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| Also called | TCC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Release date | 17 March 2009 (Update) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Members | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Voice Over | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Official difficulty | Experienced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Quest series | Dorgeshuun (#5) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Age | Fifth Age | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Chosen Commander is the 150th quest, released on 17 March 2009. It is the final quest in the Dorgeshuun quest series, in which the player saves the Dorgeshuun from destruction at the hands of the god Bandos.
Official description
| “ | Zanik is missing, her fate unknown. Captain Undak, leader of the Dorgeshuun Guard, believes that a new H.A.M. plot is in progress, and the only person he can call on for help is the human adventurer who has saved the city before.
But there are more forces at play than Captain Undak realises. Goblin prophecy will be fulfilled, the destiny of the Chosen Commander will be revealed, and Dorgesh-Kaan will face its darkest hour. |
” |
Walkthrough
| Start point |   | ||
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| Member requirement |  Members only | ||
| Official difficulty |  Experienced | ||
| Official length | Long | ||
| 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:
Before starting this quest, it is advised to go underneath Lumbridge Castle (take a light source and a pickaxe) and make sure the wall south of Kazgar is unblocked. It must be done from Kazgar's side. Do not stand right next to the hole when using the pickaxe on it. This preparation saves a great deal of time later.
H.A.M. attack?
Talking to Torzek.
The quest starts here.
Talk to Captain Undak to start the quest. He is located in Dorgesh-Kaan north-east of the market, south-east of the bank. Ask if there is anything you can do to help. He will say that Dorgeshuun children are nurtured and taught in a special nursery, away from their parents, so they can each grow into their own talents, no matter their parents' status. However, some children have been getting ill lately, and Undak suspects HAM may be behind it. Agree to investigate and go up the nearby stairs and into the nursery (the building just at the top) and speak to Mernik.
Poisoned Food
Mernik will redirect you to her assistant, so go back outside the Nursery and speak to Torzek. Select the calm down option first, and then the other options in any order.
Talk to the children inside and outside of the nursery about what they ate. The best way to solve this problem is to ask the kids inside which food they ate. Only 4 food will be named, leaving two poisoned foods. You may speak to the kids outside as well to verify you have the right food. (Tip : all children's name start with a different letter from A -> J, if you need to remember which child you've already talked to)
(Note: Cave slime soup is the same as Green gloop soup. The merchants call the soup Cave slime soup. The kids call it Green gloop soup.)
The two poisoned foods should be the Frogspawn gumbo and Green gloop soup. Now talk to Torzek again and tell her you know which foods are poisoned.
Zanik joins battle when Walton activates prayer.
Talk to Captain Undak (who is following you) and then head back down the stairs into the market. Look over the vendors' heads to see what food/item they are shouting/selling and find the two you need that had the poisoned food. Ask them about their human merchant suppliers (there are 2 each) and then go talk to the merchant they have in common, and arrest them. The merchants should be south of the shops. (If you are wrong, you will be forced to pay 5000 gp in compensation.)
| Food | Merchant | Suppliers |
|---|---|---|
| Bat shish | Gundik | Uriah and Yuri |
| Crispy frog legs | Tindar | Vera and Xenia |
| Frogburger | Durgok | Vera and Zakia |
| Wall beast fingers | Zenkog | Zakia and Uriah |
| Frogspawn gumbo | Markog | Yuri and Walton |
| Green gloop soup | Turgok | Walton and Xenia |
Confront Walton, he is the merchant responsible for every player. He is found on the south end of the market, in a corner to the east. After confronting him, choose the option to attack. When he is injured enough, he turns on a protection prayer, after which Zanik appears suddenly from a portal and helps you.
Zanik's Return
The Bandos Throne Room.
Talk to Zanik, select whatever you want the first two sets then on the last set when she asks if you want to hear her story select "Yes! What Happened?" and your perspective will change to controlling her in a scene elsewhere. (Note: If you log out while controlling Zanik, you must talk to her again and begin again from this point.)
Climb onto the short Goblin statue, which is south-west of the Ourg statue with the stone bowl, then jump to the Ork statue, and keep jumping east and then north until you are on top of the Ourg statue. A cutscene will occur.
After the cutscene, continue to hop north across statues until you reach the northern ledge and pick up the crossbow.
