The Proving Grounds and its points of interest:
- The Proving Grounds is a sub zone of Irda Isle, sextant coordinates are not available.
- Standard zone repop is around 30 minutes.
- Zone is randomly generated each reboot, at 10 x 10 rooms per floor.
- Cardinal directions (N E S W) all link true.
- Non-cardinal directions (NE SE SW NW) loop around the zone.
- The Proving Grounds floors stagger in degrees of danger:
- Killing mobs outside of your own floor range will result in tourmalines and roots been destroyed when the mob dies.
- Known runs for zone:
- Known marks for zone:
Background
Below the cliffs upon which Lord Bloodbane's castle is perched, across the treacherous Valley Lake with its numerous whirlpools and waterfalls, and through the deadly Moat, the most foolhardy of adventurers will find passage into the deepest of the caverns where the darkest creatures live. Though there are treasures aplenty to be had, there is great danger and all but the most powerful and wise adventurers escape unscathed. It is a mark of pride among adventurers to prove oneself by descending to the very depths of these caverns and collecting tourmalines or maleficarum roots to help one's clan or to help one's personal quest for power and knowledge.
Tracking to Level 23: Track the mob aurophaganax to get to level 23 of PG
Tips for Tourming & Rooting
- SET AUTO-LOOT OFF There are many items in PG that are cursed, and without the spell 'remove curse' you will not be able to drop these heavy items. There is a lot of junk all over PG that mobs pick up, it's best to keep your weight low by not picking these items up.
- Manually loot tourmalines and roots out of corpses. Check corpses for scatters by typing 'look in corpse' after each fight, or set a trigger (illegal, btw, but oh well..... to look in corpse upon the killing blow)
- Do not drop items on the ground - some rooms will automatically *POOF* the item when it is dropped, meaning the item either disappears or is sent to the Void where mobs will slowly decay and devour the item
- 1 tourmaline weighs 4 pb (100 pb in 1 stone)
- 1 root weighs 8 pb (double the weight of a tourmaline)
- Do bring insulated bags that have a low item weight:
- A gnomish miner's bag holds 75 items, and weighs only 14 pb
- A bag embroidered with silver runes holds 65 items, and weighs 20 pb
- A satchel holds 100 items, and weighs 25 pb
- A dream cloud holds 175 items, and weighs 25 pb
- Reduce the weight of your inventory, gear and items as much as possible. Store away all valuables and items not absolutely needed in a locker. Recommended to have at least 5-7 stones of free space open (not including bags) if not more, to make your trip worth it.
- Any gear or items that are not flagged as insulated may frag and disappear while you are killing mobs in PG. Be sure that you have an insulated source of haste and sanctuary, or carry back-ups.
- Be sure to have several lights, or a constant source of sanctuary.
- Be levitated at all times, either using a piece of gear or the spell. There are earthquakes in PG that will drop your vitals down to 1 hp 1 sp 1 st and can drop you down a level if you are not levitating.
- DO NOT pass off any of your collectibles or collectible containers to another person, as the items you have collected so far will POOF and disappear. This includes plushies, stamps and plates.
- Do bring a couple of 'word of recall' scrolls.
- If you die in PG, you will be resurrected Irda Isle recall. You will NOT resurrect at the Entrance to the Proving Grounds.
- If you recall or cast 'word of recall' while inside PG you will recall to Irda Isle, NOT the Entrance to the Proving Grounds. The only way to get back to the Entrance of the Proving Grounds from inside PG is to walk there manually.
- Remember that you cannot recall home or cast 'word of recall' on levels 1 through 8.
- Keep in mind that your character level indicates which floors will have a chance to destroy tourmalines and roots. See above for a general guideline, though keep in mind that tourms and roots may still occasionally be destroyed.
