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: from Sylas, head southwest and then go north on the easternmost 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


Head to the White Wolf Mountain, Grimgnash is located on the northeast corner. 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 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.

Warning: If Grimgnash doesn't like the story, he will hit for 100-200 life points.

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 princess will stop you. In order to get in, you will need to go around to the back and climb over the crumbling wall, which requires 58 Thieving.

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. Ask if there is anything up there that would help and he will throw down his beard. Climbing it 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 can be found wandering near the tower. She says that she will happily release the dwarf if you return her pendant which was stolen by a mouse in her second cousin's (twice removed) house, also known as the witch's house in Taverley.

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 house.

Miazrqa's Pendant
Go to the basement of the witch's house in Taverley (where you completed the Witch's House quest) and wear some leather gloves (or gloves, or Void knight gloves; Penance gloves work as well but the recipe for disaster gloves, cooking gauntlets, runecrafter's gloves won't work) to avoid an electric shock from the gate which can cause you to lose 160 life points. 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. You have to play the notes on the sheet on the nearby piano in the basement. The notes "EFEDC" are played on the right hand (upper) side and the notes "AEGA" are played on the left hand (lower) 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 now because you will need one later in the quest). Drink one 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 or Lassar Teleport spell is ideal. Note: Lassar Teleport requires the Ancient Magicks to be active).

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

Run past all the aggressive level 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 avoid getting lost, follow these directions:
 * Run north past the first mouse, find the set of the nails that can be climbed and climb up them.
 * Next, go south, go west, then climb the nails on the northern wall.
 * Now, turn around and climb another set of nails.
 * Now, run northeast around the corner and climb down the nails there.
 * Finally, run north and find the last set of nails to climb up. After climbing these, you will find the pendant at the end of the next 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, or you can go behind the rock that the pendant was on and home teleport. Take the pendant to the princess who will free the dwarf. Accept the helmet he gives, give it to Sylas along with the griffin feather. 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. If you are having trouble finding it, just go to the pet shop, it is directly south of it. A nearby 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. Do note that the Magic watering can WILL work for this step.

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 (about enough for 75-100 spells).


 * Melee: Take high healing food and prayer potions. Wear your best armour, preferably Rune or better. High combat stats are recommended.


 * Range: Again, take good food and prayer potions. Ranged is very recommended, as there are two safe spots. Wear your best boosting items and keep on the move.

When you're ready, climb up the beanstalk. This requires an Agility level of 59. (Boosts can be used E.g summer pie or agility potion)

Glod, a cloud giant, will attack you immediately. He is level 138, but due to his prayer disabling abilities, is much more difficult than his level suggests. 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 disable prayers and drain Prayer too, up to 50 points at a time. (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 the prayer spell's effect. (At least until it is activated 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, so Smoke spells are ineffective.

Safe Spot 1: After you climb up the bean stalk if you head left you will see two giant rocks, you can get Glod stuck in between them or behind one and you can easily range or magic him. 

Safe spot 2: If you head north you will see two skeletons, you can safespot Glod by standing in between the skeletons and using magic (or range), provided he is blocked by the huge rock near the skeletons.

The safespots DO NOT protect you from his taunt or him forcing you to run somewhere else so food and 1-2 prayer potions are advised.

Note: If you exit the beanstalk area before you kill Glod and then come back, the chat screen will say that Glod's Strength and Attack have increased since you last attempted to defeat him. It is thereby highly suggested to bring all you need to kill him in one trip so you won't have to deal with a more difficult fight. It is unknown if his strength and attack will continue to increase if you leave and come back multiple times.

'''Note: The best way to kill Glod is to use magic. Glod seems to have a weakness to magic attacks and is a lot easier to kill him this way.'''

Note: You will NOT be able to bring a Dwarf Multicannon with you up the beanstalk, you will be told that it is too heavy.

'''Also note: During Glod is taunting you or forcing you to run somewhere else you'll be not able to do anything else, not even to teleport. When the fight turns evil and he begins to shout at you frequently, you might wish to take the first opportunity to teleport away as you possibly won't get a second one.'''





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 the goblin 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 again for your reward.

Reward



 * 1 Quest Point
 * 4,000 Farming Experience
 * 5,000 Herblore Experience
 * 5,000 Constitution Experience
 * 14,000 Woodcutting Experience
 * 6,000 Agility Experience
 * 6,000 Thieving 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. It is also a reference to the fact you must steal Grim(gnash's) Tail/Tale
 * 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 are references 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.
 * Miazrqa's hair appears golden but in her chat head the hair appears black.
 * 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. The Hulk also says "You won't like me when I'm angry", in the movie, and Glod yells "You wouldn't like Glod when Glod angry".
 * Glod may possibly be named after characters in Norse mythology, Glut, who was a particularly evil giant, and Hod, the god who guarded the Bifrost Bridge, who is similar in build to Glod.
 * 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 and the Attack and Strength requirements for Blood Runs Deep and the Magic requirement for Nomad's Requiem, which in turn has been surpassed by the level 77 Magic requirement for Love Story, which is now surpassed by the level 80 Magic requirement for The Void Stares Back.
 * 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.
 * Rupert talks a lot with references to the quest itself, such as "Old bean!" and "Old ogleroot!" as 'titles' for the player.
 * After the quest, Sylas is still selling magic beans, despite knowing how dangerous they are.
 * If you completed the quest, the Adventurer's Log will read: "The bigger they are, the harder they fall! The giant has taken a fair old beating, and this grim tale has come to a rather satisfying end."
 * This quest is also one of the first quests to feature something of an atmosphere, due to the clouds.