Now that Jagex finally released the Morytania tasks, Monique and I have been running through them a bit each day. For fun, and because it just makes sense, we've started with the easy tasks, and are working our way up. The last blog covered all the easy tasks, and they were pretty much an easy run exactly as advertised. Next comes the Medium tasks. Starting right off the bat, this doesn't seem very different from the easy tasks. To begin with, we hopped a charter ship to Port Phasmatys. This takes a couple of ecto tokens unless you've complete Ghosts Ahoy.
Then it's on the the Burgh de Rott Ramble, which is the reverse of the Temple Trekking game. This one's pretty easy, since there's no prerequisite as to who you have to choose, or which route to take. Just grab one of the easy companions, and zip through whichever route sounds fun. Even if you don't play Ramble or Trekking, this one's really easy.
The next task is just as easy as the boat charter task. Use your ectophial. That's it. If you've got the ectophial, this one takes barely a moment. It was also one of those Monique and I completed by accident. When we were headed over that way, we didn't realize the ectophial was actually a later task. Guess we should have looked ahead and planned, but it's just more fun to take them one at a time.
The Yeast They Can Do involved buying brewing yeast from Metarialus. He lives (bad pun) in the Green Ghost Inn, down in the cellar. By the way, you'll need your Ghostspeak amulet. Keep the yeast, you'll use it later (Unless you're one of those organized folk that plan everything out for maximum efficiency. In that case, you probably came prepared for the other task involving brewing.)
For the Flamtaer task, we both had to go buy another hammer. Ours were sacrificed years ago to the god of 'not enough bank space'. I vaguely remember that way back then, we thought 13,000 gold was a significant expense (The cost of a Flamtaer Hammer). Years later, 13k is about what we get from the free daily Flax that Geoffrey... er, Flax... gives out. I like all those little freebies Runescape offers as you achieve new things. Don't always bother with them, but it's a nice extra bonus. Anyway, once you've got the hammer, this one's just a quick dash in and you're done.
The Fairy Rings are along the same line as the charter boat or the ectophial task. All you have to do is teleport in from a fairy ring. I'll even save you having to look it up... the code is ALQ. Most likely, you've already accidentally done this one, especially if you hunt penguins weekly.
Barking up the wrong tree is another one of those where you need to keep for a later task. Go to Canifis, click on the other side of the river, and just run around a bit. The hollow trees are easy to find. (No Keebler elves, though.) Cut some bark, and bank it for later. The next task involved using the western gate of Port Phasmatys. Since we were already close, we just ran over that way. I think we had to be leaving the town for it to count. Don't remember for sure, but it seems like just running into town from the swamp didn't work. We had to use the side gate as we were leaving to make it official. Or maybe it just required a two-way use.
Ready? Trek! found us running through Temple Trekking once again. This is definitely an ongoing theme. From easy to elite, Temple Trekking (and Burg de Rott) are thoroughly woven into the Morytania task set. In this one, we had to take a medium companion through a medium route. Okay,still easy enough. And only one run-through. No big problems, yet.
Here's where it started getting my attention. Unlock a chest in the Shade Catacombs? Right, like I'm going to remember how to do that. It was plain luck that I remembered how to get to the Shade Catacombs! Wound up googling how to do it. Found some sacred oil still in my bank after all this time, but it wasn't enough. Turns out easy enough to just buy more from the GE. Because of the tasks being newly released, I had to pay a lot more than the GE price. But when we offered enough, they were quickly available. Went through all the appropriate steps. Killed a shade in Mort'ton, burned the remains on the west side of town, took the resulting keys to the catacombs. No, it really wasn't hard. Just tedious.
Back to the simple; our next goal was to trap a swamp lizard. In the Haunted Woods, there's a hunter icon just a little south from the Werewolf Agility Course. Bringing a rope and a small fishing net allowed us to quickly net our quota of swamp lizard. Had to bring an extra net... the one in out toolbelts didn't work.
For Finding Your Balance, we had to make a Guthix Balance potion completely within Morytania. All it took was Harralander, Red Spider's Eggs, and a vial of water to make a Restore Potion. Then we added Garlic and Silver Dust. For this one, the GE was a great way to get all the parts. Then just ecto in, mix the brew, and we're ready to hit the next one.
