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Spellforce 2 Dragon Storm Tips & Tricks |
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Tags: Spellforce 2 Dragon Storm Game Guides, Spellforce 2 Dragon Storm Hints, Spellforce 2 Dragon Storm Walkthrough |
Spellforce 2 - Dragon Storm
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This walkthrough (v. 1.5, December 2009) for Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm is
solely the work of the author tarbandu (J. A. Higgins) and is not
endorsed or supported by Phenomic, JoWood, or Aspyr. The author assumes
no responsibilities for any versions of this walkthrough posted on sites
other than Game FAQ !
If you want to update the walkthrough with your own comments,
corrections, or alternate strategies, send me an email at
tarbandu12@juno.com with your username (or real name) for attribution
purposes.
______________________________________________________________________
Getting the Game
[Obviously you need Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars to be able to play the
Dragon Storm expansion pack.]
Spellforce 2 player Brian Pemberton reports that both Spellforce 2, and
the Dragon Storm expansion, are available from Steam as of late August 2008.
The price for the individual games is $19.99 each, or $29.99 for both in
a 'Gold' edition.
I've also seen the Spellforce 2: Gold edition for sale as a retail box at
GoGamer.com and amazon.com, so check these out if you prefer to have the CDs
in your hands.
WARNING: Some posters to the Spellforce 2 Forums, such as elgreco and
bhelliom, have reported a gamestopping bug in Spellforce 2's Crystal
Forest map (the tone puzzle needed for access to Malacay's laboratory at
the mountain top) when Dragon Storm is installed on an in-progress
Spellforce 2 game. They recommend you finish Spellforce 2 before
installing Dragon Storm !
As always, if there is a question that isn't answered in this
walkthrough, or you want to see if other strategies are available, go to
the Dragon Storm Forum at:
www.spellforce.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=245&order=desc
________________________________________________________________________
Below is a list of the chapters in this walkthrough, played on 'normal'
difficulty. Note that many of the side quests can be completed in an
order different from that listed here.
Listing of Contents
1. Winterlight Peak
2. Alluvyan
3. Sevenkeeps
4. Defeating the Pact Army
5. More Sevenkeeps Side Quests
6. Ghostwatch: The Inner City
7. Eastern Area of Ghostwatch
8. The City Ship
9. On Board the City Ship
10. The Citadel: Prologue
11. The Thought Storm, the Guardians, and the Codestone Puzzle
12. The Thinker's Two Quests
13. Side Quests to Sevenkeeps and the Ghostwatch
14. Dragh' Lur
15. Side Quests in Dragh' Lur
16. Back to the City Ship
17. Winterlight Peak Again
18. To Alluvyan, Yasha's Rune Stone, the West Wind, and the South Wind
19. The Citadel: Eliminating the Guardian and Building a Base
20. The Citadel: Destroying the Satellite Bases
21. The Citadel: Clearing a Path to the Library
22. The Godeland and The Refuge
23. The Soul Carrier
24. Defeating Riddengard's Boarding Party
25. Defending the Westguard
26. The Blessed One of Fire
27. The Blessed One of Storms and the Blessed One of Night
28. Side Quests in Sevenkeeps
29. The Misty Coast: The Five Islands
30. The Misty Coast: The Shaper
31. The Misty Coast: The Lord of the Tides Side Quest
32. The Memories of Eo Side Quest
33. The Blessed One in the Palace
34. The North Section of the Palace
35. The Battle with the Shaper
________________________________________________________________________
THE WALKTHROUGH
1. Winterlight Peak
-Shutting the gate
After the opening cutscene you'll find yourself in a courtyard of the
Dwarf city of Winterlight Peak. The area is under siege from Warbeasts
and other undesirables, and to make things worse, the forces of evil
have arranged for an unusual spell of severe winter weather to hamper
retreat to a Portal elsewhere on the map.
What seems like 6 or 7 Quests will immediately pop up on your screen and
once you start in on conversation with the people nearby, including the
lightly clad Yasha, things get more than a little confusing in terms of
the plot. Just go ahead and spend your first batch of experience points,
talk to those individuals with "!" symbols hovering over their heads,
then open the chest nearby and equip yourself with what items you
qualify for.
After a cutscene, some of the bystanders will run out on you, leaving
you and Whisper, the elf Hero, to try and help with the last-ditch
defense of Winterlight in order to permit dwarf civilians time to escape
to Sevenkeeps, the last safe outpost in the world of Eo. The immediate
task is to find two moonsilver springs that can be used to close the
city gate to the south, and prevent more Warbeasts from coming into the
city. Head off to the two quest areas (indicated on the minimap by
yellow circles) associated with the springs. The chests containing the
springs at these locales are guarded by Warbeasts, but you and Whisper
should be able to take them down without too much trouble. The
liberation of one chest causes the half-elf mage hero Wind to spawn;
she'll join your party, and she also has one of the springs. The other
chest contains the other spring.
As soon as you have the two springs, see the dwarf captain in charge of
the city, Skjadir Bloodaxe, who tells you to insert the springs into the
gate. Do this promptly, as Warbeasts will now come running to attack in
increasing numbers. The gate mechanism (as with all quest-important
locations, it is indicated on the minimap by a yellow circle) is not too
far away from Skjadir; it's indicated by a 'gears' symbol, just click on
the symbol and you'll trigger a cutscene of the gate shutting.
-Running the Gauntlet with the Dwarf Workers
The next quest involves the Portal located in the NE corner of the map.
You need to get a minimum of 20 Dwarf workers from the outer entrance of
Winterlight to the Portal, from which they can (presumably) escape to
Sevenkeeps. The problem is, the trail to the Portal is infested with
Warbeasts, Giants, and snow cats, among other monsters. To make things
harder, the severe cold means that the workers will die unless they get
a chance to briefly warm up at each of the three fires stationed along
the Portal route. Of course, each fire has a Giant or two standing by
it.
My philosophy here was to try and take out as many enemies as I could at
the first fire and the second fire. To do this, first group all the
Dwarf workers into one cohort, assign them a grouping number (Ctrl+1,
for example) for convenient handling, and stash them in a safe area of
the city, out of range of the entranceway. Keep Whisper and Wind near
this entranceway, in proximity with Skjadir and some Dwarf troops (who
you cannot control directly). Now send your avatar solo up the trail and
to the first fire. Have him or her lure as many enemies as they can back
down the trail to the entranceway to the city and let Skjadir, the Dwarf
soldiers, and your party members wipe them out. Just make sure your
avatar doesn't get encircled by so many enemies on the trail that he /
she can't move freely and becomes trapped.
Now it's a matter of sending your avatar out on another of these
'baiting' runs, to again try and lure a healthy batch of gauntlet-
keepers to their doom. I suspect these enemies are continuously spawned
by the AI, but just keep Saving at intervals and grind out the combat.
When Skjadir announces that the city gates are about to give way to the
assault of the Warbeasts in the south, you will hopefully have the
trail area from the first to the second fire reasonably depleted of
monsters. You're now ready to have the workers run the gauntlet. Save
the game, and send all the workers running to the first fire. Once they
get there, keep clicking on the area around the fire so the workers are
in continuous motion, and whatever Giants or other monsters are there,
can't close for melee combat. Since you have a lot of workers, you can
overwhelm the enemy with the sheer quantity of targets presented by the
hapless Dwarves.
As soon as the health bars of the workers recharge get them running to
the second fire. Again, keep right-clicking on the immediate vicinity of
the fire and keep the workers dancing around so the monsters can't close
with them. Do a Save, then proceed to the third fire, and as soon as
the Dwarves are healed, send them all up the rest of the trail to the
Portal. With a bit of luck you may have lost only 3 or 4 Dwarves en
route, and at least 20 survive to pass thru the Portal. This ends the
Winterlight map, and you'll be treated to a cutscene.
2. Alluvyan
-The Blocked Entrance
You and your party arrive in the island of Alluvyan, which is also under
attack by the forces of evil. Things are very chaotic here. Just a short
distance north of the Portal you arrive from, is the city of Alluvyan;
it is comprised of a series of concentric neighborhoods that are closed
off from one another by formidable gates. The city is filled with troops
of the orc Clan, and they have no intention of letting anyone through to
the Portal to Sevenkeeps in the northern part of the map. The gate at
the entranceway to the city proper has been closed, and is further
sealed by a magic barrier. The barrier is immune to damage from the
trebuchets of the Realm located in the southern area of the map. Orcs of
the Clan are clustered around the entranceway, including archers on the
walls above, and these Clan troops are preventing Treants of the Realm
from coming up and forcing the magic barrier. So no one can get into
Alluvyan, and on to the Portal to Sevenkeeps, until the Clan are
expelled from the city.
[While this map is chock-full of Realm troops, the fact is you can't
control them, and all they are there for, is to defend the Realm base.]
I had my party go straight north to the barrier; en route you can talk
with a nearby Scout and give him some commands to either join your
party, or instruct the trebuchets to open fire on the entranceway. I
chose the latter option and had my avatar, Whisper, and Wind engage the
orcs near the barrier. Use your spells and keep bashing away at the Clan
troops here, and the archers on the walls will direct their attention on
you. This will allow the Treants to come up and destroy the magic
barrier. This now makes the gate at the entrance vulnerable to
trebuchets, and before too long the gate will be destroyed. You'll get a
new quest to eliminate the Clan camps just inside the entranceway.
-Eliminating the Clan Camps
You will have to create some (new in the Dragon Storm expansion) Shaikan
units to assist you in this task. This mission is essentially a
refresher lesson in the RTS gameplay of Spellforce 2. Go to the
Headquarters to the south and get busy cranking out workers. As soon as
you have the necessary stone and silver create some smelters and
stonemasons (I ignored any lenya gathering for the moment). There is no
real pressure here, so if you first want to build and then upgrade the
Practice Ground to have fire-arrow Marksmen, and double-blade
Blademasters, prior to actually producing those units, go ahead. Keep in
mind that you have 30 troop 'slots' and the actual quantity of upgraded
troops you have may be smaller than this ceiling. Also, you'll need to
have several Stores constructed to increase your unit numbers.
When you're ready to go for the Clan camps, I recommend leaving Whisper
and Wind behind at the HQ...they are too easily killed and then you have a
major headache trying to revive them while 20 orcs are swirling around
you. [You'll also want to leave 2 - 3 troops behind at your headquarters
along with Whisper and Wind, to handle an upcoming attack].
Save the game, and send your avatar and troops running up the
entranceway to the city and select a Clan camp for attack. Focus on
destroying the Armory and ignore the Clan troops all around you. If you
are getting too badly depleted, just retreat to the HQ and heal everyone
up. The Realm troops stationed near the Portal area will take on any
pursuing orcs and wipe them out.
As soon as you take down one Clan building, you'll get a cutscene of
Clan forces attacking the Realm base from the south and a message in
your Quest log to defend your headquarters (lose it and the mission
ends). Hopefully the 3 - 4 troops you left behind to defend your HQ,
along with Whisper and Wind, will be sufficient to take care of the Clan
assault until your avatar and army can run away from the city area and
assist in the defense. There are two waves of Orc attackers here in this
"The Second Attack" quest. MAKE SURE YOUR AVATAR PARTICIPATES
IN ELIMINATING THE ATTACKING ORCS. I found out the hard way that if
you just let your 'guard force' and the AI-spawned Realm troops handle
things here, you will NOT complete this segment of the main quest. Your
Quest Log will continue to have "The Second Attack" recorded as
unfinished and you will not be able to get access to the city interior.
You'll know you completed "The Second Attack" when the yellow circles
on the minimap associated with the Realm castles and your HQ vanish,
after the Orc attackers are destroyed, and your Quest Log places it in the
'solved' column.
With the Orc foray repelled, you can create reinforcements and go back
to the job of taking out the Clan camps in the city. Have your avatar
and troops run back in, and destroy the armories and bowyers. Save
several times here so that if you lose your avatar, you can reload and
make another attempt. It may take a few iterations, but once you
succeed, the spawning of Clan troops will cease and you'll get a
voiceover from the Realm paladin saying that "the outskirts of the city
are ours !".
-Investigating the Secret Passageway
Another voiceover will clue you in to the next segment of the main
quest: the west and east gates to the city interior are closed and
cannot be forced; you'll have to see if there is a 'secret passage'
available that will let you enter the city behind the closed gates,
after which you can throw open the gates and let the Realm forces rush
in and take down the Clan. [There are actually two ways to accomplish
the 'secret passage' quest, but investigating both can earn you some
nice loot, whatever option you ultimately choose.]
While you can now ignore the ongoing battles near the city entranceway
(ever-spawning Realm troops will preoccupy the surviving Orcs), make
sure you loot the corpse of an "Old Greenskin" orc in this vicinity for
his Skin- it will come in handy soon.
Assemble your party and surviving troops (you'll probably be depleted of
silver by now, so creating more will have to wait for the moment). Head
to the northwest section of the map. You'll need to take out some Orc
troops in a village here. A man named Weyland the Builder is imprisoned;
free him, enter the dialogue tree with him, and you'll learn he built a
secret passageway to the interior of the city. The entrance to this
passage is located in the western area of the outer city, near a below-
ground sump. In the village with Weyland are some chests and corpses
with apparel and loot, including the book "Stories from Liannon", of use
in a side quest.
Have your force clean out the area of orcs and wild wolves, and then
bring up some workers and have them harvest the silver field here.
Now send your army northeast. As you make your way along the trail
you'll encounter an orc raiding party; kill them and loot another
Greenskin skin. At the end of the trail you'll come upon a small
clearing with the Haldor's Exile Journey Stone, an unoccupied elf
building, some orcs, and an imprisoned Cult member named Haldor. Kill
the orcs, loot the nearby chest, and free Haldor and converse with him.
He admits he knows nothing of a secret passage, but if you provide him
with 3 orc skins he can cast a spell on your avatar, Whisper, and Wind
that will disguise them as orcs for a short period.
You should hopefully have 2 orc skins in your inventory. To get one
more, just head back up the trail to the Realm camp and the AI will
helpfully spawn another orc raiding party for you to eliminate; it
should include a Greenskin you can get the 3rd skin from. Now head back
to Haldor.
(note: if for any reason you find you can't trigger these 'secret
passageway' conversations with Weyland or Haldor it's very likely you
have failed to complete a main quest segment- left an armory or bowyer
intact, some orc troops are still alive in the vicinity of the gates,
etc.).
Speak with Haldor and he'll tell you he will cast the camouflage spell
on you and your party when you are in front of the east gate to the
inner city.
Send everyone back to the city; there may be some stray orcs still
present near the ruined entrance gate, so wipe them out. There will
probably be some orc archers and a catapult on a promenade overlooking
the gate area so have your archers take them out. Replace any fallen
troops, and select your option for forcing the gates:
-Haldor Option
Send your force to the vicinity of the eastern gate, and have your
avatar, Wind, and Whisper come closer to the gate. Enjoy the cutscene,
and then get ready for a sharp little fight, that may get Whisper and
Wind killed. As soon as the fight ends you'll get an exasperating
warning that an orc raiding party is attacking your HQ. Resurrect any
fallen party members and send everyone back to the Realm camp and take
on the orc raiders. Once they're down, you'll get word that completion
of the quest requires you to take down the last two Clan camps in the
city. Reinforce as needed and head back to the city.
-Weyland Option
Go to the west gate, and you'll see a grate covering an underground sump
(near the Journey Stone). Activate the nearby lever and the grate will
open and reveal a swirling blue field. Send your avatar into the field
and he'll emerge behind the gate. Have him open the gate and send your
troops through to join him. You'll quickly be attacked by two squads of
orcs, so be ready to fight. When the attackers are downed, you're ready
to eliminate the last two camps.
-Eliminating the Last Resistance in Alluvyan
It may be helpful to bring up some workers and construct a new HQ here
in the inner city, before you take on the remaining orc camps, so that
your reinforcements won't have to run such a long way.
Destroying the last two camps isn't that difficult and you should be
able to do it without losing more than a few troops. Once the camps are
gone, you'll get a cutscene of Skjadir and the dwarf civilians ready to
run for the Portal to Sevenkeeps, then a scene of some mages conjuring
up a Titan named 'Ragefire', level 10, to prevent this. You'll also be
tasked with saving Satras, who is imprisoned near the Titan. You'll need
to eliminate Ragefire, and a squad of orcs assisting him, to get access
to the Portal to Sevenkeeps located at the far northern point of the
map.
Replace any fallen troops and take on the enemy. This can be a tough
fight, but use healing spells as needed and you should eventually win,
with the loss of some troops. Free Satras and speak with him; far from
being grateful to you, he'll disparage you for caring too much about
non-Shaikans. Oh well....you'll get word the Dwarf Refugees are now
eligible to pass thru the Portal, so take control of them and do so.
Ignore the southeast and southwest areas of the Alluvyan map that are
currently inaccessible; they figure in upcoming side quests. Have your
party pass through the Portal to Sevenkeeps and the next mission.
3. Sevenkeeps
-Taking Down the Siege Towers
When you arrive in the northern outskirts of Sevenkeeps you'll discover
the city is under siege by the Pact's armies of dark elves, all anxious
to get access to the city granaries. The elves have erected lightning-
blasting Towers all over the peninsula linking the Portal to the outer
gates of the city, and there is no way the Dwarf Refugees you are baby-
sitting can survive exposure to them. Skjadir mentions some black powder
at a nearby mine can be used to take down the towers, so go a short
distance past the nearby Altar of Life and find the powder. There are
some animals around this area you can kill for 'meat rations'- these
will come in handy later on.
After finding the powder return to Skjadir, who tells you to run up to
each Tower and blow them up with the powder. Since this is suicidal,
you'll need to go see Haldor, who (having come thru the Portal from
Alluvyan along with everyone else) mentions he can conjure a Shadow
Slave to distribute the powder; as a Shadow, he is invisible to
detection as long as he doesn't engage in combat. Haldor needs a dark
elf skin to conjure the Shadow. A short distance away from the Journey
Stone and Altar you should find a (helpfully) lonely elf sentry; kill
him and bring the skin back to Haldor. Be careful not to alert the other
dark elves in the vicinity, or your party will have a major fight on its
hands.
After speaking with Haldor he'll summon a Shadow. This next section of
the mission is fun, if a bit tricky, and nothing like what you had to do
in similar situations in the Spellforce I "Breath of Winter" or "Shadow
of the Phoenix" expansions, i.e., laborious and difficult hack n' slash
thru a mob of equal-level enemies....
Within each Tower outpost is a 'swirling circle' icon on the ground;
just have your Shadow stand in the circle for a moment and a barrel of
powder will spawn inside the circle. You only have a few seconds before
it detonates, so get your Shadow moving away as fast as possible.
Proceed to have your Shadow blow up all the Towers on the peninsula. The
only concern here is making sure you don't inadvertently click on an
enemy and get an 'attack' cursor instead of a movement cursor...provoke
any combat, and your Shadow will be killed very quickly !
