The Elder Kiln

The Elder Kiln is a quest focused on the origins of the TzHaar. A Return To Stone, a new lore released before the quest, introduces the theme.

Walkthrough
'''NOTE: All combat in this quest takes place in safe areas, and no items will be lost apart from what you've consumed. However, dying will reset that area of combat, and you will have to start that fight again from the most recent checkpoint.'''

Hatching a lost egg
Speak to TzHaar-Mej-Jeh by the birthing pool in the north-east part of TzHaar City. He will say that his egg is dying because it is too cold. The Mej have tried to save it, but now they say it is beyond help. Mej-Jeh disagrees; he thinks that even though many eggs are being born different or dying, his egg is stronger and will be a great TzHaar. He asks you to help.

Mej-Ak and Mej-Jeh will help you to keep the egg within the optimum temperature for hatching. To do this, the TzHaar will provide runes (during the minigame only, none are actually added to your inventory) so you may cast fire spells to heat it up and water spells to cool it down, keeping it between the two markers on the temperature gauge, which move up and down as time passes. You don't have to be on the standard spellbook and no magic experience is gained from playing the minigame.

You will be given three types of fire spells and water spells; Fire bolt to wave and Water bolt to wave. The Mejs will automatically use fire spells once in a while to heat it up. Use the fire spells when the Mej tells you that it is too cold, and water spells if it is too hot. Click on a spell once; you certainly don't want to overheat it or make it too cold by spam clicking on a spell.

Once the percentage is high enough, the required temperature will rise into a new band, with a smaller interval between the markers. You will need to raise the temperature into this band quickly, using the more powerful spell, otherwise the percentage will fall quickly and the band will revert to its previous position. There are three different temperature bands.

If the hatch percentage reaches 100, the egg will hatch, but if it reaches 0, you must start over.

Despite your efforts, the egg hatches as Ga'al. Mej-Ak takes it away to join the others in the TzHaar Fight Pit.

Mej-Jeh explains that Ga'al-Jeh is sentenced to die in the Fight Pit because TzHaar are useless without memories, and the society does not have any way to teach new skills. More and more eggs are dying or hatching as Ga'al, and it is becoming a problem for the race.

Mej-Jeh thinks he has a way to give the Ga'al their memories back, but he doesn't think the other Mejs will approve. They think the TzHaar shouldn't go back "there", but Mej-Jeh thinks it is the only way to save their racial memories. But he needs a Ga'al to test his theory on and he has chosen his son, Ga'al-Jeh.

You now need to retrieve Ga'al-Jeh from the Main Plaza, west of the hatching pools. Talking to him shows that he is unwilling to leave. Ga'al-Xox, another Ga'al in the area, also refuses to return in place of Ga'al-Jeh.

The Fight Pit
Talk to Mej-Ak. He will tell you that you'll have to protect the Ga'al from death in the Fight Pit yourself if you want to rescue it. You will need to be prepared for a moderately hard fight against high level enemies involving all three styles of the combat triangle. Note that you are allowed to bring familiars, but they can't have anything in their inventory. Thus, a good choice would be a healing familiar such as a unicorn stallion or a combat familiar such as a steel titan. The player spoofs are weak to fire spells, arrows, and stab attacks, so bringing these styles will prove helpful. The hardened TzHaar have no weaknesses.

High level players with over 70 attack, strength, and defence or ranged or magic do not need to exploit weaknesses and can instead use one combat style for the entire Fight Pit.

Protecting the Ga'al
At the start of the fight, the player spoofs are either fighting each other, or one of the TzHaar in the area or Ga'al-Jeh. At the top-left corner of your screen you will see the remaining health of Ga'al-Jeh, which you should aim to keep as high as possible since it doesn't regenerate and can't be healed. When you attack a monster in the area, it will focus on you. You can use the centre of the area as safespot, and possibly trap the hardened TzHaar-Ket near Ga'al-Jeh to let him act as safespot against other melee enemies.

Protect prayers or deflect curses can be used to reduce damage from both the TzHaar and player spoofs alike. However, note that the TzHaar-Xil (Hardened) use two attack styles, ranged and a basic melee attack.

Mej-Ak observes the battle behind a hot vent door at the south-east corner of the arena, which also serves as the only exit. There is no penalty for letting Ga'al-Jeh die, you just have to try again. If you die, you respawn in the Main Plaza, lose no items, and have your stats fully recovered.

