The EQ2 @ TTH Commonlands Zone Guide

Credits

• Ethec, your humble tour guide and fellow adventurer

Latest Updates

• (8.17.05) - Guide posted!

To-Do List

• Put your submissions into the guide and research any questions you might have about Commonlands! Send 'em along!

Contents

• Overview
• Minimum Level
• Zones which Branch Off From Commonlands
• Quests and Quest Starters
• "Tour of the Commonlands" route
• Heritage Quests Involving Commonlands
• The Commonlands J-boots Run
• Soloing Opportunities
• Opportunities for Groups

Overview

Of the two cities, it's obvious that Freeport got the rawer deal in the days following the shattering. Much of the Commonlands outside the city gates bears the scars of years of prolonged orcish siege. From the broken down equipment and baleful cemetary grounds to the gutted towers and foresaken outwalls, your first glimpse of renewed civilization won't come untill you've reached The Crossroads, a fortified merchants' and travelers' waystation. To the northwest you'll find the Wailing Caves, a Shin'ree orc stronghold, and a highway deemed the "Road of Sorrow," that led the first waves of refugees to Nektulos Forest. Zarvonn's tower rises above the Forest gates, the dark achievement of a one-time famous necromancer.

Southwest of the crossroads, more ruin and decay awaits you in the Ruins of Val'Marr, an area lorded over by the undead. Nature abhors a vacuum, as they say, so as you work your way further westward you'll find a savannah-like haven to the Commonlands beasts. Closing in on the fallen Dark Elf city of old, what was called Neriak and now is called "Fallen Gate," you'll enter the "Yapping Maze," home of the deadly Dervish Cutthroats. The whole of the vast Commonlands is thankfully linked together with three griffon stations.

Minimum level:

Commonlands serves newly sprung adventurers, roughly levels 11-23, from Freeport well. Opportunities for soloing and grouped combat abound, and the Commonlands serves as the hub for a number of dungeons and instanced zones (see below) that offer great prospects in experience and loot for a well-coordinated group.

Zone Entrances Inside Commonlands:

• Wailing Caves - A great place for a level 14-19 group you can trust, this zone has grand potential for successively more-frustrating corpse runs
• Fallen Gate - The access quest requirement for this zone has been lifted, so any high teens group that can make it past the Dervs and Sandstone Giants covering the Yapping Maze entrance can zone in.
• Bloodskull Valley - You'll need to enter this zone to finish up the Greater Lightstone Heritage Quest. This is a 7-12 person raid zone full of mid-to-upper-20s mobs. Be sure to kill the scouts upon zone-in, or you'll be fighting waves of orcs up-tempo of a comfortable pace.
• Eternal Gorge - Entered through a portal atop Zarvonn's Tower, a member of your group will need to complete a rather painless access quest in order to allow you in.
• Gobblerock's Hideout - At level 25, you can purchase a key to this instanced zone from Karmen the Swindler (south of the Sprawl gate). The "Hideout" is through a grate to the north of the Sprawl gate. Be sure to grab the Trail of Slime quest from Captain Ista in the nearby tower before going in.
• Decrepit Crypt - Killing brittle skeletons in the Turmoil Cemetary might net you a "Decayed Scroll" which, when examined, opens the Steelbone Family Scroll quest which allows you and your group to enter the Decrepit Crypt in the middle of the cemetary.

Quest Starters:

Collection quests (Details in our collection quest guide):

• The Commonlands Shrub Leaf Collection yields a nice 12-slot bag. Try working on this one while you're waiting on Rama'nai to spawn for the Greater Lightstone Heritage Quest. There are also the standard bone collection (wasn't that a movie?) quests too.

Lore and Legend Quests:

• Examine a shield inside the tower at the Crossroads to open the Legend and Lore: Orc quest.

Access quests:

• Bloodskull Valley access - Details on this access quest, dubbed The Search for Bloodskull Valley, are available in our TTH access quest compendium.
• Eternal Gorge access - The access quest is called Zarvonn's Legacy though only one member of the group needs to complete it to enter. There is no minimum number requirement to enter this zone, so you can enter it solo if you're brave like that. Inside are level 12-13 group mobs.
• Vault of the Fallen access - This epic sub-zone inside Fallen Gate requires completion of an access quest entitled Searching the Depths of Fallen Gate .

