Defender of Varrock

Make your way to the Jolly Boar Inn and speak to Elias White, a wise explorer. He will tell you that one of the inn's patrons were raving that zombies have been organising in the Wilderness, but were dismissed as the ramblings of someone who's had too much to drink. Believing there is more to the rambling, he will enlist your help in investigating the claims.

From here, you must follow the trail, inspecting the correct objects along the way; you cannot skip ahead, as the "Inspect" option will not appear unless all previous objects have been inspected.

Tracking route

Steps	Map
1. Inspect the plant outside the inn.
2. Follow the trail west, and inspect the rocks.
3. Follow the southern trail, and inspect the plant.
4. Follow the eastern trail, and inspect the spiny bush to get a grubby key.
5. Follow the eastern trail through the gate, and inspect the green bush.
6. Follow the eastern trail, and inspect the small bush.
7. Follow the northern trail, and run past the end to find a trapdoor.

Enter the dungeon and finish the dialogue with Elias, then run north a little bit to a balcony. Look over the balcony to begin a cutscene showing Sharathteerk, the second-in-command of the Mahjarrat Zemouregal, and the now-undead Arrav, a former hero of the Fourth Age.

Sharathteerk will complain about being imbued with a red mist, with Zemouregal saying the mist is required for the dungeon's security system. Sharathteerk will suggest allying with his cousin Lucien, who you've met during the quest Temple of Ikov, but Zemourgal rejects the idea, as he believes he would be serving under Lucien in such an arrangement. The two will then leave to inspect their troops. Elias will also leave, to inform the Varrockian authorities, leaving you to uncover more information within the dungeon.

To explore further, you will need bottles of red mist to bypass the dungeon's security. Each gate requires three bottles of mist to unlock, and each bottle will need to filled by killing an armoured zombie. Note that you will be unable to fill the bottles without watching the cutscene.

Zombies attack with either melee or ranged attacks, and the dungeon is multicombat. You can tell which attack style a zombie will use by looking at its weapon; a sword indicates melee. As there are more melee zombies, it is recommended to use Protect from Melee. After killing a zombie, click on the red mist they leave behind to fill a bottle. As the zombies have relatively low defence, a fast weapon such as a whip or a weapon with a multi-hit special attack, such as the dragon dagger, are recommended. A salve amulet or its imbued versions is also beneficial as the zombies are undead creatures.

Head west and pick up three bottles on the ground, then slay three zombies. After filling three bottles with red mist, enter the gate to find yourself face-to-face with Arrav, whose physical body is forcibly under Zemouregal's control, though he sometimes can speak of his own will when Zemouregal's concentration is elsewhere. He will tell you that Zemouregal controls him through possession of his heart.

Head further north through the corridor and refill your bottles by killing three more zombies, and open the door to the east. Run further east to the end to find another balcony; look over it to begin another cutscene. Zemouregal will tell Sharathteerk that he has no time to worry about "fairy tales" that Lucien is supposedly close to finding, and will claim the planned invasion of Varrock is his last real chance before the time for the Mahjarrat's ritual arrives.

Warning: Looking over the second balcony ends the instance of the dungeon. Ironman players looking to obtain the broken zombie axe might want to hold off on ending the instance, since the normal version of the dungeon is a popular multi-combat area.

Head to Varrock Palace and speak to Elias, just outside Sir Prysin's room, who has reported to Captain Rovin that an attack on Varrock is imminent. Elias will mention the Shield of Arrav, which was once used to repel Zemouregal's first attempt at invading the city of Avarrocka in a tale known as The Legend of Arrav. Elias will add that the Shield was forged by the Imcando dwarves, leading you to note that the Ruins of Camdozaal were recently rediscovered, and that Ramarno may be able to help.

Make your way to Camdozaal and speak to Ramarno about the Shield of Arrav, and he will ask that you stoke the Sacred Forge with imbued barronite. As he is blind, you must be the one to gaze into the forge for answers.

The imbued barronite you must use is made by combining a chaos core with a barronite deposit. Chaos cores are dropped by Chaos Golems in the eastern side of the ruins at a rate of 2/15, whilst barronite deposits are mined from barronite rocks on the western side at a rate of 6/25. Note that when mining from the barronite rocks in the walls: Barronite deposit differs from barronite shards. Both can be received while mining but it is the deposits you will need to imbue on the chaos core. Use either item on the other to imbue the barronite, then use it on the Sacred Forge.

Within the Dream Theatre, you will speak to Arrav, who is temporarily free from Zemouregal's control. You will ask him how to use his shield, but he will tell you that its powers are unleashed by a person with the bloodline of the founder of Avarrocka, and that only his descendants can repel the Varrockian invasion. Suddenly, Zemouregal will appear in place of Arrav, fully aware of your interference, and tell you that his army has already begun laying siege to Varrock.

Return to Varrock Palace to find it under attack. Go two flights up the north-western staircase and speak to Elias and Captain Rovin, who will give you the Shield of Arrav. Rovin will then tell you your best bet is to consult the library downstairs, so head to the palace library on the ground floor and speak to Reldo, who will tell you about an old document he had with a list of elders who sent Arrav on his quest. Search the scrolls by the flipped table in the north-east corner to obtain this list. Read the Varrock Census north-west of the scrolls before leaving. If you happen to read the Varrock Census before searching the scrolls, you will need to destroy the list and read the census first.

There are six elders who were alive during Zemouregal's first invasion in the Fourth Age, but only one is of the founding bloodline. You must match them with the surnames found on the Varrock Census next to the flipped table.

Though King Roald is a descendant of Tarrlo Remanis, he is never the "correct" person, so players need not talk to him unless they wish to read additional dialogue. Visiting the other five descendants will result in each of them failing to activate the shield's true power, but only one of them (random for each player) will reveal that they are not a blood descendant of the family line, and explain that their great-grandfather was adopted in. They will then tell you that the last true descendant of their family was married into the Fitzharmon family.

Head to south-east Varrock, past the gated area, and speak to Dimintheis, who is of the noble family Fitzharmon. Upon equipping the shield, it will begin to crackle with lightning, indicating that he is indeed descended from the founder of Varrock.

A cutscene will then play where you bring Dimintheis to Varrock Palace to unleash the shield's powers on the zombies throughout the area. With the second attempt a complete failure, Zemouregal, Sharathteerk will retreat, with Arrav in tow.

After the cutscene, finish the conversation with Elias and Captain Rovin to complete the quest.

Congratulations, quest complete!