Lost in the Swamp Quest Walkthrough and Guide

Grab your mosquito repellent and get ready for the third installment of the quest to hunt down the Netherese scroll pieces in Dungeons and Dragons Update 16, The Nethese Legacy! This time you will be heading into Lost Souls’ Swamp. Lost Souls’ swamp is a dank and murky environment with danger lurking around, and in, many trees!

Luckily you will have a guide at the beginning of the Lost in the Swamp Quest that will aid you in knowing which way to go. Go slow as you make your way through the Lost in the Swamp quest as there are many hidden and concealed MoBs which can sneak up on you.

When you zone in, summon pets and hirelings and get everything buffed up. If you are waiting for more players to join you, pass the time by smashing all the breakables in this opening area. They are well hidden and easily missed but you will want to make sure these get smashed if you want the Ransack XP bonus for the quest.

Speak to your Guide

When you are ready, speak to Seamus the Swamp Hermit. Seamus will tell you that you need to head off to the east (right) and look for a giant fallen log. When you are done talking to Seamus, he will teleport away. This will leave you and your group to what you do best, slaughtering fictional monsters for XP!

Into the Swamp

Head into the Lost Souls’ Swamp and mow through the mobs you encounter. In this first section you will fight some Mud Men, Bears, and some Roving Wolves. Pretty easy mobs but they can turn into a big group of MoBs if you rush in. Keep an eye out for hidden and concealed enemies here. The swampy atmosphere in this quest is great but makes it easy for enemies to go unobserved until it is too late.

Soon you will come to a shrine and a fork in your road. You have two choices, optional XP and loot or to just continue to finish the quest quickly without the extras.

My First Choice is Always Loot!

If your first choice is loot and more XP you are going to want to head to the left (west) first and clean out the optional area of this quest.

You will see that this area has three named specters in it. These are lost and trapped souls and if you help to free them they will offer you treasure and you will earn some extra experience. This is always good!

When you agree to free a specter there will be an ambush of Will-o-wisps, Mud Men, and Vine Horrors. Be ready because it will be a large group of them. Quickly get them taken care of with crowd control and Intimidate so they will stay off your casters and healers. Rinse and repeat for all three specters.

Look in the waterfall of this area to claim one chest of loot.

If you have someone who can open locked doors, head to the north through the newly opened passageway. There is a puddle of water that you can jump in and swim a short ways to retrieve a key. Use this key to open the first door at the end of the tunnel. Then you will have a second door that must be picked or Knocked. Behind this is “an evil presence” that you must defeat before you can get the treasure chest loot in here. It is a room full of shadows and umbral creatures that must be destroyed. Make sure to have some Ghost Touch items equipped to make short work of these weak beasties.

Now that you have cleaned out the bonus loot and gathered yourself some extra XP, head back to the shrine near the beginning of the quest. Use the Rest Shrine if you need it.

Second Choice, Speed over XP and Loot

If you want to forego the extra loot and XP then just head to the right (east) at this first shrine. Kill things as you go and keep veering to the right when possible. The swamp trees are thick here and the fog is thick but if you stick to this path you should come out and find the ranger and the huge hollow tree.

If you run into a root wall and cannot break it or open it (one wall you have to USE instead of attack), then you might have an enemy that you have not killed yet in the area you are in. Scour the area for the hidden or stuck enemy and kill them. Also be aware that pets and hirelings get caught up on the thick trees here as well so make sure everything is moving along nicely for you.

In this section you will fight Roving Wolves, Vine Horrors, and some Corrupted Dryad. Try to use weapons or abilities that instantly kill the Corrupted Dryads or they will vanish into their trees and pop out after a few seconds, healed and ready to smote you.

Eventually you will run into Seamus the Swamp Hermit again. This time he will direct you to the heart of the Lost Souls’ Swamp and who is behind the nasty creatures, a nasty medusa by the name of Sshaastess.

