Walkthrough: Chapter 6
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| Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |
This whole chapter takes place in the Severed Hand. It is possible to run through the place, but it is not recommended. Basically what you are going to be doing here is fixing up the final battleground. It is practically impossible to finish the game without trying to even the odds a bit.
There is a good way through this chapter that will give you the easiest time at the end, an evil way that will make the battle tougher than the easy way, and a stupid way which will make it VERY difficult to win. I will cover the latter two methods in its own section at the bottom of this part of the guide.
I will progress a little differently this time. I will present floor maps (when needed) the first time a floor is explored. I will be splitting the main text into sections based on the major quests. I will try to cover side quests in a single section, but it is possible that they may spread a bit across. We will just have to wait to see what happens with it.
Gaining Entry
The front doors are guarded by a pair of chimeras, a pair of guards, and their commander. You can bluff your way inside, or just bash the guards to enter the final level. The method is up to you. Make sure that you grab the spear before you enter the place.
As you enter the Severed Hand, a bunch of guards will assault you. Make sure that you deal with them now, or they will alert the entire compound to your presence. You do not want to fight all the inhabitants at the same time! Just trust me on this. Also, make sure that you don't attack the glabrezu guard - he is invulnerable for now.
From here on out I will be referencing locations on the maps. This first section will see you visiting the whole of the central part of the Severed Hand, as well as one fo the side towers. There are few battles to be done here and many people to talk to. Search all the containers to find level eight and nine spell scrolls.
After killing the guards, head north and talk to Xavier to get a pass. You need the pass. Talk to Ysha in one of the western rooms. She needs some help. Apparently, the slaves have been building the place contrary to the plans. She needs you to change the plans for her. Tuck them in your belt for later and head to Jerre's chamber. Talk to him about the slaves and the guards and then talk to the demon. Make sure that he reveals his true purpose. Talk to Vashti about her problems - agree to help her get more food. Once you know that the workers are slaves and the demon confirmed it, tell Xavier as much (it is a choice at a later conversation branch) to get some extra experience. Climb up to the second floor.
There are more quests to get on this floor. Do not enter Dracein's room more than once - you will disrupt some quests by doing so. Talk to Vese and mention that you are interested in joining the enclave to get a quest. Talk to Garuk in the Globe of Essence room to get some information and then head west. A pair of mages send a demonic construct after you. Kill Fynne's creation and then search the room to find a diary and a Vial of Tainted Demon Blood (on the construct's body).
Go south and talk to Roga. He needs help with a fellow slave. Go to the western library and search the shelves to find a second diary. Show it to Cedrin in the foyer and talk to him at length about Zaem. Go to the next room to the north to find Vylu. She is obviously ill - tell Roga about it and he'll send you up to the infirmary for some help. Talk to Kav next. Talk to him about his master's death and have him fix the plans up for you. The cupboard in his room contains the Ring of Nourishment and a Virulent Agent, two items that you will need for later. Now climb up to the third floor.
You will need to clear this floor of all monsters now, or at some later point. There are traps outside the pool room and the throne room. Since this is where you will be fighting the final battle (later) you will want to clear the traps away. The two southern rooms are the twins; bedrooms - kill the guards and swipe the holy symbols from them. To the west of the stairs there is a room full of demons. Have a character with high Diplomacy approach them to be given the option of dealing with them in a peaceful manner. Otherwise you have to fight them. Do what you will with them and then grab the Bonding Agent from the northern room.
Talk to the glabrezu guards in the throne room to find out that they are indeed immortal and that there to guard the slaves. The eastern pool room can be cleared now or later. The guards include a really high level priest, so make sure that you deal with him first. The Slayer Knights of Xvim are incredibly powerful, so make sure that you are ready to deal with them when they get to you. Clearing them now gets rid of the need of dealing with them later. Head to the fourth floor when you are done here.
