Master Chahaya Tam of the School of the Fourfold Path pushes new Monks through sparring matches and escalating trials of endurance, culminating in a test of will against a spectral shadow at a Shaded Dunes waterfall.
Master Chahaya Tam of the School of the Fourfold Path pushes new Monks through sparring matches and escalating trials of endurance, culminating in a test of will against a spectral shadow at a Shaded Dunes waterfall.
A new monk's journey begins with a humble handwritten invitation to train at the School of the Fourfold Path, tucked away in Twilight Harbor just south of Saltbreeze Park — look for elementals drifting nearby and you'll know you've found the right neighborhood. Delivering the note to Chahaya Tam, one of the school's two leading masters, earns a warm welcome and an explanation of the order's philosophy: discipline of body and mind, and a spiritual bond with the four elements. She ties a plain sash around your waist and lays out your first trial in blunt terms — spar against her existing students, bare-fisted, and don't expect them to go easy on you.
Wearing the sash marks you as a fellow student so the sparring partners will recognize and engage you; hailing one and proposing a match starts the fight, and defeating three separate students nets you a training emblem from each. Bringing all three emblems back to Chahaya along with your sash completes your initiation — she declares your bruises a badge of honor and formally ties on the First Degree Fourfold Sash, sending you off to keep training and adventuring until you're ready for the next tier of instruction.
At level 3, hailing Chahaya again opens the next stage of training. She sends you out into the field to hunt Ashira Scouts for their necklaces, asking for three in total. Once you've gathered them, you turn the necklaces in to Chahaya, who then asks for both the necklaces and your sash a second time to formally register your progress. Completing this exchange earns the Second Degree Fourfold Sash, another visible mark of the discipline you've built since your first lessons.
The final tier opens at level 5, when handing your second-degree sash back to Chahaya earns its return along with a strange Elixir of Mental Focus and instructions for a trial unlike anything before it. This stage takes you well outside Night Harbor, into Shaded Dunes, to a waterfall tucked into an oasis near the Caves of Irem along the zone's western edge — the easiest route is to follow the southern coastline until you hit the river in front of the dock, then head upstream to the falls. Standing on solid ground at the base of the waterfall, on the desert side rather than the sea side, you drink the elixir Chahaya provided.
The elixir plunges you into a private trial: a "familiar shadow" rises up and begins attacking, but the correct response is to do nothing at all — stand still and let the strikes land, since the damage is entirely illusory and part of the test of composure the monks value so highly. Once the encounter runs its course, the shadow collapses into a medallion. Carrying that medallion, along with your sash, back to Chahaya Tam completes your training under the Fourfold Path, earning you the Third Degree Fourfold Sash and full recognition as a disciplined graduate of the school.