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This article has a quick guide found here. Quick guides provide a brief summary of the steps needed for completion.
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| Release date | 21 March 2005 (Update) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Members | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Voice Over | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Official difficulty | Experienced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Quest series | Dwarf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Age | Fifth Age | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Between a Rock... is a quest about helping the old dwarf Dondakan, who is trying to access a legendary gold mine south of Keldagrim, but is unable to penetrate inside.
Official description
| “ | Hidden away from the fearsome trolls and the roaming Fremennik, the dwarves delve deep beneath the mountains in search for the ore they need to support their home of Keldagrim. One dwarf, in particular, has for years been trying to crack open a rock that seems to be impervious to any material that he's tried on it.
Convinced that solving the riddle of the rock will lead him to unimaginable wealth, he has spent the latter part of his life on just this lump of stone. Help him out, but take care you don't end up in a tight spot! |
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Walkthrough
| Start point |  Speak to Dondakan in the Keldagrim mines east of Rellekka, and north of the mountain camp. | ||
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| Member requirement |  Members only | ||
| Official difficulty |  Experienced | ||
| Official length | Medium | ||
| Requirements | Skill requirements are not boostable unless marked with a [B] for boostable.
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| Items required | Items from the tool belt are not listed unless they do not work or are not automatically added.
Recommended:
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| Enemies to defeat |
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Quests:
Rock Hard
Dondakan's location.
To begin, head to the Keldagrim south-west mine and speak to Dondakan the dwarf; when inquired about why he is shooting cannonballs at a wall, Dondakan explains that the wall is in fact a 'special' rock, by the fact that it is impenetrable. After having no success with a pickaxe, being abandoned by his colleagues, and encountering a logical fallacy, he requests your help in analysing and harnessing this enigma.
The Dwarven Scholar
Location of the dwarven engineer.
Accept, and he'll suggest entering the dwarf city and finding someone who knows their way around rocks or, if that fails, speaking to the librarian. If you haven't yet completed The Giant Dwarf quest, you will need to talk to the dwarven boatman to visit Keldagrim for the first time, after which you can take the mine carts from Grand Exchange to the city; the boatman is at the entrance upon first crossing the water.
In West Keldagrim, go inside the consortium, the largest building there. Directly east of the entrance, there'll be a dwarven engineer (see picture) - speak to him and he'll tell you about Rolad, a renowned scholar who used to work with Dondakan on the rock. He eventually left, saying he wanted to travel the world and learn by experiences, and was last heard being with the Black Guard at Ice Mountain.
Arzinian Avatar
Teleport to the Falador lodestone and run north-east, or to the Edgeville one and head south-west. Rolad is in the north-eastern building, near the entrance to the dwarven mine. Mention Dondakan and his impervious rock, and he'll suddenly remember procuring a book which had details about the same rock, and how it got placed in the Keldagrim mines. He had torn out the relevant pages to study them, but has unfortunately misplaced the bunch, probably in the nearby underground mines.
Offer to help in retrieving the pages and climb down the ladder to enter the dwarven mine. Note that the pages may require multiple attempts to be obtained.
- The first page can be found by killing scorpions.
- The second is found when searching the mining carts.
- The third one is found by mining most ore rocks inside the mine. (adamant rocks and the rocks in the dungeon connected to the mine do not work)
Once you gather all the pages, they will automatically combine into pages. Return to Rolad with the pages, and he will give you a book on dwarven lore. Read the book, and you'll learn about the history of the solid rock, about how a certain Arzinian being from Bordanzan was trapped inside a mine containing 'yellow stones', by a few elder dwarves' efforts. But alas, the mine collapsed into itself and formed into a single, extremely hard stone form, holding the entity inside it.
Yellow Stones
Smelting a golden cannonball in Taverley.
With the new information, head back to Dondakan and inform him about the trapped spirit and the gold. He tells you that the other metals like adamantite, runite and granite have failed to make a dent on the rock, to which you suggest using a 'yellow material'. Use a gold bar on him and he'll ask you to create a gold cannon ball out of it.
If you do not have a gold bar, you can mine a gold ore from the ore vein in the cave area directly south of you, and show the ore instead to Dondakan.
The gold ball went right through!
Visit any furnace and use the gold bar on it, with an ammo mould in your inventory/toolbelt, to make a golden cannonball. The closest and easily accessible ones are in Al Kharid, Falador, or in the sword shop in Keldagrim.
Back in the Keldagrim caves, show the golden cannonball to Dondakan. Too impressed by its appearance, he eventually agrees to try shooting it at the rock. A cutscene ensues in which Dondakan fires the golden cannonball, and it passes right through the wall and disappears.
