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All evening I'd been doing a bit of this and a bit of that (worshipping the ectofungus with all those zogre, wolf and ouge bones; farming; crafting...), whilst chatting with my friend in IM. He asked me where he could find trolls for a slayer task and I sent him up to the Keldagrim entrance, turning right instead. It turned out that he hadn't started Giant Dwarf, so couldn't use the Keldagrim bank and, in the process of talking him through all this, it occurred to me that I'd left a quest half done up there. I could get myself in a position to start it, while also surprising him mid assignment. So I did. I wandered into the tunnel with fish in my bag, walking around until I saw a green dot. 'There goes the neighbourhood...' I commented as I rounded the corner, then, because he didn't actually need any fish, I spent some time keeping him company fighting trolls. It's not like there weren't enough to go round. This all, of course, put me in place to finish the 'Between a Rock...' quest from the point where I needed to create a golden cannonball. In my lunch hour at work (exploiting a fast computer again), I went for it. The only real sticking point came over the schematics. Because I had three pieces of schematics in my bag, and one had come from an engineer who was a dwarf, I thought I had them all. The narrative kept telling me that I didn't and so it wasn't going to let me play on. I re-read the Sal's guide about twenty times and logged out and back in just in case it was a glitch. Finally I admitted defeat and used the official Runescape quest help thing. It told me that I needed schematics from a dwarven engineer. But I have some! :-( I spent another two quest help points getting more information. I needed schematics from the dwarven engineer in Keldagrim, over in the big shopping mall next to the bank. Ahhhh! It was plain sailing from then on, following the Sal's guide, but I'd faffed around so much with the schematics that I was running out of lunch hour in which to do the fighting in. I judged that as long as the mining bit was fast, I could just pull it off. There followed the longest cut scene in the entire of Runescape history. I'm sure it took an hour before I could even begin the first bit of mining. Then the narrative kept on that the hat was heavy. Yes, I know! It's solid gold! Now hurry up, because I've got about 20k of real life finance to process before half past. Go! I eventually had the recommended six pieces of gold ore in my bag and a colleague telling me that she thought I'd only been in there for two minutes, since I mentioned that I was finishing an eight minute quest. I loitered trying to mine a seventh bit of ore, as the guide told me that the more ore you have, the weaker the monster. My colleague said, no, she's wrong, it's been about five minutes. What?! I abandoned the ore and jumped over the flames. Nothing happened. I tried to jump over the other flames and the heat did me a small amount of damage. I did that about three times before clicking open the guide and scanning it for clues. Ok, so I'm supposed to talk to the flames, not leap over them. How much time have I got now? The avatar appeared. LEVEL 125!! I thought this was supposed to be weaker the more ore I have. I had on rune legs and platebody, a gold helmet, an elemental shield and a dragon longsword. I'd forgotten my ring of life. I switched on protect from mage and hit it with my sword. It immediately took damage, then nothing. I was hitting 0 for at least another hour, all the time thinking, 'OMG! These eight minutes are going to be up and I'll be teleported out! OMG!' I kept using special attack and still wasn't hitting the thing. The narrative told me that the hat was now so heavy that it was pushing me into the ground and I was staggering and falling. Noooo! Just die! Then, miraculously, I hit a 16 out of nowhere, followed by a 10 and then a 20. Suddenly every slash of sword was causing damage and the thing was fading fast. Within seconds of that, it was dead and I was outside. Phew! Quest over and time to get back to work. :-)

I'd tried to do Hand in the Sand months ago, but my crafting wasn't high enough. It came as a bit of a surprise to find that it was high enough now. I am so glad that I have a house full of portals in Yanille, because this would have been a horrible quest to do if you had to run everywhere. You go on five different journeys, I think. *counts on fingers* Varrock to pick up some redberries; Brimhaven to speak to Sandy; Port Sarim to speak to Betty; Brimhaven again to speak to Sandy; and Entrana to speak to the head sandman. Each time coming back to Yanille in between. I didn't have any white berries, but Audina, bless her, 'ported over to me to give me some. Hurrah! As I did have easy access to all these places, this turned out to be a short, pleasant quest. I rose a crafting level from the rewards as well, yay! Apparently, I'm now going to have 84 buckets of sand turn up in my bank every day. Now, where's the quest to get the seaweed to go with it?

