Icthlarin's Little Helper

Start location: Talk to the Wanderer at her camp in the Southern reaches of the desert, just North of Sophanem.

Requirements:

Items: 30 gp, Willow log, 2 Buckets, Knife, Tinderbox (NOTE: toolbelt will not work!), food and Antipoison for the pyramid, a few Waterskins, Kitten/Cat/Overgrown cat. Desert equipment is a good idea.

Suggested:

Skills: High agility helps, but is not necessary.
Level 43 prayer is also helpful.

Items: A Bag of salt from any slayer master and a Bucket of sap will save some time. Teleport runes are helpful for getting supplies, but you cannot teleport out of the hazards here.

Monsters: Possessed Priest (level 126), also a random demi-god (level 75 to 81). Run past poisonous Scarabs (level 12), and Mummies (level 84).

The start

1. Before you start (while you are still near evergreen trees) it would be helpful to get a bucket of sap by using a knife on an evergreen with a bucket in your pack. Several evergreen trees are located just west of Barbarian Village. It will be used later in the quest, but will save from having to make a trip out of the desert.

2. Start the quest by talking to the Wanderer, situated north-east of the gate to Sophanem. She reacts strangely to your cat and asks you to take it away. Ask her why and she will offer to show you a secret passage into Sophanem if you take it away. When you do so she still requires another favour of you before she shows you. Give her a full waterskin and a tinderbox. (NOTE: the toolbox on the toolbelt does not work; a separate one is required.) She hypnotises you and you find yourself near a large rock tunnel. Enter it and you will find yourself within the city.

The pyramid

3. Touch the pyramid entrance door on the pyramid south of Pyramid Plunder (near the Sphinx) and you will get a memory flashback and are teleported inside the pyramid. (NOTE: you cannot teleport out of this pyramid during a flashback, beware!) You are dizzy and have to find the jar for your mistress: you say to yourself that you must get to the centre of the pyramid. The screen moves oddly here, some people don't like the sensation.

4. To avoid the wall crushers, walk carefully up to the next one and take the diagonal path across so you can dodge them. Immediately after the wall crushers, you have to take a certain path (see picture below) to avoid invisible traps in the floor. If you trigger one, you will end up at the beginning of the pyramid, take some small damage (50-70 life points), and have to start over again.

At the end of this corridor, you can optionally solve the puzzle on the door to the east. This heals you completely.

5. Once you are through these initial traps, run past the poisonous mummies (level 84) and scarabs (level 12) that will attack you. You will need to get past some more wall crushers on a u-bend in the map. Simply zigzag (moving diagonally at the edges) like before. When you get to some columns near a large pit, take the "Jump across" option to get to the other side. You will need at least 20% Energy otherwise you will fall in and end up in an earlier part of the Pyramid. (Some players report needing 80% energy.)

Note: when you reach the pit, do not bother to continue east to the dead end - the traps are heavy and the chest contains no more than 50gp.

6. Now head westwards and try to open the door into this Burial Chamber. You will have to solve a puzzle to open the door. Flip the panels so that they show the image on your right. The hard part is that when you flip one panel, the eight panels surrounding it will also flip. When you have flipped them all to reveal the image, you will have a flashback and end up outside the pyramid. However you will have a "Canopic jar" in your inventory. Note the examine on this jar.

To the sphinx

7. Once out of the pyramid, speak to the sphinx there. Ask it for help and go through the conversation about the deities of the Menaphites. You will get a riddle about a family and sons. The correct answer is 9. The sphinx will now tell you to speak to the high priest. She will give you her token so the high priest won't ignore you.

The high priest

8. Talk to the high priest in the temple in the south-west part of town. He tells you that you should return the jar to the pyramid because you originally plundered it from the Pyramid (it's not your fault, the wanderer hypnotised you and made you do it).

Back into the pyramid

9. Get back into the pyramid with some help from your cat (Simply choose the "Open Door" option). You are heading back to the room where you solved the puzzle. Avoid the traps and zigzag past the wall crushers just like earlier. When you jump across the pit and enter the burial chamber again, you will get another flashback and be hypnotised again. Take the jar you need (it's different for each player) and fight the guardian that appears. It will be one of these four: Het (level 81), Crondis (level 75), Apmeken (level 75), or Scabaras (level 75). The guardian blocks your teleports, so you cannot teleport away.

Dropping the jar

10. As you make your way out and jump back across the pit, you snap out of your hypnosis. Return to the western burial chamber and drop the jar where you took it. Go back to the high priest. He now tells you to help the embalmer and carpenter to prepare for the ceremony.

The carpenter

11. Go to the carpenter in the south-east part of town. Tell him the High Priest needs him to make a holy symbol. Give him a willow log.

The embalmer

12. Speak to the embalmer who is directly south of the temple. He says he needs some sap, some salt and some linen for the ceremony.

• Linen - Speak to the purple hooded linen manufacturer on the east side of town and he will sell you some linen for 30 gp.
• Sap - You should already have this in your bank if you followed the directions from earlier in the guide. If not, find an evergreen and use a bucket on it while carrying a knife.
• Salt - If you bought a bag of salt from any slayer master, you are all set. Otherwise, follow these steps. Use a bucket on the salt lake just north of the city to get some salt water. To get back into Sophanem just use the city gates, you are allowed because they know you are working with the high priest. Use the full bucket on the pillar at the mirrors in the south-east part of town to evaporate the salt water. Search the pillar to get some salt.

13. Give all the items to the embalmer, who tells you to speak to the high priest again.

The holy symbol

14. The high priest now suggests that the carpenter may be done with the holy symbol. Walk back to him and watch him add the finishing touches to it; he then gives it to you.

The ceremony

15. Enter the pyramid again and proceed to the north. You will be under hypnosis once you jump across the pit again. Your holy symbol has been changed into an unholy symbol. Hide the unholy symbol in one of the sarcophagi in the eastern chamber. Don't search them or you will take damage! Exit the chamber and you will regain your memory - you must warn the priests in the pyramid about the Devourer!

16. Walk back into the eastern chamber, where the ceremony is starting. Talk to the priests, who will refuse to listen to your warnings. The Devourer appears and asks you to kill the high priest for her. You refuse and she summons a minion, a level 80 possessed priest. It fights you with spells so use the "Protect from Magic" prayer to help defeat it.

The ending

16. The priest is grateful when you have defeated the warrior. He tells you to meet him back at the temple. You get another flashback that explains some things and connects some loose ends. Walk back to the high priest to claim your reward. Talk to your cat again for some extra scenes.

• 4500 thieving xp, 4000 agility xp, 4000 woodcutting xp.
• Catspeak Amulet
• 2 Treasure Hunter keys

• Contact!
• Missing My Mummy
• Ratcatchers
• Smoking Kills
• Tail of Two Cats, A

• If you ever have to leave Sophanem and want to get back in, just enter the small cave east of the wanderer. Later on during the quest, you can enter normally via the city gates.
• Use the Magic Carpet system of Transport between Shantay Pass, Pollnivneach and Sophanem to reduce journey times. Learn about this in our Getting Around guide.
• While hypnotised and/or in the pyramid, you cannot teleport out. Dying in the hypnotised state counts as a normal death and will lose your things just as normal.
• When jumping across the gap in the pyramid, if you find yourself constantly falling despite having the 20% run energy needed, check your weight. The more you weigh, the less likely you are to complete the jump. Using the rest feature to regain full energy is also recommended.