Classic Games Revisited
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands Walkthrough
28. Undermountain
As you arrive at 1, you will be attacked by six screamer beetles. More may spawn later in different parts of the cave.
Undermountain is home to the First Mindhome, a Rebel Mindhome, an Outcast, and a colony of spiders in the north. The first mindhome wants peace with the spiders, the rebel mindhome wants them destroyed (agreeing to do this will earn you orange grapes—you can get these and not kill the spiders anyway), and the outcast wants to establish permanent trade between the mindhome and spiders. The spiders have power struggles of their own, not to mention some unknown spirit which has corrupted the region.
With all these varying outlooks and desires, there are a number of permutations possible to get different outcomes, all of them leading to a way into the castle. You could, of course, slaughter everything that moves and still get into the castle, but I will not describe every other scenario and outcome. I’ll only explain the route I take, which is to side with the Outcast, and then with Prince Clikk-tunk! to eliminate the malicious spirit as well as Queen Cheee-smak-tunk!
28.1. The Outcast
The skeletons at spots marked X can have some minor loot. There are campfires at spots marked 2 and 3. Anyone from the first mindhome around 2 can give you background information about what is going on and who these folk are. Anyone from the rebel mindhome to their west can give you a quest to eliminate all spiders, but we don’t want to do that, so head over to 3 after looting the skeletons and speak to the outcast.
If you are not aggressive, the outcast will ask you to help establish peace with the spiders, and give some information about the spiders’ woes, and its leaders. Suggest that you can help each other and then ask him to lead you to the cliff. When he catches up with you at 4, he’ll give you further directions and a Silk Rope. You can use the silk rope (but not the plant rope we made earlier) to climb the cliff, but a thief can scale the wall as well.
Churr-te-tunk! will demand to know what you are doing here; say the outcast sent you and promise to not hurt the spiders. He’ll give you a Silk Talisman that identifies you as a friend. It doesn’t need to be worn. You can ask him more about the troubles around here.
28.2. The Entity
Go to the brick wall at 5, avoiding the glowing red rune on the way, and attack it. The wall will bust open, but three red slaads will spawn to your south. Once they are dispatched of, take the four necklaces in the room (Nagi’s Talismans) and equip one on each party member. If you don’t, the curse will affect you too (the fungi to the east will hurt you).
Examining the northeast corner will reveal a message about Tara etched into the wall. The chest has a scroll of Melf’s Minute Meteors (level 3), a Golden Pendant (hang on to this), a non-magical ring, and Nagi’s journal. The journal gives some more backstory.
As you wind your way to the queen at 6, you will be first intercepted by a guard (say you want to see the prince) who will direct you to the queen. The queen will want you to eliminate the ancient curse. Be docile in your responses, agree to her demands, and leave the chamber. There is some loot near the queen, but if you touch any of it every spider will go hostile.
As you leave her chamber, the prince will spawn at 7 and address you. He’ll want you to kill the queen after destroying the entity because she is evil. You can speak to him more to learn about his motivations, but agree to side with him at the end.
There is a chance this dialogue may bug out. It’s possible the prince will assume that you have already killed the queen and will express his regret. If this happens, continue with the rest of this as described, as if you had sided with the prince. When you return to him after destroying the entity, he will ask to be taken to the mindhome to form an alliance. Do so (instead of speaking to the queen) to get the XP and silk armor, then speak to the queen (if you want her loot). Unfortunately this will mean you will have to kill most of the spiders because killing the queen will make them hostile. Hopefully the prince won’t be around when that happens, but it makes no difference.
Find your way to 8, looting some skeletons on the way (do not approach the castle guards at 10 if you don’t want to raise an alarm within the castle—that will spawn extra guards within). The spiders at 8 will go hostile and you’ll be put into combat mode, but don’t attack any of them. Instead, whoever’s turn it is should head south to 9 and drop the Golden Pendant into the hole there to destroy the entity, then end their turn. This will put you out of combat and each party member will get 3,000xp. The spiders will snap out of their daze. Ask them to follow you back to the prince at 7. You can drop Nagi’s Talismans now.
28.3. The Queen
Buff up before reaching the prince. He will be grateful and the guards will praise you and ask you to return to the queen for rewards. Do so, but walk very slowly. Make sure the prince is with you at all times, otherwise there’s a chance he will assume you killed the queen out of spite and not because he asked you to or because she attacked us. Indeed, the queen will drop her act and attack with a few other spider mages (two in her chamber, more outside).
If any spiders from 8 followed you, they will all help with the fight (it takes a lot of patience and engineering to get most of them to follow though: a lot of them get stuck because of poor pathfinding). Attack only the spiders that flash black and not the ones that flash yellow. The queen drops a banana and a Wildwynd Wand that casts Confusion. The prince can take over control of Darkhold now and will entreat you to help make a pact between the spiders and mindhomes.
28.4. The Pact
Do just that by leading him to 11. The rebels will be suspicious, but tell them that the queen is dead at the prince’s behest, and the prince won’t harm them even if they don’t trade. That will be enough to convince them, which will earn each party member 5,000xp. One of them will offer to help you get into the castle. Agree to him accompanying you.
First go speak to the outcast to claim your Silk Armor +2. It affords a total of 3 AC. Next, in the queen’s chamber, attack the partitions at 12 to knock them down. The chest has an apple, a pear, some gems, some ceramics, and another chain arm armor. The skeletons, as always, will have some minor loot, but also a metal chest armor which sells for 1,500cp. There’s also another silk rope on the floor.
Note, functionally the silk ropes are no different to the rope we crafted from the plant, except that a silk rope will work in both places where a rope is required, whereas the plant rope will only work in the Wagon Train area. Thus, you don’t need to carry both (or all three) of them.
Now go to the castle entrance at 13 and the mindhome creature will enter it by climbing the drawbridge chains, and open the portcullis from the other side. Step in to the Lower Castle.
If the castle guards at 10 see you, they will attack, causing a few more guards to come from the castle. It’s worth some minor XP. Note that you could have avoided almost everything in Undermountain by acquiring Nagi’s Talismans, and just using the portcullis to open it. Doing it this way will sound an alarm within the castle, causing a few extra guards to spawn in there.