Coldain Ring #2: Silver Coldain Insignia Ring  

Did this quest with just 2 people, 51 Ranger and 51 Druid. I ran ahead to the Giant fort after giving the dwarf the axe. I simply kited the 3 giants guarding the door away and rooted them. With the entrance to the Giant Fort clear we went to the Giant Prison. Quiver, my ranger, used harmony on the dwarf, while I did the same to the Frost giant and the Rygorr prison guard. Borridan then walked back to his spawn point where the Rabid Kodiak spawned. It was light blue to me, and fell quickly, but before I could turn in the pelt we were jumped by two FGs. By the time we dealt with the nuissance Borridan had despawned. I went back to Garadain and said, "What assistance" and got another axe. When the dwarf respawned I gave him the axe, and then the pelt. Ta-dah! Note that you do NOT have to kill every mob in the Giant Fort and Prison, unless you want to.

After writing this up for my guild's messageboard I thought I would copy and post this here to help any others working on the rings... so please forgive the use of names and personal references.

Short version: 13 people levels 39-49, divided into 3 groups were successful. Overkill? Likely so, but made it comfortable and we all stayed busy.
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A huge thanks and congrats to Coaren, Tsuga, Merinu, Eluvandal, Trelor, Ghurka, Al, Fal, Shylee, Beralt, Kylora (QoH), and Riv (DC) for making our guild's first (to my knowledge anyway) Coldain ring event a success!!

For those unfamiliar with the coldain ring quest, it is the melee analogy to the Thurgadin shawl quests. There are 10 known consecutive ring quests, the first ring quest requires a tailoring skill and results in a Copper Coldain Ring, AC1, +1STR, +1SVMagic, aka the 1/1/1 ring. Last night we successfully completed the 2/2/2 ring quest.

For those interested in trying it, I posted some details in the post above, and will add comments from our experience here. The quick gist is that you must keep a moronic dwarf (Garadain's nephew, green at 45) alive while he plays out his fantasy of being a mighty hunter. He is ostensibly tracking down a rabid kodiak that has been preying upon his people, and tracks it all around the EW zone, first visiting the giant fort, then the prison, then ry'gorr fort, then returns to his spawn point where the bear pops just behind him.

Borridain spawns on a hilltop at approx loc N2500 P1500 just N of the Ry'gorr fort. This is a major crossroads for wandering mobs in the zone, with lots of Ry'gorr scouts, frost giants, dervs, and tough savage dire wolves wandering right past him. Luckily at this point the dwarf is non-aggro to all mobs, or he'd never be up more than 20 seconds.

I divided our 13 people into 3 groups, one to stay with the dwarf, one to clear out the entry pops for his next destination, and one to act as a sweeper primarily pulling wandering mobs out of the dwarf's path. This tactic seemed to work extremely well, and given the number of adds and the speed with which they need to be killed or kited, was about the right size to succeed (we had failed twice before just trying to use 1 group -- oh, and wolf form is KOS).

After clearing out all the wanderers in the area surrounding the dwarf, I dispatched groups 2 and 3 to clear the giant fort entry pops, as well as the roaming frost giant captain. These 2 tasks were the hardest part of the entire quest. The frost giant captain was tough, but was taken down with a bit of fear kiting. Meanwhile the first group had all they could handle keeping the wandering mobs near the dwarf spawn spot at bay. We had our only casualty (Al, who thereby made the raid official) at this stage, when Al kited two wandering frost giants out of the dwarf spawn area. Our other imperfection was tagging Eluvandal with negative Kromrif faction, as he was unable to zone in time to avoid a faction hit... sorry =(

At this point I turned my axe in to Borridain (say 'what assistance' to Garadain to get the axe, this follows dialogue subsequent to 1/1/1 ring quest), and he repops and immediately starts tracking W to the giant fort at N2000, P3000. I cast harmony on Borridain to keep his idiot self from aggroing on to any mobs that go too close. Even with the sweeper group we had to move a frost giant out of the way during this leg of the trip.

Borridain wandered right up and just into the gate of the frost giant fort (I was getting worried!) before he turned around and headed toward the prison at loc 0,0. Halfway there he sat down for a few minutes for a 'snack' break. This allowed the 2nd group to finish clearing the prison door pops. Turns out the dwarf didn't visit anything I considered a door pop here, but entered a broken wall section at the Southernmost point of the prison, which contained a giant and an orc that the sweeper group and our group expertly moved out of the way before the dwarf got there. I kept harmony on the little guy to make sure he didn't make things any more difficult than they already were by running off track to attack any of the mobs that were being moved.

Borridain then turned and headed South toward the main Ry'gorr fort at N3500 P500, once again taking a one-minute snack break along the way. This allowed time to med, and for the 2nd group to root their adds and relocate to the fort and clear door pops. Warning via /ooc to all those chars KOS to Coldain to please vacate the area temporarily, the dwarf wandered right through where folks usually camp the fort exterior, and waltzed into the fort entrance before turning around and heading back to his spawn point.

Once at his spawn point, he sat down and a Rabid Tundra Kodiak spawned (dark blue at 47) which I dispatched with Al's help (he had recovered from rez effects by this time). We both caught rabies from him, blech. I looted the dead bear's pelt, and turned it in to the sitting Borridain, who returned a 'broken axe' to me (said he broke it delivering the killing blow, lol) and depopped. I then turned in the broken axe and 1/1/1 ring to Garadain and received the 2/2/2 ring.

