Gate of Pain (mission)

Objectives
Dunkoro must be in your party before going on to the mission.

Find a way to release the tortured souls from the River of Souls.
 * ADDED Destroy the Emissary of Dhuum.
 * ADDED Kill Tortureweb Dryders to free the souls they captured from the River of Souls.
 * BONUS Kill the additional elite emissaries. 0...3 elite emissaries destroyed.

Primary
The mission succeeds when you kill all six Tortureweb Dryders and the ten thus freed Lost Souls accumulate on the West side of the map.

During this mission you will be under the Dreadful Pain environmental effect, which will inflict 20 damage every time you use a skill. This can put heavy pressure on the team if not properly planned for, and it may be useful to compensate by bringing more healing than you normally would. Builds that rely on spamming skills will find the mission considerably more difficult than others. It can be useful to bring skills that heal the entire party all at once, as all party members will frequently need healing.

Upon entering the mission, your party has a choice of several paths to take, all of which contain patrols of Terrorweb Dryders, similar to those found in The Underworld, and of Abaddon's Torment creatures. The paths all lead to the same area, but the shortest is the far left fork in the road. Be observant of the movement of these patrols while moving through this area as more than one group can easily overwhelm the party.

Lightbringer's Gaze is quite useful for finishing off Torment creatures when they use Call to the Torment, and also helpful against some other mobs in the mission. It is imperative to coordinate fire power to finish off mobs before they can replicate themselves with Call to the Torment. Lightbringer's Gaze does not work on the Terrorweb Dryders but does work on the Tortureweb Dryders; be careful not to get them confused!

Terrorweb Dryders will cast Meteor Shower, among other fire spells, and it is very useful to interrupt this. You may have to switch between them a bit to watch both, and then order an interrupt when you see one cast meteor shower. Maelstrom can also be useful for a flurry of interrupts to start the battle.

Once you have passed through the initial area, you will find yourself on the bank of the River of Souls. Your party will hear a conversation between the soul of the Undead Lich and an Emissary of Dhuum. While listening, feel free to eliminate all the various Terrorweb Dryders infesting the immediate area. Once the conversation is over, Dunkoro will instruct you to kill the Tortureweb Dryder and the Emissary of Dhuum that comes to rescue it.

Tortureweb Dryders can be devastating with their Liquid Flame and Fireball attacks, so it is crucial to bring skills to counter them. Probably the simplest counter is to daze them. Broad Head Arrow can be fired from out of combat, leaving the boss dazed as soon as it enters combat. Other shutdown skills such as Guilt or Mistrust can likewise help. You can also reduce the damage with Ward Against Harm or, at least briefly, Shelter. Protective Spirit can also be useful though it may be difficult to use it on the entire party. Most of the skills listed are not available in Nightfall, but even random interrupts can make a big difference.

The first Tortureweb Dryder is the hardest, due to awkward terrain that could block your shots. Groups of Torment creatures and pairs of Terrorweb Dryders patrol the loop and can wander by the other bosses, so it can be useful to wait a bit to see the patrol patterns, and pull away any other groups likely to interfere before aggroing a boss.

There is also an Emissary of Dhuum near the first Tortureweb Dryder. He talks a bit before attacking, but killing him shouldn't be difficult. Kill him and the six Tortureweb Dryders to complete the mission. Each Tortureweb Dryder releases one or two Lost Souls upon dying, which run to a fixed spot on the west end of the loop. Note that the mission does not end immediately upon killing the last boss, but only when the last Lost Soul reaches the gathering point.

Bonus
The bonus is to kill the three elite Emissaries of Dhuum and the three Terrorweb Dryders which accompany each. The first Emissary is after the first bridge and up the stairs into a structure. The other two are outside the structure at the North West and South West edges of the mission map. If you kill an Emissary but don't kill the Dryders that accompany him, your quest log will not update for the bonus.

