Stonekeep strategy guide

 StonekeepUpgrade to version 1.1  IMMEDIATELY.This FAQ will frequently refer to  game coordinates (i.e., the dagger is locatedat  X-15, Y-10, underneath some rubble).  Press [SHIFT + F8]  to display thecoordinates of your current position.  The game objective is made pretty clear by Thera,  during the game intro:  "I amThera, Goddess of  Earth.  Prepare yourself, your journey awaits.   You mustdescend to the lost city of Stonekeep  and retrieve the nine recepticles.  Toprotect  you from the magic of the darker realm, I must  free your spirit.Achieve your goal, and  Stonekeep and I will be free.  Fail, and you  will beentombed with the forces of darkness ...  forever."  Phew!  All that frommemory.  I've  definately been playing this game too long.  In any event, your job is to find the Nine  Recepticles of the Gods, and restorethem to  Thera's Temple.  Simple, right?   Only there's all kinds of really nastymonsters,  viscious traps, and confusing puzzles along  the way.  Sheeradventure!!Throwing weapons are  mentioned first, because they're the first  weapons you getany real experience in.  The  Stonekeep Instruction Manual (such as it is), describes how Drake can find and use a rock in  the "Getting Started" section(p.20 - 21).  The  following objects can be used as throwing  weapons (listed inorder of "effectiveness"):   skulls, rocks, darts, crossbow bolts, arrows  (yes,you can throw arrows and bolts without a  bow; I never figured out why),daggers, hand-axe,  and a spear.  To throw a weapon, first you must activate it.   Activate a weapon by taking itout of your inventory  (move the cursor to the right of the screen, when it turns to a scroll, right click the mouse; grab the  item you want and click toclose the scroll).  The  higher you hold the object, the harder Drake will  throwit.  Don't hold it too high -- sometimes you'll  throw it right over yourenemies head!Do "The Wahooka  Shuffle."  Basically, you close to the same square  as youradversary, you hold down your mouse button  (so that your weapon just keepsswinging at the  bad guy) and hold down your [left arrow] or  [right arrow] buttons.  This causes Drake to  just spin around and around, swing at thebeast.    If you keep your cursor centered on the creature,  you really do end updoing more damage to them than  they can do to you.For most creatures, the best  strategy is to attack them with all thrown &projectile  (if you have any) weapons first: rocks, crossbow bolts,  bows).Whittle those hit points down.  Keep retreating  and firing until you run out ofammo.Later in the game,  the opponents are tougher.  You'll need some of the  runes tobe effective in combat.  The best tactic you  can have is to cast INVISIBILITYon your party, and  then spell yourself up with STRENGTH-TRIPPLE  (strength, withthe tripple meta rune added on).    While invisible, nothing will attack you ...and  with tripple strength it doesn't take much to  whale on 'em.  Aim for theface always, or places  where there is no armor!Sometimes, it just makes  sense to use the runes instead of combat.   I usuallyavoid offensive runes, because I like to  use the mana for healing, teleportingand  defensive/protective spells.  I can hit unlimited  times with a sword, butcan only case a finite  number of fireballs before my runecaster wears  out.However, there are times when it just  makes sense to use the runecaster:firebolts  on the Ice Queen and her Ice Ball minions,  Ice bolts on the Fireelementals, shrink runes  are enemies that are bigger than you, etc. Runes are used to cast magical spells.  When  you start the game, you will haveno magical  ability and will not know any Runes.  After you  have found theJournal (see 2-5) you will have a  medium for recording runes.  Thereafter,whenever  you find a rune scroll in the lands of Stonekeep,  that rune willautomatically be recorded into your  journal.    A runecaster is simply a stick on which  you inscribe runes that you've collected in your  journal.  Pages 11-12 ofthe Interplay Stonekeep  Instruction manual outline how runes are placed  ontorunecasters.Learning to cast runes will become  crucial to your success in the game.  