Rohane's Ultimate Rogue Epic Quest Guide

Please note: This guide was not created by the us at tancidtherogue.com. Editors notes added by us, and only notes by us will be listed in this color.

April 27, 2006: Howdy, folks. You may have noticed that the Epic Guides haven't been updated in a dog's age. Well, I haven't played EQ in years, I don't follow it, and I don't care about it -- I have no intention of ever updating these guides again.

If anyone is interested in taking over these guides, please contact me at the email address provided at the bottom of the page. Thanks.

ROHANE'S ULTIMATE
ROGUE EPIC
QUEST GUIDE

Quicknav: Introduction | Rundown | Details
Cazic Quill Sub-Quest | Why the Quest is Gimpy

WHINY COPYRIGHT NOTICE

I hate sounding like a lawyer, but... This guide is Copyright © 2001-2004 Matt Waggoner. All rights reserved. The content and format of this page is owned by me, except for content owned by Sony Online Entertainment. You may use portions of this page as allowed by fair use guidelines, but I do request the following:

Please don't host entire copies of this page (or even large parts) on your own web server. I don't mind if you download copies for personal use, or even host a copy on your personal web server for your own access, but please don't make copies like this available to the public. The reason is that when I update this page, I can't trust that other people will quickly update their copies, which means that the web will contain multiple, conflicting copies of the Guide, which is bad.
If you do want to use any of the pictures or text from this page, according to fair use guidelines, please do so, but please credit the source (this page) and include a hyperlink to this page alongside the copied content. It is not strictly necessary, but please do ask me before doing this, as I would like to keep track of who is using what.

Editor's Note: This is perhaps the best Rogue Epic 1.0 guide I have found anywhere. The amount of work which has gone into this is obvious in its detail, and simplistic beauty. Sadly the original page has since disappeared, as have all traces of its creator. As such, this is a near complete copy of the original at its lates revision.

This copy is not meant as theft, plagiarism, or infringement upon anyones intellectual property rights. This copy is meant to be a tribute to its creator, and all the people who have worked so hard to accumulate the information found herein. Truly, its loss would have been the true crime.

If you have a copy yourself and compare to this one, you will find some changes:

References with links to boondock.org and matt.waggoner.com have been removed. The sites are now either non-existant, or potential malware hosts.
E-mail links to Matt Waggoner have been removed, as they were also hosted by boondock.org or waggoner.com.
Editor's Notes (such as this one) may be entered in for the purpose of clarification where changes have been made to the original document.

ADMINISTRIVIA

- List of screenshots we still need:

Screenshots of the new location of the Book of Souls would be convenient, since currently all I have are the original ones.

Pictures of items (like, say, the Sealed Box, or the Robes) should use the Ragebringer stat box picture below for reference, i.e., include a shot of the inventory picture of the item on top of the stat box, and PLEASE try to keep the mouse pointer out of the pictures!

Editor's Note: There is no need to submit any information, as this guide will most likely not be updated anymore by the current host.

Latest Update:

September 18th, 2004 - Yendar's spawnability (or lack thereof), Renux, level requirement for spawning Stanos via Anson, Tani's spawn time, orc scalps, Eldreth's spawn time, Dark Elf illusion potions, NEW PLANE OF HATE PICTURES!, Founy's new location (plus new pictures), Ghoul Arch Magus picture.
February 18th, 2004 - Updated Book of Souls location, Hate port stone price, Book of Souls location, final turn-in faction, single-grouping the General, bandit despawning, Founy and Tani's (de)spawn times.

NOTES

Getting Ragebringer Before Level 50

Generally speaking, the epic quests were designed to be done by characters who were level 50+; in almost all cases, you have to be level 46 or higher to do the quest at all, since for some quests, there are NODROP pieces that come from the Planes (and you have to be 46+ to even zone into the Planes). Some of the epics' NPCs will deal with you if you are below 50, but many will not -- according to William Jackson, Stanos Herkanor will scoff at you if you give him the torn parchment pieces before level 50. (I've had multiple people send in that bit of info.) Whether this is true of all the rogue epic mobs, I don't know, but it seems to be true of Stanos, and since you hand in the final three items to Stanos, he probably won't reward you with Ragebringer if you aren't level 50. But then, maybe he will... who's willing to try? :)

The Planes

The Plane of Hate is not connected to any other zone through normal means; you cannot zone into Hate the same way you zone from West Freeport to East Commonlands. There are two ways to get to the Plane of Hate: the level 46 wizard spell Alter Plane: Hate. This spell teleports the wizard and his group to the port-in house in the Plane of Hate. Note that it uses up a reagant (a Fulligrans Soulstone of Innoruuk) which cost about 54pp apiece, and can be purchased at the cleric guild in Neriak.

The other way to get to the Plane of Hate is to speak with Relm M'Loch in the Plane of Tranquility, and give her a Fulligrans Soulstone. (Can someone confirm the spelling of that soulstone for me? I've now seen "Fulligrans" and "Fuligan." Please provide a screenshot. Thanks.)

Also, note that you MUST BE LEVEL 46 OR HIGHER TO BE TELEPORTED INTO THE PLANE OF HATE! For this reason it is not recommended that you visit Hate until you are at least level 47, since if you lose your level and drop to 45 while you are in Hate, you may not be able to get back there to recover your corpse. You can get rezzed into Hate no matter what level you are, but a raid wipeout may take more than 3 hours to recover from, and if that happens, you're basically screwed.

Other Notes

Most of the steps in this quest have to be done in the proper order. The way the Guide is laid out represents that order, although there are a few cases where the order can be different (for example, you can pickpocket the two torn parchment pieces in either order; you can acquire the book from Hate at any time before you turn it in; etc.).

Spawn Times

All spawn times are in REAL TIME, NOT GAME TIME. E.g., a spawn time of "1 day" means 1 regular real life Earth day, not one day in Norrath (which is 72 minutes in real life).

- INTRODUCTION -

The Rogue epic quest reward is a piercing weapon called Ragebringer:

Ragebringer has the following stats:

Item: Ragebringer
Type: Piercing
Damage/Delay: 15/25
Stats: +100 HP +20 STR +10 STA +10 AGI +10 DEX +20 MR +10 DR +20 PR
Special Attributes: MAGIC ITEM, LORE ITEM, NODROP
Slot(s): PRIMARY, SECONDARY
Weight: 2.5
Effect: Seething Fury - permanent 40% haste, +40 ATK, 9 AC
Size: SMALL
Class: ROG
Race: HUM BAR ELF DEF HEF DWF HFL GNM VAH

And it looks like this when held:

To get Ragebringer, you must turn in three items: the Cazic Quill, the Jagged Diamond Dagger, and the General's Pouch to Stanos Herkanor in Highpass Hold. Acquiring each of these three items requires a great deal of work (though not nearly so much as the other epic quests!).

Item: Cazic Quill

- QUEST RUNDOWN -

First, a basic rundown of the steps in the quest. These will each be detailed later.

Go - Pickpocket the Stained Parchment Top from Founy Jestands in North Kaladim.
Go - Pickpocket the Stained Parchment Bottom from Tani N`mar in Neriak Third Gate.
Go - Pick up the Book of Souls from the Maestro of Rancor's bedside nightstand in the Plane of Hate.
Go - Give the Stained Parchment Top and the Stained Parchment Bottom to Stanos Herkanor in Highpass Hold. Stanos will then give you the Combined Parchment.
Go - Give the Combined Parchment, two bottles of milk (unstacked), and 100pp to Eldreth in Lake Rathetear. Eldreth will give you the Scribbled Parchment.
Go - Give the Scribbled Parchment to Yendar Starpyre in Steamfont Mountains. Yendar will give you the Tattered Parchment.
Go - Give Tattered Parchment and the Book of Souls to Yendar Starpyre in Steamfont Mountains. Yendar will despawn and Renux Herkanor will spawn. Kill Renux and loot the Translated Parchment and the Jagged Diamond Dagger from her corpse.
Go - Give Translated Parchment to Stanos Herkanor in Highpass Hold. Stanos will give you the Sealed Box.
Go - Give Sealed Box to any of the dark elves in the house at (+800, +2400) in Kithicor Forest. This will cause General V`ghera to spawn. Kill him and loot General's Pouch and, IF HE DROPS IT, the Cazic Quill off his corpse. If he does not drop the Cazic Quill, you will need to do the Cazic Quill sub-quest (detailed below).
Go - Give the General's Pouch, the Cazic Quill, and the Jagged Diamond Dagger to Stanos Herkanor in Highpass Hold. Stanos will give you RAGEBRINGER.

If General V`ghera does not drop the Cazic Quill when killed, then you must instead do the Cazic Quill sub-quest, which involves the following:

Go - Kill the Oracle of K`Arnon in Ocean of Tears and loot the Robe of the Oracle off his body. Alternatively, you may buy the Robe of the Oracle from another player, as it is not NODROP.
Go - Kill the Ghoul Arch Magus in Lower Guk and loot the Shining Metallic Robes off his body. Alternatively, you may buy the SMR from another player, as it is not NODROP.
Go - Kill the Ishva Mal in Splitpaw Lair and loot the Robe of the Ishva off his body. Alternatively, you may buy the Robe of the Ishva from another player, as it is not NODROP.
Go - Kill Phinigel Autropos in Kedge Keep and loot the Robe of the Kedge off his body. Alternatively, you may kill the dark elves in the house in Kithicor forest, as some of them will occasionally drop the Robe of the Kedge. This Robe IS NODROP, so you may not buy it from other players.
Go - Give the four robes (Oracle, SMR, Ishva, Kedge) to Vilnius the Small in the Western Plains of Karana. He will give you the Cazic Quill.

