Cyliena The Hedge Hollow
A Nightmarish Illness is the first Hedge Hollow quest and is non-repeatable. To begin the series speak to Altius Volfban at /loc 758, 2, -146 by the Nektulos Forest docks.
- Speak with Setri Lur’eth on the northwestern end of the Nektulos beach at /loc 1087, 0, -329
- Speak again to Altius
- Enter Hedge Hollow (see below)
- Return to Setri to complete the quest
A Nightmarish Return is the repeatable version of A Nightmarish Illness. It cuts out everything but the maze run. Enter Hedge Hollow (see below) to receive the quest, which is infinitely repeatable.
Train to Zone! is a side quest that can be completed every 18 hours. It is only available during A Nightmarish Return.
Hedge Hollow Walkthrough
Found in the same location as The Cauldron Hollow on Nektulos Forest’s beach at /loc 883, 7, -470, The Hedge Hollow is where players search for the cure for a mysterious and nightmarish illness. It was first introduced for Nights of the Dead in 2009. Mercenaries are not allowed in this zone.
This walkthrough does not mention all the random mobs you will encounter throughout the hedge maze. Expect to be fighting a lot, though most will be single mob encounters. It is highly suggested that if you spot a dead end that this walkthrough does not take you into, you visit it to check for purple shinies or to see if there’s another mob you can fight. Everything mentioned in this walkthrough is intended to unlock the various places within the maze, allowing you to complete the quests associated with this zone.
Phase I
- Inspect the stump and slay the infected wolf at /loc 881, 8, -493. Head west from the stump into the hedge.
- Take all right turns until you reach a house at /loc 890, 10, -510 with a rusted chest on the porch
- You cannot open the chest yet, so head northwest from the porch stairs and continue to take right turns until you reach the first graveyard at /loc 873, 8, -532
- Step near the corpses one by one in the first graveyard to “awaken” them
- Defeat the risen corpse at /loc 875, 8, -522 and loot it to obtain a Rusted key
- Return to the rusted chest and open it
- Loot the dull machete from the chest
Phase II
- Head southwest from the house, and continue west through the hedge, and take the second left turn
- Take the twists and turns until you reach a hedge with pulsing waves beneath it at /loc 985, 8, -503
- A message will also pop up stating that you could cut through it with something sharp enough
- Approach the hedge, target it, then fight an animated hedge
- Walk through the hedge and take a sharp left turn
- Follow the twisting maze until you come to a house with a door /loc 995, 10, -547
- Right click the door, and choose the Treat option
- Kill Old Man Dave
- Head back to the first walk-through hedge, return through it, and take a left a few steps beyond
- Follow the twisting maze again until you come to an intersection at /loc 903, 8, -590
- This splits west to the second walk-through hedge at /loc 931, 8, -598 or northeast toward the fog and a second graveyard at /loc 883, 8, -629. Take the NE path first.
- Sometimes the second animated hedge aggros before you reach this intersection. If this happens, just slay the hedge and proceed NE as normal to the second graveyard.
Phase III
- At the second graveyard, repeat what you did at the first by walking near the corpses
- Fight the risen corpse at /loc 892, 8, -637 and loot it to obtain a grime covered hand holding a key
- South-southeast of the second graveyard is a house at /loc 882, 10, -565 with a bag on the porch
- Click the bag to spawn A Headless Knight for you to fight
- You must kill the knight to open up the hedge beyond Raven, who you will encounter later in the maze
- Head north to return to the second graveyard at /loc 883, 8, -629 and turn back southwest and again west at the intersection
- Fight an animated hedge and walk through the hedge at /loc 931, 8, -598
- Take a sharp right around the corner and you will reach a house at /loc 914, 10, -623 with a grime covered chest on the porch
- You should be able to open the chest with the grime covered key from the second graveyard
- Loot the Frictionless Piece of Eight from the chest and expect some… changes
Phase IV
- Go back around the house and re-enter the maze by heading northwest
- Follow the twists and turns again until you reach 1012, 8, -631, where you’ll find Raven and eight summoned bats
- Slay Raven and the summoned bats will die upon her death
- Head south from Raven’s location and continue follow the maze until you come across a house with some tasty tidbits in front of it at /loc 998, 8, -584
- Slay all five tasty morsels and continue to the north through the maze
Phase V
- After winding around the maze a short ways, you will reach an opening at /loc 1007, 8, -563 where you enter a cut scene
- After the cut scene…
- Turn west-northwest and head toward the small area behind the house you are next to at/loc 1019, 8, -570
- Slay a trained entity (this mob will be in a different location between the hedge gap and behind the house if you exit the cut scene early)
- At this point, if this is at least your second run (A Nightmarish Return) through the zone, you can speak to a terrified gnome and receive the quest, Train to Zone!
