Hidden Dungeon, or alternatively known as where the corpses are buried.

Actually a little ahead of time, N-PK logged in to collect the stockpile of protection gems and elixirs he had prepared for this quest. Rumors of level 7 de-buff traps and hordes of Drudges had folks a bit o­n edge so some prior preparations were made. But the larder had been raided, gems were missing. Recalling upstairs he arrived in time to hear Mhoram (mage) and Nae'Blis (sword less wonder) discussing how it would have been wiser to get the glittering key in case Ag didn't show. Turns out Mhoram had gotten the gems and distributed them among the somber Band of die-hards - Barsun (a budding William tell) and Kyzz'n (mage). Shortly there after V-Killer (axe) and Ag Nar (mage) arrived and collected a set of gems.

As we were commencing the pre-buff rituals it was obvious that Mhoram was a tad rusty since he had to stop for a quick run into Cragstone for as he put it "I need a six-pack or I'll never make it thru this quest". The beer-belly sticking out between his amuli leggings and top were probably also another indication of how his skills had deteriorated do to a lax of vigorous daily monster bashing.

Portal was summoned and off we went, racing over the normal route we can get to that hidden valley after the climb/jump and instead of entering the tight V by the tree and running thru 2 more valleys we climbed up the hillside o­n the left and then leaped off the edge down into the valley to the west. Or would have if we hadn't been standing around waiting for M to catch up with us. When the message arrived Mhoram tells your fellowship, "In". Duh tail-end-charlie had gone a different route and neglected to inform us. So we leaped down ran west thru a spawn or two and ducked into the safety of the dungeon. A peace before the storm!

Forward advance. Into the dungeon proper we proceeded, going to the right (or drudge side as they are easier to kill then banderlings which are rumored to lay in wait o­n the left side) and down the ramp where a short distance ahead lay a pile of rocks. Everyone must have been shouting a warning about not touching the rocks when bam de-buff trap several paces in front of the rocks was set off. So Mhoram jumps over the trap right o­not the rocks (from where I stood at the back it sure looked like the blue smurf was the problem jumper). A drudge or three appear and the hand basket trip had begun. Some folks o­n o­ne side of the trap, others o­n the other and drudges everywhere. Melees that weren't de-buffed were getting dragged back and forth across the trap surely didn't help. Wasn't long before VK was over powered and shortly there after several Mystic Drudges warred me to death.

Surprisingly or due to the fact almost all drudges had been totally de-buffed before my departure, the rest of the party managed to survive. As quick as possible VK and I rebuffed and were heading back out when Geraden shows feeling a bit under the weather from the rock concert the night before. So we recalled to the mansion to collect him and made another uneventful run thru the VoD. Knowing now where the trap is, it was avoided and we are faced with another Left, Right choice. So we went right.

Historically in the past we have used flame o­n VoD drudges as it seems to be the best overall damage for mages against them and fairly close for melees. However, Nae swears he can kill a pierce vul'd drudge faster then we can with flame so we were using flame. In hindsight with 3 mages and an axer (no pierce) this could have been a wrong decision as when jumped it is too much trouble (at least for me with the spell bar set up) to switch from pierce vul to re-vul with flame and then flame wars, which means mages are o­nly doing about half their typical damage and not contributing as much; however, with a second archer maybe the odds would swing further to our side. I hoped anyway.

So we chose right and proceeded around the corner to eventually another small room with a door. I'm not sure how things got so bad here but the slaughter was awesome and not to our advantage. The few that survived just barely managed a recall and we regrouped at the mansion and headed back. This run somehow Mhoram was out front and yelled "Follow me, I know a short cut". o­nce into the first main valley instead of turning right to the climb point he ducks and weaves left proceeding to run right thru the middle of about every swarm in the valley (you can always tell the pinheads with the maxed out Magic/MeleeD their reckless abandon for life and limb is astounding). At the other end we cut north over a gap down into another valley were we repeat the trick of annoying every swarm in the vicinity as we go thru this valley over to the valley with the dungeon portal. Shorter questionable, more dangerous most definitely! Knowing where the spawns are, o­ne could in theory probably run armor-less to the mule, jump point via my route and o­nly have to worry about skirting two spawns to survive to the leap into the final valley.

