#karamja

I'M GOING CRAZY WITH IT!!!!!

Nothing but fishing 🎣

A more accurate version of the space below!!

The way I see it, the task of returning the three sons of the Chief to Tai Bwo Wannai isn’t urgent— they can take care of themselves, can’t they?— so I decide to extend my stay at Musa Point and get some much-needed rest in.  It’s a beautiful and very pleasant day, and I spend it eating bananas that I stole from the plantation, sipping rum, and building a sand castle in the shape of the one in Lumbridge!  Eager as I am to learn the secrets of the karambwan and all that, everyone needs some ‘me time’ now and again.

Name: Dame Elisandre Plainview the Grey v. Ashdale &z. Rimmington, CG

Date of Birth: 16 Novtumber, 5A 149

Reputation: 108 (Hero)

Brushes with the Reaper: 3

Organisational Memberships: Last of the Grey Wizards; Knight of the Round Table; Temple Knight Initiate; White Knight Novice; Veteran Agent of the Burthorpe Imperial Guard; Agent of the Keldagrim Black Guard; Partner, Doric and Son Smithy; Member of the Champions’ Guild, the Lumbridge Thieves’ Guild, the Black Arm Gang and the Skulls Gang.

Slayer Of: the Demon Delrith, the Murder Mage Solus Dellagar, Count Draynor Drakan, the Sea Monster Agoroth, the Necromancers Morwenna the Cruel and Dragith Nurn (for now…), General Khazard’s Warlord, The False Kendal, “Fritz” the Witch’s Experiment, the Goblin Pretenders Brokeface, Stinkears and Lumpnose, the Menaphites Apep and Heru and the Cultists Caitlin, Reece and Alomone.  

Bester Of: Amascut, the Devourer (Twice); the Zamorakian Mage Ellaron the Red; the HAM Cultist Sigmund; The Mad Sister Anna.

Claims to Fame: Saviour of the Wizards’ Tower, the Tree Gnome Village, Ashdale, Prince Ali Mirza, the Wizard Merlin, the Priest Drezel, the Healer Elena, the Menfolk of Rimmington, Tolna’s Soul and Doric’s Business; Defender of Varrock and Draynor Village; Broker of Peace between Lumbridge and the Dorgeshuun, and Rellekka and the Mountain Tribe; Catalyst of the Foundation of Gunnarsgrunn (Via Interracial Matchmaking); Wielder of Silverlight and Excalibur; Co-Reclaimer of the Shield of Arrav; Concluder of the Lumbridge Blood Pact.

High Crimes and Misdemeanours: Betrayer of the Rune Mysteries, Instigator of the Sophanem Plague

So, my situation is as follows: I’m waking up on the beach many miles away from civilisation, having spent the night at the mercy of hungry jungle animals, and for what?  I’m chasing down the three wayward sons of the chief of Tai Bwo Wannai.  Suffice it to say that the task is proving harder than anticipated, but I’m not daunted… yet.

After stretching my legs and eating some food I’d taken along with me, I make a few attempts to balance across the stepping stones over the river to the southern bank, which I was exploring yesterday when night caught up to me, but it’s of no avail: the stones are glistening with morning dew and I can’t stop myself from tumbling into the river!  So, instead, I continue overland, and make a few discoveries unrelated to my mission.  The first is a small landing field on the beach where a gnome pilot is idling with his glider.  He’s happy to share a Blurberry cocktail with me, but unfortunately, the gnomes’ policy against taking human passengers still stands.  So I move on, and soon bump into a pair of humans, one a druid and one, evidently, a mercenary hired to protect him on his jungle journey.

I have a brief conversation with the druid, who goes by the name of Dotmatrix.  He tells me his purpose in the jungle: he’s come not only to visit his friend and the marvellous habitat he’s found, but also to find new herbs that could revolutionise the art of herblore.  At this he was unsuccessful, but he did get attacked by a jadinko, and not just any jadinko, but a warped one!  (I’m vaguely familiar with the jadinko as a creature of the jungle, but I have no idea what one looks like, warped or otherwise.)  He then came back with the mercenary, and together they uncovered the creatures’ underground lair.  Some individuals, he says, were warped and diseased, like the one that attacked him, but many others were healthy and attuned to some jadinko hive mind.  At the middle of it all was a jadinko queen, busy spawning more jadinkos.  Some of these hatchlings become guards for the hive, and some go up to the surface to gather resources.  And some, finally, become warped and mutated by some malevolent force.  From what the guys tell me, there’s rewards to be had for helping the healthy jadinkos deal with their warped kin, but it’s dangerous work and I’ve wasted too much time here already to want to have a hand in it.

