Classic Games Revisited
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands Walkthrough
13. Fields of Draj
If you took the sewer exit at 17, you will start at 1 in the fields, otherwise you’ll be at 2. There are some guards hanging around and I am in a murderous mood. Head over to 3 and the guards will warn you to stay away. If you don’t back off, they will attack. Buffs are not strictly necessary, but get into the habit of everybody being permanently Enlarged, and nearly everybody being Strengthened.
A very large part of the game from here on is entirely optional (as were quests in the slave pens and sewers). To be able to trigger the final War, you need to at least go to Teaquetzl to find out that you need to build alliances (and maybe get Llod’s Rod to reduce travel).
Then liberate Cedrilte by going into Undermountain to reach Lower Castle and do all the quests in Upper Castle to kill Tara, then convince Chaya to ally with Teaquetzl.
Finally, you also need to do all the quests for Gedron by getting the statue pieces for Wyrmias from Silt Sea South and Silt Sea North, then freeing the Captured Gladiators. The mayor will then be willing to join the alliance.
Return to Teaquetzl to be sent to Korbnor, where you’ll need to lay Cragg’s body in his coffin. You’ll need to traverse some maps along the way to reach the three villages, but what you do at each one is up to you. It goes without saying that this extremely truncated route will earn you the least XP and magical weapons.
Collect everything they drop; there’s a merchant nearby so we will be able to empty our bags in a bit. Notice the bone wall they are guarding? Attack it to open the way to the east (Wagon Train). You’ll have a little trouble positioning yourself to get the sword icon active, but it’s possible after a few tries. Or you can always try to shoot it with arrows. Opening the gate will cause three guards to spawn at 5 and they’ll start walking towards you.
Head to 4. You’ll either deal with the guards there first, or the ones arriving from 5. Take out both groups and loot all their stuff. Now make your way to 6 and speak to the serf. He gives no particularly useful information, but he sells fruits and will buy all the extra gear and gems we have been lugging around.
13.1. Shops
Depending on which games you’ve played before this one, you may notice a few peculiarities with merchants in this game. Firstly once you sell an item, it’s gone forever. It cannot be bought back. Remember to hold on to a few swords because mundane weapons can always break.
Secondly, there is no quick way to sell items. You have to pick them up one by one, drop them on the sell button and confirm the sale each time. Cumbersome, but we will eventually need the ceramics if we want to buy all available bracelets for our psionicist. We could, of course, resolve all our financial woes in one shot by selling the Chameleon Gloves, Dagolar’s Wand, Helm of Contemplation, and all +1 and +3 Arrows we’ve found. However, just from all the gems and mundane gear I already have over 10,500cp, which is enough to purchase the Ego Whip bracelet, so I will hoard the magical items because I’m clingy.
Speaking of arrows, when examining stacked items in the inventory, it shows the total value you will receive from the merchant for the full stack. However, the post-sale confirmation box will only show the value of a single item in the stack. Don’t worry, the merchant is not short-changing you. You’ll get the full amount once you confirm the sale.
You cannot sell quest items like the Hound Necklaces if you brought any, or the Staff of Parting.
I’m also selling all the green grapes (Bless), black grapes (Cure Blindness & Deafness), corn (Barkskin), and guavas (poisons you) I have in my inventory, and buying the solitary pear (Cure Light Wounds) he is selling. With over 12,800cp in my pocket, I’m not feeling so poor any longer.
13.2. Multiplying Items
If you want to print money (or just equip everyone better), you can abuse an exploit in the game to multiply expensive items like magical arrows or even wands and weapons.
You need to save your game, then drop a character (say Arcturus) who doesn’t have the items you want to multiply, then create a new character (mule) in that place. Transfer whatever you want (say Dagolar’s Dagger and all +3 arrows) to the mule and drop him. Now reload your game so that you will have all your original equipment and party again. Drop Arcturus once more, add the mule back and retrieve whatever you handed to him. Drop the mule, add Arcturus back and your party is restored, but with duplicates of everything you gave to the mule.
The multiplying factor comes from the effect of the first try. You will then have two of the same item to duplicate, then four, and so on. In cases of arrows, this number goes up significantly because you probably won’t be duplicating a single Arrow +3.
13.3. Old One Eye
Standing at 7 is Old One Eye. Go through all his dialogue (don’t be rude to him; listen to all his rambling), and eventually ask for help in leaving the fields. He’ll inform you of two ways to exit, one to the north and another to the east. We’ve already cleared the way to the east (the bone wall), so ask Old One Eye to distract the guards. He will start walking in a generally northerly direction towards 8. At all points, stay behind him. If you go ahead the guards will notice and attack you before he has a chance to distract them.
When Old One Eye goes up to speak to the guards, stay at the bend (i.e., don’t go along with him up to the guards). He’ll tell them of some mythical intruders they should intercept and they’ll start going west to investigate. Now go in and kill them. We could have killed them earlier, but One Eye is so happy to have been involved that he rewards us with a scroll of Armor (level 1). The map is now clear of enemies, but we will ignore One Eye’s warning about leaving quickly as we have one more thing to do here.
13.4. Fields of Draj Obelisk
In Shattered Lands, obelisks are used to teleport around a few regions once you’ve visited them, but they need to be activated first. One such obelisk is at 5, but we don’t yet have the gem to activate it.
Approach 9 and the serf there will want to speak to you. Talk to him, ask about his proposition and (maybe after another question or two if you wish) agree to take him with you. He’ll hand you the gem that we need to activate the obelisk. Notice the size and shape of the rock—we will find more of these later. Never sell them!
Go to 5, deposit the gem on the slot on the obelisk, then return to 8. Remember, turning animations off lets you zoom around the map. Wait for the serf to catch up with you at 8, then leave by the gate.