The Mechanics of VoN

[Kasiddy]

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.

In response to quite a few comments in another thread, I thought this needed to be addressed:

The mechanics and story of VoN
A dragon has barricaded itself inside the Kundarak Vault. It is your job to remove said dragon. That's it. That's all there is to it.

The get inside the vault, you need to enlist the aid of some infiltration specialists, namely the Laughing Knives. However, four of them have some "issues" that need resolving before they can band together again, so you do the four flagging quests to resolve those issues.
Von 1 - Dirge needs a shiny axe.
Von 2 - Orphne has some mental issues.
Von 3 - Vale is being hunted by a Marut.
Von 4 - Haywire has locked himself in his foundry.

Now that the laughing knives are together again, they can do initial infiltration and get you and your party inside. But before you can remove the dragon, you need to restore power to the Vault.

Von 5 - Essentially, turn the power back on then defeat the traitor and his golem guarding the gateway to the Vault. Get past the Aurum who are helping the dragon and the unfortunate Vault workers they have turned into undead, along with the subverted maintenance drones.

1) The vault is maintained by several bound guardian spirits - one in the north, one west, and one east. They work off voice recognition. To talk to and command these spirits, you need to get Haywire's voice at the beginning of the quest.

2) Begin the process of restoring power by repairing the distribution grid (the floor tile puzzle) in the east area.

3) To restore power to the spirit guardians, you will need to reset some wheels that are behind protected barriers, and to do this you need a magic signet ring. That ring is being worn by the unfortunate Otto Knucklebones. You need to put Otto out of his misery and take the ring in the west area.

4) (The party often splits to do 2) and 3) - I think this is the major cause of confusion.) Now regroup the party for the trip north. The path north to the wheels that power the guardians is heavily trapped, and the party needs to split again to get past the two doors at the end of the trapped hallway. Once passed, the left-side party will need to reset the wheels. The person carrying the signet ring must do this as the wheels are behind magic barriers that can be bypassed only by the ring. Now the guardians can begin resetting the vaults processes.

5) The person with Haywire's voice speaks to the North guardian (this is often the same person carrying the ring, but it doesn't have to be). Two breaker levers are reset, and power in the North is restored.

6) The person with Haywire's voice speaks to the East guardian, and power in the Eastern area is restored. The production of maintainence golems is also stopped at this time.

7) The person with Haywire's voice speaks to the West guardian, and power in the Western area is restored.

8) While one person is accomplishing 6) and 7), the rest of the party is hunting down the key to the southern door. (Another major source of confusion, I think.) It happens to be encased in an adamantine capsule (a "coffer") in the western area. The party retrieves this and...

9) Drops the coffer into the disposal shaft in the eastern area where...

10) It is destroyed by a huge rust monster who fortunately cannot digest the master crystal key. The party goes to the very bottom of the vault's eastern area to retrieve the key.

11) Once the master key is in hand, the party regroups in the center to head south and confront the traitorous Arach d'Kundrak.

12) However, the direct path to Arach has been blocked, so the party must send some people ahead using air jets so they can disable traps, lower a bridge, and lower some ladders so the rest of the party can proceed.

13) Finally, disable Arach's Knight, confront Arach, force open the gate.

Von 6 - Remove a dragon from the Vault.

1) To remove the dragon from the Vault, you must first remove the barrier protecting the dragon. To do this, you must destroy the three pillars powering the barrier at the same time. Once the pillars have been destroyed, you go to the center and...

2) Remove the dragon.



Yes, it does take some time to get to know.
But I think this is one of the best-designed raids in the game.

[Holybird]

Kasiddy this is amazing guide. Keep up the good work. Very nice and simply explained details. Any chance you could do same to all raids? ( maybe Twilight Forge and Titan next)

[Enoach]

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.


3) To restore power to the spirit guardians, you will need to reset some wheels that are behind protected barriers, and to do this you need a magic signet ring. That ring is being worn by the unfortunate Otto Knucklebones. You need to put Otto out of his misery and take the ring in the west area.

