Quests: All's Well That Ends Well (primary), Desperate Measures, Warning Kehanni (primary), Calling the Order (primary, MoW split), Greed and Regret (primary, Margrid split)

Find the fountain and talk to Royal Food-Taster Rendu for your next primary. Yes I know it sounds like a trap, take the quest anyway. Next, go out into the Forum Highlands and go to the fountain where the crazy lady made you take a bath a moment ago. Go west across the carpet bridge, up some stairs on your left, up two more flights of stairs, then go right and through a door to find a whole lot of sand and an NPC named Kamveh on your left who has a quest for you. He wants you to take out the harpy and heket leaders. Well OK Mr. Guy, but we'll come back and do the quest later. Just grab it for now and re-enter the Kodash, then go out into the Mirror of Lyss. Head straight north then go right around the giant mountain in your way. Be careful, as there's a powerful mes Roaring Ether boss with his evil friends patrolling in circles around the hill right after the beetle mob. Wait for the boss mob to pass (or attempt to murder them, whichever), then go straight NE and you'll soon see what looks like civilisation in the distance, with a large platform floating above some water and a bunch of palm trees in planters. Kehanni is there, almost directly east of you. Go north then east across a carpet bridge and through the portal coming up on your left, then run through this town and out the other side (we'll need this outpost later). Go southeast til you find a path through some rocks and follow that. OK, so there's a patrol of Roaring Ethers heading your way up this path so I shall now tell you how to deal with these things, since this won't be the last time you see them. Roaring Ethers have multiple target damage spells, interrupts, AND they have res sig for some reason, so you're gonna want to bring an interrupter (or at least have an interrupt skill on one of your regular heroes) so you can at least interrupt res sig. NEVER fight these things while bunched up together; spread out before engaging them or you'll soon find yourself hating life and everything in it. Continue SE to find a portal into Honur Hill. Make your way south through the town and exit through the portal into Resplendent Makuun. Go around the hill behind the res shrine and up the stairs on your left. Welcome to the palace of Bokka the Magnificent, made by the same crazy geometrically-challenged person who built Kaineng Center and its surrounding area. ^@__@^;; Follow the path until it splits, then go right into the building. Go right again, then left up some stairs, and left up some more stairs. Turn right after the res shrine, then right again at the small fountain, then right again inside the room full of rugs, pillows, and fans to find Bokka at the end of this room. Backtrack a bit to the portal we just passed right outside this room and go through it. As previously stated, this is a trap so make whatever preparations you want to make before heading down, however since they are pretending to put on a play there will be a few lines said first so you might want to wait to drop things like spirits. When Merkle says he likes Plan B, feel free to drop your spirits and whatnot. They're all rangers and therefore boring and die easily, so once they are dead and Bokka tells you to get your refund from the Finance Minister map back to Honur Hill and find the Finance guy near the portal to Resplendent Makuun. He also tells you you should warn Kehanni about this mess. Map back to the Grand Court of Sebelkeh (that town we were in for all of 0.2 seconds that I said we'd need later, as later is now) and go out the west exit (I know it says east, the game is drunk). Kehanni is right where you last left her, however you might want to make preparations now as things start to attack her as soon as you approach. Kill the Margo Cleric then the Sorcerer, then all the other non-boss things then the boss, then talk to Kehanni, who sends you back inside the Court. The priest guy is just up the stairs by the shrine of Lyssa. Now, from here the story splits again (stooooooop splitting the partyyyyy guyyyyyyyyys), depending on whether you chose MoW or Margrid. If you chose MoW, the priest tells you to try to convice the Order of Whispers to join your cause. If you chose Margrid, he tells you that the princes have fled to some vault full of treasure and literally sealed themselves inside with no way to get out, thinking that this will keep them safe. However, Varesh will just destroy the entire thing so the priest wants you to save them and that Margrid probably knows how to get in. Um. Hey, Mr. Guy? We have one of the prince's daughters, Tahlkora, with us. Can't she just open it? No? Shorty's useless? OK thanks. ^@__@^;; As before, the info for your primaries will be the first paragraphs of their respective missions (Dzagonur Bastion for MoW and Dasha Vestibule for Margrid). *Note: There's a quest in the Margrid primary section that anyone can get with a Trade Contract as a reward so you might want to read that first paragraph even if you have MoW so you can find and acquire this quest. I won't be having you do that quest til later but you might as well grab it now. Also, those of you who choose MoW will end up with the Mihanu Township town on your map, which all of you will need later so all of you should follow the directions to get there (first paragraph of Dzagonur Bastion mish).

