The Shroud

In ancient times, giants used the Shroud's harrowing challenges as the proving ground for the greatest of warriors. {{Quest The Shroud is one of DDO's most popular raids. This raid consists of 5 phases:
 * name=The Shroud
 * level=17
 * duration=Very Long
 * xp={{xpcolors|normal=11,540|hard=11,980|elite=12,420}}
 * loc=The Shroud
 * npc=Aaseamah Screven
 * zone=Meridia
 * patron=The Twelve
 * favor=11
 * mappic=M_shroud.png
 * maplegend=yes
 * loadingpic= L The Shroud.jpg
 * overview=
 * Phase 1 - The Challenge of the Waning Moons (usually refered to as the Portals or Invasion)
 * Phase 2 - The Challenge of the New Moon (usually refered to as the Maze)
 * Phase 3 - The Challenge of the Waxing Moons (usually refered to as the puzzles or Subjugation)
 * Phase 4 - The Challenge of the Full Moon (Boss fight, round 1)
 * Phase 5 - The Challenge of the Lost Moon (Boss fight, round 2)

Flagging

 * Complete The Thirteenth Eclipse story arc instructions.
 * Re-flagging is never required for this raid.

You may even get yourself blacklisted. Make sure that you have the Raid Leader's approval first.'' In-quest items available at start of the first phase. All Drops on Leaving Adventure and Death. Also just entering the portal to phase 2 will cause them to be dropped. 14th level requirement;
 * obj=
 * (Entrance)
 * Speak to Quissana
 * Use the Portal of the Waning Moons
 * (Phase 1) The Challenge of the Waning Moons tests the might and mettle of the bravest of warriors.
 * Clear the devil scouting force (Kill 19)
 * Destroy the portals (Kill 15) (DR10/-)
 * Defeat the invasion
 * Stop Shavarath from becoming coterminous (Quest failure if not completed)
 * Attune the Altar of the Waning Moons (Optional here gives 10% of base XP)
 * Enter the Portal of the New Moons
 * (Phase 2) The Challenge of the New Moon tests the strategy and cunning of the most intrepid of warriors.
 * Locate the central shrine
 * Shatter the crystal
 * Attune the Altar of the New Moons (Optional here gives 15% of base XP)
 * Enter the Portal of the Waxing Moons
 * (Phase 3) ...
 * Find the flowing Fountain of the Waxing Moons
 * Purify the Fountains of the Waxing Moons
 * Attune the Altar of the Waxing Moons (Optional nets 20% of base XP)
 * (Phase 4) The Challenge of the Full Moon tests the physical and emotional fortitude of the heartiest of warriors.
 * Defeat the devil scouting force (Kill 11)
 * Defeat Arraetrikos, 
 * Attune the Altar of the Full Moons (Optional here gives 30% of base XP)
 * Enter the Portal of the Lost Moon
 * (Phase 5) The path to the Lost Moon must be traveled in death -- do not release. (You actually can't anymore, the release button was disabled in a later update for this purpose)
 * Defeat Arraetrikos and his Lieutenants
 * Attune the Altar of the Lost Moon (Doing this completes the raid.)
 * Collectable sidequests (Won't show up if you don't have the quests and currently )
 * Collect: Portal Fragments
 * Collect: Healing Totems
 * Collect: Infernal Pacts
 * Collect: Blade Storm Fragments
 * expect=
 * Traps (fixed, undisarmable)
 * Maze (fixed layout)
 * Spawning/respawning monsters
 * Puzzles (mandatory: light puzzles)
 * Monsters that have to be killed almost simultaneously (mandatory: the 4 lieutenants in part 2)
 * Quest failure (if the Portal Keepers from Part 1 are not killed within 2 minutes after the DM warning)
 * traps=
 * (Phase 3)
 * Floor mark that activates an area effect spell Horrid Wilting and Greater Dispel Magic when stepped on.
 * Prismatic Wall - If the puzzles in this phase haven't been completed in an allotted amount of time (10-15 minutes), a rainbow colored wall progresses through the corridor, potentially killing everyone inside.
 * There are a few ways to defeat the Prismatic Wall:
 * Complete the puzzles and place water in the fountain before the wall reaches your area.
 * Using the Cleric capstone Divine Intervention will prevent death caused by touching the Prismatic Wall.
 * Cleric's & Favored Soul's Death Pact may allow you to come back to life after it passes.
 * Using the Rogue capstone Cheat Death may allow you to come back to life after it passes.
 * Breaking the crystals over the doors and placing water in the fountains.
 * ''*NOTE: This may make other party members very upset.
 * (Phases 3 and 4)
 * Whirling Blades (Invulnerable; cannot save against or resist damage by AC, saving throws, or evasion; ~24-38 damage on Normal)
 * misc=
 * Axe of the Scarlet Warrior: :, ,
 * Bow of the Jade Elf - :, , Ranged Alacrity 10%, Feat: Precise Shot, , Deception
 * Shield of the Azure Valkyrie: +5 Tower Shield: Enhancement: Fighter Armor Mastery 2, Shield Proficiency: Tower Shields,, , Regeneration,
 * Staff of the Golden Wizard - :, , , , ,

