The second part of the scepter I decided to pick up was the part held by the Green Dragonflight, or to be more specific, Eranikus.

Now Eranikus can be found in Sunken Temple. If you’ve run the instance enough, and if you have picked up the quest item he drops, you know he’s become corrupted by the old Gods and therefore had to be killed. However if you take his Essence you can deliver it to his brother (after which the chain stops). Apparently he was however also the guardian of 1/4th of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands.
I travelled to the Sunken Temple and cleared everything up to Eranikus. Before you engage him however, an image of Malfurion Stormrage appears telling you that the only way to obtain the Scepter Shard is to make Eranikus manifest in the normal world (he’s trapped in the Emerald Dream). To start the endeavour to get Eranikus manifested Malfurion sent me to Darnassus. Which was quite a pain seeing as I’m A: Horde and B: Ofcourse there happened to be level 80 alliance there all to willing to gank me. I got away (luckily) and found the agent, a Forest Wisp right outside Darnassus on the Teldrassil side of the city. The Wips then told me that Tyrande has been notified of Malfurion’s plan and sends me to Moonglade.

When you get to Moonglade, you get to talk to keeper Remulos, one of the Sons of Cenarius. He sends you to get parts of the Nightmare’s corruption, something he needs to summon Eranikus to the living realm. You have to pick those parts, 4 of them in total, up near the portals into the Emerald Dream which are scattered over Azeroth. I decided to go to the portals in Ashenvale and Feralas first since I was on Kalimdor anyway and read that they increased the droprate of the figments to 100% from the little elite dragonkins that patrol the areas there. So I hopped on some mounts and flightpaths and killed some “portal trash” at Ashenvale, Feralas and Hinterlands. The last step was Duskwood and surprise! Ysondre (the World dragon boss) was walking around there. I asked my boyfriend to help me kill her, we eventually did while getting sleeped all the time (damn clouds) and I even got a nice quest item I’ll tell you about later. Anyway at the Duskwood portal I had to kill an elite satyr. The first time my boyfriend helped, he got mind controlled and killed me (like usual) so the second time I just soloed the satyr. Don’t be fooled, he had 323k HP and put up a hell of a fight. After that I had all four fragments and made my way back to Moonglade to hand them in to keeper Remulos.

Back in Moonglade I asked my boyfriend and a friend of mine to help me out with the outdoor raid that wouls tart as soon as you picked up the quest you got after delivering the Nightmare Corruption fragments. I read stories about it being a hassle but with 3 people the quest was a piece of pie. Keeper Remulos summons Eranikus at the lake and then runs to a house in Nighthaven. First a shitload of shades spawned that got stronger everytime they killed a player or an NPC. I read stories about people being overrun but we had no problems dealing with them (although an unfortunate Alliance druid got owned :P). After we’d killed enough shades, Eranikus landed (he was flying before) and we engaged him and nuked him down to about 20%. We saw Tyrande yelling the whole time but she was bugged because she didn’t appear! Anyway at 20% the fight stops, Eranikus is cleansed and chats a bit with keeper Remulos. At the end he entrusts his shard to keeper Remulos and returns to the Emerald Dream to aid Malfurion Stormrage and Ysera fight against the Nightmare. You have to get back to the place where Remulos stands, get your shard and then you’re done with the Green Dragon Chain!

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Originally I wanted to give the Red Dragon Chain a post of it’s own, but because it’s so short I included it here. I did the Red Dragon Chain together with the Draconic for Dummies part from the Blue Dragon Chain. During that run I also acquired enough Elementium Ingots to not have to go to BWL again. Anyway here we go.

For the Red Dragon Chain you are sent to Blackwing Lair. More specifically to Vaelastraz who is being corrupted by Nefarian. Before you engage Vaelastraz I talked to him and picked up the quest for the scepter shard which was infact quite easy. Kill Nefarian within 5 hours of killing Vaelastraz. So we did and I got my Scepter Shard!

As you read in the previous Epic Quest post, Anachronos mentioned the three other dragons that have a part of the Scepter. After doing some research I decided to start on the part from Azuregos, the Blue dragon, because it’s the longest chain of the three and it can be paired with the chain from the red dragon (both have parts that take place in Blackwing Lair). To find Azuregos I had to go to Azshara. He patrols in the Southeastern part of the region and after running around for a good 10 minutes I found him.

