Icewind Dale 2 FAQ and Walkthrough v1.0 finale Copyright 2002 by Orest (y_orest@yahoo.com) Last updated on November 6, 2002 *********************************************************************** SOME CORYRIGHT NOTE: This document was written by Orest also known as D.Y. and cannot be used without his permission. To receive my permission you need only one thing: email (y_orest@yahoo.com) me and receive my permission. Of course, you can read and print this document but don't post this document on your site without my permission. I hate copyright violence so don't angry me. *********************************************************************** SOME EMAIL NOTE: If you have questions about my guide or want to add or correct something then send me a message (y_orest@yahoo.com). But don't try to send letters with some nasty remarks. I will not answer the questions if the answer is already in this document. Please put "IWD2" subject when emailing me. Latest updates of this guide are available at www.gamefaqs.com . I am sorry if I don't respond to the letters because I read my mailbox not often. I can respond to the letters lately. If you didn't receive my reply than the reasons are: 1. You didn't ask the questions or offer suggestions and you don't need my reply. What to do: If you want my reply then ask the questions or offer some suggestions. 2. The answer is already in this document. What to do: Try to read this walkthrough attentively because the heroes actions are described as their own actions and the walkthrough goes as an adventure story. 3. The answer is in game manual. What to do: Read the game manual. I recommend to read the game manual before playing the game. 4. The letter is already in my mailbox but I didn't check the mailbox. What to do: Wait for reply. I check my mailbox twice at week. 5. Your letter is bugged or nasty. What to do: You are not so lucky. 6. I have no time for response (job, rest, etc) What to do: Wait until I reply or forget about your letter. May be I'll not reply but in 50% cases I reply. 7. This game is too old (2002 year is the Icewind Dale 2 release year) What to do: forget about me 8. The questions are out of IWD2 topic. What to do: Answer your questions to others *********************************************************************** VERSION HISTORY v1.0 The release of the IWD2 FAQ/Walkthrough (November 6, 2002) This version is final and not updatable in future. *********************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS: PART 0: INTRODUCTION PART 1: CREATING YOUR TEAM PART 2: FAQ PART 3: WALKTHROUGH PART 4: CONCLUSION *********************************************************************** Part 0: Introduction Here is the plan of this document. In Part 1 I describe some combination of the characters and their effectiveness in the game. Part 2 consist of FAQ. Part 3 contains game walkthrough in nonstandard way and Part 4 contains the conclusion. *********************************************************************** Part 1: Creating your team So you want to beat this game then you need your character team. I recommend you to skip default teams and create your own team. I will not describe all classes, races and etc because you can find the information about them when creating your team. The first question must be: how many people are in my team? For super hardcore players who wants to see your character corpses or enjoys game reloadings I recommend 1-2 players in the team. Three characters is good for hardcore players who wants to be the game very difficult. My choice is 4 characters in the team because of more XP and a little hardcore game. For less experienced players I recommend 5-6 characters. 5 is the optimal choice. Now you need to decide what classes must be in your team ? Team member 1: Here is some classes for character 1 place in team. Character 1 is a front line warrior. This character serves as a main target for enemies and must have a lot of HP and a good cover from other team members. 1.1 Fighter This is the best choice for character 1 in the team because fighters gains a lot of feats and the only class with weapon specialization feat available. I recommend to use some strong two-handed weapon and gain weapon specialization for this weapon. Bastard sword and large sword is not bad too. 1.2 Barbarian You can use this class as a alternative to the fighter class. Barbarians gain a lot of HP and some good abilities. Half-Orcs are the best race for this class (because you can increase your STR to 20 with this race and multiclass without XP penalty). 1.3 Paladin Paladin class is worse then Fighter or Barbarian. Paladins gain some useful bonuses at lower levels and can turn undead. I think that turn undead ability is useless in IWD2 because there are few undead in game. From level 4 paladins gain some spells but very slowly. The good choice for character 1 is to pick a paladin and from level 4-8 multiclass to fighter. You can use this class as a party leader because of good CHA. You can detect evil people when talking to some people in game. Paladins always refuse the rewards from people so don't talk to people with this class when you want quest's reward. The best race is Aasimar and the good order is paladin of Helm. 1.4 Ranger This class is the worst from previous classes. The only serious advantage is some useful 2-weapon fighting feats. Single development for this class is not recommended so multiclass to other class. The spells are very slow to gain. But it is possible to survive with this class in the game. 1.5 Monk Good class. If you choose the monk than single development for this class is more recommended. Monks receive some useful abilities and bonuses during the development up to level 20. At the beginning of the game monks are weak but after chapter 1 you'll see the changings. Monks have the best saving throws bonuses but are restricted in multiclassing. They are weaker then fighters or barbarians in melee but their bonuses compensate this disadvantage. Team member 2: This place is the place for backup front/middle/cover line warrior. This is also a scout with some negotiator abilities. This character explores the area for possible dangers, fights the enemies in melee or range distance without attracting attention and backups the team member 1 in critical situations for team member 1. Can also serve as a decoy for enemies. 2.1 Rogue The best candidate for this place. Can be used as a scout, thief and negotiator because of high skill points. Use his sneak attack on enemies who fight team member 1. 2.2 Bard Not good for this place. His main adavantage is his songs. Sing before battle and cover team member 1 in melee or range attack. Use bard for thievery. Bard is a bad scout but can unlock the locks. 2.3 Ranger Not bad. Use him as a scout and second front line fighter in addition to team member 1. 2.4 Monk Can be scout and melee fighter. Team member 3: This place is for character who watches the condition of other team members and restores their conditions to normal or increases some characteristics according to the battle. The place for this character in the middle line of the fight. Another purpose for this character is to weaken the enemies, create some summoning creatures and sometimes fight in melee/range some enemies. 3.1 Cleric The best candidate for this place. Heal your team members, dispel some enemy effects and use some magic/fighting against enemies. Summon the creatures and increase party attributes/defense. Ressurect dead. 3.2 Druid This class has less healing spells but more offensive/summoning. Use some offensive magic against enemies and heal party members 3.3 Bard The worse candidate. Use him to increase some characteristics and as a minor healer. Team member 4: This place is for character with offensive/defensive/other magic specialization. Use this character for magic cover and some summoning spells. The main purpose is offensive magic. This characters must be in the back line. Other characters must protect this team member. 4.1 Wizard The function for this character is simple: cast spells to kill enemies and avoid melee fightings. Use your ability to prepare spells in different situations. 4.2 Sorceror Same purpose as wizard with the difference that you can cast more offensive spells then wizard. Avoid melee fightings. Summoning spells not recommended. 4.3 Druid Worse then previous two classes but can be useful on this place Team member 5: This is place for some additional front line figher, divine or arcane spellcaster or skip this place. Team member 6: Same as team member 5. *********************************************************************** Part 2: FAQ 1) What is IWD2? This is Icewind Dale 2 abbreviation 2) Can I increase some of my attributes above 18 at the beginning of the game ? You can increase your attributes above 18 up to 20 for races with bonuses on this attributes. For example, half-orcs have bonus STR +2 so you can increase the half-orc's strength up to 20 at the beginning of the game. You can also decrease all attributes to 3. If some race has some penalty for example halfings STR -2 than you can increase halfing STR maximum to 16 points, you can also decrease halfing's STR to 1 then other races. Humans can increase their attributes to 18 at maximum. 3) What are Orders for paladins, monk and clerics? When creating one of this characters you need to choose their order. For paladins and monks the order has some multiclass restrictions. For clerics the order is cleric domain bonus spells (some of this spells are arcane), alignment restriction and spell restrictions. 4) What is Magic device skill? This skill is available only for bards and rogues. It allows them to use spell scrolls and magic wands. You cannot use class/ race/alignment restrictive items with this skill in IWD 2. I think that this skill is useless in IWD2. 5) What is the difference between cleric's Raise Dead and Ressurection spells? Raise Dead spell ressurects the dead character with 1 HP (health points). Ressurection spell ressurects dead character with full HP. Elves can not be ressurected by Raise Dead spell. 6) What is weapon proficiency, weapon focus and weapon specialization feats ? This feats are available for every kind of weapon (mace, large sword, small sword , axe and etc). The one point means you have weapon proficiency with chosen weapon and you can use this weapon without -4 penalty to attack. Two points means weapon focus and you receive +1 to attack with chosen weapon. Three points means weapon specialization and this feat is available only for fighter class, with this feat you have +2 damage bonus with chosen weapon (very good). 7) How character gender influences the game process in IWD 2 ? The only difference is character appearance and nothing more. This is true for all AD&D games. 8) What is the maximum charater level? Level 30, but it is impossible to reach this level from first attempt while beating the game. Try to play the game with same party second time and enable Heart of Fury mode. *********************************************************************** Part 3: Walkthrough This walkthrough is written in nonstandard way. I described this walkthough as a story of four adventurers in Icewind Dale world. So let the story begin. main story characters: 1) name: Drake gender: male race: aasimar class: paladin of Helm alignment: lawful good abilities: STR(18),DEX(10),CON(18),INT(3),WIS(12),CHA(19) skills: diplomacy(4) feats: martial weapon: large sword (weapon focus) special abilities: party leader, divine faith, diplomat, strong reaction to evil deeds , charismatic, more experienced then other party members background: Drake is the son of the famous noble family. He was trained in all kinds of weapon and has some melee battle experience. His high strength allows him to be the best in melee battle and high constition allows him to survive in critical situations. As a noble he is religious and faithful warrior. He saw a lot of injustices and crimes so he swore to struggle with evil and injustice. His good wisdom and charisma made him a good diplomat, leader and spell resistant. His intelligence is enough for battle and he prefers to struggle in full plate because of low dexterity. His favourite weapons are swords. Drake wants to achieve fame and when he hear about goblin's attacks in Targos he went to Luskan as a mercenary volunteer and his leader abilities allows him to create the party from the other free adventurers. 2) name: Dexy gender: female race: moon elf class: rogue alignment: chaotic good abilities: STR(16),DEX(20),CON(14),INT(14),WIS(6),CHA(6) skills: bluff(4),hide(4),move silently(4),disable device(4),open lock(4), search(4) feats: Iron Will special abilities: scout, thief, agile, trickster background: Dexy was born among her folks but she was more intelligent and strong then others from her folks. She worked in Luskan as an independent scout and thief. She is good with ranged weapons and small blades. Her low wisdom made her more weak for mind attacks but her Iron Will compensates this. Good intelligence and high dexterity made her more skilled and quick then other party members. She also knows how to trick people and steal their goods. When she heard about goblin's attacks she understood that it is possible to earn a lot of money from this situation. She convinced Drake that her abilities will be useful in the party. 3) name: Alice gender: female race: human class: Cleric/Morninglord of Lathander alignment: neutral good abilities: STR(16),DEX(8),CON(18),INT(4),WIS(18),CHA(12) skills: concentration(4),spellcraft(2) feats: combat casting, simple weapon: mace (weapon focus) special abilities: divine magic, healer, insight, protector background: Alice was born in common human religious family and became an apprentice for local temple. She is very young and has some experience in healing wounded warriors. Her high wisdom allows her to see the things that are not available for other party members. But her low intelligence does't allow her to study the real world and only her human background gave her some curiosity. She is also strong and enduring then other clerics. When she heard about goblin's attacks her divine abilities will be more useful in Targos. Drake persuaded her to join his team as a protector and healer. 