| abstract | - The Quest for the Chalice was a mission assigned to the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad in 1190 wherein he conducted a search for the Chalice, originally rumored to have been a relic of mysterious powers capable of uniting the factions in the Third Crusade and housed inside the elusive Temple of Sand. The revelation of the true nature of the Chalice as a woman named Adha evolved it into a rescue mission, and ultimately to a failed attempt by Altaïr to desert the Assassins with Adha for a peaceful life far from the chaos. In his briefing, Altaïr was informed by his Mentor Rashid ad-Din Sinan that the Templars already possessed the Chalice, with his objective being to steal it from wherever they had hidden it. Nevertheless, after he learned from the Templar merchant Tamir that it was held at the desert temple, the desperation by which the Crusaders sought entry into this site implied that they had yet to capture it at all. Access to the temple was said to require three keys in addition to a map revealing its location, and these objects became focal points in the contest between the Assassins and their enemies. After acquiring the first two keys from the Romani dancer Fajera in Damascus and an imprisoned old man at the Templar Hospital in Tyre, Altaïr stole the last key directly from the Templar leader Basilisk in Jerusalem. With these keys secured, the Assassin assaulted the Templar citadel in Jerusalem to recover the map, killing half its forces single-handedly and slaying its commander in personal combat. Despite his precipitous success, his entry into the Temple of Sand did not inaugurate the end of his mission. Not only had the Crusaders managed to penetrate and occupy the temple ahead of him despite losing all keys and the map, but no Chalice was to be found. Instead, Basilisk shocked him with the revelation that all along the Chalice was not an artifact, but a woman, whom Altaïr would later learn to be none other than his friend Adha. Left to die in an ambush, Altaïr survived and escaped the subsequent sandstorm, eventually hunting Basilisk to Tyre. Here, Basilisk convinced the Assassin to spare his life by divulging the true location of the Chalice as well as a plot to poison the people of Acre. Having no choice but to detour to Acre to save its populace, Altaïr barely returned to Jerusalem in time to rescue Adha from Templar arrest. When Adha revealed that Harash, the second-in-command of the Assassins, was a Templar spy, Altaïr resolved to kill him before fleeing the Assassins for a normal life with Adha. Though his assassination was successful, his lover had meanwhile been captured by the Crusaders once more. This time, he failed to save her despite slaying Basilisk once and for all, and she would subsequently be executed by the Templars once her value was lost to them.
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