Post by Athenna on Jun 20, 2007 14:27:09 GMT -5
WALKTHROUGH
Map: Map: www.acmaps.com/map.php?id=02B7
People need to gather for the quest at the Cathedral of Itheanc. One way is to grab a tie to the Small Temples at (75S, 97.5E), which is the closest tiable dungeon. The run to the Cathedral (82.4S, 93.4E) from this dungeon will be tricky, however.
Another alternative is the run from the Jungle Shadows dungeon ("New Sub") at (69.3S, 94.5E). The run is a bit longer, but Jungle Shadows is a popular place to which to tie on the Vesayen Isles.
When you arrive at the Cathedral, take the stairs up. The portal is at the top of the Cathedral, and requires some jumping. Take the stairs at the back of the Cathedral to the second floor, and go outside to the rear; turn left and go up the marble ramp. From the top, you can jump to the ledge at the outside of the Cathedral on the third floor. Jump down inside, and go to the front end of the third floor. The portal is right above your head, and if you do a shift-jump you'll hit it dead on.
The Dungeon: Buff I
The entrance is semi-hot: you won't be physically attacked unless someone has stirred up the monsters, but you will be in range of Wisp drains. You want to buff outside, accordingly.
You'll portal in facing a ramp leading down to the north. Send a melee wall down to the bottom of the ramp to pull in Sclavus and Moarsmen. This is a convenient test of your ability to handle this dungeon; if you can take the first wave of critters you'll be just fine. After the first rush, clear the rest of the second level. Note the unpickable locked doors to the north and south -- getting past these doors is the central theme of the dungeon.
Once the second level is cleared, simply proceed downwards. The dungeon spirals downward, with the ramps in the center, like a deranged parking garage of doom. Partway down, you'll pass a door called Vault Door. Ignore this and keep going.
At the very bottom, you'll find a locked door. The difficulty is 322. Weaken Lock, let the lockpicker at it, and move on. You'll go down a winding corridor and ramp and find a room at the bottom with a lever, two Putrid Moarsmen, and a grate. Behind the grate there are a bunch more Putrids and an Affliction Wisp. Allow everyone to work off their bloodthirst by killing everything in sight even though you don't need to.
This is an excellent point to rebuff, and you should have been able to get there in the course of one set of level V buffs, so when everything is dead, rebuff. Hint: tell people to kneel or move to the ramp going up when they're done buffing, so you can tell who's ready and who's not.
The Dungeon: Buff II
Once you're done buffing, the person/people who volunteered to hold the first lever will stay behind while everyone else sprints back to the second floor. Chances are you won't hit respawn until you get to the second floor. Note that this is a good place for stragglers or dead people to rejoin the party.
Once everyone's at the second floor, clear the second floor spawn and gather in front of the southern door. The leader should now instruct the leverman to pull the lever. The door will open and remain open for 30 seconds. The lever puller should wait until everyone's through the door, just in case he has to pull the lever again; after everyone's through, he should run back up to the second floor and hang out in front of the northern door.
The main bulk of the party proceeds down one level. Have melees using jewelry and clothing for their buffs go first, to trigger the dispel trap on the ramp down. You'll come to a large open space with a structure in the center. There are two levers in the structure; there are also Stamina and Mana Blight traps at the entrances into said structure.
Once the area is clear, the main group should proceed back up the ramp to the door. The second lever person/people, waiting in the structure, should then pull both levers and everyone should run like bunnies through the southern door and to the northern door and through it. This may get tricky if you've putzed around and allowed the second floor to respawn, so try and be quick about all this. This is also the second and last place that stragglers and dead people can rejoin the party. Once you're past the northern door, kill anything in that room and rebuff.
The Dungeon: Buff III
You will now need to pick another door to proceed further. You know the drill; Weaken Lock, lockpicker works, everyone's happy. You can let the lockpicker die without worrying now. (Joke!)
From here on in, everything's fairly simple. Proceed downwards; you'll cross a bridge-like structure, at which point the path forks. Bear left, down a ramp; in a little bit, you'll come to an opening into a jump. There are Wisps of both flavors waiting at the bottom, and you'll take around 40 points from the jump itself, so be prepared. Jump down, kill everything in sight, and you're almost at the final room.
Keep on going down. You'll come to a large room with a weird glowy pagoda thingie in the middle, and a big horizontal grate over the entire thing. It's got four or five Putrid Moarsmen, and a few Affliction Wisps. The Wisps spawn on top of the grate, and the Moarsmen spawn on the ground. There is a Stamina Blight trap at the weird glowy pagoda thing, so be wary.