4) name: Leon gender: male race: rock gnome class: wizard alignment: lawful evil abilities: STR(9),DEX(16),CON(20),INT(18),WIS(10),CHA(3) skills: alchemy(4),concentration(4),knowledge (Arcana), spellcraft(4), wilderness lore(2) feats: combat casting, spell focus:evocation special abilities: arcane magic, study, alchemist background: Leon was born among other gnomes, His high constitution allows him to survive in dangerous areas. He is the most intelligent from the party and his high dexterity allows him to avoid the dangerous situations. Leon is very skilled mage and can identify a lot of items. When he went to Luskan he became an apprentice for Arcane brotherhood but he wants a real power so hoblin's attacks in Targos is a chance to achieve some experience and became more powerful. Drake detected his evil nature but Leon's strong discipline and arcane knowledge allowed him to join the team and will be very useful in further adventures. ******************************************************************** 1)Prologue So the adventurers have arrived to Targos. The ship captain Hedron Kerdos recommends them to go to the upper town and offer the mercenary services to Ulbrec Lord of Targos. When the team stands the ground Drake notices a dead soldier and two soldiers near this body. Drake speaks to one of the soldiers named Reig about the situation. Reig tells about hoblin raids in Docks. Reig was seriously wounded so Drake uses his lay on hands ability to heal him and then speaks to Reig again. Reig is grateful but his wounds are not completely healed so he needs some healing potion. He recommends to find Madgar in one of the houses. Team enters Docks area and meets some hoblins on the streets. After some small battle the adventurers enter one of the north houses. The house owner Madgar Shenlen says about some healing potions in his house but Madgar doesn't know where is this potions. Dexy quickly detects the healing potions in one of the crates in north-east part of the room then the adventurers return to Reig with potions and he is completely healed. A local soldier named Brogan wants the adventurers to help him to kill the hoblins in his warehouse. Dexy unlocks the locked warehouse and the party is in the warehouse. There are some hoblins but party kills them all. Leon detects the dead cat body in one of the warehouse crates and Dexy detects the hidden entrance undeground the warehouse. In the hidden passage there are some hoblins and the hoblin leader. This battle is a real challenge for inexperienced party. A lot of hoblins attacks Drake and Dexy. Alice uses all her healing spells. Drake is near death and only Leon's last magic missile spells kills tough hoblin leader and saves the party. Other hoblins are under fear so Drake and Dexy kills them without problems. Alice finds some unidentified scroll from hoblin leader's body. Leon cannot identify this scroll so keeps it for further investigation. The party returns from warehouse and Brogan is very pleased. But party is very weakened after this battle and needs some rest. Ship captain Hedron offers to rest on his ship but when he knows about hoblins in Docks he is worried about his mother who lives in Docks and wants to know is she safe. After some rest our team clears the streets from all other hoblins in Docks. In one of the south houses there is a Hedron's mother with her cats. Some hoblins entered her house but party kills them and Drake talks to her about her son. She is not pleased but after some discussion she tells the adventurers some old stories about other adventures who saves Kuldahar. After some relaxation the party exits the house and kills other survived hoblined on the streets. Reig is very pleased when the party cleared the streets from all hoblins and tells that lord Ulbrec will be pleased too. While Drake tells Hedron that his mother is safe Dexy enters empty house to the west. She detects the trap on the chest and disarms it. There is some useful staff there. Its time to visit Salty Dogs tavern which is to the south. The owner Gohar is commucative but has no real information. There are other mercenaries in tavern called Iron Collar mercenaries. After some talking to them the party knows that there were some other Collar mercenaries: Myrkul the undead speaker and the mage Phoen. But now they don't belong to mercenaries and are on their own. They may be will be useful later. The party exits tavern and enters upper Targos from north-west stone stairs. In upper Targos the nearest west house is owned by Myrkul the undead speaker. Myrkul tells about the ghost in the Weeping Widow Inn and Drake offers to investigate this situation. The party enters Weeping Widow Inn to the south and the innkeeper is worried about the ghost in his inn who appears at night in one of the room. He gives the party the key from this room and some strange unidentified bottle. Leon and Dexy exit the inn and enter Gallaway Trade Depot east from inn. The trader woman Deirdre helps them to identify the bottle and the scroll from docks warehouse. Drake and Alice go upstairs the inn and open the room with the ghost. The ghost is woman called Veira. After some speaking Drake decides to banish ghost but Alice offers to investigate more about this situation. And while Alice stays with the ghost in the room Drake returns to innkeeper and knows more about Veira's husband Donovan who perished somewhere. It seems that ghost suffers and cannot leave this place. Innkeper recommends to ask Gohar in Salty dogs tavern to know more. Drake returns to Docks and ask Gohar about ghost's husband. It seems that Donovan perished in some terrible shipwreck and ship prow is the only thing from this shipwreck. Drake takes the ship prow and returns to ghost. Veira is pleased but cannot be freed from this place. Leon supposes that the clue is in this strange bottle. The party goes to Myrkul's house and after some confrontation Myrkul tells that this bottle can be used to keep ghost's tears and the ghost will be free. Veira agrees to give one tear to bottle and is freed. The innkeeper is pleased and Dexy speaks with him about some kind of reward but innkeeper is too greedy. So its time to visit lord Ulbrec but first adventurers visit the house which is north from town hall. The mage Phoen was not pleased with strange visitors and when Drake shows him the scroll from goblin leader in Docks Phoen quickly becomes hostile and attacks our adventures. Suddenly some hoblins teleported to this house and the battle became very tough. Phoen tried to use some of his magic but Dexy's sneak attack killed him quickly. The other hoblins were killed too. So the situation is clear: hoblins were able to assault Targos with teleportation scrolls and Phoen was the initiator of this. Now the traitor is dead and its time to visit town hall. By speaking with Lord Ulbrec Drake told him how adventures cleared the Docks from hoblins. Ulbrec was grateful and recommends to report to Shawford in Palisade. While other members speaking with Ulbrec Dexy get aquainted with Ulbrec's wife Elytharra and tells her about teleportation scroll and Phoen's betrayal and gets some reward. She also exchanges the bottle with ghosts tear on some magic short sword. Leon buys some magic scrolls from Elytharra and memorizes new magic spells. The party exits town hall and enters Pavilion which is north from the town. In Pavilion there are some wounded soldiers. One wounded scout Garradun Tanner wants the party to deliver his letter to Neverwinter captain Mariner. Drake takes this letter and shows this letter to Denhem Fisher. It seems that Tanner is doppleganger spy and this letter is a trick and recommends to deliver the new letter to Mariner which informs him about current situation. After some confrontation with Tanner about this letter Tanner attacks party but his life is short. The party keeps this letter for further investigation and leaves Pavilion. After some words with north gate soldier the party enters Palisade. In the nearest house to the left is commander Shawford and healer. After speaking with Shawford he hires the adventures as a mercenaries to defend the Palisade from hoblins. The orders are now go from Shawford. The first order is to find dwarf Olap Tamewater and offer him our help. Alice offers to explore this Palisade before going to Olap. To the south-east there is the soldier with broken catapult. Using Drakes diplomatic skill the party convinces him to help with this catapult. Using hammer which adventures found lately Drake is able to repair the catapult. Some recruits were trained very hardly and Drake inspires them for more courage in battle. At this time Alice blesses some recruits with her divine power. Dexy finds some lonely soldier to the east and tricks him to leave his post. She finds some good shield near this post. She also gambles with soldier Gable and destroys the barrel on the wall near Gable. The Gable was surprised and the good long bow is the reward in this gamble. Some recruits are trained with spears but the their commander knows little about the attack of opportunity. Drake destroys the barrel near soldiers with his sword and the commander is now convinced. The soldier Niles near commander's house wants some drink but Drake orders him to back to his post. Dwarf Olap Tamewater is near north wall and he needs to repair the crane in Targos which is broken. Jorun Timewater in Docks on the streets knows how to repair the crane and gives the wheel to the crane. The crane is in Targos between Weeping widow Inn and Gallaway Trade Depot. Lumbar is responsible for this crane and offers to put this wheel to the cran. Drake takes the wheel from inventory and puts it on cran mechanism. So the cran is repaired and Olap is pleased. When reporting about cran's success to Shawford he gives another order: find soldier Isherwood in Palisade and offer him help. Isherwood is in the west Palisade and his archers need 300 arrows. This arrows can be supplied from Gallaway Trade Depot. Drake goes to Gallaway Trade Depot and convinces Deirdre to supply archers with arrows. Isherwood is pleased. The next Shawford's order is to obtain some information from dead hoblin in Myrkul's house. Myrkul is speaker with dead and after some conversation Drake convinces Myrkul to write some information from dead hoblin on the note. The note is delivered to Shawford. Shawford wants to convince Collar mercenaries in Salty dog tavern to report to Shawford for orders. After speaking with this mercenaries in tavern they refuse to report to Shawford but Leon reminds them about their connection with traitor Phoen and they agreed to report to Shawford. After returning to Shawford the alarm was called: hoblins assault Palisade. So the action has begun and the adventures must protect Palisade from hoblins. After leaving commander's house Dexy notices a group of hoblins with one hoblin leader. The battle has begun but the leader was very tough and party escapes to commander's house to the healer to heal the wounds. After defeating this team the another hoblin team have burnt the wall and assaults the fortress. The soldiers are too weak to battle with this crowd of hoblins but the party were able to defeat this team. The another goblin team with the mage hoblin leader penetrated the fortress and attacks a lot of soldiers. Our team with a hard work killed this hoblins and their tough mage leader. Now the battle is over and the Palisade is defended for now. Shawford was very pleased and orders to report back to lord Ulbrec. As mercenaries the team gets some gold. Lord Ulbrec wants the team to complete very useful mission. There are some reinforcements from Luskan and Neverwinter and in order to reach Targos this reinforments must cross Shaengarne bridge. This bridge is protected and our team must clear this bridge from enemies. But before going to complete this mission the party is supplied with some equipment: Oswald near his flying ship in Targos sells some useful potions, Elytharra in town hall sells some magic scrolls and items, Deirdere in Gallaway Depot has some warriors stuff and healer in Pavilion can heal or ressurect characters. After some preparations the party is ready for next adventure. ************************************************************ 2) Chapter 1 While fighting hoblins the party has gained some little experience: Drake learnt some to use power attack in battle, Dexy became more skilled , Alice received more effective healing and other spells as a reward from her god and Leon memorize more offensive spells and became more healthy. On the entrance to Shaengarne Fort territory the party meets orc leader Torak who is the leader of the local orc tribe. Torak claimed that this is his territory and no one can not be allowed to access territory without Torak's permission. Torak denied the party to access this territory. This territory is well guarded and has some barrel defenses. Drake decides to assault this territory in order to access the Shaengarne Bridge. Dexy destroys the barrel defenses near entrance with her long bow and the party begins assault. A lot of orcs tries to kill adventures but Leon's mind-affecting spells cause some sleep effects on Orcs. Drake was able to kill a lot of orc warriors and Dexy disrupted the orc shaman's spells with sneak attack. Alice also killed some orcs with her mace and Leon uses some offensive spells on wounded enemies. So the war has begun and orcs must be exterminated in this area. After killing some orcs near empty house and near another orc's defense the party frees druid Dereth Springsang. Dereth is very grateful about his rescue and opens another hidden path for the party to the west. He also worries about his wife and wants the team to find her in this area. After another orc's killing the party meets Dereth's wife in the north-east area. She opens another path and recommends to beware fireball barrels which explodes with fire. After some scouting Dexy detects this barrels and orc guards near barrels. This orc are accessible only from the other path and cannot be killed quickly near barrels. So the party goes to the back south-east path and kills all orcs in this area. The orcs are surprised and when the party is near fireball barrels some orc shoot the fire arrow to one of the barrel. The party goes to the safe distance only Dexy stays near barrles. Stupid orcs try to attack her but the barrels explodes and a lot of orcs are dead from their own trap and Dexy's high reflexes allows her to evade this trap. The party meets orc's leader Torak, he is angered and flees to his camp. The party goes to the north-east area to orc's camp. Near entrance some orcs try to kill our adventures but our adventures and some strange ally Emma Moonblade prevents this. After speaking with her she tells that she seeks her family sword which was stolen by some strong troll in this area. Near village the party meets woman Katlin who is very frightened and says that if we attack this camp then the orcs will kill her villagers hostages. The only way to rescue them is to sneak to their camp and open the gates to the hostages and then free them . So Dexy sneaks to the orc's camp near guards and finds the gates wheel. She turns the wheel and the gates are opened. After Dexy's returning the party kills the orcs who guard the villages. The villages are gratefull and its time to assault Torak's camp. Torak is very tough but Drake is tougher so Torak is dead and all orcs are eliminated. Dexy takes the key from Torak's body. This key opens north gates but first the party decides to explore the cave in Torak's camp. The cave has some useful items and some undead enemies. Zombies are strong but very slow and cannot resist good magic. At the end of the cave there is an evil troll Vrek who is not pleased with party's arrival and tries to kill adventures. Leon usea sleep spell and a lot of Vrek's minions fall on the ground. Vrek is immune to sleep and is very tough. Drake cannot defeat him one to one and is badly wounded. While Alice heals Drake Dexy attracts Vrek's attention and Vrek is attacked by Dexy's small sword and Leon's spells. After healing Drake is ready for next battle and troll is dead. Leon's Melf's Acid arrow spell prevents the troll from regeneration. There are some useful items in Vrek's lair but the really good item is Moonblade of Selune the sword which Emma seeks. But this is really good so the party decides to use this sword in their mission and after completing the mission return this blade to Emma. The cave is cleared and the party returns to Orc's camp. Some villager merchant can buy or sell some items. After trading the party opens north gates and proceed to the next location. This mountain area is defended by some