Lair of the Eyeless is a main quest in The White March - Part II.
The quest is automatically obtained after completing The Rising Tide.
Synopsis[ | ]
After reforging the recovered piece of Abydon's hammer into a hammer of your own, Ondra has instructed you to go to Cayron's Scar. There you must enter a large fragment of the Ionni Brathr, the crashed moon, in order to stop the Eyeless in their quest to destroy the Dyrwood.
Walkthrough[ | ]
- Go to The White Forge and forge a hammer from the Fragment of Abydon's Hammer.
- Talk to the people of Stalwart and its surrounding area.
- Depending on your choices during the White March, you will have a number of allies in the coming battle:
- Adaryc, obtained during The Iron Flail, will give you the Burning Pitch Trebuchet talent.
- Matron Beregan, obtained during The Ogre Matron, will give you the Beregan's Battle Horn figurine.
- Wengra with Durgan's Battery's artillery, obtained during Ready the Cannons, will give you the Heavy Cannon Blast talent.
- The conversation decides which of them will be available to you, and you'll get abilities usable in Cayron's Scar to call for backup from them. Very handy if you're on higher difficulties.
- Go to Cayron's Scar and make your way to the Large Fragment of Ionni Brathr. Make your way through the cavern. You'll be stopped for a conversation with Ondra not long after entering.
- Continue forward.
- There will be another pool, into which you can send someone to dive. Passing a Constitution 17 check will allow you to take it without losing endurance. Unfortunately, this will attract a group of lagufaeths. If you have Athletics 13, you can out swim them, but they will still follow you to the surface and will initiate a fight. If you have Stealth 10, however, you can avoid the fight entirely. Failing both checks will result in both getting an injury and having to fight.
- Interact with the cliff face, and go down into the small lake. You will not be able to go back up from this lake, so make a save before entering if you want to try the ending with different party compositions, as the possible endings will depend on which party members you have with you. Decisions made during their companion quests may contribute to the arguments you make.
- Kill the Kraken.
- Interact with the crystal, deciding who will be left to hit it. Whomever strikes the crystal will be ignored by the Eyeless. You have several choices for the volunteer and their escape:
- Devil of Caroc is a natural candidate, as she doesn't feel cold and doesn't need air, so she'll just casually walk out (though the murk does get in the way of a pleasant stroll).
- Sacrifice an ogre in place of a companion with Beregan's Battle Horn if you sided with Matron Beregan and accepted her aid.
- Use Iverra's Diving Helmet (the helmet must be in your inventory and not equipped). The Watcher will pass the helmet to the chosen companion if they don't volunteer directly.
- Pass a 19 constitution check. Edér with the Girdle of Eoten Constitution may work.
- If you released the Pargrunen souls at the White Forge, they will possess the lagufaeth in the depths and hurry the drowning volunteer to the surface.
- The retreating party have to put up with the advancing Eyeless and pass several checks. Note: The retreat checks may not trigger if you defeat the Kraken and strike the crystal with a party of one.
- The first check is to distract several Eyeless. Several abilities count towards remediating the danger; Mirrored Image, Repulsing Seal, Ringleader, or Smoke Cloud, otherwise they need to dodge past the Eyeless.
- The second challenge comes in the form of a clogged passageway. You need Twin Stones, Frenzy, Outlander's Frenzy, or a prybar and Mechanics 7 to clear the obstacle in time for the party to escape out to the ice outside.
- Finally, to clear the lake, you need either good scouting abilities (Survival 12, or as a Naasitaq), Kalakoth's Freezing Rake, Zealous Charge, Blessed Was Wengridh, Quickest of His Tribe or to have the character background The White the Wends.
Ending[ | ]
- After the moon is gone, the Eyeless' souls will gather and decide to have a final talk with you, accusing you of consigning them to oblivion. You will be able to learn about their history with the Engwithans and use Perception 14 to point out that the destruction of memory upsets them. The Eyeless believe that people cut off from their history will wither - and deserve no less. Ultimately, they will decide that they need to return to themselves and restore Abydon.
- Your decisions so far in the game, and which directions you steered your companions will have an impact on the ending and your ability to persuade them. You will have two base choices (1, 2), and a third (3) if you can provide convincing evidence for your statements.
- Ask them not to reforge Abydon.
- Let them reforge Abydon with the memory of Ondra betraying him.
- Convince them to reforge Abydon, but a tempered version, where his memories are restored but given context beyond what he remembered at his death. There are three convictions on which you need to provide at least two examples to convince them: the burden of memory, the burden of legacy, and conflict between the gods.
Tempering Abydon[ | ]
To provide him with context, you need to convince the Eyeless on three counts:
- That history doesn't always serve progress or provide a good example;
- That memory can be a burden, and;
- That some knowledge should be forgotten due to the inherent danger it poses.
You need to present six arguments (two per category). These depend on your choices throughout the storyline, so save before climbing down to face the Kraken.
The hazard of history[ | ]
To convince them that history can be a hazard, rather than a benefit, you can bring up the Pargrunen, the strife between Dyrwood and Eir Glanfath, the Iron Flail, and the Devil of Caroc (if you resolved her quest). Each example needs to backed up with an explanation as to how history and obsession over legacy can go wrong.
