If you are worried about the Crown being eaten, just approach Shmendrick Lavawalker before you hand in the crown. If you go kill Shmendrick, before you start the epic (just hail and hit him and kill him), you still get the elemental spawn and if you kill it you get the damaged crown. I did this about three months ago. Then you go camp Bergurgle, unless you already have the Crown from Bergurgle. You can have the crown and the damaged crown in your inventory at the same time as they have different names. (I could not get Natasha Whitewater to take the damaged crown without killing Bergurgle.) If you already have the Crown you then wait three hours til Shmendrick respawns and you start the Epic text, hand him the crown and kill him & the elemental spawn. Whether you win or not at this point is immaterial, but you have to get back soon if you die as Natasha will not remain around for long. If you win, you do not loot the damaged crown, you just hand in the damaged crown you already have in your inventory. If you lose, you hand in the damaged crown you already have in your inventory just as soon as you return from death or zoning. If Natasha Whitewater is still in the area, hand the damaged crown to her. At this point I must say that I have always been over 40 when starting my cleric epic. But you have me curious and I think I will try it before 40 just to find out how early a cleric may accomplish the first turn in. I currently have a level 37 cleric and a level 12 cleric that do not have their epic started. If I can find this thread again I will edit my post again to let you know what happens.
Edited, Feb 12th 2009 5:35am by smithgib