Chapter 83: The Shattering Pt. 2 (Patreon)

Entering Unique Dungeon: Hrath’mir Fortress
Dungeon Option 1: Dying in this dungeon will reset the dungeon and return you to the entrance with no death penalty.

To exit the dungeon, abandon the quest. The quest cannot be re-accepted. Combat and weapon skill experience cannot be acquired while inside this dungeon.

“This is terrible. Hrath’mir wasn’t designed to protect this many people.”

“What do you expect? Their homes were destroyed. Hrath’mir is all that's left.”

“They’re coming.”

“Do not fear them! Fear only makes them stronger.”

“What should we do, Great Prophet?”

“The Avatar should arrive shortly. She will guide us from this impending darkness. It is our duty to not give up hope until that time.”

The conversation played out exactly the same way it had the first time Aegis entered the dungeon. Looking around over the ledge of the third level down at the in-tact city, he knew now what to expect. He saw out of the corner of his eye the arrival of gryphon soaring through the night sky towards them, the bearer of bad news, but Aegis paid it no mind as he started to look at the city in more detail, from a tactical perspective.

From this vantage point he could see the North, West, and east gates of both the 1st 2nd, and 3rd levels of the city. Walking around the edge of the walls and behind the Chapel Aegis saw the south gate as well. All of them were covered in soldiers of varying gods, guilds and factions. Not just humans, but orcs, elves, lizardfolk, gnomes, satyr’s, and other races he couldn’t recognize.

It felt like a desperate last stand when he looked at it with hindsight, and he knew they were going to fail their last stand unless he did something drastic to turn the tides. By the time Aegis made it back to where the other Priests of Eirene were standing, the Great Prophet had already gone back inside the chapel to pray.

“Who are the Avatars of Darkness?” Aegis asked the priests of Eirene standing around, getting the attention of a few of them.

“There are four that have united against the light. Suffering, Fear, Death and Anger.” He answered.

“Okay.” Aegis nodded as he thought about this. “If I don’t handle each of them properly, there’s no chance.” Aegis confirmed out loud.

“You know of a way for us to win this battle?” One of the priests asked him hopeful.

“Not yet, but I think it’s possible. You four!” Aegis pointed at the four priests that were brave enough to follow him to the end in his last playthrough. “The Avatar of Suffering will approach from the north gate. The commander of Zeus’ forces will try to strike him down, but that will only make him stronger. You must subdue him with the light. He relishes in pain, so use healing magic and it will weaken him and take away his power. Understood? You must not let the Avatar of Suffering take the North gate.” Aegis commanded them and they all gave him nods of respect. “Anyone who is proficient in healing magic, go with them and use your magic against the Avatar of Suffering and his ghouls.” Aegis added, looking to the other priests. To Aegis’ surprise, this time, due to Aegis’ confidence, quite a few were eager to go, and he watched as a group of 10 Eirene Priests made for the north gate.

“And what will you do?” The injured soldier from the gryphon asked, as Aegis saw the remaining Priests looking at him expectantly.

“I don’t know who will approach from the west and south, but the Avatar of Anger will come from the east. If we don’t do something to weaken it, it will be the first gate to fall.” Aegis said as he looked at the eastern gate, unable to make out the symbols on the armor of the soldiers manning it. “Guess I’m going to have to figure it out the hard way.” Aegis said to himself, and he felt his legs shaking at the thought. He knew what was coming, that he’d have to put himself back into the thick of battle, so he tried his best to shake his nerves out with a few hops in place before he began his trek down to the eastern gate, this time alone.

Just as before, by the time he’d arrived at the walls of the 2nd level, he could see in the distance that the outerwalls of the city were under siege, even on the eastern side, and knew they’d fall in a matter of minutes. Taking stock of the soldiers along the eastern wall, he spotted the yin yang symbols engraved on their iron breastplates and embroidered into their tabards and cloaks. He recognized the symbol, but wasn’t sure what it represented until he spotted the commander’s name, [Changxi Commander - ??].

