Iron Mines of Moladune (mission)

Objectives
Kill Markis and his Jade Armor guards.
 * Find the Seer.
 * ADDED Kill the Eidolon.
 * ADDED Deliver the Spectral Essence to the Seer to infuse your armor.
 * BONUS Defeat The Inquisitor before he leaves with the information about the Shining Blade.

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.

If you are not Infused, it's advisable to find the Seer (point A), who knows of a way to combat the Mursaat's Spectral Agony. 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. It is possible to run to the Seer from the start of the mission (see below).

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.

Warning: Henchmen entering the mission are not infused. As such, they will melt away before the Mursaat. As of the January 26th, 2006 update, when your team gives the Spectral Essence to the Seer, henchmen will have infused armor parts only if any player member is also infused on this piece of armor 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 Unguent. 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: Capturing Barrage is easy with henchmen and can be done in 30-40 minutes. As of October 2006, if you stay out of melee range of Markis, the Jade Armors won't spawn, so if you let the henchmen tank you can capture the skill from his body then move into melee range of the corpse to spawn the Jade Armors and finish the mission if you need to.

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 (in some cases he might get stuck earlier and be farther past the shining blade scout). Note that you may still have kill his Jade Armor guards as well, if there are some left in the fortress.

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 her:


 * If you are coming from the beginning of the mission, 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 most part of the wall of the compound without engaging the large group inside. (Be warned however that it is advisable to clear the area BEFORE speaking to her, and to speak to her from INSIDE the compound, per the Tip below).
 * 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 at least clear the green path between her and point E2, northeast of her. This will involve clearing north from E5 to E2 & then down to E3. To be even safer one can also clear the path between E2 & E7 (the Portal which is the the Inquisitors final destination), thus ensuring no other mobs will be present along any of the path it takes. Expect to clear a number of groups of Mursaat, Jade Bows & White Mantle.

Tip: Before speaking to the scout, set your heroes to fight mode and use the flags to position the heroes and henchmen to the North of E3. They will engage the Inquisitor and escorts and you can join in the massacre.

Tip: It is advisable to bring Dunham [Enchanter Henchman] if you are using a henchman group. Dunham uses the skill Crippling Anguish, and it snares the Inquisitor very well.

After clearing the route, speak to the scout and she will ask you to kill the Inquisitor. As soon as she does, the Inquisitor will appear with 3 other Mursaat Mesmers just to the north east (at E3), outside the east gate of the compound, and start heading for the Portal at E7. The Inquisitor is a powerful level 28 elementalist and hard to kill so it is advisable to kill the three Mursaat Mesmers that spawn with him first, and then focus on him. As soon as he is near death, he will start to flee north. You have three options at this point:


 * Hamper his escape north, by doing one, or more, of the following;
 * - Having your tanks hamper his escape north by sprinting past him & body blocking him, while the rest of your party continue attacking him.
 * - Slowing him by other means, see: Movement speed skills quick reference

Tip: If you trap the inquisitor on the very corner of the mentioned bridge he does not attack.
 * There is a bridge just north of where you first 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.

Notes:
 * 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.
 * Shining Blade Scout Ryder is targetable by enemies. When you first see her, she will be far away from enemies, and usually their preset routes will not lead them to her. However, while fighting the mobs around her, it is possible for one to get too close to Ryder and kill her before you get the bonus. If this happens, she will cry out, "Dwayna save me!" notifying you of her death.

Infusion run
If you need additional sets of armor infused and do not wish to complete again any of the missions in which you can get armor infused, the way to do so is an infusion run in this mission. One character with good running skills can run past the mobs to the Seer at point A, and the cut scene this triggers will bring the whole group up to there. In particular, you will need anti-knockdown skills to counter the Azure Shadows' Signet of Judgment and the Tundra Giants' Giant Stomp.

Alternatively, if you do not have good running skills or are not of a class which has good running skills, you can do the run alone using only henchmen. Warriors with "Charge!" and healers tend to make the best running partners. If you have heroes available, you can bring a group composed entirely of such characters, other than yourself.

