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Lost Spires Walkthrough

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Lost Spires Walkthrough

by frelay October 2009


I am writing this walkthrough for several reasons.

1. Lost Spires is the best of the user adventure mods I have found and
played. It is comparable in quality to the best of main story quests.
And it works!! Unlike many other adventure mods
that I have tried.
2. During the second time playing it, I still had to slog through some of the
more extensive dungeons and puzzles. Writing the walkthrough motivates
me to go through it a third time.
3. There is no written walkthrough for Lost Spires that I can see. So I can
contribute in a small way to Oblivion modding by writing one, to help
pay back all the wonderful guides that made playing Oblivion so enjoyable.
4. The puzzles in Lost Spires are by no means tricky and obscure.
Otherwise a puzzle krutz like me would not have had a chance.
However, dungeons in Lost Spires are often extensive, and actions needed
to get the story moving are sometimes obscure. Having a workthrough
will enable more casual players to experience this great story.

The writers of Lost Spires do have a request that players of it
do not spoil the story. So this walkthrough tries its best to not contain
too many spoilers. Instead, this walkthrough focuses on clues to help the
player complete each quest to enable continued advancement of the story.
So the titles of the quests below do not correspond exactly to the ones in
the mod; and details are omitted, often deliberately.

Everyone should load the mod just to look at the items in the Archeology
Guild. The textures and the items are just amazing!!


General
-------

Each Quest in Lost Spires have a common format. You have to
wonder through lots of dungeon areas. The goal of each Quest is to get to
a particular Qiest Area. When you get to the Quest Area, there is always a
Quest Item that you have to obtain, that it, put into your inventory.
When you pick up the Quest Item, the mod will detect the event, and pop up
a window to tell you that your quest is complete, and what to do next.
Until you get this game advancement pop-up, you will not be able to get
further in the story.

It pays to go through all of the areas, even if you know the general way
to the Quest Area. There is always decent loot to get, and the picture of
the Lost Spire world fleshes itself out this way.
Also, often the correct Quest Area is at a corner of a place
that you did not bother to look for the first time there, so going back
to a visited place is also useful. When you do get to the right Quest
Area, there is no large obvious sign that tells you so. But if you are
observant, you can usually see clues directing you to the important thing
in the picture. And of course, many easy hints are provided in this
walkthrough.

Monsters that Lost Spires place in its dungeons can be quite strong
and defeating them can be quite difficult. So go prepared to take on
tough opponents. The loot at the chests and monsters of Lost Spires
are correspondingly powerful as well, and will go a long way to making
your character powerful, provided you can survive the battles.

In particular, the Souls of the creatures you meet are large, Greater
and Grand. So Souls are easy to get for your enchantment needs,
when you have the spells and equipment to use them.


Loading the Lost Spires
-----------------------

The Lost Spires can be found at their site at: http://www.lostspires.com/
There is a link as well as a mod with the name Lost Spires to them at
TES NEXUS http://www.testnexus.com/ .

Installation of the mod is standard. Just read the instructions.
Its not difficult if you have already have a few
Oblivion mods under your belt.

The readme at the Mod contains hints for the difficult areas, and some
console command options to get around difficult areas and
potential bugs. So its worth your while keeping it for reference.
There is also a Postmortem document to get through for the real hard
core readme reader.


Quests in Order
---------------

Zeroth Quest - Find and Join the Archeology Guild

After you load Lost Spires, a pop-up shows up telling you about the
Archeology Guild. The location is a castle south of the lake surronding
the Imperial capital.

Go into it and talk to Teav. After some amusing dialogue, Teav will let
you join. He then gives you this nice set of Archeology Robes.
The Robes enable easy living at low character levels, as they provide an
extra 100 points of health as well as other benefits.

Teav then tells you to introduce yourself to each of the four current
members at the castle, Aster Cei, Verus, Sova, and Norlene. This
is straightforward, but you have to go through the correct dialogue options to
get the quests completed.

While you are travelling though the castle, note the locations of
various display cases where you can get your rewards.
As you complete each task, there is often an option for reward. You will be
given a key that you can open the appropriate case to get the stuff.

You can also take stuff lying around without stealing at the castle
once you are a member, like other Guilds. And many things there are worth
money. As you progress in rank, it seems you can take more stuff that
are lying around. In particular, there are Elven weapons that are worth
grabbing early in your character's career.



First Quest - The Newfound Ruin

When the introductions are complete, talk to Teav again. Teav then tells you
to clear the Newfound Ruin so they can go study it.

This First Spire is at southeast of Skingrad. Its a series of caves,
and it is extensive. The start of the travels seems to require you
to jump down this hole. Don't get discouraged if you can't find the
right place right away, as you have to go through several intermediate caves.

The main problems in this Spire are the tough Savage Trolls.
Don't hold back on taking them out. A few hits from them kills you if you are
not careful.

When you get to the end, you find that the Quest Area is close to the
The Quest Item is a Matrix which you should take to Teav.



Second Quest - Tumyr's Dissolving Agent

When you bring the Matrix to Teav, he tells you to get a Dissolving
Agent from Tumyr to get rid of the debris covering the Matrix.

