My First Look at the Quests in The Storm Horns-Tracker’s Trap

Over the past week and a half of so, I have been taken Erdrique (Level 23 Rogue/Primal Avatar) through a number of adventures I haven’t seen before on his way to completing heroic quests on elite.  These have included the quests in the High Road, those from the Heart of Madness adventure pack, and now the Storm Horns.  It was mentioned to me by a number of people on how amazing the Storm Horns wilderness area is but I heard relatively little about the quests.  So I took the opportunity to work on these quests for the first time :).

Erd preparing to enter the Storm Horns for the firs time.

What an opening fight!!

The first quest in the series is called The Tracker’s Trap.  The guest giver is named  Nevyle Dunwaite, who is located in the north portion of Eveningstar.  Nevyle recruits you to venture into the beautiful Storm Horns and to brave the wilds, cold, and monsters and to travel to Yarrow Glade.  One of agents of the Harpers hasn’t been from in awhile and it is known that the Netherese have been having some type of influence in the rugged Storm Horns.  Nevyle asks you to travel to the Yarrow Glade to look for Harper Agent.

Coming across another Netherese mage.

Erdrique getting ready to explore the glade.

As you make your way through the Storm Horns and to the Yarrow Glade, which is thankfully a short trip, you get a glimpse at how wonderful this area is, at least in turns of beautiful and power.  Once inside the glade, it doesn’t take you long to find the Harper Agent, Oriphaun.  Oriphaun expresses his joy oncoming across you and they you our attacked by a the forces of the Netherese.  The Netherese wizards that are leading attack then begin to bicker with each other and one of them spirits away with Oriphaun while the other ignores you and head further into the glade.  It isn’t long before you realize you have become embroiled in an elaborate trap to capture the tracker, Oriphaun.

Erdrique can’t help but notice the beauty in the glade.

It appears that the orcs have joined up with the Netherese.

In hopes of finding Oriphaun, you have forced to explore Yarrow Glade.  Luckily the glade isn’t a complicated area to explore.  The layout is pretty straightforward.  You basically follow the wooded path through the glade and have the opportunity to explore some other paths that branch off to dead ends.  During two of these instances you get a chance to complete optional objectives, one being to destroy a mad druid who commands a force of owlbears and another one being to help out an orc whose camp has been invaded by the Netherese forces forcing him out of home.  I also believe that the forces of the Netherese is what has caused the one druid to go mad, that and their destructive behavior.  You also come across a number of magical barriers that don’t come down until the enemies are defeated.

Coming across some spell wards in Tracker’s Trap.

Look at the hill giants caught in their own traps.

The types of enemies you encounter in the quest include the human Netherese, hill giants, gnolls, orcs, and other native fauna (such as the mad druid’s owlbears).  I found some of the aspects of these enemies quite funny, especially when the hill giants get captured in their own snare traps a number of times.  The most intriguing fight though is the end fight.  When you fight the named Netherese wizard at the end of the quest you also have to take out these Netherese orbs.  The orbs will spawn more enemies by calling orcs and gnolls to them who teleport to the area to wreak havoc.  Once you take out the orbs, and there protectors, you can then engage with the Netherese wizard, until the orbs respawn.  Eventually the orbs are knocked out for good allowing you to focus solely on the Netherese wizard.  I was quite surprised at this point when the Netherese wizard calls forth her loyal and faithful pet, a pseduodragon.  That was a fun encounter indeed.

Surprised by this psuedodragon at the end of Tracker’s Trap.

However, once you defeat the pseduodragon and the Nethereze wizard you realize that you still haven’t found Oriphaun and must return with the bad news.

These are some dangerous orbs.

The first quest in the chain is fun and can be extremely challenging.  I was surprised to see how long it was but overall the map wasn’t hard to follow.  There is a third optional to find all of Oriphaun’s journals, but I missed one somewhere so these can be tricky find.  Overall, it was a fun quest with some interesting surprises, a little humor, and some tough encounters.

Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting in the Storm Horns!!