Witch's House

This quest has a quick guide. It briefly summarises the steps needed to complete the quest.

Witch's House is a quest involving a boy whose ball had been lost in the garden of an unpleasant local witch, Nora T. Hagg. The adventurer is asked to retrieve it, having to figure out how to proceed in Nora's house along the way.

Start point	Talk to the boy near the gate entrance of Taverley. Show on map
Official difficulty	Intermediate
Official length	Very Short
Description	A young boy who lives in Taverley has kicked his ball into the garden of a scary old lady. He asks you to get it back for him. This proves more difficult than it first sounds.
Requirements	The ability to defeat 4 monsters from level 19 to 53 without a break.
Items required	Cheese (You may wish to bring several in case you mess up. One source is in Draynor Village - Aggie's house) Leather gloves or any of the gloves listed here (obtainable during the quest, may take some time)
Recommended	35 Combat level Weapon, armour and some food 4 free inventory slots
Enemies to defeat	Witch's experiment (level 19, 30, 42 and 53)
League notes	Asgarnia✓ — location requirement

Head to Taverley and talk to the boy near the eastern entrance along the hedges. He will start crying; ask him what's the matter, and he will say that he kicked his ball over the hedge into the garden, and the witch living in the house put it in her shed. The boy wants you to get it back for him.

Head west then north around the hedge to the front door of the house - it is locked. Look-under the pot north of the door to find a door key and enter the house. Read the entire diary on the table.

Go down the ladder in the northern room to enter the basement. If you don't already have leather gloves, search the boxes for a pair, however it may take many attempts to find them. Equip your gloves, go through the gate, and search the cupboard for the magnet. Go back up the ladder and into the southern room with the door that leads to the garden. Drop your cheese or use it on the mouse hole. Suddenly, a mouse will come out; use the magnet on the mouse and it will unlock the door. Be quick or the mouse will leave, and you will lose the cheese. Enter the door into the garden.

Once in the garden, you will see the witch walking back and forth in the middle. You cannot walk through the garden, and must walk around it while using the hedges as cover until you reach the fountain. If the witch catches you, she will teleport you out of the garden and you will have to repeat most of the previous steps. Search the fountain to obtain a key.

Head to the shed (east of the courtyard) and use the key on the door. Do not attempt to take the ball otherwise the Witch's experiment will lower your stats. Attack the Witch's experiment. Each time you kill the experiment's current form it changes to a stronger form. You have to kill the experiment four times before it is defeated - the first stage is a Skavid (level 19), then a spider (level 30), then a bear (level 42), and finally a wolf (level 53). If you flee during the battle you will have to start over.

Note: Rings of recoil may be used - a maximum of 4 will be required, as the experiments combined have a total of 144 hitpoints.

Note: You cannot use a Dwarf multicannon in the shed.

The first and second forms can be safespotted with Magic or flinched with Melee by going into the north-east corner and waiting for the experiment to move south of you. Once it is in position, run past it, then walk on top of it. After this, walk west 1 tile so you are positioned diagonally from the Witch's experiment, then you're free to attack.

The third and fourth can also be safespotted by walking to the south wall of the shed between the sacks and the crate with the ball on it and using Ranged or Magic attacks from there.

Once you have killed the Witch's experiment, take the ball and return it to the boy.

Do not let the witch see you or she will teleport you outside and you will lose the ball. You can avoid needing to pass her by teleporting out. If she does catch you, the doors to the shed will need to be unlocked again. Although the creature will respawn, it will not attack you.

Congratulations, quest complete!

• 4 Quest points
• 6,325 Hitpoints experience

Unlocks:

• Witch's experiment (multiple forms) accessible in the Nightmare Zone.

Completion of Witch's House is required for the following:

• Grim Tales
• Recipe for Disaster/Freeing the Lumbridge Guide

• Attempting to break-in before and after the quest, but before Grim Tales causes the player to say, It would be rude to break into this house.
• If the player gets caught by the witch, her spell uses the same animation as curse.
• As the diary has daily entries until the "9th of Pentember", it's possible that the events of the quest take place on either the 9th or 10th of Pentember.
• A scrapped design for a sequel to the quest would have had the player transform into a mouse, whereupon they would be picked up by a giant human who would affix a magnet to the player, mirroring the events of Witch's House with the roles reversed.^[1]
  • While this idea was never used, something similar was used in the Grim Tales quest released in 2007, where the player does have to shrink down to enter the mouse hole used in this quest.