Time for more Icewind Keep!
The barracks room has a door, which we open. Behind it is a treasure room, with a chest, bags of gold and stuff, and quite a few barrels of the good old stat boosting drinks. After taking our picks, we head back to the bunk room and check out the beds.
Said beds contain gold or items. One even has a halberd. Wow, ogres are sound sleepers. I certainly wouldn't want to sleep on a halberd.
Further down the left hand passage is another barracks room, with yet more ogres. Oh joy. We kill them, and check the beds for more gold. Yay, we're rich!
The final left door leads to an office of some kind. We dispatch the pair of ogres who are standing by a desk, and check the two closets. One has a couple of items laying around. The other has a lever, which we decide not to touch.
Well, guess we need to investigate the right side.
I could describe the right passage for you...but I won't. You know why?
It's an exact mirrored copy of the left side. The only difference is that instead of ogres, we have guards. Same two barracks rooms, one with a treasure room off of it, same office with two closets, the usual. And we clear it just as easily.
Now we head back and forth and hit the levers on each side. This raises both the barricade we saw, and a second barricade we did not.
Now down the opened path! Most of the enemies were so badly hurt, they're trying to flee desperately. However, a handful didn't get the message. We beat those down, then mop up the rest.
The room we're in is basically a dining hall. Despite there being no kitchen. I wonder how they cook their food. The back of the hall opens up to another passage. But our spell points are depleted, so we back out to go rest.
Just outside, a pair of archers attempt to avenge their fallen comrades. Instead, they get to join them.
After resting in White Cap, we head back to the keep and head back down that passage. It leads to a throne room, with two thrones. Also, there is a massed army of ogres and guards. Did I mention they were massed?
Fireball time. And after a few of those, we kite them back to the dining room, hide behind a wall, and Ring of Fire the remainder. After that, the cleanup is pretty simple.
Back in the throne room, we open the cabinet and get some loot, then look at the thrones. The smaller of the two has a switch built into the arm, so we activate it, opening a wall.
It leads to another secret room, with four chests. Pretty good loot in them. But most importantly, one of them has the Dragon Tower keys! It's that time again...
Icewind Keep complete!
We head out, and back up to Eric von Stromgard's castle. He's grateful, and gives Cate her promotion. She is now a Battle Mage! Cheers.
Also, he tells us what he really wanted the keys for. With the keys, he can arrange for adjustment of the Dragon Towers to target specific enemies, rather than indiscriminately shooting down anyone. Guess who he wants to do this? On the upside, if we do, he'll grant Cate the final promotion: to Warrior Mage!
We head back to White Cap and train up another level. Level 30 is sweet. Skill points allocated.
Now we can't exactly just go around doing all the Dragon Towers just yet. But...what about his other quest? The one where we're supposed to end winter? That sounds fun...let's do that!
