Once more there is intrigue afoot in Sophanem and the High Priest has been seeking out his bold adventurer contacts from the past. Mysterious corpses, ancient ruins and unscrupulous treasure-hunters all await if you accept his mission.
Once more there is intrigue afoot in Sophanem and the High Priest has been seeking out his bold adventurer contacts from the past. Mysterious corpses, ancient ruins and unscrupulous treasure-hunters all await if you accept his mission.
If you previously completed Contact! before Stolen Hearts or Diamond in the Rough were added to the game, you will need to go back and complete these required quests.
10 gold artefacts from the Pyramid Plunder activity. The gold artefacts are tradeable and can be purchased from the Grand Exchange (Gold seal, golden scarab and golden statuette).
A few logs (preferably of the highest level you can light with your Firemaking skill. NOTE: The requirements to light them within the quest are 20+ higher than normal.
My Arm's Big Adventure is helpful for obtaining the camel dung.
Examining the body.Talk to the High Priest in Sophanem (located in the temple to the south-west of the Pyramid Plunder pyramid). He will request help with identifying a corpse.
Go upstairs. Continue the conversation, and find out that the corpse is not quite dead and is, in fact, Maisa.
Talk to the not-so-dead Maisa. She mentions that there are tunnels from the east coast of the desert that lead into those from Sophanem.
Go downstairs and talk to the High Priest to get his support for the mission to explore these tunnels.
Archaeologists
Required Items : 1 Pyramid top, 10 Gold Artefacts, Bronze (weapons/armour assigned are different for each player), Ugthanki dung
Go south-east from the entrance to Sophanem, through the lizards and vultures, and down to the swamp area. (If you had already used a rope during the Smoking Kills quest, you can proceed to Agility Pyramid and take the rope shortcut to the archaeologists. Just watch out for the level 125 Mummys if you do so.)
The archaeologists' camp
Make your way through to the north west corner of the swamp, using the 'Push through reeds' menu option when your path is blocked by reeds.
Approach the rock stairway from the south, climb over the fallen pillar and then go up the stairs. Speak to Lead archaeologist Abigail and Assistant archaeologist Kerner at the camp. (Tip: This is considered desert and therefore you will have to drink, but luckily there is a water source beside the camp for refilling your waterskins.) However, if you have done the Smoking Kills Quest, then you will not need to do this part, as you should have already done it before.
Before the archaeologists will help you, you must perform two tasks for them. The first is to answer a series of mathematical questions, and the second is to collect some items to give to Simon Templeton.
Agility shortcut
If you use a rope on the overhanging rock, at the western most part of the plateau just west of the archaeologists, it will remain there as a shortcut for subsequent uses. Note this option is only available when the player is on the plateau. The shortcut leads to the South-eastern part of the Agility Pyramid. The shortcut requires 40 agility.
Examine rock: Maybe it would be handy to attach a rope here.
Use rope on rock: You tie the rope to the overhanging rock.
Examine rope: A rope tied to a rock.
Task 1: Mathematics
The rope shortcut
The mathematical questions use 'round down division', so they are a bit different. The questions are different for each player. An example of the sums and the answers:
Which is highest: OR (Answer:)
The main idea is round down after a division or multiplication.
Task 2: Artefacts
You need to collect some items for Simon Templeton. The items are:
Distressed (oxidised) bronze items. The number and the type of items vary for each player. (You can just simply look at the Quest Journal, which will tell you what you need and the number of that item.)
If you do not talk to the archaeologists, and if the information does not appear in your quest journal, you will lose all your artefacts!
The possible number and type of bronze items are as follows:
Note: The bronze items can be smithed, or purchased from shops or other players.
*: If your bronze items happen to be daggers or scimitars, you could buy them from Urbi in Sophanem for 10 gp each. You could also try killing Dried zombies for bronze scimitars who are found just north of the archaeologists.
Note that you should always keep 1-2 inventory spaces free, as it is possible that if you choose to smith the bronze items (and if you get one bar items such as swords) that you will find a strange rock and lose the bronze item you are smithing.
