Quick Facts

Series

1.	They Took Our Men!
2.	Leave No Goblin Behind
3.	The Crone's Bargain
4.	Mildred the Cruel
5.	Discipline
6.	Examples to be Made
7.	A Certain Prisoner
8.	A Change of Scenery
9.	Is That Your Goblin?
10.	The Hyldsmeet
11.	Taking on All Challengers
12.	You'll Need a Bear
13.	Bearly Hanging On
14.	Cold Hearted
15.	Deemed Worthy
16.	Making a Harness

Storyline
The Storm Peaks Clean Up Just Around the Corner Slightly Unstable A Delicate Touch Reclaimed Rations Expression of Gratitude Ample Inspiration Only Partly Forgotten Bitter Departure Cell Block Tango Know No Fear A Flawless Plan Demolitionist Extraordinaire Offering Thanks Missing Scouts Loyal Companions Stemming the Aggressors Baby Stealers Sirana Iceshriek On Brann's Trail Sniffing Out the Perpetrator Pieces to the Puzzle Data Mining The Library Console Norgannon's Shell The Missing Bronzebeard The Nose Knows Sniffing Out the Perpetrator Speak Orcish, Man! Speaking with the Wind's Voice Catching up with Brann Pieces of the Puzzle Data Mining The Library Console Norgannon's Shell Rare Earth Fighting Back Relief for the Fallen Slaves of the Stormforged The Dark Ore The Gifts of Loken Facing the Storm Armor of Darkness The Armor's Secrets Valduran the Stormborn Destroy the Forges! Hit Them Where it Hurts A Colossal Threat The Heart of the Storm The Iron Colossus Aid from the Explorers' League The Frostborn King Fervor of the Frostborn An Experienced Guide Unwelcome Guests The Lonesome Watcher The Hidden Relic Fate of the Titans Fury of the Frostborn King The Master Explorer The Brothers Bronzebeard Going After the Core The Core's Keeper Forging the Keystone Xarantaur, the Witness The Witness and the Hero Memories of Stormhoof Distortions in Time Where Time Went Wrong The Hero's Arms Changing the Wind's Course They Took Our Men! Leave No Goblin Behind The Crone's Bargain Mildred the Cruel Discipline Examples to be Made A Certain Prisoner A Change of Scenery Is That Your Goblin? The Hyldsmeet Taking on All Challengers You'll Need a Bear Bearly Hanging On Cold Hearted Deemed Worthy Making a Harness The Last of Her Kind The Warm-Up Into the Pit Prepare for Glory Lok'lira's Parting Gift The Drakkensryd Sibling Rivalry Mending Fences The Refiner's Fire A Spark of Hope Forging an Alliance You Can't Miss Him Battling the Elements In Memoriam A Monument to the Fallen Forging a Head Placing Hodir's Helm Forging Hodir's Spear A New Beginning Veranus Territorial Trespass Krolmir, Hammer of Storms The Terrace of the Makers The Earthen Oath Loken's Lackeys The Reckoning

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by greatapoc

This quest will probably be very confusing to a lot of people. What you need to do is fly on your mount to Dun Niffelem at 64,59. Once inside, look around for drakes attached to chains and fly straight up to one. Your cursor should then allow you to click and mount one. From there, fly around looking for Brunnhildar Prisoners encased in ice. You need to zap them once with the frostbolt and then they should automatically be picked up by the drake. One prisoner will appear mounted behind your character and the other 2 will be in the drakes claws.

Once you have picked up 3 prisoners, fly back to Brunnhildar Village and eventually the game will take over flight and deliver the prisoners and the drake. Repeat this 3 times and the quest will complete.

Comment by Reeve

Careful of the giants throwing those ice club things at you, they're fairly easy to avoid but gotta keep moving.

Comment by 110266

You don't have to pick up the prisoners yourself anymore. The drake will automaticly pick them up when you use Ice Shard on the ice block they're trapped inside.

Comment by 64516

The key is that you have to leave Dun Niff with the drake. You'll notice that the three prisoners you free - one is mounted on front and the other two are in its claws.

Comment by Wildroses

This quest appears to be bugged atm. It's impossible to avoid the hammers.

Comment by Melana

Proto-Drakes located 63.62 :)

Comment by 109448

They only seemed to take command of flight if you fly through the archway. I flew high the first time and I had to manually fly back to the village.

Comment by Evilgm

Just to say, since this confused me- you don't get any credit for the rescued prisoners or Drake until you drop them back. I thought the quest had bugged on me since I was freeing prisoners and my quest tracker didn't change.

Comment by 56667

Map

Comment by 125048

i cant believe no one has said this yet but druids can use forms while in the disguise

its actually pretty cool when you shift into flight form cause you stay in the disguise and freestyle swim through the air...i wasted ten mins just laughing at it

Comment by njtwkr

Those prisoners sure can jump

Comment by fantom106

note that when the drake drops you off you will take about 1k dmg so be careful if youre at low health

Comment by 88528

When you fly a little close to ground, outside the place where you get the drakes, the drake will fly to Brunnhildar Village automatically

Comment by 172375

The respawn rate on the prisonors is quite low, and at busy times it can be hard to capture one.

Comment by 264964

If you're having trouble mounting the drakes initially (I know I did the first time) turn on "Click to Move" in the Interface > Mouse menu. Then when you click on a drake, you automatically fly to the spot you need to be in to mount it.

Comment by 253616

Oh my god, so confusing, first i fly to Dun Niffleim, then i didnt see any proto-drakes and i were like; "Hey! maybe its the ones from the camp" then i flew back there on my 60% but nooo, it wasnt there either, so ten i read it up here, now i gotta go all the way back to Niffleim -.-

Okey, so now i got to Niffleim and found a dragon, picked up the 3 dudes, but if that wasnt enough i actually have to fly from Brunnhild to Niffleim on my 60% again...

GO buy epic flying before thinking about Storm peaks or Icecrown!

Comment by Tantou

DON'T DIE.

If you die, you can't see where the elites are, so you can't rez successfully, so you can't mount. Good luck.

Also, don't dismount in the air hoping you can mount another drake before landing. No parachute.

Comment by 240277

Just wanted to say that i was totally confused by this quest until i read the later posts. After I got a drake about 2 prisoners and began to fly out, I got a warning to return to Brunnhildar Village and thought I did something wrong. An early statement i read said you can fly up to avoid being hit by the hammers so I did and alt + tabbed out to see if I did something wrong (and the warning is normal). I dont know how, but when I tabbed back in my drake was flapping in a blue nothingness, and wouldn't fly down until I reloaded ui and held X. After flying to a certain level, it flew normal again.... but it scared the hell outta me. Don't know if anyone had the same event happen to them but if it does, just do as I stated and everything will be fine.

Also, for some reason, at some point, i lost the disguise without losing the disguise. I still had the look and nothing attacked me but i couldn't mount drakes nor re attain the quest after dropping it. I had to go through the mine and attack somthing to lose the disguise and walk back into the cave to get it back...so ya maybe reload ui isn't the command to use.

Comment by 15632

At the moment, there is a typo in the quest objectives/credit tracking ("Recued" instead of "rescued").

Comment by 85595

haha did this quest after 80 on a non epic mount (while farming cash to buy an epic) and it took forever.

I'd skip it if you are in the same boat as I was.

