Stage 10: Promotion Finale: Sewers, Temples of Sun/Moon, Keeps, Dragons & Artifacts

Enter the Sewers from the northern house behind the Mind Guild. The whole place is low-threat: rats, a scattering of Priests of Baa, and stray thieves. Clear the rats near the entrance and note the locked door, then take the west path. At the row of small sewer grates, click the first grate to find the Sewer Key, double back and loot the treasure behind the locked door. Return to the grates, head south, take the first right, and work as far west as you can, cutting down the occasional Priest of Baa. At the T-junction go north, then west again, into the room that darkens. Click the odd-looking back wall to open the secret room, take the chest, then click the bed to find the Prince of Thieves. Carry him back to Lord Anthony Stone at Castle Stone in Free Haven for his council approval.

Order note: the Prince only spawns here if you have already chased him through the earlier thief lairs (Dragoon's Caverns and the Shadow Guild in Ironfist, and the Shadow Guild in the Frozen Highlands). If those are done, he is waiting; if not, finish them first.

Warp to Free Haven, cross east into Bootleg Bay, and from the Temple of the Fist fly directly northeast to the Temple of the Sun. The instant you enter, a pack of Monks opens fire, so dive into one of the alcoves near the entrance and let them filter in; pick them off around a corner. The trash here is fragile — Novice and Initiate Monks have very low HP — but Master Monks are magic-immune, so kill those with weapons rather than spells. Take the door in the northeast corner, drop the Master Monk inside, and click the cabinet to receive the Sacred Chalice (click again for extra items, and grab the chest).

The Minotaur King in the opposite corner is optional but his room holds eight chests, item bags, and stat barrels. He has very high HP, magic immunity, and casts Finger of Death, so lure him into the main room and stand in the doorway: his Finger of Death wastes itself on the wall while your back-rank characters pepper him with arrows. Afterward, warp to Free Haven and visit the rebuilt temple to seat the Chalice, then return to Lord Stone for High Priest.

Warp to White Cap and fly south to Icewind Keep; it is ringed by archers (and a robbable chest), so clear or skirt them and go in. The keep is symmetrical. The first rooms hold Ogres and Guards off to the sides; as you pass the big locked door, a mob spawns behind it — but there is a hole in the door, so stand outside and shoot them dead while they cannot reach you. Work the left wing first (Ogre rooms with gold-stuffed beds and two small treasure rooms), hitting the switches in the final room. Then mirror it on the right wing (Guards instead of Ogres). With both big doors open, an army of Ogres and Guards floods the final room — shut the door again and kill them through it. Behind the throne switch, a secret passage east holds four chests; one contains the Dragon Riders scroll and the Dragon Tower Keys.

Fly to Castle Stromgard for promotion to Battle Mage and the follow-up quest. To finish it, Town Portal to each of the six main towns and have the key-holder push the button on that town's Dragon Tower so it stops shooting fireballs at you when you fly. Return to Stromgard for Warrior Mage.

Back in Free Haven, head south then west along the edge to the temple-shaped keep guarded by archers and mages. There is no magic inside — only rats and the armored Fighters/Soldiers/Veterans from the original Dragoon dungeon. Take the right door and clear the big room, then push north up the long hall. The six side rooms off that hall are filler (a fighter and an empty cabinet each); the end room has a switch behind a mob. Go back to the big room and head west, clearing the two side doors and the basements; one basement switch dumps more fighters into the room you just left, and a hidden door hides a chest. Finally take the open door at the end, hit the switch at the bottom of the stairs, then the switch that opens all three rooms. The back room locks you in briefly — kill what it spawns and wait for it to reopen. Through the last locked door, about a dozen fighters guard gold bags and the chest holding Mordred, the artifact dagger. Turn it in at Free Haven for the experience reward.

Follow the river west out of Free Haven to the tomb. It is built around three elevators off the entrance room. Take the left elevator, clear the two skeleton rooms (the wall niches hold items or disease, so be ready to cure), and press the button in the north room. Repeat with the right elevator and its button. Now ride the middle elevator into the fireball room. Explore the left and right branches for spectres and loot, then take the north door. On the right path, a room of three Lichs has a button that opens Ethric's chamber; the other room is Ethric himself with a crowd of Lichs. Ethric melees you directly (unlike the other Lichs, who only cast), and the pack dispels your buffs every other turn — so lean on melee, bows, and Stone-to-Flesh/cure rather than relying on self-buffs. Kill them all, take Ethric's Skull and the coffin chests, then sweep the left path's ghost room and the final room of Greater and Power Lichs for more treasure. Turn the Skull in at the Free Haven temple.

