Crescent Reach Quests

I am taking this from the perspective of a new, non-Drakkin character being played in Crescent Reach from level 1 (i.e. no tutorial, to start with, although it will be worthwhile visiting for some useful gear). So no breath weapon quests, which Drakkin can get; if you have done the tutorial, a lot of these can be skipped. However, I am including all the Hero’s Journey quests, which I will note as we come across them.

Cautions:

  1. I assume that you read the text for quests and can understand them;
  2. Sometimes you may need to resize the quest window to see all parts of it;
  3. I compiled this guide while Crescent Reach was a hot zone, and during a 30% experience bonus, so if you are getting behind at any point, just grind by killing mobs that are between dark blue and yellow, of which there will be plenty.

The quest rewards are weak compared to the Defiant gear, with a few exceptions (the weapon from Vunder the Dark can be very useful); but completing the quests advances you on the Hero’s Journey, and the rewards from completing an achievement are very good. The Gloomingdeep rewards are of a similar standard (same level as Defiant).

Crescent Reach has two banks: one on the ground floor, and a banker on the raised platform upstairs. Guildmasters are in the building in the Dragon’s Grove, but the merchants here only carry spells up to level ten. You will need to buy later spells in Plane of Knowledge.

You will find yourself running short of inventory space. If so, go to the tinker merchant behind the bank and buy Deluxe Toolboxes for 1p1g2c, which are 10 slot, giant capacity boxes. You can also get two bags from the Bazaar quest in Plane of Knowledge.

First Stage: Welcome and Ready for Combat

You appear in the Dragon’s Grove, with a Tome of the Hero’s Journey on your cursor, as well as getting a special AA to summon it if destroyed. If you click it in your inventory, you will be pointed to Emissary Tinnvin and the Serpent Seeker’s Charm of Lore quest. In your inventory is a guild summons, which you should read.

Pick up the quest from Tinnvin, then head down the path to the guildmasters. Hand in your guild note for a newbie tunic, then continue into the city. Initiate Dakkan is more or less straight ahead, by the exit to The Hollow. Pick up three quests from him, then head over to Innkeeper Falthus. You can use the Find window (ctrl-f) if you wish. Take one quest from him, which sends you to Council Aide Mystrana. She is upstairs, so find the lift - clicking the button next to it will call the lift, and clicking again will send you up. It’s probably best to use find for her, but it won’t work until you are on the right level. Hand her the note, and take her quest, which sends you back downstairs again. Again, take the quest from Librarian Hemfar, and explore upstairs in the library to complete it; you should pick up the book from the table and hand it to the Librarian (this may not be obvious from the quest text). You should now receive a message telling you to head back to Mystrana, and take a new quest from her.

Find the bank while you are there, and take out your extra backpack.

Now find the other lift platform; the book you have been sent to find is on top of a box to your left in the rats and bats room. The reward from this is enough experience to hit level 2, plus a cloak. This also complete the first achievement in the Hero’s Journey.

You can do the next quests in several ways; but go back down to the council level. Start with Mystrana again, who sends you to speak to all the council members; they are on a raised platform, but you can run up the sides (even though it may not look as if you can). The first one you speak to will give you “Prove Your Worth”, which you must complete before you can take the others. I would normally prefer to skip these, as there is a lot of running around involved, but they are part of the Hero’s Journey.

This is the simplest way to link together all of the objectives that are in the same place. If you are a Free or Silver member, you may not be able to take all the quests at once.

Myjinn: answers are Nokk, Plane of Earth, human.

Vakk’dra: then go to Butcher Katorr (on raised platform behind banker), and back to Vakk’dra to complete the quest.

Total exp is about one level (bringing you to almost 4), plus the Council of Six achievement.

Once you have taken all these, go to the raised platform at one end and talk to Disgruntled Boawb. This quest will send you back into the council chamber again to deliver to Reakash. Go ahead, and take her quest in turn. This completes the Boawb achievement - rewards being a belt and mask, plus a choice of weapons and a shield: the weapon and shield are all required level 5, and you could easily still be level 1.

Use find to take you to Guard Captain Minka (still all on the middle level). There’s a fair amount of running around to do, with a necklace reward, and you also complete an achievement (but no additional reward for that). Now find Champion Utenka for the next stage - combat; training dummies are in the next room, and just use auto-attack (or spells) to destroy ten of them; they will probably respawn faster than you can destroy them.

It might be an idea to make a quick visit to the tutorial to collect the Kobold Skull Charm, Worn Totem and Sharpened weapon, as these are quick upgrades - and the first few Gloomingdeep armor items and stitched burlap might help, too. Don’t forget to have Rytan bless you, and collect your free spell or melee discipline from him, and see Elegist for a mercenary. You can do this with just the rats and bats then the spiders area. You should end up with arms, chest and leg armor.

Now it’s time for you to to kill in the Hollows. Collect and hand-in mushrooms to Initiate Dakkan, if you haven’t already - use /open to open the mushrooms. Kill snakes and diseased spiderlings (level 3), making sure the guards don’t kill them first. You may have to kill normal spiders to get the diseased ones to spawn. Don’t forget to loot the corpses, as some items sell to merchants for reasonable sums, and spiderling silk can be useful (to sell in the Bazaar, or as a component for making tailor-made backpacks, once you have some high quality bear pelts from a later quest).

Rewards from Dakkan are three sets of potions (healing, and two buffs). You will also have completed the Ready for Combat Achievement.

If you haven’t been in the tutorial, you should be level 4. The next achievements won’t open up until you are high enough level, which is level 5 for Important Errands. So kill more snakes and spiders (and pumas and bear cubs and leaf drakes) in the Hollows, or try the Mines of Gloomingdeep.

