. ,GGDj fji, iGW#j .W##D ,###j ;i. :j: .f###G. tLLf iEKL t##K, FAQ/Walkthrough by: f##Wj ;ji,:,ittjjti;,: :K#E: fL; Eric "Sapharos" Lance ,i ;K#Wf ,jDW#############WEGj,.. :E##f. j##Kj. , .jE####KGji;,itti;itLD####Df: ;LL: ,Gf Email: ;D##f ;G###KLi: ,GW#####D; .;fK###KL, :L##K# Sapharos187@hotmail.com :. tW###Ei ,##########j ,L####Kj ;f, tK####L. t##########G :f####Ki Copyright - 2004. tK####Ej, f########G: .tK###Kj. All Rights Reserved. ;D#####WDfi:. .ijLLfi. .,tLE####Gi :tGK#######KEEDGLLLGGGDEW#####WGt. :ijGEW##############WKDLt, _____ ############# __ _ _ | ____|_ _ ___ ___ / _| | |_ | |__ ___ | _| | | | | / _ \ / _ \ | |_ | __|| '_ \ / _ \ | |___| |_| || __/ | (_) || _| | |_ | | | || __/ |_____|\__, | \___| \___/ |_| _\__||_| |_| \___| | __ )___/__ | |__ ___ | | __| | ___ _ __ | _ \ / _ \| '_ \ / _ \ | | / _` | / _ \| '__| | |_) || __/| | | || (_) || || (_| || __/| | |____/ \___||_| |_| \___/ |_| \__,_| \___||_| **READ ME** This guide may not be used for any purpose other than personal use without the written consent of the author, and the only e-mail address which may give this consent is Sapharos187@hotmail.com. Those who violate this should know that they are breaking US copyright law. If you see this guide being hosted on a site besides http://sapharos.tripod.com/ or http://www.gamefaqs.com/ it is being done so illegally. Please contact me if this is the case. **READ ME** =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ TABLE OF CONTENTS =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ I. YE OLDE INTRODUCTION II. IDIOTS' GUIDE TO DUNGEON-CRAWLING iia. Races iib. Classes iic. Getting Started iid. Basics III. CRAWL-THROUGH IV. APPENDIXES iva. Spells ivb. Armor ivc. Potion Types V. PLOT ANALYSIS =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ I. YE OLDE INTRODUCTION =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Eye of the Beholder's story isn't terribly deep. You're a couple of guys, and you've been commisioned by a king to explore underneath the city of Waterdeep in order to rid the lands of some evil. When you enter the passage underneath the city, a mysterious voice sounds out and a landslide occurs. Thus, you and your companions are trapped with no way out(a convenient premise) and must explore the dungeons for a way out. =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ II. IDIOTS' GUIDE TO DUNGEON-CRAWLING =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ iia. RACES Human (Fighter, Ranger, Mage, Cleric, Thief, Paladin) Elf (Fighter, Ranger, Mage, Cleric, Thief) Half-Elf (Fighter, Ranger, Mage, Cleric, Thief) Dwarf (Fighter, Cleric, Thief) Gnome (Fighter, Cleric, Thief) Halfling (Fighter, Cleric, Thief) iib. CLASSES (Fighter) - The basic combat class. Gets no special skills but swings a good axe. Benefits most from constitution and strength. (Ranger) - A fighter who can use weapons in both hands if wearing light armor. Not really worth it because they advance a little slower than fighters. (Mage) - More of an offense-oriented spell-caster than the Cleric. Can't heal, but can cast some nasty damage spells. Also has a few protective spells, but is much weaker defensively than the Cleric. Can't wear better armor than a Robe. (Cleric) - Warrior of the church. Primarily effective in his healing techniques, but also not too bad with a mace or some light damage spells. Benefits most from Wisdom and Intelligence. (Thief) - Support guy. Capable of picking locks, using a sling or dagger and can survive up front, but is hurt by only being able to wear light armor. (Paladin) - Basically a warrior with cleric abilities. They also have an aura of Protect Evil. Can't be used if any evil characters in party. iic. GETTING STARTED You'll need to create a party before you begin. While I feel it's best to strike a good balance, you're advised to do whatever seems fun to you. For the purposes of this walkthrough, though, I will be choosing a standard Advanced Dungeons & Dragons party: Human Cleric(male), Elf Mage(female), Dwarf Warrior (male) and Halfling Thief(male). Their alignments don't really matter, so just pick whatever. Make sure to reroll for good stats because it will play a vital roll in how well your characters perform. iid. BASICS ____________________________[Party Formation]_________________________________ | The two characters on the top of the screen are the people in your front | | row. They take the brunt of the damage but are also the only ones able to | | attack with melee weapons. This makes fighting characters ideal for the | | front and casters ideal for the back. For the purposes of this walkthrough,| | our thief and fighter are in the front and cleric and mage in the back. | | This is so that the mage can cast safely and launch daggers from the rear | | while the cleric keeps the party in good health and casts beneficial spells| | on them. Characters can be swapped by clicking on their names. | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _________________________________[Camp]_______________________________________ | By clicking on the icon, one can access the camp menu. Here, characters can| | memorize spells(mage version), petition for spells(cleric version), rest, | | scribe scrolls and change in-game options. Everything in here is true to | | AD&D rules(except maybe the game options :) and as such players are given | | a number of spells they can memorize or petition for at once, based on what| | level the spells are. Resting will restore health/learn spells and during | | this period the clerics can assist with healing. Scribing scrolls is simply| | how one learns new spells | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ______________________________[Ranged Attacks]________________________________ | There are three types of ranged attacks: bow, sling and thrown. A bow is | | wielded in the hand, and its ammunition, arrows, are loaded into the quiver| | pictured on the inventory screen(in the upper right with the numbers in it)| | The sling utilizes stones only, and these stones can be held in both the | | opposite hand and the belt-pouch, which is the three spaces aligned | | vertically on the right of the inventory screen. Thrown weapons operate the| | same way except you don't need to equip a weapon to launch them. Just put | | them in the hand and belt-pouch. They also don't need to be a certain type.| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ III. CRAWL-THROUGH =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ (directions are either based on the in-game compass or assumed perspective if you've been following the directions) _____________________________________ -=LEVEL ONE /\ Monsters: Kobolds, Worms=- ------------------------------------- You begin the game facing the rockslide that crashed down behind you. I guess the party walked back all that way just to make sure that it was, in fact, a rockslide, and it turns out that, yes, it is a genuine rockslide. Those are genuine stones on the ground, too, so go ahead and pick them up. Turn around and go straight into the next room. There will be a body on the floor in front of the door on the north-side of the room. Take the lockpicks from this body and give them to your thief if you have one. Also, take the actual bones if you want. They can be resurrected later into a replacement character. Use the lever just to the west to open the door, but beware: a Kobold is on the other side. Dispose of him and continue down the hall, taking the first door on the left(push the blue button). The hallway ahead is linear until you come to a junction. Then it opens out into two pathways. The left leads to a pack of Kobolds and the right leads to a door. Go ahead and fight the Kobolds to the left. You won't be able to kill them as quickly as the lone Kobold, so you'll need to use more techniques(i.e. throw daggers/cast spells with mage and attack with thief and fighter's hands and weapons) But they be easily beatable, and you'll be rewarded with rations, daggers and more rations in the corner of the empty room if you beat them. Now we can return to the door on the right path. This door is a little bit trickier to get into, so look for a hidden switch on the wall to the left of it. Push this switch and enter. Don't worry about the patch on the ground because it's just an alternate switch for the door and not a concealed hole or anything. We'll find more kobolds on this side, so prepare for combat as you progress. After taking them out, we find that we're at a three-way junction. One way leads back, and the others lead right and forwards. Straight ahead is where that rock from earlier will come in handy as you set it on top of the second switch in this hallway, thereby holding the door open for your party. If by chance you didn't pick up a rock earlier, you'll be able to find one in the right passageway. Whatever the case, proceed through the door once it's open. As you progress past this door, you'll pass through a 2x2 room and then arrive at a cross in the path. In front of you will be a door, and there will be two side-passages to the right and left. If you go left, you'll bump into a dead-end, or so it seems. There's actually a secret panel on the wall here. Push it and two Kobolds will greet you. Waste no time dispatching them and continue forward where you will be informed that it "Smells terrible here". No surprise considering that two Kobolds have been trapped in there for who knows how long. Pick up the Dart, an improved throwing weapon over the dagger, in this area and return back to the cross. Open the door this time via the blue button. Proceed down the hall to encounter some Kobolds. Once they're through, continue until you see a branch off to the right. In a cubby-hole in this branch, you will find two scrolls for spells you likely already have(hooray!) But at least they're free uses even if you can't learn anything new from them. Back on the main path are some unfriendly Worms which are slightly tougher than Kobolds but in less overwhelming numbers. Go ahead and cast some spells here to get the hang of navigating the cursor around and before you know it the Worms will be dead. Moving along you'll eventually come to a 3x3 room, in which there is another Worm. Once he's dead, walk along the only other path from this room to reach another cross, only this time the door is to your right instead of straight ahead. In fact, the path straight ahead is an area you've already been in, believe it or not. That leaves the left and right paths for exploration. Follow the left one and do battle with the Kobolds you see. Enter the room afterwards and look on the south-side for two rations side-by-side. Return to the cross and now enter the door via the hidden switch on the wall left of it. There are three rooms here between you and the exit to this dungeon level. There's also a shield in the corner of the room, which you should equip on your fighter. There's one last goofy puzzle which you must pass before you can descend. It's pretty much the same as the one earlier except they provide you with an arrow to drop instead of a stone. It doesn't really matter what you drop, though, because you can pick it up afterwards. Just drop something on the ground switch and press the button on the right wall; now go down the ladder. __________________________________________ -=LEVEL TWO /\ Monsters: Skeletons, Zombies =- ------------------------------------------ You start out at yet another cross on Level Two. on the ground in front of you will be a Silver Key, which you should take. Walk north(to your original left) and insert the Silver Key into the keyhole there to open the door. Just past that is another door but this one can be opened with a hidden button on the nearby wall -- well, sort of. It gets stuck and needs an extra push by your party. Just keep trying until it opens(for those curious, AD&D rules dictate that strength affects chance to force doors open). To your next right will be a stuck shutter with a Skeleton just beyond. There's a potion in there, though, and we could use the experience anyway, so force this one open as well. It will be a tough fight since this is your first, so you will want to have healing and damage spells memorized for it. Grab the potion when done. Back on the original path, we'll come to another