Riverside Province (mission)

Mission Objectives
Steal the Scepter of Orr.
 * Avoid detection on your way to the temple.
 * Talk to Dinas to get the scepter.
 * Escape to the bridge to the northeast.
 * BONUS Take out the Watchman at each tower, so Saidra can get the weapons through.

Primary
You can complete this mission with killing almost no White Mantle. Simply keep hugging the left wall, and with a compact group, and correct timing (waiting where necessary), the mantle will not see you. At each tower, hug the left and you should be past (and through the gate where appropriate) before the mantle spread out and block the path. Since the mantle are in large groups this can be a much easier way through the mission. The red path shown on the map is the shortest. There are many others.

After collecting the scepter at point A on the map, pass through the gate and again keep hugging the left wall. Eventually you get to a pair of towers surrounded by loads of White Mantle. Look carefully and you will see a boss, and a narrow bridge between the towers. (B on the map) Pass quickly through the mantle, kill the boss, and pass along the bridge to complete the mission.

Tip: If you are rushing between those two towers to the boss, make sure boss is not blocking the path through to the bridge.. If he is, fall back (pulling him from where he is) and rush again.

Bonus
Kill all the Watchtower Guards (9 of them) - one up in each tower. This practically would involve killing nearly all the White Mantle surrounding them, as well as the White Mantle Seekers standing next to the Guards up in the tower.

Despite the seemingly contradicting goals, this bonus and the first goal in the primary objective do not contradict. You can wipe out all the White Mantle in the map and then talk to Dinas and you will not have violated the avoid detection goal.

In general, each tower has two White Mantle below (two Savants or Ritualists) on the ground guarding it and two archers on top (the Watchtower Guard and a Seeker). However, as you approach each Watchtower, the guard will call all surrounding groups this will bring in 3-4 groups of 2-3 White Mantle. They will then spread out searching the area. Then, if nothing happens, each group will go away. There are a few ways to do this:
 * 1) Take them out few by few after they scatter.
 * 2) Wait till the guard sounds the all clear and then hunt each group separately away from the tower.

At the first watchtower you'll see some guards having a short conversation (first x on the map). After a while all of them will spread out in small groups around the tower. Make sure to have decent ranged attacks for here, as the watchtower guards have Troll Unguent. After you do so, this will open the bonus, talk to Saidra, who is at point Z on the map, and she'll give you the bonus objective. The gate will open next to her revealing a tower that is otherwise unreachable. Use the same tactics on this tower and the rest in the mission (towers are marked with x on the map).

Tip: Try to pull very carefully - about 3 at a time since otherwise they will overpower you. It may be worth working to the port, and then back to the Scepter since that way you only need one survivor to complete the mission itself for you in case of a wipe.

Tip2: The White Mantle up in the Tower in fact can be attacked with melee weapons. You have to walk up as close to the front gate of the tower as possible. From here you also have a chance to recover items dropped on top of the tower. This doesn't always work, though.

Tip3: Try to do bonus first if you plan on doing both bonus and primary. The reason being that should disaster fall and some of your party is wiped out and you are unable to resurrect. You can then go back and speak to Dinas. The cut scene will resurrect your fallen members.