Steve's Guide to Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura

(An Arcanum walkthrough)

Last updated: 29th March, 2002

Introduction

Arcanum is one of the most innovative RPGs to have been released since Fallout, which is no surprise given that its creators were part of the original Fallout team. The quirky blend of technology, magick, and the 'steampunk' setting remeniscent of our own 1800's make for interesting fare indeed. If this is the first RPG you've ever attempted, then be warned: it is quite a difficult game. Figuring out what you have to do to complete a quest is one thing; being able to accomplish it is another thing altogether. However, with this guide at your disposal, hopefully your objectives may be made that little bit clearer, and you can kick back and enjoy this fantastic game.

By the way, it's best to ignore what a lot of the mainstream gaming sites said about Arcanum. They were largely over-critical. Sure, the graphics are nothing to write home about, and the interface is a bit unwieldy until you get used to it... but once you get past these niggly bits you'll find an RPG of astonishing depth lurking behind there! It took me literally months to finish my first game, and then I found myself itching to start a new one the very next day.

Conventions

Once again, I've chosen to eschew that handy yet game spoiling Table of Contents. OK, so this Guide is loaded with outright spoilers anyway, but I try not to ruin all the fun right up front by providing you with a listing of all the important locations you will visit. If you're looking for references to a particular location, person, weapon, etc., then just search for it in your browser.

At the bottom of this guide are handy tables for locating important items and people.

Directions are given assuming that the top of your screen is north, and the longer direction names are abbreviated, like SW for southwest.

Tips

Before you even THINK about starting to play, download and apply the latest patch (version 1.0.7.4 at the time of writing), which may be obtained here on the official Arcanum site. This patch became available on the 30th October, 2001.

I would never pretend to tell you what type of character to create, especially in a game where you have as much free reign as this one. Choosing a male or female character doesn't make much difference, except female characters have less choices in the race category. You might as well choose a background to make your character a little more interesting, but be careful not to choose one that loads up a single stat at the expense of many others unless you really want your character to be unbalanced. Whether you choose to specialise in technology or magick, or even play the middle road, it matters not. You should be able to complete the game with all character types. Having said that, let it be noted that Melee or Magick specialists have it a lot easier than those who choose the way of Guns. Also, be sure to consider the likes of Persuasion as a favoured skill. It's good to have the option of being able to talk your way around combat every so often. One other thing to consider at character creation time: dwarves make lousy magicians because it costs them twice as much Fatigue as any other race to cast a spell!

Do yourself an enormously big favour and make sure to purchase a set of Lockpicks from the virtual shopkeeper at character creation time. I couldn't find any merchants who would sell them, and without them you can't pick a lock on even the lowliest chest. Having said that, if you don't have a set of Lockpicks, you can usually bash open locked containers (and doors!) instead. To do this, first make sure you remove all valuable weapons from both your own and your followers' weapons slots (using weapons to bash damages them unnecessarily). Enter Combat Mode, then Alt+Click on the container or door. Your followers will join in the fun! You will find Lockpicks here and there eventually, but it's handy to have a set from the start.

Of all the stats, Dexterity (DX) is perhaps the most important. Firstly, it boosts your Armour Class (AC), making you more difficult to hit in combat. But even more importantly, it directly affects your Speed. The number of attacks you get per combat turn (assuming a high speed weapon) is roughly DX/2, so once you get your DX up to 20, you're getting in at least 10 attacks per turn, maybe even more if you're not encumbered at all (each level of encumberance deducts 2 from your Speed, so it's best to travel lightly yourself. Load up your followers with the heavy stuff). And finally, DX is the stat that governs how far you can advance in Bow, Dodge, Melee, and Throwing. These are the most important combat related skills.

In order to use an item in your inventory, just drag it over the 'hand' icon to the right of your inventory. If it's a usable item, the icon turns green and you can drop it on the hand icon (if it's not usable, the icon turns red). When you drop it on the hand icon, one of two things happens:

  1. You'll wind up reading the item if it is a book, note, newspaper, etc.
  2. Your cursor turns a different colour, and you are returned to the game world. The next object or creature that you click on will have that item applied to it. This is how you can use scrolls and potions on followers, creatures, and even yourself.

Getting out of town onto the World Map can sometimes be an anxiety-inducing affair. Usually, you just have to travel far enough out of town. You know you've reached the right spot when the map icon on the top left of your screen turns into a blue globe! Below, I've marked each important location with it's World Map coordinates, as you can find most places simply by wandering close to them. Sometimes people will tell you the location of an important place, and this puts it on your World Map. In a few cases, you can ONLY find a place if someone puts it on your World Map.

After dispatching all your foes in battle, just right-click to exit combat mode. Any followers you have along with healing skills will automatically begin the process of healing you. Speaking of which, if you get tired of waiting for someone's Fatigue to recharge, a handy trick is to just advance the time 1 hour using the Sleep menu.

Magical Chests and other such caches usually contain RANDOM magickal items. I've only bothered to document the items that are always at a particular location. Most often, these always-present items are 'hexed' (evil).

Combat is by far the easiest way to gain XP in this game. Just wandering around on the World Map for a while and beating up on whatever attacks you will often result in you going up a level before you even know it. Characters attempting to take a diplomatic route through will find it to be very hard going indeed, as the XP gained in solving quests pales in significance to that obtained by just killing things. Anyway, you need to be quite adept at either Melee or Magick to even complete most of the quests. You simply cannot talk your way around monsters no matter how high your Intelligence (IN) is, or how good your Persuasion skills are!

If you try to lug around all the interesting objects you find, even if you share the load with your followers, you'll soon find yourself running out of space and/or becoming encumbered. The best solution I found was to store spare items in the dressers of the inn rooms you stay at. No one seems to ever touch anything you store there! On a related note, you can store large items in your hotkey slots, without limit to the size of the item (but its weight still registers in your inventory).

A caution about schematics: just because you bought a schematic and you have the 2 ingredients necessary to make a new item doesn't mean you'll succeed! For instance, early on in the game I bought a Bullets schematic. But I soon found out that you need a lot more than Saltpetre and Charcoal to make Bullets. You also need to be quite a few rungs up the ladder in the Explosives technological discipline. So it is with a lot of schematics you find or buy. In a lot of cases you must have expertise in more than one discipline to be able to combine the items, so beware.

When you pickpocket someone for their Gold, you only get 100 coins per successful attempt no matter how much they have on them. I reckon this is fair, otherwise the game would be too unbalanced in the favour of thieves.

Wherever you go in your travels, always make sure to pump any bartender you find for info. They always know what's going on in the area, and their info is free. Bartenders can usually train you as an Expert in Gambling and Haggle.

Nearly all shopkeepers will train you as an Apprentice in Haggle.

Disclaimer: in order to train as an Apprentice or Expert in whatever skill, you need only fork out some cash. Usually, this is in the order of 100 Gold for Apprentice, and 500 for Expert. However, in order to train as a Master, you have to have spent 5 points on the skill, and be at Expert level. The Master will then give you a quest, which should you successfully complete, he/she will then grant you the rank of Master. Now... in bringing this guide to you, I was prepared to play all the way through Arcanum only so many times. Therefore, I couldn't spend enough points to attain Master level in every skill (and to be honest, I'm not even remotely interested in skills like Repair or Haggle), so I couldn't document the final quest to become Master in most cases; however, I usually can tell you at least who the Master trainer is for a particular skill.

OK, that's probably enough of the up front stuff, and you won't retain it all at once anyway, so let's move on and start this incredible adventure.

Crash Site (1452 W, 1292 S)

You start your journey here, with a dying old gnome giving you a ring and imploring you to deliver it to a boy... somewhere. Virgil, a Panarii monk, immediately walks up to you and starts nattering away. He thinks you're some kind of deity, referring to you as the "Living One". Make sure you get him to join you as a follower (just being as polite as you can under the circumstances will do the trick). His healing skills are indispensable. Also be sure to loot all the corpses in the area. You should at least get the Passport from the gnome's body (he's one Preston Radcliffe), the Camera off Isaac Zapruder, and the Wilhemina's Note to Jared off Wilhemina.

You'll have to fend off a few Ailing Wolves, Lesser Boars, and possibly get your first encounter with a Kite Scout - a bit tougher than the others. Virgil can cast a Minor Healing spell for your injuries. If you're up to it, there's a Kite Shaman through a cleft in the rocks to the SW. Killing him's worth more than 500 XP, plus he's got a Magick Chest with 150+ Gold and a Fatigue Potion in it. There might also be a gem or two, and an unidentified weapon or piece of armour. As a quick test to determine if an unidentified item is hexed (evil), try equipping it. If you hear a hum and the ground underneath your character turns briefly into a pentagram... it's hexed!

All the way to the north, one of the ogre bandits that attacked the zeppelin has crashed in his flying machine. You can take a Strange Amulet off his body.

To the NE in this area, past a pond, is the entrance to a cave. Some Sewer Rats to dispose of, then there's a pile of junk to the NW of the entrance containing Saltpeter and Arrows. A barrel just to the NE of there contains some more items: Fatigue Restorer, a Healing Potion, and a broken Flintlock Pistol. Proceeding further north, there's another barrel containing: Healing Potion, Migraine Cure, Iron Ore, and Coal. At the end of the passage, there's a dead bandit. His spirit(!) gives you Quest 2 below. There's a bed here that you can sleep in if you need to recover some HP, and yet another barrel containing: Charcoal, a usable Old Flintlock Pistol, some Bullets, 2 Stun Grenades, Dynamite, and an Explosive Grenade.

Virgil keeps suggesting to seek out the Elder Joachim in a place called Shrouded Hills, somewhere to the SE of here. Might as well head in that direction when you're done exploring the area around the crashed zeppelin. As you're exiting the area to the SE, you come across a shrine that portends you fighting an "evil one". Hmm. As you pass the shrine, you're accosted by an elf. You can let Virgil do the talking, in which case the elf ultimately runs away, or you can talk to him yourself. If you talk to the elf yourself, you'll probably wind up killing him, because you find out that he knew of Preston Radcliffe (the gnome who gave you the ring), and for some unknown reason he's bent on killing any survivors of the crash, which means you! After your encounter with the elf, you get your first chance to use the World Map. You may travel to either Arbalah's House if you took Quest 2 below, or to Shrouded Hills.
If, instead of travelling via the World Map, you continue on past where you met the hostile elf, you'll run into what could be described as Wolf Alley. It's a winding passage through the rocks that contained no less than 7 Wolves. These are the really tough Level 3 ones, as opposed to the Level 1 Ailing Wolves you can so easily bump off. If you can get them all, you should be nearly at Level 4 by this stage.

Quests

  1. Discover the origins of the strange ring.

    2. You automatically get this quest when the dying gnome hands you the ring. You have the feeling it might take some time to resolve this quest...

  2. Kill the priest Arbalah to free the spirit of Charles Brehgo - 1500 XP.

    3. The spirit of the dead bandit in the cave gives you this quest. Travel to Arbalah's house, which is now on your map. Arbalah tells a different story entirely. Now, you can kill Arbalah, which is bad for your alignment but nets you 1500 XP (there was no treasure. It was a ploy used by the spirit to motivate you to kill the priest), or take Arbalah's House Quest 1 instead.

Arbalah's House (1451 W, 1304 S)

You can travel here via the World Map from the Crash Site.

While we were at Arbalah's house, we were accosted by a member of the Molochean Hand. Another bloke intent on killing any survivors of the zeppelin crash. What is it with these people? Anyway, after killing this ruffian, the Strange Amulet that I got off the ogre bandit was now identified in my inventory as a Molochean Hand Amulet. Aha, this is starting to add up. Even though I couldn't loot anything from the elf I killed at the crash site, when I returned a day later, there was a pool of blood there, and one of these amulets. So... the people trying to kill me all belong to the same organisation!

Quests

  1. Recover Arbalah's artifact from the bandit - 1700 XP and a Blessing.

    2. Instead of killing Arbalah, if you speak with him you learn that the bandit was lying, and it was Arbalah who was wronged. You promise to recover his artifact. When you return to the bandit's spirit in the cave, you can trick him into telling you the whereabouts of his partner in crime (just lie to him. It won't do any harm). Travel to Simon Fahrkus' Shack (1450 W, 1326 S) via the World Map. If it's daytime, Simon will come out of the shack as you approach; otherwise, you'll have to go inside. You can get the artifact from him by either threatening force, telling a lie, or killing him for it. I know what you're thinking... but you can't steal it. When you return the artifact to Arbalah, you receive a Blessing from him, which bumps your Reaction Modifier by 5 points!

Shrouded Hills (1409 W, 1317 S)

A mining town to the east of the crash site.

Standing just to the north of the well where you arrive in Shrouded Hills is a young gnome. When you approach him, he engages you in conversation. He claims to be Preston Radcliffe's younger brother William. You can give him the Signet Ring, but he's not the owner (remember, it's engraved with the initials GB). You don't get any XP for giving him the ring, and you can't easily get it back afterwards because he gives you 25 Gold for it, so I believe it's a trap for the unwary.

The Shrouded Hills Inn is just to the SE of the well. You can stay here for 25 Gold per night. Coincidentally, Virgil's mentor, Joachim, has a room here at the end of the hall. When you enter, you find 2 thugs who Joachim dispatched along with a note on the floor from Joachim urging you to meet him in Tarant. Virgil confirms your suspicions by stating that the gnome claiming to be William Radcliffe may indeed be an imposter. In the room at the top of the hall that you paid for, there's a dresser containing some Gold and a pair of Worn Shoes that will at least boost your Damage Resistance by 1.

