Warning, spoilers ahead. This document is mostly for folks who have finished the module or need help getting through it.

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Memorize the color patterns... they appear on the student's magical staffs, and are the color of the portals in the library. Makes it easier when you tell a buddy 'Come to Biology' rather than having to say 'Walk into the green portal'.

• Blue: Magicanical Engineering
  
• Red: Applied Magic
  
• Green: Biology
  
• Yellow: Planar Studies

If you have trouble defeating any monster, lead them to a student. The students are (usually...) indestructible and come packing a couple good attack spells. Applied Magic and Planar Studies students pack the most wallop; Biology and Magicanical Engineering are better at supporting you, but can still fight a bit. Of course, any monster polished off by a student nets you no experience points.


The overall goal is to help Dewey Plowshare obtain a copy of a thesis paper entitled Operation Plowshare. The quest has many steps, which are detailed in your quest journal. This quest is fairly straightforward...

First, go to the Greater Library and talk to Dewey. He'll tell you to visit Applied Magic, where the paper is located. The room directly north from the student lounge is an easier encounter than the one to the east; both connect up with the study hall, so you can go either way.

When you come to a sign and a tombstone, go east. (There's a subquest to the west we'll talk about later.) Through this room (and through the goblins) and down any of the three corridors, they're all the same. The stacks room has lots of books... and minotaurs. Kill them and proceed southwest to the thesis paper room, which is marked with a sign.

Inside, you'll bump into the weird little girl who nearly kicked your♥♥♥♥♥in Penultima #1: Pest Control. Go to the bookshelf and look inside -- you'll find a note saying the thesis was moved to Planar Studies. This triggers your journal to suggest you go ask Dewey what the hell you do next.

Go talk to Dewey. He can't get you into Planar Studies, but Ralph Neckerson can. Ralph's located in Magicanical Engineering. It's accessed via the the blue portal.

There's a lot of rooms in M.E. loaded with hard mechanical monsters that you don't need to visit for the main quest. They're laid out in a 3x3 grid, with the portal room in the center... immediately to the right of the portal room are two guys camping out for a play. Above and below the portal room are monsters; you can also access some side corridors for harder monsters and bigger treasures. For now, simply go west from the portal room, brawl with a weaker mechanical monster or two in there, then head south to Ralph Neckerson's study room. It's the fastest, safest route.

Ralph will apparently give you the pass IF you go clean up his room, where he accidentally summoned something nasty. Head back up through the library to the Octo, and enter the yellow Classroom portal. (Before it was locked, but you can get in now.)

Go straight down the dormitory hallroom to the last door. Walk in, you'll find a green spider which immediately summons a bunch of beetles and other bugs. Slaughter them all, then hike all the way back to Ralph.

Ralph STILL won't give you the pass -- next you need to get him a date. Time to go to the Biology department.

Head either west or east; east has nastier monsters. Both lead up to a set of hallways. Go east into the upperclassman's study room, and Andrea will be there flanked by bodyguards. Talk to her about the date. If you have a good enough persuasion skill, you may be able to get her to agree to this -- if not, the only option is to take a challenge from her to fight in the Biology Lab.

Back in the hallway, go north to the (locked) door. The key she gave you will open it, and you'll brawl with a nasty skeleton encounter. Once they're dead, Andrea will be waiting for you outside the door and reluctantly agree to the date. (Again, you can skip all this if you can convince her to just go along with your plan.)

Hike back to Ralph, who FINALLY gives you the Planar Studies access. Take the yellow Planar Studies portal.

Planar Studies is a fairly straightforward brawl, but a harder one than before. There are side routes with harder encounters (look out for spiderwebbed trees) and a few dead ends, but eventually you'll reach the Thesis Papers. Here you'll fight either a Slaad (if you're a wuss) or a Balor (if you rock). You actually can skip the fight if you're fast enough to run to the bookcase, grab Operation Plowshare, and make haste for the exit at the back.

The exit takes you straight to the library. Give Operation Plowshare to Dewey, and you're done the main quest.


This one leads right out of the main quest, so we'll deal with it first.

Once Dewey has his book, the groundskeeper will run up to you and beg for help. Apparently Dawn Ioza's on campus and trapped in a classroom with a demon. Agree to help, then run for the purple Classroom portal on the Octo.

You can actually sit this fight out. It's with a balor, and odds are you're not gonna be able to scratch him -- but Dawn and her strange companion can. They'll take the balor out for you... but you'll get no experience for it unless you land the killing blow (other than the experience you get for completing this tiny subquest). Once it's dead, the subquest is over, and you can exchange some meaningful conversation with Dawn and her elven pal.


This one's simple enough. Go to the Administration Building, and ask Archdean Spiro about the little girl. He'll identify her and explain a bit of her history. Subquest done, and a token reward for being thorough.

It's not officially part of this quest, but another good thing to do is investigate the pile of books she was reading from in the Applied Magic Thesis Room.


This subquest does not appear in your journal, since it's tiny. In Applied Magic, there's a sign-marked fork in the road. To the east lies the rest of the quest -- to the west is Advanced Studies. Get healed and get your weapon out and walk into Advanced Studies.

There's a halfling student in here named Tal Poltice who, unlike others in the school, is NOT invincible. She's in a lot of trouble, but if you can kill the above-average monsters in here before they kill her, you can talk to Poltice who will give you a reward in thanks.


In the back hallways of Magicanical Engineering, an Air Band (ie, they play air guitar) is practicing. The easiest, monster-free way to get to them is from Ralph Neckerson's room; there's a door on the southwest corner. Go through and run north up the corridor.

Talk to the band leader, Ray, and agree to help him out. He'll ask you to get five people to agree to go to his show. From then on, everybody you approach gets the 'Wanna see a concert?' chat option, but not everybody will agree. The people you want to talk to are:

• Li Ping, in the Octo.
  
• Tain Al'Nez, in the Applied Magic Study Hall.
  
• Jai Elailai, in the Biology Lowerclassman's Study Hall (opposite end of the hall from Andrea's room).
  
• Xelan Restag, who's hanging out under a big tree on a tiny island in the south of Planar Studies.
  
• Finally, Archdean Spiro, who's in the Administration building. (Ray didn't say STUDENTS, just people.)

Once all five agree, go talk to Ray, and he'll give you a handy item for bards -- and also very handy to sell if you're not a bard but like cold hard cash.


Some neat hidden things you might not have found. Hidden jokes or hidden treasures.

• ...reading the tombstone in Applied Magic?
  
• ...reading the sign in the northeastern room of M.E.?
  
• ...exploring all the corridors of M.E.? Strong monsters, good treasure.
  
• ...telling Ralph 'One more thing...' after you inform him of his Andrea date?
  
• ...picking the locks and raiding rooms in the Dormitory? (Magical goodies!)
  
• ...talking to the faeries in Planar Studies?