At the end of this foray, have your Shadow destroy the outer gate to the
city and then park him there for the time being. Now send your party
down along the southern shore of the peninsula and take down the lone
dark elf sentry still around, as well as a surviving Tower or two. Then
send them up to join the Shadow.
-The Dwarf Refugee Sprint
Now you're ready to have the dwarves run to safety into the city. Group
the Refugees, and carefully bring them up along the south edge of the
peninsula to the destroyed outer gate and park them there. Send your
party and the Shadow up the road a bit, to where some dark elves are
manning the trebuchets bombarding the city. Kill them, but take care you
don't draw in the larger dark elf squad located nearby - unless you're
spoiling for a heavy fight.
Save the game, then move your party right up to the closed gate, just
beyond the trebuchets, and you'll trigger a voiceover by Skjadir (who is
probably still back near the Portal). Immediately bring up the Refugees
alongside your avatar and that should trigger the opening of the gate.
Some firebolt-tossing Pact gargoyles will be attracted to the gate area
and begin harassing you. Since you fail the mission if you lose too many
Refugees, ignore your party, and instead focus on getting the Refugees
thru the gate and up the ramps and road to the NE, where your old friend
Jandrim Windhammer awaits in the Dwarf Quarter. Once the refuges arrive,
you'll get a cutscene featuring Jandrim, and then another cutscene in
which your party is present at the courtyard of King Ulf. Mission
accomplished !
-Exploring Sevenkeeps: Dwarf Quarter
After the cutscene featuring Tor Helicos, Riddengard, and King Ulf,
you're at leisure to explore Sevenkeeps. Many of the NPCs from
Spellforce 2 are here. You'll want to examine chests for loot, activate
Journey Stones, and get some sidequests. Note that some sections of the
city are inaccessible for the moment. Also note that there are plentiful
patches of lenya with 'gear' symbols to click to harvest; this stuff is
necessary if you plan to resurrect your avatar or heroes at the Altar of
Life in the far NE corner of the map.
I first went to the Dwarf Quarter; talk with Lt. Falida and she'll give
you a side quest involving an elf named Idara over on the north-central
area of town. Talking with Falida spawns the spirit of the dwarf deity
Niethalf, who delivers a pep talk of sorts and grants a side quest
involving the 'Book of the Eternal Warrior' and its assorted tests of
manly vigor. Head over to the mining area and speak with Skjadir, who is
anxious to get back to Winterlight Peak and expel the occupying
beastmen; however, with all Portals in Eo nonfunctional, there is no
means of transport there. You'll get a side quest to find him transport.
At the market you'll find the traditional collection of merchants
selling stuff that, with my avatar at level 14 and my heroes at 11, I
couldn't use even if I could afford to buy it. There are some Farmers
here who you can help later on, when you begin to assault the Pact bases
outside Sevenkeeps; see the 'The Farmers' Missing Belongings" section,
below, for details.
Head on to the north-central portion of the city and speak with Idara;
she needs water from a particular well to nourish a sickly willow tree.
Both well and willow are in the far NW corner of the map.
Finally, if you like you can investigate the area around the eastern
entrance to the city; following your destruction of the Towers, some
defenders from Sevenkeeps will have come here to finish off the dark elf
forces. Kill any they left unmolested, as well as the Magma Forge if
it's still operating (these spawn the fire gargoyles). There may be some
nice loot lying around with the elf corpses.
When you're ready to deal with General Redmond, travel to the Garrison
of the Militia via Journey Stone.
-Feeding General Redmond's Army
Redmond will tell you that his army is too weak from hunger to join you
in a sally out to eliminate the remainder of the besieging Pact forces.
He recommends that, since only your avatar can teleport using the
Stones, you retrieve food for him either by hunting animals, or raiding
Pact supply trains. If you've been diligent in collecting 'meat rations'
from previously killed animals, you can turn it over to him now to spawn
some troops. Redmond will give you a total of 20 men, so you'll need to
get more food.
Conversing with Redmond instantly activates quite a few Journey Stones
on the southern and western areas of the map, as well as giving you an
idea of the size and number of the Pact camps in these areas.
I recommend teleporting to the Stone in the SE. There may be some
animals around the Stone here; kill them, collect the meat, then Summon
Whisper and Wind (be aware that if there are enemies nearby you cannot
Summon until the enemies are removed). Even with your heroes at your
side, the Pact troops around here guarding the Supply Trains are pretty
tough to take on.
I simply worked my way west along the southern border of the map; there
are plenty of animals here and they respawn after you pass on
(this meat-harvesting aspect of the gameplay is a variant of that in
Phenomic's best-selling 'Settlers' series of games, if you're curious).
Keep an eye out for chests with side quest items, and stay away from Pact
patrols.
When I had 20 meat rations I returned to Redmond, handed it over, and
got my remaining balance to arrive at a total force of 20 troops. You
are now able to open closed gates, and go forth to eliminate the Pact
forces.
4. Defeating the Pact Army
-Eliminating the Pact Camps
Note that there are four 'main' Pact camps on the map, and in addition
to these, smaller camps that consist of some tents. These smaller camps
are waystations for the supply caravans. You can eliminate all the dark
elf defenders in these waystations, but troops spawned in the main Pact
camps will reoccupy them sooner or later, until all the troop-spawning
buildings in the Pact camps are eliminated.
Also take note to kill any animals you come across and collect their
meat ! You can replace fallen soldiers by returning to Redmond at the
Militia Garrison and telling him you 'bring food'. Just watch out how
you have these newly spawned replacements join up with your forces
elsewhere on the map; they can outrun animals easily, but if they
collide with a Pact patrol en route they'll be eliminated before they
reach your force.
You might as well start with the Pact camp closest to the Garrison.
Remember that the dark elves are poor melee fighters and use your party
to lure the enemy away from their camps to face your archers. The Towers
at these camps are not plentiful enough to really harm your force;
ignore them and focus on the troop-spawning buildings. Be sure to check
for loot from fallen enemies. As each camp goes down you'll get
approving voiceovers from King Ulf (and snide remarks from Riddengard).
After the camp close to the garrison went down, I chose the one in the
SW for my next assault, and then worked my way to the north and the Pact
camp there. The last camp I attacked was in the SE.
The camps are well-defended, and you'll probably have to take them down
using several forays, with retreats in between to heal up and import
replacement troops. At some point in this campaign your party should
level up (my avatar reached level 15) and get some valuable new spells
with area effects for healing, and dealing damage to the enemy. This
should make things a bit easier.
As you go about taking care of the Pact camps there are some side quests
you can engage in, or, you can simply wait until all the dark elves are
eliminated and you can wander the map without worrying about dealing
with them:
-The Well and the Willow
If you strike out along the western edge of the map you'll encounter
Pact supply trains which you can wipe out easily, animals, and
eventually, a dying willow tree associated with the 'Idara' side quest.
A little further north on the trail you'll come upon the well and the
Sacred Grounds Journey Stone (the nearby NPC, Ainur, is inactive for
the moment). Before you trigger the well, make sure your army is back at
the willow. Activate the well and grab some water. This causes an army
of skeletons to spawn on the trail down to the willow and around the
willow itself.
Get your avatar running back down to the tree (he has a little over 3
minutes to water it). Let your army and heroes deal with the skeletons,
and focus on getting the tree watered within the time limit. If you're
successful, you'll get a cutscene and the side quest will now revolve
around finding a mage named Galius back in Sevenkeeps. The fight with the
skeletons is a tough one, so don't be surprised if you have to resurrect
fallen heroes (and go see Redmond for replacement troops) before you take
out the last of them.
Spellforce 2 player David advises:
"Having previously failed to water the Willow Tree, it was much easier to
go back and do it at the end of this level. In Sevenkeeps you can't
replenish your troops after the main battle is over. With your army you can
go into the supply camps if you want to."
-Freeing the Prisoners
A little ways south of the willow tree is a Pact waystation and
imprisoned here are some male villagers from Sevenkeeps. Opening the
cage requires interacting with the 'gears' symbol alongside the cage.
NOTE: these prisoners may not be rendered unless your avatar is
physically inside the little wood 'cage' they are kept in. In another
smaller Pact camp in the SE, are imprisoned female captives from
Sevenkeeps.
I would caution against releasing the prisoners, until you've
eliminated all the Pact forces on the map, since you have to escort
these two batches of prisoners on foot to the Marketplace and stand each
batch of them inside one of the 'swirling circle' icons inset in the
pavement there, to complete the quest. While the prisoners can be
commanded to stop and go, if any die en route, you fail the mission. With
all Pact troops gone, it's just some relatively weak animals to deal with,
and your avatar and party easily can do the escort duties and earn some
XP.
-The Farmers' Missing Belongings
Farmer Locke is near the Journey Stone in the Merchant's Quarters, and
Farmers Idling and Salios are in a neighborhood a little to the west.
They had to leave behind their belongings when the Pact army occupied
the areas outside the city walls. The belongings of the three farmers
are all inside partially destroyed houses outside the city walls in the
southern and western areas of the map. Just keep an eye out for these
ruined houses and loot the chests. Each Farmer will give you 50 gold
when you return the belongings to them.
-The Final Pact Camp
As I was preparing to invade the last Pact camp in my campaign (it was
the camp in the SE) you'll get a voiceover from Riddengard; he is
impatient to share some of the glory for defeating the Pact, and he'll
Summon four level 15 mages, called the 'Blessed One of Ice', 'Fire',
'Earth', etc., to level the camp while you watch. After the cutscenes
play, you'll be given several new side quests here in Sevenkeeps.
First you should poke around the ruins of the Pact camp destroyed by the
Blessed Ones for some loot. With the Pact forces no longer able to
spawn, the remainder of the map is relatively safe to wander around
in...now is a good time to do the 'Prisoners' side quest (above), for
example.
5. More Sevenkeeps Side Quests
As always, you can do these in any order you wish.
-Aedar and Momentos for Wind
Aedar is located a short distance from the Palace Journey Stone. Talk
first with Wind, who will ask you to talk to Aedar for her, but then
you'll need to inquire with the nearby elf woman Maira. Maira will tell
you that Aedar is almost deaf, but capable of understanding some speech;
she also tells you Aedar hates Dark Elves and Mages, but loves 'good
'elves and Rune Warriors.
Enter into the conversation tree with Aedar. There's no easy way to
complete the tree; just explore the various dialogue options and keep in
mind that expressing anger at the Mages and dark elves, and joy at Rune
Warriors and regular elves, will keep him talking. You may have to
exercise the 'begging' and 'sad' emotions as well to keep the old coot
engaged. Eventually you should persuade him to give up some info about
Wind's past (Tirganach is a city featured in the Spellforce I Breath of
Winter expansion pack, if I remember correctly). He reveals that some
mementos of Winds' past are buried somewhere in the western area of
Sevenkeeps, and this will be a new side quest. Aedar will drop a nice
set of Shaikan armor after the conversation is completed.
To find the buried memento, go to a burning farmhouse just directly
south from the Silent Glade Journey Stone. There is a chest guarded by
Frost Elementals; these monsters are tough, so bring your army with you.
Inside the chest is an 'unreadable' letter as well as some nice arms and
armor. The side quest is on hold after this, as you must find someone
capable of deciphering the letter in your future travels thru Eo.
-Continuing the Willow / Dream Stalker Side Quest
The willow woman mentioned that you need to ask about Galius, who might
be in the Temple District in the north of Sevenkeeps. Travel there, and
if you have the cash and are of a high enough level, there are some
merchants here with interesting items for sale. Talk with High Priest
Alastar, who tells you that Galius is dead, having succumbed to some
unspecified misfortune in the Tuscari Desert. He gives you a scrap of a
letter Galius left behind. Now go back to the willow and she'll tell you
to keep your eye peeled in your future travels for something called
'psychometric oil', that can help in determining what Galius was trying
to write.
-Scouring the Outskirts of Sevenkeeps
There should be a few random bands of dark elves left for you to kill,
and also chests containing things needed for the 'memories of Eo' side
quest of your avatar, as well as loot or artifacts of one sort or
another. Near the Spider Lair Journey Stone is a man named Barubas,
whose main purpose seems to be annoying you and following you
around....nonetheless, remember that he can be found here....!
When you're ready to continue on to the next Mission in the main quest,
see Askan at the University and ask to be teleported to the last
whereabouts of the 'Soul Carrier' (whoever that is).
6. Ghostwatch: the Inner City
-Judge Caine Joins Your Party
After the cutscenes, gang up on Caine and kill him. Since he slurped up
some of Whisper's blood he's now eligible for resurrection via Shaikan
intervention. He reveals that he was sent to judge Riddengard and became
corrupted, hence his attack on Whisper. Caine is now added to your
party. Fit him out with the gear you think best and equip him with the
spells of your preference. Immediately after this, a batch of panthers
will attack your party and Whisper will reveal that at some point on the
map, he'll need to take on his invisible tormentor, a level 11 orc named
Haakh, in solo combat.
As you explore this area note the long causeway leading to a pier with
a ruined ship, and the odd 'skull' symbol inlaid in the pavement at the
end of the causeway; these inlays are where you'll send Whisper when you're
ready for his Duel with Haakh. Whisper cannot duel with any assistance from
your avatar or other party members. I recommend holding off on this side
quest until you've leveled Whisper up at least once, and perhaps even
managed his stats to more of a melee combat direction, to make this side
quest easier.
Explore the area around your spawn point, checking out chests of loot,
killing some monsters, and reading notes from Lya's archeological
expedition. You'll get a bunch of side quests here.
Eventually the road leads to an encampment of Imperial troops, led by
the Commander. Speak with him and he'll make you a deal: go into the
nearby city of Ghostwatch and retrieve information from some valuable
'codestones', and he'll detach some troops to help you out in your own
venture into the city for more info about dragons, Lya, and other
aspects of the main quest that I had trouble understanding (maybe it's
lost in the translation from German to English). Next speak to Ragna,
standing alongside the Commander, and she'll give you the first clue to
the mysterious Power Sources inside the city: "White Eye and Sword".
Poke around the camp here for loot, including "Dreamwine from Emporyia"
for another side quest (I believe it's 'Memories of Eo').
-Reviving a Dragonling
Ghostwatch is sort of a cross between Uram Gor and the Steel Shore from
Spellforce 2. It is full of monsters, and has some big camps in the
interior that you have to destroy. Much like the Steel Shore, it has
quite a few ancient Towers capable of killing the monsters with
lightning bolts; however, a number of Power Sources need to be activated
to bring the Towers online. These Sources all have an associated color
and symbol that you must select properly to complete the activation.
Scattered around the city are unique gravestones called 'codestones',
which Ragna can interpret, to provide you with the correct directions to
activate the Power Sources. Keep in mind that while the Towers are by no
means so powerful as to instantly vaporize any enemies in their
vicinity, they do serve to distract the monster population of the city,
and can serve as good places to cluster around for protection while you
heal up from various assaults.
Whether or not you want to use the Commander's troops (which I counted
as 19 troops + two catapults) for your initial exploration of the city
is up to you. They will be needed later as you reach the Inner City. You
don't want any Skeleton cavalry forays, which issue regularly from the
Inner City, to slip by you and attack the defenseless Imperial base, so
arrange for some defense there accordingly before you set out - I left
behind most of the troops, and that was successful for me as I searched
the outer area of the city.
Head into the city and after a short walk you should come upon a Power
Source. Interact with it and follow the dialogue tree to turn the dial
to "Sword" and the Source will be activated. Note that you can Journey
Stone back to speak with Ragna for more clues to activating future
Sources; sometimes she'll announce the clues in a voiceover; or you can
even ask her to run up and join you in the city, and tell you on site.
If at any time you lose track of what color goes with what symbol, just
converse with Ragna and she'll recite the options.
Just to the east of the entrance road to Ghostwatch is an area where Lya
was excavating; read the notes here, activate the Crystal, and you'll
spawn a Fire Dragonling. While the Dragonling is only level 7, it has a
nasty fire attack and, as a flying unit, is rarely targeted by the
undead roaming the city. With a summoned animal or two, Wind, Whisper,
Judge Caine, and the Dragonling joining my avatar, you have a rather
powerful force for the initial stages of the map. Also take note that
here in the east is a sizeable Troll camp; while you can't reach it at
the moment, it will come into play later in the mission.
Poke around the city some more, killing bands of monsters, and you'll
come upon a corpse carrying a "Walkthrough Book to Master the Game" for
a side quest. More Power Source clues should come from Ragna: "Yellow
Eye and a Shield", "Blue Eye and Earth", "Green Eye and Air", "Red Eye
and Fire". Activate the Power Sources that you can, and get 200 XP for
each. Note that more than one Source may share the same color and
symbol.
Spellforce 2 player David points out that some of the Power Sources are
not that easy to see:
"The symbol for the purple Power Source is Air. This is the only symbol
left. You have to set it then press escape and wait a moment before it
activates. There is a clue stone next to the Journey Stone in the Inner
City which is difficult to see as it is behind a wall. I had the same
problem with the power sources in the east. Only the top of the exclamation
mark was visible."
Also in the outer area of the city you'll come across a Fountain
that offers the 'Courage' test for Niethalf's 'Book of the Eternal
Warrior', but you can't perform the test until the campaign in
Ghostwatch is completed.
-Agathos
If you go up a side trail along the hillside to the west, you'll come
upon the camp of Agathos, a former comrade of Riddengard. As a
consequence of his rebellion against the evil mage, Agathos has lost
much of his memories. You should have accumulated quite a few of his
items in your travels, so there will be some dialogue options in the
conversation tree to return these to Agathos. He is so pleased that
he'll join your party as a non-controllable NPC. This is a mixed
blessing; as a level 15 mage he can deliver some decent spells and he
comes complete with three 'frenzies' called Munk, Mank, and Mink.
However, because Agathos is a non-controllable NPC, he will trail your
avatar everywhere he or she goes, and this can trigger a lot of fights
that you may not want to get started in the first place, like in the
upcoming City Ship.
I actually avoided the Agathos side quest, until I had returned to the
City Ship after the first visit to the Citadel. Then I returned to
Ghostwatch and picked him up. And even after that I was uncertain if
having him around was all that helpful. It's up to you when you want (or
don't want) Agathos joining up with you. You will find more items of his
as the game unfolds, so just hang onto them if you prefer to see Agathos
much later in the game (remember you can always use the World Map and
Journey Stones to return to Ghostwatch at any time).
[Player Zade Alban notes that having Agathos on board the City Ship (later
on in the game) can be advantageous in terms of crafting some nicer
weapons. Refer to the City Ship chapter 8, below, for more info.]
Note: as best I could tell once Agathos gets killed he cannot be
revived. This may or may not be a good thing depending on your attitude
towards him as the game unfolds, but losing Agathos will render some
items in your inventory worthless as well as breaking any more side
quests with him. Keep in mind he can be a real liability in combat since
he'll go off on attacks on his own. Just be prepared for some 'Agathos
micro-management' if you decide to keep him !