From the conversation with Azuregos you learn that he is no longer the master of his part of the Scepter. He created a minnow and entrusted his part to that creature. To find the minnow you need to have an Arcanite Buoy, something which can only be created by a gnome in Tanaris named Narain Soothfancy. Azuregos gives you a magical ledger at the end of the conversation and you are supposed to bring that to Narain Soothfancy.

When you find Narain (he’s a bit north of Steamwheedle Port) he tells you that he can’t read the magical ledger and that he needs you to get some stuff before he can start on the Arcanite Buoy.
He gives you three quests. The first starts a chain to find “Draconic for Dummies” so that he can read the ledger. This chain will lead you through Blackwin Lair, Onyxia’s Lair and Molten Core. I decided to save that one for last. The second quest is to get Narain’s Scrying Goggles which are stolen from him by his ex BFF. Again I chose to save that one due to having to go into the Molten Core. Finally he gives you a quest to obtain a 500 pound chicken. I chose to do that one first.

The 500 pound chicken quest starts off in Gadgetzan at the butcher in the inn named Dirge Quickcleave. When you hand in the starter quest, “Never Ask Me About My Business”, he sends you to The Isle of Dread in Feralas to kill Chimaeroks for their meat and their leader’s carcass (Lakmaeran). The carcass should go for a 500 pound chicken, the meat is to satisfy the butcher.
The Isle of Dread is located in Western Feralas underneath the isle that has Feathermoon Stronghold on it. DO NOT TRY TO SWIM THERE, you’ll die of fatigue. Instead take the boat to Feathermoon Stronghold or swim there, then swim down to the Isle of Dread from that island. Take the eastern beach on the map, that will give you acces to the Chimaeroks.
The normal Chimaeroks have about 22-32k hp, easily soloable as fury warrior, but the droprate on the meats is horrid, only 7 on my first clear. They also have a 30 min respawn timer. The boss (Lord Lakmaeran) has 323k HP and is doable since he doesn’t do that much damage, he guarantees a Carcass drop. However you’ll have to camp on the isle for a bit untill you get 20 meats, it took me a total of 3 clears to get all (a total of 1.5 hours waiting time).
After you’ve acquired the meats go back to Tanaris and you get a follow up quest which requires 20 deeprock salt (best place for these are from the elite rocks down in south Tanaris near uldum) and 20 Goblin Rocket Fuel. To get the rocket fuel you need 1: A Goblin Engineer and 2: An Alchemist. I had an Alchemist myself, I just struggled a bit to find the Engineer. One of the ingredients for the Rocket Fuel is Volatile Rum. As Alliance you can get this from one of the vendors after you’ve killed Saurfang in ICC. As Horde you want a nice Alliance/Alliance alt or a lot of patience getting these things off pirates.  After you’ve completed that quest you get the 500 pound chicken for Narain and an epic cooking recipe: Dirge’s Kicking Chimaerok Chops.

The next quest I decided to pick up was the Draconic for Dummies questline. First off you have to get to an Isle way south of Tanaris. It’s really hard to get there, I died once of fatigue. The trick is that there is a mermaid who wants you to get a love letter to Narain. Do that quest and get back to her after that. She buffs you with a swim speed buff that should push you right onto the first island. The book is on the second island.
Once on the second island you discover that the book is gone and in it’s place there’s a ransom letter. Get the letter to Narain. He’ll then send you to Winterspring to see who’s behind all this. And surprise surprise: It’s an evil gnome! After Doctor Weavil recognizes you he calls a huge ape named Number Two to deal with you. Kill the ape (He’s really easy on 80) and get back to Narain.
When you’re back at Narain he sends you to pick up the chapters of Draconic for Dummies which are scattered all over the place. Nefarian, Onyxia and Ragnaros all drop a chapter. One chapter is found in Undercity in the Mage quarter, another chapter in the Stormwind Library. One chapter drops off one of the demon mobs in southern Winterspring, another chapter drops off a demon in the Blasted Lands and one chapter is dropped by Doctor Weavil himself, he is on Alcaz Island in Dustwallow Marsh. note of caution here, doctor Weavil MC’s for 2 mins. Once you are MCed you can’t escape (I tried soloing him and was stuck for 30 mins before my BF came to the rescue) so bring a few friends along! Once you’ve obtained all chapters you bind them together and hand the book in at Narain. Another problem was obtaining the chapter from Onyxia. She Didn’t Drop It -.-, needless to say I was furious, ticketed a GM (fuming with anger I might add) and amazingly enough got a response in less than 2 hours. Where the GM told me that I was eligible (or something like that) for the item and he/she had send it to my ingame mail (it was a friendly GM I might add :D). I squeeled and picked it up and handed the quest in, getting the “Kill Onyxia on Level 60” achievement on the way. It’s probably a bugg, but if I get to keep it I’m happy with it!

