Chapter 2-Episode 13: Struggling Through Heroes Quest

I, for some odd reason, enjoy struggling. I must. This is why I like to do quests long before I should. The only reason this has occurred to me is because Heroes Quest is at hand, and I already know what I'm up against.

I start out by getting the Ice Gloves, which requires me to kill a level 111 ice queen to get. At Combat Level 49, this is no small feat. I'm not exagerating when I say it was an epic battle that took a bit over 17 minutes, and I used almost an entire inventory of lobsters in the process (good thing I fished so many). I bank all my armor and weapons (I grab Varrock teleport runes while I'm there) and head to Entrana to get my feather. This battle is not so epic by comparison...

I stop by the fishing shop at Port Sarim and start on the lava eel section of the quest. This is a bit easier than the last part was, although it does require a good amount of walking for me. I buy some Harralander at the Grand Exchange, make my oily rod and head to Taverly dungeon. Since I've never been here, I have to go and get the dusty key. I fish 10 eels, in case I burn some or accidentally eat one.

The final part is the part I was dreading...and was the part I referred to in chapter 12 being not so smart. I now need a partner for the quest, who must get me a key so I can get inside the back room of the Black Arm gang's hideout so I can kill Grip with range. I've been dreading this because my range is 10.

It doesn't take very long to find a partner (Bla Bla Bl00), and he makes his way to Brimhaven to get me the key. The battle, however, doesn't take as long as I thought it would. I hit lots of 1's and 2's, and within a few minutes Grip is dead and I have the candlestick I need to get the last item I need for the quest: the master thief's armband. All that is left to do now is take the items to Achietties.

Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 29,232 experience spread over 12 skills, Access to the Heroes Guild (41 Attack, 37 Strength, 48 Defence, 17 Range, 41 Hit Points, 37 Woodcutting, 42 Smithing).

While there are some decent features to the Heroes Guild, the most important feature is the fountain in the caves underneath it. I can use it to recharge Amulets of Glory...which have 4 very handy teleport locations. I can now start investing in these wonderful items.

Unfortunately, as you can see, I blew past my goal by one combat level...but I did finish the quest at combat level 49.

Chapter 2-Episode 12: Power training for Heroe's Quest

The life of a quest noob is somewhat boring on many occasions...expecially when you like to rush things like I do. I am pressing on towards Heroe's Quest, and I need some skill levels. I need 4 levels of Mining, 7 levels of Fishing and 8 levels of cooking.

I take on the mining first. I decide to take the shortest route there and mine gold, and since my Construction level isn't 50 yet (so no demon butler), I decide the best place to mine would be under the volcano in Karajima. There are only 4 rocks here, but their closeness to the bank makes them a very good second option.

Because of my level, the bats still harass me here. This proves to only be a minor inconvenience, and I only have to kill a few of them.

Gold mined: 474 (50 Mining)

I decided to fish lobsters to increase both my Fishing and Cooking skills. I need 610 cooked lobsters to get 53 Cooking, so seeing as how I'm very likely to burn a few, that should be more than enough for 53 Fishing.

Lobsters cooked: 569 (already had 106)
Lobsters burnt: 212
Total fished: 781
Levels: 53 Fishing, 52 Cooking

To make up some cooking experience, I do all the parts of Recipe for Disaster quest that I currently can. This includes the start, and saving the Goblin Generals and Pirate Pete. I doubt it will be enough, but I do want to get this quest started for many reasons. I gather my shopping list:

Eye of Newt*
Rotten Tomato (3)
Greenman's Ale (3)
2 Lemons (2)
2 Oranges (1 sliced) (2)
Pineapple (2)
Cocktail Glass (2)
Cocktail Shaker (2)
Ashes (4)
Charcoal*
Spice (or Gnome Spice) (2)
Water (3)
2 Bread (2)
Green, Blue or Purple Dye (4)
3 Bronze Wires (4)
Fishbowl*
Raw Cod*
Knife (1)
1 Fishing Bait (1)
Mortar and Pestle (1)
Needle (1)

(1) is stuff I already had in the bank.
(2) is stuff I acquired or acquired the materials to make at the Gnome Stronghold.
(3) is stuff I acquired in Yannelle
(4) is stuff I acquired or made in or on the way to Ardougne.