“Commander, the Avatar of Anger is coming this way with his army of ghouls.” Aegis said to her.

“Tell me something I don’t know.” She replied as she paced along the walls nervously, looking towards the outer east gate.

“I mean, the Avatar of Anger, it gets stronger and makes people into ghouls through anger.” Aegis explained.

“How does that information help me, Priest of Eirene? Shouldn’t you be up in your church, praying for the light to protect us?” She snapped back at him condescendingly. He was beginning to get the impression that other divine worshippers didn’t hold Eirene in high regard, but he didn’t have time to delve into that as a large echoing explosion could be heard and seen at the outer east gate. It had been breached. Looking north, Aegis saw that almost at the exact same time, the north gate was breached as well. Just like before, the black mist began flooding into the city alongside the forces of darkness that hid within it.

It was just as ominous the second time as it was the first, watching the black mist swallow up the lower levels of the city one building at a time as the screams of the citizens that had stayed back began to reach them up on the walls.

“You have to fight them back, but you have to do it without anger.” Aegis instructed her, and as she looked at him he saw nothing but fear in her eyes, and could only be thankful that it wasn’t the Avatar of Fear attacking this gate. She didn’t reply, and her bravado from a moment ago was all but gone in the face of the mass of darkness flowing towards them.

“You mustn't hold anger in your hearts. Take deep breaths, fight, but with peace of mind. You are standing in the name of the Light of Changxi.” Aegis shouted to all of the soldiers on the wall. There was little to no reaction, and he quickly grasped why this wall was the first to fall. “You have to prepare for them, they’re coming!” Aegis nudged the Changxi Commander but she just stared blankly back at him, pale with sweat running down her face under her iron helm.

“What is the point, how can we possibly win against that? We’re the reserve soldiers," she whimpered back. "They wiped out our main forces at the battle of Truam Keep. We’re…” she lost the strength to speak. Her silence was taken over by the sounds of screaming as the darkness flooded down the main eastern road towards them, but rather than swarms of ghouls charging at them, Aegis saw the large wraith like Avatar hovering above the mist. Like the Banshee he’d fought during his Shield Mastery quest, this creature had no legs and its lower half instead trailed a cloud of mist, as if it was riding on the wave darkness that flooded into the city.

“Your Avatar’s are merely my decorations now.” He screeched out in a low growl that followed with an echoing whisper - his voice was extremely unnerving to listen to. As he hovered upwards he spread out his arms, and under his cloak, his oversized arm span extended out in front of them to reveal thick bony skeletal arms with ropes dangling from them. Hanging from the ropes were bodies of Changxi priests, among them looked to be an important figure that drew gasps from the soldiers on the walls when they saw him.

“The Avatar of Changxi!” The Commander placed her hands to her mouth as she saw it.

“Is this all you have to challenge me? So weak! So dangly!” He mocked in his echoing voice as he dangled the bodies by waving his arms, as if they were playthings. Aegis didn’t need to be an Avatar of Anger to feel the aura of rage that immediately began to emanate from the soldiers on the wall as they bore witness to this mockery of their Avatar.

“Yes… YES! Glorious. Fill me with your anger!” He called out joyously as he began to grow in size, closing in on the gate. Then, on the ground beneath him, two more figures stepped out of the mist walking towards the east gate casually. A tall knight with a great black sword and a nearly nude female with horns and whip-like tail, light pink skin. As they closed in, Aegis saw their names.

“Come, my children, feed on their failures.” The Avatar of Anger spoke down to them as Aegis spotted their names. [Avatar of Hatred - ??], [Avatar of Jealousy - ??].

“You have to do something!” Aegis shouted at the Changxi Commander, but she gave no orders, and Aegis watched as angry soldiers began to fire at the three Avatars freely. “Do something!” Aegis shouted angrily at her, and he felt a pulsing cold sensation surge towards him from behind as he said this.

