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.

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 The Inquisitor. To obtain the bonus, you will have to speak to Shining Blade Scout Ryder (point 2), hidden deep in White Mantle territory. She calls for help as you pass by below. There are many Mursaat in the bonus area, so stay away until your group is infused. Once your group is infused, cross the large bridge near E2 and follow the green route south.

Shortly after you speak to Ryder, the Inquisitor spawns near E3, accompanied by three Mursaat Mesmers. The mesmers will die much faster than the Inquisitor, so it helps to kill them first. Kill the Inquisitor as well to complete the bonus.

When the Inquisitor is nearly dead, it will sometimes try to run away. It moves slowly, so this isn't much of a problem so long as your group is attacking it. If you have difficulty stopping it, you can bring slowing hexes or conditions, though keep in mind that they only last half the normal duration due to natural resistance.

Notes:
 * If the Inquisitor makes it to the portal at E7 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.

Hard mode
White Mantle and Stone Summit are still hostile to each other, but will sometimes break off to attack you if you try to run past while they fight each other. Wait for them to mostly kill each other off before attacking.

White mantle have been bumped up to level 25 or 26, so it is now important to pull and kill only one group at a time. This requires careful pulling near the first ballista, as well as at a few points on the bonus route.

Spread out your group a bit when starting the bonus. If your group bunches up, the three Mursaat Mesmers will immediately tag your group with Energy Surge, doing a total of 360 armor-ignoring AoE damage. Their subsequent attacks and the The Inquisitor there as an elementalist boss to try to finish you off can be trouble.

The mobs at the end out in front of Markis are not linked to him or each other, so you can pull and kill a couple at a time, or blast them through the walls with skills that ignore line of sight. Clear enough that those that remain won't be a problem when you try to run through. Getting Markis plus several other mobs all at once can be trouble.

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

Dialogues
Briefing from Evennia.

Inside the mission
Bonus objective:

Shining Blade Scout Ryder: ''HELP! Please help me! I'm trapped here! There are corpses everywhere! When I got caught, a Mursaat called The Inquisitor interrogated me. He just took my thoughts from my head. I...I...He found out we were heading to Thunderhead Keep to help the Dwarves. Please catch him!''

Finishing the bonus:

The Inquisitor: ''I see you there, but you'll never catch me. I'm too fast for you. Is that the best you can do? I thought you might at least provide me with a challenge.''

Markis: ''So you finally figured it out, eh? Now you've come to extract vengence? [sic] I should have killed you in the Maguuma Jungle. I'm going to enjoy killing you almost as much as I enjoyed watching Saidra die. Frankly, I expected you to put up a better fight.''

Intermediate cutscene
Seer: ''Yes, yes. You are the Ascended ones the dragon Glint has spoken of. Come in. Come in. I have been expecting you.''



Seer: ''I have traveled far and waited many long years to help you fulfill the Flameseeker Prophecies. What matters is that I am here to help you.''



Seer: By now you have realized that the Mursaat cannot be defeated with the tools you now posses.

Go on.''

Seer: ''For centuries my kind has fought the Mursaat. I know the rituals that can give you at least some protection from their agonizing touch.''



Seer: Yes.

Why help us?''

Seer: ''Because if the prophecies are to be believed, you will do what my entire race could not. You are going to destroy the Mursaat.''



Seer: ''In a cave to the east lives a bestial creature made from malice and shade. This creature has a natural defense against the magics of the Mursaat. Bring me the spectral essence of this beast, and I will infuse its protections into your armor.''

Ending cutscene
Evennia: ''May the deaths of all whom you betrayed weigh heavy on you in the afterlife. Death is too good for you, Markis. May your tortured soul never find peace.''

Brechnar Ironhammer: ''Brother, the portcullis has been breached. The first and second regiments have fallen, and the Stone Summit has raised their flag over Thunderhead Keep. My king, the fortress is taken.''

King Jalis Ironhammer: ''Sound the horn of retreat, Brechnar. We will cut our losses and regroup.''

Brechnar Ironhammer: ''Get yourself to safety, brother. Deldrimor cannot afford to lose its capital and its king in the same day.''

King Jalis Ironhammer: ''Guards, with me. We are leaving.''

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