Entering the Ring – Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

This is a guide for Entering the Ring, Chapter 1 of the Order of the Flame campaign in Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard. It includes a detailed walkthrough, a handy map, and a table listing all the points you can earn throughout the mission.

Entering the Ring Map

Legend

1. Starting Point
2. Base Camp
3. Bugbear Mine
4. Gate – You won’t be able to go through this gate. Every so often, an ettin will attack it.
5. Knights – The knights will move out of the way after you’ve defeated the bugbears at the mine (#3).
6. Gelatinous Cube
7. Frost Giant
8. Ettins
9. Rangers
10. Frost Beast

Exits:

• A: Tunnel. You won’t be able to enter the tunnel until after you’ve defeated the bugbears at the mine (#3).
• B: Tunnel. You won’t be able to enter the tunnel until after you’ve burned up the tree blocking it by using the Ring of Fire (#5).
• C: Teleporter circle. The pixie at the teleporter circle will tell you that if you can destroy the ravenous bloodroot that is devouring the magic of the teleporter circle to the north, then you’ll be able to use the teleporter circles to quickly cross the mountains.

Description

In their quest to claim a legendary dragonshard known as the Heart of Siberys, the Order of the Flame arrives at the edge of the Ring of Storms, a mountain range with tempests raging across its towering peaks. The champions of the Order must now meet with the scouting party they sent ahead and find a passage into the Ring of Storms.

New Units

• Barbarian
• Cleric
• Ranger

Walkthrough

In most missions it doesn’t make much of a difference which champion you select, but for this mission you should choose Lady Marryn or Amathor. That’s because there aren’t any traps to worry about, making Kael less useful, and you can’t train artificers yet, meaning you won’t be able to heal Bastion if you select him.

But regardless of the champion you select, you’ll start out the mission at the southern edge of the map (#1). A knight will run up to you there and ask you to follow him to the base camp to the north (#2), where you’ll find some knights and clerics battling a few bugbears. Once the threat has been cleared, talk to the clerics at the camp. One will request that you defeat the bugbears at the mine to the east (#3), and retrieve the gold that they’ve stolen.

When you get close to the mine, you’ll trigger a cut scene where a pair of bugbears will carry boxes out of the mine — but then sense you and attack. Multiple bugbears will appear during the battle, culminating with a bugbear chieftain. If your troops run into trouble during the fight, retreat them back towards the base camp, and then only have them return once they’ve healed. After the battle, loot the six boxes next to the mine (worth about 350 gold), and then return to the base camp.

At the base camp, if you talk to the cleric who gave you the quest, you’ll gain the base camp (really an expansion well) for your own use, and a pair of clerics will join your cause (assuming they survived the initial battle). You can’t gain experience during this mission, and you’re not allowed to build monuments, so there isn’t much you can do with the base camp other re-supply your ranks and increase your population limit by four. We’d suggest focusing more on extra clerics than on extra barbarians.

Your next objective is to traverse the underground cavern (starting at Exit A). The knights (#5) blocking the path will move out of the way after you’ve defeated the bugbears at the mine. However, before heading to the cavern, you should talk to the pixie at Exit C to receive its quest, and then explore the remainder of the southern part of the map to root out any remaining bugbears.

Inside the cavern, you’ll meet an elderly wizard who will offer to show you the way through. However, you’ll quickly come upon a gelatinous cube (#6), and the wizard will teleport himself to the surface. Gelatinous cubes are sort of annoying. They’ll engulf and eat away at units, paralyzing them for the duration. So you’ll either need to kill the cube quickly to save the engulfed unit, or else you’ll need to force the cube to spit out the unit. Knock-back attacks (such as Lady Marryn’s “hammer of justice” ability) should cause the cube to spit out the unit, and sometimes the cube will spit out units randomly. When the gelatinous cube dies, it’ll drop a ring of fireball.

At the end of the cavern (just before Exit B), you’ll come across a tree blocking the exit. To get past the tree, you’ll need to use the ring of fireball on it. (That is, left click on the ring in your inventory, and then left click on the tree.)

Outside the cavern, you’ll immediately encounter a frost giant (#7). Frost giants can be tough because they have area-effect knock-back attacks, but since you’ll face this one all by itself, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem. Once the giant dies, be sure to loot the three healing potions next to its campfire.

Off to the west, you’ll first run into an ettin (#8), and then you’ll come to the bloodroot eating away at the teleporter circle (Exit C). Once you’ve disposed of the bloodroot, you’ll be able to use the teleporter circles to quickly move between the southern and northern halves of the map.

North of the teleporter circles, you’ll likely run into some more ettins, but then, in the northwestern corner of the map, you’ll find a trio of rangers (#9). If you have one of your clerics heal the ranger leader (left click on the “heal light wounds” ability and then left click on the ranger), the rangers will join you, and you’ll be allowed to build an Order of the Bow at your base.

Note: The rangers will join you no matter what your current population is. So for the easiest time in the upcoming battles, train enough barbarians and clerics to hit your maximum unit count, and then let the rangers join you.

East of the rangers you’ll be ambushed by some ettins (hit and run tactics are effective against them), and then you’ll finally come to an icy passage (#10). When you get close enough to the passage, a frost beast will emerge. The frost beast is the end boss for the mission, and it’s reasonably tough. From time to time it will freeze your units, and it’ll summon some winter wolves to help it out. Don’t bother attacking the wolves; the frost beast will just replace them. Instead, order all of your units to focus on the beast, and try to maneuver your forces so that the wolves attack your champion and barbarians rather than your clerics or rangers. When the frost beast dies, the mission will end.

Points Chart