___________________ \ / \ _ / | | | | ____ __ ___ __________|_____|_| _ |_ _____ ______________________ / __ \/ / / / | / / ____/ ____/ __ \/ | / // ___// _/ ____/ ____/ ____/ / / / / / / / |/ / / __/ __/ / / / / |/ / \__ \ / // __/ / / __/ __/ / / / / /_/ / /| / /_/ / /___/ /_/ / /| /| / // // /___/ /_/ / /___ / /_/ /\____/_/ |_/\____/_____/\____/_/ |_/_|__/ /___/_____/\____/_____/ /_____/ | | | /______/ | |_| | / \ /_________________\ DUNGEON SIEGE II FAQ/WALKTHROUGH V1.10 2005-09-20 Copyright 2005 by Barry Scott "PapaGamer" Will This guide is also available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) with included maps and other visual goodies. See http://www.pyric.com/ for more information on obtaining the PDF. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons 559 Nathan Abbott Way Stanford, California 94305, USA. Dungeon Siege II is Copyright 2005 by Microsoft and Gas Powered Games. This FAQ/walkthrough is not endorsed by, nor is the author associated with, Microsoft or Gas Powered Games. __ ___________________________________________________|'-, __________/____/ \ @_/_/_/_/_| ____ CONTACT INFORMATION ) \__ \___________________________________________________ / |,-' To contact me about the guide, send email to: pyric@cavecreations.net Please include "Dungeon Siege II FAQ" in your subject line so I don't auto- discard the message. Also, please read the FAQ carefully prior to asking for help on any part of the game. If you send me additional suggestions or hints for the game and I find them useful, you will be acknowledged in the Credits. If you found this guide useful and would like to contribute a small token for my efforts, you may send money through PayPal to: paypal@cavecreations.net Or use the Donate link found on my Web site: http://www.pyric.com/ Thank you, and enjoy the guide! __ ___________________________________________________|'-, __________/____/ \ @_/_/_/_/_| ____ TABLE OF CONTENTS ) \__ \___________________________________________________ / |,-' [1] GAME OVERVIEW [1.1] Review [1.2] FAQ [1.3] Glossary [2] GAMEPLAY BASICS [2.1] Controls [2.2] 10 Tips to Get You Started [2.3] Strategy, Tactics and Quests, Oh My! [2.4] Known Bugs (as of release version 2.0) [3] CHAPTER WALKTHROUGH ACT I [3.1] Chapter 1: The Siege of Greilyn Beach [3.2] Chapter 2: Prisoner of War [3.3] Chapter 3: The Morden Towers [3.4] Chapter 4: The Plague [3.5] Chapter 5: The Dryad Exile Colony [3.6] Chapter 6: Leaving Greilyn Isle [3.7] Chapter 7: Secret of the Azunite Desert [3.8] Chapter 8: The Lost Azunite Artifact [3.9] Chapter 9: Windstone Fortress [3.10] Chapter 10: The Temple of Xeria ACT II [3.11] Chapter 1: The Town of Aman'lu [3.12] Chapter 2: Finala and the Broken Bridge [3.13] Chapter 3: The Elen'lu Isles [3.14] Chapter 4: The Royal Caravan [3.15] Chapter 5: The Vai'kesh and the Aegis of Death [3.16] Chapter 6: Princess Evangeline [3.17] Chapter 7: The Siege of Snowbrook Haven [3.18] Chapter 8: The Siege of Snowbrook Haven, Part III ACT III [3.19] Chapter 1: Restore Kalrathia's Water [3.20] Chapter 2: The Morden Chief [3.21] Chapter 3: The Kalrathian Rebellion [3.22] Chapter 4: The Mines of Kaderak [3.23] Chapter 5: The Mines of Kaderak, Part II [3.24] Chapter 6: The Agallan Trial [3.25] Chapter 7: The Agallan Giants [3.26] Chapter 8: Zaramoth's Horns [3.27] Chapter 9: The Final Ascent [3.28] Veteran and Elite Difficulties [4] QUEST WALKTHROUGH [4.1] Act I: Primary Quests [4.2] Act I: Secondary Quests [4.3] Act II: Primary Quests [4.4] Act II: Secondary Quests [4.5] Act III: Primary Quests [4.6] Act III: Secondary Quests [4.7] The Mysterious Mystery Quest [5] LORE [5.1] Handbook [5.2] Potions [5.3] Chants [5.4] Books [5.5] Quest Items [5.6] Weapon Suffixes and Prefixes [5.7] Unique Items [5.8] Item Sets [5.8.1] Melee Sets [5.8.2] Ranged Sets [5.8.3] Mage Sets [5.8.4] Miscellaneous Sets [6] CHARACTERS [6.1] Character Races [6.2] Classes, Skills & Powers [6.2.1] Fighter [6.2.2] Ranger [6.2.3] Combat Mage [6.2.4] Nature Mage [6.3] TMI on Classes, Skills & Powers [7] COMPANIONS [7.1] Henchmen [7.2] Pets [8] VERSION HISTORY & CREDITS To jump to a specific topic, open the Edit menu and choose Find in this Page (or just press Control-F) and enter the bracketed number, including the brackets. For example, enter [5.7.2] as the search text to jump straight to the Ranged Item Sets. __ ___________________________________________________|'-, __________/____/ \ @_/_/_/_/_| ____ [1] GAME OVERVIEW ) \__ \___________________________________________________ / |,-' ============ [1.1] Review ============ Dungeon Siege II, like its predecessor, is a basic dungeon crawl--or "action RPG" in modern parlance. The game's focus is destroying hordes of enemies while completing a variety of quests (tasks) that are given you. As you lay waste the quivering mass of foes that press upon you, your character gains experience, which you can translate into extra power in the form of higher ability scores, new weapons and spells and additional skills. As in the original, DS2 is a point-and-click game and you can pretty much run the whole show with just your mouse. Combat is real-time, but you just choose your attack (melee, ranged or spell) and right-click an enemy. AI-controlled characters will attack an enemy until it is dead. To make the player- controlled character attack an enemy until it is dead, hold down the right mouse button. DS2 has a richer, more varied story than DS1, which makes it easier to motivate oneself to venture forth into the slaughtering fields. There are more conversations to be had in towns, and many more optional secondary quests. Also, DS2, while still quite linear, feels less confined as you can (and will) jump back and forth between areas to complete quests. All this makes DS2 a much better game than DS1 and will make it more accessible to some of the hardcore RPG players that normally eschew dungeon crawls. ========= [1.2] FAQ ========= Q. How do I unlock the higher difficulty levels? A. Complete the game at the lower difficulty levels. You must finish the game at Mercenary level to play at Veteran level. You must finish the game at Veteran level to play at Elite level. Q. How do I add more than four characters to my party? A. Four characters is the limit for Merc difficulty. At Veteran difficulty you can add a fifth party member. At Elite difficulty, you can add a sixth party member. Q. I'm at the Elven Shrine (Act I, Chapter 4) and I can't get through the door because I need a level 6 ranger! A. That's just a sanctuary door. (See Handbook Lesson #37) There's a bit of treasure behind that door, nothing more. The door to take deeper into the Elven Shrine is to the right of that door. Q. Where are the set items? A. Set items are random drops based on your character level. While certain treasure chests and foes have a higher probability of dropping a set item, no two people will find the same item in the same place. You can even find multiples of set items (and other unique items). The items drop according to your character level, so if you get past the intended level without completing a set, you'll probably never complete it. The exception are the set items that are part of a specific quest. These include the Secrets of the Forgotten (Lost Jewels of Soranith quest), the Ghostly Visions (Spirits of Aranna quest) and Luun's Deathblades (Mark of the Assassin quest). Also, the Nature's Vigilance set items are placed in specific treasure chests in Act I. These are mentioned in the Chapter Walkthrough and under the Nature's Vigilance set description. Q. Where's the best place to XP/item farm? A. There's no really good place to farm for XP as power leveling is kind of a useless activity. The best place to item farm is anywhere in a town or near a teleporter so you can reload and quickly return to try again. Probably the best place to item farm is the Aman'lu Arena. Don't open the treasure rooms until after you've completed all ten matches. Then save your game before examining your filthy lucre. If you don't like what you're given, reload and go open the treasure rooms again. You can often get a lot of set items this way. Of course, if you are really into item farming, you might as well just use an item-drop mod. There are several at this Web site: http://www.siege-mods.com/Downloads/c=11.html I used a couple of these mods in writing this Guide. Q. Can I earn any bonus skill points? A. Yes. The following quests earn one (1) bonus skill point: * Act I, Chapter 5: The Dryad Exile Colony * Act I, Chapter 8: The Lost Azunite Artifact * Act III, Chapter 6: The Agallan Trial * Act I, Secondary Quest #7: The Hak'u, Part II * Act II, Secondary Quest #13: A Servant's Haunt You receive two (2) bonus skill points for completing these quests: * Act II, Secondary Quest #6: Arinth the Mad * Act II, Secondary Quest #12: The Aman'lu Arena Q. Who is ??? What is with this Mysterious Bucket/Token/Stone/Book? A. See The Mysterious Mystery Quest (section 4.7) ============== [1.3] Glossary ============== Some terms used in this guide that are common in CRPG "lingo": Aggro: Aggression--refers to the focus of a monster's ire AoE: Area of Effect--spells or powers that affect more than one monster, typically all within a radius of the target point Buff: A magical enhancement to skills, powers, damage, ability scores, etc. DPS: Damage per Second--the amount of damage a character can inflict per second of fighting Mob: Any hostile creature, from one to many (a mob of mobs!) __ ___________________________________________________|'-, __________/____/ \ @_/_/_/_/_| ____ [2] GAMEPLAY BASICS ) \__ \___________________________________________________ / |,-' In addition to the game manual (which is available in PDF on CD1) and tutorial stage (Act I, Chapter 1), DS2 has an in-game Handbook that is part of your Journal. If you want to know all the ins-and-outs of playing DS2, refer to those resources. This section is intended as a quick-start guide for players who don't like lots of reading before playing. ============== [2.1] Controls ============== Movement & Camera ----------------- * Left-click accessible ground to move. * Scroll the mouse wheel to zoom the camera. * Move the mouse to the edges of the screen, or hold the mouse wheel button and move the mouse to rotate the camera. Combat & Interaction -------------------- * Right-click an enemy to attack, hold the right mouse button down to continue attacking until the enemy is dead. * Left-click doors, gates, levers, etc. to open/activate them. * Right-click containers to open/destroy them. * Press 'Z' to collect all nearby loot on the ground * Left-click friendly NPCs to talk to them (if they display the talk balloon icon). * Right-click an ally to cast a beneficial spell on him/her/it. * Press 'H' to drink health potions (all party members who are in need, drink). * Press 'M' to drink mana potions (all party members who are in need, drink). * Press 'G' to set the party in Rampage mode. * Press 'F' to set party in Mirror mode. * There are two other party modes: Defend and Wait. By default they do not have hotkeys, so you can assign whatever you wish. Character Management -------------------- * Drag a character's portrait to re-order the party. * Double-click a character's portrait to open that character's Character Window. * Left-click a character's portrait to set that character as the active character. * Press 'I' to open the active character's Inventory. * Press 'B' to open the active character's Spell Book. * Press 'P' to open the active character's Specialties (skills). * Press 'V' to open all character Inventories. * Press 'K' to autosort all Inventories. * Drag an item from one character's Inventory to a character portrait to give the item to another character. * CTRL-left-click while shopping to automatically buy or sell an item. * Right-click an item in Inventory to automatically equip it. Game Control ------------ * Press SPACE to pause the game. * Press ESC to open the game menu. * Press J to open the Journal. * Press and hold TAB to view the overhead map. ================================ [2.2] 10 Tips to Get You Started ================================ #1 Pause the game. Frequently. ------------------------------ Don't try to play this as an action/combat game, relying on the twitchiness of your trigger finger to win the day. The combat in DS2 is very tactical, and pausing regularly during combat will help you assess your characters' positions, their health and mana status and the best available targets. You should also pause every time you stop to manage inventory or add skill points--especially if you are in hostile territory where a monster could wander up and start beating on you while you're absorbed in whether or not you should equip the Sword of Uberness or the Axe of Leetness. #2 Don't be afraid to use potions. And carry plenty around with you. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Whether you choose to invest in Natural Bond and Survival so you can harvest potions, or you just buy some from the friendly neighborhood potion pusher whenever you're in town; always keep plenty of health and mana potions in your Inventory. #3 Versatility is a good thing. ------------------------------- Monsters are resistant--or flat out invulnerable--to different types of damage, especially as you get deeper into the game. You must have a variety of damage types available to you. If you've got a party of two fighters and a ranger and you run into a mob that's resistant to melee and ranged damage, you're in trouble. The best way to handle versatility is to have one of each class in your party: fighter, ranger, combat mage and nature mage. Of the four, the combat mage is inherently the most versatile as she can fling death, fire or lightning damage as needed; and, she can curse enemies to make them weak to her favored attacks. Righteous! Add a shield tank or mythrilhorn pet to Provoke mobs away from the caster and you've got all you really need. You can then add in ranged or healing/buffing/summoning support as suits your playing style. #4 Don't forget the Summon Teleporter spell. -------------------------------------------- Summon Teleporter is a level-0 nature magic spell. Level 0 means any character can cast it to open a town portal for a quick rest and refit. The standard teleporters are rather thick throughout Aranna, but it never hurts to have a quick escape method at hand. Make sure every one of your characters has a spell book with Summon Teleporter in it, even if they never cast any other spell throughout the entire game. Just remember that town portals do not last through a save/reload and are single-use only. #5 You've got to know when to walk away, know when to run. ---------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes, when you're being overwhelmed, a "tactical retreat" is in order. In other words: run away, run away! This is especially important if you have casters. If they get surrounded by brutish thugs, they'll end up unconscious pretty quickly. Since your mages are generally your highest-damage dealers, any time mobs gang up on them, running to a clear area and regrouping your party is a good idea. #6 Backup your saves. --------------------- By default, your save games are stored in My Documents\My Games\Dungeon Siege 2\Save\SinglePlayer The game keeps your most recent save and the one save right before that. This doesn’t allow a