No, there is no official "Brage-Dynaheir loop" quest per se, but the
following is a good way to wipe out several quests with minimal waste of
travel time. Since these quests are way out in the wilderness, load up
on lots and lots of everything.
First off, go to Nashkel mines and exit on the west side. Travel to
the first world map area to the west. I will call this Albert's woods.
Albert's woods
a. Larry, Darryl and his other brother Darryl - you will find three
critters (only one talks) who will give you their autograph. This is not
a joke. They are in the southeastern region of the map.
b. Vax and Zal - in the southwestern region of the map are two very
strong bandits who want to take your money. They easily wiped my party
out. Fight them if you want, but they are easy to avoid.
c. Albert and his dog - Albert, in the northwestern region, has lost
his dog. Help him find it (in the north central region) and he will
travel to another dimension (and give you 1000 exps.)
d. Return any hides you obtain from killing White Wolves to the store
keeper in Nashkel for $500 each.
From Albert's woods, go to the next area, which is slightly to the NW
of Albert's woods. I will call this area Dryad's woods
Dryad's woods
a. Dryad - just to the west of your entrance is a Dryad. If you are
good, agree to help her by going a ways south and killing a few brutes.
You will gain 500 exp and a rep point for this good deed. If you are evil,
do the opposite, and kill Dryad, but you will get 975 exp and loose SEVEN
reputation points!
b. Cave - in the southern is a cave with some substantial riches.
c. Drienne's kitty - a waterfall dominates this area. About halfway
up the fall is a pathway that runs underneath the fall. Follow it to meet
up with Drienne. Her (dead) kitty is at the bottom of the fall (click on
the fall itself). She does not enter another dimension, unfortunately.
She just kinda whines a bit and gives you some money.
Gnoll Stronghold - the Dynaheir quest
Part of me wants you to read this section and another part doesn't.
The Gnoll Stronghold is a complete nightmare, but it is also tons of fun
if you are patient (a lesson I need to learn). Before continuing on, consider
this:
a. the area is huge
b. Dynaheir is extremely hard to find.
c. Xvart and Gnoll armies are all over the place, regenerating at an
alarming rate
In other words, forget clearing the area and searching after all the
critters are dead. When you clear small area A and move into small area
B, small area A regenerates new gnolls and xvart in very short order. On
top of this, you practically have to be standing right on top of Dynaheir
in order to see her. So imagine an elaborate game of hide and seek in a
very large area where every false turn rewards you with more critters breathing
down your neck.
There are advantages with these disadvantages, though. Killing gnolls
garners some decent experience and loot, so if you choose to ignore my
solution below and just wander around, you will be richly rewarded. If
you go straight to Dynaheir, you will be missing out on this. And gnolls
are not that hard to kill. There's just a whole bunch of them.
Solution
a. Give Gnarl and Hairtooth 100 gps to cross the bridge. They demand
200, but I was able to talk them down. Or, just kill them. Or continue to
argue over the toll, they will attack, kill them
and get Gauntlets of Dexterity (18) and some other goodies.
b. Dynaheir is on the upper part of the stronghold, in the final circular
pit on the right. Again, you must be in the pit and right next to her before
the "fog of war" reveals her.
c. In the SW region is a series of caves with some good loot, xvarts
and a carrion worm (great experience builder!).
After you are done with the Gnoll quest, head back to the Dryad woods.
Then, exit the woods to the north. On the world map, select the woods roughly
NW of Dryad woods. This is Xvart forest.
Xvart forest
Walk up the mountain pass into a tiny village and you will see why
this is called Xvart forest. These woods aren't particularly difficult,
but make sure you kill all the first wave of Xvarts to trigger the summoning
of Ursa the Bear. Kill Ursa for some decent experience.
Exit the area to the west. On the world map, select the western woods
(across the river) just NW of Gnoll stronghold. This is Ogre forest.
Ogre forest
There are no huge quests here, but you can get some major experience:
a. Neville - in the NE, just east of the northern bridge, you will run
into Neville the bandit. He and his hob guards are easy to kill and carry
some decent loot.
b. Ogre Beserker bridge - the northern bridge is guarded by hobgoblin
elite (with poison arrows) and ogre beserkers. If you don't know by now,
poison in BG works differently than in most RPGs. You will lose points
fairly regularly once poisoned, but the poison eventually wears off.
Aside: The Ogre Beserkers are really tough, and if you don't have a
fighting strategy yet, here is a good place to form one. The one I sometimes
use is cowardly, but effective. It is by no means the only strategy (or
even the best), but I like it. All of my guys can use a bow, so I take
them and set them off in a clump in a clearing. Then I send my thief into
stealth mode and have her sneak up on the ogre beserker. She then stabs
him in the back and runs like hell (how noble). When she reaches her party,
she basically runs in a circle, taunting the ogre (if the ogre gets closer
to the party than to her, he will attack the party). The party then unloads
a ton of arrows and bullets into his sorry hide. Again, this is not very
noble, but frankly, if you have a party that can stand toe to toe with
several ogre beserkers, you either hacked the game or are some kind of
god. I have not and I am not, so I do what I can. You could wait and do
this forest later, but ogre beserkers yield big time experience points.
c. Jared - On the east side of the south bridge is a sniveling little man
named Jared. He wants you to kill a polar bear (!) on the other side of
the bridge. The polar bear is powerful but slow. He was dead before he
could cross the bridge. Killing the bear nets you 900xp, talk again to Jared and he gives
you some boots with 50% cold resistance.
d. Laurel - just to the west of the northern bridge is Laurel. She
wants you to help her fight gibberlings. The reward is meagre, but what
the hell (I told you I was an opportunist).
Go back to the Xvart forest and exit to the north. Go to the area to
the NW. This is Brage's forest.
Brage's forest
Before saving Brage (he is roughly north of the eastern entrance point),
try solving these others first. You can return to them later if you want.
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