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Kingmaker FAQ/Walkthrough
(NeverWinterNights Diamond Edition expansion pack)
Version 1.00
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Table of Contents
#1) Introduction and Overview
#2) Henchmen
#3) Stores and other vendors
#4) Quests and Votes
#5) Final Battle
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#1 Introduction and Overview
I played this game as a male elfin wizard, so there would undoubtedly be
differences in many details of strategy for, say, a female orcish fighter!
I played immediately after finishing NWN and imported the high-level character
I had played in it. After a cutscene, you find yourself in a battle before a
castle against an army of orcs. About the time you wipe out the opposition,
one of the castle defenders magically blasts the battlefield, wiping out both
sides and killing your character. After a bit, a benign spirit -- of which more
later -- resuscitates you, but unfortunately you have been dropped down to
level one and have lost all your gear.
You had been traveling with a group of 4 characters; like you, they were killed
in the battle. You must now choose two to live and be your henchmen, the other
two dying "really dead" to contribute vital forces to the resuscitated ones.
More on these characters shortly, but at this point it is important to note
that in Kingmaker, unlike NWN, you have full control over your henchmen's
inventories. This means that you must provide them with any weapons, armor or
other gear that they need/can use. The first installment of this you can pick
up from the dead orcs on the battlefield. It is worth noting that your first
few level-ups occur almost immediately, so you are soon at level 4, which is
where your henchmen start out.
Following your resuscitation, henchmen selection, and scavanging, you are
admitted into the castle, and the main theme of the game emerges: the castle is
threatened by a mysterious, powerful enemy, but its top leader has been killed.
The 9 guilds are going to vote to select a new one, and you are supposed to try
for the job. With a couple of exceptions, you get votes by succeeding at quests
proposed by the various guildmasters. So the game consists of a sequence of
quests followed by an attempt to seek out and destroy the mysterious enemy.
The benign spirit who resuscitated you has turned himself into a magical weapon
for you. He interacts with you periodically, illuminating your background,
which provides a subtheme of the story. This subtheme affects the vote getting
indirectly through the interest Yenna, the town mage, expresses in it. She will
be one of your votes, provided your interactions with her are appropriate.
The "gameboard" consists of the keep and the countryside. The keep has two
screens, North Keep and South Keep, aka North and South Cyan. There are
various buildings with their own interior screens, of course. You start out in
the Guildhall, and exit into North Cyan. The Guildhall is called "The Keep
Proper" on that map screen. North Cyan is the upscale, institutional part of
Cyan. The stores are in South Cyan, which is reached via the gate marked "South
Keep" on the map. A character "Alias" is available to move you instantly from
one of a list of places to another. She is usually to be found by the fountain
in the "Market Square" of South Keep (so marked on the map.)
The countryside has a collection of locked buildings and caves. Each
corresponds to a quest, and you receive the appropriate key when you accept the
quest. Alias will take you to the appropriate building when you have accepted
the quest. A peculiar feature of Kingmaker is that you can only rest in the
open air or in a room that you own or rent. Since Alias can whip you back and
forth to the open outside a quest locale, that was the way I usually rested.
In addition there is the Empty Battlefield, which is where you fought and were
resuscitated. It forms a bridge between the countryside and the Keep (South
Cyan). Since I made a practice of having Alias take me to and fro, I discovered
this area late. It has a couple of caravans parked in the middle. (See stores
section below.) and an entrance to the "Hermit's Grove". The entrance to the
Empty Battlefield is marked "To Main Gates" on the South Cyan screen
For wizards, it is worth noting that brewing potions is implemented in
Kingmaker. At the end of the game, a character has only reached about level
8 or 9, so Feats like Empower Spell are less valuable than in NWN. It may be
worthwhile experimenting with brewing potions, since you can make potions that
are otherwise unavailable (e.g., "See Invisible"). The procedure is straight-
forward and requires buying an empty potion bottle from Yenna (Mage's Tower,
North Keep.) I would advise doing a Save before you cast the spell, since some
of the results are more expensive in GP (gold pieces) or XP (experience points)
than you might have expected. The potions show up on your inventory screen as
unlabeled generic bottles; so if you make more than one potion, you will have
to either remember where you put each one, or check the contents via the
information screen.
