Secret Level

A time honoured tradition in the Dungeon Siege games is to give those adventurers that are just that little bit tougher an additional quest. Something to rack their brains and test their strength.

Dungeon Siege 2 is no different in that regard, and luckily, we’re here to help so you don’t have to rack that brain of yours too hard.

The ??? Creature

Before you start on this quest however, you might have noticed a hunchbacked, one-eyed, dancing man appear when a certain item dropped. This is informally known as the ??? creature, and has a small chance to appear whenever a high-level item drops. (Those are the teal, purple or yellow ones). When he appears, you must kill him as soon as possible. He only hangs around for a few seconds before dissappearing, so hit him with everything you have. Keep an eye out for him while you hunt for the other items, when you kill him, he’ll drop the mysterious stone, our first item needed. (The stone will appear in your handbook under quest items.) If you’re having trouble getting him to appear, equip some more items with a +% chance of finding magic items

The next thing you need is a bucket. Not just any bucket, mind you, a mysterious bucket. To find this, go to the lost Elven Ruins, where you may even gloat at old Arinth the Mad if you haven’t already freed him (Though why anyone would want to release a powerful evil madman in this world is beyond me, especially since the whole game is about you already trying to get rid of one, but to each his own…). There are two lamps located on opposite sides of the doorway, light the one on the left and you’ll open a secret chamber where you’ll find our bucket. Well done! 1 down, three to go. Don’t cheer too hard now, this is one of the easier components to get. Head to a nearby teleporter and head to Aman’lu, where we’ll test that strength of yours. For those who have never competed, talk to the Aman’Lu innkeeper, deny any and all acts of bravery on your part, and he’ll send you downstairs to see how well fight. Go down the stairs and talk to the Arena Master and he’ll explain the rest.

“Welcome, melonaminn to the Aman’Lu Arena.” You should know the drill, get a token, kill the bad guys, open the chest, get the goodies, repeat until you get to the tenth wave of combatents. Defeat them, go back to the ninth treasure room, admire the new door that just opened, and collect your great new Mysterious Token. Next up: The beautiful and tourist-friendly city of Kalrathia.

Seek out Telgrey (a little room in the north-east) and have a chat with him. He’ll try and convince you to put together a small library for him as he’s far too old and brittle to go out looking himself. Here’s a list of the books you’ll need with their locations.

  • Kings and Queens of the Northern Reaches Snowbrook Haven Servant’s Quarters.
  • The Dark Wizards Vai’kesh Sanctuary.
  • Downfall of the Manu Ostar Alar’ithil’s house south of Aman’lu.
  • Valdis and His Armies Tywlis’s house in Aman’lu.
  • Turmanar and its Aftermath Aman’lu town hall.
  • The Skath In the hut where you first meet Vix, in the Eastern Greylin Jungle.
  • The Deeds of Xeria Windstone Fortress.
  • The Death of Xeria Xeria’s Temple.
  • The War of Legions Xeria’s Temple.
  • The Legend of Arinth the Mad Received from Eolanda at the start of Arinth the Mad’s quest in Aman’lu.
  • The Dryads and their Customs In Eolanda’s house in Aman’lu.
  • Zaramoth’s Ascendance and DownfallSecond floor of the Aman’lu magic shop.
  • Elandir’s Life and Teachings Second floor of the Aman’lu Inn.
  • Fables of Ancient Artifacts In Eolanda’s house in Aman’lu.
  • Symbology of the Azunites Second floor balcony of the Aman’lu magic shop.
  • The Legacy of Azunai Northern Kalrathia apartment..
  • The Path of Life Shrine of Life. (Eastern Greilyn Jungle)
  • The Path of Sight Shrine of Sight. (Southern Vai’lutra Forest)
  • The Path of Death Shrine of Death. (Garden of the Ancients)
  • The Path of Blindness Shrine of Blindness. (Eastern Plain of Tears)

After you get all these, report back to the old man for your reward. (You weren’t actually doing this quest out of the kindness of your heart, surely?) He’ll first give you a book entitled The Scholar and the Adventurer. Express your appalment at such a lousy reward by talking to him again, and he’ll quickly realize you are not one to be fooled with and will hand over the mysterious book as well as various useful items. Hooray!

With all four items at hand, head to a nearby chant shrine, and recite the chant on the mysterious stone backwards (“columnarius sectorus”, for those without mirror-vision). You’ll get transported to a Surprisingly Lush Cave and activate a useless teleporter on arrival. (You can use it to get out, but not into the cave.) Scroll down to the end of this page to find a map of the cave.

Prairie dog attacks!

Head down from the teleporter, and you’ll find a door guarded by a forcefield. Select the character with the mysterious bucket, and open the door. Behind the door, you’ll find a number of Prairie dogs. Now these guys aren’t very large, so they’re hard to get a fix on. Be prepared for a tough fight. Defeat these foul creatures, and you can walk on to a room with another blue forcefield. This one requires the mysterious book to open, so should pose you with no problems. Go through the door, fight some more Prairie dogs, and then procede with caution.

Right now you’re looking at a staircase to a large cavern, containing evil versions of all potential partymembers. These guys are incredibly tough, so get out your archer or mage with the most range, and lure them to you one at a time. Once you killed all these doppelgangers, you’ll find yourself face to face with your old friend Drevin. He’s a bit tougher than your evil partymembers but should pose no problem if you gang up on him.

Go through the door, and talk to some of the developers. Get a prune recipe from John Baron, get your Haku blade upgraded by Brian Fricks (to a Hak’UBER Ceremonial blade, which, contrary to it’s description, does not make you dance in the slightest.) , enjoy a poetry recital from S’usan B’oulian and play a nice game of Hunt the Giant Gremal with Chris Gorski. (The people over at GameBanshee found the following solution provides optimal gremal killing: E*9, S*2, W, S*3, W*2, Fire West.)

Don’t forget to stop by Andres Mendez too, for a pop quiz on everyone’s favourite South American country: Columbia! For those not familiar with this magnificant land, the answers are: “Bogota, Yellow/Blue/Red, 8660, 55% and Simon Bolivar”. Receive the Spirit of Bolivar for answering the questions correctly.

Move through more rooms to a larger one, where you will find Chris Taylor beating innocents up with a pillow. Hang around for a bit and distract Chris by talking to him and he will drop his pillow. Pick it up quickly to stop his evil reign and you’ll have the fluffy pillow in your inventory.

At the other side of this room is the final door. Recite the chant requo furtivum ixo and the door will open, allowing you access to the last treasures of the secret level. Beware though that doing this will remove your hard gathered mysterious items from your inventory.

Below you will find a thumbnail to an overhead shot of the secret level, with yellow lines indicating where exactly you will find what. Click on it for a larger version.

Secret Level Map Thumbnail