I need to get a delicate glass sculpture off certai 'Coterie Dragoons', but dragoons are nowhere to be found? Are they a triggered spawn or do i just not look properly?

Some merchant should sell galic to keep the bats away. :)

First things first. Getting there. You will most likely port to Grimling forest and zone in. Remember to run high along the wall of Grimling forest cuz the zone to Tenebrous Mountains is surrounded by a Grimling town (I ran through the middle of town and picked up a train of about a dozen grimling, these guys aren't tough for a 50 Cleric but a dozen of them took me down without too much trouble).

When you head to the Castle remember that almost everything in the zone seems to see invisible and the vampires can see through IVU. So don't try to get there with obfuscation. Someone mentioned the levitation method, use this methods it works best.

Set up camp pretty close to the castle otherwise you will be picking up wandering bat and sonic wolf adds on every fight.

There are 2 vamps outside the castle and there is one just inside the door. It is amazingly easy to get all three to aggro on you so be prepared for a 3 vamp pull. Mezz works on them but doesn't seem to last as long. Once you get past them, you are on the ground floor which is lined with coffins, pull this area like it was the library in TOFS. when you clear this area there is a ramp in the back that leads upstair where the tough mobs spawn (named and generals).

If you cannot handle more than 2 or 3 vamps at a time, stay downstairs, the spawntime is pretty short so if you start pulling named mobs from upstairs you WILL get regular vamp adds. If you feel like you are missing out on the action by staying downstairs, don't, a Named will occassionally aggro on fights downstairs adding to excitement.

If you do feel you can take on nameds and stuff then pull them downstairs to the area right in front of the ramp (that way you can get XP from all those nice little ground floor vamp adds). Have anyone that doesn't need to be close to the named mobs stay away cuz they cast area effect lifetap and not only does your chanter and cleric lose 200 each it appears the vamp will gain 200 per person in the lifetap range. If you are fighting Renaldok, remember to heal a little early cuz he can cast ice comet and royally goatscrew your plans if you are waitinig for your melee to be under 2 bubbs before you CH him.

The regular vamps drop some faction quest nodrop items (you need to be indifferent to turn them in)and coterie gear. The coterie weapons are heavy and worth between 5 and 8PP each to a vendor (if you have a porter have them port and sell the weapons and gate back). The armor peices are vendor trash to you by the time you can hunt in this zone and the vendors only offer 2 or 3 plat for them. Sell them in bazaar for 10-25 PP depending on piece and they should sell pretty well or just sell them to a vendor if you can't be bothered.

The General will drop what regular vamps drop but will ocasionally drop general boots or cape these are bazaar items. The nameds will drop cash rings (142 plat from a vendor) and some decent items (and some real crap too).

In a 4 hour camp with a full group capable of keeping the castle cleared, I netted about 500PP of loot (after peridots).

Word of caution stay away from the Mob on the balcony if it is Vlad then find somewhere else to hunt he is a level 62 Mob that is underconned and can visit you downstairs if your puller isn't careful. If it is his PH and you pull him... clear out when you've killed him, I was there with a group 50-61 (60 pally, 61 warrior, 50 cleric, 50 cleric, 56 necro, 62 chanter) and I was told that Vlad could wipe us.

A cleric can solo some of the vamp outposts in this zone if he is careful and wuill likely be welcome in a castle group when one forms.

