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5/15/2018

Two Worlds Pacifist Run - Cathalon

The sunny centrally located city of Cathalon is a great place to visit for a large number of nonviolent quests. If you're having any trouble with Two World pacifist run or want to upgrade your stealth or magic skills as fast as possible, this might be a good place to visit early on for a lot of easy experience points for a lot of level-ups with no combat required:
Approaching the city of Cathalon
Most of the quests involve no violence (nor any significant danger to yourself), and many are even classical "good deeds, though there are also a few in a grey area depending on a player's personal standards...
One of the best pacifist run assets you can acquire in Two Worlds is also obtainable in Cathalon via a series of subquests: The Orc Camouflage Armor, which you can obtain from a skilled armorer inside the city after jumping through a few minor legalistic hoops and forking over a substantial sum of gold to Creo the Armorer.
Sightseeing inside the city of Cathalon
Once you acquire it, the Orc Camouflage Armor will make you indistinguishable from a real orc as soon as you put it on: This is so effective that all hostile orcs will become friendly toward you as long as you're wearing the armor, allowing you to walk into some of the most hellish orc-infested  locations in the game and take any treasures you want without arousing hostility.

The Mages at the Ruins: Sygius Destrus & Amber:
Before actually entering the northern gates of Cathalon, you will probably notice some impressive stone ruins just to the northwest of the city, which are worth stopping by for at least one encounter:
The ruins outside Cathalon
Inside the ruins, you'll find Sygius Destrus and his bodyguard and associate Amber. Destrus is a specialist on the necromantic threat, but his mission isn't ideal for pacifist run quest purposes, since his quest "Public Enemy" would require you to go find and kill the Necromancer's leader "The Flame." Amber, however, will talk to you at length about the orcish deity Aziraal, the orcs themselves, and the orcish supernatural beliefs that provide partial motivation for their invasion of the North. This won't initiate a new quest, but as soon as this conversation is finished, you'll automatically receive more experience points and increased reputation with the Society of Mages.
Society Mage Amber, bodyguard of Sygius Destrust
(One caveat, however: After hearing Amber's lengthy discourse about the orcs, one might wonder how she'd react if you ended up approaching her later while wearing the Orc Camouflage armor. The answer: The moment she caught sight of the hero dressed up as a travelling orc, she and Destrus immediately took up combat stances, while Amber launched a powerful magic projectile that one-shotted the hero and sent him flying across the ruins in convulsions, obliging us to reload our most recent save game file.)
Once inside the city of Cathlon, you'll be able to seek out all the quests below.

Garondel & Fariel: Astrologer vs Astronomer:
The questbook titles here are "Against Astrology" and "True Astronomy"

Garondel the Astrologer: "Against Astrology" 
The first is given by the astrologer Garondel, who says that he hates his rival Fariel, an astronomer who ridicules him and his astrological arts at every turn. 
Garondel, Cathalonian Astrologer
He'll offer you a substantial sum of gold if you'll agree to take a magical spider figurine into Fariel's shop, in order to turn a summoned spider loose as a practical joke. The giant spider looks deadly but is actually no danger to Fariel, but if you don't want to get the summoned spider itself killed, you could avoid this quest. (However, we thought it was necessary to test it out "to see what would happen," due to our rigorous standard of professionalism and scientific curiosity.)
The giant spider evoked from the figurine accosts astrologer Fariel
After turning the spider loose, you can talk to Fariel right away to receive his quest, or return later. Either way: When you return to Garondel, he'll be pleased, but the protagonist will be upset with him since he claims Garondel should have told him the spider was dangerous to himself as well. Garondel will say that he "thought it was obvious," and tell you to "take your gold and be quiet," after which he will hand over the promised sum of gold as payment for the mission. 
Garondel furnishes payment for your services after brushing off complaints.
Fariel the Astronomer: "True Astronomy"
If you talk to Fariel the Astronomer (before or after optionally turning the magic spider loose in his shop,), he will open the dialogue with some polemics against astrology, and then complain that he needs a diamond to create a new lens for his astronomical telescope. 
Fariel, Cathalonian Astronomer
If you don't already have a diamond, you'll find one on the ground in a cave inside the Cathalonian dungeons, which are haunted by skeletons, but otherwise readily accessible as soon as you find the entrance deeper into the city. Giving a diamond to Fariel will reward you with gold and experience, and he'll be very grateful, saying his new lens is even better than the last. 
Fariel rewards the hero for providing him with a diamond to make a new telescope lens
The Cathalonian Merchants Guild
If you've already received the quest to deliver a merchant guild package from the Thabarkin Guild's Ion Furvo, you'll deliver this to Samon Veller here to complete the quest "Earning Trust," which will reward you with more reputation with the Merchants, and more gold and experience.
Talking to Veller again will give you a second quest to deliver another package of updated documents to Garrid Swan in the Guild headquarters in Quidnar.
(See the separate MERCHANT GUILD section for the complete sequence.)
Receiving rewards of gold, experience, and reputation with the merchants guild
Brokat: "The Artist"
Brokat is a painter who is greatly desirous of obtaining saffron flowers in order to create a golden pigment for a painting he's working on for the King. You can find Saffron growing in the wild in various places, so if you can find four of them, you can choose to sell them to Brokat to help him with this mission. 