The Beer Inn-spectre is a follow-on from when we had to come down here for the easier tasks. We did ours at the same time, but if you're coming here from scratch, you'll want to come prepared to make either Ale, or Cider. Cider is simpler, but both are easy enough. For Cider, just bring 16 cooking apples and 4 empty buckets. For ale, it's 2 buckets of water, a couple of barley malts, ale yeast, and whatever main ingredient you choose. I think we used ground chocolate, but don't really remember. This kind of stuff is Monique's specialty, so I just followed her instructions.
Brain Bending is a somewhat creepy telegrab assignment. Get to the Canifis tavern (Hair of the Dog) any way you like. If you've got a house teleport for it, that's easiest. Bring enough runes to telegrab, then use the telegrab spell on the pickled brain. It's on one of the tables. All it requires is 33 magic. If you've made it this far, I suspect you won't have any trouble with the magic requirement.
While you're at the Hair of the Dog, now's a good time to run around to the trap door behind it. While it's described as 'exploring' the tunnel, in reality, all we had to do was step through the secret door in the cellar wall. If you've already leveled Zachary Bragg in Temple Trekking to 99 (you lucky dog!) then it's easiest to enter the tunnel from the backside. Or toggle the shortcut off. Otherwise it skips you past the part you'll need.
This next part is pretty cool. Not because it's harder, easier, or interesting. But because it's associated with the rewards from the medium Morytania tasks. The task involves making cannonballs while in Port Phasmatys. All you need is a steel bar and the ammo mould. The cool part is that once you've complete the medium tasks, forever after you'll do cannonballs in Port Phasmatys twice as fast as normal. Since the bank is just across the street from the furnace, that's a pretty cool deal. At least, if you're a do-it-yourselfer, or if you make cannonballs for sale.
The Higher, the Badder is a fun task. We just grabbed our slayer helm, used the slayer ring to get the the Slayer Tower, and climbed the shortcut in the severed hand room. On the following floor, we just killed anything that caught our fancy. I went after the Infernal Mages. Not sure, but I think I saw Monique killing a Bloodveld. Either way, quick, easy, done.
From the Slayer Tower, we sprinted south to the farming patch. Thanks again to Monique's specialty being farming, we had already planted Bittercap Mushrooms in advance. A quick stopover to pick them, and it was time to move on. If you haven't pre-planted for them, expect about a 4-hour wait for them to mature. You can always move ahead to other tasks, and come back later.
Polterheist was one of those 'complicated' ones. Neither of us had been to the haunted mine in such a long time, we had forgotten how to get there. Turns out, you need a Crystal-mine key, but that's okay, ours was still on the key ring from the "One Small Favor" quest. I had also forgotten the tools in the mine will attack you. I tried to grab a pick-axe to hit the rock with, and it started hitting me. No real threat, and it was relatively easy to find the mithril and mine some.
For our final Medium Morytania task, we had to check out Razmire's supplies in the Mort'ton Builder's Merchants shop. If you've already fed him a Serum 208, he's permanently cured and this is no problem. Otherwise, he'll need either a Serum 207 or 208 to be able to interact with you. Later, one of the rewards is from Razmire. Come back once you've done all the medium tasks, and he'll give free lumber away. It's limited, but figure whatever you choose, you'll get between 6k and 10k worth of planks daily. Personally, it's a long ways out of my way for such a small reward. But it's there. If I'm running through, I'll sure stop and grab some.
Speaking of rewards, it's time to upgrade the Morytania Legs. Speak to Robin in Port Phasmatys and you'll get some goodies. Beginning with the Morytania Legs 2. In addition to the Legs 1 abilities, here's the newest:
Wearing the legs, you can:
Smith cannonballs at double-speed in Port Phasmatys.
Teleport to the Ectofuntus slimepit 5 times daily. Very cool if you're training prayer.
Any time (wearing the legs or not):
Get noted planks daily from Razmire.
Have your West-Canifis mushroom patch protected from disease.
Get 13 bonemeal and slime daily from Robin, in exchange for 13 bones. (Another great option for Prayer training.)
And finally, the haunted beings in the Abandoned mine won't bother to attack you any more. Not that impressive. I haven't been in that mine in years. But still, you never know!
Oh, one last bit... if you finished this task before April 11, 2012, you get an early bird reward - a 15k exp lamp!
