Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by entropicdragon

Unless you have great reflexes, it takes a bit of time to manage to "tap" one of these, so that you can loot it, before the Southshore guards bring them down, but if you do you'll be rewarded with a quest https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/item=3668 !

Comment by 73661

I had these attack my undead mage as I went to finish the Helcular's rod quest. I was freaked out thinking it was a guard that had put me in combat only to have one of these unstealth.

Comment by 19550

Is there anyway to trigger these to spawn, or a set time that they do? I've never seen them when I was high enough to do anything to them, or I was WAY too high, and the quest was gray to me when I did.

Comment by 101406

I just went onto the pier by the inn and one just popped up. the guards killed it but i still got the contract. when i was turning in a quest a few minutes later, 3 lvl 38's appeared out of nowhere and tried to attack me! i am lvl 35.

Comment by Mitchzilla24

I'm not sure whats up with these guys. I turned in a quest inside the inn, and when I got out, I had three of these guys on me! Luckily there were some guards to help me out.

Comment by Thottbot

you mean im the first person with thottbot to get loot from them? got a black silk bag pattern..

Comment by Thottbot

anyone got an idea of where this assassin is hiding, is he part of a quest, placeholder or just a random spawn?

Comment by Thottbot

I was fishing under the dock at Soutshore (where the two boats are) and was attacked by two Shadowy Assassins. Unfortunately, they outleveled me and I got my butt kicked.

Comment by Thottbot

Every time I get attacked by one of these guys, it's in the middle of Southshore and the guards run up, so I don't get to loot him (or her, or them). I wish they'd attack me out in the middle of nowhere so I could at least get something out of it.

Comment by Thottbot

These drop (or can drop) a quest.. it appears they were sent to assassinate the magistrate, and they carry a note, which you can then give to the magistrate for another quest. I am not sure how often they spawn, though.

Comment by Thottbot

These drop (or can drop) a quest.. it appears they were sent to assassinate the magistrate, and they (might) carry a note, which you can then give to the magistrate for another quest. I am not sure how often they spawn, though.

I got the note the first time I killed them, so i am not sure whether the drop percentage is 100% or lower. Of course, finding these guys and getting them before guards jump in is part of the trouble, either way.

Comment by Thottbot

These guys attacked me right after i had handed another quest to the magistrate. It might be easier to get the drop this way since there's no guards that come and kill them.

Comment by Thottbot

I found 6 of them right behind the building the magistrate is in, they are stealthed and stand between these large trees that are behind he main building of southshore.

This is a timed/scripted event, it starts with the Southshore Crier running into Southshore (form Tarren's Mill direction) and yelling: "Help me! Help! Assassins in the Hills! To arms! To arms!"
Then Southshore Guard says: "Go to your posts! Let no invader reach Southshore!" and "Anyone suspicous is to be taken down quickly. Get to your posts as quickly as possible" Even if you miss this part with all the yelling, you can still figure out if the Assassins are about if you just take a look a the guards. While this event is active, almost all guards around Southshore are doubled, so if you see many more than usual guards patrolling, then the assassins are near. They try to sneak into Southshore and some are just waiting around SS.

Comment by Thottbot

I had just hearthed to SouthShore inn. Soon as I leave the door I get attacked by 2 of these. I could have handled myself but guards interfered, no drops.

Edit: Just as I finished typing this comment. 2 more came killed one & he dropped Assassin's Contract.

Comment by Thottbot

wow i really want the dark silk pack pattern but it would be REALLY hard to kill an assassin when im horde o.O...so if anyone finds a location near South Shore where i could get him without being killed by an ally or guard, please tell me :) ty.....btw im lvl 35 so it'll be hard lol

Comment by Thottbot

Leads to this quest which pays 1g.

https://www.wowhead.com/tbc/quest=523/barons-demise

Comment by Thottbot

I've found that one guaranteed way to find these, is if you stand in front of the magistrate's building, aka the Town hall,I always get a "Entering Combat" when standing there.

I figured since the event was supposedly the assassination of the Magistrate, why not wait by him? I never got attacked in the room with him, but in the outer hallway with the Town Historian, I did get jumped several times. Happy hunting these.

Oh as a sidenote, I had turned in one of the table-quests to the magistrate and was in the Inn as the event started. Not sure if it's related.

