Quick Facts

Series

1.	Better Late Than Dead
2.	The Abyssal Ride

Storyline
Vashj'ir, Kelp'thar Forest & Shimmering Expanse Call of Duty Sea Legs Pay It Forward Rest For the Weary Buy Us Some Time Traveling on Our Stomachs To Arms! Stormwind Elite Aquatic and Land Forces On Our Own Terms All or Nothing Call of Duty Sea Legs Pay It Forward Rest For the Weary Buy Us Some Time Traveling on Our Stomachs Girding Our Loins Helm's Deep Finders, Keepers Bring It On! Blood and Thunder! Better Late Than Dead The Abyssal Ride Gimme Shelter! Ain't Too Proud to Beg A Taste For Tail A Girl's Best Friend Can't Start a Fire Without a Spark Ophidophobia A Desperate Plea Oh, the Insanity! Dah, Nunt... Dah, Nunt... Shark Weak DUN-dun-DUN-dun-DUN-dun A Bone to Pick Decisions, Decisions Undersea Sanctuary Spelunking Debriefing Spelunking Debriefing Wake of Destruction Come Hell or High Water What? What? In My Gut...? What? What? In My Gut...? Decompression Decompression The Warden's Time Across the Great Divide The Looming Threat Backed Into a Corner Rundown Silver Tide Hollow The Great Sambino Undersea Inflation Totem Modification Back in One Piece Vengeful Heart Fathom-Lord Zin'jatar Nespirah Making Contact Slave Labor Stick it to Them Capture the Crab Breaking Through We Are Not Alone Hopelessly Gearless Body Blows Still Valuable Overseer Idra'kess Waking the Beast A Powerful Need To Eat Art of Attraction Odor Coater Clamming Up Bellies Await Caught Off-Guard Swift Approach An Occupation of Time A Better Vantage Upon the Scene of Battle Visions of the Past: The Invasion of Vashj'ir Capture the Crab Breaking Through We Are Not Alone Hopelessly Gearless Body Blows Still Valuable Overseer Idra'kess Waking the Beast Shelled Salvation Crafty Crabs Something Edible Caught Off-Guard Swift Approach An Occupation of Time A Better Vantage Upon the Scene of Battle Visions of the Past: The Invasion of Vashj'ir Reoccupation The Revered Lady To the Fathom-Lord's Call Built to Last Not Soon Forgotten Looking Forward Clear Goals Not Entirely Unprepared Properly Inspired Swift Action Fallen But Not Forgotten Gauging Success Visions of the Past: The Slaughter of Biel'aran Ridge Looking Forward Clear Goals Not Entirely Unprepared Properly Inspired Swift Action Fallen But Not Forgotten Gauging Success Visions of the Past: The Slaughter of Biel'aran Ridge By Her Lady's Word No Trespass Forgiven Stolen Property Chosen Burden The Culmination of Our Efforts Losing Ground Desperate Plan Hostile Waters Come Prepared Unfurling Plan Honor and Privilege Welcome News Visions of the Past: Rise from the Deep Losing Ground Desperate Plan Hostile Waters Come Prepared Unfurling Plan Honor and Privilege Welcome News Visions of the Past: Rise from the Deep Her Lady's Hand At All Costs Devout Assembly Final Judgment A Breath of Fresh Air Full Circle A Breath of Fresh Air Full Circle

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by asmodai

This quest got changed in the latest build.

The manta got replaced by a Subdued Abyssal Seahorse (not in db yet).

Comment by 633672

But question is where do you turn this in at because where the ? is on the map there is no one there

Comment by PrefeX

In case anyone have trouble with starting this quest:

There are a lot of quests in this zone that uses ropes, and be aware that you do NOT get either a rope nor lure in your bag from this quest. What you have to do, is click the rope you got the quest from, and then you get a "talk" option that will start the quest event.

Also, should you fail, the nice members from "The Earthen Ring" come to you, and port you back to the start area when you talk to them. This will save you a lot of swimming time.

Comment by Marathol

Is this the first of underwater mounts? Or is it going to be the only one and these forms of mounts won't exist? I'm curious.

Comment by Jaganmata

The rope can be found behind the huge snail-shell the quest-giver is standing in front of. Just on the edge of the abyss.

Comment by XQWZETS

Anyone know if Blizzard is planning to increase speed of Sea Turtle while in Vashj'ir? It would be awesome...

Comment by troelala

you don't use the keyboard for left or right or straight ahead.. you click the buttons on the screen or use the numbers 1-3. Don't use the usual A-W-D. Sounds obvious, but took me some tries to figure it out.

