Guide:Walkthroughs/The Shroudbreaker

This Article is a Walkthrough with expandable Hints and image Galleries of The Shroudbreaker Tall Tale. For general information on the Tall Tale, visit The Shroudbreaker (Quest) page.

Guide
For those that do not want to be completely spoiled of the Tall Tale can find expandable Hints in each section that allow Players to find solutions to a specific problem only. The full written Walkthrough with a Gallery of each step can be found below the Hints sections.

For those that also want to complete all of the Commendations tied to the Tall Tale should also keep their eyes out for the five Mercia's Journals that need to be found and read for the Mercia's Lost Memories Commendation. The best time to find and look for each of these Journals is noted in the Walkthrough, but the journal contents and exact locations with images can be found in the Journals section below.

There are also three unlockable Checkpoints in this Tall Tale that are marked in the Walkthrough below. After receiving a Checkpoint, Players can leave or vote to cancel the Tall Tale and continue it from that Checkpoint at a later time by putting it up for a vote on the Voyage Table. All necessary Quest Items for Tale completion will be placed on the Voyage Table after a Checkpoint is voted for.

Opening
To start the Tall Tale, each member of the crew must vote for its Tale Book on the table next to the Mysterious Stranger in the Tavern of any Outpost. When active, the Stranger will share the Tale Book with you and clue you in on further details.

''Note: Although this can be started at any Outpost, Ancient Spire Outpost is closest to your first destination and you can pick up Mercia's Journal #2 while you are there.

The Tale Book
When the Crew has voted on the Tall Tale and listened to the Mysterious Stranger, they are given The Journal of the Pirate Lord Tale Book. Once acquired, any Tale Book can be equipped and read from the Map Radial Menu, viewed with the Primary Use button (/) and showed with Secondary Use (/). When looking closely at the Tale Book with Primary Use, it's pages can be turned to read on (Previous Page:/ ; Next Page:/).

The first pages of the Journal of the Pirate Lord are always the same:

The Lost Voyage
The first task of the crew is to find the shipwreck of Magpie's Wing and retrieve the Ship's Log. Finding the Ship's Log will unlock The Lost Voyage Commendation and the first Checkpoint of the Tall Tale.

''Note: Now would be a good time to pick up Mercia's Journal #1 on the Uncharted Island.

Walkthrough
The Pirate Lord's Ship Magpie's Wing was defeated by Flameheart's Ship, The Burning Blade at an Uncharted Islet at the co-ordinates N-13, between The Crooked Masts and Crook's Hollow. Sail to the Island and swim below to find the broken Shipwreck on the west side of the islets. Magpie's Wing Ship's Log can be found in the Captain's Quarters ready to be picked up. It has been reported to appear on the Captain's Chair and on the broken Bookshelf.

On Path of a Legend
After you've found the Ship's Log, it will be added as extra pages to your Tale Book. At this point of the Voyage, the content of the pages and the destinations of the puzzles may vary, giving some variety for replays. Your goal here is to determine the location of the Ancient Chest and its contents, a Totem Key that are both referenced on page 3 and 4 of the Tale Book.

The Ship's Log tracks the chase of Magpie's Wing through The Ancient Isles and describes their heading by using Islands and Compass directions as pointers. As such, this part of the Tall Tale may require knowledge of the following elements to solve the Ship's Log puzzle:
 * The names, shapes and types of Islands in The Ancient Isles
 * Compass directions
 * Nautical orientation terms like Port and Starboard

''Note: Now would be a good time to pick up Mercia's Journal #3 at Devil's Ridge.

The following pages show one possible version of the Magpie's Wing Ship's Log Puzzle.

Walkthrough
As stated before, the added Tale Book pages with the Ship's Log always record the Magpie’s Wing's voyage across The Ancient Isles, making entries upon reaching ambiguously named islands along the path and stating which Island's waters the Ancient Chest was dropped in.

The most important entry to pay attention to is the entry that documents the location where the "Chest" was dropped overboard. This marks the Island where you will find the next Quest Item, the Ancient Chest. As such, you don't necessarily need to go to each location that the Ship's Log mentions yourself, but you can determine the final Island by going to a Map Table and tracking the journey there instead. Despite this, if you feel safer by tracking the whole journey and have the time, then go ahead and sail through the whole experience yourself.

The Ship's Log has so far been reported to lead to 7 different Islands with the Ancient Chest: Fools Lagoon, Chicken Isle, Snake Island, Paradise Spring, Cutlass Cay, Lookout Point and Devil's Ridge.

