Hea Rheaga: Friend or Foe?

Hea Rheaga: Friend or Foe?

Unknown Timer
Rewards: 20 million XP and either the Slayer of Rheaga title or the Friend of Rheaga title
Weapons: Fire, Shadow-slayer, Virindi-slayer, and Slashing
Difficulty: Easy
Quest Type: Diplomatic/Boss Fight
Restriction: 80+

There’s a prodigal tumerok running around the western Direlands and a scholar examining this new trend of prodigal creations want him put down, but is it right to do so unprovoked? To make your choice, head to Qalaba’r and seek out Nomea ibn Makar in a building at 74.3s 19.1e.

Nomea ibn Makar tells you, "Ah, you may be suitable for the task I have at hand. We've received reports that the Virindi renegade Aerbax has endowed a Hea Tumerok with increased intelligence and magical power. You can only imagine what danger this creature would pose if it came to unite the Tumeroks, the way Aerbax's other experiments have tried, yes?"
Nomea ibn Makar tells you, "Please venture to the Lonely Fortress on the western edge of Dereth, north of Ayan Baqur, and see to it that this Tumerok poses us no threat.

Head out north to Ayan Baqur, buff up, and run to Lonely Fortress at 56.7s 88.5w. It will be a bunker surrounded by virindi, minions, and shadows. Head inside.

~ Lonely Fortress ~
Coords: 56.7s 88.5w
Nearest Drop: Ayan Halls of Metos
Level: 80+
Spawns: Virindi Executors, Adjudicators, Inquisitors, Profatrixes, Pandemonium and Paroxysm Shadows, Telumiat Hollow Minions, Rheaga‘s Companions (golems), and Hea Rheaga.
Flagging: Speak with Nomea ibn Makar
Weapons: Fire, Slashing, Shadow-slayer, and Virindi-slayer

From the drop, head straight, ignoring side passages, until you reach a cat walk over a large acid pit. Take the Northern exit and hollow along until you reach an acid pit that you must jump across. After this you will have only Rheaga’s Companions to deal with (small iron golems). Head up the ramp and in the large open room you come to, take the Eastern exit which will lead into another large room where you will need to take the Northern exit. Stick right to reach yet another large open room where you will need to take the Western exit. From here on out simply follow the path (all one way) until you reach Hea Rheaga. In the eastern alcove is a journal (can be read but not picked up). Below is the text of the journal:

~ Rheaga's Journal ~

Entry 1: Having taught myself the spoken language of the humans by temporarily immersing myself in their society, I decided it would behoove me to practice using their written language as well. I purchased one of these blank books from a paper goods merchant and I have begun to use it as what humans call a "journal". Upon these pages, I shall attempt to transcribe my thoughts in this flawed human medium. The desire to record my thoughts is a new one, perhaps the most compelling of the new desires and impulses that have overcome me since the Master remade me

Entry 2: The more I think about it, the more significant it seems to me that the Master's interference has imbued me with a desire to record my thoughts. It is a sense of introspection and a desire for some kind of legacy to live beyond my mortal allotment. It is a strange and foreign sensation. My people, or what were my people, are not given to such thoughts. I cannot help but feel like it is the Master's own desires that affect me so. In fact, I think, it is Master's desire for some kind of eternal legacy which has committed him to this ambitious "prodigal" project. I will think more on this later.

Entry 3: To occupy myself while I develop my mind, I have taken to re-purposing some abandoned Empyrean constructs. These small "golems" can be imbued with a crude semblance of life with surprisingly little effort. It is a technique very similar to the methods employed by the Virindi in their creation of what the humans call "Simulacra". It gives me an undeniable sense of pleasure to watch the small iron constructs walking and talking, even though they do not have true sentience. I find it amusing, and strangely comforting in my loneliness, to speak to these toy golems even though they cannot comprehend me. Even a mind as superior as mine, it seems, can be fooled by the illusion of companionship, when the burden of solitude is too great.

Entry 4: I have meditated on my own thoughts, and I think I have begun to be able to distinguish between my own thoughts and... some other voice. I am convinced I can hear the Master's voice. I have retained dim memories of the nightmarish process by which the Master remade me. The voice remains the same, echoing faintly in my mind. Had I not been raised a shaman, were I less attuned to the voices of the spirit world, I may well mistake this voice for my own. But I recognize it, and I recognize what it means. I think the Master put a portion of its spirit inside of me when it remade me.

Entry 5: I have spent time in meditation. I have managed to bridge the gap between the shaman training of my youth and the new powers over void and space that the fragment of the Master's essence grants me. I have traveled through the realms of spirit much as I once traveled through the towns and settlements of the humans. I now know that I can peer into the Master's mind, even as the Master peers into mine. I have not sufficiently mastered my skills to be able to speak to it, as it does to me... And perhaps I never will be able to match that kind of power. I may, however, be able to cut myself off from the Master's influence altogether. Somehow, I believe the Master is aware of my intentions, and may even be pleased with my independence.

