The Lumbridge Catacombs… what can I say that will express the boon that this dungeon is to new players who want to level up quickly and be well on their way to starting on the path to Runescape riches?

There has been nothing like this in the 9 years that I have been playing. I, as you may know, am level 106- and I have been hanging out in the final chamber of the catacombs for the last week!

  Just today in my session battling “Corpse Mages” (level 15 mind you), I collected:

1,160 bronze arrows (dropped 40 at a time ) 8 Staves of Air (which I sell at the grand exchange for about 1 k ea.-they can also be sold at the staff shop in Varrock)  2 Fire Talismans (I sell those for thousands of GP ea) 2 ea. air and water Talismans (thousands more GP ) 3 Amulets of Defense, several hundred Air and Fire Runes, and about 5,000 Gold Coins (dropped in increments of 250 ea.)…

So in about an hour and a half I cleared over 20 k worth of stuff that I sold and I kept the Runes and arrows… this doesn’t even count the endless gold rings,amulets and necklaces and other plentiful drops that I left laying on the floor! And these are level 15 monsters I’m talking about!

To access this treasure trove you must complete the new quest The Blood Pact . This quest will be added soon to the Quest guide on this site.

 This little Picture from my last post shows where the actual entrance to the Sewers is, so refer to the previous post for details if you find yourself clueless how to get in here.

So once you are here you can see the progression from easy training to quite dangerous.(For the lower level players that is) If you are truly a noob, which is to me around level 15 or less, then you may not be ready for even the level 13 zombies. If this is the case, you may be quite literally be able to stay in the first “Rat Room” and level up to where you need to be to move on. Giant Rats offer their own food - rat flesh - and bones on which to raise up prayer. Other than that they offer no real drops, but they do give that ever-important experience. So have at them, just be sure you know where the entrance is so you can make a run for it if need be. Now lets go kill some nasty little beasts and we’ll move onto the Zombies next!

    OK all you glorious Noobs out there in your Iron Armor! Time to grow some cajones and get away from the safety of training on Goblins and Woods Spiders and get down to the business of Dungeoning! Though technically not a dungeon, the SEWERS OF VARROCK are still underground and still go from easy to hard monsters in a linear fashion. That is to say that if the going gets too tough, you can head back the way you came in relative safety.

The main thing to remember is that when going out to train, be prepared! Be prepared of course with food and maybe teleportation runes or methods, but also be prepared… to Die! Because believe me- it can happen where you least expect it. Say you are in the sewers slaying away at Skeletons near your level- you get carried away with chatting with someone and have run out of food- suddenly you are trying to click your way back to the beginning and you accidentally click on “attack” on some creature in the halls- next thing you know you get your “free trip to Lumbridge” (via death lol ) and lose all the loot youve collected!

So be aware of remaining food and hitpoints at all times. And dont carry anything you would not want to lose other than in your safe 3 most valuable items slots.

That is to say don’t wear your new party hat with rune armor-you will lose something good!  Save your fancy stuff for showing off while you mine or fish or whatnot-training below ground is the time to play it safe with your valuables.

Above is the entrance to the Sewers. Bring Food and Armor and anything you think you will need and let’s go do some training.

For Saradomin’s sake! Put on some Shoes! After all, we are about to take a trip down memory lane, and in Varrock that means some dangerous treading! Hey Cats and kittens-Havokslinger here, your favorite level 106 Melee maddened old timer! In our last visit we started at the central fountain, once (and still to some extent) the hang-out of many high level old-school players and PKs. It’s still a good place to get an earful about the general goings on on the Runescape scene. Especially those of us eternally on the free worlds….

First stop on the tour VARROCK CASTLE !

Yes, the overhauled and re-decorated halls of glory. I thought I would take a rest by the throne of this great king. Note how he hides out while Havok is in tha’ house! OK I’m losing my mind- but these are some great digs…

There’s a lot to see in this Castle of Varrock, but please, let us each take our own tour of the Castle itself on our own time shall we? Yes, It brings back memories of a time when Runescape was in 2d and these castle walls were drab indeed. Some good old fashioned virtual re-decorating has brought some well needed vigor into the political capital here in  the most widely known and respected city in all of the great Kingdom of Asgarnia !

 OK, so there’s only one other City and a village in the Kingdom, but by the gods, she truly is one of the great (if not the greatest) City in all of runescape! (You hear that Camelot??)

