Time to Hide

Quest Giver: Matthias Lehner — Naz’anak: The Forgotten Depths, beneath Icecrown Citadel [53, 86]

Objective: Collect 3 Faceless One’s Blood from Faceless Lurkers in Naz’anak, then return to Matthias Lehner.

Quick Facts

• Level: 80
• Location: Naz’anak: The Forgotten Depths, Icecrown [53, 86]
• Chain Position: 6th quest in the Icecrown Citadel/Matthias Lehner chain
• Leads To: Return to the Surface

Walkthrough

Matthias’s Warning

• After speaking with Matthias in the previous quest, he urgently warns you: “You shouldn’t have touched it. But now that you did, he’s going to come looking for you. And he’ll find you. Unless you hide yourself from him.” His solution? Disguise yourself using the blood of the Faceless Ones that inhabit these depths.

Collecting the Blood

• Kill Faceless Lurkers in the cavern. They wander around both rooms of Naz’anak, near the pulsating trees and glowing fungi.
• You need 3 Faceless One’s Blood. The drop rate is not guaranteed on every kill, so expect to fight several Lurkers. Stay near Matthias to minimize travel time between kills.
• The Faceless Lurkers are non-elite and manageable solo at 80.

Returning to Matthias

• Once you have 3 blood samples, return to Matthias. On turn-in, he frantically tells you to rub the blood on yourself immediately: “What are you waiting for? You have to rub it on you! Quick! Or he’ll see you!”
• The blood masks your presence from the Lich King’s awareness, at least temporarily.

Efficiency Tips

• This is one of the few quests in the chain that offers a weapon reward. Check the options before turning in, as some of the weapons (Scourgehammer, Ritualist’s Bloodletter) are decent quest-reward gear for the level range.
• After completing this quest, Return to the Surface becomes available immediately. Use the nearby portal to leave Naz’anak and report back to Thassarian on the Skybreaker.

Lore & Secrets

Faceless Ones Beneath Icecrown

The presence of Faceless Ones deep beneath Icecrown Citadel is significant. These creatures are servants of the Old Gods, and their habitation of Naz’anak ties directly to the influence of Yogg-Saron, imprisoned beneath nearby Ulduar.

Saronite, the ore that lines the pit and forms the Citadel’s structure, is literally Yogg-Saron’s blood solidified. Finding Faceless Ones living in tunnels made of saronite reinforces the uncomfortable truth that the Lich King’s power base is built atop Old God corruption.

The connection between the Scourge and the Old Gods runs throughout WotLK. Yogg-Saron is sometimes called “the God of Death,” and his influence permeates Northrend’s underground. The Faceless Ones in Naz’anak may be there to monitor or exploit the Old God’s presence beneath the Citadel, or they may simply have been drawn to the concentrated saronite.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Matthias’s plan to disguise you with Faceless One blood is practical. The logic is that the Lich King’s awareness, which detected you touching his discarded heart, operates through the Scourge’s magical network. Faceless Ones exist outside that network as Old God servants, not Scourge creatures.

Covering yourself in their blood essentially makes you “invisible” to the Lich King’s supernatural surveillance, allowing you to escape Naz’anak without being tracked.

This is also one of the few moments in WotLK where the player directly interacts with Old God-aligned creatures as a survival strategy rather than fighting them as enemies. The Old Gods and the Scourge are separate (and sometimes rival) forces of corruption in Northrend, and Matthias exploits that distinction.

Naz’anak’s Atmosphere

There is a striking visual contrast between Naz’anak and the rest of Icecrown. Where the surface is barren ice, bone, and saronite, the depths contain bioluminescent fungi, pulsating organic structures, and ancient nerubian architecture.

Cross-Expansion Connections

Faceless Ones and the Old Gods

Faceless Ones appear throughout WoW’s history as foot soldiers of the Old Gods. In WotLK, they appear in Naz’anak, the Old Kingdom dungeon (Ahn’kahet), and during the Yogg-Saron encounter in Ulduar. Their continued presence in later expansions (Cataclysm’s Twilight Highlands, BfA’s Stormsong Valley, and The War Within’s Nerub’ar Palace) keeps the Old God threat as a recurring element across WoW’s storylines.

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