There is no equivalent to the "Stone of Recall" in Kingmaker, though Alias
provides a lesser transportation facility. Dynschall LaVelisi at the far East
end of the Temple of The Nine Gods offers curing for a modest fee. Loot from
various quests includes curing potions as well as some Lesser Restoration
potions. These are adequate for everything except Level Drain. The magic weapon
can be given various curative properties (at Level Up), including Restoration
capability, which is adequate even for Level Drain. The magic weapon also
provides Resuscitation for you or your henchmen. It starts out with 31 charges
and each resuscitation costs 3. You exercise control over resuscitating your
henchmen. (Obviously you have to have possession of the battlefield to have
access to their dead bodies.) Resuscitating yourself is via "Respawn." In
Kingmaker that uses charges of your magic weapon but does not deplete your XP.
Calibast: Fighter -- Lawful Good Outsider
(Strength 18, Dext 15, Const 13, Intell 14, Wisdom 14, Charisma 14)
Calibast starts out at Level 4 with all the appropriate Armor and Weapon
Proficiencies to be desired (Weapon Focuses on longsword and warhammer.)
He seems to be something like a flaming dwarf. As a wizard, I obviously needed
a fighter, so Calibast was a clear choice.
Jaboli: Wizard -- Lawful Neutral Outsider (Rakshasa)
(Strength 12, Dext 14, Const 15, Intell 17, Wisdom 14, Charisma 10)
Jaboli starts out at Level 4. Her only weapon proficiency is Wizard, which
basically means dagger, club and crossbow. Since I didnt really want her mixing
in the melee, I gave her a crossbow, which she occasionally used. She starts
out with the combat casting feat, spell penetration and brew potions, among
others. She is depicted as a tiger-woman, and was part of my party. Usually she
stayed back and used spells in combat, which was what one would want from her.
Trip: Rogue -- Neutral Evil Shapechanger.
(Strength 12, Dext 18, Const 14, Intell 14, Wisdom 8, Charisma 9)
Trip is a were-rat like those in Luskan in NWN. He is unable to use weapons or
armor. I played with him in the party for a while but found him hard to manage.
Apart from periodically posing moral dilemmas, he has a tendency to rush into
the melee and get killed. His negative charisma also tends to make shopkeepers
react unfavorably and increases the cost of dealing with them. I didn't realize
it at the time, but I now see the option of removing a member of the party. I
suppose I could have used it to park him somewhere when his presence was
problematic. (Right click on the character, then on "More Actions." "Remove
from Party" is at the "4 o'clock" position. The character will stay where he is
left and can be made to rejoin by speaking to him.)
Kaidala: Druid -- true neutral fey
(Strength 14, Dext 13, Const 13, Intell 10, Wisdom 17, Charisma 10)
Kaidala, like the others, starts out at level 4. She can wear light or medium
armor and use druid weapons such as sling, dart, scimitar and spear. She can
have an animal companion and cast druidic clerical spells. I had never played
as or with a druid, so I didn't know how that would work out. She proved to be
quite useful and added a subtheme to the story that was rather appealing. She
tends to transform into animal form in fighting, so her weapons and armor are
not used a lot.
For comparison, at level 4 my wizard character had
(Strength 12, Dext 16, Const 12, Intell 17, Wisdom 10, Charisma 10).
Apparently there was some carry-over of known spells from my high-level
progenitor. At each level-up, I had a choice of spells otherwise deleted from
my list, but the starting point was a more extensive list of spells than was
available when a truly 1st level character was employed. In otherwords, if the
high-level wizard had 20 level-1 spells at the end of NWN when I saved the
character, he might retain, say 14, with 6 being deleted. At the level-up I
would choose to re-obtain two of the 6. A "new" character is also given some
spells without having to select them at level-up, but not as many.
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#3) Stores and other vendors
The Smithy: South Keep, Baless "Glassy" Hopper
Sells mostly arms and armor plus healing potions. Arms cover 5 screens and
include missile weapons and ammo. Most arms available in basic and +1 versions.
