_______________________________________________________________________________ Neverwinter Nights II Official Campaign Walkthrough Version 1.01 - January 2, 2007 by Nigel Kearney [email protected] _______________________________________________________________________________ If you wish to email me, please put 'NWN II Walkthrough' in the subject line and mention which version of the walkthrough you are using. Comments and especially additions are welcome but please limit them to the official campaign, rather than general strategy and character building tips. The latest version of this walkthrough will be at http://www.gamefaqs.com/ You are welcome to repost all or part of it provided this header is included. _______________________________________________________________________________ General Comments ---------------- 0.01 I have played the game through twice, the first time with a good cleric and the second with an evil fighter-weaponmaster. Having other classes as your main character may open up some extra quests or options. I know monk does. 0.02 You can only carry forward 5 skill points to the next level to prevent exploits so plan accordingly. 0.03 Intimidate/Diplomacy/Bluff/Appraise are only useful on your main character, as is Taunt when used in conversation. These come up a lot so decent intelligence helps. 0.04 There is generally no penalty for looting under people's noses 0.05 There are a number of lawful and chaotic alignment shifts. If taking the 'good' path with a barbarian or bard, make sure you start as chaotic rather than neutral to avoid alignment problems. If playing the 'evil' path with a monk you will just have to be careful. 0.06 You can now control henchmen, unlike NWN 1. In most areas there is no need to micro-manage, just control one character (need not be your main one) and let the others do their thing. I usually lead with the char who has the highest AC so he draws enemy attacks, then switch to a spell caster during the fight. 0.07 Enemies are more willing than in NWN to go after your spellcasters and archers. Try to block doorways with fighters so your wizards can't be got at. Putting haste items on your spell casters is also a good idea. 0.08 Save your gold, you'll need it later for your stronghold and for expensive items in shops. Merchants have a maximum buy price, the highest is 20000 so don't sell items for 5000, 10000 or 15000 that could fetch more if you wait for a better merchant. 0.09 You'll end at level 19 or 20 but there is lots of XP very close to the end. For almost the entire game you will be level 17 or below. 0.10 Use the 'M' key to see a map of your current area - the little map that appears by default is not that useful. This walkthrough assumes you are referring to the area mmap. Part One -------- 1.01 Level up if you skipped the tutorial, also level up Bevil and Amie but don't worry about Amie's spells and skills - she won't be around long. Bevil will be with you only until level 4 so build him accordingly, I'd recommend power attack and cleave. Grab the stuff from your chest, loot Daeghun's place if you want, then head outside. After disposing of a few enemies, speak to Georg Redfell near the bridge for the next quest. 1.02 You need to find five militia men in the village. They are the ones with real names. Ward Mossfeld is right by the bridge and needs healing. If you have a cleric you can do it yourself, otherwise go see Brother Merring near the house where you started to get som healing herbs for Ward. Across the bridge, after disposing of some more enemies, speak to Lazlo Buckman who is the second recruit.Over on the left, speak to Ian Harman who is cowering next to a house. He's a coward but you can persuade him or just hit him until he gives in. Next there is a cutscene and Amie gets killed by a mysterious green dude who promptly disappears (don't they always?). Continuing down the path, you'll meet Wyl Mossfeld and Pitney Lannon who also need healing. That's the five recruits plus Webb Mossfeld is nearby for some extra XP or he can be the fifth if one of the others didn't work out. 1.03 Speak to Georg in the south-west of the village and fight off two waves of duergar and bladelings. After that you see some of them going into the Starling house. Speak to Mrs Starling, kill the duergar and save the children, then return to the fight outside. 1.04 When the fight is over you are sent to the swamp to retrieve a shard. Don't go right away, first loot the corpses and Tarmas's house. There's another house near Lewy Johns' corpse that you can also loot. Sell everything you don't want to Tarmas and rest if necessary. Keep any alchemist's fire or acid flasks as there are trolls later. Also Then leave the village via the exit transition. 1.05 The swamp and ruins are essentially linear, use the map to make sure you don't miss anything but generally just kill all enemies until the last room. You can use diplomacy to avoid a fight at the end but it doesn't make much difference in XP. Bevil is leaving after this so strip his items and loot the shard chest last to make use of the free ride home. 1.06 The next quest is to go to Neverwinter to learn more about the shard. Before you go, speak to people in town to get items or gold to help on your journey and sell to Tarmas as before. Also speak to Mrs Starling for a quest to find information about her missing husband. Then head out to the Weeping Willow Inn. 1.07 Outside the inn you'll meet the dwarven fighter Khelgar who joins your party. He is the best NPC for melee combat and stays until the end so plan his build accordingly. There is an excellent warhammer that he gets fairly late in the game so you'll want to give him feats for that, but as a fighter he has enough feats to spare that you can give him two handed weapon proficiencies early on. There are some nice halberds around so that may be the best choice. From now on, people who join your party will stay until the end unless noted otherwise. Once inside the inn, kill all the attackers downstairs and upstairs and save the merchant Galen and Gera's husband. Then shop with Jorik to get some decent armour and weapons and leave for Fort Locke. 1.08 Head left at the start to kill some wolves for practice then you'll encounter Galen again who is now being held up by his own bodyguards. Help him out then head up towards the fort where you'll come across Neeshka being attacked by fort soldiers. Finish them off and Neeshka joins your party. She is the only NPC rogue so you may wish to keep her around but she's not much use in combat and dies fast if attacked. Give her a ranged weapon and set her follow distance to far away. If your main character is a rogue or has decent open locks you don't need her. Traps in the game are too weak to really worry about. Once inside the keep, speak with Cormick and Vallis for the main quest and Tor and Liza for side quests. Also shop with Galen and Jacoby. You'll want a shortbow and arrows for Neeshka. 