Go to the small town northwest of Free Haven, clear the archers in the hills to the north, and enter the temple. Bring Stone-to-Flesh (spell or scroll) — the Medusas and Gorgons here can petrify you. Cobras rush you at the entrance; after them, clear the Druids in the main room. The trick is to first empty all six altar rooms, then solve the puzzle. Read the plaque over the big door for the clue: "Life first, accuracy then might, endurance then speed, and finally luck." The left hallway holds the altars of Luck, Speed, and Accuracy; the right hallway holds Endurance, Life, and Might. Touching each altar once also grants a permanent +5 to that stat for the whole party, so it is worth clearing them all regardless. Once every room is clear, touch the altars in the puzzle order (see spoiler) to open the inner doors; clear the last Medusas, and inside is the Altar of the Moon. If you have already done Lady Fleise's Circle of Stones equinox quest, return here at a full moon, at midnight, and touch the altar to be promoted to Arch Druid.

Beacon to the Mire of the Damned and enter the cave just north of Castle Darkmoor. This 'dungeon' is a single room containing Longfang Witherhide, a Red Dragon with roughly 880-900 HP. He breathes fire (and resists it), so do not bother with fire spells; hit him with arrows and physical/elemental attacks, using the doorway to break line of sight if his breath is chewing you up. Take his Dragon Claw (and the bones to sell if you like). Then beacon to Castle Ironfist and Regent Humphrey promotes your Crusaders to Hero.

Warp to Blackshire, cast Fly, and head east to the island of air monsters and a temple; clear the tornados and enter. Wind through to the first Medusa room (about half a dozen) and do not hit the captive NPCs here or they turn hostile and tank your reputation. Down the ramp, time your run past the periodic ice bolt into the first side door for two chests. Continue and a Gold Dragon appears — sprint to the next room, grab its chests, and note that the bottom of the ramps teleports you back up, so the dragon must be killed. It can KO a character in one hit, so park in one of the nearby damaging doorways and shoot it with arrows until it drops (this is a long fight; consider it optional loot rather than required). When it dies, jump into its room and push the switch to open the back hall. Clear the Medusa/Gorgon rooms beyond, then click the hanging cage to free Emmanuel Cravitz (turn him in at the house east of the temple in Blackshire).

Before leaving, click the wall in the northeast room to open Q's chamber. Q is a 16,000-HP boss who casts Finger of Death every turn — let him step into a side alcove, stand where you can see him but his spell hits a wall, and grind him down without ever taking the Finger. Save before opening his two chests: they are extremely heavily trapped and can wipe the party in one click. The payoff is huge — big wands on the right, and on the left the spell books for Stone-to-Flesh, Town Portal, and Lloyd's Beacon.

South of Blackshire town lies the Wolves' Lair: Oozes, Swordsmen, and Werewolves in the opening round rooms. The Oozes are physical- and magic-immune in their lowest form — hit them with elemental spells or a magic-damage weapon, not plain melee or a magic missile they shrug off. Each skull pile hides a spell scroll you can pull with expert Perception. At the altar in the southern circle, go west to the end and meet the Ghost, who promises the Pearl of Purity. Collect it from the matching eastern room (click where its ghost would stand), then touch the altar with the Pearl — Blackshire is saved. Return the Pearl of Purity to Humphrey in Ironfist; the ghost also asks you to bring back the Pearl of Putrescence from the Werewolf Leader.

To get it, take the right-hand path behind the altar, up the stairs, and work through wolf rooms and a hidden swordsman lair (three weapon/armor chests). A teleport drops you near the top; the south hall hides a temple section jammed with Werewolves of every grade — release them a few at a time, because the whole pack at once is a party-killer (Greater Werewolves can knock a character out in one hit). The Werewolf Leader in that temple drops the Pearl of Putrescence; carry it back to the ghost to finish.

Save this one for last — it is the toughest promotion dungeon. From Silver Cove, fly west across the bridge and northwest to the gargoyle-ringed keep. Inside, the enemy mix is lopsided: the Thugs are trivial, but the Knights — and especially the Cuisinarts — are among the hardest melee enemies in the game, and these 'Knights' can cast magic too. Down the winding stairs, the locked door at the bottom is a dead end; click the wall to its left to open a five-door teleport maze. Use the maze for hit-and-run: tag an enemy, then click a door before it can swing back. Work to the northeast door, up the stairs past Armored Fighters, and clear the chest rooms (touch the western wall for a secret passage of six more chests). The big square room to the north is near-suicide head-on — lure the Knights out one at a time. Past the double-locked doors, go north and cast Ring of Fire to wake everything, killing it through the door; one cabinet holds the Warlord's Key plus a Storage Key, and a trapped chest north holds the Discharge Papers you actually need. (The single Warlord's Key opens the locked door; the double-locked stat-barrel vault, doors 6 and 7, needs two Storage Keys — pick up the second Storage Key from the other cabinet.) Take the Discharge Papers to Lord Temper at Castle Temper for promotion to Champion.