Astonished and excited, he plainly suggests throwing you at the wall, but alas he needs the schematics to modify the cannon to be able to fire a human. Considering the safe passage of the golden cannonball, he also tells you to make yourself a gold helmet, to phase through the wall.
Cannon Ergonomics
To correctly alter the cannon for safely shooting a human, you need to find all 4 sets of schematics:
- Dondakan gives you the first schematic.
- Read the dwarven lore book to find the base schematics, destroying the book in the process.
- One of the schematics is held by the dwarven engineer back in Keldagrim, at the ground level and west end of the Consortium. You can make your gold helmet while you are here, by using three gold bars on an anvil. You might want to bank the gold helmet until later, since it weighs 31.5 kg and will drain your run energy a lot faster.
The finished schematics.
- For the final schematic, head under the White Wolf Mountain, located north of the Catherby lodestone and west of the Taverley one. Inside the tunnels, go to the pub and talk to Khorvak; he'll ask for a dwarven stout and you can agree or disagree to get him one. If you disagree, a unique monologue is said by the player. Otherwise, grab one stout off the table and hand it to him; regardless of the option you choose, he will give you the final schematics.
Once you have all the schematics, click 'assemble' on any of the pieces to bring up an interface which shows the schematics, albeit scrambled out of order. Your goal is to move and/or rotate the schematics individually so that they fit with the base schematic.
This part is simple pattern recognition. Try to piece together the humanoid figure medially placed atop the schematics. They can be manipulated one at a time via the check boxes. This will make the pattern much easier to follow and understand. Once you put them all in their proper places — some trial and error is required — the screen will show: "That's it! It all makes sense now! If you were a dwarf, that is...".
Striking Gold
Second thoughts.
Bank in Keldagrim and withdraw any combat gear required to fight a level 75-125 enemy, along with your gold helmet; make sure to keep six to fifteen free inventory spaces for collecting gold ore. Once you are ready, go back to Dondakan with the completed schematics, and ask him to shoot you into the rock.
Once inside the rock, you will be surrounded by gold ore and veins; mine as much as you can. The upcoming enemy's combat level will be anywhere between level 72 and level 80, decided by how much ore you manage to mine. With less than 6 ores, it will be level 80 and have the ability to regenerate infinitely; if the quantity of ores is between 6 and 14 it will be level 76, and with 15 gold ores or more it will be level 72. Remember that the gold ores must be in your inventory.
Too late!
You must keep on your gold helmet whilst in the cave otherwise you'll be kicked out of it, and all of your mined gold will disappear.
You only have eight minutes in here to do everything, so be swift. When you feel you have enough gold, head to the centre of the area, where you will find a set of flames. Go through the first wall of flames — do not stay for too long, or you will start taking damage — right click on the next ring of fire, and select talk. An Arzinian Avatar will come and attack you.
Fighting the Arzinian Avatar.
The spirit can attack with any combat style; which form it takes is dependent on your highest combat skill. For example, if your Magic level is higher than the other combat levels, the Avatar will attack with Ranged. See the Combat Triangle for more details.
You can use prayer for an easy fight; the spirit shouldn't take too long to kill. If you are close to dying, you can take your gold helmet off to leave the mine, or if you fail to defeat the demon within the time frame, you will be teleported outside the mine, losing all mined gold.
When you have defeated the demon's avatar, you will be teleported out of the mine. Speak to Dondakan to finish the quest.
Rewards
- 2 quest points
- 5,000
experience - 5,000 experience
- 5,000 experience
- Rune pickaxe
- 2 Treasure Hunter keys and 2 Hearts of Ice
- Players may keep their gold helmet and access the Arzinian Mine, where 146 gold rocks and veins can be found with minimal competition. After the quest's completion, a dwarven boatman due east of the mine will bank the player's gold ore for a small fee. He keeps 20% of the ores, rounded up, or 10% if the player has the Ring of Charos (a).
Music unlocked
- Claustrophobia - In the Arzinian Mines, during the quest
- In Between - In the Arzinian Mines, after completing the quest
- Time to Mine - After completing the quest.
Required for completing
Completion of Between a Rock... is required for the following:
Transcript
Trivia
- The quest name is a reference to the phrase "between a rock and a hard place."
- When you complete the quest, the quest complete scroll says, "Congratulations, you have been Between a Rock...!" This is one of the quests that note something different from the normal quest completion dialogue, along with My Arm's Big Adventure, One Small Favour, The Giant Dwarf and Horror from the Deep.