4.0 SPECIFIC QUESTS AND ENCOUNTERS

4.1 Refugees and Pilgrims

C. Michel Boucher: Travelling pilgrims and displaced villagers can be assisted with gifts of money and clothing or by accompanying the former to their destination. This latter action is not necessary if you donate a few groschen. Any of these actions may increase your virtue.

4.2 Hermits

C. Michel Boucher: If you're able to engage the virtuous hermit, he will give you news and/or instructions in a saint.

4.3 Travelling Alchemists

C. Michel Boucher: Alchemists offer or demand exchanges of potions. If you encounter an aggressive alchemist and defeat him and his retinue in combat, you will be able to keep the potions you find on him. You can freely refuse exchanges with non-aggressive alchemists.

Alexander von Lünen: When engaging the aggressive alchemist, be sure you can take on his guards. Neither his guards nor the alchemist himself is a guy to take a Sunday afternoon walk with, if you know what that means. I mean, to defeat them in battle, your fighting skills should be on the same level you would need to wipe out Raubritters and their bandits.

Gui Terence Ang adds:

If you trade with the wandering friendly alchemist, it appears that you can trade the same object indefinitely, because it never actually leaves your inventory. You can therefore pick up a lot of useful potions early on in the game at no real cost.

Myles Martinez: Whenever I deal with an enemy with alchemical capabilities, I try to find cover behind walls or trees. If your party is able to quickly find cover, the enemy forgets about throwing potions and decides to attack the party with melee weapons. When the enemy starts walking toward your party, your characters are free to leave the cover and engage the enemy party in open combat without fear of getting bombed on with Breath of Death or Sunburst potions.

4.4 Merchants

It's been said that commerce drives the engine of growth. The same was true 600 years ago. If you come across travelling merchants, one of two things may happen:

• They're disguised bandits that will attack you when you approach them about buying or selling
• They're friendly and offer to buy or sell goods

For the hostile bandits, you can only fight them off. By the time they reveal their intents, you're plunged into battle. The friendly merchants, on the other hand, will buy any or your wares, sell you some of theirs, or even agree to travel with you to a nearby city (thus ensuring safety for the sojourn).

4.5 Knight enroute to Jousting Tournament

Dennis Ahr: Do you want to beat that knight who challenges you to a joust or ride? Pray to Christoph (31) or George (23), defeat the knight, and increase your reputation.

4.6 Extortion by Nobles and Clergy

C. Michel Boucher: Bishops, noblemen and hermits may make demands upon your purse. Refusal to pay the price (or appropriately argue your case) and engaging them in combat results in a loss of Virtue, as a sign that this sort of action is not tolerated in 15th century Germany. Do not try to attack the abode of a just lord.

Alexander von Lünen: When encountering noblemen and clergymen on the road, always try to convince them to leave you alone. Assuming you have Speak Common skills of 50+, this will work in most cases. If not, pay the tithe. Never attempt to kill them! Not only will this decrease your virtue level, it will decrease your local reputation; for example, if near a town it would make your popularity score go down from about zero (unknown) to approx. -7 down to -14 (suspected). This would it make nearly impossible to enter this town by normal ways. Trouble with the town guards would be omnipresent.

Myles Martinez: If your party is fortunate enough to own Superb Horses and have enough skill in riding, you have a good chance of outrunning the armed guard. Even if your party doesn't have the skill, this is one of the surest ways to increase riding skill. Be careful, though...if you fail to escape, the guards will extort a much greater amount than originally demanded.

In dealing with Dominican extortionists, there's no way to get around paying without knowledge of Saint Godfrey or Saint Dominic. Outright refusal to pay results in a curse on one or more members of your party permanently losing strength. This is, as the French say, "not good".

4.7 Recovering Items

Building collections has always been a favorite past-time of the wealthy. Be it Jay Leno with his cars and motorcycles or the local Fugger and his rare antiquities. Lesser bounties during negotiations with Fuggers, Medici, or Hansards usually points to a retreival-type quest. You're given the basics of the commission: the item of import, a bit of background, and last-known location.

C. Michel Boucher: You may be asked to recover an item stolen by a business rival in another town. You must travel to the town, seek out a secluded grove, wait for nightfall, then another hour, and exit by a side street. Go to the market area, sneak into the market building and find the appropriate office. The game then lets you decide to use your character most competent in artifice to unlock the door. If you feel this is possible (a Hanse [see C5, below] will always have enough skill), you will likely succeed. Otherwise, you will need to use alchemy and the noise means you stand a good chance of alerting the night watch. Your escape from the town will then be difficult and you will not likely have the item. Return to this town will be difficult to impossible as the watch will recognize you.

