Chapter 4: The Price of Knowledge

1. Mysterious Pot

An explosion at the Kilnden Workshop, west of the city, is the first stop of the chapter. Grimnir, a dwarven craftsman in a Visione helmet who is quietly hoping for help, needs his generator and kilns fixed, and what comes out of the kiln is the Kuku Pot, a vessel that swallows large objects.

• 1

  Kilnden Workshop: speak with Grimnir

  Go west of Hernand Castle to the workshop and talk to Grimnir about the explosion. He stands on a hill in front of a tower and appears during the day; the quickest way there is a fast travel to the Abyss and a skydive down; if the game tells you to wait for the right time, hold the Options button and pick the bottom icon to skip ahead.

• 2

  Activate the Ancient Generator

  Line up the four glowing symbols on the structure's rings. Rotate the rings with the crank and bars; the sequence is: push the yellow lever right, the wooden lever right, the yellow lever to the middle, the wooden lever left (the yellow switch picks the ring, the wooden lever turns it).

• 3

  Fix the disconnected and dismantled kilns

  For the disconnected kiln, plug the loose cord back in and push the yellow bar. For the dismantled one, use Axiom Force to stack the two loose pieces (the middle connector and the flat top) on the kiln, then jump and use Force Palm in mid-air to join them, and push the bar. This part is finicky: the rough, most damaged piece goes on top to the right, and the chimney piece behind.

• 4

  Put fuel into the kiln

  Collect five blue fuel balls and put them in the kiln's sockets. They are two beside the kiln, one in the eye socket of the bird statue (pull it out with Axiom Force), one floating near the kiln and one at the entrance of Duskwood Cave, reached through the flooded area toward the generator hill. The cave ball sometimes fails to spawn; rebooting or reloading an earlier save fixed it. Push the lever when all five are in.

• 5

  Speak with Grimnir, then wait

  Report to Grimnir at the generator. Three days have to pass before the next objective; Grimnir is there in daytime, and the wait can be skipped from the Options menu. If Grimnir does not show up for The Mysterious Pot, update the game: patch 2.03.02 fixed a bug that kept him from appearing in certain situations.

• 6

  Obtain the Mysterious Iron Pot

  Push the yellow bar next to Grimnir clockwise until the floor opens, and pick the Kuku Pot up from the circular stone platform.

• 7

  Learn how to use the pot from Togrum

  Togrum, a dwarf southwest of the workshop, shows how it works: hold Axiom Force on the stone ball beside him, then hold the pot's prompt to draw the object in. In short, attaching Axiom Force to the pot stores large objects, and it is essential for storing Abyssal objects. Enhancing the pot lets it craft better equipment, with recipes coming from main and faction quests. The quest's reward is the pot itself.

2. Daily Life

Two contests back at Howling Hill and around Hernand. Yann has landed himself in a cell over a disturbance at the arena and gets out by Kliff winning three bare-knuckle bouts; then, at an archery tournament, Kliff shoots in Duane's place. The quest gives no item reward, but it unlocks the arena and archery minigames.

• 1

  Disturbance at the Arena: three wins, unarmed

  Return to Howling Hill, speak with Andrew and follow Duane to Yann. Inside the arena, unequip your weapon from the radial wheel (the host in red in the centre will not talk to you armed), and entry costs 30 Copper and you switch to Plain Gloves. Then win three fights. Only punches count: kicks and skills get you disqualified, though you can restart at once. Remove armour that carries special skills; all three opponents are of the same difficulty. Keep attacking and block when the opponent counters. The venue is the Goldenfist Arena.

• 2

  Return to Howling Hill with Yann

  Collect Yann from his cell and ride back to camp. Speaking to him there closes the objective, and he mentions an archery tournament.

• 3

  Skilled in Archery: Naira and the contest

  Meet Naira (Game8 sends you north to the Capra Pasture area, PowerPyx to an open yard slightly south-west of Hernand Castle), then follow Duane to Lioncrest Manor and speak to the host by the white tent. Naira is teasing Duane over his poor aim, and he asks Kliff to shoot for him and let him take the credit. The contest is ten pop-up targets, hit faster than your opponent; keep your aim centred and flick to each target as it appears; arrows are unlimited here.

• 4

  Speak with Duane

  After the win, Duane is outside the contest by the road. He asks you to go find work in the city of Hernand, which is the lead into Forbidden Knowledge.

