Chapter 5-Episode 3: Best laid plans of noobs and men

First of all, while I may have already stated this, I hate Range. It's very slow to train, unless you have a cannon...then it's just incredibly expensive. It does have it's uses, but for me, a main source of combat ability is not one of them.In the future, I will need a 60 Ranged for a quest. Thus, I have to train it. My plan is to use a bone crossbow, since it has a special attack. I've never used one, so I don't know how well it will work. But people use them, so I'm left to assume that they have some worth.

As far as ranging equipment goes, my bank is somewhat lacking. I still have studded leather armor and a junk bow, so I want to upgrade. For me, upgrading means making it myself. Snakeskin armor is still within my skill range. This means I'm going to have to do several quests:Death to the DorgeshuunRum DealCabin FeverI qualify for the Dorgeshuun quest, so I start it first. There isn't much of a shopping list, and everything I need is already in my bank (light source, 2 sets of H.A.M. robes, rope). It's an easy quest with easy fights. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 2,000 Ranging and Thieving XP, Dorgeshuun special attacks (Ranged 37).

I buy my crossbow, and look at what I need for Rum Deal. I need 47 Prayer, 40 Farming, and 42 Slayer. I got some work to do, it seems.I look to see if I can do any quests that give Slayer XP. Wanted! gives 5,000 and I qualify for it. It's off to Falador. This quest isn't hard, there's just a lot of running around involved. In fact, the hardest part of the quest is the running around. The mage is a wimp, and for some reason he melee's you at the end, after hitting about 12 White Knights for 70 hp each. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 5,000 Slayer XP, access to the White Knight armory (33 Slayer).The armory isn't really worth bothering with. Full white knight is more of a showpiece than it is functional.

I can also get up to 6,000 XP from Darkness of Hallowvale, which I do qualify for. Now when I was discussing Legends Quest, I said it was the second most aggrivating quest in the game. Darkness of Hallowvale is the quest that I rate at #1 on that list. The shopping list is small (all I need to do is pop off to Barbarian Outpost to grab a couple of planks), but the trek across the Sanguinesti region is utterly grueling. I guess it's best to get it out of the way then.I'll not go into the horror of all the backtracking I had to do. I can't say with any certainty how many times I crossed the city, but I know for sure that I lost count at around 6. I even had to recharge my Glories (I have 3 now). Quest Complete: 2 Quest points, 7k Agility XP, 6k Thieving XP, Tome of XP (2k XP with 3 uses...all on Slayer). This gives me 36 Slayer, as well as 51 Thieving.

Now, I really want to use snakeskin armor while it's useful to me, so I decide to train Slayer with melee, while training attack. I plan to train my Attack to 60 before long anyways, so I can upgrade to a dragon battleaxe.I head out to change my assignment (I don't want to fight shades again), and find out that when I let my membership expire, my current Slayer assignment was cancelled. This information would have been much more useful before I made the trip to Taverly. I decide to take a bit of a risk and try Chaedar for assignments. Unfortunately, I'm too wimpy, and she laughes in my face and sends me packing. I decide to give Mazchna one more chance.

He does good by me and gives me 45 Cocatrice. I buy a mirror shield, and head off to the Fremnink Slayer Caves. I don't have a lot of food, but it should get me started. That assignment gets me 37 Slayer, 46 Attack, 48 Hit Points and a 62 Combat Level.

Next up, an old favorite of mine: 40 Hill Giants. I can do that with the food I have left. I grab my brass key and head off to Varrock. In case you don't know, the brass key opens the door on a little shack across the river from Barbarian Village. Down that ladder is a massive den of Hill Giants (it's part of Edgeville dungeon)...which is usually too busy for any manner of usefulness. And this time is no exception.Next stop: Taverly dungeon. It's a longer walk, and as a result there isn't much activity there. Uninhabited, as usual. This assignment gives me a 47 Attack, but no Slayer level.

I then discover that Vannaka is a higher level Slayer master, so I go to him next. 40 Crocodiles. While I hate desert combat, crocodiles are near a Pollnivneach, and I should be able to refill my waterskins there. Plus, getting there will be easy since that's where my house is.

I get there to discover that crocodiles are 1 combat level higher than I am. This will be a good assignment. While I'm getting good XP from them, the crocodiles are beating on me better than I'd like, and my food doesn't last long. It's a bit of a trip, so I take a moment to make my house a bit more useful.

(Note: this is the point where Episode 2 takes place).

Now, I can make cakes. While it might not seem like a big deal, cakes are far better than having nothing at all. Turns out, I don't need them. While I don't get a Slayer level, I get an Attack level (50 Attack).

