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Broken Home is a requirement-free novice quest involving a haunted mansion in Silvarea owned by Ingram. Although it was originally released as part of the 2014 Hallowe'en event, the quest has remained in-game after the end of the event, similarly to Swept Away in 2008. Unlike most quests, Broken Home is completely re-playable, with additional rewards for doing so.

It was developed by Mods Wilson, Ollie and Nexus, and designed by Mod Jack.

Walkthrough

Start pointQuest map icon
Broken Home icon
Talk to the distressed servant Maria outside the mansion, just south of the Silvarea limestone quarry.
Member requirementP2P icon Members only
Official difficultyNovice Novice
Official lengthLong (1-3 hours)
RequirementsSkill requirements are not boostable unless marked with a [B] for boostable. None
Items requiredItems from the tool belt are not listed unless they do not work or are not automatically added. None
Enemies to defeat
  • None

The distressed servant

File:Maria-location.png

Maria's location

Start the quest west of Paterdomus by talking to Maria. She can be found just outside of the huge mansion to the east of Varrock, close to the start of the Rag and Bone Man and Missing, Presumed Death quests. She will tell you that a ghost is haunting her master's house and has killed most of the servants. She tells you that Ingram, the owner of the house, found the ghost, and is still inside the mansion. She will ask you to enter the house to save him and the other servants.

  • To enter the house, you must have no items equipped or in your inventory. There is a bank deposit box next to Maria.
  • Things inside the house can damage you, and players do not regenerate lifepoints over time. Make sure to have full health before entering.
  • If you die, you respawn at your last save point.

Inside the house

File:All Floors With Keys.png

A full map of the house, showing the locations of all the locked doors and keys. Click to enlarge

While inside the house, your worldmap will be replaced with the layout of the house with the location of the house's doors. Some doors will be bolted and can be unbolted from the other side. Always keep an eye for smoke coming from behind the doors to avoid getting hit by Ormod. If there is smoke, first peek through the door and then click enter room. You don't have to wait for it to show him leaving — he won't be there when you walk through the door.

There are various safe rooms in the house, which are save points for the quest. If you subsequently die or logout, your progress will be restored to your last save point. Safe rooms also contain chests that can be searched once for mystery meat, which when eaten will restore your health completely. Save the meat until you are very low on health. Other chests are also found throughout the house; these are sealed with a "temporal magic seal" the first time you play the quest, but can be opened and searched for tiers 1 through 9 XP lamp on replays, if you meet their skill-milestone requirements (10+ to 90+). The chest locations are also listed in a separate section below.

Entrance hall

Servant is eaten

A servant is eaten by a painting.

Upon entering the house, you will see a ghostly waif walk through a door. Every door in the house is locked except for the first door on the west side downstairs; the one that that the ghost entered. Enter the door and you will reach a safe room. Search the chest for meat and enter the door to the north. Walk into the west door and you will see a Servant being eaten. Pick up the clock hands and the raven key. Go back through the door to the safe room and use the clock hands on the grandfather clock. You will receive an eye gem. Go back into the corridor and unbolt the east door to go back to the entrance hall of the house. Go east and unlock the eastern, raven door.

Raven door

A cutscene occurs where you see a ghost of a boy walking through a wall. Go through the southern door and search the desk. You will find a note from Ingram, explaining that the ghost is Ormod's son and other facts about the ghosts. Go east into the library, where you will find a stack of books to begin a sorting puzzle.

Library

Pile of Books

You must stack the books in a specific order. This order is random and different for every player, but after every combination, hints are given to what the order is. The aim is to stack the books in right order. Start with any order and hints will be given. The easiest way to complete the puzzle is to swap books between 1 position (starting from the bottom), until the hint tells that the position has the correct book in it and then move to next one. Note that the hints refer to the bottom book as the "first book" and the top book as the "seventh book", not vice-versa. After completing the puzzle, the books will fall and you'll find 2 eye gems. The tier-1 XP chest is in this room.

Hall of Armour

Broken Home statue puzzle

Pushing the statues.

After solving the book puzzle, walk back to the study and head north to the corridor. Go through the eastern door into another corridor. Enter the next door into another corridor, which has three doors, a staircase, and the tier-2 XP chest. Enter the middle door to reach the Hall Of Armour, where you must move the statues to reach the table at the end of the room. The aim is to push all the statues to the sides so that they don't get in the way.

