The Chronicles of Runescape

Company

2010-11-13T21:56:00.001+08:00

This is old news, but my return to the game has had a bit of a ripple effect.

Both Tiz and Kat are now back to Runescaping, which is awesome because I could use the extra company. I played two rounds of Stealing Creation and also spent half an hour F2P Clan Warring with them. Tiz also gave Kat some pointers about Dungeoneering, which she hadn't gotten round to trying out until today. However, it'll be a while before she reaches a suitable level for the three of us to raid rooms together, so I still have to group up with strangers for the time being.

Lately, I've toyed with the idea of searching either Google or the RS forums for a Dungeoneering clan. I have no idea about the extent of their prevalence as my long-term absence from the game has made me ignorant about the latest trends in Runescape, but I would be very much surprised if there aren't already at least a handful of players out there who have banded together to form such a specialist clan. It would certainly be a chance to meet new people which is certainly welcomed, as I have begun to grow tired of my isolated playing style.

Anyway, I haven't been as active as I had liked to be during these past few days. While I wish to ascribe this to diligence and self-restraint on my part because I have big exams to prepare for back in the real world, the truth is that my inactivity is owed mostly to crappy Internet connection recently. Dungeon raids become more frustrating and far less enjoyable with lag.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Makeover

2010-11-08T20:29:00.004+08:00

Discovered yesterday that Thessalia in Varrock had added several new selections to her store months earlier while browsing through one of Merch Gwyar's old posts.

Though I've always been pleased with my default clothing, I decided to make a trip down to her shop to look through the new additions. The variety took me by surprise; discounting the numerous different shades of new colours the outfits came in, Thessalia had doubled her selection.

A cursory glance through the list made me realise that the new sets of clothing each followed a skill theme, which I thought was a nice touch. I was tempted to stay true to my favourite skill and get the Farmer's set, but ended up picking the Missionary's Tunic (Prayer) and the Runecrafter's Sarong (Runecrafting, obviously) because I felt they were a lot more elegant.

I also switched from the original black my clothes came in to Abyssal Black, though admittedly I have trouble telling the difference. I have to say, the guys at Jagex really got creative during the naming of the 199 new colours...

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Love Story

2010-11-06T23:56:00.000+08:00

Busied myself today mostly with Dungeoneering and the Love Story quest.

I thought the contrast looked pretty cool.

I had actually meant to work on the quest as early back as June, when I made my first re-appearance in the game, but ended up quiting before I could even start it. Although I still prefer Swan Song over its sequel, Love Story was still very much an excellent quest in its own right.

While Swan Song adopted a more serious tone characteristic of quests that place an emphasis on lore (in this case, the Wise Old Man's legacy), Love Story was noticeably sillier. Not that the label is without its merits, of course. A lot of humour was employed, mostly in the form of the NPCs and cut scenes poking fun at several aspects of the game.

The opening cut scene concerning the Wise Old Man's love affair with Zenevivia showed the two of them continuously circling and walking past one another in an awkward fashion, an obvious nod to the "Follow player X" option in the game. This was followed seconds later by yet another cut scene which depicted the Wise Old Man camping at a spot and performing High Alchemy, whilst Zenevivia used him as a human shield to "block" the Fire Giant she was Maging down. I'll admit I'm not usually fond of breaking the fourth wall, but watching the entire flashback sequence did make me smirk.

The final battle with Zenevivia was also fun. My only regret was not engaging in the fight with my Red Partyhat equipped (to complement the Wise Old Man's attire), but given the battle mage's high combat level of 246 and the laggy Internet connection at the time, I had thought it a frivolous risk.

The Wise Old Man and Zenevivia going toe to toe with Grayzag and

Sedridor.

The rewards were great too. I was treated to a final cut scene of the couple trying to rob the Wizards' Tower, and was later given a large exp reward in Construction, Magic, Crafting and Smithing.

The quest's final attempt to poke fun at the game. I only wish it

hadn't been done at my expense...

Stuff achieved today: Completed Love Story quest

Re-Revial

2010-11-05T21:28:00.002+08:00

Okay, so I'm back. Again.

What started our as an innocent hour-long appearance to complete this year's Halloween event eventually convinced me to jump out of Runescape retirement.

Anyway, I just read the opening paragraph of my latest post from months ago and am downright embarrassed. To clarify, I've decided to start playing once more because I missed both the game and writing about it. I keep an RL blog as well (that's also been abandoned), but for the most part, this site's my only outlet for actual recreational writing.

I have no idea whether I'll be staying for the long term or whether my interest in RS will inexplicably fizzle out like in July. I also don't know whether or not I'll resume blogging at my usual frequency of a new entry every other day. Time is tight back in the real world for both clocking hours in the game and then writing about them; unfortunately, I had chosen a really bad time to start playing again due to the arrival of my A-Level examinations.

I'll probably be spending what little time I have online Dungeoneering and attempting to complete any quests that were release during my absence. Can't wait to see what the new Void Knight series is all about.

And finally as a side note, I realise that this is a little late, but please ignore any messages made under my name in the site's chatbox from July onwards. For reasons completely unfathomable to me, someone thought it amusing to impersonate me during my spell of inactivity.

Stuff achieved today: Level 72 Dungeoneering

Variance

2010-06-30T22:50:00.001+08:00

Right. So my interest in Dungeoneering is starting to wane.

And no, that and the tardiness of this entry are not a sign that I'll be leaving again. I'll probably vary my training a little to keep things interesting, as well as start work on the three incomplete quests to reclaim the Cape of Achievement.

Doing Fairy Tale III first would be ideal, given the storyline and the usefulness of its rewards, but for today, I settled with something less ambitious. I took care of an Abyssal Demon Slayer assignment, which I presumably left half-finished shortly before I quit in February. I only had between 90 to 100 left to take down, but managed to pocket two Ferocious Rings and an Abyssal Whip from the kills. I see that the latter's price hadn't dipped while I was away; I just priced-checked it and the weapon's going for over 3.9 million gp on the Grand Exchange.

Was also glad, during the Slayer assignment itself, that I hadn't gotten rusty despite my five month absence. I actually remembered to bring all pieces of equipment along for the fight, including the more obscure ones like the Explorer Ring which I use to Alch certain loot.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Abyssal Demon task

Party Invites

2010-06-25T23:33:00.005+08:00

Yes! Nothing but a string of successful raids today!

I went on two large ones without incident, even taking out a level 467 Shadow Forger without receiving a single hit from the boss monster's fatal stat-draining attack. Later on in the evening, I rushed through floors 10 to 16 with two other players, which earned me a semi-respectable amount of exp.

However, although my Party members have been decent, I still express a much stronger preference to teaming up with friends for raids, as opposed to strangers. Whenever I cover a Large floor, I always feel like I'm walking on eggshells. Dungeoneers, especially the more seasoned ones, have little patience and are constantly in a hurry even in so-called "casual" raids. The immense size of the floor - and thus the time spent exploring it - only serve to amplify the number of opportunities of making that one tiny screw up.

Take too long to Runecraft yourself a set of Gatestone runes, arrive at a group puzzle room, brew yourself a potion or even cook food for a boss fight, and one or several of your Party members will make their annoyance known. Besides making it a point to remain attentive throughout the duration of the raid and not dawdle, another tactic I employ to avoid incurring the wrath of the rest of my team is to appease them with high leveled armour. Granted, this doesn't always work, but I would expect all reasonable folk to either gratefully accept the gift or gently tell me that the armour isn't worth the time.

I wish to emphasize that I enjoy Large raids in spite of the tense atmosphere. Having said that, I still would prefer the company of players I am at least slightly familiar with, and am tentatively considering extending a Party invite to any readers of this blog. In my head, it'll work something like this:

1. I put up a temporary blog entry containing the details (floor, time, date) of a planned raid a few days in advance.

2. Interested players indicate their desire of attending the raid in advance and tell me their usernames, which I record down.

3. If all five Party slots are used up, then great. We meet up at Daemonheim and have a thoroughly enjoyable time bashing up monsters and looting the place. If not, I simply invite more players at the venue to fill up the vacant slots.

Anyone out there who's cool with this set-up? Or should I just quietly drop the idea? I'd especially like to hear from Dungeoneers capable of raiding floors 27 and above.

Stuff achieved today: Level 67 Dungeoneering

Upping The Ante

2010-06-23T23:19:00.000+08:00

Raided my first Large floor last night.

There were no deaths (at least on my part), all rooms were explored and I gained a record amount of exp for a single round. It was far from enjoyable though. I wasn't at all pleased with the Party; we had a deserter who presumably lagged out halfway during our raid and this obnoxious player, a certain Grey Tuna, who incessantly made cutting remarks throughout the journey.

He had a shot at practically every member of the team, but I was probably his favourite punching bag. He didn't like how I was holding up everyone else by making occasional teleports to the base to smelt everyone Promethium and Gorgonite gear, instead of getting rid of the high level obstacles blocking certain doors (I wasn't even formally assigned the position as Tool Guy). Though Grey Tuna did succeed in agitating me, I can't say his comments carried much weight; I noticed he only started complaining after he pocketed one of the sets of Promethium platelegs I dropped on the floor.

I was also not happy with the Party leader's inaction, and his Mod status and the fact that we have each other added as friends only serve to disappoint me further. As the Party leader, Mr Mixer was responsible for telling off unruly members, while silence would've made him incompetent but tolerable. Mr Mixer went a step further and - instead of jumping to my defence - actually asked me to make one last delivery of armour to him, immediately after Grey Tuna very crassly expressed his displeasure at my tardiness.

The other Large floors I explored today also generally didn't go down well. Lag and connection losses made journeying through the rooms agonizingly frustrating and also resulted in deaths. There isn't to say that all of them were terrible; I had the good fortune of teaming up with a group of friendly players some time in the afternoon, which really made a difference. Getting past the 50-odd rooms was a lot more pleasurable.

We eventually faced off against a level 300+ Bulwark, which dropped a Primal Pickaxe. The other Party members agreed that I should have it for supplying them with armour and food throughout the raid. Yeah, it was an awesome round.

Stuff achieved today: Level 62 Dungeoneering

Ancient Effgies

2010-06-22T17:22:00.001+08:00

I've been hearing a lot of in-game chat regarding Ancient Effigies, which is hardly surprising as this particular game addition is barely a week old.

A few members of the Canting crew have been going on Slayer assignments in the hope of obtaining one of these relics as a monster drop. They grant a generous helping of exp to players who "investigate" and supply it with knowledge, making them extremely useful. Tiz and Bass Daddy have already found at least one each. I'll probably join them in the hunt for the effigies when I eventually resume my Slayer training, which isn't likely to happen until I finally get bored of Dungeoneering.

In the mean time though, I've contented myself with performing the Assist function on other players to help them with their effigies. Most fortuitously, Daemonheim (specifically, world 117) has been made the unofficial meeting place for players who need their effigies investigated and the relevant skillers. I logged in to the server yesterday to find two people calling out for someone with Level 91 Construction, and cheerfully proceeded to assist them, pocketing an easy 30k Construction exp in the process.

Having reached the Assist system's exp cap, I could only go out hunting for more effigy owners this morning after the 24 hours had expired. It didn't take me long; I located three players who were calling out for experts in Construction, Farming and Smithing within seconds, but was only able to tend to the latter due to the annoying exp cap. I shall make it a point to make daily visits to the area.

Stuff achieved today: Level 60 Dungeoneering

Dungeoneering Milestone

2010-06-20T19:59:00.002+08:00

My Dungeoneering rampage continues.

I hit level 50 yesterday and gained the ability to bind an additional item when raiding the floors. I had to choose between the more conventional platebody and the pickaxe as my second bound piece of equipment, which was definitely a tough call to make. Eventually, I went with the pickaxe even though it was easier to construct from scratch.

I figured that although selecting it over the platebody would make me more ore-starved during raids (platebodies need to be smithed out of five bars compared to the pickaxe's one), having a top of the line pickaxe at the start of the game would save me a lot of time.

A fair trade-off, I think. Prior to having that extra binding slot, churning out the first batch of Melee gear for myself and other Party members was a cumbersome process. I start out by purchasing a Mamaros pickaxe from the Smuggler with my initially limited funds, before going out in search of high grade ore like Gorgonite and Promethium. After finding the ore vein, I proceed to mine only one unit of ore, teleport to the base to smith it into a better pickaxe, travel back to the vein to mine the remaining ore and then home teleport yet again to smith it into actual armour.

The fight between me and my first and only Bulwark Beast

So right now, I have a Promethium 2h and pickaxe as my starting out gear. I know for certain that there is a Primal equivalent of the pickaxe; it just so happened that I had looted one from a fallen Bulwark Beast the day before I reached level 50, and I am hoping to get lucky once more. Not sure if the Primal 2h exists, but if there's a boss monster out there that also drops it, the weapon will definitely be on my wishlist.

Stuff achieved today: Level 53 Dungeoneering

Master Miner

2010-06-18T22:44:00.004+08:00

Level ups in Dungeoneering are still coming in relatively speedily, though a slowdown is becoming increasingly noticeable.

I've reseted my progress once but have almost finished all the floors. Only the highest ones remain, which I consider a bad thing, because it means that I absolutely need to team up with other players for my training to be efficient. As I had brought up in my previous post, I have no qualms about working with strangers. However, at this stage, the process of finding suitable players to join me is very irksome because I don't have a wide range of floors for them to choose from.

Anyway, I realised last night that I had been inadvertently chipping away at the exp gap for level 99 Mining, as a result of my enthusiasm towards Dungeoneering training. The Mining exp obtained from extracting Gorgonite and Promethium ore has accumulated, pushing me dangerously close to an accidental level up. I decided to settle the issue by leveling up the skill with Tiz at the Living Rock Caverns today.

Besides feeling a little bad about dragging him halfway across Gielinor so abruptly, I was also feeling guilty about the whole suddenness of the 99 screenshot. Typically, I'd make more of a fuss about such an event, but I sensed that - on this occasion - my decision to get that final level up was borne out of a desire to get it over and done with, as opposed to an actual interest to obtain the Skill Cape.

It's almost as if I'm starting to trivialize even the mastery of challenging skills now...

Stuff achieved today: Level 99 Mining, level 46 Dungeoneering

Resident Skiller

2010-06-17T23:21:00.001+08:00

I'm currently out of the country, but I have Internet access at the hotel I'm staying at, so my Dungeoneering activity hasn't been entirely impeded.

