Baldur's Gate II Shadows of Amn Game Guides
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de'Arnise Hold
Head back out toward the de'Arnise hold. You should make it all the way this time. This quest isn't very long, so there's no real reason to avoid it if Nalia is in your party. There are extra bonuses for fighters, who can gain control of the keep when the quest is complete, but other players will want to try this one out as well.
Once you're close to the keep, you will stop, and Nalia will explain what to do. Though she implies otherwise, the only way in is via the secret door north of the palisade (in case you didn't know, a palisade is a structure made of logs stuck vertically in the ground). You can rest and memorize some new spells if you wish. Acid arrows, flame arrows, and other acid or fire spells will be necessary to take on the trolls, so be sure to stock up on those. Once you're ready to go, head west until you encounter Captain Arat. He'll tell you a bit about the base and give you 20 fire arrows.
The now-decrepit de'Arnise hold.
Head directly north of Arat's position to find the secret door in a rock wall. Head through it, and you'll be underneath the keep. Proceed to the north, searching the room there. Open the door and another secret door will be revealed. A troll is inside. Once it's defeated, open the secret door on the northwest wall, and Daleson will be revealed. Interrogate him to learn that there are around 30 trolls hanging about, with an unknown number of yuan-ti. Be nice to him, or you'll lose a few reputation points. Walk into the room where he was hiding and look around; there are items on the weapons shelves. Keep following the trail of secret doors to the northeast until you reach a statue of a lion; take its treasure and head all the way back to where you killed the troll. (Take note of the forge in this area; you'll be coming this way again.) Go through the door and explore the large dining area. There are a few more trolls around as well as a couple of ice trolls. Search through the barracks to the north for some more gold. Head to the east of the dining room to find the doors leading outside. Kill the otyugh and the four watchdogs. Pick up the dog meat and send one of your characters up the flight of stairs. There's a door nearby; you can send your party up to check out the roof if you want, but you shouldn't go through the door on the roof; you'll find yourself surrounded by trolls and a yuan-ti mage when you arrive on the second floor. Have your character walk all the way around to the drawbridge and open it. Arat's men will walk through and a few trolls will appear, along with a giant yuan-ti. Help out in the fight if you wish, but save your fire arrows; Arat's men will do the honors on the trolls. Now, head back to the kitchen area with the dogs' remains and make a dog stew. Take the nearby stairs to the second floor.
Keep your Melf's acid arrows spells on standby.
Your tasks on this floor are to find the keep key, rescue Nalia's aunt, and defeat a warrior named Glacias. First, head into the southeastern door and follow the corridor into the library. You'll encounter a couple of trolls and a yuan-ti mage. The mage can be fairly difficult, so be careful that you don't get trapped behind the trolls. The larger troll will split into two smaller enemies when defeated, so be ready for that as well. When they're defeated, search the room for the keep key, among other things. Now, head back to the room where you started the level. Head out into the northern hallway and go through the door to your left. This is one of the bedrooms. There's a fireplace that's trapped to the north. Once you detect the secret door, head through and follow the passage. Another secret door near the end of the corridor will show you into another living room. Through the door nearby, you'll enter another bedroom where Glacias is waiting. He's not terribly difficult to beat as long you have a couple of warriors in your party. When he dies, search his body for another flail head. -
Now, head all the way back to the bedroom with the trapped fireplace. Head to the north along the outermost corridor for the level. You can unlock the door along this corridor and head to the roof if you wish; there's nothing there except a couple of yuan-ti. Circle the level and head through the circular room. Lady Delcia is past the first doorway you'll discover. Once she's rescued, search her room for another secret door. Through here, you'll discover another two secret rooms. To the north is a chamber full of golems that will be activated when you pluck the items from the northern statues. You can send one of your characters in to attempt to run quickly up to the statues, grab the items, and escape before the golems kill you, but you might be better off just force-attacking them one by one. The iron golem is very tough, so if you can't take it out, you might be better off attempting the smash-and-grab method with a single character. The statue to the far left has the third flail head. Once you have all three, you can return to the first floor, where you found Doleson, and head back to the northern forge and make a flail of the ages. Once you are done exploring in there, or if you just want to skip the room, head down to the basement via the nearby stairs.
Search the statue when you've dispatched Torgal.
You'll find yourself in a large room. Through the door to the south, there are a couple of trolls and a tougher spirit troll. You can clog the door with your warriors and cast animal or monster summoning spells on the other side of the door to put the squeeze on them. Once they're dead, proceed into the next room.
The door here leads into a room full of umber hulks. They're surely going to be too tough for your party to handle, since they can confuse your characters almost effortlessly. You're going to need trickery to get past them. Remember your bowl of dog stew? Give it to Nalia or a spellcaster that can cast an invisibility spell. Have him cast invisible or hide in shadows and walk into the room of umber hulks. Go through the door to the southwest and head down that corridor until you come near a corner. Open the door and place the dog stew in the chamber with the dog bones. The umber hulks will come down, and you won't have to fight them. You can also do this with a quick runner, someone who has protection from confusion, but you'll likely take a few whacks before you can place the stew.
Once the umber hulks are gone, search their room for more goodies. To the north lies Torgal, a troll, and two giant troll henchmen. This is a tough fight, so be sure to save your game before wandering in. Torgal and his gang enjoy ganging up on a single person (like most enemy groups in the game), so whoever is in the way should be very mindful of his health. As always, you can block the door when they attack and attempt to take them on one by one. Summoning spells will also be a good idea here to slow the trolls up a bit and perhaps even damage them a little. Once they're dead, search the area. There is a locked container at the foot of the statue that contains around 2,200 gold as well as a few more goodies.
Now that the castle is mostly cleansed, you can head out to the courtyard to finish the quest. You can take the three pieces of the flail of ages you have to the forge on the first level in the secret passages and make the flail of ages, a +3 flail with some magical enhancements. If you don't have all the pieces, you can still make a less-powerful version of the flail at the forge. Once you reach the courtyard, you should let Nalia stay with your party. If you're a fighter, you can take possession of the castle as well to use as your stronghold. Send someone up to lower the drawbridge and watch out for more trolls. Walk across the bridgehead out to your next quest. -
Windspear Hills
This is an optional quest, so feel free to skip this section if you want to move on to the real story. The rewards are fairly great if you can survive the entire ordeal. You'll come off it with a ton of experience as well as a holy avenger sword, which is only useable by paladins. It's so good, however, paladins should consider it an essential piece of equipment. You can return here later in the game to face off against the rather tough enemy that guards the sword, if you wish.
There isn't much here except for random enemy encounters.
Once you arrive in the Windspear hills, you'll find yourself surrounded by ogres and other beasts. They will attack you, so kill them all. You will immediately be approached by a man named Windspear, who will offer you sanctuary at his house. Accept his offer to be whisked away to meet his daughter. Apparently, those Ogres were actually paladins, polymorphed by some malevolent magic.
After you rest at Windspear's home, a group of bandits will warp in and kidnap his daughter. Slay the rest of them and tell Windspear that you will rescue her. Once you leave the cabin, you can walk around for a bit if you wish. You can travel to the north to check out the bodies of the paladins that you killed, but they don't have anything interesting. You should travel to the southeastern corner of the map to visit the faerie grove. You might encounter a group of fighters attacking some gnolls; the fighters are actually werewolves that will turn on you eventually. Dispatch them and head on to the faeries. You might encounter some minor monsters on the order of an ankheg or goblin. Once you reach the dryads, give them the acorns to rescue the three dryads you encountered near the beginning of the game.
