Kareth — Area Concept

Category: Guide | Region: Nork | Difficulty: Intermediate

A detailed community-designed area concept for the Kingdom of Drakkar by Mihey of PHNX Guild. This is a player-created design document, not official content.

Kareth is a proposed arena within the Nork segment (under Frore), accessible by one point only (entrance/exit in Homlet). Entry requires completing the introduction quest.

Kareth was a hunter who hunted for food, furs, and trophies. One day he explored “newly discovered ground” and never returned.

Quest Steps:

1. Kareth's wife asks you to find Kareth or his corpse — return with him or his ring
2. Ask townies for clues — most say he went through east Frore gate
3. One NPC remembers seeing him go into the rocky hill SE of Frore (Homlet)
4. A Homlet NPC says he was there to buy supplies then went into caves
5. Find a broken arrow near a secret door in Homlet
6. In the small room: Kareth's corpse. Take his ring and return it to his wife.
7. She gives you Kareth's will — a scroll revealing the caves and asking an adventurer to slay the Beast and return its horns

Entry to Kareth requires holding Kareth's will (ties on first entry).

• All of Kareth is no-twig zone (with rare twig spots: entrance, Hermit's island)
• Corridors and caves around a main cavern with a lake
• Hermit's Island — green island in the lake center, safe zone, twig spot
• Minor islands with lair entrances
• Lairs in surrounding caves (some open, some behind stairs/teleport/climb)
• Traps: strip, teleport, damage, FATE — use DETECT to discover (higher skill sees more dangerous traps)
• Lots of secret doors and passageways

All creatures are RANDOM:

• Random appearance (any crit graphic except NPC/player/lair)
• Random HP (from 1 to enormous)
• Random stats, attacks, damage
• Random elemental/psi/enmiss resistances
• Random disciplines (poison, EC, maybe elance)
• Random hostility and alignment
• Random treasure (nothing to a fortune — gems, pots, special drops)
• Random exp/skill gain (a 1HP crit could give 1M exp; a 100K HP crit could give 10k)
• Average creature should be M-2 strength
• Many weak crits, few VERY tough crits
• Crits may attack each other
• Don't attack non-hostile g/g creatures unless you want alignment loss

Gold Dragon (EATER) — GD scales better than BD (good EC prot, 150/150 fire/ice). Uses EC. Drops EC bracers and EC prot amulet.

Bashers — Pair of huge ogres (one MA, one mace). On-contact push. Drop Basher Gaunts (+5 offence, +1 str, on-contact push) and Basher Mace.

The Bros (three lair NPCs sharing one lair):

• Blade — LS master, hits hard, blocks well, few HP. Drops: Blade (+5/5 LS, glowing, saber damage) and Blade's Sash (+1 LS skill, +1 agi, +1 str)
• Halbert — Hally master, VERY hard hitting. Drops: +5/5 hally (glowing, proning, high damage) and Halbert's Sash (+1 polearm, +2 str)
• Archie — Bow master. Drops: +5/5 bow (glowing, non-proning, better than KM5 bow) and Archie's Sash (+1 bow, +2 agi)
• All three drop untied SD scales

Kalyndrel — Renegade fighter/mentalist with random weapon. Highly skilled, uses Espear/ES. Zoo of random pets. Trade weapon to Hermit for: Hermit's Staff (+4, +2 wis, silver/glowing, +20 ep, +2 ep regen, +1 to all healing discs, HEALER ONLY)

The Great Roc (EATER) — Giant roc. Charges, prones, 100-400 damage, lots of HP. Drop feather → trade to Hermit for Hermit's Robe. Tan for feathers (+4/4, 120/120 fire/ice, 60 lightning/acid/EC/enmiss prot, on-contact featherfall & respirate)

Lil One — Goblin with huge hally. Drops: +5 silver/glowing hally (prones, on-contact firestorm, FS prot) and funny hat (+2 luck, FS prot)

The Demon — Paladin-only fight. Slow regen, hits 300 avg, charges, prones, casts fear/dark/firebreath/firestorm. Drops trident for Jala's Quest.

Ogre Masher — VERY hard hitting (400-600), tons of HP. Drops Butcher Axe (+5/-5, no block, +60 HP, +4 str, -2 agi, ignores shield, hardest hitting weapon in Nork)

Ancient Dragon (EATER) — THE toughest lair in Nork/Aleria (5-10x Snowbeast HP). Hits 1000-4000, prones, casts shockwave/firebreath. Immune to status effects. Tanned: THE BEST armor (500 fire/ice, 150 lightning/acid/enmiss/EC, 6/6). Drops Ancient Dragon Skull (6/6, on-contact respirate/featherfall/ES/absorb/IV).

