A Matter of Life and Death  

Quest Started By:Description:
Where:
Who:
Rating:
*****
Information:
Level:100
Maximum Level:125
Monster Mission:No
Repeatable:Yes
Can Be Shrouded?:No
Quest Type:Task
Quest Goal:
  • Advancement
  • Experience
  • Loot
  • Money
Time Limit:06:00:00
Success Lockout Timer: 06:00:00
Related Zones:
Related Creatures:
Related Quests:
Era:Rain of Fear
Recommended:
Group Size:Group
Min. # of Players:3
Max. # of Players:6
Appropriate Classes:
  • All
Appropriate Races:
  • All
Entered: Thu Nov 29 05:47:29 2012
Modified: Tue Dec 5 05:21:04 2023
Rain of Fear Information & Guides: An Overview | Group Progression & Task List | Raid Progression | Visible Armor

Note: This is the group version of "A Matter of Life and Death". For the raid version, click here.



This group mission begins with Holy Defender Ioris (map) in the Chapterhouse of the Fallen at location -125, -70, -1 -- in the side room just north of the zone-in from the Commonlands (southeast of the Shard's Landing portal).

Pre-Requisites:
- Level 85
- Completed Infiltrating the Burning Dead
- Completed Operation
- Completed Dead Gnomes Tell No Tales... Or Do They?
- Completed Run, You Fools! (mission)

You say, 'Hail, Holy Defender Ioris'

Holy Defender Ioris appears relieved at your presence. 'Praise Marr, you're alive! I was worried my stubbornness would result in your death.' The paladin lowers her head in silent acceptance of what must be done. Her eyes reveal distrust as she glares upward toward the shadowknight who stands within hearing distance. 'It was wrong of me to refuse the [help] of a foe, who was willing to banish a common enemy. Marnek's summoning was a result of my pride, not your [failure].'

Bloodreaver Narek allows a smug grin to spread across his face as Ioris admits her wrongdoing.

You say, 'What failure?'

Holy Defender Ioris says 'I was able to fend off Menizzia, allowing for your escape, but her power proved much too strong to stop the summoning. Marnek now has a foot in both the realm of the dead, as well as the living, meaning he will need to be fought on both fronts. The necromancer grows stronger with every moment we remain idle.' Ioris gestures to the shadowknight in the corner, 'Despite my distaste for the followers of Innoruk, I have agreed to accept Narek's help, as he knows more about the realm of the dead than I care to. He will aid you in passing through to the realm of the dead, while I will ensure that you return to the realm of the living unharmed. Have you prepared a small, but efficient [group], or have you gathered a [raid] force to destroy Marnek once and for all?'

You say, 'I have a group'

Holy Defender Ioris says 'Very well. When you are ready to [go], I will lead your group into the summoning chamber where Marnek resides.'

You have been assigned the task 'A Matter of Life and Death'.

Head into Marnek's summoning chamber and destroy the ancient necromancer who has a hold over the realm of the dead, as well as the living.

You say, 'Let's go'

Holy Defender Ioris says 'May the strength of Marr be with you.'

LOADING, PLEASE WAIT...
You have entered Chapterhouse of the Fallen.

Bloodreaver Narek says 'Marnek's chambers can be found through the tunnel straight ahead. I will stay here and channel the strength of Innoruuk so that the dark pool can provide passage to the realm of the dead. Remember, contact with living creatures while in the in the other realm will cause you harm; Remaining in the dead realm for too long will cause certain death.'



Task Steps

1. Engage Marnek within the realm of the living 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

Task Window Says: Marnek can be found in the summoning chamber, through the tunnel south of Holy Defender Ioris.

2. Witness Marnek's transition into the realm of the dead 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

Task Window Says: According to Irois and Narek, Marnek is able to switch between the realms of the living and the dead.

3. Sacrifice one of your own in the pool of the dead 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

4. Kill wraiths within Marnek's summoning chamber 0/8 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

Task Window Says: Wraiths can only be harmed by those within the realm of the dead.

5. Kill Marnek 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

Task Window Says: Kill the ancient necromancer!

6. Claim your reward from the ornate chest 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

Task Window Says: After you have claimed your reward, Holy Defender Ioris will escort you back to the Chapterhouse.



In Detail

1. Engage Marnek within the realm of the living 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

This updates when you aggro Marnek Jaull.

2. Witness Marnek's transition into the realm of the dead 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

Marnek hits for a max ~18,000 and AE rampages. He casts Necrotic Roots (single-target nuke for 21,000 + DoT for 32,000/tick + root; 60 curse counters) and Scorching Bones (DoT for 39,000/tick; cured by going into the water at either end of the room you're fighting in - north or south).

