In issue #6 of Traversing Telara, Valnyr closes his first Life Rift (with some help!) and Anmar continues to help his Kelari brethren.

Traversing Telara is an exclusive series of articles from Trion Worlds that explores Rift's lore and gameplay mechanics through the eyes of one intrepid adventurer. It's a great read and a fantastic introduction to the world of Telara. Even if you're a veteran of Rift, you might enjoy hearing about the game from another perspective! Read on for Issue #6: Life Rifts & Helping Kelari!

Catch up on all the past issues of Traversing Telara here!

This week marks the beginning of Rift's one year anniversary, and to celebrate this pretty momentous milestone there are a series of weekly world events that everyone can take part in. You have to pick up these quests from your capital cities though, and since Valnyr hasn't reached Sanctum yet, he won't be participating. Next week I'll send him east through Silverwood to have some fun at the carnival.

But this week Valnyr is concerned with the Life Rifts that are popping up everywhere in Silverwood. Life Rifts are created by the Fae and the followers of the dragon god, Greenscale. Greenscale comes from the Plane of Life and he is pretty much the complete opposite of Maelforge and Regulos, who we have already talked about. Whereas Mael-forge and Regulos want the destruction of life, (whether permanent or temporary, it matters not), Greenscale wants life to run rampant. At least, he wants nature to run rampant, for the wilds of the world to rise up and devour all of civilization, for vines and creepers to crawl across the world and take possession of everything. Greenscale is utterly against structure and rules. He is untamed nature personified. Kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest. 

So it's perhaps not too much of a surprise that the one-time leader of the High Elves, Prince Hylas, switched his allegiance to Greenscale and let his minions move into the forest he was supposed to be protecting. They have much in common. Prince Hylas also wants to cover Telara with the wild forests, to wipe out everything else in the process: Mathosians, Dwarves, civilization. He wants only nature to remain. This is in not really in keeping with Tavril's mandate to simply protect the wild places of the world, and because of this a rift has opened up in the elven race, with Hylas leading his House Aelfwar away from the Tavril-devoted faction led by Shyla Starheath.

Needless to say, Hylas and Greenscale have to be stopped. Before the world is covered with creatures from the Plane of Life.

This weeks marks two firsts for Valnyr. Valnyr is tasked with closing down a Life Rift. I always knew this was going to be challenging, especially for my level 8 character. At first, I tried slow and methodical, picking off Fae stragglers around the perimeter of the Rift, then trying to lure others away from reinforcements. One enemy I could handle, but as soon as two came at me, I would die pretty quickly. Not only that, but it took me so long, that the Rift expanded and spread to become a Life foothold, which I then had to destroy first before I could get back to the actual Rift. 

The foothold wasn't as difficult. My tactic of picking the enemy off one by one actually worked here, and I picked up some planarite as a reward. I then turned my attention back to the Rift, only to find there was another group attacking it. This is where it's good to play on a well-populated server. I joined the group and we picked off those Fae creatures pretty quickly, finally closing the Rift and gaining some nice loot in return. 

I also advanced to level 9. I spent my soul points in Elemental Link. (It reduces all damage taken by four percent and increases air elemental damage by four percent.), and for my Pyromancer soul I picked a skill that decreases the time it takes to cast fire spells by 8 percent and all others by two percent.)

Right. That's my first public group and my first Rift closed down. Not bad for a level 9. Onward and upward.

Kelari Refuge

My Defiant character, Anmar, is busy helping out his fellow Kelari, at their shoreline refuge. If you will remember last week, I talked a bit about the Kelari fleeing their island home. This refuge is where the survivors washed up and have made their home while they try to decide what to do next. Attis Resta wants me to scour the waters for any Kelari valuables that were lost when one of the refugee ships went down.

"As the Kelari Archipelago sank, my people fled on a makeshift fleet of ships. The voyage was dangerous, and in fact, the last ship crashed just off the coast. Our belongings are scattered around the wreck, but the Thrashjaws make it too dangerous to retrieve them."

I head into the waters and retrieve their treasures. At the same time I'm asked to thin out the local Thrashjaw crocodile population.

Once I've completed this quest, I'm told to become acquainted with Kelari life in "this strange new land". I think this is a Kelari-only quest (although I might be mistaken). I have to talk to various Kelari around the refuge, learning a bit about my race from each one. I touched on most of this last week so there's no point in repeating it here. One of the parts of this quest involves seeking out and apologizing to a fire spirit that one of the Kelari has offended by asking it to light a fire for her. Seems this kind of thing is too petty for their kind. The fire spirit, a dancing flame called Emborsius, reluctantly accepts the offering I take to him, and on completion of the quest I am told to speak to Priestess Valin in Meridian. 

There are a few other smaller quests at the Kelari refuge. (Catching fire squirrels and killing huge wolves, for example.) But I wrap them up quickly and set off on the road. 

Looks like I am on my way to the capital city.

Written by Paul Crilley