Gremlin Tribute strategy

[Mah Al Ibara]

Strategy for Gremlin Tribute

 

This task can be a major pain in the posterior if you go in clueless. You will no doubt fail several times before you figure out where trinkets are and are not, and how to deal with the monsters you encounter. Here's a good way to get nine trinkets efficiently and painlessly. It's probably a good idea to read the whole thing over before starting the test.

 

Before you talk to the Gremlin Lord, you should be standing as close to the closed gate as possible and shielded, blessed, hasted, etc. Needless to say, you should save the game here. Once you've talked with the chief and the test begins, go into fight mode. The gate should open the instant you do this.

 

First, you probably figured this out already, but "trinkets" is not a euphemism for treasure here. There are items that look like gray bits of bone labelled "useless trinkets." These are what you want. (Don't confuse them with "trash," which has an identical appearance.) There is some treasure in here, but you don't have time to go after it during the test.

 

Second, the basic strategy is to use "Control Foe" and "Strong Daze" spells and avoid fighting as much as possible. Also, resist the temptation to go treasure hunting. You can do that after you've passed the test.

 

Now here we go.

 

Ignore all the crates just outside the gate. You are going to move around the area counter-clockwise, but first you want to send a fighter straight north to push a button on the northwest wall. (This opens a hidden door that contains a treasure box towards the southeast.) [EDIT] I just noticed there is a set of trinkets on the floor behind the wooden post near the button.[END EDIT] Have your other three characters move east as he/she does this. After your fighter pushes the button, have him/her move back towards the other three.

 

The first trinkets are hidden in one of the three piles of skulls you will see as you move east. They are in the pile to the east.

 

The next trinkets are beyond a door (one of those doors that looks like it's made of branches bound together) which will require a Tool Use level of 12 to open. Behind the door is a coffin and a Writhing Mass. Ignore the Writhing Mass and get the trinkets from the coffin.

 

Now is the time to have your magic users start casting Control Foe and Strong Daze spells, because, in addition to the Writhing Mass, a bunch of Ogre Taskmasters will come at you from the east and southeast. Take a moment to enjoy the sight of the monsters fighting each other as you move ahead with your task. You may notice a button in the southern face of a mass of rock here, but you don't need to push it.

 

Have your party (which should be reunited by now) go after the next three sets of trinkets, which are all to the southeast. Two are in crates protected by magical barriers. The third is in the treasure box in the small room who's door should now be open, and which lies between the barrier-protected crates. If you have characters standing near the barriers guarding both crates, you can gain access to both with a single "Dispel Barrier" spell. (The barriers protecting the southern crate cannot be dispelled with a crystal, so don't waste one trying.)

 

To get the trinkets from the treasure box, you need to disarm the trap, which means you have to end combat mode. Your party leader should be standing next to the box, and the others should be close enough so that combat mode can be ended. If the ogre or ogres just outside the room are under your control, ending combat mode should be easy. If you get the "Enemy visible; combat will end at the end of this round" message, then just wait for the end of the round. Open the box, grab the trinkets, and return to combat mode.

 

Once you have these three sets of trinkets from the southeast, move north. Have a fighter move northeast, where he/she will encounter a bunch of fungi. Ignore the fungi, get the trinkets from the corpse at the back of the fungi cave, and have the fighter rejoin the group.

 

[EDIT] I just discovered that there are also trinkets in a container hidden behind the easternmost crystal pylon at the entrance to the fungi cave. The only way you can detect them is if you type "u" to show all usable objects in the game window. Grabbing these can save you the trouble of getting one of the other nine I mention. For example, you may not have high enough Tool Use to get the trinkets guarded by the Writhing Mass, or may find it too much trouble to end combat mode in order to get the trinkets from the trapped treasure box.[END EDIT]

 

The other three, in the meantime, should be heading straight north. Here they will find a group of five basins. Ignoring the other four (really--you don't want to drink from them), touch the basin to the east. This gives you another set of trinkets. [EDIT] Just noticed there is another set of trinkets laying on the floor by this basin. If you have gotten all the trinkets mentioned so far, you should have 10 sets by now, and you can start heading back to the gate. You will no doubt be attacked by the Altered Giants along the way, so be prepared. If you don't yet have 9 sets, continue to follow the directions below.[END EDIT] Immediately northeast of the basins are a bunch of nasty wyrmkin. Have your priest cast a Control Foe spell on the nearest Inferno Wyrmkin. If that does not work, a Strong Daze should at least slow them down.

 

Move northwest of the basins. Here you will find a bunch of Altered Giants. Again, Control Foe and Strong Daze are essential here. There is a door in the wall to the north, which looks just like the one that housed the Writhing Mass. This needs to be opened with an Unlock Doors spell. Behind the door is a Pustulant Zombie. Ignore it, grab the trinkets from the coffin, and leave, moving west.

 

While this is going on, have a fighter push the button in the north wall, west of the door, and keep moving west. It's probably a good idea to have your party leader do this. He/she is going after the last set of trinkets.

 

Try to extricate your other three characters from the giants and zombie, and have them move southwest back towards the gremlins' hall. There's a good chance that at least one of them will get tangled inextricably and killed, but worse things have happened, right?

 

Your fighter (preferably leader) will enter the newly-revealed entrance west of the button, climb the slope to the terrace, and grab the last trinkets from the crate in the southwest corner of the terrace. Then he/she will also head back towards the gremlin hall.

