Severed Hand IWD1
Welcome to Part VIII of my Icewind Dale walkthrough; this part covering the main towers of the Severed Hand cRPG dungeon.
Severed Hand Location
The Severed Hand is located far, far to the south of Dragon's Eye. It rises out of a massive valley at the foot of the Spine of the World.
A creation of Black Isle with no direct parallel in Realmslore, the Severed Hand is so-named because its towers are like the fingers of a hand extending upward. The severed part of its name comes from one of the subtowers having been destroyed. The tower is also known as the Shattered Tower. In its glory days it was known by the elves as the Hand of the Seldarine.
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| (cf. IWD2 version.) |
The party have journeyed to the Hand in search of the Baelnorn Archmage, Larrel, who, with the tragic death of Archdruid Arundel, is the only one left capable of unlocking the secrets of the Hearstone Gem...
... the ancient druidic artifact we pried from the cold dead hands of Yxunomei in the bowels of Dragon's Eye.
Severed Hand Approach & Main Tower
Larrel's Sending
Upon arrival to the Hand's approach, Larrel's Sending is observed fireballing a squirrel which it mistakens for a Dwarf. It entirely ignores the heroic party curiously looking on, turns on its heals, and shuffles off back into its tower.
Severed Hand Layout
The layout of the tower is complex and non-linear. As a result of devastating elven magic unleashed hundreds of years ago, the tower is a ruin and its structural integrity has been compromised. Some walls and staircases have collapsed and blocked off corridors and chambers. As a result, not all parts of a given level are accessible right off the bat. We need to think of the tower as a whole rather than as separate parts with no relation to one another.
The main tower or "palm" consists of four levels two of which are partitioned down the center. On its fourth level the Hand branches off into four sub-towers or "fingers" - Labelas, Solonor, Corellon and Shevarash - which themselves consist of a few levels. The fifth finger or Sehanine tower has been destroyed. Moreover, the first level of Labelas has been destroyed and can only be reached via a bridge that connects it with the third level of Shevarash. This sort of thing makes for interesting area design. The subtowers are named after members of the elven pantheon. Click on the links above for in-game lore on them.
Atmosphere in the tower is solid. The lack of background music allows the ambient effects to stand out. The tower creaks and groans as the wind howls through it. Very well done.
A picture says a thousand words so let's showcase the tower with heavy reliance on screencaps and annotations, shall we?
First up, the first level. As can clearly be seen, it is partitioned down the center due to rubble and ruin. This is indicated by the white line I have drawn. I have also greyed-out the eastern side of the level for clarity: it is currently inaccessible. The yellow line indicates our progression-critical exploration only. As can be seen, there are two ways to ascend to the second level, either by ramp in the north or stairs in the south. However, in this case it doesn't matter which exit we take.
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| First Level: West (cf. IWD2 version.) |
Now, most people are going to want to explore every nook and cranny in search of items and crap to kill. Well, not only are there some cool items drawn from random pools but there are over 200 spectral and skeletal undead to destroy in just the first three levels of the tower. Upon entry, the party is assailed by spectral undead in the form of shadowed orcs of grunt, archer and shaman kind. Being undead, they may be turned by Clerics. Because the sprites are semi-transparent to reflect their spirit-nature, they can be difficult to see on the playing field (in un-paused mode, anyway). We will learn why the undead are here in Part IX.
Note the "Ambush" annotation above. There are invisible polygons on the floor which when triggered (walked over) cause spectral undead to spawn in non-trivial numbers. Suffice it to say that, when flanked in such a manner, it can be difficult to keep our squishy party members out of harm's way.
Below: Ambushing goblin pack. Note how semi-transparency of sprites make them difficult to pick out against the backdrop.
Ok, let's take a look at the second level. It is similarly partitioned as the first though different in layout. The two ambushes are a step up from the one on the first level. It's not just shadowed orcs but also goblins, worgs and ogres that we're up against. The goblins come in grunt, archer, marksman, trainer and warrior variety. The marksmen are crack shots. As can be seen, there are again two ways to ascend to the third level: up another ramp or up the central stairs.
