Pumping Irony

The traitorous Jacoby Drexelhand has been defeated and the sahuagin’s secret passageway into Korthos village secured, there is still the problem of the Devourer cult. Most human cultists are former Korthos citizens who were taken and brainwashed into the evil cult of the Devourer. More villagers are still missing and suspected as being held prisoner before being taken one-by-one up to Misery’s Peak where their indoctrination occurs.

Unlike Phase II where the tavern keep Sigmund Bauerson would direct you to each quest individually if you had not grabbed them already, Phase III gives no such direction. In the village, you’ll notice three new quest icons on the minimap, so take each one, as each quest location will be found within Korthos Island, where we continue our adventures.

First we meet the mayor of Korthos village, Viggie Storr, who’s daughter Arissa has been taken along with other villagers. His information suggests villagers are held in the Cannith aqueduct before being transported to Misery’s Peak where they become Devourer cultists. Next is “Handsome Wilm” one of the crew of the Sojourn, a Khorvaire ship frozen in the ice just outside the docks. His employer, mistress Drusen d’Jorasco, was taken by cultists with undead minions. He followed them to some catacombs near the aqueducts, and wishes to hire our services to retrieve Ms. d’Jorasco. Finally, near the village gate we meet Ursa Jernsvard, a friend of Sigmund’s daughter Kaja who is convinced Lars Heyton is indeed alive — she saw him! Near the old Cannith Manufactory where long ago mages from House Cannith created sentient construct — who later became the Warforged — Ursa claims she saw Lars briefly and thinks he may be inside.

The gates into Korthos Island were previously barred until we completed The Collaborator quest. That’s done now, so entry onto the island itself is permitted. Korthos Island itself is an all-new wilderness landscape, and like all DDO wilderness landscapes, its quests are gained automatically upon zoning in for the first time. In addition to the standard incremental Slayer quest, Korthos Island has twelve Explorer locations to find, and three Rare Encounters. Rare Encounters are random each time you enter a wilderness landscape; sometimes none spawn, sometimes one or two. I don’t recall ever being in any wilderness landscape where all rare encounters spawned in a single session, but perhaps it’s possible. Defeating the rare encounter boss will spawn a chest to loot. Wilderness areas certainly cover the Explorer and Killer categories of the Bartle Player Types, and perhaps to a much lesser degree the Achiever who may stand a chance at new gear from a chest.

After leaving the village into the wilds of the village, we see a scout up ahead, Gunnar Bauerson, son of Sigmund. Gunnar warns that the sahuagin have discovered a great beast which has been imprisoned underneath the island since the age of giants. A giantish device keeps the creature trapped in eternal slumber but the sahuagin are trying to sabotage the device to awaken the creature.

All said and done, we now have four new quests all located within the Korthos Island wilderness landscape, in addition to the slayer and explorer objectives. As with Phase II, these four quests are all re-imagined versions of original Stormreach Harbor quests. In Phase II the physical layout of the dungeons and their objectives were largely unchanged. In Phase III, however, Turbine raised the bar by adding all-new graphics to some areas, altering some of the layouts and objective, and adding new puzzles. Unlike the Phase II quests, veteran players who recognize the layouts of the Phase III quests and think they know exactly where to go and what to do may be in for a bit of a surprise.

While we’re free to explore and find the entrances for each of the four quests, Gunnar suggests the quickest way to get into the ancient giant complex is to jump off the cliff behind him into the water below, where we find a sahuagin warrior standing guard over the entrance to the dungeon, warning us away. If we don’t leave, he attacks and calls a few more sahuagin to his aid. Defeating them, we’re free to enter the underground complex.

