World of Warcraft Chronicle Volume 2 (World of Warcraft: Chronicle)

by Blizzard

  But the state of the land wasn’t the truly bad news. Khadgar told the leaders that there had been unmistakable surges of fel magic where the Dark Portal had once stood. He feared that the orcs were attempting to expand the existing rift and pass through it.

  The gathered leaders agreed to give Khadgar their full support. War-weary as they all were, they had no intention of allowing the Horde to gain another foothold on this world.

  Turalyon coordinated the military effort from Stormwind, where he was in the midst of helping the kingdom rebuild. He tasked Danath Trollbane, one of the Second War’s most prominent veterans, with leading a small army to the Blasted Lands. In the meantime, Turalyon would rally the rest of the Alliance forces for the march south.

  Unfortunately, the Horde’s invasion was already under way.

  Just a few weeks after Khadgar warned the Alliance of the impending threat, Ner’zhul finally succeeded. Drawing on the Skull of Gul’dan’s energies, he expanded the rift between Draenor and Azeroth.

  Almost immediately, Grommash Hellscream led the spear tip of the Horde’s invasion force—the Warsong, Shattered Hand, Thunderlord, and Laughing Skull clans—into the Blasted Lands. These soldiers were joined by Gorefiend and his death knights. The orcs began constructing a physical frame around the dimensional rift, creating a new Dark Portal that could remain open permanently without needing a constant influx of power.

  Kilrogg Deadeye and his Bleeding Hollow clan had been watching over the Blasted Lands for any sign of the Horde’s return. They met with Grommash and the death knights, informing them of what had happened on Azeroth after the Second War. The information would prove invaluable in the days ahead. Gorefiend ordered Kilrogg and his people back to Draenor. They had fought for survival since the end of the war, and they deserved time to rest.

  By the time Danath’s meager army arrived at the Dark Portal, the Horde had brought many soldiers to Azeroth. The humans stood little chance against their enemy’s superior numbers. Brutal, close-quarters combat erupted across the southern edge of the Blasted Lands.

  Danath was the only member of his army to leave the battle alive. He retreated to Nethergarde Keep, where he hoped to use its garrison. Despite the earlier defeat, Danath was confident he could contain the orcish armies in the region until the rest of the Alliance arrived.

  He wasn’t wrong. The orcs did not have the numbers needed to mount a true invasion. But conquest was not their objective this time.

  The Horde’s fearsome soldiers made a show of preparing for a full-scale assault. Meanwhile, Gorefiend and his death knights led a hunting party beyond the Blasted Lands in search of the artifacts. The group was composed of death knights and orcs, including Chieftain Fenris. Few Alliance soldiers noticed their departure, and none guessed their purpose.

  Garona did. She began to track them, trying to discern what they were searching for.

  Deathwing had gone into hiding shortly after the Second War ended. His plan had failed—the orcs had not conquered Azeroth—but there had been some small victories. Much of the red dragonflight, along with its leader, Alexstrasza, was still under the Dragonmaw clan’s control. The other Aspects had not yet taken action against the orcs. Most of the dragons feared falling prey to the Demon Soul and suffering Alexstrasza’s fate. The human kingdoms had also experienced heavy losses, and they needed time to recover.

  When he sensed the rift to Draenor expanding, Deathwing wondered if the orcs had somehow managed to replenish their numbers for yet another war at full strength, but it soon became clear that their “invasion” was only a feint. Conquest was not their purpose.

  And yet, Deathwing was intrigued. He decided to take on human form once again and influence the Alliance’s response to the Horde. This tactic had been very effective during the First War. There was another political crisis taking place. The Alliance was furious at Alterac’s betrayal, and there was much debate as to how the kingdom should be punished—or if it even deserved to exist.

  Lordaeron had become the place where these debates were held. Deathwing returned there in a new human form, casting himself as a minor noble named Lord Daval Prestor, a distant cousin of King Perenolde. Having an apparent connection to Alterac royalty gave his words weight.