- DETAILED STEPS -

1. Pickpocket the Stained Parchment Top
(North Kaladim - Founy Jestands)

Travel to the dwarven city of Kaladim, and head into its northern section (North Kaladim). There, locate Founy Jestands outside the bank and pickpocket the Stained Parchment Top from him.

Getting There

Kaladim is located on the north wall of the Butcherblock Mountains, which are located on the western end of the continent of Faydwer. A great statue of a dwarven king stands astride the city gates, which lead to South Kaladim. Once inside the city, head north through the entry gate, then turn left and head past some shop buildings. Stay to the right wall, and you will find a zone connection to North Kaladim. Once you zone in, head along the passage a short ways until you see the following room:

Pictures courtesy of Kroduk Tekulve of Bristlebane

Founy was moved in mid-2004; he's now standing in front of the building to the right of where he used to be (new pictures above!). He's much closer to all the other rogue guildmasters (and he's one himself), so it's a bit more perilous to get the parchment from him if you're KOS there. However, occasionally the other rogue GMs all run off to help a stranded miner, leaving Founy all alone for a short period.

Founy should almost always be standing there unless he has recently been killed. (Even if he is trained to another part of the zone, he will walk back to his normal spot immediately.)

Pickpocketing the Parchment

Founy despawns every day at 7am game time, and respawns again at 8am game time. He does NOT always spawn with the "Stained Parchment Top", so you may have to wait, or come back for another visit later. The simplest way to get the parchment piece from him is to pickpocket it, so you should definitely max your pickpocket skill to 200 before attempting to steal the piece.

Killing Founy is not really an option, apparently. His regen has been massively increased, so that even if you do manage to get him down to 99%, he'll be at 100% by the next tick.

As Kaladim is full of dwarves, any players who are KOS in Kaladim will need to use SH to get to Founy. Once you are near him, stand behind him and pickpocket him until you are convinced he does not have the piece (how many attempts you make before you are "convinced" is up to you -- in my opinion, if he doesn't have it after 20 attempts, I'd give up and come back later), or until you pickpocket the piece from him.

It took me 2 trips to Kaladim to get the Stained Parchment Top from Founy. My pickpocket skill was 200 before I attempted to PP him, and he never aggroed on me.

Takalon reports that killing Founy is infeasible now; his regen and hit points appear to have been boosted through the roof.

Item: Stained Parchment Top

Picture courtesy of Siamese of Rodcet Nife

Founy has other dialogue, but this is the only relevant bit:

You say, 'What note?'

Founy Jestands says 'I don't know what you're talking about, if you know what I mean.' Founy fingers his belt pouch. 'You should leave now, if you know what's good for you. Don't make me sic the crew on you.

2. Pickpocket the Stained Parchment Bottom
(Neriak Third Gate - Tani N`mar)

Travel to the dark elf city of Neriak, and head into its deepest region, the Neriak Third Gate. There, locate Tani N`mar at the rogue guild and pickpocket the Stained Parchment Bottom from him.

Getting There

Neriak is located in the very northeast corner of Nektulos Forest, itself north of East Commonlands on the east side of the continent of Antonica. Neriak is divided into three sub-zones: you must travel through the Neriak Foreign Quarter and then the Neriak Commons to reach the Neriak Third Gate (N3G). To get to the rogue guild, enter N3G and head past the cleric guild and pool of water, down to the main part of the city. Angle right as you go through the main gate, and you will see the rogue guild. Enter the rogue guild from the front door, turn right at the bottom of the entry stairs, and then turn right again and follow the path until you see Tani:

Tani N`mar

Dark elves are somewhat less friendly than dwarves, so unless you are yourself a dark elf, getting to Tani may be difficult. The easiest way is to get the Mask of Deception from the Ghoul Assassin in Lower Guk, which has a right-click effect of Illusion: Dark Elf and lets you pass as a dark elf in their home city. However, if you cannot acquire a Mask of Deception, or have ruined your faction with one of the dark elf factions to the point where you cannot pass through the city safely, you will need to use sneakhide to make your way to Tani.

You can also use the Dark Elf illusion potions that Shamen can make in order to more easily move about Neriak. Thanks Jenia of Quellious.

Tani seems to despawn and respawn instantly at some time between 6pm and 7pm game time.

Pickpocketing the Parchment

Once you are there, simply pickpocket Tani (read the guidelines above in the Founy section for details) until you get the Stained Parchment Bottom. He doesn't always spawn with it, so again, it may take several trips; stop by whenever you are in the area. It personally took me 4 trips to get the parchment. (If he's still doing his multiple-respawn shtick specified above, each time he respawns means another chance that he has the parchment.)

Aside from pickpocketing him on his spawn point (which is how I did it), there are various other methods. Jereck of Quellious recommends having a friend create a level 1 dark elf necromancer, and using the necromancer's pet to pull Tani to the zoneline. Park the pet next to Tani, then have the necro go outside the building and tell his pet to attack Tani. Tani will destroy the pet instantly, and chase after the necro. The necro can then run to the zoneline where the rogue (in dark elf form) will be waiting. The necro lets Tani catch him and kill him, and then the rogue can keep hailing Tani to keep him in place while he tries to pickpocket him.

Ferrall of Quellious confirms that this method works well, and that Tani will stay at his new spot and not wander home. Once he despawns, he'll respawn at home like usual, but until that happens, he'll stay wherever you left him. Presumably, since Tani stays where he kills the necromancer, you can do this yourself by creating a level 1 necromancer, letting him die, and then switching to your rogue, who will be conveniently hidden nearby (in a safe spot!).

Item: Stained Parchment Bottom

Picture courtesy of Siamese of Rodcet Nife

Tani says a few things, but the relevant text is:

You say, 'What note?'

Tani N`Mar says 'Oh, you want that piece of paper Stanos was so hot after?' He taps his belt pouch. 'Well, it's mine now, though it looks like ogre scratch to me. You're not getting it, Stanos is not getting it, and Hanns is not getting it. It is MINE! Now, Soandso , scamper off like the dog you are, before I decide I need more practice with these short swords!'

3. Get the Book of Souls
(Plane of Hate)

Travel to the otherworldly Plane of Hate, and find the Book of Souls on the Maestro of Rancor's nightstand. Steal it, and return to Norrath.

Getting There

The Plane of Hate was revamped in May of 2003. The zone has a totally different layout. Apparently, the Book of Souls is now located at (+170, -325) in a building directly north of the Maestro of Rancor's new location. It's still guarded by a bunch of mobs, including at least one that will try to charm you. Your best bet now may be to go with a raid party and have them clear a path to the book. I don't know yet whether it's possible or safe to sneakhide your way to the book from the zone in.

A couple of reports indicate that the new rogue ability Shroud of Stealth makes you completely invisible to everything in the zone EXCEPT for the Maestro of Rancor himself.

Here's a story from Swifit of Fennin Ro, about his adventure getting the Book of Souls in the new Plane of Hate:

I went there alone (just with a 52 wizzy friend getting me there). I got each of us a vial of [swirling] smoke first (instant gate) to make sure we can get out alive, no matter what. As well I did deposit all my gear in bank (just in case I get killed) and got a SOW from a 60 shammy in guild and at zone in we did see a few peeps camping zone in, so the wizzy could simply gate out without using her potion. I hit hide and sneak as soon as I did arrive. According to the few bits of info I could gather the general direction to go was south, to the stairs of the cathedral. So I did turn south at zone in and did see something like a bridge a little to the left. After crossing that bridge you get to a building, go around that building to the left. There you should see the cathedral in the south between 2 buildings. Go to the steps of the cathedral directly in front of the cathedral entry and turn around (facing north). You will see a door in a building. Open that door. Not sure if it was cause of that group at zone in, or if that is so always, but there were not many roaming mobs in zone, which made coning my way easy.

Inside you will see a small room from which 3 stairs (one ahead, one left, one right) lead to other rooms. There were 4 mobs, 2 in the room ahead and one in the room to the right who all did con indifferent, and one in the room to the left who was ready to attack. So I thought I try my luck in the room to the right first and snuck up the right stairs...and bingo. On the back of the room there was a chest/stand and on it was an open book (almost like in the picture from old Hate). One left click on the book, a quick check if I really got what I wanted, and right click on the vial of [swirling] smoke...byebye Hate, welcome book of souls.

That I did not get agro from that see invis mob in the left room leads me to the conclusion that agro range is rather small there, but of course that could be wrong too. I made sure to stay clear of walls too (heard too many stories about that from old hate to even try touching them).

The Vial of Swirling Smoke, which instantly casts Gate on you, can be purchased at vendors in many of the main starting cities (Ak'Anon, Felwithe, Greater Faydark, Kaladim South, Neriak Commons, Neriak Foreign Quarter, Plane of Tranquility, Qeynos South, Rivervale, Shar Vahl). All the merchants who sell it have a limited supply -- once they are you, they are out until the server restarts or until you kill them.

