Eadgar's Ruse

Travel back to the Troll Stronghold to find this herb that the trolls use as an ingredient for their favourite dish.
Release date: 5 October 2004
Start: Talk to Sanfew in Taverley
Difficulty: *****
Length: Long
Members only: Yes
Requirements:
Level 31 Herblore
Completion of the Troll Stronghold quest.
Items needed:
Climbing boots (or 12 coins to buy them with)
A bottle of vodka
Pineapple chunks
A regular log (bring two for a bit of convenience)
10 grain
5 raw chicken (there are chickens in Tenzing's backyard)
A pestle and mortar
An unfinished ranarr potion
A tinderbox
Recommended:
Level 40 Prayer
Games Necklace or a charged Combat Bracelet for convenience.
Ardougne Teleport runes for convenience.
43 Agility for climbing rocks
Monsters to kill: None
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
edit Walkthrough
[edit] Getting Started
Start the quest by speaking to Sanfew, who lives on the top floor of the circular building in Taverley (with the Herblore symbol). He will ask you to find out the secret of the herb Goutweed in order to perform the next part of the purifying ritual on the Druid's circle north east of Taverley. Only the Trolls in the Troll Stronghold know about Goutweed, so Sanfew will suggest you speak to his friend Eadgar who lives near there at the top of Trollheim.
[edit] Enter Trollheim
You need to make your way to Trollheim using the same route as in the Troll Stronghold quest, so go north from Taverley to Burthorpe and follow the mountain path out of the north west corner of the town. Go south at the fork in the path to Tenzing's house(can also get raw chicken from killing the chicken's in his backyard). If you don't already have climbing boots buy some here from Tenzing for 12 coins. Wear the climbing boots and climb over the stile in his back yard, following the path north. At the next junction climb over the rocks, follow the path and go east at the next fork, climbing over rocks as required.
Note: If you have 47+ Agility you can avoid the thrower trolls completely by using the Agility shortcuts on the mountain. Walk past Dad and use the northern Arena Exit gate. At the next two junctions head west and then north, passing the thrower trolls .
[edit] Meeting Eadgar
If you didn't rescue Eadgar during the Troll Stronghold quest you will need to do so now before you can continue. He can be found in the prison that you went to during the Troll Stronghold quest. Pickpocket the two guards to get the key to his cell. Once you've rescued him you can return to Trollheim and continue with this quest.
Before the courtyard in front of the stronghold, turn south and climb rocks until you get to the cave entrance (the exact location on the map is the one that is marked as "Trollheim"). Enter the cave and you will find Eadgar.
Climb to the top of the hill in the centre of Trollheim, using Protect from Missiles as you run past the Thrower Trolls to avoid taking large amounts of damage. When you get to the top enter the cave and speak to Eadgar about goutweed. He will suggest that you speak to one of the Troll cooks.
[edit] The Troll Cook
Leave Eadgar's cave, go back down the hill and head south west, following the path round into the Troll Stronghold. You don't need to use Protect from Missiles this time. Once in the stronghold go south and then down the stairs. You'll see four Troll cooks here - one of them will be called Burntmeat. At last, no aggressive trolls here! Speak to Burntmeat and he will offer to tell you about Goutweed in exchange for a human to cook in his stew.
You can't simply kill someone and give Burntmeat the corpse, so go back and talk to Eadgar. He will have a quick think and then come up with a plan...
[edit] Getting the Parrot
Eadgar will tell you he needs a parrot in order to fool the Trolls into thinking you've given them a human. Go to the zoo in Ardougne and talk to Parroty Pete at the north part of the zoo near the wolf enclosure. He will tell you that their favourite food is pineapple chunks, and that they will get drunk if you feed them vodka. Use your vodka on your pineapple chunks to make alco-chunks and then use them on the aviary hatch on the west side of the parrot cage. You'll obtain a drunk parrot and tell Parroty Pete that you will take it to the vet.
While you're here you can top up your prayer in the church north of the zoo.
Instead of taking the parrot to the vet (there are no vets in RuneScape anyway), take it to Eadgar. You need to make it look like a human, taste like a human, smell like a human, and talk like a human.
Talk like a human -
Go back to the Troll Stronghold and find the prison cells. To get there go north from the entrance to the stronghold, down the stairs, east through the door and down another set of stairs. Hide your parrot under the rack just north of the cells. Just leave it here until Eadgar tells you to get it back.
Note - If you accidentally drop your parrot after speaking with Eadgar, it will return to his cave, and you'll need to talk with him to get it back.
Look like a human -
Retrace your steps back to Eadgar's cave and give him ten grain and a regular log.
Taste like a human -
Give Eadgar five raw chicken. If you don't have them yet, Tenzing (same guy who sells you the climbing boots) has several chickens.
Smell like a human -
Go to Taverley. You will see a druid named Tegid washing robes in the lake. Talk to him and ask for a dirty robe, either the Sanfew or Threatening options will get him to give you one. Take it to Eadgar.
[edit] Truth Serum
After you've done all of this Eadgar will tell you that you need to make a troll potion so that Burntmeat won't lie to you about Goutweed. Search all the grassy areas near Eadgar's cave until you find a tiny troll thistle growing in a patch of grass (Note that it spawns in a different grass area every time it's picked). It may take you a while, but keep searching.
Once you've found it dry it on one of the fires outside the Troll Stronghold (or, if you brought an extra log use a tinderbox on it and dry the thistle on that) to turn it into dried thistle and then grind it in the pestle and mortar to make ground thistle. Finally, add it to your unfinished ranarr potion to make a troll potion.
Talk to Eadgar again. He will take the potion off of you and tell you that the parrot has heard enough by now, so you can get it back. Go back to the prison cells in the Troll Stronghold and search the rack to retrieve the parrot and then give it to Eadgar. Apparently Eadgar uses the potion on the parrot as it is not seen again.
[edit] Getting some Goutweed
After you show the parrot to Eadgar, he will give you the fake man. Go back to the cooks in the stronghold and give the dummy to Burntmeat. He'll give you a piece of burnt meat as a reward (which you can discard as it serves no purpose in the quest). He'll also tell you that the goutweed is kept in the storeroom and that you can find the key by searching the kitchen drawers.
Search the drawers in the south east corner of the room, and once you have the storeroom key, go down the stairs near the kitchen and down the hallway. This next part is the hardest. You need to sneak past the guards. If one of them sees you, he'll knock you out and kick you out of the storeroom. The rocks hit 0-6 damage. Protect from Missiles blocks the damage but doesn't prevent your getting kicked out.
The maze works just like the Sorceress's Garden minigame. If you have been there, you will know what to do. The only difference is that you will be hit when seen and have to leave at least one square to the troll route to be safe. But it's a lot easier than Sorceress's Garden as it only has 3 steps!
The best way to do this is to use the safe spots, which are dead ends surrounded by three crates. Time your movement and run to the first (the optimal is the S-shaped crate area, first step is one side), and then wait for your chance to run to the second (the other side of the S-shaped area). Wait there until you get the chance to run to the goutweed crate and search it. You'll be kicked out after you get one piece of goutweed. Sometimes while running through guards, if you are one square or so away, they will not notice you, especially at the door.
NOTE You can follow right behind the trolls or right next to them and you won't get hit. The only way for them to kick you out is if they face you. If you can avoid doing this you'll be able to get the goutweed.
Give this to Sanfew to finish the quest!