3. Forbidden Knowledge

A stranger bumps into Kliff in Hernand and leaves a letter from Alustin about dark emanations at Scholastone Institute. Getting there needs a Scholastone Uniform and a troll's directions; what waits at the institute is Dean Grundir, the scholar Octavius, a lock device under the plaza, the boss Tenebrum, the Spire of the Stars and an Abyss Gate. It is the longest quest of the chapter and the one with the most puzzles.

• 1

  The Words of Alustin

  Go to the marker in the south of Hernand and walk around until an unnamed man collides with you and leaves Alustin's Letter behind. Read it from your inventory. Both sources say that if nobody bumps into you, save, reload and walk around again. A separate bug, where the letter itself vanished and the quest could not go on, was fixed in patch 2.02.00.

• 2

  Scholastone: the uniform and the hidden cave

  Visit the Fence, the building to the left of the Message Board, entered by a side door; the contact, Darroch, is a goblin merchant on an upper floor. He gives you the Scholastone Uniform. Head southwest to a cave sealed by a barrier (over a mountain with three Force Palm jumps, then down to a stone gate). Put the uniform on to open the entrance and use a focused Force Palm on the green energy to clear the path; a Troll then shows you the way to Scholastone Institute. The uniform is also the quest's first listed reward.

• 3

  On the Right Path: Dean Grundir and Octavius

  The dean, in a blue robe on a bridge, walks you through the institute to Octavius (an orc scholar, also in blue). The dean may refuse to talk unless you are wearing the uniform. You must then pass 24 hours and come back.

• 4

  Gate to the Otherworld: the lock device, the batteries and the core

  Speak with Octavius, then jump off the ledge to his left and glide to the opening below (follow the lanterns northeast of the plaza, underground). The lock device is a grid of squares to press in order. The two sources give different sequences (Game8: top left, middle, top middle, bottom right, bottom left, middle right, bottom middle, middle left, top right; PowerPyx: top left, bottom right, bottom left, top right, then the middle), so if one does not light everything, try the other. Back on the plaza, pull the battery cubes from the pillars with Axiom Force and push them into the sockets with Force Palm, then pull the unstable core out with Axiom Force.

• 5

  Gate to the Otherworld: subdue Tenebrum

  Tenebrum is a flying boss. Climb or jump up the pillars, glide toward it and hit it with Force Palm in mid-air, dodging its black projectiles. Blinding Flash reveals its square weak spot, wind currents over the plaza's missing floor throw you upward, the moment to strike is when it pauses to charge, and you can recover Spirit behind the pillars. This objective gives an Abyss Artifact.

• 6

  Spire of the Stars: the elevator puzzle

  Follow the path northeast past the banquet hall, up the stairs and through a cave to the spire's stone door, and insert the core into the centre. Use Force Palm on the three diamonds (yellow walls marked purple on the minimap, one left of the elevator, two right) to release three power cores and set them in the centre slots. Then climb the four shapes and slide them into place, resetting the lines with the Force Palm buttons if needed. The arrangement: the first shape at the top, the third at the bottom, the second in the upper middle slot and the fourth in the lower middle. When the floor turns blue, get on the elevator before it drops, ride up and enter the Abyss Gate.

• 7

  Obsession and Madness: the rift in the sky

  Octavius has been swallowed by a rift and the Abyss on the other side is where to look. One route: step on the first Abyss Nexus, use Axiom Force on the conductor slot of the large pillar to your right, and the puzzle switches to an aerial view where you select pillars and raise them, starting with the central one, moving platform to platform to the end, then climb, cross to the island and use Force Palm on the pressure platform. A faster route skips the machinery: from the fast-travel point, chain three Force Palms in a row to launch upward, glide to the first pillar, repeat to the main platform, and hit the yellow mechanism in the floor with Force Palm mid-air. Either way ends in a cutscene. This gives eight contribution levels with the Hernandian faction; if you fall, the sky map returns you to the entry point.

• 8

  Casted Shadow: back to Howling Hill

  Speak with Grundir (automatic, in the cutscene), then return to the Greymane camp and enter the tent. That ends Chapter 4 and starts Chapter 5. Damiane is temporarily unavailable after this chapter.

4. Chapter 4 Completion

Before Leaving Scholastone...