Cleaving the Warlord: A Poem

[Nherko E. Llafsnot]

Cleaving the Warlord, a Poem by Nherko E. Llafsnot

If ye have bested Tallon,
and Vallon, too (or not?),
then get thee down to Eriak,
and there ask him, "What blood?"

He'll draw his blade and cut himself,
and spill for you his own,
now take this vial, mount your steed,
and ride to Saryrn's zone.

Find you there her constructs,
of which there are four breeds,
Insanity Fangs they'll drop for you--
these stasify your needs.

Into the barrel--fangs and blood,
celestial solvent, too,
to get one of the tempers,
proceed you now to brew.

Now off to Valor go with haste,
and ride up to the swamp,
o'er everything that spawns up there,
shall you proceed to romp.

Valorium shards, no drop, take these!
but whatever you do,
be sure the one that takes 'em,
is someone who can brew.

Then ride again to Knowledge,
and then much like before,
except without the blood, of course,
brew up one temper more.

Now head on back to Tactics,
and take a bunch of friends,
for in its depths drops ore with which,
this Zek-Bane quest will end.

Tagrin Maldric spawns down there,
a troll both big and bad,
kill him there--but not too fast!
because you'll need his adds.

Smiths will loot his guardians,
these flying swords--Decorins,
then (with water) find a forge,
to put Decorin ore in.

Drunder's Steel--that's the thing,
with which you'll end this trial--
into the forge with proper molds,
and aforebrewed blue vial.

Almost done! It's good so far,
but there is more to do!
forge it now with your black vial,
and so your quest concludes.

/bow

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

/cheer

[Redi]

Impressive and creative and all that jazz. Even though I'm a ways off from using this... thanks

-Redi

[Niami DenMother]

I see over in the PoP data forum that the blue vial recipe has been confirmed. I've got a PM in to the author of this lovely bit of verse for confirmation of the source, etc., before I get this onto the site.

[Jaradis Stormcaller]

I can confirm:

Black temper (tradeable, high skill brewer):
Insanity Fangs + Eriak blood + celestial solvent

Blue temper (tradeable, high skill brewer):
Valorium shards + celestial solvent

Drunder's Steel (tradeable, high skill smith):
decorin ore + water

Zekbane stage 1 (nodrop nofail):
Drunder's steel + blue temper + molds

Zekbane stage 2 (adds more +Zek bane) (nodrop nofail):
Zekbane stage 1 + black temper

All final banes are called Black Insanity and most all are now entered into Magelo. Just search for Black Insanity to get the stats.

[Gorgin]

Jaradis has the tempers backwards, the blue temper is the valorium shard+solvent and is trivial at or below 190 brewing, the black temper is the insanity fang+solvent+eriak's blood

[Jaradis Stormcaller]

Yeah sorry. Thats what I get for copy/pasting instead of a fresh write up.

[Khoren Stonefall]

Szrix Hammertail. He's the mob in PoK that Eriak hints at that I could never find. Ask him "What Dark Courage," "What Black Insanity," and "What Decorin (weapon type)," and possibly other things besides. I'll post logs later. He apparently just yawns if you don't have appropriate flaggage.

[Niami DenMother]

I am pleased to present:

http://www.eqtraders.com/quests/pop_zekbane.htm

I know there will be a lot of updates needed as we go along, but that gets at least the basic information out there while I'm juggling multiple houseguests.

[Khoren Stonefall]

Two fairly important updates:

The first I already PM'ed you about--the dagger recipe does not need a pommel. Given that that's my text on the site, I take fully responsibility for this.

Second, the first line says "Special weapons are needed when facing..." Actually, bane weapons are not needed in the Seru or Emperor Ssraeshza. Regular weapons hit RZ (and the special versions of TZ and VZ that appear in his scripted event) just fine. The bane weapons just happen to have suspiciously good ratios for Tier 3 folks, especially those who may not have had time to scour Luclin during its stint as the endgame expansion. I wouldn't want people to think that they have to go and camp Tagrin for a month before they can touch the Warlord, only to find out that this is not the case. The banes will just help in many cases. If you are familliar with the RZ encounter, you may agree that the bows are especially helpful.

Incidentally, everything I hit today in Tactics seemed to be affected by the Zek Bane. That included ogres all the way up to RZ, and the special VZ and TZ versions, and RZ himself.

[Khoren Stonefall]

Here we go. The logs from Szrix Hammertail in PoK. I wish I knew how in heck you're supposed to know to say "What dark courage?" to him, but I don't know that. That was passed onto me. Ironically, by the time I saw this text, I had already figured out everything about the quest except how to make the bow and bastard sword.

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[Wed Jan 01 05:59:35 2003] You say, 'What Dark Courage?'
[Wed Jan 01 05:59:35 2003] Szrix Hammertail stares at you long and hard. 'Long ago I escaped imprisonment from Drunder, such things I saw there I would not wish to think of again. Never again would I even think of speaking of Drunder was it not for the favor owed to the Lord of Guile. The task he set to me I accomplished to a degree. I was able to obtain the materials Eriak spoke of through much difficulty. I was also able to create a set of weaponry that will do much harm to the Warlord. Should you wish to test your skill I may be

(note: Yes, it does just cut off there.)

