Project Lore

After some of the dust from patch day, extended maintenence, and rolling restarts settled, I was browsing my Achievements pane (default key is Y to bring that up). The first thing I noticed was that I had achieved a couple of things when I logged on for the first time after 3.0.8 was implemented. One was The Winds of the North, for being exalted with the Alliance Vanguard and the other was Vampire Hunter, a feat of strength for having a Vampiric Batling from Prince Tenris Mirkblood. Intrigued, I looked around a little more to see if I could find any other new achievements. Now, I had heard about the 75 companion pet achievment with a tiny deer as a reward, but I don't even have the 50 pet achievement yet. Apparently there is also a new 100 mount achievement with a blue dragonhawk as a reward. Those ones are so far out of my reach that I tend to ignore them. That and the mount achievement is going to be very very expensive when I go for it. There were two achievements that I found that would be well within my reach, though. Both of them have to do with my favorite targets for undeserved violence - critters. Pest Control asks you to slay some critters while To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life is predictably a follow up to another achievement which has you loving more creatures. To those of you interested, I managed to do a little research and I can tell you exactly where to go to find the critters you'll need. I found all except for one of the targets of To All The Squirrels Who Shared My Life in Northrend:

• Arctic Hare: These are all over, most easily found in Dragonblight
• Borean Marmot: Borean Tundra, all over. Mostly the orange sections of the map
• Tundra Penguin: Borean Tundra on the icebergs
• Sholazar Tickbird: When you see a Rhino, look for the bird on its horn.
• Glacier Penguins: Icecrown, in the far north, a bit east of the islands on the map.
• Huge Toad: Zul'Drak, in the Drak'Sorta Fields. Most people tell you to go to Swamp of Sorrows, but don't listen!
• Grizzly Squirrel: Grizzly Hills, all over
• Mountain Skunk: Grizzly Hills, all over
• Fjord Penguin: Howling Fjord, on the coast/icebergs
• Scalawag Frog: Howling Fjord, Scalawag Isle in the Southwest
• Fjord Turkey: West of Expedition League Outpost in Howling Fjord
• Lava Crab: Searing Gorge, all over the place. If you know of a place in Northrend where these guys hang out, let me know. I looked in a couple of firey places that I could think of but to no avail.

For Pest Control, you'll have to do a lot more running around:

• Underbelly Rat: Dalaran sewers
• Rat: Dalaran near Violet Hold or Naxxramas, also in many other zones.
• Maggot: Naxxramas or Ghostlands
• Larva: Naxxramas or Ghostlands
• Spider: Howling Fjord, Ghostlands, or many instances such as Naxxramas and Azjol Nerub
• Crystal Spider: The Nexus - run straight in and immediately in the final boss's room will be a spider
• Gold Beetle: Halls of Stone/Halls of Lightning - both should have a beetle at the entrance
• Zul'Drak Rat: Zul'Drak, lots of them east of the Argent Stand
• Roach: Howling Fjord in Gjalerbron
• Fjord Rat: Howling Fjord
• Devouring Maggot: In the crypts near Utgarde Keep at the very bottom.
• Adder: Hellfire Peninsula
• Scorpion: Hellfire Peninsula
• Moccasin: Swamps of Sorrow
• Snake: Westfall
• Mouse: Westfall
• Fire Beetle: Burning Steppes/Searing Gorge

Hope that helps any of you achievement lovers out there get a few more points!

Click to read more ...