Flagging for The Thirteenth Eclipse or Shroud raid requires the completion of five quests in the Vale of Twilight. Out of the five high level quests, The Coalescence Chamber is the least popular among the players. It's probably because the quest involves a lot of jumping, running, and going back and forth. It's a very long quest that is actually more annoying than difficult. You will normally expect a lot of fights at every turn. Oddly enough, the quest does not require you to kill fiendish creatures even though the quest is packed with enemies of various shapes and sizes. It's more a test of patience and the ability to navigate through the fallen temple with little to no fatality. Quests like this are not frequently run by players. If given the chance, they would want to run this once for flagging and second for the favor. The only reason they will want to run the quest over and over is to get the Shavarath stone, which is a key ingredient in making a Green Steel item. While Coalescence Chamber may be at the bottom of your things to do, you will realize that the more you run it, the easier it becomes. The saying "practice makes perfect" can be best applied to this quest.

BACKGROUND

The ancient temple has fallen into disrepair. Something has kept the remaining ruins protected from the encroachment of Shavarath. You need to traverse the Fallen Temple and defeat Khemko Sadanand, the Tiefling. His fiendish ceations are being used as reinforcements for the invading devils. Once you defeat Khemko Sadanand and free the temple of fiendish creatures, the Djini Oseerz will be able to cleanse the area without any distraction. Ulvar Krypros will be more than happy to reward you with your efforts.


GETTING TO THE QUEST ENTRANCE

JUst like with the other four pre-requisite quests, the Coalescence Chamber entrance is in the Vale of Twilight. The path can be very dangerous for adventurers, so it's important to run to the quest together and avoid aggroing the various creatures lurking in the area. There is a shrine next to the Fallen Temple, so it's ok to buff up and use spells to clear the area of some trash mobs
The Fallen Temple is North East of the Vale of Twilight. Coming from Meridia, you need to jump right from the bridge into the water. Swim across heading north, until you reach dry land. There will be earth elementals and Troglodytes lurking in the area. Just clear the area and continue forward. You will not have many encounters with creatures if you follow the footpath. You will see a big tree branch in which you can go through. Just follow the path and you will see the Fallen Temple. You will not be able to jump from where you are so you need to run to the side a bit and find the opening where you can jump across to reach the temple. Shrine up if you need to before entering
The temple is filled with fiendish creatures mostly consisting of troglodytes, trolls, tieflings, scorpions, and bats. The best weapon to bring is banishing because most of the creatures are vulnerable to it. You can also bring reptilian bane, vorpal, wounding, and pucturing weapons. The faster the creatures can be killed, the less difficult it is to jump across platforms. While the quest involve a lot of jumping, it's best not to buff with jump because it can slow down the party. The problem is that with a very high jump, you might end up missing the ledges and fall down. It might sound strange not use the jump spell but the ledges are designed in such a way that if you try to get on it, there's a chance that you will bounce off and fall. Haste might also worsen the condition, so it's better to just do away with it while jumping. But it should be fine when in level land.

PREPARATION

There are many fiendish troglodyte rangers that can deal piercing damage. The troglodyte casters cast web, electric spells, acid rain, Melf's acid arrow, scorching ray, and fireball. With that said, you need to put on electric, acid, and fire resists. You also need Freedom of Movement for the web. These are the important buffs, but of course, you may want to add some helpful buffs like bard songs, stoneskin, barkskin, blur and cleric mass buffs. Any buff that increases your survivability in the quest would be very good to have.

There are also random force traps in the quest when you open the gates. The trap boxes are usually on the other side of the gate switch. You can easily jump over the traps, but a rogue will be very nice to have in the party. The Difficulty check of the traps is not very high, so even other classes with rogue-like abilities can easily disable the traps. In normal and hard, the traps are not too deadly, but on elite setting, you can die with just one hit. It's important to keep that in mind so party members will not run ahead.

Since, there will be a lot of jumping and falling, you need to have a feather fall item. Equip them at all times.

Casters should have crowd control spells like Solid Fog, Acid Fog, and Otto's Shere of Dancing. Charming the creatures using Mass Suggestion, Charm spells, or Symbol of Persuasion can make the run a little smoother. Try to avoid casting web because the troglodyte shamans cast them all the time. Among the insta-kill spells, the most spell point cost efficient is the banishment spell because it can kill several fiendish creatures with just one cast. Just use Finger of Death and Phantasmal Killer on the orange named creatures. You will save up on spell points. There is only one shrine in the quest. It resets on normal so you can come back to it. You can also recall out for mana since there is a shrine outside, but if you are not level cap, you wouldn't want a an XP penalty.

PARTY MAKE UP

The Coalescence Chamber quest is no very demanding of particular type of class. While there are traps, they can easily be avoided. The basic party consisting of 1 cleric, 1 caster, 1 rogue, 1 bard and 2 tanks is the usual party make up. But you can be creative and get any class combination that you want. Just keep in mind that the well-balanced your party is, the faster you can complete the quest. And since this is an annoying and often frustrating quest, you might want to get it right the first attempt.


