SPELLFORCE - THE BREATH OF WINTER WALKTROUGH BY LB

Version 1.1

Contents

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

PURPOSE OF THIS WALKTHROUGH ........................................................................................................2 L01. MIRRAW THUR (1ST VISIT) : ...............................................................................................................3 L02. STORMCLEAVER ROCKS: ..................................................................................................................3 L01. MIRRAW THUR (2ND VISIT): .................................................................................................................4 L03. ECHO SWAMPS:.....................................................................................................................................4 L01. MIRRAW THUR (3RD VISIT): .................................................................................................................5 L04. FROSTFALL: ...........................................................................................................................................5 L05. TIRGANACH (1ST VISIT) :......................................................................................................................6 L06. WINTERDEEP..........................................................................................................................................7 L07. FASTHOLME: ..........................................................................................................................................9 L05. TIRGANACH (2ND VISIT): ....................................................................................................................11 L08. NEVERSHADE FRONTIER: ................................................................................................................11 L09. SHAL DUN:.............................................................................................................................................12 L10. FIREFANGS: ..........................................................................................................................................15 L11. THE ABYSS: ..........................................................................................................................................16 L05. TIRGANACH (3RD VISIT): ....................................................................................................................17 L12. FROSTWEAVER RIFT : .......................................................................................................................17 LIST OF GAME CHARACTERS ..................................................................................................................18 CREDITS ..........................................................................................................................................................18

1. Purpose of this walkthrough

This is a complete text based walkthrough for the first add-on for the Spellforce game called the Breath of Winter (TBOW). The add-on succeeds the original Spellforce quest referred to us The Order of Dawn. There is also a second add-on called Shadow of the Phoenix (SOTP). The intention of this walkthrough is NOT to get through the game is fast as possible. As in TOOD there are a number of levels that you can finish without using the monuments that are available in that level. If that is your goal you might want to look at the walkthrough developed by ADK (see http://www.dimensionssega.fr.st). It has some strategies which involve al lot of deaths of your Avatar. For me, this approach to Spellforce doesnt work. My favourite strategy is to keep my Avatar alive at all times (even though there is little punishment in Spellforce for getting your Avatar killed). Although some levels in TBOW are extremely hard to finish when you take the hard way, it will give you a lot more fun and also higher levels of experience for your Avatar as well as more goodies that you can use in the game. Since it is my objective to fully explore everything the game has to offer, this walkthrough will also take you through all the side quests that are part of TBOW. Finally, this walkthrough will provide info on important items you may find in the various levels. The most important difference between TBOW and TOOD is the fact that in the first half of the game you will encounter enemies that are much stronger than your Avatar. Therefore, you will be forced to visit most of the levels several times, coming back to finish parts of a level when you have gained experience or when you have found stronger heroes. TBOW also has an interesting new way of getting heroes (this is linked to the role of the Masked One in the game). A second difference is that a number of weapons has special abilities. These abilities may affect the effectiveness of your spells, the strength of your weapons or the regeneration of mana and health. These abilities are indicated in the game by a blue text in the description to the item. You will need three items with the same ability before the ability will become effective. Since you cannot use an Avatar from TOOD, the game is the most difficult in the first levels when your Avatar has little experience and you do not have the help of strong heroes to support you. You do get help from characters in the game, so using them wisely is an important part of your strategy. Since you cannot control these characters they may also bring you unexpected problems (especially when they attract enemies at a time that you cannot really defend yourself). You will be able to use your Avatar in the second add-on (Shadow of the Phoenix), so choose your Avatar wisely. I have used a fighter as well as a well as a black magician to finish the game. At the end of TBOW your Avatar will be around level 28, so you will have only about 50 ability points during the game. I suggest you concentrate on two types of abilities per Avatar only, so that you can reach at least level 10 for all these abilities. The number of levels in TBOW is rather limited (12) but if you are going to take the hard road to success (as I will do in this walkthrough) it will give you lots of hours of fierce battles against opponents that are often much stronger.

L01. L02. L03. L04. L05. L06. L07. L08. L09. L10. L11. L12.

The game holds the following levels: Mirraw Thur Stormcleaver Rocks Echo Swamps Frostfall Tirganach Winterdeep Fastholme Nevershade Shal Dun Firefangs The Abyss Frostweaver Rift

2. L01. Mirraw Thur (1st visit) :

Meet Lena and Grim who will accompany your through parts of the game. They will follow your Avatar, but you cannot control them. So be aware, they may attract enemies at times when you would rather not fight. Lena and Grim cannot be killed, so you can always use them to attack stronger enemies. Go north. There is a chest to the right of the road you might want to inspect. There will be some goblins. Make sure to inspect their bodies for useful items. Next you will encounter some beastmen. When the road turns south there is a second chest (west of the road). Next you will go east to meet some more goblins; (there is a third chest to the north of the road but you will reach it later). You will arrive in the refugee camp. After the clip, inspect the 3 chests, activate the bindstone and talk to Aedar Thalan and then to Willit. There are some merchants here. Your mission will be to look for Dunhan. Take the road to the north west, kill some more goblins and inspect the chest left of the road. You will also pass a small neutral Orc camp. Now move either north or west, heading towards the portal in the north east of the map. If you go north you will pass a Kithar camp. Do not alarm it for now. Clear out the area south of the monument from enemies to gather experience. South-east of the portal there is a chest and a small Kithar camp. Since you cannot pass through the second Kithar camp is makes no sense to attack it yet (also your Avatar is not strong enough to survive an attack). So go through the portal to StormCleaver Rocks.

3. L02. Stormcleaver Rocks:

Watch the clip and meet the Skergs. Your mission will be to save Janina, who is Dunhans girlfriend. To the east you will find an Orc monument. You can only build Thugs (you cannot build a small headquarter yet) so you will need wood (and fish) only. Meanwhile, kill some nearby spiders and Kithar with your Avatar and find a chest a bit to the south east of the monument. Directly north of the monument there is a small passage where you will find a level 5 Bagzirra (?) which you should be able to kill. It has valuable items and it guards a chest. With your troops, move to the north-west. You will find a small Kithar camp where Janina is held captive. Free Janina (inspect the chest) and talk to her. Due east there are some spiders that protect a chest. Next, move to the north-east to meet Hutu (her camp is to the east). You will pass some Kithars with a chest; next there is a Kithar camp on the west; there is a chest here. Now, follow the path to the east. There are two strong Kithar camps here. Run to the camp of Hutu in the east (Grim and Lena may decide to start fighting, but dont get your Avatar involved). Near Hutus camp there is a second Orc monument (and a chest). Hutus camp looks closed, but when you near it the gate will open (mind the spiders). Meanwhile the Kithar will attack your first camp, but since they are only level 1 you should be able to defend it with your Tugs. Anyway, you do not really need it anymore. Talk to Hutu (you now have to find Setrius, in the north-east of the map), activate the bindstone and inspect the chest. It has a small headquarter, so now you can build Totems, use a food store (to restore Mana and life of your Orc troops) and you can build more troops. So, activate the second Orc monument and use the buildings in Hutus camp. Meanwhile, kill some spiders to the south (there is a chest). But take care, your monument as well as Hutus camp will be attacked. With your troops, destroy both the Kithar camps you passed earlier (there is a chest). Once you destroyed the second camp, the entrance on the east side of Hutus village will open. Kill the crawlers there or Hutu will be killed (which, however, doesnt seem to effect the remainder of the game). There is extra lenya near a Khitar camp a little to the north east of the Orc monument. Now, move further to the north. You will find a chest, left of the road, that you cannot open. Keep moving north until you reach a bunch of Forestwraiths and a group of crawlers. To the left you will find Wumpus, a level 9 crawler, who protects a chest. Beating him will require all 30 totems and the help of your Avatar and his companions. You will earn his tongue and the content of the chest bit north). Next, there are some crawlers and a chest to the east. Your companions advice you to keep the orcs away from the camp of Setrius. So, leave them here and move your Avatar in the camp. Watch the clip and talk to Setrius twice. He will ask you to poison the Khitar. Activate the bindstone and visit some merchants if you want. Meanwhile all your orc and skerg friends will be killed by the Khitar nothing you can do. Move on to the west. Keep to the north to fight a group of spiders (level 7). There is a chest in the far northwest. Next, move to the south. You will encounter a level 8 giant. You should be level 6 by now so you can beat the giant and open his chest. Keep moving to the south until you reach a blue fountain. Here you

should put the poison in the water. Watch the clip. A group of Setrius fighters will appear to the south-east. There way is blocked by a gate. Move your Avatar to the gate to open it (kill the crawlers on the way). You will pass a bindstone so activate it. The troops are now yours to command. I suppose you could try to conquer the camp with these troops, but given the number of towers and enemies that would be virtually impossible. So, go back to the second orc monument, defeat the Khitar and free the former camp of Hutu from Kithar. Now, rebuild your Orc army (make sure to keep your human army separate from your Orc army; they dont like each other. Send your orcs in to bring down the towers (use about 20 Thugs and 10 Totems); then move in your human soldiers to bring down the rest of the camp. Here you will find the keys of the Khitar general. There are three magicians here (Gruolun, Zolowin and Renya); ignore them for now. After defeating the Khitars, the palisade will have an opening to the north. Go there to meet Dunhan. Watch the clip and take his rune. He will be your first hero. Go back to the Khitar camp to free the three magicians. They will invite you for a side quest (see below). Now you can return to Mirraw Thur. Sidequest: The magicians move to an area north-west of the Khitar camp. Move there and talk to each of them to obtain three magic stones. The chest they are looking for is located south of the lair of Wumpus. Go there to obtain a crawler fetish from the chest and bring it to one of the magicians (you may choose freely although there is a difference in the reward you will get1). They will start fighting so beware because they are strong opponents.