Here's another version, from Lenko of Terris Thule:

For getting the BoS solo, this is the best plan:

First, head to Neriak (or get a friend to do so) and buy a Hate stone in the Cleric guild. Head to PoK or Nexus (somewhere with high traffic) and call for a wizard of whom you need some mana and 2 minutes of their time. Get a SoW, give them the stone, and ask them to port you to Hate, cast translocate anywhere on you, and then gate. The Trans will last 3 minutes, so you have some time. Now it's you versus the Plane of Hate. How fun! Face South, cross the little bridge, and Sneak/Hide South until you come to a very large flight of stairs leading up to the huge doors of a very large building. This is the Maestro's house. Do NOT go in! Instead, instantly turn around on the stairs, face North, and go straight into the house. Once inside, go straight a little, and go up the stairs to the right. There is a mob in this room, next to a bookcase/table. If there is an open book on top, click it. Woohoo! Book of Souls! Now just click Yes to Trans to get the hell out of there. If there is no open book graffic in the room, click Yes to Trans! The BoS is not up, and is on a 5 hour timer. By this time the trans is almost out, so get the hell out of there! I attempted this strategy three times before I got my Book. The first time, I was killed by a Lich I did not see. The second time the book was not up. Third time's a charm, I suppose. Good luck!!

*Remember: The Liches and Banshees can see through your Hide/Sneak, so stay away or behind them! If they face you, they WILL kill you!

FINALLY! I got around to putting up new pictures of the Plane of Hate, so that you can find the book more easily.

First, a map, sent by Daniel P., showing where the zone-in and book are located (north is up on the map):

Plane of Hate partial map

Picture courtesy of Daniel P.

Next, an image of the front of the building the book is in (camera is facing north):

Book of Souls House

Picture courtesy of Harrin of Xegony

The entryway is behind the evil treasure chest. Once you enter, turn right, and you should see this room:

Book of Souls Room

Picture courtesy of Harrin of Xegony

The table the book is on is circled in red. Here's a closeup of the book:

Book of Souls Close-up

Picture courtesy of Harrin of Xegony

Walk up to the book, click on it, and voila! You're done. Use a Vial of Swirling Smoke (see above) to Gate out, or whatever method you decide upon.

Item: Book of Souls

Picture courtesy of Evertorrn Darkheart of Veeshan

4. Combine the Parchments
(Highpass Hold - Stanos Herkanor)

Travel to Highpass Hold, halfway between the cities of Freeport and Qeynos on the continent of Antonica, and locate Stanos Herkanor. Give him the Stained Parchment Top and Stained Parchment Bottom, and he will give you the Combined Parchment.

Getting There

Highpass Hold is accessible from Kithicor Forest in the east, and the Eastern Plains of Karana in the west. Roughly in the center of the zone is a hidden smugglers' camp; find your way to the Tiger's Roar inn and bar, and outside you will see this:

Highpass secret passage

Circled in red is the location of the secret underwater passage (it's very short, so there's no worries about drowning) to the smugglers' camp. Swim through it, and follow the path, and you will come to the following area:

Highpass smugglers' camp

On the left is the path leading back to the underwater area, and to the right is the small cavern where Stanos is located.

Spawning Stanos

However, it's not that simple. Normally, Stanos never spawns -- you must deal with Anson McBale to get him to spawn. Anson is located in the same room that Stanos spawns in (that's Stanos on the right, and Anson in the middle):

Anson McBale and friends

But again, it's not that simple. Anson himself is not always up: he has a placeholder, confusingly enough called a smuggler, just like all the other "a smuggler" NPCs in the camp (there are around a dozen). Anson's placeholder will be standing exactly where Anson is standing in that picture, and the placeholder smuggler will con blue to anyone around level 50. The other smuggler, standing behind him, will con green (you can see this irrelevant, low-level smuggler in the picture above).

A level 60 warrior with epic weapons and gear from the Temple of Veeshan was not able to solo Anson's placeholder (as of October 2001 -- due to the AA abilities that came with Luclin, and the improved gear from that expansion, it might be possible now), though a 60 warrior and a 51 rogue can kill him fairly easily, or even a solo 60 magician, epic or not. The simplest method is to have the warrior pull the placeholder (the placeholder will virtually always come solo to a 60 puller) into the yard outside Anson's room, and run across the yard to the ramp that leads up to a ledge overlooking High Keep. The placeholder CAN get stuck in pathing in the yard, so make sure he follows you all the way across. Once he does, jump down off the ledge, run to the High Keep entrance, and wait. The smuggler will eventually path to there, and you can fight him and kill him. The High Keep guards will not assist the smuggler, nor will they assist you, so it's a straight fight. (If your faction with High Keep guards is bad, however, they may attack you on general principle, so you'll need to pull the smuggler to somewhere else.

Keep in mind that there are other blue smugglers in the area, and fighting them all can be difficult, not to mention the fact that you lose faction with Anson for killing them! This is the reason you want a level 60 to pull the smuggler; if you aggro all the blue smugglers, you have to fight all of them. You could bring an enchanter, too...) The Anson spawn has an 18 minute spawn time, and you may need to kill the smuggler multiple times to get Anson to spawn.

Once you have Anson spawned, there are two ways to get Stanos to spawn.

Method One

The first method is to walk up to Anson and have the following short conversation:

You say, 'I need to see Stanos'

Anson McBale says 'This better be important.

This will cause Stanos to spawn immedately. According to Wulfang Bonecrusher of Tarew Marr, this only works if you're level 50 or above; otherwise, Anson tells you to go kill rats. (Muppen Fuzzlecutter of Tarew Marr confirms that at level 35, Anson told him to go fight rats when Muppen asked to see Stanos.) Tuosix Orcist of Quellious confirms that he could not get this method to work until he was level 50, and he tried it every level from 43 to 50.

As for faction, I don't know what the minimum is for this method to work, but I do know that if you are indifferent or better to Anson, Stanos will spawn. Anson, Stanos, and all the other smugglers are on the CarsonMcCabe faction, and the easiest way to raise that faction is to kill the orcs and gnolls that live in Highpass, and turn in their scalps to Captain Ashlan and Captain Orben, respectively (they wander around the orc and gnoll areas at the ends of Highpass Hold). You can also kill the pickclaw goblins that live in High Keep's basement, and turn in their left ears (4 at a time, I believe) to Captan Bosec in High Keep.

Kevin Henry let me know that you can collect orc scalps in Crushbone and turn them in to Captain Ashlan for faction, which is probably easier than collecting scalps from the High Pass orcs.

Des Vetrov says that there's an easier way to get the faction -- the card quest in Qeynos. Go here for details.

Chaid of Drinal says that, as an agnostic dwarven rogue, he was able to use the above phrase to spawn Stanos when Anson conned DUBIOUS to him. Assuming that anyone who is not KOS to Anson can spawn Stanos this way, there is no reason to do Method Two, outlined below. This was several months ago, however; since then, Velenia Ankletinker of Zebuxoruk has informed me that with dubious faction, Anson replied, "I didn't know slime could talk!" and refused to spawn Stanos. However, using sneak and repeating the query from behind Anson solved the problem, so faction doesn't really appear to be an issue.

According to ThornKat of Torvonnilous, he was grouped with a druid and said the above trigger phrase. Stanos spawned and despawned immediately. Thorn then degrouped, and the trigger phrase worked properly. Weird.

Drakren of Fennin Ro says that, as a dubiously-conning Wood Elf rogue worshiping Bristlebane, Stanos spawned normally when he said, "I need to see Stanos." Drakren said he was not sneaking or hiding at the time. Go figure.

Method Two

The second method to get Stanos to spawn can be done if you are interested in seeing an unnecessary (but interesting, plot-wise) part of the quest. Travel to the Qeynos Aqueduct System beneath the city of Qeynos, and find Malka Rale. She will give you Stanos's Pouch, which you can then give to Anson, causing Stanos to spawn. BE CAREFUL DOING THIS! If you are standing on Stanos's spawn point when you give the pouch to Anson, Stanos will not spawn, so you should stand behind Anson, preferably on the table in the corner, when you hand him the pouch.

To get to Malka Rale's room, enter the QAS from the secret entrance outside the gates of Qeynos (there is a false wall to the left of the main gate). Once you zone into the QAS, follow the path shown on the map below:

Qeynos Aqueducts Map

The gray sections of the map lead off to other, irrelevant areas.

Malka's room looks like this:

In the left picture above, we see the room where Malka spawns. Highlighted is her placeholder, a courier. DO NOT KILL THE COURIER! He will despawn around 9pm game time, and Malka will spawn at about 11pm game time, every game day. She despawns around 7am. Once Malka spawns, have the following conversation:

You say, 'Hail, Malka Rale'

Malka Rale says 'Whew! I thought you were one of Hanns' goons. These sewers are a mess, you never know what is going to turn up next. I really wish I could get out of here.

You say, 'I will help'

Malka Rale says 'Ok! I am trusting you. Take this pouch to Vilnius in West Karana. Last word I had from him, he was hanging out near one of the bandit camps. Be careful, since he does not know you. Just give him the pouch, and tell him I was.. delayed. <grin> While you are doing that, I will be thinking of a way to get out of this slimehole. With any luck, the Circle will learn the pouch is out of Qeynos, and will assume I got away. That means they won't be looking for me here.

Malka then gives you an item called "Stanos' Pouch", which can be placed inside of other containers (it is not itself a container, even though it looks like one). The pouch has recently been changed to actually have 20 charges of Summon Throwing Dagger, instead of the 0 charges it used to have (thanks to the many folks who sent this in).

Item: Stanos' Pouch

Give this pouch to Anson McBale to make Stanos spawn. Once again, BE CAREFUL DOING THIS! If you are standing on Stanos' spawn point when you hand in the pouch, Stanos will immediately despawn! You should stand on the table behind Anson when you give him Stanos' Pouch. Turning in the pouch, it seems, gives a nice positive faction hit with the High Pass guards, and about 30pp.