Next on the list is 81 Ice Warriors. Another good one. I go and catch and cook about 50 Lobsters, and head to Mudskipper Point. That cave from Knight's Sword quest is crawling with them. I didn't do so badly: I finished the task while only having to resupply once. I end up with a 51 Attack, 63 Combat Level, and very close to 40 Slayer.

Next up is a brutal task: 109 Ogres. It's going to be a long assignment, but I should get a lot of XP out of it. The task takes more than 1 day of playing (about 8 hours for me...yeah, I know. Shut up). The task gets me 53 Attack, 50 Hit Points, 64 Combat level, and puts me about 1.7k from my target 42 Slayer.

It is at this point that I make a depressing discovery. By the time I have easy access to snakeskins, I'll be wearing green dragonhide armor. I head to the GE to attempt to buy some snakeskin armor...and there's none to be found at any price. Snakeskins? Nope. It looks like this whole ordeal was all for naught. Oh well...I started it, I may as well finish it. I'll need to train Slayer at some point, anyways.

While Vannaka scores points for brutality in assignments, he loses a few for lack of variety. 95 more Ogres. Oh well...at least I'll get my Slayer level before I'm done. I gear up in my nooby leather range armor and bone crossbow, and head out.

I find a nice, little place for me to "safe" (a combat situation where the player can attack a monster without it being able to respond in kind. This usually involves positioning yourself behind a low obstacle and using range or mage, but halberds can be used in some instances with identical effect), and I get to slaughtering ogres.

This ogre respawns on the other side of the campfire, and as you can see, there's a nice row of impassible bushes to shoot over. If the Ogre gets around it, you can head just a bit south and you're out of reach (illustrated in the picture).

Once I hit 42 Slayer, I'm less than 1k XP from 40 Ranged, so I keep killing Ogres for a bit more till I have it. This leaves 1 more required level for the quests I'm planning on doing. And I know just how to get it.

By the time I reach 40 Ranged and 42 Slayer, I'm a bit more than 1.2k XP from the necessary 47 Prayer. The quest Mountain Daughter will give me 2k Prayer XP. And it'll be relatively quick and easy. It's a relatively simple run around with a fight at the end that's over relatively quickly. Quest Complete: 2 Quest Points, 1,000 Attack, 2,000 Prayer, and a bear head (the bear head is cool!).

Now I got everything but the Farming. Farming is very slow XP when you're actually farming, and I need almost 3k XP for the level I need. I stop by the Sorceress' Garden to see what I can get from there (since Sal's doesn't tell me). I get 50 per fruit, so I need to grab me 54 to get a Farming level (which is 18 glasses of juice!). A bit more thief XP wouldn't kill me anyways.

A bit more thief XP is somewhat of an understatement: I get a 54 Thieving out of it. And this gives me all the levels I need for Rum Deal and Cabin Fever.

While I'm now ready for the quest, my plan has been utterly torpedoed. I no longer need snakeskin armor (although I do plan to crank out a few sets), and I'm ready to go get access to as many snakeskins as I feel like getting.

Ah well...

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 3: Episode 10-Two birds with one stone

Dragon bones are very expensive, and I'd rather avoid training combat by killing baby dragons (I'm sure to get plenty of combat experience from the quests I need to do). The problem is that I still need 12 more Prayer levels. Since I need quest points anyways, I search the quest rewards page in the Runescape online manual to find some quests that I qualify for that give lots of Prayer XP.

The Holy Grail fits the bill, with an added "bonus" of a large chunk of Defence XP. Again, combat level concerns enter my mind since I still don't have the required 50 Strength, and I find myself grateful that I haven't completed Tree Gnome Village. Oh well, that chunk of Prayer XP is just too good to pass up.

The Holy Grail isn't difficult, but I do have to fight a monster that's more powerful than any I've faced so far. But I'm emboldened by my recent string of successes, and I set off to do the quest.

The only fight, while it takes a while, goes better than expected. At this rate, I'll never get rid of these sharks...

Quest Complete: 2 Quest Points, 11,000 Prayer and 15,300 Defence XP (35 Prayer, 50 Defence, 57 Combat Level).

This puts me 7 levels from what I need for Legends, and 8 short of Protection from Melee (which is my goal). I notice that I'm relatively close to a level so I head off to ecto the bones I got from Zogre Flesh Eaters. I ecto those, and I'm close to yet another level.

I decide to try and fulfill the Rag and Bone Man's quest and his wish list. That's a nice 5500 xp. I have 5 bones, but I don't know what they are (they're in pots already), so I'll have to take them to the man so I can see what I still need to get. I still need a giant rat bone, a big frog leg, and a monkey paw. I grab first two in Lumbridge, and teleport to Karajima to get the last one. Quest Complete: 500 Cooking and Prayer XP. While I can't complete the wish list yet (I need 40 slayer and Horror From the Deep), I'm now set up to start collecting as I go along.

