Stephen Nix
Penguin Lore Keeper (DF)
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 The Professor
Location: Atrea -> Left -> Yolande -> Quests -> Professor -> Quest!
Requirements: Completion of Dark Pursuit
Release Date: November 21st, 2025
Objective: You've found the Professor and his assistant... but is he willing to confide his plans in you and your allies?
Objective completed: The Professor's safety is counting on you and the Atealas' plan, but how will Konnan fit into this?
Experience rewarded: Scaled
Gold rewarded: Scaled
Monsters
(4) Darkness Elemental
(3) Dirt Beetle
(5) Earth Elemental
(4) Tarantula
(4) Yygrigal
(1) [link=]Fire Imp[/link] - Boss
NPCs
Alz'ein
Etaos
Flame Imp
Isiri
Konnan
Nirios
The Professor
Rewards
[link=]Technician's Tools (I-VI)[/link]
Access to [link=]TheProf Loot for DCs[/link].
Dialogue
*Scene fades into The Professor's cave, where he asks you, your dragon, and the Atealans how they found him while Konnan stands besides him.*
The Professor: ...Well?
Isiri: Sir, we... Between tracking your assistant and some rift analysis...
Isiri: Well, it all ended up leading us here.
The Professor: What rift analysis?
The Professor: I am no Riftwalker. I destroyed my portal from Somorah. I cleaned up the threads...
The Professor: Would Wargoth know to track me with this?
Alz'ein: Whoa, whoa, calm down. We were looking for someone else. A mage from this world.
The Professor: ...I see. I... I see.
<Character>: You wouldn't happen to have that mage stashed away around here, would you?
<Character>: Wears blue, likes to go missing, goes by the name "Warlic"?
The Professor: No. There are no mages here.
The Professor: As for what you want from me, I can assume you want help fighting Wargoth.
The Professor: My apprentice has informed me of Wargoths' attacks, and news of Atrea's appearance here.
The Professor: I can only assume that Wargoth has arrived in pursuit. And if you lot have found me here, then it's only a matter of time before Wargoth does.
<Dragon>: Wait! There's something over there! | *Alerting hiss!*
*Your dragon looks at a opening from The Professor's cave, which is filled with debris consisting of Metal Elemental's parts; it appears that a voice of a Flame Imp is behind the debris.*
Flame Imp: *squeak!*
The Professor: ...And you led his minion straight to me!
The Professor: All of you! Catch it before it escapes! Now! It cannot be allowed to report back to Wargoth!
*You are in a mine; you fight various monsters along the way; during the hunt of the Flame Imp, you talk to the Atealans and Konnan.*
Mine
Etaos: What? I'm focusing very hard, I'll have you know.
Etaos: Assuming these shafts are a dead end, the imp has to come back this way eventually, right?
Etaos: You're welcome to wait with me, if you want.
Konnan: ...I have nothing to say to you.
Konnan: Stop wasting time.
Nirios: Ah. <Character>. I didn't hear you approach.
Nirios: Do you see this crystal here, in this refuse?
Nirios: I wonder if such elemental crystals are what were once mined here.
Nirios: Yet, seeing the walls so barren, and the tools long abandoned...
Nirios: I feel a sense of great melancholy...
Nirios: Sorry, we had a mission, did we not? I'll catch up.
Alz'ein: Stupid. Fallen. Rubble!
Alz'ein: Out of the way!
Isiri: Jatiw, <Character>! The Professor is quite interesting, isn't he?
Isiri: I wonder why he chose this place to hide, out of all possibilities...?
Isiri: What kind of people would have worked here before?
Isiri: The imp? I'll keep looking through this room.
*You find the lever that opens the giant metal door, where a big Flame Imp appears behind it.*
*After defeating the Flame Imp, the now small imp still runs away as you and your dragon attempt to pursuit it.*
<Dragon>: It's getting away! | *Angry growl!*
<Character>: Get back here you little—
Flame Imp: KKHHHHAAAHAAAAHAAHAAAA!
*Just as all hope is lost, Konnan puts a bucket over the imp and a hammer on top of the bucket to make sure the imp doesn't escape.*
Konnan: ...
*Scene fades to black, before fading back in; you, your dragon, the Atealans, Konnan, and The Professor are in a meeting room after capturing the imp, who is imprisoned in a purple bubble by Etaos and Nirios.*
The Professor: That was too close. Apprentice, run the perimeter. Make sure nothing else is loose in here.
*Upon hearing The Professor's order, Konnan seems uncertain if he will be alright with the others.*
Konnan: But, master, are you sure you'll be safe here with—
The Professor: I gave you a task, apprentice. I will be fine.
*After hearing The Professor's words, Konnan decided to follow his order.*
Konnan: ...Yes, sir.
*Konnan leaves to secure the perimeter; after he leaves, you ask The Professor about his villainous past as Drakonnan.*
<Character>: About your apprentice, sir—
The Professor: If you intend to tell me about his past crimes, there is no need.
The Professor: I am aware.
The Professor: He confessed them to me himself, after I found him living alone out here.
<Character>: And after learning what he did, you trust him?
The Professor: It's thanks to my apprentice that I've been able to stay hidden, while he fetches the resources I need.
The Professor: He has shown no signs of betrayal, and I believe he wishes to atone for his mistakes.
<Character>: ...
The Professor: I would appreciate it if you didn't antagonize him further than your presence here already does.
<Character>: I...
<Character>: I don't like it. But I guess we're working toward the same goal, for now.
The Professor: Thank you.
The Professor: With that out of the way, allow me to share my plan for dealing with Wargoth.