-Destroying the Camps in the Inner City
As the road to the interior of the city comes to an end, you'll see two
Power Sources, and a bit further on two associated Towers, flanking the
entrance to a large courtyard with a sizeable Undead camp. To the west
of this camp is an even larger one. Activate the Power Sources and get
the two Towers up and running. Then, if you don't have them with you,
have all the Imperial troops and catapults come up to join your party.
Save the game, and make an attack on the smaller Undead base. Keep the
area-healing spells like Benefaction going, and concentrate on the
structures to eliminate the spawning of new Undead. If things are going
badly retreat to the safety of a Tower, and check back at the Imperial
camp, where new soldiers will spawn to replace those lost.
Once the smaller camp is down, reinforce and prepare to go for the
larger one; there is a Journey Stone here for you to activate. There are
more structures here, so it may take two or three forays for you to
finally whittle everything down.
When the camp is leveled you'll get 1,000 XP. Explore for loot, and be
sure to activate the excavation site nearby; this will spawn a 'Crystal"
Dragonling to join your fire model.
7. Eastern Area of Ghostwatch
-Opening the Road to the East
When you depart the courtyard, take care, because a nearby street that
leads to the eastern part of the city (though a gate blocks it for the
moment) has suddenly been occupied by some pregnant dragon spiders
(level 13) and the Ghost of the City (level 15). If you need to replace
fallen troops before battling these guys do so; the troops should be
able to sneak by them and meet up with your force. When you're ready,
have someone lure some spiders and the Ghost over towards your force and
a Tower. Let the Tower help out in the fight. This is a tough combat but
you should eventually kill the spiders and the Ghost; pick up the Bone
Key the latter drops.
Reinforce fallen troops and be sure to activate any more Towers in this
area if you haven't done so (I should point out that I never found the
Codestone with the instructions for the purple Power Sources... ?). Then
use the Bone Key dropped by the Ghost of the City to open the gate
leading east. Just past the gate are more Power Sources to activate. At
some point as you proceed east you'll trigger a cutscene in which
Mordecay arrive at the outer city and immediately recruits the Trolls in
their outlying camp, to attack the Imperial base. You'll also be given a
squad of Shaikan workers ('constructors'). It's obviously RTS time in
Ghostwatch...
-Defending the Shaikan Camp
This is a tough segment, and you may have to reload a few Save Games
before you learn how best to order your defense. You don't have much
time before a sizeable squad of Trolls, and some level 15 Blessed Ones,
come at your base, so getting resources up and running and efficiently
moving the camera around from one area to another are definitely
required. Mordecay's army will easily wipe out the Imperial base back at
the waterfront, so you will not be able to replace those troops once
they're eliminated.
Have everyone proceed up the ramp to the large courtyard where some
Shaikan buildings are already in place. Get some workers cranked out and
busy harvesting silver (for troops) and stone (for buildings). I ignored
harvesting any lenya. There are some Power Sources along the ramps
leading to this area, so have your avatar attend to them.
When you have enough resources, get teams of workers busy erecting
Shaikan Towers at the entrance to the courtyard; there is a narrow
section here where any attackers have to come through, if they want to
reach your base. Get the Imperial force and your party back a ways from
the Towers. With a bit of luck you may even be able to create 5 or more
Shaikan troops before the first few Trolls come wandering up the ramp to
your base. The Shaikan Towers should deal with them. Remember to do some
Saves here !
After the first few Troll stragglers, the main assault force, complete
with Devastators and Hurlers, will rush the Towers. This is hectic and I
lost both my dragons, as well as a few party members. Keep your force
back, and let the Towers soak up as much of the attack as they can
before your party and infantry come to grips with the Trolls. To make
things worse, some Blessed Ones will go for your base while the Trolls
occupy you. I let the Blessed Ones burn down some buildings and massacre
some workers, and just concentrated on eliminating the Trolls.
After a hard fight the Troll assault should be destroyed, and you'll get
a cutscene in which your avatar and Mordecay have an unfriendly
conversation about the Soul Carrier. After the cutscene your avatar and
party will be placed in yet another excavated area; a swirling circle at
one end is the portal to the next destination regarding the Soul Carrier.
-Whisper's Duel
I held off on going to the next map, and instead made sure no Blessed Ones
were still marauding around my camp. You should have earned a Level Up by
now, and with Whisper at 15, I deemed him ready to take on Haakh. Send
Whisper by himself to a convenient 'skull pad' area and Haakh will spawn.
It should be an easy fight for Whisper. Make sure you pick up the Seal of
Ghul' Dan that Haakh drops.
-The Test of Courage
With Ghostwatch secure, head back to the fountain where you will
undertake the first of Niethalf's tests. It's a good idea to have your
party, and maybe some Shaikan troops, there with you when you activate
the fountain, because it will spawn a batch of Imperial ghosts who will
attack a group of co-spawned orc workers. Wipe them out and then
activate the fountain again. Repeat the defense of the orc workers.
When you finish this second iteration the Courage test ends, you are
awarded a sword named Blade of the Dracon, and the next iteration of the
'tests' quest is entered in your questbook.
When you're ready to continue to the next mission, activate the Journey
Spell (the swirling bluish circle) in the excavation near your Shaikan
camp.
8. The City Ship
-Freeing the Skerg
After you arrive, converse with Judge Caine and get a side quest
involving Ainur, the man who was standing near the well back at the
Sevenkeeps map.
Activate the Journey Stone nearby. This can be a confusing map. The
start point for this level is the 'upper deck' on which you spawn.
Nearby is a massive sculpture of stone figures surrounding a huge Globe
suspended in mid-air. There is a pedestal here, that is the Ship's
Navigator. Near the Navigator is another pedestal, and a damaged crystal,
that serves as the Ship's 'Thinker'. Also here in the upper deck is a
small area with a podium, and a book on the podium containing messages
from Lya and a 'Grey Key'; take the Key.
You have to figure out a way to activate the Navigator so the Ship can
be on its way to the Citadel where (presumably) the Soul Carrier is
located.
Leading from the upper deck down to the lower deck of the Ship are
several ramps, passing thru stepped tiers of the deck. Located on these
tiers are a number of Codestones and associated logic puzzles. There are
several gated areas, with chests and other artifacts inside, on the
concourses and decks. Ignore these for now; many won't be accessible
until you carry out a number of other quests. Moving around the Ship
triggers the spawning of spectres that are level 13 and tough to handle-
you don't want to take on more than three at once. There are also metal
spiders called 'silver guardians' patrolling the area; these are
relatively non-aggressive and if you move away from them, they won't
pursue you.
If you don't know where to go beforehand, you can spend a VERY
frustrating time wandering the map and constantly battling the ever-
spawning spectres, fiddling with the lever puzzles, killing some
spiders, and wondering what on earth is going on.
First, explore the area near your spawn point and get the Grey Key from
the book on the podium. Now head down the ramps to the southeast area of
the Ship's lower deck by the most direct route, to save you from
constant battle with the spectres. You will have to battle some spectres
on the way, just retreat and heal if necessary (they won't pursue you
too far). All over the lower deck are a number of recessed open-air
'cargo holds' containing all kinds of strange instruments and crystal-
ball pedestals of Shaper origin, with grates covering the steps leading
down into these holds. Most of these holds are not accessible for now,
and will come into play later on in the main quest, and some side
quests.
You're looking for the cargo hold containing a powerful Spirit Mage
called Krypterius (level 16). He's got some other Mages (level 15) with
him and a lot of skeleton archers. Use the Grey Key to open the gate to
Krypterius's cargo hold. [Save regularly as you search for the
Krypterius lair, so you can reload in case you make a wrong turn and
wind up in protracted combat with the ghosts manning the other recessed
areas here on the lower deck of the Ship].
When you've identified Krypterius's lair, be ready to fight him; this is
a tough battle. The archers can do real damage, and when you move around
you will inevitably trigger the spawning of spectres who will pile on
your party even as you try to deal with Krypterius. My advice is 'hit
and run' and try to whittle down the Krypterius crew a little at a time.
If someone in your party dies, retreat a bit and the enemy should leave,
so you can go back and do a resurrection. Once the archers are gone,
Krypterius and the Mages are a little easier to deal with.
When you finally destroy them, enter the cargo hold and you'll see a Skerg
(something like a Dark Elf worker with Yoda's voice) and a dragon, or
'wyrm', both suspended in blocks of ice in a small gated courtyard.
You should find a Blue Key among the chests in Krypterius's lair, as
well as a 'Glass Rattle" talisman (either in a chest or on Krypterius's
corpse, I can't remember which) that helps deter the spectres; use the
Key to open the gate to the Skerg pen. Approaching the wyrm will trigger
the spawning of a team of frost elementals. Kill them and investigate
the wyrm; reviving it means you have to feed it a special kind of meat,
which becomes a new side quest that you can't complete until later in
the game (i.e., the Dragh' Lur map).
Go free the Skerg, who is named Urgi, and he'll tell you he needs a
potion to thaw him out; another, immediate side quest. A short distance
away from the gate to the Skerg pen is a cauldron; interact with it and
manipulate the blue and yellow ingredient choices to create a green
potion. Give the potion to Urgi and he'll feel better and tell you where
to find the Navigator responsible for powering the Ship.
When you destroy Krypterius, another cargo hold here on the lower deck
will become open; it features a set of Codestones arrayed around a
chest. Also in this hold are some weird floating tripod-like objects, so
for lack of a better term I call this hold the "tripod hold". This room
contains a LOT of spectres, and while the Glass Rattle can deter the
spectres and allow you into the hold, clues needed for solving the
puzzle can only be received after completing some more of the Main Quest
(i.e., the Thinker crystal). I recommend doing this side quest later on
when you and your party have leveled up and have some more NPCs
available to help out. See "The Codestones and the Ear, Eye, Nose Chest"
section, below.
-Activating the Navigator
With the Glass Rattle in your possession it's a lot easier to explore
the rest of the lower deck, since the spectres will be zapped by the
Rattle. There are some Escaped Thoughts roaming the area who will not be
deterred by the Rattle; attack them and when you defeat them, they'll
humbly trail your party along with Urgi. There are 12 Escaped Thoughts
spawned by the freeing of Urgi, and you need to find and defeat every
one to complete the Escaped Thoughts side quest (below). Open what
chests you can, and you'll find some ores and crystals that can be used
for crafting later on in the mission. There are some nice arms and armor
to be found but only my avatar was of sufficient level to qualify to use
them. [There are no merchants around yet ,so just stuff everything into
your inventory].
My avatar leveled up to 19, and the party member were at 15. When you're
done exploring, return to the Globe Plaza and the Navigator and interact
with it. The Ship ...doesn't .....move. Speak with Urgi and he'll tell you
to go to the Hall of Knowledge. This is one of the previously closed-off
rooms on the tier below the upper deck, containing a lot of 'Ten
Commandments'- style stone tablets. Nearing the entrance to this Hall
will trigger the spawning of some Ghost Vampires (18) and a Guardian of
Knowledge (19). Wipe them out and investigate the Hall.
Interact with the tablets and learn how to navigate the Ship. Another
tablet here can solve some sidequests about travel to Winterlight Peak
(for Skjadir) and travel to Sevenkeeps, all done using the City Ship's
navigation system. So whenever you need to take the Ship someplace in
future quests, you'll have to come back here and interact with the
various tablets in the room, in order to get the coordinates necessary
for the Navigator to guide the Ship to that destination.
Trot back up to the Navigator and interact with it...the Ship... still...
won't.... move. Urgi tells you must repair the crystal power source, and
gives you a replacement crystal to be recharged in the Hall of Crafting.
Run down to another section of the tier and the Hall will be open, but
it spawns a level 20 Bronze Guardian spider. Kill the spider and enter
the Hall. There are a number of work benches or 'creos' here. Some allow
for crafting of weapons, amulets, staffs, etc. Judging by the Dragon
Storm forums, not a lot of players really found the crafting portion of
this map to yield any thing that was extra-special...try it out yourself
if you're so inclined. One particular creo will solve a lot of
sidequests involving Wind and Whisper and interpreting various letters
and documents; it automatically spews out the necessary 'psychometric
oil' and something called 'Timesalt'. Somehow an elf woman who mothered
Wind and Whisper appears, and embarks on a long spiel that made
absolutely no sense to me (?!). In any event, this creo will create new
side quests as fast as it solves existing ones.
Another creo will recharge the crystal Urgi gave you. It's another one
of those color + lever puzzles. I wasn't sure what combination I used to
create the bright white crystal, but it only took a few minutes of
effort.
On the topic of the creos and crafting, Spellforce 2 player Zade Alban has
this to say:
"..about the crafting system, i dont think people are 'doing it right'
partially because i believe they are like you, and do not do much to 'save'
agathos, if you keep him alive, and bring him to the crystal room on the
city ship(where the escaped thoughts are crystalized, see section below) he
will stop there, and give you a creo enhancer, if you take this enhancer to
the creo room, and plug it into the statue between them, itll ask you which
table to 'enhance' i was able to make a pretty nice level 20 two handed sword
with it imo. i made a 'Glorious Iridium Sword of Darkness' it adds 600 hp,
200 mana, its 263-1047 damage, every 1.7 seconds, it has a 15% chance of
casting pain for 700 damage it uses the thunderblade model, so it matches the
special dawn armor that you can buy from winterlight after libterating it, i
made it with iridium ore, and a nightglow crystal".
"Also, the power crystal you get from the chest on the other end of the city
ship(the one where you have to fiddle with torchs) also goes to agathos, and
he will give you another creo enhancer(unfortunately you can double charge a
table), i dont know what kind of accessories it makes, which is what i chose
for the second creo, or if you can get anymore from agathos, im only a little
into the game,(infact i just finished the city ship and have been mucking
around with side quests)".
Make your way back up to the Globe Plaza, interact with the damaged
crystal 'Thinker' near the Navigator, and watch the cutscene.
9. On Board the City Ship
Before embarking on the main quest storyline you can solve some side
quests while on the City Ship.
-The Escaped Thoughts Side Quest
If you don't have all 12 Thoughts collected, seek out the remaining ones
and add them to your entourage. Note that sooner or later the Glass
Rattle that deters the spectres will break and then you'll be back to
the tedium of mixing it up with the spectres as you go about the Ship.
Hopefully with a couple of leveling-up steps under your belt, you'll be
tougher to take on. When all 12 Thoughts are with you, make sure Wind
has her best healing staff equipped, and your party members have some
Benefaction or other area-wide healing spells. Then make for the west
area of the lower deck, and a cargo hold / room that appears to be a
graveyard with lots of green statues and marble tombs.
When you get near the center of this area the dead priest Galius, from
the "Dream Stalker" quest with Idara back in Sevenkeeps, will spawn.
Speak with him and afterwards you'll have several flying demons spawn,
which start pecking away at your party. Shortly thereafter a succession
of Refugee Ghosts will start filing into the graveyard. The idea is to
ignore the blows from the demons, and occupy them enough to allow 15
Ghosts to successfully go to their tombs for a final rest. Have Wind
automatically wield her healing staff, and cast Benefactions as needed,
and ride out the demon attack. You shouldn't have too much trouble. When
15 Refugees are safely entombed the demons will vanish. Speak with
Galius and he'll provide some info about the Dreamstalker side quest,
mentioning Barubas, the strange man you ran into near the Spider Lair
Journey Stone back in Sevenkeeps - ! Galius will then vanish and leave a
Dreamstalker Garment behind.
The next step in the Escaped Thoughts side quest is to go to
Krypterius's lair and have the Thoughts walk into the spiral pattern
embossed on the floor there. Each Thought will coalesce into a green
crystal. When all the Thoughts are 'converted' select the crystal in the
center of the spiral and place all of its shards into your inventory. A
nice axe called Crystalsaw will spawn nearby, so grab that as well.
-The Thinker's Quests
With the crystal(s) in hand return to the Navigator area and interact
with the Thinker crystal. It will give you several dialogue options.
Check out the 'examine the flitting icons" option and go thru the
listing of M,V,O, and X and some gibberish about what these mean. These
clues relate to the Codestone puzzle in the 'floating tripod' cargo hold
(below).
The other options in the dialogue tree are in regard to red points and
'contamination' and crisis in the Ship's Hall of Fire; the Hall is down
on the lower deck and now has some Elemental Imps (11) and a Fire Golem
(13) infesting it. The other Thinker dialogue option about black points
reveals the presence of 5 Invisible Wanderers in the environs of the
decks. Some telescopes will spawn on the Globe Plaza to enable you to
detect the location of the Wanderers.
The problem is that addressing these quests will take you all around the
decks, and back into action with the ever-spawning spectres. The five
World Wanderers are all level 18 and have no scruples about ganging up
on your party even as you deal with the spectres and Fire Golem. To
avoid frustration, don't trigger these red and black side quests for now;
just make a note to come back and do them when you and your party have
leveled up some more, and can snuff out the spectres without too much
trouble (below).
I suggest you return to the Journey Spell area and go on to the next
map, The Citadel.
10. The Citadel: Prologue
-Eliminating the Enemy Camps
After the cutscene you'll need to explore the outer area of the half-
submerged Citadel. There are quite a few monster-spawning structures
like Demon Portals and Bone Temples and of course lots of monsters.
However, these are level 12 and with my avatar at level 21 and party at
17 beating them down was not too taxing. To help things along, some Pact
Assassins will materialize and help you out. There is lenya to collect,
and some chests containing a "Filigree Metal Piece" and a "Town Gate
Key".
When all the monsters are eliminated, open the gate with the key and
enter the courtyard where the Pact has set up a (deserted) base. Search
the chests for loot. Then try and attack the level 20 Gate Guardian.
This will trigger a cutscene with a Shadow Warrior, who tells you the
secret to defeating the Guardian requires a trip to Dragh' Lur. After the
cutscene you'll be teleported back to the Ship.
11. The Thought Storm, the Guardians, and the Codestone Puzzle
-The Thought Storm
When you return to the City Ship the spectres will be there to greet you
again, sigh. Make your way to the Hall of Knowledge and when you enter
you'll trigger a cutscene with Urgi's effort to determine the location
of Dragh' Lur having bad consequences. After the cutscene Thoughts will
being wandering thru the Ship, heading for the previously closed area in
the west. The "Thought Storm" (level 23) is here, recruiting them. Urgi
advises you to kill as many of the wandering Thoughts as you can before
they merge with the Thought Storm, but this is easier said than done; if
you get too close to the Storm he'll zap your party dead without much
effort, and Agathos has an annoying habit of launching suicide attacks
on the Storm without your approval. To top this off, the spectres will
interfere with your actions.
I recommend making an effort to kill two or three Thoughts if you can,
but don't worry too much. After the procession ends a cutscene will
play, and then it's time for the 'Guardians' quest.
-Reviving the Guardians
A previously closed area in the northeast is now opened; this is the
chamber of the Guardians, broken metal spiders immune to the Thought
Storm's attacks. Bash your way there thru the spectres. Inside the Hall
of the Guardians are 5 functioning Firelauncher Guardians (level 20) and
two broken smaller spiders. To activate the Guardians just select the
'push button' option in the dialogue tree and they'll come to life.
