Between a Rock...

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For the achievement, see Between a Rock... (achievement).

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This article has a quick guide. Quick guides provide a brief summary of the steps needed for completion.

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Between a Rock... (#74)
Release date								21 March 2005 (Update)
Members								Yes
Voice Over								No
Official series								None
Age								Ambiguous
Timeline								Heroic
Start area								Keldagrim
Combat								NPC combat level 50–59
Advanced data
Quest ID								284
Quest create ID								19
Official difficulty								Experienced
Links								Quests

Between a Rock... is a quest about helping the old dwarf Dondakan, who is trying to access a legendary gold mine south of Keldagrim.

Official description

“

Hidden away from the fearsome trolls and the roaming Fremennik, the dwarves delve deep beneath the mountains in search for the ore they need to support their home of Keldagrim. One dwarf, in particular, has for years been trying to crack open a rock that seems to be impervious to any material that he's tried on it. Convinced that solving the riddle of the rock will lead him to unimaginable wealth, he has spent the latter part of his life on just this lump of stone. Help him out, but take care you don't end up in a tight spot!

”

Overview

Start point	Speak to Dondakan in the Keldagrim mines east of Rellekka, and north of the mountain camp. Show on map (via a location)	2005#8
Member requirement	Members only
Official length	Medium
Requirements	Quests: Between a Rock... Dwarf Cannon Fishing Contest 40 Mining 50 Smithing
Items required	Items from the tool belt are not listed unless they do not work or are not automatically added. 4 gold bars 50 coins
Recommended	Active Burthorpe lodestone or other quick access to a furnace Active Edgeville lodestone, ring of wealth, ring of fortune, or other quick access to the Grand Exchange (to travel to Keldagrim by mine cart) Active Falador lodestone or skull sceptre (to quickly access the Dwarven mines outpost) Completion of The Giant Dwarf (to quickly travel by carts to the underpass of White Wolf Mountain) 15 free backpack spaces to hold gold ore Some gold stone spirits
Enemies to defeat	A few scorpions (level 14) Arzinian Avatar (level 50-56); combat level depends on amount of gold mined

Rock hard

Head to the Keldagrim south-west mine (if you are entering through the cave entrance, cross the river by speaking to the ferryman) and speak to Dondakan the dwarf; when asked why he is shooting cannonballs at a wall, Dondakan explains that the wall is in fact a "special" rock by the fact that it is impenetrable. After having no success with a pickaxe and being abandoned by his colleagues, he requests your help in analysing and harnessing this enigma.

The dwarven scholar

Accept, and he'll suggest entering the dwarf city and finding someone who knows their way around rocks or, if that fails, speaking to the librarian. If you haven't yet completed The Giant Dwarf quest, you will need to talk to the dwarven boatman to visit Keldagrim for the first time; the boatman is at the entrance upon first crossing the water.

In West Keldagrim, go inside the consortium, the largest building there. Directly east of the entrance, there'll be a Dwarven Engineer. Speak to him and he'll tell you about Rolad, a renowned scholar who used to work with Dondakan on the rock. He eventually left, saying he wanted to travel the world and learn by experiences and was last heard being with the Black Guard at Ice Mountain.

Arzinian Avatar

One of the possible carts with the missing pages.

Teleport to the Falador lodestone and run north-east or to the Edgeville one and head south-west. Rolad is in the north-eastern building near the entrance to the dwarven mine. Mention Dondakan and his impervious rock, and he'll suddenly remember procuring a book which had details about the same rock and how it got placed in the Keldagrim mines. He had torn out the relevant pages to study them but has unfortunately misplaced the bunch, probably in the nearby underground mines.

Offer to help in retrieving the pages and climb down the ladder to enter the dwarven mine. Note that the pages may require multiple attempts to be obtained.

1. The first page can be found by killing scorpions.
2. The second is found when searching the mine carts.
3. The third one is found by mining any rock inside the mine.

Once you gather all 3 pages, they will automatically combine into pages. Return to Rolad with the pages, and he will give you a book on dwarven lore. Read the book to learn about the history of the solid rock and how a certain Arzinian being from Bordanzan was trapped inside a mine containing "yellow stones" by a few elder dwarves' efforts. The mine collapsed into itself and formed into a single, extremely hard stone form, holding the entity inside it.

