Several (not so) small victories

I decided to buy the salmon (3,651 to be exact) I needed for 70 Cooking, and spent a couple of hours cooking them at the Rogue's Den in Burthorpe. This is a nice place to power-train Cooking, since the banker is nice enough to hang out by a campfire. I'm planning on saving the cooked salmon to make admiral pies, which I'll cook using the "Make Pie" Lunar spell (this will ensure that I never burn any pies, giving me 100% of the possible xp). But that's for a future date, as all the Cooking I need right now is level 70.

Saving the monkey ambassador (Recipe for Disaster) is annoying, since you'll almost always have to gather the stuff to make the dish 3 times (the first time one of the idiot monkeys eats the ingredients, the second time because you burn the stupid thing). Also, getting a gorrilla greegree is problematic at mid range combat levels, because they heal themselves and you can never do enough damage to finish them off. If you run into this, head to a busy world. Then beat the daylights out of one and ask the guy who's hitting in the high 30's or higher (and there will be one around real close) to give him a whack for you. You'll get the drop.

The Culinomancer was a little more tricky, but not by much really. I already knew what to expect, and I just left and resupplied/re-equipped after I killed one of his beasties. The hardest part is not being able to use Prayer, but with good food, even this isn't a big deal. Yes, I have finally closed the book on this truly epic quest!

I also made another attempt at Contact! after I finished RFD, which finally proved to be successful! I didn't do much differently (I maged again), other than move around to a corner to where the first of the scarab's buddies couldn't get to me. When the other two spawned behind me, I ran to the other side of the scarab, which pinned the meleer in my former hiding spot, behind the scarab. I also took care to stay just far enough away from the scarab so it wouldn't melee me (and in case anyone's wondering, it RANGES, it doesn't mage. A fatal mistake to make, let me tell you). This left me to deal only with the signifigant damage dealt by the mage-bug. I did it with 6 sharks to spare, and I didn't even have to use a Prayer Potion!

Quest Point total is now 252.

Small Fortunes

Before I get into the ludicrous amount of money I just got done spending, I'd like to note that while training Slayer, I met the requirements to do Path of Glophrie. It's not a spectacular quest or a difficult quest...and I didn't get much of anything out of it other than a bit of xp and the ability to make crystal chimes...which I hope I never need. I still need 2 Slayer levels, 3 Defence levels, 3 Prayer levels and 12 Ranged levels. I'm still Combat level 80.

Over the past two days, I've spent well over 1 million gp to get Herblore to 57. While my out-of-pocket expenses only amounted to a bit over 600k, I sold the potions I made to get more money for herbs. I didn't waste money by making any Super-Strength Potions, since the herbs were 3 times more, with the added expense of limpwort root. Besides, the Super-Energy potions sold for more.

This allowed me to finish Fairy Tale part 2, and gives me a total of 249 quest points.

I also made 3 more attempts at finishing Contact!. The third trip resulted in my third death during this quest. My next attempt I think I'll try melee, and weather the melee attacks while protecting from the magic attacks. But that will come another day...

I've decided to spend some money on levelling cooking. I'll take me 3,651 Salmon to get 70 (which I have just bought), which I need to finish Recipe for Disaster. The lamp from finishing this quest would also be a nice little boost to my Slayer level.

Magic and Slayer

Since I was so close to doing Swan Song, I decided to go ahead and train Magic up another level. While I struggled to figure out how I wanted to go about it, I remembered something that I totally forgot: Mage Training Arena.

I've been wanting to go here anyways. Bones to Peaches (which is a reward there) is a very handy spell, especially when you're doing Slayer assignments. For anyone who isn't already aware: Mage Training Arena is cheap and easy Magic xp...and lots of it. It's so easy, that I managed to get my level in about an hour.

I'm starting to like the Dragon Battleaxe less and less as I go along. Unless you have a good attack (well, better than 61 at least), it's hard to hit with it. It even forced me to run from the sea troll queen because her ability to hit me far outweighed my ability to hit her. Once I returned with the scimitar, she didn't last long.

Just a tip for anyone reading: don't do very difficult quests without a Dragon Scimitar...or a Dragon Longsword at the very least.

Now I can't totally blame my initial failure on my weapon of choice. I admittedly came to the fight unprepared (I didn't have a lot of food, low prayer, and no prayer potions specifically). Once I recharged my prayer, upgraded my food a bit, and donned my beloved Proselyte, I probably wouldn't have had much trouble using a battleaxe. But with the scimitar, the fight ended extremely quickly (in fact, I didn't even need the prayer potion I brought).

With that quest done, I return to combat training in an effort to get a few Slayer levels. I managed 4 Defence, 2 Ranged, 2 Hit Point and 2 Slayer levels. I'd also like to add that any doubts I had about Jellies being a good assignment were totally squashed after making more than 150k off drops, alched and sold loot, and the subsequent Level 3 Clue Scroll I got from them.

On a more concerning note (at least to me, anyways) is the fact that my combat level is still skyrocketing. It's 79 now, and I still need 6 Defence levels, 3 Prayer levels and 14 Ranged levels. I need to see if there's a way to level my Ranged without racking up a dozen Hit Point levels. I so do not want to go to Pest Control.

I think I'm gonna buy a cannon. At least it'll be fast.

And I now have 246 Quest Points.

