Classic Games Revisited
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands Walkthrough
9. The Sewers
Throughout the sewers, you can examine certain drains (marked X) to get random items. Many of them will be useless (like a skull or bottle), but sometimes you can get lucky. Sometimes an enemy will spawn when you do this, which is better than finding a useless item because at least it earns XP. Particular sewer drains that have static useful loot are marked with other letters. Some drains can be searched twice for items.
If you find a shell, now or at any point later, keep one. We’ll need it much later.
Doors in the sewers are operated by nearby wheels.
9.1. Churr and his Ratpack
As soon as you enter the sewers at 1, a Tari (rat-like being) will demand that you pay half your money as a toll. Refuse to pay then threaten him with death, and he will back down. In fact, this will earn the respect of Churr, their leader. If you cower and agree to pay, Churr will be disgusted at you and call guards from the city to attack you. You can ask the Tari a few more questions if you like to get some information about the sewers.
For speedrunners: everything in the sewers and back in the pens is optional. You can directly jump to Escape from the Sewers to carry on.
The grate at 1 will take you back to the slave pens. Do not go into it yet, or you will get immediately attacked by almost everyone left alive in the slave pens. We will do that after Dubhe has completed his dual-classes and maybe even after everyone has some better gear.
Go to 2 and Churr will initiate dialogue with you. Declare that you are a gladiator and he will want your help in wiping out the other inhabitants of the sewers. You can do this if you wish but Churr is a lowly thug and a bully, and I consider this to be a fairly evil act. Although my True Neutral party members should not have any qualms about picking one side over the other, I will not slaughter the Tari in the high warrens at the behest of Churr. Plus, I want XP for quests from the high warrens.
In fact, I will kill him and his followers right now. If you brought any sacks of grain from 25 in the slave pens, you can exchange them with Churr for 5cp each, or demand more in which case he offers some leather armor. After you are done dealing with him, you can try to examine the sewer drain at A. Churr will object but back down if you threaten him. You’ll find a fairly expensive ring inside. Searching it a second time usually yields some useless junk.
Attack Churr, and the three Tari around him as well as the three at 1 will go hostile. They are very easy to kill. Churr drops Leather Leg Armor, which I’m grateful for because so far I’ve only found one other leg armor (from Pehtucl). Killing Churr now means missing out on a dialogue where he admits to playing a role in the kidnapping of the high warren chief’s daughter and being afraid for his life.
The sewer drain at B conceals a scroll of Enlarge, which Arcturus will learn so that he can also cast 2x Enlarge.
9.2. Damsel in Distress
Approach the door at 3. It’s closed from the other side. A Tari guard will speak to you, wanting to know about your intentions. Say that you are a friend, that the city guard is hunting you, and that you escaped from the pits and he will open the door. He’ll offer to escort you to the chief, it doesn’t matter whether you accept or decline.
Enter the room at 4 and the chief will plead with you to rescue his daughter. On probing further, he will reveal that Churr had his daughter kidnapped. If Churr was alive, we could have confronted him with this information, but that would lead nowhere. Agreeing to help rescue the daughter earns everyone 500xp each.
You can rest at 5 if you wish. The wheel at 6 opens both gates to the north and south. All the Tari at 7 are loyal to king Tectuktitlay and the first one you approach will expect you to sing the king’s praises. You can do so, which will not make them hostile, but we will have to kill them later anyway in order to rescue the daughter. You can also ask to be taken to their leader, which will eventually result in combat over there. Might as well clean up now. Insult the king and kill the Tari. There are a couple of other Tari in the corridor; kill them too if they are not already hostile (any Tari you leave alive here will join the battle later). Finally, everyone in the party has leg armor.
Mikquetzl is behind door number 8. He will show off his insanity as you enter so once again I will insult the king to initiate combat. If you praise the king instead, he will eventually destroy the warrens and attack the party anyway. His four minions will join the fight.
Unlike chest armor, the bone versions of arm and leg armor aren’t better than the leather ones. Once you have enough leather pieces, you can sell the more pricey bone ones when you get an opportunity to do so.
Among other things on Mikquetzl’s body, you will find Chameleon Gloves, which are actually adorned as a weapon. It inflicts blindness or deafness on the target, which is good, but given the low base damage of 1D2, I will not be using it.
Pick up the Bone Crank from 9, which can be used to turn all the broken wheels on the map. One such broken wheel opens the door at 10. Take the chest at the foot of the bed. It contains a scroll of Color Spray, a gem, a Metal Long Sword, and a scroll that speaks of Dagolar. Note that metal equipment sells for a lot of ceramic pieces. I will use this sword though, as it does one point higher damage than the mundane swords I have been using so far, and does not break either. Keep in mind that you can only equip one heavy weapon at a time. The other hand must have a light weapon or shield (or nothing). It’s okay for either mage to learn Color Spray as it’s a level 1 spell. The scroll about Dagolar can be discarded.
