~Dark Queen Of Krynn

Tips and Mini-Walkthru - Corrected by MAGIC


~Part I: Getting Started

Dark Queen of Krynn (or DQK for short) is somewhat atypical for 
a gold box game. In particular, where the usual AD&D product 
pretty much leads you by the nose so you have no trouble staying 
on track, DQK goes in the other direction, not giving you much 
help at all in deciding what to do or where to go next. 
Sometimes, even when you think you know where to visit, nothing 
seems to be happening there (or at least, nothing of much 
importance). 

Also, a number of events are triggered by doing certain things, 
some of them not very obvious. This is especially the case in 
the Tower of Flame, where getting from one level to the next may 
be a frustrating experience. 


In addition, there are several set-ups in the game that you need 
to know about so you can survive the experiences. A lot of 
gratuitous damage gets tossed at your party, and knowing when 
it's coming can help your people stay alive. 

The first thing you need to know about is the nasty bug in 
regard to multi-class characters. Usually, when a character has 
enough points to go up a level, his or her name shows pink on 
the screen. However, the bug prevents this from happening with 
multi-class types. So the character is accumulating points, but 
never seems trainable. 

In fact, that character CAN be trained (if race limits have not 
been reached), even though the name has not changed color. You 
will have to keep track of the experience points for 
multi-classes, and train them when they have enough points for 
the next level. This was more of a problem for dual-class types, 
since my triple-class characters usually got the color change. 

If you are creating a party from scratch (instead of bringing 
one over from Death Knights, which is better than making a new 
one), you don't want Silvanesti Elves unless you plan on 
bringing them in as single-class mages, clerics, or rangers, or 
as multi-class in those professions. Those are the only ones 
they can max out (unlimited advancement) in; as plain fighters, 
they will get only up to level 10, which is not really very good 
for this game. You want at least level 14 fighters, to get that 
double hit per round. For the usual F/Mu combination, Qualinesti 
elves are the better choice. 

My own party consisted of one human knight, 3 F/Mu's (two red 
mages, one white mage), and two triple class F/Cleric/Mu's (both 
white mages). So everyone could fight, and everyone could also 
cast spells. The knight (of the rose) was especially important, 
since having him in the party let me control the various NPC's 
who joined us for varying periods of time. 


Of course, the triple-class guys went up slower than anyone 
else, but they were still worth having. You are going to need a 
lot of magic, and also a lot of healing, to get through this 
game....and there will be times when you can't sit encamped and 
fix everyone up; you'll need individual healing spells. The more 
you have, the better. 

I went through DQK at the novice level, mainly because I found 
out about the training bug too late to do anything (we were in 
the Tower of Fire by then), so for most of the play, I was under 
the impression my mages were never going to go up in level. With 
mages of only 13th-15th level, I figured we needed some sort of 
advantage. Even with that, many of the combats, especially with 
enchanted Draconians, were hard. 

While you now know about the bug, and won't be stuck like I was, 
you may still want to lower the difficulty level, especially in 
certain areas like the Tower of Fire, where there are several 
tough encounters with Draconians and others. In addition, you 
will find that low armor class (-10 or lower) is not as good 
protection against hits as you might expect. Your party will be 
absorbing a lot of damage throughout the game, one way or 
another. 


Money isn't of much use in DQK. After awhile, there isn't any 
reason to pick up the steel, gems, and jewels that are offered 
after a combat. The only things you need money for are (a) 
getting items identified and (b) buying passes at Hawkbluff. The 
inns are free, training is free, and equipment offered for sale 
is mainly mundane stuff you don't want to bother with. So don't 
weigh yourself down with a lot of useless treasure. 

If you are bringing a team over from Death Knights, you may be a 
little short of magic arrows. There was only one place in DQK I 
could find to buy arrows, and they were a bit expensive (15,000 
for ten +2 arrows)....and that was well along, when we were in 
the Gnome tower on the Burning Sea. If you need arrows(or good 
bows, or both), the simplest thing to do is play the old game of 
"Muggee". 

Create several fighters (stats, name, etc are irrelevant). They 
all come with +2 composite bows and 40 +2 arrows. Bring them 
into the group, trade off what you want, and then dump them. 
This is about the only way you'll get magic arrows in the game 
(there is a place where you can get some +4's, but not many, and 
only once). 

As usual, the best stuff comes after combat. However, you'll 
notice that many of your opponents only carry mundane items, or 
no items, just some gems, jewels, and/or steel. Even the Dark 
Wizards have junk for treasure; you can't even pick up bracers 
from them (which makes me wonder how they got that armor class 
of -1). Accumulating good equipment will be a slow task. 


~Troublesome Critters

DQK features some nasty monsters, many of which can do 
considerable harm to your party. These include Dark Wizards, and 
bombardier Draconians. 

Dark Wizards are high-level (I'd hate to guess how high) mages, 
and they come into combat with all their defensive spells up and 
ready before the fighting even starts. The spells they have in 
effect are Fire Shield (cold), Mirror Image, and Globe of 
Invulnerability. For some time, these guys are going to be a 
pain to kill. 

Mirror Image makes it very hard to target them with arrows. The 
Globe will protect them from the usual damage spells such as Ice 
Storm, Fireball, and Lightning Bolt. Fire Shield will generally 
keep them safe from the Delayed Blast Fireballs (or DBF), and 
bestow double damage on anyone who hits them with a hand weapon. 

One way of handling them in the early going is Cone of Cold. If 
you can get someone close to a Dark Wizard, and have time to get 
off the spell, this will usually kill them, since the Cone is an 
area spell and too high in level to be stopped by the Globe. 

This is tricky, though, since the Wizards tend to lurk in the 
back ranks, where they are hard to reach. Also, THEY throw 
DBF's, and as we all know, the DBF is an instant spell (like 
magic missile). One of those, and your party could be in bad 
shape (not to mention, unable to cast any spells of their own 
that round). 

