Chasing Icestorm: Thel’zan’s Phylactery

Quest Giver: Legion Commander Tyralion — 7th Legion Front [64, 28], Dragonblight

Turn In: High Commander Halford Wyrmbane — Wintergarde Keep, Dragonblight

Objective: Recover Thel’zan’s Phylactery from Icestorm and return it to High Commander Halford Wyrmbane at Wintergarde Keep.

Quick Facts

• Faction: Alliance only
• Quest Level: 73
• Prerequisite: Chasing Icestorm: The 7th Legion Front
• Chain Position: Quest 8 of 9 in the Thel’zan/Mausoleum chain
• Leads To: Finality

Walkthrough

Tyralion tells you the frostwyrm you’re looking for is out there and points west: “And it’s a big one!” When you’re ready, speak with “Wyrmbait”, a 7th Legion gryphon rider stationed near Tyralion. Wyrmbait says “I’ll flush her out!” and flies off to lure Icestorm (Level 73 Elite frostwyrm) back to the camp.

Once Icestorm is close enough, the 7th Legion chains her to the ground, and the fight begins.

You do not fight Icestorm alone. NPC soldiers at the 7th Legion Front engage her automatically once she’s grounded. Stand near the soldiers or the ground-mounted cannons and DPS Icestorm while the Legion assists. The fight is easy with NPC help.

After Icestorm is destroyed, Thel’zan’s Phylactery drops in a public loot container near her corpse. Click it to loot. Then fly back to Wintergarde Keep and turn the quest in to High Commander Halford Wyrmbane.

Tips

• Kite southeast down the hill. If Icestorm lands away from the NPC melee soldiers, pull her southeast toward them so they can join the fight. This drastically reduces the time and difficulty of the encounter.
• Public loot means no tagging required. You do not need to damage Icestorm for quest credit. If another player summons and kills her while you’re on the quest, you can walk up and loot the phylactery from the container. If someone else kills her before you arrive, the container may already be on the ground waiting for you.
• Do Alongside: Pick up Pest Control from Duane at the 7th Legion Front before leaving. It sends you to kill Snowplain Snobolds and Dragonblight Magnataur at the camps south along the road toward Wyrmrest Temple, which you’ll pass through on your way back to Wintergarde.

Lore & Story Context

Icestorm: The Dragon Wastes Problem Made Personal

Tyralion’s briefing in the previous quest: the 7th Legion has killed dozens of frostwyrms, but the Dragon Wastes provide the Scourge with an inexhaustible supply of ancient dragon bones to reanimate.

They can’t win through attrition. But they can win this fight, because Icestorm is the specific frostwyrm carrying Thel’zan’s phylactery. Kill her, get the phylactery, and Thel’zan becomes vulnerable.

Note that the quest text consistently refers to Icestorm as “her.” Frostwyrms retain traces of their living identity despite reanimation, and this one was apparently a female dragon in life.

The Phylactery Payoff

This is what the entire chain has been building toward since Plunderbeard’s journal. A phylactery is a lich’s soul container. As long as it exists, the lich can regenerate after being “killed.” The only way to permanently destroy a lich is to destroy the phylactery first, then destroy the lich.

Plunderbeard died discovering that Thel’zan had hidden his phylactery on a frostwyrm. Now you’ve recovered it. Thel’zan can finally be killed for good.

Wyrmbane’s completion text: “We’ve lost so many good soldiers to that monster, Thel’zan. I wish I could be there to see you crush his phylactery in front of him and end his existence.”

For the first time, Wyrmbane allows himself to imagine victory. The final quest, Finality, is next.

Cross-Expansion Connection: High Commander Halford Wyrmbane

Halford Wyrmbane is a paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand and High Commander of the 7th Legion, the Alliance’s elite special operations regiment.

His famous rallying speech at Wintergarde defines the unit: “Through the valleys and peaks of Mount Hyjal, across the shifting sands of Silithus, against the Legion’s dread armies… we have fought. We are the nameless, faceless, sons and daughters of the Alliance. By the Light and by the might of the Alliance, the first strike belongs to us and the last strike is all that our enemies see. We are 7th Legion.”

In Battle for Azeroth, Wyrmbane becomes one of the most prominent Alliance NPCs in the expansion, commanding the entire Alliance War Campaign from aboard the Wind’s Redemption in Boralus Harbor.

King Anduin personally assigns him to direct Alliance operations across Kul Tiras and Zandalar. He serves as the Alliance counterpart to Nathanos Blightcaller for the Horde.

In one memorable exchange with Mathias Shaw, Wyrmbane reflects: “I’ve stopped counting. I go where the Alliance orders me… and where the Light calls me.”

In the Horrific Vision of Stormwind (N’Zoth alternate timeline), Wyrmbane is captured and tortured by Void forces attempting to break his will. He refuses to abandon the Light. The man who coordinated the Wintergarde siege from behind a desk turns out to have a career spanning every major Alliance conflict for over a decade.