Queen of the Shore¶
“Discover what Queen Marwen knows of the power of the Wraith.”
We could either go deal with Marwen, or we could go help Torvin. Both promise revelations concerning the Wraith, albeit indirectly in Torvin’s case. Before we go looking for any more of Celebrimbor’s lost toys, it seems prudent to find out what Marwen knows, first. That being the case, head to the eastern edge of Harad Basin, where the quest “Queen of the Shore” can be started.
Talion will meet with Marwen, and she’ll do her creepy mage act, revealing that we’re under a Blood Curse… which was already established. To break it, all we need to do is kill the Black Hand and his followers, and claim Mordor. Simple enough. Talion doesn’t think so, however, and drawing upon the limitations of his old life laments that Gondor won’t commit to conquering Mordor. Marwen suggests, however, that we don’t need Gondor-we have the means to make our own army. An army of Orcs. We can figure out how to use our power to control Orcs, but only if we make haste and reach a nearby fortress.
Marwen reveals that we’re under a blood curse, and that we need to defeat the Black Hand to be free from it (left). First, however, we’ll have to claim a new power, which requires us to make haste to a nearby fortress without being detected. High ground is, as usual, useful towards this end (right).
Cryptic as she may be, it’s worth a quick run to see if we can find this mysterious power she told us about-we have to make it to some ruins in Cab-Gwanath Bluff in under a minute and a half, and we have to remain undetected on our way there… because reasons. Stick to the high-ground to the east as you head north to avoid an Uruk patrol until the high ground starts to lead towards the cave in the east, at which point jump down, head through some ruins to the north-west, and swing west to avoid another Uruk Patrol. When you reach the fortress, Talion lets his emotions get the best of him again and insists on saving some slaves, a move the Wraith doesn’t find wise.
The Uruk’s captives face a grim fate (left). Brand the archers surrounding the area to aid in your assault (right).
We’ll now get the Brand Ability, which puts an Uruk under out control… which seems to be exactly what we were looking to gain from coming here, but… whatever. The quest must continue! The Brand Ability essentially replaces the Drain ability-you’ll still Drain, sure, but the Drained Uruk will now be under your control, which adds an extra layer of depth to the Nemesis System… but we’ll get into that more later. For now, Talion wants to kill two birds with one stone-kill the Uruks and save the Slaves by Branding six archers. Again, we need to do this without being detected, and we’ll satisfy a bonus objective if we complete this task in under three minutes. Be sneaky, be fast, Brand archers. Fortunately, there are more archer targets than we need, many are on high-ground and fairly isolated, and most Uruks aren’t facing the archers, so this shouldn’t be too hard. Use Stealth Brand and bushes to your advantage.
Once you have six archers branded, you’ll be prompted to press the (Up) button on the d-pad to “activate” them… which means to make them stop acting like normal Uruks and start doing your bidding. In this case, that means shooting their fellows. Once done, your objective will change-now you’re tasked with kill the thirteen Uruks who were watching the interrupted executions, which your archers should be more than capable of doing on their own.
Free the Uruk’s captives (left) then dispatch a group of reinforcements (right).
When the Uruks have fallen, Talion will free the captured Tribesmen, who will remark about Marwen’s prophetic powers before handing over another one of Celebrimbor’s artifacts. As usual, a vision accompanies contact with this relic, and from it we learn a few things; first, Celebrimbor was a badass (too bad he doesn’t teach us that double-arrow shot) and second, Uruk fashion hasn’t changed much in several thousand years. After the vision ends we’ll discover that a number of Uruks have arrived to ruin our day. Kill them-twenty in all-and the mission will end.
| Reward | Bonus Objective |
|---|---|
| 600 XP | 150 Mirian |
We can now start the quest “The Power of the Wraith” , which seems like an obvious move, since we just unlocked our new power, we might well learn how best to use it. If you want to engage in some diversions first, however, we can now start two Dagger Missions we could begin earlier-in the Cab-Gwanath Bluff there’s the mission “The Darkness Within” and in Thang Talath you’ll find the mission “A Knife in the Dark” . Completing these two missions will earn you the Trophy/Achievement “The Last Shadow”.
Completing this mission will also allow you to access the “Dispatch” Ability, if you have access to Tier 5 Abilities, anyways. Purchasing this Ability will, in turn, unlocks the “Power of the One” Sword Mission. Complete it to score the “Fire of Justice” Achievement/Trophy. More Outcast Rescue Missions will unlock upon learning the Brand Ability, too-complete them all and you’ll earn the “Liberator” Trophy/Achievement.
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