Another Set of Quest Runs, February 19 to 25

My questing this week was relatively light once again :(.  This was because of a few work related activities that kept me from logging in on Wednesday and Thursday.  Wednesday night is also my weekly date night with my wife so I don’t log into the game for a typical night run but I usually get a chance to run a slayer prior to dinner.  This week though, an ex-coworker of mine retired and his retirement party was on Wednesday and Thursday I was traveling all day and was just too tired to log in.

But, I did get some questing in during the rest of the week.  On Sunday, I logged on with Kanndar (Level 14 Paladin) and I took him into the Ruins of Threnal.  I was running a little short on time and decided to go ahead and complete the set of quests known as the Giant Caves: The Giants’ Lair, The Giants; Supplies, and The Giant Lieutenants.  During these runs, Kanndar picked up a monster manual deed for hill giant hunter which netted him 1,179 experience.

Kanndar facing off against the fire giants in the fire caves.

Kanndar battling the giants on his way to destroy some crates.

Kanndar fighting against a champion in the Giant Caves.

 

Monday, I took Hamllin (Level 20 Fighter/Fatesinger) into the Ruins of Gianthold (Heroic) while I was playing during my weekly digital pen and paper session.  Hamllin collected 80 Storm Fist slayers, 99 Storm Heart slayers, and 116 Storm Eye slayers.  He also came across the rare encounters Zakaya Master Ragath, Expedition Leader Brazwold, Tarmer Stonehoof, Lord Cirrus, and Clan Chief Ogh.

Hamllin hunting down some fire giants in Giant Hold.

 

I started off on Tuesday by dual boxing with Crawlller (Level 8 Ranger) and Cannock (Level 8 Druid) and did a slayer run in Three Barrel Cove.  They collected 104 slayers during that run and came across the rare encounters for Strinati, Dybesh Relix, Chortle, Brine, and Ithun Orenah.  After that run, I logged on with Erdrique (Level 11 Bard) and Sttollen (Level 12 Rogue)  and I took them into the quest Stromvauld’s Mine.  While in there they completed the optional objectives to slay Milos Baran, Boro Charidan, and Degren Marzat.  For my nightly run, I logged on with Charlock (Level 16 Fighter) and I was joined by Hellfiend and we decided to tackle the Slave Pits of the Undercity on heroic elite.  Charlock collected two monster manual deeds, one for ghast hunter (9,439 experience) and one for rat hunter (1,887 experience).  I’m still learning that quest and so is Hellfiend so it isn’t too surprising to learn that we got roasted in the massive fire trap room.  So we didn’t get the quest completed but we’ll knock it out next time.

Crawlller battling Brine in Three Barrel Cove.

Erdrique defeating the drow of Stromvauld’s Mine.

Charlock preparing to deal with the slavers.

 

Friday night, I logged on with Erdrique and Sttollen, once again, and this time I took into the Xorian Cipher.  To get to the Xorian Cipher, I first completed The Path to Madness on elite and in so doing, Erdrique collected nine mysterious remnants.  While in the Xorian Cipher, Erdrique picked up a monster manual deed for scorrow hunter for 2,260 experience.  Erdrique and Sttollen completed the optional objectives for finding and entering the vault, sealing all of the rifts, and taking out Deathfang, Mastart Markud, Urtyan Markud, and the Vault Guardian.  In the vault, Sttollen picked up a mythic version of the Chaosgarde and a Reaver’s Ring.  Meanwhile, Erdrique picked up a Planar Gird and a mythic version of the Chaos Band.  Erdrique also collected 12 mysterious remnants.

Erdrique slicing through the path to Xorian Cipher.

Battling the undead of the Xorian Cipher.

