19 February 2007 - The Tower of Life

Over near the Necromancer's Tower, south of Ardougne, a new tower of ambitious design is under construction.

You see, over the ages, alchemists around Ardougne have worked on many bizarre experiments, encouraged by the kings of the region. Now their experimenting has brought them to their ultimate goal... only to be stopped short by a builders' strike. The builders claim the project was not what they first expected and so it seems the tower's future is up to you!

With a mix of illogical magic and logical construction, you can expect to be working those builders' hands to the bone just to understand the tower - let alone get it into working order.

This is a one-of-a-kind quest involving: the culmination of magic and logic, the most fashionable construction outfit you ever did see, learning the all-important rituals of the builder and having somewhere to store sarnies from the sandwich lady...

Then, as if that wasn't enough, you'll earn the opportunity to create strange creatures to battle. Using alchemy and the Tower's marvellous properties, there are a wealth of strange opportunities! Oh, and when we say 'strange', we honestly mean strange - ever wondered what happens if you cross a jubbly with a lobster? Probably not, but like we said, alchemists have worked on some very bizarre experiments! The items dropped from these monsters should prove useful for all those resource-gathering-addicts!

So what are you waiting for? Grab that hammer and saw, and practice your best builder slang because, as the title suggests, this is no standard building, but the legendary Tower of Life!

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In other news...

Pets may no longer be taken into Pest Control or Castle Wars.

On non-members' worlds, the Magic spellbook interfaces now ignore members' items, such as blood runes or battlestaves, when deciding which spell icons should be lit up. This should make it easier to see which spells you can cast if you're on a non-members' world.

A level 25 Defence requirement has been added to the new Fremennik shield.

When you fletch a yew shortbow, you used to get ~66 experience for carving the bow and ~68 experience for stringing it. However, for all other shortbows, the carving and stringing give the same amount of experience. We have adjusted the yew shortbow to give ~67 experience for carving and the same amount for stringing it. The total experience you get for making the completed bow has not changed.

14 February 2007 - German Language Beta Launch – Some Information

Hello and guten Tag!

As you might have noticed, we've just added a German language option to the sidebar on the front page of our website. This goes to a section of this website where all the text in the game and on the website has been translated into German.

At the moment our German section is online for testing only, which means not all areas are available to everyone yet. Anyone can view the open areas, but the areas which need a login (including the game itself) are currently running in “closed beta” mode, which means you will only be able to visit them if we have specifically invited you to take part.

As you know, we only ever contact people through their message inbox in the secure customer support section of the website, so if you haven’t had a message from us, then you haven’t been asked to try them out. You’re not missing out on anything, though: there are no special new objects or anything new at all on the German worlds, only that the Wise Old Man, Bob and everything else is “auf Deutsch”!

IMPORTANT WARNING: Remember that we only ever contact players via their RuneScape message inbox on this website. We will NEVER invite you via your email or via in-game messages, so DO NOT FALL FOR ANY SCAMS. Also we do NOT have secret sites on which you can sign up for the German beta. Any site claiming to be such is a fake designed to steal your password.

Just as a reminder, your messages from us can only be read by clicking on the “Read your messages from Jagex” button on the front page of our website, in the “Account management” section on the left of the page.

We are not currently looking for any more people to join the beta test, so please do not contact our staff to offer your services and, again, beware of people offering to ‘get you in’.

The people who have been invited were chosen randomly from a list of our German players. They are not being paid or given any special treatment by us, they are simply given the opportunity to try out the new German servers and help us iron out the bugs before they are opened to the rest of the public. A huge amount of effort has gone into translating the roughly 1.5 million words on the website and the game, but some of our NPCs (especially King Roald) have been less than cooperative while learning this new language, so one or two words might have slipped through the net.

Players on these closed beta worlds (139 F2P and 140 members) will still be able to talk to their friends and play the game as normal.

Once the “closed beta” stage has finished and we have educated all of our NPCs about the proper way to pronounce “Wiederherstellungstrank”, we will be opening the servers for everyone to use, just like all of our existing servers.

Thank you... and danke!

(Wiederherstellungstrank means restore pot... honest)

14 February 2007 - Minigame updates

The Barbarian Assault minigame has received a small update today. Those who have been successfully defeating the vile Penance creatures will be pleased to hear that Commander Connad is now offering even greater rewards than before for anyone who feels brave enough to risk their points in his high-level gamble.

The barbarians are also offering a new way to cash in points to advance your level in the four roles. At the end of a wave, the message scroll now features a button that will let you exchange points for a higher level in the role you have just played. This lets you advance your level without leaving your team-mates to visit Commander Connad.

In addition to these changes, the Sorceress's apprentice is now refusing to let people take pets into the Sorceress's Garden.

13 February 2007 - Players' Gallery Makeover

We've made some minor changes to this month's gallery. The popular pixel art image is now viewable in a complete form, with a link to the image at its original size, along with some other minor improvements. Also, three lovely new images now fill the gaps created by making that change.