I've already tried my hand out at teaming up with strangers in groups of three. So far, I haven't encountered any of the usual trouble associated with the poor teamwork among ragtag bands of raiders. I suppose that this is partly because the players I teamed up with aren't a good representation of the general RS community.

In fact, one of the first two players I had worked with was a level 130+ Mod, who invited me for a second raid the following day with his other level 130+ friend. They did most of the room clearing (after I took care of the skilling-related obstacles blocking the entrances), while I busied myself with smithing them the best of armour to fight with. Heh. For that particular round, I ended up getting the red-coloured Dungeoneering title of "Least Harmful" as a result of my passiveness, but was listed as the "M.V.P." as compensation.

You could say that I've resigned myself to the role; a lot of players can fight, but are limited by their inability to create beyond mediocre gear. Doubt I'll get bored of the unofficial position though. After all, I still get plenty of action when grouped in smaller Parties, as the monsters can't be killed fast enough.

Stuff achieved today: Level 42 Dungeoneering

Dungeoneering

2010-06-16T21:46:00.005+08:00

I took out three quests on Monday morning alone, but even though two remain, I have yet to make any progress.

Me taking on my first Dungeoneering boss, the Gluttonous Behemoth.

At the moment, I am caught up with Dungeoneering. From what I've heard, the feedback on the skill wasn't so great, but after dealing with the initial frustration of the somewhat more challenging learning curve, I've been having an immensely enjoyable time training it. This is especially true when I go through the dungeon floors in pairs or in larger groups; I often buddy up with Tiz to take on medium-sized rooms for both the extra exp and the company.

Mat also decided to join us for one round even with the exp penalty, which was nice of him. We encountered a lot of Promethium rocks along the way, and I made it a point to fashion him a spear and a platebody out of the high grade material for him to bind. I guess that, despite my low Dungeoneering level, I can still be of service to more experienced Dungeoneers.

The Prestige and resetting systems also give high leveled players a reason to team up with newbish Dungeoneers like me, as the former would have to cover the lower floors anyway to regain Prestige. This not only fulfills Jagex's objective of preventing players from grinding certain floors, but also ensures the ease of forming Parties with multiple players as they'd no longer be segregated based on level.

Promethium gear, excluding

the boots which are Gorgonite.

My only complaint would be the one-way integration of Dungeoneering and the other skills. It is deeply satisfying to gather and create food, runes, armour, weapons and Summoning pouches using your own skills, but although Dungeoneering requires the extensive use of its 23 predecessors (Agility is not among their number), the instances of the inverse taking place are minimal. The handful of Dungeoneering rewards that tickets can be exchanged for, although generally useful, is a feeble attempt on Jagex's part to make the skill "relevant", which I am quite disappointed with.

Nonetheless, I am still very pleased with Jagex's work. I can't wait for the special second batch of Dungeoneering additions that they're going to release in the near future.

Stuff achieved today: Level 36 Dungeoneering

Some Clarifications

2010-06-14T14:22:00.004+08:00

... And so I make my return!

But beyond that, I doubt my previous blog entry was very informative, so I thought I'd explain my actions a little more thoroughly in this post, just as I had done when I decided to quit the game.

I would say that the decision to re-join came about quite suddenly. Although I had kept thinking about the game from time to time during the entirety of my absence, I didn't actually see myself playing Runescape again until the day I renewed my membership itself.

News of the Jagex iPhone app triggered it. Just to clarify, this was not because I was particularly excited about the addition itself, but because its release reminded me that the game has undergone numerous updates during my five-month absence. I was also aware that my extended inactivity has resulted in a serious deterioration of my highscore ranks, which I have grudgingly decided is actually a good thing, as this sharp decline should be sufficient to discourage me from resuming my old habit of placing achievement over enjoyment.

I cannot say for certain how long I'll be staying; after all, I had confidently pictured myself playing Runescape for years to come even during the weeks leading up to the day I typed out my farewell post. However, I do intend to resume playing indefinitely and will be making regular blog post additions accordingly to record my activity.

This post in short: expect to see new Chronicles of Runescape entries up and my RS avatar online now and in the foreseeable future.

And thank you, everyone, for both in-game and chatbox welcome messages!

Stuff achieved today: Completed Blood Pact quest, completed Buyers and Cellars quest, completed Rune Mechanics quest, Level 20 Dungeoneering

You Win

2010-06-13T23:59:00.003+08:00

You have marked me since birth.

I made the decision to quit the game because of my unhealthy obsession of grinding my way up the highscores. You released an announcement for Bonus XP weekend a mere fortnight later, as if to mock me.

As 14th April - my RS avatar's birthday - approached, I moped around the house feeling a bit of heartache. You updated the game with an entire skill just two days prior to the important date, adding insult to injury.

I received an iPhone 3GS as a gift. You announced the addition of a new Jagex news iPhone app in the Apple App Store that same week to tempt me once more.

Well.

You win, Jagex. And it's good to be back.

Thank you. :-)

Stuff achieved today: Level 5 Dungeoneering

A Journey

2010-02-14T09:41:00.005+08:00

Dear readers,

I am certain that many of you have already noticed the lack of posts since 7th February. It's probably struck you as odd due to the one-entry-for-every-other-day schedule I've been religiously sticking to since the creation of this site on July 2006.

While I was initially faced with a drought of issues to discuss, the truth is that I've been spending most of this postless week re-evaluating my attitude towards the game, and have found it unacceptable. I have reached the conclusion that climbing the highscores - as opposed to actual enjoyment - is my primary motivation for playing Runescape, and I find that that simply isn't enough to justify the long hours I spend in front of the computer on a daily basis.

On Friday, back in the real world, I took a long walk in the nearby park alone to clear my head and properly think the matter over.

I have loyally played Runescape for over 5 3/4 years since April 2004, churned out a total of over 650 RS blog entries, as well as accumulated 341 million total exp and a net worth easily exceeding 1.6 billion gp. I have traveled to every single area the constantly evolving map of Gielinor has to offer; I have slain tens of thousands of foes which vary greatly in strength from the diminutive level 2 Goblin to the feared and revered Nomad; I have become a hero in many quest storylines and even a villain in some; and I have painstakingly recorded many of these exploits in the 2250 screenshots I've dutifully taken, cropped, named and organized.

In short, I have achieved much during my half a decade spent online. But for me to arrive at the right decision of whether or not to continue building on this accomplished record, the first thing I needed to let go of was my sentimentality. Which was what I did. I thought the issue over as objectively as possible during my hour-long stroll and have chosen to quit the game.

The time freed up could be better allocated elsewhere. I remember how I used to chide myself for spending, say, two straight hours shooting down zombies in my FPS of choice, when I could've been completing a Slayer task back in RS or gaining 100k Mining exp. I think it is time for me to stop turning play into work for a change.

Besides playing alternative games, one other pursuit I wish to dedicate the resulting void in my schedule to is reading. I am a voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction, but this good habit has been restricted somewhat because of Runescape. I think that keeping up with my subscription of TIME and continuing past chapter 1 of Pride and Prejudice would be a significantly more enriching than exp grinding.

School is also a priority. As it stands, I've been labelled as exceptionally bright, but am still largely a B student when I should be getting straight As and even topping certain subjects. I'll probably continue to goof off a lot, but completely neglecting my responsibilities as a student is now out of the question.

I wish to add that I feel neither bitterness nor regret over the lengthy duration I've spent in-game for the past six years. I can confidently attest to the fact that most of my 464 days and 11 hours online have brought me immense joy and satisfaction no other activity could ever hope to rival. But I can also say - with equal certainty - that this would cease to hold true should I force myself to add more hours and days to that already astonishingly large number. However, I want to make it clear that I still love the game and sincerely hope that Jagex will continue to prosper in their efforts to improve Runescape, even if I may no longer be around to appreciate the fruits of their labour.

I end off this blog entry with the obligatory, but completely heartfelt, list of thank yous to some very special players who have deeply impacted my journey in the game.

I thank Mat and Zelda for the countless whimsical exchanges we've shared in Blesschat. I thank Tiz for being my trusted pal and confidante both in the real world and in RS. I thank fellow Runescape bloggers Vaskor, Kitt Fox and Merch Gwyar, whose writings have provided me with both entertainment and insight.

And I thank the many invisible but no less appreciated readers of my blog. The site's chatbox on the lower right discreetly functions as a tracker that's only viewable to me; I know how many visits I get everyday even if you choose not to drop a comment. Trying to make a name for my RS avatar was never an intention of starting this site, but to know that a fairly sizable audience regularly reads about my in-game exploits is deeply gratifying. :-)

Everyone. It's been a blast. On to the next adventure.

Level 97 Slayer

2010-02-07T11:29:00.000+08:00

Rune Mechanics remains incomplete.

I often take my time and wait a few days before attempting a quest, but I usually have it done on the same week of its release. Its probably Rune Mechanics' Novice rank that has me so unenthusiastic; I tend to see quests which lack a compelling premise or difficulty level as trivial little chores.

I did much better for skilling. I levelled to 97 Slayer in the middle of a Fire Giant task and am continuing to edge ever closer to the stylish black and red Cape of Achievement. I am also pleased with the accumulation of Summoning Charms in my bank as a result of my numerous completed Slayer assignments. There's nothing new to look forward at level 94, but there's at least the Iron Titan during the level up after that.

Stuff achieved today: Level 97 Slayer, completed Fire Giant task

Hit List

2010-02-05T22:44:00.000+08:00

The price chart of crushed nests

Yes, it's Friday again!

I went on a Slaying spree, completing one Abyssal Demon and two Greater Demon tasks, as well as beating up Bork, the Jade Vine and the Skeletal Horror for Slayer exp. The two inhabitants of Kuradal's Dungeon have been generous with their drops, which has allowed me to pocket several more Ferocious Rings and an Abyssal Whip. Over a fortnight has passed since the addition of coloured whips, so its price has dropped considerably. No matter, 3.4 million gp is still a very tidy sum to deposit into my bank account.

However, I suspect that questers have yet to give up on Nomad's Requiem, which would certainly explain why crushed nests, a key ingredient of Saradomin Brews, have reached a record high in price. I sold 2,222 of them for over 11.2 million gp as a precaution against a sudden price dip.

Stuff achieved today: Completed two Greater Demon tasks, completed Abyssal Demon task

Runecrafting, Trade Limits & Machinima

2010-02-02T21:18:00.000+08:00

Rune Mechanics takes center stage for this week's batch of updates.

Jagex has made it clear that it is a newbie quest, which should give both seasoned and less experienced players some much needed reprieve from crazily high levelled content, such as the recent Nomad's Requiem. Can't say that the storyline of Rune Mechanics excites me much, but I am anticipating Runecrafting exp as a reward, which I am desperately after; I have thus far expressed little desire to train the skill the conventional way by making runes, even with the chance of crafting multiple Law, Death and Blood runes.

Trading limits between friends have also been slackened, and a comprehensive list of conditions and the corresponding price difference flexibilities is now up in the Knowledge Base. Additionally, the Orb of Oculus, which had been earlier discussed in a Development Diary, is out. They're both useful features, but I doubt I'll be able to take advantage of them much, since my trades are conducted exclusively through the GE and I have no interest in the machinima competition.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Aberrant Spectre task

Checklist

2010-01-31T22:11:00.001+08:00

Determined to take a break from Slayer, I went ahead to finish up the final two tasks of my Varrock Achievement Diary.

Me killing Ankous in the deepest level of the Stronghold of Security.

In retrospect, that probably wasn't the best choice to make as far as taking some time off from the skill is concerned. The lengthier task of the two, which took the bulk of my effort, required me to hunt down Minotaurs, Flesh Crawlers, Catablepons, and Ankous to get the necessary parts to construct a Skull Sceptre, which of course meant that I still had to kill stuff.

I already owned the right skull half, but that counted for nothing as it was dropped by the minotaur, the weakest monster in the dungeon. The crawlers were cake and the Ankous dropped their sceptre part in fewer than 30 kills, but the Catablepons proved to be surprisingly stubborn. I eventually succeeded in assembling the artifact though, and immediately went on to craft an Air Battlestaff to finish the diary. Vannaka was pleased despite my tardiness (the diary's been out for over 3 years) and presented me with an exp lamp and upgraded my Varrock Armour.

Awesome; all that's left is the Elite Ardougne Diary. If only those 50k exp lamps didn't have any level restrictions or were at least bankable...

Stuff achieved today: Completed Living Rock Creatures task, completed Varrock Achievement Diary

The Daily Grind

2010-01-29T22:03:00.000+08:00

Meh.

Another updateless week... though I'm not quite sure whether I have a right to complain. I've still done nothing about Barbarian Assault, so there'll be no Agility exp bonuses for now. Regardless, I went ahead to train the skill anyway at the Ape Atoll course. I only wanted to chip off enough exp to ensure that I'd level after visiting the Circus and Juna one more time, but went ahead and trained all the way until level 82.

It was business as usual immediately after that, and I went about finishing up the latest Slayer task Kuradal assigned me.

Stuff achieved today: Level 82 Agility, completed Greater Demon task

Two Steps Back

2010-01-27T21:03:00.000+08:00

How depressing; I don't even want to look at the highscores anymore.

I've been rapidly losing ranks in Farming for the last three weeks. I started the year at either #42 or #43, but have fallen to #48. Five to six ranks may not seem like much, but they mean a lot when you're among the top 50.

I can't explain this sudden drop down the scoreboard. My training hasn't slowed down significantly since school started. Why did the half a dozen or so Master Farmers directly below me have to all simultaneously start power training now? My Overall rank is also suffering a little.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Greater Demon task, completed Dust Devil task

Unfinished Business

2010-01-26T11:03:00.005+08:00

Remember the Fur 'n' Seek wish list I had so determinedly set out to complete several months back?

Right. I got bored and abandoned the mini-goal, only to have my interest in it suddenly re-ignite last night. I finally took notice of the 20 odd pots of vinegar sitting idly and wasting a spot in my bank, which reminded me of my unfinished business with the Rag and Bone Man. I wanted to get rid of them, but the banker wouldn't let me turn the pots into notes, which meant that I had to painstakingly right-click and drop each of the pots in order to free up just a single bank slot.

I then considered the third alternative - getting rid of them by putting the vinegar into its intended use.

Me boiling a bone in a pot of vinegar, as part of the polishing process.

