Gluttonous Lurkers

Quest Giver: Apprentice Pestlepot — Drak’Agal area, Zul’Drak

Turn-in: Alchemist Finklestein — Heb’Valok shrine [35, 52]

Objective: Deliver 5 Basilisk Crystals to Alchemist Finklestein.

Quick Facts

• Level: 76
• Prerequisite: Precious Elemental Fluids (unlocks this quest)
• Pairs With: Mushroom Mixer, Creature Comforts (same area)

Walkthrough

Step 1: Collect Zul’Drak Rats

Head east to Drak’Agal [~46, 68]. Look for small Zul’Drak Rats scurrying around on the ground. Click a rat to pick it up (interact cursor, not attack cursor). It vanishes and a Zul’Drak Rat item appears in your bags. You need 25 total (5 per basilisk × 5 basilisks).

• Spotting Rats: Press V to toggle nameplates and their health bars become visible from several yards away. Alternatively, use a /target Zul'Drak Rat macro to locate them.
• Flight Form/Mounted Pickup: Druids can collect rats in flight form. You can also collect while moving.

Step 2: Feed the Basilisks

Find a Lurking Basilisk in the same area. Target it, then click the rat item in your bags. Throw 5 rats one at a time (there’s a ~0.5 second cooldown between throws). After the 5th rat, the basilisk becomes a Gorged Lurking Basilisk that falls asleep. Right-click the sleeping basilisk to loot a Basilisk Crystal. Repeat 5 times.

Warnings:

• Do NOT kill the basilisk. Killing it breaks the crystals. You cannot loot crystals from a dead basilisk.
• Do NOT have the basilisk under any CC when the 5th rat lands. If it’s Sapped, Feared, Hibernated, stunned, or in a Freezing Trap when it receives the 5th rat, it will despawn without spawning the gorged version. You lose both the basilisk and the 5 rats.
• No ground effects under the basilisk. If the gorged basilisk can’t physically spawn (it’s larger than the original), obstructions like thornwood roots or Hunter traps at its feet will prevent the spawn.
• Have bag space free. If your inventory is full when you try to loot, the gorged basilisk despawns and you lose the crystal.
• The basilisk will attack you while you throw rats. This is normal. Just keep throwing. The damage is minor. Pet classes should set pets to passive so they don’t kill it.

Workaround for CC Classes: Rogues can Sap first and throw 4 rats, then break Sap and throw the 5th. Mages can Polymorph and throw rats safely (Polymorph apparently works fine, unlike Hibernate/Fear). Warlocks and Priests can Fear for the first 4 rats, then let Fear expire before throwing the 5th.

Step 3: Turn In

Deliver the 5 Basilisk Crystals to Alchemist Finklestein at the shrine in Heb’Valok [35, 52], west of the road leading north before the Altar of Sseratus. Note that you turn in to Finklestein, not back to Pestlepot.

Finklestein will grumble about his lazy apprentice.

Do Alongside

• Mushroom Mixer — Collect 10 Muddlecap Fungus from the same area. Mushrooms are on the ground between the basilisks.
• Creature Comforts — Collect 20 Dead Thornwood from the ground around Drak’Agal.

Story Context

Alchemist Finklestein at Heb’Valok is preparing a truth serum and needs basilisk crystals as a reagent. His apprentice Pestlepot was supposed to handle this errand but is clearly slacking off, so you get recruited instead. Finklestein and his truth serum become relevant again later in the zone’s storyline.

Explore Zul’Drak’s hidden easter eggs, lore mysteries, and connections across Warcraft history in Vikstone’s Zul’Drak Chronicles, along with the complete quest storyline.