Investigating Harraag

Difficulty:  Minimum to survive
Level Restriction:  120+ 
Timer:  13 Days
Can be Solo'd?  Harraag - no, too hard; Archive - yes
Rewards:  Harraag's Dagger, XP, Luminance, "Royal Investigator" title

Harraag the Banderling was one of Aerbax's first Prodigal Children, but he wasn't particularly successful at uniting the Banderling tribes.  Nevertheless, his Virindi ties have made him a threat to Ayan Baqur and some of the nearby Banderlings.  Help both groups by defeating Harraag in his own lair.

This is actually two separate quests, starting with Harraag's Lair...

Step 1:  Preparation.  This quest isn't the world's most popular, but you will need to track down a decent group of 120+ characters.  You will need a balanced group because some of the critters (rifts especially) are a royal pain for anyone but mages to kill.  Harraag himself is a melee-friendly monster, not to mention the reward is of particular use to dagger characters, so don't forget to bring some melees too.  You will also need a quick route to Ayan, since you will be visiting a couple times.  Also, bring along a slash and lightning render - melees may want to bring along AR weapons instead.  Most of the monsters in this quest are VoD or Caul monsters, so thoroughly debuffing monsters is a good idea.  Once your group is assembled, head to Ayan.

Step 2:  Chief Taraash.  Begin your quest by finding Guard Winterborn near the Arcanum building.  Everyone will need to talk to the Guard to begin the quest.  He will send you off to find Chief Taraash, a Banderling leader just east of town.  Run to 60.2S 81.9W, where you will find Taraash's headquarters.  Once you arrive, have one person speak to the Chief.  He will close and lock your fellow and flag you to enter Harraag's Lair, which is just to the east.  Run to 60.2S 80.3W and you will find a cave.  Use the portal inside - you can't just run through it.

Step 3:  Banderling Cave (sorry - no map!).  Now that you are in the dungeon, it's time to buff.  Make sure to bane against everything, as you'll be facing pretty much every damage type.  When you are ready, follow the path into a large chamber.  Turn left and head through the chamber to the northeast.  There are a lot of critters in the chamber - VoD Banderlings in particular - so it may be in your best interest to run through the room instead of fighting.  At the far end the chamber is a wide ramp leading down to a passage on the east wall.  Go in it and then clear whatever followed you.  It would be a good idea to fight the rest of your way.  At the next intersection, turn right and head down.  The best clue to know you are going the right way is to run into narrow halls with Rifts.  At the next intersection, find the south exit and go down.  Don't be fooled at the next intersection - do not go down (which is to the west) - go northeast and stay on the same level.  The next major room you will reach is a four-way intersection protected by quite a few Schisms.  Kill them and then head down the north exit.  At the far end of the passage is a portal leading into Harraag's Lair.  Regroup and give instructions before you go in!

Step 4:  Harraag's Lair.  Entering the portal will take you into a small room guarded by Harraag and his entourage.  I would suggest that you break your fellow into two groups - melees and mages - to deal with the spawn.  Harraag hits very hard, so send your melees to keep him occupied.  Mages should then deal with the other monsters.  I would take the rifts down first, then work on the other casters (Virindi, Zefirs, and Marionettes).  You can ignore the Carenzi - they aren't going to kill anyone.  Harraag himself is an annoying monster.  He does piercing and lightning damage (the lit damage is much more dangerous!), plus he frequently casts lightning rings on strike.  You can debuff him, but his magic D is pretty solid.  If anyone does die, they will need to run back to the Banderling Cave.  Using the portal takes you directly back into Harraag's Lair (much like the Harbinger).  When Harraag goes down, everyone will need to loot two items from him - a bag of Banderling relics and a shard of Harraag's Dagger.  There will be enough trophies for one fellow, but if you bring a bigger group, you may need to kill him again.  Once everyone has their rewards, hit the exit portal.

Step 5:  Rewards.  Head back to the Taraash's camp and give him the bag of relics.  He will reward you with approximately 65M XP.  You may show him the dagger shard if you like, but you will need to take that back to Guard Winterborn, who will repair the Dagger for you and give you 16M XP for your troubles.  If you don't want the dagger (it's attuned, so unless you have 400 base dagger, you probably won't have any use for it), you can hand it back in for another 6.5M XP.  All tolled, that's almost 90M XP for the quest.  You will also receive 12,000 Luminance.  Completing the quest also flags you to enter the Virindi Archive.

Now that you've defeated Harraag, it's time to find out where his dagger came from.  It's Virindi in origin, and there just so happens to be a Chaos Virindi Cave near Harraag's Lair...

Step 1:  Preparation.  Since you're already in Ayan, find Enmio di Cinghalle, who is just down the hill from Guard Winterborn.  If you've defeated Harraag, Enmio will ask you to investigate a Virindi installation to learn more about Harraag.  The Chaos Virindi Cave is filled with VoD and Caul monsters, so bring a slash render and melees may want to grab an armor render.  Mages may want to bring along their Virindi slayer wands.  You should buff in Ayan - the Chaos Virindi Cave is actually a landscape dungeon, so there isn't a better place to buff.  When everyone is buffed, head to 58.6S 81.5W, where you will see a cave entrance guarded by a couple of Virindi.  Kill them and head in.

Step 2:  Chaos Virindi Cave (Sorry, no map!).  This dungeon is much easier to navigate than the Banderling Cave, not to mention there aren't any 12,000 health Banderlings running around.  Follow the path down into the cave, killing as you go.  Your first direction change will be in a large chamber with multiple exits along the sides.  Ignore them and go to the back of the room, where you will find a passageway leading down in the floor.  Make your way to the northwest and go down the passage.  Follow the passage and take a left at the next intersection, which leads downward.  You will find yourself in another large chamber, similar to the first room in the Banderling Cave.  Make your way around it to the northwest to the far end of the chamber, where you will find an exit.  Follow this passage and take a left at the next exit, which will lead you to a portal leading into the Archive.

Step 3:  The Archive.  Your goal in this dungeon is to find the Archivist, who lives at the very bottom of this dungeon.  After you materialize, hop down and look for the east exit from this floor.  Follow the left wall and you will find a floor with a series of small rooms, each with a monster in it.  You'd be wise to kill all of these monsters, as some will no doubt follow you.  Once everything is dead, look in the center of the floor to find a hole leading down.  Hop down and you will land in a small room guarded by a few Virindi Quidioxes.  Be careful!  Once they are dead, go down and to the east, where you will find another hole.  Jump down and you will be on top of a small room overlooking the Archivist and his cohorts.  Ranged people should debuff and shoot the monsters as best they can before sending your melees down.  Once you've dispatched the Archivist, loot his corpse to find a fellowship's worth of message shards.  Everyone needs one.  Once you have your shards, head for Subway.

Step 4:  Rewards.  Take your shard to Diyas al-Yat to get it translated.  Then take your book back to Ayan and give it to Enmio for your XP reward (96.5M XP) and the title "Royal Investigator".