Laralove Dewshining rests from her expedition to the Sunless Citadel in Fallcrest then joins an arcanist named Xanroar Carter on a journey to the Trollhaunt Warrens. There they battle a tribe of hill giants loyal to Skalamad the Troll King. In the hill giant's lair they find a horde of gold. Xanroar uses the bones of the hill giants to craft powerful magic gauntlets that are shipped to all the fighters in the league. The two mages rest in Nera, among the ruins of the old Nerathi Empire's capitol.
The city state of Sarthel has been defiantly collecting taxes from neighboring villages and invading those who refuse to pay for their protection. Many refugees from the raided villages and those who have no more coin to sustain themselves head to nearby Vor Rukoth seeking sanctuary. The dwarves stationed there hear the villagers cries for help and mobilize their cannons and mountaineers. They also recruit a tribe of stone giants nearby who owe their clan a debt from ages past, and a silver dragon from Winterbole Forest who has sworn allegiance to the league for honoring an ancient Nerathi Imperial pact to leave his lands untouched by axe or plow.
When the force from Vor Rukoth arrives at Sarthel, many of the wealthiest nobles have already fled. The mercenary guards abandon their posts at the sight of the powerful army set to lay siege to their city. Only a handful of loyal warriors fiercely defend those few houses who remain. They are quickly overcome and the rabble flood through the gates alongside the army, rushing into the lush mansions to loot the remaining wealth within.
An elite unit of dwarves scales the back wall of the fortress and captures several fleeing noblemen. As they move through the nobles home making more arrests they make an unsettling discovery: a great subterranean temple to Asmodeus the Lord of Hell and signs of human and animal sacrifices. The nobles found in the home above the temple and inside are executed for devilry, and the remaining prisoners are held for trial later as investigations continue. The house and temple are razed to the ground by the great dragon.
In Skalgard Keep, the orcs reign of terror continues and the lands fall into chaos. Prince Stalkingwolf leads the Iron Wolfhold's liberation force. The orcs, too busy plundering to rebuild the main gates of the keep, which they had smashed with their siege engine, were unable to repel the Prince, though they held out long in their fight and claimed nearly one thousand of the Wolfhold's soldiers on the battlefield. Their great engine of war, with it's cloven skull rolled out from the keep, decorated with the bodies of Skalgard's finest knights. It's great wheels crushing many of the advancing troops before the Prince himself climbed atop the great machine, setting it ablaze with his flaming sword. A bronze dragon joined the strike, setting orc archers on the towers of Skalgard Keep aflame, as great stones heaved by trebuchets battered the walled defenses. The last of the orcs standing on the field of battle were cut down by the Ironwolf's berzerkers, a loyal shifter clan.
The King in Ironwolf Hold drank to his son's victory, and sent ale to all the villages in his honor.
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