Storm of Zehir, Sword Coast

Part XV of Storm of Zehir Walkthrough.

Sword Coast

Ok, we are now in the Sword Coast. We start off in the far south. We need to get to Crossroad Keep to meet up with Sa'Sani. Follow the road north a bit until you reach the town of Leilon. 

Leilon

You approach the central square of Leilon. A small mining community, the quiet in the village is occasionally punctuated by the sound of a smelter working in the distance.

We can buy ore at a comparatively low price here (indicated by a blue-colored 6 on the towns Goods & Resources window), but Timber (12) and Skins (5) are quite expensive (thus, we should sell timber and skins to Leilon, not buy them from Leilon). 

Leilon's Rare Resource is the legendary Adamantine, which is of course very expensive at this point of the campaign (300).

At this point, if we can afford it, we could buy 10 units of ore (60 TBs) and sell them at Thundertree (90 TBs) for a trade-bar profit of 30 TBs. Then, we could purchase timber at Thundertree, where it's abundant and cheap (3) and sell it at Highcliff, where it's scarce and expensive (12). So we could buy ten units of Timber from Thundertree for 30 trade bars and sell them to Highcliff for 120, thereby making a trade bar profit of 90 trade bars or 1350 GP. Then, we buy 10 units of ore from Highcliff... rinse repeat.

However, manual trading is quite tedious with our limited cargo capacity of 10 units. Cargo capacity gets upgraded to 15 units once we get to Crossroad Keep, but what we really want to do is establish trading posts and trade routes, which spawn caravans on the OLM that generate income for us "automatically", over time.

Crossroad Keep

Before you lies Crossroad Keep, once the bastion of the legendary Knight-Captain.

Upon entry to the keep's courtyard,  we spot Sa'Sani talking to Khelgar Ironfist from NWN2. 

Completed: Samargol - Northward Bound: 600 xp.

Pro-tip: Do NOT sell expensive items to Jacoby. He can only pay max of 1,000 GP per item! Instead, sell expensive items to the gnoll merchant in the Thayan Enclave in Neverwinter city (10,000 GP).  [Storm of Zehir Item List]

Crossroad Keep - The Next Step

It seems the enterprising Sa'Sani has bought up buildings in the Keep. Follow her to the Merchant HQ and enter.

Completed Quest: Crossroad Keep - The Next Step: 300 xp.

Crossroad Keep - Missing Associates

Sa'Sani wants you to find those missing associates (Il'foss and Kizu) who were supposed to operate from this Keep, and she believes that if you travel to Neverwinter and speak with the prominent cartels there, you'll find out their fate. This is basically the main quest. I'll cover it in the next post. There are more important things to do first!

Trading Posts & Trade Routes

Crossroad Keep - Sword Coast Trader

Sa'Sani wants you to set up a trading post at one of the nearby towns: Highcliff, Thundertree or Leilon. She increases the cargo capacity of your wagon from ten to fifteen units (which you may fill with any combination of Goods & Rare Resources), and gives you 100 trade bars for this purpose.

Setting up a Trading Post

Now, the closest and easiest towns in which to establish trading posts are Highcliff and Thundertree. Why? Their fee for doing so is just 100 trade bars and five units of ore or timber, respectively. So travel to a town and establish your trading post. How? Click on the town on the OLM, inquire about establishing a trading post, and construct the trading post.

Hand-holding: Exit Crossroad Keep and buy five units of ore from Highcliff. Travel to Thundertree and establish a trading post by paying the fee (5x ore). Buy five units of timber from Thundertree and travel back to Highcliff. Establish a trading post by paying the fee (5x timber). Voila. Two trading posts established.

We can see that our routes are ready to be established, but what we need are caravans.

Setting up Caravan Routes

So return to Sa'Sani at the merchant HQ. Next, she wants you to establish a caravan route from Crossroad Keep to the newly established trading post in order to bring in consistent income.

Speak to Caravan Master O'Dell just outside the HQ to do just that. For example, if your trading post was established at Thundertree it will cost 2,500 GP to set up the route, and you can upgrade the caravan twice more for 5,000 and 7,500 GP. These upgrades presumably impact the speed of the caravan and its ability to survive attacks by roaming OLM monsters.

Now we can see our caravans going along their trade routes in real-time:

How to get Tons of Trade Bars Quickly

You can speed up trade bar accumulation by exiting to the OLM and rest spamming. Just keep clicking on Crossroad Keep and hit the 2 key to rest spam. Example of accumulation with three trade routes established and fully upgraded: 50 rests = about 1735 trade bars which equates to 26,025 GP through Variel. After upgrading propaganda and fourth trade route: 18,000 trade bars.