“You are filled with quite a bit of anger, Priest of Eirene.” A voice whispered from behind him. Aegis turned to see the Avatar of Anger had swooped right up to him, despite him being up on the 10ft high wall. With a quick wooshing swipe of one of his claws, Aegis was gone.

You take 534 031 Shadow damage.
You have died.
Resetting Dungeon...
Dungeon Reset

Entering Unique Dungeon: Hrath’mir Fortress
Dungeon Option 1: Dying in this dungeon will reset the dungeon and return you to the entrance with no death penalty.

To exit the dungeon, abandon the quest. The quest cannot be re-accepted. Combat and weapon skill experience cannot be acquired while inside this dungeon.

“Ok.” Aegis said to himself as he settled into being back atop the city with the Eirene priests at the start of the battle. “East gate is going to be a problem.” He cracked his neck as he prepared for the long trial and error that was ahead of him.

You take 780 572 Shadow damage.
You have died.   

You take 424 059 Shadow damage.
You have died.       

You take 619 300 Shadow damage.
You have died.       

You take 534 031 Shadow damage.
You have died.

With each attempt at defending the east gate, Aegis tried different methods to weaken the power of the Avatar of Anger. He was happy at least that based on how much damage he took from the Avatar at the end, he could tell how empowered or weakened the Avatar was based on the method he’d tried. He was also slowly becoming more accustomed to being on a battlefield, and more accepting of the fact that everything around him was just a game and not real, allowing him to think more logically and with less fear. Consistently though, with each attempt, the damning event was the appearance of the Avatar of Changxi’s body being mocked, and Aegis couldn’t prevent it from happening. He tried rushing at the darkness to intercept and interrupt the Avatar of Anger, but that simply led to the Avatar of Hatred and Jealousy taking him out.

On the 11th attempt, Aegis’ own anger and frustration was starting to add to the problem, and he started to get desperate. The moment he arrived on the walls, he broke out into song.

“Peace, peace and love. Peace and love for everyone. Let’s hug, and all hold hands, no one’s angry -” Aegis sang horribly offkey.

“What are you doing? You’re making a fool of yourself!” The Changxi Commander shouted at him.

“Yeah, but who cares, we’re all going to die anyway. Let’s do it with love in our hearts, ooh love is so great. The lovely light of Eirene, it washes away all the hate! Peace, peace and love, and happiness!”

“Commander can you get that Eirene priest out of here?” One of the soldiers shouted angrily at her.

“I don’t know if you think this is some sort of joke, or if you’ve lost your mind, but-” Aegis just continued to sing over her with no sense of rhythm or melody, but confident nonetheless. He’d taken to ignoring the fact that he now had a viewership of 10 000 and instead thought of it as though he was only singing to a bunch of NPCs that were all about to die, so it didn't matter how bad he sounded.

“Your Avatar’s are merely my decorations now.” The Avatar of Anger screeched as he approached.

“FIVE GOLD COINS SAYS HE’S GONNA DO SOMETHING LAME, LIKE DANGLE BODIES ON HIS ARMS!” Aegis shouted mockingly, as the Avatar of Anger did exactly that, spreading out his bony arms. “HAH Totally called that. Real original, Avatar of Boring is more like it," Aegis shouted at him across the battlefield for all to hear. "PEACE! PEACE AND LOVE!” Aegis continued his song as loud as he could.

“DO YOU MOCK ME, PRIEST OF EIRENE?!” The Avatar of Anger shouted angrily.

“Uh oh, what happens when the Avatar of Anger gets Angry? Does he just self-destruct? Hey Avatar, look what I can do!” Aegis shouted as he gave a little hop. “I can jump. Get it? Because you don’t have legs. So you can’t jump. Anyway, as I was saying. Peace. Peace and Love.” He broke back into song.