wererats. Their leader Gaernat blocked the way so the party must kill a lot of wererats in order to move further. Alice learnt how to animate dead so her undead summoned creature was the target for wererats while other party members fought. After killing a lot of wererats the party moves to the river north-west. The river is guarded by rangers Malarites with their strong animals. Malarites are tough but not so smart so they are concentrated on Alice's summoned undead. After this hot battle the enemies are defeated. Leon notices some strange support beam near entrance and offers to destroy this beam. The beam is destroyed and the party is ready for next battle after some rest. Dexy detects another Malarites group and they are defeated too. West small bridge is broken and the party needs some wood plank in order to cross this river. To the north there are some enemies and river dam. After good battle the dam is broken and the party has wood plank. The bridge is repaired and the party enters Shaengarne Bridge region. The enemies are alarmed and their leader orders to destroy the bridge before adventurers come. The bridge is defended by a lot of orcs, bugbears, wererats and malarites. Some ogres are tough too. After clearing the bridge entrance the party goes to the bridge. Enemy mage Xuki tries to use some spells but Dexy attacks her from back and Leon killes her with magic missile. Xuki's ogre bodyguards are tough but slow and stupid. The enemies are destroyed but they were able to destroy the bridge. The bridge is too big for repair and the party has no time. So Neverwinter and Luskan reinforcements cannot arrive from this path. Lord Ulbrec must know this. After some rest the party returns to Targos. Lord Ulbrec is more optimistic and he orders you to destroy the main hoblin base. After defeating a lot of forces in Shaengarne the enemy is weakened and needs some time to restore forces so its time for our party to assault enemy's base in Horde Fortress. Some rangers Ennelia and Braston scouted the fortress and had some information about enemy base. Our team must travel to Horde and meet this rangers to know more about this base. The order is clear but before leaving Dexy takes some payment from Shawford and other party members supply yourself with some good items and money. Leon bought some new spells . The party is ready for next adventure. Outside Horde fortress the party meets ranger Ennelia. She speaks that her lover Braston is a captive in the base. She also recommends to beware the war drums which are used by orcs to teleport reinforcements and recommends to destroy this drums. The enemies in this area are tough but the party is prepared for this battle. After some scouting Dexy discovers three war drums to the north, center and north-east area. The bridges contain some traps which can be disarmed. First the party defeats some enemies in the central area and the war drum in this area. It seems that effective way to prevent reinforcements is to kill orc who is near drum with Dexy's sneak attack. The next north drum is destroyed too. The last north-east drum is well-guarded and the sneak attack is very difficult so the party chooses brutal assault. After very difficult battle Drake kills orc shaman Trugnus and searches his body for the key. The front access is unaccessible so the party must find another way to fortress. Drake unlocks the gates in the south-east camp and kills ogre Gark and his minions. There is a cave in this camp and the party enters it. The cave is full of hoblins and orcs. Some crazy hoblin Ponmuk is not hostile and he wants to make a deal with the party: If the party bring him some food then he tells you the password to the door. Leon tries to intimidate him but his attempt is failed. Dexy detects some spiders in the west area. There are four spiders and spider Queen. After killing this spiders the party takes their bodies. This is a good meat for Ponmuk especially spider queen body. Ponmuk is pleased and tells the password to the east gates. The password is "Chimera". Drake goes to the gates and speaks the password. The door is opened. Dexy sneaks to this area and detects another war drum. She destroys it with her sword and returns to the party. Now enemies cannot call reinforcements and the party is ready for next assault. The door guard and his minions are killed but there is hoblin chieftain Vunarg in this area. He is very aggressive but Drake's diplomacy skills persuades hoblin to back other hoblins to their home. One last very tough enemy is troll Yquog. Leon uses his sleep spell to fall some orcs but Yquog damages greatly the party. Only Leon's fireball and lighting bolt spells saves the party. There are some useful items from Yquog's body especially bracers. Now the party goes deeper to the cave. Some enemies meets the party near entrance but this meeting is too short. Another enemy team from the east path tries to kill the party but their leader Taskmaster is defeated and there is Black Ward Stone on his body. Leon takes it. Some hoblins to the north-west with their leader Kruntur are not hostile to the party. Kruntur tells that troll Yquog stole the bracers from his brother. The party has this bracers and Kruntur is very pleased. There is an orc Gumph with his people near animal cages. His contains another Iron Ward Stone. North-east exit has some strange trap which detects Dexy. She cannot disarm it. Leon studies the symbols on the wall and comes to a conclusion that this trap will not be activated if you have two ward stones: Iron and Black. The party has this stones so the path is opened and leads to fortress's yard. The enemies await our party and begin to attack our party from all sides. Alice summons undead creature near orc's archers and the archers tries to kill the summoned undead. The party switches to other enemies and soon they are all dead. There are some other enemies in the yard and the party kills them all. The gates to the inner fortress are opened and the party is inside. Two bugbears and old orc try to kill our team but soon they are defeated. The old orc has the key to the door. When the door is opened the party sees some strange meeting between strange half-dragon Sherincal and fortress leader Guthma. Sherincal is displeased that Guthma failed hoblin assault on Targos then she dissappears. Its time to confront this Guthma. Some strong minions attacks the party but Leon's fireballs and lighting bolts greatly damages them because Leon learnt greatly spell focus evocation magic feat and greatly spell penetration feat. Few enemies can resist his spells. Dexy is the target for enemies while Leon uses his spells to damage the enemies who attack Dexy. Then this weakened are now ready to face Drake's sword and Alice's mace. Guthma was surprised with party arrival but behaved as a stupid and soonly he was killed. After some exploration Dexy frees the ranger Braston from prison. Braston was grateful when he heard about Guthma's death. Then the entire party and Braston returns to Ennelia. The lovers were together again and its time to report success to Ulbrec. Ulbrec was very pleased but he has some new mission: The Neverwinter forces are somewhere near Western pass and our team must meet them there. Oswald's flying ship will transport them to Targos. Before arriving the party takes some payment from Shawford and speaks to Oswald. Oswald was surprised and the party is ready to board the ship. But before the party bought some equipment and spells. The ship is ready for fly. *********************************************************************** 3) Chapter 2: The blue sky was changed by strong ice storm which tried to damage Oswald's ship. Oswald struggled but the victory was on the side of nature and ship crashed on the Western Pass flying near strange ice castle. Osward and adventurers are unconscious after crashing and some cheeky beetle tries to wound unconscious Alice but Drake first who awaken and the beetle is dead with his sword. After some time other party members and Oswald have awoken. Oswald suggests to repair this ship but he needs some neccessary ingredients. Leon takes ingredient's instruction from the table and studies it. The first ingredient thrym extract is already in the ship. There are some scrolls which Leon memorizes . Oswald offers to make a full plate from bring beetle shell from dead beetle. After previous adventures many has changed for adventures. They became more experienced and skilled. Drake became a real fighter and a specialist in large swords. He also has some alternative weapons such as flail, great sword which are used in some special situations. Dexy learnt how to use arterial strike to cause breeding wounds to enemies. She also knows how to evade the spells and traps more effectively. Alice received a lot of new spells and now can heal a party member quickly . Leon became a real true mage and is very dangerous for his enemies. After some rest full plate is ready and Drake equips it. The party decides to explore the area and find who is responsible for ship's crash. Near ship some other beetles attack the party but the power is on the side of party. Beetle's nest is to the north from the ship and must be destroyed. After nest's destruction Dexy finds some useful items in the nest. Leon takes the second ingredient a wooden plank near the ship and some boring beetle shells as a third ingredient. Now the party go east where some giants attack the team. Giants are strong and big but stupid so the party strikes them to death. North from giants Dexy detects deadly wounded captain Yurst who has bleeding wound and can die quickly. Drake and Alice cannot heal him and obey to do something with this wound. After speaking with Yurst some Tundra Yeti try to attack our party but Dexy is aware and soon this Yeti are dead. In their camp Drake has found some Periapt of Wound Closure which will be helpful for Yurst. After bringing this periapt to Yurst captain tells the adventurers that he was the commander of Luskan forces in this area but some ice women and their leader half-dragon woman killed all of his soldiers. Then the captain Yurst dies and nothing can help him. The party moves to the north-west were some traders are staying. Drake senses the evilness of their leader Beodaewn and detects that he is a werewolf. Leon recommends not to kill this traders at night because they are more weak at daylight and can be destroyed easily. While the party rests until daylight Leon buys some evil spells from Beodaewn and returns to the party. The party is ready for battle and Beodaewn and his followers are dead. Some good things from their camp are the reward. Soon the party meets some women to the east and a talking panther Odea Winterthaw. Drake speaks to panther but the panther don't allow the party to cross this way. Then Drake wants panther to speak with their leader Illium. Panther agreed but after some discussion with Illium the half-dragon woman appears and kills the panther. The party goes near the bridge to the snow stairs. Illium has beladonna and Dexy pickpockets her. Now the pass to the next area is opened and the party goes to the Andora north-east. It seems that party actions became noticed by half-dragon woman Sherincal. She wants be dead the adveturers. The master of locks tells that our party must meet druid Nathaniel in ice castle and the party is attacked by enemies. The team succeeds in battle. Dexy tries to open the nearest door but the door is sealed with ice and the party needs some special sign in order to open this doors. Leon finds some note on the ground about someone Zack who is somewhere in this area. Near the prison cells there is a monster Remorhaz but soon he is dead. The crystal golem from north-east attacks the party. Drake tries to attack the golem with his sword but the sword is ineffective against golem. Leon uses some spells but golem is immune to magic. Alice hits golem with her mace and golem takes some damage. So the party switches to bludgeoning weapon and kills golem. In future the party will know that this golems are weak to bludgeoning weapons. Some priestless near 3 levers attack the party with their spells but soon they are dead. Dexy pushes 3 levers and the ice wall near Neverwinter frozen soldiers is destroyed. The party returns to that place and finds some rock pile and Aurilite Holy Symbol. It seems that this symbol is the key for the doors. Dexy unlocks all prison cells and finds some nonhostile spiders in one of the cells. In central area there is a queen Remorhaz. This monster is very tough but after some Leon's fireballs the queen is dead. The wall near queen is destroyed and Lord Rengar speaks to Drake. Drake challenges Regnar to fight and the hard battle begins. Regnar is very tough and smart enemy but this haven't helped him to survive. After some little rest Drake attacks some necromancers. One of the necromancers tries to summon undead but Dexy's bleeding wound disrupts this spell. There is also crystal golem who opens one of the doors and attacks the party but the experience in killing previous crystal golem gave the opportunity to kill this golem with bludgeoning weapon. After moving to the south the party detects another Remorhaz. The monster is killed and Zack is free. It seems that Zack was swallowed by this monster and is grateful but worried about his pet spider. The spider was freed from the cell in the prison and Zack can trade with adventurers. Leon buys two diamonds and some nonmagic weapon as a last ingredients for ship repair. All ingredients are now in party possess but there is one thing: to investigate the situation in this region and find Neverwinter and Luskan forces. Half-dragon Sherincal meets the party near ice castle on the north-east area. It seems that this dragon woman is the leader in this region of some forces which are called Legion of Chimera. So the fight has begun and Sherincal is dead. The way to the ice castle is clear and the party enters the castle. The castle is full of some Iron Golems, Aurile priests and animals. The note from dead body near entrance contains some information. To the south-west are prison cells and Kuldahar druid Nathaniel is in one of the cells. He tells that this castle is ruled by three priestless: Lysara, Cathin and Oria. They worship the evil good Auril. Nathaniel also lost some equipment and he think that it can be found in one of the castle treasurers. The prison is under antimagic shield and Nathaniel don't know how to disable this shield but he heard some guard words: "turn east then west to disable". Dexy unlocks the door to Nathaniel and frees other prisoners. Nathaniel is grateful. In the next north-west room there is a high priestless Lysara. Drake tries to persuade Lysara not to fight but Lysara attacks adventurers. After battle the enemies are dead and Leon takes Lysara's key. The next room has some strange device. After some exploration Leon understands the work of this device: The device operates the castle mechanisms on the upper level. The device faces north-west and can be rotated from left side on one direction and from right side on opposite direction. Leon remembered Nathaniel's words "turn east then west to disable" and he turns the device to the east from the left side then to the west from right side. Nothing happens. Then Leon turns east from the right side and west from the left side. The antimagic shield is disabled. The north door has inscription "L:North R:North". The solution is simple and Leon turns North from left