Avernum 6 Avernum 6 FAQ/Walkthrough By MattP Email: elementalizard@aol.com Welcome to Avernum 6! Avernum 6 is the last installment in the unique and extremely fun Avernum series by Spiderweb Software. Avernum 6 is available for $28, and has a large, free demo as well. You will get about 50-100 hours of gameplay here, rivaling many similar games. Table of Contents: 1. Miscellaneous Info 2. Skills 3. Spells and Battle Disciplines 4. Traits 5. Walkthrough 6. Trainers 7. Crafters -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- 1. Miscellaneous Info -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- The following is a list of important tidbits for things you should pick up and take with you on your travels through Avernum. Pick up these items throughout your quest, as well as any item worth anything to sell. Money is scarce in the beginning of the game. Quest and job items: 6 Almarian Wine 6 Limbs 8 Chitrach Husks All Sacks of Meal All Flawless Crystals All skribbane Crafting Items: All Herbs Focusing Crystals Fine Leather Fine Steel Rare Items: Eyestalks Mandrake Tincture Demon Bile A few: Sticks > for wands Rubies / Also, you will rapidly get the ability to travel via the pylons. The following is a list of their locations: Pylons: Castle Food Depot (A0) The Castle (A7) North Great Cave (AB) Patrick's Tower (AJ) Dharmon (AK) ALWAYS GET JOBS FROM JOB BOARDS AS YOUR FIRST ACTIVITY WHEN YOU REACH A NEW AREA! If you don't you may end up with uncompleted quests, especially with quests like "Collect item Q from enemy Z". Don't say you weren't warned! Item effects: Potions, scrolls, and wands can give benefits or cast spells that cannot be replicated by spells. These include: Scroll: Spineshield, which does a lot of damage to foes who attack you using melee weapons, often doing up to 100 damage in retaliation. These are great in fights with melee-heavy foes, like slith armies. Scroll: Madness, a scroll that casts daze/terror/charm on all nearby foes. It is extremely potent, making sure to wreck the ranks of your enemies. Save these for tough, large fights. Scroll: Speed Burst and Rod of Alacrity and Speed Potion/Elixir, which add 5 action points (AP) to your character. These effectively enable you to attack twice in a round for a few turns. The scroll and rod are superior to the potions as they cast the spell on all your characters (and allies) in view, whereas the potions only cast it on the character who drinks the potion. Scroll: Acid Shower, and Corrupting Baton. These cast a weak acid spray spell on all of your foes. While that ensures you'll consistently do damage every turn to them, the damage isn't that much. Still, this can be used to make all the enemies hate the character who casts the spell and attempt to swarm them. Hence have your tanks cast this spell. You'll get a lot of these as wands, so I'd actually recommend selling them. Jeweled Wand: Casts an energy attack on several foes. Kind of like lightning spray, except more powerful and with greater targets. Excellent wands. Wand of Death: Blasts a single foe with a lot of energy damage. Great but rare. Null Wand: Hits a single foe with a damaging, stunning attack. These wands are common, and often useful. Energy Potion/Elixir: Restores some spell points. Very useful for spellcasters in the middle of fights. Shielding Potion/Elixir: Casts a long duration protection spell on you (enduring shield/armor). You used to be able to cast this spell in A5, but not any more. The only way is through these potions and an occasional basin. Invulnerable Potion/Elixir: Makes you immune to nearly all damage for a short while. Great, but rare. Knowledge Brew/Elixir: Adds 2 or 4 skill points to your skill point total. Great and hoard-worthy. Other wands/scrolls/potions replicate spells and can probably be sold if you accumulate too many. Fiery Wand: Casts bolt of fire. Useful in chapter 1, not really useful thereafter. Disruption Wand: Casts disrupt undead. Quite potent in certain situations, these wands are worth keeping for a fight with a nasty undead in mid-late game. Terror Wand: Casts terror on a foe, and does a decent bit of damage. In my opinion these are better than the spell. Sparkling Wand: Casts strong daze. Fine for early game, sell them later on. Scroll: Return Life: Casts Return Life. I'd recommend keeping these on your priest prior to gaining the return life spell (since a priest has healing spells at their disposal, they may survive for the longest time), then moving them to a character who is not your main priest once you gain the return life spell. Wand of the Inferno: Casts a potent aura of flames spell, very similar to divine retribution. Since the priestly spell is hard to obtain and expensive to cast, these wands are always useful, except when fighting sliths. As with corrupting batons, they will encourage all foes on the screen to attack the character that uses the wand. -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- 2. Skills Guide -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- Main Stats: Strength (Str): Strength affects the amount of damage you do in melee, the amount you can wear as armor (without losing APs), and your stun resistance. An average character will want about 6 points total to wear nice armor, and a melee fighter will probably want 8 points to access some of the better skills available. Dexterity (Dex): Dexterity increases your To Hit (TH) percentage with missile weapons, your attacking order in combat, and your dodging ability. It's also a prerequisite for several special skills. Aim for about four points, that's all you'll need to grab a few other skills. Intelligence (Int): Intelligence affects the amount of spell points (SP) you have, and your mental resistance. Magic users will want about 8 points to be able to cast a bunch of spells and to access magical efficiency and other key skills. Melee fighters can probably ignore this skill, although they may want to invest a few to access Anatomy, which is a lot easier to get to than previous Avernums. Anatomy leads to lethal blow, which can be an excellent skill to have. Endurance (End): Endurance affects your hit points (HP), and your poison and acid resistances. This skill is a bit more necessary than A4 because HP are more necessary. Also, Magical Efficiency is a lot more powerful, so it's probably worth try to get a decent amount of these points even for magic users. Combat Stats: Melee Weapons (MW): Melee weapons affects the amount of damage you do with melee weapons (daggers & swords), your To Hit percentage (TH) with these weapons, and increases the number of battle disciplines you can use. Melee fighters will want six points in this skill to get access to Blademaster. For magic users, you may want to buy three points here to get some of the nicer battle disciplines, but otherwise ignore this ability. With the introduction of dual wield, melee weapons end up being the most powerful in the game. Pole Weapons (PW): Pole weapons affects the amount of damage you do with pole weapons (spears & halberds), your To Hit percentage (TH) with these weapons, and increases the number of battle disciplines you can use. Pole fighters will want six points in this skill to access Blademaster. As before, magic users may want to buy three points to get some of the nicer battle disciplines, but otherwise will probably want to ignore this ability. There tend to be fewer, but more powerful pole weapons than melee weapons. Pole weapons and their users (primarily sliths, who increase this skill naturally) are strongest at the middle of the game. Bows (Bow): Bows affects the amount of damage you do with bows (bows & longbows), your To Hit percentage (TH) with these weapons, and increases the number of battle disciplines you can use, though at half the rate of MW and PW. There are a lot of really nice bows, and though they tend to be less powerful than thrown weapons, they have better side bonuses. Also, they weigh a lot less, and you don't need to carry around a large selection of them. Nephilim increase this skill naturally. Thrown Missile (TM): Thrown missiles affects the amount of damage you do with thrown weapons (javelins & razordisks), your To Hit percentage (TH) with these weapons, and increases the number of battle disciplines you can use, though at half the rate of MW and PW. Thrown weapons are the most powerful weapons available, but are limited in number. I tend to have 1 character devoted exclusively to these weapons, usually a mage. Note that these can also be quite heavy. Nephilim increase this skill naturally. Quick Action (QA): Quick action gives you a chance of having two attacks (about 4% per point here, reaching some sort of cap) in a single round and increases your turn order in battle. It's not an especially powerful skill, since you don't get a large chance to double-hit, but it's not bad to invest 3-4 points in since it's fairly cheap. It's also an easy way to increase your turn order. Note that when coupled to dual wield, this skill is extremely powerful. Magic Stats: Mage Spells (MS): This skill increases the damage you do with your mage spells, and the number of mage spells you have access to. If you're going to cast magic spells, this is your skill. Eighteen points is all you'll ever need, and if you have the natural mage trait, you'll get an extra point every five levels or so. Add about 13 points to this skill for your mage, and that's about all you'll need. This skill is a bit more expensive than priest spells but gives access to better spells. Priest Spells (PS): This skill increases the damage you do with your priest spells, and the number of priest spells you have access to. If you're going to cast holy spells, this is your skill. Eighteen points is all you'll ever need, and if you have the pure spirit trait, you'll get an extra point every five levels or so. Add about 13 points to this skill for your priest, and that's about all you'll need. This skill is cheaper than mage spells but doesn't have as good of spells. Arcane Lore (AL): Arcane lore increases your ability to read books (giving new spells) and increases your mental resistance. Everyone should probably try to get about three points in this skill so that you won't be upset when you run across a book you can't use. You can wait for training in this skill until Gnass, as training is cheap and early. The mental resistance is a nice icing on the cake. Note that a few items provide bonuses to this skill so you shouldn't need to invest more than 12 points total. Spellcraft (SC): Spellcraft increases the damage and duration of your spells. All magic users should increase this skill, though probably after buying a few points in it from either Reginaldo or Tower Colony. General Stats: Hardiness (Hard): Hardiness increases your armor and resistances. It is a cheap and effective skill. Buy at least 2 points for everyone, 4 if you've got a few points (or brews or crystals) to spare. This skill is a precursor to resistance. The only resistances it doesn't increase are mental and stun resistances. Defense (Def): Defense decreases your likelihood of being hit. It's relatively cheap and inexpensive. It is the precursor to the quite useful skill parry, and riposte. Definitely buy 6 points for all your fighters so as to access parry. Tool Use (TU): Tool use affects your ability to disarm traps and open doors (as well as a few special encounters). A maximum of 14 is all that's needed for 98% of things, 17 will open nearly everything (especially when you equip the two tinker items). Only one character need acquire this. I'd recommend boosting up to 14 points ASAP. Tinkers crystals will cast unlock for you, and will open everything so long as the character with the highest tool use uses them. First Aid (FA): First aid affects how many HP and SP you gain after successfully killing something. This is a useful, cheap skill that can help delay your need to go back to town. I'd recommend buying at least 2 points for everyone early. Increase to 4 when you have the spare points. Nature Lore (NL): Nature Lore affects your ability to calm wild animals and to find caches, and is used for a few special encounters. There's an early trainer in Gnass for this skill, so you can avoid buying any points whatsoever here if you don't mind skipping a few caches, going back to grab them later. Otherwise buy 1-2 points for everyone at the start of the game, then set 4-6 skill points in reserve for the occasion later when you can't get a cache. Luck: Affects pretty much everything, including resistances, armor, dodging ability, and probably damaging ability. Add 1-2 points for everyone to increase survivability. Special Skills: Key:(initial skill point cost) Name: Requisite 1 (cost of requisite when requisite is reached) + Requisite 2 (cost of requisite when requisite is reached): Description. Note that special skills have requisites before you can train in them. You can buy points, get quest rewards, get them through traits or as racial bonus, or equip items to get points in these skill, but can only train in these skills once you have reached the requisites. Additionally, the requisites must be reached through training or buying points in the requisites- they do not include other bonuses (whether through traits, quest rewards, or equipment). Thus you must reach the point where the skill starts to cost X points, where X is the number to the right of the skill. This will help clarify what you need, and explains why you might have 10 points in dexterity and still not access some of these skills- equipment, quest, and racial/trait bonuses do not count. (3) Quick Strike (QS): 5 Dexterity (costs 7, and bought one point) + 6 Melee or Pole (starts to cost 7): Quick strike will give you a slight chance of getting bonus movement points in a given round. You get about a 5% chance of getting a bonus action point for each point in this skill. This calculation is done twice, so if you have a lot of quick strike, you'll have a non- negligible chance of getting +2 to your action points, giving you two actions in a round. One of my favorite skills, well worth trying to get for all fighters. (3) Parry (Par): 5 Dexterity (costs 7, and bought one point) + 5 Defense (costs 4, and bought one point): Parry gives you a slight chance of blocking an attack completely (about 3% per point invested). A good skill for fighters, and a prerequisite for riposte. Worth trying to get for fighters. You can train in this skill. (5) Blademaster (BM): 9 Melee (costs 8, and have bought one point) or 9 pole (costs 8, and have bought one point) + 6 Strength (starts to cost 8)- Increases you to hit% and your damage done with melee weapons. Also decreases your fatigue time so you can use battle techniques more frequently. A prerequisite for the top tier abilities Lethal Blow and Riposte. Worth getting for devoted fighters as you'll be able to burn through battle techniques with this skill. The "or" is a major change from A5, so no one needs to increase more than one melee or pole weapon skill to get this. (4) Anatomy (Anat): 4 Intelligence (starts to cost 7) + 7 Melee or Pole (costs 8, have bought one point): Gives a bonus to your first aid recovery, and gives a damage bonus when fighting against humanoids. This skill is a whole lot cheaper than it has been in previous Avernum games, and is worthwhile for fighters and/or priests. Buy points in this skill first though. This skill is a prerequisite for Lethal Blow. (4) Gymnastics (Gym): 6 Dexterity (starts to cost 8) + 4 Strength (starts to cost 7): Increases your attack order and decreases your likelihood of being hit. Not too bad, and you can get it pretty easily. I recommend training in this skill first though. (1) Pathfinder (Pth): 4 Intelligence (starts to cost 7) + 6 Nature Lore (starts to cost 4). Pathfinder affects your resistance to acid and poison. It's cheap but no items seem to offer it. You can ignore this skill altogether. (4) Lethal Blow (LB): 5 Anatomy (costs 6, have bought one point) + 5 Blademaster (costs 7, have bought one point): Gives a chance of doing massive damage when attacking with to a single foe. Not that bad, though quite difficult to obtain. Mages get great benefit from this skill, but will find it hard to train in. I'd recommend buying training in this and leaving it at that. Warriors should be able to get this skill and should aim for it to get good blademaster. (5) Riposte (Rip): 6 Parry (starts to cost 6) + 6 Blademaster (starts to cost 8): Gives a slight chance of reflecting damage back at a foe. This skill doesn't do too much damage, but is a modest improvement from parry. If you build your stats for your fighters with getting this skill in mind, you will have very powerful fighters by the end game. (4) Sharpshooter (SS): 4 Dexterity (starts to cost 7) + 6 Bows or Thrown (starts to cost 6): Increases damage done by bows and thrown weapons. Nice to buy points for bow/missile characters. Archers don't do a huge amount of damage in this game, so it's not as great as in A5. Don't bother investing skill points for non-archers in this skill, as it takes a devoted archer to get to it. Essentially the next "Bows" skill for archers. (2) Dual Wield (DW): 4 Dexterity (starts to cost 7), and 7 Melee or Pole Weapons (costs 7, must have bought one point). If you want to use two weapons (and who doesn't?!), get this skill. It's cheap and fun. You can train in this one, though it takes a while to get access to the trainer. (4) Magical Efficiency (ME): 6 Intelligence (starts to cost 8) + 5 Spellcraft (costs 5, must have bought one point): Gives a chance of decreasing the spell point cost of a spell. Very effective, this skill is well worth getting for your mages and your priests as well. With this spell you'll be able to spam lightning spray and smite much longer, and your buffs are much cheaper. You won't go wrong if you build your mage with this skill in mind. (5) Resistance (Res): 5 Dexterity (costs 7, have bought one point) + 6 Endurance (starts to cost 7) + 7 Hardiness (costs 4, have bought one point): Gives a bonus to most physical resistance stats. Probably not worth try to get to, due to its cost, I'd still recommend buying three points or so for everyone. It will make you last that much longer. -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- 3. Spells & Battle Discipline Guide -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- The spells and battle disciplines are described below. Each spell is also affected by spell "strength" which for a given spell is equal to the number of times trained in that spell, plus the spell class skill (either mage spells or priest spells), plus your spellcraft, plus your magery. The effects for increasing your spell strength in a given spell are described by "+". The best way of increasing your spell strength is to add points to magery and spellcraft as both skills affect all spells cast. Training in a spell with a teacher has less of an effect, and may not be worth the cost, especially if you have found a book that will train you instead. The bonuses from spell strength (from the manual) are described as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Priest Spells These are the healing spells, the buff spells, and the occasional damage spell and summoning spells available to everyone. In general they have a much smaller damage output per SP than mage spells, but can compensate in other ways, including varieties of damage type and survivability. These spells are cheaper and easier to use than mage spells. Minor Heal: The staple health returning spell at low level. Very useful early in the game, a bit less so later in the game. A viable strategy is to have everyone start with one point in priest spells so as to cast this spell and curing. + Increases HP regained (+ 1d3) Curing: Removes negative effects like poison and acid from a character. Necessary for some fights, and cheap to cast. A viable strategy is to have everyone start with one point in priest spells so as to cast this spell and curing. + Removes more levels of poison/acid. War Blessing: Cast this before every moderate fight, it increases your chance to hit (by 20% or so) and your damage done to foes (by 4 damage levels). + Increasing the level of this spell makes it last longer. Protection: Decreases your chance of being hit by a foe and decreases the damage received. Cast this before every moderate fight, it lasts for a long time. + Increases the duration of the spell. Repel Spirit: Does disruption damage to undead and demons. Undead take a lot of damage from this spell, and this spell is the main damage-dealer for priests when available. Couple it to a mighty blow to kill many undead instantly. Demons aren't much hurt by this spell, so try to hit them with something else. + Increases damage done by spell (+ 1d5). Smite: The first major damage-dealing spell of the priestly repertoire. This spell is costly but does a decent amount of ice damage. Great, useful spell. Use this against sliths. + Increase damage done (+ 1d5). Summon Shade: Summons a shade to fight for you. The shade isn't that impressive but can distract your enemies. + Increases the length of time they stick around. Ward of Thoughts: Wards are new spells which protect against certain attacks. You can only have one ward active at a time. The ward of thoughts spell protects against mental attacks (daze, terror, charm), which are annoying but uncommon attacks. You can use this spell for those occasions when fighting mental-focused foes, like shades and wizards. + Makes the spell last somewhat longer. Unshackle Mind: Removes charm, daze, and terror effects on all characters. Doesn't seem to always remove daze or terror, but charm is easily broken. Very useful spell for those occasions. I'd recommend having at least two people with the ability to cast this spell, in case your primary caster gets disabled. + Increases likelihood of removal. Heal: Provides a nice batch of health to a single character. Well worth it for the middle of fights. + Increase HP regained (+ 1d5). Mass Healing: Casts a healing spell on all your (nearby) characters. Often useful right after a nasty hit (for instance, by a fire shrub). + Increases HP regained (+ 1d3?) Mass Curing: Casts a curing spell on everyone. Very useful when fighting poisonous-cloud launching creatures. + Increases poison/acid levels removed. Ward of Steel: Wards are new spells which protect against certain attacks. You can only have one ward active at a time. A ward spell that decreases the physical damage you receive from attacks. This one is quite valuable and useful as a buff spell, but is expensive to cast. Cast it before every decent large fight. + Increases the duration. Divine Fire: Hits foes with fire in an area of effect. The staple mid-high level damage spell for priests. Not as powerful as fireblast, but still respectable. + Increases damage (+ 1d5). Control Foe: Seizes the mind of a foe, forcing it to fight for you. Doesn't work on enemies without brains, or undead. + Stronger strength of spell. Ward of Elements: Wards are new spells which protect against certain attacks. You can only have one ward active at a time. This ward spell reduces damage received from elements (fire, cold, energy, perhaps poison/acid). Usually you'll use either this or ward of steel, this spell is useful against wizards and element-using foes, whereas ward of steel is more useful in a general sense. + Increases the duration. Return Life: Brings a character back from "unconsciousness". Useful for D'oh moments. Better than traipsing all the way back to town, for certain. + Increases health restored (?). Divine Retribution: Casts a fire spell on all visible enemies. Especially powerful on weak, distributed foes. Kind of cool, acts like a wand of the inferno. Not too useful on higher level foes. + Increases damage (+ 1d4). Divine Restoration: THE healing spell, this spell removes all negative effects other than "unconsciousness". Also, gives the invaluable ability to regenerate, making your characters last much longer. Some crystals can also give the ability to regenerate, so hold on to those. + Increases HP regained, and regeneration duration. Divine Host: Summons a ghost. The ghost can cast spells, but isn't too impressive. + Increases spell duration. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mage Spells These spells are capable of the most damage in the game. Couple that to a high magical efficiency and a high first aid and you're mages will be the major source of damage in the late game. Bolt of Fire: A single fire attack to damage your foes. This spell is good early on, and good late in the game as well. It is strong against humans and most undead, and weak against demons, reptiles, and things colored red. + Increases damage (+ 1d3) Call Beast: Summons a weak foe to come fight for you. Summons cave worms, giant rats, huge bats, cave wolves, and cave crawlers (19-27 HP). Summoning spells got a boost in A5, and are pretty cool for some assistance. Useful for distractions, no doubt. + Increases duration, may increase probability of getting a good summon. Cloak of Curses: Cloak spells are new spells that augment certain types of attacks. You can only have one cloak spell active at a time. The cloak of curses gives your melee attacks a chance to do poison damage, or to scare a foe. This is a good early game buff, but it doesn't work consistently. Still, it works often enough to be occasionally useful, and serves as the default cloak buff at the beginning of the game. + Increases duration. Daze: Stuns foes until you wake them up by attacking them. Cool and occasionally useful. + Increases spell strength. Haste: Gives your attack and spell actions a 25% chance to cost only 5 AP, as opposed to 9 AP, the normal cost. This effectively gives you a chance to attack twice in a single round. Less valuable and critical than prior Avernums, haste effectively increases your damage by 25%, if you're only slightly mobile. + Increases spell duration. Slow: Drops the AP of a foe so that they only attack once every two rounds. Really useful on bosses, and/or on splitting monsters (e.g., doomguards). + Increases spell duration. Icy Rain: An area of effect ice attack. One of the few ice attacks available in the game. It is nearly always useful except on ice loving foes or undead. Don't forget about it as you fight higher level enemies, it often does more damage than lightning spray or fireblast, depending on the size and number of foes. Great to use on sliths! + Increases spell strength (+ 1d3). Spray Acid: Hits a foe with a blast of acid, which continues to do damage through time. Consistently useful against several varieties of foes, as few are resistant to poison. Great in place of bolt of fire, and cheap. + Increases initial damage (+ 1d3), adds more acid. Cloak of Bolts: Cloak spells are new spells that augment certain types of attacks. You can only have one cloak spell active at a time. The cloak of bolts increases the damage you do with thrown missiles and bows. There are a few occasions where this spell is useful (fighting foes on a ledge, for instance), but definitely one of the more situational spells. + Increases duration. Minor Summon: Summons a middle level foe to fight with you (Searing Slimes, Ghasts, Spitting Wyrmkins, Chitrachs, Fire Lizards, Wights, Hellhounds- HP 53- 78). Good for distractions, and some have some special attacks. Especially useful for mage-heavy parties. + Increases duration, may increase probability of getting a good summon. Lightning Spray: The middle-upper level staple damage spell, this spell does energy damage to up to three foes. The foes must be 2 spaces (diagonal counts as one) from the target foe in order to give them spray damage. Few foes are strong against energy damage, so this spell will do damage consistently. Its expensive cost in SP is moderated by a high magical efficiency and first aid. Boost magical efficiency enough and you may even use this spell against single foes. + Increases spell damage (+ 1d4). Terror: Scares foes so that they run away. Might be useful on melee-focused strong foes, I don't use it too much. + Increases likelihood of terrorizing. Cloak of Blades: Cloak spells are new spells that augment certain types of attacks. You can only have one cloak spell active at a time. Cloak of blades increases the physical damage your melee warriors do to foes. This should be your stock-cloak spell for the majority of the game. Very few foes are good at blocking physical damage. + Increases spell duration. Dispel Barrier: A necessary spell that removes barriers. Piercing crystals are the early game equivalent, but piercing crystals don't always remove barriers. You'll get this in the Tower Colony, by doing a tough quest. If you can hold off, you can get this one by doing Gladwell's second quest for free. + Brings down stronger barriers. Summon Aid: Summons a pretty powerful creature to fight with you (Warped Wolves, Mutant Lizards, Experimental Rats, Rabid Hellhounds, Plated Chitrachs, Revenants, Worgs- between 58 and 111 HP). Some have special attacks or good resistances. + Increases duration, may increase probability of getting a good summon. Strong Daze: Strongly stuns enemies. Useful when surrounded by low level melee fighters/foes. Not bad in emergencies, though many upper level foes resist this spell. + Affects stronger foes. Fireblast: The generic damage spell at high level, this one replaces icy rain in damage output. Expensive to cast though. + Increases spell damage (+ 1d5). Arcane Summon: The strongest summon spell for mages, summons Writhing Masses, Guardian Hellhounds, Enormous Cavebats, Terror Wolves, Pustulant Zombies, Gnawing Stoneworms, and Skeleton Warriors (HP from 125-154). Very useful as distractions and as damagers. + Increases duration, may increase probability of getting a good summon. Cloak of the Arcane: Cloak spells are new spells that augment certain types of attacks. You can only have one cloak spell active at a time. The cloak of the arcane increases the damage you do with spells. This spell can be invaluable in certain occasions (like a battle with a certain lich), and can be highly useful if your mages have adrenaline rush, because three lightning sprays blessed and with this spell in a turn should kill most foes. + Increases spell duration. Arcane Blow: The final rung on the damaging ladder, this spell casts an area of effect blast of energy. Does a lot of damage, and costs a lot of SP. Actually manageable if you have enough magical efficiency, though not for too long. + Increases spell damage (+ 1d6). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle Disciplines Battle disciplines were new to Avernum 5 and continue to be exceptionally useful in Avernum 6, and are the closest thing to fighter-spells. These operate on a different set of rules than spells- your character can use a discipline, but will become fatigued for a certain amount of time so that they can't use another. You can access disciplines according to your skill with weapons (equal to MW + PW + 0.5 (Bow + Thrown weapons). Note that you can train for cash in for a total of nine battle discipline points (3 Melee, 3 Pole, and three blessings increasing everyone's melee, pole, bow, and thrown weapon skills), making a minimal investment necessary to get to the better disciplines. You can decrease the number of rounds your character is fatigued for by adding points to Blademaster, and by wearing armor that has "fatigue removal" under the description. I've maxed out at about 3 fatigue points removed per round. These disciplines are extremely worthwhile for all characters, and I would recommend training everyone in some skills so as to access these skills (at the very least the first two) by mid-late game. These disciplines are stackable with spells, and if a caster can get to adrenaline rush they can become a dervish of destruction. These disciplines are useful enough to merit making all your characters either sliths or nephilim. The highest level discipline you can access is equal to your melee weapons + pole weapons + bows / 2 + thrown missiles / 2 skills (I call this battle skill). Points can be trained or acquired by equipment, they aren't picky. Points from traits or racial bonuses count as well, making it very easy for sliths and nephilim to get these disciplines. Well-Aimed Blow. 5 battle skill points needed needed, gives 3 fatigue. Increases the damage done of your next attack by about 20-30%, give or take. Can make a huge difference late in the game, especially for mages (an extra 30 damage every three rounds will bring that boss down 30% sooner). Shield Breaker. 6 battle skill points needed needed, gives 5 fatigue. Curses your foe so that they take more damage (again about 20-30% more). Use this skill on foes first then hit them with a well-aimed or mighty blow. Try to get to at least this skill for your mages and priests once you've maxed out their priest/mage spells skills. Leg Sweep. 8 battle skill points needed needed, gives 5 fatigue. Curses your foe so that they do less damage to you. Makes a big difference early on in the game, less later. Use on low-level bosses. Berserker Rage. 9 battle skill points needed needed, gives 6 fatigue. Blesses and shields you but does some damage as well. Myeh, I prefer war blessing + protection to this. This might be more useful for singletons who are caught off-guard. Focus Spirit. 11 battle skill points needed needed, gives 5 fatigue. Removes negative effects from your character (slow/curses). The ones that you really need it to remove (terror/charm/daze) it can't affect because you can't use it. Occasionally useful, but the next discipline is much more so. Mighty Blow. 13 battle skill points needed needed, gives 4 fatigue. Adds a hefty bonus to damage to your next attack. Excellent for everyone, including mages and priests. Priests are a bit more likely to get to it though. Use this one on foes who have retaliatory counterattacks (like casting charm foe on you when hit), instead of adrenaline rush. You'll do more damage with less opportunity to lose a few AP (or attack your friends). Adrenaline Rush. 15 battle skill points needed needed, gives 8 fatigue. Adds a lot of AP in exchange for HP. The HP cost is minimal, and usually easily recovered by first aid. You will be able to get three attacks off with this discipline as long as you use this discipline with at least 7 AP left, more if you have the haste spell on you. Probably the best discipline in the game. Get it for your mages and watch the carnage- not much can stand 3 fireblasts! Blade Shield. 16 battle skill points needed needed, gives 8 fatigue. Increases your parry ability. Cool while waiting to get to battle frenzy. Stunning Blow. 18 battle skill points needed needed, gives 5 fatigue. Stuns an enemy with your next attack. Couple this to a slow spell and that foe won't be moving any time soon! Use this with all four of your characters, and that foe will lose 2 turns! Battle Frenzy. 20 battle skill points needed needed, gives 12 fatigue. The final discipline, this hastes you (stacks with the haste spell and other AP increasers). Not the show stopper of Avernum 5, but not awful. I tend to prefer adrenaline rush, as four characters with that discipline will kill nearly everything minor in a single turn. Given haste is not as powerful in A6, this can be useful, though there are a lot of potions, scrolls, and wands which will cast haste on you as well. -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- 4. Traits -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- Traits are character features that increase (or decrease) the effectiveness of certain abilities. You can have up to two traits which will affect the rate you gain experience, plus a race, which will also do the same. You will get about 40 levels for a human with no traits, which means that each 6-8% decrease will cost you about 1 level (or 5 skill points) by the end of the game. However, most traits more than make up for this decrease. I do not recommend any negative traits. Traits give slow increases to skills which means one point at the beginning of the game and one point every 12 levels or so, and fast increases to skills which means two points at the beginning of the game and one point every eight levels or so. Good Constitution (1 level lost): Increases your resistances. Effectively acts as a free two points in hardiness, and gives a few more points in mental and stun resistances. Good cheap trait if you hate losing levels. Nimble Fingers (1 level lost): Gives a bonus of 2 points initially to tool use which increases quickly, and a bonus to first aid which increases slowly. Not really worth it, compared to Avernum 5. You want the tool use early, not late in the game. Thick Skin (1 level lost): Gives a bonus to armor naturally. No bonuses to resistances, and I prefer good constitution slightly. Strong Will (1-2 levels lost): Hugely increases your mental resistance (by about a full 50%!). Good if you hate charming and terror, especially good for priests (so that they can cast unshackle mind in following turns). Not necessary though. Ambidextrous (1-2 levels lost): Gives a great bonus to dual wield. Dual wield is pretty cheap and easily accessible, and you can train in it about halfway through the game, so you're better off giving your fighters elite warrior and divinely touched in terms of power. If you're bored of that option, this is a fine trait. Deadeye (1-2 levels lost): Gives a bonus to sharpshooter (+2) which increases quickly. OK for dedicated archers and nephilim. Archers aren't that great in this game, so you can skip it entirely. There are better traits for everyone else though. Fast on Feet (2 levels lost): Increases your attack order and occasionally gives one bonus AP. A really nice cheap trait if you can't stand not maxing out your level. Pure Spirit (2-3 levels lost): Gives a bonus to priest spells which increases quickly and gives a bonus to magical efficiency which may also increase quickly. Any dedicated priest (the character who is aiming for 18 in Priest spells) should get this trait. Natural Mage (2-3 levels lost): Gives a +2 bonus to mage spells which increases quickly, and allows you to have up to 20% encumbrance before losing the ability to cast spells. Extremely potent for mages, definitely go for it for your dedicated mage. Elite Warrior (2-3 levels lost): Gives a bonus to parry and blademaster which increases quickly for both skills, and a slight bonus to your carrying capacity. Great for melee warriors, or any sort of meat shield characters. Divinely Touched (4-5 levels lost): Gives slow increases to magery, blademaster, and sharpshooter, with +1 free points to these skills. Also gives a very healthy increase to armor. You can't go wrong with giving any character this trait, especially characters who want to do more than one thing. This trait will benefit everyone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weak-Minded (1 level gain): Decreases your mental resistance. Not worthwhile. Delicate Skin (1-2 levels gained): Decreases your fire and cold resistances, and perhaps your energy resistance. Ouch. Sluggish (1-2 levels gained): Decreases your attack order, and sometimes takes away an AP. May find mild use for late-stage characters (for instance, priests who need to cast cure, unshackle mind, or healing spells) but probably not worthwhile. Brittle Bones (2-3 levels gained): Increases damage taken from melee attacks. Ouch. Frail (3-4 levels gained): Everything goes badly for you. Double ouch. The extra levels aren't worth it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Races: Due to the introduction of battle techniques, all non-human races are quite useful as they will get you significant bonuses to the abilities which decide what level battle techniques you can use. Some may suggest that you give your entire party a non-human race, which really isn't a bad idea as the cost isn't that high. I would recommend making an all-nephil party due to the power of bows in the late game, or a 3 nephil-1 slith party. Anyway you try it, you'll be wiping the world clean. I'd recommend either race for priests and mages. Humans make ok dual-wielding fighters, though you'll need to get at least nine points in a melee weapons to access the best disciplines. Human: No penalties or bonuses. I'd recommend this for dual-wield fighters. Nephilim (about 2 levels lost): Gives a bonus to bows, thrown missiles, (+2 for both and which increases quickly ) and gymnastics (+1 which increases slowly). Excellent for archers or anyone who can use a bow (OK, so everyone). Slithzerikai (about 3 levels lost). Gives a bonus to pole weapons (+2 and which increases quickly), and a bonus to fire, poison, and acid resistances, and a few bonus HP. Excellent for pole fighters, good for mages since the fire resistance helps them stick around a bit longer when foes retaliate for your spells. The bonus to pole weapons helps mages get to great battle disciplines. -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- ------------------------------------------------------------- ====================WALKTHROUGH============================== ------------------------------------------------------------- -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- KEY: Name of place (number) Q: Quests available {rewards for job board quests} S: Skills, spells, and trainers (cost) U: Secret Doors C: Cache supplies I: Items of Note $: Merchants [Key Items] *Constructions* ////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\ 1. DEMO AREA \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////// Map of demo region: D0 AB-AC AQ-AR | | | | AM-AD-A9-A8-A5-A6-AS | | | | | | | AL-AK-AE-AF-A4 A7 AT-AX | | | | | | | AP-AN-AH-AG-A3-A0-AU-AW | | | | | | C0-AO-AI-AJ-A2-A1-AA-AV Castle Food Depot (A0): Q: Find Sergeant Nichol, Kill Some Rats, Help Lieutenant Katlyn, Back to Nichol, Deep Storage, See Katlyn Again, Hunt Down Trinket, Delivery: The Castle, Goblin Trophies, Lost Lizard, Infested Trash Pit, Go to the Castle U: Second Food Locker, East deep storage C: Leather Helmet I: Blessed Bauble (2%) $ Or'Vysss You start out in your quarters. Grab the supplies to the east and then go talk with Sergeant Nichol. He tells you to go kill some rats. Head south and do so, claiming a scroll for your time. Also loot the box for some minor items, and grab the food nearby the water pit. Keep as much food as you can on you at all time, probably on one character. Tell Nichol when you've succeeded, and he sends you upstairs. Explore a bit and you'll find a new region. Head south, pillaging the few stores of some food. In the second locker area is a secret area with some rats. Kill them for some more armor. Head west then north, grabbing the bag of meal. Talk with Katlyn and she sends you on your way. Head back, and you're confronted by two refugees. They can't be helped, so push them on out. You then find Runkle. Go ahead and refuse to help him and kill him instead for some more armor. Back down to Nichol. You're given your first longer quest, to investigate the deep storage. Head west, and go kill the goblin and rats. A nearby secret button opens a passage that leads to some crystals and a suit of chainmail armor. Head south, and kill a few more goblins. Go east, and you'll find Lord Trinket. Kill his minions (blessed bauble necklace as a reward), then go south and see where he went. Open the portcullis to leave, and report to Nichol. He tells you to see Katlyn again, after some crying. Katlyn tells you to hunt down Trinket. You can also leave the base, for the first time. Ask Katlyn for some help and you're given some items in a locked bin in the barracks (with unpleasant soldiers). You can trade with Or'Vysss. I don't recommend buying anything, but be sure to sell off all of your junk. Talk with Dominica, then head west out of the depot and look at the job board. Grab all of the quests, and explore the area. To the east is an unfinished part of the fort. Kill the goblins there. A cache to the SE of the fort has a leather helmet. A bit further to the SE is the trash pit which has been infested with slimes. Kill them to complete one of the job board quests. Your rewards: Lizard quest (spineshield scroll), Goblin Trophies (300c), Infested Trash pit (steel shield). Completion of the Trinket quest gets you sent to the castle, and 300c. Time to head north! Goblin Mine (A1) S: Icy Rain I: Fine Cleaver (6-12 d, +1 Dex), Woven Silver Chain (1 HER), Shielding Ring (4%, 5 SR) Be sure to get the Goblin Ear job board quest before attempting this area! Talk with Vandarin, the goblin hunter. You can get him to join with you if you'd like. Do so briefly at the very least so that he opens his locker for you allowing you to grab a few decent (especially right now) items. If you leave the area, Vandarin skips out on you. You can recruit him back into your group when you come back here. When you're ready, head on south to the mine proper. Open up the locked door for some decent minor armor and loot. In this room is also a button to push with some decent gems and pants. Continue to explore the top portion of this map and you'll find Cleaver Grog. Kill him for your first significant magic weapon, a fine cleaver. Head down the north path first. GO north, and kill the goblins. You'll find one named Drexa Eyebite, kill her for a woven silver chain. Two heavily locked doors are nearby, you will open them later. Go back upstairs then go down the south stairs. You'll find a large group of goblins. Kill them. TO the north is a locked chest (tool use ~8), open it for some crystals. Grab the other minor goods in the nearby chests and on the table, then use the platform. You are attacked by bats and goblins along the way across. Be sure to stay in combat mode so as to kill them all and not get overwhelmed. Trinket taunts you all the way across. The SE area holds a few rats, and a nephil and some goblins. Unlock the nearby cabinet for a ruby. Go north, kill the wolves and loot their nests. Be sure to loot everything because you can't return here. When ready, use the next platform. Again, enter combat mode and stay in it, you will again be taunted by Trinket (you can't kill him yet). The NE is the last major area. Trinket and his consort, Esmerelda, are here. Kill them both. Trinket has a couple of tricks, primarily summons, but isn't very tough. If you find this fight difficult, remember to use your blessing and shielding spells. Grab the loot they drop- a chainmail suit, some iron bracers, and a shielding ring. Trinket also drops a key which you instantly pick up. When they're all dead, go talk with the shadowy slith. This is Khrez-Yss, one of the leaders of the sliths horde. He threatens you and walks away. Loot the rest of the area for some fine leather (keep this!), a mysterious scroll, and other minor goods. You can now loot the area. Go through the door nearby Drexa to find a spell book of icy rain, an extremely useful spell. This spell requires 3 arcane lore in order to learn. Continue into the central area and you'll see some crystal spires. They are guarded by Warmaster Gella. Kill him for an iron breastplate. Head back to your home base to report your success. Southern Great Cave (A2) C: Healing Potion I: Swampwalker Leather (12%, 10 SR, 5 PR, 5 AR), Helm of Klin (9%, +1 Pa, +1 BM) Here you will find the lizard that is the object of a job board quest. Kill the various lizards that come for you then go down the stairs. Go around, kill the lizards and loot their nests. At the end you'll find a blue lizard. Beat it until it submits. If you're coming here from Patrick's Tower, you'll find some goblins in the region slightly to the east of the main path. Shaman Bonesnap is their leader, and he drops a swampwalker leather on death. If you're here from underneath Patrick's Tower, you'll find more worms and crawlers. The most important thing you find is near the center of the map. Here you find an imprisoned demon. Luckily you get first strike. Buff up, then hit it with everything you have. You get a knowledge brew and a helm of Klin for you time. Portal Keep (A3) Q: Shades Downstairs, Flawless Crystals, The Crystalspawn C: Leather Greaves U: Crystalspawn reward room I: Ruby Necklace (2%, +5 FR, +10 ER), Shadow Band (+1 PA, +1 Gym, +1 Def) $: Portmaster Bronner Until you need to be here, there's not too much to do here. You can grab some leather greaves from a cache, and a passage down to the SE. You're attacked by skeletons on the way down the passage. Down the passage are two more skeletons, one of which drops an iron breastplate on death. When you've got a mission to come here from the castle, go ahead and enter. Talk with Portmaster Bronner for a mission- to clear out some ghosts. Go downstairs and talk with Sage Angela (completing a delivery for 100c). Go south and kill all the wisps, including the glowing one (wisdom crystal drop!). When they're all dead, talk with Asta again. She gives you a quest to get her some flawless crystals. You'll find a lot over the course of the game. Each one gets you 30c, and some experience. Give her two and she gives you a piercing crystal. Four, you get a purging crystal. Six a battle crystal, and eight, a wisdom crystal. Ten gets you a ruby necklace. Portmaster Bronner will now buy your stuff and teach you to use the portal. Go back to Meryhew to report your success. When you've reached level 10 or so, Bronner will ask you to kill a new shade, the Crystalspawn. GO down the stairs, buff up, and attack. Try to get two rounds of attack on it to kill it. It summons nasty help when you attack. The floating globes can do a fair bit of damage. First kill the shade and the globes are weakened. You can kill each weakened globe with a blast from a fiery wand, if you need to kill them all at the end. You get an extremely powerful shadow band for your efforts. The nearby body has a potent wand, grab it then tell Bronner of your success. Grab the loot he tells you to claim (don't forget to touch the button to open a bit more loot!). If you're coming here from underneath Patrick's