Armor covers 3 screens and includes shields and a limited selection of belts,
gauntlets, gloves and boots. Armor proper covers most of 2 screens and goes
from class 1 to 8 and includes enhanced versions +1 to +4. He will buy anything
except traps. I found his prices consistently better than others, both for
buying and selling. He offers no quests and is indifferent to the election. His
store is immediately adjacent to the market square where Alias hangs-out, which
makes it very convenient for quick trips from the field.
Quartermaster's Store: South Keep, Levio'Sa
Offers 2 screens of armor and 3 of weapons plus a few rings and amulets and
healing kits. The armor includes more boots than the Smithy plus a few gloves
and gauntlets. Note that the offerings of the more magical forms of armor are
not the same in the different shops. The arms also include some things not
found at the Smithy, for example, bolts +1 and +2 and Heavy Crossbow +2.
Levio'Sa is the head of the Forester's Guild and offers a quest. If completed,
you will then get her vote.
The Pawnshop: South Keep, "Southpaw" Sebastian Fitch
Offers one screen of armor/clothing and 2 of arms. The armor screen includes
magical helmets as well as boots, gloves and gauntlets. It also holds Cloaks
of Protection +1 and +2. The arms are similar to what's offered elsewhere. He
offers a slightly larger selection of rings and amulets. His most notable
feature is that he buys and sells traps as well as selling various deadly
substances to throw or put on weapons. Fitch is the head of the Thieves Guild.
He offers a quest and represents a vote in the election.
The Tarnished Tankard: South Keep, Thaddeus Squilt
This is not a store but a tavern. The proprietor is a scumbag as well as the
head of the Merchants' Guild. If you kill someone who threatens him, he tries
to blackmail you and ends up offering you his vote if you will carry out an
assassination for him (Gelani, part-owner of the Mossy Tree Inn and former head
of the Merchants' Guild -- see below.) It is best to NOT kill for him but
work with Gelani instead, see below.
The Mossy Tree: South Keep, Gelani Jathorn.
The Mossy Tree is an Inn, rather than a store, but it should be visited. I
include it here because it completes the sequence begun with Squilt. I missed
this the first time I played the game. If you completely reject Squilt and
then talk to Gelani, you can persuade her to try to recapture control of the
Merchants' Guild. (The "Bluff" option worked for me. This earns you 1000 XP;
in addition, she evidently succeeds and promises you her vote.
The Mage Tower: North Keep, Yenna
Offers a number of robes and cloaks, as well as some boots and gauntlets. Her
weapons include a good selection of enhanced bolts, slings and bullets, as well
as a light crossbow +3. She has a very extensive, though not complete,
selection of spell scrolls, up to spell-level 9. She also has an extensive
selection of potions, rings, amulets and wands. I found her a bit pricey, but
she is the only source for some of this stuff. She also has empty potion
bottles and blank wands. She is the head of the mage's guild and will provide
you with a vote. You have an extensive discussion with her of your background,
both before and after she sends you off to talk to Garrot at "The Silver Lily."
I assume her vote is contingent on your responding appropriately to her
initiatives.
Temple of the Nine Gods (East end inside): North Keep, Lavos Gallian (SE),
Dynschall LaVelisi (due E), Rafael Leonallomen (NE)
Rafael offers three screens of armor and clothing, including a number of
cloaks, and other items of magical garb including a "Mask of Persuasion." He
also has a number of potions, rings and amulets. His selection is a bit
different from Yenna's (neither is guaranteed to be complete), but where they
overlap, he was a bit cheaper in my game. He has no weapons at all.
Only Rafael offers goods for sale, but all three are involved in deciding the
vote of the Priest Guild, represented by Dynschall. Lavos is priestess of the
Death God and offers you her support up front. Dynschall initially plans to
vote for Enivid, but can be swayed if both the others support you. Rafael has
to be bribed with 2000 GP (1700 with a successful bluff). After a few quests,
this sum is not a problem. After bribing him, talk to Dynschall. Watch out!
