A Tale in the Desert

Official Description
A Tale in the Desert is the first quest in the Nardarine quest series. This quest introduces the ground basics of the history of Nardah, namely its founder, Nardarine and the goddess Elidinis herself. Upon the release of this quest, Nardah and its inhabitants received a graphic makeover and its music updated. The Elid River was also updated as a result of this update adding in a new slayer monster, the Hippopotamus (requires level 60 Slayer), and gave Crocodiles swimming animations as well as Lizards (in addition to their ability to swim in the Elid). The river had also seen a large stretch to fit in the Hippo.

Mod Milton had stated he promised to give Pollnivneach a graphical update upon the release of the second quest. The Quest Series will surround around Elidinis' arrival back on Gielinor, which will link to the main Desert Quest series.

Walkthrough
For all dialogue, see A Tale in the Desert/Dialogue.

The Lost Traveller
Travel north of Nardah and keep walking north until you see someone. They will tell you to stop and ask you for directions. Proceed to approach the woman and she will tell you that she is an archaeologist for the Museum of Varrock by the name of Rein Nada, and she apparently is lost and needs your assistance in helping her unearth an ancient temple for research purposes. But her main issue is namely trying to find Nardah so she can discuss this from the locals and hopefully have permission from them to do the dig. Agree, and she will follow you. Head to Nardah and speak to Awusah the Mayor.

Awusah's Permission Granted
Awusah will say that he is indeed happy to see someone come all the way down from Varrock to help with an important dig, but is pretty sceptical about it, after hearing what other "archaeologists" do. The Archaeologist will then convince him that she means no harm to him nor Nardah, and that she respects history as much as the next historian. Thinking this is a pretty legitimate statement, the Mayor will grant her permission and the museum. But he will ask where her team is. She will begin to struggle to think of an answer, and say that you are one of the main diggers and that her team will arrive soon. You and her will leave the Town Hall and speak.

The Dig
Speak to the Archeologist and she will instruct you to start digging out the site. She will give you several tools if you don't have them already. These tools are: The puzzle follows similarly to an archaeological dig. The scaffolding plays similarly to the God Statues Distraction & Diversion, except you have to move around much more. The interface shows the progression, scaffolding needed and the layer which needs to be dug. It's very simple, but will be different for every player. There is a certain way to dig and then chip off parts of the sandstone. If you use all of your scaffolds, you can recover them, but you'll also have a chance of a cave in and will have to start over again if you fail. You should get indication for each lair once its dug out with a "Ding" followed by a green circle to talk to the Archaeologist. A montage of you two digging it out will occur, and once you are finished, you will unravel an ancient temple to Elidinis. Once you are done, you are told to go talk to Shiratti the Custodian.
 * An archaeologist hammerchisel
 * A brush
 * A protractor
 * A trowel
 * Around 30 pieces of scaffold.
 * A spade

The Truth
Go and speak to Shiratti about the discovery. She will be extremely thrilled that the ancient temple was uncovered, and she will ask for you to bring the Archaeologist to her. She will ask to accompany you to see the temple for herself. Head back to the temple and you'll notice the Archaeologist is gone. While you search around for her, you'll discover an evil laugh of that of a Kharidian Woman. Amascut will appear and tell you that she had trapped her to devour her soul. She will state it's a special one, but eventually will have a Statue come to life of Elidinis and attack you. The statue is level 50, and is fairly easy to defeat. However, the statue will use a strong melee attack that will stun you with its stone spear. Once the statue is defeated, free the Archaeologist, and she will thank you for saving her. Shiratti approaches the Archaeologist and will thank her for restoring something ancient without robbing it. Giving a laugh, the Archaeologist will request to speak to you privately. You are sent back to Nardah with her. Speak to her behind the shrine. She will then reveal herself to, in fact, be Nardarine. You have an option if you knew she was Nardarine all along (because of her name, Rein Nada), to be surprised, or to be sarcastically surprised. Either way, all options will lead to the same dialogue (with some differences). She will thank you for the assistance in rediscovering the temple, for it will help her communicate with her goddess, and eventually, and hopefully, bring Elidinis back to Gielinor.

Rewards

 * 4,000 coins
 * Book of Elidinis
 * 4,000 coins
 * Book of Elidinis