Unstable Foundations

Unstable Foundations is the quest that new players complete when creating and learning how to use their character. It is a tutorial quest, and replaced Tutorial Island on 17 September 2009. It is a remake of the tutorial quest Learning the Ropes. The quest involves slaying a dragon in order to escape the cellar with the help of Sir Vant.

Note: Pay attention to what all the NPCs say as it will help you progress in the game.

Creating your Character


Before you get started, you must create your character. You must fill in a few things: Mouth, Gender, Head, and Body options. The Mouse menu is to choose how many mouse buttons you have: one or two. The Gender menu lets you decide your character's gender (male or female). The Head menu lets you decide what your character's hair, skin, and beard will look like. The Body menu lets the player decide what the avatar's clothing and body will look like. The Creating your Character part of the tutorial reminds you that all settings can always be changed at a later date.

The Mentor


After you customise your character, you must speak to Sir Vant, a White Knight. He will tell you that he is there to fight a large, dangerous dragon. A cutscene will follow, with Sir Vant attempting to defeat the dragon and a puff of stray dragonbreath killing Sir Vant's squire.

Defeating the Goblin


While he is fighting the dragon, a goblin will come and start to rummage through Sir Vant's pack. He will ask you to kill the goblin for him. Use the deceased squire's equipment to slay the goblin.

Drugging the Dragon


After the goblin is defeated, Sir Vant asks you to place some drugged meat in the Dragon's food bowl near the pillars. Sir Vant won't move from the door way, so you will have to climb over the wall. The ledge is too high to climb, so players will have to take the plank which is also in that area and make a ramp to climb over the wall.

After you use the drugged meat in the bowl, the dragon would smell the meat, and your character will then run to a hole. Sir Vant will shoo it away after which the dragon walks to the meat and eat it then falls asleep.

Slaying the Dragon
After the dragon falls asleep, Sir Vant asks the player to get his equipment from his pack. After this equipment is gathered, he asks that player to help him set fire to the pillars, and crush the dragon.

First the cloth must be torn apart, and then the strips must be soaked in oil from the oil can (this can be done quicker by soaking the cloth and then ripping it). Next, the oily strips of cloth must be placed upon the wooden pillars, and then finally the fuses must be placed upon the pillars by "using" the fuses on the pillars.

After the pillars have been prepared, talk to Sir Vant, he will ask players to give him a tinderbox ("use" the tinderbox on him) then use the tinderbox on the farthest pillar from Sir Vant. Sir Vant and the player in this quest will light the pillars simultaneously, causing the ceiling to fall on the dragon, killing it. The ceiling will not collapse until you have ran to safety.

Congratulations, the dragon has been slain!

Escaping the Cellar
Roddeck will now walk in from his cupboard door and thank you for ridding him of the dragon and offer his services as an advisor to you. Upon asking how to get out of the cellar you will be offered 2 choices - to mine your way out, or to chop through some roots to escape. Pick one and you will be given either a bronze hatchet for chopping or a bronze pickaxe for mining.

Walk over to the roots or rocks blocking your path behind where the dragon was killed and try to mine or chop your way out, depending on which skill you chose. You will be unsuccessful and be advised to level up your mining or woodcutting to level 2 to remove the blockage.

Follow the instructions to set yourself the objective of gaining level 2 mining/woodcutting and then chop/mine the indicated roots/rocks until you reach level 2.

Now go back to the blockage and try again, this time you will succeed, and receive root chippings if you chose to woodcut, or stone chippings if you chose to mine. Go through the passage you have created and talk to Roddeck once more. After this, ascend the ladder to freedom to complete the quest!

Reward



 * 1 Quest Point
 * Level 4 Mining/Woodcutting (depends on which way you escaped the cellar)
 * The ability to chat freely
 * The ability to explore RuneScape
 * The services of Roddeck, an advisor

Trivia

 * After the tutorial, the old cellar where Sir Vant is located becomes inaccessible, though other players that have completed the tutorial before the release can still enter it.
 * If a player suffers from computer lag when first logging in to the tutorial, they can see their player in a wardrobe.
 * If a player tries to get hints for an objective during the tutorial, they will get a list of a few messages that they previously had done during the tutorial.
 * As in the old Tutorial, it is actually impossible for the player to be killed before they properly enter RuneScape. The goblin will never reduce the player's LP below 1, and the ceiling will not collapse until the player has run away.
 * When you raise your Mining or Woodcutting level to 2, there is a glitch that will show everything you did and examined during the tutorial. The glitch has not been fixed yet.
 * When players try to go in Roddeck's cupboard door, the room only has one square.
 * Unlocks the music track: Harmony.
 * When you choose the view "Runescape Surface", an arrow pointing to the far north-east (till the end of the map, doesn't show the regular "You are Here"), which shows that the cellar is not coded to be under Lumbridge, but in an instanced area of the world map.
 * You no longer receive starter items as you did from the original Tutorial Island, such as training arrows or the training bow.
 * After a hidden update, players who go to the west end of the tutorial cellar can now find a crate with a cabbage and a bookshelf containing a manual and Roddeck's Diary. After reading this, you learn that the Dragon is actually named 'Sottlepot' and is a male.
 * When the squire gets hit with the fireball from the dragon, briefly, his shield turns into a steel square shield (or appears to be one), instead of a bronze one.
 * With the update on 21 April 2010 this quest become the first quest to receive voice update, so that all dialogue and storyline messages are spoken.
 * There is a glitch that the first time (if you choose woodcutting) you put your mouse on the roots and click fast, it will say "Null -> Roots". It only happens before finding out your woodcutting level has to be 2.
 * When Sir Vant exits Explorer Jack's house, it appears that he takes the road to Draynor
 * Sir Vant is a White Knight of Falador so perhaps he took the road from Explorer Jack's house to Draynor to return to Falador.
 * While Tutorial Island taught all the free player skills (except Crafting, Dungeoneering, and Runecrafting), Learning the Ropes left a few out, and Unstable Foundations leaves even more out, so that it only teaches new players melee skills, the basics of quest completion, and a common money-making skill (players choose between woodcutting or mining). This is because the new Advisor System (which is introduced during Unstable Foundations, and used mainly after the quest is over) provides useful information needed for training most skills, even more so than Tutorial Island taught. Not only does it show players how to train skills, it shows them useful training locations that they will always have access to.
 * When the squire dies his sword turns into the old sword model.
 * if the player searches the bag after they have taken everything useful from it a message will appear that says "There's nothing useful left in the bag exept Sir Vant's spare underpants, wich you leave well alone."
 * if the player uses an item on the dragon Sir Vant says "Don't give stuff to the dragon! It wont thank you, you know."
 * It was possible to skip the whole thing but without the xp reward.