Neverwinter Nights 2

Storm of Zehir Walkthrough

Part 3 - Back in Samarach

Snakes!  Why does it always have to be SNAKES!?

The locations detailed in the walkthrough are all referenced to the numbered and lettered locations shown in the map above.  City names are abbreviated, locations numbered and teamwork feat locations marked with lower case letters.  Locations which can be reported to Volo are marked by red asterisks *.  All of the individual thumbnail images can be clicked to open an annotated full size map in a separate window so you can check the locations of individual encounters or loot versus the text.

We're not including maps for all of these areas.  Some of them are simply one room dungeons or small enough that you won't need maps to get around. Just remember to search everywhere and hit the "Z" key to highlight containers.  We've also decided to exclude the Special OLM map encounters and put them into a separate section as their locations are random and in most cases can be done at any time in the game.

We chased Sa'Sani thru the portal but she's one step ahead of us at every turn so far.  The Gnomes at the Lumber camp said she mumbled something about "the Temple" and headed Northeast to the Narubel pass.  So its time to beat feet and get after that slithering wench!

We finally arrive at the Viper Temple and there Sa'Sani is at last. As she explains what she's been up to our conversation is rudely interrupted by a group of 4 Snaketongue Zealots, 2 Se'Sehen Abominations and a Se'Sehen Yuan-Ti called Es'San.  These guys aren't here to play nice - that's for sure.  The snaketongue zealots aren't so tough and fall pretty quickly, but the Abonimations have some nasty poison attacks and Es'San is whipping magic at us like nobodies business, bringing down our buffs with Dispels.  When the zealots and the abominations are all dead, we start hammering on Es'San who decides that he "simply won't die here" and teleports away.  YOU SNAKE!  We loot the bodies and grab a Heavy Shield +3, a Bastard sword +3, a Chain Shirt +2 and Ring of Protection +2 along with a few other miscellaneous goodies.

Then Sa'Sani tells us that we should probably head to the Temple of the World Serpeant where N'Safa, the head of House Se'Sehen is located.  She also tells us that Volo is back in Samarach as well.

So it's off to the Temple of the World Serpeant. Or House Slitherin as we've started calling it.  But on the way we decide to do a little exploring first.  We are going to first  head East along the north side of mountains and then backtrack to west cut south and then southwest and then loop up north to the ToWS.  It's a bit circuitous but it will let us cover a lot of ground.

We're almost to the eastern edge of the mountains, when we run into a set of ruins.  We're able to read an inscription with a high lore skill but there's nothing else to be found.  We'll file this away for future reference.  We continue east and then cut south into a small valley.  We find a mine at the southern edge and decide to investigate.

There's a group of Dwarven Miners here with 4 Elder Earth elementals in tow.  They aren't happy to see us in the least.  They won't answer any of questions.  It's clear they've found something but won't let on as to what it is. We decide to leave and possibly return later.  If you decide to attack, you can recover a Breastplate +3 and a Flail +3 from the foreman and some essences from the elementals.  The secret to what the miners have found however is in the locked chest near where the foreman was.  Seems this is a GEM mine.  The chest contains 3 rubies, 1 Beljuril, 1 Star Sapphire, 1 sapphire, 2 diamonds, and 3 emeralds.  We exit the mine and head north and then cut west at the edge of our maps.

We can't get inside the temple itself but we scour the ruins and find a nice cache of Cure Critical Wound potions.  We leave the ruined temple and continue west.

We find a campsite but it has been abandoned and there's nothing of value left.  Whoever or whatever was here left in a big hurry.  We leave the Campsite and decide to cut south until we hit the mountains and then cut southwest.  

We discover a barrow on the north side of the mountains.  Inside is a single Ogre Mage but this guy has been eating VERY well.  Biggest darn Ogre Mage I've seen.  But it's five against one and he doesn't stand a chance.  He falls and we loot the body and the barrow for a Ring of Greater Fire Resistance, a Warmace +3, a Great Axe +3, and a suit of Hide Armor +3.  We exit the barrow, and continue south west along the north side of the mountains.