Puzzles on phase 3 are called "Lights Out".
 * Article on Wikipedia
 * Detailed explanation of the Lights Out puzzle and step-by-step guide to solving them with cheat sheets.
 * Online puzzle solver
 * How to solve each puzzle in part 3 thread
 * How to solve the puzzles in part 3 of the Shroud - Six Pattern Technique(Memorize six simple patterns and be able to solve all the puzzles all of the time!)
 * A cheatsheet for 3x3 and 5x5 puzzles

Vial of Lunar Water - Bound, Destroyed on Exiting Adventure "This ancient vial is full of water gathered from the last full eclipse.

Use Of Pets/Summons.
 * Generally pets/summons are discouraged past part two. Especially in part 3 where they can cause you to lose out on 2 optional chests by destroying crystals. In parts 4 and 5 they bugged out Harry causing failure. (This may have been fixed)"

Walkthrough
Entrance: Wait until all players zone in. Buff. Talk to Quessana and enter portal. Portal closes after 3 minutes, characters who don't make it within 3 minutes are locked out.

Phase 1 - The Challenge of the Waning Moon


You must destroy 15 portals. After cleaning up the initial foes, melees run in a tight bunch from portal to portal. Casters usually insta-kill few spawning mobs. This phase is probably the least dangerous. It has a fail-condition - if portal keeper stays alive for too long - but this rarely happens because someone usually kills him immediately.

Phase 2 - The Challenge of the New Moon


Buff before entering. The map is a really simple maze; each character spawns in one of the four corners. Assemble in the South-Central area in front of barrier (either kill trash mobs you encounter or kite them there; healers might spawn elsewhere so don't be a hero). Casters lay down some crowd control (usually Otto's Sphere of Dancing). When the trash is cleared, durable characters or competent self-healers (or small teams) locate 4 red-named lieutenants that spawn in the center of the map and kite them to the South-Central in front of the barrier. As this happens another member (usually a caster) takes up position near the Crystal in the center. Party then "prepares" all the red-named to almost-but-not-quite-dead (5-10%). When approved by party leader, kill all four mobs asap. THEY MUST BE SEPARATED - when one the Lieutenant is near 2+ others they cannot die until they are separated for more than 6 seconds. When dead, one person (the aforementioned caster) must shatter a crystal in the middle of the maze (a Maximised, Empowered Frost Lance or two Max'd & Empowered Scorching Rays did this on Normal). When the timing is not right, ghosts of the red-named return to the central crystal and resurrect, and you have to kill them again.

There are a number of different Lieutenants that may spawn in this Part.

All of them cast the heal spell on themselves every ~3-6 seconds. It functions exactly as a basic heal, removing any debuffs and stat damage that heal normally would. The amount healed isn't very much on normal - probalby 110-140 tops.

Proximity to each other does grant them other effects however, it puts up the orbs that appear around them, denoting special effects. It appears that the more that are in proximity to each other, the more orbs will surround them, denoting more special effects.

Some Lieutenants provides a bonus to all other nearby Lieutenants (close enough so they show an extra orb swirling around them) What it does, shows up in their buffs list. Below is the list of effect that is produced.


