Essence of Quake: A Tempest Quest

I stood upon the roof of the guard tower, letting the wind whip my hair around me. Tilting my head to the wind, I heard Duex calling to me. He needed my assistance with teleportation in search of Tempest Quest elements. Taking one last look at the rolling hills and large moon upon the horizon, I sang my airy melody and descended to him.

He needed the Essence of Volt, Quake, Flash, and Shard... elements of nature. Since the Desert of Mohrum is our usual hunting ground, we had the Essence of Volt tucked safely away in the vault, but the rest needed finding.

Our first stop was the Eastern Wasteland to find the Essence of Quake. Since I lacked a portal to the Wastelands, we opted for a Kauldur portal and flew to the Wastelands. I could smell the smoke and decay upon the wind and mourned for the charred ground and blackened trees.

The landscape is populated with an array of powerful creatures, made fearsome by the war and reaving which marred by past evils. Large snakes and vicious beetles was like an ocean before us... Drakken, Stonegazers, and Gargantuan Undead dominate the so-called lesser creatures. And floating in the sky, great hulking islands made unreachable by an invisible barrier.

Flying seemed like a safe option, so we glided above the unknown landscape. Everything seemed similar, and it was easy to get lost. We split up to search for the Quake, and tracking was difficult. Finally, I spotted the seemingly diminutive elemental. So much like an Earthly Visage, it is easy to miss and mistaken, but Earthly Visages are far more powerful and aggressive than the mere Quake.

We approached the Quake, virtually hidden amidst the towering cliffs, and attacked with orchestrated vigor. Like Volt, the Quake releases a fiery attack that scorches armor and sears skin, so we knew to dodge and avoid the powerful attack.

Finally, with a final blast of Duex's Planetary Strike spell, the Quake fell. We relaxed enough to take on a few Stonegazers before being ambushed by an Earthly Visage. With the Essence of Quake in hand, we decided to cut our losses and teleport back to Trinst...

That's two essences down... and two more to go. Each more precarious to obtain than the next.

To be continued...