THE DARK QUEEN OF KRYNN
MAZES EXPLANATION
Most of the mazes in the game have no coordinate numbers so the walkthru is
mainly descriptions of what you have to do and general directions on how to do
it. Coordinates are given where the maze shows them. The term "small"
indicates a maze that will fit within the traditional 16x16 maze size.
PALANTHAS
You start out in Palanthas. Getting orders to investigate Caergoth from
Laurana is all you can do here.
CAERGOTH
This is a small simple maze. You get here automatically when you leave
Palanthas. You arrive in the woods just outside the city. Follow the path to
the city gates. There are encounters at (9,8) and (6,9) that give information.
There is only one encounter that gives experience points. That is a fight with
dragons that happens when you have been in the city long enough and occurs at
whatever square your party happens to be in. You can travel back and forth
between Caergoth and Palanthas as many times as you want before leaving
Caergoth on Captain Daenor's ship at (8,14).
CAVE
The mission is to rescue the townspeople of Caergoth. The maze is 28x28.
There is one group of townspeople and one old woman to be rescued. The old
woman gives a Necklace of Missiles. You must also chase Crysia, Daenor's
sister, around the cave. There are three encounters with her. Everything else
is optional. Beware of the red robe enemy wizards. They have a variety of
protective spells in effect. Cast a Dispel Magic on them to neutralize the
spells.
The group of townspeople is in the southwest portion of the caves. They can
reached from the main entrance by going north and then west from where the
party finds a trap which can be tripped for a battle or disarmed. This leads
to the first encounter with Crysia. From there go south and west.
To find the old woman, start from where you first found Crysia. Go north.
This leads to the second encounter with Crysia. Go west and then north past
the piercers. At the "T," go east until the north/south "T." Always choose the
south branch and you will reach the old woman.
To get out of the cave from the old woman's location, retrace your steps
until the tunnel forks. From then on, go east and north and you will have one
more encounter with Crysia before finding the exit from the cave.
NAULIDIS/CELANOST
This is a multi-part mission. First, you must defend Naulidis from sea dragon
attacks. Then, you must go to Celanost to end the attacks. Finally, you deal
with the instigator of the attacks. These parts can only be done in this
order. You can train in the north safe hall IF you step on the right square.
Many spells do not work in Naulidis. Lightning Bolt acts like a Fireball
spell so when you have an opportunity to rest after the Cave, get rid of all
the Fireball spells and memorize Lightning Bolt instead. The map in Journal
entry 64 is basically correct. One door is misplaced and there may be some
other minor errors. The best way to deal with the sea dragons is to give the
Boots of Speed, Ring of Free Action, and Dragonlance to your fighter with the
best HP. (The Boots and Dragonlance are from DEATH KNIGHTS OF KRYNN.) You get
the ring in Naulidis.
NAULIDIS
You start off in the 4-square room due east of the southern safe hall. You
must fight some fixed encounters and perform various randomly generated deeds
to complete the Naulidis portion of this mission. Lyzian will meet you once
you have done all these deeds.
1. You will fight a battle at the first one of the doors leading to the Ocean
that you visit.
2. You will fight a battle in the temple in the south part of the city.
3. You will fight a battle in the 4-square room in the south part of the
city due east of the armory.
You may not have all the below deeds as they are randomly generated. Some of
these random events may be location-dependent as well, so step on EVERY
square. The random deeds are:
1. You will get a request to find Irenia. If you Look in the guard rooms that
seem empty, you will find her. Escort her to a safe hall.
2. Various groups of elves you randomly encounter need to be escorted to a
safe hall.
3. In one of the safe halls you will get a request to get a replacement hinge
from the Forge room.
4. You will be asked to bring spears to the fighters at the doors to the
Ocean.
5. You will be asked to heal wounded elves.
6. You will repel an attack on the safe hall.
When you meet Lyzian after enough of these deeds are done, he will tell you
that Daenor can be found in the Prince's Chamber. You will not find Daenor
until this happens. Bring Daenor to one of the safe halls. He will reveal the
cause of the sea dragons' attacks.
CELANOST
The tunnel connecting Naulidis and Celanost has nothing of interest and is
very straightforward. No mapping is needed. Just march south to Celanost.
Celanost is a small maze. The only point of interest is the room that leads
to the egg maze. To get there from the entrance, go south and take the first
westward arch. This puts you in a cross-shaped room. Take the north exit. Go
north to the dead end with doors to the east and west. Go through the west
door.
At the first large room in the egg maze, there is a door to the south. Go
through it. This leads to a side corridor to the next room where you will foil
an ambush. In a room beyond that room is a fireplace worth taking a Look at.
There will be a battle in the first of the rooms to the south that you enter,
but you will have the element of surprise if you go in the west room. The door
to the north leads to the eggs. You should start using the windows to enter
rooms from this point on to foil more ambushes. You encounter some sea dragons
once you leave Celanost with the eggs. Giving the eggs to the sea dragons is
the wise thing to do.
After returning from Celanost, a visit to the Prince's Chamber triggers the
last battle.
HIZDEN
The only things to do in this small fishing village is visit to Ezra and wait
for a Sahuagin attack. That will come soon.
LUMINARI LIGHTHOUSE
The mission is very simple: find Fastillion. He provides hints and two keys
needed for Kristophan. The short way is to go up to the 8th floor, turn off
the teleporter control, jump into the pit, and search for a way up. Now,
Search for secret doors that lead to teleporters. The first one found leads to
the ground floor but you don't want to take it just yet. The other one is
about the area where the entrance would be and will be harder to find. That
leads to Fastillion. The exit from his secret lab is through the pit again.
This time, you want to take the first teleporter. If you go all the way to the
11th floor, you will gain some useful loot when you return to the 10th floor.
There are many optional battles on all the floors that yield loot. Even though
you do not need to go up to the top, the experience points and loot make it
worthwhile.
Each floor of the tower is an 8x8 maze and the floors line up. The pit is
always in the same relative location as are the connecting stairwells on each
floor. Except for that hard-to-find secret door to the second teleporter, this
is actually a very simple maze; however, there are many, many teleporters in
this maze. Except for the gnome and female elf, this is a free fire zone maze.
You can kill everyone else you meet. No place is completely save to rest, but
you can often succeed after defeating enough spiders and bats. The exception
is the bottom of the pit where no rest is possible.
KRISTOPHAN
This is the next place to visit after the lighthouse. The main mission is to
gain the 5 pieces of the Oracle. You cannot do anything about the Minotaurs'
tyranny over the humans, so avoid unnecessarily irritating them. It will make
your stay in Kristophan harder. There is one thing that can be done to
encourage the local humans to fight back which is described later on.
You start off outside the home of Eshalla. Repeated kissing of Eshalla will
disenchant her. The reward is a Cloak of Displacement. If you respond
favorably to her afterward, she will also give you a Helm+3 and a Dagger+4
later on as you wander around Kristophan. These encounters happen randomly.
Leaving Eshalla's home gives the option to enter the city proper.
Kristophan is divided into the mixed human/minotaur quarter and the minotaur
compound to the west. There is a northern section that your characters cannot
enter. In the minotaur section there is one fixed encounter where you attempt
to rescue a human from an old minotaur. This results in a trip to the arena.
It is worthwhile to do this as victory in the arena yields some very useful
armor and weapons; otherwise, avoid all encounters in the minotaur area except
for random fights with minotaur bullies.
Due west of the gates to Kristophan is the only vault in the game. By now
your characters have a lot of stuff to dump. The Tenderloin Inn at the south-
east corner is a good place to rest. At the east end of town is a shop to ID
items. About the middle of town is an old woman who will let your party rest.
The building complex to the southeast of the old woman is a fixed battle that
is tough but yields a lot of loot. Due south of the old woman's home is the
People's Temple. It is also a magic shop. It offers a random selection of mage
scrolls. This is a good place to spend some of your money.
