Aralon, Sword and Shadow: The Plan, with various tips and advice.

This page will help you to play Aralon Sword and Shadow, a game by Crescent Moon Games This semi-FAQ is by Tobias D. Robison, June, 2011. I’m also the author of an epic fantasy novel, Raven’s Gift.

Are you spending too much time sitting at your computer? You may be delighted to read my new help-yourself book, Quantum Walking to Fitness, available in all eformats at Smashwords.

This is version 1.1.

Congratulations! You have found a page that will make it easier for you to play Aralon Sword and Shadow. I’m pretty sure I have some advice for you that could not previously be found on the web. I’ve also collected a lot of known information about Aralon into an easy-to-read format.

I will describe the main story line in detail: that is, the quests you're required to do in order to “win”. Before diving into the story line, I have some tips for newbies, and for experienced players, and a suggestion about how to avoid crashes.

Please email comments to me:

tobyr21@gmail.com.

Please include the word aralon on the subject line. I would like to improve this page with your suggestions and corrections. (I will assume you want me to credit you for your improvements, but if you prefer, ask to be anonymous.)

Warning: this page is full of Aralon Spoilers. There are only a few mild spoilers until you get to my detailed discussion of the main quest below. You will find some general spoiler warnings below.

You can wander all over the land of Aralon if you want, and choose your own adventures. But if you accidentally trigger some of the main story line out of order, you may not be able to "win" by defeating Mereficus; you could get blocked (and you may cause the game to crash; I will discuss how to avoid crashes below). So, if you want to win, you should do certain deeds in the correct order. It's not easy to let the game itself lead you to these deeds, because some of them are barely hinted at. That's why I've prepared this guide for you.

It’s really fun just to wander around Aralon, and I enjoyed doing it. But bear this in mind: Some of those caves and dungeons you can clear out would be worth a great deal more if someone offered you a reward to do it. And there are plenty of characters in Aralon offering rewards for quests.

In Brief: Here are the things that I believe you need to do in order, after you are told to do them, to make sure you can perform the whole main story line:

+ At the Red Lion in Taryn Ridge, speak with Sufok

+ Speak with Gorak in the palace.

+ Read about The Temple of Azra in the library.

+ Talk to Vierne in Karn.

+ Visit Drake Island.

+ Visit The Temple of Azra.

+ Rescue Gorak in the dungeon of Valemar.

+ Visit Shadowspire Mines.

+ Enter Shadowspire.

Don’t do the above things out of order on your own. While you are at it: do not kill Sunclaw, Icefang, Darius, Gorak, Vierne, or Lord Valemar, unless asked to do so, or unless you are certain they are no longer needed. You might screw up the main story line.



HOW BUGGY IS ARALON?

If you read comments online, you will find a lot of unhappy customers. I am playing on an iPad2. At first, I think I may have had some crashes, but my experience might be explained by Aralon’s “What the?” effects (see below). When I played the main quest in its proper order, and entered Uthu when told to, I experienced not a single crash. However, I advise you to save often, often, and often. I wish we needed fewer than six screen touches to make each save.

I have a hypothesis about how this game can crash (remember, I’m playing it in June, 2011, and I’m guessing. I hope there will be an improved upgrade): If you enter a cave or dungeon that can be assigned to you as a quest, but you did not get a quest to enter it, you may crash. (But I think there’s no crash danger in entering the easier dungeons on your own.) Please email me about whether my hypothesis works for you. My prime example is the Orc Castle of Uthu:

People have reported crashing when they tried to enter Uthu. I entered it (after repeated crashing attempts) the first time I played Aralon. I ‘saved’ a few times inside Uthu, and and ALL my save files got corrupted, even the ones I had saved before I tried to enter.

BUT NOTE, it’s very different when you enter Uthu as a quest. (Captain Fargus asks you to join his men to attack Uthu. This is his last side-quest.) But even when I did Uthu correctly, the game as unable to load the files I had saved while inside Uthu.

