PoP A Stitch In Time Part I: Security Measures

This is part of the Planes of Prophecy tradeskill signature line "A Stitch in Time" that releases to live servers on February 13, 2018.

Ingredients Needed

*Use the lower amount of coal and storm stalks if you like spending extra time waiting for mob pathing and being riskier and use the higher if you'd like to go stun crazy instead! I also recommend bringing 1 progress potion, if you have them to spare. (I don't bother with a potion for the EMD combine, as it is only a single combine, but later in the quest you need to do 3 combines at the same time, so it is worth it for saving time.)

The Story - Cliff Notes

There's a lovely bit of story lore going on through this timeline, and if you rush through, you're going to miss a lot of great stuff. For those who do so, here's my own abbreviated version of what's going on.

Adventurers sort of kind of had to blow up the portal to Time to keep the tenets of Hate from getting their grubby hands on Time. However, it seems that Meldrath the Malignant had built his own portal to Time inside the Plane of Innovation, and it was damaged by the blast. Not good. Worse, some (unspecified) god is blocking Druzzil Ro and the others from going into Innovation and fixing it themselves. Ergo, they need a skilled and resourceful crafter to go get the plans for the portal from Innovation and (eventually) repair it, once the gods figure out how it works.

The Walk-Through

If you are a level 100+ crafter who owns the Planes of Prophecy expansion and also a level 10+ adventurer, Druzzil Ro should send you mail stating that she needs help. There is no quest starter in the mail, so regardless of mail status, you can just head to Valor's Roost port pad in the Plane of Magic to meet Druzzil Ro. She is at /way -765, 344, 1093. Converse with her, accept the quest, and head into the Coliseum of Valor through the portal near her.

Upon entering Valor, hang a left and go counter-clockwise to the next portal nook (/way -94, 3, 164.)

Once inside the zone, hang a left to talk to Meldrath the Marvelous. (Note that any standing/walking clockworks in the zone will be aggro and any flying/floating copter-types will be non-aggro -- watch your pathing accordingly!) He will give you a recipe to make the Electric Manaetic Device (EMD), which will autoscribe into your recipe book.

What is an EMD? It is the gnomish version of a short-range EMP (electromagnetic pulse). It takes a few moments to activate once placed, so if you already have aggro when trying to place one, it isn't going to work so well. The range on them is either 10m or 14m (I have conflicting reports), and they DO work through doors and walls. If you mis-place one too far away and are feeling very much like a lemming, you can try to kite the epic into the range of the EMD. You may still die, but you can disable the epic if you're lucky. Generally, you'll only want to waste EMD's on mobs you simply cannot avoid due to short hallways (in at least one spot), but if you've made extra, you might want to clear more roamers. Regardless, again note that you NEED 5 for the last room, period, so plan that into your stockpile.

You will need to harvest 10 coiled spring, 10 length of conductive wire, 10 power nodes for each batch of 10 EMDs. They can be tracked with track harvest, they spawn all along the way to the innovative workstation needed to craft them, and you can harvest each node twice. You will also need 10 storm stalks and 50 celestial coal. If you hate waiting on pathing, you might want to double all the items listed in this paragraph and do 2 combines, for a total of 20 EMDs.

Make your way to /way -114, 6, -156 and be careful going through doors on your way there so you don't run straight into an epic. You WILL need to dodge two epics along the way, but a moment or two watching pathing should let you figure out how to get past them.

Craft the 10 (or 20 if you feel the need) EMDs, then make your way to Meldrath the Marvelous, who is now at /way 23, 21, -285. You may want to use an EMD on the way to him, for a pathing guard in front of a doorway, instead of trying to wait for him to move just so, and trying to squeeze past him. The epic that is through the door behind him is easily avoidable, and I tend to follow him to the ramp, zip to one side, wait for him to path back down the ramp, then scamper the last few feet to Meldrath.

After you speak to him, the door behind him unlocks and lets you into the back half of the instance. Go through, go down the ramp and stop dead.

This is now a possible revive point for you, should you need it. It is also certain death to run either West or East from this point without flipping the proper switch on the wall in front of you. Yes, it gives you warnings in your chat tab, and yes, some folks have already ignored that text and gotten steamed to death. :D) Pick either East or West and flip the corresponding switch. The below text snipped shows you on the first chunk the warning when you are at this point, the second bit shows the message as soon as the switch is flipped, the third bit shows the text that really does mean to hurry to the end of that corridor before things reset.

