A Ride to Blackrock Depths

Vamiko Vesperwind

30 May 2026 • 7 min read

I bumped into this dwarf in Silvermoon who I honestly can’t remember their name already, but he said he was the son of a blacksmith who created a fancy chandelier for the old “Emperor” of the Dark Iron Dwarves or something. Said it was worth A LOT. His words. He also paid me half up front, which should cover my expenses to ride down to the mountain, and with all my recent expenses, I could use the gold.

I don’t really know where I’m going aside from what the dwarf told me, which was this:

“Ride straight south till the air turns to ash and the ground turns to bubbling lava. Once you're sweating through your armor, look up. It's the biggest, grandest mountain in the whole blasted region, complete with a couple of massive, ugly dwarf mugs carved right into the stone doors. Keep yer eyes open, and watch yer step!”

I’m paraphrasing, but he said something like that. I do have a map he gave me too, which seemed to have all kinds of stains on it. Hopefully, no really important details are hidden under those stains.

I packed up my stuff, fed and watered Xol, and took off. (Xol, you’ll come to know, is my demon companion who happens to let me ride him)

The ride out of Quel'Thalas was as pleasant as ever. It’s always given me the “I never want to leave” vibes. This time was no different.

Now, I know I’m in for quite a ride, given that I do not know the land at all. For those of you who don’t know me, I grew up on a giant wandering turtle and aside from being around society during the 3rd invasion of the Legion and the fall of Sargeras, I don’t know either of the big continents Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms that great.

Leaving Quel’Thalas though, I was quickly reminded that the rest of the world is not as pleasant as the forests of the sin’dorei.

I didn’t get any warnings about endless zombies, walking skeletons, and all manner of monstrosities waiting for me at the door. Look at this place!

It’s somewhat comforting to know that even the undead need to set up camp.

This guy looked friendly, but I didn’t get close enough to have a conversation.

I don’t even know what that is and didn’t stick around long to find out.

Something told me to avoid going through this area. I ended up swimming through a lake to the east to get around it.

A bit later, I bumped into a few travelers that weren’t dead or monsters. I made them some ginger tea and they gave me some fresh water for Xol. They also gave me some additional, let’s say slightly more competent, directions, but not really.

“Just stay on the main road and keep going south, even if the road veers, you need to head south…”

Not long after I left the travelers, things started to look a little cozier. Farmland and the sky wasn’t a terrifying reddish orange anymore.

But, looks can be deceiving. It wasn’t long before I was seeing more ghosts, goblins, and other really scary things.

Gotta wonder who designs these cauldrons to be so scary.

Later down the road I started to see more and more Forsaken buildings and outposts. From what I know, the Undercity was in the ruins of Lordaeron before it got trashed by the Alliance a few years back. I missed that conflict. I wasn’t having anything to do with two warring factions duking it out.

After the fall of Sargeras, I went back to the Wandering Isle and eventually Pandaria. But, that’s a story for another time!

This was as close as I was getting to this place. Spooky central.

You might be thinking this farm looks alright, yeah?

Can’t help but wonder who these people were.

I gotta hand it to the Forsaken, they sure do know how to look scary and intimidating. Just look at all those aggressive spikey pokey edges. Probably rusty too. This lead to Tirisfal Glades, and what remains of the Undercity.

Even in a scary place like this, no one usually messes with Xol when they see us coming. He keeps me from having to fight more often. It was starting to get late by the time we arrived here, and knew we’d need to find shelter in a few hours. Of course, this place looks like it’s already night time, but it was only about 3-4 in the afternoon.

There was this green fog everywhere that smelled pretty bad. The smell was like if a corpse and a ghost had a baby. Cold and stinky. Must have been some fight though, the place is all tore up. I know there used to be a town over here, but can’t tell if it’s shredded back there or if anyone still lives there. And, I didn’t have time to really go messing around with that big of a risk.

Just south of there a bit was a full garrison (is that the right word?) of Forsaken. Not sure how they’ve been fairing after the loss of the banshee lady, but they still seem pretty active.

This guy almost ran Xol and me right off the road. I tried to say hello but I don’t think he heard me. They heard me?

We had ridden a long way today and Xol really needed to rest. Luckily, we were at a pretty good stopping point for the day right outside this Forsaken town, Sepulcher.

I stabled Xol and decided to take a peaceful stroll through the town.

These guys told me the Inn was in that scary building. I asked if they were scared to sleep in there. They just looked at me with blank stares.

The inn keeper said he didn’t see too many blood elves come through here. I didn’t correct him and asked about where I could sleep for the night. He pointed to the coffins behind him. I told him I had a bad back from sleeping on the shell of a turtle for many years.

He told me there’s a bed in the building across from the inn.

It probably took me a good hour to fall asleep. Yes, there were spider webs above my head. I really, really, tried not to think about that. It was really quiet too, aside from the clicking of bones which I assumed was one of the local’s bad knees.

When I woke up, it still looked like night outside but I wasn’t tired anymore. This place is totally disorienting. Now I know how Star must have felt living in Suramar for countless years, no real change in the day/night cycle.

I did like this candle display quite a bit. It probably helped me fall asleep.

Not far up the road, there was another Forsaken camp and a large wall, with what looked like a smashed gate. Maybe this is that Gilnean place “Trouble” mentioned when we met a few weeks ago. I heard it had a huge gate and collapsed with the cataclysm and Deathwing’s return. (Continued in part 2)