The Graveyard

The Graveyard is Turbine's first attempt at Elder Content (I think) and sports some of the most sophisticated coding in the game so far.  Wandering monsters, different spawns from day to night, rats the size of St. Bernards - Graveyard has everything!

Why Bother?

The XP in the Graveyard isn't nearly as good as it is in other high level areas, so why should you spend time killing undead?  Three words - Ancient Mhoire Coins.  These are a special currency used in the Graveyard to buy unique items available nowhere else.  The vendor is a Ghost who lives in the depths of a crypt in the south-central region of the Graveyard and he only comes out at night.  There are two main ways to go about getting coins - hunt or quest.   Anything that never sees the light of day can drop a coin, but more on that later.  There are also several quests you can do that pay coins as a reward.  Also keep an eye out for keys on your kills.  Those can be converted into more coins if you are lucky.  With the Jester's arrival in the Graveyard, there are also cards to be keeping an eye out for.

The Mechanics

The Graveyard is centered at 65S, 44W and has two different spawn groups - day and night.  Daytime lasts from Dawnsong until Evensong, and then night lasts the rest of the day.  Each time period is roughly an hour long.  During the day, the area is overrun with Grave Rats and Pyre Skeletons / Minions.  These creatures cannot drop coins, although the rats have a good loot profile and are involved in a kill task (more on that later).  When night comes, the Rats are replaced by various types of undead (the Skeletons stay).  Anything that only spawns at night can drop a Mhoire coin.  During both time periods, the crypts in the central region of the Graveyard are home to Corrupted Dreads.  Regardless of the time of day, these ghosts can always drop Mhoire coins, so you can continue hunting for coins when the sun comes out.

Some of the creatures in the Graveyard have the ability to wander around, unlike pretty much every other creature in Dereth.  Most of them stay relatively still, but Spectral Dread ghosts have a particularly nasty habit of wandering into you when you want them not to.  For the most part, the rats, skeletons, and undead stay close to their spawn points, but keep a watchful eye on the radar, just in case.

Know Thyself

The Graveyard is a nasty place for anyone, but you really need to know your abilities and limitations to do well.  If you don't have a shield, you will need to rely on perching - everything hits too hard to try to take without a shield.  Everything also has a lot of health, so being able to imperil (and possibly even vuln) is very important.  If you don't have good Life Magic, you will need to rely on a runed weapon.

Know Thy Enemy

The Graveyard's spawns change with

• Grave Rats.  These spawn in packs of 8 typically.  They only use melee attacks but can breathe elemental damage (frost or acid).  They are by far the easiest enemies in the Graveyard, but drop surprisingly good loot.  They only spawn during the day and are weakest to lightning damage.  They cannot drop coins, but do drop Cards.
• Pyre Minions, Skeletons, Champions.  These spawn in groups of 4 or more.  Champions only appear at night, but the Minions and Skeletons are permanent features.  Minions aren't too dangerous and only do a weaker bludgeoning damage, but the Skeletons and Champions cast Fire Vulns and Wars, in addition to using very strong fire attacks.  Minions and Skeletons aren't worth fighting ever unless you absolutely need to clear a spot, but Champions make good practice for a perched mage.  Use bludgeoning if you have it, fire if you don't.  Only the Champions can drop coins.
• Corrupted and Spectral Dreads.  These are ghosts.  Corrupted Dreads spawn all the time, but only in the crypts in the central Graveyard.  Spectral Dreads spawn above ground at night.  Both hit with a potentially devastating frost melee attack, as well as casting frost vulns and occasionally wars.  Corrupteds are weakest to lightning, but Spectrals are weaker to fire.  Both can drop coins.
• Wights.  Wights are Undead and come in three flavors - plain old Wights, Wight Captains, and Wight Blade Sorcerers.  Wights are slow and hit with a mediocre bludgeoning melee attack.  Wight Captains are faster, use slashing swords most often, and vuln and war with slashing magic.  Wight Blade Sorcerers only cast - and they cast a lot.  Expect slashing vulns, bolts, arcs, volleys, and rings.  These undead only come out at night and are weakest to fire, especially from an undead slayer.  Captains and Sorcerers can drop coins and I believe regular Wights can as well (although I need to verify that).
• Wisps.  These things cast brutal magic and should be avoided as best you can.  Use slash if you really want to kill one.

There are also a couple of bosses you may come across in the Graveyard.  One is Lady Tairla Mhoire, an Undead who randomly spawns at night.  The other is Death Tail the rat, who only spawns when people are running his quest.  Treat them like you would a wight or a rat, respectively.