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| Second Level: West (cf. IWD2 version) |
We take wheelchair access to arrive on the third level. Ok, here we see a different kind of partitioning. A potentially deadly one. The party emerges from the ramp and tries to whack a goblin pack. But the cunning goblins run off down the hall. As the party gives chase they suddenly start getting stung by goblin snipers on the other, unreachable side of the partition. Thus, the party must draw out their ranged weapons and unleash ranged spells in order to neutralize the threat. After that, they continue their pursuit of the goblins only to be ambushed by a dozen orcs and ogres that flank from the north and pin them down at the dead end in the south. This is good combat encounter design.
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| Third Level: West (cf. IWD2 version) |
The ambushers include two ogres, two shaman and many orcs headed up by their chieftain. Note the snipers and the area-division.
Bleeding, butthurt and mumbling something about "undead goblins", the party head back down to the second level and prepare to take the central staircase back up to this third one.
And here we are on the third level but this time in its south.
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| Third Level: East (cf. IWD2 version) |
This side of the third is teeming with skeletal and spectral undead in the form of shattered souls and armor and bladed skeletons. The above-annotated ambush trigger spawns one of three burning skeletons in the Hand; nasty, because they unleash fireball immediately. There is also one serrated skeleton that drops random loot upon being destroyed. On top of their general immunities and resistances as a result of being skeletal undead, these boneguards also sport immunity to +1 weapons along with missile damage immunity.
Stairs lead up to the fourth level but first we take the mechanical lift that descends to a previously inaccessible portion of the second.
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| Second Level: East (cf. IWD2 version) |
There is not much to do on this side of the second level other than battle more undead and find random loot. Note the amount of undead lurking here, though.
Having vanquished them we take the central stairs down once more to arrive on the eastern side of the first level, previously inaccessible.
Severed Hand Machine Parts Location: Piece of Broken Machinery
The Piece of Broken Machinery is found in the northeastern corner of the eastern chamber on the first level of the Severed Hand.
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| First Level: East (cf. IWD2 version) |
As we find out when we finally catch up with Gelarith in Part IX, this is one of four plot-critical items that we need to find so that he can repair his Astrolabe and awaken Larrel so that he can scry with the Heartstone. The other Pieces of Broken Machinery are found in Solonor, Corellon and Shevarash subtowers, which is covered in Part IX.
Below: Skeletons and souls headed up by a severed soul that inflicts vampiric touch and drops random loot.
With the first piece of the puzzle in hand, we backtrack to the third level and this time go upstairs to arrive on the fourth and highest level of the main tower wherefrom the Hand branches into its four remaining finger-towers:
(cf. IWD2 version.)
There are many elven spirits getting about on the fourth level. They are non-hostile and most of them are just going about their business eating, drinking and merry-making - as if nothing is wrong. But something is wrong: they're all dead. And they need to be put to rest. A few named spirits can be spoken to and a couple of those are aware of their undead status.
Telanis Songbender
First up, we have the Bard, Telanis Songbender. We learn from him that some kind of magical spell - cast by Larrel - inadvertently slew the elves, not just the orc-horde. Later, we learn from Denaini that the spell was a mythal.
The songs actually do not reveal very much. There is barely any lore in them, they are not particularly well-written, and so I won't go to the trouble of quoting them. Basically, Larrel was a hero, the greatest of elven wizards, who founded the Hand as a home for the elves after he got tired of kicking ass everywhere. In regard to the dwarves, it is about how the elves felt betrayed by the dwarves when the dwarves apparently sold weapons to orc-kind. We learn a lot more about this later.
Tel'Quessir Bladesinger, Lethias
Next up, the spirit of the Tel'Quessir Bladesinger, Lethias, is far more interesting. Having told us of Larrel's probable whereabouts (the Labelas tower), Lethias goes on to tell us a tale about his great sacrifice as part of the destruction of Sehanine tower. This is worth quoting in full:
Pretty good writing, there. Later, Bladesinger lore is found in the Labelas library.
