Mhoire Jester

Difficulty:  Minimum to survive, 200+ with lots of augmentations to complete the Jester's Prison alone
Level Restriction:  160+
Timer:  20 Hours
Can be Solo'd?  No, because of Lord Mhoire's challenge segment
Rewards:  Dark Scarab in a Pyramid, Arcane Pyramid spell, two titles, XP, 5,000 Luminance

House Mhoire was cursed to become undead because of the actions of the court's jester.  In exchange for his complicity, Rytheran gave the Jester supernatural powers with the Book of Ebihil.  After discovering the Jester was responsible for their fate, Lord Mhoire entombed the Jester inside an elaborate prison, the only way he could trap the powerful new form of the Jester.

Step 1:  Preparation.  This quest requires a lot of time and a good deal of luck.  To do the quest, you will need to find an Ornate Bone Key, a rare drop on nighttime spawns in the Graveyard.  You will also want to recruit one fellow to help you fight Lord Mhoire and finish the quest.  In addition, you will want to have a good supply of dispel gems and vitae burners before doing the final stage of the quest.

Step 2:  Jester's Love.  Assuming you have found your bone key, the next step is to take your fellowship to visit the Jester.  The jester's prison is in one of the bunkers in the central Graveyard, located at 64.9S 44.1W.  This bunker is the same one with Lady Mhoire's chest, if you are familiar with it.  The portal into the Jester's Prison does not appear on the map for some reason, so you will have to find it the old fashioned way.  Go into the bunker and take your first right, heading down.  The ramp will open up into a small chamber.  Go right and look for a stairwell leading up.  This section is protected by 3 Corrupted Dreads, so you may want to consider having your melees kill them to keep everyone alive.  Once you make it up the stairs, hug the wall and you will pass through a false wall.  Just past the false wall is the portal into the prison.  If you are having trouble finding the portal, you can select the Jailor NPC.  He stands right next to the false wall.  Once you are inside the prison, select the yellow dot on the radar.  It's a wall.  Talk to the wall and the Jester (who is behind the wall) will ask for your help.  Once you have talked to him, you may take the surface portal back out.  Now head out of the bunker and run to the central west exit.  Nearby, at 65.2S 44.3W, is the Jester's lost love, Laylana.  Talk to her and she will give you two notes.

Step 3:  Lord Mhoire.  Now it's time to use your Ornate Bone Key.  I would suggest waiting for daytime, but that isn't necessary.  Take your group (a full fellow is strongly advised!) to the temple building in the north central part of the Graveyard.  Whoever has your key should give it to the east Gargoyle statue, which will summon a portal in the middle of the Temple.  Avoid the temptation to fight the local monsters inside the Temple, or you will just bring the whole Graveyard down around your ears.  As soon as the portal spawns, get in it.  You will find yourself in Lord Mhoire's arena.  Specifics about this fight can be found at the very bottom of the Graveyard Guide.  Once Lord Mhoire respawns as an NPC, make sure everyone hands him their Pleading Note.  Lord Mhoire will give you a prison key in exchange.  Of course, don't forget to talk to Lord Mhoire for your key to his chest and some Mhoire Coins!  Once you have your Prison Key, you can leave.  Be aware that the key Lord Mhoire gives you is on a timer.  It will self-destruct in 24 hours, so that's how long you have to do the quest.

