Rats, Tinky Went into the Necropolis!

Quest Giver: Bixie Wrenchshanker, south of The Dens of Dying [73, 19]

Turn In: Tinky Wickwhistle, inside Talramas [69, 14]

Objective: Find Tinky Wickwhistle inside Talramas

Quick Facts

• Chain Position: Unlocks after completing There’s Something Going On In Those Caves
• Parallel Quest: Might As Well Wipe Out the Scourge (unlocks simultaneously)
• Follow-Up: I’m Stuck in this Damned Cage… But Not For Long!

Walkthrough

Travel west from Bixie’s position to the crashed necropolis of Talramas. The main entrance is at approximately [68, 15].

Enter the structure and look immediately to the right. Tinky Wickwhistle is trapped inside a magic-enchanted cage at approximately [69, 14], very close to the entrance. Speak with her to complete the quest.

This is a simple locate-and-talk quest. You don’t need to fight to the depths of the necropolis or escort Tinky anywhere.

Quick Completion

Tinky’s cage is close enough to the entrance that you can mount in, dismount near the cage, talk to her, and mount out quickly. Clearing the few Scourge mobs near the entrance makes this easier, but isn’t strictly necessary if you’re fast.

Pick up Might As Well Wipe Out the Scourge before heading in so you can complete both objectives during the same trip through Talramas.

Lore: Talramas

Talramas is a Scourge necropolis that crashed near the Festering Pools. Necropoli are massive floating fortresses used by the Scourge to transport troops and lead assaults. Most are ancient nerubian ziggurats torn from the earth by the Lich King’s dark magic and transformed into airborne war machines. The most infamous is Naxxramas, seat of the archlich Kel’Thuzad.

Lich-Lord Chillwinter commands Talramas, and he’s desperate to get it flying again before the Lich King discovers their failure. His panicked quotes reveal the stakes: “If the Lich King finds out that we crashed Talramas due to a malfunction, we’ll all be reduced to ashes. Faster! We must be flying by the end of the day or the Lich King will destroy us for certain.”

What caused the crash? The official explanation is “malfunction,” but a crashed gnomish pilot named Iggy “Tailspin” Cogtoggle suggests his wing of aircraft was shot down by Gearmaster Mechazod. It’s possible Talramas suffered a similar fate from the mechanical menace’s assault.

Easter Egg: The Vanish Bug

Bixie’s quest text contains a sly developer joke that rogue players will immediately recognize:

“I’d find her myself, but one of those things got in a swipe on my leg before I could vanish again.”

This references the infamous, persistent bugs with the rogue ability Vanish. Since Vanilla WoW, Vanish has been notorious for failing to drop combat, allowing enemies to continue attacking despite the rogue being “invisible.” Forum complaints about Vanish being “broken” have appeared in every expansion from Classic through The War Within. The joke is that even NPC gnomes suffer from Vanish bugs.

Bixie having Vanish also confirms she’s a rogue, which fits her earlier reference to mixing up “anti-venom with some other stuff” for the plague cauldron quest.

Cross-Expansion Connection: The Evil Clone

Tinky’s story doesn’t end here. In the followup quest I’m Stuck in this Damned Cage… But Not For Long!, you gather components so Tinky can build a teleportation device to escape her magic cage.

But something goes wrong.

When Tinky attempts to teleport out, the cage’s dark magic creates an evil clone of her. The original Tinky escapes safely to Fizzcrank Airstrip, but somewhere in Icecrown, a twisted version of herself is born, seeking to prove herself to the Lich King.

Much later, at the Savage Ledge in Icecrown, players encounter this evil Tinky Wickwhistle competing to become a champion of the Lich King. The quest Eliminate the Competition from The Leaper at The Shadow Vault requires you to duel and defeat her alongside three other aspirants.

The evil Tinky’s personality is radically different from the cheerful engineer you rescue here. Her combat quotes include “Grrrrrrrr! I’ll kneecap ya!”, “WHEE!!!”, and “YOU’RE NO FUN!” After defeat, she flees using a parachute and hasn’t been seen since.

Explore Borean Tundra’s hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Borean Tundra Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.