Scepter of the Shifting Sands and Scarab Lord Guide in WoW Classic

While the Scepter of the Shifting Sands and associated Ahn'Qiraj opening event has not reached Season of Discovery yet, we will post here about any upcoming changes as they are released.

If you are up for the challenge, we have put together a full overview of the questline below.

We have split the guide into mini-chains of quests, despite everything belonging to the same extremely long chain.

1. What Tomorrow Brings — The chain starts with Baristolth of the Shifting Sands, at Cenarion Hold in Silithus and introduces us to the Brood of Nozdormu faction for the first time. You will need to check if Anachronos is outside the entrance of the Caverns of Time in Tanaris.
2. Only One May Rise — After confirming Anachronos has returned, you will need to kill Broodlord Lashlayer in Blackwing Lair and bring back his head.
3. The Path of the Righteous — Collect 200 Silithid Carapace Fragments from the Hive'Ashi, Hive'Zora and Hive'Regal Silithids swarming in Silithus to prove your worth to the Brood of Nozdormu.
   • The Hand of the Righteous — After you complete the main quest, you will unlock this repeatable version which grants reputation. Each time this quest gets completed we will also be awarded with Proxy of Nozdormu, an item that can be used on other players, so they will also be able to loot Silithid Carapace Fragments. Note that these drops do NOT become soulbound, and can be traded, bought, and sold at the Auction House.
4. Anachronos — Once we reach Neutral standing with the Brood of Nozdormu, Baristolth of the Shifting Sands will send us to speak with Anachronos.
5. Long Forgotten Memories — Anachronos will send you to interact with the Crystalline Red Tear in front of the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj in Silithus.
6. A Pawn on the Eternal Board — Watch the vision and then return to Anachronos.
7. The Charge of the Dragonflights — this quest reveals the next steps of the questline, which require you to find 3 shards held by the other dragonflights around Azeroth.

The next stages of the questline are split into three, one for each of the shards you have to acquire. The shards take different amounts of time to collect, with the Blue Shard taking the longest and the Red Shard taking the shortest amount of time.

To start this set of quests, we need to interact with Azuregos, who can be found in Azshara. If he has been killed, you can instead speak to Spirit of Azuregos in the same place.

1. Azuregos's Magical Ledger — Bring the Magical Ledger to Narain Soothfancy in Tanaris.
2. Translating the Ledger — Bring Narain the following three items: Narain's Scrying Goggles, a 500 Pound Chicken, and Draconic For Dummies: Volume II.

The three items that you have to obtain can be found in any order, but you will need to find all three to obtain the Shard. You can choose where to start from the sections below.

For the Narain's Scrying Goggles, the questline is as follows:

1. Stewvul, Ex-B.F.F. — You will need to find tewvul in Silverpine Forest, next to Greymane Wall (46, 86).
2. Scrying Goggles? No Problem! — You will need to go into Molten Core and kill trash mobs to find the Scrying Goggles, then return them to Narain.

For the 500 Pound Chicken, the questline is as follows:

1. Never Ask Me About My Business — Speak to Dirge Quikcleave at the Gadgetzan Inn in Tanaris.
2. The Isle of Dread! — Head to the Isle of Dread in Feralas and kill the Chimaeroks there to obtain 20 Chimaerok Tenderloins. You will also need to kill Lord Lakmaeran for his carcass, which will require at least 10 Level 60 players.
3. Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops — Bring Dirge Quikcleave 20x Goblin Rocket Fuel and 20x Deeprock Salt.
   • Goblin Rocket Fuel can be made by Alchemy and needs 1 Firebloom, 1 Volatile Rum and 1 Crystal Vial each.
   • Deeprock Salt can be farmed from Obsidian Elementals and similar mobs in Burning Steppes.
4. Return to Narain — Return to Narain with the 500 Pound Chicken.

For the Draconic For Dummies: Volume II, the questline is as follows:

1. Draconic for Dummies — Head to the islands south of Tanaris, that are outside of the fatigue zone, to find the freshly dug dirt pile. In order to do this, you will need one of two things:
   • Complete the Love Song for Narain quest, which is started by speaking to Meridith the Mermaiden south of Tanaris. She will give you a swim speed buff if you deliver her letter to Narain.
   • Use an Elixir of Water Walking or similar effect with a mount to beat the fatigue damage.
2. rAnS0m — Bring the ransom note to Narain.
3. Decoy! — Head to Winterspring (70, 73) and use the disguise and decoy bag of gold in Narain's Special Kit to spawn Number Two. Kill him (a group makes this much easier) and return to Narain.
4. The Only Prescription — Collect the 8 chapters of the destroyed book and combine them with the Magical Book Binding.
   1. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 1) — Drops from Doctor Weavil on Alcaz Island in Dustwallow Marsh (77, 17). Bring a group of 15-20 players and make sure to be wary of his mind control. Note that he also drops Diary of Weavil.
   2. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 2) — Drops from Felguard Elites, Doomguards, and Dreadlords at the Tainted Scar in Blasted Lands. It has a low drop rate, so it would be more efficient to bring a group to farm this part.
   3. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 3) — Drops from Hederine Initiates and Hederine Slayers at Darkwhisper Gorge in Winterspring. It has a slightly higher drop rate than Chapter 2, 6%, but they are easier to farm, so a 1-2 player group would be enough.
   4. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 4) — This is found on a table in the Magic Quarter of Undercity (77,38). Alliance players should either do this with stealth or during a city raid.
   5. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 5) — This is found inside the first room on the left of Stormwind Keep, the Library, in Stormwind City. Horde players should either do this with stealth or during a city raid.
   6. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 6) — This drops from Onyxia.
   7. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 7) — This can be found inside Blackwing Lair, in the room after Broodlord Lashlayer, where Firemaw is patrolling. It is on a table along the ramp, to left of the trash pack which contains a Wyrmguard and 3 Overseers.
   8. Draconic for Dummies (Chapter 8) — This drops from Ragnaros. You will need to kill him within 2 hours of entering the raid to get the chapter to drop.
5. The Good News and The Bad News — Collect 20 Arcanite Bars, 10 Blue Sapphires, 10 Azerothian Diamonds, and 10 Elementium Ores and bring them to Narain.
6. The Wrath of Neptulon — Take the Arcanite Buoy Narain made for you and head to the Bay of Storms in Azshara (65, 55), where you will find a wreckage. Use the buoy to summon Maws and kill him for the Blue Scepter Shard.
   • You will need 15-20 people to kill Maws.
   • Hunters are very useful for dispelling the enrage it will cast.

