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Lanterns in the Mists

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The Mists of Ravenloft have begun to appear with greater frequency across the planes. Furthermore, there are reports of mysterious whispering shapes appearing in those mists. Some appear humanoid, others snake-like with rumors of a great serpent sometimes being seen. No one is safe at night. People are beginning to disappear from Faerun to Eberron, falling prey to these Mist Stalkers as they are soon named. Shortly after these disappearances begin a group of strangers appear from the mists bearing curious magical lanterns. They call themselves the Order of the Guardians, and they claim they have a solution to this new threat...

Lanterns in the Mist is a Ravenloft-flavored event.

Joining the Event[edit]

Talk to the mists to get involved.
  • On creating a new character or undergoing a True Reincarnation, you can choose to join in with the event by taking the quest The Curse of the Five Fangs from a patch of mist called Lanterns in the Mists.
  • Most players will encounter the mist for the first time in Korthos Village, but it can also be found in the Eberron Hall of Heroes.
  • Once you complete this quest, your character can claim one of ten lanterns from the two NPCs that appear next to the mist.
  • You can run the quest at any time to claim a normal Lantern (see below), but must run the quest at level 1 to claim a Skull Lantern, as the NPC that hands them out will not grant them to higher level characters. Otherwise, you can claim as many of the different lanterns as you like.
  • Lanterns are Bound to Character on Acquire and cannot be mailed. Skull Lanterns also cannot be placed in the bank.

The Lanterns[edit]

The statblock of one of the Lanterns.
  • There are a total of 10 varieties of Lantern: five regular Lanterns and five Skull Lanterns.
  • Lanterns are equipped in your cosmetic shield slot with one point of durability remaining. They have a special clicky effect called Shine the Light, which has a maximum of three charges and regenerates on rest. (As of Update 71 Patch 2, this clicky may be used while Raging.)
  • Killing Mist Stalkers (see the next section) adds durability to the lanterns. At certain thresholds, Lanterns gain a new effective minimum level - a character under this level can still equip the Lantern but cannot gain durability points for it. Once a Lantern reaches full durability, it can be turned in for its associated reward at the NPC you claimed it from. (Lanterns can gain durability over their maximum value but this does not provide any further benefit.)
    • Turning in a Lantern removes it from your inventory and replaces it with the reward you claimed. After the Lantern is turned in you can claim the rewards at any time by any character that does not already have the item or certificate in their inventory. As of Update 71, once you've claimed an item on Cormyr you can claim it from the Lanterns in the Mists NPCs in the Hall of Heroes on all servers.
  • Lanterns cannot take item damage, and regular lanterns are therefore indestructible. However, Skull Lanterns are outright destroyed if you die with in your inventory, even unequipped.
  • Two lanterns - the Lantern of the Order and its Skull variant - only gain durability from Mist Stalkers killed on Reaper difficulty.

Mist Stalkers[edit]

