Howling Stones
Also known as "Charasis", Howling Stones was built by the vain Venril Sathir of the Kunzar Tribe as his own personal retreat, where he studied and perfected the arts of necromancy. The zone is now filled with the remaining, eternal minions he created for himself and the lingering spirit of his ancient companion, Drusella Sathir. There is a quest that you must perform to obtain the key to enter this zone: the Key to Charasis Quest. Be prepared upon entering, however, as you will be set upon by mostly undead creatures.
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Map
- A note on the map. #3 in the North wing has a named PH in the SW corner, which the map doesn't show
Safe/Evac Spot
0, 0, 4
Dangers
Upon zoning in, you may be greeted by two hostile NPC's. It could be any 2 of the following: a bile golem, a bottomless feaster, or a sepulcher skeleton. Before zoning in, check with somebody in the zone to see if the entrance is clear. Otherwise, prepare yourself for a potential battle. The skeletons have a ~450pt harm touch.
There are many pit traps hidden throughout the dungeon, and you fall for significant damage and then are required to find your way ot the top of the dungeon again.
Dying in one of the wings can mean a very difficult corpse run, as the keys necessary to get back to your corpse will be on the corpse itself. This can be mitigated by either running near one of the pit traps when you're about to die (so your corpse can be pulled through the basement), or instructing your cleric to camp somewhere safe while the rest of the party roots what they can and dies as slowly as possible.
The faction hits for evil races and characters in this zone can be very significant. The faction is entirely on Venril Sathir faction, the same faction that exists in the Overthere outpost. Fighting here will quickly result in you becoming KOS in that outpost, which can be problematic for an evil character who is bound there.
Note: Although you will take VS faction hits here, the mobs are not actually on VS faction, and so it is not possible to be non-KOS in this zone.
Benefits
This can be a very fun dungeon crawl zone, as well as having the potential for great exp and some very interesting drops. Necromancers in particular will find HS to be an excellent zone for soloing and duoing in the mid-to-high 50's.
Traveling To and From
Howling Stones can be found by zoning to it from a red sphere located in the scorpion chasm in the middle of The Overthere. To enter, one must complete the Key to Charasis Quest to obtain the Key to Charasis. The red sphere must be clicked with the key on one's cursor.
Zoning out: The only way to zone out of Howling Stones without a spell (Gate, port) is a portal behind a locked door with no key in the very back of the East Wing. This zone out portal drops you at -96, 796 in The Overthere ( at the entrance to the Scorpikis temple that the HS orb is in). If you're not Invis when you zone out there's a pretty good chance you will be attacked and harm-touched by A scorpikis.
Foraged Items
None.
Garden Variety's Glorious Adventures and Travel Guide
Drop Listing
Lore
Once the green mist had all but destroyed the entire population of Shissar, the Iksar people would form into independent tribes across the lands of Kunark; they would start to build their own towns and cities. One tribe in particular, the Kunzar, were responsible for building the grand city of Charasis. Charasis would grow and thrive for 200 years, leading to the one of the most significant figures being born from it, Venril Sathir. Originally a potent warrior-mage, Venril Sathir became a practitioner of necromancy over time, and he was always seeking knowledge and power behind the dark arts. There was a rather powerful piece of text in particular called the Unholy Writ of War, and this caught Venril's attention. Before Venril was born, there was a powerful Iksar named Kotiz, who had mastered both mysticism and necromancy to impressive levels. Even more impressive was that he was able to establish a direct line of communication with the God, Zebuxxoruk, who held the knowledge of unholy battle magic. This was the same magic that the Shissar once used to dominate virtually everything. A pact was made between Iksar and God that would grant this tome of unfathomable and evil dark arts to Kotiz, but would require him to sacrifice one-hundred intelligent beings, which he fulfilled...
The circumstances behind Kotiz's death are unknown, but Venril was able to secure this text and decipher it. While the mysteries of immortality weren't as accessible as he had hoped, having access to this unholy Writ of War allowed him to implement advanced war techniques and command armies of animated dead. His Kunzar armies conquered their opposition with unyielding fury which eventually led to the uniting and assimilating of the five prominent Iksar tribes. Whether it was the fate of the Sathir bloodline or just the Iksar way of life, Venril would commit patricide once he had grown so much in power. Under his leadership, the empire would start to branch out from Charasis - growing substantially in power and presence. Venril would marry Drusella who was the eldest daughter of the Obulus tribe of wizards, and the two would build the greatest empire ever known. Drusella was completely compliant with continuing to unleash a wave of terror and domination across Kunark to their enemies, and as time went on, she would manage many of the empire's affairs from Charasis while Venril himself would start to operate out of the newly constructed imperial city of Sebilis.
Approaching old age, Venril obsessed over trying to unlock the secrets of necromancy that would allow him and his wife to live forever. Unfortunately, Drusella would die unexpectedly and not live to see the end efforts of her husband's quest to their immortality, and this devastated him. He saw to the formal funeral rituals and her burial within the elaborately built crypt of Charasis, but almost immediately after, Venril cast every citizen from the city. Only the royal Iksar guard and select servants were allowed to remain within the city. But this was against their will. It was their life sentence to serve the deceased empress through death. Venril also ensured that the entrance to the city was concealed to the best of his ability.