You must kill the Emissaries before the last Tortureweb Dryder, otherwise the mission ends without finishing the bonus. Since the South-West Emissary is behind a Terrorweb Dryder, you must not save that dryder for last. The red path on the mission map shows the shortest path for both mission and bonus.

The emissary in the center of the map also has a group of Torment creatures and a pair of Terrorweb Dryders that patrol near it. It may sometimes be easier to pull and clear one or both groups before pulling the emissary's group. Pulling any of the three groups to the top of the stairs will get it safely out of the way of the other groups while you fight.

Hard mode
This mission is mostly about careful pulling, and more to the point, pulling only one group at a time. Note that it usually isn't too hard to run away, unless hexed with slowing hexes from a Rain of Terror, and it may at times be essential to do so in order to prevent a wipe. If you get hit by a second group while fighting, run away immediately. Hesitating may get you wiped.

Early in the mission, groups mostly wander back and forth along a path. The back end of the path of one group will overlap the front end of the path of the next group, so do not chase a group to the back of its path. Instead, get into the set path of a group and wait for it to come back to you.

It can be useful to have a Broad Head Arrow/interrupt ranger. Daze the Tortureweb Dryders by firing broad head arrow from outside of combat, and with the party pouring on damage, they'll be able to cast very little. Any casts they get off can still be devastating, so it can also help to have a water elementalist with Ward Against Harm and Maelstrom.

Not coincidentally, these will also help you with the Terrorweb Dryders. Meteor Shower is still their deadliest attack, so you should try to interrupt it. If they get it off, you'll have to move your party (including flagging heroes) out of the way immediately. Without defensive measures, Fireball or one tick of Meteor Shower can take about half a lifeline off of whatever party members you have standing in the area. Ward Against Harm makes this loss a lot more manageable.

The first Tortureweb Dryder is just around the corner of a bridge. It can help to pull it onto the bridge, so that the edge of the bridge doesn't block your attacks. It's safe to pull the boss and try to kill it before the Emissary of Dhuum comes; even if the emissary comes before the dryder is dead, it's not that dangerous of a situation with the dryder unable to do much to you.

The easiest way to pull the bonus group in the middle is to pull the other groups that patrol the area from the west first. Clear to the west end of the ring, and pull mobs out onto the ring. There is a pair of Terrorweb Dryders that waits at the west end of the center area, another pair of dryders that patrols back and forth in the center area, and a group of Torment creatures that has a much longer patrol route but also occasionally comes toward the west side. Pull these three groups in this order, and then pull the bonus group from the east.

For all three bonus groups, it can help to pull the mobs significant distances to get them out into open areas. This makes it much easier to get out of the way if they get a meteor shower off. It also prevents the narrow bridges or halls from blocking your attacks. Finally, if things go awry and you must run away, it ensures that you'll be able to come back to resurrect any dead characters while out of combat.

It can also help to flag any ranger hero(es) off to the side, far enough away from the rest of the group to be out of range of area attacks, but still within healing range. Rangers have strong enough armor against elemental damage to survive some hits from the dryders without needing any special protection. Set them somewhat in front of the rest of the group and dryders will sometimes waste their attacks on a ranger.

Note that when pulling dryders, they may stop to cast Meteor Shower at your puller. This will drop the meteor shower whereever the puller is when the cast ends. It can help immensely if a puller is aware of this and does not run right back to his group, but instead, off to the side to waste the meteor shower. If a dryder wastes the skill like this, you can freely focus on the others first, without having to worry about interrupting the first one again.

To clear the northern portion of the ring, it can help to pull roamer groups from the east. A pair of dryders and a group of Torment creatures each wander near the northeastern boss. They will come far enough south to safely kill them without pulling the boss. After they are dead, skip the boss and move westward until you approach the next boss. A group of Torment creatures will come about to the boss and turn around, but a pair of Terrorweb Dryders wlll move past the boss far enough to be readily pulled on their own. Destroy it before fighting any of the bosses in the northern portion of the ring.