Comment by brallinoth

After trying this like 10 times, finally got it. Best way is to actually spam the number keys, (1)=left, (2)=up, (3)=right. Good luck.

Comment by bloodarrow

To help my fellow horde brothers and sisters tame their Subdued Abyssal Seahorse, I scrapped together all of the quest chains that should be completed. All of these quests may not be required, but completing each quest chain appears to be. Enjoy.

Chain# 1
A Personal Summons
The Eye of the Storm
Warchief's Command: Vashj'ir!
To the Depths
Call of Duty
Sea Legs
Pay It Forward
Rest For the Weary

Chain #2
Pay Attention!
Buy Us Some Time
Traveling on Our Stomachs
Helm's Deep
Girding Our Loins
Finders, Keepers
Bring It On!
Blood and Thunder!

Chain #3
Better Late Than Dead
Sea-Food Chain
The Abyssal Ride

Comment by 358663

Be sure to dismiss your non combat pet before clicking the rope, or your seahorse will not spawn.

Comment by RCanine

This one took me fifteen minutes to figure out how to mount the thing. I think there might be some bugs related to add-ons here, as my seahorse continually despawned immediately after appearing, and when I'd click on one nothing would happen.

Comment by 48286

Dismiss non combat pets and ALSO disable any mod that auto summons a non combat pet. The bait is considered a non combat pet.

Comment by Pewhonor

It says that this is part of a series starting with Better Late Than Dead, but i couldnt see the quest giver until I finished the Blood and Thunder! quest. I think you actually have to do pretty much every quest you can once you enter the zone, ending with Blood and Thunder! to be able to even see the quest giver.

Comment by ravenbloodd

how you do this i cant get it

Comment by depizan

The Earthen Ring guy doesn't always show up (but it is launch day).

One little tip that might help to know is - you need to repeatedly press whichever button it's telling you to press. That isn't clear from the quest text or wasn't to me, anyway.

Comment by Abiwho

This took forever for me to figure out, I hope this can save you a lot of trouble.
Do NOT spam 2 (grip), only hit the buttons that they tell you to when they tell you to, otherwise you get thrown. I failed easily 10 times before I figured that out, then it was a breeze and actually kind of fun :-)

Comment by 33464

"Use" the coil of rope at the edge of the abyss just a few metres from the quest giver. A seahorse will arrive from the right side in about 5 seconds. Nudge forward a bit, to where the bait is, and you should be in range to Mount the seahorse when it arrives.

Once you've successfully mounted (it may take a few tries, including re-using the coil of rope), get your fingers on the 1, 2, and 3 keys.

The seahorse will start swimming on its own. Once under way, you will start getting orders to use one of the 3 controls - the orders are flashed in top centre of the screen. Orders will include a large icon of the arrow, and clear instructions, such as and "Lean LEFT", for example.

Strike the correct key ONCE, IMMEDIATELY, and you will get immediate feedback, saying, "well done", "perfect" or some such thing. Another order will come in a few seconds. There are about 10 to 20 commands given as you run a circular course, and then you'll be dropped, with a completion alert.

Arlique
The Giddy Gamer

Comment by nrgz

Yeah just make sure you hit or click the button directions ..... etc 1,2,3 ... not the keypad arrows like i did lol. No need to spam em. Just takes about a minute of riding the seahorse to get the seahorse mount. GL :)

Comment by dbl2010

When you mount seahorse, your action bar changes. It shows left, right and arrow button and 1,2,3 assigned respectively. This is why u need to press 1-2-3.

Comment by 236142

So, if you have a custom UI addon running you may need to disable it for this quest to work.

Once you mount the dang seahorse, you should see a tool bar with the three arrows that should show up in the middle of the bottom of your screen. hit those (or 1 2 3) and you'll be golden.

I know this sounds like wow 101, but it took me a few tries hitting the arrow keys before trying to disable my UI. Good luck!

Comment by zapiks44

This quest is very similar to the horsebreaking feature from Red Dead Redemption. If you've played that game, this quest should be a joke for you :)

Comment by 64664

There seems to be a bug a the end of the quest. When you dismount the seahorse your toon will zoom in, and unable to zoom out. Also the zoom-out button doesn't work anymore then.

Comment by ShamanofAlleria

The order in case anyone was wondering is:
Up; Right; Left; Right; Up; Left; Right; Left; Left; Right; Right; Left; Right; Left; Up; Left; Left; Right; Up
Please comment if i made a mistake, i'm 90% sure that is right sequence though

Comment by Rhonlynn

Thanks to everyone, here on Wowhead, I disabled my custom UI, and the quest worked. Just like a mounting quest. you hit up, right or left, once, when it says to. I saw a guild member who apparently doesn't read here on Wowhead. she has noncombatible pets out constantly. She is still struggling. The quest works but I needed to read up on it.