1.09 When ready, exit through the other side of the keep and head to the bandit camp. You'll be stopped on the way by bandits who need to be taught a lesson. Once at the camp, kill those inside and speak to the refugee leader. You'll then be attacked by a second wave of bandits. Once those are dispatched, clear out the house as well. There are some traps in there so watch out for those. You'll find Tor's holy symbol in a chest in the centre room. Once done, the refugees will follow you out of the camp and thank you. 1.10 Head over to the graveyard. Kill the enemies outside, loot the graves, then enter the crypt on the eastern side. Eventually you'll come to a room with a Shadow Priest and the missing Commander Tann who joins your party and wants to find his three missing men. Pull the lever next to him before leaving to unlock the doors to the rest of the area. One missing man is dead, the next is saved if you kill the undead surrounding him and the last is cowering at the end of a trapped corridor. You'll exit in the north-west corner of the graveyard which leaves the western crypt still to explore. When you approach the statue in the middle section, a bunch of zombies jump up and attack from both sides so be prepared for that. 1.11 After returning to Fort Locke, Vallis may attack depending on how the conversation goes. Otherwise he is arrested and executed. Either way, Tann is back in charge. Speak to Cormick, Tor and Liza to complete their quests, shop, then head to Highcliff. 1.12 On the way, you encounter some bad guys and an annoying do-gooder elven druid named Jah-, er, Elanee joins your party. Redo her spellbook - I recommend taking extend spell for her at level so you can have more and better buffs. Level her up as soon as she joins otherwise she'll automatically level after the fight. Elanee is quite a poor NPC but it'll be a long time before you get a cleric so she may be worth having around. Anyway, she suggests a 'short-cut' through a druid grove. 1.13 Unsurprisingly, something is wrong that is causing the animals to attack. After fighting a large bear that is actually the druid of the grove, he mutters something cryptic about the mere before he dies. There's nothing you can do about it yet so leave and go to Highcliff. 1.14 You'll see a cutscene of a ship being sunk by lizards as it attempts to leave the port. Head up the cliff and speak to Elder Mayne. Your mission is to stop the lizards from sinking the ships so that you can sail to Neverwinter. Other quests in town are Par, who needs help with intruders in his house, Mozah is owed money by some adventurers, Gera and Zachan's sons are missing and Juni's husband William is also missing. Merchants are Branson for weapons and Edario for armour. 1.15 Head to Shandra's farm and arrive just in time to see some lizardmen torching her barn. Speak to Shandra to get directions to the castle ruins which is your next destination. When you get there, head off to the right of the path to find William. He's not interested in going back to Juni. You can convince him to return, or not, and also tell Juni the truth, or not. Then head up the left of the road, killing wolves along the way, and rescue Gera and Zachan's kids. 1.16 Outside the keep you'll meet a lizardman, Slaan, who wants you to save his fellows and joins your party for a while. Inside are more undead and another shadow priest. One of the zombie adventurers in his room has Mozah's backpay. Nasher's Nimble Boots (Dex +3) are in a chest in the same room. Clear out the rest of the castle and, after you find the lizards, speak to Slaan to be taken to his chieftain. You can either convince them to leave Highcliff alone or just kill them. The former is the 'good' path but the latter leads to a lot of loot and experience as you fight your way back to Highcliff village. Be sure to take the southern exit from their lair to cover everything (both lead to the same place). 1.17 Back in town, complete the quests for Mozah, Juni and Gera, do your shopping and speak to Elder Mayne last. You'll be transported to the bottom of the cliff so speak to Mayne again to board the ship. After a couple of cutscenes you'll arrive on the Neverwinter docks. 1.18 Forget everything you know from NWN 1, the city has been completely redesigned. Start by heading to your uncle Duncan's inn, the Sunken Flagon. He has a second shard and gives it you. The wizard, Sand, tries to determine what they do but is unsuccessful and recommends you consult Aldanon, a sage who lives in the Blacklake district. The problem is the Blacklake district is closed due to a recent murder so you need to find a way in. There are two choices: the good path is to join the city guards and the evil path is to work for the local thieves guild. Once you speak to either of them, your choice is locked in. The quests are very similar for each path - the main difference is whose side you are on. This walkthrough is based on the evil path. 1.19 Also, note that whenever you leave the inn, you are offered the option to reform your party. I'd keep Khelgar but the others are optional. You'll encounter Qara outside the inn who is a sorceress and offers to join your party. She goes to the inn to wait. Add her to the party then drop her again if you don't want her. The reason is that she automatically levels up to your level the first time she joins. Now if you add her later, you will get to pick her spells instead of it being done automatically. You cannot 'unlearn' in NWN 2. There are three good merchants in the area: two marked on the map and Raylene over by the south-east gate. You can extort money from Raylene but it may hurt you later on. 1.20 Caleb is your contact with the guild and can be found in an alley in the southern part of the area. He asks you to visit Hagen's shop and collect his protection money. Hagen is reluctant but I was able to intimidate him without bloodshed. Return the money to Caleb and the watch appears with Hagen in tow. Kill them when they try to take you in and afterwards Caleb sends you to see Moire. 1.21 Her first quest is for you to visit the four guardposts and ensure they remain corrupt. They are marked on the map. After sorting them out and dealing with various other minor encounters, Moire wants you to burn down the city guard headquarters. First go inside and collect your reward from Cormick for helping him in Fort Locke then equip the torch Moire gave you and use it to set fire to the two stacks of crates and one wagon around the outside of the building. You'll have to fight off some guards as well if you fail a bluff check. Moire then sends you to meet Axle Devrie at his home in the merchant quarter. 