  1. Push the guard west (only one guard can be moved).
  2. Walk south two spaces and push the guard to the east.
  3. Walk south again and push the guard west.
  4. Walk south two spaces and push the guard east.
  5. Push the guard south.
  6. Walk north and then west two spaces and push the guard south.
  7. Push the guard east and retrieve another eye gem from the table.

Leave the room, and inside the corridor, ascend the stairs as the last set of doors will be locked. When you get to the top of the stairs, enter the eastern door. This will lead into another hallway, take the door to the east into another hallway. Enter the western door at the southern end of the hallway and search Ingram's research notes (which may be difficult to see at first). These notes will talk of Ormod's madness and his attempts to cure it. When you are done reading, you will receive the spider key and first part of the three scroll fragments. Leave the room into the hallway, and go back the way you came: through the door to the west at the northern end, then west again to the hallway with the staircase. Open the southern door, unbolting it, and go through to reach the gallery above the Grand Hall.

Spider door

Discovering the faceless servant

Searching the faceless servant for an eye gem.

Go through the spider door to the west and head immediately south. You'll find a dead servant laying in bed - search him and pry loose another eye gem. After searching him, head west to find a room with a sink. Draw the curtain (the south border of the room) to reveal a faceless servant trembling behind it. Try talking to her and then search her for a statue key.

Statue door

Return to the dead servant's room and enter the northwestern door, then take the north door and then enter the eastern door. Enter the statue door (in the centre), to find another eye gem and a statue. At this point you should have 6 eye gems. Investigate the statue twice to insert two eye gems into its eye sockets, unlocking the western door. You'll find another statue here, again investigate it twice to use two eye gems to open the southern door to find another statue. After investigating the third statue twice you can head to the room in the east to find a scythe key and another statue. Once again, the statue needs eye gems to open a door, but you won't have any left at the moment.

Scythe door

Retrace your steps out of the statue rooms, into a hallway, then west, then through the next door south, then east in to the hall. Open the door to the east, using the Scythe key.

Behind the scythe door you'll find a corridor with 4 more doors. Try to open the south-western to end up into a conversation with Ingram, who will warn you not to enter the basement. Open the south-eastern door to find a Shrine and a chest in the second safe room. Search the shrine for a Grand piano key and a skull key, and the chest for another piece of mystery meat.

Upon leaving the safe room you'll hear a scream - peek through the door to the west to see that something is blocking it (another dead servant). You'll have to go around: open the north-eastern door, unbolting it, into another hallway. Go through the far door, to the north west, into another hallway, then west to a hallway with stairs. The southern door will now be bolted from the other side, so you must go down the stairs.

Broken Home windows shatter

The windows shatter, letting the purple energy inside.

Enter the furthest east door at the bottom of the stairs. After a short time, the room will start shaking and the windows will shatter, allowing the energy into the room. This purple energy deals damage to you, so run through the southern door quickly. Continue through the western door back to the Grand Hall, which is now also purple and will deal damage to you, so quickly run to either of the doors on the west (the door to the south will let you save, while the door to the north is slightly quicker.) If you entered the door to the south, go through the north door into the hallway.

Skull door

Go through the door to the north, unlocking it with the skull key. You'll find a corridor with 3 doors: the first door, to the south-east, is a study. Search Ormod's scribblings to find the second scroll fragment then return to the corridor.

The second door, to the north-east, has the ghostly waif on the other side of a glass panel. Leave this room back to the corridor.

Getting the eye gem from the skeleton

The skeleton with an eye gem.

Go through the third door to the north. This leads to another corridor with two more doors. Go through the door to the west to find the grand piano. Play it, using the Grand piano key, to unlock a hidden panel on the southern wall. You must be quick in the next room, because it is filled with the damaging purple energy. Search the scorched skeleton in the far south-eastern corner to obtain another eye gem. As the purple energy can interrupt you, close the dialogue quickly via the space bar. Leave the way you came in.

Leave the piano room back into the corridor and go through the other, eastern door. This corridor has a door and a staircase. The door goes into the other side of the same room with the ghostly waif (who has switched sides of the glass panel). Go down the staircase into the basement.