shutter, except this one is firmly closed. It's good then that there's a niche in the shape of a dagger on the left wall in which we can insert a dagger, an item you should have plenty of by now. Presto! The shutter opens but there's another "dilemma". Secret of the century here, folks. Move into the next room when you can. A 3x3 room, it originally looks empty, but upon further inspection you'll find a button on the left wall which opens up a hidden wall(there are a lot of these on this level). Beyond is a stuck door. Force it open(...and a lot of these) and a Zombie will approach you. These things are a little tougher than Skeletons but one shouldn't be too much of a bother. Beyond it is another stuck door. You know the deal. You'll come to a dead-end room now with a cranny in the wall. From here you can hoard a Potion of Giant Strength, another Rations and, yes! A Silver Key! Go back to the intersection now and go south, opening that door with the key. Just in the middle of the next intersection you'll come across what has long been a staple in dungeon-crawlers -- the malicious "twister". It might seem confusing at first, but really it's only spinning your view around and not changing anything. Regardless, if you go straight across and approach the wall, you'll see a message "Dead End?". With the rune on the wall and the slap-in-the-face message, it couldn't be any more obvious that you can walk through this wall. On the other side is a scroll of Armor. Past a wall to the left of this scroll are two Zombies(rest before you fight them as this will be your hardest encounter yet). Beat them and slip a dagger into the carving in this room. Go back to the intersection and turn until you see a sling in the path. Take it, continue forward and turn left when you hit the wall. Grab the stone from this ground switch, stopping only to ignore the pointless message and then insert the dagger into the wall. Turn back and take the only path you haven't yet. At the end of this you'll find another little cubby-hole with Rations and a Silver Key in it. Easy, huh? Not really. Before the tough puzzle of the level, go forward through the runed wall just past the niche and collect the arrow and enter another runed wall. Take the Rations in the corner of this wall and go back to find another arrow. Cool, but that arrow won't help you get through the next puzzle. Explore the room one time and find that you end up back at the niche again. This is because there are twisters on each of the four visible walkways. You can't get to the passage you came from without stepping on one! Or can you? Closer inspection will reveal that both walls in the middle of the room have runes on them which allow you to bypass the trapped walkways. Do so and you'll soon find yourself out of that hellish circle. Journey back to the original intersection for a final time and take the eastern path this time. Open the silver door and proceed; but watch out for that pit!! Go down the ladder nearby and grab the potion in the lower sectors because, hopefully, if we do everything right, we won't be returning here. Ascend the ladder and now we're back at the pit. To close it up, you'll need to pull the lever in the small room to the right of it. Great! Now it's open! Unfortunately, there's another pit just beyond it. There doesn't appear to be a lever near this one, but just beyond it we can see a ground switch. Some thinking back to the first level and past experience with throwing darts and daggers at monsters will reveal that a simple thrown arrow can solve this dilemma, so do so. Proceed to the switch and take the arrow if you want to and then walk the only possible way, east. Meet the wall on the east path as you continue and then turn left. Walk on the switch but don't take a step back because a pit has just opened up behind you! Continue forward and approach the western wall and turn north to face another niche. Take the Rations and Silver Key from it. Then, turn back and cross the switch again. To the south is a pit with a switch beside it and just past that is a Rations. Use the switch to reach the item and take it. Good, we're all done! But how to get to the next level? Return to the original door you passed through and find that a new passage has appeared just to the left of the area past the door. Follow this to come into a room where a Stone Dagger is. Keep going the logical way until you come into another larger room. The passage-way in the upper corner of this room leads to a door and the other leads to another hallway. Go to the one with the door for now and place a dagger in the carving to open it. A message will pop up "A special quest for this level". What this means is that all the places where you put a dagger in a seemingly random dagger carving now have Rations in front of them. Not the most exciting reward, but it's cool to do regardless. Grab the loot and leave this room, going back and getting the Rations if you want. When ready, take the path not yet travelled. You'll pass by a scrawling on the wall and then a weird teleporter mechanism which you don't need to mess with yet. Further down the hall is an elevator to the left, but let us ignore that for now. Go past it and follow the hall, ignoring the path branching off to the left. If you continue through the hall, you'll come to a door with a silver keyhole outside of it. Use your last key here and enter to collect the Leather Boots and Rations in the corner. Equip the boots on the guy in the front row who didn't get the shield before(in our ideal party, the thief). Walk back to the elevator, ignoring that branch yet again. Open the elevator via the blue button and enter. Push the button on the back wall twice until it says "The room seems to move". This means you're now a pseudo-floor below where you were. Step out, and you'll soon realize you're in a sort of prison complex. Behind each of the doors in this area are two Skeletons but also a good bit of treasure. You're guaranteed to find a bow, an axe and a mage scroll of invisibility here. There's also likely to be a helm or two on some of the skeletons. All in all, it's a good idea to beat these guys, and you should have enough rations by now that you won't need to worry about running out of food from all the sleep you'll be getting. Plus, you should have one or two healing potions stashed away unless you've used them. Equip any helms you find on your two front characters and then go back in the elevator room and click the button for it to move once more. You're now yet another pseudo-floor below(these stop aren't actual drops in the dungeon level, or else you'd be getting pounded on by enemies you've never even seen before), but this one is a lot less confrontational. Just scoop up the rock you see and then force open the door in the corridor outside of this room. But be sure you've rested first. There should be three or so Zombies back here, which will be your toughest battle yet. Hopefully your mage has two Magic Missles and a Melf's Acid Arrow memorized, or you're going to have to rely solely on your fighters(and maybe some thrown darts or stones). Occassionally you'll get lucky against these undead guys and your Cleric(if you have one) will Turn Undead them and cause them to flee, but this isn't the type of thing you want to rely on. What these Zombies were guarding is a Gold Key, something you'll need in not too long. Go back to the elevator after getting the key and use it once more to reach the original floor. At this point you can take the branch you ignored earlier to stumble through a confusing maze to reach some Rations and a Healing Potion(but not without fighting around 8 Skeletons and 3 Zombies), or you can go ahead and use the Teleporter to reach the next level. Where there was once a sewer gate, there will now be a door with a keyhole to the left of it once you use the Teleporter. Pop your Gold Key in here and turn left in the room to find a ladder leading to... _____________________________________________ -=LEVEL THREE /\ Monsters: Bugbears, Sahuagins =- --------------------------------------------- There are two routes to choose from when you start off on level three. We're going to be taking the right one. Follow this, pass through the first and the second doors, and you will find yourself in a corridor. The door closes behind you when you enter and the middle panel is another twister which spins you around -- this one tells you that it's done it, though. Simply turn around and enter the door that you apparently came from. This will lead you to a new area with a Silver Key in the corner. Take this and turn around. Go back to the beginning of the level and take the left route this time. Keep trudging down this corridor; you'll pass a teleporter, but you should ignore it for now. The hallway curves at the end and not much further ahead you'll find your first monster on level three, a Sahuagin. These suckers hit hard and can take a beating, so be prepared. Continue straight past it, ignoring the right branch and you'll see another Sahuagin to your left. Beat him and then look the other way to see yet another of these fish- creatures patrolling the nearby hallway. Yikes, but that's the way we're going, so make sure you're prepared for another battle and then advance. After doing away with another fish-guy, you come to a two way route with a small median in between the two routes. They both meet up, so take the left route. Ignore the first branch-off to the left and continue. Things get a bit tricky soon, so you will want to rest up well before going any further. I recommend memorizing with your mage for level 1: two Armor spells and the rest Magic Missiles. And for level 2: two Melf's Acid Arrows if possible. The cleric should have primarily healing spells equipped. Once ready, continue. You'll know you're at the dangerous area when you see the first Sahuagin. Quickly take him out because two others are in the nearby vicinity. Take them out, too, and you'll be safe -- for a while. You can either go right or left now, but it doesn't really matter since they both meet up at the same point. Go right for brevity's sake and turn on the first right branch. Ignore the first left path you see, which circles back around to where you came from. Keep walking, and you'll hear a beep. Careful! A pit has just appeared in front of you! Walk around the pit and head right. You'll pass a door you can't open yet and then reach a switch. Just past the switch is a jotting on the wall which reads "Museum". Well, there are a couple of monster exhibits in this museum, so make sure you're prepped for battle and then pull the switch. You'll notice that none of the monsters in here are moving. That's because they're frozen until attacked, or at least until one of their own kind is attacked. I guess in this way this area is sort of optional, but you'll want to get the shield behind the one Sahuagin and the Bugbears seem to come after you anyway if you mill around too much, so you might as well clean up everything. Without doing so, you'll miss out on some Healings Potions, Rations and even a Stone. The shield is the most important because you need another for other the guy in your front row unless you've got a Cleric up there for some reason. Equiping it will mean you can no longer do that silly attack with your hand, but the monsters will have outgrown the meager damage by the next level anyway. Once you finish up in this room, pull the switch beside the door you came in and enter that corridor. A Bugbear will come and bug you now. Kill him and go down the corridor he came from to collect a Rations(you'll never go hungry in this place!) The other path you didn't take right near where you fought the Bugbear is your next objective. There's a blue button door there, which will take you into a corridor with a teleporter on the right side. This is unnecessary because you've already been where that teleporter takes you(think back). Instead, traverse the very long hallway ahead of you. This ends up taking you into some annoying maze-like sequence. There are two Bugbears in here, too, so keep that in the back of your mind. What you realize in this area is that there are advanced twisters in the squares that are one step forward as you turn a corner. They totally disorient you and find you going