Eschalon II Pacifist Run - Wolfsbane Magicks & The Lycanthrope (optional)

Warning: This optional section is full of spoilers, and can be skipped easily if you prefer to stick to a purist pacifist challenge run without indirectly causing the death of a single monster.

Wolfsbane Magicks & The Lycanthrope
When you reach the Wolfsbane Magicks shop in Everdale and meet Harpen (the proprietor), you may have also already received the quest "The Lycanthrope" from Xed in the Western Kessian Basin. (If you didn't get the Lycanthrope quest yet, also see the "JOURNEY THROUGH WOLFENWOOD" section.)

Xed the Lycanthrope Hunter

When you got the quest, Xed will have told you that after tracking the Lycanthrope down and investigating its killings, he finally identified the murderer as Harpen, the magick dealer who owns and runs the "Wolfsbane Magicks" shop down the road in the middle of the village.
Xed also suggested that you immediately attack Harpen without even talking to him first, in order to take him by surprise. However, if you disregard Xed's suggestion and talk to Harpen without raising the issue of lycanthropy, you'll have the option of doing business with Harpen as you would at any other magick shop, and buying his revolving stock of potions, scrolls, rings, and other magical or alchemical items.
On the other hand: If you challenge Harpen by choosing the dialogue options involving lycanthropy, Harpen will protest and tell you that he is innocent. If you mention meeting a man who was tracking Harpen and identified him by name as the lycanthrope, Harpen will ask you if the man was "a bit odd looking, with shifty eyes" and went by the name of Xed.

Harpen's side of the story

Harpen will then assert that Xed is the actual lycanthrope, and that he tracked him down to a den in Wolfenwood, which he burned to the ground with magick fire. (If you took one of the sidepaths off the road through Wolfenwood, you may have found the ruin of a rocky den fitting this description.)
Unfortunately, however, Xed managed to escape, and now avoids entering the forest out of fear of Harpen.
Harpen will then say that Xed obviously wants him dead, but isn't powerful kill him himself, so apparently tried to trick you into doing it. He'll then offer you a bounty of 500 gold to go kill Xed instead of him, and you'll face a choice of whether to accept this offer, accuse and attack Harpen instead, or state that you can't decide who is telling the truth (and abandon the quest).

The truth is: Harpen actually is the lycanthrope, and if you persist in challenging him, he will prove this by transforming into a huge "Dire Wolf" and attacking you.

The lycanthrope fills the doorway to Wolfsbane Magicks after transforming

At this point, you won't be able to resolve the quest without some type of violence taking place:Some of us skipped it to avoid this, but one player found that the lycanthropic Dire Wolf could be led on a chase all the way out of the village and over to the ruins inhabited by the equally hostile Sentinel Stalk (which the inn owner Travet asked you to get rid of for him).

The lycanthrope chases a mage northeast of the village of Everdale toward the ruins

Using invisibility and haste potions made it fairly easy to hide from both monsters so that they turned on each other instead, causing the lycanthrope to destroy the Sentinel Stalk after a short battle between the two.

The lycanthrope dispatches the Sentinel Stalk

The lycanthrope then chased the player back to Everdale again, where the player let the non-pacifist NPCs from the village dispatch the monster (which was low on hit points by that time).

Ara dispatches the lycanthrope after a chase back to Everdale

Indirectly causing the demise of these two monsters would enable you to pick up the lycanthrope pelt Xed asked for as proof of the lycanthrope's death, stop by the Wolf's Den Inn for Travet's reward of 75 gold and 350 experience points for completing "A Weed in the Bathhouse," and then travel back through Wolfenwood to Xed's camp in the Western Kessian Basin to claim his promised reward of 400 gold and 500 experience points.

Xed pays out the promised reward for bringing the lycanthrope's reign of terror to an end

Xed will be grateful to you for this. However, as far as we know, even though Harpen was the lycanthrope, he still won't ever get around to murdering anyone else in the village (or elsewhere) for the duration of the game. This means that if you want to avoid involving yourself in the destruction of one or both monsters, you can let Harpen remain at large inside "Wolfsbane Magicks," where you'll have the option of transacting with him to buy or sell magical items for as long as you want (provided you don't ever accuse him of lycanthropy, which would cause him to transform into the Dire Wolf once again).