 * Adur-Nac (Orc) = Planar Rage - Proximity to the Orc Hero, Adur-Nac, grants immense physical power to its allies (Rage)
 * Anur-Shub (Fire Elemental) = Elemental Retribution - Proximity to the Fire Elemental, Anur-Shub, grants an elemental aura of flame to its allies (Fire shield)
 * Damasze (Earth Elemental) = Elemental Defense - Proximity to the Earth Elemental, Damasze, grants an elemental bonus to damage reduction to its allies (20 DR/-)
 * Esarhal (Troglodyte) = Fiendish Stench - Proximity to the Fiendish Troglodyte, Esarhal, grants an aura od stench to its allies (DC 24 on Normal, probably scales with difficulty)
 * Kasquik (Kobold) = Planar Immunity - Proximity to the Paragon Kobold, Kasquick the Mighty, grants incredible spell resistance to its allies (SR 50)
 * Mitanu (Orthon) = Profane Shield - Proximity to the Orthon, Mitanu, grants a profane bonus to armor class to his allies. (+8 AC)
 * Nimrisr (Hellcat) = Profane Resistance - Proximity to the Hellcat, Nimrisr, grants a profane bonus to saves to its allies. (Value unknown)
 * Sagrata (Bearded Devil) = Profane Elemental Resistance - Proximity to the Bearded Devil, Sagrata, grants a profane bonus to elemental resistance to his allies. (100 to all, probably scale with difficulty)
 * Tho-Daah Nugh (Gnoll) = No buffs
 * Ubein-Lnaa (Troll) = No buffs


 * Resist Death : When one the Lieutenant is near 2+ others they cannot die until they are separated for more than 6 seconds

- All mobs self-cast a Heal for 110+ HP every 6 seconds - Kobold has a Vorpal sword - Gnoll has Greater Dispel(DC50+? -- Appears to be an absolute dispelling regardless caster level), Cometfall, Blade Barrier, greater command(DC39), mass inflict critical, harm - Orc has Cleave and Great Cleave, Severe Stunning Blow, Superior Sunder - Troll has Severe Stunning Blow, Severe Bewildering Blow - Trog has Hamstring - Devil has Curse Wound(Immunity to healing while cursed - no problem for Repair spells)

- In part 2 if you miss the simultaneous killing or crystal breaking and they come back, they will have less HP each time and won't auto-selfheal anymore (except Troll's regen powers).

The center of the hollow trees in this area regenerates your HP and SP. You can speed up this regeneration by jumping into the middle of the trees repeatedly. This is commonly know as "humping the trees".

Phase 3 - The Challenge of the Waxing Moon


Buffing is not required for this phase as you won't face any enemies. However, you should be prepared to self-heal as there are Whirling Blades that depending on difficulty can hit you for up to 120HP/ tick flying through the corridors (not the rooms). There are also big round yellow circles on the floors of the corridors that cast Horrid Wilting on anyone in the vicinity if stepped on.

Each character spawns in a room with a puzzle, a barrier with a locked release switch, and a fountain. Solve the puzzle. When you step on a field, it will toggle between light on / off, along with four neighboring fields in a + shape. All lights must be lit. Solving the puzzle opens the door. If you don't know how to solve the puzzle, please tell this ASAP to the rest of the party.

Once you are out of the room (puzzle solved or someone came to help with the puzzle and let you out), run through the corridors to a central fountain (reachable from the south). If someone else has not already done so, destroy the three crystals above the barrier to gain access. Interact with the face at the top of the central fountain to get a vial of water. Take the water to a face in a room where the puzzle has been solved and interact with the face to start water running in the fountain. When water has been run in all rooms, the challenge is complete.

WARNING: You should only destroy the crystals above the fountain room. Destroying the crystal(s) above any puzzle will disable the puzzle in that room and prevent gaining access to the two additional chests (which are under the water in the fountain room.) Also, placing water in the final face/fountain before all puzzles are solved will disable all puzzles still unsolved, preventing access to the additional chests (because of this, it is considered very noobish to water a fountain in the room of a puzzle that is unsolved, because an unsolved puzzle is the best indication that you should not water all of the fountains yet.) If this part takes too long (15-20 Minutes) a rainbow colored wall will appear. The Wall moves clockwise through the corridor and rooms and kills everything on contact.