The last quest is to acquire Narain’s Scrying Goggles from his ex BFF who hid in southern Silverpine Forest, right at the Greymane Wall. Once you get there he sends you to Molten Core where the Goggles have a 100% dropchance off the trashmobs. Kill a mob, get the goggles and hand them in to Narain.

Now the most annoying part of the chain. Once you’ve done all the prequests Narain asks you to get the materials he needs to make the Arcanite Buoy. These are: 10 Elementium Ingots (only dropped by goblins in BWL), 20 Arcanite bars (an alchemist can transmute them using a Thorium bar and an Arcane crystal), 10 Blue Sapphires and 10 Azerothian Diamonds. If you’re very rich you can buy all these materials off the AH. When I took this part of the quest I already had 7/10 Elementium Ingots, some Arcanite bars and none of the gems. Luckily a friend of mine was on the same part of the quest, he had mined a boatload of Thorium, and could provide me with the 10 Blue Sapphires and the 10 Azerothian Diamonds. The remaining 3 Elementium Ingots I received in 2 BWL runs, one my main and one on my alt. After some AH scouring for Arcane Crystals I made all my Arcanite Bars aswell. I handed the quest in and got the Arcanite Buoy.

The last part of the quest I 2 manned with a friend who was also on the quest. We summoned the “minnow”, a shark called Maws and he was actually a quite easy kill. Due to him only dropping 1 Scepter Shard at a time so we had to kill him twice for both of us to get it. I finally had my Blue Scepter Shard!

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My excuses for not implementing a lot of pictures, but it all went so fast that I completely forgot to make screenshots :<

So… I have decided to start one of the longest, most epic questchains Azeroth can give a player thus far. And one that is going to be removed when the Cataclysm hits our beautiful lands: The Scepter of the Shifting Sands questchain.

When I started the prequests I was already on 33.8/36k hated due to running AQ 40 a couple of times, once a full clear and others for mounts (I have all 4 colours). Yesterday I picked up the second quest (I had done the first, find Anachronos near the Caverns of Time) and hopped to Blackwing Lair to get the head of Broodlord Lashlayer. We cleared the entire instance (not a single Elementium Ore dropped :<) and I got some money, and ofcourse my head. Today I handed the quest in and got the repeatable quest to obtain 200 Silithid Fragments for 500 rep per turnin. After some quick calculations I figured I had to get 2400 fragments to become neutral, and for a person that detests grinding I went looking for other options.
What I found was that the trash mobs (Anubisath Sentinels and Obsidian Overseers) give 100 rep each when killed untill you hit Neutral or Friendly. So I took my boyfriend to AQ4 on his paladin (he still wanted the red and the yellow mount) and after about 8 runs killing the first 11 trashmobs I hit neutral with Brood of Nozdormu. Luckily enough my boyfriend got both his mounts so he was a happy camper aswell.

After hitting neutral I got send back to Anachronos who wanted me to go to the gates of AQ, look for a tiny red crystal (with a huge yellow question mark floating above it) and learn the secrets of the past. I saw how the gates of AQ were closed and that three dragons sacrificied themselves doing so. I also saw that Fandral Staghelm wanted nothing to do with the dragons anymore and that Anachronos the Ancient (aka his past self) picked up the fragments of the scepter that Fandral Staghelm destroyed. After that you get sent back to Anachronos at the Caverns of Time again and he hints that he has 1/4 of the scepter and that the other three parts are to be looked for at Eranikus (The ghost in Sunken Temple), Vaelastraz (the red dragon in Blackwing Lair) and Azuregos (the blue dragon walking around in Aszhara).

And that’s actually where the real hard part starts. On the next few days I’ll post the Red dragon chain, the Blue dragon chain and the Green dragon chain in obtaining the Scepter.
For all the people that want to do this quest also before it disappears. If you want to farm Brood of Nozdormu rep, DO NOT DO THE REPEATABLE ONLY. The best way to get rep is to get a friend, clear the trash before the first boss (which is 11 mobs x 100 rep = 1.1k rep) and keep resetting untill you’re locked out of the instance. Inbetween lockouts do the repeatable quest. You’ll get to neutral fastest this way.