by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Exploring Draenor delves into the hidden places of the world that will one day become Outland. From the volcanic landscape of Frostfire to the gloomy dells of Shadowmoon, these articles are your guide to events that are off the beaten path.

Location: Gorgrond, east of Evermorn Springs

Task: Kill and collect

Rewards: 63g

Gorgrond is a savage zone in a savage land. The overarching theme is the combat between Draenor’s plant elementals and the stony ancestors of the ogres. You’ll find evidence of this clash everywhere: Horde players will witness a titanic Magnaron, Tog the Earthrender, fighting a massive plant elemental, Ula, after their introductory quests. Another example is, of course, the Ruins of the First Bastion.

The Ruins are one of Gorgrond’s many bonus objectives. Presumably the remains of the ogres’ first attempt to settle Gorgrond, it is a crumbling fort that has been subsumed by the flora of the zone. The entire place is infested with podlings and land- and air-based insects – much like Ahn’Qiraj (although Old Gods are, thankfully, missing).

Inside the wall, there are several buildings leading up a hill, topped by what appears to be a shrine. At the bottom, in the centre of the Ruins, is a pool of water containing a glowing plant. The plant doesn’t appear to do anything, but the pool is full of the skeletons of aquatic creatures (perhaps riverbeasts, which are quite stony) and ogres. Maybe it’s been feeding on them?

The objective inside is to kill 20 podlings, find and loot eight Ancient Jars and defeat Malkor. The podlings are everywhere, in packs – AoE will clear them up easily. Both Frenzied Foragers and Frenzied Spitters count. The Jars are all over the place – out in the open and hidden in the nooks and crannies around the Ruins. Opening them will reward you with Ogre ‘Treasure’ – which is to say, rocks.

After fighting your way up the hill that the fort is constructed around you will reach the shrine, where Malkor is waiting. His title is <The Last Poolkeeper> – presumably referring to the pool at the bottom of the hill. That raises some interesting questions. Is it the pool he is tending, or what it contains? Is the pool the entire reason that the fort is ruined?

Either way, Malkor isn’t a particularly difficult fight, although you might groan at his puns – but I’ll leave those for you to discover.

As an introduction to Gorgrond, the Ruins are a fun experience that do their job, although I’d have liked some more explanation for the lore behind the area. NPC speech, or objects that explain some of the fort’s backstory, could build the place up into a really interesting look at ogre history.