Planescape Torment Walkthrough: Recruiting Nordom as a Party Member

Planescape Torment Walkthrough: Recruiting Nordom as a Party Member
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Modron Cube

Nordom is no doubt the hardest character to find in Planescape: Torment; he’s located in a maze where it’s easy to lose your way, in an optional area that many players may not even realize exists. Nordom is a rogue Modron, a mechanical construct based on logic who has begun to develop emotions. He’s good to have in your party not just for his ranged attack, but for his entertainment value and contrast to the other party members.

Begin by purchasing the Modron Cube, one of the Exotic Items in the Curiosity Shoppe, located on the west side of the Clerk’s Ward. Bring the Modron Cube to the Modrons in the Brothel of Slating Intellectual Lusts and talk to them about it. They will explain that the cube is a portal, but they don’t know how to activate it.

Now select the Modron Cube in your inventory and click “Use.” The easiest way to open the portal is to play with the cube like a child, in which case you’ll find the correct combination accidentally; this makes your alignment more Chaotic, however, so it may not be desirable. The correct combination is “Extend the Left Wing,” “Extend the Right Wing,” and “Rotate the Right Arm.”

Modron Maze

Activating the Modron Cube will take you to the Modron Maze – notable for being the only randomized area in a Bioware RPG. Each maze is made up of 64 small, square rooms in an eight-by-eight square, with the chance of a door on each side. Each room contains several Modron constructs, whose level depends on whether the maze is Easy, Medium, or Hard. Easy is the default setting, so you shouldn’t have a problem against the enemies your first time through.

Proceed through the maze and try to locate the Engineering Room. It’s easy to lose yourself as you go through the maze, so draw a map of eight-by-eight squares and keep track of where the doors are and where you’ve been. The door to the Engineering Room is always to the west.

When you reach the Engineering Room, talk to the Modrons there and convince them you’re the new Director. Afterwards, reset the maze to its Hard setting. Proceed through the maze again, this time looking for a room with a single Modron, Nordom. The door to his room is always to the north. The constructs can be pretty tough to fight. Since they’re worth 4,000 XP each, they can be good for level grinding, but they’re also slow enough that you can easily run past them.

Recruiting Nordom

Nordom’s Statistics

Talk to Nordom and invite him to join your party. This is worth 36,000 XP. One consideration, however, is that if you drop another party member to recruit Nordom, they’ll be lost forever in the Modron Maze. To avoid this situation, you should make sure you only have five or fewer people in your party before you activate the Modron Cube.

Proceed through the maze until you find the Master Wizard, Rubikon. (The exit to his room is always to the east.) You don’t need to fight him and his minions, but doing so will show Nordom that you have taken over as the Director. This will allow you to make the following upgrades:

  • For a Mage with Intelligence of 16 or higher: Order Nordom to incrase his introspection routines. You’ll get 36,000 XP and Nordom will get +2 Intelligence, some Junk, and the Twisted Gear of Enoll Eva, which you can use to learn the spell Enoll Eva’s Duplication.
  • For a Thief with Dexterity of 16 or higher: Order Nordom to increase his stealth and accuracy. You’ll get 36,000 XP, and Nordom will get -2 Strenght and +2 Dexterity.
  • For a Fighter with Srength of 16 or higher: Order Nordom to increase his fighting skills and accuracy. You’ll get 36,000 XP and Nordom will get -2 Intelligence, -2 AC, +1 Constitution, and +1 Dexterity.
  • Order Nordom to become more than he is. You’ll get 36,000 experience points, and Nordom will get +1 Strength, and +1 Constitution (with Charisma of 16-19), or you’ll get 48,000 XP and Nordom will get -1 AC, +2 Strength, and +1 Constitution (with Charisma of 18-24), or you’ll get 60,000 XP and Nordom will get -2 AC, +1 Luck, +2 Strength, and +1 Constitution (with Charisma of 25 or higher).

More Upgrades for Nordom

You can make several upgrades to Nordom in your future conversations, depending on the Nameless One’s class and stats.

If your Intelligence is 16 or higher, talk to Nordom about Mechanus and suggest that his change in perspective might be the result of his separation from the source. You’ll get 36,000 XP and Nordom will get +1 to Intelligence and +1 to Constitution, as well as healing him.

Talk to Nordom about his duties, then ask him about better weapons when you reach the part about extermination of errors. If your Intelligence is 16 or higher, suggest bolts with more accuracy and a feather decoration to get 10 Winged Bolts; or if your Intelligence is 16 or higher and your alignment is Evil, suggest vicious bolts to get ten Bolts of Wincing. If your Intelligence is 17 or higher, suggest bolts with pyramid heads to get ten Rule-of-Three Bolts.

If your Intelligence is 16 or higher, talk to Nordom about his duties, then reach the part about wayward item recovery. Ask him about item identifiation to get a Magnifying Lens. Ask him what he found on his last trip to get a Fanger Mirror of Yehcir-Eya, a Gold Bracelet, a Stinger Earring, a Glass Eye, some Junk, and 333 copper.

Finally, check out Qwinn’s Save Nordom mod if you don’t want to get stuck choosing between not recruiting Vhailor later in the game or having to leave another party member behind to die.