#3 – Buried Secrets
- Quest Giver: Child outside Temple of Eothas
- Location: Gilded Vale
Go into the Temple of Eothas at the entrance you will find a small child, to southeast of hanging tree. In the initial stone chamber you come across slumped form of Wirtan. He will give you the first task for this quest.
New Objective: Search the temple
Follow the path and clear all the enemies that you encountered. In Main Altar chamber to northeast, after killing the enemies go up and talk with spirit. Now go through the scriptorium and Rectrix’s room to northwest. Here you will find two items related to your quest.
First is at the bookcases, where you will find Book of Verses, which has a clue to opening the Ritual Bells chamber. Second is Hollow Book (Scouting Item), you have to use your scouting ability to show it on the map.
Use your Scouting ability to locate a Hollow Book in front of desk and take Engraved Silver Key to the Ritual Bells chamber.
After visiting the Reflection Pool Ritual Chamber, go through spider-infested chamber or Dormitory room and head to southwest to an archway guarded by Skuldr. This leads to a second Reflection Pool Ritual Chamber, where you’re surprised by three Skuldrs and the ghostly vision, which also provides clues to unlocking Ritual Bells chamber.
In Ritual Bells room, you need to hit the bells in the following order to proceed.
Right, Middle, Left, Right
Or, you can use Engraved Silver Key to open this door.
Now follow the door leading down stairs.
New Objective: Find the remains of the Eothasian priests
Follow the path fight with Shadow on your way to a door to the southeast. Open it. Now go straight, defeat 3 shadows, there is a locked door along northeast wall (Should be on your left side. This requires 4 Mechanics + 5 Lockpicks or 5 Mechanics.
But you can enter Water Lever Chamber, just in-front of the locked door. There is large stone bird’s head with a wooden valve to turn, which will remove water from next chamber directly south of you, down stairs. Go there kill Lesser Black Ooze and inspect robe lying on fountain and obtain the Gleaming Silver Key.
Use key to open the locked door. Follow the path and enter the Sanctuary. You can see a square reflecting pool. Defeat enemy and then inspect the short dead-end passage to southeast. There is a door on the right side, use scouting ability to spot a hidden lever. Pull it to unlock the door.
Inside it you can see the Lost Spirit corpse that glows. Gather the remains when prompted, and your quest updates. Now you can go back to the Wirtan, take stairs to upper level and have a fight with skuldr and King.
New Objective: Return to Wirtan
Return to Wirtan, man seems to be healing up nicely, though your conversation with the spirit reveals Wirtan’s nefarious activities and betrayal of the priests.
Now you can complete quest in multiple ways:
1: Return the bones to Wirtan and order him into exile.
- Reactivity: He joins Gramrfel’s party in Magran’s Fork when you return there after reaching Copperlane.
2: Return the bones to Wirtan; then tell him to seek redemption.
- Reactivity [Reputation+]:A large Reputation boost within Gilded Vale, with villagers remarking on how helpful Wirtan has been lately.
3: Stroll past Wirtan, exit the temple, then turn him in to the magistrate (the unpleasant fellow named Urgeat you met at the hanging tree).
- Reactivity [Reputation+]:An average Reputation boost within Gilded Vale.
4: Kill Wirtan for his crimes.
- Reactivity [Reputation-]:An average Reputation loss within Gilded Vale.
5: Return the bones to Wirtan, without any questions asked and without confronting him.
- Reward:200 cp.
6: Kill Wirtan and return the bones to Magistrate Urgeat, in Gilded Vale.
- Reward:300 cp.
- Reactivity [Reputation+]:An average Reputation boost within Gilded Vale.
#4: Lord of a Barren Land
After completing quest “A Mother’s Plea” you came out. There you can see a man named Kolsc, who speak against Lord Raedric’s cruelty and he asked you to join him. So that to put an end of Raedric’s rule over Gilded Vale. He doesn’t recommend a frontal assault of the fortress and mentions he has a man on the inside named Nedmar who might help your cause. Agree to start the quest.
