The Tristen Crystal

Deliver the Gem

In Willowbrook, give the gem to Nina, in the stone building just up the road from the dock. She sends you to Khan on the dock, who has the next assignment. The guild’s client wants another crystal, and one is rumored to be in Tristen. Khan boards the boat for Illana’s Keep on the mainland, and you follow by ringing the bell on the dock.

Meet Khan at Illana's Keep

Khan waits on the road outside the gate of Illana’s Keep, and he is uneasy. Hafen has fallen to The Rein, and the new orders came by letter instead of from Dieb, though they carry his seal. He sends you to find Stiletto, who was sent to Tristen some time ago. Tristen lies a long way south of Illana’s Keep.

Find Stiletto

Nobody in Tristen has heard of Stiletto. Ueal, drinking in the tavern, says the only suspicious man in town is one who keeps visiting the clerk. That man calls himself Gertahr, and he is Stiletto in disguise. You can skip Ueal and go straight to the clerk’s office, on the west side of the city, with a sign reading “Clerk” by its door.

Distract the Clerk

Stiletto means to take the place of Darvin, the clerk, who is a contact man for the resistance. Talk to Darvin to keep him busy, and Stiletto kills him. In return, Stiletto tells you what he knows. The crystal belonged to an old elven family and was buried with its owner, in the crypt beneath the city. He forges a letter in Darvin’s name for the Necris Monks, who tend the crypt, and sends you to their cemetery on the east side of town.

Show the Letter

In the cemetery, Sister Gespenst sends you to Brother Leichnam, the head guardian. The monks care nothing for what is buried below, but the crypt is sealed, and he sends you on to the Head Acolyte at their temple.

Get the Crypt Key

The Necris Monks’ temple is north-east of Tristen. Inside, near the altar, the Head Acolyte gives you the crypt key and asks you to bring back the Totbuch, the monks’ sacred book, if you ever find it. That is a side quest, Find the Totbuch.

Into the Crypt

Back in the cemetery, the key opens the rusted grate inside the small stone building on its west side. Buy any equipment you need first. The crypt’s spirits attack strangers, and you can scare them off, but they keep coming back. Sister Gespenst’s book in Tristen’s library, The Elven Burial Grounds, hints at the puzzle inside.

The Crypt Puzzle

The ladder from the grate comes down in the north-west corner of the crypt, and at first only the northern passages are open. A pile of bones (B) in a small room in the north-west is missing its skull; a plaque there reads “Respect for the departed will show you the way.” The skull (K) lies in the far north-east. Set it back on the bones, and a secret passage opens south into the rest of the crypt.

The Three Gems

Three switches (S) each sit in a room given to one element: a pool of water in the north-east, a patch of grass in the west, and a hall lit by torches in the south. Each switch works with the holy symbol of its element, set in a wall elsewhere: the blue Water symbol (W) in the far south, the gold Earth symbol (E) in the north-east, and the red Fire symbol (F) in the west. Flip a switch, then press its symbol, and a wall nearby slides away to show a strange red gem. Do one element at a time. Flipping a switch again undoes it, and pressing the wrong symbol only makes a loud clang and undoes the switch.

The Skull Door

With all three gems, go to the skull molded into the wall (D) in the middle of the crypt. The gems fit its eyes and nose, and the wall beside it opens onto the ladder down to the lower level. On the way, 100 gold (1) lies in the north and a Magic Elixir (2) in the west.

Find the Crystal

The lower level is a great hall of pillars. The crystal (C) lies just east of the middle. Among the pillars you can also find a Quarterstaff (1) in the south-west, 50 gold (2), and Leather Gloves (3) in the north-east. The journal says to take the crystal to Khan at Illana’s Keep, but The Rein is waiting, and the party is captured the moment it climbs out of the crypt. Continue with Escape from Hans-Dirk’s Dungeon.