This is a guide to the Vault of Night part 5 for those who do the quest
without me (with PUGs) or those who do it with me while I’m rushing or
drunk.
Pre-requirements: There are some levers and runes in this quest that require certain minimum ability scores. You need two people who can buff their Wisdom up to 20 and two people who can get their Strength to 25. Bringing a rogue is also strongly recommended, there are a lot of traps in the quest, some of which are quite nasty. On normal they can probably be survived, on elite it’s next to impossible. There are also locked doors. The doors can be unlocked either by a rogue or by a skilled wizard or sorcerer using the Knock spell. If you want to risk doing the quest without a rogue, make sure that your arcane caster can unlock he doors, otherwise you might find out halfway through the quest that you can’t progress.
The quest is big, there’s a lot of things to do and for someone who’s not familiar withi it, it might seem confusing. It’s always best to take an active role in the group if you want to get familiar with a quest – I did a lot of VON raids over the year I was in the Rusty Nail’s Adventurers and still I didn’t have a clear idea what the group was doing and why because there was always a couple of people in charge of things and the rest was just following.
The quest is divided into four parts called Conduits – Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western. The way I do it is as follows:
At the beginning, talk to Haywire and take the Voice module from him, you’ll need it to talk to the mouths throughout the quest. Go to the Western Conduit, disable the trap and keep going west through the top of the vertical shaft (there’s a talking mouth at the bottom of it but it can’t be used yet). Continue west, unlock the door and defeat Otto Knucklebones who drops the Signet Ring. It’s best if the person who took the Voice module takes the ring, too.
Come back to the beginning and go to the Northern Conduit. There’s a long room here divided into two corridors by force barriers. There are lightning and mechanical traps in both of the corridors. Buff you rogue up and send him/her in. The trap boxes are on the inner pillars, there’s a few of them on each side. They operate the mechanical traps, the lightning ones can’t be disabled. When it’s done, you need one Wisdom person and one Strength person on each side. The rogue (or wizard/sorcerer with Knock) should take the left corridor, as should the person with the Voice module nd the Signet Ring. The rest can choose either corridor but there are more people needed on the left side.
You’ll come to two sets of three controls on each side – a rune, a lever on the ground and a lever on a platform above. The rune requires Wisdom 20, the bottom lever requires Strength 25 and the upper lever must be shot with a ranged weapon (it’s also possible to jump to the platform above and turn it with a melee weapon but it takes some skill to get there). All of these controls must be used simultaneously on both sides. If you have a character who has both Strength 26 and Wisdom 20 (usually a battle cleric, paladin, ranger, monk..), it's possible to do the Wisdom rune and Strength lever with this one character, if you're quick enough. You might need a couple attempts to get it done properly, counting down helps – as soon as you do, the doors will open briefly on both sides for everyone to slip in.
Both groups will fight some warforged and come to a big room with lava and two bridges. On the left side, one person has to climb up the shoulder of the bridge and jump (with Feather Fall on!) over to the pillar with a lever on it. Pull the lever and let the rest of the group through the first gate. Another person has to climb up and jump over to the second pillar. Pull both levers at the same time to let the rest of the group throught the second gate and also the right group through the gate on their side. Make sure that neither of the two lever pullers is you locksmith or someone who has either the Signet Ring or Haywire's Voice. The left group then follows the way, goes past a Strength lever (which is locked for now) and fights some dwarves and warfoged until they come to a room with a red-named boss. Defeat him and his helpers. In the room behind him, you’ll find three wheels protected by a force barriers. You need the Signet Ring to remove these. The symbols these wheels have to be set to are shown on the talking mouths that you see throughout the quest – one in the Western Conduit, one in the North and one in the East. The combination is always the same – turn all of the wheels four times. After that, you can use the talking mouth. In order to do that, make sure you have Haywire’s Voice module in your inventory and say that you’re Otto Knucklebones. Then activate the two functions that the mouth offers to you. This unlocks the two Strength levers (one on the left side and one on the right side) – pull them and the Northern Conduit is finished.
Come back to the Western Conduit, go to the vertical shaft and drop to the bottom of it. There’s another talking mouth down there which you need to talk to, using the Voice module again. Choose to activate the function it offers. Then go west, there’ll be a new room in here where you can grab the Adamantine Coffer. Before you can pick it up, you’ll have to fight some iron golems. Don’t forget there’s a shrine and some loot in the room behind where you fought Otto Knucklebones before. You’re done in the West.
