Act One, Part III: Calespur Ranges & Calespur Caverns, poachers, ballista vs. wyvern

Part III of Aielund Saga Walkthrough Guide. Continuing from Part II: Culdeny. The Aielund Saga is a NWN Module for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights 1.

Calespur Ranges Aielund Saga

We travel to the Calespur Ranges on a dark and stormy night. Standing before us, silhouetted against the night sky, is The Lodge of which the ranger Donan Marshall spoke, invitingly lit up from inside like a lantern. Rangers stand guard outside, and can be seen patrolling deeper in the woods.

Uh, I ain't real popular round here at the moment. Just thought I'd let you know that chief. - Dante.

Inside the lodge, the staunch ranger captain, Armin Wise, details his issues with notorious poachers who are headed up by a nobleman from Fairloch, Tomar Fairchild, who makes a fortune selling pelts and meat. The trio agree to remove the filthy curs from this pristine location.

Under cover of darkness the Hunters are difficult to spot, but we slice and dice our way through scattered packs of them, on the corpse of one finding a Scarab of Protection +1. An unlikely badger ally helped us at one stage, too. Cute little devil.

To the West there is a ruin guarded by more hunters, and a chest containing three animal pelts.

Bloody poachers! This is the King's game reserve and they're setting up shop right under our noses. Let's teach them a lesson! - Dante.

Poachers in the King's own forest. This is unconscionable! - Nellise.

 

After taking out two hunters guarding the door to Tomar's cabin, we are surprised to find his door left unlocked. But Tomar Fairchild isn't hostile when we enter, and asks us what it will take to forget we ever saw him. I respond that we require his House Symbol and that he must never show his face here ever again.

Grateful for my mercy, he slinks out with his tail between his legs (250 EXP, +1 Good, 500 GP). 

Stashed in his cabin we find 100 GP, two more animal pelts, Fine Composite Longbow (Massive Criticals 3, Mighty +5), Piercing Arrows (99), and a Glittering Necklace.

Glad to be of service to the Crown, we return to Armin Wise and give him the House Symbol (+1 Lawful, 550 EXP, 300 GP). We also hand in a total of five animal pelts (250 EXP).

Calespur Caverns

There is a Quartermaster upstairs, from whom we stock up on medkits before heading to the Northwest of the map, where, at the crack of dawn, we encounter the lone ranger, Mona. 

 

Another ranger in need, she requests that we risk life and limb clearing the Calespur caverns of an unwanted guest that is also preying on the King's game, and for no reward this time. The paladin in me jumps at the chance to perform yet another noble deed, and squeezes past Dante and Nellise to be the first into the eerie cave.

The rocky walls are slick with moisture from weeks of endless rain. - DM

The first level is small and consists of only three worgs.

I must admit, I've never been one to explore caverns and such. Quite a new experience for me. - Nellise.

Descending to level two, we face off against Hook Horrors and an Umber Hulk who yields a tidy 430 EXP. Where's my Cowl of Warding? But none of us failed our save against confusion gaze.

Note that you can rest only once every four hours (10 mins realtime).

Level Up to 5!

Lilura: Paladin (1)/ Fighter (4), Weapon Specialization: Longsword

Dante: Ranger (1) / Fighter (4)

Nellise: Cleric (5)

On a corpse we find a Cloak of Fortification +1, Shortbow +1 and Lightning Arrows (99). Then we are suddenly ambushed by a dozen gargoyles popping out of the ground, who turned out to be fairly easy pickings.

Onward, we are amused to encounter a hostile Wandering Gnome. 

About bloody time you showed up. Let's get this over with! - Wandering Gnome.

According to his journal, this tough little bastard was a thief-in-hiding. He was expecting to be tracked down by those whom he had ripped off; hence, his hostility.

From his corpse we loot a Potion of Lesser Restoration, Potion of Antidote, Bracers of Armor +2, Mage's Robe of Battle, and a Journeyman Staff.

The rest of this level is mostly about hacking at spiders of all kinds (sword, phase, giant, wraith). We best a second Umber Hulk at the exit, and then rest before descending to the cavern's third and deepest level.

Here we are immediately set on by two young wyverns, who we easily mop up. Creeping in further...

Did you hear that? It sounded like something big moving. - Nellise.

And a little further... Dante stops.

Woah. Something smells big... I don't like this at all. - Dante. 

There is a full-grown wyvern and two more young'uns down here. The adult wyvern is tough to beat in a normal fight, possessed as it is of high STR, Knockdown and DC-26 Con-draining poison, which you're unlikely to resist at this level. The easiest way to tackle this encounter is to trick the wyvern into giving chase and having it stop in front of a ballista, which is a type of siege engine.

Here we run screaming our heads off towards the ballista.

The wyvern is lured right in the line of fire, too stupid to circle around.

The ballista is loaded...

BOOM.

It's also possible to cheese the wyvern using ranged weapons from this alcove, similar to how the Bebilith in HotU can be cheesed. This way, you get the juicy kill exp. However, with preparation or fool's luck it can be beaten fair and square with the stand-and-deliver approach.

