As if saving Ardougne from a fake plague among many other things was not enough in the past. I found myself getting called in front of the king this time of Ardougne. I suppose I'm just the perfect person for a mission he has. Seeing as I've already done so much for the area.
It appears the king has a brother and they both rather hate each other. They also both seem to be out for blood. I was tasked with going through an underground passageway way. One where I'd end up rescuing someone and cutting my adventure sort of the original goal, I thought I was sent out to do.
The underground passage ended up being quite massive. This is also when I started to notice many quests, I was doing requiring a decent amount of my inventory space for what I'd be facing.
It was so tempting at many stages to just put my graceful outfit in the bank. I, however, had some traps and other sections of the underground passage I needed to pass where having reduce weight outfit on me would help me succeed in conquering them. That however did make it a bit challenging any time found myself having too many items and not enough inventory space. Sometimes causing me to need to choose what to give up such as food or simply dropping an item on the ground for a moment so I can pick something up and use it.
In one such instance, I needed to wrap an arrow around a flammable substance and then light that arrow on fire. Creating a flaming arrow. I then had to shoot that arrow at a rope that was holding up a bridge.
It would sure have been nice if once I had burned the ropes and caused the bridge to fall into place it would always be down. However, in needing to come back through this passage again later on I discovered the bridge was back up. Meaning every time, I had to carry a bow and arrows to do this part. Taking up those inventory spaces with items I wish I did not have to bring every time. Sometimes even requiring me to run back to get a bow if I forgot to bring one any time I came back down here.
A little way up I had to cross over this massive black hole. I can just tell you I did not want to know what was down there if I felt down it. Thankfully I would not find out this time around. Later on, I'd discover you take a bit of damage and have to redo a portion of the underground passage to get back to this point.
I then had a bit of walking around the place without having to worry about much. Sometimes it was just nice to stop and take a look. I do rather love how they designed this cave. It just feels so massive and with how long it took to get through it. I almost had a desire to do it again.
I then came across a trap puzzle. The only way to find the safe path through this trap was by trial and error. I’d have to step on a tile and if I did not take damage I'd need to try to move forward. If I took damage, I'd mark that tile and try a different one.
This one made me wish I had brought along more food than I did. I’m also glad I took some shark instead of just all lobster like I was planning. I did take a decent amount of damage to discover the path forward.
I ended up using X and O to mark my attempts. I was a bit frustrated when I was just one tile away from finishing and I went the wrong way taking damage. Thankfully I just needed one more attempt to find a safe route forward through this trap.
Next up I'd be traveling down tunnels that had a bunch of traps set up in them. If I spotted them in time, I had a chance to disable them not taking damage. The issue was they tended to be stacked up with other traps. So many times, I'd click to disarm one trap but it would be the trap that was one tile ahead of me instead of moving my character into the first trap taking damage.
There were a couple of passages like this. I also came across a spot that had traps on the ground. This is why I ended up bringing a board with me. Once the board was placed down you could get over these traps without triggering them a second time. The board itself triggered the first shot of the trap. There were a couple of these to deal with as well.
Some parts of this cave were also just a bit spooky. Once I had picked up a couple of objects I needed to collect to use to move forward. I needed to climb down a well that had a bunch of skeletons around it. I was not sure if I was walking into a trap or what. Thankfully I had a safe landing once I got to the bottom of that well.
I then hit this massive maze that had sharpened rocks at the bottom of if it you happened to slip off it. There were several points where you had to jump and had a chance to fall into the spikes. Thankfully there was a thieving shortcut and I had a high enough level to pick a lock and use it.
After some further walking along in the passage I came across a knight. It turns out he was stationed there to guard the path forward. I was an unwelcome guest that he tried to kill. I ended up using protection from melee prayer which made dealing with him quite easy.
At this point, I started to wonder if I was getting close to the end. Someone guarding the path forward for sure I thought had to mean I was. I still had quite a decent amount of walking.
