Against the Demon Queen (quest)

''The Court of Lailat is the heart of the demon queen's desert kingdom. From her throne, she commands a legion of servants; gnolls, efreet and demons all bend to her will.'' {{Quest | name         = Against the Demon Queen | adpack       = Demon Sands | level        = 12 | duration     = Very Long | solo         = 3660 | normal       = 6400 | hard         = 6700 | elite        = 7000 | ecasual      = 15920 | enormal      = 26790 | ehard        = 22550 | eelite       = 23000 | loc          = The Court of Lailat | npc          = Zawabi the Elder Djinni | zone         = Zawabi's Refuge | patron       = The Free Agents | favor        = 8 | epic         = 22 | mappic       = M against the demon queen.png | maplegend    = yes | loadingpic   = L Against the Demon Queen.jpg | overview     = This is the pre-quest leading up to Zawabi's Revenge, a 12 man raid featuring Lailat, the Demon Queen. You don't flag for this quest directly by completing Chains of Flame, An Offering of Blood and the Chamber of Raiyum, but you have to hand over three items acquired in these quests to Zawabi the Elder Djinni. These items persist through reincarnation if not handed over. Since this is a regular quest, you may enter even if you are not flagged as long as one person in your party is.

Completing this quest is the last step of the flagging for the Zawabi's Revenge raid, but this persists until you start a new life (reincarnate). Note that you must 1) be flagged for this quest, and 2) afterwards turn it in for reward, to qualify as "completing" the quest to flag for the raid.

Be very careful that you have been assigned with this quest before entering – as players often forget that you need to talk to Zawabi again after providing the three items.

| objective_1  = Read the Tome of the Six Swords | objective_2  = Recite the Glyphs of the First Sword | objective_3  = Recite the Glyphs of the Second Sword | objective_4  = Recite the Glyphs of the Third Sword | objective_5  = Recite the Glyphs of the Fourth Sword | objective_6  = Recite the Glyphs of the Fifth Sword | objective_7  = Recite the Glyphs of the Sixth Sword | objective_8  = Confront Queen Lailat | objective_9  = Kill Lailat's defenders and force her to retreat | objective_10 = Investigate the chest in Lailat's summoning circle | objective_11 = Force Queen Lailat to retreat into the Circle of Eternity | optional_1   = Defeat Vinaldor the Faithless | opt_percent_1 = 10 | optional_2   = Defeat Edrassa the Betrayed | opt_percent_2 = 10 | optional_3   = Defeat Dwalni Demonsbane | opt_percent_3 = 10 | optional_4   = Defeat the Hand of Olladra | opt_percent_4 = 10

| traps        = Trap DCs
 * expect =
 * Riddle
 * Collapsible floor
 * Spawning/respawning monsters
 * Randomly placed lever (the second lever from the Octopus wing)
 * Dropping floor and poison traps (Scorpion area)
 * Spinning blade (Octopus area underwater)
 * Sonic traps (Bat area)
 * Epic Hard and Epic Elite Only: Mordenkainen's Disjunction Traps (Main Floor, Monkey area, Lailat's Summoning Circle)

Against the Demon Queen requires you to solve a riddle – the riddle is different each time. It requires you to activate glyphs from each of the six chambers in the correct order:
 * misc =
 * The Riddle
 * Poisoner: Scorpion
 * Devious: Snake (Troglodytes)
 * Hungry: Wolf (Gnolls)
 * Grasping: Octopus (Mindflayers)
 * Mockery: Monkey (Wildmen)
 * Night: Bat (Mephits)

The first time you attempt to activate the glyphs in a wrong order, a DM voice will speak up and warn you. If you proceed to read it, you will be teleported to a jail. Climb up to the top of the jail and pull a lever to return to the main platform. Note: There is no DM voice warning on Heroic Elite or Epic difficulties. Note: You have to go to jail once if you want optional XP.

If you make a mistake, follow the quest objective notes; they refer to the parts of the riddles as "swords", and in the order of your solution, not the order listed in the riddle. You will have to re-fight any end-fight at a glyph before (re-)reading it.

For more details about riddle, see this article: Against the Demon Queen's riddle

The six wings
Four of the wings are straightforward – fight your way down a hall to the correct glyph, defeat some guardians, activate the glyph, defeat the Rakshasa (who keeps re-appearing), repeat with the next in the series. Dimension Door can be very handy for a quick return from several of these areas.

Note that two wings are slightly different, and worth additional comments...


 * Monkey wing
 * This wing requires some jumping and climbing (as is appropriate to "monkey"). Feather Fall is recommended.
 * Pulling the first lever (in the northwest area) opens the southern portcullis, but only for 15 seconds. Pulling the second lever (in the southwest area) opens the eastern portcullis, but only for just over 7 seconds! The lever puller has to move fast, or the party must leave someone behind to do the lever pulling.
 * If you miss the first time, pulling the levers again reopens the portcullises and starts their timer again.
 * However:


 * Octopus wing
 * Put on your Underwater Action item*, and swim into the first area and pull the lever in between the blocks.
 * (* If you're not familiar with the levers, a caster-level 14 Water Breathing spell might not last long enough!)


 * Swim into the second area, the gates will lock you in. Don't panic, you got your underwater action item on, right?
 * The second lever is randomly placed on one of three possible spots; two on the ceiling and one behind the block you see on the ground as you swim in. Use the Q (the default key for selecting interactables) key to locate it.
 * The hidden chest is beneath a secret door in the floor of the second room, just before the locked door.

End fight
The end fight has three phases:
 * First you fight Lailat's minions, the Prince of Swords and friends
 * Then you fight Lailat.
 * Once you've "defeated" her, you can heal and rebuff, and advance to a teleportation circle, which will take you to a false chest and another fight with Lailat – this time to the end (and a real chest).

If your entire party dies while fighting Lailat, she resets and you have to fight her again from 100% hit points. Siberys Spirit Cakes and other party-saving items do not help.

Epic strategy
| aggression    = 101 | onslaught     = 127 | conquest      = 157 | observance    = 1 | mischief      = 62 | vandal        = 79 | ransack       = 97 | tamper        = 4 | neutralization = 5 | ingenious     = 6 | chest         = 4
 * A person that can disable the traps and has Evasion is a highly valuable addition to your party.
 * Mobs in the Wolf and Monkey areas are especially deadly and should be approached with caution. The casters throw FREQUENT disintegrate spells!
 * Use the pit in the Scorpion area to your advantage. Pull every possible mob from every area (except Octopus) into the pit, in numerous batches if necessary, then you can nuke 'em down from a relatively safe position. Be careful when dealing with the Mephits, they cast cloud spells which can cause severe disorientation. Use Break Enchantment or Gust of Wind to remove the clouding effects.
 * The first two sonic traps in the Bat area can be safely bypassed (hug the north wall till the middle point, then hug the south wall, then hug the west wall), but for the last trap you either need a rogue, someone to raise you on the other side, or to time the sonic bursts (let the trap reset, then jump and Feather fall along the wall; or wait until the first two sonic bursts are done and run through).
 * 1 in Octopus area
 * 1 in Scorpion area
 * 1 in wildman area behind secret door
 * 1 spawns after end fight
 * There is no named loot specific to this quest (although the standard rare chance of non-specific named items exists)

| collectable    = 6 }}
 * Rubble in the underwater section of octopus
 * Moss past the first gate in monkey
 * Adventurer's Pack in the cell where you go if you choose wrongly
 * Adventurer's Pack in the first room in bat
 * Adventurer's Pack below the collapsing floor in scorpion
 * Rubble in the second gate-trapped room in wolf