The Citadel

The Citadel — colloquially Travesty's Court — is the Mondain's Legacy Peerless dungeon located in the Tokuno Islands, west of Fire Mountain. It is the base of operations of the Black Order, an elite guild of thieves and assassins whose new leadership — the dopplegänger Travesty — directs the brotherhood for the secret service of Minax. The Citadel is hidden from view through powerful illusionary magic and riddled with traps, illusions, hidden areas, and secrets. The entrance involves a box that doesn't always appear in the same place. Among UO's hardest dungeons in terms of navigation puzzles, the Citadel is famous for its three-key Travesty summon mechanic and the unique Mark of Travesty drop.

Location and entrance

• Tokuno Islands — 75° 40' N, 1° 53' E.
• Entry: Use the crate.
• Quest prerequisite: must have started a quest from Sarakki the Notary (in Britain) — NOT the standard library-donation quest, but other quests she gives, related to Tiger Claw Assassins and similar Black Order topics. Other NPCs also give entry-qualifying quests.

Dungeon design — secrets and ambush mechanics

The Citadel is filled with secret doors that must be discovered to access the keys for Travesty:

(Note: On the Europa shard, spike traps were patched to deal only 10–20 points of damage — a soft-mode for that shard.)

The Three Keys to Summon Travesty

Three keys — actual physical keys, not random objects — are required to summon the Travesty:

The Red Key — the hard one

The Red Key is by far the hardest to acquire:

1. Walk down a long corridor that continuously spawns Ninja and Black Order Mages and Assassins.
2. Find the correct secret door on the southern wall of the far room — the wrong door re-routes you and the spawn intensifies.
3. The Grand Mage himself spawns with an incredibly large number of helpers.
4. Looting him is hard even if you defeat him — you may have to clear his summons before retrieving the Red Key.

Master Key exchange

When you have all three colored keys: 1. Go to the key table. 2. Drop the 3 keys on the table. 3. Receive 3 fiery master keys called "Black Order Keys". 4. Double-click a master key → teleport to Travesty's domain. 5. All party members within relatively close range are also invited.

The Travesty — Peerless boss

Travesty is an über-changeling. Her appearance: - First: a small, floating, butterfly-like creature. - In combat: she transforms into the form of the players attacking her — visually, mechanically, and in spell selection.

Lore

Fictionally, she works directly for the dark mage Minax, and correspondence and orders between the two can be found on her corpse and littered about the room. Some give Quests; some are objects of quests. Most involve Sarakki the Notary outside of Britain's Library.

Combat — abilities

• Form-shifting: She mirrors the player attacking her — visually, in equipment, in spell selection. If she takes the form of a Necromancer, she casts Necromancy spells. If she takes the form of a dexer with Breath of the Dead, she will Mortal Strike everyone.
• Special-Move mimicry: She uses Special Moves on your weapon when she takes your form.
• Skill mimicry: She gains the active skills of the form she takes — including Discordance. If a party member has Discordance and stays in melee range, Travesty will mimic their Discordance and use it to debuff your group, dramatically increasing fight difficulty.
• Mirror Image: When she changes form, she may cast Mirror Image, confusing pets that are set to "all kill."
• Ninja summon: When near death, she summons about 10 Ninjas, Black Order Mages, and Black Order Assassins to her aid. Ignore them, focus on Travesty.
• Re-summon trigger: If you allow Travesty to heal back to her ninja-summoning HP threshold, she summons another wave. And another. Don't stop damaging her.

Tactics

• Mixed party works best — diverse damage sources counter her form-mimicry.
• Tamers: pets work alright, but keep spamming "all kill" when she changes form to keep pets re-targeting.
• Dexers: do reasonably well — single-target focus, weapon special focus.
• When Travesty takes your form: she'll be on you in a second or less — pre-position for the burst.
• Discordance characters: stay away from Travesty — your skill becomes a self-debuff if mimicked.
• Difficulty rating: Travesty is among the easier Peerlesses. The hard part is the 3-key acquisition, not the boss fight itself.

Drops

Mondain's Legacy Peerless ingredient drops

Each ML Peerless drops 8 mixed items (total) from the standard ingredient pool:

Used in crafting Peerless-tier artifacts.

Fun facts

• Most of the normal "assassins" in the Citadel are bearded ladies — a deliberate visual joke / Easter egg.

See also

• Mondain's_Legacy — the parent expansion
• Tokuno_Islands — the facet
• Travesty — the Peerless boss
• Minax — the dark mage Travesty serves
• Sarakki — the Notary outside Britain Library who chains entry quests
• Bedlam · Painted_Caves · Twisted_Weald · Palace_of_Paroxysmus · Prism_of_Light — sister ML Peerless dungeons
• Pendant_of_the_Magi — uses Eye of the Travesty
• Black_Order — the parent assassin guild
• Mortal_Strike — the special move Travesty mimics from dexers using Breath of the Dead
• Mirror_Image — the spell she casts mid-fight
• Discordance — DO NOT bring; she mimics it