Slime Time

The ogres carried me into level 47 without much fanfare. I recalled to Ironforge to resupply and regroup my wits. Not wanting to return to Kalimdor to continue to level, I look over my options, then grabbed a gryphon to the Blasted Lands.

There's a few quests there that involve gathering body parts from the local fauna and I completed a few of them before looking elsewhere. The problem is the area is heavily camped by others and killing things +2/+3 can be slower than just steamrolling things at level.

I seriously didn't want to return to Kalimdor due to the flight times from Ironforge (Menethil, boat, and then wherever), so I looked for another hunting ground and to my utter delight, I remembered the Hinterlands.

Where I last left them some time ago, the east side of the zone was...let's say "intimidating" and leave it at that. NOW it was the perfect level to farm my heart out. I picked up some quest to kill a couple dozen slimes and made my way to Skull Rock. What I found there exceeded every expectation.

Not only was there a small hill covered in level 46-48 slimes, but there was a small mini-dungeon as well stocked with the same. As a bonus, loot was decent and the dungeon itself contains several mithril nodes, which have no pushed me up to the point I can mine thorium. And that's how I came to love legless monsters.

While the Slime Harvest of '19 was reaching a fevered pitch, one dropped a Homing Beacon-- the trigger for a nearby chicken escort quest, similar to the one that I had completed in Feralas (and one I have yet to attempt in Tanaris). I took a break from slime ranching to help the little robo-clucker out. This time I had a plan to cheese it.

As expected, while the chicken ran along its merry path, it would occasionally stop to alert to danger and a small group of things would appear. In this case, owlbears and trolls. When the chicken stopped, I charged ahead on my trusty steed to get all of the aggro before the chicken could. I then ran in circles while my would-be ambushers impotently chased in vain. Once Mr. Chicken got past where they had spawned I ran a short distance and dropped aggro. They ran back and the chicken never got scratched. At least, that was how it looked on paper. The execution, as always, had snags.

The first ambush point spawned the three owlbears, which I picked up, but the chicken aggro'd a fourth one who had just been wandering near the road. I had to send Fluffers over to dispatch the interloper before he killed the chicken; meanwhile I busied myself with the ambush. To send Fluffers, I had to dismount. Since I was off the horse, I fired round after round into the errant owlbear while the ambush wailed on me. Fluffers died and I was able to finish off the one while the chicken was at a sliver of health. For my own part, I was at about 20% health when I flopped like a floppy flopper.

I watched in mute horror as the owlbears immediately dashed towards the chicken... and then past it to return to their spawn point! The chicken had made it past the ambush spot! I hastily revived Fluffers, fed him to get the happiness back and ate and drank for a few seconds before the onward-rushing chicken cut my break short. I remounted.

The second ambush with a few trolls went slightly smoother. Dashing in circles, I was able to lead them away and they dispersed... just as a random prowling wolf "uncloaked" beside the chicken. During the fight, two more patrolling wolves joined the fray. It was touch and go for a minute, but we all survived with our respective feathers intact.

From there it was a short, pleasant jaunt to the coast where I had once taken a snapshot of a turtle.

Somehow "A chicken has made it to the water." doesn't have quite the same ring. I'll need to turn in the quest next time I'm in Booty Bay, but I'm totally ok with that.

Returned to Skull Rock and slaughtered slimes until my inventory was full and my bullets were low. I'll be coming back tomorrow to finish out the level.