QuestBoard - Feb. 2021

[avalonmods]

QuestBoard is an app you can download onto your smartphones that's similar to TaskRabbit. Each month, people around town will posts jobs asking for help with various tasks like building furniture, running errands, pet sitting, and more. Characters can make a living off of this if they choose to and assume normal day-to-day tasks you would normally find on an app IRL like TaskRabbit. Handwaved tasks do not earn credit toward becoming a Knight or a Noble, but the special tasks labeled as this month's "Top Tasks" in the app will gain clout for your character.

QuestBoard Top Tasks are the ones that are posted at the start of each month. Any character may complete them, even if they seem like a unique task, because time being frozen and magic mayhem are a recipe for weird time pockets resulting in multiple occurrences in the same space. (Tl;dr there are no dibs, just have fun.) There are three kinds of tasks, each labeled with a symbol for its type:

 

🗡️ = COMBAT QUEST (counts toward Knighthood)
🛡️ = ASSISTANCE QUEST (counts toward Nobility)
🌌 = SPECIAL (see quest details)

Combat and assistance quests are the most common and will appear every month. Specials are tasks that either fit both categories, neither category, or has some kind of exceptional reward. Special tasks are uncommon, so do not expect to see them all the time. 

Each quest is worth 1 Rewards point unless your character has achieved Knighthood or Nobility status (See FAQ for more information), which both double rewards points.

Do not reply to this post to do a quest. Just thread out the quest and turn it in as instructed on the Rewards Points (Elphame Traders) page when you are ready to redeem. Threads must be started in the month that the quest was announced, though it may start at any day during the month and you may backtag as necessary. Feel free to reply to this post with questions about Top Tasks.

❄️ February Top Tasks ❄️

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Task Name	Details
🛡️ A Tall Order	The elves who live near the Red Springs may be no more than 2 feet (~60cm) in stature and are tired of getting bullied by the 3-foot (~92cm) elves of the south beach making fun of them. In an upcoming trip down to the south beach, they would like some people to carry their nobles' sedan chairs much higher than the south beach elves. In addition to the money and honor of carrying their greatness around, you'll also be invited to watch an amazing play about elf history.
🌌🗡️ The Libryrinth (Part 1)	The old crone running the library is keeping secrets, I just know it...! The shelves in the library seem to be arranged in a very peculiar pattern. I've also noticed a number of mysterious symbols etched into the corners of some of them. Sneak onto the top of the shelves after the library closes at night and get through the shelf maze without getting caught by the librarian, who patrols the area with a candle lantern. If she catches you, she'll send you to court and sentence you to community service, so be extra careful! Report back your findings! (OOC Note: If a character makes it through the shelves maze, they'll find themselves in a dungeon stone-walled labyrinth with a load of dangerous monsters. It's likely above the level of anyone currently in the game, particularly since all the monsters seem to be invulnerable to physical damage. Escape is the best option. This is a multipart quest, to be continued in the future.)
🛡️ A Quest for the Pure of Heart (CW: Potential NPC death)	Morganna is offering 1,000,000G for more of the Pure of Heart crystals to be harvested from the bridge, and asks that while you're doing that, you take a trip to visit a small cottage just a little further into the forest behind it. A gentle, kind old man lives there. She wants you to sneak a vial of a potion she made into his food in secret. Fool him however necessary. Don't ask what's in it and you won't have to lie to authorities. CONSEQUENCE NOTES: Anyone who gets across the bridge and manages to succeed will turn the pure of heart crystal black. Seriously, it was definitely implied you were supposed to be doing something bad! You'll definitely have trouble getting across the bridge now with a darkened heart and a crystal to reflect it. The old man passes out after eating and goes under a sleeping spell. Anyone who gets there and can't go through with it after an emotional struggle about it will turn the crystal golden, especially after the man collapses from poison. A heart that finds temptation and resists it is that much stronger and the crystal reacts to it, even if the result of the actions isn't desired. Morganna will appear in a swirl of mist to take your crystal from you regardless of what happens, and explain that the sleeping spell was an antidote that would've allowed him to expel a poison while he slept. She disappears with the affected crystals before any retaliation takes place and doesn't bother acknowledging your questions. As promised, you'll be receiving 1,000,000G for completing such a task. Hope it was worth it. (Please comment here if you're doing this quest to let us know how many corrupted crystals and how many golden crystals Morganna got out of this quest.)
🛡️ Cupid's Arrow Beta Testing	Spreading love is the mission of February holidays in some worlds apparently, and in order to help the otherworlders feel at home, we've decided to start selling enchanted archery sets. Strike someone with an arrow and they'll have amorous feelings and start seeking out a partner! Since this is an experimental magic, we need people to volunteer to get struck with an arrow to make sure it works as intended. (OOC note: It will work, but unfortunately will make the affected person lovestruck for a full week before it wears off and may have a number of other affection-related side effects that are up to you to have fun with.)
🗡️ Save a Beast, Kill a Man (CW: Forced marriage, murder)	I'm a selkie. Years ago, my husband stole my pelt and forced me to marry him. I would like to go back to the lake, but can only do so if my pelt is returned. If you have to kill him to get it back, I won't complain. He's on his own quest right now to slay a fresh-water kraken that's been hanging around the south beach. It's making people nervous, but hasn't harmed anyone, so I'll double your pay if you get there before the kraken is slain.

