Blood Runs Deep

The Dream

 * Make sure you have your Seal of passage with you, and travel to the Lunar Isle to speak with Baba Yaga in her chicken-leg house.


 * Talk to her about the man in the bed. She tells you he washed up on the shore and asks if you can help her.


 * Tell her yes.


 * She says you two can travel to the sick man's dream world and find the root of his problem. She reminds you that anything can happen in a dream world, so she suggests you prepare for war. She says to meet her back in her house when you are ready.


 * Note: During the trip with Baba Yaga, you will fight level 90 dagannoths that attack with with melee, a level 88 dagannoth that attacks with range, and a level 98 Wallasalki that uses magic. You do not need to kill all of them (since they will just respawn), but you do need to survive their attacks for a few minutes while Baba Yaga attends to something and you can then return to her house. Bring good armour and a weapon. Bring twelve to eighteen sharks or higher-healing food, or bring Prayer potions and turn on the Protect from Melee prayer. If you do die, your gravestone will appear near Baba Yaga's house. If you die and cannot get back to Lunar Isle any other way except by boat, talk to Lokar on the westernmost dock of Rellekka, and when he mentions your lack of a Seal of Passage, simply reply that you are only going to Pirates' Cove. You can then travel the rest of the journey as usual, but without a seal. Be sure to not talk to anyone on the isle until you've recovered your seal.


 * Once you are ready, talk to Baba Yaga in her house again.


 * She goes with you to the Ceremonial Brazier to enter the man's dreams in a quick cutscene. The dream takes you to an altered dream version of the Lighthouse. You then find out that the man, Silas, was the previous Lighthouse keeper. First, listen to Silas as he is writing in his journals about Dagannoths.

After the cutscene, search the bookcase at the north end of the island to receive a Prophecy Tablet (Lighthouse). (You will not be able to find anything if you do not listen to Silas first.) If no extra inventory slots are available, Baba Yaga will take the Tablet for safekeeping. Talk to Baba Yaga and she suggests searching where the stairs lead. You will see there is nothing upstairs, so go downstairs.



Listen to Silas for information. You learn that Silas is a servant of the Dagannoth Mother. Her forces are attacking Rellekka, and she is planning to attack the "Jah-Nay Islands" (Jatizso and Neitiznot), and that Misk island (Miscellania) will not help them, as she has captured their king. She reveals that she has developed new immunities and once her children have mastered them, the world will be their toy.

After eavesdropping on Silas, Baba Yaga states that she needs to find a lectern and suggests going through the tunnel on the other side, where Silas is lying on the floor.

Talk to Silas and then read the lectern, which isn't working. Baba Yaga is trying to finish it and needs the player to stall long enough. During the fight, she will give the power of Vengeance and occasionally cast the Heal Other spell during the fight. Level 90 Dagannoths attack with melee while from a distance a level 88 dagannoth ranges, and a level 98 Wallasalki uses magic. Players do not need to kill all of them (since they will respawn), but instead just fight and survive long enough until Baba Yaga fixes the lectern and teleports to her house. It is recommended to bring twelve to eighteen sharks or better, or simply bring prayer potions and use the Protect from Melee prayer for this process takes a few minutes. If players do die, a gravestone will appear. It will spawn near Baba Yaga's House. Remember, that if you do die, and cannot get to Lunar Isle any other way but by boat, you will have to speak to Brundt to get another Seal of passage to get back to your gravestone.



Defending Rellekka
After escaping successfully, talk to Baba Yaga. If ready to continue fighting many dagannoths, agree to use her 'trick'. If not, head to the bank, stock up on supplies, and then talk to her again. Her trick is to take the player's Seal of passage, which means, since no longer wearing it, she does not recognize the player and expels him/her back to Rellekka.

At Rellekka, players will then join the Fremennik there in defending the city against level 88 and 90 dagannoths that use melee and ranged. Protect from Melee is recommended. A good strategy is to help the villagers instead of fighting alone, which is easier. After having killed 50 dagannoths, (a cannon greatly speeds this process up), Brundt the Chieftain will ask to join him on his ship on the indicated dock, marked with a yellow flashing arrow. Once on his ship speak with Queen Sigrid to find out that King Vargas is missing, that the two are engaged to be married, and to get the mighty weapon Balmung. The queen mentions to not let Vargas, beloved but known to be clumsy, to use Balmung. After receiving it, Brundt offers to drop the player off at Waterbirth or at Etceteria to bank and gear up.

