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Instruction manual
This quest has a quick guide found here.
It briefly summarises the steps needed to complete the quest.

Details[]

Start point Talk to Brother Tranquility in Mos Le'Harmless. Talk to Brother Tranquility in Mos Le'Harmless.
Official difficulty Experienced
Description The peaceful contemplation of the monks of Harmony Island has been disturbed by such rude interruptions as an invasion of zombie pirates and the theft of their brains! The evil zombie pirates have returned with a new scheme, and it's up to you to try to re-mind these poor priests before the sinister Mi-Gor completes his experiments...
Length Medium
Requirements
Items required

Recommended:

Enemies to defeat

Walkthrough[]

Beginning[]

Item(s) required: 4 planks, ~20 nails, a hammer, fishbowl helmet, diving apparatus, holy symbol. Good food and some armour to defend from aggressive level 57 Zombie pirates

Optional item(s): Ectophial, charged Combat bracelet or Amulet of glory (teleport to Edgeville)

NOTE: Leave your follower in the bank, otherwise you will not be able to go diving.

Brother Tranquility (zombie) chathead

Use a Charter ship to Port Phasmatys; talk to Bill Teach on his boat in Port Phasmatys at the east end of the dock near the Green Ghost Inn. Agree to sail with Bill to Mos Le'Harmless. You may opt to use the Mos le'harmless teleport scroll, or to use the Trouble Brewing minigame teleport. Near the dock, you will notice a rather sickly-looking monk named Brother Tranquility. Talk to him to begin the quest—select the option regarding undead pirates. He will explain how some of his fellow monks are in trouble and asks for help. Accept the offer to be teleported to Harmony Island.

Gathering info[]

Moving Saradomin statue

Moving the statue.

Make sure you have the supplies listed earlier and head outside the windmill. Zombie pirates (level 57) are aggressive and will attack. A short way to the north will be a Saradomin statue that can be pulled. Pull the statue. Go down the hole and into a tunnel. It is full of water, so equip the diving gear to submerge beneath the water. Note that you cannot enter the water if you are carrying a follower such as a pet cat. Run past the zombie pirates and repair the stairs at the far end of the tunnel (you can be attacked while repairing the stairs and it takes a while). Go up them, climb up the ladder in the next room; then, look through the peephole to spy on the enemy.

Peeking through hole

The secret room, peek through the hole.

The prayer book[]

Report back to Brother Tranquility. He will suggest getting a book that can be used to pray away poison. Travel to the Monastery near Edgeville to find the prayer book in a bookshelf towards the south-west corner of the building on the ground floor. Read the book, which provides instructions on how to use it. Equip a holy symbol and return to Harmony Island. The zombies have begun to gas the windmill, so right-click the book and select "recite-prayer." After this, make sure to talk to Brother Tranquility.

The doctor[]

Item(s) required: Ring of charos

Optional item(s): Ectophial, armour, food, weapon and/or Wolfbane dagger.

Great Brain Robbery Elfinlocks

Elfinlocks makes another cameo appearance.

Now that the monks are no longer in danger of being poisoned, they would like to get their brains back in their bodies where they belong. Travel to Dr. Fenkenstrain in his castle and climb up to the jail where Lord Rologarth (Fenkenstrain's monster) was first held. After a bit of negotiation, he agrees that a new home free of the threat of being eaten sounds better than where he is. However, he does not want to risk being eaten while travelling. He is also allergic to teleportation, so another way needs to be found.

Head to Canifis and talk to Rufus, the owner of the meat store north of the bank. Make sure to be wearing the ring of charos while talking to him. Rufus will give you some crate parts and a wolf whistle. You need to build ten decoy cats to fill the crate since Rufus assumes the crate will be transporting cats.

Tip: Since you are right next to a bank, deposit the whistle and crate parts and take out Mos Le'Harmless teleport (treasure trail), 10 wooden planks, 10 pieces of fur, and a hammerhome teleport runes or tab and an ectophial are advised for easy travelling. If you do not have a Clockmaker's bench yet, you will also need to bring 4 oak planks and a saw. Also, if you still need fur, you can kill Canifis villagers—they'll transform into level 88 werewolves if you don't use Wolfbane, so be careful. You can also obtain fur by thieving from stalls in Ardougne (or trading the fur trader there) or by purchasing fur in Varrock square for 20 coins apiece. Ultimate ironmen may find a table in the south-east tower of Fenkenstrain's castle on the first floor helpful.

Tricking Rufus

Tricking Rufus into giving you the shipping order.

Great Brain Robbery crate

Building the delivery crate.

Travel to a Player-owned house that has a Clockmaker's bench. Craft the materials into 10 wooden cats. Grab your ring of charos, the 10 wooden cats, 4 planks (normal), a hammer, ~50 nails, the crate parts, and the wolf whistle before travelling back to Fenkenstrain's castle. When you get to the room where the doctor is hiding, you'll see a hotspot to build the crate. Do so, and then, use the extra (normal) planks of wood to build a false bottom by clicking on the crate again and selecting "add-bottom." Fill it with the fake cats and then use the wolf whistle Rufus gave you to call him. Fenkenstrain will automatically get in the crate. Once past inspection, Rufus will give you a shipping order. Use this on the crate, and it will be teleported to the island.