Here is what you are supposed to see at Uthu: You arrive at the fortress, and you may be puzzled, because Fargus asked you to join his troops there, but you see none of his men. Save before you enter! Inside the castle, you will find his soldiers fighting Orcs on the first three or four ground levels. You may have to stand and watch many of these battles. While you are killing the Orcs on these levels, watch your health and energy, because they will recover very slowly until there is no combat anywhere near, above, or below you. Do not bother saving the game inside Uthu, since you will not be able to reload those files. I think.

If you are a software developer, or if you understand game scripting, you may appreciate the mess you create if you enter Uthu without the quest, since there must be many script triggers to make Fargus’s men do battle there. Those triggers may perform some random thing if you enter without Fargus’s quest. I wonder whether the testers for Crescent Moon Games, the wonderful company that made this game, fully tested how the game works when you are wandering about but not properly questing.

In my opinion, the game should make it impossible to enter Uthu without Fargus’s quest, unless the developers really clean up the action there.

REPEATABLE CRASHES:

Currently I know of exactly one:

:: As a rogue, when wearing Helga’s ring: try to use stealth. I crashed repeatedly doing this.



THANKS, and THANKS:

I'm indebted to Aiti1980, the creator of the YouTube videos of the main story line for some of this document. These videos are based on some version of the game available before June 2011, as are my tips and comments. See:

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 1)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 2)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 3)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 4)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 5)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 6)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 7)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 8)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 9)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 10)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 11)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 12)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 13) (fight mereficus)

(Aralon: Sword and shadow. Gameplay full Story Line. Part 14)

I’m greatly indebted to Paradiso, who drew maps online of some of the dungeons (I provide two of his URLs below).

I’m greatly indebted to everyone who asked and answered questions about this game on the web. Think about it: exploring the web to figure out how to play a game is merely an extension of exploring the game itself to figure out how to play the game.

A FEW TIPS FOR NEWBIES (very mild spoilers):

At first, you may be puzzled about why the game offers to ‘link’ something. Linking means that you put the symbol in the rectangle of ten slots on the main adventuring screen. You touch those spots to use the linked item or skill. Many things can only be used when they are linked. You can always rearrange your links, so linking decisions are not a big deal.

At the top left of the screen there are three lines: yellow for health, blue for energy, and green for your progress in getting experience to the next level. Can someone tell me how much experience is required to level up, for every level?

You can examine your inventory and make linking changes in the middle of a fight. Almost nothing happens while you are in your inventory. You can even Save in the middle of a fight.

When you are given a quest whose name is "the plan", that quest is part of the main story line.

Keep Helga's ring. (You can get it from the Og and Ug side quests, if you have the ability to kill them.) Note that you cannot summon a mount while wearing Helga’s ring.

A good way to keep your head in maze-like caverns and big buildings is to always turn right (I think it is slightly less effective to always turn left). However, this strategy alone will not enable you to find all the parts of many caves. And think hard when in multilevel caverns; you may need to make special efforts to clean them out, and to go down or up. Watch for ladders to climb.

Leave some corpses lying around so that you will know when you are retracing your steps.

If a person has a question mark over his head, you can talk to him/her to complete a quest. If they have an exclamation mark, they can be useful to talk to. (Exception: The clueless locals at Timber’s End do not know when to wear a question mark.)

If a quest takes you to a place where the bad guys fight too hard for you, you can always find other places to explore first, to grind up. But try to be imaginative about your resources, because some other method of attack might work. For example, I found one foe invincible until I attacked it (as a mage) with seven low-level fire elemental pets to help me. (You can’t cast multiple simultaneous high-level elemental pets at once, but you can for low level ones.)

