Intelligence Gathering

Quest Giver: Aurochs Grimbane – Death’s Rise, Icecrown [19.5, 48.1]

Objective: Collect 5 Onslaught Intel Documents from locked baggage trunks at Onslaught Harbor.

Quick Facts

• Type: Daily
• Location: Onslaught Harbor, Icecrown [~7, 39]
• Prerequisite: Completion of Shadow Vault quest chains to unlock Death’s Rise quests
• Pairs With: From Their Corpses, Rise!, No Fly Zone
• Bonus Drop: Note from the Grand Admiral can drop from any trunk, starting The Grand (Admiral’s) Plan quest chain.

Walkthrough

Kill Onslaught Mobs for Keys

• Kill Scarlet Onslaught members at Onslaught Harbor. Any humanoid mob in the area can drop Scarlet Onslaught Trunk Keys.
• Key drop rate is roughly 20-50% depending on patch tuning. Expect to kill substantially more mobs than the 5 documents you need.
• Keys are quest items and are destroyed when you turn in the quest. You cannot stockpile extras for the next day.

Loot Baggage Trunks for Intel

• Use collected keys to open locked baggage trunks scattered around Onslaught Harbor.
• Only open sparkling trunks. Trunks with a golden sparkle contain intel documents. Non-sparkling trunks contain only a few copper coins, wasting your key.
• Intel drop rate from sparkling trunks is very high (near 100%). From non-sparkling trunks, you get nothing useful.
• If no sparkling trunks are visible, opening non-sparkling trunks forces respawns, which may come back as sparkling. This is your only option if other players have cherry-picked the good ones.

Best Farming Locations

• Boats [7, 41]: Two ships docked at the northwest side of the harbor. Multiple trunks inside cabins and below deck. Generally, the best trunk density is with a manageable mob density.
• Northwest beach/docks [6, 39]: Trunks among tents and near canoes. Less mob congestion than in the cathedral area.
• Tower tops: Each turret usually has one trunk, guarded by a single gryphon rider. Fly low to avoid pulling additional aerial patrols.
• Avoid the cathedral and caves below it. Heavy patrols, elite mobs, and few trunks make it a poor risk/reward trade.

Return to Aurochs Grimbane

• Fly back to Death’s Rise and turn in your 5 documents.

Efficiency Tips

• Stack all three Death’s Rise dailies. Pick up Intelligence Gathering, From Their Corpses, Rise!, and No Fly Zone before heading to Onslaught Harbor. Kill gryphon riders for No Fly Zone first, loot their keys, raise corpses for From Their Corpses, Rise!, then open trunks with your keys. Three dailies in one pass.
• Rogues can picklock the trunks, skipping the key requirement entirely. Trunks remain orange-skill for lockpicking all the way to 450, making this a useful skill-up opportunity on top of being faster.
• Blacksmiths can use Titanium Skeleton Keys to open trunks without farming mob drops.
• If you die, you lose all collected keys. Fight carefully and don’t pull more than you can handle. Onslaught Harbor mobs have long aggro ranges, frequently link, and the Harbor Guards cast a slowing frost shot from significant distance.
• Melee classes beware: Gryphon riders can attack from the air and refuse to land, forcing you to use limited ranged options while they pound you. Ranged classes have a much easier time here.
• Honest assessment: This daily is widely considered the worst of the three Death’s Rise dailies. Most players finish From Their Corpses, Rise! and No Fly Zone long before they have 5 intel documents. Unless you specifically need the Ebon Blade reputation or are trying to trigger the Grand Admiral’s Note drop, many players skip this one entirely.

Lore Context

Aurochs Grimbane is the Ebon Blade’s intelligence officer at Death’s Rise, running daily surveillance on Onslaught Harbor. His turn-in dialogue notes that the Onslaught “change their plans on a daily basis,” justifying the daily reset.

The Note from the Grand Admiral that can drop from trunks kicks off a quest chain leading to the discovery of Grand Admiral Westwind’s true identity as the dreadlord Mal’Ganis.

Even if you skip this daily for reputation, do it at least until the Note drops.

WotLK Classic vs. Original WotLK

• Drop rates for both keys and intel documents were improved in patch 3.2 and again in 3.2.2, significantly reducing the time investment. In early patches, this quest could take 45-60 minutes. Post-3.2.2, completion in 10-15 minutes is realistic with decent luck. WotLK Classic launched with the later, improved rates.

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