4) (The party often splits to do 2) and 3) - I think this is the major cause of confusion.) Now regroup the party for the trip north. The path north to the wheels that power the guardians is heavily trapped, and the party needs to split again to get past the two doors at the end of the trapped hallway. Once passed, the left-side party will need to reset the wheels. The person carrying the signet ring must do this as the wheels are behind magic barriers that can be bypassed only by the ring. Now the guardians can begin resetting the vaults processes.

.....


Yes, it does take some time to get to know.
But I think this is one of the best-designed raids in the game.

Just an additional Spoiler on the Wheels...

Under each Speaking stone the person needs to talk to is a Colored Symbol that corresponds with one of the Wheels. If you ever approach one of these speaking stone you actually get DM text indicating this information. While this is static and most people just learn "Turn Wheels 4 times" it is good to know this information just in case you are ever on a run where someone "helps" or does not know. It is actually amazing how many people with 100s of runs under their belt are not aware that this information is actually in the quest. How do they think we figured it out beats me

[Uska]

thanks last time I did it nobody wanted to carry the ring and voice so I ended up doing it without really knowing what I was doing.

[RoguemcStabby]

I am always surprised at how few people step up / volunteer to learn the various "roles" in this raid. I wanted to "know it" so I always volunteered to follow people doing the various roles until I understood how things played out. It didn't take many runs to do this.


This is a good breakdown of how the raid "works".

[Faltout]

Just an additional Spoiler on the Wheels...

Under each Speaking stone the person needs to talk to is a Colored Symbol that corresponds with one of the Wheels. If you ever approach one of these speaking stone you actually get DM text indicating this information. While this is static and most people just learn "Turn Wheels 4 times" it is good to know this information just in case you are ever on a run where someone "helps" or does not know. It is actually amazing how many people with 100s of runs under their belt are not aware that this information is actually in the quest. How do they think we figured it out beats me

THANK YOU!

Actually, the reason I dislike this raid (VoN 5) is not because of its design, mechanics, etc. It's because of the way it's being ran. Whoever leads this raid will make sure that new people learn as slow as possible. I usually try to figure out quests on my own and when I am stuck, I consult the wiki. First, when trying to check out VoN 5 on my own, I found out pretty fast that without picking of locks and 6 people, you can't get far. So only thing I learned was about some initial traps and the undead guys (and talked to all the NPCs to see what they're offering). So the only way to find out what's the quest all about is by joining a group. After many many runs I had finally figured out most of the stuff in there because groups were not always perfect, so the leader would pause the mindless running and ask "Has anyone done that? We need it to do X". But the 2 things I was never able to figure out were "Why do you turn the wheels and how do you know where to turn them?" and "What was the adamantine-bound coffer?". Reason must have been that I never talked to the spirits or seen anyone doing it because I wasn't qualified to hold the voice and the person doing it would always go alone.

How do they think we figured it out beats me

By watching others do it. That's enough puzzle for most people.

[nibel]

Just an additional Spoiler on the Wheels...

Under each Speaking stone the person needs to talk to is a Colored Symbol that corresponds with one of the Wheels. If you ever approach one of these speaking stone you actually get DM text indicating this information. While this is static and most people just learn "Turn Wheels 4 times" it is good to know this information just in case you are ever on a run where someone "helps" or does not know. It is actually amazing how many people with 100s of runs under their belt are not aware that this information is actually in the quest. How do they think we figured it out beats me

EVERY quest with those wheels have a plaque somewhere else in the quest with this info. People just need to look around. Scoundrel's Run, The Pit, Under the Big Top, Crucible, etc...

[Thalone]

EVERY quest with those wheels have a plaque somewhere else in the quest with this info. People just need to look around. Scoundrel's Run, The Pit, Under the Big Top, Crucible, etc...

If quest bosses were real people, they'd be the type of people to hide their passwords under their keyboards.

[Mindos]

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.

Yes, it does take some time to get to know.
But I think this is one of the best-designed raids in the game.

But WHY is the dragon in there? What is the doom she reads in the prophecy of the shards?
What's the real story, man?

[nibel]

But WHY is the dragon in there? What is the doom she reads in the prophecy of the shards?
What's the real story, man?

Next time you run von 6, run through the first bridge, so she start flying and shooting fireballs. Now stop and listen to her rant.

Now, it is worthy saying as well that until you enter von 6, you DO NOT know that she is a dragon. Everyone refer to her as a "red-haired elf sorcerer", and you can even actually see her and Arach in the bogwater tavern, in a distant table, discussing stuff about the vault.

