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This article is about the tutorial released in September 2009. For other uses, see Unstable Foundations (disambiguation).

Unstable Foundations is the quest that new players complete when creating and learning how to use their character. It is a tutorial quest, and replaced Tutorial Island on 17 September 2009. It is a remake of the tutorial quest Learning the Ropes. The quest involves slaying a dragon in order to escape the cellar with the help of Sir Vant.

Details

Walkthrough

A map of Roddeck's cellar.

Creating your Character

Customising your character at the beginning of the tutorial.

Before you get started, you must create your character. You must fill in a few things: Mouse, Gender, Head, and Body options. The Mouse menu is to choose how many mouse buttons you have: one or two. The Gender menu lets you decide your character's gender (male or female). The Head menu lets you decide what your character's hair, skin, and beard will look like. The Body menu lets the player decide what the avatar's clothing and body will look like. The Creating your Character part of the tutorial reminds you that all settings can always be changed at a later date.

The Mentor

Sir Vant's squire is incinerated by the dragon's attack.

After you customise your character, you must speak to Sir Vant, a White Knight. He will tell you that he is there to fight a large, dangerous dragon. A cutscene will follow, with Sir Vant attempting to defeat the dragon and a puff of stray dragonbreath killing Sir Vant's squire.

Defeating the Goblin

"Ooh, shiny!"

While he is fighting the dragon, a goblin will come and start to rummage through Sir Vant's pack. He will ask you to kill the goblin for him. Use the deceased squire's equipment to slay the goblin.

Drugging the Dragon

The dragon falls asleep due to the effects of the drugged meat.

Sir Vant and the player set the two wooden pillars on fire to crush the dragon.

After the goblin is defeated, Sir Vant asks you to place some drugged meat in the Dragon's food bowl near the pillars. Sir Vant won't move from the door way, so you will have to climb over the wall. The ledge is too high to climb, so players will have to take the plank which is also in that area and make a ramp to climb over the wall.

After you use the drugged meat in the bowl, Sir Vant will deploy a smokescreen which blinds it temporarily. Both you and Sir Vant will hide behind the walls and the Dragon gets bored and wanders off. Noticing the meat you left for it in its bowl, it eats the meat and then falls asleep.

Slaying the Dragon

After the dragon falls asleep, Sir Vant asks the player to get his equipment from his pack. After this equipment is gathered, he asks that player to help him set fire to the pillars, and crush the dragon.

First the cloth must be torn apart, and then the strips must be soaked in oil from the oil can(this can be done quicker by soaking the cloth and then ripping it). Next, the oily strips of cloth must be placed upon the wooden pillars, and then finally the fuses must be placed upon the pillars by "using" the fuses on the pillars.

After the pillars have been prepared, talk to Sir Vant, he will ask players to give him a tinderbox ("use" the tinderbox on him) then use the tinderbox on the farthest pillar from Sir Vant. Sir Vant and the player in this quest will light the pillars simultaneously, causing the ceiling to fall on the dragon, killing it.

Congratulations, the dragon has been slain!

Escaping the Cellar

Roddeck will now walk in from his cupboard door and thank you for ridding him of the dragon and offer his services as an advisor to you. Upon asking how to get out of the cellar you will be offered 2 choices - to mine your way out, or to chop through some roots to escape. Pick one and you will be given either a bronze hatchet for chopping or a bronze pickaxe for mining.

Walk over to the roots or rocks blocking your path behind where the dragon was killed and try to mine or chop your way out, depending on which skill you chose. You will be unsuccessful and be advised to level up your mining or woodcutting to level 2 to remove the blockage.

Follow the instructions to set yourself the objective of gaining level 2 mining/woodcutting and then chop/mine the indicated roots/rocks until you reach level 2.

Now go back to the blockage and try again, this time you will succeed, and receive root chippings if you chose to woodcut, or stone chippings if you chose to mine. Go through the passage you have created and talk to Roddeck once more. After this, ascend the ladder to freedom to complete the quest!

Reward

• 1 Quest Point
• Level 4 Mining/Woodcutting (depends on which way you escaped the cellar)
• The ability to chat freely
• The ability to explore RuneScape
• The services of Roddeck, an advisor

Trivia

• After the tutorial, the old cellar where Sir Vant is located becomes inaccessible, though other players that have completed the tutorial before the release can still enter it.
• If a player suffers from computer lag when first logging in to the tutorial, they can see their player in a wardrobe.
• If a player tries to get hints for an objective during the tutorial, they will get a list of a few messages that they previously had done during the tutorial.
• As in the old Tutorial, it is actually impossible for the player to be killed before they properly enter RuneScape. The goblin will never reduce the player's HP below 1, and the ceiling will not collapse until the player has run away.
• When you raise your Mining level to 2, there is a glitch that will show everything you did and examined during the tutorial. The glitch has not been fixed yet.
• When players try to go in Roddeck's cupboard door, the room only has one square.
• The Frozen Dragon in 2009 Christmas Event Looked similar to the dragon Sir Vant fought in this quest.
• Unlocks the music track: Harmony.
• When you choose the view "Runescape Surface", an arrow pointing to the far north-east (till the end of the map, dosn't show the regular "You are Here" ) , which shows that the cellar is not under Lumbridge, but in another realm than RuneScape.

The "wardrobe" glitch.

The objective glitch.

The list of messages a player gets.