Quasi, that jousting quest in the cavern is intentionally designed to make the mounts difficult to control. The whole quest line is an homage to the old 1980s-era video game Joust; even down to the erratic flapping and difficult movement control.
I’m pretty sure the jousting quest is completely optional - it doesn’t lead to any new quest lines.
You do get a companion pet out of it, though.
And if you have the patience to repeat it 10 more times as a daily, you get another companion pet out of that.
On my pet-collection-junkie main, it was a Godsend. Still 5 short of Littlest Pet Shop. Too bad I seem to have run out of non-farming, non-buying options.
That’s the story. I just did this with a fresh-minted 85 mage about a week ago.
I don’t think the visit to the Earthen Ring guy is even necessary. If you can find Thrall in a little clearing south of the main building under Nordrassil, I think you can start the main part of the chain there.
An in-game friend asked had I “unlocked” the Thrall chain in Mt Hyal, so I thought i had to complete all the Hyjal quests before I could do the Thrall one.
Thanks
Q
Oh. That’s a good point. This is in Hyjal, isn’t it.
That place is phased all to hell and back. I always did Hyjal first on all my toons as part of the normal grind-to-85, so I don’t know whether the Thrall chain is available if you haven’t finished the normal Hyjal chain to at least a degree of completion.
I know that the Molten Front dailies aren’t available until Hyjal is transitioned beyond a certain point (Aessina’s Miracle turned in, I believe).
That said, I think the flying jousting quests aren’t required for the main questline to get to the point where the Molten Front becomes available, so that’s one less annoyance.
Q you will have to have completed Guardians of Hyjal: Call of the Ancients to be able to carry on the Thrall quest in Hyjal.
The part I’m most proud of is that I did it with only 2 Argent Tourney mounts and 1 free TCG mount.
Hey, Y’all!
I’ve moved to The Firelands Invasion! is that good, or do I still have a long way to go. Apparently I have finished that Alessia quest. man! That one’s a doozie, as far as length is concerned, but really easy to do.
Q
“Look Anren! Wolkenlaufre has come!”
“Here I come to save the day! That means that Wolkenlaufre’s on the way!”
Sorry, Andy Kaufman and the guy who wrote the tune! 
Q
Only just saw this. Gratz my friend! I think once I get done with Firelands, I’ll go back to Argent and try the joust again. After all, the LAST time I tried, I was totally clueless about how it worked. Maybe this time I can do better! 
Quasi
I just re-subbed recently for MoP! So far, I’ve been restraining my playing habits better than I was capable of in the past. The time off really helped me get some perspective, so I hope I’ll do better at time-management from now on. I don’t just sit around Org jumping in circles when I’m bored anymore, I log out of the game and do something else. <marthastewart>It’s a good thing.</marthastewart>
Quasi, your character looks *really *good! (both visually and item-level-wise) I’m not really working on improving in that regard anymore, though. I’m in full 378 PVE gear, which will allow me to cruise through MoP quests. Further gear improvement would just be a waste of time and money, so instead I’ve dedicated myself to getting ready for the expansion. I’m collecting heirlooms for the mistweaver panda monk I intend to roll (got her name reserved too: Monkyaround, hehe). I hope I don’t end up hating monk healing, because I intend to level her exclusively by healing dungeons. I plan to get all the intellect heirloom pieces, so if I hate healing I’m kinda screwed. I don’t *think *I’ll hate it, since I’ve got all the healing classes at 85 and I liked them all well enough. But I’m not in the beta or anything, so I can’t test their playstyle out prior to launch day. Anyway, since monks can fulfill all three roles, I imagine there will be a crapload of people running low-level dungeons for the first couple months. It should be a quick trek to 80 and beyond. But that’s just a side project; I think my resto druid will stay my main, unless monks turn out to be so fabulous that I switch. I’m *really *happy with all the druid changes I’ve read about so far: I’ll be able to go boomchicken without looking like a mad red moonbeast, I can be an orca underwater instead of a mutated manatee, I can be a permanent tree again(!!!), and I can turn into a stag that party members can ride! If only I could hang some fuzzy dice on my antlers… 
Also, I’m kind of a transmogrification junkie. I got a really beautiful staff from Sunwell the other day. It has its own glow, so I don’t have to see my ugly power torrent ever again! 
I took some screenshots of the outfits I’ve collected so far: there’s the epically druidy antlers, the minimalistic nekid harness, and the reddish-purple pimp suit. =) Fortunately, with short boots and a high loincloth, it’s perfectly possible for a troll to look like he’s not wearing either pants or shoes. I luvit!
… for 2k HP from the Mount Quartermaster in Old Town. Guess what her name is? ;). Got some Hyjal quests to finish so I guess I will be working on those for a while to prevent burnout.
Also, what’s new on the musical front for WoW? I’m always looking for new/funny songs as they relate to the game and quests, etc.
Rachelellogram, thanks for the compliments!
Thanks
Q
Quasi, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this guy, but Spiffworld sets a bunch of funny songs written by Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm to videos made using World of Warcraft. It’s outstanding stuff. And hilarious.
Found them! The first one, Aquaman’s Lament has me hooked, so I’m gonna listen to the rest in the morning. Thanks, **Headrush042[/B!
Quasi]
Be sure to listen to “Re: Your Brains” (and watch the video!) IMO it’s his best.
Another suggestion is Cranius–check out “Big Blue Dress” (funny) and “Darrowshire” (serious, very well done, and especially good if you have quested in the Eastern Plaguelands and done the “Pamela” quest chain.)
Sorry for lack of links–doing this in a hurry on an iPad.
NP, info. I think I have heard about the one in Darrowshire where the singer mentions the little gir’s “Dolly”? I also like the one where the singer sounds like Johnny Cash, gets called away to the phone and a Horde beats him all the way back to a level one!
jayjay! I hope you’re doing well and keeping up with your PT. I imagine that stuff can be very difficult and mine and D’s “Good Vibrations” are heading your way. D says to tell you hello and thanks for keeping me out of trouble! 
Your bud,
Quasi
I’ve posted most of these before, but it’s been a while. Here are some of my favorite WoW videos:
Greyfoo writes some wonderful original songs and makes brilliant videos to go with them:
Spacebar Clown
Stupid Hair
Archaeology
Moonglade Beat
Dead and Loving It
Happy Patch Day
Sentinel Hill (this one’s a tearjerker)
My Baby’s a Quest NPC is hilarious
And my favorite, Exodar Disco
Cranius is simply awesome:
Big Blue Dress
Don’t Make Me Get My Main
Darrowshire
Wrought (Not his own song, but he and Legs made the most incredible video for it. The band, Peratus, are friends of his.)
Happy Place is a lot of fun
I’m sad because all the mail sets are butt ugly. I have a male nelf hunter that I want to look foresty, but all the nice sets for that are druid leathers.