Entry 6: I have made so much progress it is terrifying. The Master has a link to a realm of pure thought and power known as the Quiddity, one very similar to the Quiddity of the Virindi that the Master has separated himself from. This Quiddity is an amalgamation of the memories and powers of all the beings that are linked to it. It is a shared consciousness, the perfect apotheosis of all the spirit-walking, mind-sharing rituals that my former people tapped into so primitively and incompletely. It took all my courage to even touch upon such a powerful, perfect construct. And this Quiddity is made entirely of beings created and more or less controlled by the Master's own will. After gazing into the Quiddity, the Master's disparate actions over the preceding years start to make a kind of awful, awe-inspiring sense

Entry 6 continued: The Master has invested itself in a dozen different creatures, from Drudge to human, in an effort to preserve its own consciousness for all time, to achieve a sort of immortality. The Master has manipulated memories and remade minds before, most notably in the case of the human Martine, when the Master was still a part of the Virindi Quiddity. The Master learned from Martine what power there was in the human mind, what potential can be harvested from such a chaotic and vigorous race. The Master seeks some way to be able to break all that power to its own will. I now believe that, through the use of its personal Quiddity, the Master intends to manipulate or destroy altogether certain events in the collective minds of the humans of Dereth. Such a blow to the human psyche could well pave the way for the Master to truly succeed in uplifting a human with which to dominate the others...

- Hea Rheaga

Now that you know a bit more about this prodigal tumerok, let’s talk to him:

Hea Rheaga tells you, "Greetings, human. Have you come to slay me? I have divined, through my vast intelligence and penetrating senses, that a human named Nomea in your shantytown of Qalaba'r wishes me dead. Simply because I am a failed experiment of the meddler Aerbax. I can assure you that I pose no threat."
Hea Rheaga tells you, "I have no desire to meet, let alone unite or enslave, my brethren. Nor do I care to wage any kind of war, by arms, sorcery, or guile, against humankind. I have studied enough to know that no good can come of treating with your people."
Hea Rheaga tells you, "If you would slay me, be done with it now. I can assure you, death neither fascinates nor terrifies me. I am not particularly attached to the life I have been given."
Hea Rheaga tells you, "If you would spare me, merely pick up the note you see before me, and deliver it to Nomea. I am convinced it will convince Nomea of my benign intent."
Hea Rheaga tells you, "Be warned, I will fight back if attacked. I am not completely apathetic, after all. I do possess some survival instinct."

You have a choice to make, kill him (keep reading) or spare him (scroll down to the all caps DIPLOMACY). Be warned, you can NOT do both so ignore the note in front of Hea Rheaga for this part. Let’s say you choose to kill him.

~ Boss ~
Name: Hea Rheaga
Weak to: Fire/Slashing
Drops: Head of Rheaga
Cohorts: None
Uses: Physical damage types and Lightning war spells

He has fairly substandard attacks and defenses so this won’t take too long. Everyone will need to kill him to loot a head and he appears to be on a 5 minute respawn timer. This fight won’t take too long.

Hea Rheaga says, "Oh dear... It looks like death is just as boring as the rest of this uninspiring existence..."

Loot the Head of Rheaga and return it to Nomea ibn Makar for your rewards.

Nomea ibn Makar tells you, "Have you resolved the situation with the Hea Tumerok known as Rheaga yet? Please, be on your way and return to me when you've sorted that Tumerok out."

You give Nomea ibn Makar Head of Rheaga.

Nomea ibn Makar tells you, "Funny, the beast doesn't look any smarter than any of the other Tumeroks. Good job, bringing that dangerous creature down. Oh, he may have protested his innocence, but all of these things that Aerbax twisted... Well, they can't help eventually turning to his will, can they?"

You've earned 20,000,000 experience.
Nomea ibn Makar has granted you the title "Slayer of Rheaga"



DIPLOMACY

Note: you can not do both parts so ignore Hea Rheaga and pick up the note in front of him.

~ Letter to Nomea ~

To Nomea, son of Makar, of the Gharu'n tribe of humans:
I am the one your agent seeks. I am Hea Rheaga, once a warrior of the Hea and now uplifted by a misguided, meddling Tinker familiar to yourself. I know the name of the entity you seek. I am one of its prodigal children and I have sensed its name echoing within the mind of your agent. I have spoken with your agent and convinced it to bring you back a communication. I write these words to assure you that no violence is necessary against my person.

Oh benighted human, I have traveled among your kind. Cloaked in your crude roughspun fabrics, or concealed behind my nascent sorceries, I have stalked the streets of your cities. I have walked among your libraries, read your books, absorbed your histories. I have listened to your conversations and sampled the fermented grain beverages in your social establishments. I have learned much of human ways, yet I am certain I shall never understand.

With few exceptions, I have found human kind to be crude, easily distracted, and utterly frustrating. Only the vast power of my enhanced intellect allowed me to absorb the aural virus you consider to be your means of communication. Rest assured I seek no conflict or even contact with your kind. I am even less attracted to the company of my own kind. Before I took myself from the Tinker's dominion, I became aware that it desired for me to subjugate and rule my own kind. This I shall not do.

I write simply to ask that you leave me in peace. I will not stray from this disused sorcerous facility, and I ask that you keep your own intrusions to a minimum. I trust you will appreciate the effort I have taken to transcribe my thoughts into your idiosyncratic language. Perhaps in a few hundred solar cycles, if your kind has not wiped itself out, some of your descendants will be rational enough to converse with me. Until then, I bid your kind good riddance. Leave me be!

- Hea Rheaga

Take this note and bring it to Nomea ibn Makar for your rewards.

Nomea ibn Makar tells you, "Have you resolved the situation with the Hea Tumerok known as Rheaga yet? Please, be on your way and return to me when you've sorted that Tumerok out."

You give Nomea ibn Makar Letter to Nomea.

Nomea ibn Makar tells you, "A very interesting note you've given me here. I suppose this is enough to confirm that this Rheaga has no interest in uniting his kin for a war against us. I thank you for your service."

You've earned 20,000,000 experience.
Nomea ibn Makar has granted you the title "Friend of Rheaga"