The prologue of Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom ends in the Ruins of Stratholme, and Chapter Four: Vengeance is where its two surviving heroes finally run out of road. Garek and Ilastar go after Baron Rivendare without Uther’s blessing, and the chapter’s cinematics carry the payoff rather than the gameplay.
Quick answer: Vengeance has four story cinematics — the approach to Stratholme’s gates, Ras Frostwhisper’s transformation into a Lich, the confrontation with Baron Rivendare, and Garek’s death scene that closes the prologue.
All Chapter 4: Vengeance cutscenes in order
| Cutscene | When it plays | Key beat |
|---|---|---|
| Planning the assault | Mission opening | Ilastar takes the side gate |
| Ras Frostwhisper’s ascension | Mid-mission, before his boss fight | He becomes a Lich |
| Confronting Rivendare | At the Baron’s tower | Rivendare mocks Landen’s death |
| The final blow | After the boss fight | Garek executes Rivendare |
| Garek’s demise | Chapter ending | Garek dies of his wounds |
The chapter opens on a map screen labelled Ruins of Stratholme, Greenwood and Scourge Outpost, under the header CHAPTER FOUR VENGEANCE, with a line explaining that several days have passed and that Garek, Ilastar and a small band of soldiers have come for Rivendare’s head.
Opening cinematic: the gates of Stratholme
Garek, Ilastar and their soldiers stand outside the burning city. Ilastar dwells on the damage Arthas has left behind and wonders how many more cities will end this way; Garek puts the blame squarely on Rivendare as the man who started it, and says it ends here.
The scene closes on the plan. Ilastar volunteers to slip in through the side gate alone and raise the portcullises so the rest of the force can push into the outer city, which is exactly how the mission’s opening objective plays out.
Ras Frostwhisper becomes a Lich
Partway into the push through the city, the game cuts to a ritual chamber. Ras Frostwhisper — the Dark Wizard who harassed Garek and Ilastar during the Andorhal chapter, and who fled rather than die there — stands ringed by acolytes and ritual fires with a captive in front of him.
He denounces the Kirin Tor, throws away his mortal body by choice, and reforms as a skeletal Lich in service of the Lich King. Leonid is present for the ritual, and Ras says a farewell to him before teleporting out of the chamber.
This cinematic sets up a fight rather than ending one. Shortly after it plays, the gate ahead opens and the party brings Ras down — and he teleports away again as he falls, insisting he cannot be destroyed so easily.
Baron Rivendare confrontation cutscene
After the long climb up the fortified ramp to the Baron’s tower, Garek and Ilastar breach the inner chamber and the cinematic takes over. Garek demands justice. Rivendare answers with boasts about the Lich King’s power and a taunt about their former captain, Landen, whom he claims to have tortured before killing.
That line is what breaks Garek’s patience. He charges, and control returns to the player for the boss fight, where Scourge obelisks vent plague spores and have to be destroyed alongside Rivendare himself.
The execution and Garek’s death scene
The ending plays out in two parts. In the first, a badly wounded Ilastar calls on the Light and locks Rivendare in glowing chains, leaving him helpless. He is still talking as it happens, telling them death is only the beginning and that he will be back. Garek cuts the speech short and takes his head, with the moment shown as a shadow thrown across the wall rather than on-screen.
The second part belongs to Garek alone. Bleeding and unable to stay upright, he drifts through remembered conversations with Uther, Ilastar and Landen about what victory is worth and what it costs to survive. The voices are labelled on screen as memories, and Garek collapses beside his fallen comrades as the picture fades. The Victory prompt follows, offering Continue or Quit Campaign.
How the cutscenes are spaced across the mission
If you are playing rather than watching, the gaps between cinematics are filled with a fairly long city assault. The stretch runs roughly like this:
- Breach the outer city and raise the portcullises with Ilastar on the battlements.
- Clear Alonsus Chapel and free trapped Mortar Teams to unlock troop production at the Survivor Camp.
- Optional quest: destroy three Giant Plague Mushrooms, using Ilastar’s Light’s Mercy ability.
- Secure the Crusader Square Key, then use it on the Circle of Power to open the gate.
- Defeat the hero Lorthiras, free caged Knights and Sorceresses, and push up the ramp to the tower.
The chapter itself is built on a heavily reworked version of the Culling of Stratholme map, right down to the gold mine outside the walls sitting at 1337 gold.
Vengeance is the last of the four prologue missions, and Garek’s death there is not the end of him. The main Forsaken Kingdom campaign picks up beneath the ruins of Lordaeron with Garek Bandarion risen as a Forsaken warrior, fighting alongside Dark Ranger Anya. The campaign requires Warcraft III: Reforged and is sold on the Battle.net shop as a standalone add-on or inside the Warcraft Forever Collection.
