style="font-family: tahoma;">Zone Guide: The Cerulean Hills
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By
Darkgolem
The Cerulean Hills is a large, open,
outdoor area found at the far
southwest portion of the Stormreach harbor. The hills are a
rural, farming area plagued with humanoids, undead and wild
beasts. There is a ruined temple to the goddess of agriculture,
Arawai found in the far south east portion of the area.
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There are no
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entrances of the regular sort found in the Cerulean
Hills. Instead, there are what are called meta quests, of three
sorts, Slayer, Explorer, and Rare Encounter. These each
provide experience for completion, and provide a larger bonus for
completing all of their individual sort. These quests are recored
permanently by the game for that particular character, so if you leave
and return to the hills, you start off where you left off for locations
found, enemies killed, and so on.
Slayer quests are simple, kill
enough enemies in the Cerulean Hills and
you will complete a slayer quest. Another slayer quest (with a
larger number of opponents to defeat) will replace the completed
quest. This continues, with each slayer quest requiring larger
numbers of opponents to be slain, until you complete the last of the
slayer quests, Slay 400 Cerulean Hill denizens.
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The Explorer quests are also fairly
simple. There are 14 unique
locations in the Cerulean hills. Find each one gives experience,
and finding all 14 provides an additional bonus experience reward.
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The Rare Encounter quests are more
difficult. Certain locations
have a chance (it appears to be about 33%) for a unique orange named
boss (or
in one case, a friendly npc) to appear. If you find and defeat
(or rescue in the case of the npc) the boss you receive a bonus.
If you complete all the rare encounters, you receive an additional
experience bonus.
One particular concern is the level
cap for this area. After
level 4 you no longer can advance these quests. Meeting rare
encounters, finding locations, defeating many enemies are not tracked
by the game, and you can never gain those quests with that
character. If it is important to you to complete all these
quests, make sure to do them well before the level cap is reached.
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Experience
Rewards:
The following are
the experience rewards for each quest:
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Quests
10 Cerulean Hill Denizens: 75 xp
the scorpion's lair: 125 xp
Garunt, the orc cleric: 250 xp
Hill Denizens:
130 xp
vineyard: 125 xp
Lotigath, the Ancient
Chipped Gargoyle: 250 xp
50 Cerulean Hill Denizens: 225 xp
Talloak's dam: 125 xp
Twinfang, Lion Pack Leader: 250 xp
Cerulean Hill Denizens:
473 xp
camp: 125 xp
night scorpion: 250
xp
200 Cerulean Hill Denizens: 870 xp
the eastern roadblock: 125 xp
Talloak Stoutfield, farmer: 250 xp
Cerulean Hill Denizens:
1770 xp
of Arawai: 125 xp
orc warrior: 250 xp
the Tree of Sorrow: 125 xp
Thaalan, brigand commander: 250 xp
caravan's fate: 125
xp
The Cerulean
Hills: 875 xp
the wolf feeding grounds: 125 xp
prison: 125 xp
the cave in: 125 xp
of Stone: 125 xp
the Quickfoot safehouse: 125 xp
roadblock: 125
xp
The Cerulean Hills: 437xp
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album68&id=Critical_Hit&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">![]()
alt="Critiical hitting a sleeping fiendish lion"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album68/Critical_Hit.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 173px;" align="right">Enemies:
The Cerulean Hills
are awash with enemies. Most can be approached
from a flank, using ranged weapons to separate individuals from
groups. Of note are the Fiendish lions. They are very
dangerous for an appropriate level adventurer. However, often
they are asleep when encountered. Since sleeping creatures suffer
a critical hit when they take damage, it is best to use a ranged weapon
(all at once if with allies) to get a critical hit in before it wakes
and charges. This can lead the lion's to be wounded severely
before able to attack. The lions have a very dangerous initial
attack (probably a rake like ability) which makes them quite formidable.
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Within the Cerulean Hills, you will
meet the following enemies:
Bugbear
Rogue Cr 1, special abilities: disappear, sneak attack 1d6,
poison dart.
The poison dart is weak, when a
rogue disappears a moment later he will
appear behind you relative to where he disappeared from. The
sneak attack can be avoided by targeting the rogue.
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Bugbear
Bard Cr 1, special abilities: Casts daze, sleep, cause fear,
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light wounds (self and allies) and can trip.