* I fished a raw cod myself at Catherby, and the Eye of Newt, charcoal and fishbowl I bought on the Grand Exchange.

I do the first part, and set out to save Pirate Pete and the Goblin Generals in a single trip. I talk to the cook about fishcakes, and then gather up my needed items and head off to goblin village via Burthorpe Games Room. Once I have the Slop of Compromise, I teleport to Castle Wars, and bank everything but my rune battle axe, 3 bronze wire, a needle and my fishbowl, and head to Port Kazzard.

(28 Farming, 39 Crafting)

This cuts me down to needing 2.5k experience for 53 Cooking. I return to Catherby and 1 load of Lobsters gets me 53 Cooking.

I don't need much for Merlin's Crystal (a loaf of bread) and I make that at Ardougne. The quest sends me to Falador and back, but it doesn't take me long to finish it. Quest Complete: 6 Quest Points, Excalabur.

I head over to Varrock and start Shield of Arrav. I decided to join the Phoenix gang (with the benefit of hindsight, this wasn't a good idea...which I'll explain later). I head through my whole half of the quest, turning in my shield half and getting 2 certificate halves (the same half). I then post on the "Find a Shield of Arrav Partner" sticky. It takes about 20-30 minutes, but I find a partner (Grim Veteran). It only takes a few minutes to finish the quest. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 600 gp.

All obstacles have been removed...

Chapter 2-Episode 11: Bat wing, snake skin, and other petty evils

(The title was taken from the movie "Excalabur")

I'm down to just a few skills that are below 25 (which is one of my goals for this round), and decide that herblore is next. Herblore is a super-handy skill that can make you a bit of money at higher levels, and is almost a necessity for successful and cost effective Barrows runs.

For the herbs, I'm gathering them from the Sorceress' garden. I'm only going to make the best potions I can, and I'll sell all the other herbs to suppliment my current needs. I'll be working out of the garden of spring.

This will just be a log as well, since I've already discussed in some detail the actual garden itself.

Start: 1 Grimy Avantoe, 1 Grimy Guam, 1 Limpwurt Root (6 Herblore)
Load #1: 5 Avantoe, 7 Guam, 3 Irit, 6 Harralander, 4 Tarromin (sold for 22,838 gp)
3 Marrentill kept/23 marrentill , 21 Tarromin, and 20 Limpwurt Root bought (15 Herblore)
Load #2: 6 Guam, 7 Marrentill, 3 Harralander, 5 Irit, 4 Avantoe (sold for 23,783 gp)
3 Tarromin kept/15 Tarromin and 18 Limpwurt Root bought (18 Herblore)
Load #3: (2 trips) 3 Harralander, 7 Avantoe, 13 Irit, 9 Guam, 12 Marrentill (sold for 34,642)
12 Tarromin kept/45 Limpwurt root, 33 Tarromin bought (22 Herblore)
59 Strength Potion (4) sold, 200 vials of water, 28 Harralander (24 Herblore)

I then spent 7k of my own money to buy 8 more Harralander to get to 25 Herblore.

Tips on Herblore:

Combine your potions. Lots of people don't bother to do this and sell these potions as (3) dose potions. 1k of 3 dose potions will condense into 750 4 dose potions. If you're buying large lots of water filled vials and selling 3 dose potions, you're wasting 25k gp per 1k potions.

Train combat and herblore at the same time. Chaos Druids in Taverly dungeon drop herbs very regularly, as do lots of other monsters. Use help sites to find out what drops what you're looking for.

Chapter 2-Episode 10: Slayer Training

There's nothing really exciting about training slayer, so this will just be a short hint and an assignment log (which I'll probably replace on a separate site).

First thing about slayer is that you'll undoubtedly need food. So, if you don't have a good fishing and/or cooking skill, Slayer will be a very expensive hobby. I can catch and cook rainbow fish, and have plenty of stripy feathers to catch them, hopefully enough to get me to lobsters. My plan is to fish and cook rainbow fish until I can catch and cook lobsters, then after I have about 200 or so I'll to slayer assignments until I run out of food.

Fairy Rings are also very helpful on slayer assignments, as many of the locations of these monsters are out of the way. And being close to a fairy ring means you're close to a bank if you have a Dramen staff. This is why I always carry one.