Seeing as I was in Yanille and in the mood for quests, I went off to do Zogre Flesh Eaters. I started by reading through the Sal's guide and noting that the only thing that I couldn't easily get hold of were the mithril nails. What the guide actually says is 'nails of any metal', but I looked at the fact that there was a level 111 monster at the end and that my range was only 45 and figured I'd need all the help I could get. I can fletch to mithril, but only smith to steel. Unfortunately, I misread it. My mind saw arrows and so followed through with arrowheads, not nails. None of my friends were on, so I stood in Yanille bank and asked if anyone with lvl 54 smithing would be willing to do me a favour. A girl took my 27 mithril bars and a hammer and created 405 mithril arrowheads for me, bless her. I used the fairy ring behind my house to get to Karamja, so to collect all the snakeweed and rogue's purse needed for the balm, then returned to Yanille. One last read through of the guide highlighted my mistake with the mithril. *sigh* By now, a few friends were on. Skilla 4Lyfe put me onto Lord Vega, but he was off line (or friends only), so I couldn't ask him immediately. Another friend put me onto his friend, but before she could offer, a player in Yanille bank offered to do it for me. He was lovely. We chatted at the anvil as he turned another 27 bars of mithril into nails for me, thanking me for the free xp. I was really grateful to both strangers for changing my mithril to arrowheads and nails, but I did have the sinking feeling that it had taken ages for me to amass 54 bars of mithril and now I hadn't had the smithing xp off any of them myself. I would have produced fewer, but I was very conscious of my low range level. As it was, I think I only used about 15 arrows before the monster was dead. The rest of the quest went quite smoothly. It took me five attempts at the picture before the bartender accepted it. Someone told me afterwards that if I'd just examined each picture in the room, then I'd have found them saying weird and wonderful things until one finally read, 'a classic realist picture'. It would have saved the running backwards and forwards. But yay! I finished the quest and enjoyed it too.

I read the guide on the website and determined that this was a very short quest that could easily be done in the half an hour that I had for my lunchbreak. HA! Actually, perhaps it was, but not this particular half an hour nor taking into consideration my perspensity to wander off. I was doing great until it came to find toads, then I meandered past some lovely red birds, followed by some people catching them on sticks. I continued on into a jungle, where all manner of big mammals crossed my path. I walked until the end of the world - literally. It was all black after that and not a bit disconcerting, so I came back. I tripped merrily through a pack of wolves and danced past some ogres and then success! Much croaking and ribbiting straight ahead. It was plain sailing from then until it came time to season things. As I'd been going around, I'd picked up or harvested anything I'd found in my path, so I was confident that I had at least one of anything that could be asked for. Rantz asked for a potato. I hadn't got one of them. By now I'd found the Chompy Bird Hunting map on the guide, but this told me about everything but potatoes. The guide itself said south east of Rantz, so I walked off in that direction only to find more cabbage and equa leaves. (Just then my telephone rang. In real life, I'm the head first aider of a University campus and someone had been taken very ill. The only other thing I knew was his location and that an ambulance had been called already. Also in real life, I've hurt the ligament in my knee, which isn't helpful when your casualty is upstairs and then had been moved from the place you'd been told he'd be. It took me a good five minutes to even find him and by then the paramedics were in the building, so I handed over to them without really doing anything but a quick once over to assess the situation.) Back to the spuds. I ended up on a beach and back in the jungle; once again amongst wolves, before a hunter came and directed me to the potatoes. Yay! Fortunately, everything that the kids asked for was already in my bag, so it was only a case of roasting the bird and canting with Rantz before the quest was complete. Whoo!