Comment by SpareSimian

I made Seahorse Kungaloosh! (The quests are very similar in style.)

Comment by 541959

for someone who played jericho before, this quest is no brainer

Comment by Kaotac

I don't know if this would work for anyone else, but I used folded paper to cover up the top, left and right sides of my monitor so I could zone in on the instructions. I'd tried like 50 times before that, but once I did it I got it on my second.
Other people's brains might not work the same way, but I found the lack of other visual distractions increased my hand/eye coordination just that little bit to make a difference.

Comment by 267801

Shallow's End and Smuggler's Hole quest chain

1. Better Late Than Dead 2. Gimme Shelter!
2. The Abyssal Ride 3. Ain't Too Proud to Beg A Case of Crabs
| |
| |
.---------------------------.
|
.------------------------------------------------.
| | |
Can't Start a Fire Without a Spark A Girl's Best Friend A Taste For Tail
| \
.---------------. \ The Horde's Hoard
| | \
Ophidophobia Nerve Tonic .---> Oh, the Insanity!
| (Starts Budd's Dig quest line)
A Desperate Plea
(Starts Holding Pens quest line)

Comment by Gladiaattori

I can only say LoL at people who cant do this in 1st try.

quote from randoms "I tryed to do this over 10 times.."

Comment by jmiles82

If you are having trouble keep in mind that you do NOT HOLD DOWN the 1,2 or 3 keys - you simply press them and immediately release them - like you were typing. It is confusing because the direction arrows stay shown for a considerable length of time and can make it confusing...

Comment by 0rpheous

wow this quest sucks just as badly as the jousting quest. I wonder if the same person came up with both the suckyness parallels that of the jousting quest. Don't tell me there are two people with this sick sense of whats fun.

Comment by tresrottn

I was struggling (after a bazillion tries, ok 15), and completely frustrated (cause I have the dang zoomed up screen now) till I read;

"Strike the correct key ONCE, IMMEDIATELY, and you will get immediate feedback, saying, "well done", "perfect" or some such thing."

I followed those instructions. As soon as I saw the arrow, I hit it, saw the praise, then waited for the next instruction.

Got it on the first run :)

Thank you!

Comment by Whiterock

<<Feedback here, please>>

Comment by Kaileybird

The order is:
2313213113313121132

Comment by 817029

OK. UGH! I had a rough time with this one. The 1,2,3 and arrows and ASD... none worked for me. Finally I took the slow route and just clicked in the arrows with the mouse and it went through the first time I tried. If your having trouble with the keys try the mouse. You'll know if it is working because the screen will say "Good" or Well Done" as you go. If it says "Your loosing your grip" (or something similar) then the keys arent working for you. Good luck.

Comment by 521647

since there's just too many nubs here that don't know the reason for databases and think they are just here to help brag that they found the place or whatever and kick'd ass i'll help you all out,

the quest giver for is litterally 10 yards away from where you need to be, go west from quest giver 10 yards to the cliff top and find the rope, click it then wait for a seahorse to appear from the right, wait by the rope an then mount the horse when it gets close and then following the directional arrows on screen click 1, 2 or 3 accordingly remembering 1=left, 2=up and 3=right.

i really wish there had been ppl using brains when explaining this quest in the past, then i'd have not spent 25 minutes tryin to find where i needed to be to find the seahorse

Comment by wharris

Guide to Vash'jir Kelp'thar Forest Alliance Quests:

Optional Pre-quests:
A Personal Summons and Eye of the Storm
Either Into the Abyss: or Hero's Call: Vashj'ir

Main chain:
Call of Duty
Sea Legs (At any time, kill a Slitherfin eel to start Once More, with Eeling)
Pay it Forward
Rest for the Weary
Buy Us Some Time & Travelling on Our Stomachs
(Be sure to kill a Sabreclaw Skitterer to get Crumpled Treasure Map which starts Kliklak's Craw)
To Arms! and Stormwind Elite Aquatic and Land Forces
On Our Own Terms
All or Nothing
Better Late than Dead
The Abyssal Ride
Good Deed Left Undone (optional)
Gimme Shelter! (also unlocks A Case of Crabs)
Ain't Too Proud to Beg
(which also unlocks A Girl's Best Friend and A Taste for Tail)
This is a convenient time to do The Horde's Hoard, which starts
from Tattered Treasure Map, dropped by Clacksnap Pincer

Next comes Can't Start a Fire Without a Spark

This allows for the optional quest Nerve Tonic, and the optional Bud Chain:

Around this time, kill Gilblin Collectors and hope
Lady La-La's necklace drops for Lady La-La's Medallion. There are conflicting reports of what quests are needed for the item to drop.
This is also a good time to kill Gilblingle for waterlogged journal which starts Blackfin's Booty.

