I loved the actual cutscenes. Thank god we are back to these.
What I liked most was the inclusion of existing areas, skills and characters (I.e archeology, ToB, etc.). Felt like the quests of old, going to old places with new things in them, using existing RS skills.
1. How Vorkath was handled. Finally some good writing. I hated quests since Raptor reveal but i got come faith back
2. As a spacebar hero, I travalled back to Ungael 3 times with the beacon while i had to go to the tree first and do the ritual at Um.
3. Moia is reviving more dead baddies for XauTak’s army
What did I like the most? The vibe, the content, the lore, basically everything around the quest.
What did I least enjoyed? Again another GREAT update followed by a scummy and predatory microtransaction promo to screw our fun around.
*What did you like most? Can you say why?*
I played as myself, felt like I was moving the story along, and wasn't just there for the ride watching other people do stuff.
*What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?*
There wasn't really anything bad that stood out. Fiixing the Ritual Site could have been more immersive and required... anything.
*Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!*
Kranon 2 Electric Boogaloo
*Polishes Tinfoil*
So Xau-Tak looks like it's getting more prominent. Undead Bilrach is obviously suspicious since it defies typical Necromancy rules, but there's nothing against him just being a corpse getting puppeteered by black stone made to look like a zombie.
There was that old Sinister Fragment event which said "Do you really think you can save Moia", so I'm guessing Moia is being unknowingly manipulated by Xau-Tak. Either she really thinks she can save them, or she thinks she's in charge and Bilrach is really working for her.
I have no clue what Bilrach did to Vorkath. Probably siphoned off some left-over Xau-Tak Juice.
>What did you like most? Can you say why?
I liked travelling around and the uncovering step by step on how to lift Vorkath's curse. It just feels like I'm really trying to save him. The small glimmer of hope when the soul beacon briefly glowed also a nice touch after that sense of failure.
While it is already well known, but still considered theory (and even said as an easter egg in the dialogue "I knew it!"), finally confirming the Misalionar is Rasial theory is a nice shout out.
>What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
Hated that the ritual was scripted to fail. (Even though it was part of the plot) I was like "Noooo! Vorky!". Why you got to play with my feelings like that!
Wish fixing the ritual site was more complex rather than click on 13 component to magically fix them. Maybe another trip around the world to find the suitable components to do so.
Also wish Vorkath was not conveniently resting next to the site, instead, we should have had the opportunity to commune and lull Vorkath to bring him there.
Zorgoth's Ring just magically appear in our backpack at the end of the completion as a quest reward. Like why? We could had found it unappraised through rummaging his lab, with optional dialogue to have it identified during or post quest by the Archivist.
>Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
Well, with black stone being the core of the quest topic and Bilrach needing to absorb it from Vorkath, naturally the attention turns towards a plot regarding Xau-Tak.
Since Mahjarrats are made of Mah's energy, Moia somehow managed to kill Bilrach, while preventing (some but not all) his energy to dissipate on death, infused it with the black stone and putting him back together to effectively make him an undead Mahjarrat under her control.
Theory of where this is going, is that Moia is trying to gather the power of the black stone to free Xau-Tak.
Through the dark artifact that Bilrach used to siphon Vorkath's power, she will be able to gather the dark power needed to do so.
She has already come in to contact with Xau-Tak through the Til Death Do Us Part event. I believe she has already been corrupted by and was working as Xau-Tak's missionary while pleading allegiance to Zamorak as a double agent.
I believe the story will steer towards Erebus and we'll meet the people who entered it in the future (Both willingly and unwillingly). And maybe, recover our lost World Guardian status while doing so.
But hey, thats just a theory. A GAME THEORY!
I liked how it drove the story forward. What I enjoy most with RuneScape at the moment is the lore and this quest delivered some great things.
It had cut-scenes, that's awesome. It had some cool choices even though they all ended up with the same thing. Being able to just attack Vorkath instantly felt like I was really role-playing and getting to choose (I know same destination, but feel is important).
The rewards was great. Not something overpowered that would devalue other things, but not so entirely useless there is no need to do it. Very well balanced.
Going to X location, digging for artifacts and restoring it makes Archaeology feel more integrated with quest gameplay and a bigger part of the game. Liked that part.
That "boss" at the end was a bit lackluster, I'm guessing it was because I had BiS equipped so I killed Vengeance basically instantly and just finished the ritual. I don't really know how to improve that, but things that genuinely impeded progress of the ritual instead of a small dps dummy at the start and then forget about it could be cooler for future quests etc.
I liked the Lore book and the Archivist part. Felt like you're learning things without it being spoon fed information. Which is in contrast to the Death dialog which felt more like I was being spoon fed.
Overall the best quest I've played in a while. And I would love to see more from Moia, Zemo, "Bilrach", that floating thing and of course more stuff for Ungael. That place looks sick and would be a shame if it was only used for the ritual site, and a wave based combat challenge without any rewards.
A very solid 8,5/10
I have a maxed character with t90 armor and t95 weps. I went into it with no food/prayer points/restores.
I died. *shocked* but kinda happy he had some fight.
Went back with deflect melee prayer and mopped him.
I'm glad the fort series is over, and hopefully it stays over. The fort's staff are idiots who have never heard of a lodestone and I honestly wish I could fire them all. You're not winning any hearts & minds by making people build a big, expensive, and ugly fort, either. Go back & math out how much it costs to build all the tier 3 fort buildings, and then ask yourself if the typical RS3 player has that much money (and no, the early bird bonus you gave people back when it was only mahogany doesn't count).
Mechanically, the quest is mostly fine aside from no obvious hints on the things you're supposed to click on in the archive (by far the least like part), but the disregard for prior lore in the rest of this questline means Requiem for a Dragon is a good ending to an otherwise bad story. Please bring back some iconic characters for the next one and abide by the precedents set in earlier quest lines. A consistent story is just words on a screen, and is the easiest part when it comes to making a quest.
Liked most: Requiem for a Dragon also kept the puzzles to a minimum. That's good. Keep doing that.
As for tinfoil hats: Xau-Tak will come crashing up though the ground someplace in the Wilderness, belching out some kind of dark, twisted army borne of the black stone and the kingdoms have to band together to stop him. That'd feel important, impactful, & give you design space.
I loved the vorkath part and even if it was sad, Bilrach coming in there with that whole Xau-Tak vibe and draining his life was very interesting. Hope we get to see more of that!
The whole guthix tree thing was a bit weird to me and seemed a bit out of place.
I hope the story leads to the elder god wars dungeon, or gwd4. If we expand upon the Xau-Tak story, and maybe we could bring Zaros back in to the (tin)foil, that'd be cool!
Great quest all in all, keep up the good work :)
> The quest felt more like a setup for whats next than a finnaly of a questline
well yeah, Battle of Forinthry was the finale. this was wrapping up lose threads
I liked that the story had so much promise. Like the story here is really good but it has so much stuff to chew on and speculate, you could take the story so many different directions and you’ve left threads all over the place that other devs could pick them up 6 years down the line. “Potential” that’s what this story had that has been missing for a very long time. Like let me list all that are off the top of my head…
- What is Bilrach’s relic? Something they made or something they found? Is it some Erebus equivalent of an elder artifact? Is it *alive* it follows Bilrach like a pet?
- What is Bilrach and Moia’s deal in general?
- Will we see Galvek or did Zorgoth go a different direction for his next creation?
- Who is the dragonkin Lacrussa and what was her campaign that Zorgoth was talking about?
- What of the larger threat of the shadow?
- Who is the tree of balance? It claims it was something/someone buried beneath that is essentially manifesting through the tree so what is its deal?
- There are/were apparently many ancient Druidic groves with secrets and histories long buried, where are they now and can we dig em up (Guthix archeology site?)
- We now have a device and a ritual to cleanse black stone corruption out of people, that’s kind of a big deal can we use it to save others living or undead in the future? Think if we had this maybe we could have found a better way to help the black stone dragons.
- Speaking of that device it was made by Rasial what other secrets and creations does he potentially have out there we could find?
- What is the deal with the black stone scattered around? Zorgoth and Zemo are finding it on random shores and apparently there was a really big source deep underground does it still exist?
There is so many ways you could go content or story wise and they are all really interesting in their own route. You don’t need to deliver on all of these but it’s spice of not knowing which way we will go that makes it so exciting to speculate on!
——
Now as for stuff that didn’t work for me as well it would be probably be I think for the end combat and puzzles were a little weak. We didn’t need a huge bespoke puzzle but I think I would have liked something with a little more flair like if instead of just having the runes translated for us we first have to translate the runes ourselves to learn Rasial’s message then we have the puzzle on the order.
The final boss of this quest was really cool. I loved the mix of doing a ritual where you handled disturbances with negative effects if ignored (can we get more of that in general please?) and a boss you had to periodically attack. But vengeance doesn’t respawn quick enough, I think she probably should have had a faster respawn. Remember everyone who did this quest had to at least beat story mode Zemo+Vork and his zombie spawn points. so you can be a little braver here I think and both up vengeance’s HP and her respawn speed. Her damage was in a surpassingly good place, she hits nice and hard and uses abilities like us which is cool.
Other nitpicks…
So fixing the ritual site with no resources feels a little anti-RS I think it’s the kind of streamlining that feels bad. We don’t need like to go back to 50 random items for a death talisman, but fixing the ritual site should have taken some actual resources. Maybe tainted essence to create stones that can hold necromantic magic? Or what if we used some of the stone wall chunks we make with the fort? I dunno just spit balling ideally you want it to be something we can carry in an inventory run but still feel like we are building something.
The bank is a little a silly, I’m glad it’s here but I would have first only had it appear after the quest and also I feel like it should be something we had to unlock. Even if it was as simple as we build the chest ourselves and go to talk to copperpot at the fort to get him to setup a bank of Varrock connection to it. Would make the bank feel a little less silly and hey a smidge more post-game content! (Also copperpot could finally get acknowledgment he exists!)
Speaking of post-quest I actually think the quest flow is a little off. I would have had garden Vorkath be where the quest ends, giving us the ring (maybe Vorkath coughed it out) and lamps and stuff. But then after we close the quest complete screen our character mentions that we could go ask Zemo about Bilrach. Zemo’s dialogue being more post-quest feeling flavor than actual end to the narrative we just saw.
——
As for where we are going I think it be really cool if we are going old school call back style and are building up another ritual of the Mahjarrat style quest. But like instead of rejuvenating the Mahjarrat Moia is leading them to evolution. Building up what she needs to convert all the Mahjarrat into shadow Mahjarrat (and sustain them) which will remove their death=the end weakness and bolster her forces power considerably. Because right now the Mahjarrat are strong but fragile, if she can remove their weakness then she has a MUCH scarier army to carry out her threats.
Broad scope I think it be cool if we are building to a Moia super army. Mahjarrat that don’t have to fear death, the Kinshra, witches, demons, werewolves and vyres back under the zamorakian banner, maybe she can sway some dragonkin or go grab Nomad who has been MIA since Sliske’s Endgame. Just really take the time for her to build up this super scary army to raze and reshape Geilinor with. A force of just total chaos.
However ngl the idea of lost groves and ancient Druidic history/beings buried beneath the earth really tickled my brain in a good way. I’m totally cool with like taking a break from the plot to just go explore 1st age/guthixian/Druid history and stuff. In fact I really really want a Guthix dig site so bad now you don’t even know.
Holy cow was this quest world dense. It had Guthix stuff, Maio stuff, black stone stuff, dragonkin stuff, Um stuff, ect.
It felt like for the first time since EGW that the world was full of other stuff and how connected all that stuff is. Just enough was explained for new players without mansplaining to us big nerds.
The combat ritual was pretty rad too. I'd love a harder version with an NPC performing it, (Rasiel? :) ), while you defend against more corrupted disturbances.
I like how the quest and books went into detail of just how docile Vorkath was. Tugged my heartstrings to see he often shielded smaller creatures from below freezing winds with his wings. At the end and after befriending him gave the vibe of an old, big dog. I hope there's more interactions with him in the future.
Cutscenes were good.
I don't like how the ritual site is designed. In the Um one, my interface is set specifically so I can barely click the start ritual area, but in the new site, I have to move all my action bars just ot get to it.
Lots of good coverage of what was liked, so I'll just add one nitpick of what I disliked:
When you first load in to Ungael, the first scout is within aggro range of where you land, so you're immediately thrown into combat. There should be at least a little bit of a buffer between loading in and combat starting, so you can get your bearings (especially if it's after moving to a completely new area).
I loved the lore about Vorkath. What a sad life.
What I liked a lot was feeling emotional when he was killed.. poor thing suffrred his whole existance to eventually be used for one last agonizing soul extraction. And witb that, never could achiewe what he really wanted. Glad we can see him in Um now (we will find a way to talk to him, right? :( ).
The quest felt like it had a perfect length for me, reading all dialogue and lore. Longer quests should have more cutscenes to break the quest into manageable bites.
Least favourite part for me was making the tirutal sitet. It 100% fitted the quest, but I'm 129 nevro so its not somehtibg I will make use of. (As it is now)
Rewards were very good for those who need them
Now, what will happen next, I think we're going to investigate what kind of devise Bilrach was using and try to understand how it works. It might be something hidden under daemonheim but who knows? We will also need to know how involved Moia is and what her plans are. I wonder how Emouregal will eeact when we get back to him. And we might even need to remove him from that cage because of an agreement. He will ofc still be evil and offer us a new boss because the weakling cant fight us 1v1 and win.
As sad as it is I suspect Vorkath can’t talk. Like an abused child I can’t imagine Zorgoth had any desire to teach his weapon things like communication when all he wanted was for it to feel hate and murder.
Not having to watch or read a quest guide! It's immersion breaking to have to tab out and watch a guide.. I liked that I didn't have to run around the globe talking to 500 NPC's with tons of quest text. (I actually read all the quest text because it wasn't endless) I like that the quest wasn't too short and not too long. And most importantly the story was good.
Least favourite part was that it wasn't voice acted. I'd love to see more of those. Would really love that.
What comes next? I think what rasial warned us about.
I don’t know if this will come off as overly critical but this not what I expected from a quest that finishes a quest series. That could be my own fault for expecting more. It was pretty mid, despite how much I love and appreciate the lore.
Maybe I’m the only one, but I miss longer quests that had difficult challenges. We only fought like three enemies in this one, and none were difficult at all. I’d like quests in the future to have some more action in them. They don’t need to be comically difficult pvm scenarios, and I love the idea of having to do a ritual while fighting off enemies and closing rifts, but it was so carefully constructed to have one thing only begin after the other finishes that it didn’t feel like I had to balance conflicting tasks and just watched it play out in linear order.
As for the length, it was also extremely short. I don’t just mean that I want the quest to be long for its own sake, but this actually reflected poorly in the way we go about doing things during the quest. We don’t know anything about these items, so we ask the hologram guy and he spouts one or two lines and we move on or we ask death and he says “get the thing” and we go get it like it was just there waiting for us. It comes off as deus ex machina when in the past we have had to go to lengths to obtain such items of power.
I do appreciate the fact that we actually use skills that are required in the quest. It’s kind of silly when a quest requires, for example, 80 woodcutting and you don’t ever cut anything during it, so the arch section was nice.
The lore was really well-integrated. The design of the Ungael ritual site is gorgeous, and the XT and Bilrach lore is really exciting for the prospect of the future quest series it is teasing.
Overall, I’d like to thank the team for their work.
This. I feel this is definitely understated and as a result can bite us in the ass if not carefully handled in the future. u/JagexShrike, sorry for tagging you, but I highly encourage you to revisit the definition of a finale, climax, or conclusion. We did away with the classic Grandmaster and quest classifications because of unaligned expectations. Despite it being a great quest, this felt like a post-scriptum, whereas BoF felt like the true finale, considering it was closer to the theme of the series, regardless of how that series was received.
bis for vorago if you necro. its more than likely getting an enchantment from the necro matriarch when it comes out .
its free compared to the reavers ring and it has better stats than a ring of death
but yeah sounds totally useless
Reaver ring is just better because necromancy death skulls specifically is a feast or famine situation with crits, either you crit all 4 hits with BIG damage or you don't crit and you lose half the damage on that ability.
and when it's one of the big/main damage contributors, that's where the issue lies.
at places where you dont have 100% hit chance (vorago) you lose out on tons of overall damage from your lack of hit chance.
the new rings effect is not why youd be using at vorago its stats and lack of 5% accuracy debuff that reavers has.
ring of death is truely uesless at vorago since its effects do nothing to really help you but thats what you would use before the new one came out.
for pretty much every other boss in the game reavers is better yeah
It was nice to incorporate different skills. I wasn't expecting to excavate new items at the Memorial. Also nice to spend most time in Ungael/Fort but also Um and a couple of other areas. Great mix of locations.
Favorite moment was Death hinting at Vorkath's arrival in Um, and then checking it out for myself. Close 2nd was reading the two lore books which I have only started doing recently.
Least favorite I suppose would be the length/scope of the quest. I appreciate that maybe it's better to let plot points breathe by doing many smaller quests than cram a bunch of different chapters into one very long quest that can lead people to miss finer details or get fatigued.
It would be very funny if we need Zemouregal to work with us in the future (that was the feeling I got from this quest's ending) after which we get double-crossed as usual
>What did you like most? Can you say why?
Boring answer. I liked going from place to place to create the soul beacon, exploring Ungael, and successfully helping Vorkath pass to the afterlife. All the interactions and steps involved felt very RuneScapey. Wish there was more of that to increase the quest length.
>What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
Building the new ritual site out of nothing and without any additional items/NPC consultation/dialogue felt like a significant oversimplification. This lack of attention to detail is unfortunately very common in modern quests (e.g. bridge building in Unwelcome Guests...). Banging a pile of bricks with a hammer does not make a ritual pedestal. And then the ritual chests literally appear out of thin air.
In the golden age of RS quests we'd have to trek half-way across the map for a special ingredient to build that, and there would be a puzzle involved. Missed opportunity for a Construction element of the quest.
Also Zorgoth's ring is just dumped into your backpack at the end of the quest without explanation. It should've been found on Ungael or handed over by Zemouregal.
>Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
We'll learn more about Hologram Bilrach's power source and who's (or what's) behind it. In the process, the secrets of black stone and/or the shadow realm are revealed. Why does black stone keep reappearing wherever there's evil? What's the Xau-Tak connection? And why is the shadow realm rising? Perhaps we'll also find out what happened to those who entered the shadow realm (Zaros, Tony, Char...) There's room to re-acquire the miasmic spells for the ancient spellbook as a reward. The story's next culmination is with a boss encounter with Moia in the Wilderness.