Manyrunes  are offensive in nature (such as fire, wind, ice),  and these are thesimplest to cast.  Simply equip  Drake with a Rune Stick, click the right  mousebutton (if the stick is in Drake's right  hand), and this will bring the weaponup in  front of Drake.  Center the crosshair cursor  on the bad monster, and thenclick the right  mouse button again.  Whoosh -- there goes the  spell effectagainst the bad guy!Some runes  (such as strength, armor and healing) are  defensive in nature andare intended to be  cast on yourself, or members of your party.   To cast theserunes, first inscribe them on  your rune stick.  Raise the rune stick forward  bypressing the right mouse button (if the stick  is in your right hand), selectthe rune  you want  to cast.  Type "M" to bring up Type "M" to  bring up MysticMirror of Afri, and place the  crosshair cursor over the charcter to be  healed.Press the right mouse button again  and [tinkle, tinkle, tinkle], you'reaffected  by the spell.To teleport in the game, you need  to have both the Home Rune (Feeding Grounds1,  X-25, Y-19) and the Teleport Rune (Dwarven  Fortress, X-01, Y-19).    It'susually a good idea to cast your Home  Rune near a Mana Circle (so that when you teleport to "home", you are near a circle  at which you can quickly recharge).Inscribe  the Home Rune on your Rune stick (see section  4-1), and then bring therune stick forward.   Be sure there is a section of corridor in front  of you(not a wall) and select the Home rune.   Press the mouse button with the cursorstraight  in front of you.  Whamo -- blue home circle.  The teleport rune will ALWAYS teleport you to  the home circle.  If you don'thave a home circle  inscribed somewhere, the all activating the  teleport runewill do is suck mana from your stick!    After a Home circle is laid outsomewhere, inscribe  the Teleport rune on your stick (see 4-1) and then  bringthe rune stick forward.  Select the Teleport  rune and press the button.  Blink-- you're home.In  the opening intro, Thera tells Drake that he "must  retrieve the ninereceptacles."  Khul-Khum, the  Dark Brother, betrayed the 9 gods, and imprisoned them within small orbs.  The gods will be set  free only when Drake issuccessful in restoring  them to Thera's Temple.Having difficulty finding  the 9 Recepticles?  Here's where they are  located: Afri  (Held by 2 tough Shargas in the  Ruins of Stonekeep 1, x13, y14) Aquila  (In a  chest in the Sharga Mines 1, x18, y28) Azrael   (In the left eye of a Throggi Statue, Temple  of Throggi, x18, y4) Yoth-Soggoth  (Held by a  big, mean troll, x34, y25) Helion  (Caverns  of Ice) Safrinni  (On the floor in the Pits,  x19, y4) Marif  (Giant orb at x17, y18 -- use  Shrink rune to make this orb normal size)  Thera  (Tower of Shadows 4, x4, y10) Kor  Soggoth  (Tower of  Shadows 4, x5, y10) Khull  Khum  (Tower of Shadows 4, x5, y10)  What do the Nine Recepticles Do 5-3-1  Afri ( Vision Seeker):  Shows a *complete* map of  the surrounding area(within 5 squares in any  direction), including hidden passages.  Very  helpfulif you can't find away past a certain  wall or object -- because Afri may showyou  that there really IS nothing on the other  side of that wall.Follow the basic "Getting  Started" directions in the instruction manual  thatcame with your CD-ROM.  Basically, get  the skull and a rock.  Kill thewandering giant  ant, read the sign,  find the guardroom, get  the dagger and theleather armor find the only  other door in this section of the Entrance  Level.The door won't open, but if you throw that  switch to the left of the door,you'll be on  your way.  Don't worry, the other tricks in the  game are a lotmore subtle!There are two doors  on this level which seem impassable.  These  doors eitherdon't have any keyholes, or don't  have keyholes on this side.  You'll have tokeep  exploring to get to the other side of these  doors.There are two "tough" goblins at x13,  y14.    New players sometimes havedifficulty killing  these beasties off.  Advice tendered here is  to throw yourburning oil flasks, rocks,  daggers, skulls -- anything.  Try to whittle  them down from afar.  Then enter the room and  start attacking them directly.  Keepmoving,  keep circling -- do Randy's "Whahooka Shuffle".   