Just around the corner from the bank is Ristezze Imported Goods. Talk to the shop's owner to obtain Quest 3 here.

The smith, Lloyd Gurloes, will train you as an Apprentice in Repair, Pick Locks, or Disarm Traps for 100 Gold. Lloyd will also give you Quest 10.

The guards here will train you as an Apprentice in: Dodge, Melee, Throwing, Spot Trap, Bow, and Prowling.

On the NE path out of town, on the way to the bridge, there is a gypsy woman who has some handy magickal items for sale and she can identify magickal items for you, as well as training you as an Apprentice in Prowling.

The half-ogre drunk standing by the bar at the inn, Sodd Mead Mug, will join you as a follower, but you must have CH of at least 9 for this to be possible.

If you exit Shrouded Hills via the bridge to the east, after completing Quest 1 or 2 below, you'll bump into the gnome who claims to be William Radcliffe again. You'll have to fight him this time. You can recover a Note from him that explains a bit more about your predicament.

Quests

  1. Constable Owens needs you to remove the thieves from the bridge - 1000 XP and 250 Gold, plus bridge key... and a Fate Point!

    2. Talk to the constable/mayor who is pacing around in the vicinity of the well. Thieves are holding the bridge on the east side of town (take the NE path from the temple to get there), charging a toll to all who would cross. Now... these guys are extemely tough - way too tough for your Level 3 or 4 character - so I chose to solve this one using wits. Before you ever speak to Lukan the Witless there for the very first time (you won't get the necessary dialogue choice on subsequent attempts), you need to have pumped at least 1 CP into Persuasion. Then, follow the "Hmmm. I may be able to persuade you otherwise..." dialogue path to its logical conclusion, taking the most non-confrontational/evasive choices along the way. You convince Lukan that he's encroaching on someone else's territory, and you can even get him to fork over 200 Gold before he leaves! You get some XP and 50 Gold more when you return to the constable and report your success.

  2. In order to join the thieves, you must destroy the construction materials for the new bridge - 1000 XP plus bridge key.

    3. There is another way, though evil in nature, that you can avoid the bridge toll. During your conversation with Lukan, you can offer to help the thieves out by destroying the materials the locals are planning to use to build a new bridge (in order to circumvent the thieves' toll). Head directly south along the river, and you'll find these materials. Make sure you disarm Virgil and yourself so you won't damage your weapons. Then enter Combat Mode and use Alt+Click repeatedly to damage the stuff beyond use. When you report back to Lukan, he gives you a bridge key, and also tells you about an organisation known as the Thieves Underground. Of course, this solution to getting across the bridge will cost you a few Alignment points. Your actions also piss off Constable Owens, but he's too cowardly to do anything about it, and it doesn't seem to affect the reaction of anyone else in town... so you in effect get away with it, with the possible exception that you can get no more quests from Owens.

  3. Ristezze the Importer wants you to find a camera OR some Bessie Toone paraphenalia - 1200 XP and the location of Tarant.

    4. Show Ristezze the ring, and ask about its manufacturer, P. Schuyler & Sons. He'll ask you to fetch either of the above items in return for information. If you have the Camera from the crash site, you can give him that. If you don't have it or don't wan't to part with it, you need to find the old mine. Ristezze says it's on the north side of town, but it's actually to the extreme west, and a little south. Go figure. Once inside the mine, keep heading north, and then SW. There's a Wolf guarding a Magick Chest there. He's quite a bit tougher to take on then the Ailing Wolves you've encountered so far. The chest contained some Gold, a Heal Poison, and a Mnura Coin. Next to the chest is a Mine Cart which contains an Unidentified Dagger. However, none of this stuff belongs to Bessie Toone, so we must continue searching. Over on the east side of the mine, there's a nasty Spider and some Lesser Spiders. Virgil can usually cure you of the poison after the battle is over (though it can be a pretty tight race), so don't use any Heal Poison you found unless you absolutely have to. There's a barrel there containing some Old Gears (take these!), and Dynamite. Also a crate full of Factory Discards containing some interesting odds and ends. Finally, if you head to the west part of the mine, and then north, you'll find the ghost of Bessie Toone. Take out the Lesser Spiders. You can't talk to Bessie, but she's looking for a little girl named Sarah. Hmm. Anyway, there's a Metal Can here containing Bessie's Old Boot, which is the piece of paraphenalia you've been searching for. Another crate full of Factory Discards too. Actually, it is better to give Bessie's Boot to Ristezze in order to complete the quest, because it's worth almost nothing, whereas the Camera is worth at least 250 Gold (and is useful somewhere else much later on). Once you've given either of the items to Ristezze, he puts Tarant on the map for you! Quest 4 also automatically appears in your quest book.

  4. Get information from P. Schuyler & Sons about the owner of the strange ring - 2000 XP and Tarant Quest 3.

    5. You have to journey to Tarant. See paragraph on P. Shuyler & Sons in Tarant section.

  5. Jacob Bens wants you to steal the local mining company's payroll from the bank safe - 900 XP and 250 Gold.

    6. At the inn, you may bump into a drunken half-ogre at the bar, and he'll give you this quest. You can immediately go to Constable Owens and report this pending crime. Owens chickens out and sends you to Doc Roberts. The good Doc is located in the building just west of the temple, marked 'General Practitioner' (Doc Roberts can train you as an Apprentice in Healing and Firearms, and as an Expert in Firearms). You can tell him that Jacob Bens wants you to rob the bank's safe, which bumps your Alignment 1 point to the right, but that botches this quest. Anyway, you should complete Quest 8 first. Then, sometimes the teller has the door leading to the safe open. If so, you can just waltz right in and pilfer the 500 Gold (otherwise, you'll have to sneak in at night and need pretty good Pick Locks skill, or, you can always pickpocket her to get the key to the door). Give 250 Gold to Jacob Bens, keep the rest for yourself, and no one else seems to be the wiser. You lose 2 Alignment points, but what the hey.

  6. Jongle Dunne wants you to destroy the town's steam engine - 800 XP and 2 Healing Potions.

    7. Visit Jongle Dunne, the alchemist, in his shop in the south of town and talk to him to get this quest. It seems that the steam engine (in the back of the temple, located just north of the well) that Constable Owens has running there is wreaking havoc with Jongle's magickal powers. Fulfilling this quest will set you back a few alignment points. I had to lob a few sticks of Dynamite at the control panel for the engine, killing its minder. Jongle gives you 2 Healing Potions in return, plus Quest 7, in addition to putting Dernholm on your map. Jongle will also train you as an Apprentice in Healing and Persuasion.

  7. Jongle Dunne needs a package picked up from a man named Charles Dolan, a merchant in Dernholm - 800 XP and 70 Gold.

    8. Jongle puts Dernholm on the map for you. Charles Dolan's shop is located in the SW part of Dernholm. Just pick up the package and return it to Jongle.

  8. Constable Owens wants you to fix the town's steam engine - 800 XP and 100 Gold.

    9. If, after you destroy the steam engine as per Quest 6, you speak to Constable Owens, you get this quest. The part you need is an Old Sprocket, which I happened to have on me. I picked it up somewhere in the Bessie Toone Mine. Just goes to show how important it is to hold onto all that junk you've been finding. Beware that if you fix the steam engine, Jongle Dunne becomes hostile and won't ever speak to you again, which botches Quest 7. You can always complete this quest AFTER you deliver the package to Dongle to avoid that happening.

  9. Doc Roberts wants you to help him stop an impending bank robbery - Choice of: Revolver (technologist), Enchanted Sword (mage), or Battle Axe (neutral).

    10. See Quest 5 for details on how to find Doc Roberts. Regardless of whether you rat on Jacob Bens or not, you can get this quest to help the Doc take out the Bowen gang, who are planning to rob the bank. If you get this quest before 18:00, you just need to talk to him once he's standing outside the bank and the robbery commences immediately; otherwise, he'll stand outside the bank all night, while you might as well get some rest until 7:00 the next morning when the bank opens again and the gang strikes. Help him defeat the gang, and you get a weapon of your choice as a reward.

  10. Lloyd Gurloes wants you to obtain some pure ore for him - 800 XP and Fine Steel Dagger.

    11. Ask Lloyd, the smith, how business is lately, and he mentions Bessie Toone (see Quest 3). He says that in exchange for some Pure Ore, he'll make you a Dagger. Pure Ore is obtained by mixing Iron Ore with Steel. It's the first schematic in the Smithy discipline. Anyway, the conversation with Lloyd sets you on the path to meet Percival, Bessie's son. See Quest 11.

  11. Percival Toone wants you to find a way to free the ghost of his mother - 1700 XP and 500 Gold.

    12. His house is located just south of the mine entrance. If you completed Quest 3, and tried to talk to Bessie Toone, then you learned about Sarah. Percival lets slip that Sarah is in Dernholm. You need to travel there and find Sarah. Unfortunately, Percival won't tell you where Dernholm is, and if you didn't take Quest 7, you think you probably have to travel to Tarant first and locate the mine's owner... but this could be difficult too. He wouldn't give you the man's name. However, there's a much easier way. A villager wandering around just to the east of here will mark the location of Dernholm on your map! See Dernholm Quest 1 for details of how to get the deed back. Giving the deed to Percival nets you a lot less XP than giving it to Sarah, but you do get 500 Gold as compensation.

  12. If, in my travels, I happen across the ancient elven amulet of N'Tala, Gaylin has offered to pay me a handsome reward for its return - 1700 XP and 1000 Gold plus some very important locations on your map.

    13. Gaylin is the town herbalist, whose shop is just along the path past Doc Roberts' place. She can train you as an Apprentice and Expert at Healing. You get this quest by asking her if she has any work. It might be a while before you come across this amulet in your travels, but at least you can be on the lookout for it...

Dernholm (1236 W, 1652 S)

There is an Tarant Newspaper containing an important news item about a possible war with Caladon on the ground here on the way into the centre of town. You should hold onto this newspaper.

The King's Inn & Pub is located smack in the middle of town. There is a gnome thief named Vollinger standing at the bar in the inn who will join your party if you are roughly at his experience level of 15. Virgil doesn't trust him though, which is quite right if you're playing a goody-two-shoes type. Vollinger is of evil Alignment. He can train you as an Apprentice in: Backstab, Pick Pockets, Prowling, and Spot Traps.

The blacksmith at Wallow's Quality Armor can train you as an Apprentice in Repair, Pick Locks, and Disarm Traps.

At the entrance to the docks, on the east side of town, there's a rubbish bin containing a Large Pipe. It's one of the components of an Elephant Gun, if you're technologically inclined.

Jayna Stiles, a technological healer who lives in the far SE part of town, will join you as a follower, but only if you're leaning towards the technical side yourself. All she can make to begin with are Healing Salve and Elixir of Persuasion.

If you've already met the Bow Master Kietzel Pierce in Blackroot, then you'll find his missing student Dudley Crosston here. He's one of the Elite Bow Guards, and typically patrols in the area of Jayna Stiles' house and the docks.

If you bump into the Elite Guard Captain in your wanderings, he can train you as an Expert in Bow and Prowling.

Lianna Pel Dar, who lives on the west side of town, can train you as an Expert in Throwing. She'll also relate the history of Cumbria to you. You'd have to be really good at Pickpocket, or expend a Fate Point, but if you're up to it she has the very powerful Sword of Baltar on her person. It takes a minimum ST of 18 to wield effectively, but deals out 15 - 25 points worth of damage!

North of the castle are the infamous Pits of Dernholm. I talked to one of the guards here in an attempt to get myself chucked in, but no luck. Maybe I was better off. As the guards are all Level 45 around here, who knows what utterly undefeatable horrors lurk in the Pits?

Quests

  1. Sarah Toone wants you to help her regain ownership of the Bessie Toone Mine - 4500 XP plus Filament Sword.

    2. The boarded-up building just to the west of the inn is where Sarah Toone is staying. It would seem that Percival gained control of the mine through nefarious means, so you can choose to pitch in with Sarah instead. She gives you the name and address of the present owner, in Tarant. 25 Lion's Head Circle is located on the east side of Tarant. Using my powers of Persuasion, I was able to talk Mr. Stanton into handing over the deed to the mine for nothing, otherwise you'll have to fork over 350 Gold to get it. When you return the deed to Sarah, she presents you with a fantasic Sword. Completing this quest also completes Shrouded Hills Quest 11... even though Percival is definitely not happy about the eventual outcome.

  2. King Praetor would like you to collect his taxes from Black Root - 800 XP and 200 Gold.

    3. To get this quest, enter the castle in the northern part of town, and head all the way to the north part of the castle. Talk to the noble in robes there, who turns out to be King Praetor. He wants you to collect 5 gold bars worth of taxes from the town of Blackroot (he puts it on your map). Journey NE on the World Map to Blackroot and talk to the mayor, whose residence is located in the NE part of town. If you found the Tarant Newspaper in Dernholm (see above), you'll get dialogue options to convince the mayor that Tarant is preparing for war against Caladon. He decides he'd be better off aligned with Praetor, and agrees to pay the taxes (a Chest of Gold. And no, you can't sell this to anyone). There is another way to win the mayor's favour and collect the taxes, and that is by accepting Blackroot Quest 1. Actually, this approach nets you more XP in the long run than the newspaper ploy.