Talking to Stanos

In either event, once Stanos spawns, you can have the following conversation:

You say, 'Hail, Stanos Herkanor'

Stanos Herkanor says 'Ah, the pouch. This is the first step Anson. The Circle has to be upset having this taken right out from under them. That speaks well of the person who did the taking. Hanns must be even more furious now <chuckle>.

Anson McBale says 'Vilnius has always had a good eye for talent. I think we can trust this one.

Stanos Herkanor says 'I tend to agree Anson. We could make a deal. I have a blade I won't use anymore, and you have those fine looking daggers Vilnius gave you. Of course, you would have to do something for me first. Let me tell you my story, then you decide.

You say, 'Tell me your story'

Stanos Herkanor says 'Johann Krieghor was the leader of the Circle and I was his second-in-command. He made a dark bargain with a Teir'dal General. The Circle was to assassinate Joren, the high elf ambassador to Qeynos. Had the plot worked, it would have weakened the alliance between high elves and humans, and possibly caused a war between the two powers. In either case, the Teir'Dal would have profited greatly by this event, and all others would have suffered. I could not stand by and let this happen, but Johann would not be deterred, for the Teir'Dal had promised him much. I had no choice but to kill Johann and the Teir'Dal agent. I made it look like they offed each other, and then I hid the tools.

You say, 'What tools?'

Stanos Herkanor says 'To allow the assassin to slay a prince, and fight his way back out, a fell blade was crafted. It was small enough to conceal under a garment and yet large enough to strike a mortal blow through armor. Aided by vile Teir'Dal enchantments, it is much more fearsome than it appears. I would glady rid myself of it, but I fear I can not until I clear my name with Hanns.

You say, 'I will clear your name'

Stanos Herkanor says 'I need proof that what I say about Johann is truth, so that Hanns may forgive me. YOU can gather that proof for me. First, travel to Kaladim and Neriak, and there, upon the persons of the rogue guildmasters, you should find that which I seek, two parts of a document I recovered from the dead agent. I entrusted one to Founy, but that trust is gone, and Founy would betray me to Hanns were I to attempt to reclaim it. Tani N'mar has the other, which he should not possess, and keeps it only to spite me, not knowing its real import. Steal them both, and bring them back to me. And don't let anyone follow you! If I am not around, tell Anson you want to see me.

Combining the Parchment

Lest we forget why you have to do all this in the first place, the point of coming to HHP is to give Stanos the two parchment pieces you pickpocketed off the rogue trainers in steps 1 and 2. Simply give Stanos the Stained Parchment Top and the Stained Parchment Bottom at the same time:

Stanos Herkanor says 'Excellent! With this document I can..' <He pauses for a moment>. 'Damnation! Curse my tired old mind, I forgot that I could not read the document. It is written in some obscure code or language. I can't decipher it, but I know someone who can. Seek out one called Eldreth, an Erudite who used to do work for me. I know not where he may be found these days, only that he will not be found in Erudin, as they want his head for some misdeed in the past. Give him the complete parchment, and tell him I sent you. He owes me.

Your faction standing with HighpassGuards got better.
Your faction standing with CarsonMcCabe got better.
Your faction standing with MerchantsofHighpass got better.
Your faction standing with CorruptQeynosGuards got better.
Your faction standing with TheFreeportMilitia got better.

You gain party experience!!

In return, you receive faction hits, experience, and the Combined Parchment.

Item: Combined Parchment

Picture courtesy of Siamese of Rodcet Nife

5. Begin the Translation
(Lake Rathetear - Eldreth)

Travel to Lake Rathetear, and find Eldreth in the tower on the northeast island of the lake. Give him the Combined Parchment, plus 100pp and two unstacked bottles of milk for payment so that he will translate it.

Getting There

Lake Rathetear is located south of the Southern Plains of Karana, and west of Rathe Mountains. Once you are in the zone, head to the northeast island which is located approximately at (+2600, -500). On the island is a large tower, inside of which you will find Eldreth:

Beginning the Translation

According to Wulfang Bonecrusher, Eldreth has an exactly 7.5 hour spawn time. Zairu of Xegony confirms this number.

Bridov of Tunare says that Eldreth's spawn is now 7 hours 10 minutes. Whether it's been changed, or is now variable, I don't know, but if you wait between 7 and 8 hours for his spawn, you should see him. ;)

Eldreth has a companion named Cyanelle, who is pretty much always standing in the tower next to him. She's not his placeholder; she's just an additional magician NPC who stands there. If you talk to her when Eldreth isn't there, she'll say so, but otherwise doesn't provide any useful information.

Talk to Eldreth, and you will have the following conversation:

You say, 'Hail, Eldreth'

Eldreth says 'Go away! I'm busy! I don't have time for scoundrels like you! Leave me alone or I shall, um..turn you into, er, a fish or something! That is what us powerful wizards do to those who annoy us! Yes, that is it. A fish! <leans towards you, looking abashed> Did that sound scary enough?

You say, 'That was scary'

Eldreth says 'Ha! I knew it. I could see you trembling! Everyone fears an angry wizard and nobody wants to be a fish. I know I detest fish, it is always fish fish fish around here. Fish cakes, fish stew, fish wine, I am sick of fish. But alas, while I am a powerful wizard, I am also a poor one. Oh well, good things come to those who wait. So, why are you here, Soandso ?

You say, 'Stanos sent me'

Eldreth says 'Stanos? Stanos Herkanor? I thought he was long dead. He nearly got me killed, in any case. What does the old fool want of me now?

You say, 'He wants you to translate this parchment.'

Eldreth says 'Ah, codes are my specialty! It's what I did for the Circle before Hanns took over. But the Fox is wrong. I owe him nothing! As a fact, he owes me! He wants this translated - he will have to pay!

You say, 'I will pay you.'

Eldreth says 'Aye, pay, and pay you must. I need 100 platinum pieces to begin my work. This tower is old and drafty and it will take that much to make it bearable. And while you're at it, I need something else. I am very busy here and have no time to shop, so bring me back a couple bottles of milk along with your very large bag of platinum, and I will translate anything you wish at that time.

Give him the Combined Parchment, 100 platinum pieces, and 2 bottles of milk. (Do NOT stack the bottles of milk together; make sure they are SEPARATE when you hand them in. It is not known whether this matters, but no one has volunteered to test it so far. Also keep in mind that you don't want to accidentally drink your milk before handing it in, so I recommend buying an entire stack of milk before heading out to see Eldreth (and make sure you have other drinks above the milk, so that you don't use up your milk if you have to wait). Milk is cheap, and a stack should be only a few pp at most.) Once you hand him the items, Eldreth says the following:

(Note about the milk: Raejin of Vallon Zek says that the milk CAN be stacked, and the hand-in will still work, but I wouldn't advise this until I get a couple more confirmations. In any event, it's probably safer to leave the milk unstacked even if it is confirmed. Shadowclimber of Prexus also confirms this; can I get a third?)

(Contradiction! Darkedmist Shadows of Fennin Ro tells me that stacking the milk does NOT work. In any event, as it requires little effort, I would advise not stacking the milk.)

Eldreth looks at you, obviously expecting more. Did you forget the milk?
Eldreth looks at you, obviously expecting more. Did you forget the milk?
Eldreth looks at you, obviously expecting more. Did you forget the milk?

Eldreth says 'Hmm, interesting. This document is not only encoded, but written in a very obscure language. From what I can gather, it's a variant of elder Teir'dal, but not one I've encountered. I can not fully translate this, but I know one who can. Find Yendar and give him this

Your faction standing with OrderofThree got better.
Your faction standing with BloodSabers got worse.
Your faction standing with GuardsofQeynos got better.
Your faction standing with OpalDarkBriar got worse.

You gain experience!!

In return, you receive faction hits, experience, and the Scribbled Parchment.

Item: Scribbled Parchment

Picture courtesy of Siamese of Rodcet Nife

6. Continue Translating
(Steamfont Mountains - Yendar Starpyre)

Travel to the Steamfont Mountains on Faydwer, and find Yendar Starpyre roaming the zone. Give him the Scribbled Parchment to translate, and he will give you back the Tattered Parchment.

Getting There

The Steamfont Mountains are accessible from Lesser Faydark in the west, and lead to the gnomish city of Ak'anon at the south end of the zone. Druids of an appropriate level may also teleport to Steamfont.

Yendar roams the zone, though his usual path seems to be from the entrance to the minotaur caves in the northeast, southwest past the windmills, and all the way down toward the druid portal ring.

If Yendar is not up, there is a theory that you can go to his brother, Tobon Starpyre (pictured above right), who is found in the Library Mechanimagica (the caster guild) in Ak'anon and say to him, "Who is Yendar?" The consensus about Yendar is that you cannot spawn him by talking to Tobon immediately after Yendar despawns. Whether Yendar can be spawned after a certain time has passed is unknown; my personal feeling is that Yendar has a static spawn time after he despawns, and several people have coincidentally talked to Tobon right as Yendar was about to respawn.

Your best bet, if Yendar is not up, is to come back in an hour or two. Or get a ranger friend to hang around and track for him, or bribe a low-level ranger who's hunting in the zone to track him.

Tobon replies:

You say, 'Who is Yendar?'

Tobon Starpyre says 'Oh, he is my older brother. Used to be the leader of the Eldritch Collective. Then he founded the Observers, a pretty good piece of work. Went off his rocker a long while back, though. Became obsessed with Innoruuk and the Teir'dal. Stays away for days at a time, nobody knows where he has been. Mother still worries about him, asked me to keep an eye on him. But he is a grown gnome, and with his mastery of the art, has little to fear in this world or others. But if you are seeking him, I would look outside Ak'Anon, in the Steamfonts. That is where he makes his home these days.

