Rag and Bone Man

RS

This quest has a quick guide found here. It briefly summarises the steps needed to complete the quest.

Rag and Bone Man
(#103)
Members only?	Yes
Release date	10 April 2006 (Update)
Quest series	None
Official difficulty	Novice
Developer	Anthony W

Details

Start point	Go east of Varrock, through the gate near the earth altar, to Paterdomus. The old man is in a little quarry just north of the path.
Official difficulty	Novice
Description	Everybody needs some body, and the Odd Old Man knows exactly which bits of those bodies he needs. Can you help him finish his extensive and extremely creepy collection?
Length	Medium
Requirements	The ability to defeat a level 27 monster.
Items required	38 coins 8 pots (one pot can be repeatedly reused) 8 logs (or an axe to obtain them) A tinderbox A covered light source A rope (if you haven't entered the Lumbridge Swamp Caves before) Recommended: A spiny helmet (unnecessary if going through the Lumbridge Castle basement, or if stopping one square before "hole in the wall"s and running past) Teleport runes to Varrock/Lumbridge Amulet of glory (charged) Digsite pendant or access to the Balloon transport system and Willow logs
Enemies to defeat	Several: see below.

Walkthrough

Starting out

Items recommended: A digsite pendant or usage of the Balloon transport system (with willow logs) for a faster route of travel to the limestone quarry

• If using the Balloon transport system, it is suggested to have the Castle Wars location unlocked due to its proximity to a balloon. Use the minigame teleport to Castle Wars, then fly to the Varrock balloon location (1 willow log required). The Odd Old Man is a fairly short distance to the east.
• Go east of Varrock, through the gate near the Earth altar as if you were travelling to Canifis (north of the Digsite). Halfway there, you will find the Odd Old Man in the limestone quarry to the north (in between the temple and Lumber Yard you will see the quest icon on your minimap along with a mine close by).
• Talk to him, and he will tell you that he needs several bones to complete his collection. Then talk to him again after getting the list to have him list every bone individually, go through the chat dialogue, where he tells you what bones you have remaining and where to get them individually, until he guides you on how to polish the bones in vinegar. If you do not speak to him and go through the entire dialogue, you will be unable to add bones to the pots of vinegar later on unless you talk to him, so doing this will efficiently save you a trip or two.

Seeking the bones

Items required: 38 gp to travel to Karamja and to buy vinegar, 8 empty pots (can be in the bank), a rope, a light source, a tinderbox, a spiny helmet if you have low combat stats (to defend yourself from Wall beasts, as they can deal 10-18 damage)

Here's a list of the creatures you need to kill to obtain bones, and their locations (Talk to the odd old man before you begin gathering and go through the entire dialogue). The special bone are very high, but not 100%, drops. (If it doesn't drop within 5-10 kills, attempt in step 6 instead.) Here is a recommended route for six of the bones starting from the quarry.

1. Run from the quarry to south-east of Varrock and kill a Giant rat inside the mine, picking up the Giant rat bone it drops in the process (can be acquired later).
2. Head slightly south of the mine, killing the Unicorn and the Black bear, picking up the Unicorn bone (can be acquired later) and the Bear ribs (ideally, keep killing the bear until you get these to drop).
3. Head into the sheep pen to the south-west of the mine, west of where the Black bear is usually, and kill rams until you get a Ram skull (can be acquired later).
4. Either teleport or just walk south towards Lumbridge, and kill Goblins on the east side of the river until you get a Goblin skull.
5. Head south-east to the graveyard and then south-west to the swamp cave (or the Lumbridge Castle basement if you have unblocked the route after Lost Tribe). From there, go down the cave using the rope (make sure you have a covered light source - not a candle - and a rope). Go west and then south and you'll see the big frog (big frogs in the Lumbridge Swamp will not work). Kill it and pick up the Big frog leg.
6. When you exit the cave, go north-west towards Draynor Village. If some of the bones did not drop in the earlier steps, kill giant rats and the unicorn along the way to Draynor, heading north when you find the unicorn to slay goblins behind Lumbridge Castle, or further north-east to kill rams where you did the Sheep Shearer quest.