Now proceed to the Eastern Conduit. Unlock the door you come to and use the talking mouth to dispose of the Adamantine Coffer (you must have it in your inventory). Then go north through a series of fights and doors until you come to a room with a lightning puzzle. You have to send the power through the five runes to remove a force barrier on yet another talking mouth. Use the mouth and activate the two functions. Then come back to the beginning of this Conduit and go south. There’s some fighting and locked doors again and, eventually, you’ll come to a red-named rust monster which drops the Master Key upon death. This key unlocks the Southern Conduit.
Go south from the start. You’ll come to a vertical shaft again with a fire spitting jet. Four people have to drop down to the bottom of the room (make sure not to land in the lava pool - it's hot). There are four levers here. If you pull all of them simultaneously, the fire blowing from the jet above is replaced by air for a brief moment which can launch one or more people onto the platform above. It’s best to launch your rogue first, because the platform is full of traps. Keep going up and pulling the levers you see along the way to lower some ladders, which will make it possible for the rest of the group to follow you on your way up. You’ll have to use another jet a bit later to blow someone onto another ladder. After a few fights, you’ll finally come to the last set of locked and trapped doors. Behind them, there’s a big room with a huge iron golem and Arach d’Kundarak. Now it’s time for everyone to buff some sonic resistance and to rest for the casters. Make sure that noone talks to the dwarf in the room before everyone’s in. As soon as you speak with him, the gate closes and anyone’s who’s not in will be locked out and won’t be able to proceed to VON 6. When everyone is in the room, surround the iron golem with your fighters and talk to the dwarf, which starts the fight. Use adamantine weapons and no fire weapon or spells, fire heals it. When it’s over, don’t recall. Talk to the dwarf again, he will open the gate to VON 6 for you – it will appear where the golem was standing. It’s a good idea to spend as little mana as possible in the last fight because you won’t have any more opportunities to rest before the dragon encounter. That’s it, enjoy the massive XP.
Please note that you don’t have to do everything step-by-step as it’s described here. For example, it’s possible to start off by sending a group west and east to clear the way while the rogue disables the traps in the Norther Conduit. This can save a lot of time but it requires that everyone knows what they’re doing and you should also be aware who has the Signet Ring, Voice Module, Adamantine Coffer etc.
Pre-requirements: There are some levers and runes in this quest that require certain minimum ability scores. You need two people who can buff their Wisdom up to 20 and two people who can get their Strength to 25. Bringing a rogue is also strongly recommended, there are a lot of traps in the quest, some of which are quite nasty. On normal they can probably be survived, on elite it’s next to impossible. There are also locked doors. The doors can be unlocked either by a rogue or by a skilled wizard or sorcerer using the Knock spell. If you want to risk doing the quest without a rogue, make sure that your arcane caster can unlock he doors, otherwise you might find out halfway through the quest that you can’t progress.
The quest is big, there’s a lot of things to do and for someone who’s not familiar withi it, it might seem confusing. It’s always best to take an active role in the group if you want to get familiar with a quest – I did a lot of VON raids over the year I was in the Rusty Nail’s Adventurers and still I didn’t have a clear idea what the group was doing and why because there was always a couple of people in charge of things and the rest was just following.
The quest is divided into four parts called Conduits – Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western. The way I do it is as follows:
At the beginning, talk to Haywire and take the Voice module from him, you’ll need it to talk to the mouths throughout the quest. Go to the Western Conduit, disable the trap and keep going west through the top of the vertical shaft (there’s a talking mouth at the bottom of it but it can’t be used yet). Continue west, unlock the door and defeat Otto Knucklebones who drops the Signet Ring. It’s best if the person who took the Voice module takes the ring, too.
Come back to the beginning and go to the Northern Conduit. There’s a long room here divided into two corridors by force barriers. There are lightning and mechanical traps in both of the corridors. Buff you rogue up and send him/her in. The trap boxes are on the inner pillars, there’s a few of them on each side. They operate the mechanical traps, the lightning ones can’t be disabled. When it’s done, you need one Wisdom person and one Strength person on each side. The rogue (or wizard/sorcerer with Knock) should take the left corridor, as should the person with the Voice module nd the Signet Ring. The rest can choose either corridor but there are more people needed on the left side.
