Dealing with Scabaras

High Priest

 * Maisa's_corpse.png to the High Priest in Sophanem (located in the temple to the south-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.
 * Go downstairs and talk to the High Priest to get his support for the mission to explore these tunnels.

Archaeologists
Required Items : 1 Pyramid top, 10 Gold Artefacts, Bronze (weapons/armour assigned are different for each player), Ugthanki dung
 * Go south-east from the main gate of Sophanem (north-east if using the eastern gate), through the lizards and vultures, and down to the swamp area. (If you had already used a rope during the Smoking Kills quest, you can proceed to Agility Pyramid and take the rope shortcut to the archaeologists. Just watch out for the level 106 mummies if you do so.)
 * 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.) However, if you have done the Smoking Kills Quest, then you will not need to do this part, as you should have already done it before.
 * 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. Note this option is only available when the player is on the plateau. The shortcut leads to the South-eastern part of the Agility Pyramid. The shortcut requires 40 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: Mathematics

 * 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: $$ 85 + 81, 92 * 1.5 $$ OR $$ 78 * 2.5 $$ (Answer: $$ 78 * 2.5 $$)
 * $$195 + 80 + 82 = 357$$
 * $$357 + 35 = 392$$
 * $$392 / 4 = 98 $$
 * The main idea is round down after a division or multiplication (i.e. round an answer of 33.5 to 33).

Task 2: Artefacts
If you do not talk to the archaeologists, and if the information does not appear in your quest journal, you will lose all your 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 course guide for details.
 * 10 gold artefacts from the Pyramid Plunder activity. The gold artefacts are tradeable and can be purchased from the Grand Exchange (Gold seal, golden scarab and golden statuette).
 * Distressed (oxidised) bronze items. The number and the type of items vary for each player. (You can just simply look at the Quest Journal, which will tell you what you need and the number of that item.)


 * 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 for 10 gp each. You could also try killing Dried zombies for bronze scimitars who are found just north of the archaeologists.
 * **: you can buy platelegs from Louie Legs in Al Kharid.
 * The Closest anvil is in Nardah, you can walk there, use a scroll teleport or take the carpet from Sophanem to Pollnivneach and then to Nardah.
 * Note that you should always keep 1-2 inventory spaces free, as it is possible that if you choose to smith the bronze items (and if you get one bar items such as swords) that you will find a strange rock and lose the bronze item you are smithing.


 * There are 2 ways to distress the bronze items:
 * Get 1 bucket of Ugthanki dung (go to Pollnivneach, buy a bottle of Red hot sauce from the kebab seller north of Ali and his camels, use the hot sauce on a feeding trough, then wait a bit, make sure you're wearing gloves, use the empty bucket on the dung, this will work if the dung isn't too smelly, if it is just try again until you get the bucket of dung, or if you have completed Enakhra's Lament, you can just talk to a camel in Al Kharid while wearing a camulet.) Then, use the dung on each of 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.) The items will be called "oxidised". The message box will say something about the item being distressed and smelly. After distressing all the items, put them in the smelly crate (requires 60 Crafting. Boosts work). Take them to Simon.
 * 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
Recommended items: salve amulet, food, weapon, armour, and waterskins (to kill several lvl 89-140 monsters in the desert).
 * 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. (Note: Not the ones found in the Sophanem dungeon.)
 * Mummies, found to the west of the camp, near the Agility shortcut.
 * Because the monsters that drop the Scabarite notes are undead, the salve amulet is effective here.
 * 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.
 * Please note that you can use the tunnels you went through during the quest "Contact"
 * The empty Scabaras research book can be in your bank when you, located anywhere else, click on the notes in your inventory.
 * It is possible to gain all 4 notes from killing a single type of monster.

Dungeon Puzzles


Recommended items for this section: Scabarite key, Keris, summer pie or Agility Potion, super strength potion, prayer potions (2-3), super antipoison, one-click teleport (such as ectophial), high-healing food (monkfish or better), logs (3-4)


 * Head directly north from the archaeologist's camp to enter the dungeon (the dungeon symbol furthest north) with the Scabarite key in your possession. 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 (No tinder box required).
 * 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 firemaking level 20 levels higher than normal - refer to table below for needed firemaking levels

Note: After talking to the Golem, add another log to the fire, this will gain you more time.
 * 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, Strength room, Combat room.

