Salvaging Questline

Whisper's Words 1
Whisper tells you that she comes from a far away place, and is the last of the Hirotoka Shinobi. You become curious, you want to know who this child with the old voice and this all-too-familiar mask is, but she wants information about Sephotep in return.

You meet Helga at the airship docks just outside the salvaging shop, hoping she can tell you what happened while you were gone. Helga believes that Sephotep is controlling Markos. As a great strategist on the battlefield, everyone from the Knights of Patreayl trusted Sephotep. Nevertheless, she says, they should have known something was off - but because the situation was dire back then, they didn't think too much about it.

In exchange for this information, Whisper tells you about the legendary school of the female Shinobi on the island of Hirotaka, to the south of Taikoto, where she was trained in the ways of strategy and stealth. But she never got to finish her training...

Whisper's Words 2
Before she tells you more about her history, Whisper asks you to look into the essence-absorbing crystals that grow inside of the cave in Lamavora. She believes that they might still be used in the Citadel for something.

Right at the entrance of the cave, you meet one of the miners. She seems to be in a hurry, and doesn't even pause her work as you try to make conversation with her, as she tells you that the cave is overrun by Chaos monsters, preventing her from going deeper into the cave. She explains that she is working under direct orders from Markos, something about powering the Citadel, but doesn't know or even care about the details.

You had to clear out the entire group of Chaos enemies inside the cave before she finally gives you a crystal sample. With a warning to not keep it in your pocket for too long, she goes back to work, and you hurry back to the city before the radiation from the crystal makes you grow some extra limbs.

Giving the sample to Whisper, you ask what the crystals are used for, but she doesn't tell you. Instead, she describes her home, a world in another dimension, far away. You are surprised to hear that even though she looks like a child, she is actually 300 years old. It took her a long time to learn the magick required to cross between dimensions and come here. How she describes her ocean world, dotted with islands with autumn-colored trees all year around, it almost sounds like a daydream to you. She tells you about the five Dragons they worship, and the schools of fighting and magick unlike anything you've ever seen. But as soon as you ask about the magick, she falls silent.

Cloaked Stranger
This time, Whisper needs you to talk to a person that has been "dabbling in the darker arts", or so she says, for some kind of information, but he will require some kind of payment. She asks you to stop at nothing to get the information.

In the Flooded Rainforest, you find a strange cloaked figure between some trees at the shore near Inuinu Chasm. Hiding his face in his blue scarf and under his large hat, he neither asks for your name, nor your intentions, but offers you a trade: a contract. It's a killing contract - he wants you to kill a young woman living at the Obnobi Camp, in exchange for the information. You are not sure about this, but Whisper asked you to do whatever it takes. You should at least go and check out the camp.

As you sneak around the tents of the camp, wondering if this is really what she is asking of you, you suddenly see a very familiar, unkempt mane of black hair - it's Whisper! You tell her what happened, but she doesn't even seem too troubled or even surprised about the fact that someone wants her dead. Instead, she admires your morals and commitment, she asks you to lie to the shady figure and say that you fulfilled his request, and then meet her in her shop back in Highsteppe.

Luckily, the cloaked stranger does not want to know any details about how Whisper died, and you are relieved that he gives you the information without asking any questions. As you turn around, he says with a little smirk that he will have more work for you in the future. You decide to leave quickly, not wanting to stay here for any longer than necessary.

Back in the city, Whisper reveals that she came to this world to regain her honor and recover a stolen artifact called The Tail of the Great Ryū, the source of the power of all Shinobi - she believes it to be located in the Citadel. Years ago, Sephotep visited her school back in Taikoto, learning their techniques, but barely teaching any of his. Whisper grew suspicious of the man, until one day, she caught him sneaking into the temple, trying to steal their artifact. She was unable to stop him, and Sephotep set the whole island on fire before disappearing into a portal to another world. Whisper was the only one to survive with her life, her face horribly burned, and vowed to take revenge on the man who took everything she loved.

Whisper's Warriors
After telling you her story, she asks you to stand by her side in the fight against Sephotep. You gladly join her cause - he also took something from you that you have to get back no matter what. While she works on her plan to infiltrate the citadel, she suggests that you prepare for when the time comes by fighting against powerful monsters around the realm.

After fighting countless enemies all over Patreayl, some alone, some with the help of other explorers, you ask her one more question, the one that has been bugging you since the beginning: Why is she wearing that mask?

Whisper knows that you are not asking about her burned face, but about the mask that looks so similar to the one Sephotep is always wearing. She explains that she carved it herself, and chose to wear it as a reminder that to defeat her enemy, she must become her enemy.