Another way to get to them is an arrow barrage. Enough arrows 
will disperse the various mirror images (or you may even get 
lucky on a shot and hit him in spite of the duplicates). Once 
the images are gone, he is a sitting duck for arrows. 

The last, and best, way won't be available for awhile. When you 
get a white mage high enough, have him (or her) learn Power Word 
Kill (for some reason, this choice only shows for white mages). 
Power Word Kill is an instantaneous spell, and it works first 
time, every time. One of these, and you won't have any more 
trouble with Mr. Wizard. You will have to get fairly close to 
use it, since the range is only 1 square for every four 
experience levels of your mage (ie, a 15th level mage can only 
toss it about 3 squares away). 

The other problem comes from the Enchanted Draconians, which 
have been put in the game to make your life much more difficult. 
Not only do Auraks blow up when they die, so do Sivaks, Kapaks, 
and Bozaks. Of these, the Bozaks (which I always thought of as 
Bozos) are the worst. I cringed whenever these guys showed up in 
combat. 

First, Bozos have a Fire Shield up, so you don't want to hit 
them with hand weapons. Second, they can cast spells. Third, and 
worst of all, the damage they do when they explode can reach 20 
or more hit points, and there is no protection against it. You 
just have to sit there and take the pain, hoping the guys won't 
go down. Bozos can be a serious threat when several are in the 
enemy party at one time. 

Sometimes, if you have a high-level mage, a DBF will get through 
the Fire Shield and possibly knock them out. However, between 
the shield and their own natural magic resistance, this doesn't 
happen too often. All you can really try to do is put them down 
with arrows before they get close enough to damage the party. 

Sivaks blow up like a Meteor Swarm, but the damage they do is 
generally not more than 5-10 points per shot (at least, that's 
what it was when people had rings of Fire Resistance or were 
under a Resist Fire spell). They can, however, get the same 
people more than once if the area is crowded. Still, since they 
have no other special powers and can't cast spells, they are not 
as dangerous, overall, as the Bozos. 

Kapaks splatter into acid puddles when they die. The direction 
of the splatters is random, and the acid itself generally does 
somewhere between 1-5 points of damage. The Kapaks are therefore 
the least dangerous of the "bombardier Draconians". 

Auraks, enchanted or otherwise, are always dangerous. Properly 
handled, though, they can be less of a problem than the other 
critters. Auraks need to be put down twice. In their natural 
state, they can cast spells (and enchanted Auraks are especially 
fond of DBF), so you want to bring them down into their berserk 
state as soon as you can. 

In this form, they can attack, but do not cast spells. When they 
go down a second time, they enter the energy form. In this 
state, they are stationary menaces, incapable of movement or 
attacking, except they have a magical zap that can hit an 
adjacent character. The zap of the enchanted Aurak is quite 
damaging, so you don't want anyone standing next to it for very 
long. You especially don't want anyone standing next to the 
enchanted variety when it blows up, because that's 16d8 damage. 
My rose knight got caught in such a blast once, and he took 80 
hp's damage. Fortunately, he had most of his hp's at the time, 
so he was still living after that. 

The regular Auraks have a natural invisibility that prevents 
them from being targeted by spells or arrows until after they 
have made their attack for the round. On the other hand, these 
Auraks are more susceptible to DBF, so if you can get one or two 
off near them, you may not even have to worry much about them 
for the rest of the combat. Also, any mages with Detect 
Invisibility active will be able to target the Auraks for spells 
or missiles. 

Enchanted Auraks do not have this invisible ability (at least, 
we were always able to target them). However, they are much more 
likely to resist any spells cast against them (you do get 
through from time to time). Arrows and melee weapons are 
generally the best way to deal with enchanted Auraks. 


~Part II: Taladas


~Caergoth and The Caves

When the game begins, you are in Palanthas. The first thing to 
do is go to the inn and memorize spells (and possibly visit the 
training hall, if you brought your team over from Death 
Knights). The shop has nothing of interest (all mundane items), 
and you aren't likely to need the services of the temple. 

After your meeting with the general, you hustle along 
automatically to Caergoth, which is in pretty sad shape, having 
just been blasted to rubble by dragons. You'll have one 
encounter with a few dragons here. Then you can go to the boat 
at the end of the dock. 

This vessel is run by Captain Daenor (a paladin, of all 
things!). Ship out with him, and before long you're on the trail 
of a bunch of nasty Draconians. You'll have to track them 
through the caves, with several tough encounters along the way. 

Fixing on the upper level of the cave is hard to accomplish, as 
you're likely to be interrupted by Draconian patrols. I did find 
it possible to rest and renew spells by encamping just inside 
the cave entrance. When you get to the lower level (where the 
Umber Hulks and other delights abound), fixing is usually 
possible, although getting spells back is chancy. That's another 
reason to make sure you have a full slate of spells before you 
start on this little jaunt. 

There's nothing tricky about the caves; it's a straightforward 
matter of mapping and combat. At the end, Crysia will get away, 
but you'll see her again much later. 


~Naulidis

There's nothing like a shipwreck to make life interesting, and a 
storm at sea sinks the Silver Shark. Fortunately, your party is 
saved by Sea Elves, who put a spell on everyone to allow them to 
breathe underwater. Unfortunately, it doesn't help with 
movement. Underwater, your team will not have a very good 
movement rate, except for whoever equips the Ring Of Free Action 
(if you have a dragonlance in the party, give the ring to 
whoever has the lance). 

The Elves are currently having some problems with Sea Dragons, 
who are rampaging through the city. While this is going on, 
you'll be asked to do little errands and good deeds by the 
populace (once you find your way to one of the two safe halls). 

In the safe halls, you can rest up and memorize spells. During 
this part of the game, you may want to dump your regular 
fireball spells, and load up on lightning bolts instead. 
Underwater, fireballs aren't much use (heh). The lightning 
bolts, however, will work, although not in the usual fashion. 
Instead of zipping off in a straight line, they explode, 
covering an area similar to that of an ice storm, but doing 
regular electrical damage. 