4. L01. Mirraw Thur (2nd visit):

You will have to find Reowys. To do so, you will have to reach the portal to the Echo Swamps in the south east of the map. You will have to pass the strong Khitar camp which is located east of the portal to the Stormcleaver Rocks. You can take a path south of the camp towards the east. Dont alarm the camp itself. After you have fought some ice elves, watch the clip in which Grim will explain the story of Aryn and Cenwen, which is the basic theme of this addon. Move south toward an Orc camp. Avoid the patrols of ice elves if you can (just keep away from the main road). In the camp talk to Kongar and give him Wumpus tongue for a reward. Move further southward past a closed gate until you find a hero monument. Summon Dunhan and move south toward a second refugee camp. Talk to Aedar Thalan for info. Next, move to the south-east to the portal to the Echo Swamps (activate the bindstone).

5. L03. Echo Swamps:

These is a clip after which Reowys will fight you because the magician Whorim holds his rune. Kill Reowys, activate the bindstone and move westward to start a Dark elf camp. To the north there is an orc camp but in the beginning most attacks are coming from Ogres which are coming from the east. So, quickly build some troops (aria is near the Orc camp to the north). When you have about 15 elves, go east and directly north to deal with the Ogre camp. There is additional iron there. Quickly go back to deal with the Orc camp in the north (about 20 troops should be enough). You cannot go any further north, so gather your troops and proceed eastward. Take the path to the south. There is an Ogre camp to the west and an Orc camp to the east. Deal with the Ogres first. There is some aria there. Next, head eastward. You will find a lake; a bit to the south you can find the Masked one (see the sidequest below). But I suggest you deal with the orc camp first. It is a larger camp. There are two chests and you will find Hortar. Talk to him. He will lead you north to a second dark elf monument and a bindstone. Now, before talking to Hortar a second time, mind this: troops will attack your original camp from the north. If you want to keep your camp save get some troops over there first. Also, when following Hortar you will pass a small merchant camp to the right with a bindstone. You could visit it before proceeding2.

Two magicians will give you a coin (a star coin or a moon coin). You could sell these coins for gold during the game but you could also save them to use them later in the game to open a large number of chests with strong items. The same holds for skull coins you will get later in the game. 2 Notice that one of the merchants as well as Lucius have a bone knife. This is worthwhile to remember in relation to a side quest later in the game.

You will have to get Sveras flute. She is in the north western camp, so move your troops back to the north of your original camp where you will be attacked by Sveras troops. Destroy her camp, kill Svera and get her flute and a key. Inspect the chests. Further north there are two more camps that also have chests to inspect. Destroy them to find a closed palisade at the south of the last camp. Your Avatar can open the gate with the key you found on Svera. You will enter a dry riverbed. At the western end there is a type of bindstone where you can trade gold for star/sun/moon coins3. Now, deal with all the Treewraiths in the riverbed, otherwise Hortar is not willing to help you. Also, deal with the Orc camp north of the riverbed (there is a chest). Once all the treewraiths have been killed, Hortar will walk towards a closed compound with level 20 poisoncrawlers. Bring your troops a bit back to the west, talk to Hortar, give him the flute and get your Avatar back westward also. Hortar will open the gate and the poison crawlers will kill the enemy forces; Hortar will also be killed. Inspect the camp of the posioncrawlers to find a runestone (see side quest below). Follow the riverbed further south to find the camp of Whorim. On your way to Whorims camp you will pas the poision crawlers. At this point you cannot kill them because they are much too strong. Come back later when your Avatar has more experience points and you can build stronger dark elves). Whorim has a pretty large camp with a number of towers. Defeat Whorim and get the rune of Reowys from him. There are six chests here. Take the path north of the camp. Mind the stone golems. Here is a final bindstone and a final chest. You can now return to Mirraw Thur. Sidequest: Talk to the Masked One. He will ask you to free his apprentice Lucius. His camp is due east. Activate the bindstone you pass and fight Gitzo. Get his essence, fight some more goblins and talk to Lucius. He will become a merchant who sells strong weapons. Go back to the Masked One to get the rune of Gitzo. You should have found a blade rune in the swamp creatures cage. Bring it to the Masked One (who may have moved to Tirganach) and you will obtain a blade hero.

6. L01. Mirraw Thur (3rd visit):

From the portal to the Echo Swamp, go north to the hero monument and summon Dunhan and Reowys. Now move to the second refugee camp to the south-west. Watch the clip to see how Grim convinces 20 refugees to follow Dunhan and Reowys to fight against the ice elves. Grim will lead the way. The elf town is well guarded so you will have to be smart here if you want your troops to survive (I prefer to lure small groups of elves to my troops that always stay outside the reach of the elf towers. In the middle of the city there is a chest with a raw runestone. Get it and watch the clip where Grim gets himself the keys to the prison. Go south to a small group of elves near a closed gate. Defeat the elves and watch a clip which reveals the true nature of Grim and in which you will meet the Fial Darg and Elune. Follow Elune to the north but first activate the bindstone here. Troops will attach your hero monument so you will lose your heroes. Crimson troops will appear in the east. Let Elunes elves deal with them if they attack. Keep following Elune to the north until you reach her town. There is a bindstone and a portal here. A group of Crimson soldiers will survive in the east. You will return for them later. After activating the bindstone, enter the portal.

7. L04. Frostfall:
This is a pretty original level. You will have to engage in some fights that you simply cannot win. So, the strategy here is to act quickly and to move on when you are overwhelmed by your enemies. Watch the clip in which Lena explains what to do. Next open the chest, activate the bindstone and talk to Lena again. Now move to the north-west towards an Orc camp. It is defended by some level 9 orcs, so beware. Now activate the Orc monument and use the buildings to start a camp. You have two objectives: 1. collect enough food for the refugees 2. destroy all treewraiths in the area to free the way to the refugees (for which you may need troops) You will be attacked so you will also need troops to defend the camp. Since food is pretty scarce you cannot build a large army (the refuges will need most of your food). Speed is essential here, so move quickly especially with respect to collecting food (there are trees to the west and iron to the north of the camp). Watch the clip that shows that entre of the refugees.

Again, this may be helpful later in the game when you are in need of such coins (and when you have more gold).

