Walkthrough for The Brotherhood Of The Hand v1.4.0
A Blades Of Exile Scenario
by Drizzt

Upon arrival, head southeast until you reach the area around the fortress of the
Brotherhood.  There is a town just west of the fortress that provides various shops 
and services, and a farm just north that's worth visiting.  Talk to everyone in 
these towns and you'll get a better feel for the type of place this is, although
nothing here is required.  Then head up the mountain into the fort.

Pass through the entry, and, following the instructions you receive, head down the 
hall to the west and meet a messenger.  He'll send you off to a distant Empire 
fort, and there is nothing else you can do here.  You can explore some of the secret 
passages in this place, and meet a few other inhabitants, but again, this is not 
required.  There is an interesting encounter in the library, and mysterious trainer 
to meet, but much of the fort is blocked off for now.

Leave the fortress, and head down the passage to the west.  You'll pass an ancient
Vahnatai temple, but there is nothing you can do in there yet.  Eventually you 
should reach a hut along the river, where another Brotherhood member will help
you out and offer some advice.  Take the boat south, but your path will be quickly
blocked.  Leave the river and follow the wall on your left (or south), turning left
twice, and you should cross back over the river, head south and reach the fort.

The designated meeting place is inside the fort in the northwest corner, through a
secret door by a Brotherhood symbol.  Once you get the message here, you receive
some troubling news in a meeting with the fort's captain, and are offered a 
choice.  If you stay and help, you'll face a rather difficult battle with some
attacking sliths.  If you decide to leave, you will avoid this battle, but be 
ambushed on the way back.  Either way, someone will help you quickly back to the 
Brotherhood's fortress.

You return to find the fort in a more somber and secure state, and are immediately
called upstairs to the leader's area.  The stairs are directly to the south, but
it would be worthwhile to explore this level of the fort first, especially returning
to the library.  More areas and secret passages are now open, including a bank where
you can store your extra gold.

Go upstairs, and you'll meet some leaders of the Brotherhood, and discover a grim
scene.  Pass the bodies into the now revealed secret passage, and you will be 
attacked by an invisible foe.  Fight it off, then follow the trail of slime that
appears, until you are attacked again.  Report back to the Brotherhood leaders, 
and one will offer a hint about the origin of your attacker.

At this point, you will be offered another choice.  After this, at any point, you
can head down the secret passage behind the leader's room to the northeast, and 
this leads to the end of the scenario.  

To finish the scenario, head down from the secret passage behind the leader's 
chambers to the northeast, fight some invisibe creatures, and eventually wind up 
in a lab inhabited by some gelataneous cubes, large squares of a slow moving, 
but hungry, somewhat sentient clear substance.  Cast Move Mountains on a moldy 
wall at (11,27), follow the passage, and you will reach the Mother Cube.  

If you get close enough to the cube it is clear what the cube wants: freedom.  Head 
to the south, and you'll find cubes moving back and forth from the big cube, 
ignoring you, and two other cubes up against the wall.  Go to the other side of the 
wall, and it should be obvious what needs to be done.  A detailed solution is below.

Take the stairway down, and you will find the assassin and, depending on your
choices, the scenario will end with different messages.

However, as it was said, for the foolish, there is another way.  Make sure you ask 
the counsel member about "foolish" or "another" and follow his instructions to the 
library.  Find the book in the that talks about the Vahnatai "Land of the Dead",
and you should have some idea of what to do.  Pay attention to all is is explained 
or mentioned here.  Then head to the Vahnatai Temple, which is outdoors to the west.

Enter the temple, and pass through the secret door behind the statue.  Read the
description of the next room closely, writing down the hints on the walls if you
need to.  There are four actions that must be performed in this room to open the
doorway to the Land of the Dead, the last of which is walking between the fire pits
from north to south.  If you reach the end and are burned by the fire, you've
missed a step.  There are many clues that hint at what you need to do, but, for 
the thoroughly baffled, a detailed description can be found at the end of this file.

Once you enter the Land, head southish through the darkness until you find a lich.
Talk with him, make sure you ask him about "leave" and he will give you a special
item that will allow you to exit this place at any time.  Then continue to the south.  
You should eventually meet a sad figure who will help you, but wants you first to get 
his wedding ring back from the lich.  Agree, return to the lich and ask it about 
"ring".  Enter his game through the darkness to the east.

The first puzzle requires you to notice slight variations in the floor tiles of
the next room.  The lich will announce his favorite color to you, which is random,
and this color roughly corresponds to a color completely missing from the tiles.
Compare the hallway floor tile, which has all the colors, to the first three tiles
adjacent to the doorway in the room, each of which is missing one color.  Step only
on the tiles which do NOT have the lich's favorite color.  Anternately, you can also
save your game at every step, until you get past and are teleported to the next
game.

The final puzzle is a timed maze, where you have to collect 15 rubies in 500 moves.
Every square is combat blocked, though, so you can't move around in combat mode.
There is a map available at my website at members.aol.com/risberg/blades, but if
you draw a map as you go it shouldn't be too hard.  The best way to solve it is to
save at every intersection.  If you meet a Juggler, you've gone the wrong way, so
simply load the game from the last intersection and try another direction.  All 15
rubies can be collected by going on a straight path without any backtracking or 
fighting any Jugglers.

Once you get the ring, return it to its owner, and he will tell you his tragic and
possibly (if you've played The Forsaken) familiar story.  Note what he says about
the amulet, his final request of you, and continue through the secret door to the 
north.  Search the waterfall, and you'll be moved into the darkness again.

Head northeast through the darkness, and you'll come upon a familiar place.  Find
"your" house, to the south on the west side of the street, and defeat all the
creatures that appear.  Once the last dies, someone will appear in the temple.  
Talk with him, and say goodbye.

Head once more through the darkness to the south, and you will finally meet your
goal.  Listen to what he says about the Brotherhood, leave the Land of the Dead, 
and find the one you were instructed to.  After a hurried but enlightening
conversation you'll find yourself back in the fortress, witness an interesting
theft, and then continue down as above to find the assassin.

MORE HINTS BELOW . . . 


















To enter the Land of the Dead though the Vahnatai temple, first get rid of all of
your gold and food.  There are people or places in Kechma's Rest and the 
Brotherhood fort where you can do this.  The bank on the first level of the fort
will take most of your gold, spend the rest or donate to the temple, also on the
first floor of the fort.  The cook in Kechma's Rest will take food from you.

Alternately, you can always use the Character Editor to quickly take away all 
gold and food, and restore it later.

When your food and gold is completely gone, go to the temple, enter the large 
room, and cast Summoning (4th level mage) until a Cerhogha appears.  Kill one, 
then walk between the fire pits, north to south.  A doorway to the Land of the
Dead should appear.

To get past the large gelataneous cube, cast Move Mountains on the six squares of
wall, (39,37) to (41,38).  Three are already cracked, three are not.  Wait a bit,
and you should get a message about the large cube leaving.  Enter the room it once
occupied, and take the stairs down.