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Description
Having claimed the first Seal of Light, the Order of the Flame pushes onward towards the location of
the second Seal. Upon entering the swamplands, they discover a ruined outpost, all that remains from
the Order's previous attempt to claim the Heart. Now, Lady Marryn's forces must succeed where their
predecessors have failed.
New Units
- Deathless Guardian
- Sorcerer
Walkthrough
You'll start out in the chapter next to a badly-damaged nexus (#1). Every so often, small groups of
Lizardfolk (from the west) or night skinks (from the north) will attack the nexus. There are two ways
to stop these attacks. The easiest way is to repair the nexus walls. That will just cost you a small
amount of gold and dragonshards. The more difficult way is to destroy the night skink area to the
north (#3) and the Lizardfolk defenders to the west (#4). Possibly, the attacks might eventually
stop on their own, but we've never waited that long.
Once you've stopped the attacks, you'll pretty much have free reign over the map. The Lizardfolk
champion Redfang will patrol around with several units, but otherwise you'll only encounter fixed
enemies. So explore thoroughly, complete a few sub-quests (described in the annotations below),
and then head for the enemy nexus (#12).
The Lizardfolk nexus should be pretty easy to destroy. We've yet to see the Lizardfolk actually
upgrade the walls of the nexus, and so once you've defeated the few units that might be defending
it, the rest should be slow but easy. With the nexus out of the way, the tunnel leading to
Darroc's Trials (Exit F) will open up.
There are three trials in all. In the first trial (#14), you'll have to defeat several skeleton
archers while avoiding a few traps. If you send in a rogue first, then you can use him to disable
the traps without the archer's noticing. You can also skirt around to the north and pull the lever
there (#15), which will cause some columns to collapse on the archers.
In the second trial (#16), you'll have to fight some zombies and vampires. You should find this
battle to be pretty easy.
In the third and final trial (#17), you'll have to fight a beast called a cryohydra. The cryohydra
is big, and it has a lot of hit points, and it can freeze your units with its icy breath, but it
doesn't do all that much damage. When we used a dozen level 5 clerics and paladins (plus Lady
Marryn) against the cryohydra, it barely made a dent.
When the cryohydra dies, you'll receive a champion's artifact (the artifact is different for each
champion, but it will infuse the champion's weapon with a frost attack), and the gate leading to
the Seal of Light (#18) will open. Then when you approach the Seal of Light, the chapter will end.
1 - Nexus
2 - Dwarven Mages
The dwarven mages will ask you to investigate why the deathless guardians in the underworld have grown
silent, and they'll give you a
rune of passage so that you can visit the shrine where they're supposed to be. When you
reach the shrine (#7), you'll find it surrounded by Umbragen units. After defeating those units,
you'll gain control of the shrine, and you'll be allowed to start producing deathless guardians.
You'll also receive a new quest, to improve the shrine by destroying the tribal defender (#9) that
is preventing light from reaching the shrine.
After defeating the Umbragen units, when you return to the dwarven mages, they'll reward you with a
potion of clarity III, and they'll also join your side. Dwarven mages won't enter the
underworld, but you can use them to harvest dragonshards on the surface (they're too frail to take
into battle).
3 - Ancient Graveyard
Night skinks will spawn here (#3). When you get close enough, you'll receive a quest to defeat the
night skinks and demolish their burial grounds. During the battle, you should find a pair of
bonecrafted pauldrons and a
scroll of stone to flesh -- mass. All three of those quest items can be used in the
northeastern corner of the map (#13). Once you've cleansed the graveyard, two
potions of cure light wounds will appear at the waterfall to the south (#3a).
4 - Ford
The river here has piranhas in it, and your units will take serious damage when they try to cross
through it. The Lizardfolk will station a few units on the western side of the ford, but it's not
a good idea to charge at them with land units, because between the Lizardfolk and the piranhas,
your force will probably get slaughtered. Instead, to defeat the Lizardfolk here, it's better
to either circle around through the tunnels and the underworld, or else hit them with flame archons.
Three or four flame archons can do the job easily.
5 - Shrine of the Blood Queen
You'll find a few traps here, plus some gold, plus a lectern. The lectern contains a book about
the Blood Queen. When you read it, you'll earn 5000 experience.
6 - Tranquil Fountain
The Umbragen will camp a couple of silent stalkers next to the fountain, and so you won't be able
to control it until you've gained some units (such as deathless guardians) that can detect them.
7 - Dwarven Shrine
Once the shrine has been upgraded, controlling it will allow your units to see farther and detect
cloaked units.
