War stories, articles & game guides
Gamer
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2026
Expeditions,
War Stories &
Culture
War stories, articles & game guides
Gamer
Tribute
2026
Expeditions,
War Stories &
Culture
“Our best bet for moving our forces quickly to Icecrown Glacier lies with the network of tunnels beneath the ancient iron dwarf city of Thor Modan. Brugar Stoneshear and his Explorers’ League boys aren’t going to be happy, but orders are orders. The news might go over better if you brought him a cask of that moonshine sold by that trapper, Hugh Glass, down at Redwood Trading Post, southeast of here along the tree line.
Man’s not right in the head, but you won’t find better moonshine out here.”
-Captain Gryan Stoutmantle
Bring Brugar Stoneshear at the Westfall Brigade Encampment a cask of Howlin’ Good Moonshine.
Quest Giver: Captain Gryan Stoutmantle — Westfall Brigade Encampment, Grizzly Hills [59, 26]
Turn In: Brugar Stoneshear — Westfall Brigade Encampment [59, 26]
Objective: Purchase a cask of Howlin’ Good Moonshine from Hugh Glass at Redwood Trading Post and deliver it to Brugar Stoneshear.
Quick Facts
Walkthrough
Do Alongside: While at Redwood Trading Post, Hugh Glass also offers A Bear of an Appetite, which sends you to collect 6 Northern Salmon from the Eastwind Shore to the east. It’s a quick side quest worth picking up while you’re there. Horde players visiting Hugh Glass for the quest In the Name of Loken will find Hugh characteristically unhelpful, ranting that Loken is “one of the people out to get him.”
Lore Context
This quest introduces two interesting threads. First, it establishes that the Alliance recognizes Thor Modan’s tunnel network as strategically critical for reaching Icecrown.
The iron dwarves built extensive underground infrastructure that connects the Grizzly Hills to northern Northrend, and whoever controls those tunnels controls a major supply route. This sets up the entire Thor Modan quest chain, where the Explorers’ League’s archaeological mission is repurposed for military objectives.
Second, it gives us Brugar Stoneshear, a classic Explorers’ League dwarf whose priorities are firmly set on research, not war. His reaction upon receiving the moonshine is priceless: “He wants me to do WHAT?” followed by “Well, he’d better keep the moonshine flowing if he wants my men to stop their research to serve the military’s purposes!”
The tension between the League’s scholarly goals and the military’s needs is a recurring theme across WotLK. The Explorers’ League is active at Thor Modan, in Storm Peaks (Brann Bronzebeard’s expeditions), and eventually at Ulduar itself, where their curiosity about titan artifacts repeatedly entangles them in existential threats.
Easter Egg
Hugh Glass is named after the real-life American frontiersman Hugh Glass (c. 1780-1833), a fur trapper famous for surviving a brutal grizzly bear mauling in 1823 and crawling 200 miles to the nearest settlement despite a broken leg and being abandoned by his companions.
His story inspired the 2015 film The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The in-game Hugh Glass is a trapper living alone in the wilderness with a bear companion, described as “not right in the head,” paranoid about the Wolfcult, and mistaking visitors for his lost friend “Limpy Joe.”
He’s a separate reference from the NPC “Grizzly” D. Adams found elsewhere in the zone, who references the TV show The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.
Cross-Expansion Connection
Captain Gryan Stoutmantle is a returning character from Classic WoW’s Westfall. He originally led the People’s Militia against the Defias Brotherhood from Sentinel Hill. His promotion to Captain and deployment to Northrend at the head of the Westfall Brigade shows how the Alliance mobilized its veteran leadership for the war against the Lich King.
In Cataclysm, Stoutmantle returns to Westfall as Marshal Stoutmantle, only to find his homeland in worse shape than ever: the Defias Brotherhood has been rebuilt under Vanessa VanCleef (Edwin’s daughter), and Westfall is flooded with refugees displaced by the Cataclysm.
Players who helped him in Westfall, fought alongside him in Northrend, and later returned to find him battling the same enemies at home experience one of WoW’s most satisfying long-running character arcs.
Explore Grizzly Hills’ hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Grizzly Hills Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.
You will be able to choose one of these rewards:
You will also receive:
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:
Vikstone's War JournalStoutmantle needed the Explorers’ League to cooperate. Their tunnels beneath Thor Modan offered the fastest route to Icecrown Glacier, and the military wanted access. The problem: scholars don’t like being conscripted.
“Brugar Stoneshear and his boys aren’t going to be happy,” Stoutmantle said. “But orders are orders. The news might go over better if you brought him a cask of that moonshine sold by Hugh Glass down at Redwood Trading Post. Man’s not right in the head, but you won’t find better moonshine out here.”
Liquid diplomacy, then.
Hugh Glass lived up to his reputation. The trapper was, as Stoutmantle suggested, not entirely sane. But his moonshine smelled like it could strip rust from iron.
Stoneshear watched me approach with naked suspicion that softened considerably when he spotted the cask.
“Let me get this straight,” he said slowly. “A night elf I don’t know brings me a cask of the finest booze in this miserable forest. Ok, then. What are you after?”
I explained. He listened. He drank.
“Well,” he said finally, smacking his lips, “Stoutmantle had better keep the moonshine flowing if he wants my men to stop their research to serve the military’s purposes.”
It wasn’t agreement. But it wasn’t refusal either.
Stoneshear took the moonshine and the news. His men will cooperate, but the tunnels beneath Thor Modan aren’t empty, and what’s waiting down there requires more than scholarship in Brothers in Battle.