Group them and set them aside.
If you talk with Urgi he'll give you a long-winded side quest to repair
one of the small spiders. This involves five pieces of "Filigree Metal"
and a "Clock Generator". You may have picked up one piece of the former
on your forays around the Ship, and now more will conveniently spawn
around the Ship. As for the Clock Generator, the creo here in the Hall
will have one. Creating the mechanism to activate a small spider
requires interacting with the creo to solve a numbing series of
puzzles.....ARGHHH.
Fortunately, Spellforce 2 player Lord Denn has got the solution to the
puzzle:
Ignore the bit about the clock in the first dialog tree and select option
'1'. Click on 'Spring Setting' when it appears and make 'Spring tension'
'Triple Power', make 'Spring Strength' 'Cog Size 2', and make 'Spring
Damping' 'Cog Size 1'. Check it and then return to the main dialog tree
and then go the 'Oscillation' one. Set 'Primary' to 'medium', set
'Secondary' to 'short', and then set 'Tertiary' to 'short'. Check it,
return to the main dialogue tree, and then it should tell you that the
device is working. Save your game before you give to a small spider.
They aren't much help in combat and you can't order them around; they
follow you like puppies, but the Silver Spider gave me a decent bow for a
level 25, and an awesome heavy warrior helmet for a level 23, while the
Gold Spider gave me a great mage robe for a level 20, and a Wisdom potion
(which I do not know the function of. It didn't appear in my inventory.)
Just wait for a question mark to appear over it's head after you've
revitalized it, and then talk to it, twice for both items.
Whether or not reviving the broken spider is your thing, send the
Firelauncher Guardians over to the chamber in the west where the Thought
Storm lurks. Bring your party up and stash them some distance from the
chamber so Agathos won't go running in and get himself killed. Then send
the Guardians in to take care of the Storm. It will be a lengthy battle;
keep an eye on the health of the Guardians and if one looks low, move it
out to your party and heal it with some Benefactions spells and send it
back into battle. Needless to say, having the 5 Guardians in your employ
here on the Ship is a good thing for future quests.
When the Storm goes down loot the nearby chest for some ore. With the
beefed-up party you now have, you can go do the side quest for the chest
in the 'floating tripod' hold if you so desire.
- The Codestones and the Ear, Eye, Nose Chest Puzzle
By now in your wandering around the Ship you may have noticed six
Codestones. Three are all in a row on one of the tiers just below the
top deck. One is located next to the wall near the hold containing the
marble tombs related to the Galius / Thoughts side quest. Another is
alongside a wall close to Krypterius's lair, and the sixth is actually
in Krypterius's lair, next to the cauldron you used to create the potion
that revived Urgi.
Each Codestone has a brazier associated with it and a designation for a
certain body part - ear, nose, eye, etc., and a weapon or armor piece -
sword, shield, etc.
To solve the puzzle, turn off all flames at all Codestones, and then
just turn on the one for the 'ear' Codestone, near Galius's chamber in
the west. This will entail some wandering around the Ship, but by now
your party should be able to shrug off the spectre attacks.
With the 'ear' stone brazier flaming, now go to the 'floating tripod'
hold with its own set of Codestones. As mentioned above there are quite
a few spectres here, and even with the Guardians alongside your force
it's a tedious fight. When they're eliminated, walk up to the chest and
you'll see that all but one of the Codestones surrounding it are lit.
Open the chest and help yourself to the Spring, ring, amulet, ore, power
crystal, and 1000 XP.
12. The Thinker's Two Quests
Return to the Globe Plaza and the Thinker crystal. You're now powerful
enough to complete the two sidequests associated with the 'red' and
'black' points in the dialogue option with the Thinker. The red option
gives you a quest about Fire Golems intruding in the Hall of Fire in the
West.
Head down to the Hall of Fire. Keep your Guardians back a bit because
their fire attacks are less effective against the Fire Golem and Elementals
infesting the Hall, but they can help with the ever-present spectres,
who will come running to the fight.
The battle with the Golem isn't easy, since after dying he'll spawn
another, level 18 golem called Soranger. Grind them all down and be sure
to grab the fire staff Soranger drops, it's a good weapon.
Leave everyone but your avatar here in the lower deck and teleport your
avatar back to the Journey Stone at the Navigator. Now investigate the
Thinker's black point option, this will give you the side quest about
the 5 Invisible Wanderers. Five telescopes will spawn here on the Globe
Plaza. As you look in one, it will give you a third-person cutscene
showing where a particular Wanderer is located on the lower deck. Have
your avatar go rejoin the party, and set off for the Wanderer. Of course
you'll have some spectres to deal with as you take on the Wanderer , but
at level 18 the latter aren't too difficult to kill.
Teleport back to the Thinker, look thru another telescope, and repeat
the process. When all the Wanderers are dead the quest is complete.
[Note: by this time I noticed that Agathos had been killed some time ago
somewhere on the Ship during these adventures. I didn't feel all that
bad.]
By now my avatar was about 80% of the way towards leveling up, so I
decided to avoid embarking on the main quest trip to Dragh' Lur, and
instead do some side quests and get closer to leveling up. Also, my
inventory was quite full and it was time to see some merchants. So I did
the following sidequests.
13. Side Quests to Sevenkeeps and Ghostwatch
-Judging Ainur
Teleport to the Sacred Grounds Journey Stone and you'll encounter Ainur
a little ways off, near the well. After speaking with him you'll be
given a side quest to research the matter of his guilt. You must examine
four people / locations in Sevenkeeps. I first went to Priestess Sephis
in the Temple District; then to Professor Undergant at the University;
to the Marketplace, where a book is located next to the gallows; and
finally to Guild Master Cardogan, who is a little ways from the Palace
Journey Stone (note these locations are all indicated on your minimap).
Return to Ainur and render your verdict; my judgement earned me 900 XP
and some weapons.
[While roaming Sevenkeeps I stopped by to see the merchants and sold
some loot.]
-The Willow and the Dream Stalker Side Quest Continued
Speak with the willow and she'll tell you it's necessary to interview
the ghosts of four children molested by Barubas (also called Sharad'
Naine). The first is Marcia, who can be found inside a ruined house near
the Spider Lair Journey Stone. After speaking with her you'll receive a
doll.
For the next two children's ghosts travel to Ghostwatch. Elyria is in
the northwest and provides you with a marble. Joshua is a short distance
from the Imperial Camp Journey Stone and gives you his wooden sword.
That's all you can do for the moment, since the fourth ghost, Mo, is
somewhere you have yet to explore.
I now decided to return to the City Ship and venture to Dragh' Lur. When
you arrive at the Ship, consult with the Navigator and select Dragh' Lur
as your destination. Then after the cutscene use the Journey Spell to
travel to the city.
14. Dragh' Lur
-Arrival in Dragh' Lur
When you spawn in the city you'll have a cutscene with the Commander. My
avatar reached level 23, and my party 19, with their arrival in Dragh'
Lur. Your first task will be to eliminate the Shaikan Blade's leader ,
who is carrying out attacks on the elves here in Dragh' Lur. While
elves are spawning constantly here at their base and running off to
attack the Blade's leader elsewhere in the city, they aren't numerous
enough (or controllable) to allow just you and your party to go take
down the Shaikan leader (altho I think I saw some posts in the Dragon
Storm Forums about some players who actually did this ?!)
There is no stone in the camp, and limited silver, so you won't be able
to create a huge force at the moment. Since most structures are already
in place, harvest the silver and create some Shadow Blades and
Sorceresses. I maxed out at 22 total before all the silver was exhausted
(in retrospect I created too many workers and wasted some silver better
used for troops, but that's no big deal).
Head out of the camp and down the roads leading to the Shaikan Blade
leader. With the force at hand you shouldn't have too much trouble
dealing with the clusters of Shaikan destroyers and minions littering
the road. When you reach the leader take him down and then watch the
cutscene.
-Defending the Swamp Base
So you have to defend the swamp base of the dark elves, and build up an
army capable of taking the fight to the renegade Blades and the
mysterious Shaikan mage who is guiding them. You have the assistance of
'traps' charged by an Obsidian Eye. Once the trap is detonated you'll
have to stick another Eye in it and recharge it. There are a number of
traps scattered around the swamps here; you'll have to decide which
traps are best suited for your defense because you can't utilize all of
them.
Here's what I did. First, of course, activate the Journey Stone here at
the camp. Then have your avatar go to the trap to the west of the camp,
where two walls force incoming attackers to go thru a narrow gateway
where the trap is artfully located. Place the Eye in the trap and
station your avatar a short distance away. He or she will serve as the
'official trap setter' for a while.
Take the available dark elf troops and your party and station them on
the narrow neck of land leading to the south. The majority of upcoming
Blade attacks will come in this direction. For this map you cannot build
defensive towers, so you'll have to rely on an infantry defense.
Get some elf workers produced and begin harvesting the necessary stone
and silver and lenya. Soon groups of Blades will start coming to attack
your base. The detonation of the trap in the west will wipe out any
coming from that direction. When your southern force encounters
attackers, have Wind, Caine, and Whisper pitch in (use Agathos too if
you've managed to keep him alive this long ?!) along with the elf
troops, and you shouldn't have too much trouble repelling the Blades.
Caustic Cloud and other area-effect spells are very handy here.
Periodically a fallen Blade will drop an Eye, so have your avatar
regularly check his or her inventory and replenish the trap in the west
as needed.
With some luck you'll never have to engage in any real melee combat in
the west due to the trap. And, as you crank out upgrades, send the
arachnis, necromancers, and death knights you are creating to assist
with the southern defense. The skeletons and spiders spawned by these
troops will really aid the defense.
On the RTS front, keep a squad of workers constantly erecting new farms
so you can increase your troop limit. I personally wouldn't invest any
resources in a Shadow Crystal or Tower of Negation; Assassins and
Ravagers aren't all that useful in this constant melee fighting, and
they cost a lot of resources to create. But it's up to you. Note that
you'll probably run out of lenya long before you reach your unit cap so
you'll have to pad your army with cheaper units like shadow blades and
sorceresses.
Keep an eye out on the south route, for a dinosaur or two will attack;
when defeated they'll drop the special 'saurian meat' you need to revive
the wyrm back on the City Ship.
-Eliminating the Blade Camps
There's probably no 'right' way to go about this so I'll just relate
what I did. Keep in mind other strategies might work just as well. But
basically, you have to march all over the map wiping out smaller Blade
camps, before you get permission from the AI to take on the final,
largest Blade base behind the stockade walls in the south-central border
of the map.
With my troop allotment maxed out at 70, I left 8 - 10 shadow blades and
sorceresses behind in camp, near the south entrance, next to the two
Towers, to handle any enemy Blades that tried to sneak past. I also had
some idle workers build an extra alchemists' hut or two near the gate
and trap to the west, so if any Blades got thru while I was preoccupied
elsewhere, they would waste their attention on the huts and leave the
more valuable structures elsewhere in my base intact, giving me time to
get a defense force en route to handle them.
As my main army lurched around the swamps I kept an eye out for
notification that the trap at the west gate had been triggered and
needed recharging. I would then pause my main assault to send my avatar
via Journey Stone to recharge the trap, then Journey Stone back to
rejoin the army, etc. It wasn't too hard to find new Obsidian Eyes
dropped by the various corpses around the swamps. This strategy could be
a pain at times, but I never had a Blade that slipped into my camp get
within range to start whacking on my HQ or food stores.
Finally, for convenience, I ignored much of the side quest items and
locations until I had dealt with the Blade forces. Then I went back to
these side quests (below).
With a force of 55 - 60 troops slots and my avatar and party, I headed
south from my camp. There are traps along the way, if you want to use
them; some more Journey Stones; some non- Blade enemies, such as
elementals, in their own little camps; and finally, the occasional
chest. You'll run into Blades as you proceed, so wipe them out. When you
get to the camps, they're generally pretty small and don't present much
of a problem.
Sooner or later you'll trigger a cutscene in which Nightsong, your
scantily clad elf friend from Spellforce 2, arrives on the scene with
her own small force and joins you as a controllable NPC (but you can't
manage her inventory). You'll get a side quest to use broken Blade
components to craft a special sword called 'Ironcleaver'. With the
arrival of Nightsong you can probably send a party member or two back to
assist in the defense of your base.
Methodically search the south for the Blade camps and wipe them out and
collect the three (I think ) pieces needed for Ironcleaver. You'll come
near the main base of the Blades and its stockade walls; stay away for
now, because you can't enter it. Always be ready to send your avatar
back to your base to recharge the western trap or assist with the
defense if needed. As you whittle away more and more Blade camps, the
forays at your base will start to lessen.
I deliberately left one Blade camp to survive in the south, and then
turned my army all the way back to my base and had them go out the west
gate. If you explore the northwest corner of the map there are some chests
here, panthers, and a lenya field. Clean the area out, bring up some
workers, and you can harvest the lenya. Also in this area is a spider;
when killed it drops a peculiar piece of 'Dracon' armor. Don't sell this
armor if you want to complete the 'Test of Selflessness' side quest
here in Dragh' Lur (below).
By now you may periodically encounter 'Shaikan' elf troops such as
arachnis and sorceresses and necromancers. Just wipe them out as you did
the Blades. I never lost more than 3 - 4 troops in all my travels in
this section of the mission.
Take your army back to your base, replace fallen troops as you see fit,
and then get ready for the final Blade camp, and the major Blade Base.
-Destroying Yasha Ashir's Base
I went south again and located the final small Blade camp and wiped it
out. This will trigger the spawning of a level 20 Titan in the main
Blade base; it will slowly emerge from the base and head out on the
trails, with the goal of destroying your camp in the north. With your
army close by you shouldn't have any trouble catching it and destroying
it rather easily.
The spawning of the Titan means the main Blade base stockade doors are
now open. Gather all your troops and invade the camp. It's a large base
with a lot of Towers, and in the southwest corner, beside a brazier, is
the leader of this renegade Blade army, the sorceress Yahsa Ashir, who
you might remember ran out on you back at Winterlight Peak in the first
mission of the game. Yasha is level 24. It's a good idea to enter her
camp with all 70 troops slots (altho some Forum posters report subduing
this camp with just their avatar and party and Nightsong's squad !).
Patiently fight your way thru the camp to her position and then have
your avatar and party pile in on her; with my avatar at level 24 it
wasn't that hard a fight to defeat her. After she dies you'll get a
cutscene, and then Yasha will join your party. Any remaining troops or
towers here in the base will cease attacking you.
15. Side Quests in Dragh' Lur
-Ghul' Dan
Back in Ghostwatch when Whisper duelled one-on-one with Haakh, the
latter dropped a Seal of Ghul' Dan. You should have it in your
inventory. Ghul's grave is in the west area of the map. When you
activate it Ghul will spawn and attack your party.
Ghul is TOUGH. He's level 26 and his attacks leech health off the victim
so it's not easy to whittle down his hit points. I tried to take him on
with my party of my avatar, Caine, Whisper, Wind, Nightsong, and Yasha
and they all died - ! I had to hastily erect an Altar of Life back at my
camp, resurrect my party, and send them down to take on Ghul all over
again. The second time around I did kill him. He drops some daggers,
gives Whisper an 'energy' skill (!?) and gives 1500 XP.
If you're not too proud to have your dark elf army help you in killing
Ghul, go ahead and have them jump in. It will make life easier.
-The Test of Selflessness
This involves a Dracon corpse in the northwestern part of the map. When
your avatar first activates the corpse it will spawn an Archon and a
Sinistrim, representing the two clans of dark elves that you may
remember fighting in Dragh' Lur back in Spellforce 2. Only the Archon
can speak with you, and he's very arrogant and unpleasant. Go thru the
dialogue tree; no matter what you say he'll kill the Sinistrim and maybe
even your avatar. Then have your party and / or army kill him. You then
should get a hint in your quest book that the Archon won't stoop to
recognize you unless you are wearing some kind of Dracon 'object'.
Revive your avatar, if fallen, and look thru your inventory and see if
you have any Dracon item; I donned a 'Dracon's Robe of Regeneration' and
then went and activated the corpse again (this time make sure your party
and army are a good distance away). Again go thru the dialogue options,
and offer yourself as a sacrifice. After the Archon kills you, he'll
have a sincere change of heart (!) and decide to be buddies with the
Sinistrim. They'll both walk away hand in hand. Have someone in your
party resurrect your avatar to complete the quest (there is some armor
dropped for you where the corpse used to be).
Now is a good time to scour the map and kill any remaining earth
elementals, stalkers, and mud golems, and loot whatever treasure they
have been guarding.
When you're done, go see the Shadow Warrior back where you first spawned
in Dragh' Lur. He'll request the Ironcleaver, and in return promise that
the dark elf empress will assist you when you next visit the Citadel.
Travelling to the Citadel starts a protracted RTS session. I decided to
try more RPG gameplay for the moment, and to do some of the side quests,
although of course you can do them whenever you prefer.
16. Back to the City Ship
- Yasha's Chat
When you arrive Yasha will argue with your avatar and request a private
conversation. Go with her to the area in the Globe Plaza with a
'flashing circle' sign on the pavement and enter the conversation with
her. After lecturing her, she'll tell you the Rune Stone you want from
her was hidden in Alluvyan. You'll get a side quest to recover the
Stone.
-Feeding the Wyrm
Head down to the wyrm in Krypterius's former lair. Of course the
spectres will still be here on the Ship to mess with you. After you give
the saurian meat to the wyrm it'll revive and join your party here on
the ship. The wyrm is level 20 and has a good attack, so he's a better
NPC than Agathos ever was...
These good deeds pushed my avatar to level 25 and my party to level 20.
I decided to do the Skjadir and Winterlight Peak side quest next.
17. Winterlight Peak Again
(note: this side quest has an End Boss who, even with my avatar at level
25, puts up a very tough fight. You may want to delay it until you're
two or three levels higher....it's up to you).
-Travel to Sevenkeeps to See Skjadir
If you try to Journey Stone to the Dwarves' Quarter in the Sevenkeeps
map you'll find Skjadir is not 'active', since you have to take the City
Ship there. So, go to the Navigator first, select 'Fiara', and then
Sevenkeeps. After the cutscene, use the Journey Spell to teleport to
Sevenkeeps and the Dwarves' Quarters. Speak with Skjadir; he'll order
some Defenders to board your Ship.
This is a good time to visit the merchants. You may still have on the
Dracon Robe from the Test of Selflessness, so it's a good idea to sell
it off. When you're done shopping use the Journey Spell to return to the
Ship.
Speak with Skjadir, and then consult the Hall of Knowledge (and of
course the spectres are still here to harass you). Then back to the
Navigator, pick Fiara again, and then Winterlight Peak.
After the cutscene use the Journey Spell to travel to the Peak.