Find Tumyr at the Excavation Site due east of the Archeology Guild beside
Fort Alessia. Tumyr is inside a tent that you have to enter.
Once there, Tumyr tells you that you need to get Green Stain Shelf Caps
and then he can make a bottle of Dissolving Agent for you.
Once you get enough Green Stain Shelf Caps, go back to Tumyr, get the
Dissolving Agent, and you will be ready to bring it back to Teav to finish
the quest.

This is also an easy way to make money, as the Dissolving agent
can be sold to merchants for quite a lot of money. Tymyr will make
more for you once you get enough of the right Caps, and don't have another
bottle on you.



Third Quest - Rythor's Task

Now you get to meet Rythor, the head of the Guild. He gives you the task
of clearing a Mine so they can get to the Overgrown Spire. The Bloodvine
Mine is due east of Bravil near the mark Silverfish River on the map.

The quest marker is misleading for this one. You have to go INTO the
mine to talk to the Foreman. The Foreman then tells you that you have to clear
out a nest of Vampires. Hey. More Vampire Dust to turn over to the Order
of Virtuous Blood for more money!

So go and clear out all the vampires in the area.
When the last vampire is cleared from the Ancient Lair, it seems you
still have to get a Quest Item, the Ancient Lair Key, in a chest
at the end of the chamber. When I picked the Key up and
moved to the side door, a screen shows up to tell me that the
quest is finished. After that, go talk to the Foreman and the quest is
over.



Fourth Quest - Teav's Experiment

You go back to tell the Guild the good news. Teav tells you that the
Dissolving Agent revealed a glyph, which he transcribes for you.
And tells you to take the a picture of the glyph to Verus to see what
he can make of it and leaves.

Verus tells you to find a book seller Rathmer in Bravil to get a book to help
him decode the glyphs, and gives you some gold.
You have to get Rathmer's disposition high enough to get him to own up.
Then you can select dialogue options to get him to tells you to check up
on Miro, a scribe who is transcribing the glyphs in the book.

Go to Leyawin to find Miro, and you notice disaster. Miro's shop has been
has been burned down along with Miro!! You have to get the disposition
of the guard high enough to let you into the burnt shop. Then you have to
find the Quest Item to move the plot along. Hint: Its not on on Miro's
burntout shell, but its definitely in the burnt shop.

When you find the Quest Item, go back to talk to Rathmer.
Do so and then go back to talk to Verus. Verus then tells you to talk to
Aster Cei who tells you to scope out another Spire.



Fifth Quest - Pristine Spire

The new Pristine Spire is about due East of where you are now, by the
Cerbele River.

It has extensive caves like the first Spire, and the key place is about due
south of the entrance. There you will see a Celestial Portal. Get
yourself ready for a hard battle and enter, where you wind up at a
Celestial Area.

The boss, an Ascendant Warlock, is very tough. He seem to have Spell or
Damage Reflection on him, as well as hitting you with continuous blasts
as he notices you. So you will likely take a lot of damage as the fight goes
on. Just have a plan to kill him off before you die, and there are
some good stuff to loot in the Area as well.

The real tricky stuff comes after the battle. And the Lost Spire guide
even tells you how, since its so unobvious: The Quest Item is on the body
at the far end of the Celestial Area.



Sixth Quest - The Funeral

You take the Quest Item back to Verus, and he tells you to talk to Sova.
When you talk to Sova, she tells you dreadful news: A member of
the guild has been murdered. Sova also translate a key phrase from the
Quest Item you brought back.

In Sova's conversation, there is an option about the Funeral. Click on it
and she tells you that the ceremony will be at 11 O'Clock at night.

Its a little tricky to get the timing just right, since you only have
five minutes game time starting at 11 PM to initiate the funeral.
Otherwise the games goes on without you being in one. If you missed the time,
just reload and try again. The scene is worth the extra effort.



Seventh Quest - A Vengeance Unfulfilled

After the funeral, wait for a couple of hours, then go talk to Sova
who will promote you. Then go talk to Norlene. Select Help, then
Responsible Entities, and you get a quest to check out Rodon Dakkon
in Cheydinhall.

This is when you get to play the gangster heavy. Go and accost Dakkon
at his house, and decide what to do with him as your role playing dictates.
Dakkon tells you he purchased an artifact from Bandits, whose lair is near
Bravil. Thats where you go next.

The Bandits Lair is an extensive dungeon. Dwyff is at the far south east
side, and you have to cross a water channel to get to him.
Once you get there, you have to kill Dwyff. Then you still need to find
the Quest Item, which is a Warlock Scroll inside the tent.



Eight Quest - The Primeval Hollow

Take the Scroll to Norlene and she tells you that it reveals another site
to explore. So go to the Primeval Hollow which is at the South Eastern part
of the map. Its much bigger than it looks from the outside.
Enjoy the unique ambiance, and those Minotaurs hit really hard.