Comment by 253885

cant " mount " the drake

Comment by LumiyaSpellsong

At first I didn't realize we COULD use our Druid forms while wearing the disguise because I didn't shapeshift into a bird when I chose flight form. Only after reading this and trying to "jump" did I realize I was floating and flying in disguise.

Here is a picture of what it looks like as you fly "swim" through the air using the Druid flight form in costume. Pretty funny :)

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o252/pinktoque/wow/WoWScrnShot_120908_123401.jpg

stroke! stroke! stroke!

Comment by backfire

Make sure you dont jump off the drake early. I did so and got credit for the prisoners but not the drake. >.< Another trip because I was impatient.

Comment by 270929

The location is to the east of the questgiver in Dun Niffelem. around 64.79. To get the dragons you have to fly up once inside and mount a dragon chained to a big shard. Use it to pick up prisoners frozen in iceblocks. Note that only 3 prisoners can be picked up at the same time. That mean that you have to go three times to get a dragon and pick up prisoners. I hope this info was helpful to you :)

Comment by 29564

recued = rescued? :/

Comment by 278175

Funny to do this with druid. I done it with my druid and used flight form... Well, I didn't turn into bird, just started to swim in the air... Very funny! xD

Comment by 278475

For those wondering; yes, this does require a flying mount.

Comment by Kampai

Upon delivering the freed prisoners and drake you will be thrown off the drake and take 5% fall damage, just so you know... ;)

Comment by Rhelan

This one is pretty easy. Get on your flying mount and go to Dun Niffelem (a bit east of Brunnhildar Village, but in the same area) and go through the gates. Ignore the big giants and the mobs, and fly up to a proto-drake, and mount it. Then use the frostbolt on THREE prisoners encased in ice, and fly out of the gates. You'll automatically be sent to Brunnhildar Village (I believe) and you've done 1/3rd of the quest. Do it three times, and you're done.

Comment by 73082

An epic flying mount can be very handy for this quest.

Comment by Allya

Should you die, the graveyard you are sent to is East of Dun Niffelem. You do have to cross a frozen lake to get back to the area with the Ice Axe throwing Giants

You do want to move quickly when on foot because the Giants will step on you and kill you again.

You will have to free another Proto-Drake and collect the three Brunnhildar prisoners again.

Comment by 267512

Oh and remember not to move before you've caught the prisoner. I got 8/9 just because i moved before the drake had time to catch the prisoner. Yay, another trip on 60% flying...

Comment by 169039

Just a quick note as to keep people from losing their minds, if you die you get your disguise back as soon as you re-enter the area.

Comment by Revendash

Sometimes the NPC for the turn in (same one that offers the quest) just doesn't seem to be there. To fix this, I went to where she should be and dismounted from my epic flying mount. This seemed to solve the issue.

Comment by 292040

If you're too close to a Son of Hodir when you pick up a prisoner, they'll throw some kind of ice club at you, doing about 1k damage. They're throwing alot of them so be fast up in the air once you're picked up the prisoner.

Comment by 161527

Just for you Feral Druids out there, you can click on Flight Form and all other forms you normally use. When in Flight Form, you will still fly, however, comically, you will be in the disguised NPC form, which makes for a hilarious view of your character, in disguise, swimming through the air, lol.

This is the case with all forms while you are in the area of Brunnhildar Village and immediate surrounding areas. Once you leave the area of control, the spell wears off and you are still flying, or whatever form you were in, and suffer no loss of movement.

This also includes attacking in Cat/Bear form. All of your normal controls will show up if you select your preferred fighting form (Cat/Bear) and you will still fight as if you were looking at your Cat/Bear, just, you're actually still in disguise.

Comment by 298315

if u die youll lose youre viking costume

Comment by 295668

Yea pretty easy quest.

1. Fly up to the Proto-drake
2. Get in range and hop on.
3. Fly down within range of a Prisoner with the ice around them.
4. Use (1) to unfreeze them. Then get in range and pick em up.
5. Repeat twice (so you get 3 prisoners and 1 drake) and fly back to Brunnhildar Village.
6. Repeat step 5, twice.

Comment by morituri

This is quite amusing for a druid, since you will be "swimming" on air with the disguise, as the screenshot above shows. I couldn't believe my eyes. Kinda didn't want to finish the quest for a while. I'm starting to wonder if some day some/any classes will have the talent to fly the mere character without a mount or flightform. =D

Comment by 1Beachcomber

I did run into a one-time glitch with this quest; on my second trip back I got dumped from a large height far west of the village and did not get credit for the prisoners or drake, and died upon landing. I did not dismount early.

Comment by 303038

I also found my Questhelper would only show the Proto-Drakes and Prisoners in Brunnhildar Village, which is sorta technically correct as they don't credit until you return.
Had to read to find where to go.

Comment by 303038

Don't have to fly under the archway anymore, you can fly over it.
The Proto Drake seemed to handle very different to any other flyer I've used in the game so far, it seemed very sluggish.

Comment by 305188

i don't know about west but to the east if u fly over Brann's base camp u will lose ur disguise and fall off the drake

Comment by 290374

When I was flying back to Brunnhildar, the Drake dropped me and I died...

And when I finally made it back to Brunn, it didn't count the prisoners I freed.

Comment by Grizela

If you fly too high, you could get dropped. Signals that this is going to happen:

1. There is a message to "Return to Brunhildar Village".
2. The prisoners you are freeing are suddenly red to you, rather than green.

If you see that, direct the dragon downwards toward the ground (and toward the village).

Ideally, what you want to see is a message that the protodrake smells freedom and flies homeward. If you see that, then let go of the controls and let the drake fly you into the village. The drake will still drop you from a bit too high, however, so make sure you have at least 1,000 or so health left.

Cheers,

Comment by weezel

quite interesting, for when i clicked the drake to mount it, my flying mount (the one from K3 goblin as i have no flying skill myself) followed me around as a "pet". it did this even after i re-mounted the mount. quite amusing to have your mount as a pet as well as a mount :P

Comment by 313195

I was just wondering after which part of the chain do we get our normal look back?

Comment by wowlol

The ONLY good thing about this quest is once you leave the area with 3 prisioners on a drake is that it flys back to the village for you

Comment by veetahl

Indeed, this quest is not clear and not very carefully designed. One of the worst ones I've seen on Wow. How do theses guys go flying from their "ice prison" to the proto-drake? And why do I have to be dressed like a woman that "swims on air" instead of turning into an eagle (i'm a druid).
Disappointed at Blizzard for this one...

Comment by BMHunter

This quest is complete crap, and bugged like a mofo. I died 47 times before I was able to complete it. If your a hunter forget it, as usual its bugged for hunters.

Comment by 314273

(Possibly bugged) note for Unholy DKs - if you get killed while flying (despite appearing to be a "vehicle", you still take damage yourself if you get hit), and Shadow of Death activates, your action bar will turn into your Ghoul action bar. Your buff will start ticking down, even though you can't see it, and even though you still look like a blue viking lady.

This means, of course, that sooner rather than later you are going to die and likely land in the middle of the frost giants or in the middle of the battlefield! Hoping this gets fixed, but for now, ignore your DK training and actually try to dodge those frost bolts :)

(For future reference, this seems to be an issue with most Shadow of Death + vehicle quests.)

Comment by 315949

This quest really needs a speed boost.

