Fairy Tale I - Growing Pains

Gathering Info
To start the quest you must first talk to Martin the Master Gardener in the Draynor village square. He speaks about the rampant drop in crop yield all over Runescape and wants your help to locate the source of this problem. You need to talk to five members of the Group of Advanced Gardeners (G. A. G.), which includes Martin. You can choose any of the gardeners near the farming patches (allotments, bushes, hops, trees, etc.) around RuneScape.

G. A. G.
The easiest gardeners to reach are:
 * Dreven, bush patch south of Varrock, next to the Champion's Guild
 * Fayeth, tree patch west of Lumbridge
 * Vasquen, hops patch north of Lumbridge (east of the river)
 * Elstan, allotment patch south of Falador (via Explorer's ring 3/4)
 * Frizzy Skernip, spirit tree patch next to the bar in Port Sarim
 * Francis, hops patch on Entrana
 * Taria, bush patch in Rimmington
 * Torrell, bush patch south of Ardougne (very close to the Ardougne Cape teleport)
 * Garth, fruit tree patch in Brimhaven
 * Praistan Ebola, spirit tree patch in Brimhaven
 * Lyra, allotment patch north west of Port Phasmatys (possible after Priest in Peril, easy after Ghosts Ahoy with the Ectophial)
 * Dantaera, allotment patch north of Catherby
 * Ellena, fruit tree patch east of Catherby
 * Heskel, park in Falador

All of them say the same thing: they've been having trouble with poor crops. They all have different explanations of what's wrong. However, the fifth one you ask will suggest the fairies are the common root of such reasons. If you ask more than five members, the additional ones will be unresponsive to the issue of crop failure.

Go back to Draynor and talk to Martin again. After telling him about the different ideas, use your Dramen staff (or Lunar staff) and go to Zanaris.

Trouble in Zanaris
Head to the Fairy Queen's chamber. It's just south of where you enter the city, in the room with the Slayer master. However, something's wrong. The queen herself is missing, and someone by the name of Fairy Godfather is here instead. He will tell you that the queen has fallen to some sort of illness after fighting a Tanglefoot and that she is under the care of Fairy Nuff. To find the queen, head west to the bank and then north to go to her house.

Talk to Fairy Nuff, and she will tell you the details of the queen's illness and give you a symptoms list to take to a wizard named Zandar Horfyre.

Investigating the Illness
Walk or teleport to Falador, and from there head west and enter the Dark Wizards' Tower. The Dark Wizards are aggressive, so players under level 47 should come prepared with food or turn on Protect from Magic. Head up to the top floor, and talk to Zandar. He'll take the symptom list and then suggest you talk to Malignius Mortifer.

Note: It is very important that you do not exit the conversation or log out whilst speaking to Zandar. If you do, you will have to go to Zanaris to get another symptoms list! If you find yourself in need of another list you may talk to Zandar again. He will ask you to leave and if you refuse him he will teleport you to the Lumbridge Swamp.

Malignius can be found directly south of the Clan Camp, along with four elemental wizards. Talk to him, and he'll tell you he could help but he wants something from you first. He wants a skull from a grave near Draynor Manor. No other skull will work, as Malignius will not be fooled.

Go to the Manor and around to the back. Dig up the grave there. The spade from your toolbelt will work, but if you need a spade, there's one that respawns in the Manor (in the room farthest in the east). If you have given a spade to a Tool leprechaun, there is a farming patch near the graves where you can collect it. Once you have the skull, go back to Malignius and give it to him.

Magic Secateurs
Malignius tells you that the queen's problem has to do with a creature called a Tanglefoot, earlier mentioned by the Godfather. To kill a Tanglefoot, you need to enchant a pair of secateurs to turn them into magic secateurs. To do this, Malignius will tell you to get three or four items. These are different for everyone, so you cannot just get any combination of the following items. You must get the items assigned to you. And do not forget your Ghostspeak amulet when you're going to speak with the Nature Spirit!

The requested items may include items from the list below.

Warning: Ghasts in Mort Myre swamp will rot any food you carry. If one of the required items is edible, there is a chance that you may lose it. Pack Druid pouches or multiple food items to be sure.