There is a small Urok camp to the north. Attack it as soon as you can (10 Totems will be enough). There is a chest and some extra iron to mine. Further east are some more orcs. There is a portal to Shal Dun which you cannot use (in fact there will be enemies coming through the portal later). Next, there is an Urok camp to the south of your Orc camp. There is another chest. Now move north of the Urok camp and start killing treewraiths or they will attack workers that are looking for food there (build an extra hunting camp here as soon as you can). Make sure the treewraiths do not attack your troops in groups (they are level 7 and 11) but try to lure them to your troops in groups of two. Once you have killed all of them hurry back to your camp and hope you will be on time to defend your camp against the first attacks of the Crimson soldiers. The first group will attack in two waves so you will have some time to regroup between the two attacks. Once you have gathered enough food for the refugees they will flee towards the elf town in the west. Move your Avatar to the elf monument and activate it. Quickly build some elf warriors; you should be able to withstand two attacks of the Crimson troops to give your Avatar sufficient time. Meanwhile, move your Avatar further north. There is a bindstone and a bit further north there is a hero monument. Activate them both and summon your heroes. Now move to the west, kill some troops of wolves and you will find a bindstone in a camp of the ice elves. Activate it and jump or run back to the bindstone near the elf camp. At the third attack of the Crimson warriors, Aedar Thalan and the refugees will start moving again and your elf troops will be overrun. Follow the refugees to find a closed gate; talk to Lena. You need to find a keymaster in the camp of the ice elves. Jump there using the bindstone, talk to the keymaster, inspect the chest and run back to Lena. There are some new wolves on the way back so you might want to involve your heroes in defeating them. However, in the meantime you should also defend the refugees with your heroes and the ice elves which are stationed near the gate. Make sure the keymaster doesnt get killed, talk to her when you arrive at the gate and she will open it. The refuges will start to move towards a new ice elf camp. Follow them and bring the elf troops along. There is a chest east of the first outpost of the camp. In the camp, talk to Lena. The refugees will now flee towards the portal. Defend the camp with your elves but move your Avatar and heroes along with the refugees. For the third time your troops will be overrun but you should be able to buy the refugees enough time to go through the portal. Now, Dracon Carach will appear and you will have to fight him (you will need your heroes to help you). Defeat Dracon Carach and get some good items from his body. Sidequest: You could try to pass the portal to Shal Dun (in the east of the map). You will find a closed area with a special stone. Here you can use coins to obtain items. I would strongly suggest you save your coins for later in the game (the items are not worth their money).

8. L05. Tirganach (1st visit) :

Defend the refuges against the skeleton hordes. There are some elves to help. There is a chest to the north; it is defended but you will get a new hero. To the east there is an orc called Ashgork who you can ignore for now. The refuges will follow you until you reach a closed gate. There are some wolves next to the gate that have stolen the key. You will have to defeat them; the refuges will help you though. There is a chest in the camp of the wolves. Go through the gate and defend the refugees against the ice spirits. Keep moving towards the main town in the center of the map. There is a small passage to the west where the camp of the ice spirits can be found. You will have to destroy it before the refuges are willing to move to Tirganach. There will be some new troops at the portal to assist you. Dont take the second passage to the west since it ends in a village of the dead for which your Avatar at this time is no match. (It doesnt even make sense to try to capture the village with the heroes you will be able to summon later in this level. You will have to wait until later in the game to come back here and defeat the village when your Avatar has more experience and you have more powerful heroes to support you). You could take the third path to the left to find a chest with a part of a blade (however, you will have to come back here anyway). Notice the Masked One on the right side of the road. If you want you can talk to him after you inspected the chest about the blade you found (see sidequest below) You will arrive in Tirganach, which is the central location in TBOW. There are several people to meet here: Lena, Elune and Aedar Thalan (for a reward) are near the gate. Near the large statue you will find Aedale the ice priestess. She will tell you to find a dwarf called Windjalf. In the north of the town you can meet Darius. He will give you information if you want it. Also, there are numerous merchants.

At this point you cannot leave the town through the north or the south entrance. With your remaining troops go east towards a hero monument (again, check for some fresh troops near the portal). You must kill 5 wolves there (level 9 and 14). The largest wolf has a violet bloodgem. Now you can summon your heroes and inspect the chest. Follow the path further to the east. On the right side of the road you will find a small settlement. A bit further down the road 6 powerful trolls block your way. There seems to be no way to beat them. However, there is a little trick. Go back to the small settlement with your Avatar (bring your other troops out of sight of the settlement) and hide behind the statue. When the night comes, the trolls will enter the village. Now you can use the statue to impersonate the God of the trolls. You can order them to give an artefact, to kill the monsters east of here or to die. The item they will give you is a simple hammer. Dont use this option as the trolls will detect (and kill) you. You can send the monsters to the east to slay a few of your enemies and wait for the next night to let them kill themselves. Make sure to inspect their body. Now go east into the mountains. Beat a group of skeletons (inspect the chest and one of the skeletons who has a green bloodgem), a camp of goblins left of the road (another chest) and a skeleton camp (a lot of skeletons are spawning here). Next, move on to meet a lot of opposition (such as a level 17 skeleton and a level 14 Munch inspect his body). Open the 3 chests near the portal and pass the portal to Winterdeep. Sidequests: After arriving in Tirganach, talk to an archer who is standing near Aedale, the priestess, to discover that Ashgork may be able to help you. Use the bindstone in Tirganach and teleport back to Ashgork (you encountered him at the beginning of this level). Talk to him and you obtain a new sidequest (see also chapter 9). In Tirganach, look for Flink (he also appeared in TOOD) who is in jail (in the south-east of the town). He will ask you to find a book and to give it back to Darius. Exit the Elf town on the west-side and immediately go north to find 5 skeletons. They hold the book Flink wants you to return to Darius. After killing the skeletons (they are strong opponents so you will need at least your heroes to help you) you will obtain the book and also part of a blade which is in the chest. Show the book to Darius and he will notice that 3 pages are missing. Return to Flink and he says that the pages can be found in Frostfall. With the part of a blade you found with the book, go to the Masked One. He can be found on the Westside of Tirganach town (you will come back to him more often so remember his location). He suggests you should find 2 other parts of the blade. If you do (later in the game), he will provide you with a new hero.

9. L06. Winterdeep
Activate the bindstone and the hero monument and summon your heroes. There are two small skeleton camps to defeat and one chest to inspect. Next you will encounter some dwarfs. Talk to Erlin. Talk to Devus for a sidequest (see below). You can go north or east here. Go north to find a dwarf monument and a bindstone. Activate them and start building a dwarf army. There is a skeleton camp nearby to the north-west. There is single strong skeleton to the north-east. Attack him first. He is standing near a broken Mosaic of Death. Remember this location! There is also a chest here with the second part of the blade warrior. A bit further east you will find iron. Now defend your camp against several attacks while you build a small dwarf army. Take the eastern path and go north to a camp of strong ice golems and dead elves. Defeat them. One ice golem may be wandering north of the camp. Beat him (he has a white gemstone). There is a chest which is related to the sidequest below. There will still be skeletons coming from the east, so move towards the south-west where they are coming from. Take the first path to the left and destroy the skeleton camp there (there is a chest). There are some skeletons on the other side, but you will reach them later. Move back to your camp (be sure not to disturb the camp of dead dwarfs and elves yet!). Now attack the skeleton camp to the north-west of your dwarf camp. Take your dwarfs and heroes and lure the skeletons out of the camp. Then destroy it. There is a chest and some moonsilver. You could try to defeat this camp earlier because of the moonsilver, but I found you need at least 15 dwarfs to win here and you would need a few dwarfs to protect your camp against enemy attacks earlier in the game, so I found it to be a dubious option. Now build some defenders; your next fight will involve a lot of enemies and fighting in a small pathway, so you need some distance fighters to be effective. Go back to the camp of deaths you saw earlier and start a big fight. There are numerous enemies (level 10) so it will take a while (and some experimenting) before you

