FYI - I'm no expert on this zone but I ran it a few times and this is my best recollection so far ..
This new zone is located east of the barricade in Southern Mirkwood and is patrolled by Morgundul Orcs under the direction of a mysterious Black Numenorean. The two encampments are friendly to the Tarkhnarb, Trolls, and Men of Numenor but will kill all others on sight.
The forested areas aboveground contains all manner of trolls and sentient vegetation, some of which like to grab on to weary travellers. The hidden depths are home to spiders, blood-thirsty winged creatures, and a Drake's treasure horde.
Her terrible song can be heard in the forest northwest of the main encampment. To access her area you must first loot the rotten core from the corpse of a black oak. These oaks are found in areas just off the main road as they often hunt and slaughter the paranoid Morgundul assigned watch duty. The core must then be placed in the mouth of a benign tree in the northern forest.
The druidess is wanders the area and has a strong (glowing) effect. She can be blinded and bashed but she will call trees, vines, and oaks to her rescue. Best to clear out her area first.
She can be solo'd by quaker with charmies. Take out the root/oak room with quakes first. Shroud is your friend and make sure you aren't trapped by roots before you quake to ensure a flee. It takes patience but it's doable.
She loads a root ring that reduces damage from the earthquake spell. It also has an undiscovered (to my knowledge) interaction with something in Fangorn based on Identify.
You can use the root ring to make trees that load items, load those items. Best use seems to be to make an existing but empty tree load a perfect oak branch. Seems kind of pointless though.. if you need an oak branch, you aren't likely to have a root ring on you. Not sure if it has limited charges for doing this.. we loaded a few branches in a row without any difficulty though. -Belamir
She also loads a phial that will grant citizenship and the Ashen Blade when delivered to Adragor in the encampment and a chance of supple leather gloves when delivered to Dolion.
Troll citizens can mend items. Numenorean citizens can purchase the Black Steed. Orc citizens get… Not sure.
I'm a bit fuzzy on directions (behind scathedrocks) but you must first touch a hidden skeleton that will collapse and break through the floor. No need to leave room, this is just descriptive muddle.
Find the subterranean lizards and eels and you will be near the Drake. Part of this zone is underwater, so prepare for that. The Drake is quite strong and muddle bashes but a standard legend group or solo caster with enough patience (1-1.5h) can handle it. No charmies can used as the entrance to the drake is underwater.
Drake seems to engage casters somehow - perhaps this is another smob that works best when casters nuke/escape/nuke/escape etc. -Belamir
Butcher it and loot the bone. Careful though, as the bone is very heavy and will cause you to drown if you go back underwater.
Find the murals in the caves near the village back exit. Kill or sleep/blind the 4 guardian statues. Place the bone in the mouth of the dragon to reveal the treasure horde zone. First room of the treasury has muddle which will summon a total of 7 semi strong spiders, depending on the amount of people entering.
In the treasure room you can reveal various items (gold, gem, necklace, shield, and pike). This area loads Agate, Spinel, Call Lightning Pendant, Runed Awlpike, and Leaf-Embossed Shield.
This illusionist dwells in the eastern camp behind a false wall to the east. Simply walk through it as it cannot be opened or closed.
The Magus has a very strong glowing effect but he can be blinded and bashed. He will cast spells and after a time he will drop combat to create mirror images of himself. When he does this, quickly leave his tower and regroup to the west of his hidden door. Summoned illusions are defence wise weaker copies of magus but they chase really fast inside the tower and do a lot of damage. Since you cant scout through illusion wall, its necesaary for someone to check until only one copy is there and take out his copies one by one until only he remains.
Rinse and repeat until you whittle him down. This can actually be done by solo shaman with a strong shadow. Otherwise you want a strong buffer and enough parry split or small spells to whittle Magus down.
He loads a robe that gives +20 spell power to the blind and fear spell, a smoky amulet that reduces darkness manacost, and a heightened-senses herblore that drastically improves awareness and track. He also loads a key that unlocks the cave system.
01.01.21. We tried to get the bats to attack Magus on top of tower, they did but they didn't manage to kill Magus.
A way into the caves is to push the large boulder onto the stone plate sealing the way.
Boulder loads south of the search exit, and needs to be pushed to the room south, all east from the search exit. It will then open the exit down in the room 2W S 2E S from there.
Any info about this cart you can loot? How often does it load, what loads inside it, etc.?
Search skill is a must if you don't have a good map. There are sooooo many secrets and one in particular just north and east on the road from theain encampment is constantly changing its door name.
Orkish shamans can order their enslaved shadows (21+) to merge with the warg whelps inside the village to create a Dreadful Warg that hits harder and bashes.
Be careful if solo. The area is loaded with massive roots, vines that trap, and trees that also trap. All trapping mobs act like massive roots that can be fled from if you spam and get lucky enough.
Keep your eyes and ears open. A large flock/murder/group of massive bats patrol the outdoor areas at night. They will fly around and dive bomb you, which could cause some issues. Fortunately they don't track after the land, but they have high perception and will block your way for a short time. During the day they sleep in the caves and are earlier to kill.
High pick skill is needed for the main village backdoor. Unsure if the main entrance to caves is pickable near Magus but my 91 pick wouldn't do it. Key for backdoor loads inside tree 'eswse' from Druidess zone. Key for Magus cave entrance loads in corpse in spiders zone.
I'm sure I am missing tons, but this should be a good start anyway. Happy hunting.