Avernum 2: Crystal Souls

To get this achievement you must raid the Halls of Chaos and retrieve the Blessed Athame.

This might be a lengthy quest and it is recommended to be round level 25 to handle the enemies found in this area.

First, you need to get to the Halls of Chaos which is located inside the Waterfall Warrens.

Buy a boat in Silvar and sail west then north then west again.

You need to go down a specific route to get to the halls, fortunately, if you miss, you can just sail east and up a waterfall back to the area's entrance.

You need to go down the middle waterfalls and a bit east.

Waterfall Warren Map: http://www.harehunter.info/Avernum2/Maps/WaterfallWarren.html
Once inside, get ready for a fun time. The Area map above also has maps for Halls of Chaos.

The area has two floors: the main floor and a cellar.

The main floor is divided into four sectors. The knife you want is in the NW sector but you can only get there through the cellar.

You will also need two keys and a password to get in there and unlock the chests.

1. First, go west and kill a wandering gazer, grab the fishing pole nearby the pond.
2. Then, go to the NE quarter and grab an abacus from the building, try and find an hourglass too. (Ignore the outside levers for now)
3. Go SE into the garden and fight the shamblers, inside the building, there will be statues with chests, interacting with the chests will put the items you have collected above into the chests and the statues will give you passwords.
4. If you have a gray pass, you can go down to the treasure room and loot it, but the knife isnt there so treat it like a side quest.
5. Now we need the two keys: The NE building has two gates that are closed and have stairs going down, to open those gates, use the levers found outside.
6. One of the keys is past a very hard area that continually spawn shade constructs from crystals, the gimmick here is to touch all crystals twice to crack them all before they can regenerate, try and make your tank distract the shades while your other characters run around cracking the crystals. Adrenaline Rush works awesome as cracking a crystal only costs 1 AP and A.Rush gives you 20AP, so you can move, crack, move, crack, adrenaline rush, move, crack, etc.
7. The second key is behind the other gate in the NE building, in the east section past some slimes in a thrash area.
8. With the passwords and keys in your possession go to the SW area and fight your way towards some stairs and a maze.
9. The gimmick here is that there are certain spots that open walls in other spots. See the map below.
10. Fight some Gazer boss with gazer and altered giants. The stairs all lead to treasure rooms, each having a nice item and one of them has the dagger you want.

If you get lost, you can check out a map here:
http://www.harehunter.info/Avernum2/Maps/pics/HallsChaosL2.png

Achievement get!

Somes things to note:

1. You will need an Arcane Lore of 13 or 14 but if you play as Humans, you can use their bonuses traits for each to get Sage Lore which counts as 3 points in Arcane Lore in each character, with 4 of these, you have 12 Arcane Lore and then you will only need a handful of points spent in one of your cracaters.
2. You will also need to complete quests to read some books as well as getting the blessed athema to remove some seals.
3. You will also need to find books and pay trainers to increase your Vahnatai Lore.
4. You will get most spells once you are strong enough to finish 2 of the ending conditions, so dont get desperate and just play through the game until youre above level 30.

You can kill Athron or Sulfras for this achievement, out of the two, Athron is the easier one, specially if you are on Torment difficulty.

The lair of Athron is in the honeycomb area, southwest of Silvar.

To make Athron aggressive, just remove the barriers to the west of her and walk over there.

You dont have to kill all the enemies, just the dragon, watch out for the eyebeasts.

Once she is dead, a message will pop up telling you how despicable you are, go ahead and end combat (even if enemies are still attacking you).

Once you are out of combat, the achievement should pop.

Cheers.

There are more than 40 caches in the game but some of them are very hidden, so its a very good thing you dont need to find them all.

I highly suggest you keep a checklist and keep track of which ones you've already done.

You can easily get most of them by buying 2 levels of Cavern Lore from trainer for each of your party members.

To make it easier, spend 2 more levels on someone to bring it up to 10 and equip the First Expedition Ring to have 11 Cave Lore.

If you want them all, spend 1 more level on Cave Lore to have 12 in total.

Here is the list (source: Cache List by Mechalibur)

Caches in chapter 1:

1. Scroll of Lightning - SW of Lizard Lair past hidden wall.

2. Healing Potion - N of Aranea Web. Fairly out in the open

3. Battle Crystal - S of Fungal Clearing behind a stalagmite. This one is actually impossible to see because of the angle its at.

