The Shadow Crypt

''Nerezza's resting place is a twisted game of darkness and shadow. North becomes south, East becomes West, nothing is at seems.'' {{Quest The Herald of the Emerald Claw requires your assistance in stopping Brother Nerezza and obtaining the Twisted Apocrypha. You must discover the treacherous path through the Shadow Crypt to defeat Brother Nerezza.
 * name     = The Shadow Crypt
 * adpack=The Necropolis, Part 2
 * level    = 9
 * duration = Very Long
 * solo = 6690
 * normal = 11800
 * hard = 12450
 * elite = 13100
 * loc      = The Shadow Crypt
 * bestower= The Herald
 * npc      = The Herald
 * zone     = The Necropolis
 * patron   = The Silver Flame
 * favor    = 7
 * mappic   = M shadow crypt.png
 * maplegend = yes
 * loadingpic= L Shadow Crypt.jpg
 * overview =

Flagging
Complete the first four quests of the Litany of the Dead Part 2 story arc in any order: Some form of underwater action item, or water breathing potions or spells, is strongly recommended, as one quarter of the rooms encountered are (similar) underwater mazes.
 * Tomb of the Shadow Guard
 * Tomb of the Shadow King
 * Tomb of the Shadow Knight
 * Tomb of the Shadow Lord
 * objective_1=Find and speak with Dame Calla
 * objective_2=Acquire 2 Small Blue Gears
 * objective_3=Acquire 2 Small Red Gears
 * objective_4=Acquire 2 Small Green Gears
 * objective_5=Acquire 2 Small Yellow Gears
 * objective_6=Open the way to Nerezza
 * objective_7=Defeat the Shadow Council (defeat 4)
 * objective_8=Slay Brother Nerezza
 * objective_9=Acquire
 * optional_1=Slay Gloom
 * opt_percent_1=10
 * optional_2=Slay Twilight
 * opt_percent_2=10
 * optional_3=Slay Login Yapow
 * opt_percent_3=0
 * optional_4=Slay Rhonita Hourd
 * opt_percent_4=0
 * optional_5=Slay Callin Fornan
 * opt_percent_5=10
 * optional_6=Slay Timoty Jorem
 * opt_percent_6=10
 * optional_7=Slay Myriel Everborn
 * opt_percent_7=10
 * optional_8=Slay Dontre Lebram
 * opt_percent_8=10
 * optional_9=Slay Caligin
 * opt_percent_9=10
 * optional_10=Slay Dusk
 * opt_percent_10=10
 * optional_11=Slay Lurid
 * opt_percent_11=10
 * optional_12=Slay Murk
 * opt_percent_12=10
 * expect =
 * Note: All optionals are rare spawns. You will generally only encounter 6-9 per instance.
 * Maze (random layout)
 * Spawning/respawning monsters
 * Randomly placed quest items (mandatory: 8 gears and optional: 4 gears)
 * traps = None
 * misc =

The "path" through this quest is very confusing and non-intuitive, with each room seemingly connected at random to other rooms. Read below to familiarize yourself with some of the strategies for successfully navigating the quest.

Dame Calla will give the party a 2-use/rest Dimension Door trinket, Death's Door. This can be used to return you to the start. Use it wisely. (This item drops on exiting the quest.)

Finding the gears
You will find five types of rooms, each in four different colors. Each room has a different solution - combat, maze, or puzzle. There is only one type for each color, 20 rooms altogether, but they are connected via "teleporting" exits/entry points - the layout is not something that can be represented with a standard map.

See Instance Paths for detailed information on paths and rooms.

There are 3 known configurations to this dungeon. Depending on the configuration you get, the directions you take from each room will land you in a different room. Each room has a chest that contains a gear. Your objective here is to collect two gears per color, that is 2 each of red, blue, green, and yellow. To open the "big chest" at the end you need to acquire one additional gear per color, 3 total of each.

A simple approach to finding all the gears is to just go the same direction every time you enter a room. Eventually most of the rooms will be explored. Be aware that although you may exit a room heading one way, say "east", you may enter the next oriented in any direction. Be aware of which way you exit the room on the map.

End Fight
Once you have located the gears you need, you have to find the end-fight.

To get to the end fight, you must find a "banner room", a room which has a pale transparent banner hanging over one of the actual exits (and beyond the archway leading to that exit). The banner in one of these rooms may be hard to spot - look carefully. Once you find any banner, take that exit and look for the next - it will be one of the exits in the next room. After several of these, you will be in a new hallway, and you will be on track for the end-fight.

***Low graphics quality can remove the banner, making it impossible to know which room it is.***

Tip to find the Banner Room. From the starting room (you can use the Dimension Door trinket), take the South Exit, then the East Exit, then the West Exit, and check the room that you arrive in. If the Banner isn't in that room, dimension door back to the start and then take the East Exit three times and check that room for the banner. Look carefully.

Nerezza will clone himself multiple times when hurt below a certain level. You need to either hurt him fast enough so that he doesn't get to clone, or use Firewall to hurt all the clones. If you can't hurt him before he clones, and you don't have access to the Firewall spell, have all your party members focus on the original Nerezza by keeping him targeted using the Tab key. It used to be that Nerezza still remained targeted after re-appearing, but that is no longer the case.

NOTE: That is still the case as of U31 Patch 2.

You can identify the clones by seeing how much damage they take - clones have half as many hit points as Nerezza.

Nerezza also has special DR:

After the quest is complete, you can use the altar to perform an upgrade on your Silver Flame Nugget or Emerald Claw Nugget. Monster Information Named Monsters:
 * aggression      = 82
 * conquest        = 284
 * chest    = 3 guaranteed, 1 optional "big chest"
 * collectable = 5 (maybe more)
 * Crude Altar in the entrance
 * Moss in the Green Columns room
 * 2 Adventurers' Packs in the Blue Maze
 * Adventurer's Pack in the Yellow Water room
 * Shadow Scarab (in end chest)
 * npcreward = Random item
 * unique   = yes
 * monsters =
 * Drifting Scourges
 * Drifting Scourge Mages
 * Dun Butchers
 * Phase Spiders
 * Shadow
 * Shrouded Terrors
 * Shrouded Terror Mages
 * Umbral Gargoyles
 * Umbral Worgs
 * Brother Nerezza - Red-named vampire; end boss
 * Caligin - Optional orange-named phase spider rare
 * Callin Fornan - Optional orange-named wraith rare
 * Dontre Lebram - Optional orange-named spectre rare
 * Dusk - Optional orange-named phase spider rare
 * Gloom - Optional orange-named gargoyle shadow rare
 * Login Yapow - Optional orange-named shadow
 * Lurid - Optional orange-named worg shadow rare
 * Murk - Optional orange-named worg shadow rare
 * Myriel Everborn - Optional orange-named spectre rare
 * Rhonita Hourd - Optional orange-named shadow
 * Shadow Guard - Red-named wraith; required kill
 * Shadow King - Red-named wraith; required kill
 * Shadow Knight - Red-named wraith; required kill
 * Shadow Lord - Red-named wraith; required kill
 * Spectre of Calla - Red-named spectre; required kill
 * Timoty Jorem - Optional orange-named wraith rare
 * Twilight - Optional orange-named gargoyle shadow rare

}}