“Come forth my children! DEVOUR THIS IMPUDENT PRIEST!” The Avatar of Anger shouted in a rage as the Avatar of Hatred and Jealousy began to step forth out of the darkness.

“Ooh, Jealousy and Hatred. The only one jealous here is you. Of our legs. Look, guys, show him your legs, he hates that.” Aegis shouted to the Changxi soldiers while Aegis wiggled one of his legs out over the wall, and a few of the soldiers joined in. "Hey since you're all misty below the waist, how do you go to the bathroom?" Aegis asked curiously and a few of the soldiers chuckled. Aegis then turned to the Changxi commander.

“Are you really going to let this legless loser and his edgelord offspring take this gate?” Aegis spoke to the Changxi Commander, his tone shifting dramatically to be as serious as possible. She wasn’t afraid this time, she grinned back at Aegis.

“NOCK ARROWS!” She shouted, and Aegis heard the beautiful sound of drawstrings being pulled back by the Changxi rangers on the wall. As she did, Aegis felt the familiar cold rushing air, and turned to see the Avatar of Anger had flown up to him as he always did, pulling his arm back to swipe at him. Aegis put up his shield and braced the attack.

You take 1110 Shadow damage

“Hah, wimp.” Aegis smirked back after seeing the numbers, and a second later, hundreds of arrows and spells pierced through the wraith, pushing him back away from the wall and forcing him to retreat back towards the dark mist.

“Destroy them!” The Avatar of Anger shouted, and a flood of blueish-white skinned ghouls charged out of the darkness around the Avatars of Hatred and Jealousy.

“Do not let anger take you, and he has no power here!” Aegis shouted. “Peace, Peace and Love, Joy, and happiness. Let it fill your hearts! You are the proud and brave soldiers of Changxi, you fear no darkness, and especially not darkness that can’t even wear shoes!” Aegis shouted out to them. The ghouls were being wiped out by volley upon volley of arrows and spells fired from the brave and empowered Changxi soldiers. Wizards, Archers, Druids and even Warlocks from other guilds and factions not bearing the symbols of Changxi were joining in and exchanging blows. The Avatars of Hatred and Jealousy couldn’t even get close to the gates.

“I can’t believe that worked.” Aegis whispered under his breath, as for the first time, the east gate was holding steady. As Aegis continued to sing nonsensical music to keep their spirits up, he looked to the north and saw that the North gate was still holding, he saw flashes of holy white light from the Eirene priests he’d sent there as they held back the Avatar of Suffering. He couldn’t see the west gate from this side of the city, due to the third level of the city standing above him to the west and blocking his view, but the south had no explosions signaling the destruction of the gate.

Aegis thought this a good thing at first, as he turned his attention from the battle in front of him to try and see how the south was doing, but he noticed that not only was there no explosion at the gate, there was no flashing of spells, clashing of steel, firing of ballista - nothing. The south gate was completely silent, and when he looked more closely he saw the dark black mist flooding over the walls and into the 2nd level of the city.

“Hold steady here, I’m going to assist the south.” Aegis shouted and the Changxi Commander nodded before giving more orders to her soldiers. Aegis ran along the top of the 2nd level’s wall southward. There was a tower that separated the east section and the south, with doors leading through it to access both sections. Aegis threw the door open from the eastern side of the tower and left on the south side, only to see the dark mist flowing over the wall slowly like a river. There was no army of ghouls pouring over it though, it was dead silent. Aegis looked inward into the 2nd level of the city and it was the same, the entire south section of the city was just quiet. Not even the sound of footsteps, or crickets. He could still hear the sounds of battle coming from the eastern gate, but that was it.

When Aegis continued a bit further into the dark mist, he could barely see more than a meter in front of himself and eventually stumbled over the bodies of the soldiers that had been defending the wall. They were lying lifelessly on the ground with 0 hit points, but no signs of durability loss to their armor.