[Wed Jan 01 06:00:05 2003] You say, 'I wish to test my skill.'
[Wed Jan 01 06:00:05 2003] Szrix Hammertail glares at you. 'Very well Khoren, I will teach you. Combining Decorin ore and a flask of water in a forge makes the base metal of Drunder. Ye then need a temper brewed for the weaponry. Find the shards of valor and decant their essence with a celestial solvent. Based on what type of weapon ye desire is the mold that is needed. Do you wish to craft a Sword, a Bastard Sword, a Claidhmore, a Battlehammer, a Ulak, a Dagger or a Bow?

[Wed Jan 01 06:00:30 2003] You say, 'What sword?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:00:30 2003] Szrix Hammertail says 'To make the sword, combine Drunder's steel, pulsing blue vial, long blade mold, hilt mold, and a pommel mold in a forge. This will make a weapon that will cause some worry to the Zeks.'

[Wed Jan 01 06:13:09 2003] You say, 'What bastard?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:13:09 2003] Szrix Hammertail says 'To make the bastard sword, combine Drunder's steel, pulsing blue vial, dual-edged blade mold, hilt mold, and pommel mold in a forge. This will make a weapon that will cause some worry to the Zeks

(note: You must ask him "What bastard?" to learn about the bastard sword. If you ask him "What bastard sword?" or "What bastardsword," you get the response for "Sword." I assume the bastard sword is the 1H knight version, but I haven't seen one, and it's not Magelo'ed. Maybe I'll magelo one tonight, but I have only very few sheets left.

[Wed Jan 01 06:00:45 2003] You say, 'What ulak?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:00:46 2003] Szrix Hammertail says 'To make the ulak, combine Drunder's steel, pulsing blue vial, pommel mold, short blade mold, and a hilt mold in a forge. This will make a weapon that will cause some worry to the Zeks.'

[Wed Jan 01 06:00:51 2003] You say, 'What battlehammer?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:00:51 2003] Szrix Hammertail says 'To make the battlehamme, combine Drunder's steel, pulsing blue vial, mace head mold, and an oak shaft in a forge. This will make a weapon that will cause some worry to the Zeks.'

[Wed Jan 01 06:00:59 2003] You say, 'What claidhmore?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:00:59 2003] Szrix Hammertail says 'To make the claidhmore, combine Drunder's steel, pulsing blue vial, heavy steel blade mold, hilt mold, and a pommel mold in a forge. This will make a weapon that will cause some worry to the Zeks.'

[Wed Jan 01 06:01:02 2003] You say, 'What bow?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:01:02 2003] Szrix Hammertail says 'To make the bow, combine Drunder's steel, pulsing blue vial and a file in a forge. This will make a weapon that will cause some worry to the Zeks.'

[Wed Jan 01 06:08:23 2003] You say, 'What dagger?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:08:23 2003] Szrix Hammertail says 'To make the dagger, combine Drunder's steel, pulsing blue vial, dagger blade mold, and a hilt mold in a forge. This will make a weapon that will cause some worry to the Zeks.'

[Wed Jan 01 06:01:46 2003] You say, 'What black insanity?'
[Wed Jan 01 06:01:46 2003] Szrix Hammertail hisses at you as if about to attack. 'Won't you let me be! Torment me no more about memories of the past! This is the last bit I shall tell you then hope to never see you again. Combine any of the weapons with a substance made from decanting the black blood, insanity fangs and celestial solvent. The weapons made thusly will cause even the Warlord to flinch at the thought of facing them. All but the bow must be made in a forge, combine the bow and the substance in a fletching kit.
[Wed Jan 01 06:02:01 2003] You hug Szrix Hammertail.

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Notice the really important piece of info at the bottom there. The first bow combine is made in a forge, but the SECOND bow combine is made in a fletching kit! (Collapsible works, that's all I know for sure).

[Khoren Stonefall]

There. I Magelo'ed the bastard sword, thus completing all Zek Bane weapons and components in that database.

Dark Courage: http://www.magelo.com/eq_item_info.html?num=28575
Black Insanity: http://www.magelo.com/eq_item_info.html?num=28582

Just from looking over it quickly, I don't think the difference between the Dark Courage and the Black Insanity for any other weapon is quite that pronounced. 22/20 -> 30/20!

[Kruller]

The bow goes from 26/33 to 38/33 right? I'd call that pronounced

Good work on this, by the way!

[Aalnydara]

Knight's Sword vs Warsword

Szrix Hammertail refers to a "sword" and a "bastard sword". Yet, in magelo the true names of the two 1hs weapons are "Knight's Sword" and "Warsword". I was wondering if anyone knew which was which as far as the recipes are concerned?

[Khoren Stonefall]

The Bastard Sword is the 1HS 10/20 +20 for knights.

The sword sword is the 1HS for everyone else.

K.