The Lord of Vampyrium

The Lord of Vampyrium is the sixth instalment in the Myreque quest series. It was released on 14 September 2015 based on the results of a dragonstone Player Power poll, wherein it beat a quest about Daemonheim and floor 61 by 20,602 votes. The quest is of master difficulty, and involves the infiltration of Castle Drakan by the Myreque. It also features a battle with Lord Drakan himself, and the special talents of Ivan Strom, hinted at throughout the series, will be important.

The curator of the Myreque series, Mod Ana, will not be the quest's developer due to her being in the Ninja Team at the time of the poll, and no longer working on RuneScape at the time of release. However, the greater part of the design is hers and the developer, Mod Rowley, will be working in close cooperation with her. If time permits, Ana would have been be able to write some of the dialogue as well, but her departure most likely changed this.

Reuniting with Safalaan
To start, talk to Vanescula Drakan who is south-east of Burgh de Rott, at the docks which go to Meiyerditch. A quick way to reach here is by teleporting with Drakan's medallion and running east.

She will explain that she has something urgent to say to you and The Myreque, which may possibly relate to the missing citizens of Burgh de Rott, and requests that you send Safalaan to Meiyerditch. She will disclose his location and ask you to take the nearby boat there.

Board the boat and travel to the Icyene graveyard. Once there, talk to Safalaan. You must solve a puzzle to open the door so that he may pay respect to his parents, King Ascertes and Queen Efaritay.

You must rotate the rings so that each ring joins together and it becomes blue. Inspect Queen Efaritay and obtain Efaritay's pendant. Show it to Safalaan. He will then ask you meet with The Myreque.

Gathering of the Myreque
Teleport to the Myreque hideout by selecting "Meiyerditch" on Drakan's medallion. A cutscene will occur when you walk into the middle of the room. You do not need to talk to anyone there, but go north and talk to Vanescula.

You will now obtain the of the Myreque title for becoming Veliaf Hurtz's lieutenant. However, Vanescula will inform you all that Lord Drakan is angry over everyone's successes. The Myreque now want you to prepare to fight Drakan.

Gearing up
Teleport to Darkmeyer and walk to the blisterwood tree. The Myreque will appear. Talk to Veliaf to gather more details about the attack plan, and he will enable you to create dual-wielding blisterwood weapons (sickle, off-hand sickle, stake-thrower crossbow, wand, and orb). You may do so if you wish.

Go outside then west towards the group of vampires hugging the wall of the city (outside the blue boundary marked on minimap) and talk to Mornid to make a new disguise. She will tell you there are outfits in Vanstrom's house. Walk south, then east into the house with the metal door. Open the doors and search the Vyrewatch crate for Vyrewatch uniforms. Return to Veliaf.

Gaining reputation in Castle Drakan
You must have nothing equipped except for your uniform and only have blisterwood weapons, runes, ammo, your Drakan's medallion, and your Darkmeyer outfit in your inventory.

Talk to Vanescula, who is next to Mornid. You will then be flown to the top of the tower full of Vyrelords. She states you must build your reputation with the other Vyrelords, but it will not be as easy as Vyrewatch.


 * Lady Nadezhda Shadum - Tell her to humiliate the wolf. (20 status)
 * Lord Alexei Jovkai - Tell him to try the Defiant old man. (20 status)
 * Lord Mischa Myrmel - Tell her to show the blood tithe mercy. (20 status)
 * Shoo all three bats for 15 status each.

After doing these activities talk to Vanescula. Lowerniel Drakan will appear in the middle of the room.

Lowerniel Drakan returns
Lord Drakan will appear. Continue through the dialogue, choosing whichever options you wish.

He will then state that he is able to see right through your disguise. You have a choice now to spring the trap or call the retreat. Regardless of choice, a cutscene will occur, then you will appear in cells.

Escaping Drakans cells
Open the 6 doors. Each door will cost 10% of your maximum life points. After freeing the Myreque members, the portcullis will open to the next room. Free Vanescula and Mornid by unlocking the seal that is causing them to be trapped in the bloodletter. If you have difficulty with the seal, talk to Polmafi to restart the puzzle. Rotating a ring causes the smaller, adjacent ring to rotate as well. The center rotates the outer ring. After they are freed, another portcullis will open. Talk to Safalaan. Exit through the dungeon exit.

Go into the first room to the east and obtain some Mysterious jerky. It heals for 2000 lifepoints each, but a maximum of 20 can be obtained. However, it is stackable. Ivan Strom will give you a book, A Taste of Hope, which will be required later. Talk to Vanescula and Mornid. Now enter the southern room. You will need to match up each Myreque member with the blood locks, using the book as a reference.