Required hero: Master of Dodginess

So. Primary time. Put MoW in your party and map to the Chantry of Secrets. Cross the bridge and turn right at the statue of Lyssa to find some other Whispers guys down below. Talk to Whispers Acolyte, who tells you that margos have camped out just outside the Chantry and they need your help to get rid of them. Well, when you get outside you'll realise that "just outside" really means "like 500,000 miles away." ^=__=^;; Head down into the river and go right (trust me on this), then make a left at the bridge, go up onto land, and cross that bridge. Cross this area to find that Margo boss I mentioned last time we were here, that has the LB bounty just past him (remember there's an evil ele boss in the middle of this area). Grab the bounty, then walk back towards the Chantry and continue following the river NE for awhile, mowing down Kournans and Margos along the way that have absolutely nothing to do with our quest yay~ Once you reach land you'll find a mob of Whispers guys to the north. Talk to the Disciple of Secrets and tell them to attack the warriors. Make your way towards Norgu, and MoW starts shouting orders. I already told themmmmmm MoWWWW... The rangers move in on your position from the south, but they go down pretty quick. Don't worry about the Whispers guys; they've probably killed the wars by the time you're done, if not shortly afterwards. Once both mobs are dead, talk to Norgu, who's where the starburst was (like seriously dude, why are you even here), and he tells you that the Citadel of Dzagon is under attack. Why do we care? Well, this is the fortress that Prince Ahmtur was talking about during the party, the only thing keeping the Desolation monsters from overrunning Vabbi. Map to the Grand Court and leave through the east exit. Go pretty much straight east to find another LB bounty and Prince Ahmtur himself (yeah, I know the dude from one of our other quests is here, just ignore him). Talk to the Prince, who's actually glad to see you. I... I'm not used to people actually wanting us around in this game. What is this weird feeling. ^@__@^;; I guess Morgahn is reporting the fact that he saw us at the festival? Regardless, Varesh apparently no longer cares about us. Seems Morgahn is concerned about his priests. Since when does he care who they murder? ^O__o^;; Regardless, Varesh promises they will be safe, but questions where Morgahn's loyalties lie. After Norgu's annoying banter and Ahmtur's rousing speech, talk to Lieutenant Murunda for... uh. Your Norgu? What. Why do you want this annoying guy... Well anyway, she gives you your quest reward.

Mission map here. OK, lemme mention something about this mission. Make sure you read this first part before entering the mission. The bonus is to keep all three "bombards" intact. These bombards actually help you kill enemies so it's actually in your best interest to try to keep them intact. Basically the point of this mission is to keep the enemies from destroying the gates and getting inside the fort. Once you get inside and talk to Ahmtur he creates a portal right next to him which sends you down below to the field. There are three mobs of Whispers guys down here: one on your right, one on your left, and one behind you for some reason. Perhaps they are hiding, I dunno. Regardless, you should send all three groups to the same gate, specifically the west gate. As soon as you get down there enemies start moving towards your position, so make sure you are 100% ready to go before using the portal to go down to the field. I highly suggest you bring at least one, if not more, minion masters for this mission just to give you more bodies to throw at the mobs. This mission will send waves and waves of enemies at you. After a bit, the four Margo generals will spawn, along with a chaos rift. These rifts will continue to spawn waves of enemies until the boss it belongs to is dead. These bosses do not move unless the bombard on their side is destroyed, so you're gonna have to banzai your way up to each boss, kill them quick, and get back so the fort isn't overrun.

