Towering Despair

Since I won a free immortal corpse retrieval scroll from the Deck of Many Things I've been thinking of places where I can use this insurance policy to take on risks I wouldn't otherwise. This means adventuring to the rare risky places where you can't supplicate a corpse. All up from memory I have managed to have characters die in three of these types of rooms:

1. Blackmote's room in the Tower of Despair
2. Albino Goblins in the Desert of Despair
3. Jade in Seth's Fortress

Each of these deaths have led to differing degrees of difficulty in corpse retrievals. In some cases it involved killing the mob with alts, using grouped characters to loot the corpse or asking for an immortal to help out with the high price included. Of these three areas the one I am most curious about finding out more on is the Tower of Despair...

This area changed a lot since the old days of before the shattering. Following this event a lot of the mobs and equipment from the area was boosted. In the past Orcus was the most powerful mob in the area but since events after the shattering he has disappeared and since then many rumours have arisen. The area starts off with Tyrax the forsaken. He has several keywords that he responds to with some more information on the storyline of the area. I know he responds to the words Blackmote, Orcus, Hastur and Covenant. I know there are more words but can't remember them all.

>Before the Tower of Despair
A black, windowless spire rises up out of the ground, seemingly torn from the bowels of the earth herself.  The top of the tower is lost from view as it rises up into a thick grey mist.  A furious flapping of wings and an abrupt scream can be heard from far overhead.  The hunter and the hunted.
Exits: north south
Tyrax the Forsaken stands vigil against the evil of this tower.
Tyrax is shrouded in flowing shadow and light.

>say blackmote
You say 'blackmote'

Tyrax says 'Poor fool Blackmote.  He does not comprehend that his Master, whether alive or dead, is gone.  Still he guards the Tower, maintaining the prison and keeping the experiments contained.'

>say orcus
You say 'orcus'

Tyrax snarls angrily.
Tyrax says 'If it were not for that foul beast, I would still...
Tyrax glowers with hate brimming in his eyes.
Tyrax says 'This anger cost me much before.  I will learn patience.

>say hastur
You say 'hastur'

Tyrax closes his eyes.

Tyrax says 'Speak not the name of Orcus' lackey.  Twas he that slew my companions.  Twas he who forced my choice and ruined my life. Forsaken by my own pride to guard this spot for eternity.  Speak no more of this to me.  I wish not the memory.
Tyrax' eyes open and fix again on the Tower.

>say blackmote
You say 'blackmote'

Tyrax says 'Poor fool Blackmote.  He does not comprehend that his Master, whether alive or dead, is gone.  Still he guards the Tower, maintaining the prison and keeping the experiments contained.'

>say covenant
You say 'covenant'

Tyrax shakes its head.
Tyrax says 'Nay, no legend I know of speaks of a Covenant.  Though some travellers ages back spoke of a beast named the Covenant Hebredite. It was a beast that ravaged all of Darkhaven, they say.'
Tyrax shrugs helplessly.

Tyrax says 'Some said it had something to do with the Shattering, but I can not say for certain that is true.'

Beyond Tyrax the first part of the area has some nice mobs for when trying to get through the later part of levelling. Past here though comes Blackmote:

Twisted and warped, the essence of Blackmore has expanded beyond his corporeal form. A black mass encompassed by swirling fire, he blocks passage beyond the Stone Arch.

In the old days he used to have a crossbow that would shoot you for 100 hit points of damage from several rooms away if you forgot to recast invisible after fighting the nearby mobs. These days however he hits harder and has some real nasty features - an ip1 limit (never forget to check this before entering his room), is tunnelled to three characters, plenty of gouge attacks and most frightening of all he is in a no supplicate room. I've heard of some orders having one of their tests for new applicants to successfully kill him solo. For most players this is probably the first no supplicate room they ever fight in. My preferred strategy is to use a paladin or vampire to tank and vampires or barbarians as hitters. The one trick you can use to your advantage is that if you go link-dead here and reconnect fast enough you will get transported out of the tower and back to Tyrax. This is particularly handy when doing it solo for when you run low on potions or need to repair urgently.

