Gate of Pain (mission)

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

Objectives
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
Upon entering the mission, your party has several choices for directions, all of which lead to a small area with several Terrorweb Dryders. On the way to this area, you will encounter many of Abaddon's Torment Demons as well as Terrorweb Dryders similar to those in The Underworld. The shortest path is to take the far left fork in the road.

Lightbringer's Gaze (especially if used by more than 1 party member at once) is extremely effective at quickly dispatching the demon groups, however, it does not work on the Terrorweb Dryders. It is imperative to coordinate fire power so that the beasts not be allowed to use their very powerful Call to the Torment skill, which creates a duplicate of the creature if it is not killed within 5 seconds.

Once you have passed out of the area that resembles a mutilated digestive tract, 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. Note that Lightbringer's Gaze does work on the Tortureweb Dryders. Be careful not to get them confused!

Tortureweb Dryders can pose a problem to the party, especially a party containing heroes or henchmen who tend to bunch up in one spot. As they are bosses, a single Liquid Flame from the monster can put a group of adjacent foes at the brink of death. It is best to prepare for them instead of hoping they always miss. The best approach is to bring skills that will completely shut down their ability to cast such as Shroud of Silence or to daze them so they cannot get spells off. When you destroy a Tortureweb Dryder, one or two souls will be freed and will head to the same spot at the entrance of the structure that dominates the center of the map.

After eliminating the first Tortureweb Dryder, you must explore the area and slaughter any more of them in the area (six total). The Tortureweb Dryders can be found in a circular path and the party can eliminate them going around in either direction. Between each Tortureweb Dryder and the next there can be groups of Torment Demons or Terrorweb Dryders.

The mission concludes once all souls are freed (sometimes a soul is consumed by a Tortureweb Dryder, in which case, the mission completes when the remaining souls are freed). Be careful, try to do the bonus before all souls are freed.

Bonus
After crossing the first bridge, there should be a set of stairs leading up to a large structure which houses one of the three Emissaries of Dhuum. The remaining two are to be found on the far west of the mission map, one north of the structure and the other to the south. Three Terrorweb Dryders accompany the Emissaries of Dhuum, so be prepared to interrupt Meteor Shower. In some cases, it is possible to lure away the Terrorwebs without luring the Emissary, allowing you to dispatch them separately.

If going for the bonus, you must kill the remaining Emissaries before killing the last of the Tortureweb Dryders. If you have freed 8 or 9 of the tortured souls, you must kill the Emissaries. Killing the last Tortureweb Dryer will trigger the mission ending cut scene once the spirits reach the proper spot on the river.

Point T on the map indicates the one Tortureweb Dryder that won't get in the way when you're trying to kill the Emissaries and thus should be killed last.

If you do not kill all three of the Terrorweb Dryders that accompany the Emissaries of Dhuum, the bonus will NOT be considered complete.

In addition to the three linked Dryders, the eastern Emissary is also accompanied by two other groups of Dryders and a group of torment creatures. The emissary's group, the second and third Dryder groups and the torment creature group can each be pulled separately.

Tips
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 a very heavy pressure on the team if not properly planned for. Builds that rely on spamming skills will find the mission considerably more difficult than others. You should adapt your build and/or team composition to account for that effect.

This mission can be done with heroes and henchmen with ease, as long as proper pre-mission planning is done. Light of Deliverance or Heal Party on a monk would make the environmental effect much less painful. Also, spell caster shutdown is of primary importance for this mission, since Terrorweb Dryders can very easily wipe an entire group in a blink of an eye, if unprepared. Daze, ranger interrupts, mesmer interrupts and shutdown in the form of Guilt or Mistrust make the Dryders much more manageable. Furthermore, try to keep moving while attacking to help keep the party spread apart, so that AoE spells from the Dryders hit as few party members as possible. Bring a long/flat bow to pull groups (casting Protective Spirit beforehand helps make sure that you'll make it back alive) and watch for patrols before attacking Torturewebs. Take your time and bring Rebirth just in case.

Getting through the first bridge can be tricky : you don't need to be caught between a Tortureweb and an emissary. However, even though the emissary stands slightly behind the Dryder, you can still pull it using a longbow from the bridge : it will follow you up to half the bridge where you can dispatch it without having to deal with the Dryder. Warning! Sometimes the Dryders will follow regardless and vice versa.
 * Alternately, once you exit the cave area, take a right and dispatch of the 2 torturewebs quickly. Then rush over the bridge and take out the terrorweb before the Emissary of Dhuum shows up. If done right, the terrorweb will be killed and your party can be at least half way across the bridge before the Emissary arrives. If your party doesn't have heavy damage capabilities, this might not be a good choice.

A henchman/hero team with four monks and one interrupter (Odurra fares rather well) will make your travel there (master reward included) an easy trip if they are properly built, and can let you solo the mission, even going for the master. The rest of the team should consists of damage dealing types such as warriors (Devona) or elementalists (Cynn). However, such a team composition is by no mean a requirement to succeed the mission, and other team compositions can certainly fare as well.

You're going to take lots of area of effect damage and 20 damage each time you cast a spell : healing spells that have a lasting effect or an area of effect are thus very valuable. This includes spells such as Vigorous Spirit, Divine Healing/Heaven's Delight (if you have them), Healing Seed, Heal Party, Light of Deliverance. You could also find Healer's Boon very handy, as you can cast fewer spells with stronger effects. If you have it Mark of Protection is also very helpful as it will temporarily turn the environmental effect to your benefit.

Monsters
Demons 1 - Not subject to Lightbringer's Gaze.
 * Dryders
 * 28 Terrorweb Dryder1
 * Torment Demons
 * 28 Blade of Corruption
 * 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
 * Other
 * 28 Emissary of Dhuum

Bosses

 * 28 Tortureweb Dryder: Ether Prism

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.