The Pandoran Boxes

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Throughout the 3rd age, the Mahjarrat were in their thousands across all of Gielinor, working for various causes and planning deathly strategies for those that served under them. Because they had come from another plane and represented a malicious presence in this world, it was the task of the Arzonus werewolves to deal with them and prevent any more from traversing the portals between worlds.

Even with the first rift inducer sealing the portals to Freneskae completely, Mahjarrat were still abundant in Gielinor, leaving trails of destruction. The Arzonusii prided themselves as warriors who were able to kill the Mahjarrat, some suceeding but their ability to regenerate made it difficult to fully ensure their disposal. Master Pandora designed a device that would allow them to be sealed inside upon defeat, so that when a proper means of killing them was available, the device would be unlocked and the Mahjarrat inside would be killed.

These devices were called Boxes of Oblivion, each fitted with an arsenal of tricks and traps inside to prevent the prisoner from escaping easily. These later were nicknamed the Pandoran Boxes, after the warrior who designed them. Each box was fitted with a small rift inducer that would seal the prisoner in a completely vacant pocket dimension for as long as the box was sealed, and upon opening it, all memories of the time spent would be erased so any plans they had would be lost if they tried to trick their way to freedom. The boxes would also prevent brute force approaches; any force applied to the box to open it would force the pocket dimension to collapse. Someone simply trying to bypass the security by being "clever" would share the box with its prisoner in an even tighter space. The only way to open a Pandoran Box was to have the proper authority to do so.

After the war ended, the Arzonusii retired to their city, leaving all the boxes behind with Mahjarrat still sealed inside them. Some were lost to the natural geology of Gielinor, the Mahjarrat inside being destroyed; others were forced open only for the archaeologist to find nothing inside; whilst some still remain in tact, the Mahjarrat and other monsters awaiting release.

I was planning to do a quest in which one such box is found by the Shadow Apprentices in Morytania. According to the inscriptions on this particular box, it contains Kharshai, a Mahjarrat who mysteriously disappeared long ago. Now with several other Zamorakians moving in to try and open a box that was supposedly lost, the Arzonusii will need to rightfully claim what is theirs.

They are rejected prototypes from a merger between Nintendo and Microsoft. Sadly, the deal never went forward and the PS2 began quickly taking the market, so each went on to design their own consoles, based around the ideas they came up with(.)

The Pandoran boxes are the failed prototypes and so were discarded(.)

No, the proper plan is carrying on. Designed at the height of the god wars, when the Arzonusii were far more powerful, the Pandoran boxes were designed to contain the most feared things on the battle field. A box was created to contain the enemy when a conventional means of killing them once and for all was unavailable. Only when a means of destroying them became available would they be reopened.

The box was fitted with a variety of locks and traps. The contents of the box were sealed inside a pocket dimension, where the prisoner could no longer contact the real world. Upon leaving, all memories of the time inside the box would be erased, so as to eliminate the possibility of the prisoner planning their escape. As far as the prisoner was concerned, they'd only just stepped in.

The boxes were created for a variety of creatures; Mahjarrat, Djinn, Demons, spirits and many other dreaded monsters. They were carefully built so that they couldn't be broken into by other people who weren't authorised to do so. The pocket dimension would collapse, destroying the prisoner, if the box sustained heavy damage or was forced open; trying to brute force the box open by trying to carefully pick the lock would cause the person doing so to be forced to share the pocket dimension with the prisoner in an even tighter space.

The only way to open one was with the touch of a werewolf noble, the Elder, a master, an apprentice or a high ranking official. When the war came to an end, the werewolves returned to their city, leaving all the boxes behind, where time eventually destroyed some of them; natural geology or sentient curiosity being one of the major causes.

During his lifetime, Kharshai was a pirate lord, who frequently joined the battles at sea, not for conquest, but for pillaging the vessels that carried material wealth. After years of being the scourge of the oceans, he and his undead crew were defeated by the Royal Ship Apogee of the Arzonus fleet. His ships were sunk and his crew returned to the oceans where they once laid and he was sealed inside a box and it was buried in a catacombs beneath Phasmatys, the nearest port to where he was defeated. His treasure remained on the sea bed for generations, unclaimed and undisturbed along with his cursed ship mates.

MorbiusMonster wrote:The pocket dimension would collapse, destroying the prisoner, if the box sustained heavy damage or was forced open.

That bit doesn't work. Because the whole point of the boxes is a prison until such weapons exist to destroy them... yet you've just said that the box is capable of destroying them. So why wouldn't the Arzonusii intentionally activate the defence measures for each box?

