What are Quests?

First codified in the third edition of the French version, a Quest is a type of Occult Skill that measures the PC's progress along a Quest that ultimately culminates in Agartha. There are many different Quests, such as the Quest for the Golden Fleece, the Treasure of the Templars, the Golem, etc. The lost Tablets of the Major Arcana each provided their own instructions for a different "Arcane Quest", but there are more "Esoteric Quests" beyond those 22. Esoteric Quests may be associated with particular Occult Sciences, Artifacts, Past Lives, Secret Societies, Secret Places, Akashic Realms, and so on.

The secret revealed by third edition was this: PCs don't need to achieve max level in their Dominant Ka, Metamorphosis, Third Circle or Lore Skills in order to achieve Agartha. They need only complete their chosen Quest. So even a relatively young and inexperienced Immortal may achieve Agartha if they play their cards right. (Otherwise you'd go into the realm of PC exceptionalism where the PC accumulates all these traits in record time, which is fine I guess.)

PCs may pursue multiple quests at the same time and help each other quest. Even a single quest is too demanding to finish in a few adventures, or even in a single campaign. It's something special to the PC and integral to the premise of the game, so it needs to be treated as epic a quest as can be.

As the PC advances their Quest, they gain occult knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, represented with "Gains" awarded at each level (Apprentice, Companion, Master and Agarthan in third edition). These gains give the PC new bonuses and capabilities, even ones that seem to break what are otherwise considered the laws of magic. The Nephilim Quester can become insensitive to Orichalc, give true life to a Golem, or cultivate their own Garden of the Hesperides, among other possibilities.

Fifth edition made two changes. It measured Quests from 0-10 "degrees" along with all other traits, and introduced accruing Quest degrees during character creation under the Past Lives step. I personally think this takes the fun out of pursuing the quest and frontloads too much on character creation, which intimidates certain players and especially inexperienced ones. Third edition already has provisions for this: quests need to be actively pursued within reasonable timeframes, otherwise the PC will lose their levels in the Quest and thus their Gains. So a PC could've spent multiple incarnations on a Quest, but it isn't noted on their sheet because they lost their progress. Fifth edition only introduced rules for Gains in subsequent supplements after the rulebook, each book only focusing on a single quest, leaving the rules for quests incompatible between books and woefully incomplete. 

Another kind of quest-adjacent concept is the Initiatory Adventures, which a PC must undergo in order to gain access to the Third Circle of an Occult Science. Third edition gave some guidelines for the Nephilim's occult sciences, such as sorcerers solving the mazes of magic and confronting their personal Minotaur, summoners journeying to meet the guardians of Atziluth, and alchemists seeking out a member of the "Glorious Alloy" to be their mentor. Each element has a unique approach to each of these, giving the Nephilim fifteen such adventures; I mentioned the paths for these before here and here. The Selenim's occult sciences didn't receive much attention, however, so they effectively lack initiatory adventures or varying paths.

This is something I wanted to address in my own adaption of the third edition rules to the US version's setting. The framework is in place, it just needs to be built on. If there isn't already work done, then I need to devise quests for all the following (and these may overlap too):

  • At least one Magical Quest reserved for each magical race. 
    • This is already done in the Gamemaster's Book for Nephilim and Selenim.
    • The Ar-Kaïm's reserved quest being presented in their respective Codex.
  • An Arcane Quest for each Major Arcanum, inscribed on their Tablet.
    • Death's and The Magician's Quests are already present in the Gamemaster's Book and Screen, respectively.
    • The Vision-Ka fanzine details those of The High Priestess and The Moon.
  • At least one Occult Quest for each Occult Science, Nephilim and Selenim alike. 
    • The Screen specifies that once all the Occult Skills of an Occult Science have been mastered (i.e. noted at Master level), the Immortal can become Agarthan... but, like with other quests, the GM may decide that a final test awaits the quester. Of course, it also says that this stage of character development is only a lure... and teases a supplement on the Occult Sciences and Agarthan quests that unfortunately was never published due to MultiSim going under. So the Occult Quests may very well be different Lore Skills from the Occult Sciences proper...
    • E.g. Vision-Ka #6 details the associated quest for its alternate third circle in Anamorphosis.  
    • E.g. the Gamemaster's Book provides "The Golem", a quest for Nephilim who specialize in both Alchemy and Summoning. 
  • At least one Elemental Quest for each element. 
    • The seven quests detailed in the Gamemaster's Book are each symbolically linked to particular elements (one for each other than Orichalc). Aside from Moon-Ka (the "Dead Stain" purifies the Black Moon from the Pentacle), Solar-Ka (the "Golden Fleece" is a Solar-Ka Tablet) and Black Moon-Ka (the "Bronzen Sublimation" transmuting Black Moon-Ka into Solar-Ka), these associations are wholly symbolic whereas the quests' conditions and gains don't deal with manipulation of those elements.
    • The Quest for the Qiyas, detailed in the Al-Mugawir supplement, allows the quester to integrate their simulacrum's Solar-Ka and thus learn the solar occult science of Qiyas.
    • E.g. Ubik published a quest focused around the element of Water-Ka. 
  • An Esoteric Quest for each secret described in the "Secrets" section of the rulebook, such as the Golden Fleece, the Treasure of the Templars, and so on.
Plus Initiatory Adventures for the Selenim's Occult Sciences, perhaps mimicking the structures of the Nephilim's five per science? E.g. the Anamorph's paths could be structured around particular styles like combat, peerless intellect, or terrible beauty. Although there may not be enough material for that? I'll have to see...

So I have my work cut out for me. Hope you enjoyed!

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