Recaps

Aaron, Drake, and Durnholde Keep’s defenders fought off a relentless undead assault that lasted all night, with Nerubians, Gargoyles, and Abominations overwhelming the walls. At dawn the undead withdrew, but the sound of approaching cavalry left Aaron wondering whether reinforcements had arrived.

• The undead used Nerubians and their webs to scale Durnholde Keep’s walls, while Aaron and Vereesa fought alongside the defenders.
• Falstad led the Gryphon Riders against the Gargoyles, but Abominations soon joined the fighting and caused heavy losses among the soldiers.
• Aaron helped defend his section of the walls and heal wounded soldiers as the battle continued through the night.
• The exhausted defenders defeated the undead assault by dawn, after the Scourge ran short of Abominations and other forces.
• Drake thanked Aaron for his help, and Aaron worried about the absence of the Cult of the Damned, the Syndicate, and the Frostwolf Orcs.
• Drake heard approaching cavalry and wondered whether reinforcements had arrived, while Aaron questioned whether the Silver Hand could have reached them so soon.

Aaron and the exhausted defenders of Durnholde Keep faced a growing army of Frostwolf Orcs, Trolls, and the Cult of the Damned after destroying the webs leading up the walls. The chapter ended when red-skinned Fel Orcs appeared, and Aaron realized Ner'zhul had unleashed them.

• Drake warned the soldiers to cut down the webs before the Frostwolf wolf riders could climb them, and Vereesa showed them how to burn the webs with flaming arrows.
• Vereesa counted about three hundred wolf riders, and Aaron, Drake, and Falstad watched the Cult of the Damned and its allies gather below the keep without siege equipment.
• A bloodied soldier warned Drake that the Orcs had broken out of the internment camp, then passed out.
• Vereesa spotted Orcs approaching, and Aaron recognized their red skin as a sign that they were Fel Orcs and blamed Ner'zhul.

Aaron and the Gryphon Riders delayed the newly transformed fel orcs as Thrall tried to lead his people out of the internment camp. Thrall escaped through the main gate, while Aaron watched him go and admitted he did not want to kill him.

• Drake ordered the exhausted soldiers to retreat into the castle, while Falstad and Aaron stayed behind to delay the fel orcs.
• Aaron spotted Thrall among the green-skinned orcs and attacked him, but Thrall blocked Aaron's hammer with his battle-axe.
• Aaron told Thrall, "Let me see what you can accomplish this time," then flew off to help provoke the fel orcs.
• Thrall calmed some of the fel orcs with help from the uncorrupted orcs and led them toward the main gate.
• Thrall opened the gate and found more orcs waiting outside, while Aaron watched his escape and said he did not want to kill him.

Aaron watched Thrall leave and chose not to kill him, then tried to defend Durnholde Keep from the Frostwolf wolf riders. As the riders charged into the keep, the Knights of the Silver Hand arrived to attack their flank.

• Aaron considered killing Thrall but decided to let him live because he hoped Thrall might reunite the Orcs and lessen conflict with humans.
• Aaron realized the Cult of the Damned could use Durnholde's troops for the undead army and hurried with Falstad to close the gate.
• Aaron and Falstad found the gate shattered and decided to retreat toward the keep as the Frostwolf wolf riders prepared to charge.
• The wolf riders charged through the gateway, while a third wave turned to face an attack on their flank.
• Aaron saw the Knights of the Silver Hand charge the Orc formation and recognized that Uther's reinforcements had arrived.

The Silver Hand, Wildhammer Dwarves, and Alliance forces fought the Frostwolf Clan’s wolf riders outside Durnholde Keep, turning the battle in the humans’ favor. A Dreadlord’s spells enabled the Orcs to retreat, but he was surrounded and fled as a swarm of bats.

• The Frostwolf wolf riders withdrew from Durnholde Keep and charged into the battle after seeing their kin being driven back by human cavalry.
• Aaron and Falstad joined the fight from the air, and Aaron recognized Arthas among the Paladins reinforcing Durnholde.
• The Wildhammer Dwarves’ aerial support helped the Alliance defeat the wolf riders, whose commander ordered a retreat.
• The Orc commander revealed himself as a Dreadlord and summoned an Infernal, panicking the warhorses and disrupting the Paladins’ pursuit.
• The Dreadlord summoned insects to hinder the Paladins, then transformed into bats and scattered when Aaron, Gryphon Riders, and Paladins closed in on him.