He was too late, he knew that would likely be the case, but he needed to know what he was dealing with before the next reset. He climbed off the wall onto the ground floor of the 2nd section of the city and maneuvered through the streets in the direction of where the mist was flowing. He could only assume that leading the mist into the city would be the Avatar of Death or Fear, but by the time he’d caught up to the front of the mist, it had already reached the gates to the 3rd level of the city, and Aegis watched as suddenly guards began to fall off the walls in front of him, lifelessly, as their health bars all hit 0 from nothing. No spell was hitting them, they were just dropping dead, and within seconds, the defenders of the third wall on the south side had fallen - the cities last line of defense didn’t stand a chance.

Aegis rushed through the mist, he could see over it but not through it, and he found himself struggling to navigate the streets as it was covered in the bodies of the fallen citizens. It was a horrific scene, women, children, men, all unarmed and unarmored of a variety of races. They’d all just dropped dead. When Aegis finally got close enough to the third gate to see what was ahead of the mist, he watched as a black cloaked figure stood in front of the large thick wooden doors and reached out to touch them with his bare hands. As he did, the wood began to rot away and age rapidly, until it turned to dust in a small area around where it had been touched, allowing the figure to simply walk through.

From behind, Aegis could see its name. [Avatar of Death(Elite) - ??]. He could make out long white hair hanging down the back of its black robes with a large scythe in his left hand. When the opening in the gate formed, he slowly walked through it without any fear for what might be waiting behind the gate for him, and as he did, he went through unopposed and the black mist followed him.

“Avatar of Death!” Aegis shouted to get his attention, and tried to stop his advance. It worked, he turned around slowly to reveal his form. Unlike the creepy appearances of Anger and Suffering, this Avatar looked like a simple old man with wrinkly skin and a long white beard and mustache, so bushy that his mouth wasn’t visible. “That’s far enough.” Aegis tried to sound brave as he prepared his shield on his left arm. He took a few more steps forward, but suddenly out of nowhere and without any action taken by the Avatar, Aegis felt a rush of cold energy.

You take 999 999 999 Shadow damage.
You have died.
Resetting Dungeon...
Dungeon Reset

Entering Unique Dungeon: Hrath’mir Fortress
Dungeon Option 1: Dying in this dungeon will reset the dungeon and return you to the entrance with no death penalty.

To exit the dungeon, abandon the quest. The quest cannot be re-accepted. Combat and weapon skill experience cannot be acquired while inside this dungeon.

Aegis stood back at the start of the dungeon, dumbfounded. What had killed him? Was it a radius? That amount of damage, and it wasn’t anything like a projectile he could dodge or block. Was it eye contact? No, they were looking at each other beforehand. Rather than organizing a defense to the east gate, Aegis needed more information on the south first. Without waiting for the gryphon to land, he rushed down the walls towards the south gate as fast as he could, but by the time he’d reached the south gate of the 2nd level of the city, the outer south gate had already fallen, and the dark mist was flowing over the 1st level of the city. Unlike when the north and east outer gates fell, there were no screams, just silence. Something about that made it even more terrifying than the other two. Aegis saw a collection of paladins, clerics and other soldiers lined up prepared to defend the gate. He didn’t recognize most of the symbols, but the most predominant one was that of a trident, and Aegis was able to locate the commander still alive, standing on the wall above the south gate itself. [Shiva Commander - ??].

“The Avatar of Death is approaching, do you know how to stop him?” Aegis asked the commander, but once he heard Aegis speak, a look of terror flooded over him and his skin went pale.

“There is no stopping death.” He mumbled weakly.

“There must be something, right?” Aegis asked.

“No, the-” The Shiva commander started to speak, but Aegis watched as red damage numbers appeared above his head. 999,999,999. He fell over instantly, and all around Aegis, other soldiers did the same. Aegis turned to see that the Avatar of Death was already approaching, looking at them from roughly 200 meters away as he walked down the road leading to the 2nd level's southern gate, the mist trailing behind him. 200 meters apparently was close enough, thought Aegis, as the damage numbers hit him as well.