Grapple the spear nearest to the ledge, this will land you on the throne. Pick up the pendant. You, as Zanik, will jump down from the ledge. Look into the bowl. There will be another cutscene.
The statues will now move. Walk to the west end of the room, and the many statues will move out of the way. Enter the portal. You will again be in control of your own character.
Statues moving out of the way for Zanik.
Talk to Zanik again and agree to go talk to the council so she may explain what happened.
Facing the Council/The Hunt for Zanik
Go to the north end of Dorgesh-Kaan and up the stairs. Yet another cutscene occurs. Go through the dialogue, and Zanik will kill the agent and run away. Talk to Captain Undak and agree to look for Zanik.
Zanik flees to Dorgesh-Kaan Agility Course. At this point you will need a light source; walk south to the stairs and up to the Agility course and go down the ladder to the west. Go to straight south and Zanik will be there. Talk to Zanik and choose to sit down with her, say nothing through the dialog until that is no longer an option, then ask Zanik what she wished had happened. Go through the rest of dialogue until Zanik agrees to return to the council and a cut-scene will occur where Zanik is banished from the city.
Talking to Zanik.
After the cutscene at the chamber, she will be banished from the city. Talk to Zanik afterward and then to Captain Undak after she has gone and agree to help him. He will give you a set of H.A.M. robes.
In the Council room with Zanik.
The New H.A.M. Base
Bring armour, weapons, and food with you for this section as you will have to fight Sigmund and then Zanik a couple of times. Put on your H.A.M. robe set, and take off anything else, but be sure to bring good armour and food for combat. Make sure to grab a tinderbox for after the fight.
Make your way to the H.A.M headquarters. The entrance to the headquarters is down an old mine entrance that can be found at the eastern end of the covered bridge over the River Lum ( Found on the east side of the river in Lumbridge). You may have to attempt lockpicking the entrance several times before you can gain entry. Once in the headquarters make your way south into the meeting chamber and from there go into the southern room where you will find Johanhus Ulsbrecht, talk to him and start the conversation with "What are you planning to do about the cave goblins?" or the conversation will go nowhere. During the conversation you will learn that there is a second base near Ardougne. Agree to go there. He will give you a password of 'Arrav' to relay to Milton the Miller later.
At this point, if you do not have 46 Agility, bring your temporary boost. Teleport to Ardougne or the Fishing Guild, go into the windmill north of Ardougne (near the Fishing Guild), and talk to Milton. He will be upset you wore your H.A.M. robe set and insist you not wear it until you are underground; however, ignore his complaint and tell Milton the password. Now go down the trapdoor to enter The H.A.M. base
Note: Do not talk to Sigmund here, as he will recognise you and will have you thrown out. It's easy to recognise him as he is the only H.A.M member who runs instead of walks, and he also wears H.A.M robes that are a slightly darker purple than the other fanatics. Also, if you attempt any teleports within the Ardougne H.A.M. Hideout, you will receive the message, 'The glyphs on the wall prevent you from teleporting'.
Go to the room near the jail cell in the south eastern corner of the base. Talk to the guard until he says what the current day is. Now read the Noticeboard on the nearby south wall and match the current day with a name.
Interrogation Rota
Pickpocket the H.A.M. agent from the main room whose name matches the one on the Noticeboard, and then give the letter to the guard outside the jail cell. Enter the next room, pick the HAM Prison key up from the floor, use the key on the cell door, and talk to Grubfoot.
Tell Grubfoot to wait while you distract the guard. First you have to unlock the doors in the room opposite to the room with the jail in it. To unlock both doors, go through the kitchen east wall (click "Squeeze-through hole") then unlock both doors just by opening each of them. Now Grubfoot can go to the room west of the jail. (The kitchen is the room south of the west guard, with the sink.) When you have both doors opened go and talk to the guard while standing to the NORTH of him. Grubfoot will walk out one door and in through another. Note : If you haven't unlocked the doors, the guard will notice Grubfoot and throw you out of the hideout.
Once Grubfoot has successfully snuck into the next room, follow him and tell him to walk to the west door (do not tell him to go through the crack or the east room or you will be caught) while you distract the next guard. He will take his position at the door. Crawl through the hole in the wall into the kitchen. Try to take a plate, which will cause the plates to crash on the floor. The guard will come into the kitchen and investigate the noise. Grubfoot will sneak into the bedroom.