After awhile, you find out that the dragons are rampaging 
because the evil Sauhaugin stole their eggs. So of course you 
have to go and get them (isn't that what heroes are for?). Be 
careful in the tunnel linking Naulidus with Celanost, as you'll 
have a couple of encounters there with sea critters. 


Eventually, you'll make it to Celanost and the air shaft. 
Explore the rooms above carefully. When you come to one that 
appears to have treasure in it, camp out and put Resist Fire 
(and Fire Shield, for those who have it) on the party. As you 
move around this room, you'll have an encounter, and a Dark 
Wizard will be among the enemies. 

Beyond this room, you'll find the place where the eggs are 
stored. Whoever dives down and brings up one or more eggs gets 
experience, so send down whoever needs the points most. That 
takes care of Celanost, and you can head back to Naulidus when 
you have all the eggs. 

Near the entry to Naulidus is one encounter with Sauhaugin, 
followed by a meeting with a horde of sea dragons. Just hand the 
eggs over to the dragons, and they will depart in peace. 

Of course, you aren't quite done yet. After you are escorted by 
the Elves to the prince's private chambers, you may want to camp 
and save the game. Fixing and/or resting won't be possible, 
because Prince Talhook and his merry band have set up an ambush 
in this room. "Looking" will trigger the encounter, which is the 
conclusion of the Naulidus portion of the game. When the 
fighting is over, you'll get a dragonlance (a handy weapon to 
have). 

 
~Hizden and the Lighthouse

Hizden is also straightforward. Talk to Ezra, rest up at the 
inn, save the town from marauding Sauhaugin, train if you need 
to, etc. Then make your way to the lighthouse. 

This is certainly one of the meaner parts of the game. There are 
few things as frustrating as fighting your way up eleven levels, 
past enormous spiders, Beholders, gorgons, iron golems, and 
other dangerous creatures, only to find that nothing - nothing 
at all - will open the door at the top. The only reason you 
might want to go as far as the tenth level is to find the dying 
Elf woman, who has bracers AC 2 and a couple of other items. 

The real way to the top is to walk around until you find a 
poorly-concealed pit in the the floor and drop through it. This 
lands you on a mound of garbage (doing damage, too, of course). 
Then you fight a veritable army of Greater Otyughs, purple 
worms, and such like. There are a LOT of these critters, but 
fortunately your DBF's will work wonders here, and you should be 
able to clean out the monsters in short order. 

Once they've been dispatched, climb up the garbage pile to a 
small, enclosed level. Turn on Search and do a little mapping. 
You will find a false wall with a teleporter behind it. This 
teleporter will send you back to the main level, not too far 
from the door out. Mark that on your map, turn off search, and 
then start walking into walls. You do that because there is a 
*second* teleporter in this area, and the false wall that covers 
it will NOT show up when you have search active; you can only 
find it by walking through the wall. This second teleporter will 
send you to the top where you can talk to Fastillion, and get 
the two crypt keys. That's all you need to do here, and then you 
can use the teleporters to get out again. 


~Kristophan

This lovely place is under the domination of minotaurs. The 
minotaurs are big and tough, and ready to pound you anytime you 
get out of line. I never found a way into the palaces of either 
the king or queen, and suspect that they're there just for show. 
However, if you want to start a fight to earn some experience 
points, you can try entering the queen's palace. Don't do this 
too often, though, or your party will be marked as 
troublemakers, and minotaur patrols in the town will start 
attacking your group from time to time. 

In the eastern (minotaur) half of the city, you will see an old 
minotaur abusing his human slave. If you get involved, your 
party will end up having to fight in the arena (that's the only 
way to get in there, by the way) against some very tough 
minotaur opposition. This encounter does not advance the plot, 
so you can skip it unless you want their armor (all the minotaur 
champs have +2 helms and other gear). 

On the outskirts of the city is the home of Eshalla, who looks 
like a hag but isn't. Be nice to her and she'll tell you her sad 
story. If one of your party volunteers to kiss her (several 
times), she'll be restored to her rightful self. She also falls 
passionately in love with whoever kissed her. This is not as bad 
as it sounds, since she bestows (over several encounters) some 
Neat Things on the party, including a cloak of displacement and 
a helm +3. 

The really important thing about Kristophan is the tombs below 
the city. These can be reached only by having the thief from the 
pub join your party. His joining will trigger the Dragonstrike, 
where you all make a mad dash north to reach the safety of the 
abandoned temple (only the thief can open the way in to the 
temple). 

What you are looking for down here are the five pieces of the 
Oracle. Each piece provides a cryptic clue or hint. You get one 
piece from the spectral minion guarding his wife's cell, another 
from a ghost, a third when you visit the crazy lich's "sideshow" 
(the piece is in Tightrope Walkers; "look" after you have the 
spider combat), a fourth in the tomb of Kristophus ("look" 
around for it), and the fifth after a fight with a very nasty 
bunch of vampires in the caves beyond the tomb. 

In the vampire room are two teleporters. One will send you back 
to the tombs proper. The other, with a warning scrawled in blood 
in front of it, will send you to a maze of pillars and 
teleporters. Many of these pillars are hollow, and have treasure 
chests inside. Most of the treasure is gems and such, but one 
chest has Eyes Of Petrifaction (work like a Flesh to Stone 
spell), and another has the real prize: a belt of cloud giant 
strength. 


The fake walls of the pillars do not show up under Search; you 
just have to try all sides of each pillar (a couple are solid 
and have no way in). There will, of course, be encounters with 
various critters as you make your way around this area. 
Fortunately, they are all "regular" monsters; no Draconians are 
among them. To get out of this place, you will have to find the 
pillar with the teleporter inside it. 


