The City-of-Caverns

Navigate the City-of-Caverns in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Uncover prophecies, face the mad king, and complete quests for substantial XP and powerful rewards.

Fortunately, the Sahuagin did not leave you to drown. There will be an exchange between Royal High Priestess Senityili and Captain Feerlattiys, initially in the Sahuagin language. The priestess will make it so that you can understand them and will tell you where you are - the City-of-Caverns - and that your coming has been foretold in a prophecy.

Question Senityili however you please. Afterwards, agree to an audience with the king.

You can simply murderise everything here, but you'll miss out on substantial quest XP.

You will be taken before the obviously mad King Ixilthetocal. His advisor, Baron Thelokassyil will advise that you be killed but Senityili will insist that you have been sent by Sekolah. The Baron's ally, High Priestess Tlyysixxous, insists that you are not the ones prophesied. The king will ask for your opinion.

Offer your help and the king will decide to test you by having you fight in their arena. Agree and you and your party will fight an Ettin which should give you no trouble. This will impress the king sufficiently.

Tlyysixxous, the priestess who opposed Senityili, will be taken away to be sacrificed for being wrong about you and the king will set you the task of dealing with a group of rebels in the city and bringing him the heart of their leader, Prince Villynaty.

Before leaving, Senityili will ask you to come and speak to her. Return to where you first met her to witness the demise of Tlyysixxous.

Senityili will tell you where to find Sekolah's Tooth, an artifact required to enter the Prince's base. However, she has a surprising request: she believes that Prince Vilynaty is the only hope for her people since inbreeding has corrupted the royal line and asks that you hear him out.

It's slightly more rewarding to take this path (in terms of XP at least) but if your PC is a Monk or if you have Rasaad in your party, you may want to keep faith with the king because part of the reward will be a powerful item for Monk characters. However, there's no reason that you can't keep your options open so agree to her plan and she will give you the Rebel's Orb so that you can avoid violence when meeting the prince.

To the west of Senityili is a Priestess of Sekolah who will provide merchant and temple services if you need them. She sells scrolls of Wraithform if you want to complete your spellbook.

As you make your way around the walkways of the city, you will encounter various groups of rebel and loyalist Sahuagin. It doesn't really matter since they're all hostile to you as well as each other. If you have a crossbow user in your party, pick up any Paralytic Bolts that you find since they're quite powerful.

If you go to the round platform in the centre of the city, you will trigger an encounter with a group that includes a high-level Priestess. Kill her before she hits you with Flame Strike and loot the Cloak of Mirroring from her remains.

This is a very nice item that deflects any damaging spells cast directly at the wearer.

Make your way southwest of the shark mouth platform. A Royal Guard will warn you that this section is separate from the rest (the architecture is that of a Drow city) and warns you of traps ahead.

Enable trap detection and make your way east and south of the guard. When you reach the steps, creep ahead cautiously since the trap is hard to spot, even with 100 Find Traps.

Continue south and kill two Sword Spiders and two Ettercaps. Further ahead is a Bone Golem after which you should enable trap detection because there is another hard-to-spot trap nearby.

Continue to a round platform where you'll find two playful Imps who tell you that you can have the drow treasure if you play their game.

Agree to do so. The rules are: speak to the "famous big people" who appear and they will give you an item that belongs to another famous big person while giving you a clue as to what it is they want for themselves. Place the correct items in the chests to win the game.

Don't do this

If you open the sixth chest without completing the Imps' game, the person doing so will be killed by the "nasty".

First of all, remove the the traps covering the platform - there are six in total, including one just to the northeast.

Starting with Elminster. He requires "an item to while away time's sand" and gives you a curved sword. for a warrior whose "skin is black as night". Place the Scimitar in the chest behind Drizzt who gives you a helmet, "a symbol...of rulership...in a city far north". Place the helmet in the chest behind Piergeiron who gives you "a staff of darkest hue which...belongs to one I know". Place the staff in the chest behind Khelben (Blackstaff) who gives you a "pendant of silver...for...one who is sister but not mother". Place the Pendant in the chest behind Alustriel who gives you a "pipe of root and magic". Place the Pipe in the chest behind Elminster and the Imps will tell you that you can now safely open the last chest.

Each party member will receive 18500XP and the Imps will dismiss the spectre protecting the chest. Open it to obtain a Cloak of Protection +2 and a pair of Boots of Etherealness.

The next bit requires high Wisdom (or Jan or Edwin), so swap the party leader for one of your Clerics if necessary. Go up the path to the northeast to find a chest guarded by a friendly and chatty Spectator.

He will tell you that he is contracted to guard the chest. Ask him whether he knows what's inside and whether you can see what's inside. After the Spectator has a little rant, you may spot a chink in his contract.

Point out that the Spectator has not been contracted to guard what's _inside_ the chest and that there's nothing to prevent the Spectator from opening the chest so that you can take what's inside without touching the chest itself. This will satisfy the Spectator who will look the other way while you help yourself to Sekolah's Tooth, earning you 15000XP.

Start making your way east to the edge of the city. If you'r