Thats not how it works for me. I always place the barrel first before going further in. The place doesn't go hostile until the Hephernaan fight. Even then you have some time to clear out before the underground goes hostile. You can even tell the door guard to seal the doors and not let anyone through on your way out. If you do, the crusaders in the underground river never go hostile. You can just waltz out.
Yep, this is correct. Placing the barrel indeed doesn't do anything to progress the plot, at all. Only running into Hephernaan does - either by stumbling upon him right away or triggered by poisoning supplies.
As for DS area no longer being accessible after parley, even if you haven't visited it earlier - I'm afraid this is indeed a screw up on design dept's part... well, mine mostly. I think DS used to be directly accessible from the camp, but for reasons that escape me (assuming I don't imagine their existance) it was changed later. Fwiw, I'll try to push for the patch a change to make DS accessible without having to pass through parley area and, by extension, advancing the plot, as I don't think it was explicitly intended. Sorry about that. Turns out I forgot, it does become reachable directly from the camp once you return. So it's possible to avoid the parley and still do quests in DS.
Yep, this is correct. Placing the barrel indeed doesn't do anything to progress the plot, at all. Only running into Hephernaan does - either by stumbling upon him right away or triggered by poisoning supplies.
I'd have thought that too ... except that you don't necessarily get the chance to meet Hephernaan, and yet the plot can still progress, so there must actually be more complexity to it than simply "meet Hephernaan to progress".
For example, in my current run, I triggered conflict in the Underground River area and cleared the area (and placed the Bwoosh!), then returned to camp to swap in Neera and Glint, returned to the Underground River to complete Neera's and Glint's personal quests (including entering the Warrens, which were not yet hostile, to meet Rhonda for Glint's quest), then again returned to camp to swap out Neera and Glint (neither being in my "permanent party" for this run), then fought my way through the Warrens (which were now automatically hostile on entry, IIRC) and up to the Castle Basement, then fought my way through the Basement expecting to find Hephernaan after clearing a path to his room ... but no, Hephernaan and his assistants weren't there, just Daeros alone. So then I poisoned the supplies and left, and (fortunately) the plot progressed normally (with the call for parley, etc.) even though I hadn't met Hephernaan.
I've no idea if it is by design that Hephernaan and his assistants have already fled (before you get a chance to confront them) if you've already slaughtered all the Crusaders in the Underground River and Warrens, or if this was some sort of bug. However, since it doesn't affect plot progression, it doesn't greatly matter.
Hm, so I looked at the scripts to refresh memory and turns out I lied - parley invitation triggers after you have as much as spoken with ogre lifters in Warrens, without having to actually go up and poison stuff. Intended, because at first it was impossible to get up after killing lifters (i.e. potentially stuck) - gauntlets were added later to circumvent it, but the plot progress remained unchanged. Player was supposed to be free in deciding whether they wanted to use poison and explosives, and tying the progress to Hephernaan encounter didn't seem necessary.
You don't have to go straight to parley if you don't like the idea, you still can return to the basement, go up and poison the stuff and/or plant the barrel. But Warrens will be hostile and Hephernaan will be gone.
Other than that, if you don't go back and forth between the camp and the castle undergrounds, then it should behave as explained in earlier posts.
Lastly, DS does open up once you return to the camp, so you can get there bypassing parley. It still doesn't mean you go there *after* the parley, but that's as about much freedom as possible to get without adding/rewriting some scenes. The journal was supposed to be very explicit that you had to finish all side quests by then.
Well, you're not alone. I had never even thought of going to the place on the map called Dragonspear Castle, I just assumed the main story would naturally take me there. And that it would somehow be premature to go there without exploring everything else first.
Also, I was bugged out that I hadn't found a single one of those five items that that person wanted from crusaders. I had no idea what they were talking about when they mentioned "crusader camp" etc, I thought it might have been the place with the bridge that I made a skull imprint on. I had nuked that camp straight away and then I thought I might have missed all those items in the commotion. Then it turns out that the place the person is talking about is ... Dragonspear Castle. Haha. "Crusader camp" sounds so ... "beginning area like" in this contect, while "Dragonspear Castle" sounds like the absolute summit of the DLC, the absolute latest place to dare tread.
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Placing the barrel indeed doesn't do anything to progress the plot, at all. Only running into Hephernaan does - either by stumbling upon him right away or triggered by poisoning supplies.
As for DS area no longer being accessible after parley, even if you haven't visited it earlier - I'm afraid this is indeed a screw up on design dept's part... well, mine mostly. I think DS used to be directly accessible from the camp, but for reasons that escape me (assuming I don't imagine their existance) it was changed later. Fwiw, I'll try to push for the patch a change to make DS accessible without having to pass through parley area and, by extension, advancing the plot, as I don't think it was explicitly intended. Sorry about that.Turns out I forgot, it does become reachable directly from the camp once you return. So it's possible to avoid the parley and still do quests in DS.
For example, in my current run, I triggered conflict in the Underground River area and cleared the area (and placed the Bwoosh!), then returned to camp to swap in Neera and Glint, returned to the Underground River to complete Neera's and Glint's personal quests (including entering the Warrens, which were not yet hostile, to meet Rhonda for Glint's quest), then again returned to camp to swap out Neera and Glint (neither being in my "permanent party" for this run), then fought my way through the Warrens (which were now automatically hostile on entry, IIRC) and up to the Castle Basement, then fought my way through the Basement expecting to find Hephernaan after clearing a path to his room ... but no, Hephernaan and his assistants weren't there, just Daeros alone. So then I poisoned the supplies and left, and (fortunately) the plot progressed normally (with the call for parley, etc.) even though I hadn't met Hephernaan.
I've no idea if it is by design that Hephernaan and his assistants have already fled (before you get a chance to confront them) if you've already slaughtered all the Crusaders in the Underground River and Warrens, or if this was some sort of bug. However, since it doesn't affect plot progression, it doesn't greatly matter.
You don't have to go straight to parley if you don't like the idea, you still can return to the basement, go up and poison the stuff and/or plant the barrel. But Warrens will be hostile and Hephernaan will be gone.
Other than that, if you don't go back and forth between the camp and the castle undergrounds, then it should behave as explained in earlier posts.
Lastly, DS does open up once you return to the camp, so you can get there bypassing parley. It still doesn't mean you go there *after* the parley, but that's as about much freedom as possible to get without adding/rewriting some scenes. The journal was supposed to be very explicit that you had to finish all side quests by then.
Also, I was bugged out that I hadn't found a single one of those five items that that person wanted from crusaders. I had no idea what they were talking about when they mentioned "crusader camp" etc, I thought it might have been the place with the bridge that I made a skull imprint on. I had nuked that camp straight away and then I thought I might have missed all those items in the commotion. Then it turns out that the place the person is talking about is ... Dragonspear Castle. Haha. "Crusader camp" sounds so ... "beginning area like" in this contect, while "Dragonspear Castle" sounds like the absolute summit of the DLC, the absolute latest place to dare tread.