The bone from a Green Dragon was the only one I collected last night, but I vowed to finally finish the deed the following day. I succeeded and the remaining dozen or so bones were ticked off with little trouble. Due to the minimal effort involved, I am completely befuddled about why I had initially given up past the halfway point of the task.

Anyway, I delivered the bones to the old man in two trips, carrying the majority of the bones during the first and then filling up my inventory with food during the second in preparation for the fight. Pay no attention to the Runescape Wiki guide that cautions about the Skeletal Horror's strength. Protection prayers and armour are enough to overcome it, because it won't be at its peak combat level of 320 during most of the fight.

However, it still is able to inflict more damage than the Jade Vine, which I find surprising since the latter awards players with 2.5k Slayer exp and can be fought on a daily basis. Contrast this with the Skeletal Horror's measly 1.5k Slayer exp and significantly more sporadic fight frequency. In other words, the Skeletal Horror's simply a watered down version of the Jade Vine in terms of pay off.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Fur 'n' Seek wish list, completed Greater Demon task

Balmung

2010-01-23T22:50:00.000+08:00

Still have yet to try out Barbarian Assault. Though I was already up by 8.30 in the morning, I kept putting it off at various times during the day out of laziness.

I'm sure it's a wonderful mini-game, but the multiple BA roles and other features mean a rather lengthy learning curve for newbies like me, which I'm not looking forward to.

Instead, I passed most of my time online with several Slayer assignments. It didn't occur to me to try out Balmung, the axe I got during the Blood Runs Deep quest, on Dagannoths until today. I remember how it had worked so beautifully against the two Dagannoth Sentinels and the Mother herself, but wasn't sure whether it would out-damage my default Whip + Rune Def combo I have grown so fond of.

40s were a fairly common sight, with the highest hit being 52. I'm still uncertain whether that compensates for the axe's lack of speed and a shield spot, but I wielded it for the majority of time anyway.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Greater Demon task, completed Dagannoth task

Barbarian Assault Revisited

2010-01-21T22:08:00.000+08:00

I'm planning to learn how to play Barbarian Assault this weekend.

I remember playing a few rounds during the first week of the mini-game's release years ago, but got severely discouraged by my early defeats, the game's complicated rules and the lack of worthwhile rewards. The special exp horn added on Tuesday should change all that, and the prayer-enhanced Fighter Torso has also gotten my attention.

Tiz has told me over the phone that he's interested in learning, so hopefully we'll get to meet up on Saturday and play on the same team.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Dagannoth task

Lady Luck

2010-01-19T23:02:00.001+08:00

Pictured above has definitely got to be the screenshot of the week. It was purely coincidental and I'm sure everyone knows what happens after you eat an Ugthanki Kebab.

Speaking of coincidences, the monster drop table's been favouring me recently.

On Saturday, I picked up a pair of Dragon Platelegs and my first Fereocious Ring while working on a Steel Dragon task. The only thing which kept me from bringing that up on the same day of the drops itself was my completion of Nomad's Requiem, which eclipsed everything else. I did even better the following day when I picked up an Abyssal Whip and five more rings. I probably would've amassed a greater number of the latter if I hadn't stubbornly stuck to killing Abyssal Demons at my usual spot instead of Kuradal's dungeon.

Anyway, I sold the Whip drop yesterday at the market price of roughly 3.35 million gp. I'm starting to regret being so hasty with the sale; this week's game update has given players the opportunity to change the colour of their Abyssal Whip in exchange for some points earned in the mini-game, Barbarian Assault. The original red looks best in my opinion, but there'll no doubt be other players with different tastes. We could see a sudden price hike for the weapon if enough people decide that they want extras in different colours.

I don't play Barbarian Assault much.

But, for now, I have Dagannoths to kill. I hope Kuradal sends me back to kill those demons soon.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Dust Devil task

Unanswered Questions

2010-01-17T22:11:00.001+08:00

The post-quest high of defeating Nomad has fizzled out somewhat.

I am still at a loss of what to do with the Zeal points reward, which can be exchanged for Summoning Charms, 84k Slayer exp or an Abyssal Minion if I somehow manage to procure another Abyssal Demon head and 15 more Zeal. But because I am not in immediate need of any of the three, I'll let Zimberfizz hold on to the points for now, at least until I make up my mind.

I'm facing a similar problem with the Elite Ardougne Diary. I reached level 93 Summoning yesterday and therefore now meet all the stat requirements of that diary section. Although completion is no longer a problem since the remaining four tasks can be ticked off within an hour, I am being held back by some additional conditions with regards to actually claiming the rewards.

I stand to receive four lamps granting 50k exp each, but I'm only allowed to pump the experience into a skill that is at least level 85. That immediately knocks out my first and second choices, Runecrafting and Agility, which are level 83 and 81 respectively. The next skill in line is Herblore, but at only level 84, it is still a no-go. I reckon I could easily force it up to 85 in a couple of days, but do I really want to dump 200k exp on a third choice? Decisions, decisions...

But back to Nomad and the quest. I found his last words rather ominous and I am starting to fear that I might've pulled another Regicide, where I ended up killing King Tyras who was later revealed to be the "good guy". Zimberfizz's theory that his former master had been planning to destroy the world don't assure me either. They were merely unproved suspicions which Nomad never admitted to.

And I also haven't forgotten about the opening cutscene, which depicted Nomad massacring the three Elite Black Knight assassins whom were trying to kill him for being a "traitor". The fight scene wasn't just there to give questers a heads up on his attack styles. Clearly, there is something deeper going on here and the Grandmaster quest has left some unanswered questions...

Stuff achieved today: Completed Dust Devil task

The Confrontation

2010-01-16T23:20:00.001+08:00

Perhaps Full Gangsta did have a point.

Nomad's Requiem didn't quite have the "epic" storyline I expect from a Grandmaster quest. I spoke to Zimberfizz from Soul Wars, who told me that his master, Nomad, had been acting suspiciously of late and sent me to investigate the matter. There are no plot twists or stunning revelations; the rest of the quest is spent performing a series of tasks to unlock two barriers separating me from the final boss, who - you guessed it - is none other than the titular character, Nomad himself.

That isn't to say that I was not happy with Nomad's Requiem. Though it cannot measure up to While Guthix Sleeps, it's still an excellent quest in its own right, which has drastically raised the status of the Quest Cape just as its Grandmaster-ranked predecessor had done. I also can't demand that compelling a plot as the quest's story is an entirely new one, and therefore lacks the advantage the well established Mahjarrat series had given to WGS. Additionally, it's done a great job of introducing the possibility of a sequel through a cliffhanger, which I'll endeavor to elaborate on at a later date.

Moving on to the duel with Nomad...

The man has been labelled as the most powerful quest boss, human or monster, so much so that even well seasoned questers have flocked to the official RS forums complaining about his impossible strength.

So naturally, even after all the guides I've read and watched, I was absolutely swimming with trepidation as I suited up and packed the supplies for the fight. Tiz readily agreed to give me a 24-hour loan of his Bandos Godsword; I felt that its stat draining special attack would be helpful. And just so you know, the irony that I was about to use the weapon I had often sharply criticized as being overrated for one of my toughest fights was not lost on me.

I entered the final chamber to see Nomad seated on his throne. He mocked my attempt to kill him and the fight immediately started after our short banter. I dodged the first swing of his spear and responded in kind with a BGS special.

A 16.

Satisfied, I switched to an Abyssal Whip and Rune Defender combo to take him down. Nomad retaliated with an assortment of attacks. Aside from his default strikes and spells, he laid mines on the floor, made clones of himself, froze and landed charged blows on me which dealt up to 98 damage. I held on, but as the battle progressed, it became painfully evident to me that I was fast running out of Saradomin Brews. Nomad still had a full third of his health left, and another 250hp held in reserve... To avoid further wasting supplies, I gave up and meekly allowed Nomad to finish me off when I was down to my last half a dozen doses.

"Pathetic!" Nomad bellowed, as I knelt down and died.

The defeat left me reeling, but I forced myself to analyse the fight after respawning and retrieving my gear. I noticed that I had an alarming number of unused Restore potions, so I made it a point to replace some of them with more Saradomin Brews. The Whip wasn't working its magic even with Turmoil to beef up my stats, so I decided to - quite literally, in fact - give my Rune Crossbow a shot. I was counting on the enchanted Ruby bolts to score the devastating hits on Nomad they're famous for.

The change in strategy worked. I got off a horrible start when I lagged for a whole 10 seconds and my BGS special only nicked 3hp from Nomad's vast reservoir of health, but soon picked up the pace. Him getting blasted by 75s was a semi-common sight; I celebrated when I got Nomad's health low enough to make him panic and heal himself.

I fought on, draining his health back down just as he steadily depleted my Saradomin Brews. Very soon, he was at his final quarter of health. No more recoveries, no more tricks. Nomad abandoned his elaborate offensives in favour of more straightforward strikes with his spear. I took this as my cue to switch tactics once more. I grabbed the BGS and activated Turmoil, choosing to fight him head on.

Nomad's lunges came in swift, often hitting me with a string of damage in the teens. My slashes, on the other hand, were slow but struck him hard. Nomad's health bar was down to a sliver, but, down to two Saradomin Brews, I was not fairing any better. The battle could go to anyone...

"You..." Nomad sputtered, as I struck him the final time. "You have doomed this world." Nomad collapsed on the stone floor, leaving me to revel in my victory.

One death, two attempts. That was all it took.

Stuff achieved today: Level 93 Summoning, completed Nomad's Requiem

The Ultimate Boss Battle

2010-01-13T22:49:00.000+08:00

Two days have passed since the release of Nomad's Requiem and I've been hearing some pretty nasty stuff about it.

Though I'm only intending to start the Grandmaster quest on Friday earliest, some of my fellow bloggers - formerly Quest Cape wielders prior to the update - have already progressed to the last portion of Nomad's Requiem. The only thing standing in their way is what is supposedly an insanely difficult final boss battle with the quest's titular character.

I am level 137, which puts me in a better position than most to take out Nomad. However, due to his varied attack styles, I'd only be fooling myself if I thought that brute strength would be enough to win the climatic fight.

As protection prayers don't work against him, it's entirely possible that the duel more closely resembles the battle I had with the Spiritual Beast in Summer's End than a fight with TzTok-Jad. That may also work out to my advantage, as I was only killed twice during that particular encounter.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Greater Demon task

Breaking The Curse

2010-01-11T23:58:00.000+08:00

... Aaand Runescape's chain of poor first updates has been broken! Well played, Jagex!

It may seem premature to celebrate as I have yet to start the quest, let alone pass a well substantiated judgement upon it, but Nomad's Requiem's Grandmaster rank guarantees that the piece of gaming content is truly of an epic scale and that players will not be shortchanged.

The quest's description warns that there will be a large focus on combat and that adventurers will be faced with an extremely tough adversary (possibly more). The fighting style and damage dealing capacity of TzTok-Jad come to mind. I am finished if the only way to defeat this mystery opponent is through rapid prayer toggling. On the other hand, I can expect some very stunning screenshots of my avatar in battle.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Penguin Snowmen

2010-01-08T23:43:00.001+08:00

Wednesday and now Thursday have passed. Jagex almost never update the game on Fridays or the weekend, so I can only assume that they're taking an extended break. It's not the best way of wowing players at the start of the year, but at least no one can fault them for releasing a poor first update... yet.

A whole fortnight without any new content is annoying, but we'll at the very least get to enjoy an extended Christmas holiday event. The penguins are still conspicuously dressed up as snowmen, which helped a great deal when I hunted them down earlier this evening.

Two of them this week were particularly out of place and were found smack in the middle of the Kharidian desert town of Nardah. I suppose one could argue that the fake snow could help them blend in with the lightly coloured desert sand, but they ended up getting shepherded onto the dark grey floor of two buildings. I also distinctly recall spotting another two of the impostor snowmen at the very heart of the Lava Maze sometime in December.

I imagine that they could do a lot worse though; I'd be hardly surprised if the guys at Jagex decide to dress the penguins up as bright multi-coloured easter eggs during Easter.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Black Demon task

Jagex's Move

2010-01-06T23:05:00.002+08:00

I'm still awaiting the first game update of the year.

Though extremely unlikely considering that there are over 50 weeks in a year, I am not discounting the possibility that Jagex might choose to start 2010 off with the release of the mystery skill I keep hearing so much about. They have plenty of reason to do so; as this is Mark Gerhard's first 4th January to 11th January stretch (first week of the year) of his career as CEO of Jagex, he may be tempted to break the company's less than satisfactory track record of starting the year.

Jagex's opening move in 2007 was to ban the popular Runescape third-party browser, SwiftSwitch (SwiftKit's predecessor). In 2008, unbalanced trades were disabled. And more recently at the start of 2009, they released a special Behind the Scenes article for the year, in which they indicated that they were making '09 the year of fixes and that they would place a smaller emphasis on the introduction of brand new content. I was mostly supportive of their shift in focus, but playing the temporary role as a pseudo-historian in this blog entry, I cannot deny that this still proved to be a very bland start for 2009.

How now will Gerhard respond? We will soon see what January 2010 has in store for us...

Stuff achieved today: Completed Mithril Dragon task, completed Dust Devil task

Cashing In

2010-01-04T21:37:00.001+08:00

It has been two to three days since I've gotten the Visage and Abyssal Demon head drops, and my initial excitement has died down enough for me to write coherently again.

There weren't any takers when I first put the Draconic Visage up at Saturday's GE market price, but the eventual sale still raked in an astonishing 35.8 million gp after I lowered my offer by about 700k. I would've converted the rare drop into a Dragonfire Shield beforehand, but the finished product itself costs significantly less than its components. The allure of Smithing one of the game's strongest shields wasn't quite enough to tempt me to part with another million or so gp, in addition to my discount.

And as you have probably already seen between all those lines of capitalized acronyms in my previous post, my Abyssal Demon head has been stuffed and mounted up in my Skill Hall for display. The timing of this particular drop is near perfect; I've just been asked by Full Gangsta to host his Quest cape party at the Gold Estate.

I was at first reluctant to accede to his request (still am, actually), but took pity on him because he has worked so hard for the cape. Anyway, the head's gone a long way into making my house look the part of a stately mansion. The new gilded benches in my kitchen should add to this effect as well.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Black Dragon task

Plagiarism Disclaimer

2010-01-02T18:47:00.000+08:00

I certify that the following blog entry is an original Timothy Gold work, and has in no way been lifted or borrowed from Merch Gwyar's posts on the 8th and 9th of December 2009. Any resemblance is purely coincidental.