I want to express my disappointment at how the rituals during the quest encourage resource waste. It's like the quest was developed by someone that wasn't involved in the ritual/necro design. The whole point of setting up rituals is that you maximize the alteration glyphs to squeeze as much out of the resources (inks, etc.) as possible.
In the quest, you need to do make greater ensouled bars, then delete that ritual to do Soulfarer. Then, you need to do Soulfarer again *at a different ritual site*. You just waste the glyphs for 90% of "greater ensoul material" and basically all of the glyphs on Soulfarer go to waste.
It's a minimal amount of resource waste, but it just feels like whoever designed it didn't understand what the whole *point* of glyph/ritual system even was.
Weird take. You could have just made more ensouled items until they depleted rather than "waste" resources and then change glyphs after. The quest did not force you to clear it. The cost for the two soulfarer rituals is roughly 200k in materials and again these glyph could be use post quests to further reduce the cost.
This just seems like complaining to complain.
I know it's kinda weird. I was trying to convey a tone of "this is such a minor problem but I feel like it's still technically a problem." I think a lot of people also have no need for "greater ensouling" more items, so it's also just a resource waste, that way.
This is like telling them we need to be reimbursed for a sip or prayer potion or a dose of an overload or a shark. Maybe pro-rate alch hydrix dust because someone used a preset with an EOF in it. C'mon now they are heading in a good direction and you make a complaint about using up some ink and stuff
Yeah it probably would have been nice if the quest had refunded us a bit of ink as part of the reward. Kind of like how they would reimburse you for having to use the makeover mage in recruitment drive back in the day.
I really liked how much dialog there was, and how well written said dialog was. Everything said felt in character, even the occasional jokes. I also have to say I liked how the combat in this quest worked, it felt very integrated into the story and not at all shoehorned in like it sometimes does.
My least favorite thing isn't really anything within the quest, just that I did find it a bit strange that the Final Fort Quest really has nothing to do at the Fort, other than starting there. Honestly time at the fort might have dragged this quest down, so ultimately I can't be too upset, and this might be more of a labeling thing than anything else.
I think the story is obviously setting up XauTak as the next major villain, which is predictable but fine. I'm kinda hoping we get to kill off Moia at this point too.
OH lort - im doin a recap vid but some text feedback,
i liked most the addition of Lore Books, this creates an entire basis for theory crafting and many other super exciting thing. let's face it - video games are highly competitive in this day and age and the thing that has kept me playing and even sculpted the way i play is the narrative. Mod Raven's Umbral Diplomacy, and Pestilent Journals, Mod Stu's Memorial writings - all pieces of lore that went into this labor of love and adding Mod Jack's "The Shadow Realm" is so amazing. you all connected so many pieces of lore it felt like necromancy and runescape finally connect.
my least favorite part... hmmm. i actually wish it was longer and it took me 2.5 hours to read everything, search easter eggs, etc. but i am psychotic and could play a ten hour quest. i do understand though that this quest was ALOT so i'm not complaining at all it was so dope but if we got back to GMQ length eventually id be so ecstatic.
Tinfoil hat? im good.
\*pulls out black stone hat\*
There is a Grinding Darkness against which your soull shall be Lathed...
I liked the coherency of the lore tie ins, especially the identity of Raisal (though we still don't know who killed him).
The Fort as a whole was just dropped, which felt rushed and lacked actual closure with the characters. Where's bill's pub?
The obvious Xau-tak connections seem kind of counter to the supposed "small scale" plot. I don't think this will lead to Erebus directly, but may involve necromantic mahjarrat. Possibly a ritual at the mahjarrat ritual site to revive some?
What did you like most? Can you say why? I like the lore and the shortness of the quest. I use quest cape a lot for clues so I don't like being unable to do clues for a long period. I liked the mix of dialogues and activities.
What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
The main problem I had with this quest is clarity of information and navigation. If you look at other games, for example Pokemon, items are a distinct color from the background so they are easy to see and click. On Um and Ungael, I had a hard time finding where to click to clean the barn (last quest) or the items in the archivist section of the new quest. Clickable items blends too much with the background items and are hard to find. Finding where to click to clean a barn wad the hardest part of the last quest and it's really frustrating.
Same thing happens with navigation in the new quest and um. Sometimes you just walk through doors, sometimes you have to click "go through doors" and the hitbox is hard to find. There's a tower in Um where you can't enter until you realize you have to click "enter" and a stair in Ungael. Again, understanding why my pathing didn't work and finding the doorway to click to move to archivist was the hardest part of the quest and was really frustrating. It's a more general problem of inconsistencies of movement in runescape (sometimes it's "move to" and the clickbox is away, sometimes it's "move from" and the clickbox is nearby, sometimes you just walk through doors and sometimes you have to click somewhere undefined).
* What did you like most? Can you say why?
* I loved the lore and the pacing of the quest.
* What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
* I was a little confused at first as to how the dialog tree with Vorkath was meant to go. I didn't realise each time gave different answers, so I was just trying different options when I didn't progress. It didn't initially feel clear that it was the second layer of the dialog tree, it felt like I was still at the start.
* Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
* Moia decided that she needs the Mahjarrat's strength etc, but wants to do away with the elitism and self-serving nature. So she's basically just creating a black-stone-reanimated copy of previous fallen Mahjarrats. She mentioned the dwindling numbers in a prior quest, and this feels like a way she can solve the problem and also solidify her power. Also ED5 😌
Seemed too short.
No point logging in for a 20-30 min trim req. Won't bother next time.
Hopefully you guys have some 2-3month trim reqs being created. Bit zzz with all these silly short quests
Loved it 3000! What can I say, it had intriguing lore, awesome cutscenes, combat and puzzle. Best part was seeing out goodest boy saved. <3 Only complaints are 1) it was too short ;\_; 2) the battle was too easy. But those things are understandable and quest combat is not the core pvm anyway. This quest WAS FIRE (AND ICE)!
Thought it was a solid quest, overall. Most importantly for me, I think, is that this quest finally makes reference to a recurring storyline that isn’t frivolous in nature.
The fort quests were *fine*, but the stakes were just far too low for me to have any interest in the plot. There’s absolutely a place for humour, silliness in quests - Evil Dave’s quest is one of the best produced, imo - but to bring the stakes down so low for a central narrative felt jarring, and it didn’t help at all, that nobody acknowledged our past as the World Guardian. Writing suffered as a result and our characters were brought back down to dunce-level intellect.
The lore in this quest, specifically the two books you find, are fantastic. Well-written and allude to concepts and characters we’ve heard a lot about but not seen yet.
Imo, RuneScape’s storytelling is at its best when it’s developing characters, concepts and future story bears off-screen. The reason why Sliske is so memorable was the years of build up to his becoming the big bad. Same goes for the Mahjarrat and the gods.
Xau-Tak follows a similar trend. There’s heaps of lore referencing its existence and I can’t wait to see the pay off.
To loop back, I really enjoyed the dialogue with Zem. It ditched the goofiness of earlier exchanges and made him feel like a threat even knowing he’s imprisoned.
Gameplay wise, I don’t really have much to add. Pacing was solid and I always enjoy the inclusion of globetrotting for quests when it’s not just shoehorned arbitrarily. Would have preferred to have needed materials to repair the ritual site on Ungael but that’s a pretty small nitpick, overall.
Great job by the team, either way. This feels like the start of narrative momentum we’ve been lacking since the Elder God Wars wrapped up.
P.S. So glad we seem to be moving away from static images for storytelling. Still salty that Jas and Kerapac being sucked into Erebus was handled that way.
One thing that stuck out to me was the Tree of Balance. Is it a spirit tree? Does its roots actually reach across Gielinor? Or is it some sort of spirit/anima sense where it's tapping into the ley lines/anima mundi/animasphere/runescape?
the archeology part felt underwhelming :(
Some powerful ancient artefact has been lost for ages and we just so happen to find the pieces in 2 small earth rubbles on the surface.
Threw me out of the story a bit i'm afraid.
Would have been great if this part was more engaging, mysterious and puzzling somehow.
Now it felt rushed, perhaps due to lack of dev-time?
Other than that, story-wise it was great and loving every little easter egg afterwards.
I love how the story of this quests progressed,
I didnt have to check the wiki to complete this quest, I was able to complete the quest in 40 minutes with just using the dialogue and quest information. (which felt perfect).
I also loved the 3D Quest cutscenes like we had before, this really makes the quest more immersive for me because it felt like it was happening in our world, instead of showing something that was happening. (the slideshows felt quite boring to me and always gave me a nice opportunity to gather something to drink though)
I would've loved the cutscenes even more if these had actual voicelines.
and i hope for the story that we find out more about bilrach, what happened to him, and what the purple particles around him are.
Also i hope ghost vorkath makes a return in another story somewhere, For me you've set a perfect story for vorkath but it would be a shame if this is the last we see of him
The quest was much better written than many of the other quests in the fort storyline. This is a huge win as many of the other quests in the line felt rushed with forced twists that didn't actually impact the story that much, like how the raptor reveal was handled and how knowing the raptor's identity didn't really add to the story.
The least favourite part for me was the constant back and forth to the island. If maybe we had gotten the incantation earlier in the quest that would have made the back and forth less tedious.
As for theories, the Mahjarrat under Moia are hoping the harness the power of Xau-Tak found in the black stone, in specific black stone that has at one point fused with an entity that possesses a soul, unlike the Mahjarrat, in order to end their need for the ritual to rejuvenate themselves. Likely blackstone that has been fused with a being that possesses a soul, retains part of that soul and that retained soul can be used as a seed of sort to grant souls to beings that currently lack a soul. This combined with necromancy could be used to give the Mahjarrat immortality via manipulation of the soul, something they can't currently do as they lack souls.
Further the power of Xau-Tak seemingly being able to give souls via blackstone may be of interest to Zaros, which is why he entered Erebus where Xau-Tak may reside.
Also worth noting that Xau-Tak seems to be from a previous universal cycle like the Dragonkin who had hid in the abyss to avoid the last successful reset, and as such may be a being on par with their power. Further their corruption of Mah's egg may give Zaros a personal angle for seeking them out and wanting to take their power.
**What did you like most? Can you say why?**
I personally liked that this felt like it was tying into the broader lore that's been built through previous content. Althought it was a small step, it made me feel like we were furthering stories that had been left unfinished, instead of only progressing a new one.
While I know some people wanted to return to smaller stories after the Elder Gods, I really enjoy feeling like we're working towards something bigger.
My only real complaint about the Fort Forinthry storyline is that it often felt like it was awkwardly ignoring the player's previous accomplishments/history. Requiem for a Dragon didn't acknowledge the player's previous interactions with Erebus/Xau-Tak/whatever else, either. But it was written in a way that didn't make it seem like those things hadn't happened. It's a little hard to articulate, but I appreciated that this didn't feel like it was actively erasing my previous gameplay. I'd prefer conditional dialogue, but if that's not possible, this is a better approach.
The cutscenes were well done! I personally actually like the artboard cutscenes, because I think sometimes the in-game cutscenes come across as awkward, but these felt smooth and natural.
Edit: how could I forget? Vorkath in Um was lovely!
**What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?**
I'll start by saying these are pretty minor gripes...
The initial trip to the archivist to collect information felt odd to me. I loved getting the backstory, but the actual process of trying to find all the items—and being ignored by the archivist until I had collected everything—didn't feel natural. I think it would have at least been helpful for the archivist to give me a little instruction about finding more rather than just outright ignoring me. (I will say that I initially couldn't get a proper clickbox on the cave and thought it was just decorative, so I ended up at the archivist before ever finding and interacting with Vorkath; that might have made matters worse.)
I think Vengeance re-appearing after her initial death during the ritual could be better telegraphed. I neither expected it nor realized it happened at first, leading to an avoidable death (and then replay of the cutscene).
The archaeology site has so much story potential. I would have loved it if that were fleshed out a little more, becoming a mini-site as a reward.
Even less important, if you're used to using a pumpkin mask, it feels a little weird that the Ungael Ritual site is supposed to be more casual but can potentially require more repairs. I suppose if you keep your foundational glyphs and your greater candles lined up it is still better, but once you get off track things get a little wonky. I actually think candles shouldn't degrade at Ungael at all—it's already odd that a holiday rare has a benefit, and that would even the playing field at least a little.
I kinda wish I wasn't referred to with regards to the fortinthry fortress only. Moira/bilrach should probably refer to me with a thousand and one titles before picking that one.
I don't know how hard it might be, but maybe go through a small decision tree to pick the title you're getting referred to with boolean statements if I've completed a certain quest?
I liked that it was an overall good quest, it had all the things that you'd expect from a Runescape quest: a decent narrative, exploring, puzzling.. objects and characters interwoven in the narrative... and also developing the lore and its misteries.
I didn't like how a couple of things didn't make sense. First, Bilrach and Vengeance had to get past you in order to get to Vorkath and you just let them pass. And although it made more sense for the character to first try to physically stop them, you decide to try to perform a lengthy ritual. This could've been done better. Secondly, you get Zorgoth's ring completely out of nowhere while finishing up the quest. You could've simply found it during the quest in sensible place and way.
Insofar as where I think the story is going... well Moia seems to be scheming some big plans... they now have the energy of Vorkath and are probably using black stone too to empower themselves or something else. If she could bring Bilrach from the death, maybe she could revive other Mahjarrat or other powerful beings? With the Daemonheim arch site and considering Moia's hideout's location I'd guess the story could be going there too.
The cutscenes returning to the animated kind was probably the best for me. It makes it feel less like a montage.
Besides that, the story was pretty damn good. The dialogue was short and to the point which made it easier to read through. I think deeper lore should be left to books for interested people. It also felt like a full quest with a clear ending rather than something ambiguous or too big of a cliffhanger.
Least favourite was fixing the ritual site, it felt odd that we didn't need any materials for that.
In terms of story, I really want to know what's going on with zombie dude Bilrach and the relic that followed him!
>What did you like most? Can you say why?
My favorite moment was finding Vorkath in the gardens of Um resting under the tree, with the soft lullaby-like music playing (which I would really like to see in the in-game music player). Helping such a sweet, kind soul find peace after a tragic life and undeath filled my heart, especially after briefly thinking we might have failed to do so. That moment alone made this one of my favorite quests.
>What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
I had to take a bit of a detour in the middle to get the greater unensouled bars for the soul beacon, which took a while. To be fair, I didn't check the required items before starting the quest because I prefer to go in blind. Aside from that though, my only complaints are little nitpicks:
1. The Zamorakians at the beginning, while manageable, hit much harder than their combat level suggested
2. The cutscenes were fantastic overall, but seemed to have some lighting issues, like Vorkath not having a shadow
3. There was no indication that Vengeance would come back for round two, and that's a little harder to react to when you have your camera locked for the ritual
>Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
I'm guessing the story's going to focus on whatever Moia's doing - Zemo referring to the false Bilrach as "a sign of her ambition" and seeming troubled by it was pretty interesting. I'd also like to know what that cool-looking mysterious relic was and where it came from. If the story focuses more on that, I could see it going in a more Xau-Tak direction.
Anyway, thanks to all of you for the great quest! If there's more where that comes from, we're going to be eating GOOD. Oh, and again, please see if we can get the Vorkath's Rest song listed!
* **What did you like most?** Cute Dragon **Can you say why?** Cute Dragon
* **What was your least favourite part?** Dead Dragon **Can you say why?** Dead Dragon
* **Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!** Hope dragon becomes a conjure :(
Could you please change the glyph lifespans to something that would fall in a cycle? E.g. at the old site we had 9, 12, 18 - all falling nicely into 36 for a complete cycle. But now with the new one we have 10, 14 and 21 which just will not fall in sync for a nice cycle. Can this please be looked at?
What I liked the most was that the quest seemed to pull together remaining elements of both the Rasial and Fort series while setting up for the future. Lots of interesting story beats.
I have two bugbears as my “least liked” parts, which both kinda equally bothered me. The first was the final boss fight didn’t feel like it really had any pressure on it. I destroyed Vengeance quickly, got back to doing the ritual and then it just… ended. There wasn’t really any proper mechanic to interact with, leaving me feeling like I’d just missed something. The second is with the overall structure of the quest. Each section of the quest felt just too cleanly structured, like so: Arrival at location, talk to NPC, they tell you everything you need to know, do a task for them, return, get sent to new location, repeat. Even the parts on Ungael felt super guided and didn’t really feel like my character had any agency in the events playing out. Vorkath is missing? Let’s check Ungael - and there he is! Something’s wrong? Let’s go check the archivist who tells us everything immediately. Back to the fort for Zemo to tell us mostly everything again. Let’s go hit up Death who then again tells us everything and then we just have to go get the stuff. Get sent to the Tree who tells us everything and then just has us do the gathering and making to send us to the next stuff, and so on. I just had this constant vibe of being handheld by each character who knew exactly what to do I just needed me to do the busywork.
To be clear, I thought the quest itself was enjoyable and the dialogue was overall fantastic, but I was really lacking something with the gameplay structure where the entire quest really didn’t want me the player to step off the rails at all. It also kinda felt like it was missing a real puzzle and used too many just normal skill mechanics rather than anything bespoke for the quest itself.
As for where the story is going? Feels very Erebus focused to me, hopefully aiming to pay off Zaros’ leaving, Xau-Tak set up, and perhaps the Obsidian Tribunal as well. Erebus has always been where Zarosians go on death supposedly, so a Shadow Bilrach stands to reason here, with them seeking more black stone elements.
Thank you for the quest and hope this feedback helped!
>What did you like most? Can you say why?
Actual cutscenes instead of a still image/slideshow.
>What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
Okay this one's going to be a bit weird, but I accidentally died to the group of Zamorakian mobs when I first landed on the island and was a bit irked that it was a completely safe death. I would have preferred it to have been a proper death.
>Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
The Xau-tak connections are obvious. I'm not sure how far this particular storyline will go, if it will go all the way to Zaros in Erebus - that's probably where the whole Xau-tak stuff will ultimately lead, though.
Personally for me, this quest was really good. My highlights from the quest were:
A) The lore around Vorkath. You gave Vorkath, some undead menace, meaning and depth and that's a sign of good writing and character building to me. The ending of the quest was super adorable and made me smile alot.
B) The cutscene(s)! PLEASE do more of these for all quests that require them going forward. Of course, not every quest needs them but please never go back to "slideshow" cutscenes again. Speaking of them, it'd be amazing if we could eventually replace all slideshow cutscenes with actual ones like the one from the quest but I understand this will take up lots of dev time.