So now that I've gotten that explanation out of the way, speak to Murunda to enter the mission and get going. The first couple of mobs are basically just Kournans, but after awhile the margos start showing up. There's not much more to this mission besides surviving. Also, if one of the gates goes down just keep focus on the other two, and then go find the mobs inside the fort after all of the other waves are dead. Don't worry; there's no vital NPC anywhere that they will kill that will give you mission failed (although if more than one bombard or gate falls you won't get bonus, just fyi). OK, so what you're gonna wanna do is just park yourself by the central bombard and then wait for the mobs to get close enough so you can kill them but still be able to see any other incoming mobs on your compass. Once the game gives you the "4 of 4 generals remain" message you'll know the generals have spawned. Stay here by the central bombard and take out the incoming wave from each side. Try to aggro the west mob and then run towards the middle so you can take on both mobs at once (if you have minions and are in NM this shouldn't hurt too much). Once they are dead make your way east and take out the wave that came from there and once the last enemy in that mob is almost dead (as in, degen or minions will probably kill him) banzai east to the ele boss and take her out. Be aware that her Invoke Lightning hurts a heck of a lot more than the normal Margo sorcerers since she is, in fact, a boss, so make sure you're prepared to take on that kind of damage, like having Protective Spirit cast on you or something before aggroing her. Once she and half her mob are dead, run back to the central bombard. Any of her mob left alive, and any wave that spawned from the rift before she died, should follow you so take them out then clear out any waves hanging around the bombards and make sure that if any of the bars on the bombard "HP" has gone down that you refill the bars by standing near them (check each bombard). While you do this wait for the next incoming wave from each side, take them out, then make your way to the west boss, which is a warrior. He's on a hill just above the west bombard and your NPC allies are probably mostly dead at this point but once the boss goes down it won't be that much of a problem. Take out the war boss and his mob and any wave that spawns from the rift before the boss died, then go back and take out whatever waves have gone to the bombards while you were fighting the war boss. Make your rounds of the bombards and refill their "HP" bars, take out the next incoming waves, then head for the paragon boss (the one towards the east) and take him out. Once he is dead, you don't have to check the bombards, just kill whatever wave came from the last rift, then head up to the last boss, which is a monk. As he is good at healing he takes awhile to go down, which is why we kept him for last, however since this is the last rift we don't need to worry about the bombards anymore, even if one or two enemies run past you to the bombards. Once the last boss is dead, Ahmtur declares our victory, and MoW decides to make friends by telling us his true name. Uh, dude? You're not a demon. We won't have, like, mastery over you or something just cause we know your name. Chillax~ Suddenly, torment claws burst from the ground, signifying that despite all of our efforts, Nightfall has come to Elona.