Note: The following strategies always assume the player could kill the opponent in question in a timely fashion. Players should always prioritise those attacking Ga'al-Jeh.

Prayer switching method
A good strategy is to take out Odischamp immediately, as he starts off attacking Ga'al-Jeh. Be sure to use Protect from Magic or Deflect Magic, since he can hit fairly high with Ancient Magicks. Finish him as quickly as possible. Then, attack the west TzHaar-Xil, who will be either idle or ranging Ga'al-Jeh, from a safespot with Protect from Missiles or Deflect Missiles. At first he will range, but later on he will use melee attacks. Meleeing at close range is trickier (though Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee can greatly help), and inexperienced players are strongly recommended against bringing combat summoning familiars, as this would make the Xils' attacks more unpredictable and harder to pray against; see TzHaar-Xil (Hardened) for more details. The TzHaar-Kets will be busy fighting each other, so ignore them for the time being. The south TzHaar-Xil is usually the next to kill its opponent, Firecapezorz. Don't attack it unless it starts attacking Ga'al-Jeh, as being attacked by two of the Xils can be extremely dangerous. Deal the south Xil in the same way. Kill the remaining Ket if it starts attacking Ga'al-Jeh.
 * 1) Attack Odischamp and finish him quickly. Make sure to use Protect from Magic or Deflect Magic.
 * 2) Once Odischamp is dead, attack the west TzHaar-Xil. If using mage/ range, attack him from a safespot with Protect from Missiles or Deflect Missiles turned on. If meleeing, make sure to have ranged protection prayers on for his first few hits, and then switch to melee protection once he stops ranging (he will skip an attack when this happens).
 * 3) While fighting the west Xil, make sure to keep an eye on the south Xil as well. If it is not attacking the Ga'al, leave it be until it starts attacking. Once you are fighting, keep an eye on NoRemorse77, who should be finishing up with her fight and attacking the Ga'al soon.

By now, NoRemorse77 should have started attacking Ga'al-Jeh, so attract her attention as well. LolthenKILL and FightpitPKer's battle should be over soon afterwards, and whoever won will be at low health, so use the appropriate protection prayer or curse and finish them off. NoRemorse77 shouldn't be a problem, since she apparently lost her dragon claws before the beginning of the round. Make sure to keep an eye on the remaining TzHaar-Ket, as it can easily kill the Ga'al if not focused on you or glitched.

Tanking method
80 defence is recommended for this method. A method to win this fight is to take extremely highly defensive armour and pray protect / deflect magic. Overload would be useful, but it is best to drink it before you start fighting. Use a barrows helmet (preferably Verac's helmet for the prayer bonus), a barrows body (Torag's body, Guthan's body, and Dharok's body all have the highest defensive stats), a barrows leg armour (preferably Verac's plateskirt for the prayer bonus), an amulet of fury, dragon boots or steadfast boots, a chaotic weapon, an obsidian cape or skillcape or fire cape, and a dragonfire shield or chaotic kiteshield. These give you 380+ melee and ranged defence bonus, which is the minimum necessary to tank the various monsters. Torva armour gives a valuable maximum life point boost, and 480+ defence bonus against melee and ranged is possible. Using this method, immediately kill Odischamp while praying protect / deflect magic. Chances are, both TzHaar-Xil (Hardened) will then kill their respective opponents and attack Ga'al-Jeh. Switch your prayer to protect / deflect range and attack them both once to attract their attention. They will virtually never hit with their melee attacks, so you can kill them at your leisure. Simply attack whatever is attacking the Ga'al and eat when needed.

The TzHaar Champion
After killing all the enemies in the Fight Pit, Mej-Jeh and Mej-Ak will have a short conversation, and then Mej-Ak will call TzHaar-Ket-Yit'tal, the TzHaar champion, to kill Ga'al-Jeh. He uses melee only, so if you have enough prayer left, you can just pray against melee and fight him until he dies. The TzHaar Champion will begin attacking you immediately, so having a melee protection prayer as your quick prayer option is recommended. Note that Yit'tal can drain your prayer points when attacking you.

The pillar in the center of the Fight Pit acts as a safespot. Yit'tal has no weakness, so dispatching him shouldn't be a problem if you are using a strong enough weapon. This fight should be very easy if using the safespot or praying with enough prayer potions.