~The Hulder

The Hulder are unfriendly Elves, worse in some ways than those 
of Armach. At least the Armach Elves warn you away from their 
land. The Hulder have the pleasant habit of letting people in 
and then smirking as the unfortunates slowly starve to death. 
Sorry to say, you are going to have to enter Hulder territory. 
By the way, having Elves of your own in the party is no 
advantage here; they're treated as outsiders just like anyone 
else. 

You can find it by going east from Trilloman to the mountains, 
where you enter a cleft in the rocks. In a short time, your 
people will begin taking damage from lack of food (and probably 
some sort of spell effect, since the damage is almost 
continuous; really friendly, those Hulder). 

Camping and fixing will heal up the party temporarily. At each 
camping, you will be approached by the Elf woman Elea. She 
teaches the party some important Hulder words. When you have 
learned all of them thoroughly (ie, when you are told the 
journal entry that has the words and their meanings), head off 
to location 7,11. Looking at the journal entry ahead of time 
won't help; you have to go through the entire routine of hearing 
the words, repeating them back, getting the meanings of them, 
etc., before the Elves appear to talk to you. 

You will also find Tasselhoff Burrfoot as you wander through the 
forest. He joins you temporarily (only for your stay in Hulder 
land). Tass is no better off than you are (he's also starving 
and unable to find a way out), however you need him in your 
party, so you might as well invite him in. 

When you meet the king and queen of the Hulder, you'll notice 
that the king isn't a bad sort, but the queen doesn't like you 
at all. At her instigation, the party is sent to count the 
leaves on the Mother of Trees. Fun stuff. 

The Mother of Trees is due east of 7,11. This is fortunate, 
since you will have to make four trips in all to the tree to 
count the leaves. Tass, having more brains than anyone else in 
the group, will refuse to help count. On each visit, he will 
make a suggestion, such as burning the tree or cutting it down. 
Since your party pledged not to harm any trees, following these 
suggestions is not recommended. 

However, on the fourth visit, Tass will suggest stripping the 
leaves off the tree. Since it's almost autumn and the leaves are 
falling off anyway, this is what you should do. One leaf will 
remain, and that's all you need to tell the king. The rigmarole 
is finally over, and you'll receive some gifts (+4 arrows, a +4 
bow, some nice Elfin chain mail) as well as a ring of deception 
and a dragon scale. This scale will be important later when you 
visit Blackwater Glade. The ring will help you to uncover Auraks 
masquerading as someone else. 

That takes care of the Hulder, and you won't have to visit them 
again. 


~Bai'or

Bai'or, way down in the SE corner of the map, is a city beset by 
dragons and Sharkmen. Talking to the people there will give you 
some idea of what is going on, although no one ever tells you 
exactly why the Sharkmen want all those boats built. 

In any case, what you want to do is find the librarian in the 
secret room of the library. Tell her you can take care of the 
dragons. This will start a riot in the town square (so be 
prepared for combat when you leave). After you polish off the 
Sharkmen, heal and rest up, because a small army of dragons will 
appear when you try to leave town. 

When they've been dispatched, another dragon will show up. This 
one you should talk to; he'll tell you there are good dragons to 
be found in Blackwater Glade. However, don't go running off 
there just yet, because right now you won't be able to find 
them. 


~New Aurim

New Aurim is a vicious town, with bodies all over the place: 
hanging from the walls, lying in the streets, dangling from the 
roofs. Almost makes you wish you were back with the Hulder. At 
least the forest was a clean place. 

You'll find that most people here stay behind locked doors and 
are reluctant to talk to you. This is because temple press gangs 
roam through the city, grabbing people to be made into undead. 
You'll come across one or more of these press gangs as you 
ramble around New Aurim. Defeating them will get you some Thenol 
army uniforms, which come in handy (you only have to fight one 
gang to get the uniforms; further combats are optional on your 
part). 

In one building you will find a man who says he isn't accepting 
petitions today. Your ring of deception will glow, because he's 
actually an enchanted Aurak in disguise. You can fight him (and 
his friends) if you like, but you won't get anything more than 
experience from the encounter: there is nothing of importance to 
be found in the room. 

In the western section is the Quiet Kender tavern, where you can 
talk to the cleric of Myslaxa. He sends you to free everyone in 
the city jail. Since you're wearing the uniforms (you DID put 
them on, I hope!), you can get in easily by pretending you have 
prisoners. Of course, after that, you'll have to fight the bad 
guys. 

Freeing the prisoners requires a thief. Knock spells did not 
work on the cell doors, nor did bashing (even bashing by someone 
wearing the giant belt). I had to create a thief character 
specifically to pick the locks (which he was able to do with no 
trouble at all). 

When you return to the Kender, the cleric will give you a token, 
so that the people behind the locked doors will talk to you. One 
of them will hand you a clay pass to get into the palace. 
Another, across from, and a little south of, the jail, will 
train mages in the party. I found it necessary to use his 
services when some of my mages were ready to go up a level, but 
the regular training hall wouldn't do the job.  

Now that you have the uniforms and the clay pass, you can get 
into the palace by the back door. In one room on this level, 
you'll be asked if you want to take on a special assignment. 
Agree to it and accept the Palace Guard uniforms. The odd thing 
here is that you're told to report to the Draconians upstairs. 
However, the only Draconians up there are guarding the stairs to 
the king, and they want nothing to do with you. 

Be careful up there on the second floor. One of the side doors 
outside the palace leads to the lair of a lich and his undead 
friends. In the NE is a room with some mundane treasure in it; 
this is the lair of some undead dragons who will attack if you 
enter their area. In the same area, but to the east, is a second 
door; approaching it will set off an ambush by undead. 

Where you're really supposed to go is downstairs, via the 
guardpost in the center of the entry level. Showing your clay 
pass will get you past the guards. Down below, you are escorted 
by a small army of Draconians to a big hall, where you are asked 
(ordered would be a better term) to escort some Draconian 
recruits to Hawkbluff. 

