The Za-Khazi Run

Now go to the fort commander and get your mission. Speak to Seletine to get the package of wands. Buy whatever you have to, and get some training if you have lots of training points left over (very likely if you just finished Morrow's Isle). You may want to keep some gold though, just in case you'll need it later. Sell off all unuseful items. You can talk to the fort wizard to get some information on the Za-Khazi Run itself.

Go to the docks now. There may be an identifier there who could give you information on your items for a cheap price. Once you have everything done, save your game, jump into a boat, and row north.

You will be in the first stage of the Za-Khazi Run. Row east, and follow the river. Do NOT - we repeat - do NOT tarry on the way. You only have three weeks. Do NOT poke around to find little dungeons. Follow the River. Eventually, you will come to a lake, with five streams running north from it. Choose the central stream (you could have found this information from a dungeon on the way, but then you'd have to waste time there). When you emerge, you should be in another lake. There's a small slith village in the middle. If you visit them, they will tell you to give them gold or treasures. Do not do this. Instead, leave them, and row the boat to the northeast.

Found to the northeast is the Blood Glee Clan, filled with giants. Don't go there yet. Follow the road north, and you will come to a bridge. Some giants are stationed on the bridge. Fight them to get across. Use Major Haste and Bless Party (you can cast Bless Party multiple times to strengthen the effect), and you shouldn't have much trouble with them.

Explore the cavern to the north. Specifically, explore the north wall of the cavern. You may come upon the scene of a group of giants fighting a unicorn. Help the unicorn. He will tell you of a refuge of unicorns to the north. Go there. You can get out of the cavern you're in by going northeast.

You should arrive in a place with many trees. These trees were created with the magic of the unicorn citadel. The citadel itself is to the far southwest. Enter, and speak to the unicorns there. They will send you on a quest to recover the horn of a unicorn killed by giants. They will give you a magical item to aid you on this quest.

Now, go all the way back to the Blood Glee Clan. Fight the giants there, exiting at intervals to rest if you have to. Eventually, you should find a stairway down. There you can go into a place of worm hunting.

Meat worms are not difficult enemies. Plus, they will always leave food when they die (if you like to eat worm meat...). Follow the guide of the magical item of the unicorns, and you will enter a hidden treasure room. Open up the chests, and in one of them you will find the unicorn horn. Return this to the unicorn citadel. Make sure now to speak to Aeliopol to obtain information on Morog and Khoth.

Go north from the citadel. Do not explore your surroundings. Go straight north, and you will come to the Unicorn Gate. Pass through with the reward that the unicorns gave you. You are now in the Realm of Morog. Try to avoid rubble in these areas if at all possible - they may be Heavy Rubble and take you more time to cross. You might come upon a group of spectres asking you for a password. Unless you somehow know the password, just guess. You'll only have to fight a few spectres if you guess wrong. Use summoning spells and Dispel Undead to get rid of them.

Go to Morog's Castle, which is on the top of a large plateau in the middle of this cavern. Do not wander from it, go straight to it. If you go too far north, you'll come to the poppy shrooms, and you do not want to pass that yet.

Go into Morog's Castle, and speak with Morog. She will send you on a quest. Follow her instructions and complete the quest. It will require your traveling in complete darkness (light spells do not work). In any case, remember the general rules: save often, and always look for secret doors. In the lightless dungeon, there will not be any regenerating monsters (or at least none that we know of...), so rest if you need to revive yourself.

When you complete the quest, Morog will give you a choice of three rewards: the scroll of draconian knowledge, the mushroom talisman, or the location of a great opal. Take the scroll. Repeat: TAKE THE SCROLL.

Now pass through the field of Poppy Shrooms. To the far northwest, there is a friendly efreet who could make your weapons into flaming weapons (extra shock damage on every impact). If you wish that service and have sufficient gold (it takes a few thousand gold to enchant a good weapon), you can go there if you want. The exit to the field of shrooms is to the northeast. Just remember: do not explore here. Every move will cost you precious time.

Once you're past the shrooms, you will again see the river that you've been traveling on. You don't have a boat here, so you're stuck for now - you must go and find a boat. Fortunately, there is a tower to the west. It is an ancient crypt - the Spiraling Crypt is its name. Go in.

Be careful in the first level. Fire Barriers seal the entrance. There are Crypt Guardians past it, which are rather nasty critters that you'll have a hard time against. Send your best fighter in, with maximum haste/bless/resist magic spells. Kill the guardians. Then the rest of your party can move in. Make sure to save now.

There are four rooms on each side of the entrance courtyard, and the docks are to the north. Unfortunately, the docks are currently closed. Your only choice is to go up. The rooms all have pillars in them, which may or may not harm you when you pass by them. Save every move here, so that if you trigger something, you can simply reload and pick a different route. In the corner of the rooms there's a stairway up.

You are now on the second floor of the crypt. This level is one huge puzzle. If you have an Magic Map or some way to map this place, do it. We will not give away the solution to the puzzle, as that would spoil it. We do suggest that you draw out the level on a piece of paper.

There are various motes of light that follow you. These will change color when you step on the runes in the rooms. The four corner rooms give you clues to the puzzle. Remember: white runes clear your colors, and checking runes activate your colors. If a color is 'bright and cheery', then it is one of the 'Light' colors. If it is 'dull and dark', then it is one of the 'Dark' colors. There are also runes that summon monsters to fight you. These are all arranged in a pattern, and if you map the level out on your paper and mark the colors, you'll soon see the pattern. Remember that your priority here is to open up the docks.

Once you've solved the puzzle and the docks are opened, go back down and into the docks. Here, you might get teleported around a bit if you're not careful. Save every move. Get to the docks, enter the boat, and keep going on your journey. Follow the River! Do not stray from its path. Keep going north. Let nothing distract you.

You should eventually come upon a river fort, blocking your passage. You'll have to find a way to open up the gates blocking your passage. If you explore a bit outdoors, you should find a way into the fort. Fight the monsters there, and open up the gates. There are two levers you need to find. Turn them both, go back to your boat, and row your way through.

You are now approaching the final leg of your journey. If you followed all of our advice, you should have a good deal of time to spare. Go north. You will find - and we hope you've been expecting this - the Palace of Khoth.

This place is an extremely tricky maze of moving floors. A magic map will help here if you have the capability to do so. Basically, you'll have to go east, then north, the west, then north, then west (try to figure this out on your own). You should, after many battles, come to a hall of statues. Save just before you enter it. Prepare everyone for battle (Major, Haste, Bless Party, etc.). Now, enter combat mode, and move north. Some golems will appear. Slow Group them first. The best way to fight them is with Paralyze. If a golem is paralyzed, you can chop it apart easily. If you can't paralyze them, at least curse them and summon things, so that the golems don't start breathing on you. Once you beat this room, there will be no further fighting.

You can take a stroll in Khoth's libraries (though you can't pass any of the runes). However, make sure you see if the runes are broken. If a dialog box flashes up when you try to pass, that means the rune will not let you pass. There is one rune, however, which is broken, and no dialog box will flash up. Go inside, and look over the scrolls there. You can learn Resurrect there. Now go to Khoth, and present the scroll. He will let you pass. Now, just follow the caverns north. Follow the widest tunnels. Do not stray. There will be a final battle with Sliths n your way to Fort Cavalier, but Paralyze should solve that problem. Then it's on to Fort Cavalier. If you followed instructions, you should be well ahead of the time limit of 21 days.

Once there, talk to everyone. Make sure you get your rewards from the mage and priest - they will teach you Major Summoning and Wall of Blades. Leave the fort by the eastern passage, and you've won!

--From The Archives of Akhronath