Yes, all that work for a 2AC, +2STR, +2SVMagic ring... but that's not the point! The event itself was a blast, and allowed us to show each other and the zone that we have the rare gift of close teamwork. The dwarf did not aggro or receive aggro the entire time, and I estimate 30 mobs were killed or moved before and during the dwarf's 15-minute excursion.

One spell that makes this part of the quest highly trivial. Harmony. Keep harmony on the dorf and harmony anything that he might wander past. He won't attack stuff and it won't attack him.

After you give Bordain the axe, he walks toward the Giant Fort Entrance. Two Giants spawn here, about 3500hps each. It may be a good idea to kill these before handing him the axe.

When you give him the axe, a Frost Giant Captain, around level 45 spawns and walks to the gate, You can either kill him, or pull him away and root him.

After the Giant Fort Gate, Boridain heads to neg1150, 1000 and stops for a few minutes.

Bordain then heads to 0, 250 where a Giant and an Orc Prisoner are, these can be killed before spawning Boridain also, they are pretty low level, about 3000hp for the Giant, and less than 1500 for the orc.

Boridain then walks to neg2030, 1380 and stops for a few minutes.

Then it's on to the entrance of the Orc Fort at loc neg3450, 450. A few orcs spawn here as well, but can be killed in advance.

Then Dain heads back to neg2250, 1600 and the Rabid Kodiak Spawns off behind him.

Wandering Orcs and Giants will attack, so keep an eye open at all times.

Merloc

Oh by the way make sure your whole group has good faction with the Coldain or hell attack your party members, and if your unfortunate as i was a silly ranger will go ld *pokes Balsomon* and kill the mob your supposed to keep alive. It does make for good comic relief though

Nadiena Devine
50th song of POvar

I helped today with the quest for the 10th ring. The battle for the 8th ring is just that, A mere battle. To get the 10th ring you must fight and WIN a WAR!

When it starts in Great Divide, the entire zone depops, everything goes poof. Then an army of Coldain forms up in several spots on the map. Most of the NPCs from Dwarves from the previous quests convene a council outside Thurgadin, and then each goes to command a different part of the army. Then the hell begins......

I stood at the Axemen line in front of Thurgadin and counted 5 FULL PAGES of Kromiff on my track list. This isnt including all the Dwarves and over 100 PCs in the zone.

Then, over the next THREE HOURS Wave after Wave of Kromiff spawns and assults Thurgadin from 3 sides. First Recruits(blue at 52), then later Priests and Warriors, yellow to me, then Warriors and Generals. And then after that there is a lull, but only a short once before several waves of Veterans and High Priests lead by even meaner Generals, all red to me, are sent after the city.

After all the giants are defeated, a named boss, Narandi the Wretched, spawns, as tough as any planar god, has all sorta special attacks, including soemthign called the Flurry of Blows that just DROPPED people dead instantly. Me, I dont even know how I died. I was at 3 bubble health, and suddenly I get the message "you died". No spell effect or damage, nothing...

The reward is a +10 ring, 100hp with the effect Dain's Blessing (10point DS, 10hp regen, and +45 attack).

The mob also dropped some SWEET gear, noen of which I got of course...bleh...

I wasnt there for the end, was waiting for the rez, but I know several of the named Dwarves went down. I am assuming that Narandi the Wretched had some item that needed to be turned in, but I'm not sure. Man, I love bein on E'Ci!

I just helped a lvl 60 rogue complete this quest. He did all the protecting of the dorf, and kept me safe too, as I'm only 24th. But he needed a tailor to make the blanket to get the copper ring. When the rabid Kodiak spawned, he and his guild buddy made short work of it and then he got the other half of this quest (the broken axe). I handed in the ring, he handed in the axe, and my service was complete. I was very well paid, with enough plat to make me encumbered.

It was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure I understand the whole series of quests here. Final reward: no drop ring with 8ac, 8dex, 8mr? Is this significantly better than everything else? Or is this series of quests about the journey and not the destination?

I was in a hurry to log and because of it didn't use the phrase required to get the axe after solving the blanket quest. Anyone remember the phrase used so that I don't have to make the blanket again just to find out?

I initiated this quest while 35 and was somewhat amused when Boridain headed straight for the giant fort. I managed to ensnare the 1st giant just as he and boridain started fighting. He then agroed on me and chased me all the way back to Rygorr keep. The nice thing was that Boridain hammered him all the way and I managed to do more than 50% damage and got the credit for the kill.

It would seem if you're lowish then you could handle the Giants one at a time this way. Boridain did wander off just before I killed the giant - I assume he headed back to the fort or on to the second waypoint. Due to the fact that you dont have to kill the rabid before he despawns I feel you could do this at a lot lower level than that listed above - I think it is easy for 2 mid lev 30's - only got to try it now.

3 points I feel - you can take the giants 1 at a time - you can keep him alive easily if you agro the mobs - and its an easy way to get that extra assistance to kite a yellow giant. Not as nice as quad kiting rygorr though :)

Krym
Tallon Zek