To close out the week, Erdrique and Sttollen started things out by dual boxing Sorrowdusk Isle.  They collected 114 slayers and they both hit the 200 slayer mark as well as finding the rare encounters: Saate, Thanolin, Barxer, and Noozer.  A little while later, I logged on with Kolll (Level 22 Ranger/Shiradi Champion) to get the data I need for my monster manual analysis but after I did that, I took him out into  Tangleroot Gorge because I still have yet to finish that explorer are for him.  While out there, Kolll picked up a monster manual deed for wolf exterminator II and received 1,650 experience.  He also took out Gharjat, Jarak, and Silkweave.  Later on Saturday night, I logged on with Erdrique and Sttollen again and I was joined by Sornea.  I have been trying to get some help with the Temple of Elemental Evil Part 1 and this time I had it :).  So we headed to the Hall of Heroes and then to the Temple.  Erdrique picked up another monster manual deed, this one human exterminator III for 1,695 experience.  He also picked up 27 mysterious remnants.  We had a few deaths but we did complete the quest and completed the optional objectives for 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 slayers.  After that we called it a night.

Erdrique making his way through the caves of Sorrowdusk Isle.

Kolll getting reacquainted with Tangleroot Gorge.

It is time to go hunting in the Temple of Elemental Evil.

So overall the week was a little shorter than usual but still productive.  I was really grateful for Sornea’s help in getting through the Temple of Elemental Evil.  Now all I need to do is get through the second part :).  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting in DDO!!

 

 

Looking Back at This Week’s Runs, Questing July 13th to July 17th

As I took a glance at my quest runs this past week, I really couldn’t come up with a nice theme for the week.  However, now that I think about it, I probably could have said it was the week of undead and giant slaying considering that I had quest runs through the Catacombs, Delera’s Graveyard, Threnal, Red Fens, and the Black Loch.  Well, in any case, my questing started off on Monday morning with a slayer run into the King’s Forrest with Kolll (Level 22 Ranger/Shiradi Champion).  Kolll is slowly wracking up his slayers out there.  I think I need to put in a few extra slayer runs for him to really start making a dent in that area.  Later that afternoon, after I got home from work and prior to dinner, I took Erdrique (Level 14 Rogue) back into the Ruins of Threnal and completed the Threnal Arena and the first quest among the Giant Caves, The Giant Lieutenants.  Later that night, during my digital PNP game session, I logged on with Crawlller (Level 6 Ranger) and took him into the Catacombs and completed The Old Archives, The Crypt of Gerard Dryden, and Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral on hard.  I called it a night after those runs and we closed out our PNP session as well.

Erdrique taking on the challenge of the Threnal Arena.

Erdrique looking for the giant lieutenants.

Crawlller making his way through the Old Archives.

Crawlller reading the inscription on the Tomb of Gerard Dryden.

Crawlller opening a lever in the Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral.

On Tuesday, my morning questing was in Neverwinter Nights II.  I mix in an occassional run of Neverwinter Nights II with my slayer runs.  I’m currently working on a low level Spirit Shaman named Ragnar at the moment and we are currently exploring the corruption in Neverwinter.  Later in the afternoon, I took Hamllin (Level 16 Fighter) and I took him out into the Red Fens and wracked up some more slayers.  Hamllin is slowly accumulating more and more slayers and is approaching that 7,500 mark.  Later that night, I logged on with Larrs (Level 21 Bard/Fatesinger) and I took him into House Deneith and started the Sentinels of Stormreach chain.  I picked up the quest storyline and the first quest Bargain of Blood and headed out to the Bargain Bazaar in the Searing Heights.  I completed the Bargain of Blood on epic normal with help from my onyx panther, level 17 owlbear, and a favored soul hireling.  I didn’t have any problems at all, using charm monster quite effectively to turn my enemies against each other.  I then headed off to The Black Loch, where I took Larrs and his makeshift band against the necromancers of the Blood Tide pirates and I had some fun slicing through those hordes of shuffling zombies and pirates.  I then called it a night.

Ragnar working his way out of a battle in Neverwinter.

Hamllin is a twisting whirl of death in the Red Fens.

Larrs making his way to the final battle in Bargain of Blood.

Larrs in the midst of combat in the Black Loch.

Wedensday was my typical “short” day.  I started the day by taking Kanndar (Level 12 Paladin) into Sorrowdusk Isle to work on some more slayers out there.  He is still working on his 750 slayer mark out there.  Later in the afternoon, I took Erdrique back out into the Ruins of Threnal and completed the last two quests out there: The Giants’ Lair and the Giants’ Supplies.  Those were the only runs I was able to complete as I spent the rest of the day with my beautiful wife.

