The Frost Gate (mission)

Mission Objectives
Open the Frost Gate.
 * Destroy the ballistas to secure safe passage for Rurik and the Ascalon refugees.
 * Retrieve the Gear Lever from the Dwarven fort to open the Frost Gate.
 * BONUS Steal the Stone Summit's secret plans for a powerful siege weapon.
 * ADDED Activate the three Frost Gate Lever Mechanisms before the Stone Summit overwhelm Rurik.

Primary
The ballistas are easy to find, since destroying each one opens a gate allowing you to travel further south. Also, whenever a ballista strikes, you will see a flashing spot on your map showing where it was fired from. In order to destroy a ballista, kill the Stone Summit Engineer next to it. The ballistas are located at the points marked A on the map. Continue south until you reach point B on the map, where you will find a Gear Lever. Bring the lever to the gate in order to open it. Once it is open, you will be faced with a few groups of Stone Summit guarding the three mechanisms. You will have to clear the area and put the Gear Lever into 3 winches, which together open the frost gate and complete the mission (point C on the map).

Note: When your lever carrier puts the lever into a mechanism, he/she will lose the lever for a few seconds while the mechanism is started. The lever will then be dropped next to the mechanism. So, make sure they stand and wait for it to drop.

Note: If Lever Mechanisms aren't activated after awhile, Rurik will be overwhelmed and defeated. Although the mission objective says to activate the three Frost Gate Lever Mechanisms before Rurik dies, the mission nonetheless can be completed after the inserting the Gear Lever into the third mechamism despite Rurik being a corpse. During the cutscene that follows, he will be shown to be alive rather than dead.

Tip 1: If you have cleared the two groups that are initially guarding the mechanisms, you can then move the rest of your party to the gate where the Summit are coming from and engage them. This leaves the three mechanisms clear for your lever carrier to operate them unmolested.

Tip 2: Each time you operate one of the two Frost Gate lever mechanisms nearest to the gate you entered the lever area from, a group of enemies from 4-6 strong emerge from areas around the enclosure. When you operate the 3rd mechanism, a gate opens that will allow the entrance of 12 enemies. The cut scene starts about 1 minute after the last mechanism is triggered. Small groups (or solo) may be overwhelmed before the cut scene starts if you operate all three together.

Tip 3: After reaching the area with the three lever mechanisms, you may drop the gear lever and go hunt the very large number of Stone Summit in a canyon-like area off the main path. While difficult, defeating them all will ensure you go about operating the mechanisms with minimal interference. Additionally, after operating one mechanism, a gate opens which allows for several more enemies to enter. With careful pulling you can pick them all off. If both of these are done, you will practically ensure the success of the mission, although time should be taken into consideration.

Bonus
The bonus mission is triggered by rescuing Rornak Stonesledge from the Frostfire Dryder caves (point 1 on the map). Be careful when engaging the dryders, as they can place a great burden on healers with their use of the Suffering spell. Rornak will ask you to help him retrieve some Secret Siege Weapon Plans from the Stone Summit dwarves nearby. Exit west from the cave, and you will find a group of Stone Summit fighting a group of Ettins. Beyond them will be a crater area where the ballista fire lands. In that crater, you will notice a small opening to your right (the path to point 2 on the map); follow that path. Beware of two groups of Stone Summit there; if they are together, they will pose a significant challenge, especially with several Dolyak Riders healing each other and the Summit. Defeat them and go up the road to the ballista. Rornak will fix it and you can fire the ballista to open a gate on the other side. Afterwards, go back to the crater area, head across the bridge and enter the now opened door. Proceed up the mountain and retrieve the plans (point 3 on the map). Run the plans back to Rornak.

Tip 1: The cleanest way to complete the bonus is to avoid Rornak until you've cleared out both the area across the bridge, and the path leading to the derelict ballista. Then talk to him, walk him down, leave him at the ballista, and go get the plans.

Tip 2: Skills that do AoE damage, or that debuff (Necromancer and Mesmer skills, for example) can make the fight with the dwarves guarding the ballista (point 2) a lot easier. Remember to focus on defeating any Dolyak Riders first. If they are clustered together, try pulling them away from each other back up the path and eliminating them one by one.

Tip 3: The plans at point 3 on the map are mainly guarded by Ice Golems. They are highly susceptible to Fire Storm, Fireball and other fire AoE spells, as they take double Fire damage.

Tip 4: When you approach the now destroyed door, a big pack of Ice Golems and some Summit will come and guard the place where the door used to be. As they are all packed in, you can now return to the ballista and fire it as many times as necessary. When you come back all baddies will have been swept away. Keep in mind though that as usual with ballistas you won't get any XP or drops.

You must talk to Rornak once you have the plans, or you will not be awarded the bonus. This must be done before triggering the cut-scene (point B on the map), or you will lose the plans.

Skill Capture

 * Bull's Strike from Minotaur (Warrior Boss) (not available before A Belated Betrothal quest at Seeker's Passage).
 * Rush from Minotaur (Warrior Boss) (not available before Copperhammer Mines).
 * Fertile Season from Garris Nightwatch (not available before Fishermen's Haven).
 * Precision Shot from Garris Nightwatch (not available before The Forgotten Ones quest at Destiny's Gorge).
 * Water Attunement from Bucknar Runeguard (not available before The Undead Hordes quest at Beetletun).

Bosses
Minotaur Bosses Stone Summit and Ice Golem Bosses
 * Minotaur (Warrior Boss)
 * Garris Nightwatch
 * Shalis Ironmantle
 * Durnar Skullcracker
 * Cronis Bonebreaker
 * Bucknar Runeguard

Additional Notes
The players will be in Beacon's Perch at the completion of this mission.

Players looking for a cartographer title can use any warping skill, such as Necrotic Traversal or Consume Corpse, to jump to onto Rurik's path and uncover several areas not reachable by the normal path (uncovering roughly 0.4% of the map). The first opportunity is when Rurik can be seen with his guards under the bridge. Depending on spawns, the Ice Golems appearing after and even before the bridge can be lured towards them, where they will attack and kill one of the guards. The second opportunity, and perhaps the easiest, is in the ice cave where Rornak Stonesledge is located. Lure the second batch of Ettins beneath the small bridge within the ice cave, and use the warp skills there. A third opportunity involves finding a snow wolf. One or two can be found near the bridge in the cave, or after exiting the ice cave, where there may be one at the base of a cliff. Warping skills can even be used later to get back to the main path, shortcutting the mission and preventing its failure for full exploration. Additional information is found in the Grandmaster cartography guide.