Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The borrowed mantle
The Hero puts on the previous Conquest's armor to take the injured Pale Rider's place. Lachesis has altered it as best she can, but she is a Soulsmith rather than a metalworker, and cannot provide a white horse to fuse to the wearer. The Hero proposes that Conquest simply wanted to stretch his legs. They expect Dage to find the deception funny, intriguing, or useful as a future favor; by now, they have stopped keeping track of their debts to each other.
Lachesis has tried everything she knows, but Vaughn's wound still resists magical healing. Conquest needs a conventional healer. Left to himself, he might at least stand by the fourth round, so the Hero agrees to win four duels while she searches. All four Horsemen passed the qualifiers. Death may await them again, but the immediate danger in their bracket is War. The Hero initially assumes this is the Horseman Vaughn supports, an assumption later overturned.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The mentor beneath the hood
Conquest traces that Vaughn deliberately aimed for particular veins, temporarily stifling his magic. The Hero wonders whether Vaughn once hunted the kind of Undead he now serves. Wearing the old armor also exposes a more private attachment: its former owner was Conquest's mentor and a parental figure. In one version of the exchange, he admits that this care may have been manipulation, but is glad to see the armor used again. In the other, the Hero resembles his mentor so closely that he recalls enemies kneeling to her white light.
The vow has kept Conquest apart from his fellow riders, though silence is not their only division. Death and Pestilence are close but seldom seen together. War cares for fire and blood; Famine resents his supposed brothers-in-arms. Conquest's own distance has only recently allowed the Hero through. Dage notices the unusual dismounted competitor, while Slaine either threatens the ForgeMaster they are about to face or recognizes the disguised Hero by scent. Dage cuts him off.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The ForgeMaster in the arena
Straightforward Wrath pits the disguised Hero against Vulcar, requiring one defeat of the ForgeMaster. The danger is less a hidden trick than a conspicuously bipedal Conquest. Vulcar loses without cheating and forfeits his chance at a wish. Asked what he wanted, he looks toward Dage and wonders whether their lord intends to investigate the life arising from the Seven Circles.
Calamitus recognizes the ForgeMaster who keeps repairing Slaine's cage and shackles. Vulcar resembles the Wrath Guards of the Seven Circles, the source of Underworld-born calamities. More such beings are formally entering the Legion, and Calamitus wonders what they really are. Retirement has given him room to think; he says being an Usurper takes a toll on the mind.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - An assistant freezes the competition
For Sinister Assist, the Hero must defeat Seneschal on an arena floor his own assistant flooded and froze. The assistant believes being too useful has blocked promotion and demands Seneschal's death so they can finally receive a proper nameplate. The Hero's suggestion that their name might literally be Seneschal's Assistant only provokes anger. Voltaire announces the duel as an unexpected skating contest and asks for hot water for a fellow judge frozen at the ankles.
After the match, Conquest explains how badly the Horsemen fare on ice. Dage changes their horseshoes for frozen battlefields, though Famine still resembles a tap-dancing deer. Nearby, Maleagant remembers his living home rather than the Cocytus: blankets of snow and a son who made himself sick eating tree sap in the hope it would taste like honey. Rand refuses the personal question forming behind the story. Maleagant warns that Rand and Dage cannot avoid Ravenscar forever.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - A healer among the ritualists
The scheduled third opponent has been ambushed by Famine's Ritualists. Disposer of Lots requires a Ritualist's Candle and a conversation with Lachesis and Rogath. Rather than simply wreck their ceremony, the Hero checks what Lachesis can use. Rogath offers to tend Conquest. He is not a healer by profession: he learned the basics while preparing to recruit Lachesis because he expected she might hurt herself before joining the Legion.
Lachesis thanks 'Mr. Rogath,' but he reminds her that she is now General of the Styx. He would rather be called a minion or a mere peon than treated as her superior. The abandoned ritual tools and markings may be useful to her. Conquest needs the Hero to stand in for one more match while the healer works, and that fourth opponent is War.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - War bows to a word
War's Revelation asks the Hero to defeat the Crimson Rider, whose new form and appetite for a rematch make the disguise pointless. After the fight, War says battling the Hero was exhilarating, unlike facing the real Conquest. He intends the proxy war to end with the Hero's defeat and threatens to bring the arena down. Conquest breaks his silence with a single command to stop, then orders War to lower his head and admit defeat. War obeys.
Conquest goes further, commanding War to kneel and renounce his title. The Crimson Rider begins surrendering title and steed, but Conquest reverses the order and tells him to continue serving. War accepts that too. Dage watches with interest. The Hero's surprise concerns both the broken vow and the ease with which resistance has disappeared.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - Why conquest must be earned
Conquest explains that conquest does not end when a war is won: wills are broken until people desire to kneel and applaud their oppression. His voice imposes that control. It made him worthy of the steed, yet he despises relying on it because victories won this way would not demonstrate his own skill or strength. War now believes in Conquest's supremacy without Conquest having earned it. To him, that victory is hollow.
