Under Siege – Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

This is a guide for Under Siege, Chapter 6 of the Lizardfolk 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.

Under Siege Map

Legend

1. Starting Point / Expansion Well
2. Darroc’s Remains
3. Main Gate
4. Lizard Chieftain
5. Destructible Walls
6. Rod of Sunburst
7. Dark Spires
8. Qabalrin Relic of Life
9. Suits of Armor
10. Drider
11. Umbrascarred Beholder
12. Statue Room
13. Gelatinous Cube
14. Darroc’s Tomb
15. Pteranodon Roost
16. Fighting Arena
17. Burial Grounds
18. Collector Burrow
19. Verdant Cairn
20. The Great Mother (Keep)
21. Mystic Hut
22. Turtle Den
23. Hidden Mound
24. Toxic Bog
25. Draconic Monument
26. Orobus

Exits:

• A: Tunnel. You’ll need to destroy the brambles surrounding the tunnel to be able to use it.
• B: Tunnel.
• C: Tunnel.

Description

With all their reinforcements, the Lizardfolk return to their capital city to find it under siege. The Umbragen have invaded, seeking to cripple their forces and acquire powerful artifacts. The Lizardfolk must reclaim what is theirs, and deliver a decisive blow to their dark assailants.

Walkthrough

This is easily the most frustrating chapter in either campaign. Darroc will die during the introductory cinematic sequence, leaving you with only one champion. You’ll start out with only a handful of level 1 units and perhaps an expansion well, and while the Umbragen won’t receive a nexus or an expansion well of their own, their units will start out level 5, and they’ll get free war parties from time to time. And finally, while you’ll have training buildings for all of your troops available, they’ll be scattered throughout the map, you won’t have any way of defending them, and you’ll probably lose a few of them when you first uncover them. So we wouldn’t recommend playing this chapter using the “hard” difficulty setting, even if that’s the difficulty setting you’d normally use, and we’d suggest that you use a few different saved games to record your progress.

You’ll start off with a few units (including a war felldrake) in the southwestern corner of the map (#1). If you’re not playing on the “hard” difficulty setting, then you’ll also have an expansion well there. When you build up the expansion well, realize that in this chapter, even with only a single training building for a unit, you’ll be able to upgrade that unit to level 5. So pick out at least a couple units to advance (fighters and shamans are good choices), and don’t be afraid to use monuments to make them even more powerful.

Once you’ve gotten your expansion well started, explore the area of the map outside of your “city.” You’ll find Darroc’s remains nearby (#2), and you’ll also find a lizard chieftain to the east (#4), who will tell you about a secret passage leading into the city (Exit A).

Besides using the secret passage and going through the underworld, there are two ways to get into the city: the main gate (#3) and a pair of destructible walls (#5). You’ll find that the main gate has a forcefield protecting it. To get through the gate, you’ll have to use Wowen, Blackclaw, or the rod of sunburst (#6). To get through the destructible walls, you’ll have to use Redfang or the war felldrake. However, we wouldn’t recommend rushing into the city right away. It’s better to collect some dragonshards and gather some gold and experience in the underworld first, so that when you do get into the city, you’ll be able to repair buildings and train and upgrade units as quickly as possible.

So head to the underworld next, and explore there as carefully as possible. Battles that seem like they should be easy, such as with the gelatinous cube (#13), might cause you some problems if the majority of your units are still level 1. To get around the problem, be sure to attack and retreat, especially when you tackle the level 5 Umbragen units protecting the dark spires (#7).

Note: One of the best things you can do when you enter the underworld is head straight for the relic of life (#8). It’s a place of power that will boost the hit points of your units by 25%.

When you’re ready to tackle the city, we’d suggest going through Exit C first. That will put you next to a pteranodon roost (#15) and a fighting arena (#16), and Lizardfolk fighters and pteranodon riders are useful units to build up for the upcoming battles. Then you’ll just need to slowly make your way through the city, defeating the fixed Umbragen units as you come across them. If you’re not worried about the reward bonuses, then it doesn’t really matter how these battles go, as long as you win. If you’re worried about the reward bonuses, then you should save often, because if you approach some buildings from the “wrong” side, you’ll probably lose them to the nearby Umbragen units.

Note: In the “marsh” area of the city (near #23), a chameleon rogue will whisper for you to come closer. It’s not a trap, but if you approach the rogue, then you’ll gain three chameleon rogues and a spitting turtle. That sounds good, but the rogues will appear in three different places on the map, and if they uncover any buildings for you, you probably won’t have any hope of getting your units to the buildings in time to save them. So ignore the chameleon rogue until you’ve cleared out most of the city.

Once you’ve destroyed the dark spires and taken back your city, you’ll get a final objective to defeat the Umbragen champion Orobus (#26). Orobus will have a few units helping him out, but if you’ve maintained any sort of army at all, then this battle should be pretty easy, and once Orobus goes down, the chapter will end.

1 – Starting Point / Expansion Well

You’ll only get an expansion well here if you’re not playing on the “hard” difficulty setting.

2 – Darroc’s Remains

3 – Main Gate

You can use a champion like Wowen or Blackclaw to open the main gate, or you can use the rod of sunburst.

4 – Lizard Chieftain

The lizard chieftain will tell you about the secret passage to the northwest (Exit A). Later, once you’ve gone through the passage, you’ll find a shaman doll (#4a) in the underworld. When you bring the doll to the chieftain, he’ll give you a necklace of restoration.

5 – Destructible Walls

You can use Redfang or the war felldrake to destroy the walls here.

6 – Rod of Sunburst

When you pick up the rod of sunburst, the undead creatures on the ground next to it will wake up and attack you.

7 – Dark Spires

You’ll need to destroy all four dark spires to take back control of your city. Each spire will be guarded by a handful of Umbragen units. You’ll probably need to attack and retreat a couple of times to defeat them without taking any losses.

8 – Qabalrin Relic of Life

The relic is a place of power that will give your units 25% more hit points.

9 – Suits of Armor

You’ll find eight suits of armor in this room. When you click on them, some of the suits will attack you, and others will turn into useful artifacts.

10 – Drider

The drider will drop a staff of command when it dies. Also, killing the drider will put a stop to the random spider attacks in the underworld.

11 – Umbrascarred Beholder

This umbrascarred beholder is different than the regular Umbragen juggernaut unit. It will only be able to damage you via the four orbs surrounding it. So use hit-and-run tactics to destroy the orbs and Umbragen units in the area, and then mop up the beholder itself. When the umbrascarred beholder dies, it will drop a beholder’s eye.

12 – Statue Room

Inside this room you’ll find several statues, each with a pile of dirt in front of it. If you click on a pile of dirt, then the soldier represented by the statue will attack you. If you click on the captain’s pile of dirt, then all of the soldiers will attack you. The captain will drop abyssal gauntlets when it dies.

13 – Gelatinous Cube

14 – Darroc’s Tomb

If you bring Darroc’s remains (#2) to the tomb, then Darroc’s spirit will appear and give you Darroc’s soul gem. However, this exchange seems to be a little bit buggy. We’ve done it three times, but we’ve only actually received the soul gem once. It’s possible your champion has to be near the tomb when Darroc’s spirit appears or else you won’t get anything.

15 – Pteranodon Roost

16 – Fighting Arena

17 – Burial Grounds

18 – Collector Burrow

19 – Verdant Cairn

20 – The Great Mother (Keep)

21 – Mystic Hut

22 – Turtle Den

23 – Hidden Mound

24 – Toxic Bog

25 – Draconic Monument

26 – Orobus

Points Chart