So lets move on from this good castle and go get our hands dirty! We’ll stroll to right outside the castle walls and check out a great training area for you up-and-coming warriors and mages and rangers…THE SEWERS OF VARROK….Next!

Since playing this game for coming pretty close to ten years, even on my brief stint as a Member, this fountain areahas been a hangout for often the elite characters to gather around and chat and show off their “good” stuff. In the old days before the advent of Varrock’s GRAND EXCHANGE trading center that changed the whole face of runescape -the banks (especially the North Bank!!) and this fountain area were so thick with people on certain worlds that you couldnt even see yourself in the dense crowds!

Needless to say, The Grand Exchange has made buying and selling goods of all qualities infinitely easier and safer, and much more fair. Don’t tell that to the people who often used to gather in Varrock to make millions- by padding the prices of everything and just plain ripping off naive noobs! lol

Yes, “Merchanting”, as some folks liked to call it was absolutely the best way to make cash on members or free worlds. Now, by best, I simply mean the fastest way to turn your hard won items into a decent amount of cash. I personally never did it very much as I had not the patience to stand around hawking my goods. I was a mining junkie for some time and made enough cash to get what I needed and still do!. But, I digress…lol.

 Now I’d like to take a look at this City compared to what it used to be, me having taken an almost yearlong hiatus, I want to appreciate all the new wonders of… VARROCK!

Here’s the fortune tellers tent. Once a drab tent filled with a drab little woman, we now have this fine Persian affair (Omar the Tent-maker would be proud!) And inside our seer-saying young lady has a tricked out Crystal Ball and is very animated indeed!

 As a younger player (Since 2001) Varrock was for me also a hang out, on the east side of the Castle, JUST beyond the Wilderness border ( There was no Warning Trench then ) for Player Killing. Lol, if you want to call it that- mostly dueling with other mid-level lamos like myself sparring for experience points or to see who would “Own” the other one. Do people still say “I owned you!” ? Anyway, the Wildy situation has so drastically changed that the once crowded area east of the castle is now a barely noticed patch on the way to the wilderness from Varrock. So let’s go check it out!

Next- A stroll through Varrock !!

 Beware the…ANKOU… Yea, we wish they looked that cool. Someday…Actually below is the real face of these jelly covered skeletons that are the highest level creatures west of MemberSippi(lol). I love these guys for training for a few reasons.

One is that once you are inside their gate, they will continually attack you one after the other until you have been there for a while, so there’s no running back and forth and trying to beat someone else to the punch like when training on Lessers.

Beware!! These creatures are high level and will tear you up if you are not careful!

If you are just here to get the FOURTH part of the Sceptre, explore deep enough into the labyrinth to encounter a few Ankou at a time. Yeah, easy for me to say. It would be advisable if you are a lower level player to, well - how do I put it… bring your big brother or a hearty friend or two along to engage the Ankou that will be a-kickin’ your ass while you are waiting for one of them to drop your Sceptre piece. Some of the rooms are mixed with ghosts and other critters, but unless you are training as well, stay away from the Ankou-filled room to the north. But those of you higher level folk-that’s the room you want to be in for skelt slaying mania.

 These guys also drop a  grip  of decent stuff, especially LAW Runes! This is the place to collect them if you are up to the task.

So keep killing these slimy bastards until they give up the LAST piece of your soon to be Skull Sceptre! Below is an overview of putting all of your pieces together. (Thanks Sal)

Use the “invoke” option on the Sceptre to get teleported to the center of Barbarian Village while you are wielding the Sceptre.

OK Guys and Dolls, now it’s going to get rough if you are not around at least level 40 or so. But if you are being daring or you just don’t want to die - make sure that at this point you are carrying food that replenishes alot of HP and some teleport runes.

The first obstacle is a room full of level 50 Spiders! Luckily there are no poisonous Spiders on free worlds as of yet, so you can basically just run through the room and endure only a few points worth of damage. I just want to point out at this time that for you higher level players these Spiders are a great way to train to raise up Attk. Str. or Def. because they are high level but pretty easy to kill - Though they drop no loot, these scuttling arachnids are just ripe with experience points.

  Just keep pushing on past the funky “question” doorways until you get to the area shown below. Then press on, into the large cavern where you,ll meet the creatures who drop the THIRD part of the Sceptre, the TOP.

