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NekCastle1

Not again...

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EverQuest II Instanced Zone Information
Introduced LU26
Level Range 70
Zone in from Nektulos Forest
Entrance is at

-1657, 123, -2069 ) Copy

Parent Zone Nektropos Castle
Difficulty Group
Persistence 90 minutes - 3 days
Quests
Collections
NPCs Monsters Names
Drops   POIs Discos

What does this information mean?

Background[]

Once a student and later colleague of Valdoartus Varsoon, Rikantus studied the higher levels of the arcane. Without need of steady work, due to his family's wealth and power in Freeport, Rikantus had been awarded the luxury to apply his knowledge while journeying across Norrath in search of ancient relics. However, as with all Everlings since his great, great grandfather Vulrandis, his fate was cursed. One season his beloved daughters, and other members of his house, caught a terrible fever that ravaged their minds and flesh. The House of Everling eventually lost it's influence in Freeport, so Rikantus decided to take what was left of his wealth and build a keep in the backwoods of D'Lere. He was more than happy to do this, as well, since the same affliction that infected his daughters had begun to affect him.

Within the confines of Nektropos Castle, Rikantus used his arcane knowledge to keep his daughters in a state of living death. Their souls were gone, yet their flesh remained intact. Rikantus still had his soul though, and he could not keep himself content with the soulless husks of his daughters. With the aid of Varsoon, he conducted an arcane ritual to breach the veil between the realm of the living and Ethernere, the purgatory that all souls must pass on their way to eternity. In doing so he became involved with beings from the Void, who always seem to demand payment...

Overview[]

This zone is a reverse of the original Nektropos Castle, with all new encounters, designed for a group of level 70 characters. You enter through the crypt in Nektulos Forest at ( -1657, 123, -2069 ) Copy and exit through the front door. This dungeon is very linear, with no exploration involved. Access to most of the castle is blocked off, except for the path you are expected to follow.

There are two book collections in this zone. Our Lady of Betrayal is found in the basement, and My True Beloved is found upstairs in the Caption's room. You will find scattered pages throughout the zone to complete each book. The pages for My True Beloved are upstairs and the pages for Our Lady of Betrayal are downstairs.

Throughout the zone, you will encounter vengeful spirits and angry poltergeists which are level 68-70 heroics. There are possessed crates which appear to be wooden crates, but will attack you when you approach them. There are also chunks of collapsed wall in the hallways which may turn into a crumbling wall as you pass them.

Walkthrough[]

You will enter the castle in the basement and a benign spirit will be beckon you to follow them. Go to the secret door at ( -21, -14, -17 ) Copy and enter the library at ( -7, -14, -10 ) Copy. Examine the busted desk drawer by clicking on it, and pick up the book Our Lady of Betrayal on the floor.

Next, go to the secret door at ( 10, -14, -31 ) Copy and up the stairs to enter Captain's room through the bookcase. You will encounter a servant of the Void and three scythewardens will spawn shortly after you enter. You can read 'The Book of Runes' on the lectern, and this is where you will find the book My True Beloved. There are two spike traps down the hallway as you leave the room.

Go to the Caretaker's room ( -18, 14, -47 ) Copy to the east. There is a crushing block trap immediately outside the door to this room. Right-click on the burning logs in the fireplace and select "Grab key". After you take the key, Coaltergeist and two whirling embers may spawn, or just three whirling embers will spawn.

Now that you have the key, make your way to Melanie Everling's room ( -48, 14, -78 ) Copy in the northeast corner of the castle. You can complete the quest Cleaning Melanie's Room, but it's not necessary. Note that this quest isn't working correctly. It will complete immediately after you accept it and you cannot open her toy chest.

Go upstairs from Melanie's room to the rooftop and then make your way south then east and down into Sheila's room ( 69, 14, 1 ) Copy. You may encounter a group from the Band of the Scarlet Witch fighting with two ghostly remains. If this is the case, the encounter will con grey, so wait until they kill the ghosts before you engage them. From there, go to Diedre's room ( -51, 14, 78 ) Copy and then down the stairs to the main floor of the castle, exiting a secret door to the hallway.

In the chapel ( -30, -1, 54 ) Copy, you will find pools of gore which will attack you when you approach. When you kill them, their remains will flow towards a golem and a blood-drenched golem will spawn. Although the golem is a level 72 x2 epic, it has no special attacks and a group should not find it to be particularly difficult.

In the jail ( -28, 0, 18 ) Copy you will find two ghastly jailers and Angrimar the Torturer. She can teleport players into one of the jail cells, so be sure you don't kill her while someone is in a jail cell, as there is no way to open the cell doors.

To get to the courtyard, you need to go through the stables ( -23, 0, -26 ) Copy. Exercise caution because there are three crushing block traps in the stables. Each trap will do 45% of your maximum health in damage, so try to disarm them and pause to heal if a trap is triggered. If your group simply runs through the stables, it's likely you will be killed.

Once you have reached the main courtyard, there will be three servants of the Void. After you kill them, another group from the Band of the Scarlet Witch will walk through the front entrance. After you defeat the group and their leader Szatch, the ghost of Rikantus Everling will appear. Talk with him and he will give you the book Beyond the Rune. If you haven't done the quest A Portrait of Destiny, he will also reward you with The Idol of Everling.

After completing this instance, Antiquitor Kantus Mor'Tael in Maj'Dul may wish to speak with you! (You must have The Idol of Everling in you inventory before Mor'Tael will tell you anything of interest.) Also, Rikantus in Antonica may also have a few lines to say.

To complete the zone, you must do it twice, first you must talk to the Tome of Sunder, and it will ask you for a password (hint: none of the options are right). Then, see The Rune of Sunder for how to get the password and return to the zone to complete that book quest. Read carefully because the book will only give you the lore once.

Notes[]

  • There are spike traps on the floor and crushing traps in the ceiling. Look for something unusual on the floor or ceiling which makes your mouse pointer turn into a hand when you mouse over. Click it to temporarily disarm the trap. Despite what is hinted at in the LU26 update notes, success at disarming a trap is random, even if you're a scout.
  • There are shiny collectibles in the dungeon, however most of the shiny nodes are actually traps which will spawn four nihilistic entities. When anyone collects a shiny, be prepared for a fight.
  • Most mobs in the zone do not respawn, but vengeful spirits and crumbling walls can respawn.
  • If you don't turn in the collection quests for the books, you can continue to pick up pages when you return. Once you have completed the book collections and turn them in, you can no longer collect the pages.
  • As with Nektropos Castle: The Return, the loot tables for some mobs in this zone are broken and will drop loot which no longer exists in the game. If this happens, it will show in your inventory as a common item with a green "bug" icon.
  • You can use an evac spell, but it will send you back to the entrance where you zoned in, not the courtyard. There is no way to exit the zone from the crypt entrance, so you would either need to make your way to the courtyard and exit there, or call out from the dungeon.
  • On the standard servers, a level 70 player with a mercenary can easily solo this instance. If you are on the chronomage quest Path of the Past - Nektropos Castle: Tribulation the most dangerous thing in this dungeon will be the crushing traps which do a percentage of your maximum health as damage.

See Also[]

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