lot of leeway if you get stuck, hit a glitch, etc. Every time you start a new chapter, ALT-TAB out of the game, ZIP up your character's save game folder and archive it somewhere. If you hit a showstopper bug, replace your current save folder with the most recent archived save folder. #7 Assign hotkeys to Defend and Wait. ------------------------------------- The game basically assumes the Rampage and Mirror party orders are good enough. However, you may also want to use Defend and Wait. Defend causes all non-active characters to attack whatever is attacking the active character. Wait essentially puts the active character into solo mode--the non-active characters will hold their ground while the active character explores. There are some specific situations where these party orders come in handy, but, by default, there is no way to issue the commands. You'll have to go in and assign hotkeys to these two party orders yourself. #8 The toughest enemy isn't always the biggest enemy. ----------------------------------------------------- When in combat, try to identify the mobs that are hurting you the most. It might be the boss, or it might be the boss' minions. You can even get seriously injured by green-level mobs if you are especially vulnerable to their attack. In boss fights, it is generally advisable to draw minions away from the boss and destroy them piecemeal before confronting the boss party-a-mano. You also need to be aware of any mobs that are hanging back casting nasty spells or summoning critters. Destroying a summoner also rids you of their summons, which is a good thing. Again, use the PAUSE key a lot to keep an eye on the ebb and flow of battle. Figure out which mobs pose the gravest danger to your health and focus your attacks on them. #9 Use the map. --------------- If, for some strange reason, this guide alone isn't helping you find your way, keep an eye on your map. It is full of helpful icons: * Green dots point out friendly NPCs * Blue dots point out interactive items (buttons, levers, doors, etc.) * Gold stars mark primary quest objectives * White stars mark secondary quest objectives * The compass map always shows a gold arrow pointing you in the direction you need to go to complete your current primary quest task You can zoom the maps (both small and large) using the slider under the compass map. Use it to search for secret switches and get your bearings. #10 Use your powers, Luke! -------------------------- Don't try hording your powers for boss fights. Use them for fighting off standard mobs as well. They recharge pretty quickly, and the larger boss fights always have plenty of war pedestals scattered around for instant recharging. Area-of-effect powers are especially useful when you're surrounded, so use 'em up. ========================================== [2.3] Strategy, Tactics and Quests, Oh My! ========================================== Calculating Damage Per Second ----------------------------- In order to truly understand how much damage you are doing, you must learn to calculate DPS (damage per second). Since weapon damage is dependant on your ability stats and class levels, it will vary from person to person. However, you can compare two different weapons for your character by equipping each and calculating DPS for each. DPS can be calculated with this formula: (MAX DMG + MIN DMG) / (2 * SPEED) Where MAX DMG = Maximum damage of the weapon MIN DMG = Minimum damage of the weapon SPEED = Speed factor of the weapon according to the following table*: Speed Factor ------ ------ Slow 0.9 Normal 0.73 Fast 0.67 Faster 0.625 * These factors are the attack duration times of the weapons taken from the wpn_bases.gas game data file. It is the time, in seconds, it takes to "reload" the weapon and attack again. For example, you want to calculate DPS between a bow and crossbow. Bows are Faster weapons while crossbows are Slow; but crossbows do more damage. Your 34th level ranger has a crossbow with a damage range of 97 to 165 and a bow with a damage range of 78 - 134 (damage ranges are from equipped weapons). The speed factor of the bow is 0.625 and the crossbow is 0.9. The DPS of each weapon is: Crossbow: (165 + 97) / (2 * 0.9) = 145.5 Bow: (134 + 78) / (2 * 0.625) = 169.6 As you can see, the bow in this case is clearly superior under normal circumstances. Now let's consider a 34th level fighter choosing between a one-handed and two-handed weapon. The 2h weapon has a damage range of 90 to 143, the 1h is 67 to 105. Two-handed weapons have a speed factor of 0.9 and 1h is 0.67: 2h: (143 + 90) / (2 * 0.9) = 129.4 1h: (105 + 67) / (2 * 0.67) = 128.6 The DPS of the weapons are almost identical. However, the 1h weapon allows the fighter to use a shield, thus drastically increasing armor ratings. On the other hand, the 2h weapon can stun enemies and would be greatly superior used with Brutal Strike. The upshot of all this: when choosing among several weapons, equip each one and run the formula. Take the one with the higher DPS or one with only slightly less DPS but more bonus enhancements. In the long run, the faster your enemies die, the better off you'll be. It's all about the armor, baby! ------------------------------- No matter how much DPS you're dishing out, some enemies still take a long time to die because they have thousands of health points to your measly hundreds. So, while you're beating them to pulp, you don't want them returning the favor. There are three ways to keep your blood where it belongs (inside your veins): 1. Armor 2. Dodging 3. Resistances/Reflections Now, why are they in that order? Simple: Armor is king. Yes, a chance to dodge melee/ranged attacks is nice. And all the various resistances are nice (especially physical damage resistance). But, when push comes to shove, you just don't want to get hit in the first place. Resisting 20% of an attack that does 500 damage still leaves you 400 health points poorer. Dodging 25% of four attacks launched against you still leaves you to grin-and-bear three attacks. A well-armored tank can stand in the middle of a mob and lay about with his weapon and take almost no damage. The vast majority of enemies you face in DS2 are melee or ranged attackers. There really aren't that many spellcasters outside of the bosses. And they usually have such crappy armor and health (like your own mages) that they go down pretty quickly. It's all the mutant dogs and kangaroos and sword fighters and archers that come at you in droves that can really make your life miserable. That's why you need armor, and lots of it. When picking out equipment, favor the stuff that increases your armor rating over anything else. Protect your combat mage ------------------------ What do you do when you're in the middle of a mob and you notice some freak is drawing the blood right out of your veins? You identify the little git and give him what for! Well, your enemies do the same to you. Combat mages draw aggro like flowers draw bees. Even the stupid dogs will run right past your dual-flashy-pointy-thing-wielding monster of a tank and take nips at the heals of your CM. Since your CM, like any other mage, is a 90-pound weakling, he or she winds up unconscious and you are deprived of the hundreds of points of damage he or she can dish out every cast. What do you do? First, consider not putting curses in the autocast slot. Yes, curses are incredibly useful, but monsters don't like being cursed any more than you, so they go for the curser. Let your fighter(s) get the mobs attention--then curse them. They might still turn away from the fighter, but they'll likely not survive to run to the CM. Second, use Drown or Infect as both do a certain amount of DPS. Yes, your CM will draw aggro from using them, but low-level monsters will be dead before reaching the mage and blue and yellow mobs won't last much longer. Third, use a weapon + shield fighter and the Provoke power--or, better, a mythrilhorn pet--to keep enemies focus away from your mage. Fourth, have a nature mage with a good insta-heal spell in the autocast slot and plenty of mana potions to keep casting the spell. Your CM may still fall unconscious once in a while, but your NM will get him or her back up in no time. Party-a-go-go ------------- DS2 gives you a max of four party members in Merc difficulty, five in Vet and six in Elite. With eight henchmen--each with his or her own quest--and ten different pets, choosing your companions and rotating them in and out can get quite confusing. You begin the game with just two party slots. To purchase additional slots, you must talk to an Innkeeper. The first Innkeeper available is in Eirulan, and she will sell you additional party slots immediately. Thus you could, if you had enough money, buy your third and fourth party slots as soon as you get out of prison in Merc. But, well, you won't have enough money, so that's academic. A third party slot costs 500 gold. The fourth costs 1,500. Under reasonable circumstances, you should be able to cough up the 500 gold during Act I, Chapter 3 and 1,500 by the time you reach Chapter 4. So you should be able to add Deru, Taar and Lothar to your party (or a pet or two) by the time you enter the Southern Greilyn Jungle. The fifth slot costs 10,000, which is peanuts by the time you reach Vet difficulty. The sixth slot costs 65,000--again, this is chump change even by Vet difficulty, much more Elite. To take someone out of your party open that person/pet's Character Window and click the Disband button at the top left of the CW. If you are disbanding a henchman, it asks if you're sure and then sends the henchman to the "party inventory" at the Inn (more about that in a moment). If you disband a pet, it asks if you want to send the pet to the Inn or release it to the wild. If you release the pet to the wild it drops everything in its Inventory and disappears--for good. You can't ever get that pet back again. Henchmen and pets disbanded to the Inn are stored in a party inventory. You can view this inventory by talking to the Innkeeper and asking about old companions (conversation option #1). You get a screen that looks a little like a shopping screen, with your Character Window on the left and a listing of disbanded party members on the right. Underneath the Innkeeper's name are the buttons: * View: shows you a screen with the chosen companion's stats. * Release: permanently removes the selected companion from the game. * Add: adds the companion to your party (if you have an open slot). Below the buttons are your companions, up to 20 can be stored at the Inn, they are shown seven-to-a-page. Adding a companion from the party inventory to your active party is pretty straightforward. Releasing a companion is not. When you release a companion--whether pet or henchman--that character is gone, never to return during the current game. (If you remove a henchman, you can still encounter and hire the "new" version of that henchman when playing again at a higher difficulty.) By default, only pets can be released. A released companion drops all its inventory before disappearing. Of course, not being able to release henchman can lead to problems when playing through at higher difficulties. Typically, if you are a complete-nic, you will have hired all eight henchman to do their quests, so all of them are hanging around either in your active party or party inventory. This is fine, if you like them as is. But what if you want the new, improved version of the henchman? For example, what if you have Lothar leveled as a fighter and you want to use the Combat Mage Lothar in Vet? Or you leveled Vix as a thrower, and now you want to use him as a bowman? In order to hire the new versions of henchmen, you have to first release the old henchmen, and the game doesn't want you to do that--the Release button is grayed out when a henchman is selected. There is a workaround and it involves filling the first page of your party inventory with pets. Just buy enough pets (at least seven) to fill the first page of your party inventory and disband them to the Inn. Then go to the Inn and Add henchmen and disband them until they are all on pages 2 or 3 of the party inventory. Now, when selected, the Release button should be available for the henchman. Remember! Don't release a henchman until you are finished with the game (or have just started a new game at higher difficulty). Once released, they are gone forever in the current game. Henchmen do not level up when stored at the Inn. When you add a henchman to your party (either for the first time or re-adding via the Inn), he/she will only level up if more than 20 levels less than your PC. If more than 20 levels less than your PC, the henchman will level up to 2 levels below your PC. Pets are always the same level as your PC. SUMMONS Summoned monsters don't count against your party limit. You could, technically, have every character summon a monster and have up to 12 "members" (6 party members in Elite + 6 summons). Practically, this isn't a good idea as any character other than a full mage is going to have an incredibly weak summons. To get rid of a summons before its time expires, open the summoner's Character Window and click the View button over the paper doll so you see the character's portrait. Right-click the summons icon to remove it and dismiss your summons. More Math (for the Geeks) ------------------------- Some formulas for the more obsessive-minded among the faithful... TALKIN' BOUT REGENERATION! Health and mana regenerate at a relative rate roughly equal to Max (Health or Mana) / 100 per second. I.e., base regeneration is scaled so the character can fully recover health or mana in 100 seconds. Thus, the actual amount of health or mana makes no difference. A fighter with 1,000 health who has suffered 50% damage (500 points) and a mage with 500 health who has suffered 50% damage (250 points) will recover full health in the same amount of time (assuming their regeneration bonuses are the same). All potions restore health and mana at a rate that would restore the max health/mana of the potion in 12 seconds. So a small health potion (125 max health restored) restores at a rate of about 10.4 points per second (125 / 12) while a colossal health potion (1,100 max health restored) restores at a rate of about 91.6 points per second. The practical effect is the larger potions seem to take as much time as the smaller potions since, by the time you get the larger potions, your characters have much more health. For example: 5th level character with 100 health drinks small potion and regenerates 10% health per second (10.4 of 100) 40th level character with 900 health drinks colossal potion and regenerates 10% health per second (91.6 of 900). And, for the truly obsessed: Max health is ((str * 0.6) + (dex * 0.25) + (int * 0.15)) * 5.0 Max mana is ((str * 0.02) + (dex * 0.08) + (int * 0.53)) * 5.0 XP (NOT THE WINDOWS KIND) For mobs that are more than four (4) levels above or below a character, earned experience is reduced by 20% per level to a minimum of 5% XP. For example, if a character is level 15 fighting a level 10 or level 20 mob, the character will receive only 80% XP; 60% XP for a level 9 or level 21 mob; 40% XP for a level 8 or level 22 mob; 20% XP for a level 7 or level 23 mob and 5% XP for mobs level 6 and under or level 24 and over. This means two things: 1) XP farming has a rapidly diminishing rate of return. Once you get 9 or more levels over the mobs you face, you earn virtually no experience. 