Note: From this point onwards, players will have to teleport and re-stock very often, so moving a player-owned house to Rellekka may be a good idea, as this will be a convenient way to return to the action. Alternatively, players may use an enchanted lyre for getting back to Rellekka quickly. Another option is to use the Moonclan Teleport spell from the Lunar Magic spellbook and talk to an NPC there (without your Seal of passage) to get teleported back to Rellekka.

Saving King Vargas
Once at Waterbirth, go to the dungeon entrance to find Bardur. Ask him if he's seen anything strange and he tells you that he saw a hole on top of the island south-west from the entrance, which is located near a Snape grass spawn and a Hobgoblin.


 * He will give you a rope to go down the hole. Warning: This is a multi combat zone, and without prayer or lots of food, and familiars such as Beast of Burden, Unicorns, or Titans, your chances will be very slim as the monsters in the cave hit you rapidly.Bloodrunsdeep.png

Once down in the cave you will see King Vargas, who is badly injured. He will give you a prophecy tablet then explains that there is a way out of the dungeon. Help him to escape. He will ask for food, but this should not be given to him unless he is injured as he does not store any and will immediately eat any food that is used on him. You cannot go through the south cave because it leads to the Dagannoth Mother and Bardur warns you about dagannoths coming from the top. The only way is to go through the Waterbirth Dungeon (Not included in map to left, please see the Waterbirth Dungeon map to the right). After speaking with King Vargas, you are teleported to a passageway, proceed northeast to the ladder at the end. Going down the ladder you find yourself in room 15 on sublevel 5 of Waterbirth Dungeon


 * Go east and south to make your way up to the exit on sublevel 2 to the lighthouse.Waterbirth dungeon.png

The first room is a Multicombat area with Wallasalki with magic attacks, Rock lobsters with very fast melee attacks, and Dagannoth with ranged and melee attacks. The rock lobsters can deal a lot of damage to players who don't use Protect from Melee against them. However, by giving them wide berth as you pass them, some will not notice you and will not attack.

Make sure that you walk very slowly and heal Vargas as needed or you will lose him and you must go back for him. If other players are in the area, they can draw off the attacks of the surrounding creatures in all but one of the cavern areas.

In the second area on the map to the left, you find yourself alone with the king and a group of dagannoth attacking with melee and ranged, and several of them will target King Vargas initially. These dagannoth must be killed before the player can climb the ladder. An easy way to pass this second room is to use the ancients spell ice burst or ice barrage on the dagannoths before they reach Vargas. This makes it so that only the ranging dagannoth have the potential of hurting him, which is not much of a problem. Do not run too far from the King or you will have to start over. After this second room, the only monsters left to pass are rock lobsters which do not target King Vargas.



Using Prayer and/or familiars can increase chances of success, and/or your own survival rate. If possible, do this in a group because with more players, the less chance you have of dying.

After taking King Vargas through the dagannoth lair, you try to help him get up, but by accident he lets some rocks fall, killing you. You will find yourself in the Fremennik spiritual realm, where the fallen warriors from the Fremennik go after they die.

Talk to Eir, then Nial Swiftfling and Asleif Hamalsdotter will walk up to the two of you. After talking with both of them talk again with Eir so she can take you back to the living realm.



After you wake up, you find yourself on the boat and everyone is happy to find out that you're alive. Afterward, speak with King Vargas or Queen Sigrid whom will tell you they wish to get married on the boat and they want you to perform the wedding for them.

After they are married, unless you changed genders after Throne of Miscellania, the one you are engaged to (Prince Brand or Princess Astrid) will suggest that the you two of you also get married. You can also choose not to marry by saying you'll talk about it later. (Any choice is fine, as events later in the quest will show.) After you get married, talk to the chieftain and return to dock at Rellekka.

