Chapter Summaries

Aaron brought Garona and the others toward Silithus after learning that the Scarab Wall and the Qiraji posed a serious threat, while Archaedas and Mimiron went to scout. At the Mechagnome base near the Chamber of Heart, Garona detected approaching enemies and entered Stealth.

• Vereesa scolded Aaron after the Dreadwake jolted during its descent, and Aaron explained that he had encountered the Scarab Wall.
• Xal'atath temporarily removed the spell controlling Garona, and Garona killed Yegoda after confronting her.
• Garona joined Aaron's group, and Aaron warned Archaedas about the Scarab Wall and the Twilight's Hammer.
• Mimiron and Archaedas set out to scout, while Aaron steered the Dreadwake to the Mechagnome base near the Chamber of Heart.
• Aaron saw that Mimiron's subordinates had turned the base into a weapons factory and were testing explosives when Garona sensed enemies approaching and entered Stealth.

Aaron and Vereesa’s camp came under attack from elementals, while Garona identified Twilight's Hammer as the force directing them. The Mechagnomes defeated the probe, and the attackers withdrew without revealing themselves.

• Garona engaged an earth elemental that had emerged near the camp, and Aaron and Vereesa discovered holes opening around them.
• More than a dozen earth, fire, and air elementals emerged and attacked the camp, while the Mechagnomes’ ranged weapons began to malfunction.
• The Mechagnomes charged out in metal vehicles, mechs, and robots and fought the elementals outside the camp.
• Garona warned Aaron and Vereesa that Twilight's Hammer was directing the elementals from the rear and likely testing the camp’s strength.
• The Mechagnomes wiped out the elemental wave, and no further enemies appeared as the holes were filled in.

After scouting the Scarab Wall, Archaedas and Mimiron found that Twilight's Hammer's breach threatened its barriers, but Aaron agreed to postpone dealing with C'Thun until they could address Yogg-Saron's lingering influence. Before they could attack Twilight's Hammer, Cho'gall led an assault on the camp under the Old Gods' orders.

• The Mechagnomes collected elemental remains after Twilight's Hammer's probe ended, and Garona thought the cult would leave them alone.
• Archaedas and Mimiron reported cracks in the Scarab Wall and damage to its barriers caused by Twilight's Hammer's breach.
• Aaron proposed tearing down the wall and killing C'Thun, but Archaedas argued they should first deal with Yogg-Saron's lingering threats in Northrend.
• Archaedas and the others found Twilight's Hammer gathered near the breach, so Aaron concluded they would have to defeat the cult before repairing the wall.
• Twilight's Hammer attacked the camp, surprising Garona, who had believed Cho'gall would not act impulsively.
• Cho'gall ordered his followers to ambush the Mechagnomes from behind, obeying the will of the Old Gods despite his reluctance.

Cho'gall led the Twilight's Hammer in a full-scale attack on the Mechagnomes' camp, following the Old Gods' order despite not understanding it. As he fought Garona, a sense of danger unsettled him, and a golden-lit human appeared above him with a sword.

• The Old Gods ordered the Twilight's Hammer to destroy a Mechagnome camp and capture its inhabitants, so Cho'gall mobilized the entire force.
• Cho'gall led the attack by striking the camp's perimeter wall with his warhammer, and the cultists and elementals charged in.
• Cho'gall spotted Garona cutting through his followers and launched a Shadow Bolt at her.
• Cho'gall sensed danger, cast Shadowflame around himself, and found no hidden assassin, while Garona watched him with amusement.
• A golden-lit human shouted to Cho'gall and brought a longsword down toward him.

Aaron and Garona lured Cho'gall into a trap and pressured him while Archaedas and Mimiron turned the battle against Twilight's Hammer. After Garona wounded him, Cho'gall transformed with dark runes and black mist, greatly increasing his power.

• Garona warned Aaron that Cho'gall would escape if he felt too threatened, so they planned to lure him onto the front lines and attack from the air.
• Aaron forced Cho'gall back with Frostmourne while Archaedas and Mimiron led the Mechagnomes into battle.
• Aaron feigned an opening, letting Garona stab Cho'gall in the lower back and then wound him again.
• Cho'gall summoned black-and-purple runes and transformed as spikes, fissures, and sinister eyes appeared across his body.
• Cho'gall stomped the ground, making it ripple and tremble as his strength surged.

