[Alaric Jadin]

Here is the first part of finding the Underworld and Larad.
Note: you'll face some very difficult monsters in the Underworld. Some of the quest rewards you gain from doing the mini-quests in Etum are priceless. One is the Jewel of Well Being (Mass Healing 1x per day) I usually carry about 8 of them. They work like a area of mass destruction to undead. While undead can save out of it, Use another and you'll tag them. It takes them to near death so one hit will kill them. You should have either items or spells to protect against Death Magic. You will face demiliches, Dracoliches and other powerful undead. Once on Taer Prison Isle, none of your teleport items will work so stock up before you start.

From the Taer Portal stone, head south, take the middle exit and stay on the east(left) side of the map, keep moving south through several areas exit at Taer Oasis. head east to Taer prison dock. The boat there only takes you back to Etum. Take the area transition at the end of the pier to Taer Prison Isle.

Enter the Prison building in front of you, find your way around the hallway you'll see a central area with two rooms with a stairway leading down. This takes you down to the Prison complex proper. Here where it gets tricky. What you're looking for is a stone grate that leads down. There is an area script that places that stone grate in one of 8 different locations, if you go back up the stairs and come back down it can remain in the same place or appear in one of the other 7. If you hit tab or mouse over it , it will highlight blue. Sometimes it is in the warehouse area, you have to go up the stairs, exit the prison and go up and over to get to the warehouse...then it can have moved again...In the large area in upper left of the map. you'll find a map in a barrel which helps finding your way around.Just keep going up and down the stairs and keep looking for the grate.

Once you find your way down to the Catacombs, fight or sneak your way past Geletanous Cubes and Cursed Undead to a portal that takes you to the Upper level of the Underworld.
You can rest where you arrive in the Underworld in the lower left corner of the entry area. In this area you'll find Azer, Larad Soldiers\guards Demi-liches, Harpies, Admantium Golems, Bodaks and Larad's underling Vertigen Domax. He is undead so use a jewel on him. He hold the key to the underworld, plus the excellent longsword 'The Sword of the Storm" A +10 weapon that does electrical damage and has other useful effects. Find the stairs down in the upper left area of the map...Now you ready for level 2 of the Underworld.

To be continued in Part 2.

-Alaric

An edit note; I forgot to mention that Domax also can appear in one of 8 locations on this level. Sometimes near the demi-liches...sometimes in a hallway or side rooms. Besides protection from death magic you should be protected from fear. The cloak you gain from the werewolf mini-quest, or dragon slippers work.

[Alaric Jadin]

Just a quick note about my style of play. I'm not saying my way is the only way or the best way to play Rhun. But it's what works for me.

There are only 2 builds I play NWN 1.69 and EE. Cleric/wizard/Pale Master 17/3/20. The cleric build I have taken through the Original NWN Campaign, and Hordes of the Underdark. It is a solid build but it's very dependent on buffing spells (which can be interrupted during combat whwn surrounded by monsters or when facing a boss monster.

The cleric build is a good starter build (Domains of Magic and Trickery. He gains Mage armor and Divine might at level 1, at level 3 he gains 3 invisibility spells at level 3,Dark Fire at level 5, Stone skin at level 7 and Improved Invisibility at level 9. These are Domain spells, so you can cast with no penalty while wearing armor with a shield.

The Fighter build works best in Rhun, for gaining Devastating  Critical hits, some Boss Monsters are immune to Critical Hits, some aren't. The Pale master provides an Ac bonus of +2 at level 1 and at every 4th level (4,8,12,16,20) +12 to your armor is a great survivability boost. at level 10 Pale masters gain Immunity to Critical Hits (including Devastating Crits and Sneak attacks). Check the manual for the requirements for Pale Master. Taking at least 1 Wizard level gives you access to All the Arcane spells for sale in the Magic shops. My usual progression is Fighter (or Cleric) to level 7, Wizard to level 3 then Pale Master 1 level, then back to fighter to level 17, then Pale Master to level 20.

