Lord Daquarius

Lord Daquarius Rennard (pronounced /dɑkɑ:ri:əs/ (da-KAH-ree-us)) is the current Lord of the Kinshra, an organisation referred to as the Black Knights by the city of Falador. At the age of 29 or 30, he was elected as the leader of the Kinshra, making him the youngest to ever gain leadership.

Held in high regard by ally and enemy alike, Daquarius is generally seen as a fair and noble leader. He came to power at the end of the War of 164, being elected following the Kinshra's defeat at the Siege of Falador. Since then, he has been involved in many Kinshra affairs, several of which involved attempts to conquer Falador. At some point, he commissioned the writing of a written account of the Kinshra's history, which was done by the historian Poule Scryant.

He can be found in southwestern-most room of the Kinshra Headquarters in Taverley Dungeon.

Personality and Abilities
Daquarius, as leader of the Kinshra, is a Zamorakian, a religion based around chaos as opposed to that of the Saradominists, which is based around order. However, Daquarius has proven time and time again his difference from past Kinshra Lords such as Shadwell or Sulla, risking his own life to save his fellow men. Called "undeniably noble," he is well-liked amongst his men and respected by his enemies. Despite his religious beliefs, even Saradominists admit that he is fair and honourable. The forces of Falador have commented that they are glad he is the current Lord of the Kinshra, being less radical than past ones. Daquarius will also form alliances with enemies to defeat a common foe, albeit uneasily. He does not look kindly upon betrayal and condones purposeless destruction.

Daquarius is a skilled swordsman, although he has not been involved in any major battles since the Zamorakian Insurrection of 165, and even then he did not personally fight. He is not experienced with menial work, having had trouble mining the simplest of rocks away.

Early History
Daquarius was born in the Asgarnian city of Falador in the year 135. His distinguished skill in combat and noble nature eventually led to his acceptance by the Kinshra, who, at the time, were a considerable political force in protecting Falador, although they had largely left the city and taken up residence in their Fortress due to anti-Zamorakian social pressure following the burning of the Wizards' Tower in the year 70. Although accepted within Asgarnia, the Kinshra's long-standing rivalry with their grudging allies, the White Knights, meant that Asgarnia was in a state of constant political unrest. Daquarius seems to have taken this grudge to heart, and soon gained a strong dislike of the White Knights.

Service under Lord Milton
Daquarius's distinguished service soon gained him a heightened rank within the Kinshra. He took under his wing a large division of knights, who apparently were very loyal to him.

At some point around the year 163, the infamous "Murder Mage" Solus Dellagar became involved with Lord Shadwell, the leader of the Kinshra at the time. Whilst performing an unknown operation in the then-unincorporated town of Edgeville in Misthalin, Solus betrayed the Kinshra, needlessly slaughtering over 800 civilians against the orders of Daquarius and other important Kinshra. The Kinshra, White Knights, and Temple Knights all attempted to intervene, but failed; hundreds of knights fell at Solus' hands. Daquarius is likely to have attempted to protect his troops from Solus' wrath due to his noble nature, although his exact involvement in the incident is unknown. Amongst those killed was Lord Shadwell himself. Although Solus was eventually apprehended by the Temple Knights, he would later prove an enemy of Daquarius. Shadwell's successor, Lord Milton, immediately proved hugely unsuccessful due to his weak will.

Around the same time, Asgarnia's elderly ruler, King Vallance, fell ill and was deemed unable to perform his duties. Seizing this opportunity, the White Knights increased their political might to finally outweigh that of the Kinshra, perhaps using the Edgeville Incident as part of their campaign. Crown Prince Anlaf, Vallance's son who had become lord of Burthorpe in a lesson of ruling, was denied his inherent right to the throne, prompting Burthorpe to declare itself independent, while still holding off the invading trolls that would otherwise overrun the kingdom. The Knights' leader, Sir Amik Varze, was instated as for Vallance, effectively ruling Asgarnia. Using their new-found power, the White Knights declared the Kinshra to have no political influence in Asgarnia in 163, angering the Zamorakians immensely.

After Sir Amik's decree, Lord Milton declared war on the State of Asgarnia. Daquarius, now an established commander within the Kinshra's ranks, responded to the Kinshra's banishment by leading a large contingent of men to Falador.