 

It's probably a good idea to stay in combat mode until all surviving members have reached the gate, since time passes more slowly that way. But you still should have plenty of time. (During the test, the gremlin chief occasionally yells out how much wine is left, but if you've followed these directions and everything has gone smoothly, you should yet to hear even the first announcement.)

 

End combat mode, talk to the chief, and give him the trinkets. He will tell you to leave and the conversation will end, but you need to talk to him again and remind him of Melanchion's demand for tribute. The chief agrees, and you can head back to Melanchion's island to report to Goro. Your reward from the gremlin chief for passing the test is increased luck for your whole party, and your reward from Goro is two knowledge elixirs.

[Lilith]

Note that after successfully getting the gremlin chief to pay tribute, you can kill him, get a knowledge elixir off his corpse, and still have it count as a successful tribute quest.

[Randomizer]

I usually come back after the 4 tribute tests to do it. Time to loot and kill everything that I didn't have time for earlier. Even on torment you have time to kill most things without daze or control foe.

 

Also killing the gremlin chief opens a gate in the south of the storeroom for more loot.

[Student of Trinity]

This will be a bit more useful for future people searching the boards if you edit 'goblin' to 'gremlin' throughout.

 

Given the popularity of goblins and gremlins as monsters, maybe there should be more g*lin creatures. Apart from the obvious gamblin, though, I can only think of a gammaglobulin, which might not be so fun.

[Alorael at Large]

Goldurn whinin'?

 

—Alorael, who can only shudder at the thought of facing geezers as enemies. Canes are sticks and therefore terrifying weapons in the hands of the skilled.

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

Given the popularity of goblins and gremlins as monsters, maybe there should be more g*lin creatures. Apart from the obvious gamblin, though, I can only think of a gammaglobulin, which might not be so fun.

Gigglin? Although that might be less a new monster and more the sort of gremlin that not even their mother could love.

Dikiyoba.

[Randomizer]

Topic name and a few other goblin mistakes fixed. Personally I blame it on the gremlins playing games. They really love to mess with technology.

[Sudanna]

Girlin? Guylin?

[Mah Al Ibara]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

Topic name and a few other goblin mistakes fixed. Personally I blame it on the gremlins playing games. They really love to mess with technology.

Thanks for the clean-up, Randomizer. I thought I was being careful, knowing that I sometimes mix up "goblin" and "gremlin," but made the error anyway.

[Mah Al Ibara]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

Also killing the gremlin chief opens a gate in the south of the storeroom for more loot.

I went back after completing the Tribute task, and went in to kill all the critters there. I found that the gate to the south had opened before I had attacked the gremlins. It seems that simply completing the trinkets test opens that gate, though the Goblin Gremlin Lord doesn't tell you this.

By the way, I find that it's easy to pick off the gremlins if you stand just beyond the gate to their hall, blocking the gate so that only one gremlin can attack you at a time while standing in the gateway. The other gremlins just stay where there are, blessing themselves, and as each gremlin is killed in the gateway, another comes to take its place. Since the Gremlin Lord is apparently the only one capable of attacking from a distance, it's probably best to attack him first, drawing him into the gateway, where his attack options become limited and he becomes easy to kill. Attacking the gremlins from within the gremlin hall means they can all attack you at once, and unless your group is ridiculously strong, or you're a masochist, this is going to be a long and tedious battle that you may end up losing.

[Mah Al Ibara]

Bump. Found new trinkets that can shorten the process.

[Evnissyen]

Hmm... not to be too critical of some very nice work, Matt, but was that strategy meant for people on Hard or Torment? Otherwise, methinks it's just somewhat excessive, considering that on Normal it was really quite an easy challenge. (I turned down the difficulty somewhere around Anama when I started getting tired. Usually I do play on Hard.) I suppose on more difficult levels, though, your suggestions should be pretty handy.

 

In fact, I think the only reason I failed the first time was 1. I mistook the "trinkets", at first, as trash, and 2. I spent a little too much time exploring instead of just grabbing, since I wasn't sure if the gremlins would let me back in afterward, which it turns out they did, of course... and even then I only missed their time limit by a second. ...And this was without any special strategy.

 

...Of course, some of the suggestions are very good and useful ones. So... me thanks you for that. (If I make a second run at the game I'll be able to test this episode on a higher difficulty level. Then I think I'll put at least a couple of your suggestions to good use.)

 

Actually, this was one of my more favorite parts of the game. I liked those mischievous gremlins. This is partly why I didn't kill them.

 

The faerie folk are always fun... they're so amoral.

 

I will stop babbling, now. At least I hope it was entertaining.

[Mah Al Ibara]

It was entertaining.

 

Maybe it was overkill. I think, like you, I only screwed up the first time, and, like you, the timer ran out just as I was about to re-enter the hall. But I suppose that annoyed me enough that I determined to find the most methodical way my second time around. What I did was save before starting the test, then went in without any intention of finishing on time, with the sole purpose of locating as many trinkets as I could. I noted their location, and when things would start to look a bit tight, I simply started again from where I had saved to look for trinkets I hadn't located yet. Then, knowing the location of at least nine trinkets, I plotted the most efficient course and did the test "for real".

 

Obsessive-Compulsive? Anal retentive? You be the judge.