Chapter 4-Episode 7: The Storm Before the Calm

It's time...

Legends Quest is possibly one of the most involved and aggrivating quests in Runescape. Simply getting into the quest area is a chore, which makes banking a long and grueling process. And I can personally guarantee you that you'll need more items than you can carry. This is not to even mention that most creatures you'll encounter in the Khazari Jungle are pretty decent level, and generally hostile. In other words, it's not even a good place to visit.

This quest requires planning and preparations (unless you want to spend a whole week doing it). It has a relatively formidible shopping list, containing some uncommon and occasionally pricy items.

Shopping List:

An Axe

Charcoal

Hammer

6 Gold Bars

3-4 Lockpicks

2-3 Uncharged Orbs

Snakeweed

Ardrigal

Water Filled Vial

Rope

Sapphire

Emerald

Ruby

Diamond

Opal

Jade

Red Topaz

1 Soul Rune

1 Mind Rune

1 Earth Rune

2 Law Runes

Runes to cast one of the four charge orb spells (any of them will work) at least two times

I decide to spend a few minutes in Shilo Village, trying to at least get the jade, opal and red topaz. I'll get at least a couple of the others, and may very well get enough to sell for the rest. I end up getting all the gems I need, just trying to get a red topaz.

It's off to the Legend's Guild to start the quest. Getting into the jungle is easier for me this time. I manage to locate an actual route that gets me inside by cutting 3 plants. Mapping the jungle is likewise easier. I also have little problem constructing the bowl (I get it on the second shot). Everything I had problems with the last time are not problems this time. Where do I have trouble?

The demon. 45 Attack apparantly isn't quite good enough to hit him. I fall back, and try my old stand-by: Magic. No good. In fact, I did better with Melee. I decide to try a new tactic...perscribed by the quest itself.

I set out to construct Holy Water vials. The process of making them drains both your Prayer and your Magic, and I end up intentionally killing myself twice in order to quickly restore my skills. I finally manage to get 25 Holy Water vials made...if they're as effective as I'm made to believe, I shouldn't need more than this.

It was, of course, a waste of time. Of my 3 attempts so far, this was by far my worst showing. In fact...I didn't even scratch the demon with the vials. My advice to you is not to bother with this long and involved process, as it's far more trouble than it's worth. I decide to return to melee, as that was my best effort to date. I just need a little help. I adjust my combat kit to include two Super Attack Potions. This time it works...with a little help from the Incredible Reflexes Prayer. All in all, this last battle cost me 4 prayer potions and 2 super attack potions. Very expensive.

The three spirits I have to fight in the caves below are not as tough as the the demon was, and I all but breeze through them (at least by comparison). Now I have to make a choice: the evil but easy path, or the good but hard path. I take the difficult path, which means I have to fight that demon twice more.

The second fight doesn't go very bad at all, and I manage to defeat him in one go. I get my water and return to the surface, where I have difficulty growing the tree. I have to go back for more seeds TWICE. But I finally get the new totem pole and set out to fight the demon for the last time.

It doesn't go as well as the last one, and he dissappears before I manage to defeat him. Also, because I wasn't paying attention, I used up all my food and end the scuffle with 4 HP left. I return to Shilo Village, restock, and go back to fight the demon again. This time I'm successful, and I get my gilded totem pole and head back to the Legend's Guild to finish the quest. Quest Complete: 4 Quest Points, 7,650 XP in 4 skills (I choose Prayer twice and Magic twice: 45 Prayer, and 57 Magic).

The Legend's cape is one of the best capes, second only to a skillcape. It's also very cheap at a mere 450 gp. I also get the ability to wield a Dragon Square Shield...once I get a 60 Defence.

Another goal complete, and another chapter ended.

My way in.

Chapter 4-Episode 6: The Last Little Bit

Legends Quest is so close I can taste it! I start off this run with a 54 Magic and 42 Herblore, which puts me 5 total levels away from where I need to be...with two of those levels being extremely close.

I'm out of runes now, so it's back to making Mithril Bars so I can buy more Death and Air runes. I go back and finish the potions I have to make, and when I'm on my way to the GE to sell them, I get a Maze Random that gives me about 230 Death runes! So lucky...

The skill calculator that I'm using tells me that I now need 85 more Combat Potions to get 45 Herblore (I bought 50 with the money from the potions), so I head off to make a few more Mithril bars, so I can get my levels and finally be done with it. Before I know it, I'm done, and I go and buy back my "Cash Kit", get enough Harralander to get me to 45...and have a tidy profit left over!

