Grandmaster Quest

Up to now: I managed to get my Firemaking skill to 80, which gave me both access to fire gauntlets and Magic pyre logs. I cut somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 magic logs to use in Shades of Mort'ton. As maybe you remember, I already have about 800 sacred oil (4) that I intended for use with magic logs. While I made, on average, about 400k per 100 logs, I managed to lose a good amount of money in the process. The shades I need for Magic pyre logs are level 100, and I wasn't watching my HP. The loss was a bit over 500k, and I still haven't replaced my dragon boots.

After about 300 logs, my attention turned to combat. And as with most any other time where my attention was on combat, I decide to train combat through Slayer. At first, my goal was simply to gain access to the warrior's guild (which required 3 Attack or Strength levels). But after I managed to get both 65 in Attack and Strength, I decided it was time to raise my combat level. My current combat level goal is 90, with a goal set for my Attack skill of 70.

I goof around at the Warrior's guild for a bit (about 1k tokens and still no defender of any type) before I return to Slayer. I'm using Sumona now as a master, and she gives good assignments. The assignments however make me realize that my current food technologies are a bit lacking. I stop my training at combat level 88, in order to fix this problem.

I have a load of salmon in the bank that I used to get to 70 cooking. It was my origional intention to turn these 3600+ salmon into admiral pies, which would have got me well above 80 cooking. Once I sat down and thought about how I had to acquire everything to make them (flour, potatos, tuna and pie shells), I realized that making that many pies wasn't within my patience threshold. I sold all but 1k, and bought everything I needed to make the pies. This was not as easy as it sounds: nobody sells pie shells on G.E. Those I had to buy from a shop.

If you want to make a lot of high end and labor intensive pies, the best way to do it is to use the Lunar Spellbook. First thing it does for you is make it easy to fill buckets with water (Humidify spell). This is only a minor benefit, which can't be beaten out by the Make Pie spell. It cooks the pie, without the need for a stove, and you don't burn any. This means you get all the xp you worked for.

The pies only get me to 76, so I sell the pies and buy monkfish. I decide that this will be the fastest way to train cooking. I am not wrong, despite the fact that I burn about 15%. It only takes me about a day to get to 80. I set off to Catherby to get me some sharks.

It was here and about that Runescape took off the kid gloves. The long awaited "Grandmaster Quest" was released. And if the requirements are any indication, it's no joke. My quest cape is banked indefinately.

As you can see above, I have a lot of work to do.

New Goals

With my biggest goal met, it's time to come up with something else to do. While there are many things I'd like to acomplish, there is only one thing that really stands out: getting an Inferno Adze. For those who don't yet know, this is a combination woodcutting axe and pickaxe that is rumored to be better than even a dragon hatchet. To get one, you need several skill levels...the biggest being a 92 Firemaking.

I wanted a few Firemaking levels to begin with, so I could use Magic Pyre logs in the Shades of Mort'ton minigame. Of course, the easiest way to get Firemaking levels is to set things on fire. My current Firemaking level is 65, so I'm going to need to do a lot of burning.

I start out by cutting and selling Yew logs, and using the money to buy Maple logs. Maple logs give decent enough experience, and I can buy more than ten times the number of Yew logs I sell. I'll do this until it's no longer worth doing.

Another thing I'd like to get is an 80 Cooking. I still have all that salmon left, and my plan with that is to fish and cook tuna and use it all to make Admiral pies using the "Make Pie" Lunar spell (so I don't burn any). This probably won't get me the whole way, but it'll help.

I also set out to the All Fired Up minigame to get a Ring of Fire. Since I'm burning maple logs, I get 3718 xp per inventory (which is about 3 xp more than without, or 10% more).

The minigame isn't that difficult, but it's easier to just burn the logs with a tinderbox for experience. The trick is to fill all the beacons with the best logs you can use, then you head to the ogre spa and bathe in the salt water spring (for unlimited run for a time), and return to light the beacons after run is no longer a concern. It also helps to know where the beacons are, and take teleport runes with you for both bank runs and fast transporation to the next beacon.

