Marwan returned to the Caucasus determined to launch a decisive blow against the Khazars, but it appears that he too was unable to launch anything but local expeditions for some time. He established a new base of operations at Kasak, some twenty parsangs from Tiflis and forty from Bardha'a, but his initial expeditions were against minor local potentates. In 735, Marwan captured three fortresses in Alania, near the Darial Pass, and the ruler of a North Caucasian principality, Tuman Shah, who was restored to his lands by the Caliph as a client ruler. In the next year, Marwan campaigned against another local prince, Wartanis, whose castle was seized and its defenders killed despite their surrender; Wartanis himself tried to flee, but was captured and executed by the inhabitants of Khamzin. Indeed, Agapius and Michael the Syrian record that the Arabs and the Khazars concluded peace during this period, information which Muslim sources ignore or downplay as a short-lived ruse by Marwan designed to gain time for his preparations and mislead the Khazars as to his intentions.