In his desperation, Venril would resort to making a pact with the God of Hate, Innoruuk, which demanded that the weak and sick were routinely sacrificed to swell Innoruuk's Cauldron of Souls. In return, Venril would be given the knowledge of lichdom, which required a dark ritual to be performed. He prepared an amulet into which he would siphon his soul, and this amulet was to be placed in his corpse upon his own suicide. A successful ritual performed by his loyal initiates, would allow Venril to rise again as an immortal undead King. Drusella and Venril's only son, Rile, would be made aware of his father's evolving corruption and aimed to put a stop to his quest towards immortality. Rile interrupted the ritual at a critical point that rendered it a catastrophic failure. In the same patricidal way that Venril came to power, Rile had ensured that the family formality had gone full circle by killing his father mid-ritual which effectively captured his soul within the magical amulet. Rile destroyed his father's body and attempted to hide any evidence of his foul play within Charasis. However the loyal servants that were more sensitive to what exactly happened took the amulet left behind and hid it in the crypts of the city.
This is when the dark cult formed that dedicated their existence to reviving Venril's soul once again, and that cult's name was the Arisen. It was thought that Rile was the only one with knowledge of how to enter the city, but that wasn't entirely true. One of Venril's royal guards who had died in Charasis was in posession of the scroll that he kept which contained the secrets of how to enter the city. This particular royal guard must have been in high regard to Venril because his body was sent and prepared for burial by the mortician of Sebilis who thought the scroll he discovered with these instructions was simply nonsense. The scroll was lost for decades, but the descendants of the Cult of the Arisen would eventually discover it. This would help refocus their efforts on their primary purpose. Decades after his treachery, Rile would be killed in a surprise attack by Trakanon and his band of outcast dragons. In the wreckage, located in the north sea of Timorous Deep, wouldn't be discovered for hundreds of years. A sledge merchant, or scavenger, who the Arisen had connections with, brought in a wealthy haul of items from the wreckage that included the pendant of Rile. With their improved knowledge of necromancy, the Arisen believed that if they could find the body (or bones) of Rile that they might be able to able to resurrect Venril using the amulet that his soul was trapped in. But despite the vision, the plan never came to fruition.
Surprisingly, Riles corpse (still draped in jewelry) would be found after a scavenger discovered it near the wreckage many years later. He would take Riles corpse as a trophy back to be sold to the highest bidder - which happened to be a goblin king named Gaboktok. Gaboktok placed Riles body in his throne room and claimed that it was a goblin ancestor of him who defeated Rile. There was ongoing escalating conflict between the mountain giants and goblins, and the mountain giant king, Arslik (a descendent of Warslik) captured the goblin stronghold that included the now bones of Rile which the giants took as a souvenir. These bones would travel back and forth throughout conflict until they were eventually sold to an Iksar merchant named Blistiz. The cult of the Arisen were very much still present in this current generation and still had connections throughout the continent. Once word spread of these remains being acquired, the cult moved quickly to purchase them and used the old tattered scroll to gain access into Charasis, which they were successful with.
The cult spent five decades within Charasis trying to find the amulet of Sathir within the city - which had recently been devastated by a massive earthquake caused by meteors hitting the continent. Their original goal was still intact, and they hoped that by bringing the soul of the father into the body of the son, would allow them to resurrect their first king of Sebilis. Finally the cult located the amulet and were ready to perform the dark rites along with the bones of Rile. Initially, nothing happened and the cult members believed that they had utterly failed. They left the bones of Rile on an altar beneath the ruins of Charasis, however the cult was incredibly successful in ways they could not have imagined. When the ritual was performed, the souls that had been trapped in Innoruuk's Cauldron of Souls were able to escape their torment and re-enter the material world. The influx of dark energy awoke the spirit of Drusella Sathir, and it is said that it was her doing that allowed the ritual to be set up for completion - which wouldn't happen for another 300 years. It would be the small sect of Sarnak who discovered the scrolls once used by the Cult of the Arisen, and unwittingly completed the ritual - which ultimately brought Venril Sathir back into the body of his son Rile. It also cost the looting Sarnaks their lives. To this day, the haunting howls of the damned from past and present are heard echoing off the stones of the canyon.
That is the lore that brings us all to the dungeon, Howling Stones, that we all know and love.
Level Ranges
General Level Ranges for common spawns by wing (Named mobs are higher level)
Entrance - 42 - 46
Basement - 42 - 46 (Basement Guide)
North Wing - 42 - 47
West Wing - 43 - 48
South Wing - 49 - 53
East Wing - 50 - 54
Keys and Dungeon Progression
WARNING: Upon zoning in, you may be greeted by two to three hostile NPC's! See "Dangers" below.
This dungeon is meant to be done in a linear fashion, your forward progress controlled by the need for no rent keys to move on to further parts of the dungeon. However, rogues are able to bypass these requirements by picking any lock in the dungeon, and are highly prized here for this ability. The keys can be obtained from either monsters or found lying on the ground in various places. You must travel from North Wing, to West Wing, to South Wing, to East Wing if you are using the keys.
All keys are temporary (disappear if you log out), their locations are:
Everywhere:
- Tallow-marked Candle - any bottomless feaster or bottomless gnasher can drop. This is for access to the North wing.
North:
- Sacrificial Robe Clasp - floor, center room (#2 on map). This is for key to North Boss (Crypt Keeper)
- Sigil of the Calendar - drops from the Crypt Keeper. This is for access to the West Wing.
West:
- Skull-engraved Coin - floor, room past trap (#5 on map). This is Key to West Boss (Skeletal Procurator)
- Broken Sacrificial Blade - drops from Skeletal Procurator. This is for access to South wing.
South:
- Coin Depicting Innoruuk - Floor drop in south in the room with 3 spawns on the west side of South approx loc neg470,pos 249 . This is key to East Wing (The door between where Drusella spawns, 14 on the map, and the zone-out portal cannot be opened by any key.)
Bestiary
There are a total of 0 known NPC's in Howling Stones:
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Items
Found 0 items that are found in Howling Stones.
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Quests
There are 0 known quests that start in Howling Stones.
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