artifact from grey, what about the hermit, journal

[Bigred]

Had a couple questions with Icewind dale.
1. I returned a mithyl book or whatever to the grey dude in Kuldahar. He gave me an artifact but I got a dialogue box that said there were no valid links and I didn't get the item. Is it necessary in the game.

2. Larrel or whatever the undead elf wizards name is didn't seem to be interested in his daughters journal. Should he have been?

3. Right now I just finished off the frost giants and am lacking in direction. I've gone back to the severed hand and talked to larrel and gave the dude the water for the garden thing, but don't seem to have any further places to go next.

4. I said the wrong thing to the hermit dude in the deep, whats his name, that guy in the room with the ovens, overlooking the Ettin and the Myconids. Now he views me as an enemy. Do I need some direction from him for any reason to continue with the script?

Thanks

[Micah Foehammer]

To answer your questions .. (Definitely contains spoilers)
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1. No. The item Orrick gives you is NOT necessary to finish the game, but one of the random items he gives you is potentially one of the nicest items for a mage or fighter-mage in the game. But it is NOT essential to finish the game.

2. Maybe. Remember that Larrel had issues with his daughter. There is some xp to be gained here depending on what you said to him before about his daughter. But its not an essential part of the game.

3. Have you tackled the Salamanders holding the humans hostage? If you ran into "dude" in the cave with the ovens, then you clearly know where lower dorn's deep is to be found .... if you can't find the entrance, look on the eastern edge of the caves that contain the Ettins. There is a bridge there that takes you to lower dorn's deep.

You'll also find some additional items in LDD that will help you complete the arboretum quests.

4. No. You lost out on some nice mage spells that are ONLY obtainable from him, but you haven't done anything that will block you from proceding further.

[Christopneuma]

Another option also maybe that you should try is this , download the patch for iwd on this particular site or maybe i think it could be at www.blackisle.com , i had a problem with lock up at a point my game would fereeze up i d/l the patch and now my game runs smooth , the patch fixes almost all problems you may encounter including the item that Orrick gives you at Kaldahar

[Micah Foehammer]

The patch you need for IWD is version 1.06.

Installing HOW automatically applies that patch, but HOW itself needs to be patched (version 1.41).

If you have both IWD and HOW installed, then try downloading Trials of the Luremaster. It applies the latest HOW patch AND also fixes some remnant problems!