Taloc's Hollow Part 1 of 3

This is Part 1 of 3 of a walkthrough for the Taloc's Hollow instance,  available to players lvl 51 and higher.  The entry quest for the instance for the Elyos is a campaign quest called "Friends for Life" and only becomes enabled after completing "Proving Yourself to Oustremus".  The "Friends for Life" quest has you speak with Lothas,  an Elim NPC who asks you to kill 32 Woodland Brohum or Brohie in Taloc's Forest after visiting every tree (Elim) NPC you've ever met throughout your game. At this time I don't have the info for the Asmodian entry quest,  however the instance itself is the same for both races. The following pics show my cleric completing the entry quest and running the instance.

Killing Brohums for the entry quest

When you're finished killing the mobs,  speak with Lothas and gain entry to Taloc's Hollow.  When you enter,  be sure to check your inventory before walking very far.
You'll see that an item has been deposited:  Taloc's Fruit. Its looks like a pear.  It transforms you into a powerful tree with about 10x your normal amount of HP.  You must use this and transform before fighting any mobs in the instance because all the mobs are elite and can easily one shot you if you don't.  You'll also notice a another
item in your inv:  a red ball called Taloc's Tears.  Its your first weapon for fighting mobs in the instance.  Its a strong AOE that's good for when you have several mobs
aggroed on you at once.  It takes about a quarter of their health.

A pic of my inventory showing Taloc's Fruit and Taloc's Tears in the bottom row.
 

Once you get the hang of being a powerful tree creature with a great skill,  you'll clear a room or two and start making your way thru the instance,  which is supposed to be
the roots of Taloc himself.  As such,  your map looks something like an underground
dungeon. 
Heading along the path,  you'll be confronted with a huge spider which stands in front
of 2 things marked "Writhing Cocoon".  A message saying "The cocoons are wriggling - somethings inside!" appears .


Arriving at the spider who guards the cocoons

The spider's name is Shishir,  and hes a parasite who lives in Taloc's Roots.  Hes in the way of you and the 2 cocoons.

A look at the named mob Shishir,  the parasite of Taloc's Roots
 

 

After you finish fighting him,  loot him for the corrosive fluid and the second weapon that he drops.

Looting Shishir after fighting him

 

He drops an item called "Shishir's Powerstone" which is your second weapon for helping you get thru the instance.  Its a powerful one shot wep, great for fighting one
enemy at a time.  It take more health off the enemy that Taloc's Tears,  but it isn't an AOE.  Next,  walk over to the cocoons.  They talk!  They ask for help but you only have one bottle of corrosive fluid for dissolving a cocoon,  so its up to you to decide
which of these two NPCs to free.

Facing the writhing Cocoons

 

Now,  you don't have to break the cocoons if you don't want to.  As you can see in the pic above,  the game gives you the option not to.  I always do tho, and for this run of
Taloc's I chose the cocoon on the left.


Meeting Engeius after using the corrosive fluid

Accepting him as a companion NPC

The game gives you an interactive window in case you don't want to have a companion or need time to decide if you want one. I always accept because it helps to have a fighter NPC.  The NPC I chose is a Templar,  which is good,   and since I'm a cleric I can buff and heal him.  As a side note,  hes also a Reian,  a separate race of people who are also inhabitants of Atreia.   Now we can adventure together through the rest of the instance :)
That concludes Part One of my article on Taloc's.  Part 2 coming soon !