The lockers are locked. It's for the best; the trainees have to go through enough without you poking your sticky fingers through their stuff.
This is an intensely cramped barracks, this tables crammed in between floor-to-ceiling bunkbeds, with two rusty lockers in the back. Just the right level of discomfort for churning out soldiers strong enough to fight the Empire.
This camp also boasts a very-well appointed forge. In the corner is an anvil and a white hot fire, of sufficient quality to work steel weapons. A rare thing, down here.
Most definitely not a good idea. Word gets around fast about what you've done. A whole garrison of Exile shock troops immediately set out to make sure you don't get out of the Castle alive. They succeed.
The walls inside this small room are lined with lead and covered with small, intricate runes. Must be a room for summoning. Dangerous place.
This is the largest barracks you've ever seen - there's enough room here for a whole regiment of King Micah's finest men! Many of the beds look unused, however - the troops are probably out on maneuvers.
You round the corridor, and suddenly everything erupts in flame!
The guards nod and let you pass.
The guards stop you and point at a nearby sign. You don't have the clearance to go in there. They suggest you go see Gilda for a higher clearance.
What luck! Among the unpleasantly esoteric tomes and grimoires that litter these shelves, you find a good, old, practical spell book! Pity you can't understand a word of it.
What luck! Among the unpleasantly esoteric tomes and grimoires that litter these shelves, you find a good, old, practical spell book! You now know the spell Word of Recall.
This is a room for meditation. Mages can sit on thick rugs, surrounding a glowing, multicolored runic design on the floor. You all feel somewhat pleasantly light-headed as you look at it, too much so to feel comfortable.
You stare deep into the pool and watch, transfixed, as images of the area around the Castle appear before you. However, nothing interesting seems to be happening. You step away.
You stare deep into the pool and watch, transfixed, as images of the area nearby appear before you. You watch a battle between an Exile patrol and Empire raiders, ending in a costly defeat for the raiders. After a while, the images fade and you step away.
You sleep for a while. Despite the frequent nips of large bedbugs, you manage to get some good resting in. After you get up, you tidy things up a little bit for the next adventurers to come along.
The long, winding passage ends in a short, dimly lit corridor. It's dusty. Nobody comes back here much, now.
This is the chamber where the Exile council, the mayors of the six (now 5) great cities of Exile, come to meet. It's a solemn place, and slightly dusty. It would seem the Council hasn't been able to come together for some time.
You have a hard time remembering when you've seen so much paper - heaps, stacks, reams of it! And all covered with tightly written lists, records, and other bureaucratic wheel-spinning.
This dusty room is packed ceiling high with dressed blocks of stone, cement, and other building materials. The Castle is definitely ready to quickly repair any breached walls.
You slip into one of the cells, where Empire prisoners are brought for extra-intensive questioning.
Much to your surprise, you see, growing in the decomposed mushroom mulch growing ahead of you, ember flowers! Most of them are either too small or too old for alchemy, but some of them may be good...
You have stumbled upon the cramped, foul-smelling lair of some sort of large, humanoid creature. It's currently empty. As you step in, however, you hear a commotion behind you. Someone is coming home...
There is an oppressive air hanging over this fort. You get a sense of dark magic, and darker rituals. You can't be sure, but you would guess that hint of sulphur in the air is not entirely natural.
The corridor is blocked here by several chalky-looking pillars of stone. As you approach them, darts fly out of the wall...
You finally manage to slay the enormous demon Harthag. How the giants managed to strike a deal with such a mighty creature, you cannot begin to guess. Fortunately, you've managed to end it.
Tied around a small stalagmite, you find a pink ribbon.
One the floor kicked in the corner here is a pink ribbon.
There is a trophy on the wall: The skin and eyestalks of a gazer.
There are several trophies on the wall: A wide variety of broken weapons ... flails without heads, swords in five pieces, etc.
There is a trophy on the wall: A whole, stuffed basilisk, and the stone head of a giant who fell victim to it.
There is a trophy on the wall: All eight heads of a pyrohydra.
In this chamber, you find the grisly tribute the giants have been giving to the haakai. Horrifying.
This chamber is a large smithy, where giants craft the oversized weapons used to pulverize humans like you. There is a large pool of molten metal before you, and a huge block of stone for pounding out the large, crude blades nearby.
You turn your back on her. She says "Please! Help me!" and continues pleading until you're out of earshot.
As the chains fall off, you notice they have small runes on them. The woman leaps up energetically, a vicious, fanged smile appearing on her face. You now know why she looked so hungry...
There is a dead slith chained to the wall. The smell is oppressive. You back away.
There is a recently dead human chained to the wall. It wears the shirt of an Empire courier. The giants would seem to be no friends to the Empire.
You trip a deadfall set by the giants. You jump forward, just in time to avoid being crushed by a lot of boulders. You're now trapped inside.
There are two large doors set into this wall. However, someone has sealed them shut with huge, iron spikes. You could possibly get them open, but only if you spent more time than you have.
You lift the statue carefully off the altar and carefully secure it in one of your packs. Disaster fails to occur.
The huge box is mainly filled with lots of smelly, ill-cared for skins and furs. All you're likely to get out of here is parasites - dozens of small, nasty bugs immediately begin jumping on you.
There is a large skewer suspended over this firepit. You hope you don't end up on it.
You hear a distant clanking noise.
Try as you might, the book is just too complicated to make sense of. If you just knew a little bit more about magic...
A wall nearby slides into the ceiling.
Nothing happens.
One of the pillars slides soundlessly into the ceiling. Then, you hear a strange chiming noise. It makes the walls vibrate.