That would be the easy way out. It would have been a beta means of destroying them, it would have made more sense to come up with something that would kill them once and for all rather than simply put them in boxes. Plus the pocket dimensions "don't like it" when you use them to store your rubbish.

That really doesn't sound like a reason...

These boxes are a viable weapon to defeat any foe... simply place them inside, then hit the eject button (so to speak). What's wrong with the easy way out? Impatience is the reason most things get invented... people invent things because they're unhappy with the way it currently works. And it's hardly an ethical issue... they've locked them in the box until such exists to kill them, they are planning to kill them, why not with the box?

I proposed this solution before, how about when brute-forced it merely severs that gateway to the pocket dimension and breaks all locks upon it. This, effectively, frees the occupant. However, the occupant won't be aware it's happened and those trying to get in the box will just find an empty box. Also, even if it catches on that breaking in unlocks the prison, it doesn't help you locate it... so even if you know you've just freed them, you still have no means of finding them. It's up the occupant to realise they are free, and be capable of transdimensional travel.

The Pandoran boxes are designed to be a prison. There is no company, no food, no enjoyment; you can barely move, barely speak, barely breathe and it is probably possible that one cannot sleep inside the pocket dimension. Imagine that; just centuries of your own company, undying and unaging.

Also, if the boxes were destroyed once a Mahjarrat was imprisoned in one, the Mahjarrat would be able to sense it. Once they'd link the boxes to their own demise, they'd become more wary and make it more possible to avoid such a fate. Inside the box, they can be still sense by their own kind, but it would feel like they were hiding and trying to avoid detection from their own. The Mahjarrat were brutal creatures in a brutal era; once you went into hiding, the others wouldn't go looking for the coward.

The Pandoran boxes contained a variety of sensors and devices that allowed full physical, mental, psychological and spectral analyses. Once a weakness or a limitation could be found, a weapon could be devised that would be able to kill the creature inside, it would be specially adapted to the creature, so no defence they could naturally use would be any good against it.

The Pandoran boxes contained a variety of sensors and devices that allowed full physical, mental, psychological and spectral analyses. Once a weakness or a limitation could be found, a weapon could be devised that would be able to kill the creature inside, it would be specially adapted to the creature, so no defence they could naturally use would be any good against it.

But the box itself is capable of destroying the occupant! Why even waste your time finding other means when you already have an inescapable prison (for those you want to keep) but is also an inescapable execution (for those you want to kill).

Also, if the occupant's memory is erased when they leave the box, why even allow them to think whilst in the box? That sounds like torture, which isn't something I imagine a truly good race committing even upon the lowliest of evils.

The fail safe causes the rift inducer drive to burn out, which causes the dimensional collapse. But each part of the pocket dimension contains a lot of energy. Once that dimension collapses, it releases the energy that goes onwards to damage the RuneScape dimension.

That is one of the main problems with destroying the box, energy isn't just destroyed, it is converted from one form to another. As soon as that energy is released it can come into contact with something in RuneScape and cause problems. Basically, as the dimension is broken down, chaos occurs in its wake.

One box gets destroyed near a city, the energy is released and could be absorbed by the earth and it would become unstable, and could cause a miniature sink hole.
Say another felt into a dormant volcano. The heat was enough to destroy the box, but in doing so, the energy would cause the volcano to erupt non-stop for several weeks.
The marsh plains of Canifis, if the energy escaped, it would flood.

Basically, by shorting out a rift inducer without a proper depolar cycle (a lengthy process that allows the pocket dimension to be shut cleanly and without any mess) the pocket dimension is slammed shut, collapses and the raw energy escapes into the real world.

You think the Arzonusii didn't know that? You are talking about a species charged with maintaining the protection of this world from the rifts in space. They performed several tests and it all came up with the same result; destroying the box would create a chaotic breach.

The world needs a little chaos.

But this is pure unbridled chaos. The devastation caused by this goes against everything that the Arzonusii are said to protect us from. They protect us from malign forces that would do harm to this world and the energy released does just that.

What is chaos if it's not true? But order with a different perspective.

Nah, sounds fair enough. These are details you never previously mentioned, so I wasn't to know.

Basically, forcing it open or destroying the box causes the rift inducer to fail which shuts the dimensional pocket. But in causing it to collapse, it releases a shockwave and that can cause devastation. There simply was no other way of going around it.