 There are alot of rather goofy names used on Runescape, but prepare to encounter one of the lamest-named creatures on the game…

Enter…CATABLEPON… Yes, that’s right Catablepon. Not sure the origins of that name, but these fellows do pack a punch as well as draining your STRENGTH stat by about 10 percent so beware! Though these odd critters drop pretty boring stuff, (water and body runes for example) the exp. is pretty good and this is where to pick up that third section of the staff. Plus the scenery makes for a nice change of visuals when you get tired of training elsewhere.

 So go after them, and when you get what you need, it’s time to go a level deeper and get some slimy skeletons for the fourth and final piece of our Skull Sceptre!

  Now the going gets a bit rough for lower level players! Find your way down to the second level of the dungeon. There are lots of Zombies in the initial chambers of this level. Ignore them for now and head toward the deeper rooms in the maze-like catacombs. eventually you will see the occasional spiderish/scorpionish Flesh crawlers.

These creatures that drop the second component of the Sceptre are extremely aggressive and will attack relentlessly upon entering their territory! So take lots of food if you have trouble with creatures of level 35. Again you will have to go through the maze and the question doors ( Though thank god you no longer have to answer the questions every time once you have made it through the same questions! ) to get to the small room where this screenshot was taken. You need not get all the way here, but your odds of getting a Sceptre drop are much better in here.

These ugly bastards do not drop the greatest loot, but if you are of a level that can handle them easily they are great experience. As with all aggressive critters, you needn’t click on them to attack constantly, they come at you and you can just kick back and eat and pick up drops as necessary. So just let the slaughter begin and soon you will get the second part of your Sceptre.

 So you’re ready to collect the pieces to create your very own Skull Sceptre, huh? Well I hope you’re up to the task! There are some pretty nasty critters running around in the Security Dungeon. These fellows here are pretty much cupcakes (level 12) though, so start here to find the first part of the Sceptre. These guys are found on the first level of the dungeon, so find your way around the maze (past the level 13 Goblins) and through the question doors to get to where there are a pretty good number of them running around-it may take killing quite a few to get the skull right half  from the Minotaurs.

 The only real use for the Sceptre however is for an easy teleport to Barbarian Village. You simply activate your Completed Sceptre and you will appear at the opening to the caverns.

 Also, the thing looks pretty neat to carry around and show off, if you are into that type of thing.

So having said that- If you are going to take advantage of the only way to teleport to this area available on the free worlds- I suggest building multiple Sceptres and storing them in your bank, so that when you decide to train here you can easily blink back after replenishing food and dropping off the loot you’ve gathered while in the depths of the dungeon.

******* ADDENDUM: SINCE THIS POST WAS WRITTEN, THE PROPERTIES OF THE SKULL SCEPTRE HAVE CHANGED, ORIGINALLY EACH COMPLETED SCEPTRE ONLY HAD 5 TELEPORT CHARGES TO BARBARIAN VILLAGE, AND THEN YOU HAD TO ASSEMBLE A NEW ONE. 

JAGEX IN ITS WONDEROUS NEW WAVE OF CONSTANT UPDATES, HAS MADE THE SKULL SCEPTRE MUCH BETTER IN THAT IT’S TELEPORTATION POWERS ARE NOW UNLIMITED, AND YOU MAY ONLY POSESS ONE AT A TIME- SO PLEASE DISREGARD THE ABOVE ADVICE ABOUT COLLECTING MULTIPLE SCEPTRES. *******

So, assuming that you know how to get to Barbarian Village (If not, consult your world map) climb down the opening to the dungeon, which is directly in front of the Tavern there in the village, find the Minotaurs and begin the slaughter.

Kill, kill, kill until one drops the first section of your Sceptre.

P.S.-Minotaurs are also an EXCELLENT place to collect Iron Arrows, they drop batches of them very often and it takes no time at all to gather a quiver full of free arrows!!

Next-Flesh Crawlers!

   Well fellas, I just took my first trip to a Player Versus Player world… It is complete and utter MADNESS ! Lol, I of course went in unarmed after reading about the new change where you are automatically skulled when you log in. Now, I didn’t get a chance to play before this went into effect, but it had to be better. This seems to me to be a PKers wet dream ! Even more diabolical and dangerous than when the Wildy was the place to do your PKing. I lasted all of about 5 minutes before I was teamed by a wandering group - now I’m level 106, and granted, I was armorless, but it seems to me that the only way to remotely have a chance at survival is to go in with a well armed team of friends. I’m going to do some more reading up on the whole concept and then go back in to explore the madness further. Any tips out there would be welcome……MADNESS!