This quest in its current form seems somewhat broken (although in a good way.)

The first three ambushes function as normal, and Grark will stand and wait for you to kill all the mobs that spawn (although he will ignore and not aggro any normal wandering mobs.)

But when you enter Blackrock Mountain, there are no further ambushes, and when he ends his patrol, and the NPC's spawn, there is no cutscene, and Grark topples over dead without explanation.

It does grant quest credit, though, so if you can make it into the mountain, you're home free.

I've just finished this quest, and he didn't take longer than any other escort to start moving, had 3 encounters.

1st is 4 orcs
2nd is 2 orcs and 2 dragonkin
3rd is 3 Drakes

In BRM itself walked into an executioner and the shade of of Lexlort. He was found guilty of treason against the Horde and slain on the spot (from a 30 yard distance, but yeah).

So I probably encountered a less buggy version than most.

Can anyone post the text that's supposed to be exchanged between Grark and the executioners? All I saw was:<div class=""quote"">Grark Lorkrub says: Time to make your final stand, insect.
Shadow of Lexlort says: Kneel, Grark.Then he kneeled down and Grark died. The two NPCs both despawned, they were friendly to me the whole time.

This quest DOES count for Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms.

Soloable as of 3.3.3. The monster packs that spawn are fairly weak, and can even be split - just keep your distance to Grark while escorting him.

Here's a great tip to save you a lot of stress and time:

Since you don't actually have to protect this guy you can easily avoid all the ""trash"" mobs that get in the way. As soon as this guy starts moving take an invisibility potion and run out of the building and to your right until you reach the sharp rocks. Just wait there and he'll come walking out. After your first ambush, he starts walking again, but you can just ride ahead of him and wait for him at the beginning of the ramp leading into Blackrock mountain.

Okay, finally got it to work this way, used the shackles on him about 7 times, and him just standing there, after 5 minutes he would just disapear... so finally I abandoned the quest, lost the shackles, but then he offered the quest again and immediatly followed. If you've been bugged and waited like quite a few 5 minutes for him to walk, try this one, seems like not everybody is affected by this bugged quest in the same way.

During the escort, there will be 3 waves of ambush. The first wave appears just as you leave the fortress area and walk up into the rocky landscape, consisting of 2 non-elite and 2 elite orcs. The second wave appears just at the foot of the bridge up to blackrock mountain, consisting of 2 non-elite dragons and 2 elite orcs. The third wave will appear on the middle of the bridge, consisting of 3 non-elite dragons.

You will fail the escort if you get out of a certain range. Death does not fail you, but releasing to a graveyard beyond the range will. Surprisingly, if you die at the first ambush you will not fail the quest as the graveyard is close enough.

A good strategy to deal with the ambushes is to stay mounted and far behind the escort. The mobs will not target you, merely surround the escort. If you are far enough behind, you will not aggro them initially and the escort will just stand and wait until the mobs have been defeated. The advantage in this is that you can split the mob into two by pulling. The first wave is linked two and two, elite and non-elite. The second wave is linked two and two as well, but opposite (non-elite + non-elite and elite + elite). The third wave is not linked at all, however the dragons come at a periodic rate so if you are fast to pull you can separate them anyway.

The most difficult part of the quest is getting out of the fort. You should clear the way before engaging the escort in combat, as once he begins to walk he will not wait even if you engage in combat. This can result in having to deal with 4-5 mobs to keep up with the escort, unless you have very high damage. As soon as you get outside, you should mount up and just outrun the mobs, since the escort does not engage in battle with them.

I completed this quest solo as a level 57 Protection Paladin, I imagine many other tank and damage dealing classes can as well.

as of 3.3, you still have to wait for 3-5 min.

Make sure to kill every mob in the ambushes (Or at least, the first ambush.).

During the first ambush, there were 4 mobs. I killed 3, without realizing there's another one that didn't aggro (Did this at level 80 for Loremaster.). I waited around for 5 minutes, wondering why he isn't moving, before noticing the fourth mob. I killed it, and Grark starts moving again.

It also seems that, if, for whatever reason you need to move away from your computer while the escort is in progress, you can 'pause' it by quickly moving out of aggro range of the ambushes before they occur (Grark speaks shortly before the ambushes occur.). I'm not sure for how long you can do this, but I still think it would be handy for any emergencies.

Like, say, your cat spills water all over your keyboard.