Comment by 206228

Once you get a certain distance to returning them. "The proto drake smells freedom and begins to head homeward".

Comment by 39962

If you are in a group it's enough if one pick up the drake and prisoner. If the other is at the landing place (49,66) they will get credit also. Can be of use if you are multiboxing.

Comment by paperc07

all I did was get on a drake and then fly out of the cave and it said "The proto drake smells freedom and begins to head homeward". and then it took me to the village and it said that I had freed a dragon and saved 3 prisoners, which is cool because when I was flying around throwing the ice things on them it deff wasn't counting so that part might be bugged

Comment by Hypokill

This quest is probably the worst made I've seen in a long time.

I've ran this twice, freeing 6 prisoners, and returning 2 drakes, and have no received any credit for them.

I flew over the arch the first time, got the "The Proto-Drake Smells Freedom and Flys Homeward"

I flew under the arch the second time, got the "The Proto-Drake Smells Freedom and Flys Homeward"

This quest just sucks, especially when it's a chain quest and starts many others, for now I'm stuck in Storm Peaks unable to do anything about it.

My tip: Don't even try this quest. Bugged horribly.

EDIT: They finally freaking fixed this! I put up a message and they said the problem was going to be solved on the next server restart, it now works 100% and I have completed it.

Comment by 324494

it was very confusing when i first did it, great advice

Comment by 120198

Is it just me, or does this remind anybody of the old Apple II game called Choplifter?

Comment by 327330

Maybe the 'smell of freedom's' heavier than air so it hangs low like fog. Thus you have to go through the arch for the drake to get a waft?

Comment by 27993

Make sure you stay in the vicinity of the one you zapped too btw. I zapped one and flew off, and got a "your pet is out of range". Not that it's hard to get another prisoner, just an fyi.

Comment by 172701

ohhh man this quest were just so annoing!

Comment by Aevitas

This would be a better map.

Comment by 66075

It's even funnier if you strafe (q and e by default). You fly through the air standing upright!

Comment by 43476

For extra fun, you can do this quest and from the moment you're flying in play the Airwolf theme!

Makes it extra worthwhile!

Comment by 261482

As of today 3/10/09, "Rescued" is spelled wrong.

Comment by 107874

SEMBRA DIFFICILE MA NON LO E AFFATTO ALLORA DEVI ANDARE A Dun Niffelem at 64,59 E LI CI SONO I DRAGHI CI VAI SOPRA CON LA TUA MOUNT TI DA L ICONA CHE LO PUOI CAVALCARE UNA VOLTA IN GROPPA NELLA CAVERNA CI SONO GLI OMINI CONGELATI DA SCONGELARE LO RIPETI X 9 E 3 X I DRAGHI

Comment by 339872

ok on the Drakes u get 3 prisoners Freed at a time than u start heading back and it says (Blank Feels Freedom and he starts heading back home) once u land u get a Credit for 1 Dragons Freed and 3 Prisoners Freed Have FUn and Happy hunting- niercyjr bronzbeard

Comment by Ramrom95

Edit: If you loose your disguise you can simply get over to that area and you will automatically morph :)
Tested and works

Comment by 331789

"The proto-drake smells freedom and flies homeward!"

That's a strong nose =D

Comment by 222832

easiest but most boring quest ever;(

Comment by twsX

Take your time to enjoy looking at your HUGE woman riding your now-oh-so-tiny mounts. :)

Comment by 338479

Just be careful cuz i lost a prisoner while flying back ... don't know why, i had to fly over there once again and take another prisoner .. pain in the butt when your flying mount is 60% ... duhh

Comment by 359246

This quest seems to be bugged as of 30 April 2009. You will not receive credit once flying back to the village.

The drake returns and vanishes and the prisons are dropped off but you will not receive credit.

Comment by Norseguy

Blizzard must have recently changed the quest, on my 5 other 80s I had no problem when I was leveling them. Now you actually have to click the frozen prisoner, instead of previously just flying over it and pressing 1.

Comment by 84839

I found this to be a very fun quest I am a druid and in flight form flying in the air was funny. It was just one of though quests that was very enjoyable and funny to do . While in cat form or any druid form you stay disguised that's the fun part.

Comment by darkelfy

if you wonder why you can see your prisoner
its becuse they are down under de dragon in its feets :D
easy Q though

Comment by 119405

I noticed that at about 61,60 my drake "smelt freedom and flew to its homeland" I jsut got to sit back and wait. Happened twice out of the three times, considering the first time I didn't go out this way. I was fairly low to the ground when it happened too.

Comment by 32435

Also note that as a druid, if you never bought a flying mount, your screwed this just turned into a much much longer quest. You can't get on the dragons from your bird form.

Comment by 375618

Remember to pick up the prisoners before heading home, had to go one extra time to get them.

Comment by 315226

Luckily the giants start shooting at your dragon pretty slowly, but once they hit you, you lose health quite quickly. It's a good idea to rise above their shooting range and let health come back, instead of trying to free prisoners with say 55% health. If you need to look around for prisoners yet to free during that try.. Ok. I tried that too. A good choice is of course to dive from the very top at your prisoner(s) like a Ju 52 dive-bomber and return immediately high - if you didn't have your second and third target immediately at sight. And repeat so. But if you happen to die, you can return with your gryphon as ghost and have a good look at a line of three prisoners which you can simply zap with frostbolt, and the giants won't have hit you with their snowballs even once when your'e back at the heights.(did this three times.. (blush)). The beasts also let you pretty much in peace return alive and eat and mount and release a dragon. The violence starts when you sit on your dragon. PS: Put all your gear with durability in your bag. You won't need armory or weapons. So there is no repair bill when you're done! Schwesterdk lvl 79 udead dk

Comment by Squirrely

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but when I fly into niflheim, I can clamber into a proto drake but it doesn't count as me freeing it.

I can fly around and shoot my ice beam at entombed prisoners but then they just run away and it doesn't count as me freeing them either.

So now I'm just flying in circles in confusion avoiding clubs.
Any tips?

Edit: Also, I'm the one taking damage (as the pilot) when a club hits me o.O Is that normal?

Edit 2: I guess it's fixed, now, just had to fly out of the city and come back and get in a new drake. Quest seems to be flowing normal now though I wonder what bugged it in the first place.

Comment by 427335

use you flying mount or the u get from the npc in k3 and fly to Dun Niffelem at the Cords: 62 61
and jump on a Captive Proto-drake and collect 3 Brunnhildar Prisoner each time you take an Captive Proto-drake and then fly back to Brunnildar village and you'r done You will gather: 22050 Exp and 7Gold 40Silver

Comment by 427036

I've been dualboxing a shaman and paladin.

I can comfirm only one person needs to do the rescuing. I just parked my shaman at the drop point and completed it on both characters.

Comment by fatboys1im

Lame.... nothing like following a quest chain thru this far only to find another annoying mount quest full of bugs.

Align yourself just right or you will keep receiving "invalid target" errors when trying to free prisoners. This will be even despite the fact you are in range and have a blue cursor for target. I found you can't be above them and can't be below them, but I guess must be directly in front of them.........and who cares. See ya!

Comment by mrdummy

There is one warning about the quest.
If you health is low and you fly at low health to the place.
Your health regen is low at proto-drake, you get also some damage from frost attacks.

