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The Dreaming Dark (quest)

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The Dreaming Dark is the 5th quest in The Dreaming Dark story arcIcon tooltip.pngStory arcs  are chains of quests that make up a story line.
Completing everything in a story arc often yields a nice reward.
.
Eye of the Titan • Reclaiming Memories • Raiding the Giants' Vault (solo quest) • Mining for Ancient Secrets • The Dreaming Dark


The Plane of Nightmares gains power from mortal dreams. Its denizens have long sought to control mortals directly, in order to force them into the same dream and become unimaginably powerful.

The Dreaming Dark adpack icon.jpg
DDO Point icon.png Requires access to adventure pack: The Dreaming Dark
The Dreaming Dark
Heroic level: 20
Epic level: None
Duration: medium
Heroic XP:  ♣2,781Solo/Casual ♦4,798Normal ♥4,960Hard ♠5,122Elite
Epic XP: N/A
Takes place in: Plane of Nightmares
Bestowed by: Venge
NPC contact: Venge
Quest acquired in: Isle of Forgotten Dreams
Patron: The Coin Lords
Base favor: 6
Purchase: The Dreaming Dark or VIP
Extreme Challenge: No
M dreaming dark.png
Loading screen

Overview

Channa d'Cannith has repaired the Stormreaver's Interdiction Lens for you. But, it needs energy from a Dreamforge to activate, which can only be found on the Plane of Nightmares.

To reach the Plane of Nightmares, you will need to go to the Stormreaver's Temple on the Isle of Forgotten Dreams, and drink from the Fountain of Dreams.


Spoiler Warning: Spoiler material below this point!


Objectives

  • Find the Dreamforge and use it to activate the Interdiction Lens
  • Eliminate the Dream Crawler presence (15)
  • (Optional) Destroy the Mindsunder — Bonus (25%): Heroic( ♣695 ♦1,200 ♥1,240 ♠1,281 )

What to Expect

  • Heavy and low gravity areas
  • Spawning/re-spawning monsters

Known Traps

Not a 'trap', but the area after the arena has alternating high and low gravity. Stand under the lowest 'hanging' pillars to avoid being smashed into the ceiling. Killing the mobs here will end this effect.

Tips and Misc

If you are having trouble entering this quest ("The fountain of dreams is blocked."), stand on the first wall of the fountain and then face west with the yellow quest entrance swirl in front of you. If you continue to have difficulties, it might mean you need to reacquire the quest from Venge in The Isle of Forgotten Dreams.

All elemental resist buffs are useful; Dark Dreaming Councilors will use Ball Lightning, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, Delayed Blast Fireball, Disintegrate, and Ego Whip (-CHA) among others.

A mandatory element of the quest consists of defeating enemies in each area until "light gravity" is announced. Once that happens, you can leap up to the next area with more enemies to clear, repeating the "light gravity" announcement for that area, and so on. You cannot bypass any of these enemies, as the jumps are impossible without the aid of Light Gravity.

  • Be conservative as you make your jumps, especially if you have a low Jump skill. One or two steps at a time is fine. Look straight down at your next landing spot if you're having trouble.
  • Leaping or falling off a platform will cause you to return to the nearest shrine, but only after a hard fall (even with Feather Fall items!). Take care when jumping if you are low on hit points, as the fall could kill you when you land (you may have a few seconds to cast a heal while falling).

After you reach the Theatre of Dreams and finish off the Quori within, any falls in your party will land them back in the arena. If you have, on your current life, defeated any of Sor'jek in Stealer of Souls, the Stormreaver in The Reaver's Fate, Queen Lailat in Zawabi's Revenge, Velah in the Plane of Night or the Warforged Titan in The Titan Awakes, the councillors will recognise you and their dialogue will change. Furthermore, the more of these targets you've slain, the more councillors will flee the platform before the remainder attack you; if you've killed at least four of them, only four councillors will be left.

After the Theatre of Dreams, 4 Councilors will ambush you on a platform. You must kill them to advance but they float out of melee range so ranged weapons or spells are mandatory. They will not move into melee range and their AOE spells will quickly kill any hirelings you have. However, if all else fails, you can jump off the platform to engage them briefly, and end up back in the Theatre to resurrect any hirelings and heal up to try again.

Optional: Xachosian Eardweller

To farm for the Eardweller (Hard and Elite difficulties only), you need to either collect 3 keys or have good Open Lock skills, to pick locks. Use the 'Dream Market' portal from the first Rest shrine platform (for convenience). The Dream Market portal only appears in the 'Dream Garden' by the shrine after clearing the market mobs. The 'to Dream Market' portal just transports you to the southern area of the upper market. Make sure you boost your Jump skill, 25 is not enough to get the optionals.

