Guild Wars 2

Elto woke from her cozy corner in Firebreak Fort, finding a mail tucked right next to her.

“I’m well aware of how busy you are. However, you’ve heard the theories that Scarlet disturbed one of the dragons. I fear these theories have merit.”

“My eyes and ears in Brisban Wildlands are reporting mysterious incursions into previously quiet areas. Go see for yourself. I hope your curiosity will spur you into action.”

- E

After waypointing as close as she could, Elto proceeded to trek through the Toxal Bog. It seemed to remain the same horrid swamp as always, but as she crossed through it westward, a new path was revealed, lined with giant intimidating vines adorned with spikes.

Staring at them for a time, they almost seemed as though they were breathing. After a moment’s hesitation, Elto sprang into a hurried pace, nervously eyeing the vines as he ran through.

On the other side, she found a clearing with hilly terrain to the left and a wooden tower with barricades to the right. Only slightly south of the tower, she saw giant cylindrical structures connected to pipes, presumably a pumping station of some sort.
Next to it was another tower with a set of barricades, as well as tents which she recognized as belonging to the Durmand Priory.

Just a recommendation/warning, you probably should have put this post in (and it might be moved to) the fan generated content section of the forums: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen

Spying familiar faces and figures (A certain golden dressed mesmer and black suited necromancer more prominent among them), she moved closer to overhear their chatter. Most of it was the expected worrying for Braham’s and Marjory’s injuries (though their stance and gait indicated that they were nearly fully healed), as well as curiosity about the Seraph presence there, though Taimi’s interest in making hybrids of the tendrils around the area creeped Elto out a little, however.

After the small banter, all of them moved to speak with the Seraph corporal in charge, learning that they had also come to investigate the area beyond, but were hampered by seemingly impassible vines further to the south.

The corporal accepted the team’s offer of assistance, then called out another Seraph to help, none other than one of Marjory’s kin, Belinda. Just as they were about to decide upon their next step, the ground shook, and Inquest swarmed from both passes to assault the camp.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Just a recommendation/warning, you probably should have put this post in (and it might be moved to) the fan generated content section of the forums: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen

Perhaps. In the end though, this is mainly me posting my experience of the story, not making a fanfic or something. I considered being vague and just referring to my character as “the thief” or “the Lightbringer” (due to said character being in the OoW), but that would get dull/annoying to read.

And, I’d be tempted to make a joke off the latter choice…

Warning, evil lulz within. Maybe.

While there are no major issues with fighting the enemies here, there’s a slight problem or two with them:

1) They drop no loot at all. While the stuff you get at the end of the story instances (on the first time for each character you possess) seems to make up for that, it still just makes me not feel like fighting them and just letting the NPCs handle it, except then it would take forever.

2) They do not count for on-kill sigils or traits (Bloodlust and that guardian trait for recharging Virtue of Justice on killing an enemy are one’s I’ve seen firsthand, but it’s a good assumption that this applies to the others as well)

So, basically the enemies we’re fighting are like blanks. Gets annoying, especially when multiple veterans pop up later, since it just serves to make the fight take longer.

So anyway, you just defend both passes from Inquest attacks (Or sit back and let the NPCs take the brunt of it while you pick off convenient targets), then protect some workers setting up barricades that serve no purpose, as the Inquest just proceed to drop a Veteran Golem and some golemites in the center of the camp.

(Why didn’t they just do that to begin with instead of wasting personnel charging at the camp? This is not at all a good use of evil resources.)

The Veteran Golem has a few tricks in its chassis, but goes down with a little effort and kiting those annoying golemites.

After the Inquest vanguard had been driven back, the adventurers gathered near the center to recuperate and speak of what had just transpired. All showed interest in going beyond the ridge, and apparently the Seraph working on the vines had managed to make them less impassible during the Inquest attack, or shortly after. However, Belinda was ordered to return to Fort Salma to report on the situation and oversee the posting of reinforcements to keep the vines at bay.

This made Elto suspicious of the corporal. Why send her in particular? Surely any of the other Seraph would do. Still, if there was a particular motive, she couldn’t deduce it, and made no objection out loud.

Marjory and Belinda said their farewells, then Elto spoke with her and Kasmeer, learning a little more of their stories. Afterwards, she spoke with the corporal. He noted the brutality of the Inquest (like that wasn’t obvious to an asura by now) and that aside from secret routes in and out known by criminals, no one had gone past there or knew what was going on past the ridge. The vines were believed to be spreading from past there, from the Maguuma Wastes.