side and north full 360 degree circle from right side. The doors are opened and some Abishai demons attack the party. After killing them Drake speaks to their leader Xhaan. Xhaan has no mood to fight the adventurers and only wants to leave this place but some strange voice in this castle doesn't allow him to leave this place. Drake obeys to do what he can do and returns to party. After some battles the party enters the hall with high priestless Cathin. She is not so loyal as Lysana and attacks immediatly. Soon Cathin is dead and Leon takes another key from her body but the prisoners and Nathaniel are free and this keys are useless. After some exploration the party can't find the entrance to the lower castle levels but only hidden entrance to the surface near Xhaan. Leon suggests that device can unlock some hidden door and the party returns to device. After using a lot of combinations Leon finds that the combination "south-west from left side and north-west from right side" unlocks some hidden door to the east. This door is located near Auril's statue in the hall where was Cathin and her minions. The party enters the library and Leon writes some new spells to his spellbook. A lot of trolls are near entrance to the lower castle level. Leon cast fireball and the trolls attack the party but soon they are dead. The party enters castle lower level. Near the entrance there is a mirror which can be rotated to the east or to the west. Some doors in this area are locked and can be opened only with Lighting Bolt spell. The mirrors can reflect lighting bolt. Dexy reports about some strange prism device to the south in the central hall. Leon investigates it and tells that this device can fire with lighting bolt. There are two levers in this room: one lever operates prism's direction (north,north-east, east , etc) and the other lever activates the lighting bolt from the device. In the nearest room there is a man called Nickademus but he sleeps. Dexy tries to see the contest of the bookshelf near the bed but Nickademus is awoken. It seems that he is the creator of the castle and has some useful information. He recommends the party to see the Kuldahar picture upstairs. After some rest the party goes to the battle room with golem. Leon experiments with the levers in this room and return to Nickademus to learn more about this room. It seems that there are 13 levers in the room, the lower 3 south levers are the most important, two of them can switch the room to one of the modes: 1) Battle square . This mode is used for fighting the monsters for reward. 2) Temple maintance. This mode is used to repair broken devices such as prism device. 3) Inner sanctum. This mode is used by priestless Oria for meditation in another ethernal dimension The upper 10 levers are used to switch the battle square rank from 1 to 10. To activate each mode you need to push the last south lever. Battle square rules are simple: The party must choose one member who will fight in battle square. To complete each rank the warrior must complete all levels in this rank. There are five levels in each rank. To activate battle square mode just switch the room to battle square mode (two south levers) then choose the battle rank (upper levers ) and activate it (third south lever). There are nine squares in game room. The battle ended when you occupy 3 squares which must be near each other in vertical, horizontal or vertical combination. To achieve the first level the warrior must end the battle with 3 occupied squares. To achieve the second level the warrior must end the battle with four occupied squares and so on. To achieve level 5 the warrior must end the battle with seven occupied squares. After party has learnt the rules from Nickademus Drake wants to take part in battle. He switches to battle square mode and chooses rank 1 for battle. Then he activates the mode and the battle has begun. After killing three enemies Drake ended the battle and as a reward gets the key to priesless Oria room. While the party rests Drake continues to play the game. After some time he completes rank 1 and takes nice reflex saving throws belt as the reward. Then he enters rank 2 and completes it too. The reward is the potion which increase permanently wisdom but decreases the dexterity. This potion is good for Alice. Rank 3 reward is the very useful damage reduction Abishai hide armor which is good for Dexy. But the party has no time and other ranks are not completed. The south room are full of shadows but Drake and Alice turns them and there is some hidden entrance through the wall in one of the coffins. The next room are full of trapped adventurers. After Drake broke the mirror the adventurers attack the party but the team killed them. The south treasurer is locked and Dexy returns to prism device and rotates it to south and fires with lighting bolt. Now the treasurer is opened and there is Nathaniel bag of holdings in one of the crates. Now its time to visit Kuldahar painting. The party goes upstairs from east stairs and speaks to painting. Leon says "Lysan" and the party goes upstairs again. Now they are in some strange room with locked door with shadow on the floor and hidden door from this room with inscription "embrace the shadow". The hidden door is locked and cannot be opened. Leon suggests to stay on the shadow on the floor. Dexy does it and after taking some damage quits from shadow. Now the hidden door can be opened but the door with shadow is locked. Leon returns to prism device and rotates the mirror in the north corridor to the west, then he rotates the prism to north and fires lighting bolt. The door to the shadow is opened. There is a strange altar who speaks to Drake but Drake knows from Xhaan the true name of this god Aeij-Kilenzr't and banishes this god. The god is angered and some storm damages Drake. Drake tries to escape the room but the room is locked. Dexy embraces the shadow again to open the hidden door and Leon fires lighting bolt to open the door for Drake. Badly wounded Drake escapes the room and Alice heals him. Now the evil god is banished and its time to visit high priestless Oria. Her room is in north-east part and can be opened with the key from battle square reward. After some confrontation Oria and her winter wolves attack the party. The wolves are killed and Oria is damaged but she breaks some strange staff and dissapears. Drake is surprised and don't know what happened. When the party exits her room some strange ethernal ghost appears and attacks the party. It seems that this is Oria. Drake use his weapon but the weapon is useless, the magic is useless. Leon understands what happened and suggests to run to the game room. The party runs to the game room and Oria chases the party. Leon switches to "Inner Sanctum" mode and activates it. Now the priestless is vulnerable and can be damages. Soon she is dead. Leon switches to normal mode and activates it. Now the party returns to upper castle. Xhaan is greatful that the evil god is banished and leaves the castle. After speaking with Nathaniel Drake returns him his equipment and gives him the ingredients for Oswald ship. Nathaniel leaves the castle and tells the party that they can meet him in Kuldahar. Now its time to meet reinforcements. The party leaves the castle. The reinforcements from Luskan and Neverwinter have arrived. Captain Mariner is the Neverwinter commander and captain Rahm is the Luskan commander. After some discussion it is decided that Neverwinter forces will return to Neverwinter for more reinforcements and Luskan forces will go to Targos. Drake presents Ulbrec's letter and the replaced letter from spy Tanner. After some time the magical properties of the replaced letter showed the true face of captain Mariner and his soldiers. He was not a true captain Mariner but doppleganger spy. False Mariner was surprised and the party killed the doppleganger spies. After speaking with Rahm it is decided to go to the East Path in order to reach Kuldahar and the Severed Hand. The Legion of Chimera must be stopped. Rahm will meet the party on Ice lakes. So the party is ready for next adventure. *********************************************************************** Chapter 3: After some long path the party enters the Wandering village. On the path the party meets Thvara Baelm and her forces. After some speaking with Thvara Drake the party knows that Thvara was sent by Aurilies and now returns to the ice castle but the party already destroyed the Aurile forces in the castle and Thvara is not happy to hear this. She orders to attack the party but soon their forces are destroyed. The dire wolves from north smelled the blood and attacks the party. After some tough battle the party is unable to continue the battle and Leon uses his Chaos spell to stop wolves attack. This works and wolves are more easy to destroy. Badly wounded party enters the village. Some hunters offer first to speak with village elder. The strange dark elf merhcant Nym is interested in party quest. He says that the East pass is under the control of Legion of Chimera and it will be suicide to reach the Kuldahar from East path. He recommends to find Black Raven monastery and reach the Kuldahar from Underdark passage under the monastery. The monastery can be reached from River Caves. The caves are near Black marsh which can be reached from Fell wood. After speaking with Venla the Healer the party rests and Venla says about some rare herb "frost rose " which grows on the Black Marsh and can be used for some good potions. Drake speaks to Suoma the Elder. Suoma can't help the party and recommends to speak to Venla about missing children. She also has some spells which are useful for Leon. Hunter Tahvo has some warrior's equipment. Venla tells that a lot of children are dissapeared from the village and may be our party can help the villagers. So everything is clear and the party is ready to investigate the Fell Wood for clues. While near entrance to the Fell wood some trolls attack the party. Some spells and might kills the trolls. Some barbarian team asks some questions and attacks the party. Barbarians are tough but very weak to mind-affecting spells. So the path is clear only the lonely rent is not explored. The party enters the tent and meets stupid Ogre Agog and witch Limha. Limha tries to trick the group but Drake senses her evilness. She tries to persuade the party that all is okey but small child little Hannu escapes from the pit in tent and tells that Limha is responsible for children kidnapping and she transformed the children to animals in order to save her beauty. The only way to release children is to kill Limha. But Limha escapes the tent and Agog attacks the party. He is too weak to struggle with Drake and soon he is dead. Drake and other party members leave the tent but a lot of trolls and Limha awaits the party near tent. After some tough battle Limha escapes and some salamanders attack the party. Limha tries to cast Chaos spell on party but Leon's magic missile disrupts the casting. Limha casts charm spell on Leon and Leon is charmed. Drake quickly attacks Limha and Limha is dead. Leon attacks Drake but Drake escapes from Leon until the charming effect dissapears. Now Limha is dead and the children are free. Its time to return to the village. Venla and other villagers are grateful. Suoma recommends to speak with hunter Tahvo. Tahvo tells the party about strong ghost who killed two hunters. The ghost has the name Sordirsin the Tusked and he is south-east from the village. Drake speaks to ghost. Ghost is angered on thieves who stole his horn and his mind is confused. The party decides don't kill the ghost for now and investigate what happened. Woman villager Pairi near village tells that some strange men were there and they went to the Fell wood. Its time to visit Fell wood. The old place with tent is familiar to the party but its time to move to the Fell wood itself. There is a hunter's ghost who is the spirit of the wood. The spirit warns the party to leave the wood. This wood is cursed and a lot of undead Restless dead are in the wood. He also tells that the west path leads to safety. The party goes north-west from spirit and meets some winter wolves. The wolves are dead and the wolf's pents are the reward from the battle. Now the party moves north and some trolls attack the party. After trolls death the party goes west and leaves the wood. What the hell is going on? - says Drake. It seems that the wood is the magic maze and it is very easy to lost in this maze. Drake recommends to mark the place in the wood with some dropped useless item on the ground. This will help to find known and unknown places. Now the party enters the wood with the spirit and goes to the north-east part. There are two skeletons and some traps. Skeletons are quickly turned by Alice and Drake takes some healing potions from the hole in the tree stump. Drake drops some arrows on the ground and the party goes north. The area is same but there is no dropped arrows on the ground and the stump doesn't have the hole. Leon tells that the party is now in some new area which is same as previous area. In order not to be tricked Drake drops another arrows on the ground. Now the party goes north and Drake notices the arrows which he droped in the first skeleton area. It seems that the party returns back. The party goes north again and then east. This new area is same as previous two area but is not marked by the party. From this area the party goes east again and enters the new area with the tree in the middle. The enemies are dead and the party meets Carynara the dryad. Drake speaks to her and she warns the party to leave the wood from west but Drake persuades her to give some instructions. Dryad tells that if the party wants to reach the heart of the wood then "from pond go south-east, north-east, north-west then from small creek go north-west, north-east and south-east to the heart of the forest". But what pond the answer is unknown. Now Drake marks this place as a place with dryad and the party goes north-east. Some trolls attack the party and soon trolls are killed. Drake marks this place with droped darts and the party goes south-east. The next area is more large then previous areas and a lot of restless dead skeletons attack the party. Soon they are turned and Dexy marks the place with arrows. Now the party decides to go south-east but Alice notices some strange Will-o-wisp near north-east entrance. It seems that this Will-o-wisp wants the party to show the right way. So the party goes north-east. The next area is same as previous but is not marked. The will-o-wisp shines near south-east entrance and the party goes south-east area. The new area is same as previous two areas but there is no will-o-wisp in this area. Alice senses that the party is near the clue and her intuition tells her to go north-west. The party goes north-west and enters the same area as previous three areas but this area is not marked. Will-o-wisp appears near south-east entrance and dissapears. The party goes south-east and enters NEW area with a circle of stones and a dead body near stones. At last the drinking horn is found on the dead body and its time to visit the ghost in village. From west entrance the party leaves the wood, rests in the tent and returns to village. Drake returns the horn to ghost Sordirsin. Ghost now rests in peace and the party searches his tomb for some useful items and returns to Tahvo. Elder Suoma has the last mission for our party and recommends to speak with