The city of Quidnar is found southwest of Cathalon, built on a large island in the middle of the River Gon. It's a central point of defense against the orc invaders, whose siege camps are found directly on the other side of the river.
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| Quidnar seen across the river in the distance... |
However, the human defenders are still holding them off valiantly for now, and you can enter the city freely to engage in yet another series of nonviolent subquests for experience, gold, and other rewards.
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| Outside the Southern Gate of the city of Quidnar |
There are also two army camps both East and West of Quidnar that both have some more nonviolent quests you can accomplish. (See previous section on the Eastern and Western Camps.)
On a side note: If you've initiated the quests to find the Relic Frame and elemental stones, you'll find Gandohar waiting for you north of the city. However, make sure he never sees you wearing the Orc Camouflage armor, since he started trying to kill us when he saw our hero wearing it, and he wouldn't stop even after we took it off. (A tip from other players is that you can stop some NPCs from trying to kill you if you teleport away and then back again by dropping a teleport stone, but we didn't test that.)
If you don't have the orc camouflage armor yet, see CATHALON for how to obtain it, but you won't need it for any quests in Quidnar...
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| Inside the city of Quidnar... |
Argos Moraios: "Find Necromancers"
Shortly after entering the city through the North gate, you'll notice a turnoff from the main street leading to a gateway to a teleporter and mage quarter, with an armored man outside named Argos Moraios. Moraios is a Society Inquisitor on the hunt for necromancers, who he indicates will be severely punished if they're discovered and caught. He asks you to keep a lookout for these necromantic men in black and report back to him if you find any.
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| Argos Moraios, alleged Inquisitor |
This sounds like it would spell certain doom for the necromancers, but there's a twist here that makes the quest "pacifist-friendly": You can find a full-fledged contraband-dealing necromancer a very short distance away on a sidestreet, but tattling on him by telling Moraios about it won't ever actually get him in any trouble at all.
Before visiting that necromancer, however, you might first continue past Moraios into the Mage quarter to talk with the Society Mage Seloth Brotun, in case you can complete two quests at once:
Seloth Brotun: "Find a Necromancer's Spell"
Seloth Brotun is an avid young mage who is researching necromancy for the Society, and wants your help first bringing him a necromancer's spell card, after which he'll also give you a quest to bring him a senior' necromancer's staff.
As for completing both quests above at the same time:
A very short distance down the western side street past Moraios' current stomping ground, you'll find a necromancer standing around in broad daylight, peddling his wares with a very savvy-sounding sales pitch.
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| An enthusiastic necromantic merchant offers his wares a short distance down the street, in broad daylight... |
Whether he has the summon skeleton spell Brotun wants depends partly on luck, since every merchant's stock (including mages and thieves) is randomly generated from day-to-day, but you don't need to worry about him disappearing if he doesn't have the spell in stock the first time you talk to him: Even if you go back and tell Argos Moraios, he'll claim that they'll deal with him and reward you with experience, gold, and increased reputation with the Society, but they'll never actually get around to doing anything (at least not in our version of the game).
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| Receiving a level up for informing on the necromancers |
As for Brotun: You can complete each of his first two quests to gain nonviolent experience, gold, and higher reputation with the Society each time. However, after bringing Brotun the senior necromancer's staff, you'll learn shortly afterward from Inquisitor Origen Ormaios that Brotun's interest in necromancy got the better of him, and he's rebelled from the Society to go become a necromancer himself. The Inquisitors will then give you a quest ("Hunt Down the Mage-Turned-Necromancer") to go slay Brotun at that point, but you can just ignore it and let him live.
There don't seem to be any further pacifist run benefits to be gained at that point, since Brotun will also attack you if you talk to him. Fortunately for him, though, the Inquisitors aren't any more vigilant about hunting him down than they were with the necromancer who is still peddling his "fifth school" wares right down the street from them, and they will let Brotun lurk quietly in the cemetery perpetually if you just leave him alone.
THE GIRIZA HEADQUARTERS
If you've gained some reputation with the Giriza (which we recommended doing by helping Stork and Keshi Lono outside the Thabarkin Crossroads Inn in the Thabarkin and Excavations sections), then the guard outside the Giriza Headquarters will let you inside their building.
