• Spoilers
• Quests
• Lost Sword Quest

The Lost Sword Quest is a type of random quest. You can set the number of random quests your character will receive during its creation. Unlike the ../Princess Quest, it is not mandatory and can be skipped completely.

Presentation

When you are given this type of random quest, you will receive this message in yellow type:

 A strange man wrapped in a dark cloak steps out of the shadows:
 'Ah please help me ! A group of monster-name stole my sword! I'm nothing without it'

...where monster-name is the name of the monster you have to kill.

When pressing CTRL+Q the screen reads:

  Lost sword
 An adventurer lost his sword to a bunch of ''monster-name''!
 Kill them all to get it back.
 Number: monster-to-kill, Killed: monster-already-killed

...where monster-to-kill is the number of monsters you have to kill, and monster-already-killed is the number of monsters you already killed (self-explanatory to say the least).

Normal stairs will be generated, and you may leave the level at any time, in either direction, assuming that you would normally be able to do so (e.g., you are not on the bottom level of the Barrow-Downs).

Aim

Kill the specified number of monsters.

Reward

When you kill the monster-to-kill-the monster-name, a yellow message shows up:

• The adventurer steps out of the shadows and picks up his sword:

 'Ah ! my sword ! my trusty sword ! Thanks.
 If you wish I can help you in your adventures.'
 Do you want him to join you? (y/n)

• If you choose yes, an Adventurer shows up and becomes your companion. Unfortunately he's usually not very tough.

• If you choose no the 'As you wish, but I want to do something for you. --more-- He touches your forehead.' message shows up and you are given the possibility to improve some skills or even gain brand new skills.

Only certain skills (defined within the game module) are eligible as rewards for this quest. If you do not yet have the skill, you will be granted it at level 1.000 with a multiplier of 0.300. If you have the skill, but with a multiplier of less than 0.500, the multiplier will be raised by 0.100 (up to a maximum of 0.500), and you will gain less than one skill level. If you have the skill with a multiplier of 0.500 or higher, you will be given thrice the multiplier in additional skill levels (as if you had invested 3 points into the skill).

In ToME 2.3.3 or later, characters who have the skill with a multiplier of less than 0.300 will have the multiplier raised to 0.300, and will be given +1.000 skill levels in the skill. This means Assassins will no longer be penalized for having some prior knowledge of Divination or Conveyance when they choose it as a reward.

Hints

This type of quest is hated by most people, but its reward may give a turn to your whole game -- especially in the early game --, by giving for example a Warrior access to a magic school. I suggest doing it in the real-early game when your skill point strategy may still be reconsidered, but from level 20 on it is probably hard to get new skills to an acceptable point, so you'd better choose an already-known stat. I don't exactly don't know if the adventurer's level is adjusted with depth, but usually having him as a companion is not the right choice.

If you really can't find the last monster to kill with no way of detecting monsters, or no infravision, or nothing (see a real-early game human eg) and you really need that skill boost, you may want to try the level again... (this is considered cheating by some people though). You'll have to start all over from the first monster, though.

It has been reported that triggering Traps of Calling Out can help (if you can find one), since they can bring the quest monsters right to you.

It should be noted that the quest monsters can sometimes be killed by other monsters that have the "can destroy weaker monsters" flag. If this happens, the quest level becomes unwinnable, and you will have to repeat it from the beginning if you wish to attain the reward.

The monsters that you must kill to complete the quest are marked with the word quest when you look at them. If additional random monsters of the same type are created, they do not count toward the quest.

As with the ../Princess Quest, the quest monsters can't be killed by pets or coaligned monsters. You must deliver the coup de grace yourself. (Bleeding or poisoning counts as damage inflicted by you and can therefore kill quest monsters, regardless of who inflicted the condition.)

Chatter

TheFalcon: Moved here from badly created page.

Actius: Note that if you hold some skill points back -- not spending them as soon as you get them, you can sometimes make quite good use of skills picked up later in the game. Just make sure you don't kill yourself in the process.

GreyCat: I consider these quests the ultimate reward for choosing lots of quests at character generation. There is no substitute for the skills and multiplier-boosts you can gain from these quests. Conveyance at level 1 lets you cast phase door -- that's tremendous for a warrior. At level 3 it gives you the Disarming spell. Who needs the Disarming skill when you can get that? Symbiosis at level 1 lets your wear a death mold which boosts your melee attacks and sometimes absorbs a little damage. Summoning at level 1 lets you summon a grand master mystic or an elder aranea which can then summon more pets, and you don't pay upkeep for the second-generation summoned pets. (You can even dismiss the first-generation pet.) For Manwe worshippers, it lets you create a "handler" pet to kill good monsters that would normally wreck your piety in the early to mid game. Divination gives you a lot of utility spells if you are willing to invest in it, and Mindcraft lets you do everything if you're willing to invest in it.

The princess quests are OK in the early game if you just need a quick boost. But these quests will define your whole character.

Draco18s: Indeed GreyCat, upon getting this quest earlier today I managed to skip over the "can I join you?" by accident and of the list of available skills, I had them all but symbiosis, which I took. I'm wandering around--fighter type--with a blue jelly and I *love* the skill. May not be a great symbiote, but it definately defines the character and makes him that much better.

Just after I got the blue jelly I ate a slime mold and gained "an affinity for molds" and can cast ('U') "grow mold" and it summons a bunch of molds. I think one of them can summon other monsters as well as twice I've ended up with a whole hoard of pets. Clear Hounds, Novice Mindcrafters, Hippogriffs, you name it (well, almost, no dragons or other really deep stuff yet or mindless creatures (except one insect that showed up, a dragonfly or something)). Makes taking out "reproduces explosively" creatures very easy. Room full? Summon Mold, now the molds keep them from populating the ENTIRE dungeon. Proceed to slaughter or let the molds do it.

ElvishPillager: The princess quests are still some use. My last game, I got the Metal Cap of Celebrimbor and the Dwarven Pick of Erebor from princesses.

On the other hand, the lost sword quests can potentially give you around 100 free skill points if you pick the maximum number of quests. It's pretty neat for characters whose build takes more skill points than you actually get.

Torrenal: Something I did a time back was gimick up a version of Tome 2.3.3 to generate 10,000 characters with 98 random quests, counting how many were princess quests and how many were FF quests. (The ratio is 3 Princess for each 1 FF, but it's random for each level, and there's a chance at rerolling some of the quests... No having Gandalf hold the princess hostage or other wierdness. If a poor match happens enough, the game rerolls for FF/Princess.) Anyway, the results of 10,000 characters:

Use/abuse the table as you see fit. Short form of the table is: Expect to usually see between 20 and 30 Fumble Fingers. More/Less can happen, but it's uncommon. I'd drop this table elsewhere, but I hadn't seen a good spot for it.

ShrikeDeCil I get 25 FF with a std deviation of 4 FF from that table. It isn't a perfect gaussian distribution, but close enough. 95% or so within two standard deviations (17-to-33).