Anyone who says otherwise will be shot.

Survivors will be shot again.

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

*catches breath*

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

Oh sweet Saradomin! I did it!

Three and a half years; hundreds of Basilisks; hundreds of Crawling Hands; dozens of King Black Dragons; about five Kalphite Queens; and an estimated 1.7 quintillion Abyssal Demons... I got my head to stuff.

Two and a half years; hundreds of Black Dragons; dozens of Bronze Dragons; dozens of Iron Dragons; hundreds of Steel Dragons; and dozens of Mithril Dragons... I got my Draconic Visage to sell.

Stuff achieved today: Level 96 Slayer, completed Black Dragon task

Goals For 2010

2010-01-01T22:59:00.002+08:00

Just some long term goals by the end of this year:

Skill Capes

Level 99 Mining

Level 99 Slayer

Level 99 Summoning

Level 99 Hunter

Miscellaneous

Total Level - 2350/2376

Level 90+ in all skills

Completion of all Achievement Diaries, present and future

Completion of all quests released in 2010

The Hunter Cape and the Total level goals are ambitious, but I should be able to pull them off. For personal reference, my current Overall level and exp stand at 2300 and 330m respectively. I didn't take into consideration the mystery skill Jagex is intending to release this year.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Abyssal Demon task, completed Black Demon task, completed Christmas event

A Year To Remember

2009-12-31T23:41:00.001+08:00

The reason why I've so stubbornly followed my level 99 tradition even though it's been such a hassle this past year is because I didn't want to ruin the consistency of my 99 screenshot archive.

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.

Level 99 Smithing and level 2300 Total!

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

Housekeeping

2009-12-29T23:52:00.000+08:00

I decided, for no reason at all, to do some work on the Gold Estate and finally replace the Adamant armour set in my Skill Hall with a Rune one.

During my brief visit there, I also noticed the plain Mahogany benches in my Throne Room and immediately made it a point to replace them with the Gilded variety, befitting the mansion's namesake. I've placed an offer on the GE for the flatpacks; I'd build the benches myself, but the materials required cost more than a ready-made one.

Slayer kept me busy during much of the day. I finished a Greater Demon task and went on to complete my first Steel Dragon task in months. I normally back out from those, but the prospect of picking up a Draconic Visage or the dragons' other goodies changed my mind. Didn't get any rare drops, but the loot was still more than enough to pay for the supplies I used to fight them.

The Steel Dragon assignment had also presented me the opportunity to explore the whole of Kuradal's Dungeon, as the dragons were tucked away in the deepest chamber of the cave. Kuradal had the sense to keep the dungeon's different inhabitants separated by means of some sort of barrier, but for some reason didn't bother doing likewise with the Iron and Steel Dragons. The former often attacked me if I ventured too close, but the artificial habitat Kuradal had set up is still a better training ground than the Brimhaven Dungeon.

Stuff achieved today: Level 92 Summoning, completed Greater Demon task, completed Steel Dragon task

Rising Costs

2009-12-28T22:21:00.001+08:00

With under a week left until the 2010, I've done a little planning of which Skill Capes to get during the course of the year.

Already in the mid to high 90s, Slayer and Mining are obvious choices. In fact, I levelled the latter to 98 earlier today. Hunter's also made the list, though I am uncertain whether I'll succeed in maxing it out. I've been trying to get that particular cape since 2008, making it a long term goal for the said year as well as 2009.

Another candidate was Herblore, although given the current price differences between potions and their ingredients, I am now not so sure. I've done the math and brewing Prayer potions all the way to level 99 will set me back no less than 21.71gp for every Herblore exp gained. This translates to over 217 million gp for the 10m+ exp I need.

Meanwhile, making Super Restore potions, my original (and faster) method of training the skill in late 2008, will cost 27.08gp per exp gained. Although I've made no record of my calculations for last year, I can safely say that the figure was roughly a third of the present cost.

Should I proceed with training Herblore with either potion, it'll easily be my most expensive 99 to date. The worst bit of it all? Brewing either potion would also earn me exp at a much slower rate compared to my bone-offering regimen for Prayer earlier this year, which is the current #1 Skill Cape in terms of cost. In other words, Herblore training is a slower and more expensive version of Prayer.

Stuff achieved today: Level 98 Mining, level 84 Herblore

Surprise Me

2009-12-26T23:22:00.001+08:00

Kuradal's certainly full of surprises, or at least she would've been if I hadn't already checked her task list on the Knowledge Base ages ago.

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

Christmas 2009

2009-12-23T23:57:00.003+08:00

The Christmas event is out and, as usual, I am going to wait until the crowds clear before attempting to start it.

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 and I performing our Skill Cape emotes.

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.

Me going toe-to-toe with Mat's freshly Summoned Steel Titan.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Aberrant Spectre task

Blood Runs Deep

2009-12-21T23:19:00.003+08:00

Yes! The GE offer I had put up for a set of Spined armour finally came through!

It took a lengthy two days, but I had actually expected the trade to come in at an even later date, since the piece of Fremennik gear appeared to only sell in the RS forums at street prices way over its GE market value. Anyway, the purchase allowed me to get that final Fremennik Achievement Diary task out of the way. I triumphantly headed off to Baba Yaga's house to start the Blood Runs Deep quest after receiving the diary rewards from Advisor Ghrim.

I've managed to draw a few parallels between this latest quest and While Guthix Sleeps. Superficially, their requirements and rewards vaguely resemble one another. Starting WGS demands players to have racked up an unprecedented 270 QPs, while BRD's Achievement Diary completion requirement is also a very novel criterium. The size of their exp rewards also take the top two spots, though I did feel a little cheated with the fact that the BRD's reward was restricted to only Combat stats, excluding Summoning.

Blood Runs Deep culminates in a climatic face off between me and the

newly risen Dagannoth Mother.

There are also many similarities between the two quests at a deeper level. I am referring, of course, to the story. BRD blended in many of the seemingly disjointed Fremennik storylines, just as WGS had done with the Mahjarrat series. In fact, as far as linking up separate plots is concerned, I think BRD did a better job of the two.

Elements from previous Fremennik quests, such as the resulting diplomacy between Eceteria and Miscellenia during Royal Trouble, the death of the first Dagannoth mother in Horror from the Deep, the establishment of the relationships between key characters in Glorious Memories, and my expertise in the Dream realm during Dream Mentor (the list goes on), were all expertly summed up in this latest adventure.

My and Princess Astrid's modest wedding.

However, that isn't to say that all of my experiences in the Fremennik region were perfectly woven into BRD. I wooed and subsequently got engaged to Princess Astrid during the Throne of Miscellenia. Since the time of the quest's completion all those years ago until the moment just before BRD's release, the princess has been excitedly telling me about how the wedding preparations were underway whenever I enquired about it.

We finally do get to wed during BRD, but it was a lot more of an impromptu thing inspired by the wedding of King Vargas and Queen Sigrid. It also took place on a boat, which is hardly an ideal setting for a marriage involving royalty. But what really peeved me was what happened barely an hour into the quest, after the wedding. Due to a skirmish between the three Dagannoth Kings, Prince Brand and Princess Astrid both get killed.

Princess Astrid and Princess Brand are dead! Their bodies are placed in

two pyre ships and burnt, viking style.

Unlike prominent RS characters such as Zanik and the Wise Old Man, I feel no particular fondness towards the princess. However, killing her off so soon seemed very much like a cheap attempt on Jagex's part to add a tinge of melancholy to BRD. I guess that after the long gap between the events of the Throne of Miscellenia until the present, the sudden wedding and Astrid's equally abrupt end was akin to being given a giant middle finger. Oh well. I am sure that the life of a bachelor has its merits.

Stuff achieved today: Completed entire Fremennik Achievement Diary, completed Blood Runs Deep quest

Stumbling Block

2009-12-19T22:33:00.001+08:00

Argh! I just found out today that I don't fulfill the criteria to start the Blood Runs Deep quest.

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

2009-12-18T23:43:00.000+08:00

I've just returned from Australia, so my entries should revert to their normal frequency. I had a wonderful 18 days there; I probably will have a nice long post about it in my RL blog soon enough, but I digress.

On to more Runescape related matters, I've been squeezing in Slayer assignments during my limited time online this past week. To be specific, I've ditched Lapalok and have made the decision to visit Kuradal for my tasks from now on. As it turns out, the Slayer Master can be reached fairly easily via Fairy Ring. Jagex added the ring in the Ancient Caverns as part of a recent system update, which escaped my notice until Kitt, Mat and RS Economist helpfully pointed the inconspicuous addition out.

The new Fairy Ring at the Ancient Caverns

The few assignments Kuradal has given me so far have been excellent. I welcomed the two Aberrant Spectre tasks because I'm after the monster's Challenge Scroll, while working on the Tzhaar assignment was both refreshingly new and fun. There's also the fact that I'm getting rewarded more generously for my services; Kuradal awards players 18 points for every task completed, which compares well to Lapalok's 15.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

The New Girl In Town

2009-12-11T23:09:00.002+08:00

A new Slayer Master is in town and poor Lapalok has been stripped of his Slayer Cape.

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

Powers Unlocked

2009-12-08T23:36:00.002+08:00

I'm finally able to type out a more fleshed out blog entry.

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.

Me speaking with Azzanadra, disguised as a human.

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.

My duel with the Ice Demon which dropped the Frosthorn

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.

Azzanadra attempts to communicate with his master, Zaros.

Zaros speaks!

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 icons of the new curses

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

Lapalok's Errands

2009-12-06T22:17:00.000+08:00

Still no progress with the Temple of 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

Some Chores

2009-12-03T22:30:00.000+08:00

Managed to secure an Internet connection.

Although I had aimed to max the skill out at the start of this year, I haven't been paying much attention to Hunter. With less than a month until 2010, there really isn't much time for me to fulfill this year-long goal. However, I still didn't intend to completely ignore it, so I made a trip to the Feldip Hills yesterday to hunt down the necessary 639 Red Chinchompas for a level up.

I also had enough time to finally start work on and finish the Cryptic Clue Fest. Admittedly, I cheated all the way by referring to Runescape Wiki; I was less interested in being challenged by the clues than receiving Roddeck's magnifying glass before the event was removed from the game. However, as with most other quests, I highly doubt I'll resort to using a walkthrough to complete today's newly released quest, the Temple at Senntisten.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Inactivity

2009-11-30T21:22:00.000+08:00

Apologies for the longer than usual periods in-between blog entries. Real life has been keeping me busy and I have also been distracted by other video games.

Anyway, I am publishing this post to tell you that these longer gaps may continue for the next two and a half weeks or so. I will be out of the country until the 18th of December, and probably would be too tied up with sightseeing and visiting an assortment of tourist attractions to go online much, assuming I have access to an Internet connection in the first place.

Funny how my sudden inactivity has very inconveniently coincided with Kitt's. She made a short announcement in a post a fortnight earlier about how she's taking a break from blogging starting from December; I'd put up a link to the entry, but she deleted her blog a few days ago. This sudden move has me flummoxed, as I can't understand why Kitt would take the entire website away from public viewing. I certainly hope that all her writing hadn't been permanently erased in the deletion.

Stuff achieved today: Level 97 Mining

Pardoned

2009-11-26T23:24:00.000+08:00

Wasn't online much today.

I checked my offence record under the Account Management section to find that the offence I had committed last year has been pardoned. I'm probably being biased, but I thought it was a great move on Jagex's part to give players one-year expiry dates for minor infringements of the rules.

There's also a certain "Cryptic Clue Event" going on in the official RS forums. I'm known to take my time when trying out newly released features in the game, but I must make it a point to check it out soon.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Achievement Diary Frenzy

2009-11-24T23:16:00.002+08:00

What began as a simple entry to tick off from my to-do list expanded into a much more ambitious goal.

I started out my day determined to get the remaining Medium tasks of the Karamja Diary completed, and took a boat ride to Brimhaven after running my first Farming round of the morning. Although only rated at Medium level, this section proved to be the longest and most arduous of all sets of Achievement Diary tasks I have ever attempted.

It wasn't so much the section's inherent difficulty as my dismally clumsy attempts to carry out the tasks that made it challenging. I kept making unnecessary bank trips because I had either absent mindedly forgotten to bring some key item along or simply because my inventory was too packed. And that wasn't even the worst of it; I could've easily shaved off a good two hours from my self-imposed imprisonment in Tai Bwo Wannai if my initial approaches to completing two particular tasks hadn't been so downright inefficient.

Me making use of an Agility shortcut as part of a diary task.

Task #1 required me to mine a Topaz from a gem rock outcrop. I participated in the Tai Bwo Wanna Cleanup mini-game, hoping to uncover the outcrop by hacking down the jungle growths which dotted the village. This would've been a fine plan since one of the other tasks required me to max out my favour with the village's denizens (which clearing up the foliage would've helped in), but I continued to linger around the village way past 100% favour because I still hadn't dug up the Topaz. Task #2 also kept me cooped up in the village. I had to trade in gems for a machete, but Safta Doc, the local machete dealer, needed a Gout Tuber as payment.

Me roasting a spider on a stick and inadvertently drying my soaked

partyhat (see above).

It was only after hours of fruitless searching before it occurred to me that I could make a GE offer for the damned herb, and head off to the mine in Shilo Village where the gem rock outcrops were in abundance. Incidentally, at over 150k, the Gout Tuber didn't come cheap, but it's still a pittance compared to the time I would've saved if I had purchased it much sooner.

Sometime in the middle of all this, I made the decision to get the Hard section of the diary finished as well since I was in the area. It was late afternoon when I proudly presented my Karamja Gloves to a forester at the outskirts of the Kharazi Jungle for the final upgrade.

Thanks to my Karamja Gloves, I now have access to an additional gem

mine in Shilo Village.

Naturally, I was already pretty satisfied with myself for completing the Achievement Diary in its entirety as opposed to only a single section, but I didn't stop there. I turned my attention to the Seers' diary later in the evening and completed it as well. I wised up and did the Seers' tasks in a more systematic fashion, which allowed me to finish all three sections in record time, even though this particular diary had previously been the most neglected.

Me wielding all of the diary items I have accumulated.

All exp from the antique lamps I received were pumped into Runecrafting, so I am now that much closer to level 82 now. It was a great day.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Karamja Diary, completed Seers' Village diary, gained 100k+ Mining exp

Stepping Up My Game

2009-11-22T23:23:00.001+08:00

In a Development Diary published three days ago, Jagex announced its intentions to include an Elite section to the remaining Achievement Diaries due to the positive feedback received on the Elite Ardougne tasks, the first of their kind.