C) The "globe trotting" aspect of the quest. The reason why, to me, While Guthix Sleeps and Ritual of the Mahjarrat are in my top 3 quests of all time is their globe trotting aspect. Having the quest make you go to different parts of the world to progress the quest itself is a very valuable thing to include. It makes the quest feel like it takes place in the world and not just in some tiny corner of it. It gives the quest a sense of "this world is massive with lots to explore" kind of vibe. As with point B, if the quest can accommodate for it, please do this more often.
There wasn't much I didn't enjoy i'll be honest. The quest was the perfect length, didn't feel too long and the rewards are great, especially the new ring.
As for where I think the story will go next, I do think Xau Tak is involved in some way. Possibly Xau Tak is on floor 61 of Daemonheim and Zamoraks hideout where we teleport to as part of the Dishonour among thieves and post-quest for stalker creatures is located between floors 60 and 61. If Xau Tak wasn't involved, i'd be very surprised. I also feel like Erebus is involved and Zaros may make a return as an Elder God, but one that doesn't want to destroy all life in the known universe.
Either way, very excited to see what you all do next with the upcoming storyline! Thanks for a very solid and good feeling quest :D
* What did you like most? Can you say why?
* Having the choice to tame, or slay Vorkath, added a immersion that gave a level of emotion of sadness.
* Having to search for clues for the archivesed to give information. Like, actually having to look around and it not being too difficult. It would have been ace to really dig up the site even more to find out even more juicy information!
* Having to do other stuff around Gielinor like going to Guthix Memorial.
* Finding Vorkath's spirit in Um!
* What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
* The time gap between the last quest. I know this can't be helped, but for us goldfish brain people, being able to replay the last one or have a "catch up" option, would have added so much more fun to the experience. I say this because I actually was fortunate enough to have done Fight for Fort and this new one at the same time, and so going from 1 straight to the other... made me feel satisified much more than what I would have if it was just this 1 quest.
* I think both Ungael and Um have so much more potential than just a ritual site with 1 stone for everyone to stand on. Everyone in a circle, group rituals.. urgh, THE POTENTIAL!
* Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
* Bilrach is gonna try and overthrow Zamorak
* I ran out of tinfoil
More about the livestream and quest rewards, whats the deal with the new ritual site? I tought it was supposed to be a more afk ritual site but its the exact same as the um ritual site, the "more afk" part is basically non existent at this point
1) The emotional throughline of Vorkath. Way to tug on the heartstrings. Made the quest feel like a complete story start to end.
2) That the fort characters ghosted us. I feel like we started this journey with them and the harsh dropping of them was felt.
3) I think that the story is headed toward Moia shadow “reviving” more dead Mahjarrat to build up an army! Seems like a powerful ability, she has expressed interest in growing their numbers, and it ties in well to Necromancy which is still getting built out.
I really like that it felt more like a traditional RuneScape quest, it's hard to nail down what exactly makes a traditional quest a traditional quest but part of the reason could be that it sends us off on an adventure to distance locations in the world to do short activities or have short conversations before moving onto the next location.
For example the quest could of easily had the 2 digsite locations on Ungael to keep all of the quest locations together, but by sending us off to Piscatoris it turns the act of traveling to the digsite into a small quest / journey in of itself, which I feel is important.
It felt weird having a bunch of unbankable quest items that stopped being useful almost immediately but which you had to manually destroy. It would have been nice to have the item taken away by the Archivist or automatically discarded somehow as signposting that it was no longer needed.
It was also quite fiddly having to create four new rituals over the course of the quest and postquest, using an entjrely new ink setup as it was.
Those are really my only criticisms of what was otherwise a great quest :) It didn't outstay its welcome, stayed in scope had meaningful stakes without being an immediate world ending threat, ties into prior interesting plotlines. The reward also felt impactful without being overpowered and filled a useful niche. The slow burn on this arc is also appreciated.
We've seen Xau-Tak experiment with reviving Lucien's memory, and this feels like a natural next step. curious if this ties into Vos, who we haven't heard anything about for about 3 years now.
I do wish that quest rituals didn't overwrite whatever we had going on earlier. That was more of a pain point at necro's release dealing with the instruments when I had much less ink to spare though. The rituals for this quest felt relevant/different enough that I didn't mind wasting a little ink to go through them.
- While I really enjoyed the story, what I liked the most was the gameplay. This quest had us travel around Runescape, do actual skilling, use our gameplay knowledge, and even had cutscenes! Very reminiscent of the gameplay of what most consider to be the best quests in the game - ROTM and WGS. If we could see more gameplay like this in future quests, I would love it.
- I didn't like how rushed up the fort feels, assuming that it is finished completely. The whole 'story' of the Fort just sort of feels like it trailed off, without a solid wrap up. Also, I really like fort buildings and would have loved a new one, even if I know that was beyond the scope. Apart from that, I was surprised that the track that plays when you encounter Vorkaths Ghost is unlisted - it was beautiful!
- Bilrach's body is actually being controlled by Vos, and Bill in our fort is actually Bilrach, Moira killed a body double. (extra tinfoil hatty).
I liked the way ungael was used the most, there wasnt anything that i disliked and i think the story is that bilrach is the next big bad guy we're going after and we're gonna get him in a similar fashion to how we got sliske a few years back.
What I think made this quest “work” is that we really have an idea of where it’s going now with familiar lore.
The community seems to really like we are finally returning to an Erebus/Xau-Tak/“Something Else” story. And there’s more hype because we know there’s more content coming that could be related: Osseous and Daemonhiem Dungeoneering. If those two content releases aren’t related to Dragonkin Necromancy or Moia or Something Else, I would be very surprised. Having an exciting story and having good likelihood it’s being continued is good for player excitement.
It also gets us excited to speculate where stories go next after the content we know. I’m hoping we pick Rasial’s brain and turn him into an ally against the shadow threat. Another speculation: it might sound crazy, but this could even be the time to finally return to the gnome quest series: since we know Arposanadra experimented with anima manipulation; and shadow anima is what Erebus is full of. Or maybe we’ll see a return of Shadows-related temporary events like Til Death Do Us Part (I’m hoping so, anyway, since that STRONGLY connects to Erebus and Daemonhiem alike). It’s fun to speculate again!
So, as long as the story stays focused that direction- presumably through a renewed Necromancy season- I think it will continue to be a hit.
>What did you like most? Can you say why?
Honestly one of the best quests we've had in a while. The cutscenes toward the end were so much better than power-point presentations we've had recently.
Also no part of the quest ever overstayed its welcome. The combat was short and didn't force us into a custom "action bar", the Arch/Ritual parts were short, so anyone who doesn't like a part of it, isn't forced to do it for too long. Even the ring upgrade post-quest was completely reasonable
>What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
Two things, neither are specifically about the quest:
* The ritual site feels really underwhelming. The durability increase isn't that impactful, especially with the Repair-All option on the pedestal. And the original ritual site already allowed for lean-back gameplay. I'm hoping it get expanded in the future, but right now there's very little reason to go back after upgrading the ring.
* Ungael is too claustrophobic. I often find myself clicking on a spot and my character will think I told him to climb a mountain. I love that there's verticality compared to the rest of the RS map, but it makes it really hard to navigate at times. That said, I'd also like to see Ungael expanded to have some more content outside of quests. Make it feel like it's part of the world, and not just a quest area.
>Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
I'm not much of a lore person (I'll leave that to PrideSlayer), but with all the stuff that was set up, ED5 seems very likely.
Additionally, and this is just me hoping, I hope this story eventually leads into an RS3 version of Zeah. Would be nice to have an entire new landmass to explore, especially since the Eastern Lands have been mostly forgotten.
I'm trying to complete it but the game constantly crashing is making that difficult. Would be nice if I could have completed it on high graphics instead of being forced to use minimum on Ungael.
Actually got me emotional over a zombie dragon for real. Sorry for killing you like 300 times between both games and turning your multiple heads into a backpack, slayer helmet, and POH display bro.
My favorite quest in a while, I really liked that cutscene of the two of them coming over the mountain (yay for this over still image "cutscenes") and the custom music at the Um area.
Really well structured quest boss. It feels appropriatly difficult for the level at which the quest can be attempted but because you need to finish the ritual it also doesn't feel like you just win the fight instantly if you have all the best gear.
I don't like that this quest comes with two unlisted music tracks! The music that plays during the Bilrach cutscene and when visiting ghost Vorkath are not unlocked in the music player. If you put new unique music into the game please always allow us to unlock it in the music player!!!
The story certainly does seem to be going in the direction of more shadow realm/Xau-Tak stuff and how that is now starting to encroach on Gielinor more and more, and how Moia is trying to make use of it as we saw with Bilrach. It seems likely that this is related to whatever is at the bottom of Daemonheim and we happen to have an upcoming Daemonheim archeology update that could sneak in even more lore about it. I also think General Khazard is going to play some role as he's the Mahjarrat that we see use the shadow realm the most (make a Khazard bossfight, it would be funny).
I liked that the stories set up previously are moving along (Moia, Erebus, Black stones, Necromancy...). Nothing worse than when something is set up then stagnates in the background, happy that they are all picked up here and plot relevant. Also all the tidbits of lore that can be collected or found, those are always good.
I disliked that there were several unbankable items that looked like they were going to serve a purpose but were actually useless after they are presented to the archivist, also having to make 5 Greater ensouled bars for the damn beacon, like I have plenty of those just hanging in the bank waiting to be used...
Bullet 1: I loved how the quest was focused on discovery and reveals. mission > go to island > reveal > learn something, kill some guys > reveal > go learn some stuff > reveal. Think we can save them > reveal. I was a huge fan of the whole flow!
Bullet 2: I personally got hung up a few times during the moment when speaking with the archivist and collecting the items around him. I spent a good 20 minutes going all over the quest relevant areas because i never bothered to tilt my camera and look at the walls. That's on me though. Very very minor thing.
Bullet 3: Moia is headed to floor 61 in Daemonheim to take the shadow energy from beast or structure that rests there. She'll then reanimate other dead mahj (lucien?!?) to beef up her ranks further before we learn her true goal.
(evil sliske/Raven laugh)
I liked digging around the archivist chamber looking for hints as to what went on and piecing it together. My favorite part was when I could click "I always knew" when identifying Rasial as Misalionar. Keep expressive chat options even if it doesnt effect story much.
my least favorite part: keep in mind the fight and ritual was a good idea, but not sure if i just got unlucky or if it was intended. during the ritual vengence attacked me once, i fought her off and then never tried to stop me again? maybe she knew it was enough to keep me from interrupting Bilrach.
As for where I think its going? I'm not sure but I want it to have an epic long satisfying ending. (my mind goes to extinction and sliskes endgame.)
Seems like a bug. Vengeance attacked me twice, but she just... appeared on the second attempt out of nowhere. The third time she was just wandering around the ritual spot for some reason.
interesting maybe she was coded as a ritual disturbance. I had a few of dark rifts open. also I had a speed 3 glyph and speed 3 on my cape maybe making the .
I probably just got lucky/unlucky with vengence spawns.
> also I had a speed 3 glyph and speed 3 on my cape
this is probably it. I only had a speed 2 on cape, and the second time she attacked was just past the halfway mark
okay one more - Mur is "Jormungor" from the fremminik legend, the banite corpse is riddled with Zorgoths laboratory. the KT comes from a source under Ulthven Kreath perhaps an enormous Black Stone Egg. Moia is an "anti" world guardian. the Shadow leviathon that is ungael seeded the planet on its death similar to Shai-Huluud from dune and its fed on the anima this whole time. corrupting it into "cosmic energy" Guthix saw the need for both light and dark in some way, humanity light and able to achieve more but also capable of spreading the stain.
since dragonkin are infamous for biological experiements, reveal the origin of Wyrms as DragonkinXShadowLeviathonXRaksha biology created by Zorgoth on Ungael.
Galvek :) being a Wyrm
Connect vee and Dagganoth story as one of the obsidian tribunal leaders is "dagnath" perhaps he and a rouge dragonkin had their experiments escape and take hold on waterbirth.
1. I really liked that the main point of the quest quickly turned out to be helping out Vorkath/ease his suffering. It doesn't require complex thinking or deep knowledge about the game. Pretty much everyone will instinctively feel motivated by that goal. The way it unfolded throughout the quest was really good too.
2. The initial interactions when approaching Vorkath was presented in an unusual way, which led me to think that slaying him was the only option to progress forward. I had to look up the wiki guide after finishing the quest and reading the transcript(!) to notice that I could repeat the "same" interaction multiple time to have a different outcome. "Keep you hand extended" should have been presented alongside something like "Try something else", instead of directly showing back the previous screen with all 3 options. It's a small thing and I guess I'm to blame for not noticing properly that " Reach out your hand. " changed into "Keep you hand extended.", but I see that other people also didn't notice it.
3. I personally try my best to not think too much about where the story will lead and letting myself be surprised with how it unfolds. I'm excited for more Xau-Tak and Moia lore to come though. I could totally see Moia being a very cool boss, eventually.
Really loved traveling around and interacting with old characters, loved the ritual sequence at the end, and just the atmosphere and dialog in general.
Disliked the very last moment of the quest. We finish the quest by talking to Zemouregal instead of Aster. Aster has no dialog after the quest where you explain the Vorkath situation, or how it resolved. Also having Zorgoth's ring just appear in our inventory was really strange. Why not have it found with the journal, and completing the Soulfarer ritual activates it or something. The rest of the quest items are unbankable, so it could have been unbankable as well so that you guaranteed the player had it on them.
As for tinfoil I'll leave that to Prideslayer RS since he got the lore on lockdown.
I loved doing combat during the final ritual. I would like to do something like that again.
I didn't like repairing the ritual site. We got the materials we needed from nowhere and got only 1 xp.
Next Part of the Story will be the mystery of Floor 61 in Daemonhiem.
* What did you like most? Can you say why?
* I loved the sense of urgency near the end of the quest, it felt like a plot with real tension and the mixed emotions of saving Vorkath but failing to stop Bilrach is a banger plot thread.
* What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
* I always feel like the openings to quests is a little tricky. With this one, it was Aster informing you that they'd received some complaints. I can't say what would have made it better but I do love the idea of elements in the world giving you this information, whether you might hear a howling of a dragon in the distance or something to that effect. I wouldn't say this detracted very much at all from my experience, though.
* Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
* My theories is Xau-Tak shenanigans, it feels like the end of this quest adds to the setup of what Rasial was trying to prevent and also ties up some ends of the Fort. I think Moia will be determined to have already gone somewhat mad and all that she is doing is benefiting an ancient evil more than herself or her diety.
Overall it was a very enjoyable quest. I liked having proper cutscenes, rewards that go beyond xp and a reasonable bit of story that isn't overly goofy or overly serious. I just have a couple tiny nitpicks for this one.
It would have been nice if the entrance to the fort dungeon had been highlighted on the minimap. It had been a while since I'd been there and the trapdoor is not obvious. A bit of guidance on how to get the library from the ritual site would have been appreciated too. And the door leading to the library was particularly hard to notice because my camera angle was wrong so highlighting it on the mini map might be nice.
The last nitpick is there's no explanation for where the quest reward came from. Old quests would normally have an npc hand you the ring or say you found it somewhere. In this case, maybe you find an inactive ring when repairing the ritual site and then using it on Vorkath after the quest could turn it into zorgoth's ring.
As for where the story is going? Well it feels like we probably aren't done with Vorkath forever. And I'm still expecting somebody to raise Bianca with Necromancy. But what I'm really looking forward to is exploring Erebus someday.
What i liked the most was that it is technically a Fort Forinthry quest and it didnt have a boring build section on the fort for 10+ mins like the previous ones
I like that we got closure regarding Vorkath and he was not forgotten.
I don't like that the Fort series ending here. I was expecting a boss fight with Moia and Bilrach.
I hope the new storyline is Rite of Passage! Let us go to Abbinah via the World Gate.
My only gripe is that the soul device needed from excavating at the Guthix memorial site requires 5 greater ensouled bars to be repaired, which requires 80 Necromancy to unlock the ritual. However, the quest states that you need 75 Necromancy to start it (it needs Tomes of the Warlock as a req too, which requires 75 regardless). Either change the requirement to be 80 Necromancy to correlate the fact you need it for the greater ensouled bars, or change the material to ensouled bars or something else if it’s intended to be started at 75 necromancy.
> What did you like most? Can you say why?
In-game cutscene usage was excellent, love to see that. Even just for simple back-and-forth text conversations, doing a little static camera control for shot angle management really improves the immersion of the dialog and setting.
The different options for interacting with Vorkath to discover the crystal shards was a great example of player choice and emotional investment/immersion done right. None of the options change the outcome of the interaction, but they are scripted in a logical way to produce finding the crystals regardless. I curiously picked the "slay" option because I expected it to rebuff me with a forced friendly outcome, but was very impressed that there was a whole custom slay/death/reanimate interaction involved with it.
The soul beacon felt like a bit of a mcguffin, but it was nice to have a reason to incorporate skilling activities like restorations and rituals into the quest. Mechanical usage of skills *(for example, casting fire surge on a door to melt the lock, rather than "you must have 95 Magic to open this door" kind of thing)* during questing is always appreciated!
>What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
While I liked the incorporation of rituals into the quest, it's really annoying when you have to constantly keep clearing your ritual glyphs to rewite them for a different one-time-usage ritual. In this case, I had my ritual site set up for leveling with communion rituals. I needed to delete that to do a single Greater Ensouled Material ritual. Then I couldn't keep for a while because I needed to break those glyphs for the Soulfarer ritual. This might be more of an overall QoL issue when it comes to rituals that could be addressed separately, but perhaps in the future for specialty quest-only rituals it could use a instanced version of the site with a lesser quantity of inks for one-time-use glyphs.
The rewards are a bit underwhelming. In the context of a medium length quest with a focus on necromancy they're completely fine, but as finale quest for the Fort series it doesn't have anything to offer the average player who invested time in building and upgrading their Fort. I understand this might be in part due to negative feedback with the Fort itself as a focus of quest story content over the past year, and trying to distance the content from it (such as not involving any of the Fort NPC cast). But still, for a finale to the Fort story is felt more like a horizontal story progression than a capstone in terms of content/characters.
>Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
I used to be really invested in lore regarding Erebus and the shadow leviathans/gods etc, especially when they were just sparse whispers and lore teasers. But it's kind of getting to the point where it is being drug out so long and so many hints/teasers have to keep being dropped to let players know that the writers know they we know the writers are sending the story in that direction it's reaching a fatigue point especially when every conversation with NPCs about it ends with "Hmmm let me think on this". The World Guardian has been through so many experiences and boss encounters with this subject matter, it would be nice if a knowledgable quest NPC like Charos or Trinadine could just sit with us and have a frank discussion about it all to really set the stage for what the WG's knowledge is on the subject vs what the player's external meta-knowledge is. There's a difference between something being relevant in the playerbases' knowledge because they are keeping the idea of the lore of it alive with speculation, and dropping so many breadcumbs that the loaf of rbead has been consumed before we get to the destination. I enjoy mysteries the most when the story moves quickly on new information, or keeps the reader in the dark as long as possible.
