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 Void Knight 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 spoken to them, go back to Captain Tyr.


 * Captain Tyr will then 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 Savant to get Lady Table.


 * Tiffy brings you back to Falador, and tells you you must bank all your items (including familiars) before entering the HQ to see Korasi; Bank your items, and return to Sir Tiffy, who will teleport you to the HQ.

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.

For this puzzle, talk to the toll booth once more, and ask what to do here. The solution to this puzzle is as follows, if at any point you get it wrong, you can reset by talking to the toll booth.
 * The Commodore is at the helm, thinking about Jessika and he saw clouds
 * Korasi is in the hold, thinking about a promotion and she saw the pest.
 * Diana is on the main deck thinking about fighting and she saw a seagull.
 * Bernard is in the crow's nest thinking about lunch and he saw seaweed.
 * Ami is in the rigging thinking about her sister and she saw the shark

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 Jessika's mind with the potion.
 * Lortnoc Tsep - after unlocking Korasi's memory.
 * Void Knights' Theme

Required for Completing
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 * [[A Void Dance|A Void Dance

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.
 * There is 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.
 * 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 used to say Calm Before The Swarm instead of Quiet Before the Swarm.
 * The song "Lortnoc Tsep" is just Pest Control written backwards. The song also sounds like the other song, also called Pest Control.
 * 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 killed by the player in Wanted!. This is also doubtful as the Figure is allied to the Kinshra and Solus betrayed the Kinshra. 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
 * 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. This proves true in A Void Dance where she provides a vital role.


 * 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 it 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.
 * This is the first time when you can see Sir Tiffy while he is not sitting. Surprising for his age, he walks very well.
 * In The Slug Menace, Savant states, after talking to Jorrul "A few weeks ago a dragon crashed into our headquarters and the resulting fire burned a lot of our records." This can imply that the Temple Knights headquarters is either built of a burnable material or built above ground, but when you're taken to the Temple Knight headquarters it is below ground and made of brick. It is unknown if this is just because it is an interrogation room or if the entire headquarters is that way. It's also possible that they've moved their headquarters since the dragon attack occurred.
 * After completing the quest, if you talk to Juna, your character will say, "...and I unlocked Korasi's memories and learned what happened on the ship." to which she replies, "The Void Knights walk a fine line as they seek balance."
 * After solving the puzzle and returning to Void knight headquarters, Jessika will say "I taught it, him, to remove himself from the hive mind." This is a reference to Star Trek: the Next Generation, and a Borg named Hugh.
 * When Sir Tiffy asks Lady Table to escort Korasi away, they seem to have teleported seperately instead of Lady Table Tele-othering Korasi then follows herself. This is contradictory to Korasi's claim that she is not good enough in magic to teleport.
 * The quest overview states that you need to kill a level 55 pest. You actually need to kill a level 45 and level 60 pest.