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| The guard outside the Giriza guild building will let you in if you've gained enough reputation with the Giriza |
Guild leader Aki Hosuno and a thief named Sling are both in here and will just offer you useless quests to try to get you to go kill someone, but the third man Zatagi has another optional mission for you:
Zatagi: "The Breach"
If you're on the quest to deliver either of the first two packages of Merchant Guild documents, you can show them to a thief named Zatagi here, after having a conversation with him about problems facing the thieves' guild.
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| Zatagi complains of the lack of loyalty among the members of the Thieves' Guild |
Note: The way we interpreted the plot twists here in retrospect after completing the Merchant missions, the Merchant Guild man you meet in Ashos later on seems to indicate that the Merchants never actually included any genuinely compromising information in the documents, since they expected you to turn the packages into the Giriza from the start, and were actually just testing you.
Whether that interpretation is accurate or not, though: The practical outcome is that you can show Zatagi the documents without losing reputation with the Merchants, and still turn the packages into the Merchant Guilds for the full rewards of gold and experience.
Redistributing Giriza Assets:
This isn't the name of a quest, but in case you're looking for some more optional fun and profit here: If you've already helped Stork, Keshi Lono, Zatagi, and possibly Athos Keios (see below) we didn't have much more use for the Giriza:
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| The Giriza thieves' guild leader Aki Hosuno attempts to engage the protagonist in yet another assassination quest, this time targeting Talor Ravinard, leader of our friends and allies The Merchants Guild... |
The rest of the Giriza members or affiliates (such as Guild Leader Aki Hosuno, Sling, smuggler Tidar Shog, Trados Prophiter, etc) all just seem to want you to go kill someone for them, or harm others in some other objectionable way, such as stealing from the innocent, or betraying the city of Cathalon to the orcs...
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| Successfully picking the pocket of Giriza Thieves' Guild leader Aki Hosuno for 10 gold pieces and a large ruby... |
Since we didn't want to take them up on any of their assassination offers, we consequently decided to go ahead and have our hero valiantly pick the pockets of Aki Hosuno, Zatagi and Sling at this point, and then cast earth chains on all three of them to stop them from trying to kill us while we peacefully looted their thieves' guild treasure boxes and cabinets.
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| Using the Earth Chains spell to immobilize the murderous Giriza henchmen |
We than ran out the door to get away with the treasure, and this same trio chased us down the public street a little ways with their weapons drawn. However, the hero's superior running speed made it easy to get away until they all gave up the chase, and jogged back into their building to avoid conflict with the city guards.
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| The three Giriza heavies chase us into the streets, but abandon pursuit shortly afterward... |
Caveat: We didn't check if doing all the above permanently destroys your reputation with the Giriza or not, but if it does, there's at least one more Giriza-related quest you might want to try for a bit more gold and experience first:
The Dispute Between Athos Keios and Stelios Lomaios:
These two amusing characters are located in southern Quidnar, and are in a feud because Keios used the lockpicks that Lomaios sold to him to burgle the latter's house and steal a family heirloom.
Keios will consequently give you a quest to sell him five lockpocks, which you can do for some rewards right away, if memory serves.
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| Rewards of gold and experience points received for supplying Athos Keios with lockpicks. |
Then you can talk to Stelios Lomaios, who wants to get his heirloom back. Lomaios is very vociferous about his outrage over the theft, despite the fact that he's actively seeking ties to the Giriza himself through his family, and was Keios' former supplier of lockpicks...
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| Stelios Lomaios |
He'll offer a reward for returning the heirloom Keios stole from his house. However, if you ask Athos Keios to give you the stolen heirloom after this, the thief will become hostile to you and attack you, so we're not sure there's any way to get the heirloom from him without killing him— which we obviously didn't try. Just for good measure, we did successfully pick his pocket before turning him hostile, but it only yielded some gold, potions, and (fittingly) some lockpicks.
THE MERCHANTS GUILD
"The Arrangement" (solution)
and
Garrid Swan: "Another Strange Delivery"
Whether or not you decide to bother visiting the Giriza, you'll be able to complete the mission "The Arrangement" (given by Samon Veller at the Cathalon Merchant Guild) by visiting the Merchant Guild Hall here in Quidnar, and talking to Garrid Swan. He'll accept the package, reward you with reputation, gold, and experience points, and then give you yet another document delivery mission to take updated documents to Takashi Misuke in the southwestern coastal city of Ashos.