  3. Gladys wants you to find her ring, an old family heirloom - 800 XP.

    4. Gladys lives over on the west side of town. She sends you to speak with Archibald. He lives over by the docks on the east side of town... a cantankerous old soul who will have nothing to do with you, but he mentions that he'll set his son Bernard upon you. If you speak to Bernard, who is standing next to 3 barrels to the east of Archibald's place, he'll tell you about the long-standing family feud over Gladys' ring. Traipse back in to Archibald, make a bit of fuss over the old lad, and he'll cough up the ring.

  4. Find the Lady Druella, get her to agree to marry Sir Garrick Stout, and return her to him - 8500 XP, Master of Melee, and Quest 5.

    5. Sir Garrick Stout, the pompous fool in armour standing outside either the barracks or the castle on the north side of town, is a Level 45 Master of Melee. The woman of his dreams is being held in a trance by some creatures called Gyr Dolours. It's a long story. Anyway, he wants you to rescue her, and return her to him so that he can marry her. He marks the location of the Lair of Gyr Dolours on your map. It's just to the NE of Dernholm. When you arrive there, head cautiously up the path to the north. You have to be careful not to let the Gyr Dolours gang up on you, because they cast a spell that renders you unable to attack, and then they drain all your fatigue; however, if you let them come to you and take them on a few at a time, no big problem. Anyway, killing them is the easiest part of this quest. Lady Druella comes out of her trance, and that's when all the trouble really starts! There's no way she's going to go back willingly and marry that idiot Stout, even if it does mean her blind lover getting his sight restored as compensation. The only way she'll agree to come with you is if you agree to let Stout make you a Master of Melee... and then kill him. If you decline to kill Stout and force her to come back (she reluctantly agrees and temporarily joins you as a follower), you lose 50+ Alignment points by handing her over to Stout. Even worse, Stout makes you a Master of Melee, but doesn't carry out the rest of the bargain, which was to give you the special healing potion to restore Adkin's sight. If you kill him then (which is surprisingly easy once you're a Master of Melee at Level 34 with a decent sword :-), all he has on him is some Strong Poison. Druella begs you to go to Adkin in Stillwater, but what's the use seeing as you only have Poison? A dead end.
    Well, dear reader, as astounding as it may seem, the best way to complete this quest is to make an agreement with Lady Druella to kill Stout. Lady Druella comes along willingly, Stout graciously hands you the Potion to Heal the Blind and makes you a Master of Melee... and then you kill him. This approach only sets you back 6 Alignment points, plus you get the quest to cure Adkin Chambers of his blindness.

  5. Take the healing potion to Adkin Chambers and restore his sight. Also, tell him Lady Druella's location - 6400 XP and a Fate Point.

    6. Adkin Chambers lives in Stillwater. See Stillwater Quest 4.

  6. King Praetor wants you to find his daughter - 800 XP and 1250 Gold.

    7. You have to complete Quest 2 for King Praetor first, and you must also have visited Caladon to get this quest. Praetor fears that his daughter Aria has fled to Caladon, and is possibly living with an Auguste Farad there. If you talk to the dock worker (you may now know him as Bernard) as Praetor suggests, you find that the ship his daughter left on sailed in very bad weather, and hasn't been heard from since. So... first you go talk to this Auguste Farad fellow. He's in the foyer of the castle in Caladon, pacing back and forth. He admits that Aria and he are an item, but that both sets of royal families are against the marriage. However, he also has not seen Aria for several months, which means that she never arrived in Caladon. Now, if you journey back to Blackroot, and from there head SW towards Caladon and go as far along the coast as it it possible to go, you come to a place called Razors Pointe (1504 W, 1772 S). There are two shipwrecks there. If you make your way along the path that runs through shallow water, you'll find a lot of Barrels and Chests. Unfortunately, you also find Aria's body on the deck of the second ship. Take her amulet as proof that you found her. When you return to Praetor, he lets you keep the amulet. Praetor only gives you 250 Gold as a reward. Tightwad. The rest of the Gold comes from Farad when you return to Caladon to bring the bad news and give him the amulet as a keepsake.

Wolf Cave (1230 W, 1531 S)

If you strike out directly north from Dernholm, and then head for Blackroot when you are just SE of the tree on the World Map, you should encounter the Wolf Cave. On the west side of the cave there are some pretty tough Putrid Rodents guarding the corpse of a skeleton. The skeleton has a set of Lockpicks on him, so this is your chance to finally get your hands on a set if you didn't purchase them at the very beginning of the game. On the east side of the cave is a mother Wolf with her Cubs. They are deceptively hard to knock off as the cubs swarm around you and nibble away at your HP very quickly. Anyway, there was a skelton there that I couldn't loot. Possibly a bug? There is some useful stuff in the barrels though.

Blackroot (1097 W, 1441 S)

Blackroot is to the north of Dernholm on the east coast.

Garret Almstead, the blacksmith, will give you a pair of Dwarven Gauntlets as a gift if you are sympathetic about his difficult upbringing. He can also train you as an Expert in Repair and Pick Locks.

To the east of the blacksmith lives an inventor who has a lot of good tech gear for sale, such as an Electrical Harness, at bargain prices.

There is a ship in dock here, but you need to have a specific destination in mind before you can hire it. Tarant becomes a possibility a little later on. The cost of passage is 100 Gold per person.

There is also a train station in the NW part of town. You can purchase reservations for either Ashbury or Tarant at a cost of 75 Gold per person.

The human priest Dante is standing at the bar in the Sour Barnacle (located on the pier in the north part of Blackroot). He'll join you as a follower provided you are roughly at his level. Otherwise, he says you're too wet behind the ears.

Clarissa Shalmo is the half-orc guard standing at the bar in Annabelle's Gallery on the west side of town (it's attached to the Drop Yer Anchor inn). She's looking for an ancient throwing weapon called Azram's Star... actually, she's the Master of Throwing in Arcanum, and the quest for you to become a Master of Throwing will involve retrieving this weapon for her. Kietzel Pierce, the Bow Master, is also standing here. He asks you to keep a lookout for his student Dudley Crosston, and to tell Dudley that Pierce is travelling to Caladon if you meet him.

Herkemer Oggdoddler is the grizzled war veteran wandering about on the peninsula just west of the mayor's residence. For 500 Gold each, he'll train you as an expert in the following disciplines: Dodge, Melee, Spot Traps, and Firearms. You must listen patiently to his ramblings about the war before you get the right dialogue choices though.

Quests

  1. The Mayor of Blackroot wants you to find his badge of office, a ceremonial silver dagger, stolen by a local gang of thieves - 800 XP and Chest of Gold.

    2. The mayor's residence is located in the east part of Blackroot. Whilst trying to obtain Praetor's taxes, you learn that the Tarant guards are not protecting Blackroot as well as they could be. You can then accept this quest to retrieve the stolen Silver Dagger. D'ak Taan the elf thief and his merry henchmen are holed up in the far west part of Blackroot, across a body of water to the west of the train station. You can buy back the Ceremonial Dagger and some other stolen gear for 300 Gold. Alternatively, you can undertake Quest 3 or 4 to obtain the Dagger.

  2. Mrs. Cameron would like you to find her son, Liam - 4600 XP and Mage's Dagger OR Chapeau of Magnetic Inversion.

    3. Mrs. Cameron's house is located to the SW of the mayor's residence. Her son has a workshop located in the woods, and she hasn't heard from him for a while. She'll put the location of the workshop on your map if you agree to look for her son. See section on Liam's Workshop below for further details. When you return to her with news of Liam (and you've managed to destroy the portal), she'll hand you a Mage's Dagger if you're magickally inclined, or an electrically powered Chapeau (tophat), that provides a Damage Resistance of 20, if you're a technologist.

  3. D'ak Tann the thief wants you to obtain poison from Grunwalde - 800 XP and Ceremonial Dagger.

    4. Grunwalde's house is located on the path that traverses the southern part of Blackroot. He's an alchemist who makes only poison. If you're not capable of stealing the poison from him (which is quite easy. I managed in several attempts with no Pick Pocket skill), you can buy it for 100 Gold by convincing him you've got a major pest infestation problem.

  4. D'ak Taan the thief wants you to rob the Hedgewizard's chest - 800 XP and Ceremonial Dagger.

    5. The Hedgewizard lives in a house to the SW of town. Tugal will give you a Scroll of Summon Undead if you promise not to touch the the contents of his chest. Supposedly, you could use this scroll to help defeat D'ak Taan and thus get the Ceremonial Dagger back that way... but the level 3 decaying soldier that it summons is not very helpful. The Hedgewizard's chest is quite difficult to lockpick. You might be better off with Quest 3 unless you're an accomplished thief.

  5. The innkeeper wants you to bring back his strong box from the locksmith - 800 XP and indefinite free stay at the Drop Yer Anchor.

    6. Talk to Hallaway, the innkeeper at the Drop Yer Anchor. If you mention that you can't afford the price of his room, he'll give you this quest. Almstead the blacksmith's place is just to the SE of here. Even with some Persuasion skill, I could only talk him down to 80 Gold as the price for returning the Strongbox. Not very good when you consider it's a room worth only 25 Gold a night that you're getting in return. Much better to steal the key to Almstead's trunk off him and get the Strongbox back for free.

  6. A strange halfling seems to have included you in an ancient game - 800 XP and a Mysterious Gem.

    7. If you head to the shore just east of the mayor's residence, you should find a halfling wizard there. If you agree to play his ancient game, he'll start off with a riddle. The answer to this first one is 'Clock'. He then sends you in search of a colleague of his all the way over on the west side, past the camp of thieves. The answer to his riddle is 'The spring'. Finally, he sends you further along the path behind him to meet the last halfling. The answer to the final riddle is 'Fire'. I thought I'd have to have pretty high IN to get the dialogue chances for all 3 questions, but I managed it with IN 8. If you answer any of the questions wrong, some very strong creatures immediately surround you, and you're basically toast. Get them all right, and a Mysterious Gem is your reward. This Gem invokes a Level 50 halfling imp who will aid you in batttle.

  7. Retrieve Azrams Star from K'na Tha for Clarissa Shalmo in Blackroot - 4600 XP and Throwing Master.

    8. This is the quest to become a Throwing Master. Clarissa says she'll train you from Apprentice all the way through to Master if you fetch this item for her... but I was already a Throwing Expert when I got this quest, so I can't verify that. Anyway, she marks the location of K'na Tha on your map, but it's in the Glimmering Forest beyond the Stonewall Range, so you must find a pass through the mountains before you can journey there.
    Once you arrive at K'na Tha (1435 W, 616 S) head through the Passage in the trees. Then head NW through one of the doors, and take on the Plagueish Maiden who is guarding 3 flame lights. Note that since this is the quest to become Throwing Master, you'll need to make extensive use of a throwing weapon to complete it. You can't cross the canal to where the Plagueish Maiden is, but you can use your throwing weapon to put out one of the lights across the canal, namely the middle one (you'll find out with some experimentation that this is the only one of the 3 lights that moves you to a new area). In the next area, it's the right-hand light. In the next, it's the unlit one right where you arrive, followed by the left-hand one. In the next area, take the left-hand passage at the intersection, then put out the middle light. You wind up on a central platform surrounded by enemies on all sides. You have to kill all the creatures (the final one being a tough Snake Elemental), and then put out the light to the NW (might take 2 throws to extinguish it completely), followed by the fire on the statue to the NE. This causes the light to the NW to be lit again. When you hit it this time, you are finally transported to an altar that contains Azram's Star and 500 Gold. After pocketing the Star, put out the light there to exit back to the real world. You may want to keep Azram's Star rather than returning it to Clarissa Shalmo, as it's a powerful weapon - though it loses a bit of its power once you take it away from K'na Tha. If you want the XP and the Master training, you could always kill Clarissa afterwards, or pickpocket the Star off her.
    And now that you're a Throwing Master, there's another weapon even more powerful than Azram's Star that's worth procuring... if you go to the very top of your map, right between the 'O' and the 'U' in Grey Mountains (at 750 W, 556 S - and you must approach this location from the north as it's through a narrow cleft in some rocks), you'll find an Old Blind Master killing all his chickens with an Aerial Decapitator. He attacks you straight away, so you have no option but to kill him in order to get this weapon... but he's a very tough Level 49 fighter with lots of HP, so be careful. As far as I know, there's no quest that leads you to this Old Blind Master. It's also one of those locations that doesn't show up when you get close to it, so you are apparently meant to just stumble upon it with a bit of luck.

Liam's Workshop (1179 W, 1466 S)

Just to the SW of Blackroot. Enter the workshop, and look in the dresser next to Liam's bed. Read the journal you find there, and you'll get Quest 1 below.

Quests

  1. Destroy the portal described in Liam Cameron's journal - 3400 XP.

    2. The locked Chest at the foot of Liam's bed contains the Magickal Trap and Scroll of Disperse Magick that were mentioned in his journal. Take the path to the east from the workshop, which circles to the south. Along this path you'll find 3 very tough creatures, the last and toughest standing guard over poor Liam's body. I was able to defeat them all, just barely. Liam has an Axe and another Magickal Trap on his body. Further along the path, there are more really tough creatures near the portal that was described in Liam's Journal. Once you vanquish one wave of them, another immediately comes through the portal to attack. You really can't hope to take them on unless you are at least at Level 25, but if you can, it's great for the old XP because they just keep coming! Anyway, once you've had enough, just use either the Magickal Trap (if you're a technologist) or the Scroll of Disperse Magick to destroy the portal. Any creatures already spawned will immediately perish once the portal is closed. Return to Liam's mother to complete Blackroot Quest 2.

