Recently, Aiden had been troubled by Kel'Thuzad's problem. The Lich was clearly still nearby, but he just couldn't be found. After Hercule returned to Dalaran, he was secretly monitored by the Kirin Tor, but they didn't find any clues about the Lich on him. It seemed that Kel'Thuzad must have caught wind of something.
The duo of Vayne and Quinn were still searching every day, but the Alterac Mountains in the surrounding area were too steep and vast. Even if they had ten times the manpower, it would be difficult to find them in the mountains. Because the undead didn't need supplies, didn't need to eat, and didn't need to make a fire to keep warm. The methods of tracking ordinary troops were completely ineffective against the undead.
The only thing the Alliance could do was to be vigilant around the perimeter while conducting a large-scale search, to prevent the Lich from sneaking into densely populated towns with his men.
The guard brought Gerard in. When the merchant saw Kayle on the side, he immediately knelt down and bowed deeply, saying, "Praise the Holy Light, thank you Lord Kayle for saving my humble life and allowing me to reunite with my family!"
"Get up," Kayle nodded in acknowledgment.
Then, Gerard saluted Aiden: "It's an honor to see you, Lord!"
Aiden smiled and said, "I heard that you moved your family from Southshore to here. You made a wise choice. Now, the commercial exchange partners of Durnholde Keep are basically only Tarren Mill, and there is also a small amount of cooperation with Dalaran. This place will develop rapidly in the future, and the sooner you arrive, the more you can seize the opportunity."
Gerard said thankfully, "Yes, it was only after coming here that I realized how shallow my previous thoughts were."
"If you had come a month later, this place would be completely different. You came just in time, Gerard."
Gerard was a merchant. Southshore was the largest port for maritime trade between the Kingdom of Lordaeron and the Kingdom of Stormwind. The Kingdom of Stormwind, which was in urgent need of reconstruction, imported a large amount of urgently needed supplies from here, and then sent its own products to the prosperous continent of Lordaeron for sale. He was a middleman, engaged in transportation and buying low and selling high.
After the courteous greetings were over, Gerard Bard was thinking about how to build a good relationship with the Lord and the angels, at least to leave a good impression, so he began to get closer—that is, to talk about what he saw and heard on the way back from Stratholme to Southshore.
"When I returned, everyone was saying that there were many undead underground in Caer Darrow, and the nearby outposts were also destroyed by those things. So everyone was afraid to take the waterway. We took the land route, from Andorhal to Hillsbrad, and then back through the Alterac Mountains. But I didn't expect the land route to be peaceful either. One of the merchants who came back with me was selling herbs. As a result, his entire caravan was robbed by a group of bandits near Hillsbrad. Strangely enough, those bandits didn't rob the jewelers who were traveling with us, nor did they rob me of my money, they only robbed the herbs. Could it be that someone was injured among the bandits? When I came back, I heard that several caravans transporting herbs had been looted recently, which is really strange!"
"Oh? You mean, basically all the herbs that passed through that area were looted?" Aiden seemed to have figured out something unusual.
"Yes, I met several such unlucky people when I was in Southshore," Gerard nodded.
Hillsbrad, Aiden recalled this place: it was the gateway to the former Kingdom of Alterac. One of the necessary passages from Lordaeron to Alterac. After the Kingdom of Alterac was destroyed, some unwilling nobles secretly contacted each other, preparing to carry out a restoration operation. They secretly established an assassin organization—the Syndicate, which gathered a large number of exiled soldiers, criminals, and bandits, and used assassination, fraud, and plunder to retake their ancestors' territory.
Hillsbrad was the main gathering place secretly controlled by the Syndicate.
Obviously, this organization would not need too many herbs. Could it be that dozens of carts of herbs were used to poison daggers?
So who needs a lot of herbs now?
Aiden stood up and walked to Gerard Bard, holding his hand warmly and saying, "Mr. Bard, you have brought us great news. As long as we verify it, I believe you will get another medal in the future!"
Bard was a little dazed: "I, I didn't help much...did I?"
After sending the merchant away, Aiden instructed: "Send a message to Ravenholdt Manor, they have a use."
...
"Enough, Vereesa. This is not our race's business. The last war has already hurt us greatly, we need to recuperate. The Alliance is not a toddler, now they no longer need our elven race to help them walk. You may leave!" Anasterian Sunstrider was a little impatient, he almost bluntly rejected the suggestion of the young ranger of the Windrunner family, and issued an order to dismiss her.
Vereesa looked at the resolute King in disappointment, and could only reluctantly withdraw from the hall.
