The Chronicles of Runescape

Today, being the last day of 2009, I finally made the decision to bend the rule and invite Tiz over for the Smithing screenshot, even though he had been with me during the final level up for Strength. I chiseled down the exp gap until it was under 1k, before heading off to the Tzhaar furnace which I had chosen as the setting for the screenshot.

It went off without a hitch; I found an empty server after a few switches, lent Tiz my Yellow Partyhat to suit the occasion (it was New Year's Eve after all) and levelled up right there in the volcano. And unlike what had happened last year with Crafting, I reached a major Total level milestone and was treated with a third set of fireworks! We then travelled via Fairy Ring to Thurgo's house and I purchased the Skill Cape from him. It has a sweet emote of me smithing various weapons.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Nechyrael task, Level 99 Smithing, reached an Overall Level of 2300

She assigned me my first Living Rock Creatures task today and I had to kill over 120 of them. They're fairly accurate as for as my prior encounters while Mining are concerned, so I was a little worried about their damage dealing capacity. However, they didn't put up much of a struggle as long as I wore proper Combat gear instead of my flimsy Varrock Armour and matching white Proselyte Legs.

The individual fights between each Living Rock Creature were on the lengthy side though, so I couldn't get that many kills with my Bunyip. They have a surprisingly high amount of health; the Protectors have 200hp while the Strikers have 275hp, which translates to a lot of Slayer exp. The loot and Charm drop rate were also decent. That's another completed Slayer assignment to convince me that the switch to Kuradal was a good choice.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Living Rock Creatures task, completed Nechyrael task

But I still got to see part of Jagex's Christmas update. Previously only bothering to dress up for Hallowe'en, the spy-able penguins all around Gielinor have finally decided to stop ignoring the holiday. They have swapped their usual camouflage gear in favour of a more festively themed snowman costume.

Mat got his Christmas present early. He achieved his long-term goal of level 99 Summoning and invited me over to appear in the level up screenshot. It took a bit of coaxing, but he was eventually able to persuade me to duel his Steel Titan unarmed, though I insisted that he provide me with the transport to the Duel Arena. I died five to six times. At the very least, I can claim to be the guy that was slain by Mat's first summoned Steel Titan.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Aberrant Spectre task

I read the article on the main page of the Runescape website as early as the first day of the quest's release, but didn't take the time to carefully read through its requirements. Meeting - no, surpassing - quest requirements has been something I've taken for granted for a while now, as it has been years since I've been faced with a quest that I am unable to start. I didn't encounter any trouble even with the Grand Master quest, While Guthix Sleeps, which restricted all but the most seasoned of adventurers.

Jagex decided to be sneaky on this occasion with Blood Runs Deep, and included the completion of the Fremennik Achievement Diary as part of its requirements. Clearly, I'm being punished for my procrastination as I had originally intended to finish the diary weeks ago.

Anyway, I have already started work. I completed the Medium section, so now only two tasks from the Hard section remain.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Medium Fremennik Diary tasks

Kuradal, daughter of the late Duradel, has taken over Lapalok's and her father's place as the highest levelled Slayer Master, only handing out assignments to players with at least level 110 Combat.

I've yet to visit her, but the Knowledge Base article has already informed me the kind of monsters she tasks players to kill. Due to the similarities between Kuradal's and Lapalok's assignments, reporting to her would get me mostly the same types of monsters, only in greater quantities; a good thing to be sure, but the remoteness of her location is a real turn off.

Kuradal's situated smack in the middle of the Ancient Caverns, so I imagine that the walk and the resident high levelled monsters would make it quite a hassle to get to her. I'll probably only take the trouble to visit her for milestone Slayer tasks to allow the multipliers to kick in. She awards players 18 points for every task completed.

Stuff achieved today: Level 82 Runecrafting, completed Nechryael task

The Temple at Senntisten quest was superb, as were its rewards. Ali the Wise requested that I try to help out a contact of his, Dr Nabanik. Nabanik turned out to be Azzanadra, the Mahjarrat with Zarosian sympathies whom I had freed during the Desert Treasure quest. He had been masquerading as an archaeologist in an attempt to secure permission to restore the Zarosian Temple I had discovered previously in the Digsite quest.

