**Storms Keep

This zone was much better before the revamp, but anyways.  Begin by having your 
group (not you) all type 'accept' at Sara and the dragon.  Type 'listen sara' 
and let her talk until she drops both a letter and a golden amulet.  Loot these 
and accept.  Move north to the gate and kill the kender/janitor.  Have someone 
with high strength 'knock gate' to get the guard's attention.  Kill the guard 
when he comes out quickly, try to keep him floor so he doesn't escape.  Loot the 
key and open the gate.  There will be 5-10 tracking knights/warriors you may 
want to filter out slowly.  Move north into the keep (not everything is aggro) 
until you can see Steel.  Send in your tank, and 'display letter' and 'display 
gold.amulet' to get Steel to run off.  Kill the mobs, and move west (few more 
tracking mobs).  Head north and kill the guards/dragons/captain.  Head north of 
the dragonrider captain, and look at the smith.  Blacksmith can load 'a leather 
jerkin' (+str/+hr bodyworn) and 'a pair of wicked black boots' (+dam footworn 
nonmetal).  Note the blacksmith's room is nomagic.  North and east of smith is 
the stable keeper, kill him for a key.  Head back west, and a few south and 
unlock the door east.  More trackers come here.  Go east, kill the champion of 
lily, who can load 'black lily gauntlets' (+con handworn antigood) and 'the 
plate of the black lily' (+con bodyworn antigood).  He also loads a key you will 
need.  Head south and kill Romis and his guards.  Romis can load 'an ebony 
hilted gleaming sword' (nice high-str offhand lblade) and 'an ebony shield' 
(+bash shield).  He also loads a key.  Head back north to the champion room, and 
then east.  More trackers at this locked door.  Head through the door and 
northward to the barracks.  At the northeast end is Steels room, go in and 
'convince steel' or 'challenge steel' (it may be a new kw but it won't be too 
hard to figure).  Take Steel back down to Romis area and he will open up a 
secret.  Follow the path until you can see Grom, and kill him.  Do not touch the 
knight in the room while Grom is alive.  Once Grom dies, have one of your 
healers heal the knight.  This is good exp if it's done alone.  Take the group 
back up the path and west of the cabinet until Steel pushes a button and 
vanishes.  Have your group all push button to reach the upper level of the keep.

Up from this room are a few more trackers and some master of the thorn mage 
mobs.  Keep the mages bashed--they can edrain/stun/tent etc.  Head north from 
here and unlock the west door and fight the 3 tracking, healing knights of the 
skull.  The high priestess also wanders these few rooms, find and kill her.  She 
loads 'a small, tattered prayerbook' (word of recall/sunbolt/summon/negative 
plane protection clerical book).  North of the skulls room are 2 minor priests, 
kill them without touching the kender.  Once dead, have someone you want to 
control Steel as a charmie 'push 2.button'.  Now head back to the central room 
of the upper level.  Head east and kill the guards and the stoneskinned golem to 
find a mem room.  North of the mem room is a nomagic fight with a lord of the 
lily.  There is a door to the west of him that leads to the old Ariakan room, 
but is now a trap set by Lord Saq.  You can either overbash/silence Saq (tough 
to pull off) or just kill everything.  If Saq manages to yell, kill guard guard 
lord captain dragon.  Otherwise you only have to deal with Saq and his guard(s).  
Once all these mobs are dead, 'roll statue' and open the door east to head back 
to the mem room, and 'move/push fireplace' to open a doorway north.  North of 
Saq is another fight.  This fight order is usually guard guard high lord, have 
someone bashing high priest and bashing lord Yath.  This fight can load 'a 
sterling ornate orb' (unsure stats, +con held maybe).  Once done with this fight 
head back to the button room.  Steel will automatically 'push button' and have 
your group do the same.

Head back to the courtyard, being cautious.  You will find a group of Shriners 
there that you need to kill.  Best kill order is Abraxas, Thar, Katsuhiro, 
Isamu.  They load a few various items of no excitement, and Abraxas loads the 
key needed for lord Noom.  Loot them, find the fountain near the smith (Steel 
will say something about Noom), and head back to the button once again.  Push it 
(mem in the memroom if necessary) and head further up into the keep.  The 
'guardian of the tower' dies quickly if you blind it.  Once at the top of the 
keep, you can go south to fight Kul who loads 'the amulet of Kul' (5hp detinvis 
neckworn) and 'a transparent shroud' (about worn autoinvis).  Once he's dead, go 
back the other way and head north.  You'll have to fight some knights/masters 
again.  Make sure you are flying and try to spin your group north.  You'll end 
up in a room with a down exit a few times, this room is a nofly dt so don't go 
down.  Keep trying to go north from the center room until you succeed.  From 
here, 'shatter 2.mirror (or 1.mirror if you have the mirror key packed)', move 
north, and 'unl door w'.  West of here is lord Noom and his 2 demons.  Noom is 
not nearly as deadly as he was before the revamp, but he can still be a pain in 
the ass if you are low on clerics.  Kill his demons first (stabbing them on 
entry or having tank kick/charge the first one helps) while keeping noom on his 
ass with charges/bashes.  He areas like any other high mage mob and has his own 
flesh decay area spell that does quite a bit of damage.  Noom loads 'a robe of 
the elements' (body worn autoinvis), 'an obsidian crown' (mageonly 2int 
autoinvis head), and 'the black staff of shadows' (immune_edrain prime staff 
mageonly).  You can 'push/move chest' to get below the room and loot the coins.  
Either Noom himself or the hidden room can load a magebook.  This is probably 
the most chaotic book load in the game.  It can be anything from forcebolt to 
(uniquely so far) prism.  The mirrored monocle is needed to reach Ariakan so be 
sure to loot it.  Move back to the mem room and mem.

From here, move west, south, west and wear the monocle.  You will then be able 
to 'ent passage' to reach the secret area of Ariakan.  Sara will be in the room 
for this fight so don't use area.  This fight can either be really nasty or 
pretty easy depend on how your saves fair.  When you move in, kill the guards as 
fast as you can.  Once Ariakan/Flare arrive the kill order (assuming everything 
is alive) is guard guard guard guard dragon lord.  Ariakan can load 'a skull 
helm of takhisis' (antigood immune_heat headworn), 'a gleaming ivory staff' 
(4d4++ offhand blud), 'a black lily pendant' (+10hp neckworn antigood/evilonly 
perhaps), 'a pair of dark legplates' (+dam legs), and/or 'the dark plates of 
Takhisis' (+dam legworn evilonly).  If Steel and his owner survived, you can 
'free sara' with Steel in the room to receive upwards of 1million experiece for 
a goodie char and a key.  This key opens either the cabinet in the lily champion 
room, or the silver box beneath lord Saq's room.  You can 'open rug' in Saq's 
room to access the box.  The cabinet loads 'an old tarnished lance' (antievil 
2d12 ++ piercer prime) and a druid tablet (mass refresh, firestorm, word of 
recall).  The silver box loads 'a golden orb' (held light +7th circle clericonly 
that is also a heal wand).