Iona - Heart of the Desert, Ruins of Mist, and Ruby's Lair

NOTE: This is an older area report and the information may no longer be 100% accurate.

AREA: Iona-Heart of the Desert, Ruins of Mist, and Ruby's Lair

DIRECTIONS: Town Portals to Dusk, SW on the dusk map is a transition that isn't marked and leads to Dusk Lower Planes West, Head West to Dusk Lower Desert, then North into Iona.

TESTED WITH: Logan Lvl 40+ Fighter/COT/WM / Sterling Lvl 40+ Wizard/PM/DD / and Friend (thx Tib)

WHAT WORKS WELL: All encounters in these areas seem to have immunities to fire and electric so Horrids/Ice/IGMMs would be my choice.

LOCKS: You will need a maximum of DC 55.

Desert:


 * Iona Scorpio Mage (CR 60): Cast Ice and Elemental shield. They will also buff themselves a bit more while you are fighting the Warriors.
 * Iona Scorpio Warrior (CR 49): Do Bludgeoning damage, are immune to crits, can hit 70AC about 25% of the time, and have some physical damage resistances.

You will quickly meet the Iona Sand Master (CR 79): Who drops a KEY to the BRONZE CHEST. Work your way to the NW corner and you will find the BRONZE CHEST guarded by another Sand Master. Inside the chest is the KEY TO MIST.


 * This place is full of keys and chests as well as a good deal of backtracking, it is also a very long quest if you do it in it's entirety.

Ruins of Mist: Can be found in the center of the Heart of the Desert map. Once you enter a door inside will require the key that you found earlier.


 * Misty Assassins (CR 75): These guys sneak, called shot, and do slashing/acid damage.
 * Misty Evoker (CR 92): Casters that cast "grapple", IGMMs, Mords, Firebrands, Fireballs.

The Evokers will cast Mords right off the bat so don't bother buffing unless its an epic spell or you plan on being out of range. The assassins can do a bit of damage if you let them, hit em hard with Horrids/Ice, then clean up with IGMMs. If you need to, lvl 9 grapple works as well.

Work your way to the NE corner of the map and you will find Mist (CR 211). Mist has a Quivering Palm attack, I believe at least 2x, he heals, and does bludgeoning damage. You can also grab him if you want to pick him off from a distance. He drops: MISTY HALBERD: 2d6 Acid, +4 Enh, 1d10 Crits and a MISTY SICKLE: +4 Enh, 2d6 Acid, 1d6 Crits, and EBD. Most importantly he drops a KEY.

You might have noticed a dead end room in the East/Middle part of the map that has a chest in it. This is where Mist's key goes to. So back track it, all the way there to open it.

When you open it you will find another key, SERPENT'S LAIR KEY. Now if you look at your map directly West of this chest, you will see a door that was locked and opens South. This is the way to Ruby's Lair so once again backtrack to that point.


 * Sidenote ** You are able to port into this area

Ruby's Lair:


 * Ruby's Serpents (CR 76): Do bludge/fire damage, have a high AB, around 70.
 * Ruby Spellcaster (CR 78): More Mords, firebrands, and Bigbys. Same offensive spells apply.

Work your way to the NE corner and you will meet the bosses.


 * Ruby Fireheart (CR 191): Does slashing/fire damage, also has a pretty high AB, heals, has some physical resistances, is susceptible to lvl 9 grapple.
 * Ruby Empress (CR 379): Casts some firebrands and IGMMS at us, heals, and IGMMS took care of her.

LOOT: RUBY CROWN: 20 Bludge resist, Fire Save +2, +3 regen, RING OF RUBY EMPRESS: +4 AC, Imm death/lvl ability drain, +5 tumble, AMMY of RUBY EMPRESS: +5 CON, +3 soak 10.

Most importantly once again is a key drop, KEY TO GOLDEN CHEST which is on the Golden Path of all places. The portal by the Ruby Empress ports you back to the desert which was a good pausing point for us....

Trist Aventian Knight