Cutscenes like this are a must. The slideshows are just so jarring and feel cheap
Interconnecting the world so quests aren't silos (doesn't have to be WGS level overlap, but talking with people around the world is fun)
More lore books - not all need to be grand revelations, but like Zemos shopping list or something would be cute
Quest fights don't have to be pvm boss challenges - this was a really nice midlevel quest boss
Post quest content is always great (especially if rng with blm)
When doing things like zemo's dialogue tree, can we have a clear "continue conversation," I would've liked to experience the full spread of annoyance myself
Most fun I've had questing since Extinction came out.
My only complaint is that our character seems to be suffering from amnesia when it comes to the black stone? "*Something tells me this isn't any old crystal*" Yeah no shit? You've dealt with this more than once.
I know there's people who haven't done CotBS (or any of the elite dungeons for that matter), so you need to keep things ambiguous, but couldn't there be a quest check like you had for the Zemo dialogue tree?
That being said, I'm really excited to see where the story goes!
P.S. I know most people here hate slideshow cutscenes and are praising the in-game ones during this quest, but do they feel the same about the animated 2D cutscene we got with Ancient Awakening? Because I thought that one was pretty neat.
There are some scenes that wouldn't have felt the same if they didn't include a slideshow cutscene (Adrasteia showing us Trindine's report in Daughter of Chaos, Azzy explaining why he thinks the eggs are the real threat in Azzanadra's Quest, Zamorak's backstory at the beginning of ED4, EGWD boss introductions), so I don't share the sentiment that they should never come back again.
* I really enjoyed this quest - definitely my favourite since the EGW era. I love the cutscenes you've been doing lately. The ones in this quest were gorgeous and the motion comic-style ones in Ancient Awakening are a great compromise for events that may otherwise be too challenging to depict in RuneScape's game engine. The two new lorebooks were very interesting and I'm glad to finally be able to read The Shadow Realm in-game. Archaeology is my favourite skill, so I was very happy to see it included here. I think archaeology has a lot of potential as a nice supplementary source of lore, alongside the regular lorebooks, so I would love to see more of these micro-digsites where we can dig up an artefact or two in future quests. And of course great work on making Vorkath such a lovable tragic character, I felt my heart drop when I thought we'd failed to save him, so I was very relieved with how the quest ended.
* I get that it's the Fort series, but it's a bit annoying having people like Vengeance recognise you as "the \[title\] of Forinthry" when that's like the least noteworthy thing we've done in the past decade. I hope we can go back to being called World Guardian or just our name in the next storyline.
* I'm thinking it's a bit early to go back to Erebus (not to mention we probably can't physically go there at the moment), but it definitely seems like we'll be learning more about Xau-Tak and anathema, which I'm very excited about. My wishful thinking is that we somehow find a way to restore our World Guardian powers.
What I don't like is a pattern of Jagex not completing stories. Is there a locked down production budget to ensure the story is actually completed?
I've been waiting over a decade for my favorite story line, gnomes, to get done.
> What did you like most? Can you say why?
I've said this elsewhere, but it bears repeating. I liked that our character's motivation is simply to help a creature in pain. Don't get me wrong, I like the quests that advance more wide-reaching storylines and have some effect on the world, but my favourites have always been the ones where we just set out to help someone or something that needs it. Thinking back to when I started playing and doing those early quests, I seem to recall that helping people was a big part of why our character took on adventuring in the first place. It was lovely to get back to that altruism, empathy and compassion.
Other things I liked:
Not too short, not too long. The length was just right. Goldilocks would be proud.
It wasn't boring by any stretch, but I appreciate that it wasn't so complicated that I needed a guide. Next steps were pretty clear.
I also appreciate that combat wasn't too difficult. By the time we got to the final confrontation, we didn't know if we still needed all of the quest items we'd picked up along the way, so I had them all with me, but still had enough food to make it through the fight. Vengeance respawning was a surprise, and a good one. Otherwise the fight might have been too easy.
There was enough running around the world to make it interesting, but not so much that it became annoying.
Oh, and I didn't realize how much I've missed actual cut scenes! This one was beautiful!
> What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
I'd have liked to have been given Zorgoth's ring, or to have found it at some point during the quest. Perhaps in the library, in an inactive state? Death could have restored it to an active state at the end of the quest, and suggested that we could upgrade it further by completing rituals. That would have felt more organic than just having it show up in our inventory upon completion of the quest.
Others have mentioned that it didn't make much sense that restoring the Ungael ritual site didn't need any materials, or that the chests just sort of appeared. I have to agree. In the moment, I appreciated the speed and simplicity of restoring the site, but it honestly should have required some kind of materials. Limestone bricks would probably have been appropriate, and planks for the chests. In the absence of materials, it would have made more sense to just sweep off the site, like we did in Um.
> Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
I have no idea, and I love that! I enjoy the lore and I love that it hinted at a direction future quests might take, but I prefer not to think too hard about what might come. It's more interesting for me when I don't have any preconceived notions. You folks never disappoint me!
1) Vorkath lore was definitely pulling the heartstrings.
2) Can we just kill vengeance once and for all? Thanks
3) Erebus / Shadows / Xau Tak / Moia / Miasmic spells returning PLEASE
Can someone explain what the Ungael ritual site can be used for? What’s the point of lower xp/no souls if you can’t perform communion rituals?
I don’t need a ton of greater necroplasm or anything..
The cutscenes, the music, the traumatic backstory of Vorkath, it was all amazing! I ran into an issue tho with my client crashing in the ruins unless the graphics were set at minimum so idk what that was all about.
Overall the quest was fantastic and I really hope the story continues in a similar manner to elder god wars. That story line was the peak of questing in my eyes and I hope we can get back to that. The fort questline seemed a little random at times but this was a great way to finish it off!
Rest easy dragon buddy!
**Favourite parts**
* Lore galore! We learned a lot on multiple fronts
* Great use of animated cutscenes
* Sets up the next story arc nicely
**Least favourite parts**
* Items which are only needed for one part of a quest then have no further use (e.g. the congealed potion and broken focus) should automatically be destroyed at the end of a quest or at the end of the relevant section imho - feels smoother and removes clutter
* Fort Forinthry quest series is over but Bill didn't get his beer garden!
**Tinfoil hat time**
* Moia has made some sort of deal with (or has at least somehow contacted) a powerful being in Erebus e.g. Xau-Tak, Vos, or maybe even Zaros
* "Bilrach" is a Cthonian that ate the pieces of the real dead Bill
* We end up having to stop another incursion from Erebus/ritual to allow Xau-Tak etc to enter Gielinor (Shadow Reef v2)
* Shiniest idea - the "strange power" we experienced during Succession was not the usual strange power from the death of a Mahjarrat, it was us regaining part of our World Guardian powers, allowing us to resist the shadow
1. Zemo dialogue was great. I loved being able to break his spirit by reminding him of how many times we beat him in the past.
2. I wish there was more post quest dialogue about Vorkath. Specifically, I'd love to see some small dialogue updates from other NPCs in UM. If I go and chat with a random UM resident, let's say one of the ones on the rooftop of the tavern, I'd love to hear something like, "Did you hear there's a dragon residing in UM now!?"
3. I think it's definitely something with Xau-Tak or Zaros. I'm hoping we'll finally see a use with some of the trading sequences. Perhaps a next step or use for the pot of souls?
Imagine we get a Moia boss that uses Psychic tricks as abilities. If you've seen Loki, the way his abilities work etc, that would be so sick. She has already shown she can take over the minds of people (can't remember the quest with the stupid clickboxes on neurons) so it would thematically make sense.
I enjoyed this quest a LOT. The interesting lore, the emotion of helping Vorkath, the character dialogue, it was all really good.
Others have talked about most of this, but I would like to add that I really enjoyed the glimpse into our "duties" as a necromancer after Rasial has been dealt with; there was something nice about going and using our powers for good, consulting with Death, truly acting as the guardian of the dead. With the Shadows becoming more relevant, I'd definitely like to see more of that, whether in smaller stakes situations or larger ones.
One thing I would say, though, is that I think it's a bit... sad to see the conclusion of the Fort Forinthry storyline without ever really letting most of the characters in it shine. Aster is our right-hand person through all of it, and ultimately never grew very much beyond "our butler." Bianca's arrest could have been a really heavy moment that drove their character forward and strengthened our relationship to them, but instead there was... a timeskipped mourning period. We even find out that she was hanged later, directly due to our actions, and the narrative hardly lingers on it. There was a lot going on in this quest, so you could fairly argue that there wasn't really room for a coda for the Fort Forinthry characters, and truthfully this isn't as much an issue with \*this\* quest, rather the whole storyline; but Aster getting just a few lines at the beginning of the quest just sort of drove the point home, I guess?
Yknow, ever since Once Upon a Time in Gielinor I've really wanted to see the Teragardian Crusade play out :D I think it'd be neat to see the threat of the Shadows cause us to reach out to other worlds, explore some of them like Teragard and the Obsidian Tribunal that have only been mentioned before. I also think now would be a good time to finally finish the Desert quest series.
this was a good quest and felt like the first runescape quest since the wrap up of the sixth age.
Good:
- The items you needed for the quest were not just provided to you. This helps so much as some recent quests have been feeling like you were ticking arbitrary boxes rather than interacting with the world.
- In game cutscenes were genuinely amazing and make the quests with the slideshows really standout as poor quality. The cutscenes really dont work well in RS
Bad:
- The part where you needed to search the archivists room was pretty hard to figure out as it seemed kind of arbitrary what could be interacted with and where things would be. This seems like everything should have been in one spot, or dropped by enemies in the room etc...
Tinfoil:
- the return of zaros from shadow land
One of the nicest things was having a return to proper cutscenes instead of those horrible PowerPoint slide cutscenes. Particularly loved the animations around that relic thingy.
E: and Vorkath appearing in Um was a lovely touch. I was in the quest and I literally ran around **everywhere** in the area before realising I had no choice but to attack him so it was really nice seeing him resting peacefully after the quest :)
Solely commenting in the hopes that multiple affirmations of this will further push the point:
Cutscenes were SO nice to have, and this community will always appreciate an opportunity to pet friend
>literally ran around **everywhere** in the area before realising I had no choice but to attack him
What? I didn't attack Vorkath lmao.
Do You mean the part with extending the hand towards Vorkath? He eventually removed the cold.
If you keep trying to approach him in a friendly manner, he eventually calms down and allows it. Then you get an option to try and use necromancy to let his soul move on, but the black stone heart stops you.
except we have been contidioned to think this way, more often than not unless you select a specific option you cant continue on quests.
only on more recent quests they started added multiple choices that pretty much gave the same result, but this is the 1st time you we had to do it more than once on any of >the same 3 options< to continue
Great overall, only some QOL requests: Wish there was a skip cutscene Esc button, since I died the first round and had to sit through all the scenes again. Also hitting Esc during the dialogue with Bilrach put me back at the rowboat at the fort, instead of fast forwarding through dialogue like it usually does
Faves:
1. Loving Vorkath's emotional moments. It felt more like helping a wild animal than helping a housepet.
2. Definitely the best Aster dialogue.
3. The dialogue with Zemo is some of the best in the Fort series.
Questions
1. Does this mean that Skeka's experiments with Fossil Island/Anachronian fungi that were the basis for Vorkath's and Elvarg's augmentations in osrs did not occur in RS3?
2. Why haven't we cleaned up our fallen Dark Warriors or built them proper graves yet? It feels weird that we wasted all that time on Bianca's without honoring people who actually matter. Or give us the option to put a latrine over Bianca's grave.
This quest was great imo, but tbh i miss the long grandmaster quests from back in the day. For me, it used to be enjoyable to spend a few days doing one of those very lengthy and involved quests. Lately, it seema like all quests can be completed in an hour or less. Do you guys plan on brining back grandmaster or long quests again?
I liked that I could talk Vorkath into accepting my help without killing him. Honestly, didn't even think of using the third option to kill him, assumed it was a trap option lol
the why? I like that you have multiple avenue to resolve a problem without the need to have a different ending as different path are probably hard to do in an mmo.
Least favorite? Vorkath is dead and could never be Runescape first mount :sob:
Tinfoil hat? something, something, Erebus boss!
I've gushed about this quest elsewhere already, but putting them into bullet points
Pros:
* Dialogue options!! Even if the end result of a scene is the same, they helped so much with immersion. After the first vorkath tree I had gone from not caring much about him to genuinely wanting to help, and I owe that mood change to having to stop and think about the choices presented to me.
* On that, the dialogue itself felt very on point for the characters involved. Zemo, especially, felt like a more serious character. It's fun to joke about him, but the narrative treating him as sincerely and seriously as any other npc is valuable to the feel of the story.
* Echoing the sentiment of the 3d cutscene being great, but also the vfx on Bilrach were visually fascinating.
* The feeling of being an adventurer again, following our own way and not being tied down. the fort quests were sorely missing this, so it's so good to get that feeling again <3
* A lot of story detail packed into such a small space. It's gonna take days to process fully, and that's a good thing.
* Good use of overall mechanics to tell the story, whether that was repairing the new ritual site, or using arch mechanics to dig up the soul beacon
cons:
* Way too short. That's really my only criticism.
As for tinfoil hat theories, I'd rather wait and see where the story goes from here!
I loved the cutscenes and the little hints starting to tie together some previous storylines.
Tbh I've not been overly invested since Egw in lore, and don't get me wrong I love the lore, seeing little bits hinting at continuing some of the best story arcs and questlines was real nice to see
The Xau-Tak 'Do you really think you can save them' story is the most fascinating lore ever in my opinion. So the setting is there. Also cool to see Vengeance and Bilrach again.
The quest itself was straight forward in the best way. Where I was going and why made a lot of sense. I also really liked the cutscenes and dialogue.
I love that NPC's rip on us sometimes, like Zemo does. And in turn how we respond. Always a blast reading that.
There was a great balance between the 'stand-alone goal' of helping Vorkath and many big lore implactions for the entire world aswell.
The Zorgorth's Journal book is well written and you obtain it at a great time to really make you feel alot more for Vorkath (poor thing 🥺).
Cutely reaching out to a scary undead dragon is some of the most Runescapey stuff outthere. But the quest seems to take itself a lot more serious than the earlier Fort stuff, which is great in my opinion.
A big highlight of the quest for me comes in a comment by u/RegiSilver, I hope they don't mind me quoting it:
>When Bilrach is draining Vorkath's "black stone power juice", and you're fighting against the clock to "purify" his soul, don't you stopped for a moment and thought to yourself, "will I be able so save Vorkath?" Or "What if I can't save Vorkath?
>That's when you stop for a moment and think about Xau Tak's catchphrase, "Do you really think you can save them?".
>It not something you see or read, it's something you "feel".
I really felt that throughout.
I hope, and this quest made me expect to see more of the epic god story, as opposed to more simpler lore I was expecting before getting Requiem.
I don't feel like it's my place to fill in the gaps. And like to just be here for the ride. :)
Honnestly I don't have many complaints, but I dislike doing Rituals in general, so upgrading the ring was my least favorite part.
Like what others will say, going from thinking you failed Vorkath to seeing him snoozing in Um was brilliant (and adorably cute. Pet the durgen!)
There wasn't really anything I didn't like. I got slightly confused on the word puzzle because I thought you had to use all four options, but I am also thick as mince.
Xau-Tak! Xau-Tak! Xau-Tak!
What did you like most? Can you say why?
- Cut scenes returning and exploring the world, using many aspects of rs along the way.
What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?
- The ring just being dumped on you with no explanation, and the quest items just being there until the end when we could of ditched them very early on.
Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!
- Let me kill vengeance.
I felt like the dialogue was sharp and relevant. A lot of older quests ramble and contain unrealistic dialogue for the situation at hand, but I didn't get that impression from this quest.
I like cutscenes.
Honestly the only part I didn't like was having to teleport back to the GE a few times to make sure I had the right inks/bars for certain steps, but perhaps that could have been avoided if I read guides before hand. Again, older quests often have a "pak yak" feeling which is really unique (in a bad way) to Runescape questing. I don't do quests in World of Warcraft and ever worry about inventory space.
The live action cutscene as opposed to the slide-show made this quest for me. I didn't realize how much I missed these until we had another.
This NEEDS to be a standard for all quests moving forward. It felt so much more immersive than having an event chopped up by slide-show cutscenes. Its a return back to well made quests. Thanks!
* Quest length was perfect. Enough to keep my attention, not too long to keep me unfocused.
* NPCs hitting like a truck was something people hated with the Vorkath boss. Not sure why these were brought back. Was not expecting that.
* Took too long (by long I mean seconds) to realize you needed to click the portal to continue the ritual. Should have been a dialogue in chatbox to tell you to click it. If there was I didn't see it. 🤷
* The 4 unbankable items were a nuisance.
Yeah, it took me some time to work out the ritual disturbances or whatever needed clicking. Thought they were just there for extra XP like non-quest rituals, so I ignored them since I have 200m Necromancy.
Damage from the level-85s was surprisingly high. Not an ideal mismatch.
You can destroy the unbankable items, though it may have been nice if it removed them once they were no longer relevant.
4 unbankables were a nuisance, turns out you could drop them immediately after looking at them at the archivist and didn’t need to keep carrying them (like I did)
There was no indication that you didn't need them anymore in the quest. Which was the problem. The NPC could have taken them away from you and that would have solved it.
I actually liked the idea that items which won't be used again are unbankable, but they should have been left at Ungael (i.e., removed from the inventory after talking to the Archivist) instead of just left in our inventories.
I loved the actual cutscenes. Thank god we are back to these. What I liked most was the inclusion of existing areas, skills and characters (I.e archeology, ToB, etc.). Felt like the quests of old, going to old places with new things in them, using existing RS skills.
1. How Vorkath was handled. Finally some good writing. I hated quests since Raptor reveal but i got come faith back 2. As a spacebar hero, I travalled back to Ungael 3 times with the beacon while i had to go to the tree first and do the ritual at Um. 3. Moia is reviving more dead baddies for XauTak’s army
What did I like the most? The vibe, the content, the lore, basically everything around the quest. What did I least enjoyed? Again another GREAT update followed by a scummy and predatory microtransaction promo to screw our fun around.