He has some questions that must be correctly answered to secure his vote. (I
advise you to save before approaching him, that way you can reload if you
answer wrongly.) Dynschall also provides healing --something I did not realize
in playing the game the first time.
Alenor and Alexis Kenthalis: Caravan in the Empty Battlefield
They offer an extensive selection of robes and cloaks, and also a selection of
belts, gloves and gauntlets different from other vendors (3 screens.) They
have 4 screens of weapons, but I didnt see anything radically different from
what others sell -- maybe a character with a different weapons requirement
would find something special. They offer a number of relatively low-level spell
scrolls. Where they overlap, their prices were higher than Yenna's, but they
had some scrolls that she didnt carry. Their amulets and rings seemed pretty
standard, but they have 3 screens of crafting and miscellaneous supplies,
including a true bag of holding. Incidentally, unlike most merchants, they will
buy traps.
After the initial burst of cut-scenes and conversations, you find yourself in
the Guildhall in North Keep, ready for a level-up. Probably you will want to
do the level-up before proceeding. To start a quest then, you will want to join
Alias in the South Keep. It is natural to want to start the action as soon as
possible, especially after sitting through the cutscenes and chitchat, and that
may actually be the best approach. Alternatively, you could collect a bunch of
quests on the way. In the Guild Hall, you can talk to Alias' aunt Serah
Blackhand in the Landowners' Guild Office (SE corner) to officially get the
"Buying Time" quest (clear goblins from a cave on Serah's property.) You can
also talk to "The Stan" in the Trades Guild Office (SW corner) to get one of
three Quests he offers, which might be called "Cows and Kobolds" (easy), "the
Archiologist" (medium), and "Duerger" (quite hard.) (I advise doing them in that
order eventually.) Then proceeding to the South Keep, as you pass along the row
of shops in South Keep you can get the "Stiletto" quest from Fitch at the
Pawnshop, and the "Manticore" quest from Levio'Sa at the Quartermaster's Store.
(You should probably postpone the quests involving persuasion until you have
leveled up a few times.)
Whether you pick up all these quests at this time or not, you will eventually
want to do all available quests before you go after the mysterious enemy,
because you want to reach the highest possible level for that very hard fight.
By the way, as you go down the line of shops, you might want to approach each
shopowner in turn and see what they offer for something you have. I found that
comparative pricing of their offerings was hard because their inventories were
often different, but the shop that offers you the most for your own goods, will
offer to sell you his wares at the best price as well. An additional general
observation: when you level up, your Hit Points increase by 1 + 1d4; by doing
the level-up repeatedly, canceling when the HP increment is less than 5, you
can arrange to always get 5 additional HP.
In addition to the quests involving both fighting and vote-getting, there is at
least one that involves fighting but no vote-getting. This is called
"Invaders in the Keep" in the Journal and is obtained by entering the Prison
(Prison Tower, NE corner of North Keep.) (Don't enter the Prison at this time.)
I shall treat all these "fighting" quests in order easy to hard. However, my
judgement may be biased due to the order in which I happened to attempt them. I
shall list the quests with the name given them in the Journal. In writing this
FAQ, I replayed the game with Calibast and Kaidala as henchmen. Note that once
you enter a cave, ruin or other structure, you cannot rest. You have to go
back outside to do that.
"Kobolds and Chickens and Cows, Oh My!"
This is obtained from The Stan in the Guildhall. It involves killing all the
kobolds in the cave and leading the cows out of the cave. Don't forget to give
your henchmen armor and weapons before you start. In dialog with Alias, this
is called the "Masked Man's supply caves." The combat needs no comment. In the
second of the combat sites, there is a bag of grain. Take the grain. Finish
clearing out the kobolds. In leading the cows out, your henchmen tend to
complicate matters, my practice is to ask them to "Stand their ground"
somewhere out of the way. Put the "grain" in the quickbar. Click on the grain
and then put the cursor in the vicinity of the cows. The cows will then
approach you. Leading them to the exit is tedious, especially because the
fourth cow tends to get left behind. All four must be brought to the exit to
succeed in the quest. After completing the task, return to The Stan for your
reward and XP credit.