Lunar spells and a new quest

While it took me most of the weekend, I got 61 Crafting (not to mention over 700 Sacred Oil (4)...) and got Lunar Diplomacy out of the way. While lunar spells are somewhat useless to me at the moment, it feels good to have access to it...and to have 74 Lunar Staves. I also got some cool clothes out of the deal, too.

A new quest was released today: Summer's End. I almost meet the requirements for it...other than 4 more levels of Prayer. Luckily, I've been stockpiling baby dragon bones, so maybe by the time I finish my current Slayer assignment, I'll have enough bones to get me to 55 Prayer. Hopefully...but probably not.

One of the requirements for the quest was to "dodge" a level 700+ monster's attacks. This fills me with a teeny bit of trepidation. I think I'll wait until Sal's releases a guide for it, so I can see what's involved.

Since I'll need the levels eventually, I'll probably go ahead and ecto my bones anyways. At least I'll be ready when I get the guts for it.

Total Quest Points: 244.

It's been a while...

Not a whole lot has happened since I've last posted.

I've got a couple more quests done, namely TotTz-Ket-Dill, As a First Resort, and the Rag and Bone Man's wish list. This puts me at a grand total of 242 Quest Points.

I now qualify for Lunar Diplomacy in the Magic department. Now all I need is a 61 Crafting. I also need another level in Magic to be able to do Swan Song.

I've done a whole lot of fishing to get the money I needed to level Construction and Magic, and I'm now 2 levels away from sharks. While sharks take longer, it'll take far fewer to get a signifigant amount of cash.

I'm going to spend about an hour doing part of the Shades of Mort'ton minigame in order to see how long it'll take me to get to 61 Crafting.

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While I specifically remember hearing someone say you can get as much at 15k Crafting xp from Shades of Mort'ton, I figured it out to be more along the lines of 8k an hour...which still isn't bad. Making the pyre logs is the most time consuming part of that minigame anyways.

My plan is to continue with Shades...until I get bored with it, of course.

60 Attack!

As I said in my last post, Desert Treasure, All Fired Up and Spirit of Summer were #1 on the list. And they're both finished! Desert Treasure gets easier every time I do it, and as I always say: the shopping list is the hardest part of that quest. Spirit of Summer was kind of cool, too. They worked Summoning into the quest extremely well. I'll save any judgments on All Fired Up for when I actually mess around with the minigame.

Since I had decided that the two evil quests (Haunted Mine and Contact!) needed to wait until I got 60 Attack, I decide to train for a quest that I'm very close to qualifying for: Fremnink Isles. It only takes about a half hour of cutting Maple trees to get this.

I get all the way through to the end, and before I can have a go at the troll king, I have second thoughts. I'm not totally keen on the idea of buying a weapon that I'm just going to turn around and sell again in a couple of Attack Levels (a rune halberd, which is ideal for this quest). This is not even taking into account that I'm worried about getting murdered.

I made a decision to raise my attack, not only for Fremnink Isles, but so I can get the rest of the quests done that I've already started. Of course, since I don't enjoy just finding a random monster to kill for hours on end, I set out to do a few slayer assignments.

My combat level is now 71, so I can head to Chaeldar for assignments. I've always liked training through her, and she doesn't dissappoint me this time around. I get a few really decent assignments, with one of my favorites being Basilisks. I get my desired attack level, and get Slayer up to 48 (and a combat level of 72).

Now I need new weapons. Luckily, I don't have a lot invested in weaponry right now, so I don't have to worry about taking a loss when I sell my old gear. Of course, Dragon weapons are dramatically more expensive than rune. Time to fish...again.

I spent a day and a half fishing lobsters, in order to get the money I needed. On my shopping list are a Dragon Battleaxe and a Dragon Halberd. 1.5k is the number of lobsters I need to get that kind of cash. Another concern of mine is the fact that lobsters are no longer selling for the mid range price. In fact, you can't sell them for a gp more than minimum. The fish buyers have spoken, I suppose. I also do a bit of farming while I'm in Catherby, if for no other reason than to grow some more Ranarrs for Prayer potions.

The fishing has a couple of side benefits that I didn't really forsee. First was a 70 Fishing. The other was that while I was fishing, someone reminded me that you have to talk to Daero to get your xp from Monkey Madness (yes, as my name suggests, I am a total noob). I pop off to get it, and end up leveling in every melee combat stat (and get a 74 combat level too).

I also played around a bit with that farming minigame (the name of which escapes me right now), and got to like it a little. It's similar to "Minesweeper" so it didn't take me long to get the hang of it. The rewards are pretty good, although you do have to work for it.

I end up with not only enough money for the halberd and axe, but I got enough left over to buy a Dragon Scimitar. I briefly toyed with the idea of buying 3 more Glory amulets, but doing this has become something of a bad omen for me. Buying an extra Glory or two before doing something dangerous almost guarantees that I'll end up losing one in the process.

It was a good call, as I ended up using the scimitar to finish Haunted Mine. It was a rather easy victory with one of the better weapons in the game. I also finished Fremnink Isles in a dramatically easy fashion (in fact, I had more trouble killing the 10 trolls than I did killing the troll king).

The funniest thing is that the Defence xp that I selected from Fremnink Isles got me up to 55 Defence (which is high enough to wear the helm you get from the quest).

This gives me a grand total of 234 quest points.