Zhentil Keep - Pool of Radiance

This guide will help you navigate the Zhentil Keep in Pool of Radiance.

Zhentil Keep Map

Area Overview

Zhentil Keep is basically one big trap set up for you by Councilman Cadorna. When you arrive, you’ll be invited to dinner by the commandant of the keep, you’ll be given a brief tour of the keep, and then you’ll be shown to your quarters (#1). After resting for enough time, you’ll be escorted to the mess hall, where you’ll have a conversation with the commandant and the officers of the keep. If you talk about magic, you might hear a story about the Pool of Radiance (journal entry 46).

After dinner, you’ll be escorted back to your room, and you’ll be given the option to “go to sleep” or “sleep with a watch.” You should select the latter. Either way you’ll be attacked by some aides, but if you simply “go to sleep” then you’ll take some damage before the battle starts.

From here you’ll have to face several more waves of attacks. The waves include mostly guards, aides and corporals. Fortunately, unlike some other places in the game, the waves won’t come consecutively, and so you’ll be able to save and cast spells in between them.

Eventually, you’ll face a wave with a dwarven fighter in it. The dwarf drops gauntlets of ogre power. This wave will immediately be followed by the wave with the commandant in it. The commandant’s group drops plate mail +2, a shield +1, a long sword +2, two rings of fire resistance, three potions of extra healing, bracers of AC 3, and a wand of lightning.

Once the commandant is dead, the rest of the keep will surrender. There isn’t anything in the rest of the keep — so far as we can tell, there isn’t even a way to get into the central area where the mess hall is — and so once the battles are over, you might as well leave the keep and return to New Phlan to collect your reward.