Aaron trapped and killed most of a Dreadlord’s bat swarm, but the demon escaped after putting Arthas to sleep and teleporting away. Arthas remained frustrated that the Orc wolf riders escaped too, and the chapter ended as he and Aaron approached Durnholde Keep’s commander, Aedelas Blackmoore.

• Aaron trapped the Dreadlord’s bats inside a Divine Shield and purified them, but discovered one bat had escaped his attack.
• The Dreadlord transformed back, put Arthas to sleep, and teleported away before Aaron could catch him.
• Aaron warned Arthas that Dreadlords were cunning and urged him to attack them without hesitation.
• Arthas complained that the Orc wolf riders had escaped, while Saidan Dathrohan explained that the exhausted soldiers could not safely pursue them.
• Arthas and Dathrohan headed toward Durnholde Keep, where Aaron recognized its commander, Lieutenant General Aedelas Blackmoore.

Aaron recognized Blackmoore at Durnholde Keep, where Arthas questioned him about the Orcs’ escape. After a soldier described their transformation, Aaron explained that Demon Blood had created the Fel Orcs, and Dathrohan prepared to pursue them once the Knights of the Silver Hand recovered.

• Aaron recognized Blackmoore and noticed that exhausted soldiers, rather than Blackmoore’s energetic followers, had borne the brunt of the defense.
• Arthas confronted Blackmoore about the escaped Orcs and said he would report the breach to his father.
• Blackmoore produced a wounded soldier, whom Arthas healed before asking what he had witnessed.
• The soldier said rogues had given the Orcs a green liquid that transformed them and enabled their escape.
• Aaron identified the liquid as Demon Blood and explained how repeated exposure created Fel Orcs.
• Dathrohan said the Knights of the Silver Hand would pursue the Orcs after the soldiers recovered.

Aaron, Arthas, and Dathrohan assessed the forces gathering against the Cult of the Damned, the Orcs, and the Syndicate, while Lordaeron struggled to contain cult activity elsewhere. After setting out from Durnholde in pursuit of the Orcs, their army learned that the Orcs had breached Nethander Stead and were heading for Southshore.

• Arthas and Dathrohan told Aaron that Cult of the Damned activity in Andorhal and Silverpine Forest had drawn much of the Silver Hand away.
• Arthas said they could gather several thousand Hillsbrad soldiers and noted that they needed to protect the other Orc internment camps from the Scourge.
• Aaron explained that the Syndicate had joined the Cult of the Damned, and Arthas angrily blamed the people of Alterac.
• After half a day of rest, the combined army left Durnholde to pursue the Orcs, while Arthas left Blackmoore with a little over a hundred guards to protect the keep's food stores.
• A bloodied soldier reported to Dathrohan that the Orcs had breached Nethander Stead and were heading for Southshore.

Arthas and Dathrohan hurried toward Southshore after learning the orcs were likely seeking ships, but arrived to find the town burning and its people driven from their homes. The orcs had already left by sea when Aaron learned from Ravenholdt that the Cult of the Damned had made a major move in Silverpine Forest.

• Aaron and Arthas realized the orcs were likely heading for Southshore to seize ships, and Dathrohan warned that the town might already have fallen or be a trap.
• Dathrohan led the troops through Nethander and onward toward Southshore, where they saw the town ablaze and met refugees led by the mayor.
• The mayor recounted how the outnumbered orcs had broken into Southshore and pleaded for revenge, and Arthas vowed to kill them all.
• Dathrohan left some soldiers to protect the refugees and took the rest into Southshore, where they confirmed the orcs had sailed away.
• Aaron remained troubled by a sense that something was wrong until Ravenholdt reported major news from the Cult of the Damned in Silverpine Forest.

After a Ravenholdt assassin reached Southshore, he warned that the Undead had landed in Silverpine Forest and were advancing on Dalaran. Aaron recognized that the Scourge was targeting the Book of Medivh, and Dathrohan prepared to send aid to Dalaran while refugees remained in their care.

• Arthas argued with Dathrohan about pursuing the orcs, but Dathrohan insisted they protect Southshore's refugees instead.
• Vereesa returned from scouting and reported that she had found no ambushes and that the orcs had gone far away.
• Vereesa brought back a wounded Ravenholdt assassin, who warned that the Undead and frost wyrms were advancing through Silverpine Forest toward Dalaran.
• Aaron explained that the Scourge wanted the Book of Medivh to summon demons, and Arthas urged Dathrohan to reinforce Dalaran.
• Dathrohan agreed to set out for Dalaran after considering the refugees in the camp.