Eschalon II Pacifist Run - Everdale & The Farrock Caves

This section covers the mountain village of Everdale (and the northern side of the Central Farrock Range, where the village is located), and also the Farrock Caves, which has a northern entrance you can find southeast of Everdale, and also a southern entrance you may have discovered north of the Southern Kessian Basin.

The Village of Everdale
If you've arrived from Wolfenwood, you'll find yourself still on the forested road a short distance from the village of Everdale on the north side of the Farrock Mountain Range. As you approach the town, you'll see the Wolf's Den Inn below the road, and can also examine the sign above it to add Everdale to your quick travel destinations.

Evardale's Wolf's Den Inn, just off the road from Wolfenwood

The Wolf's Den Inn
This inn is in the woods beside the road on the western side of Everdale. If you talk to the owner, Travet, you'll have the option of buying and selling, and he'll also tell you that he has an ambition to build a bath house by renovating a ruin near a spring east of the village. However, a monstrous plant (a Sentinel Stalk) has taken root in the ruin and now attacks any one who comes near by spitting barbed projectiles. Travet will consequently offer to reward you if you get rid of the Sentinel Stalk, so that he can safely renovate the ruins. This will initiate the quest "A Weed in the Bath House."
If you're a strict pacifist challenger who will harm no living creature (fair or foul) and wants to avoid even indirect violence, you can skip this quest. (If not, one possible solution that also includes a lot of spoilers is described in the optional "Lycanthrope" subsection.)

Wolfsbane Magicks
Here you'll meet Harpen, the magick dealer who owns and runs the "Wolfsbane Magicks" shop down the road in the middle of the village. If you avoid raising the thorny issue of lycanthropy, you'll be able to deal with him as you would with any other magick dealer, selling him magical items or alchemical reagents, and buying from his varying stock of scrolls, potions, rings, amulets, and other wares. (If you want to consider stepping into pacifist challenge-run grey area, see the separate section on "The Lycanthrope.")

Wolfsbane Magicks

The Empty House & The Old Treasure Map
The building next door to the Hunter's Outfitter (just down from the well you can find up the north path in the woods) contains an empty building. No actual NPC seems to live there, but there is an old cryptic treasure map you can find inside, showing a route to a treasure box relative to several landmarks, including three short crags of rock and an old tree stump. To solve this mystery, see the section on the EASTERN FELLPINE FOREST.

The Hunter's Outfitter

Ara & "The Hunter's Outfitter"
The last building on the northeast edge of town is Ara's blacksmithing and outfitting shop. If you ask her if she has any work that needs to be done, she'll give you a quest called "Adamantium Ore Else," and ask you to go and look for a specimen of Adamantium ore in the Farrock Caves.

Ara offers the quest to find a chunk of Adamantium Ore in the caves

She says she found a good chunk of this ore herself, but was chased out of the caves by spiders and dropped the ore somewhere in the caverns while making her escape. This is a quest you can complete without any violence (though you'll have an easier time of it if you have stealth, haste, or plenty of mana to cast repulsing or entangling spells on the wolves and spiders you'll encounter on the way).

Route to Farrock Caves via back door exit of the Wolf's Den Inn

First you'll need to travel southeast past the Wolf's Den Inn and follow the paths to the entrance to the Farrock Caves. (You can reach the caves by entering the inn's front entrance by the main path, then exiting out the back door to reach this area.)

Entrance to the Farrock Caves, where a path is visible heading into the crags

THE FARROCK CAVES
After you enter the caves, you'll find yourself in shadowy rock tunnels inhabited by spiders called Phase Hunters, who can be dangerous if they surround you, but can be evaded easily enough with stealth or haste, among other methods. You will notice a number of black powder kegs inside the caves along the walls (e.g. one on the western passage, and two more on the upper northeast passage), and will need at least one if you want to try to exit the caves in the east.

If you're on Ara's quest, you'll find the Adamantium Ore on the ground in a widened cavern on the east side of the caves. You'll probably have to give the spiders a run-around to avoid being surrounded and penned in, but they're also susceptible to Sparkling Wonder at a decent casting level. After you grab the chunk of ore, though, you can take it back to Ara at the Hunter's Outfitter for a nice reward of 200 gold and 750 experience points.