Aaron fought Cho'gall as the ogre's body mutated under the influence of shadow power. Aaron overwhelmed him with Holy Light and burned him to ashes, while Garona remained incapacitated by Cho'gall's attack.

• Cho'gall's mutations intensified, but Aaron continued attacking and discovered that his strength had not increased much.
• Cho'gall's shadow power paralyzed Garona, and Aaron rescued her while blocking the ogre's attacks.
• Vereesa shot Cho'gall's claw and forced him to release Aaron, who transformed into a towering stone giant.
• Cho'gall's abdomen opened into a toothed maw, but Aaron dodged its tongue, froze it with Frostmourne, and cut it off.
• Aaron smashed Cho'gall into the ground and filled him with Holy Light, burning the ogre and his tentacles to ashes.

After Cho'gall's defeat, Aaron and Vereesa inspected the damaged Scarab Wall and discovered a breach into Ahn'Qiraj. With the barrier failing and C'Thun's influence threatening a breakout, Aaron agreed to seek help from the Bronze Dragonflight.

• The Twilight's Hammer cultists lost morale after Cho'gall died, and the Mechagnomes defeated most of them while Garona left to hunt down the survivors.
• Aaron and Vereesa followed Archaedas to the Scarab Wall and saw cracks and erosion across its surface.
• Archaedas revealed the breach he had plugged with a stone, and an orange beetle lunged at Aaron before Vereesa killed it with an arrow.
• Aaron replaced the stone and packed sand into the breach, then warned that the damaged barrier would eventually let the Aqir escape.
• Archaedas said the Red and Green Dragonflights had directed them to the Bronze Dragonflight, so Aaron volunteered to find the bronze dragons.

Aaron and Vereesa reached the Caverns of Time and met Anachronos, who agreed to help repair the Scarab Wall after Cho'gall damaged it. Anachronos took them through a portal to meet an old friend, who reacted with shock at seeing Aaron.

• Aaron and Vereesa crossed Tanaris and entered the Caverns of Time, where the bronze dragons let them pass without question.
• Aaron and Vereesa explored the busy central hall and examined its enormous hourglass.
• Anachronos approached Aaron and Vereesa, introduced himself, and asked Aaron to explain why he had come.
• Aaron told Anachronos that Cho'gall had punched a hole in the Scarab Wall and asked him to help repair it.
• Anachronos led Aaron and Vereesa through a portal to a crystal-filled cave, where someone greeted him and then reacted with shock at seeing Aaron.

Aaron and Anachronos brought Azuregos to repair the breach in the Scarab Wall, but Azuregos’s lost Scepter of the Shifting Sands fragment raised doubts about his reliability. The group reached the wall and headed for the breach, leaving Azuregos poised to begin the repair.

• Azuregos recognized Aaron as someone he had believed dead and reacted with shock when Aaron arrived with Anachronos.
• Anachronos explained that he needed Azuregos’s expertise to repair the Scarab Wall, and Azuregos accidentally revealed that he had lost his Scepter of the Shifting Sands fragment.
• Azuregos opened a portal to the Scarab Wall, and Anachronos urged him to recover the fragment he had lost to a shark.
• Anachronos explained that the Scepter of the Shifting Sands could not be recreated because it was made to fit the Scarab Wall like a key in a lock.
• Azuregos asked how the wall had been breached, and Aaron and Anachronos both shouted at him to shut up.

Azuregos and Anachronos repaired the Scarab Wall, though they could only delay its eventual collapse. Aaron followed Azuregos to his lair and learned that a mysterious human woman had stolen his journal, whose strange power seemed similar to that of the green dragons.

