This is a guide for The Forgotten City, Chapter 2 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.
The Forgotten City Map
Starting Point
Vision
Potion Laboratory
Tranquil Fountain
Iron Golem
Elven Vampires
Secret Library
Graveyard
Elderly Wizard
Expansion Well
Warforged Parts
Mural Room
Rogues
Tomb Guardian’s Room
Grave Keeper’s Room
Locked Gate
Exit Room
Exits:
A: Tunnel.
Description
Traveling through the frost beast’s cave, the champions of the Order have found a passage that appears to lead under the mountain range. It is through this passage that they hope to enter the Ring of Storms, bringing them one step closer to the Heart of Siberys.
This chapter is simply a collection of unrelated sub-quests. All you’re required to do is reach the end of the city (#17), but of course it’s always a good idea to explore thoroughly to pick up extra experience and equipment.
All of the champions are worthwhile to use during this chapter. You’ll gain an artificer as soon as you enter the dungeon (#1), and then when you reach the expansion well (#10), you’ll be able to build an Artificer’s Guild, allowing you to level up your artificers so they can heal warforged units, including Bastion. There are also a few traps in the dungeon, giving Kael something to do. Lady Marryn and Amathor are always useful.
The sub-quests are described in the annotations below.
1 – Starting Point
2 – Vision
When you step here, you’ll see a vision of a horned devil. You might meet the devil for real at the end of the chapter (#15).
The fountain boosts the energy regeneration rate for nearby units.
5 – Iron Golem
When you enter this room, you’ll receive a quest objective to “awaken the golem.” To do that, you’ll need to “blind” its guardians. That’s a little cryptic, but notice that there are four pressure plates with eyes on them in the corners of the room. If you place units on all four plates, then the iron golem will join your party (but not count against your population limit).
Every so often, a handful of elven vampires will appear here and attack you. Also at this location, you can find warforged parts. Once you’ve collected three warforged parts (the other two parts can be found at #11), you’ll be allowed to build the Titan Forge at your expansion well (#10).
7 – Secret Library
You’ll find a forcefield blocking the entrance to the library the first time you visit it. You won’t be able to get inside until you’ve helped the elderly wizard (#9). Inside, you’ll find a place of power that will give you a bonus to experience earned.
8 – Graveyard
Inside the graveyard you’ll meet a tortured spirit. It will ask you to help it by killing its captors and acquiring for it the key that will allow it to go free. If you decide to help the spirit, then speak to it again. When you do, three elven vampires will appear. They’ll attack your party and (primarily) the spirit, and one will drop the key of binding when it dies. If you keep the spirit alive and give it the key after the battle, then it will drop a couple of artifacts for you before it departs (one of the artifacts always seems to be a masterwork sword).
Note: Clerics aren’t allowed to heal the spirit, but you can use healing potions on it to keep it alive. You might also consider waiting until you’ve taken over the expansion well (#10), so that your party is more powerful when you attempt the quest.
9 – Elderly Wizard
When you approach the elderly wizard (#9), he’ll ask you to help him escape his prison by pulling the lever just to the north. However, if you do that, the room north of that (#9a) will open up, and a marilith will attack you. The marilith can be tough, and it’s another battle where you might want to wait until after you’ve captured the expansion well (#10). The marilith will drop a wizard’s staff when it dies, and you’ll also find an unidentified liquid (and more) in the room where it started. See #3 for what to do with the liquid.
If you give the staff to the elderly wizard, he’ll let himself out of his cell and then open up the secret library to the north (#7).
10 – Expansion Well
Unless you selected Bastion as your champion, the best thing to do here is to build up your clerics. (If you build two Lore Holds and a Dwarven Armory, and if you train two clerics, then you’ll still earn the “miser” bonus.)
11 – Warforged Parts
See #6 for details.
12 – Mural Room
When you approach the mural room, you’ll trigger a cut scene that will explain the history of the land. Inside the mural room, a pair of guardian heads will periodically summon tomb warriors to attack you. If you want, you can attack the guardian heads to stop the attacks, but if you instead kill all of the warriors that they summon, you’ll earn the “ghost buster” bonus at the end.
13 – Rogues
At this spot you’ll gain a pair of rogues. To disarm the nearby trap, just select one of the rogues and then right-click on the trap.
14 – Tomb Guardian’s Room
The tomb guardian is linked to the grave keeper. See #15 for details.
15 – Grave Keeper’s Room
The grave keeper will ask you to fetch the staff of command from the tomb guardian (#14). However, when you reach the guardian’s room, the guardian will give you a counteroffer, to destroy the grave keeper by using a scroll of banishment on it. It doesn’t really matter whose side you take.
If you side with the grave keeper, then go to the tomb guardian’s room and right-click on the drum of war there. The tomb guardian will attack you, and the two guardian heads in the room will start summoning tomb warriors (this is just like #12, except that these warriors aren’t involved in the “ghost buster” bonus). Once the battle is complete, you should find the staff of command and an unidentified liquid on the ground. (See #3 for information about the liquid.) Then to complete the quest, just talk to the grave keeper again.
If you side with the tomb guardian, then when you use the scroll of banishment on the grave keeper, you’ll kill the keeper and its minions, but then a horned devil will appear. The horned devil is nasty, but it’ll be all by itself, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble with it if you’ve taken the time to build up your forces. Plus, the tomb guardian will help you in the battle. When the horned devil dies, you’ll find an unidentified potion on the ground. (See #3 for information about the liquid.) Then to complete the quest, just talk to the tomb guardian again.
Regardless of which entity you decide to help, at the end of the battle, one of the entity’s minions will scurry off to open the gate at #16.
16 – Locked Gate
You won’t be able to go through this gate until you’ve helped the temple guardian (#14) or the grave keeper (#15).
17 – Exit Room
In this room you’ll find two caryatid columns. They’re not as tough as some of the other things you’ve fought in this chapter, and once you’ve dispatched them, the chapter will end.
Points Chart
Mission Points
Value
Description
Traverse the City of Qalatesh
1000
Reached the exit from the city.
Defeat the Grave Keeper -or- Return the Staff of Command
1000
Defeated the grave keeper -or- Defeated the tomb guardian.
Collect 1000 Gold
500
Collected 1000 gold.
Awaken the Golem
500
Awakened the golem.
Return the Key to the Tortured Spirit
250
Freed the tortured spirit.
Help the Elderly Wizard
500
Freed the elderly wizard.
Bonus: Golem Lover
100
Did not allow the iron golem to die.
Bonus: Alchemist Apprentice
250
Used all four unidentified liquids on the potion laboratory.
Bonus: Ghost Buster
500
Killed all of the tomb warriors in the mural room.
Bonus Points
Value
Description
Great Commander Bonus
500
Allowed fewer than 25% of your units to die.
Against All Odds Bonus
500
Created less than five captains.
Miser Bonus
1000
Used less than 600 gold and 600 shards.
Meticulous Bonus
2000
Completed every possible quest.
Time Bonus
0
Beat the mission in under 10 minutes. (You can actually score up to 1500 points here, but this bonus will never count against you.)
Difficulty
Varies
Easy is worth 0 points, Normal is worth 500 points, and Hard is worth 2000 points.
Share this article:
Val Hull
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.