Sidetrack: Trade Skills

If at any point you get bored while in or near Crescent Reach, and aren’t convinced that you want to avoid all trade skills with a passion (and maybe even then), Crescent Reach offers some very simple quests that can take any trade skill to 54 for no cost. So go talk to the trade skill quest NPCs around the upper floor banker. Remember that some of the epic quests (all of the 1.5 epics, I believe) require over 100 in more than one trade skill, so go do it.

Important Errands (6-10)

Jinkin, upstairs in the city, and Baker Shivra.

Start with sporelings in the first cave across the bridge in the Hollows, and pumas in the second, as is the lemonade. The sporali are slightly lower level, and pumas 7 - 9 (and possibly higher). Back in the city on the top floor, kill rats and bats (level 5 - 8). Rewards include: a bracer, potions, and some stat drink and food. The achievement reward is both a range item and a belt (the belt for melees has 14% haste).

I was still only level 8 after completing these, so a spot of grinding on young pumas and bear cubs is one option; or just go back to complete the quests in Gloomingdeep.

Making a Name for Yourself (11-15)

Remember that you will need to travel back and forth to Plane of Knowledge to collect spells past level 10. The fastest way, if you are level ten or lower, or a caster still bound in Gloomingdeep, is to return to the Tutorial, then say to Arias “ready to leave”. Alternatively, you can run through the Hollows to Blightfire Moors, then turn sharp right and avoid the rats running to the nearby book; click it to enter the Plane of Knowledge. There is one other route, involving the Priest of Discord in the inn…

These quests come from Council Aide Shay, in the council chamber on the upper floor, Skinner Bezuth on the same level, and Vunder the Dark, on the top floor.

The spiderlings for Shaye are almost certainly grey cons, so do this part fast - as is the Canyon Queen. Spiderling silks may be of value in the Bazaar (as a trader or selling to buyers, depending on your account status).

You will need to kill alligators (no, not crocodiles) in the pond in the Hollow, and bears in the bear cave; these are all level 12+. The cave is semi-hidden: climb out of the pond on the right at the mill wheel, and the cave entrance is behind some bushes. Collect any high quality bear skins you find, as they have good value both in the Bazaar, and to make ten slot backpacks with a relatively low tailoring skill. Gnolls are higher level out in the open part of the Hollows. They won’t aggro or assist each other.

The apothecary is a seated barbarian just outside the alchemy vendor room. A warder paths back and forth to him, and will kill you if you mis-time this. So wait until the warder has just left, then kill fast. Use a snare spell if you have one, as he will run when low, and there are other nearby mobs that can aggro.

These took me from 11 to 15. The achievement reward is a set of jewelry: 2 rings and 2 earrings. The quests give you a ring, either a 1HB or 2HB depending on class, and some potions. Under eight hours played so far.

Becoming a Hero (15-20)

Farmer Lize, Farmer Joen, both in a room downstairs in the inn; and Akins, upstairs in the tavern. If you haven’t already, in the inn on the top floor, second room on the right, is the first item needed for the Charm of Lore quest (hand in to Librarian Hemfar). At this stage you are also directed to the Wanderlust Guild Loadstone; the latter is offered in (many) stages by Master Vanguard Regan, on the upper floor in the city of Crescent Reach.

Now you need to go to the farm, north of the gnolls in the Hollow. Open chests for the trinkets and kill skeletons. The chests respawn rapidly, so complete this and go back to the farmers; you should then be able to pick up the “Reclaim the Farm!” quest (this may require a slightly higher level than the rest). Go back, finish the kill quest if you haven’t already, and click the bag of seeds on the field area. Rewards are: some drink, food, and a range slot item.

Inside the farm house, on the upper floor there is an undead farmer (or a skeletal scavenger), probably level 20, which drops the locket. He may also wander around outside around the field; if so, that is a recent change. Reward is an earring.

Across the stream from the farmhouse is a field of undead Nokk (17+); kill these; reward is yet more potions, and collect the next quest in this series. Inside the cave, at the back of the left hand fork, is a container with the second item to hand in to Hemfar. Finally, on the top floor of the city is an undead room, behind the rats and bats. Click the throne to spawn the level 20 Gekkdar. Behind his throne is a container with the last Librarian hand in item. The final reward is another ring, this achievement (for the last six quests) gives some leggings, but the achievement for finishing Crescent Reach quest series gives you a tunic, necklace, cloak and shoulderpads.

So far that took me from level 15 to 20 in just under 10 hours played in total (from level 1 - and I’ve repeated it in under 5 hours more recently). And we are done with Crescent Reach.

Bonus points: Wayfarer’s Brotherhood charm augmentation

As soon as you hit level 15, you’re going to be bugged by yellow messages about how you need to talk to someone every time you zone into Crescent Reach. You can get this out of the way while still in Crescent Reach. The NPC you need is near the upstairs banker. To finish the quest, both the Butcherblock and Everfrost LDoN camps are in the same zone as a Plane of Knowledge book. The Butcherblock camp is the safest to reach, especially if you are an evil race or class; just avoid the dwarfs. Speak to Vual Stoutest there: he wants to hear from you “adventures”, “favor journal”, “Morden Rasp”, “farstone” in answer to his questions. You now have the Adventurer’s Stone (charm augmentation), which gains power as you complete adventures at the Wayfarer’s camps (LDoN). It also means that you can use the Magus at each camp (and in the Guild Lobby) to port between them. You can’t port to the Guild Lobby, only from it, unfortunately.

Digression: Grinding

If you get stuck at any point, there are some very good opportunities to grind exp in this zone. The first part of the Hollows is good for 1-4, then across the bridge around 5; I often see people grinding shrouds there. Then the cat and bear caves, the latter around ten. The undead cover 15-25, from the farm area, the back room on the top floor, to the Nokk area and caves.

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