Either way, the wyvern treasure is significant:

Slicer (Short Sword +1 [+1-4 Slashing]), Large Metal Shield +2, Lesser Ring of Wizardry, Sacred Cloth (Monk only), Cloak of Protection +2, Ring of Resistance +1, assorted spells and scrolls (Dispel Magic, Raise Dead, Slow, Fireball, Negative Energy Burst and Restoration), assorted gems and potions, 456 GP.

Abandoned Mine

The caverns here feature a large lake and show evidence of mining, what with the cart tracks and man-made tunnels. Here we find the corpse of a dead Dwarven warrior, Dorum MacTavish, the brother of Clavis from Culdeny, and loot it for Dwarven Full Plate (Dwarf only), Helm of the Bull (+1 AC), Handaxe +1 and Bolt of Fire (99). From his journal we learn that Dorum entered the caverns in search of the fabled underground water supply discovered by his ancestors. Well, at least he found it. The cause of his death was most likely slain by wyvern.

Exiting this area, we now find ourselves in the lowest part of the abandoned mines, which are infested with zombies. Nelisse Turns Undead, insta-killing three zombies and divine-damaging the zombie lord. Then she lands the killing blow on the Lord to top off her great performance. The dual-wielding zombie lord is looted for Kama +2 and Kama +1.

Heading upstairs to the mine's second level, we're assaulted by yet more spiders.

Ah, the old Dwarven mines. These were abandoned when the clan struck a large water reserve. - Dante.

One of the siderooms has a nasty web-trap and spiders. There are chests holding various scrolls, such as Resurrection, Neutralize Poison (2), Lesser Dispel and Lesser Restoration. We also found +2 Arrows and Bullets, Bolt of Frostbite (99), Archer's Belt (Piercing 5/-), and Leather Armor +2.

Another section contains two zombie warriors, tyrant fog zombies, ghouls and ghasts. Turn Undead, ftw.

Level Up to 6!

Lilura: Paladin (2)/ Fighter (4), Knockdown, Aura of Courage, Smite Evil

Dante: Ranger (1) / Fighter (5), Great Cleave

Nellise: Cleric (6), Cleave

Yep, the trio is beefing up now.

The last section on this level just contains giant spiderlings. We find loot here consisting of a Mercurial Sword (exotic CEP weapon), Light Pick +1, Light Hammer +1 and 100 GP.

Upstairs to the highest level of the mines, and we're up against the bugbears.

Can't believe we've let this scum set up camp in these old mines. I think we should show them the door. By which I mean killing them. - Dante.

The skull-helmed bugbear chieftain is hacked to the ground for a Katana +1. After dusting off the other buggers we ransack their huts for 300 GP and assorted gems.

There's a treasure room here with a sign posted outside, reading "No-one enter. Bad thing inside." We enter and find a rusty statue that comes to life and goes hostile when we attempt to open chests behind it. Vanquished, it leaves behind a set of Rusted Full Plate. The chests are holding Restoration scroll, Defender +2 rapier and 842 GP.

Dante knocks this bugbear hero flying.

We then topple the bugbear temple, smash their altar to pieces for 350 EXP and +2 Good, crack the skull of the bugbear shaman, and loot its corpse for Dagger +1 and Amulet of Vitality +2 (+2 CON). 

The fighting became easier after the wyverns and zombie lord because we're coming back up out of the caverns the way Dorum came in (and the optional way we could have entered, too).

Encumbered and stat-drained, we finally exit the mines into the Calespur mountains, where we take on an ogre berserker. Three other ogres are camped nearby, but they offer little resistance.

This mountain section is quite small and leads back to the Calespur ranges, where Mona doesn't seem all that interested in our success in the Caverns?

Clavis of Culdeny is interested in news of his brother, though. We tell him Dorum was slain by wyverns. The grateful Clavis lets us keep Dorum's gear (300 GP, 500 XP). 

We sell off our loot and amass a tidy sum of 24,000 GP; then, we time-lapse back to Bracksworth.

It seems the mayor of Bracksworth has finally received news from Highmarch concerning the barbarian threat to the East. He refers us to Commander Redfurn in the barracks for more info.

Redfurn tells us the barbarians intend to strike soon, and asks us to take out their Half-orc leader, Erag. While raiding his stronghold we're to keep our eyes peeled for a ranger sent by Armin to spy on the barbarians, whom Dante knows as Tommy. We're also advised to wrap ourselves in winter cloaks due to the bitter cold on the High Plains.

I tell her we'll do our best against the barbs, and that she can count on us (+1 Good, 50 EXP).

With permission granted to exit via the East gate, the trio step out of Bracksworth and begin their journey into the Wilds.

Part IV.

Aielund Saga Act 1: Nature Abhors a Vacuum	Aielund Saga Act 3: Return of the Ironlord
Aielund Saga Act 2: Defender of the Crown	Aielund Saga Act 4: The Fall of Aielund