If the Inquest are nosing around here, they either have a base nearby or are in the process of making one. And these vines seem to be spreading from the spot that the krewe leader indicated as the receiving location of the pulse from the Lion’s Arch leyline. Elto keeps these thoughts to herself however. She didn’t trust the corporal any more than she had to, and it wasn’t as if he could act on these suspicions anyway.

“I’m ready to explore beyond the ridge.”

Almost right on timing with her statement, the vines had subsided under the Seraphs’ efforts, and the way forward was open.

On other things:

Belinda’s greatsword is neat in that it seems to be a katana, possibly inherited from within the family. (Potential reward/gemstore item later on…though probably the latter)

Also…Dry Top’s concept art is… okay-ish. It has some neat bits, (The giant Wright Bros looking craft meant to represent the crashed skyship, and some things that look like big desert sails on sand surfboards….or maybe just scattered pieces of the ship. Other than that, just the desert and some mountains/cliffs.

As she passed through the portal across the ridge, a calamitous sight caught her eyes: A large mass of wreckage strewn across the cliffs and hills spread out before her. She quickly recognized the style of the woodwork being that of a Zephyrite airship from when she last saw them at the Labyrinthine Cliffs.

Upon inquiring of the nearby Zephyrites, all she could learn was that everything was fine for them, then suddenly everything fell. And between recovering their lost possessions and fending off the local fauna, they didn’t have time to be figuring out what happened. One also spoke of their Aspect crystals, how they were remnants of Glint’s power when the Zephyrites salvaged her corpse and used the magic to power their Aspects, as well as make their ships float though the sky.

“Which would certainly give the Inquest a reason to go after them.” , Elto thought. Still, she needed more information before pinning it on them. After climbing up the cliffs with the assistance of the Aspect crystals, she found a spot to meet with the other adventurers before beginning a search for answers.

Rox: “Did she just call us fat, Braham?”

Braham: “Yep. She sure did.”

(No, she called you heavy. There’s a difference.)

Taimi: “Facts are facts. The three of us together weigh as much as nineteen Kasmeers.”

(Um, isn’t it actually four of you, or are you counting Scruffy and yourself as one entity? Although, since Taimi goes nowhere without him for good reason, I guess that would be a acceptable explanation.)

Kasmeer: “Great, I’m a unit of measurement.”

(Is she also used to measure range too? Like, is 100 range as far as Kasmeer’s height laying down? Eh…maybe that’s going too far.)

Anyway…

Kasmeer created a portal allowing Elto, Marjory, and herself up onto the cliff in front of them. However, she immediately found her magic being disrupted by an Inquest forcefield device. Thankfully, Marjory collected some aspect crystals beforehand, and provided a sun crystal, allowing Elto to bypass the device and destroy the generator. However, this incursion hadn’t gone unnoticed: a team of Inquest showed up to obstruct their progress.

(Attachments would be placed here. If I could do that. Oh well.)

NPC superpowers demonstrated so far:

- Kasmeer being able to create a portal exit without needing to be at the location, as well as creating it on a higher elevation. Either that or she created the portal entre first, then blinked up there and created the exit portal.

- Marjory and Kasmeer can also generate aspect crystals and place them on the ground for you to use. This ability could’ve been given to players as a bundle effect (Say, when collecting the crystals, having the option to “put them away” for later use as a bundle/consumable in your inventory so they do not expire until you need to use them. Although, that would probably be far too convenient for ArenaNet to allow.)

And now for a attempted humorous alteration of a dialog:

“How are we supposed to get across that?”

“Magic! Like the portals you’ve been using, and the crystal you just put there for me to use? I like you Lady Kasmeer, but you can be such a…what’s the right term? A ditz?”

“Hey! Not funny.” (frowns slightly)

“I thought it was.” (giggle)

“Jory!” (frown remains, but a slight blush towards Marjory)

“My apologies. It was a joke. A bad one. Let’s move on, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

Kasmeer’s magic was still being blocked, so Elto had to leap across to a makeshift bridge of wreckage to continue. She spied an arcano-dampener nearby and destroyed it, allowing Kasmeer to portal herself and Marjory across.

