Welcome to the first of many Divinity Original Sin 2 guides! With Baldur’s Gate is coming out soon, we figured that gamers might look towards Divinity 2 to fix their gaming itch. Since Divinity is also a very complex game, Eltimar fired up a new playthrough and wrote a complete walkthrough for the tutorial deck, also known as THE HOLD. 

There is a grinning skull next to you that you can click on. If you are not undead you will spout a few unanswered phrases like a crazy person, but if you are undead yourself you can have a brief conversation with the skull. It introduces undead characters to the fact that they are undead and people will be hostile if you don’t mask your corpsey goodness. It is not super important though so let’s move on.

Anyway, how were the battle scenes at the Hall of Echoes and Lady Vengeance Deck? Did you have so much fun?

(In order to attack a door you can hold control and left click the door. This will cause your character to attack the door or even object. It is important to note this will cause durability damage to your weapon, if you have one, so just keep that in mind.)

The room through the poison door is a simple hallway with a few decks of cards. Have a quick look around and then press the lever to bring you back to the beginning of the area. It’s time to jump onto that ladder and head upstairs.

The important NPCs you should talk to are:

• Fane – An *elf* that is busy reading a book. He is a little pompous and arrogant, but is deeply inquisitive and honestly is one of the most entertaining of the playable NPCs. He is, in actuality, a member of a long dead race central to the plot of the game and he is the only undead playable NPC companion.
• Lohse – A human bard who has been stricken seemingly with some form of stage fright, as she will no longer sing. She also has a playful attitude but is hiding something truly dark and malevolent beneath the surface. Her side quest storyline is one of the best in the game.
• Sebille – An actual elf, unlike that fake elf Fane. She has the ability to learn abilities from eating the flesh of the dead. She is a little grim and morose, but she is also an exceedingly powerful character with interesting abilities and one of the stronger side quest storylines. She will also lick your arm for you… so that’s a thing.
• The Red Prince – A truly arrogant and annoying character. Though he has one of the coolest side quest storylines, his attitude is so immeasurably smug that it may just drive you insane. That being said he is a strong choice as a character just due to his story significance.
• Beast – Beast is a gruff but well-meaning Dwarf who has gotten on the wrong side of the queen of his people. His side quest story is, in my opinion, one of the weakest in the game, and you can experience almost the entirety of it without even needing Beast in the group. Honestly he is not my favorite choice of playable NPCs but if you like dwarves then go for it.
• Ifan – Ifan is a bit of a broody loner who was once a member of the Lone Wolves, a group of mercenaries. Interestingly this is also the name of a talent in the game, which makes your character more powerful alone. Ifan is kind of like that, he seems to prefer to be left alone, but will stick his neck out to protect those in danger.

Don’t forget you are also investigating a murder. Ask around about that and then grab the greasy key near Magister Viktar in the south-eastern corner of the room. This will allow you to enter the kitchen (5).

After you are done in the kitchen (5), speak with Magister Payde in the north-east section of the room. He will allow you entrance to the officer’s quarters (6), in order for you to get registered with Magister William.

After you meet with William, you will be able to return to this room. Everyone will be dead or unconscious so feel free to loot all of the bodies you can. You can also check on the the unconscious forms of the other playable NPCs. They are alive, but you cannot awaken them. You should also take this moment to grab a bedroll. It is perhaps the most important item you will get in the game. You should always have a bedroll with you.

Once you have sufficiently searched the area go back to area (6) and head upstairs.

To the surprise of everyone, she will remove her collar and a combat will break out for a very brief moment. She will kill everyone in the room, except you. You will only be knocked down and now the ship is on fire. Luckily you will have infinite time to look around at this point, so search the room for equipment and money. You can also backtrack to other rooms to explore and see what has happened.

After you have searched the rest of the floor for money and equipment, head up the stairs here to continue your journey.

This is an encounter where pet pal will come into play. Though there is actually no way to save the dog, you will get an optional conversation path if you can speak with the dog. If you don’t have pet pal, you can choose to just leave the dog where it is, or fight it for a little bit of extra experience. The fight is relatively easy and you should not have any significant problems with it. Aside from that there isn’t too much else in the room. Feel free to loot anything you want and we can continue onto the next room.

You will be forced into a conversation with the two magisters and they will immediately suspect that you, a Sourcerer, is wandering free. If you have some persuasion skills you can try and talk them out of a fight, but as the requirement is 2, and most characters will only have, at most, one persuasion, expect to have a fight.

Again this fight is relatively easy. Both magisters start the fight wounded. Feel free to murder them both with impunity. They definitely deserve it. There are a few letters and a journal in this room. Grab anything you want to take with you. Also, if you are playing multiplayer, you can troll your teammate by picking up the Bust of Alexander and transferring it to their inventory. Otherwise, you should just leave it there. It is actually worthless.

If you are not playing Fane, you will find him hiding in a small little alcove just off the northwest corner of the room near Magister Priest Medwyn. At this point, you will find out that he is undead! What a twist. Anyways he doesn’t give you much useful information and is seemingly unconcerned about the state of the ship. Apparently undead are not particularly concerned about drowning.

Once you have finished exploring the rest of the floor, head to the stairs in the southwest corner of the room and ascend to the deck of the ship.

The moment you step onto the deck, you will get the amusing cutscene of a magister thoroughly crushed by the leviathan that is wrecking the ship. You will also find yourself facing off against a pair of Voidlings. They are very easy to kill and I don’t imagine you will have many problems dispatching them. Finish them off and we can move on.

In the main gallery you will see all of the playable NPC’s have decided that it has become a good time to wake up. Unfortunately they appear to have made some friends, in the form of four voidlings. Fortunately for you, they are really easy to kill, and you get experience no matter who deals the killing blow. Take them all out. Now it is finally time to abandon ship.

You will have a choice, you can go back down to try and save Magister Siwan, at which point the boat will sink and she will die, or you can just abandon her and jump ship, in which case the boat will sink and she will die. Either way, you are going to wash up on the shore of Fort Joy after the cutscene.