Confronting Sshaastess

Shrine up and rebuff if you need to before you head in to take on of the cranky old Sshaastess with the vipery hair.

Head through the huge log that leads to the heart of the Swamp of Lost Souls. As you travel through the huge log you will be stopped by a couple Wood Woads. Make some fire wood out of them and continue on.

You will burst into an open area and there will be Sshaastess. She is standing there defiant and ready to take you on for your interference in her affairs. Just as you charge up to her she vanishes into a tornado, leaving behind a few Vine Horrors and Earth Elementals to battle instead. Defeat them and the barrier she put up to stop you from following her will disappear.

You will burst into an open area and there will be Sshaastess. She is standing there defiant and ready to take you on for your interference in her affairs. Just as you charge up to her she vanishes into a tornado, leaving behind a few Vine Horrors and Earth Elementals to battle instead. Defeat them and the barrier she put up to stop you from following her will disappear. (Yes you did read that twice)

When you get to a tunnel and start to run uphill, you will almost be to Sshaastess’s lair, finally. You will again come out into a large open area but this time it is full of pillars and poor creatures that were turned to stone. You may notice a chest of loot up on one of the pillars. Ignore it for now–we will get back to that later.

She is standing there defiantly, ready to take you on for your interference in her affairs. Just as you charge up to her she erects yet another barrier and summons, you guessed it, more Vine Horrors and Earth Elementals to battle. Defeat them and you will really make her mad and she will then summon bigger elementals for you to fight. Defeat them and she will finally come out to fight you.

Sshaastess is a powerful caster so be ready to deal with failed saves or other issues if you do not have the proper protections. Deathward, Spell Resistance, and Freedom of Movement are really helpful. If you get in trouble fighting her, retreat and use the pillars to block line of site from her while you heal/buff/recover and then jump back into the fray when you are ready. She will summon a few more Vine Horrors and Earth Elementals when she finally decides to come out and play. You should take care of this fodder first before you fully engage her.

Get Your Loot!

Once Sshaastess is dead, Seamus the Swamp Hermit will appear near the entrance of the lair. Seamus will reveal Sshaastess’s hidden treasure room. Seamus tells you the Netherese scroll piece is in the chest and that you are welcome to anything else that is there.

As for the chest on top of the pillar, it is a tricky one to get. Go to the centermost area of the western wall. You can jump up the wall here. First, jump into the gap. Then, back a bit away from the edge. Look up and there will be a ledge sticking out. It is difficult to see. This ledge will knock you out into the room if you hit it when you jump. But if you jump up and past it, you can land on it. From this second ledge you can then jump up against the western wall into another V in the pillars. Now if you turn around you should be about level with a nearby pillar. Now comes the hard part. If you have Abundant Step, Leap of Faith, or Propulsion Boots, you can probably get over to that pillar easily and pull yourself up. If you aren’t one of these classes or have this specific item, you need to strap on a Featherfall item, Boost your jump over 40, and get your Haste potions out. Make sure you have all three of these things going and then give it a go. I have come very close to this but have never actually gotten this chest. I am pretty sure this is how you do it. However, I do not have a high level Favor Soul or Monk and do not have Propulsion Boots. I would like to think that my twitch skills are lacking and not that this is a chest for Favored Souls and Monks only.

/ranton

There are some other places that you can jump up the walls that look as if you should be able to get to a pillar (such as around the throne) but the DDO developers have put in a big fat invisible wall to block you. I hate invisible walls, I really, really do. If you don’t want us to go somewhere, block it with something tangible like a rock, tree, stalactite, or giant toothy tentacle beast. Just please don’t use an invisible wall where players can get to them. It’s bad level design. There is an obvious climbing route near her throne to reach the pillars and it is erroneously blocked! ARGH!

/rantoff for now…

That should about do it. You are now over halfway done with the Netherese scroll series. As always make sure you turn in your quests and talk to Rina, the series NPC, to make sure you advance properly so you can get all the rewards.

Play Smarter, Not Harder!

~Karranor