If you want to explore the caves further:

Hidden Gemstones
There are many gemstones hidden inside the rock walls of the Farrock Caves. If you have enough Perception and points in the "Spot Hidden" skill when you pass by the edges of the rock walls, you'll see a flash of light and be able to inspect the walls at that place to find large and small emeralds, rubies, and other gems.

A flash of light when "Spot Hidden" succeeds in finding a hidden gem in the caves

If you don't want to invest skill points in Spot Hidden, there are also several rings you can buy at magick shops that will give you some points in Spot Hidden. The skill is passive and will be re-tested every turn automatically, so if you happen to have a map showing where to look for the gems, you can find them by passing a turn or walking back and forth nearby...)

A large emerald discovered in the rockfaces of the Farrock Caves

The Eastern Caves & Exit to the Northern Farrock Range
If you travel all the way to the eastern side of the caves, you'll find a passageway turning sharply south where you can blow open a blocked tunnel to access the lower path of a sandy waterside area where an underground river flows out of the caves through the cave mouth leading to the Northern Farrock Range.

Exiting the Farrock Caves through the eastern tunnels

If you exit the caves here, you'll find the subterranean pools flow out into a river delta. There is a treasure chest on the island in the middle of the river, and by traveling northeast through the woods, you can exit north to find yourself on the wooded coastal area below Port Kuudad, where it's possible to travel northeast along the coast and find your way into the sewers. (This is one possible way to get inside the city without a Citizen Writ.) There is also one treasure chest hidden along the western edge of the wall surrounding Port Kuudad...

The Southern Caves & Exit to the Farrock Monolith 

The Farrock Monolith

Nearer the western half of the caves there is a passage turning south, but it's blocked by a gate that needs to be opened from the southern side. If you want to go to this branch, you can enter the southern mouth of the caves by heading north from the Southern Kessian Basin (See SOUTHERN KESSIAN BASIN), and if you already visited, can quick-travel right to the entrance using the Farrock Monolith.

The southern half of the caves has an electrified gate (which you can open by throwing a rock or projectile at the lever from the south side) and the lair of a sinister foe named Jawbreaker the Blacksmith. Fortunately this individual is very slow on his feet, so it's easy enough to outrun him and optionally grab the contents of two treasure chests nearby (one inside his lair, another further on in the southern caves).

Jawbreaker the Blacksmith

Entrance to Fathamurk: If you destroyed a barrel next to a blocked tunnel in the far western side of the caves (above Jawbreaker's lair, but below the locked gate dividing the north and south sections of the caves), you'd be able to use a black powder keg to blow away obstructions and find the entrance to a formidable dungeon called Fathamurk.

Warning: If you descend into Fathamurk out of curiosity, you will soon find a gateway slamming shut behind you and trapping you inside what's probably the hardest dungeon in the game, even for a fairly high level adventurer. (If we're not mistaken, this is also the one place in Book II that you won't be able to complete without having to dispatch at least a couple of entities: At least one "lava slag" creature, and a very tough golem who is probably the most challenging 'boss' character in the game.) Fathamurk is optional, however, so you won't ever be forced to enter it unless you want to take on a tough challenge.

Eschalon II Pacifist Run - Journey Through Wolfenwood (Western Kessian Basin & Wolfenwood)

This section covers two maps: The Western Kessian Basin (north of Greenriven Lake) and Wolfenwood (reached by following the road east from the Western Kessian Basin).

The Western Kessian Basin

(One map north of Greenriven, and west of Wolfenwood)

Xed the Lycanthrope Hunter
If you arrive at the Western Kessian Basin by following the northern road up from the Greenriven area, you'll soon arrive a triangle-shaped junction in the road, and notice the camp of a somewhat wolfish-looking man named Xed. When you speak with him, Xed will inform you that he is a Lycanthrope Hunter on the trail of a dangerous lycanthrope who has already murdered a number of people in the area.