Step 4:  Jester's Prison.  Return to the Jester's prison just like before.  Once inside, rebuff as necessary.  You will want either bludgeoning or acid weapons for the next part.  When your team is ready, give your keys to the door at the far side of the entry room and you will be portalled into the first segment of the dungeon.  This part's very simple - no monsters and simple levers.  Once you reach a lever door that doesn't have a lever right next to it, turn left.  In this room you will find a big lever and another Jester Wall.  Have everyone hand their Love Letter (from Laylana) to the wall.  This will allow you to use the lever.  Hit it and move just past the lever door.  *NOTE!!!*  If you don't like the prospects of freeing an insanely powerful Jester or you'd rather not brave the rest of the dungeon, you can stop now and earn your XP.  Now comes the combat.  From this point on, those friendly statues you saw up until this point will come to life!  For the most part, the hallways are narrow enough so that you can have your melees screen the monsters away from your mages, which is a good thing because of how hard the statues can hit.  There are two types of statues in the dungeon - human shaped ones that do melee damage in a variety of elements and gargoyles that are nasty casters.  Kill the human ones first.  They have lower health, so will go down pretty quickly.  The gargoyles are a royal pain because of their casting and big health tanks.  Your first task is to wipe out a spawn of 3 statues and then destroy a door.  Blast through it and you will come to the first lever puzzle.  In this room, you will find several statues behind lever doors.  Have your team's melees dispatch the statues while the doors are still closed to keep everyone nice and alive.  Once everything is dead, solve the lever puzzle.  Hitting the lever on the north wall will open the NE and NW door.  Pick one side and hit the lever inside the small alcove.  I preferred to use the left side of the room.  There are two levers in each alcove - one opens and closes that alcove's door and the other opens the next alcove.  Once you've hit all five levers, the north central door will open.  Go through it.  The next hallway is a gauntlet of sorts.  Kill the statues and then press on.  You will then come to a second lever puzzle.  THis one's much more dangerous because there are four gargoyles perched above the room.  Keep your team in the hallway and have your mages attempt to pull the perched gargoyles by casting on the room's statues.  Once the perched gargoyles are down, dispatch the rest of the statues through the doors like before.  When everything is dead, it's lever time.  This time, you will need to start the sequence by hitting a pressure plate in front of the south central door.  Hit the levers in progression as the doors open and eventually you will open the SE and SW doors that lead into the next segment.  That's it for the lever puzzles!  The next room also has perched Gargoyles, but this time the human statues can get free from the start.  Have your mages pull behind your melees to clear the room.  Once it is clear, smash the killable door.  Now you will find yourself in another gauntlet hall, this time with lever doors.  Kill as you go.  Once you've cleared the last statue, stop for a second past the final lever door.

Step 5:  Rolling Pyramids of Death.  Now for the most deadly part!  First though, good news!  If you've made it this far, you will be able to rejoin your group if you die to the pyramids.  The bad news is that the rolling pyramids of death aren't fun by any stretch of the imagination.  Remember Gaerlan's rolling balls of death..?  Make them a few times faster and you have RPoD.  Your job is to run east from alcove to alcove.  If a pyramid hits you, you're dead.  If you do die, return to the prison, giving your key to the door.  You will find yourself at the beginning of the RPoD section.  Fortunately, you do not lose items in this dungeon, which is a blessing.  Timing is key.  There are basically two pyramids that spawn at different rates.  Watch carefully and the pyramids will spawn very close together every 30 sec to a minute.  That's your cue to run to the next alcove.  This might just be my client, but when I did it, I noticed that the second pyramid was smaller looking when the pyramids spawned at their closest.  This is hard - no doubt.  You will probably die at least once before you get the pattern.  Just come back and try again.  Once you make it through the whole hall, congratulate yourself and wait for your team.  When everyone has arrived, head north and use the portal door.

Step 6:  The Jester.  Now for the end fight!  You will find yourself in a large room with a large pillar in the middle.  Attacking the pillar will summon a few statue friends, but the pillar will die very quickly to your melees.  Have a mage imperil it and then bash it down as quickly as possible, ignoring the statues.  Once the pillar goes down, the statues will disappear and the Jester will spawn.  Now for some unconfirmed info.  If you have done the quest before, using the last door will not teleport you into the same room as first-timers.  As I understand it, you will have to throw TW fireballs at the Jester to earn your reward for subsequent trips, but as I have not yet done the quest more than once, I don't have any details for you.

Step 7:  Rewards.  Talk to the Jester to receive your spell and Dark Scarab pyramid.  The spell is a slightly improved pierce bolt spell that requires the Dark Scarab inside the pyramid.  Once you use the pyramid, it will turn into a Dark Scarab that only has an 8 hour lifespan, so only use it on special occasions!  If you have a bludge vuln on you, dispel it and then talk to the Jester a second time for a title (Jester's Fool) and a trip back to the Graveyard.... at an altitude of about a mile!  Now find Laylana again and talk to her.  She will give you a second title (Jester's Emancipator) and XP, up to around 200M depending on your level.  If you decided not to free the Jester, still return to Laylana and talk to her for your XP but no title.  If you are completing this quest for a second time, you will get a third title - Jester's Accomplice.