Argath #4: The Riddle of Steel  

Quest Started By:Description:
Where:
Who:
Rating:
*****
(From 1 rating)
Information:
Level:90
Maximum Level:125
Monster Mission:No
Repeatable:Yes
Can Be Shrouded?:No
Quest Type:Task
Quest Goal:
  • Experience
Quest Items:
Related Creatures:
Related Quests:
Era:Veil of Alaris
Recommended:
Group Size:Solo
Min. # of Players:1
Max. # of Players:1
Appropriate Classes:
  • All
Appropriate Races:
  • All
Entered: Tue Nov 15 20:53:44 2011
Modified: Tue Dec 5 05:21:04 2023
Veil of Alaris Information & Guides: An Overview | Group Progression & Task List | Raid Progression | Visible Armor



This solo task begins with Atleris, Council Pinnacle in Argath inside the council building on the zone-in level.

Pre-requisites for requesting the task:
- Completion of This is Argath
- Completion of Shoring Up Defenses
- Completion of Protect the Arms
- (no minimum skill level in Alaran Language)

You say, 'Hail, Atleris, Council Pinnacle'

Atleris, Council Pinnacle says 'You have done much to [help] us, but let us discuss the matter at hand. Zagrala speaks truly. Erillion first desired the Forge. Days before the Forge erupted, a messenger of Erillion knelt before me and said the Orator proposes a pact: join the Order of Alaris and cede control of the Forge to Erillion. Al promised peace, prosperity, and land for all Argath if we acquiesced. I thought ali [mad].'

You say, 'Mad?'

Atleris, Council Pinnacle says 'Alaris was at peace. Argath possessed abundant land. I had never heard of the Orator. I dismissed the messenger. When al left, al said the Orator aleself would return. Days later, our sentinels in the valley spied an army marching upon the town of Arelis. The army wore Erillian colors. I sent a vanguard into Arelis, but all that escaped the town were death cries and smoke. [Lunanyn] fell next.'

You say, 'Lunanyn?'

Atleris, Council Pinnacle says 'The terraced farms of Lunanyn fed Alaris. Now they burn. I pulled defenses back to Argath as Erillion swept past Arelis. We secured the fortress doors, confident Argath could withstand any assault. Then it happened: The Forge erupted in a burst of molten steel. It swept through the streets and dwellings of the Belly like a fiery tide. It [devastated] our population and defenses. It melted the bars and bolts of our fortress door.'

You say, 'Devastated?'

Atleris, Council Pinnacle says 'Evacuating our citizens and treating the wounded distracted us. Erillion's threat fled our minds -- until three days later. The fortress gates opened, and Erillion stormed into the smoldering streets. Their battle cry called for the Forge -- and were it not for the Forge's own [eruption], Erillion would have taken it.'

You say, 'What eruption?'

Atleris, Council Pinnacle says 'I know not why the Forge erupted. I first suspected Erillian saboteurs, but Erillion desires the Forge intact. As it is now, the Forge is unusable. No, there must be another [cause].'

You say, 'What cause?'

Atleris, Council Pinnacle says 'You must have seen the swords that float on air and the metal that crawls along the ground. Argathian steel always held magic: light and strong, it could cleave the hardest rock. Somehow, the powers of the steel must have become imbalanced. I tasked one of our finer minds, Mechanic Vitesal, to discover the nature of this imbalance. You have proven yourself as capable, outsider. Would you [speak] with Vitesal and help ali resolve this matter?'

You say, 'I'll speak with him'

Atleris, Council Pinnacle says 'Hurry. If we cannot find how to repair the Forge, there is no telling when it shall erupt again.'

You have been assigned the task 'The Riddle of Steel'.

Atleris wants to discover why the forge erupted in order to prevent it from happening again. Mechanic Vitesal has been studying the living steel that has spilled from the forge, and they might have some insight into what caused the disaster.



1. Speak with Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

Mechanic Vitesal is found on the "arms" level at about +375,-210,-271 near the entrance to Beasts' Domain.

You say, 'Hail, Mechanic Vitesal'

Mechanic Vitesal stares at a floating sword, oblivious to your presence until you call their name. 'Have you waited long? My apologies! Stand back, though; this [sword] could get loose, and then we would be in trouble!'

You say, 'Sword?'