This, friends, is a setup. After you and your retinue get back 
upstairs and past the guardpost, you are attacked by Thenolian 
soldiers, who start beating on the Draconians. Actually, these 
are not soldiers but rebels. The setup is that no matter what 
you do, all the recruits are going to be killed. It doesn't 
matter if you fight the rebels, run, or wait, the result will be 
the same. How nice. 

Sometime after this, you will meet Grunschka, a female Dwarven 
fighter. She's good to have in the party (not the treacherous 
type), except that her armor class is pretty awful. Do what you 
can to get her better stuff as the game progresses (she will 
stay with you right up through the end game, so it's worth the 
effort). You should also get her a bow and arrows. While she 
comes with a crossbow, that weapon only gets off one shot per 
round, where the bows get off two per round. Since there are 
occasions where arrows may be lifesavers (and I don't mean 
candy), everyone who can use one should have a bow. 

Now that you've lost your recruits and met Grunschka, you will 
be able to get up to the king's level. When you go to the 
Draconian guard post on the second floor, the urchin seller will 
be there. One of his critters slips through the gates, and the 
Draconians open it for the seller to go after it. This gives 
your party the chance to also slip through and nip upstairs to 
visit the queen (the king isn't worth seeing). 

The queen turns out to be working with the rebels. She gives you 
a signet ring and tells you to show it to the jeweler in 
Hawkbluff. Then she tells you about the secret passage behind 
the fire place that will take you down below the palace. Use 
those stairs to get down to the area where you received your 
recruit assignment. You can skip the crypts on the lowest level, 
as there isn't really anything worth taking down there. 

In the temple, you will have several fights with Draconians, but 
some of them will escape with the dragon eggs. Further 
explorations down here will lead you to one room with a lone 
cleric, and another with Trandamere himself. Unfortunately, 
Trandamere will escape (while his loyal friends try to kill 
you). All you can do now is follow the trail to the next town. 


~Hawkbluff

This place isn't any cheerier than New Aurim, but at least there 
aren't any bodies in the streets. The inn is a safe place to 
rest and renew spells if you need to do that before attempting 
the dungeons. 

Actually, there is only one dungeon here, with three entrances: 
the military offices to the north and west, and the temple of 
Hith to the east. Each of these requires a different pass for 
you to get in, and once inside, you will come across guard posts 
on all the levels that require other passes. You cannot get by a 
guard post unless you have the necessary pass. 

The Outer Temple of Hith does not, however, lead to the rest of 
the dungeon. When you go up, you end in the room of a lone 
cleric. Killing him provides a keyhole pass, but the other door 
in the room is "securely locked", and you aren't even given a 
chance to open it. 

While you will need to buy several passes, you can also pick up 
a couple of free ones. On level 2, there is an empty room in the 
functionaries area where you can grab a lantern pass and a 
release form for Davik the architect. Also on this level is a 
room with a man who asks if he can help you. Saying "yes" nets 
you a sword pass. 

In most of your wanderings around the dungeon, you won't be 
bothered unless you start trouble, so take advantage of this to 
map thoroughly and carefully. Once you have the place mapped 
out, you can go downstairs to the cells and get Davik. He 
doesn't show up in the party roster, but he's with you. 

As the architect, he knows all about the secret passages and 
doors in the dungeon. The only problem with using these passages 
is that from time to time you will run into an undead patrol. 
This is more likely to happen the longer you stay in the secret 
areas, so try to use them sparingly. Camping in these areas is 
not recommended. 

Once you have Davik with you, sooner or later the real guards 
will come for him, and when they see he's gone, the alert will 
go out. After that, you can expect encounters at any guardpost 
and also randomly on the levels (these random encounters will, 
however, temporarily clear out any nearby guardpost). 

If you do manage to get out before they seal the doors, you 
should leave Hawkbluff, which will remove Davik from the party. 
This goes on under the surface; you don't get any message that 
he isn't with you any longer. If you didn't cause any other 
trouble while in the dungeon (such as fighting with any clerics 
or Draconians in the rooms), you should be able to get back in 
and walk around without having to fight. 

You may wonder just why you're in here in the first place. 
That's easy: you want the Book of Amrocar. Once you have the 
book, you will be able to get into Tremor's lair in Blackwater 
Glade. Without the book, you don't have a chance. Currently, 
this volume is in Trandamere's hands. 

Trandamere can be found on the fourth level, in room at the end 
of the hall west of the generals' lecture room. After the 
expected combat, Trandamere will toss the book into the 
dumbwaiter and take off. It isn't worth following him; all that 
happens is several encounters with guards, ending up with 
Trandamere escaping through a portal that then blows up in your 
face. Far better to hurry down to the kitchens and grab that 
book. 

Since Davik will be with you again, you can take the fast route 
from that room (where you just had the combat) by going through 
the secret door by the torch. This will take you quickly and 
with a minimum of fuss to the kitchens, where you should find 
the book in the dumbwaiter. From there, have Davik lead you to 
the exit (which can now be opened, as the instructions are also 
in the book), and you're out of Hawkbluff, with no need to 
return. 

                       
~Blackwater Glade

This one is pretty quick and simple. Now that you have the book, 
just go through the ruins to Tremor's lair. You may come across 
some Bakali watching another one fight a crocodile 
single-handed. This is their manhood rite. If you don't do 
anything hostile, one member of your party gets to bear witness 
to the Bakali's successful fight. This is a by-the-way thing, 
and doesn't advance the plot. 

You can explore the rest of Blackwater if you want to, but there 
really isn't anything of interest outside of Tremor's lair and 
Clematra's place. If you entered the Glade in need of R&R, stop 
off at her room to heal up and renew spells before going to 
visit Tremor. 

Along the way, you'll run into Baldric the Bard. This is really 
Baldranous the silver dragon in his human guise. Grunschka 
doesn't trust him, but he's really quite harmless. You can take 
him into the party if you want (it will be temporary anyway). 

