The EverQuest 2 @ TTH Sinking Sands Zone Guide

Credits

• Ethec, your humble tour guide and fellow adventurer

Latest Updates

• (10.24.05) - Guide posted!

To-Do List

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

Contents

• Overview
• Minimum Level
• Zones which Branch Off From Sinking Sands
• Quests and Quest Starters
• Heritage Quest(s) Involving Sinking Sands
• Soloing Opportunities
• Opportunities for Groups

Overview

**Please note: Sinking Sands is part of the "Desert of Flames" expansion for EverQuest 2. You must have the expansion installed to travel to Sinking Sands.**

Much of the lore surrounding the re-discovery of the Desert of Ro is still shrouded in mystery. What we do know is that the zone is only a short magic carpet ride from either East Freeport or Qeynos Harbor (click the magic carpets adjacent to each city's docks). It stands to reason that the Dervish people could stay hidden if that were their intent; they've magically suspended their city of Maj'Dul far above the deadly deserts below. Adventurers scoff at what others call dangerous, however, and it's no surprise that the Sinking Sands have become a hub or launching pad for loners and groups of players in search of fame and fortune.

You'll arrive at a small outpost where recruiters from each of Maj'Dul's NPC political factions woo players for their support. The Court of Blades, Court of Truth, and Court of the Coin are active rivals for sway in Maj'Dul's power structure. Complete quests from these recruiters with care, as showing favor to one faction is synonymous with creating enmity with the other two factions, and sooner or later you might find yourself quite unwelcome in certain parts of Maj'Dul. You'll also find a "fixed route" magic carpet here that will take you to Maj'Dul (and The Twin Tears and Bay of Anuk in Sinking Sands, but you must travel to these locations by foot and click on a "ghost carpet" once before the option becomes available.

Moving inland to the north, you'll find another quest hub, the Dervish "Croc Hunter's Camp." Here is where you can begin your quest for your very own magic carpet at level 47, though a number of quests are available here for players level 45+. Continuing to the north, you'll find that you can scale a wall near -1400, -850 (look for the black "skid marks" and the climbing pegs- there's actually several scalable walls in this area) to take you straight in to the Desert of Ro. Plenty of desert fiends await you (most of which are aggro, so watch out!) as you work your way westward past the Stilled Sea and a desert madman shrine to the "Twin Tears." Far from being an Oasis to parched travelers, the waters here have attracted plenty of fey gnolls and other unspeakable evils.You'll find the "Living Tombs" on the southern edge of the northmost tear - being the ancient gnoll city of Ahket Akan. To the northeast is the Bay of Anuk, a cavernous shoreline area guarded by fierce undead.

If you were to take a short swim to the isles around the Sinking Sands docks, you'd find much of the outlying areas controlled by Samiel pirates. Some of your faction work will involve an encounter with these bloodthirsty swabs on Hullcrusher Rock, Drywind Isle, and Pirate's Perch. Circling up the mainland beach from the isles (the beach is likewise the haunt of many a pirate) you'll stumble upon the Oasis of Marr, guarded by powerful spectres. To the north from here is the Croc Caves, a nice place to solo in your mid-40s especially if you have a series of crocodile quests (see below), and at the back of the Caves, you'll find "The Chimney" - a scalable vertical space that takes you right up to the Stilled Sea area. Exiting the Cave back the way we came, you'll come across another Derv camp slightly to the south (this one has a number of Sinking Sands quests too). And so that you don't think I'm just leading you around in circles, we'll head westward a distance up the "Sandslide Passage." Near the top you'll come across a halfling woman (or plump gnomish woman... who can tell, glasses aside?) that has a progression of beetleshell quests for some decent +STR plate armor. The entrance to the orc-controlled "Clefts of Rujark" is off to your left along the zone wall, and further along the wall you'll find numerous zone-ins for the "Pillars of Flame" (the large adventuring area that's a "step up" from Sinking Sands).

Minimum level:

While any adventurer level 20+ might pass through Sinking Sands on the way to some arena fun in Maj'Dul, you're well advised to stay clear of Sinking Sands bestiary until you're well into your level 40s. Even then, you cannot begin most quests until you're level 45-50.

Zone Entrances Inside Sinking Sands:

• Living Tombs - Level 50-60 underground area, solo or groups. The "Silent City" - a raid-only keyed access zone, is buried deep inside.
• Clefts of Rujark - A lower 50s non-instanced solo / group dungeon. Lots of named inside if you can catch the spawns.
• Pillars of Flame - DoF's 2nd large adventuring area, one notch higher in difficulty than Sinking Sands with mobs 55+.
• Maj'Dul - The Dervish city and center of DoF activity. Read the "Your First Day..." walkthrough for some background.
• The Sanctorium - Okooo has graced us with a nice little writeup of this high 40s / lower 50s dungeon.

Quest Starters:

Collection quests:

• Details in our Desert of Flames Collection Guide - many collectibles are found in the Sinking Sands.