With perseverance you can bring him down without too much effort:

Your pierce tears Blackmote!
Blackmote is DEAD!!
The shifting cloud of gas and flame explodes in a fiery ball!
(darkness gets damaged)
The crumpled form of Blackmote lies on the floor, clutching his side.  As the light in his eyes fades, he rants loudly.
Blackmote yells 'You promised me dominion!  Legions at my command!'
Blackmote raises his fist, drenched in his own blood.
Blackmote growls 'The masses at my feet as their own people, twisted and blighted, feasted on their flesh, ended the lives of the useless.  Bringing an age of the strong, an age of power.'
Blackmote's eyes flare.
Blackmote yells 'You promised me dominion, damn you!  Damn you!'
Aware of your presence, Blackmote stretches forth his claw one last time to gut you.  As he lunges, he falls pitifully to the ground.
Blackmote drops circle of mists.
A horn is wrenched from the body of Blackmote.
You see nothing like that in the corpse of Blackmote.

The belt he drops is handy but nothing super special. Not really worth the effort, but killing Blackmote is more about getting access to the next level of the tower which has the four tests: fire, fear, combat and knowledge. The first three involve killing more challenging mobs while the test of knowledge involves avoiding death traps. Each of these when successful besides a chance of popping a useful item will pop a key such as:

Your slash tears An unimaginable nightmare!
An unimaginable nightmare is DEAD!!
The shimmering forms coalesce into an aged gnome.
'Free' he says 'Of the nightmares, of the Demon Prince. But the nightmares he will unleash on this world, I pray my children survived what he tried to bring to pass.
The gnome spits black blood from his mouth.
The mage pulls a shimmering key from his rags as he slumps over.
The eyes of the mage close as he breathes his last.
An unimaginable nightmare drops the key of fear.
An unimaginable nightmare gasps its last breath and blood spurts out of its mouth and ears.
You see nothing like that in the corpse of An unimaginable nightmare.
The corpse of An unimaginable nightmare holds:
     Nothing.

And this is where it all gets tricky and the myths begin. It used to be that beyond the four tests was the demon prince Orcus. Once Orcus was killed Hastur the Unspeakable would pop, but now they are gone from the Tower. While some have said they were completely removed from the game it is not entirely true since:

>c loc mournblade
For a brief moment, your awareness expands to encompass the whole world...
...and you find to be in existence:

Mournblade on Hastur

How to get to Hastur is the mystery... I've heard rumours that they are accessible from the top of the Tower if you do some secret things, that the way to them is no longer through the tower but through Nevermore and even that they are now located deep within the Realm of Worship. Either way a free immortal corpse retrieval scroll will come in handy.

There is one more source of easily accessible information on Orcus, Hastur and the possible covenant between them - Ravenhill. Besides eating Seth sets and not giving anything in return he does have some interesting speculation:

Ravenhill's Loft
Shelves and cabinets filled with cluttered books, beakers and instruments overcrowd this small niche.  Wedged neatly between two bookshelves is a large serpentine apparatus of glass and metal.  A black oak desk rests under a small arched window.  Numerous ravens land on the windowsill while some perch on copper bars situated throughout the room.  The scent of burning sulphur assails your nostrils.
Exits: [south]
(Glowing) A cauldron in the center of the room gives off a sulfurous steam.
A tall man with sunken features stares intently into a cauldron.

> say orcus
You say 'orcus'

Ravenhill furrows his brow.
Ravenhill says 'Most curious, most curious indeed are the events which have transpired within the Tower of Despair.  I have corresponded with Tyrax of late, using my ravens as couriers. From what I gather from these messages, and my divinations, the Demon Prince died some years ago.  His carcass was possessed.  I do not know if he housed the entity himself or some other malignant spirit.'

Ravenhill run his finger across his chin while scribbling in his book with his free hand.

Ravenhill looks up and notices you are still here.
Ravenhill says 'Ah, sorry.  I had forgotten you were here.  What was it we were discussing?'

Ravenhill taps a finger on his desk.

Ravenhill says 'Ah yes, Orcus.  To finish what I was saying, Tyrax does not believe Orcus is truly gone.  He does not think the Demon could pass from this world without his knowledge.  As for myself, I think Tyrax overstates his claims.  It is my hope that Orcus long ago breathed his last.
As Ravenhill finishes his statement, he slowly drifts back to writing.

> say hastur
You say 'hastur'
Ravenhill yawns.
Ravenhill says 'Ah yes, the Unspeakable.  I hope that beast was banished back to the Pits that Orcus summoned him from.'