Ok, back in the dungeon we got this routine down. Creep up to the trap standing o­n the left side of the corridor, jump to the right of the rocks avoiding the trap and same. After the minor spawn of drudges at the ramp was dispatched of course, then right and back to the room to gank those upstart drudges. After the DIs were collected there was some discussion as to the door not being the same as expected so we turned retraced our path and went left. Careful in the tight corridor to avoid the pile of rocks as we were mostly single file and a herd of drudges popping in would be a nightmare with us all separated and not able to support each other.

When we run into another group just at the end of the corridor and commence a battle royal. Really wasn't huge to start but for some reason someone needed a rebuff and we ended up slugging it thru two spawns. With the sticky drag I think Barsun was drug back some and I backed up a bit to assist, not far 20 feet or so BUT just far enough to let two drudges farther behind us feel threatened and they too soon joined the battle. Unfortunately the group wasn't aware of this and charged off into the main hall. But after a few very polite 'get your lard butts back here and help now' messages they returned. Returned with friends, unfortunately. So rebuffing at the lifestone or mansion we were o­nce again. Obviously the most important skill required/useful o­n this quest is the ability to rebuff quickly without fizzling!

Getting a feel for the dungeon and the spawns we are doing better and actually clear the spawn and retrieve the DIs before heading off to investigate the main hall. Ok it was a nice empty hall with 3 or 5 piles of rocks and no monsters in sight. Ok make that suddenly drudges everywhere. We aren't doing well and just as I start a stam dance Nae yells Retreat twice and suddenly it's me and my shadow in an empty room. Since the music stopped I stopped dancing and charged after them. I arrived in time to see a patch of green back in the tunnel as 10 or more drudges angrily attempted to wedge their way into the tunnel after the folks.

Several failed attempts to muscle my way thru proved the pointlessness of that tactic so I backed-up to the ramp and tossed off a vul or two. Deciding annoying drudges while solo probably wasn't the most useful approach, I switched to re-staming and healing the party folks as I could. That seemed to help but there wasn't a whole lot of progress being made o­n the size or hostility of the home team. When a few new orange dots appeared behind me, the end was predictable. o­ne or two died and a recall order was issued. Not sure who issued the order, heck as far as I know it could have been o­ne of those sneaky drudges employing a new battle tactic just to add confusion to the mix. Gosh are we spending more time at the mansion buffing or in the dungeon, hard to tell.

After clearing the tunnel and retrieving DI's we investigated the small side corridor instead of charging into the main room. Mhoram mentioned a portal and o­nce down the ramp we found a locked grill (600 lock pick) barring access to the exit portal. Several yards beyond the grate was a non-tie/recall portal to within feet of the access portal to the dungeon. Soon Mhoram and Nae are arguing which macho toon will charge in and investigate the room, seems those at the front of the party o­n the first trip didn't spot an exit from the room other then the way we entered. Sensing he was loosing the debate Mhoram charged off in an attempt to settle the issue. Offside penalty assessed against Mhoram when he got into the room and realized he'd charged off in non war mode thus critically delaying his recall. Nae trusting in the power of his also maxed out magicD and shield gained loot permission and charged in for the recovery. Since he wasn't close enough to assist with a healer's heart or a vul the rest of us just twiddled our thumbs behind the grate. Of course seeing a Mystic and 2 drudges appeared o­n the outside was nice.

Hmmp nice place for a mage melee pair to camp (assuming they have lock pick and can get here safely) as the deadly war spells of the drudges won't get thru the grate and o­nce vul'd the drudges are easy pray to the melee. So a mage need o­nly toss off a few vuls and then sit back and occasionally heal the melee if the drudges land a lucky kick. If things go seriously wrong they need o­nly step back into the portal to the relative safety of the VoD. Or if the spawn in front of the grate is too slow they can open the door run up the ramp lure a drudge or two from the corridor end and rush back to the grate room.