Another thing I'd like to get done is to unlock the Air Guitar emote. I may just head to Bounty Hunter (and a couple other minigames) in order to unlock what I need (which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 songs).

The Longest Mile: Conclusion

As it stands, all that stands in the way of my quest cape is 2 combat levels. I look at my combat experience to try and determine how best to get those levels.

I'm very close to levelling in Attack, Defence and Hit Points, and Dream Mentor will give me 15k in Attack and Hit Points (I can save the lamp for later)...which could potentially shoot me past 85 combat if I'm not careful. I pick up a couple of slayer tasks to see what I can do.

It doesn't take me long to rack up levels in all 3 skills...and no combat level. Rather than risk putting me too close to another level, I stop by Tears of Guthix to get a few Summoning levels. I end up with 34 Summoning, which brings me up to 84 Combat.

I decide that the safest way to get the last combat level is to break down and actually train Summoning. I've got over 2k charms of various colors, so that part won't be a problem. The exorbatant cost, however, does present a problem to me, and I spend well over 500k gp racking up 8 more levels. Now close to broke, I have my 85 Combat level.

I decide to take on Dream Mentor first. This is the one that worries me. I know what I'm up against, and I'm well aware that I've got my work cut out for me. Nothing left but to do it. It's a struggle, and in the process I learn a valuable lesson: if you're making headway, don't leave the "dream world" unless you're about to die. Doing so starts you at the beginning.

It takes a few hours, but I finally find my happy medium between Rings of Recoil, potions and food and get down to the 4th and last monster. This one is only a bit over 100 combat level, and doesn't hit very much. I was somewhat concerned that I didn't have any food left at this point (luckily I still had plenty of HP). It doesn't hit very often, and doesn't hit very hard at all. I finish the quest and get 2 quest points (for a total of 269 quest points).

Then it's off to do Smoking Kills. Two things I didn't like about this quest: it's a desert quest in the worst part of the desert (around the ruins from Dealing with Scabarous quest), and I've never done it before.

I heard it was easy...and it turns out to be true. While there were some close moments, it was nothing too tense and I finish the quest easily. I now have 270 quest points: enough to get a quest cape.

(click for a full-sized image...and take note of my combat level)

As you've seen, this cape requires a lot of work...and at a point almost total devotion to the mission. While this is the easiest Cape of Acomplishment to get, it requires constant maintaince. Every time a new quest comes out, I can't wear my cape until I finish it. But once you've got it, the maintaince isn't difficult.

It took me a little over 6 months to get the cape.

The Longest Mile: Part 1

Being down to 3 quests now, I find myself driven...well, that and the fact that I've already got the hardest piece of work out of the way (69 Smithing). So it's time to make a few decisions on what to do next.

On one hand, I have the Rocking Out quest. For this, I still need 4 Crafting levels and 1 Thieving level. Crafting takes a while, since I like doing it at Shades of Mort'ton. Thieving can also take a while, if I decide to use the Sorceress' Garden Minigame.

On the other hand, I have the Devious Minds quest. For this, I need 6 Runecrafting levels. While I don't mind runecrafting, I like it a lot better when I'm making Law runes. I don't enjoy high alchemy magic training, and Nature runes don't sell for as much as they used to. But the up side is that both mining pure essence and crafting runes through the abyss are relatively quick.

I'm anxious to get another quest done soon, so I opt for the runecrafting level and Devious Minds.

I do my calculations, and they show that I need to make about 4.5k Nature runes to go from 44 to 50 Runecrafting. Since I have a 66 Magic, I mine through the Mages Guild in Yannelle. This is, by far, the shortest trip between the teleporting npc and the bank, and mining essence here takes very little time at all. It takes me only about 4-5 game hours to get what I need.