And the proto-drake shall drop you from some height and cause around 1k damage.
When you're at low health, you can die. That sucks.

Make sure you have enough health before you fly to the place.
I have not full healed up my hunter character, and i see the health drops more and more after each action.

Select first the frozen prisoner, then rightclick the frost blast.
It's more easier and you can keep moving (strafe!) around.
If you don't target first, it's more difficult to free quickly the prisoner while you avoiding the attacks.

Comment by 285957

What a &*!@ing quest.. Died 6 times..

Tips;
- Remember to move alot wile you are picking up the guys.
- Dont fly high up in the air. You will get dropped.

Good luck

Comment by 444660

My suggestion is that when you have the prisoners take the most direct route back to the quest giver, do not pass go, do not collect $200 or you will get the same message as if you fly too high. Leave via the large mouth of the place you got the prisoners from and let the drake take over.

Comment by Thealoms

minor point, when the drake gets back to Brunnhildar Village you get dismounted a few feet off the ground causing around 935 damage when u land.

something to think about if you attempt this quest with near-death health!

Comment by dragunknight92

Just thought I'd put this out there, it is possible to dismount the drake even when he is on his auto fly home, but you will plummet to your untimely death. Also, make sure you collect 3 prisoners before you leave, otherwise you will have to make 4 trips.

Comment by 458516

Even with all of the comments I was still confused.

1. Use your own mount to fly to Duniffilem
2. Approach a flying drake and click on it to mount it. (Once mounted on the drake keep moving to avoid the clubs thrown at you)
3. Click on a frozen Brunnhildar prisoner.
4. Approach the prisoner closely with your proto drake. Use the Ice shard weapon that came with the drake to free the prisoner.
5. As previously said, one will mount behind you and two in the drake's feet. You will have to look for the prisoners because they will not show up on quest helper yet.
6. Fly with this drake and your three freed captives to Brunnhildar Village and land.
7 You will get credit for the three prisoners returned and the freed proto drake.
8. Do this two more times and you should be good to go.

I hope this helps.

Comment by erlnd2210

When i got the message that it smelled freedom and flied homeward, i thougth it was going far from the place were u deliver people, it but flew there my it self, so this is just normal peeps.

Comment by 28576

DON'T be an idiot like me and take one prisoner each time! you can take three at once -.-

Comment by 152547

As a druid I haven't purchased any flying mount ( OFC )
but I am unable to do this quest. I can not mount the drakes.

<.<

Comment by Jerodast

This quest was really cool...until I had to do it three times. Bleh.

Comment by 485620

This is current PTR Patch 3.3

This quest appears to be bugged. You are able to get a drake, and prisoners. However, on the return the drake glitches and basically rubberbands around. It is possible to get to the area in which the drake normally goes on its own, but you will not get credit if you manage to get the drake there on your own.

Until this is fixed, no shoulder enchants. Unless, you level Inscripts.

Comment by 472463

This quest is pretty simple. You accept the quest then fly up to Dun Niffelem. The drakes you need to mount are upward as soon as you get inside the place. Mount the drake then head towards to center of the place and hit the people inside the ice captivities once with frostbolt, you will need to do this 3 times so that you will have 3 people on the mount other than you...one on the back with you, then 2 in the claws of the drake. Start to fly out then it will say "The proto-drake smells freedom and flies homeward!" so the drake will auto-fly from then on and lead u back to Brunnhildar Village. And continue the process two more times to complete the quest. Hope this helped! :)

Comment by 261223

Don't use Quest Helper on this quest - it is all screwed up and will get you killed easy. this is one of those 200 or do quests that QH can't cope with.

Comment by 495329

THANKYOU VERY MUCH! greatapoc THE FIRST LINK IS ALL YOU NEED!.
But Make SUre you dont Go AFK on the drake or you die
so get in and get out

Comment by yustme

there's a glitch with this quest.
you can fly through a mountain with this quest, as you fly back, aim for the mountain on the left and fly as high as the chained drakes, fly directly forward and when the game takes over the flight, it'll go through the mountain.
If u dismount inside the mountain, u'll fall endlessly, untill u die...
And if u fly via the Brann's Basecamp (the very right on the way back), the game will not take over...

Comment by 511936

I don't know what I am doing wrong, but every time I try this quest, after I rescue the first frozen dude, I can't free any more. I get an error message that the target needs to be in front of me, from any angle and any distance that I try. I have tired several times, on several days... Anyone else experience this problem? Any suggestions?

Comment by 333920

For The Ones never did this quest!

Actually this quest is alot easier than u think, lets say u in the middle of Brunnhildar Village and then u take ur Flying mount and go to dun niffelem. And then when u reach Dun niffelem Right-Click on a proto drake, and then u fly around (always move or u will get hitted by the guardians throwing stuff) and shoot the frostbolt spell on the prisoners and then u do it 3 times remember: U can only carry 3 prisoners at the same time and when u come out of dun niffelem the drake will fly home himself and fly back and do same thing 2 more times and then ure done!

// Dreamweave @ twisting nether =D

Ps: hope this helped out! See you Ingame! :D

Comment by 538490

where do i get the "Drake" that i can fly on to? i am looking for it : /

Comment by Neoner

Hei! On my server where i am playing this quest is bugged. Is there any way how to get Exalted Son of Hodir? I am alliance :D Please help and tell in what patch this quest is Fixed!

Comment by Siton

Don't worry about being close to the brunnhildar after you free them. They make superhero jumps to your drake!

Comment by 561071

so i attempted this quest but i was unable to mount the proto-drake. they just attacked me. it didnt give me the option to mount them. i think i may put in a ticket to a GM because its quite frustrating. anyone else have this problem?

Comment by 480475

FYI not sure why, but it showed my costume when in Moonkin form but not Cat or Flight Forms. So my flying and dashing were both in normal form but my Moonkin was disguised. Irrelevant but amusing.

Comment by tommy5547

Yep. Seems bugged now.
just issued a ticket. Probably get an answer in a few hou....days...

Comment by 609303

yip still bugged....drakes attack u can't mount them

Comment by Firedwarf

The drakes you're gonna ride on are located in dun niffelem

Comment by 224808

Random but useful:

If you are in a raid group, You will not get credit for returning with the drake/prisoners.

I skipped this quest chain while leveling, and decided it was finally time to get shoulder enchants on my charrecters.

I started this quest while in a raid group waiting for ICC. No matter what I did, i couldn't get credit while in a raid group.I tried re-starting WoW, I tried dropping and picking up the quest, nothing worked.

I came back after the raid, when i was out of a group, and it worked fine,

Hope this helps someone

Comment by Snailians

I was having a hard time completing this quest. I was able to mount the drake, pick up three prisoners, but each time I flew out of Dun Nifflem, my Drake and prisoners would disappear in mid air, no matter how close I was to the ground (thank goodness I'm a Druid!)

I finally figured out that I was going the wrong way. I was attempting to fly out South, but you have to fly out to the West.

Comment by 514782

don't do what i did and zoom your camera in all the way and then go around trying to pick people up and thinking it's not happening....they are on the vehicle but you have to camera-out a bit to see them...duh

Comment by roguesuck

this is halarious seeing the costume riding the mini swift purple wind rider... i laughed my ass off.. to much fun for this quest.

Comment by Asianess

What do i do if i don't have cold weather flying?

