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.

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.

A big one off the list

I haven't done many quests the past few days, but I knocked two relatively big ones off the list: Monkey Madness and My Arm's Big Adventure.

I've already died twice trying to complete Contact! That quest is really beginning to aggrivate me. I need to find a new help site in order to figure out how to finish this one, as Sal's is incredibly vague on the whole fight. They say to fight and they say to use Prayer...and that's about it really.

I'm two Attack levels from dragon weapons right now. I'm looking forward to finishing the few quests I qualify for now, so I can train a little more than I am now. Once I get dragon weapons, Haunted Mine should be a snap.

At this moment, I've decided to take a bit of a working break from questing. I mined enough gems to make all of the silver I got from Temple Trekking to make Staves and Flails of Ivandis (for use in the same minigame). By the time I finish, I should have at least 13 of each.

I have a 3 day weekend, and I plan to spend it on RS. I'm hoping to get a good deal done. I plan to do Desert Treasure, as well as Spirit of Summer (which I now qualify for thanks to Tears of Guthix) and the new quest: All Fired Up. I'm also hoping to have a little time to train Attack (via Slayer) so I can finish Haunted Mine.

Currently, my quest points are 226.

Chapter 3: Episode 12-Deforestation in progress

My Woodcutting skill is seriously hurting (compared to the rest of my requirements, anyways), so I felt the need to work on it a bit. But before I do (yep, you guessed it), I'm going to get a bit of a jump start by nailing a few quests.

One that comes to mind immedately is the Saving Scratch Uglogwee part of Recipe for Disaster. While looking into that, I realize there's a second part of RFD that I qualify for: Saving the Dwarf. I'm currently in Lumbridge, so I grab everything I need from across the river and my bank and set out to do them at the same time.

Once I've got everything, I teleport to Castle Wars and go and see Rantz again. He gives me a bit of a run around, but I've got my Jubbly pretty quickly. I then teleport to Falador, get the recipe for "Asgoldenian Ale" and I walk up to the White Wolf Mountain shortcut. 4 beers later, I've got a rock cake. I'm wearing my ice gloves, so that saves me a trip to the other mountain. I just use the home teleport spell, use both items on their respective people, and Quest Complete X 2: 2 Quest Points, 2500 Cooking, 1000 Slayer, 1500 Woodcutting, Ranged, and Crafting XP (30 Slayer, 33 Ranged)

I then set off to the willow trees around the lake north of Lumbridge Castle, and I cut and burn willows. While I'm not keeping track of numbers, quite a few willow logs go up in flames. I manage to take my Woodcutting from 42 to 50 and my Firemaking from 35 to 49. I also got 2 more birds nests, with a banana tree seed (which conveniently enough, I can plant!).

I start looking towards Tears of Guthix, and see that I need a bullseye lantern. Since I'm only 2 crafting levels away from making those, I head over to Ardougne to steal some silver bars for crafting. I need 258 bars to get 49 crafting by making tiaras.

The silver stall takes too long to respawn, so I teleport to Falador and try my luck at the Crafting Guild. The silver is unoccupied and I set to the task of mining the silver. I get the silver mined, and smith the bars and make tiaras, which gets me almost to 49. I had some diamonds, which I cut to get me the rest of the way.

I can now do Tears of Guthix, and it's an extremely fast and simple quest. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 1k Crafting, access to the Tears of Guthix cave.


I can now go in and get some free XP. This will go to my lowest skill, which right now is Summoning. While I have no idea exactly how much XP i got, I did get 35 tears. This gets me to 7 Summoning.

This leaves me with 7 more requirements to meet, most of which are only a couple of levels away.

Chapter 3: Episode 7-Crafting 40 to 45

Crafting can be a tricky skill to level, especially when you're forced to craft things that nobody buys. It can be expensive and time consuming, which is why I haven't really done a whole lot of power training in that skill. But now, with things the way they are, I need to train crafting for two reasons. The first, obviously, is for Legends. The second is the need for better range armor (Snakeskin).

I start off by crafting jewelry for enchanting. I still have 12 saphires, and 14 emeralds, and I plan to make them into saphire necklaces and emerald rings (I still have plenty of Rings of Recoil). Before I do any of that, though, I need gold bars. Luckily I have 454 gold ores in the bank, so I head to Port Phasymas to smelt them into bars. The furnace is directly across the street, and is by far the shortest trip between such locations in Runescape (Edgeville is close, but there's a door that you always have to open in between, which makes the process actually take longer. Besides, I can't use that without completing part of the Achievement Diary).

I use up my gems, and smith the rest of the bars into amulets, which gives me 43 Crafting. I decide to go and kill some cows and craft coifs until I reach 45, which I will then turn to crafting snakeskins.

