A Taste of Hope

A Taste of Hope is a quest in the Myreque quest series that follows on from Darkness of Hallowvale. It was announced on the 7th of March 2018 and polled as part of the Theatre of Blood poll.

Starting out
Items required: 1,000 Coins

Recommended: Pickaxe, 

(Please Note: This is a fairly long and running-around-like quest. It is strongly recommended to bring Stamina Potions) Start this quest by speaking to Garth, outside Ver Sinhaza (the Theatre of Blood), which is located on the eastern side of Meiyerditch. He will ask if you are interested in hearing the tale of Serafina. He will briefly describe the connection between Serafina and the Theatre of Blood to you. During the conversation, you will see Vanstrom Klause and Ranis Drakan entering the Theatre, remarking that Safalaan and the Myreque should be informed.

Fortunately, the vyres have opened access between Ver Sinhaza and Meiyerditch, so just walk through the gate.

Head to the Myreque base quickly via this route: Go down the trapdoor and walk north to speak to Safalaan and inform him of what you saw. He tells you that while Ranis regularly visits Ver Sinhaza to spectate, Vanstrom has never visited it and thus deems it worth investigating. He sends you to speak to some of King Roald's mercenaries at the south-east corner of Ver Sinhaza. They will tell you that both Ranis and Vanstrom are still there, and that you can spy on them via one of the windows in the castle.
 * Get noticed by a Vyrewatch and ask to be sent to the mines.
 * Mine 15 Daeyalt ores, once the mine cart is full speak to a guard to leave. If you have no pickaxe, talk to a miner to obtain a bronze one.
 * You will appear up on the surface. On the right is a map of the route to take to get to the hideout; follow the blue path down to the leftmost green dot.
 * From here, follow the old route: Climb up the ladder, jump east to the floorboards, climb down the stairs, and go south-east through the hidden door.
 * Press the decorated wall and reveal a hidden trapdoor by right-clicking and opening the lumpy rug.

Vampyric espionage
You will now need to get up onto the Theatre of Blood to listen in at a window. Go to the south-west corner, just west of the bank, and try to climb up the rubble at the base of the wall, but the nearby vyrewatch will stop you. Talk to Harpert nearby, who will distract the guard if you provide him with 1,000 coins. A bank is nearby if you do not have the coins on you. It is advisable to withdraw a pestle and mortar for the next quest step before leaving the bank (either now or after spying.)

Climb up the rubble, and follow the wall around to the north, taking care when climbing up the vents (they occasionally blow out boiling hot steam, which will deal 15-20 hitpoints of damage and knock you back down), and then east, until you reach a red window that you can look through. A short cutscene will play in which Ranis and Vanstrom speak with Verzik Vitur, who gives them an abomination to help track down the Myreque. Return to Safalaan (withdraw your pestle and mortar if you haven't yet) at the Myreque Hideout and report what you saw. He will begin formulating a plan with Vertida, and asks you to speak with Flaygian Screwte, the head researcher translating the Haemalchemy book you obtained during Darkness of Hallowvale. He will explain that the vampyres were experimenting on both humans and vampires in order to increase the amount of blood they can harvest from humans, and to strengthen their immunities to human attacks. You will draw a connection from this fact to the weakness that Serafina potentially discovered, and bring this information to Safalaan.

The myth of Serafina
''Items required: Pestle and mortar. Battle gear for shorter trip back to hideout.'' Safalaan plans to have his team meet up with Veliaf Hurtz's in Burgh de Rott and escape Morytania in order to build up their numbers, as Morytania may not be safe anymore for them to hide in. You will ask him about Serafina, and he will tell you Old Man Ral used to tell stories about her and will reveal to you where she used to live.

Upon exiting the hideout, climb up the stairs, jump the gap and then climb down the ladder. From there, head due north through the three doors in a line, then due west until you reach the wall. From there, head north-west to reach a broken fountain. Climb down the stairs in the building directly south to meet up with Safalaan once more (Optional: Search the bed by the stairs to obtain an old diary). He will express his frustration with the tale of Serafina, as he believes it gives the citizens of Morytania a sense of false hope. He will then tell you the locked door in the room may contain what they are seeking. Search the crates and the barrels for a mysterious meat, mysterious herb, a vial and a pestle and mortar. Once you have these items, use the vial on the broken fountain north of the house to get a vial of water. Add the herb to create an unfinished potion, then crush the meat with the pestle and mortar and use it on the unfinished potion. Use the finished potion on the door, but nothing will happen. Talk to Safalaan again with an empty vial, and he will give you a vial of blood. Use another herb on the vial to create an unfinished blood potion, then add the mysterious crushed meat to complete the blood potion. Use this on the door to unlock it. Take the old notes from the chest, then give them to Safalaan.