Dealing with Yendar

Yendar will not stop walking when you hail him; you have to mention the document for him to stop walking. He'll start walking again after a little while, so if you want to keep him in one place, keep asking him about the document:

You say, 'Hail, Yendar Starpyre'

Yendar Starpyre says 'Hail, traveler! I sense you did not simply chance upon my isolation here, but are instead seeking me for something.

You say, 'Can you translate this document?'

Yendar Starpyre says 'Oh, if it is written in Elder Teir'Dal, most likely I can translate it. I will be happy to try, in any case. Let me see it, please.

Now give him the Scribbled Parchment:

Yendar Starpyre says 'I say, this is indeed a challenge. This is written in what I'm sure is the language of the High Priesthood of Innoruuk. I've often wished I could read this, but I have never had the key to unlock the language. Take this for now.

You gain party experience!!

Yendar gives you Tattered Parchment:

Item: Tattered Parchment

Picture courtesy of Evertorrn Darkheart of Veeshan

Continue conversing with Yendar:

You say, 'What key?'

Yendar Starpyre says 'In the Plane of Hate, where dwell Innoruuk and his minions, there is a tome. This tome is called the Book of Souls.

You say, 'What is the Book of Souls?'

Yendar Starpyre says 'The Book of Souls chronicles all the lives Innoruuk has tainted over the years. It is in the care of the Maestro of Rancor. I can use this tome as a basis for my translation, if you return it and the note to me. An experienced practitioner in the art of non-detection should be able to snatch it from its resting place, don't you think, Soandso ? <grin>

In theory, this is the part when you go get the Book of Souls -- except hopefully, you should already have gotten it, and can go straight to the next step.

7. Kill Renux Herkanor
(Steamfont Mountains - Yendar Starpyre and Renux Herkanor)

Give the Tattered Parchment and Book of Souls to Yendar Starpyre in Steamfont Mountains. He will translate the parchment, but it will immediately be stolen from him by Renux Herkanor. Kill her and loot the Translated Parchment and the Jagged Diamond Dagger from her corpse.

Getting There

See section 6 above for information on finding Yendar.

The Final Translation

Give the Tattered Parchment and Book of Souls to Yendar. He will say:

Yendar Starpyre says 'My, this is quite a large list! Yes, I can use the names and dates recorded here to help me understand the script. It should be a simple matter now. A moment, please. Aha, yes, there we go. Traslated as best I can! I do hope you're not involved in what is described here, as it is quite fiendish. Oi! You, woman! Give that back! Soandso , that woman there took your letter! I think I should leave you to discuss it with her. Best of luck!

At this point, a human female named Renux Herkanor will spawn right next to him. You need to kill Renux.

Picture courtesy of Shamah T'rel of Quellious

This is not a simple matter; Renux is a level 50 rogue who wields a weapon called Trochilic's Skean. It is a 1HS sword that procs Clockwork Poison, a stun/DoT that is very deadly. There are two simple ways to kill Renux:

Bring a swarm of people and mob her. She'll die relatively easily, but you may take a few casualties, and probably waste a lot of peoples' time, since there are easier methods of killing her.
Bring an enchanter and a ranger to chain-tash and snare her, respectively. Renux will follow the enchanter while the rogue and ranger kill her.
Bring a druid to chain-snare her, keeping aggro while the rogue kills her from behind.
Bring a necromancer to fear kite her, with an optional healer just in case things get out of hand.

Stor Gendibal sends in this odd tidbit:

I wanted to give you some new info on the Rogue Epic that I noticed in my questing today. I have a level 51 rogue on the Terris-Thule server named Stor, and today a 60 necro, a 60 druid and myself killed Renux in Steamfont. Now, the news isn't that you can kill Renux with 3 people, we all know that can be done. No, the news is this: After Renux drops below 20% health, if she has a melee person (or pet, it happened more than once) attacking her, she will heal herself for 12% of her life. She's not casting a heal spell, and you can always tell right before she does this because she will say the line she says when you attack her the first time, I believe it's something about "Have you ever had your heart handed to you by a woman?".

This (her healing by 12% when she reaches 18-20% health) has been confirmed by Dakth Frostshadow of E'ci.

Renux gives the following faction hits when she dies: -CircleOfUnseenHands, -CorruptQeynosGuards, -KaneBayle, +MerchantsofQeynos, +GuardsofQeynos. Once Renux is killed, she says:

Renux Herkanor says '<gasp> Tell Hanns I tried, and will love him always. Tell Father I will save a seat in Hell for him!

This means, in case you care, that Renux is Stanos's daughter. (Interestingly, Renux can also be found at the rogue guild in Qeynos, along with the aforementioned Hanns. It's been suggested that the Renux in Qeynos despawns when she spawns in Steamfont, but no one has confirmed this yet.)

Loot the Translated Parchment from Renux's corpse:

Item: Translated Parchment

Picture courtesy of Evertorrn Darkheart of Veeshan

The Translated Parchment is a book that can be opened and read:

Translated Parchment, pages 1-2

Picture courtesy of Kilaytec Dreemdancer of Rallos Zek

Picture courtesy of Kilaytec Dreemdancer of Rallos Zek

Picture courtesy of Kilaytec Dreemdancer of Rallos Zek

The text of the book is as follows:

T'kar:

We are ready for you to move into the next phase of the plan.

I have read your thoughts on the x'kanta Johann, and his chosen tool, Stanos. Johann is a willing pawn, and will serve us well, for greed is yet another facet of Innoruuk's power.

Stanos should also work out well, he is quite formidable, though I understand he does not yet know he has been chosen to actually carry out the task. Watch him well when the time comes, but I agree with your judgment.

Joren will be in Qeynos the entire month, so you have ample time to s'ktkar your task. Enclosed are the tools you will give to the Human x'kanta.

The blade is a gift from Innoruuk himself, forged in his temple and imbued with rage. Be sure to recover it after the mission is complete, it is much too powerful to leave in the hands of those we intend to il'kaash in the future. Combined with Stanos' skill, Joren and his guards should fall easily.

The Guise has been handcrafted my our Master Coercer and should allow the wearer to pass undetected as Koada'dal, thus allowing the assassin to gain entry into the Ambassador's quarters. Luckily, it shall be a human transforming himself into that zm'rina form.

Be sure to eliminate all the human x'kanda you have recruited, and have no fear of the repercussions, for the Circle of Unseen Hands is no threat to us here in Neriak.

I have spoken with your master Tani N'mar and he assures me that his group of x'kantar will aid us if need be.

GENERAL RALD VGHERA

Notes:

The text above is a character-for-character copy of the words in the screenshots.
The italicized words are presumably Tier'dal (dark elf) language words that Yendar was not able to translate. Note that your language skill is irrelevant when it comes to reading this document.
The word "my" in paragraph 6 is a typo and probably was supposed to be "by".

Renux will also drop a piercing weapon called the Jagged Diamond Dagger, which you should also loot -- it's one of the items you will need to turn in to Stanos in order to get Ragebringer! Renux also drops two pieces of Ravenscale armor (if you're lucky, she'll drop the Ravenscale Mask, which has a permanent effect of See Invisible -- very useful) and, as mentioned before, Trochilic's Skean. The Skean is a good weapon, but it is NODROP -- personally, I let one of my party members (the warrior) have it, to thank her for helping.

The Jagged Diamond Dagger has the following stats:

Item: Jagged Diamond Dagger
Type: Piercing
Damage/Delay: 9/22
Stats: +9 DEX
Special Attributes: MAGIC ITEM, LORE ITEM
Slot(s): RANGE, PRIMARY, SECONDARY
Weight: 1.7
Size: SMALL
Class: ROG
Race: ALL

Trochilic's Skean has the following stats:

Picture courtesy of Siamese of Rodcet Nife

Item: Trochilic's Skean
Type: 1H Slashing
Damage/Delay: 10/25
Stats: +5 PR
Special Attributes: MAGIC ITEM, LORE ITEM, NODROP
Slot(s): SECONDARY
Weight: 1.7
Effect: Clockwork Poison (stun/DoT)
Size: MEDIUM
Class: WAR RNG BRD ROG
Race: HUM BAR ELF DEF HEF DWF TRL OGR HFL GNM IKS VAH

8. Return to Stanos
(Highpass Hold - Stanos Herkanor)

Return to Highpass Hold, and give the Translated Parchment to Stanos Herkanor. He will give you the Sealed Box in return.

Getting There and Spawning Stanos

See section 4 above for information on reaching, and spawning, Stanos Herkanor.

Give Stanos the Parchment

Give the Translated Parchment to Stanos. He says:

Stanos Herkanor says 'Let me see what you have here. Aha, so that's who.. yes, yes! There is one more thing I need you to do. This document tells me who the originator of the plot really was. His name is General V'ghera, which is interesting, as Anson's men have spotted him in Kithicor recently. He will not be easy to get to, but if you give this box to one of his many aides, the General will HAVE to come to investigate. You see, this box used to contain the tools crafted for the assassination. When he arrives, kill him! I need any documents you find on him - with luck it will be enough evidence to convince Hanns that what I say is true. Bring any documents or dispatch cases you find, along with those blades Vilnius made you work so hard for, and we will make a trade.

Your faction standing with HighpassGuards got better.
Your faction standing with CarsonMcCabe got better.
Your faction standing with MerchantsofHighpass got better.
Your faction standing with CorruptQeynosGuards got better.
Your faction standing with TheFreeportMilitia got better.

You gain experience!!

