Hey! The King's Back!

[MongoJerry]

Note: Other Adventures of Neriad include:

• The Great Masquerade! (The Stormwind Raid Event)<>
  
• Onyxia<>
  
• Lord Lakmaeran<>
  
• Schooling Scholomance (Note: Image links broken until December due to bandwidth restrictions)<>
  [st]
  
  ADVENTURES OF NERIAD: Hey! The King's Back!
  
  I logged on for yet another appointment with death at the hands of Onyxia when I got this message from ZProtous.
  
  ZProtous: We found the king!
  Neriad: Oh, yeah? Where?
  ZProtous: Prost found him on some island near Theramore.
  Neriad: On Alcaz? Cool! Last time I went there, there weren't any mobs.
  
  
  
  Alcaz is a large prison island (think: Alcatraz) north and a little east of Theramore, in Dustwallow Marsh.
  
  But, wait! You might be thinking. Isn't the king that kid in Stormwind Keep? You know, the one who didn't help or react at all when his guards turned out to be dragonkin? Well, you'd only be partially right.
  
  This story is part of a long quest chain titled "The Missing Diplomat" that involves the Defias gang. It starts with a kid in the Cathedral in Stormwind who takes you aside and tells you to go talk to Bishop DeLavey in Stormwind Keep about "a delicate matter." Later, after beating up three informants, you find out two things. First, now that the original plan of the Defias gang has been spoiled, the Defias gang has moved to plan B: kidnapping a high-ranking Stormwind diplomat while he is traveling by boat to Theramore with the help of an undisclosed third party. Second, the high-ranking diplomat is the king of Stormwind himself.
  
  The story goes that when the Defias kidnapped the king, Stormwind had no choice but to crown the his kid king. The part where whatever plausibility there exists in the story falls apart is that the nobles of Stormwind have crowned the kid king and yet somehow managed to keep the fact that the old king has been kidnapped quiet -- as if the entire population of the kingdom wouldn't be wondering what happened to the old king. Oh, well, somehow we have to move past this point.
  
  Anyway, the currently implemented quest chain ends with you beating up a private who was involved in the kidnapping and ends up spilling the beans to you and Lady Jaina Proudmoore, the ruler of Theramore. Proudmoore takes the private into custody for questioning and tells you to come back to her later when she might have more information. However, neither she nor her aide, Archmage Tervosh, have any new information to give in the current patch (I checked).
  
  
  
  Alcaz is a beautiful jungle island and if it weren't for the two prominent guard towers, one might not suspect its dark purpose.
  
  
  
  However, one glance underwater shows that this is not a friendly place.
  
  
  
  The island is guarded by swarms of level 59-62 elite hydras and nagas, and it's not a place for the faint of heart. Using one of the perks of being a priest, however, I was able to Mind Soothe past all the guards along the trail.
  
  
  
  In the center of the island is a prison camp guarded by about a dozen elite nagas.
  
  
  
  However, by going around the back of the rightmost building and coming out where the guard tower is shown in the previous screenshot, I was about to find the entrance to the underground passage that Prost and ZProtous directed me to.
  
  
  
  The underground passage is a dark dank place, but there aren't any mobs there (yet?).
  
  
  
  At the end of the passage is a deeper pool and to go further, one must dive down into the water, swim through a short underwater passage, and come up into a chamber on the other side.
  
  
  
  And there he is! Hail the King of Stormwind! Standing in a pool of dank water...

[MongoJerry]

While I was finding the place, another one of ZProtous's friends brought his undead mage, Sargodha, to find out what would happen if one killed the King of Stormwind. He pulled the king into a side room (the room through the portcullis you see in the screenshot above), and I knew I was in for disappointment when I saw he could sheep the King of Stormwind.



Sargodha killed the king twice and got nothing for it, and the king respawned less than a minute after dying each time. I don't know which disappointed me more: The fact that the king didn't drop any loot or the fact that it was so easy to kill the King of Stormwind (he's a level 60 normal mob). It's obvious that the king will eventually be involved in a huge escort quest to rescue him from Alcaz and return him to his rightful throne in Stormwind (perhaps in retail?). For now, though, he just stands there in his dank prison cell not doing a whole lot.

However, all this talk about the return of the king gives me an idea for a story. It's about two gnomes who find a bracelet of power...

[Bolty]

I always wondered why The Missing Diplomat just seemed to die out, feeling like I was only halfway done the chain.

Neat stuff, Mongo. Great post as usual!

-Bolty

[Guest]

I'm not even going to bother trying to translate whatever kind of spam that was. But it's not welcome here.

~Mirajj

[RTM]

Well, thanks for bumping the thread anyway. It's kind of neat to see how far Varian Wrynn has come, especially considering I just finished up the Wrathgate quest (and followup) yesterday.:)

[Sir_Die_alot]

Well, thanks for bumping the thread anyway. It's kind of neat to see how far Varian Wrynn has come, especially considering I just finished up the Wrathgate quest (and followup) yesterday.:)

There was never a rescue quest though. HOW DID HE GET OUT! And why is he wearing armor instead of rags?

[Taelas]

There was never a rescue quest though. HOW DID HE GET OUT! And why is he wearing armor instead of rags?

Varian's story is told in the Wildstorm line of WoW comics. It's summarized here, on his WoWWiki page.

[Trien]

One thing that's bugged me about the whole Wrathgate event is that with the loss of the Onyxia quest chain, only the people who did it back in the day will have any sort of knowledge of who Bolvar is. Otherwise, he's just some random NPC who you speak to once or twice...