It's been ages since I last did a quest and it's been longer since I started the Waterfall Quest. I did that en route somewhere else and kind of abandoned it after washing up from the river. Last night, I was at the Gnome Stronghold with my trees planted and bank tidied looking for something to do. The river beckoned so off I went. I didn't realize that it was a relatively short quest and fairly easy. There were surprises, for example going down under Galriel's grave without any armour (or indeed food in my case) to discover a moss giant hitting me. It was no biggie when I could just switch on protect from melee, but that could have been nasty for a lower level combat player! The only real hiccup for me was getting all the way to the Chalice of Eternity and realizing that I'd forgotten to pack any runes. I had to run back out, into the barrel, down the river, into the Gnome Stronghold, then repeat the quest again until that point. It was all good though and I finished it shortly on. I finished off by going back outside and killing fire giants until one of them gave me a fancy bone for the Rag and Bone Man. I think I've only got about three or four bones left to get for him now (2nd part of that quest), however one of those is the Dagonnoth, which I understand to be out of my league. I've got the bug for quests again now, so I think I'll see what's next.

(Sorry for the lack of updating, I've been in Eire for a few days) The Tears of Guthix has got to be the easiest, quickest quest I've ever done. I only had half an hour in my dinner break and planned to start it, even if I couldn't finish. I'd read through the Sal's guide and gathered all my stuff, then ran towards the entrance to the swamp caves when I got a SOS from Whiskas88. He was poisoned, could I help? Yes, I could. So I ran up to the bank to get the anti-poison, then met him downstairs in Lumbridge Castle. All good, but this now left me about 10 mins to start the quest. I figured I could get in position in that time and come back later when I had more time. Off I went, eventually found Juna and within about 5 mins the quest was over! Hurrah! I drank the tears and went from 0 to lvl 5 in my Hunter skill in one foul swoop!

The impetus for doing 'Death to the Dorgeshuun' was largely wanting the bank space back that all those items in the HAM set were taking up. I didn't realize that I didn't even have them all, until I read through the guide; so set off for the HAM HQ needing two sets of boots, two logos and one each of the hood, cloak, robes, shirt and gloves. Much random tat later, my friend informed me that he had the full set, so I went to meet him. He only had the hood, cloak, robes and shirt, but that was a grand start. I rose a thieving level getting the rest! The upshot is that I now have something stupid like 8 cloaks, 5 shirts etc. It took forever to get two sets of boots was the problem there. Eventually though, I set off to do the quest. Though I read through the guide a few days ago, I haven't revisited it and it wasn't open tonight. I think that's the first one since I was a noob doing Imp Catcher as that's been the case! I really enjoyed it and when , I would have had a little tear rolling down my face, if a spoilsport voice in the back of my head hadn't told me that it's only pixels on a screen you know. Sans guide, I only got stuck once, when I returned to the cellar to find Zanik missing. I asked another player, 'Have you seen Zanik? Smallish goblin, dressed like me.' He laughed, but worked out where I was in the quest and told me where to look. Quest over, I was allowed to run wild around Dorgesh-Kaan, declining frogburgers (I'm a vegetarian... which doesn't extend to not eating lobsters or sharks in the middle of a fight) and checking out the lamp man's wares. As I was talking to everyone around, I kind of stumbled into starting the 'Another Slice of H.A.M.' quest and each part of it, I was thinking, 'I'll just do this bit then go and do something else instead...' I wound up finishing it. What is it with Jagex and these prayer-level thwarting quests of late? There's me creeping up a ladder secure in the knowledge that I can take out a level 30 HAM fascist with my bow and arrow, and there's his mate standing next to him maging me. So I switch from protect from range to protect from magic... and the ranger is hitting me. Ok, it's not quite Fremmenik Isles, but I definitely had to eat a couple of tuna, then descend the ladder for a strategy rethink. The strategy turned out to be: go back up and kill them, which is pretty much what it was before, only more decisively. It turned out that my last arrow before climbing down had taken one of them out anyway, so it was plain sailing then. Less clear cut was the sneaking past guards in the corridors part. Sal's guide talked about me telling one goblin general to wait there, whilst another followed, but I couldn't find an option to talk to them, beyond the generic one. I'll probably have my hands slapped for this, but I also searched for other sites with Runescape guides and read their versions. They were concurrent with the Sal's one - I'm to tell goblin a) to follow me, while telling goblin b) to wait there. I tried everything I could think of and that wasn't happening, so I resorted to luring. Unfortunately, as soon as one started fighting outside, the other in the room with me starting pressing up against the wall pretending to fight too, as if they were connected by an umbilical cord! An hour and half later, I randomly pressed a location by mistake and it somehow lured the fourth guard right into the goblins. I was able to run past and the quest was easy from then on. The tactic, as far as I can determine it, was that I took both goblins to the end of the long corridor, then ran behind them as the guards came. I hid in the room until I was sure they were all fighting, then kept running out to quickly show myself until there was only one guard left. I lured him around the corner, then hid behind the second crate on the right hand side . He came to stand on the other side of it. I dashed across and hid behind the last crate on the left hand side, with the fighting going on right behind me. He came to stand on the other side of that one too. I ran behind the goblins and into the room, but he stayed put, so I opened the door and ran to the wall immediately opposite. I ran out, along the wall, into the head of the shorter corridor, then immediately ran back again. This somehow lured the last guard into the melee. The really exciting part of all of this is that I'm now able to use the train to Keldagrim and I'm able to get rid of all that HAM clothing!

