Branches of Darkmeyer, The

Start location: Veliaf Hurtz underneath the pub in Burgh de Rott.

Requirements:

Items: Hatchet, combat gear and some food

Monsters: Captured Meiyerditch citizen (level 2), Bloodveld leecher (level 50), Harold (level 140), Vanstrom Klause (level 140), Bloodveld guardian (level 140), Vanescula Drakan (level 150)

Start
Items Required: None
Items Suggested: None

1. Speak with Veliaf, who will inform you of an impending danger. Lord Drakan has assigned the task of eliminating the Myreque to none other than Vanstrom Klause, and citizens have reported the sighting of a shadowy figure roaming Burgh de Rott. Veliaf will ask you to investigate a cave entrance located south of the Burgh de Rott bank. Accept this task to begin the quest.

2. Go to the cave entrance a few steps south of the bank, and enter. You will find yourself in an ornate, vampyric burial chamber with a letter on the floor. Pick up the letter and search the coffin on the west side of the room. You will take a negligible 10 damage as you open the coffin and discover a mysterious medallion. Keep this medallion as it will be highly useful for transportation throughout the quest. The decayed tome on the east side can be read for more historical information.

3. Return to Veliaf and show him both the letter and medallion. According to Veliaf, the medallion is an ancient symbol of Drakan, filled with dark energy. He believes the letter was planted by Vanstrom to lure the Myreque. He will ask you to take the letter to its intended recipient, Safalaan. Veliaf will offer to teleport you to the Meiyerditch base immediately. Once you arrive, head to the northern room to speak with Safalaan. Show him both the medallion and the letter. He will add the base as a medallion teleport destination, and read the letter in shock. The letter speaks of his visions, which he thought nobody knew about. The letter calls for a meeting, but you suggest it could be a trap. Safalaan asks you to go in his place.

The Meeting
Items Required: None
Items Suggested: None

4. Head to the exit in the south of the base and climb up the ladder. Go up the stairs and jump across the gap into the next building. Climb down the ladder and walk west to the black sickle on the wall and then walk south into the building with the single bucket spawn. Climb the ladder in the room with the portrait and fireplace.

A short cutscene will play in which two vyrewatch attempt to take a large blood tithe from you, but they let you go as they think you are "the one," foreshadowing ominous things to come. Jump over the western wall into the next building, and go down the stairs. Head north-west into the room with Vertida Sefalatis and the white sickle image.

5. Talk to Vertida and he will instruct you to climb to the floor above. Climb up and then stand on the lookout point by the white sickle image and a cutscene will begin. A strange little girl, Nessie, will appear in the clearing. Speak with her and she will seem to already know who you are. Ask her what she is doing here, and she will say a scary vampyre told her to stay there. After some conversation, the little girl will transform into the powerful Vanescula Drakan (level 150), Lord Drakan's sister. The observing Myreque will tell you to look out and prepare for a fight. Vanescula will subdue you as you try to attack. Talk again, and she will say she is actually offering help, claiming that Drakan no longer deserves his position as lord of Morytania, as things are starting to fall apart under his rule. Converse with her, and she will reveal that a special tree, the Blisterwood tree, exists in the vampyre city of Darkmeyer. Weapons crafted from the Blisterwood would be extremely lethal to vampyres. With this offer, Vanescula hands you a letter. Take the letter back to Safalaan, using the medallion teleport for quick transportation.

Investigating Darkmeyer
Items Required: Smoke bomb (obtained from crates in the Myreque base)
Items Suggested: None

6. Give the letter to Safalaan and he will ask you to verify Vanescula's information by venturing into Darkmeyer. Speak with Vertida, and he will tell you about a weakness in Darkmeyer's walls: a drainage grate on the eastern wall. As you leave, collect smoke bombs from the crates near the exit ladder.

7. While you can follow the directions you are given, you can save a little time by using your teleport medallion to teleport to the Meiyerditch laboratories. Walk upstairs and exit the building, and run north until you reach the drainage grate. Squeeze through it to infiltrate Darkmeyer.