"Buying Time"
The game seems oriented towards making this the first quest, since you dont
even have to talk to Serah to get it. It may not show up in the quest
list in the journal, but if you arent prompt in starting it, Alias bugs you.
In the goblin cave, unlike that of the kobolds, there are traps. They can be
handled by instructing a party member to "handle" them -- which may amount to
simply setting them off. Alternatively, a wizards familiar can be possessed
and used to set them off. (Obviously, Trip can handle them if he is in the
party.) In the large SE segment of the cave, be sure to collect the goblin
chieftain's head. This area has two small side-chambers. Make sure to search
them both for some good loot (watch out for the traps.) Many of the doors and
chests in the goblin cave are locked and/or trapped and have to be broken open,
lacking a rogue. A wizard at level 2 should have the Knock spell, though that
may mean a trip to the outside to prepare it. In addition, part of the loot is
a Scabbard of Blessing. Identifying it may require the Identify spell. In a
locked (un-bashable) room in the NW are a group of enslaved farmhands. The key
to the lock is found on the remains of a goblin shaman in the SW region.
Releasing the slaves brings a 500 XP return. By the side of the tunnel leading
to the NE goblin area is a "pile of stones" that can be pushed. If you do so,
rubble falls to block the tunnel. You probably dont want to do that until you
have killed the goblins up there. At the end of the quest, Serah agrees to put
off the election three times. She also wants you to buy a haunted house for
2000 GP. At this point in the game, you probably cant afford it. If you
approach her later, the way to open that line of dialog is to say you are
interested in "buying land." Curiously enough, if you talk to Serah before
dealing with the goblins and do the Kobolds first, the Journal entry for
Serah's quest doesn't show up. If you just go do the goblin cave without even
talking to Serah until afterwards, it does show up.
"Slip me some skin"
The goal is to kill the Manticore, preferably via poison gas, and obtain its
skin for Levio'Sa. (Alias' destination is the "wizards' school ruins.") The
Manticore is behind a wide, elaborate door controlled by a lever just to the
NE of the building entrance. Leave it until the rest of the building has been
explored. There are some traps, which I usually set off with my familiar, a
pseudo-dragon. In various rooms, you will find Poison Crystals, clearly
intended for gassing the manticore.
Blink dogs are especially frequent in this episode. They act as allies and
help kill enemies. However, I notice that the more blink dogs, the fewer the
enemies and therefore the less XP gained. In some cases, I have seen blink dogs
killing enemies just too soon for me the gain XP from them. Each "room" should
have some enemies. If you find blink dogs and no enemies, you may want to do
something. Simply reloading and running the sequence again may lead to better
results. Removing Kaidala from the party seems definitely to help. I also
notice that the smaller the party, the larger the XP gain. (With Calibast alone
in my party, a krenshar was worth 66 XP; when the party included my familiar
and a summoned animal, the krenshar was only worth 47. XP is a key issue, since
you tend to be just on the edge of LevUp to 9 when the final battle starts.)
After looting all the other rooms, you should have 5 poison crystals and a lot
of other goodies. Now for the manticore. He is in a room separated from your
access point by an antechamber with heavy doors on both ends. The doors are
locked by levers that are on the outside of the antechamber. The antechamber
contains barrels intended for the crystals. Examining the barrels, we are told
that operation of an appropriate lever will crush the crystals. I searched
everywhere and the only levers are those that operate the two doors of the
antechamber. Ideally one would entice the manticore into the antechamber,
close and lock both doors with poison crystals in the barrels. Unfortunately,
although it is possible to open and close the doors from the inside, you must
be outside to operate the levers. I couldnt figure out how to do that on both
ends of the antechamber. I was unable to get my henchmen or familiar to operate
the levers. So I just had to kill the manticore. The first step is to become
invisible and sneak into the manticores room to loot the pile of Giant Bones in
the SE corner. The boots you find, once identified, are Boots of Hardiness +1.
