Hazen: The Dark Whispers/Walkthrough

Stats
When levelling, there are three stats to choose from: Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity. Strength is required for using military melee weapons, intelligence used for staves, and dexterity for bows. Because of how equipment appears late-game, it is best to focus on exactly one stat (and therefore, one set of skills.)

Within the skill tree, you have access to skills related to melee weapons, staves, or bows. As above, stick with one of the three paths, unless you use an exploit to get additional skill levels.

Skills are as follows:


 * Melee skills (strength)
 * Lacerate: A melee attack that increases strength for up to 8 seconds, and stacks up to 5 times. Can be useful for getting a strength-boosting item.  Requires nearby enemy.
 * Bleeding Cut: Inflicts additional damage over time.
 * Blade Dancer: Hits all enemies in melee range for base weapon damage.
 * Frenzy: Attacks a single target twice.
 * Deathbringer: Inflicts heavy holy daamge to every enemy in front of you.


 * Staff skills (Intelligence)
 * Restoration: Provides healing over time.
 * Frost Shard: Inflicts light damage, and slows the enemy movement.
 * Doom: Inflicts light damage in an area, and causes enemies to miss. Note: Kills from Doom don't provide experience.
 * Fear: Causes an enemy to flee for 3 seconds.
 * Fire Ring: Causes heavy damage in an area over time. Highly effective, especially if you can keep enemies within the field of effect for that time.
 * Evoke Guardian: Summons one or more guardians to fight by your side.  Casing again will dispel existing guardians.


 * Bow skills (Dexterity)
 * Stunning shot: Stuns a target.
 * Poison arrow: Inflicts light additional damage over time.
 * Multishot: Fires multiple arrows at once, that hit adjacent targets.
 * Confusing arrow: Causes an enemy to attack another enemy.
 * Inflaming shot: Inflicts heavy fire damage, and causes a burn effect to harm adjacent enemies as well.

Village of Darkvale
You get this quest when you encounter Devon for the first time. Simply collect any marked supplies in the village, and reutrn to Devon.

On guard!
This is another tutorial mission, where you head north and kill undead attacking the gates.

Lock the gates
Proceed past the village, and continue until you find a graveyard. You should find some gate keys, which can be used to close the outer gate to the village.

The water mill
Advance to the water mill, and kill all hostiles surrounding it.

Escort the mule
This mule may be found wandering around outside. Bring it back to the village. .return him to where the other mules are

Where is Malestos?
At the start of the quest, you will learn information about what is going on. Malestos, the local herbalist, became obsessed with a certarin stone, and abandoned his herbs. Devon send you to find him and find out what is going on.

Head to the northern-most part of the map and speak with Malestos. He will depart, leaving you to fight a giant.

When fighting the giant, he will leap from time to time. When he does so, press CTRL when told to press block.

When the giant is killed, pick up the scroll and return to Devon.

To Spider Forest
In the northwest corner of town, you should find some levers, which allow you to access the Spider Forest.

Oberius
The main quest is to locate Oberis at the northern-most part of the map. When you enter, you should find him, but he is wrapped up by a spider web.

Save the Daughter
This is a sidequest.

Bandits have kidnapped Romana, taking her to the bandit camp to the east. She is found in the cage to the south, which needs to be broken open. You will also have to fight Chieftain Arash, who is a more dangerous than normal but is no more difficult than the flesh giant you already fought.

Sealed with a Kiss
This is a sidequest.

One the lower right corner end of the map; on the other side of the river, there is a flower. If you pick it up, it starts off another sidequest. You can give this flower to Romana, who would ask you to to play some music so that she could dance.

Scattered
When you find a trade camp, you need to find three scattered members of camp to the north.

Otto the Cook is located somewhere to the east. However, he is followed by an invincible creature. Otto gives you an item that you can use against him, although it is possible to complete the mission without noticing that you were given the item.

Pickwick is locates somewhere to the northwest. WHen you find him, he will disguise you as you return to the camp, allowing you to run past enemies.

The Hidden Treasure
This is an optional scavenger hunt quest, where you have to keep chasing a certain route to get some treasure. You need to check certain locations in order.

The first is in the lake, and the second is just southwest of the dungeon. Next, find the red tree found near the first bridge, where you get a shovel. Finally, head to the northwest cliff to find an 'X' which you can dig.

You get 300 gold, and an item out of it.

Queen's Venom
When you reach Oberius, you are informed that he was poisoned and webbed. You need to head to the east to find the spider queen Aracna, and kill her.

She follows the similar tactic as the previous boss - block the jump attacks, and

After you kill the queen, she may start misbehaving. If you return to the Spider Forest later (although there is no reason to), she may still launch attacks at an extra long range, knocking you down or webbing you.

