CHAPTER 22: VICTORY ... OR DEFEAT?
The endgame is now here. But after all will be said and done, one question will remain to haunt your worried hearts: will you have won or lost?
1) from the small island, sail to the northern ancient lighthouse. Climb it and get a view of the northern parts of the main island.
2) still angry and frustrated by Primus' duplicity in the previous Chapter, head to the barony of Ashkor on the northern half of the island. Here is the relevant key to the northern half of the island of Umaldyr (goblin and elven settlements not included):
Aurelyan (accessible by boat)
x37y65 Gates
x36y63 Circle Lake Hamlet
x37y61 Aurelyan's General Market
x38y61 Temple of Woralduur
x35y62 gates to castle Aurelyan
Ashkor
x25y64 Circle Lake Waystation
x17y58 Gates to castle Ashkor
Koralya
x19y75 Gates
x18y78 The Pearly Shores
x16y80 Temple of Ukkor
x18y80 Koralya's Store
x15y84 Gates to port
x11y73 Castle Koralya (accessible by rented/owned boat)
x51y66 Circle Lake Shipyards Company (pay for your own boat)
x59y63 Castle of a Robber Baron
x78y58 Castle of a Robber Baron
x80y78 Ancient Macremian ruins (accessible by rented/owned boat)
3) at the gates of the castle Ashkor, soldiers will be waiting for you. After doing them in, enter the castle to face the baron of Ashkor: you will also find General Nyxos Uhn (still alive and kicking) telling the baron some cockamanie story about you seeking to murder him. After Nyxos exits, you have to clash with the shifty baron and his personal retinue. Once the dust settles, walk to the N-NE of the room, where you'll find a bound and gagged Naryl Thezzat: this is the real one who had been somehow snatched away some days ago and replaced by Primus himself. It would appear that Primus is quite powerful to be able to do that, even for an Overlord.
4) leave Ashkor, along with the real Naryl, and sail to the small island where you spotted the other macremian ruins (as observed from the northern ancient lighthouse). You will need to have the real Naryl along with you, in order to enter the ruins at x80y78.
5) inside the ruins, you'll notice that the interior is quite clean and preserved. You will get to clash one final time with Nyxos, Taroth and Zeiia, along with many of their underlings. Be prepared and ready for this battle folks: it is a big, bad and very tough one!
6) after the clash, walk to the door at x78y31, where you'll end up face to face with Primus himself. Thanks to the power stone, he has activated a macremian gate which is itself driven by the needle-like stucture of the building. Primus will boast about how passing through the gate will enable him to bring back all nine of the (evil) Mentarch, while being able to do away with the three others who stood against the Nine initially, all those millennia ago during the War of the Mind Lords. Primus will then reveal himself to be the host of the essence of Maximus, the First Mentarch and leader of the eight other Mentarchs who sought to enslave all the world during the days of the Lankharh empire! Primus/Maximus will then go on about how Primus found Maximus, and how Maximus concocted the Overlord scheme (yep ... for Maximus, the Overlords were nothing but useful tools and their plan about the Sword Lands were, in the end, essentially a smokescreen to keep them -and nosy adventurers- busy aside from doing his biding). All along, the real plan was to restore the macremian gate and find the power stone to activate it. Maximus then bids you a cryptic "see you today, yesterday and tomorrow" before jumping into the gate, while at the same time unleashing a powerful, god-like mind storm at you. Naryl will jump in front of you, sacrificing her life (and essence) to save you, hoping that you will be able to -somehow- stop Maximus. As Naryl slowly disintegrates, she asks the fateful question: "You may have solved the troubles in the Sword Lands, and you may have survived their war, but can even you escape from the wrath of the Mind Lords?" As the macremian gate powers down, the power stone having been spent, you are left alone to wonder.
Thus concludes the second installment of the Sword Lands Trilogy: War in the Sword Lands.
And there you have it! Where did Maximus/Primus went to? How will this help him bring about the return of the Mentarchs? Were all your travails, your pain and suffering, in vain? Was the game already lost before in even began, back in Trouble in the Sword Lands? So many questions ... and they will all be answered in the third, and last, installment of the Sword Lands Trilogy: Wrath of the Mind Lords! Stay tuned to the same Realmz channel, same Realmz day and same Realmz time!
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