Basement

Flying knife room

Evading the knives in the flying knife room.

You will now be in the basement. There are five doors: two on the west wall, two on the north wall and one one the east. There is also another set of stairs going down even deeper. The south-western door leads to a corridor. The eastern door in this corridor contains the tier-3 XP chest. Leave the way you came, to the north. The northern door on the west wall has a dead butler. Search him to obtain a cleaver key. The western door on the north wall is another safe room, so head there to save your progress and open the chest to find some more mystery meat. Head back to the bigger area of the basement, and use the key to open the eastern door on the north wall. You will find yourself in a room with flying knives and broken glass. note: don't run on the glass or else you will take fairly high damage, walk instead in this room. Dodge the knives and enter the eastern door to a large room with a cauldron.

Remember to turn your run back on in this room. There are five doors: three on the north wall, one on the east and one on the south. Enter the mid-northern door where you can search a chest of drawers to get a large pipette, then enter the north-eastern door. Use the pipette on the pig to obtain a large pipette of pig bile and exit the room. Enter the eastern room and search the furnace to find human ashes. Use the ashes and filled pipette on the cauldron, then use the pipette on the cauldron again to extract a pipette of the alkaline concoction, and finally use the alkaline concoction on the door with dried ectoplasm to make the ectoplasm vanish. Upon entering this door it gets bolted therefore you can't use it to get back to the cauldron room.

Obtaining the doll key

Taking the doll key from the servant's mouth.

This corridor has three doors, two on the east wall and one on the west. Enter the western room to find a frozen servant and tear the doll key from her mouth, which will kill her. Exit the room, back to the corridor. The south-eastern room is a wine-cellar, with the tier-4 XP chest under a table on the southern wall. Go back to the corridor and enter the final, north-eastern room. Search the key hooks next to the ladder to get the snake key to open the door to the main hall at the top of the ladder. The main hall is still full of the purple energy so you will take damage — heal if you need to and make sure run is enabled! Climb up the ladder and go up the stairs and through the western door.

The hairbrush

Head through the far western door in this corridor using the doll key, and you will find some stairs leading up. Climb these to find the emaciated spirit. Optionally talk to him and he will say that he wants "her" hairbrush back. Pick up the tusks key and return down the stairs to the hallway and enter the northern door. Enter the other door, then proceed to the far east door, unlocking it with the Tusks key. Inside the Tusks room investigate the bust to reveal a trapdoor underneath the southern stuffed bear. Head down, and you'll find a small room with a dead thief. Search the thief to find another eye gem. You should now have two eye gems which can be used at the last statue in the statue room to open a hidden door.

Lenian introduces himself

Lenian introduces himself.

Climb back up the ladder, head back through the door and enter the middle door in the corridor. Run through the statue rooms to the last one and investigate the final statue twice to insert the eye gems and unlock the hidden door. Behind this room you will find another safe room containing the shrine of the son. Investigate it and you will obtain the mother's hairbrush.

Lenian is consumed

Lenian is consumed by the ghostly waif.

To get back to the nursery, return through the statue rooms to the hallway. Go back to the west, south then west and up the stairs. Talk to the emaciated spirit. He will tell you that his name is Lenian - Ormod's son - and that he believes his father is haunting the mansion because he blames himself for Lenian's death. He suggests that he would go if he forgave him, but suddenly the ghostly waif will appear and consume Lenian's spirit and turn into a monster. You will now find yourself back downstairs with the stairs destroyed and a noose key in your inventory.

Move quickly. The monstrous form of the waif will begin following you. This monster will instantly kill you if it catches you. Although it moves slowly, after passing through a door you need to move quickly, or it will spawn on top of you. Head east out of the doll door, run east through the far door into the entrance hall. The monster won't appear here, but move quickly because of the damaging energy. Head to the eastern door on the northern wall. Go through the door to the east, then quickly open the noose door immediately south of you (you only need to click on the door once). It will take time for the game to unlock and walk through the door; you're safe from the monster as soon as you get to the door. Open the cupboard in this room and take the ladder within down to the basement. Occasionally, a slow connection or a bug will cause the monster to spawn on top of you every time you exit a room into a vulnerable area. To prevent being immediately killed, using the Anticipation ability will reduce the damage to 90% of your maximum health.

