The Mage Stronghold is a stronghold quest during the Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn campaign. It is only available if Gorion's Ward is a Mage or Sorcerer with no other stronghold, and the Inside the Planar Sphere side quest has been completed. Claiming the sphere will disallow any other strongholds.
As part of the Planar Sphere quest, Lavok asks that you take him outside to see the sun of his home world once more before he dies. After a short dialog, Lavok grants you ownership of the sphere and tasks you to use it more wisely than he did.
To continue the Mage Stronghold quest, return back inside the sphere where Reyna and her Knights of Solomnia recognize you as the new master of the sphere. They request your help in returning home. Immediately after speaking with the knights, a Cowled Wizard emissary named Teos enters the hall via Dimension Door and initiates bargaining.
Claiming the Sphere[]
Teos offers Gorion's Ward a deal: prove you can be "responsible" (i.e., obedient to the Cowled Wizards) and they will let you maintain control over the sphere and all its many secrets. The quest is divided into a series of tasks to prove you worthy to keep the sphere.
Benefits[]
Unlike some Strongholds, the Planar Sphere provides no financial support. It is simply a show of status, and a source of experience while undertaking the quest. However, if the player ensured that all of the apprentices survived the training process, then Morul will return to the sphere and ask to stay on as the player's apprentice. Accepting means that Morul will randomly produce one of four sets of potions every week, which can be used or sold as the player sees fit.
Gameplay[]
Task 1: Returning the Knights of Solamnia[]
The first matter is to get the Knights of Solamnia out of the sphere. Teos' advice includes killing the knights, joining the Order of the Radiant Heart, or asking Ribald Barterman at Adventurer Mart who may know a wizard able to plane-shift the Knights back to Krynn. Killing the knights gets you very little experience or quest award, and no items other than mundane arms and armor, leaving two preferable options.
- Speaking to Prelate Wessalen in the Athkatla Temple confirms that they would be happy to accept the Knights. If the player relays this to the knights, they will move out to the Order's temple, somewhat sad, but willing to forge a new life for themselves here. The player is rewarded with 45,000 XP, or,
- Ribald Barterman knows a Cowled Wizard named Khollynnus Paac who can help for a fee of 9,000
. If paid, she teleports to the Sphere 24 hours later and sends the joyous Knights back to their own world. Your reward is 45,000 XP, and the Golden Girdle of Urnst (which can neither be pick-pocketed from, nor dropped by, the knights).
Task 2: Apprenticeships[]
Teos returns 24 hours later with your first true assignment; training three young apprentices to become full-fledged Cowled Wizards. Morul, Larz and Nara must undertake three lessons in the Planar Sphere, bending their talents towards proving themselves in three areas, with end-goals set by the player. However, because of the deadliness of magic, it's possible that they may not survive the teaching.
The apprentices move to the Golem Laboratory to receive instructions and craft their items.
Refusing to give instructions[]
In the dialogue that would lead up to the first lesson, you have the chance to tell the apprentices to just get out of your way and do whatever they want. This results in them creating a Ring of Wizardry: Reaching Ring but causes them all to die. (The ring will be dropped on the floor.) If you care about nothing other than to get this ring, this is the quickest way to get it; otherwise you can also have them craft it during lesson three at the cost of two of them dying.
Lesson One: Crafting[]
The first lesson is creating basic magic items. Nara offers to make the Dagger of CHARNAME (a Dagger +1 named after Gorion's Ward), while Larz wants to create a Wand of Apprenti (randomly fires either a Cone of Cold, Fireball or Lightning Bolt), and Morul offers to make a Ring of the Princes +1. Regardless of the choice of item, the task will take four days to complete, and requires gold to cover material costs.
- The dagger costs 250 and has a 5% chance of failing, but no one dies.
- The wand costs 1,000 , with 15% failure rate, and no one dies. It comes fully charged (50 Max).
- The ring costs 2,000 , with 30% failure rate. Regardless of outcome, Larz dies.
Hint: The game engine decides whether the task will succeed or fail right in the moment where you tell the apprentices which item to build, and there's a "trick" to figuring out which choice the game made. If the item's creation will succeed, then Morul's dialogue will say that the task will take "a few days" (or in the case of the ring, "four or five days"). If the creation will fail, Morul instead says that it will take exactly "four days." (The actual time they take doesn't change; only Morul's choice of words.) So if he says that it will take exactly "four days" but you really want the item, you may wish to reload the game and try again.
Lesson Two: Scribing[]
The second lesson is creating spell scrolls. The three choices for this lesson are Mislead, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, and Meteor Swarm, in that order of difficulty. They take 4 days to be fabricated. The higher the spell's level, the more likely it is that its creation will fail.
- Mislead is safe, costs 250 with a 10% chance of failure.
- Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting , is safe at 1,000 and 25% chance of failure.
- Meteor Swarm costs 2,500 with 40% failure rate, but kills Nara regardless.
Like with the previous lesson, Morul's choice of words after being tasked with the inscription can reveal whether the game decided that the creation of the scroll will fail or not, but this time the meaning of the words depend on the chosen scroll and it only works for the two easier scrolls.
