Dungeons & Dragons Online Dreams of Insanity Quest Guide

Name	Dreams of Insanity Quest Guide
Category	Quest

With the popularity of Tempest Spine, it's quite easy to ignore Gatekeeper Trakash who gives the quest Dreams of Insanity over at House Jorasco. He's just a few feet away from the Tempest Spine quest giver. Although TS is much more appealing when it comes to loots and end reward, you got to admit that you've somehow entertained the idea of speaking to this Trakash guy and see what the Dreams of Insanity quest is all about. The quest title couldn't have been more appropriate. It's enough to drive you a little bit insane but it's quite an adventure.

After speaking to Gatekeeper Trakash, you'll be given access to The Pool of Reflection. Just click on the cart at the back of Trakash and you'd be transported in the area. This area leads to the Gate of Nightmares where all the beholders and his minions reside. That's not to say you won't have a tough time clearing The Pool of Reflection. You'd face several mobs including Ancient Iron Defenders and Drow. But that's the hard way. The easy way would be to sneak your way to the Gate of Nightmares. Just hug the right side as you sneak and head northwest. This is done so that you'd be able to save your resources (hit points, mana) until the first nasty encounter inside the gate. Of course, you can always choose to battle the Ancient Iron Defenders who'll do anything to stop you. These are CR 14 Iron Defenders, so make sure you got tanks that hit really hard.

Once inside the Gate of Nightmares, start buffing. Buffs that grant temporary hit points are quite needed. Add protection from fire and haste. What makes the quest a little less manageable is the presence of several purple orbs that are sweeping the area. If they hit you, it's either you get buffs or get killed. You'd be lucky if the orbs heal you, but most of the time they kill you or render you helpless. They can't be killed, so you got to be good at jumping and dodging. You can get rid of the purple orbs when runes are activated. These runes are locked by certain attributes: Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom, Strength. The faster you activate these runes, the faster you can get to the end room.

Here are the primary and optional objectives of the quest:

Acquire 2 Scorpion Crests
Place the Scorpion Crests in the Sockets
(Optional) Seal the small rifts
(Optional) Slay the Chakram brothers
Activate the central gateway's seals
Slay Iorrat

The area is shaped like a rectangle. It really doesn't matter which way you go first because you'd have to go around anyway to unlock the runes, get to a couple of chests, and more importantly, acquire the 2 Scorpion Crests. These crests will then unlock the door leading to the final battle. In the map, you'd see a hallway up north. This hallway leads to the final room.

So, once you’ve managed to avoid the purple orbs and several drow at the very beginning, continue north until you reach the point where you need to decide if you want to take the right door or left door. Again, it doesn't matter which door you choose to open first, but every door you open, prepare for a fierce encounter with Warforges, Drow, Ancient Iron Defenders, the Chakram brothers (Drow Scorpion) and beholders. These are CR 13 to CR 14 mobs, so they won't go down easily. And they do cast a mean flame strike often - that's why you need some fire protection. The mobs are immune to a lot of things so it's up to the damage dealers to do their stuff, with a little help from casters. One strategy that works is using blade barriers and one tank aggroing the mobs and leading them to the blade barriers while the rest of the party contributes by hitting the mobs to speed up their death. And this is while trying to avoid the purple orbs too! It would be necessary to have a back-up healer (another Cleric or a Bard) because health bars go down way too fast in these encounters.

If you continue to move east, you'd find one of the several runes you need to activate on the walls. You'd also find one of the Chakram brothers if you reach the far northeastern room. There's also a chest in this room.

Just to the right of the hallway leading to the final room is a shrine. To the left of the hallway, on the other hand, is a room with a beholder and a chest. The map will guide you where you need to go to get to the runes, shrines, and the scorpion crests.

Once you gain access to the hallway, don't open the door just yet. Gather the party and heal up. It's also time to buff the members who will go inside the room to activate the central gateway's seals. There are 6 of them each located up top, which means you have to climb up the ladder and walk along beams (they are very narrow). This is also the best time to boost their jump skills. The runes are Charisma- and Intelligence-based. So choose members who are not too squishy because they also have to contend with a couple of beholders: one regular, and the boss named Iorrat.

When the door is opened, you'd immediately see three to four purple orbs roaming the door entrance. Timing is necessary because it's hard to avoid three of them in such a narrow hallway.

Here's a strategy that works. Note, however, that your strategy would depend on the types of classes you have in the party as well as the abilities of each member. It'll be easier if you are running with guildies whose playstyle you already know. But most of the time, you end up with PUGs.

Say, you have a Bard, a Cleric, a Wizard, a Barbarian, a Rogue and a Paladin. The Rogue can take care of the INT rune. The Bard can do the CHA rune but since he was doing back-up healing, the Paladin has to do it.

The Barbarian can aggro the Thaarak Hounds and Drows and lead them to the door entrance where the Wizard prepared a Blade Barrier. He should, however, be able to avoid the purple orbs. The Bard, who does back-up healing (also has a raise dead scroll ready) should make sure that the Barbarian remains alive as he would be drawing aggro and would probably make several trips before all the mobs are killed. So, the Bard, Wizard, and the Barbarian would be at the door entrance making sure not a lot of mobs wouldn't bother the Rogue, the Cleric, and the Paladin who are busy jumping and walking along narrow beams to get to the seals. It's quite a nice set-up.

Inside the room is a little more chaotic because the members would have to contend with a regular beholder and a named beholder. To make things less chaotic, when the mobs' number has significantly decreased, the Barbarian can aggro the regular beholder and lead it to the door where the Wizard and Bard are waiting. The Wizard would have to cast appropriate spells while the Barbarian hits the beholder. The Bard would then have to heal up the Wiz and the Barb because health bars will go down real fast.

It will take some time for the Rogue and Pally to activate all the central gateway seals and they will take some damage (or even die). That's why the Cleric is there, making sure they stay alive. Once the first half of the party gets rid of the regular beholder, the other half inside the room could relax just a bit because the Wizard, Barbarian, and Bard can help take down Iorrat.

Once all the seals are activated and Iorrat is slain, you'd get your XP (Note: Base XP is 4,384) and two chests will spawn. Get your loot and celebrate!

Finish out and get your end reward from Gatekeeper Trakash.