Kurn's Tower: Mirgon Dower's Head quest s/b broken

[BlackBellamy]

Nilbog wrote in 2015 :)

I'm still not sure what to do with this.

Imagine that I know nothing at all about the item or the quest, but I have all the tools at my disposal to change it.

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1794199#post1794199

To complete the https://wiki.project1999.com/Mirgon_Dower%27s_Head quest you need the following items:

13073 Bone Chips
16533 Zombie Flesh
12396 a preserved eye (Right Eye of Torture )
12397 a preserved eye (Left Eye of Torture )
12399 a dried tongue (Tongue of Torture )
12402 Salt Minnow (Salt Minnow)

The Zombie Flesh does not exist in Classic. It was added later, in 2003, dropping off a new mob called "a rotting flesh hunter" (https://alt.games.everquest.narkive.com/cHpGbyTe/new-huge-undercon-mob-in-field-of-bone-rotting-flesh-hunter)

Also, Salt Minnows were added at the same time. You can see the Initial entry date of 5/16/03 here https://eq.magelo.com/item/12402

Another issue is that some quest items would not fit inside the Hollow Skull https://wiki.project1999.com/Hollow_Skull_(Skull_of_the_Tower_Cook)

The initial Hollow Skull had capacity TINY https://eq.magelo.com/item/17013
After the fix, the capacity is MEDIUM https://eq.magelo.com/item/17019

IMO the easiest fix is to bork the combine.

So, no matter what you place in the Hollow Skull and click combine, it should just fail.

You can see they fixed this quest in the patch notes here http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20030514.html

The Skull of Torment quest - This quest, in Kurn's Tower, should now work.

They mistakenly call it the Skull of Torment quest (there is no Skull of Torment), it's the Skull of Torture, and that's not even the name of the quest (Mirgon Dower's Head) but it was right after that people started seeing the rotting flesh hunters and were able to finally fish for the salt minnow.

Also, regarding the Skull of Torture:

This is the live Skull of Torture, after the quest was fixed:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=24609
(This item has Burning Affliction)

However, the original Skull of Torture (without the spell) https://wiki.project1999.com/The_Skull_of_Torture is NOT a quest reward. It's just a rare drop in Kurns. I remember trying to sell it back in the day, I'm trying to remember where it dropped (I could have sworn it was the cook).

[BlackBellamy]

Sigh.

I spent time pointing out quest should be broken based on other threads of people reading stuff in the wiki.

I just went to Kurns and the quest is broken, just like it always was.

Please feel free to delete this.

Going to update the wiki.

[Sunderfury]

Are you saying skull of torture shouldn't exist at all? I have completed the skeletal cook quest on p99 and received it as a reward

[Baler]

I have the skull of torture on one of my SKs.
And that was 2016 or 2017 when I did it.

A Glowing Skull dropped off one of the three listed npcs.
Had a bard friend hand in A Glowing Skull to the A skeletal cook.
That part is working..


I believe what OP is referring to is the optional / alternative way to obtain A Glowing Skull.
If the section on the wiki -> "Building the Glowing Skull by yourself"
https://wiki.project1999.com/Mirgon_Dower%27s_Head

I can't confirm if this is working.

[Vanifac]

Raising this from the dead like a skeleton?
Patch notes suggest the earliest this quest could have been completed was 14 May, 2003
I can't find any sources to show that "The Skull of Torture" existed on Live servers prior to 9 Oct 2003. I also can not find any thing about it *not* having "Burning Affliction I" as a focus effect or it being a random drop in Kurns.
Edit: Read the other thread Nilbog responded to. I guess regardless of what happens to the quest, the glowing skull should have it's Identify changed and it's NO-RENT status removed.

To put it simply, to complete this quest, you need to combine the following in the 'Hollow Skull' dropped by the 'skeleton cook':
2 Zombie Flesh (unattainable until 9 Oct 2003)
1 Salt Minnow (unattainable until around 11 June 2003)
1 Bone chip

This will yield "Kurn's Jerky Delight"

Combine the following in the "Hollow Skull":
a preserved eyes (left)
a preserved eyes (right)
a dried tongue
Kurn's Jerky Delight

This will yield "a glowing skull" (NO-RENT)

Hand this into the cook to receive the Skull of Torture.
Alternately, at some point after 14 May 2003, you could just loot "a glowing skull" and give it to the cook.

