Dark Lord's Ascent

Walkthrough
To begin the quest, speak to Arianwyn in Lletya:


 * Arianwyn: Quickly [player], there isn't much time.
 * Player: What's up?
 * Arianwyn: Lord Iorwerth. The fiend has summoned a fleet of dark elves from the far west.
 * Player: Dark elves!?
 * Arianwyn: Murderers and betrayers who worship the Dark Lord. They have almost been eradicated in the far west. The traitors here must be their last hope.
 * Player: How can we stop them?
 * Arianwyn: We need more information on their plans before we can act. I suspect they are being kept in Lord Iorwerth's camp. Please help us [player name].
 * Player: I will do what I can. [starts quest]
 * Not right now. [ends conversation]

Mission: Implausible
Head over to Lord Iorwerth's camp, being careful to avoid the traps en route. There should be a new tent in the camp, slightly smaller than the others. Head over to it and select the 'listen at flap' option. A cutscene will initiate where Lord Iorwerth is talking to a dark elf:


 * Lord Iorwerth: ...it is ready?
 * Dark Elf: Yes, my liege. The main party will arrive soon on the northern coast.
 * Lord Iorwerth: Excellent.
 * Dark Elf: But what of the followers of Seren?
 * Lord Iorwerth: Those fools couldn't possibly know what's going on. Even if they did, our plans are kept securely in this box. There is no elf that could break this trap.
 * Dark Elf: What about their human friend?
 * Lord Iorwerth: Hah! That idiot couldn't pick the lock on a paper bag.
 * Dark Elf: Paper bags don't have...
 * Lord Iorwerth: That's the point! Now, follow me. We have important matters to discuss in the privacy of the main tent.

When the cutscene has ended, creep inside the main tent. You now have five minutes to open the chest they were talking about in the cutscene before a guard arrives which is guaranteed to hit your max lifepoint take 10 and teleport you to Port Tyras. To open the chest requires 72 Thieving and a hair clip from King's Ransom (ordinary lockpicks will always break). Depending on how high your thieving level is, this may take several attempts. When you have opened the chest, take the map and notes inside back to Arianwyn.

Hermits in the Hills
With the dark elf plans in your grasp, return to Arianwyn in Lletya and talk to him:


 * Player: I have the plans!
 * Arianwyn: Very good, [player]. No let's see what they're up to...
 * [You hand Arianwyn the notes and he reads them with lighting speed]
 * Arianwyn: No...
 * Player: What's wrong?
 * Arianwyn: The fleet has already landed. Fortunately, it appears to be smaller than we might have suspected. Their men must still fight on in the west.
 * Player: Where are they?
 * Arianwyn: The map shows they have made an encampment somewhere to the north. My knowledge of human geography is lacking in those parts - you can take a better look.
 * [Arianwyn hands you back the map]
 * Arianwyn: As for their strength, the notes suggest they consist of black corsairs, sorceresses and, on dear...
 * Player: I don't like the sound of that.
 * Arianwyn: Trust me, you won't. They have manticores.
 * Player: No! We're doomed! There's no hope! What's a manticore?
 * Arianwyn: A fell beast from the west, corrupted by dark sorcery and twisted by the Dark Lord himself. If you have to face one in direct combat, your slayer skills will be tested to the limit.
 * Player: Nasty. Anything else?
 * Arianwyn: The manticore has a toxic bite and sting. The bite you can deal with using regular antipoison. However, the sting is beyond our current skill. Only one elf remains in the east who could know how to cure it - Feudwy the Hermit.
 * Player: Where can I find him?
 * Arianwyn: Last we heard, the old elf was up in Arandar, holed away in his little cave. Seek him out and use his knowledge to defeat the manticore.
 * Player: I will go now.

Go up to Arandar and, somewhere along the walls of the pass, you will find a walled-up cave entrance. Use a rune or dragon pickaxe on the rocks with 69 Mining and enter the cave. Inside, there is should be nothing but a bedroll and a simple table, with Feudwy nowhere to be seen. Search the table to find a herblore ledger and an odd statuette. Take both of these back to Arianwyn:


 * Player: I couldn't find Feudwy but I did find his herb notes...
 * Arianwyn: Excellent.
 * Player: ...and this statue.
 * Arianwyn: Oh no. This can't be true!
 * Player: What's wrong?
 * Arianwyn: This is a statue of the dark lord. They must have taken Feudwy captive!
 * Player: That's terrible!
 * Arianwyn: You must hurry [player]. Who knows what the dark elves could accomplish with the most powerful elf in Gielinor on their side.
 * Player: What must I do?
 * Arianwyn: Go to their camp and free Feudwy. You'll need the potion he lists here. It says: 'Mix irit with sulphur and unicorn horn in water'. Go now!

To make this potion, mix super antipoison (which contains irit and unicorn horn) with ground sulphur to make manticore anti-venom. This requires 71 Herblore.