You could say that this is the go-ahead sign I've been waiting all this time to complete my unfinished diary sections. I remember a few weeks ago when Full Of Pie and I were talking about our love for quests. When the conversation inevitably shifted to Achievement Diaries, I remember her being completely shocked when I revealed to her the laughable state my record of Achievement Diary completions was in.

It was at that point that I seriously considered at least finishing up the Medium section of the Karamja diary (Pie made a mention about the Karamja gloves). Typical me procrastinated and put the modest goal on hold, but the eventual release of Elite diary tasks and rewards proportional to their difficulty has given me even more incentive to start work immediately.

Besides the prerequisite diary sections, I also have the stat requirements to worry about. All of my skills are over level 80, but Jagex has shown through the Ardougne diary that it is not afraid to set giddily high criteria to the tune of level 90+ even for difficult stats such as Smithing and Summoning. Much has to be done if I hope to unlock the generous rewards current and future Elite diary sections have to offer.

Stuff achieved today: Level 96 Mining, completed Bloodveld task

Noisy Neighbours

2009-11-20T23:57:00.000+08:00

I still haven't done anything about Slayer and am continuing to camp at the Living Rock Caverns, but I did leave a few times to go for my Farming rounds and finally get that Summoning level up.

Lately, it has not only been the nagging guilt of neglecting Slayer that's making me think about ditching the mine. As cool as it is to train alongside high levelled players, I can't say I enjoy the company of some of my fellow miners. In general, conversations between players in the Mining Golds clanchat are about as inane as archetypal posts you may find in a typical online forum.

But as idiotic as their exchanges are, I'd be nothing but a dirty hypocrite if I did something crazily impulsive like demanding that they keep quiet or starting a flame war. After all, Mat and I have our silly moments in Blesschat, which, although highly amusing to us, would probably make the IQ of anyone else following our conversations drop by a few points.

So I stopped visiting Mining Golds, which solved the problem for a while, until a few of the other miners decided to take their banter to the public chat. One of the more vocal miners was a certain fellow named Amark0v. In the middle of my Summoning training yesterday, Tiz complained about him whining about the recent Runecrafting update and making a general nuisance of himself. When I returned to the caverns a couple of hours later, Amark0v was still there in the middle of his diatribe, flaming anyone who dared to hold contrary views regarding the RC changes.

I saw him again today at the mine. He's finally ended his rant, but remains as obnoxious as yesterday. Kingduffy, one of the top 21, showed up sometime in the evening and got owned. He was quietly fishing for Rocktails, before Amark0v - for no reason at all - suddenly made this random jibe at his name. Though within earshot, Kingduffy ignored this. Maybe he had his public chat switched off; perhaps I should do likewise should I choose to remain at the caverns out of laziness.

Stuff achieved today: Level 91 Summoning, gained 150k Mining exp

Inadequate Supplies

2009-11-19T23:15:00.001+08:00

Reached level 95 Mining yesterday.

Today, I took a short break from Mining to try and get that Summoning level up. I spent a wheelbarrow-load of cash to replenish my supply of secondary ingredients and Spirit Shards, before setting off to the Summoning Obelisk at the Piscatoris Fishing Colony.

I gained an astonishing 466k exp during my relatively brief stay there, but still fell short of the level up because I ran out of supplies. My granite and Earth Talisman GE offers refused to get through despite my generous payment set at the two items' respective maximum prices. I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow and see if the offers finally come through.

Anyway, I still haven't gotten round to training Slayer, but hopefully the sight of my rapidly diminishing Charms would guilt trip me into finally visiting Lapalok again.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 450k+ Summoning exp, Gained 100k+ Mining exp

Potions, Spells and Runecrafting

2009-11-17T23:11:00.000+08:00

Update today, though little change was made to the game in terms of new content, much to my disappointment.

The extreme Herblore potions may now be used in safe PvP mini-games. They still cannot be drunk in PvP servers, but it's good to know that Jagex had mostly reversed their original decision to make it completely unavailable in all forms of player to player combat. I hope they re-evaluate the situation more carefully the next time they are tempted to cave in to the demands of the Pking crowd.

Meanwhile, a change was also made to the Magic skill. Four new battle spells have been to the standard spell book. They serve as even more powerful elemental versions of the four Wave spells. They're still inferior compared to all of the Barrage spells in the Ancient Magicks spell book, but these additions should still help Mages using the conventional spell book become slightly more formidable.

And finally, depending on how one looks at it, Runecrafting has been made more profitable with today's update. Players can potentially craft an extra rune out of a single Pure Essence even if they have yet to reach the Runecrafting level needed to create multiple runes. This potential or chance to create that extra rune increases as they approach the said level.

It'll mean that more runes will be available for everyone, but higher levelled Runecrafters are disgruntled with the change because some of their hard work has been nullified. The influx of more runes as a result of more productive Runecrafting may also cause rune prices to drop, further upsetting experienced Runecrafters.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Switching The Focus

2009-11-15T23:26:00.000+08:00

After Mining for the past month, I've been thinking of switching back to Slayer training for a while now, but I've so far kept on putting it off out of laziness.

It won't get me any total levels since Slayer's even more difficult to train, but the monsters I kill should get me the Charms needed to put my Summoning training back on track. I have enough of the Crimsons and Blues to cover the 500k exp gap to level 91, but I certainly can't keep relying on Bork to get me to my target of level 93, which will enable me to complete the Elite tasks of the Ardougne Diary.

One of my long term goals for this year, obtaining the Hunter Cape, will have to be abandoned though.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Runescape Classic

2009-11-12T23:22:00.000+08:00

Runescape Classic has been temporarily re-opened for P2P players. They have a two-week window to sign in at least once to gain permanent access to the game.

I doubt there'll be many Classic converts, but the influx of new casual players into RSC, no matter how small, should invigorate its steadily shrinking community. Beyond checking out the archaic graphics, landscape and interface, I personally have no desire to linger around in any of the Classic servers. However, I am still appreciative of this move made by Jagex because I've always been curious about its gameplay.

A scene at the Lumbridge Cow pen in Runescape Classic. I am the fellow

in white.

I don't know how the general population of RSC Veterans will react to their newbie guests, but I hope they won't be snooty about it. I've already spotted an experienced player on the RSC forums offering to help out any newbies, so things look promising so far.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 125k+ Mining exp

Dirty Boxing

2009-11-09T21:43:00.001+08:00

The Strikers and Protectors may be a frisky lot, but player deaths are very uncommon in the Living Rock Caverns if you exclude the occasional level 3 Skiller casualty, who has the common sense to mine with inexpensive gear anyway. This was why I found the following such a shocking sight:

The screenshot's quite cluttered, but if you look carefully, you should be able to see a lone Miner donning a Blue Halloween Mask facing off against a Living Rock Protector. He died seconds after the screenshot was taken, but some kind soul blessed his grave the moment it fully materialized.

I had my own duel later that same night, just hours after the game went through a system update. So many changes were made to the point that Jagex resorted to listing the minor ones on a thread in the RS Forums instead of announcing them on the website's main page. An update which did stand out though is easily the addition of content to the Champions' Challenge mini-game. New champions of different species have been added, including a Leprachaun Champion whom players could fight without a Challenge Scroll.

Next to the earlier drama at the Living Rock Caverns, my short battle with the Leprachaun proved to be completely anti-climatic. At level 32, the Champion really wasn't able to put up much of a fight, even though he adopted some rather underhanded tactics:

Ouch! With a target that large, how can you not miss? ;-)

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Chance Encounter

2009-11-08T23:25:00.002+08:00

I took this lovely screenshot of KingDuffy, one of top 21, while in the middle of one of my Farming rounds today.

But sadly, as with the rest of this week, my day beyond that chance encounter was quite uneventful. I had actually planned to visit the Duel Arena with Tiz and participate in the Tournament, but some reconnaissance work on Tiz's part revealed the Registrar area to be almost completely empty, even in the Tournaments server. Pathetic really, especially since the game is supposed to be more crowded on weekends.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Court Is In Session

2009-11-06T23:16:00.000+08:00

I mostly mined and did little else today.

Jagex released no updates for this week, so I mostly stuck to skilling. An article in the Developer Blogs archive caught my attention though. The Jagex staff are presently working on yet another Distration & Diversion, which will involve the court house in Seers' Village. From what I've read, players will be playing the dual role of detective and lawyer, collecting evidence from crime scenes which will then be used to either prosecute or defend the accused.

Nothing has been said about its rewards, which has left me to wonder whether Jagex would choose to award players with easy exp just like the other Distractions & Diversions, or opt to take the more realistic approach of giving out legal fees to participants.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 200k Mining exp

Agility Level Up

2009-11-04T21:48:00.001+08:00

I got too impatient waiting for the Circus to reset, so I went ahead to the Ape Atoll Agility Arena to clear the small exp gap to level 81 Agility.

I received not one but two messages in my Adventurer Log. Apparently, getting all stats to at least 81 is considered an achievement as well. But the level up's significance doesn't end there; I've unlocked a new shortcut in the Relleka Slayer Caves and my timing was excellent when taking the screenshot of the level up.

Stuff achieved today: Level 81 Agility

Halloween Event 2009

2009-11-02T22:38:00.004+08:00

I've completed the Halloween Event, albeit belatedly.

Unlike last year, Jagex did not bundle a quest along with it, though they have compensated for this by making the event itself more elaborate.

The premise is standard enough. The Grim Reaper is once more recruiting adventurers to assist him in his household chores and the portal to his abode has materialised just South of Falador. The Lord of Death tasked me to get rid of a spider in his bathroom, which I meekly obeyed after deciding that that would've been the healthier option.

However, the said task wasn't so straightforward. The giant spider which had lodged itself in the Grim Reaper's bathtub refused to budge, and explained in a series of monosyllabic responses that it was under the instruction of the Spider Queen to remain there. But rather than kill the obnoxious creature, I took the more diplomatic action of searching for the Spider Queen and asking her to make the spider leave.

Grim was so kind as to open up a portal to some spider dimension, but I was on my own after that. I had to navigate through two mazes before reaching the Spider Queen in her chamber, who then explained that she had sent her minion to the Grim Reaper's bathroom because he had offended her by removing all the spider webs from his house.

Me in the spider realm; the portal from which I entered from is still visible.

I negotiated with the giant arachnid and she agreed to get her minion to leave if I decorated the mansion with the webs. To aid me, she ordered one of her subjects, a (relatively) tiny spider named Eek, to travel back to Grim's house. What followed was a very tedious task of coating 64 pieces of furniture all over the two story building with cobwebs. Jagex should've probably cut down on this needlessly long segment of the holiday event, as it was only a dull chore unlike navigating through the mazes from earlier.

Me speaking with the Spider Queen.

The Halloween Event concluded with me reporting back to the Spider Queen and receiving a cloak made out of spider webs as a token of her gratitude. Eek, the small helper spider, also decided to remain with me in my travels.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Halloween Event

Halloween Plans

2009-10-31T23:08:00.000+08:00

It's finally the 31st, but I still haven't gotten round to completing the Halloween Event.

I knew as early as the first day of its release that the event's reward would involve a cape of some sort; a fact made obvious by the number of players running around with it. But Mat's hinted that we'll also be getting some type of pet. It'll probably be Halloween themed, so my Ex-Ex Parrot will have some company in the menagerie soon enough.

Besides hoping to finish the holiday event before the end of the weekend, I also aim to get a handful of level ups by Monday. Agility is now almost in the bag with a minuscule 3k exp gap, after I completed this week's Circus performance. I can continue hunting for penguin spies, which recently have been made more conspicuous thanks to their Halloween pumpkin costumes, to get enough penguin points for level 81 Runecrafting. Meanwhile, I should be able to train my way to level 92 Mining tomorrow.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

What Happens In Canting...

2009-10-29T20:34:00.001+08:00

... Stays in Canting.

Not!

Several months ago, Mat started a thread in the Blessings forums, which invited clan members to post screenshots of any witty or wacky conversation snippets that take place in Blesschat. The thread has now died, but not before being visited by a number of contributors.

I don't really have any plans to revive it, but I've been spending a lot of time in Canting, and thanks to Mat's thread, I've been making it a point to take a screenshot of any piece of conversation I find particularly amusing. I only have three at the moment, but I'll post them here anyway.

I think Merch's was by far the funniest and she did it without trying!

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Halloween Surprises

2009-10-27T22:15:00.004+08:00

I logged on sometime in the morning to find that the game had undergone a system update.

The penguin spies are back in their pumpkin costumes!

The release of the Halloween Event was hardly a surprise since the 31st is this Saturday, while the PvP update to address the growing inflation in the game was a bonus. However, I am still firm in the belief that Jagex should've made the change much sooner, as their previous attempt to counter 76k tricking and the resulting inflation had been pitiful.

Their second and latest solution to the problem is pure simplicity. Loot from revenge kills has been drastically reduced in a bid to stem the flow of money into the Runescape economy, as well as discourage pairs of 76kers from taking turns to kill each other for drops. However, this deterrent may not be completely foolproof.

My clanmate, Phit, was quick to find a potential loophole and pointed out that 76kers could simply team up in threes and do a triangle kill. Meaning, player A kills player B, who kills player C, and player C in turn kills player A, effectively bypassing the revenge system. I certainly hope Jagex had factored this in when making the amendments.

To view the screenshot of my Adventurer Log, click here.

Today also saw the release of a more discreet feature into the game. I was alerted to a certain Adventurer Log by Vaskor's site which tracks down player activities, as well as the total period of time a player has spent in-game. According to my friend SpiritLink (whom some of you may know as Hyruliankid0), the link to the log had initially been put up in the RS website, but was removed a short while later.

Me playing the Trawler minin-game to complete an Easy diary task.

However, by then, players had already gotten hold of the link and started publicizing it around in the official forums. Word about the mysterious website addition got round in the forums and beyond despite of Forum Moderator efforts to lock the threads, which I suppose eventually led to players like me and Vaskor finding out about it.

And even with the initial astonishment of this discovery behind me hours later, the rest of my day was almost equally eventful. I systematically finished up the remainder of my Ardougne Diary tasks and then triumphantly proceeded to claim my full reward (excluding Elite, of course). Just so you know, the final diary task, which required me to win a round of Castlewars, was completed with much finesse on my part. My team dominated the game with a score of 9 - 2 in our favour; six of the flag captures were made by me.