Just before we hit the coast, we spy an old temple.  We head inside and find the place is totally abandoned.  Looking around, we find a Wand of Restoration, a Periapt of Wisdom +6 and a couple of scrolls.  We exit the Temple and turn back to the north eventually re-entering the jungle. On our way north, we spy a weird looking tower on our way north and decide to bypass it for the moment  

Continuing North, we encounter a Yuan-ti temple. We sneak inside and snoop around  a bit and find the place is crawling with Devils!  3 Erinyes off in the room on the left, a six pack of Imps in the room on the right and 2 more Erinyes, a Horned Devil and a Yuan-ti Diabolist in the far room in the back! 

When the fight is over, we search the remains and the chest at the back of the far room to find a Beljuril, Rogue Stone, Star Saphire and Diamond, along with a Ring of Major Fire Resistance, and a big swag of gold. We grab the Imp Carcasses and the Horned Devil Scales for good measure.  We exit the temple and retrace our steps back to the southwest to that wierd tower.

This odd looking tower is just out of place here.  It's also one of the toughest places we ever explored with three progressively tougher levels.  It takes a high Spellcraft skill to disable the wards protecting the place but our mage is up to the task and we enter the tower.

Level 1 - The minute we enter this level we see a HUGE floating skull in the middle of the room.  We try to talk to it but it won't respond.  Before we can do anything else, we are attacked by a group of Dread Wraiths.  As we start kicking butt, our rogue notices that the floor of this place is loaded with traps.  We keep a tight formation near the entryway and manage to take down the dread wraiths without trigging the traps.  We put the party on hold and the rogue starts examining the traps.  They range from DC 35 to DC 38, so they're NOT easy.  We manage to clear all but one and then head to the door which is locked and trapped as well (DC 39).  We get lucky and manage to get this door untrapped and the head upstairs to level 2.

Level 2 - There's another doorway at the top of the stairs.  The minute we open the door 5 Hellfury Skeletons attack us. These guys are nasty.  Every so often they detonate doing some serious fire damage.  We hold our positions at the doorway to minimize flanking attacks and thanks to Energy Immunity - Fire we come thru unscathed.  We loot the remains for 5 rubies and carefully search the room for traps.  We don't find any in the room but the door to the next level IS trapped with a nasty DC 40 trap!  We manage to get trap removed and unlock the door and head up to the final level.

Level 3 - There's a small room at the top of the stairs, so we stop and buff the party.  In addition to Stoneskin, Greater Stoneskin and Premonition spells we add a Mind Blank spell at the very end.  When we enter the room we are attacked by 2 Vampire Lords and Zecorian, an Alhoon Lich.  Gulp!  We manage to hit the two Vampire Lords  with Sunbeam spells almost immediately and seriously cripple them.  A couple more Sunbeams and some Searing Light spells follow for good measure and pretty soon it's just Zecorian left.  Even without his cronies, he's still a tough nut to crack with a ton of spell protections up.  We don't want to risk Dispelling our own Mind Blank, so we just hammer away at him. Eventually we break through his protections and he dies.  We search the corpses and find a Ring of Protection +4, a Ring of Divine Power (5), a Ring of Major Fire Resistance, a Morningstar +4, a Halberd +4 and some Bracers of Armor +4.  WOOT!  We take care to avoid the one trap we didn't disarm on the way out as the floating skull watches us leave.  I swear that skull was laughing at us as we left.

We decide to return to the Sword coast and talk to Akila to see if he has finished his research on the Arcane Nexus.  We head back to the Viper Temple and run into Volo.  He's glad to see us and gives us a couple of handy items:  Volo's Custom Chicanery and Volo's Rejuvenating Ring.  We clean out his supply of healing kits while we are here and leave the Temple via the southern exit and head to the Lantan Lumber camp.  After reaching the Lantan Lumber camp, we portal back to Crossroad Keep.  We talk to Variel and pick up our latest company profits (88,000+ trade bars) and check out the rest of the cohorts.  Wait a sec!  Volo is here too?  Okay something strange is going on, but we don't have time to figure this out.  We leave the keep and head to Neverwinter to talk to Akila at the Thayan Enclave.

Akila has finished his research and seems worried.  He wants us to go check out a temple he's discovered on Samarach.  He marks the location on our map and we agree to head back to Samarach.  We exit the Enclave and head over to Phineas the Sensate.  He gratefully accepts the Salt we brought but he seems to want more.  I could have sworn we gave him everything we could.  Hmmmm, maybe we missed something?  Oh well no time to worry about that.  We leave Neverwinter and head back to the Keep.  We decide to reset our spells and rest for the night.  In the morning we jump thru the portal to Samarach.  Back in the Lantan camp again we head back to the Viper Temple, and exit to the north and continue to the Foreign Temple.

