Quests Act Three

Act Three moves to the deep jungle and pits your hero against mutated forest creatures of all kinds, as well as corrupted humans who must be destroyed before you enter a haunted dungeon with a horrible surprise across a moat of blood on the lowest level.

Act Three: The Infernal Gate

The goal of Act Three is to gain entrance to the Durance of Hate and defeat Mephisto, thus enabling yourself to move through to Act Four. The only quest you really have to do is the sixth one, killing Mephisto, though single player characters will need to do the very long Quest Three to get there. Quests One, Two, and Four have very nice rewards, but are otherwise optional.

Quest One: The Golden Bird

• Quest Name: The Golden Bird
• Triggered By: Finding the Jade Figurine
• Location: Anywhere in the act
• Reward: A permanent +20 hit points potion from Alkor
• Quest Priority: This quest is not mandatory, but the +20 hit points is permanent and very much desired.

This is the one quest in the game you can do anywhere in the Act. At some point when you kill a boss monster, it will drop a Jade Figurine. You must return this Jade Figurine to Meshif. He will give you a golden statue which you take to Alkor and get the +20 life potion for.

There is no telling where the boss monster will drop this item, though it is usually the first or second one you kill in the Act, no matter your location. It might be dropped by the first boss monster you see in the Spider Forest, or from one of the High Council near Mephisto on the third level of the Durance of Hate.

Check out the quest talks by the various NPCs while you are doing this one, there are some very funny dialogues, especially from Asheara when you have the Golden Bird, before you give it to Alkor

Tips: If you are creating a game just to find the Statue, it's not a bad idea to go right to Travincal or Durance Two. In either place you'll find boss monsters very quickly, in the form of High Council members.

If you are in a multi-player game, someone else who doesn't even need the quest might kill a boss before you do and have the Jade Figurine drop. If you see this and you've done the quest already, you should announce that it's dropped and pop a portal for anyone in A3 who needs it.

Only one will drop in each game, so even if it drops for someone else who can't pick it up since they've done the quest already, you won't ever see one (unless you find it on the ground where they got it). And as with most quests, if you join a game created by someone who has already done it, you won't be able to do it yourself.

Quest Two: Blade of the Old Religion

• Quest Name: Blade of the Old Religion
• Triggered by: Completing Quest One, or entering the Flayer Jungle
• Given by: Ormus
• Location: Side area off the Flayer Jungle
• Reward: Rare Ring from Ormus. Ring Ilvl: Normal 21, Nightmare 35, Hell 65. The ring's Ilvls are preset, it doesn't matter what your Clvl is when you do this quest or get the reward.
• Quest Priority: Optional quest, but the potentially great reward makes it worth doing.

Ormus tells you that there is an enchantment placed over the town of Kurast that is keeping the monsters out, but that it's weakening, and he needs an Ancient Skatsimi Blade to keep the town protected. You must find it for him. (Of course nothing happens if you don't, the town isn't overrun by Flayers or anything, it's just part of the game plot.)

In each of the very large surface jungle areas (Spider Forest, Great Marsh, Flayer Jungle) of Act Three, there are side pathways marked by two stone pillars. These side areas are where you'll find the entrances to dungeon areas, Waypoints, little villages or spider web areas, etc. In one of these in the Flayer Jungle, you'll find a little Flayer village, the stairs down to the Flayer Dungeon (needed in Quest Three) and the Gidbinn.

The Gidbinn is a small statue with some skulls and woven wooden branches. It shows up on your overhead map and highlights when you point at it. When you click it, it bursts into flames, and after a few seconds a boss Fetish of some kind, usually with a minion pack but sometimes just a lone Champion, appears. You must kill him and when he dies he'll drop the Gidbinn, which looks like an ornate dagger. Take it back to Ormus, and he will thank you, and if you click on him again he'll give you a magical ring with random properties, but with the maximum Ilvl of any prefixes on it set by the difficulty level of the game.

Tips: Clear out the area around the Gidbinn before you click it, so you'll have an easier fight. Keep an eye on the Fetish that appears, it can be a Ratman (only seen in Act One and quite weak compared to the Act Three monsters), Fetish, Flayer, or Soul Killer, but always a melee type, never a shaman or blow pipe. They run very quickly, and its possible to lose sight of him if he runs behind a hut or something and doesn't return.