White Mantle and Stone Summit are hostile to each other, so if they engage each other, you can freely run past. Do not attack them and they will mostly leave you alone in such circumstances. Tundra Giants and Azure Shadows are likewise hostile to each other, though your party will still be knocked down by Giant Stomp if you try to run by while the mobs fight each other.

The party should stay together to minimize the time that each mob has to attack party members. Because henchmen and heroes have predictable movement behavior and other players do not, it may be easiest to do such an infusion run without other players.

Henchmen and heroes do sometimes get body blocked in a couple of places. The main problems are the tundra giants just after crossing the ice river to the west of E4 and the Mountain Trolls at a small bridge north of E5. You can try running past and hope that enough henchmen make it rather than being trapped and killed or you can stop to clear a few groups in such places to be safer.

After you cross the large bridge to the west of E2, stop and gather your group together. Flag henchmen and heroes ahead of you along the path and reflag them repeatedly, while you follow closely behind them. Azure shadows will often knock down whichever character is in front, and having a few characters with you can spread out the knockdowns, making it easy for at least some characters to reach the seer at point A. As soon as one character does (even if not a player), it triggers a cut scene, warping the entire party to the seer.

After the cut scene, there are few mobs between you and the Eidolon at point C which you must kill for infusion. Remember to switch to whichever armor you want infused before giving the Spectral Essence to the seer.

NPCs

 * Human
 * 15 (20) Shining Blade Scout Ryder
 * Seer
 * 30 Seer
 * Animal
 * 5 Black Bear

Monsters

 * Dwarf
 * 24 (26) Stone Summit Carver
 * 24 (26) Summit Giant Herder
 * Giant
 * 24 (26) Tundra Giant
 * Golem
 * 24 (26) Siege Ice Golem
 * Griffon
 * 24 (26) Blessed Griffon
 * Human
 * 16 (25) White Mantle Knight
 * 20 (26) White Mantle Zealot
 * 16 (25) White Mantle Seeker
 * 20 (26) White Mantle Priest
 * 16 (25) White Mantle Ritualist
 * 16 (25) White Mantle Engineer
 * Jade
 * 24 (26) Jade Armor
 * 24 (26) Jade Bow
 * Mursaat
 * 24 (26) Mursaat Monk
 * 24 (26) Mursaat Necromancer
 * 24 (26) Mursaat Mesmer
 * 24 (26) Mursaat Elementalist
 * Nightmare
 * 22 (26) Azure Shadow
 * Phantom
 * 24 (26) Eidolon
 * Troll
 * 24 (26) Mountain Troll

Bosses (Elite skill captures)

 * Human
 * 22 (30) Markis &rarr; Barrage **
 * Jade
 * 28 (30) Martigris the Stalwart &rarr; Devastating Hammer
 * 28 (30) Hilios the Dutiful &rarr; Oath Shot
 * Mursaat
 * 28 (30) Feodor the Baneful &rarr; Life Transfer
 * 28 (30) Balasi the Arcane &rarr; Energy Surge
 * 28 (30) Kratos the Foul &rarr; Thunderclap
 * 28 (30) The Inquisitor &rarr; Thunderclap (bonus only)
 * Nightmare
 * 28 (30) Balt Duskstrider &rarr; Signet of Judgment
 * 28 (30) Ceru Gloomrunner &rarr; Spiteful Spirit
 * 28 (30) Digo Murkstalker &rarr; Illusionary Weaponry
 * Phantom
 * 28 (30) Eidolon &rarr; Mist Form
 * Stone Summit
 * 28 (30) Marika Granitehand &rarr; Cleave
 * 28 (30) Slonak Copperbark &rarr; Dwarven Battle Stance
 * 28 (30) Lokar Icemender &rarr; Mark of Protection

Dialogues
Briefing from Evennia.

Follow-up

 * Upon completion of the mission players will find themselves in: Thunderhead Keep.
 * To continue the story line players must complete: Thunderhead Keep: Mission