When defeated, return to Oberius. He will send you to Arcanar.

Breaking the siege
There are four catapults throwing flaming pitch into the city. Find a powder keg, and use them near the catapults.

The way inside
There is a molten guardian within the city. It is invulernable to attack, and can only be destroyed by running back and forth between the two ballistas. Run to the right ballista first, then to the other. Repeat until the guardian is destroyed.

Message to Arcanar
Once you destroy the guardian, you may give the scroll to the mage in the middle of the city.

The chains of Nemezis
In Arcanar, you are given a series of quests that you need to complete to continue. First, you need to defeat a guardian to the south east of the mage. Use the chains that were placed in your inventory before you can damage the enemy.

Thundering the skies
From the mage, head north-east, and turn south-east. Defeat the guardian and open the chest to get the unique bow. Use this bow to eliminate the creatreus flying around (they won't counter-attack.)

Saved from Oblivion
There are five tomes scattered throughout the area. Pickup each tome, and fight off the enemy that is spawned. You are not threatened by the enemy, simply keep attacking until they are killed.

Favor to the gods
There are three golden statues of gods within the city. Find them and remove the monsters from them.

Ritual of the gods
The temple should now be unlockable. Go north to the square, and turn the south-west and north-east pillars to unlock the temple. If you mess it up, you can step on the plate to reset the columns.

Fight fire with fire!
You have to kill the fire golem. It is first stationary, but when damaged, it climbs out of the pit and becomed invincible to attacks. To make it vulnerable again, you need to lure it into two pools of water.

Once you defeated the golem, return to the mage. He will unlock the portal to Pineville, where you need to reach Oberius.

Taste of wine
This is a side quest, and should be saved for as late as possible.

There are three wine bottles to find. Collect them, and use them as you find them. When complete, return to the altar.

At the altar, drink one of the wines. Drinking the wine near the altar provides the following benefit:


 * Cider of the Wise: +5 skill points (useless; take True Justice instead)
 * True Justice: +1 level
 * Sparkling port: Gain a set item.

If you wish to cheat and get additional benefit, save the game before drinking the wine, and backup the saved games files. Reload, drink the desired wine, and exit the realm before saving. Restore "arcanar.sav" from the backup, and re-enter to drink the wine again.

Ancient Ruins
When you get through the portal, head to the east towarsd pinetree. If you want, you can explore the dungeon by taking the west path in the fork, but the village is after a long winding path.

You first have to find Oberius in Pineville. He isn't marked by a quest marker, but can be found near the entrance to town. He directs you to find a key to the north-east, where you have to kill a guardian first.

Ancient Way
Take the right-hand exit from Pineville, and head to the end of the path. You will have to fight a large guardian before you can reach the three columns that lead to Frostwind.

Monster slaying sidequests
The sidequests in this level are much less inspired. Simply kill 10 wolves, 10 hell hounsd, and 10 savages and return to each person that provided the quest. You do get a lot of experience from it, and when turned in all at once, most likelt 50% of what you need to advance.

The Path of Pain
Read the stone, and fight off the enemy undead. They are easily dispatched with area attacks.

The gate of damnation
There are four pylons that you need to unlock to proceed. The pylons are guarded by ranged attackers that tend to cause slow, making it difficult to use melee attacks.

Start with the north-west pylon, and follow the lightning.

Once the gate guardian is summoned, defeat him like you would with a normal giant.

The souls of the bound
Southwest of the gate are four tormented souls. Talk to them, and locate four nearby giants. One is to the northeast, one to the southeast, and two to the southwest passage. Return, and you will be able to purchase random magical items.

Outpost of Light
At the end of the pathway should be an ramp leading to an outpost with angelic creatures. Speak with the residents and get a few quests.

Head to the northeast gate, and defeat the three special uniques. They have to be killed while wielding designated weapons, but you can use special abilities to quickly slay them.

When all three are dead, you should be able to construct the gate key.

Foul minions
Return, and look for a locked gate. Use the gate key to unlock it, and defeat the three minions.

Betrayer's demise
Return to where you destroyed the three minions, and enter the portal.

Malestos has three forms to defeat. The first requires you to destroy four towers under a shield. First, deal with the minions running around the field. Once they are eliminated, you can engage the towers safely, attacking when the shield goes down.

Once the towers are destroyed, Malestos will attack directly. He hits hard, and has a power draining attack, but is easily slain. However, he will self-revive and attack again. In this final boss stage, he will cast major spells that can kill in one hit, and the safest location appears to be hiding under the protective bubble of one of the angels.

Once Malestos is killed, you will receive two rings, which require either a strength or intelligence of 75 to use.