THE REALM OF IGNIS



Prepare yourself well for this one, there's a lot you need to do here!

Timpy told you the location of Havock's Mill, which contains the gateway to the Realm of Ignis. It's north-northwest from Uvirith's Grave, near a dwemer ruin. I found that the easiest way to find it is to start from Falensarano (easy if you have the Master Propylon Index) and follow the road south. At some point you'll see a junction with a bunch of signposts, Havock's Mill will be right behind that, on the top of the hill.
Rev. Xanondorf tells you about the Saint's Drum you need to get before going to the Realm of Ignis. It's in a cave called Eyshrug Drantal, at the end of the Foyada Ashur-Dan, in the Molag Amur region. If you have the paper map of Vvardenfell, you should be able to find it quite easily. And to make it even easier, there's a trail of roadsigns that leads to that foyada, starting at Havock's Mill. When you get to the last signpost (with the skull), go left and follow the foyada south, you can't miss it.


EYSHRUG DRANTAL

When you enter Eyshrug Drantal, you can see two people far ahead, but you can safely ignore them. Go left and keep following that passage, until you see a deep pit with a daedric ruin in it. You'll encounter some daedric creatures there, get rid of them. Go down, and below the roof of the ruin you'll see a corpse with an ebony staff and a book lying beside it. The staff could be useful to you if your levitation skills are lacking, and the book will tell you where to find the Saint's Drum - it's above your head, in a well-hidden cave. Take the Saint's Drum and get out, this is all you need to do in this place. Head for Havock's Mill.


HAVOCK'S MILL

Enter the mill and kill the Argonian, Havock. Levitate to the upper room, and you'll see the dimension door above your head, like a ceiling. But don't go in yet! Read the book on the desk (and take it with you for future reference, if you like) so you'll know a little of what to expect; the note will tell you about the Ring of Ignis, which is inside a small chest on a shelf, behind an iron helmet. In the desk you'll also find some useful things.
You've done enough to prepare yourself, so go through the dimension door and enter the Realm of Ignis. You'll find yourself inside a cage, with no way out; outside the cage you can see a switch on one side, and a wheel on the other. If you could only touch that wheel... It's good of you that you took the scrolls from Havock's desk, you have three chances now to try and reach for the wheel, which will take away the cage for you. Touching the switch will then lower the tower that you're standing on. Follow the path of rocks and keep walking straight on (it would be a mistake to go Towards the Mistake, of course - you'll only end up in the Cathedral, and would have to go all the way back to Ignis again). On the far end is the door to


TUUBAL

Go across the pool of lava, or carefully work your way forward along the ledge; you can levitate here if you want, so you should have no problem with this. Go to the deepest part of the cave, and you'll see a pit with a lot of shalks, and coffins lining the walls. Kill the shalks and descend, then open the lid of the coffin. You'll see a Daedric Tower Shield; take it and press the switch that was hidden behind it. Now go back out of the cave, and you'll see that the pool of lava has gone, revealing an altar and two flame atronachs guarding it. Deal with the atronachs and take the Eye of the Fourth Crown from the altar. One down, three to go.
Get out of Tuubal, and just jump or walk into the lava. Don't worry about getting damaged by it, this is why you need the Ring of Ignis. You can go in any direction that you like, there's no set order in which you have to visit the caves and ruins of Ignis. I'll just take you west from Tuubal and around the outer edge of this Realm; there are no caves or buildings in the center, except for the Temple, and it's best to save that for last.
To the west of Tuubal you'll see an outcropping of rocks; climb it, and to the left you'll see the entrance of


YMOT

This is easy: just kill everything you encounter, including a Bug Lord (a very big shalk), and enter the room behind that, through the Door of No Return. Take the Eye of the Third Crown there, above the bowl of fire, and touch the door. You won't get out yet though, and a creature (a bonewalker) will appear behind you. Kill and repeat, several times (a skeleton warrior, a bonelord and a lich are next), until the door vanishes with a thunderclap.
Slightly northwest of Ymot is a cave complex called


CHANDRA

This place is a lot trickier. After walking across the path and passing a few of the cages, many of the corpses will come alive and pepper you with all kinds of enchanted arrows - not my idea of fun! When that happens, run back towards the entrance, because running the gauntlet to the far end is too difficult for most. You'll only be stopped by the arrows, including some with paralysis. Then kill them from a distance using arrows or spells, or levitate and slay them one by one. You can take their enchanted arrows now, if you're any good at archery; there should be enough of them to last you the rest of the game! Another possibility is to make yourself invisible and sneak through.
Behind those cages is the door to the lower caverns of Chandra. Now, the obvious way to continue is to go right, but there are gratings blocking your way. The big black rock right in front of you hides a twisting passage leading to a pit with, again, a lot of shalks. Kill them all, or ignore their attacks, and press the switch on the left side of the pillar. This will take away a grating, so you can continue on your way down. Take it slow here, turn up the volume (and turn off any music) and absorb the atmosphere - this is my favorite part of the entire mod! - if you hurry through you'll miss that. You will end up in a cave with a lot of skulls and a bonewalker, and behind it is a room with an altar and two keyholes, Ashkat and Ipshkat. Of course you need keys for that, you can find them behind the hidden doors on each side of the altar, after you kill the bonelords there.
Use both keys on the keyholes, and turn around quickly to deal with the Ignis Minion (or "fireman" as I call it). Its inventory holds the Eye of the First Crown.