Kurttu. The trader Nym leaves the village. Kurttu tells the story about her daughter's husband Kyosti who dissapeared not long ago. His wife Carita and his friend Leevi may know something. Drake speaks to Carita and Leevi but they know nothing about this situation so its time to investigate situation in Fell wood. Spirit of the wood knows something but he will not talk about this situation to the party until the party will solve the mystery of Restless dead in the wood. In order to put the Restless dead to rest the party must find and put out the ghost lights in the heart of the wood. The task is difficult and its time to visit the place with the circle of stone where drinking horn was. Leon remembered the path to this place: from spirit go north-east, then north, east, east, from dryad go south-east, north-east, north-east, south-east, north-west, south-east. Following this instructions the party enters the place with the circle of stones and dead body. Now the new paths are opened from this place. The party go south-east and enters the area with the pond in the middle. It seems that this is the area what dryad told. Leon wrote this instructions: " from pond go south-east, north-east, north-west then from small creek go north-west, north-east and south-east to the heart of forest". Following this instructions the party enters the heart of the forest. Witch candles and death candle attacks the party with electrical damage. The party was not so ready for this battle and Leon tries to attack the candle with spell but they are immune to magic. Drake hits the candle with sword but candle dissapears and teleports in another place. Leon is useless and tries to avoid the battle. Alice offers to concentrate on less tough enemies such as witch candles. After some hard battle witch candles are now destroyed and its time to destroy death candle. Drake as the most resistive to electrical damage attracts candle's attention and soon this candle is destroyed. So the Restless dead curse is disappeared and its time to report the success to spirit. The party leaves the heart of the forest and Drake speaks to spirit. The spirit is pleased and he has some Fell wood remains for the party. He tells that Kyosti is dead and his grave is near Fell wood. The party leaves Fell wood and goes north-west from the tent. The Kyosti's spirit is near the Grave. Alice speaks to him but he has no tongue and cannot speak. Alice tells him that he is dead and he can speak without a tongue. Kyosti tries to speak and his attempt is successfull. He tells that he was murdered by his wife Carita and his friend Leevi. They are lovers and Kyosti was useless. Leevi also cut him his tongue but the ghosts can speak without a tongue so he mistakes. Its time for party to confront Carita and Leevi. The adventurers return to village but there is no Carita and Leevi in the village. Kurttu says that they escaped from the village. After speaking with elder Suoma about the situation soon the sky covers with dark and two half-dragon tween appears in the village. They are Isair and Madae the leaders of the Legion of Chimera. They speak to Drake and other party and warn the party that the Legion is very powerful and our party can't change anything. The trader Nym informed them about the party plans. As a warning they turned some villagers to zombies. Alice turns this zombies to rest and Venla is grateful. Drake speaks to elder Suoma and gives her fell wood remains. Suoma tells that the adventurers can now access the Cold Marsh from Fell woods. The adventurers grate the villagers and return to Fell woods. On the place where was the spirit of the wood the strange Dark Treant appears and goes south-east. The party follows him and enters the area with a lot of Dark Treants. Leon cast fireball spell and Dark Treants are very greatly damaged. So they don't like fire and Drake switches to his fire damage flail and attacks. Alice casts fire storm and soon the Dark Treants are dead and the Fell wood is free from their influence. The party goes north-east to Cold Marsh. There are a lot of spiders and trolls in Cold marsh and the battle with them is challenging. Soon the party meets barbarian's outpost. Their leader barbarian Hadbruki attacks the party. There are a lot of barbarians and only Leon's fireball and chaos spells and Alice's flame strike can make a battle not so difficult. In the south-east area Dexy finds some frost rose which wants Venla in the village. The north-east path is blocked up. Simply by moving this stones Drake frees the pass but some crazy barbarians attack the party from back. The battle is really tough but is won. Near exit from Cold marsh some flying wyverns attack the party. Leon has some cold damage spells that are deadly for wyverns. Now the party leaves the marsh and enters the River caves entrance. After some rest the party notices the big cave entrance. The big white dragon and some wyrms attack the party. The wyrms don't like fire but the dragon is very tough. Soon they are all dead and the party is now ready to go to the cave. In the cave there is another white dragon and wyverns. Knowing the previous experience the party defeats the enemies. Dexy find some useful items in the cave. There is also a big pit in the cave and the party needs two ropes in order to go down. Its to to visit the village again. Venla is very grateful for frost rose from marsh and gives some useful potions. Tahvo has some ropes and Drake buys two hemp ropes from Tahvo. Now its time to return to the river cave again. Drake and Dexy attach the ropes to pit and the party goes down to the pit. Near entrance a lot of hook horrors attack the party but Alice's holy word spell confuses them. Now they are the easy target for some offensive spells. Leon's chaos spell also makes the chaos between them. Soon this monsters are dead. Dexy scouts the area and detects the gates to the north-west. The gates are locked and the party needs the key. Dexy also detects some small hole in the wall in the centre near prison cells. The party enters the hole and a lot of ice trolls attack the party. Fire damage makes the work against the trolls and soon they are dead. The dead dwarf in the south-east area has the key to the gates but party first decides to explore the area to the north-east. There are some Hook horror guardians and they attack the party with other monsters. Chaos spell confuses them and soon they are all dead. The north-east path is blocked and the party needs some mining tools in order to clear the access. So its time to unlock the gates to the north-west. It seems that this is dwarf's fortress. Dwarf Duergar speaks to Drake. But there are a lot of slaves in this fortress and Drake orders to free the slaves but Duergar refuses and the battle begins. There are lot of dwarfs but Drake blocks the door and Leon with Alice cast some offensive spells on dwarfs. Soon all dwarfs are dead in the hall and the party enters dwarf's fortress. Their leader Barud Barzam tries to attack the party with another forces but soon he is killed and Dexy takes some useful items from dwarfs. After clearing other places from dwarfs Dexy finds the mining tools in one of the crates in dwarf's storage. In the torture room near prison cells Alice meets some spectre who attacks her. Alice turns him and now spectre is calmed and can speak without an anger. Alice turns him in peace and the party leaves the fortress. Drake uses the mining tools to clear the way and the party enters deeper caves. Some Umber Hulks attack the party but their attacks are not successful. Soon the party meets some strange mage Harshom and his army. There are a lot of enemies and Harshom talks to Drake. It seems that Harshom was sent by Host tower of the Arcane brotherhood in Luskan. This brotherhood are powerful allies for Legion of Himera. After Carita's and Leeve's escape from village Harshom met them and knew the location of adventurers. So the battle begins. Harshom orders his animals and army to attack but Leon casts fireball and Alice casts Holy Word. All enemies are confused and its time for Alice to cast Fire Storm . Fire storm kills a lot of enemies and Harshon is dead too. Only some animals survived but Drake's sword kills them. The battle was too short as party not expected. Dexy takes the key and opens the gates. The party goes to Black Raven Monastery entrance. *********************************************************************** Chapter 4 The way to the monastery was too long and so now its time to visit the monks. The outside area near monastery seems safe because there is no enemies. Dexy notices the trap on the bridge but failed to disarm it and only her good reflexes allows her to survive. Alice heals Dexy and the party goes to the wyrm's nest. Dexy searches the nest for wyrm's egg and ruby ring but the wyrm mother is not pleased and attacks the party. Yeti hears the battle and a lot of Yetis attack the party from the opposite bridge. The battle is not diffcult and now its time to visit the monastery. The monastery looks beautiful inside. There are training room, library, dinner hall, barracks and other private rooms. Salisam Hardash welcomes the travelers and recommends to speak with monastery leader Aruma. Unfortunately the Underdark passage is the private passage only for Black Raven monks so Aruma refuses the party to use this passage. Drake tells Salisam that Aruma refused to access the passage. Salisam tells some information about Aruma and Dolon. It seems that after Dolon's arrival the things have changed in the monastery and Aruma became corrupted. Leon offers to investigate the situation more deeply. Dexy picklocks the door near entrance and she meets some thief Ven in the treasury. Ven offers to loot the tomb for treasures and Dexy agrees to his offer. He also gives the ring with NN initials. In the library Leon buys some new spells for his spellbook. There are also some useful items in the store. One of the books contains a lot of useful information which can bring the party a lot of experience but this book is very expensive and the party can't allow to buy this book. In the training room Svaltid trains the monks and he has no time for dialog. Sersa stays in the barracks and the party can rest here. The local healer Nonin lost his father's gold ruby ring and he is pleased when Dexy gives him a ring with NN initials. As a reward the party gets some healing potions. Nonin can also buy a lot of party items. Dexy picklocks the next locked room. In one of the chests there is Dolon's letter. It seems that Dolon is a Severed Hand spy and is instructed to corrupt the monastery. Its time to visit Aruma and Dolon. After some confrontation and presentation the clues they escape from the monastery and its time to visit Salisam. Salisam tells that in order to become the monks of the Black Raven the party must comlete The Eigths chambers. Morohem dowstairs will instruct for further information. The rules are simple: the party must choose the team member to challenge each chamber. There are 8 chambers and the party member must enter the chamber without weapon and equipment. The rest is allowed after comleting the chamber. The first chamber is called the chamber of stone. The challenger must show some battle and endurance skills. The party chooses Drake for this chamber. Drake enters the chamber and takes the long sword from the available equipment in the chamber. There are five levers in the room. Drake pushes the first lever and the enemy monk appears and attacks Drake. Drake kills him and pushes the second lever and nothing happened but the first lever goes to its default position. Drake to push another three levers and nothing happens. It seems that the levers must be pushed in right combination. After some experiments Drake finds the right lever combination: 1,5,3,2,4 but after pushing further levers the battle becomes tougher. After comleting the chamber Drake rests and the party prepares to next challenge. The second chamber is called the chamber of shadows. The party chooses Alice as an undead expert. Alice enters the chamber and notices sixth portals: three on the left (L) side and three on the right (R) side. Alice enters the first portal on the left (L:1) and the shadow appears and attacks Alice. After killing the shadow monk Alice enters the first portal on the right side (R:1). Nothing happens and Alice appears near another portal. It seems that the right combination required. Wrong combination resets all combinations and the shadow appears. After some exploration Alice finds that the right combination is R:1, R:3, L:1, L:3 and completes the chamber. The next third chamber is called the chamber of sorcery. Leon is chosen and he enters the chamber. There are eight magic symbols on the floor and two monks attack Leon. Leon kills one monk but monk appears again. Leon kills another monk and his body is on one of the magic symbols on the floor. It seems that this monks must be killed on one of magic symbols and this two symbols for two monks must be similar. The first monk was killed on the nearest central symbol and Leon kills another monk on the nearest left symbol. The chamber is over. The next chamber is the chamber of clockwork. Dexy is chosen and enters the chambers. This chamber is full of mechanisms which can damage greatly. Three monks attack Dexy. She takes some short sword and attack the enemies. After some damage one of the monks activates the bomb from himself. After some time the bomb explodes as a fireball but Dexy evades the fireball. Another monk after some damage tries to activate the bomb but Dexy is able to click the button on the wall to disable the bomb. The last monk is destroyed as previous. The next chamber is the chamber of sand. Dexy is chosen again. Two monks are enemies and some strange buttons are on the walls. After pressing each button the ray of energy fires from the wall and damages everyone. It seems that the enemies must be killes with this rays. Dexy serves as a decoy for them and soon the enemies are dead. The sixth chamber is the chamber of silk. The rules are simple: all enemies must be destroyed. Leon enters the chamber and meets a lot of spiders. Before battle Leon prepared a lot of fireballs and soon the enemies are dead. The seventh chamber is called chamber of battle. Drake is ready for battle. There are two levers and a shining circle in the chamber. One monk attacks Drake and Drake fall him down on the shining circle. The monk is unconscious but nothing happens. Then Drake activate the south lever and the north door is opened. Another monk attacks Drake. Previous monk is ready for the battle and there are two monks and two circles in the next room. Now it is easy to understand that this monks must be killed on this two circles and the north lever must be activated after this happened. The last chamber is called chamber of imolation. Alice enters the chamber and two tough enemies attack her. She summons undead creature and the enemies are attracted by creature. Flame strikes make the battle harder but the undead succeeds in the battle and the chamber is over. So the Eight Chambers are history and the party can go downstairs to the Underdark passage. The passage seems safe and only the tomb is guarded by some Iron golems. Ven, f***ing thief, loots the tomb and dissapears and the party is framed up. Iron golems are awakened and attack the party. Drake tries to defend but the Golems are too strong and can not be damaged. Drake orders to run while he tries to delay golems. The