Aidan in Iron Horse Mine?

I've always wondered, what the heck is he doing there?
Multiple times now I have had ranger secondary or primary during the Iron Horse Mine part of the game, and while doing the Stone Summit Beastmasters quest, I've seen Aidan pop in the mines.
The thing is he just happens to spawn in the very same location as four Snow Ettins, so he doesn't live very long (as seen here http://koti.phnet.fi/santamik/gw/aidan_iron_horse.jpg ). I have never been fast enough to talk to him, so anyone know what is he up to in the mines?

its part of a quest i believe..you have to lead cynn to him

Cynn?! I have never seen Cynn in there. What quest is this?

wrong quest. that quest is to find mhenlo.

i've never seen aidan there before, though. strange indeed. maybe it's a hidden quest?

I've seen him. I was a R/W at the time doing the series of iron horse mine quest. I also had Artemis' quest triggered too though. Aidan got stomped into the ground by the snow ettins before I got there.

For Cynn, you will find her outside Yak's Bend and then she gives you a quest to find Mhenlo.
EDIT: here is a link
http://quests.gwonline.net/quests.php?id=207

It's the one with the Mark of Aidan items...the journey to Kryta or something along those lines.

I've seen Aidan spawn a few times there as well, and each time he dies long before you can get to him.

Artemis the Ranger is the one that is close to the zone point and she also gets beat up by the Stone Summit. Her spawn point is near the entrance for Iron Horse Mine.

I'm thinking that it's a bug that takes some special conditions to make him spawn and it has something to do with Artemis and her quest.

Boxterduke, have you ever been able to get to him?

the quest from artemis has nothing to do with aidan, though. it could be a bug, but there seems to be no reason fro him to be there at all.

I've just bin there on my Wa/Mo (just used for farming..lol), as soon as I run in I put healing breeze on Aidan and killed the ettins. He also gives a quest basically you have to send a message to this guy about
***SPOILER***


prince rulriks death


***SPOILER***

Can someone post a picture with the minimap up?

...come to think of it, Devona randomly appears somtimes near the portal that leads you towards Yak's Bend...

This amuses me, since GuildWiki makes no mention of it at all.

Almost a year later...

Can someone confirm this?

Currently I go through the early Prophecies with my wanna-be-survivor R/Ne. Every time as I entered the Iron Horse Mines area, I saw Aidan there in the cave with a mob of ettins. I never could get fast enough to him to save him, he got killed every time. (Every time I had the active quest from Artemis though). No mention on the Wiki about this quest or indeed about any role of Aidan in this area.

If he is indeed supposed to give a quest, this is an example of the most annoying mob placement on the top of a quest-giving NPC.

P.S. I will post the mini-map later when I get there again (had to restart my survivor, death by spike lag).

Hah, was a bit odd to see a topic started by my old account here.

I'm still wondering about this too. Not much has changed since when I posted this, just the amount of times I've seen Aidan die there.

Update on the topic.

Apparently, Aidan spawns ONLY during the Stone Summit Beastmaster quest.

I finally got my new ranger to Yak's Bend and got to Iron Horse Mine. When I did not have this quest, there was no Aidan in the ettins cave; but he spawned when I got this quest from Artemis. However, as soon as I killed the beastmaster boss, Aidan would not spawn again, no matter how many times I rezoned to Traveler's Vale and back. Aidan also would not spawn for my L20 ranger, who completed all quests and missions in Tyria (I tried to rezone several times).

Here's two screenshots:

1. Aidan is still alive. The Stone Summit Beastmaster quest is active (the green star on the minimap shows the location of the quest boss).



2. A better minimap showing the approximate location of Aidan (yellow square). The portal on the minimap (at the bottom) leads to Traveler's Vale.




I could not risk with my new survivor ranger to repeat this quest again and to try saving Aidan, so for the time being he still remains a mystery.

Conclusions:

I believe that the information from Gozza is false: Aidan in Iron Horse mine would not spawn for W/Mo without the active Summit Beastmaster quest. I think that Gozza referred to the Ice Cave on the way to Kryta, after completing the Frost Gate mission. In the end of the cave Aidan indeed asks the player to deliver the message. However, in the story timeline Rurik is still alive when we arrive to Yak's Bend and Iron Horse Mine.

My guess is that Aidan was originally supposed to help the players during the Stone Summit Beastmaster quest, but due to the TOTALLY DUMB placement of ettins he is dead long before a low level character can reasonably approach him. Maybe it will be possible with a high level Tyrian ranger (primary or secondary) who never took the quest from Artemis before...

