Online:Blood on a King's Hands

Quick Walkthrough
#Enter the temple
#Find High Priestess Solgra
#Rescue High Priestess Solgra.
#Slay the attackers.
#Get to the moot.
#Rescue the chiefs.
#Talk to Chief Bazrag.

Detailed Walkthrough
thumb|Correct orientation of switches when facing the statue

You have been sent to the Temple of Ire to try and save High Priestess Solgra from the Vosh Rakh.  When you enter the doors, you will be greeted by Priest Uugus, who reports that soldiers have arrived with orders, and drawn weapons, to arrest Solgra.  If you sacrificed Talviah Aliaria at Paragon's Remembrance earlier, you will have learned enough of the plot in time for Eveli Sharp-Arrow to have already been sent to defend Solgra.

Heading up the stairs, out onto the upper level balcony - through a number of Vosh Rakh assassins - will lead you to Solgra (and Eveli, if she is present).  A short conversation follows, in which Solgra will reveal there is a path to the Moot area through the old tunnels under the Temple, and give you a key to the temple's library through which the secret passage can be reached.  There follows an assassination attempt from Penitent Vumnish: if Solgra is alone, she will be wounded, Uugus arriving too late to save her.  Uugus tells you to get the assassin, while he gets Solgra back to the temple.  If Eveli is present, she will be struck instead, and Solgra will tell you to chase the assassin while she gets Eveli back into the temple.  In either case, several assassins protect Vumnish, who will try to surrender when the guards are down: you have the choice as to whether to kill or spare Vumnish.

Next step is to call on your wounded friend in the temple.  If Solgra was wounded, the wound is unfortunately mortal: Bazrag, Eveli and Talviah have arrived only in time to mourn her death with Priest Uugus, and Bazrag - although a Malacath cultist himself - surprises everybody by commending her soul to Trinimac, on the grounds that she was a gentle soul and did not deserve Malacath's afterlife in the Ashpit. Bazrag will also swear vengeance on Kurog. If it was Eveli who was wounded, she will be still alive but gravely injured, with Solgra tending to her as best she can: and once again Bazrag will turn up in time to swear vengeance. In either case, you are directed up another set of stairs, to the Library.

Here follows a somewhat annoying puzzle: three blocks, each with four symbols, each need to be turned the right way. Clues are in fact in the books on the shelves - in TWO of the shelves in fact - and the chances are you've already encountered the books in question elsewhere, possibly randomly on other bookshelves. Reading all the bookshelves should give the clues necessary to open the secret passage. However, the orientation isn't all that obvious... nor is there much hint as to which books are needed.

How to actually solve the puzzle:

The "Fiction" shelf, second on the left as you enter, contains an account of the "Battle of Orsinium". It names three clans (Luccin, Bragosh and Ruskahr) having stood by the chief, and their positions (left, right and on the hills above - representing the position of the three blocks).  On the opposite side of the library, the "Clans of Wrothgar" book names six of the region's oldest clans, coincidentally including the three mentioned in the book opposite, and their symbols.  "Left" and "right" are from the perspective of the giant Malacath head itself at the back of the room, facing back towards the room entrance - the opposite way from where you entered.

 - Thus, Luccin (the wolf) will be on the right if you stand at the head facing the entrance (on the left as you come in): Bragosh (the hammer) should be on the left, and Ruskahr (the owl) up above on the balcony. The hammer of Bragosh and wolf of Luccin should face *forwards*, back down the room (so if you are looking from the entrance, the hammer is on the right and the wolf is on the left). By contrast, the owl should actually face back towards the chief, representing the Ruskahr archers in the hills with their bows, ready to fire their arrows into the killing field in front of their infantry down below (represented by the open area in front of the head statue).  Solving the puzzle causes the head to lift and revolve, revealing a secret passage below which Bazrag comments on.

(If you can't get it right, there are only 64 possible combinations...)

There is a door immediately beyond the secret passage, which is unlocked: Kurog's Vosh Rakh, running down the corridor to lock it from the other side, are too late. You'll have to fight your way through a number of underground passages, while hearing Kurog and Alga hectoring the other clan chiefs, eventually coming up to a portcullis with an area on the other side that resembles an arena.  There is no lever to open it, but Bazrag has the strength to lift it and tells you to go in and save the other chiefs.  You'll be attacked from all sides by Vosh Rakh soldiers, but should be able to save most of them, the rest will escape through the tunnel, before first Kurog and then Alga join in the fight against you.  If Kurog is in danger of dying before Alga, Alga will lend him her strength and heal him, so she must be taken down first, at which point he will enrage and return to full strength - then do the same again: it's a tough fight.  As he falls, Bazrag steps into the arena - not to exult in revenge, but in sorrow for what Kurog was, and the friend he used to be.  He says there is a danger of the Orcish clans fighting for control while ignoring the coming winter, several of them having lost their chiefs and others may be scrapping over power, and alternatively that Kurog may even somehow have "won" (although he does not explain how). He remains behind to pay his last respects to one that he once called Blade-Brother: as you go back into the tunnels you are greeted by one of the surviving chiefs, Ramash by name, who says the tunnels are now clear, "just stay close and follow me", resulting in immediate transport back to the Palace.

Returning to the Palace finds Bazrag, gazing at Kurog's giant statue, in a thoughtful mood. He has already been consulting the surviving chiefs,  and they have decided to host a proper funeral for Kurog despite the way he ended. Bazrag has come to admire the fact that the city has grown as it has, and is wondering what it will do now without a king, but he has a task for you: to take several letters to various friends and allies around town, inviting them to Kurog's funeral.


  

Quest Stages
 
 

 

Trivia
The subjects covered by the library, in  , include Orcish culinary books ( ), fictional stories ( ), religion ( ), Elves ( ), documents on the building of Orsinium ( ), Bretons ( ), Tamriel ( ), the clans of Wrothgar ( ), creatures ( ), crafting ( ), the restricted section ( ), Games ( ), and miscellaneous ( ).