> say covenant
You say 'covenant'

Ravenhill says 'Many years back, Darkhaven was destroyed by a being, or beings, known as the Covenant Hebredite.  The remnants of their actions are the Ruins now inhabited by thieves and murderers ruled by Gravoc.  The motives of the Hebredites had always been a mystery.  Now it seems, or at least I theorize, that the Hebredites were the agents of whatever entity caused the Shattering.  They destroyed Darkhaven to harvest the souls of its citizens.  These souls were then to be used to free this entity.  But the number was greatly insufficient.  At this point, Gravoc began luring scoundrels to the Ruins to harvest their blood and souls.  The Ruins became a giant altar of sacrifice.'

Ravenhill leans forward and speaks quietly to you. Ravenhill says 'I believe this failed, which is why the entity sought other agents.  The Dread Lord and the Demon Prince.  I think that It was the source of their powers, but I can not verify this.'

Ravenhill leans back a bit.
Ravenhill says 'The Tower and the Fortress, combined with the Ruins, provided the souls and the blood.  In this moment, we were almost defeated.  It is fortunate we survived.'

Hopefully if I can find the time and a few allies I'll know more about this mystery.

Facestomping Fun

Tonight I found myself with the two things I haven't been able to obtain:

• uninterrupted time
• a group of people willing to trust me to lead a run

So with this and the available characters the group members had I decided to run a couple of mobs I hadn't killed in a long time from the Barren Wastes. The last time I think I killed anything there was in this post. The first challenge with killing the mobs here is that every single mob has some puzzle that needs to be solved before it can be killed. There are clues as to what is required to be successful, however I was very rusty as to how to solve these.

The first mob I wanted to kill was the horned beast. The problem with this mob is that he is a pacifist mob meaning that you can not attack it. Of course there is a way around this via a puzzle broken up into several smaller puzzles with clues hidden around the area. For the horned beast the two clues as to how to make it killable are on a hidden piece of parchment:

>exam writing
nearly got bitten in half
new strategy, I prefer to stay whole
    blasted thing makes it difficult to stay whole


  in a cavern, I'll cave it in
       crush it with a falling ceiling
broke my foot, ceiling fell on it
    new strategy again
  

And the second is a bit of hidden ascii art that can only be seen if  in the following room:

A Temple Corridor
Thick cracks snake their way through crumbling stone walls, pits and etches
scattered throughout the entirety of the stone slabs.  Along the bottom of
one wall are faded symbols parallel to the floor, a thick layer of dust
obscuring the intricacies of each symbol.
Exits: north south

To get rid of the dust you need a hidden brush somewhere else in the area. Brushing the dust then shows the following:

What this all means is you need to be able to trap the horned beast in a particular room by getting a character that is strong enough to push boulders on to from the room above. To do this you need more than one character to complete and have a few more little puzzles to solve. The first step starts here:

A Desert Valley
Massive walls of hard stone shoot up into the sky, seemingly out of place in a landscape as barren and desolate as this.  The walls are far apart, creating a broad valley, though natural bridges and jutting stones are scattered about the valley walls, making it difficult to fly.  The desert's hot orange sand covers the valley floor, while the rock walls are covered in dust.  Boulders of various shapes and sizes are scattered throughout the valley, though the only ones that remain intact are the ones situated furthest from the center of the valley floor.  The massive prints that can be found throughout the desert can
be found pressed into the valley floor as well, though spaced more closely together.
Exits: east northwest
Suddenly, your capability to hover disappears...

Examining the boulder here shows:

>exam boulders
Boulders of various shapes and sizes are scattered about the valley floor.  The only boulders that seem to be the most intact are the ones furthest from the center of the valley pass.  The boulders are made of a rough type of rock, drab in color, though one boulder seems to have fared better than the rest.

The obvious thing to do is to push the boulder but there is a little catch here. If you use a character that has less than 25 strength you see the following:

>push boulder
The boulder proves too heavy as you attempt to move it.

On a 25 strength character though:

>push boulder
The boulder grinds along the valley floor, revealing a slight opening.