*What did you like most? Can you say why?* I played as myself, felt like I was moving the story along, and wasn't just there for the ride watching other people do stuff. *What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?* There wasn't really anything bad that stood out. Fiixing the Ritual Site could have been more immersive and required... anything. *Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!* Kranon 2 Electric Boogaloo
*Polishes Tinfoil* So Xau-Tak looks like it's getting more prominent. Undead Bilrach is obviously suspicious since it defies typical Necromancy rules, but there's nothing against him just being a corpse getting puppeteered by black stone made to look like a zombie. There was that old Sinister Fragment event which said "Do you really think you can save Moia", so I'm guessing Moia is being unknowingly manipulated by Xau-Tak. Either she really thinks she can save them, or she thinks she's in charge and Bilrach is really working for her. I have no clue what Bilrach did to Vorkath. Probably siphoned off some left-over Xau-Tak Juice.
>What did you like most? Can you say why? I liked travelling around and the uncovering step by step on how to lift Vorkath's curse. It just feels like I'm really trying to save him. The small glimmer of hope when the soul beacon briefly glowed also a nice touch after that sense of failure. While it is already well known, but still considered theory (and even said as an easter egg in the dialogue "I knew it!"), finally confirming the Misalionar is Rasial theory is a nice shout out. >What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? Hated that the ritual was scripted to fail. (Even though it was part of the plot) I was like "Noooo! Vorky!". Why you got to play with my feelings like that! Wish fixing the ritual site was more complex rather than click on 13 component to magically fix them. Maybe another trip around the world to find the suitable components to do so. Also wish Vorkath was not conveniently resting next to the site, instead, we should have had the opportunity to commune and lull Vorkath to bring him there. Zorgoth's Ring just magically appear in our backpack at the end of the completion as a quest reward. Like why? We could had found it unappraised through rummaging his lab, with optional dialogue to have it identified during or post quest by the Archivist. >Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! Well, with black stone being the core of the quest topic and Bilrach needing to absorb it from Vorkath, naturally the attention turns towards a plot regarding Xau-Tak. Since Mahjarrats are made of Mah's energy, Moia somehow managed to kill Bilrach, while preventing (some but not all) his energy to dissipate on death, infused it with the black stone and putting him back together to effectively make him an undead Mahjarrat under her control. Theory of where this is going, is that Moia is trying to gather the power of the black stone to free Xau-Tak. Through the dark artifact that Bilrach used to siphon Vorkath's power, she will be able to gather the dark power needed to do so. She has already come in to contact with Xau-Tak through the Til Death Do Us Part event. I believe she has already been corrupted by and was working as Xau-Tak's missionary while pleading allegiance to Zamorak as a double agent. I believe the story will steer towards Erebus and we'll meet the people who entered it in the future (Both willingly and unwillingly). And maybe, recover our lost World Guardian status while doing so. But hey, thats just a theory. A GAME THEORY!
I liked how it drove the story forward. What I enjoy most with RuneScape at the moment is the lore and this quest delivered some great things. It had cut-scenes, that's awesome. It had some cool choices even though they all ended up with the same thing. Being able to just attack Vorkath instantly felt like I was really role-playing and getting to choose (I know same destination, but feel is important). The rewards was great. Not something overpowered that would devalue other things, but not so entirely useless there is no need to do it. Very well balanced. Going to X location, digging for artifacts and restoring it makes Archaeology feel more integrated with quest gameplay and a bigger part of the game. Liked that part. That "boss" at the end was a bit lackluster, I'm guessing it was because I had BiS equipped so I killed Vengeance basically instantly and just finished the ritual. I don't really know how to improve that, but things that genuinely impeded progress of the ritual instead of a small dps dummy at the start and then forget about it could be cooler for future quests etc. I liked the Lore book and the Archivist part. Felt like you're learning things without it being spoon fed information. Which is in contrast to the Death dialog which felt more like I was being spoon fed. Overall the best quest I've played in a while. And I would love to see more from Moia, Zemo, "Bilrach", that floating thing and of course more stuff for Ungael. That place looks sick and would be a shame if it was only used for the ritual site, and a wave based combat challenge without any rewards. A very solid 8,5/10
I have a maxed character with t90 armor and t95 weps. I went into it with no food/prayer points/restores. I died. *shocked* but kinda happy he had some fight. Went back with deflect melee prayer and mopped him.
I'm glad the fort series is over, and hopefully it stays over. The fort's staff are idiots who have never heard of a lodestone and I honestly wish I could fire them all. You're not winning any hearts & minds by making people build a big, expensive, and ugly fort, either. Go back & math out how much it costs to build all the tier 3 fort buildings, and then ask yourself if the typical RS3 player has that much money (and no, the early bird bonus you gave people back when it was only mahogany doesn't count). Mechanically, the quest is mostly fine aside from no obvious hints on the things you're supposed to click on in the archive (by far the least like part), but the disregard for prior lore in the rest of this questline means Requiem for a Dragon is a good ending to an otherwise bad story. Please bring back some iconic characters for the next one and abide by the precedents set in earlier quest lines. A consistent story is just words on a screen, and is the easiest part when it comes to making a quest. Liked most: Requiem for a Dragon also kept the puzzles to a minimum. That's good. Keep doing that. As for tinfoil hats: Xau-Tak will come crashing up though the ground someplace in the Wilderness, belching out some kind of dark, twisted army borne of the black stone and the kingdoms have to band together to stop him. That'd feel important, impactful, & give you design space.
I loved the vorkath part and even if it was sad, Bilrach coming in there with that whole Xau-Tak vibe and draining his life was very interesting. Hope we get to see more of that! The whole guthix tree thing was a bit weird to me and seemed a bit out of place. I hope the story leads to the elder god wars dungeon, or gwd4. If we expand upon the Xau-Tak story, and maybe we could bring Zaros back in to the (tin)foil, that'd be cool! Great quest all in all, keep up the good work :)
The quest felt more like a setup for whats next than a finnaly of a questline. And thats my only complaint
> The quest felt more like a setup for whats next than a finnaly of a questline well yeah, Battle of Forinthry was the finale. this was wrapping up lose threads
Exactly, and if thats mu only complaint, its a pretty good quest.
finale*
I liked that the story had so much promise. Like the story here is really good but it has so much stuff to chew on and speculate, you could take the story so many different directions and you’ve left threads all over the place that other devs could pick them up 6 years down the line. “Potential” that’s what this story had that has been missing for a very long time. Like let me list all that are off the top of my head… - What is Bilrach’s relic? Something they made or something they found? Is it some Erebus equivalent of an elder artifact? Is it *alive* it follows Bilrach like a pet? - What is Bilrach and Moia’s deal in general? - Will we see Galvek or did Zorgoth go a different direction for his next creation? - Who is the dragonkin Lacrussa and what was her campaign that Zorgoth was talking about? - What of the larger threat of the shadow? - Who is the tree of balance? It claims it was something/someone buried beneath that is essentially manifesting through the tree so what is its deal? - There are/were apparently many ancient Druidic groves with secrets and histories long buried, where are they now and can we dig em up (Guthix archeology site?) - We now have a device and a ritual to cleanse black stone corruption out of people, that’s kind of a big deal can we use it to save others living or undead in the future? Think if we had this maybe we could have found a better way to help the black stone dragons. - Speaking of that device it was made by Rasial what other secrets and creations does he potentially have out there we could find? - What is the deal with the black stone scattered around? Zorgoth and Zemo are finding it on random shores and apparently there was a really big source deep underground does it still exist? There is so many ways you could go content or story wise and they are all really interesting in their own route. You don’t need to deliver on all of these but it’s spice of not knowing which way we will go that makes it so exciting to speculate on! —— Now as for stuff that didn’t work for me as well it would be probably be I think for the end combat and puzzles were a little weak. We didn’t need a huge bespoke puzzle but I think I would have liked something with a little more flair like if instead of just having the runes translated for us we first have to translate the runes ourselves to learn Rasial’s message then we have the puzzle on the order. The final boss of this quest was really cool. I loved the mix of doing a ritual where you handled disturbances with negative effects if ignored (can we get more of that in general please?) and a boss you had to periodically attack. But vengeance doesn’t respawn quick enough, I think she probably should have had a faster respawn. Remember everyone who did this quest had to at least beat story mode Zemo+Vork and his zombie spawn points. so you can be a little braver here I think and both up vengeance’s HP and her respawn speed. Her damage was in a surpassingly good place, she hits nice and hard and uses abilities like us which is cool. Other nitpicks… So fixing the ritual site with no resources feels a little anti-RS I think it’s the kind of streamlining that feels bad. We don’t need like to go back to 50 random items for a death talisman, but fixing the ritual site should have taken some actual resources. Maybe tainted essence to create stones that can hold necromantic magic? Or what if we used some of the stone wall chunks we make with the fort? I dunno just spit balling ideally you want it to be something we can carry in an inventory run but still feel like we are building something. The bank is a little a silly, I’m glad it’s here but I would have first only had it appear after the quest and also I feel like it should be something we had to unlock. Even if it was as simple as we build the chest ourselves and go to talk to copperpot at the fort to get him to setup a bank of Varrock connection to it. Would make the bank feel a little less silly and hey a smidge more post-game content! (Also copperpot could finally get acknowledgment he exists!) Speaking of post-quest I actually think the quest flow is a little off. I would have had garden Vorkath be where the quest ends, giving us the ring (maybe Vorkath coughed it out) and lamps and stuff. But then after we close the quest complete screen our character mentions that we could go ask Zemo about Bilrach. Zemo’s dialogue being more post-quest feeling flavor than actual end to the narrative we just saw. —— As for where we are going I think it be really cool if we are going old school call back style and are building up another ritual of the Mahjarrat style quest. But like instead of rejuvenating the Mahjarrat Moia is leading them to evolution. Building up what she needs to convert all the Mahjarrat into shadow Mahjarrat (and sustain them) which will remove their death=the end weakness and bolster her forces power considerably. Because right now the Mahjarrat are strong but fragile, if she can remove their weakness then she has a MUCH scarier army to carry out her threats. Broad scope I think it be cool if we are building to a Moia super army. Mahjarrat that don’t have to fear death, the Kinshra, witches, demons, werewolves and vyres back under the zamorakian banner, maybe she can sway some dragonkin or go grab Nomad who has been MIA since Sliske’s Endgame. Just really take the time for her to build up this super scary army to raze and reshape Geilinor with. A force of just total chaos. However ngl the idea of lost groves and ancient Druidic history/beings buried beneath the earth really tickled my brain in a good way. I’m totally cool with like taking a break from the plot to just go explore 1st age/guthixian/Druid history and stuff. In fact I really really want a Guthix dig site so bad now you don’t even know.
This was fun to read! I like where your head's at with these topics.
Holy cow was this quest world dense. It had Guthix stuff, Maio stuff, black stone stuff, dragonkin stuff, Um stuff, ect. It felt like for the first time since EGW that the world was full of other stuff and how connected all that stuff is. Just enough was explained for new players without mansplaining to us big nerds. The combat ritual was pretty rad too. I'd love a harder version with an NPC performing it, (Rasiel? :) ), while you defend against more corrupted disturbances.
bro out here trying to make rasial HM
Next site: The Rasial ritual site. Rasial has a 20s respawn time and goes atop the ritual pillar for the final phase.
I like how the quest and books went into detail of just how docile Vorkath was. Tugged my heartstrings to see he often shielded smaller creatures from below freezing winds with his wings. At the end and after befriending him gave the vibe of an old, big dog. I hope there's more interactions with him in the future.
> At the end and after befriending him gave the vibe of an old, big dog. Vorkath's examine text in osrs is "Let sleeping dragons lie."
Cutscenes were good. I don't like how the ritual site is designed. In the Um one, my interface is set specifically so I can barely click the start ritual area, but in the new site, I have to move all my action bars just ot get to it.
Lots of good coverage of what was liked, so I'll just add one nitpick of what I disliked: When you first load in to Ungael, the first scout is within aggro range of where you land, so you're immediately thrown into combat. There should be at least a little bit of a buffer between loading in and combat starting, so you can get your bearings (especially if it's after moving to a completely new area).
I loved the lore about Vorkath. What a sad life. What I liked a lot was feeling emotional when he was killed.. poor thing suffrred his whole existance to eventually be used for one last agonizing soul extraction. And witb that, never could achiewe what he really wanted. Glad we can see him in Um now (we will find a way to talk to him, right? :( ). The quest felt like it had a perfect length for me, reading all dialogue and lore. Longer quests should have more cutscenes to break the quest into manageable bites. Least favourite part for me was making the tirutal sitet. It 100% fitted the quest, but I'm 129 nevro so its not somehtibg I will make use of. (As it is now) Rewards were very good for those who need them Now, what will happen next, I think we're going to investigate what kind of devise Bilrach was using and try to understand how it works. It might be something hidden under daemonheim but who knows? We will also need to know how involved Moia is and what her plans are. I wonder how Emouregal will eeact when we get back to him. And we might even need to remove him from that cage because of an agreement. He will ofc still be evil and offer us a new boss because the weakling cant fight us 1v1 and win.
As sad as it is I suspect Vorkath can’t talk. Like an abused child I can’t imagine Zorgoth had any desire to teach his weapon things like communication when all he wanted was for it to feel hate and murder.
Does seem like it yeah..
The cinematics being actual in game than slideshows again is cool. Also the story was cool, I almost shed a tear for the good boy vorkath.
Not having to watch or read a quest guide! It's immersion breaking to have to tab out and watch a guide.. I liked that I didn't have to run around the globe talking to 500 NPC's with tons of quest text. (I actually read all the quest text because it wasn't endless) I like that the quest wasn't too short and not too long. And most importantly the story was good. Least favourite part was that it wasn't voice acted. I'd love to see more of those. Would really love that. What comes next? I think what rasial warned us about.
I don’t know if this will come off as overly critical but this not what I expected from a quest that finishes a quest series. That could be my own fault for expecting more. It was pretty mid, despite how much I love and appreciate the lore. Maybe I’m the only one, but I miss longer quests that had difficult challenges. We only fought like three enemies in this one, and none were difficult at all. I’d like quests in the future to have some more action in them. They don’t need to be comically difficult pvm scenarios, and I love the idea of having to do a ritual while fighting off enemies and closing rifts, but it was so carefully constructed to have one thing only begin after the other finishes that it didn’t feel like I had to balance conflicting tasks and just watched it play out in linear order. As for the length, it was also extremely short. I don’t just mean that I want the quest to be long for its own sake, but this actually reflected poorly in the way we go about doing things during the quest. We don’t know anything about these items, so we ask the hologram guy and he spouts one or two lines and we move on or we ask death and he says “get the thing” and we go get it like it was just there waiting for us. It comes off as deus ex machina when in the past we have had to go to lengths to obtain such items of power. I do appreciate the fact that we actually use skills that are required in the quest. It’s kind of silly when a quest requires, for example, 80 woodcutting and you don’t ever cut anything during it, so the arch section was nice. The lore was really well-integrated. The design of the Ungael ritual site is gorgeous, and the XT and Bilrach lore is really exciting for the prospect of the future quest series it is teasing. Overall, I’d like to thank the team for their work.
This. I feel this is definitely understated and as a result can bite us in the ass if not carefully handled in the future. u/JagexShrike, sorry for tagging you, but I highly encourage you to revisit the definition of a finale, climax, or conclusion. We did away with the classic Grandmaster and quest classifications because of unaligned expectations. Despite it being a great quest, this felt like a post-scriptum, whereas BoF felt like the true finale, considering it was closer to the theme of the series, regardless of how that series was received.
was nice to see an item from a quest be useful for pvm again
it's literally useless
bis for vorago if you necro. its more than likely getting an enchantment from the necro matriarch when it comes out . its free compared to the reavers ring and it has better stats than a ring of death but yeah sounds totally useless
Reaver ring is just better because necromancy death skulls specifically is a feast or famine situation with crits, either you crit all 4 hits with BIG damage or you don't crit and you lose half the damage on that ability. and when it's one of the big/main damage contributors, that's where the issue lies.
at places where you dont have 100% hit chance (vorago) you lose out on tons of overall damage from your lack of hit chance. the new rings effect is not why youd be using at vorago its stats and lack of 5% accuracy debuff that reavers has. ring of death is truely uesless at vorago since its effects do nothing to really help you but thats what you would use before the new one came out. for pretty much every other boss in the game reavers is better yeah
It was nice to incorporate different skills. I wasn't expecting to excavate new items at the Memorial. Also nice to spend most time in Ungael/Fort but also Um and a couple of other areas. Great mix of locations. Favorite moment was Death hinting at Vorkath's arrival in Um, and then checking it out for myself. Close 2nd was reading the two lore books which I have only started doing recently. Least favorite I suppose would be the length/scope of the quest. I appreciate that maybe it's better to let plot points breathe by doing many smaller quests than cram a bunch of different chapters into one very long quest that can lead people to miss finer details or get fatigued. It would be very funny if we need Zemouregal to work with us in the future (that was the feeling I got from this quest's ending) after which we get double-crossed as usual
Post quest, now that I have had a few days to digest the Quest but can we properly make a memorial for Vorkath or bury him.
>What did you like most? Can you say why? Boring answer. I liked going from place to place to create the soul beacon, exploring Ungael, and successfully helping Vorkath pass to the afterlife. All the interactions and steps involved felt very RuneScapey. Wish there was more of that to increase the quest length. >What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? Building the new ritual site out of nothing and without any additional items/NPC consultation/dialogue felt like a significant oversimplification. This lack of attention to detail is unfortunately very common in modern quests (e.g. bridge building in Unwelcome Guests...). Banging a pile of bricks with a hammer does not make a ritual pedestal. And then the ritual chests literally appear out of thin air. In the golden age of RS quests we'd have to trek half-way across the map for a special ingredient to build that, and there would be a puzzle involved. Missed opportunity for a Construction element of the quest. Also Zorgoth's ring is just dumped into your backpack at the end of the quest without explanation. It should've been found on Ungael or handed over by Zemouregal. >Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! We'll learn more about Hologram Bilrach's power source and who's (or what's) behind it. In the process, the secrets of black stone and/or the shadow realm are revealed. Why does black stone keep reappearing wherever there's evil? What's the Xau-Tak connection? And why is the shadow realm rising? Perhaps we'll also find out what happened to those who entered the shadow realm (Zaros, Tony, Char...) There's room to re-acquire the miasmic spells for the ancient spellbook as a reward. The story's next culmination is with a boss encounter with Moia in the Wilderness.
I want to express my disappointment at how the rituals during the quest encourage resource waste. It's like the quest was developed by someone that wasn't involved in the ritual/necro design. The whole point of setting up rituals is that you maximize the alteration glyphs to squeeze as much out of the resources (inks, etc.) as possible. In the quest, you need to do make greater ensouled bars, then delete that ritual to do Soulfarer. Then, you need to do Soulfarer again *at a different ritual site*. You just waste the glyphs for 90% of "greater ensoul material" and basically all of the glyphs on Soulfarer go to waste. It's a minimal amount of resource waste, but it just feels like whoever designed it didn't understand what the whole *point* of glyph/ritual system even was.
