Enter the Kobold

Enter the Kobold is the 1st quest in The Essence of a Dragon story arcStory arcs  are chains of quests that make up a story line. Completing everything in a story arc often yields a nice reward..
The first three quests can be completed in any order to unlock Stealer of Souls.
Flagging occurs by collecting dedicated items rather than completing these quests.
Enter the Kobold • Monastery of the Scorpion • Prey on the Hunter • Stealer of Souls

A tribe of kobolds have taken residence in this sulfurous mine. They are known for their unusual size and ferocity.

Requires access to adventure pack Definition: Adventure Pack A list of all adventure packs  : The Reaver's Reach

Enter the Kobold
Heroic level:	17
Epic level:	None
Duration:	very long
Heroic XP:	♣5,099Solo/Casual ♦8,835Normal ♥9,172Hard ♠9,508Elite
Epic XP:	N/A
Takes place in:	Volcanic Mine
Bestowed by:	Khiin
NPC contact:	Khiin
Quest acquired in:	Reaver's Refuge
Patron:	Agents of Argonnessen
Base favor:	8
Purchase:	The Reaver's Reach or VIP
Extreme Challenge:	No

Loading screen

Overview

In order to breach the defenses protecting Sor'jek's hidden fortress, Khiin of Argonessen asked you to retrieve Khyber Dragonshard Essence. It's located deep within Mount Reysalon and Khiin created a portal for you to travel there.

After using the portal you arrive at the south side of Mount Reysalon. You have to run up the mountain on a winding path to reach the quest entrance at the west border.

---

Spoiler Warning: Spoiler material below this point!

---

Objectives

• Speak with Bezeek, kobold chief
• Find the Great Kobold
• Survive the assault
• Clear the kobold nest
• Survive the kobold gauntlet
• Slay Desaga, kobold leader
• Slay Pyripnon
• Acquire the Khyber Dragonshard Essence
• (Optional) Slay the frenzied fire elemental — Bonus (10%): Heroic( ♣510 ♦884 ♥917 ♠951 )
• (Optional) Slay tainted kobolds (50) — Bonus (25%): Heroic( ♣1,275 ♦2,209 ♥2,293 ♠2,377 )
• (Optional) Clear the kobold nest — Bonus (20%): Heroic( ♣1,020 ♦1,767 ♥1,834 ♠1,902 )

What to Expect

• Collapsible floor
• Point of no return
• Overlapping floors
• Puzzle (mandatory: Knight's Tour puzzle)
• Spawning/respawning monsters (at the end fight)

Known Traps

Spikes, falling floor

Tips and Misc

• Useful buffs: Blur/Displacement, Fire Resistance, Fire Shield: Cold and anything else that can lessen incoming fire damage (especially important for end-fight, where you might even do need to do some lava dancing to chase the bosses).
• You will meet fire elementals and mephits; cold-based weapons/attacks are helpful.
• There are places where the map appears to offer several choices – it does not, just follow the path forward.
• Go left (west) first, and Intimidate/Haggle/Bluff the NPC Bezeek there – or just kill him – and get the key that leads east.
  • If you kill Bezeek, all kobolds turn hostile. Otherwise is no combat until after the first large room, with the kobold "totem".
• The second large room may seem like a maze – it's not, just push north.
• Just past that shrine is a fence – you can jump over it in either direction, but you need to fight your way to the top, past the shrine (and chest), to the iron key and a lever – and you'll find another lever to drop that fence.
• As you travel south again, beware the collapsing floor – jump to the right, you'll be fine.
• One person (only!) solve the puzzle – all others wait, then cross (see below!). Once solved(!), go for the chest if you want.
• The second shrine in the kobold nest is temporary. It lasts about 3–5 minutes before disappearing. If you are fast you can kill the kobolds up the ramp and around the lever before using it. Also, it is actually a pair of rest shrines, and you can use them both even on Hard or Elite difficulty.

The Puzzle

Enter the Kobold puzzle

Puzzle - all jump points and targets

• The kobold gauntlet puzzle is based on a mathematical problem called Knight's Tour (or Warnsdorff's Algorithm). You move like a knight in chess – 2 left/right and 1 up/down, or 2 up/down and 1 left/right.
  • See Wikipedia article if you are interested in the puzzle itself.

• The point of this puzzle is to turn on all the lights in the cages (including the four at the top/bottom). Be careful when you move. You may accidentally turn a light off necessitating you go back. If you are in a room with an unlit light, jump once to turn it on. You need to turn ALL the lights on.
• When you land in a room, you will always be facing West.
• The locations "a/b" and "s/t" are not "rooms", but do have floor tiles that need to be lit, and have teleportation gems to take you to other rooms.
• The chest does not appear (in "J") until you solve the puzzle. Once solved (the DM will tell you), the lights stay on, so only then is it safe for the party to cross, and/or get the chest.
• The maps right outline where you will end up when stepping on squares.
• For a solution try the following Chain:
  • g e n p i r l c i k q j d m f h o m t
  • The rest of the party can take i k t to move through.
  • From s take the chain of l j for chest; take l s to proceed to the end fight.

