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Back to my Roots is a quest about the Jade Vine Maze on Karamja, which you have to traverse in order to get a sapling for Lord Handelmort's mansion's garden. Like its prequel, The Hand in the Sand, and its miniquest sequel, Returning Clarence, the quest is filled with puns.

Official description[]

Use your Slayer skills to battle out of control vegetation with an attitude, cultivate your wits and stretch your Agility to solve a cunning maze - all to make a gardener's day. Do you have what it takes to cut this quest down to size?

Development team[]

Walkthrough[]

Start pointQuest map icon Speak to Horacio outside Lord Handelmort's mansion, in East Ardougne.
Member requirementP2P icon Members only
Official difficultyMaster Master
Official lengthMedium
RequirementsSkill requirements are not boostable unless marked with a [B] for boostable.
Quest Quests:
  • 72 Woodcutting Woodcutting
  • Must be able to defeat a level 43 foe with a hatchet.
Items requiredItems from the tool belt are not listed unless they do not work or are not automatically added.

Recommended Items:

Enemies to defeat Wild jade vine (level 72)

Helping Horacio[]

Horacio location

Quest starting point

Start the quest by talking to Horacio, in East Ardougne, and offer to help him with his gardening. He can be found in the garden of the big house just north-west of the Ardougne Market, near the two fountains. He'll want you to get a special vine that grows near Shilo Village. He cannot give too much information and he recommends visiting Wizard Cromperty in East Ardougne.

Now go to Cromperty in his house northeast of the market, behind the servants' guild, and he will ask you to investigate the reason the RPDT is not delivering Cromperty's parcel.

Wizard Cromperty's package

Cromperty reveals his magical device - a broken pot lid.

The next stop is the RPDT headquarters south of the southern Ardougne bank. Talk to any of the RPDT employees. The employee will say that the smelly package is delayed because the address is unreadable. The RPDT employee takes the subtle hint that a non RPDT employee can open the parcel, so locate the parcel on the table and open it. Inside there is a severed wizard's hand. It has no use during the course of the quest, but it is used in the Returning Clarence miniquest.

Go back to Cromperty and talk to him. He opens the package and discovers that the item in the package appears to be broken. Make a new pot lid out of soft clay. Make sure to put the unfired pot lid in the pottery oven. You can find a Potter's wheel and a Pottery oven west across the river from the north bank. A pot lid made prior to talking to Cromperty will not work. Similarly a pot lid purchased on the Grand Exchange will not suffice; Cromperty will say the lid is too small.

Talking to Garth[]

Cromperty's next instructions are to talk to Garth, the farmer near the fruit tree patch in Brimhaven. A boat to Brimhaven can be found slightly east of the RPDT workers, for 30 coins or for free with ring of charos (a), or use the Karamja lodestone and run north. Garth will tell you how to get the jade vine to grow in Horacio's garden. You can use the cart of Hajedy to get to Shilo Village very quickly. Hajedy is located only a few steps east of Garth. Teleporting to the Al Kharid lodestone and using the glider if you are able is also a quick way to travel to the maze.

Karamja vine maze[]

You cannot take a familiar with you into the maze.

What to bring[]

Items needed: empty pot, Wizard Cromperty's pot lid, a plant pot with soil, and on tool belt or inventory, a machete, a spade, a Woodcutting hatchet, and a pair of secateurs
Items recommended: Three oak planks and five ropes, to build the rope rack by the giant Karamjan Jungle Eagle if you'd like.

There is a bank in Shilo Village. Given that the maze is loaded with aggressive monsters, take decent armour, food and anti-poison. A super defence potion is recommended as well. The alternative to food, armour and anti-poisons is to take a few prayer potions, equipment with prayer bonus and a Prayer book with a holy symbol to cure from poison. With this method, the Protection from Melee prayer (level 43 Prayer required) will halve damage, except the damage taken from failing obstacles and occasional poisoning.

Jade vine maze location

The entrance to the maze north-east of Shilo Village

How to get to the maze[]

The quickest way to the maze is to use either the Wicked Hood teleport to the nature altar or by using the Karamja lodestone (assuming you have activated it), then run southeast. If you do not have access to either of those options, follow these instructions (refer to the picture for more help on getting to the maze): From the Shilo Village exit, go east and jump on the stepping stones. Go far north past the maze to a log, cross it, and go south again. An alternative path is to walk around Shilo and go east along the northern fence of Shilo. Try to find an endpoint of a vine to climb onto on the north-west corner of the maze. The 'climb-on' vine point forms the maze entry. As the maze is fairly close to the Nature runecrafting altar, all paths to the maze are fairly similar to the nature runecrafting trips.

You can also use the Fairy ring code CKR Karamja: South of Tai Bwo Wannai Village Shilo Village and run straight east past the nature altar, or a Spirit graahk to teleport you (57 summoning required). The fastest way is to use the wicked hood's teleport to the Nature Altar. This is usually the fastest way to the maze, unless you used Hajedy's cart to get to Shilo Village.

The creatures[]

In the maze are many creatures, some aggressive, some poisonous. Players should bring anti-poison potions and food.

The path through the maze[]

Jade vine entrance

The entrance to the maze.

Jade vine maze map

The path through the maze. (Click to enlarge)

Vines Scar

Scars can be seen on the vine.

The maze has a number of navigational options:

  • Enter a hole
  • Enter vine
  • Climb up/down vine
  • Cut/squeeze/crawl through vines hanging down
  • Swing-on vine

Tip: Scars on vines can help players to find their way through the vine maze.