West of the temple is a home where you can find out about the Book of
Amrocar. Visiting the library in the minotaur section will yield more
information on the book. It is a critical item in the game. Near the arena is
a training hall. At the north end of town is a closed temple that you will not
be able to enter until Selias joins your party but note its location. You will
need to get there in a hurry once you find Selias. Selias is in the Frosty Mug
and meeting him triggers a dragon attack. Flee immediately to the closed
temple and you can start your main mission.
The closed temple is the entrance to the Tombs where you need to go. The
Tombs is composed of 8 mazes. You enter in the Thieves' Guild maze that's
connected to the white hall maze. The white hall maze is the starting point
for finding each of the 5 pieces of the oracle.
The Thieves' maze has nothing of significance beyond battles and loot. You
need to find the various hidden doorways that lead to the white hall maze.
Move with Search on. It is generally a good idea to move with Search on in all
the Tombs's mazes.
In the white hall maze are:
1. A trapdoor that leads to a piece of the oracle but a circlet of gold is
needed to retrieve that piece.
2. A teleporter that leads to a piece of the oracle but a heart-shaped key is
needed to retrieve the piece.
3. A teleporter that leads to a small maze with a battle.
4. A teleporter that leads to the circus maze where another piece of the
oracle can be found.
5. A secret door that leads to a teleporter in another room that leads to a
maze where the heart-shaped key can be found. There are two teleporters in the
heart-shaped key maze. Both lead back to the white hall. One goes back through
another maze.
6. Stairs to the second level of the Tombs. Use the gold key from Fastillion.
7. A secret door to an evil temple dedicated to Hiddukel. The eyes are
cursed.
The second level of the tombs contain the remaining two pieces of the oracle.
The first piece is easy to find and get. The second piece is among the loot
from a very hard battle with vampires. In the vampire battle room are two
teleporters. One leads back to the white hall. The other leads to the column
maze.
The column maze is strictly for loot. It is an endlessly repeating maze. Five
hollow columns contain loot. One requires the rusty key to open. To get out of
the maze, find a solid column. There is a teleporter back to the white hall
due south of one of the solid columns.
HULDERFOLK
This is actually the first mission that is necessary. All the above missions
provided experience points, loot, and clues as to what to do but nothing that
is needed to complete the game. This mission provides two critical items: the
ring of deception (which detects deception) and the scale necklace. The
location of the Hulderfolk is hinted at in the pub at Trilloman. They are due
east of the city.
This maze has coordinates until the Mother of Trees task, then the
coordinates vanish. The solution is simple. If you head due east, you will
find the Mother of Trees (13,12). You start at (7,5). Tasslehoff Burrfoot is
found at (1,6). When you rest, Elea will come and give you language lessons if
you Wait. This is needed to complete the mission. Once you have learned all
the words (5 in all), you can proceed to (7,11). The answer to the challenge
is Gebene. Then proceed to (7,10). Do NOT greet Elea. The answers to the
Queen's questions are Gebene, Shuwara, Limene, Bilbara, Limene. There are
further questions but the answers are obvious.
To leave, you must count the leaves of the Mother of Trees. The coordinates
disappear then but remember you are at (7,10) and most go to (13,12). Note the
number of leaves you count. You will be asked to repeat it. The numbers are
randomly generated. Once you have a number, going due west will return you to
the glade. You do not have to go back to exactly (7,10). You must repeat the
counting task until you figure out the solution to this puzzle. If you do not,
then Elea will rescue you. Once you have done this task, the exit is north of
the glade. Do as Elea asked. It is actually the only way to accomplish
something later on.
NEW AURIM
This is logically the next mission and it has two parts: the town and the
palace. The main mission in the town is to get a clay pass to get into the
palace. The optional secondary mission is to help the rebels; however, the
advantages of doing this make helping the rebels worth doing. The main
mission in the palace is to disrupt the creation of more draconians and force
Trandamere to flee to Hawkbluff. Until you do this, nothing happens in
Hawkbluff.
The town is a 22x22 maze. The first floor of the palace occupies the center
of the maze.
There are two ways to get a clay pass. The Thenol commander will give you one
once you get orders from a Thenol officer in town. The rebels will give you
one if you kill the Thenol officer and you help them. You can get only one
pass. Once you get into the palace, you should not leave until you have
accomplished the palace mission.
The first thing to do is enlist in the Thenol army. It makes the whole
mission much easier. Then, you can explore the town and help the rebels. The
key aid is freeing the prisoners. All else seems to be optional. The rebels
have safe resting places, a magic shop, and two training halls you can use.
The Hith temple in town is cleared by asking for a special blessing. Getting
out is a three-part battle.
Once you have cleared the town, it's time to visit the palace. The ground and
upper floors are 15x15 mazes. The dungeon is a 16x30 maze with a smaller 4x10
Crypts maze.
This mission has three parts. First, you have to go to the dungeon to get the
recruits. You can handle this part two ways. The easy way is get the recruits
and try to lead them to Hawkbluff. The hard way is to refuse to do this. This
leads to a very big battle. You should leave when the battle is over as you
cannot do anything more until you see the queen.
In either case, you can then visit the king. Actually, the person you want to
talk to is the queen. She will help your character. Finally, you must go back
down to the dungeon to stop the transformation of more dragon eggs into
draconians. The Crypts is optional and has some minor loot. At some point you
should meet Grunschka. She is a good NPC to add to your party and she'll stay
with it to the end. The second story of the palace has some encounters worth
looking for. The royal chambers have nothing of significance except meetings
with the king and queen.
You can rest on the ground floor and below once you locate and disable the
gong.
HAWKBLUFF
WARNING: There is a bug in some versions of this game. If you confront
Trandamere by going in through the front door of his room, you will not be
able to leave Hawkbluff. You must go in through the secret back entrance with
Davik. A ziggurat pass gets you into the room through the front door. (See BUG
LIST at the end of this walkthru.)
The clues in New Aurim point to this place as the next stop. The goal is to
recover the lost book of Amrocar. The maze here is a mapper's delight or
nightmare depending on how you feel about mapping. Accomplishing the mission
is extremely simple once you figure it out. You need to find Davik and have
him lead your party into Trandamere's room by the secret back door. Fight and
chase Trandamere until he escapes. During the fight, the book was thrown down
a dumbwaiter which is waiting for the party in the kitchen.
Everything else is optional. There are encounters in the catacombs and there
are encounters after Trandamere flees in the Temple, Senate, and Library.
There are battles with draconians on levels 4 and 5 (Temple level). It is NOT
a good idea to attack anyone until after defeating Trandamere. Once the
fortress is alerted, the battles are so numerous that you will not be able to
do much else except fight battle after battle.
To find Davik, see the jeweler and get a keyhole pass. Go through the front
entry and take the first stairs to the left. Go east to find where you need a
quill pass. Return to the jeweler to get a quill pass and return. You may need
to wander a bit before the jeweler will deal with you again. Go down the
corridor and check the rooms to the west. One will have the lantern pass and
Davik release. Go back to the first floor. Go north one square and then due
west and follow the corridor south. This takes you to the jail and the jailer
will take you to Davik.
Davik will give you directions to where you want to go. A Look will allow you
to ask directions or cancel a previous request. You want to go to the Senate.
You want to follow Trandamere as he flees. Once he successfully flees through
the teleporter, you want Davik to lead you to the kitchen where you recover
the book. With the book, you can ask Davik to lead you to the Exit, or you can
wander around looking for encounters before leaving. While you can attempt to
rest after chasing Trandamere away, the only place with any chance of doing so
is in the catacombs.