GUIDE/WALKTHROUGH

Once you enter the quest instance, start buffing up. You can assign the cleric or the caster to give out resistance spells and just let him or her recall out for mana. There is a shrine just outside the quest, so you don't need to skimp on buffs. Extend the buffs. While buffing, you will notice a Djini named Oseerz standing just a few steps away from you and just near the stairs. If you talk to him, he will ask you to hurry up and clear the temple of all fiendish creatures. This is so he can concentrate on cleansing the area.

As you head down the stairs, Fiend Blood Troglodyte Rangers (c16) will start to attack from the left and right ledges. Try to kill them quickly because they can kill you fast while you try to clear the area of a lot of fiendish creatures. The first thing you need to do is to clear the area of troglodytes and trolls. The portal up ahead is open that's why all sorts of creatures come out. There will be several waves of creatures that will spawn before Hadarach (CR18), the oranged named troglodyte appears. Once you kill him, he will drop Gold Key. Your next objectives are to find and close the other end of the portal; and find the source of the fiendish creations. You need to go at the back of the first portal and you will find a hole. You will have to drop down to get to the other end of the portal. It's a long drop and once you land, there will be creatures waiting for you. You need to defeat them to complete the first objective. You then need to start making your way to the chamber. As you head north, try to hug the left or rght wall so that you won't have to step on the dirt. Once you do, scorpions and trolls will spawn. If you ignore them, they will just catch up with you. Either you dont step on the dirt, or just kill them all before you move forward.

As you continue to go north, you will reach the first shaft up. Just go around the ramps and you will find the firs locked iron door. You cannot open this door yet because you need to get the key. The gold key that Hadarach dropped will not open this door. Conitnue past the door until you reach the top. At this point, there's only one way to go. The Djini will even tell you to find an alternative way. Turn right and just follow the path, avoiding the dirt and killing anything that spawns. The path will lead you to the second shaft up. Just like the first one, you will find another locked iron door halfway up. Just go past it until you reach the top. At this point, you should be heading south of the map. When you reach the intersetiom, turn to your right and you will see a hole. At the bottom is a shrine. Drop down and try to land on top of the shrine if you are a cleric or a caster. The first time you drop to the shrine, there will be bats to kill. You will be back to area later on. Clear the area of bats and head back the way you came in go further south. If you are doing the quest on normal, you can shrine up so that it will reset when you come back.


If you check your map, your path should be sideway "S" starting from the shrine. You will reach the higher level of the first shaft. Just continue to move up until you reach the gate with the lever. This gate can be trapped so let the rogue or those with evasion do the dirty job. As you further, you will reach an enclave where there is a named troll. There will be one treasure chest and another chest that holds the key to the first locked door. After looting, head slowly back to the shaft. There will fiendish creatures atop the ledges and ramps. Casters shoudl kill them with Banishment, Finger of Death, or Cloud Kill. You need to make your way down to the shaft to get to the first locked door.


Once you unlock the first iron door, there will be creatures to kill in order to get the key to the second locked door. After you defeat them, you have to head back to the first shaft. As you make your way back to the shaft, there will be an ambush and troglodytes rangers and shamans will spam acid arrows and electric spells and web. Make sure all party members still have buffs. It can get messy at this point, but after you survice the ambush, you can climb back up until you reach the top and head to the second shaft. If you look at the map, you should be heading northeast then northwest. This is where the second shaft is. Half way through your run to the shaft, you will get to the second locked door. Open it up and head north to get the key. Once you get the key, you need to head back to the shaft two following the path to the shrine. This is the second time you will be lead to this path, but this time trolls and troglodytes will spawn once you drop. Again, casters and clerics should try to land on top of the shrine to avoid getting hit by the creatures. It's also a great spot to shrine without being interrupted. It's very convenient place to heal the party without fear of concentration failure.

After shrining and buffing up, head back south and follow the path that leads to the first shaft. You will need to go all the way up, going past the gate with lever and on to the very top door. Try to slow down a bit when goin gup the shaft because if you fall, there is a chance that you could end up at the very bottom and it takes a while to get back up. The only way back is to go through the path you have taken. In case you fall, try to reach for the ledges so you dont fall alll the way down.

The key you have should be able to open door where the final fight will be. The named boss Khemko Sadanand will be protected by his fiendish creations. Before you rush into the room where the boss is, it's wise to set up crowd control using Solid Fog and Otto's Sphere of Dancing. Cast a maximized, empowered, firewall tokill the fiendish creatures, while the others beat on Khemko. After you defeat him, there will be a final chest and extra chest. The extra chest is at the right side of the room. Sometimes, people miss this chest. It is locked and can only be opened by the gold key that Hadarach at the very beginning. If you didn't clear the portal at the start, you will not be able to open the chest. It cannot be picked nor locked. Get your loot and head back to the Meridia tavern to collect your reward from Ulvar Krypros.

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Note: The quest can be completed in less than an hour if party members stick together. Sometimes, rushing ahead can cause some players to fall down at thebottom and instead of being able to move forwards, they need to be rescued by the person who knows the way back up. It takes a certain level of skill to run around the shaft without falling a few levels below. You will master the jump when you have run the quest 4 to 5 times, or less.

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