Arkati Temple : Broken Lands Guide

Broken Lands Guide
Version 1.0 - 5/28/2007

All right. You want the lowdown on the Broken Lands. You've come to the right place!

In order to gain entrance to the Broken Lands, you have a couple of choices.

First, you can take the long way by swimming through the lake and going through the opening into the pool of the Monestery. You will not even want to bother to attempt this without at least 20 ranks of swimming or purify air and 10 to 15 or so ranks. Unfortunately, in order to get the doors open, you will have to either have control of a familiar, or someone you are with will. You need to send a small familiar through the door. If you look at it, you will notice it is slightly ajar but too small for you to fit through. Send a mouse or similar small creature through the door and have it pull the lever on the other side. Also, you will have to swim out if you are doing any child rescues for the Adventurer Guild in the Monestery or in the Broken Lands.

The other choice is to either target someone on that side of the doors, or have someone set you a ring. A Voln master can walk through the tapestry right into the Misty Chamber; so they are the most likely candidate to hook you up.

You will need roughly 20 ranks at a minimum in Arcane Symbols to read the runes in the Misty Chamber. Trying it with less can cause harm to yourself.

Key Areas of the Broken Lands

Hooded Figures
Right inside the runes is one of the main hooded figure areas. You can refer to Tsoran's map of the area for details on the rooms involved. There really are no particular puzzles to solve if you are just there to slay figures.

Sheruvian Monestery
Tsoran's Map is a bit deceptive on acquiring entrance to the Sheruvian Monestery. You should be aware that once you pass through the curtain, you are going to need pretty much a minimum of 20 ranks of perception to get through the two puzzles. You need to SEARCH in the room inside the curtain until you find the HOLE. Once you go through the hole, you need to SEARCH again until you find the DOOR. Now, walk through the door, and you are in the area. Once you find the hole and door, you can POINT at it so others with you will not have to search themselves.

Once in the area, there are a couple of spots that require you to disarm and pick doors to pass through. I do not recommend you mess with these locked doors as the trap is an extremely masterful auto-resetting incinerator trap. It's your choice to play with it. In order to get out of the area inside the door, you will have to SEARCH for the door as you did to get in.

Jagged Plain
The Jagged Plain can give a magic user fits. Different rooms will suck mana from you, plus moving through the rooms give your roundtime (based on your climbing skill -- 15 ranks is 5 sec or so.) People following you will generally incur longer round times than you. Hunt it at your own risk.

Magru
In order to see the crack to magru, you need to SEARCH at the top of the rocks. If you do not see it on your first search, go back down and climb back up again. It is only possible to find the crack on the first search. You can POINT at it so that people who are following you do not have to search for it themselves. Now, most of the magru area requires taller races (all but gnomes, halflings, and dwarves) to kneel and move around the area (note mechanics allow you to simply travel the appropriate direction -- there is no need to use the CRAWL verb, even though the room messaging indicates that you are crawling). Looting a magru will cause a burn to your hand in the following progression RHL1 - RHL2 - RHL3 - LHL1 - LHL2 - LHL3 and so on (i.e. right hand level one wound, two, three). Take ambrominas leaf and use it after each search. It's worth it as they generally have gems.

Myklians
The crack to myklians is similar to the one into magru. If you do not see it the first time, you should leave the room and come back. Skinning a myklian WILL ALWAYS result in a wound. It can be a level 1 or level 2 wound to your hand. Their scales are worth quite a bit. LOOTing them has a chance of inflicting the same injuries. They carry no treasure.

Vorteces
Vorteces will also wander the myklian area. If you are a weapon swinger, the only effective weapons are BLUNT ones. They are rather susceptible to WIZARD BOLTS ( they will absorb Fire Spirit!), but all minor elemental spells are absorbed, as well as all sorcerer spells except for Dark Catalyst. I cannot speak for other profession spells as I have not tested it. Vorteces also wander the stairway and the Dark Shrine with the lesser vruul. They carry no treasure.

Dark Shrine
To gain entrance into the Dark Shrine, you enter the tunnel, touch the RELIEF and say LO THAL TA SHIN (Iruraic for spirit born of death) and you will be transported into the Dark Shrine. To leave the Dark Shrine, you touch the STATUE in the entry room and say DYAR TROG (Iruraic for dark cavern) and you will be transported back out.

Lesser Vruul
These are interesting. If you SKIN them, they are worth quite a bit, however, you will be injured similarly to myklians. They are immune to all minor elemental and bolt spells, making them impossible for a pure wizard. However, sorcerer spells are quite effective against them. They have rather low blood (about 250 health) and are what I'd call sorc-fodder. I have not yet tried them with other pures. They are skinnable AND carry treasure.

That's pretty much everything you need to know about the Broken Lands. It just seems daunting until you understand it.