 

Comments

Morganna's Crystals

[avalonmods]

Reply here if your character will be providing Morganna with a crystal. Please be sure to specify which type it will be. Thank you!

[bendless]

Sokka provides a golden crystal.

[phoenixwiz]

Harry is going to deliver a golden crystal.

[greedyvixen]

Rin delivers a black crystal

[disasdeer]

Louis delivers a black crystal.

[colchismagecraft]

Caster will be handing over a black crystal

[lucere]

Regis is bound to provide a golden crystal.

[heartlessswordsman]

Black crystal from ya boi Zel

[penumbrals]

Gaia will deliver a golden crystal!

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Darin will be bringing a golden crystal!

[littlemissgvirus]

Sherry will wind up with a golden crystal.

[tsuyoi_ame]

Yamamoto provides a golden crystal.

[kiss_it_better]

Chang Geng is going to deliver a golden crystal!

[scarredhorns]

Surprise! Lucy will deliver a gold crystal.

[glossophobia]

Got a question or two about the cupid's arrow, sorry to be so knit-picky guys. ;; Based off of "they'll have amorous feelings and start seeking out a partner" I'm assuming the character struck by the arrow will not be seeking a particular partner but will pursue pretty much anyone? Like they could go through more than just one person to seek out as a partner, or is it a matter of them immediately setting their sights on a particular person or the first person they come across after being hit by the arrow?

[avalonmods]

No worries at all! It's very experimental magic and results and side effects may vary, so feel free to play it however sounds most fun for you.

[littlemissgvirus]

So they have to give the old man the potion and then decide taking the crystal is bad to have the crystal turn gold?

And I know she's all 'don't ask any questions' but she's twelve so...what would she say if pestered with questions about what the potion is?

[avalonmods]

Taking the crystal is fine by all accounts and the first part of the task before getting to the old man.

Refusing the give the potion to the old man because it's clearly implied that is a poison will turn the crystal gold. Giving the potion to the man while thinking it's poison and doing it anyway will turn it black.

Morganna isn't sticking around for questions so much as magically poofing the antidote to anyone who accepts the quest so it may be hard to ask. Morganna's DMs are not open, as it were.

[fangirls]

Just a couple quick questions! The man was poisoned prior to the quest start, correct? Are there any symptoms of him being ill, or anything else characters could gather while interacting with him?

[avalonmods]

Nope. The man isn't even aware he's been poisoned yet, which is why is important it gets sneaked because he's unlikely to believe anyone. Morganna's just continually poisoning and having questers save him all month. 😇

[irritated]

For the cupid's arrow quest, do you have to be the guinea pig that takes the arrow or you can shoot it yourself?

[avalonmods]

They'll give you an arrow and let you self-administer. If it happens to shoot a different person, that's on the character and they aren't liable for any damages etc etc it's probably in a user agreement no one read but agreed to anyway.

(in other words, have fun and do whatever makes you happy)

[patchricide]

For the Pure of Heart, what if the party is split on how to proceed? We're looking at one guy who's completely YOLO about it and one guy who will fight the first guy to stop him. Can we safely assume crystals will change based on personal position, rather than which course of action wins out?

[avalonmods]

Yes, the crystals react to what is in the person's heart! That's why they can only be retrieved if one crosses the bridge to test that. The crystals change depending on the state of the possessor's heart, so it's really all about the intention. That's why it doesn't matter whether the guy lives or dies so much as the intentions of the person doing it. So if one tries to stop the other, that person will likely turn it gold, whereas the one who tries to go forward with it will turn theirs black.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

For the Pure of Heart quest, if it's ultimately decided that the vial is not given to the old man and he keels over from poison, would someone with healing magic be able to neutralize it? Or does the old man die? Darin wouldn't want to put some mysterious liquid in a nice old man's food, but if the guy drops from poison, he'd want use his healing magic to help him. He wouldn't want to accept the poor old man dying.

tl;dr can healing magic be used to help the old man if he keels over or is he definitely dead?

[avalonmods]

As long as it's after the choice is made to make the crystal change, Morganna doesn't care, so it's easy enough to heal.

Hello I bring you yet more questions

[angel_of_death]

Theoretically, is it possible for someone not pure of heart to tag along with someone who is pure of heart and pick up a crystal? And if so, what would happen if that impure person did not want to risk poisoning the old man?

[avalonmods]

They wouldn't make it over the Pure of Heart bridge, unfortunately! The rapids near the bridge would wash them downstream because all other forms of magic don't work at the bridge to get over. Though they could get across if they crossed much further downstream or upstream, when they got to the crystals, they wouldn't be able to see the crystal outcropping unless they crossed the bridge. Tricksy magicks are at hand!