Now, you can head toward the dungeon entrance to the northeast. Head inside, and you'll be ambushed by a horde of hobgoblins, so be ready. There are more hobgoblins to the northeast, including a few archers. Before you move to the north, you might want to send a scout there and lure back the kamikaze kobolds. These guys explode into what appears to be a fireball when they die, so you should have any archers or sling-users take them out before they get near your party. When they are dead, head up and take out Ruhk the Transmuter. He's a magic user, of course, so deal with him appropriately. He's not physically very strong, so swarm him with your fighters. You can travel through the stairs now or look around the rest of the cavern. There are some ogrillions to the north as well as vampiric mists. You can find an amulet of protection +1 in the pool of water.
This dungeon can be confusing.
Once you head down to the second floor, you'll be ambushed by orc archers who sit behind bars so that your melee attackers can't reach them. There are two secret doors you can unlock and open to reach them, or you can use spells and ranged weapons to take them out. Summoning monsters or animals behind the bars seems to work fairly well. Head out to the northeastern hall and take out the stone golem, then head to the southeast. The troll cook in here will ask you to cook yourself, then attack you when you refuse. A group of hobgoblins will charge in from the southwest, so you might want to summon some monsters over there before they come through. Once that party is dead, grab the orcish cookbook from the table. You can kill the otyugh to the southwest, but there's nothing in his lair. Now, head back to the hallway. You can talk to the orcs in the northwestern room to learn a bit about the lair if you wish. Now, head to the northeast from the middle door in the hallway. You'll come out into another hallway. Head south into the nearby room. It will be almost full of undead enemies, so anything that can hurt those creatures (like turn undead) will be helpful. The chest near the wall is trapped and contains some magical bolts. Push through into the southern room that contains a greater wraith. Eliminate it and pick up the chapel key from the floor. You can close the door here and rest if you wish. -
Head back to the northwestern hallway and proceed until you meet Samia. She'll ask you to perform a mini-quest regarding some texts she wishes to find. You should know up front that this is an optional and fairly dangerous quest. Head through to the next hallway beyond her and take the first door on your right. Look around for the Book of King Strohm III in this area. You must defeat six djinnis to acquire the six pieces of a certain mask; this will let you see the invisible creature Samia referred to. These six djinni are scattered around the small, self-enclosed area beyond this door, and there are plenty of traps scattered about as well, so be careful. The djinni will be attacking with fireballs, so be sure that any of your weaker characters stay out of the way. They love to cast invisibility on themselves, as well, so that's another problem you must anticipate. Don't forget to equip your main fighter with the ring of fire resistance you picked up upstairs and heal often. They use a few fire-based spells, like flame strike and fireball, before switching to melee attacks, so if you can give one of your characters a huge fire resistance, he might take them on single-handedly or at least take most of the fire spells before the rest of your characters come in for the kill.
Once you reach the small square room with four doors, go to the northwestern door for the last Djinni. Now, save your game and rest again if you're injured. Head through the northeastern door for an encounter with the guardian (a fire elemental). Have your main character equipped with King Strohm's mask, or you can't see him. Again, he's fire-based, so beef up your fire resistances before taking him on. Once he's dead, head through to the next room. You're about to be ambushed by Samia and her companions. This fight is extremely tough. Save your game ahead of time, and if you can't defeat them with acceptable losses, you might want to skip this area. The items in the back room are dragonscale armor and a dragonslayer sword, and Samia's company possesses a great deal of items, but you might not kill them all. There are a couple of spellcasters in the party, and your front line fighters have a tendency to get confused.
Head down the path leading to the northwest now. Kill the werewolves in the way, then use the winch by the well to drag up a dragon helm. You'll be attacked by an air elemental and stone golem, so be ready. Afterward, you can head to the southwest until you're approached by four paladins who ask for your help. They're actually werewolves in disguise. You can dispatch them, then take the horn of blasting from the nearby cabinet. This is a good room in which to sleep if you're wounded.
Now, go north and into the large rocky cavern you passed. You'll witness a fight between a few monsters. You might as well let them fight it out, then pick off any remaining beasties. There's a secret wall on the north face of the rocks. You can head through to take on a few golems, including a massive adamantite golem that will be quite tough to kill. It can deal more than 20 points of damage per blow, and you'll be hard pressed to deal more than a few points of damage per hit to it. If you want to fight it and two stone golems, you'll be rewarded with a heartseeker +3 bow and a rare gem from the stash on the north wall.
Now, head back to the winch and head northeast. You'll encounter a few enemies and a locked door. Head through the locked doors until you reach Tazok and his captain. These two baddies are somewhat tough, but they will fall eventually. Search their bodies, the table, and the cabinet on the wall. Now, head upstairs to meet with Firkraag and Conster. Firkraag, if you choose the right responses (try not to fight him) will send Conster back downstairs. Head for him, kill him, take the key, and unlock Iltha's cage. Now, you can head back to Windspear if you wish, or you can try to kill Firkraag.
Firkraag, as befitting such a powerful beast, is almost impossible to kill at this point in the game. He has some powerful attacks, like the wing buffet, that will injure all your party at once as well as deal magical effects, like sleep, to it. After he hastes himself, he generally likes to start holding and pummeling nearby foes. If you have one extremely powerful character, on tactic that might work is to make him as resistant to fire as possible, then send him, alone, to force-attack Firkraag. After that character is held or when it seems appropriate, send in the rest of the troupe to finish the dragon off. You can, of course, return to this area later and kill Firkraag if you don't feel that you can do it at this point. He'll drop a holy avenger +5, a magical shield, 1,500 gold, and the red dragon scales. If you bring this last item to Cromwell in the docks of Athkatla, he'll make a suit of red dragon armor, conferring an armor class of -1 on its wearer as well as 50 percent fire resistance. This is some of the best armor in the game, so be sure to stop by Cromwell's the next time you're in town.
Once you escape the dungeon and get back to Windspear, he'll thank you and give you an experience bonus. You should have enough gold now to pay off Gaelen, and even if you don't, you should have more than enough items to sell to raise the 20,000. You can feel free to keep doing side-quests at this point, or you can head back to Athkatla. For now, head back to the city gates of Athkatla, where you'll be given a new quest by Delon. You don't have to do it yet, but pick it up for your quest log. Head to Gaelen. You can sell your items at the Copper Coronet if you wish.
As a note, you can head to the graveyard (at night) to meet with Bodhi if you wish. She'll be offering you essentially the same quest as Gaelen, but she's an obviously evil person. If you are evil as well, you might want to accept her offer; if not, you're better off with Gaelen. Either way, you'll want to check out her lair; it has some interesting areas. If you wish, you can explore the graveyard. There are a couple of mini-quests that stem from encounters you'll have here. There are also a fair number of tombs you can rob. Note that inter-area bandits will be tougher as you progress through the game, so travel cautiously.
Once you arrive at Gaelen's house and accept the offer to find Imoen, the next chapter will begin. The price has dropped to 15,000 now, so pay up and start Chapter 3. -
Chapter 3
Now that you've paid off Gaelen, it's time to go about locating our good friend Imoen.
The Shadow Thieves
Once Chapter 3 starts, head off to the docks. The building you seek, the shadow thieves' guildhall, is to the west of the entrances to the docks, and the building is guarded by a single soldier. Head in and start poking around. There are a bunch of locked chests around that you can loot, if you can get the locks open (Nalia's not a great thief, having dual-classed at level 4). If you wish, you can head upstairs to get a quest from Bloodscalp, but the real thieves guild is located behind a secret wall on the first floor.
Head to the Shadow Thieves' Guildhall past the entrances to the Docks, where you can poke around.
Head down and talk to the people in the thieves' guild. Aran is located behind another secret door in the main room here. Open it and follow the corridor until you reach Aran. Unfortunately, he's going to want you to perform a few more quests before you can start working toward Imoen.
First off, he wants you to visit a friend of his named Mook on the docks at night. You might have to rest before you can go see her. When darkness falls, head off to the southern portion of the docks. Mook will approach you. When you're done with the conversation, you'll hide near the docks, waiting for the mysterious man to approach. He'll warp in suddenly and kill Mook. He's some kind of undead creature and can drain levels, so be cautious. Once he's dead, head back to Aran. If someone had levels drained, you might want to head for the temple in this area first to restore him.