Camping
One of the Putrids in the final room drops the Ancient Key, which is what you want out of this dungeon. He spawns about twice as often as the rest of the spawn, making it easy to distinguish him -- he's the one who spawns out of cycle with everything else. The rest of the spawn is on a five minute cycle.
The best thing to do is to camp the corner nearest to the key-carrying moarsmen. Put your melees in front, and keep the mages and archers tucked away in back. Try and convince people not to run over to the center to kill the Putrids who get stuck there, but that's probably a losing cause. If someone's feeling really ballsy, it's OK to put a melee up on the grate to take on the Affliction Wisps. Establish a key-grabbing order as you see fit, although I'd recommend going by lowest to highest level with the quest leader at the end.
When you're done, portal out by the method of your choice. There's a surface portal up the exit ramp.
Aftermath
The Ancient Key opens the Lady's Chest, in the Cathedral. The Chest is on the third floor, at the opposite end of the Cathedral from the Catacombs portal. Inside you should find: a Scroll of Sanctuary Recall, a Damp Scroll, a Tear-Stained Parchment, the Healer's Heart, and some additional loot worthy of a SIK chest. [Note: Unlike other spell scrolls, the Scroll of Sanctuary Recall is no-drop/no-give. - Ed.]
The Tear-Stained Parchment and Damp scroll should be taken to Bretself the Translator at the Cragstone Library. See here for the Tear-Stained Parchment. The Damp Scroll, when translated, becomes a Brief Letter.
Warning: you should wait at least five minutes between chest pulls; there's a bug which keeps the chest from spawning new items as soon as it locks. My recommendation is to wait until another day, and go loot the chest when there are fewer people around, just to be sure.
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STEP BY STEP (Return to top)
Travel to the Vesayen Isles; make your way to Ithaenc Cathedral at (82.4S, 93.4E).
Run to the bottom, lockpick the door, run down the ramp, pull the lever.
Run back up to second floor, go through south door (opened by lever).
Run down, pull both levers, run back up to second floor.
Run through north door.
Proceed downwards; bear left; jump down, continue down.
Kill Putrid Moarsman, get Ancient Key, take surface portal.
Open Lady's Chest in Cathedral, get Quest Items.
Map: Map: www.acmaps.com/map.php?id=02B7
People need to gather for the quest at the Cathedral of Itheanc. One way is to grab a tie to the Small Temples at (75S, 97.5E), which is the closest tiable dungeon. The run to the Cathedral (82.4S, 93.4E) from this dungeon will be tricky, however.
Another alternative is the run from the Jungle Shadows dungeon ("New Sub") at (69.3S, 94.5E). The run is a bit longer, but Jungle Shadows is a popular place to which to tie on the Vesayen Isles.
When you arrive at the Cathedral, take the stairs up. The portal is at the top of the Cathedral, and requires some jumping. Take the stairs at the back of the Cathedral to the second floor, and go outside to the rear; turn left and go up the marble ramp. From the top, you can jump to the ledge at the outside of the Cathedral on the third floor. Jump down inside, and go to the front end of the third floor. The portal is right above your head, and if you do a shift-jump you'll hit it dead on.
The Dungeon: Buff I
The entrance is semi-hot: you won't be physically attacked unless someone has stirred up the monsters, but you will be in range of Wisp drains. You want to buff outside, accordingly.
You'll portal in facing a ramp leading down to the north. Send a melee wall down to the bottom of the ramp to pull in Sclavus and Moarsmen. This is a convenient test of your ability to handle this dungeon; if you can take the first wave of critters you'll be just fine. After the first rush, clear the rest of the second level. Note the unpickable locked doors to the north and south -- getting past these doors is the central theme of the dungeon.
Once the second level is cleared, simply proceed downwards. The dungeon spirals downward, with the ramps in the center, like a deranged parking garage of doom. Partway down, you'll pass a door called Vault Door. Ignore this and keep going.
At the very bottom, you'll find a locked door. The difficulty is 322. Weaken Lock, let the lockpicker at it, and move on. You'll go down a winding corridor and ramp and find a room at the bottom with a lever, two Putrid Moarsmen, and a grate. Behind the grate there are a bunch more Putrids and an Affliction Wisp. Allow everyone to work off their bloodthirst by killing everything in sight even though you don't need to.