The next person I meet on my trek through the jungle is a gnome named Penwie, who’s come here to explore the island and bring back its creatures for the good of the gnome kingdom.  That sounds like a worthy pursuit, and he seems well-equipped for it, though he never quite does explain how he’s planning to haul the creatures he bags back to gnome lands.  Anyway, he’s mostly caught up in his own business: he’s seen no sign of natives who might be part of the Tai Bwo Wannai trio (as I’ve come to think of them) but he warns me against victims of broodoo magic as I go looking for them.  It’s a danger I’m quite aware of, but thanks anyway.

I continue northward along the coast, encountering nothing worse than jogres and angry tribesmen.  Before too long, though, I come across something interesting: a great shipyard in the middle of nowhere, where the trees of the jungle are being transformed into seafaring vessels!  The complex is locked down tight, though, and even if the guard at the gate is frustrated with the low pay he’s getting, I fail to learn more about who’s building these ships, and for whom.  The workers are all human, though, so I’m guessing it must be for the merchants of Port Sarim and the like.

Anyway, I keep going war, and see a number of interesting and/or terrifying sights before reaching the northern coast.  The first is a gnome glider that’s crashed in the middle of the jungle, and whose pilot is now beset by jogres.  I do my best to drive them away from him, and I guess I partially succeed, because he takes the opportunity to dash off into the jungle before I have a chance to talk to him.  I look to the tree line in the direction when he dashed off, and glimpse a giant cat-like beast, prowling behind the bushes.  Oh dear, I hope he doesn’t run straight into that thing!

Since I’m not raring for a confrontation with whatever animal that thing is, I stick to the coast until it turns westward.  There, on the beach, I encounter a tribal fisherman, who turns out to be Tiadeche!  I tell him all is well in his native village and he is being asked to return, but he tells me he refuses to go back, not until he’s caught one of the elusive local octopuses called karambwan.  I ask him when he thinks he’ll be done, but he’s quite depressed about his progress and says he doesn’t think he’ll be done at all.  I then ask if there’s anything I can do to help him, and he welcomes the suggestion, but doesn’t really have any ideas.  He says he’s trying to catch them in a net as they swim by, but they keep wrangling free.  Oh dear, here’s another brother I’m going to have trouble with.

About the only accessible part of the island where I haven’t been yesterday and today is the centre, toward Tai Bwo Wannai, and I head there presently, not least because I have to cross it if I’m to get a banana and some rum, and possibly find out from someone more knowledgeable how one fishes for karambwan.  Notwithstanding another mishap while crossing the river that flows northward from Shilo Village (whatever it’s called: I forget!) I make good time, and I’m just passing the place where the ground has left a lot of minerals exposed (it’s hard to call it a proper mine!) when I notice a hunter leaning against a rock, resting.  This turns out to be Tamayu, the first son of Timfraku!  I tell him he’s wanted back at Tai Bwo Wannai, but he’s even more stubborn than his two brothers: he vows upon the blood of his fallen ancestors that he will not return until he’s killed the Shaikahan!  Reasoning with him that he can return later and kill it is futile, but I at least get him to describe it: it is a creature of great evil, that takes joy in killing anything that crosses its path.  Apparently, he’s been destined to hunt it since before he was born, and he will keep at it until he succeeds.  In fact, he is ready to make another attempt now, and he invites me to follow him, though I may not take part.

He leads me to a grove not far off, and motions me to halt as a white, grotesquely muscled and distorted cat-like being comes into view— the same beast I spotted earlier!  Tamayu leaps out at it with his spear while attempting to dodge its claws, but it does not go well: not only is he too slow to evade its claws, but  his spear can’t pierce the creature’s hide very well, and heals whatever damage he is able to inflict in an instant!  In the end, Tamayu is forced to withdraw, diving into a thicket where the creature can’t follow him.  Well, drat: looks like I really have my work cut out for me.