What if you were inside another dimension when you closed it? Would it damage that one, rather then RuneScape? Could they not just induce a rift and destroy boxes inside that dimension?

You realise that if the Arzonusii were truly "anointed" there must be an equal but opposite force... and I stress *equal*. The lesser evils that the Arzonusii have defeated are not their equals, such as the Nightmare and other things you've mentioned. Well I say must as a matter of opinion... and by equal, the bad guys have the right to be "more equal". But the point stands, there must have been someone/thing anointed to upholding the chaos.

The Nightmare is the greater evil, almost equal to the Arzonusii in their power, if not greater. It nearly destroyed the entire world in its first campaign, not to mention it purged the dream world and corrupted several Arzonusii to do its bidding, it had thousands at its command. It truly was the opposing force.

That is why the Arzonusii couldn't defeat it, they could only seal it inside the Torn Realm, where it waits to this day.

I s'pose, but the tide needs to turn at some point.

So, get to the actual quest anyway. Enough discussion about the boxes, it's lore that's likely to never be explicitly mentioned in game and most people won't even think that deeply into anyway.

Okay. The story goes something like this.

Late one evening, an adventurer is travelling through Mort Myre swamps. Naturally, this isn't a dangerous trip for him as he prepares himself very well for these kind of voyages. Towards the end of his journey, he spots a hooded figure stumbling through the swamp. Naturally his heroic instinct kicks in and proceeds to ask the hooded being if they need any help. That is the last thing he ever does.

The following morning, his friend who was waiting for him goes looking for the adventurer. He looks for ages, but cannot find any sign of him. He spots something shiny in the mud and reaches down to take a better look. On closer inspection, he sees that it is a gold chain, and he follows the scattered length towards a body in the swamp, the body of his friend. The body has sustained fierce wounds, all appearing to inflicted simultaneously. It was almost as if his body was split open everywhere.

At first it seems that this may just be an act of violence from a nearby villager, however that is later proven to be wrong. A few nights later, a werewolf is being chased by his mate, looking for a place to go in the swamps where they won't be seen. The werewolf scouts ahead to find a quiet place whilst his mate waits behind. A few moments later she hears a howl; her mate was in trouble. She follows his scent to find his body also scarred with terrible lacerations.

Upon closer inspection, like the human, the were all torn open at the same time. One wound worries her; it was a wound on his calf. It was in the exact same place that a wound he sustained a few months ago was. Pretty much every bite, scratch or cut was reinflicted upon the body, like a curse had been cast to reopen old wounds.

Then it continues. A vampyre was staying at the Hair of the Dog on his blood rounds and chose to go into the woods for some "fresh air". He hears someone tripping over and plans to ambush the victim. Following the stranger, the vampyre couldn't tell who it was. The stranger beared the stance of a man, but it hadn't a scent the vampyre was familiar with human. He chose to ambush it regardless and discovered who the figure was.

"You're not from here, you need to pay a tithe." the vampyre exclaimed at the stranger. The stranger lifted its head and spoke from within the hood.
"Filth!" it snarled in a female voice and its hand reached to its pocket.
"Do you have any idea who I am?" the vampyre shouted at the stranger, ignoring what the stranger was doing.
"You are in my way! Gearrtha Agat Ca Seasann Tu!" she cast. The vampyre was then surged with blasts of pain, like every knife he'd ever attacked with was remade as silver and cut through with impressive force. His blackened blood stained his clothing and his lacerations forced him to wince in pain and collapse to the ground. The stranger then lifted the robe slightly revealing a foot and kicked the vampyre hard in the face before throwing a viscous liquid into his crevices in his flesh.

The vampyre returned to Canifis, its vital fluids leaking from it like a colander. It's life, or whatever its species had as life was diminishing. Another vampyre tried to tend to the wounds, only to be burned by the balance potion dosed to the openings. The vampyre was on the brink of disintergrating and so said one last statement.
"The box is in the crypt."
The pale flesh turned a foul shade of greyish brown, until scars were indistinguishable from fractures in the skin, and its brittle texture crumbled to but dust, the delicately woven clothing gently falling limp and empty in the absense of its wearer.

News travelled quickly in that small village. The loss of human or werewolf life is neglible, but when something kills a vampyre noble, everyone knows of it. As word travelled from the village, it reached the lips of the monks nearest to the village on missionary work and reached the city of Varrock. From that point, word of mouth was no longer necessary when the press heard about.