Raul Dang: "Orc Catapults"
You'll meet a military man named Raul Dang here who will tell you about the orc invaders who stormed Hadeborg Castle, and tell you that they'd reward you if you could reclaim the catapult triggers that they fear the orcs are trying to study to learn how to build their own siege engines, which would make them an even more deadly menace.
Raul Dang speaks of the military intrigues against the invading orcs who sacked Hadeborg Castle...
To accomplish this on a pacifist run, the easiest and most entertaining approach to infiltrating the orc and ogre infested ruins of Hadeborg Castle is to purchase the Orc Camouflage Armor right here in Cathalon first. (Raul Dang will mention this at the end of your talk.)
Also note: Getting this quest will have caused another Giriza thief named Trados Prophiteer to appear outside Cathalon, and if you talk to him he will make an offer to buy the Catapult Triggers. However, his remarks indicate he probably intends to sell them to the orcs who are trying to destroy Cathalon and slaughter all its inhabitants, so we of course declined his offer.
The Cathalon military training square
At the far end of the military training square, there is also a fletcher named Nellor here who apologetically asks if you'll hunt some Dodo birds for him, since his wife has forbade him from doing this himself. Of course, we wouldn't help him with this, since we shared his wife's view that poaching these "sweet little birds" would be a deeply regrettable act. (According to other guides we read, though, it sounded like engaging in the poaching of the dodo birds would only yield a meager reward in any case.)

