misplaced skull key

[sagtattman]

hi everyone, im in the proceess of working my way thru skull castle ive met the lich heard his long winded tale , left his room with the skull key but have gone to use it and its not there. is there any way i can get it from any where or do i have to go back to an earlier saved game an go thru the lot again . can anyone help thanks sagtattman

[Bungleau]

Are you sure you don't have it? I mean, that it's not in someone else's inventory, or over in the "quick use" slots?

If it's not, one of three things may have happened.

1. You have already used the key, and it's gone. Sometimes you don't notice when something gets used.

2. You dropped it someplace. Good news is that items like that tend not to disappear. Bad news is that you may have to cover a lot of the Gael Serran to try to find where you left it. The Reveal spell can be a big help with this.

3. You've run into some other strange game bug... and it may be necessary to hack the key for you. Wyvern has a post way back about hacking the game... use the search feature and you can find it. I don't remember if the code for the key is in that post (and its follow-ups), but I'm sure it can be found.

If all else fails, though, you may have to go back to a prior save game.

[Wyvern]

Yep, it is possible to hack one and I do have the "code" for the Skull Key - let me know if you want to try this option!

Wyv

[sagtattman]

ill try just about anything to save me going over the same gound yet again . but i must double check that the skull key opens the vault and the door in the lichs room is that right ? any help is much appreciated thanks sagtattman.

[bsftcs]

No... the door in the lich's study is opened with the key you can get from Adrianna. That key you do not need since the lock can be picked... although it takes a skilled character.

It has been a while, so I am not sure about this, but I think the key for the vault is called the vault key. Where have you found the skull key in the first place and have you already used it somewhere else? Skull Castle contains three or four keys, and so far as I recall they only fit one place each.

[Wyvern]

Okay - as I recall there is

the key in the maze which opens the end of the maze

the key in the trapped room which opens the door to see the lich in the music room

The key that G'Ez gives you which opens the gate to the lower levels and the bridge puzzle area

the key you get from Adrianne which may (or may not as reports have it) open the locked vault in the study (this can be picked).

Unfortunately my notes do not tell me the names of each of these keys.

Wyv

[sagtattman]

ill give as much imfo as i can i have found the skullkey so all up ihave three keys . skull, labyrinth and key of bone. idont know exactly where i picked them up. i do have keys from other areas but i dont think they matter. eg serpent key, key of magus and monkey key . ihave tried to pick lock in the study with one of my party who started as a rouge and now is a 13th level samuri 14th level rouge 10th level bard but i cant use any of my lock picks as they say they are restricted to that party member,and because of this the lock is now jammed.i dont remember getting a key from adrianne before or after i killed her or her friends. dont know if any of this helps but i hope it does sagtattman

[Bungleau]

IF that's the lock you're looking for, then the key from Adriana is the one you were looking for. When you returned with the scroll of banishing, she offered you several choices of reward. The key was one of those; if you chose eternal life (vampirism) or the vampire ring, then you missed out on that key and can't get it (unless you hack).

You need a high level lockpick skill or high sorcery skill (to do the disarm trap spell, whose name escapes me). Or a strong beefeater to simply bash the door open.

[Wyvern]

THe Key from Adriana may or may not open the vault in the study. I've heard of players who got the key who were able to open the vault using that key and I've heard of players (including myself) who were not able to open the vault with her key. That might be a bug, that it works sometimes and not others or only works in the patched version - I don't know. I always ended up just picking the lock and it really wasn't worth all the fuss anyways.

Wyv

[bsftcs]

Then the skull key must be the one given by the lich leading to the catacombs. Stackman's Adventures (the three appropriate chapters are here: 1, 2, 3) detail the same number of keys although without naming them.

The lock on the door in the study often cannot be unlocked with Adrianna's key due to a bug. Do I understand correctly... is your character presently a bard? If so he or she should have been able to use the lockpick. If the lock has jammed anyway it is because the combined level of the lockpick and the character's lockpicking skill still was not high enough. Once it has been jammed you cannot pick or force it open again. I am not even sure the key will work. (Even if the bug is on vacation). Now you can only open the lock using the "disarm trap" spell.