Classic Games Revisited
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands Walkthrough
21. Elvish Caravan
You will be asked to identify yourself when you enter at 1. There are almost no hostiles in the area, so there is no harm in being truthful. You will be directed to the Wagon Master and Larissa. The latter is not important, but can give you some vague stories. Just like in Teaquetzl, I will only be pointing out pertinent people to speak to here.
21.1. Merchants
First, go to the patch of grass at 2 and walk up and down the patch a few times. You’ll hit upon a half-buried chest that has a bracelet of Graft Weapon, 100cp, a gem, and Cahulaks +1, which is a two-handed weapon that inflicts additional 1-8 damage. I prefer one-handed weapons.
Go to Kel, a merchant, in the wagon at 3, and sell any junk and valuables you may be carrying and don’t want. Then survey his goods. He sells a lime, which is not very useful. He also sells apples, which can be useful to have Ironskin. I will buy a few. The apple keeps being replenished in his inventory so if you have the money after all the purchases mentioned below, go for it. I’m buying four for the final battle (I could buy them when we return later, but I might forget).
Next, he has a scroll of Spirit Armor. This I will buy to expand my spell library. He also has a scroll of Web. It’s up to you whether you want to buy it or not. As mentioned earlier, I don’t like casting area-of-effect lingering disabling spells in this game.
I am also buying the Soulcrusher +1 axe. Although it is no different from our Axe +1, I can finally get rid of all the extra swords I have been carrying since everyone now has either magical or metal weapons.
The last two items I want from him are the gem for the obelisk (yes, we have to pay for this one), and the Talisman of Venom. The latter seems like a worthless item but we will use it very soon.
From what’s left in his inventory, apart from the fruits and Arrows +1, everything else is expensive useless junk. Don’t waste your ceramics on his clever marketing tactics.
Jark is another merchant at 4, but he sells only basic equipment.
21.2. Elvish Caravan Obelisk
Go place the gem you just purchased on the obelisk at 5.
Now go to the campfire at 6. Katura, Chahl’s daughter, will invite you over. Speak to her and go through all her dialogue. We are still continuing to set up the mini-quest all the way back from Teaquetzl. The pay-off will come much later. Katura will leave once the conversation ends.
You’ll need to return to the campfire multiple times to speak to several people. They don’t spawn after a specific time interval. You’ll usually have to leave the map and return later to check if anyone is waiting there. Good thing there is an obelisk here!
Rest up to refresh your spells from the last fight.
21.3. Ambush?
Tobrian at 7 is a wine merchant. He will want you to sample some of his wine. There are a few ways to go about this. You can decline the wine of course. You can accept the wine, in which case the party will be drugged and taken away to be enslaved. Sounds like fun. If you choose that route, you’ll wake up in the southwest of the Elven Slavers area near 8 without any equipment (all your equipment will be here in Tobrian’s wagon). You can attack them, wager on an arena fight, or surrender and be taken to the Salt Oasis. The wager leads to unarmed combat against four Daggorans (if you choose this option when we meet Seref later, at least you will be armed). The wager is to survive the daggorans for your freedom. That is, the slavers will leave peacefully, but leave you to your fate against the daggorans.
Another way to go about this is to survive being drugged (there’s a chance that could happen if your save vs. poison roll is successful) and confront Tobrian. Yet another way is to ensure that you will survive by equipping the Talisman of Venom on whoever speaks to him. This is what I will do. Don’t worry, we’ll confront our would-be slavers later.
Equip the talisman on the party leader, talk to Tobrian, and agree to sample his wine. Because you are wearing the talisman (or if you made the saving throw), you will have a dialogue option to accuse him of trying to poison you. Do that, and a few possibilities open up. You can threaten him, but that will not please the rest of the caravan. Instead, choose to let the wagon master decide his fate.
21.4. Drisana
Follow Tobrian to the wagon master, Drisana, at 8. Rather, just go there and wait for him to arrive. You can convince Drisana that Tobrian is a trickster by taking a specific dialogue path. First say that we came in good faith, agree to resolve this civilly, then tell the truth when giving your side of the story. Ask her what she will do about Tobrian and he will be fined 5,000cp, of which you will get 500cp as compensation. Tobrian will also be expelled from the caravan.
Although everyone calls her the Wagon Master, the game shows Drisana to be the Caravan Master.
Now speak to Drisana to get her first quest. To get the quest you have to ask how the caravan is faring, who is raiding the caravan, and finally about the magera and wyvern riders. It will strike her that we could help eliminate their troubles and wonder if you are willing. Agree, and she’ll ask which troubles you want to help with first. Choose the wyvern riders, because we need to go there first to get the Terror Bloom, which will be required for when we go after the magera. Agree to her price to seal the deal.
21.5. Tidzio
If you look over to the campfire at 6, there should be someone waiting there by now. Tidzio will invite you to join him for a bowl of stew. He’ll also reveal information about gems under lava domes. He’s headed southwest to the Ringing Mountains because he’s heard of treasure there. He’ll also warn you about Fire Elementals in the lava fields. That last bit of information is good to know, because elementals of all kinds require +2 weapons to hit (which is why we haven’t gone there yet).
Nothing important comes out of the conversation, but now that it’s out of the way, a new person can take his place later.
Sell the talisman, we have no further use for it. Leave the caravan area at 1 to return to the Elven Slavers area, and exit there via 7 to reach the Messenger Route.