Also, when I looked at the time, it had just hit 04:00am, still not sure what triggers them.

One last thing I noticed, they seem to spawn every 2 minutes on top of you, in addition to the randomly placed around town once.

Comment by Thottbot

i dont get why u cant get there mask, it looks so kickass, and i want it so bad :(

Comment by Thottbot

Now my question is, targeted twards the horde side of this, the note under him in thott says they are worth 350 UC rep....now i wonder if any horde have actually tried not only to find but grind these things for rep? an experiment im about to try.

Comment by Thottbot

help im a lvl 33 hunter and these are attacking me for no reason

Comment by Thottbot

I was also wondering about the rep gain for UC from these guys. I checked other sites and they didn't say anything about gaining rep. If anyone can confirm whether or they give rep let me know.

Comment by Thottbot

These spawn on occasion - about every 3-4 hours by my experience camping them. I did note that they spawned about 4pm central time, or maybe about 10-15 minutes early.

They then come in waves every few minutes.

I used track hidden on my hunter, that worked very well.

Two pop at or near the mailbox by the inn
Two pop at the dock
Two pop at the southshore town hall sign.

I got my letter from the first or second drop.

If you just stand at the steps to the town hall and use track hidden you can get them all killed quickly as they try and sneak in.

Comment by Thottbot

I'm a lvl 30 mage and was running around Southshore doing quests. They've always come in twos for me and in the space of about 20 minutes, 6 groups of them attacked either me or some guards. Several groups attacked me near the cow paddock, some on the river side of it. Around 6am east Australia time. I just blink over to some guards and they save my wee arse!

Comment by Thottbot

Do someone know if ally people will get rep from them? and what facion will the rep go to?

Comment by Thottbot

Leveling a HORDE alt just now and I aggro'd two completing Helcular's Revenge. I thought they were guards at first, then I aggro'd two more (in stealth) as I was fleeing from the GY to the river.

I thought perhaps this was a newer addition to the quest, so I kited them around until I killed one, then booked it and came back to loot. I was able to loot the Assassin's Contract, but clicking on it gives the error message 'That quest is not available to your race.'

Alliance only, I guess.

Comment by Allakhazam

These guys drop a quest, but to get the "assassin's contract" that they drop, you have to be able to loot one of their bodies. So when you find them, you MUST get in the first hit before any other player or Southshore guard hits them.

When they die, they will instantly reappear somewhere in Southshore. There are 2 of them together. They will be stealthed, so you have to be right on top of them to see them. Usually they're around back of one of the buildings in Southshore. If they appear in the middle of the street, usually the guards kill them right away.

Comment by Allakhazam

I was just fishing off to the left hand side of the docks at 51,64 and got jumped by 2 of them twice. There was only about 5-10 minutes between the attacks. Seems like they hang out stealthed in that area.

Comment by Allakhazam

I cant find them even, im not getting anything on traking hidden are they realy that hard to find. I thought I would atleast find a corps...

Comment by Allakhazam

I got jumped by about 5 of them. No one yelled anything. I was too low of lvl so the guards just killed them and that was it.

Comment by Allakhazam

I've never seen these guys on my warrior or my mage, but now my Rogue is level 29 and I've finished the ravenholdt quests and they are just following me around SS popping out randomly, anyone know why they do?

Comment by Allakhazam

I was walking into the inn to go to the Chef for the Turtle Quest when I noticed I was being hit.

How odd I thought then I it dawned on me

"I WAS BEING HIT!"

I stepped back to discover 2 Shadowy Assassins, quickly whistled my pet and wiped out one and the guards destroyed the other one.

I looted the contract and noticed the yellow dot appear behind me.

