Runescape Christmas event 2008 - 2009 Guide and Help with Wiki

Walkthrough

• You can start the event by either going to your snow imp straight away, or talking to the Queen of Snow. She is located inside the tent to the north of the tables (If you don’t have a snow imp, talk to one inside the tent). All of the yellow dots are either partygoers, guests, or your imp (when he’s not following you).
• Once you have talked to your imp, head east, through the gate, into Ebenezer Scourge’s house. He is in the western room; you must speak to him to continue or he will yell when you touch anything.
• Search the cupboard located in the same room for bedsheets, and then head to the dining room in the eastern section of the house and find (in another cupboard) a needle and some thread. You will find chains in a barrel in the scullery in the northern section of the house. You should also have found a bucket in the northern cupboard or the other barrels (you can take more than one bucket). Keep the bucket as it will prove to be useful to have later on.
• Use the needle, thread, and the chains on the bed sheet and you will have a set of Christmas ghost armour.

• Wear the three pieces of the Christmas ghost armour, which will begin a dialogue with the snow imp.
• Now, you must return to camp and speak with the Queen. If she does not appear to have a prompt that states: “Talk about Scourge,” talk to your Imp yet again and ask what to do, she will then have that prompt ready for you. She then tells the player that she used to be in love with Ebenezer. Your Imp will then say that you can return to the house and go upstairs.

• Travel back to Scourge’s house and up the stairs to scare Ebenezer. The player will have a rather brief conversation in an attempt to convey him, but will fail to do so. Ebenezer Scourge will then be annoyed and will cast a curse of magical fire on the partygoers. In the cutscene, the victims cursed will each glow in red fire in a specific order which is known as “The Red Flame Pattern”. (write the order down)(Betty can help the player)
• There is a specific order to unfreeze the guests, and it is always the opposite of the order in the cutscene. The order is different for everyone who participates in the event, but the final person you should free is always Tiny Thom. (If you are incorrect, the red fire sequence will replay, again, write it down). Release the guests from the fire by using a bucket on the fountain south of the tables to fill it with icy water, then use it on the guests in your order.
• Go back to Ebenezer. The player will accuse him of ruining someone’s Christmas. Your imp will ask you which character to summon. It will always be Tiny Thom. After the Snow imp summons Tiny Thom, Ebenezer will show more resentment towards the player, leaving no choice but for the player to return downstairs once again.
• Have a chat with your snow imp and go back upstairs. You must say nothing to Ebenezer and do the Angry emote, Scare emote, and lastly, do the Dramatic Point emote to scare him into releasing Santa.
• Head back to the feast and talk with Santa near the front of the tent. Then head south-east towards the Christmas Tree. Open the green present with the red ribbons in front of the Christmas Tree to claim your reward, a candy cane for you and a scarf for your imp!

Congratulations, you have finished the event!

• Once you have completed the mini-quest/event, Ebenezer can be found “enjoying” the Christmas Feast, apparently a changed man. When you talk to him in your Christmas Ghost set, he will tell you that his ways have changed. If you talk to him without wearing any of the Christmas Ghost gear, he is trying to be nice and he tells you he’s enjoying all of the merriment and also wishes you a Merry Christmas.

Rewards

• Christmas ghost set
• Candy cane, which when wielded has the option to “Spin”. When spin, your character will throw it into the air. The Candy Cane will then rotate 360 degrees mid-air before being caught again.
• The Dramatic Point emote.
• If not already unlocked, the emotes Freeze and Melt and Snowman Dance are also unlocked.
• After the event, players can take the following from the feast tables: Turkey drumstick, Roast potatoes, Yule log and Mulled Wine. Players can’t take the food out of the Land of Snow. Players may also choose to store the food in the cornucopia which was obtained in the thanks-giving event 2008, but not the wine.

Music

Music tracks unlocked:

• Silent Knight
• Ghost of Christmas Presents
• Smorgasbord

History

Development

The event was developed mainly in September and October of 2009^[1] and is the first project developed by Mod Edam.^[2] Before its release, Mod Ajd said that the Christmas event was going to be better than last year’s, but Jagex will “leave [it up to] the players to decide that one.”^[3]

Mod Edam stated that he wanted the graphics of the event to “have a “Christmassy” atmosphere,” and said that he was “really pleased with what was produced.”^[2] To add to the “Christmassy” atmosphere, Jagex created a new particles system in RuneScape that included a more realistic look of snow.^[4]

Mod Edam based the story of the event on A Christmas Carol, a traditional Christmas novel written by Charles Dickens.

