Recently, after hitting the temporary level cap of 60 and getting stuck in the Temple of Uggalipeh, I decided it was time to focus my efforts on what is, or at least used to be, an important part of character development for a level 50-60 character. I decided it was time to try in earnest to obtain my Paladin's Artifact Armor.
I had some time ago obtained the Honor Sword, which is the Artifact Weapon for the Paladin. In fact, it reminds me of an amusing story.
A few months ago, after beating the Shadow Lord and exploring most of the original game areas, I had been frustrated that I had not been able to find anything about Artifact Equipment without a guide. I succumbed to temptation and looked up the Records of Eminence objective for the first Warrior Artifact Equipment quest. It said to start it by talking to a certain NPC in a certain area--and I suddenly realized that I had already completed a quest from that NPC before defeating the Shadow Lord that had rewarded me with a powerful Warrior-exclusive weapon. In other words, I had gotten the Warrior Artifact Weapon and didn't even know it! Well, upon realizing that, I looked up the NPC for the Paladin weapon and realized I already had the quest, so I completed it as well.
The same NPC who gave me the quest for the Honor Sword, after getting the sword, gave me another quest, which I correctly assumed was for another piece of Artifact Equipment. I had made an effort to complete it, but got stumped, and decided to return to it later. Once I hit 60 and got stumped elsewhere, I decided it would be a good time to return to this effort.
The quest involves finding a giant shell bug in the Crawler's Nest. I wasn't sure if it was a random enemy drop or if there was something I had to trigger in the dungeon, or if possibly I had to find something in a treasure coffer (I had thought I had read something in passing about Artifact Equipment and Treasure Coffers). After what I thought was a thorough search for triggers, I decided to hunt some beetles in the dungeon (the only enemy with a shell) to see if they would drop the giant shell bug, or at least a treasure coffer. I had learned recently that the Trust NPC Nanaa Mihgo had the ability Treasure Hunter, which would increase my drop rate, so I was more primed to check this.
Well, after many dead beetles and nothing but gil from a treasure coffer, I decided to see if there was something I could do with numerous baskets where an inspection yielded the message "It looks like something was placed here recently." The baskets appeared to be baskets of rolanberries, so I went and bought some rolanberries and tried to place them at each basket. I'm sure I was on the right track for something, as the game gave slightly different messages for each basket (the fact that there was a message at all means that it was the right thing to try for some sort of result) but I did not learn what the result was supposed to be. It's probably for some other quest I haven't triggered yet.
However, while running back and forth between the areas, I happened upon a crevice in a wall with a ??? target that I had failed to notice before. Upon inspecting it, a Notorious Monster appeared, and I knew I had found what I was looking for. After a short fight, the monster fell, and I shouted in triumph (startling my wife who was doing something nearby) as the monster dropped the giant shell bug.
I thought that would be the end of it, but the quest ended up being much more involved than I thought. Rather than getting my reward for giving the bug to the quest-giver, which would follow the pattern of quests I had done in the past, he told me he had changed his mind about going after the fish that the bug was bait for, and encouraged me to go as well. He told me the general location to fish for it, Castle Oztroja, and I went off to look for a place to fish there.
Just finding the location ended up taking much longer than I expected. It's pretty deep in, and it had literally been years since I had explored the dungeon in detail. But I finally found a shallow pond and started fishing. As I hoped, a Notorious Monster caught the line. But all I got for beating him was...him. I got a fish, which was the dead monster.
I took it back to the quest-giver, hoping I'd finally done it. However, he sent me to Selbina to have it cleaned. In Selbina, the guy at the fishing guild found a pair of knight's boots inside. I took those back to the quest-giver, who didn't do more than remark. But when I spoke to the quest-giver's father, he directed me to take them to the prince. The prince, after noting who they had belonged to, finally rewarded me with the Gallant Boots, my first piece of Artifact Armor, and immediately gave me a new quest.
The new quest was nearly as involved and at least as challenging. I'll spare all the details, but at the end of it I was rewarded with the body piece of my gear (Gallant something, but I forgot the name). Both pieces of gear were quite a step up above what I had been using, and I was beginning to feel quite powerful.
I didn't get any further quests, and couldn't figure out how to trigger another one. I still remembered seeing something about treasure coffers in the past, so I decided to look for coffers in some of the dungeons. Since I was still trying to figure out how to access an area in Batallia Downs, and believed solving a puzzle in Eldieme Necropolis held the key, I decided to start there. It was somewhat fortunate that I did. I found a treasure coffer that had a pair of gauntlets in it--just a key item, not something I could wear, but enough to get me excited. At first I thought it was related to my Artifact Gear, but didn't know what do with it. Then, I remembered I actually had a quest from elsewhere that was about gauntlets in this dungeon, and my hopes drained for it being Artifact related. But then I remembered again that this was a quest I had been given recently, in fact since starting my Artifact Armor quests, and that there had been no apparent reason that this NPC had suddenly given me a new quest when he had done no such thing previously. Sure enough, when I followed the trail, I was rewarded with another piece of my set.
I decided to go to Garlaige Citadel, where I had another unsolved quest, which I hoped could be related. On the minus side, I did not solve that quest or get any nearer solving it. On the plus side, I did find another piece of my gear in the treasure coffer there. There was no quest to solve; it was just a piece of gear.
I wasn't sure whether to search for another quest or another coffer somewhere. When I was bored at work, I decided to review the recently completed gauntlet quest online. The website I used actually stated that there were three pieces of equipment tied to that quest; that two treasure coffers would yield Artifact Equipment once this quest was activated. Curious about it, I read elsewhere a contrary statement that once the first Artifact Armor quest was begun for any given job, two pieces of Artifact Armor would be available in specific treasure coffers, and the gauntlet quest would become available from the same NPC for each job. I read which coffer had my remaining gear, and realized it was the logical next place to check anyway, and went and completed the set.
Now, as I walk around with my gallant gear, I feel decked out, and up to meet new challenges. Like an old friend from high school used to say, I feel like "I am a true Paladin!"
No comments:
Post a Comment