Dear Testers,

welcome to the test server of the 2025 winter update!

This thread deals with the following quest: The Order of the Stag

Kesar, the current leader of the heavily under-siege Bounac is asking his royal advisors to help him in a rather delicate matter. All out war has broken out on the remote Adaean isle as a malicious warlock has taken the reigns in an attempt to overthrow a group of knights. And not exactly the most virtuous to boot. There is a special connection between Kesar and the leader of this group which you are about to reveal. Sending out his remaining naval forces, Kesar has finally run out of lion knights as well as options. Make your way to the isle of Ada and find out what's really going on.

The quest consists of a large explorable area, home to the "Knights of the Stag", a raubritter clan severely under pressure from the warlock attack. Find a way to their bastion and explore all its possible routes to unlock a repeatable hunting ground featuring various areas, each with a different focus. In addition to that, the warlock will pose a rewarding challenge to the players who make it through. Make no mistake as this update is not a typical part of the established orders. While I have finished my trilogy of knightly orders some time ago, many of you have noticed, that there are a few deliberately loose ends left in Bounac. For quite some time I had the intention to add a final secret order to complete the tale. As I rather try something new than repeating an idea one time too often, I decided to build on the concept of the knightly bastions and give it a few spins to refine some of the mechanics I established in the past. As with the main protagonist, Eldoran, who is not... your typical Etzel as you will undoubtedly find out, the quest is designed to challenge (and reward) you in a few new ways.

You can use it to inform us about:

• Quest or map bugs that require a more detailed explanation
  
• Issues with quest logic or progress, certain actions that got you stuck
  
• Inconsistencies in the quest or map

It also helps us if you let us know when (e.g. before or after a specific change) and how you tested something so that we know which version you are referring to.

Please report obvious bugs via the bug report function ingame (press Ctrl+Z):

• Map bugs can be reported by right-clicking on a map field and selecting the entry "Report Coordinate" from the context menu.
  
• Mistakes in NPC chats can be reported by right-clicking on the NPC text in question and selecting the context menu entry "Report Message".

If you want to make us aware of an important balancing topic that is directly related to this update, please use the designated thread.

Kind regards,
Lionet

Official Replies

November 5th:
Nocturnal Beaks and Frozen Starlights

November 6th:
Marks and Guards

November 7th:
Undying Frazzlemaws and Restive Beaks

November 10th:
Hunts, Boats and Beaks

November 11th:
Roshamuul and the Stags

November 13th:
Lore of the Land

November 14th:
Skeleton Key

November 17th:
Beaks of Hope

Greetings everyone, as I see you're already in the middle of Eldoran's struggle with the puppet armies of the warlock, thank you for your feedback so far! There's a lot we have in store for you this time, so keep going and stay frosty

@Eevee Mage: Thank you for the feedback, glad to hear it all works as intended (sorry to hear you found out the hard way ) The target marker is based on an actual enemy you will encounter on the isle, "Adlerauge". As long as this guy is alive and kicking, you will feel the power of his advanced sniping skills. However, players can kill this marksman and the attacks will stop, making the area a whole lot safer to explore.

Venison will be available for sale via the test server assistants after the next update.

@Celso, Akeyooshi and Vda Pedro Assombrando: The night harpy beaks will be available via the test server assistant after the next update. If you want to get them early, you can talk to the assistant and ask for "beaks". He will give you 20 and also set you up so the game knows you actually pulled them from the harpies. This will only work once and you will be able to complete the mission. If you need more beaks, however, you can buy the from the assistant as well and as many as you want.

@Dark Black Magician: Thank you for the feedback, I will take another look at the landing zone. There already is a white deer to mount, the stags on the isle are wild and free, you can hunt some of them but that's as far as we went with them

@Tarmon Gai Don: The frozen starlight needed to get the quest started can now also be bought at test server assistants everywhere. Please also keep in mind that the starlight "shows" players the way. This is true for everyone actually standing in the vicinity in the cathedral when someone does it...

Kind regards,
Lionet

Tarmon Gai Don: The typos should be corrected in the next update, thank you!

Stro Ryoky: We are monitoring the area and are constantly tuning the (overall) difficulty. Changes will of course be announced accordingly, please also check the designated thread Order of the Stag - Hunting Grounds

Aszkrofcik: You will have to physically open or use the chest to see its contents.

Zaritskaya: The marksman's targets will now receive relative damage, it has also been reduced and the effect made more visible. I'm still evaluating the mechanic and adjusting it. Any changes to this will be announced either here or in Order of the Stag - Hunting Grounds

Rymed: The tender venison is to help out Harlan's unit in the outpost. It is a side quest that yields a one-time reward which is currently based on experience. The ship repair parts Demeron wants are an optional side quest as well, and will yield an item. This however, is not directly connected to the quest progress. The beaks are basically needed only once to progress. They have an additional purpose, however, and should be limited to a certain extend

The mark should not hit players near the landing. It's possible that it hits you when in the outpost but that's part of the thread the enemy actually poses, to Harlan and his men as well as players. I will look into this, however You can defeat the marksman causing it, "Adlerauge" and the target will not appear as long as he's put down...

