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Low-Spoiler Arcanum Guide: Tarant
This city is so big it has a subway system. Use it; it's cheap and can save you a lot of boring trekking-back-and-forth time.
The city is divided roughly into neighborhoods, each centered around a subway stop. If you come in by foot, you will arrive in the
Boil, which is the worst part of town and involves some fighting that may be too rough for you. Head east across the bridge and you
will improbably enough be in the nicest part of town, called West Garillon Bridge district. This is a good starting point.
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If you come in
by train you'll start out in Vermillion Station district instead, which is just east of West Garillon Bridge and also a fine starting point.
Except for the Boil, which is across a long bridge and has only one-way subway service, all the districts are very accessible to each
other, and most quests have you meandering back and forth between them. I'm just organizing my guide by district to break it into
slightly smaller pieces, make it easier to see what's where, and facilitate using the subway system. Use common sense and your map;
sometimes it's quicker to stroll from the east side of one district to the west side of another than it is to go back and use the subway.
A general note about Tarant: The newspaper headlines change every day or two. It's interesting to buy them and see what's going
on in town--sometimes your exploits will affect the news, too, which is a neat touch. You can also buy back issues from the
paperboys when you first arrive or if you've been out of town for a bit. They're rather heavy and there's no use for them once you've read
them, so feel free to dispose of them when you're done. At one point a headline will tip you off to a quest--when you see the headline
about the strike at the orcish factory, go to the factory and you can throw in with either side in their Labor
Dispute.
West Garillon Bridge District
This district is primarily made up of upper-class housing and entertainment. (Odd that it's right next door to the Boil.)
The buildings here are the Pettibone residence, the Garringsburg residence, the Willoughby residence, the cemetery,
the Wellington Gentleman's Club, the Bridesdale Inn, the Halster residence, the Mooreland residence, the Franklin
residence, Grant's Tavern, the Telegraph Office, a few pricy shops, and... drumroll here... P. Schuyler and Sons jewelers.
Go around and talk to everyone; if you double-click on the little gold doorplates the addresses will be marked on your map,
which makes future navigation more convenient, but it doesn't always register, so don't rely on it.
Specific notes:
1) Mrs. Pettibone will be standing around in the street and will ask you to meet her in her house for a quest,
Tomb Raider. If you get angry or are rude to her she will call the guards and you will be in
serious trouble, so if what she's asking offends you, keep it to yourself and you can have your revenge later. You can also haggle
with her a little over the price if you like.
2) A man from the Thieves' Underground is standing around near the Pettibone house. If you talked to Lukan about the Thieves'
Underground already, you can join it by talking to this fellow and accepting his referral to Thaddeus Mynor. (If you're a thief-type,
you absolutely want to do this as it's the only way to get access to the masters in some of your thieving skills.)
3) Mrs. Garringsburg has a quest for you if you visit her in her house, The Art Thief.
4) You will need to enter the Wellington Gentleman's Club at some point for one or more quests. If your character is male, this is no problem.
If your character is female, you will need to go on a little quest first, The Old Boy Network. Once you get inside,
besides the usual bar people and a quest contact, you can find a dark elf with a small quest for you, No Questions
Asked, and the Gambling Master, who will promote you to master if you win enough games of dice from him (unlike most Masters, he
does not require a quest; he also doesn't count your losses against you, so this is an easy mastery if you have spare coin and decent luck).
5) Mr. Willoughby doesn't show up until later in the game, but when he does, he is the Persuasion Master and can send you on the
Persuasion Master Quest.
6) In Grant's Tavern is the Haggle Master, who will train you without asking you to do any quests.
7) At the Telegraph Office, you can get Dante's next instructions from Elder Joachim for him, though they aren't much help.
8) A man standing around in the street by the tailor's shop will give you a quest, My Ring Fell Down The Loo.
You can pop right down and explore the sewers if you want to. If you've already heard something about the sewers being sealed or
dangerous, you can relax--that's only part of the sewers. This part is small and easy. The hardest part is spotting the ring in the poor
lighting. It's just lying there on the floor, so if you're not finding it, check your stupid NPCs, because they tend to pick stuff up off the
floor before you have a chance to.
9) P. Schuyler and Sons is your likely reason for having come to this city--everyone, after all, gets the One Ring quest in the intro sequence.
