lad you could make it at this late hour, Amaro! Come in, come in, come in!"

Spectulus looked more dishevelled than usual and the dark circles under his eyes spoke volumes. He frantically ushered his friend Amaro de Quester into his study which also served as living and bed room - and was a dreadful mess. Amaro sat down on the only available seat, the ground, while Spectulus threw himself onto his bed which was buried under a gigantic pile of torn pages, scribbled notes and empty cups with cocoa stains.
Knowing his friend's quirks better than anyone, Amaro patiently waited for Spectulus to get to the point of calling him over right in the middle of the night.

"I've run into a dead-end on my latest project and it's driving me mad! I've redone my calculations numerous times already, I've spent the last four days and nights trying to understand why my experiment doesn't work despite everything being set up correctly. This doesn't make any sense!!! And now it got me into a vicious cycle: How am I to crack this nut if sleep eludes me like the inevitable little piece of eggshell in a cracked egg? And how am I to fall asleep if I can't figure out what on earth is wrong with this experiment!"

"And what do you want me to do, Spectulus?"

"This morning, one of my assistants rambled on about a mysterious door deep down in Banuta and what secrets may lie behind and that someone passed that door and yada yada yada... But! All that jibber-jabbering made me doze off. Finally!!! The first few minutes of sleep since I got stuck in my experiment. You know that pretty much everything besides practical and experimental research bores me to death. And since death and sleep are more or less brothers, a brilliant thought crossed my mind: You're always nagging about me not showing any interest in your Tibian fairy tales. Here is your chance! Go on, tell me some of those fabled legends that intrigue you so much so that I can finally get a good night of sleep."

"Alright. Coming from you, this is as close to a friendly invitation as I will ever get so let me introduce you to the greatest unsolved mysteries that have been captivating people for generations..."

"Could you be a bit less dramatic about it, Amaro? I want you to lull me into sleep, not death, mind you, so don't overdo it!"

Unwavering and steadfast, Amaro continued: "There are so many stories and rumours about unsolved quests, legendary items, secret and unreachable places in our world that we can only scratch the surface tonight.

My efforts to unearth the truth behind fantastical tales began as early as my childhood days. All children admired Avar Tar back then, he was our greatest hero so getting hold of his old sword, the fabled Sword of Fury, was the stuff that our dreams were made of.
Countless times did I venture out to explore Rookgaard in all directions, hoping to find clues on how to reach that sword. My cake-baking skills stem from this time, by the way. I was hooked on the idea that I might be able to bake a cake delicious enough to convince the mage down in minotaur hell to allow me to disturb him. After numerous unsuccessful attempts, I gave up, though. Doubts that the mage could bring me any closer to the sword had taken root in my mind. Thus, I also stopped looking for a way to reach that lonely minotaur on the mountain in northern Rookgaard. Until then, I had been pretty certain that he could provide me with the recipe for a perfect mino cake, but thinking about it now, that idea seems a bit childish to me.

Yet, my endeavours to figure out a way to reach the island where the Sword of Fury is located did not stop there. I had heard rumours that Loui's madness was a result of him trying to touch the sword but not being humble enough. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make any sense of his wild talk. Monster rabbits? That was too much even for my taste! So I kept on staring at the sword from the distance, hoping to figure out what being humble really is about. Sometimes, the sword would disappear all of a sudden only to be back in place the next day. If only I had been a better swimmer back then!


Years later, during one of my visits to the library in Hellgate, a strange idea hit me like a thunder hammer. 486486, or we may call that wrinkled bonelord Blinky since he can't hear us here, was as reluctant as ever to share the secrets behind 469 with me ? another one of those great mysteries. While he was lecturing me about the inferiority of humans, it occurred to me that a bonelord would probably float perfectly in water. He could easily swim right over to the island!

Alas, I didn't muster the courage to ask him to do me this favour for I feared he might strike me down on the spot.