• Alternate description for puzzle solution: when entering a room, face West and consider the positions of the lights surrounding you as if they were the numbers on a clock, with "12 o'clock" in front of you – west. Since you're moving "diagonally" (as a knight in chess does) 12, 3, 6 & 9 o'clock will never be options. Only 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 & 11 o'clock may be.
  • To follow the path above, after entering the puzzle through the center light, move 7, 4, 1, 8, 4, 11, 10, 5, 1, 5, 8, 11, 4, 8, 1, 2, 7 then 2 o'clock (with "12 o'clock" facing west).

• Bug: If all the tiles are already lit when you reach the puzzle room, it has glitched and you will not be able to complete the mandatory objective "Survive the Kobold Gauntlet". You will not be able to finish the quest even after retrieving the dragonshard essence and will need to recall. This was supposed to be fixed in U39 but is still bugged as of U40.

End Fight

• The end fight is very challenging. It's recommended that a party will leave one person at the last shrine as an emergency rescuer, to release the party back up from the cave below, or to try to collect stones in case everyone else is dead.
  • Solo tip: you can park a (gold seal) hireling at the valve to let you back up and prevent a failure in the event of your death.

• One of the major challenges of the end fight comes from the Living Spells. If you can't nuke 'em down quickly, use Ooze Puppet to contain their threats.
  • Recommended tactic is for the melee to head straight for Desaga (the boss kobold), and pin him into the wall to quickly DPS him down, then head for the Efreeti and take him down fast as well. While this is being done, a caster type should get the living spell/mephit aggro and either kill or charm them all. Especially important is targeting the living meteor swarm first, as that is by far the most dangerous foe. Done well, both bosses should be dead in under a minute, and all that will be left is the fire elementals, as the living spells will no longer respawn. You can then loot the chests and DDoor out without bothering to kill the fire elementals, as killing them provides no benefit and takes quite a long time.

• Note that while Desaga will return with full health if he gets too close to the entrance, this is not the case for the fire elementals. Therefore, another tactic is to first have the healer(s) in the entrance tunnel while the melee(s) carefully pull over the elementals and living spells (the boss won't be able to follow), though this tactic will take a long time and probably resources, since the fire elementals have massive amounts of Hit points and the living spells deal very heavy damage. You'd most likely want to charm the spells if you choose to do it this way.
• Living spells continue to respawn after the quest is over.

Bonus XP

• Aggression bonus: 33 or more monsters killed +10% Bonus.( ♣510 ♦884 ♥917 ♠951 )
• Onslaught bonus: 67 or more monsters killed +15% Bonus.( ♣765 ♦1,325 ♥1,376 ♠1,426 )
• Conquest bonus: 100 or more monsters killed +25% Bonus.( ♣1,275 ♦2,209 ♥2,293 ♠2,377 )

External Links

• Puzzle solvers on DDO Tracker

Loot

• Chests: 5
  • 1 for killing the first Frenzied Fire Elemental
  • 1 for clearing the kobold nest
  • 1 in the gauntlet puzzle
  • 1 locked at the end (Lock DC)
  • 1 end chest after killing Desaga (Paragon Kobold) and Pyripnon (Efreet)
    • The end chest contains the Khyber Dragonshard Essence – BtC on Acquire, this is one of the three essences needed to flag for Stealer of Souls – as well a random Eldritch Rune – BtC on Acquire. The Eldritch rune is likely but not guaranteed on casual.

NPC end rewards

Randomly generated loot, ML correlates with effective quest level.

Monsters

Name ( picture )	CR	Type	Race
Bezeek ( view  • edit )	♦2Normal ♥4Hard ♠7Elite	Reptilian	Kobold
Desaga ( view  • edit )	♦20Normal ♠28Elite	Reptilian	Kobold
Fire Mephit Warrior ( view  • edit )	♥14Hard ♠14Elite ●♠34Epic Elite	Fire Outsider	Mephit
Frenzied Fire Elemental ( view  • edit )	♦19Normal ♠26Elite	Elemental	Fire Elemental
Greater Fire Mephit ( view  • edit )	♦6Normal ♥8Hard ♠11Elite ●♦22Epic Normal ●♥27Epic Hard OR Summoned by another mephit:  ♠6Elite	Fire Outsider	Mephit
Kobold ( view  • edit )	♦0.25Normal ♥1Hard ♠3Elite	Reptilian	Kobold
Living Delayed Blast Fireball ( view  • edit )	♦18Normal ♥20Hard ♠23Elite	Ooze	Spell
Living Firestorm ( view  • edit )	♦18Normal ♥20Hard ♠23Elite	Ooze	Spell
Living Meteor Swarm ( view  • edit )	♦20Normal ♥22Hard ♠25Elite	Ooze	Spell
Night Wolf ( view  • edit )	♥19Hard ♠24Elite	Animal	Wolf
Paragon Kobold Shaman ( view  • edit )	♦8Normal ♥20Hard ♠25Elite ●♦22Epic Normal ●♠45Epic Elite	Reptilian	Kobold
Paragon Kobold Warrior ( view  • edit )	♥20Hard ♠25Elite	Reptilian	Kobold
Pyripnon ( view  • edit )	♦20Normal ♠29Elite	Evil Outsider	Efreet
Tainted Kobold ( view  • edit )	♥17Hard ♠20Elite	Reptilian	Kobold