Another day, another dastardly plot by H.A.M. against the cave goblins. This time, some of the children have become sick after getting some food from the marketplace, and poisoning is suspected. There are six possible foods, two of which have been poisoned. The trick is to talk to the children about what they had (each child had two different foods). The poisoned food items were the ones that none of the healthy children had, but all of the sick children did. In any case, the poison was in the frogspawn gumbo and cave slime soup. The merchants who sold these food items had one human supplier (all the merchants have been using surface seasonings to spice their food up) in common- Merchant Walton. He's the H.A.M. agent you're looking for.
Walton fights you, but just as you're defeating him, he turns on the H.A.M.'s signature stops-all-damage-never-runs-out-of-prayer-points protection prayers. And just when it looks like you're at an impasse, a new fighter arrives- a very much not dead and sporting some shiny new jewelry Zanik!. Walton will pray against range to stop Zanik's attack, leaving you free to defeat him using magic or melee. You eventually defeat him for real and he's bundled off to the council for trial, leaving you with Zanik.
Ask Zanik what she's been up to, and she'll tell you that when she was sucked into the box on Yu'biusk, she was knocked unconscious. Eventually she woke up in Bandos's Throne Room, and hopped across statues to find her crossbow. She also saw a scrying bowl in the hands of one of the big statues, and saw you getting into a fight with Walton. Determined to help, she jumped her way to Bandos's throne, where she found the blue pendant she's currently wearing. The pendant made the statues blocking the exit bow and clear the way to the portal out, which is when she joined the fight against Walton.
All's not quite well, as Zanik isn't acting exactly like herself. She's impatient with democracy, and advocates that Walton get the death penalty- and when he's instead turned over to Duke Horacio, she kills him herself and runs off into the caves south of Dorgesh-kaan. Go find her and sit next to her, letting her talk. She'll admit that she never really wanted it to come to this and just wants everyone to be able to live happily with each other. Eventually, she'll agree to come back and submit to the council's judgement.
The council will decide that Zanik is to be exiled, and Ur-tag will ask you to go investigate H.A.M. to see what their next plan is. When you talk to Johanus, the cult's leader, he'll reveal that Sigmund broke off from the main cult because of his extremist views, even by H.A.M. standards. His group is currently under the mill north of East Adrougne. There, he holds Grubfoot prisoner. You help Grubfoot escape, in the process learning that he has magic (he hasn't used it before because only priests did) and that Zanik (sporting a translucent blue exoskeleton) is leading an attack on H.A.M. You and she fight Sigmund, but before his Ring of Life can kick in, Zanik cuts off his hand and kills him. She then attacks you, since you're getting in the way of her destiny as the Chosen Commander.
Yeah, she's totally possessed by Bandos. You have an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight with Zanik, which ends with Zanik admitting that she doesn't want to fight you, and you telling her to take off the pendant. She does, but the sole survivor of the battle below, the High Priest, picks it up instead. He doesn't have Zanik's strong will, so he's outright controlled by Bandos, who leaves an ultimatum behind for the cave goblins- surrender to him, or be destroyed. The Dorgeshuun are about ready to surrender, until Zanik motivates them with a Rousing Speech.
You and Zanik then go to fight the Bandos Avatar, planning to bypass his regeneration via a special addition to Zanik's crossbow that can disrupt Bandos's magic. Unfortunately, before you can use it, Bandos knocks Zanik out and breaks the crossbow, forcing you to reassemble it and strike the final blow. Zanik then wakes up and destroys the pendant, breaking Bandos's hold over her.
The Cave Goblins are finally free, and Zanik leaves to become an adventurer. Bandos is still out there, but his threat has been severely curtailed since the pendant was his sole real presence in Gilenor and contained a large chunk of his power. This would turn out to be his sole appearance in a quest, as he would later die in The Bird and the Beast.
The Chosen Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: From you to Zanik, causing her to start breaking through the 'Chosen Commander' mind control.Player: But am I your enemy?
- Artifact of Doom: Bandos's Pendant. Harmless to humans, but any goblin who wears it opens themselves to Bandos's influence.
- Asshole Victim: Zanik killing Walton and Sigmund, when Walton had been captured and Sigmund defeated. While the murders are a sign of Bandos's increasing influence on her, both men were H.A.M. members and complicit in attempted genocide. No player was going to shed a tear about their passing, and you even have the option to defend Zanik's decision to murder Walton.
- Because Destiny Says So: Juna wants Zanik to become the Chosen Commander again for this reason.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Sigmund and Humans Against Monsters. Sigmund is killed halfway through the quest by Zanik-possessed-by-Bandos, and Bandos becomes the final boss.
- Brick Joke: A somewhat dark one, but still. Talk to Duke Horacio after the quest and he'll mention that Sigmund's hand teleported into the Lumbridge Castle courtyard, after Zanik cut off his hand.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: It turns out that 'chosen commander' really means 'Chosen Mind-Controlled Puppet of Bandos'.
- Just Between You and Me: If prompted, the Bandos Avatar will tell you his whole plan for the cave goblins.
- Killed Off for Real: The goblin high priest and Sigmund.
- Loophole Abuse: The Chosen Commander. Bandos couldn't go to Gilenor himself, so he placed a large chunk of his power in a pendant, giving it the ability to both empower and mind-control goblins who wore it. Then he tricked a goblin (He chose Zanik to punish the Cave Goblins for their desertion, but really any goblin could do) into putting it on, using the prophecy of the Chosen Commander to get his followers to accept his surrogate. Since the Chosen Commander was a mortal and Bandos did not directly put the pendant on Gilenor (he lured Zanik to Yu'biusk, which was unprotected by the Edicts, and got her to carry the pendant back), he technically didn't break the Edicts, despite the surrogate using Bandos's divine power and carrying out his will.
- Obsessively Organized: The H.A.M. member guarding Grubfoot joined the organization because most monster species are rather chaotic, and is dedicated to the letter of the law to the point where he'll let anyone into the room if they have the right paperwork (which works for you as you can steal the papers from the guy who's supposed to have them).
- Screw Destiny: Zanik's opinion of being the Chosen Commander.
- The Unchosen One: Zanik was the real Chosen Commander, but after she took off the pendant Bandos used to control her, Bandos had to settle for the Goblin High Priest.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Sigmund tries this with his unending supply of Rings of Life, but Zanik defies this by cutting off his hand before the ring can take effect, before killing him right then and there.
- Villain Override: Bandos starts doing this to Zanik as you break through to her. She eventually shakes him off. The High Priest doesn't, and becomes the Bandos Avatar.