Dennis Ahr: Some of you may disagree, but I make it practice never to recover stolen items. The risk is too great, the rewards are too small, and the distances involved are sometimes great indeed.

C. Michel Boucher: When assigned the task of retrieving an item from a crypt, your party needs to use a potion of Transformation with which you can get the crown and avoid combat. If you just take it, you will never escape the tomb with the crown in your possession.

4.8 Raubritters

When offering your party's services to potential sponsors, you may be offered between 12 and 40 florins. Expect some mercenary work.

C. Michel Boucher: In the easy setting, raubritters can usually be approached in a friendly manner. Once at the table, you should request to stay the night, then sneak out to try to catch the raubritter alone. More often than not, this will work and you will be able to defeat him, being four or five to his one. As this method will sometimes result in having to fight your way through the castle, you should save before entering into contact with the raubritter even if you insist on the easy way. Once the group has been given a raubritter to terminate, other towns in the area may also give the group the same job. If the group is lucky, it can pick up a good deal of money by checking around various towns for the same raubritter job. I have always felt that the game had some intelligence about when to first offer the group a raubritter to handle (at least on standard and expert levels); that is, if the group is offered this type job, then in principle, they are ready to do the deed if they are careful.

Alexander von Lünen: The easy way has been described above. But, assuming your characters are strong enough (I'd say, having a weapon level above 65, assuming you're using the pre-generated characters, with people of greater strength and/or endurance this might work much sooner) and owning kinds of missile weapons, the most money-providing way is to lay siege up on the castle. This lets you engage up to four parties of bandits and the Raubritter and some companions eventually. Taking all their stuff and selling it in town makes you much wealthier.

4.9 Mines and Knockers

Alexander von Lünen: This is an essential piece of the whole game and the appearance of knockers can be found by looking for rumours in city squares. You will usually be told there is a particular mine with problems. Travel to the mine. By the time you get there, the problem might have dissipated, but usually you will be offered the job of cleaning out the mine of whatever infestation there is. The opposition in the mines isn't too hard, but still considerable. However, the party can gain quite a bit of weapons skill, money, and reputation. There are three different problems in mines.

1. Trouble with raising the dead - Undead folks have taken over the mine and the dwarves, who once co-existed in a friendly manner with humans, have driven out the miners in order to have a new home. Help the dwarves and kill the undead. You have to go through a couple of levels facing skeletons which are serious enemies. This is perhaps the hardest of all three different tasks in the mines. You have to go deep in the mine; first you will recover a holy relic captured by the undead people, then you'll face the gateway of the dead, which they're using to get into this world. I managed that by locking the gateway using the artifice skill of the party-member who's best at this.
2. Uprising Dwarven King - There's a rebellious dwarven king and he has frightened away the miners. After meeting him, he offers you a reward if you leave him alone. Don't agree and he will flee. Follow his trail into the mine. He has a helmet that makes him invisible. When facing him in his throne room, try to shoot the helmet out of his hand. This could take several attempts and after every failed one you have to fight the dwarven-king's guard, but keep trying. There was that problem reported by russel@redash.qut.edu.au, concerning the strange fact that after you've found the crown jewels of the dwarf you can't go any deeper into the mines. I haven't figured this out either--any hints are appreciated. Another thing is that you merely 'find' the jewels but you can't take 'em with you.
   C. Michel Boucher: The same thing will occur in tombs where you retrieve the ancient crown (or some other thing). If you take it, you will not escape the tomb with the crown. On the other hand, if you use a potion of Transformation, you can get the crown and avoid combat.
3. War between Dwarves and Kobolds - A war between Kobolds and Dwarves has forced out the miners. You are asked by the Kobolds to aid them. You can either agree and fight the dwarves or deny and fight the kobolds. Or you can even fight both parties. However, you must defeat at least one of them to accomplish the mission. To be honest, I always choose the first option and supported the Kobolds. This means a similar gameplay as problem two. Going deep into the mines and finding the leader of the dwarves. Now you have to meet him in battle and kill him. I tried the other choice, which results in a similar tactic. Fighting the kobolds will let you engage them in battle, they're a bit easier to deal with than dwarves. You will have to go deeper in the mines and seek their human leader, an alchemist. Ultimately, it makes no difference fighting kobolds or dwarves, save that dwarves are stronger enemies. If you fight the dwarves, you have to leave out the rusty-red doors, for they are gateways to kobold's domain. If you fight the kobolds, leave the golden doors alone (dwarves domain).