And since anyone who's truly pure of heart wouldn't be greedy enough to grab more than their own share or cheat, it may be difficult to get someone to grab one for you. But should he manage to convince someone to do so, it won't really react in any way and will just remain as-is. Given that a crystal that Morganna is seeking cannot be produced and the antidote is not administered, Morganna will not pay out since the quest was not completed. If it is administered, Morganna will give a half-payout since she respects the hustle.

(There will be opportunities in the future for characters who specifically aren't pure of heart to make big earnings.)

[thepattern]

If two people are completing the Pure of Heart task, do they each have their own crystal so that they can each make their own decision about whether to feed the man the potion? Are there two vials of potion, or just one? And then, do they each get 1mil gold or do they have to split it?

Also, I don't see any description of the Pure of Heart bridge on the locations page. (I could be missing it; I just woke up.) Do you have a link to the info about how that works, for someone who wasn't in game when it was introduced and may have missed that part?

[avalonmods]

If they do two crystals and go together, they will both take part in the choice of administering the one antidote they are given and therefore it will be enough to trigger the changes. Morganna will pay them both if they both give her a crystal. If they only do one crystal and tag along, she'll pay once and they can figure out how to split it.

If you click the link in the quest description it leads to the event that it was described. It's in the last section of the linked event above.

[rutilance]

I have a couple questions about the pure of heart situation!

1. Does Morgana take the antidote back if you don't trick the man? If not: Can you force the man to drink it when he's unconscious? (I think that's physically possible in humans, but my experiences with getting people to swallow things when basically asleep is less 'people' and more 'fostering animals' X'D )

2. How would the event be modified if the character trusts Morganna to have the multiverse's best interests in mind? She's apparently been stated to be a goddess (unless I misremembered?), and my character is likely to believe that a god has good reasons for things at this point in her life, so while she may be 'this is legally wrong' internally she's also likely to be 'A goddess who seems to want the multiverse to not be destroyed told me to do it, so it can't be actually wrong, and may actually serve the purpose of saving the multiverse meaning it's a net good no matter the outcome' at least for a little while. So her moral conundrum is more likely to be 'Okay but he's so nice. Nice adults are uncommon.' 'Okay but even if I don't do this, someone else will.' 'Even if no one else was doing it, this is a goddess we're talking about, and if I don't do it not only would I be doing something wrong, but I'd possibly be making a goddess mad and that seems unwise.'

(This little one grew up in Japan, and while she knows some universe-appropriate stuff about King Arthur (in her world he was a popular minor deity) she knows just about nothing about the extended cast so she has no idea how chaotic Morganna likely is >.> )

[avalonmods]

1. Morganna doesn't care if the man lives or dies, so you're free to use it afterward. It may not be as effective but it'll keep him alive, he'll need a real healer at that point to recover fully because it will have already done damage.

2. Trust and faith are good and all, but murder is still murder. Any person with a soul pure enough to get a pure of heart crystal is going to be affected by it. Having faith doesn't take away the fact that the implication is that doing this will kill the man, so the choice should still be the same, regardless of thinking murder is in the universe's best interest. Cool motive, still murder and all that.

Additionally, if it helps make your choice, characters who ask about Morganna will be told she's a goddess and mother of the fae, and her temperament can be mercurial. A lot of fae are tricksters, too, if that would matter in your characterization-- there's a whole court of unseelies that are up to no good just because they can, though they're largely outside of Camelot City.

P.S. Now that we've had enough progress to introduce some of the primary NPCs and get a chunk of the game going to summarize, we're going to be adding information to the "Game History" page that includes NPC profiles so players can easily know what's been said/asked about without looking through all the events. It's coming down the line but not sure when it will be ready, so look forward to it!

[mayoninofukucho]

I've got a question about the selkie quest!

Hijikata wants to dig a little deeper and question both husband and wife about the backstory. I assume that the guy (once sufficiently beaten up or otherwise subdued) might make excuses along the lines of "I knew she'd love me back if only she'd give me a chance!" etc, but what would the selkie say if questioned about why she endured the marriage for years before seeking help?

[avalonmods]

He would end up with selkie lore! Selkies cannot return to the water without their pelt. If it is burned, they will die. If the selkie had spoken up while he was around, he could have seen it and burned her pelt. Because he is off on a quest a ways away from her location and she stole his phone out of his luggage before he left, she was able to post a plea for help with a decreased risk of him seeing it. Now was her best shot at being free.

[standvastig]

Hello! I'm interested in the A Tall Order quest and I was hoping to understand a little bit more about the elves mentioned in the description. Do they generally get along? Are they extremely biased against each other? Just trying to get an idea before I write up anything about it.

[avalonmods]

The two factions of elves do not get along, that is why the quest has been requested. They are tired of being bullied by their taller brethren and would like to "show off" being carted around by tall newcomers makes this possible. While they are not violent with each other the two factions do enjoy heckling, teasing, and otherwise being nuances to each other.