A Quick Look at Taming the Flames

The other day, I took Erdrique (Level 12 Rogue, who was actually 11 at the time) through one of the more dreaded quests at lower levels, Taming the Flames.  Taming the Flames is especially brutal at level on elite with those characters who don’t have evasion, although I’m sure the change with Magical Resistance Rating has made this quest much more bearable to those heavy armor users.  The quest giver, Master Thorpe, is located in Ever Full Flagon in House Kundarak.  When you stumble past Master Thorpe, you overhear him lamenting on what he thinks is the loss of another, Master Fulvio.  Master Thorpe tells you that Master Fulvio has left to investigate a mystical cavern beneath Stormreach.  However, in his haste, Master Fulvio didn’t make all of the appropriate preparations and seemed to have forgotten to take with him a powerful scroll of planar binding to keep the presence of elementals in place.  Master Thorpe then tells you that he received a message from Fulvio and had forwarded to him a scroll of planar binding, however it appears that Fulvio never received it.  Thorpe mentions that he sent the scroll with a very capable adventurer and believes that the scroll has been stolen.  Thorpe then asks you to search for Fulvio.

The quest entrance to taming the flames is located in House Kundarak and is actually not very far away from the quest Caverns of Korromar.  It is actually located just inside the great fissure in the House Kundarak ward and you need to either climb down a ladder or feather fall to get to the quest entrance.  Taming the Flames is a level 7 quest on normal, making it a level 9 on elite.  As you can imagine by the title, and the name of the location the quest is located in, The Scorched Caverns, a majority of the enemies you will have to deal with include fire based monsters.  In particular, you will need to wind your way around multiple fire elementals.  The fire elementals are what makes this quest pretty tough.  There appears to be two “types” of fire elementals, those are are free ranging and those that seem to be tethered to specific lava pools, and they all seem to respawn.  Those tethered to lava pools will get healed by occasion fire blasts making them particularly annoying.  One of the optional objectives for this quest is to kill 50 fire elementals if that tells you how many of these things there are.  Other enemies you encounter in this quest include earth elementals, mephits (fire, air), hellhounds, and Calefax (a human summoner).

Erdrique fighting the numerous elementals in Taming the Flames.

As you make your way through the quest, you will find Master Fulvio and learn that Calefax has imprisoned him and has summoned quite an army of elementals and mephits.  As you make your way through the various levels of the Scorched Caverns, you will come across a series of traps as well as some rather interesting questing scenarios.  One of which requires you to obtain a key that is guarded by flaming geysers and fire elementals.  The shear number of elementals and lava pits is what makes this quest challenging.  I don’t think you will encounter as many fireballs being hurled at you in any other quest.

Once you make your way through the caverns and take on and defeat Calefax, who is relatively easy compared to his elemental army surrounding him, you need to pick up the planar scroll and bring it back to Master Fulvio.  So you need to remember to not recall once you defeat Calefax.

Overall, the quest is quite challenging at level.  I typically don’t run this particular quest until I’m about level 10 or 11.  This particular time, I had no issues with Erdrique being a rogue and having evasion.  I will have to see how well some of my other characters do going through this quest, at least those with heavy armor.  However, if you want a challenge at level, take on Taming the Flames 🙂 at level.

Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting in DDO!!