Stopping the Sahuagin

Entering the complex, the Dungeon Master provides a bit of lore, informing us the ancient giants used drow slaves to build vast underground complexes, though the original purpose of them is lost to antiquity. We find ourselves in a chilly, narrow corridor dotted with icy stalactites and stalagmites. We follow a current of water which flows downhill along the corridor floor. A sahuagin patrols there but before we can sneak up to quietly dispatch him he noticed our approach and ran to a gong, banging it loudly to alert his fellow guards. Eventually we come to a fork in the corridor and a level which alternates opening the door on the left or the right. Either choice takes you into the same room, just on opposite sides. The next room’s floor is encased in ice and we hear ratcheting machinery activated below us, and we can see there is another lower portion to the chamber below the icy floor. In the rear of the room is a sculpture reminiscent of a fish-like dragon head which occasionally issues a sonic blast. On either side of the chamber are two signal gem switches, each “guarded” by a sleeping sahuagin. If we sneak, we can kill them without waking them then activate the signal gem. Pulling both will open a door to the chamber behind the sculpture where more sonic traps protect a large warning gong. Banging the gong once, we hear a rumble in the chamber outside. A second bang and the ice floor shatters and collapses, opening the lower portion where more sahuagin guard two more signal gem switches which open an underwater gate. Swimming through the gate then up a vertical shaft, we climb out into another corridor even colder than the last. We must be near the giantish device! Shortly ahead we begin hearing sounds and see light but are first attacked by Kraak, a red-named ice spider boss. Defeating him, we arrive at a platform spewing forth a freezing mist. Before it are other adventurers who were frozen by the mist. Careful timing gets us safely through the icy sprays where we see a large bulbous creature — reminiscent of an Old One from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos — pulsating in the gated chamber beyond. This must be the ancient creature the giants froze thousands of years ago and the sahuagin are trying to awaken. The sahuagin have diverted the freezing mist away from the creature so it may thaw; it’s our job to redirect the mists back into the creature’s cell. This puzzle uses the same rotating floor tiles as the previous did, only rather than only having tiles on the floor, the device is a platform with tiles on top as well as on the sides which we rotate to switch the front sprays off and the rear sprays on to eventually re-freeze the creature in its prison. (Original quest: Survive the Low Road)

Back into Korthos Island, Gunnar is still perched on his rock high on the cliffs above with no direct route to him, so he’ll have to wait for news of our success. In the meantime, we’ve been charged with finding and returning several of the village’s citizens and seeing if Ursa’s suspicions of Lars Heyton’s whereabouts are correct.

Now that we’re actually exploring Korthos Island, we run into several sahuagin patrols and guard outposts. Sometimes we’ll find cultists. Nearing the aqueducts, we overhear sahuagin adepts ordering their human cultist slaves to find Heyton. One location was humorous: a sahuagin adept and several cultists are gathered about some sort of shrine to the Devourer, where one of the cultists proudly proclaims he gives his soul to the Devourer. Luminescent blue-ish hued tentacles of magical energy rise and envelope the cultist. The other cultists attack, while the who sacrificed himself is re-animated as a zombie who — in a nod to the Evil Dead movies — cries “swallow your soul!” and chases after us.

One particularly dangerous camp had a sahuagin high priestess, several zombies and several cultist acolytes who can cast Magic Missile, Ray of Frost and Acid Splash spells. If the zombies get in a position to block you while the acolytes run behind and sling their spells, things can get dicey fast. Luckily, rest shrines are located nearby.

Exploring more of the island, I located the entrances to the remaining quests. I’ll start with rescuing the mayor’s daughter. As the mayor suspected, cultists are indeed holding the villagers prisoner in the Cannith aqueducts.

Sacrifices

The mayor was most concerned about his daughter, Arissa, but also hoped we could save any other villagers we found. This is reflected in the quest objective UI, which introduces optional objectives to new players. The quest itself can be completed by rescuing only Arissa, but each villager we save means more XP in the final reward.

Upon entering the aqueduct we find our way blocked by thick spider webs. Hacking through the webs disturbs waves of spiders who are determined to show us their displeasure. We then find a chamber with two bridges, one lowered and one raised, spanning a water-filled gap. On either end of the chamber we can see several Korthos villagers locked in prison cells. The bridges are part of a lever puzzle which eventually allow access into a chamber with locks for the cells to free the villagers. There are also levers and doors underwater but I wasn’t able to determine if they actually function on their own or if they’re leftovers from the original version of the quest. I think I pulled every underwater lever and opened both trapdoors but the locked door in the center never opened. Sometimes a miniboss spawns at the prison switch, sometimes not, and alternatively we can choose to skip the villagers and just continue through the dungeon. Either way, a few more cultists roam the halls then we climb down a ladder into an empty L-shaped room with water covering the floor. Wading across the room, several sahuagin spring out. A switch on the right wall opens a door to rest shrines if we need them. Climbing up the next ladder we encounter more traps as spikes shoot up from the floor and a blade slashes across the hall at ankle level. Avoidance, careful timing and saving throws help prevent or mitigate piercing and slashing damage from these two traps. Once clear, we enter the Devourer’s sanctum where we can hear a woman’s cry for help; we must be getting close to the mayor’s daughter. Sahuagin patrol the area, an open hallway to the right reveals more sahuagin guarding Arissa and the remaining prisoners. Quest complete! If we return back into the sanctum chamber, a switch opens a gate into a final corridor where Drenyl Fallow, the orange-named miniboss leader of the Devourer cult’s aqueduct facility is worshipping at an altar to his dark god. Just as the this quest showed new players the concept of optional goals in the UI at the time of entering the dungeon, Drenyl demonstrates that sometimes optional objectives are discovered while in the quest. Also sometimes Arissa is held in the cells with the prisoners, other times Drenyl has placed her in one of the sacrificial shrines at his altar. (Original quest: Sewer Rescue)

