The Joy of Stormcleave Outpost

Another “oldie but goodie” is the quest Stormcleave Outpost.  At the beginning of the weekend, I took Hamllin (Level 11 Fighter) into this fun and enjoyable quest.  The quest NPC is located in the Anvil Fire Inn in the House Deneith Ward, Alciana d’Deneith.  Stormcleave is reminiscent to Redwillow’s Ruins and Gwylan’s Stand where you are transported by the quest NPC to a large wilderness like area.  The primary quest objective is to stop the forces of the fire giant general, Xanti’lar.  The quest area is quite large and it is quite easy to get turn around and lost if you have never been in the quest before (I used to get lost all the time, lol). 

Hamllin enjoying the sunset in Stormcleave.

The are a number of aspects that make Stormcleave fun to run.  First off, it was a wide variety of enemies to deal with.  While you are making your way through the quest, you will encounter kobolds, wolves, scorpions, trolls, hill giants, fire giants, minotaurs, mephits, blackbone skeletons, as well as some others.  The wide variety of enemies keeps the quest from getting boring.  Another aspect of this quest, is that there are a large number of optionals you can complete for extra experience.  On top of that, the optionals are just not to slay a rare named encounter.  There is one optional to collect all of the stolen supplies, another one to turn in all of the supplies, another option for destroying some large magefire cannon crates, and some others.

Hamllin noticing the gigantic totem.

However, the one downside to some of these optionals is that you have to remember to have plenty of room in your inventory.  This particular quest contains a number of lieutenants to kill that each drop a special shard that is required to have to make your way to Xanti’lar’s lair.  Couple that with a large number of chests (another fun thing about this quest..loot!!) and the crates, you quickly realize how limiting your backpack space can be.  However, that is a relatively minor issue.  There is also at least one chest that requires it be knocked or picked. 

Hamllin coming across a rare encounter in Stormcleave.

The landscape of the quest is also quite fun to navigate through.  A large portion of the mobs you will fight are set in staged camps but you will also encounter a number of roving patrols as well as a number of ambushes (such as the scorpions or wolves).  There is one particular challenging fight with a fire giant lieutenant and his gang of blackbone skeletons that can get quite dangerous if you aren’t careful.  The cool thing about this particular encounter is that the fire giant taunts you to come to him, basically luring you into his area of hidden undead mobs which spawn as you make your towards to him.  Fighting Helos is also quite fun as he is guarded by a number of his minotaur minions and dealing with all of those bull rushes can be interesting at times. 

Hamllin fighting Helos and his minions.

Hamllin and Helos fighting away.

With all of these objectives and optional experience, Stormcleave is a good source of experience.  Although Hamllin was level 11 when I took him in there, I still gained about 18,000 experience from the run on elite.  It is definitely a fun quest and one I would recommend hopping into whenever you get a chance!!

Thanks for reading everybody and not get back into DDO and take on Xanti’lar and his forces in Stormcelave.  Happy hunting!!