Well, we're going to tackle our first council quest...but first some more odds and ends.
We visit the Body guild, and finally get to learn the Cure Disease spell. This is essential for the upcoming dungeon, as Free Haven doesn't have a church to cure Disease...yet.
Also, we check up on the various Expert skill trainers (after a quick visit to the bank to withdraw some money we'd set aside). Expert Water and Air magic for Eno and Cate, and expert Merchant for Toblerone. Good stuff.
Now for the final touch: the Cleric promotion quest! As I mentioned before, you need a carpenter and a stonecutter to repair the Free Haven church. The stonecutter is the easy part; one lives in a house just south of the church's ruins.
The carpenter...is less easy. Carpenters have a chance to show up as random passerby or as a random citizen living in a house, but they are not guaranteed to be at any one location. Normally, it can take you a while to locate one of these. However, luck is my lady, as my house to house checking for trainers turned up a carpenter in Free Haven.
We just take them to the church and they get to work. All that's left is to return to Lord Stone and collect on that one. But...he had something else he wanted us to do...
Time to track down the Prince of Thieves and put an end to his nefarious schemes. However, he is well hidden, but my psychic powers (or my previous game experience, it can be difficult to differentiate the two) tell me where he is. He is hiding...in the Free Haven Sewers.
These sewers are a bit different from your typical dungeon. There are several entrances, located in various houses around the city. The best bet for exploring, which we will do, is to pick one entrance and go through it.
The entrance we choose, for convenience, is just southeast of the main Free Haven inn, and south of the docks. Easy access to a place to rest is a good idea.
The sewers are roughly divided into two halves, east and west. All of the entrances connect to the eastern side, so we want to clean out that first before moving west. We enter, and come face-to-face with some wonderful members of the Baa clergy. They aren't too difficult.
The eastern side is basically a giant maze of tunnels surrounding a single large room. Because giving a blow by blow walkthrough of the maze would be rather pointless (the dungeon is mostly the same killfest throughout), I'll skip all the details and give you the highlights and general advice.
- The main enemies here are Baa clergy, rats, and rogues. All things we've seen before. Except for the elite Baa priests, none of these pose a real threat to the party. The rogues are fairly quiet and can sneak up if attention is not paid, so keeping Wizard Eye up and our eyes on the minimap is valuable. The rats, as usual, can inflict disease, so that's why we have Cure Disease. Remember, there is no temple in Free Haven for us to cure it in, as it won't be repaired until we return to Lord Stone. Our strategy is mostly arrows for rats and rogues, and melee and spells for the Baa-ites.
- The center room is filled with several spell traps that autofire bouncing poison spells all over the place. Being careful when moving through this room is vital, as the traps can easily off someone at low health. Sadly, these do not hit enemies (like the many rats in the room), which would make our lives so much easier.
- There are several random places around the sewers where several basic potions (or in one case, empty vials) sit. Collecting these will help in the future with brewing more advanced potions. In addition, there are several sewer grates that contain potions if searched. Ewwww...who'd want to drink those?
- On the subject of sewer grates, there's one directly opposite the northwestern entrance that is unique. Instead of potions, it may give you gold, or damage your entire party. If you click on it enough times, it might give you a Sewer Key, which opens a locked door near one of the northern exits. However, if you fail your dice rolls and take damage, you can't get the key (which is what happened to us). Beyond the door are several piece of loot; alas, we will not get them.
- A southwest room has a small well. Drinking from this can heal characters. We don't need to use it, because we're awesome (at least, that's Toblerone's excuse).
- There's an unlit torch along one of the southern passages. Activating it lights it...and draws the attention of a group of thieves further to the south. If they are already dead, nothing else happens.
- Toblerone sucks at disarming traps. We are paying him way too much for the number of explosions in our faces. He only was able to safely open one chest.
Basically, we run in circles killing baddies until the section is clear. We only have to go rest once, and then we finish the section. Easy, wasn't it? But that was only the east side...the west side of the sewers awaits!