NOTE: If you die during the fight with the Yit'tal you won't have to do the pits again, you will only have to kill the champion. Clicking away during the conversation allows you to bank before attempting the champion.

To the Kiln
After the fights, talk to one of the Mejs. After a conversation about how Mej-Jeh wants to transfer the TzHaar's memories using TokKul, he will send you to the Kiln to transfer the memories from Ket-YitTal's TokKul to Ga'al-Xox, the only Ga'al remaining from the Fight Pit.

The Kiln can be found to the east of the Main Plaza. The western TzHaar-Ket at the entrance will give you access to your bank, allowing for quick restocking of supplies after clearing each checkpoint.

Proceed to the Kiln and try to enter the cave, where a guard will warn you that he can hear some Ket-Zek in the cave. If you plan on actually fighting the Ket-Zek, it is advisable to bring a ranged weapon and ammunition. Note that you will not be permitted to bring a summoning familiar into the Kiln.

After entering, you will encounter a short cut scene in which Ga'al-Xox will stop following after you jump a narrow chasm. You will teach Ga'al-Xox how to venture across and then it will continue to follow you.

Praying against magic whenever you see enemies in these caves is highly recommended as, even with high magic absorption, you may suffer devastating hits from the lava monsters or even the Ket-Zeks later on. Deflect Magic is particularly useful as it will slowly but surely chip away at the health of multiple monsters at once.

NOTE: Every cave in this area is safe and you will keep all your items when you die. To minimise the amount of consumables you use, dying on purpose allows you to return to the bank at the entrance and will completely restore all your stats. Entering the cave again puts you to where you left off, but you'll still have to clear out the room from scratch if you didn't before you left or died.

Room 1
If you log out in these rooms, you will appear outside the caves and arrive at your last checkpoint when you go in the caves. As you proceed you will encounter three lava monsters and a TokTz-Ket-Dill. If you are familiar with this monster from the quest TokTz-Ket-Dill, the procedure remains the same: weaken its armour with melee combat while having a high-level pickaxe if your tool belt (or wield the pick axe) and only use Protect from Melee or Deflect Melee after penetrating its armour while wearing full melee armour. It is recommended to first pray magic and defeat all of the lava monsters before taking on the Ket-Dill. The Ket-Dill can easily be trapped behind a lava monster in the meantime.

Note: While it still has its armour, the Ket-Dill will occasionally perform a stomp attack incurring unavoidable damage. Using a melee protection prayer before breaking its armour will cause it to use its stomp attack frequently, inflicting upwards of 200 damage every time. Hint: If you're wearing an aura, the text: "Your holy aura appears to enrage the TokTz-Ket-Dill" will be shown, meaning the Ket-Dill will use a magical attack. Players should be cautious.

Once you have cleared all these monsters, you can proceed into the next room. Before doing so, you'll be required to investigate the skeleton by the end of the cavern to receive the Journal of Perjour. It's not immediately useful, but you can read it for a note on the TzHaar numbering system as well as for some brief writings on Char and the journal owner's fate.

Room 2
In the next cavern, you'll find 100 TokKul on the ground. It will be useful later, so pick it up and keep it in your inventory as your proceed through the caves. You will eventually encounter two Ket-Zek and more lava monsters. If you have curses active and do not want to fight the Ket-Zeks, just turn on deflect magic and use the reflected damage to slowly kill the Ket-Zeks (and any lava monsters attacking you). As long as you stay out of melee range and don't run out of prayer points, they will effectively kill themselves for you. If you wish, you can use ranging gear or a halberd to speed up the process. However you go about it, the Ket-Zeks must be defeated before you can proceed into the next room. Also note that you can use dreadnips to kill the Ket-Zek, but you must attack them once in a while then step out of their melee range.

Room 3
The next room contains four more lava monsters and another Ket-Dill. The Ket-Dill can be trapped behind any of the corners of the west rock.

After defeating the monsters in this cave, you will come across a giant door and some ancient scales. This is where the Journal of Perjour you picked up earlier comes in handy. Refer to the note in the journal to decode the messages that the ancient scales display. (The note is exactly the same as the one in the Tzhaar tourist guide from Toktz-Ket-Dill.) The amounts specified are shown in the TzHaar language. They are different for every player. If an incorrect amount of TokKul is placed on the scales the player will be hit for 300 damage. Your progress with this puzzle is saved, so the 100 TokKul you picked up earlier should be more than enough to activate the scales.

