Neverwinter Nights 2 Walkthrough - Original Campaign - Part 11 - Build Order #2

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Original Campaign - Walkthrough Part 11 - Crossroad Keep Management - Build Order #2

This is one of a series of walkthroughs/hints for Neverwinter Nights 2 (Original Campaign). Click here for a listing of all our guides for Neverwinter Nights 2. For general notes on Crossroad Keep and links to build orders, click here.



Build Order
This Build Order for Crossroad Keep focusses on adventuring, reaches Act III very early in Crossroad Keep management, and aims for both Warden of the Keep and the Gift from the Greycloaks.
We forgot to speak with Kistrel early, so do that. It takes Kistrel Time +20% to complete the cloak.

1. Keep Time Not Started Yet - it doesn't start until you first talk to Kana and Veedle.
1. Recruit Katriona, Calindra, Petin, Orlen
2. Ruins of Arvahn and Ritual of Purification
3. Qara animus encounters x2
4. Talk to Calindra to register ores and make them available to smiths when we get them.
5. Talk to Kana and Veedle for the first time - this starts Keep Timer, sets it to 0.
2. Time 0%
1. Veedle - Build Blacksmith.
2. Kana
1. Set Merchant Tithes to 0 and institute secret Merchant Tax with Appraise.
2. Set Farmer Tithes to 0.
3. Set Greycloak quality to Best.
4. Set Greycloaks to Training.
5. Set Katriona to Training. (This doesn't seem to do anything).
3. Uncus - Sent away.
4. Activate Construct.
5. Talk to Aldanon for the location of Ammon Jerro's Haven.
6. Recruit Edario and Jacoby.
7. Commission Good Armor, Best Weapons (do area transitions, but not into the Keep and don't talk to Veedle about building anything).
8. Ammon Jerro's Haven, Castle Never, and Neverneath.
9. Scripted return to Crossroad Keep and start of Act III. The Keep Library is built automatically, for free.
10. Talk to Bevil. A lot.
11. Neverwinter Merchant District - Recruit Joy, fight Light of Heavens.
12. Port Llast - Fight Light of Heavens, talk to gnome scholars.
13. Return to Crossroad Keep - Greycloaks vs. Trolls encounter.
14. Talk to Grobnar about Shandra and the Wendersnaven.
15. Strange Clearing, Ore #9.
16. Road to HighCliff, Ore #10.
17. HighCliff.
18. Crossroad Keep - Fight Light of Heavens and recruit.
19. Report Ores #9 and #10 to Calindra or Pentin.
20. Commission Best Armor.
3. Time 2%
1. Veedle - Build Road (Widen)
2. Talk to Aldanon. (Scripted entry right into Library).
3. Kana
1. Set Light of Heavens to Training.
1. Whether you put any sergeant on Recruitment or Training makes no apparent difference at this stage. If we put Katriona or Light of Heavens on Patrol, they will probably trigger the Leeves event too early to get the best result.
2. It also appears impossible to get the best result from the Leeves mission if Light of Heavens is on Patrol too soon.
2. Set Bevil to Patrol High Road. This will not trigger the Leeves event.
3. Nasher's War Levy - Pay 6,000 gold.
4. Talk to Guyven about the three places of interest so far.
5. Talk to Daeghun outside.
6. Talk to Bevil again.
7. Pick up hidden stash mentioned by Guyven.
8. Come back to the courtyard -- Talk to StarTear, who now appears outside the Tower.
4. Time 5%
1. Veedle - Build Road (Cobble)
5. Time 7%
1. Veedle - Build Road (Renovate)
2. Kana
1. Daerred visit 1/3.
2. Torio - Send for her.
6. Time 10%
1. Veedle - Build Fortifications (Repair)
1. Keep Time 10% seems to be the earliest we can safely trigger the Sheriff from Leeves event and still get the best result, so we can now improve Land Security, such as through building Fortifications upgrades.
   