The best way to defeat the prismatic wall is to retreat to the central fountain, wait for it to pass, and carefully follow it with someone who can unlock the lever on the unsolved puzzle who is also carrying water for the fountain once the puzzle is solved, and a rezzer to get anyone killed by the wall back on their feet. Be very careful at the corners, because the prismatic wall doubles for a moment as the first wall continues on to the outer edge of the level while a new wall starts from the outer edge and moves down the next corridor.

The central pool regenerates your HP and SP; furthermore, if you swim to the bottom of the pool in the corners of where the ramp meets the flat part against the side wall, you can with mouselook (t) and auto-run (r) find a spot where your toon seems to vibrate and you will regenerate your HP & SP MUCH faster ("going for a quick swim"). It is best to "go for a quick swim" after you have buffed party members and yourself if you're an arcane or divine caster so as to have the max xp to face Harry with in the next part. Marraenoloth is an expert repair smith and vendor available after completing this phase who also sells small, medium and large Shavarath Energy cells (although the Large ones are depleted and must be re-charged as per the Green Steel item crafting steps

Phase 4 - The Challenge of the Full Moon


This is the most difficult part of the raid. Buff appropriately (Freedom of Movement, Resist Energy: Fire in particular but also the usual; Blur, Haste, Rage, Stonekin, Deadly Weapons etc) When zoning in, casters usually set up crowd control (e.g. disco balls). Kill a wave of trash devils. Beware! Killing a green devil spawns blades that follow the closest player for a few seconds. Mind the blades, keep moving. You cannot even hide in a corner, as the area is circular! When trash is dead, the boss arrives; if you take too long killing the devils, Harry shows up anyway. DPS/range/DoT (Niac's Biting Cold, Eladar's Electric Electric Surge etc) the boss. A wall of blades circles around the boss, slowly moving towards the center. After approximately 1 minute, the blades hit the center and start to kill the melees DPSing, so be ready to run/jump away if you are melee. When the blades reach the center, the boss teleports away. Another wave of trash spawns, and again the boss teleports in (this is called a round). Most groups manage to kill the boss in two rounds; great groups can do one. When the boss dies, blades disappear. When you die during this phase, your soulstone is transferred to a prison, i.e. you cannot be revived immediately. Party will have a brief opportunity (10 seconds from the time the altar at the end is activated) to revive you upon completing this phase. When you click the portal to enter this phase, all characters die (summoned creatures stay alive). Therefore, you don't need to buff in advance.

Phase 5 - The Challenge of the Lost Moon


After Arraetrikos' speech all are revived, but you only have a few moments to buff before you're swarmed by the red-named lieutenants you met in phase 2. This time they die permanently. Most groups keep one of the red-named alive, kiting him around, while most of the party finishes buffing and regenerating their SP and HP by entering and leaving the pools in a corner. When buffed and fully restored, the final red-named is destroyed. The boss appears and fights until death.

Four portals appear upon completion of this phase so you can return to previous phases.

Useful buffs

 * Greater Heroism, Deathward, Rage, Haste, Inspire Courage, Primal Scream
 * Jump for anyone in need of it for phase 1
 * Good Weapons, Silver Weapons, Deadly Weapons
 * Blur for group, displacement for self - useless vs boss, useful vs trash
 * Resist Energy (Fire) for boss fights
 * Freedom of Movement (harry casts hold monster)
 * Neutralize Poison or Heroes' Feast before phase 4 (harry has poison attacks)

Trivia
Each of the Shrouds first 3 phases were designed to mimic various classic arcade games:
 * Phase 1 is modeled after the classic arcade game Gauntlet, by Atari.
 * Upon entering you'll immediately notice four corpses, they are named very similarly to the four characters from the Gauntlet arcade game: Scarlet Warrior, Jade Elf, Azure Valkyrie and the Golden Wizard
 * Phase 2 borrows some of it's elements from the classic Pac-Man, by Namco
 * The Ghost return to the center to come back to life, just like pac-man, and the power pellets are represented by the trees which regenerate hit and spell points.
 * Phase 3 is vaguely reminiscent of Frogger, by Konami
 * The Whirling Blades represent the cars, and the player dodging them is Frogger.


