SHADOWS OVER RIVA - Part 2 A play guide by Brian Burke @~Continued from Issue 51 ON THE PIRATE SHIP Go to the meeting with Malmodir and be treated to a cut scene. Your drugged party end up in the brig. Once untied explore the room to find a damaged bit of wall through which you can escape. You meet the Cabin Boy who joins you. If you now take too long you won't be able to leave the ship. Avoid any fight, hide rather than fight. You can explore and find bits and bobs. The best treasure are potions near the portside stern area and a Magic Waterskin in a chest to the starboard stern. Climb the stern ladder to the next deck and find the steering ropes to the stern, cut the ropes to the tiller on the starboard side. Return to the lower deck and climb the ladder by the central mast. Before you do ensure that the weight of your inventory items is evenly distributed between the party, excluding Jann. Once on deck act like sailors and then jump overboard. You'll lose some stuff in the sea but once in the boat you all end up back in Riva. Off the to the Inn to recover after picking your stuff up from the Graveyard chest. SEWERS - PART 3 After resting you should walk around until you're arrested for the murder of Mr. Elin. After being carted off to the castle gates you are released. Nice judge he is after all! Nasty grocer though. Go to the sewers and open the trellis to the castle. After a fight with guards return to Riva. After some time Tarik will contact you. Framed! THE OLD SEWERS Back to the sewers and find the newly marked reference to the entrance to the old sewers. Explore to find a door to the Guild HQ. Enter and talk. Lothur wants help to defeat the Feylamia, the Vampire. You can rest from now on. If you want to sell items in the market go up via the Temple of Phex with your stealthiest character in front or the guards may challenge you, if they do it's a no win situation. VAMPIRE HUNTING A guild character, now not so old Lea comes with you. Head down a new passage to find the door to Mandara's apartment. Go right and have a character hold down the switch you find. Everyone else goes through the opened passage and operates the next switch. The Feylamia attacks the lone character and you watch as your party rushes back. Heal the unfortunate and join them back up with the most perceptive character in the lead. As you head back down the passage they discover a secret passage. In the first cell of this new passage you find the imprisoned Ratcatcher. Thoroughly explore the rest of the rooms and passages to find a moon-lantern in (I think) the larder. Lea disappears later as she chases Mandara. When you find the diary in the bookshelves read it. In the desk find a key and antihypnoticum tablets. You only need one. In the room with the coffin find a bracelet and a silver ring in a chest. In the bedroom with the mirror save the game. Give the lead character the bracelet and ring plus the lantern. If it's not a lockpicking character have a Mage who can cast Foramen. Have them take the tablet and go through the mirror into the secret room. Open the chest and take the crystal, put it in the lantern and use the lantern when the cut scene allows you to. The Vampire attacks the rest of the party leaving them very weak. If you're out of Whirlweeds or healing potions don't despair. Just return to the guild after Mandara is dead and rest. THE DRAGON Back in the Guild you hear of the search for an entrance to the castle. Stock up and whirlweeds and potions whilst you wait via the Phex Temple route. You can rest in the guild for 10 hour stretches or for a minimum of 4 hours. You can sell the guild equipment to raise cash. No-one seems to mind! When the secret entrance is found you need to defeat the sewer monster. The passage to find the monster is via the dark grey passages in Mandara's home, the same colour as the cell passage. Go right after the small sewer passage. Fight the monster with spells and with arrows. Rest back at the guild as you need to be fit and healthy before taking on the guards. THE CASTLE Back on the raft where you fought the monster to find the castle entrance. Accept the offer to enter at night. You have till dawn to succeed. There is adequate time to do all your tasks. First tip is to leave the guard posts alone till later in the game. There are four of these, one in each corner of the castle. Also don't try to open the portcullis, it's another no-win situation. Explore everywhere and have a few fights en-route. Note the cooks' room, the Guard Captains' room and the kitchen on your map. Best is to go right once you enter the castle proper. In one of the cells find a key. This opens other cells. Near the centre top of the map (I think) is a Torture Chamber opposite a cell whose door you can't open. Go up the stairs in the chamber and see a cut-scene. Attack the swine! Rohenzal asks for your help. Go south to the Guard Captains' room and overpower him. Along the way you will find a storeroom with masses of armour and weapons in it. Again leave all this for later. You can overpower the Priest if you wish, he has 500 pieces of silver you can pinch. Release the mages from the room opposite the Torture Chamber. You've now got to recover 3 urns from the Judges' rooms. Go find the cook, if he's not in the kitchen he's in his room. Search his room to find out about his 'Rentboy' activities with the judge. Bosper has his rooms to the south. Plug the holes in the walls near his door to avoid an arrow trap. Take a key from his desk. In the adjoining room fight his guard, move the chest to reveal a hidden room. Open the chest and take the urns. Then go to the stairs where you entered the castle and meet the mages. You all return to the Guild. Rest and recover whilst the debate of how to recover the wand takes place. THE HARBOUR KING The party is dumped at the bottom of the harbour. Mark this place on the map as the building immediately to the south is where you need to go later. There's a time limit on your underwater breathing but it's adequate. Go south to fight with some Nixes. Don't fight them again after this one fight. You'll be led into the King's palace. The cut scene is a nice touch, an interpreter is required! Accept the task to win the glowstick. Leave the palace with Zorka and enter the ruins to the south of where you entered the harbour. A message tells you of Nixes disappearing down a hole. Go west and pass the Jellyfish to find a ladder down on the northwest corner of this ruin. The Jellyfish causes some injury. Explore the cellar. Wriggle through the holes in the wall to explore it all. You'll meet another jellyfish. Destroy the bottles when you find them, then return to the palace. THE WRECKED SHIP Armed with the glowstick you now have the key with which to open the doors in the Even Star. The entrance is to the north. Explore the room . Use the 'Look Up' feature, the only time I found a positive use for it. 