Anvil of Dawn (Part 7)

                       Author unknown

@~Concluded from Issue 47

FIRE MOUNTAIN

Goal: Meet Black Gnarl, get him to make you the Container, find
the words of opening.

Okay, you need to go here after the Quagmire, but you've ended up
on the Warlord's doorstep instead. No problemo. Just enter the
Warlord's tower. Two Sword Thanes will attack you (and a
Cacofiend, which you can ignore for now if you like). One of the
Sword Thanes will drop a gold ankh key.  Use it on the door to
your right. Enter the 'porter and head for the nearest exit. You
will be facing Fire Mountain. Step off the landing and you will be
teleported there.  Now enter.

This place is on two levels. The first level is similar to the
Barrier, in that you need to open doors to get through the
mountain so you can reach the Anvil of the Dawn. But first you
have to meet Black Gnarl and get your container made. To enter the
stairs leading down you will need to find four iron marks and an
amulet called the Sigil of Fire. You also need to find a scroll
with the Words of Opening on it. This is all fairly simple.

You enter in the west. To the north is an opening. This leads to
two altars. Ahead in the east-west hall are pressure plates. These
open and close holes in the floor.  You do not want to fall
through these holes because the second level is deadly hot. You
need to find the Sigil of Fire before you can go down there. So be
careful. The spell the wind woman gave you will allow you to float
over holes and move faster. But when you use this spell, make sure
you aren't standing over a pressure plate when it wears off. For
some reason this is deadly.

Anyway, down the hall, to the south are two illusory walls. The
first leads to an area you need to explore. In there, behind an
illusory wall, you will find a scroll with the words of opening on
it. Read the scroll then toss it. Another hall in this area is
found behind an illusory wall. It has spinners and holes in the
floor. If you can make it to the end you will find a teleporter.
It will take you to an area where you can find the Sigil of Fire
in a chest. Put it on.  Now, once you clean out this section of
the map, head back down the hall. The second south passage leads
to a door that requires an iron mark.  You will need at least
three of them to enter through to the stairs leading down. So go
west down the hall to the first opening in the north. This leads
to a hall of teleporters. To the east is a illusory wall. Go down
this hallway to an area where there is a spinner that will make it
really hard for you to weight down a plate in an alcove. Do it
anyway. An illusory wall in the north of this area has a mark and
some old armor.

Go back to the teleporters.  Enter and keep entering them until
you end up in a room to the west.  You will find some useful stuff
in here. Between the teleporters is an illusory wall to the north.
Enter there, head east then north. In the end of that hall is a
room. In a south west wall of this room is a switch that opens
passages to the east and west. The western room has some rad armor
that is less powerful than the knight's armor but it gives to 25%
protection against fire spells. To the east is a complex area with
holes in the floor, and spinners. A south passage in this section
has illusory walls to east and west. Put on a Dancing Winds Spell
and float into these rooms. Put bags on the plates until a
pressure plate is revealed at the south end of the hall.  Put
something on it then repeat until a second plate is revealed.
After weighing this down, two rooms open up. In one of these rooms
you'll find War Render, the best sword in the game. Use it for
everything except the Castellan, whom you'll be fighting soon.

Once you've explored all the areas you can, head back to the room
with the mark doors to the south. Put an iron mark in the hole and
you'll find another door wanting a mark. In the next to last room
an illusory wall to the south will provide the fourth mark, if you
need it. Make sure you have that Sigil of Fire on. Now go
downstairs.

This part is easy. There are a bunch of infernal bones in this
place to fight. There are blocks and rocks here. Push a block on
one of the plates or roll a rock onto one. A door will open in the
center of the dungeon.  There are four plates controlling four
doors. You only need to open one. Go in and find Black Gnarl. He's
hard to miss. Talk to him and he'll make you the Container. Now
head back to the Warlord's tower. By stepping off the landing in
front of Fire Mountain (the side you came in, west) you will end
up back at the tower.

THE WARLORD'S TOWER

Goal: Get the Dark Slag

This place is pretty simple and by now you should find it easy to
kill the monsters because you should have the best swords in the
game. Two words of warning. Watch out for holes in the floor and
keep a Reflections on the Lake spell going at all times. You will
keep out of harm that way. The switches look like bull horns on a
demon face.  Pull them down whenever you see them.

I think the best way to do this place is kill everything you see
on the first level and try to clean out every room. In the north
of the first floor you will find the barracks. Lots of Sword
Thanes here. Kill them, get the keys.  The southern barracks room
has a block standing near a pressure plate. Ignore the teleporter
in the alcove. Push the block onto the plate. It opens a door down
the hall. In that room you can find Cloudburst, a shield that
helps make you immune to lightning, Though I think a reflection
spell is the best way to go. One room in the north has a lot of
pressure plates and lightning spells going off.  Cast a
Reflections spell, walk over the plates until the doors open
revealing the chests.  Get the key you need inside. The altars are
right off the main entrance room. They are opened by using a wren
key. You need to hit the switches on either side of the room to
reveal the wren keyholes. But you have to move fast because
rolling rocks are turning off the switches. Pull it and a door
opens.  Use the key and you can get to the altars.  When you have
cleaned out this place, use the pearl serpent key to open the door
in the north of the entrance hall. This reveals a teleporter that
takes you to the stairs going up. But before you can find the
stairs you have to deal with a few annoyances. Avoid the rolling
rocks. Go to the north east hallway and put a block on the plate
in the alcove east. Now walk through the illusory wall to your
west and step on the pressure plate. A wall opens revealing a
door. Use the sun key to get in and head upstairs.