There are skills that require 2 to 5 points to fully train. As you add points, the text will tell you the new cost to use them, and the increased value of the skill. Be careful not to “train up” a spell beyond your available energy points to use it. Consider training several skills at low levels rather than training one skill to its highest level. Note that one of the skills you start the game with may not be fully trained, but it will do what the explanation says, and you are linked to it and you can use it. When you train that skill up, it will need more energy and be more powerful, and the numbers in the skill’s explanation will change to reflect that.

After you have learned multiple degrees of the same skill (for example, Judgment 1 and Judgment 2; similar skills share the same icon), consider linking to all of them. You will be able to cast them more rapidly than if you just linked to the higher degree.

If your character is a fighter, you can mostly build up strength and agility, and rely less on skills. Other characters reward a lot of skill use, so you will need lots of energy. I found that playing the Paladin, I was challenged to build up all of my stats (strength, int, etc.) The Paladin gets a skill to add 15 to strength, allowing you to spend fewer points on strength as you level up. The Paladin is most interesting.

Use the "map" command a lot to see whether you have accidentally headed off in the wrong direction. The round black circles on the maps are touch-sensitive! Press them to see the names of the locations. If the arrow on the map says you are exactly at a place, and yet you cannot see that place, then probably you are way above it or below it. While viewing the map, you can ‘wait an hour’ as much as you want. In a few situations, it can be very important to wait. (You cannot ‘wait’ while fighting.)

When you are in a cave (or dungeon or castle), the map does not change to show the trails in the cave. But the map-arrow still shows which way you are going, and its position can give you a relative idea of where in the cave you are.

In order to perform the main line quest, you will have to do a lot of fighting and leveling up. Side-quests help! Some give you a lot of experience.

There are Runes in this game. When you ‘apply’ a rune, you attach it to a piece of the gear you are carrying, and you get the benefit of the rune, such as an increase in energy, or an increase in, say, endurance. I think you can apply two runes to some items (I’m not sure). If an item has reached its maximum in rune effects, then applying a rune also removes the effect of a previous rune. Use runes right away if you need to, or consider saving them to apply to ‘superb’ gear.

You will be tempted to carry an awful lot of stuff in your inventory, “just in case”. There’s a better alternative: for the items you seem not to need now, but may need later: save them in your personal vault in the East Callaheim bank.

The ‘safety’ ring teleports you back to West Callaheim. It is very useful. Don’t forget to use it. Never forget that the safety ring is the quickest way back to Callaheim. It’s also the quickest way to get from East Callaheim to West Callaheim.



ARALON’S “WHAT THE?” EFFECTS:

New players may experience two situations that feel like bugs. I certainly did:

(1) Suddenly you are back in West Callaheim. How did that happen? Here’s how: you have a link to your safety ring, and you accidentally touched it.

(2) You come out of a cave and something attacks you. You respond, and where are you? Why, you’re right back in that cave. How did that happen? Well, your attacker was not close enough to bring up your sword and shield battle icons. You tried to swing your sword, but you only pressed the handle for the cave entrance. Since you are facing away from the cave when you do this, it’s not obvious what you’ve done.



THE GUILDS (spoilers):

You can join all three guilds and do all their quests. After you offer to join and get assigned to a quest, check their guildbox and hope for booty. I think you need to keep only one guild key.

I think the quests from the magic guild are kind of blah.

The Knights guild gives you one biggie: easy entry into the Mansion, worth lots of Exp and Booty.

The Guardians guild gives you one quest that I think is unbalanced within the game: 50,000 exp for killing the King Minotaur. This is a tough quest, but it can be accomplished when you are around level 23 (in Normal game play, not Casual), and you might get THREE levels up for that 50,000.

You may feel that joining more than one guild is not proper role-play. If so, consider being a Paladin, for whom all three guilds are highly appropriate.



MISCELLANEOUS TIPS FOR EVERYONE (the spoilers here are more serious):

Caves, and the mansion, and the ancient vampire, regenerate, creating excellent opportunities to grind up. Actually, I think that you rarely need to “grind” in this game. You only need to look for suitable foes at each stage of your character’s growth, and you will enjoy learning how to do that.