1.22 Your mission is to escort a shipment of Luskan weapons through the back alley between the the docks and the merchant quarter. Meet the shipment outside the entrance to the back alley then just move through the area, taking out enemies along the way until you reach the warehouse, then speak to the supervisor at the end. The two smugglers will push the cart along behind you as you go. Once inside, the place gets raided by the City Watch. Go to each of the four shipment locations and defeat the guards there. You will see some guards attacking the shipment itself - you can ignore them because they cannot actually harm it. First kill the ones that attack you, then the others. Afterwards, report back to the supervisor to sell your (his) loot. Then use the merchant quarter exit to go back to Moire at Axle Devrie's house. You are sent to contact Karina at the Old Owl Well. She'll give you papers that enable you to pass as an official Neverwinter representative so the good and evil paths essentially merge from now on. 1.23 On the way you'll meet Grobnar - another annoying and weak NPC, but this time you don't have to take him. He'll still be available later at Duncan's inn if you change your mind. 1.24 Once there, speak to Callum to get your orders, which are to rescue the emissary who has been captured by orcs. Also see Simmy for a side quest. He asks you to find him some adamantium [I didn't find any in the orc areas. If you did, please drop me an email.] Don't travel to the Bonegnasher Clan just yet. Go to the Dwarven Scouts area first. This part of the game gives you several chances to improve your influence with Khelgar which is important later. So choose the honourable responses regardless of your general approach. The area is linear and filled with orcs to kill. Once inside, be sure to grab the 'strange part' from the chest in the second room. There is an ore vein at the end of the first passageway. Just walk up to it until you get some XP and a message saying you've found a vein of ore. These are important for your stronghold later. At the end, use the strange part to unlock the door that leads to the boss. You'll also find the gauntlets of Ironfist in the last chest. Head back outside and to the Bonegnasher Clan. 1.25 Another area where you just fight your way through. This time there are trolls which can only be killed by fire or acid. If you kept the vials of acid and alchemists's fire that you've found so far, that should be plenty. Use them after the trolls fall down to finish them off. The alchemists fire can either be thrown or applied to a weapon. At the end of the troll cave you'll find a second ore vein and blastglobes. Take both the stable and unstable ones. Now return to the rockfall marked on your map and use the box of unstable blastglobes to remove the rocks. The stable ones have no special purpose and can be used or sold. Moving towards the orc lair, you'll meet Guyven up above the road on the eastern side. Be nice tohim and listen to his story. He's useful later. Inside the lair there is another ore vein over to the left. Continue to the end and kill Yaisog to learn that Logram Eyegouger has the emissary. There is a man at the end claiming to be the emissary but he's an impostor so just kill him. 1.26 On the way back to Old Owl Well you'll encounter some orcs and meet the paladin Casavir, who joins your party and knows the Eyegouger lair location. He's the only decent melee NPC apart from Khelgar so you may wish to keep him around, especially if your main character is a spell caster. For the time being you have no choice, however. 1.27 Go to the Eyegouger clan area. Inside the lair on level 1 there is an ore vein in the north-east corner. There are also some wounded orcs that you should leave alone to die, otherwise you'll suffer a significant evil and chaotic alignment shift and lose influence with Khelgar and Casavir. Logram is on level 2 and down on level 3 is a tough fight with a shadow priest and two of his minions. Speak to the emissary and return to Old Owl Well. Speak to Callum to complete the quest and also Karina, if following the evil path. 1.28 You can complete Khelgar's trials of the maimed and the even-handed at this point after speaking to him and then Hlam in the Temple of Tyr. 1.29 Continuing the main quest, Axle asks you to assassinate Fihelis, who has been betraying them to the city watch. His home is in the merchant district. Axle wants you to do this quietly, but the place is crawling with city guards so I preferred to kill them for the XP. There is a vault on the ground floor, you can bluff the guard to give you the key and walk away. Upstairs, fight your way to Fihelis in the south-east corner. The dialogue didn't give me any chance to kill him so I had to let him go. In case you're wondering, Casavir isn't bothered by any of this, he'll even cast protection from good on you. 1.30 Report back to Axle to get a further quest: kill the Luskans attempting to leave their ship, the Sea Ghost. Just go to the docks, kill them and return to Axle. 1.31 Finally, Axle asks you to deal with some 'visitors' (i.e. Githyanki) who are in town looking for you. Kill them all and destroy the portal in the last room to prevent more gating in. Axle then gives you access to Blacklake to see Aldanon and you may also choose the Shadow Thief of Amn class if you meet the other pre-requisites. 1.32 Karina is waiting near the Blacklake entrance, but stop off at Pap's on the way and buy some quicksilver. After speaking to Aldanon, you learn that someone named Amon Jerro was an expert on the Githyanki and you're headed to the archives to find the location of his hidden retreat. Unfortunately, the Githyanki got there first. Grab the veil from the dead caretaker on the right just after the entrance hallway. It gives true seeing but reduces dexterity and armor class. The veil must be worn by your main character in order to see the parchment and pen in each of the four quadrants. Use these, answer the question they ask by referring to books that can be found around the place or with sufficient lore skill (the questions are random), and the central room will then unlock. Don't miss the treasure in the secret rooms around the outside. Finally, read the book in the central room to learn that Shandra Jerro is the last remaining descendant of Amon Jerro and be transported to Shandra's farm. 1.33 Kill the Githyanki outside then head into the farmhouse, kill some more and save Shandra. She's a bit reluctant but eventually goes with you to the Sunken Flagon. The Githyanki attack during the night and you need to save Shandra again, with no party members this time. Once you kill all the ones in the common room there is a cutscene and the ranger Bishop joins your party. Any remaining Gith will keep fighting after the cutscene so watch out for that. You'll want to drop Bishop as soon as possible but you're stuck with him for the time being. Shandra has been kidnapped and you need to rescue her. This is your last chance to shop or complete any side quests in part one. Neverwinter will remain the same in part two but other areas are changed or removed. 