(This location won't show up until Akila has marked it on your map.)  We suggest that you save your game before entering the Temple as the inside is a little tricky.  When you enter the foreign temple, you need to move FAST.  There is a Champion of Shade here that you need to bypass before he can get to the end of the entry corridor and block your party from gaining access to the portal.  If he does block your party, you're hosed. The reason is that a  Netherese Arcanist on the other side of the portal is constantly casting healing spells for the Champion of Shade thru the portal.  As long as the Arcanist is healing the Champion, the Champion is unkillable.  If your access to the portal is blocked, you won't be able to get to the Arcanist and stop the spells.  Game over.  Take your toughest fighter and race for the portal right away.

Click on the portal and that character will teleport thru.  Start engaging the Arcanist immediately.  With the healing spells cut off, the Champion of Shade is a piece of cake and will go down quickly.  Once the Champion is down, you can now send the rest of your party thru the portal to help the first character you sent thru but you can only send ONE character at a time thru the portal.  Don't forget to loot the Champion's corpse for a Blue Diamond.  The Arcanist is going to summon some support in the form of an Erinyes, so your first character may need a little backup.  Alchemical Silver weapons will help in bypassing the Erinyes damage protection.  Once the Arcanist and the Erinyes have been dealt with, you can exit thru the stairway to the Sword Coast.

We exit at a location previously called the Dark Temple which is now renamed as the Foreign Temple.  From here we're going to pay a visit to the Hotenow Caves.

To get to the Hotenow caves, simply walk northwest from the temple and then cut west at the river ford and follow the path one level up the mountain slope back to the south and then west.  The caves are really just one very large chamber with 5 Fire Giants, 1 Fire Giant Cleric and King Karagg.  We talk with the King, play nice for a while and then attack.  It's not a difficult fight actually.  The only buff we used was Energy Immunity - Fire.  When the Fire Giants are dead, we loot the king's body for the Boots of the Mountain King and a bunch of gold.  Then we search the 2 weapon racks and a pile of tomes for a nice shortsword, Breath of the Maiden, a Halberd +3, a Scythe +3, a Stone of Alarm and a stack of crafting recipes including the recipes for +3 weapon enchantment, +4 armor enchantment, ring of protection +3, boots of hardiness +3, belt of strength +6 and ring of major cold resistance.  With our loot in hand we leave the caves and retrace our steps back down the mountain.  Instead of heading back to the Foreign Temple we decide to cross the river and explore the uppermost northeast section of the map.  In short order we discover the Forgotten Crypt.

This place is filled with undead.  The minute we enter we are attacked by a group of 5 Shadows and 3 Greater Shadows.  Turn Undead makes short work of them.  There's a group of sarcophagi you can loot here and find a nice sling - Tempertuppin's Everthrower, a Ring of Greater Cold Resistance and a number of gems including 2 blue diamonds, a star sapphire, a canary diamond, a sapphire, a topaz, a jacinth and an obsidian.  Deeper in the complex we ran into a second group consisting of 6 mummies and a Death Knight.  After we had dispatch them, we search the two sarcophagi in the room. 

Both are trapped (DC 38 if I remember correctly) so be careful.  In the sarcophagi we find a bastard sword +3 - Lawgiver and the Staff of Valmaxian.  On the way out we grab the shadow and greater shadow residue.  We leave the ruins and return to the Foreign Temple.  We go thru the portal and exit the Foreign Temple back into Northern Samarach.

We decided to report what we learned to Akila.  So it's back to the Lantan Camp AGAIN, jump thru the portal, head to Neverwinter and the Thayan Enclave. Akila says that he was afraid the Shadowvar were trying to make a return.  We collect our reward and return to Crossroad Keep.  We collect some more caravan income and decide to spend a little time crafting.  Actually we spend a LOT of time crafting.  We've got the cash, the rare resources, and every recipe we want so we simply splurge.  When we're done we talk to Volo but none of the northern samarach locations seem to interest him so we finish with the Journeyman Epithet feat.

12 -  Temple of the World Serpeant  (Exterior)

Okay, this place is big and scary!  Where the heck is Conan when you need him?  What the heck - thet're just snakes right?  Big 20 foot tall poison spitting, sword wielding, magic using snakes, but they're still just snakes! So we head into the Temple ....... 