This sparked the Battle of North Falador, during which the Kinshra tried and failed to defeat the White Knights and claim the capital as their own. The two sides proved too evenly matched, and the inability of either to gain land led to heavy casualties on both sides. Eventually the two orders reluctantly retreated to their respective fortresses, where they began to formulate new plans for victory. Daquarius's failure evidently was not held against him by his fellow knights, and as 164 wore on, he remained one of the Kinshra's most influential leaders.

Service under Lord Sulla
For one year, under what many deemed a weak successor to Lord Shadwell, the Kinshra would exhaust any diplomatic means of regaining their strength. Lord Milton would prove unable to make any progress with Asgarnia's government, failing to gain the sympathies of not only neighbouring nations but also King Vallance and his heir, Crown Prince Anlaf. Any attempts to gain power through violence would also prove futile, the Kinshra numbers and resources too low to overcome the strength of their enemies.

In 164, a commander named Sulla managed to seize considerable power within the order, gaining the support of many influential members. Sulla managed to assassinate Milton by forcing his lover and slave to poison and execute him before slaying herself. Sulla would then gain leadership of the Kinshra unchallenged. Under this new lord, Asgarnia entered a year of constant battle with great losses on both sides, a gruesome series of events that would become known as the War of 164.

Despite his past successes and general popularity, Daquarius was, to an extent, disliked by Sulla. Sulla's love of violence and general disregard for chivalry and his men's well-being, as evidenced by his cruel raiding of villages on Ice Mountain, put him at odds with Daquarius in a variety of fields. Regardless, Lord Sulla could not risk discarding him due to his popularity and cunning. As such, Daquarius would attend important meetings with the other loyalists of Sulla. He initially questioned Sulla's plan to have the Kinshra's sybil haunt Prince Anlaf's dreams in order to ensure the Imperial Guard's neutrality in the upcoming battle, although he agreed with the lord's statement that the original Kinshra order who helped found Asgarnia had to be honoured. The sybil used her Zamorakian magicks to instill twisted visions and dreams in Anlaf's mind over the course of several months. These pro-Zamorakian dreams would leave Anlaf indecisive in the War of 164, leading him to declare himself neutral rather than aiding Falador. Eventually, he even constructed a secret chaos altar and would not see anyone in his room.

Later, Daquarius opposed Sulla's plan to sack the monastery in the forest east of Ice Mountain, stating that an attack, the victims of which would be old men in robes, would only result in retaliation by Misthalin. Lord Sulla disregarded this and marched on the monastery to test his new Chaos Dwarf Mortars in the Battle of the Monastery.

Mission in Burthorpe
On Sulla's order to delay the prince, Daquarius led a Kinshra embassy of nearly a hundred armed knights to Burthorpe, where they were met by his elderly advisor Lord Amthyst, who told him that Anlaf was unwell but would meet him at the earliest opportunity. Amthyst was accused of slowly poisoning the prince, to which he was immediately arrested by the Kinshra. Uncharacteristically, Daquarius immediately demanded Amthyst be executed.

Daquarius and his men approached Prince Anlaf in his chambers, where they explained the fabricated story of Amthyst's efforts to poison him. Anlaf, despite being emotionally strained by this information, revealed hus hidden altar to Zamorak he had secretly constructed in a tunnel beneath the palace, before which the two of them knelt and prayed to the chaos god. He ordered the Imperial Guard to return to their himes unarmed, but their leader Lord Radebaugh and a regiment of six hundred guardsmen disobeyed and travelled south, where they eventually met Squire Theodore, who convinced Radebaugh to join the dwarves his party had recruited and fight for Falador. Daquarius would remain stationed in Burthorpe for the remainder of the Siege.

Meanwhile, Lord Sulla had charged at Falador with a massive about of Kinshra infantry, cavalry as well as allied goblin tribes, Wilderness Mercenaries and chaos dwarves. The battle, which had already lasted more than a day, proved disastrous for both sides, although the arrival of the Imperial Guard and dwarf troops eventually allowed Falador a phyrric victory that sent Sulla and a few dozen surviving Kinshra knights retreating northward, but not before the Kinshra had managed to obtain the White Knights' holy book of Saradomin, which is said to contain the details of a ritual that can be performed to acquire an ancient and very powerful artefact lost during the God Wars, which would allow the Kinshra to overrun Falador later.

