Author: Azure Noir, SOLUS Foundation, Liberty Server

The Cavern of Transcendence trial access is awarded upon completion of the story arc in the Hollows which begins with David Wincott and ends with Talshak the Mystic. It is also quite possibly the most challenging trial in CoH, both because of the amount of strategy needed to pull it off and the level at which this task must be accomplished. The typical 8 man team of death (i.e., the one whose only strategy is "we all run in and kill things until we're done) has no chance of pulling this off successfully. Strategy and teamwork, however, will carry the day.

There are three key elements to successfully completing Transcendence: Organization, Personnel and Objectives.

Organization.

More than anything, the team leader makes or breaks this trial. Spending a half hour or so in preparation prior to the trial will make all the difference between a trial which is amazingly smooth and one which is an utter disaster. Do your homework, make your instructions to your team clear, have the equipment you need close to hand, pick your team well, and set a good pace without panic.

Pre-Planning Activities:

1. If possible given your character's level, go into the Tunnels and clear the fog of war by exploring the caverns. This counts towards time spent for the Trolls Task Force badge, too. If your character is low level or you don't have time to do this, go to http://www.vidiotmaps.com, get the map for the Tunnels, and print it.  The map shows where the location of the door is for the trial and where the Hollows entrances to the Tunnels are.  You'll be using these maps to help navigate your team to the trial door. The trial entrance is in the dead center of the tunnel network.

2. If you are going to be the teleporter of the group, absolutely get the fog of war cleared if at all possible. If not, ask another teammate to get the printed map referenced above or go clear the fog of war so they can help you navigate to the trial door entrance.

3. Have a timer on hand. Set it for 2 minutes. You'll be using this to keep track of durations on invisibility cloaks.

4. As you're assembling your team, make sure everyone has an awaken and a breakfree (some villains may use holds), plus plenty of whatever inspirations they'll need to compensate for the fact that they're exemped to a point where they do not have stamina.  You may have an accidental death, and you do not want people to have to come running back through the tunnels to the trial point.

Personnel.

You need eight people for this trial. YOU MUST HAVE ALL EIGHT PEOPLE TO COMPLETE AT LEAST THE FIRST PART OF THE OBJECTIVES. Make sure anyone who goes into this will be able to stay for the full time. You also need specific skill sets for the strategies discussed in this guide to be carried out.

Team Composition.

The strategies discussed here rely on having invisibility and teleport friend available. The ideal pick is an illusion controller with group and personal invisibility and teleport friend. However, these strategies will also work if you have (as a minimum) one individual with grant invisibility AND one individual with teleport friend. This cannot be the same person. In a pinch, you can also use someone with invisibility (full invisibility, not stealth) from the Concealment pool who also has teleport friend. Some strategy modification will be needed since you cannot teleport others when the Concealment pool invisibility is active.

A warshade with Nova form is a plus to have as one of your teleporters due to movement speed and flight ability. It is also recommended that you have one tank, if not two, and plenty of damage dealers. A good damage-mitigating defender or controller is also a bonus.

Objectives.

Your objectives will change throughout the trial. You'll see them appear just under the mission timer.  As each is completed, a new one will come on screen.

Your mission is NOT to defeat everything between you and Sam Wincott. Combat will slow you down and will inevitaably cause a team wipe. The villains are there to try to slow you down – fighting them accomplishes nothing except delay. Your mission is first, to get your teams to the obelisks and activate them simultaneously, and second, to reach the point where you can defeat the guardians who are holding Sam Wincott hostage.  While you'll need muscle and brawn at the end to get Sam free, you need strategy to get to where he's being held. 

 From a roleplay aspect, not engaging these critters is easily explained: Your goal is to rescue a scared little kidnapped boy whose only crime is his magic talents and the fact that his father is trying to clean up the Hollows.  Any hero (one hopes) would agree, Sam's safety comes first before any personal gain.

 Last but not least, remember that a team wipe may, for whatever buggy reason, trigger a mission failure, even if you have plenty of time left on the clock.  You obviously want to avoid this.

PART ONE: PRE-MISSION ASSEMBLY.

The minute the mission holder speaks to Karsis (the CoT mage with the mission), the clock starts ticking. Since everyone will be auto-exemped down to a point where some people may not have travel powers, a little pre-planning and pre-location can cut a good five minutes from your time and prevent team deaths in transit, to boot. You also want to make certain your team is clear on instructions, has all the inspirations they need, and are in position before that lock starts ticking.

 All entrances to the Tunnels are not created the same.  If you look at the Tunnels map, you'll see the northernmost tunnel entrance is the one which is also closest to the trial entrance.  This is *not*, however, the closest entrance to Karsis.  Choosing the entrance closest to the trial door will help you get to the trial door more quickly, which is important given the duration of the invisibility spell.