1.34 Head out to the Village of Ember. Prepare for battle as you'll be attacked from all sides as soon as you move very far. Kill the two waves of Gith. Speak to Marcus who wants Bishop's knife because it has a 'special power'. Give him the knife, then head out to the Githyanki Base. 1.35 You'll meet Guyven again half-way up the mountain. As before, be polite and listen to his story. Proceed up the hill and through the cave into the inner complex. After you banish the demon Mephasm using his true name, you'll get an interdimensional sphere. When you encounter Zaxis, you can convince him to give up (I used intimidate), but there is no experience for this so you may wish to just kill him. When fighting Zeeaire, use the interdimensional sphere on her portal to destroy it - this makes the fight a lot easier though the portal can also be destroyed by attacking all the parts. After she dies, loot everything then speak to Shandra to head back to Neverwinter. There is a cutscene where Shandra trains as a fighter and joins your party. That ends part one. Neverwinter Side Quests - Part One ---------------------------------- 1.35 Visit the Temple of Tyr with Khelgar in your party to get his three quests to become a monk. These are completed through dialogue when you have sufficient influence with Khelgar and cannot be done right away. 1.36 Also in the Temple of Tyr is Oleff who has a shop and also gives you a quest to investigate the Tomb of the Betrayers. Inside the tomb, work your way through, killing and looting. There are lots of traps, but nothing deadly. You'll meet Onan, a cleric of Tyr, who tells you that a notorious villain has returned as undead and taken over the tomb. Go to the central room and (surprise!) Fenthick is waiting for you. He's an archer who runs around a lot. You'll spend most of the fight chasing him all over the room getting an occasional blow in. There are weak traps that you an avoid with a decent reflex save. Fenthick doesn't do much damage either and will eventually die. Return to Onan after that and he joins the party temporarily. He's immortal so feel free to use him as a meat shield. The room in the northeast corner is a tough fight. It's initially empty but when you approach the door, two temple guardians attack, one from each side. Place Onan over to one side and set him to 'stand your ground' so one guardian locks on to him and the other doesn't see him. You can then hack away at them in relative safety. I wasn't able to get the locked door open though. Return to Oleff for reward. 1.37 Just north of the temple is an encounter with a little girl who is suspected of pickpocketing. Best to help her out unless following a very lawful path. Also in the north-eastern area of the docks near the entrance to the back alley, you'll encounter Wolf who is being threatened by some thugs. Help him out as well. 1.38 Other minor events involving your companions may also occur, depending on who is in the party. Part Two -------- 2.01 You are accused of the slaughter of the village of Ember and Sand joins the party to help with your defence. I'd recommend keeping him because he's helpful in the 'prove your innocence' quest though not as good as Qara as an arcane caster. Sand's opposed school is Conjuration so don't take him if your playing style involves lots of summoning. Annoyingly, you are stuck with Shandra for quite a while. She's proficient in short sword so give her plate armor and a tower shield for decent AC and stick her up front where she won't inflict much damage but at least will give enemies an alternative target. On the bright side, you do get to ditch Bishop now and you also get an extra party spot so you can have five instead of four. Your party will probably be Shandra, Khelgar, Sand and either Qara or Casavir for the last spot. 2.02 First stop is a merchant to sell your loot and get some scrolls for Sand to learn.Then head over to Axle's and learn that you should become a squire in order to be tried by Neverwinter instead of Luskan. The initiation rite is to spend a night alone in contemplation in the Solace Glade. While there, Shandra turns up and so do some assassins. Dispatch them and ask the knight to wait while you loot the leader's corpse. Congratulations, you are now a squire of Neverwinter. On the way out of the castle, be sure to stop at the merchant Dayne Lynneth for a good choice of items, including the Bracers of Blinding Strike, which gives permanent haste. You'll need to head back to the tavern to reform your party. When ready, leave for Port Llast. 2.03 Speak to Hieronomous in the garrison and also Alaine, picking the lock to her door if necessary. She's adamant she saw you killing the Ember villagers. Next stop is the Alliance Arms Inn at the other end of town. Speak to the bartender, then Elgun and question him about the murders. Also speak to the ranger Malin to learn that someone was up on the ridge above and may have seen something. Return and question Elgun again. His story is starting to fall apart. Also in Port Llast, Calindra in the inn wants you to find her partner, Bradbury and Nya in the town centre will give you a bag of wyrmsage to prevent the corpses in Ember being raised as undead. 2.04 That's all you can do here so leave for Duskwood. This area has high magic failure so don't expect spells to work. Speak to Lyssa in the grove. She gave some magical powder to Lorne to make him look like you when he killed the Ember villagers and will give you a sample of this powder if you find and return her glowstone. 2.05 Go back and head up on to the ridge that Malin mentioned. On the way, note the cave entrance blocked by rocks at the first bend. Speak to the insect collectors, Jilla and Mirri - but they didn't see the Ember attack. Inside the cave you'll find the body of Bradbury at the end. Jilla and Mirri then attack you, it turns out they are werewolves. Grab the insect collection from one of their corpses. 2.06 Next stop is Ember village. Inside the well is an ore verin and the child Marcus who you met earlier. There's also a door down there that leads to a goblin cave. Their leader wants you to kill spiders who have been attacking the goblins. Once the spiders are dead, return for your reward which is a ring worn by an Ember attacker the goblins killed as he passed through their tunnels. Now you can take the glowstone and kill all the goblins. There is also a large spider named Kistrel. If you have Elanee in your party you can speak to it, give it the insect collection and it will join your keep later. There's no great advantage to this so you could just kill it now. There is another ore vein further along, then exit via the south passage. Now return the glowstone to Lyssa and go back to Ember to look for more evidence. 