This is actually not that hard of a quest, except when Arko'narin finally gets her gear. Once you get to the big room where her gear is located, she gets excited and runs right to it. She will likely pull two mobs. If you can get in front of her before she says "There it is!", you can pull the big blue demon standing against the right wall. He will come by himself and Arko'narin will help you fight. After you put that guy down, let Arko'narin run to her gear. She will likely pull aggro on another mob, and you want that to happen. This puts her into combat and keeps her from changing into her gear too soon. Take the mob down and then heal up immediately if you need it. It's important to be at full strength very soon.

As soon as Arko'narin has her gear on, three blue demons walk into the room. She will charge them without hesitation. This is not as bad as it sounds, as she now has boosted armor and an enchanted sword. She also likes to use Mortal Strikes. Still, it's best to focus on whichever one she is attacking. You might also want to pull aggro on one, because she can't handle all three on her own. If you get aggro on all three, expect to spend some time in the air. The demons have a nasty pop-up attack and it can hit while you are in the air. They juggled my shaman for a few seconds. This limits you to instant cast spells and attacks.

The good news is that if you had to kill everything on the way in with her, the respawn is such that you will pretty much just walk out after the three demon fight. You might have to take down three or four mobs near the entrance, but that's all. Once you are outside, you might also have to take out the two guards on either side of the door. After a few seconds outside, Arko'narin will be charged by a level 55 elite, the Spirit of Trey Lightforge. Despite his level, he is not too difficult. The Spirit has an attack that reduces your Shadow resistance by 100, and of course it uses shadow attacks. That's why you don't want to start tanking right away. It's best to throttle your DPS and let Arko'narin tank a bit early on. When you see her life start to drop in the 50% range, open up and pull aggro onto yourself. If you have healing abilities, you can start even earlier.

My 55 shaman soloed this with no problem. Healing makes a big difference, however.

This quest follows from A Strange Red Key. It also can be shared. First, make sure everyone talks to Arko'narin in the cage once to complete the A Strange Red Key quest. (They'll need the blood red key that drops off the various mobs in the Jaednar camp to start that quest.)

Once everyone completes, then have someone talk to her again and accept this quest. Everyone eligble for the quest should get a pop-up window announcing that someone has started the quest and inviting you to participate. (Probably best to be safe and have everyone stand near the cage in case there is a proximity limit on the auto-share.)

Once she's free, Arko'narin will wander downstairs. She'll aggro several mobs along the way, but typically no more than 2, although sometimes it will be a warlock mob with a pet imp. You'll hit mostly level 53s, but some 54s and the occasional 55. She'll fight with you, but she's pretty weak when she doesn't have her armor on.

Once she gets all the way downstairs, she'll put her armor and sword on. In so doing, she'll pull three Level 55 melee mobs (the big tall blue demon things) plus any of the 53-54 casters that you didn't kill on the way in. She'll be more effective with her sword, but soloing this part would probably be tough. (I went in with two Level 57s, a 55, and a 49 we got through with barely a scratch.)

After that, Arko'narin heads back up to where she came. Some of the mobs will have respawned, but it won't be anything new. She'll reach the room with her cage and then take a ramp up to the exit. You'll need to kill the two guards that flank the doorway (they will certainly have respawned). She'll then walk a few paces out into the open and do a little dance for freedom.

To the east (the camp entrance), you'll see some blurred movement that's the Shade of Trey. He's a Level 53 elite. He's mainly melee, but he gives off an aura that dissolves your shadow resistance. That's only a problem if you left a shadow caster alive. Otherwise, he'll go down relatively quickly.

Afterwards, Arko'narin freaks out and runs. Quest will complete and you turn in at Emerald Sanctuary.

Edited, Fri Mar 4 04:32:41 2005

Starts from Blood Red Key https://classicdb.ch/?quest=5202

Jessir is at 51,82

Can be done concurrently with Dousing the Flames of Protection (https://classicdb.ch/?quest=5165).

Its really not that hard. SHE CAN TAKE HITS
kinda solo'd as a 55 mage.
its alot smoother if u clear the mobs between where she gets her "equipment", and her cage before you accept the quest. but basically if she:
pulls 2 ppl at once you: let her tank 1 and kill the other, then help her finish killing hers.

pulls 3 at once you: let her tank 1, sheep 1, kill 1, help her finish killing hers.

she ALWAYS reaches FULL HP by the time she walks to the next mob so dont worry about her getting too low hp. and if theres only 1 mob, take the time to eat and drink while she tanks it, then when ur full hp/mp help her. If ur already in combat, and ur low hp/mp use bandages or evoc while she takes the hits, better than you trying to save her and dying.
VERY IMPORTANT: Before she reaches her equipment ( the small tent area before the water) make sure u kill the mobs that you see when u first enter the room. You will have to pull them urself. because after she gets her "equipment" 3 of those lvl 55 guys spawn near that first camp and you'll have to fight them as adds. in that case, ur fuked.
its good grinding for a lvl 55 character to solo if u can. but if ur not fast enough to handle 3 at a time then bring a friend, it does make it alot easier. however,when i was escorting her back to the room with her cage in it.. the quest glitched out on me... and the NPC disapeared.. can u say WTF? by this time i had done it 3 times over and really didn't feel like doing it again... but aparently people have finished this quest so maybe it was some wierd glitch gg. GL HF

The level rating of this quest is a complete joke. I tried to solo it at level 59 as a warlock and found it taxing to say the least. Clearing the mobs as you go through Shadow Hold is not too much of a problem, and there seem to be two occasions where 3 scripted Jaedenar demon types pounce you. As a warlock this isn't too much of a pain since I could banish one, and kill the other two before the third one popped, or rebanish it if it popped early.

What is a problem is that the NPC you escort has such a high aggro range (level 48) that you have to kill just about everything on the way, which put a heavy load on my mana. I had to bandage and life tap about 6 or 7 times throughout the quest, my soulstone and demon armour ran out half way through which meant spending mana refreshing demon armour, and I didn't have time or mana to create another soulstone.

To top it all off, when I got out of the place and the elite spawned, i had about half health and mana, he insisted on attacking me and not my voidwalker. The level 48 NPC pulled 3 non-elite adds from the area as we fought.&nbsp I sacrificed the void for a shield and resummoned him TWICE. And the bugger still killed me.

What a complete waste of time. Surely with an elite mob at the end it should be classified "55+ (Elite)"? Take a group or reroll a warrior is my advice.