You have finally tracked down the source of this foul druidic curse of natural corruption. The source is a corrupted rogue druid known as Hailsaime. After infecting the ranger Uthe, who in turn infected both his house and many poor patients in the Eveningstar War Hospital, Hailsaime has retreated deep into the King’s Forest. Though hot on his trail, you will need to gather forces to head to Druid’s Deep. Your goal is to track down and stop Hailsaime. Be prepared for his defenses, because it is known that he certainly will not give up easily.
- Series: The Druids Curse Part 4
- Level: 17 Party
- Patron: The Harpers
- Length: Medium
- Dungeon: Eveningstar War Hospital
- Recommended Party: Standard
- MoBs: Vine Horrors, Red Musk Zombie, Primal Wisp, Earth Elementals, Bear
- Dangerous MoBs: Wood Woad, Corrupted Druid, Corrupted Dryad, Juhni, Kuldail Ukien, Aghilde, Skitter, Halsaime, Dire Bear
- Buffs: Resist Acid, Resist Electricity, Immunity/Resist Fear
- Special Note: Use spells and weapons that are specifically geared towards plant creatures.
- Quest Stats: Detailed Quest Stats on DDMs Realm Here
Before you are able enter or even get this quest, you need to complete the first three of the Druid’s Curse series. Even though the quests themselves have a story order, you do not have to complete them in any particular order, you just need to have them completed. Once the prior three are completed (Outbreak, Overgrowth, and Thorn and Paw) you will be able to get this final quest of the series, The Druid’s Curse. The other quests are pretty fast if you know them so it shouldn’t be a problem helping the odd member flag for one or two of them.
Once you are all flagged and ready, jump in and buff up. There is a riddle that reminds you of the way to Druid’s Deep. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make a lot of sense in the beginning. It really doesn’t matter. There isn’t a puzzle or anything you need to solve, so just follow the path and the course of the quest and you will be just fine.
Path of the Wolf
Head off to the south and you will run into some mobs. There are some Wood Woads and Primal Wisps.
Once they are dead, blast your way through the vine wall ahead of you. Just beyond are some more mobs including some corrupted druids. These should not be much of an issue for you to fight; after the previous quests, you should have it down.
Head down a little further and you will run into some more mobs and a corrupted dryad.
Follow the forest path around to the next vine wall, and you will run into Juhni the Corrupted Druid. She turns into a big ole dire bear and tries to eat you. You should eat her instead. That’s a bad bear!
Break through the weakened root wall to the south. It will be easier now that she is no longer helping to keep it strong. Move deeper into the quest on your way to Druid’s Deep.
You will soon come to your first shrine and a puddle of water. You will be able to come back to this shrine if you want to later, but it will be a long swim. Shrine up and then it’s into the drink!
Path of the Fish
Into the water you go! You will want to make sure that you have some kind of Underwater Action item on. This is a long swim. There are places you can stop to get a breath, and it is possible to swim it without Underwater Action, but it is not advised.
If you want to blast through this and skip some optional XP and loot, stick to the western tunnel. You will pop out on the other side soon enough.
However, if you want all the XP and loot you can get your grubby little hands on, keep heading south and know this: you are my kind of adventurer!
It is a pretty long swim but you will be rewarded for it. The very end of the southern passage turns eastward, and there is a treasure chest underwater.
If you want a little extra loot and XP, keep an eye on the ceiling of the underwater tunnel near the chest. You will see a section that you can swim up to and out of. Inside of this small cave you will stumble onto a group of renegade drow that are up to no good. Take out this small party of drow, loot their treasure chest, and then had back to the north and go into the west bound tunnel you swam by before.
Follow this westward underwater tunnel until it opens up and you see some light rays shining down into the water. Your journey as a fish is at an end.
Path of the Bear
When you pop out of the water there is another shrine (in case you had to drag some of your fellow party member’s stones through the water because they did the swim without Underwater Action items).
Shrine up if you need to or want to, then head through the root wall. Be ready for a Wood Woad or two to bust out of the nearby foliage to stop you.