tower (note that there are two ways- from the west and from the south), you'll find a set of shades to the north. Kill them, including the radiant shade. Then kill the radiant shade to the NE. Claim your fine leather and other decent goods, then head back to Patrick's Tower to report your success. Memorial Grounds (A4) U: East tomb I: Apprentice Belt (2%, +1 ME), Runed Greaves (4%, +5 SR, +5 ER) There are a few things to do here. Several tombs are waiting to be looted. The ones to the northwest hold a ruby skeleton guarding some decent armor, and a trap with a steel spear in a tomb. To the center are a tomb with some aranea and a null wand, and a heavily locked tomb. TO the east is a tomb with a secret button. Buff up before pushing it, then push it and kill the bandits. The evil mage Hathirix drops an apprentice belt. There's a strongly locked room near the south central (12 TU to open). Once you can get in, buff up, then kill the death worshipper and his quickghast minions. This can be a tough battle if it catches you off guard. For your time you get a focusing crystal. Note that the crypt wight is fairly tough and you may have to wait a bit to take it on. Go and hit it, it eventually disappears and possesses one of your characters. After two turns the wight returns with four skeletons. Kill the skeletons, then hit the wight. After it is beaten a bit, it possesses another character again. Wait two turns, then it summons skeletons again. Hit it and it possesses your character for a final time. After two turns it summons skeletons. Kill it and claim your reward, some runed greaves. Also grab the emerald from the skull pile. Webbed Woods (A5) Q: Case's Infestation C: Group Heal I: Swamp Pants (2%, 5 PR), Swamp Boots (4%, 5 PR, 5 AR) $: Case A spider haven. Kill all of the nests of spiders for a variety of minor goods. You can find some swamp boots here which are the most notable of items. To the SE you'll find Case. Case asks you to kill a nearby slime. Go north, and go down the pit. This slime splits when you hit it (once per turn), and is strong against magical attacks. Hit it with physical damage (melee, pole, bow, thrown) until it dies, then kill the copies. Grab some herbs as a reward, and loot the north body for some swamp pants. Tell Case once you've succeeded to buy some stuff from him. Buy the energetic herbs, the rest you don't really need. North of Castle (A6) C: Gold Bar $: Hessesha This area is, well, north of the castle. A few merchants are here, including Hessesha, who has interesting ideas on who is causing the blight, and Vaclav, who will sell you some food. You should never need to buy food if you're good at hoarding it. To the west is a cache (6 Nature lore required) which will get you a gold bar when you dig it up. The Castle (A7) Q: Learn to Use Pylons, Grave Robbers, Bounty: Giant Spiders, Message: Lower Portal, Delivery: Fissure Post, Crypt Wight, Corrupted Mushrooms, The Blessed Athame, The Onyx Scepter, The Crystal Shards, Demonslayer!, Aid Dharmon, Aid Gnass, Aid Patrick's Tower, The Great Portal, Aid Tower Colony, Aid Almaria, Aid the Excavation, Melanchion's Message, Jobs for Levitt, Aid Silvar, Aid Cotra, Aid Fort Dranlon, Slay Ghavassa-Oss, Aid Solberg, Rescue Fort Monastery, Reopen Fort Draco, The Vahnatai, Go to Melanchion, Aid Melanchion S: Sage Asta, Correlea, Cloak of the Arcane, Divine Host, Arcane Summon, Arcane Blow I: Assassin's Shield (21%, +2 QA, +1 Anat, +2 LB), Pearlescent Band (4%, +5 SR, +2 PW, +1 SS), Archer's Cloak (3%, +2 Bow, +2 TM, +1 QA), Oozing Sword (11-33, +10 AR, +5 TH), Mercuric Plate (24%, +50 SR, -20 TH, +1 Battle Speed, -1 Str), Symbiotic Cloak (5%, -1 Str, -1 Dex, +2 Int) $: Ssem'Ess Commander Meryhew is your leader for the next few chapters. Talk with her for your next mission- to learn to teleport. She'll also open the northern locker for you for a few minor goods. Go ahead and find the job board and take the quests. Look around as well. Most of the best stuff right now is to the NW. Also look upstairs to find more people. Sage Asta will train you in priestly magic, and will teach you smite if you'd like. She also gives you a quest to retrieve some corrupted mushrooms. This quest will span the game. The nearby mushrooms get you 50c and two healing potions. Mushrooms from the Abyss get you 100c and two energy potions. Mushrooms from the Eastern Gallery get you 200c and two healing elixirs. Mushrooms from the northern isles get you 300c and two energy elixirs, as well as a pack of crystals and some advanced training opportunities. Nearby Asta is Lark (give her the delivery from the Food Depot for 50c), who gives you a series of quests as well. Her first quest is to recover the Blessed Athame. Returning the athame gets you a knowledge brew, wand of death, and the pleasant assassin's shield. Next Lark wants you to retrieve the Onyx Scepter. Finding the scepter gets you a pearlescent band, a knowledge brew, and a spellbook with cloak of the arcane. Next Lark wants the Orb of Thralni. Finding the Orb of Thralni gets you an archer's cloak and a point in divine host. Next Lark wants some crystal shards, part of the vahnatai communication system. Do so for a point in arcane summon and an oozing sword (which is less powerful than the venomous blade you just earned). Lark's final quest for you is to claim demonslayer. Claiming demonslayer gets you the final reward, a point in arcane blow, the awesome mercuric plate, and a knowledge elixir. Downstairs you find Ssem'Ess, the quartermaster. He will give you a per diem, not quite every day (I know...). Return whenever you complete a quest for the castle, and you may (MAY) receive 40c. You may also get to grab a few of the items in nearby boxes. To the east is Correlea, who trains you in magic spells, including the fairly useful slow spell. Be sure to touch the nearby pylon. A bit south you'll find Ghall-Ihrno, a vahnatai. Talk with him, then go into his chambers. Loot the vahnatai blade, it's the strongest melee weapon you'll find for a while. Also grab the piercing crystals. Finally go talk with Kanox to the SW. He'll give you a loaf of bread. Return to him whenever you've eaten something for more bread. Finally, Jasmine in the center of the castle asks you to ask for help from Leavitt. Be sure to do so before you actually go to Silvar. The barriers here have a basilisk behind them (nearby Correlea), and an experimental slime (nearby Sage Asta) which drops a focusing crystal. Completion of Grave Robbers quest gets you 200c and a chainmail vest, as well as another task on the job board. Completion of the spider quest gets you 300c, and a steel helmet. Completion of the crypt wight quest gets you 400c and an iron halberd. When you've done the portal quest, return to tell Meryhew. She gives you three quests, to help cities around the Great Cave. I'd recommend first trying to help out Gnass, as you then gain access to a trainer who helps significantly. Once you've helped a city, tell Meryhew and collect your per diem, and get Ssem'Ess to open a supply box for you (some minor potions). Once you've completed the other city quests, you can claim a second supply box (healing elixirs and energy elixirs) and per diem. Your next mission is to help out at the great portal. Return when things go wrong. You increase in rank to sergeant, and are give the task to help three more cities. Once you've helped one, return for your per diem. When you've helped two or three, return for a new boss. Don't forget to get your per diem as well. You also get to take the final supply box, getting you some healing elixirs, a knowledge elixir, and an invulnerability elixir. Levitt is now in charge of you. You can get to him by going up the NE stairs. Once you've found him he opens up the latch so that you can get to him more easily. You increase in rank to Lieutenant now, and are given a quest to retrieve a message from Melanchion, a dragon. Also, tell Levitt about Jasmine and her request for aid to Silvar (be sure to tell her afterwards!). You can also loot 10 skribbane from the nearby chest. Correlea will now train you in advanced magic, including the cloak of blades spell. Return to Levitt when you have the message, and he'll open up a north storage room for you. He then gives you quests to help three cities. Complete one for a renewal of your per diem. Complete two and you're given a nice new quest- to slay Ghavass-Oss, the slith warlord. Ugh, no small task! For this you are given a boat. Claim your per diem then head north of Almaria via pylon. Tell Levitt when you've succeeded and he'll open up another supply room to the north. Your next quest is to aid Solberg. Help him slay Ess- Kalyn, then report to Levitt. The pylon to northern Avernum should now be awake. He gives you three new quests- to help places in northern Avernum. If you want to do the vahnatai quest, be sure to speak with Ghall-Ihrno prior to attempting it. You ascend a rank as well. Completion of the Fort Draco quest with most of the soldiers surviving gets you 500c. Completion of the other two quests get you nothing of note. However, you can now enter the throne room. If you want, you can loot the castle. Head SE from Lark, and open the room. Kill the two sentinels, and claim the symbiotic cloak. Then head past the traps to grab the blessed breastplate and greaves, and the crystal mirror (a quest object). Talk with King Starrus. He gives you your quest- to go speak with Melanchion. Return when you've done that quest for the next quest- to help Melanchion. Webbed Woods (A8) C: Gold Bar, Spiritual Herbs I: Blessed Silk Tunic (6%, +1 SC) This area continues with the abandoned, spider-infested region of Avernum. An item of note here is the blessed silk tunic, which is guarded by some spiders and an aranea. Gnass (A9) Q: Bounty: Salamander, The Killer Koepp, Tasty Limb Meat, Meat for Gnass, Rescue Treviass, Seleeass's Scrolls S: Seleeass I: Fine Slith Spear (11-44 d), Chilling Band (2%, 15 FR), Coated Cloak (4%, 5 FR), Nimble Chain (+1 Gym) $: Ethssyn Gnass is home to friendly sliths. Be sure to grab the quests on the job board. One of the quests here is to bring six limbs of dead creatures for food. The limbs are green, webbed arms. Doing this gets you 400c. Completion of the salamander quest gets you a nimble chain. Completion of the Koepp quest gets you four good scrolls. Ethssyn sells pole arms to you. Aktitoss will tell you about the sliths. Pelin-Ath has a request of you- to get meat from Dharmon. Doing so (you are given a choice not to) gets you a coated cloak. Gless-Thsss is chief here and asks you to rescue his son, Treviass. This will satisfy a major mission for the castle. He is at the Bandit Lands (AA). Completion of this quest gets you a fine slith spear, the best pole weapon you'll have for a while. Seleeass is the priestess here. She talks with you some more about a mission. She will also train you in priest spell sup to ward of thoughts, and will increase you arcane lore and nature lore for cash. Both are expensive unless you complete a quest for her. Completion of her quest by finding some scrolls gets you a chilling band. She also will translate the scroll from the goblin mines for you. Go down the stairs nearby the blacksmith. You'll find a bunch of lizards. Kill them, then beef up. Kill the mutant lizards for some fine leather, herbs, and good potions (invulnerable brew, knowledge brew). Bandit Lands (AA) C: Lovely Crystal, Emerald S: Unshackle Mind U: Nearby Smith Grrargh I: Shining Golden Band (1%, 7 ER), Girdle of Endurance (2%, +1 End), Woven Silk Robe (12%, 10 ER, 10 FR, 20 SR), Shield of Warmth (12%, 5 CR) Bandits and goblins seem to stick together. Head south, killing the sentries as you encounter them. Go south, and then approach the statue. So long as you have the info from Gnass, you'll be able to enter. Go down the stairs. To the east are some wolves. Go ahead and kill them and take their stuff. When ready (probably make a new save), head east. Go through the gate, it locks behind you. Go east, and some nephil drop rocks on crates releasing worms. Kill them, then kill the nephil. Head north. Kill shaman Baorla for a shining golden band. Continue north, you'll see a guardian hellhound. Beef up (bless, shield, haste) then kill it. Happily it lets you attack first so long as you don't get too close to it. Try to hit it with smites as they do the most damage. Read the nearby book for a point in the unshackle mind spell, which may have been useful in this fight (7 arcane lore needed). You also find the scrolls for Seleeass here. Grab them. Use the nearby basin for 25 spell points. Go back and head up the stairs. Go down and kill the few cultists who block you. Then go south and claim the minor loot. Head north, and you'll see a bunch of calderas. Enter combat mode and run to the end of this area (go ahead and kill the salamanders, you have time). At the end you find Smith Grrargh, an ogre. Kill him for a girdle of endurance, then loot the area. Nearby you find some fine steel. Through the door is a limb and fine bronze helmet. Head a bit west to kill some lizards and claim a dazing wand. Also hit the nearby secret button to open up the area above the wolf den. Continue west. If you can, break into the room north of the gated dungeon for a basin that restores some SP. You are confronted by Fahdroth Benttail. Treviass is with him. Focus on Fahdroth, and ignore Treviass. When you kill Fahdroth, Treviass relents. Fahdroth drops a woven silk robe on death. Loot the area for a shield of warmth. North Great Cave (AB) C: Healing Herbs, Spiritual Herbs, Energetic Herbs Not much here beyond some caches and the pylon for Gnass. Fort Emerald (AC) C: Spiritual Herbs You can't do much here, ever, unfortunately. Blosk Ruins (AD) C: Graymold, Scroll- Group Heal S: Minor Summon U: NW basement room, Getting the cache, I: Grounded Boots (4%, +5 ER), Deadeye Cloak (4%, +1 SS) Come here when you have the mission from Dharmon's mayor. You are accosted by a few thugs outside. Kill them. Then head north. Talk with Sssolak to get in. I'd head SE first. Go and touch the secret button to open up a room with a passage to some bats and iron bars. Grab the fine steel bar and head back up (this fulfills one of the quests on the Dharmon job board). Most of the people here are friendly and you can talk with them. Duffy will fill you in on what's going on. Head north and you'll be set up for a trap. Head east, to face Mangan. Prep for battle, then kill Mangan. He drops some nimble sandals on death. Now hurry north, and go down the stairs to the east. Enter combat mode, and continue west. Kill all the brigands you encounter (don't bother picking up their loot just yet though- do so later). You'll kill about four groups of brigands until you run into Sssolak. Kill them for some blessed gauntlets, deadeye cloak and grounded boots. Go back and loot for a blessed short sword, a spell book that teaches minor summon, and a knowledge crystal. Return to Dharmon to tell of your success. West Great Cave (AE) C: Flawless Crystal (x2), Beautiful Crystal (X5), Piercing Crystal I: Girdle of Strength (2%, +1 Str), Spectral Falchion (7-14, +2 Def, +4 HER) This area is full of crystals. Go down the northern mine, you'll find it full of salamanders. Most are young and weak, but one is a bit tougher (and not described as young). It drops a fine leather and a girdle of strength on death. The best way to attempt this area is to send two fighters out to kill the salamanders and heal with your mage + priest. Alternatively, the route east is not riddled with volcanic vents. Loot the nest and leave this place. A miner named Wilkie offers to see you his claim. It's worth buying, but pretty well haunted. Wilkie eventually leaves if you buy the claim, allowing you to loot his camp. Head south and you'll find the nasty shade. The ghost here splits off three vengeful shades every time it dies. You have to kill it four times for it to finally die. Claim your reward- lots of crystals (including a wisdom crystal) and a spectral falchion. Fissure Post (AF) Q: Hunting Holda, Hunting Herwin, Claim Checks C: Healing Herbs S: Reginaldo I: Enchanter's Robe (9%, +1 MS, +1 PS, +2 SC), Armor Ring (6%, +8 SR), Leaden Band (8%, -10 TH, +15 SR, +4 HER) A little bit of a respite from the chaos. Talk with Yardley for the low- down on the inn. He will sell some overpriced foodstuffs as well. Be sure to talk with Adelard to get a couple of quests. The first is to find his daughter, Holda. She's a long way off, and you won't find her just yet. Once you find her in Silvar, tell Adelard for an armor ring. Next he wants you to find Herwin, his son. Herwin is in Spire, being attacked. Let his dad know his whereabouts for a leaden band, a ring with powerful armor. Talk with Mother Alice for another quest- to investigate her land holdings. The holdings are at (AO, AS, C1). Completion of this quest gets you a number of gems. Eventually you should head upstairs. Talk with Herwin. In the northern part of the second floor you'll find a heavily trapped chest. Grab the enchanter's robe inside. Go to the NE, and you'll find Reginaldo. In order to do so you must disarm his trap, and kill a salamander. Talk with him (fulfilling a delivery quest for a focusing crystal and some fine steel). He will train you in spellcraft and magical efficiency. Another trainer later is cheaper than Reginaldo, but it may take you a while to get to her. He also sells scrolls. Scuttler Woods (AG) C: Spiritual Herbs, Healing Herbs, Flawless Crystal, Graymold S: Summon Shade U: Down the building I: Shining Silver Band (+7 CR) This area is home to several scuttlers. You job is to kill the pack leaders. One is just south of the fissure post inn. There's a second on the peninsula west of the portal keep. There's also an abandoned building here. Go down the stairs to find more scuttlers and a secret door. If you come here from underneath Patrick's Tower, there's a lot more to see. To the NW is a body with minor goods. A bit east are two "Forgotten Shades". Kill their minions, then kill them for a wisdom crystal and scroll. Use the nearby book for a point in summon shade. Head south from here, kill the slimes and the spiny crawler for a shining silver band. West Great Cave (AH) C: Iron Bracers I: Ratskin Helmet (5%) $: Cavarin Some goblins are at the east. Kill Shaman Torkh. Cavarin is a crafter and will make some decent items for you out of fine leather. I'd recommend a ratskin helmet or two. To the north you'll find some more scuttlers, including a packmaster. Head down the nearby mine and you'll find some rats. Kill them and continue west. GO north, nad you'll find the rat hivemother. Focus all of your attacks on the hivemother as she summons nasty unstable rats if you don't get rid of her fast. Unstable rats explode on death. She drops a ratskin helmet on death. Sorengard's circle is here. Buff up, then talk with the red sentinel. Try to kill a few sentinels during this fight, but not the red one. The second test is easy, provided the sentinels haven't regenerated. If they have, then try using spineshield and a few haste scrolls to kill them. It doesn't matter here if you kill them all. West Great Cave (AI) C: Gold Ring I: Thick Wool Tunic (6%, +5 CR), Blessed Shortsword (10-20) This area holds the mushroom test for Patrick's towerm which you can reach from the west. Also on this side is another scuttle pack leader. Kill it to help fulfill Gladwell's job board quest. When you're ready, head towards the blue stairs. Go down them, and ignore the sentinels. If they attack you, you need to get the mushroom quest first! Go north, and explore. Nearby you will find some spiny crawlers (an object of a quest for Patrick's Tower) and venomous worms. Kill them. As you head east, you'll find some traps. These are some of the protection set up by the squatters. Other protection is south in the form of trained worgs. Kill them and loot their nests for a thick wool tunic (fairly worthless). When you're ready to deal with the squatters head up the stairs. More worgs confront you, though these aren't too difficult. Dhera is the leader of the squatters. You can convince them all to leave without a fight, but if you're feeling vicious, take them out for a blessed shortsword. Patrick's Tower (AJ) Q: Sparkling Shades, Tunnel Worms, Scuttler Packs, The Ice Wraith, Test the Mushrooms, Construct Test, The Buried Seal, The Dark Spiral, The Mayor of Spire, The Spider's Egg S: Spray Acid, Control Foe, Ward of Elements, Lightning Spray, Dispel Barrier, Fireblast, Arcane Blow, Sorengard U: Nearby Icy Wraith I: Singing Rapier (10-20, +2 QA, +1 BM), Shielding Knife (6%, 4-8), Crystal Woven Chitin (12%, +20 SR, +1 SC), Shield Ring (4%, +5 SR), Piercing Gloves (2%, +1 Anat), Incantor's Ring (6%, +1 MS, +1 SC), Nullity Shield (18%, +15 SR, +5 ER, -2 FR), Runed Plate (34%, +50 SR, +20 MR, +2 SC), Jade Halberd (20- 80, +10 HER, +10 Protection from Weapons) Here is one of the mage refuges of the great cave. You'll see the job board immediately. Grab all the quests now. The scuttler quest gets you 500c. Completion of the spiny crawler quest gets you a steel broadsword. Completion of the radiant shade quest gets you 250c and a shield ring. Inside Patrick's Tower are a number of mages. First go talk with Solberg. You get your orders to continue. Ildiko is the librarian here. She asks you to recover a book by killing a nasty wraith. Do so for some scrolls. Julz will make potions for you (I wouldn't really bother, and don't make anything that requires energy herbs!). Nearby is a magic barrier, which if you dispel it with a piercing crystal, gets you a point in the spray acid spell (which is a great all-purpose single enemy damage spell). Talk with Horyn when you want to complete the tower's main quest. Horyn wants you to test the mushrooms. Doing so requires you to clear out some squatters, kill the fungal beast, and turn a wheel. Completion of this quest gets you a shielding knife, which can be useful for mages. Finally, Sorengard has a few quests for you, and can teach you several spells. He wants you to tests some sentinels to the north. When you've done the first test, tell him and claim your reward, some piercing gloves. The second test is to survive. Completion of quest #2 gets you an incantor's ring and a point in ward of elements. If you go downstairs nearby Julz, you'll find a magic barrier. Head east, use the secret button, and you'll find a piercing crystal to bring it down with. Go back west, buff up, and kill the wight. Use your disrupt undead spell as best you can. Read the spellbook for a point in control foe. When you come here to test the mushrooms, be careful. Try to kill a few worms, then make your way to the center of the map. Kill the fungal beast. It summons some worms, but is not too fierce. It drops a singing rapier and knowledge brew on death. Next turn the wheel. Wait a bit and all the mushrooms become infected with the blight. Gladwell is one of the most important people in the tower (if not, interestingly, in all of Avernum!). He has a series of quests for you, of dubious moral character. By no means do you have to do any of them! His first is straight-forward enough, free some shades in Fort Remote. Do this quest, claim your reward of a crystal woven chitin armor, a wisdom crystal, the ability to cast lightning spray, and other minor goods. Gladwell will send you on another quest, to break the circle of protection at the dark energy center nearby Mertis. When you've done that, tell him and you'll be able to use a book that improves you dispel barrier spell. Additionally, you can claim the mediocre nullity shield. Your next quest is to bug, literally, the house of Spire's mayor, Annatolia. This ends up killing the mayor. For this evil act you get a runed plate, the best armor for mages out there, as well as a wisdom crystal. Use the book to improve your fireblast skill. Next Gladwell wants an egg from the Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders, or GIFTSs. You will want to wait to do this quest until after you have claimed the rewards from another quest, the mean shaman quest. Completion of this quest gets you a silk-woven cord, a knowledge elixir, and the ability to cast cloak of the arcane. Next Gladwell wants Erika's tower. This finishes Gladwell's tasks for you and gets you a point in arcane blow, the jade halberd, and a knowledge elixir. Dharmon (AK) Q: Message: Vanessa, Nephilim Rogues, Kyra's Symbols, Lost Blosk Supplies, Aid Leonhart, Saving Koepp, Evict Kiril, The Blosk Hoarders, The Skribbane Eaters C: Broken Pot S: Priestess Kyra U: To Captain Puvner I: Stunning Blade (3-6, stun damage), Blessed Breastplate (34%, 50 SR, -20 TH), Blessed Shield (21%, -5 TH), Blessed Boots (8%), Stability Bauble (10 SR) $: Patricia, Rippel This is one of the major cities of the Great Cave. Most of the action is underground. Sergeant Estragon will give you rations (until you make Puvner honor the deal with Gnass), and gives you a quest to save Koepp. This quest contradicts the quest from Gnass. Vladimir is a bum