750 XP on the hand in - Not bad.

Comment by Allakhazam

I've been looking at various sites for spawn info on the shadowy assassins but there appears to be none, however I did find this usefull;

the town-cryer is in-game for about a minute after he yells "Help me! Assassins in the hills!". The Assassins keep appearing for about half an hour after he yells, every few minutes. The -first- ones usually appear in the spot down by the boats off the dock. Apparently you have to do at least half the damage to one to get looting rights, which is difficult with the guards all over town, so because of that I recommend down by the boats OR wait very patiently inside the Town Hall by the Magistrate - about the third or fourth spawn is inside the Hall, away from the guards.
You don't have to have any other quests up to get the Contract

basically what this says is; there is nothing (known) you can do to make them appear. you can either;
- wait for them at the docks, townsquare or city hall
- stay in the neighbourhood and rush towards the townhall when you hear/read "Help me! Assassins in the hills!"

will update when I've found out anything else

Edited, Jul 19th 2007 12:04pm by STriPFiGuur

Comment by Allakhazam

ive gone afk many a time in southshore and these don't just wander around aimlessly in stealth. they only pop up when the town crier runs back and shouts guards to your post, assassins. blah blah blah. pretty simple. dont know what triggers it, just know the town crier pretty much warns you when they're there.

Comment by adrianostanley

I've parked my char behind Magistrate Henry Maleb's building and around 7 AM on Bloodsail Buccaneers server, the Shadowy Assassins spawned.

To confirm SMKpaladin's comment, the guards were doubled at that time.

Comment by Scarletmage

Logged in while the event was happening. I didn't deal enough damage to get the loot rights to either of the assassins in the centre of Southshore. However, some commenters said there are others that spawn and are stealthed around Southshore, so I checked behind Magistrate Maleb's building, nothing, but as I was coming around the building (going anti-clockwise / between Maleb's building and the murloc beach) I found two stealthed shadowy assassins waiting to the left of the entrance to the building and i managed to get the loot rights to one and got the quest.

I also found two more pairs of assassins at the harbour and at the graveyard.

I've been logging on after work and waiting in southshore from 7:45pm to 9:00pm local time (8:45pm to 10pm realm time, Pyrewood Village) for the last three nights.

This happened as I logged on at 8pm, pretty much on the dot.

I'd recommend waiting in southshore and doing something else like studying.

Comment by Eipmul

Just found a 2 of these shadowy assassins between the river/cow pen on the north eastern side of southshore at 4:45pm server time, was running around southshore in circles on my level 60 druid trying to find them

judging by the timing, their spawn seems to be random, so if you are after them, you just have to run around and hopefully get lucky!

Comment by EdyG

Holy #$%^, alright so. After going thru literally every page that has to do with this quest, (the item itself, the NPCs, ect) Both classic and retail versions to see all comments (can't see comments past BC on classic version and can't see classic/other website comments on retail versions of the pages) I can, with 100% confidence, say that we, as a community, even after 16+ years, have 0 info on this item other than the fact that it EXISTS and what mob it drops from. The shear amount of time and effort I have put into this is nuts. I spent over 6 hours in hillsbrad/alterac mountains hoping to find it, some times riding around to the spots they have been confirmed to be at when they spawn and using my true sight racial (human) I even marked the farmer everyone agreed to follow with a blue box so I always knew where he was at all times. I managed to get my fishing skill up from 270 something to 290 while here just fishing in pools I had come across, as well as max out most of my weapon skills (paladin) on turtles, murlocs, naga and critters around town. I filled my bags with so much leather I had to vendor some just to loot this thing when they DID spawn.

I regularly kept track of how many people were in the zone with /who for hillsbrad, at the time they did spawn, there were 4 total alliance in the zone, one being me, who had done all other quests in the zone prior. There was a 60 warrior in town as well as a 38 palli, and a druid somewhere in the zone according to my /who at the time. I had gone AFK in the town center between the inn and the town hall to read memes on discord, but left my sound on, shortly after that I heard the sound of a male human die and instantly tabbed back to see the Crier was dead at my feet. I lept to my mount and spammed my target macro and instantly found assassins, they spawn out of stealth, in their set spawn points then enter stealth. The guards did not seem to attack them UNTIL they attacked others. I managed to get the tag on my first kill and helped the 38 palli get his in a group. In total I 'think' 6 died while I was there, 4 of which were from me. The drop rate is 100%, me and him both got our drops first kill. It says 80 something % on their page because you can't loot it after completing the quest.