Assignment: 88 Shades/13 Slayer, 39 Attack, 37 Hit Points, 47 Combat Level
Assignment: 68 Hill Giants/22 Slayer, 40 Attack, 45 Defence, 38 Hit Points, 24 Prayer, 48 Combat Level
Assignment: 11 Vampires/36 Strength, 39 Hit Points, 49 Combat Level
Assignment: 110 Rock Slugs/26 Slayer, 47 Defence

After the shades, I mined 144 iron and sold them to buy a rune battleaxe. I didn't need it yet, but I was 1 level away from 40 Attack.

Before taking on the rock slugs, I trained my Herblore up to the point to where I could make Anti-Poison potions. Lumbridge Swamp Caves have numerous poisonous creatures. I also did Lost Tribe quest to make it easier to get into the caves (Quest Complete: 3,000 Mining [46 Mining]).

I saw my first double digit hit today as well.

Tips for Slayer:

Use a slayer gem occasionally. Pay attention to which slayer master is talking to you. They will provide the assignments that are more appropriate for a person of your level. Even if you don't use it while on assignments, you should still use it to see who's talking to you.

Use good food, and optimize their effects. The better the food, the longer you can stay out there fighting. Know how much your food heals, and never eat before your hit points drop that many.

Know the monsters you're fighting. Know what their max hit is, how many hit points they have, and if they're more vulnerable to a certain type of attack. Knowing this, you'll be able to judge how long an assignment will take, the best type of food to use, and how best to fight them. You should also make sure you don't need special equipment to fight them.

Know your Slayer areas. Know the lay out, and know what monsters are where and what they can do to you. Lumbridge caves in particular can be quite treacherous if you're not prepared. Some areas also have agility shortcuts that take you past dangerous slayer monsters. It's not a totally bad idea to take any special equipment for mosters you may have to pass, in case you accidentally attack one or they turn out to be hostile. Keep in mind that, while most slayer monsters won't attack you, there are some really nasty ones that will (abhorant specters and dark beasts in particular).

Know the outlying area. Sometimes there are spots for you to restock your food supplies (i.e. fishing spots or food animals like cows). While these spots may not provide top notch food, if you plan it right, you could save yourself a trip to the bank. To make better use of these areas, make sure to bring any tools you may need (fishing equipment, axe & tinderbox, ect).

Chapter 2-Episode 9: Transportation Solved (Conclusion)

Now that I've got a little training done in Farming, I'm set to do Fairy Tale Part 1. This quest is annoying because you can't totally prepare for it beforehand. There will always be 3 random items you have to get...many of which aren't exactly easy to get ahold of.

Mine are a Mort Myre stem, a Mort Myre fungus, and a Nature Talisman. I have an extra fungus from doing the Nature Spirit quest, and I can probably by a Nature talisman on the GE. I just have to head back to Mort Myre (and I'm going there anyways) and get a stem. After getting my ingredients, I head up to the farming shop to buy my secateurs and while I'm there I buy the rest of my farming tools and give them to the leprecaun by the nearby farming patches. While I'm at the patches, I fill the compost hopper with weeds so I'll at least have something to work with when I start planting. On a funny side note: I got a farming level raking the weeds.

After I've gathered all the needed items, I get my secateurs enchanted and return to Zanaris to fight the Tanglefoot. It's level 111, I'm level 44. But I have an 18 farming, and it's rumored that the higher your farming is, the more damage you do. We'll see, I guess.

I'm a little suprised to notice that I'm the lowest level creature in this cave (the baby tanglefoots are level 45), but I head to the back of the cave with a combination of sharks and trout. I eat a trout if my Hit Points drop to about half, and a shark if they go below that. It works well, but the battle drags on for ages (my max hit with those secateurs is 3). I get the queen's secateurs and take them to the fairy godfather. Quest Complete: 3,500 Farming, 2,000 Attack, 1,000 Magic (24 Farming, 32 Attack, 30 Magic)

I head back to Draynor Village to start Fairy Tale 2. After I start the quest I have to wait a while so Martin can see how his garden grows. I use this time to knock out my first Slayer assignment of 46 Goblins.