who will give you advice for a fee. Probably the most important person in town is the priestess Kyra. She will train you in some priest spells, but the major opportunity she provides are her blessings. These give you a significant bonus to everyone in your party to a single skill for 3000c. You can get improvements to your melee skill (sword), pole weapon skill (spear), bow and thrown skill (eye), and spellcraft (mind). You will want to buy them all at some point. You can also go up her stairs and dispel the barrier to grab a steel breastplate and an iron halberd. Pereles is a tailor with some decent items, most notably the cap of thoughts. It's pretty expensive though. Patricia will trade with you. Rippel is the most important of these three as she will construct items for you. You can also loot her supply closet for a steel breastplate and broadsword, both fine items at this stage of the game. Thrace is the innkeeper to the south. She asks you to evict a tenant of hers, Kiril. GO upstairs and you'll find him in the east room. Be firm, and he'll attack. On death he drops a stunning blade and a scroll. Thrace gives you 100c for your time. If you want to get the food delivered to Gnass, head to the SE. GO into the abandoned room, and use the secret button to open a passage. Hit the second button, and you'll find Puvner. You now have a choice- you can either force him to give food to Gnass (getting you a coated cloak), or take his bribe of a blessed breastplate, which is some excellent armor. If you go up the nearby stairs you'll find a chest from which you can steal (and get caught) a blessed shield. The job board provides several jobs here. Completion of the nephilim bandit quest gives you some blessed boots. The aid Leonhardt quest gets you a blessed shield. Completion of the holy symbol quest gets you 200c and a stability bauble. Completion of the Blosk supplies quest gets you some gold bars and fine steel. The mayor is to the SW. He gives you your main quest- to retrieve food from the Blosk Hoarders. Completion of this one well (not letting any bandits escape) gets you a terror wand and 300c. If you talk with him enough he also gives you a quest to kill the skribbane supplier in town. The Skribbane supplier can be found if you exit Dharmon and head to the north and go down the hidden stairs. Head to the west and you'll find a room with rats. Kill them for some fine leather and skribbane. To the east is the skribbane dealer, Zeleny. Here you have a moral dilemma. You can either kill Zeleny and rid Dharmon of the skribbane menace, or you can let him live and sell him skribbane. The latter option gets you a quest to retrieve skribbane herb for him, for 20c each and some experience. Note that you can only give him your skribbane once for experience (in the Windows version anyway). Completion of this quest gets you 500c. West Great Cave (AL) C: Lovely Crystal, Beautiful Crystal (x3), Piercing Crystal, Spiritual Herbs, Energetic Herbs, Iron Bracers I: Treated Carapace (18%, 10 PR) In the mine to the north you'll find some zombies and a goblin body with an iron key on it. Continue west, through the zombies, then up the stairs. Kill the skeletons for some nice loot, including a wisdom crystal. Head down the south mine next. Kill all the worms and go through the door. Kill the nephilim, then kill Chief Kah'Horrr. You get a treated Carapace Shield for your time. The only other place of note is an old foundry. Inside is a sentinel who won't attack if you've taken on Patrick's Tower's major quest. Western Great Cave (AM) C: Spiritual Herbs S: Mass Healing U: Skribbane growers camp I: Woven Golden Chain (1%, 2 SR) $: Vanessa More to kill here. The brewery holds several drunken goblins. Kill them for some Almarian Wine. Head to the SW and you'll find some lizards and a mushroom patch. The mushroom patch is full of the diseased mushrooms requested by Sage Asta. Talk with Dragan here and he'll tell you about the nephilim bandits. Shaynee's Retreat is also here. The store is run by Vanessa. She is the object of a delivery quest from Dharmon, and gives you a flawless crystal and 50c. She sells you a spell book for 500c (mass healing) which you should either purchase or break into to access. You can also claim a blessed shield, some plate greaves, a steel breastplate, and a null wand for your time. To the east is a small hatchway that takes you to some skribbane growers. Kill them for some skribbane and a woven golden chain. More skribbane growers meet you when you leave this place. West Great Cave (AN) C: Beautiful Crystal (x3), Flawless Crystal S: Ward of Thoughts I: Ivory Band (2%, 15 MR) Go down the northern mine and you'll find an ogre, Horg Toothsnap. He has the priestly symbols from Dharmon. Kill him (or trade him 5 flawless crystals if you're feeling wimpy). He's quite susceptible to fear, so try to hit him with that (the ward of curses worked for me). On death he drops another steel breastplate and some plate greaves. Grab the amulets. The southern mine was the home to the necromancer attacking Leonhardt. Kill the undead, and claim the ivory band from the barrow wight. Grab the loot here then read the book to increase your ward of thoughts spell. West Great Cave (AO) C: Suede Gloves, Healing Herbs (x2), Flawed Crystal I: Suede Gloves (3%, +2 SC, +2 Res) Some scuttlers are to the NW. A bit to the south of the scuttler den is a cache with the excellent Suede Gloves. Be sure to grab them. Also nearby is one of the claims Mother Alice wanted you to check up on. Kill the Pit Goos. Haunted Fen (AP) C: Graymold I: Blessed Gauntlets (5%), Swamp Boots (4%, +5 PR, +5 AR), Bladeshield Chain (1%, +1 Rip) This area is the object of a job board quest. Proceed forward a little bit here and you'll be attacked by zombies. Search around and you'll find lots of herbs and other similar loot. Make your way to the SW. Here you'll find Leonhardt, an alchemist. You can buy some herbs off of him (I'd recommend buying all the energetic herbs). You can also go up the nearby stairs and loot his stuff for some mandrake and some blessed gauntlets. Don't drink either basin here though. Ask if he needs any help. He'll tell you about the undead that are stalking him. Offer to help, then go a bit north. Kill everything that approaches. There are four waves of foes, with the last bringing in a ghast and a necromancer name Ghalna. Ghalna drops some swamp boots and a nice bladeshield chain on death. Leonhardt gives you some herbs as a reward. The key the necromancer drops opens the door at (AN). Fort Remote (C0) Q: Lost Caravans, Unstable Firebats, Message: Prenvil, Special Worm Ichor You can't do anything here if you haven't bought the game except for touching the pylon. If you have bought the game (It's well worth it), I'd recommend trying this area a little later. You can go ahead and help Gladwell if you'd like though. GO to the SE room and approach the paintings. One will open a secret passage for you. Go up it. Some bats block you. In the SE room is a secret button. GO north and you'll find an invulnerability potion and a regeneration scroll. When you're ready go north, and ignore the first two doors. Go into the third. Enter combat mode. Send one character to the platform, trigger the encounter, then run! Try to make it close to the door going down, then wait for the ghosts to fade away. You don't need (and shouldn't!) to kill any of the ghosts. The other doors you can attempt much later. Northern Great Cave (AQ) C: Healing Herbs I: Treated Leather (10%, +10 SR, +2 HER) Notable here is an abandoned tannery. Go down the stairs, and kill the rats, then head west past the traps. You'll find Koepp, who is the object of two quests. Either kill him (treated leather) or tell him to go to Dharmon. Remote Marsh (AR) I: Airy Greaves (4%, +5 SR, -5 TH, +1 Gym, +2 QS) The remote marsh is a challenge area. You can do part of it right away, but other parts may take you a bit longer. Spitting salamanders are immediately out of the exit. You can clear all of these guys, but I'd avoid the center lizard for a bit. The nephil archers up at the top are a bit difficult, but if you've cleared all the salamanders, they shouldn't be too hard- tedious, yes, but not hard. If you think you're willing to take it on, go fight the lizard. It dies fast, spitting out four worms. Each worm spits out four crawlers on death, so you can quickly be overwhelmed if you don't take your time and kill things deliberately. The set of creatures drops some airy greaves on death. East Great Cave (AS) Not too much here- Mert the creepy meat salesman will sell you some meat, and there's a claim to check for Mother Alice here. East Great Cave (AT) C: Cavewood Longbow Some Avernites, Goodwife Rhoswen and her husband are here. They ask, indirectly, for a bag of meal. Give it to them. Innkeeper Taggart is a bit south. He warns you about his patrons. Be most leery of Incatnor Tenelan. He's tough at this level. Kill him for some decent minor magic goods. Eastern Great Cave (AU) U: Secret passage I: Blessed Belt (6%) $: Vira the Tinker Vira the Tinker will trade with you. He has a piercing crystal you may want to buy. Head a bit to the south to the abandoned farmhouse. Go down the hatch and use the secret button to see what's happening. You come across some smugglers. Kill them (this is an Almaria job quest but it doesn't matter when you complete it). Hrothwar drops a blessed belt on death. East Great Cave (AV) I: Magestone Band (1%, +1 ME) There are lots of scuttlers here. You also find Grieg here, as well as a Fang Clan outpost. Shaman Trr'Orr is their leader. Kill him for a magestone band Almaria (AX) C: Healing Herbs You can not enter Almaria until you have bought the full version of the game and you have permission from Meryhew. You can search around the edges in the meantime, grabbing a few hidden herbs. East Great Cave (AW) C: Graymold The pylon for Almaria is here. Also here is the navy, which you will eventually get permission to "join". There's a small hatch here as well wth a dead body (with a blessed belt). When you have permission to use a boat, come here and get one. You only have three boats, so don't lose them! CHAPTER 2. THE GREAT PORTAL Map E0 | BJ-BI-BG-BF-BH | | | | AW-B2 B4-BE-BD-BC | | | | -AX-B0-B3-B5-B8-B9 | | | | | | AV-B1-B6-B7-BB BA Almaria (AX) Q: West Smuggler Tunnel, Honeycomb Hideout, Delivery: Tower Colony, East Smuggler Tunnel, Locate Cundo, Skribbane Infestation, Message in Almaria, Donating Meal, Novice Ximun, Noam's... Rats, Empire Hostages C: Healing Herbs, Mandrake S: Abbot Erlanger, Mass Curing U: Mandrake Cache, Hostage rescue I: Polar Fur Cloak (4%, +5 CR), Girdle of Nimbleness (2%, +1 Dex), Bonding Knife (7-14, -1 Str, -1 Dex, -1 Int, +4 End) $: Serilda You can not enter Almaria until you have bought the full version of the game and you have permission from Meryhew. Once you have that permission, return. Search around. Commander Horrmarin has a mission for you- to deal with the Skribbane Infestation. You can do so (I'd do the two quests for the dealer first if you want to powergame) for a composite longbow and some fine lances). Also nearby is a closet full of valuable goods. Go ahead and loot it. Head east. A refugee named Kelagan gives you a message, which starts a small quest to fight the sliths. To the NE you'll find Edmund, who is leader of the refugees. Edmund is important later, but for now he asks you for meal for the refugees. You don't get anything for donating the meal, other than experience (which can add up to a full level at the end of the game!). Oh, and you do get a return life scroll if you give him 5. Serilda will trade with you. TO the SE is a secret button on the wall of the town. Touch it and you can grab a cache with mandrake in it. Abbot Erlanger is the priest of the town. He will teach you spells, and gives you a quest- lay a beat down on his former novice, Ximun. If you don't kill Ximun then you get an invulnerable potion and a knowledge brew, in addition to opening up the locked room downstairs. Inside you'll find a book that teaches you mass curing. Neither Mayor Regan nor Noam, the wine salesman, are helpful just yet. They will be after you do the portal quest. When you're ready to leave, chat with Tardiff. She will open the gate for you. There's a job board just outside Commander Horrmarin's office. Grab all of the quests. The west smuggler tunnel (at (AU)) gets you 300c. The east smuggler quest gets you 500c. Completion of the honeycomb bandits quest gets you 200c and a jeweled wand. Finding Cundo gets you an acid shower scroll. When you're sent here to help out by the castle, people open up a bit more. Talk with Mayor Regan and she asks you to rescue some empire hostages. First go talk with Commander Horrmarin. He sends you to Edmund. Edmund sends you to Edgar, a bum walking the streets. Find Edgar and give him 5c. Then get him to tell you what he knows. Edgar tells you about a secret passage. Get the mayor to let you down. Go down the sewer, and head west. Go north, then east and north past the rats. Use the secret button, and head in. The captives are nearby. When you let them out, keep close to them so that they aren't hit by the kidnappers. Or you can block them in and kill the kidnappers. One of the kidnappers drops a polar fur cloak and a girdle of nimbleness on death. Try to keep all three of the hostages alive. Tell the mayor when you've succeeded for 400c and a bonding knife. Noam will ask your help now as well. Talk with him for a quest, to kill some ... Rats. Head to his basement, and buff up prior to clearing the corner. A ratcaller demon waits for you. It drops a ruby breastplate on death. Tell Noam when it's dead for some wine and 250c. East Great Cave (B0) S: Taddeo Haskell is an alchemist here. He will make you potions for your herbs. I'd recommend avoiding anything requiring energetic herbs. You can head a bit south and you'll find a hatch. Go down it, kill the rats, and grab the minor loot (+ swamp boots, if you need another pair). The most important person here is Taddeo. Talk with Taddeo and he'll offer to train you, if you fill his grocery list. He requests a bag of meal, some meat, and some Almarian wine. Finally he will train you, improving your anatomy, melee weapons, gymnastics, and sharpshooter skills. Of these, gymnastics is the only one you may want to avoid as there is a trainer later who is cheaper. You can also loot his stores for some decent saleable items. Fungal Woods (B1) C: Battle Crystal, Mandrake U: Stairs up from Gremess's tunnel I: Girdle of Insight (2%, +1 Int), Grounded Cloak (4%, +5 ER), Warmth Ring (2%, +15 CR) Plenty of interest here. Head to the SW to find some more diseased mushrooms (these still count as the first batch, unfortunately). Head to the SE to the tannery. Go south through the gate, and you get trapped. Go down the hatch and you find Gremess. He taunts you and leaves. Head east. Take the stairs up and use the buttons to get some mandrake. You can fight some of Gremess's pets (lizards, worms, etc.) here, or you can avoid them completely. I'd fight them- they aren't that difficult. You'll find some fierce undead to the west. The crypt ghast can terrify your guys, so bring up the ward of thoughts if it starts to bother you. You can claim a girdle of insight on killing the ghast. Don't drink from the nearby basins. Instead head a bit east to find another room with a basin that restores your spell energy. Head east, kill the worms, then head south. Go a bit further south to loot some supplies, then head north and up the stairs. You'll find Gremess and two sliths. Kill them, and take their stuff. Gremess drops a grounded cloak and a warmth ring. East Great Cave (AV) C: Healing Herbs, Spiritual Herbs I: Spectral Gloves (5%, +5 ER, +10 SR) Some worgs are around here, as is an odd tunnel. Go down the hatch. Head a bit west then south. An icy draft alerts you that undead are behind you. Kill them, then search the opened area. Continue on, and another icy draft hits you. Kill the undead and loot the new room. Continue a bit further and the final undead attack hits you. Kill the ghouls, then explore the new room. Some shades attack you. Kill them and take the spectral gloves as your reward. Fort Haledon Ruins (B2) Q: Chrysander's Thieves, Chrysander's Delivery C: Speed Potion I: Aranea Silk Tunic (6%, +8 FR), Eyebeast Chitin (21%, +40 SR, +25 MR), Duelist Gloves (3%, 10% Fatigue Removal, +2 Rip) This is the home of skribbane dealers. Search around first, killing some spiders. Go down the hatch to find a lot more spiders with three aranea. Grab the aranea silk tunic. When ready, head to the NE. If you're not overtly hostile, you can get in. Chrysander is in charge here. He will sell you skribbane. If you want, you can get a quest from him to take care of some thieves. They are nearby Fort Remote. When you've killed them, return for some blessed greaves. Chrysander next gives you a quest to give a package of skribbane to Xylia in Silvar. Completion of this quest gets you 1000c, 4 skribbane, and an eyebeast chitin. If you're here to kill Chrysander, buff then enter his south room. He gets upset. Kill him (this isn't too tough a fight if you wait until after you've done his two quests) for some duelist gloves and a girdle of endurance. Loot the rest of his stuff for several skribbane and other goods. East Great Cave (AW) C: Healing Herbs, Spiritual Herbs An orchard is here. Grab all the fruit you'd like. Druella will talk with you. She sells wine. If you don't mind incurring the wrath of the hellhounds, you can loot her basement. You can avoid the trap by not stepping on the brown mat in front of the door, I believe. Portal Caldera (B3) Q: The Cackling Demon C: Energetic Herbs, Graymold I: Mercuric Leather (10%, +10 SR, +1 Speed, -1 Str), Archer's Band (+2 SS) $: Hossni The portal caldera is where all the normal people go to flee Avernum. Hossni will trade with you. Captain Skye will talk with you as well. She gives you a quest to deal with a cackling demon. This quest is moderately difficult. If you want you can head to the north and take the stairs down. You'll find a small shrine with nothing else in it beyond some fire lizards. Come back here after you've fought the cackling demon a couple of times and you'll finish it off here. When you've cornered it, buff up then attack. It summons demonic help but isn't too tough. Grab the mercuric leather it drops, then get your reward, an archer's band, from Skye. Murdock, the object of a job board quest, is in a building to the north. The Honeycomb (B4) Head here from the Portal Caldera. Kill a few brigands as these are the goal of the Almaria quest. They drop some swamp pants, a fine slith spear, and other goods on death. There's not much else here you can reach from this side- a few spiders, but that's it. Portal Caldera (B5) C: Gold Bar, Spiritual Herbs I: Tribal Symbol (+1 Lck, +1 Hard) Talk with Sergeant Mrrerum. He fills in some backstory. Head to the NE and take a passage down. You'll find Cundo, who is the object of a quest later on. Also down below are some goblins. Kill them. Chief Gank drops a valuable tribal symbol. Be sure to touch the pylon here as it'll save you time later. Portal Caldera (B6) C: Beautiful Crystal U: SE room underground. Lava bats and flaming goop are around here. The bats will tend to be tame if you haven't attacked them. Some lizards are hiding to the east. If you head to the SW you'll find the vahnatai ruins. Go south first to kill some lizards, then head north. Go down the stairs. Head the only direction you can and Ximun mocks you. Continue along, and some imps attack you. You have to fight two waves. In the SE room be sure to hit the secret button and go along the secret path for a bunch of useful crystals. Buff, enter combat mode, then go across the lava bridge. Kill the hellhounds and get away from the vents. There's a chest to lot nearby with minor goods in it. Head north and you'll see Ximun. You can either kill him for a discipline blade or let him go. Letting him go gets you a better reward from Erlanger. The cackling demon is also here. Be sure to buff up prior to attempting him. Then hit him hard. He should vanish, heading north. Hit it again with all you've got. Its final resting place is the crypt at (B3). Great Portal (B7) C: Piercing Crystal I: Tinker's Gloves (2%, +2 TU) Head to the downstairs. Sergeant Nichol greets you. He wants to get you to work. First, I'd recommend looting things here. There's a fair bit of food here, and it doesn't hurt to grab it now, rather than... later. When you've pillaged everything, head on down and talk with Nichol again. Go upstairs and through the gate. Nichol and Vanderin will greet you. Tell two people to go through, then check out the crystal. Run away! Kill the imps that come out, then try to get out of there. Nichol is lost. Report back to the castle to tell of the awful news. When Agass-Ess sends you here, be prepared for some difficult fights. Go down the stairs. Buff up, then kill the four cave demons. Head south, then west to kill the Icy Baloth. Whatever you do here, don't leave! All the foes regenerate if you do! Head south, killing the inferno worms and their crystal kin. Then head east. Nightmare imps are your next foes. These guys are quite annoying. Try to use the terrain to your advantage- put you tanks on either side of the bench and hit the distant imps with magic. Next you have two barriers that must be dispelled. Here's the tough part- time to not kill the enemies here! Remember, your mission is only to grab a book, and not to kill everything. As you enter the room, run and try to loot the two bodies. One of the bodies has a set of tinker gloves on it, which are among the most useful items in the game. Then try to run and grab the book, and the stuff off the desk (that's worth anything, anyway. How I did this without dying was I took my character, had them use a speed potion, then go and loot the bodies, and run back to the safety of the hall. They then went and grabbed the book and looted the desk, returning to the hall each time. This got me the necessary items. Return back to the mage colony with your success! Colony Lands (B8) C: Mandrake (x2), Graymold I: Mica Band (2%, +15 AR, +15 PR), Girdle of Genius (5%, +2 Int), Lava-Fired Spear (11-33, +10 FR) When you have permission from Meryhew to help out the next round of cities, come here. If you're coming to investigate the ogre's muck, this is the place for you. Make your way to Chief Torpek. He opens the gate to the muck. Go down the hatch and you're locked in. Lots of mutant ogres here. There are two varieties- weak and strong. Your goal is to head to the SE and see the muck. Kill the slimes and claim the fine steel, then head on out. You can go SW, SE, or E. SE takes you to Komlos. SW takes you to the horror's lair. East holds several nasty foes called pustulent zombies. Luckily they all drop decent stuff, including a mica band. Once you've done the muck quest, come back here and kill all of the ogres. The ogre mage drops a girdle of genius. Chief Torpek drops a lava-fired spear and a knowledge brew. Colony Lands (B9) C: Gold Ring, Spiritual Herbs I: Nephar Warblade (10-20, +1 Str, +1 Dex, 10% Fatigue Removal) If you're here on X's orders, you'll find Galgath sitting pretty in the middle of a circle. You can tell him to leave, which means you have to fight him. He summons lots of imp friends. Lightning spray works well on him. Get him down to about 1/3 of his health and he'll leave. On the route to Mertis you'll find sage Laurel who sells scrolls. On the other side is a nephil clan. Shaman Dhelarrr and Chief Bhag'Vrrr don't like you and attack (if you provoke them by going onto their land). You can grab the nephar warblade as a reward Tower Colony (BA) Q: The Horror's Lair, Delivery: Undead Spiral, The Dancing Bones, Slay the Horror, Ogre Treachery!, The Tower Records, X's Testing Ground, Great Portal Papers, Purge the Haakai, The Ogre's Muck C: Scroll-Spellward, Scroll-Steelward S: Agass-Ess, Summon Aid, X, Divine Restoration, Dispel Barrier, Arcane Summon I: Crystal Symbol (2%, +1 ME), Inertial Shield (12%, +40 SR), Pustulent Greaves (4%, +5 SR, -5 TH, +8 AR), Clover Boots (4%, +3 Lck), Tinker's Bauble (+1 TU), Blessed Helmet (7%, -5 TH), Cracked Demonslayer (1-3, Demonbane, +15 FR, +15 ER, +15 CR), Hero's Necklace (6%, +1 MW, +1 BM, +1 LB) $: Djokov Touch the pylon immediately to save trouble. Go talk with Kelner, he is in charge around here. He gives you the task to save the tower colony notes. Talk with Captain Bahgdatis as well. Then go talk with X. If you've accepted the delivery mission, X opens a box for you as a reward. X also gives you several quests, the first of which is to clear out his testing ground to the north. Once you've banished the demon, return for a point in summon aid. He then wants you to reclaim the anvil from Fort Draco. Do so, and he will train you. Additionally you get a point in divine restoration. Talk with Agass- Ess, who will be your biggest friend soon. She can train you in several