(Why didn’t they just use the lightning crystal to leap across as well? Hmm.)

As soon as they neared the cliff wall ahead of them, they heard a scream for help, and turned right to find a couple of inquest and their golems surrounding a wounded Zephyrite. The trio dispatched them, then attempted to aid the Zephyrite. But her wounds were too great, she managed to warn them of a sylvari trying to kill the Master of Peace before expiring.

The three backtracked to a low spot on the cliff wall, and with a wind crystal, Elto was able to jump up to the top, where yet another arcano-dampener was placed, along with two Veteran Inquest Assassins.

(This is one of those fights that isn’t hard, but takes longer due to having two veterans to fight simultaneously. It’s also annoying that you can’t break the dampener without killing both of them first, since their life force shields it or something.)

Upon dispatching them and the arcano-dampener, Kasmeer once again portaled herself and Marjory upwards. (Why didn’t they just use the wind crystal too?)

The surrounding area atop this part of the cliff was a mass grave of dead Zephrites, left to rot out in the sun. However, Elto noticed something off with these ones: their bodies were riddled with knife wounds, all of the same type of blade. She compared the wounds to the daggers of the assassins she felled, but they did not match. And the dried blood implied they had been dead for longer than if the Inquest had killed them.

She directed Marjory to this find, and she agreed: It must’ve been a single, skilled attacker.

I’m finding it odd that Marjory, considered to be a good detective, needed us to tell her all that in those attachments above (although, I suppose dealing with all the Invasive Weed’s nonsense, and nearly dying, has probably made her a bit rusty on the detective skills).

The trio proceeded onward to the top “floor” of the cliff, fighting off the remaining Inquest presence, as well as finding their first major clue towards the killer’s identity.

While they had been told that it was a sylvari earlier, the sentence upon the mission log implied that this particular sylvari belonged to a splinter faction.

Either Nightmare Court or Soundless. , Elto thought. Then again, a Nightmare courtier would probably have difficulty maintaining their guise amongst the Zephyrites, so Soundless makes more sense.

She told Marjory of this, and a slight grin formed on her face.

“So our sylvari was Soundless.”

“Jory, you sound downright excited.”

“I am. The plot thickens, my dear.”

On a side note, I originally thought Aerin was a feminine name before the dialog text makes our character state that it’s probably a male. Maybe they should’ve left that bit ambiguous…unless we spoke to Aerin back at the Labyrinthine Cliff events before. I can’t recall if he was there too, but maybe.

Right, back to story time.

Moving southeast now, they found more Inquest gathered around a dead norn Zephyrite. Once again, they killed them, then inspected the norn, who seemed to be a guard onboard the ship. She was marked with blast scars, and Elto’s nose caught the whiff of something…explosive powder.

Kasmeer: “Why does it have to be another sylvari?”

Indeed. Scarlet was annoying, and now another one? , Elto thought.

Marjory: “I don’t know, but his actions aren’t random. He was after something or someone specific.”

Kasmeer: “The Master of Peace? Is he on the run? Is the assassin after him?”

Elto: “The Zephyrite we questioned already told us the sylvari was attempting to kill him, Lady Kasmeer. And if this Master of Peace has any sense, he’ll be on the run or hiding.”

Marjory: “I think so too. We have to find him before the assassin does. Do you think we can track them?”

Elto: “That remains to be seen.”

After studying the dead Zephyrite guard, the trio continued south, and found one last clue at the site: old burn marking on the wreckage, implying they had been damaged before the crash, a preemptive measure towards causing the ship to fall.

Afterwards, the three concluded that if the Master of Peace was still alive, he would head for the nearest settlement in the area. Elto separated from Kasmeer and Marjory to search the surrounding area while they finished up the investigation.

After a scan of the surrounding area, Elto found one settlement out north of the crash site, a small mining town called Prosperity. The buildings were made of sandy stone, with some stacked high near the walls, and an entrance to a mine just northeast of the town. Separating the town from the rest of the area was a river of quicksand, which Elto needed a sun crystal to cross safely.

Makes me wonder how the townspeople get out of the town, or into it without access to the aspect crystals..or perhaps they have another way in. Or maybe it only showed up after they gathered there. Hmm…

Upon entering the town, she kept her head low and perked her ears to listen in on the chatter in the town. Mention of the miners trading copper ore for suplies with the bandits reach her ears, as well as talk of a weird sylvari that used to live in the town. She also heard those who expressed irritation at the Zephyrite and Seraph presence in the area, and others still talking in hushed voices, probably conducting shady business.

