The Slug Menace

We have a mission for you...
Items: Commorb or 10,000 gp or 1 Law rune, Enchanted gem, and a Molten glass. (Optional) Some method of teleporting to Ardougne.

Note: If you don't have your Commorb, Sir Tiffy Cashien will hand you a Commorb v2 (the upgraded version of the Commorb).
 * With your Commorb in your inventory, head to Falador Park and speak with Sir Tiffy Cashien about any jobs he might have.

Along with his ramblings, he tells you about the village of Witchaven, which has had some rather strange goings-on recently. He tells you to check in with the Temple Knights' local agent in Witchaven, Col. Jake O'Niall, and upgrades your Commorb to a Commorb v2. A reasonably fast way to get to Witchaven is to teleport to Ardougne (with 51 Magic and the completion of the quest Plague City) and then walk east and slightly south to the coastal town of Witchaven. Alternatively, you may use fairy ring code BLR to the Legend's Guild and then take a short walk south. The Ardougne cloak 1 teleport to the monastery gives you fairly close access as well.
 * Make your way to Witchaven.

The Villagers of Witchaven
Items: Commorb v2

He tells you that some of the villagers started acting strangely about three weeks ago, especially Mayor Eustace Hobb. He also tells you that some are in a dazed and confused state. He points you to Mayor Hobb; the priest, Brother Maledict; and Holgart the fisherman, who helped you with the Sea Slug Quest. He suggests others may also have some insight into what has been happening. It is on the north-west side of town. She notes the mayor is acting a bit fishy and asks you to scan him. She gets an odd reading but is unsure what it means. He tells you he is worried about his flock, which has begun to act a little bit strangely lately. He tells you that the mayor recently confiscated his boat and gave it to another man named Jeb, walking nearby. He also mentions that the Fishing Platform looks a might bit stranger and that you should go take a look.
 * Find Col. Jake O'Niall rocking in a chair on the dock at the north-east corner of Witchaven.
 * Talk to the (semi) retired member of the Temple Knights(Col. Jake O'Niall).
 * If you have not already, ask O'Niall who the important people are in Witchaven.
 * Start off by heading to Mayor Hobb's house.
 * Choose all the conversation options with him you can.
 * Start to leave the house, but Savant stops you.
 * Inside the mayor's house, choose the scan option on the Commorb v2.
 * Head to the church—just south-east of the mayor—and speak with Brother Maledict.
 * Choose all the available conversation options with the brother.
 * Now, walk a little bit north by the shore, and talk to Holgart.

Note: It is not necessary at this point, but if you decide to check out the fishing platform, speak with Jeb, who can take you out and back. You can also talk to some of the villagers, many of whom seem nervous or act oddly.

Explore the shrine
Items: Commorb v2, enough food and armor to survive a brief encounter with level 45 aggressive giant lobsters.

He suggests you take a good look at the shrine. On the east wall, look for a red section indicating a false wall. (See the image to the right for the section's location.) You find yourself in a winding tunnel with aggressive giant lobsters. Warning: Do not try to open the doors or else a flash of light will spring from them, burning your hand for 50 life points.
 * Report back to Col. Jake O'Niall, and tell him what you have found out so far.
 * Head to the western edge of the village—to the shrine ruins—and climb down the old ruin entrance to get into the shrine's dungeon, which is also the dungeon from the Family Crest quest.
 * Once you are in the dungeon, look at the minimap.
 * Choose the Push Wall option to open this section, and then enter the wall opening.
 * Make your way through the tunnel — or save some time and climb through the Agility shortcut — and head to the imposing doors blocking your way. (See the image to the right for a map of the dungeon.)

Savant contacts you via the Commorb v2 to ask you to take a scan of the strange markings on the door. She says they look similar to glyphs she studied at the academy. She gives you a transcript of the runes to take to Jorral, who can translate them. Savant contacts you about the slug you picked up and does a scan to analyse it.
 * Choose the scan option on the Commorb v2.
 * Before you go, grab the dead sea slug nearby. It will come in handy later.

Fitting the pieces together
Items: Commorb v2, Door transcription, (Optional) Ardougne Teleport for faster travel.

He is the person who starts the Making History quest. Savant pops up in the Commorb v2 and coaches you on how to get Jorral to translate the message. Eventually, Jorral takes a look at the text and says it refers to a great battle. After Jorral is done, Savant contacts you again to catch you up on what she has learned about Mother Mallum. He suggests you talk with Brother Maledict to see if he knows anything. He tells you he has a book that might be of use but someone has stolen the three pages about the shrine's history. He says it is imperative you recover them.
 * Travel to Jorral at the Outpost, which is north-west of West Ardougne and south of the Tree Gnome Stronghold.
 * Talk to him about translations.
 * Head back to Witchaven, and check in with Col. Jake O'Niall.
 * Approach the church's door, and you see a brief cutscene of the mayor leaving the chapel.
 * When you enter the church, the priest is wobbling around, looking rather ill and acting strangely.
 * Talk to him about what is behind the imposing doors you found.

