Frame Work Quest Walkthrough

• Series: Droaam Invasion Pt 2
• Level: 12 Party
• Patron: The Coin Lords
• Length: Medium
• Dungeon: Metador Village
• Recommended Party: Standard
• MoBs: Panther, Wolf, Dire Wolf, Matador Warrior, Matador Grunt, Brown Twilight Spider, Twilight Darkfang, Twilight Widow, Worg Sentinel, Ahnold The Hungry
• Dangerous MoBs: Matador Shaman, Leader of the Pack, The Twilight Mother, Cabal Seer
• Buffs: Resist Poison, Fire Resistance
• Special Note: Hirelings can cause lots of spawns.  Be careful with DA as it can go up fast here.
  
• Quest Stats: Detailed Quest Stats on DDMs Realm Here

As you enter the quest, right in front of you will be Dorris, your contact.  Make sure to talk to her to get the wand of Flesh to Stone.  You will need this to complete the quest and it can also be handy at other times as well. You’ll need to drag this over to a hot key to use it.

Dorris is definitely an interesting character. If this is your first time through, make sure that you go through her dialogue. It’s quite interesting and entertaining.

Go to the bridge over the water instead of jumping down into the water. The edges are too steep to climb.  You’ll find yourself walking the long way around and in the wrong place. Use the broken ballista near the bridge here to see how many parts each person is going to need.  Your Repair Skill determines how many ballista parts you will need.  For repair skill of 17, I needed three. Then have the person with the least required parts repair the ballista. Rogues can pull mechanical trap parts off them if they are teh ones doing the repairing.

I would suggest you use the Flesh to Stone wand on one of the Minotaur guards at the front gate to the fortress.  This way you complete one of the objectives for the quest.  Then you can use the leftover charges whenever you want without worrying about failing the quest. If you are not going the stealthy route, agro some of the mobs inside so they will open the gate.  This way if something bad happens later, you can easily re-enter the fortress.

Once that is done head off to the east and start collecting ballista parts.  Take useable items frequently here so you can see where the ballista parts are.  There are many collectibles here as well.

Keep an eye on your hirelings and summoned creatures. There will be many hidden mobs that your pets/hirelings may detect before you can.  It’s easy to create a train in here so be sure that you are not being followed by panthers or wolves.

WARNING: Hirelings and summoned creatures can and will wreak havoc inside the fortress.  Be warned!

Your strategy will determine how much time you stay out in the wilderness area of this quest.  If you’re looking for the quick completion, get what you need to repair two broken ballista.  Then head over to the ballista on the Eastside marked as number one on the DDM’s realm map.  Repair this ballista, then launch yourself deep into the fortress. You will land close to a second broken ballista within the fortress.  Stay stealthy/hidden and get to it quickly.  You will be given a 10 second buff “Element of Surprise” which will keep you stealthy until it wears off. There are some parts in the area if you did not collect enough but there are many warning bells in this area which will spawn many minotaurs. Once this second ballista is repaired, launch everyone into the upper area where the bosses deal with the Medusa.

If you’re looking for the wholesale slaughter (Bonus XP and chest), make sure that you kill off everything on the outside and keep an eye out for hiding and stealthy mobs.  If you have hirelings who can summon creatures, these work well to detect hidden enemies.

When you are ready to head inside, park your hirelings and dismiss your summoned creatures. They do not follow you well and often run off the long way to try to meet up with you.  They will set off many alarms, spawning minotaurs, making Dungeon Alert skyrocket. If you are going for the full slaughter strategy and the extra chest at the end (for this optional), put them on attack mode and let them run wild.  Be ready for some excitement though. Depending on how many alarm bells are sounded you can quickly be overrun by hordes of minotaurs.   Great fun!

When going for the full slaughter optional/chest I would suggest clearing out the shine in the northwest wilderness area.  Use this as a home base if you need to run back and shrine.

Use the western ballista to launch yourself into the fortress.  This will land you by a second shrine.  Slaughter the minotaurs here and open the gate using both levers.  This leaves you two shrines you can go back and forth between should you need them.

For the full slaughter make sure you tab around and make sure all warning bells have been sounded.  If you find one that hasn’t been, ring it yourself.  Then slaughter what appears.

Should you start to get overrun in the fortress, just jump over the outer walls.  This will give you an escape and you can regroup at the wilderness shrine in the northwest.  Be sure to open any gates you find as you make your way through the fortress.

For full slaughter, look for three chests that appear in random places throughout the fortress.  I’ve marked many of these on the DDM’s Realm map, but there may be some locations that are not yet marked.  Tab around to target them from a distance.

While inside, smash everything you can but be aware that there are exploding barrels.  They have also hidden many collectables in here.  Many are tucked away, around a corner or an area hard to see.  So if you try to get full bonuses you should take your time to look around as you are moving through the fortress.

The highest part of the fortress is where you will find the final bosses and their chest. Watch out for the traps on the stairs leading up.  There are boxes on both sides, four total. You can agro them through the gate or shoot yourself into this area with the ballista just off to the west.  Either way, be careful, as these are some tough bosses here.  There are also Grunts that will sound a couple of alarm bells calling in even more enemies.  Also, when the big guy gets low he will call for more reinforcements ,so be prepared for those.

To finish the quest you have to talk to Dorris again. Even if you’ve killed the bosses you still have the opportunity to wander around and take out any miscellaneous minotaurs.  Make sure you’ve completed all of the slaying minotaur optionals to get the extra chest.  You might also split up and look around for the mobs he missed.  Should you need a few more, keep an eye out for warning bells. Ring them yourselves to activate the spawn. Make sure you check the corners and nooks within the fortress for hiding dire wolves.

There is a repaired ballista in the upper area that can be used once the bosses die.  This shoots you right back to Dorris so you can finish up the quest.  If you finished all the slaying optional, another chest will spawn near her.