Ring of Fire (mission)

Objectives
Establish a foothold on the Ring of Fire Island Chain
 * Gain access to the Citadel Guardhouse
 * Open the main gate to the Citadel Guardhouse
 * Clear the Guardhouse of Mursaat
 * BONUS Kill the Eidolon.

Primary
In this mission, the party is trying to get into Abaddon's Mouth, the entrance to the volcano where the Door of Komalie is located. Unlocking the Door of Komalie will supposedly yield the best tool for defeating the Mursaat.

Brechnar Ironhammer will throw himself at a large group of Mursaat (2 Mursaat Necromancers, 2 Mursaat Mesmers, 2 Mursaat Monks) as you enter this mission (point A). Do not try to save him: he is supposed to die drawing away the Mursaat; trying to save him may wipe out your party. Let him go, and veer right. Once you've gone as far right as possible, you should see two groups of three Mursaat spellcasters. A group of Jade Armors and a group of Jade Bows will slowly circle around the lava pit to attack you from behind; you can either wait to take them out, or go after the Mursaat first. Either way, when you are done, follow the purple path on the map until you come to point B.

Here you will be confronted by a Mursaat Tower powered by an Ether Seal. While the seal remains, the tower will cause an area effect that quickly drains away your energy. Additionally, the seal will cast Chain Lightning and Mind Shock. When attacking a seal, you should first try to lure away its defenders to a distance where your healers and spellcasters can operate outside the tower's light radius. The seal itself is much easier to destroy once its defenders are dead.

Ether seals have natural resistance, which greatly reduces the effectiveness of hexes and conditions. They are immune to poison and bleeding, so these are not viable options to drain their health, either. Finally, they have at least +10 innate health regeneration, so slowly wearing them down is impractical. Fortunately, they are lightly armored, so they can be destroyed by simple weapon attacks. Despite the apparent size of the gate or tower that supports the seal, the seal itself can be knocked down to interrupt their spell casting.

A Ranger can kill some ether seals by himself while staying out of the range of the Mursaat tower by using a flatbow, some attack skills, and a slight height advantage to get adequate range. A longbow can also hit the ether seal from out of its range, but is less effective due to its slower rate of fire.

Just beyond the first ether seal, the path splits in two. Either route will eventually go to the same place, but the west route is easier because it lets you avoid the Drakes. The west route is the one indicated on the map.

Keep going on the purple path. You will engage various groups of Igneous Ettins, wade through a pool of lava, and pass another seal. At point C, Vizier Khilbron will appear and claim that the main entrance is too tough to tackle head-on. He advises you to take the back route into the Mursaat fortress to try and get into Abaddon's mouth. The back route is much longer, arguably more difficult, and avoids doing the bonus, but either route will work for mission completion. Follow the purple path for the long route or the green path for the short route.

If you go through the front, note that it's possible to gain access to the back route (for Skill capture or whatever your motives) by attacking the ether seal holding the west door using spell casters with ranged non-projectile spells.

You will engage various groups of wildlife on the islands if you take the back route. Eventually, you will approach the Mursaat encampment to the west. Take out the groups of Jade and Mursaat carefully. You will be able to get to a bridge, but its end will be locked. The lever to open it is in the adjacent room (point D), guarded by a Mursaat boss. Luckily, you should be able to sneak into the room without triggering the host of nearby enemies guarding the front gate.

Pull the lever, and cross the bridge, which has a lone boss halfway across. You will finally face a group of Mursaat and then a Mursaat boss alone in the central chamber. Defeat them to win the mission.

Note: All Mursaat in the last group must be defeated to win the mission. If you want to capture a skill from the last boss, kill it first so that the mission won't end when you kill it.

Bonus
Talk to the Ancient Seer at point 1 and he asks you to kill an Eidolon near point 2. Bring the Spectral Essence from the Eidolon to the Ancient Seer to get the bonus.

There are seven ether seals in the area where the Eidolon spawns, with four attached to towers and three attached to gates. The ones attached to towers give the deadly energy draining effect. The others do not give the Mursaat tower effect and are handily destroyed. The Eidolon will not spawn until all four ether seals linked to Mursaat towers in the area are destroyed. The seals on the three gates have no effect on the Eidolon spawn. Even if you destroy all of the Ether seals, the Eidolon will not spawn until you talk to the Ancient Seer to activate the bonus.

Take on the ether seals one at a time, using tactics similar to what you used against the first one in the mission. As before, pull mobs away from the ether seals and kill them before attacking the seal itself.