Finding the Pages
Items: Commorb v2, 5 empty inventory spaces (for two whole pages and three fragments of the third page), Swamp paste, and a Dead sea slug.

He too has the same jaundiced look as the other villagers. He, strangely, does have the last page, which, unfortunately, has been ripped into three pieces. The oily tar would ruin the ancient parchment, she warns. Instead, she advises, make sticky glue from a rendered slug. Head west on the platform, and talk with Bailey in the small room. Note: If for whatever reason you have lost or dropped the dead sea slug, an infinite number spawn outside the door with the strange markings in the shrine. Be sure not to try to pick a live sea slug, however, because it will bite you, dealing 20-30 life points of damage.
 * For the first page, enter the mayor's house and search his study desk to obtain the first page of Maledict's holy book.
 * Talk to Ezekial Lovecraft — the owner of Lovecraft's Tackle fishing shop south of the dock — to get the second page of the holy book.
 * To recover the last page, talk to O'Niall again.
 * Try to use swamp paste on the fragments to glue the page back together, but Savant stops you.
 * Travel to the Fishing Platform by talking to Jeb, who is near Holgart.
 * Hand him the dead slug you picked up earlier from the shrine, and in a few seconds, he gives you the sea slug glue you need.
 * Now use the glue on the fragments, and a puzzle will pop up.

Pages puzzle


Move the three pieces of the page around using the controls over in the bottom-right corner of your screen:
 * 1) Use the arrows to move, rotate, and even flip over the fragments.
 * 2) Use the Show and Select buttons to choose which pieces to show and to move.

The easiest way to tell if you have got them all on the right side is that the correct side is lighter than the other. The image to the right gives you a general idea of how the fragments should fit together. The third piece may be out of view at the very bottom; select the third piece and click the up button several times to bring it in view.

When you put the pieces in their correct place, the puzzle fragments will close automatically, forming the last page.


 * Now talk to Jeb on the dock and have him take you back to Witchaven.

Shaping runes
Items: Commorb v2, Chisel, page 1 page 2 and page 3. At least 5 rune essence or pure essence. An earth, water, fire, air and mind talisman, or their equivalent tiaras.


 * Right click the following pages and choose the shape option to create each blank rune.


 * 1) Page 1 to shape a blank earth rune
 * 2) Page 1 to shape a blank air rune
 * 3) Page 2 to shape a blank fire rune
 * 4) Page 2 to shape a blank water rune
 * 5) Page 3 to shape a blank mind rune

It is possible to fail shaping an essence and break it. Be careful not to use a chisel on the essence or you get rune shards.

For creating these blank runes, it is possible and suggested to feed the talismans to your wicked hood which can be obtained from Tam McGrubor on varrock square. You can also use it to teleport to 2 altars. It is suggested to teleport to the mind altar and the air altar, then walk from the air altar to the earth altar, then use the Lumbridge Home Teleport to go to the water altar, then use the home teleport again or a Ring of duelling to go to the fire altar.

Careful when in at the altar do not click on it for if you have pure or rune essence you will craft them having to return to a bank to get more in case of failing to craft the blank essence. If you have the essence in a pouch you do not have to worry about this.
 * Now, take each of the blank runes to its associated altar, and use the rune on the altar: the blank earth rune on the earth altar, the blank water rune on the water altar, and so on.

Note: It is also possible to fail to empower the blank rune at the altar, thus destroying it.

Using an amulet of glory or Edgeville Home Teleport and the Abyss can shorten this process. Alternatively, you can play the Great Orb Project activity and visit the required altars without the talismans, or use Runecrafting Guild Tokens to purchase Runecrafting Teleport Tablets to teleport you to each altar.

Once complete, your inventory should contain the following misshapen runes:
 * 1) An earth rune
 * 2) An air rune
 * 3) A fire rune
 * 4) A water rune
 * 5) A mind rune

Keep your pages, chisel, and spare essence handy as you make your way to the various altars in case you fail to empower a rune.

The conclusion?
Items: Bring armor and food to fight a level 62 Slug Prince. Commorb v2, and 5 runes that you created.

