Patrick's offer was immensely tempting. Even Danath, a veteran tempered by countless battles and the passage of time, could not resist it. After seeing it, Kurdran said nothing, tacitly agreeing.
As for Galin Trollbane and Falstad, they accepted Patrick's terms almost without hesitation, without even bargaining.
An offer was only valuable to someone who needed it. No matter how lavish or precious the things you offered were, what use were they if they were not what the other party needed?
For the Wildhammer Dwarves, Galin, and the others, gold, silver, and treasure could not be called useless, but their usefulness far outweighed their harm. They understood, to some extent, that an innocent man could invite trouble simply by possessing a treasure. As for arcane technology alone, Galin and the others lacked the supporting arcane industrial infrastructure.
Patrick knew perfectly well how weak Stromgarde and Aerie Peak had become. He had even made a careful study of the matter. Thus, as the Regent of Quel'Thalas, Patrick promised precisely what Stromgarde and Aerie Peak needed most: food, legitimacy, and an "allied" relationship.
Stromgarde and Aerie Peak had both suffered great calamities. Their people longed for change; their nations were weak, and their people were in peril. The people of weak nations were held cheap-this had been an unchanging truth since ancient times. In a world where the strong preyed on the weak, or rather, in a world plagued by endless warfare like Azeroth, powerful strength, solid backing, and a stable life were what mattered most if one wished to secure the right to survive.
Patrick would provide food aid to the Wildhammer Dwarves, Galin, and the others afterward. Once Quel'Thalas had stabilized again, domestic production had recovered, yielding immense quantities of grain nourished by arcane magic. This grain was actually only a