As Arthas’s force traveled from Southshore toward Dalaran, a Ravenholdt assassin told Aaron how the Cult of the Damned had taken over Silverpine Forest and welcomed a huge Scourge invasion. Aaron learned that at least a hundred Frost Wyrms had landed and was about to seek help when a Scourge Necropolis appeared ahead of the column.

• Arthas hurried along the road to Dalaran, and Dathrohan reassured him that other forces were coming to help defend the city.
• Aaron carried the recovering Ravenholdt assassin on his mechanical motorcycle and asked him what he had seen in Silverpine Forest.
• The assassin explained that the Cult of the Damned had absorbed or united the region’s other cults and gathered its followers along the coast.
• The assassin described the Scourge landing a week earlier, with Nerubians, Abominations, black floating spires, and at least a hundred Frost Wyrms.
• Aaron decided to contact Archaedas for help, but a Scourge Necropolis appeared in the sky ahead of the column.

Aaron and Falstad led a small force into a floating citadel and destroyed its core, bringing the fortress crashing down and boosting the soldiers’ morale. A distant dragon’s roar near Hillsbrad Fields then drew Aaron away.

• The Ravenholdt assassin explained that the floating citadel had crushed silver pines to clear a landing site, and Dathrohan spread out the soldiers as it drifted toward them.
• Aaron and Falstad entered the citadel with several Wildhammer Dwarves, intending to destroy its core and teach the Gryphon Riders how to raid one.
• Aaron led the group through a portal, where they found Nerubians operating the citadel and no Lich guarding it.
• The Gryphon Riders defeated the Nerubians and attacked the core, then escaped as the citadel fell and broke apart.
• After the soldiers finished off the surviving undead, Aaron heard a dragon roar near Hillsbrad Fields and flew toward it.

Aaron found a Frost Proto-Dragon and its Vrykul rider destroying Hillsbrad Fields, the town where he had once found shelter. After killing them, he struggled with grief over the ruined town until a soldier called out to survivors.

• Aaron flew toward a dragon’s roar and saw a Frost Proto-Dragon attacking Hillsbrad Fields under the control of a Vrykul rider.
• Aaron recognized the ruined town as the place where a tavern keeper had sheltered him after he transmigrated, and charged the Frost Proto-Dragon in anger.
• Aaron mounted the undead Proto-Dragon, wounded it with Frostmourne, and used Holy Light to destroy it in a crash.
• Aaron hurled Frostmourne into the Vrykul rider, freezing him into shattered chunks of ice.
• Aaron collapsed in grief, and Vereesa comforted him before a soldier called for anyone hiding in the ruins to come out.

Aaron and the Lordaeron army rescued the survivors of a devastated town, and Aaron gave the innkeeper the slain Proto-Dragon. The army continued toward Dalaran, where Aaron spotted the city ahead and Dathrohan ordered the soldiers to hurry inside.

• Aaron and the soldiers found the innkeeper and rescued the townspeople hiding in basements.
• Aaron learned that the residents had survived with few injuries, and resolved to stop the Scourge from threatening them and Dalaran.
• The innkeeper asked to buy the Proto-Dragon, and Aaron gave him its corpse as thanks for sheltering him in the past.
• After resting for two hours, Aaron and the soldiers resumed their march and the Gryphon Riders defeated several more Proto-Dragons.
• Aaron spotted Dalaran, and Dathrohan ordered the troops to reach the city quickly.

Aaron and the reinforcements arrived in Dalaran as the city prepared for an impending attack, and Aaron hurried to warn Antonidas about the enemy’s objective. The chapter ended as Aaron reached the Violet Citadel and overheard Antonidas and Krasus arguing.

• Dalaran prepared its defenses, and Arthas and Dathrohan criticized the mages’ disorganized war preparations.
• Dathrohan took Arthas to meet Antonidas, while Aaron and Vereesa followed so Aaron could warn the archmage about the enemy’s objective.
• Aaron encountered Rhonin, who revealed that Krasus had recently returned and given him an impressive staff.
• Rhonin told Aaron that the Council of Six had offered no details about the attack, and Aaron hurried toward the Violet Citadel after learning Arthas and Dathrohan had gone inside.
• Aaron heard Antonidas and Krasus arguing in the citadel, with Antonidas refusing to allow Krasus to do something he considered important.

