The Gnome king can be found within the Gnome Mines, accessed by activating and riding an appropriate elevator. When encountered, he is being guarded by two troll servants, named Pain and Disease.
The Gnome King along with his two troll bodyguards in the throne room.
Location[]
- Throne Room, Gnome Mines. Almost always two levels down, second floor, far left side.
Options[]
Kill Them All[]
The most direct approach and certainly the most dangerous. Unless the player is confident of the character's skills, it's best not to use this route, due to dangerous Gnome machinations and perhaps unpleasant surprises along the way.
Help the Gnome King[]
The primary quest route although perhaps not the easiest to attain. Gaining the trust of the Gnome King requires a few or no gnome deaths after reaching the throne room. If the player successfully kills zero gnomes, the Gnome King will be grateful, offer the wine cellar key for the player to clear out the wine cellar from huge rats. Upon completion, the Gnome King will reward the player with 500 gold coins. Otherwise, if the player has killed at least one gnome, the player will not receive any gold reward.
After accepting the quest from the Gnome King, all gnomes in the area become friendly.
Imprisonment[]
If the player has killed many gnomes on the way to the throne room, the Gnome king sentences the player to captivity within his wine cellars at the very bottom of the mines. If you have only killed a few gnomes, he wants you to pay a fine before he will ask you to go deal with the beasts. You can either pay the fine, or continue killing gnomes until you are sentenced to imprisonment.
Accepting the king's sentence, you will be teleported to his wine cellar. The cellar contains huge rats, with are fairly easily slain with decent equipment. These rats drop valuable loot and enchanted weapons, and since the cellar can then be easily exited after finding the golden key, the venture is quite profitable. Returning to the gnome king will result in no new adventures, as he will only shoo you away from then on.
Jeweller Intervention[]
[Admin Note: Never experienced this one, possible hoax]
Instead of accepting the king's sentence, you may engage him and his servants in a fight. If you start the fight while talking to the Gnome King, you will find yourself flanked, which is not an advantageous position to be in. If you (and needs verification, but not your pet) kill the King, the Gnome Jeweller will arrive and demand money from you (for him to stop fighting you). If, instead you kill him he will drop the jeweller's monocle and a varying amount of gold. Upon killing them all you can claim the throne and the entire Gnome Mines. The king will drop a crown, a piece of gnome king innards, his outfit, some gold and a golden key to the wine cellar.
Strategy[]
The entire throne room is a no-teleport area, so if you start a fight verbally with the king you will be surrounded. Instead of verbally challenging the gnome king, you could try dropping a delayed action magic gem (like a firestone), which sometimes will kill the king outright. This will then also allow you to leave the throne room for the rest of combat, which will allow you to teleport or flee if the battle goes badly.
If you haven't slain many of his people he will say pay me 1,000 gold or else. If you pay the gold he will give a quest to go to his wine cellar to slay the creatures to become his friend. He gives the cellar key. If you do this upon return he gives 500 gold. Another time I had only killed a few gnomes and he said you have killed my people but we are desperate, monsters are in my wine cellar then gave the quest without demanding gold, he still gave reward for clearing the cellar.
If you haven't killed any of his people, he will pay you 1000 gold for killing the rats. Strangely, he doesn't hold you responsible for deaths caused by your pet. One way to get to the king without killing any of his people is to teleport them away whenever you see them. Or, if you have a Ring of Teleport Control, you can teleport yourself to just outside the throne room.
If you fight him, don't forget to interact with his empty throne to claim the mines as yours.
Loot[]
- Crown (-2 to +2 enchantment);
- Gnome king outfit (always worn, small size):
- Shortsword (chance to wield);
- Wine cellar key (always dropped if quest not yet given);
- Chance to drop a bit of Gnome King innards;
- Chance to drop 500 or 1000 gold coins (full reward if player kill no gnomes, half reward if player kills at least one gnome).
Tips[]
- The player cannot interact with the Gnome king if currently invisible. Remove the ring of invisibility or wait until invisibility effect wear off before interacting with the king. Interacting with the king while invisible will prompt the text: "the gnome king doesn't seem to recognise you;"
- Ordering pets to kill gnomes, does not anger the king;
- Destroying Gnomish walkers and their variants, does not anger the king;
- Upon killing the king, claiming throne serves no additional purpose. All gnomes will still remain neutral without claiming the throne.