Yellow stones

Smelting a golden cannonball in Burthorpe

Head back to Dondakan and inform him about the trapped spirit and the gold. He tells you that the other metals like adamantite, runite, and granite have failed to make a dent on the rock, to which you suggest using a "yellow material". Show him a gold ore or gold bar on him and he'll ask you to create a gold cannon ball out of it.

The gold ball went right through!

Ensure that you have an ammo mould either on you or in your toolbelt, otherwise the option to craft the golden cannonball will not appear. You can either walk to the furnace in the consortium and craft your golden cannonball there, or, if you've completed the easy Varrock achievements, another option is to teleport to Edgeville and smelt the cannonball at the furnace located just east of the lodestone and then use the Grand Exchange trapdoor shortcut to get to Keldagrim. To craft a golden cannonball, either use a gold bar on a furnace, or smith directly from the furnace (both will bring up the dialogue asking you if you want to make a golden cannonball).

Back in the Keldagrim caves, show the golden cannon ball to Dondakan. He eventually agrees to try shooting it at the rock. A cutscene ensues in which Dondakan fires the golden cannonball, and it passes right through the wall and disappears.

Astonished and excited, he plainly suggests throwing you at the wall, but he needs the schematics to modify the cannon to be able to fire a human. Considering the safe passage of the golden cannonball, he also tells you to make yourself a gold helmet, to phase through the wall.

Cannon ergonomics

The finished schematics

To correctly alter the cannon for safely shooting a human, you need to find all 4 sets of schematics:

• Dondakan gives you the first schematic.
• Read the dwarven lore book to find the base schematics, destroying the book in the process.
• One of the schematics is held by the Dwarven Engineer back in Keldagrim, at the ground level and west end of the Consortium. You may consider getting this piece last to smith the gold helmet on his anvil.
• For the final schematic, head under the White Wolf Mountain, located north of the Catherby and Taverley lodestones. Inside the tunnels, go to the pub and talk to Khorvak; he'll ask for a dwarven stout and you can agree or disagree to get him one. If you disagree, a unique monologue is said by the player. Otherwise, grab one stout off the table and hand it to him; regardless of the option you choose, he will give you the final schematics.

Once you have all the schematics, click "assemble" on any of the pieces to bring up an interface which shows the schematics, albeit scrambled out of order.

This part is simple pattern recognition. Try to piece together the humanoid figure medially placed atop the schematics. Schematic 1 lines up with the body of the figures, Schematic 2 lines up with the head, and Schematic 3 lines up with the legs. They can be manipulated one at a time via the check boxes. This will make the pattern much easier to follow and understand. Once you put them all in their proper places — some trial and error is required — the screen will show: "That's it! It all makes sense now! If you were a dwarf, that is...".

Now you need to make the helm! If you got the Dwarven Engineer's piece of the schematic last, you may use his anvil to make the helmet. The metal bank will not work, but un-noted gold bars can be withdrawn from the metal bank at the furnace north of the anvil. Otherwise, the quickest access to an anvil is to teleport to Lumbridge and use 3 gold bars on the nearby anvil or use an (attuned) teleport crystal to Trahaearn.

If you've completed The Giant Dwarf quest, a fast way to get back to Keldagrim is by using the train cart in the south-east corridor of the cave under White Wolf Mountain or use a Luck of the Dwarves. You may also use fairy ring code DKS and enter Keldagrim's cave entrance slightly to the west, then cross the river to get back to Dondakan.

Striking gold

Second thoughts

Bank in Keldagrim and withdraw any combat gear required to fight a level 50-56 enemy, along with your gold helmet. Make sure to keep six to fifteen free backpack spaces for collecting gold ore (gold ore collected outside will disappear, so will not work during the quest). Once you are ready, go back to Dondakan with the completed schematics, and ask him to shoot you into the rock. During the cutscene be sure to click the words "click to continue". Clicking anywhere else will restart the dialogue.

Once inside the rock, you will be surrounded by gold ore and veins; mine as much as you can. The upcoming enemy's combat level will be anywhere between level 50 and level 56, decided by how much ore you mine. With less than 6 ores, it will be level 56 and have the ability to regenerate infinitely; if the quantity of ores is between 6 and 14 it will be level 53, and with 15 gold ores or more, it will be level 50. The gold ores must be in your backpack (ore boxes will not work).

Too late!