2.07 There is a quartermaster's logbook on the ground at the western end of the village. Guyven is also behind a house nearby so speak to him again. To the north, between three houses is a body that Sand says was killed by poison. He takes a sample as evidence. Remember to use the bag of wyrmsage on all the bodies and you'll get a journal update when done. Then head back to Port Llast, speak to Haljal Throndor about Elgun, complete the quests for Nya and Calindra and speak to Elgun again. He cracks and admits he made the whole thing up. If you speak to Sand now, he should say he is certain you have all the evidence you need. 2.08 Head back to the castle and speak to Nevalle to begin the trial. I won't attempt an analysis of all the options, but I was able to successfully use the intimidate skill with my fighter (max skill but no bonuses) to win the trial. In any case, if you win, Torio claims trial by combat and if you lose, you claim trial by combat. Head over to Hlam at the Church of Tyr to start this off. You should probably let Khelgar fight on your behalf to improve your influence with him. Lorne is quite weak but cannot be killed during his berserker's frenzy so you may need to run around avoiding him until it wears off. 2.09 Afterwards you end up back at the tavern with a message from Aldanon. Khelgar's vision quest can now be completed by speaking to Hlam. If you let him change classes, Khelgar will become a level 1 monk but retain his experience and can be levelled up to your level in the normal way. He's stronger as a fighter though. 2.10 Outside Aldanon's place are some city guards and two thugs holding Marshal Cormick hostage. Try to negotiate a peaceful settlement otherwise Cormick dies. Once inside, clear out the ground floor and the basement. The butler is being interrogated and you get an XP bonus for killing the thugs while keeping him alive. At the end, also try to keep Harcourt alive while you kill Old Scab and his friends. Aldanon has been kidnapped but another noble, Tavorick, may be in danger. Don't forget to loot the two chests before you leave. 2.11 This is a good time to complete side quests because the loot and experience will help in the tough fights to come. Tasha is waiting just outside the tavern. Speak to her with Neeshka in the party and you'll get a side quest to rob 'The Collector' who lives in the Blacklake district. Once inside, kill the guards, grab the empty water bottle and put it in the vase. You'll now have a bottle filled with water. Also on the ground floor you'll meet the Collector's mistress who helps you. To get into the vault you need three things: the key hidden in the fireplace which you can get after dousing the fire with water, the Collector's key which can be obtained from him in the usual way or by threatening to destroy one of his paintings after you take it from the wall, and a code number (513) which is the solution to a puzzle in a book in the bookcase. When you open the vault with Neeshka in your party, Leldon will appear and attack. Kill him to complete the quest and then loot the vault. Keep the periapt of wisdom +4 even if there is no cleric in your party, one will be joining you soon. 2.12 In Academy square near Castle Never is Jenks, who has some imps trapped in crates.He will reveal this if you succeed in a diplomacy check. Then speak to Kiggo after he wanders away to get the key he swiped from Jenks and open the crates. There is no reward for this and it moves your alignment 10 points towards chaotic. 2.13 In the centre of the Blacklake district is the artist Pepin Pollo who will paint Shandra's portrait. Best to do this without Neeshka around to avoid losing influence with her. 2.14 Dawnbringer Natrisse in the Temple of Lathander wants you to take a parcel to Brother Merring in West Harbour. When you deliver it, you can also speak to Mrs Starling to complete her quest, now that Lorne is dead. 2.15 You can challenge Cain to a banjo contest whch you win by matching his tune. Sand, Grobnar and Qara can all provide some help if they are in the party for this. 2.16 Speak to Axle and he'll ask you to make a deal with an arms merchant named Lord Gannish. Go to his estate, speak to him and then examine the goods. Depending on your skills you will be able to identify various flaws and negotiate a price. In any case, when you make the deal it turns out to be a trap laid by the City Guard and you have to kill Gannish and his men. Return to Axle for reward. 2.17 Finally, little Kyli Bryce wants you to find her sister, Lisbet, who has wandered into the tombs to meet a boy. Speak to the people inside, dispose of the undead and it turns out Lisbet's friends are budding Necromancers who have been practicing their skills. Kill them and take the key from one of the corpses to open the door nearby. Go through and clean out the whole place. You'll encounter more of Lisbet's friends, one of whom has a key that you need for the last room. In there are Lisbet along with Arval and other bad guys. After you kill them and speak to Lisbet, a bunch of greater shadows jump up and attack you. When they're dead Lisbet joins the party so you can escort her out past those you killed, who will have now also risen again. Loot the last room to get Arval's journal then leave and try to keep Lisbet Bryce alive on the way out. Speak to Kyli to finish the quest and you can also hand the journal in to Nasher for more XP. 2.18 Back to the main plot, speak to Nasher when ready to continue and he sends you to Tavorick's estate to protect him. Once inside, speak to Ballard, Tavorick, then Ballard again to advance the plot. Don't barricade anything when you are given that option. After the cutscene, go downstairs and kill all the demons down there, then back upstairs for the ones attacking Tavorick. Then speak to him and he gives you a crypt key and suggests going there. Kill more enemies downstairs and head into the crypt, preferably keeping Tavorick alive. You'll fight a big demon at the end. Once everything is dead, speak to Tavorick again and learn that he gave the shard to Melia who has taken it back to the Moonstone Mask. A mysterious warlock is there but escapes with the shard. 2.19 Talk to Nasher again and he sends you to clear out Crossroad keep (soon to be your keep). After killing the enemies outside, the doors are sealed and you need to find another way in. Head back through the fields to the exit and go to the escape tunnel area. A few beetles in the tunnel and an ore vein in the room at the bottomcentre as well as another room with some nice loot. Inside the keep, rescue Aldanon, get the book on golemcraft from the shelf in his room and fight your way through to kill the two arcane brothers who are keeping the door sealed. One of them has a key on his corpse. 