Torg's Altar (1215 W, 1139 S)

If you head pretty much on a beeline from Shrouded Hills to Tarant, you should encounter Torg's Altar about halfway there. Read the inscription on the large altar to find out what to offer it. However, don't bother to offer it anything just yet! The altars you encounter in your journeys are all part of a grand scheme, as will soon become evident...

Tarant (972 W, 1028 S)

You just cross the bridge to the NE here to enter the city of Tarant. The telegraph office where Joachim said you could collect a telegram from him is at 79 Kensington Broadway (the large street you are now standing on). It seems Joachim could not meet you here in Tarant either, and suggests the town of Stillwater as a meeting place...

If you stumbled upon the Thieves Underground while completing Shrouded Hills Quest 1, when you talk to the man standing in the alley in Lusgsten Road he'll mention a fellow named Thaddeus Mynor, who lives on the corner of Westrel South and Quilton Bend. It seems Mr. Mynor can put you in touch with this Thieves Underground. If you visit Mr. Mynor, who lives in the NE part of town, you'll be able to get Quest 14.

There are tons of shops in Tarant. I didn't bother to document many of them unless the owners were part of a quest. Feel free to peruse them and spend all your hard earned coin!

P. Schuyler & Sons is a bit difficult to find. If you head down the second street off Kensington Broadway (Devonshire Way), you'll see an alley to the right. P. Schuyler & Sons is at the end of that alley.

Magnus the dwarf, standing just outside P. Schuyler & Sons, shares a common interest in that he also has a piece of jewelry made by them. He will join your party if you so wish.

Inside P. Schuyler & Sons, talk to James Kingsford. At first, he won't entertain you. However, with a little Persuasion I was able to get a key off him for the back room. If you press him too far and try to make him tell everything, he succumbs to a mysterious poison attack. However, you can still get the key and then just let him run off. You now have access to a basement via a trap door in the back room. The Zombies down in the basement aren't too tough if you can manage to peel them off one at a time, but if you let them gang up on you, you're probably goners. There are 2 levels worth of them... and then you finally get to meet up with the Schuyler family of wizards! You can talk your way through the whole encounter and make a pact not to let the world in on their terrible little secret. In any event, you find out that the owner of the ring you are carrying is named Gilbert Bates, and you have just completed Crash Site Quest 1, and Shrouded Hills Quest 4. You have also landed Quest 3 below.
I chose to kill all the Schuylers afterwards. You don't lose any Alignment points, and there's a pretty good cache of stuff in their locked Mystic Chest. Winston Schuyler has the key to the filing cabinets on him. One of the cabinets contains the purchase order from Gilbert Bates' father that comissioned the ring.

There is a Panarii temple here on the NW part of Lion's Head Circle (No. 7). You can talk to the priest there to gain a bit more knowledge of your situation. He suggests the Panarii temple in Caladon for further reading.

Vermillion Station is located on Vermillion Road, west side of town. You can reserve seats for either Ashbury or Blackroot at a cost of 75 Gold per person.

At 32 Mulligan Bone Alley, in the NE part of town, there's a load of stuff in a warehouse (most notably some nice helmets) once you get through the locked door. The catch is, it's guarded by 4 Mechanized Arachnids, all Level 20! They damage all weapons too. Good luck.

The Zoological Society is located in University Court, in the NW part of Tarant. You can view the skull of a great dragon there, and viewing the plaque that describes the skull puts the location of his remains on your World Map. See section on Bellerogrim's Lair below. Also, there's an Ancient Iron Chest on exhibit that was unearthed in Bellerogim's lair. Seemingly, no one has ever been able to open it. You COULD expend a Fate Point to open the Chest, but you'd be getting ahead of yourself if you did that. A better solution will present itself in due time...

All the way at the back of University Court there's a building housing a few boffins who will expound their theories to you. Slightly more useful is a bookseller there who will sell you Technical Manuals that increase your skill in the various technological disciplines. However, the person in this building you should really seek out is Aldous T. Buxington III. He gives you a book entitled "The Pagan Gods of Arcanum". This book, coupled with information provided by the chart on his wall sets you off on a very interesting quest that's also a great stats builder! See The 12 Altars of the Pagan Gods section towards the end of this guide for details on solving this intricate puzzle.

Xe'rad's Magick Armoury, located at 23 Desaille Terrace in the NW of town, is a good source of magickal weapons and armour.

The Boil is the seediest part of town. It's the area to the south of the Garillion Bridge, where you first entered Tarant. If you can manage to take out the human and the two orc bandits guarding the entrance to the west side of the Boil, you're in. Watch out, they have fatigue-draining weapons! Once past these bandits, you'll notice a bar right there with no name on its sign. If you talk to the bartender, you can get Quest 19. Then, you have a choice of working for one of the two gangs that control the area. Once you choose a side, you won't be able to take any jobs from the other side. So... if you want to work for Pollock, talk to the halfling bandit standing in the SW part of the bar. He'll send you over to Miranda Tears, who will give you Quest 25 for starters. If instead you want to work for Darian Maug, then talk to one of the two half-orcs standing at the table to the east. He'll send you over to talk to the dwarf Muggs and you'll get Quest 27.

At the docks, right across from Madam Lil's, there's a Junk Dealer who's an Expert in Repair (and he can train you as an Expert in Repair too). He can fix even the most heavily damaged things back to within only a point or two of their original condition, and he's very cheap too.

Just south of Thaddeus Mynor's place at the end of Quilton Bend there's a small unoccupied building. Around the back of this building, through an opening in the wall, is another gypsy woman who can identify items for you.

Poone at Poone's Flophouse on 13 Low Dervish Row will train you as an Expert in Pick Pockets.

If you pay a visit to the Tarantian Water and Power Plant on Lion's Head Circle and speak to the dwarf Charles Dunston, you'll find out that he's sealed off part of the sewers due to the dangerous beasts that are inhabiting them. He won't seem to let you through the locked door to the sewers no matter how good your Persuasion skills are. However, as usual, there IS another way... in the far SE part of town past the docks, there's an entrance to the locked part of the sewers in a small hut at the end of a narrow walkway that leads to the middle of the river. The going is easy down there at first, but then you may run into some really tough Elemental creatures. Anyway, from this part of the sewers you can get to places topside that are otherwise very difficult to get to, like back entrances to thieve's hideouts in the Boil :-)

Quests

  1. Mrs. Cassandra Pettibone wants you to steal the elven funerary stone from the newly unearthed elven catacombs - 1000 XP and 300 Gold.

    2. You'll find Mrs. Pettibone at the top of Lungsten Rd. She asks you to meet her discretely at her house, which is at the end of this street. If you accept this quest, she'll mark the location of the catacombs on your map. Even though she offers 250 Gold, you can get 300 with the help of some Persuasion skill. The Elven Ruins (711 W, 1023 S) are on a straight line east from Tarant. Along the way you'll encounter a Forbidden Pit (833 W, 1034 S), with 3 widower spiders in it. Defeating them was quite easy, and I found 350 Gold in a Junk Pile there. Once you arrive at the Elven Ruins, you'll find a few Dark Elves standing over the body of one Professor James. They don't want anyone to desecrate their catacombs. You can attempt to spoof them that you're a professor of archaelogy who's just here out of scientific curiosity... but that doesn't seem to fool them. Ultimately, whether on the surface or once inside the catacombs, you'll have to kill them. The catacombs contain some Zombies and Ghouls that aren't too tough to get past. In the SE, there's a locked barrel containing a Magickal Medallion. To the west is the room containing the Funerary Stone. It's a big, heavy sucker. Return it to Mrs. Pettibone to claim your reward.

  2. Matthew Jameson wants you to retrieve his wedding ring from the sewers - 1200 XP and 150 Gold.

    3. Matthew is standing on the corner of Kensington Broadway and Devonshire Way. Ahh, nothing like a good excuse to go down into the sewers, what hey? The sewer grate allowing you entry is right there beside Jameson. Not much down here except Sewer Rats and the slightly more difficult Prodigious Vermin. Jameson's wedding ring is in a room just to the NW of where you entered the sewers, but don't leave yet. In a dry room in the NE part of the sewers, there are a human and half-orc thief guarding two Barrels and a Chest. These contain a goodly amount of Gold, some other useful items, and an Unidentified Staff. In the northern part of the sewers, there are some locked Metal Shutters to a room containing what looks like a steam engine. If you can't lockpick the Shutters, then there is another way to get in (you can see a ladder). Go back topside and head west down Devonshire Way, then left around the corner to 19 Pickwick Alley which is the Willoughsby residence. There's a trapdoor in the back room. Head down and take out the 3 Mechanized Arachnids. The locked Chest contains the schematics for a Pyrotechnic Axe - a marvellous weapon! The servant Lorhan, standing by the billiard table upstairs, is none the wiser to your thievery.

  3. Get information about the strange ring from Gilbert Bates - 1200 XP and Quest 6.

    4. You get this quest by gaining entrance to the basement of P. Schuyler & Sons, and then talking to the Schuyler brothers. As nearly everyone on the street will tell you, Gilbert Bates' estate is located at the very end of Kensington Broadway. He is purported to be the inventor of the steam engine. You get 1400 XP for talking your way past the guard. Alternatively, you can take Quest 5 or 7 in order to gain entrance, and you can also enter via a mausoleum in the cemetary located in the SW of Tarant. The way through to the basement of Bates' house from the cemetary is heavily trapped, and contains a few locked doors. Bates is upstairs in the estate house. He'll tell you a long tale concerning the origins of both the ring and the 'gnome' who gave it to you. Afterwards, he'll give you Quest 6, and offer to buy the ring back for 200 Gold. Note: it's a good idea to accept his offer :-)

  4. Tom Grak, a rather jovial half orc, has asked me to find Sir Matt de Cesare for him - 1700 XP and Quest 9.

    5. Tom is standing outside a subterranean kiosk towards the end of Kensington Broadway. He wants you to find this de Cesare character for him, and says he's most likely hanging off the end of a bottle somewhere. Indeed, M. de Cesare is hanging out at the bar of the Wellington Gentlemen's Club, located on Vermillion Road in the SW part of the city. He pretends to be drunk, but this is just a ruse, and he asks you to follow him outside, where you can obtain Quest 9. If you're a female, then you technically can't get into the Gentlemen's Club; however, you can circumvent this problem by finding Mr. Wellington himself. He lives at 42 Vermillion Road, just north of the station (the house is set back off the road a bit). In exchange for granting you access to his club, he's looking for 200 Gold plus he wants to bed you. If you then threaten to rip his throat out, he relents and hands you a signed invitation to his club!

  5. Devise a solution to Bates' saboteur difficulties at his factory to gain an audience with him - 1200 XP and audience with Bates.

    6. If you can't blag your way by the guard to gain entrance to Bates' estate (see Quest 3), then you can at least get this quest. Ten Hands Alley is just to the east of the estate entrance. The factory is at the end of the alley. Now that you have the key, just waltz into the factory, and wait till after midnight in the large back room. Take care of the 3 Bandits that appear, and report back to the guard at Bates' estate. An easy in.

  6. Search the mines of the Black Mountain Clan for clues to their whereabouts, and report back to Bates - 2500 XP, 300 Gold, and Quest 18.

    7. The Black Mountain Mines (1307 W, 754 S) are to the NW of Tarant. Bates put them on your map. Just a few Ailing Wolves on your way in, then take the door to the NW down to the next level. Lots of Dwarven Chests and a few Kites and Kite Shamen on the way to meet your first... Ore Golem. Man are these guys tough! They're Level 25, and every time you strike them with your weapon it does about 3 points of damage - to the weapon :-( Anyway, in the far SE of this level is a room guarded by a Seething Mass. Another great weapon wrecker. There are 3 Barrels in this room containing some useful Dwarven artifacts: Machined Gauntlets, an Unidentified Hammer, and the schematic for a Pyrotechnic Bow. In the NE part of the level is a large room containing some dead bandits. When I tried to loot one, another Seething Mass appeared. There's an exit here back up to the first level, where there's a Patriarch Wolf surrounded by some Ailing Wolves. Not too difficult. Note that there are 3 passages behind you, and that you just came through the left-most one. Up ahead there are 3 Brute Fangs guarding another passage. You can avoid them by taking the right-most passage behind you, which comes out at roughly the same place as the passage they are guarding. If you decide to take them on, try to lure one or two of them out. Taking on all 3 Brute Fangs at once is extremely difficult. Either passage leads to a level with a lot of rooms, guarded only by Kites and a few Granite Rats. There's plenty of booty in the chests here, but the rooms contain many armour-wrecking traps, so beware!
    The middle passage leads to a very large hall occupied by a truckload of Kites. The side passages here are guarded by Were Rats. In a passage off to the east is a Chest containing a Tesla Coil and a Large Capacitor, in case you're in need of those bits. To the back of the large hall are 3 chairs, the centre one apparently a throne. Looks like that's where the dwarven rulers sat. The doors behind the throne lead to a very, very long twisty passage that eventually winds up... in a small room containing a lone dwarf and some carvings on a central pillar. Read the pillar to learn the fate of the Black Mountain Clan. You can question the dwarf, but he's already written it all on the pillar. You can now report back to Bates.

  7. Cedric Appleby will grant you access into Bates' house if you destroy Bates' new steam engine prototype - 800 XP, 300 Gold, and Quest 8.