While scanning the town, she noticed a dead merchant laying facedown past the first westernmost housing. Her analysis showed that he had been killed by a single stab wound…matching the wounds inflicted on the Zephyrite corpses at the crash site.

This was right outside, and the knife wound means the killer was right next to him too. Someone in the town had to have seen this.

Elto found it somewhat unpleasant that no one bothered to notice or remove the corpse afterwards, but this worked in her favor. As if guided by a unknown intuition, she immediately proceeded to the mine to inquire of the workers there.

With newfound knowledge, Elto headed out west with as much speed and vigor she could muster, also sending a mail off to the others to rendezvous with her near Spurbend Canyon. Along the way, a paper scrap caught her eye.

At first, it was an old journal entry, the readable sentences detailing a rough journey the Zephyrites endured in the past, possibly before having built their skyships. The rest downward was faded, but near the margin was “HIM” nearly scratched into the page, as if angrily so. This handwriting matched closely with the sylvari’s log entry at the crash site.

Not good. The killer’s ahead of me.

After turning in place a few times to check the immediate vicinity, she saw the only path continuing southward.

Along the way, Elto came across yet another paper scrap in the path between the walls.

Another journal entry, this time detailing an area of sand, as well as mentioning the corpse of Glint…

A Zephyrite history book.

Near the paper scrap was a wind crystal. She took it and ascended upward to the top of the wall, and reached the westernmost section of Dry Top yet. Ahead of her was the way to the canyon, and one last page:

“They forged an alliance with her and let her into their minds. They guarded her lagacy as long as they could, but sadly, their race was not to live forever.”

“Destiny decided otherwise, and thus the torch was passed to my ancestors. We hid ourselves away for hundreds of years, helping her as we could and keeping her secrets.”

“Dragons consume magic, but do not destroy it. They hold it within themselves as a sponge holds water. I only hope we’re faster than the scavengers and powermongers that would use her body to advance…”

This can’t be by accident. He’s leaving a trail, for both the assassin and anyone would might attempt a rescue.

Up ahead was a small jump to the westernmost wall in the area, with the only way further blocked by vines.

The others should be here soon. Time to finish this.

The others managed to follow her beacon to this area, and Taimi smashed through the obstructing vines with Scruffy. As they ran into the room ahead, a sylvari zapped in front of them like lightning.

Like the Lightning crystal magic.

The sylvari, seemingly not noticing them, muttered to himself.

“Is it here? It must be here! Somewhere. No…

Braham: “There he is! Stop!”

Marjory: “Where is the Master of Peace?”

Aerin: “Go away. Go away go away go away! He’s mine!”

As any who fight this opponent will quickly discover, Aerin is an engineer type boss, specifically of the bomber/grenadier type. Pretty self explanatory—-unless you’ve never seen or played an engineer at all in this game up to this point. Be warned though, he doesn’t play by the same rules as you, as I’ll soon mention later.

After a brief scuffle with the seemingly deranged sylvari, he repelled the entire team with a magnetic reversal, then hurried further southward into the canyon, all the while muttering to himself.

“Unhappy times. Unhappy. Must find the master. Yes, you’re right. Must not let them stop me.”

More vines grew behind him to obstruct the gate, as if working with him to slow us down. Taimi moved Scruffy into position to destroy these vines as well while the others fought off the tendrils attempting to snag her.

Continuing onward, more tendrils dug out o the ground, as well as plant wolves and a husk—bearing a striking resemblance to the Nightmare hounds and the summoned husks utilized by the Nightmare Court.

After this fight, The group spotted Aerin on another platform separated from theirs by a pit, too far for Kasmeer to blink across.

Would’ve been nice to have collected more of those crystals from earlier.

Taimi: “Have no fear. The option to have Scruffy toss us over is still-”

Rox: “No.”

Marjory eventually produces a temporary bone bridge for Kasmeer to make the distance and create a portal for the rest to cross.

Another NPC superpower: The ability to create bone bridges to traverse gaps or make it easier to do so. Strangely enough, she didn’t consider doing this back in Fallen Hopes when it could’ve easily crossed to the makeshift wreckage bridge (though it being temporary means it probably wouldn’t be as safe).

