Eadgar's Ruse

Walkthrough
If you completed the Druidic Ritual or Death Plateau quests before they were reworked on 31 January 2012, you must complete the updated versions of the quest before starting this quest unless you go up Trollheim the way near the Fremennik Slayer Dungeon, in which case, doing the new Death Plateau is unneeded, but doing the new Druidic Ritual is still required.



Get the Goutweed
Start the quest by speaking to Sanfew, who lives in the building just southwest of the summoning instructor, in Taverley. Select "Have you any more work for me, to help reclaim the circle?" and then select the top option. He will tell you he needs assistance with getting a herb called goutweed.

Only the Trolls in the Troll Stronghold know where to find goutweed, so Sanfew will suggest you speak to his friend Eadgar who lives near there at the top of Trollheim.

Enter Trollheim
You need to make your way to Trollheim using the same route as in the Troll Stronghold quest.

Equip your Climbing boots, go north from Taverley to Burthorpe and follow the path through the dwarf's cave. Climb over the rocks and head towards the Troll arena. Follow this path and run past the thrower trolls (Using Protect from Missiles if possible, as they can cause lots of damage very quickly). If you have 47+ Agility you can avoid the thrower trolls completely by using the Agility shortcuts on the mountain.

Eadgar's Cave is on top of the mountain with the thrower trolls, the world map marks this as Trollheim. When in the cave ask Eadgar about Goutweed. He will recommend you go see a Troll Cook.

The troll cook
Leave Eadgar's cave, go back down the hill and head south west, following the path round into the Troll Stronghold. If possible, use Protect from Melee (these trolls use clubs) if the Trolls attack you.

Once in the stronghold go south, then down the stairs. You will see four Troll cooks here - one of them will be called Burntmeat. There are no aggressive trolls in this area.

Speak to Burntmeat and he will offer to tell you about goutweed in exchange for a human to cook in his stew. Agree with him, then go back and talk to Eadgar.

Tricking the Trolls
Upon returning to Eadgar, he will tell you that he needs a parrot in order to fool the Trolls into thinking you have given them a human.

Go to the zoo in Ardougne and talk to Parroty Pete at the north part of the zoo near the wolf enclosure. He will tell you that their favourite food is pineapple chunks, and that they will get drunk if you feed them vodka.

Being careful not to drink it, use your vodka on your pineapple chunks to make alco-chunks and then use them on the aviary hatch on the west side of the parrot cage. You will obtain a drunk parrot and will tell Parroty Pete that you will take it to the vet.
 * Note: If you drop the parrot it will fly away and you will need to go back and talk to Eadgar to get it back.

Take the parrot to Eadgar, instead of taking it to the vet. He will tell you that you need to make it look like a human, taste like a human, smell like a human, and talk like a human.

First, To make it talk like a human, you'll need to hide it on the bottom floor of the troll stronghold, under a rack north of the cells in the prison. Here it'll pick up the 'right kind' of sayings. Head back to Edgar with your parrot still under the rack.

Now take care of the other tasks. Note that these tasks can be done in any order:
 * To make it look like a human, give Eadgar ten lots of unnoted Wheat and one pile of Logs.
 * To make it taste like a human, give Eadgar five unnoted Raw Chicken (obtainable from Freda's house).
 * To make it smell like a human, go to Taverley and talk to Sanfew, who will tell you to talk to a druid named Tegid. He is south of the pet shop washing his clothes. You need to obtain a dirty robe from him, and give this to Eadgar.
 * Note: If you accidentally drop your parrot after speaking with Eadgar, it will return to his cage, and you will need to talk with him to get it back.
 * Note: It is not possible to obtain the dirty robe first, as you must have talked to Eadgar about it.

Truth Serum
After you have done all of this, Eadgar will tell you that you need to make a troll potion so that Burntmeat will not lie to you about goutweed.

Search all the grassy areas near Eadgar's cave until you find a tiny troll thistle growing in a patch of grass. Switching to high detail may help players spot the patch with the troll thistle. Note that it spawns in a different grass area every time it is picked.

Once you have found it, dry it on a fire to turn it into dried thistle (there are fires outside the Troll Stronghold, but you can also set your own fire. Then grind it in the pestle and mortar to make ground thistle. Finally, add it to your unfinished ranarr potion to make a troll potion.