Creo the Armorer: The Orc Camouflage Armor
Creo is one of the most important people to talk to if you want to make your pacifist run in heavily orc-infested locations a lot easier later in the game: He is a specialist who has designed armor that makes its wearer indistinguishable from a real orc, which Cathalon's elite spies apparently use to gather intelligence.
Creo the Armorer, from whom you can receive the Orc Camouflage Armor (after a bit of finagling and making payouts to acquire assets normally reserved for soldiers only)
After the protagonist expresses an interest, Creo says he's willing to build you some of your own, but you'll need to get an authorization order to purchase the armor from the Seargant-at-Arms named Othis. Othis will sell you an authorization order for 2000 gold pieces, and Creo will charge 5000 gold for the armor itself.  (The price is well worth it, but you'll also get awarded with experience points multiple times throughout these exchanges as well.)
Sergeant-at-Arms Othis will patriotically sell you an authorization order for the Orc Camouflage Armor for 2000 gold
As Creo warns, you should not put the Orc armor on within sight of  most humans (particularly soldiers), since they'll mistake you for a real orc and become hostile in many cases. 
However, when you are ready to put on the armor, all orcs, groms, and some other interesting creatures (like Yatholen serpent people, for example) will become friendly toward you and let you walk straight into their lairs without hostility, even if you help yourself to the contents of their treasure chests. You can only put the armor on and take it off again once, but after you put it on you can leave it on for as long as you like.
(The most optimal time to use it would probably be prior to making the trip to both the orc-ifnested ruins of Hadeborg Castle and the dread orcish citadel of Gor Grammar, to claim the catapult triggers and Relic Fire Stone found in those locations.)
Receiving one of multiple rewards of experience points during each step of the subquest to acquire the Orc Camouflage armor
The Dras Family "Heritage"
These quests are some of the most rewarding, but saving your game several times along the way might be advisable, to avoid accidentally breaking the quests with the wrong dialogue choices:
The first person to talk to is River Dras, who will tell you about problems between himself and his brother Morio over their father's inheritance.
River Dras complains of his brother Morio's refusal to share their family inheritance...
River thinks his somewhat saturnine older brother Morio is cheating him out of his rightful share, and asks for your help in somehow getting his hands on the gold from their family inheritance.
Riding toward the estate of Morio Dras (who is inside the door on the right)
After travelling a short distance and talking with Morio in his house, he'll initially be out of sympathy with his brother's concerns. However, you'll be able to persuade him to let you try to help win back his wife Ayla, who has left him to go live with her sister, leaving him in a state of dismal misery. He will also give you a "beautiful flower" for this purpose, and ask you to deliver it to her.
Morio Dras relates his woes
Note: The beautiful flower that Morio Dras asks you to give to his wife to try to persuade her to come back won't serve the intended purpose in her case, but you can still help the Dras family in other ways. However, keeping the beautiful flower and then offering it to the supposedly hard-hearted widow Rose Primsey later on will make it possible to solve a different sub-quest (explained later). 
Approaching Thuya, sister of Dras' missing wife...
You can find Ayla and her sister's residence in another northern section of the city, and discover that Ayla's sister Thuya outside the house.
Fortunately for the sake of this quest, Thuya is so adamant to get her sister out of her house that she is willing to resort to somewhat extreme (but not violent) measures to get rid of her.
Thuya complains of Ayla and commissions the hero to acquire a love potion to make her return to her husband Morio...
Ayla clearly isn't aware of this, and seems to believe that she's turned her sister's "hovel" into a well-kept home thanks to her personal efforts. However, Thuya will offer you some gold to go and buy a love potion from a Cathalonian alchemist named Phyrrus Nox, so that Thuya can use it on Ayla to make her fall back in love with her estranged and heartbroken husband Morio, so that Ayla will go away and go back to live in her husband's house again instead of her own...
Ayla refuses Morio's gift of the "beautiful flower," making the love potion Mori's only hope...
Of course, you'll have to let your conscience be your guide here about whether to become part of Thuya's conspiracy to slip Ayla the love potion to make her fall back in love with her own husband... But if you decide to go through with the scheme, it's time to visit Phyrrus Nox:
The abode of the alchemist Phyrrus Nox
Nox is an amusing character currently doing booming business in love potions, and says that he isn't aware of any side effects, but asks you to let him know if you happen to find out about any... 
After purchasing the Love Potion from Nox, returning it to Thuya will result in her reimbursing you with a small bonus, and rewarding you with experience points.
Phyrrus Nox promotes the virtues and efficacy of his love potions...
Next, go back and talk to River Dras again, and tell him you've found out that Morio Dras allegedly talks a great deal in his sleep. This will give River the inspiration to go and eavesdrop on him to see if he divulges the location of where he's hoarded the family's gold. 
River Dras reacts to the proposal to eavesdrop on Morio to listen to him talking in his sleep
Next, talk to Morio again, and you'll learn two things at once: 
Morio relates that his brother River stole half his inheritance, and that he might have killed him for that, but that he's become too happy to consider such a thing now that his wife has returned to him.
He is extremely grateful for your role in this, and says with wonder that he feels as though she now truly loves him for the first time in their marriage...
Morio Dras states that he's so pleased with his wife's return that he is willing to forgive his brother for stealing the gold...
The protagonist will then offer to speak with River Dras to reunite the two brothers, and Morio thanks him, saying he's forgiven him and that the family should stick together.
Finally, you can return to River, who will be exultant over having successfully learned the location of the family hoard. After some haggling, River agrees to reward the hero with 5000 gold pieces for his rule in this redistribution of family assets. While initially skeptical since he just stole his brother's money, he is also pleased to hear that his brother is receptive to reuniting the family, and says he'll soon visit his brother to make the family whole again.
This concludes the Dras family affairs, but you can now take the "Beautiful Flower" to northern Cathalon to do more good deeds...