2) To level up a low-level party member, you need to fight mobs near the same level as the character. Taking a 20th level companion into a 30ish level mob area will hardly level the 20th level companion at all. Take that companion to an area with level 18 to 22 mobs and level him or her up a bit. Then go to level 24 mobs, etc. until the companion catches up. Experience is divided amongst non-pet party members. However, mobs scale based on party size, so you end up coming out about even. If you want to level up faster, take just your PC and a party full of pets. You'll face stronger mobs and get all the XP yourself. Of course, it won't take long for the law of diminishing returns to slow your level advancement to a crawl. Conclusion: in DS2, there's no way to power level short of using a trainer. And the XP table: +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------+ | 0 | 300 | 900 | 2000 | 4000 | | 7600 | 12800 | 19600 | 26600 | 34200 | | 43000 | 53200 | 65000 | 78428 | 93334 | | 109879 | 128243 | 148628 | 171256 | 196372 | | 224251 | 255197 | 289547 | 327676 | 369998 | | 416976 | 469122 | 527004 | 591252 | 662568 | | 741729 | 829597 | 927131 | 1035394 | 1155565 | | 1288956 | 1437019 | 1601370 | 1783799 | 1986295 | | 2211065 | 2460561 | 2737501 | 3044904 | 3386122 | | 3764873 | 4185288 | 4651948 | 5169940 | 5744912 | | 6383130 | 7091553 | 7877902 | 8750749 | 9719610 | | 10795045 | 11988778 | 13313822 | 14784621 | 16417207 | | 18229378 | 20240888 | 22473664 | 24952046 | 27703049 | | 30756663 | 34146174 | 37908531 | 42084748 | 46720348 | | 51865865 | 57577388 | 63917179 | 70954347 | 78765603 | | 87436098 | 97060347 | 107743263 | 119601300 | 132763722 | | 147374009 | 163591429 | 181592764 | 201574246 | 223753692 | | 248372876 | 275700171 | 306033468 | 339703427 | 377077083 | | 418561840 | 464609920 | 515723290 | 572459130 | 635435913 | | 705340141 | 782933835 | 869062835 | 964666025 | 1070785566 | | 1188578257 | | | | | +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------+ WEAPONS, WEAPONS EVERYWHERE Even more weapons numbers... Base minimum and maximum damages for each type of weapon: 1h melee - Min damage: 0.75 * (3.4 + 0.74 * #item_level) - Max damage: 1.25 * (3.4 + 0.74 * #item_level) 2h melee - Min damage: 0.75 * (5.2 + 1.2 * #item_level) - Max damage: 1.25 * (5.2 + 1.2 * #item_level) Bow - Min damage: 0.75 * (3.0 + 0.65 * #item_level) - Max damage: 1.25 * (3.0 + 0.65 * #item_level) Crossbow - Min damage: 0.75 * (5.2 + 1.2 * #item_level) - Max damage: 1.25 * (5.2 + 1.2 * #item_level) Thrown - Min damage: 0.75 * (3.84 + 0.86 * #item_level) - Max damage: 1.25 * (3.84 + 0.86 * #item_level) Mage staff - Min damage: 0.75 * (3.75 + 0.85 * #item_level) - Max damage: 1.25 * (3.75 + 0.85 * #item_level) Cestus - Min damage: 0.75 * (1.65 + 0.31 * #item_level) - Max damage: 1.25 * (1.65 + 0.31 * #item_level) For example, a level 1 dagger and a level 1 club would both have a base damage range of 3 to 5. A level 30 bow would have a base damage range of 17 to 28 while a 30th level crossbow would be 31 to 52. Higher level items will tend to have magic enhancements to damage. Plus, the actual damage range of the weapon when equipped will be modified by Strength or Dexterity as well as skills, other equipment, etc. ============================================ [2.4] Known Bugs (as of release version 2.0) ============================================ This game does have some showstopper bugs in it, but they don't hit everybody. See hint #6 Backup your saves. Keep regular backups. If you hit a showstopper bug, you can restore a previous save and try again. Gas Powered Games is working on fixing the following bugs: ACT I Ch4: Upon retrieving the cure for Taar, Taar asks to join you. If you accept, the cure quest is not updated in the journal. Ch5 Dryad Exile Camp: After battle is won, the Azunite Scholar won't stop asking for help. Ch6: Upon meeting Vix in Eastern Greilyn Jungle, he asks to join you. If you accept, the cabin door does not open. After Ch1: Found/rescued NPCs (but not hired) are not at the local Inn when you return there. ACT II Ch3: You run out of crystals before lighting all four lights, even though you found all four crystals. Ch3: After finishing Elen'lu island quest, Finala asks to join you. If you accept, the Isles quest isn't updated in journal. after Ch3: Finala fixes an elevator in Upper Greilyn Jungle cave, but it stops working (or never works) although lever moves. Ch5: Skipping a cutscene of Vai’kesh prophet running away, the prophet does not escape nor to it’s followers get aggressive. Ch7: In Snowbrook Castle, can't find the Commander at the North Gate after fulfilling her request to destroy the rock-throwers. Ch8: If leave the fight (save/die) with Talon the Dragon at the top of Snowbrook Castle, can't continue the fight. ACT III Ch6: Although water flows in all 4 waterways, all four parts of bridge in Agallan trials haven't been raised. Ch9: After saving where Valdis is, and reloading, there’s no cutscene or Valdis. Gas Powered Games is also adding four additional savegame backups (five total) and changing the extension, so they don't get deleted by third-party cleanup utilities. GPG is not saying exactly when the patch (v2.2) is coming that will fix these bugs or even if all will be fixed. If you've been stopped by one of these bugs, there are ***UNOFFICIAL*** fixes for a couple of them here: http://www.siege-mods.com/Downloads/c=50.html Use at your own risk. You can also do certain things to avoid some of these bugs: Never skip cutscenes or ESC out of dialog. Doing so may cause certain scripts to not run. * When encountering the old man at the end of I.5, let the Dryads beat on him for a little bit before running in to help. * When placing crystals on refractors in the Elen'lu Isles, be very careful to click the refractor only once and wait a moment before clicking it again to turn it. The following bugs don't appear to be on GPG's radar at the moment: * When you add a party member at the Inn, instead of the party member you selected, you get a duplicate of another party member. The first party member is gone and you've now got two of another companion in your "party inventory". There's no known workaround for this glitch except to reload and try again. * When you finish a difficulty level, you cannot get rid of previously hired companions. Since you can't get rid of the "old" henchmen, the "new" henchmen from the current difficulty level won't join your party. This is not actually a bug, as you are not intended to release henchmen permanently. See Party-a-go-go for full details on hiring/disbanding/releasing henchmen. * Some doors, when opened, reveal nothing but black space and you cannot pass through them. This is prevalent in Finala's Contempt. There is, at this time, no known workaround except trying to reload a previous save. * Characters can get stuck in the oddest places; even out in the middle of empty space. If a character gets stuck and can't move, your only option is to summon a teleporter and jump back to town and then return. If you're in town when this happens, you have to quit the game and restart. * The conversation triggers don't recognize any monsters nearby. Almost every party conversation, and more than a few quest conversations, get interrupted by attacks. This is nothing more than poor design; hopefully it will be fixed in some way. * The Take Aim power for Rangers uses Melee level for calculating bonus damage for the first two levels of the power (Take Aim level 3 correctly uses Ranged level for calculating damage). __ ___________________________________________________|'-, __________/____/ \ @_/_/_/_/_| ____ [3] CHAPTER WALKTHROUGH ) \__ \___________________________________________________ / |,-' This is a complete, step-by-step walkthrough of the game in sequential order. If you need help with a specific quest, see Section 4: Quest Walkthrough. This walkthrough is based on the Mercenary difficulty level (the first difficulty level). The Veteran and Elite difficulties only open after you complete the game on the lower difficulty level(s). **************************************************************************** ACT I: GREILYN ISLE AND THE AZUNITE DESERT **************************************************************************** =========================================== [3.1] Chapter 1: The Siege of Greilyn Beach =========================================== "Having left your hometown to find fortune and glory and to see the world, you and your best friend Drevin have been fighting as mercenaries in Valdis' army for the last few years. "You have been transported to Greilyn beach via Dragon flight, and ordered to travel through the trenches the landing force has prepared to help Valdis secure a powerful artifact. Not much is known about the artifact other than that it lies within a temple nearby called the Temple of the Coast and that the island's Dryad inhabitants currently protect it." Primary Tasks: * Get your orders from Morden Lieutenant Jerind * Destroy the training dummy using a melee weapon * Destroy the training dummy using a ranged weapon * Destroy the training dummy using a Nature Magic or a Combat Magic spell * Get your orders from Morden Lieutenant Kargack * Destroy the bracken shell * Make your way to the front lines * Reinforce the troops on the other side of the tunnel Secondary Quests: * None Not much to talk about here. This is the main tutorial stage and the primary purpose is to get you used to the game interface and controls. Most of the creatures you will encounter during this chapter are weak to fire, so you should either use a fire spell yourself or have Drevin use it. Follow the trenches and the instructions given by the game. Make sure you keep an eye out for barrels that can be opened. And, when you reach a makeshift hospital, there's a bookcase that holds items. Once you start encountering ketril, you can switch away from the fire spell and concentrate on whatever class you want to be. When you finally reach the tunnel entrance, you'll want to have a hero power or two available to use on the Infused Ketril that's right inside. He's pretty tough. When you reach the end of the tunnel, there will be an extended cutscene and Chapter 2 will begin. ================================ [3.2] Chapter 2: Prisoner of War ================================ "After securing the Temple of the Coast at Greilyn beach, Valdis, rather than giving a reward for his success, savagely attacked all of the mercenaries. "You were knocked unconscious and, had it not been for your best friend Drevin stepping in front of you at the last moment, you probably wouldn't even be alive. "You were discovered by the Dryads who took you back to the treetop village of Eirulan as a prisoner where you overheard an Elf known as Amren asking your warden to treat you kindly, but you do not know why." Primary Tasks: * Go to the merchant shops and ask for the basket of sharpening stones * Bring the sharpening stones to the Dryad outpost Secondary Quests: * Armorer's Apprentice * Lumilla's Salve Once you are free, take the lift across to the merchant platform. If you want to take a little break, you can wander around and talk to everyone. The main person you need to see is Telinu, the armorer's apprentice. She has the sharpening stones, and a secondary quest for you. Choose the #1 conversation options to get her quest, which is to find the recipe for Dryad armor in a book that is in the great hall. You can also get a quest from Lumilla, the enchantress. She wants four nettle clusters to make some of her famous salve. You can't do anything about either of these quests now, so note them and continue on your way. You can't go anywhere in town except the Inn, but there's really nothing you can do there yet (unless you have somehow made 500 gold, in which case you could add a third party member slot). You can have one companion with you, and there are two hanging around just inside the North Gate: Lothar, a half-giant fighter; and, Deru, a Dryad ranger. If you take one at this early stage of the game, you can switch their class focus; and, in fact, Lothar already has one level of combat mage and Deru one of nature mage. Pick one up depending on your needs. Talk to the Dryad guard to open the gate and take the lift to the Northern Greilyn Jungle. Once down on the ground you'll find out about health and mana bushes. If your character is a Dryad, or you brought Deru with you, you'll get some mana potions from the mana bush. You won't be able to harvest health potions until someone in your party reaches level 5 ranged and takes the Survival skill. You'll also learn about incantation shrines because there's one right here. The Dryad who teaches you about shrines will also teach you a chant, the Lesser Chant of Fortification. Due north of the shrine is a tower. Enter it and throw the lever to ride a lift down to the basement where you will learn all about sanctuary doors and find four sanctuary doors (one for each class). You'll need a character with at least level 3 in a class to open these doors. There's also a lectern with another chant on it (Lesser Chant of Dexterity). Take what you can and ride the lift back up and head west for a little looting side trip through some Hak'u caves. Once you've cleaned them out, follow the Dryad guard a short distance east of the shrine to the Dryad outpost. Dispose of the Morden, free the Dryads and start the next chapter. ================================== [3.3] Chapter 3: The Morden Towers ================================== "Freeing the captured Dryads has gained you more respect than is usually given to a prisoner, but to earn full trust and freedom you must burn down the four known Morden watchtowers in the jungles surrounding Eirulan." Primary Tasks: * Find the first Morden tower. * Burn down the first Morden tower. * Find and burn down the second Morden tower. * Find and burn down the third Morden tower. * Find and burn down the fourth Morden tower. * Return to Warden Celia in the Eirulan prisoner's terrace. * Speak with Taar in the Eirulan great hall. Secondary Quests: * Lumilla's Salve * The Hak'u Now would be a good time to head back to Eirulan and sell some of your excess loot. Check the reagent merchant near the North Gate (he has an emerald floating over his head) to see if he has any nettle clusters you can buy and buy whatever you can afford. Head back to the Dryad outpost and continue through the gate to the north. After you cross the bridge, you'll see some Hak'u fighting a boarbeast. Interrupt their hunt and dispose of the Hak'u, then follow the boarbeast west. After everything's dead, LEFT-CLICK the statue to reveal a hidden treasure chest. You should receive the Vigilant Gloves, part of the Nature's Vigilance set. Continue north. When you reach the stairs, head west to find another statue and another hidden chest, though with less treasure. Then go up the stairs to a gate guarded by some Morden. You can choose to lie about rejoining the army, which will get you a pass through this gate, or you can be belligerent and kill all the Morden and still get through the gate. Before passing through the gate, go east and up to a series of plateaus where you can find some more Hak'u and loot. Continue through the gate, then head west to