At Tremor's door, he will meet you in person and demand tribute. 
Whatever you offer will not be acceptable, and Tremor will 
breathe on the party before disappearing into his cave. The word 
to open the door is on the map; just type it in backwards. The 
word is HABO!LJX, type exactly like that!! 

Inside, just keep going until you reach Tremor. You'll learn why 
he and his dragons are such cowards, and what has to be given 
him to restore the dragons' courage (bet you already guessed 
it's that dragon scale you got way back when in Hulder land). 
There is one encounter here with Thenol troops, after which you 
can trade the dragon scale for a Ring of Wizardry. 

Then Tremor has to reassert his authority over an upstart. He 
does this by asking one of your party to put a vorpal sword 
across his neck. Do it gently, and the sword is yours. With all 
this taken care of, Baldric directs you to visit Clematra. 

Usually, you would have a chance to rest there, but that 
opportunity will not arise. Baldric returns with urgent news, 
and before you can say "huh?", the dragons are winging you along 
to the Gnome tower on the Burning Sea. 


~Part III: The Burning Sea


~Gnome Tower

In the Gnome tower you will be reunited with Captain Daenor, who 
is still searching for Crysia, and is willing to rejoin your 
group. Before you go in to see the king, however, take time out 
to fix up the party and save the game. The reasons for these 
precautions will become obvious when you go to kiss the Gnome 
king's hand: your own ring of deception glows, indicating 
(probably to little surprise) that the king is a fake. 

Your party has two combats here, back-to-back: first with a 
small contingent of Gnome thieflords (easily disposed of with 
spells), then with the Aurak and his friends. With that taken 
care of, you must now search the Gnome tower for the real king. 

First, however, you may want to go to the Guest Room level, 
where you can fix up and renew spells at the Sleepy Siren. If 
people are in need of training, there is a training hall on the 
Workshop level, past the pub. The first time you visit the hall, 
you'll have to kill off some Gnome thieves. After that, you 
won't be bothered. 

There is an old crone in one of the rooms on the guest level who 
has some magic items for sale at outrageous prices. However, she 
will also perform the usual item identification services for the 
standard fee of 20 steel. 

Going to different levels is a pain (literally), since you have 
to drop down a shaft (taking damage) before you can go up again. 
Usually, though, you can encamp and fix up right there to take 
care of the injuries. 

As you explore the tower, you will find it is crawling with 
Draconians. They are all over the place, sometimes in disguise 
and sometimes as themselves. Most of these combats are optional; 
if you'd rather, you can skip them and go right to the door that 
leads (eventually) to the Gnome king. 

This is on the guest room level (handy, since you don't have to 
drop down the shaft!). There is one locked door, which can be 
opened with knock or bashing. Beyond is a second door, magically 
charged. One dispel magic will take care of that. 

Past the door is the first encounter, with several Draconians 
and a pair of Dark Wizards. After you win this one, go right 
back to the Sleepy Siren to heal up and renew spells (make sure 
you learn plenty of healing spells), because it's about to get 
VERY nasty. 

Return to the room where you just had the combat. At the far 
door, encamp, cast all the protective spells you can, and save 
the game. When you walk through this door, everyone in the party 
will be hit with spells for anywhere between 15-30 or so points 
of damage. This is another setup; there is no way to avoid the 
damage, even with a Globe of Invulnerability. Everyone is going 
into combat hurt. 

This fight is with more Draconians and a Dark Wizard. When you 
get through this one, don't end combat right away. Heal up your 
people as much as you can, because there's more to come. 

After the treasure screen, you will see the Gnome king come 
running into the room with a cube in his hand, apparently about 
to attack the remaining Draconians. You get several options 
here. Pick whatever you like, because as it was with the 
recruits in New Aurim, your choice means nothing at all: all 
choices lead to combat....and that Gnome King is another fake. 
He tosses the cube at you, and again the party takes damage 
before fighting even starts. This is why you must continue the 
first combat and heal people in the party. 

When this combat is concluded, go back again to the Siren for 
R&R. Once your people are fixed up, you can return to the combat 
rooms and go through the final door. Here you see a teleporter 
that will take you to where the real king is being held. 
Naturally, there is a fight almost as soon as you arrive, 
featuring yet more Draconians (those dragons sure are prolific 
egg layers!). 

After the fight, you will be faced with two kings, one real and 
one fake. I don't know if the choices here are also fake ones 
that lead to the same result; I liked the option to "see who 
bleeds red" too much try anything else (heh). 

This will expose the Aurak, who teleports away before you can do 
anything. After that, you can leave safely with the Gnome king 
through the teleporter in the next room. 

At this point, heal up, renew spells, get any training done, 
roam around looking for combat if party members are near 
level...because once you reach the Tower of Flame, there will be 
no opportunities for training, and not too many for resting and 
regaining spells. And it will be awhile before you get back to 
the Gnome Tower. When you're ready, go down to the entry level 
and meet the king in the windship yards, and you're off. 


~The Tower of Fire

The windship drops you off at the top level of the tower. You 
won't, however, be seeing too much of it this time around. As 
you try to cross the bridge, Crysia appears on the other side. 
Daenor, forgetting all caution, goes charging ahead. Your party 
is given several options, and I'm sure by now you know that 
whatever you choose, the result will be the same: the bridges 
falls and your party with it. 

This puts you on level 0, and you will have to fight your way up 
to get back to level 4 (Daenor mysteriously disappears, and you 
won't see him again until you're almost finished with the 
Tower). Down here are Fire Giants who are constructing huge 
siege machines and the like for the Draconians. Just go through 
the entire level, wiping out all the giants and golems. Then 
take the stairs up to level 1. This is the only time you will be 
able to use stairs to ascend; all the other staircases have been 
sealed off with lava blocks. 

