Sully Balloo is Dead at the Thandol Span, Foggy MacKreel has Moonshine to Deliver - 2008-04-08 17:10:39
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This is a
really out of the way quest - unless you knew ahead of time to dive underwater and look for a corpse that's trapped under one of the many wrecked catapults - then you'd never find the letter in his hand that starts the quest. But it's a quest that's worth doing for the contents of the letter - and another Blizzard trip into popular culture. (Quest requires level
25 or
26, depending on which site you believe.)
To get to Sully's corpse: travel in the
Wetlands to the north until you get to the bridge called the Thandol Span. (Or get there from Southshore - depending on your level and whether you'll be walking or not.) Most amusing way to get down into the water - jump off the bridge! Of course, that could kill you, but it's probably the most fun. The safer way is to cross the bridge, then take a rope bridge you'll see on your right.There's a mob of level 31-32 Dark Iron dwarves here, but you can run past them and if you keep running eventually they will stop chasing you. Hopefully.
Sully's body will be under water between the two main pillars of the bridge, at
coordinates: 44, 93 on the
Arathi Highlands map. (Be sure you check coordinates on Arathi Highlands map and not the Wetlands map.) Look for the corpse of a dwarf under a catapult, and scroll all around the area in order to find the right area to click - the letter is in his
hand. Note how in the screenshot you can't even see the letter - this was prior to the patch that caused quest items to sparkle, so it may be easier to find now.
Having a lock or shaman friend give you a water breathing buff is a lot of help for this part, as you won't have to rush as much. Water breathing potions are another alternative. Getting out of the water and back onto the land can be tricky as there are steep cliffs along the water. So for the easiest exit out of the water be sure to swim east of the bridge and look for a ramp on the left side. However this is also a great time to hearth out, especially if you don't have a mount yet and want to save time.
The letter will give you the quest
Sully Balloo's Letter.
Be sure to read all of the letter that he has in his hand - it's very long. (Get to the surface and breathe first, of course!) It's addressed to his wife, and in parts is actually very moving. This is due to the fact that it's adapted from an actual letter from
Sullivan Ballou - you can read more about the letter
here on the PBS Civil War site, or read
Ballou's Wikipedia page for the full text. He wrote it to his wife a week before he died in the battle of Bull Run. I'd heard it before thanks to the Ken Burns epic documentary
The Civil War - it's very memorable.
Via Wow Wiki here's the text of the letter as it can be read in game. Only a few references are changed from the original Ballou letter, in order to set it within the realm of Azeroth.
Dun Modr of the Wetlands
My Dear Sara,
The indications are very strong that we shall move to take watch over the Thandol Span in a few days. Lest I shall not be able to write to you again. I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.
Our assignment may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure, and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for the Alliance, I am ready.
I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not halt or falter.
I know how strongly the Kingdom of Ironforge leans on the triumph of the Alliance, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Great Wars, and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this Alliance and to pay that debt.
Sara, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me in mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break and my love of Kingdom comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.
The memories of all the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me and I feel most deeply grateful to the Light and you that I have enjoyed them so long and how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years when we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable dwarfhood around us.
I know I have but few and small claims upon Divine Providence but something whispers to me - perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar - that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sara never forget how much I love you and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield I shall whisper your name.
Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you, how thoughtless, how foolish I have often times been.
How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness and struggle with all the misfortunes of this world to shield you and my dear children from harm.
But I cannot.
I must watch you from the twisting nether and hover near you while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.
But Oh Sara if the dead can come back to Azeroth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be near you in the gladdest day and in the darkest night amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours always, always and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheeks it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sara, do not mourn me dead, think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.
--Sully
Sully's wife is in the Military Ward in Ironforge. She will read the letter, and will then send you to King Magni Bronzebeard, in the quest
Sara Balloo's Plea.
The king will give you the quest
A King's Tribute, in which he tells you:
"I do not expect good dwarves like Mrs. Balloo to understand why the travesties of war must be endured for the greater good of our people. The loss of her husband, and the loss of every dwarf that fights in the name of the Alliance, weighs heavy on my soul.
While I cannot bring her husband back from the Twisting Nether, I can pay tribute to him.
I am going to commission a memorial to Sully Balloo to be built by Grand Mason Marblesten."
It was wondering who the heck Grand Mason Marblesten was when I bumped into him in Ironforge that got me started on this quest in the first place. Without the many websites and the comments by other folks playing Warcraft I'd never have found Sully's body or this quest series.