Kara-Meir, Theodore, Doric, Gar'rth and Castimir went in pursuit, however, and Kara and Sulla duelled. The girl managed to defeat him, severing his hands with her adamant sword but not killing him, to which the remaining Kinshra knights fled with his body. His hands were brought to Burthorpe by Radebaugh as evidence that the battle had been lost. The commander presented them, including the signet ring of the Lord of the Kinshra, to Daquarius, who left the town with his troops within a day.

After these events, Daquarius was elected the new Lord of the Kinshra. At age 29 or 30, Daquarius was the youngest leader the Kinshra had ever had. Upon arriving to the Kinshra's fortress near Ice Mountain, Daquarius ordered that Sulla's sybil leave the Kinshra's service due to the disaster she had brought on the order. The three knights who delivered this message to her then proceeded to boil her alive in her own cauldron.

Rise to Lordship
Daquarius had been unanimously elected as the leader of the Kinshra following the flight of Sulla in late Wintumber, 164. The Temple Knights, who had already been monitoring him since the Edgeville Incident, began to keep a very close eye on him, documenting his actions within their archive and placing spies in the Kinshra ranks. Likewise, Kinshra spies infiltrated the Temple Knights' ranks. He attempted to restore the honour of his order in Asgarnia and offered those who had deserted the Kinshra during Sulla's reign to return without consequences, stating that refusing to serve such an evil man did not count as desertion.

Daquarius was very well received as leader, making considerable progress without the use of open force. His care for his men, which had already been one of the deciding factors in his election, proved more effective than the extremist views of Shadwell and Sulla. Daquarius would eventually locate his base of operations to the Kinshra' secret base in Taverley Dungeon, where he was safer than in the Black Knights' Fortress. He left the governing of the fortress to the cruel Captain Dulcin. Although Daquarius strongly disliked Dulcin's personality, he gave him such high a post due to his being the last descendant of Shadwell.

Meanwhile, after his defeat in the Siege of Falador and crippling by Kara-Meir, Sulla had fled Asgarnia to escape the wrath of both Falador and his own men. Lord Daquarius sent several knight parties after him to murder him, but these all failed. Sulla travelled to the Wilderness and Varrock, but was eventually assassinated in Port Sarim in the summer of 165 where he had been planning on escaping to East Ardougne by ship, a few months after Daquarius' election.

Tutelage of Iban and the Dawn Ascent
Iban, a nobleman-turned-warrior within the ranks of the Kinshra, is said to have been trained by Daquarius himself. An ambitious man, Iban slew hundreds of White Knights in his continual effort to gain power. His dark aspirations even reached controlling the darkness in the hearts of his fellow men and corrupting them into a soulless army of evil. But, seemingly before he could share his plan or gain magical power to carry it out, an military operations known as the White Knights' Dawn Ascent was launched to deal with Iban.

The battle reminded of the Edgeville Incident in how Iban slaughtered many White Knights by himself. Eventually, a young knight known as Sir Owen Sonde left his brethren and assassinated Iban from the top of a hill, firing an arrow through the back of his head. Instead of being lauded for bringing the Dawn Ascent to a success, he was criticised by the White Knights for his supposed act of dishonour and cowardice, but he was subsequently recruited into the Temple Knights. Due to few manuscripts on the matter, it is unknown how the other Black Knights (and by extension, Daquarius) were involved in the Dawn Ascent.

Later, Iban was resurrected by a witch named Kardia and he took over the Underground Pass (going through the Galarpos Mountains) in 168, preventing access to or from Tirannwn. He also cursed the Well of Voyage, turning it into the Well of the Damned. Iban had no further ties to the Kinshra after his revival and was permanently slain in 169 by an adventurer, who threw his soul into the well.

Attempted Murder
Some time later, in 169, Solus Dellagar escaped from prison although he was unaware that he was being monitored by the Temple Knights, who, with the agreement of Sir Tiffy Cashien and Sir Vey Lance, would be used in order to have a new recruit abuse a loophole in the recruitment system and join the Temple Knights by defeating Solus. Free from custody, he infiltrated the Kinshra Headquarters beneath Taverley.

Solus confronted Daquarius in his chambers. Daquarius demanded he leave the Kinshra's base, citing his disobedience and cruelty at the Edgeville Incident. Solus, after being threatened by Daquarius, used ice barrage to kill two knights and seriously wound Daquarius. He then left, apparently satisfied that Daquarius's fear of him would only grow, which, ironically, helped lead to Solus's apprehension.

