are sepcidifed when you statrt . . i.e. you have a certain amount of game time to finish the quest and the game tells you when it must be finished.There IS a town portal spell AND is works just fine AFTER you complete the Archmage Promo quest (whether or not you have a sorcerer in the party does not matter, the archmage quest must be completed before the Town Portal Spell is restored). The game explains it all when you talk to various NPC's and then to Thomas Grey at the School of Sorcery. One caution here: Complete the quest BEFORE returning to Grey. If you go back to see him after receiving the quest but before complting it, the quest will fail and the TP spell will NEVER be retored.
About the Alliance Quests. What is gone is the Loren Steele rescue and the Riverside Plans Quests. This is because the Tularean Caves become the site of another dungeon, as was mentioned in Christy's ost, the "guantlet" or prerequsite to the Coding Fortress where you get to dual one or more of you characters if desired. YOU still have to get the judge, but tthere is only one judge to get and that is Judge Fairweather in the Bracada Tavern. There is no "dark path" in this game, but you do get access to Dark Magic upon completing a quest later in the game.
One caution about dual-classing. Make sure your character to be dual-classed is COMPLETELY trained in all skills possible as he/she will not be able to advance in a skill not normally available to the new class. All skills learned by the first class are completely usuable, hoever, by the new class and the character can then begin to develop the new skill made available in his/her new class.
Hope I was clear on this . . if you have any problems I can give you pointers along the way. Just remembeer two things:
1. Talk to EVERY NPC/RPC you see and visit EVERY house.
2. THOROGHLY explore every area. Some houses have been altered and have more than one entrance and there have been some other things done. Watch for oddities in dungeons, like off-color torches, etc.