The main chain continues:
Ophidophobia
A Desparate Plea
Undersea Sanctuary
Spelunking
Debriefing
Wake of Destruction
(also unlocks What? What? In My Gut...? and Decompression)
Come Hell or High Water (While in naga camp, pick up How Disarming)
The Warden's Time is auto-given when Come Hell or High Water auto-completes
Across the great Divide leads to the Shimmering Expanse chain.

Don't forget to group up or come back at 85 for
An Opened Can of Whoop Gnash

Comment by 778141

This quest is MAJORLY bugged. I had done it 3 times in the past and today I was doing it on a new alt and it wasn't working at all. The sea horses take the bait but then throw you off. Very annoying.

Comment by 894250

Use the mouse to click on the arrows or use the numbers as spoken

Comment by Aislar

as of 1/12/2012 the quest works perfectly fine.

you don't need to spam the left (1), up (2), or right (3) keys.

and yes, it's much easier to use the keyboard than to click with your mouse :P

Comment by Etreum

Very simple, but IF you have severe lag / latency, you will fail!

I had done this quest on many toons before and with my latest one, I kept failing.

I checked my game menu stats and I noticed my latency had gone up to 500ms! This was happening (I assume) because I was installing Warcraft on my laptop at the same time I was playing on my PC (I have 15 Mbps and an average 20 ms ping to servers @ blizzard).

I exited both, logged back in, and guess what? Simple as it could be.

I am an 'old' dude. Nice to know, I am still not losing my mind (or all of it anyway).

Moral of the story.... If you think you are doing everything right and still failing, check your latency!

Comment by 924595

LOL, make sure to use the numbers instead of the arrow keys! i made that mistake, being my stupid self and it took me atleast 10 tries to figure out my mistake.

Comment by 985728

I can't do it. I've checked latency and tried all the suggestions on this thread. I can't do it.

Comment by 786243

When completing this quest, I never seemed to have gotten a Subdued Seahorse - I got an Abyssal Seahorse instead.

Comment by ShadowAndFlame68

What a hidden gem! I came to this place cuz I was bored in Q for AV, and not only is it beautiful here, swimming is fun and then you get This little guy! I wish domehow it could be used on land, i wanna ride this everywhere
Unshakable!

Comment by KrazieFox

As someone else says ...

DON'T USE THE ARROW KEYS ON YOUR KEYBOARD ...

use 1, 2 & 3 Keys ...

Comment by 1090314

you've fished up a sea turtle from a Northrend school, it's equally fast, and you can use it as soon as you arrive, and not wait for the seahorse quest. (Druids can use their swim form.)

Comment by MabStark

The quest was easy enough, I'm just confused as to where the sea horse WENT once it appeared in my inventory only to be gone as soon as I clicked on it. Anyone else having this issue?

Comment by MsPhelix

Ok, so here's my take on this quest, which I had to do 5-6 times before I succeeded:
Use the number keys 1, 2 , 3. when told to lean left, hang on, or lean right (nice big message in center of screen with image of arrow - we've seen this before).
Pressing each key once is enough; you can take a second or two to make sure you press the correct one.
You can make ONE mistake; if you press the wrong key, quickly press the correct key; if you make a second mistake, you fail.
If you fail, the quest giver appears near and says "Oh let me help you try again" or something (I'm actually not sure he appeared every time I failed) and you're returned to the rope to try again - that takes a few seconds, be patient.

Comment by 1116215

As of today, 5/15/13, I was unable to complete this quest using any keyboard keys (arrow, number, or above the letters). It worked fine with clicking the mouse on the icons.

Comment by stacyeLeigh

This one drove me crazy. If it makes any difference to anyone else... I could not use the side number key pad. I tried it with num lock on and off... I finally used the normal number keys at the top and worked perfect. Actually really easy. Hit the numbers "One" time (don't hold down or repeat click)

Comment by bebita

The Abyssal Ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpBbACszYCk

Comment by WoWGnGP

I made i playthrough of this quest if anyone wish to see how to do it :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVL8L-ZS03E&feature=youtu.be

Comment by Thieonos

I did this quest today with one of my alts that I am leveling up to 100. I never had this problem before when doing this quest. This may have already been mentioned but it is possible for the quest to bug or whatever. The seahorse may just go very slowly and not speed up as it is supposed to.

