style="color: rgb(154, 185, 124);">Quest Guide: Cabal of One
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style="color: rgb(51, 0, 51);">By
Khalas
Welcome to A Cabal For One, one of the more challenging but enjoyable
quests to come out of Giant Hold. You can get to this quest
by entering the Giant Hold Area and moving north east. You
should be able to see the Hobgoblin Quarter on your map, the quest
entrance is just north of it. You can expect to face some stiff
opposition on the way in the form of some hobgoblins but there's a
shrine at the entrace of the quest so go all out in taking them
out. That shrine is also worth remembering in case things get bad
in here, a cleric or caster can sneak back out and re-charge.
To prepare for the quest you'll need one good caster who can handle
crowd control. The enemies in here rely on mass numbers to
overwhelm parties but fight in narrow corridors and doorways.
Otto's Dancing Sphere, Poison Cloud, Mass Hold Person, Firewall, and
even Web will make sure they fight you in smaller numbers that move
slowly and disorganized. Another bonus is having a single target
kill spell that works on clerics. The once the crowd control is
in place, the real obstacle are casters, and finger of death or flesh
to stone does wonders in making combats easier.
Their basic tactics will include using Glitterdust a good bit so
Clerics in the group will want to bring True Sight along to counter
this. Front line combatants will want to stick close to the
part as the set up of the quest really punishes the rush attacker who
gets seperated from the group. It's really pretty easy to find
yourself with 7-8 enemies in between you and your party members and be
taken down quickly.
Secondary attackers should focus on making sure your caster and cleric
stay alive and picking off anything that's caught in the crowd
control. A good target for the secondary fighters are the
Glacier Wolves as they tend to fold quickly but can do a fair bit of
damage while they're around. Because of the Glacier Wolves you may want
to pack Resist Energy: Cold and because of the Shamans you'll probably
want Resist Energy: Fire and Acid due to their Burning Blood attack.
Zone:
Arzag-Khor Shaman, Cloven Jaw Veteran, Cloven Jaw Scout. Glacier Wolf,
Arzag-Khor Loremaster
Bosses
Maksim(shrinee), Kivol, Vokur, Mikahi, King Bendix, Gardak
Objectives:
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album93/Cabal_Map.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 275px;" align="right">Once
you enter the quest you'll move down a straight path that turns right
before long. The typical Hobgoblin group will consist of 1-2 Warlords,
1-2 Veterans, a Loremaster, and 2 Scouts in the back providing cover
fire.
You'll encounter a smaller variant of this group here as you spot a
hobgoblin NPC named Gardak. Speaking to Gardak will cause him to
shut off most of the traps in this quest. He'll then walk behind a
hobgoblin only secret tunnel and you won't see him for a while. In the
next room to your north you'll face more hobgoblins with some wolves as
well.
The right hand wall is a secret door that leads to a collectable.
Keep moving north and you'll find a left hand turn that leads up some
broken stairs. When you come to the wall with a gate you'll note
you probably could jump the lower parts of the wall and open the gate
from the other side, however your best bet is to take a right and head
through the doorway there as it'll lead you to the same place
eventually.
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album93&id=Cabal_gate&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album93/Cabal_gate.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 156px;" align="left">Behind
this door is Olos Norbac and his band of merry hobgoblins. Well not so
much merry as well armed and trying to kill you but still you get the
idea. Olos isn't much of a threat but he will pick you off at a
distance while his men try their best to get between you. After
the fight you'll notice the far wall is a hidden door, be careful as
it's also the only functional trap in the place and it more than makes
up for the rest of them. On the other hand there is a chest back
there dead in the center of spikey death city. If your rogue
really knows what he's doing he can stand in the left corner of the
trap area and unlock the chest while disabling the trap but you're
gonna need a high Search, Open Lock, and Disable Device to even attempt
it and those traps will flat out shred you if you aren't very
careful....you were warned is all. One note, if you search before
setting off the trap (opening the door) you are more likely to find the
trap.
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src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album93/Cabal_trap_chest.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 265px;" align="right">Leaving
the room from the northern door you'll find yourself on the other side
of the barricaded gate from before. You'll also find close to a
dozen hobgoblins with their wolf buddies over here as well.
This is an area where a rushing tank that draws in more enemies than
need to be dealt with at once can really screw a party. The
enemies up the hall aren't going to join the fight unless you let the
fight spill closer to them, if that happens you've got a really good
fight on your hands with two scouts in the back taking shots at you
while you try and fight your way through the horde. This hallway
isn't long but you'll be hacking, slashing, and casting the whole way
until you come to a split in the road.
Take the right hand side of the split first as it leads to the only
shrine in the quest. It's also a dead end so you might as well clear it
out now. Clearing it out however means dealing with the hobgoblin
Maksim and his group of hobgoblins. This is basically a simpler
version of the Olos battle as Maksim will get into melee range
immediately much to his detriment. Plus there's a shrine right
there so you don't exactly have to pull punches in here. Once you
take care of the light work in here you can go down the left hand side
which will lead very quickly to a side room on the left wall. Put
crowd control on the door and prepare for a fight on the other side.
On the other side is what's going to become a familiar pattern for the
next three named boss fights. You're see a large elevated
pedestal with two scouts shooting down at you with melee fighters on
the ground floor. The boss in here is named Kivol and he's a
healer. He'll cast irritating spells against you like Burning Blood and
Glitterdust if you let him. His big pain comes from healing his
comrades though just as you're about to kill one. If you focus on
him though he'll crumble quick and you can handle his ground level
guys. Odds are one party member has already found the ladder on
the back of the pedestal that allows you to deal with the scouts up
close and personal if you want....or just Firewall them and walk off
laughing.
Meeting light resistance you'll proceed down the hallway until you
find another door at the north end of the map. The light
resistance on the other side on the ground leaves much to be desired
and you'll find two lore masters up top along with a door on the right
and left sides. The doors are pretty much identical copies of the
fight with Kivol. Crowd control on the doors will force the enemies to
fight your fight and I strongly recommend you handle the doors one at a
time. The left door will have a named healer named Vokur while
the right side has a named warlord named Mikahi. They have very
similar forces and will both fold fast so long as you don't have some
yahoo open both doors at once.
Having killed both Mikahi and Vokur you'll head back to the main
hallway and fight your way down it until you come across a door at the
bottom of some small stairs. This is where crowd control is
either going to save you or you rushing in foolishly to your
deaths. Seriously the quest is almost over so set up everything
you can think of on this door.
Behind the door is the kings throne room. There's a squad of
fairly tough hobgoblins not far from the door as you come in. If
you're careful you can lure them to their deaths through your crowd
control without alerting the kings personal guard.
Once that's done you'll need to take on King Bendix and his court
of healers, cannon fodder, and your old friend Gardak. If you're
lucky though Gardak won't even attack until after you kill King
Bendix. As for Bendix he hits like a freight train and you really
need to kill those healers so they don't keep putting him back in the
fight. It's going to take at least two good fighters to bring him
down while a caster hits him from very far away. Note he'll carve
a caster up in about two swings so let the tanks get the aggro
here. Gardak is tough but nowhere near the level of the
king. Once they're both dead you'll get your chest next to the
throne with a guaratneed elf relic in it and the second chest in the
top left corner near a gate. Loot and leave back to Giant
Hold. Talk to Darsak the orc standing next to Jorgundal ar'Grund
in the camp to get your reward!
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