in the same way you originally were. You need to go backwards every time you get twisted(watch your compass if you aren't sure) to actually advance, which feels weird. It's also set up so that the way out takes three repetitions of this to reach. I don't really understand it, but I do know that each side is the same except for the exit side(which contains a side-path leading to the way you came from) and the Bugbear side(which merely contains two monsters). Other than that, there are two branches on each side. One has a path with limited visibility that leads to a gem and the other leads to a pair of eyes with one gem missing from them. Put each of the gems in the slots and a passage adjacent to the eyes will open. Enter this room to find Chainmail and a shield on the ground. There's also an arrow and Rations in the cubby-holes. Take the north ladder(there are two) in this area to reach the next level. ________________________________ -=LEVEL FOUR /\ Monsters: Spiders =- -------------------------------- Take one step forward, and you'll meet an injured dwarf. Tend to his wounds, and he'll offer to join you -- let him. Assuming you have the ideal party for this walkthrough, replace the Thief in the front row with Taghor, replace the Mage in the middle row with the thief, and then it's time for some gear swapping. Give Taghor a shield, equip the Thief with a sling(and transfer any rocks to his belt-pouch) and equip throwing daggers and darts on the Mage. Now you're ready to tackle level four, and it's a bit of a toughie. It might look like there's no way to go from here, but the right path actually leads somewhere; it just has false walls disguising it. But once you get on the other side, you can't go back unless you take the formerly left path. Approach that path even if you aren't going back, though, because there's a Dwarven Key on the ground just before the first false wall. Before you go any further, you'll likely want to change all your cleric's(if you have one) level two spells to slow poison. This will take a huge burden off of you if you happen to get unlucky with some of this level's denizens. Once you're ready and fully rested(Taghor takes a while to get up to par), set off. The right route is the one we want to take once we reach the gargoyle symbol set on the wall. There should be a chain on the wall before you reach ANY doors. Pull this chain and then open the second door you come to on this route. There will be a gargoyle symbol with his hand raised in here, and this is actually a lever -- the scrawling on the wall defines it as "Access Control Lever". whatever it is, it's actually closing pits that would otherwise bar your access from getting to the next dungeon floor, so that's reason enough to pull it. Leave and head back to the intersection where you decided to take the right route(at the gargoyle symbol) and take the other route this time. You will find yourself in a room with three paths. Pull the access lever between the right and center paths. Now we need to decide where to go. The right way is somewhere you don't want to go yet and the center leads to a dead end, so let's take the left one. We'll end up in yet another room with three paths now, but in this particular case they all lead to closed doors. The outer two can be opened by a button, while the center one requires a key -- but it's worth it. Visit them in any order you wish. You'll find a Dwarven Key in the right one, an access lever( which you should pull) in the left and some nice items in the center, locked door. There's also a chain in there which unlocks a nearby secret path, and you'll want to pull that after taking the items here. Of particular note is the axe, "Drow Cleaver", which is a nasty weapon that should be equipped on none but your two front fighters(if you ask me, give it to the original guy, since he's stuck with you the longest :) But there's also a medallion, which you can equip on anyone for completeness' sake, and a robe, which doesn't have much use unless you happen to have lost your mage's. At this point, you can take the secret path that's opened up in the big room with the three doorways leading from it or the right path that I said you shouldn't take yet -- that you've been working to clear of pits with the access levers -- and wind up at some stairs leading down that are pretty easy to find, but, of course, we're not going to take the easy way out :) Plus, there is a fair amount of treasure to be had in the actual spiders' lair. To reach it, take the right path at the gargoyle symbol that we only took earlier to pull the chain and level that were there(back towards the beginning of the level). You'll pass by a bunch of doors and at the very end come to a fork. There are actually two forks, but the one we're going for has both passages leading into areas without immediately visible doors. At this branch, let's take the left path and get ready for our first spider battle. We reach a door and after opening it, a spider quickly approaches. With these guys, I like to wait them out and try to get the first attack in because, while it doesn't happen too often, your fighters can occassionally kill the spider before it even gets an attack in. And as these spiders poison with almost every hit, that's very important. The main thing you want to avoid is getting turned around near a spider, though, as this will mean members outside of your front row can get poisoned, too, and that won't be good. So, after defeating the spider, continue forward, ignoring the door on the left. There's a room up ahead with a door in it(operated by a button on the right wall) and past this door, there's no going back -- at least not an immediately visible way. So do what you need to do and then open it and go through. We've now entered the actual lair of these creatures. Our first object is a spiderweb which can be hacked through simply by attacking it. But save your game first and foremost. (NOTE ABOUT THE SPIDER LAIR: The lair is a bit randomized, and the challenge here is a massive step up from anything you've run across up to this point. You could end up facing dozens and dozens of spiders if you dawdle too long. There doesn't really seem to be a lot of logic behind how many spiders appear at certain points, but I have a hunch that it's centered around time spent. Regardless, a saved game is vital as you'll probably have to reload a lot. Also, even though it may be tempting, don't use your Slow Poison spells until you're out of the lair. A single hit from a spider can negate the spell and you won't be able to rest to get more of the spells. Even if you have three, you should keep the extra in case you get sucker-bit from the side or, even worse, the rear) All of the webs are like this. Next is another web and then finally an intersection. We can hack our way into a single spider's room to the right, but there's only a rock in there so unless you need that for your sling or Mage's throwing weapon, ignore it. Continue into the next room; this is where things get a little confusing. Let's take the left path first. Hack through the web and fight the spider there. But be careful -- there are four more that will pile into your vicinity soon enough! If they don't all come take a step forward and move back, but try to fight in the doorway so you only meet one at a time. Use all your tools to fight these guys but try to avoid too many spells since they take a lot of time to use and you want to take the spiders out before you get hurt too much. Fighting them from long-range is also a possibility, but you need to make sure you're not going to get surrounded. Once the room is clear(five spiders in all), go straight through it and ignore the right webbed path. Turn left in the corridor and go straight. Take the first left branch, fight the spider that appears and then turn right. Go all the way to the end and cut open the web to meet two more spiders. Beat these and you'll find a ring in the corner of the room. Turn around, take the first left and go straight all the way to another web(where you just came from). Cut open this web, dispose of this spider and take the Dwarven Key in the corner closest to you. Now break open the two webs in a row on the south side of this room. Go forward and hang right when you get a chance. Wait to see if anything comes in this small section. If nothing does, we're going to advance. Things get brutal here, so do what you can to prepare(sleeping will kill your poisoned characters, so don't try it). IMMEDIATELY go right again, cut open the web and then back up to the small section of the maze that joins the two corridors. Face the corridor you just came from and get ready to fight 5-6 spiders in a row. Throw, cast, slash -- do what you need to but just watch your health. You might even want to burn your Potion of Giant Strength here. It'll be a tough battle, but you should come out of it with at least a few characters conscious. If someone died, well, try to load an old game or just tough it out I guess. It will be tougher, though. Go in the room to the right that you cut to access just moments ago and take the sceptre from the corner of it. This is another one of the game's "stone" items which come in handy later. Leave the room and go straight out of it. You might even want to switch out a character(i.e. replace guy in front row with thief) if you have no healing left and are hurting bad. Make a right up ahead and bust through the web which will be just up a bit and to the right. Turn right here, too, and grab the ring in the little cubby-hole. We're almost out of the lair, now, but things seem to get a bit crazy at this point and so we need to watch it. This is especially true if you're low on health because anywhere from 10-15 spiders can appear as you attempt to leave the lair. Anyhow, to get out, you need to go back almost towards where you entered. Once you leave the room where you first fought the big group of spiders, take a left. There are a lot of passages here, but the only one you need to follow is the first right and then right again, through the web and left to open the door with a Dwarven Key. This leads to a place you've already been very close to -- even if you don't know it. Use your Slow Poisons on any characters poisoned up to this point. Walk through the room and out to the nearby corridor. Surprise! This is where you were just before you entered the spider's lair. Hang left to reach the original gargoyle symbol and intersection and continue even further to enter the room with three paths. We want to take the right path this time, but if there are pits there we'll have to take the left one and then the secret passage in that room. Assuming you're not using the secret path, though, here is what we want to do: Take the immediate right and then the next right. Go all the way down the corridor and open the door. There's a spider in here, but it doesn't really matter by this point because we're about to find cures for our poison. Kill it and then advance to the door directly across the room. Go in here and then spin right the first chance you get to find two niches with two Potions of Cure Poison in each. Yay! Use them immediately and then take a very well- deserved rest. You can un-petition some of those Slow Poison spells, too. Next, leave this place you entered(with the lever by the door) and go straight down the hall to reach a keyhole. Unlock this door and enter the room to find an interesting sequence. You need to open each door and enter the room, taking the items you find and then closing the door. Repeat this with each of the doors to gain different items each time but if only if you close the doors behind you. In this manner, you can round up a number of potions and even a key. Once finished, it's finally time to descend to the next level. Go back to the other route you didn't take after crossing the pit-filled corridor and walk down this hallway until you see some stairs down. Take them to reach level five. ________________________________ -=LEVEL FIVE /\ Monsters: Spiders =- -------------------------------- To the north of you is a false wall, but we're not going to enter it just yet. instead, let's go down the visible path. It splits off into two ways once you bump into a wall. Let's take the left route for now, which