Aaron persuaded Antonidas to allow Krasus to open a portal in Dalaran by showing him a vision of the city’s destruction. With Antonidas’s approval, Krasus and Jaina went to build the portal while Aaron left to see what reinforcements the Dragonflights would send.

• Aaron arrived at the Violet Citadel and learned that Krasus and Antonidas were arguing over opening a portal for reinforcements.
• Jaina told Aaron that Krasus had found reinforcements, but Antonidas would not agree to build a portal in Dalaran.
• Aaron showed Krasus and Antonidas an illusion of undead overrunning Dalaran and a demon reducing the city to ruins.
• Antonidas agreed to let Jaina help Krasus build the portal, and Dathrohan secured command of Dalaran’s ground forces apart from its ordinary mages.
• Aaron left the Violet Citadel with Krasus to see which Dragonflight reinforcements would arrive.

Aaron and Krasus arranged for Jaina and Dalaran’s mages to open a portal to Wyrmrest Temple, bringing Stellagosa and other Dragonflight reinforcements to the city. The Scourge vanguard then appeared outside Dalaran, with three necropolises and a large ground force.

• Jaina led Aaron and the others to Dalaran’s portal area and consulted Krasus about opening a portal to Wyrmrest Temple.
• Krasus explained that Scourge necropolises had prevented him from establishing a portal elsewhere, while the nearest working Titan transporter was too far away.
• Jaina gathered suitable mages, who opened a portal showing a towering cylindrical stone structure.
• Krasus sent a signal through the portal, and Stellagosa and other dragons arrived in humanoid form alongside reinforcements from Lordaeron.
• Gryphon Riders discovered the Scourge, and the next day three flying necropolises and a vast ground force appeared outside Dalaran.

The Scourge’s main force reached Dalaran and launched a nighttime assault, revealing a vast army of undead and a grim strategy for breaching the city walls. The defenders destroyed wave after wave, but the skeletons began piling up their own bodies to form ramps toward the battlements.

• Dathrohan prepared Dalaran’s defenders for night combat, while Aaron was relieved that the Scourge’s main force had arrived rather than feinting toward another target.
• Aaron and Krasus examined the Scourge’s huge army and spotted skeletons made from Murlocs, a discovery that boosted the Alliance’s morale.
• At night, the Cult of the Damned’s necromancers sent masses of skeleton soldiers toward Dalaran’s walls.
• Dalaran’s defensive towers and mages blasted the skeletons apart, but scattered bones reassembled and the surviving ranks kept advancing.
• The skeletons piled their bodies into ramps that let the undead behind them reach the battlements, leaving the defenders unsure how to stop them.

Aaron and Krasus helped Dalaran’s defenders stop the skeletons from reaching the walls, while Torastrasza led red dragons in burning much of the undead force. The Dreadlords revealed that the assault was a costly deception meant to draw the defenders’ attention while they pursued a book and prepared for Archimonde’s arrival.

• Aaron wished for an Earthquake spell to collapse the skeletons’ makeshift ramp, and Krasus used the spell to shake the skeletons apart without damaging Dalaran’s walls.
• Aaron warned Torastrasza and Stellagosa that the dragons should wait before attacking, since the undead had not yet committed their other forces.
• Krasus suggested a plan, and Torastrasza led several red dragons into the air to burn the skeletons beneath the walls.
• The necromancers ordered the remaining skeletons to retreat after the dragon attack had destroyed roughly half their force.
• The Dreadlords discussed how the undead assault was a costly ruse to make the defenders believe Dalaran was the target, and they prepared to intensify the distraction.

After red dragons burned away much of the Scourge’s skeleton army, the undead launched another assault on Dalaran with Abominations, Ghouls, and Frost Proto-Dragons. Aaron and the defenders prepared for close combat as the new attackers reached the walls.

