Hearthglen, a vast valley nestled in the northern mountains of Westweald, is surrounded by expansive woodlands.
Hearthglen is the largest town in this province besides Andorhal. Unlike Andorhal, which is directly managed by the Royal Family of Lordaeron, Hearthglen is the territory of a local noble, a great lord of Westweald.
Hearthglen once had a just and upright ruler, deeply loved by his subjects, whose fame and achievements spread throughout the Kingdom of Lordaeron. He was none other than the well-known Tirion Fordring.
The towering fortress in the center of Hearthglen, Mardenholde Keep, is the commercial hub of this prosperous area. Even during the dark times of the Orcish invasion of Lordaeron, the enemy never breached the fortress's high walls and strong defenses, which made the citizens of Hearthglen deeply proud.
Now, Hearthglen is managed by Tirion Fordring's son, the newly adult Taelan Fordring.
At this time, Hearthglen is already overcrowded. Three months ago, incidents of corpses reanimating and plagues raging began to break out sporadically in various parts of Lordaeron, followed by a large influx of refugees from large farms and villages all over Westweald into Hearthglen!
Even tens of thousands of people came from as far as Folsom Farm in the west, Dalson Farm in the center, Galen's Farm in the east, and even the vicinity of Andorhal in the south!
Originally, the nobles of Hearthglen and its surrounding areas were unwilling to accept so many refugees. After all, the sudden influx of more than one hundred thousand people put a great strain on the local food reserves. However, the young Taelan Fordring overruled the objections and forcefully allowed these hundred thousand people to enter, settling them in the surrounding woodlands.
Fortunately, these refugees seemed to have been prepared, not only bringing their own essential camping tents but even pots, pans, and other utensils!
This greatly reduced Taelan Fordring's pressure. Now, the only problem to be solved is the food issue!
As night fell, in the heart of Hearthglen's governance, the Mardenholde Keep of the Fordring family, candlelight flickered and swayed in the council chamber.
In the very center was a large oak table, covered with a huge map, a topographical map of the area surrounding Hearthglen.
Four men and two women, six people in total, sat around the table, conversing with each other.
Taelan Fordring sat at the head of the table, lost in thought as he looked at the area marked on the map near the watchtowers in the woodlands.
"Arden, Bridget, do you have anything to add regarding the defense of Hearthglen?"
The two people Taelan called out to were a middle-aged man with a full black beard, wearing traditional white Lordaeron armor. This man, named Arden, was the captain of the city guard, left to him by his father, Tirion, and loyal to the Fordring family.
The woman named Bridget was about the same age as Taelan. Her father was Lordaeron's High General, Alfred Abidis.
"Lord, all of our guards have now secured the passages into the valley. Although our walls are strong, our number of guards is only enough to deal with small-scale conflicts. If the number of undead exceeds five thousand, we will find it very difficult to cope!"
Arden sighed. Ever since his old lord, whom he had sworn allegiance to, was judged for sheltering Orcs, the Menethil royal family had been restricting Hearthglen in various ways!
This included limiting the number of the lord's private army to only five hundred men!
The veterans of the former Hearthglen Brigade were dismissed one by one. Given the current situation, they could not be recalled in a short period, and recalling them would violate the royal family's regulations. Arden was in a dilemma.
"We can recruit militiamen!"
A heroic female voice came. Taelan looked up and saw Bridget.
"What do you mean, Bridget?" From the look in Taelan's eyes, he seemed to have some special feelings for this woman.
Bridget was born into a military family. Because she was the only daughter of the Abidis family, she was taken to the battlefield by her father at a very young age. From suppressing gnolls to hacking down moss giants to routing wandering Orcs, she had experienced dozens of battles, large and small. Therefore, even Arden had to take her words seriously.
Mainly because, apart from her, Arden felt that the others were not very reliable when it came to warfare!
His young master was only eighteen years old. Although he had been training in Holy Light City for the past few years, he had never had the opportunity to fight in actual combat. Who knew how he would perform!
Of the remaining three, a female priest named Sally Whitemane had performed exceptionally well in treating refugees, but one could not expect a priest to fight.
Arden also knew the remaining two people. Like his young master, they were descendants of traditional Lordaeron noble families: Renault Mograine and Darion Mograine!
Renault was okay, at least he was an adult, but what was up with that thirteen-year-old Darion!
Did he think war was a children's game!
However, Arden did not express his true thoughts. After all, they were invited by his young master. He heard that they were all companions from the same training camp. Of course, Darion had secretly followed Renault.
Today's meeting was almost a meeting of the second generation of the Knights of the Silver Hand!
"These hundreds of thousands of refugees came from dozens of different villages, but they all have one thing in common!" Bridget glanced around the room and smiled kindly when she saw Darion. She heard that this junior was the most outstanding student in this year's training camp.
"They were all escorted to Hearthglen by strong villagers! I have observed that each group of refugees has a group of villagers comparable to the Lordaeron militia, thousands at most, and dozens at least!"
"That's not strange, Bridget," the silent Renault spoke. "The Alliance has been established for more than ten years. Back then, in order to fight against the mortal enemy Orcish Horde, the Alliance established many local warbands in various places. The more famous ones in Lordaeron were the Hearthglen Brigade and the Stratholme Brigade. Later, after the Alliance won, many warbands were disbanded due to military expenditure issues."
"Are you saying that they are likely all veterans who participated in the Orcish Wars?" Long-legged Whitemane asked with some doubt, "Is it such a coincidence that they all came to Hearthglen at the same time?"