Classic baseline · Forever beta stories
A rebuilt capital, and the unpaid debt behind its white walls.
Stormwind fell after years of war. Survivors fled north, and Lordaeron became a refuge and a center of resistance. The catastrophe turned a southern kingdom’s struggle into a wider human crisis, preparing the ground for the Alliance and another war.
The trail to Onyxia passed through a prison beneath Blackrock Mountain. Recovering evidence and freeing Windsor allowed the investigation to return to the place where the dragon’s disguise gave her power: Stormwind.
The marshal confronted Lady Katrana Prestor before the court. Her true form was exposed, and the apparent security of the throne room collapsed into violence. Onyxia killed Windsor and fled while Bolvar Fordragon fought the dragonkin revealed around them.
This chapter follows the original Alliance quest route. Its victory was the end of the masquerade, not the dragon’s death. The pursuit into her lair still lay ahead, with the comic giving that confrontation a more specific cast and conclusion.
Elwynn’s workshops depend on materials that are becoming difficult to obtain. Hagar Lowe asks for mining tools from Jasperlode so their metal can be reused, explaining that good steel has been scarce since the war. Ormin Pelford’s wagon has overturned, sending his tools downriver into territory he cannot safely search. Helene Peltskinner needs wolf pelts to fill orders while her husband is busy at the abbey.
The mines also draw the attention of Goldshire’s traders. Remy pays for kobold gold dust, while William Pestle gathers candles for their wax. William’s shipment is bound for his brother Morgan and their apothecary in Stormwind. These errands show the practical ties between forest and city: tools, hides and candle wax must still move even when the people who normally carry them cannot travel safely.
The militia receives little direct assistance from Stormwind, but Quartermaster Lewis has not lost every connection with the city. Osric Strang, an armorer in Old Town, can supply equipment. When stocks run low, Lewis entrusts a note to a courier and sends them to Thor’s gryphons.
Osric fills the request and packs a crate for the return journey through Dungar Longdrink. The route links Sentinel Hill’s defenders to individual allies in Stormwind, even while the militia’s leaders describe abandonment by the kingdom. Those personal arrangements keep armor reaching people who cannot wait for a larger political answer.
The supplies recovered in Moonbrook convince Alba that a major industrial operation inside the Deadmines is responsible for the toxins. Stopping it will require more than driving miners from a tunnel. She sends the adventurer to find an engineer in Stormwind’s Dwarven District.
Sprite Jumpsprocket accepts the sabotage problem and begins with dynamite. A controlled blast also needs a way to trigger it from safety, so she sends the adventurer to Stormwind Intelligence. SI:7 already knows about the activity in Moonbrook. It provides a prototype remote detonator and asks that its involvement not be mentioned to Alba.
The completed explosives return to Westfall. This is a separate approach to the Defias stronghold: Gryan wants its leader found, while Alba wants the suspected source of contamination stopped. Both investigations now lead under the same town.
Gryan needs more than another patrol. He sends the adventurer to Wiley in Lakeshire, an informant who owes him a favor. Wiley reports that the Defias are working with gnolls, kobolds and goblins, and warns that revealing their plans could cost him his life.
A reference to the Stonemasons sends the investigation to Mathias Shaw in Stormwind. Shaw names Edwin VanCleef, leader of the guild that rebuilt the city after its destruction in the First War. In Shaw’s account, the workers were dissatisfied with their treatment after reconstruction.
The trail gives the militia a person and a history behind the raids. The skills associated with rebuilding the capital are now connected to the organization driving people from Westfall. Shaw prepares a report for Gryan; finding where VanCleef operates becomes the next task.
Before the assault reaches its political target, the mines hold losses that matter to people far from Sentinel Hill. In Stormwind, Wilder Thistlenettle remembers a tunnel collapse beneath Moonbrook. He escaped; his brother and friends did not return. He asks for his brother’s Explorers’ League badge and union cards that could give other families answers.
The old workings are more than a passage into the Brotherhood’s stronghold. For Wilder, a badge or a union card can carry news back to a family still waiting in Stormwind. The expedition has a duty to the people left in the tunnels as well as to the people living above them.
Shoni the Shilent sees another opportunity underground. A functional goblin shredder has a power supply that could help gnomish excavation machines breach the approaches to trogg-held Gnomeregan. Recovering it connects this Westfall expedition to a different community’s attempt to reclaim its home.
With the hideout exposed, Gryan Stoutmantle orders Edwin VanCleef’s death. He frames the sentence as necessary for Westfall’s people, while acknowledging its gravity. The adventurers are asked to return with proof that the Defias leader has been killed.
A follow-up begins while searching VanCleef’s person. Among his possessions is a recently written, sealed letter addressed to Baros Alexston, Stormwind’s city architect. Carrying it back to the capital opens another lead rather than neatly explaining every connection behind the rebellion.
Magistrate Solomon tries to obtain reinforcements before Lakeshire is overwhelmed. His first message goes to General Marcus Jonathan in Stormwind. The general sends a reply while waiting for the king, but the message chain does not deliver the army Solomon needs.
Solomon next turns to Gryan’s militia in Westfall. Gryan’s response is bitter: his own people formed their militia because they too were left without help. He cannot withdraw them from their war to defend Lakeshire.
A third letter reaches Lord Ebonlocke in Darkshire. Ebonlocke gives the same practical answer from a different frontier. The Night Watch is all that prevents his town from being overrun. Each community needs assistance, and none can safely spare its defenders. The courier returns carrying refusals rather than reinforcements.