Mucor-Tipped Weapons

Difficulty:  Minimum to survive, 180+ to solo
Level Restriction:  120+(?)
Timer:  13 Days
Can be Solo'd?  Yes
Rewards:  12.5% XP and Mucor-infused weapons, XP, or a powerful mucor mushroom

Soon after Torgluuk was freed, he offered Isparians inert mucor in an attempt to break through a Falatacot energy barrier deep within Bur.  Conveniently, using the mucor to break through the mana barrier also makes the mucor particularly potent.  If you like, you can distill the mucor and then use it to power up a weapon of Burun design.

Step 1:  Preparation.  You must be flagged to visit Bur (not surprisingly...) before you begin, so if you haven't done that, do it!  After you are flagged, bring a frost, fire, and slashing weapon to Kor-Gursha (the Burun town on Bur).  You will need to speak to two NPCs in town - first Scout Leader Tmauruk and then to Torgluuk.  You must speak to the NPCs in that order or you will not be properly flagged for the quest.  Torgluuk will give you an inert mucor mushroom.  Be careful - you can eat this mushroom if you aren't careful and that's something you really, really don't want to do.  Keep it safely in your pack.  While you are here, you might as well buy a Burun weapon from the Isparian vendor.  You will need this later, so keep it in your pack next to the mucor.  When you are ready, head into the Southern Catacombs.

Step 2:  The Crossroads.  From the Southern Catacombs drop, all you need to do is hug the right wall.  You will go through one large ring-shaped room, through a corridor, and into a second ring-shaped room.  You should be looking for a large rock along the outer wall.  When you find it, use it and it will teleport you into the next section, what I call the Crossroads.  This next dungeon is filled with nasty, high level creatures - Doomed Spirits, Sclavi, Guruks, and Falatacot.  Be especially careful around the Guruks - you will end up with a lot of vulns on you most likely and a Guruk can ruin your day if you are weak to his particular damage type.  From the drop, follow the corridor through a couple spawns and you will reach 'the cells'.  This part of the dungeon is basically a square corridor with cells on either side, each containing a monster and a statue.  You are looking for the 3rd cell from the far east on the outer row of the southern corridor of the square, so turn right and follow the cell block around to the south.  When you reach the end of the line, turn to the east and continue on.  When you reach the end of the southern line, stop and count back three doors.  Kill whatever is inside and then use the statue.  If you counted right, it will teleport you into a new dungeon.

Step 3:  Ley Lines.  This next dungeon has the feel of a twisting cavern or sewer.  The spawns are not isolated behind doors either, so you will have to fight pretty much everything.  You will be able to see your next enemy long before they attack you, and given how windy the dungeon is, you should be able to stop, dispel if necessary, and then safely imperil from behind a twist in the corridor.  If you hug the left wall and only go down, you should be able to navigate the dungeon without too much trouble.  If you do hug the left wall correctly, you will come to a ramp leading up at one point - just turn around and follow the other wall.  After a very long downward stretch, you will come to a doorway blocked off by rubble.  Behind the rubble you will see a large room filled with Diamond Golem remains.  Your goal is inside, but you will have to follow an alternate route to get there.  Continue along the left wall until you reach a room with a lava floor.  Stop for a moment and look - you will see three inviso-blocks appearing and disappearing.  Carefully jump from block to block - half shift jumps should be sufficient.  If you fall, just jump back on top of the nearest block.  Once you cross the lava room, you will be very close to the final room.  The room is guarded by an Infused Empyrean Blood Golem, the nasty fellow who dispatched all of Asheron's golems.  Despite his menacing appearance, he is actually quite benign.  Imperil him and then beat him down with your frost weapon.  When he is dead, head into the final room, where you will see many white dots on your radar to your left.  Target one and then use it - it is an exposed ley line.  When you use it, the game will ask you if you want to offer it your inert mucor mushroom.  Say yes and you will be rewarded with a big chunk of XP, which I am estimating to be around 12.5% to 15% of your level, uncapped.  You will also get your mucor mushroom back, but it will be radically altered.  Now that you have your mucor, you can leave.

Step 4:  Rewards.  You can do one of three things with your mucor mushroom - you can eat it, you can give it to Torgluuk for an additional XP reward, or you can use it in alchemy.  If this is your first time doing the quest, I strongly suggest you alchemize it.  Crafting the mucor mushroom is no easy proposition - Sarah the Intrepid is a fairly skilled alchemist, but she could only hit the 80% success range without using a rare gem.  Once you track down a capable alchemist, have them use an alembic on the mushroom to distill it.  Now you will need to find a tinkerer and some salvage.  If you are a melee, grab a bag of granite; if you are an archer, grab some mahogany; if you are a mage, find some opal.  As far as I can tell, workmanship doesn't matter.  Also note that if you are a mage, you will need to find a magic item tinkerer while melees and archers need to find a weapon tinkerer.  When you find a skilled tinkerer - specifically someone who is nearly maxed out - hand them your distilled mucor and your salvage bag and have them combine the two (no skill check).  Then hand over your Burun weapon from Kor-Gursha and have them apply the mucor-infused salvage to the weapon.  Chances are you will want to brilliance them.  Kickem and Sarah are both nearly maxed and they could only get to 97% and 99% respectively with the application tinker.  Hopefully you will succeed!  If you do, you will have a massively improved weapon.  The main use for the weapon is its cast-on-strike spell, which directly damages health.