Well, I am currently in the midst of the Shura... Shuri... Shur... that castle (a-hem), and I'm having a high old time. Got two of the elements and on my way to get the others...

QUESTION:
Where, exactly, south-east of the castle to I encounter the little guy with the fifth element (and no, I don't mean Bruce Willis)... Is it through the broken wall directly behind the castle, or is it waaaaaaay around that long way first to the northeast then southeast. I ran into him, crapped around in the castle a while (like a couple of days in game time) and THEN went looking for him directly behind the castle (through the broken wall) and the little stinker wasn't there! Did he get fed up and split? Or am I just in the wrong place?

SECOND QUESTION (and post topic):
Has anyone gotten up to the level of Zenmaster or Assassin? What do you need to get here, attribute-wise?

Ardibren is just southeast of the castle, across the moat (yes, through the broken wall). You'll find him standing there. Go up and talk to him. Make sure you've talked to him about EVERYTHING because when you say "goodbye", you won't get the chance again.

TO get to be an assassin, you need to talk to an assassin. You'll find some hanging out behind a burnt-out house west of Ishad N'ha.

You have to get all four Tomes of Creation in order to be a Zenmaster. Since one of these tomes (Earth) is hidden in Cet's Pyramid, you won't get to be Zenmaster until the game's almost done. The others are located in various dungeons (okay, spoiler alert)...
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Tome of Fire: in Serpent Temple, just west of Naga Chamber (room that requires Skull Key to open)
Tome of Wind: in S'Kezer Da's chambers in the Boogre caves
Tome of Water: in Collasium, in a chest on the way to the Library
Tome of Earth: in a hidden chamber in Cet's Pyramid.

Happy hunting!

Sazerac

Talk to.... ummmm, hanging around behind the burnt out house? Oh damn. You mean those rats? But they were so obnoxious, I just toasted them all. Uhhhhhhhh..... oops. (sigh)

damn.... I Firestormed them too.... DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and I also seem to have lost the Tome in Serpent castle.....

I a beginning to understand why some people are playing it for the second time.... (((

Suggestion: Upon meeting new characters . . . SAVE . . . T A L K . . . then if they have nothing worth saying . . . FRY EM. I was so paranoid at first, I killed any thing that moved (oops, spare the horse!) but then I could not question them as they oozed away into the floor. Wait, I want to take him to the temple for resurrection . . . I have a bad feeling about this, Thornna. Remember, each rat is an individual . . .