CHAPTER ONE: SOMETHING'S ROTTEN IN ARANYS
This first chapter is, obviously, the one where the whole story is being set up. Furthermore, you get to unravel important information about what is going on and who is behind it all. Finally, aside from acquiring important special characters and setting yourselves up to follow subsequent avenues (Chapters) of the story, you also get to clash head-on with the central coordinator for the Overlords and their Plans in the Heartlands. How's that for a begining? <wink>
1) Upon arriving in Aranys, go to the Wildboar Inn. There are a few things that you must do there:
A) go acquire Jhalor Fireblade as a companion (he's important for a good part of the story). You'll later find out that this noble knight used to be the second-in-command of the Order of the Knighthood of the Flame in Tanirith, but resigned when it was becoming clear to him that the surrent High Commander of the Order, Sardin Firestorm, was corrupted (see Chapter Six).
B) acquire the dropped deluxe brass keys at the foot of the slobbering-eating barbarian at x78y53 (just answer YES to the question);
C) take the time to walk around the main floor: bartenders may offer you many tidbits of info about the Sword Lands (for 5 gps a hit), or you may stumble about conversations which also give clues as to what is going on in the area;
D) rent a regular room for the night (you need the regular room key to get to the floor of the dark knights' room);
E) go to the brothel: the bodyguard will let you pass if you have the deluxe brass keys. On the brothel floor, walk all the way down to the room at x65y4: then just walk over the bed, and you'll recover a castle gate pass (one of the easy means to visit Akkar Dhun, the Lord of Aranys).
F) then go to your room. Rest and cast protective spells; then go to the dark knights' room at x59y68 (the only way to enter is to successfully pick locks or cast open locks). Go up to the dark knights and fight them. After defeating them, you will find a conspiracy letter which consist of a message from "A.D." (the current Lord of Aranys, Akkar Dhun, of course) to mysterious Overlords, which are his bosses. The letter also gives an inkling to what is going on.
From there, you're all set to proceed to 2) and/or 3).
2) Go see Akkar Dhun. Personally, I recommend you go through 3) first, but you can do this part up to a point nonetheless.
A) go through the castle gates and the castle door, with your recovered gate pass giving you walk-in access. Make sure you are rested and loaded with protective spells already active.
B) in the castle, walk up to Mordrek (x83,y45), A.D.'s majordormo and co-conspirator. Choose to tell about a conspiracy going on about Aranys. Feeling exposed, Dhun and his large gang will fight you. You have to defeat Dhun. If you run, you will get captured and offered to kill Jarad Knoll of Tanirith in exchange of your life (see Chapter Six); this complicates things but you can still get through it all <wink>.
After defeating Dhun, take the time to rest and heal. Then I suggest strongly that you go undertake step 3) using the door at x79y51 and the stairs to the castle's dungeon at x83y53. From there, proceed through steps 3B-H (see below).
C) get out of the throne room using the door at x70y45, and walk north to Mordrek's meeting room at x66,y42. Explore his bedroom at x62,y43; at x59y41, there is a secret door which leads to stairs (x61y40) that take you to Mordrek's section of the 2nd floor.
D) go to Mordrek's Magic Study at x42y36. Defeat the master and apprentices at x43y37. Go to Mordrek's other bedroom at x42y38: you'll find a secret door at x40y40 which leads to a room with treasure chests (make sure you detect magic, then destroy magic, then remove trap, then pick lock, before opening these suckers!). You can after explore the rest of this section for more treasure tidbits lying around and about.
E) get back to the throne room, use the door at x70y45 again and walk straight west to the stairs (x59y45) leading to Dhun's section of the second floor.
F) defeat the remaining guards at x49y45: you are now in Dhun's quarters; explore around as you may find some few interesting items.
G) go to A.D.'s bedroom at x43y47; you'll find a secret door at x40y45 which leads to a room filled with chests (use the same tactics as for those of Mordrek's).
H) you'll also find a hidden trap door on the ceiling in A.D.'s bedroom (near his bed), if you have a detect secret spell on. This leads to A.D.'s sanctum sanctorum on the 3rd floor.
I) in the sanctum sanctorum, go to the cubbard at x30y46 with the search button active: you find a bronze plaque with the word "mentys" engraved on it (this is the activating word for the communication globe).
J) go to the working desk at x24y43: there, you'll find many papers which reveal a lot about the conspiracy, including other players ...
K) go to the lever at x27y43 and pull it. This transforms the mirror at x29y43 into a communication globe (yes, this is the "gift" mentioned in A.D.'s letter you found with the dark knights back in the Wildboar Inn!).
L) step in front of the communication globe (NOT ON IT!), hit the encounter button and speak the activating word ("mentys"). You'll be graced with the presence of a female Overlord (which later on you'll get to know as General Qui -see Chapter Ten), with which you'll have a pretty revealing conversation. Afterward, A.D.'s castle crumbles to rubbles (but you get safely out).
And there you have it: you have completed Chapter One! (unless you have not gone through step 3 below; if you haven't, then go through it!). From there, you can go on either to Chapter Two (most recommended to do next) or Chapter Three.
3) Investigate Dhun's dungeon. Just outside of Aranys, at x1y28, you find a hidden trap door (you need a detect secret spell active for that) which leads directly to the dungeon of the castle. In the dungeon:
A) go through the secret door at x78y81 to enter (the exit back out from where you arrive is at x75y81).
B) deal with the guards at x79y84.
C) go to the torture room at x80y86 and fight the guardians there. You'll get a jailer's key from them. Go see the poor woman being tortured at x84y88 (this gives you an idea of how evil A.D. can be). Also, explore around the room to acquire interesting stuff.
D) proceed to the door at x84,y84. Use the jailer's key. You can now enter the cell-block (use also the jailer's key to open the cell doors).
E) cell at x83y79: free this merchant of Aranys, who had been kidnapped by A.D. because he refused to sell-out to the lord. Later on (after you have hooked up with Braggan Stoneheart -see Chapter Three), go to his house for a nice reward, along with the Shield of Galduur (see Chapter Five).
F) cell at x85y79: free the dwarven merchant. He'll give you a ruby stone (see Chapter Five) and tell you to visit him in the Dwarven Halls so that he can properly reward you (see Chapter Five).
G) cell at x83y75: free Naryl Dragonstone and accept her into your party (she's a major special character for the whole story!). As you'll find out gradually through out the story, Naryl's true name is Naryl Thezzat; she is a psi-knight from the land of Keryndhorh (on the continent of Anarym) who is set out to defeat the Overlords, which are considered as terrorist rebels in her country. In the meantime, she will act mysterious and divulge info only a few tidbits at a time as the story develops ... She will also appear to be quite manipulative; but in truth she is quite well intentioned and needs simply to be sure she can fully trust you <wink>
H) from there, you can get back out from where you came in order to proceed with step 2), or dive right in the thick of things by taking the stairs (x79y79) to the main floor of the castle, and walk straight to the door at x79y51, where Dhun and his gang will attack you as intruders. After you have defeated him, then proceed through steps 2C-L. If you have already completed parts 2A and 2B, then simply go back to the throne room of the main floor and proceed with steps 2C-L.
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