It turns out Valarian is long since dead and buried in a sacred grove with the items. They have to bring back the hero Valarian or get Valarian's Bow and the Arrows of Life.

Arboria (from Twilight Copse): Pleasant elf realm including the city of Ciera Brannia.

Next, the old man orders the party to retrieve artifacts from several other worlds and also teaches the group the chronomancer spells to be used at certain points in the wilderness to travel to these parallel dimensions and back: In the ruins of the Review Board, an old man-the sole survivor-directs the party to first kill one Brilhasti ap Tarj, a servant of the mad god Tarjan, in the 'Mad God' dungeon below Skara Brae, a startup quest for the characters to attain power, which can be ignored if powerful characters were carried over from previous games. The ruins are 16x16 map tiles instead of the city's 30x30 layout from The Bard's Tale I, though its layout remains recognizable. Besides the city ruins, the wilderness features a temple for healing, a tavern, and a number of special locations from where the party will embark on missions to other worlds over the course of their quest.

The game begins in a refugee camp outside the ruined Skara Brae, which replaces the now-destroyed adventurer's guild from the previous games.

Someone-or some thing-has sealed the city's fate with an evil so vast, so unspeakable, that a host of Paladins and an army of Archmages are out-matched. Your Bard hasn't stopped whimpering since he realized all the taverns were closed. The Equipment Shoppe went under so quickly Garth was crushed. The player characters receive a letter from a dying man who informs them that, during a celebration of your defeat of the evil wizard Mangar, his true master-the Mad God Tarjan-arrived and unleashed foul creatures that destroyed the town of Skara Brae.

The bards tale maps