Only the person who has the mission needs to speak to Karsis.  Assemble the rest of the team outside the entry point you have chosen.  Everyone needs to remain together outside the Tunnels.  Ideally, among that team, you'll have a teleporter to bring in the mission holder once s/he's talked to Karsis.

This is a good point to give your team mission instructions and strategy. Do give your team a quick overview of what to expect (i.e., trolls, CoT and AoE bombs in the tunnels, needing to get one person to an obelisk to activate a bridge, etc.)  Stress the importance of staying together and sticking ONLY to objectives.  While some individuals on the team may be more active at times than others, this is one project which *cannot* be completed without good teamwork.  Everyone is needed and everyone needs to be paying attention, especially in the deep caverns, which are not easy to negotiate. You may also want to use this time to finalize your team composition. Got someone who's not paying attention or looks like a potential problem child? Get rid of them now. One person who doesn't follow the program can make or break the trial, and it's not fair to the others to allow that to happen.

If you have more than one teleporter on the team, have them pre-determine teleportation order now, also (i.e., one person gets teammate 1, 3 and 5 and the other gets teammate 2, 4 and 6).  You'll be doing a *lot* of full-team transfers, and this can prevent multiple teleporters and missed teammates, both of which can cause confusion and delay.

 Recommended:  Give a general description of the tunnels and instructions for Part Two *only* at this point, give a description of the cavern and instructions for Part Three *only* outside the trial door, and then instructions for Part Four right after the obelisks have been activated. 

 When everyone's clear on what you'll be doing to get to the trial door, have the mission holder speak to Karsis. If possible, teleport your mission holder to the door of the Tunnels, have everyone enter and then STAY PUT.  While the area around the tunnel entrance is safe,  troll mobs start not too far past that, and the last thing you want is some noodlehead pulling over the troll mobs while you're trying to transport the team to the door - or worse, some noodlehead slowing the team down by getting killed and having to be raised OR, even worse, having to hike back from Skyway or Atlas. 

 PART TWO:  GETTING TO THE TRIAL DOOR.

Your first goal is to get your entire team safely to the trial door which leads to the cavern in which Sam is being held. Like the Abandoned Sewer Trial, you have to thread through a pile of nasties to get to the entrance where the trial really begins.  *Unlike* AST, your clock is already ticking and you are auto-exemped down to weenieland.  Between you and the trial door are mobs of lieutenant and boss trolls and CoT, and a lot of the troll mobs are merrily building proximity bombs which will detonate if you get too close.

Sound difficult? It can be. However, with the proper strategy, you can get your team to the door in just under two minutes.

Given the labyrinthine nature of the Tunnels, it's fastest and safest to just get one teleporter to the trial door. Outside the trial door is an open, clear area much like the one just inside the entrance, to which team members can be teleported safely.  The rest of the team should remain at the tunnel entrance until the teleporter gets to the trial door.  Note: Even if you have a controller with group invisibility, don't move the group through the Tunnels – your chances that someone will get lost and/or die when the cloak runs out raise exponentially when you do. Deaths = wasted time.

If you have an illusion controller with personal invisibility or group invisibility and teleport friend, you're set.  Personal invisibility is a toggle power and will remain active until detoggled.

Chances are, however, you won't have an illusion controller with personal invisibility, group invisibility AND teleport friend.  Therefore, your best candidate for this task is the teleporter with the greatest speed.  The invisibility cloak (both group invisibility and grant invisibility from the concealment pool) will last just two minutes and it is key for getting around the AoE proximity bombs.  (This is one of two places where your warshade in Nova form can come in handy, obviously.) 

WHAT WILL NOT WORK RELIABLY:  Stealth alone.  While it CAN be done, chances are the stealther will trigger a proximity bomb.  This goes for stealth from the concealment pool, superspeed stealth, steamy mist, etc.  You can save time in this part of the mission; do it if you can.

Navigation Process:

1. Have your map out and your timer ready.  If your fog of war is cleared, you can just use your in-game map, which is preferable.

2. Cloak your teleporter and put him or her into motion.  If you have two teleporters, have your second teleporter keep a lock on the first.  Start your timer when the invisibility is activated.  Keep your in-game map open and use your printed or in-game map to direct your teleporter if s/he takes a wrong turn or otherwise needs direction. 

3. At the thirty second mark, if your teleporter is not yet to safety, tell them to find a safe area and hold.  This is especially important if you do not have a second teleporter.

4. The teleporter should NOT try to continue on if the spell drops before s/he gets to the trial door.   Chances are s/he will trigger one of the AoE bombs, and it will delay the team more to have to raise the teleporter. Instead, have the teleporter remain in the safe zone and bring over the teammate with the invisibility cloak. The teleporter can proceed from that location.

