Hello there! And welcome back to The Chronicles of One Telaran, my weekly leveling guide through the world of RIFT. Last week, we talked a bit about the Dragon Cults, but before finishing that up with part 2, I thought I'd talk a bit about the Ashes of History world event.
Remember a few weeks back when I was still running around Silverwood like a wide-eyed youngling at Christmas? The first phase of Ashes of History had kicked off, but I didn’t want to read too much about it due to spoilers. (I hadn’t even discovered Sanctum back then and you could only pick of the Ashes of History quests from your closest capital city.) Well, I made it to Sanctum in time for Phase 3 of the quest. And it looks like I better get stuck in. It seems that one of the rewards for completing the world event is an ash strider mount. I mean, seriously? I was coveting everyone else’s mounts when I first got to Sanctum, but there was no way I could afford to buy one myself. Hopefully, I'll be able to pick one of these babies up soon.
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Ash Strider mount. If you haven't got one you're nobody. I haven't got one.
So what’s it all about, then, this Ashes of History?
I’m glad you asked. It seems that there used to be these ancient travel stones, right? That you could use to transport yourself across Telara. (They were part of the same magical travel network as the porticulums, those expensive glowing gates that allow you to travel between cities.) But the power of these stones was somehow repressed when Akylios splashed down into the ocean. (And the stones destroyed by his followers.) But now that he’s dead there is an opportunity to repair them, to put the stones back into working order.
Why now, though? What has triggered this quest? Well is seems that Karine, the first of all the Bards is singing some kind of magical song that is pushing people to repair the stones so they can then be used to travel to Ember Isle. That’s all fine with me. As long as her song doesn’t sound like Boney M or anything at all to do with Christmas, I’m cool with it. I mean, seriously. Middle of November and every shop…
Sorry. I’ll stop there. Before a blood vessel bursts in my head.
Nobody really knows why Karine is singing this song now, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. There's more to all this, though. While we're all scurrying around trying to fix these bloody things, agents of the Golden Maw and the Wanton have been playing Barry White songs and cozying up to each other. It's becoming clear that we are seeing the uniting of two different cults, serving both Laethys and Maelforge.
This can only mean bad things for the rest of us. I mean, one huge Dragon Cult serving Laethys (the Goddess of greed, over-spending, getting into debt, avarice, and lust – basically the patron saint of Christmas), and Maelforge, the god of Chaos, destruction, annihilation, and decadent self-indulgence? (Again, a case could be made for him being the patron saint of Christmas. What? Have you seen what kids are like in the run up to December 25th? They’re insane, man. “How many more sleeps, dad? When’s Santa Claus coming, dad? When, when?” And witness the state of your lounge on Christmas morning, while the kids are tunneling through miles and miles of shredded wrapping paper, sucking up Quality Street like some kind of demented organic vacuum cleaner, seeking their next hit of sugar? You don’t think that’s chaos?)
Trouble is coming, folks, and it will probably feature the numbers 1 and 6. (1.6, in case that wasn't clear. Not 16.)
Anyhoo, that’s the backstory of Ashes of History. Now to get on with the quests.
I’ve already missed Phases 1 and 2 of the event. But phase 3 kicks off on the shore just below Sanctum. Here I find Alexsil and Valkov. These guys want me to use one of the half-ruined travel stones and teleport to unknown locations, record what I see in a special journal, then report back to them. I’m immediately suspicious. Why don’t they do it themselves? I mean, you’ve all seen The Fly, right? You know what happens when you use faulty teleportation devices. I could come out the other side with my backside on my head.
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Caedryn's backside was still where it was meant to be. Which was nice.
Luckily for me, this didn't happen, and I complete the quest and get some magma opals as a reward. Apparently you can use these opals to buy special quest items from traders in Sanctum. Items that can’t be bought at other times. Unfortunately, these items cost 500 magma opals each. Crap. Better get busy.
The next part of Ashes of History requires me to gather travel stone segments from Fletcher’s Beach. Fletcher’s Beach is just around the corner from where I am so I dive into the water and take a gentle swim around the coast until I arrive at the beach. Hmm. There are a couple of Defiant footholds here, the Defiant scumbags kicking sand in the faces of everyone else trying to enjoy their day in the sun. I join up with a public group and we take them down. Right down to Chinatown.
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Fletcher's Beach. It's rather hot today.
I gather up some travel stone fragments and head back to Alexsil. He gives me 25 magma opals as a reward. Man, this is going to take ages. Next thing he tells me to do is close down some rifts and kill any invaders that come through, and also collect more travel stone fragments and bring them back to Alexsil and Valkov. Hmm. Closing down rifts isn't easy, man. I think I should renegotiate my fee. Are there any agents in Telara? Get me up to 50 magma opals per quest and you can take your 15% cut.
Right. I've got some rifts to shut down. See you next week. Maybe I’ll have a fetching new hat to show off. I’d like a hat. Possibly a fedora.