 Once inside this cave your 25 strength character isn't going to be much use. To climb up to the top you will need a character with 25 dexterity. There are a few times where you will need to guess around to find the exact right commands to get there. If all goes well you can get it up to this room:

A Desert Mountaintop
A slight breeze wafts its way around the desert mountaintop, carrying bits of sand in the gust.  Small stones, large boulders and oddly shaped rocks lie scattered about the sandy plateau.  A steep ledge leads down into the desert valley, and while the topography of the mountain slope seems to make for an easy trek down to the valley floor, a trek back up the slope seems impossible.  A hole in the rocky wall leads back to a gap in the mountain cavity.
Exits: down

 There are boulders that can be pushed off the cliff to trap the beast but your 25 dexterity character isn't strong enough to do this and a 25 strength character can't climb up inside the cave. The trick here is that hidden within the area are two parts of a rope that can be connected together and then dropped down by your 25 dexterity character so that the stronger one can climb up. The first part of the rope is hidden in this room:

A Desert Trail
The orange dunes of sand, though massive in width, are comparatively shorter in height, as if something is keeping the sand from accumulating to the point of growth.  The  blistering temperature creates a blur effect on vision, though massive prints can be seen  pressed into the dunes.
Exits: northwest southwest

> dig
You begin digging...
Your dig uncovered a short rough leather rope!

> g rope
You get a short rough leather rope.

> exam rough
You take a closer look at a short rough leather rope in inventory...
This length of rope is too short to be of any use, though is
made of a rather tough leather.

> c id rough
Object 'a short rough leather rope' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 3 piece, weight 1.
Special properties:  none
This piece has a gold value of 0.

The other piece of rope is a bit trickier to find but can be found within the cave in this room:

Pitted Walls
The walls of the narrow ascending cavern continue to be covered with pitts and scratches, while stones protrude into the open space, increasing the difficulty of maneuverability.  An awkwardly shaped stone stands out from the rest of the protruding stones, as it is pointing upward at the tip, almost like a hook.  Nothing but the darkness of the mountain cavity can be seen below.
Exits: east down
With great finesse, you maneuver between narrow footholds in the wall.

>exam stone
This stone in particular is oddly shaped and stands out amongst the rest.  The base protruding from the wall is thick, though it narrows towards the tip and turns upward, resembling a hook.  Upon closer inspection, a rope seems to be tightly tied around the tip  of stone.

>untie rope
You carefully untie a length of rope from a protruding stone.

>exam rope
You take a closer look at a long coil of rope in inventory...
The coil is a drab shade of light brown, though contains darker patches of dirt throughout its length.  Though long, the fabric of the rope seems weak, and would most likely need to be reinforced before use.

> c id coil
Object 'a long coil of rope' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 2 piece, weight 1.
Special properties:  none
This piece has a gold value of 0.

Once you have the two pieces you can connect them to make:

 > connect rope 2.rope
You cobble the pieces together...
 ...suddenly they snap into place, creating a reinforced long leather rope!

>exam rope
You take a closer look at a reinforced long leather rope in inventory...
A long rope, reinforced with lengths of leather of various sizes
looks sturdy enough to be an efficient climbing aid.

> c id rope
Object 'a reinforced long leather rope' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 17 rope, weight 3.
Locations it can be worn:  hold
Special properties:  none
This rope has a gold value of 0.
Affects dexterity by 1.
Affects climb by 35.

After  using this rope to climb up the cliff you can start dropping boulders on the horned beast. Once trapped by this you can start killing him. The fight isn't too difficult with a paladin tank and 3 thieves hitting though he does lag a bit, throw in the odd room attacks and hit random people. Once the fight is done you'll get this:

DYING>circle beast
Your circle wounds A massive horned beast!
A massive horned beast is DEAD!!
The beast thrashes about in its final moments, crashing into the stones that block the valley exits, crumbling them to dust.
As the beast crashes to the ground, a piece snaps from its right horn.
The ground quakes as a ferocious scream resounds throughout the area.
A massive horned beast hits the ground ... DEAD.
A massive horned beast has no gold.
The corpse of A massive horned beast holds:
     the tip of a massive broken horn

Like the other mobs in the area once you kill them you need to take the part of the beast and attach it to the correct statue in the temple part of the area to open a door to a room with a chest that contains some type of material to make equipment with.

>attach horn statue
You climb to the statue's head and carefully rest the missing piece atop the right horn. As you climb back down, the right horn lowers and a small panel opens in the wall behind the statue.
The tip of the right horn slides from its place and shatters onto the ground.