* Trien wishes they had phased King Wrynn's return and kept Bolvar in the throne room and the Onyxia chain intact...

[Taelas]

He also comes to rake your coals out of the fire when fighting Inigo Montoy.

Besides, the only thing that is important to know is that Bolvar is considered a hero -- which Varian repeats quite exhaustively.

[Lissa]

One thing that's bugged me about the whole Wrathgate event is that with the loss of the Onyxia quest chain, only the people who did it back in the day will have any sort of knowledge of who Bolvar is. Otherwise, he's just some random NPC who you speak to once or twice...

* Lissa wishes they had phased King Wrynn's return and kept Bolvar in the throne room and the Onyxia chain intact...

It's been 4 years with Bolvar in the throne room and Onyxia standing just 5 feet away. If someone hadn't gotten a chance to run the full chain, they either are: a) brand spanking new to game,B)didn't look hard enough for people that wanted to complete the chain (yes it could be a pain if people didn't want to do it, but there were people around that did want to complete the whole line), c) didn't care.

Besides, the NPCs in Dragonblight on the Alliance side speak reverently about him every chance they get, people should get a feel for who he is.

Now, the one people may really be not understanding how he's gotten to such reverence would be Tyrion Fordring. If you haven't done the chains involving him in EPL or played a DK (and even then, the DK's only get a smidgeon of what he's about), you won't understand why he's in command of the Argent Crusade and why Arthas fears him.

A lot of people made fun of the WWUD (What would Uther do?) back in the day, but now that's morphing into WWBD and WWTD... :P

[Taelas]

Tirion got a book about him before any of the others. I don't see why it should be difficult knowing just how awesome he is -- especially since his crowning moment of awesome was cleansing the Corrupted Ashbringer by touching it (and then proceeding to knock Arthas on his ass).

[Lissa]

Tirion got a book about him before any of the others. I don't see why it should be difficult knowing just how awesome he is -- especially since his crowning moment of awesome was cleansing the Corrupted Ashbringer by touching it (and then proceeding to knock Arthas on his ass).

Again, if you didn't read any of the books, didn't find him in EPL and do his quest chain, and didn't play a DK, you'd have absolutlely no clue about him. Bolvar is way less of a mystery to people than Tyrion is. The quests in Icecrown however tell you just how powerful Tyrion is with the things he does (not going to spoil things for people), but he is THE Paladin.

[Trien]

Well, I am thinking mainly about the new people... some of which include a couple friends/relatives who just recently signed up shortly before WotLK.

Compare having someone else tell you how great something is, versus actually seeing for yourself. It's one thing to hear NPC's speak well about him and another thing to have fought off the masses of dragonkin with him inside the Stormwind throne room. (Yeah I know, he's not a real person, but I wouldn't be thinking, "Noooooooooooooooooo!" after Wrath Gate if I hadn't been there in SW way back when).

Edit: Oh, and when he shows up against Thel'zan, couldn't help but cheer to see him in action again. I liked the 'good to see you again' moments here and there... similarly like the one from Stoutmantle (Westfall Brigade) wondering which item you took long ago, and sorta sad to see that new people will never get to see Bolvar's.

[Taelas]

I maintain that you'd have to practically WANT to avoid him to not hear of Tirion before you meet him in Icecrown.

[Lissa]

I maintain that you'd have to practically WANT to avoid him to not hear of Tirion before you meet him in Icecrown.

Again, if you never go up to the NW part of EPL along the river, you never play a DK, and never read the books, you won't ever encounter him till get to Icecrown. You hear about him from the AC people in Dragonblight and Zul'Drak, but have no real idea about him.

Unless you play a DK, you have no idea how he gets Ashbringer, yet alone purifies it.

Bolvar, unless you're new to the game, you couldn't avoid as there was a number of quests that dealt with him as you leveled up.

[LavCat]

I maintain that you'd have to practically WANT to avoid him to not hear of Tirion before you meet him in Icecrown.

Of Love and Family has always been one of my favorite quest lines. My complaint is that in Northrend they changed Tirion's voice acting (English version thereof, at least). He now sounds like a gnome, not that I have anything against gnomes, of course.

[Artega]

I actually had a couple people asking in gchat today who Fordring was, and why he was some special guy. Neither of them were DKs, of course. I think they were TBC babies, and never did EPL, just went to Outland at 58.

[Taelas]

Again, if you never go up to the NW part of EPL along the river, you never play a DK, and never read the books, you won't ever encounter him till get to Icecrown. You hear about him from the AC people in Dragonblight and Zul'Drak, but have no real idea about him.

Unless you play a DK, you have no idea how he gets Ashbringer, yet alone purifies it.

Bolvar, unless you're new to the game, you couldn't avoid as there was a number of quests that dealt with him as you leveled up.

If you are Alliance, you can meet Tirion (and Ashbringer) in Howling Fjord.

[Sir_Die_alot]

Bolvar, unless you're new to the game, you couldn't avoid as there was a number of quests that dealt with him as you leveled up.

Unless you happened to be a horde player.

[Lissa]

If you are Alliance, you can meet Tirion (and Ashbringer) in Howling Fjord.

Very briefly, the representative for the AC in Valgarde is Irulon Trueblade. Tyrion shows up for a moment when you bring back the blade that the dying Paladin in the catacombs sends you for. I wouldn't be surprised if a horde player could do the quest if they can fly.