New Objective: Travel to Raedric’s Hold
Go to the east side of the Gilded Vale and exit to World Map, you can access Esternwood area. The main cobblestone road winds northeast toward a strange Gothic keep. Follow the cobblestone path heading northeast and choose Raedric’s Hold.
New Objective: Confront Lord Raedric the VII inside Raedric’s Keep
Follow the path and you will be the front of the keep, at the gate you will meet with Cletlan and Nudwin, speak to them and they tell you that you cannot enter this fortress.
OR, you can attack on them, and adversaries across the entire fortress turn hostile. This is usually the choice of an adventurer wanting to aggressively announce their presence.
Now you have 3 ways that you can enter into the keep, first you can go up the vines, second go up the middle or go through the dungeon.
#1: Up the Vines
Follow the moat north, until you spot vines growing up the side of the castle’s bell tower (5). Pull yourself up onto the upper battlements.
Then got to east, kill the enemies and open arched door in north tower. This is the Temple Storage entry, which allows quick access into Raedric’s Sanctuary the interior level just above where Raedric’s throne room is located. Armory is located on lower level, check it before entering keep. There’s also a Scroll of Fire in a scouting container just outside the armory.
#2: Up the Middle
Slay Cletlan and Nudwin and go into the keep, here a war awaits you, 9 guards as you enter the keep and venture up central stairs to take care of more guards, including two Paladins of Berath. Then you have a choice of routes:
Nothing like a direct approach, so open the main archway door behind them. This door leads directly to the Keep Hall.
Or you can explore the keep for some really cool stuff, enter the Lower Ramparts door on the ground level to northeast. If you open arched door up on north tower, you can access to Temple Storage.
The Dungeon
Follow the moat east until you spot a sewer grate in the base of the keep’s outer wall. Cross the rocks by the buttress pillars, and inspect the bars. Bend the bars outward. Your party swims through some fetid and flooded hallways to reach the southeastern corner of Dungeons.
Note: If none of your party is strong enough to bend these bars you can buy a pry bar from the Gilded Vale blacksmith to open.
Entering from the moat puts you into the drain room where you came up through a drainage pipe. Make your way through the dungeons, heading northwest into a waterlogged pool chamber with Guls, Revenants and Human Skeletons to fight.
In the southwest corner of the dungeons is a room with ladder up to a trapdoor. This leads back to the keep’s exterior lower ramparts and the eastern battlements. It’s the only way to reach this part of the keep, as there are no other exits here and nothing except five guards to fight.
Toward the center of the dungeon are four cells guarded by a quartet of undead. Slay any Aumaua and Human Skeletons and Revenants, and then open the locked cell door (4 Mechanics + 5 Lockpicks or 5 Mechanics). Alternatively, you can take the Rusted Iron Cell Key off Osrya’s dead body to open the cell. Once in, speak to the man named Giacco. He is one of Kolsc’s men and was captured. He’s too weak to fight and tells of a woman named Osrya. She’s apparently turning men into monsters.
Tell him to flee and that the coast is clear. OR, tell him to stay here. Giacco’s safety is important if you wish to have Nedmar’s help in finding a hidden route to reach Raedric.
Head to the middle of the dungeons, open locked door clear the enemies and open the door to northeast. Head into a chamber with the Osrya in it. Talk to herand she reveals Raedric to be a pious man attempting to cure the Gilded Vale of a curse and says Nedmar is a problem that must be stamped out.
Agree to remove Nedmar, initially siding with Osrya and Raedric. Do this, and she offers a quick, hidden route to Raedric’s throne room, this allows access without battling his guards.
Or, attack Osrya and seek another entrance to Raedric’s chamber. Killing Osrya allows you to get the Rusted Iron Cell Key from her corpse. This unlocks Giacco’s cell. Follow the corridor up to a stairwell, which allows access to kitchen entry of Raedric’s Keep. This is the floor where Raedric is located.
Expect a battle with his many guards if you want to reach his throne room now. OR, head up the adjacent stairs.