The asylum

Broken Home statue puzzle solution

The solution to the statue puzzle.

You will find yourself in a long corridor. Near the end of the corridor, investigate the peephole in the wall to see symbols on a wall. Continue to the end of the corridor and go through the door. Enter the northern door and descend down one of the staircases. Enter the door.

Go down another flight of stairs and you will reach a door that is locked with pressure plates. Move the three southern statues, and stand on the middle pressure plate. All of the plates will be purple and the door will open. (Note the option on the statues is 'move' not 'push'; if you make a mistake and you need to pull a statue back, click on it.)

Climb down the stairs. The tier-5 XP chest is in the centre of this small corridor. Descend another 2 flights of stairs to reach a pit with some exploration equipment nearby. Use the equipment to climb down the pit. You'll reach a safe room with the tier-6 XP chest to the south and a mystery meat chest to the north. Go through the door to the east and you will enter a reception room. If you search the mouldering tome near the entrance, you will discover an ancient visitor's log that has your name on it. Search the large reception desk to find Nabor's notes on insanity and the chains key.

The Asylum

The deepest part of the spooky complex.

Head through the eastern door and pass through two corridor rooms until you emerge from the south-western door into a large room with a number of cells and a pit. The tier-7 XP chest is across the room on the left side. Open the eastern door with the chains key and pass through it. Pass through 2 more corridors until you reach another large room similar to the previous one. Walk on a plank over a chasm to the south of the room to find yourself in a large, destroyed cell with the dagger key inside. Pick it up. Note: On low detail, this key is quite difficult to see. It blends in with the tiles. Once you pick up the key, exit the rooms. Additionally, there is a tier-8 XP chest via walking on a plank over a chasm into the north-east of the room.

Banishing the ghosts

The monster chases you

The monster chasing you through the halls of the mansion.

Go through the west door and back the way you came, through 2 corridors, through the south-western door in the first prison and through 2 corridors into the reception room. Head west from the reception room to the safe room and climb back up the rope from the pit. Climb the stairs, climb the stairs, climb the stairs, head back through the pressure plate door and climb the stairs. Head back through the symbols door and climb the stairs. Climb the stairs out of the basement, into the corridor on the ground floor with one staircase and two doors. Note: the monster will begin to chase you again once you leave this room. Enter the northern door, then the southwestern door, then the southern door and again the southern door, into the first safe room with the grandfather clock. Go east into the Grand Hall and quickly up the stairs and head to the eastern door. Move the servant and then go through. Quickly enter the dagger door to the south, as the monster will spawn on top of you. You will now be in Ingram's room — the monster won't spawn here — and will notice that he has been killed by the ghost. Search Ingram's rantings, which explain that he disturbed the ghostly girl monster while exploring the catacombs under the house, and you will obtain the final fragment of the Break curse scroll, which you can now combine with Nabor's notes by clicking any of the 4 parts. Enter the east door which is again safe from the monster, where the final tier-9 XP chest is. Exit back into Ingram's room.

Exit north from Ingram's room and quickly run to the other side of the corridor, turn and use the scroll on the monster. It should stop moving. Talk to the monster, and it will explain that he is Senecianus Aloysius Pamphilius, a demonic resident of Senntisten, and that he was driven insane by guilt after eating a young girl called Rowena, and then admitted into the asylum under the house. In his insanity, he believed himself to be Rowena wanting to play with people, but was confused when all his playmates disappeared as soon as he caught up them.

Banishing Ormod

Senecianus takes the form of Lenian and banishes Ormod from the house.

He will thank you for curing his insanity, and you will explain that you needed Lenian to get rid of the murderous ghost haunting the house. He will say that he can get rid of Ormod in one of two ways: he can either eat him, or take Lenian's form and grant him the forgiveness he seeks. Make your choice, and then go through the demon and the door to the west and down the stairs to meet Senecianus in the main hall (he will be in the form of Lenian). Talk to "Lenian", and he will then either forgive Ormod - allowing him to pass into the afterlife - or devour him. Exit the mansion and talk to Maria outside for your reward. Quest complete!

Reward

Broken Home reward (early bird)

Early Bird Bonus

The early bird bonus consists of the following rewards and are only rewarded if the quest is completed within two weeks of the release of the quest.