Stanos then gives you the Sealed Box:

Item: Sealed Box

Picture courtesy of Evertorrn Darkheart of Veeshan

Majax of Solusek Ro tells us that if you tell Stanos that you killed Renux, he'll yell at you and you'll take a negative faction hit with the Highpass Guards faction. The conversation is as follows:

You say, 'i just killed Renux your daughter'

Stanos Herkanor says, 'You killed Renux? You stupid get of a dog! Renux was my best work, a killer without peer, without remorse. All I did to her, I did for a reason, and it made her matchless. Ravens take your eyes! All you needed to do was gather evidence. When Hanns believed me, Renux would follow. A hollow victory, it seems. I suppose you had to do it, but I imagine it cost you in the process. When this is over, perhaps you and I shall have a reckoning.

Your faction standing with HighpassGuards got worse.

The hit doesn't seem to be severe, as Majax still conned warmly to Stanos after he took the hit. Xatkin Beeblebroix of Quellious says that he went from amiable to apprehensive when he did this. It's not recommended. :)

9. Kill General V`ghera
(Kithicor Forest - General V`ghera and his aides)

Travel to Kithicor Forest. Find the house full of evil dark elves, and give one of them the Sealed Box. General V`ghera will spawn. Kill him and take his General's Pouch.

Getting There

Kithicor Forest is directly adjacent to Highpass Hold. It is also west of West Commonlands, and south of the halfling city of Rivervale. The house full of dark elves is located on the east side of a small hill, at coordinates (+800, +2400).

dark elf house

Picture courtesy of Nemesi of Vallon Zek

The house, looking through the front door. Outside you can see some low-level ghouls and skeletons guarding the place. This shot was taking during the day. At night, there are also higher-level undead (35+) guarding the house.

dark elf house closeup

Picture courtesy of Nemesi of Vallon Zek

Note that the mobs named Tasi V`ghera and Ioltos V`ghera are NOT GENERAL V`GHERA! They merely have the same surname (they're probably his siblings or cousins or something).

Spawning the General

Picture courtesy of Dakth Frostshadow of E'ci

The dark elves in the house are KOS to everyone. They are also all level 55+, and are highly dangerous. If you give the Sealed Box to any of them, General V`ghera will immediately spawn inside the house (and he will probably kill you). General V`ghera is a level 63 shadow knight, casts several dangerous spells, hits for over 200, and has a 500 damage lifetap proc, as well as a huge harmtouch. He also has around 32,000 hit points.

As a result, the best way to kill him is to, before spawning him, first clear out most of the house so that there is only one dark elf left. BE SURE your pullers leave ONE of the dark elves behind, otherwise you will not be able to turn in your Sealed Box to spawn the General! There is debate over whether Coercer Q`ioul or Brigadier G`tav is the best choice, but Mizchif of Fennin Ro pointed out the following (copied from an old, long-since deleted post on The Safehouse):

The one major disagreement I have with that guide, having watched it both ways in the last two weeks, is that I agree with the poster above that you're far better off to leave the Brigadier as the last named DE in the cabin, NOT the Coercer.

(1) From where the Brigadier stands, you'll be out of the General's line of sight when he spawns and hence will have time to re-hide.

(2) If you leave the Coercer up, you have to pull her out of the cabin to do the turn-in, or the General WILL see you when he spawns and you're dead for a fight you'd much rather be present at. The debuff pull/wait for her to rebuff on the way back routine is just way too cute and complicated, IMHO

(3) Plus there's the risk of aggro from the Coercer turning to buff her pet at the wrong moment, or the pet aggroing on you

(4) Plus, as pointed out above, you will want to kill the Coercer for her robe drops, and it's bad manners to not leave at least one named DE up in case someone else is doing a raid within the next 8 hours

(5) Plus the Coercer is an easier kill than the Brigadier (chanter vs warrior)

(6) Plus the Coercer will buff the General if she gets the chance, while the Brigadier doesn't buff.

I agree with everything there EXCEPT point 4: When we did my General raid, the Brigadier himself dropped a Kedge robe when he was killed, and the Coercer did not. Most raids will probably kill off the final DE once the last rogue has gotten his General's Pouch, so for the purpose of getting the robe, it doesn't matter which one you save for last. However, the safety and reliability issues for using Brigadier G`tav vs. using the Coercer are all valid, and as such, the Brigadier is probably a better choice.

The exact method for spawning the General goes like this: sneakhide behind the Dark Elf you're handing the box to. Break hide (BUT DO NOT BREAK SNEAK!). Hand the box to the DE. Hide again. THEN hit TRADE. This will cause the General to spawn, but he'll remain safely unaware of your presence. Thanks to Myce Elffe of Saryrn.

You will need a force of around 30 people to kill the General safely. It should be a good mix of tanks, nukers, healers, etc. This force should begin assembling at the Highpass Hold zone border area (in Kithicor) at around midnight game time. The reason for this is so that by the time it is 8 am in game, all of the wandering undead in Kithicor will have despawned, and your rangers will be able to start individually pulling the dark elves from the house, to your waiting raid party, who will dispatch them. The rangers, if they are high enough level, can actually start doing this before the undead despawn, since they can simply bring the undead with them (none of the wandering undead in Kithicor are particularly powerful, and are no threat to a large party of level 50+ people).

Once the DE house is cleared (EXCEPT for Brigadier G`tav, or whichever DE you choose to leave behind), everyone in the party should move to the road north of the DE house, at approximately +1100, +2600. Be sure that they do not run near the DE house on their way there. The party should then buff up and get ready to fight.

(From this point, I will refer to the Brigadier as the last DE, even though you may use someone else.)

At this point, only Brigadier G`tav should be inside the house. The rogue who has the Sealed Box should sneak-hide, move into the house, stand BEHIND the Brigadier, and give him the box. Due to the Brigadier's positioning, and where General V`ghera spawns (he always spawns IN the house, regardless of the location of the dark elf you hand the box to), the rogue SHOULD have time to re-hide before the General notices him. At this point, the waiting ranger can solo-pull the General over to the raid party, while the rogue sneaks away from the house, and goes to join the party.

WARNING: If any roaming mobs aggro you while you are attempting to hand in the Sealed Box to the Coercer or Brigadier or whoever, you may very well lose it -- if you hand an item to an aggroed mob, it will poof. So make sure there are no mobs nearby (use F9 if necessary to get a look at the surrounding area) when handing in the box.

Once the General is dead, loot the General's Pouch off his corpse. This pouch, like Stanos' Pouch, is NOT a container, so you may put it safely inside a backpack. The General will RARELY also drop the Cazic Quill. If he does, congratulations! You are DONE WITH THE QUEST -- you should now have the General's Pouch, the Cazic Quill, and the Jagged Diamond Dagger to give to Stanos (see step 10, below). However the reported drop rate for the Quill is roughly 1 in 10, so don't expect him to drop it very often. (If he does not drop the Quill, refer to the "Cazic Quill Subquest" section below for details on the alternate method of obtaining the Quill.)

A common practice is for several rogues to have a "General party", which basically means that they all turn in their Sealed Boxes one at a time, causing multiple General V`gheras to spawn. Once the first general is dead, the next rogue moves to the house again, hands in HIS box to Brigadier G`tav, the ranger pulls V`ghera again, and you kill him again. Repeat this process until all rogues present have their Pouches. (Note that if you take a long while, the nightly undead may start spawning, so your group will have to keep an eye on them -- a common practice is to have the enchanters keep the undead mezzed during the General fight, so that the undead can be picked off afterward.)

If the Brigadier aggroes on someone, you will not be able to give him the Sealed Box until he loses aggro. The usual method is to have an enchanter charm him so that he is aggroed on nobody except the enchanter, and then to mez and mem blur him over and over until it takes, and he forgets what he's doing. If you kill him, then no other rogues get to turn in their boxes until the dark elves start respawning (8 or 24 hours, depending on who you believe)! However once all the rogues are done with their boxes, you may freely kill him, for there is a chance that the Brigadier will drop the Robe of the Kedge (see the "Cazic Quill" subquest, summarized at top and detailed below)!

Due to the continual increase in the power level of EQ characters, it's become feasible to single-group the General. Amuenp Snaggletoof reports that a group consisting of a 65 cleric, 62 enchanter, 65 ranger, 65 warrior, 51 warrior, and a 50 rogue (himself) were able to take on the General.

10. Ragebringer
(Highpass Hold - Stanos Herkanor)

Give the General's Pouch, Jagged Diamond Dagger, and Cazic Quill to Stanos Herkanor in Highpass Hold. In return, Stanos will give you the Rogue Epic Weapon - Ragebringer.

Getting There and Spawning Stanos

See section 4 above for information on reaching, and spawning, Stanos Herkanor.

Give Stanos the Items

Give the General's Pouch, Jagged Diamond Dagger, and Cazic Quill to Stanos, all at once. He says:

Stanos Herkanor says 'Did you forget something?

Stanos Herkanor says 'Did you forget something?

Stanos Herkanor says 'Very well done. I leave now to confront Hanns with this evidence. Even so, it will not be easy to regain his trust. That is why I need those daggers, in case all else fails.<chuckle> Bristlebane grant me luck - I can no longer live like a hunted dog. In any case, I am grateful for your aid. Take this wretched blade, I can bear it no longer. I must warn you, I feel it carries Innoruuk's curse; all who are near it learn the meaning of hate. <chuckle> Ironic, isn't it? You went to all that work to redeem yourself for a rapier, yet the true reward came when you redeemed another. <chuckle>. Good luck, Soandso , for much as I, you will need it.