Well, moved to the Fan-generated content section, despite my post pointing out this was clearly more do talk about my experience with this living story, while adding a bit of flavor to it.

I guess by that logic, nearly all the posts here could count as fan generated content as well, but what would I know? Bookah moderators.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Just a recommendation/warning, you probably should have put this post in (and it might be moved to) the fan generated content section of the forums: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/fangen

And because I’m feeling a little spiteful, I blame you as well. This may not have happened if your post didn’t call attention to it. You should know better than to give those pesky moderators ideas! >:/ (shakes fist)

Anyways…

On the next platform, more tendrils pop up to fight you. Also, rocks fall from the ceiling to knock you down, rather annoying when your attention is divided between that and the tendrils trying to rip your flesh off.

Once again, Kasmeer makes a portal across this gap as well, and we confront the saboteur once more.

This is where things get a bit annoying. He now uses the Lightning Aspect to blink around the pillar while laying Big Ol Bombs, is slightly more aggressive with throwing his grenades/bombs, and at low health, he activates a sun aspect shield. This is simple to deal with as long as you know to just lock on to him and use the sun dash crystal (provided by Kasmeer) to negate it.

However, the game does not indicate this at all. Thus most of my time beforehand was trying to aim the sun dash manually to hit him, either passing right through him/his shield, or canceling the dash inside his shield, then getting pushed back, wondering why it didn’t work.

Thus, even though this phase is simple, the fact that it’s unclear how to use the aspect to nullify his shield, and it just being a bland invulnerability gimmick, just leaves me feeling it would’ve been better off not being in the fight at all, since you either cancel it right away or waste a bunch of time trying to cancel it (if you don’t just lock on with the sun dash).

After beating that gimmick, he decides to run off again to another room blocked off by vines that conveniently open for him now.

Welp, a bunch of platforms, a camera pan showing Aerin and…the Master of Peace, eh? Yep, looks like a final boss arena to me.

“Aerin!”

“What? Huh? You’re here!”

“Aerin, you have broken your Zephyrite vows!”

“Trivial vows. Trivial people. I’ve seen the bigger picture. You’re in my way.”

“You’ve lost your mind and your true heart. I’m sorry. You will not prevail.”

Not much changes for the final fight, save for three things:

- The terrain, as I mentioned is a large room with “mini mesa” platforms where the fight with Aerin takes place.

- Your NPC allies are stuck on the bottom floor level, too busy fighting more trash tendrils to be helping you out. This part makes the last fight harder than the others simply due to you not having them to draw Aerin’s focus off you, as well as not having Brahams Shield of Absorption to block some of his projectiles as well.

- The Master of Peace, while not fighting, will throw aspect crystals down for you to use. He’ll stick with throwing wind crystals on the bottom level (to help you get back up to the platforms faster in case you fall off), lightning crystals on the platforms (so you can jump between the platforms to melee Aerin in case you decided not to bring/use ranged attacks), and sun crystals for when you need those (spoiler, that annoying sun shield).

Fun facts: It is possible, with a few Wind/Lightning charges to get to where Mr. Peace is standing. He’s got a glowy backpack (probably where he keeps all those crystals to toss down for us) and an axe. (which might explain how he got past all the vines, unless they weren’t around before or the crystals helped him bypass them as well)

Also, the area behind him is a complete dead end. Remember that for later…

Anyways, after a prolonged fight, Aerin goes down, and he doesn’t get back up.

The Master of Peace thanks you, and reveals that Aerin stated going crazy on the ship, wanted Mr. Peace to give him great power he couldn’t handle, because a guy crazy enough to blow up a ship (while he was on it, no less) obviously didn’t have great responsibility. When Mr. Peace refused, he sabotaged it, and the rest is history. Or will be.

However, the Master of Peace won’t be returning to his people. He asks us to tell them he is well, and continues onward (though the way he words it makes it sound like a Jedi mind trick). When asked if any will ask where he’s going, he states that those who don’t know his destination will know enough not to ask (because that makes sense…no, it actually doesn’t). He bids the team farewell, and promptly vanishes into that dead end I mentioned earlier.

Or was it a dead end? Dun dun dun… (No really. It was.)

After the Master of Peace (who is now slightly suspicious) departs, Marjory suggests looting checking Aerin’s body for more clues. She also reveals that she was unnerved by his insane ramblings, being reminded of a certain weed that shall not be named here…for now.