  Prestor advised Lordaeron’s king, Terenas, to establish martial law in Alterac until the line of succession could be settled. This move split the attentions of the Alliance army, weakening its response to the Horde’s new invasion. The human leaders found Prestor to be charming, endearing, and refreshingly pragmatic. He showed no signs of being prickly about the pride of “his people,” and he seemed to have only the best interests of the Alliance at heart.

  With the Alliance snared in unnecessary turmoil, Deathwing formed his endgame to restore his black dragonflight to its former power and glory. The human nations were unlikely to suffer serious damage from the Horde’s invasion, and thus his plans on Azeroth would not advance. Any attempt to reestablish the black dragonflight would be noticed by the Alliance and, more importantly, by the other Dragon Aspects.

  Perhaps the solution to that problem did not lie on Azeroth at all. The orcs’ homeworld, Draenor…The other dragonflights could not threaten Deathwing there.

  It mattered little that the world was blighted. Dragons did not need to live off the land the same way mortals did.

  Deathwing moved to make contact with the Horde once again.

  As battle engulfed the Blasted Lands, Gorefiend led the Horde’s covert hunting party north. Of the three artifacts he sought, he knew only the Book of Medivh’s location. He had learned it was in Alterac, a kingdom far from the Dark Portal.

  Gorefiend’s forces quietly traveled to Blackrock Spire to make contact with Blackhand’s sons, Dal’rend and Maim. Through their alliance with the Dragonmaw in Grim Batol, they had access to red dragons. Gorefiend desperately needed these creatures to expedite his journey to Alterac.

  The meeting was disastrous. Dal’rend had declared himself warchief of the “true Horde.” He considered Ner’zhul a coward and a usurper, and he had no intention of helping him with his plans.

  Gorefiend left empty-handed, but he was soon approached by Deathwing. He offered the death knight and his allies a deal: he would lend his black dragons to help the Horde retrieve what it needed; in exchange, the Horde would transport “precious items” to Draenor. As a sign of trust, Deathwing told Gorefiend the exact locations of the other two artifacts, as well as the dangers his forces might face while retrieving them. One was in Dalaran, and the other was deep within the Tomb of Sargeras.

  Gorefiend was in no position to turn Deathwing down. He split his forces into three raiding parties. Black dragons would transport them to collect the artifacts immediately.

  Gorefiend suspected that obtaining the Book of Medivh would be the most difficult of the three tasks, so he decided to handle it personally. Deathwing had warned him that Alterac was under martial law, so Gorefiend expected stiff resistance. The Alliance forces occupying the city were utterly unprepared to face dragons and death knights; when the Horde raiders arrived, most of the soldiers fled in terror.

  Gorefiend infiltrated the castle and found King Perenolde. The human was erratic, boisterous, making demands; his sanity had slipped away, in truth. Deathwing had made sure his “distant cousin” had lost his mind so that the king could not contradict the lies the dragon was telling in Lordaeron. Bemused, Gorefiend humored Perenolde’s fantasies for a few moments, and then he agreed to wipe out the Alliance occupying force in exchange for the artifact. Such chaos would only help divide humanity’s attention, giving him more time to complete his task.

  With the Book of Medivh in their possession, the death knight and his followers left the mad king alive and made their retreat from the city. Gorefiend kept his word: the Alliance soldiers stationed in Alterac could do little to fight off the black dragons’ relentless onslaught, and the garrison was eradicated.

  While Gorefiend and his forces were assaulting A
lterac, the fighting at Nethergarde Keep ground to a bloody stalemate. Turalyon had arrived with Alliance reinforcements. Alongside Khadgar and Danath’s soldiers, they kept the Horde contained. Yet the humans couldn’t shake the suspicion that the orcs were not throwing their full might into the invasion. Alliance scouts stayed on the alert for unexpected maneuvers, but none came. The Horde seemed content to test Nethergarde’s defenses day after day without trying to overwhelm the keep.

  As the days passed, more and more Alliance reinforcements arrived at the keep, enough to not only defend the walls but also launch counterattacks against the Horde. The siege was eventually forced back into the empty, open landscape of the Blasted Lands.

