Desert Crawl  

Quest Started By:Description:
Where:
Who:
Rating:
*****
Information:
Time:30-45 Minutes
Level:13
Maximum Level:14
Monster Mission:No
Repeatable:Yes
Can Be Shrouded?:No
Quest Type:Task
Quest Items:
Related Zones:
Related Creatures:
Related Quests:
Era:Dragons of Norrath
Recommended:
Group Size:Solo
Min. # of Players:1
Max. # of Players:1
Appropriate Classes:
  • All
Appropriate Races:
  • All
Entered: Sun Jul 24 16:26:30 2005
Modified: Thu Jan 7 11:29:28 2010
This task begins in the Plane of Knowledge with Castlen Drewe, who can be found across from the Soulbinder (/loc?). It is one of seven tasks introduced for players from level 10 to 20.

You say, 'Hail, Castlen Drewe'

Castlen Drewe says 'Greetings and welcome. I have been compiling reports from all over Norrath! There are many odd jobs to be done by someone like you. Would you be interested in such a [quest]?'

Head to the Northern Desert of Ro and kill five dune tarantulas..
Kill five sand scarabs..
Kill five giant rattlesnakes..
Loot one giant scarab egg sack..
Loot one spider venom sack..
Return to the Plane of Knowledge and speak with Castlen to receive the reward: Sandworn Cloak.


All dialogues and task stages needed.
Rewards:
Send a Correction
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In order
# Aug 16 2010 at 5:38 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
*
53 posts
posted under wrong quest... disregard.

Edited, Aug 16th 2010 7:39pm by jnovah
the EGG SACK
# Aug 30 2009 at 4:49 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
41 posts
When I finished everything and started looking for the EGG SACK, I read some WRONG INFORMATION that the egg sack can be from any zone. It has to be from North Ro. Trust me, I tried everything to avoid farming the scarabs there.
____________________________
Amalgamax / maximum
The EGG SACK
# Aug 30 2009 at 4:33 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
41 posts
When I finished everything and started looking for the EGG SACK, I read some WRONG INFORMATION that the egg sack can be from any zone. It has to be from North Ro. Trust me, I tried everything to avoid farming the scarabs there.
____________________________
Amalgamax / maximum
My Desert Crawl
# Jan 18 2009 at 11:11 AM Rating: Decent
12 posts
This quest was given to my level 13 Troll Warrior. I had to enter the zone from the Commonlands tunnel rather than the Freeport sewers because of too much aggro down in the sewers. The quest took me five or six hours, almost all of it due to the waits for the right spawns. Even though it took forever there are some really good features about camping in North Ro:

1) there are merchants near the beach zone line in South Ro so you can sell excess loot,
2) the giant rattlesnakes drop Giant Snake Fangs (which can be used as piercing weapons),
3) roaming mobs don't tend to aggro other roaming mobs when you're being chased (I pulled all my mobs to the tunnel or the pier), and
4) the zone has plenty of blue cons and leveling is easy (I dinged 15 while on this quest and could have gone higher) or while waiting for more spawns you can fight caimans in South Ro.

Even in an abandoned zone like North Ro there were occassional campers willing to buff me without asking. Buffs are good in this zone as a lot of the blue cons will either poison you or give you rabies and they both suck.
Good XP for under level 20
# Feb 22 2008 at 10:26 AM Rating: Decent
8 posts
North Ro was probably the most fun quest I started to play for EQ. The dune tarantulas spawn toward dusk and the scarabs toawrd dawn. Other days it was reversed. Everything you need is toawrd the entrance to south ro on the dunes and hills. I got great xp from killing all the mad men, mummies, and death fists. Great place for level 15 to 20. I was grouped with my friend and we gained levels quickley. This quest is a hit or miss for spawns. I always would see dune tarantulas and giant rattlesnakes after I was done with the quest in that zone. It toook about 3 to 4 hours to successfully finsih this quest. The xp is very worth it though for all the other non related kills.
RE Dune Trantula
# Aug 06 2007 at 9:31 AM Rating: Decent
3 posts
I have avoided this quest cause it involved North Ro, which has been re-vamped, I like the old zone models, Im a returning Player, Old School EQ. Any way. To Get the Dune Tarantula to spawn, go to /loc +5959, -1983, 56. which is at the head of a Dune, Near Queen Tak' Yaliz in the obelisk. The Dune runs East/West.
Kill Puma's like crazey. I got four Dune Tarantul's to spawn in fifteen min. Then game time of 7PM hit and the Puma's got fewer, and NO SPAWNS of the Dune Tarantula. But many many undead. I killed the Undead till I couldna stand it, and went to beach and sat down in the water till 6am game time. Ran back to my Dune location killed one puma, and BINGO, D.T. number five spawned.

Have fun, Hope this helps..
Getting the tarantulas to spawn...
# Jul 20 2007 at 12:39 PM Rating: Decent
16 posts
I started this quest 7/19/07 on Bristlebane. Sand scarabs all over the place and managed to get the egg sack off my first kill. These are pretty easy for a 15 Druid, even if a couple aggro on you at once. I killed more than the required five waiting for the giant rattlesnake to spawn.

