Partial Guide to Valdeholm and Frostcrypt...Spoiler Alert

[rmm10]

This content consists of four zones. Valdeholm is the zone that you enter when you port from Voodek in the Forest, and is a T1 zone. The T3, T6 and T9 zones are instances of Frostcrypt, but not instances in the sense that most of us are used to. They are persistent, indoor open zones. They are not group, raid or guild specific. The maps are all the same as are the names of the mobs. The loot drop rates do differ.
- no need to chat Voodek to get ported. Just target him and say ready. A social button would be /tar Voodek, then
/say ready.

Note that the info I have gathered was as accurate as I could make it at the time I did the various quests and grinds, but be aware that the content was still undergoing some tweaks from the devs and so there could be some discrepancies.

Sheval - gives journal quest Valdeholm Headhunter:
kill: Fergarin, ph is an old guard (in a tunnel leading off from the Fat Lakeskater room)
Animal Tender Bealon, ph is an animal trainer
Kellet, Royal Guard Captain, ph is an old guard (far north of the zone)
Wraithguard Sergeant Thavin, ph is an old guard (in the stables of the Citadel Building)
Gatewatch Urgwit, ph is an old gatekeeper
Gothar, ph is an old captain
reward is Shissilian Ice Belt of the Crypt (Tier 1)

Renegard Kryol - gives journal quest Prepare for Frostcrypt:
deliver: Icy Crystal Shards, dropped by Shade Scrying Crystal
a Hardened Icy Rod, dropped by Master Smith Goil
Zerakts Research Notes, dropped by Royal Cryptguard Zerakt
Silk Spinner Venom, dropped by A Fat Lakeskater
reward: Icy Wand of Beltron (aka the mez stick)

Wraithguard Hunter Grethmar - says he will take tokens and potions and make augs. Also says will combine four of same aug into a better aug.

Field Biologist Seekto - turn in a "Lakeskater web" (item 123443) to him, and get a "Strange Lakeskater Ornament" (item 123444) (illusion: winter spider).
- The ornament is used for the fight with A Fat Lakeskater, as Seekto says that spiders won't use poison on each
other and Lakeskater does a fatal attack that mentions venom. In fact, the fight might not be winnable
without it, as his venom attack
is almost an insta-kill.
- note that the ornament is a temp, which I believe means that you can go to other zones with it but it will
auto disappear if you log out for more than a short amount of time.

Noble Wraithguard Fluum - sends you to the T3, T6 or T9 Frostcrypt zones. He warns that you should have spoken to
Kyrol and have properly prepared. This is a reference to having the Icey Wand of Beltron.
- no need to go thru the chat to get a port. Just target him and say got3 or got6 or got9 for the appropriate
Tier. A social can be made for this, just like for Voodek. /tar Fluum, /say got9.

Bleekin - this is who you hand in boss aug potions and dark tokens to, to get the boss augs.

Armor - I did not see any armor drops in Valdeholm (except for the rare event global armor drops). The three raid
bosses in FC T9 almost always dropped
one armor. I killed a boss or two in T6 but it dropped nothing. I don't know about T3. I believe you can see all the
armor drops by using the search phrase "dark ice" in the Allaclone. Note that the list will have other stuff on it
that are not drops from these bosses.

Augments - Lots of augments to be had here, some of which have a sorta matrix-type organization.
- Every Tier has a set of four augs that are Lore and look like Christmas tree bulbs. They can be seen in the
Allaclone under search phrase "ice ornament". The naming convention is:
T1 - Shissilian
T3 - Ancient
T6 - Vampiric
T9 - Dark
Generally speaking, they drop off all mobs including trash.
- Every Tier has a set of seven augs that are rewarded by a turn-in from Wraithguard Hunter Grethmar. The turn-
in must always consist of a potion plus three tokens. The tokens must always be from the same Tier. The potion
will determine the type of aug and the tokens will determine the Tier. When the npc chat mentions aug quality,
its referring to Tier.
- Tokens can be dropped by any mob, with Names seemingly having a higher drop rate. Each Tier has its own
token, and they are stackable notrade. The naming convention for tokens is the same as for the ice ornaments,
example: Shissilian Token of the Crypt (T1). Not sure if the drop rate
of tokens varies from Tier to Tier.
- Potions have seven different regular types and three(?) boss types and are lore. Potions have no Tier...all
regular types are found in all Tiers and can be on any mob except for bosses. The T9 bosses seem to always
drop one boss potion, and I have not seen anything drop from a T6 boss. I have not killed any T3 bosses so I
don't know about them. Names seemingly have a higher drop rate than trash, and the general drop rate
goes from uncommon in T1 to common in T9. In fact, in T9 the token drop rate cannot keep up with the potion
drop rate. The names of the seven potions will correspond the the aug they make as follows:
Thick - Heavy,
Crystalized - Crystal
Powerful - Powerful
Fierce - Giant
Deadly - Piercing
Celestial - Celestial
Hateful - Hateful.
- upgrading is done by handing in four of the same tier and type of aug. For example, handing in four of the T1
Hateful augs will get you the T3
version. Handing in four of the T3 version will get you the T6 version, etc. The T9 versions are Lore and so have
no upgrade. An aug strategy that can be used is to farm potions in T9 (since that zone has the best potion drop
rate) and then farm T6 tokens. Since the T6 augs are not
Lore and are rather close in stats to the T9 version, a toon can be loaded up with multiple T6 augs.
- The naming convention of the regular augs includes the potion name token name and a name representing the
Tier. Tier names are:
T1 -Fragment
T3 - Shard
T6 - Stone
T9 - Tear
Example: Piercing Ice Stone (T6), Celestial Ice Shard (T3).
- Boss augs are treated differently than the regular turn-in augs. The turn-in is done with Bleekin, not Grethmar.
The tokens can only be the T9 Dark Tokens of the Crypt (T9), and the potions are not called potions. They are A
Dusty Gem, A Dirty Snowball and odd looking Fluid. The augs given are Dark Ice Gem, Dirty Ice Snowball and
Dark Ice Vial respectively.

