Duke Hydraxis waited on a tiny island off the southeastern coast of Azshara, far enough out in The Great Sea that most players would never stumble across him unless they already knew where to look.
"You can actually pick up quests all the way out here?"
If Gabryell hadn't led them over, none of the others would ever have guessed that some isolated island in the middle of the sea was home to a Water Elemental NPC handing out quests.
David looked around at the ocean and the empty shoreline. "This place is basically a private island resort. All it needs is a sunset and a guitar."
His imagination was already running wild. Apparently, he was picturing himself disappearing onto some tropical island with MushroomHunter and never coming back.
Gabryell smiled. "There's an even better one."
David immediately turned toward him. "Where?"
"Off the northeastern coast of Dustwallow Marsh. There's a little place called Alcaz Island. I stumbled onto it once while I was leveling by AoE-farming murlocs."
Gabryell put on his most convincing expression.
"Beautiful place. Secluded beaches, wildlife everywhere, almost nobody around. Basically a private resort. The only tricky part is finding your way in. If you can't manage that, you'll probably end up hearthing home."
That was complete nonsense.
Alcaz Island wasn't a romantic getaway. It was crawling with dangerous elite naga, with equally unpleasant hydras patrolling the surrounding water. A level-60 player wandering in without knowing what to expect was much more likely to find a corpse run than a vacation.
David still looked suspicious. "There's a hidden island paradise in Dustwallow Marsh?"
"The best places are the ones nobody expects," Gabryell said without blinking. "Quiet beaches, fresh air, no crowds. Perfect for a date."
David immediately became interested.
"I'm checking it out tonight."
Gabryell suppressed a laugh. "Do the quests first. You can go sightseeing afterward."
Duke Hydraxis offered them two quests, both prerequisites for the Hydraxian Waterlords chain they needed to progress.
Poisoned Water: Use the Aspect of Neptulon on the poisoned elementals in Eastern Plaguelands. Collect 12 Discordant Bracers, then return the bracers and the Aspect of Neptulon to Duke Hydraxis in Azshara.
Stormers and Rumblers: Kill 15 Dust Stormers and 15 Desert Rumblers, then return to Duke Hydraxis in Azshara.
"Silithus first."
The two quests could be handled separately, and The Crystal Vale was the easier destination to organize with a large group.
Dust Stormers and Desert Rumblers could both be found in The Crystal Vale, in northwestern Silithus. The area would later become one of the best-known farming spots for Essence of Air.
Dust Stormers occupied much of the outer section and could drop Essence of Air. Farther into the vale were Desert Rumblers, which could drop Essence of Earth and Elemental Earth.
"Where's Silithus?" David asked.
"Yeah, where is it? I've never been there."
"Same."
At least half the raid had never set foot in Silithus.
That wasn't surprising. Most of them had finished leveling through Eastern and Western Plaguelands instead, so they had never had a reason to travel all the way across the world to a nearly empty desert zone.
"West of Un'Goro Crater," Gabryell explained. "It's another high-level zone, roughly in the same endgame range as Eastern Plaguelands."
Silithus was still quiet at this point.
Later, as demand for Arcane Crystals, Black Lotus, Essence of Air, and other high-end materials increased, gatherers and farmers would start spending much more time there.
And that was nothing compared to what would happen later.
Once Silithus received its major Cenarion Circle content and the road toward Ahn'Qiraj opened, the entire zone would become packed. The War Effort, Cenarion Circle reputation, and the Scepter of the Shifting Sands chain would bring both factions pouring into the desert.
Then Alliance and Horde would start killing each other over mobs, resources, and quest objectives until Silithus became one enormous battlefield.
"Desert, you have the Silithus flight path, right?"
DesertWanderer hadn't been among the people asking where Silithus was, so Gabryell already suspected the answer.
"Yeah."
Of course he did.
DesertWanderer had gone out of his way to unlock practically every useful flight path on the continent. Whenever the guild needed someone to reach an obscure corner of the world and start summoning everyone else, he was usually the first person Gabryell called.
"Anyone who already has the Silithus flight path, come with me. Everyone else stay here."
They left Hydraxis's island, returned to the mainland, and rode back to the Azshara flight master.
From there, they flew south.
The trip was painfully long.
More than ten minutes later, they finally landed at Valor's Rest, the flight point in Silithus.
OneShotCrit stared at the route they had just flown.
"Blizzard really hates straight lines, huh?"
DeathScum agreed. "The shortest distance between two points is supposed to be a straight line. Did nobody tell the flight masters?"