I'd already done a third of the Heroes Quest, when a friend was doing it and needed a Phoenix Gang member. The master thief armband has been in my bank for ages and the impetus for doing this quest was as much to create bank space as anything. With a reduced browser open on one side of my little monitor, displaying the Sal's side guide and Runescape itself open in the greater part of the screen, I filled up with tele runes, a pickaxe, a prayer potion and a lot of fish, then went to find the Ice Queen. She was surprisingly easy. I ran with protect from melee on past all the spiders, giants and warriors, because I wanted to save my food for the final battle. I reached her cave with my prayer reduced to 20, but everything else untouched. Sipped some prayer potion and raced in to the safe spot behind the throne. From there, if I'd brought range or mage stuff, I could have easily taken her out. Instead, I'd brought my sword, so it was a case of going back around and luring her to the side of the throne. She's level 111, but I put protect from melee on and that only reduced to about 30 before I'd killed her. I hadn't touched any of my food! lol I teled out to Varrock, then used fairy rings down to the Wizard's Tower (didn't spot that there was a fairy ring in Port Sarim until later). Deposited all my armour and weapons, picked up the snail blemish en route to Entrana, then got refused entry by the monks. Why? I searched myself - is the ring of life considered a weapon? OMG! Was it these hands and would I never see Entrana again? Ah! The dramen staff might be a clue... whilst I view it as a teleportation means, the monks had obviously spotted the fact that I could, technically, batter someone to death with it. I dropped that and went to get the firebird's feather. After that, it was the usual mad dash through Taverley Dungeon to get to where the baby dragons are, but did some fishing before I started killing them for their prayer xp inducing bones. Again I hadn't touched all the swordfish I'd taken, so I ended up eating swordfish when I was only 4 or 5 hp down, just to have the room for the bones. That was patently stupid so I stopped that and teled out. With all due ceremony, I took my prizes to the lady on the door of the Heroes Guild and, trembling with anticipation, went to open the door. Then my Dad appeared and asked if he could check the bowling league, so I sorted him out and logged back on. I was a little disappointed in the Heroes Guild, to be honest. You have all the excitement of free crafting stuff and empty gold mines in the Crafting Guild; you have free chocolate in the Cooking Guild; there are fun and games in the Ranging Guild; but the Heroes Guild? I wandered around on the ground and first floors wondering if they were redecorating. There are empty houses in Ardoughe more exciting than this. It did get better once I spotted the trapdoor, but a caged dragon, some mining spots and somewhere to finally charge my glory didn't really fill the gap. I want at least tap-dancers and fireworks in there.

