Online:Palbatan

Palbatan is a Dark Elf and former adventurer found in the Brass Fortress. He'll be sitting outside the Daram Stables eating his meal.

 
Related Quests


Quest-Related Events
:''"That display of emotion isn't indicative of the people of Slag Town. Kamid lost his mother in the last pilgrimage, and that's made him angry at the world.  He has a point, though. Dreams and prophecies can be dangerous things."
:What pilgrimage do you mean?
:"Once every season, the most brave and desperate members of our community make the journey to request a fortune from the Grand Prognosticator.  Not everyone receives a prediction, but many have died hoping to have their destinies changed."
:What's the Grand Prognosticator?
:"An oracle of sorts. It's an unusual factotum with a penchant for the mystical and the dramatic.  I fear Kamid plans to do something foolish - and dangerous. Perhaps you'd be willing to go to the Outlaws Refuge and talk to him? Keep him safe?"
:I'll go to the Outlaws Refuge and talk to Kamid.
:"Thank you, my friend. My old bones aren't up to another adventure, but I owe it to Kamid's mother to do whatever I can to keep him safe. The Grand Prognosticator spits out fortunes the way a sawmill spits out lumber - all the same until one isn't."
:The Grand Prognosticator gives everyone the same fortune?
:"More or less. Something about abject poverty and a miserable existence. But every once in a great while, the factotum provides a different prophecy.  I received such a fortune when I made my pilgrimage so many years ago."
:What fortune did you receive?
:"A fortune of hope, of riches beyond my wildest dreams. It spoke of a way to escape this life, but I wasn't brave enough to heed the Prognosticator's words.  Kamid calls the oracle a fraud. Maybe so. But even a cracked egg sometimes contains a scrib."''

If you agreed to help Kamid, he'll end up wanting to get some answers from Palbatan. As you approach Kamid and Palbatan near Daram Stables, you'll hear:
:Palbatan :  "Are you sure about this, Kamid? Remember what happened to your mother."
:Kamid :  ''"With the outsider's help, that treasure is as good as mine. Then everyone will see that the Prognosticator is a fraud!"''

Speaking to him, he'll say:
:''"When I asked you to help Kamid, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I want to see our people abandon the reckless pilgrimage to the Grand Prognosticator, but going after the treasure is just as dangerous—maybe even more so!"
:Can you tell us anything about the lost treasure?
:"Kamid seeks to replace one foolish pilgrimage with another. Very well. I can tell you that the treasure exists. I've seen the wreckage of the merchant caravan myself. But getting close enough to recover it? Impossible!"
:Why do you say it's impossible to reach the treasure?
:"Because of the massive fabricant that prowls the area. Gear Grinder is bigger than three brawny Nords and a hundred times more dangerous. It slaughtered the pilgrims that attempted to recover the treasure. I was the only survivor."
:Where can we find the wreckage of the merchant caravan?
:"I'm still uncomfortable with all this, but I can see that you and Kamid are determined. The wreckage lies scattered far to the south, near the mountains that form the southern border of the Radius. Gear Grinder is a killer. Please, keep Kamid safe."
:Thank you. I won't let anything happen to Kamid.
:"Before you go, Kamid mentioned you found Maliah's journal. He said it contained a passphrase and mentioned Sotha Sil's honored assistant. Is that true?"
:That's correct. Can you tell us anything about that?
:"I'm sorry to say that when I was a young man, I came across a sequence plaque that belonged to one of Sotha Sil's original assistants. An apostle called Albacron. The plaque contained a series of passphrases. That's how I found the lost treasure."
:How did some old passphrases lead you to the treasure?
:"They allowed me to change the nature of my pilgrimage. I was able to get the Prognosticator to tell me how to locate the lost treasure of the Radius, thus altering my future—or so I hoped. But the fabricant …. Maybe our fates are set after all."
:Why did you give the passphrase to Kamid's mother if you feel that way?
:"I'm not sure how I feel, not anymore. But I didn't give Maliah the passphrase. She must have found the plaque where I hid it. Maybe if she hadn't …. When you return from the wreckage—if you return—I'll tell you more about the passphrases."
:"Gear Grinder is a terror. Tales of spotting the foul beast haunt the nightmares of every child in Slag Town. But if the fabricant is still there, then so is the treasure. May the pistons of fate run smoothly for you and Kamid both."''

Dialogue
After completing Cogs of Fate, Kamid will tell you to meet Palbatan in the Outlaws Refuge. He'll be in the group listening to Kamid and if you try to speak to him there, he'll only say:
:"We need to talk. It involves that sequence plaque I told you about. Meet me in the Outlaws Refuge. The streets of Slag Town have many ears, but we can speak privately in there."

Inside the refuge, you'll find him at the central pillar, where he'll tell you:
:''"Sorry for the clandestine request, but I have words meant for your ears only. What you and Kamid learned, what he convinced Slag Town about the Grand Prognosticator? Well, it's not entirely … accurate."
:Are you saying that the Prognosticator doesn't use data to predict future trends?
:"No, you figured out how the Prognosticator makes its predictions. But the factotum has a defect, a sequencing error, as it were. You see, it can also actually prophesy the future."
:Didn't we just work really hard to convince Slag Town that it can't do that?
:"The pilgrimage needed to be discredited. People were going out into the Vale and getting killed for no good reason. But just because the message has been corrupted doesn't mean the messenger wasn't worth listening to."
:Then why did the Prognosticator keep giving everyone the same dire fortune?
:"Because the people of Slag Town never had the right passphrase. Maliah jotted the one for the analyst in her journal, but she made no mention of the one for the Prognosticator. I had it, though. That's why my fortune was different."
:I think the Prognosticator mentioned a passphrase when I tried to talk to it.
:"Then it's even more imperative that I give you the plaque. The Prognosticator must have a prophecy to reveal, but it won't speak it unless you provide the proper passphrase. Take the honored assistant's plaque and learn the fate that awaits you."''