Quests: Hunted!

Well... that went about as badly as possible. Apparently Koss has been captured, so if you've been using him you won't be able to until we rescue him. Speak to Sunspear Modiki just ahead of you. He seems to think that asking some guy who hates the Sunspears about a good place to go into hiding is the best idea in the world. The herald of the best idea in the world is on the west side of town, who lets you know exactly what he thinks of you pretty much as soon as you talk to him. On the bright side, he currently seems more interested in making us go away than turning us in to the Kournans. ... Ronjok? Didn't Melonhead say she was from Ronjok? Maybe we should take her with us. Head out the NW exit into Marga Coast. Res shrines in Kourna have Wandering Priests instead of Sunspear Scouts, but they will still give you a bounty for SS pts so talk to them whenever you see them. Start heading north, and watch out for Kournans, as they have Kournan Spotters which have obnoxiously large aggro bubbles. Like, I'm pretty sure it's the entire compass. And if they spot you, the entire mob does too. Directly north from where you spawned is another res shrine that has a bounty for Kournan soldiers for some reason, but it will come in handy so grab it. From there, head west through the passage until the path opens up again, then go north to get to Ronjok, where an argument seems to have broken out. It seems Varesh's soldiers are eating everyone's cows. Talk to Elder Jonah, who informs you that you can take up residence in some abandoned temple ruins behind the village if you clear out the insects infesting the place. Head NE to find the guard, who opens the gate for you. Once inside, go north. The Queens are your priority target. Continue NE for the second group, then west across a bridge for the boss mob. Make sure you keep an eye out on your compass for patrols cause you need to get those too. West of them is the next mob, then go south for the last group.

Quests: The Great Escape, The Command Post, Building the Base: Prisoners of War, Building the Base: The Interrogation, Melonni's Meditations, Herds to the Slaughter, Building the Base: The Meeting, And a Hero Shall Lead Them, Koss' Elixir, A Fool's Luck, The Foolhardy Father

Talk to Lonai, who seems to be in charge of this area. She tells you that Nerashi seems to know what's happened to Koss. Turns out he's not dead, just in prison. She also tells you that Dunkoro is waiting for you in the Command Post with a plan on what to do next. Go into the Command Post (make sure you have Dunkoro in your party first) and talk to Drunky, who says we need to rescue more than just Koss. He says Nerashi knows where some Sunspear prisoners are gonna be and if we rescue them now it will be easier than later. You'll also notice that in this area there are some NPCs called Smuggler. These are like the Quartermasters in the SS Great Hall cept they trade for Kournan Coins instead of Battle Commendations. Go all the way to the left and through the portal to reach Sunward Marches. Head north and you'll soon see a tower coming up on your right. Be careful here as there is not only a patrol of mandragors wandering about here but there's a mandragor popup group nearby as well. Hug the wall to your right and go up onto the hill that the tower is on and kill the Kournans (remember, Scribes are your first priority, followed by Priests). Continue north from the hill to find the Kournans you need to kill. Look, I don't care what the quest log is telling you. You can just banzai into these guys and nobody will care. You won't fail the quest or anything. Once all the Kournans are dead, map back to the Sanctuary (yeah, the NPCs start following you after they finish talking but you don't need to lead them back to the portal). Re-enter the Command Post to find some new NPCs. There's a profession changer you can use to change your secondary if you no longer like the one you've been using, a skill trainer, and a hero skills trainer who will unlock skills on your account for free provided you have enough hero skill points (which you get through the story and by levelling your heroes). There have been other skill trainers in Nightfall but they haven't really mattered til now. Dunkoro also has a new quest for you. Apparently Nerashi is on a roll today, cause she's captured a Kournan that seems to have information we need. There's no required hero for this one but you're gonna need Melonhead in a minute so bring her along.