BAI'OR
This is an optional mission. The objective is to free the town. This mission
has two parts. First, you must clear the town of Sharkmen. This can only be
done by finding Anthela who is hiding in the library which is at the west side
of the town square. Then, you must go to the woods at the north end of town
and kill the dragons there. This requires 3 battles. The battles seem to be
random but try going to locations (14,3), (9,2), and (8,2). Do not kill the
deformed dragon: he has information. There will be coordinates when you enter
the woods. Surprisingly, Bai'or has a magic shop and it opens after your party
defeats the sharkmen. It is at the east side of the town square.
BLACKWATER GLADE
This place is not marked on the map but is due east of New Aurim. It is
useful to add Baldric to the party even though he seems to be useless. The
mission here is to enlist the aid of the dragons. To do this you must fight a
certain number of fixed battles and confront Tremor. The only truly safe place
to rest is Clematra's lair. A Look will reveal if a place is relatively safe.
You cannot enter Baldranous' lair. The secret word to enter Tremor's lair is
written on the side of Journal entry 25 and is backwards. Attack Tremor and
chase him when he flees. When he is cornered, be merciful. Tremor wants the
scale necklace you got from the Hulderfolk. Spare his life when given the
Vorpal sword. Afterward, you can return to Clematra's lair for more rewards.
If you accept the offer to see the gnome king, that starts the final sequence.
If you need anything from the bank at Kristophan, it is best to go there
before going to Aldinanachru. There is a shop and a training hall at
Aldinanachru.
ALDINANACHRU
The mission is to find and rescue the real gnome king. All else is optional
but worth doing for the loot. The king is imprisoned on the guest level. The
entry is at the southwest corner. The training hall is on the workshop level.
The shop is on the guest level. The palace, workshop, guest, and ground level
are 16x16 mazes.
FLAME TOWER AND ENDGAME
The Flame Tower is a series of 16x16 mazes. The floors appear to line up. You
start off at level 4 but immediately drop down to level 0. You cannot go to
the next level until you have accomplish something on each level. There are
many other things to be done on each floor and some time should be spent doing
them for the experience points and loot. Note the locations of stairs. Blocked
stairs will open up as the mission progresses. A Look will reveal what level
you are on.
On level 0 the objective is simply clear all the rooms and find the stairs
up. It does not matter which one you take.
On level 1, the key action is letting the gnomes into the fortress. The
portal is at the southeast corner of the floor. You must enter the fiery walls
to find the way up.
On level 2, the way to the next level is by releasing Dahmia. She is Elea's
mother and she'll take you to the next level when you say "Elea" to her. The
prisons are in the northwest corner of the level.
On level 3, the way to the next level is to find the source of the
draconian's power. This is inside the fire section at the south end of the
level. Due east of the source is the font master. After the fight at the
source, you can get a lift up at a shaft.
On level 4, you must find the Temple. That draws you into the Abyss where you
meet Raistlin. Follow the corridor until you see a series of arches. The
innermost room defined by those arches is the Temple. There is a big two-part
battle that must be won. You go directly into the abyss after the battle.
You can rest in the abyss only after you arrive. There is no rest afterwards.
This sequence is simple. Go west until you see a building. It will be just
south of your line of travel. Rescue Raistlin AFTER talking with him, and then
go due west to find THE DARK QUEEN OF KRYNN. The object is to return through
the portal. You cannot defeat Takhisis and you cannot rescue Raistlin.
The exact sequence is Creep, Creep, Wait, Throw (use someone with high
Dexterity; success is a random event but you should succeed unless the dice
rolls are really bad.), Run, Wait, and Jump. Do NOT investigate the tripod.
Save the game, heal, and then move away after casting preparatory spells.
The final part of the Flame Tower mission is to hunt down the missing
Grathanich. At this point, the various blocked stairways should be open, so
you can use them to move from floor to floor. The Grathanich is on the second
floor in the northwest section of the level just south of the prison cells.
After this battle you return to Aldinanachru for the victory celebration.
Train and rest first before attending as there is one last battle to be
fought.
BUG LIST
The following are known bugs in Version 1.0 of THE DARK QUEEN OF KRYNN:
1. Sometimes you cannot get some of your characters back under control after
putting them in Quick mode no matter how fast you hit the space bar.
2. The computer will sometimes put monsters in a room with no doors. The
only way to end a battle in this case is to flee the area. This bug in
conjunction with bug 1 means that the only way to end the battle in this case
is to reboot the system. You can avoid this battle or enter the battle area
from another direction. This rearranges the battlefield disposition of the
enemy troops and the close room problem may not occur.
3. Normally, characters who are ready to train to the next level have their
names highlighted in purple. In some cases this will not happen. This bug
effects multi-class characters who have reached the limit in one of their
classes but not the other. Periodically check the experience points of your
characters or try to train all of them anytime you are in a training hall. The
game does not allow any knight other than Knights of the Rose to advance
beyond level 18. This is a feature.
4. In Hawkbluff you may be stuck in a situation where you cannot continue to
play the game. See the Hawkbluff section for more details. It is a good idea
to save the game before Hawkbluff and keep that save until you have completed
the mission just in case you encounter this bug. There is a fix for the
problem in The Game Publishers Forum (GO GAMPUB).
5. In the Fire Tower you may find yourself teleported into a room you cannot
get out of. The workaround is to reboot and avoid that square.
6. One useful bug is the magic scrolls randomly created by the People's
Temple in Kristophan do NOT abide by the alignment restrictions.
7. The previous games did not enforce the spell limits based on intelligence
and wisdom correctly. This games does. The correction only happens if a
character gets drained and restored. When that happens, the spell limits are
properly enforced. This is not a bug but may look like one if this happens to
your character.
Walkthrough:
Part I: Getting Started
Dark Queen of Krynn (or DQK for short) is somewhat atypical for a gold box game. In particular, where the usual AD&D product pretty much leads you by the nose so you have no trouble staying on track, DQK goes in the other direction, not giving you much help at all in deciding what to do or where to go next. Sometimes, even when you think you know where to visit, nothing seems to be happening there (or at least, nothing of much importance). Also, a number of events are triggered by doing certain things, some of them not very obvious. This is especially the case in the Tower of Flame, where getting from one level to the next may be a frustrating experience. In addition, there are several set-ups in the game that you need to know about so you can survive the experiences. A lot of gratuitous damage gets tossed at your party, and knowing when it's coming can help your people stay alive. The first thing you need to know about is the nasty bug in regard to multi-class characters. Usually, when a character has enough points to go up a level, his or her name shows pink on the screen. However, the bug prevents this from happening with multi-class types. So the character is accumulating points, but never seems trainable. In fact, that character CAN be trained (if race limits have not been reached), even though the name has not changed color. You will have to keep track of the experience points for multi-classes, and train them when they have enough points for the next level. This was more of a problem for dual-class types, since my triple-class characters usually got the color change. If you are creating a party from scratch (instead of bringing one over from Death Knights, which is better than making a new one), you don't want Silvanesti Elves unless you plan on bringing them in as single-class mages, clerics, or rangers, or as multi-class in those professions. Those are the only ones they can max out (unlimited advancement) in; as plain fighters, they will get only up to level 10, which is not really very good for this game. You want at least level 14 fighters, to get that double hit per round. For the usual F/Mu combination, Qualinesti elves are the better choice. My own party consisted of one human knight, 3 F/Mu's (two red mages, one white mage), and two triple class F/Cleric/Mu's (both white mages). So everyone could fight, and everyone could also cast spells. The knight (of the rose) was especially important, since having him in the party let me control the various NPC's who joined us for varying periods of time. Of course, the triple-class guys went up slower than anyone else, but they were still worth having. You are going to need a lot of magic, and also a lot of healing, to get through this game....and there will be times when you can't sit encamped and fix everyone up; you'll need individual healing spells. The more you have, the better. I went through DQK at the novice level, mainly because I found out about the training bug too late to do anything (we were in the Tower of Fire by then), so for most of the play, I was under the impression my mages were never going to go up in level. With mages of only 13th-15th level, I figured we needed some sort of advantage. Even with that, many of the combats, especially with enchanted Draconians, were hard. While you now know about the bug, and won't be stuck like I was, you may still want to lower the difficulty level, especially in certain areas like the Tower of Fire, where there are several tough encounters with Draconians and others. In addition, you will find that low armor class (-10 or lower) is not as good protection against hits as you might expect. Your party will be absorbing a lot of damage throughout the game, one way or another. Money isn't of much use in DQK. After awhile, there isn't any reason to pick up the steel, gems, and jewels that are offered after a combat. The only things you need money for are (a) getting items identified and (b) buying passes at Hawkbluff. The inns are free, training is free, and equipment offered for sale is mainly mundane stuff you don't want to bother with. So don't weigh yourself down with a lot of useless treasure. If you are bringing a team over from Death Knights, you may be a little short of magic arrows. There was only one place in DQK I could find to buy arrows, and they were a bit expensive (15,000 for ten +2 arrows)....and that was well along, when we were in the Gnome tower on the Burning Sea. If you need arrows(or good bows, or both), the simplest thing to do is play the old game of "Muggee". Create several fighters (stats, name, etc are irrelevant). They all come with +2 composite bows and 40 +2 arrows. Bring them into the group, trade off what you want, and then dump them. This is about the only way you'll get magic arrows in the game (there is a place where you can get some +4's, but not many, and only once). As usual, the best stuff comes after combat. However, you'll notice that many of your opponents only carry mundane items, or no items, just some gems, jewels, and/or steel. Even the Dark Wizards have junk for treasure; you can't even pick up bracers from them (which makes me wonder how they got that armor class of -1). Accumulating good equipment will be a slow task.