succeed and you may need some extra forces during the game (I started with 40 dwarfs). There are 3 chests here. Move on southward to find the archers you couldnt reach earlier. Defeat them and move to find two level 18 ghost heroes: Garvyn and Rogras. Fight them and inspect there bodies; Garvyn holds a key and Rogras has a runehero for you. Directly north-east of here there is a chest with the first part of a mosaic. A path to the west leads to the secret valley. Open the gate with Garvyns key and fight the level 14 elves who can summon wolves so bring your dwarfs along. Inspect all their bodies, especially the elf named Kyra. Get her essence (see sidequest). There is also a chest here. Now there is a final group of skeletons near the portal to Fastholme. Defeat them and you will have finished the campaign successfully. Sidequests: Devus needs medicine for his sick companions. He will give you a key to a chest. You will find the chest in the ice golem camp east of the dwarf monument. Bring it back to Devus. He wants you to choose which of his companions to save. If you choose the elf, talk to her when she is healed and she will give you a brooch. Show it to Huldis in Tirganach and she will become a merchant with strong items (and a moon, star and sun coin). Go to the Masked One in Tirganach to get Kyras rune so you can summon her as one of your heroes. (The treasure of Tiondria) Jump to the bindstone near the portal to the Echo swamps. Go to the Orc monument and activate it. Notice that various bindstones have been deactivated because the Crimson soldiers attacked them. Therefore, you cannot reach your hero monument at this point. Start building an Orc camp. A large group of Crimson soldiers will head your way but if you leave them alone they will disappear into the portal to Shal Dun. Once you have built an orc army start searching for 3 werewolves leaders. They all have a missing page from the book of Darius. The first group is near your hero monument. So move north. There are some Crimson soldiers near your monument which you can beat easily. There is a larger group nearby. Leave them alone for now. Attack the first leader and inspect his body (he will have a page and a red bloodgem). Now, move westward for the second leader. The third one is located to the south-west of here. There is a chest near his position. You could use your remaining soldiers to attack the horde of Crimson soldiers in the east. Now go back to Darius in in Tirganach. He will give you the key to Flinks prison. Free him and he will give you a key to a treasure which you will find later in the game. (Bone carver) Teleport to the bindstone near the portal to the Echo swamps. You have left some refuges fighters somewhere on this map. First, bring them to a spot where the wandering Crimson hordes will not detect them or they will be destroyed (e.g. near the portal to Frostfall). Now your hero has to reach the hero monument a little bit to the north. However, there are some Crimson warriors on the road. Run past them and summon your heroes. There is a group of about 20 enemies northwest of the monument. They are all level 8-10 so it is pretty hard to defeat them but the following strategy will work. Bring the refugee soldiers north of the group of Crimson soldiers (where the road narrows because of some rocks). Also, move your heroes here without being noticed. Now attract the attention of the group with your Avatar and start running north, back to you forces. The Crimson soldiers will only follow you until the point where the road narrows. Here you can attack a few of them, while the others walk back to their original position. If you repeat this procedure several times you will be able to defeat them without serious losses. There is a group of Crimson soldiers to the east. Leave them alone. They are too strong and their forces will be replenished every time. Now kill the soldiers in the south you passed earlier and move to the large orc camp through the gate directly opposite of the hero monument. There is a bindstone in the south of this camp you might want to activate, but beware of the Crimson soldiers. First you will have to deal with two strong wandering patrols (5 soldiers each, level 15). Next, your should head towards your main opponent, Dracon Sohal Zahal (level 20) who is accompanied by 4 gladiators (level 21) and some level 8 fighters. Use the same tactic as before: position your forces, attract your opponents out of their position with one of your heroes towards your troops and fight them preferably one by one. After the fight, Ashgork will appear in the east of the camp. Talk to him. It will cost you 10 pieces of gold before he will tell you to look for Nazosh in the Echo Swamps. You also need blood gems and three bone

knifes which you can buy from merchants4 (all in all this side quest is a pretty expensive one). Now go the nearest bindstone and jump to the Echo Swamps. You will notice a struggle between some orcs and treewraiths in the east. One of the orcs is Nazosh. But to reach him you will have to attack the treewraiths. So build a dark elf army (25-30 elfs). Move to the second dark elf monument to build your army here (saves travelling time). With your army walk to the treewraiths and enter the fight. Once you enter the battle zone the spawning of the treewraiths will stop. Talk to Nazosh to receive a bone. You will notice the poison crawlers that are still alive. With an army of 50 elves you should be able to deal with them. They defend a chest. Now go back to Ashgork in Mirraw Thur. Ashgork will tell you how to get a second bone. Get your heroes and move to the north-west. The creature is east of the portal to Stormcleaver Rock. Near the portal there is also a small Khitar camp left which you can destroy on the way. The creature will pestilence (and thus kill!) enemies that come near him. My heroes were not strong enough to finish the job on their own, so at this point my Avatar died for the first time during this game (if you do not count the times I had to hit F9). Get the second bone (an armour) from the creature and a cyan bloodgem. Notice the altar here; you will have to come back here a bit later. Now go back to talk to Ashgork. He will flee to the north where he seeks help of a bunch of skeletons. Follow him and defeat these troops and Ashgork to get the third bone. Use the same strategy as before: try to separate two or three skeletons from the rest each time. To finish this sidequest you will have to go back to the altar in the north-east and choose to forge weapons or magic items. However, you need certain blood gems (a yellow, a blue5 and a violet one and you do not yet have them all) and three bone knifes, which you have to buy from merchants (see footnote). Now return to Winterdeep to continue the main quest.

10. L07. Fastholme:

The objective is to free Windjalf, a dwarf that is held captive by a giant. Make sure to inspect the chest, which has level 10 workers (unfortunately your Avatar needs level 16; my Avatar only reached level 15 at this point). Talk to Ragnar who is in the entrance of the dwarf village. Hard way: Activate the dwarf monument and start building a dwarf army using the buildings in the town. Also, there are two chests to inspect in the town. You should be able to build about 30 dwarfs and a dwarf titan before the first serious attacks will start. Forget the southern part of the town (down the road to the south), there is no way you can defend it. The skeletons will focus their first attacks here and the dwarfs will be able to withstand the first attack so they buy you precious time. West of the southern part of the twon there is a car with extra resources you may want to obtain. After the first wave of attacks Ragnar wants to talk to you again. He will tell you about Uram. Now, your first priority is to get to him. Take the road south and go east before you reach the southern part of the town. There is a skeleton camp there. You will have to destroy it because Uram wants to pass here later. Run past the camp until you reach a dwarf statue. If any skeletons followed you, wait here for them. You will notice that the statue will kill them swiftly. Now, use your Avatar to attract the remaining skeletons from the camp towards the statue. Then destroy their buildings and insect the two chests. Now move on to the north, kill a single enemy and talk to Uram. There is also a chest there (it has an empty rune). Follow Uram to the south. He will go to the level 27 skeletons you met earlier. Protect Uram from enemies and he will blow up some rocks near a bunch of level 27 skeletons. Now it is impossible for enemies to reach the dwarf village from the south. You can use the southern part of the dwarf town now to build mines (there is iron and moonsilver). Talk to Uram again. Once Uram has closed the pass, the attacks on your town will diminish, so you will get time to focus on other issues. The skeletons will still attack through the center of the map. But the dwarf statues there will stop them. However, over time the skeletons will be able to destroy the statues, unless you protect them. So bring a few dwarfs to the central statue. There is an additional chest south-west of the dwarf town you might want to inspect now; it has a strong armour.

You can buy one from merchants in the Echo Swamps (Lucius and a merchant called Sorenia both have one). In Tirganach, two merchants called Ebonie (in the south-west of the town) and Panchesie (north-east of the town) have a bone knife for sale. Finally, you can buy two of these knifes from merchants in the Shal Dun level later in the game. Unfortunately, these knifes are pretty expensive (around 30 to 36 gold per knife) and you might not want to spend your skull coins, or star, sun and moon coins on these items because you can get much better stuff with these later in the game). You can forge warrior items or magician items at the altar. 5 A blue bloodgem can be bought form the merchant Panchesie in Tirganach (for 50 gold).

Easy way: Obviously, the trick is to avoid using the dwarf monument in the opening of the game. If you activate this monument you will be hassled by increasing numbers of enemies which are extremely strong. The problem again is that your Avatar does not have enough experience to withstand this kind of pressure (f.e. the dwarfs you build only have level 8). However, there is some unexpected help in this level which makes it quite easy to do the level with your Avatar only. Talk to Ragnar but leave the dwarf town as it is. Leave the town through the south entrance and as soon as possible go west (to the south east you will notice a second part of the dwarf village on the east side of the road). Now go to the west border of the map (there is a chest there, to the north). Walk southwards until you reach the south border. Expect some enemies and slay them, one by one if possible because they may be pretty strong compared to your Avatar. If you go eastward in the south of the map you will find a bunch of skeletons, level 27. There is no way to beat them, but fortunately beating this horde is not necessary to complete the level. The trick is to reach the centre of the map without activating this horde of skeletons. Go back to the road that goes south from the village. Now try to sneak to the east side of the road without getting noticed by the enemies that are marching between the north and south part of the dwarf village. You can handle a few of them but you should avoid being noticed by a group that is too large. Meanwhile, enemies will gather in the dwarf village, and all buildings will have been destroyed. This seems an impossible hurdle to ever win back the village later in the game, but the trick is to involve King Ragnar in the fight, and he will slay all enemies for you. Talk to Ragnar. He will predict more enemies and he will inform you about Uram (the lonely dwarf to the north). Leave the dwarf village again and go to find Uram. Follow the road to the south and before reaching the south part of the dwarf village go east. No go to the north east slowly until you reach a small camp. You could try to slay these enemies with your Avatar by luring them away from the camp one by one. However, the best way is to run through the camp to the east (you will be followed of course). To the north east of the settlement you will find a dwarf statue. It will send out flairs that will easily kill your enemies one by one. By luring your enemies here, you can easily destroy their settlement without getting killed (you will notice that there are three of these statues in total; they will be used again later in the game). If you go north of the dwarf statue, you will find a lonely dwarf; it is Uram. He will help you to complete the second part of this campaign. Make sure to inspect the chest; it holds a rune. Follow Uram to the south. He will go to the level 27 skeletons you met earlier. Protect Uram from enemies and he will blow up some rocks which make it impossible for enemies to reach the dwarf village from the south. Now the time has come to activate the dwarf monument. Go back to the village, activate the monument and the bind stone and then move your Avatar to the dwarf statue in the centre of the map. Your enemies will take this route to go to the dwarf village. However, the statue(s) will kill them. But if you do not protect the statues they will be destroyed after a while, and then your village is in big trouble again. Your Avatar is strong enough to withhold all enemies with the help of the statue. Build up the village again (remember to also use the south part of the village which has iron and moonsilver). Build a strong army of dwarfs (I like the defenders and elites) and then proceed to the south-eastern part of the map. There are several hordes of zombies, skeletons and death spirits. Your army should easily overcome all these barriers (make sure to inspect all the chests).