I have not personally checked in game, but it appears that most of the above is unfinishable and implemented correctly, with the exception of:

A Glowing Skull (might be "Glowing Skull") should not be NO-RENT during the Cla-Vel era, it was changed to be NO-RENT around 15 Aug 2003.
A Glowing Skull should identify as "Skull of Torture", not "The Skull of An Undead Cook".
A Glowing Skull should not be able to be turned in to the cook to complete "The Skull of Torture" quest during the Cla-Vel Era. Rendering the quest broken and the reward unattainable.


It's a shame, as I am a low level quest connoisseur. I'd bet that the original plan was for you to complete the skeleton cook quest and turn in the Skull of Torture in order for you to receive your Knight's Khukri.

Alternately, the dev who "fixed" this quest was a bit drunk and accidentally combined the original "glowing skull" (used for the #3 Iksar Khukri quest) with the "A Glowing Skull" outcome of the Hollow Skull combine and stole the name from the ID. IMO, just differentiate the 2 skulls so they can't complete each others quests and add in the salt minnow and zombie flesh. The reward has been on P99 long enough, who's to say it's *not* classic?

__________________________________________________ _
Timeline
24 Apr 2000 - Ruins of Kunark Release

28 Jun 2000 - First mention of “Glowing Skull” - For Khukri Quest
https://web.archive.org/web/20020310033315/http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=71
No mention of NO-RENT Status

3 Oct 2000 - First Mention of the Hollow Skull / Skeletal Cook
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zones.html?zstrat=87&p=3#m97056550711523

13 Dec 2000 - Glowing Skull noted to ID as “Skull of Torture”
https://web.archive.org/web/20011126104913/http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=2874
No mention of NO-RENT Status

------------------------
4 Dec 2001 - Shadows of Luclin Release

14 May 2003 - Patch notes specifically mentioning (what appears to be) this quest as fixed.
http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20030514.html

Throughout this time, there appears to be a series of fixes slowly being pushed through to live.

11 Jun 2003 - First time Salt Minnows found on Live servers
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/oldunsolvedquestsineverquest/viewtopic.php?p=493#p493

15 Aug 2003 - First mention of the Glowing Skull being No Rent on the TEST server
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/oldunsolvedquestsineverquest/viewtopic.php?p=522#p522

10 Sept 2003 - First Mention of The Skull of Torture - Added to Magelo the day before
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/oldunsolvedquestsineverquest/viewtopic.php?p=404#p404
This looks to be completed by turning in a looted glowing skull on the test server.
This Skull of Torture has a focus effect on it.

14 Sept 2003 - Mention that “The no-rent skull is now on live servers”
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/oldunsolvedquestsineverquest/viewtopic.php?p=410#p410
Possible that the quest was complete-able here with the new glowing skull going live.

9 Oct 2003 - Zombie Flesh is attainable and what looks to be the first few completions of the combination turn-in on live.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/oldunsolvedquestsineverquest/viewtopic.php?p=450#p450
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/oldunsolvedquestsineverquest/viewtopic.php?p=453#p453
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=2177#m106579829579519

9 Mar 2004 - A Glowing Skull noted to ID as “The Skull Of An Undead Cook”
https://web.archive.org/web/20040926014221/http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=2874

[Vanifac]

After doing some testing in game I put together a list of things that are incorrect in P99 currently. This list is an amalgamation of all of the links I've posted so far, but if needed I can attach specific proof to each.

Spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q9uOsVcYueygVIW81HhQQ_4VXyfRyHhIzlYJLDrz0dQ/edit?usp=sharing)

The only thing I'm not sure about the status of in P99 is Burynai Forage/Forager and the dried tongue. I killed it about 14 times and haven't seen it, but RNG is going to RNG.

I have some pretty solid ideas on how this was *supposed* to all go, if this could become some of that tasteful non-classic P99 content.



And while you're reading this.. the Iksar Phalange item should fit into the RANGE slot and throwable. it also should be fishable in FV and Cabilis (and I'd also assume FoB, but no proof on it)

https://web.archive.org/web/20011223101613/https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=592