Quest Chain: The Catacombs
The Catacombs Chain
The Catacombs quest series in general viewed as one of the longest and most annoying quest series in the mid-levels of the game. And for good reason, it consists of eight different mini-quests and an abundance of strict requirements for progression. The rewards for the quest are unique items similar in quality to that of Shan Ta Kor, but also different with a few items that are extremely nice for certain classes and situations.
This walkthrough is to help those of us that want to break something while completing this quest. Finishing this quest series in one sitting will require around 3-4 hours for a low level group that has never done it before, and 1-3 hours for a higher level group that has experience with this series. For example, if you are extremely familiar with The Friar's Niece quest and its zone, you can complete it in less than 1 minute (tested and confirmed - no exploit).
You get the first quest in the series from the Friar outside the Catacombs zone. He will give you "The Friar's Niece" quest. You must first understand how the Catacombs is layed out. It's a big spiral shaft that starts you almost at the top. As you decend to each level, there is a zone to an instance that will be used in the series, and for those of you that haven't done this quest before, you may be surprised as to the depth the catacombs reach to. There are no monsters in the Catacombs instance itself.
At the very top of the Catacombs is an instance that holds the Archbishop who you will often visit between quests.
Before starting a serious run into this series I would recommend a few items that will prove to be incredibly useful. Acquire Muckbane (a club that does bane damage against oozes - also doesn't get worn down from hitting oozes) because there are a very large amount of oozes throughout the series; you do not want your precious weapons breaking on each step of the quest. Also, if you have any weapon that has undead bane on it, consider yourself a god because every zone is almost exclusively undead. Unless you have an undead bane ranged item, you should stick to your blunt weapons due to incredible amount of skeletons.
Clerics that turn undead will find themselves without enough turn undeads for the huge amount that will be encountered.
Between each quest, if it requires you to talk to the Archbishop, you must do so. All members in the party must talk to him before continuing on to the next part or some members may be stuck at a certain point while the rest of the group is continuing normally. Repeating these quests due to a lazy member is almost intolerable. Also take note that after completing a quest by talking to the Archbishop, he is also the person to give you the next quest in the series; take special care to talk to him again after completing the previous quest in order to MAKE SURE you have the next quest.
As a side note, there seem to be plenty of chests throughout the quests, but they are not holding high quality items. It is nice in that from the amount of fighting you will go through, your weapons will wear down and will need repairing (almost after each quest) and it can become costly. Expect to exit the catacombs to heal, repair, and sell after each quest.