Comment by 736079

ha! for all yall that are about to abandon this one. try this.......

this took me about 3 hours and i think the drakes were running from me as i killed one after another running out of health and dying.

the drake is so large if you dont get the camera angle just right you cant see that ice shot your makinig. it s not straight at the target but a little down from his beak. so if your behind him you cant see to see where to aim. try and set the camera angle just over your head and then at a slight angle down to his beak so you can still see almost the end of it.

swear, i didnt see this in the begining and got very frustrated and ended up i dont know how many times putting his head in the ice but kept getting an invalid target cause i was shooting or aiming below the ice.

good luck.

Comment by KamekaziPunk

This quest seems bugged again. I'm able to mount the drakes as intended, but they will not fly up or down, only flat as if they were on ground. This makes it very difficult to pick up the little buggers since they are out of range (only way is to grab the lowest flying drake, and pick up two of them on the higher levels). Ticket submitted, will see what happens in about a day and a half.

/e: this quest is still doable, just takes a bit more patience to wait for respawns and careful choosing of drakes.

Comment by 3758

This quest is now bugged in Cata; you can't use the ability on drake mount even I pressed escape to clear my target and fly on top of the ice cube. Still too far, only one ride can take 3 full prisoners at once. Other rides I had to do it several times.

Comment by 5372

this quest ist still doable. i found out that you have to "jump" (swim up?) and then fly downwards by aiming down just as you would normally. until you have flown up there's no steering down though.

Comment by 743862

For those running into the problem I did, which is the Drake won't move up or down making most of the prisoners out of range. Hitting the space bar instantly corrected the problem for me.

Comment by dbltrouble

If you can't navigate down - hit space bar first, then down.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2140445762?page=1#11

Comment by d4wood

1 . click the captive proto-Drakes to ride them
2 . Use Ice shared ability on the Brunnhildar prisoners ( they look like blue blocks of ice )
3 . when your proto-Drake holding 3 Brunnhildar prisoners go in a gate at 60.62 then the proto-Drake will eventually go on autopilot .
repeat this process 2 more times

Comment by 804064

Biggest problem I had was picking up the prisoners - was always "out of reach". The Proto would not fly lower - died a few times. It was only after I would fly to one end of the area that the proto would fly lower - then I was able to pick them up.

Comment by 776035

Another tip: dont no if any1 else had this, but my dragon did not wanne go down to pick up the Prisoners. What i needed to do was push space so the dragon goes up a bit, and than she went down the normal way.

Comment by roscoe77

The quest is tricky because for me I couldnt fly low enough to target the dudes in the ice blocks. Looked here for a comment and found none so im gonna clear this up for anyone else having trouble. Fly out of the area going the oposite way as the town where u get the quest...for some reason this will allow u to dive and grab the prisoners!
hope this clears things up for others!

Grunt Intruder (durotan server)

Comment by 423524

I noticed that you need to hit the space bar to gain flight control of the proto drake or they won't fly at any other level in the sky. Took a bit but after the first one I figured it out.

Comment by 756824

My drakes would NOT fly down at all. Turning on Click to Move helped hugely, just a tip for those doing battle with sluggish drakes :)

Comment by 816693

i feel like this quest is bugged now. i cant fly up or down. ive done this line 2 times already in wotlk and had no problems changing heights when i fly the drake but now i have to fly into the wall to get lower so i can pick up the frozen prisoners.

Comment by dug1950

Thanks for the info, but on flying low to target the rescuees, I found hitting the space bar made it think it was launching to fly and after that I could fly down with no problem.

Comment by Tenolin

Using the spacebar worked for me to be able to control the height.

Comment by 291365

Quest is bugged 4-18-11: can't fly the dragons down to get in range of the frozen prisoners, and can't target any that are in range of the height your dragon is flying at - they come up as "invalid target."

Tried abandoning and re-taking, but that's bugged too - the quest-giver came up as hostile one time I tried abandoning and re-taking. Logging out and back in didn't fix that bug, but shutting down WoW client on my comp and logging back in did fix it, so i could re-take quest. Dragons still will not fly down to prisoners though.

I've had bugs all through this quest line to this point - can't talk to NPC's, NPC's won't perform as quest indicates, etc. Buggy as hell.

Sems like Blizzard got around to fixing this quest - was able to complete 4-20-11. Post by Theionos above about hitting spacebar to free up rise/fall control of the drake was useful, now that quest works again.

Also, like all Blizzard vehicle quests, your viewpoint is very foreshortened. When you target the prisoners in the ice blocks, make sure they are in front of your drake - camera angle almost lookng vertically down on your character helps here. If nothing else works, just back up the drake to get the target in front of you.

Comment by ccmccoy

For anyone who might be having difficulty here are some pointers. Once you have mounted your drake, put the camera directly overhead and stay above the thrown ice shards. Position a prisoner in an ice block just in front of your drake. Target the prisoner, making sure that her info block shows next to yours at the top left of your screen. You may need several attempts to target, or to descend a little to get a successful target. Then descend straight down until you get the highlite that says you are in range, and hit key #1 for the frostbolt to pick her up. Fly straight up to get above the ice shards. Target another prisoner and repeat two more times. Fly southwest to leave Dun Niffelem.

Comment by 146544

Hey how do I drop these FIRST 3 Prisoners off? anyone got a DIRECT answer to this question.

Comment by lionsofmercy

Mine would go down, but they were really hard to maneuver. If Blizz wanted to give us the feel of riding a half-witted dino, they succeeded.

Two things: The first is counterintuitive. Go for a drake on the *far* side from your targeted ladies. It's a lot easier to rake in from a shallower angle like that.

The second buys time, if you're high enough level (I'm 83 Ret Pally)--fly your own bird down and take out the mobs in the area by hand so they can't club you during the rescue.

Oh yeah--If you get turned around on your escape, look for those big chains you flew over to get there.

Comment by 105282

I did this quest 4 times previously. Worked like a charm. 5/21/11, tried 3 separate times. Auto-return did not work. The auto-release of the prisoners and the drake did not work. I tried to dismount at the questgiver, 53,65, hoping that would help, no dice. Good luck.

Comment by Mithroo

Quest worked just fine for me today. No deaths and no needing to hit the spacebar to be able to fly downwards. Seems to be fixed.

Comment by 742724

Note that in order to target the prisoners you must click the prisoners themselves, not the blocks of ice around them. Picking up all three prisoners per drake as fast as possible is recommended as the hostiles in the area do sufficient damage to quickly take out an unsuspecting player.

Comment by 715936

Made my top ten list of pointlessly tedious and buggy quests.

If you followed the map, you're in the Brunnhildar Village, scratching your head in front of some already freed dragons.

1. Make sure your mouse is set (as noted thankfully above) in the interface to "click to move".

2. Fly out the east entrance of the village towards the mountain in the distance. Just beyond it is the ice crystal arena - your destination (coords above). When you arrive, right click on a chained dragon and mount.

3. Fly immediately up to avoid the batons, and then spiral gently around the arena. If you keep moving, their aim is awful and you can afford to take your time, especially to see how the moving mobs work. In this case, the sluggish dragon flight is a good thing. Choose a lady with an adequate landing spot near her. Avoid those with a mob nearby (you will not win), or on a ledge that doesn't have enough space for all of your dragon to fit.

