¶ Gathering Power
¶ Quests » Gathering Power
¶ Walkthrough
To start this quest you will need to have completed A Call to Adventure. You must speak with Amara and ask her about gathering Essence, and where you can get some from a Demigod. She will direct you to the site of a supposedly still-living Demigod by the name of [Pahnu].
You must journey to Pahnu's temple which lies deep within the desert and is itself a labyrinth.
- The journey will be faster if you ride your aadi, and even faster if you have Hakor's Book of Advanced Riding.
- You can find little nodes of [Spirit Sand] along the way, so keep your eyes open for that.
When you arrive at the temple, you will find a campire, a nice little oasis and a big ass tree. Approaching the tree will prompt you to "investigate the temple". You can't enter the labyrinth yet.
You can, however, speak to the aforementioned big ass tree, which is in fact [The Mouth of Pahnu]. The mouth thirsts.
- You can masturbate, and jizz onto the roots of the tree if you are a bedicked individual.
- You can opt to poor river water onto the roots. (There is a jar of river water down at the oasis if you don't already have one in your inventory to use. It's laying on its side and half-sunk in the water. Use Shade Sight to find it if you need.)
Once the Mouth of Pahnu has its thirst quenched, you will be tasked with attuning yourself to the three major "elements" of nature: Land, Sea, and Sky.
Attune to the Sky
To attune to the spirit of the sky, you will have to journey to the Unseen Steps (named as such because you can't see where you'll be steppin' teehee).
The puzzle involves some climbing, and then some minor platforming across a dusty, semi-transluscent air bridge of which has its own twists and turns.
- Note: The air bridge can be difficult to see, and it is recommended you pull out your torch to help you see it better.
- Also note: There is a trio of level 7-8 tomb robbers nearby. Kill them for funsies, and loot the [Love Letter] (or don't, as at the time of writing, it appears to be useless).
Once at the puzzle start, an "event" will begin called Hidden Pilgrimage: "Traverse the Sky to reach the Sky Essence".
- Along the path there are circular swirly things. These are jump pads and will help launch you across the gaps in the wind-path.
- You can take the first three jump pads in a straight line forward until you jump over the rock with the tree sticking out of it and land at the center of a fork in the roa- err, wind.
- Take the left path, then take a running jump off the jump pad at the end of the path. This will launch you onto the plateau of rocks you're trying to reach.
- Activate the shrine found there, and attune to the Essence of the Sky.
- Take in the view. It's gorgeous up here.
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Attune to the Sea
When you arrive at the shrine of the Sea, an even twill begin called Blackwater: "Touch the shrine to begin purification."
- Simply touch the shrine and you will begin to be swarmed by new, corrupted creatures called Khemari that spawn from the surrounding marsh.
- Note: For the "pacifists" out there, the event is on a timer that is in the player's favor. You can, if you so wish, simply run around in circles until the timer runs out and the creatures will be despawned and the trial completed.
- Also note: this fight is very difficult, as the enemies not only hit hard in melee but also have ranged attacks with not much in the way of telegraphing it. Roll around a lot. Pretend this is Dark Souls.
Once the two-minute timer is up, the event will finalize/complete.
Attune yourself to the Sea.
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Attune to the Land
The shrine of Land is easy to find. Location given in the images section below. Outside the shrine entrance is a Stone Watcher. Kill it. Fuck it. Literally. I recommend doing it at night. The view is gorgeous.
When you enter the shrine an event called The Stonebound Tribunal will begin: "Pass the trials to activate the Shrine of Land"
- To solve the Puzzle of Path, you must step on the circular stone on the floor in the correct order. The order you need to walk is marked by glyphs on the wall to the right (the circles).
- For the Puzzle of Mind, you'll need a bow and arrows. There is a chest in the nearmost left corner of the room. There are six, square-shaped buttons on collumns embedded in the walls. Shoot them. If you were to number the buttons 1-6 from left to right, the order to shoot the buttons is: 5, 2, 3, 6, 4, 1
- For the Puzzle of Sequence, you'll need to solve the puzzle. It's a simple matching memory game. Flip the tiles and make sure you flip the identical pairs until all the correct pairs have been flipped. EZ.
Once you've solved all the puzzles, attune to the shrine (it's the big preggers statue in the middle of the shrine/temple).
