The Poison Project

The Five Tasks
Speak to the hooded mystic to start the quest. Upon noticing your competency in magic, he will offer you the opportunity to share in his knowledge of magic, particularly in his endeavours to harness the powers of nature for the purposes of destruction. He will challenge you with a series of tasks to help him finish his new 'secret magic' he has been working on, with his progress halted by the meddling of the Guthixian Ix-Grith clan, who wish to prevent the misappropriation of Guthix's creations for the purposes of death and destruction.

The Targets
Once you have accepted his offer, you must swap your spellbook to be set to the Ancient Magicks if you haven't already, and he will test you on your skills. He has created a magical 'target practise' range with which he tests his disciples. You must hit differently coloured targets before they disappear with the appropriate ancient spell. If your Magic level is not 94, he will give you a boost to 94, so that you can use all of the spells from the Ancient Magicks. If you are 99 Magic, he will cut the amount of targets you need to hit by 25%.

To complete this part, you must hit the appropriate targets before they disappear, they are colour coded as so:


 * Red = blood
 * Light grey = smoke
 * White = ice
 * Black = shadow

When one appears, the hooded mystic will shout a type of spell, either;


 * Rush
 * Burst
 * Blitz
 * Barrage

It is up to you to select the correct spell and cast it on the target before they disappear. The further your progress, the more quickly targets will appear.

Once you have hit a certain amount of these within the time limit, he will congratulate you and say that on paper, you appear worthy of his teachings. However, there is a significant difference between being able to hit targets and executing magic against real, strong enemies.

Retrieving the legendary staff
The hooded mystic will tell you that he has been inactive for long due to his staff having been stolen by Guthixian "scum". As a proof of your loyalty, he will request you to retrieve his staff from the Ix-Grith clan stronghold. He says they have been trying to harness its powers for several years but to no avail, as he is the only one it 'trusts'. Your character comments on the strange use of personification after the conversation.

Things needed:
 * Emergency teleport
 * At least 20 sharks+
 * Good armour and weapons
 * 75 Thieving

Recommended things:
 * Ancient Magicks books open for usage of the ice spells.
 * Good food, sharks+
 * At least four full prayer potions
 * 70+ Prayer
 * 80+ Defence
 * Good armour
 * Good weapon

The stronghold is located west of the Trollweiss mountains. You must go over the ice-path used in Treasure Desert Treasure,until you reach a green clearing, clearly uncharacteristic of the region. Once you are there, kill the two level 100 Entry Guardians; praying against range should mitigate virtually all damage from these enemies. Keeping protect from range activated, enter the door and keep a close eye on your prayer points, as the area is filled with high-level enemies and is mutlicombat, and the Ix-Grith pronounce themselves Guthix's finest archers, and the Acolytes attacks drain prayer. The smart option now would be to turn off auto-retaliate and run the 2 minutes northeast to the large green prayer room doors, you won't be attacked by archers there, but when you "search" the doors, two level 150 Ix-Grith Acolytes will appear out of the shadows and attack you. They attack exclusively with ranged, but will drain your prayer, even when they hit 0s. It is imperative to maintain prayer, as they attack with rapid firing bows that will quickly deplete your hitpoints should your prayer drop.

As soon as you kill them, they will both drop  prayer room door key halves, once you have both, use them on each other to make the prayer room door key, then use it on the green door.

Once you are through, a message will appear in your text box "It's quiet... Too quiet." (mimicking the film cliche).

Walk northwards to the ornate cabinet, and search it to discover it is looked by an enchanted lock. Pray at the nearby Guthixian Altar, which will completely drain your prayer points and summon Ix-Nathin, the head warrior-priest of the Ix-Grith, who will shun your lack of faith. He will have overhead protection prayers for whatever attack style you choose, making the fight apparently futile, attacking with a magic-based ranged attack that will hit accurately even through protection prayers. The only option will be to teleport out and report back to the Hooded Mystic and ask him how to defeat Ix-Nathin, seemingly protected by his faith in his place of worship.

TBC

He is weak to slash attacks but seems to have fairly strong defence against all attack styles (especially mage).

Once you get him down to below a quarter health, he will yell in capitals "WHICH TRAITOR HAS SUPPLIED ME WITH SUCH A FEEBLE AMOUNT OF ARROWS?" and will start to melee you. This stage is a lot easier, as he uses a slow hitting longsword which has a maximum of 400+- (which is extremely rare to see) and will rarely hit above 150 while you pray, and if you are wearing decent armour, you should be able to finish him off fairly easily.

On your final blow, you will only get him down to 10 hp, and he will tell you that you have defeated him in a fair duel and will give you the staff you have been seeking, but before you can hit the final (final) blow, he will teleport away.

Take the staff and return it to the hooded mystic to finish this part of the quest.

As a reward he will give you:
 * 60,000 Magic experience
 * 300,000 gp

The Spy
Difficulty: ****

length: 30 minutes+/-

Things needed:
 * 61 Thieving
 * Patience
 * 30,000 gp - to buy a disguise, then another 20,000 gp for bribes and 5,000 gp to use for the 'special haircut'
 * 2 vouchers for the sex-change magician South-West of Falador (will be given to you by hooded mystic)
 * 80 Ranged

Recommended items and skills:
 * Good amount of decent food (rocktails or shark are ideal)
 * About 10 lockpicks to be safe (usually takes about 5-8)
 * Emergency teleport
 * Good defence
 * Some decent armour in your inventory if you get caught and attacked
 * A decent weapon

The next part of the quest will be all about infiltration. The hooded mystic will be very impressed at how you took the staff quickly, and even more impressed when you tell him you managed to defeated Ix-Nathin in a duel, he will then tell you that he thinks something is going on in the camp of the of the Ix-Grith, and that your next mission will be to spy on their camp and try and find out what their plans are.