Troublesome Critters
DQK features some nasty monsters, many of which can do considerable harm to your party. These include Dark Wizards, and bombardier Draconians. Dark Wizards are high-level (I'd hate to guess how high) mages, and they come into combat with all their defensive spells up and ready before the fighting even starts. The spells they have in effect are Fire Shield (cold), Mirror Image, and Globe of Invulnerability. For some time, these guys are going to be a pain to kill. Mirror Image makes it very hard to target them with arrows. The Globe will protect them from the usual damage spells such as Ice Storm, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt. Fire Shield will generally keep them safe from the Delayed Blast Fireballs (or DBF), and bestow double damage on anyone who hits them with a hand weapon. One way of handling them in the early going is Cone of Cold. If you can get someone close to a Dark Wizard, and have time to get off the spell, this will usually kill them, since the Cone is an area spell and too high in level to be stopped by the Globe. This is tricky, though, since the Wizards tend to lurk in the back ranks, where they are hard to reach. Also, THEY throw DBF's, and as we all know, the DBF is an instant spell (like magic missile). One of those, and your party could be in bad shape (not to mention, unable to cast any spells of their own that round). Another way to get to them is an arrow barrage. Enough arrows will disperse the various mirror images (or you may even get lucky on a shot and hit him in spite of the duplicates). Once the images are gone, he is a sitting duck for arrows. The last, and best, way won't be available for awhile. When you get a white mage high enough, have him (or her) learn Power Word Kill (for some reason, this choice only shows for white mages). Power Word Kill is an instantaneous spell, and it works first time, every time. One of these, and you won't have any more trouble with Mr. Wizard. You will have to get fairly close to use it, since the range is only 1 square for every four experience levels of your mage (ie, a 15th level mage can only toss it about 3 squares away). The other problem comes from the Enchanted Draconians, which have been put in the game to make your life much more difficult. Not only do Auraks blow up when they die, so do Sivaks, Kapaks, and Bozaks. Of these, the Bozaks (which I always thought of as Bozos) are the worst. I cringed whenever these guys showed up in combat. First, Bozos have a Fire Shield up, so you don't want to hit them with hand weapons. Second, they can cast spells. Third, and worst of all, the damage they do when they explode can reach 20 or more hit points, and there is no protection against it. You just have to sit there and take the pain, hoping the guys won't go down. Bozos can be a serious threat when several are in the enemy party at one time. Sometimes, if you have a high-level mage, a DBF will get through the Fire Shield and possibly knock them out. However, between the shield and their own natural magic resistance, this doesn't happen too often. All you can really try to do is put them down with arrows before they get close enough to damage the party. Sivaks blow up like a Meteor Swarm, but the damage they do is generally not more than 5-10 points per shot (at least, that's what it was when people had rings of Fire Resistance or were under a Resist Fire spell). They can, however, get the same people more than once if the area is crowded. Still, since they have no other special powers and can't cast spells, they are not as dangerous, overall, as the Bozos. Kapaks splatter into acid puddles when they die. The direction of the splatters is random, and the acid itself generally does somewhere between 1-5 points of damage. The Kapaks are therefore the least dangerous of the "bombardier Draconians". Auraks, enchanted or otherwise, are always dangerous. Properly handled, though, they can be less of a problem than the other critters. Auraks need to be put down twice. In their natural state, they can cast spells (and enchanted Auraks are especially fond of DBF), so you want to bring them down into their berserk state as soon as you can. In this form, they can attack, but do not cast spells. When they go down a second time, they enter the energy form. In this state, they are stationary menaces, incapable of movement or attacking, except they have a magical zap that can hit an adjacent character. The zap of the enchanted Aurak is quite damaging, so you don't want anyone standing next to it for very long. You especially don't want anyone standing next to the enchanted variety when it blows up, because that's 16d8 damage. My rose knight got caught in such a blast once, and he took 80 hp's damage. Fortunately, he had most of his hp's at the time, so he was still living after that. The regular Auraks have a natural invisibility that prevents them from being targeted by spells or arrows until after they have made their attack for the round. On the other hand, these Auraks are more susceptible to DBF, so if you can get one or two off near them, you may not even have to worry much about them for the rest of the combat. Also, any mages with Detect Invisibility active will be able to target the Auraks for spells or missiles. Enchanted Auraks do not have this invisible ability (at least, we were always able to target them). However, they are much more likely to resist any spells cast against them (you do get through from time to time). Arrows and melee weapons are generally the best way to deal with enchanted Auraks.
Part II: Taladas
Caergoth and The Caves
When the game begins, you are in Palanthas. The first thing to do is go to the inn and memorize spells (and possibly visit the training hall, if you brought your team over from Death Knights). The shop has nothing of interest (all mundane items), and you aren't likely to need the services of the temple. After your meeting with the general, you hustle along automatically to Caergoth, which is in pretty sad shape, having just been blasted to rubble by dragons. You'll have one encounter with a few dragons here. Then you can go to the boat at the end of the dock. This vessel is run by Captain Daenor (a paladin, of all things!). Ship out with him, and before long you're on the trail of a bunch of nasty Draconians. You'll have to track them through the caves, with several tough encounters along the way. Fixing on the upper level of the cave is hard to accomplish, as you're likely to be interrupted by Draconian patrols. I did find it possible to rest and renew spells by encamping just inside the cave entrance. When you get to the lower level (where the Umber Hulks and other delights abound), fixing is usually possible, although getting spells back is chancy. That's another reason to make sure you have a full slate of spells before you start on this little jaunt. There's nothing tricky about the caves; it's a straightforward matter of mapping and combat. At the end, Crysia will get away, but you'll see her again much later.