will lead to a seeming dead end, but alas, the wall straight ahead is false and inside there is a Cleric Scroll of Meditation. We'll have to remember to petition that before we rest next time. Go back to the intersection and take the other route this time. You'll be able to see some mail sticking out in the hallway as you progress. Approach it and take it to find that it's Scale Mail. I advise you to give this to your Cleric if you have one because Thieves and Mages can't use it and your warrior's already have something better. Also take the key beside the Scale Mail. It's at this point that we want to go back to the original false wall right by the stairs and enter it. You'll recognize it by the rune it is marked by, "The Dwarven Rune of Safe Passage". It doesn't make a lot of sense, but I guess it's a little less obvious than, "The Dwarven Rune of False Wall". Head straight ahead and turn left once you hit the keyhole. We want to enter this door first so go forward two more squares and unlock it. Once inside, collect any Rations you see, but walk straight until you bump a wall, turn right and go forward. The room will open up, but there will be a little cubby hole just to your right which holds a Potion of Poison(yuck) and has an empty cranny in it. This is the pantry, and if you put five of your Rations in here, they will turn to Iron Rations. This is a "Special Quest for this Level" Straight out from the pantry you can reach the middle of the room. There's another Iron Rations to your left and then a door that can be opened by a button. This is the door to the Dwarven settlement. You'll want to enter it. Inside you will be greeted by Armun, a dwarf. He'll tell you of a great tragedy and mention that not only do they have a cleric who will heal your wounds but that a young Dwarven warrior will join you. Accept the Dwarven warrior even though we have the bones of a thief we could ressurect at the cleric(remember the halfling bones?) This is because the warrior can use a bow while the thief can not. Once you've met the cleric(he's in the upper-left corner from where you entered) and gotten some healing, head back out. There's another Iron Rations in the northwest corner straight out from where you came in. Now, head out the door that you entered via your Dwarven Key. Just outside the door, turn left and walk straight. You'll pass both other doors, which will be on your left side, and eventually enter a room. There's an access control lever here, but it's useless for us so turn right and walk towards the door and the bigger lever near it. This area is a little Indiana Jones-ish, in that going for the immediately available treasure will end up getting you in trouble. But there is a way to get all of the useful things in one swoop and get where we need to go too. Enter the door and at the four-way intersection go right. Ignore the teleporter and you'll reach a door which you should open and just past it a key which you should take. Continue forward and open the next door as well. Turn left, and you should be able to see the sling from before. Approach it, but DO NOT STAND ON IT. One square before it, grabbing it if you actually want it, turn right and go another two squares forward. There's a ring accessible in the next square, but this is where greed will hurt us, so instead turn left and go into the room where the axe is visible nearby. Turn right the instant you enter the room and continue in that direction. You'll pass a door and then reach yet another key; pick it up. Next is one more door and then we're at where we need to be(we can even get the ring now). Go down the hall and turn right to be in front of a keyhole. Stick your key in, then approach the door left of it, but grab the ring first. Inside the door is Plate Mail and a Mage Scroll of Invisibility of 10' -- plus another keyhole. Equip the Plate Mail on one of your fighters; again, I prefer to give it to the original fighter and give the scroll to your mage for scribing. Use your second key and a wall will open beside you, revealing a teleporter which takes you to a new section of level 5. Cool! Well maybe not so much, as this section is the trickiest yet, but here goes: Head straight from your starting location and you will eventually run across a door. Open it and prepare for some spider battles inside. Hopefully you have two Potions of Cure Poison for once you leave this level, and that way you won't need to run like crazy and attack only from a distance. But you might want to anyway, just to be on the safe side. Proceed forward and fight any spiders that bother you until you're by yourself in a room with a raised, circular button on the floor. Up against the wall here(a straight line from the door you entered) and adjacent to the circular button, you should turn right to face a rune. Walk four squares past this rune and there will be another rune of passage on the left side. Just inside here is a wand. Pick it up and then leave from where you came. Head all the way down this corridor to the wall just across from the room with the circular button in it and then turn left. There will be another rune here. Go straight through it and continue forward. You will reach a section of teleporters as you progress along this path. Stop when you get to the first one and then look right. Walk on this particular teleporter to get kicked over to a lever, which you should pull down. Now face your immediate right and step in this teleporter, too. Bingo -- another lever. Pull it and go the only way you can. You're back at the start. From here, walk to just before the first teleporter, turn right, go forward one square and then turn left and walk two squares into that teleporter. Turn right from where you end up and walk into that teleporter, too. Just go straight into the next teleporter, and you'll finally be in a new area. We're almost at the end now, but there's one last place we want to visit. Turn to face the scribbling on the wall that you can just barely make out. Walk towards this wall and straight in front of you will be a Spear and Iron Rations. Take both of these; the spear is a very deadly throwing weapon, but it can't be used by the classes that are likely your throwers, so it's not really that useful. Still, it will be of great use. Turn around completely after taking those items and backtrack. Just as you come out of the closing that the scribbling was on, take the teleporter to your immediate left -- the only nearby one against the wall. This leads to your final destination on this level. While you're in front of a closed door now, closer inspection will show that to the right(and in between the teleporters) is the final lever. Pulling this will open the door and reveal the path to level six -- a well deserved change of scenery. _________________________________________ -=LEVEL SIX /\ Monsters: Kenkus, Mage(boss)=- ----------------------------------------- (NOTE ABOUT LEVEL SIX: If you thought the spider lair was heard, you ain't seen nuthin' yet! Level six features very hardy bird/human creatures that love to attack in packs and seem to multiply outrageously every time you rest. To make matters worse, they're capable of attacking from a range and love to focus on only one character in your front row. And if that wasn't bad enough, two can attack at a time with one in the back launching Magic Missiles at you. Indeed, this level can be quite annoying. Plus, there's a nasty boss towards the start of it that almost requires a Cleric to beat.) Well, except that it all looks the same. There are new monsters, though! The first obstacle you'll run into is a door. To the right and left of it are circular buttons, which should be quite familiar by now. These seem to require that you drop weapons on them, so leave any old maces, unneeded daggers, axes, etc. on them. Only one is needed on each, though, before the door will swing open. Just past the door is a Kenku, this level's monster type. These things are rather interesting creatures not only in appearance but in magical abilities as well. They can cast Magic Missiles, which will necessitate you hiding behind a wall and waiting for them to come around -- then ambushing. Do so with this first one you run into; they have much more life than spiders but you'll be fine. Walk right after beating this one to meet another one in the adjacent room. This one is actually guarding something, though, so explore his lair after ruffling his feathers. Your searches will earn you a Kenku Egg, something we'll need a bit later. Hang completely right from now on, up until you enter a very tiny room with another Kenku Egg. Grab this and then go ahead and memorize/petition spells and rest. You'll need all the health you can get for the boss coming up. Well, at least in theory. While you'll want to save anyway, we can make this boss history with a simple level 2 cleric spell called "Hold Person". Memorize as many of these as possible, and if you don't have a cleric, well, you're in a bit of a spot. However, the boss might still be beatable. You just need to make sure to get him to waste his initial spell that damages your whole party. It'll be blue and the first thing he casts, so just back away once you encounter him and then hide once you see it coming towards you(you'll need to be a good distance away for this to work). And then beat him up. Anyway, he can be found in a little corner not far from where you got the last Kenku Egg. Just head back from where you came and hang right when possible. You'll see a corner with a potion and scroll in it, and this is where he is. After some dialogue, he'll attack. Use Hold Person and simply wail on him. You might not even need to use more than one. From the battle you'll get a nice amount of treasure: 2 Potions of Extra Healing, a Wand and a Mage Scroll of Hold Person(ironic, huh?). Walk north and east out of his corner when finished to reach a new area, where you'll possibly bump into some Kenkus(especially if you've been resting a lot) after opening a door. Don't step onto the circle button in the middle until you're sure the room is clear(and you've saved) because you'll get hit from both sides by darts. It was a trap, but the cool part is that you can pick the darts up and use them. So ditch the other throwing weapons your thrower had and equip all darts on him/her(the Mage in our ideal party). When ready, proceed through the next door and down the long hallway to reach a fork, with a door immediately in front of you. Go right here and then take the next right, too. Finally, take a left and follow the path to reach a key. Once you acquire this key, head all the way back to near the start of the level where you passed that locked door(right near where you found the first Kenku Egg). This is where the key belongs. It gets hellacious past this point as there seem to be anywhere from 6-8 Kenkus roaming around in the spacious halls beyond this room, and they aren't spread too far apart, either. The more you rest, the more will be thrown at you, too. But once you get them, you will have peace for a time. Once this is done, follow the southern wall. The first turn-off you reach will be a door labeled "Nest"; ignore this for now. The next turn-off is a hallway which you should take. There's a bevy of dart-traps that are difficult to avoid around here, so you might need to take some hits. Most aren't terribly logical in where the darts come from, and when you do think you know where one is going to come from, it seems to come from the exact opposite area. You'll scoop up a dagger, Adamantite Dart and Wand at the end for your efforts, though. Plug two darts(preferably random ones and not the adamantite) into the hole where you got the wand. The second one will go in the hole that appears behind it. The next hole will hold a Dwarven Key. Backtrack and continue following the wall. Ignore the next turn-off and take a few steps past it. Then, turn right to notice a door. This one leads into a room with a very obvious dart trap which you can side-step. Enter the door on the other side of the room. You are now presented with a choice: right, left or forward. Since the stairs don't lead anywhere before you've gone right or left, choose either direction -- just don't forget which way you haven't been. At either end is a hole which you