Upon checking, we find a piece of paper sticking out that reads “…leader will die. The rest will fall in line. We shall not fail.” Oh and we find some hay on him, implying he slept in a barn recently (or slept in hay while on the ship, before blowing it up and all…although, there was a pile of hay up by the crash site…).

With the saboteur dead, and the Master of Peace on his way onward, Elto and the others decided to return to Prosperity to seek any remaining hints to Aerin’s whereabouts and motives. She chose to start with the bartender of the town, who knew of another strange sylvari with “crazy red stalks”…

Inquiring a few others around the town gave more clues to this other strange sylvari, who began to seem familiar…

The final inquiree gave directions to the strange sylvari’s room, while warning that she “took personal security to a whole new level”.

Considering this, Elto had Rox, Braham, and Taimi (in Scruffy, of course) meet up with her in front of the door to plan a means of entry. In addition, what they were told about the sylvari herself led them all to guess upon the same identity: Scarlet Briar, the invasive weed responsible for nearly all the troubles of the previous year.

The only noticable “security measure” for the room turned out to be the door, exploding when attacked from range. Good thing none of the townspeople had a gun…or timed explosives, for that matter…

Anyway, yes, it’s Scarlet’s room. Cue Taimi going into “Scarlet fangirl mode” and all the others (myself included) getting annoyed at it.

Lots of dialogue involved, so see the attachments below for that stuff, I don’t feel like typing that all. But I’ll try to sum it up somewhat:

- “Scarlet was here.” (Sigh)

- Taimi going into super Scarlet fangirl mode (oh did I mention that?)

- Braham wants to open the crates with his mace, Taimi says no.

- Rox, being reasonable, suggests reporting this find to someone, perhaps Ellen Kiel (I would’ve considered the Priory first, but eh), but Taimi, being selfish now, says they can’t tell anybody because they’d take it all away, and she needs time. Which she could have, once we had the Priory secure the find and get it back somewhere safe to study it (and Taimi would still at least get credit for finding it). So yeah…Taimi’s being slightly irrational right now.

Kasmeer directs us to a book near her, titled “Nature of Dragons” by Ogden Stonehealer.

In the little bits we can read, he talks about how the dragons are as much a part of nature and the land, ocean, and skies above Tyria, and how while little past knowledge remains on them, there’s enough to know they’ve awakened at least twice now, and that recovered ancient documents speaking of their existence have been made by dwarves, jotun, the Seers, and even the human gods themselves.

After that, Kasmeer suggests that she must’ve been here when she was a student. Taimi claims she’ll have a more distinct conclusion later, but also agrees that these are remnants of her early years.

Marjory now calls your attention to a drawing near her. The drawing shows the world, with the Pale Tree at the center, indicative of how the Pale Tree is at the center of every sylvari’s life (at least in the beginning). She also apparently heard about that time when Scarlet strangled the Pale Tree with thorns in her dream.

Braham: “Do you think she was evil back then?”

Taimi: “She was misunderstood.”

Rox: “She had to have always been evil. You don’t just turn evil overnight.”

Taimi: “What about the Branded? They did. They got corrupted.”

Rox: “Hmph. Good point.”

Except it isn’t a good point. The Branded were corrupted by dragon energies, having their will subverted to “serve the dragon”. Concepts of good and evil either cease to exist for them or are warped to “dragon = good, anything else = evil”.

Up until her incident in the mind-opening device, everything Ceara did was her own choice. While her journey started off innocently enough, she eventually joined up with the Inquest (who are clearly and unashamedly evil) of her own free will, and possibly staged the Thaumanova distaster, or at least contributed to it. By that point, she was already aligned with evil before jumping in the machine, and whatever happened in there just caused her to go full blown evil.

So yeah. Taimi’s being stupid here. That’s what going into “Scarlet fangirl mode” will do.

In any case, she directs us to a steam minotaur head, all the while screeching like a harpy.

“No one’s ever going to be able to decipher Scarlet’s chicken scratchings.”

“What is all this asuran googly-mook anyway? These symbols and things make me nervous.”

Um…why Rox?

Anyways, she directs you to Scarlet’s diary.

“Dear diary. Writing longhand is for the birds. I’ve discovered a device of asuran origin that will allow me to record my journal from this point onward.”