4.10 Solitary Women

C. Michel Boucher: There are two types of solitary women (both have dogs): a female hermit and a bona fide witch. The first one you must leave alone because any attempt to disrupt her will result in loss of Virtue. The second one, however, can be defeated and forced to reveal information about the witches' gatherings.

4.11 Satanic Villages

C. Michel Boucher: Villages are either good or bad. Generally it is possible to tell simply by speaking to the Schultz but the quickest way is to visit the church and go to confession. If the penance required is the sacrifice of a small animal, or while speaking to the priest he mentions two saints that don't exist in the list, you can then leave the church, speak to the Schultz and accuse his village of witchcraft, defeat the villagers in combat and learn the location and date of the next witches' meeting. Note that you may or may not be able to get there on time. If you can't, don't worry, there are quite a few during the year, as many as you will find villages to attack.

4.12 Dragons

Truly, no medieval fantasy game would be complete without a dragon or two to slay. In Darklands, dragons take on the European archetype, as beasts from hell. Slaying a dragon immediately boosts your fame (not only reputation) by quite a bit.

C. Michel Boucher: The only method I have of tracking down dragons methodologically is to narrow down the geographic area by checking rumours in various towns. If it says North, go to another town North of there and see where they suspect it is. If they say West, then change directions, until you vector in on the area (usually heavily wooded or hilly areas, free of habitation). Then you have to go in on foot and trudge through the area for a long time.

Dennis Ahr: If music is turned on and you are near a dragon's lair, you will hear subtle changes in the music. It gets very ominous! It's still hard to find dragons in the countryside.

Myles Martinez: Make sure to note the nearest city while hunting for the legendary beast because tracking it down will almost certainly degrade most of your inventory to unusable levels. You'll definitely want to buy new armor and weapons after a prolonged hunt.

4.13 Wild Hunt

Tales of the Wild Hunt are often whispered in hushed tones by aged adventurers. Despite these tellings, it is doubtful that these accounts have any bearing in reality simply because Wild Hunts have never been known to be turned back. Hell's hunter and their hounds will not be denied their game.

Hunts are called upon your party by witches' councils after hostile actions (attacking a witch's hut or violating a High Sabbat). They will descend upon your travelling party in the nighttime hours. Defeating the Hunt in combat only earns your party a temporary reprieve. It will return.

Alexander von Lünen: You can defeat him in battle rather easily, but he will show up again, until you have found a saint that helps you. On your travel you will meet the Holzfrau, she will tell you the saint. Of course, it's one you won't find in every library.

4.14 High Sabbat

Alexander von Lünen: Taking a witches High Sabbat is harder than you might think, witches and their companions can provide quite a fight! Make sure your stealth and fighting skills are not poor. Don't get involved in too many combats for that might reveal your true intentions and would resuilt in your being banned from the Sabbat. You should go to the feast first. There you say you'll help preparing, but then you convince the people to abolish such cruelties. Then go to the altar, perform a little sabotage and get to a secluded spot to wait for the next day until the ceremony begins. Invoke your sabotage and face the demon. The demon should be easy dealt with, but after that there are two or three waves of witches. And they are quite powerful, the kind you should better not fool around with! After defeating the witches, you've won. Virtue will be increased by one or two for every character of your party.

Dennis Ahr: This is almost a walk-through of a High Sabat. I am assuming that players are in the right place at the right time. Otherwise, the player encounters nothing but burned trees, bad smells, etc.

• The first choice to be made is whether or not to announce your presence to a group of partygoers. The answer is yes -- seek an encounter.
• When the second choice appears, prepare an ambush. Then attack the group and get their clothes.
• Enter the fair. Don the clothes to fool the wolves. Say that Klaus is ill and couldn't come.
• Take each of the activities in turn and try to disrupt them and/or try to convince the people to mend their evil ways. Sometimes you convince them; sometimes you don't.
• Pay attention to names and places when the "Summoning" comes. Then wait for the demon to be called and send him back to never-never land. That's the easy part. The hard part is fighting two or three waves of hooded klansmen and their alchemists. If you succeed, you can look forward to increases in virtue for all party members.

4.15 Great Monastery

Dennis Ahr: Doin' the Fort

Preparation

Prepare your party for the toughest task they will have yet faced in this game. They should be clothed in plate armor or the heaviest armor they can handle without becoming overloaded. It should be high quality, preferably 37 from Nurnburg. The weapons used should be top notch -- 38 quality battleaxes, greatswords, great hammers. Each member should carry some combination of Essence of Grace, Eater Water, and New Wind potions. Firewall and Hardarmor potions can be taken after entering the fortress to aid in maintaining armor quality. Otherwise, your 37 armor will become 05 armor or less when you're done. I have tried carrying extra armor, but it seems to degrade, too. Stone Tar potions come in handy to keep the party from falling into certain traps. Artifice skill should be as high as possible in one member so that the relics present in the fortress can be regained. Saints can be handy here as well in increasing artifice, armor rating, weapon skills, etc.