“	I decided to use a traditional story as the basis of my event, but to change the perspective and give it a twist. Hopefully, a bit of humour and a fresh perspective could give the story a bit of a kick, yet still let me tap into that traditional atmosphere I have a hankering for.	”
	— Mod Edam, “Holiday Event: A Christmas Warble”[2]

Mod Edam also said that the rewards of the event would not give any player any notable advantage over another, but would still be fun and not useless.^[2]

“	To an extent, I think us developers (and players) have to accept that holiday items won’t ever be the most-used items in the game, but that doesn’t mean they should be written-off as useless. For me, a good holiday item is one which looks cool and is a bit of fun. More importantly, it should have a distinctive look that’s true to the event it came from. What better way is there to nostalgically say “I was there at Christmas 2009″ than by wearing a piece of it?	”
	— Mod Edam, “Holiday Event: A Christmas Warble”[2]

Announcement

The 2009 Christmas event was first announced in the news item “Christmas Cards and Blog”.^[5] It linked to a developer blog written by the developer of the event, Mod Edam. In the developer blog, titled “Holiday Event: A Christmas Warble”, Mod Edam gave a few details about what the event would be like.^[2]

Mod Edam said that new characters would be released with the event, but Jack Frost and snow imps, characters seen in a previous Christmas event, would have small cameos.^[2] Santa Claus’s appearance was confirmed by Jagex Christmas cards that represent the event.^[5] Mod Edam confirmed in the blog that the plot would be based on a traditional Christmas story, but he did not say what. This was later confirmed to be A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

After many questions about them on the RuneScape Forums, Mod Edam confirmed that the rewards of the event would not be the same as the rewards from previous events, and that they would not be tradeable.^[1]

Player speculation

Following the announcement of the event, many users on the RuneScape Forums speculated that the event’s story would be based on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. This was not confirmed until the event was actually released on 21 December. RuneScape players based their theories on several “hints” released by Jagex.

• The title of the first blog by Edam is “A Christmas Warble”, “warble” being a variation of the word carol (i.e. A Christmas Carol).
• The caption for one of the pictures posted on Edam’s blog stated, “Beware of the Humbug”, “humbug” being a well-known word that Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol’s main character, often says in the book.
• One of the Christmas cards released at the same time as the “Christmas Cards and Blog” news post is titled “A Christmas Warble” and captioned, “Santa brings a Hint of Christmas Future in this festive card.” The picture is of Santa Claus, an old man, speculated to be based on Ebenezer Scrooge, and a young boy with a crutch under his arm, speculated to be based on Tiny Tim.^[6]
• “Christmas Cards and Blog” makes a reference to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who is one of the four ghosts that visits Scrooge in the novel: “Like the Ghost of Christmas Future we’re here to offer a hint of what’s to come this Christmas, in the form of a new Christmas card and developer blog.”^[5]

Release

“A Christmas Warble” was released on 21 December 2009 with the news item “A Christmas Warble”.^[7]

Many users on the RuneScape Forums have commented on the delay of the release of the event. The 2006, 2007, and 2008 Christmas events were all released on either the 16th or the 18th of December, but the 2009 Christmas event was released on 21 December.^[8][9][10]

The event was generally well-received by players,^{[source needed]} but was criticised in some things (see below).

Criticism

Members objects

There has been a large amount of criticism from ex members about the 2009 Christmas event. Free players who wear or wield members objects are forced to remove them in order to complete the event, so that they will look more like a ghost. Most of this criticism has gone toward not being able to wear Capes of Accomplishment. Many users on the RuneScape Forums have complained that this is an unnecessary part of the event; however, some players believe that it is completely fair, as free players with members objects aren’t paying for them anymore. This issue has been compared to criticism of the 2009 Easter event, where ex members were forced to take off their members-only weapons to wield the butterfly net.^[11]

Mod Stevew read the criticism on the forums, and passed the feedback onto the Jagex content team; however, he didn’t say whether it would changed or not.^[12] The day after the release of the event, Mod Edam, the developer, confirmed that the members object issue would not be changed.^[13]

“	We didn’t realise that this would affect ex members – but we won’t be changing it. We don’t want to discourage players from partaking in the event – but ultimately it is their choice. Keeping your P2P items on your F2P is a restrictive game play choice. Further if we were to make this change now it would be unfair on people who have removed their cape to allow them to complete the event.	”
	— Mod Edam, “A Christmas Warble”[13]

Ghost costume

Several female RuneScape players complained on the RuneScape Forums that the ghost costume, one of the rewards of the event, looks too masculine, and that Jagex was either discriminating against females or “too lazy” to make a girl model of the set.^[14] Mod Mark H denied this. He said that the costume only looked like the way it did because the event took it from how the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was described in the novel.^[15]