Clue Scroll: Banked

Sure enough, by this time he's grown his crops and I'm off to Zanaris to see what's up. Of course the queen's gone and it's my job to find her. The fairy godfather sends me off to talk to another fairy about fairy rings. She explains how they work, and I can now use them!

I have no hope of finishing this quest right now, as I need 54 herblore levels, 25 farming levels, and 12 thieving levels. But the rest of the quest can wait until later. I have access to the fairy rings, and my travel times will now be drastically reduced.

Chapter 2-Episode 8: The Great White Hunter (With Blue Hair)

Hunting is one of my favorite skills. It can be a decent money maker (if you have the patience for it), and the higher levels have uses few people have figured out. Best part is that it's easy to train at lower and mid levels. But I'm just going to get into how to start for now, since that seems to be a sticking point for most people that are struggling.

To start with you need a bird trap, which can be bought from the hunter store in Yannelle (there are other stores, but this is the easiest one to get to). Walk south (watch out for Ogres), untill you're on a sandy penninsula. There will be a bunch of red birds hanging out here. This is where you want to set up your traps. Catch birds, drop the meat. Do that to level 20.

Yes, there are other birds you can catch that are worth more experience at higher levels. But, you will catch the red ones at a faster pace, which will only increase as your level does. Statistically speaking, you can earn more experience because you're capable of catching more birds in the same amount of time. Also you have to travel considerable distances to catch the best bird you can.

Once you hit 20, it's worth your while to walk west a bit where the Tropical Wagtails hang out (it's near the Hunting tutor). The reasons you should go now are many: short travel time, they're worth almost 3x more experience, it's less likely to be populated by bird hunters, and you can use the stripy feathers to catch Rainbow Fish (while they're noob food, they're pretty good fishing and cooking exp).

Once you get to 23, switch to deadfall, and catch the best kebbit you can (the experience is worth moving around now) untill about 31.

Tips for Hunting:

Pixelated clothes make the pixelated man. Well, to some extent. It's not a bad idea to get a noose wand and start collecting hunting camoflage. While a lot of people will tell you differently, it does affect your success rate (caught vs. escaped in other words).

Catching butterflies is as bad as it sounds. Don't bother. You don't get a lot of exp for them, and the "catch and release" process takes longer than just dropping something.

Avoid hunting in the desert. Unless you have a good Woodcutting and can get water out of cacti with a decent reliability, or have already done the "Dealing With Scabarus" quest, you're time in the desert is limited by your waterskins. The more waterskins you have, the less room you have to carry things. It's just a lot of trouble unless you've got the right skills.

Chapter 2-Episode 7: 1 to 20 Construction on 1,013 gp

Caution: this will only work if you have a Smithing level of 4 or higher.

This is a simple and easy procedure that anyone can follow...as long as you have a bit over 1k gp.

First thing you do is head to Barbarian Outpost (or anywhere esle that planks respawn), and fill your inventory with planks. Just once...that's all you'll need for now. Next, mine enough copper and tin to make 10-20 bronze bars, and smith them into nails. Head to any real estate agent (there's one in Varrock and Falador, among numerous other places), and shell out 1k gp for your "starter house". Then, head to the sawmill and buy a saw for 13 gp. Now head to the bank and make sure you have all this in your inventory: pickaxe (equipped), hammer, saw, lots of nails, 1 bucket, and as many planks as you can carry. Now you're ready to go to Rimmington and see your new house! Yeah, it ain't much...but after all we're noobs here.

Switch over to building mode, and start building chairs (there are 3 spots for them). Once they're built, remove one and rebuild it. Keep doing that until your Construction level is 4, then build a bookcase (bookcases are good, and I'll tell you why at the end). Then use up your planks rebuilding chairs until you run out of planks.

Now, head over to the mine and fill your inventory with clay. Stop by the well, fill your buckets and make soft clay. All you have to do is rebuild the clay fireplace, restocking yourself at the mine when the clay's all gone.

I will not lie to you, this is a long and monotonous process. In fact it's faster to build a workshop at Construction level 15, and start making oak chairs at 19 (of course, you'll need oak planks). But it isn't much more effort to go all the way to 20.