There I am, minding my own busines, killing chaos druids for their ranarr weed, when Whiskas88 comes on. I'd added him to my friends' list this morning, after his comment in this blog. He offered support for the Fremmenik Isles and also some supplies. He asked when I was doing it and I replied vaguely, 'tonight... maybe tomorrow...' Heart beating wildly at the thought of it. He asked to meet up with me to hand over some stuff, which was really lovely of him, so off I went to the Seer's Village for the meet up. First thing he said was, 'follow me'. So I did, even though he was taking the road to the Fremmenik Isles and it's dangerous up there... I explained that I couldn't do it now, because I'd yet to recreate the yak armour and Fremmenik shield. He said he'd lend me his. I'd just made some prayer pots, so I'd run out of excuses. If I didn't at least try now, I'd be a coward of the highest order, oh yes. So we stood in the bank making our plans and putting on armour. I had an inventory with law and air runes for teleporting to Cammy; five prayer pots (all I had left and that only from this morning and last night in Taverley); two doses of super strength, one of super attack and one of super defence. The remainder of my inventory held swordfish. I was wearing yak armour and Fremmenik shield, borrowed off Whiskas88; a power ammy, also borrowed off Whiskas88 (who had more faith in my ability not to get killed than I had); a brand new ring of life, bought yesterday; a dragon longsword; and boots of lightness. I didn't realize until afterwards that I was wearing no helm! :D Another player, called Pluto something, came into the bank and happy danced because they'd just finished the Fremmenik Isles. Whiskas88 was chatting with Pluto about strategy and really sounded like he knew what he was doing. Whiskas88 did this quest WITHOUT a guide! Then we were ready. We'd taken two steps outside the bank, when he got a random! LOL That really broke the tension, as we paused for him to kill the Security Guard. lol Then, we were really heading for that bridge. Nervous me? Ah! Yes, I was scared stupid. I was shaking like a leaf! LOL We took off across the bridge, me following Whiskas88. There was a brief disaster around the bridge, because as you click onto it, you lose the follow. This left him stranded over on the dangerous side waiting for me to try and catch him, but he guided us through with my ENTIRE INVENTORY INTACT! This all with protect from range on. At the mouth of the cave, it's safe, so there's time to heal, but I was fine. *happy dance* He'd got supplies to replenish me, but they weren't needed. He encouraged me to enter the cave and, trembling like a wuss, I did it. I honestly would not have a) been doing the quest; b) got over that peninsula safely; or c) walked into that cave, if I hadn't got Whiskas88 encouraging, supplying, leading and cajouling, as needful. In I went and there was a brief cut-scene, which had me panicking in case my super-set wore off, then we were in. It was absolutely silent and there wasn't a score as I was expecting. It was really hard to know what was going on, particularly since I didn't seem to be being hit at all (in the heart of the melee) and couldn't tell between Fremmenik Honour Guards, trolls and myself, whether I was actually hitting anything. It took me about 30 secs to realize I hadn't got my auto-retaliate on either! LOL Then suddenly a note came up that I'd killed 10 of them and it was time to see the king. I'd used up about 2 prayer potions, but hadn't touched my food, except for a couple of swordies eaten outside. I still don't understand how easy that bit was, albeit very confusing. I up-dated Whiskas88, who was waiting outside the cave with supplies if needful, then spoke to the NPC, who gave me 3 free p pots, some tuna and a str potion. This filled the spaces left. It's safe by the cave entrance, so you have plenty of time to sort yourself out. Whiskas88 was cheering me on via IM and I ran into the cave to find the bridge. I put on protect from range whilst within the cave with all the trolls and while I was running up to the bridge. Soon as I was on the other side and facing the King Troll, I switched to protect from melee. This was a big, big mistake. Even throwing swordfish and prayer potions down my neck, the King Troll kept throwing me badly enough that my hp was constantly running down red. It happened so quickly... then I'm in Fally. My heart sank, until I realized that I was still wearing Yak armour. I opened my inventory and all the prayer potions and th remainder of the food was still there. The ring of life had saved me this time! Yay! I IMed Whiskas88 and told him. He was relieved that I hadn't died, but asked me to meet him in Cammy. I thought it was so I could give him back his armour and we'd commiserate another attempt, that got me soooo much further than last time. I teled and met him there, said 'hi' and, after his hello, he asked me to follow him. Off we went towards the bank, then turned. What?! Whoooaaaa! This is the road BACK to the Fremmenik Isles! No! No! No! But I haven't lost anything and I've still got 2 p pots (4) and 3 p pots (3). I pointed out that I'd not got a ring of life anymore and he didn't say anything about that, just led the way back to the ferry. Once in the bank again, he