    8. Cedric's house is located at 29 Low Dervish Row, around the corner from Madam Lil's. He definitely has it in for Bates, having lived in the shadow of the famous inventor for many years. He gives you some Dynamite in order that you may sabotage Bates' steam engine. The factory is located at the end of Ten Hands Alley, just north of here. There are two locked doors around the side of the factory, the furthest being the easiest to lockpick. The prototype steam engine is in a room to the NW of the factory. Just lob a stick of Dynamite at it, and get out! Once you have destroyed the engine, the guards will attack you on sight, so you must time your escape carefully, because one of the guards here is at Level 32. I had Magnus with me, but he appears to have left my party after this deed. Dwarves definitely don't like to see good technology being destroyed (which sent my Alignment pretty far west)!

  8. Steal any incriminating evidence from Bates to help Appleby expose him - 800 XP and 500 Gold.

    9. You need to complete Quest 7 in order to get this quest. Appleby gives you some servant clothes to help you gain access to Bates' estate. These indeed get you right by the guard with no trouble, but you won't be able to take any followers with you. Once inside, just go upstairs in the house and talk to Bates as per Quest 3. Then comes the extremely difficult bit. The evidence is in the locked chest in Bates' bedroom, but there was no way I could find to get in there without alerting the guards, as the doors are always kept locked. Even when Bates wasn't in his bedroom and the guards' backs were turned, I couldn't pick the lock on the hall door without alerting them (but I had only minimal Prowling skill. Maybe more would do the trick). In the end, I had to complete this quest much later on in the game when I was almost as strong as the guards. Killed 4 of the poor buggers, and then picked the lock on the Chest containing Bates' Journal. After you do this though, Bates won't talk to you anymore, so you'd better make sure you complete Quest 6 before taking this route! Even though on the surface Appleby won't talk to you because you've sided with Bates up till now, once you saunter up to him with Bates' Journal he's easy pickings for 500 Gold. The entire escapade will cost you 10 Alignment points, so it's really only for those taking the 'dark' path through the game.

  9. Sir M. de Cesare wants you to find the skulls of the Ren'ar siamese twins and bring them to him - 3100 XP and Quest 23.

    10. When Matt de Cesare talks to you outside the Gentlemen's Club, he tells you that he suspects the skulls are in a warehouse somewhere in Tarant. Sure enough, the skulls are in a locked warehouse located at 17 Quilton Bend (just around the corner from Thaddeus Mynor's place). If you can't pick the lock on the door, you can always dynamite it. This technique also has the pleasant side affect of killing the nasty Were Rat lurking just inside the door. Then you only have to contend with the remaining Level 13 half-ogre guard. The skulls are inside a pile of locked barrels. When you bring them back to de Cesare, you get Quest 23.

  10. Mrs. Evelyn Garringsburg wants you to find her stolen painting, the famed "Kerghan and Persephone" by Pizarro - 1200 XP and 300 Gold.

    11. A Tarant newspaper you find on the floor at the Wellington Gentlemen's Club, Vermillion Road starts you off on this quest. Visit Mrs. Garringsburg at 37 Devonshire Way (just east of the Gentlemen's Club) and learn of the stolen Painting she wants you to recover. This quest is related to Quest 11, in that if you read the note which you are supposed to deliver, it mentions only the address: 57 Mulligan Bone Alley, located on the NE side of town. There is a half-ogre guard there. Defeat him to get the key to the back room where the stolen Painting is kept.

  11. A strange man in the Wellington wants you to deliver a note to 36 Low Dervish Row - 1000 XP and 100 Gold.

    12. Seek out the dark elf noble in the NW corner of the Wellington Gentlemen's Club, Vermillion Road. He'll ask you to deliver a note to the men in 36 Low Dervish Row, which is in the SE part of town. He says he's prepared to pay 100 Gold for the delivery, and that under no circumstances are you to read the note. If you look at the note (as if you wouldn't!), the men there will attack you when you arrive. You miss out on some Gold, but you get XP as recompense... and a hint for solving Quest 10.

  12. Delores Beston wants you to steal Madame Toussaude's crystal ball - 1200 XP and CH -2.

    13. Delores is a seer, whose place is located at 42 Polton Cross, in the middle west part of town. Her crystal ball has been damaged, and she's offering you 200 Gold to procure Madame Toussaude's for her. Madame's place is located next to Madam Lil's bordello, in the SE part of town. Kill her and take the crystal ball off her body to complete this quest (she curses you upon her death and you lose 2 Charisma points). Alternatively, you can obtain Quest 13 simply by telling Madame Toussaude why you are here (but she knows that already)!

  13. Madame Toussaude wants you to deliver her crystal ball to Delores Beston - 1200 XP and CH + 1 OR solution to Quest 10.

    14. When you confront Madame Toussaude regarding Delores Beston, she quite willingly gives up her crystal ball, and implores you to give it to Delores. Um... prescience coming into play here. Delivering the crystal ball to Delores results in her death! Recover the crystal ball from the body of Delores, and return to Madame Toussaude. She'll raise your Charisma as a reward (or, if you haven't completed Quest 10 yet, she'll divine that the painting is at 57 Mulligan Bone Alley. This isn't very useful as there are other ways to find out where the painting is, so you should complete Quest 10 before taking this quest). I returned the crystal ball to its stand as a gesture. Perhaps you could sell it instead?

  14. Thaddeus Mynor wants you to retrieve the map of the Tarantian sewers - 1200 XP and 300 Gold.

    15. Thaddeus Mynor's house is located in the far NE of Tarant, at the junction of Westrel South and Quilton Bend. If you complete this quest for him, you can become a member of the Thieves Underground, with all the benefits it confers :-) The Dept. of Water, Hall of Records is on East End Avenue, just past Bates' estate. Of course, the clerk there won't just hand over the plans, so I waited in his office until midnight, and stole the plans from the safe in his back room while he was sleeping. The guards didn't even bother me on the way out. You can also get another quest when you complete this one, which is a variation on Quest 8. Appleby gives you a key to the secret entrance to Bates' house, located in a mausoleum in the cemetary, SW part of Tarant. You won't be able to get this quest if you've already had your audience with Bates, because Appleby will have nothing to do with you then.
    Anyway, once you're a member of the Thieves Underground, you get an additional set of quests in Tarant, and later, in another place. The Tarant Thieves Underground Quests are documented in a special section below, underneath the normal quests.

  15. Mr. Plough wants you to rid his warehouses, near the docks in Tarant, of rats - 3100 XP plus technological artefacts.

    16. Mr. Plough the gnome is standing behind a pair of doors in the SE part of Tarant. He won't be able to pay you anything, but you get to keep what you find in the warehouses as a reward. The small warehouse back through the doors contains a few sewer rats, and the chest there contains the key to the large warehouse just NE of there. Inside are some more Sewer Rats and a few Prodigious Vermin. There are quite a few handy technological items in the various crates and chests, most notably: a Bear Trap, and some Dwarven Ore (which makes a Feather-Weight Axe when combined with an Oak Axe Handle).

  16. Madam Lil would like you to retrieve Cassie's necklace from Mr. Mooreland's house on 46 Devonshire Way - 2100 XP and 100 Gold OR free entertainment.

    17. Madam Lil's bordello is located in the east part of town. You can purchase some... delightment from one of her girls for 100 Gold. If you're looking for a bargain, there's always Bessie the sheep for the going rate of 25 Gold. If, on the other hand, you're just looking for another quest, then you can get this one by telling Madam Lil that you're interested in something else. When you show up at the Mooreland's residence, you'll find Laura the maid there. You can cajole her out of the necklace for 50 Gold (25 Gold if you're stingy), or you can get it for free if you talk her into joining up with Madam Lil. Return to Madam Lil for your... reward. You might be inclined to keep the necklace instead as it has a Magic Resistance of 40%; however, this turns out to be a mixed blessing - it makes Virgil's attempts to heal you fail about half the time! I eventually wound up returning the Necklace to Madam Lil, in which case you get another job from her. See Quest 22.
    By the way, Madam Lil will train you as an Expert in Persuasion for 500 Gold. She then refers you to Willoughsby for training as a Master of Persuasion. Willoughsby hangs out in an office at the Water Dept. & Hall of Records building, but he doesn't appear there till the latter stages of the game.

  17. Mr. Wright, Editor of the Tarantian, would like you to deliver a payment note to Mrs. Halster - 1200 XP and 75 Gold.

    18. Mr. Wright, at the Tarantian Editorial Office, located on the west side of Polton Cross in the centre of Tarant, will give you this quest if you ask him if there are any jobs going. Mrs. Halster lives just up Vermillion, across from the Wellington.
    Wright will also offer to pay you 500 Gold in exchange for your story about the zeppelin crash... but I'm not sure you want to generate that level of publicity about the affair. If you sell your story to Wright, then every pub patron across the land will know about you. Most of them will treat you kindly, but some of them are Molochean Hand and will attack you as soon as you talk to them in a pub. Usually, they aren't too difficult to put down, so this is your call.

  18. Look for the Black Mountain Clan on the Isle of Despair - 1000 XP and some important information.

    19. You get this quest having completed Quest 6. Bates tells you to seek out a man named Teach on the docks of Ashbury. He also offers you the services of his ogre guard Chukka... who wouldn't join my party. Said he hated me. Sniff.

  19. Caleb Malloy wants you to pick up his shipment of whiskey - 3100 XP and 500 Gold.

    20. Caleb Malloy's bar is the one with no sign on it just as you enter the west side of The Boil. Caleb wants you to meet an associate of his on the Garillion Bridge concerning a shipment of whiskey. Meet the dwarf named Biggs at the middle of the bridge and he gives you the Crate of Whiskey. The 2 orc bandits standing nearby immediately attack... but they should be no problem at all if you managed to get into The Boil in the first place, right?

  20. Discover the fate of Wilhemina, girlfriend of Jared the guard - 1700 XP.

    21. Unbeknownst to you, when you took the Note to Jared off Wilhemina's body at the Crash Site, you already had the means to complete this quest. Just talk to Jared, the captain of the guard, outside Vermillion Station. After you show him the Note, you get Quest 21 as well.

  21. Jared the guard wants you to go to the stonecutter to commission a tombstone for his beloved Wilhemina - 1000 XP.

    22. The stonecutter's place is all the way at the other end of East End Avenue, at number 12. Just go there and tell him Jared sent you. Easy one.

  22. Mr. Langley owes 400 coin to Madam Lil. Collect it and return it to her - 2500 XP and 200 Gold OR a favour.

    23. Langley is the doorman at the Bridesdale Inn on Vermillion Road. He'll get you the money, but he needs 5 days. Sure enough, when you return after 5 days or more, he hands you the money he owes Madam Lil.

  23. You need to find Arthur Tyron and bring him the siamese twin skulls as proof of a larger conspiracy - 3100 XP.

    24. Matt de Cesare tells you that Tyron was last seen in Blackroot. However, when you go to Blackroot and search an empty house to the SW of town, all you find there is a note from Tyron stating that "The crow is in danger". When you return to de Cesare with this news, he doesn't really give you any further information on where Tyron may be located. He just tells you to keep looking for him...

  24. Madam Lil would like you to locate a Medallion of Beauty for her - 2500 XP plus 600 Gold OR 2 favours at once.

    25. Well... the lone woman in the King's Inn & Pub at Dernholm is wearing one of these. Good luck getting it off her without having to waste a Fate Point though! Not worth it just to complete this quest, me'thinks.

  25. Miranda Tears wants you to take a crate of ale from the Clan Maug's warehouse - 3100 XP.

    26. The warehouse is west of the bar. There's one guard standing outside the door, the other patrolling around the building. The one standing at the door has the key to the door on him. Just grab the crate of ale from inside and report back to Miranda. She sends you to Pollock himself to get Quest 26.

  26. Pollock wants you to kill Darian Maug - 4600 XP and 1500 Gold.

    27. You should be able to cross over to the east side of the Boil now, and Pollock's mugs shouldn't bother you. If they do attack, then it may mean you're not tough enough for this quest yet (it's their polite way of letting you know). Anyway, tell the guard at the the door that Miranda Tears sent you, and you're in to see Pollock. He wants you to kill his opposition, Darian Maug. If you're a magick user, he'll give you 3 scrolls to help you out: Shrink, Unlocking Cantrip, and Nightmare. If you're a technologist, he'll give you: a Hand Cannon(!), Energizer, and an Explosive Grenade.
    Back on the other side of The Boil, there's a large building at the north end guarded by a gnome named Milo and an Orc Berserker. Inside are another 10 Orc Berserkers (Level 30) and a Brute Fang that you have to get through on your way to meet Darian Maug in the back room. Return to Pollock when the deed is done. That's the last of the Pollock gang quests.

  27. Muggs would like for you to collect 200 Gold from a Mr. Larrs in the Boil. If Larrs is unable to pay, you are to kill him - 3100 XP and 25 Gold.

    28. OK, so you've decided to work for the Maug Clan. This is a pretty easy one, especially if you have a lot of dough. Larrs lives right across from the bar. He only has 25 Gold to his name, so I took that off him and offered to pay the rest myself. You could kill him instead, and then you'll get away without having to pay anthing (and Muggs gives you 25 Gold). Muggs sends you to see Darian Maug for Quest 28.

  28. Milo wants you to kill Treat, a Pollock gang member, for messing with his girl - 4600 XP plus 550 Gold and audience with Darian Maug.

