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5. Main Quest - Tainted Blood
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When the game starts you will appear outside of Throglin Temple. Follow the
instructions and then you can leave. Go forward until you meet a man named 
Tago, he will inform you that a stranger named Gandohar is looking for you.
Make your way to the south and you will find the stranger. Gandohar will tell 
you that you need to speak to Reist Tungard in Goat's Cave. Before you leave
for Reist's location make your way over to the teleporter and talk to the Ferid
Redismos. It is very important that you get the teleport stones so that you can
activate the other teleporters you find. It is far easier to travel this way.

Make your way to the east to Goat's Cave to meet Reist. After chatting with him
you will meet Gandohar outside, chat with him and he will direct you to a means
with which you can speak to your sister. Look for the Thalmont node in the
nearby valley and keep searching until your screen turns blue. You need to find
the circle of obelisks to actually chat with her. Once you are done there, head
back to Gandohar and chat with him again before going to see Reist again as
well. Now go chat with Gandohar one last time (too much back and forth). You
will now be informed of what your goal is and directed towards another man,
named Ho. Head to the south to Ho's house and he will give you enough tips on
what you need to do to put together the relic.

Technically you can go after any of the relics at this point, but I have found
the relic frame to be the easiest to go after.

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Relic Frame
=========================
To start this quest make your way to the Karga Camp which is located to the 
northwest. Allying with the Karga clan is easier but you can also ally with 
Skelden, however much of this walkthrough is going to be done with the easier
or, in the event that there is no easier path, the path that is going to be
the most profitable. With that in mind, we are going to ally with the Karga.

When you reach the Karga camp itself you will probably be denied entrance due
to your lack of reputation. Go and do some work for the Giriza Clan so that you
can gain entry to the camp. Whenever you have gained enough of a reputation to
be allowed inside of the camp they aren't going to trust you all that much. 
This is kind of obnoxious but it's just the beginning of the game so it should
not be that big of a deal.

Start doing some more quests for the locals to raise your reputation, it 
doesn't matter which one. A good side effect of this forced side questing is
that you will gain some equipment and gold from doing quests.

Eventually you will be allowed in to speak with Ultar Karga. Ultar wants Ebrat 
Skelden gotten rid of but he doesn't want to resort to something as base as
killing the man so things are a bit more complicated than your usual run in and
kill everything most other quests in these sorts of games ask for. What you can
do is try to find something to prove that Skelden isn't necessarily what one
might consider an upright citizen.

Make your way to the east until you come across the Skelden encampment. Once
inside you are looking for a man named Sano Moon. You need to use a lockpick 
to make your way into his house. Once you are inside, search around, eventuall
you will find a strange item on the floor in the back. This is your evidence so
snatch it up and get out of there.

Make your way back to the Karga camp and take the strange items back to Ultar 
Karga to finish off this quest. From here you can move on to one of the other
quests, I prefer to go for the Earth Element. This one has a lot of experience
and loot for you to get and it isn't too hard to complete so long as you are
careful, so make your way in that direction.


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Earth Element
=========================
This quest is the first real example of this game offering you much in the ways
of quest flexibility. Working for Mayor Gordar is simpler but you can get much
more out of working for Captain Hograd here, so I heavily suggest that you go
that route.

To start this you will want to make your way to Windbreak which is located to
the west of Cathalon. Look for Captain Hograd and, as a first quest, he will
send you out looking for a lost caravan. Leave the town via the southern road
and take it heading towards Cathalon. When you find the unfortunate caravan you
will also see the orcs that have destroyed it. You can either kill them or just
leave, however you will need the epxerience soon so I strongly advise that you 
take them out to acquire more gold and equipment and go back to Hograd to make 
your report to Captain Hograd.

Now Hograd will send you out to take out an Orc encampment where an infamous 
Orc known as White Head. The orcs are located up to the north and he wants you
to go rooting them out. Be careful, this is going to be pretty rough if you 
aren't prepared for it. Make sure that you have some form of ranged attack at 
the ready and head to said encampment.

Once you actually reach it look for the shrine nearby and make note of it. Then
begin using your bow or a magic to lure out the enemies and try to take them 
out one or two at a time. You should be able to wipe out the lot of them by 
using these tactics, just try to take it slow and don't rush it.