At this point in the game, my group has relatively high average religion and virtue, and each member has learned at least a few weapons, and that includes the throwing skill. In summary, this task will probably not be possible until at least a few years have passed. The earliest that I have cleaned out the Templars is around 4 years with a group of 25 year-olds on the expert level.

My favorite strategy for group battles involves getting everyone into the fray. I try to line up the party a short distance from a door leading to a battle like so:

            x x x x


------------|     |----------

Then I will send one member to open the door while the others fire into the guards on the other side. They use either potions like stone tar or arabian fire or just javelins (love those javelins). I try to get the member who opened the door back to the group as quickly as possible. I do not like one or two members fighting alone, and this is the way I avoid that circumstance.

Walkthrough (for your reference)

Assuming you have reached Flensburg after opening the seal at a High Sabat, you will find a castle west of this city with a black roof (to distinguish it from a conventional castle). Go to it and enter the Graveyard area.

The first room on YOUR right has a bone (for possible use in getting additional information for defeating the great demon) and a high quality Essence of Grace potion. The second room on your right has 2 high quality New Wind potions.

After retrieving these items, go to the Graveyard on the left. Say aloud one of the names (you should recall the correct name from a High Sabat). A stairway leading down will open on the far left of the Graveyard.

The group will be in a large area with many doors leading to various Nasties. I am going to speak of the nearest two doors on the right of the GROUP as the more important ones. This path will negate the need for the bone.

If the group takes the first door on the lower right, it will find a stairway leading up to another room with three doors. Have the group go to the room on YOUR right. Approach the desk in this room. If your alchemist can handle the reading skill, he will end up with three new formulae. If not, your best reader will end up with the formulae. Of course you have to do the proper thing. It is the most logical thing to do -- "copy the symbols onto the silver paper using the silver ink." Leaving this room for the door in the middle leads to nothing. Opening the door on your left leads to 4 guards and an alchemist. Go ahead -- make their day!

Since you have exhausted the possibilities here, proceed to take the stairway back down to the lower level. Now take the stairway up in the second room on the lower right (after dispatching the guards). The group will be in an area with only one door. When you approach this door, a Templar Guard will ask you for the "Password." The easiest thing is to know the proper password. If you're feeling particularly macho, attack the guard.

In either case, after you get by the guard, you will find yourself in a room with a stairway up and a passage leading off to the lower left. If you want to shorten your stay here in the fortress, take the stairway up to the next level.

Now you will be in a passageway with a locked door in the lower center and another stairway up on the left. Again, for a shorter route to the bad guy, open the locked door (if you can't, pray to a saint to increase your best lock picker's artifice skill or use one of those Eater Water potions that you brought along-- otherwise, it's time to say bye-bye to the fort and increase your artifice skill another way). Passing through the locked door will lead to another passageway with another locked door. Unlocking this door will force the party to proceed down and to the right. There will be a trap here. If one of the party has really high Perception, you may even avoid it. Otherwise, have a Stone Tar handy for escape (other potions work, too). This path will eventually lead to a room with an up staircase.

Taking these stairs leads to a room with a treasure chest, 4 plate armored guards, and a door. One of the party must have high (>50) artifice skill to pick the lock on the chest and retrieve a relic. The best saint for the purpose of increasing artifice skill is Eligius (assuming the member who knows this saint has at least 29 virtue).

When the party is finished in this room, open the door to the next room. Therein lies another chest, six tough guards, and another door. This chest also has a relic if you can pick the lock.

When the party has finished here, open the door to the next room and find a third chest and some even tougher guards. The door in this room must be unlocked. When the party passes through this door, there is nothing in the new room except a couple of gaping holes on the far wall.

Take the party near the far wall to reveal the final room. Here you will encounter the "Great Demonic Form." You may have gotten some hints earlier about how to weaken the demon if you did some additional exploring. The saint, Dymphna, will try to weaken the demon also if you know her.

Finally, make sure you make a note or remember where your ultimate fate lies.