During your journey through the tower, you will occasionally 
find rooms or locations where "look" will tell you the place 
looks defensible, or defensible and out of the way. This usually 
means you can fix up here, and renew spells. That, however, is 
not an absolute. You could still be interrupted by a black 
patrol when you try to heal the party or recover spells. Always 
save before you try to use fix or rest. Those black patrols, by 
the way, only showed up during such occasions; I never ran into 
any while wandering around the tower passages and rooms. 

On level 1 you will have several encounters with Beholders, Fire 
giants, and golems. Aside from clearing them out, you must also 
open the siege port in the SE corner of the level. This will 
admit a contingent of Gnomes into the tower. You are also 
offered the services of six Gnome warriors. I did not consider 
it worthwhile to have them with us. They are 14th-level 
fighters, but come equipped with plate mail, giving them only 6 
moves per round. Also, having six extra people to control was 
too much trouble. It's up to you to decide if you really want 
these extras or not, but if you choose not, you won't be offered 
their services again. 

When the level has been cleared out, go through the lava wall 
into the area inhabited by various fire creatures. Resist Fire 
(ring or spell) will keep your characters from taking damage. 
Alternatively, you could wait for the Gnome bucket brigade to 
make a temporary opening in the wall, but that may take awhile 
to happen. 

Walk around this area until you find the spot where the Gnomes 
are setting up a ladder. Use this ladder to ascend to the next 
level (this is the only way you can get up there). 

On level 2 you will have encounters with Draconians and dragons. 
It is also necessary for your party to clean out the nest of 
evil mages in the NW, just below the cells. One encounter with 
mages will occur when you first enter this area (so be prepared 
with defensive spells). After that, head for the SW corner of 
the area for the big confrontation. 

There are two ways to reach level 3. The first way is to visit 
the cells, and free Elea's mother (behind the barred door at the 
end; all the other cells are empty. You may be able to fix and 
rest up in an empty cell). She'll get you up to three by using 
the mattress from her cell as a trampoline (after which, she 
promptly disappears). The area of 3 that you reach is very 
small, and the only way out is the door to the north. Going 
through it is a one-way trip, as a pit opens behind you when you 
stand on the square in front of the door. 

The other way to reach level 3 is in the flame critter area 
beyond the lava wall. In about the center of this area is a sort 
of elevator that runs between levels 2 and 3. Stepping on the 
platform automatically takes you to the other level. 

On 3 you will have some very tough fights, all in about the same 
area. South of the elevator is the place where Draconians become 
enchanted by bathing in the powerful rays of the Grathanich. 
When you pass through the first archway, you have an encounter 
with Draconian guards. After this is over, find a safe place if 
you can to heal and rest up. 

The second encounter occurs in the font room, which has a skull 
on the back wall. This will be a tough combat with enchanted 
draconians. Again, heal and rest up after the fight. 

The final encounter happens in the area east of the font room, 
where you take on the font master and friends (all Draconians, 
of course). When they've all been wiped out, fix up your party, 
then head for the nearest shaft room. Any one of them will do. 

A windship will come up the shaft and take you aboard. This 
should happen immediately you enter the room. If it doesn't, 
that means you missed an encounter somewhere, and you'll have to 
go looking for it. Since there are only three encounters on 
level 3, the likely place to look is level 2. This happened to 
me, since the first time, I didn't clean out the evil mages down 
there. I wandered around level 3 for a long time (after killing 
off all the Draconians) with nothing happening. Finally I went 
back down and cleared out the wizards. Bingo! That caused the 
windship to make its appearance. Of course, I still had to look 
in the shaft room (I was feeling desperate by this time and 
thinking of jumping down a shaft, just to see if that would make 
a difference). 

When you reach level 4, an interesting scene unfolds in front of 
you. Daenor comes rushing into the room, followed by a small 
horde of Draconians, along with Crysia, who is still in their 
power. Naturally, he comes to a stop at the open pit in the 
floor. No one sees your party, as the windship is floating above 
all this. 

Crysia is ordered to burn Daenor. Your party has the opportunity 
to stop her. The best way is to cast Dispel Magic on Crysia. 
This dissolves the Charm Person spell, and she will abort her 
fireball. Then, while the Draconians are in some confusion, 
attack them. Daenor will join your group automatically (Crysia 
does not take part in the combat). 

When it's over, Daenor escorts Crysia to the windship, but a 
small mishap sends the ship with all aboard up the shaft and out 
of the tower. You will have to go on alone from here. 

Where you are at the moment is where you were way back when you 
first entered the tower. However, this time, the bridge will not 
collapse on you. You should find it in the other pit room (just 
exit and walk around to the other one). 

This will take you to a corridor that has lava wallson both 
sides. Follow the corridor around until you reach the center, 
then go south through the wall. Continue south until you reach 
the end. Here you will have back-to-back combats with a variety 
of monsters, including several Beholders. These are not, 
surprisingly, as bad as you may be expecting (although, of 
course, not exactly easy ;). 

When the combats are finished, you will be pulled into the 
Abyss. 



~The Abyss

You may recall that way, way back, when you were adventuring in 
Naudilus, there was a moment when Daenor and Crysia were 
mentally in touch with each other. Then someone else looked 
briefly through Crysia's eyes at the party. That someone was 
Raistlin Majere, currently a prisoner in the Abyss. Despite his 
situation, he has managed to summon you here to rescue him. 

The moment you arrive here, camp out, save the game, and do the 
usual R&R to restore hit points and spells. Once you have freed 
Raistlin, you will NOT have the opportunity to do any fixes or 
spell renewals, so get it done now. 

After that, start walking east until you see a wall. Follow it 
around to the door. Inside is a free-standing cube. Three of the 
walls are fake walls and you can walk right through them. Since 
a hard fight is about to happen, I suggest entering the cube 
from either the east or the west to give your party the best 
position possible. 