Once this is done, talk to Brundt the Chieftain, who states that it is high time for a final assault against the dagannoth. He offers to teleport you to Waterbirth directly or Etceteria to bank and gear up. After you have stocked up and you are ready for battle head back to Relleka and talk with Brundt the Chieftain in his hall and select the option that you are ready, otherwise you cannot get the next part of the quest to start. You will then see a cutscene of all the ships along with yourself and many other NPC's being lead to Waterbirth island for the final battle. Now head to the cave once again on the South-West tip of the island where you originally found King Vargas and enter the dungeon.

Into the caves
You will be accompanied by Koschei the Deathless, Baba Yaga, The Prince and Princess of Miscellania. By now, you have figured out that the daughter of the old Dagannoth Mother (Horror From The Deep), whom you slayed, has grown and become the new mother to the dagannoths. To prevent this from happening again, instead of killing the new mother you must weaken her severely and then seal her in her chamber.

Enter the first cave from the surface and then attempt to enter the second cave. As you are about to do so, Koschei offers to stay back and hold the other Dagannoths off from behind.

Enter the second cave and attempt to enter the third cave. At this point, a huge roar makes the party realise that the Dagannoth Kings themselves are arriving. Koschei won't be able to handle them alone, so the rest of your companions go back to fight the kings while you must finish the quest by yourself. Enter the third cave, where you fight with two Dagannoth Sentinels.

Fighting the Dagannoth Sentinels
Be aware that the sentinels can use magic and ranged plus they can heal each other. While both are alive, one will attack with magic while the other will attack with ranged. They will alternate between the two, however (the one who attacks with magic may switch to ranged, and the one who attacks with ranged will simultaneously switch to magic) and will strike with melee if you are within range, so that you are assaulted from all areas of the combat triangle. One way to beat the Sentinels is since they are not immune to poison, is to use a Dragon dagger(p++) and special attack both monsters twice at the very beginning of the battle then equip Balmung and hit one Sentinel, then change targets and hit the other Sentinel. If you constantly do this they don't get a chance to heal each other to full hp when they get to half. (You don't need the Balmung except for the mother.)

Assuming you are wearing adequate Magic defence, use Protect from Missiles Prayer. They seem to love shooting the quills off their backs. After defeating these two, teleport away and equip/stock for the final battle. When you come back the Dagannoth Sentinels will be gone from guarding the entrance.



Additionally, if you have a Beast of Burden, or Titan/similar attacking familiar, you can set it to attack one of them while you alternate between the two. Damage taken due to familiar attacks is not healed back by the Sentinels.

Getting to the Mother's lair
After you beat them, enter the tunnel to get to the next cave. There are Dagannoth guardians here. Make your way through the cave, going over a low obstacle and through a tunnel in the wall, head south, and you'll find the entrance to the Dagannoth Mother's cave.

Remember since the Dagannoth Sentinels will be gone from guarding the entrance after you killed them if for some reason you need to, you can teleport or walk back to a bank and restock on food etc.



The Dagannoth Mother
WARNINGS: 
 * You cannot leave this fight by any means other than teleporting.
 * If you are on a non-standard spellbook such as Ancient Magicks or Lunar Spells, it is absolutely necessary to switch to the normal spellbook for the use of Elemental Spells!
 * Her stripe will be grey at first and will NOT change; you must hit her with Balmung to activate the colour changes.
 * Do not forget to drink Prayer potion. Some players forget because of having to change between fighting styles.
 * When starting the battle, make sure Protect from Melee is ON, as the mother can hit up to 43 melee damage.

If you die fighting her you get the option to be taken back to the outer cave of her area, so you should easily be able to reach your gravestone in time.

The Dagannoth Mother is a powerful foe, switching between ranged, magic and melee attacks. She sticks to one attack style for a while before switching, so Protect Prayers and Deflect Curses can prevent a lot of damage. Her back will change colour periodically, showing the only type of damage she is currently vulnerable to. You should bring equipment for all the combat styles.

You must bring every type of magic spell available, a range weapon and a melee weapon - if you neglect two or more of these, the mother will alternate between the two methods that you don't have. It is suggested to maintain a high mage and ranged attack bonus, because the mother tends to alternate between whatever your lowest attacks are, and if you are consistently missing with magic attacks, it is likely she will not switch away from them. She will not move toward you if you stand away from her: when not using melee, stand out of melee range from her, lowering her max hit to about 19 with range. Her max hit is 43 with melee, yet her melee attack rarely hits; if you see her meleeing you it is definitely suggested to switch as fast as you can.