In the old sewers, look for corpses (collections of bones). They are worth plundering.

Mounts (horses, wolves, drakes) are handy for riding fast through familiar places. Mounts make it possible to run past foes and not fight them. The drake mount is good at falling from great heights without injury. If you want to explore or grind up: walk while you to travel, don’t use a mount.

It’s hard to find gear to wear on your head and your shoulders. But Ben’s Pauldrons sells these items.

I prefer to build up my defense as fast as I can, but of course there are other ways to play the game. I use my gold to buy defense whenever I find an item that is much better than what I already have. I think that this is the way to use gold:

:: Early game: upgrade defense.

:: Middle game: buy that 110 power weapon, or some terrific weapon.

:: Late game: apply runes to ‘superb’ gear and buy superb potions.

I’m sure you know that at night there’s a ruffian near the gate from West Callaheim into East Callaheim. I’m not sure at what level it starts happening, but after you kill that ruffian, you will often hear another one around the corner. Rush around there and try to prevent that ruffian from killing a citizen. If you fail, well, you can loot the citizen. You may find more ruffians nearby, or they may find you, so it pays to save before attacking the first ruffian. Ruffians level up after a while, so they are good sport.

It’s important to get a feeling for how many exp you need to get to the next level. I think the game does not tell you, but you can get a pretty good idea by watching how kills and quest exp affect your green line.

Make yourself into a female character, and smile when people address you as 'sire'.

I believe that Dersia is a female troll. Do you agree?

One quick advertisement, and then on to the main story line with all its quests:

Please explore my fantasy novels, my website, and my (occasionally amusing) blog:

:: ravensGift.com

:: Precision Blogging

You can listen to Raven’s Gift, buy the book from Amazon, ask your library to get the book, or read the eText. And I have another novel on the way.

The current version of the page you are now reading is at ravensGift/aralon-sas.html.

:: Tobias D. Robison, Princeton, NJ 08540


AND NOW: THE MAIN STORY-LINE IN GREAT DETAIL (spoilers, spoilers, spoilers):

(I’ve tested my text, but there may be mistakes. As you find them, please report them to me. Thanks.)

The first steps of the main story are obvious. At the Red Lion in Taryn Ridge, speak with Sufok, and he will send you to Darius in West Callaheim. Darius will tell you to speak with Gorak in the palace.

Enter the royal palace in East Callaheim. In the first room, go through the right side door and keep turning right, up, up and up, to the top level where you will find Gorak. He will give you spirit dust, with which to talk to the dead queen. (Keep it! But if you accidentally sell it, go back to Gorak and talk carefully to him, and he will give you more.)

You may have to do side quests for a while, to get strong enough to handle this quest. In the Callaheim sewers, it’s easy to find the door to the Old Tunnels: From East Callaheim, dive into the stream that runs through the city, go downstream to the sewers, then turn left. (Or turn right to find the thieves’ den.) In the old sewers, find the crypt. Save your game often inside the crypt, there are nasty traps that kill you at once unless you pass them at exactly the right moment. You will speak with Queen Eleroh (Iowen) as Gorak requests, and she will tell you that Mereficus is a Demon, not a man. Return and speak with Gorak.

Now go back to Darius in West Callaheim, whether Gorak tells you to do that or not. Hunt through Darius’s responses for the one marked "*the plan". He will send you to the library to find something useful to use against Mereficus. Peruse the library with care, and read everything. (One book will give you the craft to make quality potions.) You can put the books back after reading them, if you want to be very, very lawful. The important book is about The Temple of Azra, and it mentions the Sceptre of Hammara. Back to Darius. Darius will advise you to speak to Vierne in Karn.

Exit Callaheim into the North Kingdom. Go all the way north, to Cold Sands Hold (and Keep). This is a friendly stopover place with terrific traders. But before you trade for them, check out what’s available free inside the keep.