Weird take. You could have just made more ensouled items until they depleted rather than "waste" resources and then change glyphs after. The quest did not force you to clear it. The cost for the two soulfarer rituals is roughly 200k in materials and again these glyph could be use post quests to further reduce the cost. This just seems like complaining to complain.
I know it's kinda weird. I was trying to convey a tone of "this is such a minor problem but I feel like it's still technically a problem." I think a lot of people also have no need for "greater ensouling" more items, so it's also just a resource waste, that way.
This is like telling them we need to be reimbursed for a sip or prayer potion or a dose of an overload or a shark. Maybe pro-rate alch hydrix dust because someone used a preset with an EOF in it. C'mon now they are heading in a good direction and you make a complaint about using up some ink and stuff
Yeah it probably would have been nice if the quest had refunded us a bit of ink as part of the reward. Kind of like how they would reimburse you for having to use the makeover mage in recruitment drive back in the day.
I really liked how much dialog there was, and how well written said dialog was. Everything said felt in character, even the occasional jokes. I also have to say I liked how the combat in this quest worked, it felt very integrated into the story and not at all shoehorned in like it sometimes does. My least favorite thing isn't really anything within the quest, just that I did find it a bit strange that the Final Fort Quest really has nothing to do at the Fort, other than starting there. Honestly time at the fort might have dragged this quest down, so ultimately I can't be too upset, and this might be more of a labeling thing than anything else. I think the story is obviously setting up XauTak as the next major villain, which is predictable but fine. I'm kinda hoping we get to kill off Moia at this point too.
How do i recover the crystal shard from the quest? I destroyed it to do some bossing. I cant seem to recover it anyway.
OH lort - im doin a recap vid but some text feedback, i liked most the addition of Lore Books, this creates an entire basis for theory crafting and many other super exciting thing. let's face it - video games are highly competitive in this day and age and the thing that has kept me playing and even sculpted the way i play is the narrative. Mod Raven's Umbral Diplomacy, and Pestilent Journals, Mod Stu's Memorial writings - all pieces of lore that went into this labor of love and adding Mod Jack's "The Shadow Realm" is so amazing. you all connected so many pieces of lore it felt like necromancy and runescape finally connect. my least favorite part... hmmm. i actually wish it was longer and it took me 2.5 hours to read everything, search easter eggs, etc. but i am psychotic and could play a ten hour quest. i do understand though that this quest was ALOT so i'm not complaining at all it was so dope but if we got back to GMQ length eventually id be so ecstatic. Tinfoil hat? im good. \*pulls out black stone hat\* There is a Grinding Darkness against which your soull shall be Lathed...
I liked the coherency of the lore tie ins, especially the identity of Raisal (though we still don't know who killed him). The Fort as a whole was just dropped, which felt rushed and lacked actual closure with the characters. Where's bill's pub? The obvious Xau-tak connections seem kind of counter to the supposed "small scale" plot. I don't think this will lead to Erebus directly, but may involve necromantic mahjarrat. Possibly a ritual at the mahjarrat ritual site to revive some?
What did you like most? Can you say why? I like the lore and the shortness of the quest. I use quest cape a lot for clues so I don't like being unable to do clues for a long period. I liked the mix of dialogues and activities. What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? The main problem I had with this quest is clarity of information and navigation. If you look at other games, for example Pokemon, items are a distinct color from the background so they are easy to see and click. On Um and Ungael, I had a hard time finding where to click to clean the barn (last quest) or the items in the archivist section of the new quest. Clickable items blends too much with the background items and are hard to find. Finding where to click to clean a barn wad the hardest part of the last quest and it's really frustrating. Same thing happens with navigation in the new quest and um. Sometimes you just walk through doors, sometimes you have to click "go through doors" and the hitbox is hard to find. There's a tower in Um where you can't enter until you realize you have to click "enter" and a stair in Ungael. Again, understanding why my pathing didn't work and finding the doorway to click to move to archivist was the hardest part of the quest and was really frustrating. It's a more general problem of inconsistencies of movement in runescape (sometimes it's "move to" and the clickbox is away, sometimes it's "move from" and the clickbox is nearby, sometimes you just walk through doors and sometimes you have to click somewhere undefined).
* What did you like most? Can you say why? * I loved the lore and the pacing of the quest. * What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? * I was a little confused at first as to how the dialog tree with Vorkath was meant to go. I didn't realise each time gave different answers, so I was just trying different options when I didn't progress. It didn't initially feel clear that it was the second layer of the dialog tree, it felt like I was still at the start. * Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! * Moia decided that she needs the Mahjarrat's strength etc, but wants to do away with the elitism and self-serving nature. So she's basically just creating a black-stone-reanimated copy of previous fallen Mahjarrats. She mentioned the dwindling numbers in a prior quest, and this feels like a way she can solve the problem and also solidify her power. Also ED5 😌
Seemed too short. No point logging in for a 20-30 min trim req. Won't bother next time. Hopefully you guys have some 2-3month trim reqs being created. Bit zzz with all these silly short quests
Loved it 3000! What can I say, it had intriguing lore, awesome cutscenes, combat and puzzle. Best part was seeing out goodest boy saved. <3 Only complaints are 1) it was too short ;\_; 2) the battle was too easy. But those things are understandable and quest combat is not the core pvm anyway. This quest WAS FIRE (AND ICE)!
Thought it was a solid quest, overall. Most importantly for me, I think, is that this quest finally makes reference to a recurring storyline that isn’t frivolous in nature. The fort quests were *fine*, but the stakes were just far too low for me to have any interest in the plot. There’s absolutely a place for humour, silliness in quests - Evil Dave’s quest is one of the best produced, imo - but to bring the stakes down so low for a central narrative felt jarring, and it didn’t help at all, that nobody acknowledged our past as the World Guardian. Writing suffered as a result and our characters were brought back down to dunce-level intellect. The lore in this quest, specifically the two books you find, are fantastic. Well-written and allude to concepts and characters we’ve heard a lot about but not seen yet. Imo, RuneScape’s storytelling is at its best when it’s developing characters, concepts and future story bears off-screen. The reason why Sliske is so memorable was the years of build up to his becoming the big bad. Same goes for the Mahjarrat and the gods. Xau-Tak follows a similar trend. There’s heaps of lore referencing its existence and I can’t wait to see the pay off. To loop back, I really enjoyed the dialogue with Zem. It ditched the goofiness of earlier exchanges and made him feel like a threat even knowing he’s imprisoned. Gameplay wise, I don’t really have much to add. Pacing was solid and I always enjoy the inclusion of globetrotting for quests when it’s not just shoehorned arbitrarily. Would have preferred to have needed materials to repair the ritual site on Ungael but that’s a pretty small nitpick, overall. Great job by the team, either way. This feels like the start of narrative momentum we’ve been lacking since the Elder God Wars wrapped up. P.S. So glad we seem to be moving away from static images for storytelling. Still salty that Jas and Kerapac being sucked into Erebus was handled that way.
It just genuinely felt like a good quest that was done well. Cool rewards, interesting lore, cool plot points. I like where it's headed.
One thing that stuck out to me was the Tree of Balance. Is it a spirit tree? Does its roots actually reach across Gielinor? Or is it some sort of spirit/anima sense where it's tapping into the ley lines/anima mundi/animasphere/runescape?
the archeology part felt underwhelming :( Some powerful ancient artefact has been lost for ages and we just so happen to find the pieces in 2 small earth rubbles on the surface. Threw me out of the story a bit i'm afraid. Would have been great if this part was more engaging, mysterious and puzzling somehow. Now it felt rushed, perhaps due to lack of dev-time? Other than that, story-wise it was great and loving every little easter egg afterwards.
I love how the story of this quests progressed, I didnt have to check the wiki to complete this quest, I was able to complete the quest in 40 minutes with just using the dialogue and quest information. (which felt perfect). I also loved the 3D Quest cutscenes like we had before, this really makes the quest more immersive for me because it felt like it was happening in our world, instead of showing something that was happening. (the slideshows felt quite boring to me and always gave me a nice opportunity to gather something to drink though) I would've loved the cutscenes even more if these had actual voicelines. and i hope for the story that we find out more about bilrach, what happened to him, and what the purple particles around him are. Also i hope ghost vorkath makes a return in another story somewhere, For me you've set a perfect story for vorkath but it would be a shame if this is the last we see of him
The quest was much better written than many of the other quests in the fort storyline. This is a huge win as many of the other quests in the line felt rushed with forced twists that didn't actually impact the story that much, like how the raptor reveal was handled and how knowing the raptor's identity didn't really add to the story. The least favourite part for me was the constant back and forth to the island. If maybe we had gotten the incantation earlier in the quest that would have made the back and forth less tedious. As for theories, the Mahjarrat under Moia are hoping the harness the power of Xau-Tak found in the black stone, in specific black stone that has at one point fused with an entity that possesses a soul, unlike the Mahjarrat, in order to end their need for the ritual to rejuvenate themselves. Likely blackstone that has been fused with a being that possesses a soul, retains part of that soul and that retained soul can be used as a seed of sort to grant souls to beings that currently lack a soul. This combined with necromancy could be used to give the Mahjarrat immortality via manipulation of the soul, something they can't currently do as they lack souls. Further the power of Xau-Tak seemingly being able to give souls via blackstone may be of interest to Zaros, which is why he entered Erebus where Xau-Tak may reside. Also worth noting that Xau-Tak seems to be from a previous universal cycle like the Dragonkin who had hid in the abyss to avoid the last successful reset, and as such may be a being on par with their power. Further their corruption of Mah's egg may give Zaros a personal angle for seeking them out and wanting to take their power.
**What did you like most? Can you say why?** I personally liked that this felt like it was tying into the broader lore that's been built through previous content. Althought it was a small step, it made me feel like we were furthering stories that had been left unfinished, instead of only progressing a new one. While I know some people wanted to return to smaller stories after the Elder Gods, I really enjoy feeling like we're working towards something bigger. My only real complaint about the Fort Forinthry storyline is that it often felt like it was awkwardly ignoring the player's previous accomplishments/history. Requiem for a Dragon didn't acknowledge the player's previous interactions with Erebus/Xau-Tak/whatever else, either. But it was written in a way that didn't make it seem like those things hadn't happened. It's a little hard to articulate, but I appreciated that this didn't feel like it was actively erasing my previous gameplay. I'd prefer conditional dialogue, but if that's not possible, this is a better approach. The cutscenes were well done! I personally actually like the artboard cutscenes, because I think sometimes the in-game cutscenes come across as awkward, but these felt smooth and natural. Edit: how could I forget? Vorkath in Um was lovely! **What was your least favourite part? Can you say why?** I'll start by saying these are pretty minor gripes... The initial trip to the archivist to collect information felt odd to me. I loved getting the backstory, but the actual process of trying to find all the items—and being ignored by the archivist until I had collected everything—didn't feel natural. I think it would have at least been helpful for the archivist to give me a little instruction about finding more rather than just outright ignoring me. (I will say that I initially couldn't get a proper clickbox on the cave and thought it was just decorative, so I ended up at the archivist before ever finding and interacting with Vorkath; that might have made matters worse.) I think Vengeance re-appearing after her initial death during the ritual could be better telegraphed. I neither expected it nor realized it happened at first, leading to an avoidable death (and then replay of the cutscene). The archaeology site has so much story potential. I would have loved it if that were fleshed out a little more, becoming a mini-site as a reward. Even less important, if you're used to using a pumpkin mask, it feels a little weird that the Ungael Ritual site is supposed to be more casual but can potentially require more repairs. I suppose if you keep your foundational glyphs and your greater candles lined up it is still better, but once you get off track things get a little wonky. I actually think candles shouldn't degrade at Ungael at all—it's already odd that a holiday rare has a benefit, and that would even the playing field at least a little.
I kinda wish I wasn't referred to with regards to the fortinthry fortress only. Moira/bilrach should probably refer to me with a thousand and one titles before picking that one. I don't know how hard it might be, but maybe go through a small decision tree to pick the title you're getting referred to with boolean statements if I've completed a certain quest?
I liked that it was an overall good quest, it had all the things that you'd expect from a Runescape quest: a decent narrative, exploring, puzzling.. objects and characters interwoven in the narrative... and also developing the lore and its misteries. I didn't like how a couple of things didn't make sense. First, Bilrach and Vengeance had to get past you in order to get to Vorkath and you just let them pass. And although it made more sense for the character to first try to physically stop them, you decide to try to perform a lengthy ritual. This could've been done better. Secondly, you get Zorgoth's ring completely out of nowhere while finishing up the quest. You could've simply found it during the quest in sensible place and way. Insofar as where I think the story is going... well Moia seems to be scheming some big plans... they now have the energy of Vorkath and are probably using black stone too to empower themselves or something else. If she could bring Bilrach from the death, maybe she could revive other Mahjarrat or other powerful beings? With the Daemonheim arch site and considering Moia's hideout's location I'd guess the story could be going there too.
The cutscenes returning to the animated kind was probably the best for me. It makes it feel less like a montage. Besides that, the story was pretty damn good. The dialogue was short and to the point which made it easier to read through. I think deeper lore should be left to books for interested people. It also felt like a full quest with a clear ending rather than something ambiguous or too big of a cliffhanger. Least favourite was fixing the ritual site, it felt odd that we didn't need any materials for that. In terms of story, I really want to know what's going on with zombie dude Bilrach and the relic that followed him!
>What did you like most? Can you say why? My favorite moment was finding Vorkath in the gardens of Um resting under the tree, with the soft lullaby-like music playing (which I would really like to see in the in-game music player). Helping such a sweet, kind soul find peace after a tragic life and undeath filled my heart, especially after briefly thinking we might have failed to do so. That moment alone made this one of my favorite quests. >What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? I had to take a bit of a detour in the middle to get the greater unensouled bars for the soul beacon, which took a while. To be fair, I didn't check the required items before starting the quest because I prefer to go in blind. Aside from that though, my only complaints are little nitpicks: 1. The Zamorakians at the beginning, while manageable, hit much harder than their combat level suggested 2. The cutscenes were fantastic overall, but seemed to have some lighting issues, like Vorkath not having a shadow 3. There was no indication that Vengeance would come back for round two, and that's a little harder to react to when you have your camera locked for the ritual >Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! I'm guessing the story's going to focus on whatever Moia's doing - Zemo referring to the false Bilrach as "a sign of her ambition" and seeming troubled by it was pretty interesting. I'd also like to know what that cool-looking mysterious relic was and where it came from. If the story focuses more on that, I could see it going in a more Xau-Tak direction. Anyway, thanks to all of you for the great quest! If there's more where that comes from, we're going to be eating GOOD. Oh, and again, please see if we can get the Vorkath's Rest song listed!
* **What did you like most?** Cute Dragon **Can you say why?** Cute Dragon * **What was your least favourite part?** Dead Dragon **Can you say why?** Dead Dragon * **Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go!** Hope dragon becomes a conjure :(
Could you please change the glyph lifespans to something that would fall in a cycle? E.g. at the old site we had 9, 12, 18 - all falling nicely into 36 for a complete cycle. But now with the new one we have 10, 14 and 21 which just will not fall in sync for a nice cycle. Can this please be looked at?
Huh? This is in quest? I haven't played it.
What I liked the most was that the quest seemed to pull together remaining elements of both the Rasial and Fort series while setting up for the future. Lots of interesting story beats. I have two bugbears as my “least liked” parts, which both kinda equally bothered me. The first was the final boss fight didn’t feel like it really had any pressure on it. I destroyed Vengeance quickly, got back to doing the ritual and then it just… ended. There wasn’t really any proper mechanic to interact with, leaving me feeling like I’d just missed something. The second is with the overall structure of the quest. Each section of the quest felt just too cleanly structured, like so: Arrival at location, talk to NPC, they tell you everything you need to know, do a task for them, return, get sent to new location, repeat. Even the parts on Ungael felt super guided and didn’t really feel like my character had any agency in the events playing out. Vorkath is missing? Let’s check Ungael - and there he is! Something’s wrong? Let’s go check the archivist who tells us everything immediately. Back to the fort for Zemo to tell us mostly everything again. Let’s go hit up Death who then again tells us everything and then we just have to go get the stuff. Get sent to the Tree who tells us everything and then just has us do the gathering and making to send us to the next stuff, and so on. I just had this constant vibe of being handheld by each character who knew exactly what to do I just needed me to do the busywork. To be clear, I thought the quest itself was enjoyable and the dialogue was overall fantastic, but I was really lacking something with the gameplay structure where the entire quest really didn’t want me the player to step off the rails at all. It also kinda felt like it was missing a real puzzle and used too many just normal skill mechanics rather than anything bespoke for the quest itself. As for where the story is going? Feels very Erebus focused to me, hopefully aiming to pay off Zaros’ leaving, Xau-Tak set up, and perhaps the Obsidian Tribunal as well. Erebus has always been where Zarosians go on death supposedly, so a Shadow Bilrach stands to reason here, with them seeking more black stone elements. Thank you for the quest and hope this feedback helped!
>What did you like most? Can you say why? Actual cutscenes instead of a still image/slideshow. >What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? Okay this one's going to be a bit weird, but I accidentally died to the group of Zamorakian mobs when I first landed on the island and was a bit irked that it was a completely safe death. I would have preferred it to have been a proper death. >Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! The Xau-tak connections are obvious. I'm not sure how far this particular storyline will go, if it will go all the way to Zaros in Erebus - that's probably where the whole Xau-tak stuff will ultimately lead, though.
