Some of Alzeria is locked. Not behind a level alone — behind work
somebody has to do first. This is the list of what is sealed, and what opens it.
Gated areas
An access chain is not a quest you do for loot. It is the price of admission
to somewhere, and the reward is usually the place itself. This section grows as more of the
world gets locked.
Below the graves of Deeper Fibula the floor keeps going. At the bottom of the
stair, past an inscription that reads "As you go down, know that God is not there", a
black marble chamber holds a gravewarden who has been keeping count of everyone who went down
and everyone who came back. The second number, he says, is always smaller.
Morvaenthe
The Gravewarden · below Deeper Fibula
"I am the gravewarden. I keep count of what goes down, and of what
comes back up. The second number is always smaller."
He will not hand work to a stranger. Greet him, ask for a
mission, and answer yes when he asks
whether you still want it. After that, mission is the only word you
need — it gives you the next task, reminds you of the current one, and hands in a relic
the moment you are carrying it.
Start here — the graveyard under Deeper Fibula, three floors below Fibula. The stones are honest ones:
every name on them belonged to somebody who was sure they were ready. The way down is among
them, and the inscription on the stair says what the gravewarden thinks of the idea —
"As you go down, know that God is not there."Where he stands — the black marble chamber below Deeper Fibula, behind
the two seals described under The way down.
The way down
Two seals stand between the graveyard and the gravewarden. Neither asks for the
chain — whoever breaks one opens it for everyone nearby, and it seals itself again after
five minutes.
1. The grave — right-click the grave that reads "Here lies he who sought
the light beyond the shadow..." and five guardians rise around it: a demon, a demon outcast,
a nightmare, an elder beholder and a lich. Put all five back in the ground and the sealed wall to
the west vanishes.2. The Winding Dark — one floor down, a labyrinth with five levers
hidden in it. Pull all five within four minutes of the first and the red wall at its heart
opens. A pulled lever stays down until the time runs out, so a team can split up and take one each.
The way back. The seals cannot be opened from below. The magic forcefield
in the corner of Morvaenthe's chamber, under the skull sign, takes you back up to the grave.
The five relics
Each one sits in a grave cache — a chest that opens once per
character. They are not guarded by a puzzle, they are guarded by the road: every one of them
is somewhere you would not go by accident.
You may loot a cache before Morvaenthe asks for what is inside. Nothing
is lost by doing so — when he finally asks, you hand it over on the spot.
1. A large hallowed bone
Banutathe bottom, among the hydras
Deep under the ape city, down where the hydras nest. A femur bound in
tarnished silver, still warm to the touch.
2. A grave shilling
The Wallsnorth of Venore, up on the wall
Where nightmares and lost souls hold what the living gave up. Payment
for the ferryman.
3. A silver prison key
Ab'Dendrielthe undead dragon hollow
The hollow beneath Ab'Dendriel that the elves do not speak of, where
undead dragons nest. It opens a cell that was never meant to be opened.
4. The key of Intihuatac
The Prisonby the Pits of Inferno
Down among the dark torturers. Older than the catacombs it opens; its
teeth were carved rather than cut.
5. The true book of death
Demonathe lowest floor, among the warlocks
Every name that went down and never came up is written in it. It is
heavy; come prepared to carry it.
The culling
With the relics in his keeping, Morvaenthe wants the ledger balanced. Grim
reapers have been harvesting in the catacombs faster than he can record the names, and he asks
for 300 of them. He keeps the count himself — there is nothing to hand in.
Grim Reaper
300 kills · counted by Morvaenthe
"Any reaper, anywhere. I keep the count. You keep the scythe off your neck."
Kills report in your console in their own colour, naming the mission and
the count so far — an NPC mission is not a task, and nothing here touches your task
slots or task points. A kill counts for the same people a task would credit: everyone who did
more than 5% of its health in damage, and every party member close by. Corrupted and
Infernal reapers carry their usual weight, and a summon's kill does not count.
The reckoning
The reapers were the ledger. The chimeras are the reason it stopped balancing.
Morvaenthe sends you after 200 of them — the three-headed things that crawled up out
of the sealed dark and have been breeding where nobody counts. He keeps this tally himself as
well, and it is the last thing he asks for.
Chimera
200 kills · counted by Morvaenthe
"Three heads, and not one of them belongs on this side of the wall.
Two hundred, and I will believe you mean to go down there."
Counted the same way as the culling: an NPC mission is not a task,
so nothing here spends a task slot or pays task points. Corrupted and Infernal chimeras carry
their usual weight, and a summon's kill does not count. Chimeras are also available as an
ordinary task if you want both at once — the two counts are kept separately and do not
interfere.
What it opens
Two doors, in order. When the three hundred reapers are counted he hands over
the outfit he wears himself and opens the first gate — the chimeras are behind it. When the
two hundred chimeras are counted he opens the last door, the one beside his own chamber
that has been asking for level 200 and something more.
The Demonic outfit
After the culling. What the gravewarden wears. "The things below hesitate at it, and
hesitation is how you get back up the stair."
The gate checks both. Level 200 alone will not move it, and neither
will the chain without the level. Miss either and it stays sealed.
The chimera key
The chimeras hold one more door, and Morvaenthe has no part in it. The
chimera loot task
— a thousand of them, once per character — pays out a chimera key, and at the
south end of the chimera hall stands a sealed gate of expertise that answers to nothing else.
Chimera Key
Loot task · 1000 chimeras · once per character
"Earned by culling a thousand chimeras. It opens a door somewhere below them."
Where the key turns — a small black chamber in the lava at the south end
of the chimera hall. The gate is the framed door in its north wall; the electric sparks behind
it are the way down.
The key turns once and crumbles in the lock — from then on the gate
knows you and opens on its own, so one key is all a character will ever need. Behind it,
electric sparks carry you down to a cave where chimeras, giant cobras and
bonecrest hydras breed in the dark: a hunting ground, not a mission — no counter,
no NPC, just what lives there. The way back out is open to anyone, keyed or not — nobody
gets locked in.