You’ll come to two sets of three controls on each side – a rune, a lever on the ground and a lever on a platform above. The rune requires Wisdom 20, the bottom lever requires Strength 25 and the upper lever must be shot with a ranged weapon (it’s also possible to jump to the platform above and turn it with a melee weapon but it takes some skill to get there). All of these controls must be used simultaneously on both sides. If you have a character who has both Strength 26 and Wisdom 20 (usually a battle cleric, paladin, ranger, monk..), it's possible to do the Wisdom rune and Strength lever with this one character, if you're quick enough. You might need a couple attempts to get it done properly, counting down helps – as soon as you do, the doors will open briefly on both sides for everyone to slip in.
Both groups will fight some warforged and come to a big room with lava and two bridges. On the left side, one person has to climb up the shoulder of the bridge and jump (with Feather Fall on!) over to the pillar with a lever on it. Pull the lever and let the rest of the group through the first gate. Another person has to climb up and jump over to the second pillar. Pull both levers at the same time to let the rest of the group throught the second gate and also the right group through the gate on their side. Make sure that neither of the two lever pullers is you locksmith or someone who has either the Signet Ring or Haywire's Voice. The left group then follows the way, goes past a Strength lever (which is locked for now) and fights some dwarves and warfoged until they come to a room with a red-named boss. Defeat him and his helpers. In the room behind him, you’ll find three wheels protected by a force barriers. You need the Signet Ring to remove these. The symbols these wheels have to be set to are shown on the talking mouths that you see throughout the quest – one in the Western Conduit, one in the North and one in the East. The combination is always the same – turn all of the wheels four times. After that, you can use the talking mouth. In order to do that, make sure you have Haywire’s Voice module in your inventory and say that you’re Otto Knucklebones. Then activate the two functions that the mouth offers to you. This unlocks the two Strength levers (one on the left side and one on the right side) – pull them and the Northern Conduit is finished.
Come back to the Western Conduit, go to the vertical shaft and drop to the bottom of it. There’s another talking mouth down there which you need to talk to, using the Voice module again. Choose to activate the function it offers. Then go west, there’ll be a new room in here where you can grab the Adamantine Coffer. Before you can pick it up, you’ll have to fight some iron golems. Don’t forget there’s a shrine and some loot in the room behind where you fought Otto Knucklebones before. You’re done in the West.
Now proceed to the Eastern Conduit. Unlock the door you come to and use the talking mouth to dispose of the Adamantine Coffer (you must have it in your inventory). Then go north through a series of fights and doors until you come to a room with a lightning puzzle. You have to send the power through the five runes to remove a force barrier on yet another talking mouth. Use the mouth and activate the two functions. Then come back to the beginning of this Conduit and go south. There’s some fighting and locked doors again and, eventually, you’ll come to a red-named rust monster which drops the Master Key upon death. This key unlocks the Southern Conduit.
Go south from the start. You’ll come to a vertical shaft again with a fire spitting jet. Four people have to drop down to the bottom of the room (make sure not to land in the lava pool - it's hot). There are four levers here. If you pull all of them simultaneously, the fire blowing from the jet above is replaced by air for a brief moment which can launch one or more people onto the platform above. It’s best to launch your rogue first, because the platform is full of traps. Keep going up and pulling the levers you see along the way to lower some ladders, which will make it possible for the rest of the group to follow you on your way up. You’ll have to use another jet a bit later to blow someone onto another ladder. After a few fights, you’ll finally come to the last set of locked and trapped doors. Behind them, there’s a big room with a huge iron golem and Arach d’Kundarak. Now it’s time for everyone to buff some sonic resistance and to rest for the casters. Make sure that noone talks to the dwarf in the room before everyone’s in. As soon as you speak with him, the gate closes and anyone’s who’s not in will be locked out and won’t be able to proceed to VON 6. When everyone is in the room, surround the iron golem with your fighters and talk to the dwarf, which starts the fight. Use adamantine weapons and no fire weapon or spells, fire heals it. When it’s over, don’t recall. Talk to the dwarf again, he will open the gate to VON 6 for you – it will appear where the golem was standing. It’s a good idea to spend as little mana as possible in the last fight because you won’t have any more opportunities to rest before the dragon encounter. That’s it, enjoy the massive XP.
Please note that you don’t have to do everything step-by-step as it’s described here. For example, it’s possible to start off by sending a group west and east to clear the way while the rogue disables the traps in the Norther Conduit. This can save a lot of time but it requires that everyone knows what they’re doing and you should also be aware who has the Signet Ring, Voice Module, Adamantine Coffer etc.
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