Naulidis
There's nothing like a shipwreck to make life interesting, and a storm at sea sinks the Silver Shark. Fortunately, your party is saved by Sea Elves, who put a spell on everyone to allow them to breathe underwater. Unfortunately, it doesn't help with movement. Underwater, your team will not have a very good movement rate, except for whoever equips the Ring Of Free Action (if you have a dragonlance in the party, give the ring to whoever has the lance). The Elves are currently having some problems with Sea Dragons, who are rampaging through the city. While this is going on, you'll be asked to do little errands and good deeds by the populace (once you find your way to one of the two safe halls). In the safe halls, you can rest up and memorize spells. During this part of the game, you may want to dump your regular fireball spells, and load up on lightning bolts instead. Underwater, fireballs aren't much use (heh). The lightning bolts, however, will work, although not in the usual fashion. Instead of zipping off in a straight line, they explode, covering an area similar to that of an ice storm, but doing regular electrical damage. After awhile, you find out that the dragons are rampaging because the evil Sauhaugin stole their eggs. So of course you have to go and get them (isn't that what heroes are for?). Be careful in the tunnel linking Naulidus with Celanost, as you'll have a couple of encounters there with sea critters. Eventually, you'll make it to Celanost and the air shaft. Explore the rooms above carefully. When you come to one that appears to have treasure in it, camp out and put Resist Fire (and Fire Shield, for those who have it) on the party. As you move around this room, you'll have an encounter, and a Dark Wizard will be among the enemies. Beyond this room, you'll find the place where the eggs are stored. Whoever dives down and brings up one or more eggs gets experience, so send down whoever needs the points most. That takes care of Celanost, and you can head back to Naulidus when you have all the eggs. Near the entry to Naulidus is one encounter with Sauhaugin, followed by a meeting with a horde of sea dragons. Just hand the eggs over to the dragons, and they will depart in peace. Of course, you aren't quite done yet. After you are escorted by the Elves to the prince's private chambers, you may want to camp and save the game. Fixing and/or resting won't be possible, because Prince Talhook and his merry band have set up an ambush in this room. "Looking" will trigger the encounter, which is the conclusion of the Naulidus portion of the game. When the fighting is over, you'll get a dragonlance (a handy weapon to have).
Hizden and the Lighthouse
Hizden is also straightforward. Talk to Ezra, rest up at the inn, save the town from marauding Sauhaugin, train if you need to, etc. Then make your way to the lighthouse. This is certainly one of the meaner parts of the game. There are few things as frustrating as fighting your way up eleven levels, past enormous spiders, Beholders, gorgons, iron golems, and other dangerous creatures, only to find that nothing - nothing at all - will open the door at the top. The only reason you might want to go as far as the tenth level is to find the dying Elf woman, who has bracers AC 2 and a couple of other items. The real way to the top is to walk around until you find a poorly-concealed pit in the the floor and drop through it. This lands you on a mound of garbage (doing damage, too, of course). Then you fight a veritable army of Greater Otyughs, purple worms, and such like. There are a LOT of these critters, but fortunately your DBF's will work wonders here, and you should be able to clean out the monsters in short order. Once they've been dispatched, climb up the garbage pile to a small, enclosed level. Turn on Search and do a little mapping. You will find a false wall with a teleporter behind it. This teleporter will send you back to the main level, not too far from the door out. Mark that on your map, turn off search, and then start walking into walls. You do that because there is a *second* teleporter in this area, and the false wall that covers it will NOT show up when you have search active; you can only find it by walking through the wall. This second teleporter will send you to the top where you can talk to Fastillion, and get the two crypt keys. That's all you need to do here, and then you can use the teleporters to get out again.
Kristophan
This lovely place is under the domination of minotaurs. The minotaurs are big and tough, and ready to pound you anytime you get out of line. I never found a way into the palaces of either the king or queen, and suspect that they're there just for show. However, if you want to start a fight to earn some experience points, you can try entering the queen's palace. Don't do this too often, though, or your party will be marked as troublemakers, and minotaur patrols in the town will start attacking your group from time to time. In the eastern (minotaur) half of the city, you will see an old minotaur abusing his human slave. If you get involved, your party will end up having to fight in the arena (that's the only way to get in there, by the way) against some very tough minotaur opposition. This encounter does not advance the plot, so you can skip it unless you want their armor (all the minotaur champs have +2 helms and other gear). On the outskirts of the city is the home of Eshalla, who looks like a hag but isn't. Be nice to her and she'll tell you her sad story. If one of your party volunteers to kiss her (several times), she'll be restored to her rightful self. She also falls passionately in love with whoever kissed her. This is not as bad as it sounds, since she bestows (over several encounters) some Neat Things on the party, including a cloak of displacement and a helm +3. The really important thing about Kristophan is the tombs below the city. These can be reached only by having the thief from the pub join your party. His joining will trigger the Dragonstrike, where you all make a mad dash north to reach the safety of the abandoned temple (only the thief can open the way in to the temple). What you are looking for down here are the five pieces of the Oracle. Each piece provides a cryptic clue or hint. You get one piece from the spectral minion guarding his wife's cell, another from a ghost, a third when you visit the crazy lich's "sideshow" (the piece is in Tightrope Walkers; "look" after you have the spider combat), a fourth in the tomb of Kristophus ("look" around for it), and the fifth after a fight with a very nasty bunch of vampires in the caves beyond the tomb. In the vampire room are two teleporters. One will send you back to the tombs proper. The other, with a warning scrawled in blood in front of it, will send you to a maze of pillars and teleporters. Many of these pillars are hollow, and have treasure chests inside. Most of the treasure is gems and such, but one chest has Eyes Of Petrifaction (work like a Flesh to Stone spell), and another has the real prize: a belt of cloud giant strength. The fake walls of the pillars do not show up under Search; you just have to try all sides of each pillar (a couple are solid and have no way in). There will, of course, be encounters with various critters as you make your way around this area. Fortunately, they are all "regular" monsters; no Draconians are among them. To get out of this place, you will have to find the pillar with the teleporter inside it.
The Hulder
The Hulder are unfriendly Elves, worse in some ways than those of Armach. At least the Armach Elves warn you away from their land. The Hulder have the pleasant habit of letting people in and then smirking as the unfortunates slowly starve to death. Sorry to say, you are going to have to enter Hulder territory. By the way, having Elves of your own in the party is no advantage here; they're treated as outsiders just like anyone else. You can find it by going east from Trilloman to the mountains, where you enter a cleft in the rocks. In a short time, your people will begin taking damage from lack of food (and probably some sort of spell effect, since the damage is almost continuous; really friendly, those Hulder). Camping and fixing will heal up the party temporarily. At each camping, you will be approached by the Elf woman Elea. She teaches the party some important Hulder words. When you have learned all of them thoroughly (ie, when you are told the journal entry that has the words and their meanings), head off to location 7,11. Looking at the journal entry ahead of time won't help; you have to go through the entire routine of hearing the words, repeating them back, getting the meanings of them, etc., before the Elves appear to talk to you. You will also find Tasselhoff Burrfoot as you wander through the forest. He joins you temporarily (only for your stay in Hulder land). Tass is no better off than you are (he's also starving and unable to find a way out), however you need him in your party, so you might as well invite him in. When you meet the king and queen of the Hulder, you'll notice that the king isn't a bad sort, but the queen doesn't like you at all. At her instigation, the party is sent to count the leaves on the Mother of Trees. Fun stuff. The Mother of Trees is due east of 7,11. This is fortunate, since you will have to make four trips in all to the tree to count the leaves. Tass, having more brains than anyone else in the group, will refuse to help count. On each visit, he will make a suggestion, such as burning the tree or cutting it down. Since your party pledged not to harm any trees, following these suggestions is not recommended. However, on the fourth visit, Tass will suggest stripping the leaves off the tree. Since it's almost autumn and the leaves are falling off anyway, this is what you should do. One leaf will remain, and that's all you need to tell the king. The rigmarole is finally over, and you'll receive some gifts (+4 arrows, a +4 bow, some nice Elfin chain mail) as well as a ring of deception and a dragon scale. This scale will be important later when you visit Blackwater Glade. The ring will help you to uncover Auraks masquerading as someone else. That takes care of the Hulder, and you won't have to visit them again.
