The Necromancer's Novice

The Necromancer's Novice
Section	Ascalon Quests
Campaign	Prophecies (Tyrian only)
Given by	Necromancer Munne in The Catacombs (Ascalon (pre-Searing))
Type	Secondary quest (Profession: primary or secondary)

Necromancer Munne's last student summoned a creature and couldn't control it. Now you have to clean up his mess.

Quest information

Requirements

• Tyrian (Prophecies) character
• necromancer primary or secondary
• Completed primary profession test (elementalist, mesmer, monk, necromancer, ranger, or warrior)
• Character in pre-Searing

Objectives

• Get past the fire traps in the burning section of the catacombs. (Use bone horrors to trigger the traps.)
• Return to Necromancer Munne for your reward.

Early benefits

• Munne will give you the following skills upon taking the quest:
  • Animate Bone Horror
  • Life Siphon
  • Deathly Swarm

Reward

• 250 Experience

Walkthrough

Follow Necromancer Munne, fighting enemies as you go. Eventually she'll stop at the beginning of a long hallway with three consecutive Flame Geyser trap runes on the ground.

These traps are especially deadly, dealing 500 elemental damage to unarmored targets, instantly killing most characters. Even rangers (which possess the highest armor against elemental damage among all professions) have to be at least level 6 with a good shield (e.g. the Serrated Shield) to survive. The game immediately demonstrates this destructive power by having a devourer spawn from the wall and run straight in the second trap, getting killed on the spot.

The idea is to use Animate Bone Horror; as the corpse is within the trap, the minion summoned from it will immediately trigger the trap, at the cost of it dying in the process.

Once the traps are removed, the path to the Tomb Nightmare is clear. Despite its level 4, the Nightmare is very weak. It is especially susceptible to cold damage, making Deathly Swarm particularly effective.

Go back to Munne to collect the reward. You can also map travel to Ashford Abbey and re-enter the Catacombs as she will be back at her original location.

NPCs

Foes

Nightmares

• 4 Tomb Nightmare

Dialogue

Initial dialogue

Necromancer Munne

"Not everyone can be a Necromancer. For example, one of my latest students went into the catacombs to summon a dark entity. Since he hasn't come back, I can only surmise his creation probably ate him."

"If you will agree to destroy the nightmare he summoned, I will show you where he went and give you a spell to help. But I warn you, you'll have to be clever to get past the fire traps in that part of the tombs. Of course, if you fail, I shall use your corpse as fodder for the next, more worthy, student."

 Accept: "I'm on my way."

 Decline: "I don't think so."

 Ask: "Always remember, a Necromancer's strength is in the others weakness. Use your summoned minions to set off the traps. You are on your own to kill the nightmare in the east room after that."

Intermediate dialogue

Necromancer Munne: "Follow me, I'll show you where the last novice died."

Necromancer Munne: "Try to keep up."

Necromancer Munne: "Here we are. Are you ready?"

Reward dialogue

Necromancer Munne: "Most impressive. You dispatched that nightmare rather quickly. You show some real talent for the work."

Notes

• There are various ways to kill the Tomb Nightmare without confronting it directly:
  • If you have a flatbow or longbow, instead of triggering the last Flame Geyser, you can take advantage of the stairs' elevation to pull the Nightmare. It will try to get to you and run straight into the trap.
  • There's a ledge overlooking the Tomb Nightmare to the west of the last room, which can be more easily reached from the entrance in Green Hills County, north of The Barradin Estate, going then straight south then east. You can again pull the Nightmare with a bow and it will try to come straight to you, leaving you some time to kill it with ranged spells or attacks while it is still pondering how to reach you.
  • During the quest Vanguard Rescue: Save the Ascalonian Noble, two vanguard foes will spawn in the same spot than the Tomb Nightmare, and kill it in your stead.