Once you reach Aran, he'll give you another quest. This time, you must head for the Five Flagons Inn in the bridge district. You may be attacked by a woman named Hareishan as you head toward the exit; she can level drain, so be careful.
Once you arrive at the Five Flagons Inn, head inside and save your game. You can rest if you wish. Head upstairs and start looking for the two men that Aran wants investigated. Talk to them a bit, and when they turn hostile, kill them. A guild contact will approach; kill him as well. Take any items you find interesting and head back to Aran. You can head to the downstairs area of this inn to learn more about Haer Dalis', another NPC, if you wish.
He'll take the information you've given him and ask you to visit the graveyard district. You should rest up before heading into the graveyard; this part of the quest is a bit tricky. Be sure to memorize a few slow or neutralize poison spells if you have them available; lesser restoration and negative plane protection spells are useful as well. If you've been contacted about Nalia's father's funeral, you'll be whisked off to a mausoleum when you reach the graveyard, where you will meet Nalia's former betrothed. Speak to the guests and get back to adventuring. Beware: if you rest too long, Nalia may be abducted by her fianc?(this will probably happen a set time after the funeral anyway, so you might want to rest and get it over with). If this happens, you might want to head back to the Copper Coronet and pick up Yoshimo before heading into Bodhi's lair, or you can attempt to rescue her before moving on in this quest. -
Bodhi's Lair
The graveyard is a collection of crypts and mausoleums, some of which connect to Bodhi's lair, most of which do not. You can look around through the various crypts; if you encounter enemies, you can either run or fight. There are four entrances to Bodhi's lair from the surface; each leads to the same expansive level. The best place to enter is in the section to the southwest of the graveyard, the entrance across from the pyramid. When you enter, you'll be near Pah'Na's nest, and you can deal with her first.
It doesn't take much perception to find the nest; it's the huge structure made of spider webs. There are poisonous spiders in the nest and around it, so get those anti-poison spells ready. Once you're inside, Pah'Na will summon 15 to 20 baby spiders; these aren't tough individually, but they will transmit a quick-acting poison on your characters. It's best to keep your fighters up front, let everyone else attack from a distance, and save the healing spells until after the fight. Act fast, though, or your fighters will die before you can heal them. Once Pah'Na and her brood are dead, steal her items (check the ground near the center of the area). Once she's defeated, the randomly spawning spiders around the lair stop appearing, so you can head back to the graveyard and rest if you wish.
Now, you can either head south to an optional area of the dungeon or head north to meet with Haz. If you head south, you'll be facing an area full of traps and undead creatures. There's nothing critical in this area, and the level-draining beasties will be tough, so explore at your own risk. Just be sure to keep detect traps on. There's a secret door on the southern corner of the first room, leading to another area.
When you do head north, you'll meet Haz and his golem. The golem will open the northern doors and start attacking the nearby monsters. When they've been cleared out, follow Lassal into Bodhi's chambers. Gellal will be off to the left when you enter the dining room; take him and the other monsters out before veering off into any of the nearby passages. Check the pool of blood to the northwest for a mace of disruption, which is an excellent item for a cleric or other mace-user to equip here, as it has special bonuses against the undead.
Watch out for that fire shield (red).
Tanova will be waiting for you in the passage to the southeast. She's a vampire and absolutely loves to cast spells on herself - and cast a few on you for good measure. A paladin with a holy avenger can face off against her at fairly low risk, but you must be sure to dispel her invisibility before most of your characters can. Once she's dead, check out the rest of the rooms in this area. You might find the room with the clay golem; you can use the wooden stakes Aran gave you on the vampires here to finally kill them (and get some free experience).
Now, head down the stairs off the dining room. You'll fall down into a small sub-level; the layout is fairly easy to maneuver. Once you reach the doors, you'll be heading into a room full of fledgling vampires and grimward archers, so you'll want to cast negative plane protection on your fighters in advance. You can do well if you summon a few higher-level monsters, animals, or even an elemental up near the door, then have a negative plane protected warrior open the door and attempt to fight a bit. Explore the other two rooms nearby, and Lassal will warp himself upstairs.
You'll be coming this way again, later in the game.
Once you take the stairs back up, head toward the nearby room full of spikes (near where Tanova was). There are a lot of traps here, and even Yoshimo seems to have a hard time detecting them. They do around 20 points of damage per hit, so you'll want to proceed slowly and surely through the room. Going north of the pool seems to be a slightly better route than the southern path. Once you reach Lassal, kill him and head back to the safety of the dining room. Save your game and head back to the room with the Golem and the vampire graves. Use wooden stakes on the remaining coffins. Bodhi will appear and fight you. She's tough, obviously, and possesses the normal undead attacks such as level draining and the like. She doesn't seem to go for spells too much, especially if you have your warriors crowd around her before she completes the teleportation. She'll die fairly quickly, but watch out, as she can level drain a character to death if she concentrates on one of your fighters. You might want to move her target out of range if he nears death, especially if that target is your main character. Once she's dead, head back to Aran on the docks. He'll give you a large amount of experience and tell you how to rescue Imoen.
Now is one of the best times to wander around and finish off some of the quests you might still have in your journal from Chapters 2 and 3. You can also offload some items, visit the temple or government districts, or perform any other odd jobs you haven't had time to complete yet. You must tell Aran that you want to restock your supplies if you wish to complete some of the mini-quests. Otherwise, head on to the Spellhold Asylum and Chapter 4. -
Chapter 4
OK, so we still haven't found dear little Imoen. We're getting close now. We promise.
Brynnlaw
Once you arrive, try to save. You'll be told that monsters are about. Uh-oh; it looks like Saemon was in league with Bodhi and managed to ambush you with a few vampires. Take them out, and Sime will tell you to head to the tavern. Check your map and do so.
You're to speak to a man named Sanik, who might have some information for you regarding Spellhold. Unfortunately, he'll be killed just before he can tell you what he knows. Kill the assassin, and the innkeeper will send you on a mini-quest to solve Sanik's murder.
Head down to the guildhall and talk to the male or female courtesan, depending on the sex of your main character. You can pay to get into the guildhall; it's 100 gold (or 50, if you haggle a bit). Pay the fee, and your entire party will be whisked inside (apparently the courtesans are really ready for action). Head up the stairs, and you'll find yourself in a hall. Head northwest and kill the guards nearby. One will come out of an adjacent room to the left of the locked door; go in there and search the cabinet for Galvena's key. Head through the locked door, and you'll encounter Galvena and her wizard friend Vadek. Galvena will fall easily, but Vadek might cast one of those lovely spells that confuses almost everyone in your party, so you might want to concentrate on her first. Once you've killed them both, talk to Claire. You will eventually find the information you need, either from her or from a captain she'll take you to. After you find out what you want to know, you can either walk around the city, performing random acts of kindness and doing some of the mini-quests or head straight for Spellhold.
You can check out the pirate ship now if you wish. You'll be coming on board again later.
The easiest way to do this is to head for Perth's house. He's a somewhat unstable mage that lives in a house in the northeastern corner of Brynnlaw. Once you encounter him, he'll probably insist on a "test" and go immediately hostile. He might set off a fireball-type spell centered on himself once you get close to him, so be careful. Once he dies, pick up the wardstone.
Now, head to the far northern end of Brynnlaw. You'll encounter Sime near the edge of the map. Tell her you can now get into Spellhold and walk off the edge of the map. A neat little movie will play, and you'll be on your way to the asylum. It's a long walk up the path, and there are mists about, so be ready. Follow the path through the graveyard until you reach the door that leads into the structure.
You'll be approached right away by the "coordinator." It doesn't take a genius to recognize the voice. Irenicus will take you on a guided tour of the asylum. (You can take a couple hundred gold from the table in the elf's room.) Eventually, he'll reveal his identity, and Yoshimo, if he's accompanying you, will be revealed as a traitor.