Making the transplants[]

Now that the doctor is on the island, travel back to Mos Le'Harmless. Use the island bank to grab a hammer, diving gear, armour, and a weapon before teleporting to Harmony Island. Dr. Fenkenstrain is in the basement and needs some equipment to perform the surgery. He will give you a list of items to collect:

Luckily, the bad guys already have what you need since they performed the surgery in the first place. The only problem is how to get inside the building...

Blowing up the door

The player creates an explosion to open the door.

Put on the diving suit to avoid passing out from the gas, and head north from the windmill to the ship beached nearby. Search the locker on the ground floor to get a fuse; then, climb up a level and get a tinderbox and a keg of powder. With these in hand, go back to the front door of the monastery. Wedge the keg in the front door, add a fuse, and then, light it. The door is now open.

Great Brain Robbery cat cutscene

The gruesome operation, replaced with a cute cat playing with a ball.

Once inside, kill the 4 Sorebones to obtain all the needed equipment. You must pick up the dropped items after each kill, or else you will just get duplicates. Walk back to the windmill, head downstairs, and give all this to Dr. Fenkenstrain to begin the gruesome surgery. A cutscene of a cute cat playing with a ball will ensue due to the surgery being too gruesome. Make sure to speak to Brother Tranquility after the operation.

The big battle[]

Barrelchest

The Barrelchest!

Warning: If you die, you will not be able to retrieve your items.

Return to the bank on Mos Le'Harmless and grab all the armour, food, and potions you will need for the fight. Warning: You still need to wear your diving suit.

When you enter the monastery, only Mi-Gor will be there, giving you the option to confront him. When you do, he will summon his monstrosity, a giant mess of machinery named Barrelchest, to attack you.

Barrelchest safespot

Safespotting the barrelchest.

Prayer (and also Defence) drains faster than usual during the fight, and Barrelchest will turn your Prayers off, but just keep turning it back on (note: repeatedly turning it on can be a huge time waste and result in death if he gets lucky with the timing of his hits, plan to do this without prayer to avoid that). Bringing several prayer potions and at least ten good food is highly recommended. Barrelchest is a fairly blunt instrument; he will not use anything but Melee attacks, which are fairly inaccurate; however, when he does hit, they are almost always 20's. It is possible to catch him on the side of a pew and attack him from a distance without any sort of retaliation by standing behind benches for safespotting. This makes ranging or maging an incredibly effective way to take out Barrelchest. However, do not hide behind a pew when attempting to do this. Catch him on the corner of the first pew by taking a few steps back when you first start the battle, or he will strike the ground with his anchor and cause 25 damage. Alternatively... just teleport out when you encounter him and make your way back to the boss room but don't move anywhere; the spot you will be standing in serves as a safespot.

Once you have killed Barrelchest, pick up his anchor and walk back to the windmill to inform Brother Tranquility of your victory.

He will thank you and give you a lamp granting 5,000 experience in the skill of your choice.

Barrelchest dies

The Barrelchest is defeated!

Congratulations! Quest complete!

Tip: If you died during the boss fight, remember to pickpocket Dr. Fenkenstrain to receive another ring of charos.

Tip: If your inventory was full when talking to Brother Tranquility after the boss fight, you can still claim the experience lamp by talking to him again with at least one free inventory space.

Rewards[]

The Great Brain Robbery reward scroll

Music[]

Tips[]

Trivia[]

  • The Great Brain Robbery is a reference to the 1903 movie The Great Train Robbery.
    • The music track Zombiism when on Harmony Island comes from the same movie.
  • Another Monty Python reference is hidden in the quest. When Rufus comments that the cats aren't moving, the character will comment that they're "probably pining", referring to "The Dead Parrot Sketch".
  • The Mi-Gor character and Barrelchest monster are probably references to emphysema, a fatal lung disease that leaves victims with a "barrelchest" and a scary voice.
  • This quest marks the second appearance of Elfinlocks, a fake player from the Draynor bank robbery plot, who is travelling with her clockwork cat in Canifis. She appears to have gained another blue partyhat since her last appearance.
  • After the player builds the crate and fills it with the wooden cats, the player says "Urge to kill...rising!" This is a reference to an episode of The Simpsons where Homer says the same line.
  • When first going to Harmony Island, the player does the "Scared" emote saying that they're afraid of getting hit while transporting. This is a reference to the transportation method used in Rum Deal.
  • The crate hotspot is the only known hotspot that is made outside of your house.
  • If you are wearing the fishbowl helmet and you blow the whistle to call Rufus, you'll get the following message "You should take your diving helmet off before you try to blow the whistle."
  • If you get the Mysterious Old Man or Dr. Jekyll random events while you are underwater, they will also be wearing a fishbowl helmet.
  • When Dr Fenkenstrain tells you the list of equipment he needs, the player says mentions "Unusual Implements R Us". This is probably a reference to the American toy store "Toys R Us".
  • "Not the box" is probably a reference to the film Hook and the Boo Box
  • At the beginning of the quest while talking to Brother Tranquility, the player refers to Mos Le'Harmless as "a hive of scum and villainy". This is a reference to Ben Kenobi's line describing Mos Eisley in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.


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