 ......  where we are greeted by Preacher Madeen.  Seems we've been expected, but we're late.  Obviously a case of mistaken Identity, so we decide to play along.  A couple of diplomacy options later we've got the old boy convinced we are who he thinks we are.   Madeen tells us we need to go see Serpeant Lord Hal'Seh who is off to the northwest. (He lied - he's off to the northeast).  At this point you have a big decision to make.  Do you try to stealth your way thru this temple or do you go for the brute force approach and simply kill everything in sight?  Do you feel lucky?  Well do you, punk?  If you can successfully pull off the sneaky approach thru the entire Temple, you'll earn the Master Infiltrator Epithet Feat. 

You need to avoid setting off the traps on doors and on the floor in the various levels however.  Set off one, and you're fine - more than that and Yuan-ti are on to you.  In addition, the XP you earn for sneaking through the temple is actually greater than you can earn by killing everything but you do miss out on the loot drops.  This level is occupied by 5 Snaketongue Zealots, 3 Yuan-Ti Purebloods, a Snaketongue merchant, Preacher Madeen and Serpeant Lord Hal'Seh. If you decide to fight your way thru the temple, on this level you'll find a Dagger +3, a Ring of Protection +2 and a pair of Bracers of Armor +6.  Lord Hal'Seh will drop a nice scimitar - Tsaa Olo's Disaster.  Aside from the treasure drops there is absolutely nothing to loot on this level.  Before you leave, make sure you check out the Scrying Orb in the Scrying Chamber in the southwest corner of this level.  It's worth 1000 xp if you use it and scry on N'Safa at the Throne of the Serpeant.  After sneaking our way past everyone, we decide to head down into armory to see what we might be able to pick up.  The door at the bottom of the stairs is trapped and locked. 

The difficulty of the lock and trap on the door to this place explains why this place is unguarded.  There are chests on both the west and east walls.  Behind each of the 3 locked doors at the back of the room is a small storage which contains a chest as well.  Starting with the chest on the left wall and moving clockwise, we grab a Long Sword +3; a suit of +3 Full plate and a Heavy Shield +3; a pair of Boots of Reflex +3 and a Chain Shirt +3; a Cloak of Resistance +3 and Amulet of Natural Armor +3 and finally a Composite Longbow (3) and 99 Arrows +3.  We take it all and go up the stairs to the entry hall.  Once we are on the entry hall level again, we make two quick left turns and head up the stairs leading to the main level.

This area is heavily populated with Yuan-Ti Purebloods and Abominations.  A number of doors in the side chambers are locked and heavily trapped.  There are two trapped chests worth looting on the west side of this level.  In them you can find:  a Ring of Protection +3, a Coin of Life and 2000 gp; a Healer's Kit +10 and a Kukri +3. Talk to Nessa. She thinks you're one of the Yuan-ti and you can use diplomacy to convince her to tell you how to get thru the exit doors to the next door.  In the northwest corner is the Shadowdancer's chamber.  In that room, in a locked and trapped chest, is Se'Sehen's Almanac. 

The corridor leading to that room has over a dozen traps so be careful.  You get a lot of XP for disarming them but they range between DC 31 and DC 35 so they aren't sure things.  It is possible to work your way past the traps (and the single Iron Golem stationed as a guard halfway down the corridor) and into the Shadowdancer's room to grab the Almanac.  The door to the Shadow Dancer's room is also locked and trapped, as is the chest holding the almanac inside the room.  Once you've grabbed the almanac, you want to work your way to the center of the level and head down to the library (see next section). Then sneak past  Serpeant Lord Ar'Sulis to the locked room in the southeast (lower right hand) corner. 

The chest inside is locked and trapped and contains a Wand of Cure Critical Wounds, a ring of Major Cold Resistance and an amulet of will +3.  Once you grabbed the loot, sneak past Ar"sulis again to the room in the northeast corner and go to the top of the stairs.  This is the exit from this level and the entry way to the Holy Sanctum on the next level.
   

