0
Upgrade to version 1.1 IMMEDIATELY.
This FAQ will frequently refer to game coordinates (i.e., the dagger is
located at X-15, Y-10, underneath some rubble). Press - to display
the coordinates of your current position.
The game objective is made pretty clear by Thera, during the game intro: "I am
Thera, Goddess of Earth. Prepare yourself, your journey awaits. You must
descend to the lost city of Stonekeep and retrieve the nine recepticles. To
protect you from the magic of the darker realm, I must free your spirit.
Achieve your goal, and Stonekeep and I will be free. Fail, and you will be
entombed with the forces of darkness ... forever." Phew! All that from memory.
I've definately been playing this game too long.
In any event, your job is to find the Nine Recepticles of the Gods, and
restore them to Thera's Temple. Simple, right? Only there's all kinds of
really nasty monsters, viscious traps, and confusing puzzles along the way.
Sheer adventure!!
Throwing weapons are mentioned first, because they're the first weapons you
get any real experience in. The Stonekeep Instruction Manual (such as it is),
describes how Drake can find and use a rock in the "Getting Started" section
(p.20 - 21). The following objects can be used as throwing weapons (listed in
order of "effectiveness"): skulls, rocks, darts, crossbow bolts, arrows (yes,
you can throw arrows and bolts without a bow; I never figured out why),
daggers, hand-axe, and a spear.
To throw a weapon, first you must activate it. Activate a weapon by taking it
out of your inventory (move the cursor to the right of the screen, when it
turns to a scroll, right click the mouse; grab the item you want and click to
close the scroll). The higher you hold the object, the harder Drake will throw
it. Don't hold it too high -- sometimes you'll throw it right over your
enemies head!
Do "The Wahooka Shuffle." Basically, you close to the same square as your
adversary, you hold down your mouse button (so that your weapon just keeps
swinging at the bad guy) and hold down your or
buttons. This causes Drake to just spin around and around, swing at the beast.
If you keep your cursor centered on the creature, you really do end up doing
more damage to them than they can do to you.
For most creatures, the best strategy is to attack them with all thrown &
projectile (if you have any) weapons first: rocks, crossbow bolts, bows).
Whittle those hit points down. Keep retreating and firing until you run out of
ammo.
Later in the game, the opponents are tougher. You'll need some of the runes to
be effective in combat. The best tactic you can have is to cast INVISIBILITY
on your party, and then spell yourself up with STRENGTH-TRIPPLE (strength,
with the tripple meta rune added on). While invisible, nothing will attack you
... and with tripple strength it doesn't take much to whale on 'em. Aim for
the face always, or places where there is no armor!
Sometimes, it just makes sense to use the runes instead of combat. I usually
avoid offensive runes, because I like to use the mana for healing, teleporting
and defensive/protective spells. I can hit unlimited times with a sword, but
can only case a finite number of fireballs before my runecaster wears out.
However, there are times when it just makes sense to use the runecaster:
firebolts on the Ice Queen and her Ice Ball minions, Ice bolts on the Fire
elementals, shrink runes are enemies that are bigger than you, etc.
Runes are used to cast magical spells. When you start the game, you will have
no magical ability and will not know any Runes. After you have found the
Journal (see 2-5) you will have a medium for recording runes. Thereafter,
whenever you find a rune scroll in the lands of Stonekeep, that rune will
automatically be recorded into your journal. A runecaster is simply a stick on
which you inscribe runes that you've collected in your journal. Pages 11-12 of
the Interplay Stonekeep Instruction manual outline how runes are placed onto
runecasters.
Learning to cast runes will become crucial to your success in the game. Many
runes are offensive in nature (such as fire, wind, ice), and these are the
simplest to cast. Simply equip Drake with a Rune Stick, click the right mouse
button (if the stick is in Drake's right hand), and this will bring the weapon
up in front of Drake. Center the crosshair cursor on the bad monster, and then
click the right mouse button again. Whoosh -- there goes the spell effect
against the bad guy!
Some runes (such as strength, armor and healing) are defensive in nature and
are intended to be cast on yourself, or members of your party. To cast these
runes, first inscribe them on your rune stick. Raise the rune stick forward by
pressing the right mouse button (if the stick is in your right hand), select
the rune you want to cast. Type "M" to bring up Type "M" to bring up Mystic
Mirror of Afri, and place the crosshair cursor over the charcter to be healed.
Press the right mouse button again and , you're
affected by the spell.