Go into the room where Grubfoot is now hiding and tell him to follow you. Go out the side door where the guard is not located and through the small maze of crates. You will get "caught" by a guard, but Grubfoot will hit him with a spell, stunning him long enough for you and Grubfoot to escape. Walk up the ramp and out the door at the top.
The First Battle
Escaping with Grubfoot.
The fight against Sigmund.
As you walk out of the door, you will see Zanik and an army of goblins attacking the H.A.M. members. Sigmund will attack you, and Zanik will come to your aid. When he is near death, he will try to escape using his ring of life, but Zanik will cut off his left hand, preventing him. You will be given the choice to either agree, disagree, or give no comments about killing Sigmund. But in the conversation, Zanik says she never had the choice when she was captured by the H.A.M. group and kills him despite your reaction.
Speak to Zanik, and she will quickly tell you that you will be killed next. She will begin to attack you. (Warning! You will not be able to teleport out. Armour and food are strongly recommended. You can, however, climb up the ladder, stock up, and return to finish this part.)
When you finally get her health down to 0 she will comment on how she can't die and her health will be replenished. (Note that switching prayers from ranged protect to melee protect very fast will cause Zanik to not be able to attack since she's switching weapons before she has time to attack.)
One safepot to fight Zanik.
You must continue to attack her. Each time her health gets down to 0, select the positive responses that encourage her to fight the mind-controlling powers she is under, and reminds her of your friendship. You can use the number of goblins and HAM agents left standing in the battle below as a gauge on how close you are. When only one goblin remains, you are finished.
After you kill her four or more times you will be able to select the option telling her to take off the pendant she is wearing. If you chose the wrong dialogue you will need to kill her again and again until you get the right dialogue. She will take the pendant off and fling it down below, where the goblin high priest will pick it up and cause an earthquake. Zanik will take your hand and teleport the both of you out of the collapsing hideaway.
Back to Normal
Juna says Zanik must still follow Bandos as the Chosen Commander.
You will appear in a small cave. Zanik will give you an oil lamp if you do not have a light source and tell you that the teleportation must have been a bit off since there were two people travelling. Walk through the cave until there is an earthquake, and Zanik gets stuck on the other side of a rock wall. Ask her if she is alright, and then right-click the rubble and choose the option that says 'Clear fallen rocks'.
Zanik grapples to the rock.
Walk through the path, and you will see Zanik on a small ledge. Tell her that she has to try to get out using her crossbow as a grapple. She will shoot it once. Direct her fire accordingly so that she hits a small rock that is jutting out of the rock wall. All summoned creatures must be dismissed before Zanik can attempt to shoot the grapple.
After saving Zanik, head out of the cave and talk to Juna. She will explain about Zanik's destiny. Now head west and continue until you reach a cave opening. Enter the tunnel. (If you lose Zanik she can be found beside Juna.)
Now go north to Dorgesh-Kaan by first jumping over the stepping stones. Zanik will also tell you to head north to avoid the Wall Beasts. (Do not teleport or leave the Lumbridge cellar or you will have to go back for Zanik.) Warning: If you fall in the water when jumping across the stepping stone in the Lumbridge caves and did not bring a covered light source, your source will go out and you will be left in the dark if you do not have a tinderbox to relight! If you have not unblocked the wall you will need to bring a pickaxe.
Talk to Kazgar, and then head to the middle of the city and talk to Captain Undak. Go north and up the stairs to meet once again with the council.
Time Capsule
We can fight.
After the cutscene, go back to the council chamber and talk to the Goblin scribe. Agree to help put together a time capsule.
Go to the centre of town, where the obelisk is, and head east through a corridor, then north to find Tegdak. Talk to him to get a box of artefacts.
Go back and talk to the scribe. He will seal the time capsule for you and tell you to talk to Mistag. Find Mistag in the Dorgeshuun Mine, located northeast from the stairs leading to the council chamber, (near the city entrance) and ask him to bury the time capsule.
Power Station
Go back to Dorgesh-Kaan, and find Oldak in a room in the north-west corner. He tells you he needs parts from the power station south of the city.
Make sure you have a light source again then go all the way to the south of the city, go up the stairs into the agility course, head east to the power station, go down the stairs, and talk to Turgall. Ask him for Energy projectors and a Focusing chamber.
Oldak is now at the Portal. Head to the southern end of the marketplace, to the room on the east where you arrested the poison supplier and Zanik had appeared from the portal.