Required hero: Margrid the Greedyguts

Quests: Botanical Research

So. Primary time. Put Margrid in your party and go out the west exit. Cross the carpet bridge and hang an immediate right once you hit the sand. Follow this path and you'll soon find some tiny building for reasons out here in the middle of nowhere coming up on your right, with a door in it. Go through the door and through the portal on the other side. Make your way through the town and out the north portal into the Holdings of Chokhin. Go north to find a path lined with lamps on tall pillars. You can actually banzai across this area without aggroing anything but it takes timing so you might just want to fight your way across. Regardless, Prince Mehtu's castle is at the end of this path, so take a left once you get there. Margrid starts bitching about a lack of information literally before we even get inside the actual building. Like, really? Chillax, woman. Go left down some stairs, then right across a carpet bridge, then right down some more stairs, left up some more stairs (what's with all the stairs?? We just end up on the same level as before!), then left again at the fountain. Halfway across the room, Margrid spots a priceless book just tossed on the ground on the other side of the room. Goren warns you about touching the book but Margrid doesn't care. Grab the quest from Kahnu first though, then pick up the book (make any preparations, like dropping spirits, before you do though). As soon as you do, a bunch of djinn spawn. Take out the ruby djinn first, then the sapphire ones, as ruby djinn are fire eles. After they are dead, talk to Goren, who seems rather taken with Margrid, and offers to show you how to get into the Hidden City. Map back to the Grand Court and go out the east exit. Head south to the mountain, then left, then right through the path with the roaring ethers from before. Go right as soon as you can and you'll soon find Goren by a res shrine. Yeah, you heard him. Dance. /DANCE LIKE YOU'VE NEVER DANCED BEFORE. (/dancenew does NOT work for this, btw) Once you dance properly, Mr Shiney appears. ... what do you mean, grace of a headless chicken?? I'll grace your chicken! *everyone pushes her aside and makes Goren talk to the thing* I guess Morgahn is reporting the fact that he saw us at the festival? Regardless, Varesh apparently no longer cares about us. Seems Morgahn is concerned about his priests. Since when does he care who they murder? ^O__o^;; Regardless, Varesh promises they will be safe, but questions where Morgahn's loyalties lie. Meanwhile, we have issues of our own. Once the door opens, a bunch of cranky djinn show up and tell us to gtfo or die, then retreat back inside the Hidden City. Well, djinn or no djinn, we've got a job to do. Once inside, go down and talk to Mr Shiney for your quest reward (there are actually two Mr Shineys here; you want the Lock, not the Key).

When you're ready, talk to the Lock to enter the mission. OK, here's the deal. Goren follows you around for this entire mission, and if he dies it's mission failed. This is made even worse by the fact that not only is he a warrior, and therefore likes to get up close and personal with stuff, but he's a hammer war, so he doesn't even get a shield to help him NOT DIE. There is one surefire way to keep Goren safe forever, however this requires you to complete the mission with only 7 party members. Also, if you're doing this, you need at least two actual people in your party and the other guy is just gonna sit on his thumbs the entire time getting a free ride through the mission. It's easier to accomplish this method if you wait until after you clear this first room (yes I know it looks empty, but it won't be for long). After clearing the room (which I'll get to in a minute), return here to where you spawned, then move about one aggro circle away and have the babysitting guy run back towards the spawn point. This should cause Goren to follow that person. Once they reach the spawn point, the babysitter must run back and forth from side to side while the rest of the party moves off, until they are completely out of range (i.e., their names are grey in the party list), at which point the babysitter can stop running around like a maniac and go make himself a sandwich or something. He won't have to do this again until the rest of the party comes back through here a bit later in the mission but since you've already cleared the entire room just repeat while the rest of the party goes in the other direction. You do come back through here a third time but you probably won't get into aggro range then. If you do, well, lather rinse repeat. Now let's get on with this mission.