should fall down(finally, you're SUPPOSED to be clumbsy for a change) and take the Dwarven Key at the bottom. Do this on both sides to wind up with two keys and then leave via the stairs. Make sure to rest and save before going too much further as you'll undoubtedly be hurting from the falls(you'd think such famous heroes would bring along at least ropes for the journey, but I guess such things take a backseat to scrolls you already have and cumbersome surplus weapons). Anyhow, we can head to the end now, but there's also a way to obtain a sick weapon called the Chieftain's Halberd which, although two-handed, packs a vicious punch. However, it will require about 10-20 more battles with Kenkus, so you decide. ------------------------ SIDE-QUEST: KENKU EGGS ------------------------ Why you'd want to return eggs to a nest where the owners have done nothing but badger you throughout the whole dungeon level is beyond me, but the reward is nice as is the experience. Plus, you'll be able to replenish most of the rations you use since Kenkus tend to drop them quite often. Our first step is to leave the room with the stairs outside of it and once again avoid the circular button in the middle of it. We'll want to follow go east a few squares and then follow the wall to the north and then west back into a secluded area that'll likely be marked by all the projectiles of yours that have ended up there(this section is directly across from the original locked door you opened to get here). There are three doors throughout this hall, and you need all of the eggs from each plus the two eggs from earlier in the level to get your reward. Each room contains 3-4 Kenku, but can be sealed off after you beat them to get a quick rest. You need to clear out all of these rooms and then return to the door on the southern wall in the big hallways and deposit all of the eggs you've gathered up to this point inside the room labeled "Nest". There are also two Kenku waiting inside that room to ambush you, so be careful. Arm the Chieftain's Halberd on your main fighter and switch the Drow Cleaver over to Taghor. ----------------------- To find level seven, take the hallway just past the long one with all of the dart traps in it where we found the adamantite dart. This will lead to an oddly shaped room with a keyhole on the right side. Plug one of your Dwarven Keys in this hole and then do the same with the other two holes that appear. There should be one more Kenku tucked away somewhere inside this odd mess of unlockable walls, but he'll be the only thing seperating you from the next level. (NOTE BEFORE DESCENDING: The next level is blocked off by 4 Drow who are pretty close together. You'll end up having to fight them, so it's a good idea to memorize as many Hold Person and Remove Paralysis spells as you can. Your mage should have any possible damage spells memorized as well. Again, if you don't have a Cleric here, you're in BIG trouble. A Mage can use a limited amount of Hold Person, but won't be able to Remove Paralysis at all and Drow tend to paralyze with every hit, so... Don't forget to rest to gain all these spells. You might have to put up with some Kenku as you do, but trust me in that they're MUCH easier than four Drow crowded around you, beating you senseless :) SAVE BEFORE YOU GO DOWN!) _______________________________________________________________________ -=LEVEL SEVEN /\ Monsters: Drow, Royal Skeletons, Displacer Beast(unique)=- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, so we're finally here. These are the Drow the Dwarves were talking about. When you arrive, you'll be confronted by one Drow, but it will be obvious he has back-up. Most methods of approaching this problem will lead to you getting yourself in a huge mess and having to run back to the next level, rest, fight more Kenku and generally rely on luck to get past these guys, but we have a little trick we're going to use. Firstly, select the "Bribe" option. You'll notice that even though the Drow seem very angry, they don't attack. Use the "Hold Person" spell and begin attacking with only your front two characters. With a Chieftain's Halberd(if you did the egg quest) and a Drow Cleaver(or Axe if not) you should be able to chop him down with a little luck. Depending on how fast you kill him, the other Drow beside him might reinitiate negotiations, which is ideal. In this case, just Hold Person this Drow, kill him and then work on the last two in the same manner. If you don't kill him so fast, the other Drow will approach and begin assaulting you as well. This sucks, but you can still win. Just make use of Hold Person, keeping in mind that Remove Paralysis actually removes any Paralyze effects on your whole party and not just a single character. Also employ both Mage attack spells and ranged attacks if they all dogpile you because you're probably going to have to run anyway -- Drow take very little damage and can dish it out well, too. When you run, just go back up the stairs and rest on the next level, hoping that you don't get ambushed by Kenku too early. Paralyze effects wear off after a while, but healing still takes time and Kenku aren't that much weaker than you yet :) Anyway, you should win this after a couple of tries, and you'll be treated to an Adamantite Long Sword and a dungeon level open to exploration if you do. Use this Long Sword in combination with a shield on one of your fighters unless you already have the Chieftain Halberd/Drow Cleaver combination on your guys in front. In that case just chuck it or give it to someone else as a back-up weapon. You're ready to explore the rest of Level 7 now; but be warned, it is a very long and tricky level, even with the solution. Take the right path first to arrive in a large chamber. If you keep going straight, you will hit a wall and to your immediate left will likely be a Drow or two. Do battle with them and then head in that direction, branching off into the 3x3 room once again to your left. There's a Medallion in here which you should grab before leaving. At the first intersection you come to after leaving the room(you've already been here), turn right instead of going straight and then go forward. This path will bend and at the first bend you should see an arrow. Take the arrow and continue straight to reach a fork. Go left here and then take the very next right path you come to. You should have been able to see it as you turned left. Follow this for a while to come to another fork. The left way is a dead-end, so head right and open the door you will soon see on your right-hand side. This is done by pressing the button in the upper-right section of it. Inside you'll find a Potion of Healing and a Key. Go back and turn right just out of the room, following the path as it weaves around. Your next change of course should come at the next intersection where you need to turn left. Along this path, you'll trot by a dead-end to the left and then arrive in the first big room you entered on this left. So, head left to go back to where you first fought the four Drow; we're going to take the path straight that we didn't take earlier, just past the stairs leading back to level six. Following this path, you'll eventually arrive at a sign which tells you not to delay. There's a lot of truth in this because each circular button on the ground causes a fireball to come flying at you, which sucks but our hopes in navigating this segment of the level is that we can actually get that Fireball spell for our Mage. Anyway, we're going to want to rest to full life and save before doing anything here because the next obstacle is much greater than any Fireball trap -- we're about to go toe to toe with five Drow. When ready, dash straight across the two circlular buttons and immediately turn left and start walking in that direction. The second button seems to force you to get nailed no matter what, but the damage isn't so bad except for the weak guys in your rear rows(and if it comes to using them in this battle, you're probably going to die anyway). Not too many steps further on this path, ignoring the right turn-off, and you'll encounter the war-party of Drow. Hold Person, as usual, is your friend against these guys. Don't blow a Remove Paralysis unless both of your fighters are paralyzed and be sure to eliminate any down-time in terms of attacks. Always have your characters launching projectiles or slashing with their swords. Protection from Evil 10' can be of use here as well. Mainly, cast Hold Person with the Cleric and Acid Arrows/ Magic Missiles with the mage, though, and you should be able to win. Although you might have to restart once or twice. Past the Drow is the holy grail which we came all this way to get! Except that it's not a cross but instead a Mage Scroll of Fireball, which you should scribe and memorize ASAP. Go back out of the room once you've done this and go straight, ignoring both the left and right turn-offs and crossing the two circular buttons in your way. The last button will be in front of a wall at a fork, and you should turn left here to get out of this whole mess of Fireball traps. If you take the next right, you can get a Cleric Scroll of Create Food assuming you actually care, but otherwise take the next left and then the right just after it. Not long after, you will find yourself facing an unlocked door with a path to your right. Go to the right first and spend your key on unlocking this door which takes you up a flight of stairs and to a Stone Ring. Then, go back and open the unlocked door via the upper-right button. Journey straight down this linear hallway for a while to see the path eventually bend to the left(ignore the first right turn-off, but keep it in mind as that's our next destination). Around this time you will probably see more Drow nearby. If not, know that you are close to some. So navigate this hallway cautiously and then open the door to your left. In this room are three items: Iron Rations, a Necklace and a Cleric Scroll of Empower. It's as this point that we want to go back to the path you ignored just moments before and were supposed to remember... what?? you didn't?? Okay, leave the room, turn right and follow the corridor until the next left turn- off, which will be on your left side. This way leads to a single stone divider in the middle of the path, which allows you the leisure of either turning left or right. Go left for now and then left again to reach another arrow(finally you're getting some serious firepower in your bow-user's quiver!). Saunt over to the stone divider you just came from and take the path not travelled. Don't bother with the right branch you see; it will just take you in a circle and to a room you don't want to futz with. Instead, follow this path trustfully, but be sure to save and rest before you go too far. After a bunch of wandering, you will see a fork. The right path leads to a room with a nice Shield in it -- equip it on your 1-hand/shield fighter. Go back and take the other path at the intersection to once again be put on a winding course. But after a time some doors will become visible on the left side. It's at this point that you'll be grateful for having saved earlier because behind each of those doors is a nasty new enemy you haven't faced yet called a Royal Skeleton. These guys are downright brutal and you better hope you only bump into one at a time because this will be your hardest segment yet barring the boss battle with the Mage earlier(though that was negatable with Hold Person--this isn't) Anyway, past the doors there is a room and a circular button. Stepping on this button is unavoidable if you want to enter the room and thus the doors are bound to open. In the room you will get a Cleric Scroll of Protect-Evil 10, a Cleric Scroll of Remove Paralysis and a Key, one of the main items you came here for. But most importantly, you want to get ready for the Royal Skeletons as this will be the room you'll ideally do battle in. They like to focus on a single guy in the front ranks and so it's imperative that you find who that guy is and cast some kind of protective spell on him. Your scroll of Protect Evil 10' works wonders here. Next, basically just start launching stuff at him and repeatedly casting attack spells. Since he's not a person, Hold Person won't work, but you