[Mindos]

Next time you run von 6, run through the first bridge, so she start flying and shooting fireballs. Now stop and listen to her rant.

Now, it is worthy saying as well that until you enter von 6, you DO NOT know that she is a dragon. Everyone refer to her as a "red-haired elf sorcerer", and you can even actually see her and Arach in the bogwater tavern, in a distant table, discussing stuff about the vault.

ddowiki.com mentions that she's in the Chronoscope somewhere too. I'm just curious whats going on? And does it tie into the Stormreaver and the truthfull one somehow?

[Chi_Ryu]

Excellent stuff. Whilst it is run 1,000,000 times a day now for XP, it remain my favourite quest pack and raid for story of them all.

A couple of extra things to add:

1) The "Laughing Knives" broke up because they tried to break into the Vault before and failed (they were commissioned by Barrow d'Kundarak to try and break in to test the security). This is the second attempt, this time with some help!

2) Haywire's Voice is a device (created by Haywire, of course) that allows the holder to imitate the voice of Otto Knucklebones - the Bank's chief administrator who has been captured and forced into some weird and nasty looking enchanted armor:

Haywire tells you, '"I've cobbled together a little gadget I call 'Haywire's Voice.'

It'll make you sound just like the Vault's chief administrator, old Otto Knucklebones. That'll fool the Speaking Stones into following your orders.

Mark my words, you'll need their help in order to set things right!"'

I'd love to know more about some of the NPCs involved - e.g. Malachi the Breaker and Otto Knucklebones. Still, at least we leave Barrow suitably impressed (you can see him speaking with Cydonie in Partycrashers - everyone of note is there, almost!)!

Barrow d'Kundarak: So you fought through undead... and the Aurum... and then a Red Dragon?!? And you found that traitorous Arach d'Kundarak to boot?!?
Barrow d'Kundarak: Who would have thought all of them would conspire together to breach the Vault of Night...
Barrow d'Kundarak: But it looks like even their combined forces were no match for your prowess. Your services are well worth this reward, K.

ddowiki.com mentions that she's in the Chronoscope somewhere too.

Yes, right at the end where you pick up the chests, up on the observation platform. Look round the back behind the chests and you will find Cydonie and Velah talking.

Velah is trying to search for a highly important piece of the Stormreaver prophecy and is looking for certain dragonshards that will do this (though really she should come have a chat, as I've got bags overflowing of the stuff).

Since she is trying to stop the return of Dal Quor, it turns out we are actually the bad guys here. We kill Velah before finding out what she knows, and Cydonie is so concerned about it all, she seeks out the ancient Ruins of Gianthold...

As an aside, the Stormreaver Prophecy is probably THE most prevalent storyline in the game, and I wish they'd make more things like it. If you care about finding out about it, play in the order of Chronoscope -> Tempest's Spine -> detour to The Bogwater Tavern to see a red-haried elf chatting up an important looking dwarf) -> Vault of Night ->.Ruins of Gianthold (and The Reaver's Fate) -> Stealer of Souls -> Fall of Truth. There's a quite nice article with all the references here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=163138109

[nibel]

Actually, the story starts on Waterworks, that at the end makes reference to the Seal of Shan-To-Kor, and of course, STK itself.

Velah is trying to search for a highly important piece of the Stormreaver prophecy and is looking for certain dragonshards that will do this (though really she should come have a chat, as I've got bags overflowing of the stuff).

She is looking for specific dragonshards. And whole dragonshards, not just mere fragments.

The Draconic Prophecy is a complex set of triggers that keep changing every time someone try to manipulate it. Eg, maybe one line of the prophecy says "a mighty hero from the fallen kingdom will break his celestial sword and free the lord of fear" means that the lords of dust need that "mighty hero" to exist in the first place. So, they will "help" a soldier from Cyre to find a sword of a fallen celestial and wield it to become a greater hero, just to manipulate him at the end to release Rak Tulkhesh.

And if someone in the meantime find a way to purge the gray mist and restore Cyre? Then it is no longer a fallen kingdom, so they also keep a parallel force to prevent anyone from clearing the Mournlands.