24. Getting Marketh's badge

Getting Marketh's badge is a step of the main quest in chapter 6a of Icewind Dale.

Quick walkthrough[]

Make your way to Marketh's Palace ► floor 3.
Confront Marketh and take Marketh's Badge via dialog or combat.

Walkthrough[]

From Durdel Anatha, the entrance to Marketh's Palace is to the north.
Outside the entrance, Seth confronts you (see that article).
Enter the palace.

Marketh's Palace ► floors 1 & 2[]

Floor 1 is the palace garden filled with hostile mushrooms. The stairs upwards are in the top corner.^[1]

Floor 2 contains the palace's servant quarters, and its hallway is filled with hostile hidden thieves.

In addition to combat, these two floors also contain some quest content:

Available side-quests

One optional quest can be completed on floor 1+2 (only if you haven't killed Fleezum yet):

Convincing Flozem to become an artist ^{[Bard only]} (60,000 exp)

Another optional quest can be started on floor 2, but only completed later after you have dealt with both Marketh and Malavon:

Freeing Ginafae from Malavon's curse (80,000 exp)

The Sack of Potatoes found in the kitchen is a quest item that can lead you on an optional detour – see below.

Marketh's Palace ► floor 3[]

Floor 3 contains the throne room and royal chambers, and is also filled with hostile hidden thieves.

Marketh can be found in the room at the top. You can talk to him, and either:

threaten him into giving you his badge (and all his items), or
kill him and pick up his badge from his corpse.^[2]

See Marketh#Interaction for details. Either way, you get 150,000 exp for obtaining the badge.

Optional detour: Helping the svirfneblin[]

Thanks to a quest item found in Marketh's Palace, you can now unlock the optional areas and quests related to the svirfneblin of Lower Dorn's Deep:

Newly available side-quests and areas

Travel back to Durdel Anatha, and from there take the lift near the north-west corner down to the Oubliette.
Here, you can use the Sack of Potatoes you found in the kitchen of Marketh's Palace to complete:

Food for Tarnelm (80,000 exp)

This, in turn, leads to the follow-up quest:

Finding the hidden gnome camp

The Hidden Gnome Camp gives you access to two merchants, and two more opportunities to gain experience:

Rescuing Guello (80,000 exp)

Restoring the arboretum ► items 3+4 (168,000 exp)

When you are ready to continue the main quest, seek out the next lieutenant badge:

⟶ 25. Getting Brother Perdiem's badge

Appendix[]

Footnotes[]

↑ The other exits lead to the areas for other chapter 6a main quest steps – you can ignore them for now.
↑ Killing him locks you out of the side-quest Freeing Ginafae from Malavon's curse (80,000 exp).

[1] The other exits lead to the areas for other chapter 6a main quest steps – you can ignore them for now.

[2] Killing him locks you out of the side-quest Freeing Ginafae from Malavon's curse (80,000 exp).

[1]

[2]