 * Avantoe herb (clean avantoe) (see Herblore)
 * Baby blue dragon scales (blue dragon lair in Taverley dungeon)
 * Baby dragon bones (kill any baby dragon)
 * Blue dragon scale (see Herblore)
 * Grapes (respawn in Cooking Guild and the V.T.A.M./Phoenix Gang Lair or dropped by Guards and Goblins, or stolen from wine stalls)
 * Charcoal (search the specimen trays in the digsite or buy in Tai Bwo Wannai Village or Shilo Village)
 * Crushed gemstone (from failing to cut an opal, jade, or red topaz, or smashing one with a hammer [after the 27 January 2009 update])
 * Edible seaweed (from Fishing Trawler or from killing rock crabs, sea snakes or rock lobsters.)(Bring more than one as they may be turned into Rotten food by the Ghasts in Mort Myre. Alternatively, bring a Silver sickle (b) and some druid pouches to keep the Ghasts away)
 * Fat snail (from the purple snails with pointy shells in Mort Myre)
 * Irit leaf (clean irit) (see Herblore)
 * Jangerberries (you can grow them with Farming or find them west of Yanille,)(Bring more than one as they may be turned into Rotten food by the Ghasts in Mort Myre)
 * Jogre bones (kill any jogre)
 * King worms (from the swamp near the Grand Tree in the Gnome Stronghold or in Taverley; collect multiple as swamp ghasts can rot it. )
 * Lime (buy from Heckel Frunch in the Grand Tree)
 * Mort Myre Fungi (use your silver sickle (b) near the logs in Mort Myre)
 * Mort Myre pear (use your silver sickle (b) near the bushes in Mort Myre)
 * Mort Myre stem (use your silver sickle (b) near the downed branches in Mort Myre)
 * Nature talisman
 * Oyster (Unopened)
 * Potato cactus (see Herblore)
 * Mosquito Proboscis (see Tai-Bwo Wannai Cleanup)
 * Raw cave eel
 * Red spider's eggs (see Herblore)
 * Red vine worms (dug up in McGrubbor's Wood west of Seers' Village)
 * Slimy eel (see Fishing)
 * Clean Snapdragon (see Herblore)
 * Snape grass (see Herblore)
 * Supercompost (see Farming, it doesn't seem to work with just 3 supercompost)
 * Uncut diamond
 * Uncut ruby
 * Unopened oyster (dropped by rock crabs, or see Fishing)
 * Volencia moss (Obtained in Karamja during the Jungle Potion quest Must have gotten to the part where you need to obtain Volencia moss )
 * White berries

If you are told to bring a herb (Irit, for example), make sure it is the clean version. If you do not have the required Herblore level to clean your herb, there is a herb-cleaner in Nardah who will clean it for a fee of 200 coins. An alternative to this is to buy its clean version on the Grand Exchange - but keep in mind they don't sell quickly.

When you are finally ready, grab the 3 required items, your Amulet of Ghostspeak and secateurs, and go to the Mort Myre Swamp. Make sure to have the secateurs in your inventory and not in your toolbelt. Walk south until you find the Grotto Tree and talk to the Nature Spirit. He will bless your secateurs, at which point they will start to glow green. It is a great idea to pray at the nature altar, as it boosts your prayer by 20 points.

Killing the Tanglefoot
Note: The Tanglefoot is unaffected by poison and cannon attacks, and can only be harmed with the Magic Secateurs.

Head back to the Lumbridge Swamp. Go into the shed with your Dramen Staff equipped. Bring your armour and food. The Magic Secateurs are one-handed, so a shield can be used. Head through the corridor south from the field of wheat to the mysterious ruins of the Cosmic altar. (You can take a shortcut if your Agility is 46, and another one if it's 66.) To the west is an opening you can climb through. The Gatekeeper will tell you that he has been given orders to let you through and that you may pass.

Inside will be a bunch of Baby tanglefoots, and at the end of the tunnel will be a large, level 111 Tanglefoot. The higher your Farming level, the greater you will hit. Approach it.

A hit and run strategy works well for lower levelled players, or if you don't have good armour, a good strategy is to run in circles around him and hit him. He can hit upwards of 100 lifepoints in one hit, so be careful. Note: When moving, tanglefoot seems to do less damage. He is slow and has a small movement range, so it is easy to kill him without taking a single blow.

Wield your Magic secateurs, and kill it. Make sure you are wielding them or you will not be able to hit! Grab the Queen's secateurs that the tanglefoot drops. If you have a full inventory when you kill it or if you forget to pick up the secateurs and you leave, you can go back to the tunnel and receive them at the start of the tunnel.

Head back to the Fairy Godfather, and give them to him to finish the quest.

Rewards

 * 2 Quest Points
 * Magic secateurs (increases Farming-yields by 10% when harvesting allotments, herbs and hops)
 * 3,500 experience
 * 2,000 experience
 * 1,000 experience

Music unlocked

 * None

Required for completing
Completion of Fairy Tale I - Growing Pains is required for the following:
 * Back to my Roots
 * Fairytale II - Cure a Queen
 * Goblin High Priest (miniquest)

Trivia

 * This quest is referred to with several different names:
 * 'Fairytale I - Growing Pains' in the Quest Journal control panel.
 * 'Fairy Tale I - Growing Pains' in the game window, when you click on the Quest Journal entry.
 * 'A Fairy Tale Part I - Growing Pains' in the Knowledge Base.
 * During the quest, when talking to the Fairy Godfather, he speaks like and resembles Marlon Brando's character from the movie The Godfather.
 * While speaking to the fifth gardener, your player says "I'm an adventurer, not a weather controller!", which is a reference to Star Trek, where in several episodes, Dr. McCoy will say a line such as "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"
 * After completing the quest, if you talk to Juna, your character will say, "...So I defeated the tanglefoot and returned the Fairy Queen's Enchanted Secateurs to the Fairy Godfather." to which she replies, "These fairies seem to be well versed in the powers of nature."
 * Fairy Nuff's name seems to be a play on the words "fair enough."

Fairytale I - Growing Pains A Fairy Tale Part I - Growing Pains