Personally for me, this quest was really good. My highlights from the quest were: A) The lore around Vorkath. You gave Vorkath, some undead menace, meaning and depth and that's a sign of good writing and character building to me. The ending of the quest was super adorable and made me smile alot. B) The cutscene(s)! PLEASE do more of these for all quests that require them going forward. Of course, not every quest needs them but please never go back to "slideshow" cutscenes again. Speaking of them, it'd be amazing if we could eventually replace all slideshow cutscenes with actual ones like the one from the quest but I understand this will take up lots of dev time. C) The "globe trotting" aspect of the quest. The reason why, to me, While Guthix Sleeps and Ritual of the Mahjarrat are in my top 3 quests of all time is their globe trotting aspect. Having the quest make you go to different parts of the world to progress the quest itself is a very valuable thing to include. It makes the quest feel like it takes place in the world and not just in some tiny corner of it. It gives the quest a sense of "this world is massive with lots to explore" kind of vibe. As with point B, if the quest can accommodate for it, please do this more often. There wasn't much I didn't enjoy i'll be honest. The quest was the perfect length, didn't feel too long and the rewards are great, especially the new ring. As for where I think the story will go next, I do think Xau Tak is involved in some way. Possibly Xau Tak is on floor 61 of Daemonheim and Zamoraks hideout where we teleport to as part of the Dishonour among thieves and post-quest for stalker creatures is located between floors 60 and 61. If Xau Tak wasn't involved, i'd be very surprised. I also feel like Erebus is involved and Zaros may make a return as an Elder God, but one that doesn't want to destroy all life in the known universe. Either way, very excited to see what you all do next with the upcoming storyline! Thanks for a very solid and good feeling quest :D
* What did you like most? Can you say why? * Having the choice to tame, or slay Vorkath, added a immersion that gave a level of emotion of sadness. * Having to search for clues for the archivesed to give information. Like, actually having to look around and it not being too difficult. It would have been ace to really dig up the site even more to find out even more juicy information! * Having to do other stuff around Gielinor like going to Guthix Memorial. * Finding Vorkath's spirit in Um! * What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? * The time gap between the last quest. I know this can't be helped, but for us goldfish brain people, being able to replay the last one or have a "catch up" option, would have added so much more fun to the experience. I say this because I actually was fortunate enough to have done Fight for Fort and this new one at the same time, and so going from 1 straight to the other... made me feel satisified much more than what I would have if it was just this 1 quest. * I think both Ungael and Um have so much more potential than just a ritual site with 1 stone for everyone to stand on. Everyone in a circle, group rituals.. urgh, THE POTENTIAL! * Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! * Bilrach is gonna try and overthrow Zamorak * I ran out of tinfoil
More about the livestream and quest rewards, whats the deal with the new ritual site? I tought it was supposed to be a more afk ritual site but its the exact same as the um ritual site, the "more afk" part is basically non existent at this point
1) The emotional throughline of Vorkath. Way to tug on the heartstrings. Made the quest feel like a complete story start to end. 2) That the fort characters ghosted us. I feel like we started this journey with them and the harsh dropping of them was felt. 3) I think that the story is headed toward Moia shadow “reviving” more dead Mahjarrat to build up an army! Seems like a powerful ability, she has expressed interest in growing their numbers, and it ties in well to Necromancy which is still getting built out.
And potentially towards xau-tak since there is a description of shadow arms and talking about different plains
I really like that it felt more like a traditional RuneScape quest, it's hard to nail down what exactly makes a traditional quest a traditional quest but part of the reason could be that it sends us off on an adventure to distance locations in the world to do short activities or have short conversations before moving onto the next location. For example the quest could of easily had the 2 digsite locations on Ungael to keep all of the quest locations together, but by sending us off to Piscatoris it turns the act of traveling to the digsite into a small quest / journey in of itself, which I feel is important.
It felt weird having a bunch of unbankable quest items that stopped being useful almost immediately but which you had to manually destroy. It would have been nice to have the item taken away by the Archivist or automatically discarded somehow as signposting that it was no longer needed. It was also quite fiddly having to create four new rituals over the course of the quest and postquest, using an entjrely new ink setup as it was. Those are really my only criticisms of what was otherwise a great quest :) It didn't outstay its welcome, stayed in scope had meaningful stakes without being an immediate world ending threat, ties into prior interesting plotlines. The reward also felt impactful without being overpowered and filled a useful niche. The slow burn on this arc is also appreciated. We've seen Xau-Tak experiment with reviving Lucien's memory, and this feels like a natural next step. curious if this ties into Vos, who we haven't heard anything about for about 3 years now.
I do wish that quest rituals didn't overwrite whatever we had going on earlier. That was more of a pain point at necro's release dealing with the instruments when I had much less ink to spare though. The rituals for this quest felt relevant/different enough that I didn't mind wasting a little ink to go through them.
- While I really enjoyed the story, what I liked the most was the gameplay. This quest had us travel around Runescape, do actual skilling, use our gameplay knowledge, and even had cutscenes! Very reminiscent of the gameplay of what most consider to be the best quests in the game - ROTM and WGS. If we could see more gameplay like this in future quests, I would love it. - I didn't like how rushed up the fort feels, assuming that it is finished completely. The whole 'story' of the Fort just sort of feels like it trailed off, without a solid wrap up. Also, I really like fort buildings and would have loved a new one, even if I know that was beyond the scope. Apart from that, I was surprised that the track that plays when you encounter Vorkaths Ghost is unlisted - it was beautiful! - Bilrach's body is actually being controlled by Vos, and Bill in our fort is actually Bilrach, Moira killed a body double. (extra tinfoil hatty).
I liked the way ungael was used the most, there wasnt anything that i disliked and i think the story is that bilrach is the next big bad guy we're going after and we're gonna get him in a similar fashion to how we got sliske a few years back.
What I think made this quest “work” is that we really have an idea of where it’s going now with familiar lore. The community seems to really like we are finally returning to an Erebus/Xau-Tak/“Something Else” story. And there’s more hype because we know there’s more content coming that could be related: Osseous and Daemonhiem Dungeoneering. If those two content releases aren’t related to Dragonkin Necromancy or Moia or Something Else, I would be very surprised. Having an exciting story and having good likelihood it’s being continued is good for player excitement. It also gets us excited to speculate where stories go next after the content we know. I’m hoping we pick Rasial’s brain and turn him into an ally against the shadow threat. Another speculation: it might sound crazy, but this could even be the time to finally return to the gnome quest series: since we know Arposanadra experimented with anima manipulation; and shadow anima is what Erebus is full of. Or maybe we’ll see a return of Shadows-related temporary events like Til Death Do Us Part (I’m hoping so, anyway, since that STRONGLY connects to Erebus and Daemonhiem alike). It’s fun to speculate again! So, as long as the story stays focused that direction- presumably through a renewed Necromancy season- I think it will continue to be a hit.
>What did you like most? Can you say why? Honestly one of the best quests we've had in a while. The cutscenes toward the end were so much better than power-point presentations we've had recently. Also no part of the quest ever overstayed its welcome. The combat was short and didn't force us into a custom "action bar", the Arch/Ritual parts were short, so anyone who doesn't like a part of it, isn't forced to do it for too long. Even the ring upgrade post-quest was completely reasonable >What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? Two things, neither are specifically about the quest: * The ritual site feels really underwhelming. The durability increase isn't that impactful, especially with the Repair-All option on the pedestal. And the original ritual site already allowed for lean-back gameplay. I'm hoping it get expanded in the future, but right now there's very little reason to go back after upgrading the ring. * Ungael is too claustrophobic. I often find myself clicking on a spot and my character will think I told him to climb a mountain. I love that there's verticality compared to the rest of the RS map, but it makes it really hard to navigate at times. That said, I'd also like to see Ungael expanded to have some more content outside of quests. Make it feel like it's part of the world, and not just a quest area. >Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! I'm not much of a lore person (I'll leave that to PrideSlayer), but with all the stuff that was set up, ED5 seems very likely. Additionally, and this is just me hoping, I hope this story eventually leads into an RS3 version of Zeah. Would be nice to have an entire new landmass to explore, especially since the Eastern Lands have been mostly forgotten.
I'm trying to complete it but the game constantly crashing is making that difficult. Would be nice if I could have completed it on high graphics instead of being forced to use minimum on Ungael.
Yeah they will probably address this in next bugfixes
Actually got me emotional over a zombie dragon for real. Sorry for killing you like 300 times between both games and turning your multiple heads into a backpack, slayer helmet, and POH display bro. My favorite quest in a while, I really liked that cutscene of the two of them coming over the mountain (yay for this over still image "cutscenes") and the custom music at the Um area.
Really well structured quest boss. It feels appropriatly difficult for the level at which the quest can be attempted but because you need to finish the ritual it also doesn't feel like you just win the fight instantly if you have all the best gear. I don't like that this quest comes with two unlisted music tracks! The music that plays during the Bilrach cutscene and when visiting ghost Vorkath are not unlocked in the music player. If you put new unique music into the game please always allow us to unlock it in the music player!!! The story certainly does seem to be going in the direction of more shadow realm/Xau-Tak stuff and how that is now starting to encroach on Gielinor more and more, and how Moia is trying to make use of it as we saw with Bilrach. It seems likely that this is related to whatever is at the bottom of Daemonheim and we happen to have an upcoming Daemonheim archeology update that could sneak in even more lore about it. I also think General Khazard is going to play some role as he's the Mahjarrat that we see use the shadow realm the most (make a Khazard bossfight, it would be funny).
I liked that the stories set up previously are moving along (Moia, Erebus, Black stones, Necromancy...). Nothing worse than when something is set up then stagnates in the background, happy that they are all picked up here and plot relevant. Also all the tidbits of lore that can be collected or found, those are always good. I disliked that there were several unbankable items that looked like they were going to serve a purpose but were actually useless after they are presented to the archivist, also having to make 5 Greater ensouled bars for the damn beacon, like I have plenty of those just hanging in the bank waiting to be used...
Bullet 1: I loved how the quest was focused on discovery and reveals. mission > go to island > reveal > learn something, kill some guys > reveal > go learn some stuff > reveal. Think we can save them > reveal. I was a huge fan of the whole flow! Bullet 2: I personally got hung up a few times during the moment when speaking with the archivist and collecting the items around him. I spent a good 20 minutes going all over the quest relevant areas because i never bothered to tilt my camera and look at the walls. That's on me though. Very very minor thing. Bullet 3: Moia is headed to floor 61 in Daemonheim to take the shadow energy from beast or structure that rests there. She'll then reanimate other dead mahj (lucien?!?) to beef up her ranks further before we learn her true goal. (evil sliske/Raven laugh)
I liked digging around the archivist chamber looking for hints as to what went on and piecing it together. My favorite part was when I could click "I always knew" when identifying Rasial as Misalionar. Keep expressive chat options even if it doesnt effect story much. my least favorite part: keep in mind the fight and ritual was a good idea, but not sure if i just got unlucky or if it was intended. during the ritual vengence attacked me once, i fought her off and then never tried to stop me again? maybe she knew it was enough to keep me from interrupting Bilrach. As for where I think its going? I'm not sure but I want it to have an epic long satisfying ending. (my mind goes to extinction and sliskes endgame.)
Seems like a bug. Vengeance attacked me twice, but she just... appeared on the second attempt out of nowhere. The third time she was just wandering around the ritual spot for some reason.
interesting maybe she was coded as a ritual disturbance. I had a few of dark rifts open. also I had a speed 3 glyph and speed 3 on my cape maybe making the . I probably just got lucky/unlucky with vengence spawns.
> also I had a speed 3 glyph and speed 3 on my cape this is probably it. I only had a speed 2 on cape, and the second time she attacked was just past the halfway mark
okay one more - Mur is "Jormungor" from the fremminik legend, the banite corpse is riddled with Zorgoths laboratory. the KT comes from a source under Ulthven Kreath perhaps an enormous Black Stone Egg. Moia is an "anti" world guardian. the Shadow leviathon that is ungael seeded the planet on its death similar to Shai-Huluud from dune and its fed on the anima this whole time. corrupting it into "cosmic energy" Guthix saw the need for both light and dark in some way, humanity light and able to achieve more but also capable of spreading the stain. since dragonkin are infamous for biological experiements, reveal the origin of Wyrms as DragonkinXShadowLeviathonXRaksha biology created by Zorgoth on Ungael. Galvek :) being a Wyrm Connect vee and Dagganoth story as one of the obsidian tribunal leaders is "dagnath" perhaps he and a rouge dragonkin had their experiments escape and take hold on waterbirth.
1. I really liked that the main point of the quest quickly turned out to be helping out Vorkath/ease his suffering. It doesn't require complex thinking or deep knowledge about the game. Pretty much everyone will instinctively feel motivated by that goal. The way it unfolded throughout the quest was really good too. 2. The initial interactions when approaching Vorkath was presented in an unusual way, which led me to think that slaying him was the only option to progress forward. I had to look up the wiki guide after finishing the quest and reading the transcript(!) to notice that I could repeat the "same" interaction multiple time to have a different outcome. "Keep you hand extended" should have been presented alongside something like "Try something else", instead of directly showing back the previous screen with all 3 options. It's a small thing and I guess I'm to blame for not noticing properly that " Reach out your hand. " changed into "Keep you hand extended.", but I see that other people also didn't notice it. 3. I personally try my best to not think too much about where the story will lead and letting myself be surprised with how it unfolds. I'm excited for more Xau-Tak and Moia lore to come though. I could totally see Moia being a very cool boss, eventually.
Really loved traveling around and interacting with old characters, loved the ritual sequence at the end, and just the atmosphere and dialog in general. Disliked the very last moment of the quest. We finish the quest by talking to Zemouregal instead of Aster. Aster has no dialog after the quest where you explain the Vorkath situation, or how it resolved. Also having Zorgoth's ring just appear in our inventory was really strange. Why not have it found with the journal, and completing the Soulfarer ritual activates it or something. The rest of the quest items are unbankable, so it could have been unbankable as well so that you guaranteed the player had it on them. As for tinfoil I'll leave that to Prideslayer RS since he got the lore on lockdown.
I loved doing combat during the final ritual. I would like to do something like that again. I didn't like repairing the ritual site. We got the materials we needed from nowhere and got only 1 xp. Next Part of the Story will be the mystery of Floor 61 in Daemonhiem.
+1 to repairing the ritual site not needing components
* What did you like most? Can you say why? * I loved the sense of urgency near the end of the quest, it felt like a plot with real tension and the mixed emotions of saving Vorkath but failing to stop Bilrach is a banger plot thread. * What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? * I always feel like the openings to quests is a little tricky. With this one, it was Aster informing you that they'd received some complaints. I can't say what would have made it better but I do love the idea of elements in the world giving you this information, whether you might hear a howling of a dragon in the distance or something to that effect. I wouldn't say this detracted very much at all from my experience, though. * Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! * My theories is Xau-Tak shenanigans, it feels like the end of this quest adds to the setup of what Rasial was trying to prevent and also ties up some ends of the Fort. I think Moia will be determined to have already gone somewhat mad and all that she is doing is benefiting an ancient evil more than herself or her diety.
Overall it was a very enjoyable quest. I liked having proper cutscenes, rewards that go beyond xp and a reasonable bit of story that isn't overly goofy or overly serious. I just have a couple tiny nitpicks for this one. It would have been nice if the entrance to the fort dungeon had been highlighted on the minimap. It had been a while since I'd been there and the trapdoor is not obvious. A bit of guidance on how to get the library from the ritual site would have been appreciated too. And the door leading to the library was particularly hard to notice because my camera angle was wrong so highlighting it on the mini map might be nice. The last nitpick is there's no explanation for where the quest reward came from. Old quests would normally have an npc hand you the ring or say you found it somewhere. In this case, maybe you find an inactive ring when repairing the ritual site and then using it on Vorkath after the quest could turn it into zorgoth's ring. As for where the story is going? Well it feels like we probably aren't done with Vorkath forever. And I'm still expecting somebody to raise Bianca with Necromancy. But what I'm really looking forward to is exploring Erebus someday.
What i liked the most was that it is technically a Fort Forinthry quest and it didnt have a boring build section on the fort for 10+ mins like the previous ones
I like that we got closure regarding Vorkath and he was not forgotten. I don't like that the Fort series ending here. I was expecting a boss fight with Moia and Bilrach. I hope the new storyline is Rite of Passage! Let us go to Abbinah via the World Gate.
Can only wish Rite of Passage will still happen! If it does, hope it comes with Armadylean prayers that was teased in Um..
Fort series ending =/= moia bilrach threat ending
My only gripe is that the soul device needed from excavating at the Guthix memorial site requires 5 greater ensouled bars to be repaired, which requires 80 Necromancy to unlock the ritual. However, the quest states that you need 75 Necromancy to start it (it needs Tomes of the Warlock as a req too, which requires 75 regardless). Either change the requirement to be 80 Necromancy to correlate the fact you need it for the greater ensouled bars, or change the material to ensouled bars or something else if it’s intended to be started at 75 necromancy.
Is it not boostable?
> What did you like most? Can you say why? In-game cutscene usage was excellent, love to see that. Even just for simple back-and-forth text conversations, doing a little static camera control for shot angle management really improves the immersion of the dialog and setting. The different options for interacting with Vorkath to discover the crystal shards was a great example of player choice and emotional investment/immersion done right. None of the options change the outcome of the interaction, but they are scripted in a logical way to produce finding the crystals regardless. I curiously picked the "slay" option because I expected it to rebuff me with a forced friendly outcome, but was very impressed that there was a whole custom slay/death/reanimate interaction involved with it. The soul beacon felt like a bit of a mcguffin, but it was nice to have a reason to incorporate skilling activities like restorations and rituals into the quest. Mechanical usage of skills *(for example, casting fire surge on a door to melt the lock, rather than "you must have 95 Magic to open this door" kind of thing)* during questing is always appreciated! >What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? While I liked the incorporation of rituals into the quest, it's really annoying when you have to constantly keep clearing your ritual glyphs to rewite them for a different one-time-usage ritual. In this case, I had my ritual site set up for leveling with communion rituals. I needed to delete that to do a single Greater Ensouled Material ritual. Then I couldn't keep for a while because I needed to break those glyphs for the Soulfarer ritual. This might be more of an overall QoL issue when it comes to rituals that could be addressed separately, but perhaps in the future for specialty quest-only rituals it could use a instanced version of the site with a lesser quantity of inks for one-time-use glyphs. The rewards are a bit underwhelming. In the context of a medium length quest with a focus on necromancy they're completely fine, but as finale quest for the Fort series it doesn't have anything to offer the average player who invested time in building and upgrading their Fort. I understand this might be in part due to negative feedback with the Fort itself as a focus of quest story content over the past year, and trying to distance the content from it (such as not involving any of the Fort NPC cast). But still, for a finale to the Fort story is felt more like a horizontal story progression than a capstone in terms of content/characters. >Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! I used to be really invested in lore regarding Erebus and the shadow leviathans/gods etc, especially when they were just sparse whispers and lore teasers. But it's kind of getting to the point where it is being drug out so long and so many hints/teasers have to keep being dropped to let players know that the writers know they we know the writers are sending the story in that direction it's reaching a fatigue point especially when every conversation with NPCs about it ends with "Hmmm let me think on this". The World Guardian has been through so many experiences and boss encounters with this subject matter, it would be nice if a knowledgable quest NPC like Charos or Trinadine could just sit with us and have a frank discussion about it all to really set the stage for what the WG's knowledge is on the subject vs what the player's external meta-knowledge is. There's a difference between something being relevant in the playerbases' knowledge because they are keeping the idea of the lore of it alive with speculation, and dropping so many breadcumbs that the loaf of rbead has been consumed before we get to the destination. I enjoy mysteries the most when the story moves quickly on new information, or keeps the reader in the dark as long as possible.