Take him to 80% health at which point he turns into a skeleton. From here on out, he will alternate forms (human / skeleton). He is damageable by normal means in human form, but not in skeleton form (more information about this follows).

You'll see this emote when he turns "dead":


Marnek enters the realm of the dead, growing in power while shielding himself against attacks from the living.

You'll see this emote when he turns "live" again:

Marnek returns to the realm of the living, shielding himself from attacks from the dead.

3. Sacrifice one of your own in the pool of the dead 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

At least one person needs to go into the water in the north end of the room (NOTE: This isn't the actual water; it's a "pool", similar to a placeable guild hall pool just below the ramp).

When a player enters the north pool, two things happen: The player is put in a shroud and an add called a skeleton spawns.

The skeleton needs to be killed. It procs the spell Stun every five seconds:


Stun: Single Target, Unresistable (-980)
1: Stun (4.00 sec/200)

Anyone with the shroud can use the shroud's bane ability to DPS Marnek while he in his skeleton form. The catch is that if you stay in the shroud form too long, you will be death touched. The time limit is not known for sure, but the shroud does come with a buff, so the time limit may be the duration of the buff (not confirmed). To remove the shroud form, go into the water pool at the south end of the room.

Note: When a shrouded player removes a shroud from themselves, they get a short-term debuff called Resurrection Sickness on them that prevents them from re-shrouding. This only lasts a few ticks, however.

You can re-apply the shroud form any time by going into the north water (this spawns an add for each person who does this) and take it off any time by going into the south water. Just make sure you're not in it too long. Note that you cannot refresh the buff. You have to take it off and re-apply it rather than overwriting your existing buff.

Also note that if you approach Marnek while he is in his human form, while you are shrouded, you will take extra damage.

Marnek continues alternating his form based on his health: 70% (human); 50% (skeleton); 40% (human); 20% (skeleton); 10% (human).


4. Kill wraiths within Marnek's summoning chamber 0/8 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

Adds called a wraith are encountered throughout the event at health intervals. One wraith appears at 94%, 84%, 74%, 64%, 54%, 44%, 34%, 24%, 14%, and 4%. There may also be an 11th wraith, but this is not confirmed.

The wraiths can only be damaged with the shrouds. A shroud's "Lure" ability can be used to leash the wraith to the shrouded player while the wraith can be DPS'd via melee using the shroud's weapons.

WARNING: Make sure you have all eight wraith kill updates before you kill Marnek, or the task gets bugged (the chest spawns, but you can't open it).


5. Kill Marnek 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)

6. Claim your reward from the ornate chest 0/1 (Chapterhouse of the Fallen)


Rewards:
300 platinum
Experience

Possible Chest Loot (1 Item + 1 Dreadmote per task):

Ageless Spaulders
Bladed Shoulder Blades
Cursed Sash
Gentleman's Flair
Gentleman's Sword
Plague-borne Wall
Rune of Tainting
Sorrow's Bane
Spirit of Heroes
Strength of Valor

Lesser Dreadmote
Median Dreadmote
Greater Dreadmote
Glowing Dreadmote
Rewards:
Send a Correction
Post Comment
Second Try
# Nov 04 2023 at 4:08 PM Rating: Good
Guru
*
140 posts
So, we just finished this. Group makeup was 120 WAR, 120 DRU, 120 ENC and CLR, CLR, WAR merc.

For us, the key was having the Main Assist point the WAR Merc at the Wraiths every time they popped. The WAR merc took out the Wraiths. The rest concentrated on Marnek Jaull. After the Wraiths were all dead, we concentrated on Marnek.

So, 1) Kill all the Wraiths; then 2) Kill Marnek Jaull.

Don't forget to keep all your Mercs healed.

Dru
Go slow for achievements
# Sep 09 2020 at 4:28 PM Rating: Good
Scholar
46 posts
Avoiding the Wraith's Wrath was quite tricky to achieve, even at 115. Slow play Marnek to 94, 84%. Wraiths spawn almost two at a time if you burn it even slightly. Had to take off sword and any damage shields for this. Have one character dedicated to the undead shrouds, using them to lure the wraiths towards them and dps Marnek when undead. Mage air pet 111+ works on wraiths quite well. Mage functioned as a cleanup sweeper in case the character in the undead shroud missed a wraith. Mage could send the high end air pet at the wraith to keep it away from the group. Would recommend keeping the actual group in the mouth of the tunnel as the wraiths spawn out towards Marnek's spawn point. Slowly take him down to each 4% mark, take care of the wraith and continue on. If a wraith didn't spawn at the 94/84/74/64% mark, you may be burning too quick. For reference, one 115 sk is too fast, by a fair bit. He doesn't have enough hp to kill normally, so I'd periodically tank him with him beating on my back to remove any riposte possibilities.

