Ragnarok Origin Lore: Chapter 2 – Spirit Pieces
A New Lead
After a couple of days, we receive a letter from the Knight Captain Seyren. It says that he’s completed his investigations into the fire incident and that he needs to meet us.
We meet him just outside the Prontera Cathedral, where he tells us that he’s found a white mask worn by a man found near the scene of the fire, the Prontera Underground Bazaar. Aside from this lead, he’s also confirmed that the Underground Bazaar is an intelligence base of the Assassin Guild.
Unfamiliar with a couple of things, we ask him for more information about the guild he mentioned. He explains that the Assassin Guild, based in Morroc, is a highly-respected organization with far-reaching influence, that even the Royal Family of Rune-Midgarts acknowledges and respects.
We theorize that the Assassin Guild could have had some involvement with the fire, but Seyren disagrees. He stands by the known credibility of the guild and informs us that the information he has collected from his interviews with some of its officers further proves their innocence. He strongly believes that it was the White Masks.
Our valiant knight friend Seyren hands us the mask they’ve found from the man they arrested. Almost instantly, we notice that it closely resembles the white mask we’d found on the body of the Mysterious Leader of men in white who had attacked Lucy at Prontera South Gate a few days ago.
When we tell Seyren about that encounter, his suspicions made sense. He notes that they’ve just recently found out about the White Masks–a secret organization, members of which have already been seen in Prontera–and asks us what we think their motive might be. We make a wild guess that they might want to silence the Assassin Guild. However, Seyren disagrees and he thinks someone might have stolen something important that belongs to the White Masks and hid it in Prontera.
The Woman in White Robes
Seyren looks into our eyes with a sense of seriousness. To show that he trusts us, he lets us in on a secret lead by showing us testimonies collected from those who witnessed the fire at the bazaar. What strikes us the most is that the witnesses found a female Assassin who was attacked by a woman dressed in white robes. When the former has fallen, the latter took the suitcase that had been in the hands of the Assassin.
Having thought of this, we tell Seyren that we had seen the woman in white robes during our encounter with the Z-Gang members. We discuss what her motives might have been before Seyren confides that ever since the fire, he’s been feeling like someone has been watching his every move. He then asks us to return to Father Bamph with the mask while he pursues our new lead.
An Early Demise
Arriving at the Prontera Cathedral, we find the old priest lost in his thoughts. When we tell him that we’ve found the white mask, he turns to us with a grim look. He hands us a fire obituary…
…and we find Lucy’s name on the list! Although appalled, we console ourselves by thinking that the only thing we can do now is to help find the person/s who had caused the fire and bring justice to our friend’s death. We offer our sympathies to Father Bamph, who denies that he cares not for Lucy but for the information that she’s taken with her to her grave.
When we offer our help to Father Bamph, he then gives us a newspaper article that talks about a blessing procession led by Prontera’s priests to pray for the souls of the fire victims. We notice a tone of disapproval when the old priest mentions Father Paul’s name. Paul will be preceding the sacred procession toward the Underground Bazaar.
Bamph tells us about the Ethereal Space, a plane of existence where souls briefly linger after death. We are then asked to disguise ourselves as a member of the clergy and take part in this procession, giving us access to the scene of the fire. Our goal is to collect Lucy’s spirit pieces so we can find out more about the events leading to her death.
The Holy Procession
As suggested, we leave the cathedral and put on our disguise. We find a brown-haired priest who is grumpily mumbling about a nun who’s late for the procession.
We cautiously approach him and tell him that we’ve come to join their prayer rites. Father Paul scolds us for being late before he takes his place in front of the procession. He takes his place in the front row of the procession and starts the rehearsal. We try out best to learn the prayer gestures from the nuns next to us and hope that we don’t mess this up.
The procession, led by Father Paul, starts. We march toward the bazaar and take brief moments to pause and splash holy water to purify the area, all while Paul preaches to the crowd. We do our best to keep up with the gestures so as not to be noticed!
Upon reaching the Underground Bazaar, the procession stops. The Prontera guards stand their ground, asking the participants to turn back for all our safety. With all the confusion, we manage to slip past the participants and the guards and head to the scene of the fire.
Once inside, we use the potion given to us by Father Bamph to enter the Ethereal Space. We are confronted by Revengeful Whispers, which we need to defeat to collect the pieces of Lucy’s spirit. When done, we head back to Father Bamph.
Lucy's Spirit Pieces
The old priest is surprised to receive only three spirit pieces, indicating that Lucy has suffered so much pain in her last moments. With the help of a Collector Crystal, he proceeds to cast a spell that allows the spirit pieces to materialize.
When Father Bamph has synchronized the first spirit piece, we find one of Lucy’s memories. In it is an image of a young boy, joyfully singing next to an adult woman who is presumably his mother. And… behind them are two masked men!
We go back to Bamph to ask him about the meaning of the contents of this memory fragment… but the old priest is visibly distraught as if he has just seen a ghost!
He mentions that both the young boy and his mother were from “that incident”, and this thought has left him devastated. Confused and filled with mixed emotions, Father Bamph asks us to leave. Out of concern for Lucy, we insist that we’re willing to do whatever it takes to give her the justice she deserves. But Bamph is not himself. He promises to contact us once he has calmed down…
We are left with so many questions, but realize that we need to respect the old priest’s feelings too. Instead of pressing him further, we take our leave and patiently wait for his letter.
Will Father Bamph keep his promise and tell us more about "that incident?" Tune in again next time for the next episode.