magical talents, and spells but is currently quite pricy. The most important thing she does is give you a quest to retrieve some records from the Great Portal. Once you've done so, her prices drop and she will train you to dispel barriers (wow!). Buy the spell, and go loot the tower. Talk with Sage Ardella. She fills you in on the situation upstairs. She also gives you a quest to check on ogres and their muck. Completion of this quest gets you some clover boots, which are very useful boots. Djokov is the final person of interest here. He will trade with you, and will make you wands. Grab the missions on the job board. Investigating the horror lair is worth 250c. Killing all the ogres gets you a bunch of potions. Completion of the dancing bones quest gets you the very nice tinker's bauble. Killing the horror gets you a blessed helmet. When you're ready, head upstairs. There are four quadrants here. Each is separated by a small group of blind rotworms, which are annoying foes. The SW holds several spitting plants, the NW holds hellhounds (one of which drops a crystal symbol). Avoid the center of the area or a haakai will kill you. If you get too close the haakai will send some minions after you. The NE holds spiders who aren't that tough. The SE holds an icy revenant. Hit the icy revenant hard and it will fall, leaving you an inertial shield. Head a bit east and grab the required book. Additionally you can grab the mandrake tincture, one of two in the immediate area. Return to Kelner. You get some pustulent greaves for your effort, as well as access to a spellbook with ward of steel. Your next (optional) quest is to purge the haakai. You won't be doing that anytime too soon, though. When you've returned the anvil to X, you can attempt the fight with the haakai. Talk with X, and he tells you to meet him upstairs. Go upstairs, kill the blind rootworms again (to save you the trouble later), and meet X up at the top. Buff then talk with him. Veknok Mindbreaker challenges you. He can death-curse you. If that happens, take the character up north and use a basin to remove the curse. In the meantime hit the demon. It will summon demonspawn assistance, kill them and keep them away from X. Eventually X does something . . . series ending, and you're left alone. Grab the stuff off the body (including demonslayer a hero's necklace, and a radiant shield), and go claim your rewards. Loot X's place for a point in dispel barrier. Kelner is very pleased, and lets you read a book of arcane summon. Colony Lands (BB) Q: Mandrake Tincture C: Battle Crystal I: Stained Swamp Gloves (2%, +20 PR, +20 AR, +2 NL, +3 TM) $: Komlos This area is home to a powerful smith. Head down, killing or ignoring the bats along the way. Talk with Komlos. He needs a flask of mandrake tincture in order to craft for you. You can loot around his place without fear. Be sure to grab stuff in his basement. If you want to grab the mandrake tincture, head to the SW and go down. This is the lair of the horror, a nasty creature. The mandrake tincture is on a body to the SE. Looking around this lair also fulfills a job for the tower colony. If you're here to kill the horror, buff up. Hit it with all you've got. It'll die, leaving some mandrake and the nice stained swamp gloves. Near Mertis (BC) C: Graymold There's a haunted house here. Go around the perimeter of the house and kill all of the skeletons. Then buff, and go inside the house. Several skeletons are inside. However, they are all indestructible. You must destroy the green skeleton which is hiding in a room to the south. Wait one turn, and you'll be able to destroy all the other skeletons. Asmara and her husband sell lizard bits, including some fine leather. Mertis (BD) Q: Find Murdock, The Dragon Gate, Bounty: Tunnel Hunters, Checking the Wards, Honeycomb Horrors, Maxfield's Experiment C: Wisdom Crystal S: Mayor Arron I: $: Saskia Mertis was one of the important cities of Avernum, but is now fairly empty. Grab the job board quests. Getting the bounty filled nets you some blessed bracers. Completion of the dragon's gate quest gets you some scrolls. Saskia will trade with you. Talk with Sage Perth. He is an expert on the undead spiral. He gives you a quest to check the wards. Do so for 300c and a fiery wand (cheapskate...). Mayor Arron is the priestly leader of the town. He will train you in priest spells for cheap. He also gives you a difficult quest, to kill the one in charge of the honeycomb horrors. When you've killed the wizard Hirickis you get some nice scrolls and potions, as well as the ability to train in ward of steel and divine fire for cheap. Maxfield is a farmer with some skill. He gives you a quest to kill some creatures living amongst his plants. Head to his shed to the north. Don't hit the plants! Kill the wolves, and get out. Report to Maxfield for your reward- some blessed gauntlets. Honeycomb (BE) C: Mandrake, Flawless Crystal. S: Cloak of Blade Wolves charge you when you enter here. Explore this area, being sure to kill whatever gets in your way. Three tunnel hunters are on the WNW side. There are four stairways up here. Taking (a) down takes you to (A), and (b) takes you to (B). Nearby (B) is a barrier with a demon behind it. Kill it and read the book to gain the Cloak of Blades spell. (c) takes you to some ghosts. More tunnel hunters (3) are in the SE of the down map. Effectively all stairs here are dead ends, so if you want to move further into the honeycomb, you're best off on the top floor. (3) will go quite far, however. Mini Map: THE HONEY COMB +-------2--+------3---+ +--6-------+--------1-+ 5 | 7 | | a | | | | a | | A | | | | | | b | | B | + + + + | | | | | c | | C | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | +----------+----------+ +----------+----------+ Mertis Area (BF) C: Graymold, Ivory Band U: NE chamber Touch the pylon here to get a teleport spot. Weylin follows you and asks for your help. It's a trap, and he and some friends attack you. The slith mage drops a girdle of insight on death. Honeycomb (BG) C: Beautiful Crystal (x2), Ruby I: Drakeskin Shield (15%, +10 FR), Girdle of Avoidance (5%, +2 Dex) You get your first taste of chitrachs here, coming from (2). Some ogres can be found by going down (e). They are led by a shaman who drops a drakeskin shield on death. From (e) you can go up (J) to find a gong. Buff, then use it. Wyrmkin climb up and attack you. The final foe is an inferno wyrmkin. It drops a girdle of avoidance on death. Paths (f) and (e) do not help you get anywhere and instead loop around. Path (d) can take you to (I) which leads you to three more tunnel hunters. Coming in from (!) gets you to staircase (K). Go up and kill the unstable masses, and claim your warmth ring. Go down the stair at (l). Go across the bridge to (M). Head to (n), then to (O). (O) leads you to the dragons gate via (^). Mini Map: THE HONEY COMB +----------+----------+ +----------+----------+ ^ O k l | | K N | | m | | L M | | n | | O | | j | | J | | | | I | + i + + + | | | | @ h d e | ! H D E | | f | | F | | | | +---+ | | | | | +-------2--+------3---+ +--6-------+------+1--+ Undead Spiral (BH) C: Spiritual Herbs I: Blessed Halberd (15-60), Helm of Khar (7%, +1 Anat, +1 Gym) This area has been thoroughly tamed. Well, relatively speaking. Head to the NE and fight some zombies. Then talk with Sage Martella, then head to the stairs. You are attacked by some skeletons along the way. Go down. Head east. Investigate the first ward. Then drink from the basin. GO north. Some wisps are attracted to you. Kill them, then investigate the NE circle. Head west and fight some ruby skeletons. Check this circle. Then go south, hugging the west wall. You'll find Sage Clarey. Dispel the barriers and try to talk with him. Some undead don't like that and attack. Kill them and talk with Clarey again. Give him the message you've probably been holding on to for some piercing crystals. Go down the east passage from here. Dispel the barriers, then buff up. Quickghasts protect the final circle. Kill them for a knowledge brew. Check this last circle, then head back to Sage Perth. If you're here to destroy the wards from Gladwell, mess up this final ward here. Run on out- you'll face a few wights at first. Then in the skull pile room skeletons will pop up from the piles, followed by emerald bones, followed by skeletal warriors, the leader of which drops a blessed halberd. Wisps then block you, but drop a return life scroll. Ghosts are next, followed by a banshee. Next are the fearsome dead which drop some elixirs. You final foe is the scariest, the Chaos Wight. In order to kill this thing, you will need to go drink from the clarifying basin. Killing it gets you a helm of khar. Leave this place, and you're accused of wrong doing by many. Oh well. Honeycomb (B4) C: Mandrake I: Farsight Longbow (10-30, +1 SS. 10% Fatigue Removal), Mercuric Chain (16%, +20 SR, -5 TH, +1 Battle Speed, -1 Str) You explore this area as part of the larger honeycomb complex. If coming from (4) you'll find some bandits. Kill them and take their stuff. Tunnel hunters (3) are downstairs to the north. Coming in from (7) gets you to fight with a budding shambler. It drops some graymold and a knowledge elixir on death. Coming in from (#) nets you the Honeycomb Bandits. Give them Xylia's package. When you're ready to take them on, go past Vandar. Kill everyone as you make your way to the entrance. Chief Ghelarr is the biggest foe here. Kill him and grab the farsight longbow as your reward. Go down the stairs. Buff up. A nasty fight is ahead. The chieftain attacks. He's quite difficult, but ends up dropping a mercuric chain and wand of alacrity on death. Coming in from (%) gets you in a fight with a bunch of ghosts. You can claim a wisdom crystal for your time, though. +--%-------$---#------+ +--0-------8-----9----+ | | 5 | 7 | | g | | | | +----| | G | | | | | | | | | + + + + | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 4 | | | | +----------+----------+ +----------+--------1-+ Honeycomb (BI) C: Emerald U: Near Emerald cache If you're coming here from (9) or (8), kill the lava worms. (@) leads to (#). The (^) leads you to the dragon's gate. +----------+----------+ +----------+----------+ | | | ^ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | + + + + | @ | ! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +--%-------$----#-----+ +---0------8-----9----+ Honeycomb path to the bandits: From (BE) go north through (3) to (BG). Take stair (d) to (I), then go to exit (@) to (BI). Go through (#) to (BE), and talk with the bandits. To get to the Dragon's Gate, go from (BE) via (3) to (BG). Take stair (d) through (6) to (BE) to (B4) to (BI) via (8) or (9). From (BI) go into (BG) via (!), then to staircase (K). Go up and kill the unstable masses, and claim your warmth ring. Go down the stair at (l). Go across the bridge to (M). Head to (n), then to (O). (O) leads you to the dragons gate via (^). Honeycomb There's a small area here with crocolisks which gets you some gems if you kill them all. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Excavation area map C6 | C5 | C4 | C3 | C2 | C1-CO Fort Remote (C0) Q: Lost Caravans, Unstable Firebats, Message: Prenvil, Special Worm Ichor S: Healer Danika, Sergeant Kaye, Cloak of Bolts I: Girdle of Might (5%, +2 Str), Blasted Greaves (8%, +8 SR, -10 TH, +1 Str, +2 Res) If you have bought the game (It's well worth it), the soldier in front will let you in, and you can explore. You can get some rations from Mrrema, a nephil cook. I'd recommend the meat as it's actually worth something, even if it does come from rat. Healer Danika will teach you some priest spells, and will also give you a quest to procure some worm ichor. When you've got the goo, Danika will give you two return life scrolls. Sergeant Kaye is a trainer here but won't train you unless you rank higher than her. When you're a lieutenant, come back and have her increase your pole weapons, dual wielding, parry, and lethal blow skills. Head to the south and you'll see some barriers. Dispel them then go in the east one to kill a rotting shambler and get some mandrake. The west door holds a second barrier as well as a book of cloak of bolts. A third barrier down this route holds an experimental horror. On death the horror drops a girdle of might. If you're here to help Gladwell go to the SE room and approach the paintings. One will open a secret passage for you. Go up it. Some bats block you. In the SE room is a secret button. GO north and you'll find an invulnerability potion and a regeneration scroll. When you're ready go north, and ignore the first two doors. Go into the third. Enter combat mode. Send one character to the platform, trigger the encounter, then run! Try to make it close to the door going down, then wait for the ghosts to fade away. You don't need (and shouldn't!) to kill any of the ghosts. The other doors you can attempt much later. Grab the quests on the job board. Completion of the firebat quest gets you a rod of defense. Completion of the caravan quest gets you 500c. Much later in the game you may choose to take on the other creatures, buff up before doing each room. In the east you'll find some huge basilisks. Kill them for some fine leather and other goods. In the north room you'll find a fungal construct. It drops some blasted greaves on death. Loot the area for a wisdom crystal and some mandrake behind a secret door. In the west room is the final foe, a shade construct. Kill it for a radiant shield and some demon's bile. Western Reaches (C1) C: Ruby, Thick Wool Tunic U: Down passage Lots of worgs here, but most are friendly. There's a group of unstable firebats in the central south. They are the object of a quest. The SW holds one of Mother Alice's claim, as well as a body with a blessed silk tunic. Head down the passage in the center and hit the button to reveal a vahnatai ghost. To the east is another batch of firebats. Western Reaches (C2) C: Beautiful Crystal, Wisdom Crystal, Energetic Herbs, Mandrake, Graymold I: Ratskin Shawl (7%, +5 PR, +5 TH) This area is guarded by yet more firebats. Yet even more are to the NW. Worms are easy. If you go down the east tunnel you'll find a caravan and some nephils who caused its downfall. Chief Ga'Nak drops a ratskin shawl on death. Head down the westmost passage to find the special worm. Buff up, then hit the worm until you collect some of its ichor. Send one or two other characters out to grab the stuff around the cave (mostly herbs) It's tough, so run away once you've got its goo. If you don't, it'll likely hit you with an ultra-powerful attack that will kill you. Western Reaches (C3) C: Beautiful Crystal, Scroll- Speedburst, Plate Greaves I: Swampwalker Leather (12%, +10 SR, +5 PR, +5 AR), Static Band (2%, +15 ER) Three routes from C2 lead into here. The central one leads to some ghouls. Kill them. The west route leads to some rats, then some crystal shades. Kill the shades, then head north to kill another batch of firebats. There are three stairways up from this level as well. The southernmost ladder leads to the east route into this area. The center stair from the west route leads to a rune which summons several assassin scuttlers. The northmost ladder takes you to some recovering skribbane users. Tamas is the object of Chrysander's quest. Kill them for a swampwalkwer leather and girdle of nimbleness. The eastern route to this region will allow you to explore better. There are five pathways north, which I will refer to as 1-5, west to east. 1) takes you to the west path into this zone, allowing you to kill Tamas and do a few other little things. 2) and 5) are connected and don't reveal anything new. 3) takes you to a rune which summons a frozen hellhound who drops an invulnerability potion on death. 4) is the way north and is denoted by a worn path leading through it. Kill the rats. Head east and you'll find a shade (like the scary ones from Avernum 4) which will attack you. Luckily it's unstable and soon decays to a focusing crystal and static band. West takes you to another flock of unstable firebats and a ladder which will let you explore the underground region fully. Down below you'll find the ruined caravan that's a job quest. Go north to C4. Western Reaches (C4) C: Mandrake, Healing Herbs (x2), Graymold, Spiritual Herbs S: Heal I: Serpentskin Helmet (5%, +10 PR, +5 AR), Drakeskin Bracers (6%, -5 TH, +3 SR, +2 FR) There's a pit down on the east. Go down and you are faced with another branching path. The north path takes you to some spraying bushes, a cache and a body. The south path takes you to some ghosts guarding a barrier with some minor vahnatai goods. Continue west and kill the Hraithe. Go up the stairs, and then down south. Go around and down the last set of stairs. You'll find Prenvil. Give him the message for a flawless crystal and a wisdom crystal. If you go down the second set of stairs near to where you came up you'll find some lizards. Kill them, then head east and bring down the barrier. You'll find a crystal which teaches you Heal (x2). Nearby the pit are two bridges. More firebats are to the NE. Nearby is Rach, an ogre. You can kill him if you want. That makes the ogre camp mad, which isn't that big of a deal. Go down the north hatch to open the latch, then go down their south hatch and kill the lizards and worms. Continue through the gate to kill more ogres. You find Shaman Khleg and Chief Thok-Ak at the end of the pit. For your time and effort you get some drakeskin bracers and a serpentskin hat. Head across the west bridge, and continue to the western excavation. Western Excavation (C5) Q: Inspect Main Dig, Pacify the Ogres C: Emerald U: Room nearby entry to C6 I: Ice Hydra Helm (5%, +10 SR, +5 CR) Touch the pylon (and probably go through it to sell off all your crap to Bronner). Enter the fort. Talk with people- apparently the ogres are on strike. Healer Isla will heal you. Talk with Commander Rana. She tells you to inspect the dig. Go down the stairs then north to C6. When you tell Rana about all of what you see, she sends you to go speak with the ogres. There are a few routes to doing this, but the best one is to kill as few of the ogres as possible. Go down the stairs and talk with the ogres. Gunza wants you to kill Hydera. Go north to find Hydera. Talk with him, but don't attack him. Instead state you want to find another way. Then go back to talk with Gunza. Challenge him. GO to the center pit and kill him. He drops an invulnerability potion and an ice hydra helm on death. Tell Hydera about Gunza's death. Then tell Rana to fulfill the mission. You get a blessed shortsword for your time. If you're here for the Anama, go tell Rana. Rana is easy to convince. Western Excavation (C6) Go north, and watch the action. Uh-oh. Head back to Rana. Chapter 3. Abyss and Environs Map D9-DA | | D7-D8 | | D5-D6 | | D3-D4 | D2 | D0-D1 | AM Fort Saffron (D0) Q: Message: Bargha, Fort Spire Records, Abyss Thugs C: Armor Elixir, Fine Steel, Scroll-Spellward U: Near armor elixir cache I: Viperskin Boots (6%, +10 PR), Girdle of Life (5%, +2 End) $: Edeline This place is the boundary of the Abyss. You can enter here at any time after you have the mission from Lark to get the Blessed Athame, but you can't exit through the north until you're sent there. There's a job board nearby with several things to claim. Returning the records to Melo gets you some Viperskin boots. Killing the Abyss Thugs gets you two scrolls. Commander Melo is in charge here. He gives you a quest to find some evidence that there are Darkside Loyalists in the Abyss. When you've found good evidence, tell him for a girdle of life. Edeline will trade with you. Sergeant Horrum is the quartermaster. Whenever you're ready, head to the SE and go up the stairs. Head to the east. When you're told to retrieve a message from Levitt, come back here. Melo will let you through the gates. Go and explore, claiming a few caches. Near Fort Saffron (D1) S: Mass Healing I: Warrior's Greaves (4%, +5 SR, -5 TH, 20% Fatigue Removal), Spectral Boots (8%, +5 CR, +1 Def) This is the temporary home of the Blessed Athame. Enter the fort, then go a bit north. You'll find a number of spiders. Kill them, then dispel the nearby barrier (note- you will need the spell to do this as piercing crystals aren't strong enough). Claim your gems and research notes, then head back out. Buff up, then proceed to the center of the fort. Some darkside Loyalists accost you. They are attacked as well by pit and static crawlers. Kill everyone. This is a fine time to use jeweled wands and wands of the inferno. Loyalist Sepko drops some fantastic warrior's greaves on death. Head west from the battle, and go up the stairs. Open the north cell and pull the lever, then pull the second lever. Go back down the stairs. To the SE you will find several crystal pylon enemies. Kill them, and loot the nearby chest for some blessed gauntlets. Go up the stairs in the south central area and pull the lever there too. Then head north a bit. The two orange pylons summon demons if you get too close. Then go up the proper looking stairs. You should be able to explore the upper area fully now. There's an icy shade in the main room. Buff up, then attack it. It summons banshees, but they don't help until a few turns have past so try to focus exclusively on the shade. When it dies it drops the very nice spectral boots. Go north and collect the blessed athame. Read the nearby spellbook to improve your mass healing ability. You can come here after being let out and explore. Claim a cache and loot a dead body. Ah good times! Fort Spire (D2) S: Cloak of Bolts I: Thrusting Gauntlets (4%, +1 BM, +1 LB) As you approach here some avernites are fleeing some bats. Kill the bats to help the scouts. Then continue north into Fort Spire. Some Abyss soldiers have taken up residence here. Talk with Galvas, the leader. Galvas tells you about the two main residents of the fort- a demon, and a slith. Go into the fort. Sentry lizards attack you. Make your way to Hrramen-Drayssa. She tells you to find Breck-Drayssa. She recommends asking Gall, of Spire, for help. If you want to fight a demon, go upstairs. You'll find the Chiroptera (greek for Bat) Demon. Hit it. Do a bit of damage, and it is healed and spits out a bat. Hit it. One more bat. After about ten bats, you can kill the demon. The demons final hit points should be about 450 when you can finally kill it. Thrusting gauntlets and some demon's bile (a crafting ingredient) are your reward. Loot this place, grabbing the records from the desk, drinking from the basin behind the barrier for some experience, and reading the book to improve your cloak of bolts spell. The Abyss (D3) C: Graymold I: Reflecting Shield (15%, +5 HER) Go north. Some bandits confront you, led by Koppel. These are the object of a job board. Kill them. They can be tough, but if you get them to fight you to the south, the grim apprentice won't fight here, so it's a fair bit easier. Koppel drops a reflecting shield on death. A nephil clan is also here. Kill them and take their stuff. The Abyss (D4) C: Energetic Herbs Head to the east from the south coast. Some ghasts are there. Kill them, then grab the mushrooms. These are some blighted mushrooms desired by Asta. On the north side of the shore are some farmers. Rem will sell you some stuff, including a tinker's bauble. Note that you will get one for doing a job for the tower colony, so keep that in mind. The Abyss (D5) C: Ratskin Helmet S: Terror U: Open two blocks I: Clarity Talisman (4%, +1 MS, +1 Hard) $: Thyra Thyra will trade with you here. Once you've killed the raiders she'll sell you herbs (probably buy the energetic ones) and crystals.Head to the spit of land, and you'll find two buildings. The first is a spring which heals you, the second is the bandit hideout. Go into the hideout and either kill the archers or run past them. You'll find the leader, a mage named Kahlash (who appears to be a darkside loyalist). Kahlash drops a clarity talisman on death. Go through the barriers to the west, and read the book for a substantial boost to your terror spell. Spire (D6) Q: Reclaim the Farm, Worm Ichor, Hidden Brigands, Farrar's Keep S: Mother Twymon U: Thug basement I: Bow of Decay (7-14, acid damage), Girdle of Genius (5%, +2 Int), Radiant Plate (40%, +50 SR, -20 TH) $: McGoff Unlock previous Avernums, this is actually the friendlier of the two towns. Touch the pylon to the SW. Talk with mother Twymon. She sells spells, including divine fire. She also asks for your help in learning about Farrar's Keep in Bargha. Finding the passage gets you a bow of decay and 400c. McGoff will trade with you. Talk with Mayor Annatolia. You can learn about Melanchion if you follow the right conversation path. Also, you'll learn about Gall, who is in the arena. If you have 17 Tool Use or more you can loot the treasury of the town as well. Go to the arena, and talk with Gall. Gall tells you to go to Bargha and find Overbye. If you want to fight in the arena, talk with Pitmaster Ghrum. Your first foes are four goblin pitfighters, one of which is a shaman. Try