“	In all the versions of the “Charles Dickins[sic]” Christmas [Carol] I have read/seen the last Ghost, the Ghost of Christmas [Yet to Come] is always a genderless apparition designed to inspire the feeling of “The Reaper”.The point is, giving such an entity a “Gender” would take away it’s horrific nature and make it more “mortal”. By taking away this “otherworldly” nature and separation from the mortal form of male/female it becomes something that Scrooge cannot comprehend. Hence why in the traditional story, the other two spirits are often given a gender. In other words, giving it a gender would make it less scary.	”
	— Mod Mark H, “Ghost outfit - for guys ONLY!”[16]

However, with so much criticism, Mark H agreed to pass the feedback to the Jagex Graphics Team, but he said the feedback probably won’t be seen until after the holidays. If the Graphics Team can adjust the costume very quickly, there is a chance it will be changed, but “it’s really up to them.”^[17]

Difficulty locating NPCs

Since there were many players doing the event in the Land of Snow at the same time, many players found difficulty locating their own snow imp. Players easily got their own snow imp and other players’ imps confused. In response to complaints, Mod Edam suggested moving into open space, talking to non-player characters, or using the ice amulet to summon the imp to you. He also said that as the event continues, the Land of Snow will be less crowded with players.^[13]

Players also complained that disruptive players stood over non-player characters integral to the event. Mod Edam then made the Queen of Snow, the four event snow imps, and Ebenezer Scourge visible at all times, even if players stand on the same square as them.^[13]

After only a few days after the release of the event, the number of players in the Land of Snow has decreased noticably.

Glitches

Main article: 2009 Christmas event/Glitches

Trivia

• Tiny Thom and Ebenezer Scourge are based on Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge, characters in the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, as much of the event is based on the novel.
• After completing the event, the Adventurer Log reads: “Using imp-like cunning I bested Scourge and saved Christmas!“
• The idea of travelling through a wardrobe to a parallel world blanketed in snow is similar to that seen in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the second novel within the Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis
• You can talk to Louis the Camel with a camulet for humorous conversations throughout the event and after you complete it.
• At the time of this event, the penguins from Penguin Hide and Seek featured a sleek, new costume, like during the Hallowe’en events, only this time they’re dressed as snowmen instead of Jack ‘o Lanterns.
• The Candy Cane was an option for a reward in the Christmas Guaranteed Content Poll (July 2008), though it lost to the Santa Suit. It was known as ‘Candy Cane Cane’, suggesting that it was a cane (like the Treasure Trail rewards) and it was of a Candy Cane.
• This is the first update which uses the new and upcoming graphical feature, particles.
• If you have started or completed ‘Recipe for Disaster’ your character would mention that the fire spell that Ebenezer Scourge had casted was similar to what the Culinaromancer did to the people at the feast in Lumbridge.
• If you use a snowball on your Snow imp it eats it and says “Yum, snow, my favourite!”. When you attempt to use anything else on him he says: “Oi! Don’t use that on me!”, instead of the traditional Nothing interesting happens. If you use it on a imp that isn’t following you, you will yield “Nothing interesting happens.”
• Sir Amik Varze seems to be wearing a Santa hat and a gold-trimmed green cape at the party, however, the cape in question cannot currently be acquired by players.
• After you come out of The Land of Snow and have a bucket of icy water in your inventory, the ice melts and turns into normal bucket of water.
• There are piles of snow that can be used to create snowballs, that can be wielded and pelted at people. This is similar to the snowballs gained from the Snow globe of the 2007 Christmas event.
• Only the Queen of Snow, Santa Claus, and some of the partygoers really fall for the Ghost costume at all. Scourge doesn’t really seem fazed at first and everyone else in and outside that area is able to recognise you straight away.
• When passing the barrier or logging in with the Ghost costume on in Port Phasmatys, players may receive a message saying, “The ghosts eye you suspiciously and recognise that you are masquerading as one of them.”