The manticore's attack is a flurry of spikes which act like guided missiles and
get you even if you run around a corner. They are instantly fatal UNLESS you
are wearing the boots. As a wizard, my approach was to collect a team, wear
the boots, go invisible, hit the manticore with a fireball and run away. After
the manticore is engaged with the rest of the team, I can peak around the
corner and launch magic missiles at it. Not a very heroic approach, but typical
of what a wizard has to do. (If anybody has figured out how to gas the
manticore, please let me know!) However you killed the manticore, dont forget
to collect its hide to gshow to Levio'Sa.
"Til Death do us part"
This is one of the Stan's quests. Here we accompany an archeologist, Ohio
Smith, in exploring a ruin filled withskeletons, zombies and other undead. Some
are quite powerful and give good XP. (Dont use negative energy weapons - they
cure the undead! Watch out for traps!) In various rooms and from various
remains, you will recover colored bits of glass. Keep them; they will be
important later.
There are a total of 6 pieces of colored glass. When they are all in hand, it
will be possible to open the door in the NW corner of the "checkerboard" square
(see map.) Click on the "Jewel Box" chest and a ghost appears; the ghost utters
a series of color clues. The result specifies the manner in which the pieces of
colored glass are supposed to be placed in the jars. The pattern is NW=red,
N=Yellow, NE=orange, SW=green, S=purple, SE=blue. When the glass pieces are
correctly placed, the door opens. Beyond the door we find the "Advisor's"
journal and the orb, which turns out to be broken. However, Ohio pronounces
himself satisfied. Dont leave that last square without looting the chest and
rubble pile in the SE corner.
"A Sharp Prisoner"
Fitch at the Pawnshop offered his vote if a friend "Stiletto" could be freed
from jail. One way to do it is to appeal to Enivid, who is standing in the
archway separating the inner and outer parts of the guildhall. At level 6, with
Persuade ability 4, the following sequence of responses worked: 2., 1., 1., 1.,
1.[Persuade] or if that doesn't work follow it with 2.[Bluff]. It is advisable
to do a save immediately before this attempt, so it can be repeated if it
doesnt work the first time. Return to Fitch at the Pawnbshop for 1000 XP and
the Cloak of Spiders. Fitch will vote for you on a condition; answer carefully!
(Best do a save beforehand, just in case.)
"Home Improvement"
This shows up in the journal when you buy the haunted house from Serah
Blackhand. When you enter the house you have the chance to kill a number of
spirits (total XP gain about 500). You gain loot probably worth more than the
house cost. There is a secret passage that leads to a grate through which you
hear a very interesting conversation involving Sir Becket, one of your election
opponents. Overhearing this compromising conversation opens up the Journal
entry "Beauty or the Beast." It is possible to rest in the house once the
spirits have been killed. The house can also be completely exorcised by Lavos
Gallian the priestess of the Death Goddess. The price is one of the
resurrections provided by your magic weapon. Incidentally, when you overhear
Sir Becket, there is a chance for you to recover the ring he has dropped thru
the grate. This is a dexterity test and you may want to boost your dexterity
and/or save beforehand to try multiple times.
"Beauty or the Beast"
If you choose to speak to Lady Elisia next door, you can convince her that Sir
Becket is having an affair with her maid if you have the ring. With the right
series of responses, she will break off with Sir Becket and give you her vote
(nobles guild.) You gain 1000 XP plus the ring from this exploit.
"The Holy Triumvirate"
To obtain the vote of the Priests' guild, first approach Lavos Gallian, the
Priestess of the Death Goddess (Temple, SE corner). She agrees to support you.
Next approach Rafael Leonallomen (NE corner). He must be bribed; he asks 2000
GP but may reduce it to 1700 with a successful "Bluff." Finally talk to
Dynschall (due E). When he questions you, answer that you would NOT put the
interests of the church above those of the community.
"A Legacy in Blood"
Talk to Yenna at the Mage Tower. Follow the conversational path that leads her
to reveal your outsider blood and to suggest that you talk to Garrot at the
Silver Lily. Do so. Then return to Yenna. Yenna will vote for you. Otherwise
this side-theme may be interesting in its own right but contributes nothing in
the way of XP.