Continue north along the outer edge of Ignis, and you'll see a tree bearing skeletons; a little further you'll be able to make out the Temple above you, on a large rock. Ignore that for now and keep on going to the north, until you get to the northwest corner of the Realm and find


BARHACK

There's one big room with a few shalks, and five urns. Most of them will earn you a flame atronach to practice against, but one urn activates a mechanism - the one left of the entrance. This mechanism opens up a passage on the east side, leading to an altar holding a glass sword. Take it or leave it.
The next stop on our grand tour around Ignis is in the north:


K'NARETH

The entrance is locked, but that will hardly be a problem for you, I expect. When you enter and go right, you'll see a row of skeletons - don't worry, these ones won't come alive and shoot you - and a firmly locked door. The rusty key that hangs on the wall right next to it is of no use here, so you need to go the other way. Behind the door on that end is a small room with a switch on an altar. This switch operates that other door; go back there and you'll find that it's gone.
The wooden door (WHAAA!) opens up to a room guarded by a shalk. To the left is a door that won't budge yet; in a corner on the right is a cell full of little shalks. The cell door is locked, but the key you took earlier will open it. Get rid of the shalks now, or you might trip over them. Inside that cell is a row of switches lining the walls, but the only switch you need is the one above the door, on the inside. The altars in the room will each show a switch now. Push the one on the right, that should open the wooden door. If it doesn't work, touch that door first and try the switch again.

You're inside the burial room of K'nareth now. Take the Dragonscale Cuirass and turn around quickly, to fight the guardian that appears. The Cuirass may seem attractive btw, but it will only slow you down a lot, so don't wear it. Take the Eye of the Second Crown from K'nareth's ribcage. If you followed the same path that I took here, you're ready to enter the Temple of Ignis. But there are two more places that I want to show you, they might be interesting.


TAFALL

This is southeast of K'nareth, in the easternmost part of Ignis. Upon entry you'll immediately be greeted by two big shalks, and that's only the beginning - the place is crawling with them! And shalks are not the only creatures you have to watch out for, the fire also hides bigger game. Better be prepared, the big guy could surprise you, heheh. In the room beyond are two smaller companions of his.
In the middle of that room you'll see an altar with a rather noisy candle. Pick that up and you'll get another nice surprise. At the far end (the fire may slow you down a little) is another altar, with the best sword of TBM. If you're a swordfighter you might consider keeping it as your preferred weapon.
The final place I want to take you through, before going to the Temple of Ignis, is just south of Tafall and called


D'AX SHRINE

This is a small place, only an altar holding another good sword (although it's less powerful than the sword from Tafall), guarded by three flame atronachs.


THE TEMPLE OF IGNIS

Just north of the tower that you entered this Realm on, but on the other side of the rocks, is a stairway. Climb it and ring the bell at the top; this will make a Golden Saint appear, but don't kill it! Talk to it, and you'll be presented with three choices, of which only the third takes you further - this is why you had to bring the Saint's Drum. Playing it will "call forth the Path" to the Temple. Take care not to fall off it, or you'll have to walk all the way back up again.
When you enter the Temple you'll have to confront the guard AZ-Ter62. Kill him and study the Square of J (there's one on each side), because you're going to need it. Push the button of "Rebis" upstairs, and solve the questions of the Square of J. (Of course the answers are the sum of one row - 15 - and the sum of all numbers - 45.) This will open the transparent door.
Walk around the Temple, and you'll see four bowls which are the Seals of the Crowns. Now is a good time to read Havock's journal (did you bring it?) to better understand what you're doing here. Put an Eye of the Crown in each Seal (by touching it), and the middle room in the back will be opened up. You'll see something in the fireplace there - it's the Demon's Helm. Take it, and the Demon (looking like a bigger brother of the Ignis Minion you encountered in Chandra) will appear and in turn take the Helm from you. After you hit him once, he'll go away.

It looks like you came all this way just to be outsmarted, so your efforts seem futile now. Leave the Temple, but before you do, prepare yourself for a tough fight!
As soon as you get out, the Demon - looking different now, armored and with huge proportions - will receive you warmly, and send two pairs of his minions (firemen) at you. They'll throw singeing (not singing) fireballs at you; the best you can do is to shoot them down with frost arrows or something, or let them come to you and hack them to pieces.

After you've killed all four minions, you'll be teleported to an enclosure, standing in a pool of blood together with the (now man-sized) Demon. He wields a very heavy weapon, so it's best to be quick! An assassin-type character might have an advantage here, because quick strikes with a good knife will keep the Demon off-balance and unable to hit back. In any case it's good to be well supplied with health potions.
After you've killed the Demon you can take his helm, for your armor collection; and the pearl of Corrupted Ignis. Maybe you'd like to take a Slasher too, the weapon that the Demon used; but it's heavy and easily broken. You can leave the enclosure now, to be put before a dimension door on a platform. This will take you back to Havock's Mill.


Now it's time (if you haven't already done it) to

Or go to another mill to enter

If finding the pearl of Corrupted Ignis completes your collection, you can go to the cave and The Pit below the Black Mill to meet Tommy.