There are 2 ways to distress the bronze items:
Get 1 bucket of Ugthanki dung (go to Pollnivneach, buy a bottle of Red hot sauce from the kebab seller north of Ali and his camels, use the hot sauce on a feeding trough, then wait a bit, make sure you're wearing gloves, use the empty bucket on the dung, this will work if the dung isn't too smelly, if it is just try again until you get the bucket of dung, or if you have completed Enakhra's Lament, you can just talk to a camel in Al Kharid while wearing a camulet.) Then, use the dung on each of the bronze items, while standing under the hot desert sun. (Note: You have to be standing in the desert, or the process does not work.) The items will be called "oxidised". The message box will say something about the item being distressed and smelly. After distressing all the items, put them in the smelly crate (requires 60 Crafting. Boosts work). Take them to Simon.
Put them into the empty crate, given to the player by the lead archaeologist, with one bucket of dung; which turns it into a smelly crate, then hand it over to the archaeologists to distress them, which will take exactly 3 hours(180 minutes).
You must give all of these items to Simon Templeton. Simon Templeton is the man that is in the entrance to the agility pyramid. (Note: He will only take Pyramid Plunder items as unnoted items.) However, Simon will accept each of the group of items separately.
Simon will then give you an artefact receipt. Head back to the archaeologist site.
Collecting Scabarite Notes
Recommended items: salve amulet, food, weapon, armour, and waterskins (to kill several lvl 89-140 monsters in a multi-combat area of the desert).
Abigail will give the player an empty Scabaras research book, and ask to collect 4 Scabarite notes and copy them into the book. These notes can be found as drops from:
Scabarites, found in the dungeon and swamp near the camp. (Note:Not the ones found in the Sophanem dungeon.)
Mummies, found to the west of the camp, near the Agility shortcut.
Because the monsters that drop the Scabarite notes are undead, the salve amulet is effective here.
There are several different notes to collect, each with a different "Examine" text. These are 'cheap papyrus', 'fine papyrus', 'scented papyrus', 'shabby papyrus', 'smelly papyrus', 'tattered papyrus', 'well-made papyrus', etc. (For a full listing, see Scabarite notes.)
When at least 4 notes have been gathered, add them to the research book and talk to the archaeologist again. She will give you the Scabarite key that will unlock the door to the dungeon.
The Scabaras research book is subject of a miniquest, where all 19 chapters are needed to receive a 10,000-coin reward.
Please note that you can use the tunnels you went through during the quest "Contact"
The empty Scabaras research book can be in your bank when you, located anywhere else, click on the notes in your inventory.
Head directly north from the archaeologist's camp to enter the dungeon (the dungeon symbol furthest north) with the Scabarite key in your possession. Enter the dungeon, and talk to the Clay Golem to learn about the puzzle that needs to be mastered.
There are four rooms, each with a lever at the far end. Each room contains a lever that needs pulling. There is a time limit within which all levers need to be pulled or you have to start again.
The door mechanism is powered by a furnace to the north. You must first light the furnace with logs (No tinder box required).
The logs can be found in a storage box to the left of the furnace. This box contains only 3 logs, which may be different and possibly above your firemaking level.
It is highly recommended that you bring your own logs, in case you fail the puzzles, or run out of time.
Talk to the Golem to assign priority to the four rooms.
Depending on your skill set, set the priority and race through the rooms. For most players with the minimum quest requirements, the priority should be in this order: Thieving room, Agility room, Strength room, Combat room.
Room 1: Agility Room - "by the narrow walkway"
Room 1 (North-east; Narrow Walkway room) requires crossing an oily pipe. Assigning more priority to this task will make the pipe less oily and therefore easier to cross.
Room 2: Strength Room "huge lever in the empty room"
Room 2 (South-east; Empty room) requires pulling a stuck lever. Assigning more priority to this task will lighten the lever and therefore make it easier to pull (requiring a lower strength level).
Room 3 (North-west; scarab room) requires slaying a level 206 Giant scarab. Assigning more priority to this task will damage the scarab.
