The Hand in the Sand

Development team

 * Developer: Marion C
 * Graphics: James W
 * Quality Assurance: Daniel G
 * QuestHelp: Dave O
 * Audio: Ian T

Lend a hand

 * Travel to Yanille, and talk to Bert. He can be found north of the Dragon Inn and east of the house portal, in a house with cooking-range, water-source, and quest-start symbols. He tells you that he found a hand buried in the sand.
 * Ask him why he hasn't told the authorities. He tells you the captain is drunk most of the time and asks if you could help him.
 * Agree, and Bert gives you the sand-covered hand. He suggests that the smelly hand will get the guard captain's attention.
 * Dash over to the Dragon Inn, (south of Bert), and talk to the drunk Guard Captain.
 * Give him a beer, and he takes a gulp and then asks what you want.
 * Tell him about the hand Bert found. You have a rambling conversation with the captain and then hand him the hand. He drops it in his beer—turning it into a Beer soaked hand—gives it back, and suggests you go talk to the wizards.
 * Go to the Wizards' Guild (east of the inn), and ring the bell to have Zavistic Rarve come out.
 * Talk to him about the hand, and ask if all his wizards are accounted for. After examining the hand, he tells you that this is the hand of Clarence, one of his student wizards. He asks you to help and find out why Bert's been working long hours.

Tracking down Sandy

 * Return to Bert's home, and talk to him again. He tells you he works for Sandy Sand Co., based in Brimhaven. He gives you a copy of his schedule and tell you that it hasn't changed recently—or so he thinks.
 * Head to Sandy in Brimhaven. A quick way to get there is teleport to Ardougne, head to the dock south-east of town, and pay Captain Barnaby 30 coins. Sandy is located in the office just north of the Dead Man's Chest bar and south of ScarFace Pete's mansion.
 * Talk to him first if you want—he acts a bit brusque if you do—but you don't need to. Search Sandy's desk in the office to get Sandy's rota and Bert's rota.
 * Read it, and compare it to Bert's schedule to see that Bert has indeed been working longer hours.
 * While you're there, equip some gloves, and pickpocket Sandy. It may take multiple attempts before you find a small amount of sand in his pocket. Keep it, for it will become important later on in the quest.

To tell the truth

 * Make your way back to Bert in Yanille, and talk to him. Tell him his hours did indeed change a week ago, but Bert has no memory of it. He wonders if the wizards at the guild might be responsible for his memory loss and mentions a scroll that appeared a week ago. You ask if you can take a look at the scroll. It appears normal, but do not throw it out.
 * Head back to the Wizards Guild, talk to Zavistic Rarve, and show him the scroll. Ravre tells you the scroll is used in a mind-altering spell. He gives you a magical scrying orb, and tells you to get some Truth Serum from Betty in Port Sarim. You then will be ready to ask Sandy a few questions.
 * Grab a vial, redberries, whiteberries, and a (bullseye) lantern lens.
 * Either make your own way to Betty's Magic Emporium in Port Sarim or take the items plus a second empty vial back to Zavistic Rarve and he will teleport you directly to Betty's shop.
 * Talk to Betty and give her an empty vial. She gives you back a bottled water and instructs you how to make a Rose-tinted lens.
 * Add redberries to the water to make redberry juice, and then add white berries to make pink dye. Once made, use it on your lantern lens to craft a rose-tinted lens.
 * Talk to Betty again.
 * Then, stand in her open doorway and shine your lens on her desk as she pours serum into a vial to make truth serum. To do, stand in the correct place and use the Rose-tinted lens on the counter to focus the light on the vial Betty places there.
 * Talk to Betty again, who says you need something personal from Sandy or else the serum won't work. You hand Betty the sand you found in Sandy's pocket, and she sprinkles it in the serum, which fizzes. She recommends you dilute the serum in something like tea or coffee or else bad things might happen, such as "bits might drop off." You can talk to Captain Tobias or one of his young sailors on the Port Sarim docks to sail to Karamja for 30 coins, and then head west to Brimhaven.
 * Talk to Sandy, and select an astonishing option to distract him.
 * Use the serum on Sandy's Coffee Mug while he turns to look out the window.
 * Now, activate your orb and talk to Sandy. He confesses that he changed Bert's schedule and bribed a wizard to put a spell on Bert so he would believe everything Sandy said. He then admits to killing the wizard so he wouldn't have to pay him and putting his body in a load of sand.

Handing off Clarence



 * Return to Yanille, and talk again with Zavistic Rarve. You hand him the orb and watch as the recording is played back.
 * Talk to him again, and tell him you've brought five earth runes and a bucket of sand. You see a short cutscene where he casts a spell on Bert's sandbox so that it will magically refill. He asks you to check the Entrana sandpit to see if you can find more bits of Clarence.
 * Head to Entrana. You can get to Entrana by talking to the monks at the Port Sarim docks. There is a deposit box there, and a bank in Draynor nearby. (Remember you cannot bring any weapons or armour, including the Explorer's ring, familiars, and special ability scrolls.) You may, however, bring runes so that you may immediately teleport to Ardougne or the Watchtower (or even teleport to your house, if your house is in Yanille) after checking the sand pit.
 * Talk to Mazion by the sand pit (it's just west of the dock), and ask if he has any body parts. He tells you he has and hands you the wizard's head.
 * Return to Yanille one last time, talk to Zavistic Rarve, and give him the decapitated head. He confirms it's Clarence and says he will be buried today. He also tells you guards are on their way to arrest Sandy.

Congratulations! Quest complete.

Reward



 * 1 quest point


 * Able to buy pink dye from Betty
 * A secret reward from Bert: He simply loves sand, and wasn't in the job for the money. He will ship 84 buckets of sand to your bank if you talk to him after the quest. This can be done once per 24 hours. Clicking on the quest's name will give you the time left before you can ask him again. This number is increased to 120 after completing Ardougne Diary elite section.

Required for Completing

 * Ardougne Diary Medium Tasks
 * Back to my Roots
 * Falador Diary Hard Tasks
 * While Guthix Sleeps

Trivia

 * When dropping the head given from Mazion, Talking to him again will cause your character to scream "I've lost my head!"
 * During the quest, the player's character is constantly making bad puns about hands, such as "Do you have any information about the matter at hand?"
 * Bert says "Idle hands'r Zamorak's tools". This is most likely a reference to the saying "Idle hands are the devil's tools" said to children meaning that children are more likely to get into trouble when they feel bored and have nothing to do.
 * When Zavistic Rarve says 'Alas, poor Clarence, I knew him well', it is a reference to the Shakespeare play Hamlet ('Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio', often misquoted as 'Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well').
 * When you ring the bell to call Zavistic Rarve there are 2 of him—one inside and one talking to you.
 * When you activate the Magical orb right when you get it, the text will say "Nothing interesting happens!" instead of "Nothing interesting happens."
 * When you talk to Mazion he says he 'likes to be ahead of things' right before you are given the head.
 * If and when you give Zavistic Rarve a vial to teleport you to Port Sarim, the teleport is in the old style where one would shrink in a purple light, not fly upwards in a pillar of light.
 * The rest of the dead wizard's body will be found during and after the Back to my Roots quest.