Xed says that he has been investigating the murders and finally managed to track down and identify the Lycanthrope as none other than a man named Harpen, who owns a magick shop in the town of Everdale (which you'll find in the Central Farrock Range after following the western road through and beyond Wolfenwood).

However, Xed says that it has now become difficult for him to get close enough to Harpen to strike at him himself, and he will offer to engage you to do it for him in exchange for 400 gold. He'll also suggest that you strike without even speaking to or confronting Harpen first, because he is supposedly very dangerous, and could kill you quickly if he anticipated the attack and transformed into lycanthrope form. If you agree to aid Xed, you'll receive the quest called "The Lycanthrope."
See details under EVERDALE to learn more.

The Churchyard Ruins
You'll find the ruins of an old stone church and adjoining cemetery a short way to the northwest of Xed's camp. The ruin is teeming with outlander thugs who will try to kill you, but even if you don't have stealth or spells like Sparkling Wonder, it's still possible to give them a runaround and get away with some treasure without anyone dying. To get the treasure: You'll find a grave monument in the cemetery  that will inform you that a priest named Father Beeman founded this temple in the 8th month of the year 717. (You might also find some armor in a coffin, depending on your scruples about grave-robbing.)

If you manage to either use stealth or get enough distance from the outlanders to get inside and examine the chest inside the ruin, you'll find a combination lock, and can combine the four numbers above "8717" to open the chest. This will reveal some gold and a bottle of vintage wine. (You might also keep this place in mind in case you require black powder kegs later on, since there are several of them sitting around inside the ruin.)

Brigand Camps
There are two more treasure chests at outlander camps on this map: One is along the road most of the way west, and another is in the opposite direction in a small clearing just above the western road toward Wolfenwood. You'll find the bodies of slain travelers who were attacked and killed by the outlanders. However, you can pretty easily grab the brigands' ill-gotten goods for yourself if you either use stealth, or cast a spell like Sparkling Wonder on the outlanders to keep them at a distance while you pick locks (or cast Lock Melt, if you're a mage).

Otherwise, this map can take you either west toward the Yoma River Headwater if you follow the road through the plains, or north toward the Fellpine Forest, but if you're going to either Wolfenwood, Everdale (Central Farroack Range), or further on toward Port Kuudad, you will want to follow the road west to the edge of the forest of Wolfenwood.

Wolfenwood Forest

The western road leading toward Everdale and the Central Farrock Range delves into a thick forest at this point, and you may hear the howls of wolves as soon as you approach. Wolfenwood is more dangerous to a lower-level pacifist challenger than prior areas, since the wolves here are faster and also less easily startled by the Sparkling Wonder spell  (which will sometimes work for a short time, but fail more often than it does on the outlanders and most other lower-level foes).

The Wounded Man
The first place of interest is the northern sidepath leading off the main road, which you can follow to find a badly injured young man who was attacked by wolves. It is too late to save him, but as he dies, he'll request that you aid him by taking his potion of Sparkling Divinity to the mother of a young boy who is deathly ill. You'll be able to complete the dying man's quest by taking the potion to the child's house in Port Kuudad and giving it to his mother, which will solve the quest called "To Save a Child's Life." (More details are under the PORT KUUDAD guide, but completing this quest can yield as much as 600xp depending on your dialogue choices when you deliver the potion.)

The Wolves' Grove
There is a fairly well concealed but visible side path leading into the woods again, this time on the south side of the road (a little way east of the north path leading to the dying man's resting place).
If you have the patience and/or pacifist run assets (like stealth, haste spells/potions, etc) to survive a trek through a wolf-infested winding path through the trees, you can find the corpse of another man slain by wolves, and  take a Port Kuudad Citizen Writ from the body. (You'll need to find at least one of these writs in order to get the city guards to allow you in the front gates, though there are other longer routes, like sneaking into the city via the sewer  entrances found along the eastern coast. See Port Kuudad for details.) If you want to head straight to Port Kuudad after getting through Wolfenwood and visiting Everdale, this is probably the most efficient time to pick one up though.

Unless you already have good stealth skills to stay hidden, this is a bit dangerous since the fast-moving wolves can more easily pen you in the narrow paths, and bite you as you try to run past. Drinking a haste potion might be helpful here, since it will let you move faster than the wolves to grab the Citizen Writ off the corpse, then flee to head back up to the main road leading east.