Corsairs of the West
The assault on the camp involves three tough boss fights so it is not recommended to attack the camp in one attempt. Instead, it is easier to leave and re-supply after each boss. The dark elf camp has been set up in a new area to the south of the Phoenix Lair and west of the hunter area and Eagles' Peak. There is a small barricade that blocks entry but this can be bypassed with 70 Agility. Upon entering the camp, a cutscene will begin showing a small dock area where a dark elf is overseeing some human slaves unloading a ship. He will see the player, shout 'Halt intruder!' and start the first boss battle. This black corsair captain is level 299 and uses a combination of dual crystal daggers and a concealed wristbow. At the start of the battle, he will only use melee. The dual daggers attack twice each turn they are used, up to a maximum total of 400 damage. The special attack hits three times and with an increased max hit - up to a total of 750 lifepoints. Once he reaches 75% health, the captain will start using his wristbow. This is a rapid yet quite accurate ranged attack that hits up to 250 damage. The special can hit up to 400 damage and will stun the player for up to 5 seconds while also knocking them backwards.

At 50% health, the captain will summon his slaves to protect. They are only level 8 with 50 lifepoints and have a maximum hit of 10 with their melee attack. However, the slaves can't be walked through so the captain will use them en masse as a kind of safespot while he ranges the player. At 25% health, the captain summons the power of the Dark Lord and all his attacks start to hit through any active prayers. Prayer will still be useful though, reducing the damage taken by a proportionate amount to your prayer level ((prayer level - 25)%). This amount increases by 5% if Temple at Senntisten has been completed but you can't have a negative percentage or above 79% deflection.

Once defeated, any slaves will run away into the ship and an interactive 'cutscene' starts. The captain appears dead but will wake up as you approach and start firing his hidden wristbow. The player has to run towards him while dodging these bolts in slow motion with the camera at a fixed angle. If you don't reach the captain within five shots, the sixth shot is explosive and will knock the player back outside the camp. On returning to the camp, the captain will be restored to the last quarter health. When you reach the dying captain, click attack and the player will take his twin daggers and decapitate him - unlocking the next boss. If you die at any point, the boss will be restored to the last quarter health marker and you can start from there again.

Swords and Sorceresses
Re-stock and then return to the camp for the next boss, heading just beyond the docks to trigger the next cutscene. To fight this boss, you will need 75 Magic. In the cutscene, you will see a sorceress preparing a cauldron before she senses your presence and attacks. The High sorceress is level 500 and attacks primarily with magic. She has two attacks to begin with - a dark version of Air Surge and a special lightning attack. The surge spell is a simple magic attack that has a maximum hit of 300 damage. The lightning attack is different. It can only hit up to 100 lifepoints of damage but it freezes the player to the spot and, while there, the player can still be attacked by the other spell and prayer points will be drained at 1 point every second, with any active prayers taking double the usual rate. To prevent this from happening, it is a good idea to knock over the cauldron at the start of the fight. The cauldron will scold you and give magical burns - hitting 500 damage and draining Attack, Defence, Strength, Magic, Ranged and Constitution by 5 points. However, this will reduce the sorceress's powers and prevent the prayer draining effect. The lighting attack will still freeze the player and deal damage but it won't drain prayer.

At 2/3 health, the sorceress summons a crystal titan to attack the player. The titan is level 190 and will attack the player with melee, hitting up to 200 damage. Its special attack will hits through prayer and drains slash, stab and crush defence by an invisible 5%. Due to its invisibility, this cannot be cured with restore potions of any kind. If the titan is killed, it will disappear, draining your own summoning points by half in the process. When the sorceress is down to 1/3 health, she will magically right the cauldron and fill it again. If the cauldron was not knocked over, from this point on her spells will hit twice as high and the drain effect will be twice as fast. She will also summon an another titan if or when the first is killed which will be double the level with double the max hit. If the player has knocked over the cauldron as advised, the best tactic is to do it again - although this time it will hit 750 damage and drain 10 from all combat stats apart from Prayer and Summoning. This will prevent the prayer drain melee attack, though, and the summoning of another crystal titan. As with the captain, death will result in the restoration of the sorceress to the nearest third health.

When the sorceress is defeated, another interactive 'cutscene' will begin where the player must defeat the sorceress with Magic. The sorceress will unleash an elemental attack and the player must respond. If air is used, respond with fire. If water is used, respond with earth. If earth is used, respond with air and if fire is used, respond with water. These spells can be selected from a small box that will appear during this final section. Once the four random spells have been blocked, the sorceress will use the final dark surge spell and the player automatically counters with Air Surge (hence the Magic requirement) without any runes - drawing on the cauldron's residual power. This results in a 'magical lock' that needs to be broken by the player. A dial will appear where the two spells meet in mid-air. This spins slowly at first but gets faster and faster. When the dial enters the zone facing the sorceress, press the 'Attack' button below the dial. When it enters the zone facing you, press the 'Defend' button. Any mistakes will mean the dark spells gain ground but successful presses move the white spell closer to her. When the air surge finally reaches the sorceress, the lock is broken and a wave of magical energy will kill her, knock the player over and crumble a hole in the nearby mountainside. This is the entrance to the third and final boss fight.

