Progress? Sorta

i finally got around to unlocking the therazane faction in deepholm tonight. to my surprise you actually meet pebble early on in the quest chain, but you don't actually get to keep him yet.

in order to obtain this companion you have to complete the "lost in the deeps" daily 10 times. it becomes available after finishing the full therazane quest chain, and i believe the therazane quest chain won't unlock until you've completed the other two quest chains to acquire the first two pieces of the broken pillar. (there's definitely a lot of chaining in deepholm x_x)

anyway, the daily itself requires you to find pebble and escort him out of the same cave where the tiny shale spider drops. there are a couple other therazane dailies that you can complete while in this area too.

naturally i hoped that these quests would somehow aid in finding a way to jadefang's special hiding spot, but they didn't. at least not yet or i haven't discovered the trick yet. sigh. i'm still utterly confused and stumped as to how i'm going to get the tiny shale spider on live servers. part of me thinks there are some quests that have yet to be implemented that will indeed be linked to finding a way up to jadefang's area.

but i digress.

since i've done the pebble daily only once so far, i can't say if he spawns in random locations or if the place where i found him will be the spot he'll always be in for this daily. even if the latter is true, he's a bit of a challenge to get to since the cave difficult to navigate at times. it's not impossible, and some may find it too easy, but for most i think there will be a lot of backtracking and confusion in the beginning.

the pebble daily is essentially an escort quest, minus the random "waves" of mobs that often attack you during the task. instead, you'll have to navigate your way out of the twisting, turning, and often times confusing tunnels. you'll encounter mobs, dead ends, and possibly other annoyances/grievances. thankfully the pebble NPC isn't helpless or useless; he'll aid in attacking your target. if anything, YOU'LL need more protection than he does! haha :P

in any case, still be wary of mobs. pebble is level 84 but he can still proximity aggro the gyreworms, in which case you'll need to save him. if he takes a few hits, no worries, pebble will slowly regain health over time. be careful of obstacles such as rocks and other crevices. if pebble gets lost or stuck, you'll need to abandon the daily and head back to the quest giver to pick it up in order to respawn pebble at his original location within the cave.

that's really all i've discovered so far. i'm going to do the daily a few more times before i write anything else on this specific companion. atm, i'm not sure if the achievements are working properly so we'll see if the counter for the pebble daily is actually tracking my progress.

i really can't wait to get my hands on pebble though. the initial quest that he's in really makes you fall for him. he's absolutely adorable!

i'm pretty disappointed that i still haven't uncovered the secret to the tiny shale spider, but i have hope that i'll figure it out. (preferably before cataclysm goes live!)

last but not least, i've managed to kill jadefang twice on the beta, and each time the tiny shale spider has dropped. it's looking like a 100% droprate so far.