-The Five Beast Commanders
You'll arrive on an icy peak in the top half of the map. A nearby chest
has a "Harp of Tirganach" which (I think) is an Agathos item, or maybe
a 'Memories of Eo' side quest item. Your task here will be to find and
defeat the 5 Beast Commanders, and then the witch Ashuka. It's worthwhile
to equip your party with fire weapons and spells if you have them. I
grouped my avatar and party and went out on the westward path; at its
end is a promontory, and here Wind will call for the North Wind. The
North Wind will spawn, along with some Elementals. Kill them to solve
one of the "Wind's" side quests. The North Wind will drop a nice level
26 staff that causes freezing / ice damage.
Then make your way around the northern section of the map. Each
Commander has a retinue of beasts, harpies, panthers, etc., so these are
not easy fights. You will not be able to replace fallen dwarves, so try
and keep as many alive as you can thru this section. Better to resurrect
Nightsong and Wind and Whisper several times than lose too many dwarves.
In the northeast , at the end of a dead-end trail, you'll find a Giant
named Braga who will drop a red jewel; this is a component of the
ongoing "Memories of Eo" side quest.
The last two Commanders are holed up in the city in the south-central
area of the map. Take one batch down. Now it's time to be careful about
the last Commander. Try and lure as many of her / his minions away for
solo killing as you can, especially flying monsters like harpies.
When there are only a few minions left around the Commander, make a
Grouping for all your units, and Save the game.
-Taking on Ashuka
Rush the last Commander and wipe him or her out. IMMEDIATELY have your
entire force take off running - North, up the trail, and NOT South
(there is a Beast camp south of the city). You have less than 10 seconds
before the Ice Queen Ashuka materializes and begins summoning some very
tough monsters to attack you (you'll get a warning voiceover from
Skjadir). As soon as you whittle away all the monsters she'll spawn
another batch, and then another, after which your force will be entirely
wiped out. To make things even harder, Ashuka is usually surrounded by
her creatures and seeing her, much less striking her, is difficult in
the melee.
By running, you'll avoid being crammed into a small area with Ashuka and
her monsters. With some luck, only one or two monsters will follow you.
Make sure Ashuka is not following, and turn and kill the monsters. Now
the key thing is to carefully creep back to within visual range of
Ashuka, and then launch a surprise attack on her. With a monster or two
from her entourage gone, you'll have an opening. Have everyone in your
party focus on Ashuka. She'll probably summon another monster squad
before you can get too many chops at her, but persevere ! I had only one
party member and maybe 5 - 6 dwarves still alive in the end, but I did
kill Ashuka, and this caused all her monsters to vanish.
If this strategy is too challenging, an alternative is simply to reduce
the game's difficulty in the main menu options and then take on Ashuka,
or come back and do this mission when you've leveled up a few more
times.
After the combat, there is a merchant named Stormgrim in the city who
has items to sell, but they were too advanced for my party to use.
When you are ready to depart Winterlight, use the Journey Spell and
return to the City Ship.
18. To Alluvyan, Yasha's Rune Stone, the West Wind, and the South Wind
[You can use the Journey Spell aboard the Ship to get to Alluvyan and do
these side quests.]
-The Rune Stone
This is in the SE in a previously inaccessible area of the Alluvyan map.
As soon as you approach the hiding place of the Stone ( a graveyard) be
ready to run, since Yasha 'forgot' to tell you there are a bunch of
level 20 and 23 skeletons guarding the stone. Whittle them down one by
one and retrieve the Stone; the next stage of the quest involves the
Archfire, later on in the game's "Misty Coast" map.
-The West Wind
This is in the west of Alluvyan, in a small courtyard in front of some
cottages. Have Wind enter the courtyard and she'll call on the West Wind
to appear. He will summon some panthers to attack Wind and your party,
so be ready for a tough fight. After he's killed grab the bow he drops,
the "Wind of the West".
-The South Wind
Now Journey Stone to Ghostwatch. The spawning point for the South Wind
will be in the southwest, on the trail up from Agathos's campsite. The
South Wind will appear with some Fire Elementals. When all are disposed
of, the South Wind drops a staff called 'The Wind of the South" which is
a nice weapon.
At this point I decided to continue with the main quest, and go on to
the Citadel.
19. The Citadel: Eliminating the Guardian and Building a Base
-Return to the Citadel
Journey Stone to the City Ship and have the Navigator transport you back
to the Citadel. Use the Journey Spell to teleport to the Citadel. Walk
up to the courtyard where the Guardian patrols the gate to the interior
of the Citadel, and you'll see the promised troops from Dragh' Lur:
Groups of Fire and Frost gargoyles, and the Gargoyle Master. Speak with
the Master Iol' Thar and he'll order the Fire gargoyles to attack the
Guardian; after a brief fight, the Guardian will expire and the gate to
the interior (and the Library) will now be open. A number of quests will
now be given to you, and you'll see that enemy forces allied with
Riddengard are arrayed inside the Citadel.
A very large base composed of Realm forces is sprawled all over the
north-central and northeastern areas of the map; the main HQ is
positioned near the library entrance in the northeast. In the northwest
is a Clan camp, while in the east are Clan and Beast camps. Each of
these three 'satellite' camps is a formidable base in its own right.
You're going to have to go thru a protracted campaign to destroy all
four of these enemy bases, in order to defeat Riddengard and gain access
to the Library.
Simultaneously with all these revelations, in an abandoned Shaikan camp
in the southeast, some workers and a trio of 'destroyer' Blades will
spawn. You will be given this camp as your own base.
Soon a force of lower-level enemy troops will come rushing out from the
interior through the now-opened gate to attack the Pact camp; just have
your party meet them and you won't have much trouble with them.
Much as with the 'Bulwark' map in Spellforce 2, here you have two
commanders - Khalidan and Iol' Thar - whom you can order to go off and
attack any one of a number of enemy camps here in the Citadel. These
pact forces are constantly-spawning and thus considerably less-expensive
to use than your own army. However, there are some peculiarities in this
map that are worth noting. First, the Pact ground forces under Khalidan
will stop to take down any enemy Towers in their path, and this can be a
pain because at least in the initial stages of your campaign against
Riddengard, these Towers spawn very quickly. It can be quite frustrating
to see that the destruction of an enemy base is delayed, because your
Pact allies are clustered around a Tower and hacking away at it, while
the enemy camp they're supposed to be attacking sits unmolested.
Another issue is that Riddengard will send reinforcements to assist with
the defense against your attacks on any of the three 'satellite' bases.
These reinforcements usually include a level 27 Titan, and can really
hamper your Pact forces, and in essence prevent them from destroying the
enemy camp altogether. So you're going to have to be active in deciding
when and where to have your party (and army) join in with the Pact
forces in their attack.
So, rather than talk with the two Pact commanders in the courtyard, I
first decided to get my base up and running. Duos (and sometimes trios)
of flying units like Spiritists and Harpies will attack your Shaikan
camp rather quickly after the Guardian's death, so you'll want to get
your party armed with ranged weapons and stationed near your vulnerable
HQ.
The camp in the southeast doesn't have a lot of silver at hand, so
you'll have to exercise some judgement in how large a troop slot you can
build; I eked out 36 slots, mainly upgraded Marksmen and a few
Vanguards. The 'depot' upgrade to your food stores can help increase the
unit cap, given the small confines of your base.
Patiently build up a Shaikan or Blade army, fending off the enemy air
units, and when you've exhausted all the silver reserves, leave a few
Marksmen and some Towers (if you have the resources to build them) to
defend your base. Move your force back to the courtyard and the two Pact
commanders.
-Exploring the Interior of the Citadel
I used my party, and my own army, to do some scouting of the interior of
the Citadel and to see exactly where the enemy camps were located. I
found this enabled me to better plan my use of the Pact forces, and to
avoid having my forces overwhelmed by massive enemy attacks. It also
really helps to clear as many Towers as you can from the approaches to
the Riddengard bases in the Citadel interior. And keep in mind that once
you destroy the bases in the northwest and east, you can plunder their
resources and expand your own army, for the final assault on
Riddengards' main base.
So, head through the newly opened gate to the interior. There are enemy
towers lining the corridors here to either side so take them down.
Nearby carts have chests with silver, stone, and lenya so you can expand
your army as you see fit, or construct more defensive towers of your own
back at your base. Once the towers are eliminated open the gates at the
west and east, to the interior of the Citadel. Explore the interior,
activating Journey Stones and killing wandering Armored Drones for
'diary pages' that figure in the Scientist's side quest (below). There
are Crystal Lumps to loot, as well as some nice pieces of armor and
some 'will o' the wisps'. Keep an eye out for attacking enemy flying
units. Try and stay away from the main Realm base in the northeast as
you explore. If you get their attention, quickly retreat and they'll
ignore you.
Also investigate the nooks and crannies of the map for strange creatures
(there are a total of five) that will not attack you; simply detecting
them aids you in a side quest (below).
-The Camp of the Scientists Side Quest
In the southeast is a Journey Stone for the 'Camp of the Scientists' and
nearby, three skeletons. Activate them, and they'll get up and begin
arguing. Dr Widegant wants 12 of the Crystal Lumps scattered around the
Citadel. Master Birnbaum needs the descriptions of 5 unique creatures
for his compendium. And Scout JonJon asks you to return to him 10 diary
pages.
By the time you complete the Citadel map and wipe out all of
Riddengard's forces you should have quite a few of these items; if not,
just scour the city for them once the enemy is cleared. I already had
unwittingly discovered one of the creatures (a Raptor) by the time I
first talked with Birnbaum. In my subsequent wanderings thru the Citadel
I did record that the remaining four were: a Glittering Golem; a Time
Transformer; a Fish Hunter; and a Light Elemental. You'll get a
voiceover from Birnbaum when you come into proximity to these creatures.
I didn't take note of the exact locations of these creatures, but if you
search all areas of the city you should stumble upon them.
Upon returning to the scientists with your items they will give you
several options for rewards, such as items, a companion Elemental, gold,
an XP bonus, etc. Choose what you like and after exhausting the 'reward'
- related conversations, stick around and interact with all three again.
Ask them why they argue, and you'll get a new set of side quests
involving the animosity and jealousy all display towards one another.
Prompt JonJon to attack the other two and, after suffering a life-
affirming beat-down (?!), he'll give you a "Snake Hunter" bow as a
reward. Converse with Widegant and he'll ask you to steal Birnbaum's
Crystal Folio for him; Birnbaum in turn tells you Widegant is an
imposter who knows nothing about science.
Return to Widegant and you'll go thru a quiz designed to test his
qualifications; answer 'five' for the number of sons/children, 'once'
for the subtraction of 9 from 52, and '17' for the number series, to
confirm that Widegant is indeed the scientist he claims to be. Whether
you want to kill Birnbaum and turn his Folio over to Widegant is up to
you, but you'll get a reward from Widegant for doing so. Spellforce 2
player Giseisha [who provided a correction to the incorrect number I
gave in a former version of the walkthorugh] notes: 'Widegant is a
traitor, and if you discover that, he'll attack you.You can then give
the book to Birnbaum and the quest is solved for all three skeletons.'
20. The Citadel: Destroying the Satellite Bases
-The Northern Base
With my scouting expedition completed, it was time to order the two Pact
commanders to attack a target. Much as with the Bulwark map in
Spellforce 2, it's better to order both sets of Pact troops to go for
one target. This is because as soon as the assault gets underway,
Riddengard will send some reinforcements, including a level 27 Titan, to
help with the defense. This really makes destroying an enemy base a
protracted affair. Have your avatar and party ready to assist, but be
judicious in how you use your army and its costly units. With regard to
your party, if they get caught up in a big melee and all succumb, it may
be better to revive all of them in the Altar of Life in the south of the
city, rather than on-site, where they'll probably get killed all over
again. You should have plenty of lenya reserves to allow for 'Altar of
Life interventions' by now.
I chose to attack the 'northern' enemy camp first (this is technically
more in the northwest in terms of location). With the Pact forces on
their way, have your party come along too. Pitch in on leveling
buildings, and if a Titan shows up, gang up on it if you like. This is
the easiest enemy camp to dismantle. Once all the enemy forces are
eliminated station your army here, and import some workers and get busy
harvesting the nearby silver deposits. They're not very large, but they
allowed me to cap my troop slots at 70.
-The Eastern Bases
There are two bases here, close together, one a Clan camp, and one a
Beast camp. En route to these enemy camps, your Pact forces will have to
pass down a ramp leading to the east; several enemy Towers will
continuously spawn here and distract the ground troops. I would station
my party here prior to the order to attack, and have them whittle away
the Towers as they spawn. That way your initial forces will go straight
to their targets. Be sure to leave at least half of your Shaikan army
back at the captured northern base, because sooner or later Riddengard
will send a small force to try and retake it. You'll also want to kill
any Riddengard workers that try to slip back in and re-establish the
base or harvest the resources located there.
I asked my Pact commanders to go for the eastern Beast camp first. Sit
back and take care of the Towers in their path, and watch as things
unfold. When a Titan intervenes, you may want send your party (and
some of your own Shaikan / Blade troops) off to help your Pact allies.
If it looks like the Pact attackers are losing the race to kill the
enemy as fast as they spawn, then send your party into the Beast camp to
intervene. Focus on eliminating the buildings and any more Titans that
show up. This will be a tough fight, so be prepared to resurrect party
members more than once, as well as create reinforcements for your
Shaikan troops. With some effort you should gradually get the upper hand
and level the Beast structures. The outskirts of the main Realm camp are
only a short distance away from this Beast camp, so keep an eye out for
their Towers and troops. Try not to provoke the Realm troops if you can
help it. When all the Beast buildings go down, the Pact forces will
cease showing up and return to the Pact camp in the south.
Send your avatar back to the Pact camp, and now ask the commanders to
eliminate the Clan camp in the east. Much as with the Beast camp,
patiently let the Pact guys do their thing. Have your party intervene
when necessary.
With all three 'satellite' camps destroyed, the attacks by the Realm
forces, both aerial and ground, should diminish if not stop entirely.
Bring some workers up to harvest the resources in the eastern camps, and
prepare for the final assault on Riddengard's big Realm base.
21. The Citadel: Clearing a Path to the Library
-Attack on the Realm Base
This should be relatively easy, since Riddengard can no longer create
more troops. Just be aware that when you order your Pact allies to
attack the 'large Realm camp' it does not include the buildings in the
north-central area of the map, but only those near the Library entrance
in the northeast.
While the Pact forces deal with the Realm Towers and troops, just have
your own army sneak in thru a side street and start in on the buildings.
You won't encounter much resistance. Once the area around the Library is
clear, send your party and army to eliminate the remaining Realm
buildings and troops in the north-central. They shouldn't put up a big
fight.
MAKE SURE YOU'VE DESTROYED ALL OF RIDDENGARD'S STRUCTURES OR THE
PORTAL HERE IN THE NORTHEAST LEADING TO THE NEXT SEGMENT OF THIS MAP WILL
NOT BE TRIGGERED !
Once all the Realm structures are destroyed you'll get a text message
that Riddengard has been defeated and you'll earn 3500 XP. My avatar
leveled up to 26 and my party to 21 by this point.
Poke around the north for creatures for the compendium, crystal lumps,
and diary pages, as well as chests with some nice weapons and armor.
-The Battle With Mordecay
When you're ready for the last section of the Citadel map, make sure you
have a tidy amount of lenya in your resources (remember it costs 500 to
resurrect your avatar at the Altar of Life, and 250 for each party
member). Give your avatar and party members the most powerful weapons
and spells they can use at their current level. Have your avatar step
into the portal circle in the northeast, and he or she will be
teleported to the Library. Summon all your heroes, and head for the
inner area where Mordecay, your former party member from Spellforce 2,
is now possessed by Riddengard's magic and bars the way to the Soul
Carrier. Mordecay is level 25, and he's got some level 22 Drones, and a
level 23 Blessed One, to help him.
I needed two rounds of combat to subdue Mordecay. I first concentrated
on taking out as many of his henchmen as I could, and then revived all
my fallen party at the Altar of Life, back near the Journey Spell
portal in the south of the map. Heal up and transport everyone back to
the Library. Take on Mordecay again and you should defeat him with the
loss of one or two party members. Then watch the cutscene. When it ends
you'll all be teleported back to the Journey Spell; if you want to go
back to the Library and plunder whatever corpses are still there, you
can do so.
You now have a number of new quests associated with the main quest, and
it's time to step into the Journey Spell and return to the City Ship and
pursue your search for the Soul Carrier.
22. The Godeland and the Refuge
-Travelling to the Godeland
When you arrive on board the Ship Caine will give you a new side quest
involving a judgement on a merchant in Sevenkeeps named 'Ironbelly'. I
recommend delaying this side quest until after you travel to the next
mission, in the Refuge, because a side quest there will send you to
Sevenkeeps anyways.
Send your avatar to the Hall of Knowledge and interact with the tablet
containing the sailing instructions to the Godeland. Return to the
Navigator and select the Godeland as your destination, and after the
cutscene step into the Journey Spell and travel to the Refuge.
After the cutscene you'll find yourself in familiar RTS territory.
You'll need to build up an army and force your way thru the dragonlings
infesting the area in order to find the Soul Carrier.
-Making Your Base
There are plentiful stone, silver, and lenya here so patiently build up
your army. There will be some powerful enemy flying units coming by to
attack your base, so you'll want some ranged units (upgraded Marksmen)
to counter them. A chest in the clearing where your HQ is located has an
axe that is particularly strong against beasts, so you'll want to have
your best melee hero armed with it.
Level 14 dragonlings, as well as level 18 flying dragons, will
periodically attack your base from both ground and air so have your
party stationed a little north of your HQ, where the trail forks, to
handle these attacks.
When you're ready to carry the fight to the enemy, select one fork to
stuff with Shaikan defense Towers; you'll head up the other fork to
destroy the dragonling spawning grounds. I decided to defend the
northeast fork in the trail, and take my army up the northwest fork. I
had 50 troops slots filled and a nice cluster of Towers around my HQ. In
retrospect, 60 troops (the max for the mission is 70) would have been
better. But you can do it with 50 for now if room for siting Stores in
your perimeter is a problem. It's a good idea to leave one or two weaker
party members behind to help with the defense of your tower 'chokepoint'
along the northeast fork; they can take down the level 14 wyrms without
too much trouble.
-Attacking the Dragon Camps in the West
Head up the northwest branch of the trail; pick off any wyrms coming
down it. You'll pass the "South" Journey Stone and a little to the north
of that, the first of the two Dragon camps on this trail. Try to have
one segment of your army destroy the Dragon Dens and stop the spawning
of the enemy while another segment deals with the dragons themselves.
This is a tough fight, so have Wind administer area-wide healing spells
(such as 'Holy Light') if possible.
When the camp is eliminated have your avatar explore the surrounding
chests for some nice weapons. Off to one side of this area is a circular
courtyard; it contains two Troll Hurlers (?!) hiding in the bushes. Kill
them and pick up the figurines of 'Mugwa' they drop, for the 'Memories
of Eo' side quest.