Here are a few documented pointers to the different wordings used to describe locations in The Ancient Isles:
 * Fortified Island - Refers to any of the Fortress Islands.
 * Large Tangled Nest of Islands - This refers to Shark Bait Cove. Not to be confused with the near-by Old Salts Atoll, which is a Small Island.
 * Small Shallow Isles - This refers to Old Salts Atoll instead.
 * Chain/Clump of Islands - This refers to the three Island Snake Island on the Northern side of the Region.
 * Large Island with Tall Arches - This refers to Thieves' Haven, although it may also just be referred to as a Large Island.
 * Large Island - Any of the Large Islands in the Region.
 * Small Isle(t)/(Island) - Any of the Small Islands in the Region.
 * Port - A nautical orientation term signifying the Left side of the Ship.
 * Starboard - A nautical orientation term signifying the Right side of the Ship.

Click Expand to see the puzzles and solutions for each riddle below:

Once you have pin-pointed the Island where the Ancient Chest was thrown overboard at, look at the direction from the Island itself where the Chest is supposed to be dropped at. This may be described with Compass directions or simply Top or Bottom of the Island, signifying North and South respectively. Your next task is to swim towards the coast of that direction until you notice a White Glint in the sands. If you are having trouble locating the Glint, you may want to swim from different sides or to different distances, as the Chest can either be quite far from the shoreline, too close to notice the Glint, or hidden by structures and water foliage.

After you have located the submerged Chest, you can take it with you or open it and take the contents. The chest contains a random Vault Totem and additional Tale Book pages with clues regarding the Vault's location.

Vault of the Ancients
When you have acquired the Ancient Chest, you will find additional Tale Book pages and a Totem Key inside. The additional pages give you clues regarding the Totem Vault's location and cryptic hieroglyphs to help you solve the Puzzle of the Vault. The second Checkpoint of the Tall Tale is unlocked after picking up the Totem Key. When the second Checkpoint is voted for at the Voyage Table a Totem Key will appear on the Table.

Note: Now would be a good time to pick up Mercia's Journal #3 on Devil's Ridge and #4 hidden on Thieves' Haven.

There are a total of 6 different Totem Keys and Totem Vaults that the player can acquire at this step of the Tall Tale. The possible Key items are: The Moon Totem, Scarab Totem, Snake Totem, Shark Totem, Crab Totem, Boar Totem. The first additional page of the Journal will clue you in on the Island of the Totem Vault matching the Totem Key.

When you have located the Island you will have to look for the actual location of the Vault on the Island by following the Riddle in the Tale Book and searching for the matching Cave Paintings. All of these locations have a well-hidden square shaped rock Totem Pedestal where the Totem Key can be placed to open the Totem Vault.

Note:This Tall Tale always defaults to the Scarab Totem Key and Scarab Totem Vault on Crook's Hollow, however when another Crew is doing this Tall Tale, the Crew will be given a different Totem Key and Island to go to.

Finding and opening the Totem Vault will unlock the Vault of the Ancients Commendation.

Walkthrough
So at this point, you will have two new additional Tale Book pages and a specific Totem Key. The first additional page will tell you most everything you need to know for this part. It will highlight the island with the specific Totem Vault for your Totem Key with a riddle for its location and paintings of the Totem itself. You can find the location of all the Vaults in the table below:

Every Vault has 'Cave Paintings matching the Totem close to its location to show you that you are at the right place. Now you need to search for the "Keyhole". This keyhole is going to be a small square-shaped carving on a smaller stone pedestal. The keyhole is mostly hidden in or among rocks close to the Cave Paintings. If you look in the direction of the keyhole, it will give you a "Key needed to unlock" prompt (see Gallery below). The keyhole is easier to find if you hold the Totem Key in hand and try looking around for the prompt to Place the Totem to appear (see Gallery below).

The Tall Tale gives you the Scarab Totem by default, requiring you to go to the Scarab Vault on Crook's Hollow. Other Totem Keys and Island Vaults can be received if there is already a Crew doing the first Tall Tale on that server.

Image Guide
Click Expand to see the exact locations of each Totem Vault below:

The Key to Adventure
When you have managed to locate and open the Totem Vault, proceed inside, but be careful as traps and puzzles await you! Every Totem Vault has two puzzles to overcome: A Pillar Puzzle and a Medallion Puzzle. Both of these puzzles are accompanied by their own dangers. Overcome these challenges and you will find what you were looking for inside the Vault! It it recommended that you read ahead as the first puzzle is timed and failure means starting over from the beginning of the quest.

After solving all the Puzzles of the Totem Vault and retrieving its Treasure, the Crew will be awarded the Vault of the Ancients Commendation and unlock the third and final Checkpoint.

The Pillar Puzzle
Once inside the Vault itself, you will have to first find a way to activate its mechanisms. Looking around the room should give you visible message prompts on what may be needed. The four Pillars will light up if you have managed to activate the mechanisms correctly, after which water will start filling up the room and you will have to solve three rounds of Puzzles regarding the correct placement and order of the four Pillars in the room. If you cannot manage to solve the puzzle in time, the vault will completely fill up with water leaving you locked in and you will immediately fail the Tall Tale.

Also note the Bug in this section to avoid any undue frustration.