Your faction standing with HighpassGuards got better.
Your faction standing with CarsonMcCabe got better.
Your faction standing with MerchantsofHighpass got better.
Your faction standing with CorruptQeynosGuards got better.
Your faction standing with TheFreeportMilitia got better.

And he gives you Ragebringer. Ironically, in his last speech, he refers to the Burning Rapier quest, which you would have to do in order to complete your epic... if they hadn't horribly gimped the epic quest! (See "Why The Quest Is Gimpy" below for details.)

Can anyone confirm what minimum faction you need to turn in the final items? I would imagine that pretty much any non-KOS faction would work, but if anyone can give hard info about minimum faction needed, it would be appreciated.

Well, that's it. That's Ragebringer.

- CAZIC QUILL SUB-QUEST -

If, as described in step 9 above, General V`ghera does not drop the Cazic Quill, then you will need to do a separate sub-quest to acquire the Cazic Quill.

In the Western Plains of Karana there is (sometimes) a Barbarian named Vilnius the Small. If you give him the Robe of the Kedge, the Robe of the Ishva, the Robe of the Oracle, and the Shining Metallic Robes, he will give you the Cazic Quill.

1. Get the Robe of the Oracle
(Oracle of K'Arnon - Ocean of Tears)

Kill the Oracle of K'Arnon in the Ocean of Tears, and loot the Robe of the Oracle off his body; or, purchase the Robe of the Oracle from another player.

Getting There

The Ocean of Tears is only accessible by either taking the boat from East Freeport, or the Butcherblock Mountains. The Freeport boat passes right by where the Oracle stands, so it's much easier to start from that side of the ocean. The Oracle is standing on the north side of the goblin island in the Ocean of Tears, and he is located at approximate coordinates (-500, -8800). If you go to the dock on the Sisters Island, the Oracle's island is visible across the channel (the location of the Oracle is circled in red):

Individual shots:

Kill the Oracle

The Oracle is a level 40 wizard, who is guarded by the Guardian of K'Arnon, a level 40 (paladin? warrior?). Any 50+ group will not have any problem killing the Oracle; I myself did it with one 51 rogue (me), one 58 enchanter, and the 60 druid that the enchanter was botting. The enchanter mezzed the Guardian, then chain-stunned the Oracle while the druid nuked and dotted, and I backstabbed. As soon as I'd looted the Robe of the Oracle from the Oracle's corpse, the druid ported us out.

The other method to get a Robe of the Oracle is to buy one from another player. The Robe usually sells for well under 1,000 platinum (these days you can probably find them for 100-200pp in the Bazaar). Killing the Oracle is so trivial that it's usually not worth spending the time and money trying to find someone who is selling the robe.

Item: Robe of the Oracle

2. Get the Shining Metallic Robes
(Ghoul Arch Magus - Lower Guk)

Kill the Ghoul Arch Magus in the Ruins of Old Guk, and loot the Shining Metallic Robes off his body; or, purchase the SMR from another player.

Getting There

The Ghoul Arch Magus lives in the Ruins of Old Guk (aka Lower Guk), which is only accessible from Guk (aka Upper Guk), which itself is only accessible from Innothule Swamp, south of the Southern Desert of Ro and east of the Feerrott. The GAM himself is in the north wing of the "dead side" of Lower Guk. As his location is well-known and usually camped, I won't bother with a map. There are plenty of other sources for that (say, EQ Atlas).

This is the room the GAM spawns in. The GAM is the rear spawn, near the back of the room.

Ghoul Arch Magus's room

Picture courtesy of Bill Talcott

Getting the Robe

The GAM is an uncommon spawn, and he drops the SMR as his rare drop, so it may take several hours of camping to get an SMR. Take a full group down there, and kill your way to his room. Camp in or near his room until he drops your SMR. The GAM himself is a wizard, and casts some dangerous spells, but he is not particularly difficult to kill.

The other method to get Shining Metallic Robes is to buy one from another player. The SMR's price varies widely from server to server; EQ Prices says that the SMR's average price is around 4,900pp, although I've heard price ranges from 1,000pp to 10,000pp. This is, in general, a much simpler method than trying to get the robe yourself.

3. Get the Robe of the Ishva
(Ishva Mal - Splitpaw Lair, or Coercer Q`ioul - Kithicor Forest)

Kill the Ishva Mal in Splitpaw Lair, and loot the Robe of the Ishva off his body; or, kill Coercer Q`ioul in Kithicor Forest, and loot the Robe of the Ishva off her body; or, buy the Robe from another player.

The Ishva Mal Method

Getting There

Splitpaw Lair is located roughly in the center of the Southern Plains of Karana. The Ishva Mal's room is inside Splitpaw, through an underwater passage partway through the dungeon:

Splitpaw map

The pool of water on the map above is seen in the picture below:

Splitpaw water room

The underwater passage entrance is highlighted by the red circle. You have to go straight down into the water a little ways to enter the passage.

Go through the passage, then swim upward and you'll be in a small cave. A passage to the north leads to a few small storage rooms; the room way in the back corner is the Ishva Mal's room:

In the left picture, you can see two gnolls. The one circled in red is the placeholder for the Ishva Mal, shown at right.

Killing the Ishva Mal

The Ishva Mal is a level 45 caster (not sure what kind), but he's pretty easy to kill. I did it with the same group of 51 rogue, 58 enchanter, and botted 60 druid, with no problems whatsoever. He is an uncommon to rare spawn, and drops the Robe of the Ishva fairly often (as far as I know -- I got my robe on his first kill). Not a big deal.

Since gnolls don't have robe textures, it's not possible to tell whether the Ishva Mal has the robe or not without killing him.

The Coercer Method

Getting There

See "Getting There" in the main quest step 9, above.

Killing the Coercer

If your goal is to kill only the Coercer, then your best bet is to find a 60 ranger who knows how to solo-pull her. Set up a well-balanced party of 6-12 people at the Rivervale zone line in Kithicor during the game day (8am - 7pm game time), and have the 60 ranger pull the Coercer solo to your group. MAKE SURE you dispel her repeatedly, otherwise she will be hasted and buffed and will be harder to kill. Then, kill her, and she will always drop the Robe of the Ishva. Sometimes, too, she will drop the Robe of the Kedge (see below).

It was originally thought that if the Coercer appears to be wearing a green robe with brown trim, then she has only the Robe of the Kedge, and if she appears to be wearing a blue robe with purple trim, then she definitely has the Robe of the Ishva, and POSSIBLY the Robe of the Kedge. However, Fastan of Terris Thule sends that his guild once killed the Coercer when she was wearing the green robe, but she dropped only the Ishva robe. This may have been a fluke; can anyone else confirm this happening? I guess the upshot is, kill the Coercer as often as possible, regardless of what she's wearing.

The Coercer has a spawn time of 1 real-time day, along with all the other static dark elves in the house.

Instead of going to Splitpaw or Kithicor, of course, you can simply buy a Robe of the Ishva from another player. I don't know how much they sell for but it isn't a huge amount.

Item: Robe of the Ishva

Picture courtesy of Krezdian of the Seventh Hammer

4. Get the Robe of the Kedge
(Phinigel Autropos - Kedge Keep, or dark elves - Kithicor Forest)

Kill Phinigel Autropos in Kedge Keep, and loot the Robe of the Kedge off his body; or, kill all of the dark elves in the house (see main quest step 9, above) in Kithicor Forest, until one of them drops the Robe of the Kedge. The RotK is NODROP so you cannot buy one from another player, although you CAN multiquest with the RotK, but ALL players involved in the multiquesting MUST be at least level 50, otherwise the robes will poof when they are handed in. Thanks (and heartfelt sorrow) to James Delaney for pointing that out. (I did the multiquest method myself; a 60 gnome magician handed in his Kedge robe, and then *after* he finished handing it in, I handed in the rest of the robes, and it worked -- I got the Cazic Quill from Vilnius.)

The Fish Method

Getting There

Kedge Keep is located at the bottom of the lake in Dagnor's Cauldron. The entry coordinates are approximately (-1000, -1000), at literally the bottom of the lake. Right around there are a lot of broken pillars, etc., which mark the entrance to the zone. The below picture was taken facing north, into the Kedge Keep zone border:

Kedge Keep zone entrance

Killing Phinigel

Kedge Keep is entirely underwater, so you will need to have some method of extended underwater breathing for you and your entire party. The best method is to acquire items with a permanent effect of Enduring Breath for everyone, though this can be difficult (although less so lately, with the proliferation of Enduring Breath items since the Luclin expansion). There are many such items but three of the most common are the Fishbone Earring (rare drop off a 5-hour spawn named Hadden in Qeynos Hills), some kind of quest necklace that you get from hunting in The Grey, and the Lodizal Shell Shield (acquired by killing Lodizal, in Iceclad Ocean, for his shell and turning it in, along with 1,000pp, to an Othmir in Cobalt Scar).

Another method is to bring along a magician who can summon dozens of waterstones for everyone. A waterstone is a nonstackable, single-use item that has one charge of Enduring Breath, which lasts roughly 36 minutes. You can also have Enduring Breath cast on you by some classes, including enchanters, but if it starts to run out and they're LD or otherwise occupied, it could be bad news for you.

Unless you have Enduring Breath items for everyone in your party, bring along a magician to summon waterstones.

