Trooper Scale Pauldron  

I have been working on this quest, and I have hit a road-block. The froglok slaves won't accept the poison. They keep handing it back to me with the standard "I have no use for this..." line. Any body else have this problem?
As far as the baking the poison goes, I was able to use a smithed (vs. pottery-fashioned) pot. It took me 10 stacks each of batwings and frosting to get my baking skill up to 27. I baked the potion on the first try. I made to pot on the first try also, with a smithing skill in the low 100's.
Any ideas on how to get the froggy to take the bait?

Snackman Headcracker

All good info here , sure helps doing these inane Quests , Im a Warrior not a baker or brewer, anyways.One Thing, Dont even try to bake or Brew the Quest Items untill your Skill is Way up to avoid going back to get Ice and Spines again, not to mention the Hard to forrage Willow Moss
What a pain , Guess its worth it tho,boring as heck
Gingaskhan Legionaire Evil Empire
Eternus Noctus
All Hail Sullen Zek

Hey guys, I did this quest and spent a lot of time getting my tradeskills up. As a result I have a lot of Pots left over. If you play on Saryn give me a tell, I'll give em up for 10pp. This way you can save a lot of time and energy and concentrate on baking and brewing.

Icebane Frosttoth
30 Warrior
Saryn

im on the zebuxuruk server wit all the skill need for dis quest over 60 and i need that darn hopeless willow moss i cant seem to find any. Not even the swamp merchants have it. If you got some pleez give it to me my name is above^

I have had 3 failures now trying to do the baking. I have a pot (smithed one), two spines and the grey ice in the baking thing in cabilis. All three times have failed so far, and I don't get the "you cannot advance your skill any further by making this item" message.

Apparently, when I used the pot made by smithing (using the pot mold, standing feet mold, water and two metal bits), I got failures and it was not trivial. When I used the pot made by the pottery skill (metal bits, large block of clay, water and pot sketch, then fired with hq sheet), it WAS trival. Both pots look identical, but for some absolutely stupid reason, one produced failures (got pot back, said I lacked skills), while the other was trivial.

Also, be VERY careful with the brewing step. it is NOT trivial at a 58 brewing skill. And depending on your server and how recently it was reset for a patch, finding the hopeless willow moss can be a REAL pain in the butt. I found none on any vendors, and it took myself and a druid friend with 200 forage skill nearly an hour to forage up just one hopeless willow moss. So I'm going to try getting my skill up to 68 in brewing before I try again. My god has this quest ever pissed me off.

So, in the hopes that nobody else has to go through this frustration with this inane quest, let me recap:

1.) Use a pot made with a pottery skill for baking, NOT a pot made by smithing.
2.) Baking is NOT trivial at 22, nor is it trivial at 38. It was trivial for me at 46, maxed out by batwing crunchies.
3.) Brewing is NOT trivial at a 58 brewing skill. I'll post when it is actually trivial to me.

Everything is pretty informative here but, is all this garbage worth what you get?

Finished this one and thought I'd put everything in 1 posting.

1. Grey Ice: Is located on top of a large mtn. directly behind Giant Fort in Frontier Mtns. It'll be on top and appear as a small pouch. It is NO DROP. Suggestion: When coming down the mountain I'd recommend against having SoW on, there's serious damage to be had unless you take it slow and easy.
2. Pondfish Spines: Are located in Lake of Ill Omen and can be found in the small pond in the stream/river that leads from the Lake to FV. They are located in 2 places: 1) They spawn on about 4 1/2 minute timer on the left side of the pond as you face the pond heading to FV. If you walk gradually up the stream from the Lake heading to FV, you'll get to a place where the water basically disappears although you are still in it. The Pond Sturgeon will spawn off to the left and, from this position, are a bit hard to see but appear much like coins on the ground from a distance. If you choose this location I'd suggest fighting in the middle of the pond because when they run they can be very hard to catch up with and see; and 2) On the right side of the pond, as you face FV zone, in an opening of dry land there are a stack of Sturgeons stuck on dry land (NOTE: This could have been fixed in a patch but they were still there last weekend). CAUTION: The fish here fit into the license agreement category of a mob which is unable to defend itself, if you choose this route and are caught you can be banned from EQ. You have been warned. Personally I did the one in the pond but that was because I hadn't seen the others. It took me 3 fish before I got 4 of the spine because I wanted some extras just in case. These are NOT no drop and can be traded.
3. Hopeless Willow Moss: For me the easiest thing to find. Anytime I'm looking for something foraged I always check nearby vendors to see if someone sold them. In this case, in the 4 vendors that sell in the buildings in the Swamp of No Hope zone area, I found 7 of the moss. Sorry forget what they cost but were about 1-2sp each.