2.20 Head down into the basement and meet Black Garius in the last room. You need to kill all the arcane brothers and he will disintegrate. They use lots of mind spells but are otherwise not too hard. Loot all the corpses and speak to Vale, a cutscene follows and Zhjaeve joins your party. If your main character is not a cleric, you'll certainly want to keep her. Use her silent spell feat to provide bull's strength, bear's endurance etc in both the second and third spell level slots. She comes with a spear but you'll want to switch to mace and shield so she lives longer and probably take martial proficiency so she has more weapon choices. 2.21 Return to Crossroad keep which is now yours. I cannot improve on Paradox Jast's stronghold guide (at gamefaqs.com) so refer to that for information about what to do with the keep. The key concept is that the keep runs on it's own time, independent of the passage of time outside. Keep time passes whenever you move between areas, so don't do this unless necessary because once keep time reaches 100% you cannot improve the keep any more. Use Wolf's minion to skip over the courtyard when leaving, instead of passing through it. Always speak to Kana each time you enter the interior and exhaust all conversation options. You'll also be able to reform your party whenever you leave the fields by the south exit so no longer need Duncan's tavern for this. 2.22 Once your keep progress is at 25% and Kana says the men are tasked to capacity, travel to the Ruins of Arvahn. You need to find the five statues of purity and each will give you a special ability that can ve accessed using the drop-down menu. The first statue is at the top of the hill after you enter the area. Continue right to the orc camp and they'll ask you to remove the Ogre Mage Ghellu. Go back and right to reach Riverguard Keep. 2.23 On the first level, some bugbears will agree not to fight you provided you bring them the Ghellu's head. Downstairs, a guy named Ribsmasher is behind the first door you open. If you let him, he'll run around attacking enemies for you. Unfortunately this reduces your XP and he also smashes chests and destroys the loot so you may prefer to just kill him. Behind the second door is an Ogre Captain who has the master's shield. On the third level, there are goblins in the side rooms but they will not fight you yet. After that, Ghellu wants you to kill the orc leader but I just killed Ghellu and his friends instead then went back and killed the goblins in the side rooms. The master's sceptre is on Ghellu's corpse. The locked door at the end will open if you try a few times. You get zapped each time though. The second statue is behind it. It also looks like you can do something with the master's sceptre and shield and that sarcophagus in the first room but I couldn't figure out what. Once outside, there is no reward for helping the bugbears so you may as well kill them instead. 2.24 Return to Uthanck for reward then continue on the Temple of Seasons. In each of the four rooms, you need to read the book in the centre then kill any enemies that appear. Some will respawn a few times when killed. Finally you reach the centre room and the third statue. 2.25 Your next stop is the gem mines in the south-east corner of the area. This area is a pain in the ass. You need to find six ghosts that are barely visible and only show up at all when you kill the undead nearby. Then speak to the ghosts which causes them to move - you want to herd them towards the tree in the centre. All along the corridors are lights you can switch on and off. The ghosts won't move past lit ones so make sure you turn off the ones along the path you want the ghosts to take and light the ones behind them so they don't turn around and go backwards. I recommend going through and killing all the undead first before attempting to do anything with the ghosts. The spirit locations are as follows: the room right next to the tree room, the third room down on the right side, the room on the right centre surrounded by corridors, the mess hall on the left, a dead end near the bottom left and the far bottom right behind the iron golem. In the smithy on the top left you can also get a rune-inscribed piece of iron that Grobnar needs to reactivate your construct. I never did find the glowing liquid for this though. Once the six ghosts are at their spots by the tree you can access the fourth statue. 2.26 As you leave the gem mines, you see the song portal open so head up there. This takes you back to West Harbour where everyone has been slaughtered (by that mysterious warlock we met earlier). Over by the south-west field Zhjaeve speaks to you and suggests investigating the swamp. Go over to the guardian ruins and defeat the Shadow Reaver and his minions, grab their loot and use the nearby song portal to go back to your keep. Develop your keep some more and then speak to Aldanon when you get the 'Lord Nasher wants to see you' speech from Kana. 2.27 Aldanon sends you to Ammon Jerro's haven in the Sword Mountains. Visit the guardian at the top left to get three quests and an empty bottle. Then work your way through, killing and looting everything. When you find a fiery heart, put it on one of the braziers. Shadows will attack each time you do this. After placing three hearts on the three braziers, take the path up the mountain. If you take the good path and don't kill the shaman, some spirits appear and you have to kill them instead. Finally, fill the bottle at the geyser. You'll take damage and may well fall unconscious, just keep the rest of the party away while you do it. There's a nest up on a cliff in this area, if you approach it says 'Guyven would be interested in this' but when I spoke to him later there was no new dialogue option. Before returning to the guardian, strip Shandra of all her equipment because she's leaving permanently (Hooray). 2.28 Once inside, speak to Mephasm and he'll tell you to convince at least three of the five fiends to open their portals for you. The first one you meet is Baalbisan and he wants you to slay Hezebel's Erinyes. Move on and speak to Hezebel, she'll tell you that you may be able to provoke Baalbisan into revealing his true name. It's a taunt check which I failed so I had to kill the Erinyes. Vaxis is next and refuses to help you. Koraboros is the fourth fiend and wants you to find an imp that is missing. The imp is in a room to the east and you need to read the correct phrase from a book in the bookcase next to him to release him from his trance. There are lore and spellcraft options, otherwise 'Tilo ut lon' worked for me. If you guess the wrong phrase various mind spells are cast on your party - bad if they start attacking one another. Once the imp is free, return to Koraboros and he'll agree to help you. The last fiend is Blooden who wants you to convince Koraboros to send some hellhounds to fight her succubi. After the fight she will help you. My first time through, I think Blooden also gave me the true name of Zaxis and I was able to get his support but this didn't happen the second time. 2.29 