another plateau and a Hak'u encampment with some nice loot. Then back to the main path and north a little more to the first Morden tower. Regardless of which conversation path you followed before, this time you end up in a fight. Once the Morden are dead, break the cage and talk to the Dryad. Then LEFT- CLICK the wreckage of the cage, which should produce a cage fragment. Pick it up (pressing 'Z' is the easiest way), equip it and LEFT-CLICK the campfire and then LEFT-CLICK the tower. You get a satisfying explosion and you now know how to take out the other three Morden towers. Continue northward, through the wreckage of the tower, and you'll soon come to a teleporter. Across the path from the teleporter is a platform with two books that will teach you the Lesser Chant of Strength and Lesser Chant of Intelligence. Just north of the teleporter the path branches west and east. You can't go east now because the way is blocked by a wall you cannot pass, so follow the path west. At the top of the first ridge, enter the tower and find the interactive brick on the east wall. Left-click it to raise the treasure chest. Continue following the path west and up until you see a cutscene of a Dryad fighting a Hak'u. Afterwards, make sure the area is clear of hostiles and then talk to the Dryad, Morain, to get the first Hak'u quest: you must rescue Morain's niece, Tanzi. After talking to Morain, head back the way you came and go north, past the health shrine and over a bridge. You'll find a Hak'u ritual camp. Try to take out the shamans first, to keep them from summoning lots of other beasties. Now would probably be a good time to use the Summon Teleporter spell (or walk back to the teleporter you recently passed) and head back to Eirulan to sell off some loot. You should have enough gold to buy as many nettle clusters as you need from the reagent merchant. Take four nettle clusters to Lumilla and she'll give you a jar of Lumilla's Salve, which is a pretty good reagent. Hang on to it until you get an enchantable item. (You might want to stick it in the storage vault, for safekeeping.) Return to the main path and continue west. Soon the path will turn south and you will find the second Morden tower. Burn it down as you did the first and continue south. Look for a small Hak'u camp to your left (east) just past the tower. After clearing it, go the opposite direction (west) to a waterfall and walk through the falls into a small cave. There's nothing to fight in here, and you can't talk to the ghost (yet); but you can pick up a Mysterious Chant from the lectern and some high-quality swag from the treasure chest--including the Vigilant Hauberk, armor from the Nature's Vigilance set. Head back to the main path and continue south. The path will turn east and you will soon come to the third Morden tower. This one is guarded by a Morden-Viir Grunt Captain, who is pretty tough, but weak to ranged attacks. Take him out first before dealing with the peons. Then burn down the tower. If you go north from the tower, you'll complete the circuit, arriving back at the broken bridge where you met Morain. There's some looting opportunities around the bridge, then continue through the ruined tower. The path turns south. Just past the tower is a path leading east that takes you to a small plateau with a little loot. Continue on the main path until it heads up and you enter the Western Greilyn Jungle. Soon after you reach the top of the ramp, there will be a place to turn west and venture into the jungle. Here you will find the back entrance to the Hak'u caves and Tanzi held prisoner. Clear the Hak'u from the cave and watch as Tanzi sort of frees herself and runs back to Eirulan. If you explore the cave, you'll find a partial bridge you may have noticed earlier when you were in the Hak'u caves near the North Gate. Pull the lever to open a shortcut between the Western Greilyn Jungle and Eirulan's North Gate. You can't complete the Hak'u quest until you've finished with the Morden towers, of which you have one more to burn. Leave the cave and continue south along the main path. There's nothing particularly exciting until you reach the fourth Morden tower, which is guarded by a Morden-Viir Recruit Captain, who is a very tough ranger, but weak to melee. After the fourth tower is burned, continue west until you reach the teleporter. Teleport back to Eirulan and take the lift over to the prison. Speak to Warden Celia and she will tell you to go to the great hall and Taar will remove your Ring of Submission. Do so. When you talk to Taar, your Chapter 3 quests will end and Chapter 4 begins. =========================== [3.4] Chapter 4: The Plague =========================== "Burning down the Morden watchtowers has gained you the respect of the Dryads. "Taar removed the prisoner's Ring of Submission from your neck, but the Dryads believe that you were infected with a deadly plague. From what you've been told, your only hope for a cure is to reach the Elven Shrine at the top of the ridge in the western Greilyn jungle and drink from the fountain there." Primary Tasks: * Find the ancient Elven shrine. * Locate the Elven fountain. * Fill the empty vial with water from the Elven fountain. * Report back to Taar in the Eirulan great hall. Secondary Quests: * The Hak'u * The Hak'u Part II * The Armorer's Apprentice * Lelani's Sorrow * Secrets of the Elven Shrine * Kithraya Hive * Secrets of Xeria's Temple Across the room from Taar is the elf, Tellendril. He can tell you all about war pedestals (and the entry will be added to your Handbook). Nearby, on a shelf, is the Tome of Smithing that will tell you how to make Dryad armor. Near the ramp to the lower level is Anerith, an elf who will instruct you in how to obtain quests. In the lower level you can pick up a book called "The Mothers of Eirulan". Historian Arisu can tell you many tales of the history of Greilyn Island and Aranna. Leave the hall and go to the infirmary next door. Speak to Hesla, Morain and Tanzi to end the Hak'u quest and begin the Hak'u Part II quest. Take the lift back to the merchant's area and talk to Telinu. Give her the correct formula for making Dryad armor (conversation option #3). You'll complete the Armorer's Apprentice quest and get a suit of magical Dryad armor and another magic item. You may be infected with plague, but all areas of Eirulan are now open to you. Go to the pet shop and walk counter-clockwise around behind the pet shop to find a ramp leading up to Laenne's house. Talk to her about a "Lost Sapphire of the Elves" hidden in the Elven Shrine. Since you're going there anyway... You might want to buy a pet: the local pet store currently has a pack mule (300 gold), ice elemental (500 gold) and scorpion queen (350 gold). Next to the pet shop is a house where you meet Lelani. Talk to her to begin the Lelani's Sorrow trading quest. This quest will span much of the game, but you can make the first trade now. Take the child's doll Lelani gives you and head for the Falls, which you can reach using a lift from the Inn. In the first house, talk to Fenella and give her the doll. She'll give you a flask of Elven ale in return. Walk through the back door of Fenella's house and take the elevator down. Follow the path to another elevator, go up and enter the house to talk to Tamari. She'll give you the Kithraya Hive quest. Outside Tamari's house, activate the lever to lower the bridge for a shortcut back. Head to the Inn and stop inside for a chat with the grizzled bar patron, who is sitting, amazingly, at the bar. Keep choosing conversation option #1 to get a quest for the future, Secrets of Xeria's Temple. If you want to add another companion slot to your party, speak to the Innkeeper. Adding a companion slot costs 500 gold. While at the Inn, go into the room behind the bar to pick up a book, The Hak'u. Once you're done in town, teleport back to the Western Greilyn Jungle. From the teleporter, head west, off the path, to find an incantation shrine and a lectern with the Lesser Chant of Mage Health. Continue exploring westward to find a Hak'u encampment that includes the house of the Hak'u usurper. You can't do anything about him now, but you can loot the environs, picking up some good magical items, the Lesser Chant of Casting and the Lesser Chant of Ranger Health. At the far west end of the map, you'll find a ghost (part of a later quest) and the Vigilant Boots, part of the Nature's Vigilance set. Make your way back to the main path and continue south. You'll come to a Dryad outpost. They give you permission to loot them, so do so--don't miss the armor stand in the corner or the Lesser Chant of Fighter Health on the lectern. Now all you have left to do is follow the gray dirt road to the Elven Shrine. In the first level of the shrine, you can find a sanctuary door that requires ranged level 6 or better to open. Clear out a couple of rooms to find the lift down to level 2. At the bottom of the lift, search for a button on the west wall, near the lift, to open a secret room and begin your search for the Lost Sapphire of the Elves. Loot the room, then left-click the Green Life Cube pile to pick up a cube, then left-click the Green Life Cube Socket to place the cube in the socket. A lever is revealed. Activate the lever to be taken down a level. Find the button on the north wall to open a secret room to the south. Get two cubes from the Yellow Sight Cube pile and place one in the Yellow Sight Cube Socket in the south room. Grab two Red Blindness Cubes from the pile in the south room, then activate the revealed lever in the north room to go down one more level. Activate the button in the east wall to open the room with the Red Blindness Cube Socket. Place one cube there, then grab two Purple Death Cubes and put one in the appropriate socket in the other room. Another secret room opens. Put your remaining cubes in the appropriate sockets in this order: Yellow - Red - Purple. Activate the lever to be taken to the sapphire, as well as three chant books: Lesser Chant of Fighter Power, Lesser Chant of Ranger Power and Lesser Chant of Mage Power. You'll come back out in the lift room of level 2. Make your way south, looting the side rooms. One side room has a sanctuary door that requires a level 6 or higher nature mage to open. Once you descend a flight of steps, prepare for a boss fight. There are three very tough Hak'u in the next room, one of which keeps reviving as long as the other two are alive. Once the three boss Hak'u are dead, the door to the south opens and you can enter the fountain. There are only a few weak Hak'u in this room. Kill them, then left-click the fountain to fill your vial. Grab the Chant of Lesser Prosperity from the north wall. Use the teleporter to the east to return to Eirulan. Go see Laenne above the pet shop and give her the sapphire, then return to Taar to complete Chapter 4. ======================================= [3.5] Chapter 5: The Dryad Exile Colony ======================================= "After drinking from the fountain in the Elven Shrine, you filled your vial with the last of the curative water. You have been asked to bring it to a colony of exiled Dryads who have the plague." Primary Tasks: * Find the Dryad Exile Colony * Save the old man Secondary Quests: * Dire Wolf * Taar's Investigation Add Taar to your party. If all your slots are filled, disband a henchman or go purchase a fourth slot from the Innkeeper (cost is 1,500 gold). With Taar in your party and the active character, go to the house next to the great hall and speak to Arianne. She tells of a great beast said to be controlled by the Hak'u. Agree to track down this beast--if it exists. Go over to the pet shop and talk to the merchant. Select conversation option #2 about wanting something stronger. She will tell you about dire wolves. Rokhar, a mage who hangs about in the great hall, knows quite a bit about them. Go back to the great hall and speak to Rokhar. Agree to meet him in the Southern Jungle. Teleport from Eirulan to the Northern Greilyn Jungle. Remember the Hak'u ritual camp you cleared out earlier? Time to visit there again. Go north and then west from the Northern Jungle teleporter until you reach the health shrine. Then go north over the bridge to the ritual camp. Clear the Hak'u, then click the carcass on the top of the altar. The Hak'u Ceremonial Blade should drop on the ground. Pick it up and teleport back to Eirulan. Go to the pet shop terrace and leave through the South Gate. When the trail turns east, go south and pass through a gap in the rocks. Enter a small cave and have it out with the garganturax--the "formidable" creature that scared Arianne. The garganturax can't be hurt by melee weapons other than the Ceremonial Blade, so equip that to your fighter. However, the Blade doesn't do much damage against this little monster. Pepper it with spells and ranged weapons--which do damage it--and try to keep it occupied with the Blade wielder. You can wait to finish Arianne's quest until you've finished the Dire Wolf quest, so get back on the main path and continue east. Along the way you should find Some Abandoned Ruins (yes, that's what they're called). Find the interactive chalice on the north wall (it's the left of the two center cups) to open a secret room with some decent loot in it. Just east of the ruins is a cave with an elder Hak'u witch doctor. He has good loot as well. Continue east until you reach the Southern Greilyn Jungle teleporter and, just beyond that, Razka's Ruins. There's a mini-boss here, a Morden-Viir Spearman Captain who is weak to ranged attacks. Clear out the monsters and continue east; don't go down in the ruins as you'll need a key to fully explore them and you won't get the key for quite some time yet. Just past Razka's Ruins, turn north and cross the bridge and enter the cave that's to your right as you come over the bridge. Fight your way through the cave to enter Rokhar's Rift Site. Talk to Rokhar and he'll start summoning a dire wolf, while a horde of nawl beasts come through the rift. Go into Rampage Party mode and lay into the nawl beasts until Rokhar manages to bring the dire wolf through the rift. Then talk to him and he will travel back to Eirulan to deliver the wolf to the pet merchant. Loot the rift area. About this time you can expect your first encounter with ???. ??? is a mysterious, level 100 humanoid thief that teleports in randomly when you discover valuable loot. He steals a few items and teleports out. You can attack him, but, at this point in the game, you won't be able to kill him. However, attacking him will keep him from stealing your stuff and make him drop an item or two of his own. You may see ??? at this point, you my not see him until later. Always keep your eyes open for him and your weapons ready. Teleport back to town. Go see Arianne and complete Taar's Investigation, then head over to the pet shop and talk to the pet seller to conclude the Dire Wolf quest. Buy a puppy if you like. Teleport back to the Southern Greilyn Jungle and head east once more; you're now entering the Eastern Greilyn Jungle. Just past the point you turned north to find Rokhar, look for a cave entrance to the south--there should be two vulk in front of it. Inside you can score the final piece of Nature's Vigilance--the Vigilant Crest (helmet). Opposite the cave, to the north, is a plateau with a circle of mushrooms on it. This is