Hunter's Clearing & Foraging Training
As you walk through central Wolfenwood just after the road starts to bend gradually northeastward, you'll notice a bucket sitting alongside the trees (the same one shown in the first Wolfenwood screenshot). This marks the entrance to a hidden pathway through the forest, eventually leading to a clearing where some rangers practice their archery skills.
Here you'll meet a ranger named Hunter, who can train you in various archery skills, but also the powerful pacifist-friendly skill of Foraging: Foraging will enable your character to automatically gather valuable alchemical reagents every time you're camped.

You might already have other uses in mind for your gold first (e.g. training in magick, alchemy, or other skills in Port Kuudad), but Foraging is arguably one of the more "overpowered" pacifist run assets available, if trained up to a high level: If you combined solid Foraging with the alchemy skill (which you can train up to level 8 in Port Kuudad), you can also use it to brew useful potions (haste, invisibility, ogre strength, nimbleness, healing elixirs and mana potions, etc) that can provide you with most of the best pacifist run assets available, even if you're playing a character with little or no magickal skill. (More details about why we liked Foraging are available in our SKILL section, and also the MERCANTILE section, since Foraging will enable you to earn a lot of gold.)

The Wolves' Den
If you're not having problems evading the many red wolves in the forest, you can follow another path leading south through the dense woods to find some interesting things and minor treasures: The turnoff is very near the turnoff to Hunter's clearing, but heading south instead of north. You'll find lots of wolves along the way, followed by a rocky den-like area with several more corpses, and can find some gold and other minor items. (You might also note possible signs of the rocky den area being scarred by fire.)

There is also one more chest you can also find in Wolfenwood in the far northern part of the forest, but as far as we know the only way to get to it would be to walk all the way back to the western edge of the forest and circle over from above, or else just return from one of the maps to the north later on instead. (The contents of most treasure chests in Eschalon are randomized to some degree, even if some are better than others, so whether it'd be worth the trip depends on your luck.)

If you're on the way to Everdale, you'll reach it by following the main road all the way to the eastern edge of the map....

Eschalon II Pacifist Run - Greenriven Lake & The Ironpool Dam

 After you speak with Eleanise at Eastwillow Magicks and show her the strange viewing glass, you'll need to go to the western shores of Greenriven Lake to visit Eleanise' Uncle Minus, in order to complete the second chapter of "Destiny Through a Viewing Glass." (See the EASTWILLOW section for details about how the quest begins.)
To reach Greenriven Lake, take the road west out of the town of Eastwillow, and follow it as it winds through some woods and then turns southwest to cross the bridge of the Ironpool Dam.

While crossing the dam, be prepared to take a few hits from projectile-spitting black slimes, since at least 1-2 of these creatures will probably be squelching around on top of the stone causeway that you'll have to cross to reach Greenriven.

If you went inside the Ironpool Dam's lower entrance after crossing the bridge, you'd be able to meet the dwarf engineer Brudo inside. Brudo won't be too forthcoming with strangers, however, so you may want speak with Minus first.
After following the main road west along the lower lakeshore for a good stretch, the road will come to an end in the grass, but it's only a short distance northwest to find Minus' house on the edge of Greenriven Lake.

Minus' house on the western shores of Greenriven Lake

When you enter Minus' house, he'll be glad to talk with you about the viewing glass, and will recognize some of the glyph signs on it. He will suggest that you take the glass to Saint Gilhem at the Lockston Hall academy of mages in Port Kuudad, in order to learn more. This conversation will complete the 2nd part of the quest, which will now update to part 3, and you'll receive 500 experience points.

Speaking with Minus will enable you to bring the viewing glass to the city of Port Kuudad to advance the main plotline.

The Swamp Chest
There is another quest you can get right away by speaking with Minus (see "Secrets of the Deep" below), but before backtracking to the Dam: If you're feeling adventurous, there is also an old swamp chest hidden at the far northern end of this strand past Minus' house, on the edge of the lake where the ground becomes marshy. To raid the old chest without stealth or invisibility, though, you'll probably have to sustain a lot of damage from the black slimes infesting the swampy shores.