Final part of the campaign: After building up a strong dwarf army, move to the south east of the map through the center. East and south of the second dwarf statue you will find two chests to inspect. Further south you will meet strong resistance but you will need to destroy most of them. First there is a camp of slurpers; destroy it but be sure to leave the level 27 skeletons behind it alone; they are far too strong. Net there is a camp of skeletons; destroy it. You will also see some troops standing in two lines. Take them head on or use the dwarf statue behind them. You can get behind the enemy lines by moving a bit further east after the skeleton camp. There is a path north there. Simply lure the skeletons and slurpers to the statue and the statue will kill them for you. Behind the statue is a bridge to an area where you will find a bindstone and a dwarf monument. Activate it to replenish your forces in the upcoming fight. There is also a chest which you should inspect!. Now go back to the skeleton camp you just destroyed. Further east you will meet Gorg, the giant who holds the dwarf Windjalf prisoner. He is strong, but not nearly strong enough to withstand a large bunch of dwarfs. Beware, he will summon 2 giants twice to help him. It will take some planning here to focus on the helpers before killing Gorg but all in all you should have no particular problems with about 70 or 80 dwarfs to help you out. Once Gorg is killed, inspect all he bodies, go into the cave, free Windjalf and be sure to inspect the chest for the last part of the blade soldier. Escort Windjalf back to the village and beware of wolfs that may attack him. Talk to Windjalf and receive the Firebane (a magic scroll). Note: The level 27 skeletons are still living. At this point there is no way to beat them. You might want to come back later when your Avatar is much (very much) stronger and when you can build much stronger dwarfs to help you.

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Sidequest: You have found an empty rune in the chest in Urams camp and the third part of the blade soldier in the cave of Gorg, which you can bring to the Masked One in Tirganach. He will provide you with a new hero.

11. L05. Tirganach (2nd visit):

Talk to Elune and she will send you to the north. Summon your heroes at the monument and then leave the city through the north gate. At a fork in the road go left to find Zanzaar (level 18) and his 4 helpers (level 15). Defeat them and get a spiderkey. Go back to Elune (the dragons in the north are for later). After talking to Elune, the south gate will open. Here you will encounter five level 14/15 wolf camps you must destroy. Since your Avatar should be level 17 by now and your heroes between level 11 and 15, this should be no problem at all. There is one chest. There is a closed gate that you can open with the spiderkey. There are now some skeletons to defeat and a bunch of ice servants. The latter will be the most difficult. There are three chests here (one near the ice servants, one near the portal). Side quests: Talk to Aileen in the center of town (you have met Aedale here). She will tell you about the murder on Aedale. You will have to find the murderer. Talk to Baetha (near the bindstone) and Lithere (near the westgate) in town. Next, go to the hero monument where you will find Fennair and the body of Aedale. Talk to Fennair and inspect Aedales body. Return to Aileen and reveal the murderer (if you accuse Fennair it will give you the most experience points, so I suppose he is to blame. You could also assume it was an accident; this option is the second best and at least Fennair doesnt get blamed by mistake; after all he is a human in an elf camp.). Also, the skeleton camp in the west of the map is still there. With my 5 heroes (level 9, 11 and 14) and my Avatar (level 16) I only had to withdraw my Avatar just once to revive some of my heroes. There is a lot of unexpected spawning here which makes the fight fun and in the end it will give you two well filled chests and the body of a scaramangir to inspect. I would suggest completing this attack before you advance through the southern gate of Tirganach (so you can deploy some of the new heroes you will find here).

12. L08. Nevershade Frontier:

Watch the clip in which Lena suggests a strategy to deal with this map. There is a human monument with two chests and a bindstone nearby. Hard way: Start to build up a human camp. Use the iron in the south and the aria to the east on the plateau. There is an Urok camp directly north of the human camp. Leave it alone until you have at least 25 human fighters and a number of archer towers. Meanwhile, you will be fiercely attacked, mostly by increasing numbers of crimson warriors and at night by strong hordes of wolves (one horde per night). It is extremely difficult to survive this initial phase. It is imperative to activate the monument at the crack of dawn to ensure you have some time to build an army before the night horde strikes. Once you have sufficient troops (25-30), attack the Urok camp. First attract the majority of the Uroks towards your forces and towers. Next, rush in with a group of (10) Armsmen to destroy the buildings. Lots of new Uroks will spawn so you may lose the majority of these troops. Once the buildings are down, you can deal with the remaining Uroks more easily. Directly to the north of the Urok camp there is new aria and you will certainly have noticed the iron east of the Urok camp. Build up a set of archer towers directly north of the new aria (notice Keram who is standing there; you may notice that he disappears at night). There is one advantage you have in this level: none of your enemies will attack the towers so you dont have to maintain them. Build as many as you can, you will need them (but remember that your resources are scarce). The wolves will be coming every night but the most problematic are the increasing number of crimson warriors and Uroks. It will be a tough battle to stand your ground and your resources are scarce. After a long period the number of attacks will decrease. Thats the time to advance. Make sure you have a sufficiently large army (70-80). At the crack of dawn lead a part of them to the northwest. You will find a town on the left. Leave it now and go further north to slay four places where the Uroks are spawning from. Again, this will be a tough fight. You will find an elf monument and a bindstone. Now it is time to focus on beating the dark elf camp, using elves or humans as you see fit (remember the elves may replenish your wood reserves by building a forester; also there is iron north of the elf camp). It will

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be a hard battle anyway. If you use elves, remember that the villagers will attack you elf camp every night. At the other end of the dark elf camp you will find the black gate. You can only open it from the other side. Go back to the human village you saw earlier but only by daylight! Talk to Carvus. He explains that the villagers are changed into wolves every night because of a curse. Go back in the direction of your human camp to talk to Keram (near the Aria reserves). He will explain you have to get three items which are held by three gargoyles. They can be found on the east side of the map. Go through the portal in the north to get there.
Easy way: Evidently, the trick is to not activate the human monument. Go to the north-west of the map and avoid both the Urok camp to the left of the road and a dark elf camp to the right of the road. Next, to the left you will pass a village of humans. Go there but only during the day - to talk to Carvus who will explain that the village is cursed. Now go back where you came from to look for the blacksmith called Keram who is left of the road near some aria. He will explain he has lost 3 items, which should stop the curse. You will have to find 3 gargoyles, which each have one of these items. Now go to the north-east through the pass directly north of the elf camp. You will find a small Urok camp. Destroy it (with only your Avatar). Now advance to the east and deal with some spiders on the way to the portal. Pass through it to the eastern part of the map.