Directions to Moat
Option 1 - staying on Isle
- Recall to Drawbridge: w, n, 3w, 3s
- Drawbridge to Small Pass: 5s, 16e, 6n
- Small Pass to "Sign": 2d, 3n, e, n
- "Sign" to Strange Island (statue): n, 3w, 3s, w, s, w, s, w, s
- Strange Island to Beginning of Moat: w, 2e, s, w, 2s, w, n, w
Option 2 - going through Irda Caverns
Reef Starting Coordinates: 1280, 740
1. Head through Irda Caverns to 'Behind a Waterfall': from safe go 5n, all east south, 3e, 4 south.
Note: Need to have both levitation and a grapple to continue on.
2. From 'Behind a Waterfall' go: s w w s s w w w s s s w s w s w s
3. At 'A Deserted Island' go: w e e s w s s w n w You should now be at the entrance to the moat.
Note: Demons on moat path will block path progress until killed!
4. All west, all north, west, south to kill a Shadowspawn for key. 3rd South from statue, search, unlock west. All south is Death Trap!
5. Follow the path, kill the hermit for his key, then search down at the first n/s room and unlock down.
Getting to the Proving Grounds via the Hermit in Rune Crypts
Preparation:
- If you are below level 180, please be aware that you will likely need a 4th class + level person to escort you to the hermit as the area is full of nasty aggro mobs.
- You will need passdoor or will have to kill Murmur for the key.
- Before fully preparing for PG, check to see if the hermit is tired, meaning that someone already used a multi-faceted decanter within the last 6 hours. Once you get to the hermit, sayto hermit How are you feeling? If he tells you that he is tired, he won't open a portal. If he is feeling fine, then finish your preparations for PG and quickly return to him with your multi-faceted decanter.
- Check reagents, mems and have everything ready for your PG trip prior to using the decanter.
Getting to the hermit
- Make sure you have passdoor on -or- locate the NPC named Murmur within Rune temple. He usually repops 1 west, 1 south of Rune recall, but sometimes he can wander upstairs near Balthazar or the gargoyles. Be sure to check all doors & rooms for him, but be careful of the CPK room on the 2nd floor.
- Murmur is relatively easy for an average hero or archon, and somewhat difficult for a very good 180.
- Murmur summons elementals and can sometimes swarm. You can flee from him.
- Dispel him first if possible, then fully debuff him with faerie fire, curse, plague and poison, etc.
- Once in combat, slow if possible and perform other debuffs
- When Murmur begins casting, counterspell him to avoid his frequent summoning of elementals.
- If any elementals spawn, blind them, calm or flee out and return to the fight.
- Web Murmur as he can and will flee.
1. Once you have Murmur's key or are affected with pass door, from Rune recall go w, s, s, unlock or pass door east, open down, d, d, d, d, north into NPK, n, n [safe]. You should now be inside Temple Crypts.
- Note: the Vandyne Statue, which drops white marble equipment, repops just south of the Circular Room inside Temple Crypts. He has a very long repop timer.
2. Once at a
Circular Room SAFE check who underg and where for anyone in the NPK rooms. Spell up, check mems and prepare for aggro mobs. You can either fight the mobs, or flee.
Be aware that some mobs can paralyze so keep your HP high, calm as needed and return to the SAFE room to heal up.
3. When ready, go north, east, all north, all west, all north. The last north room will have the hermit: A wise old hermit who seeks rare objects is here getting a bite to eat.
4. Sayto hermit How are you feeling?
If A wise old hermit says to you, 'I am fine, thank you.'
- proceed to give him the multi-faceted decanter (be sure not to give him your decanter of endless water...)
- The hermit will begin talking, then proceed to cast a spell to open a portal. Enter the portal quickly, and you will be standing at the Entrance to the Proving Grounds. The portal will remain open only 1-2 minutes.
If A wise old hermit says to you, 'I am feeling rather tired.'
- Someone has used the hermit within the last 6 hours. There is no way of knowing when the timer will be up, so try again later or run the moat.
Getting Out of the Proving Grounds
There are 4 ways to get out of PG.
1. Die via mob or pray death, and resurrect at Irda Isle recall (remember not to die in CPK if you can help it...)
2. Navigate your way back up to the top, and cast word of recall to return to Irda Isle safe.
3. Navigate down to level 9 (NPK) and cast word of recall to return to Irda Isle safe.
4. Recall HOME if you have a house