Quest: Key to the Garden of Thrak   Braving your steps into the shadowlands, one aches for a place to unwind and recuperate after the raging battles. This is where gardens come in - erected to honor each side of the conflict's heroes, these lush and tranquil garden monuments will aide you in your suffering.         For each type of playfield there are four "gardens", two for each side, and often a tribute to a particular grand hero of that side. The gardens themselves comes in two varieties, the regular Gardens you will come across first, and later Sanctuaries. Think of it as a step up on the career ladder. All in all there is little difference between a Garden and a Sanctuary, except for a few services rendered there from the minions of said hero (like nanoprograms). This guide however will deal with the Garden of Thrak, a hero of the Unredeemed side (Omni). Although it's quite possible for the opposing side to visit each others gardens and stir up trouble, doing the actual quests from the minions of the opposing side is not recommended. Most often these tasks and quests from one side requires you to have a certain standing with them (Faction - see here) and should you wish to serve one, it will mean betraying the other. NOTE: To more easily complete this quest, you need a minimum of 5 Thrak Insignias to complete this quest - 1 to enter the Garden for the first time, 3 to charge the analyzer 3 times, and 1 to re-enter the garden to complete the quest. One Insignia is also used to show Yutt Thrak, but you will get this one back.. If you have a couple extra Insignias, you can use them to cut down on the travel time required by going back into the garden through the various statues placed in Nascence.. Insignias of Thrak can be found mostly on neutral mobs, and on Redeemed mobs. You can also talk to the person on the bridge out of Jobe Research into Nascence, inquire about insignias and you will receive one of each for free (Thrak for Unredeemed and Aban for Redeemed). That said, and if you wish to commit to the minions of Thrak, lets take a stroll in the park. This particular garden quests actually starts off as a buildup on the already menial tasks presented by the Jobe technicians in Jobe Research, where your dealings with them will lead you on a trail to seek out one of two scientists working out in the field. Doing the previous tasks is by no means necessary, they just point you in the right direction. The one we are looking for is a rather uptight young miss Veronica Escobar - she is working out in the Nascence Frontier, doing research on the importance of the recently discovered statues spread throughout the Shadowlands. Veronica Escobar can be found at approx. 750x1875, in Nascence Frontier. Simply start talking to her to learn more about these mysterious statues. To be able to identify you as being who you say you are, you must have the Jobe Bracer on you, the one that Scientist Drake in the Jobe Research Backyard gave you. If you do not have this bracer, simply go to the backyard and ask Drake about it when you see it on him. With the bracer in your possession, give it to Veronica when she asks for it. You will get it back, she just need to take some readings off it. Brushing you off initially, you will eventually learn how Veronica has found an ancient device she knows nothing about, but could be tied to the statues, and that of-course, she herself is much to important to be running around the woods. That is where we come in, for the running around the woods part. Business as usual. You will receive a mission in your missions-tab for this, where you are to seek out a settlement to the west, to see if anyone there would know anything about this peculiar Ancient Device that Veronica found, now in your possession. The settlement to the west she speaks of is marked on the global shadowlands map you have, as a "Unredeemed Village". The travel there however is a long trek. Start by heading further north from Veronica, then break off west. Up a small hill you will change zones and find yourself in the western part of Nascence called Nascence Wilds. You are to cross two stone bridges directly west, until you find yourself on the westernmost large peninsula. From here on, continue south a long way, past the looming black mountain, until you can see the tall blackened stone walls of the Unredeemed ruins. NOTE: Another much easier way however, is to simply visit the Garden of Thrak prematurely. You can cut down on a fair bit of traveltime here, if you have a good stock of Thrak Insignias. For this first bit, simply use a Thrak Insignia on the statue behind Veronica and you will find yourself in the garden. From here, either go through the statue-portal to Brawl, or jump out into the void from anywhere in the garden, and you will find yourself right smack in the middle of the unredeemed village we are to visit, saving you quite a long walk. Keep in mind this method will expend the insignias we are to use further down the line in this quest, so be sure you have enough or are able to quickly find more of them.   