Bai'or
Bai'or, way down in the SE corner of the map, is a city beset by dragons and Sharkmen. Talking to the people there will give you some idea of what is going on, although no one ever tells you exactly why the Sharkmen want all those boats built. In any case, what you want to do is find the librarian in the secret room of the library. Tell her you can take care of the dragons. This will start a riot in the town square (so be prepared for combat when you leave). After you polish off the Sharkmen, heal and rest up, because a small army of dragons will appear when you try to leave town. When they've been dispatched, another dragon will show up. This one you should talk to; he'll tell you there are good dragons to be found in Blackwater Glade. However, don't go running off there just yet, because right now you won't be able to find them.
New Aurim
New Aurim is a vicious town, with bodies all over the place: hanging from the walls, lying in the streets, dangling from the roofs. Almost makes you wish you were back with the Hulder. At least the forest was a clean place. You'll find that most people here stay behind locked doors and are reluctant to talk to you. This is because temple press gangs roam through the city, grabbing people to be made into undead. You'll come across one or more of these press gangs as you ramble around New Aurim. Defeating them will get you some Thenol army uniforms, which come in handy (you only have to fight one gang to get the uniforms; further combats are optional on your part). In one building you will find a man who says he isn't accepting petitions today. Your ring of deception will glow, because he's actually an enchanted Aurak in disguise. You can fight him (and his friends) if you like, but you won't get anything more than experience from the encounter: there is nothing of importance to be found in the room. In the western section is the Quiet Kender tavern, where you can talk to the cleric of Myslaxa. He sends you to free everyone in the city jail. Since you're wearing the uniforms (you DID put them on, I hope!), you can get in easily by pretending you have prisoners. Of course, after that, you'll have to fight the bad guys. Freeing the prisoners requires a thief. Knock spells did not work on the cell doors, nor did bashing (even bashing by someone wearing the giant belt). I had to create a thief character specifically to pick the locks (which he was able to do with no trouble at all). When you return to the Kender, the cleric will give you a token, so that the people behind the locked doors will talk to you. One of them will hand you a clay pass to get into the palace. Another, across from, and a little south of, the jail, will train mages in the party. I found it necessary to use his services when some of my mages were ready to go up a level, but the regular training hall wouldn't do the job. Now that you have the uniforms and the clay pass, you can get into the palace by the back door. In one room on this level, you'll be asked if you want to take on a special assignment. Agree to it and accept the Palace Guard uniforms. The odd thing here is that you're told to report to the Draconians upstairs. However, the only Draconians up there are guarding the stairs to the king, and they want nothing to do with you. Be careful up there on the second floor. One of the side doors outside the palace leads to the lair of a lich and his undead friends. In the NE is a room with some mundane treasure in it; this is the lair of some undead dragons who will attack if you enter their area. In the same area, but to the east, is a second door; approaching it will set off an ambush by undead. Where you're really supposed to go is downstairs, via the guardpost in the center of the entry level. Showing your clay pass will get you past the guards. Down below, you are escorted by a small army of Draconians to a big hall, where you are asked (ordered would be a better term) to escort some Draconian recruits to Hawkbluff. This, friends, is a setup. After you and your retinue get back upstairs and past the guardpost, you are attacked by Thenolian soldiers, who start beating on the Draconians. Actually, these are not soldiers but rebels. The setup is that no matter what you do, all the recruits are going to be killed. It doesn't matter if you fight the rebels, run, or wait, the result will be the same. How nice. Sometime after this, you will meet Grunschka, a female Dwarven fighter. She's good to have in the party (not the treacherous type), except that her armor class is pretty awful. Do what you can to get her better stuff as the game progresses (she will stay with you right up through the end game, so it's worth the effort). You should also get her a bow and arrows. While she comes with a crossbow, that weapon only gets off one shot per round, where the bows get off two per round. Since there are occasions where arrows may be lifesavers (and I don't mean candy), everyone who can use one should have a bow. Now that you've lost your recruits and met Grunschka, you will be able to get up to the king's level. When you go to the Draconian guard post on the second floor, the urchin seller will be there. One of his critters slips through the gates, and the Draconians open it for the seller to go after it. This gives your party the chance to also slip through and nip upstairs to visit the queen (the king isn't worth seeing). The queen turns out to be working with the rebels. She gives you a signet ring and tells you to show it to the jeweler in Hawkbluff. Then she tells you about the secret passage behind the fire place that will take you down below the palace. Use those stairs to get down to the area where you received your recruit assignment. You can skip the crypts on the lowest level, as there isn't really anything worth taking down there. In the temple, you will have several fights with Draconians, but some of them will escape with the dragon eggs. Further explorations down here will lead you to one room with a lone cleric, and another with Trandamere himself. Unfortunately, Trandamere will escape (while his loyal friends try to kill you). All you can do now is follow the trail to the next town.
Hawkbluff
This place isn't any cheerier than New Aurim, but at least there aren't any bodies in the streets. The inn is a safe place to rest and renew spells if you need to do that before attempting the dungeons. Actually, there is only one dungeon here, with three entrances: the military offices to the north and west, and the temple of Hith to the east. Each of these requires a different pass for you to get in, and once inside, you will come across guard posts on all the levels that require other passes. You cannot get by a guard post unless you have the necessary pass. The Outer Temple of Hith does not, however, lead to the rest of the dungeon. When you go up, you end in the room of a lone cleric. Killing him provides a keyhole pass, but the other door in the room is "securely locked", and you aren't even given a chance to open it. While you will need to buy several passes, you can also pick up a couple of free ones. On level 2, there is an empty room in the functionaries area where you can grab a lantern pass and a release form for Davik the architect. Also on this level is a room with a man who asks if he can help you. Saying "yes" nets you a sword pass. In most of your wanderings around the dungeon, you won't be bothered unless you start trouble, so take advantage of this to map thoroughly and carefully. Once you have the place mapped out, you can go downstairs to the cells and get Davik. He doesn't show up in the party roster, but he's with you. As the architect, he knows all about the secret passages and doors in the dungeon. The only problem with using these passages is that from time to time you will run into an undead patrol. This is more likely to happen the longer you stay in the secret areas, so try to use them sparingly. Camping in these areas is not recommended. Once you have Davik with you, sooner or later the real guards will come for him, and when they see he's gone, the alert will go out. After that, you can expect encounters at any guardpost and also randomly on the levels (these random encounters will, however, temporarily clear out any nearby guardpost). If you do manage to get out before they seal the doors, you should leave Hawkbluff, which will remove Davik from the party. This goes on under the surface; you don't get any message that he isn't with you any longer. If you didn't cause any other trouble while in the dungeon (such as fighting with any clerics or Draconians in the rooms), you should be able to get back in and walk around without having to fight. You may wonder just why you're in here in the first place. That's easy: you want the Book of Amrocar. Once you have the book, you will be able to get into Tremor's lair in Blackwater Glade. Without the book, you don't have a chance. Currently, this volume is in Trandamere's hands. Trandamere can be found on the fourth level, in room at the end of the hall west of the generals' lecture room. After the expected combat, Trandamere will toss the book into the dumbwaiter and take off. It isn't worth following him; all that happens is several encounters with guards, ending up with Trandamere escaping through a portal that then blows up in your face. Far better to hurry down to the kitchens and grab that book. Since Davik will be with you again, you can take the fast route from that room (where you just had the combat) by going through the secret door by the torch. This will take you quickly and with a minimum of fuss to the kitchens, where you should find the book in the dumbwaiter. From there, have Davik lead you to the exit (which can now be opened, as the instructions are also in the book), and you're out of Hawkbluff, with no need to return.