Whichever direction you take, you need to make your way to the very back of the area, and Meldrath in the control room at /way 30, 3, -363. Protip, if you take the East route, when you turn north the alcoves to your left will often have stationary bots, so you want to hug right, if you take the West route, the stationary bots will often be in alcoves to your right, so you will want to hug left. Either way, you will have to deal with 1 or more epic along the way, so be careful when you come to doorways and turns.

Meldrath will want you to repair the Hackbot 3000 so you can obtain the often-changing security code to get into the room that contains the time portal and his brother's plans. (I hope he didn't startle you with the loud DING from getting a chunk of tradeskill xp for finishing the first half of the quest. The TS quests for this are nice about giving you a boost mid-way, to let you feel you've made progress.) This step will require collecting three items from the dungeon, and I recommend obtaining them in the order listed below, due to the crafting anvil being near the gears.

The anvil that you will use for the combines is at /way 161, 3, -421. In addition to the above three items, you will need a total of 100 golden ember, 100 gnarled entwood, 100 etherium, 100 plumewit hide, 100 gnarled entwood, 50 celestial coal, 25 celestial filament. This is also a good time to use a progress potion, since these three combines are very long. You do NOT need to stun the epic that paths near the anvil unless he is getting on your nerves. Stand on the opposite side of the anvil and make faces at him all you want while you craft.

Return to the control room, and the Hackbot 3000 (/way 18, 3, -565) and right-click to install your three crafted components. Then scribe the Hackbot 3000 scroll that you are awarded, and summon him. (You will need to resummon him every time that you die before you get all the codes from the next step.)

Do you remember seeing some sitting bots that you couldn't target as you were running through the halls? Mum's got you covered so you don't have to remember where all six were. These numbers change from instance to instance. I have the arabic numbers in parenthesis in the below list for those who have issues mentally translating.

***If you are worried about running out of EMDs, note that you can use crates to parkour your way up to binary control bot #II

Get all 6 codes, and return to the control room one last time. If you've forgotten which were True, you can check them by right-clicking the hackbot. There are three consoles to either side of the door, with wheels that now should allow you to right-click them. Examining will show you the following, from left to right: 32, 16, 8, (then the door) 4, 2, 1. Turn ONLY the ones that were "True" for you and leave the rest alone. (If you turned some you shoudn't, there's a visual cue to help you sort out your mess: red zappies on the conduit above a wheel = on = something you set to true.)

Once you have the proper combination on/off, there will be a message in your chat channel about a door opening in the distance. It isn't much of a distance, really. Walk out the door, down the ramp, and walk straight into the big room that you had been locked out of. Don't walk into the red force field, but instead, go to each pillar and you will see a gold sparkle spot on the ground. Place an EMD near each of those five spots, step back and watch the light show. A chat message shows up for each pillar disabled. Once all five are down and the force field drops, walk up to that pretty time portal at the back of the room, and there's a "Meldrath's Malignant Contraption Schematics" scroll to collect at /way 20, -5, -377. A portal now appears in this room so you can shortcut back to Valor.

Speak to Druzzil Ro in the center of Valor (you can also chat with the one out in Plane of Magic, but since the next step is here in Valor, why bother?) She will then send you to speak with Varig Ro about the plans, and what is needed from there.

Who?

Yep, the Ro family of dieties has a crafter in the family, though we've not heard much of him before this. He doesn't normally deal directly with Norrathians. He wanders around the rim of the Coliseum of Valor, so run around and look for the BIG fella with balls of flame pathing with him, somewhere in the zone. Speak with him to give him the plans, and he will give you the next quest in the series.

Rewards

In addition to the crafting xp, status and coin for completing this quest, you get to keep the fluff pet, Hackbot 3000, in your knowledge book. Don't worry, parts 3 onwards have more rewards, you just get off to a quieter start. :D

Where Next?

Once you complete this quest, you may immediately begin on A Stitch In Time Part 2: Lightning Strikes

Video?

I now have a better audio video walk-through (link updated on the evening of Feb. 21 to point to the improved audio version)

Created: 2018-02-12 02:11:25          
Last Modified By: Niami Denmother          
Last Modified on: 2018-02-22 12:20:17          


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