Once you're forced into the dream sequence, you'll appear outside the castle walls in some ethereal otherworld. Walk toward the castle, and you'll be forced to permanently give up one of your stat points to gain entry. Choose one of your non-critical skills, obviously. Changing a skill in the mid-teens rarely has a huge effect; reducing your dexterity one point will have no effect on battle, as long as it starts out anywhere from seven to 14. Check the ability tables on page 225 of your manual if you want to peruse the stats before making your decision.
Explore the castle and find Imoen. You must find "the beast" outside, southwest of the castle proper. Bhaal will appear; tell him to chase you, then run back inside to Imoen. Once you battle for a bit, the dream sequence will end. -
Asylum Dungeon
When you wake up in the dungeon, Imoen can finally rejoin the party. Equip her with whatever extra items you have on you. You might want to rest a bit and memorize some spells if you have gained levels. Head northeast. Go into the room at the intersection and kill the clay golem within. There's a trapped barrel here containing the very useful bag of holding; this item will contain 20 other items in a shop-like interface and doesn't affect your character's encumbrance. There are also some magical darts for Imoen, if you haven't armed her yet, as well as the necessary opal stone. Whatever you do, avoid the hall to the north of this room! It's trapped with an instadeath mechanism if you attempt to pass through it. Instead, go back to the beginning room and head to the northwest. Go through the first door and kill the gibberlings inside. Examine the chest inside for some more bullets (if you're using a sling) as well as an important ruby stone.
This is only half the dungeon you'll be crawling through.
Now, the next room you'll encounter to the west is a room with 11 statues and corresponding riddles. You must take the items from the middle of the room and place them in the proper receptacle. You can attempt the puzzles if you wish or just go counterclockwise from the door: star, golden circlet, boots, water, sundial, sun necklace, sword, gagged man, mirror, hourglass, skull. You'll receive another item from the chest and 20,000 experience points.
So... many... riddles... Must... stay... conscious...
Ruhk is near the portal to the northwest. You can kill him now if you want or come back later. For now, head to the east, where another puzzle awaits. Starting at the top of the room, go clockwise from the statue at the left. The answers, in order, are: ice, fire, coffin, candle, darkness, stars, hole, secret, fish, breath, sponge, shadows. You can do them in any order, of course.
Head back to where Ruhk is or was. If you didn't already, kill him. Head through the stargate - er, portal. Unfortunately, once you click on it, a pit fiend will pop out, so be ready with a protection from evil spell. You can place all three stones you gathered - opal, ruby, and sapphire - to summon a pit fiend, a greater werewolf, and a friendly djinni, who will give you a doomplate +3. You don't have to face them all; in fact, you can drop all but the sapphire stone to summon the Djinni right off the bat, without having to face the other two enemies.
Here's the second half of the asylum dungeon's first level.
Now head back to the room with the clay golem. Take the door to another area nearby. You'll see a scroll; you can click on it to summon five different monsters, ranging from a kobold to a beholder. Defeat them all, and you'll receive some choice magical scrolls and a very useful item: a ring of free movement. Now, head through the secret doorway to the north. You'll be encountering hordes of kobolds in here; they won't do much damage to you, but the witch doctors can be difficult. Once you reach the large crystalline structure, a few more witch doctors will warp in. Kill them all, and you'll get a piece of the altar, which you'll need to make it to the second level. You can search the bodies for a short bow and some arrows for Imoen if you wish. Be sure to search the body with the quarterstaff and pick up the stakes.
Dace is something of a pushover, for a vampire.
Head to the room with the ancient scroll and proceed south. Once you reach the intersection, you can head north for a not-very-rewarding fight with a half-dozen umber hulks if you wish. The only discernible reason to fight these guys, other than the experience, is that it will open a bit of a shortcut to the beginning of the level when you must return in a bit. It's probably best to avoid the area. Proceed to the southwest. Go through the door to the north to find a ton of gold as well as a few scrolls. Now, head around the corner and proceed to the northwest. Get ready for a battle.
Most of the secret doors in Baldur's Gate II aren't really so secret.
Dace Sontan is another vampire. He's not extremely tough; just a regular old vampire, it seems, that likes melee battle. He'll probably drain your levels just for fun, but if you have people casting spells behind the fighters, he'll die fairly quickly. Stake him in his coffin and get his hand. Now, head all the way back to the room where you began the dungeon. Head to the southwest, and you'll encounter a statue's head. Since you have the keys (the hand and the crystal), it will open and give you access to the upper part of the dungeon. -
Head through the southern hallway first. (The northern hallway is a dead end at this point). Find the two secret doors and unlock the southern one. Turn the wheel and head through the northern door with your fighters leading the way. Three trolls and a spirit troll will be waiting for you. They guard a couple of mithril tokens that you can use later on. Heading down the corridor, you'll encounter a room with four minotaurs. Check the pot near the door for some more tokens.
Now, the room to the northeast is interesting. It has more tokens as well as the minotaur's horn item, which you should retrieve. The three statues inside also hold paintings, which unlock the doors past the yuan-ti you might have encountered earlier. Unfortunately, they're guarded by undetectable traps. Choose a strong character with a good saving throw versus death (Imoen is not a good choice) to retrieve the items, as the first trap will instantly and permanently kill the character unless a saving throw is made. The other two statues appear to cast a fireball and a fire cloud spell, so resistance to fire would also be a wise attribute. Be sure to get the painting from the pool as well.
Head to the south and go through the room with the trolls. You'll encounter Bodhi. Have your main character proceed into her room, but tell the rest of your party to head backward into the nearby room and turn its AI off. Your character will transform into a rather beastly creature and attack Bodhi. Wait until you transform back to normal to regroup your party, or else you'll wind up attacking everyone else. Beware; when you rest, you might wind up changing back into the Child of Bhaal creature. Have the rest of your characters run away again until your primary character changes back to normal.
Hulk smash!
Go through the doorway to the north. There are a bunch of minotaurs here as well as a mini-beholder gauth. You don't have to fight them all; just take the tokens from the pool near the door and leave. Head to the south to fight more minotaurs; you'll find more tokens as well as the very fun limited wish scroll in a pot nearby.
Now, head all the way back to the entrance to this level and take out the yuan-ti in the northern room. Each of the four entrances here corresponds to a different painting that you picked up earlier. The third door to the left is the only one you must go through here; the others are optional, with monsters and items behind them. The mind flayer to the left has a two-handed sword, the Flame of the North, which grants the user a 10 percent resistance to magic, the troll to his right has a +2 katana, and the noble djinni has a skydrop gem (which is worth a massive 12 gold).
Head through the third door and proceed east. You'll enter a room with three clay golems. Get ready for them or force-attack them and open the chest. Once you get the tokens inside, you'll probably want to rest from the beating you took from the golems. Now, head to the south and take out the stone golem. Grab the last tokens from the table and head west. You'll encounter the boot machine. You can put in five, ten, or 15 tokens. Five tokens gets you boots of grounding with a 50 percent resistance to electricity; ten tokens gets you boots of the north with a 50 percent resistance to cold; and 15 tokens gets you boots of speed, which will increase the speed of one of your characters by 150 percent. The boots of speed are pretty cool to have for your main character, but they can cause havoc in party movements, with one character running into enemies when the rest of the party is lagging behind.
Head all the way back to where you met Bodhi. Click on the minotaur statue to open the doors leading up.