might get sort of lucky and score a Turn Undead with your cleric(random chance) and be able to whack him from behind. Just duke it out with all three, restarting if necessary and then search the third cell on the right for some bones and a Grail, which is a good indication that this is the body of a cleric. And you'll be able to ressurrect it later, too, because we're going to find a Cleric Scroll of Resurrect on this level. But you'll only want to do that if you lose one of your current guys of course. So now it's time for a little backtracking and then some exploration of a new area. If we leave the way we came and head past the first intersection, the second intersection should have a path leading straight and left. The left path is our goal now(remember I said it would lead you in a circle? Well it does but it also leads to a staircase). So follow this path as it bends left briefly, ignoring the locked door(it only contains arrows and we have better uses for this Key) as well the next turn-off to the right. However, when we see a way to leave the corridor on the left side, we'll want to take it because that is where a set of stairs leading down is. Walk straight ahead when you get down here until you bump into a wall. Fork off the to the right now and you will come across a key and a gem. This is actually a Drow Key. Go back to where you forked to the right and take the stairs leading down which are immediately visible across from you. Head right here and open the door you come to with your Drow Key. A massive room opens up here, but the only points are of interest are on the far right wall, where we'll find a slot. Stick your gem in this slot and push the nearby button to produce a Jeweled Key. This will allow you to open the door on the other side of this massive room. There's another door past it, too, but that one isn't locked. Take the stairs up. In this area, there's another slot but we don't have a gem to put into it -- fortunately, we don't need one. We have the Key you got earlier from the Royal Skeleton area, or if not that, hopefully a Dwarven Key or Silver Key or something! If not, you're going to have to journey pretty far back to find one unfortunately :( But chances are you will have at least one key, and so you'll be able to stick in it the slot, push the button and create a gem. With this gem you can open the nearby door by mounting it in the big gray circle by the door. As the door opens, you'll notice the final type of key lying on the ground -- a Royal Key. But instead of going up one of the nearby staircases, we're going to backtrack all the way back to where we first descended any stairs. You know, right after the longer first level where we found the Mage Scroll of Fireball. Well, on the second level of level seven, right by those stairs, is a rune on the wall, which looks like a Dwarvish Rune of Passage but is instead probably some weird kind of Drow rune. It doesn't matter, though, because all we need to know is that it's possible to walk through it and arrive at door. And this door can be opened by -- you guessed it -- the Royal Key! Inside we'll find a Drow Bow, a Mage Scroll of Vampiric Touch and another Royal Key. Wow! We didn't even lose our key for doing that! After this it's time to go back to where we mounted the gem to open the door. In this segment there is a staircase both to the left and right. For now, we're going to take the one to the right. It leads us along a corridor and through three unlocked doors before finally bringing us to a hole in the wall, in which we're supposed to make a "sacrifice". Thankfully, Eye of the Beholder considers items as small as stones to be sacrifices, so just plunk down anything you don't care about in the hole and then advance through the passage that opens up to the left. The next intersection has a path leading straight and left, but the one straight has a pit blocking it. Head left, grab the ring and then go ahead and hop in the pit. After a short fall, we'll find ourselves near a teleporter. Use it and then open the next door to locate a hidden treasure room! We're really raking in the treasure now, so keep up the streak by grabbing the Potion of Extra Healing and the CLERIC SCROLL OF RESSURECT! YAY! With this we can bring back to life those piles of bones if we need to. Use the teleporter again and you'll find yourself in a familiar section of the of the maze. Just head back to the intersection of staircases leading up(past where we mounted the gem) and take the left one this time. Finally, we've almost made it to the end, but there are still got some very tricky battles ahead of us and unfortunately they don't involve creatures as simple as Drow. Save your progress and rest before progressing. Once you're finished, press forward through the two doors(noting the first is one-way) and push the button on the opposite wall once you enter the room. This opens up four secret passages, the left and right ones having 5 rooms on each side. These are opened by way of buttons and contain not only useful items but also keys necessary for leaving the level. There are also up to two Royal Skeletons in each, though. Keep in mind that no matter what door you open on one side, the exact same door is opened on the other side, making what you have to look forward to in the other hallway a lot worse the more doors you open on one side. Fireball can be a good means of crowd control, though, so you might not need to worry about things like that assuming you picked up the scroll. If you want to get all of the good and necessary items, you're going to need to open all of the doors. My best suggestion is just to take things slowly and rest between each segment of battles. The only doors that don't have Royal Skeletons behind them are the first doors on the south-sides. But that only yields two keys, whereas the rest of the rooms will provide 3 more keys, Banded Mail(equip it on your fighter using Chain Mail), Mage Scroll of Lightning and Mage Scroll of Fear. Once you've gotten everything(and it will take a while), head into the other passages to reach a segment of locks. The order is this - Jeweled - Drow - Drow - Jeweled. Then you'll be in a bigger open room. There are cubby-holes on the left side, with the useful items in them being a magical rock and a wand. If you plug three Stone items(ring, sceptre, necklace, dagger, etc.) into these holes, you'll also be rewarded with three scrolls which read as follows: Scroll #1: Around the neck made of gold the sign of Dwarves you've been told. Scroll #2: The light of the stars sparkles in the gem. Follow one to see the other. Scroll #3: The orb leads to great evil. You can open the door just past these holes with a Ruby Key and then you'll finally have the stairs down in sight -- but we don't want to go there just yet. Why? Because there is another treasure room we've yet to explore. open the door straight and ahead and walk down the curvy hallway. At the end of it is an intersection with a door(leads to monsters and nothing else) and a teleporter. Take the teleporter to reach the treasure room. STOP! You're only allowed to take one of the treasures here. Here is a list of what you can get, from closest door to furthest. Closest door: Magic ring Second closest: Magic Bracers Furthest: "Slicer +3"(Magic Sword) My suggestion is to get the bracers since you already have nice magic weapons and plenty of rings already that you have no clue what their function is( what's another one, right?). Bracers are few and far between in the dungeons of Waterdeep, and it's likely that neither of your guys in front has them, but by all means get what you want. When finished, head back out through the teleporter to appear right beside the other teleporter from earlier. Journey back through the twisting hallway and finally, DESCEND! And wipe that sweat from your forehead while you're at it; this was a hard level and you earned a break. _____________________________________________ -=LEVEL EIGHT /\ Monsters: Driders, Hell Hounds =- --------------------------------------------- Thankfully, level eight cuts you some slack. There aren't any locked doors, there are fewer twisting passageways and the monsters don't inflict negative status effects. But it's still the type of level you'd want to map if you weren't using a solution. Anyhow, out of the gate(well, they're stairs up but gates sounds a little cooler...at least I thought so) take your first right. Follow this path until the first branch-off, which happens to be another right. Open the door you come to and enter. This is another one of those silly rooms with a twister in the middle; so once you step into the middle of the room, turn around and walk the way that appears to be where you came from. It's not. Just beyond here is another room with multiple twisters. Grab the Sceptre of Kingly Might and possibly Robe(if you want it) from here. When ready, leave the room and head back in the direction of the stairs. Once you get to the intersection where the stairs are just to your left and there's a door in front of you, take a right. There's yet another intersection up here, except this time there is a door on either side of you. It doesn't matter which you take first because they both contain items; one a Plate Mail of Great Beauty and the other a flail. Equip the Plate Mail on a fighter and the Flail on a Cleric(it's better than the mace). After getting both of these, make your way past whichever room you were in and head in the direction away from the stairs. You should bump into a door here just as the path bends. Prepare for a battle before you open this door as once you do, you'll be introduced to both of the creature types on this level: Driders and Hell Hounds. There are three of the former but only one of the latter. You'll find that they're surprisingly easy once you do actually fight them; Driders can't paralyze you and though they can hit characters in the back with thrown spears they don't do so often enough to present serious concern. And Hell Hounds are just weak. Once the room has been cleared, open the door on the opposing wall to find Drow Boots(very nice footwear) and a rather useless scroll of Protection from Evil. Leave the room where you fought the creatures now and continue following the hall as you were before. When you come to the next intersection there will likely be Drider on each side of you, so back up after popping out into view in order to take them one at time. There should only be two, so turn left at the intersection of killing that number and continue on your way. This ends up being a very long corridor, but just keep following it until you see a circular button on the floor. Ignore all doors along the way. Once you get to that circular button, step forward and stand on it to close the pit immediately beyond. Walk across this section of tile now and then continue following the hallway as it continues to your right. Up ahead is a small cranny in the wall holding a wand. Scoop this up and continue. Open the next door and you come to and head right in the room. There's another door that you will encounter shortly and just past there is a choice: will you open the right or left door? You can only pick one and since the left contains lockpicks and the right contains a Mage Scroll of Ice Storm your choice is obvious. Besides, lockpicks never seem to work in the first place. But you will have to contend with a single Hell Hound if you choose the scroll path. It's at this point that we've gotten everything we can without going through the so-called "Gauntlet of Flame", so head all the way back to where you entered the level from and sto pat the first intersection. There is a hallway on one side and a door you haven't been in on the other. Open the door and proceed to the next open; open it, too, and then approach the wall where you'll find a button just ahead. Push the button, go through the door and quickly duck into the hideaway on the left side. Advance once square and look to the right. Once you see a fireball fly past, move out into the main corridor and proceed. There's a pit in the next hideaway on the right, but only in the first square. So hastily enter into it via the second square to avoid the next fireball, which when you see pass by should prompt you to once again enter the main