Outside its gates is standing Magnus the dwarf, who will join your party if you are not evil-aligned and don't insult him. He adds some
interesting commentary inside the building, so if you have room he's worth taking along. You have to get past the clerk--killing him, stealing
his key, or bluffing him work equally well. If you bluff him, you get a different end result for him if you let him flee or tell him he has to tell
you everything he knows. No matter how you get in, once you go down there's a straightforward little dungeon for you. Magnus makes his
comments at very odd times, usually when you're in the process of opening a container or something. If you have him with you, don't teleport
out of the dungeon until he's given his concluding spiel about "thank you, my friends, for helping me", which occurs at some random point
as you trek back through the halls towards the surface. The NPC engine seems to be rather buggy still. Anyway, you can hardly help learning
what you need to know: if you don't have Magnus you can coax the answer out of the Schuylers without violence, and if you do (or you feel
like violence anyway) you can find your answer filed in one of their filing cabinets afterwards.
Vermillion Station District
This district is based near the train station--the big train that takes you to major cities, not the little subway system that ferries you around
the city. The buildings in this area include Vermillion Station (obviously), the Tarantian Editorial Office, Delores Beston the Seer, and several
stores.
1) One of the guards outside the train station is actually useful for another quest, so be sure you talk to them all until you find the one
with a name. It's very frustrating having to sift through the anonymous guards this way.
2) At the Tarantian Editorial Office, the newspaper editor will offer to pay you for the story of the zeppelin crash. Whether you accept or
not depends on how paranoid you're playing your PC, really; it won't have any drastic effects (though it will make you something of a
local celebrity). You can also get a quest, though I hesitate to dignify it as such: Editor's Errand.
3) Dolores Beston will ask you to go steal a rival fortuneteller's Crystal Ball for her. You can choose which
of the two to side with, though both ladies seem rather unpleasant.
University District
This district is based near the Tarant University. The buildings here include the Wellington Residence, H.T. Parnell's, the Zoological
Society, the Library, the University, the Lecture Hall, the Dept. of Water/Hall of Records, the Bates Mansion (behind the big locked gate),
and some magic shops. There's also an empty shed by the subway station.
1) H.T. Parnell is clearly a poke at P.T. Barnum. He's a real gasbag and you can tell him so if you want. He can give you some background
information about Arronax and Nasrudin, whose reincarnation Virgil is convinced you are. You can sell him Bessie Toone's boot if you
didn't sell it to Ristezze. Also, Gar, the self-proclaimed "World's Smartest Orc," is in here, and if you're good and have high intelligence
and persuasion scores, you can talk him and Parnell into letting him join your party.
2) At the Zoological Society you can learn the location of Bellerogrim's Lair (Bellerogrim was the last of Arcanum's dragons, apparently),
after which you can go there whenever you want. There's no quest or anything there, just some moderately tough demons to kill, treasure
to loot, and a journal with some interesting background material. You may also have your interest piqued by a supposedly unopenable safe
recovered from the dragon's lair. If you're impatient you can find a way to open it now, but it'll become important in a later quest.
3) You can read the books in the Library at your leisure, but to read quest-item books, you'll need to fork out the 1500 gold it costs to
become a member. Yowza!
4) In the University there are two professors worth talking to: a phrenologist, who gives you the Siamese Twins
quest, and a theologian, who indirectly gives you the Gimme That Old-Time Religion quest. The phrenologist's
quest is going to lead you into a really complicated conspiracy, so don't bring the skulls back to him until you've gotten
to the bottom of it first or you'll miss out. There's also a guy selling tech manuals in here, but they are very heavy and don't boost your
skill by enough to build something unless you already have some points in it, so I've never found them very useful.
5) You have to go up the stairs to reach the clerk in the Hall of Records, who can procure for you the address of anyone you need to find
for any of your quests.
6) And finally the Bates Mansion, which will be the last stop in your One Ring quest; but first you need to get in. You basically have two
options--talk your way past the guards, or do the Factory Protection quest the guards suggest. (Alternatively,
you could go ally with Mr. Appleby and just kill Gilbert Bates, who you apparently can finish the game without; it's a much more compelling
story if you get his perspective on it, though.) Once you get in to talk to Mr. Bates, you will learn some interesting information and receive
your next major plot quest, the Black Mountain Dwarves.
Kensington Park District
There are no buildings here; this subway station is in the little park on the island in the center of the map. There are two people of interest
here: Sammie the thief, and Thom Grak. Sammie primarily just trades insults with you, but if you're ready to become a master pickpocket,
he'll train you if you perform his oddball Pickpocket Master quest. As for Thom, if you've spoken to Matt de
Cesare in the Wellington previously, he'll give you a little quest to Fetch Matt.
Warehouse District
The warehouses and factories are here. These are mostly identified by address, and they are all locked and/or guarded. No quests originate
here; you just have to come poke around these industrial buildings for quests you get elsewhere. (Not all warehouses, incidentally, are in
this district--there are a couple down by the docks as well.) There is also one place of business here, Joseph's Stonecutters, which you will
need for another quest.
Commercial District
Tucked in between the warehouses and the docks, here are Stanton Importers, Water and Power Plant, the Appleby Residence, and
the Panarii Temple.