It's a trap!
Items required: A weapon and some food to fight a level 149 monster. Head back to the hideout and speak to Safalaan. As you are all about to leave the hideout, Flaygian will tell you that the notes were complete nonsense. Safalaan will realise that he has been tricked by Vanstrom into giving up his blood at Serafina's house and prompts everyone to leave at once. However, it is too late, and the abomination reaches the base. It will kill Mekritus A'hara, Andiess Juip and Flaygian Screwte. As it is about to attack Safalaan, he will levitate and emit a strange, cyan glow, which is amplified before producing a large explosion of power, weakening the abomination. Vertida will help you defeat the creature, but keep in mind his damage output is low. The abomination uses melee and ranged attacks; thus, the Protect from Missiles prayer should be used to avoid taking any damage. Additionally, the monster will occasionally launch a black sludge attack, which will drain the players stats, so bringing at least one super restore potion is recommended. It is weakest to magic attacks, while having a high resistance to ranged attacks; therefore, a player with less than 70 range should prepare to use magic accordingly. The fight is relatively easy.

 Warning:  If you die during this encounter, any unprotected tradeable equipment dropped on death will be permanently lost!

The legendary weapon
Items required: Rod of ivandis, Emerald, chisel, 3 air runes and 1 cosmic rune, Battle gear recommended Once the fight is over, Safalaan and Vertida will ask you to meet at their old base, a small room underneath Old Man Ral's house accessible via a trapdoor in the north room. Old Man Ral's house is easily accessed by taking the boat from Burgh de Rott, going over the wall and running north-east. Once there, talk to Safalaan, who will insist on leaving. Vertida will then interject, telling him that Flaygian had managed to translate more of the book while you and Safalaan were investigating Serafina's home.

Speak to Vertida, who will give you Flaygian's notes. Read them, and discover that a weapon that may be effective against the Vyrewatch is a flail of some kind, with the rod of Ivandis being suitable as the flail's shaft. Search the nearby crates to find a silver sickle (b) and a chain. The rod of Ivandis can be obtained from Veliaf Hurtz in Burgh de Rott (under the pub), or can be made by the player again should they choose to do so.


 * 1) Attach the emerald to the sickle to create an emerald sickle (b).
 * 2) Then, cast Lvl-2 Enchant on the emerald sickle, or use an enchant emerald or jade tablet on it.
 * 3) Finally, use the chain on the enchanted emerald sickle or the Rod of Ivandis to create the Ivandis flail.

When you have the flail, speak with Safalaan, who will have Kael tell you that the vampyres believe that the Myreque has been completely defeated by the abomination, and Ranis Drakan intends to deliver this news to all of Meiyerditch at Ver Sinhaza. Safalaan proposes to confront Ranis during this speech.

The Taste of Hope
(Please Note: This is a hard boss fight, so bring enough food, prayer potions, and combat boosts) Return to Ver Sinhaza, and speak with Kael to begin the final fight with Ranis Drakan. Kael can be found near the entrance. Should players need to escape from the fight, the Meiyerditch citizen directly behind the player can be right-clicked to quickly escape. Ranis Drakan is level 233, and can only be harmed by the Ivandis flail. He will use melee and magic attacks that can hit up to 20. He can also cast Blood Barrage, which can heal him for half of the damage dealt. Occasionally, he will charge and attack and explode, hitting up to 30. The damage can be reduced by running away from him when he is charging the attack. After he reaches 75% of his health, he'll summon two level 87 vyrewatch and will fly airborne. Every now and then, he will throw blood bombs at where you are currently standing, which can hit up to 40 in a 3x3 area. It should be noted that this attack can hit the vyrewatch, so it can be used to aid combat, especially at lower levels. When you kill the vyrewatch, you will fight Ranis again until he reaches 25% of his health, where he will then summon two vyrewatch again. After killing them, he will go berserk and attack the player. During this last phase, his attacks are much faster and accurate, but only have a max hit of 6. Using Protect from Melee will easily defeat him in the last phase.

After killing Ranis, you will give an inspirational speech to the Meiyerditch citizens.

If you die during the fight, your items can be retrieved from the chest located northwest of the noticeboard.

Finishing up
Return to the hideout under Old Man Ral's house, and talk to Safalaan. He will congratulate you on defeating Ranis, giving real hope to the citizens of Meiyerditch. In addition, Kael will give you Drakan's medallion that he recovered from Ranis' corpse. Meanwhile, Vanescula Drakan and Vanstrom Klause visit Ranis' corpse, with Vanstrom exclaiming that Lord Drakan will be displeased, while Vanescula tells him that she is counting on that.

Congratulations, quest complete!

Music unlocked

 * Welcome to the Theatre - Upon arriving at Ver Sinhaza
 * Conspiracy - Spying on Ranis Drakan and Vanstrom Klause
 * Bait - Fighting the abomination
 * A Taste of Hope - Fighting Ranis Drakan
 * Vanescula - Final cutscene

Trivia

 * The title of the quest is a reference to a obtained during the RuneScape 3 quest:, the sixth installment in the Myreque questline. The book is Lord Drakan's description of the eight vampyre houses and their blood preferences described in a way of a wine connoisseur.
 * This is the first quest that is a continuation of a RuneScape 3 quest, where a continuation already exists. In RuneScape 3 the fourth installment of the Myreque questline is
 * During the fight with Ranis at Ver Sinhaza, Old Man Ral can be seen on the north side of the crowd of Meiyerditch citizens, near the noticeboard.