Stuff achieved today: Finished the Ardougne Diary, gained 250k Mining exp

The Ardougne Cloak

2009-10-25T22:27:00.000+08:00

Nothing much to discuss, except that I've been steadily crossing out the tasks of the Ardougne Achievement Diary for the last few days.

Me killing a Frogeel as part of the Achievement Diary.

As with all other diaries, my progress has been quite erratic since I don't do the tasks in order of their difficulty. I've ticked out quite a number of them, but have yet to fully unlock all tasks at a single level. The ones involving mini-games are particularly annoying since they're more time consuming.

Completion will have to wait until next week, while the rewards of diary's special Elite segment remains unattainable due to the high Summoning requirement. However, a level up in Mining to 90 today meant that I still have at least something to show for even without any of the diary rewards.

Stuff achieved today: Level 90 Mining

Misclick Of Doom

2009-10-22T23:05:00.003+08:00

I checked Kitt's blog this afternoon to find that she had a last minute level 99 Summoning party planned that same evening.

Kitt performing the Summoning Cape emote.

It was a very respectable 99, so I thought it would've been nice to attend it to show my support, especially since she had showed up for my Construction screenshot earlier this year. A handful of players were there, including a certain Teacuptime who was a familiar face in Canting.

We all yelled out our congratulatory messages on cue, but Kitt botched up the screenshot due to a misclick. Ouch. It's completely the player's fault of course, but I wonder if it's possible for Jagex to somehow idiot-proof 99 level ups. Tiz and I have fallen victim to it with the Strength skill and screwed up our respective screenshots.

Anyway, I couldn't stay for the post-99 celebrations. It was getting late and I wanted to cram in a duel with Bork and the completion of a few Ardougne Diary tasks during the 40 minutes before bedtime. I also made it a point to research the new Achievement Diary rewards a little more, whilst running around Ardougne and Yanille to tick off some of the entries.

The Ardougne Achievement Diary required me to scale the wall

surrounding Yanille.

The Ardougne Cloak is so incredibly versatile. The free Pure Essence from Wizard Cromperty and teleportation to the Farming patch near the city were features of the cloak that particularly stood out. And I almost cried when I read about the exp lamps awarded to players who complete the Elite tasks; 200k exp in any skill for completing just a handful of simple chores. It is a huge shame that I lack the Summoning level; one of the Elite tasks involves the use of an Abyssal Titan.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 175k Mining exp

Patriarchs

2009-10-20T22:00:00.004+08:00

I got extremely lucky at the Living Rock Caverns yesterday.

Besides amassing level ups and gold ore, Miners at the dungeon are also on the constant lookout for the elusive Living Rock Patriarch, a level 200 rock creature which dwells in the cave. Players who slay the monster are guaranteed a drop consisting of three loads of Runite ore, eight uncut diamonds and 125 Mud and Blood Runes each. By today's prices, the loot is worth over 200k.

Dwarfing even the enormous Living Rock Strikers and Protectors, any Miner would attest to the fact that Patriarchs are hard to miss, even against the similarly coloured brown backdrop of the cave's dirt floor. However, they are still a rare sight, due to the extremely slow spawn rates of one Patriarch every hour or so, which is obviously Jagex's way of offsetting their generous drops.

However, I was able to kill a total of two Patriarchs just yesterday alone, up from zero during the previous week or so at the caverns. I picked up over 400k worth of items after just five minutes of work and gratefully put them up on the Grand Exchange.

Stuff achieved today: Level 88 Mining

Déjà Vu

2009-10-18T22:52:00.003+08:00

Finally bought a Dragon Pickaxe yesterday.

I would've done so earlier if it hadn't been for its unstable price. Dragon Pickaxe owners had been scrambling to sell the item below the GE minimum value through junk trades for the past week. However, prices rebounded yesterday, which prompted me to finally secure the pickaxe at 11.8 million gp. It was a good purchase; aesthetics aside, I could tell it out-performed the Rune variety after just mere minutes of use. However, I only actually tested it out later that night since I had to attend Tiz's final Strength level up.

The plan was for him to take a screenshot of the level up at one of the Clan Wars maps, with a bunch of people fighting each other in the background. Although we had to settle with an F2P server since Form had wanted to come along, the brawl would've been an impressive sight since we were still able to wield Members gear. The whole problem was that Tiz botched up the screenshot, which reminded me of the time I screwed up my 99 Strength level up the previous year.

Still, he's happy with his new Cape of Achievement. I'm sure he'll get over the lack of a proper screenshot to mark the occasion. Congratulations Tiz!

Stuff achieved today: Level 87 Mining

Dev Blog Follow Up

2009-10-16T23:24:00.000+08:00

Mod Chris L wisely decided to write a follow-up Developer Blog entry for the Within the Light quest.

I speculate that he noticed the general disappointment in the Runescape forums over the still missing Elven city of Prifddinas, and then thought it best to explain to disgruntled questers why they're still unable to unlock it even after Within the Light. Although I didn't critique the quest beyond the scale of its rewards in my previous post, I share those same views.

So it was a tactful move on the Jagex Mod's part.

However, it is worth noting that with regards to the question of why Prifddinas remains inaccessible, Chris L provided answers most questers probably already had guessed - a lack of resources due to other big projects that needed attention, and the fact that, according to the storyline Jagex had long ago written, Prifddinas was never intended to be out during this particular installment of the Elven series.

This certainly doesn't render the Dev Blog entry useless, however. Although we may have to wait until the following year, Chris L has at least assured questers that we won't have to sit through another agonizingly lengthy period until the next sequel.

Stuff achieved today: Level 85 Mining

Mishap

2009-10-14T22:05:00.004+08:00

Although rated as a Master quest, Within the Light has an improportionately large exp reward with respect to its actual length and difficulty.

Me at the Crystal Ballista room. I died just moments later, as I was
attempting to exit it.

This still didn't prevent me from blundering up towards the quest's ending, however. Poor timing and panic resulted in me getting stabbed to death by the spikes in the Crystal Ballista room. Oddly enough, instead of appearing at the exact site of my death in the middle of the room, my gravestone materialised back at the pillar in the Temple of Light which I had entered from.

Though this relocation made my grave marker more accessible, its six minute shelf life didn't give me ample time to retrieve my items. Since I had lost the Crystal Trinket along with the rest of my equipment, reaching the pillar meant making two separate journeys from Lumbridge back to the heart of the temple; the first through the Death Altar (via the Abyss) to collect a replacement Crystal Trinket from Arianwyn, and the second through the main entrance (which I needed the trinket to get pass) to get back to the grave site.

Me standing next to my still intact grave stone.

Miraculously, however, a certain player by the name of Auron956 had the compassion to bless my grave, extending my time limit to one precious hour, at which point I re-discovered the ability to breathe back in the real world. In all seriousness though, Auron had saved millions of gp worth of equipment as the items I had dropped upon death included my Abyssal Whip and Amulet of Fury. I later went on to finish the remainder of the quest without incident, and collected a sweet 35k Agility exp, as well as 20k Fletching, Ranging and Woodcutting exp.

I also PMed Auron my thanks, and thanked him a second time when I met him in-game at the Temple of Light. On both occasions however, my display of gratitude was met with stony silence from him. I'm not quite sure what to make of that, but it didn't matter. My items have been safely retrieved. If you're reading this, Auron, thanks again for the grave blessing!

Stuff achieved today: Level 84 Mining, Completed Within the Light

Big Shots

2009-10-13T23:07:00.002+08:00

I've been cooping myself up in the Living Rock Caverns for the last two days, only emerging to get my Farming rounds done, as well as my daily chores of getting Bork and my Jade Vine killed.

I hit level 82 some time in the morning and reached 83 in the evening; speedy progress, considering that it's Mining. This training method is also raking in stacks and stacks of gp. Gold ore is easily worth over 400gp each and I was able to mine over 5000 of them today.

My previous method of mining Granite seems almost laughable in comparison. The lack of any banks or deposit boxes in the vicinity meant that I had to dump the ore I was carrying, and because each outcrop only contained one load of Granite, I had to keep clicking on the separate rocks of Granite to keep the exp going. Oh, and the desert heat was unbearable.

Another thing I wish to bring up would be the sheer numbers of high leveled players down there. The dungeon is crawling with level 130s and easily a quarter of the miners wear Capes of Achievement of skills commonly labelled as being impossibly difficult to max out, such as Agility, Runecrafting and of course Mining. The unusually large gathering of Pack Yaks also tells me that a sizable fraction of the Summoners present can put even Mat to shame. Holy fudge.

Stuff achieved today: Level 83 Mining

Depths Of The Unknown

2009-10-11T22:40:00.013+08:00

Was in an adventurous mood today, and decided to put off Lapalok's Spiritual Mages task to try something new.

I thought I'd finally make that long delayed visit to the Living Rock Caverns to train Mining. The skill had been shoved to last place when I got my Runecrafting level up a few days earlier. After arming myself with my standard Melee gear, as well as packing a pickaxe and a few morsels of food into my inventory, I took two mining carts from the Grand Exchange all the way to Ice Mountain, where the entrance of the dungeon lay.

With the caverns crawling with sentient level 120 to level 200 rock creatures, I thought it best to switch to a server full of other miners as I didn't want to be the sole focus of the monsters' attacks. After searching through the official RS forums, I stumbled upon a clan chat dedicated to miners at the Living Rock Caverns. I switched to the server the CC's members were in, and began greedily helping myself to the vast reserves of gold ore in the mineral deposits situated all over the caverns.

Me chipping away with my pickaxe at one of the massive gold deposits
at the Living Rock Caverns.

Having read the relevant Knowledge Base article on the first day of the mine's release, I was already aware that multiple loads of ore could be extracted from a single mineral outcrop. However, even with all the other players present, many of the outcrops supplied me with several inventories of gold ore before being depleted.

I suspect that the mineral deposits run on timers, instead of having a set number of ore "inside" them. But whether or not my theory is correct is of little consequence. Right now, I am simply delighted about this speedier, less troublesome method of training Mining.

Sometime during my several hour stay at the cave, Mat complained about there being no one to talk to in Blesschat, because we were the only ones present at the time. I suggested switching over to Merch Gwyar's chat, Canting; Pie's recent post had given me the idea.

We missed our Captain rank back in Blesschat.

We greeted the two lone players who were already there upon entering Canting... but had little else to say, until Mat prodded me to try and start up a conversation with them.

Yeah. Guess we should've showed up when it was more crowded.

Stuff achieved today: Level 81 Mining

Iron VS Gold

2009-10-09T23:37:00.005+08:00

First of all, I wish to congratulate Mat for reaching level 95 Summoning.

We had this arrangement from over a week ago that I'd duel his Iron Titan once he reaches the level to Summon it. We couldn't quite pull that of yesterday when he got the level up, but we managed it this evening. I saw him online and PMed him a reminder; ten minutes later, we were in world 45 at the Duel Arena in Al Kharid gearing up for the fight.

I brought in my Giant Ent to the fight for fun, since he still had over 15 minutes left in his timer from a Farming round. The two of us ganged up on the Iron Titan, while Mat watched passively from the sidelines. He only entered the fray and began attacking my ent after he realised that his titan was overmatched. Even at a Combat level of 220, there's nothing any monster can do against a protection prayer. I eventually deactivated it at Mat's request and got swiftly defeated by the familiar.

Then began round two. No protection prayers were allowed this time, but Mat permitted me to bring food and to use Piety. I decided to be a cheapo and only bring lobsters, but also stashed my Falador Shield into my inventory for extra prayer points. The fight then started, with me getting the upper hand near the start of the duel by hitting three consecutive 30s.

However, this still barely put a dent on the towering beast's massive health, and it soon regained the advantage when Mat started using up his Iron Within scrolls, which allowed the titan to score triple hits on me. I soon grew desperate and started blasting the creature with stored up Dragonfire from my Dragonfire Shield. The damage wasn't spectacular, but at least all the shots met their mark.

I eventually ended up losing the match narrowly, after draining the titan's massive reserve of health to a tiny sliver of green and then getting knocked out by a 5. You got lucky this time, Mat.

Stuff achieved today: Can't recall

Forum Avatars

2009-10-07T21:54:00.003+08:00

The forum avatars were a pleasant surprise.

Other forums typically give free reign to its members on what to upload as their display picture, but implementing a similar system would probably invite the more childish of players to put up inappropriate pictures.

Me speaking with Iconis to get my picture taken.

By introducing the photo booth near Falador, Jagex has circumvented the problem, without compromising much on avatar choices. Though only chat heads are displayed, the sheer variety of headgear and hairstyles - at least in theory - prevents the Runescape forums from being overrun with clones.

My forum avatar looks more polished than my regular chat head.

The whole problem is that everyone has the same damned taste. I've always liked to think of certain items I frequently wear in-game as a kind of personal trademark. My Farming Cape's definitely what I want to be identified with, with Lil' Red at number two. Unfortunately, a sizable proportion of the RS community fancies partyhats as well. There are a lot more forum users sporting the Rare than what what would've been expected, based on the hat's limited numbers. Clearly, rampant item lending has been taking place within the last few hours.

Not that I disapprove of players borrowing expensive gear for the perfect mugshot, of course... I'm just peeved about the partyhat's novelty wearing off. But I have things less petty than vanity on my mind.

Along with the forum avatars, Jagex released an entire set of new potions to add to the Herblore skill, which mostly consists of enhanced versions of exisiting potions; a definite must-have for Pkers, but probably not something the average Pure could get his hands on. All the potions have been made untradable, so the only way to enjoy their stat boosting properties would be to brew them yourself, which unsurprisingly requires a high Herblore level. They're all out of my reach, even at level 83.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Dagannoth task

Gambler's Mantra

2009-10-06T21:34:00.000+08:00

So partyhat prices have continued to soar, and I've been thinking about selling my Yellow and Purple sometime soon.

I've had them for almost two years now, but never actually intended to hold on to the two Rares for that long as they were merely an investment. I used to dabble in Rare merchanting back in 2007 to supplement my income from Ranarr farming. Trading was less convenient during most of that period; the game only saw the advent of the Grand Exchange sometime in November that year. However, the money for just a few minutes' work was still very good.

