Mission Objectives
- Main Quest - Rescue Acolytes
- Save 20 Acolytes
- Arthas must survive
- Optional Quest - Find The Graveyard
- Bring Arthas to the graveyard
- Arthas must survive
Starting Units
When this mission starts you will start with 2 Ghouls and Arthas. Since Arthas must survive for the mission, you'll never want to send him without escort.
The Acolytes
Follow the path until you come to your first acolyte. Approach him and as soon as you get close to him he will revert to his undead form. After rescuing this acolyte move forward to the first clearing in the town be cautious as you enter, if the towns people see Arthas or any of your other units they will call the guards to attack you. Your second acolyte is in the center of the square, easily identifiable by being completely red. You don't need to get too close to him to rescue him. Note that rescuing the acolytes will not alert the towns people or guards. You may kill the townspeople if you wish but kill the guard first and get the Potion of Healing in the boxes. After killing the hostiles move to the left side of the square and follow the path up where your third Acolyte will be waiting for you along with a single Villagers. This Acolyte will give you your only Optional Quest of this mission: Find the Graveyard.
When you are finished with your third Acolyte move forward where you will be approached by a Shade. A Shade is an extremely useful scouting unit. Have the shade head north to find your fourth acolyte. Also it should watch for the passing guards that scout the path. Arthas can then move in to free the acolyte and kill the villagers. After rescuing your fourth acolyte, head south, using your shade to scout ahead to avoid the enemy patrols. You will find your fifth acolyte among 2 townspeople. You can free this one without having to kill the townspeople. There is another Potion of Healing among the boxes. After freeing your fifth acolyte head to the west, being careful of the barracks being guarded by a knight and footman, don't forget to use your shade. Your next Acolyte is hidden behind 2 other townspeople - these will call the knight and footman when threatened.
After freeing your sixth acolyte use your shade and move north to try and find the secret path to the left of the main gate. Once you find the path be cautious going into the square. There are a lot of townspeople around. After emerging from the path there is an acolyte right ahead of you making him your seventh acolyte. The indicated box in the picture yields a greater mana potion but be careful opening it as it is guarded by a knight and other units. After freeing your seventh acolyte and getting your greater mana potion, move towards north using the path on your left. Make sure to wait for the townsperson moving in between the 2 groups of villagers, and on the left side there is your eighth acolyte hiding in a secluded spot. Once you've completed freeing your eighth acolyte, move east. Use your shade to help you if necessary. Find the acolyte hiding among the trees for your ninth acolyte. Not too far north from your ninth acolyte is the graveyard that lets you complete your optional quest. Your forces will be bolstered by three skeleton warriors and two ghouls.
Farther towards the northwest there is a field and town hall that will be easier to take out and get another two Acolytes. Your tenth is north of the town hall in a field that has a pair of villagers in it. To the left of the town hall is your eleventh acolyte but to get to him you'll have to destroy the town hall and kill the peasants that will turn to militia when you get close to them. Bandits will come from the northwest when you get closer to the Town Hall that will attack the militia. You can use them to weaken the forces present and then kill them once the militia is defeated. Once finished with the Town Hall head to the west where you will find your twelfth Acolyte with a female villager. After rescuing the twelfth Acolyte head north where you will find a bandit camp and a captured Acolyte that you can free. There is a Potion of Healing and Spider Ring(adds 1 to agility) dropped by two of the bandits once defeated. Once your done head back to the gate you passed heading toward the field where you found your tenth Acolyte and have all of your units attack it. once you destroy the gates you will see Acolyte fourteen being attacked by two footmen and needs to be saved. One of the footmen drops a potion of healing.
Once done killing the footmen head west until you see some fenced in sheep. There is an Acolyte mixed in with the sheep and you simply have to walk toward the fence to free him making him your fifteenth freed Acolyte. Head south and you will see your sixteenth Acolyte accompanied by two villagers that can be scared off with a death coil. Doing this will attract a knight from further down but if you stay away from where your Acolyte is after around 15 seconds the knight will move away and you can rescue your Acolyte. Head back up toward the fence and keep going left but keep close to the houses on the bottom unless you wish to kill the two villagers but regardless of whither you kill them or not kill the two Footmen. After killing the two Footmen head toward south and then make a left turn. You will see two female villagers and your seventeenth Acolyte. After freeing your seventeenth Acolyte, move west. Be cautious of the three male villagers between you and your next Acolyte. You can scare them off, kill them or just sneak past them. Keep moving west until you can see him in the little clearing between the trees and free your eighteenth Acolyte. For your final two Acolytes, journey north until you see two Footmen and a Captain guarding four Acolytes amongst some cages. Dispatch the Footmen and the Captain, then rescue the Acolytes to complete the mission.