Iron Mines of Moladune (mission)

Mission Objectives
Kill Markis and his Jade Armor guards.
 * Find the Seer.
 * ADDED Kill the Eidolon.
 * BONUS Defeat The Inquisitor before he leaves with the information about the Shining Blade.

Previously known as the "infamous infusion run mission," this mission used to be the most boring in the game, but has since been fixed so that the requirements are not as stringent and ridiculous as before.

Primary
The main objective of the mission is to find and kill Markis. Markis is the treacherous member of the council of the Shining Blade who has foiled all your previous attempts at building a resistance to the White Mantle. Markis is no imposing boss and the main objective itself is quite straightforward. Reaching the Seer is the hardest part of the mission.

In order to get to Markis, you must go through scores of Mursaat. The Mursaat are the strange and powerful beings who turned out to be the Unseen Ones that the White Mantle worship. As you may have discovered in the previous mission, the Mursaat have a power called Spectral Agony that tears right through your armor and inflicts great damage over a short period of time.

You need to find the Seer, who knows of a way to combat them. To get to the Seer (point A), it is best that you run, as the numbers of enemies are sometimes staggering. As you begin, you will face a group of fighting White Mantle and Stone Summit. Ignore them and run down the hill to the left. At this point, you will see an icy path to your right as well as White Mantle forces ahead of you. Take the icy path, which leads you along a mountainous road filled with scores of Tundra Giants, Mountain Trolls, Blessed Griffons and Azure Shadows. As you make your run north, you will come across a bridge defended by siege weapons operated by White Mantle. At this point, turn left at the fork on the bridge and follow the path. Azure Shadows will be guarding the cave of the Seer.

The Seer will ask that you slay a nearby beast called the Eidolon (point C). This should be easy. Head to the east and into the caves to fight more Shadows and the Eidolon. The beast will drop a Spectral Essence. Take it back to the Seer. Given this item, the Seer will infuse all your armor pieces (each party member must speak to the Seer to have their armor infused). An infused armor set makes you take a lot less damage from Spectral Agony. The effect of infusion depends on the number of infused pieces of armor you wear; if you do not wear a complete set, your protection will be substantially weaker.

Note: The reason this mission was so infamous was that the Seer used to only infuse a single piece of armor. Since the Eidolon did not respawn, you had to restart the mission to do enough "infusion runs" to infuse your entire set. This is no longer the case: the Seer now infuses all your pieces of armor at once.

Warning: Henchmen entering the mission are not infused. As such, they will melt away before the Mursaat. However, they can be infused during the mission.

Once infused, you have two options: one is to take the northern path from the seer (as the map indicates). The other is to head back to the besieged bridge, and take a right turn into the White Mantle and engage them. Cross the bridge to the northeast. Head north until you reach a fortress-like structure (point D) and you should see Markis running into it. If you are careful, you can take out the two groups in position on top of the entrance (you can even walk inside and climb up to fight them without engaging Markis).

Once you approach Markis, 2-4 Jade Armors will spawn to protect him. Because Markis is a Ranger, he has a high resistance to elemental attacks, and can heal himself by using Troll Ungent. You could ignore him while engaging the more threatening Jade Armors first, and then finish him off last.

Note: If members of your party want to capture the Barrage elite skill from him, you must kill Markis before the last Jade Armor dies. Otherwise, the ending cutscene for the mission will begin immediately.

Tip: If you wish to fight your way up and not run, then a wiser route to take would be the path guarded by White Mantle (point 1, see Bonus) as this will make the Bonus easier.

Tip: On occasion Markis will not spawn at the fortress (point D) but the mission can still be completed. If you walk past the fortress, through location E7 and head towards E2 (keep going through the path with the mursaat, he isn't at E2, just through it and down the road by the shining blade scout), you will see Markis there, allowing you to kill him. Note that you may still have kill his Jade Armor guards as well, if there are some left in the fortress.

Tip for Warriors: Something about this mission disables adrenaline charging, so leave your adrenaline skills behind in favor of energy-based skills. Even with Balthazar's Spirit cast on you, you will generate no adrenaline. Added 27.2.2006: The adrenaline skills do recharge, but the level of adrenaline is not shown. Adrenal skills are darkened as if inactive all the time, but you can use them - you just don't know, which of them are charged at the moment and which are not.

