| Name | Revisiting the Catacombs |
| Category | Quest |
The Catacombs quest series could very well be one of those quests you only do once. Eight mini-quests may not be exactly tiring, but progressing in the game has strict requirements, which slows down a party. It's been said that on the average, the entire quest can be finished in an hour or two by a high level group. Low level groups doing the quest for the first time would be stuck for at least three hours.
With a low level party, the quest may drag on to more than 3 hours. But if someone who's quite familiar with the Catacombs can lead the other 5, the party can pull it off. That's precisely how a party of level 3 toons finished the quest in less than three hours - mistakes and all.
After the obligatory talk with Friar Renau, who bestows the quest, we headed into the Old Catacombs dungeon to start the quest. Here's a mini-walkthrough that may come in handy should you want to walk the path again.
Part 1: The Friar's Niece
Head on south until you find a hallway. Go west to find the North wing lever. There'll be zombies and oozes aplenty on your way there, so bring on the muckbanes. Fortunately, there's a shrine just near the lever, so you can heal before heading on the North Wing where your next goal is to find the Note from the Friar's missing niece by opening doors and switches. If you're after the chests (2 of them), you should ask a rogue to open the locked doors. Once you find the note, pick it up and head back to where you started. Talk to the friar again to collect your 20 gold and the next quest.
Part 2 Return to the Sanctuary
Your mission here is to find a survivor to interrogate. We found this manageable as it uses the same zone as in Part 1. You must keep in mind that although the zone is the same, the number of oozes and undead is overwhelming. It's important to keep your cleric or perhaps a bard at bay so that they can heal party members without falling victims to overly aggressive undead.
With that in mind, head to the Key Chest to get (you guessed it!) a key to open the door leading to the south wing. There's a trap surrounding the chest so be aware of this. You basically just have to break the breakables and kill monsters along the hallway. The southern most part will lead you to more doors and the lever (with dogs attacking) leading to the East Wing, and ultimately to the survivor. The aggro doesn't stop there, in fact, it becomes even more fierce with more monsters quickly showing up. You just need to fight back.
Upon completion, you have to exit to the Catacombs and talk to Archbishop Dryden. This means you have to climb many, many stairs to reach his room. Get your loot so you can advance to the next quest.
Part 3 The Old Archives
Your mission here is to get the fragments of the Book of Duality. You need to follow the head librarian Guilluame who'll lead you to a secret wall. The moment it opens, a ghoul will start attacking, rendering the librarian dead. The good thing that stems from it is that you can get the first part of the book. Move on to the hall onto your left to get the 2nd fragment. To get to the third fragment, head north. (I couldn't put in much detail as the sheer number of undead, oozes, and spiders had me moving away from other party members, hence missing some good ole trap disabling action by our rogue). Needless to say, all fragments have traps.
Once completed, head back to the Archbishop to get your reward and the next quest.
Part 4 Crypt of Gerard Dryden
Now this is the part where weapons were heavily damaged (better have other weapons ready) and spell points were used up to heal party members. Our Cleric must be the most exhausted. As my fascinate skill was useless, I was also healing party members left and right. It's a skeleton-infested Crypt! Turn undead is fantastic but it doesn't work on the Ancestors.
With all the action happening, it's all disorienting. So, what you should do is just move along the hallways and head into each of the outer rooms and bash all the
sarcophagi you see. The undead will come attacking, but your cleric will take care of that. You'll have to find the four levers that will open the next dungeon. It's easy to miss the lever in the rest shrine, so keep note of that. The third gate room houses the chest that holds the key to the south gate where the inner rooms are. Basically, this is time to look for switches that will ultimately open the gates to the center room. The east inner room can only be opened by a rogue. Why do you need to open it? It has a chest that may contain Gerard Drydan's mace, which has undead bane.
Once you reach the center room, go near the Sarcophagus and read the inscription. This completes the quest.
Part 5 Setting the Wards: The Lower Cathedral
After the intense fighting in Part 4, this mission becomes a breather. All you have to do here is purify the altars to unlock the center altar.
Upon entering the cathedral, you'll be greeted by a shrine surrounded by white light (or aura). It's a pretty sight but you have to move on and head north. A rogue is needed to disable traps. The altars are located in the west, north, and east. In each area with traps in it, you must pull switches before purifying the altar. This applies to each of the hallway. There are monsters near the main altar, but they can be easily killed. Activating the main altar will lead you the next quest.
Part 6 Setting the Wards: The Patriarch's Crypt
After that breather, you get back to original programming. Your mission here (should you choose to accept) is to activate 3 cursed sarcophagi and set Marguerite free. You'd have to move along the outer hallways first and kill the guardians. When you reach the third Sarcophagi, the floor will start to crumble. Activate the west wing sarcophagus as it has a chest in there. There'll be monsters in there as well, but they aren't as threatening. Before you activate the main Sarcophagus, go to the rest shrine because you'll need it! Why? Because once you activate the main Sarcophagus, Marguerite will come running after you with the intent to kill. No use attacking her (read: You cannot kill her). The best and only option is to run. Make sure you equip yourself or cast spells that will help you avoid being killed while heading to the catacombs.
If you die, release and head back to Catacombs.
If you all survive (which didn't happen to our party), head back to Archbishop Dryden to collect your reward and the next quest.
Part 7 Endgame: Marguerite
After all the running and cursing, you'd have to confront Marguerite and fight off skeletons while moving up the spiral. There are undead in each level and you have to kill them all to proceed to the next. Thank god there's a shrine in there. Upon reaching the top, you are led to the Catacombs zone, which leads to the final quest.
Part 8 Endgame: Archbishop's Fate
Now here is the part where it gets a bit ugly. What we did here was to buff up before talking to the Archbishop. The member who has done the quest in the past, asked us to stand against the wall behind the Archbishop's throne. The Cleric went to talk to the Archbishop, after which he died and turned into a wraith. One party member (fighter, I believe) starting killing the Wraith, while the rest of us killed the Skeleton Archers and the Greater Construct Dogs. It took quite a while to kill the Wraith, but no party member died and the quest was finished.
All the hard work was rewarded with 4,661 XP, enough for all four members to level up.
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