An example Mist Stalker.
  • While you're in a quest (not a raid) with a lantern equipped, or one of your party members has a lantern equipped, you may receive a 10-second countdown in your debuff bar. When this expires, your party will be attacked by a Mist Stalker!
    • Mist Stalkers can spawn in any quest with at least 10 monsters (other than The Grotto.) They can also spawn in challenges and wilderness areas.
  • Mist Stalkers typically spawn when you encounter a group of enemies. Most quests only contain one Mist Stalker, and shorter quests may not contain any - Very Long quests may sometimes contain two.
  • As of Update 70 Patch 1, the timer for spawning a Mist Stalker in a particular quest begins once you've killed 10 monsters. The spawn will then typically trigger within one to six minutes. You must complete a quest between spawns - so you can't kill, recall, and re-enter to kill again. If you recall and then re-enter, the stalker will spawn within 6 minutes after completion of the quest. If you want to quickly farm, find a quest you can do on Elite/R1 and then a nearby quest you can complete quickly (if you can teleport, the Harbor has a couple of easily reached quests that can be finished in under a minute.)
  • Mist Stalkers appear near a random player with a Lantern, and are accompanied by a burst of mist that begins to damage you the longer you spend in it. Using Shine the Light banishes the mist temporarily and will also briefly Stun the Mist Stalker and its minions (this ignores any immunity to stuns a Mist Stalker may normally possess.) Although Mist Stalkers initially target the player whose Lantern summoned them, they can be distracted fairly easily.
  • When a Mist Stalker is killed, all nearby alive players with a lantern currently equipped gain durability points. Some Mist Stalkers appear with lower CR minions. These do not count for the lanterns - only monsters with the Mist Stalker tag award progress (excluding The Head of the Beast, which has a unique tag but still counts.)
    • Lanterns gain bonus durability points if you have bonuses to XP (such as Potions of Learning, the Voice of the Master or the Guild Airship amenity bonus) active when you kill a Mist Stalker. The limited time +50% Durability Boost bonus also stacks additively. It has been experimentally confirmed that VIP-specific XP boosts do not count (neither the default 10% bonus nor the extra 10% bonus occasionally available from Bonus Days.)
    • Note that to score points from a Mist Stalker, your character must be within three levels of the base level of the quest. As an example, a character of level 15 will be able to score points from a Mist Stalker on a level 12 quest on Casual (effective level 11) but not from a level 11 quest on Elite (effective level 13.)
    • As of Update 70 Patch 1, characters of level 20 or above must be in an Epic quest to score Durability from a Mist Stalker. No equivalent restriction applies to level 30+ characters regarding Legendary quests.
  • Certain Mist Stalkers can summon an NPC called A Whisper in the Mist. Interacting with this NPC causes you to relive a memory of a denizen of Silith-tar, and grants a small number of durability points to nearby alive players. (The Head of the Beast always summons a Whisper; other monsters only have a small chance to do so.)
    • Bug: Whispers restrict rewards based on adjusted rather than base quest level, and will not reward for Casual difficulty on a character on the highest level allowed to gain Durability in the quest they are encountered in, even though the character gained points from the Stalker that spawned them. Conversely, they can grant points to players on Hard or Elite ineligible to score them from standard Mist Stalkers. They also seem to ignore the restrictions on Epic players being unable to score points from Heroic Stalkers.
  • Stalkers are split into three difficulty categories: The Head of the Beast is High, red-named Stalkers and the Greater Nagas are Medium, and the other Orange-named Stalkers are Low (a Low reward is also granted for interacting with a Whisper.) Stalkers of higher difficulty grant more Durability points and have a higher chance to summon Whispers. Rewards are also increased for playing content on higher difficulty (Reaper does grant higher points than Elite here), although Casual and Normal rewards are the same. The exact base values are broken down in a table in the next section.
    • With some practice, it is possible to identify which sort of Stalker is about to spawn by the appearance of the mists it generates. Low difficulty Stalkers generate a small patch of mist, Medium difficulty Stalkers generate a larger patch with floating ghostly shapes surrounding it, and the Head of the Beast generates a much larger patch with a significant orange glow at the center.
  • As of Update 72, the difficulty of Stalkers no longer jumps quite so dramatically between Heroic and low Epic levels.
  • The Head of the Beast is a pretty brutal fight at level and can wipe out even an entire group of experienced players if things go badly. It can spawn when playing solo and, although most common on Elite and Reaper, is found on all difficulties. It gives a Cursed Wound debuff on attack which prevents positive healing. If doing a Skull Lantern it is advisable to have a Dimension Door item (or the spell) ready in order to have an escape option if the fight goes bad - or, if you're significantly underleveled for your current quest, as soon as you see the orange glow that indicates it's about to spawn. (Running a long distance away or using a door to another part of the quest will also allow you to avoid confronting it.)
    • If you do want to take on the Head of the Beast (the rewards are very valuable), make sure to conserve Lantern Charges carefully - although it no longer triggers the Hungry Mists debuff/DoT at the same rate as other bosses, you are at risk of running out.
  • Mist Stalkers will despawn after about a minute if no living player, hireling or summon is within range for it to attack (either because the party is avoiding it or because everyone nearby has died.) This does not reset the timer for another one to spawn. (If working on a non-Skull Lantern, triggering the spawn near a Resurrection Shrine will make it easier to prevent losing the Stalker due to it despawning if you get killed during the fight.)
    • Mist Stalkers will get into fights with in-quest NPCs if no players are around - make sure to pay particular attention if a Stalker spawns in an escort quest.
  • Known Mist Stalkers:

Numerical Data on Lanterns and Mist Stalkers[edit]

The minimum level requirement for a lantern to progress appears as an effect on the equipped item called "Lantern Spirits". The tier of this effect increases at certain durability thresholds, progressing as follows:

Lantern Spirits
Lantern Spirits Level Level Restriction Durability Thresholds
(Short)
Durability Thresholds
(Medium / Long)
Durability Thresholds
(Very Long)
N/A No Restriction 1-187 1-299 1-399
I Level 5+ 188-374 300-599 400-799
II Level 10+ 375-562 600-899 800-1199
III Level 15+ 563-712 900-1199 1200-1599
IV Level 20+ 713-750 1200-1424 1600-1899
V Level 25+ N/A 1425-1500 1900-2000

The durability and minimum character level to fill each lantern are as follows:

Lantern Durability Requirements
Lantern Required Durability Length Minimum Level Required for Completion Reward
Lantern of the Pledge 750 Short Level 20 Pledge of the Order Half Cloak I (Skulled version)
Lantern of the Shield 1500 Medium Level 25 Cosmetic Order of Guardian's Shield (Skulled version)
Lantern of the Keepers 1500 Medium Level 25 Magical Lantern of the Order - Season 1 creature companion (Skulled version)
Lantern of the Order 1500 Long Level 25 Cloak of the Order I (Skulled version)
Lantern of the Seekers 2000 Very Long Level 25 Mist Stalker Sabertooth (Skulled version)

Note: All Lanterns except the Lantern of the Seekers can technically be completed up to five levels early by pausing just under the final Lantern Spirits threshold and farming for a Head of the Beast, but this is far from reliable (particularly for the Medium/Long Lanterns, which require a Head to spawn on Reaper while you have an active XP bonus of at least +55%.)

Meanwhile, each encounter gives a fixed amount of "base" points (discounting XP boosts) based on quest difficulty and Stalker type, as defined above:

Mist Stalker Durability Rewards
Mist Walker Difficulty Casual / Normal Reward Hard Reward Elite Reward Reaper Reward
Low Difficulty Stalker / Whisper 3 4 5 6
Medium Difficulty Stalker 7 8 10 12
High Difficulty Stalker 10 20 30 50

Iterations[edit]

  • The first Lanterns in the Mists was exclusive to the launch of the Cormyr server and ran from October 23, 2024 to April 15, 2025. It is at this time unclear if the event is intended to return in future (the fact many of the rewards described themselves as "Season One rewards" suggest this is possible but developer comments have been non-committal.)

External Links[edit]

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