Into the Rock

A non-unlockable music track that plays during the firing of you into the rock.

You must keep on your gold helmet whilst in the cave; otherwise, you'll be kicked out of it, and all of your mined gold will disappear.

You only have eight minutes in there to do everything, so be swift. When you have enough gold, head to the centre of the area, where you will find a set of flames. Go through the first wall of flames — do not stay for too long, or you will start taking damage. Right-click on the next ring of fire, and select Talk. An Arzinian Avatar will come and attack you.

Fighting the Arzinian Avatar

The spirit can attack with any combat style; which form it takes is dependent on your highest combat skill. If your Magic level is higher than the other combat levels, the Avatar will attack with Ranged. See the Combat Triangle for more details.

You can use prayer for an easy fight; the spirit shouldn't take too long to kill. If you are close to dying, you can take your gold helmet off to leave the mine, or, if you fail to defeat the demon within the time frame, you will be teleported outside the mine, losing all mined gold.

When you have defeated the demon's avatar, you will be teleported out of the mine. Speak to Dondakan to finish the quest.

Congratulations, quest complete!

Rewards

• 2 quest points
• 5,000 Defence XP lamp (requires 30 )
• 5,000 Mining XP lamp
• 5,000 Smithing XP lamp
• Adamant pickaxe + 2
• Players may keep their gold helmet and access the Arzinian Mine, where 146 gold rocks and veins can be found. After the quest's completion, a dwarven boatman due east of the mine will bank the player's gold ore for a small fee. He keeps 20% of the ores, rounded up, or 10% if the player has the ring of charos (a).
• 2 Treasure Hunter keys (Ironman accounts will not receive these)
  

Music unlocked

• Claustrophobia - In the Arzinian Mines, during the quest
• In Between - In the Arzinian Mines, after completing the quest

Achievements

• Between a Rock... ( 0) – Complete this quest.
• Lamp of Luxury ( 0) – Rub these quest lamps that can be reclaimed from May's storage chest, near Varrock lodestone.

Required for completing

Between a Rock... is directly required for the following quests/miniquests:

• Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf

It is therefore an indirect requirement for the following quests and miniquests:

• Birthright of the Dwarves
• King of the Dwarves

Transcript

This article on a quest has an associated dialogue page. Click here for a transcript of possible conversations and other messaging encountered throughout the quest. Click here for a transcript of the quest's journal entry.

Credits

Between a Rock...
Developers
Developer			Mod Vincent
Art and graphics
Graphics			Mod Neil
Quality assurance
Quality assurance			Daniel G
Audio
Audio			Mod Ian
Other
Quest help			Mod Mog

Update history

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included – see here for how to help out!

• update 19 February 2024 (Update):
  • No longer requires 30 Defence. 5,000 Defence XP at quest completion converted to a Lamp requiring 30 Defence.
  • Also converted 5,000 Mining and 5,000 Smithing XP to Lamps.
  • Lamps can be reclaimed from May's storage if not rubbed.
  • A new MQC Lore -> Experience achievement has been added to help keep track if these lamps have been rubbed.

• patch 5 February 2018 (Update):
  • The quest complete pop-up for Between a Rock... now states the correct quest name.

• patch 19 January 2015 (Update):
  • The quest start screens of the Between a Rock... and Lost City quests have been updated to reflect combat level calculation changes.

• patch 9 July 2013 (Update):
  • Dondakan will now recognise pickaxes stored in your tool belt during the Between a Rock... quest.

• patch 24 November 2010 (Update):
  • Various typos fixed in Between a Rock...

• patch 6 May 2009 (Update):
  • Dondakan now has a right-click option to fire you into the rock.

• update 21 March 2005 (Update):
  • Added to game.

Trivia

• The quest name is a reference to the phrase "between a rock and a hard place."
• While talking to Dondakan, the cannon will continue to fire at the wall even though nobody is operating it.
• Previously, when you completed the quest, the quest complete scroll said, "Congratulations, you have been Between a Rock...!" This used to be one of the quests that noted something different from the normal quest completion dialogue, along with My Arm's Big Adventure, One Small Favour, The Giant Dwarf, Recruitment drive and Horror from the Deep which currently still do so.
• After completing this quest, your Adventurer's Log will say: "A dwarf miner opened up a magical gold rock - by firing me at it from a cannon! Inside I had to fight a demon."