The keep is inside the hold, and that’s where you meet Captain Fargus. The Knights guild gives you an introduction to Fargus. I do not know whether he will talk to you otherwise. When I was a (lawful) rogue, I sometimes had to level up a few times to get quests from Fargus.

DEALING WITH SUNCLAW:

Exit the North gate into the "Outlands". (There are two maps called Outlands. You are now in the tamer outlands west of the Eastern Sea.). Go a short way north, near the sea, to the place that is marked on the map by multiple black dots. This is the town of Karn. There is a drake carcass on the beach (search it!), and an old hulk of a ship in the empty harbor.

NOTE that in the general area around Karn, you can find Yuma plants and collect seeds from them. You will need at least three. Once you've found a Yuma plant, you will easily recognize them. Yuma plants regenerate their seeds. There are at least three Yuma plants, but you can easily get two before you visit Sunclaw, and more from the same plants before you return to Vierne.

Visit Vierne in Karn and learn potion recipes from her. She will mention the Sceptre of Hammara.

Go to the drake's carcass on the beach (if you haven't already) and collect the broken dragon's tooth.

Go west to Sunclaw's lair on the same outlands map. Talk to Sunclaw about his broken tooth and promise to bring him the balm.

Return to Vierne. I recommend bringing one superb healing potion with you. (Or, you can buy it next door to Vierne.) Vierne will teach you how to make the balm, and you can make it in her hut with the 3 yuma seeds and the superb healing potion.

Now, back to Sunclaw. Heal him with the balm. Select Temple of Azra. He will offer to take you to Drake Island, which is off the continent, across the eastern sea. Step outside his lair, and you're off! (Incidentally, if you want, you can swim to Drake Island yourself. Swim a long way, northeast from Karn, and aim for the spot where the distant background changes color.)

When Sunclaw drops you on the island, find the drake nest with the red drake egg. (When you see the nest, you'll know what it is.) Take the egg. Also, find the chest and take the Temple seal. Be careful not to sell the seal, because, apparently, there’s no way to get another one.

Link the egg so you can use it; it calls drake mounts for you. But do not call a mount now; hunt around the island to find Sunclaw, waiting to take you back. He will drop you off at the Temple of Azra, which might be just what you want. (If Sunclaw seems not to be there, swim to Karn and walk to Azra yourself. You will cross two wooden bridges to reach the temple entrance.) Consider doing some sidequests to level up before you face Azra. No need to hurry to get there!

THE TEMPLE OF AZRA:

There are many skeletons to fight in the temple, sometimes three at once. They are worth about 250xp each.

For maps of the temple of Azra, see: Maps of the Temple of Azra

The temple is an enormous place with looong halls. You will spend a lot of time there. Do yourself a favor, and be picky about what loot you add to your inventory.

By the way, if you reach a certain high level, (e.g., I entered the Temple as a Paladin at 35), you get no experience from killing Skeletons. I believe this is a general aspect of the game: you get no exp for killing total pushovers.

Enter the Temple (for which you need the Temple Seal from the chest on drake island). In the temple, find the room where you have to climb down into a sort of maze with fire around it. (From the entrance, go up the stairs and turn left.) The first gateSwitch is in a corner of this room. 'Throw' it. Then climb back up, turn left to go under a now-lifted gate, find a floor that tilts upward, walk across it to throw the other gateSwitch (you will be looking down at that same maze room when you throw it). Now go back down, cross that fiery room and climb up on the other side, Go down a floor that tilts downward (you hear a soft click). Look out for the ball! Three skeletons (you have to fight them all at once) protect a chest that contains a key. Go back the way you came ( you hear a soft click), and cross the fiery maze room. (Helga’s ring makes the fiery maze room easier.)