Kanndar taking care of the ogres in Sorrowdusk Isle.

Erdrique taking on the giants in the Giants’ Lair.

Erdrique working on destroying the crates in the Giants’ Supplies.

I logged on with Harrgon (Level 11 Favored Soul) first thing Thursday morning and took him through some slayer runs in Three Barrel Cove.  Later on in the afternoon, I logged on with Hamllin and continued to work on his slayer runs in the Red Fens.  Later that night, I logged on with Harrgon once again and I took him through the quests Free Delera and Thrall of the Necromancer on elite.  I still had some time to kill, so I took Harrgon out into Three Barrel Cove to more on some slayers and then I called it a night.

Harrgon taking on the enemies of Three Barrel Cove.

Hamllin hiding in the reeds of the Red Fens.

Harrgon being swarmed by wraiths in Free Delera.

Harrgon taking on the skeletons of Thrall of the Necromancer.

Harrgon taking note of some more waterfalls in Three Barrel Cove.

Overall, it was quite a diverse week of quest runs.  I had some low level, mid level, higher level, and epic level runs in the mix this week.  I hope everybody else had a nice week as well and I hope everybody has an even better weekend.  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting.

Two Days of Questing over the Weekend, December 26th to 28th

This past weekend was a very strong weekend of questing for me, at least in terms of knocking out high experience awarding quests.  I was traveling during Friday, December 26th from North Carolina to Florida and didn’t get any play time :(.  So my questing activities didn’t start until Saturday.

I devoted the entire weekend to questing with Erdrique (Level 12 Monk) to take advantage of the 10% experience bonus and the additional 10% experience VIP bonus.  To start out the questing I took Erdrique out into Sorrowdusk Isle and completed the rest of the slayers and rares out in that zone.  After I completed that zone, I then moved off to finish up the Ruins of Threnal.  I then took on and completed the quests of the Abandoned Excavation (The Missing Expedition, Entering the Gate Chamber, The Gate Chamber) and then I completed the Threnal Arena and the Giant Caves (The Giants Lieutenants, The Giants’ Lair, The Giants’ Supplies).  After completing all of Threnal I then moved off and head on to The Pit.  However, before I did that I leveled up from 11 to 12.  I then blasted through Pit and still earned well over 36,000 experience for the run :).  Once I completed the Pit, I then headed off to the Tomb of the Shadow Guard and completed it on elite.  After the run through the Tomb of the Shadow Guard, I called it a night.

Erdrique working on completing the Sorrowdusk Explorer area.

Working to locate the missing expedition.

Erdrique stunning a beholder in Entering the Gate Chamber.

Erdrique stunning a hill giant hunter in the Gate Chamber.

Erdrique approaching the arena of Threnal.

Working through the Giants’ Lair.

Erdrique doing what he can to destroy the Giants’ supplies.

Erdrique looking to take out the giant lieutenants.

Erdrique gazing down the shaft of the Pit.

Erdrique fighting phase spiders in the Tomb of the Shadow Guard.

On Sunday, I continued through the Shadow Tomb series of quests.  Before I did that however, I went to the Cannith Crafting Hall and decided to create some ghost touch of pure good handwraps because I was having a number of annoying issues in the Tomb of the Shadow Guard from incorporeality misses.  After I created the new handwraps, I head pack out to the Necropolis and hit up the Tomb of the Shadow King and Tomb of the Shadow Knight.  Once I completed these two quests, I was then able to gain access to The Shadow Crypt and I worked my way through that shifting maze to gain gears to finally take on Nerezza.  The Shadow Crypt netted me over 50,000 experience :).

Fighting and more fighting in the Tomb of the Shadow King.

Jading a shrouded terror mage in the Tomb of the Shadow Knight.

Fighting Dontre Lebram in the Shadow Crypt.