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alt="Map of Cerulean Hills"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album68/Cerulian_Hills_A.jpg"
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style="font-weight: bold; font-family: tahoma;">Skeleton
Cr .5, special abilities: dr 5/blunt
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Skeleton
Archer Cr 2, special abilities dr 5/blunt
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Quickfoot
Cat Burglar (Quickfoot Hideout only) Cr .25, special
abilities: sneak attack 1d6
Quickfoot
Thief (Quickfoot Hideout only) Cr 1, special abilities:
sneak attack 1d6
Orc
Ranger Cr 1
Orc
Warrior Cr 1
Orc
Cleric Cr 2, special abilities: Casts nimbus of light, cause
fear, divine favor, doom and cure light wounds (self and allies)
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Orc
Wizard Cr 2, special abilities casts acid splash,
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=71">niac's
cold
ray, false life, doom, summon monster 1 (Lammanian Wild Dog (cr1)),
obscuring mist, burning hands
Wolf
Cr 1, Special Abilities: Trip
Fiendish
Lion Cr 3, Special Abilities Trip
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Explorer
Locations:
The following are
locations needed to be approached for explorer
quests. If a rare encounter is found there, it is so noted.
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Tree
Of Sorrow: Legends say that when Arawai's temple was ransacked,
she shed a single tear, which is there the tree grew
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Learn
the Caravan's Fate: This caravan has been completely
looted and ripped to pieces. There are no bodies, but it is clear
there could be no survivors.
Wolf
Feeding Grounds: Half gnawed bones, tufts of fur and splotches
of
blood cover the ground here.
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alt="Scorpion Cave"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album68/Scorpion_cave.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 173px;" align="right">Scorpion
Cave: Holes and large drag marks mar the ground in
front of this cave.
This cave will have either 7
skeletons or Ebony when entered.
The
Cave In: The old mine has long since collapsed. Someone
must
have dug one too many times.
The
Garden of Stone: Carved statues of hideous creatures line this
white marble dais.
At the north end of this area is
Lotigath the Gargoyle. He has no
interest in fighting you, but will challenge you to test his and your
own fighting ability. He has very weak damage reduction. In
time he will regenerate by going into a huddle and healing quickly, but
if you wait he will return to fighting . He surrenders at
¼ hit points. You complete this encounter whether you
fight Lotigath or not.
Lotigath hates the orcs because they
break his fellow gargoyle statues
when they are in stone form.
Quickfoot
Safehouse: The faint sound of an argument over the price of
several objects escapes from the cave. You are fairly certain
none of the items being discussed were legally obtained.
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The safehouse contains 2 Quickfoot
Thieves and 10 Quickfoot Burglars,
and occasionally a rare encounter, Thaalan (who leads the rogues here).
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The
Temple of Arawai: Ancient white marble ruins are all that
remains
of the once great temple to Arawai, goddess of agriculture. Offerings
from desperate farmers are still left, and from the looks of the land
here, rewarded.
Twinfang, a dangerous fiendish lion,
can be found here.
The
Eastern Roadblock: Several large white marble stones block the
road to the east.
The
Orc Camp: (no dm text).
The orc camp contains several orcs
as noted on the map, plus
occasionally Garunt, a rare encounter. An entrance to a cave hear
leads to several more orcs, and an occasional, second, rare encounter ,
Kargoth.
Talloak's
Dam: Several large white marble stones have been piled up
here as a makeshift dam.
Talloak is a halfling farmer who is
found in the orc prison
occasionally. Evidently, the dam was made here by him as part of
his farming work.
The
Ancient Vineyard: Rotted wood overgrown with several vines no
resides where a magestic vineyard stood. A paper label on the
ground reads, Vintage 978 YK.
The
Orc Prison: Water rushes down from the rocks above, the crash
echoing in your ears.
Talloak Stoutfield, a friendly rare
encounter, can be found here.
He must be rescued from the several orcs (2 clerics, 5 warriors and one
wizard) found here.
Western
Roadblock: Several large white marble stones block the road to
the west.
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href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album68&id=Lotigath&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">![]()
alt="Lotigath the Ancient Chipped Gargoyle"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album68/Lotigath.sized.jpg"
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size="-1">Rare Encounters:
The following are
the rare encounters here and where they are found. All rare
encounters give chests.
Lotigath
the Gargoyle (Cr 4 gargoyle, special ability: regenerate)
Garden of Stone
Ebony
(Cr 4 Night Scorpion, special abilities: poison) Scorpion Cave
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Talloak
Stoutfield (friendly npc) Orc Prison
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Thaalan
(Cr 2 Rogue, special ability: sneak attack, hamstring)
Quickfoot Hideout
Twinfang
(Cr 4 Fiendish Lion, special ability:trip) Temple of Arawai
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Garunt
(Cr 2 Orc Cleric) The Orc Camp
Kargoth
(Cr 2 Orc Warrior) The Orc Camp (inside cave)
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