Lower Dorn's Deep IWD1
Welcome to Part XII of my Icewind Dale walkthrough; this part giving covering Durdel Anatha of the Lower Dorn's Deep cRPG dungeon.
Lower Dorn's Deep
Durdel Anatha
We have finally arrived in the ancient dwarven citadel of Lower Dorn's Deep (LDD); specifically, the vast entry-zone known as Durdel Anatha. Down here, molten metal gurgles in cauldrons, ironworks can be heard off in the distance, and svirfneblin aka deep gnome slaves toil under the gaze of the guards stationed in the watchtower overlooking the entire zone.
This is the hub from which merchants, healing and resting are accessed (deep gnome camp) as well as the main districts of LDD. However, the districts also link to one another independently of the hub. Exploration and questing is almost entirely non-linear. With but one exception (the deep gnome camp), we can go to any of LDD's 16 areas straight out of the blocks. And we can gain access to the deep gnome camp very early providing we untertake a couple of quests for the deep gnomes, first.
Of course, we know the dark-horde orcs overran LDD hundreds of years ago.
Thus, this is no longer the mighty dwarven citadel that existed during the golden age of the time of the cooperation between elves and dwarves. Just as with the Seldarine of the Hand, no living dwarf remains. But the orcs have long since gone, too, and a new force has moved in and taken full control of the conquered citadel. In fact, it is an army amassed by Revered Brother Poquelin (RBP) aka Belhifet. This is the source of all of the problems plaguing Icewind Dale, as scried by Larrel in the Silvanite Heartstone.
Poquelin's Lieutenants
We've already taken out two of Poquelin's lieutenants and acquired their badges (Krilag & Joril). The four remaining lieutenants are holed up in LDD. Each commands an army, each has carved out their own base of operations within LDD, and each is thoroughly evil with the exception of Brother Perdiem (who has been dominated by Poquelin). The length, breadth and depth of LLD must be explored in order to hunt down each of the lieutenants. In addition, fierce battles in lead-up zones usually precede confrontation with them.
The following gives an overview of the lieutenants as understood upon our conquering of LDD. This information has been drawn from previous chapters (letters, dialogues and item descriptions) as well as this one, and distilled.
Just so we know what we're dealing with:
Marketh
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| Miner's Pick |
Marketh is usually the first to be confronted in Lower Dorn's Deep. He has taken up residence in Old Dorn's Palace. Taking the role of thief and assassin, he used to be an adventurer himself. But when opportunity knocked he turned on his party and murdered them in order to ally with Poquelin. Now, he is full of himself in that he calls himself "Lord Chamberlain" and calls his slave camp "New Dorn's Deep". Along with Malavon, Marketh enforces and oversees the enslavement of the svirfneblin for Poquelin.
His closest advisor is the halfling thug, Seth, who captured the deep gnome ruby priest, Guello, and enslaved him under Shikata which fire salamander also answers to Marketh. Slaver Marketh is not respected by Ilmadia or her fire giant force; they consider him weak.
Most despicably, Marketh beats his drow concubine, Ginafae (Malavon's sister), hobbled the deep gnome gemcutter, Norl, and cut out the tongue of the gnomish girl, Fengla. Basically, Marketh is a cruel bastard. He doesn't like ethics getting in the way of wealth and power. But when push comes to shove, he is a coward. If not slain, he drops his badge and runs off with his tail between his legs at the first sign of trouble.
Below: Second level of Old Dorn's Palace. Marketh and his enforcer, Seth, dwell here. Many assassins and fighters must be battled en route.
Maiden Ilmadia
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| Unicorn Head |
Ilmadia is a fierce elven maiden who rules the Great Forge of LDD and its fire giant force with an iron fist. She was appointed by Poquelin to take over the operation when fire giant King Thargren was slain.
Ilmadia is currently engaged in dismantling the Great Forge in order to repurpose its metal towards the construction of an immense longboat which she intends to have her fire giants row down lava rapids and propel into a cavern wall, spilling lava down into the city of Rilauven and annihilating its drow, who, with the notable exception of Malavon and his faction, refused to ally with Poquelin. Not a bad idea, that.
A traitor to the Tel'Quessir, Ilmadia stole Seldarine artifacts from the Severed Hand and also took two tomes: one on unicorns and the other on artifact enchanting. With knowledge gained from the tomes, access to Saablic Tan's Red Wizard formula, and assistance from Malavon, Ilmadia intends to create black unicorns from native ones lured into capture by virtue of her virginity. Not a bad idea, either. It's probably why Poquelin appointed her as tactician. Unlike Marketh, Ilmadia won't back down. In fact, she draws steel first.
Below: The Great Forge. We must battle through the mines in order to arrive here. Salamanders, elementals and fire giants are the mainstay. Note the epic viking ship.
Malavon Despana
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| Unseeing Eye |
Malavon Despana is a drow sorcerer exiled from the subterranean city of Rilauven. He is the creator of the umber hulks and the one who took over from Red Wizard of Thay, Saablic Tan, whom he transformed into an umber hulk and banished to the upper reaches of Dorn's Deep.
Malavon, whose domed lair is located in the Artisan's District, is busily manufacturing vibration-detecting umber hulks in order to hunt down the svirfneblin who resist divination by magical means, and who are hiding in the secret deep gnome encampment beneath Durdel Anatha. Of those captured, he has cut out their eyes and forced them into slavery within his dome. They tend to his mushrooms colonies and myco-hulk pods.