• Roc Quest — Slay Great Roc, bring feather → Hermit's Robe
• Kalyndrel Quest — Slay renegade, bring weapon → Hermit's Staff
• Bros Quest — Bring all weapons and sashes → Hermit's Ring (alignment-dependent):
  • Saint Ring (good) — +5/5, +2 cha, +2 luck, on-contact ES
  • Hermit Ring (neutral) — +5/5, +2 wis, +2 will, psi-cutter, on-contact ES
  • Villain Ring (evil) — +5/5, +2 str, +2 agi, on-contact IV/DETECT/ES
• Pilgrimage 1 — Find random item → Hermit's Rejuvenation Potion (full HP/EP, multi-use, cures poison)
• Pilgrimage 2 — Slay named creature → Hermit's Bitter Soup (+1 con up to 18, +1-2 HP up to doc max +20)
• Pilgrimage 3 — Find Hermit's dog ALIVE → Atone up to n/n
• Pilgrimage 4 — Find ingredient (random drop) → Hermit's Bitter Juice (recover lost HP from death)

Slay the Beast (huge bull-like creature, tons of HP, 200-500 damage, prones, fast HP regen from horns, poison bite). Drops:

• Horns → give to Ralna for Kareth's Hunter Bow (+6 silver/glowing, on-contact poison/IV, +1 attack/agi/luck)
• Claw Gaunts (glowing, proning, +1/1 to +5/5, +5 HP regen)
• Claw Boots (higher kick damage than dancers, +1/1 to +5/5, +5 HP regen)
• Beast Fur (+1/1 to +5/5, +2 str/con, +5 HP regen, +50 HP, BD-level block, no elemental prot)
• Beast's Tail → trade to Hermit for class-specific sash:

Find Shadow in a secret room. Complete stealing challenges (from The Bros, Kalyndrel, Hermit, then Shadow himself). Rewards include full Shadow gear set:

• Shadow Dagger (+4, +1 backstab, silver/glowing)
• Shadow Gloves (+4/4, +1 steal/mug, +1 agi)
• Shadow Cloak (+4/4, 40/40 psi/enmiss prot)
• Shadow Boots (+4/4, on-contact featherfall, +1 agi)
• Shadow Cap (+4/4, on-contact IV)
• Shadow Bracers (+1 cha, +1 luck, on-contact DETECT)
• Shadow Ring (+4/4, +1 agi, +1 move)
• Shadow Studded Leather (+5 def, 120/120 fire/ice, better than SD scales)
• Shadow Sash (+4/4, +1 hide, +1 agi, +1 luck)
• Shadow Amulet (50 lightning/acid prot)
• Repeatable, but Shadow steals ALL your gold!

Find Jala deep in dark caverns. Pass through her Seal into evil creature-filled caves. Slay the Demon and bring its trident. Repeatable. Full Light gear set (all items cost HP to wear; poofs if you lose pallyhood):

• Light Mace (+5/5, silver/glowing, +1 multistrike, -10 HP)
• Light Tower Shield (+5 def, better block than Bresh/Duke, on-contact ES 5, +1 parry, -25 HP)
• Light Full Plate (+5 def, psi-cutter, 150/150 fire/ice, +2 will, on-contact ES 5, -25 HP)
• Light Greathelm (+5 def, stun prot, +2 will, resist fear, -10 HP)
• Light Gauntlets (+5/5, +1 agi/str, silver/glowing, -10 HP)
• Light Boots (+5/5, +1 move, +2 agi)
• Light Bracers (psi-cutter, 75 EC prot)
• Light Sash (+5/5, +2 will, +2 cha)
• Light Ring (+5/5, on-contact ES 3-4, +1 cha)
• Light Amulet (+2 will, auto-ES/ABS/autoheal when stunned/proned, -10 HP)
• Light Cloak (+5/5, +1 agi/will, 50/50 fire/ice, 25 acid/lightning/FS/EC prot, -10 HP)

A Frore smith mourning his family will forge a weapon deadly to a specific monster race. Bring corpses of the target race, a rare Kareth metal, and retrieve his drunk assistant. The resulting sword hits the targeted race extremely hard (harder than Masher Axe) despite low base stats. You can have multiple Avengers.

Divine Aura (100 EP) — Buffs willpower, charisma, and skill. Power depends on former's willpower, exp, and skill.

Ethereal (100 EP) — Move your “soul” through walls to observe remote locations. Body stays vulnerable.

• All Guides
• Lairs
• Classes

Source: PHNX Guild