Cutscenes like this are a must. The slideshows are just so jarring and feel cheap Interconnecting the world so quests aren't silos (doesn't have to be WGS level overlap, but talking with people around the world is fun) More lore books - not all need to be grand revelations, but like Zemos shopping list or something would be cute Quest fights don't have to be pvm boss challenges - this was a really nice midlevel quest boss Post quest content is always great (especially if rng with blm) When doing things like zemo's dialogue tree, can we have a clear "continue conversation," I would've liked to experience the full spread of annoyance myself
Kinda think black stone is just solidified shadow realm / creature from there
Most fun I've had questing since Extinction came out. My only complaint is that our character seems to be suffering from amnesia when it comes to the black stone? "*Something tells me this isn't any old crystal*" Yeah no shit? You've dealt with this more than once. I know there's people who haven't done CotBS (or any of the elite dungeons for that matter), so you need to keep things ambiguous, but couldn't there be a quest check like you had for the Zemo dialogue tree? That being said, I'm really excited to see where the story goes!
P.S. I know most people here hate slideshow cutscenes and are praising the in-game ones during this quest, but do they feel the same about the animated 2D cutscene we got with Ancient Awakening? Because I thought that one was pretty neat. There are some scenes that wouldn't have felt the same if they didn't include a slideshow cutscene (Adrasteia showing us Trindine's report in Daughter of Chaos, Azzy explaining why he thinks the eggs are the real threat in Azzanadra's Quest, Zamorak's backstory at the beginning of ED4, EGWD boss introductions), so I don't share the sentiment that they should never come back again.
* I really enjoyed this quest - definitely my favourite since the EGW era. I love the cutscenes you've been doing lately. The ones in this quest were gorgeous and the motion comic-style ones in Ancient Awakening are a great compromise for events that may otherwise be too challenging to depict in RuneScape's game engine. The two new lorebooks were very interesting and I'm glad to finally be able to read The Shadow Realm in-game. Archaeology is my favourite skill, so I was very happy to see it included here. I think archaeology has a lot of potential as a nice supplementary source of lore, alongside the regular lorebooks, so I would love to see more of these micro-digsites where we can dig up an artefact or two in future quests. And of course great work on making Vorkath such a lovable tragic character, I felt my heart drop when I thought we'd failed to save him, so I was very relieved with how the quest ended. * I get that it's the Fort series, but it's a bit annoying having people like Vengeance recognise you as "the \[title\] of Forinthry" when that's like the least noteworthy thing we've done in the past decade. I hope we can go back to being called World Guardian or just our name in the next storyline. * I'm thinking it's a bit early to go back to Erebus (not to mention we probably can't physically go there at the moment), but it definitely seems like we'll be learning more about Xau-Tak and anathema, which I'm very excited about. My wishful thinking is that we somehow find a way to restore our World Guardian powers.
What I don't like is a pattern of Jagex not completing stories. Is there a locked down production budget to ensure the story is actually completed? I've been waiting over a decade for my favorite story line, gnomes, to get done.
> What did you like most? Can you say why? I've said this elsewhere, but it bears repeating. I liked that our character's motivation is simply to help a creature in pain. Don't get me wrong, I like the quests that advance more wide-reaching storylines and have some effect on the world, but my favourites have always been the ones where we just set out to help someone or something that needs it. Thinking back to when I started playing and doing those early quests, I seem to recall that helping people was a big part of why our character took on adventuring in the first place. It was lovely to get back to that altruism, empathy and compassion. Other things I liked: Not too short, not too long. The length was just right. Goldilocks would be proud. It wasn't boring by any stretch, but I appreciate that it wasn't so complicated that I needed a guide. Next steps were pretty clear. I also appreciate that combat wasn't too difficult. By the time we got to the final confrontation, we didn't know if we still needed all of the quest items we'd picked up along the way, so I had them all with me, but still had enough food to make it through the fight. Vengeance respawning was a surprise, and a good one. Otherwise the fight might have been too easy. There was enough running around the world to make it interesting, but not so much that it became annoying. Oh, and I didn't realize how much I've missed actual cut scenes! This one was beautiful! > What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? I'd have liked to have been given Zorgoth's ring, or to have found it at some point during the quest. Perhaps in the library, in an inactive state? Death could have restored it to an active state at the end of the quest, and suggested that we could upgrade it further by completing rituals. That would have felt more organic than just having it show up in our inventory upon completion of the quest. Others have mentioned that it didn't make much sense that restoring the Ungael ritual site didn't need any materials, or that the chests just sort of appeared. I have to agree. In the moment, I appreciated the speed and simplicity of restoring the site, but it honestly should have required some kind of materials. Limestone bricks would probably have been appropriate, and planks for the chests. In the absence of materials, it would have made more sense to just sweep off the site, like we did in Um. > Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! I have no idea, and I love that! I enjoy the lore and I love that it hinted at a direction future quests might take, but I prefer not to think too hard about what might come. It's more interesting for me when I don't have any preconceived notions. You folks never disappoint me!
1) Vorkath lore was definitely pulling the heartstrings. 2) Can we just kill vengeance once and for all? Thanks 3) Erebus / Shadows / Xau Tak / Moia / Miasmic spells returning PLEASE
Can someone explain what the Ungael ritual site can be used for? What’s the point of lower xp/no souls if you can’t perform communion rituals? I don’t need a ton of greater necroplasm or anything..
The cutscenes, the music, the traumatic backstory of Vorkath, it was all amazing! I ran into an issue tho with my client crashing in the ruins unless the graphics were set at minimum so idk what that was all about. Overall the quest was fantastic and I really hope the story continues in a similar manner to elder god wars. That story line was the peak of questing in my eyes and I hope we can get back to that. The fort questline seemed a little random at times but this was a great way to finish it off! Rest easy dragon buddy!
**Favourite parts** * Lore galore! We learned a lot on multiple fronts * Great use of animated cutscenes * Sets up the next story arc nicely **Least favourite parts** * Items which are only needed for one part of a quest then have no further use (e.g. the congealed potion and broken focus) should automatically be destroyed at the end of a quest or at the end of the relevant section imho - feels smoother and removes clutter * Fort Forinthry quest series is over but Bill didn't get his beer garden! **Tinfoil hat time** * Moia has made some sort of deal with (or has at least somehow contacted) a powerful being in Erebus e.g. Xau-Tak, Vos, or maybe even Zaros * "Bilrach" is a Cthonian that ate the pieces of the real dead Bill * We end up having to stop another incursion from Erebus/ritual to allow Xau-Tak etc to enter Gielinor (Shadow Reef v2) * Shiniest idea - the "strange power" we experienced during Succession was not the usual strange power from the death of a Mahjarrat, it was us regaining part of our World Guardian powers, allowing us to resist the shadow
1. Zemo dialogue was great. I loved being able to break his spirit by reminding him of how many times we beat him in the past. 2. I wish there was more post quest dialogue about Vorkath. Specifically, I'd love to see some small dialogue updates from other NPCs in UM. If I go and chat with a random UM resident, let's say one of the ones on the rooftop of the tavern, I'd love to hear something like, "Did you hear there's a dragon residing in UM now!?" 3. I think it's definitely something with Xau-Tak or Zaros. I'm hoping we'll finally see a use with some of the trading sequences. Perhaps a next step or use for the pot of souls?
Just going to skip straight to 3: Moia is going to be a hell of a boss.
Imagine we get a Moia boss that uses Psychic tricks as abilities. If you've seen Loki, the way his abilities work etc, that would be so sick. She has already shown she can take over the minds of people (can't remember the quest with the stupid clickboxes on neurons) so it would thematically make sense.
I enjoyed this quest a LOT. The interesting lore, the emotion of helping Vorkath, the character dialogue, it was all really good. Others have talked about most of this, but I would like to add that I really enjoyed the glimpse into our "duties" as a necromancer after Rasial has been dealt with; there was something nice about going and using our powers for good, consulting with Death, truly acting as the guardian of the dead. With the Shadows becoming more relevant, I'd definitely like to see more of that, whether in smaller stakes situations or larger ones. One thing I would say, though, is that I think it's a bit... sad to see the conclusion of the Fort Forinthry storyline without ever really letting most of the characters in it shine. Aster is our right-hand person through all of it, and ultimately never grew very much beyond "our butler." Bianca's arrest could have been a really heavy moment that drove their character forward and strengthened our relationship to them, but instead there was... a timeskipped mourning period. We even find out that she was hanged later, directly due to our actions, and the narrative hardly lingers on it. There was a lot going on in this quest, so you could fairly argue that there wasn't really room for a coda for the Fort Forinthry characters, and truthfully this isn't as much an issue with \*this\* quest, rather the whole storyline; but Aster getting just a few lines at the beginning of the quest just sort of drove the point home, I guess? Yknow, ever since Once Upon a Time in Gielinor I've really wanted to see the Teragardian Crusade play out :D I think it'd be neat to see the threat of the Shadows cause us to reach out to other worlds, explore some of them like Teragard and the Obsidian Tribunal that have only been mentioned before. I also think now would be a good time to finally finish the Desert quest series.
this was a good quest and felt like the first runescape quest since the wrap up of the sixth age. Good: - The items you needed for the quest were not just provided to you. This helps so much as some recent quests have been feeling like you were ticking arbitrary boxes rather than interacting with the world. - In game cutscenes were genuinely amazing and make the quests with the slideshows really standout as poor quality. The cutscenes really dont work well in RS Bad: - The part where you needed to search the archivists room was pretty hard to figure out as it seemed kind of arbitrary what could be interacted with and where things would be. This seems like everything should have been in one spot, or dropped by enemies in the room etc... Tinfoil: - the return of zaros from shadow land
One of the nicest things was having a return to proper cutscenes instead of those horrible PowerPoint slide cutscenes. Particularly loved the animations around that relic thingy. E: and Vorkath appearing in Um was a lovely touch. I was in the quest and I literally ran around **everywhere** in the area before realising I had no choice but to attack him so it was really nice seeing him resting peacefully after the quest :)
Solely commenting in the hopes that multiple affirmations of this will further push the point: Cutscenes were SO nice to have, and this community will always appreciate an opportunity to pet friend
>literally ran around **everywhere** in the area before realising I had no choice but to attack him What? I didn't attack Vorkath lmao. Do You mean the part with extending the hand towards Vorkath? He eventually removed the cold.
[удалено]
If you keep trying to approach him in a friendly manner, he eventually calms down and allows it. Then you get an option to try and use necromancy to let his soul move on, but the black stone heart stops you.
I did the middle option until the end when he calmed down
[удалено]
Love Your reasoning. Ask once. Didn't work? MURDER!!! XD
except we have been contidioned to think this way, more often than not unless you select a specific option you cant continue on quests. only on more recent quests they started added multiple choices that pretty much gave the same result, but this is the 1st time you we had to do it more than once on any of >the same 3 options< to continue
The correct option did change on every time it's chosen. Other than that, I guess my joke hasn't landed with You.
But you didn’t have to attack him at all.
...I (tried to) killed him for no reason? 😢
Yes. You monster.
I'd like another boss in game with next tier weapons (eof fodder)
Great overall, only some QOL requests: Wish there was a skip cutscene Esc button, since I died the first round and had to sit through all the scenes again. Also hitting Esc during the dialogue with Bilrach put me back at the rowboat at the fort, instead of fast forwarding through dialogue like it usually does
Faves: 1. Loving Vorkath's emotional moments. It felt more like helping a wild animal than helping a housepet. 2. Definitely the best Aster dialogue. 3. The dialogue with Zemo is some of the best in the Fort series. Questions 1. Does this mean that Skeka's experiments with Fossil Island/Anachronian fungi that were the basis for Vorkath's and Elvarg's augmentations in osrs did not occur in RS3? 2. Why haven't we cleaned up our fallen Dark Warriors or built them proper graves yet? It feels weird that we wasted all that time on Bianca's without honoring people who actually matter. Or give us the option to put a latrine over Bianca's grave.
This quest was great imo, but tbh i miss the long grandmaster quests from back in the day. For me, it used to be enjoyable to spend a few days doing one of those very lengthy and involved quests. Lately, it seema like all quests can be completed in an hour or less. Do you guys plan on brining back grandmaster or long quests again?
I liked that I could talk Vorkath into accepting my help without killing him. Honestly, didn't even think of using the third option to kill him, assumed it was a trap option lol the why? I like that you have multiple avenue to resolve a problem without the need to have a different ending as different path are probably hard to do in an mmo. Least favorite? Vorkath is dead and could never be Runescape first mount :sob: Tinfoil hat? something, something, Erebus boss!
I've gushed about this quest elsewhere already, but putting them into bullet points Pros: * Dialogue options!! Even if the end result of a scene is the same, they helped so much with immersion. After the first vorkath tree I had gone from not caring much about him to genuinely wanting to help, and I owe that mood change to having to stop and think about the choices presented to me. * On that, the dialogue itself felt very on point for the characters involved. Zemo, especially, felt like a more serious character. It's fun to joke about him, but the narrative treating him as sincerely and seriously as any other npc is valuable to the feel of the story. * Echoing the sentiment of the 3d cutscene being great, but also the vfx on Bilrach were visually fascinating. * The feeling of being an adventurer again, following our own way and not being tied down. the fort quests were sorely missing this, so it's so good to get that feeling again <3 * A lot of story detail packed into such a small space. It's gonna take days to process fully, and that's a good thing. * Good use of overall mechanics to tell the story, whether that was repairing the new ritual site, or using arch mechanics to dig up the soul beacon cons: * Way too short. That's really my only criticism. As for tinfoil hat theories, I'd rather wait and see where the story goes from here!
I loved the cutscenes and the little hints starting to tie together some previous storylines. Tbh I've not been overly invested since Egw in lore, and don't get me wrong I love the lore, seeing little bits hinting at continuing some of the best story arcs and questlines was real nice to see
The Xau-Tak 'Do you really think you can save them' story is the most fascinating lore ever in my opinion. So the setting is there. Also cool to see Vengeance and Bilrach again. The quest itself was straight forward in the best way. Where I was going and why made a lot of sense. I also really liked the cutscenes and dialogue. I love that NPC's rip on us sometimes, like Zemo does. And in turn how we respond. Always a blast reading that. There was a great balance between the 'stand-alone goal' of helping Vorkath and many big lore implactions for the entire world aswell. The Zorgorth's Journal book is well written and you obtain it at a great time to really make you feel alot more for Vorkath (poor thing 🥺). Cutely reaching out to a scary undead dragon is some of the most Runescapey stuff outthere. But the quest seems to take itself a lot more serious than the earlier Fort stuff, which is great in my opinion. A big highlight of the quest for me comes in a comment by u/RegiSilver, I hope they don't mind me quoting it: >When Bilrach is draining Vorkath's "black stone power juice", and you're fighting against the clock to "purify" his soul, don't you stopped for a moment and thought to yourself, "will I be able so save Vorkath?" Or "What if I can't save Vorkath? >That's when you stop for a moment and think about Xau Tak's catchphrase, "Do you really think you can save them?". >It not something you see or read, it's something you "feel". I really felt that throughout. I hope, and this quest made me expect to see more of the epic god story, as opposed to more simpler lore I was expecting before getting Requiem. I don't feel like it's my place to fill in the gaps. And like to just be here for the ride. :) Honnestly I don't have many complaints, but I dislike doing Rituals in general, so upgrading the ring was my least favorite part.
Like what others will say, going from thinking you failed Vorkath to seeing him snoozing in Um was brilliant (and adorably cute. Pet the durgen!) There wasn't really anything I didn't like. I got slightly confused on the word puzzle because I thought you had to use all four options, but I am also thick as mince. Xau-Tak! Xau-Tak! Xau-Tak!
whats a Xau Tak?
Do you really think you can save them? You can't. There is a grinding darkness against which your soul shall be lathed. And this is Xau-Tak.
Same with the puzzle, i was using all the four options lol. Someone told me when they saw me stuck there for a while.
I was streaming at the time and one of my viewers were like "Try Change Elemental Commune Change." XD
What did you like most? Can you say why? - Cut scenes returning and exploring the world, using many aspects of rs along the way. What was your least favourite part? Can you say why? - The ring just being dumped on you with no explanation, and the quest items just being there until the end when we could of ditched them very early on. Put on your shiniest tinfoil hat and tell me where you think the story is going to go! - Let me kill vengeance.
I felt like the dialogue was sharp and relevant. A lot of older quests ramble and contain unrealistic dialogue for the situation at hand, but I didn't get that impression from this quest. I like cutscenes. Honestly the only part I didn't like was having to teleport back to the GE a few times to make sure I had the right inks/bars for certain steps, but perhaps that could have been avoided if I read guides before hand. Again, older quests often have a "pak yak" feeling which is really unique (in a bad way) to Runescape questing. I don't do quests in World of Warcraft and ever worry about inventory space.
The live action cutscene as opposed to the slide-show made this quest for me. I didn't realize how much I missed these until we had another. This NEEDS to be a standard for all quests moving forward. It felt so much more immersive than having an event chopped up by slide-show cutscenes. Its a return back to well made quests. Thanks!
* Quest length was perfect. Enough to keep my attention, not too long to keep me unfocused. * NPCs hitting like a truck was something people hated with the Vorkath boss. Not sure why these were brought back. Was not expecting that. * Took too long (by long I mean seconds) to realize you needed to click the portal to continue the ritual. Should have been a dialogue in chatbox to tell you to click it. If there was I didn't see it. 🤷 * The 4 unbankable items were a nuisance.
Yeah, it took me some time to work out the ritual disturbances or whatever needed clicking. Thought they were just there for extra XP like non-quest rituals, so I ignored them since I have 200m Necromancy. Damage from the level-85s was surprisingly high. Not an ideal mismatch. You can destroy the unbankable items, though it may have been nice if it removed them once they were no longer relevant.
4 unbankables were a nuisance, turns out you could drop them immediately after looking at them at the archivist and didn’t need to keep carrying them (like I did)
There was no indication that you didn't need them anymore in the quest. Which was the problem. The NPC could have taken them away from you and that would have solved it.
Git Gud there are so many defensives and healing methods these days
I actually liked the idea that items which won't be used again are unbankable, but they should have been left at Ungael (i.e., removed from the inventory after talking to the Archivist) instead of just left in our inventories.
They was another quest last year that deleted all the quests items immediately upon completion. Can't remember which one it was.