Replay bonuses

Temporal chest

After completion, the quest can be replayed for the following rewards:

XP lamps can be found in the temporal chests that you couldn't previously open in the house. Each requires all of the player's skills to be at a minimum level, which is 10 times the tier of the lamp (so that the tier 1 lamp requires all skills to be level 10 each, tier 2 requires level 20s, and so on). The lamps can be used on any skill. Make sure that you actually search the chest after opening it.

The following locations are based on the in-game map:

  • The XP lamps give a total of 271,000 xp:
    • Tier 1 (1,000 xp): Ground floor, Library, along the east wall.
    • Tier 2 (2,000 xp): Ground floor, in the hallway north of the Hall of Armour, next to the staircase.
    • Tier 3 (4,000 xp): Basement, in the room southwest of the Servant's Quarters.
    • Tier 4 (8,000 xp): Basement, Wine Cellar, under a table on the south side of the room.
    • Tier 5 (16,000 xp): Below the Basement, after the puzzle with the four statues (past the Noose door), down the first flight of stairs.
    • Tier 6 (32,000 xp): Below the Basement, in the room that the player arrives in after using the mountaineering gear to descend the pit.
    • Tier 7 (48,000 xp): Below the Basement. Follow the path after the room with the Receptionist's desk (north or east door). In the first room with cells, the chest is in the northeastern cell.
    • Tier 8 (64,000 xp): Below the Basement. Follow the path after the room with the Receptionist's desk (north or east door). In the second room with cells (where the Dagger key is), the chest is in the northeastern cell.
    • Tier 9 (96,000 xp): First floor, in the bathroom of the Family Chamber (Ingram's room).
  • Once a week, Maria will give the player a Large prismatic lamp for completing the quest again. A Huge prismatic lamp is received instead if the player has completed all three challenges. This resets at 00:00 UTC Wednesday, the same time as various other D&Ds.

Challenges

Certain challenges can be completed while replaying the quest. Note that these must be done in order, although it is possible to do all at once. For example, you cannot complete the third challenge without completing the first, but you can complete the third and second challenges at the same time if the first has been completed on a previous playthrough. Completing all three challenges is a requirement for trimming the Completionist cape.

  1. Large prismatic lamp - Complete a replay without dying
  2. Rowena (ghost pet) - Complete a replay without dying using one or less food
  3. The asylum surgeon's ring - Complete a replay in under 37 minutes

Floor Maps

Trivia

  • The numbers on the walls in the room with the dead thief all add up to 102.
  • In the Behind the Scenes video for Broken Home, it was mentioned that they had taken a lot of inspiration from survival horror franchises. This can be seen by the layout of the mansion, which is somewhat similar to the Spencer Mansion from the first Resident Evil game, as well as having similar mechanics from the series, such as keys with emblems on them, only seeing one room at a time, the custom map which details each floor's layout, and the monster that follows you through long hallways. (Similar to Nemesis from Resident Evil 3) While there are other mechanics from popular survival horror games, the quest seems to take most of its inspiration from the classic Resident Evil games.
  • "Broken Home" is a term for a family in which the parents are divorced or separated.
  • Mod Jack confirmed prior to release that this quest would have an Early Bird Bonus.[1]
  • Upon completion of the quest the adventurer's log states: I entered the haunted mansion and dealt with the ghost of Ormod Gulvas, breaking the curse on Senecianus in the process.
  • The unusual dragon head mounted on the wall in the trophy room belongs to a Celestial dragon.
  • All of the bathrooms in the mansion feature only a sink and/or a bathtub despite having room for more furnishings. This is most likely poking fun at the fact that there are no toilets in the game even though the room layout allows for them.
  • There is a wine barrel in the room with the flying knives, which, when inspected, contains "a vintage of '07 of the Fifth Age". This prompts a comment by the character that it was a good year, but not as good as '06 or '10. This is most likely a reference to the players wanting the 2006 and 2010 versions of RuneScape, instead of Old School RuneScape, which is based on the 2007 version.
  • Interestingly enough, you do not need a ghostspeak amulet or cramulet when speaking with Lenian, even though it is required to have one equipped in order to speak with ghosts.

References

  1. ^ Jagex. Mod Jack's Twitter account. 22 October 2014. Mod Jack: "It has a pretty big "early bird bonus" so make sure you play it straight away!"
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