I then noticed there was a house down here with some people to talk with. At first, I was expecting another encounter but it turns out I've dealt with this NPC before. I also had an item he gave me in the past that I'd be needing again.
I then had to go through another maze. This time around there was no shortcut I got to use. Any time I'd fail the jump portion of them which I had a random chance of doing. I’d fall into a pit and take a bunch of damage. I’d then need to repeat the process over again.
Thankfully my fail rate was not that bad. I always got a funny feeling anytime it looked like I was nearing the end of the maze and I realized I had one final jump to make. As if that jump would have a higher-than-expected failure rate that would require me to have to attempt the entire maze again.
There was also a witch's house in the middle of that maze. I ended up helping myself with a couple of items I'd be needing for an upcoming fight. I even found some potions that were rather nice to have since I felt like I just did not have enough food with me.
I then found myself having to kill a couple of higher-level demons. Thankfully I had some doses of a prayer drink left to restore some of my prayer points. Otherwise, I'm not sure if I had enough food with me to take these guys out. I'm sure they would have landed some decent damage on me. With a melee protection prayer up, they did no damage.
Along the way, I was also picking up more and more items. I suppose it was a good thing I was starting to run low on food and potions. Otherwise, I'd not have enough inventory space to hold everything I was acquiring.
After a while of further exploring the passageway, I came across a tomb. The kind of tomb you would expect to be of some kind of powerful boss. This seemed to be an indication of what was coming up. I needed to collect the ashes from it.
What I have not been sharing with you dear reader is my character was making a voodoo doll. For what purpose I was not sure at the time. I just knew it was going to be trouble. Many of the items I collected included ashes from the tomb I had just lit on fire.
I then ran out of prayer points and decided to tank some of the damage the next encounter I had dealt. I had at least once a while down here run into an altar where you could restore prayer potions. I was hoping to do so again at some point.
I then found myself having to go through yet another maze. This portion had a bunch of cages that I needed to search. I had to wear a special kind of gauntlet just to search the cages without getting killed. I can only assume the cages had some kind of curse on them.
The voodoo doll at this point was also just getting quite strange. In one of the cages, I searched after finding a few had nothing of importance. It had a dove that once belonged to a boss I'd be facing off soon enough. It had been burned and all that remained were ashes that I added to the doll. A doll that was now covered in quite a few different kinds of ashes.
It was at this point I started to wonder if being down in this underground passage for so long was starting to cause my player to go a bit crazy. I mean he was walking around adding ashes and items to a doll after all. Thankfully he was saner than most and the item I was slowly creating was going to be quite needed.
There were then further mazes, and passages to walk through. Even some combat was tossed into the mix. My health was slowly ticking down. I ended up killing some of the disciples of the boss I'd be facing sooner than later. I ended up taking them robes. Yet more inventory space was being consumed the closer I was getting to the exit of this place.
I then found someone who had been lost down in the underground passage for who knows how long. We ended up traveling with each other for a while. It seems he almost knew the way forward. Despite the fact he was lost and unaware of how long he had been down there.
The voodoo doll I ended up making would be what I'd be using to destroy the boss called Iban. I just had to survive long enough to make it to a well and toss the doll into it. This ended up being such a quick thing I had to do I did not have time to get a screenshot. I did not want to risk getting killed now and having to repeat this entire thing just to get back to this single moment.
Final Thoughts
Once I was done I returned to the king for my reward. I am not quite sure how this helps his plans out in the long run. I started to get a funny feeling I was not being told of everything that was going on. Almost like I was just used as a pawn.
The great thing is I now had Iban’s Staff. The staff required runs and used charges to cast quite a powerful spell for my level at the time called Iban’s Blast Spell. The staff itself only has 120 charges before I have to reenter the underground passage and make my way to the correct well to recharge it.
For the time being, I'd end up banking Iban’s Staff not thinking much of it. I had not realized at the time I now had an item that could deal 25 damage and possibly even more with the right items. This would come quite in hardy later on.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Old School RuneScape.
