The General's Shadow

The General's Shadow is a short miniquest that features General Khazard preparing for the Ritual of Rejuvenation by informing his scouts in the Shadow Realm. It serves as a sequel to both The Curse of Zaros and Fight Arena, and a prequel to Ritual of the Mahjarrat. Like many other miniquests, it was released as part of a hidden update, with no announcement made regarding its release.

The Return of Khazard
Locate the ghost of General Khazard, found north of the Agility log north-west of the Sinclair Mansion. You have to find him as he cannot be seen on the minimap, and he wanders around a lot. His wander range seems to be within a triangle formed by the Rellekka house portal, the Agility shortcut to Sinclair Mansion and the Swaying tree. You must be wearing all the ghostly robe pieces to start the miniquest and the ring of visibility to see him at all. He will not recognise you as the adventurer that killed him earlier, but he also will not trust you to set you on a task. To gain General Khazard's trust, go to the Seers' Village and talk to Sin Seer. She can be found upstairs in the house with the Spinning wheel. Bribe her with 40 coins, and she will give you a note as exchange for your troubles. Return to General Khazard, and talk to him again. He will want you to visit four of his scouts around the world to check up on their status.

The General's Scouts
You will now need to find the four scouts. One is in Tai Bwo Wannai, another is outside Falador, the third one is in the Kharidian Desert and the last one is outside the Gnome Stronghold. Make sure you wear the Ring of visibility to see them, the Ghostspeak amulet to talk to them (unless you have completed the Morytania hard tasks), and the Ghostly robes for them to recognise you as a messenger for General Khazard. It should be noted that the Scouts will not appear as yellow dots on your minimap, so pay careful attention to your screen to avoid passing them.

The Karamjan scout is near the Tai Bwo Wannai village. Go to the special tree grove with mahogany and teak trees, and search just a bit to the south-east of there. If the first location fails, then go farther south. He may be in the jungle brush that is closer to the mine, which is southeast of Tai Bwo Wannai. Speak to him, he will tell you that the villagers recently left because of some curse caused by their gods, but they came back. If Shilo Village is done, he will also comment on that.

The Gnomish scout is to the south of the Tree Gnome Stronghold. He can be found anywhere from the apple orchard to Jorral's house, where the quest start point is on the world map. He will comment on Hazeel, The Plague, and Glough.

The Faladian scout is a little east of Falador, between the Falador east wall and the Draynor Manor west fence. He will also not have anything useful to say, unless you have completed the quest Vampyre Slayer, in which case he will say that Count Draynor has been dispatched by an adventurer, but he will have to go inside to confirm this.

The Kharidian scout is directly south of the Shantay Pass. Go through the pass, and search the area around the rock formation just to the south of the pass. (Note: You may want to bring waterskins to survive the desert heat. Wearing an Enchanted water tiara is only useful to find the scout since you must be wearing the entire Ghostly Robes set in order to successfully communicate with the scout.) He will inform you that he followed someone called Lazim, and that Khazard may have two more players at the Ritual. He also comments on the prisoner of Jaldraocht having been freed, and that General Khazard used to live in the desert, although not by choice.

When you are talking to the last of the four scouts, be sure not to end the conversation until you receive the message that you are to relay back to General Khazard. The message is "We of the blood are still loyal. Pavlov is the messenger."

Bouncer returns!
Note: During the fight, you cannot use prayers of any sort, so be sure to bring some food.

Return to General Khazard again, who will be grateful, still not recognise you and give you a severed leg. He will redirect you to your reward, which is in a cave north of Ardougne.

You can now wear normal armour. Make your way to the Goblin Cave, right by the Fishing Guild. The cave is also used in the quests Dwarf Cannon, One Small Favour, and Land of the Goblins. Enter the cave, and head north. Take the first passage to the east, and you will arrive at a larger cavern. Do whatever you need to prepare, and enter the "crack" in the south wall of the cavern. Once inside, you will encounter Bouncer's ghost, and the player will realise that Khazard has tricked them again.

Now, you need to defeat the level 91 ghost of Bouncer (6500 HP). He is weak to air spells, so Magic is advised, although from combat level 110+ he shouldn't be too much of challenge, even without air magic. He usually hits 200's, but can easily hit into the 400's even with high defence. If you run out of food, you can exit the cave through the crack, or alternatively you can trap bouncer by running into the south-western corner and use the regenerate ability to heal.

When Bouncer's health is depleted to 0, use the severed leg to throw it, shouting "Away, darn spot!" to distract him. Once he is distracted, you will deliver a killing blow by stabbing him in the back. Leaving the area and then returning will reset the fight.

Congratulations, Miniquest complete!

Rewards

 * The Shadow sword, which can be reclaimed from the ghost that will appear after Bouncer's defeat for free.

Afterwards
Speaking to the General again after completing the miniquest will result in further dialogue. You will tell General Khazard, "Your dog attacked me. AGAIN!" General Khazard simply replies, "You expect any less of me, considering you beat me in front of my men? Bouncer was angry that you killed him, which is quite natural, really. Now get out of here, filthy human. I will waste no more of my time on you. I've more pressing concerns."

Without the amulet of ghostspeak equipped, Khazard angrily says "Wooooo whooo wooo. Whoot!", to which you laugh at and respond "You tell 'em."

Trivia

 * The miniquest provided the first mention of the Mahjarrat Ritual of Rejuvenation, years before Tale of the Muspah. It also provided the first mention of the Shadow Realm.
 * When Khazard hands you the severed leg, if you have finished The Hand in the Sand quest, your player says: "Ugh, well, at least it's not another hand." Then the General replies: "What, have you dealt with severed limbs before?" and the player replies: "It's a long story."
 * The General's Shadow was released without the usual update announcement (also called "hidden updates"). It was mentioned in the behind the scenes; the 2 seers paragraphs between the Osman and second quest references. Previously, the miniquest is often referred to "Shadow Sword" before being given an official name.
 * The final ghost you inform gives you a message to give to Khazard and adds on the statement: "The messenger is Pavlov," probably referring to 's dogs and Khazard's dog Bouncer.
 * When throwing the severed leg in the final battle, you automatically say "Away, darn spot!" Besides being a play on the famous dog name "Spot", this is a reference to the classic line from Shakespeare's play  wherein Lady Macbeth utters the phrase "Out, damned spot!" when she is sleepwalking, and feeling guilty for helping to murder the Scottish king. However, she is referring to an imaginary stain of blood, not cursing a dog.
 * The desert scout wears a Lunar helm and also Karil's leather skirt.