Keep going away from the maze room, but turn left just before the room where you killed three skeletons to get to the chest. Soon you must decide which way to turn. To your left, three skeletons guard another chest. To your right, the hall leads to an immense wooden gate, which the key unlocks (and you will see pendulums beyond that gate).

The ‘pendulums’ are suspended axes that swing back and forth. You will have to deal with lots of them. If a pendulum hits you, it damages you and knocks you down, but does not necessarily kill you. If you like, try using Helga’s ring to make the Pendulums easier, but I think the developers of this game have outwitted us in this case. I think the key to handling pendulums is figuring out where they are. (Some of them seem a lot larger when you are very close to one.) Also, don’t be a dummy and face them from the middle of the corridor! Try to sneak past the pendulums closer to one end of their swing.

Fight your way across this room with its swinging pendulum axes.

Pass under an archway and open "a door". You are now on the second floor of the temple. Come down the stairs into the room with four great statues. Turn left (there’s a closed gate to your right). Pass one pendulum. To your left, two skeletons protect a chest. To your right is another fiery pit room; you can walk around the edge and up a ramp. You’ll get to a chest, guarded by three skeletons, that has a necessary key. After you get it, go back down the ramp over the fiery pit. Unlock the gate you saw on your right (after you came down the stairs on this temple level).

On you go (there are no path choices) and eventually you will see a hall ahead of you with an immense ball. As you approach it, you will hear a soft click. Get out of the way of the ball! Beyond that, three skeleton fighters guard a chest with the key to the third level.

When you first entered the second temple level, you came down a long staircase into a room with tall statues. Return to that room and go up the other (gated) staircase, to go through the great wooden doors to the temple's third floor (requires the third key). On this floor, the Elite skeleton warriors are worth about 575xp. On this level, try to remember which way you were going when interrupted by combat. You can get really lost here.

As you enter the third floor, go straight ahead (you have to angle a little to the left). When you have to turn, go left and left again. You will find a squat, roundish obelisk, Turn it.

The easiest way for me to tell you how to find the second obelisk is this: retrace your steps to the entrance. Instead of going straight forward away from the entrance door, turn right. You will see a pretty cloth on the wall; turn left there, and immediately right. Follow the hall to the second squat obelisk, that is blueish on top. Turn it.

You must now head back. When you have a choice, turn right (you’ll see a spider web above right at this turn); next, the hall will make you turn right. After that, when you can, turn left, then right, and you are on your way to the very bulky boss.

Eventually you will pass an earthen-colored arch, and some text will advise you: A voice whispers, "Let thy heart guide thee." You can look elsewhere on the web about what this advice means, but here’s a hint: something very similar happens in Rimelands. (Alternatively, let Helga guide thee.)

Now you have to face the Ancient Lich. He's enormous, and you can use his size to your advantage. After he’s dead, get The Sceptre of Hammara from a chest. Near the chest is the way out, a gateway to the temple entrance.

THE SCEPTRE AND MEREFICUS:

You can use the ring to go to West Callaheim, but you might prefer to stop at Cold Sands and buy some great gear.

Talk to Darius in Callaheim. Talk to him until he tells you to go to the palace and use the Sceptre.

Link the Sceptre and use it on Mereficus. He will change into a rather ugly demon. After some chatter, Mereficus disappears. Back to Darius!

VALEMAR:

Darius will tell you that you must rescue Gorak (and slay Lord Valemar), so that Gorak can tell you where Shadowspire is. That's where Mereficus is now hiding out. You know what? Your questing still has a way to go.

Castle Valemar (Valemar Keep) is in the Western Kingdom. Start your journey in East Callaheim: let the harbormaster sail you to Redrock Bay. Mount your drake and head to Valemar at the lower right corner of this map. (Unlike most of the maps, roads are clearly shown, to make your travel easy.)

Lots of fighting in Valemar. You may want to be well over level 30 when you get there. Your goal is to to get the four keys (in a chest) to the dungeon. The four keys are not too far from the dungeon's jail-cell doors. These four keys will occupy four slots in your inventory, so plan ahead! (Actually, I suspect you only need the key to cell #1.)