party runs to the exit from the tomb but a lot of dwarfs and their commander attack the party from the other side. There is no time for long battle and only Leon's and Alice's ranged offensive spells are helpful. Drake is near death and the whole party enters the next area. Wizard Malavon Despana greets the party near entrance and welcomes to his camp. There are some other traders in the camp and the party can buy equipment and rest here. Malavon tells that this area is also settled by some dwarven merchants to the south-west and some mindslayers to the east. The pass to the next area is guarded by driders. The only way to proceed to the next area is to enter the driders caves and investigate the situation in the caves. Malavon also tells the story about his clone who was the ally of demon Belhifet and about his sister Ginafae who lost in the past but now she is somewhere in the caves. Dwarves to the south-west have some useful equipment but they are no so polite with the party. The mindslayers are not so communicative and only Oinchack'olp wishes to find his lost blue stones in the caves. The drider Son is suspicious about party actions but Dexy tells him that the party are only the explores who are interested in new technologies. Son tells about some drider's device Viciscamera which allows them to clone a lot of other driders and the creator Imphraili in the caves is responsible for creating this device. So its time to visit east caves. A lot of drider warriors, wizards and priests are in the caves. The battle is long. Drake meets Ginafae Despana in the west part of the caves. He convinces her to leave the caves and return to her brother Malavon. She agrees. The creator Imphraili is in her central lab. Leon takes her journal and studies it. It seems that the source of the driders is Viciscamera heart. He takes some vials of spores from the lab and examines the alchemist's table. So the killing incredient is prepared but first Leon creates some potions of strength from wyrm's egg and decides to animate flesh golem. After creating a necessary ingredient and putting it into golem the golem is ready for animating. Some electricity charge is needed in order to animate. Lighting bolt is casted on golem and golem is ready for surving the party. Imphraili is not pleased but soon she is dead. The north-east part is full of cocoons and Viciscamera heart is at the end. The deadly ingredient is placed and the Viciscamera heart is destroyed. Some enemies are not pleased but their death ends the conflict. Before leaving the caves some big Mushrooms attack the party in the south area and after killing them Alice discovers the blue crystal on the ground in their lair. This crystal increases wisdom and Alice decides to keep it equiped. Near cave entrance some enemies await the party and the peace is impossible. Malavon is pleased about destroying Viciscamera and tells the party that the entrance is open and the party must speak with mind-flayings in order to enter the passage. A lot of mind-flayings are near north-east entrance and their leader refuses to allow the party to proceed. He is stupid and the arguments cannot persuade him. Its time to show them the power of might and magic. The enemies are angered and attack the party. The battle is very tough but a good mind-affecting spells defense and some magic is a good choice to defeat them. The pass is clear. The next seems as a maze where all ways leads to the center. The forge in the west area allows Drake to create axe. There are some electricity traps on the walls but Dexy disarms them. A lot of mind-flayings attack the party. The mind golem tries to weak party's wisdom but the party avoids the meetings with him. The Elder Brains is in the centre and Drake attacks it. Other enemies from all parts of the area try to defend the brains. Drake orders to run to the forge and avoidto fight the enemies near Elder Brains because the brains can dominate some party members. While in the forge a lot of enemies arrives and Leon's fireball damages a lot of enemies. The battle is tough but soon brain defenders are defeated. Its time to destroy the brain. After some Drake's hits and Leon's spells the Elder Brain is destroyed. The enemies in the north-east area are under morale failure and the exit from this area is opened. Oswald's ship awaits the party outside but some Legion of Chimera's enemies with their leaders Mirabel and Majrash await too. Some earth elementals and harpies attack the party. The battle is long and enemy reinforcements arrive but soon all enemies are dead. Oswald and his niece meet the party on the ship. Its time to visit Kuldahar and archdruid Iselore. *********************************************************************** Chapter 5 After arriving to Kuldahar the monster Hiepherus meets the party and his undead minions attack the team. It seems that undead are in the Kuldahar and its time to clear the pass from Kuldahar. The access to the tower is locked but Dexy unlocks the door. Ranger Jermsy and druid Nathaniel are in the tower. Nathaniel tells Jermsy about his rescue from ice castle but Jermsy is not so polite and very suspecious about the party. After some talking with Jermsy and Nathaniel the situation became clear: It seems that Kuldahar was attacked by Yuan-Ti and some undead monsters. The leader of undead is Hiepherus and he is somewhere near Kuldahar cemetary. For more information about Yuan-Ti Nathaniel offers to speak with archdruid Iselore in another part of Kuldahar near great tree and Heartstone Gem. He also tells you about Isair and Madae and their mother priestless Egenia. The rumors said that twins killed their mother Egenia and now her spirit appears in the house west of tower at night. The party leaves the tower and meets the spirit of mother Egenia in the west house. Drake speaks to her. It seems that she wants to know what happened with her children after her death. Drake promises to know more about this but now its time to fight Hiepherus. The party goes north to the cemetary and enters the cave. Hiepherus and his minions attack the battle. The battle is tough but all enemies soon are dead. Nathaniel and Iselore are pleased and reward the party. Nathaniel also tells about Gerbash who fights Yuan-Ti somewhere and has a tower key. Now its time to enter another Kuldahar part to the east. A lot of Yuan-Ti are in the Kuldahar. The nearest house is Conlan's house. He is a smith and has some very useful items. Conlan also worried about his son Sheemish who fights some Yuan-Tis near Orrick's tower. He also tells the story about Orrick's leaving from Kuldahar some years ago. His son Sheemish went to the Orrick's tower to find some magic items which can be useful with battle against Yuan-Ti. The party leaves Conlan's house and goes to the Orrick's tower. Drake tells Sheemish that our party has arrived to Kuldahar to help with fight. Sheemish has some good wizard scrolls which he found in the tower and wants the party to tell his father Conlan that Sheemish is alright. Conlan rewards the party and its time to visit Iselore. The archdruid is near the Heartstone gem and protects the gem from Yuan-Ti. He is glad to see adventurers and tells that Yuan-Ti come from the portal in the Kuldahar. The portal cannot be closed from Kuldahar and the only way is try to enter portal and close it from the other side. The other side area is a jungles where Yuan-Ti and their guardian control the portal. Iselore tells the story about Isair and Madae. It seems that they lived in Kuldahar with their mother and when their mother was died the villagers thought that they killed their mother and twins killed a lot of villagers and left the town. They were the mercenaries for Arcane brotherhood in Luskan and soon they met their father demon Belhifet in the void and their demonic nature prevailed. Now they are in the Severed Hand and want to retrieve Heartstone gem from Kuldahar. Iselore will tell the pass to Severed Hand if the adventurers will close the portal. In one of the houses the party meets Gerbash. This dwarf warrior is wounded and a healing potion heals him. He also has the tower key which he wants to deliver to Jermsy in the tower. Drake takes the key and returns to the tower to Jermsy. Drake also speaks with mother Egenia's spirit and tells her Iselore's story about her children. Now the spirit can rest in peace. Drake returns to entire party and now its time to enter portal to the north. The jungle area seems unusual for the party. There are some Yuan-Tis. In the central area there is strange idol and two religious steles. Dexy takes this steles and loots the idol, but the idol is cursed and the party is unconscious. After some time Drake meets some warriors and their leader Mezro in the south-east area. Mezro and his warriors fight with Yuan-Ti and they are their enemies. "Enemy of my enemy is my friend". There is also another religious stele in the east area. There is an Yuan-Ti priestless and a lot of initiates. Priestless tells to initiates about their Cult of Seth and what every initiate must know. After ending conversation the party kills the enemies. Leon managed to write the lecture and now the party knows the answers on all cult questions. Drake takes four initiates robes and the party wears with this robes. Now the adventures can infiltritate the snake cult temple without a fight. There is another religious stele in the area near dead initiates. In the south-west area there is an entrance to temple area and some pillars with missing parts. Drake put all religious steles to holes but one part is missing. The party enters the temple. Some Yuan-Ti archers try to ask the questions about snake cult but Leon knows the answers and tells the right answers. There is a deadly wall trap but Dexy disarms it. The lever in the central area east of entrance is trapped. But Dexy succeeds to disarm it and Leon pulls the nearest east lever to release undead from their prison. Undead attack some Yuan-Ti and Dexy enters the room where undead were and takes the last religious stele. North part is a temple sacrifice area. The high priestless Ojaiha serves the Seth. Drake talks to Ojaiha and tries to convince her to leave her forces from Kuldahar but his attempt is failed. So the battle has begun. This is tough battle but Ojaiha is dead . Now its time to visit the treasure room north-east. The door is locked and can be opened when all 10 bricks, exept the eleventh east brick, will be pushed. After some time Leon while experimenting with bricks the door is now opened and the party can loot a lot of useful items. Now its time to leave the temple and summon dragon Guardian. Before placing the last religious stele to its place the party rests and prepares to battle with guardian. Alice and Leon summon some monsters and cast some defensive spells especially stone skin spell. Drake put the last part to pillar hole and the action has begun. Dragon guardian is very strong and resistant. Nobody see such monster (BEWARE!!!). Summoned monsters attack dragon but dragon feels their hits as mosquito bites. Drake attacks the guardian but his slashing damages a little but the dragon is very tough. Its time to change the strategy. Drake escapes from battle to the party and Dexy goes to Drake's place. Soon all summoned monsters are dead and dragon is attracted by Dexy. Dexy escapes and dragon follows her. Leon casts chain lighting and disintegrate spells. Dragon is more damaged. Leon continues to damage dragon with some offensive evocation spells while Dexy escapes from dragon. But soon Leon is under the panic and dragon attacks Leon. Alice removes fear from Leon. The mirrored images save Leon from death and the entire party escapes back to temple for respite. Dragon is badly wounded but is very tough. Its time to prepare for second attempt with dragon guardian. Alice heals all party members. Dexy is useless in the battle with dragon because her piercing damage is nothing to dragon. Drake's slashing damage is less useful. The only hope is Alice and Leon but they are out of many spells. So the strategy will be following: Drake and Dexy are decoys for dragon and Alice watch the health of Drake and Dexy and heals them with heal spell. Drake and Dexy avoid the fight and must attract the attention in the short area. Leon summons mordenkainen's sword and strikes the dragon from the distance. If the situation will become very dangerous then he tries his tensor's transformation. So the party leaves the temple to fight dragon again. The plan is successful and soon the dragon is dead. After the battle the party became more resistive to acid. The portal soon will be closed and its time to hurry back to portal to Kuldahar. In Kuldahar another threat appears. Isaer and Madae try to assault Kuldahar with Cedra and her forces. Iselore refuses to surrender and give the heartstone gem to twins. The enemies attack heartstone gem from all sides. The enemies reinforcements are arriving. Soon all the enemies are dead and its time to speak with Iselore. This battle is not so difficult as with guardian. Now the party knows that the way to Severed Hand is from Dragon's eye. Its time to go to the Dragon's eye and visit this ancient place. The path to the cave is trapped and a lot of frost salamanders attack the party. Their leader high sorceress Izbelah casts some offensive spells. Drake manages to damage Izbelah and soon she dissapears so until next time. The entrance to the cave is cleared and its time to enter level 1 Dragon's eye cave. The area is full of enemies such as Yuan-Ti, thiefs and some other monsters. To the south-west there is a armory and some useful items. Near armory some wyverns attack the party. After killing them Leon takes wyvern stingers from their corpses. There is also the rope in the armory. Some guards guard the bridge but they no longer be alive and Drake takes another rope from the bridge. Dexy detects a very dangerous blades trap which cannot be disarmed. The party decides to avoid this trap and explore another areas. In the north-east part there is a prison and torture room. Dexy pulls the lever near the iron maidens in the torture room. The door is opened but there are a lot of enemies in the prison and the toughest enemy is a powerful mage who casts improved invisibility and a lot of high level spells. Alice managed to dispel his invisibility with invisibility purge spell and Drake quickly kills the mage. The prisoners now can escape to armory and the last prisoner Nheero Fhuthma is released. He tells the story about yourself and his companion Mandal Graye who arrived to Dragon's eye in order to investigate some things about human transformations but Nheero was imprisoned and he didn't know the fate of his companion aasimar Mandal who is somewhere in Dragon's eye. Drake obeys to investigate what happened and the party goes to the passage with blades trap. There is a hall with Seth's statue and high commander Grishum defends this place. The enemies are defeated but there is no the way to the lower level of Dragon's eye. Leon notices some braziers and puts the fire agate gem in one of the braziers. The brazier is flamed. There are another four braziers in this area and the party puts another four fire agates to braziers. Soon the statue moves and the pass to level 2 is opened. The second level is also dangerous. After some exploration Dexy marked some important places: The egg chamber is north-west from exit, the exit to level 3 is south-east, the alchemist's lab is south-west and the