When you start gettinghurt badly, leave the room  and seek out the healing fountain.The Green  Slime has the ivory key at x22, y5 on the  Ruins of Stonekeep 2 level.Walk the corridors  until you hear the wind sound (if you have  headphones on,you can even tell which direction  the wind is blowing from ... which is  prettycool on Interplay's part!).  That wind  is coming from a small hole -- whichDrake  can barely squeeze through (treat it like an  illusionary wall). There are two windy  passages on this level, and one of them leads  to a passageout.There is an Ettin (two-headed  giant) roaming about the Sharga Mines Level   1.You cannot kill this creature (no matter how  strong the NPC's are in yourparty), but you can  get his treasure by using the Silence spell.The  Throggi Priests use this statue head to recharge  their Rune Scepters.  Takeone of your rune sticks  from your inventory, hold it up to the statue  and clickyour mouse button.  Your rune sceptre  is now recharged.  Warning!  If you don'thold  anything up for the Throggi God to charge,  you'll be blasted withlightning!To get the  Duck Rune from the Faerie Players, give them  a mushroom.There is a magical Horn of Fear  hidden at X-##, Y-## of the Farie Realm.   TheHorn casts a Fear spell at enemies, causing  them to run away.The stump like pyramid at  X-10, Y-08 is a one-time rune staff recharge.    Placethe cursor over the object until Drake's  hand appears, then trigger yourmouse.  All your  rune staffs are recharged.Some cave-in walls are  dead-ends, others can be gotten past by chipping  at themwith your weapon (or a fist).  More than  likely, there is nothing beyond thesepassages.   They're just a dead end.  You can verify this by  using Afri's Orb.Simply walk up to the wall,  take Afri's Orb from your inventory, and place  itbefore you.  If Afri the visionary can't see  anything beyond that wall, thanthere is no game  there!  Another way to test the wall is to whack  it with yourweapon -- if you here a clang, than  it's a wall that you can get past.  Justkeep  chipping at it.  If you here nothing, then you  can't affect that wall.Find the Ice Queens  Throne at X-##, Y-## and cast Fire or Warmth  at thethrone.    It will melt into a small puddle, which will  heal your party to full(only once).Use the  scroll from the dark Dwarves lair.  The O's  represent buttons you pushon the puzzels and  the x's buttons you don't.  count them from  the top, left toright. then just push the  appropriate numbered button and your done.  For example Push the 1st, 2nd and 8th buttons,  three more and the magic door across the will  open...At X-15, Y-03 there is a door to Tower of  Shadows 3.   Wahooka gives you a bigclue on opening  this door, when he tells you that you need to use  magic.  Casta Spoilspell or the Murphy rune to  unlock the door.  The Spoilspell Rune isacquired  at the Temple of Throggi (X-21, Y-20), and  Murph's Rune is in theFaerie Realm (X-9, Y1). Break it. If the dark dwarves are still alive they  give you some information.It's not a cross, but  an insert.    When you find the silver cross, insert ithere! If you are playing version 1.0, there is a helpful  bug (that's unusual) thatgives you free hit points.   There are 3 places (2 signs and 1 secret panel)which,  when touched, do damage but raise your max hit points  by 20.  DO NOTremove the dust from these with fire,  water or wind spells; this dust is whatraises your  points.  The best technique is to save, then ttouch  a few times,heal to max, touch some more. DO NOT  exceed 980 or you will be dumped out ofthe game.  Y ou can show the numeric values by clicking on your  health bar onthe mirror. This was fixed (awww, rats!)  in version 1.1, as it seems the update to v1.1has  fixed this -- you now *lose* 20 health, permanently...  RUMORS:  The following of rumors that I haven't been  able to check up on yet.There is an easter egg in the  game where Kevin Bass (credited in the game asbeing  responsible for Sharga interactions or something)  is mentioned by Drakeor some of the NPC's.  You only  get this if you have the very sharp dagger. -   There is a note in the Dwarf hall about Quality  Assurance missing thisparticular scroll. -  Jim is  spelled out in an inaccessible area of the game.