Ready for weirdness? Kill all the kobolds in the area, and an apparition will appear. You will be asked questions throughout the next section; where you are teleported depends on the "clarity" of your answers. Try to be nice and respectful and answer the riddles correctly, and you should be fine. The easiest way to get through is to tell him to ask his questions (the first response), after which you will appear in a room with a spore colony. You'll then find yourself in a chamber with more apparitions. Answer their riddles correctly (nothing, river, fear, memory) to find yourself back in the asylum. There are roughly a dozen rooms you can visit all told; make enough bad choices, and you'll face a decidedly tougher route than the one outlined here. -
Asylum Proper
Saemon will recommend a course of action for defeating Irenicus. Rest your party and memorize a few spells; you'll be fighting him soon. Walk around and head up to the second level of the prison. Lonk will apprehend you; you can either pay him 2,000 gold to release the prisoners or attack him. Once the prisoners are released, you'll find yourself facing off against Irenicus in short order, so get ready.
He's tough, but not unbeatable. Swarm him immediately with all your short-range fighters, taking him on at point-blank range, and have your spellcasters use spell sequencers and magic missiles if they have them. He'll summon clones of your characters if you give him a chance, so be sure to act quickly. The crazies will be mostly useless here, despite their supposedly awesome powers. You can't control them, and Jon can probably kill them almost immediately. Once he warps out, he'll summon a group of invisible murderers. Head to the right of the center tube, so they can only attack you on one side. Have your strongest characters up front and, when they attack, take the assassins out quickly. (Don't forget that barbarians are immune to backstabbing, so if your character is one, place yourself up front to act as an invincible target.) As long as you can hear them say they'll plant their blades in your innards, it's not safe to move. They only have around 30 hit points each, so they're not too tough. If you began the asylum with Yoshimo, he'll appear again now and attack you. Once he's dead, take his items as well as his heart (right-click on it for another mini-quest).
Irenicus is single-handedly revitalizing the Amn undertaking industry.
Walk around the now-open areas of the prison. Jon's key is on the upper floor in his private quarters as well as his journals and some other items. You can accept Saemon's offer of escape by ship if you wish; you'll find yourself in a short side-quest in Sahuagin City, which will yield some more experience and items for you. For now, find Jon's key and head back to the portal on the first floor. Go through to begin Chapter 5.
Sahuagin City
If you decide to head to Sahuagin City, you'll find yourself outside the asylum. Head back to town and meet Saemon at the tavern. He'll reveal that his ship has been scuttled, and you must steal the pirate lord's ship to proceed. He'll ask you to steal the seagate horn from the pirate lord's mistress, Cayia. Sleep until it's nighttime, then go to Cayia's house on the west side of the city and head inside.
Two heads, technically, are better than one, but it's not going to help this ettin.
Once inside, you'll witness a conversation between Cayia and her lover Algor. Once Cayia is alerted to your presence, she'll summon three pirates whom you can handle easily. Grab the horn from the table and head out to the docks in the southeast corner of the city. Give him the horn, and you'll be on your way.
Before you leave, however, Desharik will appear and attempt to take back his ship. After he cuts down Cayia, get ready for a fight. Take out the pirates, and you'll be on your way.
After a short interlude, you'll find yourself fighting yet again. The Githyanki that have boarded your ship are looking for a weapon, a weapon that Saemon conveniently gave you. After a short battle, your ship will be about to sink, due to an unexpected influx of Sahuagin forces. After another interlude, you'll find yourself in Sahuagin City, meeting with a royal high priestess. Eventually, you'll be brought before King Ixilthetocal. You'll be asked to fight a "slave from the surface." Despite your reservations, do so, and you'll be paired off with an ettin (one of the coolest-looking enemies in the entire game). Take him out to earn the king's favor. (If you choose not to fight, you must kill the king, the high priestess, and all the guards. It's doable, but extremely difficult.) -
After your fight, tell the king that you will find and kill the rebels. Before you head off, though, go to the northeast and speak to the High Priestess. She'll ask you to betray the king and side with the rebels (which is the good characters' path through this area). Do so, and you'll receive the rebel orb.
For now, head south of the king's area, and you'll find yourself entering an area full of traps (guarded by a sahuagin that attempts to warn you off). Be sure to keep detect traps on and watch out for enemies, including sword spiders and ettercaps. You'll even come across a rare bone golem.
So why don't the sahuagin live underwater if they're so aquatic?
Once you reach the area with the imps, agree to play their game. First, have a thief detect and disable the five traps scattered around the platform. Then, talk to each character to learn what item he needs. The riddles are simple to solve if you pay attention. But if you can't figure them out, place the items in this order (clockwise from Elminster): pipe, staff, pendent, helmet, and scimitar. Now, head to the north (detect the slowing trap before the bridge) and talk to the spectator beholder. He's a rather amusing guy, so it'd be a shame if you had to kill him. You can keep selecting the first option in the context menus to persuade him to let you peek into the chest, if you like; this way, he'll just float off after you grab the item from the chest. (You'll get 15,000 experience this way, which is more than you would've gotten if you just killed the beholder.) The item in the chest is Sekolah's tooth, a key you'll need to visit the rebels.
Now, go back to the high priestess' station and proceed to the west from there. You'll eventually find yourself entering a room shaped like a fish's mouth; you'll be jumped by rebels, so save your game ahead of time. Kill them all and be sure to grab the cloak of mirroring from the priestess' body; it will reflect all spells cast upon the wearer back onto the caster.
You can fight against the sea zombies in the southern portion of the map if you wish; you don't have to, however. Head to the west when you want to speak to the rebels and look for a locked door. You must fight through a few rebel patrols, but they won't be too difficult. Once you make it through the western gauntlet, you'll be brought before the prince. Take the fake heart and head back to the king.
Hail to the king, baby.
You should be warned that the king will attack you as soon as you give him the false heart. You might want to summon a few creatures and chant or haste your party before beginning the fight, just to give you that added edge in the conflict. His minions are not difficult to beat, but he possesses a spear of impaling that can do massive damage when it strikes, so be careful.
Once the prince comes to power, he'll give you a magical rope that you can use to lower yourself into the Underdark. (The hole is located behind the prince's former location in the southeast corner of the city.) Chapter 5 will begin after you find yourself below. -
Chapter 5
So, you've always wanted to meet some drow, eh? You'll get your fill (and more) of them in this chapter.
Underdark
When you begin this chapter, you'll find yourself in the Underdark, a cavernous area populated by dwarves and drow. Walk to the east and interrogate the duergar. Buy the freedom spell from the merchant as well as any other scrolls that you may need, then walk to the north a bit. If you encounter elementals, run. They will continually be regenerated near their portals. (You can actually kill these guys in succession for a bunch of experience if you want, with rest stops near the duergar in between sessions.) Once you find the area with one passage heading east and three heading west, cast the freedom spell. A mage, Vithal, will appear. Accept his offer, and you'll be given the first mini-quest of the chapter.
Welcome to the Underdark.
Head north. Ignore the bizarre spherical structure for now and proceed east. Defeat the myconids and go north. The gnomes will let you into their city. Head up and around the passage, following the rails, until you reach the two doors leading into the rooms you circumvented. Speak to the mayor of the city to pick up another quest. Talk to the innkeeper to buy Vithal's spellbook. Finally, speak to the shopkeeper and tell him you'll rescue his son.
Now, head back to the northeast until you reach the gnome guarding the demon's door. He'll open it, letting you into the beast's lair. You can click on the ladder to summon a balor. They're quite tough, with limited magic resistance and quite a bit of resistance to normal weapons as well, but you'll beat him eventually. Use the stoneshape scroll and head back to Golander. He'll give you the item you need to head to Adalon's lair, but head back to the southern portions of the level first.
All seven of you shouldn't have much of a problem with these elementals.
First, head back to the strange globe you passed earlier. You'll notice six separate panels on the globe; you can click on a panel to release one of the inhabitants trapped inside. The fifth globe (from the left) is Therndle's son. Release him and head back to the inn to get your reward (bracers of defense with an armor class of 4). One through three contain regular (enemy) warriors; but the sixth contains a friendly adventurer who will give you information. Panel number four contains a lich you can take on if you feel lucky.