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Once you've attuned yourself to the Three Ways of Nature, you must journy back to the temple and speak with the Mouth of Pahnu.
- Don't forget you discovered a campfire there for fast travel.
The Mouth of Pahnu will see you now bear the "mantle of creation", and the way into Pahnu's Labyrinth will now be open.
The Labyrinth
Pahnu's Labyrinth is like any other, defeatable by simply following the right-hand wall all the way to the end. While you're doing so, Pahnu will talk to you through the flora because he's cool like that.
There are three major "obstacles" waiting for you within the maze:
- Poison traps are located sporadically on the ground. They stand out once you realize what they look like, but can be hard to notice, especially if you're running full sprint like a chicken with your head cut off. Pay attention, jump over them and you'll be fine. It's important you avoid them, as they deal A LOT of damage over time and will drain you of potentially much-needed potions for the boss waiting for you at the end.
- There are Dune Beetle hives inside the maze. The beetles are weak, and easily dispatched, but they explode when they die. You'll want to kill them from a distance if you can so bring a bow.
- Lastly there are dart traps as well. If you step on the rectangular buttons, bolts will be fired at you. These also hurt. Don't step on the traps. You can even walk around these. Overall the key to getting through the labyrinth is patience and awareness.
Note: There is an illusory wall inside the labyrinth which can cut down the time it takes to reach Pahnu by a significant amount. When you enter, go left as far as you can go, follow the left wall until you reach the first "dead end". This is not a true dead end. Walk through the wall. Then, from there you can follow the right-hand wall until you reach Pahnu.
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The Demigod, Pahnu
Okay so when you get to the end of the labyrinth you find Pahnu.
This is the very first Demigod interaction, more or less. Congratulations!
Speak to Pahnu, get to know him a little. There are two routes you can take with him to get his Essence.
- Firstly, you can disagree with him at the end of your chat, OR start off being hostile right away, and come to a point where killing him is the only way you're getting that sweet, sweet Essence. This will update your quest to "defeat Pahnu" and you must strike him to begin the fight.
--> During the fight, Pahnu will summon blue circles and green circles of magical effects on the ground. Blue circles heal you. Green circles heal Pahnu. He also summons Dune Beetles to harass you while he shoots at you with a bow and arrows.
--> I recommend being level eight for this fight, but you could probably do it at a lower level okay.
--> Unfortunately, I can't recommend picking the fight option, as you not only miss out on the cool dialogue potential, but also miss out on obtaining his special bow. This is just one of those moments in a game where one choice is clearly better than the other, and that choice is to talk your way into getting his Essence. Unless you're in a hurry. - Alternatively, you can have civilized discourse with him, and with a decent enough Presence stat (I'm not sure what the requirement is, if any, actually), you can convince him to place his duty of preserving nature upon your shoulders, and give up his Essence willingly in order to help you stop Kethra. What a good guy.
--> If you pick this option, you will be tasked with eliminating some Dune Beetle hives from Pahnu's oasis and temple. You can find 3/5 of the nests you need to burn if you travel back outside (use the campfire), then find the last two on your way back to Pahnu inside the labyrinth (you can't find the hives on the short path). You will need a torch equipped to burn the nests.
--> Return to Pahnu, speak with him. He gifts you the unique bow, Briarpath, and then delivers his Essence to you, ending himself in the process. It's really quite the sacrifice for a Demigod to make. Don't get used to it.
You now have some Demigod Essence! Crazy! Return to Amara at the Shrine of Ascension.
Amara has you pour the Essence of Pahnu into the Shrine of Ascension and you get a cutscene where one of the obelisks of the shrine becomes empowered. Amara gives you some foreboding words about not being able to turn back from your path now.
The quest is complete! Congrats, Vessel! You're on your way to stopping the God-Queen!
¶ Images
Shrine of Pahnu Location
| Location | Screenshot |
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The Mouth of Pahnu
| Screenshot |
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Trial of Sky (The Unseen Steps)
| Location | Screenshot #1 | Screenshot #2 |
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Trial of Sea (Blackwater)
| Location | Screenshot |
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Trial of Land (Stonebound Tribunal)
| Location | Screenshot |
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Pahnu's Labyrinth
| Poison Trap | Dart Trap | Illusory Wall Location |
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Pahnu
| The Demigod, Pahnu, in all his glory |
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¶ Notes
- Added in version 0.7.4