The City of Judgment

Quest: Beyond the Black Gate

You arrive just outside the City of Judgment, where Zoab, a fallen angel, stands in waiting. In the distance, you can see more of your friends, including the great dragon Sey’ryu and the ultralichious Rammaq.

You'll probably see some fireworks before you even get inside the city.

Move forward toward the gates and attempt a parlay. You have multiple options here, including attempting to Intimidate or otherwise speechcraft the defenders and convince them to run off without a fight. Beyond that, though, your major choice is to stay on the side of Zoab, Rammaq, and Sey’ryu as they assault the city, or switch alliegiences and fight alongside the city’s defenders in exchange for the promise of finding your soul. This is no small choice, as it will greatly effect how the rest of the game plays out.

In the immediate sense, siding with Zoab will make you fight against the defenders of the gate (assuming you can’t speechcraft them away). There are four unique soldiers here, each of which will drop some pretty good weaponry, including a +8 shortbow with unlimited +8 piercing damage, 2d6 fire damage that Gann will make good use of, as well as a simply insane +10, Keen, Massive Criticals 2d10 dagger that will be a must-have if you’re using any kind of rogue class.

On the flipside, siding with the defenders will force you to fight against Sey’ryu the dragon right away. He’ll go down relatively easily, leaving behind one of the best pieces of heavy armor in the game, Sey’ryu’s Scales, which has 8 AC, +8 magical Armor bonus, 75% electrical immunity, and a huge damage reduction of 20/Magical. If you side with the defenders, Araman will join you as a fifth party member, fully controllable and outfittable. His abilities are fairly redundant with Safiya’s, but he’ll still be a pretty handy addition to the party if you choose this path.

If dropping a dragon without any problems doesn't convince you that you're powerful, we're not sure what will.

Regardless of which side you fight for, you’ll have three subquests to pursue: attacking/defending the archives at Eternity’s End; help defend/secure the gate to ensure that more troops can or can’t get in; or head to the Basilica of Lost Hope and kill/defend the Voice of Kelemvor.

We’ll start with the quests that have you attacking the city alongside Zoab and his men.

Assault Quests

Raid On Eternity’s End

Rammaq has designs on the tomes in Eternity’s End: he plans to become a god, somehow. Whether or not that’s a good idea is up to you to decide. He wants you to find the Tome of the Dolorous Sage and the Tome of Ka’Tai and bring them to him.

The Tome of the Dolorous Sage is located in the northwestern vault. You have the option of destroying it or retrieving it. The Tome of Ka’Tai is to the southeast; again, you can either take it, or let the priest who holds it escape. The southwestern vault contains no Tomes, but it does contain a solder named Kelthanos who drops a Belt of Storm Giant Strength and a Talisman of Pure Good.

You'll be able to see a lot of the groups of enemies before they see you here, so take advantage of it.

Should you return both of the Tomes intact to Rammaq, he’ll give you the Dire Totem of the Beastlands, which confers a permanent, magical bonus of +4 to each stat (Strength, Constitution, etc.) to whomever holds it in their inventory. Useful, but you probably already have Safiya casting Mass Bull’s Strength, Mass Eagle’s Splendor, and the other mass buff spells after you rest, and the bonuses won’t stack. Rammaq also promises to send a useful ally to you when you locate your soul.

If you lose both of the tomes, then Rammaq simply doesn’t reward you with the item, promises no help at the final fight, and you get less XP. Presumably finding one tome but not the other has a somewhat intermediate reward. Since there aren’t really any benefits or alignment shifts involved when you don’t retrieve the tomes, you may as well give them both over and reap the rewards that he offers.

Basilica of Lost Hope

Yep, another big fight.

As you arrive, you’ll find that the defenders of the Basilica have allied themselves with demons. Zoab is surrounded by foes, and injured, so you’ll need to fight your way to him and hope that he survives the fight. If he doesn’t, he’ll drop some trinkets, including a set of Bracers of the Inner Planes, which instill 20% resistance to all elemental damage and damage from positive and negative energy. If he does survive, though (which he will, if you run Gann or Kaelyn over and immediately Heal him), he’ll survive for the final fight and you’ll net some experience.

The Supplicant’s Gate

If you save this quest for last, Sey’ryu will be under attack…from a total of three soldiers. Kill them quickly, keep Sey’ryu healed, and you shouldn’t have any problems with this errand. Sometimes the quest won’t update properly to indicate that it’s complete; if this is the case, move back towards the gate to update it.

Defense Quests

If, on the other hand, you decide to side with the defenders against Zoab, you’ll have to immediately kill Sey’ryu. He should go down quickly against your epic might. Accept Araman as a helper, then speak to him and accept his quests. It’s easiest to go ahead and start with Demons at the Gates, so offer to stay at the gate and defeat the enemies that arive.

The Supplicant’s Gate

A number of waves of Hezrou will appear here, insistent on entering the city. With the numerous helpers you have here (Ammon Jerro will probably cast Epic Gate if you rescued him earlier), they should be easy to defeat.

Basilica of Lost Hope

Hit these enemies with as much firepower as you can at the same time.

Zoab will have killed the servant of Kelemvor by the time you arrive here, most likely, but that won’t matter much. Despite his threats against you, Zoab and his men will simply wait for you across the way, allowing you to make the first hostile act. Buff yourselves, then move up fairly close to them and cast a few Hellballs their way. Araman can cast it, and either Gann or Safiya may have learned it as well, depending on your level-up actions; if not, cast something like Meteor Storm on them. When they’re hot and bothered, move up and finish the group off.

Eternity’s End

Last up is Rammaq. Start moving from vault to vault here, killing his minions. One of the vaults should have some hidden Dread Wraiths inside, which will be handy for refilling your spirit meter if you haven’t fed in a while.

When you encounter Rammaq (he’ll likely be in the third vault you explore, regardless of the order, but we found him in the southeastern vault, ourselves), he’ll attack you with a few deathless guards and powerful magics. As you might expect from a demilich, he wields some pretty impressive spells, including Hellball, but after his guards are down this should devolve into a spanking. Have your attackers move forward, use Gann to heal any damage that comes down, and let Safiya start breaking Rammaq’s spell barriers with stuff like Mordenkainen’s Disjunction.

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