I have no idea if it was that druid out and about that was questing that spawned the event, if it was a HORDE quest that does it, (they already have a quest to spawn an elite in our GY) Or if it really is just on a timer. But seeing as how it times are not anywhere near something that would seem.. uhh, based on time, (mine spawned at 6:10 AM. My chat logs say the Crier had said "Hear ye hear ye!" at exactly 6:10:33. The times I seen from other comments also seem to be completely random. I assume it has something to do with a quest but not in town, perhaps when someone picks up the stack of papers in alterac by the syndicate on their table it starts the event? But the player whom actually did would not be in town at the time. Or maybe it is something the horde did. There were people on both factions questing during the 6 hours I was there, I saw a 25 troll priest by the farms, a 33 troll hunter farming turtles up stream, and many alliance. But I still could not tell you what made the event spawn. The only way I think we will truly find out is if you get together several accounts/players and test it yourself, testing quests and other such things from both factions in a controlled experiment to see what may be the cause, or it might just have a random spawn early morning/afternoon. Or ask the devs directly.

TLDR Still no idea how or why the event happened but after 6 hours of camping I have it. GL to you all trying for this thing.

Comment by alphasigmasigma

On the Pagle server on Febryary 11, 2021, Shadowy Assassins spawned every few minutes between about 9:50 pm and 10:25 pm.

Although assassins spawned all around town, there were two just southeast of the dock that never provoked the guards; that seems like the best place to fight them if you want to avoid interference from the guards.

Comment by Maaarf

I just came into SS on my Horde mage, for the Helcular's revenge quest, and right next to Helculars' grave there were two of these guys just milling around stealthed.
They were there for a while, at least ten minutes, so if you want to take them on the guards were probably far enough away to not be an issue,
obviously, being horde, they attack as soon as I respawn at the grave, so can't be sure about aggro range when alliance characters attack the assassins.
The grave is at 52 53.

Comment by myeviItwin

After delivering Further Mysteries and accepting Dark Council, Shadowy Assassin started to appear around the town.

Hopefully someone else can confirm my theory so other people know how to spawn these assassins to get the quest Assassin's Contract

Comment by minusDKP

They might be bugged on SoM servers. Had 1 group when i first got in SS, but now after I did Further Misteries there don't seem to be any of them spawning. Been patrolling the town for 20 minutes now without luck. Doubt they have that high stealth skill.

Comment by squidzorz

Turned in Noble Deaths, Dark Council, and Preserving Knowledge at 3:02 PM server time. Been waiting for 30 minutes now (3:32 PM server) and still no crier or assassins. I never saw them after turning in the prereq quests either. This makes me think these spawn on a timer.

Comment by kkthxbyefan1

okay i actually registered here for this insane information i found out today..
so one kind druid said to me that this shadowy assassin is around big buildings all the time! ALL THE TIME!
i was in Desolace and i doubt his words but decided to try out, why not :)
and god damn they were seriously there and a lot of them and not only around bog buildings, they are all around the southshore.

i am hunter 42 lvl atm, i completed all the questline with assassins and only this was left. i would recommend to search for assassins around guards that patrolling territory around southshore.

Comment by alphasigmasigma

Did Shadowy Assassins ever spawn during Phase 1 of Season of Discovery, when the maximum level was 25?

If not, there is most likely a trigger that causes Shadowy Assassins to spawn, that was impossible to activate in Phase 1.

Comment by Wutface8

After turning in the quest "Letter to Stormpike" and returning to Loremaster Dibbs and turning in the follow up quest "Further Mysteries" A Southshore Crier runs into town stopping between the Town Hall and Inn and says: "Hear ye! *pant pant* Be warned citizens of Southshore: assassins are heading to our fair town!" Once this happens more guards spawn and spread around Southshore and very shortly afterwards Shadowy Assassins spawn (stealthed in pairs of two).

~Just did this on Season of Discovery, LIving Flame.

Comment by ChuTneYpiE

Spent the majority of my easter holiday in SS waiting for these guys to spawn:/

Comment by Etreum

It is not enough to tap them, you have to do more damage than the guards (Impossible, unless you are level 60 I suppose).

I was attacked several times, while I had my voidwalker in aggressive mode, but I still could not see them.

By the time I was able to target them and barely do any damage, a group of guards got to them and kill them in an instant.

And yes, you can tell the even is going on because the town's guard more than doubles.

View in 3D Links

Shadowy Assassin

This NPC can be found in Hillsbrad Foothills (24).

Shadowy Assassin

Related

Contribute