Go back through the Sanctuary and take the southernmost exit (up a really long dirt ramp) to get to the Marga Coast. There's a Kournan bounty right outside of Ronjok that you might be interested in, hint hint. There are also two quests here in Ronjok once the NPCs stop talking. Elder Jonah says Melonhead needs to do some ritual to try to figure out why there's suddenly a drought, and Herdsman Zekanu seems to think merely moving his cows like ten feet away from the garrison will solve all of his problems. Leave Ronjok and go northwest to reach something like a tiny farmer's field. Careful, cause as soon as Melonhead stops talking three groups of mandragors will spawn nearby (they only spawn one group at a time but they have powerful eles and necros so they can really hurt. The eles and necros are equally dangerous, however the eles have skills that make them impervious to physical damage so you might want to take them out first before they can cast that. Also they all have the same name for this quest so you'll have to identify them by sight. The eles are the largest ones). Continue west past another field to reach the next point. If you're having trouble with these enemies, approach the starburst and then quickly run back the way you came when Melonni starts talking. That way they don't spawn right on top of you. From here head straight west along the wall and you'll soon find Nerashi and some dude by a tree. Talk to Nerashi, who says she captured this guy while he was trying to loot a wagon. These Kournans have so much honour, don't they. ^<__<^;; Ask him all three of the questions in the list then say you don't have any more questions for him. It doesn't really matter what you tell Nerashi to do with him but personally I don't leave my enemies alive so they can even theoretically come back and kill me later. Straight west from the tree is the last spot for Melonni's quest. There will be four groups this time instead of three, so be careful. From here you should be able to see a portal to the south. Head towards it but don't go through it. From the portal start heading east and kill everything near the road, even if they're not Kournans (but especially if they're Kournans). Stop when you see a very large boulder in the road. Kill any Kournans near the rock but don't go past the rock cause we want to avoid aggroing anything inside the fort, trust me. Go back the way you came then take a left and go east along this lower path and kill any Kournans you see. Keep going east but give the fort a wide berth. Continue around the fort to find the other herder guy. Be careful if you see any lone beetle queens cause there's always a popup mob of bugs near them somewhere. Talk to the herder and lead him back to the portal we just passed using the lower path, continuing to avoid getting close to the fort (yes I know the cows are basically hugging the fort walls). At least three of the ten cows must survive but they aren't the tankiest cows in the world so don't rely on their HP to help them survive. A group of Kournans will show up as you pass the fort, coming from behind you so be prepared. Sometimes they take awhile to show up so make sure you wait and kill them or they will murder the cows. After this mob, run ahead of the cows and up onto the upper path to intercept the next Kournan mob coming from the fort. If you reach them quickly enough they will aggro on you and completely ignore the cows. This is the last mob, but like the last one sometimes they take awhile to show up so just be patient. Once the cows reach the portal your quest will update. There is a trick you can use for this quest though. Bring a ritualist or ranger with spirits with you (or both, whatever), and have them drop as many long-lived spirits in front of the cows as they can (Pain, Vampirism, and Preservation come to mind). This can bodyblock the cows so they don't move for awhile (or sometimes ever) and you can take care of the Kournan mobs that spawn for the quest without having to worry about most or even all of the cows. As long as the Herder guy reaches the portal and three cows survive (regardless of where they are) you can complete this quest. The next place we need to go is pretty much a straight shot north from the cow portal. This is the prisoner's patrol unit and the peasants that got arrested for helping wounded Sunspears. They are all bowmen so they have that Whirling Defense skill, so you'll have to throw a lot of magic at them. ... seems like one of the peasants would prefer to be dead than have us save him? Yeah OK whatever dude. Lead them back to the Sanctuary along the northern edge of the map, and don't forget to hand in your quests to Jonah and the herder guy on the way. Make sure your Interrogation quest updates before you zone into the Sanctuary and talk to Lonai for your reward. You can also switch Melonhead out now if you want.

Back in the Command Post Dunkoro has another quest for you. Apparently not all Kournans are too keen on what their leader is up to. By the way, there is now another armour merchant guy in the Command Post. Burreh just makes normal armour, but Ahamid will craft 15k Sunspear armour for you if you're interested in elite armour for your Hall of Monuments (a GW:EN/GW2 thing) or just for the looks. 15k armour has the same stats as normal max armour, so don't think that just cause it costs more that it has a higher AR or whatever. It just looks different (and, in some cases, better than the normal armour). This isn't the only 15k armour in Nightfall so you might want to save your cash til you've seen all of the armours, but that's up to you. Also, I won't explain anything about the HoM (Hall of Monuments) here as it's a GW:EN thing not a NF thing, and therefore will be explained in the GW:EN walkthrough. Anyway, head back out into Sunward Marches and go straight west to reach the scholar guy (be aware that there are mandragor pops along the left wall and by the tower on the way there). When you find the NPC talk to him, then go back about one aggro bubble away. Some Kournans show up from behind the NPCs. Don't worry about the NPCs cause they don't fight (despite their dialogue) and are not targeted by the Kournans. After the Kournans are dead just lead them back to the portal you came in through, wait for your quest to update, then map back to the Sanctuary and get your reward from Lonai (for this quest and the Command Post quest). The three NPCs you just rescued are scroll traders (the father is a normal one who sells them for money, and the two sons sell different ones in exchange for Kournan pendants) in case you use those.