It also seemed to me at the time that it was a risk-free venture - an assumption not entirely unfounded considering the partyhats' impressive track record. Their prices were prone to dips, but these were all followed by improportionately strong recoveries. Partyhats even survived the scare caused by the release of the Construction skill, which had resulted in massive panic selling due to uncertainty about its effects as a money sink.

The only real trick was patience. Even if one were to purchase a partyhat at a bad time (say just hours before a price dip), all they had to do was wait until its value jumped back to its original price and beyond, before selling it for a tidy sum.

I profited from every single deal from 2006 to 2007, until the anti-RWT updates came along. The scale of both the introduced price controls and the removal of unbalanced trades was too much, even for the ever increasing rarity of the hats. A one and a half year crash followed, and I saw my Purple, Yellow and Red Partyhats slowly dropping below half the price I paid for them.

But it's been all good ever since their revival which began earlier this year. Lil' Red still has a lot of ground to cover (not that I'm ever intending to part with him), but selling my Yellow and Purple now at their respective GE max prices would earn me a profit of roughly 35 million, which is a modest estimate because I can't remember the exact amount I had paid for them.

The only thing that's causing me to hesitate making the sale is their potential to soar even higher. Do I go with the gambler's mantra of quitting while I'm ahead, or risk enduring another long term price crash in order to double or even triple my 35 million?

Stuff achieved today: Completed Black Demon task

Stat Balancing

2009-10-04T21:46:00.005+08:00

I exchanged my Penguin points with Chuck and received enough Runecrafting exp for a level up to 80.

It's done little to boost my sagging Overall rank, but at least I can proudly say that all my levels are above 80+ now. 85 for everything by the end of the year is possible, but only if I train Runecrafting directly, instead of solely relying on Penguin points and Tears of Guthix. The other four skills are comparatively easier and more straightforward.

Anyway, a few days have passed since the release of the Display Name update, which has given me enough time to glance around at the names of several players. I've noted a marked improvement compared to the past week, with more aesthetically pleasing display names without numbers. It's pretty cool what the general RS population can do when given a second chance at naming their avatars.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Greater Demon task

What's In A Name?

2009-10-02T23:54:00.007+08:00

Arghh! I have to be the worst pet owner ever!

My Chameleon ran out on me after I forgot to feed him. At least I hadn't given him a name yet; naming a pet gives the owner a certain sense of sentimentality, which makes losing it even more painful. Merch Gwyar and her Spirit Terrorbird/War Tortoise, Birdy, come to mind, though it probably isn't the best example since Summoning familiars are immortal and never bail on you, at least not permanently.

Some time later during the day, I picked up a whip drop during an Abyssal Demon assignment, which I sold for a whopping three million. Needless to say, I am pleased with the condolence money.

I was also treated with the release of the Display Name update. As predicted, a player's display name is independent of his username, but they first start out as identical by default until a player decides to change it. I have yet to do anything with mine and am not sure if I ever will, but it was fun browsing through my Friends List to have a look at the new names some of my friends had given themselves.

Mat's was glaringly obvious, even without the name-changing icon next to it which denoted his previous name. Matman496 is now Im Matman, which I don't consider much of an improvement even with the numbers gone. Im Matman is more of a sentence than an actual name, a fact which Mat didn't take too kindly to when I pointed it out to him.

'scuse the typo.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Waterfiend task, completed Abyssal Demon task

Summoning Milestone

2009-09-30T21:05:00.005+08:00

At level 90 Summoning, I am now the proud owner of a baby Chameleon.

One of the two Chameleon egg spawns at Cairn Island.

I got the level up yesterday, and then went off to Cairn Island in Karamja to pick up the lizard egg, which hatched after I left it in the Yanille pet store's incubator for a couple of hours. Its default colour is green, but it turned yellow upon entering my house, followed by grey when I made a trip to the Grand Exchange.

It's a shame that I won't be able to speak to it until I reach level 99 and obtain the Summoning Cape. However, although conversations with my pets are usually more engaging than exchanges with the average Runescaper, the Chameleon's ability to change colours more than makes up for it.

The Spirit Shard crate is at the extreme right.

Anyway, I discovered the existence of Spirit Shard packs during my visit to the pet store in Yanille. The shopkeeper had stocked up a total of 65k packs, which contain 5000 Spirit Shards each. This makes it easier for players who choose to get their shards from NPCs. I could've saved a lot of time buying ten packs, or 50k shards, in a few clicks, instead of tediously making over 80 separate purchases on Monday to collect 40k shards.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Waterfiend task, completed Abyssal Demon task

Summoning Costs

2009-09-28T22:07:00.003+08:00

I now have more than enough Charms for the Summoning level up.

I probably would've reached it today if it hadn't been for my absent-mindedness. I visited Bogrog with the intention of replenishing my supply of Spirit Shards. I spent a million gp to buy 40k shards, but forgot to exchange the noted Granite Lobster pouches in my inventory. I realised this upon reaching Piscatoris to train the skill, but was too lazy to make a second trip back to the Ogre.

A more serious problem that's been hindering my Summoning training would be the rising prices of pouch components. I get the skill up chiefly through making pouches of the Granite Lobster and Moss Titan variety, but their secondary ingredients, 500g pieces of granite and Earth Talismans respectively, have been increasing in price. I'm especially bothered about the latter; Earth Talisman prices have shot up tenfold since the start of the year.

I also have a handy method of getting Spirit Shards below the shop price of 25gp, which involves buying Spirit Jelly pouches from the Grand Exchange, and then swapping them with Bogrog for the shards. I got them at a little over 22gp each this way, slashing costs by roughly 10%, but lately, the pouches have inexpliably started increasing in price as well.

I speculate that the limited stock update for shops may have something to do with it.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 100k Summoning exp

A Reminder

2009-09-26T22:06:00.006+08:00

I had this most delightful conversation with a player at the Edgeville Dungeon today while killing Black Demons:

Yeahhh. But as obnoxious as Sakis is, he has reminded me about my indefinitely delayed quest to obtain the Fire Cape. I'm at a miserable five failed attempts now, with the latest trip to the Tzhaar Fight Caves made sometime in mid 2008.

One could argue, however, that my odds against facing off Jad are a lot better now thanks to my increased Combat level, but stats were never the problem. The trouble lay with me being unable to identify Jad's attack type and switch to the corresponding protection prayer. The graphical update made on the boss monster only compounded things, because the animation and appearance of its attacks completely changed.

I may make a sixth attempt on Jad's life in either late November or December, during my school holidays. Though I'd have ample time by then to kill the Fight Cave's many denizens, it's only a maybe at this point, because I simply lack the motivation to get the Fire Cape. I never cared much about its stat bonuses, even if they were slightly better than a Skill Cape's.

And before I end off this post, you've probably already noted the stunned/incredulous/annoyed smiley I gave Sakis after he had very brusquely made his demand. He thought he'd try to explain himself by telling me about how he had reached the 65th wave of monsters in spite of his lower Combat level, and that I, at level 137, should be expected to take out Jad by now.

Even if I were to pretend that the 65th wave actually does exist (there are only 63), I find myself unconvinced with his mini-argument. I've never viewed the obtainment Fire Cape as some sort of right of passage for high leveled combatants.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Black Demon task

Woodcutting Rebalance

2009-09-24T22:27:00.001+08:00

I welcome all skill additions, but doubt I'll be checking out the Woodcutting rebalance update anytime soon.

That's the trouble with maxing skills out. You get access to all or most new content for clearing the requirements, but have little reason to take advantage of it. It's probably why I'm so obsessed about quests now.

Some other smaller scale changes have also been made during this week's system update. A little line separating player usernames and the servers that they are on has appeared in the Friend's List, which can be adjusted. It's certainly not the most jaw-droppingly exciting of updates, but Jagex also slipped some comment about the change being somehow associated with the much anticipated Display Names update.

They also said that they were intending to release it later this year. Peculiar; I vaguely remember Jagex saying that it'll be out by this month (or something to that effect) in a Development Diary. No matter, I can wait. It's not like I'm intending to change my name anyway. I'm more curious about what my friends would be doing with theirs.

Stuff achieved today: Can't recall

Glitched Up

2009-09-22T22:04:00.001+08:00

Runescape's been quite glitched up for me of late.

For the last few days, I've been encountering bugs in the game, ranging from the harmless and amusing to glitches that were actually disruptive. My minimap has sudden;y developed this strange tendency to black out on occasion, with only icons and dots remaining visible.

Tiz's name is also mysteriously getting duplicated on Blesschat, and the clones actually sometimes show up on different servers. Zelda experienced a similar problem several times, but that was weeks ago and he was the only one affected. How curious. I find it funny how this bug seems as though as it is capable of spreading like its real-life biological counterpart.

Another glitch I encountered occurred during one of my routine fights with Bork. The creature was down to his final sliver of health, and I wanted to finish him off in style with a well-aimed DDS special attack. I didn't see any damage splats on Bork, but a split-second freeze of the screen indicated that my hits had connected.

However, the short clip of the behemoth dramatically collpasing on the ground that was supposed to follow did not play. Instead, Bork disengaged from our fight and started prancing around the room. I made a second attempt to strike him down, but my avatar stubbornly refused to re-initiate the assault in spite of my repeated clicks on the attack option.

Battered and bruised, I was shortly forced to teleport out of the cavern without my Summoning Charms, as the Dagon'hai Elite, who continued to blast me with his battle magic, was not rendered as passive as Bork and I had suddenly become. I think that it was the DDS spec that had somehow triggered this whole mess, though it could just as easily have been my Bunyip.

It was my first time bringing the familiar there; he had a good several minutes left from a Slayer task, so I had him accompany me for the fight with Bork.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Bloodveld task, completed Dagannoth task

Things Money Can't Buy

2009-09-20T23:07:00.006+08:00

Played a couple of rounds of Soul Wars with Tiz and Kat sometime this evening.

Me getting piled by the enemy team at the Soul Obelisk.

My apologies to any SW fans reading this, but the mini-game was as boring as I had remembered it to be. I also didn't like how a huge portion of my teammates were content to sit around our avatar where they easily outnumbered the enemy, instead of charging towards the Soul Obelisk to regain control of it. I kept getting piled every time I ventured into the area, until I finally gave up and fell back to my base where there were fewer enemies.

At least even losers receive a small reward, unlike many other mini-games. I received two Zeal points for the two lost matches I took part in and exchanged them for Slayer exp. I also asked Nomad about the cost of resurrecting an Abyssal Minion from an Abyssal Demon head. He told me that it'll set me back 85 Zeal points and I nearly fainted.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Abyssal Demon task

Interface Addition

2009-09-18T22:51:00.004+08:00

Jagex has finally done something about that empty slot in the interface.

The new Objectives function

It's now being used as a tab to keep track of in-game objectives such as level ups and quests. I thought it was a nifty little add-on, but still couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of disappointment; I thought that the spot would be used as some special function for the mysterious skill Jagex has been mentioning in the Development Diaries.

Strange... Why are there duplicate objectives?

A new dungeon, the Living Rock Caverns, has also been released. Though home to high leveled, aggressive monsters, the dungeon serves as more of a mine than an actual training ground for Combat. I'll visit it as soon as the hype dies down; I don't wish to compete with half a dozen Miners for a single ore vein.

I may even purchase a Dragon Pickaxe if the place somehow is able to compel me to resume Mining. The Sacred Clay variety wears out too fast...

Stuff achieved today: Completed Fire Giant task, completed Hellhound task, completed Aquanite task

God Birds

2009-09-16T21:11:00.005+08:00

New tenant in the Gold Estate.

My Guthix Bird finally matured into a raptor yesterday and I decided to give him a place to stay at my menagerie. The only god bird I'm missing is the Zamorak Hawk, but I've already plonked in the egg into the incubator at the Yanille pet store and will be collecting the newly hatched chick soon enough. As feisty as Zamorak Hawks typically are, I still hope it'll be able to get along with the other menagerie residents when I let the bird live there after it reaches adulthood.

I'll probably move on to raising a chameleon after that. I still don't have the Summoning level, but I reckon I can gain the necessary 250k odd exp by the time the hawk is fully grown. Lapalok had just given me another Waterfiend task.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Ranks

2009-09-14T22:19:00.004+08:00

My rank in Farming is now at the #39 spot.

The screenshot above is for my own personal reference; I fear that it'll only be a matter of time before I get overtaken and pushed back down to #40+, so I'm going to record my progress for every new high (or rather, low) in the Farming highscores I reach.

But I'm more concerned about my overall rank, really. I was pretty stable at the 1700 to 1800 region at one point, but I'm now at #1999 in the Total Level highscores and I fear that I'll continue to steadily regress.

To most players, it's the actual stats themselves that matter as opposed to rank, but I've long grown accustomed to being in the top 2000. I suppose that this is a side effect of continuing to train Combat even after everything's been maxed out. Many players like me have fallen into that trap. I really should make it a point to focus on a skill such as Hunter or Herblore for a while to get my overall rank back up.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Runescape Videos

2009-09-12T23:53:00.002+08:00

It looks like Excl is off to Jagex Studios after all; no surprises there, really.

His video received 42% of all player votes, with the first runner up trailing behind with just 18%. With the machima competition over and done with, I'm hoping that Jagex would include some pictures of the tour in the Runescape website. In all likelihood, they've already considered the idea, but their guests may not be comfortable with having their pictures publicised.

Still on the topic of videos, Icey Dan has just uploaded his vid to encourage players to start up their own Runescape blogs. Vaskor and Aximili have their own interview slots in the clip, and the comments of several other bloggers (all from Vaskor's extensive network) have also been included.

I feel a little bad about not contributing anything to Icey Dan's project, but it seems to be already working its magic (check the comments) without my help. I am optimistic that we'll be seeing a surge of new Runscape bloggers in the new future.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Forgiveness Of A Chaos Dwarf

2009-09-10T23:14:00.004+08:00

I suspect Jagex delayed the release of Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf to Wednesday due to the auspicious date.

Though busy as always, I was able to complete the new quest within hours of its release, and it was wonderful seeing firsthand Mod Mark's and Mod John's work coming to fruition. The addition to the Lores and Histories section, the Coat Thief, was also a nice touch. I certainly hope that players attempting Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf took the time to read through the new entry beforehand, as it serves as a prologue to the quest's storyline.

Commander Veldaban and I battling a lone Chaos Dwarf wielding a Hand

Cannon.

I think my only complaint about the quest would be its length; it seemed rather short considering its Master rank. But more importantly though, I liked the way how things have developed in the Red Axe series. Dwarves from East Keldagrim have mysteriously started disappearing and Commander Veldaban, head of the Dwarven police, the Black Guard, enlists me to help out in his investigations.

