The Bitter Taste of Victory The Bitter Taste of Victory is mission XII ( 12 ) of Act IV , The Measure of Valor , in the Human Campaign , in " " . The Battle of Hellfire Peninsula , as it became known , was the last confrontation between the forces of the Alliance Expedition , led by the Archmage Khadgar of Dalaran , and the Horde of Draenor led by Ner ' zhul . It led to the sealing of the Dark Portal and left a lingering question of the Expedition ' s fate , and the fate of Draenor itself , for twenty years afterwards . Briefing . " has discovered that although the Book of Medivh was stolen from , the ancient Shaman has learned enough of its secrets to conjure his darkest spell . Over the blood red skies of Draenor , huge dimensional rifts appear , crackling with the cosmic energy of the Twisting Nether . ' s scouts report that Ner ' zhul and his followers escaped through the largest of the new rifts as Draenor felt the first of its death throes . The tremendous energies emitted from the converging rifts have succeeded in breaking down the fabric of reality in Draenor ; unleashing massive earth quakes and tidal waves upon its shores . " " Unless the Dark Portal is closed on both worlds , Azeroth will be subject to an enormous backlash of energy resulting from Draenor ' s catastrophic discorporation . " " Using the combined powers of the Book of Medivh and the Skull of Gul ' dan , you must return Khadgar to the Dark Portal and seal the rift between Azeroth and the doomed world of Draenor , forever . " Invasion of the Shadowmoon . Sometime after the Battle of the Dark Portal , the Shadowmoon Clan under Ner ' zhul worked to reopen Medivh ' s gateway between Azeroth and Draenor , and steal artifacts from the humans ' world that could be used to open portals to new worlds . Before crossing to Azeroth , the Horde of Draenor took the Skull of Gul ' dan from a captain of the Bonechewer Clan who wore it as a symbol of his station . With the Skull in their possession , Ner ' zhul and his forces reopened the Dark Portal and crossed into Azeroth , attacking Nethergarde Keep on their way to New Stormwind . Upon arriving in Stormwind , the Horde laid siege to the city and stole the Book of Medivh from the Royal Library . Teron Gorefiend , first of the Horde ' s death knights , was sent to Dalaran to take the Eye of Dalaran . And finally , Ner ' zhul obtained the Jeweled Scepter of Sargeras from the Broken Isles . With the artifacts in his possession , Ner ' zhul fled back to Draenor . The Alliance responds . After Ner ' zhul ' s raids , King Terenas ordered the formation of an expedition that would cross the Dark Portal into Draenor and destroy the Horde once and for all . Khadgar , Lord of Nethergarde , and his friends Turalyon , Danath Trollbane , Kurdran Wildhammer and Alleria Windrunner assembled an army to go through the Dark Portal . Though Khadgar ' s armies gained the upper hand with victories at Auchindoun and Fortress Shadowmoon , they were unable to stop Ner ' zhul from opening his portals . Khadgar and Turalyon realized that the energies tearing Draenor apart would cause a backlash that would affect Azeroth . The five commanders grimly agreed to remain behind with their forces and seal off the Dark Portal . Obtaining the Book of Medivh with the aid of the treacherous Laughing Skull Clan and battling the Black Scourge , Deathwing , to obtain the Skull of Gul ' dan , Khadgar cast the incantation that sealed the Dark Portal , seemingly forever , and saved Azeroth from Draenor ' s cataclysmic end . Aftermath . The fate of the Expedition and of Draenor itself remained unknown for two decades ; to the Alliance , they were all presumed dead , and memorialized accordingly in Stormwind . But the Expedition had in fact survived the destruction of Draenor , seemingly abandoned on a hostile world . The Sons of Lothar , as they called themselves , continued the fight against what remained of the Horde of Draenor , as well as the arriving forces of the Burning Legion under Magtheridon and , later , the legions of Illidan Stormrage . Twenty years after the battle , Kazzak the Supreme located an artifact to open the Dark Portal and travel to Outland , which has become the front lines in the war against the Burning Legion . New expeditions were sent to investigate this relatively new land , but the remnants of the Sons of Lothar still remained desperately trying to hold the invading demons . . .