QUEST SOLUTION: | GET THE BOOK OF RULES FROM TA'SAR ACADEMY
Required: This quest is required to advance in the game.
Summary: Markel gives you this task because he says he believes the Book of Rules is a necessary thing to have if you're going to fight a war (you'll see when you complete it that he really assigned it to you because he thought you'd never be able to do it). He makes obtaining it a requirement of his joining the Alliance.
How to do: Ta'Sar Academy is in Lindisfarne along the pilgramage road to the monestary; however it is reachable via a switchback before any magreebs will be encountered. Some Thralls do keep a camp right outside the Academy. The guards inside the Academy are hostile; however they are not terribly difficult - the Thralls outside were much harder. Presumably the "guards" inside are students.
Once inside, head to your left through the door. You'll be in a room full of goblets and urns, which, according to a scroll further inside the Academy, is a sort of test like that in Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail: Drink from the correct cup and your Might will be increased. Drink from the wrong cup at your peril. Unfortunately, I could not discover how to drink from a cup at all (someone feel free to let me know).
Go through the other door out of the room, and straight ahead down the corridor. You'll hear fighting coming from the central room. Ignore it and they will ignore you; it's just a class being conducted.
Proceed to the end of the hallway. It will bend around a bit, but stay on it until you come to a library room. Head around the central bookcase to the other door and you should come to the circular 3-level library.
On a table against the center column you should see a scroll and four books. If you read the scroll it instructs a student to put the books away where they belong and then he will be allowed to look at the Book of War Rules (Book of Rules). So you need to put the books away. You'll only be able to pick them up in the correct order - once you have one, go into your inventory to see the title (it will be a scroll labeled textbook) and then put it away in the correct section of the 3-level library.
The upper two levels each have a two tables with a scroll on them. The scrolls tell which section of the library they are in. Just click on the table next to the correct scroll to file the books. When you've filed the last one, a secret door will open in the bookcase on the same level you are on. Go on in and read the scroll on the table in there.
The instructor who wrote it didn't intend for the student to find the Book of Rules so easily; instead of straightforward directions, you'll find they are written in code:
Blf xzm urmw gsv Yllp lu Ifovh yvsrmw gsv ilgzgrmt yllphsvou rm gsv mvcg illn.
To break this code, notice the words which are capitalized in the middle of the sentence. These are the words Book of Rules. Notice also the small words, especially the word gsv in front of the words for Book of Rules, and which is repeated later in the sentence, so it must be a fairly common three-letter word. The code is such that letters are evenly swapped out for each other (i.e. "L" is "O" and "O" is "L"). If you don't want to figure it out for yourself, highlight the following to read what it says:
You can find the Book of Rules behind the rotating bookshelf in the next room.
The mvcg illn is not the 3-level library, but the illn mvcg to it. Work the ilgzgrmt yllphsvou by standing on the pedestal it's on and feeling for the catch on it at about eye level near the edge. It's visible, but just barely, and only if you have your nose on it (same with coming back).
The Book of Rules itself is on a podium, and clearly labeled. Pick it up, then return out of the Academy the same way you went in. If you like, you can SAVE YOUR GAME and go exploring. There are some treasure chests inside. One, through a door covered in "perception" red, near the entrance, has a creature guarding it. The creature (don't remember the name) was a bit harder to beat than the guards or the Thralls.
Take the Book back to Markel in Guberland. He'll be very surprised that you were able to get it, but he will reward you, and if you've completed his other required task, he'll let you know he will join the Alliance.
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