Some players just don their armor grab a weapon and clomp down the road, trail or dungeon hallway fight every monster that gets in the way. I prefer to fight my battles that are important with good items and high XP yields. If will take you a very long time to do any of the epic/high level quests and areas if you just "soldier through".
The best spell for traveling through around monsters is Greater Sanctuary. Often a monster will spot you and move toward you but it can't directly you. It can however cast area affect spells like earthquake or Storm of Vengeance.

I'll try to post the second part of finding your way to Larad'a lair (of course there is a trick to it. It's easy to do once you know it.) this weekend.

I hope all this helps.
-Alaric

[Alaric Jadin]

Okay, last post for awhile.

The last part of Taer Prison Isle Quest.
Once you enter the Underworld level 2, you face 2 locked doors. Open either door and your key is removed from your inventory. Either door will close and lock behind you, but there is a lever inside each door to open it from inside.
What you are looking for on this level are Taer Prison portal Crystals (red item) and Taer portal activation Crystals (blue item). The red crystals only work on Taer Prison Isle and take you back to the Prison upper level (and saves you a very long walk back). The blue crystal actuates a currently inert portal found in the lower left had corner of the Underworld Level 2 map. The red ones appear randomly on different monsters in this area. The blue ones ONLY appear on the body of a Morhg, keep killing Morghs untill you find one. Walk near the portal with a crystal in your inventory and the portal will trigger. Prep then enter the portal, and you will face another of Larad's underlings. Defeat it and take all the items. Don't rest here, enter the next portal that appears and this takes you to Larad's Lair.
You'll face more of the same enemies as level 2, Demonflesh Golems, Admantium Golems plus at least 2 Dracoliches. Fight them or slip past using Greater Sanctuary, and find your way down to Larad's last underling. After you kill her take the key from her body and rest then prep and enter and face Larad.
When fighting Larad, keep a close eye on your hit points, use a potion of heal whenever you hit points get down near 1/2. His key will only open one treasure chest, (none have I ever found to have epic items). The real treasure is the Dreamcatcher Longsword ( sells for about 13 million GPs, and the Book of Blades,Biting Bashing).

If you have red crystals, use one and teleport out to the upper prison level then exit the Island.

I hope all this helps with a really obscure quest that is difficult to complete, but has some very worthwhile rewards.

Maybe some one else will pick up this thread.
Take care everyone.

-Alaric

[Lachanadan]

I have been playing on an off for a few years now in the ee. before that in original i played more servers than i can count and my fav module was rhun to be honest. Now that i have discovered the forum and saw that you even shared the dm password. i would like to tell ya, Thank you very much for hosting this server and being a cool person.

cheers.

PS: i sort of know the module inside and out i have even got a handdrawn map on paper and excel with notes and everything. looks like there has been some talk regarding in game help earlier. hit me up for any questions anyone.

[butterfly_collector]

Hello,

I used to play this many years ago. I think no matter how many times rhun surprises you with exactly what a game should be it will happen again. This is like the best module for a game ever made.

I wish there were more people playing ...

If people appear, I will be one of them; I'll try even without them.

I hope the server keeps rhunning, it is the only module that is worth it.

[CarnivorousApe]

How we doing folks? I'm Carnivorous Ape. Finally found the Rhun server and I've been playing on servers and solo since high school. Even played custom rhun modules like Blood-n-Lust for years. I'll be running the members of the Rift Family. It's a callback to my OG account and I always have Baron as the lusty patriarch who has fathered and/or adopted the rest the family which are simply the rest of my characters. I generally play good characters accepted in Etum without having to talk to the drow in the brass dragon. Usually pixies, werecats and more of the base races. I'd like to add from an inconclusive statement I saw earlier that werecats are accepted in Etum even at night in their transformed state. Also if you want to play a subrace with requirements like say pixie that is rogue, sorcerer or wizard only, those requirements only apply to character creation. If you want to play a pixie sorcerer/ monk/ red dragon disciple with only a single level of sorcerer then take it at 1st level and make sure you're lawful neutral and you've got your sparkly mighty mouse.