War stories, articles & game guides
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Expeditions,
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War stories, articles & game guides
Gamer
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2026
Expeditions,
War Stories &
Culture
“Vile, Lady Nightswood, and The Leaper would make excellent weapons in the fight against the Lich King if they can be broken from his will. That is what the Sovereign Rod is for. You’ll find them on the ledges to the east and west of the vault, as well as on the mid-tier of the vault above us.
The rod is to be used upon the corpses of the three. Fly now. We will have them as our own!”
-Baron Silver
Baron Sliver at The Shadow Vault wants you to use the Sovereign Rod on the corpses of Vile, Lady Nightswood, and The Leaper.
Provided item:
You will be able to choose one of these rewards:
You will also receive:
Upon completion of this quest you will gain:
Quest Giver: Baron Sliver – The Shadow Vault, Icecrown [44, 25]
Objective: Kill Vile, Lady Nightswood, and The Leaper, then use the Sovereign Rod on each of their corpses to break them free from the Lich King’s control.
Quick Facts
Walkthrough
All three NPCs are on the ledges and terraces surrounding the Shadow Vault. Kill each one, then immediately use the Sovereign Rod on the corpse to “turn” them.
| Target | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vile | [44.4, 27] – ledge east of Baron Sliver, slightly below | Straightforward melee mob. Easiest of the three. On death, he says: “Vile free? Vile love <name>!” |
| Lady Nightswood | [41.8, 24.5] – ledge west of the vault, across from the door | Caster with spell abilities. Interrupt or close distance quickly. She challenges you on aggro: “Who intrudes upon my ritual?” |
| The Leaper | Paths the entire middle level of the vault, above Baron Sliver | He covers the whole mid-tier, so expect to search. |
Combat Tips
/target The Leaper) while flying along the mid-tier ledge. He patrols counterclockwise, so flying clockwise will find him faster. He has a tendency to ambush you by leaping onto your position unexpectedly, true to his name.
Efficiency Tips
Lore & Secrets
The Sovereign Rod
Baron Sliver explains that when he served the Lich King, the Scourge used sovereign rods to enforce obedience among their more intelligent servants. The rod you built from components in the previous quest is being repurposed to do the opposite: breaking the Lich King’s control over these three powerful undead, recruiting them for the Ebon Blade.
All three NPCs become friendly quest givers and vendors once the Shadow Vault is fully captured later in the chain. Vile, Lady Nightswood, and The Leaper each offer daily quests from the vault.
Easter Egg
Explore Icecrown’s hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Icecrown Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.
Vikstone's War Journal“Vile, Lady Nightswood, and The Leaper would make excellent weapons in the fight against the Lich King if they can be broken from his will,” Sliver said. “That is what the Sovereign Rod is for. You’ll find them on the ledges to the east and west of the vault, as well as on the mid-tier of the vault above us. The rod is to be used upon the corpses of the three. Fly now. We will have them as our own!”
Upon the corpses. He said that part plainly enough. You do not free them and then kill them. You kill them and then you free them, and the second thing does not work without the first.
Veridian put me on the western ledge.
Vile is an undead giant and the whole of him is loose on the frame. I came off the drake into his chest and it did not put him down. His return swing would have killed me instantly if it had landed. I gave ground until I was inside the arc where his arms are useless, took the knee out with the mace, and opened him across the middle with the axe on the way down.
Then I put the rod against him.
“Vile free? Vile love Vikstone!”
He said it the way a child says it.
Lady Nightswood was on the eastern side, and she is banshee and she is fast. Her scream brought the ice down off the overhang and I went flat under it, and she opened my back before I had the axe up. What ended it was the feint. She committed to the axe and I brought the mace up through her from underneath, and after that it was two hands and a downstroke.
The rod again.
“You dare? Where is Baron Sliver? I would have words with him!”
No confusion at all. She came back knowing precisely where she was, who had arranged it, and that she was owed an explanation.
The Leaper walks the entire middle tier and he does not hold a post. He was hunting me from the moment I set foot on that level, and I spent a long while being the quarry, which I did not care for. In the end I stopped in an archway and let him have the leap he wanted, and dropped when he came, and he went into the wall at his own speed.
“Mrmrmmrmrmrmrm… mrmrmrmr?!”
Nothing. Not a word left in him. Whatever the Scourge did to that one it went deeper than it went with the others.
“We will put those three to good use once we finally take the vault. Speaking of which….”
Sliver had three servants back in their own heads and one problem the rod would not solve, because the death knight running the vault was chained too tightly to be reached, in If He Cannot Be Turned.