Running Tips

 * If you are just going for infusion, you don't need to fight all the way to the Seer. Do an infusion run (you will find people recruiting for it in the mission outpost). Run past all the enemies.  Once you make it to the Seer, a cinematic sequence (point A) will revive any fallen among your party.
 * If you are chased by monsters as you approach the Seer and you do not wish to engage them, then instruct all your party members to skip the cinematic. This causes all the party to teleport to the Seer (point B), and the monsters will stop where they were when the cinematic began. If you do not skip the scene, some of the monsters will sometimes catch up.
 * A Warrior with Sprint, Charge, and/or Balanced Stance has the best chance of surviving a run to meet the Seer.
 * It is best to run in a closely-packed group and not be spread out. A tight group tends to split the attention of monsters trying to attack you as you run past, spreading the damage being dealt between the party members. This is especially true for the last part in front of the Seer's cave, where you'll need a few people running together through the numerous groups of Azure Shadows. They inflict armor-ignoring damage, use knockdown, and then overwhelm a single downed target.
 * Henchmen make terrible runners. The fighters will try to engage and the healers will try to heal those who suffer damage. If you have both in your party, they will get caught up fairly easily and die.

Bonus
The bonus in this mission is to kill the Inquisitor. To obtain the bonus, you will have to speak to Shining Blade Scout Ryder (point 2), hidden deep in White Mantle territory. You may recall while running for your life to do the infusion that you heard a person calling for help. This is the scout. To find him:


 * If you are coming from the beginning of the mission, then engage the White Mantle at the icy path but do not follow the icy path. Keep heading north and fighting White Mantle until you get to a pair of gates enclosing a large number of White Mantle patrolling two siege weapons. It is possible to speak to the scout through the northern gate without engaging the large group in the enclosure.
 * If you are coming from the Seer, then take a right turn at the bridge, as mentioned above, but then fight your way south until you get to the same point.

Tip: Before speaking to the scout, it is wise to clear the path north of him. There is a group of Mursaat and Jade Bows. The Inquisitor will show up there, and if those monsters are still there it will make the Bonus near impossible.

Speak to the scout and he will ask you to kill the Inquisitor. As soon as he does, the Inquisitor will appear with many other Mursaat just to the north, outside the gate. The Inquisitor is a powerful mage and hard to kill. As soon as he is near death, he will flee north. You have two options at this point:


 * There is a bridge just north of where you engage him; you can have your Warriors beat him there (with Sprint or "Charge!") and trap him. Coupled with knockdowns you should be able to destroy him.
 * Let him go. As you continue north to meet Markis, you will come across a portal and he will be there. The drawback to this approach is that he will be near a group of other monsters and a boss.

Note: Anyone who dies during the attempt to kill the Inquisitor cannot be ressurected. If the Inquisitor makes it to the portal before you can kill him, he will escape through the portal and you will fail the bonus.

Bosses and Skills
The following bosses can be encountered during the Iron Mines of Moladune mission:


 * Marika Granitehand: Cleave, location E1
 * Martigris the Stalwart: Devastating Hammer, location E2-4, E7
 * Slonak Copperbark: Dwarven Battle Stance, location E1
 * Hilios the Dutiful: Oath Shot, location E2, E5 and E7
 * Markis: Barrage, location D
 * Balt Duskstrider: Signet of Judgement, location E6
 * Lokar Icemender: Mark of Protection, location E1
 * Ceru Gloomrunner: Spiteful Spirit, location E6
 * Feodor the Baneful: Life Transfer, location E2-4 and E7
 * Balasi the Arcane: Energy Surge, location E2-4
 * Digo Murkstalker: Illusionary Weaponry, location A and E6
 * Eidolon: Mist Form, location C
 * Kratos the Foul: Thunderclap, location E2-4
 * The Inquisitor: Thunderclap

Additional Notes
The players will be in Thunderhead Keep at the completion of this mission.