I figure it would be easiest to return to Tai Bwo Wannai and update the chief about my progress in retrieving his sons.  Unfortunately, he’s more displeased with my lack of progress than anything else, and doesn’t offer to help me out any further.  The remaining villagers, meanwhile, are too busy to spare me enough time, even the master hunter and retired fisherman whom I was hoping might be helpful.  So I travel north, slightly dejected, off to Musa Point to pick up the rum and banana, which is about the one thing I can do to get this odd trio reunited.  Along the way, though, the figure of the fisherman Lubufu, who’s unmistakably got nets and barrels full of Karambwan, catches my attention.  The only time I tried speaking to him, he was a right curmudgeon, but perhaps persistence will pay off?

Lubufu is a tough nut to crack, but with patience, I manage it.  After letting him drone on about his family (none of whom I’m familiar with), I interrupt him when he begins lamenting about how he never found the time to marry and that, therefore, the secret of the karambwan will have to die with him.  I tell him it doesn’t have to be that way— he can just divulge the secret to me, can’t he?— but the man’s evidently too proud to consider the possibility.  I probe some more, and find out a few germane facts.  First of all, he’s the monopoly supplier of karambwan, and sells his entire catch— all he doesn’t eat— to the Shrimp and Parrot.  Second of all, I learn that karambwan is highly poisonous if prepared improperly, and eating a poorly cooked portion has been known to kill even large mammals!  (Hey, that gives me an idea…)  Third, he’s running out of bait, and collecting more hasn’t got any easier with age.  My ears perk up when he says that: perhaps, by offering to help him, I could observe how he goes about catching the octopuses?  It’s worth a try, so I propose to get the bait for him.  It goes quite a bit better than I was expecting: goaded by professional pride, Lubufu opens right up, though he insists that everything he tells me must be in strict confidence.  The karambwan, he tells me, feeds almost exclusively on small tropical fish known as karambwanji.  These can be caught most easily at the sacred lake south of Tai Bwo Wannai.  “Oh hey, I think I know the sort!,” I exclaim.  Pleased, Lubufu bids me come back with twenty— and tell no one!

I will do that— soon enough.  For now, I need that banana and rum.  On my way to Musa Point, I make a quick stop at the Shrimp and Parrot, where I ask about the karambwan the place gets.  Apparently, the cook (whom I can’t see: the kitchen is off-limits) prepares them so they’re mostly non-toxic; they also confirm that Lubufu is the sole supplier.  Fine, then, looks like I’ll be catching karambwanji…

There is one useful bit of information I’m able to get at the bar, though.  Apparently, one of the local pirates has just failed at what seemed like an excellent business opportunity: importing agility potions and selling them at a high markup to adventurers braving the pirate agility arena in the ruins beneath Brimhaven.  The plan went south when the crate in which he was lugging the potions slipped into a crevice near the top of the volcano and disappeared from view.  Now, going in there after it isn’t the safest idea, but if I can get an agility potion (which it seems Tamayu badly needs against the Shaikahan) without having to go all the way to the Grand Exchange to acquire it, so much the better!

I give the search a try, but it does not go well: there is no trace of the crate, and all I have to show for looking are the cuts and scratches of several hours of encounters with bats, skeletons and my own less-than-ideal sense of navigation.  It’s not totally futile: amid the bones and such, I happen upon s tiny shard of metal that, by amazing coincidence, seems to be the matching part of that broken key I found earlier!  I guess I shall have to visit the Exchange for the potion and the spear, though, as they’re both beyond my ability to manufacture myself.

Once I’ve dusted myself off, I make for Musa Point, where I pilfer a banana from Luthas’ farm and immerse it into a bottle of Karamja rum, wondering all the while how this can possibly help with fixing the tribal statue.  Since it’s getting late, I also get lodgings there and spend the evening lying back in a hammock and watching the sun’s rays slowly fade over the sea…

As mentioned, I arrived yesterday in Camelot in good time for the evening repast, and I spent the meal discussing my adventures with my fellow knights.  We got to talking about how Merlin is doing— it seems he’s busy getting his workshop back in order and getting used to the strange world he’s found himself in— and Sir Palomedes let slip that that there might be some more work for me to do around the castle— something to do with a chalice called the Holy Grail?  It sounded intriguing, but they told me I would need to speak with King Arthur himself come morning to learn more, which is why I am here, ready to hear what he has to say to me.

The matter at hand, King Arthur explains, is thus: there is indeed an artefact called the Holy Grail, which has passed over into this world from Teragard along with himself and his court.  This artefact was the subject of a great quest, albeit a failed one— and its reappearance gives the Knights of the Round Table another chance to find it!  He tells me that he’s tasked Merlin with looking into its whereabouts, and it’s possible he may have found something by now.  The King invites me to go speak to the wizard, up in one of the towers.

