Marlaine’s Musings

Defender of Varrock Quest
Released September 29, 2008

It seems that something or someone is directing the normally mindless zombies into organized armies. Considering tales of past zombie manipulation, this is probably going to be more than a scouting mission! Captain Rovin needs your help! This is a longer quest for more experienced players.

It starts in the North West corner of the Varrock Castle.

Requirements:
Level 51 Agility
Level 51 Hunter
Level 54 Smithing
Level 59 Mining
Able to fight many level 85 enemies
Willing to brave the dangers of revenants in the Wilderness

Quests:
Shield of Arrav
The Knight’s Sword
Romeo and Juliet
Demon Slayer
Temple of Ikov
The Family Crest
What Lies Below
Garden of Tranquillity

Items needed:
Pick axe, spade, 1 blurite ore (in a dungeon south of Falador and north of Mudskipper Point), a light source and tinderbox, good food, prayer pots, Amulet of Glory, and runes for Varrock and Falador tele, plus a good weapon to fight zombies with. You can pick up the bottles needed for red mist and you will be given a Varrock teleport tab. Dragonhide armour and super energy pots are great defense against revenants while in wildy. Stronger armour for later in the quest.

Talk to Captain Rovin in the north-west tower of Varrock Palace, on the third floor. He’ll tell you there have been some odd zombie army formations but his scout, Hartwin, knows more.

Scout Hartwin relays that he saw an army of zombies in the Graveyard of Shadows, in Wilderness directly north of Varrock.

Captain Rovin sends you on a scouting mission, accompanied by Scout Hartwin, to investigate what is going on up in the Graveyard of Shadows.

When you reach the Graveyard, talk to Scout Hartwin again. He’ll say there was an army there before but they seem to have moved on. He starts looking around for tracks and shows you. Now you will need to follow the tracks, using your hunting skills. Inspect everything you see. Keep following the tracks.

As you search, one of the trees should have a grubby key inside it. Keep it and continue following the foot tracks. They will lead you to the Chaos Altar, after a very long, circular, and winding trail. Keep your eyes open for revenants though you probably won’t see any.

When the path ends, Hartwin says the tracks must have lead there for a reason and to continue looking. There is a trapdoor behind the Chaos altar. When you try to open it, the key will get stuck in the lock. Go down the ladder when the trapdoor’s open and a lot of zombies will attack you. Go straight through. There will be a balcony to the right – then click it and choose the “Look Over The Balcony” option.

You’ll see a cutscene with Zemouregal, 2 other Mahjarrats and Arrav.

Pick up some bottles and kill zombies to collect 3 red mists to go through the next door. You will see another cutscene, telling you that Arrav has been forced to do Zemouregal’s will. You will only be able to use three bottles of mist so it won’t do any good to collect more – they will empty when you leave Arrav.

Now go to the next door and go through. If you need another 3 red mists, kill some zombies and use the bottle on the mist again. (I had a very bad glitch in the zombie area that left me in the dark even though I had a lantern and tinder. Others said they needed 3 more red mists in bottles but I didn’t.) Look over the balcony again. You’ll see another cutscene. (This time the left over red mist filled bottles stay full.)

Hartwin tells you to go alert Captain Rovin about the planned attack on Varrock and gives you a Varrock Teleport Tablet.

Use the tele tablet to Varrock so you can talk to Captain Rovin. He’ll ask you to go talk to Thurgo, the dwarf who made the Blurite sword for you, who is south of Port Sarim.

Talk to Thurgo about the shield of Arrav. He will tell you that there is a long lost forge in Camdozaal, the Imcando dwarf hall on Ice Mountain. He will give you a scrap of paper that tells the coordinates of its location. Take a spade, 1 Blurite ore, a lightsource, tinderbox and any pickaxe.

The coordinates will lead you to the White Tree on top of the Ice Mountain, north of Falidor. Dig a hole out of the snow just to the east of the tree. Then use a pickaxe with the snow to mine the rubble. Enter the hole you made and cutscene crawl into Camdozaal.

Talk to Ramarno, the sage of the Imcando dwarves and protector of the Sacred Forge.

Ask to use the Sacred Forge and he will tell you how to unlock the secret power of the shield of Arrav – but of course , only if you can smith. (If you give him a redberry pie like you did with Thurgo in a previous quest, The Knight’s Sword, he’ll give you a bonus 1k smithing xp!)

