The Depths of Despair

Earlier this week and last week, I took Hamllin through a series of quests more commonly known as the House Deneith Depths Quests: The Depths of Despair, The Depths of Darkness, The Depths of Discord, and The Depths of Doom.  One of these quests, The Depths of Despair, started to raise some questions for me.  Now keep in mind, I have probably ran these quests hundreds of times and this just now occurred to me. 

The Depths of Despair is bestowed by Neville Stormhammer who is found in the Hammersmith Inn’s in front of the House Deneith Ward (not far from the Marketplace and House Deneith gate).  He is sitting at a table with the three other quest bestowers for the rest of the Depths Quests.  When you talk to Neville, you learn that he could use some help dealing with a troglodyte lord who has been causing some problems in the House Deneith sewers and you are asked to take care of this situation.

Now, based on that conversation, one would think you will have to deal with a clan of troglodytes with perhaps some type of other mercenaries (perhaps an ogre or troll hired as a guardsman or something).  However, this isn’t the case.  The Depths of Despair contains a myriad of enemy monsters: slimes, undead, hell hounds, spiders, rust monsters, and earth elementals.

Hamllin wondering what is the deal with this minotaur.

Hamllin coming across a violet slime in the Depths of Despair.

Hamllin dealing with a hell hound in Depths of Despair.

Now, this is quite an array of various monsters to have some type of control over when you aren’t of the same race.  I wonder how Sslysk maintains control and order in the sewer?  There are some other trogolydtes in the quest but not a whole lot.  However, there is an optional named trog shaman, T’sarin.  My initial thoughts here are that the slimes and vermin are just the natural hazards of the sewer.  Sslysk and his gang probably know how to deal with them and just avoid them.  However, the other monsters are primarily from different planes (elementals or outsiders) or are undead.  I’m wondering if Sslysk has his shamans honing their summoning and controlling skills allowing the dungeon to be populated with such a variety of monsters. 


There are some troglodytes in the Depths of Despair.

But what about the minotaur?  I’m thinking he is being held as a ransom of some sort.  He is behind bars and most likely was causing some type of trouble for the trog leader. 

In either case, Sslysk seems to have some type of sway over a large variety of enemies.  Too bad he needed to be put down:


Hamllin facing off agains Sslysk, the master of the Depths of Despair.

Does anybody else have any thoughts on how a trog rules the Depths of Despair?  Until next time, thanks for reading and happy questing everybody!!