Daquarius recovered, and was visited by the new Temple Knight initiate and adventurer. When they mentioned to be working for the Temple Knights, Daquarius ordered them to leave. However, they then proceeded to kill some of the Black Knights, to which Daquarius begged them to stop in his care for the soldiers. He gave the initiate information on Solus, which allowed them to begin tracking him. Aided by Senior Mystical Researcher Savant, they eventually tracked him down and defeated him in a duel, leading to his re-incarceration.

Involvement with the Renegade Knights
That same year, Daquarius turned his attention away from the White Knights temporarily. He heard that King Arthur of Camelot, a monarch who had arrived from Britain in 132 and who supports the White Knights, was planning to obtain the Holy Grail, a very powerful artefact. As such, he sent one of the Kinshra's strongest knights, a titan, to the Realm of the Fisher King where the grail was located to prevent Arthur from obtaining it. However, the aforementioned adventurer slew the titan in Arthur's service and obtained the grail, bringing it to Arthur.

Some time afterwards, Morgan Le Faye, Arthur's arch nemesis, asked Daquarius to lend a few of his men so that she could overthrow Camelot. At first, Daquarius didn't seem very cooperative, but after Morgan offered to pay with some of the money of the rich Sinclair family, with whom she had formed an alliance to take down King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (established in Camelot at the time), he lent them his assistance, seeking vengeance for his champion's death. After his legion of Black Knights successfully laid siege to Camelot and defeated the Knights of the Round Table, Morgan asked Daquarius to keep King Arthur, whom she transformed into a granite statue, while Morgan's Renegade Knights would imprison Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table under her keep southeast of Seers' Village. Daquarius obliged to this request and Arthur was locked away in the Black Knights' Fortress's cellar.

Eventually, the same adventurer that had defeated Solus came to the aid of Arthur's knights after being tricked by the Sinclairs. After being captured by Morgan while investigating the disappearance of King Arthur and the Sinclair family around Seers' Village, they cleverly helped Merlin and the Knights escape before infiltrating the Kinshra's fortress, finding King Arthur, returning him to normal (with the help of the wizard Cromperty) and helping him escape disguised as a fortress guard.

It is currently unknown if any ties still exist between him and Morgan. It is doubtful since Morgan has been defeated and is unlikely to attempt something against Camelot again.

Alliance with Lucien and his Spy Network
Some time later, Daquarius forged an alliance with the leader of the Dagon'hai, Surok Magis, disguised as a dark squall, and the Mahjarrat Lucien, who was establishing a large web of spies and mercenaries at the time to keep him informed of events around the world and to assassinate anyone that might come in his way during his hunt for the Stone of Jas. A new base of operations for the Kinshra was put into use below the Black Knights' Fortress's cellar.

Inside these catacombs, the Kinshra had been training a new class of soldier, the elite black knight, along with training the dark warriors of the Dark Warriors' Fortress farther north to give rise to the elite dark warrior, elite dark mage and elite dark ranger. These new alliances have significantly increased the Kinshra's military size and strength, and have also secured them a new stronghold in the mountains to the north, along with an army of undead trolls. Seeing that Surok was incarcerated soon afterwards and Lucien was killed during the eighteenth Ritual of Rejuvenation, it seems the alliance has shattered, while the Kinshra are still supplied with the elite troops, who have since taken up residence in barracks near Captain Dulcin's office.

It is currently unknown how this increase in military strength will affect the Kinshra's ongoing war with the White Knights of Falador, but it is likely to attract attention from the Temple Knights, the Guardians of Armadyl and Crux Eqal in their efforts to stop Lucien and, by extent, the Dragonkin, an even larger threat.

Second Attempt at Conquest and Alliance with Grayzag
Some time after these events, the Kinshra are revealed to be working alongside a powerful individual and enemy of the Void Knights, who was working to bring the void pest threat to mainland Gielinor. Eventually, the Kinshra came into possession of a void leech, through the unwitting help of young Wizards' Tower researcher and junior void knight Jessika, who had managed to separate the pest from the hive mind of the pest queen, and subsequently released it on request of a Professor Melville at the tower, who was really the psychopath wizard Melville Grayzag, whose manipulations of Jessika and the Kinshra were part of his plan to obtain the legendary weapon 'Valluta' so that it would not be able to stop his summoning of the pest queen, which he would do to establish himself as the greatest summoner in existence.