 >sw
A Small Recess Behind an Alcove
The smooth, bare walls from the temple alcove slightly crumble as they narrow to create this small recess.  The floor is covered with dust, sand and small pebbles which have also slightly blackened.  A thin line of seemingly simple symbols is etched into the wall under a small shelf not far above the ground.
Exits: northeast
A small metal chest sits on a shelf at the back of this small recess.

>l in ches
A small metal chest appears to be nearly empty.
A small metal chest contains:
     a small steel spike

 >g spike chest
You get a small steel spike from a small metal chest.

We managed to do two kills of the horned beast quite easily though I did manage to die both times. I need to practice at using a paladin to tank and hitting with a thief at the same time. After killing the beast twice we went and hit the serpent. We had a hard time here because I did something stupid - I tried using the strategy to kill the head described on Rodpedia with barbarians instead of my usual method. After failing with barbarians we switched to using thieves. Just have them ungrouped, wimpy set to max, walk in to the room, kill serpent, circle serpent and then flee, flee, flee. After this heal up and repeat until:

DYING>
Your pierce tears The diamond-shaped head of a giant serpent!
The diamond-shaped head of a giant serpent is DEAD!!
As the head of the serpent crashes to the stone floor, one of its fangs cracks and splits from its root.
The ground quakes as a piercing screech resounds throughout the area.
The diamond-shaped head of a giant serpent screams furiously as he falls to the ground in a heap!
The diamond-shaped head of a giant serpent has no gold.
The corpse of The diamond-shaped head of a giant serpent holds:
     a hefty fang

Again I took the part that popped, attached it to the statue and got the material as follows:

 >attach fang statue
As you attach the massive fang to the broken root, the statue begins to twist and twirl aroundthe alcove, revealing a small passageway.
The fang falls from the statue's mouth and shatters onto the ground.

 >nw
A Small Recess Behind an Alcove
The narrow stone walls which lead from the temple alcove widen and meet
in a smooth curve as they reach the back of this small recess, while
the stone ceiling slightly raises.  Though pitted, the stone bricks
of the walls contain etchings of simple, yet incomprehensible symbols
that have surprisingly withstood the erosion of time.
Exits: southeast
A small granite chest sits on a shelf at the back of this small recess.

>g all chest
You get a small hide of brown scales from a small granite chest.

And then finally with the two spikes and small hide of scales I found the wanderer and gave him the materials:

>You give a small hide of brown scales to The wanderer.

>You give a small steel spike to The wanderer.
The wanderer inspects the spike, poking the tip to test its sharpness. The wanderer says 'Have an idea, but I'd need another one.'

>give spike wand
You give a small steel spike to The wanderer.
The wanderer inspects the spikes, poking the tips to test their sharpness, then bends the scaley hide back and forth, testing its pliability.
The wanderer thinks, 'Hmmmm.'
The wanderer says 'Wonder if this'll work.'

The wanderer takes a few unidentifiable tools from a small pouch and begins to work on the spikes and hide.

The wanderer slips the finished products on and off a few times, testing their durability and practicality.
The wanderer thinks, 'Hmmmm.'
The wanderer says 'Better than mine.  Well, meaner, at least.  Good thing the equipment doesn't make the man.'
The wanderer gives you facestompers.

 All of that effort for this:

 Object 'facestompers' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 armor, weight 5.
Locations it can be worn:  feet
Special properties:  none
Classes allowed:  Warrior Barbarian
This armor has a gold value of 25000.
Armor class is 14 of 15.
Affects hp by 50.
Affects damage roll by 4.
Affects constitution by 1.
Affects intelligence by -1.
Affects wisdom by -1.

>exam facestompers
You take a closer look at facestompers in inventory...
A tough but sturdy hide of scales makes up the majority of these boots, folded and flattened upon itself various times before being shaped into something wearable.  A small, sharp metal spike lies fastened to the bottom of each boot, hinting that these boots were constructed for a specific purpose.
As you look more closely, you notice that it is in very good condition.
It appears to be within or below your level range.

I enjoyed myself. These two mobs in the Barren Wastes involve a lot of exploring and problem solving before you can actually fight them. The achievement felt from successfully completing the challenge is great.

