The High Road Wilderness and Adventure Area is right outside of Eveningstar. It can be accessed by starting the Netherese Scroll storyline in the north western part of Eveningstar in Forgotten Realms. There is strange and foul activity going on here with Netherese Wizards and Sellswords in great number. It seems a mysterious and powerful item known as the Netherese Scroll is behind it.
Venture into the High Roads Wilderness Adventure Area to see what secrets you can uncover about the Netherese Scroll pieces and those behind the mystery. This is a high level epic area where only the most powerful travel alone.
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- Series: NA
- Level: 24
- Patron: NA
- Length: Medium
- Dungeon: The High Road
- Recommended Party: Standard – A good mix of everything allows you to complete all Random Encounters.
- MoBs: Squirrels, Foxes, Birds, Deer, Wolves, Frogs, Umbral Rats, Summoned Shadows, Sellsword Archer, Pet Wolf, Bear, Mudman, Brush Creeper, Sellsword Skirmisher, Bandit Dastard, Sellsword Brute, Bandit Scout, Greater Water Elemental
- Dangerous MoBs: Dire Bears, Netherese Wizards, Random Encounters
- Buffs: Freedom of Movement, Deathward, Standard Buffs
- Special Note: Lots of things start off hiding from you in here.
- Quest Stats: Detailed Quest Stats on DDMs Realm Here
Dungeons and Dragons Online offers another good wilderness adventure area in their 16th game update, The Netherese Legacy. The High Road uses the new tech implemented in The Kings Forest where rare encounters are not static spawn points. Rather, they can randomly spawn at any number of locations in The High Road. In the map of The High Road above (click to enlarge it to full scale) you will see many areas that are marked as possible encounter nodes. Travel between these looking for those Rare Encounters when you are trying to complete the quest objectives in The High Road wilderness adventure area.
Even though The High Road is a 24th level wilderness adventure area it is not very challenging for characters of that level. Enemies are spread out and can be easily avoided. Those you do encounter do not have any special attacks or annoying habits of making you dead. This makes The High Road a fun and relaxed place to explore.
Things to Keep In Mind
This is not a very big wilderness adventure area so it shouldn’t take too long to uncover the map. The trick will be finding all of the Random Encounters. There are a few in here that are rare so keep an eye out for them. You might not get another chance at it for a while.
The mobs here are spread out but many of them like to hide so it can be easier than you might expect to get a decent train going. To help you sniff out those mobs that are hiding, pop out a pet or a hireling. They are excellent at finding and agroing hidden mobs. This might save you an unexpected and embarrassing death.
Bandits on the High Road
Most of the mobs you will encounter here in the High Road are bandits and animals. Nothing is really too tough. You will run into a lot of Netherese Wizards in the High Road. They like to summon shadows and often have Umbral Rats protecting them so make sure to keep some ghost touch items handy.
More Dungeons and Dragon Style Random Encounters
Just like The Kings Forest the High Road does not have static spawn points for rare named creatures. Instead the High Road has many locations in it where Random Encounters will spawn. These are the rare Named Encounters you may be used to from the other wilderness adventure areas. They will pop up on your map when you are still far from them so make sure to open your map frequently to check for them. The DM text will only appear alerting you of their presence if you are close but the map will show them much further away.
One thing I have noticed is that the encounters do not really show up until you have been in the High Road for a while, maybe 5 to 10 minutes. So have some patience and work on your kill count while they spawn. Also, it seems that once you have done 4 or 5 of these Random Encounters their spawning rate slows down. So I would suggest that if you are working on completing these once you have completed a half a dozen or so of these Random Encounters you should leave the High Road wilderness adventure area and let it respawn. You will need to be out of the area for 5 minutes for this to happen, leaving just enough time to go sell the loot you acquired, repair your equipment, stock up on any components you may need, and get some guild buffs.
All of these encounters do spawn chests when they are completed so if you happen to pull something far away or are chased far away, remember to go back to the exact spot on your map when it dies. The fiendish troll for Trader Travels comes to mind for this particular situation.
The High Road: Random Encounters
1.) 
Wild Warriors
- Help wizard kill a few waves of warriors. If it’s during the day they are orc sellswords. If it as night they are were wolves.
2.) Orc Intuition
- If you help her you complete the encounter.
- If you fight her you can get her chest but will not get credit for solving the encounter. (UMD 40)
3.) Rebels Underground, Part 1
- Make sure to use the mysterious bowl to head underground. Here you will be confronted with waves of Yaun-ti. Once they are all defeated you will also get the Rebels Undergound, Part Two Random Encounter
4.) Rebels Underground, Part 2
- Once you are done looting make sure to head back outside. It will leave you on a high ledge where you can get one of the journal pieces. This is the only way to get this journal piece.
5.) Shadow Summoners
- Kill the Netherese Wizard Shadow Summoners.
