Quiet Before the Swarm

Quiet Before the Swarm is the first of the three Void Knight quests, as stated by Mod Mark. It was released on 24 June 2010.

Starting

 * Speak to Sir Tiffy Cashien to start the quest. He will tell you that a Pest has escaped the Void Knights' Outpost. His job for you is to interview the residents on the island to find out how it could have escaped.


 * Go to the Outpost and speak to Commodore Matthias. He can be found in the north-eastern part of the island. He will tell you to speak to Captain Tyr, just south of the house he resides.


 * After talking to Captain Tyr, he will ask you to talk to many of the residents on the island. There are 9 people you must speak to (not necessarily in order) which are:
 * Knight Ami
 * Knight Bernard
 * Knight Diana
 * Knight Mikhal
 * Jessika
 * Mariah
 * Mrs Gord
 * Squire Sam
 * Terry Gord

You can just choose the option: "That's all, thanks." after speaking with them. There is no need to go through the questions (except for Squire Sam).

To view the people you have already spoken to, see Quiet before the Swarm in your quest journal.

The accused

 * After you have done talking to them, go back to Captain Tyr.


 * Captain Tyr will now ask you to single out a person who you think has committed a crime. The person that committed the crime is Jessika, the researcher, and the only one who does not interact with the locals.


 * Talk to Jessika and talk to her about the crimes she has committed. She will act suspicious and attempts to deny that you have proof.


 * Go back to Captain Tyr and he will tell you to return to Commodore Matthias.


 * After talking to Commodore Matthias, he will call in for Jessika and you will be given a potion which will allow you to go into Jessika's mind. (similar to Lunar Diplomacy's dream plane)

Inside Jessika's mind

 * In her mind, you will have to solve a relatively easy slider puzzle.

The trick is to put it together from top to bottom. It is easy to see what piece goes where, since when it is completely put together, it forms a square around the picture of the pest. This is made rather simple by the fact that there is an outside border on each tile - the empty space should be in the middle at the end.

Note: If you mess up, you can always restart be exiting through the portal and repeating the cutscene of confronting Jessika.

Possible solutions
There are various pictures of various monsters, but all with a 3x3 puzzle.

Arresting Jessika

 * After completing the puzzle, you learn Jessika really did release the Pest, and you inform the Void Knights about it. Jessika is arrested, and the Commodore calls a meeting of the highest ranked Knights.


 * You are told to return to Sir Tiffy in Falador,


 * Sir Tiffy then returns with you to the Docks on Port Sarim. You find Commander Korasi in a stupor, and Sir Tiffy sends Lady Table to get her.


 * Tiffy brings you back to Falador, and tells you you must bank all your items (including familiars) before entering the HQ to see Korasi.


 * Once inside prepare for some puzzles.

Bridge and the sword

 * This puzzle relates to the bridge and torch problem.

Note: Logging out during the following portion of the quest will result in you returning to Falador Park, in front of Sir Tiffy.
 * You find yourself inside a small room with Sir Tiffy and Commander Korasi.
 * Talk to Commander Korasi and you will now find yourself inside a blue plane. You will need to complete a puzzle before you can advance.

The objective of the puzzle is to get all three knights, as well as yourself, across the bridge. However, there are a few hitches. First of all, only two people can go across at a time. The second problem is that the person crossing must have the sword. The third problem is that each person weighs a different amount. The bridge can only handle the weight of 15. Your player weighs 1, Bernard weighs 2, Ami weighs 5, and Diana weighs 8. Lastly, only the heaviest weight is counted when you go across. So if Ami went with Diana, the total weight would only be 8. Here is a possible solution:


 * 1) You cross with Bernard
 * 2) You cross back
 * 3) Ami and Diana cross
 * 4) You let Bernard cross from the other side to you
 * 5) You cross with Bernard

Doing it this way makes the equation for weight 2+1+8+2+2=15

Ship positions
After completing the bridge puzzle, you find yourself with the 5 knights who were on the ship: Commodore Matthias, Korasi, Diana, Bernard and Ami. Each of them holds a hint to where the other knights were, what they saw, and what they were thinking about. To complete this puzzle you must correctly match up each person with the hints given by the other knights.

You will know when you have completed the task, as when you fully complete the last NPC, the task will end.

The best way to solve such a riddle is to make a table. See more at Wikipedia.

Note: Logging out of this part of the quest will erase all memories the memory-knights have.

The Pests' attack

 * After finishing the second puzzle, you go into a cut-scene. You are Korasi, in the hold of the ship. Upon seeing a Torcher, attack it and kill it.


 * After you finish killing it, proceed up the ladder onto the main deck. There you see the other three knights and a squire fighting pests, who are unfortunately killed by them.


 * A Shifter stops you in the path, forcing you to kill it in order to continue.


 * After killing it, your character automatically goes up the ladder to find Commodore Matthias fighting a Mysterious Figure. Using the last of his energy, he teleports Korasi to Port Sarim which is where you find her.


 * Once the cut-scene is over, talk to Sir Tiffy Cashien. He will tell you to talk to Captain Tyr (Now Commodore Tyr) at the Void Outpost.