Part 1: The disguise

Obviously, now that you are known to the Ix-Grith, you will need a disguise, as the hooded magician suggests, he tells you to go to the 'master of disguise', Etherelle, who can be found in her cottage north of the ranging guild. He will also give you a voucher to use at the sex-change wizard.

Tell her that the hooded magician sent you, and she will help you. There will be a choice of disguises, try and choose the one with the most green and/or black on it, as those are the colours of the Ix-Grith. She will charge you anywhere between 10,000gp and 30,000 gp.

The next step will be at the sex-change magician, give him the voucher and you will be able to change to the opposite sex for free.

For the final step of your disguise, you will need to go to the haircutter in Falador. Talk to him first (do NOT just click the haircut option as this will not work). Tell him you want his 'secret haircut'. He will pretend to look confused until you offer him 5,000 gp, then he will cut your hair to match that of either the Ix-Grith men or women (depending on what sex you changed to).

Your disguise is now ready.

Return to the hooded mystic and he will give you a "return tab", a teleport he will tell you to use ONLY once you have attained as much information as possible. However, it requires a right click for use, and this cannot be accidentally used.

Part 2: Infiltration

now that you look less suspicious in the base of the Ix-Grith, you are ready to enter. The only thing you need is the password to the entrance. Ask the hooded mystic, and he will tell you that he once knew it. He will tell you he only remember the first two letters, 'Er'.

Go to the base, and attempt to open the door. Two level 609 Ix-Grith elites will appear and ask you the password, the options are as follows:


 * Arrt-enth
 * De-mi-ak'y
 * Erre'naro
 * Eriy-Tullum
 * Enkllae
 * Erestruth
 * Danestatrr
 * Erh'ss
 * Reccerkrey

This, is unfortunately, a one in four guess. There is no way to know 100% which is right, and the right one differs for each player. If you say the right one, they will let you enter, if you don't, they will both attack you. It's no use attacking them even if you have maxed stats and great equipment, as they will use a strange prayer that will deflect most of your damage, and they themselves are extremely powerful. However, you could attempt to kill them, but no successful recorded kills of either one exist. Teleport as quickly as possible and come back and guess again. Continue this until you have the right code. Write it down as you WILL need it again.

Once you have entered, you will not be assailed by their rangers, due to your disguise, so there will be no need for prayer, however, you must be careful where you click as the main hall is busy with Ix-Grith archers, so if you accidentally attack one, several others will attack you as well. continue straight through the main hall until you see two opposite doors with etchings on either side. take the left door, but make sure you unequip your weapon first if you are wielding one.

The wall will have an option to "search wall". Click this option to discover the speech-hole and knocker. Press the knocker and an Ix-Grith female will speak to you. You must be careful to say the right thing, follow these options: She well then remember to ask you for the pass-code You are now an Ix-Grith trooper, and you the woman will open the wall for you to get geared up.
 * I am in search of information on the upcoming assault.
 * I wish to apply as a trooper (you will need the 80 Ranged to have this as an option).
 * Say the same password as you said to the Ix-Grith elites.
 * Hail Guthix, the balanced, the overseeing, the omnipotent, with our bow and arrows.

A cutscene will occur where you will be equipped by two over-seers. Once the cut scene is over, you will have "Ix-recruit chest-protector, visor, chaps, gloves" equipped. These are of similar stats to black dragonhide, only with a superior stab and slash defence bonus, but a lower crush bonus. Move to the next part of the room and they will give you a "recruit custom bow (unsuited)". You will need to talk to the next overseer for another cutscene where they will measure you to make your custom bow. After this, you will have a custom longbow equipped. It has the stats exactly between that of a magic shortbow and magic longbow, and has a fire rate only slightly slower than that of the shortbow, making it a very useful range training weapon for after the quest.

You are now ready for the briefing stage. Enter the next section of the room to the conference-style round table where other recruits, avanceers (next rank) and captains will be sitting. As you enter the vicinity, a long and fairly boring cut-scene will begin, however, you MUST pay attention (taking notes would be advisable, opening a Microsoft word tab would be recommended). The critical information will be said in CAPITALS by the commander, and these are what you should be noting. The commander (dressed in very cool looking green and black armour) will basically tell you what the plan is, with things YOU personally will have to do appearing in your text-box (these things differ from player to player, therefore no guide can be offered. Taking notes is strongly advised).

Head back to the hooded mystic and tell him everything (all the chat options) about what you learned. He will proceed to tell you about his own defences; he has half a dozen powerful disciple students, as well as automated defence mechanisms, designed both as booby traps and to cast spells at any enemies. He will tell you he needs when last thing; he will need a full scan of the general, Ix-Nathin's mysterious, magic infused longbow. He will give you a 'mystic scanner', and send you back to find it yourself. Make sure you have plenty of food, and at least five lock picks.