Endless Paths of Od Nua Level 8 is an area in Pillars of Eternity, and the eighth floor of the Endless Paths of Od Nua. Highlights include another piece of the adra statue - the left hand, a link to the Master Staircase, and a continuation of the quest The Master Below.
Background[ | ]
A level of the keep where experimentation with souls entered advanced stages, the mysterious Engwithan chambers house a prototype soul machine designed for anchoring souls (much like the one at Teir Nowneth), adjacent to the hand of the great statue meant to honor Od Nua's son.
Points of interest[ | ]
- Level 8 is stocked with a number of undead, including several fampyr. You'll come across a number of parties of undead, mostly consisting of one fampyr, some skeleton wizards and archers, and some darguls.
- There are plenty of level 8-10 traps scattered across the floor, so make sure you have someone with high Mechanics scout the area first.
- As you enter from Level 7, skip past the door on your left. It has a level 9 lock, and there's a party of undead behind it, but you'll be able to sneak up on them later. Instead proceed forward and to the south (turn right). Fight off a smaller number of undead and some Adra beetles, but be careful of the beetles' Shocking Blast. The casting time is slow enough that you should be able to move out of the way.
- In the southern part of the map you'll find a narrow bridge that crosses onto the palm of the adra statue's hand. There, the Crazed Fampyr is lounging on his throne. If you have already learned the Engwithan language, you can ask who "they" is, and then suggest that you might be able to help him. He will encourage you to kill the rest of the fampyrs on this floor (which, let's face it, you were going to do anyway). If you do so, he will not only let you pass to the next floor but will answer your questions to boot. Not a bad deal.
- Head to the northeast, fight some more adra beetles, and you'll find the Master Staircase. There's a set of Camping Supplies here.
- Work your way back to the west, fighting off parties of undead. You'll loop back past the door near the entrance and can sneak up on a party from behind. When you reach the westernmost part of the map, there will be two more parties to fight off, one of which is slightly larger than the others.
- In the northwest corner is a chest with a Sunlance Trap of at least level 12. A graze from this can do 100 points of damage. The chest contains the unique crossbow Good Friend.
- Once you've killed all the fampyr on this floor, return to the adra palm and confront the fampyr on his throne (for the quest The Master Below). He will answer a number of questions for you about his work (similar to animancy but more successful), Od Nua, and other interesting bits of history which will advance the quest. He's not the nicest bloke around (well, maybe the nicest you've met in the dungeon, since Maerwald at least) so you always have the option to kill him. Keep in mind that you're surrounded by Darguls though, so if you're going to do this I suggest setting your party's formation first. If you kill him, he drops the unique plate armor Argwes Adra.
- In either case, continue past him and kill a handful more beetles before descending to Level 9.
Characters[ | ]
- Cabiros: The fampyr on the throne.
Enemies[ | ]
Loot[ | ]
Notable loot[ | ]
- Argwes Adra: A unique plate armor, worn by Cabiros, the fampyr on the throne sitting atop the adra statue's hand.
- Good Friend: A unique crossbow, in the trapped chest to the northwest.
Containers[ | ]
- Random drugs (Loot_Drugs)
- Random weapon
- Random gem
- Random currency
- (TE_Sm_Weapons_7_8)
- Random weapon
- Random gem
- Random currency
- (TE_Sm_Weapons_7_8)
- Random potion/scroll
- Random gem
- Random currency
- (Dyr_Consumable_7_8)
- Camping Supplies
- Random armor
- Random headgear
- (Rack_Armor_7_8)
- Random weapon
- Random gem
- Random currency
- (TE_Sm_Weapons_7_8)
- Random potion/scroll
- Random gem
- Random currency
- (Dyr_Consumable_7_8)
- Random gem (Gem_7_100)
Behind the scenes[ | ]
This level of experiments focused on fampyrs, widely underused in the game at the time - just like blights - we wanted to try and showcase this undead creature. Unlike the blights on the previous level, fampyrs weren't terribly enjoyable to fight in large quantities. The ability to dominate an enemy is a powerful one, and there aren't many classes that allow you to break characters out of domination. So instead of handfuls of fampyrs, we decided to make a small community of them, backed by their skeletal savant servants. Fampyrs also gave us another interesting narrative feature to toy with: being able to speak with an engwithan.