With Arissa and other villagers rescued from the Devourer cult, the mayor should be pleased now we turn our attention to heading into the catacombs to save “Handsome Wilm’s” benefactor, Drusen d’Jorasco.

Necromancer’s Doom

Walking downstairs and opening the doorway into the catacombs, we immediately see a magical barrier around a prison cell likely holding Ms. d’Jorasco across the ice-covered chamber. We pass by more frozen adventurers, though shattering them allows their bodies to be animated as zombies which lumber after us. Two signal gems adorn a panel near the cell holding Drusen, and hallways extend from each side of the room. To the right, skeletons litter the floor which spring to life as we pass. Around the corner, a sahuagin necromancer Rhix Fyl is animating more zombies. Defeating him, we activate the signal gem in his altar room. Running back down the left hallway, suddenly gates drop, trapping us in the room. A panel in the wall opens and more zombies arise and slowly stalk after us, then we find another necromancer, a Devourer Warpriest, at another altar and signal gem. Coming back up, we see the signal gems lowered the magical barrier but the cell is still locked. Searching about for a key, we hear wicked laughter as Jacoby Drexelhand — raised from the dead as a red-named wight — enters the chamber behind us with a skeletal warrior and swears his vengeance upon us. Upon his defeat, Jacoby curses and spits a vow to return before collapsing. We take the key from his pockets and free Drusen, who suggests we visit the House Jorasco enclave while visiting Stormreach. (Original quest: The Missing Ward)

Our final task was heading to the abandoned Cannith manufactory to see if the missing Lars Heyton is there and if we can reach him before the sahuagin and their cultist slaves.

Redemption

Some of the old Cannith machinery which created their automatons, who later became the Warforged race, still functions in the first room. Continuing, we find a hall which appears to have been recently boarded up. Smashing the wood with our weapons, mechanical dogs called iron defenders roam the halls, as well as a few traps blocking the way. Iron defenders are often used as wizard’s guards, so perhaps Lars Heyton is here after all. The corridors become more and more labyrinthine. One of the rooms has a magical barrier blocking a passageway but no obvious means of bypassing it until we find a room with three Cannith power crystals in a machine which sprays them with an alchemical compound which hardens their shells. Unfortunately, the gate to the crystals is locked. Further exploration reveals rest shrines and a switch nearby, which unlocks the cell to the crystals and their machinery. Shutting off the six valves stops the alchemical spray so we can destroy the power crystals, lowering the magical barrier. Down another corridor I discovered a locked cage with a chest and two iron defenders guarding it. Again, not being a rogue and not having Jeets available, I was unable to open it so I ventured back to the corridor the barrier had been protecting. At the end of the corridor is a deep pool with another magical barrier over the water which seems to be keeping anything from coming up from the water. Beyond is a laboratory with magical and alchemical equipment and shelves of books and scrolls. A warforged named Amalgam is there and more importantly, the missing old wizard Lars Heyton! From his stench, he seems to have cooped himself up in here too long without a bath, though he is more concerned that we have lowered the defenses he’d constructed throughout the manufactory. He hurriedly considers how to get his magical defenses back up when Devourer magic suddenly shimmers in the air and encapsulates the pool’s barrier into a floating bubble, opening the deep pool where several waves of sahuagin jump up and attack! Lars and Amalgam fight alongside us to defeat the sahuagin onslaught. As with The Cannith Crystal quest back in Korthos Village, the potential for failure exists here if the sahuagin manage to kill Lars Heyton. Finally the Devourer’s magic is weakened and the sahuagin attack ceases. (Original quest: Steal the Healing Elixer)

Lars reveals he has discovered that the dragon is not assisting the Devourer cult of its own free will, but that a Mind Flayer from the depths of Khyber is controlling the dragon, attacking ships approaching Korthos and freezing the islands. The crafty old wizard has a plan to turn the tables on the Mind Flayer and the Devourer cult, and suggests we meet his friend Amalgam near Misery’s Peak…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 4:43 pm and is filed under DDO, MMO Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.