Did you miss in Pandaria?: Lost treasure of Old Man Thistle
As we reach the end of the Mists era, it's a great time to finish up some of the achievements and questlines we may have missed. Like the Pinch King, this questline is hidden. No marker indicates it. But you are given clues.
Once Fish Fellreed gets to know you better, she will tell you the story of Old Man Thistle, a farmer who found a secret cave full of treasure. It collapsed behind him after his mushan Bobo smashed through a wall, but he drew a map to its location. Unfortunately, the location of the map, like the cave, has been forgotten.
In order to start the questline, you need to be exalted with the Tillers faction and Best Friends with all of the Halfhill Market characters. You'll know you're done when the Friends on the Farm achievement pops up.
There's no quest for this, but you should head to Cattail Lake and hunt the Enormous Cattail Grouper. Be careful, though -- he's big enough to swallow you whole. (These groupers are also the target of the Gift for Haohan daily.) If you meet the requirements, the grouper will drop an Old Map and launch you on a brief but lucrative adventure.
Old Man Thistle scrawled a cryptic message on the back of the map:
Deep in the valley where four winds blow,
The maiden laughs behind her golden fan.
At the feet of her ancestors' stair,
She whispers secrets into the echoing dark.
Fish is thrilled when you turn the map in to her. But she doesn't understand the message. She suggests you consult the townspeople to decipher the clues.
They aren't particularly helpful, but they do put you in the right direction at least: north. Fish sends you to find Old Man Thistle's Treasure.
The actual cave is located behind rocks and trees northwest of Fish's dock. She marks it on your map and appears when you reach it. If you click on the cave-in, you'll uncover the entrance and can venture inside.
Why did it have to be spiders?
Like many caves on Azeroth, this one is a popular spider hangout. They hit harder than your typical 90 mob, but nothing you can't handle if you're careful not to aggro too many at once. Don't step on their eggs, Leeroy.
A spider of unusual size with the dubious moniker of Echoweb Toxiclaw guards the actual treasure chest. Along with several acid attacks, she'll try to web you in place and then cause a cave-in on top of you. Jump to free yourself and move out of the falling rocks. As a bonus for hunters, she has a unique striking green skin and is tameable.
Once you defeat her, you can loot Old Man Thistle's Treasure. The item contains
100 gold
One of each uncut rare gem
One Primal Diamond
And has a chance to drop
The treasure's not everything that Fish hyped it up to be, but it's still a pretty good haul. You also find Old Man Thistle's Almanac, which contains detailed notes on his farming techniques and the local plants of the valley.
Halfhill's secret
For the final quest, you turn in the almanac to Seedkeeper Shing Sing. But where is she? You won't find her if you just fly to the pinpoint on Wowhead.
To the left of Stonecarver Mac's house and behind it, you'll see bushes along the side of the hill. Behind those bushes is an entrance to a secret cave inside Halfhill, where Shing Sing resides. She'll thank you for the almanac to the tune of 20 gold. You'll also receive the achievement Ain't Lost No More.
FYI, if you tried to complete this quest shortly after Mists launched, it was broken at that point. It has since been fixed.
