"No, please! I was only in it because I needed the money!" The bloodied form of a Defias miner cried out, the zombified forms of his allies surrounding him within the damp cold of the mine I was clearing out.

"I never hurt anybody!"

I might have bought it too, if I hadn't heard this man bragging about his latest kill this very same day when I was scouting the place out.

"Eat." I called out.

Not that I cared.

The man screamed as the horde around us descended upon him, tearing at him with teeth, claw, and the occasional pick-axe.

I twirled my sword for a moment, before flicking the blood staining the blade into the earth.

Alongside my studies into Bloodlord Anastriel's tome I had instructor Antheol give me a crash course in swordplay. The old Elf was no master by Elven standards, but he was better than most.

The tome itself was unfortunately not designed to impart knowledge, it was a record of Anastriels expirements on the Orc biology. Two decades ago he had captured a significant number of orcs from a clan he did not name.

They were enslaved and twisted to his will as puppets in a way not dissimilar to the common undead of today. Their minds were ground into nothing but an extension of Anastriels will soon after they left the Dark portal.

He gave the horde quite a scare when an entire clan disappeared into the shadows one night, never to be heard from again.

Unfortunately his notes following his account of the orcs capture had not yet been translated fully.

The elf was old enough to use a language somewhere between Darnassian, the language of the night elves, and that of my own people, Thalassian. I needed more time to fully understand his notes on the rituals on the spells he was using.

I had attempted to use one of the spells in the body of one of the bloodmages, and the stains in my personal quarters still havent come out. I would need a perfect translation, or a lot more bodies to make any real progress.

I was in the mine of Jangolode. The last of the mines I was charged with clearing out. I had almost overlooked Jangolode. It wasnt in fact a gold mine, but a mine for iron and copper. It provided most of the mineral used in the creation of Harvest golems.

I actually hadnt known about it until one of the Goblins reported they were running out of supplies. Many of the places in Westfall had been abandoned since the Second war nearly twenty years ago, before even the Defias took over.

The Defias in the area had been using it to make weapons now that the word had gotten out locally that VanCleef was dead, and the Deadmines were taken over.

Like most of the mines, temporarily at least, it had been filled with their old workers, now undead.

I figured since they were out of sight, and worked for free no one would mind their presence. So far I had recieved no complaints from Sentinel hill or the outlying territories.

With the mines under my control I could distribute gold and other minerals freely, hiding my use of the real Defias treasury as simple aquisistion from the mines. I have already bought a significant amount of stone and steel both for Sentinel hill fortress, and the creation of golems.

With the stone I had on hand just from expansion in the dead mines I managed to craft two arcane guardians to guard the entrance of my base of operations. With the lack of an arcane core to use as batteries I used the totems I had created as substitutes.

The golem had a sickly green glow to them, but were far more inviting guards than zombies.

At my suggestion word had been given to the locals who had managed to hold onto their farmsteads over the years, and those who were doing poorly were given coin and food directly from the Defias supply I had stolen in an effort to see them began producing larger crop.

Already we were getting an influx of returning families as word of mouth played to our favor, and orphaned teens trying their hand at reclaiming the lands of their ancestors.

It wouldnt be too long now before word reaches Stormwind, and they begin sending inquires on the situation of the land to Sentinel hill. Eventually we would have to respond.

Those manning Sentinel hill were supplied as well as the common farmer was, if not better, and were using my gold to properly arm themselves and gather as many working tools as they could for the farmers that occasionally stopped by.

The efforts to clear out the Gnolls and outlying bandits had been coming along moderately well, particularly on the bandit side of things. Unfortunately the Riverpaw tribe of Gnolls was giving us some trouble where their counterparts could not.

The Gnolls had taken to hit and run tactics, killing as many militia men as they could before fleeing. Reports told me progress was slowing as the Gnoll tribes they had all but wiped out united under Riverpaw banners.

We have been putting our scouts to the task of finding their encampment, but the nomadic nature of the Gnolls was making things difficult. Once it was found we could kill whatever alpha had taken control of the tribe and scatter them once again.

With Jasperlode secure the only immediate threat was the Riverpaw.

It would be a good opportunity to see how my Harvest Golems held up.