Worth noting- the last wraith does NOT spawn at 4% like the rest, but rather much closer to 9-10%. So it spawns quite quickly after Marnek becomes killable and tripped us up 2x before we realized it was spawning quite a bit earlier than expected.

In the end, took around 6 tries of getting progressively closer to the Wrath achievement. Got the other 2 achieves without really trying on the first run. Achievements do not require you to open the chest to see if you achieved them or not, so can drop quest and restart quickly.
Go slow for achievements
# Sep 11 2020 at 9:14 PM Rating: Excellent
Sindace wrote:
Avoiding the Wraith's Wrath was quite tricky to achieve, even at 115. Slow play Marnek to 94, 84%. Wraiths spawn almost two at a time if you burn it even slightly. Had to take off sword and any damage shields for this. Have one character dedicated to the undead shrouds, using them to lure the wraiths towards them and dps Marnek when undead. Mage air pet 111+ works on wraiths quite well. Mage functioned as a cleanup sweeper in case the character in the undead shroud missed a wraith. Mage could send the high end air pet at the wraith to keep it away from the group. Would recommend keeping the actual group in the mouth of the tunnel as the wraiths spawn out towards Marnek's spawn point. Slowly take him down to each 4% mark, take care of the wraith and continue on. If a wraith didn't spawn at the 94/84/74/64% mark, you may be burning too quick. For reference, one 115 sk is too fast, by a fair bit. He doesn't have enough hp to kill normally, so I'd periodically tank him with him beating on my back to remove any riposte possibilities.

Worth noting- the last wraith does NOT spawn at 4% like the rest, but rather much closer to 9-10%. So it spawns quite quickly after Marnek becomes killable and tripped us up 2x before we realized it was spawning quite a bit earlier than expected.

In the end, took around 6 tries of getting progressively closer to the Wrath achievement. Got the other 2 achieves without really trying on the first run. Achievements do not require you to open the chest to see if you achieved them or not, so can drop quest and restart quickly.


I remember doing this event in era. It was a nightmare for our guild. We beat our heads against it for a while.
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Duoed with box team today on Selos
# Jul 05 2020 at 11:32 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
*
96 posts
100 druid (me) and husband (100 sk, 100 monk, 100 shm, 100 bard, and cleric merc) duoed this event today. I ran around shrouding and deshrouding in pools for handling wraiths and skeleton boss phases. Tank and team pulled boss to SE corner of the room while I ran back and forth to the pools. I was set with Puller role to avoid cleric merc dumping mana on me in shroud form.

Skeleton boss phases essentially mini rest periods since the boss was rooted across the room from where the rest of the team were and I could deshroud. I would shroud about 2% before wraiths were released. Box team prioritized killing skeletons spawned from shrouding then boss, wraiths were entirely handled by me with lure and melee. Wraiths seemed to occasionally heal to full, not sure if we were doing something to cause that or if it was just an annoyance mechanic.

Took three attempts. Almost a fun event after getting the hang of it, requires a lot of clear communication. Definitely a marathon and not a race.
Molo as 115 Mage
# May 22 2020 at 1:11 PM Rating: Decent
Avatar
18 posts
Not sure if something changed (or bugged) since the last posting but I was to solo this as a mage with a healer merc and air pet ... but still a PITA

Some notes:

The air pet does damage the wraiths (they went down very quick)

To get past the Step 3, I had to shroud in the north pool as noted. I immediately de-shrouded in the south pool but my merc was suspended. Ended up dying. Not sure if there is any option but dying on this step ... But this advanced the quest.

When I got back in the instance, Marnek was reset. Before burning down to 80% I got as many swarm pets as possible. Once he went into skeleton mode, the swarm pets continued to damage him and burn him down almost to 70%. I used the air pet to continue burning him down but it was very slow to do this. Every time the pet attacked it would get "banished" and thrown away from the mob - but the pet usually got in an attack before this happened. I just called the pet back to me with summon companion and continued attacking. Mage spells have no damage/effect during this skeleton mode.