 * Vitur - Polmafi
 * Shadum - Vertida
 * Jovkai - Safalaan
 * Drakan - Ivan
 * Ghrazi - Veliaf
 * Alzeph - Radigad
 * Pyrah - Kael
 * Myrmel - Mekritus

Now unlock the tithing door and escape the cellar.

Hallway
Enter the tunnel to the east and you will appear at the surface of the castle. Attempt to walk towards the exit and Lowerniel Drakan will appear. Kael will be killed along with Mornid. Vandalise the statue to obtain a statue spear, and block the door with it. A Venator will break in from a nearby window, defeat it and it will jump back out, and you will be prompted to go upstairs with the group.

Barricading

 * If at any stage you need food, right-click Ivan for mysterious jerky. He will only let you have 4 at a time though. If you die, you will respawn in the Arboretum (location). You may resume where you left off by clicking the gates to Castle Drakan.

A quick-time event will start off immediately when upstairs starting with a full bar. You must destroy various furniture in the room and barricade the windows with furniture debris before the bar depletes. If it depletes with an unbarricaded window, a Venator will pop out and must be fought. Break all the furniture before going to the blood lock. The furniture gives various amounts of debris, and the windows take a while to repair, requiring 3 debris to barricade each window.

In the second room, only two windows need to be barricaded. The timer depletes more quickly, so gather extra debris from the first room will make room two much easier.

In the third room, lift the huge table with the Myreque. Unfortunately, a Venator will burst from the window and toss Mekritus out the said window, killing him. Fight the Venator until it flees, then lift the table back up again.

Ring Puzzle #3
Barricade the windows again.

Solve the third Ring puzzle, then ascend the stairs. If you messed up, you can talk to Polmafi to restart the puzzle.

To solve the puzzle, start from the default position of the rings.
 * Complete rings A, B, C, and D by rotating clockwise.
 * Then rotate E clockwise once.
 * Then D clockwise once.
 * Then use ring C to get D into position.
 * Then use ring B to complete C.
 * Finally, turn A anti-clockwise twice to complete the puzzle.

Unlocking the final door
Open the blood valves in each room. In Ranis' room, a Venator will appear and wound Ivan. Fight it until it flees.

Upon opening each valve, go through the door at the north end into Lowernial Drakan's room. Open the blood valve in there, and attempt to go down the stairs. However, Drakan will appear and kill Radigad. Solve the ring puzzle down stairs, then climb the stairs to face Drakan. If you messed up, you can talk to Polmafi to restart the puzzle.


 * Solve for ring A.
 * Solve for ring B.
 * Solve for ring C.
 * Solve for ring D.
 * Turn E Anti-clockwise three times.
 * Turn D Anti-clockwise three times.
 * Turn C clockwise 3 times to get D solved.
 * Turn B clockwise 5 times to get C right.
 * Turn A clockwise 3 times to solve B and A.

Finally, climb up the stairs.

Confrontation with Drakan
The fight with Drakan has multiple stages. Every stage completed will stay completed which allows the user to retry a stage without having to do all fights over. As with all Vyres, he is only vulnerable to the Ivandis Flail and Blisterwood, so make sure to bring some. Note: These fights are safe, so if you die, you will respawn in the Arboretum with all of your items. You do not have to defeat all of his forms in one go; you may resume where you left off by clicking the gates to Castle Drakan.

After each phase, your health and prayer will be restored thanks to Ivan's faith, and your supply of jerky will be restored to ten.

Combat boosts carry over from outside the boss fight, so drinking potions like an overload, boosting your health with a bonfire, and using other boosts before reentering the fight will work.

Phase 1
In the first stage the player will need to fight off 3 Venators. Once successfully completed Drakan will throw his spear at Vanescula. The second stage of the fight will now begin.

Phase 2
During the second stage Drakan makes use of several abilities.

The most dangerous one is when he summons bombs which occurs when he says "Ha ha ha!". Once summoned, the player should run away from these bombs to avoid massive damage. These bombs have a 3x3 radius and will damage you for 25% of your lifepoints if you are caught in the blast of one.

His second ability allows him to heal 10% of his current health. He also has the ability to pull in and stun the player, similar to Nex. This attack is signaled by Drakan saying things like "Still trying to run?" or "You think you can escape?" If the player gets stunned by this attack, he will attack rapidly for high amounts of damage, as well as disabling any prayers. Using Freedom when stunned can break it, and using Anticipation when he signals his drag attack will prevent the stun altogether. Note: Staying close to Drakan is key as doing so will prevent him from dragging and stunning the player; melee is recommended over ranged or magic for this reason.

