Foray into the Undercity

The Foray into the Undercity was a large and extraordinarily bloody engagement between the crusading forces of the Congregation of the Silver Hand and an auxiliary force of Horde troops sent to halt the Alliance as they marched on the Ruins of Lordaeron. Despite being titled 'Foray into the Undercity', Alliance forces never made any attempt to actually enter the Undercity, rather just the Ruins of Lordaeron.

Preface
Following the successful invasion of Brill and the destruction of the plague facilities in Garren's Haunt, the Alliance forces moved unmolested into the ruins of the once great capitol of the Kingdom of Lordaeron. Unwilling to allow their city to fall under siege, the Horde mustered a large defense force, larger than the rest of the campaign had seen, to repel the Alliance invaders.

Meeting on the outskirts of an abandoned scout tower, the Alliance forces gathered where a tactical strike team under the leadership of Lord Berenal Grayblade was put together out of brave volunteers. These five men and women would be dropped into the ruins of the capitol to search for the objective of the entire campaign, the shield of General Turalyon, Lion's Bastion. As this occured, Lord Chancellor Asuryan Caernough would lead the majority force of soldiers into the ruins of Lordaeron to provide a distraction while the strike team obtained the shield.

Battle
After a small speech from Grand Knight Erich Gottfried Manstein, the Congregation's forces marched upon the ruined capitol of Lordaeron. Though outnumbered, the Congregation fought with vigor worthy of men and women of the Alliance and held the line for over an hour of battle. Unable to repel the Alliance invaders, the Horde fell back to within the city walls, where the Alliance continued their valiant effort against the Horde.

Meanwhile, within the walls of the city, the strike team was hard at work making their way through the city walls and searching possible locations for the shield. After several encounters with the Horde forces, the strike team was able to successfully retrieve the Lion's Bastion from the ruins and escape the city, signalling for the Alliance forces to return triumphant, or so they thought.

Parlay
Upon closer examination of the supposed Lion's Bastion, it was deemed a fraud. A master stroke by the Forsaken forces had allowed them to replace the actual Lion's Bastion with a fake shield that fit the description of the real one. Calling for a parlay on an island on the outskirts of the city in the middle of a lake, the Undead demanded the Alliance provide their dead in exchange for the shield.

Having foresight to any possible unsavory demands, Grand Knight Manstein ordered Lord Grayblade to gather a force of crusaders to wait on the outskirts of the island. When the warlock Ivan Sibelius Felsorrow revealed to be carrying the real Lion's Bastion, the horn was sounded and the crusaders swarmed the island.

Faced with innumerable enemies, the undead were provided with an ultimatum, surrender the Lion's Bastion and live, or be slaughtered. The undead chose the latter, resulting in the slaughter of the small parlay group and the retrieval of the Lion's Bastion.

While Sibelius and Seleste Shatterheart were able to come back following the meeting by way of a soulstone and phylactery respectively, their two guards were killed in the resulting combat.

Outcome
Despite the Forsaken trickery within the city, the mission was deemed a success by the crusader's efforts at the parlay. With Lion's Bastion secure, the forces of the Congregation returned to the Scarlet Palisade to prepare for the voyage to Quel'thalas to retrieve the second artifact needed for the scrying, Windrunner's Tear