Battle of Windrunner Village

The **The Battle of Windrunner Village**, more commonly known as the **Battle of the Thalassian Pass** or **The** **Five Points**,  was a series of engagements between the crusading forces of the Congregation of the Silver Hand and various defending forces of the Horde. The prolonged battle took place over a series of locations within the southern Ghostlands as the isolated force of crusaders attempted to break through the lines of the defending Sin'dorei and escape the blighted lands of Kingdom of Quel'Thalas.

## Preface

Prior to the Battle, Ranger-Lady Aeriyth Dawnsorrow and a group of volunteers composed primarily of members of the Seventh Vanguard successfully retrieved Windrunner's Tear from its hidden location within Windrunner Village after several hours of scouring the ruins and fighting back the still present remnants of the Scourge. Eventually surrendering the amulet to the Grand Knight, Congregational leadership subsequently came to the conclusion that an expeditious retreat before the greater Blood Elf army could arrive would be the wisest option.

Unfortunately for the Congregation, a small fleet of speedy elven destroyers under the command of Captain Aldoris Brightwind set sail from Sunsail Anchorage, the primary Elven military port on the west coast of Quel'thalas, only hours before a small covert strike force lead by Lord Berenal Grayblade was able to effectively blockade the harbor by sinking a commandeered elven vessel at the mouth of the port. Although the vast majority of the fleet was trapped in port, the ships of Captain Brightwind presented a significant threat to the Congregational Navy and forced the ships to retreat down the coast, subsequently leaving the crusaders trapped.

Quick to realize that they had been offered the opportunity to either completely annihilate or capture the entire crusading army, Sin'dorei commanders hurriedly ordered the construction of a series of magic dampeners around the Spire. The dampeners, forged and imbued with magic by some of Silvermoon's most skilled arcanists, distorted the magical fields surrounding the trapped Alliance army, making the summoning of any portals nigh impossible.

Unwilling to sit idly whilst hoping the fleet would return or wait for his magisters to devise a scheme to overcome the portal-hindering dampeners, Grand Knight Manstein decided on a bold measure of escape before the Sin'dorei could completely tighten the noose around the isolated base of operations at Windrunner Spire. Ordering all of the crusaders to assemble, the Congregation prepared to fight their way through the decrepit forests of the Ghostlands in an attempt to make a break for the Thalassian Pass and, subsequently, the relative safety of the Eastern Plaguelands.

## Battle

The Alliance commanders  were instructed by Grand Knight Erich Gottfried Manstein to march forward through the Ghostlands towards the Thalassian Pass in order to escape the area with the relics they had secured. The initial attack to escape the confines of the Spire were met with stiff resistance and congregation suffered extraordinarily heavy losses as they attempted to make their way past the makeshift siege fortifications erected by the order of Sovereign Volanaro Ael'aran. In what be later regarded as a clear sign of the Light's favor by the crusaders, Lord Danyl Graves the Falconheart, Marshal of the Royal Army of the Kingdom of Lordaeron Restored, surprised the crusaders by riding into battle at the head of the Royal Army. Previously thought to have abandoned the Crusade, the Marshal of Lordaeron pledged his forces to the Congregation's leadership and so the now combined forces struck out once more against the Blood Elf defenses, quickly shattering their front line of fortifications around the Spire.

With the Crusade once more bolstered by reinforcements, the escape attempt gained significant momentum. Barreling through the Horde line of defense at the Dead Scar, the Alliance forces continued to push their way towards the Thalassian pass with all the zeal and swiftness that so oft characterizes paladins of the Silver Hand.

After being forced to fall back through three defensive lines, the Horde attempted to form rank and hold position at a position along the road just south of the Andilien Estate, flanked on one side by mountains and on the other by rough terrain, the Sin'dorei hoped that the defensive position would give them just the advantage they required to halt the invaders' advance. The confidence that the Alliance would not attempt to make a flanking maneuver through the rough terrain west of the road would prove to be the position's undoing, however. In what would prove to be a devastating flanking maneuver masterminded by Lord High-Chancellor Asuryan Caernough, the combined Congregational force caught the defenders between a virtual hammer and anvil as the Royal Army lead a risky cavalry charge through the broken hills. Thus, the Congregation was not only able to turn a small flanking force of Sin'dorei, but also drive them back with the total element of surprise via a charge into the primary host's flank. Unable to hold their line, the Horde commanders sounded the final retreat to the Thalassian Pass.

The road thus cleared, the forces of the Congregation were able to continue their march all the way to the final defensive fortifications at the Thalassian Pass. Whilst the previous engagements saw the Horde scrambling to erect some sort of defense after the fall of their first line near Windrunner Spire, the Thalassian Pass offered the Sin'dorei and their auxiliaries considerable defensive power. The battle for the Pass lasted for hours, with the battle lines of both sides fluctuating wildly back and forth. Eventually, after suffering heavy casualties and the capture of some prisoners, the Alliance managed to break through a small gap in the Horde lines, thus escaping to the freedom of the Eastern Plaguelands and out of the clutches of the Army of Quel'Thalas.

## Outcome

With the Congregation finally free of Quel'Thalas, the exhausted force made their way to the warmth and comfort of Light's Hope Chapel. Perhaps a fitting place for the campaign to end, the holiness of the site gave inspiration to the devout members of the Alliance and served only to reinforce their sense of righteous purpose. Standing at the steps of the Chapel, Grand Knight Manstein took up the Lion's Bastion and Windrunner's Tear, showing the relics clearly to those who had fought so hard to gain them. Following the show with a rousing speech, the Grand Knight gave his thanks to all those who had stepped forward to join in the campaign, marking that each and every crusader was "a true hero of the Light" by partaking in the ambitious undertaking.

Shortly after the dismissal of the greater Congregation, the Grand Knight, along with a large delegation of volunteers from the Royal Army, League of Lordaeron, Seventh Vanguard, and numerous other organizations, meet with delegates from the Legion of Vengeance; the jailors of those captured during the escape. It was there that the freedom of four crusaders was purchased with seventy-two bars of Stormwind gold along with the promise to return over thirty-three Forsaken civilians captured during the campaign through Tirisfal.

Two of the prisoners were handed over immediately, whilst the others were kept as collateral to ensure that the Congregation would deliver on their promise to return the Forsaken civilians.