A good strategy is to use good magic defence gear, such as black dragonhide or Karil's.



Suggested Equipment:


 * Black dragonhide body
 * Ahrim's skirt/Mystic robe bottom (for Magic bonus)
 * Torag's Armour (w/out hammers) is effective against the Mother's Range attack but has fairly negative range an magic attack bonuses
 * Amulet of Fury/Glory
 * Prayer book/Spirit Shield
 * Mystic Boots
 * Mystic Hat/Splitbark Helmet
 * Rune Crossbow (with BroadBolts)
 * God Cape/Ardougne cloak 3 (for Prayer bonus)
 * Ancient staff/Lava staff for more space for food
 * Balmung (required to first attack mother)
 * Barrow gloves
 * Explorer Ring 3 (for Prayer bonus)

Inventory:


 * 1 Prayer Potion
 * All elemental wave spells (at least 50-100 casts of each?)
 * Super defence potion
 * Familiar Pouch: Beast of burden (Spirit terrorbird and above) / Healing Familiar (Titan and above)
 * Fill the rest of Inventory with high healing food (Shark, Cavefish, Rocktail) If summoning a Beast of Burden, they should be carrying a full load of food (and set your summoning left-click option to take BoB inventory, to fill your pack with food instantly, this is a big advantage during the fight against the mother).
 * Note: It is NOT worth taking a bunyip as they do not heal enough.
 * Note: You may also use Saradomin brews as food during the fight but then you might also need a few Super restore potions too to restore your stats after you drink a brew)

Strategy

 * See Dagannoth Mother (Blood Runs Deep) for more detail on how to fight her.

First, start off the fight with the Balmung, this damages the mother and she will start to change colour.

When she changes colour, use the above table to distinguish which attacks to use. Remember, green is not

earth attacks—it is ranged.From then on, it is more effective to stay at a distance and Protect from Ranged.

This will prevent the Mother from using melee, which only leaves her magic or ranged to attack with. Therefore, good magic defence such as Karil's is advised. This is the best technique for avoiding her devastating 40's and will make her a relatively easy kill. When the Mother does turn orange, players can switch to their Balmung and execute a hit-and-run technique, which is a similar technique seen in Bounty worlds, or a player may not even use melee at all during the fight in order to save food (excluding the first attack with the Balmung.)

Tip: If you cannot see the colours clearly, you should go to Graphics settings and set lighting detail to: low. The chat box will also show to what colour she has changed to.

Eat food when required and keep changing your attack style corresponding to her colour. If you cannot see the colour clearly, read the text which makes it clear what colour she is and what attack style you should use. Also, it may be helpful to have a second set of eyes watching the fight to call out colour and attack changes.

Tip: This can help if you're a more melee style fighter. Make sure you have auto-attack turned off. Wear black d'hide and use protect from melee. Stay close.

(Note: Many people have died during this quest trying to melee her when she has not turned orange. This has been proven to be ineffective.)

Sealing the chamber
Beware:, if the Dagannoth Mother is in the death position, but a familiar attacks her, then she will briefly stand up and retaliate against the player, possibly causing damage or possibly death, so it is advised to keep protect from melee on until you are out of the chamber, if you are using a familiar.

When the mother runs out of hit points, she collapses but does not die. (There are no drops, and she is still visible on the map and minimap, but she is lying on the ground, unable to move or attack.) You can now exit her chamber and should do so. In the entrance area, collapse the columns there with the help of the pickaxe, tinderbox, and plank, which spawn there. Your plan goes amiss and the ceiling caves in, killing yourself once more and sending you to the Fremennik spiritual realm.

Finishing up
Eir will explain that this is your last time you can visit until you are there for good. She will send you back to your companions at the start of the caves. There, you discover Princess Astrid and Prince Brand have been killed by the Dagannoth Kings. (This is why it doesn't matter whether you get married or not earlier.) Koschei and Baba Yaga seem to be alive and you can talk to them. However, Koschei reveals that he thinks he has died again.