Mechanic Vitesal says 'Argathian swords have been called the lightest in all Alaris, but this is ridiculous! I suspect that somehow, whatever magic has imbued them has become unbalanced, and Atleris has tasked me with discovering [how and why].'

You say, 'How and why?'

Mechanic Vitesal says 'I do not know for sure yet, but I suspect the answer lies within the steel itself. You have seen the different forms of steel wandering around the Belly, have you not? The steel takes the form of swords, shards, or oozes. Each of these forms must contain a different aspect of the steel. If I were to [combine] these forms together in various ways, I could analyze the results and determine the imbalance.'

You say, 'Combine the forms?'

Mechanic Vitesal says 'The marvelous outsider, Mizzenblast, developed for me a machine that can combine the different types of steel. You merely get two types of steel near each other, weaken them, and then blast them with this machine. It will fuse the two types of steel together. Then, [you] can bring them to me.'

You say, 'You? Me?'

Mechanic Vitesal says 'I am not going down into the Belly! I have not tested Mizzenblast's machine yet, but al swore it would work perfectly. And while you are at it, collect for me some of the swords lying around the Belly. I would like to inspect them and figure out why they have not become animated. Be careful, though: I have seen a large mass of steel wandering the belly that appears quite protective of those swords.'

You receive a Mizzenblast FUSOR.

Task Window Says: Mechanic Vitesal wants you to bring samples of fused steel from living steel creatures in the Belly. Using the Mizzenblast FUSOR, you can join two entities of living steel that have been physically weakened. This will produce a product fit for Vitesal to study. While you are in the Belly, Vitesal also wants you to collect any Legendary Argathian Swords you find, since they might have been affected by the influx of Forge energy.

For the next 6 loot steps, you'll have to head into the belly (the lower area of the zone) and fight mobs two at a time, bringing them both down to 50%. Once they're both under 50%, click the "Mizzenblast FUSOR" on one of them to transform them into a single mob.

The mobs involved are living steel, molten steel, living blades, empowered blades, a steel cyclone and a steel hurricane.

The transformed mobs each hit for a max ~10,500 and have an AE called Radiant Discharge (about 15k unmitigated damage).

In order to fuse mobs together, they must be very close in proximity. If they are too far away, you get an error emote. Note that you CAN fuse a mezzed mob.

2. Loot 1 Twitching Drop of Steel (Argath)

Fight steel + steel, get one to below 50%, then click to make them into a Quivering Steel which drops 6x Twitching Drop of Steel.

3. Loot 1 Bubbling Steel Knife 0/1 (Argath)

Fight steel + living blades, get one to below 50%, then click to make them into a Mass of Blades which drops 6x Bubbling Steel Knife.

4. Loot 1 Energized Steel Particulates 0/1 (Argath)

Fight steel + cyclone, get one to below 50%, then click to make them into a Churning Steel which drops 6x Energized Steel Particulates.

5. Loot 1 Steel Vortex Sliver 0/1 (Argath)

Fight living blades + cyclone, get one to below 50%, then click to make them into a Steel Vortex which drops 6x Steel Vortex Sliver.

6. Loot 1 Steel Multifacet 0/1 (Argath)

Fight living blades + living blades, get one to below 50%, then click to make them into a Fourfold Edge which drops 6x Steel Multifacet.

7. Loot 1 Steel Scrap Heap 0/1 (Argath)

Fight cyclone + cyclone, get one to below 50%, then click to make them into a Steel Devastation which drops 6x Steel Scrap Heap.

8. Deliver 1 Twitching Drop of Steel to Mechanic Vitesal (Argath)

9. Deliver 1 Bubbling Steel Knife to Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

10. Deliver 1 Energized Steel Particulates to Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

11. Deliver 1 Steel Vortex Sliver to Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

12. Deliver 1 Steel Multifacet to Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

13. Deliver 1 Steel Scrap Heap to Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

14. Collect 1 Legendary Steel Sword 0/1 (Argath)

Legendary Steel Sword is a ground spawn found in various places throughout the lower area (appears as a sword on the ground).

NOTE: If you have this in your possession and run over one of the large, untargettable grey steel masses, you'll be hit with the spell Steel Slumber and lose your sword (you'll have to pick up another ground spawn).

