Valley of Crucifixion and Myratana (take 1)

Over the last week I have been practising the maze at the start of the Valley of Crucifixion. This maze is split into two parts - one starts in the west and the other the south of the first room in VoC after entering the portal. There are instant death rooms in these mazes that can be used as markers to map where you haven't been yet until you find the arm in each part. Just pull/push the arm and it lights a candle in the rooms to the east of the start as follows:

Within the Pale
Nippy and moist is the haze, granting but an arm's length of bleary vision.A deceitful surrounding it is, where the hand reaches for shadows but catches nothing, and the foot trips over unseen obstacles. A peaceful stroll through a calm winter, or a treacherous tightrope over a bottomless abyss - within the pale, there is no way of telling. However, to picture anything but a perilous setting would be unwarranted optimism in this Otherlandian realm.
Exits: north east south west
A woman's arm sticks up from the snow, pale and stiff.
You take a closer look at the pale arm of a woman on the ground...
Sticking up from the snow, a pale arm and hand eerily hails passer-bys. Angel or human is impossible to tell, but distinctly female. Although frozen and dead since an eternity ago, her hand still stretches out in despair, begging for mercy. Evidently, none was shown.
You notice that it is in the down position.
Her hand is cold and hard like porcelain. It moves but a little as you push it.
You have lit a memorial candle. God bless your soul, Vilexur.

After lighting both candles head east from the entrance and follow the trail of the candles and you end up in a room with a girl and a bell...

The End of False Prophecy
From this, the highest point of the Valley of Crucifixion, one can gaze right into the cold eyes of the end of false prophecy. At the summit of the height of heathens, a thousand dead believers hail from below in every direction but the north. A perfectly vertical mountain wall ends the valley there, towering through the clouds above and beyond. To it, the height clings like an unwanted child to her mother, seeking refuge where none can be found from a nightmare all too real. A scaffold has been raised against the mountain wall, rickety but still climbable. The snow is red under it from a steady trickle of blood.
Exits: east south west up
(Glowing) The bell of mourning hangs from the scaffold, lamenting the dead when struck.
A weak, young girl struggles with a large mallet as she compulsively strikes the bell.
Zephaniah is shrouded in flowing shadow and light. 

 This girl strikes the bell every couple of minutes and says something like the following:

Zephaniah strikes the bell of mourning, falling over under the weight of the mallet...
The bell of mourning tolls, wailing for the here crucified and those reduced to dust in the Ziggurat.
Zephaniah says 'Fire... The demon becomes a god...'

Zephaniah struggles to lift the large mallet, her thin arms nearly breaking from the effort...
Zephaniah says 'Kneel in respect for the dead... Show your empathy and kneel...'

 When you kneel in front of her she says something cryptic:

You kneel down.
Visions of senseless killing and unnecessary death flash before your eyes.
Zephaniah tells you '....Servant....'

or:

You kneel down.
Visions of senseless killing and unnecessary death flash before your eyes.
Zephaniah tells you '....Sight....' 

What these mean I have no idea. The next part of the area is one of the more interesting rooms and mobs of the game. When you make a new character one of the earliest messages you receive is the following disclaimer:

(2)  conversation and situations may arise during the course of play that may not be suitable for young children. 

I've always wondered about this disclaimer and what situations may arise that are unsuitable for young children other than the odd bit of bit language. That was until I first entered the following room, read it's description (after getting beaten, battered and bruised) and saw Myratana in the flesh as follows:

Reign in Blood
At the top of the scaffold, various planks and leftovers from the construction of the great display below have been put to use. As old as the humanhangers indeed, withstanding the test of time does not seem to be much of challenge for material found useful by divine will. It has built a container, in shape rectangular, and perhaps best described as a bath. Poorly, one might add, as it is leaking freely. While nothing is peculiar about a leaking container, what steadily trickles from this one is quite interesting indeed. Bodies lie jampacked inside it, cut open or in half in the most fascinating places.
These men must be several hundred years old, yet still their bodies pump out fresh blood to refill the everleaking bath. Under the deep red surface they can be seen screaming in excruciating pain, but the blood mutes their cries immediately. Drowning in blood must be quite stimulating when one is not allowed to die.
Exits: down
A scantily clad angel moans as she bathes in the blood of humans.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant shimmers beneath an aura of dark energy.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant is surrounded by cascading torrents of electric fire.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant caresses her body with bloody hands, pervertedly smearing herself with brains and guts.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant yells 'Come to me, heroes of Despair. Those denied by heaven I welcome here.' 

Ambition and ruthlessness was what Golgonooza saw in Myratana when he promoted her to lieutenant of the divine army of the Left. Unlike Golgonooza himself and Melfice, she lacked both honour and respect for her enemy. Her hatred for the mortal races of the Realms blinded her completely to the real purpose of the conflict. She even despised her superior Golgonooza and often refused to follow his orders. However, his lust for her as he watched her naked body bathe in the blood of humans easily defeated his ratiocination. Veiled but a little by torn white robes stained by the blood, brains and guts of those dead by her whip, she stands here in a seductive pose. With freely exposed breasts, long red hair and a blood-drooling mouth she radiates a nauseating sexuality.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant is in perfect health.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant is using:
<worn on body>       the blood-stained robes of the vitiated
<wielded>            a whip of ritualistic flagellation 

 This evening though I thought I'd try something crazy - taking on Myratana solo. There are strategies for groups to do on Myratana but solo was to be a different challenge. I tanked it on my paladin which worked quite well in the sense that I was staying alive. The problem however was that I just couldn't do enough damage meanwhile my equipment was being damaged again and again. Myratana has a lot of damage programs and interesting messages with them. Well interesting when the fighting is over.

Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant stares lustfully into your eyes.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant says to you, 'My body is fire. In your thoughts I burn.'
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant utters the words, 'gqafqpuio gjfoz'.
A fiery current lashes through your body!

Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant stretches out her wings to their full length.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant closes her eyes and starts to glow with a humming, bright light.
The light fades and for a moment everything is silent.
As Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant opens her eyes, they glow with the power of the dark heavens.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant utters the words, 'akutenshi'.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant's Angel Ray grazes you! 

Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant pulls you close to her and places her hands on your breasts.
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant says to you, 'Men of these Realms can not please you. Come, let me teach you divine pleasure.'
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant kisses you.
Her saliva burns in your mouth, and the pain spreads like fire through your body!
(the Breastplate of the Ravager gets damaged)
Myratana, the Angel Lieutenant laughs and pushes you away from her. 

 Ouch. I'll have to rethink my strategy - either get a group together to try next time or equip an army of alts and do a tag team attack one after another. But end result is Myratana wins this round...

Crucifixion

Over the Easter break I've been playing around in the Valley of Crucifixion. This is an area that gets little attention with very few people running mobs in there - why I'm not sure. I haven't been to this place in a long time and was trying to refresh my memory on it. The entrance to the area is one of the scariest parts as seen below:

The Monument of Remembrance
Not far from where scholars uncovered the mysterious monoliths of the Ziggurat,they found a monument of considerable age. At first thought to be contemporary with them, closer examination found it was made far later, by an artist who could not have been alive to witness the actual events but still knew them well enough to depict them in stone. The events in question are those that followed in the wake of the striking of the tower of sin. In striking detail, it shows the mythical Valley of Crucifixion, where the enemies of the divine will were punished for their lack of faith. The location of this monument, according to information available in Darkhaven, should be here. But perhaps the Shattering did render the old map obsolete, for here it is nowhere to be found.
Exits: west
(Glowing) Sinister green energy swirls ominously where stood the monument for the crucified.

>enter
Sickening green engulfs you, and your senses panic as you rush towards certain death...
...Everything begins to fade to black.

You feel yourself leaving your body... rising up into the air, you feel
more free than you have ever felt before...

However, before your deity comes to collect your soul, you feel the chilling grasp of skeletal hands, carrying you to another plane of existence... 

There's nothing like making you feel like you've just ran straight into a death trap to get your pulse going and let you know this is a dangerous area. Once inside there are two options of what to do first - solve the maze that leads to later parts of the area or kill the first mob - Angra. Today I tried to take on Angra.

To get to Angra you need to head in a northern direction from the start of the area. There area couple of rooms with a cross in them to mark the way. Once you get to Angra she's an aggressive mob so be prepared. My method of killing uses a thief. Angra looks like this:

Within the Pale
Nippy and moist is the haze, granting but an arm's length of bleary vision.
A deceitful surrounding it is, where the hand reaches for shadows but catches
nothing, and the foot trips over unseen obstacles. A peaceful stroll through
a calm winter, or a treacherous tightrope over a bottomless abyss - within the
pale, there is no way of telling. However, to picture anything but a perilous
setting would be unwarranted optimism in this Otherlandian realm.
Exits: north east south west
(Translucent) A shameful existence is crying tears of radiant silver.
Angra, the denigrated spectre glows with an aura of divine radiance.
Angra, the denigrated spectre is ensphered by shards of glistening ice.
Angra, the denigrated spectre jars you!
>look angra

In the haze exists a phantom sentinel, shapeless and vague yet strong in
its presence. A shameful spirit, stirred into violent anger by hopelessness
and sorrow. Within it something is held captive, hidden under a thick mass of
tentacles. Denigration they are, impenetrable and strong. Peace of mind shall
remain their prisoner, for none there are who care for freeing her.
Angra, the denigrated spectre is in perfect health. 

Angra can hit quite hard, is tunnelled to 1 character, can't be fled/recalled from and can't be circled at the start. The one trick with her is if you go link-dead and then reconnect it takes you back to the start of the area. This way you can heal up, recall and repair if needed but the big advantage is when you get back to her room you can start circling her which does hit her hard. The actual fight I find similar to trying to kill Justice in the Tower of Enlightenment solo including the gouge attacks. After a while you eventually get the kill as follows:

Angra, the denigrated spectre's blast of frost scratches you.
Your pierce rips Angra, the denigrated spectre!
Your pierce tears Angra, the denigrated spectre!
Angra, the denigrated spectre is DEAD!!
The spectre dissolves into nothing, leaving the woman inside naked in the cold.
A few last tears fall from Ahania's face before she too fades into nothingness.
Ahania says 'Farval, min alskade ...'
One tear turns into an orb of silver before softly landing in the snow ...
You see no corpse here.

 I did a search to find out what "Farval, min alskade..." translated to English and found it means "Farewell my beloved" in Swedish. It adds to the feeling of the area as a sad story (it gets a lot worse later on in the area...) The item you get from killing her is:

You take a closer look at a silver orb of remembrance in inventory...
The silver tears of the denigrated froze into orbs of remembrance, floating
effortlessly back and forth through history, imbued with the wisdom of the
ages. To carry one is to be beyond this life, outside the range of alpha and
omega. Even death, they say, is a mere inconvenience.

Object 'a silver orb of remembrance' is infused with your magic...
It is a level 50 light, weight 3.
Special properties:  glow
This light has a gold value of 10000.
Affects hp by 10.
Affects strength by -1.
Affects mana by 25.
Affects wisdom by 2.

As a light it is nothing special but the item is needed for later in the area...

Overall I find VoC an interesting area. There is more to it that this and I'll have more to post about it in the future.