Gil Braver, Rose Primsey, and a new Home for Refugees:
You may already have met a kindly old man named Gil Braver on the streets of northern Cathalon, near Garondel's astrological parlour. Either way, talking to him will reveal that Cathalon has become overcrowded with refugees due to the orc invasions taking place outside, and that his own house is full of them. However, he is upset with a neighbor named Rose Primsey, since she refuses to take in any refugees in her own large residence.
Gil Braver expresses frustration with Rose Primsey, who refuses to aid the homeless refugees...
Rose won't initially be willing to reconsider her position if you talk to her, and won't clue you in about how to solve the problem, until you have the "beautiful flower" originally given to you by Morio Dras, who no longer needs it.
Rose won't be impressed by your arguments— until after you offer her the "beautiful flower" originally acquired from Morio Dras...
When you do have it, you'll be able to offer it to Primsey, making her much more receptive to some additional conversation. Then the protagonist will ask her about her dead husband, learn about her sadness due to their unfulfilled desire for a family, and ultimately persuade her to take in children orphaned by the war outside Cathalon's walls.
The protagonist reports success in persuading Rose Primsey to take in orphaned children
Achieving this will reward you with some experience right away, and then delivering the good news to Gil Braver will reward you with both gold and more experience.

The Fountain & Mage Square: 
You'll find a fountain and a number of mages here, as well as the archmage Lokar Maios. (See FOUR STONES section for details, but he is the man to see to solve the quest "I Am the Real One" involving the two Annon Mohas, in order to gain nonviolent experience points for preventing either of the two dopplegangers from destroying the other.)
Lokar Maios and others at the Cathalonian Fountain & Mage Square
On a more technical note: There is also a "soul patcher" who can regress your protagonist for 500 gold pieces multiple times, each time randomly un-allocating attribute and skill points so you can re-allocate them in any way you want. There is already a generous amount of experience and skill points available in Two Worlds from solving quests without having to do any fighting, but the soul-patchers make it even easier, since you can re-allocated your existing points if you change your mind about which skills to maximize at particular times.

"The Feeding of the Poor" 
If you're ready for still more good deeds, you'll find more opportunities when you visit the crowded market square and pick out a man named Drox Galor from among the crowds.
Drox Galor will tell you about the situation with the refugees and resulting food shortages at the market. He is also upset with a woman named Orna Porrey, who he claims is hoarding food that she doesn't even need.
Drox Gallor can be found here in the busy market square...
You can talk to Orna Porrey a short distance in a house south of here to see if you can wield charismatic power and influence, but she'll deny being a hoarder and insist she has no food, finally threatening to turn the dogs loose on you if you don't leave her house.
Orna Porrey declines to share any of her stockpiled food with the hungry refugees outside...
As far as we know, the only way to proceed from here is to go back to the market and find a woman named Saria Tolmok, who add a new twist to the story.
(Note: There are so many people at the market that finding the exact right people to talk to was a bit confusing in this quest, but we believe Saria Tolmok might only appear at the market after you talk with Drox and/or Orna Porrey first.)
Saria Tolmok has food to sell, but has been slandered by false rumors that her food is tainted by necromancy...
Saria Tolmok actually has lots of good food to sell at the market, but someone has spread a false rumor that her food is "tainted" with necromantic energy, so her stock is needlessly going to waste and ruining her business. If you offer her help, she'll give you a sample of her food which you can take to an inventor named Clavius, who lives just round a corner past Orney Porrey's house. 
The inventor Clavius
Clavius and the protagonist will come up with a scheme to leverage Clavius' good reputation as a clever inventor of devices, and introduce the public to an odd clicking contraption named the "Anti-Taint Inspection Device." The only problem is that this device won't really do anything to detect the presence of the taint at all, and is actually just a blind to convince the public that there's nothing wrong with Saria Tolmok's food...
Of course, this approach might have some significant ethical drawbacks in the event that the public ever trusted in the "Anti-Train Inspection Device" on any occasion when there actually was necromantic taint in future supplies of food— but since that's not written into the Two Worlds script, you won't have to worry about it: You can simply take the device back to Saria Tolmok to use to persuade the public that her food is free of the blight of the Taint, and she'll reward you with experience points for helping her.
The protagonist continues the scheme by telling Orna Porrey her hoarded food may be tainted as well...
Finally, this situation will have given the protagonist yet another clever idea: Go back and talk to Orna Porrey again, and the protagonist will now be given the chance to lie and tell her that some of her surplus food at the market was blighted with taint, after which Porrey will immediately hand over a big pack of food and try to get him to take it a way and dispose of it as fast as possible.
Orna Porrey eagerly accepts the hero's offer to take away the food...
You can then bring the big pack of food back to Drox Galor and be rewarded with gold and experience for your role in "The Feeding of the Poor."
Receiving gold and experience points for your deeds...

