Plundering the Plunderers

Plundering the Plunderers is the 4th quest in the Find the Shattered Hand quest chain.

Objectives
Bring the Southsea Treasure back to Wrenix the Wretched in Ratchet. Do not forget to get an E.C.A.C. and Thieves' Tools from. You will need both of these items to complete your mission.

Should you be attacked by any unusually hostile parrots, use your E.C.A.C.!


 * Southsea Treasure

Description
I don't mean to scare you, &lt;name&gt;, but the last five thieves I sent to steal the southsea treasure came back to me in pieces.

South along the coast you'll find Tide Razor, the southsea freebooter's ship. Nestled in the hold is the payoff - the southsea treasure. On the second level of that ship is the pirate's den, a place where they train all of their thieves.

Board that ship, steal the treasure, and bring it back to me. Use the pirate's den if you need to practice your thievery, but be careful!

Rewards

 * 1350 XP (or at level 70)

Progress
Well, at least you still have all of your body parts. Did you find the treasure?

Completion
Incredible! Improbable! Simply amazing! You've got talent, &lt;name&gt;. Either that or you're the luckiest alive!

Here's your cut of the action. I'm sure you would make better use of this stuff than I could.

Lockpicking
This rogues' quest chain gives rogues an opportunity to increase their lock picking skill. There is a practice room on the first floor down on the ship that has a half dozen quickly respawning locked boxes to pick. You can stand and pick in rotation. The boxes have no contents, just allow skill ups. The difficulty goes green around 75, and they yield skill ups less often, but you can keep going to at least 100 if you are at least level 20 and are persistent (your character's lockpicking skill is limited to 5 × character level).

The boxes are still green at 100, but skill up rarely if at all (a recent WoWHead post claims skill ups to 105, however my attempt past 100 failed to get a skill up in 20 to 30 attempts). There is a much easier way. Down one more floor is the target chest of the quest. While you are on this quest this chest can be repeatedly picked for skill ups above 100. Opening the chest spawns, but Polly is safely behind a staircase and does not fly toward you (that was my experience, but if you stand off to the side, you may be too exposed and open to immediate attack.)

The chest has no loot and does not drop the Southsea Treasure; Polly does. You still need to pick the chest to spawn Polly. Polly is a skull level mob until you use the E.C.A.C., then Polly becomes a normal mob and can be defeated, and drops the treasure item you need.

If you failed to pick up an E.C.A.C. prior to spawning Polly, you typically cannot kill Polly by yourself at the levels for whom the quest is designed, but as long as you stay behind the staircase and Polly does not fly at you, you can hearth out safely, get an E.C.A.C. and return.

After the quest (or before), you can still pick the boxes and the final chest for skill-ups. Alliance characters can also use these boxes and the chest. The chest will not show the gear icon for picking it, instead you will have to click your lock pick icon, then click the chest with the highlighted hand cursor to pick it.

Alternately, Horde can delay killing Polly and completing the quest to keep picking the final chest just by clicking it. This will make using it for skill-ups less trouble and you will quickly outgrow it and be able to complete the quest.

Thistle Tea recipe
The Recipe: Thistle Tea reward item is a cooking recipe that teaches rogues how to brew Thistle Tea, which is an energy potion for rogues. It works instantly like a potion, and shares potion cooldown. You only have to have cooking to make it, not alchemy, so any rogue can train to use it. This is the only energy potion in the game, and one of a very few energy restorative items. Rogues will want this item, so this quest is a must-do.

E.C.A.C.
While you are on the quest, Wrenix's Gizmotronic Apparatus will give you as many E.C.A.C.s as you request, but you can carry only one at a time; in effect, it will only give you one at a time. You only need one to do the quest, but if you need a replacement, it is readily available.

Just before you turn in the quest, you can get another E.C.A.C. to replace the one you used. Since Polly will no longer respawn for you once you complete the quest, the E.C.A.C. is nearly useless afterward (TBD if you can use it if you are assisting another rogue with the quest), and can be discarded.

Thieves' Tools
The Thieves' Tools are deprecated, no longer required for picking locks, and are no longer available from the sources that supplied them. Wrenix's Gizmotronic Apparatus still has an option you can select to give you Thieves' Tools, but if you click on it, you get an error message about not being able to carry more than one of these (when you have none).

Progression

 * 1) Find the Shattered Hand
 * 2) Zando'zan (quest)
 * 3) Wrenix of Ratchet
 * 4) Plundering the Plunderers