Walkthrough: Chapter 4
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| Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |
The title says it all! Well, it is both dark and very scary! The Underdark is not a place to vacation - deadly monsters hide around every corner. Mind you, the whole chapter is not spent in the dark, but a good portion of it is. You just have to get by the monks first.
The Black Raven Monastery
The first bridge on the way to the monastery is trapped. Go over it single file, or your characters will start to fall off. If they fall off, they return to the western side, wounded and unconscious. Go over the bridge and to the south to find a white wyrm nest. Pick up the ring, but ignore the egg! If you touch the egg, the wyrms will attack you. Instead go across the southeastern bridge. A flood of yetis will come at you from the cave on the other side - either kill them all, or bring them to the wyrms, so you can watch them kill all the yetis. Go through the cave to get to the monastery entrance.
Here you are given a choice. If you are evil, you can just kill all the monks and grab a needed key off of the leader's corpse. To get the reward from the duergar you will have to kill all the monks - until you get a message saying that they were all slain. Then you are free to kill the duergar, if you want. You should at least do the monks' quests before putting them to the sword though. The other choice is to be good and help the monks by not killing them. By doing things this way, you will have to undergo a set of harsh tests. I will assume that you are doing it by the later way!
Before you can take the needed tests to get into the Underdark, you will have to convince the leader of the order to trust you. There are two ways of doing this. You can reveal an emissary as a liar, or expose Salisam, a monk that is trying to obtain leadership of the order, as wanting her power. Either way works fine.
Talk to Salisam in the entrance. He will tell you of Aruma, the current leader of the order. Go to the southeastern chamber and talk to Aruma and Dolon. She will throw your request for accessing the Underdark out the window. Only members and associates of the order are allowed in the tomb below the monastery. Return to Salisam and talk to him about the situation. Go to the room that is immediately to the west of Aruma's and open the locked door. Enter and pick the lock on the chest to find some papers. Now head to Aruma and either expose Salisam or show her the papers. In any case, talk to either Salisam or Aruma afterwards to get permission to take the Eight Chambers test.
Before you go through with it, there are a couple of quests that you can do. Talk to Sersa in the barracks to hear that her instructor won't teach her anymore. A high level monk can help her understand her problem, or a character with a high Diplomacy can arrange to talk to Svaltid, her instructor. In any case she rewards you for her helping her.
Nonin, the cook, lost his precious ring. He can be found in the kitchen. Give him the ring that you found in the wyrm's nest. He'll give you the key to the storage room, which is just south from the entrance. Head there and talk to Ven. There are a couple of options that are open to you now. Ven wants you to help him steal the monks' treasure from the vault. Truth is, he'll betray you and force you to deal with four IRON golems, creatures that you can't even harm when fighting one of them! Say no, and he'll give you Nonin's real ring for not turning him in. Turn him in anyways and give the ring to Nonin to finish the quest.
Rest and go down the stairs to find where you'll be tested.
The Eight Chambers Test
The Eight Chambers test is simply a series of fights revolving around puzzles. You have to do them one at a time and with a single character. The character you choose is not allowed to wear any equipment at all, except what is available in each of the chambers. Drop everything into the nearby chest and talk to Marohem to start the test. Note: you should be fine with a fighter here - a monk is perfect for the job!
The first test is the Chamber of Stone. You have to pull the five levers in a specific order. After each correct pull, you will have to fight stone monks. The number of monks increases with the amount of correct levers you pull. Pull the wrong lever and you have to start from the beginning. The correct order is lever one, five, three, two and four.
The second test is the Chamber of Shadows. Here you'll have to fight shadow monks, but only if you enter the wrong door. The correct order is upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right.
The third test is the Chamber of Sorcery. Step on one of the blue circles to protect yourself from electricity and get ready to kill the pair of crystalline monks. If you don't kill them fast enough, they will reappear on the yellow circles and will fire lightning bolts at you. Kill them both to end the test.
The fourth test is the Chamber of Clockwork. The clockwork monks blow up once they are near death. A counter appears over their head. Avoid the traps and pull a lever to destroy the monk without having to deal with the explosion. The lever appears in one of the boxes along the walls that open when the timer starts up. Kill all three monks to finish the test.
The fifth test is the Chamber of Sand. This test is a little weird. The two sand golems are only vulnerable to fire. Either bring a spellcaster in to this test, or use the four flamethrowers in the room. Lure the sand monks to the various spouts and pull the levers to fry them a little. You have to use all four flamethrowers before they reset.
The sixth test is the Chamber of Silk. Just stand in the entrance with a strong fighter and kill all the spiders that come at you.
The seventh test is the Chamber of Battle. This one is a little different than the others, as there are actually two rooms here. Maneuver the iron monk onto the lit platform and kill it. While it is lying there pull the left levers to open the door. Go into the second room. Now two monks will be walking around. Kill one on each of the platforms. Now you can pull the other lever to exit the chamber. Note: the iron monks regenerate and will move around, so you should get both to near death status before landing the killing blow.
The final test is the Chamber of Immolation. You would be wise to imbue the test-taker with a Haste spell before taking this test. You just have to kill the two brass monks in this test. The catch? Fire rains from the ceiling! Just avoid the fire by avoiding the red circles that appear on the ground right before the area gets fried. Remember that the fire does some splash damage too, so right next to the circles are not safe either.
When all the tests are done, reclaim your gear and talk to Marohem. Go upstairs and talk to the head of the order to get permission to enter the tomb.
The Monastery Tomb
If you killed all the duergar in the caves, you have it easy now. If you didn't, it is simply a bit harder (but still easier than taking on the whole fort). When you open the gate to the Underdark, you will come across a small group of duergar. If you let the duergar live before, you find half the fortress at the bottom of the stairs. You might feel like emptying out their fortress before trying this battle, but it is actually harder to take their fort...