This is the final map here (all the other areas are really small). There are four passages that lead to the side towers. The western one goes to the wizard tower, the southern to the officer's tower, the eastern one goes to the cleric's tower and the northeastern one goes to the war tower. Ignore talking to Riki for now and talk to Jaebrilla in the northern room instead. She was Zaem's betrothed. Talk to her about her fiancée to get some more background information. Make sure to note that Cedrin seemed to know what has been going on. Stay away from the barracks for now and go to the infirmary. Talk to Drothan there to get some information out of him. Make sure that he reveals the presence of a priest of Ilmater (requires that you have the ruinlord's diary from the second floor). He disappears. Talk to Eradru and mention Vylu to get a potion to help her. Go to the western kitchen and talk to the cook. She gives you crap for coming and tells you that she can't help you. Pick up the Vial of Demon Blood from the shelves and then head for the wizard's tower.
To enter the tower you have to solve a riddle. By clicking on the blue flames you will cause one of two things to happen. The first is a small chime, and the second is a flurry of icicles that damage your whole party. To solve the puzzle you will have to create a star between the flames. Click on the top flame, then the lower right one, then the one on the left side, then the right one, the lower left one and finally the top one again. That will get you into the tower.
Do not talk to Orrick while in the tower, or you will change some later events. On the second floor make sure that you grab Orrick's Spell Book. Go up a floor to find the library. Grab the Book of the Mythal and the Tome of Ilmater and then go up to the last floor. Grab Larrel's Bones and then return to the Severed Hand.
Return to the second floor. Tell Cedrin that you think that he murdered Zaem. Ask him to tell you how it was done and then head to Vese. Tell him the combination and then give him the items that he wants you to find next. Make sure that you press him for a reward to get a tattoo that infers a saving throw feat upon the wearer. Tell him about Cedrin to watch the guy get executed. Tell Kav and Jaebrilla about what happened and make sure that you grab Cedrin's gear. Give the potion to Vylu and then tell Roga that she is back to normal. Return to the first floor.
Give Ysha the modified plans. Talk to Vashti and tell her of the cook's answer. Agree to lie in wait for the thief. Wait a while and Zaem's creature comes to swipe the food. Follow it to its chamber and tell it of the problem. Give it the Ring of Nourishment that you found earlier to get some experience. This finishes off the first round of quests.
The Captive Priest's Ritual
The sleep potion is made up of a Virulent Agent, Tainted Demon Blood and Bonding Agent. You should have these three items by now. If not, you will have to look in the above walkthrough to find them. The poison is similarly made, but includes untainted Demon Blood. When you have the three items that you need, head for the second floor. Go to Dracein's room and ask her for permission to use the lab. Place the three items onto the table and the poison or potion will be created. Return to the fourth floor and go to the kitchen. Place the poison into the sacks of flour to finish the quest. No matter which method you chose, the guards still die. Return to Riki to get the next quest.
Now she talks about a priest and a ritual. This is where the quest splits between good and evil methods. The good method is described here, while the evil path is detailed in the next section. This section will detail the path to getting to the final battle. Head to the War Tower and kill the guards on the first floor. Grab the key from the table and open the cells. The lemure is the Ormis, the head of the Black Raven Monastery. He needs your help to escape the Severed Hand. The man on the left is Puddy, the representative from Bryn Shander. He also needs help getting out. The one on the right is the cleric that you have been looking for.
Toral Sorn explains that you will need four items to complete the ritual. The Tome of Ilmater (you should have it already), Bonds of the Faithful, Tears of Suffering and a Holy Symbol of Ilmater (which you have already). Go up one floor to find the man in charge of torturing Toral. Kill him and his friends and grab the bonds. Return to the Severed Hand and go to the Wizard's Tower to talk to Orrick about the possibility of securing passage for Puddy. Then head to the first floor of the Severed Hand and talk to Jerre to get the tears (make him cry!). Return to the fourth floor and go to the eastern Cleric's Tower now.