The doorway is within range of two Mursaat towers, so stay back, and make sure heroes and henchmen stay back. You'll certainly need to clear one group of three mobs and a boss before going after the ether seals, and another group further back will sometimes come up to that area. The boss especially will try to pull your group into the fort to get energy drained by the Mursaat towers, so you may have to flag henchmen and heroes back repeatedly.

Once all mobs are clear from that area, the Mursaat towers stand between the ether seals and the doorway, so you can't attack them from the doorway. The easiest way to breach the fort is to send your whole group to the north of the northern seal, and attack it from that side. Killing the other ether seal attached to a Mursaat tower will make the Eidolon spawn if you've initialized the bonus, so it may be best to clear some more mobs first. The remaining Mursaat tower will be out of your way.

Once all four Mursaat towers are offline, the Eidolon will spawn. Kill it and it drops a spectral essence. Return this to the Ancient Seer to complete the bonus. This will also infuse your current set of armor, so if you want to infuse additional sets of armor, switch before turning in the spectral essence.

Hard mode
The mobs that chase Brechnar Ironhammer at the very start come back more quickly, so make sure you're out of their way when they return. Take your group as far east as possible at the start, and pull mobs to there until the path is clear.

NPCs

 * Dwarf
 * 10 Dwarven Soldier
 * 24 Brechnar Ironhammer
 * Human
 * 20 Vizier Khilbron (cutscene only)
 * Seer
 * 30 Ancient Seer

Monsters

 * Drake
 * 24 Drake
 * Ettin
 * 24 Igneous Ettin
 * Imp
 * 24 Lava Imp
 * Jade
 * 24 Jade Armor
 * 24 Jade Bow
 * Mursaat
 * 24 Mursaat Monk
 * 24 Mursaat Necromancer
 * 24 Mursaat Mesmer
 * 24 Ether Seal
 * 24 Mursaat Elementalist
 * Nightmare
 * 28 Nightmare
 * Phantom
 * 24 Phantom
 * Rider
 * 24 Breeze Keeper
 * Spider
 * 24 Lava Spitter

Bosses - elite skill captures

 * Ettin
 * 28 Ferk Mallet - Backbreaker
 * 28 Vulg Painbrain - Spike Trap
 * Jade
 * 28 Cairn the Smug - Devastating Hammer
 * 28 Cairn the Troubling - Oath Shot
 * Mursaat
 * 28 Coventina the Matron - Aura of Faith
 * 28 Odelyn the Displeased - Life Transfer
 * 28 Melek the Virtuous - Energy Surge
 * 28 Maida the Ill Tempered - Thunderclap
 * Phantom
 * 24 Eidolon - Mist Form (bonus only)
 * Rider
 * 28 Grun Galesurge - Shield of Deflection
 * 28 Pytt Spitespew - Migraine
 * 28 Jyth Sprayburst - Ether Prodigy
 * Spider
 * 28 Casses Flameweb - Incendiary Arrows

Dialogues
Briefing from Fogard Axemighty.

Inside the mission
Brechnar Ironhammer: ''I will buy you enough time to get off this boat, and a flagon of ale when we meet in the Rift. Taste my axe! For Deldrimor and King Ironhammer! Back to the Rift you foul thing! Your magic rags are no match for Dwarven steel!, For the Great Dwarf!''

Dwarven Soldier: ''It will be much hotter where you are going! I may fall but so will your hold over Tyria!''

Bonus objective:

Ancient Seer: ''We meet again. I have tracked another Eidolon to this location. It feasts on the arcane energies of the Mursaat towers. It lurks underground, wallowing in the residual magic. But if the towers were destroyed, the creature would reveal itself. Destroy the Eidolon and bring me its essence.''

Intermediate cutscene
Vizier Khilbron: ''The Mursaat have covered the volcano with potent anti-magic. Even now I can feel them draining my power away. I would suggest we find another way around this fortress. The Mursaat are prepared for an assault of this door. Best we do not strike at their strongest point. We head for the top of the volcano. Be on guard. We are growing close. The Mursaat have no intention of allowing us to reach our goal.''

Ending cutscene
Vizier Khilbron: ''Do not grieve for the fallen. They have passed into the next life. Somewhere in the Rift, deep within the Great Forge, Brechnar Ironhammer begins his long journey to the Hall of Heroes.''

May the heroes of old call out your name when you join their company.''

Vizier Khilbron: ''Brechnar has given us a gift. The gift of his life. Let us not squander it. The prophecy is upon us. We make for the teeth of Abaddon's Mouth, for the Door of Komalie.''

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Abaddon's Mouth.