  That should have spelled the end of the invasion…but it didn’t. The orcs continued to fight, maintaining a skirmish line for no apparent reason. They sacrificed warriors to hold or retake useless ground.

  Khadgar’s suspicions grew into an unnerving theory: the Horde was buying time for some other purpose. The invasion was just a distraction.

  To find answers, Alliance forces captured one of the enemy. They brought him back to the keep for interrogation. Turalyon led the questioning, calling on the Holy Light to draw out information from the orc.

  The captive eventually talked and confirmed what Khadgar feared. The Horde’s new leader, Ner’zhul, had no interest in conquest. Small raiding parties had spread across Azeroth under the Alliance’s noses, searching for powerful artifacts. There was no telling where they had gone or exactly what they were looking for.

  North of the Blasted Lands, time was running out for Gorefiend. He’d hoped that the other two hunting parties had already obtained their artifacts. They hadn’t. When he joined his forces that had set out for Dalaran, he was furious to learn that they hadn’t been able to sense the Eye of Dalaran. Deathwing revealed the reason why. Dalaran’s Kirin Tor magi had cast wards on the relic, keeping it from being sensed from a distance.

  Fortunately for the Horde, the Kirin Tor had no idea they were under scrutiny. They had enchanted the Eye of Dalaran simply because it was important, not because the magi believed anyone would be foolish enough to try to steal it.

  Though Gorefiend and his followers could not detect the artifact’s exact location, Deathwing was more sensitive to such things. He instructed the hunters where they could find it. He then gathered his black dragons and assaulted Dalaran’s outer defenses, providing a distraction that Gorefiend and a small group of death knights could use to sneak into the city.

  As magi rushed to defend their home from the dragons, Gorefiend and his followers crept through Dalaran’s streets. Soon enough, they discovered the Eye of Dalaran, locked in an enchanted vault. Gorefiend shattered the containment wards placed around the artifact.

  And in doing so, he attracted unwanted attention. One of the most powerful leaders in the Kirin Tor, Archmage Antonidas, raced to investigate the source of the disturbance. He and a handful of magi battled the death knights in the vault, but the element of surprise was on the Horde’s side. Gorefiend and his allies killed one of the magi and escaped with the artifact.

  Antonidas gave chase for as long as he could, but once the hunters had reunited with the black dragons, they vanished into the skies. All the archmage could do now was warn Khadgar.

  The third hunting party could not make the journey to the Tomb of Sargeras entirely on the backs of black dragons. The distance was immense, and there were no islands en route where the creatures could land and rest. Even for Deathwing’s mighty servants, such a journey was beyond their ability. The hunters needed to find another way to reach the tomb.

  They settled on stealing ships from the same harbor where Warchief Doomhammer had overseen the construction of the Horde fleet. The site had fallen under Alliance control and been renamed Menethil Harbor in honor of Lordaeron’s king. There were plenty of ships, but many of them were Alliance vessels under the command of Admiral Daelin Proudmoore.

  Despite the risks, the hunters had little choice but to take ships. Their only advantage was the element of surprise. The Alliance navy would certainly not expect to fight black dragons and members of the Horde.

  In that, the hunters were wrong.

  When Gorefiend had set out on his quest, he had been followed. Garona had kept her distance, observing the death knight’s pact with Deathwing. When the hunting parties had separated in three directions, Garona had to choose which to follow. She had shadowed the group that traveled to Menethil Harbor, believing that it was seeking out the Tomb of Sargeras.

  As the hunting party planned its assault on the harbor, Garona went to work. She could not warn the humans directly—they would not listen to an orc—but she knew their language well. She scrawled a note to warn about the impending attack, and she made sure the Alliance would find it. It was a simple matter. She showed herself to the harbor’s guards, and when they gave chase, she dropped the missive and ran.

  The incident gained attention immediately. An orc intruder leaving notes was not something seen every day, and the information in it was hard to believe.