So I decided to dedicate myself to another adventure. I got lost in the Jakundaf desert dungeon. To this day, that place is a great enigma to me. I keep coming back to it time and time again; it's so full of memories, full of riddles, full of all the things that I love about adventures and exploration.
Oh, all songs that I sung to win that banshee's heart! I even used my panpipes to play a lament for Othmor once because I thought that they might have been lovers. Apparently not, since it neither moved that blasted lever nor did it lower the water level of Lake Amros.



It is such a pity that you gave up on working on these wings of windsailing, Spectulus. Well, I guess boots of waterwalking are still my best bet to reach that island right in the middle of the lake. And there's also that sealed off dragon area close to where I found my spike sword. Someone told me how to lower the gate but my magma crawler refuses to cross the lava. Who knows what the dragons are guarding there!

Maybe Excalibug, one of the great legendary weapons. Some say that it was a gift of the gods to Banor. Thus, it can only to be wielded in the fight against the servants of evil by those loyal to Banor. Others believe that it was forged by the dwarven kings out of a magical metal that cyclopes once found in the heart of a fallen star.
During my travels around Tibia, I've heard so many rumours about where Excalibug may be hidden. That unreachable sword I discovered in the Pits of Inferno... could it be Excalibug? I'm not sure. Hidden on Treasure Island? Sounds too obvious. Down below the ocean? Can it get anymore clich? than this? I wonder if all the rum in Liberty Bay is to blame for this.

I spent weeks down in the Formorgar Mines thanks to my blind faith in Bertha's 'confirmed information' about Excalibug's whereabouts. Well, she flat-out lied to me, that much is clear now.
Then there are those who say that it is hidden somewhere under the burning sands of the Daramian desert, yet others claim that it's not to be found on that continent. I can say that I haven't discovered any stone tablets mentioning Excalibug in Banuta yet. So I'm more inclined to believe my dwarven friends. Considering all the things that I've already heard and seen in the Jolly Axeman, the story of Swolt's mother's neighbour's cousin sounds quite convincing to me: Excalibug hidden beneath a stranger's dark cloak... who could he have been? Where did he go? The ghostlands are definitely off of my list. I mean, whom to trust if not a dwarf from the Molten Rock, jawoll?

Edron is another candidate that I haven't ruled out yet. And, of course, the Plains of Havoc! This place is begging to hide such an ancient weapon. As soon as Avar Tar has made sure that our beloved world is save, I'll accompany him on his expedition to that vault of the Nightmare Knights.
Until then, I'll dive deeper into entomology. I think I may be onto something here... what if Excalibug is actually a creature, a special kind of bug?"

"Oh Amaro, even Bozo isn't foolish enough to believe that Excalibug is real!"

"Just you wait and see, Excalibug will be reborn in the flame of justice someday! Even if not, there's still the warlord sword, another legendary weapon to dream of. This one has always kept the rumour mill buzzing but most of the stories end with the gods destroying the sword. So you need to be careful not to bring down their wrath upon you.

When I was younger, someone told me that the sweaty cyclops Bencthyclthrtrprr would be willing to trade a warlord sword for 100 pieces of iron. Following up on this idea certainly helped me to get into shape but I'm still waiting for that warlord sword. I bet the Basilisk would scare Big Ben into handing it over.
This serpent looks so harmless on first glance but its stone gaze strikes terror into the hearts of many. My brave dwarven friends dread that beast even though they managed to trap it with a cave-in. I've tried to break through to it to get rid of the slippery, sneaky creature but to no avail so far. I've even started to search the mines for any of those rumoured Basilisk eggs.
One thing is clear: I cannot allow those renegade dwarfs to gain control over it. I recently overheard some adventurers talking about reaching the Basilisk through Dwacatra, the prison isle. One of them even insisted that the Serpentine Tower holds the key to solving all mysteries at once. But this is a story for another night or day."

As the first light of dawn started to sneak its way into the room, Amaro listened to Spectulus softly mumbling in his sleep: "my... experiment... melt the cream cake in a... hot-chocolate bath... no... mash two bananas... or three?... let?s make it four... stir the... herbs..."

Amaro quietly stood up and looked out of the window into the brightening horizon: "As long as those legends inspire people to do great deeds, they should be retold, my dear friend!"