To teleport in the game, you need to have both the Home Rune (Feeding Grounds
1, X-25, Y-19) and the Teleport Rune (Dwarven Fortress, X-01, Y-19). It's
usually a good idea to cast your Home Rune near a Mana Circle (so that when
you teleport to "home", you are near a circle at which you can quickly
recharge). Inscribe the Home Rune on your Rune stick (see section 4-1), and
then bring the rune stick forward. Be sure there is a section of corridor in
front of you (not a wall) and select the Home rune. Press the mouse button
with the cursor straight in front of you. Whamo -- blue home circle.
The teleport rune will ALWAYS teleport you to the home circle. If you don't
have a home circle inscribed somewhere, the all activating the teleport rune
will do is suck mana from your stick! After a Home circle is laid out
somewhere, inscribe the Teleport rune on your stick (see 4-1) and then bring
the rune stick forward. Select the Teleport rune and press the button. Blink
-- you're home.
In the opening intro, Thera tells Drake that he "must retrieve the nine
receptacles." Khul-Khum, the Dark Brother, betrayed the 9 gods, and imprisoned
them within small orbs. The gods will be set free only when Drake is
successful in restoring them to Thera's Temple.
Having difficulty finding the 9 Recepticles? Here's where they are located:
Afri (Held by 2 tough Shargas in the Ruins of Stonekeep 1, x13, y14)
Aquila (In a chest in the Sharga Mines 1, x18, y28)
Azrael (In the left eye of a Throggi Statue, Temple of Throggi, x18, y4)
Yoth-Soggoth (Held by a big, mean troll, x34, y25)
Helion (Caverns of Ice)
Safrinni (On the floor in the Pits, x19, y4)
Marif (Giant orb at x17, y18 -- use Shrink rune to make this orb normal size)
Thera (Tower of Shadows 4, x4, y10)
Kor Soggoth (Tower of Shadows 4, x5, y10)
Khull Khum (Tower of Shadows 4, x5, y10)
What do the Nine Recepticles Do
5-3-1 Afri (Vision Seeker): Shows a *complete* map of the surrounding area
(within 5 squares in any direction), including hidden passages. Very helpful
if you can't find away past a certain wall or object -- because Afri may show
you that there really IS nothing on the other side of that wall.
Follow the basic "Getting Started" directions in the instruction manual that
came with your CD-ROM. Basically, get the skull and a rock. Kill the wandering
giant ant, read the sign, find the guardroom, get the dagger and the leather
armor find the only other door in this section of the Entrance Level. The door
won't open, but if you throw that switch to the left of the door, you'll be on
your way. Don't worry, the other tricks in the game are a lot more subtle!
There are two doors on this level which seem impassable. These doors either
don't have any keyholes, or don't have keyholes on this side. You'll have to
keep exploring to get to the other side of these doors.
There are two "tough" goblins at x13, y14. New players sometimes have
difficulty killing these beasties off. Advice tendered here is to throw your
burning oil flasks, rocks, daggers, skulls -- anything. Try to whittle them
down from afar. Then enter the room and start attacking them directly. Keep
moving, keep circling -- do Randy's "Whahooka Shuffle". When you start getting
hurt badly, leave the room and seek out the healing fountain.
The Green Slime has the ivory key at x22, y5 on the Ruins of Stonekeep 2
level.
Walk the corridors until you hear the wind sound (if you have headphones on,
you can even tell which direction the wind is blowing from ... which is pretty
cool on Interplay's part!). That wind is coming from a small hole -- which
Drake can barely squeeze through (treat it like an illusionary wall).
There are two windy passages on this level, and one of them leads to a passage
out.
There is an Ettin (two-headed giant) roaming about the Sharga Mines Level 1.
You cannot kill this creature (no matter how strong the NPC's are in your
party), but you can get his treasure by using the Silence spell.
The Throggi Priests use this statue head to recharge their Rune Scepters. Take
one of your rune sticks from your inventory, hold it up to the statue and
click your mouse button. Your rune sceptre is now recharged. Warning! If you
don't hold anything up for the Throggi God to charge, you'll be blasted with
lightning!
To get the Duck Rune from the Faerie Players, give them a mushroom.
There is a magical Horn of Fear hidden at X-##, Y-## of the Farie Realm. The
Horn casts a Fear spell at enemies, causing them to run away.
The stump like pyramid at X-10, Y-08 is a one-time rune staff recharge. Place
the cursor over the object until Drake's hand appears, then trigger your
mouse. All your rune staffs are recharged.