You entered this room either at the stairs from Raedric’s Keep Kitchen or via the vine and the Upper Ramparts door. Inspect the two chests in this storage room. 3 sets of Berathian Priest Robes are inside one for each member of your party.
Place them on each of your party members, and continue to head through this level. You are periodically asked who you are by the Acolytes and Priests of Berath in this area. Simply answer nonviolently, and you’re usually allowed past without incident, although this fails to work after the third interception, and you must resort to combat (so follow a direct route to Nedmar if this is an issue for you).
Or, ignore the garb and slay your way across this level.
Head east along corridor and then southeast through the door stone-floor hallway. Enter the last door at the end of corridor. Go to northeast into Nedmar’s chamber. Expect to be stopped by priests once and by a guard once. You can make it to Nedmar without incident.
Lower your weapon and speak to Nedmar the priest in his library chamber. Slay him if you’re feeling bloodthirsty or if you’re following orders from Osrya.
Side with him on behalf of Kolsc. Nedmar agrees, as long as you help one of the poor prisoners Osrya is set to experiment on. Agree to find Giacco, and free him from his dungeon cell. If you have already freed him, tell him so and he gives you the master key. He gives you the Burnished Steel Key which will unlock most doors. This opens the door in the Scriptorium.
After slaying Nedmar in his chamber, head back down the stairs in Temple Storage room by the robe chests. Return to Osyra’s chamber. Explain that you killed Nedmar and she opens a secret wall to the southeast of her chamber. Enter it, climbing the stairs and continuing into the Chancery on Raedric’s Keep. From here head northeast through bedroom, where Raedric’s wife dead to reach Raedric’s throne room.
Nedmar’s Task
After talking to Nedmar head back down in Temple Storage room by the robe chests. Descend to the kitchen and go to northeast corner of the dungeons. Slaughter Osyra and undead en route to Giacco’s cell. Send him on his way then return back to Nedmar. He gives you the Burnished Steel Key, which unlocks the door in Scriptorium. This leads to a staircase to the Keep Chapel.
The route you take depends on your previous actions:
- With Osrya: You can approach the throne room from Chancery without incident.
- With Nedmar: You can approach the throne room from Scriptorium to Chapel without incident.
Access main hallway from ground floor after a ferocious battle with troops. Enter the Keep Hall and unlock the double doors ahead of you. Enter Fountain Room slay enemies and unlock Throne Room.
Here fight with Archmage, Bodyguard, Favored of Berath, Raedric’s Archer, two Champions of Berath, and a Paladin of Berath. Through conversation, it transpires that Raedric and Kolsc are cousins, and your initial briefing with Kolsc didn’t reveal all of the issues and secrets at hand. You may steer the conversation to one of two conclusions:
- Agree to switch your allegiances and set off to find Kolsc to kill him instead (see “Carnage at the Crumbling House”).
- Or, stand firmly with Kolsc and decide that Raedric’s rule must come to a permanent and forceful end.
Elect to slay Raedric. Once you defeat Raedric, Kolsc and his men arrive the throne room. Kolsc congratulates you on a hard-fought victory and awards you. This quest concludes.
OR
For alternative solution, you must first ask questions during the conversation, staying away from negative remarks as much as possible. Ask if Kolsc is his cousin. You say, “Gilded Vale has suffered under your rule. It deserves a better leader.” After his response, you have the option to ask, “I’m willing to listen. What did you have in mind?” Finally, answer, “I’ll find Kolsc and put an end to him.” If you agree to switch sides and search out Kolsc for execution, you must journey out of the keep.
Ne Objective: Travel to Kolsc’s hidden encampment
Head back to Magran’s Fork, where your quest updates. Travel north to the Crumbling House adjacent to the ruined tower where the Will-O-Wisp flits.
New Objective: Confront Kolsc
Enter the structure, where you find Kolsc. Speak to him about the revelations you uncovered from talking to Raedric and then figure out your plan of attack.
- Decide that Kolsc is the most beneficial to keep alive, then return to Raedric’s Keep and finish the quest
- Kill Kolsc then return to Raedric for reward
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