Alpha Worg

Quest Giver: Ulfang — Cave in northwest Rivenwood, Howling Fjord [29.5, 5.8]

Turn In: Watcher Moonleaf — Steel Gate [30, 28.6]

Objective: Slay Garwal in the western Rivenwood, then return the Worg Disguise to Watcher Moonleaf at Steel Gate.

Quick Facts

• Level: 71
• Faction: Alliance (Horde version turns in to Sage Mistwalker)
• Chain: 5 of 5 — The Cleansing → In Worg’s Clothing → Brother Betrayers → Eyes of the Eagle → Alpha Worg

Walkthrough

Finding Garwal

• Ulfang’s quest text says: “Seek out and slay Garwal in the western Rivenwood.” Garwal patrols the western edge of Rivenwood, commonly spotted around [26, 11]. He roams a moderate patrol path, so you may need to wait or scan the area.
• You can only see Garwal because you ate Talonshrike’s eyes in the previous quest. Without completing Eyes of the Eagle, he’s invisible.
• Garwal appears as a large white Saber Worg, noticeably bigger than the surrounding worgs. With the Worg Disguise active, he’ll show as hostile (red) while regular worgs remain friendly (green), just like Bjomolf and Varg did.

The Fight (This Is the Big Reveal)

• Start attacking Garwal. He fights as a standard level 71 worg initially.
• At 50% health, Garwal transforms. He yells “Enough of this charade!” and shifts from his white worg form into a worgen, a large bipedal wolf-creature. He becomes Garwal – Worgen Transform.
• The worgen form hits harder, so be prepared for the damage spike at the transition. He’s still not elite, but squishier classes should have cooldowns ready for the second half of the fight.
• Kill him and you’re done with the combat objective.

Turn-In: Watcher Moonleaf (Not Ulfang)

• Unlike the previous quests in this chain, you do NOT return to Ulfang. Head to Watcher Moonleaf at Steel Gate [30, 28.6] and return the Worg Disguise.
• You no longer need the disguise after this quest.

Tips

• If Garwal isn’t up, he may have been recently killed by another player. Reports suggest a respawn timer of roughly 4-5 minutes.
• Pull Garwal away from other worgs before engaging. Your disguise drops on attack, and you don’t want adds during the worgen phase.
• Hunters: In the original WotLK (patch 3.1, 2009), this is where the infamous Garwal taming exploit happened. Hunters discovered that by timing Tame Beast to complete at the exact moment Garwal shifted to worgen form (using Wyvern Sting’s DoT to trigger the transition mid-tame), they could capture the only worgen pet in the game. Blizzard hotfixed it on July 7, 2009, stripped tamed Garwals of their abilities, and then, on July 21, converted all tamed worgen pets to white worg models. The incident is legendary in the hunter community, and if you’re playing WotLK Classic, the tame has been patched out.

Lore Context

This is the climax of the Ulfang chain and one of WotLK’s best small-scale reveals. Everything Ulfang described as “unnatural” about Garwal is confirmed in one dramatic moment: he was never a worg at all.

He was a worgen hiding in plain sight, using magical disguise to infiltrate and seize control of the Fanggore pack.

Moonleaf’s completion text lays out the mystery and plants a seed: “Garwal was not a worg at all! That thing you describe him turning into sounds a lot like a worgen! But, Ulfang said that it came south from the Grizzly Hills? Odd, there aren’t any worgen there.”

But there are. Players who continue into Grizzly Hills discover the Wolfcult, an army of worgen led by the resurrected Archmage Arugal.

The Lich King’s San’layn princes raised Arugal from the dead and sent him to Grizzly Hills to convert trapper villages like Silverbrook into worgen loyal to the Scourge. The entire Sasha questline in Grizzly Hills (culminating in Hour of the Worg, where you kill the Shade of Arugal on Bloodmoon Isle) connects directly back to what Moonleaf found so puzzling here.

Garwal was almost certainly one of Arugal’s agents, sent south to extend the Wolfcult’s influence beyond Grizzly Hills.

Cross-Expansion Lore

Moonleaf’s comment that worgen are unfamiliar creatures connects to the broader pre-Cataclysm story.

At this point in the timeline, most people in Azeroth don’t know what worgen are or where they came from. The full truth, that worgen are cursed night elf druids created during the War of the Satyr, only becomes common knowledge after the worgen of Gilneas join the Alliance in Cataclysm.

Moonleaf sensing something is wrong, but not having the full picture, is a perfect example of WotLK quietly setting up plot threads that wouldn’t pay off until the next expansion.