• Torastrasza led the red dragons in a sweeping attack that reduced the skeleton soldiers beneath Dalaran’s walls to ash, forcing the survivors to retreat.
• Aaron noticed the Alliance soldiers remained uneasy around the red dragons, despite their alliance, and hoped they would grow accustomed to fighting beside them.
• Krasus and Vereesa revealed that the undead were charging again, this time with Abominations and Ghouls among the skeletons and Frost Proto-Dragons in the rear.
• Aaron warned that the Scourge might have another plan and suspected Dreadlords could join the battle.
• Dathrohan ordered the soldiers to prepare as the Abominations approached the walls, making a close-quarters fight seem unavoidable.

Aaron watched Dalaran’s defenders struggle against the Scourge until newly deployed Arcane Constructs helped hold the battlements. The Undead then withdrew after a rumble beyond the wall, leaving Aaron wary of the Scourge’s next move.

• The Undead swarmed Dalaran’s walls with skeletons, Ghouls, Death Knights, and Abominations, driving up Alliance casualties.
• Aaron defeated the Death Knights facing him and saw the defenders being overwhelmed as Abominations neared the battlements.
• Dalaran deployed its improved Arcane Constructs, which fought the Abominations and cleared nearby Undead with arcane sparks.
• The Arcane Constructs eased the pressure on the wall, though their sparks accidentally struck some soldiers and the constructs were few in number.
• A rumble beyond the wall prompted the Undead to withdraw, and Aaron wondered what the Scourge was planning.

Aaron and the defenders of Dalaran discovered that the undead remains on the battlefield were assembling into a giant, which the dragons tore apart before it suddenly reformed and attacked them. The chapter ended with several dragons struck by the faster bone giant.

• Aaron and Krasus sensed lingering death energy and observed the undead remains trembling and gathering toward a central point.
• The remains formed a towering bone giant that advanced on Dalaran, absorbing more bones as it crossed the battlefield.
• Dalaran's defensive towers and mages attacked the giant but failed to stop its approach.
• Torastrasza led more than twenty dragons in attacking the giant with their breath until it collapsed into scattered bones.
• Krasus warned the dragons that the death energy remained, but the bones reassembled into a faster giant that struck several dragons.

Krasus and the dragons struggled to stop the bone giant, whose coating of bone ash blocked their dragonfire. Aaron enlarged himself into a stone giant to wound it, but as his Avatar expired, the bone giant trapped him inside its body.

• Krasus discovered that the bone giant’s coating of burned bone ash protected it from the Flame of Life and urged the dragons to attack from a distance.
• Aaron arrived in an enlarged stone form and asked Krasus for help before striking the bone giant with his Silver Hand Warhammer.
• Krasus breathed dragonfire into the wounds Aaron created, damaging the bone giant where its ash coating offered no protection.
• As Aaron’s strength ran out, his warhammer became stuck, and the bone giant pulled him into a cage of bones.
• Aaron’s Avatar reached its time limit while the bone cage pressed in around him, leaving him trapped and weakened.

Aaron was trapped inside the skeletal giant and confronted by Ner'zhul, who tried to recruit him before attacking him with death magic. When a strange spell severed Aaron's connection to his body and the Tear of Elune, Xal'atath intervened and restored him.

• As Avatar's effects faded, Aaron was left exhausted and trapped inside the skeletal giant as the dragons continued fighting it.
• Ner'zhul spoke to Aaron through the giant and offered him escape, eternal life, and rule over Lordaeron in exchange for submission.
• Aaron recognized Ner'zhul, refused his offer, and dared him to try killing him.
• Ner'zhul tightened the bones around Aaron and cast a spell that cut off his vision and severed his connection to his body and the Tear of Elune.
• Xal'atath called out to Aaron, sent golden light to restore his connection to his body, and warned him not to trouble her with such situations again.

Aaron struggled to escape the bone giant while Xal'atath briefly took control of his body, but Ner'zhul's spell left him vulnerable. Xal'atath disrupted Ner'zhul long enough for Aaron to break free, and Stellagosa caught him as he collapsed from exhaustion.

• Xal'atath revealed herself to Ner'zhul while controlling Aaron's body and cutting through the bone giant.
• Ner'zhul recognized Xal'atath as a Val'kyr and prepared a spell as she tried to carve an escape route.
• Xal'atath returned control to Aaron, who endured his pain and pushed outward despite Ner'zhul's attack.
• Ner'zhul's spell pulled Xal'atath toward him, but she disrupted his control of the bone giant and urged Aaron to escape.
• Aaron broke out of the bone giant, and Stellagosa caught him before he hit the ground.
• Aaron thanked Stellagosa and fell asleep on her back.