8 - Treasure Rooms
In these two treasure rooms you'll find
boots of haste, a
masterwork breastplate, and some gold.
9 - Tribal Defender
Destroying this tower will allow light to shine on the dwarven shrine below (#7).
10 - Duergar
When you approach the duergar, you'll discover that they've been surrounded by some magical
brambles, and that they're stuck in the southwestern corner of the map. To destroy the brambles,
simply attack them with a unit that can do fire damage (such as the flame archon). Once they've
been freed, and after you've spoken to them in the underworld, the duergar will join your cause.
Note: If you get the duergar killed, they'll drop
duergar bracers, which you can use at #13.
11 - Fire Toads
Fire toads will spawn here until they've dropped five
fire toad tongues. You can use the tongues at #13.
12 - Lizardfolk Nexus
The Lizardfolk never seem to bother to upgrade the walls of this nexus, so it shouldn't be very
difficult to destroy it.
13 - Sorcerer's Tower
The sorcerer's tower is a place of power that allows units to use their special abilities more
quickly. Next to the tower, you'll find a sorcerer and four pteranodon riders, all turned to
stone. If you use the
scroll of stone to flesh -- mass (from #3) on the sorcerer (nothing will happen if you
use it on the pteranodon riders), then the sorcerer and pteranodon riders will come to life and
start fighting each other. The pteranodon riders are flying units, so make sure you have some
ranged units in the area to help in the fight.
After the battle with the pteranodon riders, the sorcerer will join your side, and you'll be allowed
to start training sorcerers. The elderly wizard will also take this opportunity to show up again,
and he'll offer you three deals. If you give him five
fire toad tongues (from #11), then he'll give you a
sword of cinders.
If you give him two
bonecrafted pauldrons (from #3), then he'll give you a
scroll of create undead and a
scroll of monster summoning.
And if you give him four
duergar bracers (from the duergar at #10), then he'll give you a
girdle of dwarven might.
14 - Darroc's First Trial
15 - Lever
16 - Darroc's Second Trial
17 - Darroc's Third Trial
18 - Seal of Light
Exits:
- Teleporter Circle. You won't be able to use the teleporter circle until you've defeated the
bloodroot eating away at the western instance.
- Tunnel.
- Tunnel. This tunnel starts out blocked. You'll need to free the duergar (#10) to be able to
use it.
- Tunnel.
- Tunnel.
- Tunnel. You won't be able to use this tunnel until you've destroyed the Lizardfolk nexus (#12).
| Mission Points | Value | Description
| Repair the City Walls | 250
| Repaired the walls of your nexus to at least 75%.
Cleanse the Ancient Graveyard
500
Destroyed the night skinks and the burial grounds.
| | The Fortified River Ford | 500
| Defeated the Lizardfolk at the ford.
| | Plight of the Ancients | 1000
| Helped the dwarven mages.
| | Free the Duergar | 250
| Freed the duergar.
| | Free the Petrified Sorcerers | 250
| Turned the petrified sorcerer from stone to flesh.
| | Build a New Sorcerer's Tower | 250
| Built a Sorcerer's Tower.
| | Collect Reagents for the Elderly Wizard | 750
| Collected fire tongues, bonecrafted pauldrons, and duergar bracers for the elderly wizard.
| | Destroy the Lizard Citadel | 1000
| Destroyed the enemy nexus.
| | Acquire the Seal of Light | 2500
| Reached the Seal of Light.
| | Bonus: Duergar Backstabber | 100
| Freed the duergar but then allowed them to die.
| | Bonus: Adament Defender | 500
| Defeated all of the Lizardfolk assaults before repairing the walls of your nexus. (We've never
gotten this bonus. Either there's some finite number of attacks and we've just never been patient
enough to wait for them all, or else this bonus is broken.)
| | Bonus: Bane of the Blood Queen | 250
| Collected all of the gold at the Blood Queen's shrine but didn't get hurt by any of the traps.
| |
| Bonus Points | Value | Description
| Great Commander Bonus | 500
| Allowed fewer than 25% of your units to die.
| | Against All Odds Bonus | 500
| Created less than nine captains.
| | Miser Bonus | 1000
| Used less than 2500 gold and 2500 shards.
| | Meticulous Bonus | 2000
| Completed every possible quest.
| | Time Bonus | 0
| Beat the mission in under 10 minutes. (You can actually score up to 1500
points here, but this bonus will never count against you.)
| | Difficulty | Varies
| Easy is worth 0 points, Normal is worth 500 points, and
Hard is worth 2000 points.
| |