Operation Manticore
Restock and return to the camp for the hardest of all the boss fights - the level 601 Bull manticore. To trigger the boss fight, enter the cave created by defeating the High sorceress. To enter, you will need to have 76 Slayer. As before, a cutscene will play showing the player enter the cavern. A huge bull manticore will then burst through the wall, ridden by a Beast Taskmaster. The manticore is level 601 and has three styles of attack which are used from the start. The first is a simple swipe of the claws melee, which can deal up to 400 damage and knock the player in the direction of the swipe by up to 5 squares. The second is a ranged attack where the manticore spits at the player and deals regular poison damage starting at 580 damage. It can also deal weak ranged damage up to 110. The final attack is a highly potent strike from the manticore's tail. This deals melee damage up to 170 but the poison starts at 740 and only decreases to 500, where it will stay until cured. This poison can only stopped with the special potion made earlier in the quest. It has three doses but the manticore will only ever use this attack three times within it's first half health. However, it will always use it at least once.

Once the manticore is down to half health, the game reaches another checkpoint. However, it gets another three poison shots and three more attacks. The first is another melee attack, where the manticore stomps its feet and stuns the player for about 7 seconds - hitting up to 600 damage in the process. The second is not from the manticore but the taskmaster riding it. He will now pelt you with rocks from time to time, hitting only up to 50 damage but up to three rocks can hit you simultaneously and the attacks is both rapid and highly accurate. The third and final attack is also from the taskmaster but it is magical. He will throw magical tablets at you which will randomly either heal you, drain your prayer or freeze you in a magical field. As you can imagine, the healing effect is the rarest and is almost always followed by the poison sting. The prayer drain is between 5 and 25 points while the magical field lasts from 2 to 10 seconds and prevents any movement or attacks, although you can heal.

When the manticore has been defeated, it will slump onto the floor and the player can then remove its head with 76 Slayer to kill it outright. However, now the taskmaster needs defeating in another interactive cutscene. The fight is all automatic but, at certain points, it will freeze and the player will be given a choice of where and how to attack the taskmaster. These are randomly generated but follow a similar pattern - use slash on available areas of cloth, stab on chainmail and crush on platemail. If you didn't use melee, you will have to always target the soft areas with ranged or mail with magic. After six successful attacks, the taskmaster will be defeated but will teleport away before you can defeat them. Now is the time to search the cavern for Feudwy.

Wrapping Up
Take a look around the cavern and you will find a carved doorway in the far south. Go through this and you will be in a randomly generated maze. The player has to simply navigate their way through the maze to the other side. There are a few dart traps and falling rocks but these don't deal much damage and can be avoided even with relatively low Agility levels. The maze is more annoying than difficult - with fallen rocks blocking your path and requiring the need for a pickaxe to navigate past. At the end will be Feudwy, who isn't tied up but simply sitting in a corner, meditating. Talk to him:


 * Player: Erm, excuse me?
 * Feudwy: Hmm?
 * Player: Are you Feudwy the Hermit by any chance?
 * Feudwy: Who's asking?
 * Player: My name's [player]. I'm here to rescue you.
 * Feudwy: I see. Very well - I assume you'll want to go to Lletya.
 * Player: Yes but...
 * Player: Alright then, let's go.

Feudwy will then teleport himself and the player to the center of Lletya. Arianwyn will be waiting for the both of you and will automatically talk to you:


 * Arianwyn: You're safe! This is great news!
 * Feudwy: Yes, wonderful. Well must be off.
 * [Feudwy teleports away]
 * Arianwyn: That's odd...
 * Player: I know. I thought he'd be happy to get out.
 * Arianywn: Must be the stress. I'll go and see him later. Anyway, how was the mission?
 * Player: It was tough but I beat them in the end.
 * Arianwyn: I can imagine there will still be some manticores left there.
 * Player: Oh no!
 * Arianwyn: Don't worry - without a taskmaster they won't be much of a threat. I think they'd be good for a slayer.
 * Player: I'll keep that in mind.
 * Arianwyn: I don't think the dark elves will take Gielinor so lightly next time. Well done [player]!

Congratulations! The quest to stop the dark elves has been completed.

Rewards

 * Crystal of Power - that can be split in any way the player likes between Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged, Magic, Constitution, Summoning and Prayer
 * Ability to slay Manticores
 * Access to Crystal torso
 * Ability to slay Manticores
 * Access to Crystal torso
 * Ability to slay Manticores
 * Access to Crystal torso
 * Access to Crystal torso

Trivia

 * On the day of release, the rewards for this quest were hidden on the RuneScape website and instead was the message: There's a manticore in the office and the developers have forgotten their antipoison. Come back tomorrow and maybe we'll still be alive with your rewards.
 * The message displayed in the Adventurers' Log on completion reads: I defeated a fleet of dark elf pirates, a bewitching sorceress and a huge manticore all to free a grump old man. Typical.
 * Manticores are a common monster in many myths and legends around the world.
 * The dark elves bear a strange resemblance to the Dark Elves of Warhammer, which include manticores, assassins that look much like the corsair captains and sorceresses.