I have a couple of characters currently hunting minotaurs who are starting to get adventurer's guild tasks in the bowels. What should I know about that area before going in?

--David

"At a moment like this, I can't help but wonder, 'What would Jimmy Buffett do?'"

"Try to leg the things if you can to get them down, because they can fall on you and crush you when they die. The Illoke also have a stone fist maneuver that can hurt." -- RobertsM8

When I was (waaaay) up-hunting as Krakii with some buddies in the front part of the Stronghold (mystics, mastiffs, and shamen, oh my!), I was getting my plow waxed pretty much "every hunt" by the stone grip. Don't recall getting fallen on, but there was usually a Sweeping Rogue there to keep them prone.

As a high-DEX/high-AGI pure Elf, unencumbered, with Mobility, and frequently running Tonis with lots of Song ranks...
...both of these maneuvers caused damage VERY rarely for me. I think I may have had in the "10-20 ranks" of Dodging trained at the time.

Krakii probably had a lot more encumbrance than the Bard (SimuCoin "-100 pounds" did not exist at that time), and of course the extra 35 levels' stat growth helps a lot too.

I remember thinking at one point, "Hey, didn't these things used to have this really wicked 'give them the fist!' maneuver?" And I looked on the Wiki, and yes they did, and I even watched some of my hunts more closely, and yes there were a few attempts, but they essentially all wiffled against me.

>I went to the Illistim area's Maaghara Tower rather than face the Bowels. Highly recommend that strategy, too.

Except that place caps out at 78 for creature level. Thats not going to be a proper substitute for the bowels as a whole.

If the bowels aren't a welcoming spot for you and if you're a waggler (especially a wizard) then look to the aqueducts in OTF.

I hunted through minotaurs until level 84 or so and found that the beings, gremlocks (only creature I died to a handful of times due to garrote from open rolls) and taints in the aqueducts. I tried treekin in the red forest, but since this particular mage doesn't cast bolts and strictly hunts with 917 and 502, it was too mana intensive to hunt there.

I found the aqueducts to be the perfect spot for a mage in this level range of 82 to 90 (91 if you can find enough taints and gremlocks you can learn from, seeing as how 75% of beings are too young to learn from at this level). Everything in the aqueducts melts to 917 fire or ice.

I was very reluctant to head to EN to hunt, just not my cup of tea, but I find a few hunting areas here are perfect for my 917/502 wizard and my mutant warmage that is working on his redux. Sometimes you just need to go across the pond (well, across the mountain range) to find a suitable creature for your hunting styles.

At level 91 my 917/502 mage is out there picking on Ithzir in OTF and doing pretty good, so far no deaths his first 50k exp in the area. Peer and move or go invisible so the ithzir don't fade in on him as often with a prepped spell or AS/DS attack.

It wasn't much of a puzzle.

You can go through the door inside the front part of the Stronghold:
- wait for the rare times when one of them comes through it;
- pick it yourself (you said you had a rogue);
- blow it open (my Bard never managed to get an Unlock to work).

Or you can have enough Swimming to go through from the stone trolls/stone giants area outside.

Oh, you mean there was an ACTUAL puzzle?!?!

Yeah, all I ever did was to swim in. :)

Yes, here's a little hint: The puzzle involves the bowl North, Northwest from the door. Like someone mentioned above, Illoke likes when you offer up a certain type of gem. If you want to completely spoil it though, you can go to those unofficial forums and search for "illoke door puzzle" - you'll find a thread with the answer in it. Be warned though, on the other side of the door, and to the room where you can dump into the bowels is an actual puzzle. This one isn't much of a puzzle comparatively.

Okay, one more thing on the bowels, for anyone who may be interested:

Archers really should not hunt earth elementals. You can grow old before they finally die.

--David

"At a moment like this, I can't help but wonder, 'What would Jimmy Buffett do?'"