I notice I can get quite a bit from One Small Favor, and that requires Shilo Village...which I need anyways for Legends. That puts Shilo Village top on my list of places to be right now. I don't have a great deal of difficulty with most of the quest, but I do manage to fall crossing the bridge to that tiny island off the south west coast more times than I fell during the entire Underground Pass. It doesn't take long for me to be ready for the final fight.

While the levels don't concern me, it's the fact that I have to fight 3 in a row. But then again, I did fight 3 demons in Underground Pass one right after the other. Despite my minor concerns, the fight is relatively uneventful, and I still have 10 sharks left over. Quest Complete: 3875 Crafting XP, Access to Shilo Village and the Gem Rocks.

While I didn't get a Crafting level, I got a much need Strength level (46 now) fighting Nazastarool.

One Small Favor, while it's not hard, is rather annoying. The quest quite literally runs you all over the world. On a good note, during my trip to H.A.M. Headquarters, I found a Ham cloak lying on the ground (this was the last piece I needed for a future quest).

The battle does not go well. Not because the level 92 monster is out of my league, but because I can't kill it fast enough (another timed battle). After 3 unsuccessful attempts, I try mage. I wear rings of recoil this time around, because I'm certain I'll take more damage. My suspicion was correct, but the rings don't work (they recoil 0 points). I do hit it more often, though and I kill it...although I end up using all but 6 of my sharks (and I use up a lot of my noob food).

It takes about 3 hours total, but I finally finish the trip back. Quest Complete: 2 Quest Points, Glider to Feldip Hills, 2 Red Lamps (10k XP each), Key Ring, can make Guthix Rest tea. I use a lamp on Prayer, which gets me to 40. Since I figure I can get 3 levels on my own, I use the second lamp on Crafting, since I probably won't have access to my snake skin source until after Legends. This gets me to 47.

3 Prayer levels is well over 13k XP, which is more than 100k worth of Dragon Bones. So I decide to hit a few more quests. Recruitment Drive gives some prayer and doesn't require a lot of running around. While it only gives 1k XP for Prayer, it also gives 1k to Herblore XP, which will put me very close to 30. There's nothing required for the quest, except that you need to be a female. So I shell out 3k and do the quest. Quest Complete: 1000 Prayer, Agility and Herblore XP, Initiate Helm (41 Agility).

I decide to try and finish this Prayer training run by snatching another large chunk of XP from the Troll Stronghold quest. Again, there's a quest requirement, which is Death Plateau. Neither is overly difficult, but Troll Stronghold is somewhat lengthy. On the bright side, I'll only really need one of the lamps for Prayer (this should put me about 3k from 43). I'm thinking of using the other lamp on either Smithing or Crafting (probably Smithing, since I don't have very far to go in Crafting). Here's my shopping list for Death Plateau:

10 Bread (2)
10 Cooked Trout (1)
An Iron Bar (2)
Asgarnian Ale (3)
About 130gp (1)
1 Blurberry Special (3)

(1) Denotes items I've already got stockpiled in the bank.
(2) Denotes items I made myself
(3) Denotes items bought from an NPC

It doesn't take very long to gather everything together, and I set off to Burthorpe to get the two quests done. The first quest is just a bit of walking back and forth, and doesn't take long. Nothing to see here, move along. Quest Complete: 1 Quest Point, 3000 Attack, Steel Claws, The ability to smith claws. I don't get a level, but I'm about 1.5k away.

I jump right into Troll Stronghold, and right at the begining is a fight I've been waiting for: Dad. He's only level 101, but fighting him is always a bit challenging. Besides...he's beating you up with a telephone pole! This battle is anything but uneventful, as I don't have Protection from Melee. Dad hit's me for a couple of breath-taking 25's, and has brought my shark total down to 3 (these are from the same batch I bought for Dragon Slayer).

I know a level 113 Troll General is coming up soon, so I return to the GE to stock up on sharks. He can hit as high as 33, and I can't protect from it. I absolutely will be using rings of recoil on this guy. I also take my ectophial, in case I need to beat a hasty retreat. I manage to get myself a total of 23 sharks. If that's not enough, I just simply can't do this quest yet. This fight is a little scary for me right now, because the last thing I want to do right now is have to make enough money to replace the armor I could very well lose. I do decide against wearing my rune helm and Amulet of Glory though. This way, the only major thing I'll need to replace is my rune battleaxe, unless I use Protect Item during the fight (since I don't have Protection from Melee, I am going to do this).

The battle does not go anywhere close to "as planned". I get murdered extremely quickly, and I don't even get an opportunity to turn Protect Item on. I can't do this one without Protection from Melee. But I only lost my battle axe (and a good deal of food).

I decide to give Prayer a break after this. I'm hoping to come up with another idea for training while I work on other things.