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Many ages past, a tower of great beauty created by the Elves of Faerun stood in the Spine of the World, the heart of Orcish and Goblin clans, or so it was said. For many years did the tower stand in all of its magical glory, a wondrous creation by the work efforts of all who lived within. Alas, beauty does not last forever and soon a war waged for many years as wave upon wave of Orcs and Goblins bombarded the Elven Outpost, pushing the Elven forces to the walls and with one last hope, Larrel cast his magics to save them all.
Today, the tower still stands, known as The Severed Hand, a reminder of what magic can do when something goes terribly wrong. Long shadows and darkened hallways await your exploration along with walking, dead reminders of those who died in the long battles. The background effects as well as music adds to this eerie place and will keep you busy for sometime as you explore its depths and four towers that jut into the sky.
The Severed Hand took me awhile to complete as it is dotted with an seemingly endless supply of foul beasts who bar your exploration deeper in to the tower and having more than one access up or town the tower via stairs or elevators makes this an interesting, yet enjoyable place to visit. If you think this is just an easy job, you're wrong as you will have to complete a few quests before you can continue with your own and that is the Heartstone Gem which brought you here originally. So with that in mind, let's look at the levels which you will be venturing to.
You will be greeted by a wonderful, exploding fireball warning as you step before the entrance to The Severed Hand, which sets a tone for what you should expect inside but I won't spoil that for you in case you are playing this step by step through my solution.
If you have a dwarf in your party, expect some dialog change during this short little introduction to The Severed Hand and then prepare yourself to venture forth into the ruins and of course, learn its history and what happened.
There are a few quests given to you within The Severed Hand and some given to you before that can now be completed and gotten experience for and I will cover each and everyone and detail them below for you.
The Astrolabe is a vast network of gears, sockets, switches and other parts that lets the users pear into the sky and the black universe above but it is currently not working and Gelarith needs the missing parts. The Astrolabe and the parts are also tied with Larrel, who's sanity will be regained when the Astrolabe, one of his grand creations, is put back together and is running smoothly. You will have to find all four parts to the Astrolabe to get Larrel to speak and help you with the Heartstone Gem. The parts can be found as detailed below.
1ST Part of the Astrolabe is found on The Severed Hand LVL 1.
2nd Part of the Astrolabe is found on The Severed Hand LVL 5 on Kaylessa and is given to you when you complete her own quest.
3rd Part of the Astrolabe is found on The Severed Hand LVL 7 in Tower 7a.
Thanks to Christo and GangStarr for the heads up. I had the 3rd part on Level 6 in Tower 6a.
4th Part of the Astrolabe is found on The Severed Hand LVL 6 in Tower 6d.
Denaini can be found on The Severed Hand LVL 5 in Tower 5a and is looking to clean the water and return them back to their original state as she remembers them before the tower fell. Denaini is looking for some HOLY WATER that will restore the water and create beautiful and clean pools for her to look at for all of eternity. The HOLY WATER you seek is above her on level 8 in Tower 8a. Find the HOLY WATER and return it to her for your reward.
As well as the HOLY WATER, Denaini is also looking for you to lay her fellow Priests to rest that are scattered through The Severed Hand. Doing so will also get you some extra experience.
Kaylessa can be found on The Severed Hand LVL 5 in Tower 5b and is looking to put her fellow Swordsmen to rest who are scattered through The Severed Hand as the priests are in the quest above from Denaini. By giving her Swordsmen a brave and fighting end to their haunting lives, Kaylessa will in return, give you the 2ND PART TO THE ASTROLABE that she has on her. Do her quest, for you will need this part of the Astrolabe to give to Gelarith so he may fix the machine which will also bring back some of Larrel's sanity so he may help you with the Heartstone Gem.
When you return from killing all of the Elven Swordsmen within The Severed Hand, Kaylessa upon giving you the 2ND PART TO THE ASTROLABE will ask to be laid to rest as well and join her fallen Elven Swordsmen in their resting place and she will attack you. Before this happens and before you speak with her, save the game.
The reason for doing this is because this is another location the Elven Chain Mail can be found, a random occurrence which will be on her corpse if you did not get the Elven Chain Mail that was randomized on Level 7 in Tower 7a. If you missed it from that location, you have a chance to find it on Kaylessa's corpse.
Unfortunately when I went through The Severed Hand for this solution, I did not get the Elven Chain Mail in either places noted and only found out about its location after the fact I had completed this. The information passed to me is from the official Icewind Dale message board from a reliable source BUT if you find any of this information incorrect regarding the Elven Chain Mail or I have the wrong locations, please let me know and I will fix this part of the solution to match the correct information.
Otherwise, as of now, that is the two locations for the Elven Chain Mail, which you can only find once.
Valestis is looking for a few items to replenish his own garden and return it to the beauty that once could be found there. The items he is looking for are PURE WATER, AN ANIMAL and A SEED.
Need the PURE WATER? It can be found here in Chapter 5.
Need the AN ANIMAL? It can be found here on a Merchant Drow named Nym in Chapter 6.
Need the A SEED? It can be found here on a Merchant Drow named Nym in Chapter 6.
Thanks to Bob who reminded me about this quest, which I forgot to add during the solution under this section.
Also, when you purchase from Nym, you can buy two animals instead of just one, which will gain you even more experience if you would just brought the one Valestis was looking for.
Thanks to Kris for the added experience note.
Noted from Kuldahar in Chapter 1, Orrick The Gray has been looking for many years for a book which chronicles a forgotten Elven Outpost, which you happen to be in for it is The Severed Hand that he is talking about. The book he seeks can be found on Level 8 in Tower 8e which is called "The Mythal Theory". Take all the book to be on the safe side as I did and return to Kuldahar, speak with Orrick The Gray and receive your reward.
** At the time of this publication, Interplay still had not released their public patch and when you return to speak with Orrick The Gray, the item he is supposed to give you will remain on his body as you receive an error message about the dialog. What you can do, if you wish to continue is save the game then pick pocket him. If he attacks you, simply reload until your pick pocket attempt is successful.
** Download the patches now available to get around this small bug.