Hiding in plain sight, under the guise of a soppier official, an agent claimed an abandoned copy of the Varrock herald. The details of the attack were described in chilling detail and it seemed only right for him to circulate this intel back to the city. The spell, the harsh stranger and her neutrality towards whatever she killed were all evidence that pointed to one organisation that had chosen to operate within the confines of the backwater ghetto of darkest Morytania; the Shadow Apprentices.

From Varrock to the stone circle, it was over three weeks travel by horseback and humans had their limitations, but one rounded skeletal presence could go where no human could visit on this small world and beyond. The news was delivered swiftly to the one city that had first hand knowledge of the affairs that unravelled themselves in the east.

As General Antares finished briefing his army, he responded to the bodily challenged postman and collected the goods from the cranial delivery man. Unwrapping the parsel, discoloured from the trek, the article that was wrapped inside chilled the spine of the soldier. This was business that Arzonus had to take seriously.

Calling forth the finest hybrid of a warrior from his post, Emile Antares, better known as Mentor Libra, ordered the soldier to lead an investigation, knowing how the vulpine/lupine officer was an expertise in holding justice, no matter where he was sent.

"With all due respect, I can co-ordinate a mission very effectively, but I would be too easily recognised for this mission." Donics Whitearrow reported.
"Then we should perhaps send someone else," Mentor Libra decided, "Someone who would be able to slip into the eye of the demonic storm without the cursed winds deterring them,"

Is this a story or a quest?

A bit of both if you think about it.

Captain Kharshai, the main antagonist of this quest, is a very powerful pirate lord and like most pirates he is fond of alcohol. He always drinks a hearty helping before combat to "calm his nerves", but it is actually used as a powerful attack.

During his peak Kharshai used to make shots; small glasses containing very strong alcohol. He used to swig them then spit them into a lit torch and use their flame to attack. Kharshai discoverd that certain drinks would have special powers if spat into the flame and used this to his advantage.

During the quest, a player can find a recipe in the galley of one of his ships. Indecipherable at first, the player gets it translated by a the Head Chef of the Chef's guild. The recipe talks about how to make shots and therefore allows the player to make them for themself. Depending on the beer will affect what shots are made and what powers it may have;

Asgarnian ale - burns a standard flame.
Axeman's folly - burns a better flame that deals more damage and awards firemaking exp, but it has poorly ranged.
Bandit's brew - the target drops a few coins or goods, depending on what the target's level is.
Chef's delight - replenishes health slightly more than normal shots when used, but burns a weaker flame.
Cider - burns a flame that smells of apples, replenishes run energy for the drinker.
Dragon bitter - burns best, pretty much is almost as hot as real dragon breath, but it will lower the defense of the drinker.
Dwarven stout - slows down the target, but lowers attack of the drinker.
Greenman's ale - poisons the target
Moonlight mead - rots an enemy's food supply.
Slayer's respite - a powerful flame that is harder hitting on Turoths and Kurasks.
Wizard mind bomb - is able to freeze a foe, but burns very cold and will drain range from drinker.

Because of the powers the shots have, they are very slow to cast and produce. It is still uncertain as to their tradability; on the one hand it would make them quicker to obtain, but it would allow players who haven't completed the quest to recieve the benefit of them.

Once opened, the box will begin draining the life of whomever opens it. Only when the prisoner is dead will the link be broken properly. This was intended in order to make sure the means of killing the prisoner would be sincere, for if you open the box without intent to kill, or you cannot secure the death of the prisoner, then your life must be taken as payment.

Donicus Whitearrow is forced to open the box, and so his life is held in the balance until Kharshai is killed. Being part kitsune, he is able to hold out longer than most, but he is slowly dying.

"From the time I have spent fighting, from the many battles I have faced; warriors are driven by a strong survival instinct fight in different ways according to how they value their own lives. The orcs live for the bloodshed and will fight with no holds barred, their own life unvalued in their combat; but something as gracefully powerful as the Icyene are careful with battle, their life and divinity matters greatly to them and so they fight with strategy to avoid an inevitable and dishonourable fate.

But when you see a creature that normally would fight with great pride and honour, so as it may live a pleasant afterlife, suddenly change tactic and fight with diminished glory, you cannot help but wonder if what was once at stake is no longer so. These soldiers sell their souls, to become far more powerful; or that would be common myth. But from my observations, their soul is not sold, but safely place such that the body can no longer die.

As our body decays or breaks, we lose what we once were. Our former strength and ability lost to weakening physiology and to trauma; as part of our vitality is lost. But I believe that some warriors, for whom death would normally be a certainty, can preserve their vitality, by transferring it elsewhere, somewhere safe. I could probably confirm this is what the Mahjarrat do, and might be our key to exterminating them once and for all.