to kill the shaman first so as to prevent spells from helping the goblins. Here's a hint for all pitfights. Buff, then enter combat mode. Go north, and trigger the encounter. You'll get 2 rounds in which to hit them with everything you've got. Killing them all gets you 250c. Your next foes are three pit salamanders and a pit basilisk. Try to kill the basilisk first. One of the lizards drops some fine leather on death. You get 500c for this fight. The next fight is much more tough. You fight three pitfighters- Geert, a priest, Kremen, a fighter, and Faiga, a mage. The spellcasters are the most dangerous, although Kremen can hold his own. You get a girdle of genius, 750c, and other goods for your time. Two gazers/eyebeasts are next. Hit Elu with physical damage, and Ayi with poison and smite. Elu should fall first. Ayi will need to be hit for 10 rounds or so to go down. Elu drops an eyebeast stalk on death. Your pay is 500c and a wand of alacrity. Next you fight a nasty beast called the arena horror. This beast is easier than the last two fights. Claim your reward, and fell in the second round of fighting for me. You get the final prize, a radiant plate. Grab the job board quests. Tizane gives you 250c for clearing out her farm. Commander Diver gives you some blessed greaves and 100c for killing the brigands to the west. Mother Twymon gives you several scrolls for getting the worm ichor. Go outside of the city walls, and find a hatch going down. Buff up then attack the thugs inside. You get some blessed bracers for your time. Be sure to use the secret button! Continue along, using the second button, and dispelling the barrier. Kill the zombies, then grab the knowledge brews from beyond the barrier. If you're here on Gladwell's errand, I'd recommend about 16 tool use. Enter the mayor's mansion, then approach the bed. Leave the bug. If you don't have the tool use, you can get in through the yard. You'll have to time the guard just right though. The Abyss (D7) C: Mandrake U: Down north stairs I: Girdle of Might (5%, +2 Str) Head to the coast here with a limb in your inventory. Approach the light mushroom areas in combat mode. Try to kill every worm in 1-2 turns in order to get the juicy ichor. Revenants are also to the west. A clan of farmers is here to, you won't do anything with them until you get a quest from Bargha (even then, you probably won't want to do the quest). If you want, head down the north stairs. Push the button, go through the portal, kill the ghosts. Push the secret button just south of the tomb, then go up the stairs. Buff! Four banshees are here. Kill them. The blight mushrooms are here. Grab the stuff you find (girdle of might) and go back. The Abyss (D8) I: Oak Shield (15%, +1 Gym, +1 Pa) To the SW you'll find the farm that was stolen from Tizane. Kill everyone inside. The ogre drops an oak shield. To the east are some fang clan nephilim. Kill them and take their stuff. Grab the limb, you'll need it to attract some worms. The Abyss (D9) C: Graymold U: Bargha Jail I: Radiant Belt (8%), Sniper's Vest (4%, +1 Dex, +2 SS) This area holds the jail, in addition to more worms. Go to the NW when you've got the info from Overbye. Hide and watch as a soldier hits the secret button, then do the same. The guards here are fighting with a giant. Kill it and the guards. South are some torturers. Kill them and prisonmaster Gvessa for a radiant belt. Grab the key from where the archers were, and investigate the cells. Breck-Drayssa is in the SE. Get the message, and get out. Captain Korte and other nasty people block you in. Korte drops a sniper's vest on death. Bargha (DA) Q: Drive Off the Farmers, Clear the Tunnel S: Incantor Oenslager, Haste, Slow U: Secret passage to Farrar's Keep I: Crystalline Plate (+34%, +50 SR, -20 TH, +15 AR, +15 ER) $: Overbye As you enter Bargha, you see some fleeing mercenaries. Kill them. First you must talk with Lord Farrar. Go and see him. He doesn't say much. Effectively he's enslaved the populace to make sure to grow enough food. Incantor Oenslager is an odd fellow who has been allowed to do whatever he wants. He will train you in spells, though Correlea is equivalent and cheaper. Go down his basement and you'll see a demon. Kill it. Read the book to improve your haste and slow spells. To the north is Overbye (giving him the message you received gets you 200c). Overbye will trade with you. Overbye also tells you well to find Breck-Drayssa. Head to the inn, and go the back rooms. Hunt out the secret buttons and briefly step in Farrar's fort. Head to the NW and go down the stairs. Disarm the traps for Oenslager. The job board doesn't have much on it. Grab the tunnel quest at least. Your reward is two elixirs. If you have the quests from Melanchion, come back here. Go through the secret door you discovered and kill everyone in the fort. Go down the stairs and kill Farrar. He's not that tough, and drops a crystalline plate and knowledge elixir on death. Loot the rest of this place, then escape by the tunnel to the north. Grab the mandrake tincture on the way out. The Abyss (DB) C: Energetic Herbs Kill the ogres and hellhounds here, and head south. Wild Abyss Woods (DC) S: Divine Restoration, Divine Host C: Mandrake, Graymold U: West of haakai I: Crystalline Aegis (25%, +10 HER, +2 AL, +2 SC, +2 ME), Lightning Girdle (8%, +2 QA, +2 QS, +2 LB, +8 ER) Mutant lizards and basilisks block several nests. Four spark lizards are the toughest foe on the surface here for now. One of them drops some fine leather on death. Also here is Gremmin, a "hunter". Buff up then charge into his fort. Kill everyone inside the top floor. Loot their stuff, including reading the note in the wood box. I recommend not going down the hatch until close to the end game. When you're here either at the directive of Gladwell or Melanchion, head down the stairs. Buff when you see the archer chamber, and go forth and bring down the barriers. Kill the loyalists. Head to the north next, and kill a few more loyalists. Some come from behind to attack- kill them too. Head west then, and buff before you enter the main compound. Kill some loyalists, while make your way north. You'll find Gavrahoss. Kill his dervishes, then focus on him. He taunts you, then summons four shades. Hit the four shades with either fire, and see which one takes damage. Another shade is vulnerable to ice, and yet another is vulnerable to physical damage, and the final is vulnerable to disruption. Gavrahoss then calls back the four shades and summons a demon. If you've done enough damage to his shades, he'll die. The demons stick around- kill them (either physical-red-or fire-blue-damage will work). Gavrahoss drops a crystalline aegis on death. Claim your mandrake tincture. Explore the rest of the area, mopping up the last of the loyalists, and being sure to grab the spell book of divine restoration. When you're ready to help Gladwell, kill the sentinels, and open the door. Go up the stairs and you end up in Erika's tower. There's an imprisoned haakai immediately nearby. Kill it for some demon's bile. Use the two nearby basins, and continue west. Go down the nearby stairs and buff. You'll find the tower lich. This lich is strong against most damage types. Destroy the nearby energy spheres to make it vulnerable. Kill it and Gladwell comes in to calm things down. It drops a lightning girdle on death. Talk with Gladwell. If you want to kill him, now is the time to do so. However, Gladwell is fairly friendly, and allows you to loot the area. Grab the point in divine host, and head back to Patrick's tower for the rest of your reward. Chapter 4. Eastern Gallery ER-EP EL | | EM-EN-EO-EJ-EK EB-EA | | | | | | ET-EH-EG-ED-EE-E7-E8-E9 | | | | | | | EI-EF-EC-E6-E5-E2-E4 | | | | ES E0-E1-E3 | BG Eastern Gallery (E0) Q: Meal for Neron C: Healing Elixir $: Neron You can enter here when told to by Levitt. However, you may be subjected to sniffing by lizards. Drop all of your skribbane prior to being sniffed, and go through the gate. Here you find Nazil, who wanted you to find Murdock (on the Mertis message board). Tell him for 100c. Give him a bag of food for pity. Talk with Neron. He has a request- sell him your meal for 30c a bag. You do get some experience for doing so. Your alternate quester, Edmund, gives no cash, but does give experience. You get about the same experience either way. Silvar (E1) Q: Drake Tribute, Scout Horned Gate, Bone Shards, Hellhound Pack, The Aranea Queen, Hunt the Lich, Silvar's Traitors, Honeycomb Delivery, Basilisk Skins, The Hidden Foundry, Spider Silk C: Scroll- Regeneration S: Divine Fire I: Helm of Klin (9%, +1 Pa, +1 BM), Temperate Necklace (2%, +10 FR, +10 CR), Girdle of Life (5%, +2 End), Flowing Silk Cloak (10%, +1 Pa, +1 QS), Fibrous Breastplate (20%, +50 SR, -15 TH, +12 ER, -5 FR), Farsight Band (+3 SS) $: Nabile Grab the job board quests. Scouting the Horned Gate gets you a phat 1000c. Killing the Hellhound pack gets you 500c and an invulnerable potion. Killing the aranea queen gets you a girdle of life. Grabbing enough bone shards for Nabile gets you a fibrous breastplate. Giving the drake its tribute gets you a corrupting baton. Killing the lich Kavarus gets you a farsight band. Mayor Augustus will reward you for telling Levitt about Jasmine. He also gives you the main quest of dealing with traitors. Xylia is in the boatyard basement. Talk with her and give her the skribbane from Chrysander for six nice gemstones. She has a quest for you- to take some skribbane to some bandits in the honeycomb. Do so for a bunch of gems and a helm of klin. Talk with Soussana, the innkeeper, about the Anama. She directs you to their camp, and puts in a good word for you. You find Holda to the SE. She will tell you more about the traitors. Be sure to tell her that her father is looking for her. Nabile is a merchant you can trade with. Additionally, she gives you a number of quests. The first is to procure some basilisk skins. Getting the basilisk skins gets you 400c and some scrolls. Next she wants you to get her some infused steel. Give her the steel for 400c more and a spellbook of divine fire. Contador is a tailor who has a few decent items. He also gives you a quest to get some spider silk. Give him eight for a flowing silk cloak, and 100c for the spare silk you've grabbed. When you want to pursue the traitors quest, head into the basement. Make your way to the center where you find some refugees. There's almost a fight but Wetzel stops it. Go north and look in the chest for a scrap of paper. Return to Wetzel and tell him about it. He will agree to give you more info, and gives you a key. Once you've cleared out Fort Avernum, talk with Wetzel. He relents. Go tell the mayor of your success. You get 750c and a temperate necklace as rewards. Silvar Road (E2) Q: Belgan's Ogre C: Emerald, Ruby I: Radiant Boots (14%) Touch the pylon here. There's an abandoned building north of the pylon with some rats in it. Kill the rats then go down the hatch. More rats. You can head into Silvar and kill some slith infiltrators while you're here. They drop a wisdom crystal and other loot, and the body has some blessed greaves on it. Belgan and Kreger are here. They ask you to hunt down an ogre that's been in the woods. Make your way to the center of the woods. Kill the wolves, then head south. Kill the two ogres and the ogre mage Tragym. Grab the radiant boots as your reward. Tell Kreger for a platinum ring and some fine leather as a reward. Fort Avernum (E3) C: Beautiful Crystal, Flawless Crystal S: Lightning Spray, Summon Aid U: Just north of Wetzel key door. I: Shockwave Bow (8-16, stunning damage) Explore the perimeter here, then go down the hatch. Use Wetzel's key to unlock the door. You are attacked by warriors. Go east, kill the worgs and loot their stuff, then go up the stairs. Loyalist Stovall greets you. Kill him and his cronies. You get a shockwave bow for your efforts. Finish up the area, killing a few more loyalists. One dropped a girdle of avoidance for me. Other places on the top floor held some drakeskin bracers and a blessed helmet. Check the room south of Stovall for a demon (kill it), and a book of lightning spray and summon aid. Go down the beastmaster's stairs first. Buff up, then go south. An icy wraith is guarded by four ruby skeletons. Kill them. Turn the wheel, then go down the archer's stairs. GO to the area you just open up and buff up. You find a portal haakai, a nasty demon. It's not too complex, but is difficult. Break out your regeneration scrolls and bring up the ward of elements for this nasty creature. You get a jar of demon bile and some knowledge elixir for your time. Loot the body for the onyx scepter. Eastern Gallery (E4) Q: Aid the Anama C: Flawless Crystal U: Nearby frozen worms I: Blessed Longbow (14-42), Mica-Flecked Chain (3%, +18 ER) Here you find the Anama. You can't join them this time. Talk with teacher Jessica. So long as you mention Soussana, you'll be able to deal with these folk. Jessica gives you a quest- to get permission for the Anama to head to the excavation site. When you have permission from Captain Rana, report to Jessica. She gives you a mica-flecked chain as thanks, and all the Anama will leave (letting you loot this place!). Kill the crocolisks to the south, and grab the fine steel and blessed shield. North of the Anama are some frozen worms and a spawner. Kill them, then take the south path. Go downstairs, and proceed west. Some fungi and bushes are here. Kill them, then kill the lizards that followed you. Go up the stairs, buff, then kill the undead. Grab the treasure- a blessed longbow. Now go back and head up the north stairs. Kill the rats, and take their stuff. Once again you are attacked by lizards. Kill them again. Eastern Gallery (E5) C: Mandrake Root, Graymold The Hellhound pack is here. Private Crowley will also stop you to speak with you. There are two stairways down here- one to the SW, which takes you to a seemingly empty basement, only to be surrounded by unstable firebats, and a stairway to the NW. The NW holds several hellhounds. Hellhound Alpha is their leader- note that it drops a knowledge brew on death. Cotra (E6) Q: Find Asterios, Destroy Cotra U: NW corner of Cotra I: Warrior's Cloak (5%, +1 MW, +1 PW, +1 Hard, +1 Def), Slith Warspear (14-56, +8 FR, +5 TH) This place is empty, in anticipation of its destruction. Talk with Commander Myranna. She tells you that they can't destroy Cotra until you find Asterios, an Empire alchemist. Talk with Sergeant Cowen to unlock more supplies for you. Sage Gijon will heal you. Once you've rescued Asterios, return here. Talk with Myranna. She tells you to assist the destruction of Cotra. Tell Asterios you have permission, then go to the stairs north of here. Go down the stairs. Get to Asterios. Buff. Myranna kills him. Kill Myranna, and the sliths that join her. Grab the warrior's cloak she drops. Asterios, barely alive, sets the barrel to fire. Quickly run north. Stay in combat mode, and quickly kill anything that gets in your way. There's a body immediately south that has some loot. Continue north, kill the sliths. Grab the wisdom crystal hidden in the room to the north, then continue west. Kill a few more sliths, then head north and up. A few more sliths greet you on Cotra's ground floor. Kill them, and try to make it out of the town. Horde raider Akosss drops a knowledge brew on death and a slith warspear. Go north and get out of here. Wait for the destruction of the town. You can't explore much once Cotra is destroyed. Arachnid Ruins (E7) C: Beautiful Crystal (x2), S: Control Foe, Lightning Spray I: Radiant Gauntlets (10%, +15 TH) Throughout this level you will want to press the "U" button to find spiderwebs which give silk. Check the NE room for some (1), go up the ladder and grab some more (2). Go back down and go to the SE room, grab some more (3), then go west. Open the large western area from the south. Kill the spiders within. Grab some more silk off the SW wall (4), then proceed north. Grab a bit more silk off the north wall of the second room (5), and kill some more spiders. The third room to the north has some more silk on the west wall (6), and the northern room holds the final bit on this floor (7). Go up the ladder to the SW. Grab the silk right next to you (8), and slowly go north. Kill the nastier spiders, and grab some more silk near the entrance to the scary room (9). If you're ready for a nasty fight (the fight is easier in the Windows version!), buff up then head north. You'll face an aranea queen and her two constructs, as well as a death widow or two. This is a bit of a battle of attrition- it will take you a while to bring down the queen. She is weak against fire, if that helps. Once she is dead claim your radiant gauntlets as your reward. Go read the two webs for points in control foe and lightning spray. Fort Duvno (E8) S: Hardiness, Stuart U: Basin room $: Sergeant Frannie There's not much to do here just yet, but be sure to hit the pylon. You can loot the NE room if you have at least 16 TU (or some tinker's crystals). When you come here reporting for duty with Solberg, look around. Solberg gets no respect. Sergeant Frannie will trade with you. You'll also find Vanderin again, you'll see him soon enough. Hapscomb is a talented smith here, he will make a number of artifacts for you. He's also one of the few who likes Solberg. Commander Andros is in charge here. Talk with him if you want, and loot his upstairs room. The room north of Andros holds the most interest for you. Use the secret button to open up a small cubby with a basin. Use the basin to give everyone in your team a bonus to hardiness. Incantor Stuart is the last person of note here. He will train you in mage spells, gymnastics, and resistance. Come back after you've done Solberg's task and his prices will be much better. Finally talk with Solberg. Offer to join him in his fight against the horde. Go out into the courtyard and watch what happens. At least you are accompanied by Vanderin! Eastern Gallery (E9) Q: Giscard's Memories C: Fine Steel, Flawless Crystal U: Through tunnel east of mansion I: Symbiotic Cloak (5%, -1 Str, -1 Dex, +2 Int) There's a mansion here, owned by Giscard. He asks you to retrieve some paintings from his house near Formello. You will be able to do this quest much later. Completion of this quest gets you access to his storage area. You can break in now with a tinker's crystal if you'd prefer. Head north and go into the tunnels. Go down the stairs, and you'll find some basilisks. Kill them, beings sure you're successful skinning at least three of them. More are west, including an ancient basilisk. The ancient lizard drops a symbiotic cloak and some fire leather on death. Eastern Gallery (EA) C: Graymold, Piercing Crystal I: Frozen Blade (11-33, +10 CR, +15 TH) You'll encounter sliths here. Head east and you'll see some curse-bearing rats. Shoot these things from afar, as when they die, they spawn several unstable rats. Hit the unstable rats subsequently and let them explode, taking all the rats with them. If you go too far to the northeast, horde infiltrators attack you (2 sets, one from south, one from west). Go to the NE and the Shade of Ess-Kalyn stops you. She sets you up for a test vs. her friends (including two demons and Demontamer Kyzyss). Luckily they fall without too much difficulty (especially if the shade doesn't notice you and you can get a good position in the fight amongst everyone). On death, grab the loot, including the wonderful frozen blade, a blessed bauble and a stability bauble. The frozen blade is great for dual-weilders and will last you a long time. Go down the passage to the north. Buff then kill the sliths inside. Loot the stuff. The Horned Gate (EB) C: Armor Ring I: Spirit Cloak (*%, +2 PS, +2 FA, +2 Hard) You can't do too much here yet, but look at the forces while in combat mode. When you're here with Solberg and Vandarin, buff up then go north. Kill the sliths guarding the gate. Solberg forces the gates open and casts lots of powerful spells. Enter the horned gate, and Solberg calls a challenge to Ess- Kalyn. First lizards go out to fight you. Then you fight humans and drakes. Heroes of the horde attack you next. Finally you are attacked by Ess-Kalyn. Take her down. Solberg is fairly good at soloing her. You get an excellent Spirit Cloak for your trouble. Grab the rest of the loot and return to Fort Duvno. West Cotra (EC) C: Skribbane, Scroll-Lightning I: Opal Chain (3%, +18 CR), Armor Ring (6%, +8 SR) Touch the pylon here. Orbus will make you potions. As always, stay away from those that use energetic herbs or mandrake. There's a jail nearby. Head down and you'll find an altered shambler. Hit it hard, it spawns enemies each turn. When dead it drops some mandrake and an opal chain. To the NW is an ogre named Grumus. He has some cronies, kill them all for an armor ring. Eastern Gallery (ED) C: Gold Bar, Healing Herbs. U: NE underworld entrance I: Icedrake Greaves (7%, +5 SR, -5 TH, +12 CR), Reflecting Shield (15%, +5 HER), Radiant Shortblade (16-32, +15 ER, +10 TH) Some sliths stalk you here. Kill them. This area is home to a substantial swamp lake, being patrolled by goblins. They have high parry skill and will probably block 1/4th of your hits. Make it to the center of the lake and kill Swampwalker Galk for some Icedrake Greaves. Go into the center island and go down the stairs. Grab the fine steel. GO down the SE stairs and through the vents to kill some worms and get a reflecting shield. The center of this area is home to several chitrachs. If you come here from (EG)'s central path, yu'll find the foundry Nazile wanted. Kill the pit crawlers then search the table for the infused steel. Loot the rest of this place for a radiant shortblade Eastern Gallery (EE) C: Graymold, Mandrake, Fine Bronze Helmet, Razordisks Or'Hss and his slith scouts are to the NE. Kill them and take their stuff. There are two entrances down from here. Inside you find Wyrgryss, the drake who demands tribute. While that would normally rankle your adventuring senses, the tribute he demands is reasonable- go kill some sliths. Or you can pay him 1000c. When you've killed the sliths tell the drake, and he considers the tribute paid. Eastern Gallery (EF) C: Spiritual Herbs, Energetic Herbs, Graymold, Flawless Crystal I: Drakeskin Cloak (10%) A virulent chitrach and its minions are to the west. Kill them for a drakeskin cloak. Asterios's trail is there, where some bandits are at. Go down the stairs and head to the southwest. Eastern Gallery (EG) C: Graymold, Ruby There's not too much to do on top until you start the Dranlon quest. In the meantime head down and explore the underworld. There's a chitrach ambush to the north, undead to the NE, and a small mine with some pit crawlers blocked in by a magic barrier to the south. Once you've started the Dranlon quest, your caravan is attacked at the exploded caravan site. Defend the caravan from the marauders, and kill Karak. He drops a chitrach charm on death. Fort Dranlon (EH) Q: Ghost of Skunky Joe, Chitrach Egg Sacs, Bounty: Slith Spy, Caravan Escort, Almarian Wine I: Deadeye Chainmail (22%, +20 SR, -5 TH, +5 SS, 10% Fatigue Removal) $: Damita Touch the pylon south on out of here. Grab the job board quests. The chitrach egg sac quest can be tough if you don't know what to look for. Whenever you kill a chitrach, it has a chance of dropping a white egg sac. They look like broken bits of husks. You need five, and if you look you'll find them easily in your battles with the bugs. Bring them to him for a deadeye chainmail. Killing Skunky Joe gets you several elixirs. Killing the slith spy gets you 800c. Talk with Commander Boswell. He gives you your main task of the area- to find some raiders and kill them all. First he wants you to escort a caravan to draw them out of hiding. Other important people here include Tania Venia. She will train you in priest spells, including divine fire. She also gives you a quest- to procure five bottles of almarian wine. Do so for a nice rod of alacrity. Damita is also quite useful. She will trade with you, and will craft several artifacts. I'd strongly recommend the gloves of the hammer and the warrior's cloak. Burn through some of those mandrake tinctures and demon's biles, what else will you use them for (to see what else you can use them for, look at the bottom of this FAQ). Finally, talk with Rogelio. Rogelio is a chitrach hunter. When you're ready to start Dranlon's quest, talk with Driver Melisenda. Tell her to start moving. Follow them, but stay close. Tell Boswell once you've done this, and mention the charm. When you've killed Ozimus, return for your reward- a wand of inferno. Kind of disappointing, but oh well. Eastern Gallery (EI) C: Graymold, Beautiful Crystal (x2), Tinker's Crystal, Mandrake, Flawless Crystal U: Stealth Route I: Runed Helm (10%, +2 SC), Explorer's Ring (+2 NL, +3 FA, +2 Luck) There are a few chitrach ambushes here. Grab the stuff left over as they typically leave ok loot. The ogres to the SW are the main foe. They are led by a giant named Tharvil Bonegnaw. The