"Secrets of the Deep"
If you speak more with Minus after showing him the strange viewing glass, he'll tell you the eerie backstory of a lost mining town drowned in the depths of Greenriven Lake: Lost Westwillow. Apparently the town of Westwillow was once a prosperous riverside placer mining town, but was submerged in the floodwaters when the Ironpool dam was built (the result of an agreement between a dwarven king and a human chancellor). However, many of the angry villagers refused to leave, and perished when Westwillow was submerged beneath the rising waters that created the lake. Now the ghosts of those who perished are still angry and restless somewhere in the depths. Minus will suggest that if you want to learn more, you should speak with Brudo, the dwarf engineer inside the upper level of Ironpool who knows more about the hauntings than he may have let on if you spoke with him earlier. Minus will now tell you a dwarven blessing to help you earn Brudo's trust so that he'll tell you more about the haunting below the Ironpool dam: "Mahul-Zarim-Gamil."

After speaking with Minus, you'll be able to speak this Dwarven blessing to get Brudo to open the gate to the lower levels of the Ironpool Dam...

At this point, you can return east by following the road, and then dropping down below the path to enter the interior level of the Dam just below the causeway. You can then speak with Brudo, ask him questions about the Dam, and be able to tell him the dwarven blessing "Mahul-Zarim-Gamil" so that he will tell you more, and also open the gates to the lower levels of the Ironpool Dam. Doing this will reward you with 300 experience points, and you'll now be able to enter the ominous lower levels and find the entrance to Lost Westwillow.
The lower levels of Ironpool Dam are probably not an ideal place take on until you're at a higher level, preferably with some types of stealth skills and spells, and ideally the "Turn Undead" spell.
(Whenever you're ready, however, see the separaate section on IRONPOOL DAM & LOST WESTWILLOW.)

Before you leave the Greenriven map, note that you can also find two more chests in the northeast: One by sneaking into the wooded camp of some hostile outlander thugs in the far northestern woods, and another directly west of that on the marsh lakeshore, where you'll have to evade a lot of slimes and some dragonels.

At this point, it's up to you where to go next, but our preferred route when planning to head to Port Kuudad from this point would be to head back over to the east side of the dam, and then head north of Greenriven to the Western Kessian Basin, then turn east from there to pass through Wolfenwood. This will bring you to the northern side of the Central Farrock Range, where you'll find the town of Everdale. There are sidequests on each map that you can pick up on the way, and you'll have several choices of how to get inside the guarded city walls of Port Kuudad after you reach the Central Farrock Range...

Eschalon II Pacifist Run - The Southern Kessian Basin & Central Farrock Range (south side)

Traveling to this map is optional early on, but it's where you'll need to go if you want to solve "A Letter From Wendy" and/or "A Den of Dragonels." (See the section on EASTWILLOW / YOMARIVERVALLEY for details on how to initiate the quests.) Inside the house in the northeast, you'll also eventually be able to solve a riddle in order to find a book that will grant you access to the underground levels of Lockston Hall in Port Kuudad, where you can eventually gain a huge amount of nonviolent experience points after performing some more challenging but nonviolent several tasks. (See details below.)
If you're arriving at a low level, you're likely to have to do a lot of running around being chased by Dragonel swarms and brutish outlanders, who will all try to kill you on sight. (On that note, if two groups of pursuing foes lose sight of you, they may also turn on each other and start fighting, unless you use stealth so they never end up trespassing on each other's turf.)

A mage casting the Sparkling Wonder spell to cause hostile brigands to temporarily retreat.

"A Den of Dragonels"
If you want to aid farmer Anwick with the Dragonel infestation that destroyed his sheep, you can find the hive in a grove of trees in the northwest part of the map. It's possible to blow up the nest without killing any dragonels, but is very time consuming at a low level with only a modest firedart spell.

Carrying at least one powder keg out to the nest would make the process a lot easier, but more dragonels will periodically drop out of the nest as you whittle away at it, which means you'd have to run around avoiding them if you're going for zero kills. Coming back later with spells or potions like haste and/or invisibility would make this process easier, and the more mana points and perception you have, the less tedious it will be (since you won't have to run off to rest as often).

