The Lashtail Hatchling

I found another rather interesting quest chain while earning reputation with the Darkspear Trolls over in Stranglethorn..

Over in Grom’Gol Base Camp, I picked up a quest to go and kill of some raptor eggs.  I was just smashing the last egg when the Lashtail Hatchling appeared!  This added a quest to check with Far Seer Mok’thardin back at camp.. he said I should feed him Murloc meat..

After this, I headed back to camp but got no new quest.. so I thought he was a temporary pet, maybe lasting until I logged off.

That was, until I was sent to deal with some food thieves in the Bal’lal ruins, and my little friend found me a skull!  This set off a chain of tasks when the skull went back to camp, and into a cauldron for a bit of troll magics.. he turned out to be the skull of a troll lord, who wanted me to help him return to life.  Did I suspect that this might be an evil skull?  Not at this point..

Following the collection of some artifacts, the body of the troll lord’s enemy, and some mojo, the Bloodlord Mandokir appeared..

He turned out to be evil, and he demanded my Lashtail Hatchling! 🙁

His departing comments mentioned Zul’Gurub.. so I didn’t think this would be the last of the story.. then in Bambala, I got a quest leading to a Mind Vision where I saw through the inside of Zul’Gurub through the hatchling’s eyes..

More quests followed: fetching Braddock’s Big Brain for a Mind Control quest, and an attempt to rescue the Hatchling, where I attempted to flee Zul’Gurub!

My first attempt ended in capture by net, and I was sent back to the beginning, where I realised I was able to talk to the raptor at the start.  This turned out to be a fantastic little mini-game, with adult raptors teaching me different abilities such as chewing through nets, lighting fires to distract the soldiers, and dropping skulls in their paths to trip them!

Just at the exit, I was caught by a lurking Shade of the Hexxer, ending the Mind Control session.. looks like I need to go into Zul’Gurub and rescue the Hatchling for myself!

Raiding and stuff

Normally there are just two or three of us running around, but this week we’ve actually managed to get enough guildmates on to make up a group, so instead of grouping up with a few stray randoms, we’ve been with friends and having a bit more fun 🙂

We went to see The Tauren Chieftains perform in Blackrock Depths..

Back on our level 60 alts, we tried taking on Arazzius the Cruel as part of a quest.. but he minced our mage and priest 🙁

It feels like a rather large step down from my level 80 character.. I know I could take this guy all by myself even though I’m only specced to heal, but here with my fire mage? Not enough firepower..

Fortunately another friend was able to join us, and we took him down 🙂

We’ve also been seeing some old raids, which I’ve found to be ridiculously good fun.

I especially wanted to get through Zul’Gurub, as it’s going to be removed in Cataclysm.  We were unable to manage with just two of us – as a squishy little healer I couldn’t stand up to a mind-controlled Vorlak.  With our group, though, we managed to take him down 🙂

We also took on Zul’Aman, which was a little harder but only meant a greater sense of achievement when we took down the boss.

After this, and very late at night, we took on Molten Core.  Fire.. awesome stuff 🙂

The end boss here was rather more difficult, and I really didn’t think we’d manage him because he kept sending us flying.  Several tries later and we eventually killed him.. just in time to get away to bed to avoid sleeping on my keyboard.  I discovered that you can hearth while doing the sleep emote, which was rather amusing.

I managed to grab a screen the following night, after another very late session!  I’ll catch up on sleep eventually, right?