Quest Three: Khalim's Will

• Quest Name: Khalim's Will
• Triggered by: Completing Quest One or entering the Great Marsh
• Given by: Cain
• Location: Travincal, and elsewhere
  • Khalim's Eye: In a golden chest in the Spider Cavern beneath the Spider Forest.
  • Khalim's Brain: in a golden chest on level three of the Flayer Dungeon beneath the Flayer Jungle.
  • Khalim's Heart: in a golden chest on level two of the sewers, beneath Lower Kurast or Kurast.
  • Khalim's Flail: On a High Council member in Travincal.
  • The Horadric Cube: If you do not already have a cube, one of the the High Council will drop one in Travincal.
• Reward: Use Khalim's Will to smash the Compelling Orb and gain entrance to the Durance of Hate.
• Quest Priority: Not mandatory if you can get a portal from another player inside the Durance of Hate. Otherwise you must do it to smash the Compelling Orb and get into the Durance.

This is the most complicated quest in the game, requiring four components to transmute into "Khalim's Will", a special flail weapon that is used only one time, to smash the Compelling Orb and gain entrance to the Durance of Hate. Once inside the Durance you must descend to the third level where you'll find Mephisto.

The vast majority of characters on Battle.net never do this quest. Most everyone gets a portal into the Durance of Hate from another player, and proceeds to kill Mephisto and go on to Act Four. If you are doing this quest, it will take you a while and you'll have to cover nearly all of Act Three in the process.

To complete this quest you must transmute the four ingredients into Khalim's Will.

Tips: Ask someone for a portal to Durance Two, and skip this entire long and dangerous quest. Often you can party with others of your level, and if no one has the waypoint, someone can get on with one of their higher level characters and give the party the waypoint, then get back on with their initial character and use someone else's portal to the waypoint. Cooperate and save everyone time. You don't need to gather Kalim's organs if another player gives you a town portal into the Durance of Hate, but you must kill the Council in Travincal before you can use such a town portal.

There are two Spider Forest dungeons, one of them is just a bonus area. Check the name and compare to the name of the quest area in your Quest Window if you don't want to waste time, since you need only enter the Spider Cavern. It's always the one not by the Waypoint.

You don't need to enter the Great Marsh in most games. There is usually a connection from the Spider Forest to the Flayer Jungle, so explore the Spider Forest before you plunge into the enormous and frequently dead end Great Marsh, or ask someone for the Flayer waypoint. The Flayer Jungle always connects to Lower Kurast going towards the top right corner of the screen. You can roughly estimate which direction you'll be going in the Flayer Jungle, and figure about which direction you need to head to get there from

If you don't have a Horadric Cube, one of the High Council members in Travincal will drop one, since you must have it to transmute the ingredients.

Khalim's Will is a very useful item for lower level characters, since it has the fastest swing speed of any one-handed item in the game, no Clvl requirements, and does a lot of elemental damage. It's a great item to assemble and then "twink" to your lower level characters for them to use early on in the game.

Quest Four: Lam Esen's Tome

• Quest Name: Lam Esen's Tome
• Triggered by: Completing Quest Two, or entering the Ruined Temple
• Given by: Alkor
• Location: Ruined Temple in the Kurast Bazaar
• Rewards: Five stat points
• Quest Priority: Not required, but most do it to get the bonus stat points.

Alkor will tell you that there is a special book written long ago by a sage known as Lam Esen that may hold valuable information about how to battle the evil that is now engulfing the land. You must recover it.

This quest is optional, and can be quite dangerous, but has a nice reward. The game tells you to search the temples beneath the Kurast Bazaar, Upper Kurast and The Kurast Causeway. You don't need to do this, the temple with the book is always the Ruined Temple, and it's always in the Kurast Bazaar. There are two temples in the Bazaar, one is the Disused Fane, and the other is the Ruined Temple. You'll see the name once you click the stairs, and you need only enter the Ruined Temple.

The book will be inside it, past a Super Unique Corrupted Rogue boss Sarina the Battlemaid. She is always extra fast, and there will be a lot of other monsters in the temple, and usually at least one other random boss monster, all in a very small area, so be careful.

Tips: Know the correct Ruined Temple, in Kurast Bazaar, the others aren't necessary to do. The temple (and the other five in the area) are very full of monsters and worth a lot of experience and potential items, but they are very dangerous owing to the cramped nature of them. You can quite often get a deadly stair trap where there will be a boss monster pack on the screen when you enter, and you'll be totally swarmed and perhaps die before the level even finishes loading. Do not do this quest with a Hardcore character unless you have minions to protect you or are feeling very lucky. The quest isn't hard if you don't get swarmed at the entrance, but you never know if you will or not. Party with a Necromancer or a Druid, or at least get some huge hit points character like a Barb or a Druid to go down first. Even then, you can be in Act Four soon, with more monsters and better items and experience, so it's not really worth the risk.

There are almost always Meteor-firing Dark Lords in the Ruined Temple, so be sure your fire resistance is up to the task.

You don't need to kill anything in the Ruined Temple, just get the book and return it to Alkor, but it's very cramped down there, so teleporting around with a Sorceress to get the book and leave is quite dangerous.

