Rifle the Bodies

Quest Giver: Image of Archmage Modera — Stars’ Rest, Dragonblight [29, 55]

Objective: Search Dead Mage Hunters at Moonrest Gardens for the Moonrest Gardens Plans.

Quick Facts

• Location: Moonrest Gardens, southwestern Dragonblight [~25, 62]
• Chain Position: 1st quest in the Stars’ Rest / Moonrest Gardens chain
• Do Alongside: Prevent the Accord, A Strange Device (all three are offered simultaneously from Archmage Modera), and Avenge this Atrocity! (picked up on-site from Ethenial Moonshadow at Moonrest Gardens [~24, 60])

Walkthrough

Head to Moonrest Gardens

• From Stars’ Rest, travel southwest to Moonrest Gardens. The area is filled with hostile blue dragonflight forces (Dragonblight Mage Hunters, Moonrest Stalkers, Surge Needle Sorcerers, Focus Wizards), but the quest objective doesn’t require fighting any of them.

Loot the Dead Mage Hunters

• Look for Dead Mage Hunter corpses on the ground throughout the area. These are non-interactive-looking bodies, not live enemies. Right-click them to receive Mage Hunter Personal Effects, a bag-like container.
• Open each bag in your inventory. Most will contain junk, but one will eventually contain the Moonrest Gardens Plans. The drop is random, so expect to loot several corpses before finding them.

Return to Stars’ Rest

• Bring the plans back to the Image of Archmage Modera. She reveals the plans describe an accord between the blue dragonflight and the Ethereum, which directly sets up the next quest, Prevent the Accord.

Efficiency Tips

• Grab all four Moonrest Gardens quests before heading out. Rifle the Bodies, Prevent the Accord, and A Strange Device all come from Archmage Modera at Stars’ Rest. Once you arrive at Moonrest Gardens, pick up Avenge this Atrocity! from the Highborne ghost Ethenial Moonshadow near the gardens’ edge [~24, 60]. Completing all four in one trip saves a lot of backtracking.
• You don’t need to kill anything for this quest, but you’ll likely aggro mage hunters while looting corpses. Since Avenge this Atrocity! requires killing 15 blue dragonflight mobs in the area, just fight what comes your way and you’ll make progress on both quests simultaneously.
• Corpses respawn quickly, so if you clear an area and haven’t found the plans yet, circle back.

Lore Context

• Moonrest Gardens was a Highborne elven ruin and a powerful ley line nexus. The blue dragonflight deployed a “surge needle” to shatter the nexus and redirect its magical energy, part of Malygos‘s campaign to reclaim all arcane magic (the Nexus War). The destruction awakened the Highborne spirits, who rose up and killed many of the blue dragonflight’s mage hunters. Those dead mage hunters are the corpses you’re looting.
• The plans you recover reveal the blue dragonflight is seeking an alliance with the Ethereum, the hostile ethereal faction from Outland. This is a concerning escalation that drives the rest of the Stars’ Rest quest chain.

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