Graduation Exercise

Template:Campaign Elixir of LifeFirst scenario of the Elixir of Life campaign.

Campaign

Right-click text

This area is a special training area and is the site for your final exam. Many have failed this test, while more have passed it. Good luck.

Prologue

File:H3x2 ELa.png

The Forest Guard is Erathia's eyes and ears. We go where we are needed most and that is usually places difficult for traditional fighting forces to reach. We are shadows of the forest that see all and bring silent death with a single, unseen bowshot. You have done well in your training, Gelu, but now has come the time to take the final test. A small valley near Gaia's Crest will be the site of this trial. Clear the region of all the enemies to earn your place among the ranks of the Forest Guard. Good luck.

Scenario

Map description

Defeat all Gelu's enemies win the scenario. However, if Gelu is defeated in combat, the scenario is lost. Your heroes are limited to level 10, but Gelu and two other heroes will carry their experience, skills and spells on to the next scenario.

Starting options

• Give Spyglass to Gelu the Ranger
• Give 15  Grand Elves to Gelu the Ranger
• Give 10  Sharpshooters to Gelu the Ranger

Timed events

Day 1 - Opening

Congratulations, cadet. You have but one test left to complete your training and join the illustrious ranks of the Forest Guard. You are to conquer this region of the valley near Gaia's Crest. This region is filled with monsters, several towns and a few Forest Guard members posing as potential enemies. This is a well-traveled land, so navigation should be quite easy. To pass this trial, you must defeat everyone in the land by whatever means necessary. Good luck, cadet. May the Light shine down upon you.

Day 11 - A Lesson in Adversity

Forest Guard rangers must deal with a wide variety of unexpected and troublesome situations. There will come times when things will not go as planned or envisioned. This is one of those times. Several of your supply trains have been hit by raiders and their contents looted. Deal with this situation. -5 Wood, -2 Mercury, -5 Ore, -2 Sulfur, -2 Crystals, -2 Gems, -1000 Gold

Day 31 - Words of Encouragement

It has been 30 days since you began your mission. You are taking too long. As a member of the Forest Guard, you must be able move quickly to strike your enemy, attacking him while he is still weak and vulnerable. The less he knows about our activities in a region, the less likely he is to be prepared for our assaults. Hasten your attacks and secure this region immediately. Lives depend upon our rapid deployment.

Day 61 - 60 Days Later

Cadet, this is getting ridiculous! A region of this size should have been cleared by now. Forest Guard missions require speed, stealth, and efficiency. Perhaps we should re-evaluate your progress and send you back to training. Now hurry up and secure the area!

Objects

Events

Location	Message
20, 13, 0	This city looks like the perfect place for a base of operations. Take it and build it up quickly. But we wary! Your opponents might slip in and take it from you while you are away. Be sure to leave some troops and possibly a lieutenant behind to defend the city from attacks.

Towns

Location	Type
3, 5, 0	Rampart
4, 29, 0	Necropolis
14, 7, 1	Dungeon
19, 12, 0	Rampart
25, 34, 0	Stronghold

Monsters

Location	Type	Message
17, 5, 0	Medusa	The dark and foreboding trail is ominously quiet. Suddenly you hear the hissing of hundreds of snakes. Before you even get a chance to turn back, more than two dozen Medusae slither out and attack.
31, 1, 0	Grand Elf	"By your command."
34, 4, 0	Battle Dwarf	"Ready and willing, sir. What are your orders?"

Heroes

Location	Hero
4, 30, 0	Charna the Death Knight
28, 32, 0	Gretchin the Barbarian
33, 2, 0	Gelu the Ranger

Pandora's Box

16, 16, 0

You receive an eerie feeling from the box before you. A glow pulsates around it and an odd colored fog issues forth from its cracks. Guardians:  5 Master Genies,  5 Efreet Sultans Contents: 20 Crystals, 20 Gems, 5000 Gold +1 Attack, +1 Defense,+1 Spell Power,+1 Knowledge

Backstory

Gelu has spent many months training to become a member of Erathia's elite Forest Guard. For his final test, he is tasked to assemble an artifact known as the Elixir of Life. He must find the artifact's four components to keep it out of the hands of the Necromancers.

Quest/Objective

Create the combination artifact Elixir of Life by finding its three components, the Ring of Vitality, the Ring of Life and the Vial of Lifeblood.

Maps

There are four different maps, one for each part of the Elixir of Life.

1. Graduation Exercise
2. Cutthroats
3. Valley of the Dragon Lords
4. A Thief in the Night

Heroes

Gelu the Ranger, speciality Sharpshooters.

Strategy

Make best use of Gelu's speciality, let your support heroes bring him Elves to transform into Sharpshooters. They make a huge difference.

Bugs

This scenario features a bug unique among SoD campaigns (with a slight exception of the secret campaign, which doesn't have the mentioned limitations at all): neither high-level Mage Guild) nor overpowered, campaign-breaking spells (namely Dimension door and Fly) are banned (they are properly banned in scenarios 2-4 in EoL though). As a result, it's completely possible to do an insane rush through this campaign on Impossible Difficulty (similarly to RoA or AB campaigns), especially when combined with an Intelligence-based Magic secondary hero with Air Magic and Earth Magic (e.g. Caitlin, which also gives a great starting bonus to Gold).Template:KeywordsTemplate:Keywords