Now use your blurite ore with The Sacred Forge. Then talk to Ramarno so he can work the magic that will unlock the power of the shield. You will see a cutscene. Traiborn, Queen Ellamaria, Fenkenstrain’s Monster, The Wise Old Man and Zamouregal each talk to you from the forge, one at a time.

Teleport to Varrock. Get some food and decent armour before going to the castle. You need to talk to Captain Rovin and as you get close to the palace, you’ll see zombie troops over running the castle! Arrav is on the second floor under the spot where the Captain is and overseeing his zombie troops. Captain Rovin will give you the shield of Arrav for safekeeping.

Go to the library and talk to Reldo. He probably knows where to look for descendants that can wield the shield. He’ll say the scrolls were on the desk before the zombie overturned it. Search for them on the floor and you’ll find a list. Read through them.

Then read the census book on the pedestal to see who’s name matches the list of elders.

Talk to different people in Varrock. The person who can lead you to the descendant is different for different people so there is no specific person. Let each person try the shield to see if they can feel anything. Most will say nothing special happened. Here is a possible list of people that might help you: Romeo, Juliet, Draul Leptoc, Sir Prysin, Curator Haig Halen, King Roald, Horvik the Blacksmith, Aenoisig Raispher (King’s advisor), or any of the characters in Varrock with an actual name. Mine was Draul Leptoc.

The right person will tell you that one of their descendants was married to someone with the surname of Fitzharmon. Go to the census to find the person you are looking for. It will lead to Dimintheis Fitzharmon, east of the rune shop and north of the Fancy-dress shop, inside the fence. He is also the one you get your Family Crest Gauntlets back from if you loose them.

Go talk to Dimintheis. You’ll see a cutscene showing Dimintheis killing all of the zombies in Varrock wielding the Shield of Arrav.

Once it is all over, you will find yourself with Captain Rovin to finish the quest and receive your reward.

Quest complete!

Reward:
2 Quest points
15k Hunter xp
10k Smithing xp
10k Mining xp
10k Defence xp
2k Agility xp

Primefalcon and I have been trying to do the Circus every week just because it’s something to do together like Tears Of Guthix. Unfortunately, this week was almost given a pass by both of us…………… The barker in Fally said:

Call me a stickler for proper wording but………. near means near something but not in it – doesn’t it? Close but no cigar – as the old (but now politically incorrect) saying goes.

I used two pots of super energy before Primefalcon actually found it inside Falador’s walls! If the Circus didn’t give us good xp and some pretty interesting items, I’d never go looking for it. Today I got a tambourine! Too bad it doesn’t do anything! Can’t even shake it! Wcfletchrang pointed out that the Circus has a specific icon that shows up on the mini-map. You can see it in the screenie. When I first was looking for it, I had forgotten that it had an icon at all – like the penguins do not show up on the mini-map at all. Next week I will be watching for that icon. Thanks WC!

I saw an odd glitch a couple days ago. I really didn’t ask how it occurs since someone was report happy when I took the screenie and was going to ask. So sorry – I can’t say how it happened…..

We’ll probably have a quest tomorrow or the next day so I’ll be busy with the guide. If not, I have lots to do in general. I have been working on smithing and mining, and herblore a lot lately but both were so far from a level that it feels like I’m not getting much done – sigh……….

I did an article on How To Make Your Computer Run Faster – mostly for my brother, CycleCyco…………. and one on How To Make Free Calls On The Internet With Skype for everyone.

Blast it – I was so tired last night that I thought I put this post up last night but didn’t! Sigh….. well there is a new quest now with a few updates thrown in and I am starting the guide for Defender of Varrock Quest!

They’ve made some changes to the Clan Wars and the items you can lend to other players. You can lend a few of the newer Treasure Trail items as well as some old ones, dragon spears and most rune and granite armor and weapons.

And gasp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bone grinder on the top floor of the Ectofuntus temple now has the ‘Grind-x’ mechanic. “Making bonemeal should now be a little easier,” – they said – talk about understatement!!!!!!!!!!! …………… I have a ton of bones to grind and I suspect I’ll be getting a prayer level a whole lot quicker than I thought when I finallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy got that last one!

The bracelet of regeneration now gives some combat stats so it might be worth checking out again. So many of the items end up being a bit pointless and then you forget what they even do in the first place. I’ll have to go see what that is.

Well – off to save the world of Runescape once again!

Good luck to ALL!!!!!!!!!