traded me a helm and a ring of life. OMG! I could have kissed him. But the helm confused me, what was wrong with my own? That's the point when he told me I hadn't been wearing one. OMG! I nearly fainted. I handed him back his helm and got my own out of the bank. I survived the multi-melee/range both inside and outside the cave WITHOUT A HELM!?! *trembles like a leaf* He also gave me some food. This time, as we ran across the free for all peninsula, I got completely hammered. I'd got protect from range on, but nontheless, they were clobbering me. By the time we reached the cavemouth, my hp was down to 25, but the adrenaline is kicking in. It took Whiskas88 to remind me to heal myself before I went back into the cave. I did, then he refilled my inventory with food. I went back into the cave, where, this time, I didn't have to kill 10 trolls first, only the big, boss troll. This time I used protect from range and it worked much, much better. In fact, he didn't try to throw me once with this one, though he used ice barrage about three times. I used those moments to drink some prayer potion and get some lobsters/swordfish down my neck. Once unfrozen, my dragon longsword cut through that troll like a weapon dangerous to trolls. Oh yes! Really quickly on, I'd killed him and was standing there in disbelief looking at a body on the floor. I clicked on and the option was 'decapitate troll', so I did; then IMed Whiskas88 to ask, 'what now?' I thought that the plan would be to tele to Cammy, then walk back up, but no! He's a brave bloke. I met him and we ran back across that peninsula. Ladies and gentlemen of Sal's Forum, I have COMPLETED the Fremmenik Isles and it's all down to our very own, Whiskas88. He is an amazingly generous and brave player, both with his time and his stuff. Who else would loan a ring of life to someone going into a situation that had already killed them 3 times? Thank you so, so much! I came away from this running around on a complete high. I've never done the housework so quickly and with quite so many dance-steps. Thank you!

Audina (lvl 94) found me picking flax and learned that I'd been killed AGAIN during the Fremmenik Isles quest. She's not having it. Unsure whether to advise protect from melee or range on the run up, she meandered up there to check it out. She's going for protect from melee, though Sal's guide advises protect from range. She also had a plan of following me into the cave with extra supplies, but can't because the quest is over. She IMed me from the entrance to the cave saying that she wasn't being attacked there. She's advised me to get my agility up (I'm level 44) and she'll give me a super set and super energy potions to see me through. She's also planning to come with me, stand at the entrance to the cave and hand out food and prayer potions. She suggested Friday. What?! *trembles* I've been killed twice and I'm suffering from post traumatic troll bashing syndrome, but she's adamant that we get this over for once and for all. She wants me on those isles, with new armour created, on Friday night and she will personally run with me to the cave entrance. I pointed out that I've lost so much prayer potion on the first two attempts that I have none left now, but she said that she'll GIVE me the prayer potion, if I just get my backside up there. So... will I be brave enough to show my face? Will I succeed this time? I've discovered the poll facility to see what the Sal's Forum massive thinks.

Being so close to level 51 magic, I thought I'd better go and do the Plague City quest, so I could take advantage of my newly developed teleport to Ardoughe skills. I really enjoyed that quest. It was just the right length and didn't involve any wandering all over Runescape OR any facing down something that could potentially kill me. Just the right kind of canter through for first thing in the morning. I then took myself into Ardoughe market and sent fire bolts at a Palador until I reached level 51. Then nearly died. Why? Because I'm stupid. I hardly had any chaos runes left, so I switched to dragon longsword and didn't notice that the auto-retaliate had been switched off. The Palador was hitting me and it took me a few seconds to notice that he didn't have a life strip above his head anymore. I was basically letting him kill me. I realized my mistake and switched it back on, but in the interim, he'd got some more shots in. I raced off towards the bank, out of his way with only 10hp left, but he was coming after me. Then I got one of those 'loading please wait...' messages and everything froze for what seemed like a year. I held my breath, but it was all good. I came to halfway to the bank and my pursuer shaken off. *phew* Seeing as I was in the vicinity, I tootled off to do the Observatory quest, which was another nice easy one. There was a bit of a surprise when I opened a chest to find a poisonous spider and me with no anti-poison on me. I didn't know, at that point, about the anti-poison respawn on the roof of the tower! LOL Fortunately, it didn't poison me and I wandered quite happily through the rest of the quest. Whilst going to the Castle Wars bank to sort myself out after these quests, it occurred to me that I've only played that game once and that was as a level 30. I didn't know what I was doing and mainly existed to get