Walkthrough
This is the part where the Tall Tale gets really interesting and you have to start thinking on your feet. To activate the Pillar mechanisms, you have to Raise your Lantern by the four braziers on the Table and light them up. After this, the room will start filling with water leaving you on a timer and no escape. You will notice that the four pillars will light up with neon-green figures. You can Rotate these pillars to switch between the figures.

If you take a look at the last page of the Tale Book, you will notice three lines of figures similar to the pillars. Your goal here is to line up the four pillars to follow the instructions of the separate lines in the Tale Book starting with the first line.

Once you are satisfied with the pillar placement, go to the Table and press a button to Enter a Solution. If the solution is correct, the pillars will refresh with new images. If the solution is wrong, they will flash red. Once you have the correct pattern and entered the solution, you will move to the next line in the book and repeat the process.

There are two types of clues in the book.


 * The lines in the book with only pictures and no number require you to match the symbols on the pillars to the pictures in the book.
 * The lines in the book with number and words require you use the symbols on all for pillars to add up to the numbers in the book. For example "8 Boats" would mean you would need a picture of 2 boats on each pillar, or 3 boats on two pillars and 1 boat on each of the other two, or any combination that adds up to 8.

The words and types of pictures also matter when matching.


 * "Followers" means pictures of people with the diamond shape above them.
 * "Warriors" means picture of people with swords.
 * "Boats" means pictures of any boats.
 * "Shroudbreaker" means the picture of a person holding a depiction of the Shroudbreaker over his head.

Keep these in mind when matching pictures or adding things together. Mixing warriors and followers to get a total number would not work for example.

Example clues and pillar placements can be found by clicking Expand Below:

The Medallion Puzzle
Take a breath, Pirate! The next part of the Totem Vault is to find three Totem Medallions hidden in specific locations of each Totem island. After you have successfully solved the Pillar Puzzle, you will see cloudy apparitions on the central table pointing you towards specific landmarks. Watch out, as these Medallions are protected by ancient guardians! Stock up on some health items and retrieve the Medallions to the Vault Room to progress.

Walkthrough
After the Pillar Puzzles, the central Table in the Vault will now show you an image of three landmarks on the Island with golden circles marking the exact spots where the Medallions are buried. The three Medallions of a single Island are always buried at the same locations. You will have to go to these landmarks and dig with your Shovel at the place indicated by the golden circle. It is recommended to take a picture of the table images to see exactly where the Medallions are buried.

With every Medallion you dig up, a few Coral Skeletons will appear, dispatch them take the Medallion back to the table and move to the next one.

Medallion Locations:

Take each of the Medallions back to the Vault and place them in the Slots at the side of the Table. After you have found and placed all three Medallions, the stone door between the pillars should lower and reveal the Shroudbreaker to you!

The Grand Adventure Begins
Once you have the prized Artifact from the Totem Vault, you will need to escape the endless waves of Coral Skeletons who come to swarm you and return the prized possession to the Mysterious Stranger waiting at any tavern. These Skeletons spawn infinitely, making them useful for farming certain Commendations that require players to kill Skeletons in specific ways. After handing over the Shroudbreaker to the Stranger, you will hear a few words from the fellow and the Tall Tale will be finished! For those who want to quickly complete their 5 Completions of the Tall Tale for the Footsteps of the Pirate Lord Commendations, they can have a friend acquire the last Checkpoint of the Tall Tale, place it up for vote and leave themselves. The last Checkpoint will place the Shroudbreaker on your Voyage Table. To keep their Checkpoint, the player who placed it on the table has to leave the session before the tale is completed.

"Note: Although this can be finished at any Outpost, you can grab Mercia's Journal #5 if you head over to Plunder Outpost.

Mercia's Journals
Looking at the Commendations of the Tall Tale, you may have noticed one of them requiring the Crew to find all of Mercia's Journals. These five Journals can only be found and read when the Tall Tale is active and they are only present for the Crew who is doing the Tall Tale. These Journals are hidden around The Ancient Isles Region retelling the accounts of Mercia and her own search for the Shroudbreaker Artefact. Each of the Journals hints towards the location of the next journal.

The locations and the contents of the five Journals are presented below. Click Expand under any Journal to see an image of its exact location.

01=

What is the Devil's Shroud?
Found on Uncharted Island (N-13) stashed between three rocks on the beach. It mentions Ancient Spire Outpost.


 * -|02=

An Ancient Clue?
Found in a cave atop the Ancient Spire Outpost, this Journal mentions Devil's Ridge.


 * -|03=

Comings and Goings
In a camp by the Northern Cannon on Devil's Ridge, this Journal mentions Thieves' Haven.


 * -|04=

The Shroud Breaker
Inside an overgrown shack in the middle of Thieves' Haven, this Journal mentions Plunder Outpost.


 * -|05=

The Shores of Gold?
Placed by a Campfire on Plunder Outpost.