Note the difference between vertical and horizontal lines, for example 2, 3, 4 and 6.

Once the correct amounts of TokKul have been placed on each scale, the ancient door will open.

Room 4
Jump across more chasms and you will eventually come across another Ket-Dill. After defeating it, keep proceeding and enter the Cave Entrance.

Room 5
Upon entering the next room, you will be confronted by a Yt-MejKot and three more lava monsters. Like with room 1, it would be a good idea to pray magic first (the Yt-MejKot can be trapped behind the lava pool in the northeast) and clear out all the lava monsters before praying melee and tackling the Yt-MejKot. Though it can heal itself and others like in the TzHaar Fight Cave, you should still be able to kill individual lava monsters without the Yt-MejKot causing much trouble. There is a safe spot for ranging/magic just east of the room entrance.

In the Kiln
'''You don't have to bring Yit'tal's TokKul with you for the fight. After you win, you can go back to the bank, and enter the tunnel to immediately arrive at the Kiln. Players used to have to travel through the 7 caves to reach the Kiln again, but this was changed following a hidden update.'''

When you finally enter the kiln itself, you will have a brief conversation with TokHaar-Hok before being attacked by seven waves of TokHaar creatures, in a manner similar to the TzHaar Fight Cave. This fight, like the entire quest, is safe; but it is still difficult and should not be underestimated.

Note: If you leave the caves, die, or log out/lose connection, your wave progress is reset.

The Kiln waves contain five kinds of monsters:



TokHaar-Hur (Level 100) - Melee - weak against Water Spells



TokHaar-Ket (180) - Melee - weak against Water Spells



TokHaar-Xil (140) - Ranged - weak against Crush



TokHaar-Mej (160) - Magic, but will hit melee at close range - weak against Bolts



TokHaar-Ket Champion (105) - Melee, will periodically drain prayer points - no weakness

The waves, which are the same for every player, are as follows:


 * 1) 2 TokHaar-Hur, 1 TokHaar-Xil
 * 2) 1 TokHaar-Ket, 1 TokHaar-Xil, 1 TokHaar-Mej
 * 3) 2 TokHaar-Xil, 1 TokHaar-Mej
 * 4) 2 TokHaar-Hur, 1 TokHaar-Xil, 1 TokHaar-Mej
 * 5) 1 TokHaar-Hur, 1 TokHaar-Ket, 1 TokHaar-Xil, 1 TokHaar-Mej
 * 6) 1 TokHaar-Ket, 1 TokHaar-Xil, 2 TokHaar-Mej
 * 7) 1 TokHaar-Xil, 1 TokHaar-Mej, 1 TokHaar-Ket Champion

Every monster can hit through prayer, but prayer greatly reduces their attack accuracy and damage. Attacks that are prayed against shouldn't deal more than chip damage, but it can still add up over time.

The general approach to each of the 7 waves is:
 * 1) Pray magic
 * 2) Trap melee
 * 3) Kill mage
 * 4) Pray range
 * 5) Kill range
 * 6) Pray melee
 * 7) Kill melee
 * 8) Repeat

Strategy
It is vital to use terrain to limit the number of monsters attacking you so you are only facing one combat style at a time. If you are not, do your best to trap TokHaar-Kets (TokHaar-Hurs are less of a threat and can be tanked for some time) and quickly eliminate the style with the fewest users so you can pray against the remaining distanced combat style and be relatively safe again. A good safespotting location is the "T"-shaped barrier near the north-west corner of the combat area (the bottom of the "T" is attached to the western edge of the combat area). This is a good location for multiple reasons:


 * The stock (the long part of the "T") blocks ranged, magic, and melee attacks.
 * The cross of the "T" can't be walked across, but can be ranged, maged, or halberded across, blocking melee monsters so you can pray against ranged or magic.
 * The cross of the "T" allows easy trapping of monsters on the opposite side of the stock.
 * Its location, near the north-west, makes it unlikely that monsters will spawn north or west of the barrier. This means that it is highly likely that no melee monster will be able to breach the barrier and get at you unless you lure them in; and you won't easily attract the attention of a ranger or mage, but if you do, they'll likely be trapped across the stock from you until you are ready to deal with them.
 * No melee prayer is necessary unless you have extraordinarily bad luck.
 * You can easily attack monsters trapped south of the "T" without getting in melee range because of the northern tip of the cross, or, alternatively, run up and melee attack a trapped monster for one strike then run back down. Use of this barrier to ensure you are only facing once combat style at a time and a generous supply of prayer potions or flasks will make the waves easier. Rangers, mages, and halberdiers can treat the Champion like Yit'tal or any other melee-only enemy and attack it from across the low wall portion of the "T" barrier.
 * One should remember that the Champion can drain prayer if within melee range; also, it is extremely resistant to ranged and magic, but not immune.
 * When you finish your last kill for the 6th wave, the Champion will likely spawn beside you. It would be good if you are NOT in the safe spot at that time (as in the picture above) so that you WILL have a safe spot for the rest of the wave. The champion will then be unable to attack you or drain your prayer.
 * Mages have a powerful melee attack; to avoid this when meleeing, attack once and walk away, or just use a halberd while out of their reach.
 * The area is quite large, and opponents spawn into it spaced fairly far apart. As a new wave starts, deal with the immediate threats first, and then try to lure the others to you one by one. Keep melee opponents stuck and deal with them last with a ranged weapon, to preserve prayer points and food.
 * Players short on life points could also trap a melee opponent and heal naturally, preferably with the rapid heal/rapid renewal prayer and regen bracelet while resting.
 * Ga'al-Xox will fight the opponents with his Toktz-xil-ul, but he cannot deal much damage and will only attack when the player is in combat.

Once all the waves are complete and the champion has been defeated, TokHaar-Hok will appear in the center of the arena, beckoning you to speak to him. He will tell you that he is a TokHaar, the original species the TzHaar are derived from, and are continuously reborn by the Kiln, in which they were created. You convince Hok to allow your Ga'al to be reborn in the kiln.

Reborn, Ga'al-Xox complains of the sheer pressure of being in TokKul form. You and the Ga'al are then sent from the Kiln, with Hok and other TokHaar hungry for more battle.

Decision
Now, you will need to return to the TzHaar City. Along the way, the Ga'al will talk to you about the new memories. TokHaar monsters ambush you at specific points. They should not be a problem because just four appear and you can easily outrun them. If you are killed while running through the caves you do NOT have to redo the battle.

After you leave the caverns, Ga'al-Xox will ask you to meet it in the Main Plaza. Go to the main plaza and speak to either Mej-Jeh or Mej-Ak to enter a cutscene. The Ga'al will be asked to prove he has TzHaar memories by defeating a TzHaar-Ket (Hardened). After he does, he will explain that being turned into TokKul is torture and will plead that more Ga'al shouldn't be infused with memories.

No matter what the player says, the Mejs will ignore the Ga'al's warning. You'll then see a cutscene of Ga'al-Xox returning to the Kiln and TokHaar-Hok talking.

Congratulations, Quest complete!

Rewards

 * 2 quest points
 * One antique lamp for either Attack, Strength, Defence, Magic or Ranged (Level 75 required; not bankable; cannot be reobtained after destroying)
 * A Tokkul-Zo, which increases damage to TzHaar, lava, and obsidian monsters, while also allowing teleportation around TzHaar City
 * Access to the Fight Kiln
 * Ability to claim the title "Yt'Haar-", meaning "sacred-cold"
 * A random amount of Tokkul, up to 98 (whatever is left from the scale puzzle).
 * Ability to claim the title "Yt'Haar-", meaning "sacred-cold"
 * A random amount of Tokkul, up to 98 (whatever is left from the scale puzzle).

Required for completing

 * The Brink of Extinction
 * Tirannwn Tasks:
 * Elite: "Properly Metal"

Trivia

 * This quest is the first to feature an early bird bonus, where players who complete it within two weeks of the update (before 29 February 2012) would receive an additional early bird tome, granting the same amount of experience the quest rewarded, effectively doubling the experience rewards. The 100,000 experience did not necessarily have to be used on the same skill as the first one.
 * Upon finishing the quest, your Adventurer's Log will say "I journeyed to the Elder Kiln, uncovered the TokHaar and combined Ga'al-Xox with tokkul. The consequences of this have not been felt, yet..."
 * Prior to EoC, all player spoofs fought during the quest had 990 life points, which was the normal maximum of an actual player. Post EoC, they have 6500, which is lower than can be achieved with the best equipment.