Murkwood

Stormhold, Black Marsh

This week’s journey begins in the city of Stormhold. Right off the bat here we’re met with a rather confusing bug. When inquiring about Murkwood to the residents, we’re greeted with some strange gibberish instead of a follow-up location.

We are supposed to go the Conclave of Baal, but we are not quite done with the bugs yet. When we arrive at the temple, the priest greets us with a normal list of temple services and the quest dialogue doesn’t trigger. The same thing occurs later when we return with the quest item. Fortunately, closing out the game and reloading fixes the issue both times.

Talin must once again do some dungeon delving for an item depicting the location of our goal, in this instance, a tablet which is held in the Vaults of Gemin. Unfortunately for us, some time ago an apprentice of the temple accidentally triggered a cataclysmic spell within the vaults reducing them to ruins, which the temple masters buried deep beneath the earth. Prime dungeon fare.

The Vaults of Gemin

Upon arriving, Talin quicky cuts a swathe to the lower level of the vaults. This area is flooded, consisting of a huge underground lake with interconnected platforms on which sit the vaults themselves. Many smaller platforms dot the water, many of which hold stone golems and other enemies firing spells and projectiles.

On the southernmost platform we hit the jackpot, locked as is tradition by a (rather silly) riddle.

That’s an onion folks. With the door open, we retrieve the tablet, and in short order, we are on to…

Murkwood

The choking mists swirl around Talin's ankles as he trudges through the dark forest of Murkwood. Even with the aid of his magical light, he cannot see more than a few feet ahead of him. The wood is cloaked in an unnatural silence, occasionally broken by the sounds of disembodied breathing, whispers, and the distant booming of drums. Strange shapes and shadows pass him by in the mist before quickly moving out of sight. Tightening the grip on his sword, he trusts in intuition to guide him to the next piece of the staff. What other hope did he have?

This is an interesting one. Like Elden Grove, Murkwood is a forest themed dungeon, but the layout is quite a bit different. The the former had a layout reminiscent of the underground dungeons, but with a forest aesthetic. Murkwood however consists of a mostly open area, huge in scope. This renders tracing the outer wall (a go-to strategy for me) not particularly helpful, and the seemingly random walls and the dense fog make orientation difficult. The Light spell mitigates the fog somewhat, and with persistence or luck, you can find a small maze at the center of the level and within it, a set of steps leading down to a lower level.

The lower level consists of one large room with some pits separating the entrance from the riddle door. Surrounding the small room with the staff piece are six cells which contain iron golems, one of which opens each time you fail the riddle.

This one takes several tries, and there is not a single iron golem left standing by the time I am done. The answer is “water.” The seventh piece of the staff is joined to rest, and only one more remains. On our next rest, Ria appears to us again. The final piece of the staff lies in the depths of Morrowind’s great volcano Dagoth-Ur. The entrance to the tunnels beneath the mountain has been lost to time along with the dwarves who created them. A dangerous challenge awaits Talin, and his enemy appears to taunt the impossibility of his task. Join him next week as he braves the depths of the dread mountain and at last completes the Staff of Chaos.