Exploiting an Opening

Quest Giver: Thassarian – The Skybreaker, Icecrown (Alliance airship)

Objective: Speak to Captain Kendall below Icecrown Citadel.

Quick Facts

• Level: 80
• Faction: Alliance only (Horde equivalent: Opportunity, given by Koltira Deathweaver on Orgrim’s Hammer)
• Prerequisite: Completion of The Shadow Vault (the final quest of the Shadow Vault capture chain, which starts with It’s All Fun and Games)
• Leads To: Securing the Perimeter, continuing into the Matthias Lehner storyline

Walkthrough

Finding Captain Kendall

• Thassarian, aboard the Skybreaker, tells you that Alliance engineers have identified a structural weakness below Icecrown Citadel. A small team has been sent with saronite bombs to exploit it, and Captain Kendall is leading the operation.
• Fly to the base of Icecrown Citadel’s western wall. Captain Kendall is located at approximately [51.7, 86.6], near the ground level.
• Kendall is inside a large open room directly underneath the Citadel platform. If you find yourself among the Crusader tents near the Meeting Stone, you are standing on top of him. Fly off the edge of the platform and look for the entrance below you.
• Important: There is a second, much deeper hole in the middle of Kendall’s room, which is Naz’anak: The Forgotten Depths at [54.0, 87.8]. You go down one level to reach Kendall and no further. Flying into the deep hole will also dismount you.

Turn-In

• Speak with Captain Kendall to complete the quest. He greets you with a quip about Thassarian’s “odd company” (a reference to the death knight’s undead associates).

Efficiency Tips

• This is a pure travel quest. No combat required. Fly to the coordinates, talk to Kendall, done.
• If Kendall is not present, he may have been killed by nearby Scourge mobs. He respawns after a few minutes.
• This quest counts toward Icecrown: The Final Goal, so do not skip it if you are working on the zone achievement.

Lore & Secrets

Gateway to the Matthias Lehner Chain

This seemingly simple handoff quest is the entry point to one of WotLK’s most profound lore chains.

The series that begins here leads through the depths beneath the Citadel and eventually introduces Matthias Lehner, the ghostly child whose name is an anagram of “Arthas Menethil.” Through a sequence of vision quests, Matthias reveals the truth of Arthas’s fall, his discarded humanity, and the nature of the Lich King’s power.

The full chain from this point runs through: Securing the Perimeter, Set it Off!, A Short Fuse, A Voice in the Dark, Time to Hide, Return to the Surface, then Field Repairs and onward into the Matthias Lehner visions (Naz’anak, Sindragosa’s Fall, and ultimately Tirion’s Gambit at the Cathedral of Darkness).

Thassarian and the Alliance Offensive

Thassarian is the Alliance’s primary death knight quest giver aboard the Skybreaker. He coordinates the Ebon Blade’s cooperation with the Alliance in Icecrown. The “borrowed” saronite bombs mentioned in the quest text are a characteristically pragmatic Ebon Blade contribution, using the Scourge’s own materials against them.

Phasing Note

• Progressing through this chain and its subsequent quests triggers phasing changes near the base of Icecrown Citadel. Players who have not completed these quests will not see the same environment as those who have. This can cause issues near the Icecrown Citadel summoning stone and during raid formation. If groupmates cannot see each other near the Citadel entrance, different quest completion states are likely the cause.

Cross-Expansion Connections

Thassarian in Later Expansions

• Cataclysm: Thassarian leads Alliance forces at Andorhal in the Western Plaguelands, where he faces off against his friend-turned-rival Koltira Deathweaver. Their friendship is tested when Sylvanas captures Koltira for cooperating with the Alliance.
• Legion: Thassarian plays a major role in the Death Knight class campaign, including the controversial assault on Light’s Hope Chapel.

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