4. Land as close as you can without your dragon touching any part of the ice casing, nose dead-on towards your target, left click on her (not right), and hit 1. If you right click, as I did, the "click to move" setting (that is so helpful with mounting) will send the dragon forward and you will have to fly up again. If it doesn't work first hit, try backing a step. If not, fly up and try again from a slightly different angle. It's buggy, and you only have about 5-7 seconds to free her before the ice batons fly at you. Rescued girls will appear behind you in the seat, and one in each claw (in positions that make them look dead or not able to breathe or something, but oh well).

If you need to, fly upwards still under the tops of the crystals but out of baton range to recharge your health (yes, it's slow, but at least you won't die). If you get into trouble and your dragon dies, run away fast, make yourself invisible, feign death, add a shield or something - they hit for a lot, and pets do not automatically re-appear.

Bon apetit!

Comment by Samuriel

I accepted this quest, logged out and went to bed. The next day all the blue women were hostile to me and I couldn't do this quest.

Comment by 773583

"Click to move" is enabled but game still won't let me mount a drake...

Comment by 861104

I can't mount the dragons no matter what i do. I can attack and kill them without them doing anything but no matter how close i am and with or without disguise, I cannot mount them.

Comment by 92432

The Proto-Drake Smells Freedom...

and takes the scenic route back.

Comment by 868719

The mounting is currently bugged for druids. It won't take you out of Swift flightform, so I ended up haveing to buy a mount in order to do this quest :(

Comment by seitori

Quest was bugged for me as of the 4.3 patch. As before, I can get onto the proto drake and pick up the prisoners just fine. Normally the drake goes into autopilot once you exit Dun Niffelem and gives you quest credit at the end. It's not doing that any more, so I can't finish this and continue in Storm Peaks.

Comment by 917252

I'm not having a problem completing the quest here but I have yet to receive credit for either the drake or the prisoners. I fly into Dun Niffelem, get a Drake, rescue 3 prisoners, go out the back door, and receive instructions to return to Brunnhildar Village. I then fly back there and have no further luck.

Comment by pikapril25

This quest is so bugged..I tried flying low under arches and I got 3 prisoners to take back but when I get there, the prisoners do not hop off or get counted. I've decided to trash this quest after trying 3 times already and having no success.

Comment by Azgamergirl

Just wrote a ticket on my hunter. GM took it under advisement and told me he would alert the developers to fix it. At the same time i had a note in the forums that was blue answered by Vrakthris that its a known issue now and that they will do thier best to fix it. Wish theyd make a work around while they "fixed" it such as allow the quest to be autoskipped or open the next quest in the chain without need of doing this bit.

Comment by 918364

It was bugging for me too yesterday, but it's been fixed as of today's hotfixes - went under the arch and the drake took off.

Comment by 877650

Tried this quest again and again until I figured out what i was doing wrong.

Problem 1: Half the time I tried to pick up a prisoner I got "target needs to be in front of you" message and wasted time while getting pelted.

Solution: You cannot approach them from the back or side. You have to be facing the shelf itself (facing the back of the cave). If you are in the correct position, the range is pretty good for picking them up.

Problem 2: Didn't matter if I flew over the wall of the cave or flew under the arch... when I got back to the village I couldn't turn in the prisoners or the drake.

Solution: WALK the drake under the arch. When I did that I got the "Drake smells freedom" message almost immediately upon leaving the cave and autopilot kicked in.

Comment by 918568

Watch out-Quest is bug ,for me yesterday notice after i save 3 female and started to go back.Auto pilot didnt kick in.

After i drop quest or even jump off the drake. I would be set in combat with the female viking.Thou can not attack them.

Unsure if the bug can be link to new quest in ding 4.3 patch.
since this quest part of the chain to get friendly with sons of the hordi..Might not able to do this till they fix it or something odd happen again so i can fin it.

Eu server...

Comment by rotiman

I find it stranges that this is a key quest and there is no solution or a way to skip it

Comment by kevinteh

I filed a ticket with GM, and they asked me to use the WOW repair tool.
Did that and still doesn't work.
I also tried Midgel's comments, and it also doesn't work.

Comment by windjammer72

As of 12/5/11, this is still bugged. I don't know if it's b/c of release 4.3, but I've tried everything. Nada

Comment by Mykhayla

Do you have to be in some exact spot in the village? I'm not getting credit. The game never takes over control of the drake. I've tried landing near the beastmaster where the drakes in the village are, but that doesn't get me credit. Neither does dismounting anywhere else I've tried. Grrrrr.

Comment by Ballybog

Im not the type of person to quit but after repeated attempts at this quest, going through the instructions repeatedly to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and browsing for advice, Im just gonna let this one go, and maybe try some other time. Not worth getting angry over.

Comment by LameCooter

Just keep trying every once in a while. I quit trying for a day or so, tried it on a whim, and it worked. Go figure

Comment by Jaydeetoo

Question... after releasing three dragons for these biiig blue girls, as if you wouldn't keep one for yourself...!

Comment by Juranda

Midgel's notes listed below are correct, follow them TO THE LETTER and it works. Get 3 prisoners per drake and repeat 3 times.

Comment by 880199

As noted, Midgel's instructions worked for me. I found that you don't have to get a full load of 3 rescued prisoners on each flight to complete the quest. On the third flight my drake was getting low on health so I flew back with only 2 prisoners. I was able to go back and get a 4th drake to pick up the last prisoner needed (9th of 9) and still completed the quest.

So follow Midgel's instructions and if you have to, come back for a fourth drake to finish up the total prisoners.

Comment by 310964

If you logout while on the quest, there's a chance that it can bug (as well as some of the other quests in the area); you appear as a frost vrykul, however the mobs will appear hostile towards you. Easy to fix, just fly out of the area so you transform back into your original form, and then fly back in. It should work.

Comment by 820214

Something to look at is I highly suggest not taking on of the drakes at the beginning of the village. I jumped on one and it started auto flying back to the village...... so I got two more and the limit of each drake is 3 frozen prisoners and you can't even get on a 4th drake. Aka I need to completely redo the quest cause I grabbed one at the front of the village. April 9th 2012

Comment by MsPhelix

Let me add one thing for those of us who are a little slow -
to "liberate" a drake, fly up to one of the chained drakes, land on or in him and use the green u-turn mounting arrow we all know and love and you're riding him, he's free, and you're steering him.

Comment by Suuckamedrya

For anyone who might have been having the same problem as me, which had me basically pulling out my hair, you have to fly out the back of the area for the drake to autofly, I kept going out the front and getting dropped/killed and about dropped the quest altogether, if you aren't sure which side is the back, try flying on your mount, fly from the village to the place then back, if you drop the disguise at anytime, you are going the wrong way, find a path that keeps you in disguise at all times. If you leave out the wrong side on the cave you will lose your disguise within seconds, and if you were on the drake that means you'd be getting dropped.

Goodluck, try not to rip out all your hair doing this quest!

Comment by BrightBrown

Here's the deal... fly to the drake highest in the area... fly right "into" him. When you get the green upside down "U", click to jump on him. Hit space to gain some altitude. Fly towards a ice bound toon, make sure to select HIM and not just the ice block. Hit #1, soon as he is traveling up to you, spacebar to gain altitude. Repeat 2 more times. Going up and down allowed me to avoid all of the tossed frost.