Head through the portal, fight Ammon Jerro, watch the cutscene, then speak to him again. Another cutscene follows and you wind up back in the tavern in your keep. Ammon Jerro is now available as a party member. Warlocks are useless but he will be needed to advance the plot in some upcoming areas. You are summoned to Castle Never as part two ends. Part Three ---------- 3.01 You have a ceremonial sword in your hands so equip your normal weapon, defeat the enemies and follow Nevalle to the guard room. You need to use an underground tunnel to reach the throne room as the castle is locked off. Take the first right turn outside the guard room and use the tapestry at the end. The shadow priests use death magic so if you don't have immunity, use the ceremonial sword, which does. Neverneath is a series of statues who ask questions, if you answer correctly you get some XP and a door opens allowing you to move on, otherwise a different door opens which leads to the same place but you have to fight some creatures first. The answers, in order, are: nine, black lake, the tomb of the betrayers, neverwinter river, say nothing and three. Then kill the swords of Never and grab the rod from Halueth Never's tomb in order to proceed. 3.02 After saving Nasher, he asks you to form alliances to help defend Crossroad Keep. The four possible alliances are: ironfist dwarves, lizardfolk, druids of the mere and the wendersnaven. You also need to reach the Vale of Merdelain and strike directly at the King of Shadows but this cannot be done until later. Finish up your business at the keep, then leave. You'll want Khelgar, Grobnar and Elanee in the party for this bit. 3.03 First stop is the Ironfist dwarves. Speak to the boss in the last room - he won't have anything to do with you but Khulmar sends you to Mt Galardrym to retrieve the belt of Ironfist. He also gives you a fire resistance ring which you will need (hint). Visit the smith Revorax as well for some very nice items, especially for Khelgar. 3.04 Next, go to the Circle of the Mere and Bishop joins the party. I don't think there's any way to avoid a fight here so, after the cutscene, kill them, take the loot and head for Port Llast. 3.06 Fight Light of Heavens near the entrance, then talk to the two crazy gnomes on the east side. With Grobnar's help, you'll eventually get a map to the Wendersnaven. Go to the strange clearing, there is no Wendersnaven and you get attacked by orcs on the way out. Also grab the ore vein just to the west of the entrance. 3.07 This is a good time to visit the Neverwinter merchant quarter to meet Light of Heavens again, get Joy for your keep and check out the two new merchants. 3.08 Return to your keep, defeat Light of Heavens for the last time, then speak to Khralver Irlingstar outside and go to the meeting with Sydney Natale. Offer Jalboun double what Sydney is paying and he'll join you in the fight - try not to let him die because he'll come to work at your keep later. Also grab the ore nearby. When you return to the keep, you probably want Zhjaeve to keep the true name scroll. Only she and Ammon Jerro can use it and Zhjaeve is more useful. Reform your party and head to Mt. Galardrym. 3.09 Take the left path at the first junction, staying at the bottom of the map and grab the ore at the end. Then head up to the top right exit and speak to the dragon. It wants your help to kill the fire giants. Return to the mountain and go up towards the top left exit. There is another ore vein near the big camp. Free the prisoners then get ready for a big fight and take the top left exit. Ideally you want fire immunity via the 7th level mage spell for your most important characters. 3.10 When you get the dialogue option to attack either the giants or the dragon, choose to attack both. Take down the fire giant king first, then focus on the dragon. Once everything is dead, loot the corpses and chests, free the drow merchant from her prison, then head back over to the dragon's hoard and loot everything there too. There is a rock on the cliff near the dragon's area entrance that you can push over for some XP, though the giants below are already dead. If you chose the church for your keep, you can advance the quest that you getfrom the priest there by finding a mace in the dragon's hoard. I couldn't get the priest to recognize I had completed the quest though. There's another ore vein at the back of the dragon's lair as well. 3.11 You can now get the support of the dwarves by speaking to their leader. The Hammerof Ironfist is a good weapon but you need to wear the belt and gloves as well. I preferred to wear just the belt along with bracers of armor and the Rifthammer. If you speak to Kana after finding the true name scroll, she'll tell you the men have tracked the location of a Shadow Reaver. Speak to Guyven as well for some advice. The men have also retrieved the gold from the dragon's hoard if you killed it. 3.12 That leaves the lizards of Highcliff for the alliance quests. You can do this even if you slaughtered every last lizard back in part one. Save Gera and Zachan (again) on the way, grab another ore (though you already have enough) and then go into the village. Speak to the elder and the the captured lizardman. After healing his wounds you can interrogate him for information and some XP. Then head down to the south of the city and defeat Batha and his guards to get the support of the lizardmen. 3.13 After building up your keep for a while, the next stop is the Shadow Reaver camp. Have Zhjaeve or Ammon read the true name scroll while your other characters take out the minor enemies first, then the Shadow Reaver. The last shard is on the Reaver's corpse. Return to the keep courtyard and Ammon Jerro gives you directions to Nolaloth, an ancient crystal dragon. 3.14 Around this time (on the evil path) some of Axle's men enter the keep disguised as greycloaks, then a bit later Axle asks for a meeting. Go to his place in the merchant district and speak to the doorman to enter. He asks you to kill Moire who has formed a rival gang, but first you have to locate their base. In the storage area at the top left of the map some thieves are trying to break into a house but they get blasted by a trap and run away. One stops near the park entrance but the other goes to a locked house nearby. I wasn't able to get in here and advance the quest any further. 3.15 In Nolaloth's Valley, kill the enemies until you reach the rocky outcropping with a crystal at one end. Nolaloth will appear, tell you how to reforge the silver sword, then request that you end his life by destroying the crystal heart. Go back, bash the crystal and you have to fight the two black dragons you saw earlier. They are much easier than Tholaspyx. Afterwards, finish off the crystal to complete the quest. There are two more ore veins in this area, one right by the entrance and the other in the north-western corner of the central clearing. 