killed. This time, I am level 74 and I thought it might be fun to pop in for a round. I spoke with the NPC to find out the rules, then jumped down the green hole. I was certainly more useful this time, able to actually kill some players and support my team, though I never ended up on a winning team once! LOL Being in the mood for quests and having had experience of dying several times inconsequentially, I sat and thought about how most of my activities over the past few weeks have been in preparation for the Fremmenik Isles. I've worked hard to get my ring of life, my dragon longsword and my rune hally, as well as training up my combat levels. I've been amassing duplicate armour in readiness to die again, and I've been stockpiling prayer potions and swordfish. Instead of just preparing and preparing, I decided that now was the time to go for it. I sat for a while beforehand reading all the advice on Sal's and ensuring that everything was in place. I knew precisely where I was going and what I was doing. I knew what to do when and what to expect. I had ultimate confidence that even if I did something wrong, my ring of life would transport me harmlessly back to Falador. In short, it was worth a try, even if I might nearly die. Once there, I fixed the second bridge really easily, because there were a group of higher level players killing trolls around me. Yay for them! I then worked my way through the armour making and the tax collecting, until it was time for the final battle. Big decision here - did I use the armour I'd just made or the rune armour I'd got ready? In the guide, everyone in the pics appeared to be wearing rune or dragon stuff at least, but the advice was to use the armour I'd just made. So I did. I hovered over equipment, eventually taking my dragon longsword AND the rune hally. I packed 5 prayer potions (4), two strength potions (4) and filled the rest up with swordfish. A deep breath and I ran over the bridge. I made it over the second the bridge and legged it north with protect from range over my head. I made it to the higher peninsula and there meleeing trolls got me. I didn't end up in Lumbridge saved by the ring. I ended up in Falador, with only my rune helm, dragon longsword and rune hally left. It's been explained to me that I was being hit so high that the ring of life never had a chance to work. Oh for someone with a dwarf cannon up there, covering us questers... So far: Ice Trolls 2 - Merch Gwyar 0

I hardly felt like I was on a quest at all, because I've done this one over a series of weeks, whilst doing other things too. While I was working on thieving, I started the quest chatting with Martin (before pick-pocketing him); while I was working on farming, or just wandering around, I spoke to all the gardeners; merchanting in Fally got me via the various wizards; going for assignments for slayer in Canifis got me through the nature spirit part; and while I was visiting the slayer master for salt, I spoke to the Fairy Godfather. By the time I was really paying attention to it, it was time only for the final battle. The guide said that your hits with the magical secaturs is reliant on your farming, not your combat, so I packed like a level 37 going to fight a level 111. Laden with prayer potions and swordfish, full rune armour and magical secaturs, off I went. I didn't need any of them. The tanglefoot isn't aggressive, so I stood looking at it for a while before initiating the fight. I used protect from melee and still had prayer points left (I'm on 44) after the thing was dead. The farming xp knocked me to level 38 and the mage and attack xp wasn't unwelcome either. I'm looking forward to using my magical secaturs, I just wish I'd thought to do this quest before I planted all 6 of my ranarr seeds

Hurrah! I've completed the 'What Lies Below' quest, which means that I can now craft chaos runes. I could before, in terms of runecraft level, but it involved going into the Wildy. After being lured into it, as a level 30 odd, I avoid the place like the plague. To me, it's just somewhere you go if you particularly fancy getting to Falador quickly with hardly any of your possessions left. Seeing as I've only got 200k in the bank now and more construction materials to buy, I can't afford to replace the armour that I'd inevitably lose. But that's by the by, as I now have a safe tunnel to get to the famed but, until now, unseen chaos altar. *happy dance* Before the quest, I had level 37 runecrafting and after it I have level 39. One more dash to create more chaos runes afterwards got me to within 200 xp of level 40. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to pack some tele runes back to Varrock, so had to go to Lumby instead. That's where I left myself. Also, as I was close to another prayer level, each time I walked through one of the Varrock gates or the palace forecourt, I picked up scattered bones left by other players. If they don't want them, I do. As a result, I reached level 44 prayer halfway through the quest! *more happy dancing* I thought the quest itself was fairly easy, but with great rewards from where i'm standing. I love the maze going into the chaos altar - it appeals to my sense of the surreal. There are screenshots, but they're stuck in an open e-mail, until I read the Sal's Forum guide on how to get them out again.