The latest party is on something of a roll, having just cleaned out Trynton, and is in the Rattkin tree. As this is something of a crossroads, a couple of questions, which will appear after some anti-spoiler space:

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1) If I kill Don and Milano, does the Dark Savant still drop the fake Astral Dominae? Does it matter if I have the real one in my possession at the time?

2) I've aligned with the Umpani (and have both Saxx and Sparkle in my group at the moment). Any reason not to play both sides of the Umpani-T'rang conflict and do quests from both? Does the answer change if the Rattkin are dead?

3) I do have a faerie ninja (which is the main reason I'm thinking of offing the Rattkin bosses for the first time). I haven't been training anything other than throwing skills, however. If I wanted to come back later, what should I be training now to make most effective use of the Don's weapon.

Thanks.

1. Yes, he drops it. No, he doesn't notice the real thing (stupid)

2. For role-playing reasons, i sometimes only ally with one side. But in general, its ok to do both sides (except the final missions).
Rattkins don't affect T'rang and Umpani.

3. Wand&Staff.
But when you in rattkin area, why wait? A well-prepared party of 4 can kill him at level 9-10, even in expert ironman (but in ironman, you might be unlucky, and don't get the CoC).

If you can cast portal you don't need to get the fake AD at all, as you can be sneaky and hug the back wall in the CM chamber to trick the anti-magic field to thinking you've stepped out of it. (This way you can avoid the swamp encounter - and avoid killing the Mook, and strangely enough stay Friendly with them faction-wise.) Alternately, or if you are portal-less, you can just kill the Mook as they have no purpose other than getting the CM and recruiting Urq if you want him (but I hate killing them - call me a softy, but I even stopped recruiting Vi Domina because I can't do my ritual "kill the RPC and drag them around until I need them" gig, her quotes just hit me where it hurts when she's dying).

Why avoid the DS encounter in the swamp? It's not exactly a fight, and someone always says something funny when he drops the fake doodad. No reason to kill the Mook, either; they aren't hostiles.

As for the T'Rang/Umpani, I usually did both sides, but quickly as possible, to avoid the T'Rang finding out we were doing that (they DO learn the truth if enough time passes).

However, aside from the prisoner rescue, I never recruited any NPC's from either faction. Also, I think Umpani NPC's won't go to Marten's Bluff, and same with T'rang/Umpani camp.

If you plan to kill the Don and want the CoC, save before you start the fight. He doesn't always drop that item. Personally, I always bought the AD myself, except for one time I wanted the Cane.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

You can (but it's hard) also PP the Cane. But not the AD.

Does the Don actually drop the real AD if you kill him before you encounter the Savant in the Swamp? I know that that encounter will trigger Barlone selling the AD and he will drop it if you kill him afterwards, but before?

Yes, he always drops it no matter when / what.

I can't think of a good reason to avoid the encounter in the swamp, but I had trouble in one game getting it to trigger... and I did end up eventually needing to portal out of the Mook room. As for them not being hostile, if you don't replace the CM and you try to leave the room with it - they attack you once you step out of the antimagic field.

"2) I've aligned with the Umpani (and have both Saxx and Sparkle in my group at the moment). Any reason not to play both sides of the Umpani-T'rang conflict and do quests from both? Does the answer change if the Rattkin are dead?"

I've never tried it, but can you do the T'Rang quests with Saxx and Sparkle in your party? I thought having Umpani in the party might hostile the T'Rang.

I don't know about Saxx, but I've spoken to Z'Ant, received the XP reward for a mission, and gotten a new one with Sparkle in the party (portaled in with her) and neither Z'Ant nor Sparkle seemed to care.

That's because Sparkle isn't an Umpani. Saxx is. He doesn't even go to the Bluff willingly.