However, he has been unsuccessful because he lacked the necessary documentation to prove his competence for the temple restoration, and needed me to vouch for his reliability due to my previous contributions to the Digsite. I persuaded the Archaeology Expert with ease to allow Azzanadra to conduct his work on the temple, but was given yet another task by the latter. I now had to collect two key objects, the Barrows Icon and the Frosthorn, to aid in the restoration project, whilst Azzanadra and his workers rebuilt the temple which was in ruins.

The Barrows Icon proved to be the more straightforward of the two items to retrieve, as it involved nothing more than a single completion of the Barrows minigame. My previous and only experience with the minigame involved me taking out Karil several years ago with nothing more than cheap armour and a few cakes as a food source.

I was too afraid of going toe-to-toe with the remaining five brothers, let alone continue on to loot the crypt's chest. Instead, I recall screaming and running away from the small hills which housed the brothers' ghosts, with the Barrows trip less than a sixth done. Fortunately, boss monster fights in the hundreds since that fateful day have long desensitized me, and I didn't harbour the same anxieties as I had felt all those years ago when I set off for the Barrows Icon. Chanting protection prayers, I easily swatted Dharok, Guthan, Verac, Ahrim and Torag aside, got past the tunnel's defences and looted the icon.

The Frosthorn was considerably more challenging, as it did not merely involve Combat. I had to navigate through an Icy Fortress that was completely new to me and was even forced to refer to a quest guide multiple times. The search concluded with a battle against a level 177 Ice Demon, which dropped the Frosthorn upon death.

Azzanadra was delighted with my success in retrieving the two magical objects. By the time I had presented him with my finds, the temple had already been reconstructed. All that remained was to collect a third item from a contact of Azzanadra's, who was waiting just outside the temple. In a bizarre twist, the contact turned out to be the Assassin thief from the Devious Minds quest, while the item he delivered was actually the artefact he had stolen from Entrana.

With all three relics in his possession and the temple rebuilt, Azzanadra was able to communicate with his fallen lord, Zaros, and restore the link between him and Gielinor. The quest ends with cutscenes showing how the establishment of this link could be felt by the minions of Zamorak.

I was of course rewarded handsomely for the huge service rendered to Azzanadra. I received 10k Prayer exp, two Combat lamps which I used up for a total of 40k Summoning exp, and a generic exp lamp, which got me 23k Runecrafting exp. I was already rejoicing at this point, but discovered about a minute later that all the exp I had gained made up only a fraction of the Temple at Senntisten's total reward.

A new set of prayers, or rather curses, can be unlocked by praying at the newly rebuilt Zarosian altar. Though these curses operate very much like the Ancient Magicks and Modern spellbooks and may not be used concurrently with the traditional prayers, they serve as near perfect souped up versions of their counterparts.

Though substitutes for prayers such as Rapid Heal and Redemption are non-existent, curses to replace the prayers that truly matter are still present. Protection curses offer the same defensive bonuses as protection prayers, with the added bonus of reflecting damage back at enemies.

Soul Split, the curse counterpart for Smite, drains prayer points from enemies and leeches their health. And we see a more powerful version of Piety in the form of Turmoil. The most hilarious bit of it all is that, according to Runescape Wiki, these curses have a slower drain rate compared to their corresponding counterpart prayers. I will also not neglect to mention the completely new and handy curses that have been included to fill up missing prayers, such as Leech Special Attack.

The only potential drawback of these curses I see so far would be the higher Prayer level required to activate them. In my case though, this actually serves as an advantage as I am already an owner of the Prayer Cape, and the level requirements would prevent a lot of people from using those same potent curses against me. This update seems almost too good to be true...

Stuff achieved today: Completed the Temple at Senntisten quest

Although I have 24-hour Internet access, I have not been in the mood to attempt anything ambitious like a Master quest. Instead, I've been passing my time online undertaking Slayer assignments and going on my usual Farming rounds.

The quest and the two Fremennik Achievement Diaries I left out are on my to-do list.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Aquanites task, completed Bloodveld task