Once all refugees had passed the portal to Frostfall, the rune warrior and Lena talked about the exact plan. To get the civilians to Tirganach safely, they first would need a small rest and food to restore a bit of strength. The rune warrior had to take control of the nearby orc monument in the village of the Gultark orcs in the middle of the swamp.
Setting camp in the swamps[]
Surrounded by Treewraiths and marauding trolls it was quite hard to find enough food. Only after having destroyed the troll camps and having hunted down the treewraiths the swamp was safe enough to search for food. The refugees would constantly take food from your resource pool until they've gotten 1000 units of food before marching on.
Dracon Arach attacks...
After 700 units of food had been consumed by the refugees, the Crimson Empire would show up along with Dracon Arach and start to hunt down the refugees.
The rune warrior and his armies needed to defend the citizens from the first patrols of the Crimson Empire until the refugees were ready to move on further to the Winterkeep border.
When the refugees began wandering again, the Crimson Empire would start a large attack with high level fighters on your orc monument. The orcs did not stand a chance against the trained fighters of the empire but the fighters would distract Dracon Arach and his men long enough to get the refugees past the Winterkeep border.
The Winterkeep fortress[]
After the orc monument has falled, the rune warrior needed to activate the elven monument at the Winterkeep to create a line of defense. Dracon Arach quickly noticed that the refugees had escaped and send small patrols to the north and thus the defense at the gateway needed to hold. Together with some help workers the rune warrior quickly set up a tower defense to repell the fighters of the Dracon and recruited some elven fighters.
Location of the Gate Keeper
After some time has passed, the Dracon would declare an attack again. The refugees would then begin marching again to the northeastern gate. However this gate was locked and thus the rune warrior had to talk to Lena again. Lena told that there was a small settlement of elves to the west where the Gate Keeper was living.
The rune warrior went there to find the Gate Keeper which needs to be convined to follow to the gate. When escorting her to the gate, she needed to be protected from the roaming Wolflings and the Crimson Empire's infiltrators that entered through the cave pathways.
Path to the Portal[]
Once the gate was opened by the Gate Keeper the path to the portal to Tirganach was opened. The rune warrior then only had to escort the refugees to the portal. Since the elven monument was under attack or already deactivated by the forces of Dracon Arach, there were no more elven rune warriors available. The rune warrior had to use the fighters of the Winterguard for defending the refugees from the wild creatures and the forces of the Crimson Empire.
Once the rune warrior has escorted the refugees through the portal, Dracon Arach would state that he would not let the rune warrior escape. He used transportation magic to teleport next to the portal to Tirganach and attacked on his own. However with the help of the Winterguard fighters he could be defeated. Once this had been done, the rune warrior headed through the portal to Tirganach.
Path to the City of Tirganach[]
Once the rune warrior had arrived at the island of Tirganach some of the Winterguard fighters accompanied the refugees along the road to Tirganach. The gate to Tirganach was locked and the guardians were dead. The Wolfling Rawor had killed them and stolen the key to the gate. The rune warrior took care of him and used the key to open the gate.
The human refugees have arrived at Tirganach
Past the gate lots of ice elementals were roaming the street. To get the refugees through the elemental nodes needed to be destroyed to prevent the ice elementals from coming back. After all ice elementals and ice nodes were destroyed, the refugees would proceed further and stand in front of the gate.
Once the gate was opened, the rune warrior spoke to Aedar Thalan. The former leader of the resistance thanked the rune warrior for saving them. Talking to Lena then would make her reveal that she now was in a state of complete confusion. She wondered if Cenwen's abduction was real or if this all had been a lie of Grim. Talking to Elune would solve the question and start the quest Ice and Fire.
Trivia[]
- Dracon Arach was supposed to be an extremely smart commander and cruel fighter of the Crimson Empire. As such as person, he should've received the blessings of Zarach. However he does not possess fire immunity and only is a mediocre fighter himself.
Tips and Tricks[]
- If you haven't completed the swamp either dismiss your workers from the food production or use your food to increase the maximum army size. Otherwise the dark elves might appear too early and will disrupt you in farming the swamp for resources.
- The trolls and treewraiths are purely optional but disrupt you in hunting animals for food. Thus kill as many of them as possbible to get enough food and experience points. Destroying the troll camps would give you access to resources such as iron to create more fighters.
- When you've brought the refugees beyond the Winterkeep, you can use your time effectively until Dracon Arach orders an attack.
- Build some archery towers to the cave entrance to the east next to the stone gate. Some level 4 - 6 fighters will appear their constantly and disrupt you. With five towers you could block them from causing harm to the refugees and your camp.
- Activate the bindstones at the Winterkeep and the Gate Keeper camp, so you have more time later when the Dracon orders his attack.
- Summon a few rune heroes at the hero monument to improve your fighting power
- Take care of the orc shaman Gultark to the east. He is a quest-relevant unit and a possible rune hero for The Masked One.
- Try to keep as many elves alive in Frostfall since they are an extremely useful fighting force for your later visit during the quest The treasure of Tiondria.
- When having heavily wounded elves of the Winterguard in your group at Tirganach, you can manually kill them. They will respawn after some time at the portal. This is especially useful if you have no healer since the elves don't regenerate health on their own.
Bugs[]
- You'll need to talk to Lena again after the dialogue sequence in the beginning to make her follow you again. Otherwise she'll stay at the portal to Mirraw Thur and thus block the quest progress and might even break it if you then activate the orc monument without her on your side.
- If you keep blocking the dark elves at the main gate and on top of the hill with the elven monument with a flood of archer towers, this might result in a glitch in the A.I. of Dracon Arach. He would then ignore the elven monument and directly go after your refugees with his army and you won't be able to fight back his army at that time.