The Waif

My favorite is the Pirate's Blade that you get from the vengeful shades on the small island north of Fort E. (You need the Orb of Thralni to get there) With it, you regain hit points as you melee and it's also a powerful hand weapon. Although their are better weapons in the game, it takes a lot longer to get strong enough to reach them, and the sooner you can get a powerful upgrade, the more useful it is. The really powerful items like the Fury Crossbow are great, but you only have them for a relatively small portion of the game. I value what I can use for most of the game. (Actually, once I get the Pirate's Blade, I use it for the rest of the game) My second choice would be the Blessed Bow, for the same reasons.

I recall you have to be a member of the Anama in order to find the ring. But it has been awhile since I did that quest.

I don't recall any of the dialogues from Anaximander or Berra you were anticipating. You need a certain level of reputation from completing quests before Erika's guards will allow you to see her. Anaximander can't give you permission. You are supposed to check with Berra after discovering items at the end of quests that may give a clue as to who created the plague you just eliminated, so you can eventually get the fussy wizard in the Bunker to make a weapon appropriate for them. (You can still finish the game without this weapon) I don't think you have anything to worry about.

One option is to unequip all your stuff and drop it in a pile a short distance away from the stone circle, then agree to let them have your stuff and they get little or nothing. Then you pick up your stuff and have all your equipment. You don't lose reputation as I recall, even though you are unleashing many haakai and demons on the land. Since they summon many creatures when you fight them, it can get overwhelming. I used a lot of invulnerability elixirs and it was a manageable fight then. I usually enter only two stone circles because for me level three war blessing is the only thing worth getting from the stone circles. You can still go to the stone circle near the end and fight the haakai if you want to.

One thing I like about Avernum 3 is that it has a lot of replay value because you can experiment with different ways of doing quests more efficiently, or create a new party that makes you approach the game differently, such as 3 mages and a fighter, or a singleton priest.

Find a perfect flower for the Dryad who lives in the grove NW of Fort E. Talk to her first. Good reward. Rescue another Dryad from Gukhbar's pit north of Delan. Talk to the Storm Port Mayor and deal with the undead in the woods to the north. Get to loot Vahkhos' tower. Sanctify the altar in the temple in the GIFTS lair and fight a Haakai to get a good weapon. Go to the Great Circle in NW Footracer and fight a bunch of Haakai, just for kicks.

There's an herb farm outside the walls of Lorelei to the east.

Invulnerability elixirs help a lot in dealing with the Golem Factory. But you can ignore the Golem Factory if you want to. You only need to complete either the slimes or the roaches, and the troglo-giants-tunnel barrier quest, and the Empress will give you permission to get inside Footracer Province for the endgame. written by Gunshy: Is it better to kill a few golems, go back out, recharge, go back in, etc.? Is that even practical? I'm told the dead monsters don't regenerate. So that should work.

There's an ice hydra in the Ursagi caves in SE Valorim. There are also some others in the woods somewhere in the NW.

(from a previous post about this question) written March 11, 2004 06:03 AM If you got Erika's amulet and she doesn't appear when you enter Rentar's great hall, then you made a mistake with the buttons in the basement. If you don't have a saved game that takes you back to the point where you start with the basement buttons, you can reset the buttons from Rentar's control panel by pressing the top left button. You will have to endure being teleported away from the control panel about five times before you can reach it. After you do that, I suggest saving the game and labelling it "Rentar's buttons" so you don't have to deal with all the teleporting if you make a mistake again. There are a total of ten buttons in the basement. One tricky area is the NE corner. Press the south easternmost button first in this section and you'll avoid a lot of confusion.

Vampires are more powerful. Can't answer the other question.