Well, that quest come in Swamps when you request help (suggestion from Vaska, brickmaker's leader / elder) from the druids to eliminate the main Salamandra encampment (where you previously met some Scoai'tel warriors and scouts in Act II). The one with some Roland Blenheim in, wich you need to kill to get documents).Anyway, as I posted elsewhere, you don't need the druids's help to do this : go there, stay on the thin wood passage to camp, kill any salamander that comes to you. First come closer to kill the 2 archers, then ... the wood passage is thiner enough so they come to you 1 by 1 ... Only the mage is tougher, as he casts distants spells and can also summon an Ifrit as you encountered at the end of Act II. But you should know how to manage it too.
The eXPerience you'll get by doing the quest with the Hierophant and the Wyvern (or 2 Wyverns, it happened to me) is surely better than doing it alone, 'cuz you got one more quest, so you'll get experience value from that quest. Matters only if you plan to get to level 50 or more before endgame (friend of mine suceed by finishing it at level 34. Not sure he didn't cheated ...). By the way, I also tried (for fun, didn't really need to) to use the Charm Axii Sing on Royal Wyvern and bring her (I see Royal ones as females, they got Eggs, right ?) with me for that, but even with Extended Duration, and so on, it appears that after some time / distance, charmed mobs just de-spawn. Hmpf. Sad.(even when charming the last surviving royal one - after killing all others - and going to salamander encampment - wich is close - doesn't work. Disappointed ^^)
I wonder why in every RPG coders gives penalties (in EXP points) if player wanna do things differently, little bit roaming game area on his own and doing quest the way he/she wants + evil/neutral/good choices in quests.But nooo, have to go linear and do things like developers thought....or even if you choose moral "good" choice (in baldur gate 1 or 2 and NWN 1/2 example) you gain assload of EXP points and other "evil" choices gives only fraction from maximum....difference CAN be 500 - 1000 experience points...and that´s A LOT in AD&D world.in RPG that DIFFERENCE should be something else than experience point penalties, ´cos who playes game want to maximum levels obviously and gaming becomes pretty linear.Sure if doesn´t mind maximum levels then fine...but have to remember developers raises difficulty from chapter to chapter.Witcher is better in that, you CAN finish this game with crappy, poorly designed hero because idea of ALCHEMY. But still EXP point penalties sucks when game should be free.Xhan said:
I wouldn't consider it as exp point penality here. You just missed a chance to get more exp. Penality is in my eye if the game system withdraws exp you have already gained.Apropos... miss somehting ;D did I miss (or mess) something here? What Salamandra camp are you talking about in regard of support from the Hierophant? It's the "Diplomacy and Hunting" quest? On my 1st play through the camp wasn't accessable through a small wooden bridge. It was quite close to the Druid's grove. I met Roland Blenheim amongst the other Salamanders there. On my 2nd play thru the quest log marks the same place.I remember far in the north east of the swamp there's a Salamander (Scoia'tael?) camp as [CPC]Mad mentions it. I've been there on my last gameplay after I finished "Diplomacy and Hunting", killed the mob and never found out what they were supposed to do there o__O
I just went throught the swamp and killed nearly the whole camp (by standing on the small wooden way and killing them off one by one) until I realized that their boss was with them, then I just left him and went away. When it came to the mushroom-quest, there were not that many left to finish - so I think I made a lucky choice in leaving just a few alive 
Hmmmm. I wondered about that too. I took the teleport from Triss's place to the tower, and then went to the camp and killed all the Salamanders. (A very hard fight but somehow I managed it.) Then I went to village, via the path by the old canibal's house and talked to Vaska.After that I went to the cave and logging camp.By the time I got to the Druids, the Heirophant just says that he heard I killed all the bad guys. I can't even play poker with him, as someone suggested in another thread. Oh well, guess I will play this differently next time.
Oh well, guess I will play this differently next time.Yeh happend to me too - i ported into the mage's tower and then ran by mistake into the salamders camp ... not having any pre quests but the main to kill the boss..Used all the tricks I had and managed to kill them all and the boss.Then after i went to Vaska she sends me to a quest to free her kin in 3 spots - can this quest be accomplished even if I killed the boss earlier ?
For the best results, enlist the Hierophant's aid and kill Roland and a couple of his goons in a fake meeting, then pay a little visit to the Salamandra camp in the northeastern corner of the map, and slaughter them too. That way you get XP for the Hierophant's quest and every individual Salamandra.
I'm not really sure that this camp in the northerneast is part of Vaskas "Diplomacy and hunting" quest. Does the quest tracker marks this camp? When I did the quest it didn't mark the northerneast camp. I killed all Salamandra camps which were marked including that one with the boss and the quest was finished. I think the mob in the northeast have an other meaningfgrobste said:
nope. Actually you do that in reverse. You go to the former Squirrel camp. You kill every salamander except Blenheim, then you go talk to Vska and undertake the three camp quest., then you talk to the Hierophant and do his stuff, thus Blenheim will show with a full contingent for max XP.
never entered that camp after the squirrels have left it. I destroyed first the salamander cell in the sewers, then talked to vaska and freed the brickmakers. After that i went to the grove and talked to the hierophant. Then gave him the mushroom from the cave and finally said i was ready. He walked then with two wyverns to the lumberjack place. There i was soon attacked by a bunch of salamanders and kikimore warriors. After beating them i encountered Blenheim, which was some further away. Slew him and obtained the letter. Talked to hierophant that the leader was dead and now i must go to Leuvaarden. I also got an update that i discovered the camp where javed is.