After about twelve scarabs, I realized that the giant rattlesnakes were not going to spawn on their own so I started killing large rattlesnakes. After a few of these, a giant rattlesnake finally spawned in south North Ro in the valley below the last long wall of dunes. I killed it. Had already got the venom sack off a large snake. I waited around for more giants to spawn for awhile, killing larges and mummies. Camped the southernmost Derv camp, killed another couple large rattlesnakes.

It was frustrating waiting for the giant rattlesnakes to pop. I camped. When I entered the game again, I found three giant rattlesnakes in a row, same place as the first. I killed them and a couple madmen and a zombie or two and then the dune tarantulas started to spawn. These I had not seen in my entire time in North Ro.

I observed the first I saw and noticed that they fight with the other more powerful mobs in the zone. I think this may have something to do with their rarity. Since they are rare, I quickly took down the three that spawned.

After that I tried a few ways to get more to spawn. I killed zombies, madmen, mummies, snakes, dervs, and even a dry bone skeleton. I even tried killing pumas and gilas. Still no spawn...

Finally, I was attacked by a Deathfist warrior that conned green to me. Directly after slaying him, a dune tarantula spawned at the top of the last wall of dunes. I slayed it. I then went after the orc raiders even though they were grey to me. I killed two of them. I was killing a warrior again when another dune tarantula spawned at the top of a dune near the southernmost Derv camp. I killed it, looted both, and headed back to Freeport and then on to the PoK to finish the quest.

It took awhile to get through this quest compared to others I have done, but it was kind of worth it despite the wait. There's a lot of XP to be had in North Ro. I leveled while doing the quest and got quite a bit of loot. The desert was largely uncamped but then I'm on Bristlebane and the majority of players are high level and working on new stuff while places for middle levels are pretty empty...

My suggestion is go for the orcs even if they're grey to you. Then watch for the tarantulas in the south of North Ro on the tops of the dune walls. That seemed to work the best, though it could just be coincidence...
FINALLY
# Feb 26 2007 at 10:28 PM Rating: Decent
11 posts
While waiting forever for one more dune tarantula to spawn, i just went around the zone killing everything that conned blue or green to me so it wasn't a total waste of time. my 17 zerker can wipe out the dervish camps solo so i felt at least a little productive. Probably camped the zone a full extra hour waiting for the spider to pop. YAY!
Sand Scarabs
# Jan 27 2007 at 8:19 AM Rating: Decent
*
182 posts
yeah the sand scarabs are rare spawns today. Even more rare drop is the sac.
Read the quests
# Jan 12 2007 at 1:11 PM Rating: Default
It s says that you have to kill and the stuff in NORTH RO, that means go there and no where else because you wont get credited. Im having trouble with the rattlesnakes but no more than im gonna get it within some minutes. Then the quest took me 1 hour to complete, tops.

Happy hunting
Read the quests
# Jan 12 2007 at 8:04 PM Rating: Decent
11 posts
OK...I've found the scarabs but very rarely do the rattlesnakes and dune tarantulas appear. Gotta be in North Ro. So far I've spent 4 hours hunting these creatures. I think in the 4 hours I've been roaming the desert only 2 rattle snakes and 1 tarantula have spawned. They exist but very sparce.
Venom Sac
# Oct 18 2006 at 12:59 AM Rating: Decent
6 posts
I went out with my lvl 14 Erudite paladin and farmed the scarabs and got the egg sack pretty easy. Farming the spiders wasn't too hard (no venom sack after more than a dozen kills). The snakes were a little tough but I got past them. After a while, the spiders stopped popping. I killed more scarabs and spiderlings in the hopes of more spiders spawning, but with no luck. I tried going to South Ro (formerly Oasis of Marr) in the hopes of looting a venom sack. Again, no luck. Bought a sack from a vendor, but it wasn't credited to my quest list (guess SOE is wising up to players' shortcuts). Went back to North Ro. Still no spiders popping, even after killing more scarabs. So I logged out. Hopefully when I log back in tomorrow, there'll be more spiders to farm.

The time factor and lack of spiders make this quest a poor one. I wish I had 6+ hrs a day to devote to the game, but I don't. I guess SOE believes it's players have nothing else to do with their time.
Venom Sac
# Oct 19 2006 at 12:03 AM Rating: Decent
6 posts
I continued the quest for over 2 hours tonight and came up with nothing. I looted 2 spider venom sacs in South Ro, but it didn't count toward my quest item list. I'll try it again next time I log on, but if I can't find that venom sac, I'm scrapping the quest.
no venom sacs
# Aug 24 2006 at 3:11 PM Rating: Decent
I've gotten everything from this quest so far on my ranger except for the venom sac. I've killed over 25 dune taruntulas but no sac. The scarab egg sacks have been droping left and right off the numerous scarabs in the zone.
no venom sacs
# Jun 22 2007 at 10:08 AM Rating: Decent
7 posts
The desert tarantulas drop spider venom sacs much more often and I have found they count! The desert trantulas pop a bit more toward Freeport but still in the desert.
scarabs
# Feb 05 2006 at 9:10 PM Rating: Decent
11 posts
scarabs come out at 8 pm game time
all scarabs cout to task
members of group need not be near
you do have to loot eggsack from mob in this zome


