Beren's Walkthrough of SoD

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I've just found this in SP Resources and read through it, although it was uploaded a few weeks ago.

Coongratulations on a lovely job, @Beren! Clearly a great deal of work went into this, and the layout and navigation shows the benefit of your prior experience in writing walkthroughs.

It's pretty comprehensive, as obviously you intended, but I noticed a few minor details missing. I'll try to get around to compiling a list for you. (One example which is still sticking in my mind: in Ch. 7, there's an additional subquest at the Flaming Fist headquarters which you overlooked - outside the walls, up the alleyway at the E side, there are a couple of lads being hassled by over-zealous Fists, who offer a reward for a rescue ... iirc, their appearance is time-of-day-dependent, so it's easy to miss this one.) There are also a couple of conditionally-available dialogue responses missing, and a couple of mis-spelt names, and other minor stuff, but I'll have to read through it all again and make some notes to remember these other details.

You get a little hasty towards the end, perhaps understandably after all that work. One late detail which would help significantly, though, would be to list the successive groups of enemies encountered on the Lift in the Basalt Tower - that helps a player to know when s/he's nearly reached the top and might want to apply some short-duration buffs just before the Final Battle.

But anyway, very well done, this is now the best walkthrough of SoD available.

 

Currently running through SoD and using your walkthrough as an aide memoire, I've noticed another missing detail: in the second Transition Ambush (BD0066, the area with the horde of Goblins), which you mention in your page about Troll Claw Woods (BD7100), you omit that you can descend into the Gaping Pit in the centre of the ambush map, which takes you to a cavern full of Myconids (BD0067) where there's some good loot (rare scrolls of Minor Spell Deflection, Teleport Field and Lower Resistance near the entrance, plus an Elven Chain Mail and a valuable Star Sapphire and the excellent Spellbreaker +2 longsword at the far end). The Myconids can be quite a tough fight at that stage of the game, because of their Confusion and Feeblemind spells, but the loot is worth the effort.

 

In your description of the Boareskyr Bridge map, your descriptions of the locations labelled "25" and "26" are transposed - 25 is the door and 26 is Tharantis, not the other way around.

 

Thanks, @Beren.

You assert that we'll be diverted to the Transition Ambush areas the first time we leave the relevant maps. That can happen, but it's not always so. Sometimes the ambush doesn't occur until the second or third transition, and sometimes it's on the way back to the starting area rather than travelling away. I'm not sure what the trigger is. It might be time-related, it might be random, I guess we'd have to look at the area scripts to pin this down.

Another missing detail: in the area around Boareskyr Bridge, there are three traps on the ground which are omitted from your map. Two are immediately southeast and southwest of the horde of hobgoblins at location 2, and the third is further away in the woods northwest of location 2.

 

And another unmarked ground-trap: in the Temple of Cyric, in the corridor just before turning the corner to arrive at location 23.

 

Note that the "Breaking Curfew" quest (mentioned in the OP, the lads being hassled by over-zealous Fists) is still missing from the Flaming Fist map in Ch. 7 (and likewise from the quest list for Ch. 7).

 

In your explanation of BG1-SoD-BG2 item transfer, the list under "Other Siege of Dragonspear Items" isn't quite correct, as follows:-

The Shaman-only headgear "Circlet of Lost Souls" is transferred to BG2ee *regardless* of whether or not the protagonist has it at the end of SoD. The same is true for the Shaman-only amulet "Heart of the Mountain", which is missing from your list, but in BG2ee is carried by the unnamed Troll Shaman at location 16 (in @Montresor's walkthrough) in the Asylum Tests (but bear in mind that the route through the Asylum Tests includes this location only if all four questions in the "dining room" are answered correctly, so it's possible to miss this item). Thus both of these items can be left equipped on M'Khiin (the only NPC able to use them), and you'll still get them in BG2ee. (I don't think the different treatment of these two Shaman-only items is a bug, I reckon it's a deliberate design decision to benefit the newly-introduced Shaman class.)

The other unique SoD items transferrable to BG2ee are listed correctly, but the recovery location for the "Archer's Eyes" amulet isn't quite right. It's actually dropped by one of the Drow at location 1 (in @Montresor's walkthrough) in the Kuo-Toa Dungeon, not (as your list says) at location 4 in the Exit area.

The name of the BG2ee bounty-hunter who drops the Bard Hat is "Aawill" rather than "Awill".

I'm not sure how you get the name "So'Chiare" for the merchant who sells Tangled Strings. She appears on-screen in BG2ee simply as an unnamed "Storekeep". Does she perhaps name herself if you Charm her? (I've never tried doing that.) Or is this name a mod effect?

Incidentally, the Kobold Shaman who holds the Circlet of Lost Souls names himself as "Crragtail" (if you make the right dialogue choices).

I suggest that it might add clarity if you mention that the Voidsword +3 and the Voidhammer +3 are an either/or choice - you can have (and transfer) all of the other items, but you can (legitimately) possess (and transfer) only one or the other of the Void weapons.

Also, the list under "Accessory" is slightly misleading: the Ring of Protection which can transfer to BG2ee isn't a generic Ring of Protection +1 (SoD name) or Ring of the Princes (BG1 name), it's the unique (although functionally identical) Koveras's Ring of Protection +1.

 

In Ch. 9, the "Beetles and Spiders" quest is missing, which occurs in the Spider Cave in the Forest of Wyrms. Your area description does cover the action of the quest (so this is a minor omission), but neither the map description nor the quest list mentions that it's a named quest in your journal.

 

At the Old Well (33 on the Boaresky Bridge map), you mention lowering the Dusty Chicken into the well and bantering about Little Wanderer (the dog), but you omit that you get 3000xp for doing this (in addition to the 3000 xp for fighting the Well Spirit).

 

In Ch. 10, the description of location 14 in the Coalition Camp includes "Khalid being here will actually be your first opportunity for him to join your party." Not so. Khalid can join the party at Boareskyr Bridge, either at the start of the Battle of Bridgefort or after winning it. (Perhaps if you surrender Bridgefort instead of fighting, then you can't recruit Khalid until reaching the Coalition Camp? I've never surrendered, so I'm not sure. But certainly if you fight for Bridgefort, then you can recruit him before travelling to the Camp.)

 

Again at the Coalition Camp, "38. Marshall Nederlok will be here after the conference. He is relevant to The Traitor Quest." And also relevant to the Skie's Gone Missing quest (because it's Nederlok who will reward you for completing the quest).

 

For the Troll Breakout quest in Ch. 10, note that if there's a drow in our party, then it'll turn out that Sindret (the quest-giver) is a priestess of Shevarash the drow-hunter, so she won't give us the quest (and will turn hostile if we choose the wrong response in dialogue). However, we can momentarily disband a drow companion before we speak to Sindret and get the quest, and then immediately rejoin the drow companion. (I've tested this with Viconia ... I assume it works the same way with Baeloth, but haven't tested it with him.) After getting the quest, we can then keep the drow companion in the party to complete the quest and claim the reward, even though this involves two further dialogues with Sindret - she doesn't notice that there's now a drow in the party.

Also note that, if we complete the quest without killing Ulori (the troll) and thereby gain the potions in our reward, Sindret and her colleagues will then leave, after which we can (if we wish) kill the troll for the additional 1400 xp without penalty.

 

For the Understanding the Crusade quest in Ch. 10, it's *not* necessary (despite what's currently asserted in the walkthrough) to wear the Crusader Uniform when talking to Morale Officer Deneld. (The uniform *does* matter for the Morning Report quest, however.)