After jumping on the seahorse the quest is supposed to tell you to do a left, right or up command and the seahorse should make an obvious increase in the speed it is travelling, if the seahorse just keeps going very slowly and you are not getting any commands to perform then the quest bugged and you need to right click on the seahorse icon in the upper left of the screen and dismiss the seahorse. Then you will need to go back and use the rope to lure another seahorse to try it again.

Comment by Boxofbeer

The Abyssal Ride http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxJMQeQ_geg

Comment by mudplayerx

Do NOT set up the lure a second time. Just wait for the seahorse and get on it. If you set up the lure a second time and jump on the 1st seahorse it just swims for about 3-5 minutes and dumps you off with no completion of the quest.

Comment by Dad11

After my 14th time of going through this quest, I finally noticed what it reminded me of. 1964 Beach Boys "Little Honda". All the leaning and "hold on tight". I'm thinking, Thanks again, Blizzard. Also, slightly faster (371% compared to Druid Travel Form 337%), but if you have not seen a druid in travel form on a fishing raft spamming the space bar, you ain't seen nothing yet. 2 min 45 sec to go around Timeless Isle. Druids rule ! !

Comment by dangerman

I have done this quest many times before but this time I could not complete the second part - taming. The first part was no problem and then I went on a very slow boring ride - never turning right or left or going up.

After the third failure, I realized that the problem was that I had the Vashj'ir Seahorse as a mount on one of my action bars. I had been using the mount before I had completed the quest.

If you have the same problem as I had, simply remove the seahorse from your action bar and you should be able to complete the quest.

Have fun. and don't forget to add the seahorse back to your action bar :)

Comment by Saxbeck

The abyssal seahorse has changed name to Vasji'r Seahorse if you can't find it in your mount journal

Comment by bigunde

A video of the quest The Abyssal Ride
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2G07RwD2I

Comment by Icesabar

OMG...I did this for about 10 minutes before i figured out what i was doing wrong. I was using 1-2-3 keys on my side keypad on my keyboard and i kept getting 'your losing your grip',, I changed to number keys at the top of the board, bingo no troubles. Maybe this onfo will help a few of your.

Comment by Akaihiryuu

For any class that has a pet (hunter, warlock, frost mage, unholy DK), MAKE SURE you dismiss your pet before you click on the seahorse. If you do not, then it will bug out and just swim slowly around without bringing up the vehicle bar, and you will have to hearth to get un-stuck.

Comment by Catoria

Glitched. I saw another player use the rope to get the seahorse to show up - the rope is not interactive for me. I tried logging in and out, leaving and returning to the zone, dropping and picking up the quest: Nada.

Comment by drpimento

This thing is still kind of glitchy. First time tonight on this alt after I mounted the first time, I only got partial instructions - that is only one arrow display telling me which way to go and using the keyboard in any configuration is tedious at best. I last did this on another alt a month or two ago and vaguely recalled clicking on the sparkling rope (as opposed to what has previously been recommended) get on the mount; the second time I got the correct display which is the three arrows which you use your MOUSE to interact with. I placed the pointer on the central UP arrow so that if I had to go left or right the travel time to either is minimal and if it's up, I'm on it. Works well for me.

Comment by ClasscMalcontent

The Abyssal Seahorse was renamed the Vashj'ir Seahorse.

If you previously learned it you can re-learn it or cast it using the command below.

/cast Vashj'ir Seahorse

If your character never learned the seahorse you will need to complete the quest chain in Vashj'ir.

Comment by Clockknight

So, this was an issue that kept me from completing this quest for a while, but if you're also having issues, this should help.

When you find the rope and interact with it, do not interact with it again. Just go straight to the seahorse. If your UI has not changed, you've done something wrong.

Comment by Metoda

Updated video of this quest :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Tk9lwjME8

Links

The Abyssal Ride

Lure and subdue an Abyssal Seahorse.

	Tie off the seahorse lure (1)
	Subdue an Abyssal Seahorse (1)

Description

If you are going to be making it anywhere in this kelp forest, we need to get you a reliable mount. I think I've come up with a better plan than the sea turtle, and it's not far.

Tie off a lure at the rope just west of us, and then mount the seahorse that it will attract.

Be warned, you may need to work hard to break the beast.

Completion

Rewards

You will receive:

	Vashj'ir Seahorse

Gains

Upon completion of this quest you will gain:

350 reputation with The Earthen Ring

See if you've already completed this by typing:

/run print(C_QuestLog.IsQuestFlaggedCompleted(25371))

Guides

A Month in the Maelstrom: Farming Cataclysm Mounts and Pets The Littlest Mountain: A collector's overview of EVERY Mount and Pet in the game!