The Statue of Ha'rach

In my previous post I wrote about the entrance to the hidden tomb of Ha'rach. The challenge of Ha'rach is much deeper. Once inside the temple you are greeted with the following room: The Temple The majestic temple glows from the majestic golden statue at its center. The statue stands about two times the height of a good sized half-troll. The gold is soft and warm to the touch. The statue is surrounded on all sides by golden columns stretching to the ceiling, though falling well short of their mark. The statue looks down on its visitors with a grim face. Its eyes are a hollow darkness. Its hands extend out, palms facing the sky, shaped as cups.  Looking high above, the gigantic cavern lets the smallest amounts of light through, a small speck barely visible. Exits: east northeast southeast (Trap) A vacant space in the statue's forehead awaits its piece. (Trap) The right eye of the statue gazes with an empty stare. (Trap) The left eye of the statue gazes with an empty stare. (Trap) The right hand of the statue stretches out. (Trap) The left hand of the statue stretches out. This is the final puzzle before you can fight the Statue of Ha'rach. To start off with you need to get rid of the traps using either the detrap skill or remove traps spell. Even doing this you need to be careful as being unsuccessful results in: >detrap eye Ooops! You are sliced by a razor sharp blade! That really did HURT! You wish that your wounds would stop BLEEDING so much! Unlike most traps in the Realms of Despair which are mere nuisance these ones do some serious damage and can kill if you have low amount of hit points and no sanctuary spell. After successfully removing all five traps comes the puzzle. The five parts of the statue contain a container. They look as follows (before removing the traps): You take a closer look at the forehead on the ground... The empty spot in the statue's forehead is perfectly round.  It has a small lip around the edge that makes it look like a small compartment. The forehead appears to be nearly empty. The forehead contains:      a trap What you need to do here is place a gem in the containers. There are five different mobs throughout the area that have them when you kill them. Each mob drops five different coloured gems. The result is you need the right coloured gem from the right mob and to place it in the right statue part in the right order. One of the mobs with the gems is Kaerell - it always gives me a little laugh when I see his rodpedia entrance advising not to kill him. What this all means though is that there are (5!)³ possible combinations of gems/mobs/conatiners/orders for the gems which all up adds to 1,728,000 possibilities. Fortunately there are two things that can make this puzzle easier: When you place a gem correctly there is a message in the room to say so There is one mob in the area which gives clues to the puzzle. This mob is the rich leader's wife found in the oasis part of the area. Bribe her with some gold coins and she will give you hints like: A rich woman tells you 'A stone from a shopkeeper is affixed first, but let it not be red.'  After putting the hints together I made myself a tree diagram on four pieces of A4 paper to help narrow down the possibilities. When exploring and trying to solve puzzles in RoD I often write pages of notes. A scan of them can be seen below:

While the above shows that my handwriting is rather messy and my scanner is cheap it also shows how I go about solving some puzzles. The end result was it narrowed down the number of combinations for the first gem from 125 to 12. Luckily for me I managed to get the right gem the first time I did this. After solving the puzzle you place the final gem and this happens:

You put a red gem in the left hand.
The statue's left hand grips the gem mightily and rises up!
The statue awakens from it's slumber and let's out a mighty yell!
The Statue of Ha'rach utters the words, 'zabrahpdjatz'.
The Statue of Ha'rach makes the earth tremble and shiver.
You yell 'Help!  I am being attacked by the Statue of Ha'rach!'
The Statue of Ha'rach's slice rips you!

While there is a sense of achievement in figuring out the puzzle there is also the sudden realisation that you are fighting an end of area boss mob. There are easier ways of killing the statue but the first time I led a group to it we used 3 barbarians rending and a paladin tanking. We didn't have too much trouble and finished off the statue:

Your slash tears the Statue of Ha'rach!
Your slash tears the Statue of Ha'rach!
The Statue of Ha'rach is DEAD!!
The Statue of Ha'rach's arm is sliced from its dead body.
You see nothing like that in the corpse of the Statue of Ha'rach.
The corpse of the Statue of Ha'rach holds:
     (Flaming White) (Magical) (Glowing) (Humming) sword of magic
     a pair of golden bracers
     (Flaming White) (Magical) a pair of golden leggings

The sword of magic and golden leggings are kind of junky items but the golden bracers are some of the nicest wrist equipment in the game.

Overall figuring out all the puzzles in the Desert of Despair and leading a group to successfully kill the Statue of Ha'rach is one of my proudest achievements in the game and gives an amazing buzz.

Cheers,
V.