Steel Slumber: Single Target, Unresistable (-700)
1: Decrease Hitpoints by 70000

15. Deliver 1 Legendary Steel Sword to Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

Mechanic Vitesal says 'This is marvelous! Keep bringing me these steel essences, and I am sure to find out what ails the Forge!'

16. Speak with Mechanic Vitesal 0/1 (Argath)

You say, 'Hail, Mechanic Vitesal'

Mechanic Vitesal says 'I have analyzed everything you have collected, and all I can find is...nothing. This steel looks the same as every other piece of steel Argath has forged throughout the years, but it has the appearance of possessing some unknown magic. I do not understand it. Perhaps I am missing something. Could Erillion have poisoned the mountain with some strange power? Atleris will not be pleased that my findings are lacking.'

Reward(s):
Goral Hide Book
480 platinum
You gain experience!
Rewards:
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Post Comment
GS Location Legendary Steel Sword
# Oct 14 2023 at 9:50 PM Rating: Decent
3 posts
Location is 775.17, -702.27, -405.76
Radiant Discharge
# Oct 18 2022 at 7:20 PM Rating: Good
Scholar
27 posts
This AoE is not very damaging but it is a mana drain, a snare, and it strips the "Armor of" line of buffs off of clerics which makes it pretty obnoxious. If you have a cleric merc make sure they rebuff themselves, keeping in mind cleric mercs only buff if they are at 51% mana or higher.

I did not have to get both mobs below 50% - somewhere in the 50% to 75% range worked but definitely below 80% because I had an instance where I couldn't get the two mobs close enough with the merc tank on duty so I had to kill one then quickly pull another and focus damage on it. I tried to fuse them with the new mob just a hair above 80% (the other mob being around half health) and was told it was still too strong. Knocked it down below 75% and it fused.
how I did
# May 06 2020 at 10:51 PM Rating: Good
Avatar
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65 posts
1) Both mobs need to be below 50%
2) They need to be right next to each other - You can't have your tank sandwiched between the mobs, they need to both be facing him.

I had a 95 nec and then 2 85 bots.. Used 3 clerics. Mostly only had a 'problem' when it came to the mobs that don't root/snare. Also, my pet or tank merc that I tried would end up between the mobs, one on his *** one in the front. In order to get the mobs to align correctly, I had to make my merc passive and walk back towards the group. So what helped me was:

1) making sure that the group was further back than the tank so if the mobs sandwiched the tank I could call him off, making him come back towards the group, and realign the mobs.
2) my camp was right at the bottom of the ramp. Easy no problems.
____________________________
Lady Aivei Veil of Tarew Marr . Now Xegony
mob proximity and other details
# Jul 29 2013 at 9:39 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
*
100 posts
Bro and I boxed this (each 3-boxing 91's with anywhere from 1000 to 4500 AA's and most running recondite group gear) and we've been away a long time and were rusty, nonetheless some of our "learnins" were possibly things others take for granted. I'll post a few here.

Mob proximity: They must be very close, I'd say they must be within melee range of each other, roughly their target circles either need to slightly overlap or touch for it to work. We had them so close on a couple failures we literally could not believe they weren't close enough but it was true.

Mob health: We never once got it to work w/o BOTH mobs being below 50%, there are conflicting statements in this quest about one being 50% but (unless we had something else wrong) both of them had to be 50%, we had 3 tries w/o both and it never worked.

Camp location: We picked a spot not far from the North down ramp. Only really bad thing about it was that those guys that you shoot with the blow on #2 or #3 spawn nearby. Usually no one was doing that quest and we never suffered a death to them (they are one-touch killers). Come to think of it, that's about the ONLY dang mob that didn't kill us. [We caught several arguments among the mobs over who got to kill us next.]

Mez: A mezzed mob, if below 50%, works just fine but there are some complications with mezzing that may not matter to some groups, pet tankers would be interested (see FUSE below).

Legendary Blade (last loot item on the quest list): You can loot it early, legendary blades (part of this quest) lie around in particular locations and seem to respawn quickly. IF YOU DO LOOT EARLY, turn it in immediately. A steel blob rolls through and kills anyone with a legendary blade in their bags, appears harmless to those w/o the blade.

Mob damage: Lost several pets to the new combined mobs, they hit quite a bit harder than the regular mobs. BTW for those thinking of pet tanking, all our mages have about the toughest pets (AA-wise) you could make when the cap was 90 (new expansion have opened up more AA's but that'll wait for L100).