- If it is your first run (A Nightmarish Illness), the gnome will attack you instead
Train to Zone!
- The journal is at /loc 915, 8, -639, behind the house where you found a grime covered chest
- The skull is at/loc 918, 8, -525, west, and around the hedge corner, from where you found a rusted chest
- The dagger is at/loc 875, 8, -503, south of the first graveyard, then tucked behind the building
- The dolly is at/loc 864, 8, -584, southeast of the second graveyard at an abrupt dead-end in the maze
Phase VI
- Return back to the opening where the cut scene occurred and continue east through the maze
- You will come to a dead end where you will find a statue at /loc 949, 8, -581
- Click the statue to warp into the center of the maze, where you will immediately enter another cut scene
- Inside the center of the maze at /loc 943, 8, -563, you’ll be confronted by the final boss
- It is an even con, epic x2 mob that should be soloable by this point in the zone
- After slaying the boss, he will have a body drop called a pair of gleaming lockpicks
- The lockpicks are used to open A Gleaming Chest, reached by passing through a walk-through hedge (there are no pulsing waves beneath this one) at /loc 971, 8, -599
- Slaying the boss will cause A Nightmarish Return to auto-complete. For A Nightmarish Illness, you must return to Nektulos to speak to Setri Lur’eth.
A Gleaming Chest
There are certain requirements you must meet before you will be permitted to even see A Gleaming Chest. It is impossible to open the chest during your first trip to the maze.
- Complete the Haunted Mansion at Loping Plain’s Village of Somborn
- Complete the Hedge Hollow quest from a terrified gnome, Train to Zone!
- The Gleaming Chest hedge is located at /loc 971, 8, -599 and has have some cobblestones on the ground before it
- Walk south through the hedge, and loot A Gleaming Chest at /loc 971, 8, -579
Thank you!!
11:40 am Pacific – Down. After about an hour of play on one character I logged to another and got dropped back to LOGIN. Okay. Attempt to Log in.. and LaunchPad shows an invalid login or password. Upon attempting to log to Support: “The system has encountered an error. Please come back and try again later.” The preceding is a statement of fact. The following is an opinion: Perhaps a warning of about a week..PLAINLY posted in several locations… followed by a week long FULL SHUT DOWN while the chaos ensues..instead of pretending everything is going fine, launching new expansions, asking for pre-order commitments from players, engaging in holiday events and moving offices all at the same time.. It is no wander (and this is a metaphor) that I cringe when you offer to change a light bulb: The house is falling down!
Cyliena, please would you consider putting up a table with this info? The Quest Tracker from Zam was an essential part of every EQ2 holiday for me 🙂
Oh yes, knew I was missing something. I’ll see if there’s a way we can get a printable of those event trackers over here. Since there were no new quests this year, last year’s NotD tracker on ZAM will still work for now. 🙂
A Nightmarish Illness is bugged. The “a grime covered hand holding a key” did not drop from the mobs in the 2nd graveyard, making this quest uncompletable for me.
I thought that happened to me once, and it turned out I missed “waking up” one of the zombies. Another time I accidentally let the key rot on the corpse. If anything, leaving and re-entering the zone should usually fix it.