Get Equipped

To be effective in the Graveyard, you will need:

• High Level Armor, preferably with Majors.  Pretty much everything hits very hard.  Pretty much everything has high defense stats too, so you'll need all the help you can get from majors.
• Rending Weapons.  The most important damage types are lightning during the day and fire at night, but having a bludgeoning weapon ready will be helpful.  That fire render should have an undead slayer gem if you can manage it.
• Runed Weapons.  Even if you can cast imperils yourself, switching from your shield to a wand can be fatal.  Some creatures might require you to use a Runed Wand to cast magic yield first too.
• Consumables.  You will want to have some dispel gems, as well as stamina and health fuel just in case.

It would also be nice to have Armor Rending weapons for melees and archers and augmentations preventing spell and item loss on death if you can swing it.  If you don't yet have the recall spell, you should consider tying to either the Small Black Hill portal or to the nearby Halls of Metos to cut down on your return trip if you die.

Combat

Combat in the Graveyard isn't significantly different from combat anywhere else in Dereth.  The only major differences, aside from the unique mechanics, are that some creatures are particularly persistent in their attacks, especially the Pyre Skeletons.  In addition to the coins and keys, you will occasionally come across Pyre Shrouds.  If you collect 10 of these, you can turn them in for a small XP reward to the Mu-Miyah NPC that lives in the south central region.  What you kill depends on who you are.  Melees will do best fighting Corrupted Dreads in the Forge Bunker and the Prison Bunker.  Imperil and then hit them with a Lightning Render.  Melees are probably best suited for the Graveyard because their primary monsters spawn round the clock.  Mages and Archers are pretty much stuck killing nighttime monsters, such as Pyre Champions and Wight Blade Sorcerers.  Just be sure to perch!  During the day, both melee and ranged characters can take advantage of the Grave Rat kill task (see below)

Quests

There are at present four quests that pay Mhoire Coins.  My favorite so far is Death Tail.  Begin this quest during the day by finding Lo Shoen in the southeast exit from the Graveyard.  Talk to him and he will give you a kill task - 100 Grave Rats.  Kill all 100 and return to Lo and he will reward you with a title (Crypt Rat) and up to 50M XP.  He will also give you permission to take some rat bait from his nearby sack.  Grab it and then head back to the central west exit from the Graveyard.  You will want to do this quest as early in the day as you can, as you don't want the night spawns interfering with you.  You will also want to bring at least one friend along for this, preferably having at least one mage to debuff and war.  When you are ready, look for the yellow dot on your radar, just SE of the central west exit.  It's a rat burrow.  Hand your rat bait to the burrow and then back off.  A swarm of rats will spawn, including Death Tail.  Your mage should debuff Death Tail (Imp, Lit Vuln, Fester), and then start blasting the rats.  Make sure to get the black ones, the Grave Curse Rats, as they can harm and imperil your group.  Melees and archers should work Death Tail.  He has over 200,000 health, so it will take you some time to dispatch him.  Do your best to keep him in one place.  When he dies, loot him.  He drops a few Mhoire Coins (which you should share!) and several fangs.  Everyone should grab a fang and then head back to Lo.  Turn in the fang for a title (Grave Stalker), up to 100M XP, and another Mhoire Coin.  The quest is repeatable every 3 days, so it's a good way to increase your coin collection.

The second quest for a Mhoire coin is Amelia.  She's a ghost who spawns in the central east region of the Graveyard every night.  When you talk to her, she will despawn and then reappear.  Your job is to follow her around and use each of the 6 yellow dots (dirt piles) that appear as she walks around.  Each mound contains one of her lost toys.  Once you've recovered all 6, return to her original spawn point and drag and drop her toys back to her.  Given that she only appears at night, you will have to run through a lot of nasty, nasty spawns to reach those mounds.  Unless you plan on eating lots of health fuel and popping many dispel gems, you shouldn't try this alone.  The easiest way is to get a couple people together and have them stand on top of the crypts.  Then have them whip out their Healer's Hearts and spam heals.  I'd also recommend that the runner jump up on the crypts too while Amelia is wandering.  When you return all 6 toys, you will receive a Mhoire Coin, an item that will summon Amelia's pet Gargoyle (looks like a Margul), and the title "Amelia's Caretaker".