# Action
1. Climb on to the vine in the north-west corner of the maze.
2. Walk to the east, and go up the vine.
3. Walk to the south-east, and go down.
4. Go north-west, and then climb off. (If you fail the river crossing, this is where the hole will take you.)
5. Walk to the south, cut the vines hanging there, and crawl through them.
  • Alternatively you may enter the vine through hole to the west, which will lead you to same location.
6. Walk south again, and squeeze through the vines.
7. Go south-west, and climb on vine.
8. Climb up the vine, then climb up again, and you're on the eagle's platform.
  • There is a chance of falling through the platform. If this happens, climb up the vine again. This can be avoided by rather walking around on the edges to the other side instead.
9. Walk east across the net to the other side and climb down.
10. Walk to the north, and then swing-on the vine hanging in the air to the east.
  • There is a chance of falling off this vine. If this happens, make your way back to the platform. Look for a hole that will take you back into the maze.
11. Walk to the north, climb down the vine and then climb off the vine onto the ground.
12. Crawl through the southern vines, then squeeze through the vines to the south.
13. Go south-east and climb onto the vine.
14. Go up the vine to the east and cross the vine across the river.
  • There is a chance of falling here. If this happens, you will need to find your way back to the vine crossing the river. Look for a hole that will take you into the maze.
15. You are now in the eastern part of the maze. Climb down the vine and climb off it at the north east.
16. Cut the vines in the south and crawl-through them.
17. Climb back onto the vine in the south-east.
18. Walk to the south, and then to the west. Climb up the vine.
19. Walk to the west, climb down the vine, and then climb up again.
20. Cross the vine across the river, back to the western part of the maze.
  • There is a chance of falling here. Look for a hole to take you back into the maze if this happens.
21. Go a bit west, then south, and then east.
22. Climb down the vine, and climb off it to the ground.
  • Congratulations, you made it to the end of the Jade Vine maze!
Root

At last, the root of the problem!

The end of the maze features the vine root. It can be obtained by finding the patches of loose soil, where right clicking will show "Dig Loose soil", which is used to expose the vine root. Then a new option will appear to allow cutting the root. Use the root cutting on the plant pot. With a bit of luck it will grow.

If the cutting does not grow, dig up and cut another root in a different soil spot. There are five spots to dig in (two northeast of the trunk, one north of the trunk, one west of the trunk, and one off in the corner to the southwest of the trunk), and only one of those five spots will yield the root that will grow. Use the root cutting with the plant pot filled with soil. If it fails to grow you will retain the plant pot with soil. When the vine root cutting successfully grows, use your plant pot on your normal pot to end up with a sealed pot. That pot now contains the root. Be careful not to teleport until the root has grown and has been sealed in the pot. If the sealed pot is lost, talk to Garth to get another.

Growing the vine[]

Go back to Ardougne, and talk to Horacio. Bring the root cutting sealed in the pot. The player must plant the vine in Horacio's vine patch, found northeast of Horacio with a gardening trowel. A tool leprechaun is nearby, for obtaining Farming tools if you already stored them.

After planting the vine, a cutscene appears where the jade vine has grown out of control. Horacio now insists that the vine needs to be killed. Fortunately, there is an opportunity to prepare for the battle.

The battle[]

Jade Vine fight

Fighting the Wild Jade vine

The wild jade vine uses all three combat styles so you can not fully protect yourself with prayer, however its magic attack is much weaker and used less often than its melee attack. Therefore it is recommended to get magic defence, and then protect from melee. The vine's magic attack will poison for 70 damage (regardless of if it hits), so a dose of a super antipoison can be used to defend against it. The ranged attack is not a serious threat but it is recommend to still keep your health up as it occasionally hits up to 1000. The vine can only be damaged by a hatchet; a melee weapon can be used if the hatchet is on the tool belt.

It is recommended that you do not use a Prayer book. It will drain your prayer each time you use it, and the vine poisons quite frequently, causing you to waste a lot of your much needed prayer points.

If you need to leave, you can exit through the arch, but you will have to start the battle over again. After killing the vine, cut the last remainder of it using your secateurs.

Now talk once more to Horacio to complete the quest.

Rewards[]

Back to my Roots reward
Music unlocked
  • Roots and Flutes (if not already unlocked by exploring the land just outside of the maze)

Required for completing[]

Completion of Back to my Roots is required for the following:

Transcript[]

Trivia[]

  • Upon the completion of this quest, one's Adventurer's Log will read: "I successfully navigated the vine maze to get a cutting of a very rare vine for Lord Handelmort."
  • After killing the Jade Vine the player tells Horacio to "stop vining", a play on 'stop whining',
  • On the first day of release if players clicked to see the spoilers they received the message: Good quest spoilers need time to take root. Come back when they're in season.
  • When speaking to Garth about preserving the vine root, he will mention Wizard Cromperty is a "wonderful wizard", and then he and your character will take turns saying "because" a few times. This is a reference to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
  • Your player also says "I'm off to see the wizard...". This is also a reference to the Wizard of Oz
  • This quest also gives 40,000 Woodcutting experience as a reward, at the time breaking the record in quest experience given in a single skill as a reward. The previous record holder was Monkey Madness, which gave 35,000 experience in 2 combat skills of the player's choice. However, this record was again broken with the release of While Guthix Sleeps, which gives 100,000 experience to four skills of the player's choice above level 65.
  • Horacio addresses the guard dog as "Odif", which is just "Fido" backwards.
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