I would be glad if someone would finally manage to save Aidan and to see what happens then...


P.S. Edited for clarity.

P.P.S I added a note about Aidan to the Wiki's page for this quest.

Yeah I've had that. I actually got a screenie of her. She was level ~10 and she helped me out randomly. I was really suprised because she just came and went.

Have you guys tryed to go from the other path? you may just be in time to save him, but it is a long walk.

I hereby officially declare that a warrior cannot save Aidan. Just tried it with my Tyrian L20 W/R who never took the SSB quest from Artemis before. I packed Spint and Charge, but this did not help: the L13 Aidan is surrounded by seven L11 ettins and of course, he has no chance.

I use "Charge!". Note the enemies around Aidan:


Too late. The ettins already spread out:


The exact location of Aidan:


By the way, I looked up the Iron Horse Map in the Prima GW Guide, and YES, it shows Aidan in the cave at this spot between 2 groups of ettins. However, there is no mention of Aidan in the quests for Traveler's Vale and Iron Horse Mine.

Frankly, I do not think that it matters from what side to approach Aidan: ettins start attacking him as soon as you get him on your radar.

I just figured I'd add my research to this thread, too, to save anyone else time & energy. I noticed this on my ranger (and have talked w/ Alya) and can confirm 100% Aidan only appears when the ranger-only quest, Stone Summit Beastmasters is active and not completed. I saved this quest up until Hell's Precipice where, as a ranger, ya kinda need Winter to get into a group .

The first 2 groups of stone summit can be killed w/out triggering the ettins. I pulled the 2nd group with a flatbow, for reference. The ettins seems to trigger when you pass between the "narrow" hillsides coming together (roughly where it starts snowing and just before the Mhenlo spawn, when active). Using speedbursts, as Alya and others have said, you cannot get to Aidan in time. The mountain separating you and Aidan is thicker than half your aggro circle so it's impossible to cast any spells on him. Depending on how many ettins spawn, Aidan may get off Troll Unguent but it's still not enough.

A person wisely suggested trying to reach Aiden from the other side. I tried this as well, taking the left path past the war machine. Once inside the cave from the west, I approached and when the 5 Ettins "came to life" I immediately used dodge (33% speed buff) but was still an aggro circle away from Aidan when he expired, so no luck.

Possibilities:
If you are going to try this, as suggested on other forums, the only untested (to my knowledge) theories are using a ritualist w/ protection spirits (this assumes the range and that spirits work on friendly, non-party NPCs (ie: Aidan). The other suggestion involves using an assassin to shadowstep/teleport to Aidan (assuming you can SS/tele to an NPC outside of your aggro bubble). I don't have Factions, so I can't verify either.

Reasons:
It has been suggested (and it is my own personal feeling) that this is a bug and most likely an oversight by Anet. If you do the Wayward Monk quest as a monk or /monk, you will notice that the 3 enemies disappear and Mhenlo takes their place at that map position. The ettins spawning when SSB quest is active is probably the main problem.

It is also possible that Aidan should be placed in Mhenlo's spot (especially considering the Wayward Monk quest mentions Mhenlo seeking out Aidan) but there might an ingame issue w/ their dual placement (for a R/Mo with both quests active, for instance). IDK, I really wish we could get some confirmation from Gaile Grey on this.

Solutions:
These are simple (at least from my viewpoint, dunno how complex the game coding/NPC placement is) solutions people have mentioned/I have come up with.

1. Place Aidan in another spot OR adjust it so that the Ettins don't spawn when SSB quest is active (much like in The Wayward Monk quest). This is the most likely solution.
2. Give Aidan a defensive stance, ie: Lightning Reflexes, Whirling Def.. Not just for this purpose but to make him more useful as an NPC! Not likely, but hey, a suggestion none the less.
3. Remove Aidan entirely and end this mystery/suspense/whatever, lol. Perhaps this is most likely.


I hope this is a good summary for anyone interested in this mystery. I took information from a few postings on different forums, wiki, and my own personal research. Enjoy.

Cool something else to try and look for and answer. I like the summation that you came up with PJfresh and agree on it. I have seen several other instances of NPC's in places where it is impossible to save then due to the nemies always getting to them first. Anoying? yes Needs fixing? again yes. I hope Gaile sees this.

Mega Mouse