Completed Quest: Crossroad Keep - Sword Coast Trader: 700 XP.

Don't forget to talk to Variel for more trade bars. She is standing around with Sa'Sani.

The object is to explore the Sword Coast region, establish trading posts at the other towns and set up caravan routes to increase your income. Here are the prerequisites for establishing trading posts in each town, and their (initial) rare resources (which are used for upgrading your Keep and crafting):

Highcliff Trading Post

• 100 trade bars and five units timber (buy the timber from Thundertree)
• Rare Resource = mithral
• Jacoby then stocks "wizards' wares" at Crossroad Keep (expensive robes and a few other enchanted items, scrolls).

Thundertree Trading Post

• 100 trade bars and five units Ore (buy the ore from Leilon)
• Rare Resource = zalantar
• Jacoby then stocks Duskwood and Shederran-based ranged weapons.

Leilon Trading Post

• 300 trade bars five units of Skins (buy the skins from Phandalin)
• Rare Resource = adamantine
• Jacoby then stocks adamantine items. 

Phandalin Trading Post

• 200 trade bars + 5 units ore
• Rare Resource = cold iron
• (only after talking to Danley in the inn and then clearing out the cold iron mines for him.)

Conyberry Trading Post

• 500 trade bars + 10 units skins
• Rare Resource = dark steel

New Leaf Trading Post

• 800 trade bars + 10 units ore
• Rare Resource = zalantar

West Harbor Trading Post

• Free
• Rare Resource = harvest mead or dragon mead
• (only after completing the quest, one way or the other)

Port Llast Trading Post

• 100 trade bars + 5 units ore
• Rare Resource = knucklehead ivory
• (only after completing the Army of the Dead & Wrath of Umberlee quests)

An important feature of our trading posts is the ability to ship goods and resources back to the Crossroad Keep trading post (Caravan Master O'Dell) instead of maually lugging it back in our wagon. 

This allows us to store the g&r centrally, but it also makes it easier to build upgrades through Variel, and craft at the HQ. In case that's misleading, we must have the g&r in our wagon inventory in order to upgrade the keep, and craft. But being able to tailor our wagon load through O'Dell is convenient.

We can also establish trade routes through town trading posts, not just through the Crossroad Keep one run by O'Dell. We can establish trade routes between towns, not just between town and keep.

The next easy routes to establish would be the ones between Leilon and the keep, and Phandalin and the keep, but play how you like.

 

Variel will supply you with trade bars as the days go by. Remember that these can be converted to cold, hard cash. When you want to upgrade the keep, talk to her. To begin upgrading the Keep, donate 500 trade bars and supply the g&r:

Crossroad Keep Upgrades

• Portal: 5 units adamantine (Leilon) + 5 darksteel (Conyberry and Phandalin)
• Greycloak weapons: 5 units cold iron (Phandalin) + 5 zalantar (Thundertree)
• Greycloak armor: 5 units mithral (Highcliff) + 5 adamantine (Leilon)
• Waukeen Shrine: 5 units timber (Thundertree) + 5 mithral (Highcliff)
• Propaganda: 5 units ore + 5 timber + 5 skins (Phandalin)
• 200 xp for each upgrade

Each upgrade increases our income by a percentage. None are necessary to plot progression or even wealth accumulation.

At the HQ we can rest up, craft, and warp back to Samarach using the Lantanese portal run by Orias. 2,000 gp to get to Samarach, free to return.

Don't forget... to adventure! This isn't a trading sim, it's a D&D game!

Neverwinter Nights 2	6. Batiri Cave	12. Underdark Black Market	18. Conyberry Meeting
1. Storm of Zehir Walkthrough	7. Plainsrunner	13. Sauringar Temple	19. Storm of Zehir Chult
2. Storm of Zehir Samarach	8. Heavy Weaponry	14. Chokemist Cave	20. Temple of the World Serpent
3. Openpalm Bazaar	9. Lantanese Lumber Camp	15. Storm of Zehir Sword Coast	21. Dread Herald of Zehir
4. Omgar's Teeth	10. Samarach OLM	16. Storm of Zehir Cartels	22. Storm of Zehir Item List
5. Stone Knives Tribe	11. Singing Pendant	17. Forktongue Bandit Hideout	23. Storm of Zehir Mods