You'll need a party of 12 people level 55+ to safely kill Phinigel, or a larger party of 50+. It's been done with as few as 6 people but it's highly dangerous if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Phinigel is deep within Kedge Keep, at the bottom of a large vertical room. The usual method is to have a monk feign-pull his guardians (swirlspine guardians) up to the party, kill them all, and then kill Phinigel once his guards are all dead. Phinigel drops several items needed for several epic quests, including the Robe of the Kedge, but he drops any of them rarely, so do not expect him to drop your robe the first time. There are other, better guides to dealing with Phinigel, so I will not go into any more detail here; your best bet is to go along on Kedge raids until you get your robe.

Phinigel Autropos

The dark elf Method

Getting There

See "Getting There" in the main quest step 9, above.

Killing the dark elves

You'll need a pair of high-level rangers to safely solo pull the dark elves out of the house. Refer to step 9 in the main quest above for details on how to set up for killing the dark elves. Clearing the dark elf house will result in a Kedge robe about one time in three, according to what I've read, and the robe can drop off ANY of the dark elves. (I've personally seen it drop from Brigadier G`tav).

Since the RotK is NODROP, you cannot buy one from another player, but you CAN have them multiquest it with you (but all players involved in the multiquesting need to be level 50 or above, or the robes will POOF when you hand them in!).

Item: Robe of the Kedge

Picture courtesy of Krezdian of the Seventh Hammer

5. Turn in the Robes
(Vilnius the Small - Western Plains of Karana)

Hand in the four robes (Oracle, SMR, Ishva, Kedge) to Vilnius the Small in West Karana, in exchange for the Cazic Quill.

Getting There

Vilnius the Small, a barbarian male, is found at approximate coordinates (+150, -6700), at the top of a hill just east of a bandit camp on the west end of the mountain range in WK. The bandit camp, which is just west (and downhill) from Vilnius' spawn point, is shown in the picture below (the view is from Vilnius' spawn point):

West Karana bandit camp

From the camp, looking east (uphill), Vilnius' spawn point can be seen here, circled in red:

Vilnius' placeholder, a brigand, and Vilnius himself, are shown below:

The brigand, as well as all the bandits, are on the KaranaBandits faction, but Vilnius is indifferent to all.

However, Vilnius is not there all the time; he has a placeholder (the aforementioned brigand) who despawns around 9 or 10pm game time each day. Once the brigand despawns, Vilnius will spawn at 11pm game time (and will despawn at around 8am game time). If the brigand is up, don't kill him, just wait until he despawns. If you do kill him, Vilnius won't spawn, and you'll have to wait until the bandit spawns again. This time, LET the bandit despawn, and then Vilnius will spawn a little later.

Sindier of Tholuxe Paells says that Vilnius always despawns at 6am game time and the brigand placeholder spawns at 8am game time.

The bandits in the camp are around level 9-12, so they aren't exactly a threat, although they could make things inconvenient should they decide to attack while you are trying to hand items in to Vilnius. If the brigand is not spawned during the day, then you may need to start killing bandits to get him to spawn, but this is unconfirmed (every time I've stopped by his spot, either Vilnius or the brigand were up). There are also numerous wandering mobs in this zone, from bandits to animals to giants. Make sure nothing is wandering around near you when you turn in the robes to Vilnius.

Kalok Sundancer of Bristlebane tells me that the only time you need to kill any of the bandits is if the brigand does NOT spawn up on top of the hill, where I've marked him. If he's in the bandit camp, or does not spawn at all, then basically you need to kill everything in sight (including the brigand, if he spawns in the camp). This will reset the spawn and after a bit, everything should be back to normal. It may be necessary to kill the various other groups of bandits that spawn in the hills; there are several of them scattered about. This should not normally be a problem, and presumably after the servers go down for a patch or maintenance, everything should spawn normally.

According to Fluxus of Tarew Marr, Vilnius may not always spawn normally. He sat through seven game-days waiting for the Barbarian to show up, and when Vilnius finally did spawn, he spawned at 1am game-time. However, Fluxus said he killed two of the placeholder spawns. That may have messed things up; my advice is to leave the placeholder alone, unless he's not in his normal spot.

Hand the four robes (Robe of the Oracle, Robe of the Kedge, Robe of the Ishva, Shining Metallic Robes) in to Vilnius, and he says the following:

Vilnius the Small looks at you impatiently, expecting more.
Vilnius the Small looks at you impatiently, expecting more.
Vilnius the Small looks at you impatiently, expecting more.

Vilnius the Small says 'You do good work, Soandso . Here is another trinket for your trouble, you should be able to make use of it. Malta still hasn't made it back yet, and I have one more order to fill, if you're willing. This one should be easy. My sword collector has decided he wants rapiers now, of all things. He has asked for an Eyerazzia, a Martune Rapier, a Burning Rapier, and a well balanced rapier.

You gain experience!!

You receive 31 gold from Vilnius the Small.
You receive 1 platinum from Vilnius the Small.

Vilnius then gives you the Cazic Quill.

When I handed in my robes, I had a friend who had a Kedge robe hand his in first, and once he had completed the trade, I immediately handed in the other three robes (SMR, Ishva, Oracle). Vilnius gave me the Cazic Quill, so this shows that the CQ CAN be multiquested as of October 2001. Again, be careful; only players level 50+ should be involved with multiquesting, as anyone below 50 will have the robes POOF when they are handed in!

The Cazic Quill has the following stats:

Item: Cazic Quill
Type: Piercing
Damage/Delay: 8/23
Stats: +5 AGI
Special Attributes: MAGIC ITEM, LORE ITEM, NODROP
Slot(s): RANGE, PRIMARY, SECONDARY
Weight: 1.1
Effect: Shadow Vortex
Size: SMALL
Class: ROG
Race: ALL

One last note about Vilnius: Whatever you do, don't ask him, "What rump bouncing?" He'll attack you, and he pierces for 156 damage.

WHY THE QUEST IS GIMPY

Anyone familiar with any of the other epic weapon quests will probably be surprised that the Ragebringer quest is so simple. You have to kill all of 1 difficult mob (the General), and a handful of single-group mobs (Renux, the Coercer, the Ishva Mal, the Oracle of K'Arnon, the Ghoul Arch Magus), pickpocket two items, and run around a lot.

Originally, the Ragebringer quest was far more involved. You had to do the following (assuming you didn't know any spoilers about the quest):

Lendel and Gaffin Deeppockets, the Halfling rogue guildmaster and his brother, will occasionally have a conversation where they mention Stanos. The idea was that you'd overhear the conversation, and ask Lendel about Stanos. He'd tell you about Stanos, and then suggest you go find him in the Karanas. I think the idea there is to ask people in the Karanas about Stanos, and eventually find Vilnius.
Vilnius gives you a task to find Malka Rale in the Qeynos Aqueduct System.
Go to the QAS and talk to Malka. She gives you Stanos' Pouch.
You give Stanos' Pouch to Vilnius. He tells you that he needs you to do something for him: collect four swords - Painbringer (rare drop from Kobold Champion in Sol B), Fleshripper (rare drop from Kobold King in Sol B), a Mithril Two-Handed Sword (rare drop from the froglok king in Lower Guk), and a Gigantic Zweihander (Karg Icebear in Everfrost). Turn in the swords to Vilnius, and he gives you the Jagged Diamond Dagger as payment.
Vilnius then asks another task of you: collect four robes (the four mentioned above). For these, he gives you the Cazic Quill, another dagger.
He then asks one last task: collect four rapiers - a Martune Rapier (rare drop from Scorn Banshees in the Plane of Hate), an Eyerazzia (uncommon drop from Scarelings in the Plane of Fear), a Well-Balanced Rapier (purchasable from the Shady Swashbuckler in East Commonlands), and the Burning Rapier, which itself involves a long quest that will take at least 6-7 hours to do. For the rapiers, he gives you back Stanos' Pouch, and tells you to take it to Anson McBale in Highpass.
Give the pouch to Anson, and Stanos shows up. Talk to Stanos and he gives you the quest to recover the stained parchment pieces from Founy and Tani.
Get the parchment pieces, give them to Stanos, and go through the translation rigmarole above, kill Renux, get the Sealed Box, and kill the General for his Pouch. At this point, you'd have the Jagged Diamond Dagger, the Cazic Quill, and the General's Pouch, and trade them in to Stanos for Ragebringer.

The quest was gimped in the following ways:

You don't need to interact with the Deeppockets at all.
Renux, a mob you are REQUIRED to kill to complete the quest, ALWAYS drops the Jagged Diamond Dagger. As a result, you do not need to collect the four swords for Vilnius.
Stanos can be spawned by saying to Anson, "I need to see Stanos", which means that not only do you not have to collect the four rapiers, you don't even need to see Malka Rale. Hell, you don't need Stanos' Pouch AT ALL.
General V`ghera, up until spring of 2001, used to *ALWAYS* drop a Cazic Quill, which meant that you didn't have to collect the robes, either! Now, he only drops it rarely (about 1 in 10 is the commonly-tossed around figure), so if you're lucky you won't need to collect the robes, but most people do.
Even if you do need to get the robes, the ones you need are all tradeable (which means you can just BUY them, instead of having to bother camping for them) except for the Kedge robe, but that hardly matters, because you can multiquest the Kedge Robe.
The Robe of the Kedge was originally only available from Phinigel, but they made that robe (AND the Ishva Robe) drop from the Coercer in Kithicor, so you don't even need to bother with Splitpaw or Kedge Keep.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but Ragebringer is by far the most common epic weapon because the quest was gimped so heavily. Verant will never change it back to full-strength, however, because so many rogues who haven't completed the quest would bitch insanely about the facts that 1) it's been this way for over two years, and 2) it's unfair that a whole bunch of people got to do the easy version just because they were able to do it first.