Tips for cost effective Construction:

Keep it simple. I've trained Construction on numerous characters, and it's always cheaper to wait until your Construction reaches 60 before building most rooms. To start with I usually only build a workshop and a quest hall (quest hall for a mounted Amulet of Glory. I'll add a study as well if I plan to make teletabs. On my last character, I had to build a Costume Room as soon as I could to empty bank space (storing armor, robes and other valuables).

Make your workshop close to the portal. This saves you huge amounts of running time. You also want to make sure that it's as up to date as you can make it. The workshop will possibly be the most useful room in your house at higher levels.

Design a building plan. Architects make floorplans, you should too. This will save you a fortune in creating rooms that you're going to have to move later.

Never use gold leaf or marble blocks untill you're building the best possible piece of furniture. High end building materials are way expensive, so don't build something with expensive materials if you're just going to have to tear down again in a few levels.

Make sure you have access to a bookcase. Many books you pick up in the game can be found in the bookcase in your house. This lets you access those books later, even after you drop them. Some helpful examples include the prayer book (the one that cures poison, not the wieldable one), the Elemental Workshop books (with the key if you've lost it) and Tarn's Diary.

This time I have my house all planned out up to level 70, so I know where I want to build all my rooms. This way I can have a functional house that reflects my Construction level that I won't have to rebuild in the future.

(My house...yes, that's all there is.)

Chapter 2-Episode 6: Who said crime doesn't pay?

I've taken a small diversion from my normal routine to head over to the H.A.M. hideout, and steal the clothes off their back. And I'm not exagerating.

I love stealing from Ham members. They do give up a variety of stuff that are very helpful at my level. Thread, feathers, knives, tinderboxes, cowhides, and the list goes on. Granted, there is a lot of junk to be had, but you can sell the steel pickaxes at the general store for a nice little sum (at my level of needs). But there are two items that stand apart from all the other junk...

The first one is Ham robes. Run around in a full set of Ham robes and someone will offer you money for it. On my first account, I had a nice little noob business collecting and selling full sets of Ham robes. They're probably not worth what they were anymore, though. Despite this, I know for a fact that I'm going to need 2 sets. I usually collect up to 5 sets, so I can help out other people who might want or need them (it does eleviate the aggrivation of having someone chasing you through Falador wailing "Oh, come on dude, 10k!").

The second, and probably my most favorite: clue scrolls. Annoying little slips of paper that send you trapsing across the entire world in search of treasure...all while wearing a combination of items that would make even the most nooby of noobs laugh. I've always had good luck with clue scrolls (way better luck than I've had in the few trips I've ever made to Barrows). It doesn't seem that my luck has changed, as I got a Guthix robe top from the first one I got a couple of days ago. So...I'm looking forward to this.

Clue scroll #1: 3 clues (36 black bolts, black dagger, 3 purple sweets, Gray Bob Shirt), Net Spent-1,242 gp, Estimated Value-27,020
Clue scroll #2: 3 clues (39 mind runes), Net Spent-420 gp, Estimated Value-439 gp

I manage to get 1 full set (with lots of left over bits), and a Thieving level 28.

Chapter 2-Episode 5: From 1 to 24 Thief in less than a second!

Sorceress Garden is the greatest and fastest (albeit occasionally aggrivating) power-training tool for Thief there is in Runescape. Not only can you get massive amounts of Thief experience, you get pretty decent Farming experience as well. I don't like Farming at lower levels, and usually try to wait untill I can plant something that doesn't grow wild all over the world (like potatos, onions and cabbages). On the other hand, at level 1 Thief, there's nothing worth stealing. This minigame solves both problems in spades.

I'm not going to get into any specifics about how the game works, but I will show the best hiding places for each garden. I will also show you the best way to power-train Thief.

To start off, you need a mortar and pestle (available at the herblore shop in Taverly) and a lot of beer mugs. In fact, you should only have enoug empty space to hold enough squirks for 1 glass (4 fruits). Grab the fruit, make a glass, repeat untill all the glasses are filled.

When I'm done, I make a couple of extra trips to the herb patch and fill my inventory. Unfortunately I don't get anything I can use yet. I head back to Osman and turn in my squirk juice for a massive 7,700 Thieving experience points. While it took longer than a second to gather 110 squirk fruits, I did go from 1 to 24 in a single leap.