• Azuregos repaired the Scarab Wall, and Anachronos sealed the breach with dragon breath.
• Anachronos explained that the repairs would last about thirty years before failing, with the bugs emerging again centuries later.
• Azuregos rushed back to his lair after revealing that a troublesome woman had taken an interest in his belongings.
• Aaron and Vereesa followed Azuregos through his portal and found his lair ransacked and his journal missing.
• Azuregos told Aaron that the thief was a powerful human woman whose strange power reminded him of the green dragons.

Aaron, Vereesa, and Azuregos tracked down the thief who stole Azuregos's diary and captured the gray-haired mage suspected of being Aegwynn. When Azuregos recovered the diary, the woman woke and called out to Medivh, saying she would resurrect him.

• Aaron suspected the theft was connected to the Nightmare, while Vereesa followed the thief's tracks west from Azuregos's lair.
• Azuregos flew ahead, then returned and waited as Vereesa tracked the thief through Azshara.
• Vereesa spotted a gray-robed figure, and Azuregos seized her after she reacted too slowly to his attack.
• Azuregos bound the unconscious woman, and Aaron and Vereesa identified her as likely Aegwynn.
• Azuregos magically retrieved his diary from Aegwynn's pouch, and she woke, reaching for it and saying she would resurrect Medivh.

Aegwynn recovered from the Nightmare’s influence and explained how a false vision of Medivh had led her to seek Azuregos’s diary. Aaron connected the diary’s records about the Scepter of the Shifting Sands to the plot and identified Xavius as the mastermind.

• Aaron used Holy Light to remove the Nightmare’s influence from Aegwynn, who then broke free of Azuregos’s restraints.
• Aegwynn told Aaron and Vereesa that she had come to Kalimdor after Medivh’s death and encountered strange furbolgs in northwestern Azshara.
• Aegwynn recalled seeing the furbolgs worship a strange monster, after which a false Medivh appeared in her dreams and asked her to resurrect him.
• Aegwynn said the false Medivh had directed her to steal Azuregos’s diary to release a great being that could help resurrect him.
• Aaron pointed out that Azuregos’s records about feeding a fragment of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands to a shark could reveal the connection, then named Xavius as the culprit.

Aaron and Aegwynn investigated why Xavius seemed able to corrupt Furbolgs while supposedly being hunted, and Aaron alerted the Emerald Dream. Ysera arrived in Azshara just as Aegwynn returned with corrupted Furbolgs, then purified them with her dragonbreath.

• Aaron told Aegwynn about Xavius and questioned how he had time to influence her while being hunted.
• Aegwynn decided to pretend she was still controlled and return to the Furbolgs' settlement, using arcane magic to protect her mind and imitate Nightmare power.
• Aaron entered the Emerald Dream to find help, then contacted Freya through Archaedas after failing to find his way to the green dragons.
• Ysera arrived in Azshara and warned that Xavius might be targeting other races, especially descendants of the Wild Gods.
• Aegwynn returned pursued by Furbolgs, and Ysera purified them with a breath of nature that dispelled the Nightmare power without killing them.

Ysera helped Aegwynn calm Nightmare-corrupted Furbolgs, and Aaron discovered that a branch hidden inside a bear statue had spread the corruption. When Ysera cleansed the branch, it revealed Xavius, who taunted her about another gift he was sending.

• Ysera used her breath to cleanse the Furbolgs and learned Aegwynn's identity.
• Ysera waited for Ursoc, who arrived with Furbolgs and explained that they had found and brought home a statue resembling him.
• Aaron broke open the statue and found a corrupted World Tree branch inside it.
• Ysera used her dragon breath to cleanse the branch of its Nightmare power.
• Xavius's phantom appeared from the departing Nightmare power and warned Ysera that another gift was on its way.

Aaron and Ysera investigated Xavius’s hidden plans after learning he had corrupted Shaladrassil and freed its imprisoned Satyrs. Aaron suspected Xavius might target other descendants of demigods and set out with Ursoc to check on the Quilboar.

• Aaron and Ysera questioned how Xavius had managed to carry out so many schemes while the Druids were tracking him.
• A green dragon reported that Shaladrassil’s condition had suddenly worsened and Xavius had freed the Satyrs imprisoned beneath it.
• Ysera flew to the Broken Isles to deal with the escaped Satyrs while Aaron considered how Xavius might use the corrupted tree.
• Aaron connected Xavius’s attempt to corrupt the Furbolgs with a possible plan to target the Harpies and Quilboar.
• Ursoc offered to accompany Aaron to check on the Quilboar, and Aaron agreed to go.