I'm concerned about my HP level. Very Concerned. I'm concerned because the last time I got a HP level, I got a Combat level too. Now at 61, I can't handle too many more levels before I put my goal in jeopardy. On the bright side: my Ranged skill is relatively low (33 Ranged), so I could get quite a few levels before it affects my combat level. But regardless of everything, I'm going to get HP experience. It's inevidible.

I decide not to worry about it, and head back to the goats. I use Magic until I get 56, then I grab those 1k iron knives I had just made last week (did you notice how I said then; you never know when you'll find a use for something? I said that because I wasn't joking). I rack up 3 Range levels getting the goat horns I need for the potions.

I get off light once again: no HP levels, and no Combat Levels. I'm still Combat Level 61, with one quest in my way...which won't get me a whole lot of combat XP.

Before I start Family Crest, I pop over to the GE to sell those potions I made. I sell them all, since I can now make super Attack potions...which is one part of the highly coveted "Super Set" (3 potions sold as a set: super Attack, super Strength, and super Defence. This term is pre-GE, and as a result, all but obsoltete. But the potions still exist are still readily available separately). They don't all sell right away, so I set off to do the quest.

I look at the shopping list, and I make sure I get everything I need. While I also need cooked fish that I don't have, I take the necessary gear to get it, since I'll be in Catherby when I need them. With any luck, I'll be able to do the quest without stopping at the bank.

Now, Family Crest requires a 59 Magic to complete, but here's where I did a bit of out-of-the-box thinking. I head to Falador and stock up on Wizard Mind Bonbs, which at my level add 3 to my Magic. Again, this isn't exactly a secret, but it's something that isn't obviously aparent. You have to look at how the quest is phrased. If it says "Requirements," that means you can't start the quest without it. If it says "You need x Skill to complete this quest," it's not a requirement to start, but you need the equivalent level to finish the quest. It also helps to know what all the food items do, and how you can scrape up an extra level here and there. On a side note, all my potions sold while I was buying my Mind Bombs: a total profit of more than 107k.

I just want to be clear on this: Family Crest is not a difficult quest by any stretch of the imagination. The hardest part of this quest is training for it. Once you got the levels, the rest is easy...with the possible exception of the lever puzzle east of Ardougne. Personally, this is probably the 4th time I've dealt with this puzzle (the second time for the quest), so I pretty much have it memorized. All in all, the quest's a breeze. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, Steel Gauntlets, a skill embue for the gauntlets. This was, of course, done at 56 Magic.

The gauntlets are one of those "must have" items. Of course, the only way to "have" them is to do the quest. They have 3 imbue abilities:

Cooking Gauntlets: Possibly one of the most useful imbuments for the gauntlets. It increases your odds of successfully cooking fish.

Goldsmithing Gauntlets: Another useful imbument, but secondary in my opinion to the above. It increases the XP from smelting gold ore into bars.

Chaos Gauntlets: In my opinion, this is the least useful of the imbuments, but it does have it's uses. It increases the damage done by spells powered by Chaos Runes. These gauntlets are useful for power-training Magic cheaply.

I don't bother imbuing the gauntlets just yet, since I won't be needing them immedately. I have my eye on something else now.....

Chapter 4-Episode 5: I Guess This Is a Break...

Like many psychotic workaholics, I've decided to take a short "working-vacation" from my Legends training. I'm going to do a few quests...quests that I should have done a while ago.

My first plan is to complete the last of the Free Player quests: Pirate's Treasure. While it won't be a real windfall, I'm down to less than 1k gp, so at this point, any little bit will help. I will continue my vacation with Gertrude's Cat. This quest has been holding me back on several other quests I want to do, so it's time to get it out of the way. Next on the list will be Saving Evil Dave from the Recipe for Disaster quest. I will finally end this quest blitz with Garden of Tranquility. This quest will help open up a good portion of the Varrock Achievement Diary for me.

I know I need a white apron for Pirate's Treasure, so I stop by the fishing shop in Port Sarim before I depart for Karajima and grab the one hanging on the wall. I also plan to reclaim my Karajima Achievement Diary gloves. This quest is easy as they come, so I'll not waste time discussing my lack of trials and tribulations. Quest Complete: 2 Quest Points, 1-Eyed Hector's Treasure Chest, Pay-Fare Option at Port Sarim/Karajima. On a side note, 1-Eyed Hector must not have been a very good pirate.