Talk to Oldak. He will take the parts and give you Zanik's crossbow. Give the crossbow back to Zanik. She tells you to go check on the children at the nursery.
The Children
Go up the nearby stairs just to the west of your location, then travel north until you can go no further; go east and a little bit south to reach the nursery. Talk to Mernik when you get there. She will ask you to talk with Ambassador Alvijar in the house north of the nursery.
Talk to him about sending the Dorgeshuun children to Keldagrim as refugees. He refuses, as taking refugees could endanger Keldagrim. Return to Mernik and speak with her.
Go to the bank and prepare for battle, if you haven't already.
Return to Zanik by the portal. Agree to start fighting, and you will be teleported to the throne room.
The Final Battle
Confronting the Big High War God.
An effective way to kill the avatar is magic, as it will not move, and is weak to fire spells. Likewise, the statues it summons are weak to water spells. You can then stand a distance from the avatar and let Zanik take most of the damage. Defense prayers may not be necessary, but pay attention if you stand near any statues, in which case they will be able to deal damage. If you prefer not to use magic, ranged is a good alternative, as the avatar does not move.
You and Zanik are in the throne room. Kill the Bandos avatar (level 110), who uses Melee and Magic. You cannot use a dwarf multicannon. When he dies, command Zanik to use the special. Bandos will hit her crossbow, breaking it, and summon an Ogre statue. (Every statue you kill gives a drop of a gem, some runes or ores. You have a small chance of looting a granite mace.) Attempt to pick up the pieces of the crossbow. You cannot use Telekinetic Grab to pick up the pieces. For every piece you try to pick up, you will have to defeat a statue which he will summon (3 statues in total) . Use Zanik's crossbow with either the Energy projector or the Focusing chamber to reassemble Zanik's SPECIAL crossbow. The avatar will then "kill" Zanik.
Defeat the avatar again.
Warning: Once you have defeated him and a chat box comes up, do not interrupt it or do anything else, or he will regenerate and you will have to fight him again. If you are in the middle of a special ability when he is defeated, it will automatically interrupt the chat when it completes, and you will have to fight the avatar again. To prevent this, once the avatar nears death, use only special attacks that are instantaneous in effect, not those that work over a period of time.
Talk to the avatar, and choose to use Zanik's crossbow's special attack on him (you cannot wield the crossbow; the special attack is a dialogue option). He will die.
Zanik smashes the pendant.
Pick up the pendant dropped by the avatar, then select talk to Zanik, then sit down next to her, then say nothing. She will revive, and destroy the pendant.
If you are still being attacked by a statue when you kill the avatar for the last time, the conversation will be interrupted and the avatar will regenerate, although you can trap the statue behind the avatar. One way to prevent this is to kill the statue a few steps from the avatar and turn on protect from magic so the avatar cannot affect you. If you are using the strategy below, just stand at the same spot and continue to attack the boss.
A good strategy for range or magic is to stay in one spot a few squares from the avatar, turn on protect from magic, and range/mage it to death. A good melee strategy is to bring a prayer potion or two, and get up close praying Protect from Melee, and kill it that way.
The gathering of the citizens
After you step through the portal, a rather long cut-scene will follow, summing up all the previous quests in the series.
Congratulations! Quest Complete.
Rewards
- 3 Quest points .
- 20,000
Experience - 20,000 Experience
- 20,000 Experience
- Zanik's crossbow
- The ability to buy Bandos throne room spheres from Oldak to return to the Bandos throne room.
- The ability to fight Goblin statues, Ork statues, Ogre statues, and Ourg statues inside Bandos' throne room by climbing on them.
- Access to new agility course inside Bandos' throne room
- You can receive a Goblin cower shield by talking to a general in the Goblin Village
- 2 Treasure Hunter keys and 2 Hearts of Ice
Required for completing
Completion of The Chosen Commander is required for the following:
- Additional dialogue during Missing, Presumed Death
- Full rewards of The World Wakes
- The Mighty Fall
- Desert Tasks:
- Elite: "Sun Shade" (Sigmund needs to be killed in a special match in the dominion tower)
Aftermath
- Upon completion of The Chosen Commander, Juna has some interesting dialogue for you the next time you attempt the Tears of Guthix activity. Juna will tell you that you have betrayed the gods by helping Zanik defy Bandos. However, Guthix will still allow you to collect its tears, as he believes you will "serve the gods well in the future." This is likely a reference to the events of The World Wakes.