Blackwater Glade
This one is pretty quick and simple. Now that you have the book, just go through the ruins to Tremor's lair. You may come across some Bakali watching another one fight a crocodile single-handed. This is their manhood rite. If you don't do anything hostile, one member of your party gets to bear witness to the Bakali's successful fight. This is a by-the-way thing, and doesn't advance the plot. You can explore the rest of Blackwater if you want to, but there really isn't anything of interest outside of Tremor's lair and Clematra's place. If you entered the Glade in need of R&R, stop off at her room to heal up and renew spells before going to visit Tremor. Along the way, you'll run into Baldric the Bard. This is really Baldranous the silver dragon in his human guise. Grunschka doesn't trust him, but he's really quite harmless. You can take him into the party if you want (it will be temporary anyway). At Tremor's door, he will meet you in person and demand tribute. Whatever you offer will not be acceptable, and Tremor will breathe on the party before disappearing into his cave. The word to open the door is on the map; just type it in backwards. Inside, just keep going until you reach Tremor. You'll learn why he and his dragons are such cowards, and what has to be given him to restore the dragons' courage (bet you already guessed it's that dragon scale you got way back when in Hulder land). There is one encounter here with Thenol troops, after which you can trade the dragon scale for a Ring of Wizardry. Then Tremor has to reassert his authority over an upstart. He does this by asking one of your party to put a vorpal sword across his neck. Do it gently, and the sword is yours. With all this taken care of, Baldric directs you to visit Clematra. Usually, you would have a chance to rest there, but that opportunity will not arise. Baldric returns with urgent news, and before you can say "huh?", the dragons are winging you along to the Gnome tower on the Burning Sea.
Part III: The Burning Sea
Gnome Tower
In the Gnome tower you will be reunited with Captain Daenor, who is still searching for Crysia, and is willing to rejoin your group. Before you go in to see the king, however, take time out to fix up the party and save the game. The reasons for these precautions will become obvious when you go to kiss the Gnome king's hand: your own ring of deception glows, indicating (probably to little surprise) that the king is a fake. Your party has two combats here, back-to-back: first with a small contingent of Gnome thieflords (easily disposed of with spells), then with the Aurak and his friends. With that taken care of, you must now search the Gnome tower for the real king. First, however, you may want to go to the Guest Room level, where you can fix up and renew spells at the Sleepy Siren. If people are in need of training, there is a training hall on the Workshop level, past the pub. The first time you visit the hall, you'll have to kill off some Gnome thieves. After that, you won't be bothered. There is an old crone in one of the rooms on the guest level who has some magic items for sale at outrageous prices. However, she will also perform the usual item identification services for the standard fee of 20 steel. Going to different levels is a pain (literally), since you have to drop down a shaft (taking damage) before you can go up again. Usually, though, you can encamp and fix up right there to take care of the injuries. As you explore the tower, you will find it is crawling with Draconians. They are all over the place, sometimes in disguise and sometimes as themselves. Most of these combats are optional; if you'd rather, you can skip them and go right to the door that leads (eventually) to the Gnome king. This is on the guest room level (handy, since you don't have to drop down the shaft!). There is one locked door, which can be opened with knock or bashing. Beyond is a second door, magically charged. One dispel magic will take care of that. Past the door is the first encounter, with several Draconians and a pair of Dark Wizards. After you win this one, go right back to the Sleepy Siren to heal up and renew spells (make sure you learn plenty of healing spells), because it's about to get VERY nasty. Return to the room where you just had the combat. At the far door, encamp, cast all the protective spells you can, and save the game. When you walk through this door, everyone in the party will be hit with spells for anywhere between 15-30 or so points of damage. This is another setup; there is no way to avoid the damage, even with a Globe of Invulnerability. Everyone is going into combat hurt. This fight is with more Draconians and a Dark Wizard. When you get through this one, don't end combat right away. Heal up your people as much as you can, because there's more to come. After the treasure screen, you will see the Gnome king come running into the room with a cube in his hand, apparently about to attack the remaining Draconians. You get several options here. Pick whatever you like, because as it was with the recruits in New Aurim, your choice means nothing at all: all choices lead to combat....and that Gnome King is another fake. He tosses the cube at you, and again the party takes damage before fighting even starts. This is why you must continue the first combat and heal people in the party. When this combat is concluded, go back again to the Siren for R&R. Once your people are fixed up, you can return to the combat rooms and go through the final door. Here you see a teleporter that will take you to where the real king is being held. Naturally, there is a fight almost as soon as you arrive, featuring yet more Draconians (those dragons sure are prolific egg layers!). After the fight, you will be faced with two kings, one real and one fake. I don't know if the choices here are also fake ones that lead to the same result; I liked the option to "see who bleeds red" too much try anything else (heh). This will expose the Aurak, who teleports away before you can do anything. After that, you can leave safely with the Gnome king through the teleporter in the next room. At this point, heal up, renew spells, get any training done, roam around looking for combat if party members are near level...because once you reach the Tower of Flame, there will be no opportunities for training, and not too many for resting and regaining spells. And it will be awhile before you get back to the Gnome Tower. When you're ready, go down to the entry level and meet the king in the windship yards, and you're off.
The Tower of Fire
The windship drops you off at the top level of the tower. You won't, however, be seeing too much of it this time around. As you try to cross the bridge, Crysia appears on the other side. Daenor, forgetting all caution, goes charging ahead. Your party is given several options, and I'm sure by now you know that whatever you choose, the result will be the same: the bridges falls and your party with it. This puts you on level 0, and you will have to fight your way up to get back to level 4 (Daenor mysteriously disappears, and you won't see him again until you're almost finished with the Tower). Down here are Fire Giants who are constructing huge siege machines and the like for the Draconians. Just go through the entire level, wiping out all the giants and golems. Then take the stairs up to level 1. This is the only time you will be able to use stairs to ascend; all the other staircases have been sealed off with lava blocks. During your journey through the tower, you will occasionally find rooms or locations where "look" will tell you the place looks defensible, or defensible and out of the way. This usually means you can fix up here, and renew spells. That, however, is not an absolute. You could still be interrupted by a black patrol when you try to heal the party or recover spells. Always save before you try to use fix or rest. Those black patrols, by the way, only showed up during such occasions; I never ran into any while wandering around the tower passages and rooms. On level 1 you will have several encounters with Beholders, Fire giants, and golems. Aside from clearing them out, you must also open the siege port in the SE corner of the level. This will admit a contingent of Gnomes into the tower. You are also offered the services of six Gnome warriors. I did not consider it worthwhile to have them with us. They are 14th-level fighters, but come equipped with plate mail, giving them only 6 moves per round. Also, having six extra people to control was too much trouble. It's up to you to decide if you really want these extras or not, but if you choose not, you won't be offered their services again. When the level has been cleared out, go through the lava wall into the area inhabited by various fire creatures. Resist Fire (ring or spell) will keep your characters from taking damage. Alternatively, you could wait for the Gnome bucket brigade to make a temporary opening in the wall, but that may take awhile to happen. Walk around this area until you find the spot where the Gnomes are setting up a ladder. Use this ladder to ascend to the next level (this is the only way you can get up there). On level 2 you will have encounters with Draconians and dragons. It is also necessary for your party to clean out the nest of evil mages in the NW, just below the cells. One encounter with mages will occur when you first enter this area (so be prepared with defensive spells). After that, head for the SW corner of the area for the big confrontation. There are two ways to reach level 3. The first way is to visit the cells, and free Elea's mother (behind the barred door at the end; all the other cells are empty. You may be able to fix and rest up in an empty cell). She'll get you up to three by using the mattress from her cell as a trampoline (after which, she promptly disappears). The area of 3 that you reach is very small, and the only way out is the door to the north. Going through it is a one-way trip, as a pit opens behind you when you stand on the square in front of the door. The other way to reach level 3 is in the flame critter area beyond the lava wall. In about the center of this area is a sort of elevator that runs between levels 2 and 3. Stepping on the platform automatically takes you to the other level. On 3 you will have some very tough fights, all in about the same area. South of the elevator is the place where Draconians become enchanted by bathing in the powerful rays of the Grathanich. When you pass through the first archway, you have an encounter with Draconian guards. After this is over, find a safe place if you can to heal and rest up. The second encounter occurs in the font room, which has a skull on the back wall. This will be a tough combat with enchanted draconians. Again, heal and rest up after the fight. The final encounter happens in the area east of the font room, where you take on the font master and friends (all Draconians, of course). When they've all been wiped out, fix up your party, then head for the nearest shaft room. Any one of them will do. A windship will come up the shaft and take you aboard. This should happen immediately you enter the room. If it doesn't, that means you missed an encounter somewhere, and you'll have to go looking for it. Since there are only three encounters on level 3, the likely place to look is level 2. This happened to me, since the first time, I didn't clean out the evil mages down there. I wandered around level 3 for a long time (after killing off all the Draconians) with nothing happening. Finally I went back down and cleared out the wizards. Bingo! That caused the windship to make its appearance. Of course, I still had to look in the shaft room (I was feeling desperate by this time and thinking of jumping down a shaft, just to see if that would make a difference). When you reach level 4, an interesting scene unfolds in front of you. Daenor comes rushing into the room, followed by a small horde of Draconians, along with Crysia, who is still in their power. Naturally, he comes to a stop at the open pit in the floor. No one sees your party, as the windship is floating above all this. Crysia is ordered to burn Daenor. Your party has the opportunity to stop her. The best way is to cast Dispel Magic on Crysia. This dissolves the Charm Person spell, and she will abort her fireball. Then, while the Draconians are in some confusion, attack them. Daenor will join your group automatically (Crysia does not take part in the combat). When it's over, Daenor escorts Crysia to the windship, but a small mishap sends the ship with all aboard up the shaft and out of the tower. You will have to go on alone from here. Where you are at the moment is where you were way back when you first entered the tower. However, this time, the bridge will not collapse on you. You should find it in the other pit room (just exit and walk around to the other one). This will take you to a corridor that has lava wallson both sides. Follow the corridor around until you reach the center, then go south through the wall. Continue south until you reach the end. Here you will have back-to-back combats with a variety of monsters, including several Beholders. These are not, surprisingly, as bad as you may be expecting (although, of course, not exactly easy ;). When the combats are finished, you will be pulled into the Abyss.