6.) Trader Travels
- Help kill the Flesh Render that is attacking his cart. It will run away at 20%. Use ranged attacks at this point or you might spend all day chasing this freak around.
7.) Tree full of Spiders
- Shake the tree to get the spiders to fall out.
8.) Wood Woad’s Wrath
- Here is a big old nasty wood woad and his friends.
9.) Bandit King
- Take out the Bandit King
10.) Frozen By Night
- The leader is a frost werewolf that only comes out at night.
11.) Spectral Sightings
- Just a nasty specter to kill.
12.) Wild Brothers
- This is probably the toughest encounter. Take out the caster first for sure. Then work on the bear. Split them if you have a group.
13.) Spider of Unusual Size
- I don’t think this one exists.
Oriphaun’s Journal Entries
Last but not least Oriphaun has spread journal entries around the High Road wilderness adventure area noting some of the events around the Netherese Scroll. These act as the Explorer Locations that you would find in most of the other wilderness adventure areas. They add a little more depth to the High Road and I really like that Turbine has gone to this style of exploration. There is one journal that you cannot get without the proper encounter spawning so don’t kill yourself scouring the countryside for the seventh journal. This will come when you are lucky enough to get the appropriate encounter, Rebels Underground, Part 1 and Part 2.
The High Road Wilderness Adventure Area Summary
All in all the High Road is a nice little wilderness adventure area. It shouldn’t take too long to complete and it is not too dangerous. It is likely you can complete most of the objectives out here just doing the quests for the Netherese Legacy series.
When working to complete all of the objectives I have found that it seems to be best to travel just south of the road all the way up to the north west of the map. Make sure to keep an eye on your map so you don’t miss any Random Encounter spawns. Once you are at the waterfall jump in and swim with the river down to nearly the beginning. This way you can quickly do a lap of the zone scanning for those ever elusive Random Encounters. If you want to be thorough, once you are back on dry land head due west through the center of the largest of the unexplored area. You may pick up another encounter, but they do appear quite a ways away on the map.
These Random Encounters can give commendations to trade for epic magic items in Eveningstar so it is definitely worthwhile to take care of them when they appear on your map.
Have fun with the High Road wilderness area as it is the most laid back and easy of the epic level wilderness adventure areas in DDO up to date.
Play smarter, not harder!
~Karranor
13.) Spider of Unusual Size
this encounter does exist though I found it quite rare
/wink Thanks
Re: Spider of Unusual Size. I came across this one last night, so yeah it exists. Just a tougher spider. Maybe slightly larger and darker than the usual for the area.
/facepalm did you kill the spider all dead, or just mostly dead?
It was mostly dead all day. :)
Only have made 2 concerted stays in the High Road wilderness area, and I find most of your information accurate. I can tell you that the Random Encounter of the ‘Spider of Unusual Size’ does exist, I finished it BOTH forays in the wild. I will agree with you that the ‘Wild Brothers’ is tougher than the encounters that I came across. Now, I was alone with just a healbot hire, and was able to take out the brothers with only 1 death during the encounter (I scoped out the closeness of the shrine before encountering). I directed the hire to attack the Bear and I went after the caster. The shrine was just outside the range of the Brothers, so, I was able to rez myself and pull the hire back for heals. Then went back in range, directed hire back on Bear and I managed to finished off caster then helped with Bear.
Thanks for the info. That encounter is definitely tough. Good to hear that you made it through it. That combo is just nasty!
As far as The Spider of Unusual Size and mentioning that it doesn’t exists is actually a reference to The Princess Bride and the ROUS’s, Rodents of Unusual Size. I know it is there, just trying to be funny. ;p
Princess Bride – Rodent Of Unusual Size
Yes, I know I’m old… ;p
We’ve been running the high road over and over again (at least 20 times now) and have never found the rebels underground. Is there some secret to getting it, we’re getting very annoyed not being able to complete the journals!
The trick is that you need find Rebels Underground part 1. It can appear during the day or night but it seems to be the rarest by far. I would suggest getting a group and entering the area. Have one person run south and then up along the western edge. Then have a second run along the river. This should give you enough coverage to see any encounters that appear on the whole map. When you meet up on the north end and have not seen it spawn. Recall, break group, reform and re-enter. Rinse and repeat until it appears.
When Rebels Underground Part 1 does appear smote the mobs. Then make sure that you click the signpost with the swirl on it to actually enter their lair. Then, move up through the tunnel to their camp. Slay the waves of enemies and kill the boss when it shows up. Loot up and heal. Then, do not recall! Head out of the cave exit near their underground camp. This will spawn you back in the High Road but near the last journal you will need to get. This is the only way to get that last journal.
This way you should be able to get your last two rare encounters and the last journal in one fell swoop. Have patience, this encounter does not spawn very often.