Dreekin's Quick Escape - there are three of these, one for each Tier of Frostcrypt, and they only work in their Tiers.
They are Group ports that take your toons to Dreekin's room which is at the far side of the zone from the entrance.
They drop from a sparkling ice golem, in the basement. The basement is underneath the maze, and can only be
entered using the portal pad in Dreekin's room. There is no exit either except by porting. The ph of a sparkling ice
golem is a dull ice golem. The sparkling can be seen right away as its a white golem, while all the other golems in
that room are brown. Drop rate is 100%.

Thoren's Key - Does not drop from Lorekeeper Thoren, as you might expect. It drops from Commander Beowulf. It
opens the inner door door to Dreekin's room. Without this key, there is no way to enter this room except by
Dreekin's Quick Escape. Drop rate is 100%. They key works from anywhere, including the bank.

Key of Beltron's Tomb - This is a quested item. Chat with Dreekin and he will put the quest in your journal. The quest
requires handing in 5 key fragments, each of which drops from a specific Named. They are:
spirit of Aethmir - First Key Fragment
spirit of Haridok - Second Key Fragment
spirit of Kalmaer - Third Key Fragment
spirit of Thontik - Fourth Key Fragment
spirit of Thurgant - Fifth Key Fragment
The ph for these Names are an old spirit. These Names always spawn on the same spot, are not rooted, and drop
the fragment 100% of the time. This key opens the way to the boss area...simply click on the statue pedestal that is
at the zone entrance and the pedestal will slide back to reveal a ramped tunnel. The key works from anywhere,
including the bank.

Icy Wand of Beltron - simply put, its clicky is an AoE (area of effect) mez. Its a must for T3. T6 and T9 due to the high
probability of pulling trains. The spell lasts 30 seconds, takes half a second to cast, and has a 15 second recast
delay. The mez can be seen on the mobs if your toon has the group leader ability that allows the buff box of targets
to be seen. Note that all mobs hit by this mez will acquire a small bit of agro to you. If toon FDs right after casting,
most of the mobs will disappear from your hate box right off. The mez stick does not work on Names or Bosses. It
also seems to be subject to the twin casting provided by some AAs or donor gear. This can affect pet classes who
use MQ2, as MQ2 has a setting which does an auto pet back if it sees a mob has been mezzed

General Zone Notes: the trash mobs seem to have an affinity to each while in groups. The more there are around you
in combat range, the higher their damage mitigation and dps. For me, this was especially apparent in T9, which is
why the mez stick was so important.

Possible Strategy - Port into Valdeholm and chat Kryol for the Icy Wand quest. If you want, chat Sheval for the Belt
quest too. Levi or climb down the cliffs to the frozen lake and kill lakeskaters until you get a web. While there, get
a shard. Run to Seekto and hand the web in to get the spider illusion. Port back to the Forest and back into
Valdeholm (its faster than running up the lake ramp). Go to the Fat Lakeskater room. Pop the illusion and kill it. If
you have the Belt quest then continue to the tunnel that leads out of the room and kill Fergarin or his ph.
Then run around and kill the rest of the Names in Valdeholm until you have collected all the items you need for the
two quests. Note that the Names for the Belt have phs, the Names for the mez stick do not. Then go back to the
Valdeholm entrance area and get your mez stick (and perhaps your Belt). Then levi or climb down the cliffs to the
temple on the frozen lake and use porter Fluum to port to your choice of the T3, T6 or T9 version of Frostcrypt. At
the entrance area, you'll see there are three general paths that can be taken...center, left and right. Grind up the
right-side path. That will take you past the key fragment #4 Named (or is his ph) and Commander Beowulf.
Continue grinding northwards until you get to Dreekin's room (using the Thoren's Key) that you looted from
Beowulf. Chat Dreekin and get the journal quest for Beltron's Key. Now port into the basement and kill ice golems
until you kill a sparkling ice golem and loot the Escaper. Use the Escaper to port back to Dreekin's room, and then
alternately to the entrance, Great Hall and West Wing areas to get the key fragments that are there. Then grind
the two key fragment areas that are to the left and right of Dreekin's room for the final two key fragments, and
complete the key quest.