    29. Darian Maug is holed up in a building called the Bentley, all the way to the north here. Unfortunately, the entrance to this building is controlled by a poxy gnome named Milo. He won't let you in to see Maug unless you complete this quest for him. Sigh. Treat lives in a shack on the other side of the Boil. You'll have to get past those 3 thugs guarding the Pollock entrance to the Boil in order to reach Treat's shack, which is just to the south there. When Treat is threatened he shape-shifts into an Elemental Snake, so he can be a bit tough to kill. When you return to Milo, if you winge about having to kill a shape-shifter he'll toss in an extra 50 Gold for your trouble. Now go in to see Darian Maug who will give you Quest 29.

  29. Darian Maug has contracted you to kill Pollock - 4600 XP and 1500 Gold.

    30. Darian tells you that no one has spotted Pollock outside for a long time, so he must have a secret way into his place. Simple :-) Right outside Darian's office is an entrance to the sewers. You have to fight your way through (though none of the creatures are anywheres near as tough as the guy you've been sent to kill!) quite far to the NE, in fact right to the other sewer entrance in the middle of the river, before you can turn around and head back SW to the ladder under Pollock's place. Pollock is very tough, and you'll have to fight at least one of his henchmen as well. Once you've killed Pollock though, you can run back down into the sewers and no one will follow you. You can either make your way back to Darian via the sewers, or head topside via the entrance in the middle of the river.

  30. Thaddeus Mynor wants you to steal the golden idol of the barbarians of Kree - 10900 XP and 1000 Gold.

    31. Once you're a member of the Thieves Underground and you subsequently go back to Thaddeus looking for more work, he'll give you this quest. The ruins of Kree (635 W, 1204 S) are on the Morbihan Plains, SE of the Elven Ruins right next to a lone mountain. The place is guarded by a horde of human bandits decked out in weird headgear. Beware that they are Level 30, and you might have to take on 4 or 5 at a time! Just keep working your way north and you'll eventually come to 4 bandits standing around a fire. There's an Arcane Chest here with 1000+ Gold in it. The room just north of there contains an altar from which you can remove the Golden Idol of Kree. Just to the west of this altar, through a hole in the wall, is an altar to the lesser god Shakar of the Moon circle, and it takes a Bone Dagger as an offering.
    When you're finished here, take the Idol back to Thaddeus to claim your reward.

  31. Obtain a copy of "Horror Among the Dark Elves" by Renford A. Terwilliger - 6400 XP.

    32. You get this quest by solving Qintarra Quest 8, whereby you found the obituary of Terwilliger. Well, a good spot to look for books is the Tarantian Library, and it's right around the corner from the Hall of Records, behind the Zoological Society. Here's your excuse to finally fork over the 1500 Gold to become a lifetime member of the Library. The librarian will then try to find a copy of "Horror Among the Dark Elves" for you, but none are available. However, she does manage to find "The Curse of T'sen-Ang", which turns out to be almost as useful. It's written by Kendrick Wales (remember, the secretive author who lives in Ashbury!), and it alleges that the single known remaining copy of "Horror..." is in the possession of one Victor Misk, who lives in Caladon. For the moment you can't complete this quest, but you now have Quest 32 to tackle instead.

  32. Find Mr. Victor Misk - 4300 XP.

    33. Well, you've been hearing snippets about Caladon through the entire game. Finally, you have an excuse to go there! Now when you approach the captain of any ship in Tarant, Ashbury, or Blackroot you'll get the option to travel to Caladon (see section on Caladon below).

  33. You need to Retrieve the Blade of Xerxes to enable you to slay the demon L'anamelach - 8500 XP.

    34. Talk to Professor Eakins in the building at the back of University Court. He relates the tale of how an elf came to be possessed by this demon for the last 500 years. You need to get hold of the Blade of Xerxes in order to put this demon down forever. Eakins marks the location of The Pit of Fires (1366 W, 936 S) on your map, where the Blade is kept. It's to the west of Tarant, at the Stonewall Range. There were some thieves camped out at the cave entrance when I got there. If you're at least an Expert in Persuasion, you should be able to blag them into retrieving the Blade for you! Lesser mortals will have to make do with entering the cave themselves and killing everything in sight... anyway, once inside you've got your work cut out for you. There are 2 pits of lava in the Cave. The one containing the Blade of Xerxes is all the way to the NE. You can go through 2 rooms full of Fire Elementals to get there if you start from the west side of the cave, or just one room if you go straight to the back of the cave (in this room were some dead thieves, but I don't think they were the same ones as at the cave entrance). The pit of lava that contains the Blade is guarded by 3 Seething Masses. In short, this particular campaign is a great weapon and armour destroyer :-(
    Now you can return to Caladon to complete Quest 4 there.

  34. Capt. Wheeler of the Tarantian Guard wants you to convince Donn Throgg to surrender to end the orc uprising - 10900 XP.

    35. Sometime later in the game, you'll notice the paperboys hawking the headline: ANARCHIST LABORERS TAKE OVER FACTORY! After that, on the Ten Hands Alley side of East End Avenue, you'll come upon a gnome noble and a group of guards gathered outside the factory there. Speak to the gnome noble (Mr. Babcock), and you'll learn that the orcs inside the factory are trying to unionise. He says that the last time something like this happened, Captain Wheeler had his men kill everyone to end the protest. Doesn't sound good. Go talk to Wheeler then, and you can get this quest (or Quest 35 instead, if violence is your bag). He gives you the key to the factory. You can convince Donn Throgg that he can make a fool out of Capt. Wheeler by coming peacefully back outside and confronting him... but it all proves to have been just a ruse by Wheeler to lure him outside. Wheeler's men proceed to gun down Throgg and all the other half-orcs.
    Alternatively, you can offer the join the cause of the half-orcs when you talk to Throgg... but this course of action winds up pitting you against all of Tarant. Hope you like big battles!

  35. Capt. Wheeler of the Tarantian Guard wants you to kill Donn Throgg to end the orc uprising - 10900 XP.

    36. You can offer to kill Donn Throgg for Captain Wheeler. The easiest way to do this is to go in the back door, else Throgg is likely to escape while you're fighting the other half-orcs. Of course, this line of action sets you back a few Alignment points.

  36. Mr. Babcock wants you to convince Donn Throgg to slip out of the factory unseen, thereby ending the orc uprising - 10900 XP and a Fate Point.

    37. The cleanest way, but you must be at least an Expert in Persuasion to get the necessary dialogue options. Babcock gives you the key to the factory, and you can then convince Throgg to slip out at night.

  37. Sebastian wants you to kill Pollock (or Maug). In return, he'll help you in your own quest - 6400 XP and Sebastian will join you.

    38. After you're capable of travelling to Caladon, the next time you pass by Willoughsby's residence (corner of Lungsten Road and Pickwick Alley), you'll find himself and a mage named Perriman Smythe standing outside the door. Willoughsby says he's too busy to talk with you at the moment, but offers to meet you at his office in an hour. His office is on East end Avenue in the same building as the Dept. of Water and Hall of Records (meanwhile, Smythe will join your party. He knows spells from the Fire, Necromantic White, and Phantasm colleges).
    Anyway, when you later meet Willoughsby and the conversation comes round to discussing problems in Tarant, he'll mention that he's taking some 'personal' action to clean up The Boil. He suggests that you can meet a man named Sebastian there in Caleb Malloy's bar if you're interested in helping out. I think you can only get this quest if you bumped off either Maug or Pollock in one of the quests for the rival gang. Sebastian (the technologist now standing near the entrance in Malloy's bar) asks you to kill the remaining gang leader so that he can then seize control of The Boil. It's pretty easy to kill either Pollock or Maug now, because as far as they're concerned, you're on their side! You can always sneak back out through the sewers afterwards if you feel you can't take on the remainder of either gang. Sebastian offers to join your party as a reward. He's skilled in Firearms, Prowling, and Pick Locks. Not too strong though, so you might want to take that Charged Axe off him and put it to good use if you can :-)

  38. Edward Willoughsby wants you to convince King Farad's advisors that Caladon should join the Unified Kingdom - 8500 XP and 10000+ Gold plus Master of Persuasion.

    39. Also during the conversation with Willoughsby (see Quest 37), he'll mention the Unified Kingdom, and how they are always trying to get new cities like Caladon to join. This is the quest for becoming a Master of Persuasion, so you can only get it if you are already an Expert with 5 ranks of skill... Willoughsby hands you a dossier with 10 important negotiating points in it, and tells you that your pay for this job depends on how well you handle the negotiations concerning these points. You must first travel to the castle in Caladon, and speak to Renard just outside the entrance. Then you can speak to the council members inside by approaching the podium in the room at the end of the hall (as Renard warned you, don't bother to talk to any of the lobbyists in the hall there on your way to the podium).
    As you can tell from the dialogue choices you are presented with, the options at the top of each section favour Tarant, and the ones at the bottom Caladon. You should try a run through selecting the first option in each instance. If the council rejects your proposal at the end, start over again and select the second option in one or two instances. You should wind up with at least 10000 Gold and Master of Persuasion status when you meet up with Willoughsby outside the castle, after the council finally accepts your proposal.

  39. Heinrich Jenks wants you to assassinate King Farad of Caladon - 10900 XP and 20,000 Gold plus a Fate Point.

    40. As you're leaving Willoughsby's office, a man named Jenks accosts you in the hall. If you go along with him, you'll get this quest to assassinate Farad. Jenks says it will be easier if you can get the negotiator's job mentioned in Quest 38, because you'll then get access to parts of the castle that would otherwise be off limits. He gives you the name of a person to contact in the castle's kitchen (Vernon), and also one on the Caladon docks in case you can't get into the kitchen (Bullors). There's a paragraph in the Caladon section of this Guide that tells you how to accomplish this dirty deed. Beware that it makes everyone in Caladon hostile towards you, so you won't be accomplishing much else there if you take this on.
    If you go back into Willoughsby's office after speaking with Jenks and tell him there's a plot to assassinate Farad, you only succeed in getting Jenks killed and that botches this quest. Of course, completing this quest botches Quest 38.

  40. Madam Lil would like you to deliver a gift to Mrs. Halster at 48 Devonshire Way. You must tell her it is from her husband - 2200 XP.

    41. I believe you can only get this quest from Madam Lil if you are playing a male character. Piece of cake anyway.

Tarant Thieves Underground Quests

You can only get access to these quests by joining the Thieves Underground as per Quest 14 above. You can get instructions on what to steal next from the halfling city dweller in the purple dress who hangs out in Vermillion Station. You fence the stolen gear at Mr. Black's place, 11 Low Dervish Row, around the corner from Madam Lil's.

  1. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve a vial of venom from the Lethe Wyvern from the Zoological Society - 1000 XP and 200 Gold.

    2. The Vial is in the locked Wood Chest in Dr. Fenwick's office.

  2. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the potion of dark power from Mr. Fitzgerald's home at 40 Polton Cross - 1700 XP and 500 Gold.

    3. The Potion of Dark Power is in a locked Wood Chest in the back room of Fitzgerald's place.

  3. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the Ring of Virility that Mr. Franklin keeps on his person - 1700 XP and 200 Gold.

    4. Franklin lives at the corner of Grimson Way and Vermillion, with his half-ogre bodyguard. He was quite easy to pickpocket. I only had just over 2 ranks of this skill, and managed to pull it off on the second attempt. You might well consider keeping this piece of jewelry instead of fencing it, seeing as it adds a hefty +2 to CN.

  4. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve Cassie's jewelry from the back room of Madam Lil's - 1500 XP and 400 Gold.

    5. Cassie's Jewelry is in a locked Wood Chest in the room all the way to the NE in Madam Lil's. It's guarded by a maid who never goes to sleep, so you'll most likely have to kill her, but nobody seems to care...

  5. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve an experimental engine called the Heron Device - 1700 XP and 500 Gold.

    6. At 46 Mulligan Bone Alley, there's a small warehouse patrolled by a guard. I took him out, and he has the key on him (you could also pickpocket him for it). In the room all the way at the back, there are some locked crates containing the Heron Device.

  6. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the rare Derian Ka sword from Mr. Applesby's home - 1500 XP and 500 Gold.

    7. Piece of cake. Remember, Applesby lives at No. 29 on the same road as Mr. Black. A locked safe through an unlocked door leads you to the Sword.

  7. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the flawless dwarven rubies rumored to be aboard a ship anchored in Tarant - 1200 XP and 500 Gold.

    8. The locked Barrel on the docks in front of one of the ships contains the rubies.

  8. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the Essence of Will-o-the-Wisp from Parnell's - 1000 XP and 200 Gold.

    9. J.T. Parnell's is at the north end of Kensington Broadway. The Essence is in an unlocked Chest in the back room, but the door to it is locked. Best not to kill either of the inhabitants while obtaining this, believe me ;-)

  9. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the lucky medallion rumored to be held by one of Poone's vagrants - 1000 XP and 150 Gold.

    10. The vagrant of interest is wandering continuously around Madam Lil's, occasionally popping into Poone's Flophousse for a second or two. You'll have to kill the poor bugger to get the Lucky Medallion, because he's moving too fast for Pick Pockets to even remotely have a chance of working.

  10. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the enchanted looking glass from Mrs. Pettibone's home on Lungsten Road - 1000 XP and 100 Gold.

    11. Oddly enough, this is one of the worst paid Thieves Undergound quests, yet you might have to kill more poor souls to complete it than for any of the others. Quite a few guards, and also Willoughsby's half-ogre bodyguard Lorhan, will jump in through Mrs. Pettibone's window should you try to open her locked Wood Chest to get the enchanted Looking Glass. Good luck.