Gertrude's Cat is equally uneventful, with the exception of the fact that they've made the boxes to search more obvious. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 1,250 Cooking XP, A Kitten, Chocolate Cake, a Stew and the ability to raise cats.
Evil Dave was not overly difficult, with the exception that my kitten was lacking in skills and I had trouble finding enough red spice to make the stew. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 7,000 Cooking XP, Hell cats, greater access to the chest. (56 Cooking).



Although it took a long time, I did get a Hell-Kitten. This is cool for me, because while I've had Hell-Cats before, I've never had a Hell-Kitten.

Garden of Tranquility requires me to have some seeds that I don't usually bother with: mainly onion and cabbage seeds. So I head over to rifle through the Master Farmer's pockets in Draynor. Luckily I need noob seeds so I get them within about 5 minutes.

This is a long, drawn-out, quest where I convince people to part with precious items through force of magical charms and steal statues for the Queen of Varrock...who does all this for her husband who doesn't know how to appreciate something. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 5,000 Farming XP, 1 apple tree seed, 1 acorn, 4 guam leaf seeds, 1 Supercompost potion (38 Farming).

The supercompost potion will give me the first of my Supercompost, but the new ring is the real prize! This allows me many discounts across Runescape. While I may very well use the Guam Leaf seeds at some point, the rest don't have much in the way of value to me.

Chapter 4-Episode 4: "I'll take 100k worth of Herblore XP pl0x!"

I absolutely HATE buying skill levels. This is because I can only think of about 12,382,483,934 different things I would rather do with all that money...give or take. But there are times when it's difficult to avoid...this being one of them.

I need a bit more than 7 levels in Herblore for Legends. It could potentially take me a week to get enough herbs to acomplish this. Sorceress' Garden is far from reliable, and killing Chaos Druids will undoubtedly give me a bit more combat experience than I'd like right now, since I've already got a 60 Combat Level. And the #1 thing on that list of 12 billion+ things I'd rather do with the money? Magic. Heavy sigh...

My recent smithing venture has given me 100k gp, and I intend to see exactly how many Herblore levels I can buy with that. My plan is to make enough combat potions to get me 1 more level, and then make Prayer Potions for as long as I can. I may adjust this based on cost and ease of obtaining the necessary materials.

I immedately see that Ranarr weed costs 6 times as much as Harralander, and only gives 4 more XP per potion. I decide to make combat potions the whole way. I buy 97 Harralander, 100 chaos runes and 300 fire runes with a bit over 100k. I had forgotten that I already had 8 unfinished Harralander potions, and 17 unfinished Ranarr potions. I guess I'll get a few Prayer Potions after all...

The reason that runes became a necessity is because I have to kill desert goats to get the other ingredients. I plan to melee them untill I hit 50 Strength, and then Mage the rest of them.

Shortly after I switch to Magic, another problem became apparent: I need runes. I head over to mine mithril and coal south of Lumbridge, and while I'm mining I realize something. I could buy the ore relatively cheaply, and simply mine coal...using Superheat to make the bars immedately. I rush back to the GE with an inventory full of mithril bars, which gives me just enough to buy 100 Nature runes and 100 Mithril ore. I then head over by the Legend's Guild and mine coal by the Grizzly Bears. It's relatively close to a bank, and works incredibly well. I sell the bars, buy 100 more Nature runes and 100 more Mithril ore. The net profit when all is said and done is a bit over 100k. I've discovered my new cash factory.

The initial 100k bought me exactly 3 levels, although Combat Potions actually sell, so I make most of my money back (after buying vials of water to replace the ones I lose in the process). After I run out of herbs, I head over by the Crafting Guild and finish up those Prayer Potions. I end up with about 15 full Prayer Potions (cash value, had I bought them: about 100k gp).

I check a skill calculator to see how many more Harralander I need to get to 45 (which is 255). I then set off to make the next 100 Mithril bars.

I make about 200 more Mithril bars, with which I buy runes and herbs, which eventually gets me up to 54 Magic and 42 Herblore. While Mining, I got a book from Mr. Mordaut...which reminded me I needed to pick up my Varrock armor from Achievement Diary. I should get another lamp in the process. Sure enough, I get another lamp for 1k more XP, which I add to Herblore. This puts me about 1.7k XP from 43.

On a side and unrelated note, I got another Mining and Smithing level in the process.

Time for a little break.

Chapter 4-Episode 4: The Bizarre Relationships of Skills

Skills maintain strange relationships with each other, as I was quick to discover. It's not at all uncommon for a higher level in one skill can make it easier to train others, and you are occasionally able to train two skills with the same action. Power training is made much faster and easier with planning and a bit of creative usage of other skills.

