Grim Tales

Finding Sylas and Starting out
Sylas is the old man with a walking stick in Taverley. He can be found south of the Player Owned Houses portal. Talk to him and listen to what he has to say. He will ask you to get two "rare" items in return for his magic beans:


 * The first item he wants is a griffin feather from the griffin Grimgnash, on White Wolf Mountain, go north on the east trail.
 * The second is a special helmet from a dwarf named Rupert who is locked in a tower south of the Mind altar.

Griffin's feather


The griffin will state that it cannot get to sleep because of the howling wolves and will threaten to eat the player if he doesn't tell him a bedtime story. Grimgnash says he loves stories with death, fire and destruction... Tell him a bedtime story by selecting the options which sound the most violent :
 * I've heard you are a great and mighty griffin
 * There once was graveyard filled with undead
 * There lived a skeleton named skullrot
 * Skullrot was insane
 * Skullrot hungrily grabbed the gnome's hair
 * Started to strangle the poor gnome
 * At this point, you can answer with any of the remaining choices.

Once Grimgnash is asleep, steal a feather from the pile next to his nest and go back to Sylas.

Note: If you have a low Hitpoints level, be careful. If Grimgnash doesn't like your story, he will hit you with 10-20 points of damage.

Getting Rupert's Helmet
Rupert the beard can be found in a tower in between Goblin Village and Ice Mountain.



If you attempt to get in by the door of the tower, a rather snobby looking princess will stop you. In order to get in, you will need to go around the back and jump over the crumbling wall. (You will need 58 thieving to do this)

Next you have to talk into the pipe and you will find yourself talking to the dwarf imprisoned at the top of the tower.

Talk to him a second time to find out how to get up the tower, and suggest that you should climb up. He will throw down his beard, climb it. This requires level 59 Agility. Talk to the dwarf who regrettably cannot give you his helmet as the princess has stolen his armour and locked him in the tower.

He asks you to talk to princess Miazrqa, she says that she will happily release the dwarf if you get back her pendant which was stolen by a mouse in her second cousin's (twice removed) house which is the witch's house.

Ask the princess for a door key in order to enter the witch's house or look under the potted plant just to the left of the front door of the witch's house.

Miazrqa's pendant
Go to the basement of witch's house in Taverley (where you completed the Witch's House quest) and wear some leather gloves (or gloves) to avoid an electric shock from the gate which can cause 16 damage. Leather gloves can be obtained by searching the boxes in the basement near the piano. However, this is not always the case. There can be a cabbage, leather boots, needle, or thread in the boxes so you can either go up the ladder and down again to reset the box contents or buy some gloves. (It is worth noting that Edgeville bank has some gloves next to its south wall). Open the cage door and search the music stand to find a music sheet for the piano.

Read the music sheet, now you have to play that on the piano, this is where it gets tricky if you are not familiar with the piano, you have to play the notes; "EFEDCAEGA", the first 5 notes "EFEDC" are on the right side of the piano, the next last notes "AEGA" are on the left side of the piano.

The notes "EFEDC" are played on the right hand side, from then onwards the notes "AEGA" are played on the left hand side.


 * A compartment will open, and the player will find three items in it (a shrinking potion recipe, a to-do list and 2 shrunk ogleroots). Read the shrinking potion recipe, use tarromin with a vial of water and add the ogleroot (if you are using some sort of Herblore boost, make 2 shrink-me-quick potions here, you will need one later in the quest). Drink the potion while standing next to the mouse hole in the little room to the south of the front door (no cheese or magnet required). The player will suddenly shrink and will enter in the mouse hole.


 * If players lose the shrunk ogleroot or waste a potion, they can go down the manhole just outside the entrance to the witches house and kill a level 109 Experiment No. 2, which will definitely drop one.
 * You are not allowed to bring familiars down the Mouse Hole. There is no error message if you attempt this; you simply won't be able to drink the potion with one out.

In the mouse's hole
Warning, there are aggressive, level 95 Mice in the Mouse Hole. Make sure you have prayer and/or good food just in case. Also, be sure to bring a teleport of some kind and try not to rely on a home teleport as this takes a while to cast. (The Falador Teleport spell is ideal.)

Do not go through the grates as this will cause you to become tall again.

This next part is a bit tricky. Run past all the aggressive lvl 95 mice you encounter and be sure to keep food handy to heal the damage they inflict, or turn the prayer "protect from melee" on.

To keep from getting lost follow these directions:
 * Run north past the first mouse and find the set of the nails that can be climbed and climb them up.
 * Next go south and then go west, climp the nails on the northern wall.
 * Now turn around and you will see another set of nails to climb.
 * Now, run northeast around the corner and you will come to a set of nails that will enable you to climb down.
 * Finally run north and find the last set of nails to climb up and, after climbing these, you will find the pendant at the end of this hallway.
 * Take the pendant.

If you don't have teleports, you can backtrack out the way you came in and you will revert to regular size as you exit the mouse hole. Take the pendant to the princess who will free the dwarf, take the helmet he gives you, give it to Sylas, in exchange he will give you the Magic beans.