Tips for Sorceress' garden:

Find the safe spots. There are numerous places in each maze that you can stand and not be seen by the elementals, despite the fact that they move right past you. These are usually corners or gaps in the walls.

Know when to walk, know when to run. Since running is advised through a large portion of most mazes, there are spots where you have ample time to walk. While it doesn't seem like much, it makes all the difference when you don't have a high agility.

Lighten your load. Don't wear or carry anything, unless it's an item that provides negative encumberance modifiers. These include (but may not be exclusive to) Boots of Lightness, Spotted Cape or a Spottier Cape. This decreases the drain on your run energy quite dramatically.

Let other players pass! Once you get the hang of moving through the maze, the biggest problem you'll have is another player. You are bound to find someone who hasn't really figured the minigame out yet, and if they lure an elemental in your direction, it'll catch you too (and even sometimes instead of the player who got caught. Don't try to move when other players do untill you know that they know their way around.

Chapter 2-Episode 4: Transportation Solved (Part 2)

The second phase of my little plan, requires some questing. My quest for the rings brings me to Fairy Tale Part 1, which unleashes a chain reaction of quests that I have to do first. I need to finish Nature Spirit before I can do Fairy Tale part 1. Before I can do Nature Spirit, I have to do Priest in Peril.

I need to do Priest in Peril soon for other reasons as well. Skullball for my agility, the Ectofuntus for my Prayer, as well as future access to Burgh De Rott for the Barrows and Shades of Mort'ton minigames. Obviously, this is where I absolutely must start (as you may remember, I stockpiled 50 regular essence when I was in non-members...it was for this quest).

I start it in Varrock, and on the way to the temple I start the Rag and Bone Man quest, since It'll take a while to find all the bones I need for this. To speed this walking quest up I bring several Varrock teleport runes with me, and teleport back to Varrock when the need arises. Before my last trip back to the temple, I buy 2 silver sickles and grab my amulet of ghostspeak, so I can get started on Nature Spirit immedately after I'm done. Quest Complete: 1,406 Prayer exp, Wolfbane dagger, route to Canifis (21 Prayer).

Dretzl doesn't make it easy to start Nature Spirit. I have to talk to him before I head to Mortyana, and I have to go back to talk to him before I go into the swamp. He gives me some food and I head out to find his friend. I make my trips, and help the dead druid become a spirit. I drop the sickle he makes for me and dip the other in the grotto, and pick the other one back up (now I have a spare). I put as many of "nature's harvest" in the pouches as I can with my current Prayer points. I return after I kill 3 ghasts and Quest Complete: 2000 Crafting, Hit Points and Defence exp (Crafting 35, Hit Points 35, no Defence level).

Druid pouches are good to have. At lower levels (like mine), ghasts are good exp, and give about 20 Prayer experience per kill. Druid pouches will also protect your food as you make your way to Barrows before you have access to the bank at Burgh De Rott.

While I haven't done Fairy Tale Part 1 yet, this completes phase 2 of my transportation solution.

Chapter 2-Episode 3: Transportation Solved (Part 1)

I've grown dramatically tired of walking, and not having the patience to wait until I've trained my teleports, I decide I need to gain access to the Fairy Rings. This involves two quests (one of which I've already been planning on doing. Before I can even think about fairy rings, I need to gain access to Zanaris.

For the Lost City quest, I need a 31 Crafting and a 36 Woodcutting. For the Crafting, I decide to make oil lanterns. From 27, it'll take at least 99 to get me to 31. I head from Varrock to the mines and mine 112 iron, which I then smelt in Lumbridge and smith into the frames in Varrock. The glass, however, is somewhat more of a problem.

I don't have nearly enough buckets to effectively make glass. The best sand pit is in Yannelle, so I head there (via Castle Wars) to see if there is a general store in town. There isn't (of course, that would be too easy), but there is a general store in Port Kazzard...which has the deposit boxes for the Fishing Trawler minigame very close by. So I take a little walk north, buy 4 inventories (well, 27 anyways) of buckets, depositing them in the bank after each load. I then return to Yannelle and fill the buckets from the nearby bank.