For example: I currently need levels in both Magic and Smithing for Legends Quest. Of course, we all know about the spell: Superheat Item (in case you don't, it basically allows you to to get Magic XP while Smithing without running to a forge, all for the cost of 1 Nature rune and 4 Fire runes). While it isn't a big secret, most people choose not to do it and get their Magic XP and Smithing XP separately.

If you can't cast High Alchemy, Superheat Item is the greatest spell for power training. People believe that it costs too much, but if you do it correctly, it won't cost you a single gp. If you aren't concerned with making money, Superheating will more than pay for itself if you mine your own ores and sell the bars (and it's not like anyone ever got pwned at Bounty Hunter because they had a high Mining).

I'm going to train Magic and Smithing with Superheat for as long as I can stand it. I get bored easily, so I'm going to do this by the truck load of coal (meaning I'm going to fill the coal trucks in Seer's Village once and make the bars).

The coal truck holds 120 pieces of coal, and you can carry up to 28 in your inventory (provided you don't get a lot of gems). 148 coal is enough to make 74 Steel Bars, and thus I'll need at the most 74 Nature runes per load. Now that I can teleport to Camelot, the trips back and forth will be a bit cheaper (teletabs are almost 1k gp, and fairy rings don't really get you as close as I'd like).

Current GE pricing shows me that in order to buy enough Nature runes each load, I'll have to sell 32 of the possible 74 bars per trip. This leaves me with 42 extra bars. I plan to make 1k iron knives, and possibly sell the rest of the bars to buy Death runes. Knives are very fast range weapons, and they may (or may not) come in handy in the future.

Somewhere along the way, I decide to finish Elemental Workshop II (since I was in the neighborhood). Doing this gives me a 50 Crafting, and a Smithing level (from 48 to 49 at the point I did it). One more requirement off the list, and another will very soon be joining it.

It takes a long time, and near the end I simply decide to stop selling bars and I smith them for the experience. I make 10 total full sets of steel armor in the process. After almost two whole days of mining and smithing, I finally get 50 Smithing and a 51 Magic.

Doing all the mining myself has also given me another benefit: access to lots of sapphires and emeralds. A while back, I had unwisely choosen to sell a lot of Games Necklaces and Dueling Rings for extra cash that I needed, so I was down to single digit quantities of both. I now have close to 40 of each.

I also broke down and finished the last of the Lumbridge achievement diary. It was worth it, as I got another lamp for 1.5k XP, which I added to Herblore (my next target), and it gives me a teleport to the cabbage fields south of Falador. It'll come in somewhat handy for farming there, as well as trips to Port Sarim and Rimmington. It's not extremely handy, since I've already got a teleport to Draynor Village with my Amulet of Glory.

This leaves 3 more skills...

Chapter 4-Episode 3: Need...More...Magic!!!

My magic skill is really, really low, so I decide to get to work on that. And where do I usually start when I want to power train? Quests!

There are two things that stand out in my mind immediately. The first is Imp Catcher. While it's small potatoes in the XP department, I've already collected the beads from imps over the past few month so it will be quick. The other thing that jumps out at me is Troll Stronghold. Now that I have Protection from Melee, I should be able to take down that troll general without a free trip to Falador.

Imp Catcher is as easy as a trip to wizard's tower. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 875 Magic.

Then it's off to Burthorpe. I quickly find out that I'm a bit more rusty than I thought as I was as I make two noob mistakes which results in my death. I got lost and went up the wrong path, right into that death zone just past the wounded soldier. After realizing my first mistake, I tried to turn on Protection from Missiles and turned on Protection from Magic instead. Ah well, time to fish.

150 raw lobsters later, I have my rune helm and battle axe back (my orange cape is a total loss unfortunately). And this time I go up the right way...and turn on protection from magic again. I quickly realize my mistake this time and fix it, but not before I waste two lobsters in the process. Unfortunately, the rest of my trip was a waste as well: the troll general outlasted my 43 Prayer points (33 by the time I got past the troll throwers). I need a Prayer Potion. Back to the GE.

The second trip goes better, since I get back to find that the troll I was beating on was still there and still injured. I annihilated him in short order, and didn't even need the potion. Quest Complete: 2 quest points, 2-10,000 XP lamps. I use them both on Magic and it jumps up to 45. Not as high as I hoped, but about where I expected.

Then Watchtower catches my eye. I know the quest and it's nothing I can't handle now.