'Drop' the heavy boots, it's not enough to put them in your inventory. You'll recover them later when you return. Without the boots you float up to the door and go through. Open the chest and take the prism. Use the glowstick with the prism to open up the orange lock. The rest of the locks work this way too. When in a fight protect Zorka, to achieve this leave characters adjacent to her on all three sides in the final fight. If you wander away a Water Elemental will materialise next to her. Send a character into the maze with the objective of reaching the chest. Once there the fight is over. You open the chest only to find that it's empty. Return to the palace open the doors as before. The King gives you the wand. Leave the palace and 'drop' the heavy boots again to return to the Guild. QUENYA Leave the sewers via the house in the Holberkian area and visit the Healer in her shop. She will decipher the runes. Return to the Guild. You now have the opportunity to return to Castle. There's little point in taking any loot if you haven't already. The purpose now is to increase your experience and rise up a level. You do this by taking on the guards in their guardrooms. You'll fight about 10 at a time, gaining around 106 points per fight. If you run short of whirlweeds take the armour and sell it to buy yourself some more. Once you go up a level I suggest you take Astral points for your magicians and hike up Combat spells. THE HIVE When you're ready to be shrunk be shocked to learn that ALL your equipment and armour goes too. However my Mage kept the Wand and my Witch kept her broom. Click on the 'Shrink' icon to invoke the cut scene that sends the party into the Hive. In front of you are some stones you can use as weapons. Explore westwards and fight the worm to recover an egg. This warns you when the Queen realises you're in the Hive. Later you'll find Beetle Carapaces which you can use as armour. Stings use as swords. Also find some plant stacks and twigs, plus a Spider Web. Use the web on the 'Y' shaped twigs to make a catapult. As there is no immediate help to recover life points I suggest that use magic to destroy enemies or, with fighters, keep moving so you're not in front of worm heads. They do keep twisting round so it's best to hand control these fights. The Grasshoppers are relatively straightforward. Circularly return to the entrance point and go south to fight some worms then head north and slide down. THE QUEEN'S CHAMBERS Go right and through the fire. It's an illusion. You'll lose some charisma but don't worry about that, it'll return for when you need it. You meet two fighting worms, go right here and they attack in the next open area. Termite Carapaces make better armour... I think...Erm...it's whichever you find second that gives the better protection, check the AC on each character. Claws make better weapons. Use a sting on a plant stalk to make a blowpipe. You'll obtain spines after killing the Morfu. Retrace your steps through the fire and take the route north over the chasm. The route is the one without the narrow plank. i.e. there isn't a visible bridge. Again it's an illusion with the related Charisma loss. At the Acid Pool turn left to the Stalactite. After a fight you should be able to break off 12 lumps, 2 apiece. These lumps give you 40 Health and Astral points and they're the only help you're going to find so use them carefully. I gave my chief Combat spell caster 3. You now need to find the area where the party is affected by hallucinations. There's one area where you meet loads of worms, green, yellow and blue ones. If you feel lucky take 'em on. Otherwise retrace your steps as there's a fight free route to the hallucinations. Once there you have to answer a series of questions. Get the wrong answers and you find yourself heading north, so immediately use the map icon to see which way you're headed. Your responses should be cowardly in every instance. I'm not sure just which is the correct answer to the 'Door' question, try following Roherzal's advice. Go on to find.... THE MAZE This is a pig. You only get to see a small part of the map at any one time. You are looking for an oblong section which has a hazy area in its centre. This is the doorway to the final section of the hive. Physically it looks a little more like the Queens' Chambers. Good luck and keep your patience! Once through the maze you find a secret door. Use a claw on a blowpipe to make a flute. Use the flute to open the way forward. At the next door repeat. You then come to another ramp down. Save. GAME OVER TIME I struggled for ages on the next part. Once at the bottom of the ramp you must fight your doubles, if you take too long more doubles appear. The trick is to split the party at the top of the ramp. Send down the mage who has the Paralyse spell. Simply use that spell on your double to finish the fight. Then send the rest of the gang down. Bolster your party with the lumps and prepare to meet the Queen. This fight is pretty much a repeat of the Water Monster fight. Keep the fighters at the back and use Combat spells on the Queen. Save the game here just in case you can import this party into the next game in the series. Press your mouse button a couple of times to see the end sequence. END: - o -