Examine the bundled up Tari in the room and untie her. At the end of the conversation each party member gets 2,000xp. You’ll have to lead her back to 4 to reunite her with papa. Do not leave her lagging too far behind as that can get her caught in a bad position in an upcoming ambush. You can also rest up at 5 before reaching 4. The high warren chief’s troubles are not over yet.
Mikquetzl’s worshippers have launched an attack on the temple and you are to defend it. Agree to do so and the ambush will spawn to the west, northwest (around the campfire) and northeast (in the temple area). They’ve come in numbers but the guards will help you in this fight. Don’t use a Fireball if it can hit any of the high warren inhabitants. The daughter wants to get a piece of the action as well and can potentially die, so I try to kill the nearest Tari first so that she has a hard time reaching enemies.
Speak once more to the warren chief at 4. Whether you demand a reward or not he will give you a Helm of Contemplation. It imbues the wearer with Gaze Reflection, which is not very useful in this game. You can also ask him about leaving the sewers and he will tell you to speak to the elders. At the end of the conversation each party member gets 5,000xp.
9.3. The Temple
Open the door at 11 using the bone crank and speak to any of the skulls lying on the floor at the eastern end. If you left your bone crank behind earlier, you can ask the Tari for one.
You can speak to them about a number of mostly inconsequential things, but you must keep insisting about the Staff of Parting. Eventually the spirits will relent and allow you to take it. Searching the sewer drain at C before receiving this permission will cause everyone to go hostile. You can kill them all if you wish but I’ve already got enough XP out of the sewers.
You can take one of the bowls from the floor but it is not required. Using it will let you speak to the spirits again without having to return to the temple.
Having taken the Staff of Parting, head down to 12, use the bone crank to open the door, and take the chest from amid the rubble (we couldn’t get to this earlier without a bone crank). It contains yet another scroll about Dagolar and a couple of gems. We are done in the southern portion of the sewers, so you can discard the bone crank and scroll, and head north, starting at 13.
While in the northern region, Sligs and Tyrian Slimes will continuously spawn at irregular intervals. Although that can be a good farming opportunity, it is highly annoying because often monsters spawn at the opposite end of the water channel, requiring you to move while in combat mode (thereby restricted by your movement points), or to damage them with missiles and spells.
9.4. Escape Routes
Only a thief can climb the walls at 13, so if you don’t have multiple thieves, set your thief to be the party leader and walk towards the wall.
Getting a rope or grappling hook later in the game and returning here to climb the wall without a thief will do no good; neither works here.
The skeleton in the northwest corner has some random treasure (you can reload and look again if you don’t like what you get). The sewer drain at D has a very expensive gem and a random item. Watch out for the lone Red Slaad patrolling around. It is not an imposing enemy, but try not to get into battle on the narrow pathways otherwise some of your party members may not be able to reach it.
The sewer drain at E has an Axe +1, our second magical weapon (not counting the two-handed +1 Staff of Parting or Chameleon Gloves). The axe is a heavy weapon, so it will have to be paired with a light one. Searching the drain a second time can spawn a Tyrian Slime or a useless object. Approach either precipice at 13 with a thief to climb down.
The sewer drain at F conceals a trapped lever. A thief searching through it will usually be able to disarm the trap. Whoever pulls the lever gets 500xp. Dubhe has finally leveled up, learnt Haste, and can now equip whatever he wishes. Pulling the lever opens the path to 17, one of the exits from the sewers, but there’s still a bit to do around here.
Search the skeletons at 14 and 15 for some treasure. Wander over to 16 and use the power of the Staff of Parting (examine the staff and left-click on the human icon). Each party member will get 500xp for revealing the way to the Lower Tunnels where Dagolar is holed up. Return to 5 and rest if you are not fully healthy because we are about to clear the route through the other sewer exit at 18. This will be quite a large battle with a dozen guards who can potentially surround you. Try not to get hit much on your way back.
Either way, whenever you are ready head over to 18. Guards will spawn as you approach either exit. At first only four will appear, but more will spawn soon. Don’t bunch up at one side because the guards from the other side will come up behind you, and can shoot arrows if nobody is in their vicinity. Split your party to fight at both sides, or (not recommended because of the missile weapons) retreat to the choke point and let the guards come to you.
We now have a choice: whether to return to the slave pens, or go deep under the sewers to see what Dagolar is up to, or leave the sewers entirely. As Dubhe has leveled up and everyone has slightly better gear (+1 Axe, leg armor, Enlarge, Color Spray), I’m feeling a little more confident about taking on the entire brigade, so we’ll return to the slave pens. Rest up at 5 and return to the grate at 1 (turn Animations off to quickly traverse the map).
Exiting the sewers for the first time from any exit requires you to enter a copy-protection code. All but one code are taken from unique pages of the manual (i.e., you don’t need to bother with the line or word number), so I am only providing the page number and code. There are two codes taken from page 27, but you will know which one to use because both words begin with different letters.
3: honor, 4: slaver, 7: game, 9: choose, 10: humans, 12: box, 13: large, 15: power, 19: stronger, 21: class, 26: armor, 27: water, 27: share, 28: level, 29: every, 33: foes, 35: agile