Once defeated in the second stage he will transform into a cloud of dust and kill Vertida Sefalatis.

Phase 3
In addition to his abilities in stage two, he now has the ability to turn into a cloud of dust. Touching the cloud deals massive damage, while healing Drakan for the damage taken, so the player should run away from the cloud. Just before using this ability he will say: "Fear me!".

He will also have gained an "Embrace darkness" ability which launches a red sphere at the player, dealing damage equal to half the player's maximum life points. This must be countered by standing in the sphere of lightning that Safalaan provides.

His third additional attack is only used when they player uses certain combo abilities such as Asphyxiate or Destroy. He will roar and stun the player, then perform multiple melee attacks in succession, similarly to his drag attack. This can be countered by using Anticipation and/or Freedom.

Phase 4
After the third stage the players will return to Gielinor. The remaining Myreque will be happy and think that Drakan is dead, but he bursts from the portal, sending Polmafi back into the portal and knocking out the other members, so you must fight Drakan alone. His abilities remain the same as the past stages, and he will now move much faster.

Phase 5
After the fourth phase, Vanescula will appear and stab Drakan with the Sunspear, weakening him immensely. You will now fight him for the final time. This time, he only has 20,000HP, and he will attack rapidly with melee. Drakan spawns bombs much more frequently in this phase, albeit only one at a time. In addition, he has a special attack where he will repeatedly stab the player, dealing heavy melee damage at a rapid rate, but this can be avoided by simply moving far enough away. It is worth noting that he does not use his drag attack in this phase. For these reasons, it is advised to keep moving and either employ a hit and run tactic or use magic or ranged.

Drakan's death
Speak to Drakan, and after a brief conversation in which he states that he regrets nothing and to not trust Vanescula, you will stab him using the remains of the Sunspear. The remaining members of the Myreque and Vanescula will awake, and Vanescula will declare that she is now the leader of the Vampyres.

She will then kill Safalaan in order to use his Icyene blood to be able to pass the Salve, and then reveal her plans to invade Misthalin to restore things to how they were in the days of the Zarosian Empire. She will then teleport away, and you, Veliaf and Ivan will return to Burgh de Rott.

The Myreque disbands
Once back in Burgh de Rott, Veliaf will say that things are hopeless, that Calsidiu does not really exist, and disband what little remains of the Myreque. Escort Ivan to Paterdomus. Talk to Drezel, who will then suggest you talk to King Roald.

Make your way to the Varrock Palace and inform King Roald on what has happened. Several cutscenes will occur as you talk to Roald, such as Vanescula mocking the deceased Drakan, Veliaf embedding his sickle on the Myreque plaque and leaving, and Drezel, who has learned of the events from Ivan, states that the barrier must be reinforced.

Rewards

 * 2 quest points
 * The Tome of xp 4th ed with 3 charges, each charge giving 75,000 XP in a chosen skill at or above level 75
 * Sunspear a weapon that automatically burns vyrewatch corpses when you kill vyrelord/ladies (this counts towards your achievements)
 * The House Drakan outfit
 * Drakan's wings
 * Two titles: and
 * The House Drakan outfit
 * Drakan's wings
 * Two titles: and

Music unlocked

 * The Gathering
 * Blood Hunt
 * Dirge of Drakan
 * Lament for the Hallowed
 * The Lord of Vampyrium

Development history
Following the release of The Branches of Darkmeyer, Mod Ana would continue shaping the plot of the remainder of the Myreque series and stated she was very excited to be working on it in addition to her main projects. The release of The World Wakes in March 2013 meant she had to adjust parts of her design, seeing that that quest's events had changed the role of the Morytanian splinter group last seen in Legacy of Seergaze.

At RuneFest 2013, the Myreque series was discussed by Mod Ana. She mentioned that the next quest would focus on Safalaan, that she would like to reveal Vanstrom's history and that the series might potentially feature spin-off quests about the splinter group and the werewolves.

In 2014, Mod Osborne confirmed the quest would not be released that year due to the development of a very large amount of elf content, consisting of Plague's End - the finale to the elf quest series -, Prifddinas and the Tirannwn Achievement Diary. In the latter half of December, a dragonstone Power to the Players poll was released, allowing players to vote between the next Myreque quest and a Daemonheim quest for release at the end of 2015. The poll came with a detailed description of the quest:

The Myreque quest subsequently won. Later, it was announced on the forums and on Twitter that Mod Rowley would most likely be developing the quest after finishing work on Dimension of Disaster and possibly the Construction update. By the end of January, the quest had entered pre-design stage as Mod Ana drew up her aims and plans for it. The quest entered development stage in the first half of March.