Now, head back to Vithal. Give him his book and tell him you're ready. You must fight a greater elemental from each of the three portals, so be sure to rest up before you begin his tasks. Once you've defeated all three elementals, he'll give you a small amount of experience and a rod of absorption. You can kill him if you wish to gain a few more items from his corpse, though he's monstrously difficult, with spells like time stop and disintegrate, giving him a good chance of killing one of your party permanently. If you don't want to fight him, you can ask for a bit more treasure to get a random scroll.
Ever wonder why the dragons in Baldur's Gate II like to live underground?
Once you're done with all these quests, go back to the globe area and proceed to the west. Eventually, you'll come across a cave. Enter it to speak to Aladon, a gigantic dragon. She'll ask you to retrieve her eggs from the drow that stole them and will offer to let you out of the Underdark to an area near where Irenicus is now. Accept her mission, and your party will be transformed into Drow warriors for the rest of the chapter.
There's plenty to do in the drow city.
Drow City
Now, proceed out of her lair and move northeast. You'll encounter a drow. Tell him that you are Veldrin, and you'll enter the drow city. You can look around for a bit; there are a few shops on the entrance platform. When you're ready to go, head northwest past two large structures until you reach the Male Fighter's Society. Solaufein will be nearby, ready to initiate you into drow culture. You must be careful not to make anyone upset here, or the city will become hostile to you, essentially ending the chapter. Talk to him, and he'll eventually tell you to meet him by the city entrance. Do so, and a matron mother will tell you to rescue a drow scout that has been taken captive by mind flayers. You must head to the mind flayer cave to rescue her. -
Go back to the main cave area and proceed south. You'll be attacked by a raiding party, so be careful. Once you reach the mind flayer cave, speak to Solaufein, and he'll draw the illithids from their astral wanderings. They are extremely tough, so you might want to summon a few helpers ahead of time. They like to hold your party, so if you have a ring of free action, the character wearing it should be near the middle of the action. You can have your spellcasters summon monsters, then retreat past the bridge to the west before the battle begins if you want to keep them out of harm's way. There will be a couple of mind flayers with a few umber hulks for company, so be very careful when they start to warp in.
Once the illithids are defeated, Phaere and Solaufein will head back to the city. You should do so as well. Once there, you'll learn that Phaere wants to speak to you in the tavern. Locate it on your map; it's just northwest of your position. She'll tell you to meet her by the platform again. You can meet the other inhabitants of the tavern or participate in a duel here if you wish. You probably should; you'll get 30,000 experience points for the first fight against a warrior with a huge amount of health. The second and tougher fight will yield just 12,000 experience points. The third fight will be mage versus mage. This fight will only yield 6,000 experience. There's only one fight after that, another mage versus mage affair.
Once you arrive at the entrance to the city, a duergar might ask you to speak to the tank near the slave's quarters. If you do so, an aboleth will ask you to kill a drow priestess and bring him her brain. You can do so if you wish, but good parties will likely want to skip the quest. Just keep telling him that you refuse the task, or you'll inform the rest of the city of his treachery, and he'll tell you to go away. You'll get 12,000 experience for doing nothing.
You might have to rest before Phaere will appear at the city gates. She'll assign you to a new task; she wants you to kill the beholder that is smuggling adamantine. So, head to the southeast docks of the city near Deirex's tower. Talk to Phaere, and a beholder will warp in. Kill it, and that's that.
Now, head back to the tavern and speak to Phaere again. She'll ask you to strike a little fear into the nearby gnomes. Head outside the city and walk west toward the gnomish city. If you're a good party, you can tell Solaufein you wish to handle the gnomes yourself, then head north and tell the party's leader why you need his helmet. When you have it, go back to the tavern and talk to Phaere. Tell her you'll meet her in her private quarters.
Go to the Female Fighter's Society and speak to Phaere. She'll ask you to kill Solaufein. Tell her you'll do so, then walk to the Male Fighter's Society. Tell Solaufein of the plan and ask for his cloak. He'll thank you for your mercy and leave. Head back to Phaere, and you'll be... congratulated. Hop into bed for a rest if you like.
Now, you'll be commanded to go outside the city and get the blood of one of three races: the kuo-toa, the beholders, or the mind flayers. These offer differing levels of challenge to a party. The kuo-toa are by far the easiest, being primarily a battle-oriented race, while the beholders and mind flayers will be more rounded enemies, with magic and mind control spells confusing the situation. You can choose one of these two if you wish, but the easiest path is through the kuo-toa tunnels. There's nothing preventing you from attempting the other missions, so if you want more experience later on, check your map for the entrances to the beholder or mind flayer caves and take a look around. -
Kuo-Toa Lair
The entrance to the kuo-toa lair is marked as the western tunnels on your map near the myconid cavern area. Quicksave once you enter and head to the east. You'll find yourself in a large cavern. There's a chamber to the northwest with a beholder and two gauths if you wish to try your luck there, but be careful: They're quite tough. To the northeast, there is a kuo-toa party, consisting of a few warriors and a priest.
Head west from the main cavern and bypass the northern corridor for now. There is a fiery passage here; it's trapped with a flamestrike spell. Send a character with high hit points or magic resistance through to trigger it, then send the rest of the party through. This room is a trap; summon an animal on the altar to warp in five demon knights. You can kill them for some great items, though, including a girdle of frost giant strength (it permanently sets one character's strength to 21).
If you can clog the narrow hallway, you can to deal with the Kuo-Toa forces more easily.
Now, head up the northern corridor. Defeat the kuo-toa and proceed northwest. This is going to be a tough battle, so be sure to save and heal your characters before you proceed. When you enter the small room to the northwest, you'll face off against a party of kuo-toa, including a captain and a wizard. Unfortunately, as the battle rages, other kuo-toa to the east and west will be alerted to your presence and rush in. You might want to try summoning creatures into the small room before heading in or sending a mage in to cast a lead off fireball or cloudkill spell in an attempt to lure the captain and his entourage out into the cavernous area. You'll be facing off against at least a dozen kuo-toans all told, with the wizards, captains, and the prince himself being the toughest of the bunch. The prince seems primarily a melee fighter, but he can take a ton of damage, and the monitors or priests can heal him. Once all the enemies are dead, search their bodies for treasure. The prince's body will have the blood you need as well as more than 4,500 gold.
That's one angry demon.
Now, head back to the drow city and talk to the matron mother. Phaere will want to speak to you in her quarters, so walk back to the Female Fighter's Society. Phaere wants you to exchange a set of fake dragon eggs for the real eggs that the matron mother has. As you walk to the Temple of Lolth, Solaufein will appear before the door and give you yet more fake eggs to give to Phaere. Accept his offer and head inside. Now, give Phaere's fake eggs to a thief that can cast hide in shadows or (preferably) a priest capable of casting sanctuary. You must make the exchange without the guards finding out about it, or you'll be dead. The egg chamber is to the west. Send your solo eggschanger (groan) over there and have him become invisible. Once the door to the chamber is opened, the egg guards will go hostile, so make sure the rest of your party is nowhere nearby. Once you make the exchange, the golems inside the chamber will become hostile as well, so be careful. Once you make the exchange, leave the chamber and head back to Phaere. Give her Solaufein's fake eggs.
Proceed to the mother matron's lair in the Temple of Lolth. She'll begin a ritual to summon a powerful demon to help the drow in their battle with the surface elves. Once the ritual begins, the demon lord will appear and smite the matron mother for tempting him with false eggs. Phaere will bite the dust, as well, leaving you all alone with their corpses. Check the bodies for some interesting items, including gorgon plate +4 and a ring of spell turning. Get ready to fight: The city has finally turned hostile to you, and you must get the hell out of Dodge as quickly as possible.
Here are some of the last drow you'll be seeing in the game... enjoy.