• Tiny Thom, when talked to after the event, exclaims that he’s received a lump of coal as reference to the Christmas tradition, also from the book. The difference residing in that Tiny Thom retorts that it’s valuable via the Grand Exchange, proving Santa’s punishment to be useless.
• In this quest players have the opportunity to witness new facial expressions when talking to NPCs.
• The ice sculptures on display are reminiscent of the frozen creatures within God Wars Dungeon.
• After you drink the Mulled wine, you don’t receive any glass cups in return.
• If your imp interacts with an imp of the same name, they’ll call each other “bro’s”.
• The song “Silent Knight” refers to the holiday song “Silent Night”.
• You can light logs in the Land of Snow during this event. However, it was not possible to light logs on snow or on ice in the previous event and during the quest Myths of the White Lands.
• The Snow imps seem to be able to teleport other beings.
• When talking to the Cook of Lumbridge in the Land Of Snow, he says to the player that he could have cooked the feast if the player had not rescued Santa Claus.
• While logging into RuneScape at the time of the event, players were treated to holiday music instead of the standard login music.
• When speaking to Ebenezer Scourge as the ghost of Christmas Present, “your” had been misspelled to “yout” on several occasions.
• Snowballs can be banked, the same as those from the 2007 Christmas event snow globe.
• If you feed snow balls to another other player’s imps, you end up feeding the snow ball back to your own imp (even though it is clear that you have fed the snowball to another player’s imp) — This is evident when you feed another player’s imp, your own imp’s name is above the dialogue when it talks.
• After the quest, Sir Amik Varze and a drunk Partygoer show a new chat head when spoken to.
• If you did the 2008 Christmas event, you get the same imp.
• If you examine the food bins in front of the reindeer and the other animals, both of them will say that the other animal ate it already.
• Though Sir Amik Varze, and Generals Bentonze and Wartface are at the party in the land of snow, they are still at their usual locations on Runescape.
• Players use the scare emote even if they have not unlocked it and although it is used it isn’t unlocked in the quest.

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• Runescape Christmas event 2008 - 2009 Guide and Help with Wiki (51)

Web of Shadows

Start: East of Rimmington, North west of Port Sarim, South of Falador.

The Grim Reaper’s House

Talk to the Grim Reaper in his house in the black portal south-west of Falador. He will tell you he has a spider in his bath, and wants it removed. If you refuse, he will kill you and you will appear outside the portal with all your items. Head to the room north of you with the staircase and go up them. Find the spider in the bathtub where the yellow dot is located on the minimap and talk to her. She will tell you, in one or two word answers, that the Spider Queen has sent her and that she will only move if the spider queen tells her to. Report back to the Grim Reaper with what you found out. He will create a web-like portal for you to teleport to the Spider Realm. Enter it, and you will find yourself on the first floor of a four floor Dungeon.

Spider Realm - First Floor

On the first floor, players will find themselves on a small unstable web. The player must cross web strands to reach the ladder at center of the web, however, only certain web strands can support the player — If the player crosses a wrong strand, they will fall down and be taken back to the beginning of the web. The player must use trial-and-error to find the correct strands and make their way to the center of the web. Note that there is only one correct path that the player may take, and it is different for every player. You can change your player view to see forward to the next Walk-to Web node and click on it to move your player. The pathways are different for different players. (This puzzle is similar to the “Where am I?” puzzle of Lunar Diplomacy, or the “Pit and the Grid” puzzle of Underground Pass, albeit in a much more simple form). There have been a few reports of players successfully completing the First Floor by taking the longest route possible (eg looping left, and coming in on the Northwest part of the ladder instead)

Spider Realm - Second Floor

The second floor of the dungeon is an Agility course style level. Players are required to do various stunts such as swing across monkey bars, walk tightropes, hop from stone to stone and do Matrix-esque wall runs. The obstacles can’t be failed. The player must make their way to the ladder on the northern-most web at the centre.

Spider Realm - Third Floor

When the player reaches the third level, they can find the Spider Herald. After the player mentions that they are helping the Grim Reaper, the Spider Herald will allow the player to climb the ladder to the level leading to the Queen Spider. There are many other spiders there such as the Royal Fly-Catcher, and Master Web-Spinner, Grand Chamberlain of the Web, Marshal of the Teeming Horde, Knight of the Eight-Fold Seal, Keeper of the Royal Eggs and various spider Courtiers.

Spider Realm - Fourth Floor

The Spider Queen will tell the player that the Grim Reaper offended the her and the entire spider kingdom by sweeping all webs from his house, on Hallowe’en, upsetting the order set by Guthix. The Queen will refuse to let the giant spider leave from the Grim Reaper’s bathroom until his house is again filled with spider webs.

The Queen will instruct the player to talk to the Spider Herald again, who will give the player a companion named Eek. The player is then instructed to return to the Grim Reaper’s house and to fill the house with webs with the help of Eek. The ladder going down from the third to second level in the spider realm has the option to ‘Return to the Grim Reaper’s house,’ meaning that the player doesn’t have to backtrack through the dungeon.

