The Ring of Shurpu

The Fire That Keeps Xan Alive

You wake up in chains beneath a volcano after clicking a button in town that promised something new. Xan insists you remind him of a hero who once interfered with him and leaves you there while he goes after Warlic. Jimmy the Eye, the familiar Warlic sent to spy on him, helps you escape. Warlic recognizes the riddles Xan left along the way from their days as students. By the time you reach him at the top, Xan has gone into Basani.

Warlic tells you how he and Xan once competed for Jaania’s affection. When an accident set Xan on fire, Warlic changed the flames into healing fire. It saved Xan’s life and has kept him burning ever since. The same accident trapped Jaania in a crystal. Warlic has spent years looking for a way to help them both and holds himself responsible for what happened to Xan.

The Hostage at Basani

Scoria sends you to the stone mill where her son Andesi and the other children are hiding. Andesi remembers Xan riding into town on a wave of lava. He threw fire at the children without hitting any of them, and you wonder if he meant to miss. You clear a path through the burning town and bring Scoria a note from Andesi tucked inside a family pendant.

Xan claims he came to find an apprentice whose mind he can burn clean and teach from scratch. You and Warlic expect him to take one of the children, so Warlic prepares to disguise himself as Andesi. Xan instead tells the children to choose one of their parents. Andesi names Scoria because he believes it’s what she would want. Warlic has no time to change his disguise, and Xan takes Scoria into the ruins beneath the town.

The Lost Library

Andesi blames you for letting Xan take his mother and insists on coming along to find her. In the lost library of Shurpu, he helps Warlic discover what Xan is after. The Ring of Shurpu can amplify fire magic a thousandfold or more. You cross a lava gorge on a bridge Warlic enchants against the heat, defeat the guardian and bring back the ring. When Warlic puts it on, fire overwhelms his other magic.

Turning the Ring Against Xan

Xan admits he never wanted an apprentice. He took Scoria so you and Warlic would find the ring for him, and he threatens to kill her unless you give it to him. Warlic hesitates at the thought of what Xan could do with that power. Andesi begs him to save his mother, and you argue that treating her life as expendable would make you more like Xan. Warlic agrees. Xan releases Scoria and casts a charm meant to keep you and Warlic from ever taking the ring off him.

Anticipating a trap, you already exposed the ring to Escherion’s Inversion Chaos magic at his tower. When Xan tries to use it, the ring weakens his fire magic by the same factor it would have amplified it. The inversion also turns his charm against him, so only you or Warlic can remove it. You leave Xan wearing the ring. Scoria returns to Basani, and Warlic keeps Andesi on at the library, where the boy has already helped him uncover forgotten fire spells.

Xan still wears the ring when Warlic goes looking for him during the Chaos War.

Sources

Xan Saga Finale, Xan’s Saga quests, Andesi’s introduction, The Ring