“Do not think I am ungrateful to you. But, I must continue to evolve at every moment. The future awaits us all, and I plan to be amazing when it comes.”

“This will be my last entry as an ink splattering student. Starting tomorrow, I am a researcher, an engineer, and a visionary. I confess to a mixture of fear and excitement.”

“I believe I’ve found one of these mythical ley lines, and if I can study it, well…my understanding of Tyria’s inner workings will increase in leaps and bounds!”

“Who knows what the future will hold?”

Your death, for starters.

After that, talking to Rox again…

Yawn. Almost at the end of this.

Braham: “I think it’s time to go. We’ve got more important things to do.”

The tame version of “Screw this, I’m outta here.”

Taimi: "You do, maybe, but I don’t. This is the biggest day of my life! Look at all this Scarlet paraphernalia!

Whatever. You clearly weren’t around for the study in Scarlet in the Dead End, and/or going into Scarlet’s Lair underneath the Priory, which is still there and unlocked now. Just as much Scarlet junk there.

Rox: “I agree with Braham.”

Taimi: “You would. Look, you guys can go, but I’m not leaving. I need to document all this. I can use this to write the thesis that will make me famous!”

Braham: “Hm. I don’t know.”

Marjory: “She’ll be okay. She’s in a village. She’s got her golem.”

A village with clear ties to bandits, and possibly the Inquest as well, considering they have a base nearby. The only thing working in Taimi’s favor at this point is that neither the bandits or the Inquest know of Scarlet’s room, as far as we’re aware. But if they do…I doubt the villagers will put up a fight even if they disagree. And Scruffy was already taken down once before by ley line probes. The bandits may not pose a threat to her, but the Inquest certainly could. And if Scruffy’s done, so is she—her bad legs means she’s unable to run from a threat. I like you Marjory, but just handwaving it off like you did does not cut it.

Braham: "I guess it’ll be okay. We’ll be back for you later, Squeak. If you run into any trouble, find a Zephyrite. They can be trusted.

You mean the Zephyrites who are too busy trying to survive and recover their possessions to worry about much else? Besides, one of them lied to us, another went crazy, and the Master of Peace, while seemingly benevolent, was also keeping secrets from us and the rest. Granted, his reasons may be good, but right now, even if the rest can be trusted, they’re in too dire a position to be much help right now.

Taimi: "I will. Now stop worrying and let me get to work.

Rox: “Let’s get out of here, Braham. Between the dust and the weirdness, I’m done. (sneeze)”

Braham: “You be careful, kid. We’ll be back later.”

Marjory: “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Kasmeer: “Stay out of trouble Taimi. We’ll be back soon.”

And so the rest of the team, including us, leaves Taimi alone without telling anyone about what we just found. Not the Seraph, not any of the other Zephyrites, and not the three Priory explorers who are gathered at the closest waypoint outside the town, who would certainly show interest in a secret room kept by Scarlet, as well as helping protect her and deciphering the other junk in there, as well as checking for any other traps in that room, since part of me doubts an exploding door was the only security feature Ms. Invasive Weed left behind. Taimi would still probably get credit for at least discovering it, and they’d probably let her do the documenting/thesis stuff back at the Priory with them as well.

Right…anyways, we have to talk to Taimi once more.

Anyways, the final part of the story so far involves talking to Miner Toska (in the mine, obviously) about Scarlet and the ley line she helped her find.

“You lost?”

“No, I’m looking for a miner named Toska. I have questions about the ley line hub.”

“You found her. That’s what that strange sylvari female called the pocket of magical energy I tapped when I was digging out in the wastes beyond town. You don’t want to go anywhere near that.”

“Maybe. But I’d still like to know the story.”

“I was mining copper and broke through into an inner chamber in the rock. Suddenly a bright light blinded us all. We didn’t go any deeper—too dangerous—but changed the direction of our digging.”

“You told the sylvari woman about this?”

“Yes, and you should’ve seen her light up. It was like I was Tixx and Toxx, delivering a special toy just for her.”

“Where was this pocket of magical energy?”

“Out west of town, but that tunnel collapsed right after I’d told the sylvari woman what we’d found. I’d always suspected she collapsed the tunnel and dug her own way in. You should ask her more about it.”

“Can’t. She’s dead.”

And hopefully she’ll stay dead.