The Vault of Night

The Vault of Night is the 5th quest in the Laughing Knives story arcStory arcs are chains of quests that make up a story line. Completing everything in a story arc often yields a nice reward..
The first four quests can be completed in any order to unlock The Vault of Night.
Tharashk Arena • The Prisoner • The Jungle of Khyber • Haywire Foundry • The Vault of Night • Plane of Night

House Kundarak built the Vault to store secret treasures. But for whom...and for what purpose?

Requires access to adventure pack
Definition: Adventure Pack
A list of all adventure packs
: Vault of Night

The Vault of Night
Heroic level:	10
Epic level:	22
Duration:	Very Long
Heroic XP:	♦11,500Normal ♥12,100Hard ♠12,699Elite
Epic XP:	♦53,295Normal ♥55,005Hard ♠56,715Elite
Takes place in:	Vault of Night
Bestowed by:	Barrow d'Kundarak
NPC contact:	Barrow d'Kundarak
Quest acquired in:	House Kundarak
Patron:	House Kundarak
Base favor:	9
Purchase:	Vault of Night or VIP
Extreme Challenge:	No

Loading screen

Overview

An unknown enemy has breached House Kundarak's defenses in the Vault of Night and taken complete control of it. Their own forces have had no success in taking it back, so they've asked for help from you and the Laughing Knives.

When you're ready, enter the Vault of Night in House Kundarak Enclave, and destroy whoever is responsible for this attack.

This raid section sees you getting the fruits of your labor in recruiting Marek Malcanus's party of adventurers to help regain the Vault.
To complete this section of the raid, you need to gain entry to the Plane of Night where House Kundarak have carefully hidden their most valued treasure. The Vault is in a state of anarchy, overrun with undead and agents of the Aurum. You have to power the Vault back up to recover the master key.

Flagging

Complete the Vault of Night (story arc) quests (Four quests in total).
- Order is no longer important. Just be sure to pick up each individual quest before proceeding.
Once the 4-quest arc is completed and this quest The Vault of Night is available from Barrow d'Kundarak, this pre-raid along with the Plane of Night raid can be repeated without repeating the initial 4-quest arc.
Bug: The old flagging system is still in place alongside the new one. Using the old system can break your quest. Avoid talking to Marek Malcanus to prevent the old flagging system from interfering with the current one – he is no longer necessary and really should have had his quest flags deleted to prevent this bug. Additionally, sharing the quest will break it: do not share it or accept any share attempts, pick it up manually.
- Note: Talking to Marek won't always break your quest flags, it depends what step of the chain you're on, but to be safe, do not talk to him at all. If you want to read his flavor text, do so after you're correctly flagged. It's safe to do so at that point.
To use the new flagging system, simply complete the 4 quests, and pick up their end rewards. Then talk to Barrow d'Kundarak to be permanently flagged.
Workaround for if your quest gets broken: Manually Abandon "The Vault of the Night" story arc. Then talk to Barrow. He should bestow it and you can then enter; if you cannot, you are not flagged and need to redo some or all of the quests.

East rune puzzle

Vault of Night puzzle

Spoiler Warning: Spoiler material below this point!

Objectives

Make contact with the Laughing Knives
Destroy the tormented banker Otto Knucklebones
Destroy the Aurum commander Malachi the Breaker
Repair the Distribution Grid in Maintenance
Restore the North Portal Conduit
Reset both breaker levers to repair the North Portal Conduit
Restore the West Portal Conduit
Lower the emergency barriers in Accounting
Restore the East Portal Conduit
Find a way to open the Adamantine-Bound Coffer
Find a way to open the Adamantine-Bound Coffer
Destroy the Rust Emperor in the Disposal Shaft
Recover the Crystal Master Key
Destroy Arach's Knight to disable Arach's defenses
Force the traitor Arach d'Kundarak to open the Gate of Night
(Optional) Stop the production of golems in the Distribution Grid room — Bonus (10%): Heroic( ♣-0 ♦1,150 ♥1,210 ♠1,270 ) Epic( ♣-0 ♦5,330 ♥5,501 ♠5,672 )

What to Expect

Traps (fixed, some undisarmable)
Point of no return
Overlapping floors
Spawning/respawning monsters
Puzzles (mandatory: puzzle wheels and tile puzzle)
Runes (mandatory: requires WIS check of 20)
Contains the entrance to another quest (to Plane of Night)
Stat checks (mandatory: 2 levers that require STR checks of 25)
Requires extra player(s) (mandatory: a total of 6 runes and levers have to be used simultaneously)

Known Traps

Trap DCs

Lightning Walls and Blade Spinners (North Side)
Horizontal Triple Blades (West Side)
Several lightning bolt traps triggered by opening a chest (West Side)
Blade Spinners (Up the first ladder on the south side)
Blade Spinners (Locked triple Entrance to the Final Encounter)

Tips and Misc

Preparation

There are many nasty traps and locked doors in this quest, so a Rogue or Artificer is essential (except for exceptional parties). You will also need at least two persons with a Strength of 25 for some levers and two persons with at least a Wisdom of 20. Without these required stats, you will not be able to complete this raid. An Iron Defender can pull the levers.