The Professor: I am creating a trap to ensnare him, sending him through a portal to another dimension entirely.
Etaos: You'd make him someone else's problem?
Alz'ein: What if he just opens a rift back here?
The Professor: There will be contingencies.
The Professor: A trap needs bait. I would be that bait, and I would go with him.
<Character>: What makes you think he'll go after you specifically when there's a whole planet to burn?
The Professor: The way his vengeance is inflamed...
The Professor: He would stop at nothing to get to me if he knew where I was.
*The Professor hangs his head after telling his plan to trap Wargoth; it appears that he is not telling everything.*
Nirios: With all due respect, sir, I don't think you're telling us everything.
Nirios: Somorah is gone. You opposed him, but saving Atrea and... and a relative handful of Ateala can hardly be considered... a success.
The Professor: ...
Nirios: Are you really a threat to his machinations?
The Professor: Ha. You think I'm an old fool, absorbed by my own ego?
Nirios: I didn't mean to suggest—
The Professor: I confronted him, face-to-face, just once, on Somorah.
The Professor: I was lucky to escape, but the way his hatred for me was seared into his every attack...
The Professor: Since then, every time I close my eyes, I feel his burning fury, I'm enveloped by his wrath.
The Professor: Even now, he haunts my dreams.
Isiri: There are many Ateala who have shared similar nightmares. It... it could be trauma.
The Professor: ...It is more than that. Every time I try to sleep, our minds clash, our dreams and fears collide.
*There is a brief pause after The Professor confesses that he is plagued with nightmares from Wargoth.*
<Character>: What kind of magic is he using that lets him invade your mind?
Isiri: He was able to harness the abilities of Riftwalkers, perhaps he has twisted Cryptics to his will?
Nirios: It is not impossible, but...
The Professor: No. I don't think he's controlling it when it happens.
The Professor: When we meet in dreams and nightmares.... He asks me the same. He demands to know how I'm invading his mind.
The Professor: He wishes to escape me as much as I wish to escape him.
*The Professor pauses before continuing how his mind is linked to Wargoth's.*
The Professor: So, when I say that he would do anything to be rid of me, I know it.
Alz'ein: Hold on, if your, uh, minds are colliding in the dream or whatever, what if he discovers your plan?
Alz'ein: You can't surprise him with a trap if he knows it's coming.
The Professor: That admittedly is a concern. I've done my best to hide my location and other secrets so far...
The Professor: ...But it is not impossible that he wears me down, eventually.
<Character>: Then we need to reinforce your defenses somehow! Maybe Isiri was on the right track.
<Character>: Etaos and Nirios are Cryptics.
Nirios: We can try to do it, but we'll need more information on how this connection works.
Nirios: Maybe if we had a way of viewing, or interacting with the dream...
*There is a brief pause on how Nirios and Etaos will enter The Professor's mind.*
Etaos: ...There are stories sung of ancient Riftwalkers who were able to enter imaginary lands, I think?
Etaos: Alz'ein?
Alz'ein: I mean, I've heard about it... Riftwalkers crossing into the worlds of dreams or nightmares...
Alz'ein: But those legends have always been Unael, backed by the power of the Empress.
Alz'ein: I don't think I... I wouldn't know where to start.
Isiri: You are strong, Alz'ein. Alongside Etaos and Nirios' assistance, I may be able to guide you.
Isiri: I will also beseech the Empress for aid. This is no simple task, and could turn the fight against Wargoth.
Isiri: I am certain she'll answer.
The Professor: So, I either suffer Wargoth's intrusions into my mind, or let an inexperienced Riftwalker cut through my psyche.
Alz'ein: Hey!
The Professor: I'll take the risk.
<Character>: Are you sure—?
The Professor: I trust you all. I trust the Atealan Empress. Prepare what you must.
Nirios: We should decide who to send in. Etaos and I can maintain safety for two people.
Nirios: We could just send <Character> alone, but multiple perspectives are always better when dealing with matters of the mind.
<Character>: I'm going in, then. I guess Alz'ein's coming, too?
Alz'ein: It's probably safer for me to maintain the rift from out here, in case something goes wrong.
Alz'ein: Not that it will.
<Dragon>: I'll go! | *Eager roar!*
<Character>: What about <Dragon>?
Etaos: As... interesting as it would be to send <Dragon> in, Nirios and I can't really understand them.
Etaos: Could be risky.
Etaos: I guess, if we don't have anyone else...
*The Professor thinks of another one aside from you on who will invade his mind; in a right moment of time, Konnan comes back to the meeting room after securing the perimeter.*
Konnan: Alright, I'm back! I triple-checked all the entrances and the blocked passages and...
*You, your dragon, The Professor, and the Atealans look at Konnan, who is pleasantly surprised and oblivious of The Professor's plans.*
Konnan: ...What?
*Scene cuts to black.*
Complete Quest
Loot for DCs - opens [link=]TheProf Loot for DCs[/link] shop.
Other information
A HP/MP healing pad can be found during the quest.
Stepping on a crater will remove 25% max HP from the player and any guests.
Pop-up headlines during the quest:
quote:
This massive metal door seems stuck. Maybe you can find a way to open it.
How old is this mine? This healing pad is ancient...
You hear a loud creaking sound echoing through the cave!
The lever is stuck. Probably for the best.
That imp... is a lot bigger than it used to be. This quest was reimagined with new dialogue and updated rewards on November 21st, 2025.
Thanks to DemonicDarkwraith for original entry.
< Message edited by DemonicDarkwraith -- 11/22/2025 0:33:03 >
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