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

 * Room 1 (North-east; Narrow Walkway 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 132 Giant scarab. Assigning more priority to this task will damage the scarab.
 * Weak to crush attacks
 * Using power on the combat room can inflict: 1050 (full power), 700 (second highest), 350 (second lowest), and 10 (lowest) damage.
 * The Giant scarab in the third room is relatively easy to defeat compared to its 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 an earth high level spell 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, life points and food. It is worth noting that the giant scarab is a bit more accurate in its range attacks rather than melee.
 * It is not recommended to melee the scarab, since he Scarab_semi-safespot.png attack you with both styles and it has a high defence against melee. If you wish to do so, bring the Keris from Contact!, as the dagger can hit up to 3 times the amount of normal melee damage on scarabs and kalphites.
 * The Giant scarab seems to use range a lot more than melee so it is advised to use protect from missiles, along with a Keris dagger and it should be an easy fight. It's possible not to get any damage at all when fighting with this method. Just have a few pieces of lobsters or higher just in case.
 * Remember to pull the lever after slaying the scarab.
 * Note: If you die during the fight, your gravestone will appear outside the cave entrance. When retrieving your items, beware the aggressive skeletons in the area.

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.
 * Note: This is a simple memory puzzle. You need to match three of each rune. Each turn you're allowed to select three spaces, so find three of each rune in one turn to light that one up.
 * The puzzle can be problematic 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. It is recommended to put the highest level power on this room to have a higher chance of passing this and having a high/decent thieving level to manipulate more turns, then it will seem easy to pass.
 * (Recommended) 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.

Room Success rates
Note: You may want to restock supplies (food, prayer, potions) right now, as the door into the antechamber will remain open from now on so, you will not have to redo it if you choose to leave.

The Antechamber: High Priest of Scabaras
Tips:
 * 1) Using the Oo'glog spa facilities (especially the prayer, run energy, & poison protection) can make this section significantly easier. However, the poison resistance is 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! There are many monsters using distance attacks (mostly range), so Protect from Missiles/Deflect Missiles is highly recommended. (They do rotate around the area so sometimes you might come in contact with 3 scabaras mages with a mix of scabaras rangers or the scabaras lancers.)
 * 4) It is possible to reach the High Priest without crossing any traps except the one at the beginning. It's advisable to go around traps; it can be hard to click on them to cross safely while the Scabarites are attacking you. If you try to "search" the trap while being attacked by a monster, it won't work at all so you have to get them to stop attacking you before going over traps.
 * 5) While there are more rangers, Scabaras mages can hit higher, making protect from magic also effective.
 * 6) It is advised that you wait for an opening instead of rushing through the dungeon, as the scabarites can easily decimate any unprepared player. It is probably for the best if you wait until all (but one) of the scabarites remain from the middle trap, killing it if required to pass.

After pulling all the levers you will be allowed to enter the antechamber. Watch out for floor traps.
 * The monsters in the Antechamber have a high chance of poisoning the player, therefore an anti-poison potion or super anti-poison potion is recommended. Even when under the protection of one of these potions, the ranging monsters can still hit with one 90 poison damage, but the player will not be poisoned.

Enter the newly opened hallway. Beware! The first trap is two squares from the entrance door! Disable it (search and de-activate) and continue west. At some point, a yellow dot will appear on the southern point of the minimap. You've reached the area with scabarites. Turn on protect from melee or ranged (also keep your mouse on a piece of food when not clicking to run, for fast healing) and run south, then west. There will be one set of traps in a small path at some point. Do NOT walk over them, as they will highly damage and poison. If you cannot disable them because of attacking scabarites, run around the trap by going to the south and then north, although this will lead you through an area with lots and lots of scabarites. At some point, there will be a red line on the minimap, indicating a door. Open this door and enter the room. All attacks will now cease.


 * There is a fair chance of a player dying while in the Antechamber, even with 70+ combat stats and good armour. It is therefore highly recommended that a player brings high healing food (such as monkfish or sharks) and an emergency teleport (such as the ectophial) in case the player receives more damage than he or she is prepared to take.

