Is there any way to get from Ishad N'Ha to Shurugeon Castle without having to fight the mantraps on the way?

I have one character ready to ascend to Ninja, but my party can't handle mantraps yet. :(

Also: if my party isn't strong enough for mantraps, does that also mean they're probably not strong enough for the ghosts at Shurugeon Castle? I.e., am I just wasting my time even trying to get there? (I don't plan on exploring much of the castle: I just need to get to the drawbridge for the Ninja ascension quest.)

The only spell any of my characters have that even affects the mantraps is Flamedrop, and my Wizard can't cast enough of those to kill a mantrap before she runs out of mana. I did a search here and found a lot of information about dealing with mantraps, but none of the suggestions seems to be working. (I tried the Merlin's Shield spell as suggested in a couple of threads, but it didn't help.)

I'd like to ascend my Warrior to Ninja so she can start working on Moon spells; more levels as a Warrior won't do anything useful for her. :(


(I could cop out and see if putting the game into easy mode makes the mantraps more manageable, but I'd prefer another solution if there is one.)

You can fight salads, here is how:

1. If you haven't given Algamesh Amulet to Kerielle so far then delay the giving a bit more and give it to the weakes member of your party.
2. Buy scrolls of magischield in the Mages Guild for each member of your party. Distribute the scrolls among your people. If you haven't excellent weapons then buy 2 scrolls for each guy from your party.
3. Make sure each of your guys have some Cure Poison potions. You should have enough of them from the Serpent Temple.
4. Go to the Shurugeon Castle. Kill the ratlings there and wait for the salads. Once they occur, use the scrolls immediately, and beat them, beat them, beat them [img]graemlins/shooter04.gif[/img] If you get hit too much, retreat, heal quckly, and continue.

The Merlin's Shield spell will make you highly resistant to any magic so that the dreaded attack of the salads stops to be so perilous.

Avoid one thing: Leading the salads to the town. The salads will follow you whenever you move so that the blunder I am speaking about consists in trying to run into the town with salads behind your back. With salads ante portas you are lost, unless you are strong enough. Once you leave the town, the salads will attack without giving you time for defending yourself with the scrolls. What will happen you have already experienced, haven't you :D

You can outrun the mantraps - for example by seeking refuge behind the caste walls and then take the back entrance out of there.

But beware - they will continue to hunt you down as long as you are between Ishad N'ha and Brimloch Roon. That means that when going to the Stout Mines they can trap you in the long forest corridor leading up there. If they do that and you cannot fight them you might as well reload at a far earlier stage.

So I suggest you battle them here and now where you can hide and heal up.

Oh! The Salad Rite of Passage!!! :D

They're hard but you can beat them.

It's always so much easier to deal with the Salads if you know what the country is like on the west side of Ishad N'ha - you can plan your path to include some narrow bits in the forested areas where Salads can't pass. That gives you a better chance to take them out from a safe distance.

But if you haven't explored this area, you can easily get yourself trapped in a dead end and die die die.

Study the map! I've forgotten exactly where the Salads appear but I believe they show up around the time you get to the burnt out house.

Rough directions to S Castle - go west from Ishad N'ha and follow the path north. Keep to the LEFT - this should take you into some wooded areas. There's going to be one path off to the left in the woods which is a "dead end" literally - so you want to keep to the left but look for an opening to the right (west as you should now be heading south again). Go through that small opening and go south until you get to the moat and head around to the back of the castle.

You may have time, if the Salads get caught in the trees, to off them there OR you may get time to find the back entrance to the castle which requires some swimming. If you can get yourself into the castle - get up on the north wall and wait for the salads and fight, retreat, heal, fight as needed.

The most important things to do: SAVE SAVE SAVE and NEVER lead the Salads back to Ishad N'ha!!

The monsters in the castle are not as bad as the Salads. Few monsters in this whole area are as bad as the salads. ;)

GOOD LUCK!!! And do let us know what happens!!

The salads are by far the most challenging monster in the entire game. And you can't get through without defeating them...

But you can defeat them with just flamedrop... I often do. Make sure all your other characters have mana potions, and when your wizard runs low, the others give her (or him) a potion. Just use it on her, and away you go!

Also, there *is* a technique to flamedropping the salads. Take your time [img]smile.gif[/img]

No, seriously. Each flamedrop will incapacitate any salad in its grip for a period of time (say, ten seconds). If you cast five quick flamedrops, say one a second, the salad will be incapacitated for a total of 14 seconds (with the fifth one, cast in second 4, expiring in second 14).

If instead you wait to cast the next flamedrop until you feel the first one is close to expiring, you can cast those same five flamedrops and incapacitate the salad for almost 46 seconds (if you cast them nine seconds apart).

And *THAT* is why I think that flamedrop is the best spell for dealing with salads.

BTW, the salads are the inspiration for the Gael Serran motto... they WILL hunt you down. I've fought them from the Ishad N'ha gates before... it's *not* a lot of fun, lemmetellya.

*edit* forgot to mention that if you deal with the ratlings, you're dead. The salads come up from behind in the middle of that battle. What I do is to bypass the ratlings and head for Shurugeon castle. The salads will actually take out the ratlings for you, and you can do battle with them from the safety of the castle walls. You can cast spells from up there, throw fire bombs (if you have any), use flamestrike and meteor scrolls... the list is almost endless. Just don't use poison bombs... they don't affect salads :(

And if they start getting too close, just drop off the other side of the wall, and they can't hurt you. A piece of cake :D

[ 04-13-2005, 11:00 AM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

Why do you call them Salads? Are they edible? Do they taste good? Especially with Mayonnaise or Thousand Island?

I wonder if dungeon lords will have man traps.

They are said to be good with lemmon but - what a pity! - they evaporate during preparation so that the reports remain unchecked.

hehehe

Why do we call them Salads?

Well, they are plants, dangerous plants but plants none the less.

They can make slaw of your party in short order.

The term "Salads" is essentially an insult to these creatures being that they are perhaps the most difficult monsters in the game. Insulting your enemy is an old tradition - builds moral and saves you having to worry about conservation groups screaming about endangered species. :D :D

What??? Aren't they really giant walking heads of lettuce? The Gael Serran's only portable salad bar?

Besides, there are different flavors (mantraps, lilies, and perhaps more [img]smile.gif[/img] ), so one word to cover them all is rather useful ;)

And Wyv.... insulting these creatures? Have you gone druid on me? :D I'd rather face a slew of sharks than a handful of salads... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Hmmm... I wonder what the salads call adventurers... dinner, perhaps? :D