3.16 We're going to West Harbour to reforge the sword but you can't travel there directly. Instead go to the Ruins of Arvahn and use the Song Portal. Once you exit in West Harbour and kill some shadows, you can cross the river by rebuilding the bridge if your main character has the necessary skill (mine didn't and I'm not sure which skill is required). You also need four logs, three are in a group to the east of the bridge and the other is over to the west. If you can't build a bridge, you'll have to wade through the river and be affected by the poison. Follow the path to the burned patch, reforge the sword, defeat the second Shadow Reaver with Zhjaeve reading the scroll as before, then leave using the exit nearby. 3.17 Back at your keep, you are summoned down to the beach where a Shadow Reaver is attacking your men. This time Ammon Jerro joins your party so use him to read the scroll (he gets a second scroll and Zhjaeve keeps hers). He can also wear the Neverwinter Nine tunic you were given earlier. Kill the Reaver and grab the Tome of Iltkazar from its corpse then return to the keep. You can talk to Aldanon again but he doesn't recognize that you have the tome. Finish up developing your keep and speak to Sir Nevalle near the main gate when ready. 3.18 There's a cutscene showing the battle at Highcliff, afterwards speak to Nevalle again. He asks you to speak to your people and prepare to defend the keep. Reform your party to include whoever you had to drop when Ammon Jerro joined, then speak to Nevalle, say that you're ready and he informs you that Ammon Jerro is missing. Enter the keep and Aldanon speaks to you and sends you to Shandra's farm. You have to kill Koraboros and two of his minions. After that there is a cutscene where Ammon apologizes to Shandra for killing her (sob) and you get a very nice amulet and other loot. 3.19 Back at the keep, speak to Nevalle again and, after a cutscene, you are sent to destroy two bridges to halt the enemy advance. You can only choose two companions this time. When offered the choice of fighters or archers, I recommend archers because the fighters die too quickly. Just advance through the area killing everything. Only the last fight after the second bridge is a challenge because you are surrounded. Area of effect spells are very effective here. After the fight the bridges are destroyed automatically and you return to the keep. 3.20 Get ready for a big fight with more undead and again you only get two party members. The way this works is that siege towers arrive one by one, starting with the one near your start location, and undead appear from each siege tower until it is destroyed. The towers themselves are highly damage resistant and your side is continually bombarding them from a distance, so your main job is to stay alive and get rid of the undead. Try not to move along the wall until each tower is destroyed, otherwise you risk having enemies appear behind you. However, you do need to take out any vampire mages so use spells for this. The enemies are numerous and of medium strength so area of effect spells work well. Zhjaeve and Qara are probably your best choices. The greycloaks, dwarves or lizards you start with will die, but reinforcements appear fairly regularly. 3.21 After the last tower is destroyed and all undead dispatched, you are sent to the courtyard. Hordes of undead swarm through so just keep killing them. Finally, Black Garius appears along with a nightwalker. As usual, you will want mind immunity or at least remove fear. Ignore Garius and just take out the shadow. Once it goes down, there is a cutscene where Ammon Jerro reads the true name scroll, destroying Garius and the rest of the undead army. 3.22 Afterwards, back inside the keep, Aldanon finally notices you have the Tome of Iltkazar and tells you how to use it. This is the last chance to shop or otherwise prepare. Speak to Aldanon again, you'll need to take Zhjaeve and Ammon Jerro plus two others for the final assault on the King of Shadows. 3.23 Rest and/or buff straight away in the first room as spiders will appear and attack you before you move very far. You'll exit into a large, open area with many undead and lootable corpses. I didn't find anything on the corpses that was useful at this stage of the game. There is also strange, black fog which acts as a teleporter. Move over to the right and enter the fog at the bottom of he stairs. This teleports you to the upper level over on the left. Unlock the left hand door and head through. Go down the stairs and fight some blade golems then through the door at the western end of the area and through some more black fog. This sends you to the top right. There is a nightwalker at the bottom of the stairs and another tough fight through the south door with a lich, two shadow priests and some vampires. Head around to the left and enter the final black fog. Some mummies attack you right away and in the last room you have to fight *three* Shadow Reavers. Have Ammon Jerro using the true name scroll constantly - it's best to control him manually to make sure he doesn't revert to blasting them with his puny spells. 3.24 Proceed to the inner sanctum and all other party members join you. Rest and buff because as soon as you open the door, Black Garius appears along with lots of undead. There is a cutscene where various of your party members may betray you and fight for Garius - Bishop always does and Qara is the other one likely to leave. Sand and Neeshka may or may not depending on your influence with them. They even get equipment if they don't currently have any. A further complication is that force fields appear that separate your party. The ones left near the door should ignore the nearby enemies and run immediately around the ends of the forcefield to get at Garius in the central area. 3.25 Once he dies there is a further chance to rest and regroup. Use the portal and the King of Shadows steps out. There is a truly evil path here, which is to ally with the King of Shadows. He asks you to slay all your comrades as a gesture of faith, then raises them as his servants. This ends the game. 3.26 Assuming you don't do that, the King of Shadows goes down fairly easily. Then the fun starts as lots of little replicas of him start appearing from the statues and you have to kill all of those. More will appear as the fight goes on. Try to keep your party together on one side of the area so you don't engage them all at once and your mages have some protection. Finally, the big, bad, King of Shadows appears but you can't hurt him until all five statues are destroyed by bashing them. I split my party into two groups for this. After the statues, you also need to destroy the portal using the Silver Sword of Gith. The King of Shadows is not too hard to kill after that. _______________________________________________________________________________