The final obstacle I need to overcome is soda ash. Without teleports, gathering this isn't an easy task, so I head to the GE to see if I can buy any. It's well over 200 gp each, so I decide it would be easier to gather it myself. I head over to Karajima where I'll gather seaweed on the shores and bank it in Tz-haar (I burn it into soda ash on one of the sulphur vents in the city). I then make the glass in the lava forge.

To get the blowpipe, I head to Entrana, since I can't remember exactly which store sells them. I hate going to Entrana because you can't take any weapons or armor (although a knife is just dandy), which means I have to bank everything. I teleport back to Varrock and assemble the lamps. Now for the fun part: I have to fill them with oil. I need 112 swamp tar, and picking those up will be a chore.

It doesn't take as long as I thought it would, but actually filling the lamps does. All in all it takes about an hour and a half to fill 112 oil lanterns. I take them and put all but 2 on the GE to see how long it takes to sell them all (4:20, 5/4).

I now need 4 levels of Woodcutting, so I decide to cut and fletch my way at least to iron arrows (15 Fletching). I home teleport and grab a knife from the kitchen. I intend to stay close to the Lumbridge general store so I can quickly unload my inventory of fletched bows (which are of no particular use to anyone).

I get to 15, and make arrowshafts untill I hit my Woodcutting level (I'll need them for iron arrows). Cutting regular logs isn't the most efficient way to train Woodcutting, but it's the only way I can train Fletching at the moment. But since my Woodcutting is still low, it doesn't take all that long. I have my requirements for the quest, and well over 2k arrowshafts. Arrows are good Fletching and Smithing experience, and better arrows will help with range (I really do not want to spend all that money on a dwarf cannon).

I set off on the quest with only my woodcutting axe, a knife and enough runes for exactly 100 casts of the Water Bolt spell (I got about 100 chaos from a maze random!). I head to the swamp and talk to the warrior (and he's a real hoot), find the tree and chop at it. The leprecaun gives me the information I need and I head to Port Sarim (banking my axe on the way).

I head to the cave, and find a bronze axe after killing my first zombie (first time ever, and I've done that quest 3 or 4 times). I make a mad dash towards the rear of the cave and face the Spirit. It doesn't go very well, and I get killed and lose all my runes. It's not a huge loss (as my lamps all sold), but I've discovered an important thing: You can't hide from the nature spirit anymore.

I head back to the GE to buy some more runes, and I return to Entrana (this time, with the rest of the sharks I bought for Dragon Slayer). While it's not pretty, I get it done. I make 1 staff to start with and set up autocast so I can finish up most of my runes before I head back to finish the quest. Quest Complete: 3 Quest Points, Access to Zanaris.

Zanaris is a cook's dream. You have pretty much everything that you can't grow yourself, all within a short distance walk of both a bank and a stove. Since I usually carry a Dramen staff with me everywhere I go, I make sure I have a lot of them (if you die, you automatically lose it). After I'm done, I head back to Entrana with my remaining runes and only 2 of my remaining sharks (I would have done this earlier but I had probably 15 sharks left, and I didn't want to waste them just to make room). I cut a full inventory of sticks, and then teleport back (after a 14 minute layover on the home teleport) and make them into staves.

Now that I have access to Zanaris and Dramen staves, I'm ready to shift into the next phase of my transportation plan.

Chapter 2-Episode 2: Would YOU trust a noob with sharp objects?

Range. I hate it. But I'm going to train it. I sort of have a plan, but admittedly it's not a great one.
My plan is to train fletching along with range. Oddly enough, I don't much care for fletching either. But it is my sincerest hope to have them both to at least 25 in a short time.

I mine some copper and tin and smith them into arrowheads, crossbow bolts, and a set of bronze crossbow arms. I head over to the chickens, and start killing them for feathers (which I'll need to make arrows).

I pretty much train on everything in that area, taking breaks between bouts of fletching to raise my range a few levels. While killing goblins, I get my first clue scroll.

# of clues: 3/Guthix top, 4 purple firelighters, 44 body runes (147,781 gp value) I keep it all.

At the end of it all, I'm so sick of hitting 0's that I decide that I am, in fact, going to get a cannon to train my range up to 50.

I just don't see how anyone can stand it...

Chapter 2: Episode 1: "Oh, Oh, Oh It's Magic!"