"front" and "'back" are useless descriptions... best to head west, that's the way you want to go.

Keep in mind that your "health" is that of the drake, and it's way, way, way less than what you have!

FYI, after you play out the whole quest chain, all the mobs here turn green... and are where a number of dailies eventually get unlocked.

Comment by emmsnake

Does anyone know how to get your disguise back? I was rescuing the proto drakes and captives, brought back one group, and then my disguise was gone. I went back to talk with the crone, and she has no options. Also, i had bought commendations to get my rep with Sons of Hodir up to friendly before starting quest chain. I don't know if that will affect anything.

Comment by 987243

When I mount the drake it does not want to move anywhere. Am I doing something wrong?

Comment by 945326

In case you were wondering why 3 drakes and 9 prisoners, each proto-drake can rescue three prisoners at a time: one in each of the back feet and one behind you.

Unless you just hover forever, the giant's clubs aren't going to do enough damage to really matter. Just fly over the prisoners in their ice blocks, target one, fly close enough that your "1" key lights up, press it to pull the prisoner to you, and repeat that two more times.

Then head back to where you got the quest. As soon as you reach the gate, the drake will fly home by itself.

Rinse and repeat twice more. 3 drakes, 9 prisoners.

Comment by Bratamoli

{at the very top of this page}

...then free 3 Captured Proto-Drakes and rescue 9 Brunnhildar Prisoners.

Rescued Brunnhildar Prisoners (3)
Freed Proto-Drakes (9)

C'mon WowHead. Work with us here. ;-p

Edited for helpfulness:
"The sentence is correct, the details are backwards."
You'll need to free 1 Freed Proto-Drake and use it to free 3 Brunnhildar Prisoners (all while avoiding giant-thrown ice-things), fly back to Brunnhildar Village, and repeat. Also, the quest tracker won't update until you get back to the village.

Comment by 1057704

Step 1 - Fly beside dragon on chain with your mount, right click it to hop on
Step 2 - Keep moving to not get hit by axes, select a prisoner in a blue ice block and press 1
Step 3 - Do this two more times, all 3 prisoners will be on your dragon
Step 4 - Go out the west door low to the ground, the game will take over and drop you off at the village
Step 5 - Repeat till you have saved 9 prisoners and 3 dragons

Comment by yarko

Quest is acting up as of 12/1/2012. As soon as I jump on a protodrake from my flying mount, I can fly the protodrake around, but I am unable to go up and down using the mouse. I finally figured out that I had to use the spacebar to fly up for a moment in order to get the thing to fly properly.

Comment by 1059720

I was having the issue where I couldn't fly down, but I figured out a solution. Press the space bar to fly up, and then you will be able to fly down.

Comment by r3fund

If you're having issues with moving vertically, try using the spacebar once, then "x" should work.

Comment by Mooncrest

You have to fly up on the drakes before you can fly down. A little bugged, but doable.

Comment by SockConfetti

If you're like me, then you use the x key to fly downwards. This will not work until you fly upwards first. I was wondering why I couldn't fly downwards, and it was very frustrating. Just a heads-up. Up then down!

Comment by Thebe2

what made this initially difficult, was I couldn't control the drake descending when I jumped on. Hit the Num Lock for Auto and then spacebar to fly up. Then you can fly with normal flying controls. When you fly back out above the entrance arch between the slanted crystals, drake auto flies back to village and drops off prisoners.

Comment by Reddervish

I found this quest difficult and was killed several times before I read this thread.

If your flying drake takes any damage it will die quickly, so get out to the west fast if you're health begins to fall.

One does not need to pick up 3 riders each trip. I suggest that the first flight one may want to only pick up one rider then get out so you can see how the quest works and the controls work.

The comments about normal flying controls not working until one uses the space bar to rise, is still true. This is not an automated dragon, you have to fly it.

After being killed trying to figure out how this quest works, I did return to Dalran and did a few quests, then came back. The Brunnhildar costume automatically returned upon entering the zone.

Comment by ecartman

My problem was I wasn't targeting the prisoner, once I did this it went easier

Comment by MsPhelix

Just to put everything in one place:
Fly up to/into a Proto-Drake and mount him with the normal Mount Vehicle green arrow.
Some comments say there is a problem with controlling the Drake at first and to rise up until you get control. I didn't have this problem but he did seem slow.
Target the Prisoner in the Ice Block, not the Ice Block, and press the 1 key to pick them up.
Immediately move, up, away, where-ever to avoid the clubs? the Sons of Hodir are throwing at you.
You can pick up 3 Prisoners with 1 Drake but apparently you can get more than 3 Drakes if you free 3 without getting 9 Prisoners (according to a comment - I didn't test it).
Once you're ready to return each Drake Be Sure you GO THE RIGHT DIRECTION back to Brunnhildar Village - if you go the wrong way you will be dropped and die :( Open your map and be sure of you direction.
Once you're headed the right direction and are a little ways from Dun Neffelem the Drake will "SENSE FREEDOM" and auto-fly you to the Village and drop you and the Prisoners.
That's when you'll get credit.

Comment by Zoiphy

as a fun little note, because the prisoners automatically jump to your drake now, if you fly away from them as soon as you cast the spell to release them, they do the most amazing jump across the entire valley to get to you.

Comment by Greshkharm

Make sure that when completing this quest you have, as they say- "two in the feet, one in the seat" ;).

Comment by Nomadwow

Make sure you're in the right area. Dun Niffelem 63.2;62.8.

Mount the proto drakes there ! (Coordinations seemed to miss in all the comments)

Comment by 9076

Why must we do this 3 times? Takes long enough doing it once. That's a silly question. This is WoW. But still, once is enough.

Comment by Pops715

I've done this quest many times with many toons (both Alliance AND Horde) and it's always been a fun and easy one to do. But now it appears to be a bit buggy.

When trying to pick up prisoners, no matter where you position yourself, the game tells you that "the subject needs to be in front of you". Even if the subject IS right in front of you, it says this. It's never done this before, so I'm guessing it's now bugged.

Comment by WoWGnGP

I made i playthrough of this quest if anyone wish to see how to do it :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y25EOTX0M-Q&feature=youtu.be

Comment by Boxofbeer

Cold Hearted http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahxXhW5YDgI

Comment by Volleynova

It's quests like this that make me detest the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack more than I already do. This expansion is weaker than Cataclysm and Warlords of Draenor, except that very first time you played through in 2008 when you were on your way to Arthas.

Today it's stale, boring, and the most un-atmospheric version of World of Warcraft I've seen. It has nothing on Classic World of Warcraft or The Burning Crusade.

Comment by mosstone

If you're like me you accidentally murdered dozens of prisoners, between not realizing that the giants are throwing things at you, going the wrong way, dismounting after going the right way to see if you really have to go all the way back to the village (you do) and overestimating the number of prisoners that can fit on the drakes back.

Comment by Maizey

The instructions here are great, but I felt pretty stupid because I kept dying trying to complete this quest. I was missing something in my approach.

TIPS:
Click prisoners while you are high up. Dive down and avoid the axes while spamming the 1 key until you are in range and it fires. Fly back up in an evasive way (gentle zig zags) to avoid the axes and target another prisoner. Don't wait for the prisoner; she'll leap to you.

DETAILS:
Once you mount the dragon and can fly it, while you are still pretty high up, click a prisoner who is within the ice. (When I did it, I could see the prisoner's name text turn green because she was selected.)