You take 999 999 999 Shadow damage.
You have died.
Resetting Dungeon...
Dungeon Reset

“I don’t get it.” Aegis said to himself confused as he stood back among the other Eirene priests. “I mean, I get why he’s doing so much damage… suffering is empowered by pain, anger is empowered by anger, so death is doing more damage because of all of the death around the battlefield. How can we stop him from being empowered?” Aegis said to himself as another Eirene priest beside him had been listening in.

“You cannot. That is why all of the avatars of the gods of light fell at the battle of Truam Keep.” The priest replied, after which the standard starting dialogue played out. Aegis drifted off in thought. The difficulty of the quest was Extreme(II), so he knew it’d be hard, but it couldn’t be impossible. There had to be a way to survive, he just needed to think. There had to be a way to avoid the damage and protect others from it.

Aegis tried rushing the first gate. He tried flanking the Avatar of Death. He tried convincing the Shiva soldiers to retreat to lessen the amount of people dying, none of it worked. The moment the Avatar of Death became aware of him, he took the damage and died with no opportunity to block anything with his shield. After several more attempts, Aegis was beginning to lose his patience and was getting desperate. This time, he held back and waited for the starting dialogue to finish, and decided to follow the Great Prophet inside the chapel.

The interrior was small with a simple yellow carpet going straight down the center flanked by rows of pews and a small stage at the back with a podium. The Great Prophet walked past this and through a door at the back, where Aegis followed him into a round prayer room eerily similar to the same one he had prayed at to enter this dungeon when he was still in the Monastery of the Stars, complete with candles, a starry night roof, and a statue of Eirene in the center.

“Great Prophet, how can I stop the Avatar of Death?” Aegis asked him just before the Prophet dropped to his knees to begin his prayers.

“Stop him? It is too late for that.” He replied apologetically. “If they had listened to us from the start, this could have been avoided. When the followers of the Dark Gods challenged the people of Hrath’mir, they responded with pride, and a show of force to crush their foes into the ground. But that was exactly what the Dark Gods wanted…” He continued as he knelt down facing the statue of Eirene.

“Fighting, no matter who wins, always breeds Fear, Suffering, Anger, and eventually Death.” he continued. "As long as there is conflict, those Avatars of Darkness will thrive."

“The only way they could’ve stopped them from getting stronger is peacefully, through pacifism…” The realization hit Aegis like a bag of bricks.

“Precisely. But they mocked Eirene and our teachings for being weak, and look where that has gotten them. I’m afraid that the forces of darkness have grown too powerful, and without the strength of any of our divine avatars, we can do nothing but await our fates. Allow me to pray and alert our brethren, they must know that Hrath’mir has fallen and to prepare for the worst outcome.” The Great Prophet said as he tried to dismiss Aegis out of the room, but this only gave Aegis rise to more questions.

“Brethren? There are still more soldiers, and Eirene priests? This isn’t all that's left?” Aegis asked hopefully.

“My young priest, your optimism is admirable, but you should know. All of the nations united their armies under the Hrath’mir banner to fight this threat. The other nations may still stand, but they are defenseless. Once the darkness has swept through here, it is only a matter of time before it spreads to the other kingdoms. I can only pray for them and warn them of their impending fates.” The Great Prophet finished.

“Which Kingdoms? Kalmoore?” Aegis asked, confused. He could tell the Prophet was getting annoyed by his ignorance, but he didn’t care much.

“Yes, Kalmoore, Savringard, Lanusk, Arallia, Vorel… several others…” He went on, but as he did, a realization dawned on Aegis.

“There’s no island named Hrath’mir.” Aegis said out loud as it came to him, but the Great Prophet didn’t understand what he meant and motioned Aegis to leave him in the prayer chamber. Aegis did exactly that, slowly walking through the chapel and back outside to look over the walls and watch the east gate fall.