On the second floor, keep your reflector spell going.  You will
enter a room with three blocks and one rock. Destroy the block
south of the rock with your sword.  Now get behind the rock and
push it north into the blocks above it. Now destroy the block to
the east of it. Now go where that block was and push the rock
west, then south onto the pressure plate. If you return to the
hall, you will see a passage opened to the stairs going up.

On the third floor you will find an illusory wall north of where
you come up the stairs. A switch in there opens a nearby door.
Pass the gold ankh door, and head upstairs.  On the fourth floor,
fight your way to the room with the Wither Priest. Take the key in
the chest. Now return to the third level.  Go to the door, open it
with the gold key. Make sure you have the golden sword
"Soulwrought" equipped as your sword. You better do a save. And
make sure you are healed up. Head north, kill the cacodemons,
avoid the rocks and find Castellan. He's the dude in the purple
armor to the north. Talk to him then get ready for a fight. When
he's dead, enter the alcove, pull the switch. In the next room you
will find the dark slag. MAKE SURE YOU ARE HOLDING THE CONTAINER
WHEN YOU PICK IT UP. MAKE SURE IT GOES INTO THE CONTAINER.  The
container will be shut when it's in there. If what I just said
doesn't work, try picking it up with your hand or variations, but
it must go into the container or you will suffer.  All right. One
last dungeon. Make your way to the exit and head for Fire
Mountain.

THE ANVIL OF THE DAWN

Goal: Destroy the Dark Slag

Enter Fire Mountain again. Put blocks on the pressure plates to
the north in the east-west hall to open the doors leading east.
Exit the mountain and head for that light in the sky. After
crossing the ice, you come to a mountain door guarded by an
armless giant. Talk to him, then use the spell of Heavenly Mend.
Now talk to him again and say the words of opening. You will now
be able to enter the final part of this game.

Just when you think you're almost done, they throw one more
obstacle in your path ...  an invisible maze. This part of the
game can be the most frustrating.  But I will help you through.
The first area has three exits to the east and a rolling rock that
sits on a pressure plate to the south. Throw the two switches
before you until you get the rock to the north side. Then make it
go south. You should now be able to walk through the north most
eastern opening. This part is hard to describe, but feel your way
east near the north wall, then about half way, turn south and head
for that plate in the center of the room. You have to walk about
one space past it or so then head back west all the way until you
see a switch on the wall. Throw it.  Now feel your way over to the
plate and step on it. Okay, you can now feel your way south to an
illusory wall. Enter and stand a pace or two away from the ice
worm. Throw that spear Steelripper at it a few times to kill it.
Or fight it with your sword if you really want to. These things
are tough, though. A Vampire Mist spell doesn't hurt.

Enter the illusory wall to the north and push the block you will
eventually see over one. Then push it east onto a plate.  There is
an illusory wall to the south. Enter and you will be in a room
with one alcove and three plates, east, south, and west. Step on
the east plate and a teleporter appears in the alcove. Enter. You
should be in a room with two teleporters and a block. If only one
teleporter is there, go back to the plate room through the porter
and step on the south plate. Check your map to see if a second
porter came on in that other room. If not step back and forth on
the east and south plates until one does. Now enter that porter
and push the block through the nearest porter.  Teleport into the
plate room, push the block onto the east plate.  Weight down the
south plate with a block or a bag of rocks and leave the area.

You can start divesting yourself of bags now. You only need two
rocks after this.  After leaving the first room, head back to that
plate in the middle of the main room and step on it again. Now
work your way east of there.  You will be able to go all the way
east just north of a big eastern opening.  When you hit the wall,
turn north then west and enter the illusory wall to the north. You
will be in a big room after stepping on a pressure plate to open a
door. On both sides of this big room are thrones.  The old gods
sat on these things. Looks like they bought their furniture at
Levitz. No variation. Anyway, ignore these areas. Go all the way
east and fight the ice worms. A chest in the back has a silver
chalice. Take it.

Now go back to the plate in the main room and step on it two
times. You should now be able to work your way south again to
another illusory wall further east on the south wall. A teleporter
on the other side takes you to a room in a big circle. Twelve
plates are in this room like numbers on a clock.  Put a rock on
the north and south plates. Now walk over every plate in the room,
making a circle. A passage will open to a teleporter to the main
room. You can now work your way to the big eastern opening. Kill
the worm. Put the chalice in the hole and a door will open.

Almost there! First, put on the wreath of hallowed leaves. Now
activate a soul link spell. Exit through the eastern door (do a
save for the hell of it, you never know).  Heading east you will
meet the Warlord himself. I guess he likes hanging out in weird
ass locales. Anyway, talk to him. He will lay a Darth Vader rap on
you. Don't accept the dark side, Luke. Trust me. After talking to
him you can only do one thing. Walk to the Anvil of the Dawn. For
an alternate ending, do everything I just said, but don't wear the
wreath or use a soul link spell.









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