A Contact Adventure
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
354 views
Mking is in a quest mood at the moment. He's been taking on some of the toughest quests in the game, which leaves the risk of sudden death at the bosses. This was not a problem at all when, with exquisite timing, he managed to die at 'Dream Mentor' during one of the rare moments when I was on Lunar Magicks. His grave was blessed before he'd finished the first, 'Noooooooooo!' Then came 'Contact'.
Before he set off, he'd checked that I'd be willing to come, if he got into difficulties. I was happy to do so. I blithely commented that I had a Phoarah's Sceptre these days, so it would be easy to get to Soph. It wasn't until he was picking his way through that maze that I stopped cooking in the Cooking Guild and stared blankly out of the window. I'd just remembered the maze. Moreover, it had occurred to me to wonder where his potential grave would end up. I carefully replaced my cooking gauntlets and took out some anti-poison instead. Not wanting to tempt the Fates or batter his confidence by suggesting that I was already en route, I set off silently. If he succeeded, he'd have never known I'd been down there. If he didn't, it might shave whole minutes off the time needed to bless his grave.
I remember 'Contact'. I did it in the old days, before HD Runescape, when the deadly maze was a mass of differently coloured squares. It took me a while to do it, because of that line. The same line that I know gave Teacuptime pause too at the time. I wonder how many Slammers and visitors to the site have put 'Contact' off until it was absolutely unavoidable, because of that line.
Forewarning: At almost any level you can easily die during this quest!
Contact guide, written by Cxkslei
I did 'Contact' and it wasn't that scary at all. Others had a terrible time, but it was one of those which I managed to sail through. Unlike 'Haunted Mine', which still makes me twitch now. And 'Nomad's Requiem', which I can't even think about. I went back to the 'Contact' maze when Whiskas did it. Again the maze was simple. A walk in the park. No trouble at all. In short, I had no worries whatsoever about meandering through it now to the ladder, down which Mking would be pwning a scarab. It was all good.
Forewarning: At almost any level you can easily die during this quest!
The maze looks so different these days. The high definition makes the traps slightly (emphasis on the slightly) harder to spot. The sandpit still looks like someone coloured a circle in with yellow and plonked it on the floor, but the rest is nicely crafted. None of it was causing me any difficulty and, in fact, I was just enjoying seeing its new graphics. Then suddenly the ground opened and I was falling.
Forewarning: At almost any level you can easily die during this quest!
In the old days, you couldn't see what was under there. Falling was usually accompanied by your lantern being extinguished and, as there are things down there to one hit the unwary, you were too busy teleporting out to faff around with illuminating the scene. Today though, I was wearing Seers Headband 3, which is a bright and, importantly, inextinguishable light. I can report that the basement of the maze contains several mages and high level scarabs. They pile you. I saw them in a flash, then emptied my Ectophial. I arrived, breathless and incredulous, in Morytania. I'm level 118 now! I could cope easily with that maze several levels lower. *rolls eyes*
By now, Mking was getting into difficulties and so I confessed that I had nearly been there. I told him that I was coming back and not to fret. In the meantime, Daisyjake1 was in Canting. The woman is level 138. She's got 99s in *checks the hiscores and blinks* everything... *checks again more carefully* Train your runecrafting and construction! > : ( She's ranked 798 in the whole game.
Forewarning: At almost any level you can easily die during this quest!
She was also in the ZMI altar and bored stupid. Knowing her, it would have been altruism that sent her to the maze to rescue Mking, but the runecrafting as an alternative made her very grateful for the diversion. :P As I limped to a bank to eat my way back out of the heartbeat thundering in my ears, I did briefly consider letting Daisyjake1 deal with it. But, in honesty, the maze had finally become a challenge. I was going to beat it in HD if it killed me.
We reached Soph at roughly the same time. Mking had now escaped the scarabs and was waiting at the ladder. He had been going to teleport out for food, but we stopped him. Both Daisyjake1 and I were packed to the gills with potions and noms. He was good. We set off. Despite the fact that wine and whisky were definitely factors in the rescue party's lives, we navigated all the way to the Scarab Trap with no difficulties. "Here is where I got trapped last time", I informed her, before stepping out and promptly getting caught in the same trap. :sleep2:
I stood in Morytania with the map open, trying to describe the route to Daisyjake1. "Go all the way south ..." I told her. "Merch! How can I go all the way south? It's a maze!" Daisyjake1 replied. Two seconds later, she disappeared down another trap.
Forewarning: At almost any level you can easily die during this quest!
Daisyjake1 reached the maze again before I did, but waited for me, when she knew that I was coming. Again, we made it all the way to that same Scarab Trap with no hassle whatsoever. I asked her how she'd navigated it before and she wasn't quite sure. She experimentally tried to recreate the passage and promptly disappeared into a hole in the ground. Noooo! I dashed forward and was somehow clear. I stood blinking, staring back at it. How the....? Eventually we worked it out. There was a picture of a scarab on the wall. You had to just pass on the opposite side to it, just like avoiding a sand trap. -.-
It was with some relief that I reached Mking. I handed over food and he went back in to fight, just as Daisyjake1 made it back to us. She had much better food. I'd send him in with sharks and a couple of monkfish. She had rocktails! While we waited, she gave me four of them. :D Then we went to see if we could watch the fight.
We couldn't see him. The deadly arena was empty for us, but for a remarkably preserved corpse up by the entrance. In a parallel world, Mking was right in this room, fighting to the death. For us, there was just the pitter-patter scattering of rats.
We made our way above again and waited, discussing whisky and our mutual love of literature. Mking left to change into his mage clothes and make his way back. While chaos reigned all around us, in the form of crushing walls and cursed creatures, it was lovely and peaceful, sitting there, discussing Diana Gabaldon and Frank Delaney. Mking returned then and it was almost a surprise to see him. I'd forgotten why we were even there! 
He pwnt the scarab easily with mage. There were loads of exclaimations from the arena about why he hadn't used mage in the first place. Up above, me and Daisyjake1 just wooted, as he reported that the scarab was dead. In a way, I was also sad though. I was enjoying chilling out in the ladder room. Congratulations conveyed, there was no more diversion from the ZMI Altar for Daisyjake1. She teleported out. I'd been planning to go into the bath for hours, I said my goodbyes and teleported out too. I paused at Edgeville to bank my stuff, as I said goodbye in Canting.
Forewarning: At almost any level you can easily die during this quest!
Mking hadn't teleported out. I didn't realise that. He got caught by a trap on the way out and died in the basement below. -.- I paused mid-logging and quickly grabbed my stuff. I was halfway through the maze, when Mking called out that his gravestone had collapsed. :( But, on the bright side, he'd beaten the quest! :D
4 Comments
Recommended Comments