Now it's time to rescue Koss. I highly recommend bringing an mm (necro minion master) for this cause it can get a bit hairy at the end but it's totally still doable without one. Go through the Command Post and out into Arjok Ward (the right-most portal). Nerashi is right outside and says Koss and some of the other Sunspears are being held prisoner at the fort. Head southeast (there's a pretty strong boss on the other side of the lake so be aware of that). From the other side of the lake you'll see a res shrine in the distance to the southeast. Usually there are some elementals near this shrine, like Cracked Mesa and Stone Shard Crag. The Crags are eles that cast very powerful magic so try to avoid them if possible. If this isn't possible hit them first. The Mesas are just warriors so don't worry about them too much. This res shrine will be your first introduction to the Order of Whispers (unless you've been playing GW2 anyway). This guy will give you a different bounty than any you've come across so far. Instead of giving you Sunspear points, this bounty gives you Lightbringer points. You'll find out more about these guys further on in the story but this is the only guy in Kourna who gives a bounty for LB points so when you're bored you might want to come out here and grab his bounty and kill some elementals cause trust me you WILL need the LB points later I am not even kidding about this guys ^>__<^;; Anyway. Continue past the mysterious res shrine dude and take a right. Go south and you'll soon reach the first group of Kournans we need to kill. Head straight to the little island cause there's a large mob of Kournans coming at you from the right. If you move fast enough you can avoid them. Take out the group by the small bridge then move on to the group by the large bridge. After they're dead go NE to the next island and go to the other side of it. You can see a res shrine to your NE from here. Go there through the water, killing the group of three with a spotter on the way. This shrine has a Kournan bounty (whyyyyyyy didn't one earlier have it, Anet? Cause you suck? Oh OK, you do, I forgot. Apologies~) so grab it, then head south across the bridge. You will probably end up aggroing both groups near the bridge so be prepared for that. Continue south but stop at the tower just past the other bridge (on your right). You will probably aggro the next group from here, if not inch closer and let them come to you. After this group dies the doors to the fort open. There's a Kournan Field Commander inside. You remember those from Consulate Docks, right. Annoying guys that launch an AoE attack that interrupts whatever you were doing? Yeah, those douches. He's your priority target after any scribes and priests. Be careful though, cause the boss hits like a ton of bricks. ... look, I don't know what kind of prison keeps their prisoners out in the open on top of a grassy platform, but here we are. Talk to Koss when the boss is dead then map back to Lonai for your reward. She also tells you that... uh. Hey, congratulations on your random appointment to acting leader of the Sunspears. ^O__o^;; But there's a catch. This is that roadblock I mentioned earlier when I was telling you to get as many Sunspear points as possible. If you're a foreign (i.e., non-NF) char, then you don't have this roadblock but native chars will need to reach SS r7 in order to continue. If you've been following this walkthrough you should have reached Sunspear General (2.5k pts) by now. I hate grinding and the char I'm using for this walkthrough currently has 2,725 so if you don't have them I don't know what you are dooooooiiiiiiiiing. Hell, both chars I'm using for this walkthrough (one NF char, one foreign) are r7 just from doing the stuff I've told y'all to do. So... go out there and kill some stuff already ^>__<^;; The quickest way is to go from Yohlon Haven into Marga Coast, grab the bug bounty, murder all the bugs between there and the shrine to the north, then map back and lather, rinse, repeat til you've got enough points.

