It was time to meet some new people. I hoped to earn their vote to become one of them. There was quite a powerful helm I wanted to acquire. First, however, I would have to go through some trials and even allow myself to be made fun of to get what I wanted.
Quest: The Fremennik Trials
For me to be able to do much of anything around Fremennik I need to be made an honorary member of their community. This requires going around and doing tasks for people to get their vote at a hearing. Even if I get enough votes to make me a member. That is only where things start. As there are many islands that I won’t have access to at the start.
There is also thankfully a fairy ring that is not that far away from their main town. It’s still a few steps to get there. I’m just glad I did not need to go through any crazy passageway just to get here. I'd be making a couple of trips back and forth while working on the tasks given to me by different members of the community.
So, I went around town asking different people I ran into if they were members of the council. While I'm sure others would be willing to help me out their votes don’t count. It has to be someone officially on the console. Thankfully it seems quite a few people are on the council and since this is tradition there is no shortage of things for me to do to earn a vote. This trial is even something the younger members of their community have to do as a way to adulthood.
Many of them did however consider it to be rather strange that an outsider like myself was looking to become an honorary Fremennik. It seemed like some found it a bit amusing and went along with trying to find an easy task for me to earn their vote.
One of the first tasks I was given was to perform on stage. Now I could not just go up there all drunk and get an easy vote. I ended up having to ensure I had an amazing performance while up on stage that moved the people.
This required making a lyre and getting it enchanted so it played perfect music. This required doing some strange stuff like getting a pet rock and talking a troll into giving me a golden apple. The troll at first thought I was just going to steal it. Further, my encounter with him was more challenging than one would hope it be.
For another task, I was challenged to a drinking contest. I then quickly lost that drinking content. I would however be allowed to attempt it again. It also became quite clear the only way I was going to win was if I cheated.
I first had to go around getting something that would allow me to win him over. For my drink, I acquired some low-alcohol beer. I still had the issue of needing to switch out the normal keg for my keg. For this, I launched a smoke bomb into the place where the kegs were being stored and switched them out.
While I could not beat him at the drinking game it seemed he never got drunk. I was at least able to down an entire keg like he did. This meant I at least matched his drinking ability. At least that is what I wanted him to believe and never thought twice about how I was able to do it the second time around. This was more than enough to win over his vote.
This guy must drink the bar out of all the booze they have. I can see it now. He shows up. Drinking everything and then says he was just getting started. All I know is I'm lucky my kidneys survived this challenge.
Next up I talked with a hunter. He handed me a talisman that could track Draugen. I then had to go around trying to locate one and kill it. At a few locations, the talisman indicated that I had just missed it. After a few attempts while searching an area, one of them appeared. I quickly took it out since it only had sixty health. Earning me a rather easy vote.
The next task I ended up getting was from a merchant. This one sent me on tilt quite quickly. It was like I was doing One Small Favour all over again. The guy wanted me to get a flower. The thing is to get that flower I had to help a guy which led me to need to help another person and so on.
Thankfully this version of that quest was much shorter. There was still too much back and forth between needing to go to the docks, and the longhouse, and speak with most of the NPCs it felt in the village.
This one I just could not stand. While I usually try and read most of a quest text in conversations. After the One Small Favour quest I just could not bring myself to do it. The sooner I got this portion of the quest over the better.
Perhaps the more annoying part was finding out a kid was bothering the barkeeper. All I had to do was talk the kid into not going back into the bar ever again. As it appears every time that kid showed up drinks and other items would go missing.
The only way I could get the little scammer to not return to the bar was by paying him off. Even after that, I was not sure he would keep up his end of the bargain. A bargain if you could call it that I ended up giving him 5k gold to make him go away. What a waste of money.
After far too many favors let’s just say I ended up opening up some inventory slots after this part was one. I at least got another vote in the yes column for me. I can only hope I never encounter another task like this for the rest of the game.
Next up was the warrior's task. I had to go in and fight a guy without bringing in just about any items. I decided to cheese this one a bit since I already had most of the items I needed.
Thankfully quite a while ago now I ended up farming quite a few HAM outfits. Those outfits sold for quite a decent amount of money. I decided for whatever reason at that time to save one of them. It turns out that it was one of the few items I could smuggle in with me.
Then came down to the issue of wanting a weapon to fight with. I was not allowed to carry any weapon. I was however allowed to carry in a branch that I could use a knife (which was not considered a weapon) to then craft myself a staff.
Crafting items is one way to get around areas that have restrictions about not having any armor or weapons with you when you enter them. While this was my first time using this trick. It would not be my last time using it.
While I ended up winning the first couple of fights which was all I needed to do. In the final fight, the guy I was supposed to defeat showed up with 255 health. He hit like a truck. I was no match and decided to just give up after making an honest attempt to win.
He got me all the way down to one health. The fight was then called off. Despite losing in the last round, I was told I had the warrior's vote. I was supposed to lose in the end but I had to remain to lose and not run away from an unwinnable fight to get the vote. This I had proven by doing so.
For the final vote I needed I had to enter into a seer's house and solve quite a few different puzzles. Even the lock on his front door was a lock puzzle just to get inside. Many of the puzzles involved having to find an item in the room or using things that looked out of place to my advantage.
