by JR Cook - 9 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. This week, stay away if you suffer from arachnophobia…

Location: Deathweb Hollow, Talador

Rewards: Taladorantula Terrorfang

Deep in southern Talador, to the south-east of Auchindon – on the edge of the region that will one day become the Bones Wastes – lies Deathweb Hollow. This area is covered in heavy webbing, and the spiders that live there are amongst the most poisonous on Draenor – apparently. They are certainly aggressive; the Hollow is full of webbed creatures, awaiting consumption.

Travel far enough into the Hollow and you will come to a slope leading to an upper area, where there are no large spiders or their victims – just hundreds and hundreds of babies: Deathweb Hatchlings and Ash Spiderlings scuttle everywhere.

Of course, we wouldn’t be visiting the upper Hollow if there wasn’t something here. These babies had to come from somewhere, after all…

As you run into the area, you’ll notice that the Deathweb Hatchlings squish under your feet, which is key to spawning the mob that we want. You will need to kill as many of them as possible to force the mother out of hiding. Classes with spammable AoE damage have a big advantage here – I used the Glyph of Arcane Explosion, which really sped things up.

A simple way to spot large clusters of spiders is to go to Interface -> Names -> Critters and Companions (thanks to Wowhead user Jetpax for this tip).

You will receive six warnings, broadcast across your screen, as you clear the area of arachnids (doing the world a massive favour in the process). They appear in the following order:

The nearby hatchlings try to skitter away…

The nearby hatchlings try to skitter away…

The nearby hatchlings try to skitter away…

A chill wind blows across the empty hills…

A chittering sound echoes across the trees, then fades…

Something flickers in the shadows, growing closer…

Clearly, something large is quite upset with you.

If someone else has been killing spiders before you but left before spawning the mother, your warnings will pick up where theirs left off – they are not player-specific.

Eventually, the Taladorantula will spawn – although you might not realise it at first. This thing is huge – the first sign that I had of it was when I ran through two tree trunks, which appeared to have sprouted in the last 10 seconds. It was when they twitched that I cottoned on.

Nope

Like any good mother, the Taladorantula tries to provide food for her children – even if they are small scuttling hairy eight-legged, eight-eyed children with swollen hairy bodies and horrible scrabbling little mouths and – you know what, enough adjectives. Let’s move on.

The Taladorantula’s mothering instinct is unfortunate for you, as you are the primary source of protein for her brood. The massive spider spawns Taldorette mobs using Spiderling Swarm, which leap from beneath her to attack you. They have very little health, so grind them into paste as you fight the spider queen. The Taldorettes are, however, a great way to boost Bodyguard reputation – each one grants 10 rep on kill.

Of course, a flesh-eating elephant-sized spider than constantly drops tiny versions of itself isn’t disgusting enough for the Warlords developer team. No, she also uses Arachnid Infestation, killing your ability to escape, dealing damage, and covering you in tiny spider eggs that hang off of your body and release even more babies in an Infested Burst and nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. We’re done. Check please.

Good riddance

Like many of Warlords of Draenor‘s vignettes and rare spawns, the Taladorantula references a mob from The Burning Crusade. When Draenor shattered into Outland, Talador came to be known as Terokkar – and the Taladorantula became, or perhaps spawned, the Terokkarantula. This beast is an even larger spider, rearing above the nearby foothills. You can see the creature’s legs from a long, long way off, peeking up above the mountains.

There is one more surprise hidden in the Taladorantula’s lair – a treat for fans of JRR Tolkein. In The Lord of the Rings, Sam and Frodo sneak into Mordor by way of a set of caves through Ephel Duath, the Mountains of Shadow. The caves are inhabited by the Great Spider Shelob, who ‘serves none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness.‘

Shelob’s first attack on the Hobbits is foiled by the light from the Phial of Galadriel, a gift to Frodo from the Wood Elves. If you look up when entering the upper area of Deathweb Hollow, you will see a small skeleton in the webbing – with a blue bottle near its hand. The Taladorantula is apparently not as bothered by the light of Eärendil’s Star as Shelob.