Mission map here. When you're ready, talk to Goren (and no, not talking to him won't keep him here; as soon as you get anywhere near him he starts following you), who says that the princes have locked themselves inside the central chamber. Margrid informs you that only those of royal blood can walk through here freely. *eyeballs Tahlkora* Shorty, did your mum have an affair and that's why you're of zero help here? And also why her father didn't bother to drag her in here to keep her "safe"? The "guardians" soon spawn. Basically, this place is infested with djinn (and some other things that actually leave corpses in the lower levels, in case you brought an mm), and not just the visible ones either. There are popups. So as stated in the previous paragraph, we need to clear the room whether you're doing the babysitting method or not. Go left and take out the two patrols on this side. At the wall go right and take out the patrol on the other side. Alright, now we have a safe place to retreat to in case things go horribly horribly wrong. On the north side of this area you'll notice three doors, and only the middle one is open. Go through the middle and Margrid will soon comment on the special Mr. Shineys up ahead. Once you get close enough to them you'll be within range of their passive debuffs. There are three of them down on this level and three more up top. Try to pull the ones on this level one at a time back towards the door out of range of the other two's debuffs. This is more easily accomplished if one of you does the running back and forth from the babysitting method while someone else pulls so that you can actually pull instead of Goren being like "I WISH FOR DEATH! BANZAIIIIII!" Once all three down here are dead, retreat out of the debuff zone and heal, then go right up the steps and take out the Roaring Ethers. After they're dead, retreat out of the debuff zone, heal, then go left, wait for the patrol to move away from one of the guardians, pull the guardian down the stairs, and kill him, then retreat and heal. Go back to the left stairs and pull the patrol down the stairs, then retreat and heal. Time for our final trip up the left stairs. There's a popup group on this side right by the Sapphire Guarded Chest With the Really Long Name so take them out, then the last two guardians. There's also a Ruby of Ahdashim up here that you're gonna want to get rid of whether you're doing bonus or not cause we gotta come through here again later. He drops a Ruby Key which you'll want to pick up for bonus. Go back to the babysitting room and go through the now-open west-side door. Stop just on the other side. There's a mob to your left. Pull them back towards the door and then murder their faces, then turn the corner and stop again. You'll see some pillars jutting out of the wall, one of which has blue around its base. If you get close enough they'll start spewing crap out from the side into the hallway. These traps are EVERYWHERE in here, although this is the first time we've seen them. I will tell you where they are but I want to make sure you know what they look like. Time it so you go through the traps while they are recharging, then stop at the base of the stairs. There are two patrols just up the stairs. You'll want to pull the stationary djinn down the stairs, then park yourself at the very top of the stairs. Some more lone djinn start moving towards you from the back of the room so just wait here for them. After they're dead, you can safely ignore the patrols as long as you move when they move away from you. Head straight west to find a Diamond of Ahdashim, who is coincidentally in our way, so kill it. Grab the Diamond Key he drops then go up the stairs to the right of where he was. If you're doing the bonus, go past the row of non-hostile Mr Shineys and go up the stairs on your right to find another chest with a really long name. Again, it's guarded by a popup mob so be ready (also there's a trap just past the chest so try not to go over there mmkay~?). Once the mob is dead, open the chest using the Diamond Key and pick up the treasure it drops, then return to the row of Mr Shineys. OK, here's the deal with the Mr Shineys: they will ask you questions about the gods, and if you get the answer wrong a mob of djinn will spawn and try to murder your face. And yes, defeating the mobs also counts as passing the trial but who really wants to fight more djinn than we absolutely have to... Start with the southmost Mr Shiney and talk to each of them making your way north. The answers in that order are: Balthazar, Dwayna, Grenth, Lyssa, Melandru, and the northmost one is Abaddon.

Make your way back to the babysitting room (remember the traps on the way back) and go through the eastmost door. There're traps literally right around the corner so stop right before the corner and pull the mob towards the corner. These two traps aren't in sync so you'll want to stop between the two after passing the first one and wait for the second to go off. On the other side, follow the path until it turns right. Stop here and go towards the edge for Margrid to comment on the test but also to see the Mr Shineys down below. You can actually pull them from here to give yourself the height advantage and also not have to fight all four at a time. Once they're dead and you're doing bonus, head north across this area and kill the Sapphire of Ahdashim and the popup mob by the chest and open the chest (don't forget to grab the Sapphire Key too). Alright, go back to the crystal keys on the floor, grab them, and use them on Pedestal 6 and Pedestal 35 (basically the pedestals on either end of the row of pedestals). If you screw up you get to deal with more Thunders so don't screw up. ^<__<^;; Go back to the babysitting room (remember the traps~) then go back through the middle door. Open the last long-named chest and grab the last treasure for bonus and go through the gate that is now open (where the Ruby of Ahdashim was). Stop at the top of the stairs. There are three bosses down there, and they are the last things standing between you and the princes. They are not part of the same mob, however, so pull one at a time, leaving Kormab, Burning Heart for last as he's a fire ele and owwie. Afterwards, it seems no one is themselves, as one of the princes actually agrees to stop hiding and protect his people, Goren quits his job, and Margrid admits there's more to life than money. ... who are you people and what have you done with our NPCs?