Sylas and the Beanstalk
Take the bean Sylas gives you and plant it in the special patch (Earth Mound) south-west of the Taverley tree farming patch. The signpost reads "This earth mound has been magically prepared. Please keep off. Farming strictly prohibited. You have been warned!" A seed dibber and watering can are required which can be obtained from your Tool Leprechaun at the nearby tree patch just northeast or purchased at a farming store.

After watering the patch, a giant beanstalk will grow up extremely fast.

Glod, the Giant
Get ready for a fight with a level 138.


 * Magic: Take high healing food and some prayer potions. Bring lots of runes to cast your best spell.


 * Melee: Again with the food and prayer potions. Wear your best armour. Rune might do, but only if high-leveled in the combat skills.


 * Range: Once more with the food and prayer potions. Ranged is not recommended, but possible. Wear your best boosting items and keep on the move.

When you're ready, climb up the beanstalk. This also requires an agility level of 59.

Glod, a cloud giant, will attack you immediately. He is level 118, but will become level 138 shortly after the battle starts. He is very weak to slash attacks, so a weapon with a good slash attack bonus such as an Abyssal whip or Dragon scimitar is recommended if you plan on using melee to fight him.

With a prayer potion and the protect from melee prayer, you can mitigate most of his attacks. However, he can also disable prayers, and drain Prayer too. (Thus the necessity for a prayer potion.) High levels can fight him fairly simply via the protect from melee prayer, and dragon armour for protection from when he removes your prayer spell's effect. (At least until you can activate it again.)

Cast your best spell at a distance while hiding behind a wall, or fight Glod head on with full Verac's. (Again, ranged is possible but not recommended.) Iban Blast works wonders here, although you should make sure your staff is fully charged before the fight.

He will sometimes taunt you, causing your character to attack him head on. If you are using magic or ranged, run back to a safe spot and turn on protect from melee whenever you're within his hitting range. He may also quake the ground, hitting you hard and draining your prayer. If you have ancient magicks you can freeze Glod and not have to worry about having to hide.

Sometimes, Glod will heal himself. Therefore, you should keep attacking whenever you can in order to defeat him as quickly as possible. Although magic is effective, you'll still need a fair amount of runes (depending on what type of spell you cast). Enough for 50-75 casts should be okay, but if you have good magic level 10 casts will be enough. Glod is immune to poison.

Possible perfect safespot: It seems that if you try to safespot Glod from a long way away, he will not taunt you and you can easily mage him without even having to bother with Prayer. However, this requires further confirmation, so be prepared for the worst.



After the battle
Once you defeat Glod, he'll drop the golden goblin along with two sets of big bones, an uncut ruby, and uncut sapphire, and a watering can. Take it back to Sylas. He will ask you to chop the beanstalk down. Use a shrinking potion on the beanstalk first, then take a hatchet and chop it down. Go back to Sylas for your reward.

Reward



 * 1 Quest Point
 * 4,000 Experience
 * 5,000 Experience
 * 5,000 Experience
 * 14,000 Experience
 * 6,000 Experience
 * 6,000 Experience
 * Dwarven helmet

Music
Music tracks unlocked:


 * Fe Fi Fo Fum
 * Mouse Trap

Trivia

 * The quest title is a play on the famous Grimm Fairy Tales
 * The plot of the quest features elements from several well-known fairy tales:
 * Obtaining a feather from the Grimgnash is a reference to The Griffin.
 * Climbing Rupert the Beard's beard is a parody of Rapunzel.
 * The shrinking potion is a reference to Alice in Wonderland.
 * The Magic beans and the Beanstalk is a reference to Jack and the Beanstalk.
 * On the day of release, the quest rewards message was Spoilers are only given on the day of release in fairy tales.
 * After the player gives the gnome in Grimgnash's story a name, he says "You shouldn't name food! If Human had a carrot, would Human call it Jasper?" This is a play on British comedian Jasper Carrott.
 * The silent "q" in Miazrqa's name is a reference to the Bookshop sketch from Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album.
 * Glod resembles The Hulk in many ways. Both are bare-chested, both have discoloured skin, both have a similar face and hairstyle, and Glod even yells "GLOD SMASH!", just like the Hulk.
 * Rupert the beard may be a reference to Rupert Bear.
 * Grim Tales had the highest skill level requirement (71 Woodcutting) of any quest, until the release of Back To My Roots surpassed this record by having a 72 Woodcutting requirement, followed by While Guthix Sleeps with a 75 Magic requirement. This record has since been matched by the Woodcutting and Ranged requirements for Within the Light.
 * When a player is in the mouse hole, if the player kills a mouse, the drops will appear to be larger than normal. If the player pick them up, they will appear as normal in the player's inventory.
 * If you ask what else Sylas has in his collection he says he has a unicorn without a horn, referring to horses, which many players have suggested over the years, and a mutant two-eyed cyclops, which would be just a normal giant.
 * The word Grim Tales might be a reference to Fairy Tales