Inside the cube is Raistlin and the critters that guard him. 
Some are Draconians. Others are not. Things are not what they 
seem in the Abyss, and while these other creatures look like one 
thing, they are really something else. For instance, the white 
dragon is actually a death dragon. The Disliki are actually fire 
minions. You can find out what things are by targeting them. The 
Draconians, though, are real Draconians. 

This fight will be tough because magic is damped in this room, 
so spells don't work. Of course, that means the Draconians can't 
cast spells either, but with several enchanted Bozaks and Sivaks 
around, that hardly matters. Try to get at least some of the 
Bozaks down before they get too close to your group. 

When it's over, you can free Raistlin and be on your way to the 
chambers of Takhisis. Do NOT try to fix up the party from this 
point on. Every time you try, you will be attacked by several 
Dark Wizards (who look like skeletal warriors), and your people 
are not likely to survive all those DBF's. 

Takhisis is further east of where you pick up Rasitlin. Camp out 
in front of the door, and heal up everyone in the party with 
individual healing spells. Try to get everyone back up to 
maximum or as close as possible. 

When you enter, Takhisis is doing some business of her own and 
won't notice you. Since she's a god, I do not recommend trying 
to attack. Instead, sneak around her (going to the left worked 
for me) until you come to the cloudy mirror. This is the portal 
back to the Tower of Fire. 

You can't use the portal until it becomes clear, so just wait 
awhile. Rasitlin will throw a rock at the bell and miss. Pick 
someone with good dex to make the next try. When Takhisis wakes 
from her trance, move towards the portal (or you'll take some 
damage, which you can't afford). 

Then she'll become aware of you, and she and Rasitlin will start 
their magical duel. Don't get involved in this; these two are 
well above any magical abilities you have. Just keep waiting 
until the mirror is clear. You will take some damage while you 
wait; this can't be avoided. When the bell goes off, jump 
through the portal. 


~Tower of Fire Redux

So now you're back on level 4. Around you are Gnomes, kneeling 
before the tripod that contains the legendary Grathanich. DO NOT 
investigate that tripod just yet. Camp and save the game!! You 
won't have a chance to fix up the party, so if you have any 
healing spells left, use them now. Also use any protective 
spells, as well as any scrolls of protection from Dragon Breath. 

Okay, now you can send someone up to look at the tripod. What's 
in there is an egg (the Grathanich is below it). The egg will 
hatch, and something REALLY mean comes out. Can you say Tiamat? 
I knew you could. For those unacquainted with the AD&D monsters, 
Tiamat is the chromatic dragon of five heads: green, blue, red, 
white, and black, each corresponding to that type of dragon, 
with that dragon's abilities. Tiamat will go first in the 
opening round. 

Don't even think of going after the body. With an AC of -40, you 
aren't going to hit it. Just go after the heads. You have to 
kill all five of them to kill Tiamat. Even with dragonlances, it 
will not be an easy task. 

Now, you may think this was the big ending battle. Nope. There 
is more to come. While the Gnomes watch, the Grathanich floats 
out of the tripod, then sinks through the floor. They all go 
running after it, leaving you alone. This is a good time to fix 
up the party (I hope they all survived Tiamat). 

What you have to do is find the Grathanich. I spent a lot of 
time wandering through the tower, looking for this thing. As it 
turns out, the big action occurs down on level 2, in or near the 
dark wizard area, so that's where you should head (the Gnomes 
have forced openings in the sealed stairways, so you can now use 
them to go between levels). 

Along the way, you will come across a pair of Draconians who ask 
for a parley. They set up a mirror so you can communicate with 
Takhisis (she won the fight with Raistlin). It doesn't matter 
what you do here, since you'll have a combat with Draconians and 
others. Rest up afterwards. 

Finally, you get down to where the action is taking place. An 
odd contraption is slowly enclosing the Grathanich. Draconians 
and dragons are all around to keep interlopers (like you) from 
interfering. Naturally, you have to interfere, to the tune of 
two or three (I lost count) back-to-back combats with the evil 
hordes. 

In the midst of all this, a windship arrives and tries tipping 
the iron flower (which has enclosed the Grathanich) into the 
depths of the earth. A line becomes snarled, and one of your 
party has one chance to free it before the windship is dragged 
down with the flower. As usual, I picked one of the Elves (that 
19 dex is so useful) to do the job. 

The remaining evil critters are then trashed by Takhisis, who is 
slightly less than thrilled by the failure of her minions. After 
this, you can board the windship for the trip back to the Gnome 
tower. 


~Gnome Tower Redux

Once back among the Gnomes, get your people healed up, rested, 
and trained as necessary. You will be pleased to know that the 
regular elevator is now working again, so won't have to drop 
through the shaft to get around. 

When your party is fit and ready, head up to the palace for the 
big celebrations. In the middle of all the fun and joy, there 
comes a rude interruption. 

Remember Tremor? Well, now that he has his courage back, and the 
Draconians have been defeated, he has decided to take over, 
starting with the Gnome tower. Then Baldric shows up, assumes 
his regular dragon form, and he and Tremor duke it out in the 
skies above the tower...leaving your merry group to take on the 
small army of dragons that Tremor brought with him. 

After all you've been through to this point, the dragons should 
be a piece of cake, especially since you can really go to town 
with your spells. When it's over, you can watch the conclusion 
of the Tremor-Baldranous event, where Baldranous rips the iron 
scale from Tremor's chest, depriving him once again of his 
intestinal fortitude. Tremor and the remainder of his dragon 
horde slink off into the sunset. 

That finishes up Dark Queen, although you are still able to 
wander around, and even go back to Taladas if you wish. 
Unfortunately, I didn't find any special areas that opened up at 
the end, and you still can't get into the lands of the Armach 
Elves. Hawkbluff is deserted, with the dungeon entrances shut 
off. New Aurim is closed, period. Kristophan is still under the 
minotaurs. Etc. If anyone does happen to chance upon something 
special that appears after the finale, please let me know. 


~Uploaded to the Cheet Sheets BBS.