Once Maws is dead, you will need to return to Anachronos to hand in the final quest and complete this section of the questline.

He will offer you two rewards, Band of Icy Depths and Darkwater Robes; the ring will allow you to breathe underwater while equipped and the robes will increase your Frost spell and effect damage.

The Red Shard has the shortest questline by far, being composed of only 1 quest, but note that the quest is timed. You will need to head to Vaelastrasz the Corrupt in Blackwing Lair and pick up Nefarius's Corruption.

To complete this quest, you will need to kill Nefarian within 5 hours of Vaelastrasz becoming hostile. If you fail to do so, you will loot From the Desk of Lord Victor Nefarius instead of the shard.

You can pause the timer if everyone leaves the instance, but if there is a single player still inside, the timer will continue.

Once you have killed Nefarian, head back to Anachronos and receive your reward of either Onyx Embedded Leggings or Amulet of Shadow Shielding.

The questline for the Green Scepter is in the middle of the three in terms of length. Head into Sunken Temple and clear to the room with Shade of Eranikus to start this chain. Malfurion in this room will appear and give you the first quest.

1. Eranikus, Tyrant of the Dream — Travel to Teldrassil and find the Forest Wisp in front of Darnassus (37, 47).
2. Tyrande and Remulos — Head to Moonglade and speak with Keeper Remulos.
3. The Nightmare's Corruption — Retrieve a Fragment from each of the portals to the Emerald Dream around Azeroth. You can do this by killing Dragonkin around the portals in each of the following locations:
   • Ashenvale — Fragment of the Nightmare's Corruption
   • Duskwood Fragment of the Nightmare's Corruption
   • Feralas Fragment of the Nightmare's Corruption
   • Hinterlands Fragment of the Nightmare's Corruption
4. The Nightmare Manifests — After you bring the shards to Remulos, you will need to defend Nighthaven. Note that you cannot kill Eranikus, let Remulos die, and you must wait for Tyrande. You will need a full raid to complete this step.

Once you have helped cleanse Eranikus and Tyrande has announced his redemption, you can turn in the quest to Remulos, who will give you one of two rewards: Drake Tooth Necklace or Drudge Boots.

To finish off this chain of the quest, you will need to take the Shard you just obtained to Anachronos.

Once you manage to get all three of the shards, Anachronos will only grant you the Scepter once "we" are prepared. In order to become prepared, we will need to finish gathering supplies for the War Effort and the final assault on C'Thun.

The War Effort is a server-wide effort that every player on a realm can contribute to. It is only available once a guild has managed to reach this stage and started the progression through the War Effort. Any player can then contribute materials to the effort to further its completion.

Once the supplies have been collected, a 7-day timer will start while NPCs move to Silithus. When this timer starts, players that are eligible to receive a Scepter will be given one, but they can only ring the gong to open the gates once the timer is done.

The ringing of the gong signals the beginning of a 10 hour war upon the opening of the gates. Once this is finished, players can finally finish their quest chain and enter AQ20 and AQ40.

If you want to help collect materials for the War Effort or use it as an opportunity to make some gold by stocking up, you can see full lists of the required materials on our dedicated page below.

To finish this questline and obtain your Scarab Lord title and mount, you will need to wait for the 7-day timer to finish. After this, you will be able to pick up the Bang a Gong!, just outside the entrance to Ahn'Qiraj in Silithus (25, 90).

As soon as the first person picks up this quest, a 10-hour server wide timer will start. Any player with The Scepter of the Shifting Sands can ring the gong in this period and also receive the Scarab Lord title and mount. As soon as this 10-hour period is over, the rewards will never be obtainable again on that server.

When the first person rings the gong and the gates open, a server-wide announcement will be made, which signal the start of the timer.

After you have completed this step, you can hand in the final step of this entire chain, Treasure of the Timeless One, which simply requires you to talk to Jonathan the Revelator next to the gong.

He will give you a choice of the following rewards: Fang of Korialstrasz, Ravencrest's Legacy, Runesword of the Red, and Shadowsong's Sorrow.