Some cave-in walls are dead-ends, others can be gotten past by chipping at
them with your weapon (or a fist). More than likely, there is nothing beyond
these passages. They're just a dead end. You can verify this by using Afri's
Orb. Simply walk up to the wall, take Afri's Orb from your inventory, and
place it before you. If Afri the visionary can't see anything beyond that
wall, than there is no game there! Another way to test the wall is to whack it
with your weapon -- if you here a clang, than it's a wall that you can get
past. Just keep chipping at it. If you here nothing, then you can't affect
that wall.
Find the Ice Queens Throne at X-##, Y-## and cast Fire or Warmth at the
throne. It will melt into a small puddle, which will heal your party to full
(only once).
Use the scroll from the dark Dwarves lair. The O's represent buttons you push
on the puzzels and the x's buttons you don't. count them from the top, left to
right. then just push the appropriate numbered button and your done. for
example Push the 1st, 2nd and 8th buttons, three more and the magic door
across the way will open...
At X-15, Y-03 there is a door to Tower of Shadows 3. Wahooka gives you a big
clue on opening this door, when he tells you that you need to use magic. Cast
a Spoilspell or the Murphy rune to unlock the door. The Spoilspell Rune is
acquired at the Temple of Throggi (X-21, Y-20), and Murph's Rune is in the
Faerie Realm (X-9, Y1).
Break it. If the dark dwarves are still alive they give you some information.
It's not a cross, but an insert. When you find the silver cross, insert it
here!
If you are playing version 1.0, there is a helpful bug (that's unusual) that
gives you free hit points. There are 3 places (2 signs and 1 secret panel)
which, when touched, do damage but raise your max hit points by 20. DO NOT
remove the dust from these with fire, water or wind spells; this dust is what
raises your points. The best technique is to save, then ttouch a few times,
heal to max, touch some more. DO NOT exceed 980 or you will be dumped out of
the game. You can show the numeric values by clicking on your health bar on
the mirror.
This was fixed (awww, rats!) in version 1.1, as it seems the update to v1.1
has fixed this -- you now *lose* 20 health, permanently...
RUMORS: The following of rumors that I haven't been able to check up on yet.
There is an easter egg in the game where Kevin Bass (credited in the game as
being responsible for Sharga interactions or something) is mentioned by Drake
or some of the NPC's. You only get this if you have the very sharp dagger.
- There is a note in the Dwarf hall about Quality Assurance missing this
particular scroll.
- Jim is spelled out in an inaccessible area of the game
This FAQ will frequently refer to game coordinates (i.e., the dagger is
located at X-15, Y-10, underneath some rubble). Press - to display
the coordinates of your current position.
The game objective is made pretty clear by Thera, during the game intro: "I am
Thera, Goddess of Earth. Prepare yourself, your journey awaits. You must
descend to the lost city of Stonekeep and retrieve the nine recepticles. To
protect you from the magic of the darker realm, I must free your spirit.
Achieve your goal, and Stonekeep and I will be free. Fail, and you will be
entombed with the forces of darkness ... forever." Phew! All that from memory.
I've definately been playing this game too long.
In any event, your job is to find the Nine Recepticles of the Gods, and
restore them to Thera's Temple. Simple, right? Only there's all kinds of
really nasty monsters, viscious traps, and confusing puzzles along the way.
Sheer adventure!!
Throwing weapons are mentioned first, because they're the first weapons you
get any real experience in. The Stonekeep Instruction Manual (such as it is),
describes how Drake can find and use a rock in the "Getting Started" section
(p.20 - 21). The following objects can be used as throwing weapons (listed in
order of "effectiveness"): skulls, rocks, darts, crossbow bolts, arrows (yes,
you can throw arrows and bolts without a bow; I never figured out why),
daggers, hand-axe, and a spear.
To throw a weapon, first you must activate it. Activate a weapon by taking it
out of your inventory (move the cursor to the right of the screen, when it
turns to a scroll, right click the mouse; grab the item you want and click to
close the scroll). The higher you hold the object, the harder Drake will throw
it. Don't hold it too high -- sometimes you'll throw it right over your
enemies head!
Do "The Wahooka Shuffle." Basically, you close to the same square as your
adversary, you hold down your mouse button (so that your weapon just keeps
swinging at the bad guy) and hold down your or
buttons. This causes Drake to just spin around and around, swing at the beast.
If you keep your cursor centered on the creature, you really do end up doing
more damage to them than they can do to you.
For most creatures, the best strategy is to attack them with all thrown &
projectile (if you have any) weapons first: rocks, crossbow bolts, bows).
Whittle those hit points down. Keep retreating and firing until you run out of
ammo.
