Between a Rock...

Rock Hard
To begin, head to the Keldagrim south-west mine, which can be reached either by taking the cart system found at the Grand Exchange to get to Keldagrim, providing you have visited Keldagrim before starting this quest, or by passing through the tunnels located north-east of Rellekka (south-west of fairy ring code ), it's entrance marked by two dwarven statues.

Once there, talk to the dwarven ferryman, not the dwarf boatman, for a ride across the river. Make your way around the rock walls and over the bridges until you get to Dondakan.

Speak to him to commence the quest; when inquired why he is shooting cannonballs at a wall, Dondakan explains that the wall is infact a 'special' rock, in the sense that it is impenetrable. After having no success with a pickaxe, being abandoned by his colleagues, and encountering a logical fallacy, he requests your help in analysing and harnessing this enigma.

The Dwarven Scholar
Accept, and he'll suggest entering the dwarf city and finding someone who knows their way around rocks or, if that fails, speaking to the librarian. If you haven't yet completed The Giant Dwarf quest, you will need to talk to the dwarven boatman to visit Keldagrim for the first time, after which you can take the mine carts from Grand Exchange to the city; the boatman is at the entrance upon first crossing the water.

In West Keldagrim, go to the library situated just north of the consortium, the largest building there. Speaking with the librarian informs you that there's a dwarf who could direct you to the correct person, and he works at Wermund's Wrench Warehouse.

The shop is set up inside the consortium building, directly east of the entrance. Talk to the dwarf engineer about his connection, and he'll tell you about Rolad, a renowned scholar who used to work with Dondakan on the rock. He eventually left, saying he wanted to travel the world and learn by experiences, and was last heard being with the Black Guard at Ice Mountain.

Arzinian Avatar
Teleport to the Falador lodestone and run north-east, or to the Edgeville one and head south-west. Rolad is in the north-eastern building, near the entrance to the dwarven mine. Mention Dondakan and his impervious rock, and he'll suddenly remember procuring a book which had details about the same rock, and how it got placed in the Keldagrim mines. He had torn out the relevant pages to study them, but has unfortunately misplaced the bunch, probably in the nearby underground mines.

Offer to help in retrieving the pages and climb down the ladder to enter the dwarven mine. Note that the pages may require multiple attempts to be obtained.
 * 1) The first page can be found by killing scorpions.
 * 2) The second is found when searching the mining carts.
 * 3) The third one is found by mining any ore rock inside the mine.

Once you gather all the pages, they will automatically combine into pages. Return to Rolad with the pages, and he will give you a book on Dwarven lore. Read the book, and you'll learn about the history of the solid rock, about how a certain Arzinian being from Bordanzan was trapped inside a mine containing 'yellow stones', by a few elder dwarves' efforts. But alas, the mine collapsed into itself and formed into a single, extremely hard stone form, holding the entity inside it.

Firing the Cannon

 * Head back to Dondakan (via the mine carts or the ferryman if you haven't completed The Giant Dwarf) and speak with him. He wants a material that is stronger than rune and granite. Use the gold bar that is in your inventory on him and he should ask you to create a gold cannon ball for him. (Note: if you haven't brought a gold bar, you can mine a gold ore from the gold ore vein in the cave area directly south of the one you are in, i.e. back across both bridges and to the west, and use the gold ore on Dondakan instead.)
 * Go to any furnace with 1 gold bar (you need the other 3 for later) and your ammo mould, and make a golden cannonball. Don't click on the furnace; instead you must use the gold bar on the furnace in order to make the cannonball. The easiest accessible furnace is in Falador, so you may use the mine carts, or Falador Teleport. The Furnace in Zanaris is also very close, using the fairy ring on the surface (DKS). Or, if you are able to use the Edgeville furnace you can use a charged Amulet of Glory and using the GE shortcut and the carts back to Keldagrim.