8. Vanescula will be waiting for you. Speak with her and she will tell you that the Blisterwood tree is well guarded in the city. Vanescula's protection over you from vyrewatch will not work in this area, so you will need to utilise the smoke bombs to stay hidden. You will need to collect Darkmeyer clothing to be able to fully blend in. Vanescula will give you a needle and thread to allow you to repair any worn clothing you find.

Smoke bombs will protect you from juvinates for approximately 13 seconds, but vyrewatch will still be able to detect you as you navigate. Enter the large building with the four coffins and two chests (Building 1). Search the chests to find a Darkmeyer hood. Repair the hood, and, using a smoke bomb, move north-east to the building with two coffins and two chests (Building 2), and find the Darkmeyer legs. You will need to use a smoke bomb to avoid the juvinates once the patrolling vyrewatch has left the area. Repair the legs and, using another smoke bomb, move north to another building with two coffins and two chests (Building 3). You will find Darkmeyer boots. After repairing those, head to the eastern building (Building 4) with four coffins and two chests. You will find the last piece of the Darkmeyer outfit. Head back to speak with Vanescula.

Gaining Status in the Middle Tier
Items Required: Darkmeyer outfit
Items Suggested: None

9. Vanescula will tell you that only recognised vyre inhabitants can reach the Blisterwood tree. Therefore, you will need to do various tasks to gain reputation. She will give you her blood mark, which, combined with the Darkmeyer outfit, will allow you to blend in completely. Head to the middle tier of the city, which is north of Building 4, and speak with the vyrewatch walking around the area.

You will have to create your own vampyre name. It does not matter what name you choose. Speak with specifically named vyrewatches (not sentinels) to receive various tasks. You may complete the tasks in any order. Vanescula is located at the blue dot, who will direct you to one of the task-givers, Valentina.

• Sanguinus Varnis (1): he will ask you to vandalise four posters in the middle tier. These posters are spread out evenly throughout the area, and you should draw whatever addition that makes the poster look more silly, such as drawing a mustache versus red eyes. Poster locations are marked with orange dots on the map. You will earn 5 status points per poster if you make it look silly, but only 4 if you choose the other option, and three more when you speak with Varnis after the job is done.
• Grigan Kaninus (2): he has lost the bloodveld younglings he was supposed to exercise, and needs you to retrieve them. The younglings will be wandering both the middle and lower tiers. You will gain one status point per youngling captured, for a maximum potential of six. These creatures appear randomly and are not all visible at once. Keep your eyes out for them as you do other tasks.
• Taunt the Prisoner (3): a woman prisoner is in the cell on the north-east section of the middle tier. Converse with her and taunt her (choose the evil dialogue option: quiet rat, blood tithe, your husband is dead, we should dispose of her). You will gain four status points for every successful taunt.
• Valentina Kaust (4): she will offer to have a drink with you, giving you some fine quality blood. When drinking it, you will lose half of your life points, but you will gain up to a hefty twenty-five respect points.

Once you have gained enough status to fill the blood vial halfway, you will be able to access the upper tier.

Gaining Status in the Upper Tier
Items Required: Darkmeyer outfit
Items Suggested: Wolfbane - depending on which option you choose

10. Head far west in the middle tier and go south up the staircase. You are now in the upper tier of Darkmeyer. To gain more status, you will have to do more tasks.

• Misdrievus Vakan (1): he desires entertainment and wants you to punch the human blood tither walking around. Approach the tither and punch him, gaining you twelve status points. Speak with Misdrievus again and he will say you should watch what happens when he needs to give his tithe sample. Enter the western hall with the tithe master, and a cutscene will take place. The tithe master will ask you to testify against the human's claims, and you should respond by lying and saying you saw nothing, and that he should die. You will gain twenty-four status points.
• Sentinel (2): talk to any sentinel, and they will ask about your opinions of Vanstrom Klause and Lord Drakan. Since, according to the sentinel, you have to be loyal to nobody in the upper tier, the more disloyal and critical your opinion is, the more status points you will earn.
• Vanescula (3): speak with Vanescula, and she will tell you about her suspicious brother. She will also require you to swear loyalty to the Drakan family. Agree to do so, and a cutscene will start. Repeat everything Vanescula says accurately, and you will receive four status points.
  