Once you're able to get the quest, put Koss in your party and go talk to... him... in the Command Post... uh. Yeah that's not weird at all, talking to a duplicate of one of our party members. Whatever, Anet ^<__<^;; Grab all of Koss' quests. In terms of the primary, Koss overheard that there are more Sunspear prisoners somewhere north of here, and that Rojis character who was hallucinating reef sharks or whatever is supposed to help us. Also talk to Dunkoro while you're here to get another quest. Seems I was right about asking that jerkoff for a place to hide was a terrible idea cause now he's blackmailing us. Well, we're doing the primary for now, so go out into Sunward Marches. You'll find the first group of prisoners and the Kournans guarding them just in front of the res shrine. Continue directly north (watch out for the mandragor pop by the large rock up ahead) and go left around the aforementioned rock. If you hold down your left Alt key you'll see a Sentry Trap up ahead. Koss mentioned these things just now. When you get close enough they will spit out spikes in all directions, so don't get close to them (which is why we went left around the rock). Hug the wall on your left and continue towards the next group, sticking as close to the wall as possible. This should allow you to avoid the trap altogether. Continue north again while holding down your Alt key. When you spot the next trap up ahead, immediately go hug the wall on your left. Continue past the next group of prisoners to the other side of the area, then double back and attack their captors from behind to avoid the trap. This is the last group. Head NE to find Commander Suha, who tells you Rojis has figured out how to disarm these trap things. Keep talking to him and you'll soon end up in a cinematic in which Koss explains that he's found a way to get us all back home to Istan. Once you load, talk to Rojis for your EXP. Map to Yohlon Haven real quick and talk to Zudash (the jackass who's blackmailing us). Apparently he was dumb enough to trust corsairs to smuggle his daughter out of Kourna for... reasons. Look I don't know OK. While we already have a quest in the same area there will be a couple of others coming up real soon so we're gonna wait until we have all of them to do them all in one go. Map back to Venta Cemetary so we can do the mission.

Required Hero: Koss, the Champion of Falling Off the Ugly Tree

Mission map here. So yeah, we're still stuck with Koss for this mission. Hurraaaaay, I love using melee chars *sarcasm* Anyway, before you enter mission your party has a decision to make. Remember those sentry traps? Remember how Rojis said he knows how to disarm them? Well, once you enter the mission he gives you a skill (which disappears after the mission is over) and you must take this skill. However, only one person in your party needs to take the skill, so whoever has a slot on their skill bar that they feel like they can sacrifice should be the one to take the skill. Be aware that since Koss is melee and the traps are often near enemy mobs whoever is using the disable trap skill will probably end up getting hit by the traps (thanks for setting off the traps, Koss). And no, setting off the traps do not disable them. They will keep spitting stuff out pretty frequently until you disable it, and the cast time on the skill is kinda horrendous. Also, if you're using an all-AI party (i.e., heroes/hench) only you can take the skill. OK, let's get this over with.

Talk to Rojis to start the mission, then once inside talk to him to get the disable traps skill. Remember, you cannot continue the mission until at least one person in your party has taken the skill. Also, there's a trap like right behind Rojis so try not to aggro it. Once someone in your party has the skill, have them click on the trap and figure out how close they need to be to the thing in order to disable it. This might take a little time but it will save you some annoyance later, since as the skill says it's easily interrupted. When you're in range there will be a bar at the top-left of your screen (so if your hero skill bars are open you might want to move them out of the way) that starts going down very quickly. When it reaches the end the trap goes off, so try to disable it before then. Once they are disabled they're disabled forever. OK, now that that's out of the way, press U to open your minimap. You'll see several red flags on the map and a set of red doors. The bonus for this mission is to take out all the red flags (guard posts) while avoiding the red doors (the fort). And your regular M map doesn't show these icons at all so be aware of that. One more thing to note is that the end of the mission is in the water just north of the bottom-left portal on this map. If you just want to get the mission done, starting from the gate go north and then just hug this wall forever going west til you can't go west anymore, then just head south and you'll soon reach the water and the end of the mission. My walkthroughs always assume you're going for bonus though, so that's what we're doing~ Head directly south to find the first guard post. If you don't kill the guard post mobs quickly they alerts the fort, which then starts shooting at you with siege weaponry. When you get within range of each guard post you'll get a bar in the top left of your screen which indicates how much time you have left to kill them. Also, if you don't kill the mob before the meter goes all the way down that guard post won't count for the bonus, even if you do kill the mob after the meter runs down. Priests and Scribes are still your priority targets here. The faster your spells can be cast the better. Your next target is just a bit further south. Watch out for a giant patrol of Kournans coming in from your right about halfway between the first and second guard posts. Take them out before they become a nuisance, then move on to take out the second guard post. From here go directly NW. At the sentry trap turn left to find the third guard post. Be aware that there's another sentry trap right where the third guard post is. From here, go directly north to find the fourth guard post. You can see the fifth guard post from here: it's directly west. After this guard post, tread very carefully. We're actually not heading straight for the next posts because they are too close to the fort. If you get too close to the fort you will get hit with a massive attack that will probably one-shot your entire party, but more importantly will definitely one-shot the evacuees, which means mission failure. Instead, continue west past the sentry trap. When you see an inactive res shrine on your left, go towards it. Take out the patrol coming towards you from the SW. Right in front of the res shrine is a large hill. If you look at your U map you'll see that there's a guard post on either side of this hill. You can take out these two guard posts in any order but make sure after you destroy one you retreat to this shrine before going to the other one, then come back here after the second one as well. There are sentry traps in both directions, just fyi. After these two guard posts have been neutralised and you're back at the shrine go directly west. Next, head directly south through the sentry trap, take out the mob, then take out the next guard post (there's another trap by this guard post). Continue south down towards the green (not up the hill towards the fort), take out the two patrols moving towards you (be aware there's another trap by the bridge that you might want to take out while you're here), then neutralise the guard post to the east. Head SE and hug the right wall once you reach the sentry trap/next res shrine. The next guard post is just a bit further SE along with another sentry trap. Be careful of this one as there's a mob with a spotter on the other side of the guard post and they will "count" for the guard post meter if they get close enough so make sure you hit them super-hard. After that, go south then east around this triangle-shaped hill to find the last guard post. Once you've taken out this last one, backtrack to that bridge with the sentry trap I mentioned just a little while ago (in the green area). Cross the bridge and continue west towards a mob hunkered around another trap. There's a mob coming in from your right so take them out first, then the mob by the trap. Continue directly west to find an NPC named Margrid the Sly, and the end of the mission.