Finally. I get to train what is probably my favorite combat style (a majority of people use melee, and if you know how to mage, you'll totally own). Before I do that though, I want to do Witch's Potion. The main reason I want to do it first is that I'll at least get a level or two out of it. Maybe it's just psychological, but it seems like it's more worth doing at level 1 Magic.

Before I leave Edgeville, I head over to the GE to pick up some wizard robes and to the staff shop to buy a couple of staffs (one of each of the elemental staves). The staves of will boost my Magic Attack by a good amount, which I'll want at early levels. After I run out of a certain type of runes, I can change staves to use a different type. I have 500 mind runes and a couple thousand elemental runes and the plan is to use up all of the minds.

Witches Potion is possibly the easiest quest in the whole game. If you already take the burnt meat, you can get everything else within walking distance. There are onions along the road to the north of Rimmington, there are rats in the house just west of the witches, and you can pickpocket any man or woman (if you're in members) and walk to the rune shop in Port Sarim and buy an eye of newt. This quest can be done within 5 minutes. Quest Complete: 325 Magic Exp (4 Magic).

I also decide to use my mage to gather what I need to complete some of my other skill related quests. I need four types of meat for Druidic Ritual and I need some wolf bones for Wolf Whistle. I grab some food, my games necklace and a teletab and head to Varrock to get what I need. I kill the rat and bear southeast of Varrock, then head a bit south and kill a chicken and a cow. Then I use a games necklace to head to Burthorpe to talk to two druids in Taverly and then head directly to the dungeon to the south. The suits of armor that usually guard the door aren't here, so I have no problem getting inside. I dip the meat inside and take them back to Sanfew, who sends me back to the quest giver. Quest Complete: 250 Herblore Exp (3 Herblore).

Now I head up on the edge of the mountain to get wolf bones for Wolf Whistle. I head back and do Wolf Whistle as well (it takes a total of about a minute). Quest Complete: 276 Summoning Exp, 275 Charms (4 Summoning).

Doing all of this has got me to Magic Level 11 (with a Combat Level of 43). I return to the mountain and continue to kill wolves for Magic exp. After I run out of food, I head over to Catherby to get more. It is here that I realize that I'm close to Seer's Village, and decide to do Elemental Workshop 1 (which if I remember correctly gives Magic exp). I need about 6 more Crafting levels, so I head up there to make bow strings (I usually stockpile those anyways).

After I get 20 Crafting I start Elemental Workshop 1...only to discover that I can't find any thread. After my 10th time searching the crates, I give up and teleport to Al Kharid to buy some. While I'm here, I stop off in the mine and use up the rest of my mind runes. 514 Mind Runes gets me to 26 Magic with the help of the Witch's Potion quest.

I use my last tab to Varrock, buy a Camelot tab and head back to finish the quest. Quest Complete: 5,000 Crafting and Smithing Exp (27 Crafting, 38 Smithing). No Magic experience though. But in the end, my goal of using up those minds was a complete success.

Chapter 2: Prologue

Now that Dragon Slayer is finished, I need to come up with a new feat. But there are also some things I want to do now that I've finished that quest.

One of those things I want to do is train Magic high enough for at least a couple of teleports. Luckily, I've already got plenty enough runes to at least get started. I also need to spend some time training range (admittedly I'm not looking forward to that). Normally I train range to start with a Dwarf Cannon, and I see no real reason to deviate from the norm (I hate range, and this makes training range easy). There are also several members skills that I have not trained at all...some of which require quests to start. And finally, I want access to the free experience from the Tears of Guthix minigame. With this in mind I have the starts of my new set of goals:

Quests:
Witches Potion
Dwarf Cannon
Druidical Ritual
Wolf Whistle
Tears of Guthix

Skills:
Firemaking: 49
Magic: 40
All skills: 25+

As for my main goal, I'm thinking Heroes' quest. While I don't necessarily want to do it at any particular level, I going to try to have it done by Combat level 50. I also want to see if I can wield a Dragon Battle Axe by the time I get there (I don't yet know if it will be feasable with levels in mage and range).

Another goal I have is to complete all non-member quests and the easy levels of the two Achievement Diaries.

Again, my goals may change slightly, but this is where they started.