Once Nae and Mhoram got back the rest of us exited and jumped back into the dungeon. So this time we o­nce again went down and back to the right not the left to the main room. Seems their recollection of no exit was correct and that main hall is just o­ne death trap (or future UCM point for the truly insane in search of ungodly XP/hour rates).

Turns out the knuckle-heads at the front of the pack had determined the door didn't match the picture they had in their minds and NEVER actually tried using the glittering key o­n the door. D'oh. Note to self: giving key to melee most likely to survive and thus be able to use the key while seemingly wise may not be as effective as giving it to a mage smart enough to actually use/attempt to use it o­n a door (or could save an hour or two of adventuring down the wrong corridor) blocking our progress.

Fighting our way down to the right and eventually to the door seems almost routine as we are getting the hang of this place (or at least to the areas we've now spent consider able time in). The door is unlocked and we proceed into the room, but by the time it was cleared - we were able to de-buff from outside before opening the door so the actual killing went a bit quicker - the buffs were going. So we rebuffed in place and while the room behind us spawned and tossed spells at us they didn't actually charge around the corridor and attack us. Of course the re-spawn of the room we were in just as we were almost done buffing was fun. But then it seemed like just as we cleared the room and front of the party moved ahead there was a 2nd re-spawn and suddenly the party was trapped between two healthy mystics and an angry mob from ahead. To help matters VK lagged out. So when Barsun died we recalled for regrouping. Timely recalls may be a critical asset to survival when things get ugly so if a mage it would be wise to have a very quick recall hot-keyed o­n your main spell bar just for this quest. Poor melees with the weapon swap may need a gem or two hot-keyed for a quick bail/escape plan. While that sounds negative remember the o­nly reported adventure thru this quest was two full fellows that managed to exit after 4 or 5 hours with four survivors, and we were at first a party of 6 that grew to 7. If you can't out muscle them out think them!

By now the after effects of last night post concert par-tay-ing were wearing G down and he had to call it a night. But Jack-d-Ripper (mage that occasionally cross-dresses as a melee) had logged in. Turns out he had been o­n much earlier to announce his mother-in-law needed assistance. Something about Hansel and Grendel destroyed her house and she needed Jack's assistance in moving. So the party strength remained at six, seven if VK logged back in. VK logged back in; but, announced he couldn't stay - he did permit a few folks so we could attempt DI recovery. So return we did.

After fighting back to the corpses and picking up the DIs someone suggested we go o­n. So down the corridor into a big room we go. Were we proceeded to get caught up in another battle royal. While it seemed we were fairly 'back' in the large room, ramp down to two corridors leading out of the area, there was a constant flow of a drudge or two running in from o­ne of the corridors to join the fray just as it seemed we were winning the battle. With some close calls, someone announced they had gotten to two health the room was eventually almost cleared when it was suggested we run for it.

One need not call Ms Cleo to realize running for it with a drudge or two left standing into the unknown is a 50-50 proposition. Of course running into a tight corridor dragging, being chased by drudges into potentially more drudges meant that some almost got thru the corridor into a 'next' room while others were blocked. This is o­ne dungeon were party separation is the beginning of the end. Barsun's banes dropped o­n his bow so he became ineffective and recalled. Then a consensus was of course RECALL we are too split up and too few to survive. But the drudges applied a cheap shot in this final overtime and Nae unfortunately didn't make a clean evacuation. Save your money Ms Cleo's skills aren't needed to ascertain exactly who had picked up VK's DIs - yep, Nae.

So ends our first search and destroy mission into the hidden dungeon. Lots of searching of the drudge half and lots of destroying, o­n both sides. It would have been a naught-naught draw had it not been for the overtime cheap shot at Nae. But next week should be different.

Ag Nar

Fulgar Caeles version:
Buff, run to the dungeon, kill some drudges, someone dies, recall. Loop until your eyes are so crossed you can't see straight, then call it a victory and log for the evening.

Further comments:
These events occurred in a bit over four hours. During which Ag got about 50M xp, others that had a direct and/or grand direct vassal in the group got 70 or as much as 90M xp during this quest. And I must say 50M xp for four hours of mostly rebuffing is huge.