Kusnier Monk: Surely you were posting a friendly reminder for us to address this deficiency. Thank you very much for your report and of course I have arranged a change to the life-cycle of the tamed frazzlemaws which can now be killed, as it should be...

Gebe Danadinho: You are right indeed, the beaks need to be pulled by hand to be counted towards the progress. There is another way for you to actually get the necessary beaks during the test server, however: ask any test server assistant about "beaks" and you will receive 20 beaks as well as the progress needed to complete the mission.

Sir Nefoger: Thank you, the message will work correctly with the next update today. In addition to the message that will warn players when in the vicinity of a target, a glowing red light (if enabled in the client) will now also signal its existence. Concerning the frazzlemaws and as already mentioned previously, they are now killable and will not provide enough health to function as a training dummy anymore. Poor trusty creatures.

Kind regards,
Lionet

@Gebe Danadinho: Interesting, you should not receive the same NPC answer, however. In any case, I will review this situation again and hopefully be able to provide a fix if there is any showstopper left!

Kind regards,
Lionet

Hero Reis: Thank you for the feedback! Some things are still bound to change such as the overall difficulty but most things turned out as I originally envisioned. There is still room to tweak, however, so I will use the remaining time of the external test to fine-tune as much as possible. I'm glad the paths and shortcuts are working to open up the area for future hunting as much as possible.

Meexi: Indeed, it's currently possible to work the mechanism on your own. As you already mentioned correctly, two players are actually required to open this gate, which is completely optional of course but can change navigation in the area quite significantly. This will be fixed via one of the upcoming patches!

Rymed: Thanks for the feedback, I will look into the venison situation and see if that's working as intended. That boat is indeed a shortcut, the one in the south is severely broken, however. It needs to be repaired (certain things are required to do this)

Dark Black Magician: The tender venison ("Supplies for the Steadfast") part was originally repeatable but I made some changes to the design during development and have yet to decide its final implementation. We are currently discussing the beaks and their availability, the occurrence/chances might not yet be final. Concerning the burned bodies, I thought it would be nice to not have to micro-manage an additional device to make fire in this specific situation. Adventurers entering the bastion and getting to this part of the quest probably have their means to burn some corpse at their level. However, it would probably be nice to use an item that is quite common or usually in the backpack of any veteran player. As of now, I decided to make solving this part as fast as possible.

Kind regards,
Lionet

Unlegitrod: Yes, the knights of the Stag have actually been to Roshamuul and managed to catch and tame frazzlemaws for use as their mounts They are great hunters and a lot of their legacy is rooted in the hunt of strong and exotic creatures. As of now there are no new spawns of the Mawhawk or Guzzlemaws, I really like the idea of deepening this connection, however

Sosseguilda: The whereabouts of the herold are part of Harlan's story and basically show their desparation and sevaral unfortunate events led to their current demise Yes I like the story of the orders, too and with the secret order of the Stag I could actually finish something I wanted to do with that lore for quite some time

Kind regards,
Lionet

Palaciror: Thank you for the feedback and your interest in the lore of the Stags! The (secret) order now being revealed indeed ties a few loose ends together (which I wanted to do a lot earlier actually). I'm happy that it worked out like that and would have loved to do even more lore for them. However, I did not take any shortcuts and managed to get practically everything I wanted in there. As you can probably imagine, it's also a question of the time you can put into each update (spoiler: it's limited )so you always just stop at some point, even if there are a lot more ideas.

Kind regards,
Lionet

@Sylvana Blackarrow: There have been a few additional changes to the difficulty (mainly regarding the optional items such as the "battle tactics", see the hunting ground thread for more information)

@Sabarath and Sosseguilda: Thank you for your feedback! Looks like you found all the doors in question, they key now fits one of those. Guess Eldoran's Locksmith was interrupted by the ghosts in the area before the door could be completed... and now you also have an idea who the corpse this key is found on may belong to The fix to this will be online with the next patch (after the weekend), so you will need a bit of patience. But after that all doors that should open will open!

And you found another thing (and shouts out to everyone on Testebra who helped assemble this in time for us to fix it during the external test!): Demeron gave out the wrong compass all along. It should actually be from the Emmanuelle, he and Kesar talked about, the Bounacean flagship currently damaged in the landing bay of the Adaean isle. The Antoinette... is a different story altogether

Kind regards,
Lionet

Dark Black Magician: Regarding fishing: the Stags are master hunters and they also perfected their angling methods. However, they are also very good cooks, creating exquisite dishes and, like true hunters, making the absolute most out of everything a hunted animal has to offer. You had all the access you need even before the key...

Janni and Vichenty: We have taken another look at the harpies and the beak pulling, it should be a rare commodity but it should indeed not be impossible to gather in an appropriate time frame. A few things of the mechanics have been changed accordingly: It will be possible to pull the beaks even after the 10 second limit and you will be able to use the "Scavenge" charm as well. Spawns may be adjusted as well until the final release but we are right now very close to what we envisioned for the hunting ground!

Kind regards,
Lionet

@all: We conclude this year's test server regarding the quest "The Order of the Stag". Thanks to everyone participating and sending us so much valuable feedback! We were able to implement and change a lot during the last few weeks, with some additional adjustments being announced before release! Thanks for playing and I'm looking forward to seeing you on the next test server!

Kind regards,
Lionet