Mulsantir

Mulsantir is the first major city you’re going to see. When you arrive, Safiya will give you a bit of a rundown on why you’re tagging along with her in the first place. Don’t insinuate that her mother gave her special priveleges unless you want to lose some influence with her.

Check around for these dirt mounds by holding down the Z button.

When you get free of the conversation, hold Z and look around to find a dirt mound nearby with a little gold in it. There are a few of these in this area; if you find them, you should net around 6,000 gold and a few items. You can speak to Shelvedar Nuum outside the gates if you wish to trade. Some of the items you picked up in the cave will be worth the maximum of 25,000 gold, so if you’re not using them, go ahead and get some cash for them. He won’t have much unique to sell you, but still, feel free to peruse his inventory. Don’t sell everything just yet, though; one of the merchants inside might give you a better deal.

Into The City

Head into Mulsantir. Just in front of you is the Bazaar. We found that Azim paid slightly more money for our items than either Nuum or Mother Feodora, another nearby merchant, did. When you offload your unusable stuff, it’s time to start poking around.

Your first goal will be to head into the Veil Theater, which is located nearby. However, be sure to be fully buffed before you head inside. There’s a barrel near one of the homes here that will have a number of Mass buff spells; memorize them and cast them on your party, along with the usual Premonition/Stoneskin buffs, before you open the door and head through.

Red Wizard Fight

This will be a difficult challenge for you, as the Red Wizard here is a powerful spellcaster, and he’ll have four Gnolls along for the ride. If you have good saves against immobilizing effects, then you should be able to act fairly autonomously, but if you’re a fighter or another character with less than great spell saves, you’re going to find yourself dazed or paralyzed for most of the fight. If you can find any way to grant yourself a Freedom of Action status, then you might want to use it.

This fight can be tough to manage, but manage it you must.

Anyway, if you have Stoneskin or Premonition on your characters, then the Gnolls are really just a distraction. At the beginning of the fight, summon a Mordenkainen’s Sword and/or Orglash to help you out and to distract your opponents. Your choice after that will be to either immediately go after the Red Wizard or take down the Gnolls first. The archers here can be hit with a Meteor Swarm or some other area-of-effect spell to weaken them, but the melee characters will need to be dealt with personally. If you can summon creatures, they may be distracted enough to let you attack the Wizard. He’ll have plenty of protections, so if possible, cast something like Mordenkainen’s Disjunction on him to strip them away, or simply unload on him with attacks and spells until he falls.

This isn’t an easy fight, but with a little luck and preparation, you’ll defeat your foes. When you do, Magda will give you a Shadow Stone, which you can use to reach the Shadow Plane in Lienna's bedroom. Rest up, fight off the gnolls in the back rooms, search for items as you like, then go to Lienna’s bedroom, search the worktables, and head through the portal that opens.

Shadow Theater

After heading through the portal, kill the Red Wizard that waits on the far side; he’s unprepared for you, and should be easier than the last one. Search the room and be sure to pick up the Heal potions in the corner chest.

Move through to the operating theater. There are a couple of locked chests here, but be sure to have Kaji examine them and disable the traps before you open them. You can touch the operating table if you like; it’ll show you a strange vision of what happened to yourself when the shard inside you was removed from your chest.

Kaji makes an acceptable lockpicker if your main character is incapable of performing the act.

Before heading through the door beyond the operating table, return to the Material Realm, rest, save your game, and rebuff. When you do go through, you’ll have to fight Khai, a red wizard, along with another red wizard, a couple of erinyes, and whatever creatures the fools manage to summon. Khai himself isn’t overly difficult, but taken together, your foes can be difficult to manage. Again, use your summoning spells to cause some havoc, take down the wizards first, and deal with the Erinyes last. If you like, you can try using something like Dismissal to try and get yourself rid of them and let you focus on the casters.

When Khai is dead, a lengthy dialog with Safiya will ensue. You can get loads of influence here by expressing your concern for her mother, and compliment her on her battle acumen. None of this influences your alignment, so feel free to butter her up. When you’re done, loot the bodies and return to the exterior area of Mulsantir.

A Warning From the Wychlaren

As you exit the Veil, a group of witches will accost you and accuse you of being the cause of an army of spirits on the gates of Mulsantir. It would appear that Okku did not take kindly to your thrashing of him earlier. The witches will require you to face him and bring a resolution to the conflict, and will offer you a reward in exchange for dealing with the Red Wizards: if you head to the prison to the north, you’ll be able to choose any companions that will have you.

The witches of Mulsantir are decidedly unfriendly to you.

Before you manage to go anywhere, Efrem the Stag and Susah the Crow will speak to you, offering to lend their aid, but only if you find their sister. Accept their quest, if only for the experience. You’ll gain the Shadow Mulsantir and Prodigal Daughter journal entries.

Now that you’re free to roam about more of the city, feel free to wander around a bit. You can find the Prison to the north. Across the way are some shallow graves; loot them, then kill the Telthors that pop out of them to pick up a fair amount of essences, including some Brilliants. There are also a bunch of dirt mounds in the city, so feel free to loot those as well.

At this point, you should have a few quests in your journal, and can begin to start examining them as you like. Before you do so, though, head to the Prison to find another character that will join you on your quest.

Previous PageNext: Explorations »