Eastern side of the map: Activate the bindstone and head east to find a hero monument. There are a few Uroks and the monument is guarded by a bunch a goblins. They are not that strong but it is one against many. Slay their buildings and summon your heroes. Behind the monument is the first gargoyle. Defeat it and get the first artefact. Now go back a little bit and head north. There is a white spider to kill. There is a corps lying on the floor that holds some items.. Return to the monument and head south-west until you reach three dark elf towers. Here is also the second gargoyle (and the second artefact). Go back to the monument again and head south-east this time. Destroy two Urok camps on the way until you reach a dwarf twon. There is a bindstone here and a chest with an empty runestone. Talk to Borondir. You can now use all the dwarfs in this settlement (there are only 5). Go further south through a small mountain passage; there are two chests and another corps on the floor. Go back to the location of the second gargoyle. There is a closed gate there. Talk to Borondir and he wil open it. Now follow he path to the south until you reach the black gate. Bring down the dark elf towers and the gate (the dwarfs are good help here). Now the passage to the west-side is open again. From a dark elf town further south, troops will be heading to the gate. Now it is time to bring in your army. You will face waves of attacks by large groups of soldiers or large hordes of Uroks. The fight will be heroic! Try to move your army southward as soon as possible to destroy the dark elf city. Once you destroy all the buildings, the waves of attacks will stop. There is a chest in the city with a piece of a blade princeps and also a yellow bloodgem (see sidequests below). South of the camp is the third gargoyle. Now, go eastward to wards an Urok camp. There is a path north here where there is a chest to inspect. Now, destroy the Urok camp to reach the portal to Shal Dun. However, you still have to free the human camp from the curse. There are three altars where you have to go to. One is directly north of the large dark elf camp you just destroyed, the second is directly north of the dark elf camp on the west side of the map and the third one is east of the Urok camp which was located directly north of the human monument. On each altar you have to one of the artefacts you found on the gargoyles (only the right artefact will be accepted; if you choose the wrong one some skeletons will appear to fight you). Now, go back to Carvus to tell him the good news to receive a small price and experience points. Sidequests: In a chest in the large dark elf camp you have found a piece of a blade princeps and a yellow bloodgem. You can go to Mirraw Thur and use the yellow bloodgem to build the last bone weapon. With the piece of the blade princes you could go to the Masked One in Tirganach. Now go back to Nevershade Frontier and pass the portal to Shal Dun.

13. L09. Shal Dun:

This level will have some heavy fighting again. Your Avatar should reach level 20 by now (if you took the hard way) and there is a lot of additional experience to gain here if you take the hard way. Watch the clip in which Dracon Craig UnShallach promises he will give you some troops, later.

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The Hard way. First go east to find the orc monument and inspect the three chests. Talk to the dark elf called Kalid Zhar. If you activate the monument, you will be attacked (after a while) from the north (moon city), the south (sun city) and the east (star city). So mind your defences while you build up an army. If you want to avoid the attacks from the north, you can accept the offer of Kalid Zhar and you will obtain the moon key. Needless to say, I did not accept his offer! Activate the monument and quickly start building a town. Unfortunately, you only can build weak fighters. Build rock towers to the passage to the north (moon city) and towards the south east of the monument (sun city). In the meantime, go back to Craig UnShallach and talk to him again (this will earn you experience). Also, switch on the bindstone here and prepare to fight. Craig UnShallach will give you 11 powerful fighters to help you. Don't waste them because they are excellent fighters! There is a nest of dragons that will spawn from the south west of the area. You might want to attack them fairly quickly using your Avatar and the 11 fighters (they should all survive this). There is a chest near the dragon nest. You will have to focus on the star city in the east first. There will be large numbers of strong enemies coming from this city and it will be very hard to beat them. You should also make sure most of your 11 fighters survive. Build a bunch of firestarters and use the orcs you can spare from your defences (if you refused the deal in the beginning, remember your defences to the north. Enemies will be coming from there and the south) and draw the crimson fighters in the city towards your towers. You will have to stop the spawning in the star city one by one. But you definitely need at least one of the elementals that are available in this city. Inspect the corpses because some of your enemies have valuable coins. After winning this essential fight, make sure you get the key from the corps of the leader of the star city and talk to the Archon ShilZhar to obtain the hand of Kahn. You can use the hand to access a secret passage either in the north-east or the south-east of the star city. Both are closed off by a gate; you can choose to open one of them (use the menhirs near the gate) if you use the hand (knock with your own hand and hostile skeletons will appear)6 If you struck a deal at the beginning of the level it makes sense to move southward first; otherwise you can freely choose). Also, notice the two portals in the star city; near each of the portals you can find a special stone where you can spend coins for items (I would not recommend it since there is a better use for your coins a bit later in this level). I proceeded to the south and opened the gate. First you will encounter a small skeleton camp. Destroy it, kill the four gargoyles and inspect the chest. Further south you will reach a troll monument and a bind stone. Since you can build much better troll warriors I would suggest you replace part of your orc army with trolls. You will need about 15 trolls to defeat the armies of the Sun City, which are located to the east. The Sun City is much easier to conquer than the star city. Find the city leader to get his key and inspect the four chests located in this city. Finally, talk to Archon Gul Zaldure to receive a sun elemental. There is a portal here but it is closed. Now move your forces to a path directly north of the orc monument that leads further north7. The moon elemental can bring down the towers. Further north you will pass a portal. It should be closed (but it isnt a bug? However, I will complete the campaign and find the third key first). Go further north until you reach the towers of the moon city. This time your sun elemental will bring them down. On the other side there is a bindstone and an Orc monument you can activate. Send your sun elemental to the west to destroy the remaining towers. In the meantime send your trolls to the south-west to kill some screamers. There is a chest and a closed gate. Finally assemble your troops to attack the moon city in the north-east. Kalid Zhar is here again. Find the city leader for the third key and talk to Archon Zhaal Tuor. There are three chests here. Now move on to the portal and go through it.
Easy way.

There is a second approach. Free one of the elementals (you need the sun elemental if you want to proceed to the north and the moon elemental if you want to proceed to the south. I proceeded to the south so I freed the moon elemental. Go south to a passage that leads to a series of dark elf towers. Only the moon elemental can survive them (in fact, he is immune to their attacks). Send in the moon elemental to destroy all towers (it will take a while so beware of the crimson patrols) and proceed with your army to the south and then to the east. 7 If you didnt use the secret passage in the star city you will encounter a small skeleton camp to the left. Destroy it, kill the four gargoyles and insect the chest (the gate will be closed).

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You can fully do this level with your Avatar and the 11 fighters you will get from Craig UnShallach in the beginning of this level. Later, you will need either a moon elemental or a sun elemental (both can be found at the Sun City in the center of the map). First go to the orc monument but do not activate it. Talk to the dark elf called Kalid Zhar. I suggest you accept his offer, despite the fact you can refuse and conquer the moon city by yourself; you will gain lots of time. You obtain the moon key. However, if you take the easy road without using the monuments, it will not matter what you choose to do at this point. Go back to Craig UnShallach and talk to him again to earn some experience points. Activate the bindstone. Craig will give you 11 powerful fighters to help you. Don't waste them. Use your 11 fighters to conquer the star city (in the centre of the map, south east of the orc monument). It's pretty easy to win and you can obtain the first key from the leaders body. You also will find 2 portals (to Frostfall and Mirraw Thur). If you have a stellar, lunar and solar coin use them to unlock the moon elemental to join your army. You cannot do without the moon elemental because it is immune to the dark elf towers you will encounter soon (you will get a sun elemental later for free). If it dies, it will respawn here. Talk to the Archon ShilZhar. He gives you the hand of Kahn that allows you to use secret a passageway to the sun and the moon city. There are some dragons to the south west of the monument. You should be able to kill them fairly easily with your Avatar and the 11 fighters. Now, go south and use your 11 fighters and your Avatar to stop the arrival of very small and weak red empire horde. Use the moon elemental to destroy the dark elf towers that protect the way to the Sun City. Once they are all destroyed, you can advance to a troll monument and a bindstone. You dont need them. Go east and enter the Sun City. Locate the Sun City leader to get the second key. Talk to Archon Gul Zaldureand receive a sun elemental. There is also a portal to the Burning Rocks, but it is closed. With the 11 fighters go back to the troll monument and to the north you find a skeleton camp. Destroy it. You will have to fight four argoyles too. Remember to inspect the chest. You can advance to a door, it is closed for now. Go back in the direction of the Orc monument and you will find a small passage that leads to the north-east into the mountains. Follow it until you encounter some new dark elf towers. No use your sun elemental to destroy them. There is also a second portal to the Burning Rocks (to my surprise it was open!?! Better just continue with what you are doing) If you allied with the dark elf from the moon city in the beginning of the level, the fact is that the dark elves of the moon city will now begin to patrol and attack you, so forget the alliance and kill them all. The sun elemental can destroy all the dark elf towers that protect the hordes to the north and north-west in the mountains. Now attack these hordes and you will arrive at a third portal to the Burning Rocks (this one is closed again). You'll have to destroy the moon city. Kill them all, get the key from the city leader and finally talk to Archon Zhaal Tuor to obtain another moon spirit. You have passed a troll monument and a bindstone in the north, but you will not need them. Also, to the east of the mountain path there is a passage that has some enemies you might want to kill. This path will lead you back to the former skeleton camp, north of the Orc monument. The door that was closed earlier is now open and you can no longer advance to the monument itself.