part of a later quest. Keep following the main path, which will soon turn south. Look for a small tower to the east (your left) and go down into it to get some good loot. You are now just outside the Dryad Exile Camp. **GLITCH WARNING** SAVE YOUR GAME! There's a glitch just ahead; so don't save over your game until you complete this chapter. Continue to the Dryad camp. Inside, an old man is being attacked by plagued Dryads. Wait a moment while they beat up on him a bit-- this should trigger his scripts so you can complete the quest. Kill the plagued Dryads, then talk to the old man, who turns out to be an Azunite scholar who will fill you in on what Valdis is up to (assuming you haven't already figured it out). Sometimes the scholar's scripts won't work and he'll keep calling for help even after you've killed all the Dryads. If that happens to you, reload and try again. Thus ends Chapter 5... ===================================== [3.6] Chapter 6: Leaving Greilyn Isle ===================================== "The old man you saved is interested in all things Azunite, and calls himself the Azunite Scholar. "He confirmed what Taar told you: there is a portal to the mainland on the eastern shore of Greilyn Isle that leads off the island. He also warned you that you must pass through the Kithraya Caverns to reach it." Primary Tasks: * Locate the Kithraya Caverns * Look for survivors from Vix's squad * Investigate Eastern Greilyn Beach * Destroy the shard * Use the portal to leave Greilyn Isle * Talk to Captain Suzor Secondary Quests: * The Hak'u, Part II * Feldwyr the Blacksmith * The Kithraya Hive After the history lesson, talk to the Azunite scholar again and he will open the path east. Loot the camp, then take the west path (yes, that's west, not east). Near the incantation shrine, find a small cave where you can locate Hrawn, the Hak'u. Talk to him to open the remainder of the Hak'u, Part II quest. Leave Hrawn and his father and return to the Dryad camp. This time take the newly opened east path and then turn south and find the Eastern Greilyn Jungle teleporter. Teleport to the Western Jungle. From the Western Greilyn Jungle teleporter, go due west to find the usurper's house. (You may remember having explored this area earlier, during your trip to the Elven Shrine.) Knock on the door of the house. The usurper will let you in and try to kill you. Do unto him before he does unto you. Teleport to the Eastern Jungle and make your way to Hrawn's cave. Talk to his father to receive your reward. Now teleport back to Eirulan and visit Hesla in the infirmary to receive even more reward, including a bonus skill point for all members of your party. It's about time to sell off some loot; once you've done that, teleport to the Eastern Greilyn Jungle. Continue along the main path. You will soon reach some ruins and the path will turn south, over a bridge. Enter the ruins, kill some Hak'u and find Feldwyr the blacksmith. Talk to him to initiate his quest. In the room south of Feldwyr is a lift that will take you up into a locked tower on the cliff above the ruins. You can unlock the door from the inside, creating a little shortcut back down to Feldwyr. After talking to the blacksmith, the door to the east opens and you can go down into the depths of the ruins. Before heading down the stairs, in the room just east of Feldwyr, look on the north side of the north, central column. Pull the lever to open a secret room. In the secret room, find the button on the west wall to open another secret room. There's yet a third room (not hidden) beyond this second room. Once you are finished looting, go downstairs. At the bottom of the second stairway, you can turn either left (north) or right (south). Go north and fight your way through a bunch of relatively low- level Hak'u until you find the mini-boss and get Feldwyr's anvil. In the eastern-most room of this set of rooms, look for a lever on the wall that opens the center room and find a treasure chest. Back at the fork in the path, going south presents you with a level 24 mini- boss guarding a room full of level 22 mobs. Not only would it be almost impossible to defeat this mini-boss (your characters are probably about level 14, unless you've been doing some farming); but, you won't get much XP from the encounters since they are so much higher in level than you. Best to wait until you're about 20th level, then return here and clear out the southern portion of the ruins. Leave Feldwyr's sanctuary and continue south over the bridge. You will soon enter a narrow cavern which leads to a ridge above the path you've been traveling. You'll find a tower here, inside of which is Vix, a human ranger who offers to join you for your trip through the caverns. If you tell Vix to take a hike, he will--but only as far as the Eirulan Inn. Also inside the tower are two chants, the Lesser Chants of Magic Awareness and Ranged Awareness. After passing through Vix's tower, you'll enter the Upper Kithraya Caverns. Fight your way through them. About 3/4 of the way you'll find a large chamber with two exits: a wide one in the southeastern corner and a narrow one in the southwestern corner. There's also a broken elevator, but you can't fix it until you've got someone named Finala with you--and you won't meet her until Act II. Take the narrow, southwest passage to a dead end with a mini-boss and a little loot. Then take the wider passage to the southeast to find a teleporter and the entrance to the Lower Kithraya Caverns. Fight your way through the caverns until you encounter one of Vix's soldiers, who is quite possessed. Soon after leaving the zombified remains of the soldiers behind, you'll come to a fork in the path. Take the right (south) path to find and kill the hive queen and get her head. Head back the other way to enter Eastern Greilyn Beach. Fight the spirits and destroy the shard, then head down to the beach and talk to the scholar. After your conversation, the portal off the island is open. Step through to a small desert camp and talk to Captain Suzor. ============================================= [3.7] Chapter 7: Secret of the Azunite Desert ============================================= "A Human battalion from Windstone Fortress has been searching for a powerful Azunite weapon. They tell you that the keys to finding the weapon are guarded by the Skath, a fierce desert race." Primary Tasks: * Find the Stela of Blindness * Find the Stela of Life * Find the Stela of Death * Find the Stela of Sight * Place the four stelae and learn the location of the Lost Vault of the Azunites Secondary Quests: * The Kithraya Hive * Lelani's Sorrow * A Family Heirloom After talking to Captain Suzor, step into the house behind her and talk to soldier Balamar. He wants something to drink and you should still have that flask of Elven Ale you got back in Chapter 4. Trade him the Ale for some skath cat ribs. If you did a lot of talking to people in Eirulan, you may remember someone who wants some meat...Yeah, time to make a trip to Eirulan and finish the Kithraya Hive quest and take another step on Lelani's Sorrow. Fortunately, there's a teleporter nearby. Travel back to Eirulan and go see Tamari at the falls for your reward. On the way back, stop at the Inn and go upstairs and talk to soldier Jordhan. He's craving meat, so give him the skath cat ribs and receive a statuette of Xeria in return. Might as well put it in the storage vault, you won't find someone who wants it until near the end of Act II. Sell your unwanted gear and teleport back to the Azunite Desert. Don't bother with the stuff south of camp just yet, you'll be coming back to that area later. Leave the camp to the northeast and go down to the first Skath Guardian. Kill him for the Stela of Blindness. Go west, under the bridge, to find the Skath Guardian with the Stela of Life. Go back to where you killed the first Guardian, and go north, up the slope to a tower. Enter the tower and take the elevator down to speak with Master Thestrin. Ask him about his duty and about the riddle needed to pass a guardian statue in his family's crypt. After talking to Thestrin, find the button in the alcove on the west wall to open a secret treasure room. Leave Thestrin and continue north past the tower and turn back south toward the bridge to kill the Skath Guardian with the Stela of Death. Turn and go north; before you go through the archway, turn left (west) and go down the stairs to face the final Guardian and get the Stela of Sight. Go north into the Azunite cavern and clear it. Then head back up the stairs and through the archway you approached earlier. Clear out this main cavern, the cavern to the west and the small canyon to the north. Then take the east path from the cavern to the Azunite Shrine. In the first room of the shrine, find the interactive block on the south wall and press it to open a secret room. Collect the loot, which includes the Lesser Chant of Purity. Go through the east door and follow the hallways of the shrine. You will soon reach an octagonal treasure room with four chests in each corner and one in the center. The chest in the southeast corner is a mimic, which is a very tough foe; but, drops a lot of loot. The other three corner chests open one of a set of side doors with level 16 creatures. The center chest opens all four doors. It's up to you whether you want a gang war or a little 4-on-1 monster killing. Be sure to loot the small side rooms for more loot, including a Chant. Continue south to a series of two elevators that take you to the Inner Chamber of the shrine. Right next to you is a sanctuary door that requires ranged 13 or better to open. On the east wall is a lectern with the Lesser Chant of Melee Awareness. After taking the treasure, place the Stelae in their sockets. A Map of the Lost Vault of the Azunites and a silver mirror appear on the central pedestal. Collect them, the door to the west opens, and Chapter 7 comes to an end. ========================================== [3.8] Chapter 8: The Lost Azunite Artifact ========================================== "Placing the four Stelae revealed the location of a lost Azunite vault. Find it and retrieve the weapon inside." Primary Tasks: * Find the Lost Vault of the Azunites * Retrieve the Azunite Weapon * Talk to the Elven spirit in the Lost Vault of the Azunites Secondary Quests: * None This is a fairly short and linear chapter, though it may feel long and wandering due to the amount of combat, and twists the path takes--get used to it, it only gets worse from here. When you leave the Ancient Azunite Shrine, you'll come out into the Valley of the Azunites. To the south is the Cavern of the Phoenix, but there's nothing there for you...yet. Head north. You'll soon come to a teleporter, which will provide a welcome respite in Eirulan-- as well as a chance to unload some of your loot. Teleport back to the Valley. Due east of the teleporter are some ruins. Careful searching will reveal an elevator. This leads to some Lost Elven Ruins; but, you're going to have to come back here again later, so leave it for now. Continue north, pass through another Azunite Cavern and come out on the cliff ledges above the small canyon in the Azunite Desert. There's a bridge to cross to the other side and another Azunite Cavern. Fight your way through the cavern. Take note of the "broken" bridge to the northwest--this is, again, part of a later quest. Continue until you come to a mirror-and-light puzzle. Gotta love those. The statue in the southeast is missing its mirror, you can use the silver one you got from the shrine. Starting with the mirrorless statue, turn the statues in the numerical order listed below so the light is shining in the pattern shown: 6---------------------7 3-----------------2 | | | | | | | | | 8-----------9 | | | | | | | 5------------------------4 1 A new path will open up, so take the long and winding stair to the Lost Vault of the Azunites. Retrieve the Azunite Artifact, which turns out to be an empty bowl. Yes, that's right, an empty bowl. Ah! But Mr. Plot Exposition Elven Spirit has popped up out of nowhere and a conversation with him will reveal--well, not all, but a good deal and set you up on your next quest. =================================== [3.9] Chapter 9: Windstone Fortress =================================== "The Azunite Ancestor within the Lost Vault of the Azunites has revealed much -- evidently you are a direct descendant of the great Azunai himself, which explains how you were able to wield the Azunite bowl without harm. "You must now travel to Windstone Fortress to unlock the bowl's power and aid those stationed there." Primary Tasks * Begin the journey to Windstone Fortress by speaking to the Azunite Ancestor * Take the Azunite Artifact to Windstone Fortress * Find the person in command * Enter the Windstone Fortress Outer Vault * Activate the Azunite Artifact * Enter the Temple of Xeria Secondary Quests: * The Imprisoned Half-Giant * The Missing Squadron While it was really nice of the Elven spirit to leave you a treasure chest, it would have been nicer for him to leave you a quick exit out of the Vault. Hoof it back up the stairs to the light puzzle room and talk to the Elven Spirit again. He'll open a path to the north that takes you to the Western Cliffs of Azunai. There's a teleporter right here, but it's best to keep moving for now. Go east until the path ends, then search for a cave entrance to the south. Enter Isteru's Caverns. To the southwest you can find the entrance to some ruins that lead to an Ancient Elven Reliquary. But, you can't do anything down there right now, so ignore it. Work your way through the caverns, back out on to the cliffs, and back into the caverns again. Keep following the caverns and cliffs until you reach a bridge. Cross the bridge, and to the east you can find a mini-boss and some loot. To the west, from the bridge, is the Eastern Cliffs of Azunai teleporter. Continue west and then north to enter the Windstone Tunnels. Once you get through the Windstone Tunnels, you'll be at the entrance to Windstone Fortress, which is not a very friendly place right now--if you haven't already figured that out. Continue down the path, until you get the cutscene showing that Valdis has been here. Gee, that's a shock. At the locked door into the fortress, take the entrance to your right into the Eastern Gatehouse. Clear the gatehouse, then head down the hall. There are three side-rooms here. The one to the north contains a little loot. The one to the southwest is where you'll meet Private Banos. Go ahead and talk to him and agree to take him to Squadron Leader Taarth. You'll get a new quest entry, Secondary Quest #13, The Missing Squadron--even though you haven't met Taarth yet. It's easier this way. The room at the southeast corner of the hall contains another mimic. Beat it down with hero powers, then run back to the war pedestal in the gatehouse for a recharge and come back and beat on it some more. They do drop a lot of loot, so they're worth the trouble. Continue north, then west along the hall. Off this northern hall are two side rooms. The one to the north has a mini- boss and a treasure room to the east. The treasure room has the Lesser Chant of Magic Skill, and, behind the statue, a button to open another treasure room. The side room to the south is found by turning the statue set into a nook in the wall. Head west again to