Report back to Hograd after you have cleared out the area. Of course he has a
new idea as to where White Head is, now he is lurking in the Kings Barrows.
This place is located way to the west of where you are so be ready for a heck
of a trip. You are looking for a small cave, it will be marked on your map so
make sure to use that as a guide for where you need to go. Once you make your
way inside you will find White Head, however he isn't an enemy right now. Talk
to him and he will send you right back to Hograd. This is going to be a bit of
a back and forth but it all pays off soon.

Soon enough White Head will agree to allow you entry to the Kings Tomb, through
their tunnels. You can probably see where this is leading already. When you
head to their tunnels you will be greeted by White Head and his army of Orcs.
To only real way that I have found to take them out is to try and keep your
distance from them and try to weaken them with some form of ranged attacks. You
can try moving into melee and taking out weakened ones but back off and don't
let yourself get overwhelmed. When it's just you and White Head you have to be
twice as careful since you are probably weakened from the previous fighting.
Take him out however suits you.

Once they are all good and dead you can loot their bodies for a fair amount of
good armor and weapons, which will come in handy. When you actually move to
enter the King's Tomb you will find that they are rather thoroughly infested
with skeletons. I personally cannot stand having to fight these pains but if
you do, take your time and be careful. It shouldn't be all that hard after the
melee you were just in. Make your way deep inside and you will find the Earth
Element, so snatch it up and get on out of there.


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Water Element
=========================
Let me just preface this one by saying that I heavily suggest that you complete
the quest to get a horse before you do this one. You are going to be traveling
quite a distance and the free horse will be quite a boon in getting to your
destination without driving yourself crazy.

To find the Water Element you are going to have to travel to the city of Ashos,
which is a really far off place. It is located way, way to the east lying on
the River Gon. To get there you are going to have to head to Qudinar, take the
road south and follow it to the west when it forks. To get to the Water Element
here you will need to get into the Great Temple in the town but of course 
actually getting the Element is going to be a quest or two, you're not going to
be allowed to just walk in and grab it.

While there are, as always, two ways to get into the temple, there is one that
is a fair sight easier than the other. Look for a guard named Hajime. You can
find him near the entrance to the city. Talk to him and he will send you out
looking for a man named Kenji Sahashi who is currently in one of the inns. Go
and follow your map to find the man and speak to him only to be pointed in the
direction of another man. This one, his contact, can also be found by following
your map yet again. After talking to this man you will have to return to Hajime
and report on your findings.

Now talk to him again and he will mention a man by the name of Kano. Time to go
speak to him, he lives close by so this isn't a big deal. Once you speak to him
you will be asked to check out the temple here to see if you can figure out
what the problem is. Yeah, don't expect this to be easy. Make your way towards
the side door to the temple to make your way inside. Before you complete this
quest make sure you are done with Ashos, there's no going back after you finish
this quest.

When you actually get into the temple you are going to find Serpents. These
guys are no joke, they are really powerful and both myself and others I know
who played the game couldn't actually defeat them. If this is the case for you
as well, run for it. Make your way into the Water Element chamber and grab up
the Water Element.

When you get back outside you will find that the city has been taken over by
the orcs. You can either fight them for the Experience and equipment or simply
get the heck out of town, I chose option 2.



=========================
Air Element
=========================
We are going to take a small break from the other quests right now and just
take a breather to get this relic. This one is really simple to reach but it is
fairly well guarded by some really dangerous enemies, mostly Scorpions. All you
really need to do here is to ride to the place located on your map, dodge the
Scorpions here and grab the Air Element. Once you have it, it is time to get
out of here and head on for the final Element.


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Fire Element
=========================
Yeah, I hate this quest. It took me forever to find out about the stealth route
to get through it since I couldn't just storm the keep. Every time I tried I
died. If you just try to charge Gor Gammar then you will have to battle your 
way through a freaking army of Orcs and their allies. The outside isn't that 
bad but once you get inside... They don't call this place an orcish stronghold
for no reason. Do take note that if you are going to be taking this route then
you will need 7,000 Gold to spare.

To make your life easier, or if you flat out can't beat the place, make your 
way to Cathalon and head to the east. You are looking for a man by the name of 
Creo. Creo will mention that there is a magic armor that lets you disguise
yourself as one of the orcs.

If you look around you should see a man by the name of Othis nearby. Talk to
him and he will offer to give you an order to take to Creo for the armor but 
this is going to cost you 2,000 Gold. Pay for it and then head back over to
talk to Creo he will offer to sell you the armor for 5,000 Gold more. With that 
in hand head on off to the south.

