| Name | Foundation of Discord Quest Guide |
| Category | Quest |
You have had your fun with Hobgoblins, Trolls, Minotaurs, Orcs, and Zakya Cultists, while quickly accumulating ancient relics. In Foundation of Discord, you will make your way into the Aurum encampment and fight your way against tough opponents consisting of Silver, Gold, Copper and Platinum Concords - Fighters, Rangers, Wizards, etc. You will also fight with Shrieking Defenders (similar to the mithral defenders) who will grease your path and knock you down. It's interesting that you will be up against enemies who are just like your characters - Dwarves, Humans, Elves. It's much more exciting because you can gauge your power against them by the spells they cast and the damage you get from those spells. You can easily tell their plan of attack so there's some sort of equal footing. The only problem is that they outnumber your party of 6. So, there's still a need for some preparation no matter how predictable the mobs are.
GETTING THERE
If you have previously completed Prison of the Planes, you can teleport to the Stormeye encapment. Just go northwest on the map and you'll see the golden chalice marker indicating the Aurum Lair. It's just the same route as PoP, only you have to make a left turn before you reach the bridge heading to the PoP quest. There may be some encounters enroute to the aurum encampment, mostly with concord dwarves. You can avoid them by sneaking or just by simply running along the rightmost side of the path. There is a shrine at the cave entrance, so don't worry about using your spell points should you encounter some hostility.
PREPARATION
Your initial mission is to explore the aurum encampment. The enemies you find in the Aurum lair are not as tough as some of the creatures you have encountered in other GH sidequests, but the sheer number attacking you at once is enough to overwhelm the party and just may cause party wipe. Needless to say, Crowd Control will play pivotal role in the success of your run. There's the usual crowd control spells like Otto's Sphere Of Dancing, Solid Fog, Acid Fog, Firewall and Symbol of Fear. If you have a wizard in the group, the most effective spell is the Mass Hold Person. It stops the concords on their tracks and what's more, when they are held, you can crit them at every hit, which makes defeating them much quicker. Of course, you can always count on Finger of Death, Destruction and Phantasmal Killer for a much faster kill, but they do have cooldown times and you might not be able to keep up with so much enemies attacking at once.
Make sure to have fire and acid resists on as the concord wizards cast fire and acid spells. Sonic resist is also a must especially towards the end of the quest. The rangers do quite a bit of damage so it is advisable to put Stoneskin and Barksin. The enemies will also cast symbol of flame, hypnotism, and soundburst. You can use Break Enchantment spell against the hypno. The stun effect lasts for 6 seconds.
This quest also has some nasty (but awesome) traps and a locked door. A rogue will be very handy. The locked door can be knocked but you must roll a 20. It's recommended to bring in a rogue, if you really want tosurvive the traps and get the chest behind the locked door.
WALKTHROUGH
You will start at the north entrance and you will have to make your way south. Your initial mission is to explore the Aurum encampment. You will first traverse into cavernous tunnels with crystals illuminating your path. As you move forward, you will encounter Shrieking Defenders and the first set of concords. No need to apply Crowd Control at this time. As you proceed, the path will spiral downwards and you will turn right. When the path ends, you will have to drop down to concrete stones where trangers and wizards are waiting for you. After defeating them, let the rogue search for the slash trap on the small passageway. He should be able to disable it. With the absence of a rogue, you can avoid it by just timing your movement. The trap goes on and off.
Continue to make your way to the tunnel which bends to the left. Along the way, you'll encounter Silver Concord Rangers. As you head further south, you will find a wooden door. Behind it are enemies and an air trap that will blow you off. The one who opens the door is usually the unlucky recipient. Before opening the door, cast Otto's and Solid Fog.
Moving further, you'll find some Gold Concord Clerics. There is another door that will lead you to the center room. Behind it are another set of mobs as well as the only shrine in the quest. The room also has doors on the left and right side leading further to the encampment. Save the shrine for the last fight. You can also recall out for mana, but that really won't be necessary if you're all buffed up and crowd control is utilized properly. First go to the right side room. This path further splits to the right and left. Head on to the right side first. There will be a bunch of Silver Concord Fighters along the way. This is the best time to apply Crowd Control and insta-kill spells. Hack and slash works too, if you can keep up with the sheer number of enemies.
When you reach a bend on the road, there is a slash trap. Make sure you don't fight in that area as you will definitely meet instant death. Have the Rogue disable it before proceeding. If you move further you will find a room full of beds. Entering it will extinguish one of the runes. To the left side is a hidden door where you will find a chest. After you get your loot, head back out and go to the other side (left). There is little fight on your way to the first wooden door. But behind this door is another set of mean concord casters and fighters. You will have to continue moving forward up the stairway into the next room with beds. This is similar to the ones on the other side. You will then extinguish another magic rune. Head back to the center room (where the shrine is) and head to the other doorway. It will again split up and you have to go to the right side first.
In this part of the hallway, you will have another encounter before you reach a trapped door. Stay back and let the rogue find it and disable it. It's an air trap that will blow you off sideways and once you are blown to the side a spike trap is activated. Those with no evasion or low reflex saves run the risk of dying instantly if blown off. It's also wise to cast Otto's on the door because behind the door is yet another set of concord Bards. They will also make you dance, the same way you attempt to make them dance. At the end of this hallway is Duncan the Wayfarer. You just need to kill him and you can head back out and proceed to the left side. There will be more encounters in this area until you get to a locked metal door. A Rogue can unlock it or a Wizard can knock it (mostly on a roll of 19 or 20). This room is optional, but there is a chest inside that you might want to loot. Once inside, there will be rangers and wizards waiting for you. The room is more like a small library line with bookshelves. There's a ladder that you can climb to get to the secret door where the chest is. Prepare for a big fight. Lay Down Solid Fog, Otto's and/or Symbol of Fear. After you grab your loot, head back to the center room. Shrine up and get ready for the final fight.
The final room is down south. There will be some concords protecting the room that leads to the door to where Patrick The Maniacal is.
Before opening the door, put sonic, fire and acid resists as well as Greater Heroism, Stoneskin and Barksin. Cast Jump and Haste as well. In the next room, there will be rangers atop ledges and there will be sonic traps coming from the corners of the room. There are also four gongs located at the four corners of the room. Patrik the Maniacal is enveloped in some kind of force field. You can't harm him while that forcefield is active. What you need to do is ring the 4 gongs on the corners of the room. Only then will the shield protecting Patrick be deactivated and the floor will fall out and he will drop there. It may sound very easy, but there will be a bunch of Air, Fire and Earth Elementals that will stop you from hurting him. So what you need to do is have casters kill the rangers atop the ledges so that the tanks will not be interrupted when they ring the gong. One tank needs to cover the right side and another tank needs to cover the left side gongs. Try to avoid the sonic traps enroute to the gongs.
Once Patrick drops to the collapsed floor, cast maximized firewall on him and have 2 tanks beat on him. Casters can use Finger of Death or Phantasmal Killer to get rid of the pesky elementals. After Patrick the Maniacal is slain, head to the backdoor where a chest awaits. The loot isn't really very nice but you might get some good end reward when you talk to Neemef Bakto back at the Gianthold. Even if you don't get nice items, you will still get an Ancient Dragon relic or two.
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