The flight to the city gates probably isn't as bad as it could be. You might want to summon an aerial servant or other monster to act as your vanguard. You'll encounter a few drow, a wizard, and a bunch of commoners near the entrance. Once you head out to the cave area, go to Adalon's lair. She'll transform herself into a human and transport the party to a spot in the kuo-toa lair that leads to the surface. There are drow guarding it if you didn't kill them earlier, but she'll help out in their destruction. Once she teleports back, you'll get almost 80,000 experience for each party member.
Head through the door, but save your game first. You'll be ambushed by a party of drow, including spiders and a wizard. The wizard may summon an earth elemental, so watch out. Proceed to the north, where the drow apparently tunneled through to the elven quarters. You will encounter more drow, but there will be plenty of war elves to help take them out.
Once you reach the surface, Chapter 6 begins. -
Chapter 6
Upon your arrival on the surface, you'll be interrogated by the elven commander Elhan. Answer his questions respectfully (and truthfully) and be sure to ask for the stakes and holy water before you leave. Once you do leave, you can explore the two small forest areas that appeared on your overland map if you wish. When you head back to Athkatla, you'll be "waylaid by brigands;" really, it's Drizzt Do'Urden. You can ask him to help you in the fight against the vampires; he'll make the fight a lot easier, so it's recommended that you do so.
Don't head for the graveyard right off; go to the town gates and rest in the inn (you'll get fatigued from the long journey if you don't). Once you're well rested and stocked with spells (negative plane protection, false dawns, restorations, and the like will be helpful), head off to the graveyard. Bodhi will ambush you right away and sic a vampire or two on you. These are the real deal, not the fledgling vampires you encountered before, so be prepared.
Bodhi's Lair Redux
Once you reach Bodhi's lair, you'll find that everything is much as it was before, except for a few of the offshoot passages having been collapsed. You must enter through the doorway on the western side of the graveyard. There are lots of vampires on the first level, and they're not happy that you're there. Avoid the dining room area for now and head to the northwest toward the pool of blood with your main character only. (If you bring your whole party here, there's a risk that one will become confused and attack Drizzt, causing his party to abandon you.) Drizzt and company are there and will dispatch the vampires in the room. Click on the pool of blood and pour some of the elven holy water into it. All the vampires here will be weakened and slowed, which will make the upcoming fight much easier. Head back to the tombs to the south and stake all three for some experience.
Now, proceed slowly into the dining room area. You will be facing eight to ten vampires here, both fledgling and full-blown. If you can maneuver it correctly, you should have your fighters and summoned creatures block off the corridor, protected by negative plane protection, with your magic users doing nasty things like false dawn. Once the vampires are killed, you can check the pool of blood to the west for gauntlets of weapons expertise (+1 THACO and +2 damage) and another stake, but it's protected by vampiric mists. (Remember to thank Bodhi for leaving both a mace of disruption and stakes in her lair; she probably ran with scissors quite a bit as a child.)
Head downstairs when you've cleaned out the first floor. Disable the traps on the floor of the hallway and get ready for another fight. Again, have your front-line fighters protected from negative plane interference. Bodhi will call in eight of her closest friends to help in this battle, so be warned. Drizzt will be tagging along here, but if one of your characters gets dire charmed, he'll probably start attacking them, which isn't a fun situation, since he can deal so much damage. You might want to lead off with your strongest fighters, then have clerics or mages come in when the vampires have cleared out from the doorway. Again, a false dawn spell here will be quite helpful if you can get it off. Once Bodhi is dead, search the bodies and the antechambers for items. Stake Bodhi in her coffin to get experience, Bodhi's heart, and the rhynn lanthorn.
Go back to Elhan and speak to him. He'll tell you a bit more about Irenicus and Bodhi, then take you to the entrance of the elven city. He'll head in, and you'll gain yet more experience. If you level up, you might want to rest here and learn new spells; you should probably make a permanent save as well. This is a perfect opportunity to go back and complete some of those side quests if you've been neglecting them. (You can't continue with your characters after you beat the game, so it might be helpful to get the experience now.) Go into the entrance to begin the seventh and final chapter. -
Chapter 7
It's time for the final portion of Baldur's Gate II. Moving right along from the drow elf areas, the rest of the game will take place in regular elfland, beginning in Suldanesslar.
Suldanesslar
Elhan will ask you to find Ellesime or Demin to find out what's going on in the city. There are plenty of monsters around, including rakshasas, golems, and trolls, so be careful. First, head to the north and search the house there. You'll encounter two stone golems and a clay golem, so be careful. Take the cloak of elvenkind and the stone horn from the receptacles and head back to Elhan. Now, proceed west to the area marked "House of the Talisman" on your map. Above it are the priest's quarters. Head up to the priest's house and take the elven priest stone from the desk. Now, go to the house of the talisman and click on the puzzle above the fireplace-type device. You'll be faced with a puzzle, the answer to which is on the priest stone you just got. (The sequence is corellan, rillifane, water, and tree.) You'll receive the talisman of rillifane when the box opens. Don't miss the narrow ledge on the bookcase in the north end of this room; it'll contain a high-level scroll.
Unfortunately, the elves won't be a big help here.
Now, leave the room and proceed west toward Demin's house. Destroy the skeleton warriors that are attacking the elves. Save your game before heading further to the west; you're about to face a nasty spellcasting drow. Raamilat has a pet nabassu that will attack you when you get close enough. If you send a scout character up there, you can lure the nabassu away and kill it. Once you get closer, Raamilat will cast time stop, with meteor swarm, protection from evil, and gate (to summon a pit fiend) during the pause. Your best bet might be to select a character with high fire resistance to act as a punching bag here, triggering the time stop, then running away before the meteor swarm really gets going. Despite his protection from evil, the pit fiend will probably attack Raamilat right away. You can jump off-screen to let them fight, though Raamilat will probably kill it fairly quickly with a disintegrate or horrible wilting spell. Be careful fighting Raamilat; he can maze your characters, which will take them out of the action for a bit.
When you play with fire...
When Raamilat is dead, head into Demin's house. She's being attacked by three rakshasas. Kill them, with the focus being on the Adsaan, the spellcaster of the bunch. Speak to Demin for a while to learn exactly what Irenicus' original crime was, and you'll learn that you must find three artifacts to summon the avatar of the leaflord. You already have one; the talisman of Rillifane, but you need the other two: a golden cup and the moonblade.
Walk southeast where you fought the skeleton warriors. From there, proceed northeast toward the House of the Moon. Enter it, and you'll witness an encounter between the city's chosen warrior and a balor, after which they'll both die. Pick up the moonblade from the warrior and head to the northwest. Stop by the harpist's house and get the stone harp, then go to the forest clearing. Save your game; you're going to be fighting a dragon pretty soon.
Nizidramanii'yt (say that three times fast) is a black dragon that guards the golden goblet of life in the forest clearing. You have two options: Give him all your possessions for the goblet or take it from him by force. You can drop all your items on the ground and get around him that way, though you'll still lose gold, and it will be quite a hassle dropping every single thing you have on all six characters.
Imoen and Aerie bravely attempt to take out a dragon by themselves. What's not shown is their gruesome deaths.
Fighting him is also fairly difficult, though. He's tough, obviously, and he can cast an insect swarm that will do massive damage to your party over time. (It seems to be around two or three damage a second in real-time.) This will prevent them from casting any spells while the spell is in effect, so you'll want to cast any offensive spells before he manages to swarm you. Horrid wilting is an excellent choice if you have any scrolls or are of a high enough level to actually cast it. In any case, once he's cast the swarm, he'll probably revert to one-on-one melee attacks, with occasional breath or wing buffets thrown in to the mix. When he falls, take the goblet of life and rest in this relatively safe area.
