Side trips

This was a rather good week. Instead of continuing with the Undead Mechanic Quest, I took some time to run sidequests, and they turned out to be fairly well-designed.

The Underground Forest

As some of you may have guessed from the portrait at the end of my last post, my next stop was The Underground Forest, a kind of Derethian tourist attraction around Glenden Wood. In theory, it's a really, really cool idea: an enchanted forest in the middle of a dungeon. In theory. In reality, it's kinda like Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon: you get psyched to go there, see it, and then it's like, "meh, it's a cave with trees." I did get a couple of good shots, though:

Thorsten Cragstone's Armor (Mostly-aboveground Quest)

In addition to local dungeons, I found a few rumors in Glenden Wood that merited some follow-up. One took me to a Cragstone resident by the name of Glysander Cartoth, who wanted me to find his missing sister, Lania. To do so, I have to follow the trail of some letters sent to her by Elysa Strathelar. Apparently, they were childhood friends who somehow both found their way to Dereth separately. Glysander sent a man named Brontynn Marshad to hunt down these letters, but he's gone incommunicado. I'm told to look for clues at a hut along the Eastham beach, which is why you see me jogging away from Moarsmen up above. Not that I couldn't take level 30s, I just don't have the time to fight every last mob I encounter while searching for points of interest around Dereth. Especially when I get lost and have to check the wiki for coordinates.

Eventually, I find Marshad's place, where a locked chest holds two letters. One is from Elysa to Lania, and shows our monarch in a depressed mood, nostalgic for simpler times. (It was written shortly after the final battle of the Olthoi War, which saw her beloved Thorsten Cragstone slain by the Olthoi Queen.) The second letter is from Marshad, informing me that he's gone to investigate another lead north of Imuth Maer Doquin. If you don't know, this is an old landmark dating back to release -- an abandoned Empyrean city. It housed nothing for a long while before becoming home to a portal to the Halls of Metos. Since I used that portal while running the Metos quest, I know where Imuth Maer Doquin is, so I head out to find Marshad... and I get lost and have to check the wiki for coordinates. This is a running theme with overworld explorations.

I finally find Marshad, who's been captured by Tumeroks. I have to duke it out with them to get into the tower where Marshad is held captive. Lucky I brought my Assault Staff, isn't it?

Marshad is apparently institutionalized or something, as he refuses to make any attempt at a getaway after I've killed all his jailers. But he gives me a pair of letters, which, after a brief stopover at Baishi to talk to an NPC, sends me to:

The Underground City

This dungeon is known for two things: First, for being the headquarters of the human resistance during the Olthoi Wars, and second, for being the most hideously complicated dungeon in all of Dereth. I'm serious, just take a look at the map!

There is, unfortunately, very little for me to say about it. It was a nice place for lowbies to grind way back when, but the spawns are hopelessly out of date today. I wander around bashing low-level drudges and mosswarts, and of course I get lost hopelessly. This time I can't check for coordinates, but I manage to eventually blunder into Thorsten's tomb anyway. From there, I follow the directions to find the portal to:

Hidden Dungeon

Which is a little more challenging, stocked with Golems and Liches. It's not particularly spectacular: just stick to the right-hand wall and it's a straight shot. But it's entertaining enough that running it twice because I miss Lania's corpse in the last room is no big deal. More Golems means more chances for hearts (I find a few) or motes (no dice). My reward for all this? One of the best drop items in the game:

Sw33t. ^_^

I have to say I liked this quest. Getting lost in the overworld was annoying, but it's some variety, and when you do get lost you have the wiki. The rewards, including the chance at Golem loot and experience from Glysandor, are worthwhile. The peek into the character of Elysa Strathlaer is interesting too.