The important quest area is east and south of the entrance. It is not
where the giant crabs are. You will eventually get to a door to a
Lost Deity Shrine. Go into it and you are in a nice area with no monsters
to battle. The Quest Item is at the base of statue. Take that to Norlene
and he tells you to talk to Sova.



Ninth Quest - The Lost Labyrinth

Sova tells you to look in a labyrith in the Imperial City Elven Gardens.
The following instructions may be a little hard to follow, since this
is the puzzle part of this adventure.

Go to the sewer grate where Baurus entered in the Main Quest and you
should see the labyrinth at the local map directly south east.
Go up stairs to jump down into the area and you can start the trek.

Go to the end of the oval corridor to push a block to open the grate
blocking you way. Then turn left at the next grate.
Follow the path starting south east and around the whole large dungeon
and you eventually get back to the entrance, where you can now get into
the Lost Ayelid Ruin Strucure.

You run into lots of Skeletons, a few swinging blades, and through many
raised platforms. You then reach a locked gate, and will have go back to
the center of the previous large room - to push a block - to open.
Then go in a south east direction from the opened gate.

After you get into a structure, you run into this large room, where
you have to step onto a couple of plates, then push a couple of buttons
to get access to side corridors. Go through either side corridor to get
around to the back room. Then go downstairs at the middle and you will meet
Lord Pratal.

Kill Lord Pratal and take his key from his Coffer. With this key go through
the side door there and you can push the block that raises the stairs to the
center of the back room. There you can get the Labyrinth Key which opens
a gate that blocks your way to the real Lost Labyrinth.

The Labyrinth can be traversed if you map it out manually, by
writing down the map on a piece of paper and tracing all the walls.
So I won't draw you a map. Just clear out those distracting Skeletons first.

When you get through to the other end, you go through a corridor and wind up
at this Sarcophagus. Beside the Sarcophagus is the Quest Item which you
return to Sova. Talk to Aster Cei and he tells you to look for another Spire
Spire at the South East part of the world map.



Tenth Quest - The Beseiged Spire

Go to where Aster Cei tells you and you find the Beseiged Spire.
Its another extensive Spire caves infested with Goblins.
The Quest Area is far east then slightly north
of the entrance, where you find another
Celestial Portal. You don't have to go into the Portal.
But if you do, the Ascendant Warlock is even harder than
the previous one as he has extra tricks to cause you pain.

Tell Sova and she tells you Rythor wants to talk to you. Go see
Rythor in the Guild Library who tells you to go to check on the
Mining Tunnel.




Eleventh Quest - Overgrown Spire

Go to Bloodvein Mine where you get into a tough fight immediately.
After you dispose of the creatures you find all the miners have
been killed from the new area they have opened.

Go into the Bloodvein Mine Side Tunnel, where you go through a series
of mines, and clear out the Daedroths and Clannfears, where you will
reach the Overgrown Spire.

There is a side area to the west, the Dank Lair. You may be able
to get some items to help with the main quest, and it may involve
freeing a sorceror's prisoner. But I skipped it this time, and
just headed south.

You have to cross molten river where Water Walking is extremel useful
for survival. The Quest Area is south and then a little west, where
you see the Quest Item hanging in the middle of Lava.
It is reachable out on the bridge.

There is a Celestial Portal, and going into it to take
on the Ascendant Warlock
is optional, but there is some good loot there.


Twelveth Quest - Fifth Spire


Then its just a matter of taking the Quest Item to Rythor.
Rythor takes the Quest Item and gives you a pendant.
Take the pendant to Aster Cei who provides you with the
location to a Fifth spire near Sacre Tor at the north part of the world map.

Go to the Fifth Spire. The Quest Area is not too far West of the entrance.
Make a game save since advancing the plot seem tricky here.

Click on the body there and your Quest will update. Then pick up
the Quest Item on the body. Then read it. A long voice soliloquy is
starts that you can't stop. Its worth listening through since this
is the emotional and plot climax of the whole story.
Save the game as the first opportunity, since getting through these
plot advancement seem tricky.

Click on EXIT and your quest updates to talk to Aster Cei.
DO NOT Click on the TAKE Button since the program crashed on me when
I did that.


Thirteenth Quest - The Revelation

Go talk to Aster Cei, who
gives you a key that you have to use to get into
the Quest Area. Inside the Quest Area, you find a Quest Item
inside the desk. With the Quest Item you can now get into the
dungeon area. The entrance to the dungeon is at the north side of
the room, and is easy to miss if you don't know its there.

After this the game is fairly straight forward. Of course, there will be lots
of battles to befit the ending of one of the best MOD adventure ever written.

But there is more!! There is this BIG FINAL BOSS
that is tougher than just any boss you have ever faced in Oblivion.
Figuring out how to get through it, and surviving the firewall
afterwards, will be left as an exercise for the reader.

With this, we are at the end of this long and grueling adventure.
There is not much else to
do. You can go through the rest of Oblivion, or start the whole thing
all over again. Of course there is still the Zinj puzzle to figure out,
but you will not get any help from here, since that is a REAL puzzle
and beyond my comprehension.



Copyright by frelay October 2009
Usage of this work is provided by the author under the Creative Commons License