Unaware of Grayzag's planned betrayal, Daquarius had the captured void leech exploited, aiming to weaken Falador from the inside by utilising the life-sapping 'foodgoo' excreted by the pest and using a Kharidian salesman named Ali Tist to sell unopenable boxes full of the goo to sell to unsuspecting customers in the city. For this purpose, Daquarius had set up a workshop near the Fortress where indentured workers were enslaved to produce the boxes, while tapping goo from the leech in a cage.

On a mission, the aforementioned adventurer, Jessika and Void Knight Captain Korasi infiltrated the workshop after the illness struck Falador, as Daquarius had planned. Eventually, the pest was found and put out of its misery, although the Kinshra were still in possession of many boxes of goo, enough to seriously cripple Falador. To prevent this, Sir Tiffy Cashien and Korasi set the adventurer on a mission to find out more about the Kinshra's activities, but upon infiltrating Dulcin's fortress once more, they accidentally joined Captain Gilroy's party that was to check the storeroom where the boxes were kept.

Meanwhile, however, Grayzag had sneaked into the Taverley base to commence his plans and sabotaged all security, betraying the Kinshra. Eventually Gilroy's party reached the highly secured storeroom, only to find that Grayzag had stolen everything and taken the goo with him through a portal to a strange place. Gilroy called Daquarius in panic, who removed the adventurer's disguise and was about to imprison them, when a delegacy of the Temple and Void Knights teleported in. They revealed how they found out Grayzag's plan (though still oblivious to Grayzag's identity) and with great effort convinced Daquarius to join his rivals and form the Knight Order Alliance of 169. He was very reluctant to form such an alliance with his enemies, but was convinced to do so when reminded of Grayzag's betrayal and endangerment of his own men.

When a battalion of all knights gathered, the commanders entered the portal and Grayzag presented himself. The Kinshra had gathered the items Grayzag needed to summon the Pest Queen, which the unhinged wizard planned to unleash against his foes and anyone who opposed him in his ultimate act of proving to be the greatest summoner alive, having been mocked for twenty years by his fellow wizards of the Wizards' Tower for his pathetic imp summoning. He teased Daquarius for his gullibility, to which the Lord of the Kinshra angrily sneered at him. Grayzag then summoned a horde of pests to hold the knights back while he left to make the last preparations and the alliance were forced to retreat into a side cave to avoid death. However, a cave-in ensued due to exploding void splatters, leaving the group trapped.

Tiffy contacted Savant, who sent a pickaxe through, which Daquarius was forced to use to mine the debris away, much to his annoyance. After a specialised Void Knight squad defeated the pests, the group were liberated and pursued Grayzag, leaving Daquarius attempts at mining futile. Grayzag used the foodgoo to weaken the Valluta, who was revealed to be a Guardian of Guthix whose task is to protect the world from invasions such as the pests', rather than a weapon, and summoned the terrifying pest queen. Tiffy arrested him but Grayzag, his mind now crippled beyond insanity, escaped and Daquarius fell to the ground in an attempt to capture him. The alliance fought and killed the Pest Queen before dealing with Grayzag, who had been defeated by Commodore Tyr and his Void Knights, Daquarius eager to torture and kill him on the spot. The alliance separated after Grayzag was dealt with, with Daquarius warning the adventurer not to try to infiltrate the Black Knights' bases again.

Battle of Lumbridge and Third Attempt at Conquest
Shortly after the assassination of Guthix later in 169, Zamorak began planning his return to Gielinor. From The Rift, he created a portal near Lumbridge and emerged a few weeks later from it, eager to claim the remnants of Guthix's divine energy for himself. The god of chaos was stopped by Saradomin, however, and the two clashed, turning the forest west of the town in to a massive crater in the process. Saradomin quickly summoned his army of White Knights, seeing that he had made an agreement with Sir Amik Varze to supply them. In retaliation, Zamorak summoned an equal amount of Kinshra soldiers, making it likely that he had visited Daquarius and made a deal. The two sides fought for ten weeks before Zamorak was defeated.