Posting this tidbit I ran across the other night when passing through and decided to stop into the mines. I have hunted the mine closest to the Grimling Forrest zone tunnel, and after a patch a few months ago there was an npc i noticed standing in there ... turns out it is Felodious Sworddancer an even con to 55 when i saw him. anyway Hail him and he will begin to tell you a story. At the end of his first test when you hail him ... there are trigger words that lead to a Very intresting Story for Ogre Warriors. As the story progresses he tells you about a red scabbard, and a Sword that Ralos Zek gave to an Ogre warrior to test him... and the sword turned out to be to powerful for him... long but intresting story short is he failes the test and Zek takes the sword and splits it into pieces and scatters it in diffrent places ... the smallest ogre there when this occoured was given the red scabbard and his family was tasked to test all warriors which come for the sword to see if they are worthy.
This story is from memory when it happened a couple of nights ago, but most of the details should be correct. Would anyone have any additional info on this guy? I might have to bring my 52 ogre warrior back out of retirement to look into getting the Sword he speaks of ... hoping it will breathe new life into the fun of playing him again.
It is possible that the part about the ogre may not actually have a working quest at this point ... since the words that trigger the ogre story are not in brackets ... or this could just be an oversight on the programmers part about the brackets missing.
Any info provided would be Greatly appreciated ... and as I find out more I will try to update.

8/6 Would anyone know more information about this mystic firepot room and where I can find it?

Thanks

8/7 Sorry, I've discovered that the fireport room is actually in the Timourous Deep.

Thanks

Edited, Wed Aug 7 08:05:55 2002

You can raise your faction with Coterie of the Eternal Night by hunting the guards in Katta Castellum...great exp btw.

I was told that you can kill the Coterie to raise Katta faction but the bestiary doesnt show any factions. Can someone please confirm this for me so that I can quest in Katta.

Thank you in advance...

Travelling in the zone is dangerous. Darkwing bats, dire sonic wolves and vamps can see invis and would aggro.

I would suggest get sow on and follow the south border line to your left (west)after entering TM from GF. But be careful cause there are two grimling cave on the way. Each cave has two static spawn at their entrance. Most of the time you would see grimling orefinders. However, occasionally you can see grimling geomancers (nasty caster hits upto 250dd) and foremans (hits harder and has lots of hp). South border line is too close to cave entrance and traveling behind them sometimes not safe. Because those geomancer and foremans have wider aggro range. If you see those guys guarding the entrance try not to use the borderline. Instead take a small curve to North and South again. When you hit west border line head to North. Relatively safer that way.

If you get aggro better shout for train to zone. Cause ppl pull and camp at the KC zone entrance and you might get flames if you dont warn them in advance.

The vamps in this zone give great exp for the tree huging types. My druid have been quading them since lvl 49. I'm now at 50 and I rake in more than two blues per quad, the exp is simply awesome. However the quads are extremely dangerous. The vamps have high magic resists and tend to resist one outta every four ensares. They also proc a 200hp life tap so there is absolutely zero room for error. Get too close to your quad and its LOADING PLEASE WAIT...

There are also numerous adds which can sneak up on you in this dark zone so knowledge of the spawns and terrain is a must.

Anyone have any tips breaking the castle area itself. From what i witness it seems to be easiest with a monk to feign pull the main room. Named spawn is also a roamer in there that is a caster of some sort; believed to be chanter i think. Anyways if anyone has any advice to breaking the castle and how to proceed would be much appriated.

all the drops you mentioned are for the twilight armor quests. There is a full suit of armor for every class and a weapon. go to the link in the shadow knight darkened? bracer discussion.

Sundorn on Brell
Liger on Brell

this zone has alot of drops in it off different mobs , i killed a Killer darkwing bat and got a Ring of wit , and i also killed some of those alien looking things i got a Dread Hilt, stormfilled vial, earth etched wand and some other stuff all were lore and with no stats , im asssuming they are for some unknown quests that are out there

The Grimlings in this zone drop some expensive gems, ore for Luclin Smithing/Tailoring, and the runner drops an item that's part of a quest for a 70% weight reduction 10 slot giant bag (weight 1 - great for monks or anyone). While camping the cave entrances, pull Sonic Wolves for exp.

Most if not all roamers in this zone see invisible .. so be careful.

Dolt Diggler 54 druid
Phorest Wu 52 monk
<Justice Keepers>
The Tribunal

where the heck is the zone to the tene mts, i went to where eqatlas said and all i could find was a waterfall, ya go through and fall under the world, please help