  
  
• Kill the Meiyerditch Citizens (4): go into the prison and talk to the guard. He will challenge you on how many prisoners you can kill. Go inside and kill all the citizens. You will earn two status points per kill.
  OR
  Collect Debt: you can refuse to kill the citizens and instead offer to collect money owed to the guard in order to purchase some blood. The guard will specify which blood types he wants you to purchase - remember these. Bring the Wolfbane dagger with you and speak to the Canifis settler in the lower tier to collect the debt. Wandering north of the jail with the Meiyerditch Citizens in the upper tier is a Darkmeyer blood trader. Purchase the two vials of blood of correct blood type. Take these back to the guard to receive twenty status points.

You will be notified when you have enough status to access the arboretum.

The Arboretum
Items Required: Darkmeyer outfit, Hatchet, Mysterious medallion
Items Suggested: None

11. Attempt to enter the Arboretum, and Ranis will stop you. He has noticed your rapid gain in status, and allegiance to Vanescula, and requires an oath of loyalty to him as well. Accept his request and you will take some damage. You can then enter the arboretum.

12. Check the health of the tree and you will find it needs to be fed water, light, and nutrition energy, in that order (blue, orange, then green). Pull the lever on the eastern wall, and you will need to solve a puzzle. You can move four energies at a time, rotating them around in two by two square segments. Move around the energies until they are arranged as shown in the solutions below.

Check the tree's health again, and you will need to feed it nutrition, water, light, and then more nutrition (green, blue, orange, and green). Pull the lever again and arrange the energies as shown in the solutions below.

The following puzzle is more complicated. Some restrictions have been added to energy arrangement:

• Water energies (blue) cannot touch each other horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
• Nutrition energies (green) cannot touch each other horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
• Water (blue) and nutrition (green) energies can touch each other.
• Light energy (orange) can touch anything.

As a result, multiple solutions are possible. A sample is provided in the solutions below. Arrange the energies so that all the conditions are followed, and then pull the lever.

Check the tree's health again, and you will find that the conditions for the last puzzle have changed.

• Light energy (orange) cannot touch water energy (blue) horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
• Light energies (orange) can touch each other.
• Water energies (blue) can touch each other.
• Nutrition energy (green) can touch anything.

Follow the conditions and pull the lever. A sample is provided in the solutions below.

Puzzle 1
Puzzle 2
Puzzle 3
Puzzle 4

13. The tree will break free of its ropes, allowing you to chop some wood from it. After doing so, a cutscene will begin, and Vanescula will kill her brother Ramis Drakan. Walk out into the hallway to speak with Vanescula. She will warn you that now, with Ramis' death, Vanstrom will be even more furious. She also informs you that Vanstrom knows the location of the Myreque base in Meiyerditch. She will add a teleport to Darkmeyer onto your medallion and teleport you out of the city.

Confronting Vanstrom Klause
14. Teleport to the Myreque underground base using your medallion and speak to one of the members in the northern room. A meeting will take place, where you will report your findings, and eventually, you will be tasked with killing Vanstrom Klause yourself. Speak to Vertida, who will tell you about creating blisterwood weapons. Using his knife and Kael's two sickles, create a blisterwood staff, a polearm and stakes. Then use your medallion to teleport to Darkmeyer.

Bank Darkmeyer	Required: Blisterwood weapons
	Suggested: Weapon, armour, food, potions

15. It is advised to stop by the Blisterwood tree and cut yourself some extra wood to fletch into more stakes, as you only have ten from the weapons Vertida asked you to create. Enter Vanstrom's house (the large building south of the Arboretum), and you will face Harold (level 140), one of Vanstrom's bloodveld. Splash holy water on the creature, and you will be able to kill it with conventional weapons. Once Harold falls, go back to the bank, and restock for the final fight with Vanstrom (once you start the fight you cannot leave the room until you either die or beat Vanstrom).