You will have to deal with Yquog, if you hadn't done so earlier. Scare him off by showing him all the bodies that you carry around with you. It is worth some laughs! Take a look at the second statue on the left side. That is the statue of Ilmater. Place the items at the foot of the statue and you'll be interrupted by an avatar of Iyachtu Xvim. If you want to be evil, talk to him. Otherwise just start a battle with him. He is really easy - just smack him and his demons around (Disintegrate works here too!). Finish off the ritual and the tower will be altered. Return to the third floor of the Severed Hand and dump the holy water in the radiant pool. Then head to the second floor and destroy the globe - the guards have to die too. Pick up the holy symbols (you'll need them). Return to the first floor and slay the demonic guard and tell Jerre of your success.
Return to the Cleric's Tower and head to the second floor. Kill the priests there, but ignore the symbol in the center. Grab the holy symbols and climb up another floor. Destroy the entire congregation and grab the rest of the holy symbols. Put one on each of your characters and proceed to the second floor. If you have one on each character, click on the central circle to teleport to the fourth floor. Deal with the Tyranner and the animated remains of all the bosses that you fought (easy battle), and grab the potion off his corpse. Return to the War Tower and tell all three of the prisoners of your success. Puddy leaves, Toral sticks around and Ormis offers to aid you in the final battle. Return to Riki.
Riki tells you of her final task - you must confront the delegation from the Cabal of Dragonkind and slay them all in the hopes of pissing off Isair and Madae. Head up to the top of the War Tower and confront Stubnok. He tells you that you must talk to Captain Pudu. Slay him and his guards and head to the Officer's Tower. Don't bother visiting any other floor than the last one. Slay Pudu and his girlfriend to get the key to the landing pad. Rest and head all the way to the top of the War Tower.
At the top you will witness the arrival of the dignitaries. Captain Malign also arrives, so you have to deal with him too. My order of priorities is to get rid of the mage first, then all the knights (including Malign). You can sic one fighter on the half-dragons to deal with them easily enough. Once all your enemies are dead, make a permanent save game and rest. Prepare any useful spells and then climb down the stairs.
The Paths of Evil and Stupidity
The stupid method is to kill Toral, and make the deal with Xvim, but kill him before finalizing it. The end result? You have two invincible demons walking around during the final battle, and the twins can replenish themselves!
After the ritual, proceed with the post ritual part of the walkthough.
The Final Battle
Mourn is another wizard that starts off behind the thrones. The rest of the accomplices start to the left or right of your party. Try to kill them as fast as possible or the superior numbers will wear you down! Once you have the minions under control, it is time to deal with the twins. Don't forget to dispel any holding, domination and stun spells that have been cast on your party!
You only have to beat up one of the twins to scare the pair off. In this first part of the battle refrain from casting large damage spells at the twins. Just send your fighters after one of the twins. Knock the one around a bit and then finish off the minions after the battle. Do not leave the room until you are fully healed (the Avarice Decanter is perfect for this!) and have cast any needed protection spells.
If you sided with Xvim, you will now have to fight Isair and Madae at full strength, with ALL their spells restored! If you completed the ritual and blessed the pool, you are in luck - they lose all their spell protections and get no more spells! They come with a pair of slayer knights (keep them away from clerics!). Deal with the knights first and then focus on one of the twins again. You just have to get one close to death to win the battle. Disintegrate didn't seem to work, but all my other heavy spells worked wonders on them!
I don't want to spoil the ending now, so I will just leave it at this. You will have to finish off the knights, regardless of when you massacred the twins!
If you have any troubles with this last battle, let me offer a few suggestions for spells to use. Ottiluke's Resilient Sphere is great for eliminating secondary threats (for a while). Disintegrate is an awesome way to get rid of all those troubling minions. Dispel Magic is used to get rid of holding spells, so it is awesome to have! Power Word Stun is great to slow down your opponents. Use Mass Heal and Heal spells during the battle, but use regular potions and spells to heal between the two battles. Resurrect is better than Raise Dead, as it will return a character to life with full hit points. The last spells that I found useful are Mordenkainen's Sword and Tenser's Transformation. These spells were only cast when my mages remaining spells were all used.
Remember - there is no shame in lowering the difficulty, if you keep dying. There is nothing wrong with changing tactics from time to time. Just don't give up hope - you will succeed! And most importantly, have fun while doing it!