The Abyss
You may recall that way, way back, when you were adventuring in Naudilus, there was a moment when Daenor and Crysia were mentally in touch with each other. Then someone else looked briefly through Crysia's eyes at the party. That someone was Raistlin Majere, currently a prisoner in the Abyss. Despite his situation, he has managed to summon you here to rescue him. The moment you arrive here, camp out, save the game, and do the usual R&R to restore hit points and spells. Once you have freed Raistlin, you will NOT have the opportunity to do any fixes or spell renewals, so get it done now. After that, start walking east until you see a wall. Follow it around to the door. Inside is a free-standing cube. Three of the walls are fake walls and you can walk right through them. Since a hard fight is about to happen, I suggest entering the cube from either the east or the west to give your party the best position possible. Inside the cube is Raistlin and the critters that guard him. Some are Draconians. Others are not. Things are not what they seem in the Abyss, and while these other creatures look like one thing, they are really something else. For instance, the white dragon is actually a death dragon. The Disliki are actually fire minions. You can find out what things are by targeting them. The Draconians, though, are real Draconians. This fight will be tough because magic is damped in this room, so spells don't work. Of course, that means the Draconians can't cast spells either, but with several enchanted Bozaks and Sivaks around, that hardly matters. Try to get at least some of the Bozaks down before they get too close to your group. When it's over, you can free Raistlin and be on your way to the chambers of Takhisis. Do NOT try to fix up the party from this point on. Every time you try, you will be attacked by several Dark Wizards (who look like skeletal warriors), and your people are not likely to survive all those DBF's. Takhisis is further east of where you pick up Rasitlin. Camp out in front of the door, and heal up everyone in the party with individual healing spells. Try to get everyone back up to maximum or as close as possible. When you enter, Takhisis is doing some business of her own and won't notice you. Since she's a god, I do not recommend trying to attack. Instead, sneak around her (going to the left worked for me) until you come to the cloudy mirror. This is the portal back to the Tower of Fire. You can't use the portal until it becomes clear, so just wait awhile. Rasitlin will throw a rock at the bell and miss. Pick someone with good dex to make the next try. When Takhisis wakes from her trance, move towards the portal (or you'll take some damage, which you can't afford). Then she'll become aware of you, and she and Rasitlin will start their magical duel. Don't get involved in this; these two are well above any magical abilities you have. Just keep waiting until the mirror is clear. You will take some damage while you wait; this can't be avoided. When the bell goes off, jump through the portal.
Tower of Fire Redux
So now you're back on level 4. Around you are Gnomes, kneeling before the tripod that contains the legendary Grathanich. DO NOT investigate that tripod just yet. Camp and save the game!! You won't have a chance to fix up the party, so if you have any healing spells left, use them now. Also use any protective spells, as well as any scrolls of protection from Dragon Breath. Okay, now you can send someone up to look at the tripod. What's in there is an egg (the Grathanich is below it). The egg will hatch, and something REALLY mean comes out. Can you say Tiamat? I knew you could. For those unacquainted with the AD&D monsters, Tiamat is the chromatic dragon of five heads: green, blue, red, white, and black, each corresponding to that type of dragon, with that dragon's abilities. Tiamat will go first in the opening round. Don't even think of going after the body. With an AC of -40, you aren't going to hit it. Just go after the heads. You have to kill all five of them to kill Tiamat. Even with dragonlances, it will not be an easy task. Now, you may think this was the big ending battle. Nope. There is more to come. While the Gnomes watch, the Grathanich floats out of the tripod, then sinks through the floor. They all go running after it, leaving you alone. This is a good time to fix up the party (I hope they all survived Tiamat). What you have to do is find the Grathanich. I spent a lot of time wandering through the tower, looking for this thing. As it turns out, the big action occurs down on level 2, in or near the dark wizard area, so that's where you should head (the Gnomes have forced openings in the sealed stairways, so you can now use them to go between levels). Along the way, you will come across a pair of Draconians who ask for a parley. They set up a mirror so you can communicate with Takhisis (she won the fight with Raistlin). It doesn't matter what you do here, since you'll have a combat with Draconians and others. Rest up afterwards. Finally, you get down to where the action is taking place. An odd contraption is slowly enclosing the Grathanich. Draconians and dragons are all around to keep interlopers (like you) from interfering. Naturally, you have to interfere, to the tune of two or three (I lost count) back-to-back combats with the evil hordes. In the midst of all this, a windship arrives and tries tipping the iron flower (which has enclosed the Grathanich) into the depths of the earth. A line becomes snarled, and one of your party has one chance to free it before the windship is dragged down with the flower. As usual, I picked one of the Elves (that 19 dex is so useful) to do the job. The remaining evil critters are then trashed by Takhisis, who is slightly less than thrilled by the failure of her minions. After this, you can board the windship for the trip back to the Gnome tower.
Gnome Tower Redux
Once back among the Gnomes, get your people healed up, rested, and trained as necessary. You will be pleased to know that the regular elevator is now working again, so won't have to drop through the shaft to get around. When your party is fit and ready, head up to the palace for the big celebrations. In the middle of all the fun and joy, there comes a rude interruption. Remember Tremor? Well, now that he has his courage back, and the Draconians have been defeated, he has decided to take over, starting with the Gnome tower. Then Baldric shows up, assumes his regular dragon form, and he and Tremor duke it out in the skies above the tower...leaving your merry group to take on the small army of dragons that Tremor brought with him. After all you've been through to this point, the dragons should be a piece of cake, especially since you can really go to town with your spells. When it's over, you can watch the conclusion of the Tremor-Baldranous event, where Baldranous rips the iron scale from Tremor's chest, depriving him once again of his intestinal fortitude. Tremor and the remainder of his dragon horde slink off into the sunset.