16. Prepare for a tough fight. After a brief conversation about the woes you have apparently caused the Myreque, Vanstrom will attack. You will need to use a blisterwood weapon to fight him. He has multiple attacks and you should respond to them quickly as listed below:

• Melee and magic attacks: standard prayers will protect you from the majority of the damage from these attacks, but you will want to prioritise magic protection over melee if you can't switch prayers quickly.
• Blood bombs: Vanstrom will frequently place blood pools on various floor tiles. While he is doing this, run constantly, avoiding the blood tiles. If you are too close after a few seconds, you will take heavy damage.
• Freeze: Occasionally during blood attacks, Vanstrom will freeze you on the spot for a few seconds.
• Darkness: Vanstrom will charge up in the middle of the room and unleash a powerful attack. Move your camera angle away from him to avoid taking damage.
• Summon bloodvelds: Vanstrom will summon two bloodveld to heal him. Kill them before they reach him to prevent this from happening.

When Vanstrom is at low health, he will disappear into a cloud of mist. This will deal small but rapid damage. Throw the bottle of holy water near the cloud to damage him back.

Repeat this until he yells out in defeat. As he dies, he will unleash a final retribution attack, removing a large portion of your life points.

17. When Vanstrom dies, he will summon multiple bloodveld guardians (level 140) to avenge him. Vanescula will appear her servant, Sarius. You will assume control of Vanescula to defeat the bloodveld. The shriek attack is most effective, as it targets every bloodveld and hits massive damage. It's most efficient to use shriek over and over, but feel free to play around with all other attacks. The bloodveld will do very little damage to you. After all the bloodveld are dead you will be teleported back to the Myreque base.

18. Speak with Vertida, and you will discuss your victory as well as the disappearance of Safalaan. A cutscene will play, showing that Vanescula has come to his aid in harnessing the power of his Icyene blood. After the conversation, teleport back to Burgh de Rott, report to Veliaf what has occurred, and you will complete the quest. Congratulations!

• 20,000 Agility XP
• 50,000 Woodcutting XP
• 20,000 Farming XP
• 40,000 Fletching XP
• 20,000 Crafting XP
• 25,000 Slayer XP
• 35,000 Magic XP
• 3x 50,000 XP tomes
• Access to Darkmeyer
• Ability to fletch Blisterwood Weapons (Staff, Polearm, and Stakes - 70 Fletching Required for each)
• Darkmeyer Vyrewytch disguise
• Drakan's medallion, to quick travel around Morytania
• 2 Treasure Hunter keys

• The Lord of Vampyrium

• You can use Drakan's medallion to navigate throughout the entire quest.
• You do not need to complete all of the vyrewatch tasks to gain sufficient status to complete the quest. However, you can complete all of them later to receive the highest rank. This rank is called Vyrelord or Vyrelady, depending on your character's gender. To do this, you can either kill more Meiyerditch citizens or collect more owed money to buy blood for the guard.
• By the end of the quest, Drakan's medallion will be able to teleport to the Barrows, Burgh de Rott, the Blisterwood tree, the Meiyerditch labs nearby the mutated bloodvelds, and the Myreque base in Meiyerditch.
• A Ring of life may teleport you out of the fight with Vanstrom, though it is not advised to depend on this since it may not always work.
• If you die during your battle with Vanstrom your grave will appear outside his house. You will automatically keep Drakan's medallion and the Darkmeyer clothing, making it easy to teleport back to your grave to retrieve your other items. Remember to recharge the medallion if you die frequently so you don't run out of charges.
• Previously, the Darkmeyer bank was an NPC named "Vyre treasurer" who wandered around the surrounding building. It has been replaced with a bank chest instead.