My strategy here was simple. I started by casting area effect spells at the small group of dwarves on the other side of the gate. I sent two fighters to deal with the rest of them. The other two fighters I sent to the top of the stairs. The mages hid behind them, waiting to pepper the forces that decided to climb the stairs. Smashing the northern troops really fast gives you a chance to send your fighters into the other fray. Smash both sides and save your game.
If you want to kill the rest of the duergar, now is the time. Go back to their fort for an easy battle. Loot the place and then return to the monastery. Position your party by the exit to the Underdark and make sure that you have everything that you need. Cast Haste on your rogue and send him or her to the vault. Pick the lock and pilfer the contents. When the iron golems turn on you, sprint up the stairs and exit the area. You can never return to the monastery now, but who really cares? You know have +4 bracers!
The Drow Camp
Wow! This area doesn't start you off in battle! This is a new change of tactics. Instead a drow mage named Malavon Despana (from the first game) invites you to join his camp. You can rest there, as well as buy scrolls and healing. He asks you for help in defeating the driders and wants you to return his sister to him. Well it is now time to explore the first area of the Underdark. You can buy some spells from him too, if you want.
Go to the south of the camp to find some merchants. They sell awesome equipment, including +3 bastard swords! Fheir was happy to finally get his sword! Well anyways, do your shopping and then head to the little area just to the north of the drow camp. A bunch of drow assassins teleport in. I suggest casting hold spells on the priestess and mages, and dealing with the assassins first. Try not to turn your backs to them, as they will sneak attack it!
To the east of the camp is a bunch of steam ponds. An illithid is sitting there amongst his thralls. Talk to him to learn of his missing ioun stone. Agree to find it for him and proceed to the east. A pair of drider mages guards the exit to the drider caverns. Kill them now, or you'll just have to do it later. Enter the drider caverns.
The Drider Caverns
Here's the deal - the whole place is crawling with regular driders, and after any battle you will have to fight a battle against transformed driders. You will want to clear every nook and cranny here, because the last battle in these caves will put you against every single creature that is left alive. Sounds like fun? It isn't!
In the northwest you'll find Ginafae. Talk to her and tell her of her brother's desire to have her back. If you killed the two drider's outside the caverns, she'll head out to him. If not, she'll only go when kill them. In the southernmost cavern you'll find the blue ioun stone. A bunch of myconids guard it, but they aren't that difficult to slay.
Just to the northeast of the myconid patch there is a wizard's lab. Head there and kill the wizard. The three cages will open up and the captives will attack you. Use holding magic to keep them out of the fray, as you will also have to kill a pair of golems. Once you have finished mopping up the area, have a character with skill in Alchemy grab the vials and books from the lab and then click on the equipment to concoct something called the conversion potion. If no character can make the potion, you are in for a really hard battle!
You can make other things with the equipment, if you have a transmuter, or a highly skilled alchemist. You can convert potions, and make unique items, if you have any white wyrm eggs. If you do, you are in luck.
Head to the northeast and enter the boss' chamber. Pull out a few driders, but don't fight them in that room! If you do, the cocoons will bust and new driders will attack you! Once you have cleared the regular driders from the room, walk up to the gaping maw at the far end and chuck the potion into it. All the cocoon driders will blow up! You will even get experience for it!
If you have no potion, you will have to break the cocoons to kill all the driders. It is the only way to get close enough to the maw. Then you just have to hack at it.
Leave the drider caverns. Give Oin his ioun stone for a Strength-increasing belt and then kill all his thralls. There is a purpose to it - so do it now! Once they are dead they won't be able to attack you from behind later¿
Return to town and talk to Malavon. He will reward you for destroying the beast and returning his sister to him. I never thought it was possible to revert a drider to its original form - guess I was wrong. He will tell you that the exit to the surface is on the other side of an illithid citadel - joy.
The Illithid Citadel
To get into the citadel, just launch some Fireballs at the guards. If you time it well, you will be able to kill all the guards, but the giants. Brute force is needed to take out the giants. Once battle is joined a series of duergar warriors will come through the gates, thereby opening the way to the citadel for you. Kill them all, rest and then enter the citadel.
Illithids are mean, brain-sucking monsters. They keep many slaves and use them for defense purposes and household chores. They are all connected via the large great brain that is in the center of the citadel. You will have to kill it before you can leave the Underdark. You will find it beneficial to flush all the hallways before fighting it though.
The great brain, once threatened, will call any non-gnomish thralls to aid it. Any remaining illithids will also come to its aid. Always attack illithids before their thralls - disintegration works wonder on them. If they manage to dominate or charm one of your characters, cast Dispel Magic to save them from the illithid's control. Proceed around the passages in a counter clockwise manner to clear all the thralls. Most of them are neutral, so you will have to start the battle. There are lightning traps in the halls. Press ALT to see a small circular object above the trap. Pick the lock and grab the diamond to disarm the trap.
Near the exit you will have to fight a huge battle. Kill the mind flayer first and then the spellcaster thralls. Destroy them. To the south of the exit is a group of FOUR mind flayers. Kill them by taking some of them out of the fight. If you do this properly, you will only have to fight one or two at a time. Once you are sure that the passages are safe (you can ignore the mind golems), head to the central room. Talk to the elder brain and just leave the room. All the remaining thralls will charge you. Kill them all out in the halls and then do the same to the elder brain.
With the elder brain dead, you can leave the citadel via the northeastern exit, but only after resting.
Once you have mopped up the enemies, Oswald and Maralie climb out of the airship. Talk to the excessively cute Maralie and then to Oswald. Once you tell him to take you to Kuldahar, the chapter is over.