Second part of the campaign: The Burning Rocks Now pass through one of the three portals to the Burning Rocks (if you use the second one you do not need the keys you have found on this level. Maybe you can sell them to one of the seven merchants on the other side of the portal). First take the small passage north to reach the hero monument. Although you should be level 22 by now you will meet some pretty strong enemies so summon your heroes. Now kill all your enemies including two spider nests (one is south and one is to the north east in the city) and a dark elf called Shar Arduin in the south. You will also find the Masked One where you can get the rune of Shar Arduin after you have killed him. Near the portal to the Firefangs you will find a chest with the second piece of a blade princeps (and a grey bloodgem). On the west side there are creatures that are protecting a large number of chests. These chests contain very powerful items and also a number of strong heroes so opening at least some of them is recommended! But you will need coins to open them. Since there are 19 chests in total you will probably will not have enough coins to open them all (you would need 15 skull, 7 star, 19 sun and 18 moon coins). However, remember the special stone in the Echo swamps that will give you coins for gold. Finally you will meet Grim again. Watch the clip and fight him. Craig UnShallach is also here to open the portal to the Abyss. But first you will have to go to the Firefangs to find the Shadow Sword. The portal is located to the south.

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14. L10. Firefangs:

After the clip, fight 2 level 20 shadows, activate the bindstone, inspect the chests and proceed to the Dark elf monument which is nearby. A hero monument is located a bit west. You will see all kind of neutral shadows wandering around. As soon as you activate the Dark elf monument these spirits will become hostile randomly. You will have to chase them with your heroes and the Dark Elf fighters you will build. You will need the Dark elf fighters, so there is no way to avoid activating the monument (nonetheless, there is an easy way to do this level). The hard way Summon your heroes, spread them out and activate the Dark elf monument. Fight all shadows that appear and start building a camp. You will need Dark elf towers for protection as soon as possible. Also, create sorcerers as soon as you can to aid your heroes. After a while the number of hostile shadows will decline. Stone, iron and moonsilver can be found to the south; aria to the south west. Protect your buildings well. Once your camp is well protected, take your avatar, your heroes and a number of fighters and go west. You will encounter Chosian. Fight the shadows, and talk to Chosian. He will explain the role of a shadow ring. Follow Chosian and protect him until he has shown you the location of the shadow ring. He will move to the north to find a chest on the east side of the map (south east of the Dark elf monument). Activate the bindstone and talk to Chosian again (if he died your Avatar can open the chest). Now, your camp will be attacked more fiercely again, so keep it well protected with lots of Dark elf towers (at least 30 fighters spread around your camp and protecting the entrances to the north, south and east very well). By this time you will need about 80 dark elf fighters. Keep most of them in the camp but position 15 near your Avatar to accompany him. After the worst is over (you will be attacked continuously), move your Avatar to the north of Chosians chest to find the altar of Zarach. Here you can summon a fire elemental. Now it is time to find one of the four torches that have to be lit (you can see them in the north west, north east, south west and south east near the points where all the shadows are spawning). Move your group (Avatar, heroes, 15 dark elf fighters and the fire elemental) to one of the torches and fight the shadows in the neighbourhood. Next, get some workers in the area and start building Dark elf towers around the torch (dont let the fire elemental light it yet). Once you have built about 6-8 towers, position the 15 dark elf fighters near the torch and move your fire elemental in to light the torch. Now defend it against the shadows that appear. After the first wave, you can move your Avatar to the next torch. A new fire elemental will appear at the altar of Zarach. Also, get 15 new dark elf fighters from your camp to march to the second torch to defeat the shadows. Build towers again, light the torch and leave the dark elf fighters for protection. Using this procedure you should conquer and light all 4 torches. The shadows will keep spawning near the torches (but less and less will reach your camp). Once you have conquered all 4 torches, the spawning will stop after a while. Now you can take your time to deal with some sidequests: 1. Find a dwarf statue on the eastern side of the map. Read it (it is related to a side quest). 2. In the center of the map (a bit north east of the dark elf monument) there is a chest with the final pieces of a blade princeps 3. Due north to the Dark elf monument there is a map on the ground (it shows Fastholme). You can reach it following the past east of the Dark elf monument and then following the winding path to the west. Notice the torch located in the south-west of the map. This is the location of Flinks treasure.
The easy way Explore the map after summoning your heroes. You can safely go directly north and directly south. Beware of hostile shadows, better to avoid them for now if you can. There are several places you should encounter: 1. to the west you will find a hermit called Chosian. Do not talk to him yet. 2. in the south east you will encounter a fire angel. He is neutral (for now). 3. to the far east you will find a dwarf statue. Read it (it is related to a side quest). 4. In the center of the map (a bit north east of the dark elf monument) there is a chest with pieces of a blade princes 5. Due north to the monument there is a map on the ground (it shows Fastholme). You can reach it following the past east of the Dark elf monument and then following the winding path to the west. Notice the torch which is positioned in the south-west of the map. 6. North east of the Dark elf monument there is a small stone altar. This is the altar of Zarach (as you will find out later) 7. In the north-west, south west, north east and south east you will find 4 torches (which are not lighted at this moment). Each of the torches has two fountains in its neighbourhood (and some shadows). You should be able to clear the map of all shadows (except the neutral ones) with your avatar and heroes. Then talk to Chosian. He will explain the role of a shadow ring. Follow him to the location of the ring (if you can protect him but if he is killed it doesnt matter too much). Do not open the chest or talk to Chosian again (for now). Activate the bindstone a bit west to Chosians chest.

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Go back to the Dark elf monument, spread out your heroes and activate the monument. Start building and use your heroes to defend your camp against the wandering shadows that turn hostile randomly. Build dark elf towers as soon as you can. All resources you need can be found to the south. Build a large army (60 at least) and spread a large number of dark elf towers all over your camp (you may need about 30). Protect the exits to the north, east and to the south with dark elf towers. Also, move workers to all 4 torches and build 6-8 dark elf towers around them. Next, position 10-15 dark elf fighters near each torch. You will have to defend all four torches. Now talk to Chosian again (or open the chest if he has been killed earlier). As soon as you receive the shadow ring, hostile shadows will appear everywhere. Defend your camp (it is not that hard) and move your Avatar to the altar of Zarach. Activate it to let a fire elemental appear. Now move the elemental to one of the 4 torches to light it. Shadows will attack continuously and the spawning cannot be stopped. A new fire elemental will appear at Zarachs altar. Light all 4 torches and protect them (as well as your camp). Keep fighting until the spawning will stop after a while.

Final part Now it is time to face the fire angel (level 28) in the south east of the map. First gather all your troops (you will need them all). Once you get near the fire angel a clip appears and the fight will begin. There is a lot of opposition but they have no chance against 70 or 80 dark elves. Kill the fire angel to stop the spawning of fire elementals and fire dragons (level 20). Take the shadow sword, inspect the chest, activate the bindstone and return to Shal Dun. Talk to Craig UnShallach and he will give you a gemstone to open the gate to the portal to the Abyss. Sidequests Near the torch in the south west there is a chest with an empty rune inside. Also, you will find a chest in the center of the map and a chest near the fire angel that both have a part of the blade princeps. Now go to the Masked One in Shal Dun to obtain a new rune fighter. Go to Tirganach and talk to Flink. He claims that the treasure in Fastholme is protected by 15 skeletons (however, there are many more). Go to Fastholme and rebuild the Dwarf city to build an 80 man Dwarf army. South east of the city you will find a cart which will provide you with extra resources. There will be no attacks so this is pretty boring. Remember the location on the map of Fastholme you found in the Firefangs. Once you get near this place 30 very strong skeletons will appear out of thin air. Also, two smaller groups of skeletons will appear on locations nearby to block your path to the dwarf village. You will have to beat them all because one of them holds the treasure. This will be a heroic battle again. The skeleton marksmen (level 27) are particularly strong so focus on them early in the battle. There are also some new beasts on this level and there are still some other level 27 skeletons on this level (where Uram blocked the road). Beating them will bring you experience (but you may have to rebuild your army several times so it will take a long time to clean to whole map). Go back to Tirganach, talk to Flink and share the treasure. He will provide you with gold, experience, a strong hero rune and some extra items.