This last door is magically sealed and warded however.  To get past it, you must answer two questions correctly.  To initiate the sequence, simply try unlocking the door and the question sequence will begin.  The answers to all the questions are in Se'Sehen's almanac .  If you didn't find the almanac you can try guessing, but you are only allowed two wrong answers.  On the third attempt you get fried and lose any chance to infiltrate the Temple without blood shed.  In case you don't want to go thru the trouble of grabbing the manual, here are the answers:

Question 1.  The correct pairs are

Leaffall - Midwinter
Melting - Midsummer
Deepwinter - Greengrass
HighSun - Harvesttide

Question 2.  The correct pairs are

Marpenoth - Mirtul
Alturiak - Hammer
Eleasis - Tarsakh
Kythorn - Ches

When you've answered both correctly, the door will open.

If you had to fight your way thru this level, you can pick up the following loot:  Amulet of Health +4, Studded leather Armor +2, Heavy Crossbow +3, Belt of Agility +4, Boots of Reflex +2, Amulet of Will +2.  Lord Ar'Sulis will drop Venomdrinker.

A single Yuan-Ti pureblood is here.  Search the shelves at the very back of the room to find scrolls of Wail of the Banshee, Meteor Swarm, Mordenkainen's Disjunction and Gate.

There are several Yuan-Ti Holy Guardians , 2 Yuan-Ti abominations and Serpeant Lord Ul'Shan to deal with and a lot of traps, including several EPIC level traps - "one failed save and you are dead" traps.  OUCH!  If you're trying to sneak thru here, the Yuan-Ti Holy Guardians are a little tougher to fool that the Yuan-Ti on the previous levels.  A potion of Invisibility combined with stealthy movement works wonders.  But give those Guardians a wide berth nonetheless.  There is a single locked chest in the southwest corner which contains a Tower Shield +3, a bastard sword +3, a Wand of Restoration and 10,000 gp. 

If you plan on fighting your way thru here, your best bet is to lure the Yuan-Ti to you.  Then when they're all dead, tell the party to hold it's ground and have your rogue either disable traps one at a time, or pick a way through the traps and then go up the stairs to the exit to the Throne of the World Serpeant, so the party will transport to you as you exit the level.  If you have healing potions to burn, you can consider disarming the traps for the XP if you're so inclined.  If you do end up fighting everyone on this level, you'll be able to recover adamantine arrows (x99), arrows +2 (x99), a composite bow (3) and a great axe +3 and Serpeant Lord Ul'Shan will drop a ring of greater fire resistance.

In the final battle you have to face off against  6 Yuan-Ti Purebloods, the Heirophant N'Safa and the Herald of Zehir.  The purebloods are troublesome with their tendency to one-shot a character with Slay Living spells, so make sure you have Mass Death Ward up before you start the fight.  The Heirophant isn't a pushover either, but the Herald is one bad mother.  On Hardcore difficulty, he has resistances and immunities out the wazoo.  Don't waste fire and lightning spells on him - they won't even phase him, he's 100% immune.  Poison?  Forget it.  Sneak attacks?  Crits?  You're kidding right?  100% Immunity to both.  Isaac's Missile Storm for the win?  Nope, he is TOTALLY immune to both versions.  Bigby's Spells?  Nope.  He's immune to those as well except for Interposing Hand.  You CAN damage him with cold iron holy weapons, and acid, cold and sonic spells will damage him after it gets thru his resistances, so prepare accordingly.

After you've killed the Herald of Zehir, You get to meet Zehir himself.  It's intersting to discover what what's he been playing at.  When you're finished talking to him, make sure you loot the bodies.  The herald drops an awesome falchion called the Fang of Zehir and the Heirophant will drop a periapt of wisdom +6.  Well worth picking up. 

There's still some unfinished busness with Sa'Sani however.  If you exit thru the door to the Overland map you are given the option to retire, or return to the Viper Temple and meet Sa'Sani.  How you choose to deal with her is up to you.  You can let her live, extract a promise from her to protect the sword coast, or kill her.  If you choose to kill her, you can loot her body for a periapt of wisdom +6, a ring of protection +3, a ring of freedom and bracers of armor +8.

At this point if you're feeling REALLY feisty you can go back through the temple and kill the rest of the Yuan-ti just for fun and continue adventuring if you wish.  (You'll have to exit the temple back to the OLM and then re-enter however as the door leading back to the Holy sanctum will be locked.)  Or you can retire your party and see how events in the realms of Samarach and on the Sword Coast play out.

Leave it to Volo to get the story wrong. 

At this point the game is over, but you can continue to roam the wilds of Samarach or the Sword Coast as you see fit. 

last revision February 26, 2009