The Garden of Time
Quest Summary
This quest begins either by speaking to the Garden Emissary near the fountain in Prontera, or by visiting The Revenant Pub and browsing its bookshelf. Either path leads to a book, a dream, and a place outside of normal time.
Minimum Level: 80
Step 1: The Garden Emissary
A woman stands beside the fountain in Prontera.
Location:
She directs you to a nearby pub and a bookshelf behind the bar - the Last Call Library. She tells you one of the books on it isn't harmless. She says you'll know it when you find it.
This step is optional. You may find the pub and the book without speaking to her first.
Step 2: The Last Call Library
Visit The Revenant Pub and speak to the Bartender near the bookshelf.
Location:
On your first visit the bartender will greet you and introduce the Last Call Library - a collection of books and pamphlets left behind by patrons. The books can be read freely. When you are ready, select The Garden of Time from the menu.
The book appears to be blank. Every page except the last one. The last page contains letters you can't make out. You lean closer. What you thought was your own reflection begins to change.
Your vision fades. You fall.
Step 3: The Dream
You find yourself unable to see or move. A sharp pain forms along your arm and continues into your chest. Then, in a single moment, it fades entirely.
A warmth covers you - something you can only describe as reaching your very soul.
You are warped to the Garden of Time.
Step 4: Arrival in the Garden
You arrive at the Garden's entrance. Take a moment to adjust.
Location:
Atmospheric text plays as your vision returns all at once. The place shifts and changes around you - perfect and flawed, new and impossibly old. You notice the outline of a woman ahead.
Keeper Vel
The woman is Keeper Vel, a Time Keeper and the Garden's primary resident.
Location:
She explains that you are not dreaming - the Garden is real. It exists between dimensions, outside of normal time and reality. She is calm, and precise, and has been here a very long time. She acknowledges that you arrived through an unusual route and invites you to walk around and get your bearings.
Vel has a full dialogue menu available. Topics include:
- What the Garden is and why the Keepers built it
- Who the Keepers are and how they came to be
- What they are sealing, and at what cost
- The sealed timelines yet to come - Jotunn and Thanatos Tower
- The Groundskeeper, and why nobody knows how long he's been here
- The book in the pub
- The Elders - the leaders of the order, further outside of time than the Keepers themselves
- Sotanaht - the structure in the Garden with no clear origin
The Groundskeeper
An old man tending a flowerbed near the eastern edge of the Garden.
Location:
He was here before the Keepers built the Garden. He does not explain. He tends the plants, gives brief unhurried answers, and occasionally says something that shouldn't be possible - without appearing to notice when he does. He has unique dialogue about the plants, the Keepers, Sotanaht, and how long he has been here (he can't say exactly).
Pip
Location:
Pip lives here. Sort of. The Keepers asked Pip to leave once. Pip did, and then came back, and that was roughly where the conversation ended. Pip will offer you a snack (there are no snacks), and will rate your wave a solid nine out of ten if you try it. Pip also mentions a rune at the top of the Garden surrounded by water fountains.
The Temple Rune
At the highest point of the Garden, surrounded by running fountains, a large rune has been cut into the stone floor. Its edges have softened - not from erosion, but from time itself pressing down on it.
Location:
You may examine and touch the rune. It does not glow. It does not hum. Nothing shifts.
And yet you have the distinct sense that touching it was noted somewhere.
Sotanaht
Somewhere in the Garden stands a structure that appears to be a piece of Thanatos Tower - not the tower as it exists or ever did, but a version of it with no clear origin. Battles have been fought there since before anyone can remember, and they continue still. The Groundskeeper tends the flower beds nearest to it. Keeper Vel does not intervene.
Step 5: Leave the Garden
When you are ready, interact with the Garden Exit near the entrance.
Location:
You will be given the choice to leave or stay a while longer. When you choose to leave, the game nudges you toward the Garden Emissary in Prontera and warps you back to the city.
Step 6: Return to the Emissary
Return to the Garden Emissary by the fountain in Prontera.
Location:
She knows you went. She tells you the Garden changes based on the perspective of whoever is looking - what you saw was the version you were ready for. From this point forward, you no longer need the book or the dream. The Emissary can take you directly to the Garden whenever you return.