"Nobody Tosses a Dwarf" This is the third and hardest of The Stan's quests.
When you first arrive at the dwarven cave, a Dwarf named Dolin Archenland is
there. Talk to him to learn about a lever that will give you access to the
mage's hangout. The hardest parts of this quest are the mage himself, found in
the NE corner room, with access via a lever in a SE room, and a pair of very
tough fighters found in the NW room after a winding passage, southeast then
west then north. The NW room also has a bunch of lesser mages and clerics. The
game plan is to do everything except those two rooms, then suck the two
fighters out of the room where they can be dealt with without any other
support, then finish off the NW room and finally go for the hard mage in the NE
room. One advantage of this approach is that the two fighters have some very
good armor and weapons that your fighter can take advantage of in the
subsequent fight against the mage.
When you pass through the door that the lever unlocked (second door towards
mage -- the first was bashable), you will enter a room with a "key chest" and a
riddle door. Take all the keys. The door opens onto 6 other area. Each has a
riddle door just like this one. The seventh riddle and key lead back to this
door. Each riddle, when matched with the correct key, leads to a different
area. The riddles and keys are matched in the following fashion: 1.silver,
2.skull, 3.tooth, 4.copper, 5.barb, 6.gold and 7.shell. Number 6 leads to the
mage and number 7 leads back here. The other 5 lead to islands with enemies to
be fought. I suggest you do so before you tackle the mage. Returning to this
antechamber with key 7 permits you to exit and rest if necessary -- I suggest
you do so before going against the mage. (You will probably want to tell your
companions NOT to help you open doors.) The 4th key leads to a succubus,
initially "near death." Depending on how you react, she will either die
(14 XP) or come to life and give you a hard fight (298 XP with a team of 3,
348 with a team of 2). When you come to the mage, he will summon a huge fire
elemental. I found that I needed a party of at least 2: one to fight the
elemental, and one to distract the mage (otherwise he killed me). While the
mage was distracted, I could hit him with fireballs and magic missiles. I
invariably lost the weaker member of my party and had to resuscitate her with
the aid of my magic weapon. It turned out that my familiar could also provide
adequate distraction and the XP total was exactly the same (1200 XP).
"Kaidala's Trust"
Kaidala gives you an acorn and asks you to plant it in a good spot. In
wandering the countryside you discover a "door" where a stream enters the
forest just above the lake in the extreme SE corner. YOu enter a beautiful
grove and find a spot of dirt where you can plant the acorn. This does not
seem to provide any XP but may possibly make Kaidala stronger.
"The Hermit's Honey"
This is not a quest that ever appears in the Journal, but it is worth 1000 XP!
In the Empty Battlefield panel, there is a door to the Hermit's Grove. You can
enter and talk to the Hermit. Kaidala plays a role in advising you and
reassuring the Hermit -- I'm not sure how this would play if she wasn't in the
party. The bottom line is that somebody has put an assassin's dagger in one
of his bee-hives. For removing it and telling him about it, you get 1000 XP,
the dagger(VERY valuable) and a bucket of honey. This must tie in with the
"cows" quest where a kobold runs up to you asking for honey when you enter the
cave , but I did not pursue this possibility.
"Invaders in the Keep"
When you enter the prison, Dylan Ogder informs you that the prisoners taken in
the battle have now mutinied and are threatening to overrun the guards. You,
of course, agree to take care of the job. Enter the Prison Dungeon and go for
it: enter every open cell door and deal with the attackers. (The locked door
you immediately encounter on your right is your return door -- you will open it
from the other side when you are done.) Killing the invaders will gain you
about 2000 XP. You get another 500 from Dylan when you report back to him.
Miscellaneous notes:
A vote but not a named quest: See the discussion of Thadeus Squilt and
Gelani Jathorn in the above section listing the stores and other vendors.
The election may be called before you are really ready. Try to insure that
quests with substantial XP results are completed. It may be possible to defer
the election by deliberately NOT getting the minimum 5 votes. For example,
don't report back to Levio'Sa or bribe the priest. The election itself, by the
way, gives you 5000 XP. I have managed to win the election with as many as 7
votes. It ought to be possible to win with 8, but I haven't managed it.