  11. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the Jewel of Hebe from the Panarii temple - 1500 XP and 500 Gold.

    12. You'll probably have to kill the priest there to obtain this item from the locked Chest. Doesn't seem to bother Virgil overly much... anyway, this jewel adds BE + 2 and CH + 1 when worn, so it's another item you may want to keep rather than selling to Mr. Black!

  12. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the bottle of Napha Water from Mrs. Halster's home on Devonshire - 1000 XP and 150 Gold.

    13. In the locked Wood Chest next to Mrs. Halster's bed.

  13. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the music box that Madam Lil keeps on her person - 1700 XP and 150 Gold.

    14. Not too difficult... while you're there perusing Madam Lil's inventory, you might happen to notice the Gift for Mrs. Regina Halster. I suspect this item relates to a quest I couldn't get for some reason or other :-(

  14. The Thieves Underground would like me to retrieve the plans for Schreck's Multi-Barreled Pistol from the Bates Factory - 1500 XP and 400 Gold.

    15. Just sneak in the back door, then wait till the guards have left the room with the filing cabinet in it that contains the schematic. It seems that it's not possible to learn this schematic anyway, so you might as well sell it.

The Lair of Bellerogrim (769 W, 838 S)

Bellerogrim's lair is located to the NE of Tarant. When you arrive at the site, go north along the path to the cave. At first, it appears that there's nothing here except the giant skeleton (curiously, it still has a skull attached even though that's supposed to be the one at the Zoological Society), but careful exploration reveals some crates in the SW of the cave concealing a passage. You have to skirt around to the south to get access to the passage. At first you just encounter some Dragarons down there... but then you run into a nasty Level 30 creature known as a Burnowar. Not only is he deadly in his own right, but he can invoke Fire Elementals which are even deadlier! The best way to take on one of these creatures is to sneak up behind it and attack before it gets a chance to react and summons an Elemental. If it does manage to call an Elemental, ignore that creature and just keep pounding the heck out of the Burnowar, trying to either kill it or knock it unconscious. In either case, the Elemental will immediately disappear. The cave contains a few Mystic Chests that have Greater Healing Potions in them, an Arcane Chest containing a Magickal Throwing Weapon, and a Black Chest, which contains a Book that tells the story of how Kraka-Tur defeated Bellerogrim and stole his blood. It appears this Kraka-Tur creature may still be at large...

Ashbury (505 W, 978 S)

Ashbury is on the east coast, just past the Elven Ruins. You can get here by train from either Tarant or Blackroot.

If as soon as you first arrive in Ashbury, and you go around the corner of the Ashbury Hostelry, you'll see a man there kicking a Worthless Mutt to death. If you either talk him out of it or kill him before the Mutt is dead, the Mutt will join you as a follower (even better, it matters not what your CH is, or how many followers you already have)! Now... I did a few other things in Ashbury before I got there, and the Mutt was already dead :-( However, all is not lost in this situation. One Scroll of Resurrect later, and the Mutt is yours. He becomes 'Dog' when he joins your team, and he's a great Melee fighter. Hey, since the Fallout lads were involved in this one, there had to be a Dogmeat replacement, right? ;-)

The woman in the cottage at 12 Harbor View tells you about the ruins of an Ancient Temple, which puts it on your map. She says it's to the east of here, which would be a difficult feat as Ashbury is on the east coast! It's actually to the west. See section on Ancient Temple below.

Kendrick Wales, the author who lives at 14 Trellis Way, has an important book coming out soon, but he won't divulge the contents. Hmm.

If you talk to the man in robes standing outside the back of the meeting hall, he'll tell you that an adventurer passing through mentioned the coordinates: 617 W, 528 S (if he doesn't tell you, then try the local bartender). These coordinates are far to the north past the mountains, so you'll need to find a pass through the mountains first.

If you feel up to it (i.e., you're somewhere around Level 25 or better), then Ashbury Castle is great for the old XP. It's on a narrow path to the north that begins just behind the meeting hall. Once inside, if you head to the NE along the hallway, you come to a throne, next to which is a chest containing the key to upstairs. Nothing much at all upstairs except a key to the basement in a chest at the base of 2 beds. In the basement, there is a trail of tough Lord's Slaves, leading to the Lord of the Damned himself guarding an Arcane Chest in the NE part of the cellar. It seems there wasn't much in the Chest to make it worth all the hassle, but at least you should get enough XP killing all those ghouls and skeletons to drive you up about 3 Levels!

The Elven Trader standing in front of the spectacle shop has 2 powerful scrolls you can pickpocket: Call Earth Elemental and Teleportation. Also has an elven statuette called a Li'tani that you can purchase. It's the very first offering in the 12 Altars of the Pagan Gods series :-)

In the far south of town there's a prison. If you bail out the gnome Guido Lighttouch for 500 Gold, he'll train you as an Expert in Pick Pockets. There's another guy locked up in there called Jerrold Aymes, who won't say too much to you. So, I killed all the guards and picked the lock on his cell door thinking that I might get some gratitude then... but the ingrate still wouldn't talk to me after all that.

The man in robes standing in front of the building south of the prison is William Thorndop and he's now a priest of the Halcyon order, but he used to be a crack gunman. Had 2 of his fingers removed on both hands so that he wouldn't be able to fire a gun any longer! Hmmm. I have an inkling that he's the Firearms Master...

SW of Thorndop, on a dirt path behind a cornfield, is another gypsy woman who can identify magickal items for you.

Quests

  1. A fellow named Theodore wants you to retrieve his "technologically improved" plate from Ashbury's local scientician - 800 XP and 250 Gold.

    2. Theodore is standing outside 12 Trellis Way, on the west side of Ashbury. Apparently, the technologist who owns the place has left some nasty pieces of gadgetry in there, and Theodore can't retrieve the armour he comissioned. Sure enough, inside 12 Trellis Way there's a Mechanized Arachnid guarding a trap door. When you get past him, there's an even tougher Automaton downstatirs. You can utilise the trick of continuously running up the ladder to heal in order to defeat the thing. Inside a Wood Chest is Theodore's armour, along with the schematic for producing an Automaton of your very own. You can get 250 Gold instead of the 200 Theodore offered if you hold out before returning the armour. Indeed, instead of returning the armour to Theodore, you might well consider keeping it. It's pretty fancy stuff... if it will fit you.

  2. Geoffrey Tarellond-Ashe wants you to help him solve the mystery of the Ashbury Cemetary - 1500 XP and 500 Gold.

    3. Geoffrey is the wizard standing outside the entrance to the cemetary, which is located on the south side of town. He's a dark necromancer, and my Alignment was too far to the right for his liking. But even though he wouldn't join my party, you can still get this quest from him. You've got to find out what's causing all these Zombies to be generated. Enter the cemetary and make your way inside the crematorium to the SW. There's a trapdoor in the back room leading to a room full of Rats. Another trapdoor here leads to a cave full of Zombies, Ghouls, and Putrid Walkers. A passage in the NE part of the cave leads to another cave. In the middle of a large room is the Gem of Malachi Rench, which is the entity responsible for generating all these Zombies. Guarding the Gem are 2 tough Gore Guards. I found a Magickal Mace in a sarcophagus here too. Return the Gem to Geoffrey for your reward.

  3. The Mayor of Ashbury will allow you to answer questions at this evenings Town Council meeting. Your answers must please as many people as possible - 1500 XP.

    4. The Mayor is standing outside the town's meeting hall, located in the north of Ashbury. I had an IN of 10 when I accepted this quest, and it wasn't high enough to get the right dialogue choices to most of the questions. What you can do is use Essence of Intellect (which may be obtained at almost any magick shoppe) to temporarily boost your IN by 10. You then get lots more dialogue choices, but you have to answer the questions very quickly before the Essence wears off! If they rubbish even one of your answers you have to start over. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out the correct answers :-)

  4. Kill the 3 wild pigs that keep eating Theo Brightstart's corn crop - 1700 XP and 75 Gold.

    5. Theo is standing in front of his house, which is to the SW of the prison. He offers you 50 Gold for this job, but you can get 75. Just kill the 3 wild pigs that are roaming in the cornfield to the NW of here. If you're a real glutton for punishment, you can take Quest 5 next...

  5. Load the 5 large boulders located in Theo Brightstart's field into his cart - 1700 XP and 100 Gold.

    6. Another menial job for Theo. Again, he offers you 50 Gold, but you can talk him into making it 100. The boulders are extremely large, so I started off by unloading my entire inventory into the cart first. There's still plenty of room in there for the 5 boulders too, and when you're done, just take your inventory back out. After all this, there turns out to be more of a reward than was at first evident: Theo will now train you as an Expert in Throwing.

  6. Kill the entire Willenbecker Gang and release their hostage, Mrs. Rolland, unharmed - 8500 XP and Firearms Master training or Looking Glass Rifle.

    7. This is the quest to become Firearms Master. You need to be a Firearms Expert with 5 ranks of Firearms skill before you can undertake it. You then get the dialogue option to ask Thorndop if he's the Firearms Master. A dwarven villager runs up and hands him a letter. When you read it to Thorndop, it turns out that the Willenbecker gang are out for revenge and they've taken a Mrs. Rolland as hostage in the barn just east of where you're now standing. At first Thorndop is is reluctant to train you even if you promise to free the hostage and kill the gang, but he agrees after a while. You must be careful to sneak around the side of the barn and enter the door there, else they will kill the hostage immediately if you try a frontal assault. The guns they had weren't much use. Mine was an Elephant Gun :-) Afterwards, you can either choose to let Thorndop (very reluctantly) train you as Firearms Master (and lose a few Alignment Points), or you can accept a Looking Glass Rifle as a gift instead (and gain a few Alignment Points).

Ancient Shipwreck (498 W, 892 S)

On the coast north of Ashbury. Nothing to do here during the daytime, but at night a bunch of Greater Skeletons make an appearance. They have nearly 1000 Gold on them, and some gems and healing potions.

Ancient Temple (777 W, 919 S)

A woman in Ashbury puts this on your map. It's to the west of Ashbury. There are a few Zombies protecting the passage to the underground temple. Once underground, in the centre of the temple there's a Magick Chest watched over by a few Gore Guards and Putrid Walkers. The Chest contains a Library Key that gets you into the library (to the south), and through another locked door to the north. In the room to the north, there's a cursed skeleton who wants you to retrieve some blood from a pool in a cave in order to bring him back to life. He marks your map with a location called: Dungeon of the Dragon Pool, due north from Tarant. This quest does not appear in your quest log, and you also don't get any XP for completing it... however, if you do bring back the Vial of Dragon's Blood and pour it over the skeleton (drag the vial to your hand icon, then click on the skeleton), the skeleton turns out to be a great undead warrior named Torian Kel. He'll join your party, but only if you are of evil alignment. Isn't there always a bloody catch?
In the library to the south is an Arcane Chest guarded by quite a few Level 20 creatures. There are some handy scolls on the floor here and the Chest contains a powerful Unidentified Shield. There are also 2 Dust Piles in the temple. One contained a Quality Axe, the other some Dread Armor. In the SW of the temple there's another Arcane Chest guarded by some tough Foul Spirits. Inside is a Torian Kel key. Never figured out what purpose this key served as I was able to get into Torian Kel's room using only the Library Key. Just to the north of here is a room with a strange altar in it. If you read the inscription on the large altar, it appears you are to offer a Black Diamond to it. Indeed, you can procure one of these in the ruins outside the Ancient Maze (see section below). This altar is to Moorindal, greater god of the Moon circle.

Dungeon of the Dragon Pool (993 W, 790 S)

The cursed skeleton in the Ancient Temple sends you here looking for a pool of blood. Guarding the passage to the dungeon are a few Grizzly Bears. There are some tough Level 18 - 25 creatures around the place guarding first a Junkpile, and then a Chest, both containing keys to locked doors. Through the second locked door are 2 more Level 25 creatures. Once you manage to dispatch these you encounter a passage to the next level. There was a trap on this level that caused me to drop my weapon almost without noticing. Careful! After getting by another 2 tough creatures, you can walk up to the pool of blood and take a sample :-) Bring the Vial of Dragon's Blood back to the cursed skeleton.

Vooriden (871 W, 1191 S)

This tiny village is to the west of Kree. Just enter the temple straight ahead of you as you arrive to get Quest 1. There's nothing much else you can do here besides this quest!

Quests

  1. Edwin Wallows of the Halcyon Order in Vooriden wants you to retrieve a new altar stone from the Torin Quarry - 4600 XP and a Fate Point.

    2. It seems that a pirate named Stringy Pete desecrated the Halcyon Order's altar 200 years ago, and no one has been able to make an offering since. Wallows packs you off to Torin Quarry to get a new altar stone. You can get his half-ogre lackey to join your party for the purposes of lugging the stone back. I already had Sodd Mead Mug, so didn't need to avail of Murgo's services. Journey to Torin Quarry (1420 W, 1100 S) in the Stonewall Range, a bit north of the Crash Site. The quarry is inhabited by a group of Bonecrushers and Greater Gorillas, and there's a dead elf with an Unidentified Dagger and Unidentified Bow on him. Once you've finished off the beasts, empty your entire inventory into your followers' inventories and pick up the huge Stone lying in the centre of the quarry. When you deliver it back to Wallow, he uses it to immediately repair the altar, and you can make offerings there now. Halcyon is the greater god of the Sun circle, and accepts an Olive Branch as an offering.