Attempt to climb up the rope, and Brundt the Chieftain will call down, saying they have to retreat from the dagannoths on the surface. You and he board his ship and talk about what happened. If you use a teleport to escape the dungeon instead of the rope you will have to talk to Brundt in Rellekka where he will tell you he was waiting for you at Waterbirth. The quest will then continue.

You sail to Miscellania and Etceteria, where a bittersweet cutscene plays as King Vargas, Queen Sigrid, Brundt, and you launch and set on fire the pyre ships bearing the bodies of Prince Brand and Princess Astrid.

Brundt and you then return to Rellekka, and the quest will be complete. Speak to Brundt three times after the quest to receive all your rewards.

Rewards

 * Three lots of 150,000 experience in either Attack, Defence, Strength, Hitpoints, Ranged, Magic or Prayer (level 75 and higher), for a total of 450,000.
 * Balmung
 * 2 Quest Points

Music
Music tracks unlocked:
 * The Fallen Hero
 * Jaws of the Dagannoth
 * Maiasaura

Trivia

 * This is the only quest that involves the player dying in the storyline.
 * When the quest first came out, the spoilers for the quest read "Eir is keeping the rewards a secret for now. She'll let us know what they are sometime before the End of Things..."
 * In the adventurers log, when someone has completed the quest, it shows up with the story "A new dagannoth mother threatened civilisation itself around the northern seas, but with a mighty force of Fremennik and their allies at my back, I have trapped her."
 * During the battle in Rellekka, some Fremenniks say "This is Rellekka!". This refers to the film 300 where King Leonidas said "This is Sparta!"
 * While you are escorting the king, the monsters in the dungeon have significantly reduced drops until you finish the quest and/or enter the dungeon a different way.
 * This is the first quest that requires players to have finished a whole Achievement Diary before they can start the quest.
 * There is an Aliens reference in the first conversation that you have with King Vargas underneath Waterbirth Island ("They mostly come at night. Mostly...").
 * There is a Star Wars reference when speaking to Nial Swiftfling. Nial says: "You've got a lot of guts coming here, after what you pulled." Lando Calrissian says this to Han Solo when Han arrives at Cloud City during The Empire Strikes Back; like Lando, Nial was merely pretending to be upset.
 * This quest gives the most experience directly when completed, a total of 450,000 experience. Previously While Guthix Sleeps gave a total of 400,000 experience and Nomad's Requiem gives 70 zeal which can potentially be converted into more experience if it is spent on a skill and that skill is of a sufficiently high level.
 * There are multiple glitches in the quest; for one, when fighting the Dagannoth Mother, it will tell you in the chat box that your ring of recoil is ineffective, even if you don't have one equipped or with you. This is caused by using Deflect curses in the Ancient Curses prayer set when using them.
 * A glitch occurs when a player reaches one of the requirements for this quest. The accomplishment will scroll read: "You now have all the levels/one of the levels required to complete null."
 * After the quest it is impossible to retrieve any of the prophecy tablets, as the player character tells Brundt they will destroy them and they disappear, even from the bank.
 * In addition, there is no option to update the Varrock Museum curator regarding the prophecy tablets that were originally displayed there after the Glorious Memories quest was complete.
 * When Baba Yaga takes the player's seal of passage, the player states "I see what you did there." This is a reference to a popular internet meme.
 * After the Mother is killed if you fail to examine the dead bodies and go straight up the rope, the cut scene will play as normal except there is no reward; The player is then prompted to go back into the hatchery to examine the bodies, thus causing the cut scene to be played twice showing the funeral again.


 * This quest requires higher Attack, Strength and Slayer levels than any other quest.
 * When Princess Astrid and Prince Brand are lying dead on the floor, you can talk to Baba Yaga about her promise to protect Princess Astrid/Prince Brand, if you keep choosing negative comments you will be able to attack her for one time, after attacking she teleports away.
 * A glitch occurred that when a player returned to Baba Yaga, Koschei, and the dead princess and prince after their victory over the Dagannoth Mother, if the player logged out before climbing the rope up out of the cavern, when they logged on they would be outside the dungeon again and once they reentered, a message would pop up saying "You have unlocked a new music track: ." This also happens if you go back to the dungeon after you have completed the quest. This glitch has been fixed .
 * King Vargas is the first NPC to walk slower than any other NPC on RuneScape.

Blood Runs Deep