Aaron, Vereesa, and Ursoc traveled to the Barrens to investigate the quilboar after Aegwynn and Azuregos chose to stay behind. At Camp Taurajo, Ruga Ragetotem warned them about the dangerous maze-like quilboar lairs and reported that the quilboar had recently stopped attacking.

• Aegwynn declined to travel with Aaron, and Azuregos stayed in Azshara to guard its magical ruins.
• Aaron, Vereesa, and Ursoc crossed into the Barrens, where Ursoc recalled that the region had once been forested.
• At Camp Taurajo, Ruga Ragetotem warned that the quilboar lairs were winding mazes that had defeated earlier tauren attacks.
• Ursoc demonstrated that he could shrink to fit inside the lairs, and Ruga said the quilboar had lately been unusually quiet.

Aaron, Ursoc, and Vereesa investigated the Quilboar’s disappearance after learning they had left Razorfen. An eagle led them to a wary bear and porcupine, whom Aaron suspected were Rexxar’s animal companions.

• Ursoc told Aaron that the Quilboar had been unusually quiet and that Agamaggan had been missing for a long time.
• Aaron decided to scout the Quilboar territory with Ursoc and Vereesa.
• Aaron and his companions reached Razorfen and found it empty, while Vereesa traced the Quilboar tracks east and then north.
• Ursoc spotted an eagle circling overhead, and Vereesa recognized that it was trying to lead them somewhere.
• The eagle led Aaron, Ursoc, and Vereesa to a bear and a porcupine, and Aaron wondered if they were Rexxar’s animal companions.

Aaron found the unconscious Rexxar with Misha, Spirit, and a porcupine, and discovered that the Nightmare had left him trapped in a painful memory. After Rexxar struck Aaron in his sleep, Aaron expelled the Nightmare, and Rexxar regained consciousness.

• Aaron recognized Rexxar from the animals guarding him and identified the unconscious orc as having ogre ancestry.
• Aaron healed Rexxar while Vereesa examined his wounds, and they realized he was suffering from the Nightmare.
• Rexxar relived the death of his companion Haratha and punched Aaron when Aaron opened his eyes.
• Aaron used Holy Light to drive the Nightmare from Rexxar, causing him to collapse as his beasts turned hostile.
• Rexxar awoke and calmed Misha, telling her that Aaron and the others were not enemies.

Aaron rescued Rexxar from a Nightmare spell cast by a Quilboar Shaman, and Rexxar explained how the Quilboar had ambushed him. Rexxar learned from Leokk that the Quilboar had headed to the coast, leaving Aaron to consider what their gathering forces might mean.

• Rexxar woke and thanked Aaron for freeing him from the Nightmare, then introduced himself as the last of the Mok'Nathal.
• Rexxar explained that a Quilboar force had tried to capture Misha, and he fought them before their Shaman attacked him with Nightmare magic.
• Rexxar said he had wounded the Quilboar Shaman, but the Nightmare took hold after he escaped and let down his guard.
• Aaron worried that the Quilboar were gathering strength, and Rexxar said they had been heading north.
• Leokk returned from scouting, and Rexxar reported that the Quilboar had gone to the coast.

Aaron learned that the Quilboar were heading toward Ratchet and flew there with Vereesa to investigate. They arrived the next morning and found the Goblin town destroyed and still burning.

• Rexxar used Leokk’s report and Aaron’s map to locate the Quilboar near the mouth of the Southfury River, close to Ratchet.
• Aaron left Ursoc to guard the Dreadwake and flew with Vereesa toward the Quilboar’s destination, while Rexxar stayed behind.
• Aaron and Vereesa crossed Dustwallow Marsh, and Aaron wondered whether Onyxia was hiding there.
• After flying for half a day and a night, Aaron and Vereesa reached Ratchet and found the town in ruins and still engulfed in flames.