Keep on heading through the next vine wall. There are some more corrupted druids here. Plow through them.
Off to the west in this area there is a large dark spot in front of a cave entrance. Be careful around here as the whole thing is covered with bear traps. If you have a rogue with you, have them immediately start clearing this area when you enter it. The rest of the party should head to the southern area while they work.
In the southern end of this open area, there is another vine wall. This leads to a small marsh that is full of Vine Horrors. Head in there and clear them out. If there are not a lot of Vine Horrors, there should be a poor lost villager in the far corner. Unless you REALLY haven’t been paying attention, this shouldn’t fool you. As you approach, the “lost villager” turns into the named hag Aghilde. Take her out, along with her Vine Horror minions. Then take all her stuff!
When that’s completed, come back out into the open area.
The party should head back out of the marsh and then go west. Hopefully the rogue has a good area cleared so you can move through. If you do not have a rogue, hug the south wall of the area, making your way to the cave. Do not walk through the dark open area. This way you can avoid most of the bear traps.
Just past the tunnel, you will run into more Wood Woads and Primal Wisps that will try to stop you. Chomp them and continue along the path of the bear through the next vine wall.
The last line of defense that Halsaime has in your way is a corrupted ranger named Kuldail Ukien. This corrupted ranger has a huge spider, Skitter, as his companion. Take them both out and head into the cave as soon as you can. Make sure to loot the treasure chest they drop before moving on.
There are some earth elementals here and the final shrine of the quest. Go ahead and shrine up and buff up to fight the corrupted druid Halsaime. He is a very tough caster, so make sure you are buffed up appropriately to fight a big nasty red named caster. If nothing else, make sure that you have Resist Acid, Resist Electricity, Spell Resistance, Death Ward, and Freedom of Movement. Everything else is also nice!
Confronting the Corrupt Hailsaime
When you feel you are prepared for a multiple round fight, go on in. If you have had troubles fighting some of the other mobs in here, you may want to talk to the group and actually pull him out of the center. If you move him off to a corner, you can focus on him, and do not have to tangle with all the reinforcements he will call in.
Hailsaime is like many of the boss fights you have already had. As his health goes down, he will do different things.
First, at 60% health, he will turn into a big ethereal dire wolf. He will also call in a bunch of reinforcements. At this point you will want to pull off Hailsaime and focus on killing his reinforcements. Take out the casters first, then clean up whatever is left. When the last one dies he will turn back into his human form. If he doesn’t, you may have a mob or two you haven’t killed yet. Make sure these are dead or he will not be able to be hurt. You can keep hitting him, but he has a regen-like ability and his health will keep popping back up to where it was when he transformed. Once he is back into his human form, he can be damaged normally.
Second, at about 20% health, he will turn into a big ethereal dire bear. He will again call in a bunch of reinforcements. Make sure to take them out fast. Go for the casters first. Once the wave is all dead, he will turn back into a human one last time and at this point you can smote him.
If you have struggled up to this point, be very careful fighting Halsaime. He can be quite difficult. Then add in half a dozen other corrupted creatures right in the middle of the fight, and you may very well be overwhelmed. You can try fighting Halsaime over in a corner, so the reinforcement waves come in a bit slower. They will hunt you down, but you will not be immediately surrounded. When you are using this method, it is much easier to lose a mob somewhere. So if you think have killed everything and he still hasn’t changed back to his human form, run around the immediate area to find the enemies that didn’t make it over to you.
If you have been powering through everything, you might as well just have your party charge into the center and take the punches as they come.
You should have Halsaime defeated, putting an end to the Druid’s Curse. If you have done the entire series, you will get your choice of three gift cards, err, commendations of your choice for the Eveningstar Village traders.
You could go right back in and do the quest again, but you will not get the commendation rewards again. You will have to do the entire Druid’s Curse series in order to get your three commendations. Make sure you reset the quests on the other NPC’s here so you can gobble up those commendations when you run this series again with your friends!
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