A Visit to a Palace of Stone

Although Erdrique (Rogue/Primal Avatar) is currently level 23, he is still making his way through the level 17 and higher heroic quests on elite (not to mention he is sorely behind in his slayer areas).  Included in this series of quests are those from the Heart of Madness quest chain.  This chain includes three quests: Terminal Delirium, Fashion Madness, and Palace of Stone.  I never had the opportunity to take a look at these quests until now and I wrote about the run through Terminal Delirium here and about Fashion Madness here.  This article will be about the third quest, Palace of Stone.

Time to make our way into the Palace of Stone.

Like the other two quest, Palace of Stone continues along the Xoriat storyline.  The premise of the quest is that you got a hold of a mysterious invitation to the home of the Lord of Stone.  To get this invitation you have to talk to Durk the Deranged in the Twelve who happens to be the quest giver.  The mechanic for entering this quest is unique because to access it you have to double click on the invitation, which bring up the quest entrance portal.  So instead of running to a location, which can sometimes be annoying, the only thing you need to do is activate the mysterious invitation.

The crests are found and now it is time to make our way back to the center.

The home of the Lord of Stone is pretty impressive.  The Palace of Stone is divided into roughly five sections: north, south, east, west, and central.  When you enter the quest you basically start out on the west side of the palace.  As you make your down the stone corridor and into the center of the palace you encounter the Lord of Stone who wishes you to “tour” his palace.  At this point you can explore the two tunnels to the North or the one tunnel to the south.  These areas are known as the Halls of Reflection, Galleries of Motion, and Museum of Stone.  Now that I think about, I think the Halls of Reflection is the last room to the east where the final battle occurs.  In any case, the areas to the north and south contain  a crest that you need to obtain and then place into an altar in the central room to bring down the barrier to enter the area to the east (three crests in all).

Erdrique is curious to see what he will find in the Palace of Stone.

The overall map layout is pretty straightforward however there are some confusing points with the structures within the hallways.  There are some walls that you can climb and battle gargoyles on and there are some “tricky” rooms to find.  It took me and another guildie a good amount of time to find the last crest in one of the northern hallways because we kept overlooking a passage.

Encountering some mirrors in the Palace of Stone, could be useful against those medusas.

The monsters you encounter are also challenging.  Besides fighting the typical stone golems, you also have to deal with a plethora of medusas and a number of Xoriat gargoyles.  During this quest, I went through almost three different quarterstaves, as they broke down pretty quickly battling these stone theme monsters.  One room was a little annoying because it had a set of flame jet traps that were set off by pressure plates while another room you had to deal and dodge away from random rolling boulders.

Erd taking on a stone guarding in the Palace of Stone.

Encountering the some gargoyles atop of the wall.

Taking on Scarp.

Once you locate all of the crests you will then enter the last room and have to battle the reflections/images of the Lord of Stone, Orlassk.  Once you defeat these images the quest is then completed, leaving door open for future confrontations with this daelkyr.

Battling the avatars of the Lord of Stone.

Can’t forget his stone army either!!

The quest wasn’t nearly as difficult as Terminal Delirium or as strange as Fashion Madness but it still had its moments of insanity.  It is a fun quest and doesn’t take that long to complete, assuming you don’t have any trouble finding the crests.  Take a look at it if you haven’t done it before :).  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting in the Palace of Stone.