Dealing with Scabaras

Details
{{Quest details Recommended: }}
 * description = Once more there is intrigue afoot in Sophanem and the High Priest has been seeking out his bold adventurer contacts from the past. Mysterious corpses, ancient ruins and unscrupulous treasure-hunters all await if you accept his mission.
 * released    = 2{{sup|nd}} January 2008
 * start       = Speak with the High Priest of Sophanem
 * difficulty  = 5
 * length      = Long
 * members     = Yes
 * requirements = *The Feud
 * Zogre Flesh Eaters
 * Contact!
 * At least 21 {{Skill clickpic
 * items       = *Equipment and good food (Lobsters or better) to deal with several level 100+ monsters (including a level 206)
 * Camel dung
 * 10 Gold artefacts from Pyramid Plunder
 * 1 Pyramid top from the Agility Pyramid
 * Random Bronze armours/weapons (explained in walkthrough).
 * Some Waterskins
 * Having 43 Prayer (for Protect from Melee) is a significant advantage.
 * Rope (for use on an optional agility shortcut)
 * 18 bronze bars (used to make the random items asked for in the quest)
 * A hammer (if you are smithing your own bronze items)
 * Coins for carpet rides
 * A few logs (preferably of the highest level you can light with your Firemaking skill minus 20 levels e.g. if your Firemaking skill is level 55, you need to bring logs that can be lit at level 35 of Firemaking)
 * Relicym's balm or Inoculation brace
 * Antipoison (for the final dungeon).
 * Dragon dagger p++
 * Ring of charos for cheaper carpet rides
 * kills       = *Giant Scarab (level 206)
 * Several Skeletons, Dried Zombies, Scabarites, and Mummies

High Priest

 * Talk to the High Priest in Sophanem (located in the temple to the west of the Pyramid Plunder pyramid). He will request help with identifying a corpse.
 * Go upstairs. Continue the conversation, and find out that the corpse is not quite dead and is, in fact, Maisa.
 * Talk to the not-so-dead Maisa. She mentions that there are tunnels from the east coast of the desert that lead into those from Sophanem. (If you were to ask how she got here she would explain that she used a cadavaberry potion. You would remember using it from before if you have done the Romeo and Juliet quest.)
 * Go downstairs and talk to the High Priest to get his support for the mission to explore these tunnels.

Archaeologists

 * Go south-east from the entrance to Sophanem, through the lizards and vultures, and down to the swamp area.
 * Make your way through to the north west corner of the swamp, using the 'Push through reeds' menu option when your path is blocked by reeds.
 * Approach the rock stairway from the south, climb over the fallen pillar and then go up the stairs. Speak to Lead archaeologist Abigail and Assistant archaeologist Kerner at the camp. (Tip: This is considered desert and therefore you will have to drink, but luckily there is a water source beside the camp for refilling your waterskins.)
 * Before the archaeologists will help you, you must perform two tasks for them. The first is to answer a series of mathematical questions, and the second is to collect some items to give to Simon Templeton.

Agility shortcut
If you use a rope on the overhanging rock, at the western most part of the plateau just west of the archaeologists, it will remain there as a shortcut for subsequent uses. The shortcut leads to the South-eastern part of the Agility Pyramid. The shortcut requires 25 agility.
 * Examine rock: Maybe it would be handy to attach a rope here.
 * Use rope on rock: You tie the rope to the overhanging rock.
 * Examine rope: A rope tied to a rock.

Task 1: Maths

 * The mathematical questions use 'round down division', so they are a bit different. The questions are different for each player. An example of the sums and the answers:
 * Which is highest: $$ 98 + 98, 97 + 99 $$ OR $$ 91 * 2.5 $$ (Answer: $$ 91 * 2.5 $$)
 * $$227 + 90 + 95 = 412$$
 * $$412 + 0.5 * 79 = 412 + 39.5 = 451.5 => 451$$
 * $$451 / 4 = 112.75 => 112$$
 * The main idea is round down after a division or multiplication.

Task 2: Artefacts

 * You need to collect some items for Simon Templeton. The items are:
 * One Pyramid top from the top of the Agility Pyramid. Refer to the Agility Pyramid mini-game guide for details.
 * 10 gold artefacts from the Pyramid Plunder mini-game. The gold artefacts are tradeable.
 * Distressed bronze items. The number and the type of items vary for each player.


 * The possible number and type of bronze items are as follows:
 * Note: The bronze items can be smithed, or purchased from shops or other players.
 * *: If your bronze items happen to be daggers or scimitars, you could buy them from Urbi in Sophanem.


 * There are 2 ways to distress the bronze items:
 * Use a bucket of Ugthanki dung on the bronze items, while standing under the hot desert sun. (Note: You have to be standing in the desert, or the process does not work.) After distressing all the items, put them in the crate(requires 60 Crafting).
 * Put them into the empty crate, given to the player by the lead archaeologist, with one bucket of dung; which turns it into a smelly crate, then hand it over to the archaeologists to distress them, which will take exactly 3 hours(180 minutes).
 * You must give all of these items to Simon Templeton. Simon Templeton is the man that is in the entrance to the agility pyramid. (Note: He will only take Pyramid Plunder items as unnoted items.) However, Simon will accept each of the group of items separately.
 * Simon will then give you an artefact receipt. Head back to the archaeologist site.