remains of Mandal Graye is north-east too more east. After some battle the party arrives to Mandal Graye's corpse. There is a rope in his chest and some useful items. The party also met druid Nathaniel to the west. There is something strange in Nathaniel but he can heal the party and sell some items. The alchemist's lab is full of useful items. There is also the journal of D'hey Jazerrion which explains how to create wyvern poison and how to create potion which transforms human to Histachii. Leon takes the journal and he also finds some ingredient called mandrake root. May be this information will be useful later but now its time to return to Nheero and tell him information. Nheero hears the tale about Mandal's death but he needs some ingredient called modified mandrake root. With this ingredient the human can become histachii temporary and only Mandal knows where is this ingredient but he is dead. The solution will be to find Mandal's sword which belongs Mandal and awake his spirit. Its time to visit level 3 Dragon's eye. Level 3 is more then previous levels. There are some Neo Orogs and elite Yuan-Ti. While exploring north area Dexy is trapped into the room and the entrance is blocked by the stone. Some strong undead attack Dexy but Drake destroys the blocked stone and soon the party is victorious. One room is trapped by toothing and there is an Iron Golem who guards the sword in the centre of the room. Golem is tough but he don't like slashing damage. Dexy disarms the toothing and takes the sword which belongs to Mandal. But before returning the party decides to explore this area: there is a central hall with snake statue and a lot of locked doors, the south-east door which cannot be locked, south hall with broken passage, the entrance to the deeper levels is south near the exit but cannot be unlocked. The other west room with some slims contains some strange door with inscription. Dexy detects the trap near the door and disarms it. The door is unlocked and the way is clear. There are two library rooms with fountains in this section. The last north room is unaccessible because of Seth's eye. Its time to return to Mandal and return his sword. Mandal's spirit walks but after putting the sword to his chest the spirit is freed and shows the location of modified mandrake room. This place is located in level 2 but can only be accessed from level 1 exit near the place where wyverns have attacked the party. This place is guarded by Ancient Wyvern. He has modified mandrake root. Now all is done and its time to return to Nheero. He tells to use the library to create Histachii brew and wyvern poison. The library now is not empty and the alchemist D'hey is in his library. Leon puts the improved mandrake root to the north alchemist table and D'hey goes to push the lever. Soon the lever is pushed and Histachii brew is ready. Now its time to create wyvern poison. Leon puts all four wyvern stingers from level 1 wyverns to south alchemist table and then pushes the lever. Soon the four bottles of wyvern poison are ready. Now its time to bring Histachii brew to Nheero. Nheero takes the brew and wants the party to meet him on the level 2 in the egg chamber. The party goes to egg chamber and detects Nheero who is now Histachii. After some rest Nheero takes his normal appearance and the party takes sabotaged histachii brew. Its time to go to the level 3 and continue the investigation. Now the room with Seth's eye can be available. Drake uses sabotages histachii brew and transforms to histachii. He goes to this room and kills another two histachii then touches the candles. The way to the south hall is free and the party first rests in order to remove the potion effects from Drake. The south hall is full of efreeti and soon they are dead. Small girl Thorasskus is saved from monsters and Drake speaks to her but soon he discovers that Thorasskus is not a girl but a Yuan-Ti high priestless who tries to trick the party. Thorasskus is angered and her snakes attack the party. Soon the enemies are dead but Thorasskus escapes to the hole. Dexy notices the hole in the hall and the party follows to the hole. This hole leads to the treasury and there are some useful items especially the medallion of the lost. The inscription of the medalion tells about some holy sword called Holy Avenger which is the great weapon against evil creatures. This sword is buried somewhere in the Kuldahar cemetary with the hero who used this sword. There is also the rope in one of the crates and the fountain. After some exploration Leon puts the bottle of wyvern poison to fountain. It seems that the fountains are the key to the locked door to another area. The high priestless Thorasskus is near the snake statue and soon she is dead. There are four fountains in this area and after putting all bottle of wyvern poison to fountains the door which is situated south-east of exit is now opened and the party is ready to go downstairs to the lower level. This level is magma chamber. After killing demon Cornugon the party goes west but the pass is blocked. East pass is free but the bridge to the south is broken. After putting four ropes to bridge the bridge is repaired and the party can go further. On the pass there is a Inquisitor Venomin who jumps to lava to end his life. Something strange in this place. Archon near the boat can travel to islands in the lava but for some money. Dexy tricks him that the party already payed him and he travels to Lord Pyros domain for free. The domain is destroyed and there is no livings in this area. The party travels to Jasper's embassy. The only living in this area is salamander ambassador Jasper. Drake speaks to him. It seems that this place was ruled by Lord Pyros and King Lothar. But after Pyros's death the war between elementals and Yuan-Ti occurs and now there is no living creatures in this area. Lord Pyros was killed by Inquisitor Venomin and king Lothar ordered to battle with Yuan-Ti. Soon king Lothar was killed and the chaos is now controlled by creature Zil-tyor. There is also a closet with some good items. The areas such as guard post and amphitheatre are empty. The exit from this area is in the Fields of Slaughter area but the exit is guarded by Zil-tyor and his minions. The battle is inevitable and soon all enemies are dead and the exit is opened. Now its time to quit this area. The next area is same as previous area. The bridge on the south is repaired and Archon is near the boat. Drake and other party members can't understand that. They exit this area but returned to the same area. It seems that the solution is there. In the guard post there is a king Lothar but Jasper told that king Lothar is dead. How can that heppened? When asking about going to Lord Pyros domain Archon tells that Pyros has some important meeting. Its time to speak with Jasper but Jasper behaves strange and tells that he knows nothing about Pyros's death and the war against Yuan-Ti. In the amphitheatre there are a lot of flame walkers who speak about some Yuan-Ti witch sorceress Izbelah who is now dead. While travelling to Lord Pyros domains the party are witnesses of the poisoning Lord Pyros. The killer is Venomin. Then in Jasper's embassy Venomin tells the truth that he killed Pyros and now he wants to kill himself. King Lothar is angered and destroys Jasper's embassy, then he calls to fight with Yuan-Ti and their priestless Thorasskus. Something strange in this place because the party hears this actions before and now this actions occur. Near the bridge Venomin commits suicide. Leon tells that this place is cursed in time and its time to get out of here from Fields of slaugher. The next area is same as previous. It seems like some kind of infinite loop. In the Pyros domain lord Pyros is alive and he is not dead. He tells about some entertainment action that will occur in the amphitheatre. Leon thinks that after quiting this place the party travels one day earlier and can see the events in this place. In the cage there is an Yuan-Ti sorceress who is imprisoned. King Lothar is in his citadel. It seems that this sorceress was imprisoned because she casts some dangerous spell in this area and now her fate is unknown. Venomin is inquisitor and he tells lord Pyros that Izbeliah casted some safe spell called modified temporal stasis spell in order to prevent the convulsion of nature and she is innocent. Lord Pyros tells king Lothar that everything is ok and there is no need to punish Izbelah and make the war against Yuan-Ti. The party goes to amphitheatre and tells about play. So the action has begun and soon the party is sleeping. While the action taking place king Lothar goes to Izbelah's cage and kills her. After ending the party goes to king Lothar's citadels and listens the converasation between Lothar and Venomin. Lothar tells Venomin that Pyros wants to create fire world and Venomin was the instrument in Pyros's hands and the Izbelah's spell will cause the convulsion of nature. Venomin is nervous and it seems that he is ready to kill Pyros. Now Drake travels to Pyros domain and gives the Pyros some antidote. So its time to exit this place from fields of slaughter. The next is same as expected. The party travels to new place mephit lair. Izbelah has casted the spell and there is a judge for her actions. She is guilty and goes to the cages. Dexy unlocks the chest in the lair and takes some useful items. It seems that while casting this spell she created a time loop. Its time to get out of here. The next area is the same but the party sees that Izbelah is ready to caast the spell on lava. Its time to hurry. Leon casts Haste on Dexy and Dexy runs like a hell to the Archon's boat from west side. The trap is evaded and the party travels to Jasper's embassy. Drake speaks to Izbelah to persuade don't cast the spell but Izbelah disagrees. Drake orders to kill Izbelah as quick as possible or the party will be trapped in the time loop forever. Alice and Leon summon some creatures and Drake with Dexy attack Izbelah. Soon the witch is dead, the curse is over and now its time to leave this place. The party suddenly teleports to ice castle. Wizard Nickademus summoned the party in order to help him to get rid of demons from castle. The exit is blocked and the party must kill all demons in the castle in order to leave the castle. There is no way to leave this area and Drake agrees to Nickademus's offer. Soon all enemies are dead and the task is complete. Now its time to leave this place again to fields of slaughter. This area is an Orc's village area. The pass is blocked by another party of enemies and their leader Saablic Tan. Drake speaks to him. It seems that Saablic is a faithful servant of Madae and Isair and he is belongs to Legion of Chimera. He tells the story about his past life when he was transformed to Umber Hulk by evil wizard Malavon and how Madae and Isair released him. Now he is a loayal and a faithful servant of Legion and the enemy. Saablic orders to attack the party. The enemies are tough especially fallen bladesingers. Soon all enemies defeated and the party enters the Orc's village. Dexy tells that the party was sent by Saablic and orcs recommend to talk to their leader Kratuuk. Kratuuk tells about elven lich near the village and wants to kill the lich. The party agrees and Kratuuk gives the key to the gates. The party leaves the village and meets some orcs reinforcements. Its time to kill the lich. Elven cleric Saradon tries to purify this place with holy water but lich M'darfein kills Saradon. So the action has begun. Lich is a strong enemy and has some very powerful magic. He casts improved invisibility on self but Alice casts invisibility purge then Leon casts dispel magic and Drake quickly kills lich. Alice takes the holy water from cleric's corpse and its time to report success to Kratuuk. Kratuuk is not pleased because the party tricked him and attacks the party. Soon all orcs are dead and Drake frees elves from their prison. Its time to continue the adventure. In one of the tents near dead lich Leon finds very useful scroll with Delayed blast Fireball spell and writes it to spellbook. Alice puts the holy water into the pond near entrance and now the fields of slaughter and waterfall are purified. The team enters the next area. Saablik Tan again tries to kill the party. the battle is more tougher but soon Saablic tan and his party are dead. Leon takes the dagger which increases intelligence from Saablic's corpse and equips it. There are also some half-dragons but they are not so difficult to defeat. Its time to return to Kuldahar and prepare for new adventure. In Kuldahar Drake speaks to Nathaniel about Dragon's eye but Nathaniel tells that he was never been in Dragon's eye. It seems that the Nathaniel in dragon's eye is faked but there is no time for investigation. Leon remembers about meddallion of the lost and its time to visit cemetary. After some exploration Drake detects the grave with inscription "Old Kholsa, traveler and farmer. Perished in his bed at the age of hundred and seven". The holy avenger is risen from the grave and some enemies awaken too. Drake takes holy avenger and equips it. Alice and Leon casts some summonings. The battle is very tough but the delayed blast fireball and flame strike spells are very useful in this situation especially against sorceress and priest. Soon the lost followers are sent to their death second times and Drake gains strength and vitality. After some preparations the party is ready to visit Severed Hand fortress. *********************************************************************** Chapter 6 The entrance to the fortress is guarded but Dexy tells that the party are the delegates from the east and the access to fortress is granted. On the first floor some enemies try to stop the adventurers but soon they are dead. One strange thing has happened: after killing demon Glabrezu he appears again on his place. Drake speaks to demon and knows that the demon is immortal and can not be killed. So this situation must be investigated. There are a lot of slaves on the first floor of the fortress. Jerre Stoh one of the slaves tells that the demons are immortal but must some way to destroy them. Another slave Ysha tells about the building plans that contain some error and must be corrected. Drake agrees to help her and takes her plans. The woman Vashti Zerran in the storage tells about the thief who stole the food. Xavier Torsend is in his office and the party takes the diplomatic pass from Xavier. This pass allows the party to access some restricted areas in Severed hand. Drake also tells Xavier about slaves and soon Xavier leaves his place. Its time to investigate the second floor. There is a private alchemical lab with lady Dracein and her pet. Dexy sneaks to lab and loots some useful items here. Slave Roga Thulc wants the party to convince Vylu to stop her pranks. She summoned some elementals and behaves strangely. The local librarian Cedrin Zil allows the party to explore the library. Among the books Leon finds Zaem's diary. In this diary explained some notes of the mage Zaem and his studies. Leon speaks to Cedrin Zil and asks about this diary. Cedrin tells that Zaem commited suicide some days ago but after some talking it was unclear: why the attempt to speak with his soul failed? It seems that someone was interested in killing his soul and this is not a suicide. The Zaem's summoned creature can be a killer. Cedrin recommends to talk with Zaem's apprentice Kav Lathram on the second floor and Zaem's girl