Fetish of Dark Idols

Difficulty:  45+ to solo monsters, 30+ to survive the run
Level Restriction:  None
Timer:  7 Days on Pieces, about 45 days to repair
Can be Solo'd?  Yes
Rewards:  Fetish of Dark Idols - See Below 

Many archers out there have no melee defense.  If you fight mostly magic casters, this quest is for you.  There is a price to be paid, though...

*Note* You can do the first 3 steps in any order you want.

Step 1: Find an Ancient Diamond Idol. Head to Aerlinthe first! You'll be looking for Ancient Diamond Golems, who are pretty much identical to oldschool Diamond Golems. Translation for newer players: they imperil, vuln, and war VI. They also have slightly higher health and resistances than normal Diamond Golems. These golems, like every other monster on this quest, spawn in packs of 4, and can be found on the northern coast of Aerlinthe or inside the high level Golem pits of the two smaller mountains.  The golem pits are dangerous!  If you are a lower level character, stick with the spawns on the northern shore. Kill them en masse until you find an Ancient Diamond Idol, which looks like a little pack doll. On a side note, these guys are good sources for Diamond Powder, Motes, and Hearts if you need those.

Step 2: Find a Great Elariwood Idol. These guys spawn in the northern plains of Marae Lassel. The best way to get there is via the portal in Danby's Outpost. That portal deposits you right in the middle of the Great Elariwood spawns too. I run around between 72 and 76W, 54 and 56N. Again, these guys spawn in packs of 4. I've found that they tend to drop their Idols less often than Ancient Diamonds and they are harder to find. These guys toss the same kind of magic - VI vulns and war - but they use melee slashing and bludgeoning damage and piercing war/vulns. They are weakest to Flame and Slash. Again, you are looking for an idol that looks like a pack doll.

Step 3: Find a Blood Fiend's Ring. Head to Sanctuary, hopefully via Sanctuary Recall. On the island of Ithaenc (the last island in the Vesayans), you'll find packs of 4 Blood Fiends. These guys are Skeletons, so use Bludgeoning or Flame (preferably blug!). They don't have the same skill with life magic as the Golems you've been fighting - only V flame vulns and VI flame wars - but they wield a variety of melee weapons, so you'll have to bane for pretty much everything if you're that kind of character. You are looking for a "Warding Ring" that seems to drop fairly frequently, so you shouldn't have to kill too many of these guys.

*Follow the remaining order from here out!*

Step 4: Aphus Lassel. Make sure to bring your Warding Ring with you! Buff up in town, making certain to bane against Blug, Acid, and Piercing. Your mission here is twofold. First off, you need to make your way to Kleeoh, the seer on the second island of the group. Hand her the Warding Ring and she will remove a vial of Black Blood from the ring, allowing it to be worn. The ring casts Lightning Protection VII and Minor Storm Ward on you, but you have to have 275 *BASE* arcane lore to wield it. While you're out on the second island, track down some Infected Assailers. I sure hope you baned against Acid, because unlike regular Tuskers, that's what kind of melee damage these guys do. Kill enough of these and you will find a bit of Infected Fur. Now that you have your two idols, the blood, and your fur, it's running time.

Step 5: Process the Fur and Assemble the Idol. Head for Neydissa Castle with your 4 trophies. Easiest way to get there if you don't have a Jungle Shadows portal is via the Highland Manor portal in Glendon Wood. Once you reach the castle, find the Loom upstairs. Hand it your Infected Fur and it will process it into a string. The Loom will give you two messages before returning the Fur, so don't be worried when you don't get it back quickly. Once you have the fur, add the vial of blood to it. Then use the string on the Diamond Idol, then the Elariwood Idol. Your Fetish is now complete!... well, mostly.

Step 6: Visit the Hermit. Take your assembled Fetish to the Hermit living in the Great Dires Lighthouse located at 26S 47W. The easiest way to get there is by using Portal to Kivik Lir's Temple - one of Blackmire I's rewards. This portal drops you pretty much due south of the Lighthouse at the north end of the Dires swamps. Climb the tower and hand the Hermit your Fetish. He'll mock you and return to you a completed and functional Fetish, ready to be added to a missile weapon.

About the Fetish:

The Fetish adds a Magic Absorbing property to whatever you attach it to, at the cost of a -10% melee defense penalty. After you've added the Fetish, the missile weapon cannot be imbued, although it can be further tinkered with normal materials (mahogany). You *can* add a Fetish to a weapon that has already been imbued, however. When you are wielding the weapon and you take damage from a war projectile spell, the damage done is reduced. At the moment, I haven't done enough experimentation to know what percentage the damage reduction is, but it seems to vary from each spell.

The price of adding the Fetish can be pretty steep and can make the Fetish very unattractive to certain archers. Tank archers who have specialized melee defense and predominantly fight non-spellcasters will find the Fetish undesirable. My crossbowman, on the other hand, relies on Life and Item magic for defense, so the melee defense penalty is really irrelevant. Like pretty much anything else, your decision to use or not use the Fetish is a personal preference issue. If you're a tank dungeon crawler, either don't use the Fetish at all or make a seperate weapon for the situations where you'd want to use the bow (ie, quests). If you're a Life archer who hunts magic casters outdoors mostly, go nuts, especially if you don't have melee defense.

One final note: Each of the 4 trophies has a timer of a week to pick up. However, the Hermit in the Lighthouse refused to fix my fetish today, so there is a pretty long timer on that part of the quest - probably 45 days.  So, if you want to get a whole set of Fetishes, you can hunt for the items with one character, but you'll need multiple characters to make the run to the Lighthouse. Fortunately, every piece is giveable, including the final product.