Star Trail - Part 2 A Walkthrough by Brian Burke @~Continued from Issue 42 TJOLMAR Find Ingerimm's house in the mid-north east to enter the final dungeon. The Salamander Stone opens the door which is otherwise guarded by magic which you cannot overcome. Indeed your Astral points will be drained if you attempt to open the door by magic. Push your way in. You can try and save some time by equipping your party well before entering. I had to retreat from the end-game fight in order to buy all the gear needed to defeat him. The strategy choice is yours of course but I found that the requirements were - 5/6 Super Magic Potions per spellcaster Each character equipped with at least 10 Whirlweeds (carry them in the left hand) A Miracle Cure potion is a nice extra Bow and arrows for all allowed characters Poison Potions to use on weapons Magic-casters need well developed Combat spells If you haven't enough money from the chests for this stuff then nip down to Tiefhusen. Leave the town to the west and travel south past the little lake. At the next cross-roads travel southeast to a cross-roads just above a Temple. Once there head back northwest, keep looping round. Eventually you'll meet a band of Orcs. Fight them, take their Sabres and just keep trotting up and down until your Inventory slots are full then head back to Tiefhusen. Keep repeating until you have acquired all you need. Remember to have each character carry a spare pair of boots. You may be lucky enough to gain sufficient experience points to raise your characters up a level before the big fight too. Level 1. After the first battle read the document, this gives the sequence in which branches should be pulled in order to open up access to the first level, briefly these are north, south then east to open a passage west. Don't despair when this closes behind you - it opens up again simply enough, triggered by passing over the appropriate place. Go west and north to find a Flame key in a tree, further west is a lever/gate puzzle where you need to level one member with their hand on a lever whilst the rest go just through the raised gate. Then the other party member can re-join. Further west and south is a girl stuck fast in ice. Retreat a bit and cast the `Melt Solid' spell to release her. She'll join up with you until eventually she runs away - wimp! Take another Flame key from the fountain. In the south east there's a false wall to the east which leads to stairs to Level 2. The stairs to the south east in this area are false. Also in this area through a false wall find a Black Statuette which enables a door to be opened further on. Level 2. Make your way west after searching the shelf in the north east several times to find a Bronze Key. Fill your water bottles up at the fountain found in one of the rooms south off this passage. Ensuring that the person with the highest perception level is leading the party search the wall south once at the end of the corridor west. Go south and search the sleeping quarters en- route. Make sure you complete the southernmost rooms before heading off east down the corridor that gives damage every other step. At the eastern end of this passage is a false wall and you enter a large room. The Chests contain money which you'll probably need to buy bows, arrows and potions required to defeat the big baddie on Level 3. One third of the way down the east wall is a hidden door to a maze like area. Explore this thoroughly to fight 4 battles where you win pieces of an Amulet. Once you have the final piece SAVE the game quickly. The life of the pieces is restricted and you have to find the door to the stairs to Level 3 in the south east without delay. Best to find this piece of wall first so you know where to go. The wall stays open once you're through so you can return to fill up your water bottles. Best to use the Teleport spell rather than go through all that pain losing hit points down the passage. Level 3. Oh no. Just as you get there Helen runs away and some blighter nicks the stone again! No matter, you don't need it now. Take note of what he says, it answers a riddle later. First go west and fight to obtain a document. Then go east to find a combination. How you're supposed to suss the numbers out I don't know and I admit I rang the Helpline to find them. Use any of these - 1325, 1725, 2325 or 2725 and go east. Explore the passages and find three Teleport squares. Depending which way you approach them, north or south etc, determines which of the other two locations you land in. There's a couple of false walls along the way. Your prime objective is to access the western area with loads of pillars. Entering this room head for the first pillar west and answer the riddle with "Arkandor". This opens up a passage in the south west where you find a Dragon Claw. This opens up a door later in the centre area of the level. Exploring north and west of this door you'll find a plaque on a north wall and a secret door to the west. In a room to the north access to the north is through another false wall/door west and up a long passage. At the end and east of the passage lies a large room with an altar at its entrance and another in the room itself. SAVE before entering too far into the room. You may need more than one attempt at the final battle for all your characters to survive. In the centre of the room you can see a dwarf, it's Ingerimm. Before you can get to him the game cuts away to the baddie. The little wizard transforms into the big baddie, a giant Dragon. Hitting anywhere on the rock he's on damages him. If you stay in one place too long he'll literally gobble you up and spit you out. Very messy but quite nice sound effects though! Standing to the right and hitting him means you're liable to be frequently hit by his tail which whips round. By far the best policy is to scatter everyone and fire arrows at him with your spellcasters flinging their most powerful combat spells. Use your whirlweeds to keep going and top up the Magic Users' astral points when they're low. Four of my characters were charmed to fight against each other but fortunately not my two main spellcasters. You don't kill the Dragon, he just surrenders by letting you off! A passage to the north has now opened. Go through east and south to find a set of stairs that lead to the rather damp end game sequence. You'll see that a David Bowie lookalike is King of the Elves but I bet you always knew the guy was a bit of a Fairy anyway. Oh my! I didn't really mean that - heh heh. You're given the opportunity to save your trusty band ready for the third Realms of Arkania game - Shadows Over Riva - which should be released by the summer of `96. I'll be looking forward to it and the promise of more `Realms' games to follow. - o -