enter Windstone Fortress proper. Before going north to activate the teleporter, head straight across into the Western Gatehouse. Clear it out to find Private Caiden (break the pots surrounding him or he won't follow you), the Lesser Chant of Melee Skill and a book: Vol. 7, The Deeds of Xeria. The book is part of a later quest. Head back out into Windstone Fortress and go north. Enter the next west- leading hallway to enter the barracks and work your way to the west-most room, where you'll find Private Nolan. Pick up the Lesser Chant of Ranged Skill in the same room. Along the northern hall of the barracks, look for a secret door switch on the north wall. There's another secret room off the first secret room. Return to the Fortress proper and talk to Squadron Leader Taarth, who will be delighted to see his men and will reward you with the Dusty Key. Just west of Taarth is a half-giant in a hole. Speak to Sartan to open the Imprisoned Half-Giant quest and prepare the way for another possible henchman. Past Sartan is Captain Dathry, the man in charge. Speak to him to continue the main quest in this chapter. Enter the eastern hall and push the button on the wall to open the Outer Vault. The next room contains a Yellow Sight socket and some Yellow Sight cubes. You know what to do. Beyond are two Green Life sockets; the green cubes are in the room to the right (south). Next are two Red Blindness sockets and the zombiefied Lieutenant Namyek, who will cough up the Inner Vault Key if you give him a permanent Heimlich. Open the Red Blindness door and enter the Inner Vault. After the zombies are dead (re-dead?), thoroughly loot the room and then click on the blue flame to activate your Azunite artifact. Grab four Purple Death cubes from the corner of the room and open the door that is just north and east of the blue flame. Inside is the White Vault door, which requires the Dusty Key to open. Lucky you did that quest for Taarth, right? Open the vault, place your four purple cubes and collect copious amounts of treasure. Return to Captain Dathry with your artifact. He'll blow open the way northward. Then talk to Soldier Orayne to free Sartan and talk to Sartan to complete the Imprisoned Half-Giant quest. Go north and fight your way through the big bugs, which shouldn't be too hard if you've been doing all the sidequests so far. Enter the Temple of Xeria... ====================================== [3.10] Chapter 10: The Temple of Xeria ====================================== "Valdis and his Archmage have entered the Temple of Xeria at the heart of Windstone Fortress. Hopefully the Azunite artifact is as powerful as they say because you're going to need all the power you can get to help save Windstone Fortress." Primary Tasks * Clear out the Temple of Xeria * Place the Azunite Artifact on the Azunite statue * Find the shard * Destroy the giant trilisk in the temple courtyard * Destroy the shard * Go through the portal to the town of Aman'lu Secondary Quests: * Feldwyr the Blacksmith * A Family Heirloom * The Secrets of Xeria's Temple Fight more bugs until you get to a large room with a pit in the center. In the pit are two (rapidly becoming familiar) sockets: green and yellow. Pick up three green stones from the southeast corner of the room and place one in the green socket. This opens a door on the west wall. Go in there and get three yellow stones. Place one on the yellow socket in the pit. A door on the south wall opens. Enter and place a yellow and a green stone. Two more doors open up. Go to one of those rooms and collect three red stones. Then enter the other newly opened room and place one of your red stones in the socket with one red symbol, and then a second red stone in the socket with two red symbols. Grab three purple cubes from the one side room and place one in the purple socket in the other side room. This opens another side room with another purple socket. Place your stone and then you're back in the room with all four color sockets. Place a stone in each. Collect your booty, including the Chant of Scholars. Oh, yeah! Main quest. Back to the pit room and open the north doors. Kill all the zombies and loot the side rooms. There's a secret room on the west side, make sure you find it and take out the zombie trash. Once all the zombies are immobile, click the big, glowing statue to blow up all the zombies in the Fortress. Enter the north room and loot it thoroughly, including two books: Vol. 8, The Death of Xeria; and, Vol. 9, The War of Legions. In the southeast corner of the room you'll find a moveable statue on the stair landing. This leads to an elevator, which takes you to a little bit of loot. To the north, next to the incantation shrine, is another moveable statue that leads to the Cavern of Earth--but, there's nothing you can do there now. Back in the large room, take the east door to find the teleporter. Now's a good time to wrap up a couple of quests. Teleport to the Eastern Greilyn Jungle and travel east until you reach Feldwyr's underground shelter. Head downstairs from Feldwyr's room. If you haven't retrieved Feldwyr's anvil yet, head north and rampage through the Hak'u until you get the anvil from the level 16 mini-boss. Now go to the south set of rooms, which are guarded by a level 24 mini-boss and full of level 22 creatures (and another mini-boss with the mithril ore). You should now be able to take these monsters. Once you have both the anvil and mithril ore, going up the stairs to see Feldwyr results in a cutscene in which his hammer is stolen. Follow the newly opened path north of Feldwyr's room and kill more level 22 creatures and another level 24 mini-boss. Return to Feldwyr with his hammer and he rewards you with a fantastic weapon...Which will take a few days to make. When you finally reach Aman'lu at the beginning of Act II, you can search out the blacksmith and speak to his apprentice, who happens to be Feldwyr's brother, Fyrndolf. He'll give you the reward. Teleport to the Azunite Desert and go southeast to find a Ruined Crypt. Talk to the statue and answer its riddle with Azunai, Xeria, Elandir and Zaramoth (conversation options 3, 3, 1 and 1). You should be able to handle the level 28 and 30 enemies in the treasure room; but, your main objective is the glowing sword lying on the crypt. Grab the sword and head back to Thestrin's tower. He'll reward you with a bogus Mysterious Chant (don't ever use it). You can either give him the sword, which will net you another Chant (this one useful), or keep the sword if you find his story a bit fishy. Teleport to Eirulan and go talk to the grizzled bar patron to end the Secrets of Xeria's Temple quest. Refit your party as needed and teleport back to Xeria's Temple. Head north for the Act I boss battle. The Giant Trilisk looks quite fearsome, but it's pretty easy. The middle head, Vitalus, is the problem child--it will heal the other two, but not itself. The snake only uses area-of-effect attacks that don't seem to hurt fighters that are up close. So go beat on the middle head, use your powers (they'll recharge quickly enough whacking off 15,000 health) and kill Vitalus. Once it's been chunked, the other two go down quickly enough. Destroy the shard, talk to Captain Dathry and then enter the portal to Aman'lu. **************************************************************************** ACT II: THE NORTHERN REACHES **************************************************************************** ===================================== [3.11] Chapter 1: The Town of Aman'lu ===================================== "Your hometown has suffered a devastating attack. Find out what happened." Primary Tasks: * Speak with Celeb'hel the Elder in Alt'orn Hall in the town of Aman'lu Secondary Quests: * Mythrilhorn * Mark of the Assassin * Deru's Treasure Hunt * Arinth's Legendary Staff * Viperclaw * Tywlis' Broken Staff * Feldwyr the Blacksmith * A Family Heirloom, Part II * Aman'lu Arena * Lothar's Innocence * A Dark Ohm All you need do to complete this chapter is head straight for the building in the center of town and talk to Celeb'hel. Takes about a minute. However, as you can tell from the Secondary Quests list, there's a lot of talking that can be done in Aman'lu. So, before going to see the Elder, wander about town and talk to people. Here's the brief rundown: In the pet shop in the southeast corner of town, talk to the pet seller and ask about special animals. He'll refer you to Khartos the Wise, who's hiding in a tavern some where. (No wonder they call him wise.) This opens the Mythrilhorn quest, which will net you another pet choice once you reach Act III. Just southwest of the pet shop, enter the abandoned house and note the bling- bling on the table. Pick up this intriguing stone and get killed...almost. After the near miss, talk to Danadel to launch the Mark of the Assassin quest. Southeast of the pet shop you can find Prospector Albain. Talk to him with Deru in your party to open Deru's Treasure Hunt. North of the prospector, along the east side of town, is Eolanda's house. Talk to her about Arinth to get a quest to find the pieces of Arinth's Legendary Staff. She'll also give you Lore book: Vol. 10, The Legend of Arinth the Mad. Vol. 11, The Dryads and their Customs is on her table and Vol. 14, Fables of Ancient Artifacts is on the floor. Directly behind Eolanda's house is a ranger named Eumenidie. Talk to her about reagents to get the Viperclaw quest. Reagents are random drops and you might even have one or two right now. If you don't have what she needs, there are specific places in Act II where you can pick them up. These are noted later in the walkthrough. Along the north side of town, just west of the incantation shrine, is Tywlis' house. Talk to her about her grandfather's staff to get her quest. The reagent she needs is a rainbow trinket. Check your pockets, you might already have one. You can also visit Tywlis' basement, but there's nothing you can do down there...yet. Near Tywlis' house is the house of a fletcher named Ithir'renne. She has an Aman'lu orchid, a well-known symbol of Aman'lu. Think that might make Lelani back in Eirulan happy? Yeah, but you've got a long way to go before you can trade Ithir'renne for her orchid. Also on the north side of town is the house of Drianjul, Drevin's sister. Talk to her to learn news of your family and receive a letter from Drevin. In the burnt-out blacksmith shop on the west side of town is Feldwyr's brother, Fyrndolf. Talk to him to get your special weapon and officially close that quest. On to the Inn, which is just full of people to talk to and things to do. Athelas is hanging out near the Innkeeper. You may recognize his name from your talk with Thestrin. Regardless of whether or not you kept the heirloom sword, talk to Athelas to initiate the second part of this quest. Amren is hanging out at the bar; you can add him to your party if you're lacking a ranger. He's currently a level 20 ranged character, with a bunch of unspent skill points waiting for you to specialize him. The barkeep, Drudwyn, has heard of you--so he thinks. Talk to him and deny everything he thinks you've done. He'll eventually admit there's a little challenge for adventurers down below his wine cellar. When you decide to go down there, you will officially open the Aman'lu Arena quest. On the second floor of the Inn, pick up a Lore book: Vol. 13, Elandir's Life and Teachings. There's also a ghostly spirit up here on a balcony, note it for later. On the ground floor, find Roland and talk to him with Lothar and open Lothar's Innocence in your quest log. South of the Inn is the mage shop. Lyssanore sells magic supplies and is also interested in communicating with spirits. Talk to her about that and get the quest, A Dark Ohm, to retrieve the necessary chant. Go up to the second floor of Lyssanore's shop to pick up two Lore books: Volumes 12 and 15. Well, that's it. You've made a circuit of the town and your quest cup runneth over. Go to the central building and talk to Celeb'hel to begin the next chapter. Before leaving town hall, grab the Lore book: Vol. 5, Turmanar and its Aftermath, from the table. ============================================== [3.12] Chapter 2: Finala and the Broken Bridge ============================================== "Celeb'hel the Elder told you that Princess Evangeline of the Northern Reaches took the Aegis of Death away by caravan to Snowbrook Haven. Valdis arrived not long after and demanded the Aegis. When he discovered that it was gone, Valdis commanded his Archmage to take vengeance on the town of Aman'lu. In the resulting destruction, the town's bridge was broken. If you have any chance of catching up to the caravan, you must convince Finala, the town engineer, to repair the bridge. This will be easier said than done -- Finala is a childhood friend of yours, but she harbors some resentment surrounding your decision to leave Aman'lu and join Valdis' army. You'll definitely have some explaining to do." Primary Tasks: * Find Finala, the town's engineer, in the hills north of Aman'lu * Convince Finala to return to Aman'lu and repair the broken bridge Secondary Quests: * Viperclaw Head to the north gate of Aman'lu and talk to the guard to open it. Follow the path up into the hills. When you reach the bridge over the swamp, search down in the swamp in the southernmost corners to find a jagged arrowhead for Eumenidie. There are no side areas, except some minor treasure in the basement of one of the houses. It's the house just east of the health shrine at the top of the first line of hills. You will eventually reach Finala. You'll find it a simple matter to convince her to head back to Aman'lu to fix the broken bridge while you are tasked with going to the Elen'lu Isles. =================================== [3.13] Chapter 3: The Elen'lu Isles =================================== "Finala had been on her way to activate the Prism of the Elves, an ancient protective device that should put out the magical flames in town. You convinced her to return to Aman'lu to work on repairing the bridge, so now it is up to you to activate the Prism of the Elves." Primary Tasks: * Travel to the Elen'lu Isles * Find and replace the prism's four small refractor crystals * Find the prism's large refractor crystal and activate the prism * Return to Aman'lu and speak with Finala Secondary Quests: * Viperclaw Once Finala leaves, continue on the path, eventually entering the Northern Vai'lutra Forest. When you reach the incantation shrine, keep going northwest to find a damp cave, which has a lot of taclaks and a bit of loot. Due east of the cave is a ramp leading down into a cul-de-sac. Here you can find an elevator that leads to an Ancient Elven Reliquary. You'll return here later, when you can talk to ghosts. Return to the main path, which heads south. When the path turns east, continue south to find a hollow tree. On the east inside wall is a button that will bring up a treasure chest. Continue east and you'll soon find a teleporter. Turn north into the swamp to find another hollow tree with some loot. Then proceed east, through the ruined temple to reach the Elen'lu Isles. Now you get a new task. The taclak have stolen the refractor crystals that collect the diffuse light in the Isles and focus it on the main prism. You must find four crystals and replace them in the refractors and aim the refractors at the