Alexander von Lünen: This is the hardest task in the whole game! Prepare yourself for extremely hard and long fights. Have a lot of Healing potions in your bag. Enter the monastery with five party members only. The fifth member sometimes stays over a year with you, so invest in his education and equipment also. You'll learn about the monastery's location at the witches' sabbath. At the monastery you have to face a lot of Templars which are rather hard-to-deal-with foes. You may sweep through all the rooms, but keeping it down to a minimum works as well. It's no problem to leave out the cellar for example, but if you go there, be sure to take the bone with you, which can be found in one of the guard-houses at the entrance of the monastery. Give the bone to the skeleton and it will tell you a weak point of the demon-lord which you'll face in the upper-level of the monastery. I'm not sure if this weak spot is necessary to defeat the demon, however (it's a Fleadust potion).

C. Michel Boucher: This is the shortest route through the Monastery: Enter the cemetery and speak the name that opens the gate. Go through into the building and go to the second door on the right (bottom). Fight six Templars, go up the stairs, go to the door, give the password (Beelzebub forever), then go to the opening on the left. Take the first door, down the stairs, straight up, right, left, down the stairs, left, then right (down) to get the book which reveals the location of the Citadel of Baphomet. Back up both flights to the large room, right, right, up the stairs. Turn left, then right down to a small red door. Pick the lock, move to the other door, pick the lock, move to the other door, then down. You will encounter a trap here. Successful call to S.Lutgardis will make you float through the air, avoiding the drop to the bottommost dungeon. Move on through to the stairs, go up, fight the knights, get the holy relic from the chest, open the door, fight the zealots, get the holy relic from the chest, open the door, fight the enemies (can't remember what they are), get the holy relic from the chest, open the door, move through the antechamber, fight the Demon Lord. End of the Great Monastery.

4.16 Baphomet

Dennis Ahr: Your ultimate fate lies here in a black-topped castle near Salzburg. You will not be able to enter unless you have closed down the Fortress Monastery and broken the second seal. Of course, the party must have excellent skills, weapons, armor, and varied potions such as Firewall, Essence o' Grace, New Wind, Iron Arm, Thunderbolt, and Sunburst potions. Hm-m. I wonder what those sunburst potions are for? The first area of the castle has some giant gnomes that are easy prey.

The first door on the left leads to the first gate where you must pass through fire and ice to do battle with some demons. I like Firewall potions for defense against the elements. Take the group near to the interesting area on the far side of the area for a surprise.

The second gate leads to a lake of fire. St. Cecilia is the only known way to pass unscathed. Use of a Firewall potion will help, but is not as good as Cecilia. Fighting Vulcans is nasty business. They use missile weapons to decrease your armor quality. Close in for battle as fast as possible and use firewall potions to protect yourselves. Take the party to the shipwreck for some very interesting information.

The third gate leads to a bunch of wild-eyed alchemists. Spread the party so that each member is fighting a different alchemist. Otherwise you will get pounded with their potions. Hopefully your leader is highly perceptive, because now you must run a gauntlet of traps to get the honey prize.

The fourth gate is rather easy and you must merely defeat various groups of skeletons to reach your goal.

The fifth gate leads to hordes of locusts. There are many high quality Essence o' Grace potions here if you want to defeat the locusts in each room. You will eventually reach one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Famine. You must offer something over which he has no power. Pray if you need to.

The sixth gate leads to a hopeless battle with goblins. Either one of your party will suffer permanent damage or all of the party members will suffer some permanent damage. In essence, you will pay a dear price for the prize here, a little goblin sword.

The seventh gate leads to the Great Dragon. The dragon is immune to many battle potions. (I don't know whether we want to divulge the secret here, but Sunburst potions will keep the dragon from launching an all out attack as long as one member keeps firing them at the dragon while the others do battle either directly or with Thunderbolt potions).

Once you bring down the dragon, you will have to face Baphomet himself. Answer his proposal as the legendary heros that you are and then watch and listen to the final animation.

Alexander von Lünen: Once you're ready to take on Baphomet's Residence, you should be well-equipped and well-trained enough to manage this without any trouble. Staying tuned for healing potions, however, won't be a bad idea. Check through all the rooms, starting at the most left door in the entrance hall. Be sure to finish off all the rooms, you'll get a special item at each end. When encountering the Great Dragon, use missile weapons. Alchemical potions are helpful only for defensive purposes (Firewall and Essence o'Grace).

C. Michel Boucher: These are the locations I've been given for the Great Monastery and the Citadel of the Apocalypse:

• Northwest of Flensburg leads to South of Salzburg
• South of Gorlitz leads to South of Pressburg
• Northeast of Graz leads to (don't recall, could be South of Salzburg)

Then, I believe it returns to the first combination.

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