Deadmines

The Deadmines are a network of old mine tunnels beneath the village of Moonbrook in Westfall. Before the First War they were the largest source of gold in the human lands, and they also yielded Whitestone oak, a lumber prized because it resists heat and pressure. The mines were abandoned after the Horde destroyed Stormwind in the First War.

After the Second War, the Stonemasons' Guild rebuilt Stormwind from the ruins the orcs had left. When the work was done, the House of Nobles refused to pay the masons. Their guildmaster, Edwin VanCleef, led them in a riot, fled with them to Westfall and formed them into the Defias Brotherhood. He chose the abandoned mines, whose entrance lies under a Moonbrook barn, as the Brotherhood's base.

VanCleef commands the Brotherhood from a ship in Ironclad Cove, at the bottom of the mines, where he plans his revenge on Stormwind. Goblins work for him there: Sneed, his lumbermaster, pilots a shredder, and Gilnid serves as his head smelter. The goblin Captain Greenskin, also in VanCleef's pay, keeps the tauren Mr. Smite as first mate and the murloc Cookie as cook, while the ogre Rhahk'Zor is foreman of VanCleef's building work.

Gryan Stoutmantle, a Westfall native and Knight of the Silver Hand, founded the People's Militia to defend Westfall from the Defias. His long quest chain leads to a Defias traitor, who guides adventurers to the hideout in Moonbrook, and ends with an order to bring back VanCleef's head. Scout Riell of the militia wants ten red silk bandanas, the mark of high-ranking Defias, and in Stormwind, Shoni the Shilent wants a goblin shredder's power supply to help the gnomes retake Gnomeregan. Also in Stormwind, Wilder Thistlenettle, who escaped when a tunnel collapsed on his mining crew, wants his lost brother's Explorers' League badge and his friends' Miners' Union cards.

VanCleef carries an unsent letter to Baros Alexston, Stormwind's city architect, who once worked beside him in the Stonemasons' Guild. After reading it, Baros says revenge has consumed his old guildmate and sends adventurers to the Stockade, where VanCleef's lieutenant Bazil Thredd is held.