DesertWanderer laughed. "Blizzard knows exactly what a straight line is. They just like our subscription time too much to use one."
Some of WoW's flight routes were so unnecessarily indirect that it was impossible not to wonder whether the gryphon masters were paid by the mile.
"Set up a summon and start bringing everyone over," Gabryell said.
That way, everyone who hadn't been to Silithus before could immediately pick up the flight path as soon as they arrived.
DesertWanderer didn't need to be told twice.
He started Ritual of Summoning and went to work.
Every time he logged in, one of the first things he checked was his supply of Soul Shards. If his bags weren't adequately stocked, he went out and farmed more before doing anything else.
He carried the bare minimum besides shards—current quest items, some food, some water, and not much else.
If Fearless ever handed out an award for thankless guild jobs, DesertWanderer deserved one.
After everyone had been summoned to Valor's Rest and picked up the flight path, Gabryell called for mounts.
"We're heading to The Crystal Vale. Northwest corner of the map."
Silithus wasn't especially friendly to careless travelers.
Large sections of the zone were filled with dangerous mobs, and the areas around the silithid hives were especially easy places to get dismounted and surrounded.
The raid stayed together as they rode across the desert.
"Black Lotus!"
Smooch had spotted a dark flower growing off to the side.
Gabryell hadn't been tracking herbs, so he immediately rode over when she called it out.
"Anyone with Herbalism, keep an eye out whenever you're in level-60 zones. Pick every Black Lotus you see."
High-end flasks consumed Black Lotus in large quantities. As raid progression spread and more players obtained flask recipes, demand was only going to rise.
Stockpiling it early made sense.
"Guild will buy them for fifty gold each," Gabryell said. "Unlimited quantity."
Several people reacted immediately.
"Fifty gold for one flower?"
"It's worth that much?"
Gabryell nodded. "It is. If you find one, pick it. If you want the gold, sell it to the guild. We'll take everything you bring."
He wasn't interested in squeezing guild members for cheap materials.
If Fearless wanted a reliable supply for progression, paying a fair price was worth it.
The Black Lotus was an unexpected bonus.
They continued northwest toward The Crystal Vale.
Essence of Air wasn't in especially high demand yet, so nobody had established a permanent farm on the Dust Stormer spawns.
For now, the vale was almost entirely theirs.
"There are plenty of mobs. Split back into parties and spread out. Once your quest counter is done, stop killing."
Even with four parties, they would eventually chew through the available spawns if everyone stayed in one place.
The groups spread around The Crystal Vale, clearing Dust Stormers first before moving farther in for the Desert Rumblers.
"Huh. What's this?"
DontPanicHealz linked an Essence of Air in raid chat.
She had won the loot roll.
"Keep it," Gabryell said. "Don't vendor it."
He had no intention of explaining every future use and market price right now.
"If you get crafting materials and don't know what they're for, hang onto them for the time being. Better to discover later that something is valuable than sell it for pocket change today."
There were far too many materials in Vanilla that looked useless until the right recipes and demand appeared.
"Haha! I got one too."
OldSeven proudly linked a Breath of Wind.
Gabryell looked at the item.
Then looked away.
He had literally just told everyone not to sell unfamiliar materials, so telling OldSeven to vendor that one immediately would undermine the entire speech.
Best to say nothing.
A short while later, MushroomHunter noticed something else.
"Ogabs, I think I'm gaining reputation."
She checked the combat log.
"Hydraxian Waterlords."
"That's right," Gabryell said. "These Dust Stormers and Desert Rumblers are enemies of the Waterlords, so killing them gives a little Hydraxian reputation. There are other specific air, earth, and fire elementals that do the same thing. It all ties into the quest chain we're doing now."
Each Dust Stormer and Desert Rumbler only gave a small amount, so grinding reputation out here was slow. They would stop granting reputation once a player reached Honored anyway.
"Later in the chain, Agent of Hydraxis requires Honored with the Hydraxian Waterlords. Only after that can you move on to Hands of the Enemy."
There was no reason for everyone to grind all the way to Honored in The Crystal Vale.
Once Fearless began progressing through Molten Core, the raid would gain Hydraxian reputation from many of the trash mobs and bosses inside. With the outdoor kills they were doing now, plus repeated progression runs through Molten Core, their reputation would climb much faster.
By the time they were truly ready to deal with Majordomo Executus, Gabryell intended to have everyone who needed the quest comfortably at Honored.
There was no point waiting until they reached the runes to discover half the raid was still behind on reputation.