There is an advantage to returning to town across country from a quest --
namely, various enemies to be killed. I cannot say for sure the enemies respawn
indefinately, thus permitting an unlimited XP gain, but there are certain spots
where they do recur several times. I have managed to gain over 7000 XP by
fooling around in the countryside long enough.
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#5) Final Battle
After you are elected, the only quest available is the final battle. After the
election your character may be anything from level 7 to 9, perhaps within
striking distance of 10. The final battle consists of one of the usual
collections of rooms and passages to be negotiated, killing opponents along the
way, followed by the illithid's tunnel, ending in the illithid's own chamber.
In that chamber, which you cannot exit once entered, you face the illithid and
two mind devourers. They have strong mind attacks. After you beat the illithid,
you can exit the room and immediately find yourself in the throneroom being
hailed by a crowd. That's it. There is literally nothing after it. Therefore,
you may as well spend any money you have accumulated on whatever may be useful,
keeping in mind that the real crux is the illithid himself. More on that below.
After election, you must designate the Banner and Hand. I promoted Enivid to
Banner and got things going by talking to her and saying I was ready to take
action. I told her to keep all the soldiers to guard the keep, and that I alone
would deal with the invaders. Alias then took me to the caves. The appropriate
building's door can now be opened and a pin designating it appears on the map.
After a psionic communication with the illithid, a system of bouncing energy
balls is set in motion that have to be dodged as you go down the hallways.
Make your way via the east hallway to the device that generates them -- a large
mirror, fighting off the Duerger and Drow who are defending it. Interact with
the mirror to turn it counter-clockwise so the balls shoot off in a harmless
direction. At this point you are in a center-north area. A bridge leads to a
further area due north. If you explore it, you will find a barrier. Clicking
on the barrier reveals that 5 keys are needed to open it. Getting the keys is
your next task. Go south to what is apparently a blank wall. A hidden door
will be found. (Two chests are immediately to its east.) The room reached by it
(defended by Drow) has the controller for the energy balls. Turn them off.
Now explore all the rooms you can reach and collect 4 keys. There are some
pretty serious fights along the way.
The fifth key is behind a hidden door in the middle of the long east corridor,
opposite the "mysterious bracket." The game seems to develop somewhat
differently at this point. In one run, I had to blast a doorway there with the
energy balls. (Lift and move one of the mirrors other than the one in the NE
corner and put it in the "mysterious bracket." Turn the generator mirror to
shoot east. Turn on the control for the energy balls.) In another run, the
mirror I wanted to move was immovable but the one I needed to leave in place
(NE corner) could be lifted. The door then appeared without further effort.
Once you have all 5 keys, you can pass through the door on the north bridge.
You will pass through a series of tunnels and chambers. You encounter the
dead members of your former group of 4, now hostile until they are beaten down
a bit. Next you enter a chamber with 3 Intellect Devourers. Review the
log to get an idea what works or doesnt work with these opponents, because
they are the illithid's support team in the final battle. (They are vulnerable
to cold and physical but not to fire. They cast dominate person.) The door at
the end of the tunnel in the "Illithid Temple" leads to the final battle. Once
through it there is no return, so it is very advisable to do a save and buff up
just before passing through it. You now face the illithid and two Intellect
Devourers. The illithid may urge you to attack himself rather than his allies.
This is a pretty clear indication that you should do the reverse. There are
many ways to win this battle. A fighter type might simply respawn as many times
as needed (or as many as the remaining charges on his magic weapon permit.)
A weak wizard (or other arcane spell user) might run over to the chest on the
right nearest the tentacle and take the spells from it. Two casts of Horrid
Wilting pretty much clears the battlefield. (A variant of this approach would
involve buying some high level attack scrolls from Yenna before entering.)
If you saved before entering you might enjoy fighting the battle over in
several ways.
When you leave the room (the door now can be opened), you immediately find
yourself in the throne room being acclaimed. This is the end -- a blank screen
follows.