Jaebrilla on the fourth floor. Dexy talks to Vylu Prehv but it seems that she is mad. Roga Thulc thinks that Vylu is ill and may be Ruinlord Eradru on the forth floor can help. Drake shows the building plans to Kav Lathram and Kav alter them. Then Drake speaks to Kav about Zaem's death. Kav tells that some destroyed documents were discovered on dead Zaem. Kav was able to restore some of them and it seems that this documents are forgeries and the real documents are missed. Zaem may be killed because of his research. There is a demonic construct who attacks the party but soon the demon is killed. Two mages speak strangely and dissapear. In their room there is a Garuk's diary. Garuk is the keeper of globe of essense in the central hall and can tell nothing. There is a Vese Nejj who offers to explore the Wizard tower on the fourth floor in order to join her order. Dexy discovers some strange items: Ring of Nourishment and Virulent Agent in the Kav's room. Dexy returns to first floor and gaves Ysha altered plans. Now its time to move upstairs to third floor. This floor is full of monsters, demons and legion of chimera's soldiers. The north-east room has some strange pool. The throne room is guarded by two immortal demons who are the twins bodyguards and Drake decides to avoid the meeting with this demons. There are also some useful items on this floor: bonding agent (west room), Iyachtu Xvim holy symbol and Ilmater holy symbol. Its time to visit floor 4. From this floor the party can access four towers: War tower, Cleric tower, Wizard tower and Officers tower. Alice goes to the kitchen and speaks with cook Miram about stolen slaves food on the fisrt floor but Miram knows nothing. Alice also finds some demon's blood in the kitchen. Dexy speaks to Jaebrilla about Zaem's death. Jaebrilla says that Zaem was happy with her and there is no reason for him to kill himself. She also tells about Zaem's work and it seems that there are two persons who knew about Zaem's work: Saablic Tan and Kav. It seems that Zaem was killed because of his work. Saablic Tan is already dead and the one person who remains is Kav, but Cedrin Zil already spoke about about Zaem's work so may be he stole the documents and killed Zaem. Thief Riki sells some stuff and he offers to poison the guards in the barracks. The party needs three ingredients to create strong poison: bonding agent, virulent agent and demon's blood. The poison can be created in alchemist's lab on the second floor and then must be places to the food in the kitchen. Drake speaks with Hatemaster Drothan and shows him the Ganuk's diary. Drothan tells about some priest of Ilmater who is imprisoned in the War tower. It seems that this priest knows how to destroy the globe of essence. Drothan also tells that the access to priests chambers in the Cleric tower can be accessed through the portal and the each party member must possess Xvim holy symbol. Ruinedlord has some potion of mental clarity which can restore the mind for Vylu. The other two are rooms are barracks and demons training. On the second floor Alice restores the Vylu's mind with potion and she is grateful. Roga is also grateful and tells some information about some areas in the Severed hand. Leon tells Kav some information about Zaem and it seems that the killer is Cedrin Zil. Cedrin Zil tells that there is no clues about his guilty and after some talk he tells his hypothesis of murder. After speaking with Vese about Zaem's murder she is convinced and Cedrin is executioned. Dexy goes to the alchemical lab and creates the lethal virulent poison from demon's blood, virulent agent and bonding agent. Drake goes to the first floor and speaks with Vashti about thief. Vashti offers to catch the thief while he attempts to steal. After some time the thief appears and steals some food. Drake follows him and confronts him. The thief is the creature Zaem. This creature is the creature of killed mage Zaem. After Zaem's death the creature became no longer feed and became to steal the food. Drake gives him the ring of Nourishment which allows the creature no longer be hungry. Vashti is pleased. Now its time to poison the guards. Dexy puts the poison to the food in the kitchen on the fourth floor. The guards are poison and the party can search some useful items in the barracks. Riki tells about some cleric who is imprisoned in war tower but Drake already heard this. Its time to visit War tower. The first floor on the War tower is the prison. The guards are not glad to see the party and they are all dead. The key to the priosn is on the table. Dexy opens three prison cells. In one of the cells there is a lemure and some monks. Drake speaks to lemure called Ormis Dohor and he tells that he is a monk from Black Raven monastery and he was transformed to lemure by cleric Brutai Mar. The only way to release him from lemure's form is to find the andidote in the priest chambers in the Cleric tower. The other prisoners are Carl and Puddy Talltale. Puddy is very frightened and he wants to leave this fortress back to his homeland. Drake offers to find the safe way to get out of here. The last prisoner is Toral Sorn. He is the priest od Ilmater. He tells the party that the demons can be destroyed if the Blessed Ilmater sanctification ritual will be completed. The place to perform this is Cleric tower in front of the statue of Ilmater. The ingredients of this ritual are tome of Ilmater, Ilmater holy symbol, bonds of suffering, tears of suffering. Just put this ingredients in front of the statue and read the words from tome of Ilmater. After completing this ritual the holy water will be available and the party can put this holy water to the pool on the third floor. This will prevent Isair and Madae to use the power from this pool. So the party has Ilmater holy symbol and its time to search another ingredients. The second floor is the torture room and after killing some enemies Alice takes the bonds of suffering. The third floor has two locked doors that can't be opened without the proper key. Its time to leave this tower. The next tower for visiting is Wizard tower. While trying to enter Wizard tower some demons from demon training room attack the party. The battle is easy and the entrance to Wizard tower is cleared. The first floor of the wizard tower has five portals: upper portal, two middle and two lower portals. The right combination is reauired in order to enter the second floor. After some studying Leon understands that the key is the star and the portals must be chosen in following way: upper portal, right lower, left middle, right middle, left lower, upper portal. So the star is marked and the access to the second floor is opened. There is a goblin Weenagoo who is the first goblin wizard and he trains apprentices. There is also Orrick the Grey's spellbook. While speaking with Weenagoo Drake knows that the master of this tower is great wizard Orrick. The third floor is library. In the library there is Tome of Ilmater and Orrick's book of Mythal. The fourth last floor is the observatory with astrolabe. Orrick the Grey is there. Dexy take Larrel's bones which are the remains of the elven leader Larrel who now rests in peace. Orrick tells some stories about the Madae and Isair. It seems that Orrick arrived to Severed Hand before twins arrival and now the twins became more powerful and Orrick can lose his position. Drake tells about Puddy's problem and Orrick obeys to teleport Puddy back to his homeland. Orrick also offers his help if the party will join him and don't join Vese Nejj. The party agrees. Its time to visit Cleric tower. But before entering the Cleric tower Alice goes to the fisrt floor and takes the tears of suffering from Jerre Stoh. Now all ingredients are ready and its time to begin the ritual. The fisrt level in the Cleric's tower is the hall with statues. The most awful is the statue of Xvim the evil god. Drake puts the ingredients in front of the Ilmater statue but the process of ritual is interrupted because the statue of Xvim speaks to Drake. Xvim wants to make a deal with the party: the party must kill 10 innocents and Xvim will recall his demons in the final battle with Isair and Madae. Drake refuses and Xvim is angered. A lot of demons appears near the party. The battle is very tough but Alice and Leon summons a lot of alies and Leon uses his delayed blast fireballs. During this battle Dexy and Drake were killed but then ressurected by Alice. Now its time to continue the ritual. After completing the ritual the statue of Xvim is destroyed and Drake the holy water of Corellon Larethian. On the second level of the cleric's tower there is a portal but this portal can be accessed if all party members will possess Xvim holy symbols. Some enemies on the level 2 and level 3 has this symbols. Now the party has four Xvim symbols and its time to enter portal which leads to the priest chambers on the level 4. The leader of clerics is Tyranar Brutai Mar and he has monk's antidote. Its time to visit war tower again. Toran Sorn tells that holy water must be placed to the pool on the third floor of fortress and the globe of essence must be destroyed. Drake tells Puddy that Orrick will help him to return home. Dexy uses the antidote on Ormis Dohor and Ormis is cured from lemure's form. He obeys to help the party in the final battle with Isair and Madae. On the fourth floor thief Riki tells about some meeting on the top level of officers tower. The party goes to the third floor and Alice puts the holy water to the pool. Now Isair and Madae are less powerful. On the second floor the globe of essence is well-guarded and the battle with the defenders is tough. Soon Drake hits the globe and the globe is destroyed. Now the demons are mortal and the party kills the demon on the first floor. The slaves are freed. The throne room on the third floor is empty. Its time to visit officers tower. The first floor in the officers tower is the training room for warriors. The second floor is the monks training hall. The third floor is empty and the last floor is the meeting place. Captain Pudu meets half-dragon Vyxein. The attempt to bluff them is failed and the battle has begun. Captain Pudu has the key to the higher levels of the War tower and its time to return to War tower. In the torture room in the War tower there is a guard Stubnok with note from captain Pudu. According to the note Stubnok was stupid. Before entering the top level of the War tower the party rests and is well prepared. There are a lot of enemies on the top level. The half-dragons from other side and the Legion of Chimera soldiers from the other side. After killing the leader of Half-Dragons Drake orders to escape and the party goes back downstairs. On the level 3 the party meets the mage Buvai de'Naly. Buvai tells that the Madai and Isair want to see the party and the party is teleported to the throne room on the third floor of fortress. Isair and Madae have put aside time in their busy schedule and granted the party an audience. The talk is short: Why the party have come there? The answer is not so important because the final battle has begun. Madae casts BLASPHEMY spell and the entire party exept Leon is paralized. But the monks and their leader Ormis Dohor teleport to help the party to fight with enemies. Leon detects the mage Buvai de'Naly east from the door who summons a lot of enemies and Leon disintegrates him. Drake and the other party members are no longer paralized and they escapes to the west. Alice summons some allies and Leon help her. Isair is invisible but Alice dispels this effect with invisibility purge. Drake kills some enemies who attack monks. Soon all enemies exept twins are dead and a group of monks with summoned creatures attack the twins. Drake uses Maximize attack feat and attacks Isair. Isair tries to use mass dominate spell but his spell is failed against the party but some monks and summons are dominated. Alice dispels this effect and the monks and creatures are alright. Madae's sword is powerful weapon because it can cause decease or paralysis but Dexy attracts her attention and runs from her to the opposite part of the hall. Isair tries to summon some monsters but Leon banishes them with his spells. Soon Isair is hurt and the twins escape from battle to the pool. The party is tired but the battle is not ended. Alice heals all and casts the protection from evil spell and some other remaining spells. Isair and Madae are weakened because the pool is useless for them but the enemy tough reinforcements has arrived, especially the slayer knights of Xvim. Leon with his mirrored image delays the enemies while the other party run to the throne hall where the party summonings await. Alice casts Gate spell near the entrance while Leon runs to the party. The enemies follow Leon. The powerful summoning Cornugon attack the enemies. Now its time for Leon to use his powerful offensive spells such as delayed blast fireball, chain lighting and horrid wilting. Disintegrate spell is useless against twins. Drake tries to defeat slayer knights of xvim while Dexy attracts Madae and Isair from Drake. Alice heals Drake with Heal spell. Soon all enemies exept twins are dead and Drake attacks wounded Isair. Soon Isair is near death and the twins are confused. The pain appears and the twins suffer. Mage Orrick appears and tells that mythal is active and it has claimed Isair and Madae as its own. Isair and Madae are defeated and its time to get out of here. The party leaves the fortress to celebrate the victory!!! *********************************************************************** Part 4: Conclusion So the story is ended and you can rest now. If you use FAQs to beat the game then first concentrate on game information then on FAQ information. FAQ cannot cover all game process. NOTES: While playing the game I've met three enemies who used Improved Invisibility spell (wizard in Dragon's eye level 1 prison, lich in the Fields of Slaughter and Isair). This spell made them invincible if you didn't prepared Invisibility purge or See invisibility spell. Dispel magic spell can also cancel invisibility but only if enemy failed Will save (Isair has very high Will saving throw). This is very great game disadvantage. Turn undead ability is also useless because high undead creatures are too strong for experienced cleric too and there were few undead in the game. Piercing weapon is also useless against a lot of tough enemies at the latest chapters. The battle with guardian dragon in Yuan-Ti jungles is the real challenge and may be the most difficult battle in the game. You also will reload the game in order to beat Isair and Madae in final battle because this battle is the second most difficult battle in the game, especially for non-evil characters. Increase your AC is very difficult and high level enemies will hit you if you have high AC. I managed to increase rogue's AC to 31 but this helped a little. Credit to Black Isle for Icewind Dale 2 game but I prefer Neverwinter Nights game more than Icewind Dale 2 because of great 3D graphics in Neverwinter Nights. The graphics in IWD2 is beautiful 2D and only game process, sounds and music are excellent. The main reason to play this game for me was game process and the memory of previous Icewind Dale game. This document will not be updated in future. *********************************************************************** Permitted sites: www.gamefaqs.com some other sites with my permission ********************************END************************************