Despite having lived there for generations, the Taunka at Camp Winterhoof are preparing to abandon their home and leave to go, uh, somewhere. Maybe I missed a bit of quest text, but I'm still not entirely sure why they're leaving or where exactly they're planning to go. As far as Northrend goes, Howling Fjord seems like it's one of the more pleasant regions to live in ... at least, compared to some. I suppose it's possible that they'll be moving down to the rest of Azeroth, now that they're allied with the Horde? Maybe they can set up shop in Blackwing Lair - not like anybody else is using it these days, eh?
I pick up the quests here - collect some ram horns here, deal with renegade ice elementals there, you know the drill. Since I'm in an exploratory mood and I've already gotten the flight path for Winterhoof, I winter-hoof it (insert groaning here) to the Southwest and the Undead town of New Agamand.
As I can tell from the green haze of disease and the piles of potentially-radioactive muck all around the settlement, New Agamand is clearly competing with Disneyworld for the Happiest Place on Earth. Er, Azeroth. Since I've had my fill of these unholier-than-thou Forsaken and can't help but feel a bit skeevy after hanging around them, I move on. More exploring!
Trekking to the West, I reach the Ancient Lift. Unlike the other, non-ancient lifts all around Howling Fjord that make it possible to reach the top of the cliffs without the aid of a climbing pick, a rope and harness, and Tenzing Norgay, the Ancient Lift is more like... well, it's essentially a very long ski lift with wooden cars shaped like Viking - er, Vrykul - longboats. While the very concept seems to sneer in the face of the laws of physics (at least the other lifts in the Fjord have visible counterweights), I didn't complain in Thunder Bluff and I ain't complaining now.
The Ancient Lift ferries players to the outlying islands off the shore of the Fjord, and there I find the Tuskarr village of Kamagua. Like the Sporelings before them, the Tuskarr are this expansion's requisite "bizarre indigenous race who need the assistance of players or else they will face certain doom." Unlike the Sporelings, the Tuskarr are actually sort of useful, with three villages along Northrend's south coastline - not just in Howling Fjord, but also in Dragonblight and Borean Tundra - that not only have a good number of quests for decent loot and XP ... but a transport system. The great sea turtles can take players easily and quickly between the three zones, which is actually pretty damn convenient.
The Tuskarr are also markedly less bizarre than the mushroom ... type-things ... well, whatever the Sporelings were. They're short, stout walrus-folk, and there's something oddly endearing about them ... must be the tusks. Hey, it works for Trolls, right?
At the time, though, I didn't yet know about the Tuskarr Turtle Transportation Technique, which might have saved me a bit of a headache - curious about the Alliance experience in Howling Fjord, I hopped onto my Druid, last parked at the inn in Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra.
