Dereth and Transportation

Dereth is a very large place!  The environs vary from frozen wastes to old forests to lush jungles.  The tricks to Dereth are  knowing where to find things and then knowing how to get there.  Before you read the rest of my description, have a look at the map overlayed with the difficulty of the monsters in that area.  Dereth and Marae Lassel have their own maps.

Dereth itself is a large island roughly divided in half by an inner sea.  The larger section in the east is called Osteth and is home to the Human kingdom and the majority of the towns you can visit.  Central Osteth is a fairly benign place, monster-wise.  Most of the terrain is rolling hills and grassy plains, with two exceptions being the A'mun desert along the Inner Sea to the west and the Blackmire Swamp in the southeast.  The southern section of Osteth is a more dangerous place called the Linvak mountains, home to the Lugians.  The northlands are also mountainous in the center, but the far northwestern shore of Osteth is a dense forest.  The northeast corner of Osteth is separated from the rest of Osteth by the Lost Wish mountains.  Inside the mountain ring is the home of the Olthoi.

The smaller western section of Dereth is called the Direlands, and as the name suggests, is a much more dangerous place than Osteth.  Much of the Direlands is a rocky wasteland, but there are a few Human settlements.  There are three very dangerous sections of the Direlands - the Obsidian Plains, the Withered Atoll, and the Valley of Death.  The Obsidian Plains are a large magic-blasted area filled with large groups of high level monsters.  The Withered Atoll is located on the extreme southwest corner of the Direlands and is filled with monsters who are immune to all forms of magic except War spells.  The Valley of Death is even more dangerous, as it is populated by very very high level monsters with large amounts of health. 

In addition to the mainland, there are several island groups close to Dereth to explore.  The largest island is Marae Lassel, off the northern shore of the Direlands.  This island is home to the Tumeroks and an Olthoi Queen.  The Halaetan Islands are located near Marae Lassel and are home to the Viamontian Throne in Dereth, as well as the Viamontian Rebels, the Fiun, Ruschk, and Eaters.  Of all the islands, these two groups are unique because it has lifestones and can be reached via portals in many towns in Osteth.  Aerlinthe Island is a volcanic island off the north shore of Osteth, home to a variety of monsters.  The Vesayans are a tropical island chain to the southeast of Osteth.  They are home to mostly mosswarts, sclavi, and moarsman.  Singularity Caul is off the southwest shore of the Direlands.  It is the home to many renegade Virindi, as well as plenty of other nasty high level monsters similar to those in the Valley of Death.  Aphus Lassel is a small island group off of the eastern shore of Osteth.  The biggest and scariest Tuskers live here, with their enslaved Human minions and their favorite food sources.  The newest island to appear is Vissidal Isle, located off the northeast shore of Dereth.  This island is populated with horrible monsters and Falatacot survivers.  Each of these island groups have no lifestones (with the exception of Vissidal) and require you to either go through a dungeon or complete a quest to reach them.  Special recall scrolls are also available for each island (again, except Vissidal), if you can survive the quest to recover them.

With all of these places to visit, traveling around could seem like a daunting task.  Fortunately, there is an extensive transit system at your disposal.  Almost every town has a portal to it, saving you the need to run from town to town.  Additionally, if you have item magic, you have access to planar magic.  You can tie yourself to one lifestone and two portals and then recall to them at your leisure.  The spell 'Portal Recall' also allows you to return to the last portal you used, assuming the portal allows recalling - some do not.  You can also return to the lifestone with which you have attuned by typing /lifestone.  You can attune yourself (ie, doubleclick) to one lifestone and lifestone tie to another one, giving you an additional place to travel.  That's 5 places you can tie right there.  If you own a home, you can return there by typing /house recall and if you belong to a monarchy that owns a villa or mansion, you can type /house mansion_recall and return there.  Monarchies can also set a hometown that you can visit with /allegiance hometown.  That brings the total ties you can have up to 8.  Add in the Island Recall and Mount Lethe Recall spells, and the grand total is 13.  You can also visit the Marketplace at any type by typing /marketplace.  Marketplace has no exits, but is a great place to meet people or conduct business. 

Of your two portal ties, one really ought to be the Abandoned Mine in Arwic, commonly called Subway.  At the bottom of the dungeon is a pit with over a dozen portals in it, going to most of the major towns in Osteth.  You need to be able to survive a fairly long fall, so lower levels should either avoid using Subway until they have 75+ health or they should get a Bludgeoning Protection spell cast on them.  Subway is probably the most useful tie, but there are two other dungeons with a large grouping of portals inside them.  Another is Jungle Shadows on the Vesayan Islands.  Once you get past the Shadows guarding the dungeon, there are another dozen or so portals to use here, most of which you can't find in Subway.  Desert March is just south of the PoA mansion (SW of Zaikhal) and has portals to many points in the Direlands, but has a lot of Tumeroks, Drudges, Virindi, and even a couple Hollow Minions.

If you are running to a particular dungeon in Osteth, you can probably shave a little time off your trip by using a Settlement Portal.  Most of the cottage and villa communities have portals leading to them from towns throughout Osteth.  There are a lot of settlement portals though, so you really need to use a program like AC Explorer to know which one will save you the most time.