2. Kana
1. Sheriff from Leeves - Send half the men
2. Katriona to Special Assignment.
3. Light of Heaven to Patrols.
4. Special Mission - Old Man Morris - start
7. Time 12%
1. Veedle - Build Fortifications (Reinforce)
2. Kana
1. Special Mission - Old Man Morris - total success
2. Greycloaks training is "Best". Set to Patrol Surroundings.
1. Move from Training to Patrol Road/Land. Focussing on Patrol Surroudings ultimately causes a situation where income cannot sustain Greycloak recruitment even if you start taxing Peasants. You can lose all income and your treasury won't grow, but that is probably an oversight on the coding where it doesn't draw keep funds to sustain the military.
2. Kana dissuades you against split patrols, but in the long run you get income plus recruitment and is the best option. Your Greycloak count is slowed initially, but you don't stall later on.
8. Time 15%
1. Veedle - Build Fortifications (Towers)
2. Kana
1. Daerred letter 1/3.
2. Leeves Mission - Best Success.
1. This is the only time we were able to achieve best success with this early Act III timeline. Triggering this event earlier seems not to work. Triggering this event later seems to cause it to conflict with the Neverwinter Evacuation and also make best success impossible.
2. In any case, the two success results ("bandits slaughtered" and "bloody fight") yield the same bonuses because the morale bonus for the best result is not implemented.
3. Neverwinter Evacuation - Sent 20%.
4. Katriona to Patrol.
9. Time 17%
1. Veedle - Build Tower (Startear; either Tower option is supposed to improve Land Security)
2. Kana - you will have to go in and out of the basement several times for the cutscene events
1. Ziffer Village Charter - Sign charter.
2. Ziffer Volunteers - Diplomacy to avoid reducing Elite quality.
3. Daerred visit 2/3.
10. Time 20%
1. Veedle - Build Roads (Bridges and Towers)
1. Kana
1. Greycloak and Volunteer count suddenly jumped, even after not having done any recruiting. Probably because of Ziffer and the village charter.
2. Katriona to Special Missions.
3. Special Mission: Doman the Ogre - Start
11. Time 22%
1. Veedle - Build Temple of Tyr
2. Kana
1. Merchant Costers - Circle of Friends.
1. This event might reset tithes. Set tithes again before you leave.
12. Time 25%
1. Veedle - Build Merchant's Shop
2. Kana
1. Captain's Company - Protect the land and it's people.
1. Choosing this option gives us the Greycloak Morale necessary for the Warden of the Keep epithet.
2. Daerred letter 2/3.
3. Special Mission: Doman the Ogre - Total Success.
4. Katriona to Patrols.
5. Greycloaks to split Land/Road Patrol.
1. Note that you MUST do either Road Patrol or Land/Road Patrol if you want to get the maximum amount of gold from the dragon's horde later.
6. Daerred visit 3/3. He appears now, at the same time as the second letter, because he is scripted to appear at the start of Act III, but obviously cannot do so before the earlier two appearances.
3. See Ivarr for Warden of the Keep epithet and gifts from Light of Heavens and Joy; and for Path of the Holy quest (if Good Cleric or Paladin).
1. Now that we have the epithet, we can recruit Jalboun and Caelryna and still retain that epithet.
4. See StarTear for scrolls from him (if Wizard) and lying around in his tower.
5. Neverwinter Merchant Quarter - Recruit Deekin.
6. Crossroad Keep inn - See Sal and get a Ring of the Ram.
7. Dwarven Stronghold, Mount Galardrym. Ores #11 and #12. Recruit Caelryna. Path of the Holy.
8. Speak with Ivarr to close the Path of the Holy quest.
9. Circle of the Mere.
10. Sydney Natale / True Names meeting. Recruit Jalboun.
1. Jalboun is quite useless, but without him you cannot get the Gift from the Greycloaks event.