Malavon also constructed iron golems as personal bodyguards, and he is responsible for sending the drow forces to the dwarven compound in Upper Dorn's Deep.
Because she is pro-Rilauven and used to beat him with her snake whip, Malavon abducted his sister, the drow priestess of Lolth, Ginafae, and placed a curse upon her that effectively imprisons her in Marketh's palace. If she attempts to leave, the contingency-curse will remove her innate drow magical resistance and then extinguish her life-force. Malavon also cut out the eyes of Rilauven's drow priestesses but left his sister's eyes intact so that she could "see Marketh leering over her".
As if it isn't clear already, Malavon is a psychotic and also an arcane practitioner of no small standing.
He has developed simulacra and other spells of his own such as Malavon's Rage and Malavon's Corrosive Fog. By a long shot, Malavon is the most formidable of Poquelin's lieutenants. Like Ilmadia, he won't go down without a fight. A two-phase fight.
Below: Malavon's Dome. An army of minotaurs and umber hulks are encountered in the Artisan's District, from which the dome is accessed.
Brother Perdiem
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| White Dove |
Brother Perdiem is usually the last to be confronted. By will, the Ilamaterian priest is not a lieutenant of Poquelin. He and his Illefarn congregation were actually infiltrated by Poquelin and then brainwashed by his charismatic sermons after the latter read the former's mind and gained a deep understanding of Ilmater and how to manipulate their tenets.
As a result, the priests abandoned their monastery for Lower Dorn's Deep and left the sick and dying to their fate. Many died along the way, but those of the congregation that survived the arduous journey ended up in the Temple of Berronar Truesilver, where those who resisted Poquelin's golden idol were turned into powerful undead to guard what is now the Fallen Temple, and those who didn't were dominated and enthralled.
Once the undead army has been vanquished and the golden idol shattered, the heroic adventurers (that's us) can save the repentant Perdiem and then discover an invisible barrier blocking access to a stairwell that leads to Ascension Cave and a showdown with Poquelin himself. The invisible barrier is removed by placing each of the badges into their corresponding slots seated at the foot of the spiral stairwell.
Below: The Fallen Temple. One of the largest forces of undead seen on the Infinity Engine must be vanquished in this combat zone.
In addition to the non-linear main quest of acquiring the remaining four badges, LDD offers non-linear subquesting that usually involves exploration of more than one district. Thus, it is likely that players will move between districts several times in order to satisfy subquest parameters. While most of these subquests are simple FedEx, they make sense and are quite flavorsome and rewarding. There are also opportunities to purchase powerful items and even craft an item from the shell of a monster, and subsequently enchant it. The writing also improves in this Chapter: there are some well-written dialogues and quite a few flavorsome or funny responses for us to choose.
The rest of this post is given over to combat encounters of the exterior of Durdel Anatha.
Fire Salamanders
There are only two enemies patrolling the entry-zone: Fire salamanders and tarnished sentries. As with the frost salamanders of Wyrm's Tooth Glacier, the fire variant sports an aura that inflicts non-trivial damage to all those in close proximity. This aura of fire can actually slay the svirfneblin slaves as they wander by. If mobbed, party members lacking FR may also be fried by the stacking auras.
Tarnished Sentries
The tanky tarnished sentry golems can also be problematic in that they sport ApR 4 (from range or in melee), 80% missile resistance and 50% slashing and piercing resistance along with 25% MR. Their fire immunity exceeds that of fire salamanders in that fire damage will actually heal them. So yeah, unless we're going to roll our sleeves up and take them out conventionally, for these mobs we want to break out arcane spells such as Cone of Cold and Otiluke's Freezing Sphere.
Watchtower
The Watchtower to the south is interesting. As mentioned before, it overlooks Durdel Anatha and keeps an eye on the slaves. Presumably, any deep gnome slaves caught trying to escape are shot and killed. There are undetectable and therefore non-disarmable traps surrounding its base. An attempt to mimic the firing of arrows downward from the arrowslits built into its walls, these inflict 3-12 physical damage when crossed. Unfortunately, there are not enough triggers for the damage to be scary. And it really should be round-by-round damage because archers won't stop firing at us just because we're standing still. In fact, they'd pick up the pace on unmoving targets. However, this is a cool concept.
Impregnable by conventional means (thief Open Lock skill), we can cast Knock on the iron gate or acquire the key to the watchtower from a gnomish girl nearby, Fengla. Inside, to no surprise are stationed several archers who immediately fire their composite longbows loaded with Arrows of Piercing. Nasty, in that composite longbows grant THAC0 +1 and dmg +2, and piercing arrows grant THAC0 +4 and dmg +6. Nastier still because the transition requires that our whole party enter. Still, not nasty enough. Not for a tenth level party. Killing the crackshot guards quickly yields 120+ piercing arrows. Once cleared, Fengla - who has had her tongue cut out - enters to shake our hand for freeing her (80,000 XP). We can also freely rest within the Watchtower's loft.
Norl
- Experience points: 125,000 kXP + 80,000 qXP = 205,000 total XP (3,789,456)
- Killcount: 37 (1426)
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