X Marks the Spot

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

X Marks the Spot is an introductory quest of the Great Kourend quest series focusing on Veos' treasure hunt in Lumbridge.

It is mainly targeted at low levels and is designed to act as a small introduction to Great Kourend while providing more links between Kourend and the mainland. In this quest, the player must embark on a short treasure hunt for Veos. While not initially obvious, the events of this quest are important to the overall Kourend storyline.^[1]

It is not a requirement of the quest to visit Great Kourend but it has slightly different dialogue if you've already been there.^[2]

Start point	Talk to Veos in The Sheared Ram in Lumbridge. Show on map
Official difficulty	Novice
Official length	Very Short
Description	Veos has long been a lover of treasure hunts and his latest hunt has brought him to Lumbridge. However, not knowing the area well, Veos could use some help finding this treasure.
Requirements	None
Items required	Spade (the Eastfloor spade does not work)
Recommended	Energy potions or stamina potions (Members only) Fast travel to Draynor Village (1 trip) - Amulet of glory (Members only)
Enemies to defeat	None
League notes	Unlocking Fremennik✓ will auto-complete the quest Unlocking Kandarin✓ will auto-complete the quest Unlocking Kourend✓ will auto-complete the quest

Speak to Veos in The Sheared Ram pub in Lumbridge. He has travelled to Lumbridge on a treasure hunt after finding a scroll in Great Kourend, a kingdom far west of the mainland. However, due to not being familiar with the area, he is stuck on what to do next. Offer to help him, and he will give you a treasure scroll.

Should players be stuck on any step of the treasure scroll, players can talk to Veos, either on the dock just south of Rusty Anchor Inn in Port Sarim or in The Sheared Ram in Lumbridge for hints.

The first clue on the treasure scroll will state: "Within the town of Lumbridge lives a man named Bob. He walks out of his door and takes 1 step east, 7 steps north, 5 steps west and 1 step south. Once he arrives, he digs a hole and buries his treasure."

From Bob's Brilliant Axes (indicated by the icon), follow the directions in the treasure scroll and then dig with a spade. The correct spot is the tile north of the north-western window of the house connected to Bob's Brilliant Axes, directly west of the plant. You will receive the next treasure scroll step.

The second clue on the treasure scroll is a map. This will lead to the door behind the Lumbridge Castle by the Cook's kitchen. Dig on the tile directly south-west of the large crate and you will receive a mysterious orb.

The mysterious orb is used to locate the next clue. Based on an older children's game, feel the mysterious orb and it will tell you how close you are to the treasure. Its temperature is based on the distance of the treasure from the player, measured in the number of steps it would take to reach the treasure, ignoring any obstacles (this is the Chebyshev distance between the player and treasure). Teleport or walk to another location, feel the mysterious orb and see if it has gotten warmer.

The orb works in much the same way as the Hot Cold Treasure Trails or The Enchanted Key miniquest.

The location to dig is just east of Draynor Village, north-west of the jail and south of the wheat field, near Leela. Dig four steps to the north of the bush there. An amulet of glory will teleport the player close to the final location, requiring only a short walk north-east. If you are a lower level, watch out for the aggressive jail guards nearby. You will obtain another treasure scroll.

The fourth clue is a Caesar shift that encrypts a location. In order to decode a Caesar-shifted message, you must first count the number of times a letter appears within the cipher. See here on how to solve a Caesar shift.

The cipher, ESBZOPS QJH QFO, when decoded, is DRAYNOR PIG PEN. Dig in the centre of the pig pen just north of the market in Draynor Village and you will receive an ancient casket. As you dig it up, you hear a faint whispering, though you can't make out what it says.

After obtaining the casket, go to the northernmost dock in Port Sarim, on the docks, outside Rusty Anchor Inn, and give Veos the treasure. When asked what was in it, he will shiftily state it was nothing important, just something that might be useful to him back in Great Kourend.

Congratulations, quest complete!

• 1 Quest point
• 200 coins
• Antique lamp providing 300 experience in a skill of the player's choosing (can be reclaimed if lost or destroyed)
• The ability to receive scroll boxes
• A beginner scroll box (only if the player does not have one already in their possession; can be claimed later if players had one in their possession already)
• +1 cap on all tiers of clue scrolls

Completion of X Marks the Spot is required for the following:

• Client of Kourend

• The short story A Curious Client from the Kourend Chronicles acts as a prequel to this quest.
  • This story implies Konar quo Maten paid to have the Ancient casket hidden on the mainland, and that Veos believes it contains a dangerous amulet.
  • Upon unearthing the Ancient casket, the player will hear "a faint whispering". In response, they say Hmmmm... Must have been the wind. This is the same reaction the character in A curious Client has to the casket talking to them at first.
    • Both the story and the quest are referencing the same phrase popularised by NPCs in the 2006 game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; Where it signals that an NPC is dismissing suspicious activity, resuming normal behaviour and pretending nothing is wrong. This also echoes similar lines in the Metal Gear (1987 and 1999) and Thief (1998) series.
• Upon release on 7 February 2019, this quest generated some controversy because a house in Lumbridge (which had been unchanged since 2007) was redesigned as a pub and a dock was added to Draynor Village. Some players felt that changes to free-to-play areas (not referenced in the X Marks the Spot poll) were inappropriate without prior consultation from the playerbase.^[3]
  • Due to the controversy from the playerbase, Veos was once again returned to Port Sarim and the Draynor Dock removed in the following update. However, Veos' location was changed from the original southernmost dock to the northernmost dock next to the Port Sarim pub in order to make him more accessible to players.^[3]
• Players who completed X Marks the Spot before Beginner clues were added to the game can claim their own by speaking to Veos in Port Sarim again. Note that you won't receive it by speaking to him at Port Piscarilius.
• This is the only quest that is required for a previously-released quest: in an update on 28 April 2021, X Marks the Spot was made a requirement for the previously-released quest Client of Kourend.