Her sister was waiting for her outside the hall.
"You look very frustrated, Vereesa," Sylvanas took one of her hands, "You already knew His Majesty's attitude, why would you go against his wishes for the sake of unrelated humans?"
Vereesa's mood was very low, she shook her head and said, "No, Sylvanas, this is not an unrelated matter. Wandering around the countries of the Alliance these years, I have understood a truth: if we don't lend a helping hand when our allies are in distress, we will also lose external assistance when we are in crisis in the future."
"But who can put Quel'Thalas in crisis? We have the Sunwell and magical barriers to protect us," Sylvanas's view was the same as that of most high elves. The barrier covering the sky and the rune stones all over Quel'Thalas gave their race sufficient security.
"That's just because the real crisis has not yet arrived," Vereesa said worriedly. In fact, she did not participate in the encirclement and suppression of Scholomance, nor did she personally experience the threat of the plague. Because before that, she and Rhonin had separated.
She and Rhonin had known each other for almost ten years. In the long life of elves, ten years is very short, but the mage who was young and arrogant when she first met him has now become a mature and charming man.
As early as ten years ago, she found herself falling in love with that confident and firm man during that adventure. The years of getting along later strengthened this idea. But he is a human! He only has a short life of less than a hundred years, which is even only as long as the time it takes for an elf to go from babbling to toddling. Her union with him is not only hindered by worldly customs, but also has an insurmountable gap in lifespan.
This time she came back to get some guidance from her family. Unfortunately, she did not get the support she expected, and her family unanimously opposed it.
Afterwards, Rhonin sent a handwritten letter and an explanation of the Scourge threat from Lordaeron, hoping that she could represent the Alliance to persuade His Majesty Anasterian to agree to participate in the conquest of the Lich King of Northrend.
But in the past month, she had met with His Majesty the King several times, and the King's attitude became more and more impatient—in short, it was to let the Alliance play its own game, and the high elves would not get involved. They had already issued a statement last time to withdraw from the Alliance. In the future, they would not interfere in the affairs of the Alliance, nor would they participate in the actions of the Alliance.
The King's attitude was obviously irreversible, and she knew that even if the humans lost the high elf ally, they would form a coalition. The campaign against the Lich King was imperative.
Her persuasion had failed.
She had also failed in love.
"Then, what can I do?" Vereesa asked herself.
"Sister," she suddenly raised her head, her silver eyes staring at Sylvanas, "I want to organize a high elf volunteer army to support the Alliance!"
"What, are you serious?" Sylvanas looked at her sister in disbelief, her eyes looked so firm. "No, no! We have already lost one sister, I can't lose you too!"
A week later, a volunteer army composed of high elf rangers, mages, and warriors left Silvermoon City and set off from Quel'Thalas to Stratholme. They flew the flags of the Alliance and the "Silver Covenant". At first, there were less than five hundred people, but later, some adventurous rangers and high elves willing to fight for the Alliance joined one after another. When Vereesa arrived in Stratholme, this army already had more than a thousand people.
When she discovered the desolate Stratholme and learned about the dangers of the Scourge from High Commander Dathrohan, she became even more convinced of her belief: in the face of the common disaster of the living world, the high elves could not stand idly by!
After she was stationed in Stratholme, Prince Kael'thas learned from Aiden that Dar'khan would betray them. Kael'thas immediately used teleportation magic to return to Silvermoon City. He had to get rid of this tumor and advise his father.
...
Kel'Thuzad really needed a lot of herbs to refine the plague venom. The Cult of the Damned he founded had been almost wiped out, and the remaining cultists had also entered a period of concealment, no longer going out. In order to prepare a large amount of venom sufficient to cope with future plans, he had to seek herb reserves from the outside world.
So he found the Syndicate and asked this bandit organization to help him collect them. It just so happened that this organization also hated the Alliance, because the Alliance had made them lose their comfortable life and lofty status.
These bandits were indeed efficient enough, they had almost intercepted all the herbs of nearby merchants. Before long, he would be able to gather the amount he needed.
However, Kel'Thuzad really didn't expect that something a merchant used as a conversation piece would allow Aiden to find clues to him.
The assassins of Ravenholdt Manor had already sent accurate information to Aiden and continued to monitor the actions of the Syndicate.
Aiden contacted Highlord Alexandros Mograine of Southshore and the mages of Dalaran, waiting for the opportunity to come, they would touch the Lich who was hiding his head and showing his tail. At that time, he would no longer have such good luck as last time.
But before that, the envoy of Lordaeron arrived in Durnholde Keep, bringing some requests from King Terenas.