Recently, I decided to run my Death Knight Gnome, Riglee, through Deadmines. It had changed a lot since I first went through that dungeon in 2010. I decided to see if I had, by chance, taken any screenshots of what the old Deadmines was like.
I have a tendency to take a ton of screenshots while I’m playing a video game. This leads to folders full of screenshots that I mean to put into a blog. I guess I am a “digital hoarder”, because I have kept lots of them, just in case I need them someday.
As such, I was able to find some screenshots that show a little bit of what Deadmines looked like in 2010. Most of the screenshots you see in this blog were taken on August 20, 2010. A few were taken on August 30, 2010.
For whatever reason, the only screenshots I found were from the last part of Deadmines, by the big boat. You can see some slain pirates, and behind them, more pirates that I hadn’t gotten to yet. This section of Deadmines was (and still is) called Ironclad Cove.
There stands Zoeie, my Draenai Shaman. She was my main character for a long time. Today, I tend to switch off from one character to another a lot more often than I used to in 2010.
The pirate on the ground is a Defias Pirate. Above him flies a parrot named Defias Companion. The parrot’s “guild” is Defias Pirate’s Pet. I remember at the time thinking it was strange that the pirates had pet parrots that had been identified as “companions”. I’m pretty sure I ended up killing a couple of parrots because they got in the way while I was fighting pirates.
Zoeie has three totems out. She is fighting Mr. Smite, the Ship’s First Mate (who is obviously a Tauren).
Mr. Smite no longer appears in the Deadmines. Today, you end up fighting Admiral Ripsnarl. Slay him, and you discover he has Smite’s Reaver (the giant weapon that you see Mr. Smite holding in the above screenshot.)
I’m trying to figure out how, exactly, that works. My character, Zoeie, kills Mr. Smite in 2010. She obtains his weapon, Smite’s Reaver. She’s a Shaman, so she wouldn’t consider this type of weapon to be incredibly attractive. She probably sold it to a vendor.
Years later, in 2014, my Death Knight, Riglee, works her way through Deadmines, and kills Admiral Ripsnarl, who just so happens to be holding Smite’s Reaver. My best guess is that somehow, by random happenstance, he was next in line behind Zoeie when she was selling that weapon to a vendor. The vendor must have sold it to Admiral Ripsnarl. Sure. Why not?
Here’s a screenshot of the ramp that Zoeie had to go up after defeating Mr. Smite.
Cookie, the Ship’s Cook, was a part of the Deadmines dungeon in 2010. He’s the next “big bad” after Mr. Smite.
It appears that I thought this boat looked really cool back in 2010. Here’s another view of it.
After getting onto the boat, I noticed something odd in the wall of the cove. There was a cave! I had absolutely no way to get there, though. None of the mounts I had were flying mounts. The Deadmines dungeon was (and is) located in Westfall, which is in the Eastern Kingdoms. You couldn’t fly in Eastern Kingdoms until after the Cataclysm expansion was released (in December 2010). That little cave was left unexplored.
None may challenge The Brotherhood!
The “BIG big bad” of the Deadmines in 2010 was Edwin VanCleef. He was hiding in darkness in the hut at the top of the boat. There was a quest that I was working on called “The Defias Brotherhood”. It required me to kill Edwin VanCleef and bring his head to… someone.
As you can see, the bottom of that screenshot shows that Zoeie has earned the Achievement called “Deadmines”. In 2010, it showed an image of Edwin VanCleef. It simply says “Achievement Earned” and “Deadmines”.
Today, the same Achievement looks quite different. It now shows an (updated) image of Cookie. It still says “Deadmines”, but the text “Defeat ‘Captain’ Cookie.” has been added.
Anyway, after you kill Edwin VanCleef, you fight his allies. One of them is named Defias Blackguard “Edwin VanCleef’s Guardian”.
I found one more screenshot that relates to the Deadmines in 2010. The quest that Zoeie was working on required her to kill Edwin VanCleef, and bring his head to Gryan Stoutmantle. He’s not in Deadmines. You had to travel from Deadmines to Sentinel Tower in order to turn in the head, and complete “The Defias Brotherhood” quest.
Gryan Stoutmantle: Three cheers for Zoeie! This land shall be ours once again.