[rmm10]

Ugh, I forgot to post screenshots of some of the quested npcs.

Seems that no matter how careful I am, I always seem to forgot something. And the longer the post, the more that I can later add to it.

[rmm10]

When I made my Vald/Frost post back during the xmas event, I thought there were only three boss augs. But now I see/learn there is a fourth. Its the Dark Ice Enigma, item 123397. You get it by handing in A Strange Device, item 123447, and 3x Dark Token of the Crypt (Tier 9) to Bleekin, who is in Valdeholm at the zone entrance area.

[rmm10]

There has been a recent change to Frostcrypt. Whereas they started out as open persistent instances, they are now Expeditions. Expeditions (use Alt Z) are group oriented instances similar to LDONs and have their own set of rules. I don't recall the manning requirements of Expeditions on Live EQ but for Frostcrypt here on THF, its group.

The bosses seemingly used to use standard respawn timers but had the ability to have that respawn time shortened via an npc that would show up for a short time in the hub room of the boss area. I have forgotten the details of the method but no matter, he does appear anymore due to the zone change. Instead, there are lockout timers that activate for each boss. These timers appear in the Expedition window. In addition, if you are able to invite a toon into your Expedition then a "replay" timer of 1 hour will appear in that window. I say "if" because there are rules pertaining to inviting toons into an already-created Expedition. Unfortunately, I am not yet familiar enough with Expedition rules to know all the rules and the "ins and outs". Perhaps someone else will post some.

Also, I should add a bit of clarity to the abbreviated walkthrough that I wrote. I mentioned killing Commander Beowulf without saying why. Well, he drops Thoren's Key. Thats important, because without the key you can't enter Dreekin's room. And without Dreekin's room you can't get the key quest for the boss area and you can't access the portals that you need for the boss fights.

[rmm10]

As an experiment, I had my group stay in its present Expedition until it timed out (it only had a few minutes left anyways). My group got cleanly zoned to next to Noble Wraithguard Fluum without any crashes. Hitting Alt Z showed I that the lockout timer list had not changed...in this case, I still had 45 mins left to go for Kresgord. I did note that even thought the lockout timers for the other two bosses had already expired, those bosses did not respawn and so I guess we are limited to one kill of each boss per Expedition regardless of lockouts.

During that Expedition time, I had my rogue Quit it in an attempt to join another player's Expedition to see what would happen. The attempt was a failure. My rogue could neither join that player's already-created Expedition, nor join in a new one even when the new Expedition creation was done while in group with that player. I then invited my rogue back into my Expedition and was successful. His Expedition showed a 1 hour "replay" lockout but I don't know what that means. He was able to immediately join the rest of my group and fight.

Normally, I would have waited for the Kresgord lockout to expire before creating a new Expedition but I wanted to experiment. I was able to get a new Expedition for the whole group. It still had the expected Kresgord timer but it also had a 1 hour replay timer. Inside the new Frostcrypt, Odeen and Huldan were spawned but Kresgord was not...which makes sense.

[peterigz]

The replay timer is just a lockout for when you can create another expedition - to prevent any constant recreating instances which would allow for repopping of mobs without lockout timers.

If you create a new instance but still have a lockout on some NPCs, they will still respawn when that timer is up. This wasn't actually the default behaviour in eqemu, they just wouldn't respawn at all until you create a new instance, i thought it would be better if they did so I changed it.

[rmm10]

As I write this post, I am in a new Expedition (as mentioned in my previous post of a few minutes ago) and even though the Kresgord timer has expired, he has not respawned. However, I do still have a Replay timer so I am waiting for it too to expire and see what happens.

Note, in my attachment, the empty spot where Kresgord should be. 8-)

[rmm10]

When the Replay timer expired, Kresgord did not respawn. So I logged my toons out of the zone and logged back in and still no Kresgord. Next, I had all my toons Quit that Expedition and made a new one and then all three bosses spawned.

[peterigz]

ahh interesting ok thanks for the test. I'll have to look at the code again as I'm sure I changed this and had it working...

[soandsoEQ]

I would like to thank rmm10 for posting this very helpful guide.

Thank you sir.