Lehland
Lehland, on the other hand, speaks as if the tower never fell to the dark horde of the North (200 lingering ghosts of which we slew en route to this level being part of that force):
He is like directory assistance:
Then, Corellon...
... Shevarash... (incorrect spelling by Black Isle)
... Sehanine...
... Labelas...
... and Solonor:
Acid Arrows
A mechanical lore-dump, but informative. Lehland is also a merchant. Most notably, x80 Acid Arrows are up for grabs (+2d6 acid damage).
These are the best general purpose arrows in BG and IWD. There are not as many in IWD as in BG, and so they should be snapped up now.
Which brings us to itemization. Check out the arcane spell scrolls we netted: Emotion: Hopelessness, Emotion: Courage, Emotion: Hope, Animate Dead and Cone of Cold.
Emotion Spells
While all of those spells are useful, Emotion: Courage and Emotion: Hope take the cake. Why? Because taken together they bestow THAC0 +3, damage +5, +2 saves and +5 HPs for five delicious turns; that is, 50 rounds or 5 mins of game-time. Not bad. The Emotion line in general is good, actually.
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| Emotion: Courage, Hope, Fear & Hopelessness |
Righteous Wrath of the Faithful
Also not bad is that clerical Bless, Chant, Prayer, Recitation and Righteous Wrath of the Faithful stack as well for THAC0 +7, damage +4, saves +6, ApR +1 and +1-8 HPs but only for 1 round per level of the caster for a max of 13 rounds. Of course, we haven't broken into RWotF yet, and these are not even items, but I just thought I'd mention it because buffing is important in IWD.
Note that RWotF stacks with itself, but we only get two castings at max level, so it's not a big deal.
As for arms & armor, it is possible we netted some good stuff from the random pools of the serrated skeleton and severed soul. Their drops are themed in that the boneguard drops bone-related items and the shadow drops shadow-related ones. Take for example:
... the Serrated Bone Blade (THAC0 +3, 20% on-hit 1d10 cold)...
... Shadowed Robe (AC 4, +15% MR)...
Damage Resistance
... and the Bone Marrow Belt (+50% slashing resistance, -15% crushing resistance, AC +1, -2 Cha):
Damage resistance sources stack. For example:
Bone Marrow Belt (+50) + Studded Leather of Resistance +3 (+15) + Long Sword of Action +4 (+15) + Great Shield +3 (+15) + Clasp of Bron's Cloak (+5) = 100% slashing resistance.
Notably, because 100% resistance constitutes an immunity, the strikes upon us do not even land so there is no sprite animation delay. It's just like when we try to hit an NPC flagged as immortal. At this point in the campaign it is only possible to sport 70%. And that would require getting lucky on two random drops. Thus, it is unlikely.
Other good items include the Great Shield +3 (AC +4, +15% slashing, crushing and piercing resistance, THAC0 -2) and the Two-Handed Sword +2: Hammering (20% on-hit Stun). Again, both are randomly itemized.
***
So there we have it. The main tower in a nutshell. Excellent area design, great artwork, good atmosphere, inventive combat encounter design and interesting itemization. No quest experience at all, though. That's coming up in Part IX.
In the next post the party catches up with Larrel and explores the four remaining subtowers of the Hand in search of three more missing parts to his Astrolabe.
- Experience points: 197,600 kXP + 0 qXP = 197,600 total XP (903,845)
- Killcount: 205 (1030)
v1.06 notes:
• "Sheverash" should be "Shevarash". See: TSR's Demihumans & Deities for proof.
• Lethias may be force-attacked and damaged but he cannot be vanquished. Lethias sports ApR 4 and AC -4.
• Bone Kris of Black Ichor does not inflict poison damage.
• Description for Serrated Blade: "player" should be "victim".
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