The High Priest of Scabaras will immediately talk to you, but you can safely turn off prayers, drink antipoison, etc. When stocked up, talk to him. There will be a set of answers, one of which is correct, the others will upset him. If he is angry (threatens you or something of that matter), he will say so before attacking. Do not click continue, but simply walk away somewhere and re-engage chat.

NOTE: Scarab swarms can appear in the room with the high priest. they have low defence and are very easy to kill with keris. Warning: IF you die in the room with the high priest it will be impossible to retrieve your possessions due to the fact that when you enter his room you are taken to a separate version.
 * First, say: "Conversion, eh?" He will say that you must either follow Scabaras or die.
 * Now, you MUST make him angry. If you say his magic skills are bad (beetle-brained), he will attack with magic. If you say his ranged skills are bad (could not hit an ogre), he will attack with ranged. Same with melee. Pick either magic or ranged. He will start attacking you. His combat level is 139. Fight him, he is identical to his fellow scabarites in the combat way it uses. After deplete his health he will immediately talk to you. NOTE: leaving the room makes him immediately unaggressive, but also puts you back in the dangerous scabarite room. If you re-enter his room again, you must repeat "Conversion, eh?" and once again provoke him and defeat him before continuing.
 * This time, do not make him angry. Ask "By all the deities, what is going on here". Then choose "Sounds like the Devourer dragged you into heresy for her own ends."
 * He will attack you with a different attack style; pray against him and once again wait until he talks to you again. When he talks, repeat the first step ("By all the deities, what is going on here") and then say ("I sense the Devourer's hand in this."). However, this time, instead of attacking you, he will snap out of his insanity and assure you that the Scabaras will no longer do any harm. Teleport out once you are done talking with him.

Optional
During the quest you collected four (or more) Scabarite notes. For a miniquest, called Scabarites Notes, you will need to collect 19 notes and give them back to Abigail (also a requirement for the trimmed Completionist cape). 17 can be obtained from killing monsters as you did during the quest, the last two are found in these caves.


 * 1) If you exit the priest's room, go along the wall going north-east. Very soon you will find a chest. Open it for a set of notes.
 * 2) South of the room there is a trap-free path leading to a small room with some lancers and rangers. Here is another chest.

Finishing up
Return to the High Priest in Sophanem, and talk to him. As Maisa has gone, he will reward you with some experience as well as teach you how to make Enchanted water tiaras. Congratulations, quest complete!

Reward

 * 1 Quest Point
 * 7,000 Experience
 * 7,000 Experience
 * 7,000 Experience
 * 7,000 Experience
 * 2 extra spins on the Squeal of Fortune
 * 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.
 * With 80 Mining (boostable), you may go to the Kalphite Nursery and re-enter the room you fell into with Ozan during Diamond in the Rough by taking the tunnel. There is a crack on the floor which can be mined away, opening a fissure which grants 20,000 mining experience. Entering the fissure brings you into a room containing the Scabaras mask and Was.

Required for completing
Completion of Dealing with Scabaras are required for the following:
 * Do No Evil (You must lead Leela to Sentliten's tomb)
 * Full rewards of Missing, Presumed Death
 * Desert Tasks:
 * Hard: "Water on the Brain"

Music 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 introduction of gravestones.
 * 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.
 * Page 8 of your notes foreshadows the return of Scabaras, and also mentions the bitterness that would ensue in his loneliness.
 * After you finish talking to the High Priest of Scabaras, your adventurer's log will say, "The High Priest talks with you at some length; you record his words in your journal". It says the same thing even if you do not have your journal with you.
 * Upon the completion of this quest, one's Adventurer's Log will read: "I’ve avenged Kaleef’s death by neutralising the threat of the Scabarites - even their High Priest is pacified."
 * Before the removal of the Romeo and Juliet quest, if you were to ask Maisa how she got to Sophanem, she would explain that she used a cadavaberry potion, and you would remember using it from before if you have done the Romeo and Juliet quest.
 * After the removal, she merely comments that "those cadavaberries aren't exactly good for my digestion".
 * While talking to Maisa, if you ask her why she was pretending to be dead, she says, "I'm still loyal to Al Kharid, if not the big 'O'", which is slightly more sexual than Jagex usually makes their references. The "big 'O'" obviously refers to Osman, however.