At that point, I called it a night.  So even though I missed a day of questing because of traveling issues, I still wracked up quite a bit of experience over the weekend.  I still plan on focusing on Erdrique during the week as well to continue to take advantage of the experience bonus that is currently active and to take advantage of my time off of work before things head back to normal.  Thank you for reading and happy hunting!!

The Forgotten Quests

There is no doubt, there are a large number of quests in DDO, with many getting a lot of play time and with others barely getting any play time.  A lot of this has to do with the experience quests hand out, the ease of which the quest can be run to maximize the experience per minute ratio, as a favor grind, and for pieces of wanted loot or gear as well as other factors.  One set of quests that is not as popular as many others are the quests within the Ruins of Threnal Adventure Pack.  I always found Threnal fun and very interesting, exploring the three excavation sites (Western, Eastern, and Southern) and tracking down the mysteries held within in each.  However, there are four other quests in this area that hardly ever get ran.  These quest include the Threnal Arena, The Giant Lieutenants, The Giants’ Lair, and The Giants’ Supplies.  I recently took Hamllin (Level 12 Fighter) through all of these quests and was reminded how fun they are.

Hamllin making his way to the Threnal Arena altar.

One of the reasons why these quests aren’t run all that much is because they don’t show up in the Adventure Compedium and completing them doesn’t help you gain any favor.  Also, three of the four quests don’t appear in your quest journal.  Of the four quests, Threnal Arena is probably the most commonly ran.  This is mainly because after its completion you can pick up either the Threnalian War Blade or Threnalian War Dagger.  The quest is unique in that it starts after you “talk” to the altar in the ruins of the Threnal Arena and put down the Threnalian Ceremonial Blade that you pick up after completing the Western Excavation.  The quest has three waves of combatants: Apprentice Challenge, Master Challenge, and Grandmaster’s Challenge.  The foes you fight in each challenge get more difficult and range from annoying rust monsters, gargoyles, flesh renders, fire reavers, ice flensers, and with beholders in the last challenge.  Each wave offers a small amount after its completion.  Overall the quest isn’t all that difficult but if you aren’t careful the beholders can easily drain you of all of your levels, which nearly happened to me.

Hamllin fighting in the Apprentice Challenge in the Threnal Arena.

The next three quests are collectively known as the “Giant Caves”.  As you can guess by that statement and by the name of the quests, they are entirely composed of giants, hill giants and fire giants.  These particular set of quests used to be considered one of the best loot runs, basically when the level cap was around 10 and 12.  It is ironic how a set of quests that used to farm relentlessly are now really just a “relic.”  People used to come into these quests looking for +1 Stat Tomes, +5 Mithral Full Plate armor, and one of “top five” weapons (disruptors, banishers, vorpals, smiters, and paralyzers).

Two of quests that compose the giant caves are level 9 on normal while the last one, The Giants’ Supplies, is level 10 on normal.  All three quests are pretty short.  The dungeon layout for all three is pretty straight forward.  The Giant Lieutenants is quest that is closest to the arena.  The other two quests aren’t very far from the primary Threnal quests.  In the Giant Lieutenants, your objective is to slay five hill giant lieutenants, pretty straightforward.  You will encounter other hill giants and fire giants as well.  In the The Giants’ Lair your objective it way waste to all of the giants and slaughter them all.  In the last, the Giants’ Supplies you have to destroy all of the crates that are scattered about in the main room (which has an upper level and lower level that you use giant mushrooms to travel back and forth from) and to destroy the fire giant leader.

Hamllin looking for some giant lieutenants to take care of.

Hamllin working to defeat all of the giants in the Giants’ Lair.

Hamllin looking to cause some trouble by destroying some supplies.

All three quests are relatively straight forward, but it must be cautioned that these giants aren’t simple pushovers either.  They also tend to group together and like to swarm their enemies and they can be extremely dangerous if you aren’t prepared for such tactics.  Separating them is probably the best option and fire resistance/protection is a must in all three caves.

It is a shame that these quests aren’t run more frequently.  I wish they were fixed to include favor when that system was released years ago.  I’m not sure why they weren’t added that way.  They are actually quests with objectives.  Although they are short they can be pretty tough.

The next time you are in the Threnal Ruins, try giving them a shot.  Thanks for reading everybody and happy hunting in the Ruins of Threnal!!