Now for the fun. In order to complete the quest you need to follow multiple steps. If you do it all yourself you will need to use Pottery, Smithing, Baking, and Brewing skills. If you can find someone who has Pottery skill and will make you a Pot you only need the Baking & Brewing skills. I did it all myself so here's how:
1. Since I hadn't practiced any of these I put 5 points in each. At L45 think that put me in the 20-21 skill range.
2. Next is Smithing. In order to make a pot you need metal bits. To make metal bits, in the forge in ECabilis, combine 2 small ore and 1 water flask (sold by a vendor on the lower side of Vendors by Nec guild in WCabilis, I'd recommend buying 4-5, or more, stacks of the water flasks because you use them in other places). If you're successful you'll get 1 metal bits. I did this till I had about 10 of them and didn't check trivials but it didn't take very long or cost too much to get my 10.
3. Pottery. You need to buy a Pot pattern and large block of clay at the vendor next to the Kiln in ECabilis (in the area where all the Vendors are around the Monk guild). On the Pottery Wheel put in 1 metal bits, 1 large block of clay, 1 Pot pattern, and 1 flask of water and COMBINE. If you're successful you have a green pot. Buy a High Quality Firing Sheet. In the Kiln next to the Pottery Wheel put your green pot and the HQ firing sheet (sorry I forget if I put a water flask in too, please check a discussion on pottery somewhere to double check) and COMBINE. If you succeed you now have a Pot. I didn't track trivials here either and just kept trying until I had 4-5 pots ready to put in the Kiln.
4. Baking. In another post someone said making Batwing Crunchies built your trivial far enough. So..... go to the outpost in FOB the building on the right, top floor, in the back (as you face away from Cabilis zone, buy 4-5 stacks, or more, of bat wings from the Vendor. As you exit the Bank in Cabilis there are 3 little buildings on your right. The far left one contains the oven and Vendors who sell baking supplies. Buy 4-5 stacks, or more, of frosting. In the oven that's in that building COMBINE 1 Batwing & 1 frosting. If you succeed you will get Batwing Crunchies. Keep doing this until you see the msg that says you can no longer advance your skill by making those, about 45.
5. Brewing. Next to the bank is the brew barrel and the vendors who sell brew supplies. Buy 4-5 stacks, or more, each of Hops & Barley. You also need to buy Casks, these don't stack so you'll spend a lot of time coming back for them. In the brew barrel put in 1 Hops, 1 Barley, 1 Water flask (see previous for where to get this), and 1 cask. If you succeed you'll get 1 Short Ale. If not, you'll at least get your cask back. Keep doing this until you see the no longer advance your skill message, around 50 or so.

Now that you're a pro at all these useful (tongue in cheek) skills it's time to try to get on with the quest. To do that:
1. In the oven in the bakery vendor area place 1 Grey Ice, 2 pond spines (can't be stacked anyway so you'll have no choice), and 1 pot and COMBINE. If you succeed you'll get a Pondfish Extract (forget exactly what it's called but it's a little test tube looking thing). If you fail you need to go back to get another Grey Ice :( This is NO DROP.
2. Go to the brew barrel. In the brew barrel place 1 extract (from #1), 1 Hopeless Willow Moss, 1 Water Flask, and 1 bottle (buy this from the brewing vendors right there) and COMBINE. If you succeed you get a Pondfish poison (again pretty sure that's what it's called but doesn't matter if you fail you'll know it and if you succeed you'll have this). This is NO DROP.
3. Take the poison to a Froglok Slave, per another posting I waited in the little ruins between the Bank and Haggle Barons by Shaman Guild for the Slaves to show up. Not sure if this works no matter where they are but after all of this I wasn't taking any chances. Anyway, trade your poison to a Froglok Slave (Toilmaster was standing there when I did it and I definitely wasn't Invis and had no probs) and it'll die. You'll see a message and notice another vial appear in your inventory so make sure you have a slot. It's called Froglok Goo.
4. Buy 2 Fire Emeralds, available in the first of the 3 small building next to the bank, mine cost me like 123pp each and head to Shaman guild master. Trade him the Froglok Goo and the 2 Fire Emeralds (I don't ever take chances so I didn't have mine stacked) and you'll get his reference.
5. Buy or make Banded Mantle (shoulder) and head to Overthere.
6. Trade the reference and mantle to the Skorp (Xlixinar Arcut) and get your very hard earned Pauldrons.

I tried my best to be as accurate as possible but, don't bet the ranch on it. If you're in doubt ask someone who's done it or read other postings for specifics. Hope this helps.

Can someone tell me what of all of these things you need for this quest are drop and no-drop? I know Grey Ice is NO DROP. Think I read someone bought the Willow Moss so that'd have to be drop. How about the results from the baking and brewing are they drop or NO DROP?

What I'm thinking is if only the Ice is NO DROP I'll find someone to pick it up, bake up the conncoction, give it to me, and I'll pass it along to a brewer who can then trade me the potion. That'll only work if the various things are tradeable.
Thx.

I completed the quest and did not require anyone to cast invis on me while making the trade to the froglok. My faction with the frogs is terrible, so i assume that the problem was fixed in a patch. I handed the potion to a slave in the ruined building while the toilmaster was present. Dont know if that makes a difference or not.

The loc of the Hill Giant Gray Ice spawn is neg276 by neg280 by pos555.

I'm a dark elf and I want all the other dark elves to know do go near the pleasent woman in freeport, she'll kill you, she 's killed me!!!

Gray Ice spawns on top of a mountain near the giant fort in Frontier Mountains at the VERY top on a boulder.