13. Time 27%
1. Veedle - Build Keep (West Wing)
2. Kana:
1. Shadow Reaver camp found.
2. Dragon's Horde recovered - 200,000 gold (maximum possible).
3. Jalboun to Special Assignments.
4. Special Mission: Tax Collection
1. Maximum tax (requires Good alignment and Charisma 15+)
2. Diplomacy adjustment
3. Appraise adjustment
4. Assume Peasants to be truthful. There's less gold to get but this gives no penalties and a net peasant growth greater than not collecting any taxes.
5. Send only Jalboun. Sending Light of Heavens along with him resulted in no extra gold, and slightly less population growth.
5. Gift from the Greycloaks - Short Sword +5.
3. Report last location of interest to Guyven and ask him about the Shadow Reaver camp.
4. Summon Mephasm and bargain. Talk to him about the Shadow Reaver camp.
5. Do NOT go to the Shadow Reaver Camp yet. Here, we experienced some sort of bug where if we went to the Shadow Reaver Camp, even without instructing Veedle to build anything, Keep time jumped to 32% and the Tax Collection Mission does not complete.
14. Time 30%
1. Veedle - Build Keep (Personal Quarters). Crossroad Keep now fully upgraded.
2. Kana
1. Special Mission: Tax Collection - done.
2. Greycloaks to Land/Road Patrol.
3. Get Key from West Wing to unlock the drawer in the Personal Quarters.
4. Shadow Reaver Camp.
5. Nolaloth's Valley. Ores #15-#16 (last).
6. West Harbour and reforge the Sword of Gith.
1. Cache all your Silver Shards somewhere if you want to keep them even after reforging the Sword of Gith.
7. Callum and the Shadow Reaver.
15. Time 32%
1. Kana
1. Daerred Letter 3/3 and Ring of Positive Thinking.
2. Set Greycloaks to Patrol Surroundings -- We forgot to do that at Time 30%.
2. Talk to Aldanon about the Tome of Iltkazar. Ammon Jerro and Zhjaeve must be in your party, or dialogue will break after Qara.
3. Upgrade the Construct with the Tome of Iltkazar.
16. Time 35%
1. Kana
1. Dobbson (City Watch only) - "Grey area", let him go.
17. Time 37%
1. Kana
1. Katriona to Special Missions.
2. Special Mission: Bugbears - Start. Although we have Jalboun on Special Missions, Katriona (or Bevil) is required to have best success here.
18. Time 40% - Uneventful.
19. Time 42%
1. Kana
1. Special Mission: Bugbears - Total success.
2. Reset Greycloaks to Patrol Surroundings.
3. Katriona to Patrols.
20. Time 45% to 50% - Uneventful.
21. Time 52%
1. Kana:
1. Raven's Allies - Refused.
2. Katriona to Special Missions.
3. Special Mission: Mere of Dead Men - Start.
22. Time 55%
1. Kana:
1. Special Mission: Mere of Dead Men - Total Success.
2. Reset Greycloaks to Patrol Surroundings.
23. Time 57%
1. Kana:
1. Katriona to Patrols.
24. Time 60% to 77% - Uneventful.
25. Time 80%
1. Kana
1. Conscription - No conscription.
26. Time 82% to 85% - Uneventful
27. Time 87%
1. We spoke with Kistrel late, so he wasn't finished with Kistrel's Cloak until now. Kistrel takes Keep Time +20% to finish.
2. OPTIONAL: Recruiting
1. At this time, if we switch Greycloaks, Katriona, and Light of Heavens to Recruiting, income plummets to 18447 at Keep Time 95% and stays there. The treasury stops growing as well -- probably a scripting oversight where you don't have enough income but it won't draw from the treasury or draw from your personal reserves, nor will you start losing population or Greycloaks.
2. At Keep Time 100%, if recruitment continued, we ended up with 1481 Merchants, 1486 Peasants, 12767 Greycloaks (8311 of which were from Recruitment).
28. Time 90% to 100% - Uneventful. Lockout at 100%.
1. We chose to continue without any recruitment. At Keep Time 100% with Income 113163, 1744 Merchants, 1750 Peasants, 5248 Greycloaks.