Then begin to dive toward the prisoner in a gentle zig zag to avoid the flying axes, while watching the "1" on your control menu. It will be red until you get close enough. (I spammed the 1 while diving and zig zagging, and before long I got the hang of it and could be more controlled and just watch the 1 until I was in range.)

The prisoner will hop on the dragon even if you are flying away. Only in two cases did the prisoner run instead of jump on the dragon, but that did happen. I was fine with the average because I wasn't dying.

In my case, I was failing to target the prisoner while I was still at a distance. You are not exactly safe up high, either. The axes were flying immediately, but there were a few seconds to target and then evade the axes.

Comment by 1472845

No one else seems to have mentioned a rather obvious way to make the process of this quest easier (once you've finally figured it out): kill as many Hodir in a short span of time - before they respawn - as possible, and then mount a proto-drake and rescue a batch of prisoners. There will be far fewer axes to dodge if there's fewer Hodir to throw them.

Comment by Agatho

So you can get 3 prisoners with you on each flight, I can't believe I almost made 9 trips xD

Comment by Taraezor

Before you fly back to Brunnhildar Village, make sure you really do have your THREE prisoners. I did a quick SHIFT-V to make the friendly nameplates appear - yup three in the claws of my drake so off I went.

The TLDR for all the previous posts:

Fly up and transfer from your mount to the quest mount. Green arrow provided when you are in range.

As soon as you are mounted, you are under attack.

Quick decisive action from here on.

Zoom down to an icebound prisoner whom you have targeted. As soon as your "1" is available use it. Ensure you are facing your target. As soon as your "1" is cast, zoom away ASAP and rush to the next target.

Do this three times.

Now fly towards Brunnhildar Village.

Fun and easy!

Comment by Nuroto

ypu can pick up more then 1 prisioner when you rescure a person you can pick up a few just need to watch out the hammers the big guy throw dont kills the drake

Comment by allOf

Cold Hearted https://youtu.be/RYeqLhCC9YI

Comment by mayvbalms

After getting a few drakes killed... I remembered the advice given for the Badlands (a mama dragon in a huge flock of whelps): kill and don't loot. In this case - kill the giants near a few prisoners. So that you can fly on a drake, free the prisoners and take them home. Rinse and repeat. %)

Comment by secbro26

Seems like something isn't working right with the quest in 7.3.5. There only ever seems to be 2 frozen NPCs at a time and the respawn rate seems extremely low. Very slow to finish. Can't ever seem to get 3 girls on so it requires more than 3 trips. Not sure what's going on

Comment by BitterBaby

As of 02/18/2018, this quest seems to be bugged. There are no blocks of ice to free the prisoners from.

Comment by qman63

As of 2/25/18 it worked perfectly for me. Enough prisoners to free, no problem, except for all the allied races leveling there were a lot of other people doing it so I only got two prisoners the first time. You can go back a 4th time and pick up more.

Comment by Kaeleane

Of note: If you land too close to the block of ice, it will keep telling you it has to be in front of you, or doesn't fire at the ice. Don't let it waste your time (Those things they throw, hurt!), just make sure you targeted the prisoner itself and back up a little at a time until it fires.

Comment by Crieve

Word of advice: Phasing is your friend. Phase too busy? Use a second account (or a friend) to phase elsewhere. Finished my quest in a minute or two after wasting 30 minutes competing for spawns.

Comment by Ovahealz

If you don't see any prisoners, go to your closest inn and turn off warmode, or on if you have it off.

I had warmode on and couldn't see a single one, waited for a good hour without spawns and I was super annoyed, was about to give up, but I remembered this happened on another area too, so I went and turned warmode off and BAM! there they were. Done in less than 5 minutes.

Comment by latuman

Still very buggy. First the prisoners just ran away and never got picked on. Then flying out the automatic flying home didn't activate until I was in the village.

Comment by Zerukai

Are you doing this during WotLK timewalking and having no luck because there's 10 other people camping spawns?
There's a quick and easy solution, you just need a friend or guildie or whatever.

1. Group up with a lower level friend, level shouldn't really matter, you just need to be able to party sync. Idk if that works at level 60.
2. Hop onto one of the proto drakes
3. Have you friend (party leader) enable party sync
4. Grab 3 guys because now you've phased and there's a ton of them left for you to grab (For some reason this disabled flying for me, may or may not for you)
5. Leave the area, on the way back while the proto drake is auto-flying, tell your friend to disable party sync again
6. Wait for it to land and then you should get quest credit
7. Repeat steps 2 - 6 two more times.

Comment by Maklemon

If you want to finish this quest in 5 minutes turn WM ON. All the prisoners are frozen solid for you to free them. Dont have to compete with other players and wait forever for them to respawn. You're welcome.

Comment by Strein4321

So... as of the Wrath Timewalking event, in Dun Niffelem for this quest, only one prisoner spawns every 4-5 minutes. Kind of lackluster and pointless. AND frustrating if there's a ton of people competing to complete this quest

Comment by Askriz

If you have troubles waiting for them to respawn, because for example you are in a big party, turn the prisoners in. The ones you've picked block new ones from spawning. Once we've turned in our prisoners, new ones appeared within 2min.

Comment by Averuuh

Not doable without a mount when questing solo. Me and my husband solved it by leaving him (without a mount) in the village, and me (with a fast mount) doing the quest. When I dropped the prisoners off in the village he got quest progress too.

Comment by tubedogg

During timewalking, I found that it was very glitchy about showing how many freed prisoners were aboard the drake. It would always show the one seated behind you, and then the second one you grabbed (hanging from a talon), but as soon as you grabbed a third, the second disappeared and the third went to the other talon. Grabbing a fourth repeated this process.

I spent some time trying to get all three before flying back just to see what happened, and it turned in three prisoners even though I could only see two.

Comment by Majeo

As of patch 10.2.5 I believe there is a bug when you try to mount the drake while you are dragon riding your own personal dragon riding mount, about 3/4 way back to the encampment they will become hostile to you. I got credit for the people being saved but you will not get credit for the drake being freed, ensure when you get on them, you are NOT on a dragon riding mount and just a regular flying mount. :)

Comment by drdoomt3

I'm working on loremaster and this quest is extremely glitchy to the point where at any moment the drake will despawn and kill you. It's happened even right after getting ontop of the drake.

Comment by Guadah

I was unable to mount a dragon while using Dynamic Flight. I had to convert to OP Flying and it let me on just fine.

Comment by Retidurc

Trying to mount a protodrake while dragonriding disconect you alsmost all the time. Switching to classic flying seems to fix the issue

Links

Cold Hearted

Free 3 Captured Proto-Drakes and rescue 9 Brunnhildar Prisoners.

	Rescued Brunnhildar Prisoners (9)
	Freed Proto-Drakes (3)

Description

To be slain honorably on the field of battle brings us all glory. To be frozen in a block of ice and endlessly taunted does not....

You are to fly to the frost giant city of Dun Niffelem, just east of the Valley of Ancient Winters, and liberate our captive proto-drakes. With them, you will be able to free our sisters from their frozen bonds and carry them safely home.

Beware the giants' clubs, sister, lest you find yourself numbered among the captives.

Progress

Completion

Rewards

You will receive:

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(12856))