Ritual Of The Mahjarrat
Entry posted by Merch Gwyar
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I was looking forward to 'Ritual of the Mahjarrat', as I really enjoyed the predecessor 'While Guthix Sleeps'. In terms of sheer scale, cut scenes and drama, it lived up to the hype. There were some truly jaw-dropping moments, particularly in a cut-scene near to the end, but there was nothing that made me as engaged with the story as I had been before. I didn't have to pause the quest to dry my eyes over an aspect of storyline.
This was the last quest that I needed to do to get my questcape back. Please note that there will be spoilers, so if you don't want to know, don't read on.
I didn't intend to start RotM (attempt not to think of Rage Against the Machine fails) when I did. I'd only just pwnt Vanstrom and it was quite late. A new grandmaster quest felt like a very tomorow thing to do. But I wanted my cape back. I might as well just start it. I canted with Sir Tiffy and ended up on Mos Le Harmless.
What ensued was a jungle version of the playground game 'Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?' I had to follow a track of scorched foliage in more or less a straight line east. If I was out of the cover of a tree for too long, something would burn me. I'd be teleported to Mos Le Harmless with half of my hitpoints gone. It took me soooo many attempts. Most of them stemmed from being tired and therefore forgetting the previous successful routes. One time it was because a ninja impling flew by and automatic reaction over-rode common sense. I didn't even get the impling's prize. :P
Finally I reached the other end and overheard Dragonkin talking about the destruction of the known world. It all sounded dodgy enough to report back to Sir Tiffy. After a brief sojourn in an archive library (I tried to read everything! I love archives! I'm an historian! But it wouldn't let me. :P ), it was off to find Bob.
I'd put my catspeak amulet on the Cramulet, so it took some right-click experimentation to learn you could dismantle it. It wasn't enchanted any more, so it was a trek up to Burthorpe to give Hild 5 death runes. My amulet now told me that Bob was south. I teled to Draynor. He was north-west. I ran to Clan Camp. He was north-west. I ran to the Crafting guild. He was north. Do you know where I finally found him?!
Yes, he was right up on the Death Plateau, standing in a bucket. How is that south of Burthorpe? :( I took the bucket too, just to make it worth my while having trekked all up there.
The clue from Bob's collar took me to Kethsi. We'd all found that place before and there was intense speculation that it would one day be an agility course (me) or part of a quest (everyone else). Ok, the balance of evidence points towards the latter, but it definitely looked and felt very agility course-y when I went over it! Much agility XP and being nosy in bits of rubble later, I had a code. 3 = G; 4 = A; 1 = G; 2 = A.
GAGA. Orly?! Yarly.
This was the first time that I consulted a guide. It was only to check whether everyone got GAGA. (They don't.) This was also the moment when I realised there should have been a strategy in the above key hunt. I'd just jumped off the wall, checked my strange device, ran a little bit west and checked again, then ran a little further. By now I was near the end wall and that was the spot where my key was.
I fetched the book and scroll, reported back to Sir Tiffy, then went to the digsite for a chat there. It was time to call it a night, especially since loads of NPC noobs were trying to send me into the Wild.
Day Two: Much Fighting Happened
The Wilderness always frightens me. I took as little as possible with me and was pleased to note that the knife on my toolbelt opens the cobweb to get in. I legged it all of the way to Ghorrock. For about half an hour, I was running around the fortress trying to remember how to get into the dungeon below. I eventually found the wall to scale after misclicking while trying to open a door. Once down below, I ran around and around and around. I found a heat globe and picked it up, then kept exploring. It finally dawned on me that I hadn't actually been told to come down here.
I climbed back up to safety and opened my quest journal to read again what I was supposed to be doing. The blarb said 'near the fortress' not 'in the fortress'. Noob. I looked out from the ramparts and spotted the icy block to the West. My anti-fire potion had worn off, but it was only a quick dash. I made it intact.
The tree to hang a rope from couldn't have been more obvious. It was a tree with a conveniently over-hanging branch. Happy days. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to pack my rope. <_<
On the return trip, I rushed straight over to the area, but I couldn't reach the tree from there. I doubled back and spotted what I'd somehow managed to miss the first twice. There was a tunnel through the wall, with a large, ostentacious wall around it. No idea how I ran past it a couple of times without seeing it.