Remember to bring your Commorb v2. You see that Mayor Hobb tricked you into opening the door so that Mother Mallum could escape. The prince is not difficult to kill, although you are unable to damage it with ranged or magic-based attacks; arrows and spells bounce right off of it. After you kill the prince, you see another cutscene with Mother Mallum (whose examine text is "An unspeakable horror from the depths of time"). She threatens to make you her new host, but Savant pops in via the Commorb v2 and teleports you safely to Falador Park.
 * Prepare for a fight where you can use only melee with the level 62 Slug Prince.
 * When ready, go back to the shrine and return to the imposing doors.
 * Use each of the specially shaped runes you made on the doors to trigger a cutscene.
 * Following the cutscene, you fight a level 62 slug prince.
 * Talk to Sir Tiffy.

Congratulations! Quest complete!

Reward

 * 1 Quest Point
 * 3500 Experience
 * 3500 Experience
 * 3500 Experience
 * Promotion to Proselyte among the Temple Knights. This means you can buy and wear new Temple Knight armour with a greater Defence bonus than Initiate. You can buy each piece individually, or buy the armour pack which, when opened, gives you the plate, helm, and legs/skirt all at once. The pack is worth 25,000 coins.



Music unlocked

 * Slug a Bug Ball
 * The Mollusc Menace

Required for completing
Completion of The Slug Menace is required for the following:
 * Kennith's Concerns
 * The Ritual of the Mahjarrat
 * Falador Tasks:
 * Hard: "A Knight in the Darkness"

Trivia
Slug Menace The Slug Menace
 * The Slug Menace title looks like Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace.
 * The Slug Menace is based off TV's Stargate SG-1.
 * If you read the 3 pages, you will find that it is almost the same except for the paragraphing and the last sentence, depending on what kind of runes it can shape.
 * The quest is based very heavily on the story "Shadow over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft, where a struggling fishing community makes a deal with creatures known only as "The Deep Ones" who in turn for ensuring the prosperity of the village, require people as sacrifices. They also produce horrible frog-featured offspring with the villagers that eventually become fully developed Deep Ones and return to the seas. These creatures were practically immortal, and worshiped two demigods known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. The shopkeeper in Witchaven, Ezekial Lovecraft, is a nod towards the author. If you talk to him, he notes he has a relative named Howard, which was H.P. Lovecraft's first name. He also says, when asked what he does, that the Lovecrafts have always been bait sellers or writers.
 * This is not the last quest of the Sea Slug saga. Sir Tiffy, among other things, places you in charge of the ongoing offence against Mother Mallum and states that he will be widening the intelligence network of the Temple Knights. You will have to "check back in a bit" for further briefing. On 1 July 2011 the concluding quest in the series, Salt in the Wound, was listed as the first of that month's updates in the Behind the Scenes post.
 * During the battle with the Slug Prince, if you attempt to enter the room beyond the door, Mayor Hobb will say that you are "Unworthy" of Mother Mallum.
 * When you fail at creating the mishaped runes, or at binding them, you still receive 2 experience points in the related skill.
 * The character Col. Jake O'Niall is based on the character Col. Jack O'Neill from TV's Stargate SG-1.
 * Mayor Hobb used to always slide about his room rather than walking. This glitch has recently been fixed.
 * During the Mother Mallum cutscene at the end of the quest you are unable to examine Mayor Hobb, he also doesn't appear as an NPC on the mini map.
 * When talking to Col. Jake O'Niall for the initiation of the mission, after calling him sir he replies: "Don't call me sir, I work for a living." This is a saying from enlisted soldiers in the military even though col. is the abbreviated form of colonel which is an officer and therefore he would be addressed as sir.
 * When talking to Jorral, Savant tells you to say you work for Petmel Books. This may also be a reference to the book "Shadow over Innsmouth".
 * When talking to Ezekial Lovecraft, he states that everybody in his family seems to be either in the bait business or writers. This is another reference to "Shadow over Innsmouth".
 * This quest was the first members quest to be announced on the RuneScape website.
 * At the end of the quest, when the player is about to be killed by Mother Mallum, they say "Savant, now would be a good time." This is a reference to Chekov's line in Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home.
 * If you attack the Slug Prince before the cutscene concludes, you will be outside of the false door.
 * After you have glued the pieces of page 3 together, Jake will not recognise them and will give you 3 more pieces.
 * After you complete the quest, if you venture into the area from where the Slug Queen appeared, you can see a wide red pool (which is quite similar to the Bandos Oo'glog pool) in an enclosed area.
 * Once you get to the point in the quest where you must recover all the torn pages, all the non-quest involved Witchaven Villagers have become possessed by Sea Slugs.