I pay a visit to Merlin, who is quite willing to cooperate.  He tells me it would be very good for Camelot to have the Grail back, and that he suspects that, since it is a holy artefact, it would have appeared in a holy place.  With that in mind, he urges me to visit the holy isle nearby (he can’t remember the name, understandably, but I’ve a strong feeling he means Entrana) and ask around… oh, and I could try speaking to Sir Galahad as well.  He was the knight with the most success the last time the hunt for the Grail took place, so it’s likely he might know something more.  Sir Galahad, he tells me, is now living as a religious hermit out near McGrubor’s Wood.  Ah, yes, I think I remember the guy!

McGrubor’s Wood is a lot closer than Entrana, so I make that my first destination in this hunt… that is, after speaking with the knights currently at Camelot, to see if they know anything.  Unfortunately, no one seems to have any concrete information: at best, they wish me good luck, and at worst (I’m looking at you, Sir Lancelot) they gloat about how my effort is doomed and I should just give up.  Anyway, since they’re no help, I go over to Sir Galahad’s house.  Galahad is nice enough to make me a cup of tea, and indulge my conversation.  Actually, as he explains, he’s not Sir Galahad any more: he prefers to go by Brother Galahad these days.

To my positive surprise, when I mention the Grail, he doesn’t pretend he knows nothing, but falls into a deeply pleasant reminiscence about his experiences when at the artefact’s resting place: the spear!  The food!  The people!  I ask him where he found the place, but he tells me it was the other way around: it found him.  It felt somewhat dream-like there, he says, but exquisitely so, and he only left because he had the strong impression he was needed back in Camelot.  Before he left, he took a sort of souvenir with him: a bit of table cloth from the high table of the Grail’s castle.  I ask him why he didn’t take the Grail itself, and he replies that a conviction rose within him that the Grail belonged in its current location, and that it would be wrong to move it.  That’s fair enough, I suppose… yet, it’s something I’ll have to see with my own eyes if I’m to believe it.

When I’ve asked all the questions about the Grail I can think of, I glance over the books on Brother Galahad’s shelf.  Most of them are religious treatises on Saradomin that seem quite boring, but there’s one, on the bottom shelf, whose title, the ‘Book of the Elemental Body’ catches my interest, for it seems to be another of the works penned by the artisans of the Elemental Workshop!  I open it, and my suspicion turns out to be entirely correct: the book is a treatise on the next level of sophistication of elemental crafting.  The book begins with a discussion of the measures taken by Vitruvius of returning life to the assistant who was left brain-dead in the accident that led to the discovery of mind-priming.  Initial attempts to de-prime the bar were unsuccessful, so Vitruvius turned his attention to studying the magic of the body, as encapsulated in the body runes of common use.  Eventually, he did find a method of harnessing the energy, but it required a machine of unwieldy size, and in the end was only powerful enough to restore life to the assistant’s arm, which then had to be amputated anyway as it tried to strangle the assistant.

Well, if true, this is very interesting stuff: what the book says would imply that, hidden away in the depths of the workshop, there is a giant machine designed to manipulate body energy!  The question is: how do I get to it?  Actually, I have some idea: on the cover of the book is an embossed ridge in the shape of a key, and coupled with a few cryptic sentences in the text, it seems plausible that this is actually the template for the key that will unlock the lower workshop!  I grab some clay and make an impression of the front cover, then take some bronze down to the workshop’s furnace to produce a duplicate key— but alas, the furnace is too hot for this sort of metalwork.  As there isn’t another furnace for miles around, I guess I shall have to leave the matter be for now and come back later, once I’ve had a chance to do some proper smelting.

For now, I leave the Seers’ Village to the south-west, heading in the general direction of Ardougne (from where I will catch the boat to Brimhaven and return the re-stolen tribal totem), but leaving my way flexible so that I can follow the pull of the enchanted key.  In fact, the detour ends up being quite considerable: the key leads me to the Tree Gnome Stronghold, where I find a small buried cache of 20 iron arrowheads, a few water runes and some rune essence.  It isn’t much, maybe, but, hey, it was sort of worth it, I guess?