Takis Royo: "A Dead Wife"
This quest isn't quite as morbid as it sounded to us at first: Speaking with Takis Royo at his house in northwestern Quidnar will reveal that he's plagued by the ghost of his wife...
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| Approaching the house of Takis Royo and the ghost of his deceased wife... |
Apparently the good woman had made him promise to bury her with her favorite necklace when she was still alive, but he parsimoniously decided to break his promise and keep it for himself, mistakenly assuming that it wouldn't make any difference. Royo claims his wife was a dreadful nag while alive, but that she is even worse now that she haunts his sleep, continuously demanding the necklace. He will consequently engage you to take the necklace back to her gravestone in the hope that it will set her spirit at peace, so she will finally leave him alone.
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| A sleep deprived Takis Royo speaks of his ghost wife... |
Takis doesn't want to do this task himself because he's afraid of the undead that now haunt the cemetery. However, you'll find this a fairly simple task since you can easily run away from any undead with or without the freezing wave or earth chains spells, which would make it even easier: Just take the necklace to the gravestones, and you'll soon find the wife's grave and have the necklace automatically removed as your questbook updates, and then you can return to Takis Royo for some experience points and gold.
Yan Tadeios: "Smuggle in the Poison"
North of Takis Royo's house in northwestern Quidnar, you will find the dwelling of a civic interventionist named Yan Tadeios. Speaking with him will launch yet another series of amusing optional side quests that aren't as bad as the first one sounds, though you can obviously let your own conscience be your guide about whether to get involved...
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| Yan Tadeios |
Yan Tadeios and his associates are of the opinion that the occupying military general General Panas Lumios is an abusive tyrant, and that Lumios and his soldiers aren't doing Quidnar a bit of good by staying inside the city and bullying the citizens. Tadeios and his associates (including the general's household servant) have consequently hatched a plan to slip the general a dose of nonlethal poison, which they claim won't kill him, but will cause him to become ill and leave the city.
We saved our game here so we could reverse any darker plot twists if the general (or the entire city) ended up perishing as a result of our involvement in these dubious tasks. But as far as we know, Tadeios and company are telling the truth, and the poison won't kill the general, nor will his taking sick leave cause Quidnar to fall to the orcish invaders...
If you decide to go through with it, you can find the General's house in central/southeastern Quidnar northwest of the military training square, but you'll be stopped at the doors by the General's assistant Stelios Tarm, who will state that the General only speaks with people of high prestige, or with military heroes.
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| Stelios Tarm |
You won't have to join the army to solve this problem, however, as there is a gregarious but somewhat cynical veteran named Nikias Chroes a short distance away at the training square...
The old veteran Chroes apparently once took on a platoon of orcs single-handedly in his glory days and has been awarded an array of medals for this and other martial triumphs, but he himself seems to think very little of these deeds, and is willing to sell you one of his many medals for the low price of only 100 gold pieces.
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| Nikias Chroes |
After listening to some colorful remarks from Chroes, you can return to Stelios Tarm and have the protagonist claim that the medal is his own.
Tarm will express a certain amount of skepticism, but after hesitation, will still grudgingly allow you inside to speak with General Panas Lumios.
At this point you'd theoretically have the option of either squealing on Tadeios and his cohorts by telling the general about the scheme, or of handing over the nonlethal poison to the servant inside (who looks like Fariel the astronomer). We're not sure what happens if you do the former, but the latter will reward you with some dubiously-earned experience points that nonetheless won't result in anyone dying.
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| Giving the non-lethal poison to the servant inside the General's Chamber complete the quest, though you may also now enjoy the honor of chatting with the General, having bought your way in with one of Chroes' medals... |
One more Quidnar quest that we skipped:
There is a man near the northern sidestreets (on the way to the necromantic merchant) named Yan Radeios who will ask you for help evicting some bandits form his cellars. We would have been happy to help him, but the only way we know of to get rid of the bandits would be to kill them off. (We consequently stuck to the purist "minimum violence" path and skipped this one, but if you have the Resurrection spell, one other option for the non-purist might be to smite the bandits and then immediately resurrect them again afterward, bringing them back to life crime-free, and then go claim a reward of some gold and experience from Yan Radeios.)