“I’ve been missing something important.” Aegis opened up his quest interface to reread it. “Survive the Shattering. What I don’t understand is, if the forces of darkness are winning this battle and taking over this world, why would they shatter it?” Aegis said out loud as he watched the darkness flood through the city from the east and south, and saw an explosion of lightning destroying the north gate.

He paced along the edge of the wall thinking, as screaming approached from the north and east, and silence approached from the south. He watched as the ghouls reached the north and east gates of the third level, and the Avatar of death simply walked through the south gate. The people of the third level of the city, the last layer of living souls in all of Hrath’mir, fled in terror, some rushing towards the chapel of Eirene to hide within it as Aegis just watched the Avatar of Death walk through the streets, all living creatures near him perishing immediately.

“Wait…” Aegis just noticed something that he hadn’t been paying attention to. He angled himself to look around the buildings of the 3rd level, over the carnage and death as the darkness flooded over the last bastions of safety within the city. He spotted it as clear as day - the west gate had not fallen. The Avatar of Fear did not breach the city gates, there was no army or dark mist flooding in from the west at all. Aegis turned from the Avatar of Death and ran into the Chapel of Eirene just as the Avatar turned to start walking in his direction.

Once inside the Chapel, Aegis saw that countless citizens were kneeling in prayer, begging for forgiveness and protection from the light, and in one of the corners Aegis spotted the gryphon rider who’d arrived at the start of the dungeon cowering in a corner.

“There’s a reason the dungeon keeps resetting to that point.” Aegis said to himself as he stomped through the chapel to the soldier. “You, hey, you, you said something about the western pass, right?” Aegis asked him urgently.

“Huh? Y-yeah. Yes, the western pass, the Avatar of Eirene was on her way, but we were overtaken by the Avatar of Fear and his army. I was the only one who escaped.” He replied as he kept looking between Aegis and the chapel's front doors.

“Did you actually see the Avatar of Eirene die? Or did you just flee in fear?” Aegis asked.

“Huh? I don’t know…” he mumbled back anxiously.

“DID YOU SEE HER DIE?!” Aegis shouted in frustration as he felt the cold chill of death behind him, and heard the whimpering and prayers of the other people in the church falling silent. He knew if he turned around now he would see the Avatar of Death in the doorway, and due to that, he couldn’t get his answer.

You take 999 999 999 Shadow damage.
You have died.
Resetting Dungeon...
Dungeon Reset

Entering Unique Dungeon: Hrath’mir Fortress
Dungeon Option 1: Dying in this dungeon will reset the dungeon and return you to the entrance with no death penalty.

To exit the dungeon, abandon the quest. The quest cannot be re-accepted. Combat and weapon skill experience cannot be acquired while inside this dungeon.

Aegis waited patiently at the start of the dungeon, tapping his feet as he watched the gryphon rider soar down from the night sky and land with his injuries.

“Sir… the Avatar of Eirene… the caravan, they were overtaken at the western pass. The soldiers of Fear, there were so many.” The injured soldier moaned as the Great Prophet ran to him and healed him with his magic.

Aegis looked to the west - nothing like a western pass was visible from this distance, meaning it was far away. To get there in time, there was only one possibility.

“Riding skill level 30 required.” Aegis whispered to himself as he stepped towards the riderless gryphon. Without explaining himself, Aegis let the skill do its work and attempted to mount the beast. It was well trained and didn’t fuss when he climbed on top, but much larger than a horse or a lagnok, and Aegis felt the might of the creature's muscles as it stood upright.

“Wait, where are you going? That’s my gryphon!” The soldier looked at him confused.

“Are you planning on abandoning the people of Hrath'mir?” The Great Prophet asked him with condescension.

“No, I’m not abandoning anyone. I’m going to save the Avatar of Eirene.” Aegis said as he pulled the reins of the gryphon's bridle, and it let out a screech before leaping into the air, flapping its wings furiously into the night sky.