  • For the first key (Silver Key), point yourself to the northeast from the spot the 'Dream Market' portal lands and jump. Your next jump is to the building over to the furthest east (a chain of lights points the way). Jump up to the rectangle floating platforms above that building roof until you get to the Silver Key on the second of two floating stone 'heads'. You may want to collect this key last of the three to save some repeated jumping.
  • The second key (Red Key) is located a bit south in the rectangular area with the two large circles (two large circle platforms with smaller broken columns in the centre). You need to jump to a floating head off to the east of the northern circle (large circle platform). The Red Key is northwest of that head on a broken pillar.
  • The last key (Green Key) is further south in the transition area to the next section, there are many heads to jump up on. You can jump from column to column after the Red Key and with a careful jump after the last column land on the heads.
  • Go north, and back to the furthest east building; then to where you jumped up for the Silver Key, i.e. get to the head where you picked up the key. Now face north again and jump towards the platform at top of the eastern column (of two large northern columns), you – possibly – won't make it to the top, but will land on a ledge below the top (use light gravity to aid you from that column ledge to easily reach the final top section). Wait about 10 seconds and three doors will appear, that you can open with keys collected from 'heads', or open the doors if you have decent Open Lock skill (Open Lock required on Elite; is somewhere between: 54 and 59 (Lock DCs)), or by other methods (Level 24: Rogue Hireling Iessin, is unable to unlock the doors on Elite). Once all three doors are open (look up, a magical looking-glass appears floating above your head), just jump upwards on the spot and you will be transported to another area. Kill the Dark Dreaming Councilors and Mindsunders (constructs). Once these are all dead and the chest has unlocked, get ready to kill the Xachosian Landwalker in case it spawns, and open the chest. Good luck!

End Fight

In the final fight, the platform where the end boss appears creates forcefield barriers which prevent anyone from falling, leaving or entering.

The boss is the Devourer of Dreams, a Lawful Evil Outsider. He has Damage Reduction that's fully bypassed by Crystal + Good (need both, such as the unlocked Dreamspitter). He has fast regeneration, which is stopped for 6 seconds each time he is hit by Good-typed damage.

The Devourer has a high Spell Resistance (SR 39 on Normal) and throws Ability damaging spells that will eventually leave party members helpless without repeated Restoration castings or Cleric Radiant Burst. He also spawns Nightmare Swarms that prevent healing and damage weapons that hit them. The Swarms appear three times, when the Devourer is at 75%, 50% and 25% health.

The Devourer has a wide-area-of-effect stunning burst effect that can be countered by a "Light" Monk that continually buffs the party with Grasp the Earth Dragon.

It is very difficult to take on both the Devourer and the Nightmare Swarm when they are too close; separate the two and destroy the Swarm and then continue the take down of the Devourer.

Completion grants the party access to the Dreamforge crafting device on the same platform as the end fight. However, the forcefields remain in place, preventing you from switching to your alt characters to use the device.

Bonus XP

  • Aggression bonus: 51 or more monsters killed +10% Bonus.( ♣278 ♦480 ♥496 ♠512 )
  • Onslaught bonus: 61 or more monsters killed +15% Bonus.( ♣417 ♦720 ♥744 ♠768 )

Loot

  • Chests: 2
    • 1 optional for destroying the Mindsunder (see Optional section)
    • 1 at the end for killing the Devourer of Dreams
  • NPC rewards: Special:
    • Regular runs: Standard plus a small chance for 1 random ioun stone.
    • Every 3rd completion: Choose from 4 items: Guaranteed to have 1 random ioun stone. 50% chance at either one or more Crystal Shard of Dreams or a completed Crystal Disc of Dreams and 2 random items.

Named Chest Drop

Last Edited Item Type Enhancements ML Bind Quests
Xachosian Eardweller
Xachosian Eardweller.png
(edit)
Trinket  18 Bound to Character on Acquire, ExclusiveIcon tooltip.pngBound to Character on Acquire: This item is Bound to Character on Acquire
This is an Exclusive item. You may only carry one at a time.
Eye of the Titan, I Dream of Jeets, Finding the Path, and The Dreaming Dark: Random spawn after opening any chest. Default spawn rate is 0% on Normal, 2.5% on Hard, and 5% on Elite.
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Monsters

Name ( picture ) CR Type Race
Dark Dreaming Councilor( view
Dark Dreaming Councilor.jpg
 • edit )
 ♦20Normal ♥24Hard ♠30Elite Evil Outsider Quori
Dream Crawler( view
Dream Crawler.jpg
 • edit )
 ♣19Solo/Casual ♦19Normal ♥23Hard ♠29Elite Evil Outsider Quori
Dream Reaver( view
Dream Reaver.jpg
 • edit )
 ♣19Solo/Casual ♦19Normal ♥23Hard ♠29Elite Aberration Dream Reaver
Dream Scourge( view
Dream Scourge.jpg
 • edit )
 ♣18Solo/Casual ♦19Normal ♥23Hard ♠29Elite Evil Outsider Quori
Dream Stealer( view
Dream Stealer.png
 • edit )
 ♣20Solo/Casual ♦20Normal ♥24Hard ♠30Elite Evil Outsider Quori
Living Nightmare( view
Living Nightmare.jpg
 • edit )
 ♦18Normal ♥22Hard ♠18Elite Ooze Spell
Quori Mindsunder( view
Quori Mindsunder.jpg
 • edit )
0 Construct Inanimate Object
The Devourer of Dreams( view
The Devourer of Dreams.jpg
 • edit )
 ♣28Solo/Casual ♦28Normal ♥32Hard ♠38Elite Evil Outsider Quori
Xachosian Landwalker( view
Xachosian Landwalker (wild).png
 • edit )
 ♠6Elite Aberration Rust Monster

External Links

Aldbar's Solo Walkthrough & Guide