This quick circuit is an easy way to get six out of the eight bones right off the bat.

Head to Draynor Village to purchase 8 (or 35 if intending to do Rag and Bone Man II as well, to save time) jugs of vinegar after speaking to Fortunato at his stall in the town square. Do not steal from the market stall or he won't talk to you. Withdraw your eight pots from the bank, and use the vinegar on the empty pots eight times until you have eight pots of vinegar. You may use the bones you have gathered so far on the pots of vinegar to save inventory space. This is also a good opportunity to withdraw your Digsite pendant, tinderbox, eight logs (or axe) for later on.

The next two items:

1. If you have a Amulet of glory, use it to teleport to Karamja. If not, head to Port Sarim, and pay the fare for a ship to Karamja. Kill a monkey on your way to the Karamja Volcano (pick up the Monkey paw).
2. Head into the volcano and kill a giant bat, picking up the giant bat wing.

Bone		Monster	Location
	Goblin skull	Goblin	Near Lumbridge, south of Varrock, west of Al Kharid and north of Ardougne.
	Big frog leg	Big frog	In the Lumbridge Swamp Caves, south of fairy ring ajq (the big frogs on the surface of the Lumbridge Swamp do not drop it. Also, giant frogs do not drop it either.)
	Bear ribs	Bear	South of Varrock, above Varrock Sewer, or north of Falador. Bears near Ardougne also work.
	Ram skull	Ram	South of Varrock, or north of the Crafting Guild (by the Make-over mage), as well as in the Fisher Realm after finding Sir Percival.
	Unicorn bone	Unicorn	South of Varrock, west of Catherby, Draynor Village and Lumbridge Swamp, south of Edgeville, or on Entrana, west from the Law altar.
	Monkey paw	Monkey	South Karamja (right next to fairy ring CKR), east of the Karamja Volcano, Ardougne Zoo (if you choose to go to Ardougne Zoo, you must bring ranged and/or magic equipment and have 33 Magic for Telekinetic Grab).
	Giant rat bone	Giant rat	South-east of Varrock, Varrock Sewer, Lumbridge Swamp, west of the south-east Varrock mine, near the Port Sarim Jail and the Barrows tunnel (not recommended unless going there for other reasons)
	Giant bat wing	Giant bat	Yanille dungeon or south-west of Catherby, Heroes' Guild, outside Keep Le Faye (north of fairy ring BLR), or Crandor and Karamja Dungeon.

Polishing the bones

If you haven't already, put all of the bones into the pots of vinegar by using them on each other. Note: Be very careful that you do not accidentally empty the bone in vinegar, as you'll have to acquire the bone all over again.

An example of how an inventory looks like before heading back to the Odd Old Man.

• Go back to the old man taking the eight bones in vinegar, a tinderbox and eight logs. Or alternatively, bring an axe instead of logs; there are trees near the Odd Old Man at the bottom of the stairs where logs can be cut. Any type of logs works for this quest, provided you have the firemaking level to light the logs.
• To polish the bones, use a log on the pot-boiler next to the Odd Old Man, then use a bone in vinegar on the pot boiler, and finally use your tinderbox to light it (you will not receive experience for lighting logs). It takes 12 seconds for each pot to boil. Repeat this for all eight bones.

Finishing up

Talk to the Odd Old Man, and give him the polished bones to complete the quest.

Rewards

• 1 Quest point
• 500  Cooking experience
• 500  Prayer experience

Required for completing

Completion of Rag and Bone Man is required for the following:

• Rag and Bone Man II

Trivia

• Rag-and-bone man is a British phrase for a junk dealer. Historically, the phrase referred to an individual who would travel the streets of a city with a horsedrawn cart, and would collect old rags (for converting into fabric and paper), bones for making glue, scrap iron and other items, often trading them for other items of limited value.