 * Travel back to the Void Outpost and speak to him. Congratulations! Quest complete!

Reward

 * 1 quest point
 * 4,000 Attack experience
 * 4,900 Strength experience
 * Void seal

Music unlocked

 * Mindful - when entering someone's mind with the potion.
 * Lortnoc Tsep - after unlocking Korasi's memory.

Trivia

 * On the day of release, the spoiler read: We're currently delving into the developer's mind to help her remember what the rewards are. Back in a jiffy, what?
 * "Quiet before the Swarm" is a play on the phrase "Quiet before the storm".
 * Jessika mentions during the quest that a "Professor Melville" helped her with the Pest that she freed. His identity is currently unknown, as he is not met in-game.
 * On the day of release, there was a bug when doing the bridge puzzle, where if you right clicked one of the void knights on the other side of the bridge, it shows two of them.
 * This is the first quest that starts with a Q.
 * This is the second quest where you get to control an NPC, the first being Zanik in The Chosen Commander.
 * While in Commander Korasi's memory, you control her as a normal character. It appears you are wearing void armour, but when you check your equipment screen, it shows you are wearing adamant armour and wielding an adamant scimitar.
 * Controlling as Commander Korasi, if you have killed the shifter on the deck before the other pest killed the remaining Void Knights (and the squire), a maximum damage will be immediately dealt at them, killing them instantly instead.
 * The unlock hint of Lortnoc Tsep and Mindful says Calm Before The Swarm, not Quiet Before the Swarm.
 * The song "Lortnoc Tsep" is just Pest Control written backwards.
 * During your visit inside Commander Korasi's memory, or controlling as her, while using resizeable screen, you will not see the character statistic (combat equipment for example) buttons at the bottom-right corner.
 * When you control Commander Korasi, while in her memory, on the "Combat Styles" section, it reveals she is wielding an Adamant Scimitar.
 * When accessing the "Worn Equipment" tab while controlling Commander Korasi, it shows that she is wielding full Adamant armour with an Adamant scimitar, which may be removed and dropped. Removing the Adamant scimitar results in Korasi holding her weapon differently.
 * After completing this quest, your Adventurer's Log will read, "Overcoming many challenges, I unlocked Korasi's memory and learned of the pest attack on the Void Knight ship."
 * It is hinted that a new weapon, Valluta, may be released sometime during this quest series. This is because it is a legendary Void Knight weapon capable of "slaying pests like you would crush a bug beneath your toe".
 * While the main enemy of the series does not directly reveal himself during this quest, several hints are dropped toward this being Wizard Grayzag. One hint is that Imp Catcher is a requirement, but the connection between Grayzag and the Void Knights are unknown. Another is the fact that Jessika was sent by the Wizards' Tower, possibly by Grayzag. Another possibility can be that the villain is Solus Dellagar, as Wanted! is a requirement, and Solus will probably want to enact revenge on the White Knights for thwarting his previous plans, though he is presumably deceased. The Wanted! requirement may be because of the fact that Savant was briefly contacted by Sir Tiffy Cashien during the quest, though.
 * When the player uses a cake on Squire Sam, there is a brief dialogue, and Squire Sam asks the player to hold him.
 * Although you can confront the individual that stole Diana's money and who broke the vase, you do not gain any extra rewards.Void knights concept art.jpg
 * When trying to go down the stairs in one of the new buildings, the "Nothing interesting happens" message appears. You do not use the stairs in the quest, and the building has no use at the moment.
 * Although Quiet Before the Swarm is classified as a novice quest, it is actually quite difficult compared to other novice quests, because it requires completion of an intermediate quest, and contains a few difficult puzzles. On an interesting note, in the Behind the Scenes-June it is stated to be an intermediate quest, though in the quest menu is a Novice quest.
 * You cannot log out while doing the slider puzzle.
 * After the quest, if you try to enter the house that Jessika is in, a Void Knight Squire will tell you that you can not go in there. Jessika, hearing you, then asks about what is happening and you tell her that the Commodore is dead. She then feels terrible and asks herself, "What have I done?". This may hint that she will become your ally in the next quest or two.
 * When examining the black person/creature attacking the Commodore, you get the message "They seem to like wearing black." This may be a hint to the monster which you will presumably face further along the quest line, maybe a black knight, since this series is about multiple knight factions. This could also be a reference to Evil Dave, because his examine info says "He seems to like wearing black.".
 * While in the Temple Knights' HQ, a special track can be heard, however it can't be unlocked. It has a military theme.
 * The quest reward message says, "You are awarded: ... 4,000 attack, 4,900 strength" rather than "4,000 attack xp, 4,900 strength xp".
 * It is possible to smuggle Korasi's sword out of the mind world. (Players have been spotted carrying her outside the mind world).Korasi's sword.png
 * At temple knight HQ, the room where Korasi is resting looks like the room of Mrs. Cheevers in Recruitment Drive except for a few differences: there is no back door and they must exit from the door.
 * After the quest Captain Tyr becomes Commodore Tyr.
 * During the quest it is implied that the pests are capable of sentient thoughts, and may in fact be innocent beings simply acting on self defence. Considering the dialogues of the Void shifter and Void spinner, this may actually be true.