Scouting the Sinkholes

Quest Giver: Abner Fizzletorque, Fizzcrank Airstrip [57, 18]

Turn In: Abner Fizzletorque [57, 18]

Objective: Use the Map of the Geyser Fields to mark the locations of the South Sinkhole, the Northwest Sinkhole, and the Northeast Sinkhole.

Quick Facts

• Quest Type: Discovery/exploration
• Provided Item: Map of the Geyser Fields
• Prerequisites: Requires completion of The Mechagnomes, Re-Cursive, and the Tailspin rescue chain through Give Fizzcrank the News
• Chain Position: First quest from Abner Fizzletorque.
• Follow-up: Fueling the Project

Walkthrough

Head south from Fizzcrank Airstrip into the Geyser Fields. The sinkholes are large, star-shaped depressions in the terrain, easily visible on both the world map and minimap.

Sinkhole Locations:

• South Sinkhole: [70, 36]
• Northeast Sinkhole: [69, 32]
• Northwest Sinkhole: [66, 32]

Map Tip: If you position yourself just below the “DS” in “GEYSER FIELDS” on the map and zoom your minimap out, you can see all three sinkholes at once.

To Mark Each Location:

• Enter the sinkhole area (you need to be inside or at the edge)
• The map automatically registers your position
• No interaction required beyond being present

Flying Mount Strategy

If you have a flying mount (Cold Weather Flying at level 77, or earlier via account-wide purchase), this quest takes under a minute:

1. Fly to each sinkhole
2. Land in the center
3. The location marks automatically
4. Fly to the next

You won’t fall through the sinkholes despite their ominous appearance. The ground is solid.

Ground Mount / On Foot:

The sinkholes are in nerubian-infested territory. Navigate carefully between the holes, avoiding Nerub’ar mobs. The quest doesn’t require killing anything, so you can simply run through if you aggro.

Story Context: The Missing Squadron

This quest connects directly to the Tailspin rescue chain. Abner explains: “Fizzcrank sent out an aerial surveillance team to map the Nerubian sinkholes in the southern part of the Geyser Fields, but they haven’t yet returned.”

That surveillance team was Tailspin’s squadron, which you just spent several quests helping recover from. The recon mission that got them shot down was precisely this: mapping the Nerubian sinkholes. Now Abner needs someone to finish the job on foot.

Abner’s completion: “<Abner accepts the map from you, then examines it closely.> Great! This is all the information we need to begin the operation.”

The “operation” becomes clear in the follow-up quests, culminating in Deploy the Shake-n-Quake!, where you collapse the sinkholes to stop the nerubian offensive.

Lore: The Nerubian Threat

The Nerub’ar are undead nerubians serving the Scourge. They’ve emerged from the vast underground kingdom of Azjol-Nerub through these sinkholes, launching attacks against both the gnomes at Fizzcrank Airstrip and the Alliance at Valiance Keep.

The sinkholes are entry points to the ancient nerubian tunnel network. The Lich King conquered the nerubians during the War of the Spider, killing most of them and raising the rest as undead servants. These tunnels stretch across all of Northrend, and the Scourge uses them to move forces without surface interference.

The gnomes’ goal is to map and then collapse these sinkholes, cutting off nerubian reinforcements to the surface. The intelligence you gather here directly enables that counter-offensive.

Cross-Expansion Connection: Azjol-Nerub

These sinkholes are surface access points to Azjol-Nerub, the vast underground nerubian kingdom. Players eventually descend into this kingdom via the Azjol-Nerub dungeon in Dragonblight, where they face Anub’arak himself in the depths.

Interestingly, Azjol-Nerub was originally planned as WoW’s first full underground zone, not just a dungeon. Developer interviews revealed this was the content they most regretted cutting. The zone finally returned in The War Within (2024) as Azj-Kahet, a full living nerubian city zone in Khaz Algar.

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.