hallway. There's only one more hideaway left before the end of this whole mess, and it actually has a pit in the second square which makes things easier for you than the last hideaway did. Repeat the same trick and you will find yourself at an intersection. Don't dawdle here because fireballs will still strike as the button-looking thing spits them out; instead, turn right and hike down the corridor to procure a ring from the room. You'll likely fight a Hell Hound on your way back and this is because of a weird mechanism in this hallway that teleports you to the path opposite the one you imagined yourself on. So you will merely need to turn around after backtracking to the intersection to find yourself on the left path this time around. Journey down it and keep going and going, ignoring the door to the right as you momentarily pass through a room. When you finally hit a wall, it will have a scrawling on it but don't read it; it will only confuse my directions as it's nothing more than a glorified twister. Turn right in lieu and follow the path as it curves, ONCE. When you get to the next curve, continue as if path were straight to find a secret. On the other side of this false-wall is a " Night Stalker" sword. Bend right out of the false-wall and continue, ignoring the next right branch (leads to a door, then in a circle) and curve with the path once more to reach a door that you should take. Fortunately, we're almost out of this level once we arrive here, but there are still some secrets we can find. So open the door and head left out of it for the first one, but make sure to heal and save first. Go to the end of this hall, push the button and do a 180 degree turn. Five Hell Hounds have just been released. It shouldn't be difficult to kill all of them, especially with nasty spells like Lightning Bolt at your disposal, but you did save just in case. What they were guarding was a medallion and ring. Equip these on some of your middle or rear-ranked characters since they likely need jewelry the most. Now, go all the way down the hallway you came from, ignoring the Hell Hound pens, the turn-off with the open door(just came from it) and even the next path to the right, which leads to the exit. But at the next decision point, cut right. Open the door ahead and go into the room to collect three scrolls; the most notable being a Cleric Scroll of Cure Critical(the others are Meditation and Neutral-Poison which kind of suck). Cool. Now we're ready to head down to level 9, which will mean we're only a few levels away from the conclusion of the first Eye of the Beholder! ________________________________________________________ -=LEVEL NINE /\ Monsters: Displacer Beasts, Rust Monsters =- -------------------------------------------------------- Level nine can be another quicky assuming you know a few shortcuts. From the start, head out into the open room where are are four different doors. Coming from the stairs, take the one in the upper-left corner. Go all the way down this hallway, ignoring the doors for now, and walk under the holes above you. Two rocks should fall. Pick them up and then backtrack to the doors you just ignored. Each can be opened by placing one of the rocks in its hole. The door closest to where you got the rocks has no monsters and contains a Mage Scroll of Stone Skin. The other door has 2 Displacer Beasts in it and holds a Drow Key. Once you've gotten the Drow Key and the scroll, go back to the main room and immediately turn right as you enter it. Walk forward until you hit a wall and then turn right again to find yourself gazing at another door. Open this one, too, and trek down this massive hallway. The first room you come to contains 4 Displacer Beasts and the second room is locked. Use your Drow Key here to get past. Much further down this corridor you'll bump into a wall and be met with the first fork of corridors on this level. Don't bother with the left one and instead go right. There'll be a small shelter from the main path coming up on your right. Enter it and walk through the wall to circumvent all of the traps here(even though only the last seems to do anything in the SNES version) When you come out of the secret wall, you should be right in front of a big stash of items. Unfortunately, half of it is useless to our suggested party. There's a Paladin Grail(who needs it?), Plate Mail(worth equipping on your cleric), a helmet(give it to some guy in the middle who'll probably never fight anyway), Human Bones(you can resurrect these to have a paladin join you... or not) and a 'Severious' Sword which might be better than the Night Stalker but honestly who knows? I've done tests and can't notice much of a difference. After adequately robbing the grave, keep going forward until you're standing on the circular button. Immediately turn right and head in that direction, and if you're quick enough you won't get hit by some darts, but it really isn't a big deal if you do. Keep going through the level, passing over another button and then you should be in a very large room. Magic Missiles are flying about here like crazy, so it's in your best interest to quickly grab the Drow Key tucked away to the right and then go to the upper-left of the room(from where you came in) and open that door with the key. There's not much left to this level, but this last part can be highly tricky with no signs to really guide you. At first you will only see a sealed door and a corridor to the right. So go down the corridor until you're in front of a pit. Turn to your right and face the wall. Launch an object. As you turn back to face the pit, you will notice a wall has opened and the button across from the pit now has whatever you threw on top of it. But that's not all that has happened. Go back to where the sealed door was to find another door visible now. Open it, go through, grab the darts and Cleric Scroll of Cure Serious if you want and then face the wall right across from where the darts were. Walk through here to find yourself on the other side of the pits!! There are two relatively useless scrolls here, so ignore them if you wish. When ready, go into the path open in front of you to find the stairs down! Wow, was that a record level completion or what? _________________________________ -=LEVEL TEN /\ Monsters: Thri-Keen =- --------------------------------- This level can be conquered quite quickly, but there are some key things we need to do before dropping down(floors this low are still under construction, you see, and there are no stairs) to eleven. Beware of the Thri-Keen inhabiting this place as you journey around. They can paralyze you quite easily with a single hit, and even though they only fight you one at a time, still travel in large groups. Start out by following the corridor you begin in. The first right branch off leads to an arrow if you want it. Much further down the corridor is another intersection right as you hit a wall. Take the right path here and go through that particular door. Straight down this pathway it begins to bend(ignore the first turn-offs you see), so follow it. There will be a bunch of Thri-Keen grouped here. You're advised to be prepared. Four of them, in fact. Basically, just sling fireballs for quick kills or otherwise rely on the traditional melee and projectile approach. After passing the Thri-Keen, take the second right path you see. Follow this one, ignoring any turn-offs until it dead-ends. There should be Human Bones and a Skull Key here. Trek back past the first left turn-off you see until you come to a three-way intersection. Turn left, make an immediate right and then walk straight to reach a door. Open it and proceed through to the next intersection where a door will be right in your face. Make a left at this point and continue straight for a ways, passing through three doors. After going through the third, You'll be in a large room with a lot of doors; all but one have traps behind them, however. So go to the one on the right wall with a keyhole beside it. Pop in your Skull Key and bingo -- you've gained entrance. Just inside will be Shindia, whom we understand up to this point to be a Drow operative. That's cool though, just don't attack her. Instead, listen to what she has to say; there's a lot of it. When done, you have three options, but the two optional ones aren't terribly lucrative. Nonetheless here they are: 1) Straight = A maze of teleporters and levers. It's hard to explain how to get through it except that some levers need to be up and some down. But the only prize for getting through it all is Plate Mail and Resurrection Scroll up some stairs, so you be the judge. 2) Left = This is easily the most disappointing path. Fight four Thri-Keen for Poison, Flame Blade and Cure Critical scrolls, and a wand. Not really worth it but again, up to you. The third path is one we definitely want to take though. It's to the right( there's also another Flame Blade Scorll plus a Remove Paralysis one in the niche on the right wall) and leads to a room with a wand a dwarf in the corner. This turns out to be Prince Kirgar. Definitely have him join you. Back out of the room and then backtrack a long ways. Go through the skull door, the three doors you passed through to the left of that and then make the next right. There will probably be some more Thri-Keen stirring by this point, so eliminate them. Continue backtracking, ignoring the first right turn-off but taking the second. Navigate this corridor and follow it as it bends to the right. You're almost at where you came in now, but you'll find a lever hidden to the right just as you head back in that direction. Pull this one twice to open up a hidden wall across from it. Enter that hidden area and pull the lever on the left twice to transport yourself to a new location. There are some niches here. Grab the ring(s) and jump in the pit. And there we go: level 11! _____________________________________________________ -=LEVEL ELEVEN /\ Monsters: Stone Golems, Mind Flayers =- ----------------------------------------------------- This level may seem tricky at first, but once you realize how to progress it's easy. Well, except for the monsters -- they're almost impossibly difficult if approached incorrectly(and only close to it if not). To go forward, you just need to enter the center room and press all the square buttons consecutively on one wall. Which wall is accessible, though, is determined by where the star of navigation is located. It'll be opposite the accessible one. You'll end up pressing three in a row before you reach a door. There are four doors like these that lead to different areas of this dungeon level(north, south, east and west, obviously). You don't necessarily need to go west unless you want either a ring, Slasher +4 or Banded Mail. But, for the purposes of this walkthrough, we'll take the western path first. It's quick and easy anyway. Start by lining up the star of navigation on the eastern wall. Do this by pushing all three buttons on the wall opposite where the star currently resides until it's lined up. Then proceed. This area is actually enemy free, and contains a ring, Slasher +4(a worthy replacement for an older sword) and Banded Mail(likely has a use for at least someone in your middle ranks). Leave when you've gotten all of these, or at least what you wanted. East is next. And this is where you meet the first enemies: Mind Flayers. These things are particularly unfair, to the point of being annoying. They have an attack called Psychic Blast which has a chance of paralyzing everyone in your party. It's instantaneous even from range and can be recast every few turns in battle. Needless to say, you'll often have to retreat. A good tactic is to memorize two Remove Paralysis spells with your cleric and use those if one of your front-men gets paralyzed. However, if your cleric gets paralyzed along with at least one of the two guys in the front row, it's best just to run. These things can output 30 damage easily in a single hit. Luckily, they never appear in groups. You first encounter with a Mind Flayer will be at the first fork you come to after entering the eastern door. It is lurking just to the left and will Psychic Blast the instant you step into view. Turn around and start whacking it with fast-hitting swords. Don't bother with magic because 