You may need to hold position here while you crank out reinforcements
back at your base. Also, keep an eye on the dragon attacks on your HQ;
have workers repair damaged buildings and erect more towers if you have
the resources.
When your army is back up to full force, continue up the northwest
trail. It ends at a second Dragon camp perched among some lava fields.
It's another tough fight; just whittle away the Dens and the dragons and
when you're victorious, loot the nearby chests.
I next sent my army back down to the vicinity of the South Journey Stone
and made sure there were no more wyrms or dragons infesting the
immediate area. As the silver and stone at my base were now exhausted, I
then brought up lots of idle workers to harvest the silver here. I also
erected some Stores to bring my unit cap up to 70. When I played this
mission, only one wyrm came around this satellite base the whole time
thereafter, and was handled by a few Towers. So you can harvest the
silver here without any molestation.
-Side Quests
NOTE: after you eliminate the last of the Dragon camps the game will
automatically remove all your troops and troop-creating capacity,
leaving just your party to complete the middle segment of the 'Soul
Carrier' quest. You will be given a new force, composed of dragons,
AFTER completing the Soul Carrier quest. The presence of THAT force can
make some of the side quests here in The Refuge (such as the East Wind
and the Mosaic of Death, below) quite a bit easier. So you may want to
hold off on these side quests until the end of the mission.
I had my army assemble in my base, and then set out on the northeast
fork of the trail. Slaughter any wyrms coming in your direction. When
you arrive at the Northeast Journey Stone there is a dragonling camp
nearby that you'll need to destroy.
-The East Wind
If you go due east from the Northeast Journey Stone there is a trail
that leads to a small clearing with some chests; this is the spawn point
for the East Wind. It's easier to take on the Easy Wind (level 20) with
your army, or dragons, alongside you, because this is a tough fight; the
Wind will spawn a group of level 17 Storm Hunters to help her out. [I
took on the Wind after I'd eliminated all the dragon camps and triggered
the cutscene with Shea (below) and it was hard doing it with only my
party ! If you intend to do this, make sure you have an Altar of Life
built back at your base-- prior to embarking on the last attack on the
dragonling camps-- in case the Wind kills your entire party.]
The East Wind will drop a level 27 piece of armor, the Wind of the East.
A little further down the trail is another chest with a Crawler Fetish
for your 'Memories' side quest.
-Mo and the Dream Stalker Side Quest
If you send your party to the center of the map, near a lake, a will-o-
the-wisp is present. This is Mo, the fourth child's ghost you need to
see about the Idara / Dream Stalker side quest. Speak with Mo and you'll
be given his slingshot and orders to return to Sevenkeeps for the next
segment of the quest.
-The Mosaic of Death
Ah, a beloved favorite of Spellforce fans: the 'Mosaic of Death' side
quest. The Mosaic is located in the West, among the ruins of a temple;
it has its own Journey Stone. It's patrolled by a force of skeletons.
You know the drill by now: kill the skeletons, one drops a 'Fragment of
the Mosaic' that you pick up, and then interact with the Mosaic to
insert it. This spawns another batch of higher-level Undead, whom you
must eliminate to get the Second Fragment of the Mosaic, etc.
The first one, or even two, iterations of the Mosaic are bearable, and I
even handled them with just my party. But as always, the Third and
Fourth iterations feature some very tough monsters (levels 23 and 26,
respectively) and you're sure to lose most (all ?) of your party, so
come back here for the Third and Fourth Fragments when you have your
'dragon force' to help out. Even with their aid it's still a tough
fight, so don't be too embarrassed to retreat and heal up (the skeletons
won't pursue you too far out of the Mosaic area) in between combats.
Note that here in the vicinity of the Mosaic are some chests that can be
opened with 5 of the 'Skull Coins' you may have been collected
throughout the game. There is some nice loot in the chests. After you
kill the Master of the Mosaic in the Fourth Fragment part of the quest,
he will drop some more Coins, so with luck you may be able to open at
least two of the three chests.
-The Main Dragonling Camp
Continue up the trail to the northeast and you'll come upon the main
dragonling camp, nestled among a volcano crater. With an army of 70
slots in my employ, killing the defending dragons and destroying their
nests wasn't very difficult. When you eliminate the last Den, it will
trigger a cutscene (that I found to be quite confusing). In any event,
your army and workers all disappear and it's just your avatar and party
(and Shea and the Shaper Woman) for the next segment of the mission.
[Note that there is a corpse lying in a small clearing among the
volcanic terrain at the far northern tip of the map. This is associated
with the Test of Loyalty side quest (below), but you can't perform it
until the main campaign here on this map is completed.]
23. The Soul Carrier
-The Souls of the Dragons
After the defeat of the last Dragon camp, go thru the gate in the
northwest that Shea came out of. Here among the volcanoes is the long-
sought Soul Carrier ...a big blue dragon with a 'sophisticated' accent.
You have to redeem your killing of dragons in The Refuge by freeing the
Souls of the Dragons here in the crater. There are four Souls: Furyn,
Fyrior, Fangor, and Fonmyr. You need to give each his / her proper
collection of memorabilia (from the three chests located near them) by
going thru the dialogue trees and figuring out the proper responses. You
are warned that some of the Souls will lie to you. If you hand over the
wrong item, your avatar and party will be 'shocked' and lose health (or
even die).
I suggest you talk with Fangor first, inquire about 'tell me about the
other dragons', and follow his clues to give the appropriate items to
the other three dragons. Fyrior will be so happy with this that he'll
tell you he will not lie to you, so you can ask him about the other
dragons with confidence. Based on his instructions, go thru another
round of item-returning. Then talk with Furyn; follow his instructions
for another round of item-returning. Then use a trial-and-error approach
to find out the disposition of the remaining items in your inventory.
If you don't want to plod thru this puzzle, I've listed the memorabilia
and artifacts that go with each Soul:
Fonmyr: a Wyrm, black scale, symbol of the Tracker
Fangor: a Crystal dragon, silver scale, symbol of the Guardian
Fyrior: a Wind dragon, green scale, symbol of the Hunter
Furyn: a Fire dragon, red scale, symbol of the Messenger
After each Soul is properly compensated they'll depart. When the puzzle
is completed you'll get some cutscenes and a bunch of XP that brought my
avatar to level 27 and my party to level 21.
You'll also get several more quests, and batches of beasts will spawn at
various locations along the northern edge of the map; a large camp of
them is in the NE.
-Liberating the Dragon Dens
You'll be given some dragons to help out your party, and as you
eliminate the beasts guarding each Den, these liberated Dens will spawn
more dragons to join your group as well. The main difficulty here will
be in controlling all your units; make use of the 'select all units' (=)
key as needed.
Mobs of beasts and harpies and spellcasters will come down the trails to
attack the Refuge, so be prepared for chaotic situations as you make
your way up the roads along the northern border of the map. You
shouldn't have too much trouble with the beasts, just mow them down and
when you get to the beast camp, patiently destroy the buildings and stop
the spawning of more enemies.
When the last structure goes down, you'll be treated to a cutscene
involving the Shaper couple and Riddengard. After the cutscene send your
army after Riddengard. He's level 28 and puts up a stiff fight , but
keep pounding him and eventually he'll give up. Watch the cutscene.
If you haven't already done so now is a good time to do the side quests
here in The Refuge (above). And, before you return to the City Ship, you
can do the Test of Loyalty.
-The Test of Loyalty
This is another of those tests of martial spirit sponsored by the Dwarf
'God of War ' Niethalf. In the far north of the map, at the dead-end of
the trail, is a corpse of a Dark Elf who was betrayed in battle.
Interact with it and it will spawn a batch of elves and a Ringleader.
Speak with the Ringleader; he'll offer dialogue options for you to spurn
his offer of material goods, or accept the goods. Since we're interested
in passing the Test, choose "you can't buy me !" The Ringleader and the
elves will attack you, but with your dragon force and party alongside
you, you can easily repel them.
There are two more iterations of this interaction with the Ringleader;
each time, reject his offer and battle the spawning Dark Elves. After
the third batch goes down you'll get a timer in the upper left corner of
your screen; after it counts down (~ 16 seconds), two Ringleaders and
lots of elves will spawn. You should be able to handle them without too
much trouble. When all are dead, the Ringleader will drop a nice hammer
and shield and you'll get the next stage of the quest, the Test of
Truthfulness.
Now the Refuge map is complete. Head to the Journey Spell in the south
and return to the City Ship.
24. Defeating Riddengard's Boarding Party
-Boarders, and Another Judgement Quest from Caine
When you arrive on the Ship you'll be treated to a cutscene showing
that, while you were off in The Refuge, Riddengard teleported some
boarders onto your ship. A formidable group of level 25 beasts and three
level 27 Blessed Ones are clustered around the Globe Plaza, and a
smaller detachment of beasts, led by level 25 Sadok, are torturing Urgi
down on the lower deck in a hold in the southeast. The good thing about
this is that the spectres are no longer able to spawn here on the Ship !
Interact with Caine and he'll tell you there is one last Judgement to be
made, on a woman named Una who is hiding in the Temple Grounds back in
Sevenkeeps. Set this side quest aside for now, as you've obviously got
to regain control of the Ship in order to travel anywhere.
Carefully make your way to the hold where Urgi is held captive (needless
to say, as you move about the decks you don't want to get the attention
of the big enemy force near the Navigator). Defeat the beasts and speak
with Urgi. He'll tell you can't beat the Blessed Ones on your own, and
you must recruit the Thought Storm you dealt with earlier, to aid you in
your battle with the enemy. After this revelation batches of Thoughts
will spawn all over the Ship.
-Reviving the Thought Storm
Make your way to the Hall of Dreams in the northwest. There is a row of
five pedestals, with gyroscopes swirling atop each. The goal is to
interact with each pedestal in such as way that the 'Opener' will call
out the name of a category of Thoughts (Hatred, Disgust / Loathing,
Fear, Wrath, and Madness). The Thoughts on the Ship corresponding to
that category will then travel to the Hall, and vanish once they reach
the circle inlaid in the pavement.
This is an exasperating puzzle.
On this topic, Forum posters Phonemax and Delgado have this advice:
pedestal (1) above is "MADNESS" and below is "LOATHING"
pedestal (2) above is "HATRED" and below is "wrath"
pedestal (3) above is "WRATH" and below is "FEAR"
pedestal (4) above is "LOATHING" and below is "HATRED"
pedestal (5) above is "FEAR" and below is "MADNESS"
(pedestal 1 is on the left-hand side)
"Just touch two pedestals with equal symbols, i.e. pedestal 1 and 5, to
activate Madness, then pedestal 2 and 4 to activate Hatred, pedestal
2 and 3 to activate Wrath, and so on".
This should help you solve the puzzle; I note that some Forum posters
have killed the Blessed Ones without the aid of the Thought Storm - !?
But my own efforts to do this were a real failure.
So I dutifully played with the puzzle until I succeeded in calling all
five flavors of Thoughts back to the Hall. This resulted in the spawning
of the Thought Storm. Enter into the dialogue options with it; I chose
"Yasha" and summoned up enough hatred to activate the Storm.
-Battle With the Blessed Ones
Carefully stash your army on one side of the Globe Plaza and send
Whisper to sneak up and launch an arrow at a Blessed One. Immediately
have him retreat to the rest of your party, because a boiling mob of
beastmen and Blessed Ones will attack you. Try to have your Thought
focus on the Blessed Ones. This is a tough battle, no doubt about it,
and you may lose most of your party and several spider Guardians just to
kill most of the beastmen and two Blessed Ones. However, if you retreat,
the enemy will resume their stance near the Navigator, and so you can
sneak back to the battlefield and resurrect fallen party members . Then
go for the Blessed Ones again.
When the battle is over you'll get some healthy XP (enough to send my
avatar to level 28 and party members to 23) and instructions to consult
with the Hall of Knowledge about directions to the Westguard. Go the
Hall, interact with the tablet, and then return to the Navigator and
select the Westguard as your destination. After the cutscene use the
Journey Spell to travel to the Westguard; if you speak with Urgi, he'll
tell you he's sick of spending 30,000 years on the Ship (!) and would
like to retire to the Westguard.
25. Defense of the Westguard
-A Hectic 15 Minutes
After viewing the cutscenes you'll have a LOT going on. Large forces of
enemy skeletons, beastmen, and flying units will start attacking your
structures all over the eastern half of the map. You'll have to defend
your HQ for 15 minutes, with the help of some friends and NPCs from
Spellforce 2, until elf and dwarf reinforcements can arrive and help
out.
My strategy here was to ignore everything and simply defend my HQ. Use
the '= ' key to take command of all your units onscreen, and promptly
stash them by the HQ. There will be some workers in this area; send them
to the stone deposits just to the northeast of the HQ and have them
harvest stone (up to 550) so if your HQ gets leveled, you have the
ability to construct another. Once these workers are finished gathering
the 550 stone, try to stash them in a safe place out of harm's way (a
nook of the wall to the north of the northeast Journey Stone seemed to
attract little attention from the enemy).
Be ready to spend a hectic 15 minutes fending off a CONSTANT stream of
attacks by mobs of enemy troops. These troops are not very powerful but
there are many of them. Needless to say, area-effect offensive and
defensive spells come in handy here. Keep an eye out for a level 22 Rock
Giant who likes to come wandering in from the south while you are
preoccupied with a batch of skeletons or beasts somewhere else around
the HQ. If your workers get killed, don't expend silver to crank out
more, unless your HQ takes so much damage it's in danger of being
destroyed.
[I had the game crash regularly during this level because of the all the
onscreen animations - despite my having 2 GB RAM - so Save often !]
When the 15 minutes are up, you'll get a cutscene of Ylia and Jandrim
arriving with reinforcements. Call them all to the HQ and prepare for
the next segment of the mission.
-Building Up Your Base
There are now three Blessed Ones at various points on the map. You're
going to need to eliminate them. Of course, the road to each Blessed One
goes thru a healthy-sized beast or undead camp, so you'll need an army
to help you out. And of course, you must build up that army while
fending off regular assaults by the enemy. In other words, time for some
protracted RTS gameplay.
Things will still be touchy at your HQ, so have your forces ready to
deter attacks from three directions. To the NORTH, three skeleton
knights (later four) periodically will come thru the opening in the wall
to the north of the Journey Stone there. These are the weakest of the
attacks, and you will just need a small force of druids and infantry,
and maybe one or two towers, to keep them away.
To the EAST, a group of enemy Undead cavalry will come rushing over the
bridge every now and then. A good-sized force of dwarf infantry, with a
Druid, and a tower or two can help here.
To the SOUTH, a Giant, and some sorceresses, will be heading up the road
on a regular basis, with sizeable beast armies coming later on. These
are arguably the most powerful attacks, so I had my avatar, Caine, Wind,
and some troops stationed here. If you go further south you'll come upon
a little beast camp, but you first need to strengthen your base before
taking it out.
Double-check that you've got all of Ylia's and Jandrim's reinforcements
out of the city and among your units. Check back at their spawn point
near the Journey Spell in the city all throughout this level, because
every now and then a dwarf Defender or two will spawn, so add them to
your force - every little bit helps.
Get some workers up and harvesting the silver and stone close by your
HQ. You may not be able to afford many workers at this point, so it's a
long and sometimes frustrating crawl to get to the point where you can
start creating even five 'cheap' troops. But once you have some, have
them join your 'south defense force' and go down the road and eliminate
the small beast camp there. Station your defenders near the opening in
the south wall, and bring down some workers to harvest the stone and
silver here (by now you may have exhausted all resources in the
immediate vicinity of your HQ).
You can also send some workers north, near the northeast Journey Stone,
to harvest the stone and silver there. Just have your 'north defense
force' interposed between the smelters and stonemason buildings and the
attacks of the skeletons.
26. The Blessed One of Fire
-Attacking the Southern Enemy Base
Patiently crank out depots and troops, and build up your 'southern'
army. The max troops slots (as always) for this mission is 70 but of
course this can be expanded with the troops of Jandrim and Ylia and thus
can reach 80. Incorporating Druids into your force definitely helps with
healing spells, but remember you can't replace them when they're killed.
I decided to eliminate the southern enemy base first; this is associated
with the 'Fire" Blessed One. It's best to take it on with as many troops
as you can afford - I found that more than 50 is a good idea, altho of
course you want to make sure your HQ is properly defended. The main
problem here will be 'Sky Claws', enemy flying dragons that drop earth
projectiles on your force. So, having 10 or more upgraded Marksmen in
your army is recommended. You can create your own flying dragon units,
such as fire and crystal dragons, but keep in mind these are expensive
units and occupy quite a few slots each.
Taking down the Blessed One of Fire and the nearby enemy camps is an
incremental affair. I first made sure I had four or more Towers placed
at the bridgehead to the East, along with a small group of dwarves and a
druid, to take care of the Undead cavalry attacks while I was off down
south. Then I headed down the south road, wiping out enemy forays as I
went, and ignored the abandoned 'pentagram' structure at the
southernmost end of the road (this will play a role later in the
mission).
I then turned west, over the causeway. At the end of the
causeway I halted and brought up teams of workers. Have the workers
erect two or even three Towers here; upgrading them with the 'dragon',
'shaikan', and / or 'blades' upgrades is useful. Behind the Towers
erect a Barracks or other troop spawning building, so you don't have to
wait for reinforcements to come running all the way down here to the
southern battlefield.
When your Towers and Barracks are complete and you've got a force you
feel comfortable with, prepare to take on the Blessed One of Fire.
-Eliminating the Blessed One of Fire and the Enemy Camp
The Blessed One (level 27) is a bit to the west of the causeway, atop a
small hill in the middle of a cornfield. He has some monsters (Crawling
Terrors at level 19) along with him, particularly 4 - 5 Sky Claws (18).
Note that if you go west past the Blessed One's position there is a very
large, well-defended Beast camp...when provoked they will come running to
help the Blessed One, so keep an eye on them.
Group your marksmen, and have them edge into the corn field and loose
some shots at the Sky Claws, then retreat. Whittle down the units that
come after you. The Sky Claws will spawn continuously from the beast
camp, so you'll have to constantly have your marksmen dealing with them.
With the Blessed One's bodyguards depleted, rush him. Have all your
troops pound him and he should go down relatively quickly. Be prepared
to deal with an onslaught from the beast camp as this happens ! When the
Blessed One goes down, quickly pull your army back to the area of the
causeway and the protection of your Towers. Heal up and crank out
replacement units as needed; the towers should help deter enemy attacks.
[When he's about to expire the Blessed One of Fire (like the other two)
will make a remark about summoning The Devourer, but don't worry about
it yet.]
Depending on the size of your army, taking down the beast camp here in
the south may require two (or even three) successive assaults, with
breaks for healing and reinforcement in between assaults. The beast
structures can spew out annoyingly large batches of beastmen, raptors,
and Sky Claws, despite having just a few workers. You may have to do
some retrieving of fallen party members from the battlefield...if this
gets to be a pain, then I recommend you erect an Altar of Life behind
your lines to make things easier.