Rand asks whether he can release War. Conquest thinks the effect fades after a week or two of silence, then admits it might be ten; he last spoke when bidding his predecessor farewell. The Hero thanks him and promises not to force another breach of the vow. Appealing to Dage's own earned throne, the Hero asks him to respect the same principle in Conquest. Dage agrees, while appreciating the flattery. Afterward, Conquest can only trace directionless spirals in the Hero's hand: exposing his voice has left him feeling vulnerable.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The wrong favorite
Voltaire interrupts with news from the judges watching Death and Famine. Contrary to expectations, Famine has won. Dage admits underestimating him. Lachesis insists Vaughn cheated and identifies Famine as the Horseman he supported all along. The Hero remembers seeing the two speak in the arena without recognizing the significance.
The Hero is now too deeply involved to leave. They intend to stop Vaughn and Famine without making Conquest break his vow again, even if that requires dirtier tactics than the other side used against Death. Turning to Conquest, they begin proposing something they think would be particularly funny.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The judges' burning grievance
Judges' Grudges requires defeating Aeacus, Minos, and Rhadamanthys once each. They entered separately but joined forces against the Hero and Conquest. Someone has already set their arena on fire, turning the supposed threat into a request for mercy. Dage enjoys the heat at the judging panel. The completion account connects his lingering anger to the trio once keeping the Hero waiting outside his palace.
Rand asks Dage whether he ordered the fire and begins defending the three judges' earlier conduct. Dage pretends the blaze makes Rand inaudible. If the judges wish to complain, they may bring their grievance themselves, once he finishes other reports. Their punishment repeats the waiting that provoked him.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The return Rand must not see
Devastated Deimos finds the next opponent already pierced with swords and white arrows. The quest coyly blames someone whose name rhymes with salmon for trying to remove him too early. After one defeat, Deimos still thrashes rather than concede, and Slaine has to drag him out in Dragon form. Rand tries to help remove the swords Deimos cannot reach, but Slaine keeps him outside.
Maleagant explains the exclusion. They know little about the Dark Return and fear that seeing Deimos like this might trigger a chain reaction in Rand. Others are encouraged to attain the form, but Rand knows everyone's weaknesses, including Slaine's. Slaine instead needles Maleagant about Arondight joining Yara's Paladin Order and threatens orphanages as bait. Maleagant trusts Arondight's adulthood and knows Yara is eager to kill them; he expects Slaine would rampage anyway.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - Two empty Lakens
The semifinal opponents in Laken, the Sequel are Laken Clone 1.7 and Laken Clone 2.3. Maleagant says the Golemancer who created them has already been executed for cheating. The clones are soulless husks, with no connection to the original, but their presence will upset Dage. He has already seen them before anyone reported the breach. Voltaire declares the round invalid and adds fighting multiple copies of a dead man to his private nightmares.
After destroying both clones, the Hero remembers the original Laken's two souls sharing an unstable existence in one body, something Ada learned only at the end. Lachesis offers Dage an outlet through burning or cutting the copies. Dage says he does not hate his former General. She would offer the same advice even without hatred, or if the clones resembled the Hero: it would not release him, but might give the feeling an outlet.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The missing rider answers
Conquest senses Pestilence in the halls before the final match. Take Ill requires searching two cells and speaking to the missing rider, providing a chance to fulfill the Hero's promise to Lachesis. Pestilence's approach presses heavily on the Hero's shoulders. From behind the cell bars, the rider greets their discovery. They had hoped to slip away from another competition, but something sleeping deep in the Phlegethon drew their interest: it is the source of the boiling blood, and the Hero will one day care about its face.
Pestilence has heard of the promise to find them for Lachesis and proposes another deal. They will hear the General of the Styx if the Hero vows to take them on a real adventure, a saga like the journey with Dage. A teasing request for a pinky promise gives way to accepting a nod. Pestilence will meet them topside. The quest account calls them the oldest current rider, a master of more than one steed: they can serve War and Conquest, but can also make both riders' spoils worthless.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - Lachesis prepares the curse
With Pestilence found, Lachesis must honor her side of the bargain. Pallidus Curse requires eight Bloodmoon Sigils and fifteen Legionnaire's Anima, collected from the available Legion combatants. The Alchemist of the Soul instructs the Hero to mark the halls while she prepares the ritual. Its invocation contrasts Famine, which torments the poor through hunger and mourning, with Pestilence, whose death can reach the slovenly rich, even those kneeling to the Beast.
Conquest knows the championship will bring everything Famine and Vaughn can muster. Lachesis is motivated to help after the Hero fulfills the promise, but the ritual alone cannot guarantee success. The Hero has suggested something special to Conquest as another precaution. Famine's Revelation now calls for a two-on-two championship: the Hero and Conquest against Vaughn and Famine.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - A rider emptied for power
Famine looms over the arena in dark, gold-edged robes, surrounded by burning bowls and a glaring white light. He pronounces a curse of eating without satisfaction while Vaughn keeps the Hero occupied. Asked what he did to Famine, Vaughn says the rider surrendered some, perhaps all, of his sense of self. Vaughn gave him room to tip his scales, though preventing the Hero from securing Conquest's win mattered more to him. He treats a skilled archer as a familiar problem, recalling one he fought during his bandit life.