5/01/2018

Two Worlds Pacifist Run - King's Tomb & The Valley of Barrows

Following the two introductory quests from Mayor Gordar and/or Ran Hograd covered in the previous section on Winbreak Village, we now face a choice of paths, at least one of which will be needed to open King's Tomb: Hograd's Path vs Mayor Gordar's Path
Since the main storyline requires you to acquire all the relic earth stones, you'll eventually have to unlock the ancient King's Tomb in the Valley of Barrows, in order to retrieve the Relic Earth Stone found within the tombs. Neither the front gates or the rear gates can be opened with lockpicks or alternative means, other than by completing one of the two (or both) quest paths listed below, both available from Four Stones Village.
King's Tomb in the Valley of Barrows...
Unfortunately both of these paths involve fairly rare cases where even pacifist run players of Two Worlds will be obliged to indirectly cause a few imbroglios (even if no direct fighting is required). However, anyone who gets the level 15 Air spell Resurrection can choose to bring anything that gets bumped off back to life again as usual (or at least "back to undeath," in the ghouls' case). We tested both possibilities in our runs, and they both worked, so let your conscience be your guide when choosing to cause trouble for either the orc invaders, or for a gaggle of tainted undead lurching about the local cemetery...

Ran Hograd's path:
As we saw in the previous section, Hograd will engage you to find out what happened to his missing regiment that was transporting the orc commander White Head to Cathalon as a prisoner, and you discover the caravan destroyed in the woods with no trace of White Head.
The next quest: "The Orcs' Camp" 
After you tell Hograd the bad news about the caravan, he'll say he's heard word of an orc war camp somewhere north of the village, and ask you to go slay the orcs, and also to see if White Head is among them. If you choose Hograd's path, you'll find the orcs in the northwest, and  can try the usual array of indirect tactics like casting Chaos Rage to make the orcs fight each other, or using summoning spells, among other methods. 
Orc invaders vet their aggression on each other, rather than the nearby villagers, thanks to the 'Chaos Rage' spell...
Note that if you arrive wearing the Orc Camouflage armor (see Cathalon section for details on how to acquire it), the orcs will accept you as one of your own until if and when you commit some offense...
Fireside leisure activity with orcs, made possible by the Cathalonian armorer's 'Orc Camouflage Armor'
If you opt for the interventionist approach, resurrecting any fallen orcs to fight on your side will also speed up the process (unless you want to wait until every hostile orc is dead first, so that you can resurrect 100% of them afterward and make the death toll come out a wash, without a single orc being forced to permanently shuffle off the mortal coil). 
In sum: You don't have to get rid of them all to trigger the end of the quest, and you won't have to kill a single one yourself, but it's still a bit of a mess for those who prefer the path of complete non-violence. (Giving this path a miss and choosing Mayor Gordar's path is an option that's quite a bit quicker and easier.)
If you see this episode through to conclusion, however, you can go back to Hograd again, tell him White Head wasn't at the camp, and then get the quest sequence you need to open up the tombs: 
"White Head" 
"White Head's Hideout"
"White Head's Message"
Hograd will tell you that he has news that White Head has been spotted with his band of orc goons in the Valley of Barrows, and will ask you to go kill him, expressing his regret that he didn't get the chance to face him head-to-head himself. This time there's good news for both of you: When you find White Head, he won't attack you, but will instead ask you to become a messenger so he and Hograd can set up a head-to-head duel.
If you snuck into the caves making up a rear hidden entrance to King's Tomb in the Valley of Barrows, you will have encountered a big pack of savage orcs in the caves, but not White Head. After you talk to Hograd to get this quest, however, White Head will be there:
When you go find White Head, he'll bluster for awhile in human language, revealing that he and his goons are burrowing into the tombs to steal gold and gems. However, he won't attack you after he finds out about Hograd, and will  ultimately end up asking you to go relay a message to ask Hograd to meet him for a head-to-head duel. 
Hograd will be very pleased to accept this, and will send you back to White Head to announce his acceptance. When you do this, you'll be compensated for all the time you've spent listening to White Head by an impressive reward of nonviolent experience points, after which you can sneak back to the rear entrance in the caves and finally enter King's Tomb to go and claim the Relic Earth Stone.
(As far as we know there's no way to find out what happened in the duel between Hograd and White Head.)
The only way to unlock this gate, even if you sneak past the orcs, is to complete White Head's quests...
If you don't want to deal with any of this, you can consider choosing Mayor Gordar's path instead: 

