Citadel of Scales – Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

This is a guide for Citadel of Scales, Chapter 4 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.

Citadel of Scales Map

Legend

1. Nexus
2. Dwarven Mages
3. Ancient Graveyard
4. Ford
5. Shrine of the Blood Queen
6. Tranquil Fountain
7. Dwarven Shrine
8. Treasure Rooms
9. Tribal Defender
10. Duergar
11. Fire Toads
12. Lizardfolk Nexus
13. Sorcerer’s Tower
14. Darroc’s First Trial
15. Lever
16. Darroc’s Second Trial
17. Darroc’s Third Trial
18. Seal of Light

Exits:

• A: Teleporter Circle. You won’t be able to use the teleporter circle until you’ve defeated the bloodroot eating away at the western instance.
• B: Tunnel.
• C: Tunnel. This tunnel starts out blocked. You’ll need to free the duergar (#10) to be able to use it.
• D: Tunnel.
• E: Tunnel.
• F: Tunnel. You won’t be able to use this tunnel until you’ve destroyed the Lizardfolk nexus (#12).

Description

Having claimed the first Seal of Light, the Order of the Flame pushes onward towards the location of the second Seal. Upon entering the swamplands, they discover a ruined outpost, all that remains from the Order’s previous attempt to claim the Heart. Now, Lady Marryn’s forces must succeed where their predecessors have failed.

New Units

• Deathless Guardian
• Sorcerer

Walkthrough

You’ll start out in the chapter next to a badly-damaged nexus (#1). Every so often, small groups of Lizardfolk (from the west) or night skinks (from the north) will attack the nexus. There are two ways to stop these attacks. The easiest way is to repair the nexus walls. That will just cost you a small amount of gold and dragonshards. The more difficult way is to destroy the night skink area to the north (#3) and the Lizardfolk defenders to the west (#4). Possibly, the attacks might eventually stop on their own, but we’ve never waited that long.

Once you’ve stopped the attacks, you’ll pretty much have free reign over the map. The Lizardfolk champion Redfang will patrol around with several units, but otherwise you’ll only encounter fixed enemies. So explore thoroughly, complete a few sub-quests (described in the annotations below), and then head for the enemy nexus (#12).

The Lizardfolk nexus should be pretty easy to destroy. We’ve yet to see the Lizardfolk actually upgrade the walls of the nexus, and so once you’ve defeated the few units that might be defending it, the rest should be slow but easy. With the nexus out of the way, the tunnel leading to Darroc’s Trials (Exit F) will open up.

There are three trials in all. In the first trial (#14), you’ll have to defeat several skeleton archers while avoiding a few traps. If you send in a rogue first, then you can use him to disable the traps without the archer’s noticing. You can also skirt around to the north and pull the lever there (#15), which will cause some columns to collapse on the archers.

In the second trial (#16), you’ll have to fight some zombies and vampires. You should find this battle to be pretty easy.

In the third and final trial (#17), you’ll have to fight a beast called a cryohydra. The cryohydra is big, and it has a lot of hit points, and it can freeze your units with its icy breath, but it doesn’t do all that much damage. When we used a dozen level 5 clerics and paladins (plus Lady Marryn) against the cryohydra, it barely made a dent.

When the cryohydra dies, you’ll receive a champion’s artifact (the artifact is different for each champion, but it will infuse the champion’s weapon with a frost attack), and the gate leading to the Seal of Light (#18) will open. Then when you approach the Seal of Light, the chapter will end.

1 – Nexus

2 – Dwarven Mages

The dwarven mages will ask you to investigate why the deathless guardians in the underworld have grown silent, and they’ll give you a rune of passage so that you can visit the shrine where they’re supposed to be. When you reach the shrine (#7), you’ll find it surrounded by Umbragen units. After defeating those units, you’ll gain control of the shrine, and you’ll be allowed to start producing deathless guardians. You’ll also receive a new quest, to improve the shrine by destroying the tribal defender (#9) that is preventing light from reaching the shrine.

After defeating the Umbragen units, when you return to the dwarven mages, they’ll reward you with a potion of clarity III, and they’ll also join your side. Dwarven mages won’t enter the underworld, but you can use them to harvest dragonshards on the surface (they’re too frail to take into battle).

3 – Ancient Graveyard

Night skinks will spawn here (#3). When you get close enough, you’ll receive a quest to defeat the night skinks and demolish their burial grounds. During the battle, you should find a pair of bonecrafted pauldrons and a scroll of stone to flesh — mass. All three of those quest items can be used in the northeastern corner of the map (#13). Once you’ve cleansed the graveyard, two potions of cure light wounds will appear at the waterfall to the south (#3a).

4 – Ford

The river here has piranhas in it, and your units will take serious damage when they try to cross through it. The Lizardfolk will station a few units on the western side of the ford, but it’s not a good idea to charge at them with land units, because between the Lizardfolk and the piranhas, your force will probably get slaughtered. Instead, to defeat the Lizardfolk here, it’s better to either circle around through the tunnels and the underworld, or else hit them with flame archons. Three or four flame archons can do the job easily.

5 – Shrine of the Blood Queen

You’ll find a few traps here, plus some gold, plus a lectern. The lectern contains a book about the Blood Queen. When you read it, you’ll earn 5000 experience.

6 – Tranquil Fountain

The Umbragen will camp a couple of silent stalkers next to the fountain, and so you won’t be able to control it until you’ve gained some units (such as deathless guardians) that can detect them.

7 – Dwarven Shrine

Once the shrine has been upgraded, controlling it will allow your units to see farther and detect cloaked units.

8 – Treasure Rooms

In these two treasure rooms you’ll find boots of haste, a masterwork breastplate, and some gold.

9 – Tribal Defender

Destroying this tower will allow light to shine on the dwarven shrine below (#7).

10 – Duergar

When you approach the duergar, you’ll discover that they’ve been surrounded by some magical brambles, and that they’re stuck in the southwestern corner of the map. To destroy the brambles, simply attack them with a unit that can do fire damage (such as the flame archon). Once they’ve been freed, and after you’ve spoken to them in the underworld, the duergar will join your cause.

Note: If you get the duergar killed, they’ll drop duergar bracers, which you can use at #13.

11 – Fire Toads

Fire toads will spawn here until they’ve dropped five fire toad tongues. You can use the tongues at #13.

12 – Lizardfolk Nexus

The Lizardfolk never seem to bother to upgrade the walls of this nexus, so it shouldn’t be very difficult to destroy it.

13 – Sorcerer’s Tower

The sorcerer’s tower is a place of power that allows units to use their special abilities more quickly. Next to the tower, you’ll find a sorcerer and four pteranodon riders, all turned to stone. If you use the scroll of stone to flesh — mass (from #3) on the sorcerer (nothing will happen if you use it on the pteranodon riders), then the sorcerer and pteranodon riders will come to life and start fighting each other. The pteranodon riders are flying units, so make sure you have some ranged units in the area to help in the fight.

After the battle with the pteranodon riders, the sorcerer will join your side, and you’ll be allowed to start training sorcerers. The elderly wizard will also take this opportunity to show up again, and he’ll offer you three deals. If you give him five fire toad tongues (from #11), then he’ll give you a sword of cinders. If you give him two bonecrafted pauldrons (from #3), then he’ll give you a scroll of create undead and a scroll of monster summoning. And if you give him four duergar bracers (from the duergar at #10), then he’ll give you a girdle of dwarven might.

14 – Darroc’s First Trial

15 – Lever

16 – Darroc’s Second Trial

17 – Darroc’s Third Trial

18 – Seal of Light

Points Chart