It Was A Low Level Weekend, Quest Runs October 17 to October 19

Over the weekend, I played primarily three characters: Erdrique (Level 5 Monk), Hamllin (Level 12 Fighter), and Stoorage (Level 10 Fighter).  However, my questing for the weekend began with Berann (Level 7 Barbarian) on Friday morning with some slayer runs.  That morning I took Berann into the Waterworks Slayers and collected some more kills.  After I ran through the Waterworks, I then took Berann out to Smuggler’s Rest and had some fun smacking around some hobgoblin pirates…at least until I accidentally smacked a half-orc pirate who proceeded to chase me around the island .  I collected some doubloons and map pieces for awhile but didn’t get a chance to enter the Crystal Cove.  On Friday afternoon, I brought on Hamllin and took him out into the Ruins of Threnal one last time.  I took Hamllin through the forgotten quests out there, first tackling the Threnal Arena.  I was quite surprised, and almost died, when a beholder in the last wave of monsters nearly drained me of all of my levels.  But I was able to hold on and took him out.  I then headed off to complete the Giant Caves: The Giant Lieutenants, The Giants’ Lair, and The Giants’ Supplies.  It brought back some memories of classic loot runs.

Berann facing off against Shaman Yiley in Waterworks.

Berann taking care of some pirates in the Smuggler’s Rest.

Hamllin being tested in the Threnal Arena.

Hamllin looking for some giant lieutenants.

Hamllin doing what he can to destroy some crates.

Hamllin exploring the Giants’ lair.

On Friday night, I logged on with Erdrique and decided to him up the Waterworks.  I was joined by Hellshield and we headed off to do some slayer runs in the Waterworks Slayer area and then headed off to look for Arlos and Venn.  We completed the entire arc: The Kobold’s Den: Clan Gnashtooth, The Kobold’s Den: Rescuing Arlos, Venn’s Trail: Clan Tunnelworm, and Venn’s Trail Venn’s Fate.  We knocked the string on elite .  We then took care of our inventory and repairs and headed off to the Marketplace to start The Seal of Shan-to-Kor.  We were able to get through the first two quests: The Cloven Jaw Scourge: Blockade and The Cloven Jaw Scourge: Caverns of Shaagh before we had to call it a night.

Erdrique taking some time to explore the sewers.

Erdrique making his way through Clan Gnashtooth to find Arlos.

Erdrique freeing prisoners in the prison.

Erdrique wondering what is down the pipe.

Looking for Venn.

Erdrique prepping to make his way through the blockade

Erdrique battling his was through the Caverns of Shaagh.

I didn’t get any questing in on Saturday night as it was a weekend date night .  On Sunday, I was scheduled to log in with Stoorage and he still needs to complete the quests out in Three Barrel Cove on elite.  With him being on my premium account, I tend to have to run these quests three times (normal, hard, elite) so it does tend to take me longer.  However, I also wanted to run a Cannith Challenge and to hopefully get a run in the Crystal Cove.  So, I took him out into Three Barrel Cove and completed the quest The Legend of Two-toed Tobias, but only on normal.  After that run, I picked up a challenge token and head off into Dr. Rushmore’s Mansion: Behind the Door.  I made my way through the mansion and was able to find the succubus and the blackguard.  After I was ported out of the successful challenge, I then headed to Smuggler’s Rest where only about 1,200 map pieces were still required to open up the Cove.  A short time later the Cove was open and I took Stoorage in their and some fun directing some kobold miners as well as taking care of them from the multitude of attackers.  By the time the quest was done, it was time for me logout and head to bed.

Looking for Two Toed Tobias.

Hunting down a boss in Dr. Rushmore’s mansion.

Battling the pirates roaming Smuggler’s Rest.

Stoorage protecting and directing traffic in the Crystal Cove.

So overall, the questing this week was primarily done by some low level questing.  I’m progressing quite nicely with Erdrique and Hamllin is also moving along.  I hope everybody else had a nice weekend and a fun time questing in DDO!!!  Thank you for reading and happy hunting everybody!!