5. If the teleporter cannot find a safe location and you have an anchor teleporter, then bring the teleporter back and let your teleporter in motion make a second try.  Since s/he will have cleared the fog of war from part of the path, chances are the second pass will be successful.

6. Once at the trial door, the teleporter should bring in the rest of the team.  Tell everyone to STAY PUT once they're brought in and do *NOT* go into the trial door until the team can move together.  Usually, the inside entrance is clear, but not always.  Again, team deaths = wasted time.  Avoid it.

A note: If you have more than one teleporter, *always* have the first teleporter bring in the second one first, so that the rest of the team may be transported more quickly.  While this would seem to be a blindingly obvious thing to do, it's not always done.

At this point, your team of eight should be at the trial door entrance.  If all as gone as planned, you should be about two minutes into the trial, quick, slick and safe.

This is the point to give the team the head's up on the instructions for part 3.  While this does take a moment or two of time, it ensures everyone's fresh on the information and nobody's confused. 

PART THREE:  ACTIVATING THE OBELISKS.

If you look at your in-game mission map when you step inside the trial door, you will see a black screen and the words 'no map available'.  This will not change as you travel through the cavern, so it's important to have a good idea of the layout and transmit that to your team ahead of time.  It's VERY easy to get lost, fall in lava fissures, etc. If they have an idea of what the place is like, so much the better.

Inside the trial door is a passage which leads to a huge cavern, fissured heavily with lava pits, dimly lit, and crowded with all the lovely Igneous creatures which make the deep Hollows and Talshak's missions so deadly - magma lords, elder pumicites and pumicites.  In addition, you may also see the cream of the CoT boss mages, including everyone's favorite, ruin and madness mages.  Fun, fun, fun.  If you're really lucky, some of those mages may be at the end of the passage from the trial door, so make sure everyone stays right at the entrance when they come in.

The cavern itself is roughly circular, with a very irregular floor and a lot of lava cracks.  .  In the center of the cavern is a lake of lava.  Across from the lava lake is the door you need to reach in order to get to the chamber where Sam Wincott is being held.  Eight passages extend from the cavern.  In each passage is an obelisk, which is tied to a spell which will bring down a rock bridge which goes over the lava lake

Your mission objective at this point is to activate the obelisks.  To activate the spell, the obelisks must be touched at the same time, which obviously means one person has to be stationed on each obelisk. Your goal is to get your team stationed one per obelisk.  However, one or more of the obelisks may be guarded, generally by several ruin or madness mages and various CoT lieutenant uglies.  Leaving someone on a guarded obelisk while invisible or stealthed is not an option. Suppression will kick in when the obelisk is activated and that person will be spotted.  Every now and again, all eight passages will be clear.  However, that doesn't happen often.

The passages are, however, an excellent place to use to regroup your team or to refresh invisibility cloaks.  Be sure to keep that timer handy - while the power icons beside each name will give warning of imminent failure, knowing exactly how long you have lets you make better judgments on team placement.

There are two main strategy options at this point.  What works will depend as much on the temperament of your team as your skill sets.  Drawbacks and advantages will be listed after each option. One general note goes, however: have travelers stick to the outer edge of the cavern. There are fewer fissures and it's easier to find the tunnels.

Strategy Option One:  Let's All Be Stealthy Together.

1. Cloak your group and go from one tunnel to the next, checking to see if there are guards on the obelisk.  This works best if you have an illusion controller with group invisibility - even as fast as grant invisibility renews, you'll have a problem with cloaks staggering on the drop. 

2. If you choose this option, you can either leave a team member at each obelisk as you go or do a complete circuit together, clear what passages you must, then make a second circuit to drop off teammates.  Remember, however, the guards are nasty enough that you'll need your full team to take them. If you drop off members, you may be stuck teleporting them right back and having to return them to their original location, which can get confusing.

 3. Obviously, if you go the 'drop off as you go' route, your teleporters and cloakers have to be the last stationed.  Drop your squishiest members off first and keep the sturdier ones with the teleporters and cloakers as long as possible.

 Advantages:  It keeps the team in action and lets everyone get a look at the cavern, which really is extremely well-done from the graphics perspective and well worth appreciating.  Also, if you luck out and get no guards, you've got everyone dropped off in no time.

 Disadvantages:  Your cloak will run out multiple times and you'll have to refresh it.  It's very easy for people to fall into cracks or just take a wrong turn, get separated and find themselves in the middle of a bunch of very nasty igneous lieutenants and bosses when their cloak runs out.  Also, if you drop people off and find out the last tunnel is guarded (and for some reason, that's always the one that is!)  you'll have to teleport everyone from their station and then re-position them after the fight.

Option Two:  Why Don't You Scout, Tonto?