Quest Five: The Blackened Temple

• Quest Name: The Blackened Temple
• Triggered by: Completing Quest Four or entering the Kurast Causeway
• Given by: Ormus
• Location: Travincal
• Rewards: No reward, other than being able to enter the Durance of Hate.
• Quest Priority: Not required if you can get into the Durance of Hate, but if you can not, then this quest must be completed.

To complete the quest you must smash the Compelling Orb with Khalim's Will. The final item of the Will is Khalim's Flail, and it's dropped by one of the High Council. You will find three of them there.

There are six members of the Zakarum High Council. Over the centuries they have been the heads of the Zakarum religion, charged with their holy duty of guarding the imprisoned Lord of Hatred, Mephisto. However they have turned to evil over the years, and been corrupted by Mephisto's influence. The six are now his servants, transformed by his demonic powers into disfigured and fearsome demons. You find three of them in Travincal, and three more on the third level of the Durance of Hate.

In Travincal you'll see Ismail Vilehand, Geleb Flamefinger, and Toorc Icefist. These guys are like extra powerful random boss monsters, they all have two preset modifiers, and gain another one on Nightmare and two on Hell. They can raise Hydras and heal themselves, so be prepared for a wild battle.

Once you defeat the one that drops the Flail, you can smash the Compelling Orb. Once it is destroyed the normal Zakarum will all run from you, rather than attacking. The Orb was "compelling" them to evil, but with it smashed they are free and don't want to fight. Any remaining High Council or their minions will still attack though, as will other monsters, such as the Dark Lords you see in Travincal.

Tips: Use the terrain around Travincal to your advantage. There are numerous areas with ledges and other things the High Council can't leap over to get to you, and if you have a ranged attack you can hit them from safety, aside from the Hydras they'll raise to shoot you.

Travincal is always the same layout, so learn it, and you'll know where the safe spots are, where the waypoint is (over to the upper left). Dark Lords abound in Travincal, and they can see you right through the walls of the temples, and call down Meteors. If you are being bombed by Meteors and can't see the attacker, try running into whatever temples are nearby and looking in the corners.

You don't need to smash the Compelling Orb if another player gives you a town portal into the Durance of Hate, but you must kill the Council in Travincal before you can use such a town portal.

Quest Six: The Guardian

• Quest Name: The Guardian
• Triggered by: Smashing the Compelling Orb or entering the Durance of Hate
• Given by: Ormus
• Location: Mephisto is on level three of the Durance of Hate, entered from the large temple in Travincal
• Rewards: None from NPCs, but you will find a portal to take you to Act Four.
• Quest Priority: You must complete this quest to move on to Act Four

On the third level of the Durance of Hate you'll find Mephisto. You must kill him to gain access to the Hell Gate, the portal to Act Four. You can see it in the middle of the blood lake, but can't get to it, even with teleport or leap attack, until you kill Mephisto. Once he's dead and you walk over towards the Portal from his side of the blood, a bridge of skeletons will emerge from the blood.

Mephisto is not all that hard, his main weapon is a fast cold ball that can do huge damage if you lack sufficient cold resistance. He also has a charged bolt sort of attack and a close range poison attack, but neither of those are real dangerous to a properly-equipped character.

It's often harder to get to him, with the three High Council members on the level. Beware of Bremm Sparkfist, Wyand Voidbringer, and Maffer Dragonhand. Bremm has a few minions and is always near the entrance to the large room with the blood pools. He was terribly difficult in Diablo II pre-v1.08, since he was always Lightning Enchanted and Blessed Aim Aura Enchanted, and on Nightmare and Hell he would very often get Multi-shot also. He's also very quick, and will usually just devour any minions you put in his path. Since v1.08 he's changed from Lightning to Fire Enchanted, so he is much less dangerous.

Around Mephisto and often elsewhere on the level you'll find lots of Dark Lords, so get used to Meteors raining down.

Tips: You can kill Mephisto from a distance if you have a ranged attack and can't go toe to toe. Get him to come over near the Blood moat and run around to the other side. If you keep him just on the edge of the screen, you can shoot him with impunity.

Bremm Sparkfist is always in the middle of the room, but the other two High Council members are in the side rooms, so you can fight one or the other of them going around, but you won't have to do both unless you go looking for them.

If Bremm Sparkfist or one of the other High Council bosses are too hard to kill, and too fast to ditch, you can lead them into a side room and take a town portal out, then take another character's portal or the waypoint back down and go through Level three without having to deal with them, as long as you leave them in whatever side room you ditched them in by your portal. This works in reverse also; cast a portal near Mephisto, lead the High Council to the stairs up, run to the waypoint, and go down your portal.