1) these things are nearly immune to it and 2) it'll slow down your sword assault. After you're finished, turn right and proceed through the door at the end of the bending hallway. In here will be a sign immediately in front of you on a stone island. Ignore it and, instead, proceed towards the second stone island in this narrow room. Around back is a hidden button. Press it, and a door will open to your left. Just past this door is the second enemy on this level: Stone Golems. These things are significantly easier than Mind Flayers, but often travel in groups. They can also easily overwhelm you if you're not careful. Thankfully there's only one in this room. Kill it off and take the door to the right inside the secret room. Another Mind Flayer is in here. But there's also a Drow Key, which is vital to getting down to the next dungeon level. Go through the other door in the secret room when you've collected it. In here, continue forward through as many doors as necessary until you're at a fork. Take the right path. At the end of this hall is a room. Yet another Mind Flayer is in here, but also a very important item: Stone Grail. Some other things are here, too, like bracers(very useful), bones(to save your butt if you didn't bring a mage for the final showdown), a dagger and a spellbook. Return to the room with the three stone islands and the writing now. Take the non-hidden door in here this time. Turn right at the fork, and you will enter a room. Inside is a secret button on one of the walls. And past that, Orb of Power(yet another crucial item)Go back to the beginning of the dungeon level after getting everything. The northern route is next. It contains one of the trickier tactical battles in the game. First start by proceeding down the hallway and taking the first door on the right. It will lead you to a Dwarven Potion of Healing, a crucial item. Go back to the hallway. The door immediately in front of you now will take you to a scroll of ressurection, BUT there are two Stone Golems in the room, so choose wisely. Otherwise, continue down the hallway, but don't enter the intersection yet. As you can see, there are Stone Golems patrolling both halls. This makes for an interesting predicament. What you really need to do is face the right wall right before the intersection. This will allow you to see what is occupying the first square of the right fork. You want to get the pattern of the creatures down in your head, so when you bolt in that direction there won't be anything in your way. Saving is, of course, essential before attempting this. But when you do, and you do get past, keep running forward and a bit to the left to find a door. Go inside and await any monsters before searching for a hidden switch on the west wall. This leads to the Stone Orb and a Drow Key, your tickets to dungeon level 12. But first, we need to make a trip back to the dwarf area(assuming, of course, that you have Kirgar) To do this, run all the way back to the start of the level, near the center star of navigation. Notice the gate here? Plop your Stone Grail into the empty slot. You'll end up in a spacious area with a lot of similar teleportation gates(this is the area I notated far earlier in this guide as an important place) Go to the far right and search for an area with an empty spot where the Stone Medallion should be. This is how you reach the dwarves' lair. Well, after a bit of walking. If you don't have the Stone Medallion, even more walking, since you need to trudge all the way back to dungeon level five. But assuming you take the Stone Medallion teleporter, you're close to the stairs down to five already. Just head straight down the long hallway, turn left and continue walking until you see the stairs to your left or right. You'll have to pass down a few hallways first, but don't worry, the spiders won't hurt you too much at this point. When the stairs are found, descend and then go through the rune of passage on the right wall. This leads you basically to the dwarve's lair. Just go through one of the open doors in the series of locked ones and find the middle of the room, where the hideout will be on the right. When you get there, assuming you have a Dwarven Healing Potion and Kirgar, you'll be given the Wand of Silvias(i.e. the way to kill the Beholder). Go all the way back to level 11 now and prepare to take the southern door. This leads to the first location where you insert your Drow Key. Past that locked door is a hallway, where you can go either right or left. Left is how you get to level 12, but to the right is a medallion, res scroll, wand and Mage Scroll of Hold Monsters. The only problem is that the room is real confusing and requires you to circle around it a bunch to find all of the items. When you're ready, take the left branch, though, ignoring the first door you see and going through the second and third. Take the right door on this hallway and you should be in a massive room. On the west wall of this room is another secret button. And past that, two Stone Golems and a locked door. Finish off the golems and prepare to fight a Mind Flayer once you open the locked door. Use the usual tactics and then insert your Stone Orb in the teleporter gate to reach, The Final Level!!! _______________________________________________________ -=LEVEL TWELVE /\ Monsters: Steel Golems, Xanathar(boss) =- ------------------------------------------------------- This level is pretty straightforward as long as you press some levels in the right order. For starters, throw an object at the center western wall. It will trip a switch and let you past. Go through two more rooms to reach a series of Steel Golems. Just fight your way through them, casting Stoneskin on one of your front row guys and launch lightning bolts/throwing weapons. One will drop a Skull Key. Take it. After beating them, turn left down the hallway, pass through the door and enter the next door on your left. These are the important levers I was talking about. The order you press them in determines where you can go in the level. We want to go straight to the beholder. So press the center one, then the left one, and finally the right one. Now leaves this room and go back towards the Steel Golem Room. Take the door directly across from the door you came from. This will put you in a room with four doors. The Beholder is in the one to your right. But first, equip the Wand of Silvias on a mage. Revive the mage bones from the last level if you don't have one yet. Now, definitely save. Xanathar can kill up to two people at once, instantly. Thus, we're not really going to fight him in the truest sense. Instead, we're going to take advantage of the dumb AI and the Wand of Silvias and have a trap in his throne room do the dirt for us. So proceed into the next room, cast Protection from Evil 10' on the party, and then enter the next door. Take one step forward and there he is. After selecting "Attack", immediately back up. Your goal is to get past him by luring him into the center of that room and then sneaking by. Get him to follow you, though, just don't stay in range of his projectile magic. In his lair, there's a long hallway. You want him to follow you down it. Once you get in the final room, all you need to do is line Xanathar up one square forward and to the right. Once he's there, use your Wand of Silvias twice to push him into the red trap against the wall. He will die. You will win. Congratulations! =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ IV. APPENDIXES =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ iva. SPELLS Mage ---- Armor - Improves a character's armor class. Detect Magic - Glows blue all the party's magic items. Fear - Makes the enemy run away. Fireball - Deals heavy damage to all enemies in square. Hold Person - Paralyzes a humanoid enemy. Hold Monster - Paralyzes a monster. Icestorm - Long range; damages all squares adjacent to impact point. Invisibility - Makes a character impossible to see from short range. Invisibility 10' - Makes a character impossible to see from longer range. Lightning Bolt - Fires projectile lightning at enemies for heavy damage. Magic Missile - Fires a missile for light damage. Melf's Acid Arrow - Fires an inaccurate arrow for medium damage. Shield - Casts a protective shield upon the caster. Shocking Grasp - (Must have a free hand) Causes light damage. Stoneskin - Provides an intense AC boost to a single character. Vampiric Touch - (Must have a free hand) Causes heavy damage. Cleric ------ Aid - Increases hitpoints of single character. Cause Light Wounds - (must be in front row) Causes light damage. Cause Serious Wounds - (must be in front row) Causes medium damage. Create Food - Fills food meter of whole party. Cure Light Wounds - Heals a single target for a light amount of hitpoints. Cure Serious Wounds - Heals a single target for a medium amount of hitpoints. Detect Magic - Glows blue all the party's magic items. Dispel Magic - Gets rid of negative spells affecting whole party. Empower - (?) Affects all party members. Flame Blade - Summons a flaming blade in the caster's hand. Hold Person - Paralyzes an enemy. Magical Vestments - Decreases caster's AC. Meditation - Improved version of Aid; affects whole party. Neutral-Poison - Removes poison from single target. Protect-Evil - Imbues a single target with protection from evil Protect-Evil 10' - Imbues party with protection from evil Remove Paralysis - Removes the paralyze status effect from whole party. Ressurection - Revives bones of a character. Slow Poison - Lengthens the periods between poison damage rolls. ivb. ARMOR LIST (lower AC is better) Robe - AC: 10 Leather Armor - AC: 8 Scale Mail - AC: 6 Chain Mail - AC: 5 Banded Mail - AC: 4 Plate Mail - AC: 3 ivc. POTION TYPES Potion(unlabeled) - Serves as food. Potion of Cure Poison - Cures poison. Potion of Extra Healing - Heals medium hitpoints. Potion of Giant Strength - Huge boost in strength. Potion of Healing - Heals light hitpoints. Potion of Poison - Poisons you! Dwarven Potion of Healing - Dwarven remedy. Cures the king of his injuries. =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ V. PLOT ANALYSIS =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ *****BIG SPOILERS**** *****BIG SPOILERS**** The Lords of Waterdeep appear to be the governing body of Waterdeep. They commision you(the adventurers) to rid the area underneath the city of an " evil". What, they are not certain. Or maybe they are. When the game is over, they definitely seem to have an idea of who was behind it all. Or maybe the adventurers just told them. Still, the Lords of Waterdeep seem like a highly shady group. There is a sub-plot involving the dwarves. Apparently they were searching for their ancestral home. They slept by a portal, and drow came through. The drow fought the dwarves, and the dwarves finally drove them back. But not without their king being grievously injured(in actuality, poisoned). The king is later cured by you. The dwarves possessed the secret to killing Xanathar the Beholder(the "evil") all along. Xanathar knew this, but did the drow? Another player is involved in the whole mess: a drow named Shindia. She serves Xanathar and is behind the kidnapping of Prince Kirgar. It seems she tried to frame the drow. Or maybe not. But either way, the dwarves suspected the drow kidnapped Kirgar when, in fact, Shindia had. The drow are enigmatic, indeed. It's assumed by a very powerful mage foe met in the middle of the dungeon that they, too, are plotting. The thing is, according to the mage, their meddling will cause the Lords of Waterdeep to take notice of a sinister plot. How, no one knows. Or maybe the mage just doesn't realize the Lords of Waterdeep already suspect something. Nevertheless, this mage seems to be in good graces with Xanathar, although it appears he plans to betray him eventually. Xanathar himself is moderately uninteresting. He's driven by power and greed, and thinks himself invincible. The adventurers prove him wrong. For their efforts, they of course get to keep all of the treasure found. They are also proclaimed heroes for "a day". Not that great of a reward, but then again, the "Lords of Waterdeep" seem quite manipulative and insensitive. *****BIG SPOILERS**** *****BIG SPOILERS**** =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+