A Look at Another Older Quest-The Xorian Cipher

There was a time when The Xorian Cipher was one of the hardest quest in the game to complete on elite.  When the level cap was 10, taking on the Xorian Cipher on elite was quite challenging.  I remember my first time in this maddening quest when my guild mates started yelling “get away from the orbs!!!  Is there a way to turn them off?”  Trying to avoid those orbs, as they seemed to love to hit my characters with disintegrate, and still engage the enemy undead was quite challenging.

The Xorian Cipher and its prequest, The Path to Madness, was one of the quests that was released with DDO’s first update, The Dragon’s Vault.  It is located in the House Jorasco Ward of Stormreach and has an intriguing quest giver, Gatekeeper Chulkash.  The quest giver is intriguing because he is hobgoblin that is part of a sect called the Gatekeepers.  Chulkash tells you that the Gatekeepers are destined to stop any future invasion of Xoriat into Eberron.  As a side note, I wouldn’t mind learning a little bit more about the Gatekeepers.  As they are only referenced in the sister quest to The Xorian Cipher, Dreams of Insanity.  With all of the Xorian madness occurring lately (especially with Update 24 right around the corner) I would think the Gatekeepers would want to be keeping an eye on this activity, although it currently seems to be more of a focus of The Twelve.  In any case, being a hobgoblin and working for a sect that is trying to protect, rather than to destroy, is what makes Chulkash intriguing to me.

But back to the quest, Chulkash tells you that the whole reason why he is here is that he has learned that a Xoriat cult in Stormreach might be in possession of a cipher that could help the Gatekeepers translate some Xoriat prophecy that was discovered during the great war with the daelkyr.  Chulkash is seeking assistance in this endeavor but also wants to put a stop to whatever the local Xoriat cult is doing.  The Xorian Cipher and its pre-quest, The Path to Madness, are both level 8 on normal making them level 10 on elite.  The Path to Madness is a short quest, but it can be extremely brutal if you don’t take your time in it.  The boneshrieker skeletons are some of the toughest opponents you will encounter at his level as the archers will hit you with stunning arrows letting the fighters to wreak havoc to your party.  The quest takes you through a short trip through a jungle to some ruins, fighing bone shriekers the entire time, and ends at the ruins where you need to defeat two drow scorpions to lower the barrier to enter quest The Xorian Cipher.

Hamllin dealing with the bone shrieker skeletons in The Path to Madness.

The Xorian Cipher is a decently long quest and can be complicated if you haven’t done it before.  This is mainly because there are a few places that can be confusing to navigate through, however it is a relatively linear map.  There are a few hallways that branch off in different directions but then come back together, roughly forming a rectangle.  The enemies you encounter in here are primarily boneshrieker skeletons, drow, drow scorpions, a wraith, a scorpion, and some tharak hounds.  For the majority of the quest you are dealing with the skeletons.  The tricky thing about fighting the skeletons is that they tend to fight with the Xoriat orbs rolling around.  The Xoriat orbs have the ability to either hit you with a random beneficial spell or to hit you with a debuff or even hit you with a damage dealing spell.  Avoiding them is wise.  You can turn them off by activating runes (either wisdom, intelligence, or charisma checks) and in fact an optional of the quest is turn them all off.

Operating the runes turns off the Xoriat orbs.

One of the funnest things in this quest is when you get past the initial hallways and enter a large room with skeletons ranging you from edges above.  This particular room actually contains an invisible bridge, or nearly invisible, and I remember the first time I ran in the quest wondering how I get to the other side to deal with those skeletons.  It reminded me of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he steps off the cliff and lands on the stone bridge.

Hamllin running across the “invisible bridge” to the skellies.

Another aspect of this quest that can be frustrating at times, is that the party has to split up.  You have to have at least four party members (or combinations of companions and/or summons) to step on floor tiles that activate runes that open up two different paths.  One path opens up to a lower level while the other path opens up to a higher level.  In the middle of the lower level there is a lever to throw.  This lever opens up a room on the higher level that contains a puzzle.  You need to solve the puzzle to lower some barriers to continue on in the quest.  When the lever is thrown, the party members on the lower level will be attacked so finishing the puzzle as quickly as possible is a good idea so you can jump down and help your party.  Also, there are three named skeletons (these used to be specters) that you have to kill to advance in the quest.

Hamllin standing in the lower room where the party has to split after the enemies have been killed.

Up to this point, you haven’t really encountered too many traps.  However, the leading hallway from this room can be considered a “Hallway of Death.”  This particular hallway contains three powerful traps: a force trap, a wicked slicing blade trap, and some spikes.  To make matters worse between each set of traps is a set of boneshrieker archers who spawn as you approach generally making it hard for a rogue to find and disable the trap without getting hit with an arrow or two.  My two hirelings found out how dangerous this room was.

Hamllin ranging the skeletons in the “Hallway of Death.” 

After the “Hallway of Death” you will come across a room with a chest.  Make sure you hug the wall in this room as the floor will fall out and if fall with the floor you won’t be able to get the chest.  In the pit that forms is a named scorpion, named Deathfang that is another optional to kill.  He will also spawn a chest that contains a key.  You will also obtain two other keys by killing optional orange named drow scorpions in the hallways to the floor pedals that separate the group.  These keys are used to open locked doors that are found behind a two secret doors in the room with “invisible” bridge.  After you open the second secret door you will be encountered by a named wraith, another optional.  Now be weary here.  Each of these locked rooms that the wraith was guarding is trapped, with two traps in two of the rooms.  These rooms are important because this is where the named loot from this quest comes from including the Planar Gird and Chaosguarde Bracers.

Hamllin fighting Deathfang in the pit.

At this point, the only thing left to do is to complete the quest.  The end of the quest is past the “Hallway of Death” and is littered with more skeletons, Xoriat orbs and their runes, and the final door that you break down.  The end room is relatively open.  It contains an orange named drow scorpion, a red named tharak hound, two other tharak hounds, some more drow, and skeletons pop up from behind you when you beat the door down.  The tharak hounds are extremely annoying as they hit you with their acid breath, cyclonic blast, phantasmal killer, and poison attacks.  The drow scorpion will call forth the named tharak hound when it is defeated.  Taking these casters our (there is generally a drop cleric in the mix as well) is the best tactic but it can get hectic here.  Once the enemies are clear you can loot two chests, one containing the cipher and completing the quest.

Getting ready to fight the Hound of Madness.

Finally time to loot the Xorian Cipher.

The Xorian Cipher is still a tough quest and is still a fun one to do.  Perhaps its biggest drawback is that you have to have at least four party members to complete it (or some way to activate the floor pedals and to pull the lever on the bottom level).  The enemies you fight are not extremely diverse, but the skeletons are extremely tough.  The drow are pretty easy to deal with.  The end fight can be chaotic and dealing with the tharak hounds can be annoying.  There are a number of traps to worry about but they are clustered together and there are a few hidden doors.  Not to mention this quest still contains some interesting named loot.

Overall the Xorian Cipher is worthy challenge.  I took Hamllin (Level 13 Fighter) through it on elite and still gained over 20,000 experience (and I wasn’t able to get a bravery bonus streak).  It is a free quest, so when you get a chance get a group together and try it out.  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting while track down the Xorian Cipher!!