prism. **GLITCH WARNING** Some have been unable to complete this quest as the game does not recognize they have crystals to place in the refractors. This apparently is caused by accidentally double-clicking a refractor. The game allows the player to place two crystals in the refractor. You can either be really, really careful to not double-click a refractor, or only collect and place one crystal at a time. Since the crystals go in your Quest Items log, not your actual Inventory, you have to be real careful here and have a backup save from before you started the quest. On the first island, kill the taclak and collect the first crystal. Then go east by clicking the arch over the bridge to extend it. Watch out for taclak, who have the ability to jump from island to island. At the next island, turn north, then go east, north and west. Find the elevator that leads to a flooded chamber and work your way through the rooms to another elevator. This brings you out on an island north of your starting point. There's a griffon feather on the ground for the Viperclaw quest. Now go south, east, north, east and east again and kill the taclak for your second crystal. Go south three islands, then take the other north bridge (the one to the east) to find the first refractor. Click it to place a crystal, then click it again to turn it so it shines west toward the prism. Go back south, then head west two islands to pick up your third crystal. Go north, then to the north end of the island to reach the second refractor. Turn it once to point east. Go back to the south end of the island and take the southeast bridge, then go east to the third refractor. Turn it three times to point north. Backtrack past the second refractor and go north to pick up crystal #4. Then go north and then east to refractor #4. Turn it three times to point south. Now you have to find the big crystal that goes in the prism. Go back to refractor #2 island and take the east bridge to the main island. Kill the mini-boss for the prism crystal. Put it in the top of the pyramid and watch the cutscene. Then kill the horde of taclak, including mini-boss, that surround you. From the north end of pyramid island, you can open a westward bridge that's a shortcut back to the teleporter. Or just use a summon teleporter spell to get back to Aman'lu. Head to the south end of town and talk to Finala, who has fixed the bridge and wants to come with you. She's an accomplished combat mage, so take her along if you like. =================================== [3.14] Chapter 4: The Royal Caravan =================================== "Now that Finala has repaired the bridge, you can attempt to catch up to Princess Evangeline's caravan and ensure that the Aegis of Death doesn't fall into the hands of Valdis." Primary Tasks: * Locate the Caravan * Find the Vai'kesh sanctuary * Find the leader of the Vai'kesh Secondary Quests: * Finala's Contempt * Lothar's Innocence * Amren's Vision Before haring after the caravan, add Finala to your party and teleport to Eirulan and thence to the Kithraya Valley. Take Finala north into the Upper Kithraya Caverns and find the broken elevator. With Finala as the active character, click the broken mechanism and ride the elevator down into a Morden intelligence camp. Have Finala open the treasure chest to get a map to four hidden Morden towers. Teleport to the Southern Greilyn Jungle and head west to the Abandoned Ruins. Finala will find a secret door inside the ruins and you can follow the path to an elevator that takes you up to a plateau with the first Morden tower. Destroy it as you did the towers in Act I. Teleport to the Northern Greilyn Jungle and go to the impassable wall just north of the teleporter. You know, the one that's been bugging you since Act I, Chapter 3. Finala will find the secret entrance. Pass through and destroy three Morden towers. After the final tower is destroyed, Finala finds another map and an elevator gear. That's all you can do until Act III, so teleport back to Aman'lu and head south. As you leave town, there's a house to the west where you can pick up a Lore book, Vol. 3: Downfall of the Manu Ostar. You can also talk to Alar'ithil, who is one of the later links in Lelani's MLM scheme. Enter the house to the east and talk to Eldoriath to start the Servant's Haunt quest. You can't continue it until you've completed A Dark Ohm, but might as well get it in the quest log. Continue south and enter the Southern Vai'lutra Forest. Look for a burned-out farmstead to the east. You can get the Chant of Strength from inside the house. As you continue south, look for a set of steps back to the northwest. The house on top of the plateau has the Chant of Dexterity and Chant of Intelligence. Further south, look for a narrow valley leading to a cul-de-sac to the east. This is Magrus' house, which you can't enter right now. Note it for later. A bit further down the trail, you can find a hollow tree off to the right (west). The button to raise the chest is on the east wall. You'll soon reach the teleporter, which is for the Southern Vai'lutra Forest (North). Ah! Egregious apostrophes and contradicting directions! It must be a fantasy RPG! Anyway...just west of the Southern North teleporter is another mushroom circle. These circles mean something special to Amren. Add him to your party, if necessary, and take him to the mushrooms. He'll have a vision. (That happens to lots of people when they have too many mushrooms.) Afterward, one of the mushrooms will be glowing. Click the mushroom to activate an elevator to a secret shrine. This is the Shrine of Sight. Find the altar and have Amren click it to activate the shrine. You can also pick up a Lore book, Vol. 18: The Path of Sight. You may remember the mushroom circle in the Eastern Greilyn Jungle. At some point, take Amren to the Southern Greilyn Jungle teleporter and go northeast to that circle, which leads to the Shrine of Sight and contains Lore book, Vol. 17, The Path of Life. For now, your quest continues south, over a bridge. Before crossing the bridge, go east into a little grotto to get the XP from killing a mini-boss and collect a nice haul. After crossing the bridge, look for a cave entrance to the west. This is a Watery Cave and filled with level 24 mobs and a level 26 mini-boss. Make sure Lothar is in your party. Defeat the monsters and then find a half- giant mushroom farmer named Magrus. Talk to him and you'll find the thief who stole Roland's cloak. He'll flee to his house, but drop his key. How conveeeeeenient! Take a quick side-trip back north to Magrus' house, enter and beat Magrus down. He'll surrender and go back to town. Follow him, speak to Roland and Magrus at the Inn and receive your reward for Lothar's Innocence. Back to the main quest. The Watery Cave has two entrances/exits. Due east of the southern entrance is A Small Cave(tm) filled with mini-boss level mobs that drop a lot of loot. Be sure to stop in and pay them a visit during your tour. Continue on the main path. You will soon reach what looks like a shrine, but is, in fact, the entrance to the Levreth Estate, which is underground. There's really not much you can do down there now, so pass it by and continue on your way. You'll reach your first objective: the caravan. Which is lying in pieces next to a teleporter (the Southern South one, in case you were wondering). Talk to the wounded elf on the ground to update your journal, then continue on your way. Look for a plateau to the east not far beyond the wrecked caravan. There's a hollow tree with an elevator that drops you right on top of a mini-boss. Back on the main path, you will soon enter the Vai'kesh Forest and find yourself at a set of gates. You can't get through, so turn left and follow the trail to the Vai'kesh sanctuary. You can choose to be nice to the guards at the door or pick a fight. Either way, they're eventually going to end up dead, so do as you please and enter the Sanctuary. When you talk to the Prophet, he takes the Aegis of Death and runs away. Leaving you to slaughter his minions, but only after you start... ===================================================== [3.15] Chapter 5: The Vai'kesh and the Aegis of Death ===================================================== "You confronted the Vai'kesh Prophet about the Aegis and the princess. You learned that he has the Aegis -- but instead of giving it to you, he fled. Catch him and recover the Aegis of Death." Primary Tasks: * Follow the Vai'kesh Prophet * Continue following the Vai'kesh Prophet * Follow the Vai'kesh Prophet along Arinth's Ravine * Defeat the Vai'kesh Prophet and his followers * Find the Aegis of Death * Defeat the Knotted Shambler * Claim the Aegis of Death * Talk to the Azunite Scholar Secondary Quests: * A Family Heirloom, Part II * A Dark Ohm * Viperclaw Clean up the Vai'kesh mess in the auditorium, then start looting the place. There's a sanctuary door (nature mage level 22) on the south wall. On the east wall, find a button to open a secret door and collect the Chant of Fighter Power. Then find the button on the wall right next to the door to open another secret room that has a mimic. Back in the main room, find another button along the east wall--this one on the steps behind a pillar. In the secret room revealed you can collect the Chant of Mage Power. Click the pedestal along the north wall of this room to open yet another secret room with some minor loot. Finally, on the north wall of the auditorium is a sanctuary door (ranger level 22) that has a treasure chest and the Chant of Ranger Power. Now that the swag is safely stored in your pockets, follow the Prophet through the door in the center of the room. Fight your way out of the sanctuary--look for Lore book: Vol. 2, The Dark Wizards on a table on one stairway--and emerge into the Vai'kesh Forest. You're now south of the gates you passed earlier, so turn north and open them before continuing on the path. You'll quickly reach the Vai'kesh Forest (North) teleporter and the entrance to a Large Vai'kesh Cavern. Fight your way through the cavern until you reach the Vai'kesh Forest (South) teleporter. You can find one secret room in the cavern, along the north wall after the third large Vai'kesh fight. Search for the secret lever to the left of the door. Now, if you kept the heirloom sword from Thestrin's quest in Act I, make sure it's in your Inventory. From the Forest (South) teleporter, go south to find a Small Vai'kesh Prison. Enter and speak to Athelas. There's a demon encased in a force field. If you earlier gave Thestrin the heirloom sword, he'll use it to break the demon's prison, then go hide in the corner. If you kept the sword, equip it to any character and use it to break the prison. (You do not need to keep the sword equipped to fight the demon.) Once the demon is destroyed, Thestrin will flee. Speak to Athelas to get your final reward and conclude the quest. **GLITCH WARNING** Some people have experienced difficulty getting the Prophet to continue moving if they skip the cutscenes during this next segment of the game. Don't skip through the cutscenes! Head north from the prison to find the Prophet. He'll run away (again), leaving some minions to die for his cause. Help them fulfill their destiny, then enter the cave from whence they came. After defeating the Vai'kesh in the outer cave, open the door to witness a Vai'kesh ritual. Kill the Vai'kesh, then return to Lyssanore in Aman'lu and teach her the chant. You'll get the Chant of the Dead added to your Lore entries and you can now speak to all those uncommunicative spirits throughout the land. Head after the Prophet. After crossing the second bridge, turn right (west) to find a Small Vai'kesh Cave and loot it. You can't get through the door here until later, so don't worry about it. Continue south after the path turns east, to find another cave with more loot. You should find an onyx fragment for Eumenidie in one of these caves. Next time you're in Aman'lu, talk to her to finish the quest and get the viperclaw reagent. On to the next teleporter, which is at the western end of Arinth's Ravine. Pass through the ravine. Look for another Vai'kesh cavern along the north side of the ravine. There's another locked door you can't yet pass, but some nice loot on the outside of the door. After passing over a bridge, you'll find a frozen cavern to the south. This is part of Deru's Treasure Hunt, so don’t bother with it unless she's in your party and you've finished the first part of the Hunt. Shortly after the frozen cavern, you'll see the Prophet again...briefly. Kill his minions and follow after him over the bridge. (Going due east just leads to a cavern you can't enter.) You'll soon reach the Eastern Arinth's Ravine teleporter. From here there are two paths that lead to the same place--the final confrontation with the Prophet. The Prophet calls out a horde of minions, and has a powerful attack of his own. Your best bet is to run back towards the teleporter and draw the minions after you; the Prophet won't follow. Once all the Vai'kesh are down, the Prophet is fairly easy. Too easy. He's not the boss fight for this chapter. After the Prophet is down, explore the cave to the north for some loot, then enter the eastern cave to face the Knotted Shambler. The Shambler regenerates health from the leaves produced by the Leaf Generators scattered around. Ignore the Shambler until you've destroyed the generators. There are about six generators and they only show themselves one at a time. Once you are sure you've destroyed the generators, concentrate on the Shambler. Hopefully, you've got a combat mage with some fire spells, because it's quite vulnerable to those. Avoid its pounding, overhead attacks and keep at it until it's defeated. Then take the Aegis of Death and speak to the Azunite Scholar to begin the next chapter. ===================================== [3.16] Chapter 6: Princess Evangeline ===================================== "After defeating the Vai'kesh's Knotted Shambler, the Azunite Scholar informed you that Princess Evangeline of the Northern Reaches has been captured by Valdis' Dark Wizards. You must find her, before it is too late." Primary Tasks: * Find the Azunite burial grounds * Look for the Death Masks of Champion Rahvan's brothers * Enter the Azunite catacombs * Find Princess Evangeline * Rescue Princess Evangeline Secondary Quests: * Spirits of Aranna * A Servant's Haunt * A Servant's Haunt II * Arinth's Legendary Staff * Deru's Treasure Hunt * Amren's Vision * Rahvan's Curse Yes, the Azunite Scholar tells you to hurry, but there are no actual time limits in this game. So, take a break and go do some side quests. Now that you can chat up the neighborhood spirits, you can start in on a number of side quests. First, explore the grotto. The door the scholar just opened for you leads to a portal that takes you to the Snowbrook area; however, there are several more "rooms" in this cave. In one room you'll find a ghost. Well, equipped with your fancy new Chant of the Dead, run outside and into the northern cave where you can find an incantation shrine. Incant and run back to the ghost and have a chat. Thus begins the world-spanning Spirits of Aranna quest. It makes even Lelani's little trading scam seem tame. There are 18 woeful ghosts spread all over Aranna; you may recall seeing several already. You've just taken care of #9 on the list and