Perhaps the quite annoying part of it all was I had to enter without having any items equipped. I’m not sure why that was a requirement. I also did not notice till later the NPC had an option to put all my stuff into the bank.
Instead, I made quite a bit of a run to a bank that was not so far away. While it would have been quicker to use the fairy ring to get to a bank. The issue was I needed to hold a staff to use the fairy rings in the first place. That item also needed to be put into the bank. So, in the end, it was just quicker to make the trip down south to a bank and later back to that same bank to get my stuff.
As you can see just how strange the second floor of the seer’s house looks. One corner of the house was exposed and covered in ice. Meanwhile, there was a hot burner going on the other end.
I ended up having to search through many different objects in the room. This included getting two different containers that could hold different amounts of liquids. Then getting one of them to the correct volume amount. That bucket then weighed enough to be placed on a chest to open it.
One thing led to another thing. After a while, I was able to go over to the frozen part of the second floor and acquire myself a frozen key. I then went over to the cooking area and thawed the key out. Once the key was no longer trapped in a block of ice, I could use it to unlock a door.
While there were several puzzles in the house. The rest of them were quite a bit shorter and not so bad. This was also the last person’s vote I needed before I was able to be made an honorary Fremennik.
The amount of experience I got in quite a few different skills from this one was quite amazing. While it was not a lot in any single one of them. That is like 28k experience right there. I now also could move a little more freely around the place being a member. I still had to get access to the different islands.
Quest: Fremennik Isles
I was quite excited for the next quest in the Fremennik series. While you do start to get access to the islands. The cool part is acquiring an item called The Helm of Neitizot. This helm grants +3 strength and a prayer bonus. This starts to become the part of the game where I start working towards getting gear that has a strength bonus on it. This also would be a helm I expect to be wearing for quite some time until I upgrade it.
One of the things becoming an honorary Fremennik entails is not just being able to slowly gain access to the islands. They also call you by your Fremennik. Anyone that was not doing that was doing so to be disrespectful.
At the very least they made me feel not so important at the start. Even if they were willing to use my new name. The king asked me to fetch some fish for his cat. I suppose I'm now considered a rookie or something and must do such low-level tasks to work my way up.
At the very least I already had some tuna on me. I ended up tossing it over to the cat. This allowed us to get onto more pressing matters. The real reason as it turns out was a request to come to the island. I was rather relieved it was more than just getting the cat food.
Turns out these islands are quite hostile to Fremennik. They wanted me to gather some intel on what was going on. So, I got back into the ship and went back to the mainland. I then was brought to the island to the west. Where I needed to make myself useful enough to gain their trust.
Yep, I started to feel like getting the cat some food was going to be the highlight of what I'd be entrusted with doing. Before long I found myself in a jester outfit performing for the people that lived on the other island.
I suppose looking back at it now dressing up as a jester was one way to try and gain some intel. I ended up having to perform quite a few different tricks such as juggling, and acting like the puppet I was. They seemed to enjoy me pieing myself in the face and had me do that quite a few times.
After getting some needed information I returned but this time not as a jester. I was told some bridges were out that needed to be repaired and I'd be just the person for them.
The biggest issue with repairing the bridges is you end up taking damage while you are performing the work. That damage then gets applied to you once you are done. So I ended up putting up a prayer to protect myself from any unwanted ranged damage that I'd get hit with. Even more so once I went deeper in and fixed the second bridge.
Things in this area of the island hit quite hard. I also wished I knew that it was the ranged damage that was the killer here. I would soon be tasked with going into a cave a decent distance away.
Before all that however I had to bring some news to the other island of what was going on. Along with returning and putting on the jester outfit again to gain even more intel. You can bet I cook a few more pies to the face.
It was then time to make it to a cave. I put up protection from melee and got killed on my way to the cave. Just outside it. I even realized when I was almost there that I was taking on too much range damage. So, I ended up switching to protection from ranged. I however no longer had enough hit points to survive a couple of melee hit’s id be taking.
I ended up doing a naked run back for my gear with just a couple of items to heal myself with. This time with protection from range I made it to the cave alive. While I still took a decent amount of damage, I was able to out-heal the melee damage I was taking. I was also able to get my gear.
Once inside the cave, I had to help the group kill some creatures. These things hit like trucks. I also needed to conserve any prayer points and food I had remaining for another fight. I ended up just sniping off what kills I could to get to my ten-kill count required before the guards stationed at the mouth of the cave would let me go in for one final fight.
While I don’t always get to overprepare. I was more than ready for the fight. I did end up burning a couple of prayer potions I brought along. Along with some stat-increasing potions I had. I only had to eat a couple of the sharks I brought along for healing before I had won the fight.
After winning the fight I decided it was best just to teleport out and ran back to the boat to get sent to the island. I reported that I had defeated Raarg and then went back to my people to tell them what had transpired.
Final Thoughts
The rewards from doing these two quests were more than worth it. Alongside quite a large amount of experience gained. I also now have a helm I'll be using for quite a while. It’s a nice feeling to get a decent item after having to put some time into acquiring it.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Old School RuneScape.
What a fascinating experience you're having with this game! I admire the way you've embraced challenges along the way. Keep up the amazing work.
Thanks.