Horror From The Deep

Quests

Entry posted by Merch Gwyar June 7, 2007

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https://runescape.salmoneus.net/forums/blogs/entry/6539-horror-from-the-deep/

There are some quests in Runescape which are discussed in hushed tones; people spend days, even weeks, preparing for them. Their roll call is like some great pantheon of exploits retold by the strong or the suicidal... Mourning's End Pt 2, Monkey Madness, Fremmenik Isles... and Horror from the Deep.

Yesterday, I was scratching around the Grand Tree wondering if I'd done all the quests in the vicinity. Sal's website has every guide conceivable, with the unfortunate exception of one which says, 'You're in this 'hood and the quests in the area are...', hence I had to click through the guides until I found one locally. It was 'Horror from the Deep'.

I had once accidentally started it, after exploring the area north of the lovely waterfall to discover the Giant's Causeway leading off to the Lighthouse. After a short cant with Larissa there, I had started the quest. Soon as I realized which one, I ran back across that causeway as fast as my agility level would take me and never went back. Later on, after Whiskas88 had escorted me through the Fremmenik Isles quest, there was a comment left in my blog saying that perhaps he could also take me through another horrible quest, 'Horror from the Deep'. I came over all Amy Winehouse, 'No, no, no, no, no...'

But I'm bigger and stronger now and I wondered if combat level 80 people would be ok doing it. A quick question in the Sal's forum and folk were assuring me that I'd be fine. Just use blast spells and don't bother with melee or range. Blast spells... they'd be the ones with death runes, wouldn't they? But I've only got 42 death runes in my bank. *sigh*

I spent a good half an hour south of Yanille, shooting ogre brutal arrows at wolves until the death rune respawned again. Run out, get bitten, shoot another arrow, pick up the rune, get bitten, pick up arrows, get bitten, run back to safety, shoot a wolf. After a while, I'd got another 40 odd death runes to add to my stash and would have packed up to leave it for another day, as I was at work. The computer there is much, much faster and I'd done overtime right into the heart of city rush hour. This is why I was still sitting at my desk ranging wolves, instead of home with a cup of tea, probably doing the same thing. I glanced at the clock. Rush hour would be receding now and driving out was more sensible than earlier, but a faster computer... with a nasty quest...

I set off to the Lighthouse again, my armour reducing my agility drastically, so I fell off the rocks twice before making it across. Very quickly on, I'd fixed the bridge and the light; then had a stalker. He had no runes and no money. Did I have any spare so he could buy runes? Not on me, no. In the bank? Could we go to the bank and I could give him money to buy runes please? He's poor. Not really, no. I'm skint myself these days. He stood beside me in the lighthouse, crying, and I felt bad. I'm crap with beggars, but had to be firm. I hadn't anything TO give him. Meep.

I used my games necklace to get back to Burthorpe bank and stocked up for the final fight. A dragonsword; a shield; 84 death runes; 1000 fire and earth runes; 650 water runes; 200 air runes; 280 mind runes; an ectophial for quick get away; air and water staffs; then 5 prayer potions; a steel sword; a mithril arrow (in my backpack); and the rest was fish. I hoped it would be enough. I wore my Zammy bottoms (with the top in my inventory); my green gnome hat; my rune platebody... if you consider that mix, you'll understand why I didn't take a screenshot. Fashion disaster. The method in my madness was that though I'd been told to ignore melee, I knew that I had to kill a lvl 100 Dagonnoth (sp?) first and didn't think I had enough runes to cover the job. My plan was to wear rune armour for the first one, and melee it, then when its Mum turned up, I could switch to Zammy robes; but I didn't want to waste the space in my inventory with changing both top and bottom, so compromised.

Down I went, took a deep breath and stuck things into the door. Nothing happened on the other side. Ok, the stairs were probably a clue. I climbed down them and the monster came out of the water. I'd seen it swimming around in there and did wonder if I'd be swimming to fight it, but no, it came to me. Even level 100, it didn't take me long with my dragon longsword to dispatch it. Then, without a pause for breath, its mother is out of that water and charging towards me. Erk!

I quickly switched to air staff, but totally forgot to put on the Zammy top as well, therefore fighting it in the same outfit outlined above. It took me a while to get into the habit of switching spells, because I'd switched auto retaliate off on the basis that I'd be doing it all manually. That was a stupid idea, so after a bit of experimenting, I switched it back on and left it on. I got prayer potions down my neck, with protect from melee constantly there, and once I had the hang of it, quite enjoyed the fight. I even switched to melee when the colour changed to orange.

I'm not colour blind, but I realize now that I took all of my cues from the text. Was something else supposed to change colour? To be fair, everything was happening so fast that I didn't change the angle of my view, so could hardly see the monster, let alone the life bar above her head.

Then she was dead.

Wow!

That was it?!?

I hunted around for the special bone that I needed for the Rag and Bone man (another impetus for doing this quest), but couldn't see it. I returned upstairs to talk to the bloke there and received a Guthix damaged book, with no instructions on how or where to get the fabled pages that I keep seeing being sold in banks. I haven't anything like the money needed to buy one of them!

Then something really weird happened. Soon as I examined the book, I got the hugest sense of deja vu. I could see myself having done that before and what happened next was just on the tip of memory, only I couldn't see it. It was a Sunday, bright sunshine, and I'd opened that book before. Reason told me that that was impossible, as I couldn't have entered the Lighthouse before, not having the key and all, let alone having held that book. Besides, this was Wednesday evening and a bit overcast. I shut down the computer then, still more than a little unnerved as it had been so very vivid, and drove home through deserted streets.

Postscript: Once home, I surveyed my inventory. I'd only used 47 death runes, so more than I'd originally owned, but not enough to justify all that time I'd had with the wolves. Mind you, they'll come in again no doubt. I'd also only drunk the contents of one prayer potion, though I promptly messed up by accidentally clicking on one, so I had a dose of it whilst in perfect safety without prayer on. I'd eaten two karambam (sp?) fish and one swordfish, so I had ample to go back down and see if it's possible to kill another for its bones.

Yes, it certainly is. The place is infested with them. Unfortunately, it's so busy and chaotic down there that my home computer couldn't cope. I was frozen with about six hit splodges giving various readings for a while and no way of knowing if I was still fighting, if my prayer had run out, who'd won if we had finished, if I was already fighting something else... There was another player in there who was frozen in the act of telling me that there's no need to use prayer down there. I had been responding 'how come?' Fortunately, everything came back with my dagonnoth dead, prayer still on, me still alive and already starting on a second monster. The required ribs were on the floor, so I slowly, with all the motion of a horribly lagging computer, picked it up and slow motioned my way back up the iron stairs to safety.