Uncharted Cave (1048 W, 695 S)

The entrance to this cave is located in the middle of the two bridges to the north, right up against the mountains. Best take off your armour so it doesn't get damaged, because the only way in is by running through the fire. Inside is a Fire Elemental guarding a Junkpile, which contains... an Unidentified Ring.

Ancient Maze (1368 W, 1585 S)

I found this place when I was wandering through the countryside SW of the Wolf Cave. On the outskirts of the maze were 3 gems (you have to hop through a window in the ruins to get to them), one of them a Black Diamond that you can offer to the altar in the Ancient Temple. Work your way to the back of the maze hopping through windows and going into the foresty bits as needed. There is some good stuff in the chests along the way, but mind the Gore Guards. At the back of the maze is a sarcophagus guarded by 2 tough Ore Golems. The sarcophagus contains an Unidentified Helm.

Isle of Despair

A penal colony. You get here by sailing with Captain Teach from Ashbury. Teach is an associate of Gilbert Bates.

Once inside the encampment you need to talk to Ogdin, the half-ogre guard standing outside the building just to the north of The Pit. With a bit of Persuasion skill, and by appealing to his intellectual side, you can talk your way in to see Thorvald; otherwise, you'll have to fight in The Pit. The fights in The Pit are quite easy. Your first opponent is only Level 10, and if you defeat him, it's sufficient to get in to see Thorvald... but you can stay on and take on 4 more sets of opponents for the fun of it and the XP.
Ogdin gives you a key to get in to see Thorvald Two Stones. When you ask him about the Black Mountain Clan, he claims that none of them have ever been on this island. You tell him that it was the Wheel Clan (Thorvald's own clan, as it turns out!) that allegedly sent them here, and he suggests that you seek out the Wheel Clan for further answers (you've just completed Tarant Quest 18). He marks the location of the Wheel Clan on your map. But you also need a special pair of glasses to be able to spot the entrance to the clan's cave. It can be quite difficult to talk him into giving you these. If he won't give you his pair, just travel back to Ashbury with Teach anyway. Raymond's Fine Spectacles shop is right there on the docks. All you need to give Raymond is a Kathorn Crystal, and for 1000 Gold, he makes you a pair of Wheel Clan Spectacles on the spot!
As a result of speaking with Thorvald, Quests 4 and 5 below now become available.

Shades Beach is at the north of the island. There's a wreck of a strange submarine here, and some Greater Spiders. There are two schematics on the ground: Bronwyck's Gun, and Reanimator.

Quests

  1. The village guard on Isle of Despair wants you to kill the Sorcerous Beast - 1200 XP and Serpentine Necklace.

    2. You get this quest by talking to the guard outside the gate of the encampment, on the beach where Teach drops you off. If you go around the west side of the compound, there's a place where the water is shallow enough to let you cross. If you continue along the beach on the other side, you'll eventually come across a set of large footprints leading from the water. Follow them, and you'll come to the ruins of a house with a Temporal Crusher inside. There's your sorcerous beast. Once the Crusher is dead, you can retrieve an Unidentified Ring and some Unidentified Gauntlets from the Junkpile inside the ruins. Return to the guard for your reward.

  2. Cynthia Boggs has asked you to help her escape from the encampment on the Isle of Despair - 1500 XP.

    3. Cynthia is standing there right as you enter the encampment. If you accept the quest, she gives you a White Scarf to wear so the women you are visiting on her behalf won't attack you on sight. She marks your map with the location of the Women's Camp, which is on the east side of the island. So... you travel there (make sure to put on the White Scarf first!) and talk to Lorria, but she is unsympathetic to Cynthia's plight. She says that if Cynthia can't escape herself, she'd not be able to fend for herself either, and hands you a fairly usless old pistol for you to give to Cynthia to aid in her escape. When you return to Cynthia with this news, she is not disenheartened by it as I expected her to be. If you offer to help her escape, she agrees to join you. With a bit of Persuasion skill you can convince the guards that she is a slave you bought from Thorvald, and they let her go with you. You can either take her back to the Women's Camp, where Lorria will reluctantly accept her, or keep Cynthia on as a follower... but she will leave you anyway once you return to the mainland.

  3. Find Warren del Par of Cumbria and tell him that Maximillian still lives on the Isle of Despair - 1500 XP.

    4. The home of Maximillian is located in the middle of the island. After listening to his story, you realise he is rightful heir to the throne of Cumbria. If you've already spoken to del Par's daughter Lianna, you give him the bad news that Warren is dead. He then asks you to find Lianna instead. When you (eventually) return to Dernholm and speak to Lianna, she vows to travel to the Isle of Despair and bring back Maximillian...

  4. Investigate the Wheel Clan for further information about the Black Mountain Clan - 3600 XP.

    5. You get this quest by speaking with Thorvald. You complete it by talking to the king of the Wheel Clan.

  5. Tell the Wheel Clan of Thorvald's incarceration on the Isle of Despair - 800 XP.

    6. If you promise to tell the Wheel Clan of Thorvald's fate during your conversation with Thorvald, you get this quest.

Wheel Clan (954 W, 666 S)

You need to visit the Isle of Despair in order for the location of the Wheel Clan cave to be revealed. It's between the 2 bridges, right up against the mountains to the north. In addition, you need to wear some special gear or else the entrance will not be apparent. Stand in the stone square while wearing this special gear, and the entrance to the cave becomes visible.

Once inside the cave, just keep heading north until you meet King Randver Thunder Stone... or is he truly the king? Make sure you mention the plight of Thorvald to Randver to complete Isle of Despair Quest 5. Then, if you are careful with your dialogue choices, he'll tell you of the secret passage under the throne that leads to his father; otherwise, you'll have to hack your way past all manner of beasties in a place called the Dredge in order to reach his hiding place (the entrance to the Dredge is to the SE of the throne room. One thing I noticed while working my way through the Dredge was that the Arcane Great Sword I had picked up in my travels was immune to damage when striking the likes of Ore Golems and Fire Elementals. Very handy indeed). Also, if your IN is at least 10, you'll get to talk to Randver about the Stone and the Shape. Knowledge of this aspect of dwarven lore will come in mighty handy in a few minutes...
However you reach him, by talking to the true king, Loghaire Thunder Stone, you'll learn how the elves, the dwarves, and Bates were all caught up in a terrible struggle between the magicks of old and the intrusive technology of the steam engine. Loghaire sets you on a new trail by presenting you with a document from the elves signed by one M'in Gorad, and suggests you go to Stillwater, which he marks on your map. He hopes that someone in Stillwater will be able to point you in the direction of the elven city of Qintarra. Even better, if you talked to Randver about the Stone and the Shape, you'll be able to use this line of reasoning to convince Loghaire that he should return to his people. If you can do this, he presents you with his powerful axe "Harrow", then runs back up the ladder to take his place as King again. You get a Fate Point for this!
In any event, you've just completed Isle of Despair Quest 4, and have been given Quests 1 and 2 below.

Through a bunch of passages on the west side of the ground level of the Wheel Clan cave is the altar to the god of the dwarves, Alberich, a lesser god of the Earth circle. It takes Lava Rock as an offering.

If as you enter the Wheel Clan cave you immediately go to the left and head down the stairs, you enter a vast tunnel complex that the dwarves have carved out of the mountain. There's an inn, an inventor (with a Small Steam Engine for sale!), a smith, and a herbalist. There's even a magnificent garden down here in the southern tip of the tunnels! The garden has an Olive Tree in it. This particular tree is the only source I know of for Olive Branches. If you care to explore this area, you can begin with Quest 3.

Quests

  1. Find out what happened to the Black Mountain Clan - 7600 XP.

    2. You get this quest by conversing with Loghaire Thunder Stone in his secret hideaway. You need to journey to Stillwater next.

  2. Find the elven village of Qintarra - 4900 XP.

    3. You also get this quest by conversing with Loghaire Thunder Stone. You complete it by solving Stillwater Quest 5.

  3. Thrayne Iron Heart wants you to find his brother Erland at the Stonecutter Clan and tell him to return home - 6400 XP.

    4. Thrayne is in a room at the far northern part of the tunnels. As you exit the conversation dialogue, he gives you this quest. He can also train you as an Expert in Spot Trap and Disarm Trap.
    The entrance to the Stonecutter Clan cave (1344 W, 887 S) is located at the base of the Stonewall Range mountains, a little more than halfway between Torin Quarry and the Black Mountain Mines. If you head through the door to the west of the room with two large tables in it, and work your way through two rooms full of dwarven furnaces (and Gore Guards, and a Black Defiler, and some Black Defiler Slaves), you'll come to a locked room where all the dwarves are holed up. A box here contains the schematics for a Muscle Maker. Erland Iron Heart, the dwarf technologist, explains what happened and gives you a key to a laboratory (tell Erland that his brother Thrayne wants him to return and you've just completed this quest).
    The entrance to the laboratory is through a locked door to the north of the room with the two large tables in it. A barrel here contains Mithril Ore. A second locked door leads to a tunnel, with a passage through a hole knocked in the wall at the end of the tunnel. Through this passage is the laboratory, which is occupied by a fearsome Bludgeoner spirit. Once you vanquish him and a few Putrid Walkers, seek out the table with a book on it. There's a Necromizer schematic on the table, and an Unidentified Medallion. The book explains how the Necromizer came to be.

  4. Erick Obsidian wants you to find the lost burial ground of the Iron Clan, and retrieve the Durin Stone - 6400 XP.

    5. Erick the historian is in a room just to the SW of Thrayne Iron Heart. He hands you an Ancient Schematic for an Iron Key, and also gives you this quest. This Iron Key schematic (used by combining a Heartstone with Mithril Ore) makes the "Key to the Iron Clan Chest", and that's what opens the Ancient Iron Chest at the Zoological Society in Tarant! Inside the chest you find a map to The Place of Lost Voices, and 3 strange Drums... if you travel to The Place of Lost Voices (1322 W, 830 S), which is several mountains south of the Black Mountain Mines, you'll find a cave entrance. Inside this cave, there is a long winding tunnel leading to a large room that contains a strange machine. If you put the Drums you got from the Chest into the machine in the correct order, a mystical voice tells you that the Iron Clan built this machine, and you must look for the Book of Durin's Truth to proceed further in this quest (if you get the order wrong, Iron Arachnids emerge from under the sewer covers). You'll find this book in due course...

  5. Vegard MoltenFlow wants you to retrieve his family heirloom from the depths of the Dredge - 6400 XP and Miner's Helmet.

    6. Vegard is pacing back and forth in the room next to Erick's. You have to go see Randver in the throne room to get permission to go into the Dredge, the entrance to which is just SE of the throne room on ground level (if Randver has been replaced by Loghaire, then just use the secret Passage under the throne). Vegard Moltenflow's Key is on the ground in the far northern part of the Dredge. You'll know you're in the correct area when you begin fighting lots of Wolves, and then creatures called Mongrelons. Just past there, if you're up to it, is a room containing 2 Dwarven Chests guarded by 3 Brute Fangs and a Grey King. One of the Chests has the schematic for Machined Platemail in it, the other some rare Mithril Ore.
    The room containing Vegard's heirloom is to the south of here, smack in the middle of the Dredge. Once you have his key, you're past the Metal Door and into the Black Chest there only to find... a Toy Train! If you don't have the key you may have to expend a Fate Point to pick the lock on the Metal Door and then bash open the Chest, but that would be a waste just to complete this rather insignificant quest.

  6. Arvid Millstone wants you to destroy what has been killing all the miners in the Wheel Clan - 8500 XP.

    7. If you take the stairway down on the west side, directly across from where the entrance to the Dredge is on the east side, you'll run into all sorts of spiders. Make sure you kill the Level 40 Dread Crystal Spider, and then keep working your way into the tunnels. Eventually, you'll come to a room full of dwarf miners. Talk to their foreman Arvid Millstone, and you'll have already solved this quest, having killed the Dread Crystal Spider for him.

Stillwater (1191 W, 754 S)

Loghaire Thunder Stone, king of the dwarves, puts Stillwater on your map (see Wheel Clan above). It's right at the source of the river closest to where the Black Mountain Mines are.

When you speak to the innkeeper at the Bleeding Rose Inn, he gives you a book left by Joachim (note: you have to have picked up Joachim's telegraph at the Telegraph Office on Kensington Broadway in Tarant for this to happen). It contains a note from Joachim, and some background info concerning the Molochean Hand.

Well, you've come here looking for a way to find the elven village of Qintarra. If you speak to a man at the inn, he'll tell you that an elf by the name of Myrth might know where it is. Myrth is the subject of Quest 5.

Adkin Chambers' house is on the west side of Stillwater. He's the disfigured blind hermit. Now, there are several ways you can approach him, depending on what you've achieved before arriving here:

  1. If you've already completed Dernholm Quest 4, thereby killing Garrick Stout, and you have the Potion to Heal the Blind, AND you are also an Expert in Dodge... then you can coax him into training you as a Master of Dodge first (he wants you to kill Stout, but you've already done that, so you get the XP immediately) and then present him with the Potion. You get max XP this way (for completing Quest 4 below as well as Dernholm Quest 5), but lose 10 Alignment points for being nasty to a blind man. If you give him the Potion first, you get 20 Alignment points for being such a swell guy (or gal), but he trains you in Dodge as a favour for restoring his sight and you DON'T get Quest 4 below, thereby losing out on some XP. Your call.
  2. If you h