Finally the FUSE: We don't have a tank, we run 3 mages and pet tank. People with REAL tanks may not see what we saw (as the tank would be at the mobs anyway). When we had a mezzed mob for 1/2 the combine (having just beat the 2nd down below 50%) one of our mages would get sucked into the mob immediately. When we split the pulls between the mages (no mez) we had no such troubles. The new mob immediately whapped on the pets and all was good. Another year or two of doing this every night and I think we'd get the hang of this quest, glad it's over, not sure we ever had a TPW but we sure had a lot of partials.

Good luck fellow EQ'ers! --Endurain, Bristlebane
OH BTW
# Sep 25 2012 at 11:47 AM Rating: Default
"FUSOR" will not "FUSE" the mobs togeather unless they are close how close i dont no. but i kept getting "your target is not close to anything which it can be fused" message.I tried to fusor on both mobs all the way thru fight after i had one at 45% rooted and then pulled another steel.I had 2 steels @ 40 & 45%. Fusor wouldnt work for me. when i pulled other closer to rooted mob they flurried 8k apiece X 8 and my 65K HP poofed. and mobs still didnt "fuse". there was a patch this am 9/25/12
Fusor sees nothing that it can combine
# Jul 18 2012 at 3:50 AM Rating: Decent
I tried to do this several times and kept getting the message that the fusor had nothing that it could combine.
The ones that would work were where I had two of the same type to combine. eg. cyclones.

After a while I think I have worked out that you have to pull them in the order that it says in the list above.
so if it says Fight steel + living blades, get one to below 50%, then click to make them into a "Mass of Blades" which drops 6x "Bubbling Steel Knight".

Then make sure you pull the steel first, drop it to 50% and then pull the blade.
Seemed to work for me anyhow.
Only one....
# Jun 18 2012 at 8:53 PM Rating: Decent
10 posts
Seems you only need to get one to below 50% as long as you have that one targeted when you click the thing. Just did it and it worked.
Living Blades + Empowered Blades
# Jun 16 2012 at 9:41 AM Rating: Good
You can also combine a Living Blade and Empowered Blade to get Fourfold Edge
Cyclones
# Feb 05 2012 at 4:25 PM Rating: Decent
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85 posts
Steel Hurricanes also count as Cyclones for the fuse.
50%.
# Dec 16 2011 at 12:10 AM Rating: Decent
Only one mob needs be under 50%.
50%.
# Jan 20 2012 at 6:57 AM Rating: Decent
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73 posts
Confirmed it still works on 01/20/12.
If you lack of way to mez, just pull 1 and beat it under 50% then pull another and hit the item to combine them.



Edited, Jan 20th 2012 7:58am by zight
mez ?
# Nov 26 2011 at 9:18 AM Rating: Default
U can mez one when its under 50%
Mob HP
# Nov 19 2011 at 1:49 AM Rating: Good
*
72 posts
I've done it a few times now with only one mob at 70% . Make sure they are really close together.
??
# Nov 18 2011 at 7:49 PM Rating: Decent
20 posts
are the drops prelootable?
??
# Nov 19 2011 at 1:51 AM Rating: Good
*
72 posts
They are not pre-lootable
You only have to get one mob down to 50% not both
# Nov 17 2011 at 4:53 AM Rating: Decent
Hi all You only have to get one mob to 50% not sure if its a bug but it work for our group:)
You only have to get one mob down to 50% not both
# Nov 18 2011 at 3:31 PM Rating: Decent
I just did it, I had to get both mobs to less than 50%.
FUSION I CANT SEEM TO GET THEM TO FUSE SAYS SEE'S NOTHING CL
# Nov 16 2011 at 9:07 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
27 posts
HELP DO NEED SPECIFIC STEEL WITH CERTAIN CYCLONE?
CAN YO MEZZ THEM? OR DO BOTH HAVE TO FIGHTING?

____________________________
85th Arch Mage of Druzzill Ro
FUSION I CANT SEEM TO GET THEM TO FUSE SAYS SEE'S NOTHING CL
# Nov 17 2011 at 12:48 AM Rating: Good
Just get them very close together and below 50% in health and use the clicker.
____________________________
Poofiedog Needsabath
105 Druid on Drinal

Raid Sacrifice (for the win!)


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