With a sufficiently high Jump skill (26 works, possibly lower) you can jump over the lightning fields in the north hallway.

Arcane casters should have Dimension Door and Knock as they will greatly speed things up. Casters (divine or arcane) should hand out acid and lightning resistance – preferably extended as this is a very long raid. Melee should have adamantine weapons for the end boss, as he has significant DR when running on epic, or even at-level on elite, as well as strong weapons for the foe you will inevitably face after this raid – the red dragon, Velah.

The party should do the north hallway first to ensure they can get past the traps, if the party cannot do so, there is no point in clearing the other hallways.

Important items

List of items NPCs will hand out (One time only, for one player only) – the important one here is the Voice:

Dirge of Karrnath: Dirge's Bulwark – +2 Heavy shield: Electric Resistance +30Electric Resistance +30: Passive: +30 Enhancement bonus to your Electric Resistance. (Destroyed on Exiting Adventure, Binds on Acquire)
Mistress Orphne: Orphne's Grace – Wand: Remove Necrotic Touch (20 charges, caster level 5) (Destroyed on Exiting Adventure, Binds on Acquire)
Veil: 100 Veil's Avengers – +2 Arrow: Dwarf BaneDwarf Bane: A bane weapon excels at attacking one type or subtype of creature. Against Dwarves, this weapon's effective enhancement bonus is +2 better than its normal enhancement bonus. It deals an extra 2 to 12 points of damage against the foe. (Destroyed on Exiting Adventure)
Haywire: Haywire's Voice – Drops on Leaving Adventure, Drops on Death

Other key items required for quest completion – be absolutely sure about who picks these up:

Arcane Signet Ring – Drops on Leaving Adventure, Drops on Death
Adamantine Coffer
Crystal Master Key

Strategy

When you begin, designate one person – preferably one who is very knowledgeable about the raid – to get the VOICE and the RING, and complete the main 4 objectives (Restore the power).

VON 5 – The FAST guide

Prerequisites: You can lead via voice and the party has the right stats.

Gather for buffs, remember electric/acid resists and protects
There are 4 people in the first room that give out items:
- Haywire gives VOICE for speaking stones – unlocker should take this.
- Orphne gives wand (Orphne's Blessing) – removes a specific disease that drops CON – not curable by normal remove disease or greater/lesser restoration
- Ignore Dirge and Veil.
All head west to corridor with blade trap. Trap control panel, on right at end, carry on, kill Otto – someone takes RING, preferably the same person as took the VOICE.
Rogue/Artificer back to do traps north – (8 trap Control panels) on pillars
All go back to the entrance – head north – need 25 STR / 20 WIS each side
- Levers need to be pulled in sync (3 sec) to unlock doors
- On the right, only 3 people (or fewer) are needed. Send most left, including VOICE, RING, and unlocker.
Allocate people to jump to pillars as lever pullers. Pets can also pull levers. Barriers can also be jumped around.
On the left, head to wheels – VOICE turns wheels 4 times each – talk to head 2 times
- Arcane Signet Ring opens forcefields with color wheels.
Final task on the north: Pull two previously locked levers, one left, one right. Requires 25 Strength.

Go West. VOICE talks to head (must drop down) – drops barriers – kill golems – get coffer.
Go East. Do puzzle and VOICE talk to head.
East – use coffer – opens North gate, kill rusty – get key – all head back to the entrance
Head South – 4 drop down below vent (pull simultaneously) – vent shoots rogue/artificer up, disable traps and pull levers – all go to the end
Kill dogs and boss

Once complete, you gain entry to the final part of the Vault of Night raid quest series from an exit at the end of this quest. Do not recall from this quest on completion for you will not be able to proceed to the following quest.

Boss strategy

Don't underestimate Arach's Knight. He can very quickly take down an unprepared raid group, so be sure to buff appropriately (Sonic resistance, haste, etc) and take down his hounds first. For more in-depth detail on him, check his article.

