Ravenshore

Expert teachers:

• A: Chain
• W: Mace, Spear, Staff, Sword
• M: Fire, Spirit, Water, Light
• S: Mediation, Repair

Master teachers:

• A: Plate
• W: Axe, Bow, Dagger
• S: DarkElf

GM Teachers:

• Identify Monster, Merchant

Training:

• Maximum to level 15

Magic shops:

• The best shop in the game for self magic (Body, mind, spirit)
• Normal elemental spells (Air, fire, earth, water)
• No light, dark spells

Quests (Short term):

• Shield Eclipse
• Kill Dire Wolves
• Message for Arion Hunter
• Rescue Arion’s daughter

Quests (for later in game):

• Destroy Pirates outpost (Dagger Island)
• Deliver Report to Stanley
• Sink Regnan Fleet
• Escaton's Crystal
• Planes of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth

Dungeons:

• Smuggler’s cove
• Temple of Eep
• Dire Wolf Cave
• Temple of Lord Brinnie
• Merchant House (Later)
• Crystal (end of the game)

Exits:

• North to Alvar
• East to Shadowspire
• West to Garrote Gorge
• Ships to Dagger Island, Shadowspire, Ravage Roaming
• Ship to Regna (After "Sink Fleet" quest

Special notes:

• The flute from Lord Brinnie's tomb. (Opens a secret level late in the game.)

Ravenshore is big, with lots of teachers and shops. The best source of Self magic (Body, mind, spirit) is here – you won’t get far in MM8 without a good healer equipped with master-level spells. Most of the late game quests occur in the Merchant House. Out of Ravenshore, you can head N to Alvar, W to Garrote Gorge, or E to Shadowspire. Don’t even think about anywhere other than Alvar for some time! Based upon experience playing the game through a few times with different parties, one very useful path to the early game, once you leave Dagger Wound island, is the following:

• Ravenshore Dire Wolves quest
• Ravenshore Smuggler’s cove
• Return to Dagger Island with the potion
• Head to Alvar. Get expert Perception and Identify item. Purchase fly and invisible and town portal ASAP.
• Return to Ravenshore, Church of Eep.
• Sneak over border into Garrote Gorge (W out of Ravenshore) and get 1st dragon for party.
• If you are brave, sneak N out of GG to Murmurwoods just long enough to get Expert Learning and maybe drop off the Prophecies of the Sun.
• Back to Alvar. Wipe out ogres and Ogre Fort.
• (Build Air to level 7)
• Head to Ravage roaming (via boat from Ravenshore, or passing quickly through GG.) and solve Balthazar's Lair. Get Master Air. Learn Fly and invisibility spell.
• Now to Ironsand Desert (NE out of Alvar, so don’t have to pass through Shadowspire.) Solve Troll tomb. Get master water and learn Town Portal spell.
• Ironsand: Use fly and invisibility to get 2nd dragon into party.
• Finally, go wherever you want and kick some serious butt! You are ready for Shadowspire and Murmurwoods.

As to Ravenshore:

1. Explore the town, find the shops, get the quests. Click on the central fountain. Make sure you find the training facility (sort of hidden in the NE corner of the main town) and level up your characters. Also found the shop selling Self magic on the E side of the main town. You probably will find spells for curing poison and regeneration you can use immediately. If you upgraded to expert spirit, grab cure curse. Give your fighters expert sword. Better weapons and armor are available. Early on, especially valuable trainers are expert chain, sword, spirit, repair, and water. Master Bow probably will be in reach for your party in the near future.
2. When you deliver the Fellman at the merchant hall you will start a series of "messenger" quests. You’ll need to talk to Arion Hunter (in the Pirates cove) and go to Alvar. Right now you can’t get into the underground areas of the house, but you will later.
3. First quest to take on is the Dire Wolf quest. In some respects this is one of the hardest quests in the game because of your low level and the sheer number of wolves out there. Remember to bring any pelts (and jewels) you find back to town to raise money. The wolves are all over the western half of the area, and the final few are in a cave. I found that the best approach for this quest was to equip everyone with bows, and do a "fire and retreat strategy." You pick off one group at a time, fire one round, and retreat, fire, retreat, etc. It’s a long battle. There are dozens of Dire Wolves in 8-10 clusters. IMHO -- it is not likely that a group of characters is strong enough at this point to take them on in melee battle. When you have killed all you can find outside, look for the wolf’s cave in the NE. Kill off the final wolves here, including those in the big cage in the far end of the dungeon. Don’t forget to loot the chests in another room. One contains a quest item for later (The Bone of Doom.) When they are all dead, go back and claim your experience points from the Tracker.
4. Smuggler’s cove is also tough for a young party. A good healer with cure poison and disease is great, here. Chances are you don't have master body skills, so cure disease is not available. Purple and orange potions will help! But, it is also a valuable visit with lots of treasure and experience points. There are many barrels with skill point upgrades. Enter, clear out the first room, and find the secret door in the far wall. In the next room, take a right rather than go straight ahead. Fight through to a set of stairs, up. Enter the room, head left to a secret door. Head through it and down to a couple rooms with lots of treasures in boxes and chests. Now head back to the beginning room full of barrels, and take the other path to another large room. Again, there are two options … out the left end, or straight ahead. Take the "left" choice first. You enter a large room with many traps in the floor that shower rocks on you. Benefit from all the skills barrels in the room, and open the chest at the far end to finally find the Anointed Potion needed to purify the poison well back on Dagger island. Now take the other exit out of the prior room. It leads to Arion Hunter. Do NOT go to the far end to talk to Arion until you clear out the side rooms. Then speak to Arion to get two more quests, gain some points. Don’t forget to report back to Fellman for your experience rewards.
5. When you return to Ravenshore, you probably have enough money to train and upgrade some critical skills. You might want to return briefly to Dagger to give Languid the potion.
6. At this point it is best to head N to Alvar. You could tackle the Church of Eep, but it is difficult. By going to Alvar you can get some quick experience points by delivering Fellman's message, and get access to the best elemental magic and some key skills. If you choose this, take the road NW out of town, across the N bridge, and straight ahead.
7. Lord Brinnie's Tomb: This fun place is in the NE, and is difficult at this stage to get to unless you just run like heck, get in, and run like mad out. Too many centaurs for a young party. The tomb, inside has no enemies. There are bunches of silent NPCs on an upper balcony named, it is said, for the initial beta testers. If you click on the tomb, you get a magic flute. The flute (near the very end of the game) lets you enter a secret level (by clicking with it on a giant sword you will find sticking out of the earth.)
8. Church of Eep. Once you return from Alvar with the added experience (and expert perception) you can handle this. Fight your way through and loot the chests. There is one secret door you should easily spot as you wander through the place. Inside are four treasure chests with good stuff, including one of the three cheeses that are needed for a quest you get in Alvar.
9. Oracle: Up near Lord Brinnie's tomb is the oracle. If you have managed to lose a key quest item, the oracle can return them.
10. Escaton’s Crystal. This cannot be entered until very late in the game. It takes a loooooong time to work through the crystal dragons in this relatively small area. At the far end is a musical puzzle … one of those simon says kind of "can you repeat the pattern you just heard" puzzles. When you get it right, a transporter to the final area is activated.