The Grand Mason is in one of the buildings in the Commons in Ironforge, on the same side of the lava moat as the Auction House. (Click his name in that sentence for a map.) He'll give you another quest, also called
A King's Tribute. This sends you to Southshore, in search of Alterac Granite. You'll find the cave in the Hillsbrad Foothills, at
coordinates 46, 32, and it's full of yeti (brown yeti level 30-31, not the white ones found elsewhere) that respawn fairly quickly. You don't need to be a miner to collect this ore, but since a patch the ore does apparently show up on the map for miners to track. It now does that characteristic "quest item sparkle" to clue you in that this is the item to gather, and it also respawns fairly quickly.
When you turn the quest in to the Grand Mason back in Ironforge, be sure to wait around and follow him. He'll make the monument while you watch, and then give you the quest
A King's Tribute (you'd think they'd have given it another name at this point). Now you return to the King, and get you experience and reputation, as well as an
Ironforge Memorial Ring. Which reminded me of the Victorian custom of
wearing a ring in memory of someone who died.
Such is the quest chain of Sully Balloo. But let's go back to the Thandol Span. While you were there did you notice a quest out on an area of the bridge that had no access? A quest exclamation mark just luring you toward it, and yet no way to get there? I know that quest from long ago, when I tried like anything to get to it. Here's what I found.
The dwarf's name is
Foggy MacKreel and he's concerned about alcohol. Specifically moonshine that he needs to deliver.
How to get to him - take the span from Westfall, cross it, then turn and take the bridge going back on the other side - you'll quickly find the bridge is broken and you have a wide gap to cross. According to comments on
Wowhead and
Thottbot, if you face south, towards MacKreel, and do a running jump you should be able to make it to the other side.
Swiftness potion is supposed to be a big help here, though several comments say it isn't required.
This screenshot at Wowhead gives you an idea how to make the jump. Shaman's ghost wolf form and druid's cat form are supposed to be of help in making the jump. If you're in a party comments say that the quest can be shared (not sure if that's true though).
I've never actually made it to this npc - it's on my list of
Quests to Go Back and Try Again Later After I Finish Leveling. In other words, I once tried to reach MacKreel on my druid (years ago, in the dark ages), but fell down into the water - and it took me so long to get back to the land and back up to the bridge again that I lost any motivation. It would have helped to have seen
this Wowhead map first - that dot is on the area with the ramp that's the easiest way back up to the bridge. But then, this was in the days before there was so much easily accessible Wow information on the net. So I've always meant to go back. But then it was easy to continually delay going back for this quest after I found out that MacKreel gives you a timed quest, a form of quest that I'm never wild about.
Here's what MacKreel tells you:
"Had quite a bit of the ol' Moonshine last night! Longbraid would have my head if he knew that I passed out during my watch.
The noggin hurts something fierce. Felt as though a whole brigade of siege engines passed overhead, all that rumbling.
Oh my, look at the time! I promised Brewmeister Bilger in Southshore that I'd repay my debt to him by sending some Moonshine.
But there are just 15 minutes left before I'm overdue! Take him this batch, would you please? And hurry!"
So he has no idea that he's trapped out here on the partly destroyed bridge. That's some potent alcohol he's been drinking.
The quest:
MacKreel's Moonshine. You have 15 minutes to get to Southshore, and give the moonshine to Brewmeister Bilger in the cellar of the inn there (go to the kitchen and take the stairs down).
One way to manage this is to go to Southshore first and set your hearthstone there. Another is to swim for Faldir's Cove - you can see it on the
map of Arathi Highlands - and then make your way overland. Or simply swim all the way there - if you're a druid the aquatic form will probably be the quickest way. For shaman ghost wolf makes the jump easier, then water walking to the Cove, or all the way to Southshore, your call. Only near Southshore will you have to worry about running into mobs - and if you stay away from the coast and keep well out in the water you might be able to avoid most of them.
Apparently if you die during the quest but someone resurrects you, the quest won't be marked as failed. Or so say the commenters. Unless of course you take longer than 15 minutes.
Like I said, this is still on my To Do List. Maybe I'll take my druid back over there and give it another try.
Note: do let me know if any of these directions are off or unclear as I'll be visiting the area in the future to grab some further screenshots. Or if you have any alternate strategies you want to suggest.
Oh and one more thing, now that I've reread some of the Wow Database sites and the comments. There's a theory kicking around that the Sully quest and the MacKreel quest are in a way related. Because if you try and make the jump to MacKreel and fail - you end up in the water. And if you swim just the right direction, and look in the right area - boom, you find Sully. It's a theory anyway, and I'm sure that a lot of people end up in the water in the attempt to make it to MacKreel.
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