Twisted Rune area

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the Twisted Rune area how do you get to it, in it and any tips on how to beat it?

[ November 24, 2005, 23:40: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

*Spoilers* (although, considering the nature of this topic, it should be expected)

You need a rogue stone. If you know where it is (I believe it is the door to the lower left hand side of the other lich in the Bridge District), then you try to open the door with a rogue stone in your inventory. BEWARE: it is trapped. Once you detrap, and use the rogue stone, you will be teleported to the other plane.

Not very good at giving tips, but I do suggest trapping the area under the arch, so that when the lich attacks, he will die, and you can focus on the rest of the party.

 

I finished BGII completely and don't ever rememeber anything about a Twisted Rune. It must be something that is not required to finish the game.

 

You might want to create a backup save file before entering the area, or else you might get stuck if you can't win the battle. The game does autosave when you enter, but you lose your rogue stone if you load that autosaved game. And you might overwrite the autosave accidentally.

Seeing that you haven't even tried the fight yet, my advice is to try it yourself first. If you are fed up with dying, trying lowering the difficulty. If that still doesn't work, then try to follow somebody's tactics here.

 

There're 2 other doors in the area where you meet up with The Man in Red (Ami Sai iirc). Both are trapped. Detrap the lower door and unlock it. You need a rogue stone to pass through. Save! Go inside. Items I reccommend having: Robe of Vecna, Shield of Balduran, Ammy of Power and the best weapons you can afford, at least +3 if not higher.

Cast your summons and buffs: Prot. from Evil 10', Stoneskin, Iron Skins, Mirror Image, Chaotic Commands, Summon Fire Elemental, etc. etc.

Back everyone into a far corner. Send 1 guy to drag out the lich who talks to you (Shangalar). Fight him alone if you can. If you can't, send your protected fighters to the teleported in baddies. There's a Hive Mother - have 1 fighter type (Jaheira or Anomen) with Balduran's shield go melee with this beholder. The vampire - whoever has the Ammy of Power or is immune to level drain (Undead Slayer). There's another fighter baddy here somewhere. If you have a druid, have him/her cast Insect Plague or Creeping Doom at the nearest enemy.

Have your mages cast Horrid Wilting over the area and get ready to use Breech, True Sight, Pierce Magic on Shangalar (he throws out the standard Sequencer of Fire Shield, Prot. from Fire and Mirror Image). The lich is the biggest concern for me, so I concentrate on him before he gates in a pit fiend. After that, hit the vamp and the hive mother.

Further into the room (you may have triggered her; when fire rains from the sky <Meteor Storm> she sees you), is a female mage who can go invisible. True Sight helps negate the invisibility. If your druid has another IP or CD, have them cast that on the mage. I usually just beat her to death when she runs out of spells. Mages casting Magic Missile, Breech and other spells help a lot.

When everything is dead, loot the bodies. You'll find an eyestalk, which you need to escape, cash, gems and Staff of the Magi. Drop the eyestalk in the caldroun and click on the switch to leave.

Another quick note: I don't mess with this until the very end of Chapter 6, just before I head off Bodhi.

 

There is a house in the NE (SE?) of the Temple district. Just walk straight after entering the Temple district and you'll run into it. It's called "Guarded Compound" on the map I think.

Go in there and fight some fairly tough opponents both downstairs and upstairs. Some very good loot is dropped by these guys as well as a very special Rogue Stone. You can't sell this one like you can most Rogue Stones and if you read its descprition you'll find it's actually a sort of magical note with writing on it. This writing mentions a secret location in the Bridge District.

You can enter that building with any Rogue Stone in your inventory, but might as well use the special "quest" one since you can't sell it anyway.

What is all this Twisted Rune business? Just a side quest Bioware never got around to finishing. It probably had something to do with Nalia's quest regarding slavers.

 

Err slave quest was related to Nalia in some manner? I know his 'dearling' is somehow involved, but I didn't think the two quests are really continous.

 

I thought the TR was connecting BG1 and BG2 - Shangalar, anyone? *shrug*

 

The guarded compound is only linked to the Twisted Rune if you have a particular mod. The Rune itself is more linked to Rejiek the tanner and his bunch than any slavers.

There's also a priest of some kind (not sure whether he's a cleric or a druid, 'cos I usually kill him quickly) in the TR. The "fighter wearing nothing" might be some kind of a thief, because I seem to remember him backstabbing me.

 

I just did the guest in the guarded compound and no one dropped a rogue stone. any ideas?

 

It's some mod that produces the special rogue stone. Apparently it's a plotline that wasn't finished; the compound and Twisted Rune were originally meant to be linked. In a regular game there isn't supposed to be such a rogue stone.

 

It's EoU, I think. Just use any rogue stone you have for that door.

 

Also, when you first enter the Twisted Rune, there are a dozen or so Skull Traps that will explode as soon as you try to enter the main room. I don't know if this is only added with the Tactics mod installed, as I can't remember the game *without* it installed. Send your summoned creatures in first to take care of the skull traps!

 

There are no skull traps in the unmodded version.

 

everyone is saying there is more than one rouge stone but i don't remember getting one last time I finished the game. does anyone know where they all are or are there just to many to mention. my game isn't modded if that helps. thanks!

 

The first one that pops to mind is in the second florr, back rooms of the thieves guild run by Mae'Var. Also, there's one for sale from Gorch in th same place. There's one in Saerk's house.

 

@In the modded game, that fight is much more difficult, mage and lich and vampire is smarter, they have better spell picks, (the sorceress does not gate in a demon which will kill her, but instead goes on a frenzy with Remove Magic and LOTS of Abi Dalzim's Horrid Wiltings!) and most importantly that sorceress uses the SoM just like a PC will do!

(Cast a spell, turn invisible, use spell trap!)

That is cool if you ask me. The beholder-kin is smarter too, will not fall for Shield Of Balduran cheese. Vampire is smarter to choose victims who are not protected from his uber level drain. There are also lots of skulltraps near the entrance. There are also added a horde of rune assasins. Oh and the spawning positions of the enemies are altered to prevent skulltrap cheese with simmys or PIs.

What can I say more, that is one of the coolest and hardest battles of the game! Truly, no little mageling should run after a relic as powerful as SoM!

 

unfinished business mod? By the way I did find the stone in ten compound, and also read on many other forums that is was linked with the slavers quest, and not Nalia. But heh, when mistake are repeated ofton, some hold them for true

 

oh yeahhh.. i remember now! this was a good fight too! I should head there soon..
this will be a good battle indeed, wander if vic's turn undead will work on the vampire..
oh and i find it funny how tips on how to beat these guys include hiding in the fog and luring lol @ kuemper..

 

Its actually the Baldurdash Fix-pack that repairs this quest.

From the readme:

Without giving too many details away, it restores the broken links and adds an item as a "hint," restoring excised links necessary to make the locations and events leading up to the Twisted Rune confrontation into an actual quest, rather than random encounters. The details, such as dialog options, were already present in BG2 but appear to have been overlooked by the time it was released, leaving the player with no clues.

You will still be able to complete this quest at any stage by random encounter, but now by following the links and clues, the quest has continuity. Hint: The quest aspect will develop by having Nalia in the group.

A bug is also fixes by these files: when entering a certain door in Athkatla, the game autosaves, but if the save is reloaded, the gemstone "key" will not be present in the save file.