Meanwhile, Daquarius had set up a plot to kill Captain Dulcin, his hatred for Shadwell's descendant's cruelty, misogyny and hatred of mages apparently greater than his code of chivalry. He convinced him he would sent over a witch to aid with performing the ritual specified in the Holy Book of Saradomin, that would allow them to retrieve an ancient wand used by Saradominist centaurs during the God Wars to revive their fallen brethren from death: the legendary Wand of Resurrection. However, Daquarius was secretly planning to assassinate Dulcin and replace him with the witch, Lensig.

Lensig used the coordinates of the holy book and proceeded with the ritual, which opened a portal to the Tomb of the Fallen near the Temple of Lost Ancients. The Kinshra party, led by Dulcin, proceeded to raid the tombs before finding the room where the wand was guarded. They encountered Fern, a centaur spirit and the wand's guardian, who killed all of the Kinshra's slaves present before being defeated herself, dissolving the first barrier protecting the wand. The second barrier was removed by Lensig through a simple mechanism. The third barrier, however, proved a problem. Dulcin had one of his knights attempt to take the wand, but the barrier reduced his arm to a stump and made his blood boil, killing him. The Kinshra quickly returned to the camp they had established to plan further, and set out to obtain the wand the next morning. Fern's spirit returned and Captain Dulcin only lost more men.

At that point, Lensig poisoned Dulcin and, much to Daquarius' satisfaction, took his place as captain of the fortress without any of the knights noticing. She learnt that only the truly virtuous could pass the last barrier and, as such, she had devout Saradominists kidnapped from the Edgeville Monastery and the Abbey of St. Elspeth Citharede near Al Kharid. However, upon being forced to grab the wand, Sister Esther, Father Hackett and Father McGruder all suffered a fate similar to Dulcin's earlier knight (while starvation had resulted in the death of Sister Lara), and Lensig realised the virtue must be voluntary. Daquarius then found out that the Temple Knights were planning to send two agents to the fortress to retrieve the wand from a spy within their ranks and informed Lensig of this news. She then came up with a plan of her own. She replaced Dulcin's armour with the Citharede robes from one of the dead sisters, and pretended to be Dawn, another sister, and was locked in a cage by the oblivious Kinshra, while leaving a note supposedly from Dulcin, telling the knights at the camp to defend it with their life.

Sir Amik Varze and Saradomin indeed sent two agents, Sir Owen and the adventurer mentioned earlier, to infiltrate the Black Knights' Fortress and retrieve the wand. The adventurer, disguised as Dulcin, smuggled Owen in as a prisoner and learnt from Lieutenant Graves that the ritual circle had been damaged. They repaired it and travelled to the Tomb of the Fallen, where they defeated the Black Knights and rescued Dawn, whom they took to be a mere damsel in distress. Dawn stayed behind at the camp to "look out for other black knights," while the two agents met with Fern, learnt of the wand's history and defeated the centaur to prove their worth. They dispelled all barriers and the adventurer was virtuous enough to take the wand. Dawn then revealed herself as Daquarius' witch. However, she had betrayed the Kinshra, planning to use the wand to create an army of undead for herself.

She killed Owen and returned him and two black knights as zombies to kill the adventurer. They dispatched them all, however, and, after mourning Owen's death, confronted and killed Dawn. They took the wand and went to Owen, but Saradomin appeared and angrily snatched it for himself. He resurrected Owen, but, due to it being an act of anger rather than virtue, he turned half-undead, forcing Saradomin to fire him from the Temple Knights. Fern and Owen then proceeded to set up a plan to use the wand to recover the near-extinct centaur race, while Saradomin rewarded the adventurer for their help in stopping yet another Kinshra plot to overthrow Falador.

Current Standings
Daquarius remains the leader of the Kinshra today, and will likely remain so for many years unless killed. As a Zamorakian and Kinshra lord, he is actively hunted by the Asgarnian government for crimes against the state, and would be executed if captured.

The Temple Knights, however, have discovered that Daquarius's high value for his fellow Kinshra makes him an easily manipulated leader. Using this to their advantage, the Temple Knights believe he should be kept in place unless the opportunity for capture should present itself, as nearly all past Kinshra leaders have been dangerous Zamorakian extremists.

Trivia

 * Occasionally, while mining an obstruction during the Conquest-like game during The Void Stares Back, fireworks shown when levelling up come from Daquarius, and he shouts that he has advanced a mining level.
 * Daquarius was originally attackable until the release of the Wanted! quest, in which he plays a key role.