Once the beast camp is destroyed, poke around the chests in this area
for nice loot, including some weapons that are effective against the
Undead.
This is the hardest fight of the level. Now send all your troops (I had
now reached my maximum of 70 slots) back to your base and prepare to
kill the remaining two Blessed Ones.
27. The Blessed One of Storms and the Blessed One of Night
-Wiping out the Blessed One of Storms
The Blessed One of Storms lurks atop a hill in the northeast. There is a
skeleton camp on the fields below him. With my army at 80 slots it
wasn't all that hard to wipe out the skeleton camp and then go for the
Blessed One. I then moved my army west and into town. Be alert for more
Undead structures along the way; destroy them as you go. Note that some
of the Westguard buildings here are under bombardment from ballistas
(located near the Blessed One of Night in the west).
There are lots of merchants in the town square, as well as Urgi,
enjoying his retirement.
Continue to the west and ascend the mountain to where there is an Undead
camp and the Blessed One of Night. Kill them all. When the Blessed One
of Night succumbs you'll get a cutscene in which The Devourer, level 30,
spawns in the 'abandoned' pentagram circle in the far southeast. The
Devourer will stay put, so you can take your time moving your army down
to that area. My avatar leveled up to 29 at this point so expend your
points as you see fit....
I had some workers erect two towers a little ways up the road from the
Devourer, and gave the towers the Shaikan upgrade, so my party could be
healed by them. I spaced my army out around the towers and had Whisper
go provoke the Devourer with some arrows. When the monster comes after
Whisper, have everyone pile in on him and he should go down with the
loss of one or two troops, no more. The 'spirit' of The Devourer will
escape thru a portal at the pentagram to the next level (the Misty Coast).
Your own Portal to the Misty Coast will now be activated in the NW corner
of the map.
First, there are some things you can do here in the Westguard, as well
as some side quests to tidy up over in Sevenkeeps.
-The Test of Truthfulness
This is the last of the Niethalf tests. Go to the statue of Dark Elf
chieftain Craig Un' Shallach, on the bridge connecting your HQ area with
the town. Interact with it and go thru some intense metaphysical
discussions with the ghost of Craig. He will ask two non-rhetorical
questions, one about suffering; the correct answer was "the woes of
others are a lesson to us", and another about combat; the correct answer
is "battle is our vice". If you answer wrongly he'll summon four 'Dracon
Elite' ghosts to kill you, so have your army around to back you up and
resurrect you if needed.
When you correctly answer all of Craig's questions you'll pass the test
(altho Craig makes a cryptic remark about your eccentric ally Professor
Twiddle from Spellforce 2 ?!). He'll also ask to speak with Nightsong.
When Craig departs he'll give you 1600 XP and leave a chest with some
weapons and the "Broken Blade" for your 'Memories of Eo" side quest.
That's about it for combat in the Westguard level. Next I did some
shopping among all the merchants in the town. If you are really spoiling
for another tough fight, there is an enemy base located on the ridge
along the eastern border of the map. It's only accessible by air, so
you'll have to use flying dragons to eliminate it.
-The Lord of the Tides Side Quest: Introduction
Go speak with Tor Halicos about the next map in the Main Quest, the
Misty Coast. He'll tell you there was a Shaikan settlement on one of the
islands there, but contact with the settlement has mysteriously been
lost. For more information he directs you to Ylia, standing nearby.
Speak with Ylia and you'll learn that all inhabitants of the colony have
disappeared, and foul play - not related to the Shaper - is suspected.
She offers to accompany your party to the Misty Coast to investigate
exactly what befell the settlers. (Note that Ylia will automatically
spawn in the Misty Coast when you first travel there).
However, for the moment I decided to do some more side quests in
Sevenkeeps. Have your avatar step into the Journey Spell at the ruins
where The Devourer spawned and he or she will be teleported to the Misty
Coast Portal in the far northwest corner of the Westguard map. From here
(without interacting with the Portal) you can Journey Stone to
Sevenkeeps.
28. Side Quests in Sevenkeeps.
-The Dreamstalker Quest
Head to the Willow and she'll tell you to go to the Spider Lair, where
Barubas (aka Sharad' Naine) hangs out, and to station a party member at
each of the four graves of the children abused by Barubas. The four
graves are all a short distance from the Spider Lair Journey Stone. Each
grave has an interactive 'gears' symbol associated with it. Send your
avatar and remaining NPCs to Barubas (if you have leftover troops left
here on the Sevenkeeps map, have them join you).
Speak with Barubas and when he realizes his secret is exposed, he'll
attack you. He'll also call out for Marcia's suffering to help give him
power. Quickly shift the camera to each of your party members and have
them interact with their assigned grave via the gear symbol; when you
select Marcia's grave, you'll get a voiceover that she is no longer
under Barubas's power. Barubas will be weakened, but he'll keep fighting
(you may have to use some healing spells on your avatar and troops as
needed).
Barubas will next call on Elyria for power; again have your NPCs query
their graves and when Elyria's is activated, Barubas will lose more
power. He'll call on Joshua, then Mo. After you deny him all four
children's aid, Barubas will give up. Speak with him again and after the
cutscene pick up the items he drops, and arm yourself with the Mirror
shield.
Now send your avatar to the Silent Glade; Hazibelah is located to the
northeast of the Journey Stone. Speak with her and she'll see her
reflection in the Mirror shield. You have to kill her, even if a fight
between your level 29 avatar and a level 20 old lady seems unfair - !
When she dies she'll drop a Dreamstalker ring.
Now go see the Willow. She'll congratulate you on ending the quest and
provide a Staff of the Willow.
-Judgement on Una
Head to the Temple District and speak with Una. She is not very
cooperative. You'll be given a task to research her background by
visiting 9 sites here in Sevenkeeps to either read documents about her,
or speak with people who know about her. Start with examining the book
on the podium near Una; it mentions that she has a weakness for
sweetwine....hmmm...
Continue thru Sevenkeeps; the people to speak with are Sephis, Professor
Undergant,, Magician Alyre, Guild Master Cardogan, Laudinia, and
remaining books are one near Alyre, one at The Palace, and one near the
Gallows near the Marketplace. When you finish you'll get a voiceover
from Caine advising you to use some ruse or bait to lure Una away from
the Temple so she can be judged.
Find merchant Allohi in the Marketplace and buy a bottle of sweetwine
from her. Return to the Temple District and carefully look for the bench
alongside one of the ramps leading up to the Temple; it's close by
Merchant Marla. Interact with the bench and place the sweetwine on it.
Una will come to the bench where you can judge her. She drops a robe and
a dagger.
-Judgment on Ironbelly
Head to the Marketplace and speak with Ironbelly. He of course refuses
to submit to judgement. A voiceover from Caine advises our traditional
'research' mini-quest. There are 7 subjects: Laudinia, the book at the
Gallows, the book at The Palace, Professor Undergant, Guild Master
Cardogan, Sephis, and a book located near High Priest Alastar. After
this, another voiceover by Caine suggests you speak to Ironbelly's
Henchman in the marketplace. Do so, and in hopes of getting his hands on
some 'Dreamsand' Ironbelly will walk down a side street to a small
courtyard. Follow him and then pass your Judgement. Ironbelly drops an
amulet and a dagger. In an exchange with Caine your avatar will have an
amusing line, but do check the dropped items in your inventory; I
discovered I now had a 'Vestments of the Just' armor, helmet, and amulet
set that was pretty nice. Caine also get the 'Manhunter' ability
(whatever that is).
With these side quests completed your avatar should be a bit closer to
level 30.
It was now time to proceed with the "Misty Coast" mission and the last
big RTS segment of the game. Journey Stone back to The Westguard and the
Portal to the Misty Coast, and then step thru the Portal.
29. The Misty Coast: The Five Islands
-Clearing the Island of Elementals and Investigating the Fate of the
Colony
You'll arrive on a small island in the southwest where the abandoned
Shaikan settlement was located. Make your way down the trails, killing
all the elementals and golems and liberating the structures. Keep an eye
out for 'Clam Shells' scattered around on this island (and other islands
on this map) and pick them up (they will not be indicated on your mini-
map and can take some careful searching to find). When the last enemy
detachment is destroyed a team of workers will spawn, and you'll get a
quest message that you will need to create flying units to take the
fight to the Shaper elsewhere on this map.
Speak with Ylia, who has spawned here at the Shaikan settlement.
She'll tell you to examine the island for clues to the fate of the
settlers. A diary will spawn in the sand and be indicated on your mini-
map; read it and return to Ylia. It seems you'll need to confront the
Lord of the Tides and secure the return of the lost settlers. For now,
set this side quest aside and come back to it (below) when the main
quest storyline is complete here on the Coast.
Get the workers busy harvesting stone, silver, and lenya and when you
have enough stone, build a Practice Ground, then a Headquarters.
Completion of the HQ will trigger a cutscene and then the Soul Carrier
will join your party. Also, five Shaper outposts will be revealed on the
map; each outpost is located on a small island and contains a larger
version of one of those strange 'tripod' objects you might remember from
the hold of the City Ship. These tripods supply the Archfire power the
Shaper is using to deter the Soul Carrier from attacking him at his home
base on the northern island.
Each enemy camp on the small islands is guarded by towers and troops.
You will have to use your dragons to fly to the island, beat back the
enemy around each island's Journey Stone, and thus allow your avatar and
party to teleport to the island and deactivate the Archfire tripod. When
all five tripods are deactivated, the Shaper's defensive power will be
crippled. Be careful, because if at any time the Soul Carrier gets
killed, you fail the mission.
-Creating a Flying Dragon Force
Base-building on 'your' island is a bit tricky since there is not a lot
of room for the placement of buildings and towers, but you should be
able to construct enough Food Stores (upgraded to Depots) to reach your
max troop slot of 70. Stone, silver and lenya are all very plentiful.
Soon after your HQ is built waves of Fire Gargoyles will come at you. I
had some Marksmen (upgraded to Salvo Shot), three towers, and party
members with ranged weapons to help defend things at first. Then once I
had the capability to create dragons I put a fire and crystal dragon
combo into the mix, too. Plant Wind, or another caster equipped with a
healing wand, at the most heavily attacked location, and she can heal
the Marksmen and dragons on a regular basis. There were two areas on my
island where the gargoyle attacks were directed, so this Marksmen -
Dragon - Tower -Hero combination worked quite well.
I wouldn't recommend creating a dragon Titan, despite the fact that it's
a cool unit, it's incapable of flying and costs quite a bit of lenya and
silver and occupies 5 slots. Too bad the one time in the game you can
create one, it's basically useless.... !
-Liberation of the First Island
When you are comfortable with your defenses and you've maxed your troop
slots, assemble a force of the Soul Carrier, and five or more Crystal /
Fire dragonlings and carefully send them to the first island. Scout
from a distance to learn the location of the Journey Stone, then have
them eliminate the elementals and other monsters clustered around the
Stone. The crystal dragons are pretty weak against structures, so when
the area is clear, have your avatar teleport over and then summon three
or four (or more) party members with good 'building-destroying' weapons.
Methodically work your way thru the island, taking down towers and the
Blood Fire that spawns the Fire Gargoyles. Have your dragons help out as
needed.
When you reach the tripod, if you have the Rune Stone from Yasha's side
quest in your inventory, you can interact with it to toss the Stone into
the Archfire to destroy it and complete that side quest. When you
deactivate a tripod, be aware that it will spawn a level 27 Blessed One,
so be ready for a fight. One down, five to go !
-The Remaining Islands
Check back at your own island base to see that your towers are intact
and your archers are holding off the attacking Fire Golems. Replace any
lost dragons and then send them to the second island, clear the Journey
Stone, bring over your avatar, summon heroes, and again go thru the
cleanup process. This island has some Frost Elementals that are nasty,
freezing your units in place, so if needed, retreat and heal and get
reinforcements. On this island is a chest with Rohen's Boots for your
'Memories of Eo' side quest. Also on the second island, near the
Journey Stone, is a strange symbol inscribed on the beach; this relates
to the Lord of the Tides side quest (below).
After deactivating the second island's Archfire my avatar leveled up to
30 and my heroes reached 24.
On the third island, be careful because when the Blessed One spawns
after the deactivation of a tripod, he will now start summoning a
healthy batch of monsters to assist him, so be prepared to resurrect
fallen heroes after these combats.
By the time you get to the fifth island the fire gargoyle attacks on
your base should start to decrease to just one batch at a time, so you
can now transfer troops to your dragon attack force.
30. Misty Coast: The Shaper
When all five islands are secure you'll be cleared to attack the Shaper
on his own island in the northwest. Needless to say it's the most well-
defended island on the map, so get all your dragons together and make
sure you have a nice stock of lenya available. Send your dragons to the
island and patiently clear the enemy from the Journey Stone area. Then
teleport your avatar over. I wouldn't recommend summoning Nightsong,
since she dies too quickly in the latter stages of the mission here.
Carefully work your way into the interior of the island. The Shaper is
level 30 and he's got lots of elementals and gargoyles to help him out.
If you lose party members in battle it's best to revive them at your
Altar of Life back at your base, and then teleport them to your avatar's
side, rather than trying a 'battlefield resurrection'.
You may want to send your dragons around the perimeter of the island, to
take out enemy units without intervention from the Shaper; he tends to
stay around the Archfire Tower at the island's center when he's not
provoked.
Be ready to retreat and reinforce as needed. You should gradually
whittle away the Shaper's support troops and the you can sneak your
party in to destroy the buildings near him. When you're ready, pile
everyone on the Shaper and he should go down rather easily. However...it's
not really the Shaper, but a 'mirage' ! The true Shaper has fled thru
the nearby Portal to the next level, King Ulf's Palace back in
Sevenkeeps.
Roll your eyes, and search the island for some loot, including "Flink
McWinter's Survival Manual" for the Memories of Eo side quest.
You can now complete the 'Lord of the Tides' side quest.
31. The Misty Coast: The Lord of the Tides Side Quest
-The Four Servants of the Lord of the Tides
With a bit of luck you may have gathered the needed 20 clam shells as
you fought your way from island to island; if you didn't, you can now go
back to each island and search for them at your leisure. When you have
all 20 return to Ylia at your island base and she'll craft a Sea Shell
Horn for you. Now travel to the second island and step into the strange
symbol in the sand and blow the Horn. It will summon a group of skeletal
sailors who are not very impressed with your musicianship. Speak with
the lead sailor and he'll tell you must kill the four Servants of the
Lord of the Tide to learn the proper notes for the Horn.
The Servants and their locations are:
Windhowler on island 2
Sprayspitter on island 3
Saltgust on island 4
The Servant of the Waves on island 5
Teleport your avatar to the respective islands, summon your heroes, and
take down the Servants. These Servants are level 26 ghosts and you may
want to have your dragon force assist in destroying them. When all four
Servants are gone and you've learned the 4 notes, return to island 2 and
the skeleton sailor.
-The Three Fighters
The sailor will tell you the Lord of the Tides has three champion
fighters you'll need to defeat before any freeing of the abducted
Shaikan is feasible. These fighters are Stormfury, Deepbreaker, and
Waverider. After the conversation ends you'll note the appearance on
islands 2, 4, and 5 of inscribed stones that provide hints on which
series of four notes to blow on the Horn to summon the respective
fighters. Examine each stone and its clue will be recorded in your log
and your quest book. After you activate these three stones another two
will be triggered to spawn on islands 3 (Stormgiants) and 5
(Ghostdragons); these are ancillary minions of the Lord of the Tides
that you can summon and kill for extra loot if you so desire.
Return to the second island and the Horn-blowing circle inscribed in the
sand. Gather your party and dragons about you and blow the four notes to
summon each fighter. If you can't figure out the clues on your own, here
they are:
Waverider (a skeleton): spray, spray, wave, salt
Deepbreaker (a golem): salt, wave, wave, spray
Stormfury (a dragon): wind, wind, waves, spray
When the correct notes are blown, the fighter will spawn just off the
beach, and wade onto the island looking for a fight. Each of these
fighters is level 23 so you should be able to handle them OK. They drop
some good loot.
After the third fighter goes down get ready to keep bashing away because
another three, even more powerful, representatives of the Tides will
successively spawn near the Horn Circle and attack you - ! These are the
Lord of the Storms, the Lord of the Waves, and the Lord of the Deep.
These are all level 24 so you'll have to fight a bit harder to take them
down.
When the second set of Tide's fighters are eliminated the abducted
Shaikan will materialize in the Circle and thank your avatar for freeing
them from the curse. Be sure to loot the corpses of the downed fighters
for nice loot, including a 'Tides" armor set.
To complete the quest, return to the Shaikan island and speak with Ylia,
who will tell you it's best that the Shaikan never permanently settle
the Coast, because sooner or later the Lord of the Tides will again try
to claim them for his servants.
[I was pretty much sick of this quest by now so I didn't return to the
second island to try and summon the Stormgiants and Ghostdragons using
the Horn; the clues to summon these monsters are less helpful than for
the three fighters. But if you are greedy for more loot, you can try
figuring out which four notes are needed for these creatures.]
On the topic of The Misty Coast and the Lord of the Tides, player Varga
Ference / Palmazone has this to say:
"Its a pity, that you didn't try to call the Stormgiant, actually it's
the easiest sign = 'Doubly strong in all, yet at heart they are only salt
in the wind' = 2 times salt and 2 times wind (2-2-3-3). I called him about
100 times and with the help of my dragon army (9 fire and 8 cristal dragons)
my Avatar was able to kill Stormgiant in just few seconds and call the next
one. The dead Stormgiant dropped approx 8 items for 10 kills. Sometimes
dropped nothing, but sometimes dropped really good items, mostly lev 24,
that was perfect to equip my partymembers and the rest I sold to merchants
and got a really lot of gold, so I could buy more good items.
It is the best unlimited source for getting items. A pity its coming too
late, just before the end of the game."
If you have any other side quests remaining to be completed, now is the
time to do so, although once you follow the Shaper thru the Portal to King
Ulf's Palace (the Palace is in Sevenkeeps) you do seem to be able
to leave its grounds.... ?!
Dragon Storm player cadash has this to say:
"You can journey stone out of king ulfs castle,I hadnt finished the
memories from eo quest while in ulfs castle and decided to see if it would
let me j/stone out, i thought they would be red but guess what?,they were
black. Awesome, i have now found the last skull coin and the last memory,
thanks to the walkthrough.and will come back for the shaper, ive left him
till last:-) "
32. The Memories of Eo Side Quest
I never did collect all the items needed for the "Memories of Eo" side
quest. kitnstar at the Dragon Storm Forums has kindly listed all of them
and their locations:
1. Gemstone - Winterlight Peak (Braga)
2. Dwarven Brandy - Alluvyan, in east by wall, north of graveyard
3. Spider Trap - Sevenkeeps, in the spider lair
4. Broken Claw of Pickpocketry - Sevenkeeps, northwest in abandoned
camp, by the fence
5. Misty Crystals - Sevenkeeps, northeast of temple
6. Dreamwine of Empyria - Ghostwatch, Imperial Camp
7. Walkthrough book to Master Game - Ghostwatch, near one of the first
towers I think (didn't write down location)
8. Bone Knife - Ghostwatch, Agathos camp
9. Order Brooch from Greyfell - Sevenkeeps, south of university
10. Harp from Tirganach - Winterlight Peak, next to ether journey
11. Statue of Mugwa - Refuge, devastator drops it (north of southern
journeystone?
