Rise of the Silithid quest chain . . . wherein you investigate the infestations of insect life arising in Tanaris , and find a threat to all Azeroth . This series of quests is available to both Horde and Alliance ; the differences being to whom you report the news . Also note that there is a level gap between and temporarily unavailable . Part 1 : Rise of the Silithid . Senior Surveyor Fizzledowser is looking for assistants to go looking for water sources for Gadgetzan . It seems that the nomads have been seizing all the wells , and he is looking to find more water sources . The pay sounds good , the work easy , so you volunteer . Fizzledowser hands you a dowsing widget , and asks you to head to a pool near the troll - held Sandsorrow Watch . You find the pool . Carefully avoiding the trolls , you use the dowser . But your sampling is interrupted by a couple of pony - sized insects burrowing out of the ground at your disturbance . You return with the dowsing results . Fizzledowser apologizes for not mentioning the possibility of the insects , as he had thought them mere inventions of the nomads to cover their water thefts . Now he knows better . And knowing your foe is the first step to being able to control or defeat a threat . Fizzledowser asks you to go to the Noxious Lair and bring back enough parts for Alchemist Pestlezugg to investigate . While you can get plenty of parts ( carefully - those are bad bugs ) , getting " useful " parts take a bit longer . Still , you manage it . You return with the parts to the alchemist , who tells you that Fizzledowser has had some emergency come up that he ' d like your help with . The analysis will take some time anyway ; you have time . Fizzledowser , it turns out , had sent his top assistant , one Junior Surveyor Scrimshank , out to Gaping Chasm , and he ' s gone missing . Fizzledowser would like you to go out and find out what happened to him . Rescue him if he ' s still alive , or at least retrieve his equipment . You don ' t find sign of him anywhere on the surface , so you head into the nest . Quite some distance in , you find what is left of his survey equipment , where the bugs probably stored it . You return the survey equipment to Fizzledowser . He asks you to check in with Alchemist Pestlezugg to see if he ' s got results from those parts you gave him . He does indeed , it turns out . Those results seem to confirm that the bugs are being controlled by some outside force , and a pretty malign one at that . Pestlezugg insists that Fizzledowser needs to see this immediately . Not only that , but he feels you should show the report to anyone you can get to sit down and read it . The threat , he says , is not only to Tanis and Gadgetzan , but to all of Southern Kalimdor , possibly to the whole of Azeroth . Sharing ( for free ) does not come naturally to Senior Surveyor Fizzledowser , but Pestlezugg is a long time associate , and he trusts the alchemist ' s judgement . The Senior Surveyor urges you to take the report to a scholar who has studied this sort of thing . The scholar you are sent to agrees with Fizzledowser , that this threat is real and serious , to both Alliance AND Horde . They even have a name for it : Silithid . Part 2 : March of the Silithid . Your scholar contact asks you to return to Alchemist Pestlezugg in Gadgetzan and relay to him that he believes the direction is coming from Un ' Goro Crater . Pestlezugg is very glad for your experience fighting the Silithid . He ' s a little less sure that Un ' goro is the ultimate source , but it ' s a start . The alchemist asks you to venture into Un ' Goro and retrieve an intact scent gland from one of the Silithid , as well as several samples of the native Un ' Goro soil . He believes that if the Queen can be drawn out of hiding and slain , the rest of the hive will be disrupted . The soil you find easily enough . Clods of it stick to your shoes all the time . The scent gland is a bit more difficult , as the process of killing the bug often renders the gland unusable . Still , you manage , and return with the parts . Pestlezugg brews up the lure and advises you on how to use it . Somewhere in the hive , he says , is a crystal that they use for communication . Putting the lure near the crystal should draw the queen - and her bodyguards - out where you can get to her . You venture into The Slithering Scar in Un ' Goro Crater , and find a hive much smaller than either of the ones you found earlier . You find the crystal Pestlezugg mentioned fairly easily and lay out the lure . As hoped for , the queen comes out . And as predicted , a number of bodyguards accompany her . With some assistance , you finally manage to dispatch them . As requested , you slice out the queen ' s brain , and bring it back to Pestlezugg for analysis . Alchemist Pestlezugg puts together another report , on the events in Un ' Goro , and asks you to return to your scholar with it , and asks you to pass on the request for more aid . . . . and disconcertingly , the scholars on both sides are similarly frustrated . The leadership of both the Horde " and " the Alliance are so fixated , each upon the other , that they are almost certain to ignore this threat . Your scholar contact thanks you , but warns that you are certain to be called upon again some time soon , to assist against the Silithid further . The results from your foray show that instead of being directed from Un ' Goro , there exists a far stronger presence elsewhere . In the mean time , she presents you with a note to take to an agent at the bank . You present the note , and are given an item from the scholar ' s vault as a token of gratitude . Rewards . Over the course of the chain , you earn amazing amounts of faction : You also earn Notes . This chain introduces you to plot line of Silithus , a region where the insects have built great nests and the Cenarion Circle struggles to maintain even a minimal base there .