My evidence is conclusive enough; the case study being Demon Lord Mesophiles. We have cut him, sliced him, wounded him, amputated limbs from him, poisoned him, drowned him, clubbed him to death, but each time he simply returned in the exact state we found him. But when we destroyed something of his possession, his vitality diminished. He sustained a wound to his face, and it remained so. If our vitality is outsourced to another physical object, the body can take anything that is inflicted upon it. Under normal circumstances, the vitality would be lost slightly and the body would never fully recover, but if the vitality was safely placed somewhere else... none would be lost on "death" and the body would restore completely.

Such is the skill of the Mahjarrat, and it might be the clue to defeating them. They each know that by destroying these "mortal vessels", their vitality can be lost and they die, but they restrain themselves until the time in which that vitality can be channeled back through the heavenly bodies and restore the essence of their own flesh and blood. The amount of Mahjarrat tongues I have cut to find that intel."

These are the entries and findings of Elora Magnus, famed as the slayer of Demon Lord Mesophiles in the 3rd age, by sending him to hell and tracking his mortal vessels.

With her notes being accurate, by destroying the mortal vessel and the body, a Mahjarrat can be properly killed. But how should Kharshai's death be played out?

1. The vessel is destroyed and any wounds inflicted before its destruction prove fatal.

2. The vessel is destroyed and Kharshai rapidly ages (like in the Last Crusade) before crumbling to dust.

3. The vessel is destroyed and Kharshai soldifies, cracks and crumbles into fragments.

Me and Slayer Noir have been talking. If the real Kharshai is released before my quest is written, it controvenes everything I will have, but he and I have been working on a twist.

The Mahjarrat you free from the Pandoran Box is not Kharshai, despite what he dubs himself as. The Mahjarrat from the Box is the bastard child of a female Arzonus werewolf and a male Mahjarrat. It is unknown of the circumstances as to how these two species came together, but the Mahjarrat inside the box is a hybrid of the species.

The hybrid, rejected by both species as an abomination sought out to take advantage of another Mahjarrat, to usurp its position in order to seize claim to the power he believed he was rightfully owed. The Mahjarrat it chose to subdue was a neutral for a great deal of the time, so ultimately would go unchecked by either side. The best match, Kharshai. It was down to almost pure error that the Mahjarrat couldn't recognise the difference.

In its rejection, it found the Shadow Apprentices who welcomed the hybrid to their ranks.

There are still parts of this I'm not happy with Morb. I still think that you should avoid all relation to Kharshai in this quest, and simply let the new character replace him entirely (rather than being an addition to the story) in order to best avoid creating contradictions with existing and future game content.

Furthermore, I think it's best if the Mahjarrat are unaware of him, as this is the only real answer to the question "Why isn't he in Zemourgal's notes?"

The rest seems good. I'd personally like to know how the two species came together, rather than keeping it mysterious forever though

A Summoning Master in the Third Age was a fine mind, but was utterly insane. Her obsession with the Mahjarrat was uncouth, she studied lore, she followed their tracks and tried all she could to speak to one. Eventually the situation presented itself. A Mahjarrat, with his back turned, felt a large stabbing pain in its back. Pulling out a shaft of strange metal, the Mahjarrat lost all sense of direction and balance under the influence of what must have been a powerful poison.

Awaking, it found itself tied up in restraints built by hands that knew exactly what had to be done. When turning, it felt a large tubular attachment on its neck, draining some blood from various points of its body. The scientist, Master Fou Chapelier, was trying a series of experiments to see if the power of Mahjarrat rejuvenation could be perfected for other species.

Draining it of a great deal of blood, the Mahjarrat became weakened as it bleeding slowly to death. However, Master Chapelier was not an entirely cruel, she made certain some blood was present somewhere. The city was well aware of the project going on, but not of the other works the scientist was carrying out.

Eventually, the Mahjarrat died of ahaemolation and the scientist proceeded to work on the final part of the project, replacing her blood with that of a Mahjarrt, confident of her abilities in combat to hold off the others, particularly with several others at her side. Her project proved successful in its failure. Other species could use the blood of a Mahjarrat to rejuvenate, but ultimately she was sacrificed and her death rejuvenated the Mahjarrat that time round.

One last experiment remained. The test subject was an abomination created by one scientist's interest becoming profoundly moreso than theoretical and of a Mahjarrat's inability to resist.