Cover Your Tracks

Overview
Summary
 * 1) Escort Kauniss to Atrocity Library. Kauniss must survive.
 * 2) Protect Kauniss while he casts the Incantation of Fog. Kauniss must survive.
 * 3) See Kauniss for your reward.

Obtained from
 * Keeper Kauniss in Gate of Secrets.

Requirements
 * Know Thine Enemy

Reward
 * 2500 XP
 * 200 gold
 * Inscribed Secret

Dialog (Keeper Kauniss)
 * "Escort me through the Domain of Secrets, and then protect me while I cast an incantation. While we cannot defeat the Hunter, I can cast a spell to cover your trail so you may escape his grasp"
 * Accept Quest: If this is the only way to deal with this being, so be it.
 * Reject Quest: Cowering behind clandestine enchantments isn't the stuff of heroes.

Reward Dialog
 * "It is done. The Hunter can no longer follow your scent. It is time the Hunter became the prey."

Follow Up:
 * Open Season

Walkthrough
When you come out into the Domain of Secrets, get close to Keeper Kauniss and he will begin a slow march around the Margonite temple in the area. He will stop in the middle of the temple and perform his quick incantation. At that point, a large group of Skiro'ken Assassins will appear in the middle of the temple. You no longer have to keep Keeper Kauniss alive after he does his incantation, but you do have to speak to him to get the reward. That means you will have to take out the newly appeared group of Skiro'ken Assassins.

However, it is strongly urged that you go and clear the path and the temple before going near Keeper Kauniss. Unlike many of the other quests where you accompany characters to a destination, the Keeper will not wait for your group on his route. The Keeper only pauses to fight, and will only wait and let you lead him just outside the middle of the temple. Obviously his method of slithering regardless of any hostiles in his path will cause disaster at some point. If you clear the path and the temple before going near and escorting Keeper Kauniss to the temple, then the mission becomes much easier. You still will have to deal with the last group of Skiro'ken Assassins that appear.

If you do not want to clear out the whole temple, you can just clear out the enemies within Keeper Kauniss 's path. He will walk all the way around, and enters the temple from the west entrance. Then he will take the middle path to reach the center of the temple. (To get into the temple, walking to the east entrance is much closer. But he will not walk that path)

Note: Keeper Kauniss' march (uninterrupted) takes approx. 20 minutes.

The map above shows Kauniss' exact path (yellow highlight), and clearing the entire path ahead of time is almost required if you plan on doing this with henches and/or heroes only. Scouting a side trip to the resurrection shrine in the top-middle of the diagram is recommended since if your party does accidentally die, two mobs of Shadow elementals, mesmers, and rangers positioned near that shrine may cause you to resurrect and die repeatedly amid fire storms and barrages unless carefully cleared prior. Occasionally the Shadows spawn out of aggro of the shrine, but it is an unecessary risk to assume for such a long quest. At the very least, checking if it is clear is highly recommended.

Also, due to the pathing AI of patrol groups (which seems to adjust for the space you open up clearing other groups by pushing remaining patrol groups toward that space), you may also want to clear some nearby groups in the wings of the Library.

As you can see from Kauniss' path, he takes the long, scenic route. If you clear ahead of time, you may find the return to Kauniss much faster if you follow a path due north (if up is north) out of the Library center. You will have to clear 3 or more Margonite groups, but it is still the faster return.