15. L11. The Abyss:

In the Burning Rock, arm yourself with the shadow sword and talk to Craig UnShallach. He provides you with a fire gem to open the door to the Abyss. Pass through the portal to the Abyss. Watch the clip and activate the bindstone. Talk to Willit again for a usefull tip. Now move westward towards the elf monument. Avoid the red soldiers (watch Lena ) and pass the camp by staying on the north side of the road. You might notice the location of Cenwen. When you arrive at the monument activate the bindstone only. It makes no sense to build an elf camp here. You will be attacked by frostwolves which are far too strong for your elf fighters (you cannot mine iron, remember). Take the path north of the monument and follow it eastward to the orc monument. You will encounter some manticoras to kill, pass a bindstone (which you can activate). Keep moving to avoid a strong soldier patrol. Activate the orc monument and the bindstone and start building a camp. After a while you will be attacked by fire elementals, but they are not very strong. Build an army of about 30 fighters (fire spells have little effect on fire elementals so built hand-to-hand fighters rather than firemasters). Leave 10 fighters to protect your camp and with your Avatar and 20 fighters (and the Orc Titan) to the south. Pass the soldiers camp for now. Follow the path to the south from which the fire elementals are coming. It will turn to the east towards a fire elemental camp. Attack it, stop the spawning and inspect the chests. They have pretty interesting stuff inside. One of your enemies here is Koliprag, one of the four main enemies you should kill on this level. Be

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sure to inspect his body. Return to your camp. There are still fire elementals attacking the camp but there are only few. Now its time to attack the soldiers camp which is south west of your camp. It isnt that strong. You might also encounter a crimson patrol. You should be able to confront them now. Move northward, kill some manticoras and to the west you will find a second camp of the fire elementals. With about 30 fighters, this should be no problem. Make sure to inspect the chest and the body of Flamagor, your second main enemy. Move northward to the elf monument. There is a camp of frostwolves to the west of it. Destroy it (inspect the chests). One of your victims is Grorr, the third enemy. You can activate the bindstone and the elf monument. It isnt really necessary to build an army of elves. I used 40 totems and 40 veterans and although I had to replenish some of my troops after a few encounters with the soldier camps that are coming later, I did all right. You could, however, build an elf forester in your orc camp because wood is scarce there. Now move to the south again until there is a split in the road. Take the road to the east first. Here is the second soldier camp, which again isnt very strong. To the north you will find some ice golems. Go back to the split in the road and take the right path to the west. You will come to a second split. Keep to the west and you will encounter the last (and strongest) camp of frostwolves. Destroy it (remember the chests). Kill Ahrr, your fourth enemy, to complete the first part of this campaign. Remember to inspect his body.. Go back to the second split in the road and now go eastward. There is the third soldier camp which you should be able to destroy easily. Now it is time to save Cenwen and confront the main enemy force in this level. Move all your troops to the bindstone in the north-eastern part of the map. There is a path to the south and a path to the southwest. Both lead to a strong group of soldiers. It is a good idea to split up your troops and move down both of these roads simultaneously. Now, more fighters are able to fight in this narrow passage. Beat the group of soldiers waiting there and continue southward. You will encounter another group. To the west is a camp of lava golems. After destroying it keep moving to the west. You will meet a strong force of soldiers so keep your army well organised. It will be a fierce battle, but nothing you cannot win with 80 orcs. You end up by a gate that will open. If your Avatar enters the gate a clip will start and your fight against Fial Darg (level 30) will start. So, first do some preparations. Bring in your troops first and make sure your Avatar is equipped with the shadowblade (weapon) and the firebane (spell). Now enter the gate. When the fight starts make sure to activate the firebane. It will protect you against your enemys main weapon. Then use everything you have to slay him. The shadowblade is particularly good here so you might want to make sure your Avatar takes part in the fight. After the fight talk to Cenwen. You should now return to Tirgananch now. But first, to the east there is still a camp of fire dragons. You might want to go there first although it does not bring you much treasure. Now you can return to Tirganach.

16. L05. Tirganach (3rd visit):

Talk to Cenwen who is in the enclosed area right left to the bindstone. You could also inform Elune about the sad faith of Lena. Now go to the hero monument to summon your heroes and leave the city to the north. There are some ice dragons here. You will find a new passage there that leads to the west. There are some new snow drakelings but nothing you cannot handle since you should have reached almost level 28 by now. Finally there is a level 30 bear (who is carrying some valuable items) near the portal. Go through it.

17. L12. Frostweaver Rift :

Cenwen will advise you to look for a dwarf named Murim. You will see him in the north of the map. Walk towards him. You could face a single dragon, but avoid the groups of dragons you might spot. Talk to Murim. His dwarfs will look for fire crystals that you have to bring to dragonstones to stop the spawning of the dragons that will attack your village. North of Murim there is a hero monument so summon your heroes and start building a dwarf town (it will be attacked by dragons, most of them level 22, some of them level 27). Murims dwarfs will emerge from the portal you came through. They will be killed by the dragons unless you protect them. The first objective is to kill the single dragons near the entries to the mines where the dwarfs are heading. Once a dwarf has found a fire crystal he will bring it to Murim. Then it will come into your possession. Now head to one of the dragonstones where the dragons are spawning from. There are three in the south-west and three in the north-east (click them to deliver the firestone). After you stopped the spawning from the six smaller dragonstones, there are three left in the north-west.

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Once you finished this part of the campaign, you are warned for a counter attack. Make sure you have about 30 dwarfs by then and also the dwarf titan. With your heroes you should be able to survive the upcoming attack, but it will not be easy. Now for the final battle you will have to face Aryn (level 28) in the north-west. Take some preparations. First, there is a chest near Aryn. Open it to get the hero runes and retreat to your hero monument. Now, change your heroes into archers or magicians. You cannot reach Aryn so you will have to use distance weapons. Also, muster all the protection against ice magic you can find. For your dwarf army, use defenders but also s small group of elites to help your dwarf titan against two dragons that will spawn during the upcoming fight. Now face Aryn and weaken him until Cenwen can bring him back under her spell.

18. List of game characters

Aedale................................................................ 6, 7, 11 Aedar Thalan ....................................................... 3, 4, 6 Ahrr ............................................................................ 17 Aileen......................................................................... 11 Aryn ....................................................................... 4, 18 Ashgork............................................................ 6, 7, 8, 9 Baetha ....................................................................... 11 Borondir ..................................................................... 12 Carach ......................................................................... 6 Carvus ....................................................................... 12 Cenwen...................................................... 4, 16, 17, 18 Chosian................................................................ 15, 16 Craig UnShallach .................................... 12, 13, 14, 16 Darius .................................................................. 6, 7, 8 Devus....................................................................... 7, 8 Dunhan ................................................................ 3, 4, 5 Ebonie.......................................................................... 9 Elune............................................................ 5, 6, 11, 17 Erlin.............................................................................. 7 Fennair....................................................................... 11 Fial Darg ................................................................ 5, 17 Flamagor.................................................................... 17 Flink ............................................................. 7, 8, 15, 16 Garvyn ......................................................................... 8 Gitzo ............................................................................ 5 Gorg..................................................................... 10, 11 Grim ............................................................... 3, 4, 5, 14 Grorr .......................................................................... 17 Gruolun ........................................................................ 4 Gul Zaldure .......................................................... 13, 14 Hortar....................................................................... 4, 5 Huldis........................................................................... 8 Hutu ......................................................................... 3, 4 Janina .......................................................................... 3 Kahn .......................................................................... 13 Kalid Zhar .............................................................13, 14 Keram ...................................................................11, 12 keymaster .....................................................................6 Koliprag ......................................................................16 Kongar ..........................................................................4 Kyra ..............................................................................8 Lena ...................................................3, 5, 6, 11, 16, 17 Lithere ........................................................................11 Lucius ...................................................................4, 5, 9 Masked One ........................... 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14 Murim .........................................................................17 Nazosh .....................................................................8, 9 Panchesie.....................................................................9 Ragnar....................................................................9, 10 Renya ...........................................................................4 Reowys.....................................................................4, 5 Rogras ..........................................................................8 Setrius ......................................................................3, 4 Shar Arduin.................................................................14 ShilZhar ...............................................................13, 14 Skergs ..........................................................................3 Sohal Zahal..................................................................8 Sorenia .........................................................................9 Svera ............................................................................5 UnShallach ................................................................16 Uram...........................................................9, 10, 11, 16 Whorim .....................................................................4, 5 Willit........................................................................3, 16 Windjalf...............................................................6, 9, 10 Wumpus ...................................................................3, 4 Zanzaar ......................................................................11 Zarach ..................................................................15, 16 Zhaal Tuor ............................................................13, 14 Zolowin .........................................................................4

19. Credits
Thanks to Jowood and Phenomic for Spellforce and The breath of winter add-on Thanks to my son Tim for helping me to play the game. This walkthrough is copyrighted 2005. You can distribute it as you like without any further permission from the author. Any suggestions: mail to LauryBollen@msn.com

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