Vaughn admits Famine is boosting him, then tempts Conquest to end everything with his outside voice. The Hero refuses that solution. Instead, they announce that they are literally tipping the scales. The Hero is shown on Famine's lowered hand beside a burning bowl. Famine's recitation falters into a demand to get off him, and the Hero tells Conquest the rider is losing focus.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The curse finds a way in
Vaughn coughs and laughs that there really are centipedes in his throat. He wonders whether Lachesis put them there and asks where she has gone. Standing within a red floor sigil and surrounded by candles, she invokes a name beneath the Blood Moon, calling for a loathsome sore on scorched earth and repeating the contrast between hunger's poor victims and plague's wealthy ones. The candles and floor sigil turn green as Pestilence answers, approving of how frightening she made them sound.
A luminous green image of an outstretched hand fills the scene as Pestilence warns that lowered defenses invite plague, apologizes to Famine, and wishes him better luck next time. Vaughn can no longer move under the bugs in his bones. He acknowledges that this is one way around his immunity. The Hero calls for Conquest to take the shot while Vaughn is down. The countermeasure succeeds through the infestation described here, without overturning the earlier account that Vaughn resists magic.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The house and the championship
Famine screams into a wash of white as the Hero calls a warning. Conquest's white bow then lies on the floor before Vaughn, who dismisses the turn of events as bad luck and insists that the house always wins. The Hero answers that he should not have done that. In the following view, Conquest raises a luminous pistol while Vaughn appears upside down opposite him. Vaughn is absent from the next view as Voltaire orders the bell rung and announces a champion.
Dage names Conquest the Conqueror of the Reap. Voltaire congratulates the Hero for choosing well; the Hero admits to pulling ten different strings. Lachesis says every vow has been honored: she has obtained an audience with Pestilence, and Conquest will get his wish. The victory's rewards belong to the allies whose promises the Hero kept as well as to the fighter crowned champion.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - A voice of his own
Dage understands Conquest's wish: to have an ordinary voice and be judged on his own skills. He calls the loss of such a gift wasteful, but promises to keep his word to someone who deserves it. The process will take time, so Conquest must remain silent a little longer. Dage looks forward to his Pale Rider conquering with his true word. The promised release is still ahead, not an accomplished transformation.
Conquest can barely keep from trotting in place. He offers himself as a future battle partner, or an ally should the Hero fancy ruling a realm, and traces a final thank-you into their hand. Rand says he was not in on the scheme. He suspects Dage hoped the Hero would encourage Conquest's untapped potential, rather than enter the tournament personally. Perhaps next millennium the Hero will finally be able to judge it.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - What the losers kept
The Hero belatedly asks where Vaughn and Famine went. They told Conquest to aim for Vaughn's head, but Rand points out that using a magic gun would not harm him. Death says Famine is sulking in his own realm and will not retaliate until something grows back. It is a part of himself he promised Vaughn in return for aid, something Death would not be caught dead without. This dialogue does not name that part.
Away from the celebration, Vaughn says Conquest was coaxed out of his shell just as Dage wanted. Despite the trouble, he considers himself a winner too. He raises a gray, flowing, hair-like trophy while boasting that his favorite part was ripping it out and hearing the other man scream. His satisfaction leaves the cost of Famine's bargain alongside the apparent happy ending, rather than making the championship a complete defeat of Vaughn's purposes.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - The wish that remains Lachesis's
Pestilence has offered Lachesis a private meeting soon. Rogath asks what she still wants, after revenge against her people and escape from imprisonment in her own home and body. She says she agreed to destroy her former life because she felt the same then as she does now. Rogath warns that power, death, and the Legion will not solve the problem for her. She must find an answer herself and use the tools now available.
The missing rider is gone, and the ease of breathing marks their absence. The Hero is reminded that Pestilence will remember the promised adventure, whether or not the Hero does. An audience with Lachesis has been secured, but the future saga and the sleeping source of the river's boiling blood remain open threads.
Dage's Tournament: Reap Finals - Poppies after the Reap
The celebration continues through Asphodel Poppies and its Legend variant, two mutually exclusive daily quests after Famine's Revelation. War wants another round, and Dage encourages another blow against the Black Rider. Each requires one Anjou Rue from the Black Rider and one Crimson Poppy from the Crimson Rider. The normal variant awards 1,000 Conquest's Points; the member variant awards 2,000. Conquest gives the Hero a wreath of Underworld poppies and rue, which they wear despite worrying it resembles a funeral gift.
The ten main quests are once-only progression. The two daily variants are optional repeatable rewards, while eight shared once-only milestones unlock trophy-shop stock at 500, 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 9,999, 20,000, 30,000, and 50,000 points held in inventory. These are the same shared milestones introduced earlier, with the three highest available only in Reap Finals. Their requirements do not establish that the points are spent or consumed.