Collecting Scabarite Notes

 * Abigail will give the player an empty Scabaras research book, and ask to collect 4 Scabarite notes and copy them into the book. These notes can be found as drops from:
 * Skeletons and Dried zombies, found north of the camp.
 * Scabarites, found in the dungeon and swamp near the camp. Also found in the Sophanem dungeon.
 * Mummies, found to the west of the camp, near the Agility shortcut.
 * There are several different notes to collect, each with a different "Examine" text. These are 'cheap papyrus', 'fine papyrus', 'scented papyrus', 'shabby papyrus', 'smelly papyrus', 'tattered papyrus', 'well-made papyrus', etc. (For a full listing, see Scabarite notes.)
 * When at least 4 notes have been gathered, add them to the research book and talk to the archaeologist again. She will give you the Scabarite key that will unlock the door to the dungeon.
 * The Scabaras research book is subject of a miniquest, where all 19 chapters are needed to receive a 10,000-coin reward.

Dungeon Puzzles

 * Head north to enter the dungeon using the Scabarite key. Enter the dungeon, and talk to the Clay Golem to learn about the puzzle that needs to be mastered.
 * There are four rooms, each with a lever at the far end. Each room contains a lever that needs pulling. There is a time limit within which all levers need to be pulled or you have to start again.
 * The door mechanism is powered by a furnace to the north. You must first light the furnace with logs.
 * The logs can be found in a storage box to the left of the furnace. This box contains only 3 logs, which may be different and possibly above your firemaking level.
 * It is highly recommended that you bring your own logs, in case you fail the puzzles, or run out of time.


 * Note: Lighting the logs require a higher firemaking level than usual (20 levels higher than normal) - i.e maple logs require 65 firemaking, yew logs require 80 firemaking, and magic logs require 95 firemaking to be used in the furnace.


 * Talk to the Golem to assign priority to the four rooms.
 * Depending on your skill set, set the priority and race through the rooms. For most players with the minimum quest requirements, the priority should be in this order:  Thieving room, Agility room, Combat room, Strength room.

Room 1: Agility Room - "by the narrow walkway"

 * Room 1 (North-east; oily pipe room) requires crossing an oily pipe. Assigning more priority to this task will make the pipe less oily and therefore easier to cross.
 * Agility potions or a Summer pie can help with crossing the pipe.

Room 2: Strength Room "huge lever in the empty room"

 * Room 2 (South-east; empty room) requires pulling a stuck lever. Assigning more priority to this task will lighten the lever and therefore make it easier to pull (requiring a lower strength level).
 * Strength potions can help with pulling the levers.

Room 3: Combat Room "near the giant scarab"

 * Room 3 (North-west; scarab room) requires slaying a level 206 Giant Scarab. Assigning more priority to this task will damage the scarab.
 * Using power on the combat room can inflict: 105 (full power), 70 (second highest), 35 (second lowest), and 1 (lowest) damage.
 * The Giant scarab in the third room is relatively easy to defeat compared to his counterpart in Contact!. The scarab will attack with Melee and Ranged.  Melee, with a protection prayer from one of the two attacks, is generally effective if you bring food. You can use a halberd to melee the scarab from a distance in combination with Protect from Missiles so you will not take any damage. A powerful magic spell, such as Ice Rush or Slayer dart, can be used even more effectively if you stand outside the room, and use Protect from Missiles, because the 'green attack animation' is in fact ranged-based. It is recommended that you kill the Giant scarab last. If you kill the Giant scarab and then fail pulling the agility lever, for example, on the next attempt you will have to kill the Giant scarab again, using up valuable prayer points, hitpoints and food. It is worth noting that the giant scarab is a bit more accurate in its range attacks rather than melee.

Room 4: Thieving Room "near the mysterious box"

 * Room 4 (South-west; mysterious box room) requires solving a puzzle and manipulating a mechanism. Assigning more priority to this task will allow more attempts at the puzzle.
 * The puzzle is nerve wracking due to the time constraints and the countdown counter. The purpose of the puzzle is to find sets of three identical runes in a 6-by-6 square. Only three runes can be displayed at any instance. Clicking the fourth will clear the three others unless they were identical. The right hand side shows a mechanism which contains: a Cog, a Pinion, and a Switch. Clicking any of these during the puzzle will add more turns to the puzzle countdown counter. However, this can sometimes backfire, and take away 1 or 2 turns for you to solve the puzzle.
 * As each puzzle assignment is random, the easy way to solve the puzzle is to prepare a paper with a 6-by-6 grid and copy the runes as you walk the rows (or the columns). Use these notes to find the triples. (Tip: You can also use a computer program (such as Excel) to keep track of the revealed runes.)
 * The Birthday attack method provides an optimisation to the above method.
 * You will need approximately 21 turns.(If at any point, you are running low on moves you may be able to click once on each the Cog, Pinion and Switch to obtain an extra five goes for each one - the pressure you chose the Golem to set decides how many of these extra options are available.)
 * You will always click in 3s. The order does not matter, but just don't check a rune twice, as this wastes a chance.
 * You will need to Reveal approximately half of the puzzle, then start on the other half.
 * At any time you find a complete match, fill it in when you start a new set of 3s (unless you have 2 selected already.) So, if you know, for example, where 2 of the Fire runes are, and you find the 3rd in the middle of a set of 3, then you finish your set and get all 3 Fire runes.