Using power on the combat room can inflict: 1050 (full power), 700 (second highest), 350 (second lowest), and 10 (lowest) damage.
The Giant scarab in the third room is relatively easy to defeat compared to its counterpart in Contact!. The scarab will attack with Melee and Ranged. Melee, with a protection prayer from one of the two attacks, is generally effective if you bring food. You can use a halberd to melee the scarab from a distance in combination with Protect from Missiles so you will not take any damage. A powerful magic spell, such as an earth high level spell or Slayer dart, can be used even more effectively if you stand outside the room, and use Protect from Missiles, because the 'green attack animation' is in fact ranged-based. It is recommended that you kill the Giant scarab last. If you kill the Giant scarab and then fail pulling the agility lever, for example, on the next attempt you will have to kill the Giant scarab again, using up valuable prayer points, life points and food. It is worth noting that the giant scarab is a bit more accurate in its range attacks rather than melee.
It is not recommended to melee the scarab, since he An easy way to protect from the scarab's melee attack, just by standing outside the narrow door.will attack you with both styles and it has a high defence against melee. If you wish to do so, bring the Keris from Contact!, as the dagger can hit up to 3 times the amount of normal melee damage on scarabs and kalphites.
The Giant scarab seems to use range a lot more than melee so it is advised to use protect from missiles, along with a Keris dagger and it should be an easy fight. It's possible not to get any damage at all when fighting with this method. Just have a few pieces of lobsters or higher just in case.
Remember to pull the lever after slaying the scarab.
Note: If you die during the fight, your gravestone will appear outside the cave entrance. When retrieving your items, beware the aggressive skeletons in the area.
Room 4: Thieving Room "near the mysterious box"
Room 4 (South-west; mysterious box room) requires solving a puzzle and manipulating a mechanism. Assigning more priority to this task will allow more attempts at the puzzle.
Note: This is a simple memory puzzle. You need to match three of each rune. Each turn you're allowed to select three spaces, so find three of each rune in one turn to light that one up.
Puzzle
The puzzle can be problematic due to the time constraints and the countdown counter. The purpose of the puzzle is to find sets of three identical runes in a 6-by-6 square. Only three runes can be displayed at any instance. Clicking the fourth will clear the three others unless they were identical. The right hand side shows a mechanism which contains: a Cog, a Pinion, and a Switch. Clicking any of these during the puzzle will add more turns to the puzzle countdown counter. However, this can sometimes backfire, and take away 1 or 2 turns for you to solve the puzzle. It is recommended to put the highest level power on this room to have a higher chance of passing this and having a high/decent thieving level to manipulate more turns, then it will seem easy to pass.
(Recommended) As each puzzle assignment is random, the easy way to solve the puzzle is to prepare a paper with a 6-by-6 grid and copy the runes as you walk the rows (or the columns). Use these notes to find the triples. (Tip: You can also use a computer program (such as Excel) to keep track of the revealed runes.)
The Birthday attack method provides an optimisation to the above method.
You will need approximately 21 turns.(If at any point, you are running low on moves you may be able to click once on each the Cog, Pinion and Switch to obtain an extra five goes for each one - the pressure you chose the Golem to set decides how many of these extra options are available.)
You will always click in 3s. The order does not matter, but just don't check a rune twice, as this wastes a chance.
You will need to Reveal approximately half of the puzzle, then start on the other half.
At any time you find a complete match, fill it in when you start a new set of 3s (unless you have 2 selected already.) So, if you know, for example, where 2 of the Fire runes are, and you find the 3rd in the middle of a set of 3, then you finish your set and get all 3 Fire runes.
Note: You may want to restock supplies (food, prayer, Relicym's balm, potions) right now, as the door into the antechamber will remain open from now on so, you will not have to redo it if you choose to leave.
Using the Oo'glog spa facilities (especially the prayer, run energy, and disease & poison protection) can make this section significantly easier. However, the poison & disease resistance are not proof against this dungeon's traps.
It will be very beneficial to turn OFF auto-retaliate.