Mayor Gordar's path: 
Mayor Gordar (after completing "An Ogre in the Windmill") will next give the quest: "Taint in the Graveyard," asking you to go to the nearby graveyard and destroy a gaggle of undead that have risen there. If you don't do either this or Hograd's quest, you can't get Gordar to give you the key to the King's Tomb, since he'll never offer you his third quest unless you do this one first. However, Mayor Gordar's path is easier than Hograd's, since you only have to get rid of some undead, rather than an entire war camp full of bloodthirsty orcs...
The fastest direct approach would be to cast the destroy undead spell on the ghouls, but you can also opt to cast Chaos Rage to make the ghouls attack each other, and optionally resurrect any fallen undead to make them get up and fight on your side. (We also tried to get the undead to follow us out of the graveyard toward the bandit camp to see what would happen, but the undead were too lazy to follow us, and kept turning around to go back to the cemetery.)
(Note: One thing we didn't test was to find out if it was possible to trigger the quest reward without actually dispatching the undead, by just running in and out of the cemetery. Later on we discovered that this unlikely method did actually work in places like Earth Claw Tower and the Drakkar Desert, so it might be worth trying here too...)
Either way, once the undead are dealt with, you'll receive a skill point immediately, and then you can go back to the Mayor for some gold, and (more importantly) to receive the next quest:
Mayor Gordar's key quest: "Satrius' Crown"
At this point, Gordar reveals something very interesting: According to his story, he was "given" a key to King Satrius' tomb as a reward for supposedly aiding the royal family, but necessity has now inspired him to make an exodus from the region. To do this, he proposes that you join forces, and that you go alone and use his key to enter the tomb, and steal the dead King Satrius's golden crown in order to raise funds. 
This is one of the two possible ways to enable you to enter King's Tomb and claim the Relic Earth Stone. (If you do it this way, you'll be able to get in without the violent fiasco at the orc camp, and also won't have to listen to White Head's blustering.) 
When you enter the tomb, you'll find the presence of undead in the darkness, and the relic earth stone radiating beams of light like something out of some old Germanic saga concerning magic treasures... However, while the earth stone is genuine, taking the crown off the king's barrow will reveal that it is not made of gold at all, but is apparently a "cheap imitation." 
When you return to Mayor Gordar with this bit of news, he'll be infuriated, accusing the Prince of substituting the imitation crown, and calling the royal personage a "little cheat" and a "worm," exclaiming "he has ruined my life!" 
Gordar will hopefully overcome this bitter disappointment in time, but either way:  You have now succeeded in claiming the Relic Earth Stone.