Then it's off to craft. Before I start, I use some of the money I've amassed to buy 12 more Amulets of Glory to complete my Runecrafting/Prayer training kit of 28 (by the way: the total value of 28 Glorys is aproximately 1.26 million gp). I charge my used ones and get to work.

Before PKing left, it was rather unwise to wear anything valuable while crafting runes in the abyss because there were people who would wait by the Zammarok Mage (probably because they were poor PKers and couldn't take anyone geared for a fight). It was also hard on your run energy, since most armor is somewhat heavy. Jagex has thankfully solved both problems. While PKers were replaced by Revenants, the Revenants are little more than an annoyance most times. Also, after the As a Last Resort quest, you have access to the Ogre spa (yeah I know how it sounds) which have pools with some helpful affects. The spa that helps in Runecrafting is the salt-water spring, which gives you unlimited run for a period of time determined by your Agility level. While the effect lasts less than a half hour for me, it is well worth the trip back if you can use Fairy Rings. The whole process takes only about 3-4 hours.

It was here that I made an expensive and rather noobish mistake. Knowing that I need a large essence pouch, I return to the abyss to hunt abyss creatures in order to find one. This is not wise, and I would suggest that if you have access to Fairy Rings, that you should use the abyss area that you can access with coordinates: ALR. First of all, you don't get skulled and your prayer doesn't get drained. Another benefit is that it's not multi-combat.

It was here that I died a most moronic and expensive death, mostly due to the fact that I couldn't see my Hit Point bar because of all of the attacks I was weathering. I lost a full set of rune armor (with a dragon medium helmet), my dragon scimitar, and one of the Glorys I had just bought (not even taking into account that I also lost all the pouches I had currently found). I tried desperately to return to my grave marker to retrieve my items, but I still have the noob one and it fell as soon as I arrived at it. This set me back almost 1 million gp (but in the process I upgraded to Dragon Platelegs and Dragon Gloves). I decided to sell the Nature runes to offset the cost.

I then set out to do Devious Minds. The hardest part of this quest is training for it (65 Smithing), and it only takes me about a half hour to finish it. This puts me to 265 quest points.

I then set out to train crafting. I make the trip to Mort'ton and build the temple for several hours (getting 2 levels in the process) before I get bored and try to come up with another way to train. I try the gem rocks in Shilo Village, but it's slow and I get far more junk than I do anything useful (although I do manage to increase my stock of games necklaces and rings of dueling). I give up on this and head to Varrock to buy some battlestaves from the shop there. I can only buy 32 a day, so this doesn't get me very far. I high alch them to get my money back and try to come up with something else.

It was then that I decided to look to see what the Grand Exchange had to offer. I found that battlestaves sold for about 8.7k gp max, which is still less than the 9.3k gp alchemy value. I don't hold out much hope, but I put a max price bid on 50 battlestaves...and I get them. While I'm not making a whole lot of money off making them, I'm not losing anything (which is one of the most important parts of power-training).

The battlestaff market quickly dried up, leaving me 12k experience shy of the needed 66 crafting, so I return to Mort'ton for about an hour to finish this up.

Then all that is left is the one Thieving level to get. I decide that it's time for me to do the Penguin Hide and Seek this week in order to get some fast experience. It takes me less than a half hour, but I find myself about 9k experience short. While I wasn't looking to get into sq'irk gathering right now, I make some quick calculations in my head to learn that I only need about 4 glasses of juice, so I spend another hour gathering the fruit to make juice for Osman. My calculations were a bit off, leaving me with not quite 500 experience left to go. I managed to pick this up by stealing from the stalls in Ardougne.

Then I'm off to do Rocking Out. While it's not a difficult quest, it's long and requires a lot of running around doing favors for people. It also helps to watch a lot of MacGuyver reruns to sort out this out without a guide. After an hour of mind numbing errand-running, the quest is done.

I now have 267 Quest points, with only 2 more quests to do.