- After the quest, the HAM leader says that they have given up direct action because of the goblin attack on Sigmund's base but they will continue occupying caves and pestering the government.
- After completing the quest, when you talk to Duke Horacio, he will tell you that they found Sigmund's hand.
- After completing the quest, Zanik can occasionally be found wandering around the world.
- If you talk to the Goblins' High Priest in the cave next to the Fishing's Guild and choose the option "Didn't you die?", the Goblin High Priest will tell you that the High Priest from The Chosen Commander has indeed died, and that he was chosen in the traditional, goblin way - Goblin Priests from different tribes go into a room to "discuss it", and the last one standing is the new High Priest. This probably means he's either defeated or killed all the other priests from the other tribes and took the place as the new High Priest.
Music unlocked
- But We Can Fight
- Demise of the Dorgeshuun
- Don't Panic Zanik (unless you have already been in the cave)
- Face Off
- Godslayer
- The Chosen Commander
- The Throne of Bandos
Gallery
Transcript
Trivia
- Upon completion of the quest, when you talk to Captain Undak, you can still ask the question "Who are you?", as if you haven't started the quest.
- On the first day of release, the RuneScape screen was changed to reflect the symbol of Bandos, and 2000 limited edition Chosen Commander hoodies were released on the Jagex Store to honour the quest.
- On the day of release, the spoiler read: The rewards are concealed in a parallel realm and protected by stone guardians. You'll have to excuse us if we're a bit wary about retrieving them before tomorrow.
- When the quest was released, about 5 minutes after the update, the servers crashed and no players could log in. This server blackout lasted approximately 50 minutes.
- During the beginning of the quest in the out-of-body ability experience with Zanik, the Bandos troops seem to represent the Statues of the Chinese Warriors made by the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇), the Terracotta Army (兵馬俑).
- When helping Grubfoot escape the new H.A.M. hideout, you clatter a pile of plates in the sink. When the second guard asks you what you are doing, you have the option to say "Making myself a ham sandwich." This is an obvious reference to the group's name.
- You can ask the same guard why he hates monsters so much, which can lead to a humorous conversation about how he lost his marbles.
- The guard's marbles being stolen by imps is a reference to the Imp Catcher quest.
- The Scribe tells the player the archaeologist can be found in a house to the North-East, on the first floor. This uses the American English version, as the archaeologist's house is found on the ground floor in British English. This has been updated to mention the ground floor.
- After release of the rewards, the Game Guide article stated the quest gives one quest point. It has been corrected by Jagex.
- You can change your statue to one of seven different poses by speaking with Ur-Vass (See Dorgesh-Kaan Statue).
- During the revelation of the Dorgesh-Kaan Statue at the end of the quest, Zanik exclaims "They built a statue of us". This may be an inside reference as this is a line from the Regina Spektor song "Us", which Mod John A has cited as one of the inspirations for Zanik.
- If you just completed Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf, riding the final mine cart without speaking to the commander, and have not logged out, Captain Undak won't follow you to the nursery because you have a "familiar" following you (even though you can't see the commander). You will need to log out to proceed, seeing the commander flashing in your chat-box the phrase he would've said if you spoke to him properly.
- When the quest was released, it had a rating of Master, however, Jagex has changed this to Experienced.
- Upon the completion of this quest, one's Adventurer's Log will read: "The god Bandos tried to take command of all goblins, using Zanik as his avatar. It looked hopeless, but, in the end, we beat him."
- Right before Sigmund is killed and Zanik takes his ring of life, Zanik tells Sigmund he cannot just teleport and "treat this like a game." This may possibly be an ironic reference to the fact that they are in a game.
- After the quest, the player can speak to Oldak about returning to the Bandos throne room. When asked by the player if he worries about Bandos, Oldak will tell the player that because the pendant held much of Bandos' power and has been destroyed, Bandos is "gone for good" though he may exist in another form. This is similar to what happens to Sauron in the Lord of the Rings. After the One ring is destroyed, Sauron still continues to exist though much of his power is destroyed with the ring and he no longer can take physical form.
| Main series |
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| Related (mini)quests |
 Goblin Diplomacy Hopespear's Will The Mighty Fall |
| Quest recollector |
 Goblin scribe |
