The Dark Cavern is one of the most interesting areas in the Fort Joy Act. Upon entering the primary cavern, you should note a hexagonal shield blocking your way to a room chock-full of treasure. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to just waltz in and claim your spoils.

Notes & Tips

• Treasure and Soul Jars
• The statue will ask you to solve puzzles, each letter stands for a word.
• The statue will teleport your main character to another area, and grants Bless.
• Bring the Captain’s Jar to the cursed crate at around X:535, Y: 23 to get one piece of Captain Armour.

Continue a little bit further in and you will be met by a truly annoying individual by the name of Trompdoy. You can rise against his insults and try to insult him back or quietly take it. Either way he will not give you any information about how to get to the treasure. Luckily I am here. You will also pick up the quest The Vault of Braccus Rex shortly upon entering the area.

After killing all three Trompdoy illusions, a treasure will spawn. If you attempt to open it, you will soon find out it is trapped, and Trompdoy will re-appear to mock you regarding your stupidity. There are two paths leading further into the cave.

The longer, westmost one in the Dark Cavern is heavily trapped but has an actual real treasure for you to grab. The shorter, eastmost one is not trapped, but also has no treasure of note.

This room is full of illusions, and also a pretty interesting riddle game.

The first thing you should do is explore around a little bit. Try some of the doors (most of them are trapped), enter the room with the two chests (hint: the right chest is trapped but the left one isn’t). Steal some artwork, that kind of thing. Once your loot lust has been sated talk to the statue.

The statue first tells you that it is unlikely to find the way. He then asks if you have met Trompdoy and he tells you that fate has not been kind of that poor soul. He will then ask if you want to move forward. If you say that you want to continue he will give you your first riddle.

Riddle One: BRACCUS is a bloody, rotten, thieving, very, very, awful fellow. Some might even call him a cur! A CUR is…?

This is a simple letter/word replacement cipher. If we look at the name BRACCUS, it has seven letters. The descriptor provided by the statue also has seven words, two of which repeat. So if we assign each word to a corresponding letter in order, we get.

B = Bloody
R = Rotten
A = Thieving
C = Very
C = Very
U = Awful
S = Fellow

So, a CUR, taking this cipher into account would be Very Awful Rotten.

Dark Cavern Riddle Two: SOURCE is a scourge, a devil, a misery, a blight, a hex, a curse. And yet, the CURE is…?

This is the same sort of replacement cipher. Plugging in the words to the letters we get

S = Scourge
O = Devil
U = Misery
R = Blight
C = Hex
E = Curse

This would make CURE a Hex, Misery, Blight, Curse.

Once you have answered these questions the door will open and you can continue on your way.

This is where the toughest fight of the Dark Cavern zone will take place. The primary thing you should know is that there is only one true Trompdoy, the rest are illusions. You can tell the true Trompdoy because he is the one with the “cursed” affliction. He is tricky to hit, as he often makes himself invisible, but once he appears you should focus your attacks on him. Once he dies the fight is over.

This room, like so many others in the Dark Cavern, is also full of illusionary bridges. But once you have cleared out Trompdoy you can explore to your hearts content without worrying about being attacked. Check around for treasures and then head into the actual treasure room at (6). You should also pick up the Band of Braccus Rex from the corpse of Trompdoy, as it may come in handy later. You shouldn’t equip it though, as it is cursed.

Picking up the Band of Braccus Rex will initiate the quest The Cursed Ring. The solution to this quest is rather simple. Wear the ring, and after you get cursed simply cast bless on your character to remove the cursed status effect. This will end the quest, but you cannot remove the actual curse on the ring permanently.

This room has a bunch of things you are going to want to grab. The obvious ones are the Heart of the Tyrant armor (don’t put it on unless you have the rest of the Artefacts of the Tyrant because it is cursed). The purging wand. The Gold. The Treasure Chests.

There are, however, four other artifacts in this room whose use is not immediately obvious. The Soul Jars of Tamsyn, Rask, Gwick, Gratiana, Sech Zapor and Trompdoy, are all glowing on pedestals around the periphery of the treasure pile. These jars are used in the quest A Fate Worse than Death.

You may remember meeting Gratiana in the Seeker camp recently. It would appear that under that mask of hers she is actually an undead necromancer. Depending on if you have completed the gargoyle maze and entered the tower of Braccus Rex, you may or may not have met the other four necromancers, but grab them anyways because they will be useful.

After gathering up the four Necromancer Soul Jars, you should come to dear Trompdoy’s. When you try and interact with it, he will appear and he will tell you that he was sorry for his actions earlier. He explains that he is cursed by Braccus Rex to protect the vault and he can never leave the cave because he is bound to the Soul Jar. You can choose to let him suffer for eternity, or you can offer to break his Soul Jar, which will cause him to finally die, thank you, and give you a quest reward. This will end the quest The Vault of Braccus Rex.

Just past the treasure room you will encounter that barrier of hexagons from earlier. But more importantly you should also note a statue of what appears to be a headless angel. If you do not have bless you will have the opportunity to be sucked into the Hall of Echoes through this statue. You will get to meet with the god associated with your character… or in the case of Lohse, the dark passenger within her.

Speak with your deity of choice and you should be granted the spell Bless. This will help us complete a few other quests around the Fort Joy area. Once you are unceremoniously spat out of the Hall of Echoes, it’s time to leave this cave and continue on your journey. Also if you have not received the quest Champion of the Gods from speaking with the various voidspawn that you will encounter throughout Fort Joy, speaking with your deity inside the Hall of Echoes will initiate it.

This concludes our walkthrough for the Fort Joy Dark Cavern. Make sure you also check out our other guides, or jump back to the Fort Joy Map!