Information At A Price

Traven has a seemingly simple task for you now: travel to Skingrad and speak to Hassildor. That's it! Well, for now, at any rate. Speak to Hal-Liurz in the Skingrad County Hall to get the ball rolling on your appointment with the Count.

Hassildor is good for an interesting conversation, as usual. He knows something, but is reluctant to spill the beans until you help him with a little problem he's been having. It would appear that there's a nest of vampires in a cave outside of town - he wants them destroyed. There's also a gang of vampire hunters in Skingrad itself - they're to be taken out, as well. Angel and Buffy are getting staked tonight. Be sure to interrogate him thoroughly before moving out to deal with the disparate situations.

The vampires are fairly simple to deal with: just head to the cave and take them down. If you haven't fought vampires before this, then you'll have to deal with their invisibility power, which they'll normally activate just after they become aware of your presence. Most of them have spellcasting abilities, as well, and of course you'll probably get infected with Porphyric Hemophilia before too long. If you attempt to sleep while infected with this disease, you'll likely turn into a vampire yourself, so clear out the cave first and then, when you get the quest marker indicating that all of the vampires are dead, suck down a Cure Disease potion to ensure that the blood thirst doesn't consume you, as well.

Telling the vampire hunters to head to the vampire's cave results in quite a battle.

Now to deal with the vampire hunters themselves. You need to find Eridor, the leader of the vampire hunters; he'll usually be patrolling the southern portion of Skingrad. Of course, if you wish to just kill the hunters without concern for warrants or fines, you can just attack them all piece by piece, but if you want to deal with the problem a bit more diplomatically, you can tell Eridor that you've eliminated the vampires and prove it by giving him a bit of vampire dust, at which point he'll agree to leave town. If you really want to kill them, though, you can tell him that the vampires are hiding out at Bloodcrust Cave, at which point he and his men will go to check it out, allowing you to follow them and slaughter the lot.

Whichever way you go, return to Hassildor and get the information he has available: Mannimarco has returned. Who? Well, apparently it's some ancient necromancer, intent on destroying the Mages Guild. Return to the Arcane University immediately to relay the information to Traven. He'll tell you that he needs to consult with the Council and dismiss you. No more quests for the next day or so, so feel free to take a little time off.

A Plot Revealed

After a day or two has passed, return to Traven to obtain your next task. He wants you to go to Bruma and speak with Jeanne Frasoric, who's been out of contact for a few days. Sounds simple enough.

They all do, at first, but as so many simple quests go, this one winds up being complicated. When you reach the Bruma guildhall, you'll discover that it's been ransacked, apparently by necromancers. Undead roam the halls, filling the air with the wails of the damned. The furniture is overturned and on fire. And somone spilled the mead. Heathens.

Be prepared to deal with the Undead in Bruma.

Anyway, in your search for survivors, you'll have to traverse the living quarters below the main area of the guildhall, then head up to Jeanne's rooms. She's dead, of course, and you'll be attacked by one of the remaining necromancers when you pass through the doorway. Kill her to reveal J'Skar, who managed to survive the slaughter by remaining invisible throughout. He'll head back to the Arcane University, and you should as well. Report in to Traven to complete the quest, and learn again that it'll be a few days before he has anything else for you.

When you do get advanced all the way up to Wizard rank, you can speak to Traven again to pick up two more quests: The Necromancer's Amulet, and The Bloodworm Helm. You'll need to complete both of these quests, but you can do them in any order you like.

The Bloodworm Helm

The Bloodworm Helm was one of two necromantic artifacts removed from the Imperial City by mages eager to study them in an effort to find a way to defeat Mannimarco. Traven wants you to track them down and return them before the necromantic king gets his hands on them. The Bloodworm Helm is in Fort Teleman, well to the southeast of the Imperial City.

In an absolutely shocking twist, Fort Teleman is full of necromancers!!!!!! We couldn't see that one coming, no sir. You'll find Irlov Jarol's body in the second section of the fort, so nab the Bloodworm Helm from his corpse and take it back to Traven to complete the quest.

Caranya has nothing to rely on but her fists if you Silence her before attacking.

The Necromancer's Amulet

Note that the Mages in Fort Ontus are not hostile to you, so don't do anything stupid like running are sneak attacking them before realizing that they're on your side. Um, not that we'd ever do anything like that... Head down to the Fort Ontus Understreets area to speak to Caranya. You're going to have to fight her, so try to have a weapon prepared with either a paralyzation or Silence poison before talking to her.

After killing Caranya and nabbing the Amulet from her body, the rest of the Mages in the Fort will show their true colors and spontaneously become Necromancers, complete with undead-summoning skills. Kill them - kill them all, and leave the ruins to bring the Amulet back to Traven. You'll need to speak to Raminus to obtain another advancement before you can obtain more quests from Traven.