Webbing The Grim Reaper’s House

Talk to the Grim Reaper. After a short conversation with the player and Eek, you will be instructed to place webs all around the Grim Reaper’s house. The player will need to hold Eek in their hand, and then left-click any furniture in the house that has the Web option. A total of sixty-four items will need to be webbed, (34 items on bottom floor, and 30 items on the top floor) in order for the Queen Spider to be satisfied. Eek will also inform the player upon entering any room exactly how many items in that room need to be “webbed”. The player can also Talk-to Eek at any time to determine how many items that need to be webbed are remaining in the current room.

It is advised to travel from room-to-room, looking for any object that Eek can web, and then moving on to the next room when Eek has informed you that the room has enough webs in it. Items that the player should look for are candlesticks, chairs, tables, beds, footlockers, Death Clocks, wardrobes, cabinets, bookcases and fireplaces.

Note that in the room with Muncher, the Grim Reaper’s dog, the player will not be allowed to spin any webs until Muncher is satisfied - attempting to do so will result in Eek being scared by Muncher and unable to spin the web. You can right-click Muncher (or simply click Interact to open a dialogue box); the player should Entertain him and then let him sniff Eek, so that Muncher can see that Eek is harmless. After Eek states that Muncher likes her, the items in Muncher’s room can be webbed by Eek.

Once sixty-four webs have been spun in the house, the player will need to talk to the Grim Reaper to let him know the task is complete, and finally to the Queen Spider (Select Go to spider court to bypass the maze) to remove the giant spider from the Reaper’s bathroom and to claim their reward. Note that even though the quest will be complete, players may converse with the Herald, Death, and the “bathtub spider” for more dialogue. The Herald will vow never to forget your deeds, Death will reveal plans to tidy up the place *after* Hallowe’en, and the bathtub spider will continue to be mostly mono-syllabic.

Rewards

The rewards for completing Web of Shadows are (Talk to Spider Queen for rewards):

• Eek the spider
• A Web Cloak
• Trick, Scared and Zombie Hand emotes if you did not have them previous to this event.

Music

Music tracks unlocked:

• Trick or Treat?
• Itsy Bitsy….
• Poison Dreams

Trivia

• There is a glitch that will occur when wielding most shields (and prayer books) while holding Eek. The shield will not be visible while standing, but will be visible while walking.
• Eek the Spider may be a reference to the cartoon “Eek the cat”.
• Within the first couple of minutes on the log-in confirmation screen, Eek the spider could not be seen and the spider was invisible.
• The name of the Halloween event, “Web of Shadows,” may be a reference to the Spider-Man video game of the same name, and also the name of the third BIONICLE movie; BIONICLE 3: Web of Shadows.
• When you mention the “walk on two legs” option, she says she will “use the other six to FIGHT CRIME!”, another possible reference to “Spider-Man”
• The Death Clock has an examine info that reads: “Every swing of the pendulum brings you closer to the moment of your death.” This may be a reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum”
• The Death Clock may also be a reference to the show Metalocalypse, which follows the life of a band called “Dethklok.”
• It is impossible to fail an obstacle on the second floor of the spider maze.
• The character in the banner is wearing the Agile top and legs.
• When walking the spider web, it is possible to walk through air. This happened when you clicked diagonally to the web.
• If you try to rest while on an obstacle on the second floor, it says “You can’t rest in that form.”
• Wielding a Toy Kite while navigating the maze causes it to glitch and appear as if it’s floating.
• Death (Grim Reaper) is rolling a Death rune around the fingers on his left hand.
• When you get close to the Dark Portal, it gets darker. Even with a light source such as a bullseye lantern, it will still get darker.
• There was a glitch that if you did the “Zombie walk” emote before teleporting, Eek would get her own “teleport cylinder”
• Muncher was initially at the south point of the room, however moved in a Hidden Update by Jagex he can now move to wherever he likes within the room.
• Even though one enters Death’s house like one does a Player-owned house, when you log out and back in, you will be right where you were, instead of outside the portal.
• After you have completed the event, if you go upstairs, the yellow dot for the bathtub spider will still show on your minimap. The spider itself is gone; however, the bathtub is actually considered an NPC. This may be seen by right-clicking it: its name appears in yellow rather than cyan (the name color of scenery objects).

• When covering objects with webs, a new cursor exclusive to this event will appear:
• Penguins from Penguin Hide and Seek can be found wearing Jack-o-Lanterns as disguises during the event.
• Players were able to visit Diango in Draynor and claim holiday items multiple times. Players received multiple instances of Warlock Clothing and Santa Outfits. Although this glitch has been fixed, the items remained in players banks.

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