Before fighting the south-central boss, wait for a group of Torment creatures to come past it, and kill that group. Once you approach the northwestern boss from the south, wait for the group of Torment creatures to come and leave, and then kill the boss before the Torment creatures return. The patrol is easily killed after taking care of the boss.

A tip: the gate on your left after emerging from the starting caves is closed at first, but spells and projectiles can still go through it. You can kill the Emissary of Dhuum's dryders while he is unable to attack you through the gate. When you come to him later by the regular way, he will be on his own.

NPCs

 * 20 Lost Soul
 * 20 Kormir

Monsters

 * Torment creatures
 * 28 Blade of Corruption
 * 28 Emissary of Dhuum
 * 28 Arm of Insanity
 * 28 Word of Madness
 * 28 Herald of Nightmares
 * 28 Shadow of Fear
 * 28 Rain of Terror
 * 28 Spear of Torment
 * 28 Scythe of Chaos
 * Dryders
 * 28 Terrorweb Dryder

Boss - elite skill capture

 * 28 Tortureweb Dryder - Ether Prism

Inside the mission
Dunkoro: There must be a way to save the souls of all those trapped here.

Kormir: ''The River of Souls has been blocked by Abaddon's minions. If we remove the blockade, the souls will be freed.''

Dunkoro: ''We must destroy the blockade, then. I will not leave my son to Abaddon!''

Dunkoro: ''Look at that abomination! It must have something to do with this madness. Come, let's get closer, we might be able to discover something useful.''

Undead Lich: Where are the souls you promised to Abaddon?

Emissary of Dhuum: ''My torturewebs are collecting them from the river now. Their work is slow, and they do not hurry for anyone, let alone you.''

Undead Lich: ''Abaddon will not be pleased by your lack of progress. When I return, you will give me the souls I require or you will face Abaddon's wrath.''

Emissary of Dhuum: ''Save your threats. The soulweir's power is tied to the torturewebs. Without the torturewebs, you have nothing, and they only respond to my commands.''

Dunkoro: ''The torturewebs are collecting souls from the river? We must find the torturewebs and destroy them!''

Undead Lich: ''Intruders! You stay and protect the soulweir, I must finish the preparations. Do not fail Abaddon!''

Kormir: ''Any souls we free from the torturewebs will help us destroy the soulweir. Quickly! Find the torturewebs and eliminate them!''

Ending cutscene
Dunkoro's Son: ''Thank you, Father. We shall meet again, in the Mists.''

Are you all right?

Dunkoro: ''Yes. Yes. I suppose I owe you an explanation.''

Dunkoro: Years ago, I sent my son to the Crystal Desert.

Dunkoro: ''There were reports of strange things in the Tombs of the Primeval Kings. Tentacles bursting through the stone.''

Kormir: Abaddon.

Dunkoro: ''Yes. My son was reported missing and presumed dead. I blamed myself, for sending him off without enough forethought.''



Dunkoro: I never knew what happened to him, until now.

Kormir: But you have freed him, and the other innocents trapped here by Abaddon's touch.

Are you an innocent as well?

Dunkoro: ''What? Kormir is the most honorable of the Sunspears.''

Kormir: ''No. You are right. I am far from innocent, and my crimes are the greatest of all.''

Kormir: It was I that found the inscriptions in Istan, and I that awakened the Apocrypha of Abaddon.

Dunkoro: ''It is not your fault, Kormir, how could you have known?

Kormir: ''Tales of the forbidden ruins are part of our history. My curiosity and concern made me ignore those warnings.''



Kormir: ''I did, and worse. I read the words of the Apocrypha. I felt his spirit. I was drawn into his web.''

Kormir: ''Now my body withers, and my spirit walks in Torment. That is why I serve as your guide.''



Kormir: ''He abides at the heart of his Realm. He is still chained, but his power grows, and the walls around him grow weak.''

Kormir: I fear that without the aid of the Five Gods themselves, we cannot hope to contain him.



Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in the Gate of Fear.
 * To continue the storyline, take on the Primary Quest: Kormir's Crusade from Rahmor.