4. Fiery Wand - N of Tiny Slith Fort. Next to a tiny 1 tile pool of water.

Chapter 2 (can't go back and check these, except #8)

5. Razordisk x6 - NW of Herb Patch. Through a hidden wall past a waterfall.

6. Energy Potion - SE of Barrier Tower. North of #5 by some purple trees.

7. Healing Elixir - W of Coffin Caves behind some purple trees.

8. Graymold - SW of Long Tunnel, through a hidden wall.

Caches in Vahnatai Lands

9. Scroll of Return Life - E of Test of Speed, by some stalagmite.

10. Corrupting Baton - NW of Ominous Crypt, in a crystal wall.

11. Fine Steel Waveblade - W of Crystal Shrine. Fairly out in the open.

12. Fine Razordisk x6 - W of Vahnatai Castle, through a hidden wall.

13. Gold Necklace - SSE of Test of Strength, near a Vahnatai statue.

14. Wisdom Crystal - E of Lava Dome (need the Orb of Thralni)

15. Rod of Defense - E of Fort Haledron (need the Orb of Thralni)

Return to NE Avernum

16. Speed Elixir - W of Spider Caves. The barrier must be down.

Eastern Galley

17. Scroll of Acid Shower - N of Kosdad's Hut, by some houses.

18. Speed Elixir - W of Fort Duvno, by some stalagmite.

19. Gold Necklace - SE of Circle of Pillars. It's tucked away behind some trees near the lake.

20. Gold Bar - N of Cotra, right in the open.

Eastern Galley Sea (all require boats, these can be reached by the boat you purchase in Silvar)

21. Foil Helm - Across the river, SW from the Abandoned Farmhouse, also N of Trapped Halls.

22. Scroll of Return Life - In the caves N of cache #21, take the river N until you reach them.

23. Energy Elixir - SW of Shipwreck Graveyard.

24. Platinum Ring - NE of Black Cube.

25. Ensnaring Wand - N of cache #24. Take the river up and there will be a clearing for a cave directly north of the previous cache.

26. Speed Elixir - W of Fort Dolthar, through a hidden wall, near some herbs.

27. Blessed Breastplate - On the W end of the Waterfall Warrens. Just take the far left waterfall, and you should see this cache.

28. Wand of Death - S of Elderan's Tower, through a wall.

SE Avernum (Tower of Magi and Mertis region)

29. Momentum Gauntlets - N of Mertis, behind a hidden wall.

30. Invulnerability Potion - NW of Tower of Magi, by some stalagmite. SE of an unmarked ogre village.

31. Fine Leather - NE of Caravan Stop, behind some lava.

32. Lemonwood Longbow - N of Brigand Madhouse, behind hidden wall.

Great Cave (Almaria through Dharmon)

33. Powerlash Scroll - S of Almaria, by some stalagmite.

34. Fine Steel - SW of The Castle, by the logging signs.

35. Wisdom Crystal - W of Blosk, through a hidden wall.

36. Healing Elixir - SEE of Dharmon, near a watchtower.

37. Energy Elixir - SSE of Dharmon, near some stalagmite.

38. Rod of Succor - SE of Sliverlocke's Hut, fairly in the open.

39. Focusing Crystal - SW of Well, through a hidden wall.

Scree Pits

40. Crystaline Wand - SE of Unfinished Fort, by some stalagmite.

Invaded Territory

41. Scroll of Speed Burst - N of Harston, past a lake. Requires the Orb of Thralni

42. Invulnerability Potion - W of Moldy Cavern (requires northern boat)

43. Scroll of Return Life - NW of Pyrog's Cave (requires northern boat)

44. Rod of Alacrity - N of First Guardpost (requires northern boat)

Fort Remote Tunnels

45. Armor Elixir - S of Despain's Shop

46. First Expedition Ring - S of SW3 checkpoint (this is unmarked, read the sign by each checkpoint), across some water that requires the Orb of Thralni.

Deep Empire Territory

47. 10 Blessings Band - N of Erika's Tower

48. Putrified Gauntlets - SE of Garzhad's Fortress