You enter Valemar in an open area. At the rear of that area is the door to the main keep, which requires a key. There are maps of Valemar here: Maps of Valemar Keep

The locked door to the main keep is easy to miss, but it is to the left (as you face it) of an illuminated bundle in the rear.

The door to the dungeon is at the far end of a corridor on the first main keep floor (pass the two bedchambers, turn right, and keep going).To get the dungeon keys, you need to climb down and up two ladders, and avoid a fire pit. (The side tunnels to the dungeon jail cells are to the sides of the area between the ladders.)

Gorak will probably be behind Gate1. The other three cells will probably be empty. Ask him how to get to Shadowspire. Gorak will tell you to speak with Icefang. (However, it IS possible to get to the entrance to Shadowspire without Icefang's help; I've done it as a 37-level mage. Going there by yourself might screw up the main-line story, however.)

Talking to Gorak gives you a quest called Icefang's oath. Gorak may also make you worry about whether you’re saving enough to retire some day.

Valemar has an upper level as well as a lower level. Lord Valemar is on castle level 2. (When you first enter Valemar, you can go up a ramp, but that does NOT bring you to ‘castle level 2’. Lord Valemar’s Cut Scene is worse than his bite, but look out, he "flits". Kill him.

Talk to ... yes ... Darius. You will get a quest called "Journey to Shadowspire." The goal, of course, is to kill Mereficus there. Off you go to Icefang.

ICEFANG:

Icefang is in the nastier outlands. North of Callaheim, take your drake to Cold Sands and proceed north of there, to the tamer Outlands. You need to get to the top left of this map and go through "a mountain pass" to the nastier outlands, where there are terror birds and elementals to fight. (Incidentally, killing Ice Elementals is the easiest way to get sapphires.)

Icefang’s place is below the pass, to the right. You will go down a long, spiraling trail to get to Icefang. (Someone commented on the web that you can jump way, way down this spiral. You will take terrible damage, but you will not die. I’ve done that and survived, but I when I jumped I had an awful lot of health. Save, before you try this.)

Enter Icefang's lair. He will probably speak to you and ask you to return his stolen egg.

Now what? Back up the spiral you go, and go to the upper left of this map, where you enter Shadowspire Mines, a cave full of hissing grawl. Find the "Deep Mines". (To get to the deep mines, I went down the lift and then climbed my way up about two levels.)

Lots of grawl in the deep mines. The deep mines will lead you to the Dark Chasm. Enter the chasm, and here’s hint: sometimes you will have to be patient. At last you will meet the boss: Ashmore, Bringer of Flame. Talk to him and kill him. Good stuff on his corpse. Then look all around nearby, for the chest with Icefang's egg. If you cannot find the chest, try “taking all” from Ashmore to get his corpse out of your way.

Sigh. Back to Icefang. He will like the egg and fly you to Shadowspire. Guess what? It's full of Grawl. And Shadow Spiders. And at last you face Mereficus.

THE BIG BOSS FINALE:

Mereficus can cast lots of shadow elementals at you. You want to make him jump in front of them and chase after you, so that you can hit him. Or, use good old Helga’s ring, to float past his elementals and start whapping him. You might need some superb healing potions, because he is one big boss.

At last, you’ve done it. Mereficus is dead!

By the way, if you were nervous about the Uthu quest (with its potential for crashes), you might postpone conquering Uthu until after killing Mereficus, as I did.

Speak with Darius in the royal palace. Among other things, he will give you some spirit dust. Then let the harbormaster sail you to Taryn Ridge, and return to Timber's End. Don’t worry, these backwoods locals won’t be afraid of your drake mount.

Remember that practice dummy? Give it a whack or two and see what happens.

Find your father's grave for a satisfying end to the main line story.

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