Ahh, now we're starting to get into the deeper lore, with part one of the very long-running Mahjarrat quest series. The only thing I really remember about this quest from childhood was that you had to join one of two gangs to get half of the shield, and that you needed a friend (or some rando from the forums) from the other gang to swap you for the other half.
In retrospect this seems like a weird quest requirement, considering that within the context of the narrative we should be the only player; there can only be one World Guardian, after all. But I guess the idea was to get people socializing and making friends in-game, something that seems to have steeply declined over the last couple of years, so I'll allow it. On with the quest!
....oh dear....
Foreshadowing starts doing cartwheels
Foreshadowing does an elaborate song-and-dance routine to the tune of "Hello! Ma Baby". Foreshadowing has a little nap
Off to a great start so far. Alright "Reldo", gimme a quest.
How could you possibly know that? You know what, never mind; dumb question.
Brief dope moment: I was instructed by "Reldo" to hunt through the library for a book about the Shield of Arrav, which I did; I searched every damn bookcase, and didn't find anything except a book about the Wilderness. So I started again, and this caught my eye:
Well played, "Reldo".
So I'm on the hunt for the Phoenix gang. I happen to know that two gangs are involved here, and I joined the Phoenix gang when I was a kid so I wanted to try the Black Arm gang this time; but I kept looking out for a hook to introduce me to them, and never found it (except for a dialogue option with Charlie the Tramp, but that wouldn't make any narrative sense). So I finally knuckled under and went to the Phoenix hideout.
You are the worst secret criminal gang. How have the Varrock guards not found you in thirty years if this is the way you conduct your secret illegal business?
Okay, people in glass houses. If a passing adventurer can murder a person in cold blood in a crowded tavern in broad daylight, I guess you can get away with anything.
Sidenote, I like how the intelligence report dropped by Johnny the Beard mentions both the Hunt for Surok and the building of Stormbreaker; it's a nice little touch to tie the world together.
Anyway, I get the shield half from the Phoenix hideout, but...now what do I do? The book in "Reldo's" library told me the Phoenix gang had the shield, so where the hell is the other half? My quest journal is no help; I happened to look at it before finding the shield, and all it said was:
And now it says nothing.
MISS! I FOUND A PLOT HOLE!
Anyway, I happened to talk to Straven on the way out, and he finally told me about the Black Arm gang having the second half of the shield. I'm not a professional game developer, but for a quest this early in the game that feels like bad design. Ideally I should have gone into this dialogue immediately after joining the gang, to signpost both where I needed to go to get the shield (I just intuited that I needed to search the base, but maybe that was easier because I'm familiar with how the game works), and to suggest where I should start looking for the other half. It sort of seems like the game expected that to happen, but obviously it didn't.
Anyway, the fact that I'm only learning about the Black Arm gang just now suggests that I don't need a second person anymore, so I follow Straven's tip and sure enough, Katrine asks me to complete a task I couldn't have done without joining the Phoenix gang first. It's not tough at this point, and I quickly have the complete shield. Quickly off to King Roald to hand it in, and quest complete!
Overall it was a decent quest, obvious only very slightly setting up the Mahjarrat storyline, but did have to rely on my quest journal a couple of times. That's actually a good thing for player training, though; teach them that it's there, and that it can give hints on how to proceed. Although I may have had an easier time if I wasn't familiar with the old version of the quest, somewhat ironically.
Three quick observations before we're done:
- The cook in Lumbridge gave me a whole deal about not being able to just up and talk to the Duke, but I can waltz straight up to the King of Misthalin with no worries? What?
- Out of curiosity I went and talked to Straven after the quest, and he knew that I'd joined the Black Arm gang; I like that touch, as well as the fact that he lets me change my allegiance (although I'm not clear what purpose that serves anymore)
- There's an actual plot hole, though a small one, at the end of the quest: King Roald says that the shield was stolen during his father's reign (which makes sense, it was almost thirty years before the game's present, and Roald doesn't look that old), but the book from the library says that he established the bounty himself