Later in the game, the opponents are tougher. You'll need some of the runes to
be effective in combat. The best tactic you can have is to cast INVISIBILITY
on your party, and then spell yourself up with STRENGTH-TRIPPLE (strength,
with the tripple meta rune added on). While invisible, nothing will attack you
... and with tripple strength it doesn't take much to whale on 'em. Aim for
the face always, or places where there is no armor!
Sometimes, it just makes sense to use the runes instead of combat. I usually
avoid offensive runes, because I like to use the mana for healing, teleporting
and defensive/protective spells. I can hit unlimited times with a sword, but
can only case a finite number of fireballs before my runecaster wears out.
However, there are times when it just makes sense to use the runecaster:
firebolts on the Ice Queen and her Ice Ball minions, Ice bolts on the Fire
elementals, shrink runes are enemies that are bigger than you, etc.
Runes are used to cast magical spells. When you start the game, you will have
no magical ability and will not know any Runes. After you have found the
Journal (see 2-5) you will have a medium for recording runes. Thereafter,
whenever you find a rune scroll in the lands of Stonekeep, that rune will
automatically be recorded into your journal. A runecaster is simply a stick on
which you inscribe runes that you've collected in your journal. Pages 11-12 of
the Interplay Stonekeep Instruction manual outline how runes are placed onto
runecasters.
Learning to cast runes will become crucial to your success in the game. Many
runes are offensive in nature (such as fire, wind, ice), and these are the
simplest to cast. Simply equip Drake with a Rune Stick, click the right mouse
button (if the stick is in Drake's right hand), and this will bring the weapon
up in front of Drake. Center the crosshair cursor on the bad monster, and then
click the right mouse button again. Whoosh -- there goes the spell effect
against the bad guy!
Some runes (such as strength, armor and healing) are defensive in nature and
are intended to be cast on yourself, or members of your party. To cast these
runes, first inscribe them on your rune stick. Raise the rune stick forward by
pressing the right mouse button (if the stick is in your right hand), select
the rune you want to cast. Type "M" to bring up Type "M" to bring up Mystic
Mirror of Afri, and place the crosshair cursor over the charcter to be healed.
Press the right mouse button again and , you're
affected by the spell.
To teleport in the game, you need to have both the Home Rune (Feeding Grounds
1, X-25, Y-19) and the Teleport Rune (Dwarven Fortress, X-01, Y-19). It's
usually a good idea to cast your Home Rune near a Mana Circle (so that when
you teleport to "home", you are near a circle at which you can quickly
recharge). Inscribe the Home Rune on your Rune stick (see section 4-1), and
then bring the rune stick forward. Be sure there is a section of corridor in
front of you (not a wall) and select the Home rune. Press the mouse button
with the cursor straight in front of you. Whamo -- blue home circle.
The teleport rune will ALWAYS teleport you to the home circle. If you don't
have a home circle inscribed somewhere, the all activating the teleport rune
will do is suck mana from your stick! After a Home circle is laid out
somewhere, inscribe the Teleport rune on your stick (see 4-1) and then bring
the rune stick forward. Select the Teleport rune and press the button. Blink
-- you're home.
In the opening intro, Thera tells Drake that he "must retrieve the nine
receptacles." Khul-Khum, the Dark Brother, betrayed the 9 gods, and imprisoned
them within small orbs. The gods will be set free only when Drake is
successful in restoring them to Thera's Temple.
Having difficulty finding the 9 Recepticles? Here's where they are located:
Afri (Held by 2 tough Shargas in the Ruins of Stonekeep 1, x13, y14)
Aquila (In a chest in the Sharga Mines 1, x18, y28)
Azrael (In the left eye of a Throggi Statue, Temple of Throggi, x18, y4)
Yoth-Soggoth (Held by a big, mean troll, x34, y25)
Helion (Caverns of Ice)
Safrinni (On the floor in the Pits, x19, y4)
Marif (Giant orb at x17, y18 -- use Shrink rune to make this orb normal size)
Thera (Tower of Shadows 4, x4, y10)
Kor Soggoth (Tower of Shadows 4, x5, y10)
Khull Khum (Tower of Shadows 4, x5, y10)
What do the Nine Recepticles Do
5-3-1 Afri (Vision Seeker): Shows a *complete* map of the surrounding area
(within 5 squares in any direction), including hidden passages. Very helpful
if you can't find away past a certain wall or object -- because Afri may show
you that there really IS nothing on the other side of that wall.