giant drops a runed helm on death, excellent armor for mages and priests. Here you also find the blighted mushrooms for Asta's quest. If you're coming at this area from underneath, you'll find chitrachs galore. If you have the charm from the marauders as part of the Fort Dranlon quest, some of them will ignore you. Kill the rest. You can either try to avoid the chitrachs, or you can kill them all. I enjoy the latter, but if you're attempting this quest early or at low levels, you may choose the former. If the former, stay on the path and use the buttons to get around the bug nests. Eastern Gallery (EJ) C: Scroll- Speed Burst, Emerald I: Fibrous Breastplate (20%, +50 SR, -15 TH, +12 ER, -5 FR) Go down the west stairs here. There are some sliths to kill. Scourger Ka'Yss is the leader. Kill it, and take the wisdom crystal as your reward. Up on the ground floor you'll find some sliths to the NE. Kill them and their demon. You get a fibrous breastplate for your time. Go north to reach the skeletal ruins to collect bone shards for Silvar. Eastern Gallery (EK) C: Beautiful crystal (x2), Energy Elixir, I: Radiant Greaves (10%, +10 SR, -10 TH) If you're coming here to kill the sliths, head north. The horde lizardmaster is your first victim, followed by his lizards. Kill the sentries that come for you, then buff up. Kill the warriors, then head east to kill Kereass. Grab your drakeskin cloak as a reward, in addition to some fine leather. Dispel the barriers for a focusing crystal and other loot. Go up the stairs. Buff again, then charge the sliths. You'll find Kerek'Oess with two lizard wizards. Kill them all. You get some radiant greaves for your time. Grab the rest of the loot here. If you're here above ground, sliths attack you as you make your way north. They have minor loot. Near Formello (EL) C: Mandrake, Graymold I: Stability Girdle (6%, -5 TH, +12 SR) You can come here briefly from the sliths to the south on the drake tribute quest, finding some giants. Kill them all. Chief Ribsnap is a bit harder, but he'll fall just the same. Grab the stability girdle as a reward. Eastern Gallery (EM) S: First Aid Wandering around here you'll find the ghost of Skunky Joe. Attack him, and he'll disappear. To the north are several passages guarded by hellhounds. Explore them and you'll find some nasty people led by Taramir. Kill them. You get a knowledge elixir. You can claim more blighted mushrooms here too. If you come here underground from (EN) you'll find Skunky Joe amidst many undead. Kill the undead and make it to Joe. Joe takes no damage as long as his sentinels are alive. Kill them first, then kill Joe. Use the nearby basin to increase everyone's first aid skill by 1. Eastern Gallery (EN) I: Suede Gloves (3%, +2 SC, +2 Res), Slith Warspear (14-56, +8 FR, +5 TH), Molten Halberd (12-48, +2 QS) If you go into the SE building, several slith hunters chase you down. Kill them and take their stuff. To west you'll find a passage down which takes you back to (EM). Veress'Yss, the slith spy is here. Fight him until he runs off. He summons lizards, then basilisks, then mutant fire lizards. He then jumps down a pit. Go a bit west to a small tunnel, and go up the NW passage. Dispel the barrier, buff up, then go through the portal. You'll find the spy with two horde warlizards. Hit them hard. Killing the spy gets you some suede gloves and a slith warspear. Underneath you will find a mass of chitrachs. There's also a very tempting gong. Buff then hit it. Unstable rats flood out after you. Run to the SE corridor. Hit them as they come. The Muridae Infernal is the associated demon with these creatures, hit it hard. The infernal drops a molten halberd on death. Eastern Gallery (EO) C: Healing Herbs, Mandrake S: Return Life A few enemies and caches are here. Niveau and her family are odd but friendly. Talk with them, then defend them from chitrachs when they attack. Try to keep the farmers alive and you get extra experience. Check out the underground to the NW. You'll find an abandoned mage workshop which has a book with the nice return life spell in it. Skeletal Ruins (EP) C: Graymold, Mandrake S: Divine Retribution U: 3 below. I: Jade Chain (3%, +25 PR, +25 AR), Putrified Gauntlets (9%, -1 Str, -1 Dex, +50 AR, +5 SC) Let's start rekilling some undead. Every undead you kill has a chance to drop a bone shard, so be sure you have Silvar's quest prior to doing this quest. Go north, and kill everything that moves. The minor boss of the area is a mummified priest, which drops a jade chain on death. Eventually you'll want to head down the stairs. Ruby skeletons taunt you from above. Kill the skeletons below, then dispel the barrier and use the basin for a long-term shield. Head east, kill the ghasts, then go north. There's a secret button to push that lets you go upstairs and open the gate, go ahead and use it. Continue west, kill the ghosts above, then kill the skeletons. Continue through some skeletal warriors, and kill some more ghosts and skeletons. You are faced with a nasty fight ahead. You may want to attempt this one later. The lich to the west has a nasty trap. Hit him to begin with, then run to the south around the orange pylon. Use your disruption wands, wands of death, nullity wands, and wands of the inferno from your fighters, and your priest must use disrupt undead to bring the Lich Kavarus down. The pylon to the north explodes cold energy, killing anyone who's not next to the south pylon. The south pylon then starts to chill, so you must try to bring him down quickly. You may be able to run up to the north pylon, but since the lich has probably been summoning away, you may not be successful. Again, this is one of the toughest fights in the game. I'd strongly recommend using cloak of the arcane, and ward of thoughts in this fight to make your life slightly easier. When Kavarus dies, he drops some putrified gauntlets, which provide a huge bonus to spellcraft. Go south to pick up a knowledge elixir behind a secret passage. Now it's time to head north. It's time to take this lich out for good! Go to the NE, and use the secret button to go above. Travel to the tomb, then try to break the shard. Concentrate on the spirit sentinel first as it charms your characters. Beast has a spineshield, so hit it with spells. I find lightning spray to work like a charm here. Compared to the prior battle, this one is a cinch. Smash the shard when everything else is dead, getting three wisdom crystals, then read the book for a point in divine retribution. Nice. When you leave this place, be sure to go through the gate that you opened up prior to killing the lich. Go quickly east for a graymold cache, then head west. Kill the few foes, and loot the cache for some mandrake. Occupied Lands (ER) There's not much you can do here just yet, but you can kill a few goblins. The Oculus Cult (ES) S: Return Life U: East room I: Runed Jade Necklace (2%, +10 PR, +10 AR), Farsight Cap (5%, +1 Bow, +1 SS) GO here to follow Asterios's trail. Head east, and buff. Kill Cultist Visius and the other cultists. Visius drops some blessed boots. Go ahead and use the nearby basin to get another buff. Head south, kill some more cultists, then head SW. Corma-Eye, an eyebeast, is waiting for you. He's not exceptionally difficult, but can surprise you if you're not watching. You get a runed jade necklace on its death, which is strangely strongly inferior to the jade chain. Grab the key from the nearby blue chest, dispel the barrier, and read the book to improve your return life spell. Use the basin for some experience. Now go explore. The eastmost room has a secret button. Use it and dispel the barrier. Grab the mediocre loot. Go to the west, kill the demons and cultists, then grab some better loot from the cabinet. Next head to the north. Four cultists block you- kill them. Now unlock the door, and go up the stairs. Time to kill some more cultists. Kivara is about to sacrifice Asterios. Stop them all. Kivara drops a farsight cap. Talk with Asterios, and free him. Central Avernum (ET) C: Graymold Take this route to kill the Dranlon Marauders. GO west and kill some of them. Others follow behind you, kill them too. You get some moderate loot for your time. Go down the hatch. You'll see some trained chitrachs. Go up the stairs. You can take a brief foray west, then north. Kill the ogres and grab the loot and cache (purging crystal). Then head east. You can continue east to reach the eastern gallery map (EM) and you'll find a hatch with, when you go down, gets you a cabinet with an invulnerable potion in it. When ready head north to the Marauder's Hideout. Marauder's Hideout (EU) C: Mandrake S: Cloak of the Arcane U: Two in Nociduas's lair I: Stability Girdle (6%, -5 TH, +12 SR), Specter Robe (10%, +5 ER, +20 SR, +20 MR, -4 FR), Quicksilver Bulwark (21%, +1 Battle Speed, +1 Anat, +2 LB) Ozimus taunts you. Go and kill his minions. Cultist Dreva drops some drakeskin bracers on death. Head north. Kill Marauder Tergia for a stability girdle, then buff up. GO west and you'll see a circle of mages. Ozimus flees from you, so kill the mages. I killed them all before they were able to summon anything bigger than an imp, I suggest you do the same. Loot the place, then it's time to track Ozimus down. Go down the stairs. This is Nociduas's lair, a nasty necromancer. Buff, then enter combat mode. You'll see a blue crystal. Smash it. Then go find Ozimus. He's trapped by three vengeful shades. Kill them all, and grab the specter robe. You can either try to take on Nociduas while you're here, or you can go back and report your success. If you'd like to take on Nociduas, buff up and go south then east. Destroy all blue crystals you come across. You especially want to take out the divine shade-summoning crystals. Use the button near the two tombs to grab a knowledge brew. When ready, buff up, and use the two basins. Now go talk with Nociduas. Time to take him out. He summons several zombies. Head over and kill them, standing in the central circle. You can not do damage to Nociduas. Instead, when you stand in the circle, friendly shades are summoned that do damage to him instead. You can also augment these summons with your own, they will do damage as well. The summons are fragile, so you may actually need to heal them in this fight. Eventually, as long as you don't move off the circle, your summons will overwhelm Nociduas. You get the awesome quicksilver bulwark shield for your time. Time to loot his place. Read the book just to the north for a point of cloak of the arcane spell. Go north and kill the two nasty hellhounds. You get some boots and mandrake tincture for your time. Use the nearby secret button to unlock a basin that gives you experience. You can now head west to explore. Tizka-Eye, a gazer, talks with you from above. You can't do much with him now. Head on back to Fort Dranlon. CHAPTER THE NEXT. A MAGIC BOAT RIDE. Go to the Almaria pylon, and head north. Take a boat. Grab the caches (healing herbs, spiritual herbs, graymold x3) on the way out. You can now explore nearly all of Avernum. I'm not going to draw a map, instead just recommend you row your boat everywhere and pick up all the caches you find. There are two major area's I'll cover here- the Remote Marsh/Fang Clan Fortress, and Honeycomb Horror Lair. Remote Marsh (AR) C: Spiritual Herbs, Mandrake Kill the nephilim and lizards that attack you. You find evidence of the orb of thralni here. Go north to the Fang Clan Fotress Fang Clan Fortress C: Graymold U: Spider chamber I: Cap of Thoughts (5%, +1 SC, +1 ME), Grounding Vest (16%, +20 SR, -5 TH, +10 ER), Avenger's Ring (6%, +2 Anat, +2 LB, +2 Levels damage in Combat) Buff, and go north. Worgs and nephil archers attack you. Kill them, and you have a choice. You can either continue north, killing more nephilim, or head to the SE. To north you'll find Shaman Thorr'Mra. He summons two fighters to help him, and shields them significantly. Concentrate your attacks on the shaman, and kill him to bring down the shields on the fighters. Try to kill the shaman quickly or he'll hit you with nasty magic. For your time you get a cap of thoughts. Go west and you'll find the trophy guardian demon. Kill it. Grab the shards from the orb of thralni. No flying for you :(. Head to the SE after you've claimed it and go down the stairs. Fight a few Fang Clan conquerors. Prep, then go to the north. Move next to the door, and some slimes appear. Use the turnwheel and kill the slimes. Stay in combat mode, and enter the next room. Some rats appear. When they do, use the wheel. Enter the next room, use the wheel when the slimes appear, kill them and run through the door. Now you will see a platform. Buff and get on it. Archers attack you first (use lightning spray), then fighters, then archers again (situated so that lightning spray won't hit them), then nasty cave giants. The cave giant diviner drops a grounding vest. Head south to fight some spiders, and use the buttons to open up secret rooms with useful basins. Go up. The Nephar Chieftain is surprisingly not hostile. You can leave without a fight. Grab the stuff in the nearby chests (including a mandrake tincture). Killing him is tough, but gets you a powerful avenger's ring. Note that this fight is a great time to use invulnerable potions. Dragon's Gate C: Mandrake S: Arcane Blow U: Nearby NW nest I: Flaming Sword (11-33, fire, +10 FR, +10 TH), Infernal Shroud (4%, +15 FR, +15 ER, +2 LB, +1 Anat) Note that this area may be a bit too difficult for you when you first gain access to a boat. You may instead choose to take this area on after completing a few more key quests. Open the gates from nearby where you find the gazer-spawning pool. Then go through the honeycomb to get to the gates. When you see a nest, buff up. You are attacked by a pack of wolves. Next you are attacked by a lot of lizards led by a drake, Kazass-Hrros. Kill them all for a flaming sword. Go down the stairs. Hirickis is to the NW. Buff and attack. He retreats when you do a lot of damage. Find him at a circle south, then east, then to his inner sanctum. He pleads for his life after a bit. I'd recommend killing him. Grab your infernal shroud reward. Look around here for a spellbook of arcane blow and minor other loot. When ready, head up north past Fort Dranlon. Land at the west edge of the northern fens. MAP FC-FB-FA-FD-FE-FF FQ-FR-FS | | | | | FP-F6-F9 FG-FI-FL- | | | | F3-F4-F5-F8-FJ-FH-FK | | | | | F2-F1-F0-F7 ER | EM Northern Fens (F0) Search around here and you'll find Sergeant Dalliman. He'll give you some info. There's a pylon here as well, but it won't work. Finally, some giants are to the NW. Practice killing them., Grindstone (F1) C: Scroll- Acid Shower, Beautiful Crystal (x3), Flawless Crystal S: Arcane Summon U: Access to chief I: War Chief's Bulwark (18%, 10% Fatigue Removal, +3 levels damage in combat, +2 QS), Eagle Eye Band (6%, +2 Bow, +2 TM, +3 SS) Grindstone was a fair bit more important in A4. Now it's giant town. There's a building here with a barrier. It is quite difficult to take down. I found I needed a combined magic spells + spellcraft of over 40 to take it down. Do so for a bunch of crystals and a secret way in to fight the giant chieftain. If you're killing the giant chieftain the old fashioned way, go to the mine. Head east to the path down. Go down. Kill the hellhounds and giants, and head north. Giant overseers and flingers are next. The flingers are lined up perfectly for lightning spray. Go read the book for a point in arcane summon, then head west. Get in the boat, head west, kill the giants including Headman Glathnok. Glathnok drops a nice war chief's bulwark shield, then go north and head east. Let free the spiders. Accompany them to the west. Help them kill the giants (it's also entertaining to see the spiders in action- they're no slouches!). Take the boat east now, and go south. Land and kill some giants, then get back in your boat and go south. Get out at the next spit of land, and you can go fight the chief. He has a nasty attack that sends you flying south which also stuns you. Unshackle mind is a must. Kill him for an eagle eye band. Go north and grab the speaking stone, then get out of here. Giant Lands (F2) C: Graymold I: Gazerskin Sandals (16%, +10 HER, +10 SR) If you try to cross the bridge here you are stopped by the giant Drethnar. Kill him for a sparkling wand. Further to the west is the gate to the dragon lands. There's not much there for you now, but go ahead and talk with Tarmik- Drayssa and leave (this fulfills a later job). To the SE you find a tunnel which eventually leads to a one way drop. If you want to go into it, you'll find Tizka-Eye (friend of Nociduas). Kill it for the most excellent Gazerskin sandals and an eyebeast eye (an ingredient for high-level crafting). Note that you lose use of a boat if you do this, so only do this path once prior to clearing out the slithzerikai leaders! There's a pit to the NW. Go down it to kill some undead and grab some graymold. Giant Lands (F3) C: Gold Necklace, Scroll- Spineshield, Fine Steel S: Mass Healing, Lightning Spray U: North exit to scuttler den There's a shack on the east coast that has shamblers in it. Kill them for some mandrake. Head to the NW. You'll find an abandoned camp. Go down one of the three stairs down. Head to the SW, then buff once you see the helmet on the floor. Kill the scuttlers, first the blues, then the reds, then the greens (strong against lightning), then the sparkling. A scuttler mutant is the boss here. Kill it for a wisdom crystal. Loot the rooms around here. Use the basin to the SE for a point in mass healing. Use the secret button the north to get a boat that allows you to drink from a second basin to improve your lightning spray spell. Go up the north stairs to claim some of the poisonous mushrooms requested by Asta. Giant Lands (F4) S: Magical Efficiency Wolves and giants roam here. The giants are tough packmasters. If you're coming from underneath, you'll find some shamblers. To the SE are the nastiest foes here- five altered giants. Buff then fight them. Your reward is a knowledge elixir and lots of valuable loot. Near the center of the map are several oozing corpses. Kill them. Skip the basin, then open the door. Kill the lich inside (compared to other liches you've fought, this one is a cinch). Use the nearby basin to improve everyone's magical efficiency by one point. Northern Fens (F5) C: Graymold U: East part of pit I: Charmed Buckler (18%, +3 Lck, +3 SS, +2 Rip) A slith party is north. Kill them and loot the body. Go down the pit here, kill the crawlers, and loot their stuff. You get a charmed buckler as a reward. Near Fort Monastery (F6) C: Emerald, Terror Wand I: Mooneye Girdle (6%, -5 TH, +10 ER, +15 MR) You can raid the small outpost, but won't get too much. On the other side of the river is a cave, which if you go up it has a maddened giant. Kill it for a mooneye girdle. He also calls forth a horde of vicious crawlers, with a crawling horror as the last foe. Grab the skribbane and fine steel and leave. Occupied Lands (F7) C: Graymold, Energetic Herbs, Mandrake, Beautiful Crystal (x2), Flawless Crystal I: Fungal Bow (14-42, +10 MR, +1 QS) Land on this shore when you're ready to start killing some sliths. I'd also recommend leaving your loot here so that you can take it back and forth from Fort Dranlon (if you'd like). You can also drop them near Fort Monastery, which will save you a fair bit of time later onl. You'll pull a lot of minor goods out, possibly enough for some training. Shamblers are here, and they disorient you, making you lose fatigue. There are four paths down from here. It doesn't matter too much which one you take, but prepared to fight a lot of shamblers if you explore. The boss of the area can be found to the north. There you find the Lord of the fungus. Kill it (again it can fatigue you, making battle disciplines fairly useless) for a fungal bow and a knowledge elixir. Occupied Lands (F8) C: Razordisk, Curing Elixir Some sliths are fighting shamblers here. Stand back and watch the action. Mop up the winners (or try to land the killing blows!). Here you find Private Weir, who tells you about the human force here. Occupied Lands (F9) Q: The Horde's Slaves, The Horde's Traitors C: Graymold S: Incantor Abadon I: War Chief's Bulwark Go down the SE cave. Some of the few friendlies are here. Talk with Captain Esmee to gain knowledge about the lay of the land. She also gives you a quest to free two batches of slaves. Do so for some experience. Incantor Abadon also has a quest for you- to kill some traitors. Killing Kellar will encourage Abadon to train you. His prices are extremely cheap. Some sliths are north of the SE entrance. Kill them, including battlemaster Taross, who drops a slith warspear on death. Head through the barrier to open the gates. Also here is Kellar, a traitorous scum human. Kellar drops a war chief's bulwark on death. There is a horde demonmaster in the center of the map, kill it for a wand. There are effectively two paths to Formello, the north path and the south path. The north path is by far easier, but the south path has a nice bit more loot. Along the way you will be warned when you might face overwhelming odds by the game. Try not to go those routes, as the enemies there can be tough even for end-game parties. Occupied Lands (FA) C: Emerald, Invulnerable Potion You're at the northern end of enemy territory here. This is a major slith caravan route, which you may see as you try to cross the bridge. If you want, you can go down the NE hatch. Kill the slimes and grab the stuff. Fort Monastery (FC) Q: Bounty: Cave Giants, The Scuttler Hive, Scout the Gateway. C: Ruby, Scroll- Speed Burst S: Battlemage Winant, Priestess Rrone U: Under the fort I: Dragonskin cap (9%, +1 Res), Mauler's Ring (6%, +2 QS, +2 LB), Acid-Etched Legs (6%, +7 SR, -10 TH, +1 Anat, +5 AR) $: Oliver There's not much you can do here until you clear out the slith triad. Once the three sliths are dead, come here from the south underground. There's an area with three buttons, explore the paths (but watch out for the SW- charged goop!), then make your way up the ladder. Oliver will trade with you. Captain Khatessa will talk with you, but doesn't say much just yet. There's a job board and pylon here, both become accessible only after you have rescued the fort. Battlemage Winant will also teach you spells. Priestess Rrone will also teach you priestly spells. Finally, go see Commander Matos. He readies the attack. The gates are opened. Buff, and head down to the gates. Kill the sliths as they enter. Some have names, these will tend to leave cool stuff. Luckily, as long as you stay in the fort, you'll have plenty of help and can kill the sliths with ease. The general of the sliths drops a dragonskin cap on death. Things open up when freed. Grab the job board quests, and talk with everyone. Matos opens up a room for you with a mauler's ring in it. Completion of the gateway quest gets you some potions. The cave giant bounty quest gets you some acid-etched legs. Completion of the scuttler quest gets you a cool 1500c. Occupied Lands (FD) Q: The Mean Shaman, Captured Spiders I: Charmed Plate (28%, +40 SR, -15 TH, +3 Luck, +8 HER) Here you find the Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders (GIFTSs). Go down and talk with them. They give you two quests (I can't provide you with the names of quest givers to any specificity- you'll see why). The first quest is to kill a slith shaman. The other quest is to rescue spiders from the giants. The latter quest you may have already fulfilled. Your reward is some loot in the basement, including an impressive charmed plate. You can also grab the eggs for Gladwell if you go down the basement (use the webs). NOTE: If you do grab the eggs, the GIFTSs are hostile the next time they see you. Try to fulfill the mean shaman quest first. The mean shaman quest gets you a bunch of potions. Occupied Lands (FE) C: Wisdom Crystal U: In mine Some guards are on the bridge here. There's also a secret path to the friendly humans from the SW side of the river. To the north are some slith miners. Kill them and take their stuff. Also here are some traitorous nephilim. Kill them and take their stuff. Tenevra (FF) & Rentar Ihrno's Keep Q: Vahnatai Cultists, The Speaking Stone S: Pathfinder U: Secret area with hostile vahnatai I: Magus Vest (20%, +1 MS, +1 PS, +2 AL, +1 SC), Lodestone Bracers (10%, -10 TH, +2 DW, +10 SR, +4 Hard), Venomous Blade (12-36, +12 PR, +12 AR), Ghostly Blade (8-24, +6 Protection from Weapons, +6 HER) Not much you can do here just yet. Once you get the mission to help out Tenevra, get the mica sheet from the vahnatai at the castle and come here. Speak with Torkia, then look around. The NE holds Kian-Ihrno, who will ask for your help for Tenevra. She wants you to kill some vahnatai cultists. She will also help you find some communication shards. Unici-Tel is in charge of the portal. He also has a quest for you- to recover the speaking stone from the giants to the west. If you freed the spiders, you may have also done this