Talk to Eadgar again. He will take the potion off of you and tell you that the parrot has heard enough by now, so you can get it back.

Go back to the prison cells in the Troll Stronghold and search the rack to retrieve the parrot and then give it to Eadgar. He will make the parrot into a fake man and give it to you.

Obtaining goutweed
Go back to the cooks in the stronghold and give the dummy to Burntmeat. He will give you a piece of burnt meat as a reward (which you can discard as it serves no purpose in the quest). He will also tell you that the goutweed is kept in the storeroom and that you can find the key by searching the kitchen drawers.

Search the drawers in the south east corner of the room, and once you have the storeroom key, go down the stairs on the north wall of the kitchen, and follow the hallway to the storeroom.

Here you must sneak past the guards to get to a crate with the goutweed. If one of them sees you, he will knock you out and you will wake up just outside of the storeroom. The rocks hit 0-60 life points. Protect from Missiles blocks the damage but does not prevent your getting kicked out.

Getting through the storeroom works just like the Sorceress's Garden activity; you must hide in safespots and wait for the guards to pass. The safespots are U-shaped areas with boxes on three sides.

You can follow right behind the trolls or right next to them and you will not get hit. Sometimes while running through guards, if you are one square or so away, they will not notice you, especially at the door. The only way for them to kick you out is if they face you. If you can avoid doing this you will be able to get the goutweed. It is also recommended to gather two while you are here if you plan on completing Dream Mentor afterwards.

To get to the first safe spot, which is one the east side of the room in the third row of boxes from the north, wait for the trolls patrolling the first row and the eastern second row to just pass you. At the first safespot, watch the two trolls patrolling the easternmost column of boxes. Wait for the troll which travels north on the western side to make the turn to the east, then run to the safespot on the southern side of the third row.

Wait until the troll guard approaching you from the south has turned the west, then run to the crate with the goutweed. Make sure that you are standing to the side of the crate (or you will get caught).

Now search the crate and you will obtain some goutweed, after which you will get caught. It is possible to click the crate opposite the crate guard and then you can just stand there. If you do not wish to take damage after getting the goutweed you can flash protect from range when you get the message that you got the goutweed. This will block the damage.

Give the goutweed to Sanfew to finish the quest.

Congratulations, quest complete!

Reward



 * 1 quest point
 * 11,000 experience
 * Ability to grow and steal goutweed, which can be traded for herbs
 * Ability to use the Trollheim Teleport spell
 * Burnt meat
 * 2 extra spins on the Squeal of Fortune

Music unlocked

 * Mad Eadgar - Unlocked upon entry of his cave.

Required for completing
Completion of Eadgar's Ruse is required for the following:
 * Dream Mentor
 * My Arm's Big Adventure

Trivia
Eadgar's Ruse nl:Eadgar's Ruse
 * You can also hide the parrot under the rack in the Kinshra hideout in Taverley Dungeon.
 * When asking Mad Eadgar how to make the parrot "Taste like a human," he uses the common catchphrase "Everything tastes like chicken!". This reference can also be found in the text that follows from eating a stuffed snake in the Recipe for Disaster subquest.
 * After the update, when the start hint is turned on the arrow will be placed under the watermill (an unaccesable spot) which is assumed to be the original starting place of the quest. This has yet to be fixed.
 * Dropping the fake man will show it "standing".
 * The parts where you must gain the parts in order for the fake man to Smell, Taste, Look, and Sound like a real human may be a reference to King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow where you must gain certain objects in order for 5 gnomes to think that you're not a human.
 * Eadgar is in both the troll jail and his house, although during this quest the Eadgar that is in the jail will only say "Don't worry about me, I'll be out in a jiffy".
 * Truth serum is the same thing as the truth serum in Hand in the Sand just with different ingredients.
 * After completing the quest, if you talk to Juna, your character will say, "...Eadgar's ruse was absurd, but it worked! The trolls ate a fake human, and I got the herb for the druids' ritual."
 * During the part when you sneak around the Troll Storeroom for the Goutweed, the trolls say "!" when they spot you which may be a reference to the Metal Gear Solid series when a guard spots Snake.
 * If you had completed the Druidic Ritual quest before the update, you will get a warning when trying to give the goutweed to Sanfew, instead of before starting the quest. This bug is yet to be fixed.