1. Cloak your speedy teleporter and have him or her make a circuit of the cavern, then teleport the team to any guarded caverns.  As the cloak drops, the teleporter can bring the cloaker to his or her location and have the cloak renewed, or if you're working with a controller with group invisibility, the two can go together – whatever works best. Use that timer and keep an eye on the cloak time so that your scouts can concentrate on navigating the place.

2. Distribute teammates after all caverns are clear.   If you have a backup teleporter, have this person ready for action.

This is another area where having a warshade with Nova form is a real plus; this part will go very fast.

Advantages:  With only one or two people in motion, the chances that one will get lost is more unlikely.  You also do not have to worry about having to re-position your team, as you might if you use the drop off as you go method. For these reasons, this option is generally fastest and most efficient.

Disadvantages:  You have to make the rest of your team wait, which can be a problem if people get fidgety.  Also, people don't get a chance to see the cavern itself much. 

Regardless of the method you've chosen, you should eventually have one team member in front of each obelisk.  Now you just have to get them to touch the obelisks simultaneously.  You can do a countdown, or choose a time on the mission timer and tell everyone to touch the obelisk at that time (i.e., "OK, guys, when our mission master clock shows 1:14:45, touch your obelisk.")

If you fail to get a simultaneous activation the first time around (which happens more often than not), don't worry. There's no penalty. Just repeat until you get it right. 

As the obelisks are activated, you'll hear the sounds of many tons of rock slamming into place as the bridge appears in the lava lake.   Talk about mind over matter!

PART FOUR:  RESCUE SAM WINCOTT!

That's what you'll see as your mission objective, now that you've activated the obelisks.  Everyone should also see a yellow direction guide which points to the entrance where Sam is being held.

Again, you have to negotiate your team past the cavern full of plug-uglies without engaging.  There's only two groups of Igneous you need or want to fight, and they'll be bad enough.  They're the group just outside the closed doorway behind which Sam is being held, and the group *inside* the doorway guarding Sam.

The spot where you want your group to be is an area on the bridge which is midway between the greater cavern and the door leading to Sam's imprisonment chamber.  This is far enough in that your group, assembled, won't attract the attention of the igneous in the main cavern or the group guarding Sam's door. 

As in the prior section, there are two options on how you can do this, which depend more on your teleporter's judgment and experience than anything else.

Option One:  If your teleporter and your cloaker know where to go, you can have the teleporter bring the cloaker to them, then have the teleporter proceed to the point on the bridge and bring the rest over. 

While this is faster, it lacks some safety margin. The rest of your team will not be cloaked, and if the teleporter has misjudged the spot, the placement will draw aggro before your team is assembled and ready. 

Option Two:  Have your teleporter bring everyone to his/her obelisk tunnel.  If you have a controller with group invisibility, cloak the group.  If you're using people with grant invisibility, have them start with the teleporter and cloak on down the line while the teleporter is getting into position.  The teleporter should go into action, find the location on the bridge, and bring the rest of the team over.  The cloak should not wear off until the last team members are being teleported over. 

Your team should now be assembled midway on the bridge.  Here's where you need your tanks and damage dealers! 

Getting to Sam:

1. In front of you should be one group of pumicites, just in front of the door.  Take them down. 

2. Heal up, get prepared.

3. Send your sturdiest teammate to open the door.  A whole world of hurt is going to land on this person when they do this, so pick someone who can take it long enough for the rest of the team to charge in and give support.

4. Sam Wincott is inside this room.  So is a huge elder pumicite called Koago, who will con purple and has a *lot* of knockback power.  Koago, however, will try to run down the bridge and into the main room.  Don't let him or any of the other pumicites escape; as in any hostage mission, if they aren't taken down, Sam will not be released.  (There is some debate on whether defeating Koago is necessary in order to release Sam; however, he's going to be a problem if you don't, so for team safety purposes, get him while you can.)

5. If Koago does get out, be careful fighting on the bridge - one good punch will land people into the lava pits on either side of the bridge, and the sides are too steep to get out easily.

6. When the room is cleared, Sam is freed.  You've done it!

If you've had no mistakes or delays, this entire process should take no more than 45 minutes.  However, mistakes do happen, as do disconnects and other problems, so allow for that. 

ENDNOTE: 

Shortly after mission completion, you should be taken from the cavern automatically to the point outside the trial door.  The team will not be broken and everyone will remain auto-exemped until the mission holder talks to Karsis.  You still have to get from the trial door back to the entrance.

If everyone really wants to, you can work on the Regenerator badge by fighting all the trolls.  However, you'll have to do it at low level - not a lot of fun – and you can come back at your real level to smash them and get the badge anyway.  Unless you have no need to fear debt and want to take the insta-hospital transport route, you can go out the way you came in (via cloak and teleport) or just cloak the mission holder so he can go to Karsis.

Good luck, have fun – and bring that boy home safe!