Follow the basic "Getting Started" directions in the instruction manual that
came with your CD-ROM. Basically, get the skull and a rock. Kill the wandering
giant ant, read the sign, find the guardroom, get the dagger and the leather
armor find the only other door in this section of the Entrance Level. The door
won't open, but if you throw that switch to the left of the door, you'll be on
your way. Don't worry, the other tricks in the game are a lot more subtle!
There are two doors on this level which seem impassable. These doors either
don't have any keyholes, or don't have keyholes on this side. You'll have to
keep exploring to get to the other side of these doors.
There are two "tough" goblins at x13, y14. New players sometimes have
difficulty killing these beasties off. Advice tendered here is to throw your
burning oil flasks, rocks, daggers, skulls -- anything. Try to whittle them
down from afar. Then enter the room and start attacking them directly. Keep
moving, keep circling -- do Randy's "Whahooka Shuffle". When you start getting
hurt badly, leave the room and seek out the healing fountain.
The Green Slime has the ivory key at x22, y5 on the Ruins of Stonekeep 2
level.
Walk the corridors until you hear the wind sound (if you have headphones on,
you can even tell which direction the wind is blowing from ... which is pretty
cool on Interplay's part!). That wind is coming from a small hole -- which
Drake can barely squeeze through (treat it like an illusionary wall).
There are two windy passages on this level, and one of them leads to a passage
out.
There is an Ettin (two-headed giant) roaming about the Sharga Mines Level 1.
You cannot kill this creature (no matter how strong the NPC's are in your
party), but you can get his treasure by using the Silence spell.
The Throggi Priests use this statue head to recharge their Rune Scepters. Take
one of your rune sticks from your inventory, hold it up to the statue and
click your mouse button. Your rune sceptre is now recharged. Warning! If you
don't hold anything up for the Throggi God to charge, you'll be blasted with
lightning!
To get the Duck Rune from the Faerie Players, give them a mushroom.
There is a magical Horn of Fear hidden at X-##, Y-## of the Farie Realm. The
Horn casts a Fear spell at enemies, causing them to run away.
The stump like pyramid at X-10, Y-08 is a one-time rune staff recharge. Place
the cursor over the object until Drake's hand appears, then trigger your
mouse. All your rune staffs are recharged.
Some cave-in walls are dead-ends, others can be gotten past by chipping at
them with your weapon (or a fist). More than likely, there is nothing beyond
these passages. They're just a dead end. You can verify this by using Afri's
Orb. Simply walk up to the wall, take Afri's Orb from your inventory, and
place it before you. If Afri the visionary can't see anything beyond that
wall, than there is no game there! Another way to test the wall is to whack it
with your weapon -- if you here a clang, than it's a wall that you can get
past. Just keep chipping at it. If you here nothing, then you can't affect
that wall.
Find the Ice Queens Throne at X-##, Y-## and cast Fire or Warmth at the
throne. It will melt into a small puddle, which will heal your party to full
(only once).
Use the scroll from the dark Dwarves lair. The O's represent buttons you push
on the puzzels and the x's buttons you don't. count them from the top, left to
right. then just push the appropriate numbered button and your done. for
example Push the 1st, 2nd and 8th buttons, three more and the magic door
across the way will open...
At X-15, Y-03 there is a door to Tower of Shadows 3. Wahooka gives you a big
clue on opening this door, when he tells you that you need to use magic. Cast
a Spoilspell or the Murphy rune to unlock the door. The Spoilspell Rune is
acquired at the Temple of Throggi (X-21, Y-20), and Murph's Rune is in the
Faerie Realm (X-9, Y1).
Break it. If the dark dwarves are still alive they give you some information.
It's not a cross, but an insert. When you find the silver cross, insert it
here!
If you are playing version 1.0, there is a helpful bug (that's unusual) that
gives you free hit points. There are 3 places (2 signs and 1 secret panel)
which, when touched, do damage but raise your max hit points by 20. DO NOT
remove the dust from these with fire, water or wind spells; this dust is what
raises your points. The best technique is to save, then ttouch a few times,
heal to max, touch some more. DO NOT exceed 980 or you will be dumped out of
the game. You can show the numeric values by clicking on your health bar on
the mirror.
This was fixed (awww, rats!) in version 1.1, as it seems the update to v1.1
has fixed this -- you now *lose* 20 health, permanently...
RUMORS: The following of rumors that I haven't been able to check up on yet.
There is an easter egg in the game where Kevin Bass (credited in the game as
being responsible for Sharga interactions or something) is mentioned by Drake
or some of the NPC's. You only get this if you have the very sharp dagger.
- There is a note in the Dwarf hall about Quality Assurance missing this
particular scroll.
- Jim is spelled out in an inaccessible area of the game