If you blow up the hive, you can then look inside it to take a chunk of it with you to take back to the Yoma River Valley and give to Anwick, who will reward you with 100 gold and 250 experience points. (He'll also let you keep the chunk of the dragonel hive, after he sees it as proof.)

Solving "A Letter From Wendy":
The house of Ruel (Wendy's brother) is in the woods in the northeastern part of this map. The outlanders also have a camp in the eastern part of the map at the edge of a crescent-shaped grove southeast of Ruel's house, which you can loot and then run away from if you're up for the run-around, or deal with more easily later with more spells or improved stealth skills.

 Inside Ruel's house you'll make the grim discovery of Ruel's body, and find Wendy's letter there too.
To solve Wendy's quest, you'll have to return to her house in Eastwillow and deliver the bad news about her brother's death, but you'll receive 300 xp for your efforts.

The Bronze Riddle & Secret Room
There is another dark but intriguing twist to this story, however: Inside Ruel's house in the rear room, you'll find an inactive teleportation pentacle with a plaque above it, inscribed with a riddle involving bronze. The way to solve it is to return and fully equip yourself with bronze gear (e.g. a bronze helmet, armor, gauntlets, leggings, and even bronze boots) and step onto the teleport. (Since merchant stock varies, you'll probably have to keep an eye out and come back here after checking quite a few blacksmith/armorer shops in various towns to find one of each type of bronze armor.) When you step onto the plate, it will teleport you into the interior chamber with no door, where you'll find two treasure chests, one of them containing several hundred gold coins and a book called "The Orakur: Of Fact & Fiction."

 There are two things you can do with the book: One is to take it back to Wendy to show it to her, but this will result in her becoming hostile after telling you that "The One" does not want the book to exist. (Unfortunately, it seems Wendy is another one of "The One's" victims, like Julian lurking down the Old Covenant Well.) The only benefit of doing this is to find out that "The One" wants to repress information concerning the Orakur.
However, you can avoid Wendy's hostility altogether and instead just take the book all the way to Port Kuudad's Lockston Hall, where you can give it to Saint Gilhelm. Saint Gilhelm will then ask you to take the book to the desk of the Hall's mythology scholar, ultimately earning 1,250 experience points for this.

Bringing Ruel's book to Saint Gilhelm at the Lockston Academy in Port Kuudad

With access to the Halls, you'll also be able to find a belltree where you can hang four mysterious bells that you'll find in four of the most formidable "dungeons" in Eschalon Book II. However, you'll never have to kill anything to claim all four, and when you bring them all back to the belltree, you'll receive a huge reward of 30,000 experience points. (See the PORT KUUDAD section for other details.)

The Central Farrock Range & The Farrock Monolith 
Since you'll have to travel back to the Southern Kessian Basin to return to Ruel's House to eventually solve the bronze riddle, it's probably a good idea to make a short trip to a monolith that will enable you to quick-travel back to a nearby place: To do this, head northeast a fairly short distance past the forest and travel north to the Central Farrock Range.

The Farrock Monolith

Only a short distance to the north on that map, you'll find the Farrock Monolith, a standing stone in front of the mountains and Farrock Caves, which you can examine to add it to your Quick Travel menu.

The Farrock Caves (South Entrance)
You don't have to brave the caves if you're not ready, but using the Monolith will also enable you to travel quickly back to the southern cave mouth. (See FARROCK CAVES for other details).

Entrance to the Farrock Caves from the southern side of the range.

 If you enter the caves, you'll find an electrical barrier that you can disarm by throwing an object (like a rock) through the barrier to hit the switch on the other side.

This lever beyond the electrical trap can be thrown by throwing a rock or casting Firedart.

You can also open up a gate further north that can only be opened from the south side, but will let you get to the north entrance near Everdale (covered in a later section).

This gate connecting the tunnels to the southern and northern cave entrances can only be opened from the south side.

There is also an evil blacksmith named Jawbreaker with a lair in the caves, from whom you could choose to steal some treasure if you have enough stealth skills and spells to keep him at bay.)

