Can the Wheel Clan be forced before Isle of Despair?

Location is 953W 668S and a few screens to the left along the cliffs

Iirc the entrance can be seen without the spectacles if the main char has 20PE but I'm not sure if that's only possible after having been to the Isle of Despair.

 

I doubt that the Wheel Clan can be entered before visiting the isle. When I went there earlier, I could just highlight parts of the mountain wall where the entrance later appears. Not sure if that had anything to do with my high perception score. However, you can force the Isle of Despair before (and after!) its supposed appearance in the storyline. By doing so, you can steal the glasses from Thorvald and enter the Wheel Clan with them. As far as I know this doesn't mess up any of the quests on the isle, should you decide to return there later. You might also have to kill the captain and take command of his ship to return to the mainland (kill him indirectly then resurrect him). To actually arrive at the isle early, you'll have to rely on this trick.

EDIT: I believe I've been somewhat misinformative again, my memory is getting weak. I don't remember if any of the two captains who you can meet on the isle, will be there until you've dealt with them in Ashbury. You should still be able to get off if you only journey through there and the isle isn't your final destination. You can't save and load while being on it either since all your planned destinations will be reset.

 

If you get a pair of Wheel Clan spectacles (i.e. use an editor to gain the schematic for them) you can enter the Wheel Clan without ever going to the Isle of Despair - so entering is not tied to the story state of having completed the Isle of Despair quests and you don't even have to have heard about the Wheel Clan beforehand (unless having the schematic updates the story state, though I wouldn't imagine it would); or at least I'm pretty sure this was true back in my wily cheating days of using an editor. However, as to getting either the schematic for the spectacles or the spectacles themselves legitimately before the Isle of Despair I don't think this can be done.

 

Just to have it out of the way: a few places on the net suggest having a perception of 20 reveals the entrance to the Wheel Clan just like the spectacles do. I checked that and it appears it actually does not, no matter the story state.

 

My laziness defies even checking via the Virgil Debug menu like I would do normally if I wanted to a give a definitive answer, thanks for checking.

 

What then, is the virtue of having perception of 20? The manual says that I "sense invisible". Naturally, I wasted tons of xp during my first playthrough (a harm-abusing melee/dodge character) thinking that I'd see ghosts and the like but I couldn't find a single difference. The Wheel Clan entrance is the only invisible thing I can think of and if I can't even "sense" that, what can I "sense"?

 

You can see invisible foes, a interesting roleplay-wise but virtually pointless ability.

The only naturally invisible enemies can be encountered in the divination mastery quest in Tulla, but they can be spotted with sense hidden, a spell the player must know to get the quest in the first place.

Don't think I've ever experienced a magickal opponent cast the invisibility spell on himself, but even if one did it would be of no consequence, seeing how he would become visible the moment he attacked.

 

My dominating half-ogre mage was once stalked by an invisible foe!

He used to rob the stores in Tarant, and as part of the orc riots he'd cleared the streets of guards. But after a sloppy robbery of the magick shops, the party would enter turn-based combat for no apparent reason when running along the street north of the magickal section of Tarant. The half-ogre mage kept running, and I checked the magick shop to see if one of the mages was missing. One strange thing was that when I highlighted the Dark Magicks lady's bed, her circle appeared far away from the bed. Still in the bedroom, but near the west wall of her shop. Oh well?

Later the party entered combat when they ran into the Bridesdale Inn, and then it was revealed that it was indeed the Dark Magicks lady that was running around invisible! She'd somehow tracked the party all the way back to the inn, and only appeared when the half-ogre mage got close enough, or when she attacked, or something. I don't recall exactly. I also don't remember exactly how I handled the whole thing, but I probably just retreated and let her day/night waypoint drag her back to her proper place.

Or did I just imagine her invisibility? Using Read Aura to check her spells, she doesn't appear to have that spell, or a scroll for it. Maybe she just happened to be standing behind buildings every time she decided to attack with a ranged spell, and not seeing the threat, my hasted half-ogre simply ran out of range before she got to cast the spell? And then she 'blinked' into existence due to the turn-based combat moving her from cover to right next to the half-ogre mage without showing the movement in between?

 

No, you cannot force the wheel clan.

If you forget your kathorn shades, then the main quest stops dead.

 

Re:

You can get some from the glasses maker in Ashbury, just in case people miss them on the Isle of Despair.

 

And some orc farming in wilderness, in case you didn't collect gems (true story).