Through there, I headed west and set up my rope, then ninja-ed around the castle. I didn't find a lot. I did spot an armoured zombie and fled in the opposite direction. Little did I know what was coming on that score. 
Exploring the forest did eventually land me beside a tree, where I could hide a beacon. I shoved it in and headed south. By sheer luck, I got the north and south beacons lined up first time, but I struggled with the east and west ones. It was only when I was trying to put a beacon in an eastern tree that I discovered that I should have been avoiding broavs. One saw me and plonked me in prison.
That was an easy escape. After some more faffing it turned out that my western beacon was in the wrong tree. There's only one tree it can be in, which is the most northern of the three. I placed Arrav's heart, canted with that bloke and discovered that I had been justified in entering the Ghorrock fortress after all. There was a pedestal which needed that heat globe on it! Lucky for me, I hadn't banked that heat globe that I picked up in there. Oh! There was a bit with puzzles in the castle too, which required me to kill the armoured zombie that I'd fled from earlier. It was only level 85.
I'd been warned, before entering the ice tunnel, that there was fighting up ahead. I hate this part of any quest, but I dutifully went and got tooled up. I always default to range outfit, which worked out well this time. Usually I get into the fight only to find that I should tele out and put on some melee clothes instead. I wore black dhide, snakeskin boots, amulet of glory, Neitiznot hat, Ardy 3 farming cape, ring of life and Barrows gloves. I carried a rune crossbow and my shield with a face on, then packed some broad bolts. (Later on, I swapped the Ardy cape for a Soul Wars cape; and the bolts for Ruby (e) and Diamond (e).)
It turned out that I had back up! Sir Tiffy had arrived with some dudes. The first fight was very easy.
I basically just stood there and shot bolts. Nothing much to it.
Hanging out with my homies.
The second fight was much more involved. I nearly died and teled out the first time. I nearly died and got saved by the ring of life the second time. There was a weird glitch too, where I respawned in Lumbridge still covered in the titan's ice attack. I stood like that for ages. It didn't disappear until I walked away from the spot.
Before the third time, I actually opened a guide and read about it. Then life was much easier.
This was against two ice titans. The trick is to lure them east, off the ledge, then run south to where there's an icy rock and a dead tree. It's easy to trap them behind those and fire at will. You do have to avoid Lucien's mage attack, but there's plenty of warning and walking two steps to the side.
The Ice Titan safespot.
Then I came to the third fight. In the middle of this, I panicked and logged out of Runescape. I was nearly in tears in the middle of a large-ish Skype call. It was a twitch fight and I just couldn't do it. I died, teled out and got saved by the ring of life about six times, before I logged. I started to get really upset, because I'd just had weeks of trying to kill Vanstrom and this was shaping up to be an action replay. (I've just checked with Jethraw and MFI and they didn't realise that I was close to tears. I know it sounds daft to get in a state over game things, but there's stuff going on IRL too. Runescape is the last bastion where hard work stills equates an award.)
I stepped away from the computer and calmed myself down. I hate twitch fighting, because I'm simply not fast enough to do it. I turned to YouTube to see how others had coped. Eventually I found this video:
The person there was using melee instead of range, but I did notice something - (s)he didn't stay still. It was basically hit, run, hit, run, hit, run. Plus the dude kept moving between the ice demons. I watched that video twice and thought that I might be able to emulate it. I could. I learned from that video to stay still as the ice demons approach, just putting deflect from mage on. This forced them to split up, as they went either side of the Mahjarret. I then just fired, ran, fired, ran, fired, ran. It was a long, hard, endurance fight, but that strategy saw me through it. I've never felt more relieved when it was over though.
After that things were much easier. I didn't really have to do anything in the fourth fight, except avoid Lucien's mage attack. The Barrows brothers killed all of the armoured zombies. Gaining Arrav's attention went without a hitch, so I lured him over to his heart. I had no trouble avoiding the glacor.
The final section was truly amazing in terms of drama and cut-scenes. This was the only part were I felt like I really was in the sequel to 'While Guthix Sleeps'. The state of Draynor was engaging and the ghosts of the heroes had shades of 'Return of the Jedi', while also being poignant. That was ruined only slightly by their melodramatic messages, as they faded from view.
It was a fitting end to a grandmaster quest, though it left me with Edgeville trashed and the threat of the Dragonkin in the distant future.
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