Head to the Temple of Rillifane on the west side of your map. Be careful when approaching: There are Rakshasa guarding the entrance. Send a sacrificial monster or animal to suffer the cloudkill spell that the spellcasting rakshasa will throw down (which, by the way, will probably take out a couple of his teammates as well), then follow up with the rest of your characters. -
Once you enter the temple, you'll be facing off against a number of enemies. You can take them all out for the experience, or you can turn your party AI off, then place the goblet, moonblade, and talisman of Rillifane on the table to summon the avatar, who will disintegrate everything in the room. When he opens the gates, you can finally enter the palace to the north.
Once you reach the palace, click on the tree inside until you get all the nuts from it that you can. There are two types here: four inedible nuts that will serve a use in the next section of the game and four edible nuts that will act as healing potions when used. You should have your main character place these in one of his quick-slots, as they're even more powerful than extra healing potions. Proceed through the door, then click on the two statues to stop the flow of water, revealing a staircase.
Oh, the humanity!
The Tree of Life
You're now on the lower level of the tree of life. You must find the three parasites that Ellesime tells you of and destroy them. They're scattered about the level; you can see their positions on the map. When you click on them, two normal elementals will appear to guard them. You shouldn't have much trouble with a simple enemy like this at this stage of the game. Once you manage to destroy all three parasites, you'll immediately be warped to fight Irenicus, so be sure to heal or rest before you destroy the third creature and certainly save your game.
It's clobberin' time! Except you're the one that's going to get clobbered.
Fighting Irenicus is about as tough as you'd imagine it would be. Any summoned creatures disappear when you're warped to his location, so don't bother attempting to summon reinforcements beforehand. Irenicus is a high-level spellcaster with a penchant for time stops, horrid wiltings, mazes, wails of the banshee, and what appear to be sunfires. For defense, he has pretty much every anti-offense spell in the book, with absolute immunity being one of the first spells he casts, along with spell trap. He'll also cast fire shield (red) on himself, which by itself can whittle down your AI-controlled fighters. He'll generally become invisible fairly soon as well, so be sure to have something to dispel that. All in all, this is certainly the toughest fight in the game (so far). After a long while, he might eventually start physically attacking you, in which case you might survive by turning off your AI and simply running away from him when he tries to strike you. Eventually, his protection spells will wear off, and you can kill him. Keep healing potions on your main character to ward off death. Once he's dead, you'll find yourself in the final area of the game: hell.
Hell
Hell is an area that contains five different tests that you must undergo before heading to the final battle. Walk west to the test of wrath first. You must fight Sarevok, but you can choose to either give in to your anger or not. Assuming your character is good, choose not to (generally the first choice in the conversation menus). Sarevok is probably the toughest melee fighter you'll see in the game, possessing many hundreds of hit points, but he won't use any spells at all, so use that to your advantage by having your mages sit back and pelt him with spells. When he dies, you'll get the first tear of Bhaal. You can rest in the main area of this level without fear of being disturbed.
South of wrath is the test of greed. This is a fairly simple one for good characters. Take the blackrazor from the demon and give it to the djinni to earn the second tear of Bhaal and 20,000 experience points.
To the south of the main area of hell is the test of selfishness. This is one of the more frustrating tests; when you head through the left door (which is the good path), your character will lose two hit points (permanently), one point of dexterity, and experience. On the other hand, proceeding through the evil path results in the trapped character's death, so you must suck it up and take the loss. Nobody said being a good guy was going to be easy.
The southeastern test is the test of fear. You're given the choice between accepting the cloak of bravery or attempting to pass through the cavern on your own. Reject the offer and cast resist fear on yourself. Head through the lower portion of the cave and pick up the tear of Bhaal. If you head to the northern end of the cave, the elder orbs and gauths will kill you, so be careful.
The final test to the east is the test of pride. Keep questioning the demon and be sure to refuse killing a creature simply because it is "in your way." You can avoid the fight this way, and a dragon will give you the final tear of Bhaal. -
As a note, the benefits for doing things the "good" way are somewhat substantial. If you chose the evil path on even a single test, your main character's alignment is immediately switched to evil (resulting in instant death for a paladin). The benefits you obtain as you open the five seals on the door are also different for good and evil characters. There were some other negative aspects to the evil paths of the specific tests; feel free to load up a game and see what happens if choose the other path through a test.
It's too bad you'll only have these bonuses for the five minutes it'll take you to beat Irenicus.
Before you approach the final door, get ready for the final incarnation of Jon Irenicus. He's really not extremely tough, though he does summon two glabrezus and two balors as soon as the fight begins, so a protection from evil spell would be wise to cast beforehand. If you're powerful enough, you can probably just lure them to the southern end of the level and kill them; Irenicus doesn't seem to do much when you're not around, though he will mislead himself, so be careful. He's actually not really Irenicus when you fight him; he'll become the slayer creature that you've morphed into on occasion since your soul was stolen. Weirdly enough, he seems to have fewer protections against melee weapons than when you fought him at the tree of life, or those that he does cast will run out before the demons are dead, so surrounding him and pounding might work in this instance for parties with powerful melee warriors. He does cast death spells on occasion, though, so if you can get out of his line of sight and send a few summoned animals or elementals toward him, he might throw away a few of his more advanced spells before you must advance.
Elementals and other summoned creatures are surprisingly effective against the slayer.
One trick that you might use to your advantage is that the slayer simply isn't very aggressive. He'll chase you, but if you throw a couple of summoned creatures in the way, he'll generally stop to deal with them and then stop where he is if he can't see you. So, you can simply wait for a while a screen or so away from the slayer, heal up, wait for any mazes to wear off, and when you come back to the slayer, most of his spell and weapon protection spells will have worn off. He does regenerate at a fearsome rate, though, so you'll probably be facing him at full strength this way, but he'll be easier to hit with your weapons and have fewer spells at his disposal. In the end, brawn defeats brains, so surround him and apply a beatdown to end all beatdowns for the win.
As we noted previously, there is unfortunately no way to continue the game with the same characters after you defeat Irenicus for the final time. If you want to keep on playing, you can always load up an earlier game or import your characters into the forthcoming Neverwinter Nights game. -
Appendix: Cheat Codes
For those of you out there that just can't get by with out them, here they are. These will give you more items, pass more levels, and just plain make some parts of the game easier, more difficult, or more fun. The thing about the Baldur's Gate II cheats is that you must edit a primary .INI file that could completely mess up the game if you don't follow these directions to the letter, so do this at your own risk and be sure that you type them all in correctly.
First, you must edit the .INI file in the Baldur's Gate II directory, so let's get to that directory. Open the drive on which you installed the game (Windows key + E), then open the Baldur's Gate II directory by double-clicking on it. In there, you will see a pad of paper with a yellow gear in the lower right corner with the name "BALDUR". Double-click this, and under the line that reads "[rogram Options]", type the following:
Debug Mode=1
Now, all you must do is start the game. When the game is running, hit the Ctrl and space bar keys at the same time, and you can type in the field below your characters' command lines. It is in here that you will be typing your cheat codes. Below is a list of the codes and a brief description on what they do. Type these exactly as shown, or they will not work.
CLUAConsole:TheGreatGonzo()
This will summon some chickens that will attack your enemies.
CLUAConsole:FirstAid()
This will give you five healing potions, one stone to flesh scroll, and five neutralize poison potions.
CLUAConsole:Midas()
This will give you some extra money (500 gold pieces).
CLUAConsole
rizztAttacks()
Creates Drizzt Do'Urden, but he will attack you. It's fun to practice on, though.
CLUAConsolerizztDefends()
Creates a Drizzt that will not attack.
CLUAConsole:CriticalItems()
Did you drop an item that you now need and its gone? Use this to have all critical items come back into the game.
CLUAConsole:ExploreArea()
This will clear away all the black on the map.
CLUAConsole:AddGold(amount of gold)
This will give you some extra money for your travels.
CLUAConsole:SetCurrentXP(amount of exp)
This will give you some experience to help you gain some more levels.