  Yet when the black dragons swooped down a few hours later, the humans were not completely unprepared. A bloody confrontation erupted in the harbor, and the hunting party only managed to steal a few small, slow ships. They sailed them clumsily out to sea while the black dragons burned any vessels that attempted to pursue. Garona was unable to follow. She traveled as quickly as she could back to the Blasted Lands to tell Khadgar what had happened.

  The voyage to the Tomb of Sargeras was slow and miserable, on ships not meant for the open ocean. When the hunting party arrived, they had to fight their way through the swarm of demons that had killed Gul’dan, taking great losses.

  The Scepter of Sargeras was indeed inside the tomb, and the hunting party claimed it. It was well worth the journey. The artifact’s ability to open rifts in the fabric of reality would make it critical to Ner’zhul’s efforts back on Draenor.

  Only a scant few members of the hunting party made the journey back to the Eastern Kingdoms.

  When the hunters finally reunited with Gorefiend at the Dark Portal, the death knights made preparations to return to Draenor. Deathwing had already brought them enormous carts loaded with his “precious cargo.” The objects were heavy, large, and enchanted—mortal eyes could not see what lay within the crude containers, and magical energies seemed to have no effect on them. The contents were of little concern to Gorefiend. He wanted only to finish his mission.

  Deathwing was satisfied. The Horde would carry a huge clutch of black dragon eggs to Draenor, and soon he would join them to oversee the rebirth of his dragonflight.

  Gorefiend suspected that after the Horde’s latest attack on Azeroth, the Alliance might seek to invade Draenor. He left behind a large number of soldiers to prevent this from happening. This force was composed mainly of Warsong orcs led by Hellscream, along with the mok’nathal Rexxar. With this small army in place, Gorefiend and the rest of the Horde returned to Draenor.

  Their departure was noticed by the Alliance, and it did not bode well. Based on what he had learned from Archmage Antonidas and Garona, Khadgar began piecing together the Horde’s objective. Some of it was incomprehensible to him—he knew of dragons, but Deathwing was not a creature most mortals were aware of—but all of it seemed sinister in nature.

  Khadgar only learned the true scope of the Horde’s plans after the Alliance captured a death knight. The archmage bombarded his prisoner with arcane magic, forcing him to reveal all he knew of Ner’zhul’s intentions. At last, everything was clear. Ner’zhul and the Horde were planning to escape their dying world by creating new portals, and they had stolen the artifacts to do so.

  When Khadgar told Turalyon of what he’d learned, they both agreed that they could not allow the Horde to invade another world. No other land should suffer as Azeroth had.

  Yet it was possible the Alliance’s other heroes wouldn’t feel the same way. Launching a campaign into Draenor would re
quire an army, and casualties would likely be high. Turalyon and Khadgar both feared that there might not be much of an appetite for battle among the soldiers who had already spent years fighting to protect Azeroth from the Horde.

  It was time to find out. Turalyon raised his banner, declaring that he would lead this army—the “Sons of Lothar”—into the orcish homeworld and end the Horde forever.

  Not all of the Alliance’s soldiers answered the call, but most did. Nearly every one of the Second War’s most revered heroes—including Alleria Windrunner, Danath Trollbane, and Kurdran Wildhammer—brought their forces to Nethergarde Keep in preparation for war.

  Garona wanted to join the expedition force, even if it was only in secret. Khadgar knew he could use her knowledge of Draenor to his advantage, but he had a different task for her. They both knew that members of the Shadow Council were still alive on Azeroth. He convinced the half-orc to stay behind, hunt them down, and kill them all.

  The Sons of Lothar smashed through Hellscream’s warriors, forcing them to scatter into the far corners of the Blasted Lands. With the way clear, the Alliance expedition force marched through the Dark Portal and laid eyes upon Draenor for the first time. The sight shocked them. They stood on land that had once been Tanaan Jungle; now it was Hellfire Peninsula, a barren wasteland of red earth stretching endlessly into the distance.

  The Sons of Lothar faced no real resistance in those first days. The orcish forces had not expected to be chased back to Draenor. Yet word of the invasion soon spread throughout the Horde.