Lair of Jawbreaker the Blacksmith in the Farrock Caves

There are several more options things you can also do on the southern side of the Farrock Range also, besides entering the caves:
If you were up for hauling a large number of powder kegs to this area, there is a secret chest you could find behind a blocked but easily visible rocky chasm along the central/western mountainside. Hauling 4-5 black powder kegs back here is a bit of a chore, but if you do it you'll be able to blow through the rocks to a chest with a stash of fifteen throwing weapons called "Doom Stars."

These Doom Stars probably don't have very practical pacifist run applications, but you can still sell them all to any blacksmith shop for some gold. (They're worth 50 gold each, so if you waited until your Mercantile skill was high enough to sell them for full value, they'd be worth around 750 gold.)

Also optionally, if you exited the map to the east of the Monolith, you'd find an abandoned house full of Outlanders, with several chests you could raid after using your choice of the usual pacifist run tactics of stealth, invisibility, haste, nonlethal spells, etc. (You'd also notice a river flowing out of the Farrock range here, but the only way we remember to get to the other side is by making a long trip through the Farrock Caves. See the other section on the FARROCK CAVES if you want to try it early.)

Eschalon II Pacifist Run - The Old Convent Well (beneath Eastwillow)

The austere stone church on the north end of Eastwillow (adjoining the cemetery) is known as The Virtuous Covenant of Mosan, and if you speak with Father Tyrus inside, you'll  receive a quest to track down his missing disciple Julian.

Unfortunately, Tyrus is convinced that doing the bidding of Mosan will require you to kill Julian, who he claims went insane and started preaching heresy before disappearing down the Well. We don't know of any nonviolent solutions to this quest. However, you'll find Julian lurking in the underground complex down the Old Convent Well, outside the church near the cemetery...

If you want to hunt for treasures, open locks for a little bit of nonviolent experience, and generally explore the atmospheric surroundings, you can enter the Old Covenant Well at any time. (You'd also have the option to step into a grey area by "indirectly" causing Julian to perish, but this isn't necessary, since he'll otherwise just stay lurking down here for the entire game without hurting anyone if you leave him alone.)

Clicking on the well will let you descend a rickety ladder into the underground complex.

There are some level 4 locks in the complex also, so you may only want to enter with decent lock picking skills and/or the Lock Melt spell. The Sparkling Wonder spell is recommended for mages, because the place is swarming with Catacomb rats who can easily pen you in a corner and kill you if you're not careful, and can also be a nuisance as they keep getting in your way in narrow hallways. You'll find some gates that will let you enter the complex, controlled by levers (and will have to be careful not to accidentally kill a rat when closing a portcullis).

There is also one room with pressure plates where the only way to get through the door at the other end is to make sure no catacomb rats hop onto the plates. In all cases: Casting the harmless Sparkling Wonder spell will solve the problem by sending the rats hopping away in fear (though some equivalent like the Entangle spell for Diviners would probably also work).

After circling around the complex and opening gates (including dealing with the cage room where the rats need to be kept off the pressure plates), you'll find Julian's lair in the southwestern corner of the complex. Unfortunately, Julian won't be friendly, and after talking for awhile about an extra-dimensional entity called "The One" (who Julian claims is coming to cleanse the world with a fiery doom), he'll become hostile and attack you. If you want to get some treasures from behind Julian's lair, you can sneak or run past him (or cast Sparkling Wonder on him if he already attacked you) and find a chest in the room southwest of his room.

Up the north passage past Julian's lair, the complex will gave way to caves of natural rock, and at the end of the rat-infested western tunnel you'll find a wall that can be blown up with a keg of black powder that is sitting next to it. You can shoot the keg with the firedart spell to blow it up, or throw projectiles at it. (Just make sure to scare away or entangle nearby rats first, so you don't blow them up by mistake.) You'll find another treasure chest on the other side. If you return and take the east passage leading up, it will return you back to the gates nearer the entrance, so you can leave.
One last remark: One of the items you can find on the table in the room in the far southeast is a Quill & Inkwell, which isn't worth much, but happens to be something to hold on to for a quest later on in Port Kuudad. (You can get more of these elsewhere, however, and find them randomly in stock at Inns with shops in most towns.)