^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^ How to solve: The Shard of Spring Cracked by: Crockett of Coast to Coast Written by: Short Circuit ^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^ Here's the solve to Shard of Spring. It's a decent game... even if I did complete it in less then 10 hours playing time. One catch though, I edited my characters as I described in my cheat to Shard of Spring... that made the game real easy, since I could kill anything in about three blows. Since I played with those "super" characters, I can't say how easy things will be for you unless you edit them in a similar manner. Every now and then, the game would stop me and check the disk... usually it did this in dungeons. I can only assume that it was checking if I had gotten certain items, etc. Thus, my edited characters might be able to pass points where your characters can not. Because of this, you'll have to try to figure out what it is you need, find it in the solve, and go get it. The solve will be fairly short, because I'm only going to give a brief description of what you have to do (some of which your new characters will not be able to do). Here we go. Go south from where you begin. You'll spot a bridge (it's orange). You must move your characters across this, and then go east. Go straight east and you will soon see a symbol. That's Blackfort. The place where a priest is being held. Go into the dungeon and wander around till you find the priest (that's a lot of help, isn't it?). A lantern or torch will help you see farther. After you rescue the priest and he blesses you (that's the key action), go down to the south wall of the big room outside the priest's cell. There should be a orange door there. Go through it and gaze at the map you see. If you had looked around a bit before you found the priest (which you probably did) you would have found the room with the key in it. Well, across the hall from that there is a secret door where Devir lurks. Go there and kill the S.O.B. That done, get out of Blackfort. Continue travelling east until you enter some mountains and see swamps above you (you will have to skirt south around a lake to get there). Go up into the swamps (it didn't hurt me, but I had those super charged guys...) and enter the tomb you see there (it is rather distinct). Go in, and take the path west from the pool inside. You should get to some forests. Anyway, go through the door there and travel down the hallway. Through the door at the end is a pool which will cure a few hit points... if you're hurt you might want to stop by. If not, then check the south wall for secret doors. There'll be one, so enter it. You will fight the Swamp King here (no problem for me, but I hit for an average of 45 damage points a shot) and when you kill him will recieve a bloody head (identifying this will reveal it to be a King's Head). Get out of the palace of the Swamp King (you're in it) and head southeast. Down there should be another symbol like Blackfort. This is Edrin's pad... he's another friend of the dragon you're trying to kill... anyway, go in, and go as far right or left as you can using the passages. Sooner or later, you'll come to some stairs. Go down them and wander through the rooms until you come to the place where Edrin is with his friends (it's hard to describe the route without a map, but it's not difficult). After you kill him, go back up the stairs and exit the joint. Ok... your next goal is to conquer Islanda. Go south till you reach a river. Travel east and west along this river until you find a bridge crossing it. Cross the bridge and keep going south. Soon you will see some symbols that look like a wall with an archway through it. Go up to the archway and you will get a message saying that this is the gateway to Islanda. Go through, and follow these directions: Go south following the paths until you get to a place where you have a choice of routes. Take the left one (your perspective... with your characters going south it would be their right) and follow it downward until you come to another branch. (There should be a city in this area, if you want to stop by, feel free). Take the left (your perspective again) branch and continue onward. Now, the place you want to get is roughly southwest of where you are now. So when you have choices of routes, take the south and the west. If you play your cards right, you'll eventually get to a tomb (there are five of them in all of Islanda, but you just want one on an island by itself. You need to cross a bridge to get to it). This is the tomb of Islanda's liberator. The dude within (can't remember the name... sorry) conquered the Moonglow family who were the tyrants who used to rule Islanda. Anyway, go in, and when he asks you the names of the four Moonglows, type: LOTHIAN, MURTHIN, CERCION, and VANDIGUARD (there individual tombs are interesting to see if you have time and can find them). He should give you a storm ring. Anyway, get out of Islanda... you should be able to do that by now. Time to visit the Gatekeeper. Go east, and you'll eventually run into a lake of fire with a tower in the middle. This is your ultimate goal... but you won't get there quite yet... go around it, and look at the shore beyond. There should be a point of land sticking out away from the rest. Walk out onto this until you get to the tower of the Gatekeeper. Enter. Inside is a rather bizarre place. Don't worry... the metal plates are teleporters, but I'll guide you through. Step onto the first one, then go down the passage you appear in and take the top teleporter. Then go up again to the next teleporter, then go down the passage and take the top (again), then go south to the next one, and finally go right down the passage to the last one. You will appear in yet another passageway. Travel down this till you get to the message how the Gatekeeper greets you and all. The door you have to go through is the one on the bottom left. Go through it. You should appear on an island with a bridge in sight above you. Cross the bridge and go into the tomb. Follow the passages till you get to the old man sitting by the fire. Go through the top door, the one surrounded by fire. Here you are outside that tower in the pool of fire. Go into it, and follow the path around to the bottom where you'll find the gate. Supposedly this gate is protected by a massive spell, but I never had trouble getting through it. If you do have trouble, the words to the spell that open it are: DAZA REVELI. I never had to use them, but maybe you will. Go in, fight the dragon at the door, and enter. Follow the passages till you get to the down stairs with a door on your right. Go through the door. Following is your climb up the tower. It is quite involved, so all I can say is DO IT. Just follow the passages, and after climbing numerous stairs and fighting numerous guards, you'll get to a place where it says there is a balcony with a dove on it, and there are two doors on either side. Go directly south onto the grass, and get the dove (you'll have to fight this black raven first). The dove is the teleporter that can get you out of the castle if you happened to have missed something you needed (I think I got everything... but...). Unfortunately, the only place this teleporter will work without shattering is the lowest level of the castle, about 8 floors down. Anyway, take the right door in case you ever have to get out of the castle to obtain something. You'll learn how to mentally block Words of Power (one of them guards the exit). Since I don't think I missed anything, you'll never have to use that knowledge. Anyway, go back out to the balcony and take the right door. This will lead you farther up the tower (you'll have to fight various demons, devils, and elementals to get there). When you reach the very top (you'll know because there will be stairs out in the middle of no where that you have to climb to get there) your quest will almost be done. Go through the passages till you get to the lower right room (there are four rooms in a square). Go to the lower right corner of that room and you should get a message telling you that there is a row of gems there and in what order do you want to push them. Well, the song telling you is in Edrin's place, but (aren't you glad I'm here) the order is Blue, Blue, Red, Green. You should float through the ceiling and appear in a room with one exit. Well, take the exit, follow the passage, and you'll come to a place where the dragon you have to kill is (I can't spell the stupid name so I don't want to make a fool of myself trying). I found that the dragon (name starts with an "S".... argh, well, here goes: Sidraidne (sp????)) you have to kill is easier to conquer then some of the demons are. Anyway, once you kill that dude, you win the game. Fun, eh? I enjoyed playing the game... for one, it was the first SSI game that had decent graphics... and the play system was enough like Ultima to be comfortable, and different enough to be unique. I liked the game. Hope you did too. Later, all.