Note: You cannot have more than one gold cannonball in your inventory or bank at one time. Using the drop trick, or any other method, will say, "One gold cannonball is heavy enough!" You can only carry one gold helmet as well.
 * Use the cannon ball on Dondakan. When he fires it, the cannonball will disappear through the wall. He will then ask to fire you through the wall, but needs the schematics to change the cannon to be able to fire a human. You will also need to make yourself a gold helmet, to phase through the wall.
 * There are a set of 4 schematics:
 * 1) Dondakan gives you the first schematic.
 * 2) The second schematic is given by the Dwarven engineer back in Keldagrim in the West side of the Consortium. You can make your gold helmet, a heavy 31.5 kg piece of armour, while you are here, by using a gold bar on an anvil. (If you have started/finished Legend's Quest be careful not to accidentally make a golden bowl). NOTE: You might want to bank the gold helmet until later, since it weighs 31.5 kg and will drain your run energy a lot faster.
 * 3) Go back to the eastern part of the city to the mine carts, and this time, take them to White Wolf Mountain (Requires The Giant Dwarf and Fishing Contest quests to be finished). If you can't use the mine carts, you can teleport to the Catherby lodestone and going north to a dwarf guarding a staircase, which is marked as a dungeon on the map. Go down the stairs and head east. Go to the bar area and speak with Khorvak. He will ask for a Dwarven stout. Take one off the table and use it on him, and in return, you will receive the final schematics. (For extra dialogue, you can tell him off instead, you will get the schematics anyway.) If you only have Fishing Contest finished, you may opt to manually use the passageway through the mountain.
 * 4) Read the Dwarven lore book and you will find Base schematics, this will destroy the book.
 * Once you have all the schematics, click 'assemble' on any of the 4 pieces. You will be shown all schematics, but they will not make any sense. What you must do here is move, and/or rotate, the schematics one by one so that they fit with the Base schematic. This part is simple pattern recognition. The schematics can be manipulated one at a time via the checkboxes. This will make the pattern much easier to follow and understand. Once you put them all in their proper places—it will take some trial and error—the screen will show: ”That's it! It all makes sense now! If you were a dwarf, that is...”.
 * TIP: The human in the schematic is part of three different sheets, and does not look like any other part.

Fighting for Gold

 * Equip the gold helmet and any armour and weapon you feel might be needed to kill a level 75-125 enemy. Go back to Dondakan with the schematics, a pickaxe and six to fifteen free inventory spaces. Once you are ready, ask Dondakan to shoot you into the rock. NOTE: if you bring your dwarven multiway cannon, you will lose it if you don't pick it up before you make the last hit on the spirit!
 * Once inside the rock, you are surrounded by gold ore and gold veins. Mine as much as you can. If you mine 15 gold ore, the enemy will be level 75, if you mine 6 to 14 gold ore, the enemy will be between level 75 and 125. With less than 6 ore, you cannot defeat the demon. The gold ore MUST be in your inventory.


 * You only have eight minutes in here to do everything, so be swift. When you feel you have enough gold, go to the centre of the area, where you will find a set of flames. Go through the first set of flames—do not stay for too long, or you will take damage—right click on the next ring of fire and select talk. The Arzinian Avatar representing the demon will come and attack you.
 * NOTE: You must keep on your gold helmet whilst in the cave otherwise you'll be kicked out of it, and all of your mined gold will disappear.


 * The spirit will attack with either mage, melee or ranged; which form it takes is dependent on your style of attack and/or your highest combat skill (ex. if your Magic level is higher than your Ranged or Attack/Strength/Defence levels, the Avatar will attack with Range). Thus, if you attack with melee, the Avatar might not attack with mage. If you attack with Mage, the Avatar will most likely attack with range. The Avatar's method of attack is usually based on the weakness of your style of attack. See the Combat Triangle for more details.



If you are ranging or meleeing, you may have to wear dragonhide (or any other magic resistant armour). Dragonhide, along with magic resistant properties, also gives decent melee protection and ranged protection. For mages, however, you should use mage armour(or a combination) to give a maximum ranged defence while still having a decent magic attack bonus. A mystic robe top, with rune platelegs is a decent option.
 * You can use prayer for an easy fight; the spirit shouldn't take too long to kill. If you are close to dying, you can take your gold helmet off, which will teleport you outside of the rock, next to Dondakan. If you do not kill it within the time limit, you will find yourself teleported outside, and you will lose any gold you mined inside the rock.
 * When you have defeated the Spirit, you will be teleported back out of the rock. Speak to Dondakan to finish the quest.

Rewards

 * 2 quest points
 * 5,000 experience
 * 5,000 experience
 * 5,000 experience
 * Rune pickaxe
 * 2 extra spins on the Squeal of Fortune
 * Players may keep their gold helmet and access the Arzinian Mine, where 146 gold rocks and veins can be found with little competition for them. After the quest's completion, a dwarven boatman due east of the mine will bank the player's gold ore for a small fee. He keeps 20% of the ores, rounded up, or 10% if the player has the Ring of Charos (a).

Music unlocked

 * Claustrophobia - In the Arzinian Mines, during the quest
 * In Between - In the Arzinian Mines, after completing the quest

Required for completing
Completion of Between a Rock... is required for the following:
 * Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf

Trivia

 * The quest name is a reference to the phrase "between a rock and a hard place."
 * When you complete the quest, the quest complete scroll says, "Congratulations, you have been Between a Rock...!" This is one of the few quests that note something different from the normal quest completion dialogue, along with My Arm's Big Adventure, One Small Favour and Horror from the Deep.

Between a Rock... Between a Rock...