Eye of the Beholder 2 Walkthrough - The Skeletal Legion
By Daniel D'Agostino, 2011-09-14 / EOB2 Walkthrough / EOB2 Info
Reaching the Skeletons
The entrance to this level, like the previous, is a large room. To your left you will find passages leading to a locked door that you can't open yet, so we'll get there later.
To your right is a locked door that you can open with a grey key. Just inside is a fireball trap, as well as an empty niche and a locked door requiring a skull key. When you pull the lever on the wall, a fireball is shot out of the hole in the wall next to you. Pull it and immediately step backwards to avoid the fireball, and a skull key appears in the niche. Use it to open the locked door.
Along the corridor, on your left you will be attacked by skeleton warriors coming out of a room. At the end of a corridor you will find another room (take note of it; you will need it as a resting place later) with a mixture of skeletons and clerics (one of whom drops a skull key) and another locked door (which you unlock with the skull key you just got). Beyond this locked door are more skeletons and clerics, and on the floor you will find a skull key as well as a robe and a dagger (both magical).
At the far end of this room is a door you can pry. Don't do that yet, as you will unleash an army of skeletons. We'll come back here later. (Actually, you can go ahead and take them on, but the next little excursion will add a couple of useful members to the party, making life easier.)
Shorn and Calandra
Go back to the entrance. On the wall to your right (on the same side as the door you entered first) is a hidden button that reveals a secret passage; a party member will alert you to its presence. In the immediate area is a potion of vitality and a potion of cure poison. Your party will also alert you to an illusionary wall in the area. Walk through it to reach the prison area.
In the beginning of the prison area you will find some bones, a complete set of elf bones (which belong to a dead NPC called San-Raal), and a particular prison cell where a dwarven cleric called Shorn is held. Take him into your party.
Along the corridor you will be attacked by a couple of priests. Move quickly to avoid their Hold Person spell and dispatch them. When you come across a locked door, use a skull key to open it. You will be attacked by more clerics coming out of the door to the right.
The door to the right contains a relatively large cell where you will find an injured Fighter, Calandra, and her items piled on the floor. Calandra is a good fighter, so you can take her on your party and throw out Insal's corpse. Calandra's equipment (on the floor) includes:
- A spellbook
- A skull key
- Iron rations
- A helmet
- A long sword (magical - you later find out this is +1)
- A shield (magical - you later find out this is +1)
- A plate mail (magical - you later find out this is +2)
The door opposide Calandra's cell is an empty torture chamber. At the end of the prison corridor you will find another torture chamber with a few clerics, but which is otherwise empty.
The Skeleton Army
Go back to the door you could pry. Prepare your best spells, have a good rest, and prepare for battle. Having an extra fighter and an extra cleric at this point means you can last that much longer without needing to run away and rest.
When you're ready, force the door open, stay at the door, and take on the army of skeletons and handful of clerics that are in that room. When you feel like you're getting slaughtered, run to the nearest room (the one I told you to take note of earlier), close the door, and rest. Some tips:
- I like to prepare myself by casting Bless, Prayer, and Protection From Evil 10' Radius.
- Skeleton warriors are very resistant to magic, although spells may hit them at times. However, clerics are always vulnerable to spells.
- Turn Undead can be useful at times.
- Left clicking a character's shield with the mouse, right clicking to attack, and left clicking again to put the shield back will give you an extra (although weaker) attack while retaining your shield protection most of the time.
- Having Flame Blade and Shocking Grasp handy means your cleric(s) and mage(s) can replace injured warriors on the front line, and remain useful even when they have run out of missile weapons.
- It is actually possible to clear the room all in one go without resting. I did it while writing this walkthrough, and this screenshot shows my character beaten up near the end of the fight. To manage this, you need to make use of all your potions, scrolls, and some of the stuff in the room as well (when you've killed most of them and the rest are still out of sight). However, you will need your healing items badly in the next level, so it is best that you rest instead of wasting them now.
When you've cleared the room, help yourself to the loot, which includes:
- opposite the door:
- 2 cleric scrolls of cure serious wounds
- 2 iron rations
- a helmet (decorative - no AC bonus)
- short sword "Sting" (you later find out this is +2)
- leather boots
- axe "The Bait" (you later find out this is +2)
- in the niche:
- a cleric scroll of neutralize poison
- a dark moon key
- in a corner:
- another cleric scroll of neutralize poison
The Vision and the Way Down
The whole point of the destroying the legion of skeletons was to get the dark moon key. Back at the entrance, explore the area to your left until you reach a door with a dark moon lock. You need to unlock two doors after each other with two dark moon keys.
As you enter the final area in this level, a vision of Khelben appears.
In the room to your left are two niches, containing:
- a parchment
- the east wind (the second of the four horns)
- 2 potions of healing
- a potion of speed
There are two other parchments in the area hinting at a secret passage to the north. There is a cross section, where each of the other three paths starts with a pressure plate that triggers a fireball. If you step on it and avoid the fireball, it will remain pressed for a bit, so you can safely access that part.
Your party members will remark about the crumbling walls; however attacking them will be futile in most cases.
In fact, there is only one wall that will collapse due to your party's blows. A party member will comment about it being particularly weak. A couple of blows will tear down the wall, revealing the staircase down.
It is important to note that once you begin the next level, you can neither turn back nor rest until you finish the area. Thus it is important that you are fully rested, have all the spells you need, and also have a good stock of healing potions and scrolls.
Again, having an extra fighter and cleric in the party is a good boost. Although San-Raal is a very powerful mage, and you could very well go back to the ankh at the beginning of the temple and resurrect him, that isn't a very good idea at this point, because (1) he's very weak; (2) he becomes useless once he runs out of spells, and (3) he would take the place of one of your more useful party members.