Reflections on Diamond Quests

[DoF Archive]

Date: 7/19/1999 5:49 PM Central Daylight Time
From: RDI Rask

:: Rask sat back in his office, taking a break from the long day and the extraordinary heat. He had spent most of the morning going over papers and requests for various drinks and such for the bar. ::

Speaking of the bar... :: Rask got up to get himself a cold mug of ale

he thought back to the events of the other night, when once again they crowned a new diamond. It reminded him that someone was going to have to pay for the damage that was caused ::

What is it about the diamond quest since I became supervisor? :: he shook his head as he took a sip of the cold beverage, feeling it temporarily relieve the pressing heat

it had been just over a year since Rask became supervisor, and in that time he had been in charge of five diamond quests. Out of those five, three resulted in some sort of incredible destruction.

The very first one, in fact, had probably been the most destructive of them all. That was the infamous event when the blue Opal had apparently been destroyed. It began a series of events that lasted nearly a year before it was discovered that the object in question had actually been a fake. The action itself nearly tore the community apart and Rask had done all he could to do what he believed was right. And that was just the first diamond quest
after he became the boss.

After what seemed an eternity, things had calmed down once again. However, a few diamond quests later and again there was havoc. Right in the middle of the diamond quest, some kind of being appeared, attempting to claim all of the Opals. Rask wasn't even there for that event, but he was there to see the aftermath, the damage that was done to the outback. He heard the stories about how a band of patrons joined together to battle this being and
stop him from gaining some sort of ultimate power

To be honest, Rask didn't know much about affairs of the universe, or even how the Opals really work. But, it seemed reasonable that if someone, or something actually did possess all of them, that being would have quite a bit of power. Rask had seen how each of the individual holders would occasionally use the power of their Opal, and that seemed like power enough.

Rask took another drink of the ale, wiping some sweat off of his brow.

Now, this last diamond quest. Rask had wandered into the outback at almost two in the morning. He had expected to see the diamond quest over with and was hoping to find out who the winner was. When he entered, he saw that Goon was just in the process of falling asleep. Well, it wasn't out of the question for diamond quests to run extraordinarily long. He chuckled to himself and decided to call the last few rounds.

It went fairly normal right up until the last match, when all of a sudden explosions started. The last match took place within a haze of falling dust and the occasional ringing of explosions. Rask spent the entire last match hiding behind the sleeping form of his assistant, occasionally peaking over a shoulder to see what was happening in the match. Add to that the fact that Kelli was hiding behind Rask and you have a very interesting final.

Even now, a few days later, Rask was still not sure exactly what happened. However, something he did know was that there were now several new holes in the floors and wall of the outback and a rather significant trench that ran along the one wall.

He remembered hearing somewhere that Tareth was a rather well off person. He knew that Tareth was a part of it, hell he might have even been the one to cause all of the explosions. Well, like Rask said, someone will have to pay.

Rask finished off the rest of the ale and went over to draw up some papers. there were a few good lawyers out there who knew the ins and outs of extracting money to pay for damages. The outback had not even fully paid off the bar after it had been burned down ... but that was another story ::