Hard to Swallow

Quest Giver: Xink — Nozzlerust Post, Dragonblight [55, 23]

Objective: Battle a Hulking Jormungar east of Nozzlerust Post until it opens its mouth, throw a Potent Explosive Charge into its throat, then collect 6 Seared Jormungar Meat from the explosion.

Quick Facts

• Level: 74
• Prerequisite: Soft Packaging

Walkthrough

• Head east from Nozzlerust Post to around [58, 25]. The Hulking Jormungar are level 74 elites, but don’t be intimidated. You only need to fight one briefly.
• Attack the worm and reduce it to approximately 80% health (~6,000 damage on a ~29,820 HP mob). At that threshold, you’ll see the emote: “The Hulking Jormungar falters for a moment, opening its mouth wide.”
• Immediately right-click the Potent Explosive Charges from your inventory (provided when you accepted the quest). The worm explodes in a spectacular gory mess, sending chunks of meat flying in all directions.
• Collect 6 Seared Jormungar Meat from the ground objects scattered around the explosion site. Only one worm kill is needed; the explosion produces 6-9 meat slabs.
• Go east, not west. You can accidentally head west toward the smaller Jormungar Tunnelers instead. The Hulking Jormungar are the large elites east of Nozzlerust Post near the dragon bones.
• Don’t overkill. If you deal too much burst damage and kill the worm outright before it reaches 80%, you won’t get the mouth-open emote and will have to find another one.

Do Alongside

• Something That Doesn’t Melt — Collect Splintered Bone Chunks from the dragon skeletons in the same area. You’ll be walking right past them.

Skinning Tip

• Skinners: Don’t turn in this quest immediately. Hulking Jormungar are excellent sources of Jormungar Scales. Since you still have the Potent Explosive Charges, you can keep fighting, exploding, and skinning as many worms as you want before turning in. The worms respawn quickly, and the stun-to-bomb mechanic makes the fights trivial despite them being elite.

Story Context

Xink explains that jormungar meat “tastes just like chicken” and the troops need food. He also slips in a cheeky dig at your character’s race: “I’ll let you in on a little secret that a squeamish <race> like you would never know…”

The irony is especially thick if you’re playing an Undead with the Cannibalize racial.

Easter Eggs

• The mechanic of throwing explosives into a giant creature’s mouth while it’s vulnerable is a classic video game trope. There is a strong parallel to the Armos Knights from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which could only be defeated by throwing bombs into their open mouths.
• The giant underground worms also drew comparisons to the 1990 film Tremors, though the jormungar are a reference to Norse mythology rather than a direct homage.

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