12. Crawler Fetish - Refuge, by east wind
13. Mauser Bear Whistle - Westguard, near southeastern attack route
journeystone
14. Shard of Magnetstone - Westguard, Northwestern attack route
15. Craig's Broken Blade - Westguard, after completing test of
truthfulness
16. Painting from Mulandir - Sevenkeeps, just south east of the 'north
gate' Journey Stone (contributed by Z. Alban)
17. Head of Thar - Ghostwatch, south of inner city journeystone
18. Stories from Liannon - Alluvyan, in west just south of town, not
easy to find for me (missed it twice!!), hidden behind little house
19. Rohen's Boots - Misty Coast, don't remember who dropped em though
20. McWinter's Survival Manual - Misty Coast, Island of the Shaper, just
northwest of journeystone, near big tower.
kitnstar notes:
"I won't say what happens after finally completing the collection, but my
personal opinion is it's not worth the hours of wandering looking for
things."
It's also worth noting that Forum poster Shadowlord has a list of 16
of the 'Memories' items, too. Here is his list:
Alluvyan:
1 Dwarven brandy from Windholme: East in inner city in chest against
outer wall
Sevenkeeps:
2 Spidertrap from Skye: In chest in spider lair
3 Orderbrooch from Greyfell: In chest south of University
4 Misty crystal from Leafshade: on side path north east of Temple
district
5 Broken claw of pickpocketing: northwest near supply train departure
point
Ghostwatch:
6 Dreamwine from empyria: South in Army base
7 Walkthrough book to master game: @ 2nd tower on corpse
8 Boneknife: in Agathos' camp
Winterlightpeak:
9 Braga's gemstone: Dropped by Braga in east at end of side path
10 Harp from Tirganach: in chest @ether journey spell
Refuge:
11 Statue of Mugwa: dropped by troll north of 1st dragon camp on south-
west path
12 Crawler fetish: in chest @ appearance point East Wind
WestGuard:
13 Shard of Magnetstone: in chest @ skeletoncamp in west
14 Craigs broken blade: in chest after Test of Truthfulness
Misty coast:
15 Rohen's boots: on 2nd Island in chest near the Journey stone
16 McWinter's survival Manuel: In chest on Shaper Island on east side
near the tower.
So between kitnstar's and Shadowlord's lists you should be able to find
all of the Memories !
When you're ready for the end of the game, step thru the Portal on the
Shaper's Island, and onto the grounds of King Ulf's Palace in Sevenkeeps.
33. The Blessed Ones in the Palace
-The Blessed One in the East Hall
This is the endgame map and it's a bit more scenic and pleasant than the
Steel Shore map from Spellforce 2. After you and your party arrive
you'll get a quest message that you must eliminate the three Blessed
Ones (level 30) that are guarding the entry points to the Palace
interior. You also need to find a way to get to the Throne Room, where
the Shaper is holed up, in the northwest corner of the Palace. Needless
to say the Palace grounds are crawling with the Shaper's minions, and
they won't let you thru to him without a fight.
There are sentries to King Ulf (level 19) spaced around the Palace but
they are little deterrent to your avatar and party. I decided first to
deal with the Blessed One in the Eastern hall. As soon as you provoke
him he'll summon 'imitators' of your party; an evil Wind, an evil
Whisper, etc. These are level 24, so you can't just rush in and take all
of them on. Instead, loiter outside the hall and try and lure three or
four imitators out to attack you and eliminate them. When it's just the
Blessed One and two or three imitators left in the hall, rush in and
kill them all. The Blessed One dropped a war ruby and a dungeon keeper
key No. 2.
-The Blessed One in the Prison
This is a tough fight. First, head to the south part of the Palace. Be
aware that a Giant disguised (?) as a cook may wander around here; kill
him and he drops a gem. Enter the south hall - which is actually the
palace Prison- and kill some skeletons in the entryway. Note that the
Blessed One is stationed with some mid-20s level skeletons in one wing
of the Prison. When you get close to her you'll trigger a cutscene,
which demonstrates that the Blessed One has disguised herself as a
skeleton and vice versa. But she won't attack you unless you make the
first move.
When all skeletons except those with the Blessed One are disposed of,
exit the Prison and go back to the courtyard outside it and stand facing
the Altar of Life. Note that there are staircases to either side of the
Altar. Park Nightsong back in the East Hall and detach her from your
party (she tends to die too easily in this upcoming fight). Put the rest
of your party at the bottom of the east staircase.
Arm your party with weapons that have effectiveness against the Undead,
and try and have three party members capable of casting 'Benefaction' or
other area-healing spells, and Save the game. Then send Whisper running
back into the Prison and have him approach the Blessed One and loose an
arrow at her. Immediately have him take off running back to your party.
All the skeletons and the Blessed One will follow right behind him.
With some luck, when Whisper rejoins your party only two or three
skeletons will be on his heels. Save the game and have your party take
on the skeletons. You'll probably be so busy casting healing spells that
you'll have difficulty overseeing the fight, but be ready to retreat if
you are being overwhelmed. With some more luck, the skeletons and the
Blessed One will concentrate on attacking the nearby Altar, rather than
your party as it heals on the staircase.
Resurrect fallen party members if necessary and then launch another
attack on the Blessed One (who was single-mindedly whacking away at the
Altar, validating my strategy of placing my party in proximity to this
structure). After you kill 'her' the first time, the 'real' edition will
be revealed / re- spawn and you'll have to kill 'her' a second time.
Keep the healing spells going and although you may well lose two or
three (or four !) members, you'll ultimately be victorious. The
Blessed One will drop a gem and two keys, one is dungeon keeper key No.
1, and the other, a Key to the King's Bedroom.
Note that west of the Altar some of the Palace sentries will be out in
the courtyard immediately in front of the entrance to the west wing of
the Palace; ignore them for the moment.
-The Prison Cells
You can now have Nightsong rejoin the party, and go back into the
Prison. Behind the area where the Blessed One was originally standing is
a mausoleum door that can be opened with one of your Dungeon keys; there
are three tombs inside it, and two can be interacted with. One tomb will
yield a Central Prison Key; the other tomb spawns a level 30 skeleton
that you can take down easily.
With the Central Prison Key in hand you can open the cells in the main
corridor. Some have criminals or monsters in them you can kill for gems
and weapons. One cell contains King Ulf; speak with him and he'll give
you an amulet you can show to General Karan, elsewhere in the Palace, to
enlist his aid in the fight against the Shaper.
The other wing of the Prison has a locked door you can now open; behind
it are a group of skeletons lurking in the torture chambers. Eliminate
them and interact with the 'gears' symbol to open a cell here; it
contains Flink McWinter, beloved Spellforce con-man and thief. You have
a number of dialogue options with Flink, including one to have him
temporarily join your party and use his lockpicking skills to get you
thru the Palace. I suggest you exploit his skills.
Explore the other rooms in this southeast corridor and you'll come upon
a gear symbol; open it and enter a kitchen. A 'will o the wisp' will
call out; proceed to a small store room with barrels in it. The wisp is
imprisoned in a barrel; release it and you'll be rewarded by an attack
by 'wine spirits' (!?). They'll drop a gem when you kill them.
Elsewhere in this section is a small food storeroom with a chest of
armor and weapons, and a garden of lenya that will spawn some golems
when you attempt to harvest the lenya. Kill the golems and get the lenya
(2400 total); now your Altar of Life is quite capable of resurrecting
your fallen party members.
When you've cleaned out the Prison wing, return to the courtyard and the
Altar of Life and prepare to investigate the west wing.
-The West Wing
The group of sentries near the entrance to the west wing will need to be
eliminated. Once in the wing, there is a door just past the entryway, if
you have the appropriate Key in your inventory enter this suite of
rooms. There are some chests and the King's bedroom in this suite. When
your party is in this vicinity and you have Flink with you, he'll
announce that he senses more loot nearby and urges you to 'knock on the
walls' for a secret passage.
Proceed down the hall, and kill some more sentries. Enter the Audience
Hall, which you can do if you have the Key, and get some loot; your
presence in this area with Flink should trigger the appearance of a gear
symbol on the wall outside the Audience Hall. Interact with the gear and
some hidden doors will swing open revealing a large suite of rooms in
the southwest part of the Palace. Flink will take this opportunity to
flee, complaining that there is a stench of death / doom in the place.
There is a 'treasure room' here with a lot of weapons and armor that are
largely useless since they are mainly upper-20's level stuff and only
your avatar qualifies to wear it, and selling it is not an option here
in the endgame.
If you look carefully there is a creo in this room with
a partially-completed amulet on it. You can interact with the creo to
insert some of the gems you've been picking up (such as the rubies,
emeralds, etc.) and complete the amulet and add it to your inventory. To
be honest I couldn't figure out what kind of amulet I made, anyways.
Spellforce player Palmazone elaborates on the items you can craft
with this creo:
In the Secret room of the West Wing of the Palace You can make the best
Amulet (lev 30) of the game. Its a pity you didnt check, what you got. Its
called 'Star of the Highmark' and depending what gems you insert, you get
an amulet for fighter (War Ruby), or caster (Mana Sapphire) or bower
(Forest Emerald). You can also mix them, but I had a fighter Avatar so I
inserted all War Rubies and I got an amulet with amazing stats = Armor 33 !
Health 2376 !!! Mana 792 ! +20% Life Regeneration !! +20% Melee Combat
Damage !!
I should mention, that in this Secret Room you can find also the best
'Royal' Set (lev 30) for your Avatar that consist of:
1. Royal Platemail Armor (Armor 204 !!! Health 2040 ! Mana 2040 !! +100
Life Recovery !!! +15% Mana Recovery)
2. Royal Plate Helm (Armor 102 ! Health 1360 ! Mana 1360 !! Raises Enemy
Aggression by 75% +10% Melee Combat Damage !)
3. Royal Emblem Ring (Armor 17 ! Health 816 ! Mana 544 +8% Melee
Combat Damage ! +8% Ranged Combat Damage !)
4. Royal Signet Ring (Armor 18 ! Health 540 Mana 820 ! +10% Healing
Power +4% Mana Regeneration +8% Life Regeneration !)
Set Bonus if you wear all 4 items: Melee combat attackers freeze for a
moment in every attack !!!
Maybe the rings are not the best by themselfs, but its worth wearing the
whole set for the bonus.
On this topic of the Star of the Highmark, Dragon Storm Forum poster
Skyreal has this to say:
"Just a short guide to crafting your ultimate amulet.
First, there are two mounts and three types of gems you can insert.
The inner mount requires only one gem and the outer mounting will
require 6 of one type of gem. The system is simple. The type of gem
you put into the inner mount determines the type of amulet you get.
The type of gem you put into the outer slow will determine the
secondary effect. So just put together your desired attributes -
choose one set from inner and one from outer - from the list below
to craft your ultimate amulet.
Common to all amulets:
Star of Highmark
Neck. Required level 30
Armor 33
Inner Mount
War Ruby:
Health Points 2376
Mana 792
Strength
+20% Melee Combat Damage
Mana Sapphire:
Health Points 792
Mana 2376
Mental Power
+10% Mana Regeneration
Forest Emerald:
Health Points 1575
Mana 1575
Precision
+20% Ranged Combat Damage
Outer Mounting:
6 War Rubies:
Recovery
+20% Life Regeneration
6 Mana Sapphires:
Spellpower
+ 30% damage added to all spells cast
6 Forest Emeralds:
Energy
Recast time of all spells and abilities lowered by 20%
If you can't find the gems you require, just make sure that you've killed
all the monsters you can find and taken their dropped items. I don't
remember if the skeletons locked in the prison drop any gems, but in
case they do, you have to walk close to the corpse to get them to attack
you. Other sources of gems include drops from special monsters and from
the sides of the rooms (those not in chests)."
When you've got the amulet of your dreams made, search the remaining rooms
here in the southwest and you'll come upon General Karan; speak with him
and he'll run off to aid King Ulf back in his Prison cell....and return to
aid you later, at a critical time in this level !
34. The North Section of the Palace
-The Blessed One in the Temple
When you're done exploring the hidden rooms, return to the west wing.
Station Nightsong out of the way for now, and proceed north into the
library; take down some Palace sentries here and use the Temple Key to
open the door. The third and final Blessed One lurks inside, with a big
batch of elementals, continuously spawned from four Nodes here in the
Temple, to assist him.
Send your party rushing in and go for the Nodes. With some luck and
healing spells you should be able to destroy two Nodes before you have
to retreat and heal up (the elementals won't follow you too far).
Remember that if a party member dies in a spot that's dangerous to
resurrect them, you now have the Altar of Life at your disposal.
Repeat the Node-destruction foray, again retreat to heal up, and
patiently eliminate all four Nodes. Then try and lure the surviving
elementals out of the Temple to where your party can gang up on them.
Then enter the Temple and deal with the Blessed One. When he is dead the
first segment of the Palace mission is complete.
-The Ever-Spawning Golem Puzzle
Have Nightsong rejoin your party in the Temple, and now head into the
northwest portion of the Palace. You'll encounter some various flavors
of golem. While they are only level 15 they spawn continuously, so you
have to turn off their spawn-points. Therefore, don't stop to engage
them, but have your party run into the first room to the side; all these
rooms are bare of furnishings and have plank flooring with both a portal
circle, and an inscribed circle with a symbol in it, on the floor.
Have your party step into the portal circle and they'll be teleported to
a self-enclosed room in the northern edge of the Palace. These little
rooms have their own portal, and a symbol inscribed on a circle on the
floor; this symbol mediates the spawning of the golems. Have a party
member (for now, your weakest fighter other than Wind, i.e., Nightsong)
step into the 'symbol' circle and leave them there; this eliminates the
spawning potential of the symbol. Then have everyone else re-enter the
portal circle and you'll be teleported back to the room on the Palace
you departed from.
There are six of these 'symbol' rooms here in the northwest wing and
each is tied to a corresponding smaller room containing the spawning-
point symbol. Stash a party member on each symbol in these smaller
rooms. Try to have Wind accompany your avatar until the sixth symbol
needs a house-sitter, so she can assist in healing your avatar if
necessary (if Wind is indeed your designated Healer).
There may be some combat needed to get the golems out of your way, but
you shouldn't lose any party members in this effort. When the six
symbols are all occupied by a party member no more golems will spawn.
Have your avatar step into the seventh room and the portal there, and
you'll get a cutscene in which everyone is now spawned in a dining room
in the north section of the Palace.
(NOTE: Dragon Storm Forum poster Chansuiho warns against casting any spells
on these golems to make them your ally. Evidently the game AI recognizes ANY
golem on this map as an enemy, and will refuse to open the seventh
room to your avatar unless ALL golems in the suite are dead. Since you can't
'force-fire' on your own ally, the presence of these friendly golems will
essentially prohibit you from completing this mission and the game !)
-The Northern Corridor
Use the lever on the nearby wall to open a secret door that leads to a
corridor; there is a good force of sentries here that will need to be
eliminated. A door along this corridor should open out on the back of
the Altar of Life, so be aware of that option as the level unfolds.
Continue north, and you'll encounter another batch of sentries; one drops
a Key to the Throneroom. Once you open the Throneroom door the last section
of the game begins. This is a good time to send Nightsong back to the Altar
of Life and station her there. Do a Save game, and then open the Throneroom
door.
35. The Battle with the Shaper
-The Blessed Ones of Healing
After the cutscene plays lots and lots of Undead Kings of the Highmark
(level 19) will begin spawning from the statues lining the aisles of the
Throneroom. The spawning of these undead is controlled by the four
Blessed Ones of Healing (level 25) who also maintain the energy field
around the Shaper. These Blessed Ones are so preoccupied with their
mission that they won't defend themselves from attack.
Ignore the Undead Kings and focus your party on any one of the Blessed
Ones up on the dais with the Shaper. With a little luck you should kill
at least one before your party starts to lose too much health. Now send
your party running all the way back to the Altar of Life. Some Undead
Kings will pursue but not enough to cause any real trouble, and
Nightsong will be by the Altar to help out. If any party members die,
revive them at the Altar (try to keep your avatar alive, since reviving
him or her is the most expensive in terms of lenya).
Save the game, and creep back towards the Throneroom. Cast Chromatic
Shield, if you have it, on your avatar, and make a run into the
Throneroom and target another Blessed One. After he /she goes down again
retreat to the Altar of Life.
With two Blessed Ones remaining your strategy can change a bit. This
time group Nightsong with your party and when you return to the
Throneroom, after killing the third Blessed One, go right to the fourth
and start in on him. You'll lose some party members, but when the fourth
and final Blessed One goes down, you'll trigger a cutscene in which King
Ulf, General Karan, and some loyal troops enter the Throneroom and into
combat with the Undead and the Shaper.
-Defeat of the Shaper
After these cutscenes finish, four more Blessed Ones will spawn here in
the Throneroom; they are all level 22. While Ulf and his men deal with
the Shaper, have your party attack the four new Blessed Ones. Bash away
at them and they should go down without too much trouble.
Another cutscene will play and you'll discover the Shaper, now reduced to
level 24, is standing alone in the Throneroom. Heal everyone up - or
resurrect if they're very close to terminally expiring - and take on the
Shaper. He should go down with only a brief fight. Enjoy the closing
cutscenes !
______________________________________________________________________
Ongoing developments in the Spellforce games:
In late March 2009 Phenomic released (in the US) the title they had been
working on for EA Games, called 'Battleforge'. The game combines
card-playing, RPG-based gameplay with RTS gameplay. I'm not a big fan of
card-based games, so I have not played Battleforge. Gamespot gave the game
a reasonably good rating of '8.0', praising the graphics and open-ended
gameplay.
Players have also given the game high ratings ('10.0'). However, some
player reviews have criticised the game for its short length and the need
to continuously spend more money to purchase the cards (at the 'Auction
House') that are necessary to realistically advance in the game's
multiplayer arenas.
At the end of May 2009 EA Games released the basic Battleforge game,
including two decks of cards, as a free download from their website:
www.battleforge.com/portal/site/BattleForge/landingpage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In May of 2009 word came that JoWooD Entertainment AG was preparing another
Spellforce 2 expansion pack, tentatively titled 'Spellforce 2: Faith in
Destiny'. Some screenshots were posted to Gamespot in mid-December 2009. It
is unclear when the game will be released in Europe and the US.
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