Beware of the monsters on the way! The area is multi-combat, and many monsters use distance attack (mostly range), so Protect from Missiles/Deflect Missiles is highly recommended. (They do rotate around the area so sometimes you might come in contact with 3 scabaras mages with a mix of scabaras rangers or the scabaras lancers.)
It is possible to reach the High Priest without crossing any traps except the one at the beginning. It's advisable to go around traps; it can be hard to click on them to cross safely while the Scabarites are attacking you. If you try to "search" the trap while being attacked by a monster, it won't work at all so you have to get them to stop attacking you before going over traps.
It is advised that you wait for an opening instead of rushing through the dungeon, as the scabarites can easily decimate any unprepared player. It is probably for the best if you wait until all (but one) of the scabarites remain from the middle trap, killing it if required to pass.
After pulling all the levers you will be allowed to enter the antechamber. Firstly, you should prepare before entering this area as it is multi-combat, and has a high chance of death. Watch out for floor traps, they may disease you starting at 12! Consequently, Relicym's balm, Inoculation brace or Super restore potions may be of use.
The monsters in the Antechamber have a high chance of poisoning the player, therefore an anti-poison potion or super anti-poison potion is recommended. Even when under the protection of one of these potions, the ranging monsters can still hit with one 90 poison damage, but the player will not be poisoned.
Enter the newly opened hallway. Beware! The first trap is two squares from the entrance door! Disable it (search and de-activate) and continue west. At some point, a yellow dot will appear on the southern point of the minimap. You've reached the area with scabarites. Turn on protect from melee or ranged (also keep your mouse on a piece of food when not clicking to run, for fast healing) and run south, then west. There will be one set of traps in a small path at some point. Do NOT walk over them, as they will highly damage and poison. If you cannot disable them because of attacking scabarites, run around the trap by going to the south and then north, although this will lead you through an area with lots and lots of scabarites. At some point, there will be a red line on the minimap, indicating a door. Open this door and enter the room. All attacks will now cease.
There is a fair chance of a player dying while in the Antechamber, even with 70+ combat stats and good armour. It is therefore highly recommended that a player brings high healing food (such as monkfish or sharks) and an emergency teleport (such as the ectophial) in case the player receives more damage than he or she is prepared to take.
The High Priest of Scabaras will immediately talk to you, but you can safely turn off prayers, drink antipoison, etc. When stocked up, talk to him. There will be a set of answers, one of which is correct, the others will upset him. If he is angry (threatens you or something of that matter), he will say so before attacking. Do not click continue, but simply walk away somewhere and re-engage chat.
NOTE: Scarab swarms can appear in the room with the high priest. they have low defence and are very easy to kill with keris.
Warning:IF you die in the room with the high priest it will be impossible to retrieve your possessions due to the fact that when you enter his room you are taken to a separate version.
First, say: "Conversion, eh?" He will say that you must either follow Scabaras or die.
Now, you MUST make him angry. If you say his magic skills are bad (beetle-brained), he will attack with magic. If you say his ranged skills are bad (could not hit an ogre), he will attack with ranged. Same with melee. Pick either magic or ranged. He will start attacking you. His combat level is 139. Do not fight him. Pray against his attacks and stand somewhere in the room away from him (auto-retaliate off). Be aware that an aggressive familiar such as a war tortoise or a titan will attack and kill the high priest (he has only one life point and drops only bones) if it is not repeatedly called. If your familiar kills him, you can restore him by logging out and back in. Note: Deflection prayers will NOT deflect any damage, so you may use them.
After about 10–20 seconds, he will stop attacking and talk to you again. If it has been longer than 20 seconds run out of the room and try again, as if he never assaulted you. Turn your prayers off. You should not have taken damage. NOTE: leaving the room makes him immediately unaggressive, but also puts you back in the dangerous scabarite room. If you re-enter his room again, you must repeat "Conversion, eh?" and once again provoke him and endure his attacks before continuing.
This time, do not make him angry. Ask "By all the deities, what is going on here". Then choose "Sounds like the Devourer dragged you into heresy for her own ends."
