style="color: rgb(154, 185, 124);">And the Dead Shall Rise
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By Darkgolem
Notes
The tower of the ancient evil wizard Calliphor Validus has risen from
the ground in Delara’s Graveyard. Since his tower's existence is
dependant upon Calliphor’s will, Siendra D’Jorasco is asking you to
travel to the spire of Validus and destroy Validus. This is a fun
quest, not to long, not too complicated, and with the opportunity to
fight a lich at the end, in unusual combat circumstances.
Useful Spells
Wall of fire is the most useful spell for fighting the undead here,
doing quadrupal damage to mummies, double damage to all other undead,
and always hitting specters and wraiths when they are present.
Resist fire, cold and electricity are useful for meeting the Lich
Calliphor.
Remove curse (for mummies curse) and remove curse (followed by remove
disease) for mummies rot are desireable.
Restoration is needed for the energy and constitution drain of wraiths
and specters.
Disintegrate and heal for damaging Calliphor.
Feather fall for leaving Calliphor’s chamber (when he is destroyed).
Finally, detect secret doors is useful to find the 4 secret doors as
you climb the spire.
Graveyard
Jorasco
Wraith, Dire Spectre, Dire Mummy, Dire Zombie, Brimstone Skeleton, Dire
Arcane, Dire Hunter
Kheffir, Calliphor Validus
Slay nine brimstone skeletons (56 xp)
Aquire Calliphor’s Phylactry (140 xp)
Base Exp: 3700
2 chests
Beginning:
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album21/adsr_main_hall_wm.jpg">
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album21/adsr_main_hall_wm.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 179px;" align="left">Upon
arriving in Delara’s Graveyard and entering the spire of Validus, you
will see an enterance chamber, leading into a hall with a fountain in
the center, a staircase on the right, and many sarcophagi lining the
walls. The entrance chamber, if you do not walk forward at all,
is safe. Once you enter the hall, several dire wraiths, spectre’s
and mummies will attack.
The Upper Levels:
The upper levels are series of halls and rooms, leading up 8 levels to
the final chamber. Each level links with the central chamber at a
higher point than the last (that is, you are constantly climbing the
spire). As you climb, you will find a series of doors which rise
from switches, followed by doors that need to be bashed down (meaning
you need someone with a high strength score), and some
portcullis. The architecture is the same from level to
level. You cannot get lost in these chambers, as long as you
continue upwards, your going in the right direction.
During your travels, there are a five traps, all of which are not
difficult to disarm, and involve twirling blade traps, and acid traps.
During your encounters you meet large numbers of dire hunters (skeletal
archers), and incorporeal undead (wraiths and specters).
You deal with these undead using the usual tactics, href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=203">wall
of fire and martial prowess, and having a href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=229">cleric
stand by to heal and recover lost ability scores and levels.
Two items of note are found in these floors, beyond warnings of traps
and monsters.
First, four chambers are found with a large altar in the center of the
room, with lit flames in sconces on the sides of these altars.
These rooms are always behind a portcullis with zombies in the
room. The first room like this you run into has a mini boss,
Prince Kheffir. Rapidly apply fire and use fear protection to
avoid being paralyzed by him. Click on the altars when you come
across them in these four rooms.rooms always have secret doors on the
sides. The first room (the second level of the spire) that you
run into will have a chest. The other three will have mummies,
which can simply be burned out.
The second item of note about these floors are the dire zombies.
When these zombies are killed, they do not die, but transform into dire
skeletons; dire arcane casters, and similar. Therefore you must
be very careful to watch your enemies die and concentrate on killing
the dire arcane skeleton which appears in the midst of the other
skeletons, before it casts too many spells. Luckily the caster
generally casts spells such as slow rather than damage spells.
The Upper Chamber: href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album21/MapAnd_the_Dead_Shall_Risewm.jpg">
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album21/MapAnd_the_Dead_Shall_Risewm.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 213px;" align="right">
You will know you have reached the upper chamber when you
reach a room with three tables in a triangle formation. Clicking
one of these will teleport you to the audience chamber of the lich
Calliphor Validus. At this point a brief explanation of the
Calliphor’s audience chamber is necessary.
Calliphor’s audience chamber is shaped like a diamond, with Calliphor’s
throne at one point, and three alcoves found in the other three
points. When a person clicks on a table, they appear at one of
the three alcoves, depending upon which table they click upon.
Which table you click upon is important because of the nature of the
combat that occurs when Calliphor reacts to your arrival.
When Calliphor reacts, he summons several skeletal warriors (who then
will attack) and attacks himself using high level damage spells and
disintegrate. What is noteworthy is that as soon as he attacks,
the floor begins to fall away, leaving a green mist like surface which
is translucent, showing the spire far below. Bit by bit the floor
collapses, eventully leaving only his throne and the 3 alcoves are
unaffected. This floor will support Calliphor and his skeletons, but
not the adventuring heroes who have come to defeat him.
To defeat Calliphor, use protection spells for cold, fire acid and
lightning. Those are the spell damage types he uses. Use
spell resistance in addition for more protection. Clerics and
those who can raise should be spread evenly among the alcoves (clicking
different tables). Those with href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=231">high
fort saves should stand in front of casters, and not charge into
combat (since they will eventually fall through a hole in the
floor). By standing in front of spell casters, you block them
from being hit by disintegrate spells.Arcane casters should use
disintegrate, and clerics should use heal spells on Calliphor. He
hasn’t got many hit points, those two being cast several times will
penetrate his defenses and end his undead existence.
No other spells are particularly useful, because as a lich, Calliphor
is immune to electricity and cold, and has (in Dungeons and Dragons
Online) immunity to 4th level and lower spells. Calliphor has
acid resistance (making acid fog useless).
Author's Note: I have read that skeletons appear throughout his
spire after he appears, and they continue to spawn unless no living
person is in his tower. Therefore, you can have a very large
number of spawns if someone is stabilized and the remaining party
leaves the quest to recover from a party wipe. I have tested this
twice, and did not find this to be the case, but as long as no one
stays alive in the tower, it should not be a problem.
Once he is defeated, simply fall down (using feather fall) to the
bottom of the spire (the entrance hall). A ramp leads down to a
(trapped) chest containing his phylactery. An additional chest
contains loot.
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