scouts searching for his bandit group and sent Joseph to warn the others to flee east. He diverted Mathias Shaw and the scouts with a series of tricks, but Shaw realized the deception and resumed the search to the west.

• Felix and Joseph overheard SI:7 scouts discussing their search for the robbers and His Majesty's tax money.
• Felix ordered Joseph to tell Vladimir, Bazil, and the others to pack up and escape east while he stayed behind to delay the scouts.
• Felix ran north, drew the scouts after him, and hid in a tree while preparing grass fuses.
• Felix repeatedly ignited the fuses to lure Mathias Shaw and his men back and forth through the woods.
• Shaw examined the charred fuses, realized one person had made them all, and ordered his men to search west for Felix's companions.

As the Brotherhood fled east from SI:7 and Westbrook Garrison, Vladimir and the others experienced vivid, conflicting visions that left Felix puzzled. The group gathered at its rendezvous point, but the strange visions remained unexplained.

• Joseph and Vladimir urged the Brotherhood to flee east as SI:7 closed in, but Westbrook Garrison soldiers began searching the eastern bank, forcing the rebels to scatter.
• While fleeing, Vladimir experienced visions of the Brotherhood triumphing and of himself and his comrades facing execution.
• Felix found the exhausted Vladimir and led him to the rendezvous point, where Dudmore, Lightfinger, Jack, and the others were waiting.
• Vladimir and the others told Felix they had all experienced visions, including Lightfinger's dream of seizing Stormwind City and another brother's nightmare of a witch unleashing a flood and monsters.
• Felix wondered why he alone had seen no visions and began considering what might be causing them.