Gathering the cowhides proves to be boring, so I craft the 126 I just gathered (44 crafting), and finish the level with tiaras. I simply keep a tiara mould in my inventory, and mine the silver in Al Kharid and smith the bars and make the tiaras on my way to the bank (I'd also like to note that I made over 18k gp just selling the unstrung amulets and finished coifs to a general store). It takes 77 tiaras to get me to 45 Crafting.

Now that I can work with snakeskins, I have a bit of work to do before I can get snakeskins easily.

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 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 1-Episode 3: The Ups and Downs of a Legend

I've had my eye on the Knight's Sword quest for a bit now (it gives a generous chunk of Smithing experience), so I decide to knock that one out of the way. This quest requires you to mine a special (and all but worthless) ore called "Blurite", which only exists in a cave that is overflowing with things that are extremely dangerous to a character with a combat level of 8. The bad thing about this quest is that it's time consuming and entails a lot of walking around (since I don't yet teleport). The good thing is that I'm familiar with the quest, so I know where the hiding places are.

I realize that I'm not able to make iron bars yet (of which I need two...4 if I want a copy of the sword for myself), so I decide to buy them. I also need a redberry pie (which I can now make myself), so i mine enough clay to make 10 pots and pie dishes. This way I'll have some extra food, since I'm down to my last 5 shrimp and cooked meat.

I learn quickly at Barbarian Village that I need a Crafting level of 7 to make pie dishes, so I decide to do Goblin Diplomacy for some quick crafting levels. This means I need to start slaughtering goblins to get goblin armor. I grab my trusty battle axe and get to work.

After the hunt, I end up with an 10 Defence and 13 Hit Points, so I head back to the Grand Exchange to upgrade to the sinister-looking Black Armor. I'm forced to sell my steel set in order to be able to afford it, and while nobody is selling immedately, my bid goes through as I'm gathering the dyes I need for the Goblin Diplomacy quest. I return to Varrock, suit up, and make the journey to Goblin Village. The quest is easy, and since I already have everything I need to finish, it doesn't take long at all. Quest Complete: 200 Crafting exp and a gold bar.

I end up with a Crafting level of 6...about 20 exp short of the 7 I need. I decide to make some extra pots (as these always come in handy) to get what I need. I manage to cook 6 out of the 9 pies, and I head to Falador to start Knight's Sword.

I do most of the major running around, and enter the cave to mine the blurite ore. I get inside, and get the ore without a hitch, but on my way out I get killed by the Ice Warriors guarding the ore. I lose my black legs, helm and my steel pick which I had just recently bought...not to mention the iron bars and ore that I had just mined. A bit of a setback, but I've recovered from far worse. I teleport out of there on the second attempt, and head to Al Kharid to get some more iron. After some friendly assistance from another player, I'm on my way back to Thurgo to get the sword. After taking the sword to the squire in Falador, Quest Complete: 12,725 Smithing Exp (Smithing level: 30).

I need to get a new set of legs for Demon Slayer (plus, I'd like to get a new steel pick), so I mine some iron in Rimmington to make some iron bars to sell. I end up with about 16 bars, which is plenty enough to buy the legs, and a steel pick to boot.

Having finished recouping my loss from earlier, I set my sights on Demon Slayer, which I start since I'm already there. This is another quest with a lot of running around in order to grab 3 keys to get a demon killing sword. The first key is easy, but i struggle a bit with the key in the sewers when I take a wrong turn and end up in an area with aggressive spiders. While they come close to killing me, they failed. Now I need 25 bones to get the third key, so I head back to Lumbridge to kill some giant rats (since there are rats in the swamp near where the key is). I choose rats because I can use the meat to make meat pies when my cooking level is high enough. Killing rats not only gives me 25 bones, but a 15 Defence and 14 Hit Points.

With all 3 keys in hand, I start back to Varrock to get the Silverlight, and kill Delrith. The major problem facing me is that there is a swarm of dark wizards hanging about, and they'll do their best to murder me. Food is another problem, as I only have 4 shrimp and 5 redberry pies left. I stop to do some fishing in Lumbridge. While shrimp are pretty much bottom of the barrel as far as food goes, my reasoning is that if I have a lot, I should be able to make easy work of the upcomming encounter. I end up with 25 shrimp, Fishing level 6 and Cooking level 15.

I ended up fighting the two level 7 dark wizards before I found out that you can hide behind the altar, which is what I did from the level 20 dark wizard. I had trouble hitting pretty much anything (and used 3 redberry pies and 23 shrimp), but eventually I killed Delrith and sent him back from whence he came. Quest Complete: Silverlight.

All that work for a sword which is not quite as good as the steel battle axe I already have.