 * Note: You may want to restock supplies (food, prayer, Relicym's balm, potions) right now, as the door into the antechamber will remain open from now on.

The Antechamber: High Priest of Scabaras
Tips:
 * 1) Using the Oo'glog spa facilities (especially the prayer, run energy, and disease & poison protection) can make this section significantly easier.  However, the poison & disease resistance are not proof against this dungeon's traps.
 * 2) It will be very beneficial to turn OFF auto-retaliate.
 * 3) Beware of the monsters on the way! The area is multi-combat, and many monsters use distance attack (mostly range), so Protect from Missiles prayer is highly recommended.
 * After pulling all the levers you will be allowed to enter the antechamber. Watch out for floor traps, they may disease you starting at 12! Consequently, Relicym's balm, Inoculation brace or Super restore potions may be of use.
 * The High Priest of Scabaras is located to the north, in a room to the west. Look for a door on the minimap. Do not panic and run if you are being attacked by the monsters, as the trap poison and disease will kill you faster than the monsters in this dungeon. Failing the trap after searching it will cause less damage then just walking over them!
 * NOTE: It is advised the player insures his Melee attack, and uses Protect from Melee, as the Scarab swarms (level 95, summoned while defending against him) also attack with Melee. This protects you from both attacks. The Scarab swarms are fast and hit constantly.

Finishing Up
When approaching the High Priest of Scabaras, be sure to come prepared to fight in case you say the wrong thing to him. Talk to him and choose the following options: Or Repeat subsequent similar conversations (without killing him) until you are told the ways of Scabaras. If the High Priest is somehow angered, he will attack, so be careful.
 * By all the deities, what is going on here?
 * Sounds like the Devourer dragged you into heresy for her own ends. (This may cause him to attack you).


 * Note: If the High Priest of Scarabas is poisoned, he will die off randomly during the conversation, and you will have to start this part of the quest over again.
 * Tip: Before leaving, get 2 more Scabarite notes for the miniquest from the 2 nearby chests just outside the Priest's room.
 * One chest is close by to the east of the High Priest's room.
 * The other chest is further south, surrounded by monsters.
 * Return to the High Priest of Sophanem, and talk to him. Quest complete!

Reward

 * 1 Quest Point
 * 7,000 Experience
 * 7,000 Experience
 * 7,000 Experience
 * 7,000 Experience
 * The ability to craft an Enchanted water tiara - protects you from the Desert heat effect
 * To craft an enchanted tiara, use water runes on a normal water tiara (they will be stored inside the tiara); every time the player takes a 'drink', the total number of water runes stored in the tiara will decrease by three.
 * Destroy the enchanted tiara to get the normal water tiara and remaining water runes back, they will drop on the ground.
 * You can have only one Enchanted water tiara at any given time.

Additional rewards

 * Talk to Simon Templeton about the job he mentioned during the quest. He sends you to talk with the Pyramid Plunder mummy. After the mummy refuses, return to Simon, and he will now accept noted pyramid treasures (from Pyramid Plunder) to exchange for gold! Players still, however, cannot exchange noted gold artefacts.

Music
Music tracks unlocked:


 * Copris Lunaris - In the Scarabite Dungeon
 * Scarabaeoidea - Inside the room with the Scabaras High Priest
 * Tune from the Dune - South of the Agility Pyramid, in the swamplands

Trivia

 * The Lead Archaeologist remarks on how she would not want to 'have a ghastly death marked on a makeshift grave', referring back to the recent update of gravestones.
 * The release of Dealing with Scabaras marked the first revealing of Unknown, blackened areas on the World map, in months.
 * When the quest was first released, the spoiler said that: Alas, the scarabs have eaten the scroll with the rewards. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for us to find the spare.
 * When the quest was first released, both the Knowledge Base article and the Quest Journal gave the wrong required Thieving Level. The actual requirement was 5 levels higher.
 * Originally, there was a mistake on the website saying that players now have access to a new slayer monster.
 * Originally, on the recent updates on Runescape.com it showed another copy of the update, this was later fixed.
 * Page 8 of your notes foreshadows the return of Scabaras, and also mentions the bitterness that would ensue in his loneliness.
 * The amount of players doing the quest shortly after its release re-introduced a bug in the Agility Pyramid due to the large number of simultaneous players involved in obtaining the artefact.