Xenowars | Defense, Dungeon, And Dung
Old School RuneScape | A Needed Boost In Combat
Always strange how it seems what we felt we needed before doing something else you end up getting right after. This time around I'd be doing two quests that rewarded me quite nicely with combat experience. I even managed after some rather long walks to secure myself some faster methods of transportation in a region.
If only I had realized I could have taken the boat down to the kingdom of Kandarin I could have saved myself a massive amount of walking. Even more so since I did not bring a hook to use quite a decent shortcut through some winding mountains.
At least my journey marked out in red had very little risk of it. Other than meeting some wolves in the mountains I did not run into anything else that wanted to attack me.
If only I had not failed to notice a way to get around some gates when I was getting so close to my end point in the west. That alone would have saved me some time. At least by now, I am getting used to having to run around. At this point, I was even tempted to buy some potions but I'm still being quite cheap since I've been doing nothing but spending gold instead of gaining it.
This also would not be my last time either, needing to go into this region and not realizing there was a possible massive shortcut of using a boat to get there. I would even discover later there was an even quicker path from the auction house area where I was into this part of the map.
I was on my way to do the Waterfalls quest. Quite an important one to get out of the way. I wish I had done it a bit sooner than some other quests once I became a member. I thought it be a bit harder to do since it gives out quite a massive amount of combat experience.
If I had not grinded out quite a few combat levels when I was free to play this quest would have been a massive increase for my account. I still did get a couple of levels out of it. Making it more than worth my time to do it.
I was tasked with returning a lady's son. Her son as it would turn out is a treasure hunter of sorts. He is also quite certain he knows where the treasure is as well. As a result, he was not willing to return home or even tell me where the treasure was. Which is understandable what are the chances I'd steal the treasure for myself? I’d say a decent chance of that happening.
I ended up needing to ride a raft down a waterfall. From there I attempted to move forward and was taken out by the raging river. I was sent down to the bottom of the falls. Where I met a guard who was stationed at the bottom who seemed to be getting quite tired of people showing up due to their attempts at finding the treasure.
The guard also gave me some pointers regarding the treasure. Thanks to him I was able to discover a book in a nearby house that went into a bit more depth about the treasure, being elven artifacts. Once to this day, they were still being stolen from their rightful owner that I would soon find out about.
The moment I discovered in this book the possible location of the treasure was going to be in a cave. Well, let’s just say all they had to do was say cave and I'd be running there regardless of whether the treasure was or was not inside of the place.
It turns out goblins have been stealing from a guy named Golrie for quite some time. These treasures or as he saw them family heirlooms. He seemed like quite a chill guy. Did not even want help with the invading goblins. Seems he wanted to settle the score he had with them himself.
He even allowed me to take some junk on the ground that was of elven origin. It was not a family heirloom of his, so it had no value to him. I on the other hand would be using the simple pebble for far more than what its weight would have been worth in gold.
Then I had to go into another cave with the pebble I found. This cave, however, did not allow you to take many things with you. This included the weapons and armor I had on me. So, I needed a quick stop at the bank.
I had an interesting little run through the cave taking very little hits from things like skeletons. More times than not if any of them chased after me they missed landing any blows on me. If they had I thankfully have 50 health so I would have been fine even without any armor on.
It was then time to head back to the waterfall. This time around I was ready to not get taken out by the rushing waters themselves. It was also time to send the kid home to his mother. I also now had what I needed to open a secret passageway.
I used many of the items I had found along the way. Including some runes, I had bought off the auction house beforehand. I needed to perform a bit of a ritual you could say. If done wrong the waters inside yet another cave I found myself in would wash me right out and down the waterfall again. Making me lose some items and having to go out and collect them again.
13.7k strength and attack experience was now mine. Along with a few thousand gold worth of items as well. I’m sure at some point I'll be using those seeds for something. For right now I've not done much with many of the member-only skills. So, I ended up banking the seeds and even the gold and diamonds for the time being.
I then teleported out to Lumbridge. Which is quite a distance away from the kingdom I was in. Where I realized I wanted to do something else over there. This time, however, I did not run back.
I managed to work out how I could take a boat across the sea. Which put me quite close to where I needed to be. There would still be some walking, but a lot of time was now saved knowing this. If only I had known this sooner and it only cost 30 gold as well!
This time around I was to meet King Bolren of the Tree Gnomes. He was right in the middle of a maze I had to go through to find him. Thankfully it was not that hard to go through and later the local goblins would just give me an option to talk to them to either be taken to the center or back out of the maze as needed. Yet another perk to running this quest and becoming friendly with the locals.
It turns out there is quite a massive teleportation network using trees in that region. I was quite intent on unlocking that. While I would not have access to every teleport right away. There was one right from the auction house to where the Gnome Maze is. Putting you quite in the middle of that region.
This quest would end up being one of many I'd start to slowly work on to unlock spells, teleportation, and other means of travel. With all the different ways to get around in this game it seems like just remembering them all once you unlock them is quite a feat all in itself. It seems some locations even have other options nearby.
I know I've even looted some teleportation items in the past. They are sitting in my bank. A bank filled with stuff I have quite forgotten what they were even used for if anything at all. A bit of a downside to running quests I've realized as stuff starts to pile up in my bank as leftovers from adventures I've been on. I don't quite want to junk anything in case I might need it again at some point.
For the most part, I just had to gain an orb. Then I went to meet a guy in a village behind a mountain that was flowing with lava. That is where things got a bit spicy. I was so glad I restocked some food before heading out here. I was not expecting to take down a warlord let alone something with 170 health.
Once I noticed how much health the warlord had. I was rather expecting this to be a one-sided fight. With me eating dirt. To my shock, this fight did not take as long as some of the ones I had in the pyramid. Although he did land a decent hit on me a couple of times before I took him out.
I then picked up an orb the warlord was keeping to himself so King Bolren could have it. In exchange, I got access to some of the spirit tree teleportation networks. The biggest one for me was seeing Grand Exchange listed. This will make getting to the auction house for supplies so much easier.
I even teleported around to the couple of locations I had unlocked. One of them as it turns out I could teleport into, but I did not meet the requirements to use the Spirit Tree system there.
Final Thoughts
If only I had done these two quests first and in reverse order. I could not only use the teleportation network back out here. I would have had a couple more combat levels which I did not need but sure would have come in handy in some other quests I've done before these two.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Old School RuneScape