Progressive quests:

• Ghassan the Trader begins the Desert of Flames progressive quest sequence for adventurers level 45+. The final result of this leg of the sequence is a pretty nice +WIS piercing weapon (who would need such a weapon, I'm not sure). The gold and experience along the way for mobs you'll likely be soloing regardless is nifty, though.
  • Hides for Ghassan
  • Spice Delivery (as a bonus, this quest opens up Numair who has his own series of quests)
  • Venomous Venture
  • Questionable Merchandise
  • A Delicate Matter
  • Another Employer (this one opens up a series of quests with Rashad (-885, -180) along the orcish highway)
• Rashad
  is the second quest-giver you'll meet as you do the Desert of Flames Progressive Quest. After you've completed his level 45+ tasks, you'll continue on in the Pillars of Flame with a 50+ series of quests.
  • The Search Begins
  • The Lonely Crypt
  • The Final Piece (from here, you'll visit Sergeant Tuskin and Disciple Shula in the Pillars of Flame to continue the progressive quest)

Normal Quests

• Numair isn't part of the Desert of Flames progressive quest sequence, but players unlock the ability to get quests from him by doing the first two "Ghassan" quests.
  Again, the coin and experience make this solo package of quests worthwhile.
• Cooking Crocodiles
• Diggers for Dinner
• A Terrible Crime
• Scarabs and Spiders
• Aliyyah the Embalmer has her own set of quests that you can get started with at level 45.
  The final reward is a very cool "Spectral Assassin" arena combatant / housepet.
  • Unravelling the Mummies
  • Grisly Gathering
  • More Mummies
  • Osseous Investigations
  • Undead Investigations
  • Sul'Dal Studies
• Xilia Beetlebinder in the "Sandslide Passage" (-920, -342) provides a sequence of quests for a full set of +STR (no power) plate armor. Each quest is fundamentally the same, you'll just need to collect more beetle shells with each run. There's little motivation to do the quest unless you're looking for some cheap plate, the items don't sell well and the experience is marginal. On the bright side, this quest may be changed in the future to allow a selection of different kinds of armor.
  • Beetle Herding - Act I
  • Beetle Herding - Act II
  • Beetle Herding - Act III
  • Beetle Herding - Act IV
  • Beetle Herding - Act V
  • Beetle Herding - Act VI
  • Beetle Herding - Act VII
  • Beetle Herding - The Final Act
• The Carpet Quests - If you're level 47, you can begin a sequence of quests to get your very own flying carpet. (Note that this version of the flying carpet is mostly for looks, it's much slower than the Guild Level 30 purchasable flying carpet.
  • Take a look at the TTH writeup for this extremely involved 4-part quest.
• Khalhan Al'Hazar spawns when you rub a metal lamp on Drywind Isle at -2100, -42. Talking to him will place you in an instance called Azhar's Penitence for a ring event. Completing this level 45 quest (I'd recommend bringing a friend, though the instance scales to your level) results a a choice of several items, the nicest of which is a +12 WIS, +46 power wristpiece for priests.
  • The Gauntlet of Al-Hazar

Sinking Sands Faction Quests

These are all repeatable quests. To gain access to one of the Courts in Maj'Dul, you should pick one of the three factions (preferably with your guild or group of friends) and stick to completing quests for that faction. Be prepared for a long haul; it'll take completing 15-20 faction quests and/or turning in a small number of faction coins (which are obtained from killing opposing NPC faction guards).

• Truth
  (from Thara Bashirah at the docks)
  • Samiel Investigations
  • In Service to the Court
  • Seeking the Past
  • Preceptor's Requests
• Blades
  
  • Captive of the Alliz Raef Ew (from Mahir Lu'ay)
  • Slaughtering the Steelslaves (from Hadoth Al'Uzza)
  • (I'm missing the names of two Blades quests. Do you have the names? Please send them to [email protected] . Thanks!)
• Coin
  (from Taj As'ad at the docks)
  
  • Beachcomber
  • Manifest Error
  • Resource Gathering
  • Search for the Merchant

Heritage Quest(s) Involving the Sinking Sands

• An Ancient Desert Power - A level 50+ heritage quest for the Scepter of Rahotep. Here's the spoiler!

Harvesting Around Sinking Sands

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

• Ore - Cobalt Cluster, Vanadium Cluster
• Stone - Lambent Stone, Rough Pearl
• Pelts - "Excellent Quality" (not sullied) Scaled Pelts
• Wood - Severed Ironwood, Lambent Flower
• Roots - Saguaro Root, Lambent Flower

Soloing Opportunities:

Near the docks (and the Crocs!) - Level 44-46

• The crocodile-type mobs (along the shore and in the caves) and the pirates, as well as plated diggers, asps, shade prowlers, etc. should keep you busy.
• For faster action, try out the cobra spawns in the Stilled Sea (along the ridgeline).

Heading into the desert - Level 47-49+

• There's plenty of nastiness in the desert, just pick your mobs carefully. (No heroics, obviously, stick with solos even-con or lower unless you find a weakness to exploit). Desert Madmen and other wanderers are easy pickens.

Level 50+

• Try some of the lower level heroic content sparingly, or branch out into zones like the Living Tombs or the Clefts of Rujark.

Grouping Opportunities:

Groups and raids in Sinking Sands are usually geared toward completing a step or two of the Carpet multi-quest, lone Heritage Quest ("An Ancient Desert Power"), or tidying up some regular quests around the Bay of Anuk or Twin Tears area. If you're in your lower 40s and want to check out the zone and get some experience with a few friends, I recommend the Croc caves, fighting Samiel pirates along the beaches and in the isles, and perhaps facing off with some Rujarkians, dune scarabs and spiderlings up the Sandslide Passage (if you're brave!). For higher 40s experience groups, the desert tarantulas seem to offer a decent amount of experience along with the Kromtorr giants and Spectres.