You’ll Need a Gryphon

Quest Giver: Lord-Commander Arete – Death’s Rise, Icecrown [19.5, 48.1]

Objective: Kill an Onslaught Gryphon Rider at Onslaught Harbor, loot the Onslaught Gryphon Reins, fly the gryphon back, and deliver it to Uzo Deathcaller at Death’s Rise.

Quick Facts

• Type: One-time chain quest
• Location: Onslaught Harbor, Icecrown [~12, 44]
• Chain Position: 4 of 4 in the Death’s Rise series. Preceded by Blood in the Water.
• Unlocks: No Fly Zone (daily quest)

Walkthrough

Kill an Onslaught Gryphon Rider

• Fly to Onslaught Harbor [~12, 44] and kill any Onslaught Gryphon Rider. You only need one kill.
• Loot the Onslaught Gryphon Reins from the corpse. The reins are a 100% drop.
• Melee tip: Riders patrol the air, and high-flying ones will sit out of melee range and throw spears at you. Look for low-flying riders near tall pillars or rock formations around [9, 43] or [12, 44]. Land on a tall pillar and wait for a rider to pass within melee range. They will swoop down to engage.

Use the Reins and Fly to Uzo Deathcaller

• Open your inventory and right-click the Onslaught Gryphon Reins to mount the gryphon. You need to be on the ground or a surface to mount (can also mount while swimming).
• The gryphon moves at 100% flight speed (equivalent to epic flying). Faster than a normal flying mount for players without epic riding.
• Fly back to Death’s Rise [19.5, 48.1] and locate Uzo Deathcaller [19.7, 47.8], the troll NPC standing near a nest with a baby bone gryphon.

Deliver the Gryphon

• While mounted on the gryphon near Uzo, press the “Deliver Gryphon” button (hotkey 1) on the vehicle action bar that replaced your regular abilities.
• Do NOT dismount first. If you dismount and talk to Uzo on foot, you cannot complete the delivery. You must press the Deliver button while still mounted.
• Do NOT press the wrong button. There is also a “Leave Vehicle” button on the bar. Pressing that instead of “Deliver Gryphon” is the most common mistake.

Efficiency Tips

• Addon conflict warning: If you use action bar addons like Bartender or Dominos, the vehicle action bar may not display correctly. If the Deliver button doesn’t appear, try temporarily disabling bar addons or check for a keybind to activate the vehicle bar.
• Group turn-in: If grouped, only one player needs to loot and fly back the gryphon. When that player clicks “Deliver Gryphon” near Uzo, all group members in range get quest credit.
• Don’t turn in immediately if you lack epic flying. Some players hold the reins and use the gryphon as a temporary mount for other Icecrown questing. The gryphon functions as a vehicle (not a standard mount), meaning it works indoors, provides a parachute effect when dismounting in midair, and absorbs damage meant for you. Once you turn in, you lose access to it.

Lore Context

This quest is the payoff for Blood in the Water. The shark blood you collected was needed for Uzo Deathcaller’s “blood ritual,” which transforms the stolen Onslaught gryphon into a bone gryphon for the Ebon Blade’s use. Uzo’s completion text captures his excitement: he calls down the ritual and transforms the living gryphon into an undead mount on the spot.

The transformed bone gryphon becomes the mount you ride during the No Fly Zone daily quest, where you use it to shoot down Onslaught riders over the harbor. The Ebon Blade is literally turning the Onslaught’s own weapons against them.

Uzo Deathcaller is a troll death knight, fitting WotLK’s theme of death knights from every race working together under the Ebon Blade banner, regardless of their original faction allegiances.

Known Bugs & Quirks

• Gryphon cloning: If you mount and dismount the gryphon repeatedly before turning in, each dismount leaves behind a gryphon NPC that follows you. Players have created swarms of 50+ gryphons this way. They persist until you log out. This is a known bug from the vehicle system, not an intended feature.
• Indoor flying: Because the gryphon is classified as a vehicle rather than a mount, it bypasses the indoor flying restriction. You can fly it inside structures anywhere in Icecrown.

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