The Ogre Matron is a main quest in The White March - Part I.
Synopsis[ | ]
There's an ogre camp in the ice caves near Stalwart. The clan is led by a matron known as Beregan. Renengild wants the Watcher to kill Beregan and her followers to remove the threat to Stalwart. Beregan is also believed to have the previous expedition's goods and gear. Those items may help with Durgan's Battery.
Walkthrough[ | ]
You automatically get this quest when you first talk to mayor Renengild in her house in Stalwart Village for the Durgan's Battery quest. She asks you to deal with a clan of ogres who threaten the village.
Ultimately, there will be two ways that this quest can be accomplished: either by killing the ogre clan, or by making peace with Matron Beregan.
Note that if player makes peace with Beregan, Morug will eventually appear before the entrance to the caverns, selling some items of interest to the player and letting the party rest. This will only occur if you took a more stealthy approach and kept the violence to a minimum, killing less than three "groups" of ogres in both the upper and lower caverns on your way to Beregan. There are 5 groups in total, and you can check how many groups you've killed with the console command PrintGlobal n_Ogre_Groups_Defeated.
There are 3 groups in the lower cavern:
- 4 ogres in the armory to the northeast.
- 6 ogres and 2 wolves in the central area south of the mine.
- 5 ogres in the armory to the southeast.
And 2 groups in the upper cavern:
- 6 ogres in the eating room in the southeast.
- 5 ogres and 5 wolves in the sleeping quarters to the north.
The enemy counts are on normal, other difficulties do not change the total amount of groups that must be avoided. All other ogres, including those in Russetwood (guarding the entrance to the caverns), and ogres in other parts of The White March do not count towards the overall number of groups killed.
Getting to the caverns[ | ]
Travel to Russetwood (a wilderness area west of Stalwart), make your way to the top-left corner of the map, and enter the Flames-That-Whisper Caverns – which is the head-quarters of the "Flames-That-Whisper" ogre clan, and is guarded by crag ogres.
With a high enough stealh you can avoid the ogres at the entrance to the cave, as the "trigger point" which the party needs to reach before the loading screen kicks in, is in fact situated several meters bottom from the actual entrance to the caverns.
Gaining access to Matron Beregan[ | ]
Matron Beregan is in the scrying chamber at the west end of the first level of these caverns, but the chamber's door is locked and can't be picked. To get in, you first have to make a detour to the lower level of the cavern, which you can get to via...
- the stairs near the north-east edge of the map, or
- the ice chute near the south edge of the map (straight east from the entrance); on the scripted way down you can find an item.
Once in the lower level, there are two ways to gain access to the Scrying chamber above:
- Through the back door
- Near the north-west edge of the map, there is another set of stairs leading straight into the Scrying chamber, bypassing the locked door. However, to get to these stairs you need to cross two very nasty high-level wire traps. (11 Mechanics to disarm / POTD: 12)
- Find the key
- In the larger chamber in the south-west of the map (just west of where you enter if you took the ice chute), there is a body of a dead ogre near some lagufaeth with a key on him. You can loot it, go back up to the first level, and use it to unlock the door to the Scrying chamber.
Solving the quest[ | ]
Once inside the Scrying chamber, approach Matron Beregan and she will initiate conversation. Your goal is to get the equipment of the previous expedition that attempted to enter Durgan's Battery Fortress, as you will need it for the Durgan's Battery quest. You have two options:
- Kill Beregan
- It can be a difficult battle. Once she's dead, loot the equipment off her body.
- Convince her to hand them over peacefully
- Resolve 12: "I can't agree with that, but I swear that no harm will come to you from Stalwart or the Battery" can make Beregan give you the equipment without fighting.
- Intellect 17: "Stalwart's barely surviving. The last thing they want is further trouble with you - or anyone else" is another alternative for Beregan handing the equipments on a peaceful manner.
- Lore 6 can be used to point out that the Battery causes kith to degenerate into infighting, which will appease her (she will assume that the villagers will inevitably wipe each other out if they seize it)
- If you avoid skill checks and don't use the above lines, focusing on why you're here and not antagonizing the Matron, she will eventually let you go but demand that you give up on the Battery. With Intellect 13 or Resolve 12 you can point out that uncovering the Battery's secrets will free her clan from fear or swear that no harm will come to her from the Battery or Stalwart.
- (The advantage of this peaceful solution is that Matron Beregan will help you defend Caed Nua during The Battle of Yenwood Field as well as offers her help against the Eyeless later on.)
If you want, you can also loot her treasure chest (needs Mechanics 10 to unlock) for some additional equipment (Archer's Gloves, Belt of Bountiful Healing, gems). If you didn't kill the ogres, you will need to use stealth to get to it while the patrolling ogres temporarily step away. This is made easier after finishing the quest, as the ogres near the chest will move away.
Leave the caverns with the previous expedition's goods in your stash, and the quest completes.
Journal[ | ]
| quests\px1_critical_path\px1_cp_qst_matron_beregan | ||
|---|---|---|
| ID | Objectives | |
| 0 | The Ogre Matron | |
| 10000 | There's an ogre camp in the ice caves near Stalwart. The clan is led by a matron known as Beregan. | |
| 1 | Find Beregan in the ice caves. | |
| 10001 | Matron Beregan is somewhere in the ice caves, surrounded by her clan. Renengild wants me to kill Beregan and her followers to remove the threat to Stalwart.
Beregan is also believed to have the previous expedition's goods and gear. Those items may help me with Durgan's Battery. | |
| 20000 | Uldric advised against fighting Beregan - he believes I may be able to talk with her to avoid further trouble. | |
| 20001 | Galvino confirmed that the last expedition had pried a portion of the relief from the door of Durgan's Battery. I may need to find it to unlock the fortress. | |
| 2 | Find the previous expedition's goods. | |
| 10002 | Matron Beregan is dead. The last expedition's belongings must be somewhere nearby. | |
| 3 | Deal with Matron Beregan. | |
| 10003 | While exploring the White March, I met an ogre matron in her lair. Though she seemed wary, she didn't attack immediately. | |
| 20002 | Beregan expressed a strange fear about Durgan's Battery. She claimed to have nightmares about the place. | |
| 20003 | Renengild mentioned that a previous expedition died at Beregan's hand. She recommended that I search the matron's corpse for anything belonging to the other party. | |
| End states | ||
|
Killed Beregan | |
| 30000 | I killed Beregan and found an anvil-shaped tile in her possession, along with a journal from the previous expedition. The tile looks like something that may have come from Durgan's Battery. | |
|
|
Allied with Beregan | |
| 30001 | I reached a truce with Beregan. She promised me aid and safety in her camp and gave me items belonging to the previous expedition - including an anvil-shaped tile. | |