Memories of Vanilla #21 - Sharpbeak and the Mallet of Zul'Farrak

Hey dudes! Welcome back to Silvite Soltis' series, Memories of Vanilla. It's been a while, huh?

Last time, I recapped the story of how I ended up at the Altar of Zul in the Hinterlands by killing myself with a Violet Tragan and meeting a ragtag group of adventurers when I rezzed. Well today, we're going to continue that adventure.

If you enjoy this story, remember to check out my other content here, as well as over on YouTube. There's a lot more coming, so make sure to get notifications when new content is released.

But for now, on with the story...

-----------------------------------------------------------

Jintha'Alor

Our group of four made our way over to the massive troll stronghold of Jintha'Alor and immediately knew we were in for a rough time. Lining the stairways heading up the mountain were packs upon packs of elite troll mobs.

I had no idea how many there were beyond that first stairway, but judging by the sheer size of the stronghold, I knew this was no 15 minute group quest.

Vilebranch Troll

And so, we began our ascent. Carefully pulling each troll back, we slowly made progress up the mountainous village. One by one and two by two, the vile forest trolls fell. But more than once we accidentally pulled extra mobs, either by standing too close to a patrol or when a low mob would attempt to flee, and our group wiped. Whenever this would happen, we'd sigh, run back, rez up, and continue our difficult endeavor.

It was a long, painstaking grind, but eventually after about an hour or so of getting lost and turned around in our climb, we reached the top. And there, locked in a cage on the other side of a cave, was a baby gryphon named Sharpbeak.

Back when I'd first visited the Hinterlands, I had started a quest chain in Aerie Peak to search for a baby gryphon - Swiftwing's heir - in different locations around the zone. And though one of the quests in that chain had required me to visit the Alter of Zul prior, at the time I had simply run up and completed the scouting mission without trying to defeat the two elite trolls there (I died, of course). So through my adventures in Azeroth and eventually running through ZF for the first time (a story for a later MoV installment), I'd managed to get to this final step of the chain. However, no matter how many times I clicked on the cage, it remained locked. Reading the quest text, I knew what needed to be done.

Jintha'Alor Altar

Our group backtracked a bit, searching for the Vile Priestess Hexx and the Jintha'Alor Altar simultaneously among all the high-level elite packs. Luckily for me, both were in the same location. Unfortunately, however, it took a long time for us to find it - getting lost in the various rooms and areas atop the mountain. At one point, we ended up in a room filled with slimes and had to fight our way out of the pit in the center which, while not particularly hard, did kill a good 5 minutes or so of our progress. Eventually, though, we did find the altar in the distance - and the Vile Priestess was just a few yards away, patrolling around the cave entrance nearby.


Buffing, drinking up, and preparing ourselves, we ran in to engage. After all, even if my group-mates didn't need her, she was too close to get to the altar without risking a facepull. If I remember correctly, she had a hex ability that turned us into frogs a few times as we battled her, but otherwise the fight was pretty straightforward. As she fell, I looted the key to Sharpbeak's cage and joined my party members over by the altar. Clicking the Sacred Mallet, I sighed in relief as it was transformed into the object we'd sought - The Mallet of Zul'Farrak!


One objective down, one to go.


We backtracked through the path we'd just cleared, killing the repops as they spawned, all the while making our way over to the cage where Sharpbeak lay. Looking from left to right, as to make sure no other trolls were waiting to eat my face, I carefully made my way over to the cage and clicked on it. Within seconds, it swung open and the baby gryphon flapped its wings once more.

Farewell, Sharpbeak! You're Free!

Sharpbeak was free!


My party enjoyed the short scripted event that followed - Sharpbeak fluttering over to the edge of the mountain as his parents flew overhead to greet him and take him home. Shedding a tear IRL, I nodded as the three gryphons flew off into the sunset and turned back to my party to ask...


"Ok, so what next?"

-----------------------------------------------------------

I hope you enjoyed this installment of Memories of Vanilla. It was a really fun little tale to recount, especially after just discussing the Saving Sharpbeak quest chain in my most recent video. These two events - the quest and obtaining the mallet - were really powerful memories of my late 40s back in early 2006. Looking back, I'm really going to miss that long quest chain as I climb Jintha'Alor again on my troll priest for the mallet later this year. But I guess that's just the way it is, huh?


Anyway, that's all for now. If you like this post, follow my blog for more content later on, or check out my videos over on YouTube. Leave a comment letting me know about your own memories, and feel free to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for updates when new content is released. I try to make something every week or so, and with several months until WoW Classic is out, you can rest assured there's a lot more coming until I take a no-life neckbeard break for the first few weeks...But that's all I've got for today. See you next time! And as always...


Take it easy!