Redemption – Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

This is a guide for Redemption, Chapter 6 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.

Redemption Map

Legend

1. Nexus
2. Frost Beast
3. Umbragen Compound
4. Umbragen Nexus
5. Ettins and Frost Giant
6. Lizardfolk Units
7. Efreeti
8. Mausoleum
9. Horned Devil
10. Potion Laboratory
11. Orobus, First Encounter
12. Wand of Negation
13. Unidentified Liquid
14. Marilith
15. Wretched Chamber
16. Traps
17. Medusas
18. Orobus, Second Encounter
19. Umbragen Compound Generator

Exits:

• A: Tunnel
• B: Tunnel
• C: Tunnel
• D: Tunnel
• E: Teleporter circles. You’ll need to damage Orobus (#11) enough to cause him to flee before you’ll be able to use these teleporter circles.

Description

With their final prize just out of reach, the Order of the Flame must now retrieve a Seal of Light stolen by the Umbragen, and fight their way past a massive compound that blocks the mountain pass to the Heart of Siberys.

Walkthrough

This is the most straightforward chapter in the Order of the Flame campaign. The surface part of the map basically only contains your nexus (#1) and the Umbragen nexus (#4), and there are only a couple of sub-quests to do in the underworld. Most of the flavor in the chapter comes from random boss monsters, including a frost beast (#2) and a pair of medusas (#17).

To start out in the chapter, you should do the usual: build up your nexus, harvest some dragonshards, and explore the underworld to gain gold and experience. The Umbragen will cheat again, and so they’ll train way more units than they should (including a champion and a juggernaut), and they’ll constantly send out war parties to attack your nexus. So you should try to keep your main army near your nexus, and then only explore the underworld in between attacks.

Eventually, once you’ve built up your army, you’ll need to make a choice: to destroy the Umbragen nexus or to skip it. The Umbragen nexus isn’t involved in any quests or reward bonuses, and so attacking it is optional, but the Umbragen will be a constant thorn in your side until it has been destroyed, and so you might want to destroy it just to make the rest of the chapter easier.

If you decide to attack the nexus, the standard strategies work. Just send your army to the nexus, get the attention of its defenders, and then draw them back to your nexus so you’ll have the assistance of your walls and towers. If you can do this a couple times without taking too much in the way of losses, then you should get a free shot at the nexus.

The required portion of the chapter revolves around the “compound” at the northern edge of the map (#3). You’ll need to go through the gate in the compound to reach the Heart of Siberys, but you’ll find that the gate has a forcefield blocking it. To disable to the forcefield, you’ll have to attack the champion Orobus (#11), which will cause him to flee and activate the teleporter circle at Exit E, and then you’ll have to use the teleporter circle to reach the Umbragen compound generator (#19). Destroying the generator will disable the forcefield. You’ll also need to track down Orobus (#18) so that you can kill him and regain the third seal of light.

With the forcefield gone from the compound, you’ll need to attack and destroy the Umbragen compound cannon on top of it. The wands of negation (#12) might be able to help here (it’s difficult to tell if the wands actually do anything in the chapter; they might be broken), but we’ve never needed any extra assistance. By the time you’ve jumped through the hoops necessary to disable the forcefield, taking out the cannon should be no challenge at all. Once you’re destroyed the cannon, the chapter will end.

1 – Nexus

2 – Frost Beast

The frost beast will drop an amulet of energy when it dies.

3 – Umbragen Compound

4 – Umbragen Nexus

5 – Ettins and Frost Giant

Here you’ll find three ettins fighting a frost giant. All four are enemies (that is, you can’t “rescue” the frost giant or anything), so whack away when you see them.

6 – Lizardfolk Units

You’ll find a handful of Lizardfolk units here. They won’t drop anything interesting when they die.

7 – Efreeti

The efreeti will tell you about a devil to the north (#9) who carries a cursed scimitar, and he’ll ask you to return the scimitar to him. If you do, then he’ll reward you with a champion’s artifact: the devil fang necklace.

Note: Just in case you’re curious, “efreeti” is singular and “efreet” is plural.

8 – Mausoleum

When you first reach the mausoleum, you’ll find it guarded by a grave keeper. The grave keeper will drop a horn of devil calling (which you can use at #9 and #10) when it dies.

The mausoleum itself is a place of power. It will create a skeleton fighter for you to control (temporarily) each time one of your non-soldier units dies.

9 – Horned Devil

The horned devil is big and nasty, and that’s probably why there are two sub-quests associated with it (see #7 and #10). If you have the horn of devil calling (from #8), then you can use it to briefly paralyze the devil. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of surviving long enough to kill the devil, and for that it’s a good idea to have your units to at least level 2 and probably level 3. When the devil dies, it will drop a cursed scimitar and a sword of vampirism.

10 – Potion Laboratory

When you first approach the laboratory, you’ll find it guarded by three iron golems. However, once you’ve dispatched the golems, a deathless artificer (also called a mechanist) will appear and chastise you for killing his bodyguards. The artificer will then mention the devil to the north (#9), tell you that the horn of devil calling (from #8) might help you to defeat it, and finally offer to convert the horn into something more useful to you once you’ve dealt with the devil.

The devil can be difficult to beat, but once you’ve done so, the artificer will reward you with 10 horns of battle fury.

The potion laboratory itself is identical to the one from Chapter Two. That is, in a few places in the underworld, you’ll find unidentified liquids, and when you use them on the laboratory, they’ll be transformed into more useful potions, such as potions of haste or potions of rage. Most of the liquids can be found at #13, but one should also be sitting on the ground right next to the laboratory.

11 – Orobus, First Encounter

You’ll find the champion Orobus plus a few of his favorite Umbragen friends here. Once you’ve done enough damage to him, Orobus will flee through the nearby teleporter circle (Exit E). You’ll have to follow him to #18 to kill him.

12 – Wand of Negation

13 – Unidentified Liquid

14 – Marilith

You’ll find the marilith here fighting a few Umbragen units. Mariliths resist spell damage at 95%, so you’ll have a tough time with it if you’re using clerics and paladins.

15 – Wretched Chamber

The wretched chamber is a place of power. If you control it, then your units will attack faster.

16 – Traps

17 – Medusas

You’ll find two medusas and a few dire giant cobras here. The medusas will drop random loot when they die.

18 – Orobus, Second Encounter

This time you’ll find Orobus with an umbrascarred beholder. That sounds like it could be nasty, but if you attack the pair with a dozen or more fully upgraded units, then the battle shouldn’t last very long. When Orobus dies, he’ll drop the third seal of light.

19 – Umbragen Compound Generator

Destroying the generator will disable the forcefield surrounding the Umbragen compound (#3).

Points Chart