Chapter 3: Artifacts of Ancient Power

The Great Calling goes wrong from the first breath. Y'Berion reaches the Sleeper - but the contact collapses him on the altar and sends him into a coma from which he will never wake. Cor Angar takes over what is left of the Brotherhood and hands the hero a new errand: the guru Baal Lukor left at dawn for an old orc burial ground in the north with a squad of templars, and no word has come back. Someone has to go after him.

The novice Talas walks the hero as far as the bridge to the Orc Cemetery and hands off there. Past the gate orc warriors and snappers hold the entrance courtyard, and the winch that lifts the stone door takes a solid arm to turn. Inside, grave niches line the corridors, many sealed with pressure switches; the mummies within hold a powerful Ring of Strength and other quiet rewards for anyone patient enough to open every one. The bodies of Baal Lukor's templars mark the trail, their weapons still on them. The last survivor, Lukor himself, sits cornered deep in the burial hall.

Together the hero and Lukor clear the remaining orcs and retrieve the two halves of an old orc teleport scroll - the right-hand path first, then the far-right corridor with its switch-locked chamber. Lukor assembles the scroll, the teleport opens a sealed chamber behind the wall of the great hall, and at that point Lukor's mind snaps. The hidden chamber is empty. Convinced that the hero's unholy presence offended the Sleeper, Lukor turns on him mid-sentence and tries to offer him as a human sacrifice. He dies on the hero's blade.

Back at the Swamp Camp Cor Angar swallows the news and sends the hero out again - this time for the five healing herbs the Brotherhood still believes can save Y'Berion. The herbs are gathered, the brew is poured, and it is not enough. Y'Berion dies anyway, but not before a last warning: the Sleeper is not what the Brotherhood believed. The god is a demon. Break the Barrier before the Sleeper breaks what is left of them.

Cor Angar hands over the key to Cor Kalom's chest. Kalom himself has vanished into the swamp with the last fanatics. In the chest wait the Almanac and the recharged focus stone. The hero carries both to the New Camp ("Ausbruchsplan des Neuen Lagers"); he has to deliver the news to Cronos first - Y'Berion dead, the Brotherhood broken, the focus in Brotherhood hands - before Cronos will give him the password that unlocks the door to the Water Mages' quarters.

Saturas listens, takes the Almanac and the focus, and understands what the two artefacts together make possible: the Barrier itself can be torn down if all five focus stones are gathered on the New-Camp ore-heap and the recharge ritual is performed at the right moment. He sends the hero out on the focus hunt. Before the road the alchemist Riordian stocks him up with healing and mana potions, some of them permanent.

Four focus stones are in four places, and four old friends have found their way to each one. Diego has followed the stone into the Troll Canyon and helps the hero open the gate past the young troll guarding the platform. Lester is in the Mountain Fortress hunting an old deed of title; the hero assists, Lester hands over telekinesis scrolls to reach the focus. Milten waits near the stonehenge with an Undead-Banishing scroll for the focus hidden beneath the ring. Gorn has dug in at the monastery ruin and fights through the halls at the hero's side, taking down a second young troll on the way.

With four focus stones now in his pack and the fifth already at Saturas, the hero returns to the New Camp. Saturas asks for one last errand before the ritual: the Fire Mages of the Old Camp have to be brought into the plan. The chapter ends on the road back to the Old Camp, and the story is about to pivot.