"The Protectors of Hyjal" (Part 2)

Eridar, a bunch of druids and Argent Confessor Paletress: The Protectors of Hyjal (Part 2)

It is a departure from how I normally present posts, but the list of NPC all-stars now appearing on the slopes of Mt. Hyjal was becoming significantly too long, so I have taken the unusual step of cutting this post in half.  

This is the second of two posts about the Protectors of Hyjal. if you need to go back to the first part, you can just click here.

The list continues!

High Warlord Cromush - is Garrosh Hellscream's right-hand man in the Eastern Kingdoms. Horde players meet him in several places through Silverpine Forest and the Hillsbradt Foothills, keeping an eye on Sylvanas, who the orcs don't trust, and then later howling in anger when the Frostwolf clan refuses to join his forces in fighting the Stormpike Guard in Hillsbradt Foothills.  He later appears inside Heroic Shadowfang Keep to Horde Players as an NPC helping in the fight against Lord Godfrey.

Mankrik on the rampage.

Mankrik - Mankrik isn't nearly as famous as his dead wife, who had been the object of hatred among many patrons of Barrens Chat for years.  Originally Mankrik asked Horde players to try and find his dearly beloved wife who is eventually (and at great length) found dead at the hands of quillboars. In 4.0, Mankrik shakes off the funk and goes on a killing rampage in the Southern Barrens, slaughtering each quillboar that wanders too close to his axe.

Hobart Grapplehammer - is a goblin quest giver Horde players can visit at the Southern Rocketway Terminus in Azshara but who was also on Kezan, the goblin starting zone experimenting with new products. Most of the spectacular goblin engineering items seen in these starting zones, including Town-in-a-Box and gilgoblins are attributed to him. Though, he's been advised by counsel not to claim the gilgoblins because of a negligence case brought up over them.

Slinky Sharpshiv - A goblin rogue trainer from Kezan who comes to Azshara with the rest of her people but is replaced as primary rogue trainer by her brother Stinky. Slinky then moves to Heroic Deepmines for Horde players to meet in bringing about the downfall of goblin traitor Helix Gearbreaker.

Deathguard Darnell - a level 1 Forsaken warrior who aids new Undead players in Deathknell.

Johnny Awesome and
his pony "Sparkle"

Johnny Awesome - Johnny is a Belf Paladin who has the finest lvl 80 gear and a Sparkle Pony and still gets into trouble in the lvl 20-25 Hillsbradt Foothills and has to be rescued by Horde players from some kind of Forsaken growth experiment gone horribly wrong.   Johnny also becomes the object of another NPC's affections who thinks the male Belf is actually called "Jenny Awesome."

Archmage Xylem -  was a quest giver for many class-specific quest lines for characters at level 50. He lived in a tower in Azshara and would eventually send most players into The Sunken Temple to retrieves feathers or mojos or some such object in crafting a nice piece of gear for each class. After the Cataclysm, these level 50-quests were removed from the game. Xylem is still in his Azshara tower, though he seems to have gone a bit crazy. His image appears in several locations as "Image of Archmage Xylem" recruiting new apprentices that he dispatches on ludicrously dangerous tasks, requiring... more apprentices.

Lunk - Lunk is an ogre who abhors violence. Players charged by quest givers to do things like "Kill 8 spiders and get their venom" in the Searing Gorge will find Lunk running up to suggest that he can get the venom out without killing the spiders.  To the best of my knowledge, Lunk has no problem killing elite elementals on Mt. Hyjal.

Hemet Nesingwary

Hemet Nesingwary - The dwarf, the myth, the legend. Hemet's adventures have been a significant part of each phase of World of Warcraft, leading hunting expeditions in Stranglethorn Valley, Nagrand and then Scholazar Basin.  Honestly, I was disappointed that he is not active during the Cataclysm, though it's some consolation to find him here.

Theldurin the Lost - Theldurin is a dwarf, former member of the Twilight's Hammer who either went crazy or came to his senses (depends on how you look at it) and ran away from the Hammer taking an important relic with him. He is now a kind of hermit in the Badlands and gives both factions a number of quests mostly related to preventing the ascension of an evil earth elemental Myzrael in the Arathi Highlands.

Budd - Ugh. Budd. Budd was originally an expedition member into the first Zul Aman, but seemed to have suffered a head injury after that time. He appeared in the Grizzly Hills believing that he was a troll ("Me gonna sneak up on me troll bruddahs!") and features in misadventures in Vashj'ir and in Uldum during the Cataclysm. In Cataclysm, Budd suffers from some utterly terrible line-reading (a topic to be revisited on these pages soon).

Linken - a gnome warrior who lost his memory in Un'Goro Crater. Players undertook a long quest series to help the gnome recover his memory, recharge a magic sword and write some significant wrongs on his behalf.  This was one of those quest stories that had players travelling all over known Azeroth, from one end to another and back again. To the best of my knowledge, all this was removed in patch 4.0.

Nat Pagle - Fisherman extraordinaire. Players travelled to this master in Vanilla to learn their master fishing skills from this one NPC in the whole world who could teach it.  Nat Pagle provided the means for fishing up bosses in Zul Gurub and apparently designed the best pieces of fishing gear in the entire world.

Maximillian of Northshire - a nutty paladin in Un'Goro Crater who recruits players to act as his squire while he fights "dragons" (various pterrordactyls). Since one of his quest rewards is a toy windmill, players can be sure Don Quixote is his forbear.

Gurgthock - Gurgthock is the ubiquitous goblin quest giver of The Ring of Blood in Nagrand, the Amphitheater of Anguish in Zul'Drak and the Crucible of Carnage in Twilight Highlands. Wherever semi-gladiators are bashing it out in an arena that's not really for PvP, Gurgthock is there.  Frankly, I can't imagine what brings him to Mt. Hyjal.

Fleet Master Seahorn - Seahorn is the Tauren second-in-command of Booty Bay, standing atop the inn with Baron Revilgaz, who has dispatched players on quests against the Bloodsail Buccaneers for years.

Tony Two-Tusk - One of the very few of these NPCs I don't think I have ever ever met, Tony is a hostile NPC who later becomes a Horde quest giver in the Northern Barrens. He has only been there since patch 4.0.

Calder Grey - The other NPC in this group I have never personally met. The really insane Gray was thrown out of Orgrimmar and is a Horde quest giver in the Southern Barrens and later in the Twilight Highlands. One of his creations is one of the matches in the Crucible of Carnage.  He too, has only appeared since patch 4.0.

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Alrighty, I can't end this post without mentioning a couple of NPCs I wish had been included in this roster of NPC All-Stars. C'mon WoW fanbase, give it up for ...

Cro Threadstrong - The leatherworking supplies vendor of lower Shattrath City, who, fought a futile but hilarious battle of loudly shouted words against the fruit vendor who parked her cart in his stall. "Who is this fruit vendor to make such a bold move? She's brought an ogre for support! IF WAR IS WHAT YOU WANT, WAR IS WHAT YOU SHALL GET, FRUIT VENDOR!" It would be a pleasure to hear Cro shouting across the ridges of Mt. Hyjal now.

Rexxar - The half-orc, half-ogre Champion of the Horde has been shamefully under-utilized for a long time.  Originally, he wandered Desolace making Horde players lives miserable while trying to find him. Since the Burning Crusade, he lurks out in the Blades Edge Mountains looking for acceptance from ogre forebears who won't accept him.  Kalimdor is where he belongs.