Edited, Sun Feb 5 21:14:56 2006
sand scarabs
# Feb 05 2006 at 9:35 AM Rating: Decent
11 posts
Sand scarab hatchlings also count as sand scarabs for this quest.
Quest
# Jan 07 2006 at 1:36 AM Rating: Decent
This is a nice item but the egg drop is extremely hard to find it took me over an hour
____________________________
Poisontongue 10 Iksar monk of the Erollosi Marr

Rabren 13 Froglok Shaman Erollosi Marr
Quest issues
# Oct 17 2005 at 12:05 PM Rating: Decent
3 posts
I see that as of September no one was having trouble with this one...I purchased an egg scak from a vendor, but the counter on the quest didn't recognize it. It confirmed all my kills, but I have managed to get both items from additional kills, but am not getting credit for it. I think I harvested the first one before getting my 5 kills, would that make a difference? Thanks...
NO MAX LVL
# Sep 17 2005 at 2:46 PM Rating: Decent
*
79 posts
Uh yeah I just did this with my 39 RNG. Mainly cause ranger is on my brother's account and he now that he's comin back to ERQ he's takin his account back and activating his old one that has nothing but Kunark fer me to use. So I wanted to be sure to get all the stuff I could from Castlen to twink out my new char since I wouldn't have access to PoK.
____________________________
"A good name is better than great riches; to be esteemed better than gold"
RE: NO MAX LVL
# Oct 04 2005 at 2:39 AM Rating: Decent
4 posts
Actually, a while back they made PoK available to all players, not just those that have the PoP expansion. I know for sure since my druid can access PoK but I never bought any expansions for the account since Ykesha.
Suggestions
# Sep 05 2005 at 3:46 PM Rating: Decent
*
242 posts
The best way to do this quest is in a group of levels 11-20 assisted by a tracker.

Group because each gets credit for a single kill and also to help keep the adds (usually madmen and zombies) off of your back.

Tracker because North Ro is huge and empty and there is no special spawn spot for the critter you need to kill and farm.

Without that it will most likeley take hours and you will start resembling the desert madmen!

The best area seems to be the southeast, near the shore and by the monument, but...not exactly....

You need to kill 10 giant scarabs and farm a giant scarab egg sac from them (no joint credit for the egg sac though - you must get your own).

Then, kill desert tarantualas and farm a spider venom sac for each quester.

Then, kill giant rattlesnakes...

once done, you report back to Castlen and get your Sandworn Cloak.

BV.

ARG
# Aug 25 2005 at 2:07 PM Rating: Decent
14 posts
I,ve been walking in this dessert for like 2 hours now, killed all the rattlesnakes in like 20 min. BUT OMG, there are like No Scarabs, and so far ive only killed 2 dune turantulas. O well
____________________________
Sherpadik - 62 Paladin
Finnagoku - 75 Shaman
Kovert - 32 Rouge
Knarln - 25 Necromancer
Torturea - 23 Shadowknight
Sachuk - 16 Wizzard
Guyco - 12 Cleric
Kikinaki - 8 Warior
Sever - Feninn Ro
Guild - Raven
ARG
# Aug 25 2005 at 2:07 PM Rating: Decent
14 posts
I,ve been walking in this dessert for like 2 hours now, killed all the rattlesnakes in like 20 min. BUT OMG, there are like No Scarabs, and so far ive only killed 2 dune turantulas. O well
____________________________
Sherpadik - 62 Paladin
Finnagoku - 75 Shaman
Kovert - 32 Rouge
Knarln - 25 Necromancer
Torturea - 23 Shadowknight
Sachuk - 16 Wizzard
Guyco - 12 Cleric
Kikinaki - 8 Warior
Sever - Feninn Ro
Guild - Raven
The Quest overall
# Aug 14 2005 at 2:20 PM Rating: Decent
8 posts
The spider vemon sack ca come from any of the spiders their. I got mine from a desert turantual instead. It is the scarabs that are a real b*tch. And the egg sack is very rare. Wish Sony would stop expansions and fix the ones they already have first, but that would be asking too much.
Luck...
# Jul 26 2005 at 3:22 AM Rating: Decent
4 posts
Yes :)

1 in 5 is 20%
20% chance of obtaining a sac on each kill.
You could kill 100 and no sac and the next guy could 20 odd and each gives him a sac. It would still be 20% over the two of you, he just got lucky :/
Spider venom
# Jul 25 2005 at 7:42 PM Rating: Decent
34 posts
Doing this for an alt for a bit of fun but he can't seem to find a venom sack too loot. I guess 1 in 5 dune turantula's is supposed to drop it but he's killed more than required and still nothing.

Am i just unlucky?
RE: Spider venom
# Aug 18 2005 at 1:26 AM Rating: Decent
8 posts
These drops are fairly rare. I set up camp near the shore by the monument and started killing everything. I did get the drops but it took hours.

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