Well down in the Unredeemed Village, we are to locate a minion of Thrak called Prophet Yutt Thrak. When you enter the settlement from the north, he can be found up a staircase to your left, on the far side of a great hole in the stone floor of a large hall. The coords are 300x1000, Nascence Wilds. Yutt Thrak is indeed the person we need to find, so strike up a conversation with him. A general reminder here is that most Unredeemed are only impressed with power and standing, and not your ability to help elderly ladies cross the street. Giving them any lip will quickly put you in disfavor, so succumb for the time being. Yutt Thrak won't just send you on your way just like that though. First you have to show him the Ancient Device to catch his interest. Then you are tasked with another assignment to bring back proof of Thrak's divine presence in Nascence. Simply tell Yutt Thrak you have the proof and hand him an Insignia of Thrak and you will gain his favor. Yutt Thrak knows more about the ancient device than he lets on at first, and once you have dealt with him, he tasks you with finding an actual Statue of Thrak. These are spread across nascence, but not always at the most convenient locations. You should already be familiar with the statue behind Veronica, but there are also a couple a bit closer to your current location, north in Nascence Wilds. Open the original worldmap over Nascence and look for small orange dots - these indicate Thrak Statues. Your next task is to locate and target one of these statues. Do not make the mistake of using one when you find it, but select the statue itself and keep it targeted until you get a "mission complete" indication. If you skip this part and enter the garden right away, you won't be able to continue to the next part. Once the Thrak Statue is targeted and that task completes, use an Insignia of Thrak on the statue and enter the garden. You should have a new task uploaded telling you to locate a certain minion inside the garden. Namely Hypnagogic Urga-Lum Thrak. He can be found on the west side of the garden, at 460x350. As with the other minions he is very interested in the Ancient Device and will demand to see it when you first talk to him. Urga-Lum will recognize the device as an ancient Xan artifact and when you get it back after inspection, it reads as an Ancient Pattern Analyzer.   Now for the real task in this grand quest. Urga-Lum will instruct you to claim 3 feeble souls in the name of Thrak, by using the ancient pattern analyzer you now have. The first step is to charge the analyzer, and is done by combining an Insignia of Thrak with the Analyzer.   + =   Ancient Pattern Analyzer favored by the Chosen One This Pattern Analyzer was forged by the ancient civilization referred to as the Xan. It has also been charged with an Insignia of Thrak, affecting its abilities considerably. Now we are ready to kick ass and claim souls. We are looking for a very specific type of feeble pesky creatures known as Silvertails. Quickest way to find some will be to head north in the garden and locate the 4 statues there. One of them should read "Nascence Frontier 1" - right-click it to be exited into Nascence again, near Veronica.   From here, head south towards Jobe Research again along the valley. You are bound to happen upon some Silvertails soon enough. Check them carefully though - you are looking for regular silvertails, not ones who have been previously altered. You can see this by their names and size as unaltered ones are usually smaller. When you got a prime target on your hands, right click it to open an action interface much like talking. If you have the fully charged Ancient Pattern Analyzer handy, you will get the option to use it on the creature in a "give items" interface. Do so and the device will empower the creature, claiming it's soul in the process. The changes are evident as the Silvertail will become a Cursed Silvertail and nearly doubles in size before your very eyes. One down, two to go. Left in your inventory after this process is the Ancient Pattern Analyzer, and now has to be recharged with another Thrak Insignia before it can be used again. Do so and claim two more silvertail souls and you should get an indication that your task is complete. Now all that is left is to return to Hypnagogic Urga-Lum Thrak and report your successful missionary endeavors. You are probably closest to the statue by Veronica by now, so head back there and use another Thrak insignia on the statue, then go find Urga-Lum again. Let him know you have claimed the three souls you were tasked with and he demands to see the pattern analyzer again. Once confirmed you will finally complete this grand task and be rewarded with the permanent key to the Garden of Thrak.   Key to the Garden of Thrak This is the key to the garden of Thrak. To use the key you need to pick it up and click on the Thrak statue. So what does it do? For starters, it works like a permanent Thrak Insignia, in that you don't have to keep using the insignias on the statues to get to a garden. Having the Key of Thrak in your inventory or on you, and using it to click on the statue, you will be transported to the Thrak Garden. Secondly, once you receive more of these permanent keys, you can use them on a special statue inside the garden that will instantly transport you to other gardens in the shadowlands - ie, if you have the Key to the Garden of Shere, you can enter the Garden of Thrak, locate the transport statue, and be teleported directly to the Garden of Shere. In addition to all this, the permanent keys can also be used on select statues on Rubi-Ka itself, transporting you directly from Rubi-Ka to the garden of choice you have the key to. And last but not least, since machines like the flying Yalmaha's and other means of transportation has no use in the Shadowlands, the permanent Key can also be worn in the slot you usually keep the vehicles (Hud1). The Thrak Key will then give you a bonus of +2 to Treatment and Firstaid, very coveted skills to have handy. Last updated 04. December 2003 See what others have said about this article, or post your own comments regarding this in our forums.