Precarious Sojourn

The other rumor I pick up in Glenden Wood has me dragging myself to a seedy-looking gentleman named Slithe Tradditor, who lives in a small cottage out near Lytelthorpe. He sends me in search of a dungeon. Predictably, I get lost -- once finding the house, and twice finding the dungeon -- and have to check the wiki for coordinates. On the plus side, I find a mote and a Dark Sliver over the course of getting lost, so that's good. Once I reach the dungeon itself, the view is more than worth the trip:

Yes, Precarious Sojourn is basically the Sanamar Lighthouse on steroids. I battle Risen Knights along a series of platforms en route to a large tower floating in the sky, which Tradditor says is my goal. The Knights, or "Warriors of the Blood", are strong but easily dispatched. The final battle is, of course, on the roof of the tower:

In addition to the pedestal that I'm here to take a picture of, there's an unexpected reward for reaching the top:

That's Alatar Locke, a semi-important figure in the lore. Why he sticks around here with the undead about, I have no idea, but he gives me a map of Dereth. After jumping through a few hoops, I have a nice decoration for my wall:

I return to Slithe with the image he needs to replicate the Arcane Pedestal, but this quest isn't over yet. Now we have to gather some objects for him to make the pedestal. The first is a Gelidite Dais, for which I get sent to:

Gelidite Library & The Labyrinth

The above screenshot is a little misleading. While you are indeed fighting elementals early in the Gelidite Library, the main body of the quest takes place in an empty sub-dungeon called the Labyrinth. In fact, getting to the Library is the toughest part. It's in the vicinity of Stonehold, a dangerous area with high-level spawns. They're spaced out enough that I can dodge around them, unless I get hit with internet problems. I lose connection while auto-running and log back in at the lifestone. I then almost die again retrieving the corpse, in itself a fairly stupid idea since all I lost was unnecessary drop items. Fortunately, luck is on my side and I just manage to get out alive via my last Gem of Worth. I then spend the rest of the night burning off vitae in the Serpent Clan Training grounds, finally managing to grab the Assault Sword for my trouble, as well as enough gems to last me a bit.

The next day, I get back to the Gelidite Library. Curiously, the NPC at the entrance behaves like I've already run the quest. It may be flagged at the account level or something. I fight through the elementals, and then get down to the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth, as I mentioned before, is empty of enemies. Instead, you're hunting down eight pages of a text within a sequence of twisty tunnels. A golem at the end will give you access to an Oubliette after collecting all eight. All I really need is the dais from the golem room, but for completeness sake I run the entire quest anyway, and get into the Oubliette:

The backstory behind all this is that during the game's third year, Nuhmudira was kidnapped by Gaerlen, imprisoned here, and tortured. Nuhmudira had done some very bad things, and the players were given the opportunity to decide her fate: a second chance or indefinite imprisonment. (Of course, it turned out Gaerlen really wanted to use her life force to power some magical ritual or other, but never mind that.) Nuhmudira eventually escaped, but for some complicated lore reason some echo of her remains in this place, or somesuch. She pleads for mercy in the form of desperate notes scattered around this room, then you decide who to side with. I choose mercy, because I'm that kind of an idealist.

Bronze Statue Foundries

The last phase of the Arcane Pedestal quest takes me to three of the four foundry dungeons. These dungeons exist under the bronze statues that stand in each of the towns of Dereth, statues that were intended to protect the towns, but then fell to enemy control and had to be nullified. The foundries are still open, and stuffed to the gills with giant statues. The quest itself is a grinding quest: farm three specific statues in different dungeons for a trophy item, then take them all to Slithe. While not my cup of tea, it's at least not too hard. Once I know the statues vulnerability is acid, the first two go pretty easy.

The third, however, is tougher. The statues here are level 100 and tossing around level 6 War Magic, so I can't get any further than the first room. Instead, I hide behind a wall and lure them out one by one. One-on-one, I can handle them, it's only when I've got three or more against me that things get dicey. On the plus side, the armor drops are very, very good, and I've made a few choice improvements to my suit by the time the spring I need drops. My reward? A scale copy of the Arcane Pedestal, which turns out to be... a useless floor decoration. Kind of an anticlimax. Slithe is as disappointed as I.

Current stats:

Yeah, I know. Fashion disaster with about five different colors, but hey, points is points and tailoring is expensive. And yes, I am dual-wielding assault weapons. Tumeroks beware!