The “Maahir’s Gambit” scenario.

Question: After Maahir defeated Zoltan, can I re-hire him, or will he be available to the AI? Because he keeps reappearing, and he's quite powerful; he wiped out half my army, the jerk. In general, you can simplify and speed things up. Near the southern Inferno castle, which you reach after exiting the dungeon, if you consistently move forward, there's a cartographer's house to the left of the portal. You can buy a map there for 30,000 gold, and it shows the locations of the missing artifacts. By this point, you should already have 2, and you've likely defeated at least 2 strong blue armies. Then, just proceed.