Speed things up

You can do wings in order: Do West wing, then North wing, then East wing, then South wing. Or to speed things up if running above level:

Most head west and 1 person head east simultaneously (east puzzle can be done immediately by 1 person)
Have most players do north, left and right simultaneously (Both can be cleared quickly with smart use of jumping)
Have one person head west to get the coffer while this is done (He can the moment power is restored)
Everyone head for the key once breakers are reset
Everyone head south to the end

Other important objectives that can be done mostly simultaneously are the puzzle, coffer and crystal master key, so ideally also assigning players to each of these objectives for a fast completion (or groups of players if you're running high difficulties).

Bonus XP

Aggression bonus: 33 or more monsters killed +10% Bonus.( ♣-0 ♦1,150 ♥1,210 ♠1,270 )
Onslaught bonus: 67 or more monsters killed +15% Bonus.( ♣-0 ♦1,725 ♥1,815 ♠1,905 )
Conquest bonus: 100 or more monsters killed +25% Bonus.( ♣-0 ♦2,875 ♥3,025 ♠3,175 )
Mischief bonus: 60 or more breakables smashed +8% Bonus.( ♣-0 ♦920 ♥968 ♠1,016 )
Vandal bonus: ~80 or more breakables smashed +10% Bonus.( ♣-0 ♦1,150 ♥1,210 ♠1,270 )
Ransack bonus: 93 or more breakables smashed +15% Bonus.( ♣-0 ♦1,725 ♥1,815 ♠1,905 )

Loot

Chests: 4 on regular difficulties, 5 on epic
- One heavily trapped by several lightning traps beyond a door on the west side
- Another on the west side near the shrine, but not accessible until power has been restored to accounting
- One on the north end past the breaker lever, locked with a very high DC. Epic (Lock DC).
- One hidden on a small platform by the lava in the eastern section – get this one after you get the crystal master key, then dimension door back as it's not easy to return.
- Epic Difficulty spawns an epic chest right on top of the portal entrance to the plane of night (be careful not to click the portal by mistake).
NPC rewards:

Monsters

Name ^{( picture )}	CR	Type	Race
Arach's Acid Hound ^{( view • edit )}	♠16Elite ●♦22Epic Normal ●♥31Epic Hard	Construct	Iron Defender
Arach's Fire Hound ^{( view • edit )}	♠16Elite ●♦22Epic Normal ●♥31Epic Hard	Construct	Iron Defender
Arach's Ice Hound ^{( view • edit )}	♠16Elite ●♦22Epic Normal ●♥31Epic Hard	Construct	Iron Defender
Arach's Knight ^{( view • edit )}	♦16Normal ♠20Elite ●♦25Epic Normal ●♥34Epic Hard	Construct	Golem
Arach's Lightning Hound ^{( view • edit )}	♠16Elite ●♦22Epic Normal ●♥31Epic Hard	Construct	Iron Defender
Aurum Agent ^{( view • edit )}	●♥30Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite	Dwarf	Dwarf
Aurum Concordian ^{( view • edit )}	●♥30Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite	Dwarf	Dwarf
Aurum Soldier ^{( view • edit )}	●♠45Epic Elite	Dwarf	Dwarf
Iron Golem ^{( view • edit )}	♦13Normal ♥15Hard ♠18Elite ●♥30Epic Hard	Construct	Golem
Large Rust Monster ^{( view • edit )}	♦7Normal ♥9Hard ♠11Elite ●♥28Epic Hard	Aberration	Rust Monster
Lightning Guard Golem ^{( view • edit )}	●♥30Epic Hard	Construct	Golem
Malachi the Breaker ^{( view • edit )}	♠17Elite ●♦23Epic Normal ●♥32Epic Hard	Dwarf	Dwarf
Necrotic Banker ^{( view • edit )}	●♥28Epic Hard ●♠43Epic Elite	Undead	Zombie
Necrotic Engineer ^{( view • edit )}		Undead	Zombie
Necrotic Guard ^{( view • edit )}	●♥30Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite	Undead	Zombie
Otto Knucklebones ^{( view • edit )}	♦12Normal ●♦23Epic Normal ●♥32Epic Hard	Dwarf	Dwarf
Subverted Drone ^{( view • edit )}	●♦22Epic Normal ●♥30Epic Hard ●♠45Epic Elite	Living Construct	Warforged
Subverted Sentinel ^{( view • edit )}	●♥31Epic Hard ●♠46Epic Elite	Living Construct	Warforged
The Rust Emperor ^{( view • edit )}	♠17Elite ●♦23Epic Normal ●♥32Epic Hard	Aberration	Rust Monster