According to the developer, Mod Ana's departure from the RuneScape team in April had no impact on the development of the quest. Around late June, Mod Stu joined the development team when adamant and rune dragons were released.

In late June, the Ninja Team also started a Myreque series spotlight, aiming to make improvements to the existing Myreque quests and their rewards. Closer to release, a medley of the new music tracks was also released.

Pre-release teasers
In August, the members of the Myreque, minus Veliaf and Safalaan, who had been updated four years prior, were graphically updated. These graphical updates, along with the addition of skyboxes to Morytania, were released on 10 August 2015. In addition, dialogue for The Branches of Darkmeyer was added to Amelia and Rory.

Over the course of the following days, villagers began disappearing from Burgh de Rott, with one villager disappearing every day that a player with The Branches of Darkmeyer completed visited the village, specific to each player. Every time a villager disappeared, a missing poster appeared for them and Amelia and Rory's dialogue about the Branches of Darkmeyer updated to note their disappearance. A total of 20 villagers disappeared, leaving only Amelia, Rory, Aurel, Cornelius, Elisabeta and Radu.


 * 1) Teodor, Victor and Helena - Missing: Teodor - has he been harvested?
 * 2) Vasile - Missing: Vasile - last seen eating a rat.
 * 3) Catalina - Missing: Catalina - lost while playing hide and seek.
 * 4) Valeria - Missing: Valeria - gone, just like Gabriela and Marius.
 * 5) Sergiu - Missing: Sergiu - lost him, but found his missing shoe.
 * 6) Emilia - Missing: Emilia - it's unlikely she escaped to Misthalin.
 * 7) Luminata - Missing: Luminata - last seen eating a rat.
 * 8) Nicoleta - Missing: Nicoleta - out alone in the cold.
 * 9) Calin - Missing: Calin - gone, but not forgotten.
 * 10) Mihail - Missing: Mihail - where are you, Mihail?
 * 11) Ileana - Missing: Ileana - she owed me money.
 * 12) Sorin - Missing: Sorin - looking for new chess partner.
 * 13) Razvan - Missing: Razvan - rat population growing.
 * 14) Grigore - Missing: Grigore - last seen eating a rat.
 * 15) Ivan - Missing: Ivan - lost playing hide and seek.
 * 16) Luscion - Missing: Luscion - gone, but not forgotten.
 * 17) Simona - Missing: Simona - gone, but not forgotten.
 * 18) Florin - Missing: Florin. Wanted: Someone to throw tomatoes at strangers.

After 7 disappearances, Veliaf Hurtz also gained new dialogue, speaking about people have been disappearing from Burgh de Rott and that there are rumours that Lord Lowerniel Drakan is poised to make his return.

Trivia

 * The quest was originally stated to be grandmaster but was later revealed to be master.
 * In the September 2015 BTS, the Hunter requirement for the quest was incorrectly stated to be 70 rather than 76.
 * At the Icyene graveyard a single seagull can be found at the dock, which drops feathers upon death. This is likely a reference to the forum campaign to make seagulls drop feathers, a campaign that infamously perplexed Mod Ana, the previous developer of the Myreque series.
 * Upon completion of the quest, the adventurer's log states "The Myreque and I attempted to assassinate Lord Drakan. Things did not go to plan."
 * In Castle Drakan there is a painting of Lord Tytn Myrmel, which is a reference to Mod Tytn who worked on the first installments of the Myreque series. Another portait depicts Lady Anastasia von Alzeph, most likely a reference to Mod Ana, the previous developer of the Myreque series.
 * Taking the Sunspear to Kara-Meir results in a brief dialogue about it, referencing her use of it in the third RuneScape novel Legacy of Blood.
 * At the top of Castle Drakan, Safalaan will disguise himself as a Vampyre named Deathly Hallows. This is a reference to the Harry Potter series.
 * The structure of Castle Drakan is a reference to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The towers found inside of Oblivion ressemble Castle Drakan.
 * During the quest, an unnamed female is trapped in one of the oubliette's. Safalaan states she has been there so long that "she might as well be nobody"; a possible hint that she may in fact be Queen Efaritay,who was rumored to have not been killed during the Fall of Hallowvale. This being further reinforced by the fact a that a cutscene occurs after the quest where the top of her cell is blasted open after the death of Lord Drakan.