If you've chosen Mislead, then the phrase "a few days" indicates success and "another four days" indicates failure. For ADHW, the phrase "four or five days" indicates success whereas "a few days" indicates failure. For Meteor Swarm, there's no way to tell from the dialogue whether the game decided on success or failure; your only way to know is to check what the global variable "Apprenti" was set to (11 = success, 12 = failure) by using the console or looking at your save game with a tool like Near Infinity.
Lesson Three: Enchanting[]
For their final lesson, the apprentices must attempt to create a more powerful magical item, offering the choice between the Robe of the Apprenti, the Ring of Wizardry: Reaching Ring, and a Staff of Power.
The player may declare that they are not ready to tackle such potent magecraft yet, and that their training is already complete. This is the only way to ensure that nobody dies.
- Robe: 250 , failure 80%, kills one (leaving none if Larz and Nara already died).
- Ring: 3,000 , failure 50%, kills 1-2. (If Larz and Nara are both alive, they die, leaving only Morul. If anyone already died, all remaining die.)
- Staff: 10,000 , only 40% failure, but it kills any/all who remain.
There is no way to determine from the dialogue whether the game decided on success or failure for the creation of the item. If item creation was successful, but all apprentices die, the item is dropped to the ground.
Graduation[]
One day after the three lessons are complete, return to the Entrance Hall in the sphere, and Teos will hold a short graduation ceremony in the Rune Room. He's amazed if all of them survived, nonchalant about losing one or two, and chides you if you killed them all. If all apprentices survived, you receive 50,000 XP. Otherwise, you get nothing.
A one-time NPC named William 'Bill' Williamson gives the graduation speech, welcoming them ironically, "into the real world, a world where [they] are actually restricted from using the skills [they] have studied."
After thanking you, any remaining apprentices Dimension Door out of the sphere, and you have the opportunity to ask Teos about Imoen. "That's it? You've nothing else for me? What about my friend Imoen?" Teos replies with a clue that he is, "getting nowhere with official channels... as though we are having trouble contacting all of our resources..."
Task 3: Assassination[]
Two days after the graduation ceremony, Sergeant Natula will approach you and tell you that Teos wishes to speak to you in the Planar Sphere. When you arrive at the Entrance Hall, Teos is confused. He was told that Gorion's Ward wanted to speak to him.
Both parties are then ambushed by Sergeant Natula and his group Gating in to surround the party. While Teos escapes through a Dimension Door, the party is left to fend for themselves against Natula (a fighter), and six others, including three other fighter-assassins named Tyrian, Vilhelm, and Jalin Tix, along with Alnarow (a thief), Mahar (a monk), and Sorsha (a druid). The entire group is worth 36,000 XP when killed.
Assassination Attempt Lavok's Sphere
After the ambush is foiled, Teos returns and explains that Natula was a pawn of an anti-magic fanatic, one Lord Ketlaar Argrim, who wants to see all mages driven from Athkatla, including the Cowled Wizards, and now also, Gorion's Ward. Teos wants you to "disappear" Lord Argrim, clarifying:
"I do not mean kill him, I mean disappear. Forever. With a specially attuned Rune of Imprisonment... Obviously the Cowled Wizards cannot be implicated. That is where you come in."
If you accept the task, Teos gives the protagonist a Rune of Imprisonment to make Lord Argrim literally disappear, saying it will be better than killing him, which would create a martyr for others to avenge. He warns, "Be careful, it will only work on Lord Argrim and it has a frightfully long casting time." You can call him out on it, by asking, "You had this ever-so-special rune on you? I smell a rat." Teos admits that perhaps Lord Argrim's Assassins were, "encouraged to find you, but that changes nothing. It's him or you..."
Lord Argrim and his defenders are hiding on the upper floor of the Crooked Crane Inn at the Athkatla City Gates. The entire group is worth 5,974 XP to the party. Once his men are dead and Argrim is either Imprisoned or Dead, you may return to the Planar Sphere. After reporting back, the party is granted 7,500 XP for dealing with Argrim. Teos is satisfied if you imprisoned Argrim, but will berate you if you killed him, complaining that "..a hundred more will follow in his wake... Regardless..." Teos still has "some news of your friend Imoen..."
Quest Completion[]
Teos reveals that Imoen was taken to Spellhold and that, "The Cowled Wizards are no longer in control of the situation," reinforcing the earlier clue about "trouble contacting their resources" there. But for now, you have passed all of the Cowled Wizards' tests and the sphere now belongs to you. Teos leaves via Dimension Door.
If all of your apprentices survived, Morul will teleport back to the Sphere after Teos leaves, to ask if he may remain as your apprentice. Accepting will give you access to his weekly potion batches.
Mod content[]
- This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.
Mods:[]
The Planar Sphere Mod (or its abridged EE port, the Expanded Mage Stronghold mod) expands the mage stronghold. If installed, Teos reappears after the original tasks to make the protagonist a new offer.
Gallery:[]
- People involved
- Portraits from Portraits Portraits Everywhere