This is an excellent point to rebuff, and you should have been able to get there in the course of one set of level V buffs, so when everything is dead, rebuff. Hint: tell people to kneel or move to the ramp going up when they're done buffing, so you can tell who's ready and who's not.
The Dungeon: Buff II
Once you're done buffing, the person/people who volunteered to hold the first lever will stay behind while everyone else sprints back to the second floor. Chances are you won't hit respawn until you get to the second floor. Note that this is a good place for stragglers or dead people to rejoin the party.
Once everyone's at the second floor, clear the second floor spawn and gather in front of the southern door. The leader should now instruct the leverman to pull the lever. The door will open and remain open for 30 seconds. The lever puller should wait until everyone's through the door, just in case he has to pull the lever again; after everyone's through, he should run back up to the second floor and hang out in front of the northern door.
The main bulk of the party proceeds down one level. Have melees using jewelry and clothing for their buffs go first, to trigger the dispel trap on the ramp down. You'll come to a large open space with a structure in the center. There are two levers in the structure; there are also Stamina and Mana Blight traps at the entrances into said structure.
Once the area is clear, the main group should proceed back up the ramp to the door. The second lever person/people, waiting in the structure, should then pull both levers and everyone should run like bunnies through the southern door and to the northern door and through it. This may get tricky if you've putzed around and allowed the second floor to respawn, so try and be quick about all this. This is also the second and last place that stragglers and dead people can rejoin the party. Once you're past the northern door, kill anything in that room and rebuff.
The Dungeon: Buff III
You will now need to pick another door to proceed further. You know the drill; Weaken Lock, lockpicker works, everyone's happy. You can let the lockpicker die without worrying now. (Joke!)
From here on in, everything's fairly simple. Proceed downwards; you'll cross a bridge-like structure, at which point the path forks. Bear left, down a ramp; in a little bit, you'll come to an opening into a jump. There are Wisps of both flavors waiting at the bottom, and you'll take around 40 points from the jump itself, so be prepared. Jump down, kill everything in sight, and you're almost at the final room.
Keep on going down. You'll come to a large room with a weird glowy pagoda thingie in the middle, and a big horizontal grate over the entire thing. It's got four or five Putrid Moarsmen, and a few Affliction Wisps. The Wisps spawn on top of the grate, and the Moarsmen spawn on the ground. There is a Stamina Blight trap at the weird glowy pagoda thing, so be wary.
Camping
One of the Putrids in the final room drops the Ancient Key, which is what you want out of this dungeon. He spawns about twice as often as the rest of the spawn, making it easy to distinguish him -- he's the one who spawns out of cycle with everything else. The rest of the spawn is on a five minute cycle.
The best thing to do is to camp the corner nearest to the key-carrying moarsmen. Put your melees in front, and keep the mages and archers tucked away in back. Try and convince people not to run over to the center to kill the Putrids who get stuck there, but that's probably a losing cause. If someone's feeling really ballsy, it's OK to put a melee up on the grate to take on the Affliction Wisps. Establish a key-grabbing order as you see fit, although I'd recommend going by lowest to highest level with the quest leader at the end.
When you're done, portal out by the method of your choice. There's a surface portal up the exit ramp.
Aftermath
The Ancient Key opens the Lady's Chest, in the Cathedral. The Chest is on the third floor, at the opposite end of the Cathedral from the Catacombs portal. Inside you should find: a Scroll of Sanctuary Recall, a Damp Scroll, a Tear-Stained Parchment, the Healer's Heart, and some additional loot worthy of a SIK chest. [Note: Unlike other spell scrolls, the Scroll of Sanctuary Recall is no-drop/no-give. - Ed.]
The Tear-Stained Parchment and Damp scroll should be taken to Bretself the Translator at the Cragstone Library. See here for the Tear-Stained Parchment. The Damp Scroll, when translated, becomes a Brief Letter.
Warning: you should wait at least five minutes between chest pulls; there's a bug which keeps the chest from spawning new items as soon as it locks. My recommendation is to wait until another day, and go loot the chest when there are fewer people around, just to be sure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEP BY STEP (Return to top)
Travel to the Vesayen Isles; make your way to Ithaenc Cathedral at (82.4S, 93.4E).
Run to the bottom, lockpick the door, run down the ramp, pull the lever.
Run back up to second floor, go through south door (opened by lever).
Run down, pull both levers, run back up to second floor.
Run through north door.
Proceed downwards; bear left; jump down, continue down.
Kill Putrid Moarsman, get Ancient Key, take surface portal.
Open Lady's Chest in Cathedral, get Quest Items.