He will attack you with a different attack style; pray against him and once again wait until he talks to you again. When he talks, repeat the first step ("By all the deities, what is going on here") and then say ("I sense the Devourers hand in this."). However, this time, instead of attacking you, he will snap out of his insanity and assure you that the Scabaras will no longer do any harm. Teleport out once you are done talking with him.
Optional
During the quest you collected four (or more) Scabarite notes. For a miniquest, called Scabarites Notes, you will need to collect 19 notes and give them back to Abigail (also a requirement for the trimmed Completionist cape). 17 can be obtained from killing monsters as you did during the quest, the last two are found in these caves.
If you exit the priest's room, go along the wall going north-east. Very soon you will find a chest. Open it for a set of notes.
South of the room there is a trap-free path leading to a small room with some lancers and rangers. Here is another chest.
Finishing up
Return to the High Priest in Sophanem, and talk to him. As Maisa has gone, he will reward you with some experience as well as teach you how to make Enchanted water tiaras. Congratulations, quest complete!
To craft an enchanted tiara, use water runes on a normal water tiara (they will be stored inside the tiara); every time the player takes a 'drink', the total number of water runes stored in the tiara will decrease by three.
Destroy the enchanted tiara to get the normal water tiara and remaining water runes back—they will drop on the ground.
You can have only one enchanted water tiara at any given time.
Additional rewards
Talk to Simon Templeton about the job he mentioned during the quest. He sends you to talk with the Pyramid Plunder mummy. After the mummy refuses, return to Simon, and he will now accept noted pyramid treasures (from Pyramid Plunder) to exchange for gold! Players still, however, cannot exchange noted gold artefacts.
Required for completing
When Senliten is fully restored and Dealing with Scabaras is completed it is necessary to talk to Leela in Draynor Village until you travel with her (a cut scene) to Sentliten in order to enable the next quest. It is possible to have all the other requirements met for Do No Evil and have 'Dealing with Scabaras' show as 'completed' in your quest list - but unless you travel with Leela to Sentliten, "Do No Evil" will not be available on your 'Not started' quest list.
Completion of Dealing with Scabaras, and the trip with Leela to Sentliten, are required for the following:
The Lead Archaeologist remarks on how she would not want to 'have a ghastly death marked on a makeshift grave', referring back to the introduction of gravestones.
The release of Dealing with Scabaras marked the first revealing of Unknown, blackened areas on the World map, in months.
When the quest was first released, the spoiler said that: Alas, the scarabs have eaten the scroll with the rewards. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for us to find the spare.
When the quest was first released, both the Knowledge Base article and the Quest Journal gave the wrong required Thieving Level. The actual requirement was 5 levels higher.
Originally, under the "Recent News" section on Runescape.com it showed another copy of the update, this was later fixed.
Originally, there was a mistake on the website saying that players now have access to a new slayer monster.
Page 8 of your notes foreshadows the return of Scabaras, and also mentions the bitterness that would ensue in his loneliness.
The amount of players doing the quest shortly after its release re-introduced a bug in the Agility Pyramid due to the large number of simultaneous players involved in obtaining the artefact.
After you finish talking to the High Priest of Scabaras, your adventurer's log will say, "The High Priest talks with you at some length; you record his words in your journal". It says the same thing even if you do not have your journal with you.
Upon the completion of this quest, one's Adventurer's Log will read: "I’ve avenged Kaleef’s death by neutralising the threat of the Scabarites - even their High Priest is pacified."
Before the removal of the Romeo and Juliet quest, if you were to ask Maisa how she got to Sophanem, she would explain that she used a cadavaberry potion, and you would remember using it from before if you have done the Romeo and Juliet quest.
After the removal, she merely comments that "those cadavaberries aren't exactly good for my digestion".
Regardless of the graphical update of the Bronze Equipment, the Oxidised versions of the equipment the player must make during the quest still use the previous designs.
See also
Ullek - the ruins east of the Agility Pyramid were once the city of Ullek.
Speak with the High Priest of Sophanem
Master
Experience
Experience
Experience
Experience