quest. Completion of this quest gets you a magus vest. The most important individual by far here is down a hatch to the SE. There you will find Palom, the alchemist. In exchange for one of each herb, he will make you a knowledge brew. Cash those herbs in! While you're here, be sure to dispel the barrier and use the basin to improve your pathfinder skill. Go speak with Salasi. She asks you to kill a fungus beast to the SW (you may have done this if you took the south route to Formello). Do so for several potions. When you're ready to do Kian-Ihrno's quest, head to the center portal. Go in it. You'll find Rentar-Ihrno's old keep. Avoid the orange pylons unless you want a fight (and you probably do). Soulsear demons (weak vs. fire) attack you. West some cryos demons (weak vs. fire again) attack you. South and west and you are attacked by ghostly vahnatai. Talk with Clodeca-Tel. She sends you below. Head west, buff, then run through the vents in combat mode. Vahnatai attack you, including Gavaw-Te. Kill them for the lodestone bracers. Continue north and kill the sentinels (fine steel drop), then find Dagas-Ihrno. In this fight you must stay in the circle or Dagas ends it. He summons spheres to fight you. Kill everything from a distance. Eventually he drops his shield. Kill him. He drops a venomous blade on death. Tell Clodeca and Kian-Ihrno for a focusing crystal and rod of alacrity. Kian will also let you claim the vahnatai crystal shards. Go down the nearby stairs, buff, then face the hraithe. Stand next to the pylon surrounded by blue lights and hit it. The blue lights will move while the shade attacks you. Hit the pylon with blue lights until the shade gives up and attacks you on its own. Kill it for a ghostly blade. Loot the nearby rooms for some crystals and the shards. Fort Draco (FG) C: Spiritual Herbs S: Strong Daze I: Eliavri's Bow (14-42, +2 QA, +3 Bow, +2 HER) Not much you can do here just yet. Once you have the mission from Levitt, come back here. Go through the gate. Go down the stairs behind the barrier in the north building. Go past the runes. You'll find three gazers, one of them named. Kill them for an eyestalk and a wisdom crystal. Go touch the anvil to send it to X. You can also explore the inn's basement. When you're ready, replace the stone on the pylon. Lieutenant Gelbart greets you. Your mission is to keep this crew alive and healthy through this mission. This is fairly easy until you get to the very end. Go south. You are greeted by the gremlin king. Do whatever you will, then head to the SE. Go through the hatch. You face a shade construct. Kill it quickly, as it casts an area-of-effect cold spell. Heal up after killing it, then continue onward. Next the soldiers are frozen by some magic. Kill the rockhounds and keep the soldiers alive. Then go north to fight a trash dragon. Kill it (ice works well) for Eliavri's Bow. Head south and the soldiers are controlled by the gremlin king. Ignore them for a few turns and they'll get better. Go south, and loot the place. Grab the book for a point in strong daze, then go outside. Yup, the gremlin king attacks you. Kill him and his minions. His minions have a nasty lightning aura attack which can kill the soldiers, so keep them healed if they are hit too hard by it. Success with this mission is guaranteed if you keep at least one soldier alive. Keep most of them alive and Levitt likes you more. Occupied Lands (FI) C: Scroll- Spellward, Gold Necklace, Platinum Ring I: Ceremonial Longbow (13-39) You're being watched here. Loot everything to the west, then you find Khrez-Yss. He splits into 4. Hit them all- one won't take much damage, this is the original. Hit them until he runs away. Kill his lackeys for a ceremonial longbow Occupied Lands (FJ) C: Purging Crystal Avoid the bridge here with the sliths are you may be overwhelmed. Occupied Lands (FH) C: Mandrake, Energetic Herbs A slave camp is here. Head to the SE, and kill the sliths. Talk with the slaves, they tell you that some drakes will eat them if you don't help. Go down the SE ramp, and kill the drakes. Go back up, buff, then tell the slaves. Protect them as they escape. Occupied Lands (ER) C: Mandrake, Flawless Crystal, Ruby, Focusing Crystal, Beautiful Crystal I: Dragonskin Bracers (9%, -5 TH, +20 FR, +10 ER) There are tri-budded shamblers here which spawn lots of foes. They are quite obnoxious. If you're here from the underground, you'll find several nasty drakes. Buff up and kill them. They are led by Darathna. Use extra buffs (speed, regeneration) and ward of elements to make the fight a bit easier. You get some dragonskin bracers on beating these nasties. Near Formello (FK) This area is blocked by the horde. Be careful if you try to go this route. I'd recommend going east from Fort Draco. Near Formello (FL) C: Mandrake, Gold Bar, Graymold I: Incantor's Buckler (15%, +1 SC, +1 FA, +1 AL, +1 ME) Welcome to Formello. Here you will find the dragonscale shaman. Kill it for a stunning blade and an incantor's buckler. Near Formello (FM) C: Beautiful Crystal, Energetic Herbs I: Silk-Woven Cord (6%, +5 Protect from Weapons, +2 AL, +1 SC, +1 FA) Sliths, sliths, sliths. Intriguingly there is a friendly one to the south named Kesha. Moderately friendly, anyway. You can get a hint on where to go from her. If you want, you can kill this old lady. I don't know what you get though. Head to the north, and you can listen in on some of the politics of the sliths. Then attack. Go down the stairs at the gatehouse. Buff up prior to going north, then kill the scourge mages. You get a silk woven cord for your time Near Formello (FN) C: Battle Crystal S: U: I: Quicksilver Sandals (2%, +1 Battle Speed, -2 Str) Here you can enter a tunnel that leads to Formello. Kill the demon- summoning sliths for a number of goods (including a knowledge elixir). Also, enter the runed room to kill the high mage Dassra and her two servitor orbs. You get the excellent quicksilver sandals for your time. Head to the NE. Some undead are fighting some sliths. Kill the winner, then go downstairs. Kill a few more undead, and you'll find Sage Tobias. Tobias is a bit insane, having to resort to necromancy in order to stay hidden in slith lands, but is otherwise helpful. He lets you use his pools, then tells you to go into Formello. Head there now. Formello (FO) S: Strong Daze, Divine Host U: In Khrez-Yss's east chamber I: Talisman of Might (+4 Str), Heartwood Aegis (15%, +20 MR, +20 SR, +1 Res), Slith Bloodspear (17-68, +10 FR, +5 TH) Walk forward, into the trap. You find Kerrorr to the north. He's not helpful just yet. When you're ready, head west, then south. Get trapped. Buff. Go forward, you'll find Khrez-Yss. Time to take him down. Your mission here is to find and destroy four crystals. They are spread around the area, one across each bridge. Smash them all. Khrez-Yss will try to flee, then panics. Kill him. He drops a talisman of might on death. Grab the key, and go open the locked doors for a point in strong daze. You also get a lot of powerful but nondescript loot. Head to the NW, use the south basin, and go up the stairs. Kill the guards, then go northeast. Dispel the barrier and read the book for a divine host point. Go east to the Arena. Kill the three sliths that jump down, then use the gong. General Zhavress jumps down to fight you. CHalleng Ghavassa-Oss again. Tell him you have kill Khrez-Yss. He will not accept such an insult. Kill him. Grab the slith bloodspear and the heartwood aegis and head south. Try to avoid fighting a bit so as not to get overwhelmed. Hit the pylon and get out! Go tell Levitt of your success. Near Fort Monastery (FP) C: Purging Crystal S: Fireblast I: Thug's Cap (7%, -5 TH, +1 BM, +8 SR) Here you should go if you want to free Fort Monastery. Kill the slith spies, then go into the alchemy shop. The ambulatory goop spawn charged goop on death. The charged goop can be fatal, so hit them from a distance. The nastiest encounter is a bit to the north. There you will find several ambulatory goops (each spawning 4 charged goops) and an infested ogre mage. The ogre mage attacks you quick, so it's not easy to get an exploding fireworks show with the mage and the goop (though it can be done satisfactory). Kill them all for a thug's cap. Dispel the barrier, use the basin for some experience, and read the book to improve your fireblast spell. Now go down the stairs. Go save Sage Savara, then go east and north (save south for later). After you've freed Fort Monastery, head south. Breeding Tunnels (FQ) C: Flawless Crystal, Purging Crystal, Wisdom Crystal, Emerald U: NW mines I: Eyebeast Chitin (21%, +40 SR, +25 MR), Ruby Chain (3%, +18 FR) This area is home to lots of warlizards. Head into the SE mine and fight some basilisks. Head to the NW mine to pillage some more. Under the NW mine you will also find the mother salamander. Buff then attack her. Salamanders hatch during this fight too. Kill them all for an eyebeast chitin shield. To the west you will find trainer Oruss. Note that if you hit him, you get the lightning aura spell cast on you. Kill him for a ruby chain. Breeding Tunnels (FR) C: Runed Plate U: Central NW I: Runed Plate (34%, +50 SR, +20 MR, +2 SC), Heartstriker Bow (8-32) This area is home to more lizards. Kill the sliths to the SW. To the Northwest and central are a series of buttons that eventually yield a cache with a runed plate inside. Grab it! The most fruitful part of this area entails the NE stairs. Go up them, then buff. Run across the area to the south, and kill the gazers and eyebeasts. The Obelisk of the Eye is in charge, and killing it yields an eyebeast eye. Go down the stairs and talk with Arrorra. Head down the NW stairs. Ignore the first basin, and the second, and use the third (after the fight) for some experience. Kill the lizards here as well as the slith battlemage Eckth. Grab your reward- the heartstriker bow (the best bow in the game), as far as damage potential Lair of the Scourge (FS) C: Flawless Crystal S: Arcane Blow U: Ascending the cliff area I: Blessed Breastplate (34%, +50 SR, -20 TH), Grounding Vest (16%, +20 SR, -5 TH, +10 ER),Answering Gauntlets (3%, +2 PA, +3 Rip) You can't do much here until you're told to by Melanchion. You can go to the north side and kill the lightning crawlers. Grab the blessed breastplate. When you're told to come here by Melanchion, approach the front gate. Go to the green crystals, and Melanchion crushes the scourge defenders. Head on in and kill the sliths. Take their stuff. To the SW is an undead vahnatai inhabitation. Kill them and clear them out. You'll find a secret area at the end with a vahnatai revenant. It's not undead, but kill it anyway for a grounding vest. Go down the stairs. Get ready for a slogfest (there's an armor ring in one of the skull piles). Ascend the stairs slowly, killing everything in your path. You're confronted by Vorus of the Circle. He has two golems with him. They try to hit a gong. Kill Vorus as he's easier than trying to kill the golems. You get some wands when he dies. To the west is Tial of the Circle. As you fight her, her wizardly avatars attack you. Concentrate on Tial. She drops a hero's necklace on death. To the east is Gssch of the Circle. Gssch is halfway between life and death. You can't successfully attack him unless you have a death curse cast on you. You get a death curse by using the north basin, and can remove it by using the south basin. Get your death curse on 2-3 PCs (everyone standing next to the basin when it's used gets the curse, then hit him. After 2-3 turns of fighting, go cluster everyone at the south basin and get rid of the death curse. You can do this in 1 or 2 cycles, depending on how smooth you act. Gssch drops some answering gauntlets on death. Loot the south room for some demon's bile and a nice (+2) boost to arcane blow. Near Formello (FT) S: Gymnastics I: Ceremonial Leggings (8%, +8 SR, -10 TH, +4 Str, +2 Res) These are the slith training grounds. Go around, killing the trainees and their trainers. Be sure to loot the slith sauna, and use the basins there for a point in gymnastics. The other point of note here is a slith named Yahsso of the Spear. He challenges you. Kill him for the extremely valuable ceremonial leggings and a slith warspear. Near Formello (FU) I: Stability Boots (8%, +1 Dex, +20 SR), Temperate Necklace (2%, +10 FR, +10 CR) You can't go too far this direction as there are a lot of sliths. There's an endless horde of 1200 HP sliths that attack you. However, if you hug the west wall, you can pass by them. You can then head to the SW. You'll find Giscard's mansion. Enter it and kill the sliths within. Kill Commander Bhish'Ess for a temperate necklace and some nice stability boots. Approach the picture near the dresser to pick it up for Giscard. Go up the nearby stairs to find battlemage Gliesss (with the second painting right behind him). Kill him. Near Formello (FV) C: Graymold, Mandrake U: Bottom floor to the north I: Cryos Spear (11-33, +15 CR, +1 Battle Speed, +1 LB) Here you find the second slave encampment, as well as a useful spear. Head to the SE, and buff. Formellan thugs attack you. Kill Dedrick and his thug buddies. Try to keep as many slaves alive as you can. Down the stairs is the wormspawn shambler. Hitting it spawns flaming bushes, which can be quite annoying. You get the cryos spear for your efforts. There's a small hatch nearby the slavers that leads to some giants and an ogre mage. Kill them and take their stuff. Occupied Lands (EL) I: Robe of the Magi (18%, +3 SC, +2 Res, +4 ME) Keep hugging the west wall and head to the SW. Kill the elite guards and scouts. You'll find General Tregart. This is a tough fight as you can't quite use your melee fighters. Raid his stuff for a blessed breastplate, robe of the magi, and knowledge elixir. The robe is easily the best mage-specific armor in the game. Melanchion's Lands G3-G4 | | G1-G0 | G2 Refuge (G0) Q: Rebellious Gazer, Demonic Intruder C: Platinum Ring S: Divine Restoration, Divine Retribution $: Meeam-Drayssa This area is home to the Drayssa, or dragon worshippers. Meeam-Drayssa will buy from you. She will also sell you mediocre items if you complete some quests for Refuge. Almara-Drayssa is in charge, loosely speaking. She gives you info and two quests- to beat down a gazer and kill a demon. You get 1000c for each one you kill/subdue. Quessik-Drayssa here will heal you, and reward you for completion of the quests with spells. You can get divine restoration and divine retribution. There's also a pylon here which you should touch. Melanchion's Realm (G1) C: Ruby, Beautiful Crystal, Wisdom Crystal U: Zahur's treasure room I: Lightning Ring (6%, +3 QA, +2 QS, +1 PA) Head south to the Keep first thing. The quarry to the NE has lots of nice gems and is guarded by salamanders. Go down the west stairs to find the Almara-Drayssa's demon. Kill the imps then head up the stairs. Demons attack you. Buff and head down the south stairs. You find Zahur Firecaller. Hit it. It starts to call in the lava. Stay next to the demon so as not to die instantly from the lava as it moves inward. He summons four imp friends that attack you. One is vulnerable to ice, one to fire, one to energy attacks, and one to melee attacks. Keep concentrating on Zahur and eventually it'll fall. Grab your demon's bile as a reward, then loot the treasure for a lightning ring. Then go through the portal. Melanchion's Keep (G2) Q: Hunt the Loyalists, Assault Bargha, Remove the Scourge, Sack Tenevra, Testing the Brew, Research Notes, The Magic Mirror S: Divine Restoration, Cloak of the Arcane, Arcane Blow, Divine Retribution, Lethal Blow I: Warmaster Helm (7%, 25% Fatigue Removal, +25 SR, +2 Levels Damage in Combat), Emerald Chestguard (42%, +20 PR, +20 AR, +1 BM, +20 SR), Radiant Soulblade (16-48, 8%, +2 LB, +2 QA, +3 PA) $: Vassch-Drayssa Time to go speak with Melanchion. Speak with him, and he tells you that he will save Avernum if you serve him. This is as a soldier, not a mindless Drayssa, fortunately. Once you have this message, head back to King Starrus. Come back afterwards, and Melanchion tells you what he'd like from you. He wants you to destroy four enemies- Lord Farrar, the Scourge, the vahnatai, and the darkside Loyalists. You need only do two quests to get Melanchion's help. Lord Farrar is an easy quest. You can complete both the darkside loyalists quest and Gladwell's final quest in a single sitting if you so desire. Glenny-Drayssa is in charge of food. She'll give you some if you ask nicely. Vassch-Drayssa is an alchemist who will trade with you. Be sure to buy his knowledge brew as well. He also gives you a quest- to test a potion. Use the nearby basin to get a nice armor spell, then go down the stairs. Use the brew- you get a death curse. Enter combat mode and had north through the wolves and other creatures. Use the basin at the end to remove the death curse. Go up the stairs and tell Vassch to access his spellbook (divine restoration) and a basin which increases your experience. Breck-Drayssa is to the NW. He gives you a quest to retrieve research notes. Each research note gets you 100c. You also get a tinker's crystal, piercing crystal, purging crystal, battle crystal, and wisdom crystal for bring several to him. Thereafter each gets you 100c. Poila-Tel-Drayssa is a vahnatai who serves Melanchion. He gives you a quest to retrieve a magic mirror from the castle. Do so for a rod of alacrity and a point in cloak of the arcane. Each major quest you complete for Melanchion gets you access to his supplies. Completion of one quest gets you a warmaster helm and a point of arcane blow. Completion of the second quest gets you the almighty emerald chestguard and a point of divine retribution. Also, he gives Avernum its promised crystal pylon to repair the portal. You can quit now to beat the game. Complete three quests and you can get a basin which increases your lethal blow skill, as well as a radiant soulblade, the most powerful melee weapon in the game. Melanchion's Realm (G3) C: Healing Herbs, Graymold S: Divine Host U: Nearby Aranea Archmage $: Shafrir Shafrir is here, and is the last crafter of the game. I'd recommend the jade halberd for any pole weapon users you have, it is easily the best weapon in terms of damage in the game. The other items are powerful, but you may have copies of them already. Also here is the final batch of blighted mushrooms, retrievable via secret door. Be sure to read the spiderweb for a point in divine host. Melanchion's Realm (G4) C: Graymold, Flawless Crystal I: Explorer's Ring (+2 NL, +3 FA, +2 Luck) Lots of enemies here. Clean them out. You can reach the docks here, but there's not much there beyond some minor loot. Go down the stairs to the north. You'll find Akhal Many-Eyes. Beat some sense into him. Watch out for its pylons as they can do a lot of damage. You can either let the gazer live or kill it. Killing it gets you less of a reward from Refuge, but an explorer's ring and a lot of minor loot. END GAME: Head back to the castle, and tell King Starrus about your victory. You are sent to complete the great portal. You'll encounter Vanderin for the last time, then are sent to protect the crystal pylon. Buff up, and kill the demons that attack. Imps, then hellhounds, then terror wights, then an icy horror, then an infernal thrasher attack. This is repeated 3 times. Then a haakai (Infernal Lord) attacks. The demon cycle continues a few more times The end game is determined by how much you helped Melanchion and Gladwell. Helping Gladwell all the way (despite the evilness of his quests) makes a stronger Avernum. Helping Melanchion do three or four quests (and there are three that are clearly beneficial to Avernum or to the Abyss) makes him quite strong. Helping him only twice gets you a weak dragon. -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- 7. Trainers -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- Trainers: ////Skills\\ Seleeass (Pretty Average after quest) Arcane Lore Nature Lore Reginaldo (Exorbitant) Spellcraft Magical Efficiency Taddeo (Pretty Average) Melee Weapons Anatomy Gymnastics Sharpshooter Agass-Ess Arcane Lore Spellcraft Magical Efficiency Sergeant Kaye (Exorbitant) Dual Wielding Pole Weapons Parry Lethal Blow Stuart (Extremely Cheap) Mage Spells Gymnastics Resistance ////Mage Spells\\ Correlea (Slightly Expensive): Bolt of Fire Call Beast Cloak of Curses Daze Haste Slow Correlea (Advanced, Expensive) Lightning Spray Terror Cloak of Blades Summon Aid Incantor Oenslager (Exorbitant) Lightning Spray Terror Cloak of Blades Summon Aid Sorengard (Slightly Expensive): Bolt of Fire Call Beast Cloak of Curses Daze Haste Slow Icy Rain Spray Acid Agass-Ess (Slightly Expensive): Bolt of Fire Call Beast Cloak of Curses Daze Haste Slow Icy Rain Spray Acid Cloak of Bolts Minor Summon Lightning Spray Dispel Barrier (Very Reasonable) Incantor Abadon (Extremely Cheap) Lightning Spray Terror Cloak of Blades Dispel Barrier Summon Aid Strong Daze Fireblast Stuart (Extremely Cheap) Minor Summon Lightning Spray Terror Cloak of Blades Summon Aid Strong Daze Fireblast Battlemage Winant (Very Reasonable) Summon Aid Strong Daze Fireblast Arcane Summon X (Exorbitant) Summon Aid Strong Daze Fireblast Cloak of the Arcane ////Priest\\ Sage Asta (Pretty Average) Minor Heal Curing War Blessing Protection Repel Spirit Smite Sage Asta (After Mushroom Quest -Expensive) Return Life Divine Retribution Seleeass (Pretty Average after quest) Minor Heal Curing War Blessing Protection Repel Spirit Smite Summon Shade Ward of Thoughts Priestess Kyra (Slightly Expensive) Minor Heal Curing War Blessing Protection Repel Spirit Smite Unshackle Mind Heal Healer Danika (Expensive) Mass Healing Mass Curing Abbot Erlanger (Exorbitant) Summon Shade Ward of Thoughts Unshackle Mind Heal Mass Healing Mass Curing Ward of Steel Mother Twymon (Exorbitant) Minor Heal Curing War Blessing Protection Repel Spirit Smite Summon Shade Ward of Thoughts Unshackle Mind Heal Mass Healing Mass Curing Ward of Steel Divine Fire Control Foe Mayor Arron (Extremely Cheap) Minor Heal Curing War Blessing Protection Repel Spirit Smite Summon Shade Ward of Thoughts Unshackle Mind Heal Mass Healing Mass Curing Ward of Steel (After Dragon Gates quest) Divine Fire (After Dragon Gates quest) Tania Venia (Slightly Expensive) Summon Shade Ward of Thoughts Unshackle Mind Heal Mass Healing Mass Curing Ward of Steal Divine Fire Control Foe -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- 7. Crafters -/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- Caravin: Fine Leather = Ratskin Helmet Fine Leather + 30c = Ratskin Helmet 2 Fine Leather + 1 Focusing Crystal + 50c = Blessed Boots 2 Fine Leather + 1 Focusing Crystal + 200c = Girdle of Strength 4 Fine Leather + 1 Focusing Crystal + 200c **** = Mercuric Leather Rippel 2 Fine Steel + 1 Focusing Crystal = Radiant Shield 3 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals = Radiant Leggings Komlos 1 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals = Blessed Bracers (10%, -10 TH, +3 SR, +2 HER) 2 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals = Blessed Shortsword 4 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals = Blessed Broadsword (12-36) 3 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals = Blessed Spear (14-42) 3 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals = Blessed Greaves (8%, +8 SR, -10 TH) Damita 2 Fine Leather + 1 Focusing Crystal + 500c = Drakeskin Cloak (10%) 4 Fine Leather + 2 Focusing Crystal + Mandrake Tincture + 500c = Gloves of the Hammer (8%, +2 Str, +1 QS, +2 BM) 3 Fine Leather + 2 Focusing Crystal + Mandrake Tincture + 500c = Runed Greaves (4%, +5 SR, +5 ER) 4 Fine Leather + 2 Focusing Crystal + Demon's Bile + 500c = Polychromous Girdle (7%, +10 HER, -10 TH) 5 Fine Leather + 3 Focusing Crystal + Demon's Bile + 500c = Warrior's Cloak(5%, +1 MW, +1 PW, +1 Hard, +1 Def) Hapscomb 1 Fine Steel + 1 Focusing Crystal = Blessed Bracers 3 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals + Mandrake Tincture = Seeking Rapier (13-26, +1 BM, +3 Anat) 2 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystal + Mandrake Tincture = Assassin's Shield (21%, +2 QA, +1 Anat, +2 LB) 4 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals + Demon's Bile = Chaotic Halberd (22-66 Jinx, +10 CR, +2 Dex) 2 Fine Steel + 2 Focusing Crystals + Demon's Bile = Runed Helm (10%, +2 SC) Shafrir 5 Focusing Crystals + 2 Fine Steel + Mandrake Tincture + Eyestalk = Blessed Armor Band (8%, +10 SR, +4 HER) 3 Focusing Crystals + 5 Fine Steel + Demon's Bile + Eyestalk = Jade Halberd (20-80 Acid, +10 HER, +10 Protection from Weapons) 3 Focusing Crystals + 6 Fine Leather + Mandrake Tincture + Eyestalk = Robe of the Magi (18%, +3 SC, +2 Res, +4 ME) 4 Focusing Crystals + Fine Steel + Fine Leather + Mandrake Tincture + Eyestalk = Quicksilver Bulwark (21%, +1 Battle Speed, +1 Anat, +2 LB) 3 Focusing Crystals + Fine Steel + Fine Leather + Demon's Bile + Eyestalk = Gazerskin Sandals (16%, +10 HER, +10 SR) 35832 36203 36432 36624 33978 34343 34572 34745 37784 38229 38484 38690 35832 36035 36276 36487