When Marnek went to human mode at 70% just did the same as above - i.e., get as many swarm pets up before the next skeleton mode and kill the wraiths along the way

Rinse and repeat above. Note that some times the swarm pets would do enough damage alone to get through the skeleton mode completely.

Also I had to pay attention throughout the fight to the pet's health as the merc wasn't healing him that well.

wraiths eat mage pets
# Sep 01 2018 at 8:23 AM Rating: Good
Scholar
20 posts
tried to solo today. Pets on marnek, no problem, however once the wraiths spawns, it will eat the pet like candy. I tried to stop and mem earth to chain cast elemental and could not get past the 2nd wraith before I quit. Fine on marnek, no problem, but send the pet to the wraiths? and they will one shot your 110 mage pet every time, servants dont doo too much else. could not get marnek down to 80pct- chain cast about 6 earth elementals getting to that point
FINALLY!
# Jan 09 2016 at 10:01 PM Rating: Excellent
43 posts
After about 15 deaths - we finally figured this one out...

The previous poster is 100% correct don't try and dps too much.

Tips:

1. whomever shrouds have 2 hotbutton spots open (or pop another hotbutton bar) for the shroud spells
2. take the human mob down to 80% right off the bat so, that both the wraiths that pop count for the quest
3. when Marnek changes back to human you better be ready to get agro or he will run after the shrouded person that did the last damage to him and all hell will break loose

I hope this helps.

Heffernan
Bugged
# Jan 09 2016 at 8:06 PM Rating: Excellent
43 posts
This mission is bugged.

Tried this mission numerous times.

Killed 2 Wraiths while shrouded and task didn't update.

When shrouded only got 1 pt of damage per swing - I don't think that will be good enough to beat him down and turn him back to human form.
Bugged
# Nov 17 2019 at 4:45 AM Rating: Decent
Similar experience. Client chashed while unshrouding the second time I was in undead shroud.
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# Oct 03 2014 at 12:33 AM Rating: Decent
3 boxed this today with war/shm/bard, 2 cleric mercs 1 balanced other reactive and 1 dps wiz merc. Trick is to be in total control at all times of dps and controlling shrouds for when you are prepared to kill wraith/change Marnek from undead/human form.

Wraiths pop at every 'X'4% (74, 64, 54, etc). My strat was to tank Marnek where he spawns and control the spawns of wraiths by controlling dps on my toons and my merc with passive. I'd dps Marnek down to say 77% and then stop dps on him and shroud on my bard. When you shroud a skelly pops every time. I tanked skelly and marnek with warrior and burned on my shaman / set merc to burn. After skelly died I'd turn back to Marnek , get him to 74%(64,54,44, etc) and pop wraith then STOP DPS on Marnek again, and lure/kill wraith with my shrouded toon. Rinse repeat.

I did it just like this all throughout the entire event ONLY going for 1 wraith per shroud. In my experience rushing it causes shroud toon to DT and forces wipe.

Cleric mercs WILL eat their mana trying to heal shroud. I didn't bother setting them to passive because I wanted them healing my warrior at all times. What I did do was get Marnek to his undead form which happens at 80%,50%,and 20% and take rest breaks. He's permarooted and will not summoned in this phase. I sat across the room from him with all my mercs on passive and let them med to full while I kept group alive with shammy from his DD's/DoT. I did this each time he went undead to top off, because this event is very mana intensive if you have a cleric merc your not on top of.

This event is hard. I have beaten this before about 2 times prior, but never boxed it alone. The most important thing is control above all else. Slow and steady wins the race.

Short version.
Control DPS on Marnek>Stop Dps>Shroud>Kill Skeleton>Pop Wraith>Kill Wraith>Deshroud>Rinse Repeat/Rest on undead phase.

It will be a lot easier if you do not try it alone. Took me a few hours of banging my head on the desk, but to me worth the reward of beating at the end.
Bugged Apparently ....
# Jul 03 2014 at 7:04 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
29 posts

Get in the pool for shroud-bane ... crashes EQ client. Stripped auras, weird buffs, etc .... crashes client.

Unfortunate -- this is the only RoF mission I have left to complete.
burning marnek at the end?
# Mar 26 2013 at 4:33 PM Rating: Good
From annoying experience make sure you have killed all 8 wraiths before Marnek dies.

Failure to do so results in the chest popping but the task not up dating and what makes it more annoying is that you are then unable to use the north pool to enter the spirit realm to kill the remaining wraith(s).
Stun OMG!
# Jan 15 2013 at 11:16 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
*
57 posts
Apparently, Marnek has a pretty nasty long lasting stun!
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