We eventually discover that the Red Axe had been abducting these dwarves in order to brainwash them and convert them into Chaos Dwarves, presumably to create a formidable private army and consolidate their strength. After we relayed this information back to Veldaban's superior, an emergency meeting was held between the Keldagrim Consortium members to discuss the implications of the Red Axe's latest plot.

The meeting between the Keldagrim Consortium members

During the meeting, Veldaban resigned from his position as head of the Black Guard in frustration, because of the Consortium members' unwillingness to treat the problem more aggressively due to their indifference towards the welfare of the less affluent East Keldagrim Dwarves. The quest then comes to a close, leaving the unresolved issue of the Red Axe's army of Chaos Dwarves as a cliffhanger until the release of the next sequel. Awesome stuff.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Black Dragon task

Summoner-In-Training

2009-09-08T23:31:00.005+08:00

Screwed up another level up screenshot for Slayer.

I killed a Gargoyle to reach level 94, but another attacked me from behind just two seconds after, obviously to avenge its fallen bretheren, which made the congratulatory message disappear. I like having my screenshot archives updated, but a level up's still a level up I guess.

I also took some time off to train Summoning; I had amassed over 600 Crimson Charms and thought and it would've been good to use them up. Mat scoffed at my modest collection and triumphantly announced he had over 1800, I think.

I've been envious of his Summoning level ever since he was granted the ability to raise chameleons. Just like their real life counterparts, the pet has the ability to change its colour depending on the type of landscape it's on. It would've made a fine addition to my menagerie if not for the high level restriction. Even after today's training session, I am still over 250k exp away from being able to own the multi-coloured lizard.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Waterfiend task, Completed Gargoyle task, Gained 225k Summoning exp

Frenzied Farming

2009-09-06T23:14:00.007+08:00

Yet another milestone reached!

I secured the #40 spot in the Farming highscores earlier this week, before hitting 40 million exp just yesterday. Truth be told, achieving the highscore rank was my actual target, but I'm shoving that aside in favour of the exp milestone because of the ridiculous length of time it took me to earn those two ranks.

Readers with an exceptionally good memory may remember how I had set out to reach #40 shortly after making it to the second page of the highscores at #42. This began all the way back in December, and it's taken me half a year to jump up by two measly slots.

I'll be facing some very stiff competition as I continue to make my crawl up the highscores.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

The Shortlisted Six

2009-09-04T23:07:00.005+08:00

Woo! The shortlisted RuneScape Machinima Competition videos have been finally announced!

A cursory glance at the list of entries revealed - to my disappointment - that the Sound of Skilling Vaskor had advertised sometime back didn't make the cut. The most perplexing bit of all for me was how at least half of the final six couldn't measure up to the Sound of Skilling, even though they all were selected in favour of the vid by Jagex; I suppose it's simply a matter of them having different tastes.

Here are my opinions of the final six videos:

A Song by bumbum007 - I liked the effects, the lyrics were reasonably funny, but I was quite put off by the guy's guttoral voice.

My RuneScape Machinima Competition Entry by Mommakitty2 - The idea behind showing what Runescape-anized TV channels could look like was creative enough, but the actual execution was about as uninspired as the video's title. Sorry. >.<

Mithril Sword Fight by Arrow Gun 99 - Funny, especially with the anti-climatic ending, but it was still nothing special.

Gnarlie and the Gaming Factory by KKcomics - I didn't like the parody. The little punchline at the end about Jagex employing Oompa Loompas was meh-ish.

Linedancing by Jinsr44 - The transition between the various scenes was nicely executed, and the dance itself was well done. The making of this two-minute clip also smacks of effort.

In the end, I voted for Video Ideas by Excl as my favourite. The poll's been out for only a few hours (possibly shorter), but I'm fairly certain that Excl will emerge as the winner. His work has the best voice acting and it is by far the most humorous of the six. Other Runescapers seem to share that same sentiment. Excl's vid has amassed over 40% of the player votes thus far.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Waterfiend task, Completed Kalphite task

RuneTek 5

2009-09-03T23:45:00.004+08:00

The RuneTek 5 game engine is now out, sooner than expected.

It doesn't have the wow factor of RuneTek 4 (when Runescape HD first came out), since much emphasis has been placed on fine tuning the Standard Detail mode as well as low profile stuff such as scripting, but I appreciate the update nonetheless. The minimap's received a new look and I get these little icons popping up whenever I hover my cursor on certain objects in the game.

The spellbook's also been altered to keep things more organized, though I think it was more of a separate update than an actual part of the game engine upgrade. Jagex also slipped in several changes to the NPC shop system, making it such that these shop owners no longer offer an unlimited amount of stock. The sale of goods has become more personalised and a set number of items can be sold to each player, which is somewhat like a rationing system.

Under the new system, even if I were to purchase all of the items in this

store, its wares would still be available to other players.

It has the advantage of removing the unrealistic feature of infinite stock, which, according to Jagex, had "weird effects on the economy, but I'm annoyed that it's severely limited the number of certain items I can buy at a time. Take bananas as an example, which I use for farming payments. I need five baskets full, or 25 bananas, per Curry tree, but the Charter Ship general store now only sells 10 at a time.

Stuff achived today: Nothing much

3OO

2009-08-30T23:27:00.007+08:00

First of all, I'd like to give a shout out to fellow RS blogger Merch Gwyar who is celebrating her birthday today.

She's holding a big party at her house, which would've been cool to attend since a handful of other players from the blogging community are going to be there. However, the event's going to take place at an ungodly 4.00am for me due to our huge timezone differences, so I had to turn Merch's invite down.

On the plus side, I already have plenty to celebrate about even without the party. I hit the 300 million total exp mark today whilst on a Slayer task to kill Steel Dragons. In hindsight, I probably should've done something like buy a bottle of Fortunato's finest wine for the occasion, but meh. I think the satisfaction of reaching such a major milestone will more than suffice.

Me wandering around the deeper regions of the Brimhaven Dungeon.

Besides helping me make that final push to 300 million exp, Lapalok's assignment also gave me another reason to make a trip down to the Brimhaven Dungeon to collect some more of the bones for the Odd Old Man's wishlist. I picked up the tailbones from the Red, Bronze, Iron and Steel Dragons which were in the vicinity. I think I'm still less than half way through the list, but at least I'm making progress.

And before I end off this entry, I took a screenshot (pictured below) of five penguins amassing within the South Yanille wall in world 36. Apparently, several players in the server had somehow painstakingly shepherded them there from their original locations. Many thanks to Vaskor for directing me to the makeshift penguin prison!

Stuff achieved today: Completed Steel Dragon task, reached 300 million total exp

Evolution

2009-08-29T23:02:00.004+08:00

It's annoying how I keep overlooking the little Developer's Blog section in the Runescape main page.

At least three new entries have been added. I know Zelda's excited about the promised name changing system brought up in Mod Duncan's article. He's not particularly pleased with the numbers at the back of his name. Also, I imagine it must get quite irksome after a while when other players keep mistaking him for a girl because of his username.

I'm personally satisfied with my current alias and have no plans of changing it when the update does come out. Rather, it was Mod Chris E's diary entry regarding improvements in the Runescape game engine, RuneTek, which really caught my attention.

He, Andrew Gower and a handful of other mods have been working on a more updated version of RuneTek for the last eight months. Certain features formally exclusive to the HD mode such as fogging effects will soon be made available to players using the SD mode. Brand new graphical features would also be added to both modes, such as sky boxes, particle effects, bloom lighting effects and water reflections.

RuneTek 2 (Runescape Classic). RuneTeck 1 was the original 3D engine

for the games Jagex created prior to RSC.

RuneTeck 3

RuneTeck 5. Oddly enough, it looks completely identical to the graphics

in RuneTeck 4 (the current game engine). Presumably, the additional

effects haven't been implemented yet.

Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure what the first two changes entail, but I'm sure that this is an update worth looking forward to. It's facinating how Runescape keeps evolving; this is perhaps illustrated best by the various screenshots of what looks like the Port Sarim docks using the different versions of RuneTek, which Mod Chris included in his article.

Stuff achieved today: Completed Aquanite task, Completed Dagannoth task

Publicity

2009-08-27T21:46:00.000+08:00

Icey Dan's plans to start up a video promoting RS blogging is causing quite a stir.

It's certainly a novel idea. His requests for the input of fellow bloggers have been met with a fairly enthusiastic response. Around a dozen have already contributed some tips for blogger hopefuls, as well as their own personal reasons for choosing to create their sites in the first place.

I'm not sure how Icey Dan is going to incorporate all of this into his video, but I hope that it succeeds in its goal of encouraging other players to start up their own online journals of their characters' adventures. Presently, even the almost-daily writings of Vaskor and Kitt, plus the more sporadic but no less appreciated posts of other fellow RS bloggers cannot sustain me. It'd be good to have some new blood in the Runescape blogging community.

Stuff achieved today: Level 80 Mining, Completed Spiritual Mages task

Habits

2009-08-25T22:08:00.001+08:00

Ranarr seed prices have leapt recently, making me reluctant to restock on my supply.

I actually welcomed the price spikes however, since the Ranarr herb itself has also risen in value. I sold my entire stock at over 11k apiece, which I think is a record high.

Not that these price fluctuations weren't without their drawbacks, of course. I had to content myself with using Cadantine and Lantadyme seeds as a less profitable substitute during my herb rounds for the last couple of days. This interruption of my Ranarr Farming would've distressed me greatly if it had taken place maybe two years ago, back when I was still religiously trying to squeeze in as many herb rounds a day as possible, but my attitude towards the cash cow has grown lax over time.

Maybe it's for the best. Personally, I believe that exp takes precedence over gp. It's good that I can continue finishing up with, say, a Slayer task without feeling guilty, even long after my Nature Amulet has gone off.

Anyway, while I'm still on the subject, I've decided to include the completion of Slayer assignments under the "stuff achieved today" section I customarily slot in at the end of all my blog entries. I could record the Combat exp I gain while doing those tasks instead, but if it's not Farming, I usually can't be bothered tracking down any exp I receive past level 99.

Stuff achieved today: Completed a Gargoyle task

New Tenants

2009-08-23T21:13:00.003+08:00

Finally finished with the menagerie.

I had to blow over 1.5 million to ensure that the new room came equipped with the best features, but it was worth it. The menagerie's pretty much an extension of my garden now, which I thought was a really good touch. It's still mostly vacant, but I aim to slowly get it filled up over the following weeks.

The current residents of my menagerie

Keeping in mind that the Natural Pet House is the only piece of Magic Stone furniture I've ever built (thus giving it a considerably exorbitant price tag), going all out to upgrade to the roomiest abode may seem unnecessary at this point. However, all expenses were paid for, courtesy of the sale of the Abyssal Whip I acquired from one of the 198 Abyssal Demons I killed later during the day.

Although presently satisfied with my latest work on the Gold Estate, I still feel a slight yearning to build a second menagerie of the volcano variety in my dungeon. Imagine the possibilities with the right Summoning level and pets at your disposal. I could fill the desolate looking habitat with Hellcats, Phoenixes, Vultures, Zamorak Hawks, Abyssal Minions and especially Dragons. As impossibly difficult as it may seem, I'd be hardly surprised if there are already players out there trying to work towards such an ideal setup.

Stuff achieved today: Built Menagerie

Clutter

2009-08-20T22:22:00.001+08:00

I made a wasted trip to the Odd Old Man's shack without any vinegar for the bones I wanted to pass him.

He wouldn't accept them unless they were polished, and I've now resigned myself to the fact that my RS avatar will always get reduced to a doormat whenever I aid NPCs who enjoy pushing their luck. The least the senile old coot could've done was to take care of the mundance task himself, especially after I had already taken care most of the grunt work.

And so my bank account still remains cluttered with bones. I also haven't gotten round to building that menagerie, so my pets will have to put up with my cramped bank vault for a little while longer. I'm going with the Garden habitat, but still lack most of the construction supplies.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Spoiled For Choice

2009-08-18T22:46:00.002+08:00

Made some progress with the Odd Old Man's wish list.

I've taken care of a few of the hard ones such as the bones from the Mithril and Black Dragons. I had the good fortune of being assigned those two monsters from Lapalok for the first time in a long time. Hopefully, more will soon follow; I don't want the sub-quest to needlessly drag on. I think I still have at least half a dozen dragons to kill, plus the wide assortment of other creatures on the old man's list.

Runescapers were treated to a Construction update, among others, sometime this evening. Menageries to house pets and restore Summoning points may now be built in POHs, and I have no qualms about spending a little extra for the fancier features of the room. I'm caught between building the Desecrated Pet House with a volcano habitat in my dungeon, and the Natural Pet House with the Garden habitat next to my formal garden.

I haven't completely ruled out the other habitats and houses either, so it'll probably take the rest of the week before I begin the rennovations.

Stuff achieved today: Nothing much

Fur 'n' Seek

2009-08-16T21:28:00.002+08:00

The Odd Old Man from Fur 'n' Seek needed me to collect and tan the hides of creatures found around the Relleka area for some Varrock Museum exhibit.

Me speaking with the Odd Old Man.

The monsters were found pretty close to one another, so I didn't have to make multiple trips and teleports to run the old man's errand, unlike during the quest's prequel. I delivered all the requested items within half an hour of starting the quest and received a modest exp reward for my services.

The various hides I had to collect

I'm a little disappointed that the big fight I had been anticipating would only take place after I fulfill the Odd Old Man's wishlist of bones. Some can be obtained quite conveniently through Slayer tasks, while the rest would require me to make the extra effort of hunting down monsters I don't normally kill. Crawling Hands are definitely beneath Lapalok's notice, and I'm not sure if has any particular interest in Red Dragons either.

Stuff achieved today: Gained 250k Summoning exp, Completed Fur 'n' Seek

Mystery Monster

2009-08-14T23:02:00.002+08:00

I still have done nothing about the quest.

I only had enough time to Farm and Slay today, and I couldn't even finish the Waterfiend task Lapalok assigned me. Anyway, from what I've read about Fur 'n' Seek, an uber quest boss monster capable of hitting 40s is somehow involved.

It's gotten me quite excited since I now know that it won't be just another "fetch" quest. I hope protection prayers work against the mystery monster. What is that Odd Old Man up to anyway?

Stuff achieved today: Nuffink much