- For the Pargrunen, it's pointing out how their legacy and marvels they created eventually tore them apart.
- For Readcerans and Dyrwood, it's the fact that experience of history is subjective and whatever common ties they have pale when you consider the fact that kith care about what is immediate and recent over what's in the past.
- For the Devil of Caroc, it's how her memory of the past drove her to murder people.
- If you have have Pallegina in your company and know about the ducs' plans to undercut the Dyrwood, you can bring it up.
The burden of memory[ | ]
Arguments about the burden of memory allow you to bring up Maneha, Zahua, and yourself.
- For yourself, you can argue that moving on is in itself development and growth; that some questions cannot be resolved.
- The Eyeless will also accept Maneha's argument if she chose to forget.
- Zahua's arguments will actually serve the Eyeless' stance if you decided to keep his Legacy low.
- As of version 3.7.0, there is an exploit where the Eyeless will accept Maneha's argument even if you didn't let her forget the past. There's also a bug that always makes Zahua's arguments fail to convince the Eyeless, no matter how much Legacy and Persistence he has.
The danger of knowledge[ | ]
Convincing them that some knowledge is dangerous involves the White Forge and animancy. It is quite tricky to achieve as it depends on many factors.
- Argue that the White Forge is too dangerous for mortal hands. This will be dismissed by the Eyeless if:
- You did not join the Knights of the Crucible, but helped create the Forge Knights by completing Built to Last.
- You joined the Knights of the Crucible and did not discourage Commander Clyver from pursuing the Forge Knights in Winds of Steel.
- You bound the Pargrunen souls to the White Forge in the conclusion of The White Forge.
- Argue that animancy is dangerous because mastery over souls would bring about stagnation with no further challenges before kith.
- This will fail if you convinced the duc to let animancy research continue unfettered in the animancy hearings.
- If you learned that Aloth is a member of the Leaden Key, you can call upon him to explain why some secrets are best kept hidden away.
- This will fail if, during your travels, you pushed Aloth to stand up for himself against authoritative figures such as his father and Thaos (meaning Aloth's Autonomy value is greater than his Authority value).
Exposition[ | ]
Upon finishing the quest, the following text will be shown, along with a narration. This marks the end of The White March - Part II.
The Eyeless disappeared beneath the lake, their bond to Ondra finally severed. With this threat ended, hope returned to the White March.
Hunters returned to the wildernesses and travelers to the roads. Tales of the Watcher's bravery replaced stories of monsters in the woods. The villagers of Stalwart busied their hands with work and their tongues with song, eager to seize on the promise of peace.
Notes[ | ]
- If you cannot convince the Eyeless, then you'll have to edit the source files or cheat. This tutorial provides a handy guide on how to ensure success if you can consistently win 5/6 arguments. See the talk page for more information.
Trivia[ | ]
- In the scripted event at the end of the quest, Godlike characters are suddenly able to wear the diving helmet as an option of escape, even though they aren't permitted to equip any helmets during the entire playthrough, save another scripted event with the Woedica Hood.
Journal[ | ]
| quests\px2_critical_path\px2_cp_ionni_brathr | ||
|---|---|---|
| ID | Objectives | |
| 0 | Lair of the Eyeless | |
| 10000 | Ondra has said that the Eyeless are gathered together in a fragment of Ionni Brathr that lies in Cayron's Scar, and that there may be a way to stop them if I can reach this place.
However, Ondra has advised me that I'll need to recreate Abydon's Hammer first in order to be able to summon them to their deaths. | |
| 1 | Recreate Abydon's Hammer. | |
| 10001 | With the fragment of Abydon's hammer I retrieved from the abbey, I have enough metal to make a kith-sized version of the original.
Ondra believes this will be adequate to be able to hold sway over the Eyeless. | |
| 2 | Travel to Cayron's Scar. | |
| 10002 | A large fragment of Ionni Brathr lies in Cayron's Scar. It is there I must go to destroy the army of Eyeless. | |
| 3 | Make your way to the fragment of Ionni Brathr. | |
| 10003 | Lying near the center of the frozen lake in Cayron's Scar is a fragment of Ionni Brathr, the fallen moon. Within it is the means to put an end to the Eyeless. | |
| 4 | Get to the crystal at the bottom of Ionni Brathr. | |
| 10004 | There is a large crystal that runs through the core of Ionni Brathr. I need to reach it and strike it with Abydon's Hammer, and it should bring the entire cavern down. | |
| 5 | Defeat the kraken. | |
| 10005 | Ondra left a kraken in Cayron's Scar long ago to protect the place where her Eyeless lie dormant. It now stands between me and the crystal I need to strike. | |
| 6 | Strike the crystal in Ionni Brathr with Abydon's Hammer. | |
| 10006 | I must strike the crystal in the center of Ionni Brathr with Abydon's Hammer to bring down the cavern and end the Eyeless threat once and for all. | |
| End states | ||
|
Crystal | |
| 30000 | I reached the crystal at the bottom of the Ionni Brathr fragment and struck it with Abydon's Hammer. | |