The Slug Menace

Starting Off
To begin, while having your Commorb in your backpack, talk with Sir Tiffy Cashien in Falador. (Without the Commorb he will begin talking about the quest but you will not be able to start it!) Along with his usual senile rantings, he'll tell you about the city of Witchaven, which has had some rather strange goings-on recently. He'll upgrade your Commorb to a Commorb v2, and tell you to check in with their local agent in Witchaven, Col. Jake O'Niall.

Witchaven
O'Niall sits on a rocking chair on the pier at the north east corner of town. Talk to him and he'll tell you that some of the people have been acting strangely recently, especially Mayor Eustace Hobb. Recently, he started looking rather sickly and working feverishly to restore the ancient, ruined shrine just west of town, between Witchaven and Ardougne. Before leaving, ask O'Niall about who the important people in town are, and he'll point out Mayor Hobb, the priest Brother Maledict, and the fisherman who helped you with the Sea Slug Quest, Holgart.

Start off by heading to Mayor Hobb's house. It's the one at the north-west side of town. Talk to him and ask him all the options you can. Start to leave the house and Savant will stop you. She'll ask you to scan the mayor, so walk back inside and click on the Commorb to scan.

Once she's finished speaking, go to the church and talk to Brother Maledict. He'll mention that he's a bit worried about some of his congregation, who have begun to act a little bit strangely lately. After asking him all of the options available, walk a little bit north and talk to Holgart, who'll tell you that the Mayor recently took his boat and gave it to another man named Jeb, standing near by. He'll also mention that the Fishing Platform looks a little bit different than before. You can go look if you want, but it's not necessary at this point.

The Shrine
Either way, report back to O'Niall again to tell him what you have found out so far. He'll suggest you go look into the shrine that the Mayor is so interested in. Walk a little west of town and climb down the ladder to get into the Shrine in question, which is also the dungeon from the quest titled Family Crest. Once you're inside, look at the minimap. You can see a red portion of wall indicating where there's a false wall that can be pushed open. Do so, and you'll be let in to a new area. Inside are some aggressive level 45 giant lobsters in a winding tunnel. Walk through it or take the Agility shortcut to get to where there's an imposing door blocking your way. Try to open them, and Savant will contact the Commorb to tell you about the strange markings on the door. Scan them for her so she can get a better look. She can't read them, but she'll give you a door transcription for you to take to Jorral, to try to find out what they mean. Before you go, make sure you grab the dead sea slug nearby. It will come in handy later. Jorral lives just north of West Ardougne right along the outside of the wall, at the Outpost. He's the one who starts the Making History quest.

Now go talk to Jorral. After some coaching from Savant on what to say, Jorral will translate the message for you. As you leave the building again, Savant will contact you again to let you know just what this new revelation entails. Head back to Witchaven again and report in with O'Niall. He'll suggest you go talk to the priest and see if he knows anything about how to open the door. As you approach the church, you'll see a brief cutscene of the Mayor leaving the church and when you go in, the priest will be looking rather ill and acting strangely. Anyway, when you ask him about the door, he'll tell you that he has a book that might be of use, but the three most important pages are missing.

For the first one, go to the Mayor's house and look in his desk to obtain Page 1. Page 2 will be given to you by Ezekial Lovecraft, the owner of the fishing store when you talk to him. For the last one, Page 3, go talk to O'Niall again. He too has taken the same look as the rest of the villagers. He'll give you the last page, but unfortunately, it has been ripped into three pieces. Therefore, you need to have 5 open spaces in your backpack for two whole pages and three fragments of the third page.

Try to put the pieces together with swamp paste and Savant will stop you - the oily tar would ruin the paper. Instead, you should try to make a glue out of the slugs. Travel to the Fishing Platform by talking to Jeb and then talk to Bailey, the man on the ground floor of the south-western building. Give him the dead slug you got earlier from the shrine, and he'll give you the sea slug glue you need. (The live ones will bite you.) Now use the glue on the pages and a puzzle will pop up.

You can move the three pieces around using the buttons on the side, turn them, and even flip them over. The easiest way to tell if you've got them all on the right side is that one side is lighter than the other. It doesn't matter which way you have it, but the light side has an image on it. When you put the pieces in their correct place, the puzzle will close automatically. The picture will give you a general idea of how they should look! Now talk to Jeb on the dock and have him take you back to Witchaven.

The Imposing Door
Now to open the final door. To do the next part, you'll need to get your chisel and at least 5 rune or pure essence. Right click on each of the three pages and select the options to make the rune essences into the following shapes:


 * A blank air rune
 * A blank water rune
 * A blank fire rune
 * A blank earth rune
 * A blank mind rune.

It is possible to fail this and break an essence, and be careful not to use the chisel on the essence or you get fragments.

Now you need to go to each of the odd shaped essences' respective altars and use them on them. Earth on the earth altar, fire on the fire altar, and so on. It is also possible to fail to enchant the shaped essence at the altar, thus destroying it. Once complete, your inventory should contain the following:


 * A special air rune
 * A special water rune
 * A special fire rune
 * A special earth rune
 * A special mind rune

Keep your pages, chisel and spare essence handy as you make your way to the various altars. Using an Amulet of Glory and the Abyss will shorten this process.

Alternatively, you can play the Great Orb Project minigame and visit the required altars without the talismans.

The Conclusion?
When that's done, head back to Ardougne and prepare for a fight. Now go back to The Shrine and up to the strange doors the same way as last time using the Agility shortcut if you can.Take commorb with you. Use each of the specially shaped runes you made on the door to trigger another cutscene. It is revealed that Mayor Hobb tricked you into opening the door so that Mother Mallum could escape. After that, you'll have to fight a level 62 slug prince. It isn't that hard to kill, although you are unable to damage it with range or magic based attacks. Arrows and magic bounce right off of it. Once you kill it, you'll be treated to another cutscene by the Mother Mallum (whom if you right-click and examine her you will get "An unspeakable horror from the depths of time."), after which you'll be teleported to Falador park, just steps away from turning the quest in by talking to Sir Tiffy. Congratulations!

Reward



 * 1 Quest Point
 * 3500 Crafting experience
 * 3500 Runecrafting experience
 * 3500 Thieving 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

Trivia

 * 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 worshipped 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 offense 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" (next quest TBA) for further briefing.
 * The character Col. Jake O'Niall is most likely based on the character Col. Jack O'Neill from TV's Stargate SG-1.
 * Mayor Hobb always slides about his room rather than walking. It is unconfirmed whether this is intentional or a strange glitch that has yet to be fixed.
 * During the Mother Mallum cutscene at the end of the quest you are unable to examine Mayor Hobb.
 * 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.
 * 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".