Shopping List:

2 Ropes
Jangerberries
Dragon Bone
Bat Bone
Tinderbox
Pickaxe
Water-Filled Vial
400GP
Death Rune
Pestle and Mortar
Gold Bar
Guam Leaf

Lucky me again: I got most of this stuff. I do have to buy back a dragon bone that I just sold to get the Glory that I just lost (heavy sigh). But everything else I can get in Varrock or near where the quest takes place.

It's a long quest, but it allows me to pick up a few novelty items (rock cakes and nightshade). Quest Complete: 4 quest points, 15,200 Magic XP, 5,000 gp, Watchtower Teleport. I'm now up to 47 Magic, and very close to 48.

I'm tired now, so I'd say that gaining Protection from Melee, almost 7 Magic levels, and 107 total quest points makes this a productive day. Good stopping point.

Chapter 4-Episode 2: Protection From Melee

43 Prayer. This is a must have skill level. In many places it literally means the difference between victory and spending a load of cash to replace a majority of your gear.

While I only need 1 level to be qualify for Legends (that was my goal before my break, and I see no reason to change that goal), I need 2 for Protection from Melee. According to Sal's skill calculators, I need to ecto either 73 baby dragon bones or 31 dragon bones to get 43.

I had already started collecting bones before I had taken my break, and since I've used all XP granting rewards on Prayer since I've come back, I only need to collect about 33 more baby dragon bones or 16 dragon bones. My secret green dragon stash (in the chaos rifts) are out now, so for no other reason than to save time, I head to Falador to collect baby dragon bones. It only takes a few trips to Taverly Dungeon, and I not only get the bones I need, I end up with enough food to take on my first adult blue dragon. While I did win, I used a lot of food...and almost chickened out twice.

I head to the GE because I want another Amulet of Glory to make the ectoing a little easier. This will give me 8 return trips to Edgeville, as opposed to 4. It works out pretty good because by the time the amulets ran out of charges, I had enough left over inventory to carry both Glorys and a Games Necklace. This let me recharge without totally going out of my way. All in all, it's a rather quick operation, and in about an hour I have 43 Prayer!

Chapter 4-Episode 1: Back At It

A lot has changed since I last played, so I decided to take a moment to explore some of the new changes. I'm playing in the new graphics mode, and I must say that I'm absolutely impressed. It looks cool, and they've even redone teleport animations! I can hardly wait to actually do some real mage.

I log in to find out that instead of having about 800 gp, that I now have 21k! I had put some plain tiaras on the GE, and during my time off, they all sold. Good news for me!

I then head off to Lumbridge, because I've also heard that there's a new achievement diary, so I head off to get that rolling. I'm disappointed with the changes to the achievement diary. I always felt part of the challenge was figuring out where the task was and how to pull it off. Now it directs you every step of the way. I shrug off my misgivings, and set about the task of trying to finish at least the easy part (I decide to do Varrock, too, since I'm in the area).

While looking around at some things not in the game, I'm now officially less happy with how Hiscores works. It used to only show the top 1 million players. Now it's the top 2 million players. It bugs me as it now takes so much less effort to make it onto that list.

I can't finish the Varrock (need Dig Site quest...I'll do it later) right now, so since I'm in the mood, I pop off to Karajima to try to finish the easy part over there. Looking at it, there's nothing I shouldn't be able to complete. On a side note, I didn't do terrible on my first trip to Fight Pits (considering I didn't take any food).

I was lucky enough to get a max hit before my unfortunate, yet anticipated demise.

I manage to complete the Karajima easy tasks as well as the Lumbridge beginner and easy tasks, and I'm one task away from finishing Varrock's easy tasks, too. I decide to jump back into questing, and I start with the Dig Site quest (this should allow me to get enough Kudos to complete Varrock's easy achievement diary).

Shopping List:
Tinderbox
Chisel
2 Rope
Pestle and Mortar
Vial
Uncut Opal
Cup of Tea
Leather Gloves
Leather Boots

I grab a pestle and mortar, vial, tinderbox, chisel and 2 rope from the bank, and steal a cup of tea on my way out of Varrock. Everything else I'll get at the dig site by pick pocketing workers.
While I end up buying the boots, everything goes off without a hitch...although it took a lot longer than it should have (I couldn't pickpocket hardly any of the items I needed). Quest Complete: 2 Quest Points, 2,000 Herblore XP, 15,300 Mining (54 Mining, 37 Herblore).

While the quest itself doesn't give me enough Kudos, I spend an hour in the cleaning room and find enough artifacts to get me there. With this final task, I have all easy achievement diary tasks complete.

While the item rewards are barely useful, I learn that they now give out experience lamps with each completed difficulty level. Those, coupled with a book from Mr. Mordaut, get me to Prayer level 41.