Normal quests:

• Sargent Borus a little ways outside the West Freeport gates gives kill tasks to destroy the various and sundry Bloodskull orc types via the quest
  Dealing With the Bloodskulls.
• For a ring that's good for pretty much any class (especially priests and mages) check out The Wheel of Vaniki from Surveyor Manek (located at
  +43, -885 along the northern zone wall about mid-zone).
• Orwen Neovra at the West Nomad Camp offers a great quest to grab before you head into Wailing Caves. It's called The Search for Ariana and results in a nice dual-wield blade for any Scout.
• An excellent level 12 quest for a variety of quests to do solo is Dirty Sneaky Rats, given by the Master of the Hunt at Dog Pond.
• J.P. Feterman at the Crossroads has a series of four quests that offer a good chance to scout around the Commonlands and kill some beasts of heroic difficulty. They are:
  • Proof is in the Pudding
  • Hunter's Tool
  • Big Game Hunting
  • Grizzlefang's Mane
• Tour of the Commonlands (see below)
• While your killing Bloodskull orcs, you might find a Borderlands Bounty for Dervish Cutthroats. This opens the quest Bandit Sash Bounty, which requires you to kill Dervish Cutthroats in the south of the Yapping Maze. The reward is a nice +AGI ring for scouts.
• If you're in the market for a blunt 2-handed weapon at level 12, check out Guard N'Garen's Unrest with Safiya from (you guessed it) Guard N'Garen at the Crossroads.

Progressive Quests

• From Ferink at the Crossroads (at level 15) you can get this series of seek-a-mob-and-return quests:
  • A Rat Divided
  • Can't We All Just Get Along
  • Love Will Find the Byway
  • A Hard Man to Please (kill 4 level 14 orcs at the end of this one, final reward is a nice +5 INT necklace)
• At level 13, Captain Vertas at the Crossroads gives you this series of kill tasks
  • Trouble About
  • More Than Meets the Eye
  • Proving Your Worth
  • Confusion is the Key
  • One Final Task (reward is a +STA, +AGI ring which is very nice for the level)
• Brandus Levine at the Commonlands Docks has a set of quests for Freeportians level 10+
  • The Mysterious Missing Shipment (do in conjunction with Nethet's A Friend in Need quest at the West Freeport gates)
  • Collecting on What is Earned (level 20 solo mob to kill at Crossroads, bring a group if necessary)
  • Starting the Negotiations
  • Finishing the Negotiations
  • A Meeting Interrupted
• Mooshga at the Crossroads gives this set of quests, great to do solo (the first 7 anyway) as the third quest will raise your harvesting (min. 20 skill in harvesting to complete this step, however). The end reward, as in most long progressive quests, is nothing to write home about, so this one is for true questers only!
  • Hyena Jerky
• Seafood Surprise
• Crack Pot
• Wisp-er Sweet Nothings
• Rhino-rific
• O' Mugwump Where Art Thou
• Overlord's Omelet
• Pachyderm Punch
• Mushroom Madness

Sabotage Missions

• If you're a Qeynos citizen and are at least level 20, you can talk to Gil McMartin outside the West Freeport city gates (
  -1030, -10) to wreak a little havoc and gain some faction too. Click here to search for sabotage missions.

"Tour of the Commonlands" Quest

This quest, which you'll get from the book awarded to you when you complete Freeport citizenship, grants a 12-slot bag upon completion. You'll be running all over Commonlands and through some very dangerous areas for a low-teens player. If you're not willing to wait till your mid-to-late teens, remember to buff yourself and sprint! The toughest parts come when you'll have to climb Lucan's Mount and the dervish Captain's Deck, stealth / invis if you can, and if it breaks sprint like you know what. I drew a recommended path as I believe you must progress through the quest steps in order.

Heritage Quests Involving Commonlands

• The Return of the Light - A longish Heritage Quest, this one results in a Greater Lightstone that you'll likely replace with the Glowing Black Stone in short order. Worth doing if you're a patron and wish to contribute to your guild, however.
• The Journey is Half the Fun (3rd Leg) - See below.
• The Lost Legend of Lavastorm - Requires finding some knight's bones in the east bear cave.

The Journey is Half the Fun (The Commonlands Leg of the J-Boots Heritage Quest)

Harvesting Around The Commonlands

Keep an eye out for the following rare harvests around the Commonlands, which can be crafted for some great items or sold for large amounts of coin:

• Ore - Blackened Iron
• Stone - Rough Coral, Silver Cluster
• Pelts - "Average Quality" (not sullied) Pelts
• Wood - Severed Bone
• Roots - Sisal Root

Soloing Opportunities:

Low Teens

• Ghostly and Fallen Orcs near the Commonlands docks
• Some ghosts at the Turmoil Cemetary (avoid heroic con enemies)

High Teens

• Vulrich near the Ring of Nature
• Bloodskull orcs, especially the lumberjacks west of their towers

Grouping Opportunities:

The Commonlands is rife with opportunities for groups! Check out the map at the top for some suggestions, but also check out Wailing Caves (low teens) and Fallen Gate (high teens).