1) At the Water and Power Plant, you can learn of the sealed sewers. The manager here will not let you into them no matter how persuasive
you are. You can kill him and use his entrance, but there is a much easier way in elsewhere in the city.
2) If you have not spoken to Gilbert Bates yet, Cedric Appleby will offer you a quest to Sabotage one of his
rival's machines. If you have spoken to Bates, Appleby won't speak to you at all.
3) The priest at the Panarii Temple can give you a little more background about the legend you're supposed to be a part of.
Docks District
This is clearly the lower-class part of town (though not as much so as the Boil). Wander around down here at night and some thieves may
try to mug you; they're not very high-level, and it's their loss. Buildings include Toussade's House of Secrets, Madame Lil's, the Mynor
Residence, the Thieves' Guild, Poone's Flophouse, some more warehouses, and a couple of unidentified street addresses you will find
yourself wanting for other quests.
1) The halfling standing outside the two warehouses with the wall around them wants you to do a simple little quest for him,
The Exterminator. Go into the unlocked warehouse first; the key to the other is in there.
2) You can get admission to the Thieves' Guild from Thaddeus Mynor if you complete a pair of quests for him,
The Sewer Tour and The Idol of Kree. (He will offer you another quest,
Blackmail Gilbert Bates, but this is an evil quest and you can't do it at all if you've already spoken with Bates.
Declining it does not cost you anything.)
Once you've done the Sewer Tour quest, you can buy and sell things from the fence (though you probably
won't want to, as his prices are terrible) and receive all sorts of tip-offs on things to steal and become very rich. If you ever want to be a master
in any of the thieving skills, you'd better do this, because it's the only way to get access to them. If you're not a thief, though, joining this guild
at all will primarily waste your time. You won't be able to do their quests or heists unless you have high scores in the thievery skills, and it will
just be frustrating. There's no shortage of money in this game anyway. You may want to finish the Sewer Tour quest just to get to Kree, which
is a neat-looking ruined city chock full of loot, but if you're not a thief you will probably need to spend a fate point stealing the key to the
room and then hope for a lucky roll from Virgil opening the safe.
3) Madame Lil's is a whorehouse, and if you have male adolescent fantasies to act out, you can do it here. They have four naked girls of
differing sexual habits and one sheep. (If you're a female character you can still sleep with the girls, but there are no men available for
characters of either gender.)
Anyway, besides spending all your hard-earned money on fadeouts with the naked women, you can get a whole bunch of quests here:
The Whore's Necklace, The Collection Agency,
The Happy John, and The Medallion of Beauty. If you're a woman Madame Lil
will try to get you to turn a trick for her instead of doing the Whore's Necklace quest. You get a little more money for it, but you have to
sleep with a gross ugly old gnome right in front of his half-ogre guard. (Why is it the guys get to sleep with pretty women in this game,
and the women have to sleep with ugly gnomes if they want any heterosexual action?) Anyway, you can decline this and do the Whore's
Necklace quest instead if you'd rather. If you're female you can't do the Happy John quest, either.
Near the docks is the road out of town, where there is a gypsy wagon and a few empty buildings. Explore those at some point, because
there is something of interest in one of them.
The Boil
This is sort of an orcish ghetto. You will get into fights here, so don't come till you're ready to rumble with a few solid 25th-level fighters.
There is nothing really to do in the Boil except ally with one of the gangs and do their quests. The bar (in the north half of the Boil) is
the only place you can get any quests or information here.
If you talk to the halfling on the left of the bar, you can ally with the Pollock gang, and if you talk to the half-orc on the right, you can ally
with the Maugs. The Pollocks will give you one quest, Booze Wars, and then the main gang quest.
Kill The Rival Gang. You can get two quests out of the Maugs, Pay Up Or Die
and The Jilted Gnome, and then Kill The Rival Gang. You can't join both gangs,
so you'll have to make a choice. The Maug quests are a little more interesting, but it's more challenging (and gives you more experience)
to kill the Maug gang. If you join the Pollock gang, the gang leader will have an interesting conversation with Virgil. If you've already done
it one way, then definitely go the other this time.
Regardless of which gang you side with (or if you side with neither), the bartender will still give you some information and a quest of
his own, Happy Hour.
There is nothing else to do in this part of town. It's a ghetto, so no one but the gang leaders have any money or valuable things to find or
steal. The shopkeeper has horrible prices even if he loves you. And you can't do anything with any of the people who live here unless
you're on one of the gang quests. So you needn't even spend your time thoroughly exploring this map; you won't find anything but a
couple of spare rags or flowers, and no one to help or talk to.
From Tarant, go on to the Black Mountain clan.
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