The other two quests are worth titles and multiple Mhoire coins if you succeed.  Both involve you killing Mhoire nobles.  Lady Tairla Mhoire is an Undead who randomly spawns at night.  She is a ghost and she's mean!  If you have less than 300 health, expect to be one-hitted by her war magic.  Archers are the key to defeating her.  Mages and Archers should perch on the nearest safe structure (crypt, rock, head, whatever) and rain down destruction.  Melees are really not too useful, although they can dish out the damage almost as effectively as archers.  The only problem for melees is that they have to deal with whatever spawn is nearby.  Lady Mhoire will periodically spawn her handmaidens, small ghosts who will make things that much more annoying for you.  Like other ghosts, the Lady will use frost war (although I can't say she's ever done much in the way of melee damage to me).  Slashing and Fire (especially AR weapons) work very well on her.  If you find her and manage to defeat her before daybreak (she also has 200,000+ health, so you'll need a small group), she will respawn as a NPC in the middle of the crypts in the central graveyard.  Talk to her immediately and you will receive a key to her treasure chest, which is in a crypt in the central east section of the Graveyard, and a title (Lady Tairla's Champion).  The chest contains several Mhoire Coins.

The final quest involves finding a key on the nighttime spawn.  Before you go, organize a group to go with you!  It's best to attempt this quest during the daytime.  Meet up in the north exit of the Graveyard and buff up - bludge and fire weapons.  When you are ready, run as a group toward the temple building in the northwest section of the Graveyard.  Have the person with the key use it to unlock the Gargoyle statue just to the southeast, which will summon a portal .  Once you enter the portal, your group will arrive in an arena where you will fight five waves of Graveyard creatures.  Organize your team by having your ranged characters jump on top of the large chest at the far side of the room and have your melees take up position nearby.  Mages will be on imperil duty while everyone else attacks.  When you are ready, have one of your melees talk to the nearby ghost NPC to begin the fight.  The first and third spawns are both very easy, consisting of just Pyre Minions.  The second spawn is a bit more dangerous, being made up of Wights, two Wight Blade Sorcerers, and a Wight Captain.  Target the Sorcerers first, then the Captain, then worry about the regular Wights.  The fourth and fifth spawns consist mostly of Pyre Minions, but there will also be a good number of Pyre Skeletons and Pyre Champions mixed in.  Be especially wary of those two, as they will fire vuln and war.  Their melee attacks when you are vulned are very strong as well, so if you are a melee on the ground, make sure your shield is pointed toward them.  The fifth spawn also includes Lord Mhoire himself.  He is basically a glorified Pyre Champion, so use bludge or fire attacks.  When you attack him, he will summon Pillars of Fire, which are particularly dangerous.  Melees should never attack these things as they cause environmental fire damage that really hurts, even if you aren't vulned.  Mages and archers should dispatch the pillars immediately.  Lord Mhoire frequently bugs, getting stuck in place in the middle of the arena (which is a very good thing).  When Lord Mhoire is defeated, he will respawn as an NPC in the middle of the room.  Talk to him for a title (Hero of House Mhoire) and a key, which opens the chest in the arena.  Inside are more Mhoire Coins.  Lord Mhoire himself usually drops a coin or two, so don't forget to loot him.  You can run this quest as frequently as you like, provided you have keys.  Each time you kill Lord Mhoire, you must go back out and use another key to begin the fight again.

Coins

Now that you have all those coins, what are you going to do with them?  You'll have to find the Undead Smith.  He offers a recall scroll for 5 coins, weapon skill mini-rares (+150 points for 9 min) for 2 coins, Bundles of Spectral Chill frost ammo for 1 coin per 250, and gems that add 1 point to a wand or melee weapons' max damage for 25 coins.  Those gems stack with tinkering AND slayer gems, making them very valuable.  Here's a complete listing of what he offers for sale:

Cards

New in 2008 are decks of playing cards.  If you manage to collect all 13 cards in a suit, you can create a deck of cards.  Find the Jester, who randomly spawns throughout the Graveyard.  He will reward you with a special gem that increases your Coordination (Hands) or Focus (Eyes) by 15 points for 10 minutes.  The downside?  The buff has a 60 minute in-game cooldown time.  All Graveyard creatures, night or day spawns, can drop cards, so killing rats may be your best bet if you just want cards.  Finding all 13 cards is pretty tough without getting doubles, so fortunately there are a couple helpful bonus items.  The Jester's Card is wild and will allow you to fill in a gap in your deck.  There is also a Jester's Token that drops on nighttime spawns.  If you find one and have a double, head to one of the casinos, give the token to the front man (Monty, for example), and you will be allowed to swap your current card for another.  The token only works for one card though, so hopefully you won't get another double!