You’ll need an invitation before you can enter the castle. Visit the Headquarters of the Town Watch (in the southern part of the dukedom) to learn about the three quests that can get you in.
Otto is the spokesman for the trio. No matter what you say to him at the start, he’ll offer you a book about the philosopher Nemris. Go ahead and accept the book since it will help you in a later quest. Otto will also tell you that Nericon’s Garden (#6) is locked, and that Blake in Rivertown (#7) has the key.
The chest is locked, but the sapphire key at #14 unlocks it.
9 – Equipment
You should find some equipment lying on the ground here, guarded by several snakes and spiders. The main prize is a book of “meteor strike.”
10 – Key
No doubt it unlocks something, but we’ve never discovered what.
11 – Shrine of Good and Evil
When you click on the orb, you’ll gain +/- 5 to one of your attributes. This seems to be random rather than relying on your reputation, so be sure to save first.
12 – Encounter
Three hoodlums named Bull, Ross and Fist will approach you and try to pick a fight. If you talk your way out of the conflict, you’ll gain 7500 experience. If instead you fight the trio and win, you’ll probably gain over twice that much experience. It’s possible that Ross and Fist will just stand there and not fight, but Bull is level 27 and has an armor rating of 114, and so he’s difficult enough to kill on his own. However, Bull is susceptible to the “freeze” spell, so if you can defeat him and his friends, that’s the path you should take.
13 – Caroline
Somewhere around this point a woman named Caroline will approach you and ask if you’ve seen her son. When you say you haven’t, she’ll then decide he must have gone exploring in the Dark Cave (#24), and she’ll ask you to investigate. If you rescue the boy from the vampire inside the cave, you’ll receive 15,000 experience when you return to Caroline.
14 – Sapphire Key
It’s just lying on the ground. It unlocks the chest at #8.
15 – Romeo’s House
The platinum key that unlocks the house is sitting under the boulder next to the front door. Inside you’ll find a letter from Romeo to Juliet, but it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere.
16 – Lich Cave
Inside the cave you’ll find a level 31 lich. If you can kill it, then you’ll be able to pick up a high quality hammer named deathblow, a high quality (two-handed) claymore, and a spellbook of “polymorph.”
17 – Open Graves
Apparently some grave robbing has been going on here. The perpetrators won’t be around (maybe Zombie Jake got them), but you’ll be able to pick up the loot they’ve dug up: gems, jewelry and gold.
18 – Jeremiah’s House
Next to the house you’ll find a grave marker that reads, “Here lies the old Jeremiah. His buried gold was never found, so feel free to look around.” The house is locked, but you can find the key to the front door inside the nearby haystack.
Inside the house you’ll find two things of importance. The first is the zero-weight bed in the far corner. Since it doesn’t have any weight, you can pick it up and put it in your inventory if you want, and have a bed with you at all times. Even if you don’t want the bed, you should move it so you can access the hatch beneath it. The hatch is locked, but the silver key that opens it is under one of the big packages near the front door (press the alt key to see it). Inside the hatch you’ll find a ruby ring.
You’ll find the undertaker Paul out front. If you ask him why the cemetery (#20) is locked, he’ll say it’s by order of Duke Janus. If you can pick locks, you might find a useful piece of equipment in the locked chest in Paul’s bedroom.
Inside the cave you’ll find some bats and then a vampire poised over a little boy. You’ll have to make a choice here: do you save the little boy and lose three attribute points (usually one each of strength, agility and intelligence), or do you sacrifice the little boy? If you save the boy then you’ll be able to complete Caroline’s quest (in Rivertown) and receive a point in “bless” from Sir Markham (#25). Otherwise you won’t.
Regardless, you’ll want to kill the vampire. To unlock the door to his coffin, you can either pick it (two points in “lockpick” is enough), or you can use the “telekinesis” spell to move the lever on the other side of the door (along the western wall). Then when you click on the coffin, the vampire will appear. The vampire is level 30 and can be tough to kill, but you’ll earn 38,000 experience plus 3 reputation points if you can do it.
Plus, inside the coffin you’ll find a key. It unlocks the nearby chest, and inside the chest you’ll find boots of the vampire (which can be very good) and a medium strength charm.
25 – Sir Markham
He’ll ask you to investigate the Dark Cave (#24). If you save the boy and defeat the vampire inside, Markham will teach you a point of the “bless” spell.
26 – Locked Chests
You’ll find two locked chests here. You can unlock them using the composite keys to the west (#29), or you can pick them provided you have at least three points in “lockpick.”
27 – Bandit Cache
It looks like a cave entrance, but it’s really a container. Once you move the boulders out of the way you’ll find a (two-handed) Blade of Chaos inside.
28 – Holy Weapons Chamber
The chamber (accessed via the stairway hidden in the bushes) is involved in the Holy Weapons quest. See that entry in the Other Quests section for details. It’s best to avoid the chamber until you’re ready to complete the quest.
Resident role-playing RPG game expert. Knows where trolls and paladins come from. You must fight for your right to gather your party before venturing forth.
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