 * chest=


 * 10 Guaranteed for completion, 2 optional in part three, 1 or 2 extra in Phase 5 for Hard or Elite - Up to Total.
 * 2 for phase 1 (1 can drop small ingredients and power shards)
 * 2 for phase 2 (1 can drop small ingredients)
 * 2 guaranteed and 2 optional for phase 3 (1 each can drop medium ingredients and power shards)
 * 2 for phase 4 (1 can drop large ingredients and power shards)
 * 2 for phase 5 (1 can drop large ingredients and power shards)
 * 1 Extra chest for completing hard Phase 5 (Can drop large ingredients)
 * 2 Extra chests for completing elite Phase 5 (Can drop large ingredients)


 * npcreward=


 * Unique: Select from 8 items plus Guild Renown: mostly blank, small, and medium Shroud crafting ingredients; rarely large Shroud crafting ingredients, Boots of Anchoring ingredients, Shards of Power (any size), Some random loot, rarely +2 Tomes or Yellow Dopant, and very rarely   +3Tomes.
 * Special raid reward for 20th completion is a choice of 7 of the following;

Monster Information Named Monsters: * Note: Damage reduction amounts are for normal difficulty, some are higher on hard/elite. }}
 * stat tomes (1 for each stat will always appear in the list, can be +2 or +3)
 * Essence of Cleansing which can remove Taint of Shavarath from your Green Steel Accessories
 * Yellow Dopant which can be used to deconstruct Green Steel Weapons or Accessories
 * monsters=
 * Ancient Crystals
 * Bezekiras
 * Elite Barbazu Shock Troopers
 * Elite Orthon Defenders
 * Fiend-Blood Troglodyte Assassin
 * Fiend-Blood Troglodyte Sniper
 * Fiend-Blood Troglodyte Sorcerer
 * Fiend-Blood Troglodyte Warchief
 * Fiend-Blood Trolls
 * Tieflings
 * Arraetrikos - Purple-named pit fiend; raid boss
 * Gnoll Idolater - Named gnolls; only spawn if the fight with Arraetrikos in part 4 enters a second round
 *  - Phase 2 and 5 red-named. 4 semi-randomly selected from the list below, with 1 being randomly selected from each group:
 * Group A
 * Adur-Nac the Liviathan - Orc barbarian - DR8/-, Cleave, Improved Sunder, Chaotic Evil
 * Esarhal the Knave - Troglodyte shaman - Stench, Chaotic Evil
 * Kasquik the Mighty - Kobold fighter, DR10/Epic, Vorpal, Lawful Evil
 * Group B
 * Mitanu the Savage - Orthon savage - DR20/Silver or Good, Cleave, Lawful Evil
 * Nimrisr the Ruthless - Bezekira - DR20/Good, Lawful evil, Improved Trip, Lawful Evil
 * Sagrata the Feral - Bearded Devil - DR20/Silver or Good, Bleeding Wound, Curse, Lawful Evil
 * Group C
 * Anur-Shub the Hellion - Fire Elemental - DR10/-, Searing flames, Lawful Evil
 * Damasze the Windago - Earth Elemental - DR10/-, Earthgrab, Lawful Evil
 * Group D
 * Tho-Daah-Nugh the Heartless Gnoll shaman - Greater Dispel Magic, Greater Command, Blade Barrier, Chaotic evil
 * Ubein-Lnaa the Infernal troll warrior - Fast regeneration, Chaotic evil
 * Planar Gateway - Red-named inanimate objects; required kills (15)
 * Portal Keepers - Orange-named tieflings; only spawn if the portals are not killed quickly enough in part 1

Favored Soul's Death Pact may allow you to come back to life after it passes.
 * Using the Rogue capstone Cheat Death may allow you to come back to life after it passes.
 * Breaking the crystals over the doors and placing water in the fountains.
 * ''*NOTE: This may make other party members very upset.