Rethilgore

Rethilgore, called The Cell Keeper, is the first boss of Shadowfang Keep. He is a worgen jailer who guards the prisoners Archmage Arugal's packs have dragged in from the woods of Silverpine Forest. He is a short fight, but killing him is what lets a group free the prisoner who opens the way into the keep.

Background

When the keep fell to the worgen, the lowest cells were turned into a prison. Archmage Arugal gave the keys to Rethilgore, one of the most vicious of his "sons," and trusted him to hold anyone caught sneaking into Shadowfang. During the time of World of Warcraft, two of those prisoners are agents of rival powers: Sorcerer Ashcrombe, sent by the Kirin Tor of Dalaran to check on Arugal, and Deathstalker Adamant, one of the Forsaken's deathstalkers from the Sepulcher in Silverpine.

Rethilgore waits in the first rooms past the entrance, near the cells, with a few of the keep's worgs nearby. He is a level 20 elite, the lowest-level boss in the dungeon.

Abilities

• Soul Drain: Rethilgore pins a player in place and drains health from them, healing himself for the amount drained. The root lasts long enough to matter for casters who were trying to back away.
• Otherwise he fights in melee, with hits of roughly 54 to 62 damage according to Warcraft Wiki's notes on the Classic fight.

Strategy

Rethilgore is a warm-up. Clear the worgs and wolves near him first so they do not join the fight, then tank him where he stands and burn him down. Soul Drain heals him a little, so a group with very low damage will notice it, but most parties at level 20 to 22 kill him in well under a minute.

Once he is dead, talk to the prisoners in the cells. Sorcerer Ashcrombe helps Alliance players and Deathstalker Adamant helps the Horde. Either one walks to the locked door that leads to the courtyard and opens it. Without one of them (or a rogue or another way to force the door), the rest of the keep stays shut.

Loot

Rethilgore's loot table is thin. In our data he always drops a white shoulder piece, and almost never anything better.

Quests

No quest asks for Rethilgore's death, but he stands between players and the prisoners. Deathstalker Adamant is one of the two missing agents in the Horde quest Deathstalkers in Shadowfang, from the Sepulcher in Silverpine. Finding him in the cells counts toward that quest.

Later history

Patch 2.3.0 lowered many of the keep's bosses, and the dungeon was rebuilt with Cataclysm in patch 4.0.3a. Rethilgore was dropped as a separate boss: since then he appears as one of the worgen ghosts that Baron Silverlaine can summon during his fight, with a stronger version of Soul Drain. The original fight came back with World of Warcraft Classic.

Sources

• Rethilgore (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• Rethilgore, Warcraft Wiki
• Shadowfang Keep (Classic), Warcraft Wiki
• WoWDB loot and quest data for patch 1.12