Eventually you will reach the northern gates of Gor Gammar. They are locked so 
go ahead and make your way to the left around the castle walls until you find 
an entrance to a subterranean path. This place is filled with orcs. While it
might seem bad down here, it is nothing compared to what's going on inside of
the stronghold itself. If you came here ready for a fight you are definitely
going to get it. There is a shrine down here so either fight them or make your
way past them using your disguise. I prefer to kill them for the Experience.

You will eventually find your way into Gor Gammar itself, don't go starting any
trouble at this point unless you are sure you can handle it. The enemies are 
really powerful and plentiful here. If you are disguised then you will have no
problems down here. The Orcs will pay you no mind and you literally walk around
the place and find the Fire Element. Just snatch it up and get out of here.

If you aren't disguised then you are going to have a harder time of it cutting
your way through the enemies. I advise you to be careful, try to lure out the
enemies so you are fighting as few as possible at a time and then try to cut
them down. Don't be afraid to retreat if you have to, it's better than dying.

All of the various pieces of the Relic have now been put together, it is whole
once again. It is time to move into the final stretch of the game. If you have
not leveled up a fair amount I suggest you do so before you do anything else.


=========================
Endgame
=========================
With the Scepter itself in hand, it is time to meet up with Gandohar now. You
will want to save your game before doing so, just as a tip. Head to Qudinar and
head north from there to meet up with him. A series of "plot twists" will soon
ensue and you will be knocked out. When you wake up you will be greeted by a
group of Paladins and they will explain what you need to do... it has something
to do with that giant freaking Pentagram in the sky, holy crud.

You will be told that you must travel to one of the towers and take out the
Tower Keeper there to bring down the pentagram. They will suggest that you take
out the Death Claw tower to the east but I heavily suggest that you do all of
them since the rewards are rather nice and you will want to level up since you
are nearing the end of the game fights. While you can try to go after the
final bosses at your current level you will most definitely have some problems
if you are below level 35 in the least, 40 if you want to not go crazy.

In either case, most of the Tower Keepers are remarkably similar. They throw a
magical projectile at you that is easily dodged and they will attack you with
their sword, also easily dodged. Just take them out however suits you and you
will bring down the pentagram.

Now that the pentagram is gone you will have lowered the defenses of Oswaroth.
To reach it you will need to head to the northeast of Death Claw Tower, which
is probably another reason they suggest you do that one. You might want to save
that one for last with this information. In either case, you will have to cut
your way through a large number of undead soldiers as you make your way towards
the sotuhern gate of the courtyard (pentagram shaped too, how quaint).

Save your game before you enter the final dungeon or you will be having some
problems if you want to replay the game. There is no ability to continue the
game after beating it like in Fable or Oblivion, so save here if you intend to
go around completing quests.

You will encounter Reist here and he is going to have a surprise in store: He
is going to hulk out on you and transform into a gigantic monster. If you are
going to try to slug it out with him it is imperative that you are in your
mid-40's in the least. There are two ways to handle this fight, the cheesy way
or the hard way.

If you want to fight it the hard way all you need to do is slug it out with him
by going toe to toe. This is a rough way and you might have some problems. Use
your summons to distract him for a few moments if this is the way you are going
to go about it.

The cheesy route however is a bit easier; use his size against him. All you
need to do here is to lead him into an area where he is too big to pass through
but you are fine on the other side of the rubble. From here you can either pelt
him with ranged attacks and magic or you can move forward, attack him and then
retreat when he tries to return fire on you. This may not last too long as
sometimes he will move around a bit and wiggle his way through so be ready to
move away and head to another portion of the arena.

After you have defeated him you will move on to fighting Gandohar. If you
should choose to oppose him you will have to fight him and this leads to the
good ending. If you join him Balor and his paladins will attack you and you
will have to take them out. This is the harder of the two since a group of
strong enemies is obviously harder than a toe to toe fight with one moderately
hard boss.

When fighting Gandohar there really isn't anything special to say about it. He
isn't all that special compared to Reist, so if you have beaten Reist then you
will have little problem here.

Balor is a lot tougher since they are numerous, powerful and Balor can heal
himself. I have never actually figured out a way to defeat him before he kills
me off, so I have yet to see the bad ending outside of friends showing me.

Game clear!