For good measure, I feel the key again, but it’s very cold right now: if there’s more treasure to be found, it’s a long, long way from here.  So I get back on the road and reach Ardougne in the early afternoon.  Once there, I make use of the municipal furnace to try making a key from the mould I produced, but run into trouble: the mould is too fragile for me to fill it with a bar of bronze or iron or a conventional metal.  I’ll need something that’s quite ductile if I’m to do this right, and the most malleable substance I can think of that still has the requisite hardness is elemental metal.  For that, though, I’d need to go all the way back to Seers’ Village, and I’ve got other stuff to take care of.

Like returning the totem to the tribe!  I withdraw the figurine from my bank deposit box and smuggle it on the ferry to Karamja.  Fortunately, no one bothers to check whether I’m carrying contraband, so I manage to get to Brimhaven without attracting undue attention.  Once there, I make my way to the Shrimp and Parrot, where Kangai Mau is still waiting around, and hand him the totem.  He is most grateful, and repays me with some fish his tribe had caught: five huge, juicy swordfish!  A true feast!

As is somewhat traditional for me by now, my next intention is to check back at Tai Bwo Wannai Village to see how my favourite tribe is doing: it’s not a long walk, and they seem always to be in need of some adventurer’s help.  This time, it would seem, is no different, but it’s not construction work that I’m needed for.  The village has now been restored to a functional state, and the work on offer is now from Chief Timfraku himself!  He requests to see me upon hearing that I’m in town, and explains to me the nature of the task: despite our success at rebuilding, his three sons, Tiadeche, Tamayu and Tinsay, have been reluctant to return.  Someone needs to go and persuade them that it’s safe to come back.

That seems like an easy enough task, and I accept it readily.  Before I leave, I ask the Chief to tell me about the three sons.  He recounts, first, the order of their birth: Tamayu is the eldest, followed by Tinsay, followed by Tiadeche.  Tamayu, the Chief says, was a born hunter, killing his first monkey at the age of three!  Tinsay, meanwhile, was trained to be a priest, but hasn’t been quite himself since an accident involving jogres some years ago.  Finally, Tiadeche is an aspiring fisherman, but isn’t very good at it because he ignores the advice of his elders.

I ask the Chief where I might find his sons, but he tells me he doesn’t know, only that they’re around somewhere nearby: they wouldn’t have gone too far.  That still leaves a lot of jungle to cover, and I’m quite unprepared for the search: my pack is too heavy to do any off-road hiking, for one!  That calls for a trek to the TzHaar City to avail myself of the bank, and so I set out to do just that.  By the time I’m back at Tai Bwo Wannai, the sun has begun its descent, but I reckon I can get a bit of searching in before nightfall.

Now, Tamayu and Tinsay could be anywhere, but Tiadeche, being a fisherman, is likely to have gone off somewhere on the coast.  Accordingly, I strike out down the beach from Tai Bwo Wannai, keeping an eye out for natives.  I don’t run into any friendly ones for a while after leaving Tai Bwo Wannai, and my luck only changes when I see the form of a man with long, brown hair and Tai Bwo Wannai-style robes standing atop the mountainous island I clambered onto during a previous trip to Karamja, the island crowned by the stone cairn.  Once again, I make my way over, and, after a few near-drownings as I attempted to cross the very rickety rope bridge from the shore, get close enough to the figure and talk to him.

The man introduces himself as Tinsay, and for all I can tell, his father was right: he’s more than a little touched in the head.  I tell him his father wants him to return to the village, but he won’t go: he tells me he needs to repair the tribal statue, you know, the one in the village.  I ask him if he will return to the village to do that, but he refuses, saying he’ll move only when someone (like, me) brings him a banana marinaded in Karamjan rum.  How that will fix the statue, I have no idea, but there’s no arguing with him.  I guess I have no choice…

Getting the rum and banana would force me to trek all the way to Musa Point, though, and that’s rather far.  So, instead of hiking all the way out there, Decide to redouble my efforts in searching for the other two brothers.  I continue down the coast a short ways, but the terrain soon becomes quite hostile: extremely thick jungle, sprawling over very steep hillsides.  Out in the distance, I even make out some forms that seem to be… giant birds?  By coincidence, I happen upon a group of foresters, who tell me that the way forward is well-nigh impassable, and if they haven’t been able to find a way through, neither will I.  It’s a fair point, so I turn inland and head along the riverbank, which if nothing else is at least traversable.  On the other side of the river lies Shilo Village, actually quite an expansive settlement, but its gates are firmly shut this late in the day.  By nightfall, I make it to the eastern shore of Karamja and make camp on the beach, but encounter no sign of either of Timfraku’s other sons.