Nature Spirit
We return to the ongoing saga of Morytania, and our attempts to spread Saradominism to a region that really doesn't want anything to do with us. This is actually the first time I've been under Paterdomus since completing Priest in Peril, so it's the first time I noticed the new guard dog:
And I get some dialogue with Drezel introducing Morytania, and revealing that he's racist against werewolves apparently:
"Werewolves are just like you and me, except not." Great message there, Jagex; thanks.
Anyway, talking to Drezel again kicks off the Nature Spirit quest, which is a bit odd in that it has very little to do with the rest of the Morytania story, except for the introduction of blessed silver sickles. Our quest: Drezel has lost contact with his buddy, a druid named Fillian, and he wants us to do a welfare check. Fair enough, let's go! Oh, first a warning about the ghasts:
I actually like this tutorialization of ghasts, the hazard of Mort Myre swamp, because the quest first tells you what to expect, and then gives you some food so you can safely experience it yourself. That's good design.
What jumped out at me about this line was when Drezel says that "we" put up a fence around Mort Myre. Morytania is under Vampyre jurisdiction; ostensibly the entire region is ruled by Lord Drakan, from his throne in Darkmeyer. Canifis isn't beyond his reach, there's a vampyre in the bar, checking blood tithes. So...the vampyres are just cool with humans from Misthalin setting up construction projects, and erecting literal barriers in the middle of their lands? Is this not considered a problem to them?
I can see it not being a problem to Drezel, because he's clearly massively fantasy-racist against the residents of Morytania, and vamps are the evil oppressors of the noble, suffering humans, so their rule is clearly illegitimate. But I'm frankly astonished that Malak doesn't wander over and go "hey...why?"
Anyway, I brave the dangers of Mort Myre swamp. Interestingly the ghasts seem to mostly leave you alone as long as you keep moving, so I only lost two of the six pies I was given throughout the entire quest. But I pretty quickly found where I needed to go, and I found Filliman! Just one problem...
Interestingly, despite Filliman being a ghost I was actually able to communicate with him a little bit, and was able to find the journal hidden in the nearby tree based off his dialogue. So I muddled around a bit before finally warping back to Canifis to pick up my ghostspeak amulet. On a whim, I checked in with Drezel before heading back, and was pleasantly surprised to get this dialogue:
This is what I've been asking for all along! Well, one of the things, but it's a big one! Good show, Jagex, good show.
Ghostspeak amulet in hand, I run back through the swamp to Filliman's ghost. Now I can actually talk to him, but there's another problem:
Oh dear, you're going to be one of those ghosts, aren't you? So the puzzle here is to convince him that he's dead. I knew the general solution immediately: show him his own reflection, or lack thereof. But how to do that? For some reason I latched onto the washing bowl that was nearby, and became convinced that I had to show him a bowl of water. Filling the washing basin in Mort'ton and showing it to him did nothing, so I teleported back to Canifis to get a normal bowl out of my bank to try. On the way back I checked in with Drezel again:
I appreciate the hint, and I like the use of subtle wordplay here, but I already figured out that part of the puzzle; I need to know how to show him his reflection.
Anyway, the bowl of water got me nowhere, so in desperation I turned to the wiki yet again. Apparently there's a shaving mirror under the washing basin, which I missed. I don't really have any criticisms about that puzzle, it was entirely my own fault I missed it; I rightly latched onto the washing basin as an item to be picked up, but I didn't account for it being a red herring item. Mea culpa, and well played Jagex.
So now that Filliman knows he's dead, the goal of the quest shifts to transforming him into a nature spirit (hey, that's the name of the quest!). For this he needs three things, but he only knows how to get one: "something from nature", which can be obtained by casting a "bloom" spell. But first we need to be blessed by Drezel, so I schlep back to Paterdomus. I have a feeling this was a much harder quest before the addition of the lodestone network.
Now blessed, I return to Filliman (courtesy of a convenient teleport from Drezel), get the spell, and bloom a 'shroom. The shroom goes on one of the three stones surrounding Filliman (only one stone accepts it, so it's not hard even if you don't twig to the clue on each stone), and then I just need the other two items: something of faith, and something of the spirit-to-be freely given.
"Something of faith" I immediately figure is myself, since Drezel gave me a blessing of faith and all that, and I figure that "something of the spirit-to-be" means one of Filliman's belongings. But neither the washing basin nor the mirror are accepted. I'm about to go back to the wiki, when I happen to examine the used "bloom" scroll:
Ahhh, clever Jagex. That is, indeed, the solution, and Filliman is soon a nature spirit. Last thing to do is forge a blessed silver sickle, which requires a quick jaunt over to Al Kharid to buy a mould and cast the sickle, then return to Filliman so he can bless it. Then I go kill three ghasts, effectively tutorializing the druid pouch, and I'm done; quest complete!
Overall not a terrible quest. The back-and-forth was a bit annoying, but in fairness I did most of that to myself, and the fact that Drezel starts offering free teleports after a little ways into the quest takes a lot of the sting out of it. Puzzles were reasonably well-designed, and I liked how Drezel gave relevant hints at different stages. And, of course, good tutorialization of Mort Myre swamp, which is going to be an important location for quite a while yet. I can't wait for In Aid of the Myreque, when I can start working for the Ouroborous pouch.
Basically, decent quest: shame about the player. As my forum signature says, I am an idiot sandwich.