Quests: The Council is Called, To Vabbi!, A Little Recon, Centaur Blackmail

Talk to Dockmaster Ahlaro who's almost right in front of you. He says you need to go talk to the council. Enter the consulate (where you went before being allowed into Consulate Docks mission outpost) and talk to each of the Elders in whatever order you want. Apparently Varesh has declared the Sunspears and all of Istan traitors to Elona. At least Suhl seems to believe you about the demons, but since Kormir is dead and our forces have been smashed to bits he says we should go talk to the Princes of Vabbi and try to form an alliance with them against Varesh. Talk to Suhl again after his monologue to get your next primary. Map back to the SS Sanctuary and enter the Command Post to talk to Dunkoro. Take his recon quest, then talk to him about your primary. Somehow we need to find a way around or through some Kournan fort to get to Vabbi. Go out into Jahai Bluffs to find Nerashi just ahead. This quest will just be you and Nerashi wandering around out here checking out various spots while she makes comments about them. The first spot is just east of you, and the next one is just east of that, at the foot of the fort. Nerashi you are very perceptive. Who would've thought there'd be troops in a military fort? ^<__<^;; Continue SW past a res shrine to what seems like a village. When you get close to the portal some Kournans show up by the portal, escorting some centaur prisoners. Apparently Nerashi knows them ^O__o^;; Backtrack a bit to get attacked by a small group of Kournans. After they're dead, map back to the Sanctuary and talk to Lonai. Aww, she was worried about us. How sweet. Wait, what? A centaur's in our Command Post? A very cranky centaur, who apparently wants to talk to us specifically. Well, let's go see what he wants. He's on your left past the tents when you zone into the Command Post. Seems that centaur guy we saw the Kournans taking away is the leader of this centaur's pride. Basically either we help him or he's selling us out to the Kournans. That's nice. Everyone is blackmailing us today. Back out in the Jahai Bluffs you'll find Zhed and some guy apparently named the Master of Whispers just past the res shrine. Talk to Mr. MoW who... has... apparently been spying on us? Or stalking us. Wait... first Zhed blackmails us to help and now he doesn't want us to? That makes sense. Make your way with Zhed to where you saw the centaur prisoners like 2secs ago. From the res shrine that gives the monster hunt bounty head straight south and take the first left, then continue south some more past another shrine. Just over the hill you'll see a centaur standing next to a large tree to the right of a portal. Talk to Haroj and tell him you're with Zhed. He says Zhed has a brilliant idea. ... which... appears to be just getting ourselves captured. Great. Once inside talk to Estate Guard Rikesh for Zhed to join your party.