The Empire archmage Elderan falls. The loss of his skills is a severe blow to the Empire army.
To the north is a huge, elaborate laboratory, filled with tools for performing dark magic, huge networks of tubes, alebemics, and other alchemical equipment, and magical wards for holding in imprisoned creatures. It's a powerful, ominous place.
To the west is a large depression in the floor, filled with molten metal. The blast of heat when you open the door almost singes your hair off. You can't imagine what sort of experiment would require something as difficult to make and dangerous as this.
You are at the entrance to the roof of the tower, which is a large courtyard with a glittering fountain. The courtyard is surrounding by a high wall, and is tiled with large, smooth granite slabs.
The grimoire describes, in detail, how to open up a magical portal and draw mighty beings through it. These creatures will follow your every command. It's very interesting. You now know how to cast Major Summoning.
The tome describes bizarre, horrifying rituals. It takes some time to build up the strength to do so, but finally you slam the book shut, your minds reeling and numb. You feel a little bit less sane.
The book is fascinating! It describes powerful, elaborate rituals, in a clear, concise manner! You now know the spell Recharge.
Suddenly, the western wall of this room slides into the floor! With a roaring noise and a blast of heat, flames pour out from behind it, racing towards you!
White motes of light fall from the ceiling, causing the room to cool down.
For a powerful fortress of the Empire, things are eerily quiet. You've interrupted nobody going about their studies, and no guards stand on patrol. You cannot imagine you could have gotten this far without them knowing you're here...
There is a bright flash of light. You feel very disoriented.
One moment, there were no guards before you. The next moment, there were. Several of them. Very, very large guards.
This is a desk of a scribe. Here, the tedious work of copying and recopying scrolls has been taking place. However, a quick search reveals anything secret or valuable has been removed.
It doesn't take long to figure out what this thing is. A brief inspection of the runes indicates it's a magical cage, in which captured beasts (and humans) may be held for study (or worse). At the moment, it's inactive, and nothing is held in it.
From this large chamber, you can hear moans and angry howls. The sweat and stench of strange creatures hangs heavily in the air.
You get close to the altar. There's nothing on it, and it doesn't impress you.
With several small clouds of sulphurous smoke, demonic beings appear to defend the altar.
The bookshelf is mostly empty, and what few scrolls left on it are either blank or filled with meandering, worthless notes. Someone has quite thoroughly cleaned these shelves out.
Ugh. It tastes like what you imagine the inside of your boots to taste like. You feel ill.
Hmm. This tastes like old, melted cheese. And not good cheese. You decide to leave it be.
Mmm! Tastes just like beef stew! Delicious!
When you cast a spell, a white glow appears around the altar, shimmers a bit, flashes brightly, and fades. It would seem the altar has no special evil magic about it - it's just a black block of stone.
The gaps in the barriers have been left open for you.
You find a tiny cramped office, nestled in between the barracks and fort walls.
You find a ladder leading up to the second floor of this tower. You climb up to take a peek. There's a decent view, but not much interesting. You climb back down.
This small temple shows signs of being visited often. The kneeling pads are worn with constant use by the beleaguered soldiers of the fort.
The walls are a formidable sight, blackened, stained, and studded with vicious looking spikes. As if that weren't enough, there are glowing glyphs at regular intervals, promising fiery death to those who try to climb the walls.
You try to walk down this passage, but lightning flashes across its entrance, forcing you back. The bolts fade away, and you hear a soft clicking noise coming from the levers to the south. Then all is quiet.
This large room is spit into thirds by two wide chasms. Scattered about the room are several giants. They are strange creatures, though - their flesh has a waxy, artificial cast to it. The monsters are, however, definitely hostile.
As soon as you open your food bags the statues go mad with hunger, leading forward, ripping your food from your hands, and devouring it. Then they back away and resolidify. You check your possessions. Oh dear - all your food has disappeared!
The statues flex their muscles and hiss at you menacingly. You back away.
With a loud grinding noise, the walls rearrange themselves in front of you!
Interesting. The walls of the passage to the west drip water and are crumbling slightly. The ground must be unstable in this area of the caves.
You dish up several bowls of hot, hearty stew. It is filling and refreshing, and you quickly eat your fills. It is only later that you realize the stuff had some non-standard ingredients...
You trip a trap! With clouds of smoke, several monsters appear in front of and behind you!
These scrolls are covered with magical incantations in an obscure runic language. Fortunately, you manage to decipher them. They're descriptions of interesting rituals - you now know the spell Force Barrier.
These scrolls are covered with bizarre gibberish. Head spinning, you replace them on the shelf.
A scroll mentions three Empire installations in the caves southwest of Dharmon - a tower filled with sinister mages doing weird experiments, the caves of Sulfras the dragon, and, largest of the three, the fortress Akhronath.
When you step on the rune, you hear a grinding noise to the south. You hope it's not bad news.
The door next to you is large and well-constructed. What is more, is has several rings of runes of magical protection. Interesting.
You reenter the living (and dying) place of Sixus. His body is still here, surrounded by the ashes of the secret papers he brought here. It is a sorry scene indeed.
You reenter the spartan former living quarters of Sixus. He took everything with him but his simple bed.
These is a tome on magical barriers here. It's pretty dry and theoretical, but makes one interesting comment - some magical barriers may be resistant to the dispel barrier spell, but could be brought down by being near quickfire.
You find a journal of the notes of the sinister archmage Garzahd, powerful leader of the Empire forces invading Exile. It concludes that his defenses are incredible, but a mage living near Formello, Solberg, may know how to deal with him.
