The Hand in the Sand

Official quest description: Bert the Sandman in Yanille is in a spot of bother. A mysterious severed hand has appeared in his sand box. Help find out whose hand it is and, more to the point, how it got in Bert's sand box.
Release date: 10 January 2006
Start: Talk to Bert in Yanille near the sandpit.
Difficulty: *****
Length: Medium
Members only: Yes
Requirements: Level 17 Thieving, level 49 Crafting
Items needed: A regular beer
About 2 coinsA bucket of sand1 redberries1 white berriesA lantern lensFive earth runesGloves (must be worn)An empty vial (bring two if you want to be teleported to Port Sarim to get the Truth Serum).Methods of transportation to Port Sarim, Brimhaven, and Yanille are very helpful.
Monsters to kill: None
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
edit Walkthrough
[edit] Sandy Hand
After starting the quest by talking to Bert (Yanille). Bert can be found north of the inn in Yanille, in a house with an oven and water symbol. You will receive a nasty hand. He's afraid it will cause him some kind of trouble, and wants you to investigate it. He'll tell you to go talk to the captain of the guards.
Take the hand to the captain of the guards in the Ye Olde Dragon Inn. He will ramble on and then he'll take a look at it if you have your regular beer. He will simply drop the hand in his beer, turning it into a beer soaked hand. Go to the magic guild (it's close by) and ring the bell to make Zavistic Rarve come out. Talk to him and explain the situation. He will tell you that this is the hand of one of his wizards. He'll ask you to see if Bert's working schedule has changed recently.
[edit] Sandy the Slavedriver
Return to Bert's home, and talk to him again. He'll tell you that he works for Sandy Sand Co., which is based in Brimhaven. He'll give you a copy of his schedule and tell you that it hasn't changed recently, or so he thinks. Now you need to head to Sandy in Brimhaven.
In Brimhaven, you'll see Sandy in his office. You can talk to him first if you want, but you don't need to. Search his desk in the house to get Bert's original schedule. Read it and compare it to the other schedule to see that Bert has indeed been working longer hours. While you're there, equip any gloves, and pickpocket Sandy. This may take multiple attempts. to find some sand in his pocket. Keep it. This will become important later on in the quest.
[edit] Truth Serum
Now you need to visit Bert once more. Talk to Bert in Yanille to find a scroll that appeared in his house recently. It appears normal, but do not throw it out.
Take the scroll to Zavistic Rarve to learn that it's a mind altering scroll, and it was a trick to change Bert's hours without having to pay him more money. Now that you know that Sandy is behind it, you need to first get Betty in Port Sarim to make you a truth serum, then videotape Sandy using the magical orb that you're given while he's on the serum.
Take a vial, redberries, whiteberries and a lantern lens with you to Betty's Magic Emporium in Port Sarim. Alternatively, take these things plus an extra empty vial to Zavistic Rarve and he will teleport you directly to Betty's shop.
Betty will take the vial and give you a sample bottle of water. You need to add redberries to make redberry juice, then whiteberries to make pink dye. Once you've made some, use it on your lantern lens to make a rose-tinted lens. Talk to Betty again. Then stand in the doorway and shine your lens at the counter to fill up a vial with truth serum (to do that just use it on the counter while standing in the correct place). You now need a personal item from Sandy to fill up the vial. Talk to Betty again to use the sand you previously found in Sandy's pocket. Give it to Betty to finish the serum.
Back in Brimhaven talk to Sandy. Get him distracted, use the Serum on his coffee while he's looking out the window. Then activate your orb and talk to him. He'll confess that he bribed a wizard to put a mind altering spell on Bert. He then changed Bert's schedule so that he'd work longer for the same pay. Afterwards, Sandy killed the wizard so that he wouldn't have to pay him, then he buried parts of him in all of the sandboxes around RuneScape.
[edit] And Sandy said, "Drat - foiled again!"
Back in Yanille, talk to Zavistic Rarve. Give him five earth runes and a bucket of sand. He will then cast a spell on all of the sandboxes around RuneScape so that they'll fill themselves, and give the workers a large compensation.

Then go to Entrana (remembering not to bring any weapons or armour, this includes familiars and/or special ability scrolls). Talk to Mazion by the sandpit to get the dead wizard's head. Give this to Zavistic Rarve. He'll tell you that it belongs to Clarence