there are nine more you can reach right now. While you're on your spiritual journey, you can also stop at the two Elven Reliquaries you've found thus far and pick up pieces of Arinth's Legendary Staff. And you can enter the Levreth Estate and take care of the Servant's Haunt quest. Finally, since you're making a world tour, might as well pick up Deru and do a bit of treasure hunting. So get hopping! There's so much time and so little to do. Wait. Reverse that. Thank you. From the Eastern Arinth's Ravine teleporter, jump to the Southern Vai'lutra Forest (South) teleporter. There's an incantation shrine behind you on the hill. Incant and run east to the elevator down into the Levreth Estate. There's a second elevator to get down to the estate proper, where the spirit of Threnith Wilwarin awaits. Speak with him and he will open the south door. Before following the ghost, go to the north room and pick up the Chant of Fighter Health and some treasure. To the west is another room with a mini-boss (level 27) and the Chants of Mage Health and Ranger Health. Go back to the south room and pick up the portrait of Lady Levreth. Then talk to Threnith again. (Don't worry if the Chant wears off, once you've used it on a spirit, you can continue to talk to that spirit thereafter.) Threnith will open another door leading to a room with a lock of golden hair. Pick up the hair and talk to Threnith to be led to a burned letter. Then talk to him once more to be shown the room with the family jewels. Now leave the estate and teleport back to Aman'lu. Head south to Eldoriath's house. Speak to him to close this quest; then speak to Threnith to open Part Deux. Well, you needed to go to Eirulan anyway. While you're in Aman'lu, go to the basement of Tywlis' house and find the hidden button to open a secret room. Ride the elevator down to a hidden cellar. Cross the bridge and find the hidden button in the west passage to open the path to the ghost. There's an incantation shrine right here. After speaking to the ghost, check your remaining Chant time (hover the mouse cursor over your character). You only need a couple of minutes to hoof it over to the Inn and speak to the ghost on the second floor balcony. If you can't make it, use the shrine in the northeast corner of Aman'lu. Now teleport to Eirulan. Go to the Inn and confront Lady Levreth. She'll confess and tell you the name of the true murderer. Go to the Falls, use the incantation shrine at the bottom of the lift, then take either elevator down to the bottom of the Falls and speak to the ghost on the bridge. Leave Eirulan by the North Gate. Head northwest to the Hak'u caves. There's both a shrine and a spirit here. Leave the caves by the back entrance to the Western Greilyn Jungle, turn north and head for the Tranquil Cave behind the waterfall. You should be able to reach it before your Chant wears off. If it does, continue north past the waterfall to find another shrine. Head south to the Western Jungle teleporter and then go west to the Hak'u usurper's house to find a shrine and a spirit. Now teleport to the Azunite Desert and use the portal to get to the Eastern Beach. If you're quick enough, you don't even need to use the shrine here, just talk to the ghost that's only a short way up the path. Take the portal back to the Desert and then teleport to the Lost Valley of the Azunites. The ghost and incantation shrine are at the south end of the valley, near the Cavern of the Phoenix. Teleport to the Western Cliffs of Azunai. Go into Isteru's Caverns and find the ruins in the southwest corner. Climb the stairs to an elevator--the button for the elevator is hidden on the steps next to it. Incant the Chant of the Dead at the nearby shrine, then take the elevator down to an Elven Reliquary. Speak to the spirit to open the chest and get Arinth's Focusing Stone, part of Arinth's Legendary Staff. Return to the teleporter and go to the Temple of Xeria. North of the big room where you killed all the zombies, next to the incantation shrine, is a switch that opens a secret passage. Incant, head up the secret stairs and take the south passage to find the spirit. That's ten down, only eight more to go, but they'll have to wait. Finally, before returning to Aman'lu, add Deru to your party at the Eirulan Inn (if she's not already a member) and teleport to the South Greilyn Jungle. You'll be right next to Razka's Ruins. Ride the elevator down and clear out the rooms. Deru will be able to open the chained door, which leads to some swag and a key with a riddle. The riddle leads to the Frozen Cave in the Vai'kesh Forest, so teleport back to Aman'lu and then to either the Western or Eastern Arinth's Ravine teleporter. The Frozen Cave is halfway along the ravine, on the south side. Deru can collect another riddle here, as well as some treasure. The new riddle points to the Plain of Tears, which you won't reach until Act III. Return to town and replace Deru if she's not one of your regulars. Enter the central building and confront the murderer of Lord Levreth: Guardian Commander Wethril. This can only end in violence. Once he's dead, talk to Celeb'hel to close the quest and receive your reward. One more stop. Teleport to the Elen'lu Isles and go west to an incantation shrine. Use the Chant of the Dead and bash your way quickly to the north. Look for a ramp that leads down into a grotto. There's an elevator at the northeast tip of the grotto. Take it down into an Elven Reliquary and obtain Arinth's Carved Rod. Time to get back on the main quest. Teleport to Eastern Arinth's Ravine, go back to the grotto and take the portal to the Garden of the Ancients. As you exit the portal, directly to your east is a frozen crypt. Inside the crypt, in the southeast corner, is a statue that opens a secret room with the Chant of Master Self Awareness. Follow the path until you reach the teleporter. Now, if you continue on the path, you will eventually reach the Azunite Burial Grounds, through which you must pass. You'll find the burial grounds guarded by Rahvan. He'll offer to let you pass if you bring him news of his three brothers. So, to get past Rahvan you're going to need the Death Masks of his brothers. Rather than go all the way to the burial grounds and then backtrack to this area for the Death Masks, might as well get them now. There are actually four, one for each of Rahvan's brothers and one for Rahvan himself. You'll find these Death Masks in Frozen Crypts scattered around the area. Each crypt has a bunch of mobs, a mini-boss (level 30) and three secret rooms on the non-entrance sides of the crypt. For example, if the entrance to the crypt is on the north side, the secret rooms will be on the south, east and west sides. One crypt is directly south of the teleporter, another is a short distance east and a third is further east. The fourth crypt is west of the teleporter, on your way to the burial grounds. Further west, just before you reach the second teleporter, is the third mushroom circle for Amren's Vision quest. If Amren is not in your party, summon a teleporter and go back and get him. This is the Shrine of Death. In it you can find the Lore book: Vol. 19, The Path of Death. After finishing with Amren's magic mushrooms, continue south, past the teleporter, to reach the entrance to the burial grounds. Talk to Champion Rahvan to open the door to the grounds and begin Rahvan's Curse secondary quest. In the entrance chamber of the burial grounds, you will see four symbols on the floor. In order they are Death (purple tree), Blindness (red eye), Sight (yellow eye) and Life (green tree). Memorize the order. Well, since you're reading this guide, you don't actually need to memorize the order...Well, anyway, the order is important. The door leading down into the burial grounds is to the right of the floor symbols. Follow the halls until you reach a large cavern where the ice is falling from the ceiling. Explore the area thoroughly. In the western part of the room you'll find a chasm with a natural bridge across. On the north side of the chasm, to the east of the bridge is a group of stalagmites hiding the Chaotic Chant of Might. Take the west path that up and out of the cavern area to another plateau of the Garden of the Ancients. To the west is an incantation shrine that you can use to talk to the ghost that is on the eastern peninsula of the plateau. This is Spirit of Aranna #12. In the north of the plateau is a tower with an elevator that leads to some treasure, including the Chants of Melee and Ranged Awareness. And, of course, there are lots and lots and lots of monsters to give up some XP for your party. Not to mention graves to rob and dropped loot to collect. Once you've had your fun, return to the burial grounds and continue south to reach another teleporter. Once you go over the bridge south of the teleporter, you are in the Azunite Catacombs. From the first platform, take either bridge to the second platform. Rotate the obelisks so they read, from left to right, as the symbols in the first room did: purple tree, red eye, yellow eye, green tree. Take the elevator down into the lower catacombs. When you reach a fork in the path, go south to enter a shrine. Take out all the mobs, then find the purple tree symbol on the east side of the shrine. Incant the Lich's name given you by Champion Rahvan. A door will open to the Lich's tomb and you should be able to take him out pretty quickly. Loot the tomb, including a Chant. At some later point, be sure to return to Champion Rahvan to complete his quest and receive your reward. Take the west path through the catacombs. You will soon pass over a long bridge and enter a large room full of columns. There's a small room to the west with a little loot. To the north lies your main goal: Princess Evangeline guarded by a Dark Wizard of Valdis. The Wizard is actually pretty easy once you figure out his defenses and pattern. Using Drown on him will make him weak to lightning and ice, so both combat and nature mages can have their way with him. Having a nature mage cast Spirit Embrace on the party to immunize against the wizard's curses would also be helpful. There are some war pedestals scattered around the room to quickly recharge powers. The Dark Wizard will summon some giant undead to guard him, but they're not too difficult. The wizard sticks to the center platform, so draw his summons away from him and destroy them. The wizard protects himself with three revolving crystal shards. Destroy the shards (not too hard) before unloading on the wizard with everything you've got. He teleports around the platform, but it's not large so your melee fighters never have to run far to get back to him. Still, ranged attacks are better, so a fighter-heavy party might have some difficulty. His main attack is a large, electrical explosion. Fortunately, you can see it coming when some sparking circles show up under your characters' feet. When they appear...run. Get away or you're going to take massive amounts of lightning damage. Once you learn how to avoid that attack, the wizard is a pushover--though it will take a while to drain his health. After he's dead, talk to Princess Evangeline. Then talk to her again after she opens the north door. If you don't have room for her in your party right now, she'll go to the Inn of Aman'lu. Onward and upward. ============================================== [3.17] Chapter 7: The Siege of Snowbrook Haven ============================================== "After defeating one of Valdis' Dark Wizards, you were able to release Princess Evangeline. Now you must journey to Snowbrook Haven and ensure the protection of the Aegis of Blindness (another piece of the legendary Shield of Azunai). Snowbrook Haven is under siege by Valdis' armies, so you will have to use an alternate entrance." Primary Tasks: * Enter Snowbrook Haven through the servant's quarters * Find the throne room and acquire the display case key * Locate the Snowbrook Haven Commander Secondary Quests: * Evangeline's Folly * The Spirits of Aranna * Arinth's Legendary Staff * Arinth the Mad * Lelani's Sorrow The room Evangeline opens is full of enemies, but none that are particularly tough. Clear them out, then take the elevator up to a series of crypts. Fight your way through, looting as you go, until you exit into Snowbrook Valley. Quickly fight your way to the nearby teleporter and return to Aman'lu. Time for a side quest. Add Princess Evangeline (Eva) to your party and equip her appropriately. Teleport to the Southern Vai'lutra Forest (South) teleporter and talk to the wounded caravan guard. He'll open Evangeline's Folly quest. Teleport to the Western End of Arinth's Ravine. Go west, south, west and north to reach a bridge. Before the bridge, turn left (west) and go along the edge of the gap to reach a small cave. You may remember the password- protected door from Chapter 5. This time you'll be able to get through and pick a fight with the Vai'kesh in the room and the room beyond, which contains the jailor, who is mini-boss level. After killing all the Vai'kesh, speak with Eva's soldier in the jail cell. The next cavern in your quest is along the north side of Arinth's Ravine, so hoof it back the way you came and fight your way along the ravine to the large cavern on the north side. Enter the cave, find the door and repeat the process of killing the jailor and talking to the soldier. The third, and final, cave is further along the ravine, so head east. When you get to the second bridge, instead of crossing, continue east to find the entrance to the cave. Enter, kill the jailor and talk to Jessic to end the quest. Now, reform your party, refit everyone and teleport back to Snowbrook Valley. There's nothing much to see here except snow and a lot of monsters, until you get to the bridge. After crossing the bridge, turn south to enter a Frigid Cave, where you can pick up a rainbow trinket for Tywlis in Aman'lu. Go north from the bridge and ride the elevator up to the top of the tower to get the Chant of Magic Awareness. To the east of the tower is a set of stairs leading down to an elevator that will take you to an Elven Reliquary. Use the incantation shrine to the west, then descend and talk to the spirit to get the Jeweled Shaft. Continue following the path. When you reach the incantation shrine, you have to turn south and start climbing. You'll soon enter the Snowbrook Foothills. If you turn east once you get into the foothills, you can climb up and find the upper part of the Frigid Cave. Take the elevator down and thoroughly search the rooms. There's the elevator to the lower half of the cave, which exits to the Valley. There are also two secret rooms, opened by switches on the walls. They should be easy to find. To the west of the Frigid Cave is an entrance to the Snowbrook Grotto. The Grotto is a huge cavern filled with mobs and loot, but nothing particularly special now. You'll have to come back here during Act III, so skip it for now. Continue south into the foothills to reach the area teleporter. Side quest time again. Return to Aman'lu and go see Eolanda to get Arinth's Legendary Staff put back together. If your combat mage doesn't have the Chaos Grips, the staff is pretty good. Make sure you have a combat mage of sufficient level to use Arinth's Staff, then teleport to Eirulan and on to the Lost Valley of the Azunites. East, and just a bit north from the teleporte