They'll Never See You Coming...

'Do you MIND? I'm trying to speechify here!'

If you go undercover, then feel free to loot the area through which you initially walk, then follow Harrow into the Shrine. After Mankar disappears, you'll be approached by his daughter Ruma and told to offer the red-drink to Dagon, by killing the sacrificial victim that lies on the altar. Good or evil, tell her you'll do it and grab the silver dagger on the podium.

This is where the decision trees start blossoming. You can choose to kill the victim, if you wish, which will cause the cultists around the shrine to disperse and make the job of stealing the Xarxes much easier, but that's kind of mean. What did he ever do to you? It's a perfectly valid choice if you don't mind role-playing an evil character, though; the act doesn't appear to add to your Infamy or anything like that.

Otherwise, you can attempt to free the prisoner and grab the Xarxes before making your escape, at which point things start playing out similarly to the course described above in the violent option. If you choose to do this, the same rules apply: try to get on top of the rocky overlook here, attack the cultists to get them to follow you, drop down and grab the Xarxes, then make a break for it through the Living Quarters. If you have any magical weapons capable of dealing extra damage, it might be worth your while to try and quickly kill Harrow to grab your gold off of his body before making your escape.

Living Quarters Escape

If you don't manage to shake your escape, then it'll be one heck of a run through the Living Quarters to get free, as there are plenty more cultists and acolytes waiting to disrupt your progress. If you do turn around and kill your pursuers, though, then you may be able to actually wait an hour or so if you kill the first guard that you run across in the Living Quarters. Doing so will be a big help to your health, and will let you repair your armor as well; you may even be able to return to the Shrine and kill Ruma Camoran, Markan's daughter. There's no special point to doing so, but she does drop a nice Staff of Frost that sells for a bunch of cash.

It's going to be tough to get out of the Caverns with all this pursuit.

Regardless, start making your way through the Living Quarters. (We're going to assume that you're able to take your time and fight your way through, but if you're unable to shake your pursuit, just get the hell out of there and try to stay alive while running.) There will likely be a bunch of Acolytes nearby, who aren't difficult to kill, but have an annoying tendency to run away when you'd most like them to stay and die. If you want to try and prevent this, note that there's a door near the entrance from the Shrine; if you lure the Acolytes through, then close the door, you may be able to wedge them into the first small room and prevent them from escaping.

Check around the first little storeroom to try and find any magical items that you might like; one of the crates on the floor will often have a magical ring or necklace in it. The path here branches off in two directions, one to the southwest (towards another little storeroom with more chests and crates in it), and one to the northwest, which leads towards the exit. You should be able to fight most of the way through the area without running into more than two guards at a time, but the kitchen area will likely have a few Acolytes in it. If you get into a scrap, try to hit the Acolytes enough to convince them to run away before dealing with the guards.

Continuing past the shrine will lead you to the mess hall, where an intimidatingly large number of foes are arrayed against you. Most of them are Acolytes, though, so feel free to goad them into running away before taking on the guards. There are two exits from the area, with one leading to the Antechamber and one leading back to Lake Arrius Caverns. The Antechamber is an optional exit, since you won't be able to make it out of the caverns from there; if you head to the Cavern exit, you'll be able to flip a switch to open a secret door and escape from there. Regardless, if you've been fighting your way through the bulk of the enemies thus far, you've probably cleaned out most of the cavern; feel free to go back and kill any remaining enemies if you like. Some of the Acolytes will drop nice magical jewelry, and one of them will drop the key to the storehouse in the Antechamber.

After escaping with the Mysterium, one way or another, return to the Cloud Ruler Temple and give it to Martin. He'll take it and begin translating it, and tell you to speak to Jauffre, who has a new quest for you.

Quest: Spies

Jearl and Saveri aren't exactly subtle about their Mythic Dawn leanings.

According to Jauffre, suspicious folks have been sighted on the roads near the Cloud Ruler Temple. The Blades lack the manpower to search out these spies, so he leaves the matter in your capable hands. If you speak to Steffan, upstairs in the West Wing, he'll tell you that the spies are often spotted near the runestone at dusk. Jauffre will also tell you to speak to Captain Burd in Bruma, the nearby city.

If you head to the runestone on the road outside of the castle (it should be marked on your map), then advance your clock to a dusky hour, say 11:00 PM, the cultists Jearl and Saveri Faram will appear and attack you. Killing them both will net you some items, as well as a Basement Key and Jearl's Key. No more clues are apparent after doing so, though, so you'll have to head to Burd. He's located in the Bruma Castle, on the west side of town. Follow the markers on your map until you reach him.

Burd will tell you about Jearl, which gives you the prompt to tell him that she was a Mythic Dawn agent. (If you missed her at the Runestone, presumably you'll have to track her down and kill her at this point.) He'll give you permission to head to her house, so track it down, search it, then head down into the basement with the key you picked off of her body. You'll find a document marked Jearl's Orders there; grab it and pick it up. You can head through the Bruma Caverns nearby to reach the exterior again, or just head out of the house. Either way, get back to Cloud Ruler Temple and talk to Jauffre.