Having bounced from town to town, showing-off the magnificent artwork that he has accumulated, Postie Pete has noticed that his pictures are getting a bit worn. Teeth marks have been appearing around the edges (you try to show the Kalphite Queen a painting using only your mouth) and the magical laminate has been wearing off. In an attempt to keep his gallery pristine, Postie Pete has visited his old drinking pal, Salarin the Twisted, who has conjured up a magnificent new viewing receptacle for his beloved artwork. Check out the new Players' Gallery page for a guided tour and a fine new selection of creative wonders!

Postie Pete has also asked permission to mention a second change to the Players' Gallery. A new email address, , has been set-up for your admissions. He has been worried that artwork may have been getting mixed up with his letters, and he can't be having that!

12 February 2007 - A sq'irk a day...

Osman, known for his peaceful, innocent life relaxing in Al Kharid, has of late been miserably staring into an empty glass of sq’irk juice. For years he was able to deal directly with the sorceress to provide his favourite tipple, before their disagreement over prices. Since then, Osman has tried desperately to find out how she grows them, but the secret is so well kept that not even he can find it.

Osman has thus been forced into adopting a more devious (though some might say lazy) approach, and for that he will need your help. Once you work out how to get into the sorceress's concealed garden, it will be up to you to watch the routes of the patrolling guards and sneak past for the fruity rewards. Different seasons are rumoured to affect each of the gardens, and it can be assumed that more experienced thieves will have access to more bountiful sq’irk trees. Even if helping Osman is not to your taste, the gardens are also home to herb-beds, which could be plundered by those wary enough to avoid any guardians. So head to Al Kharid to help this thirsty gentleman of leisure or to stock up on ingredients - either way, there are profits to be had in this new minigame.

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In other news:

Following requests from players, we've taken a look at the way the combat system handles your attack style when you're autocasting spells. People were finding that the system would put them into the defensive mode if they ran out of runes or switched to a different kind of weapon. This isn't necessarily useful, since some fighters prefer not to get Defence XP.

Instead, the system will now try to remember the last combat mode you were in before you started autocasting spells. If you're autocasting spells in the mode that doesn't give Defence XP and you switch weapons or run out of runes, you should find yourself in that combat mode. If you're autocasting spells in the mode that does give Defence XP, you should instead find yourself in a defensive combat mode.

As with all changes to the combat system, we advise you to take extra care, to make sure things are behaving how you expect them to.

6 February 2007 - Fremennik Isles

Those brave warriors who have already completed the Fremennik Trials have a challenging new quest to get their teeth into. The Fremennik Isles quest introduces a new area larger than Falador to enjoy and explore, featuring two new villages, new mines to plunder, armour to make, trees to chop, yaks to skin and a huge smelly rabble of trolls to confront. The islands of Jatizso & Neitiznot were founded by two quarreling Fremennik brothers who left the land of their father to prove themselves. Instead of finding two isolated lands to rule without worrying about each other, they unwittingly set up as neighbours, and their feud continues to this day. However, a new foe has threatened their silly sibling squabbling. Trolls, more trolls and yet more trolls - led by the imposing Ice Troll King - lurk nearby. Each village is only a few bridges away from troll-ish destruction. Normally, you’d expect two strong and noble Fremennik clans to unite together and defeat the yak-eating, bone-crunching trolls, but the years of petty name-calling and abuse have meant that the brothers fear each other more than the trolls that threaten to destroy them. Are you prepared to step into this quagmire of resentment to deal with the real threat? Fremennik warriors brave and wise enough to accept the challenge will need to be skilled with their hands, using knife and axe as well as sword. You’ll be killing yaks, building bridges, collecting taxes, fashioning smelly armour, donning disguises to spy on important meetings and dodging rocks before taking on the might of the Ice Troll King and his horde.

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Barbarian Assault Down in the murky Barbarian Assault caverns, change is in the air. The barbarians have installed a new dispenser for Collectors to use. It converts eggs from one type to another: green eggs to red eggs, red and blue eggs to green eggs. Only Collectors of levels 2 or above may make use of this feature. The dispenser is not perfect, and eggs have a high chance of being destroyed. Higher-level Collectors have a far better chance of the eggs surviving the transformation process; this is to give more of a reason for levelling up the Collector role. The barbarians have also increased the supplies available to Attackers. Their dispenser now gives runes and arrows in multiples of 50 rather than 15, and its stock now includes death runes. Although this would normally make Ancient Magicks available in the area, the Barbarians strongly prefer players not to use any such spells. The egg launcher's interface now lists how many eggs of each type it contains. The cavern used for Wave 10 has been slightly modified to stop penance runners getting stuck.

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In other news... Servants in player-owned houses are now subject to increased security measures. In particular, they will now require you to enter your Bank PIN when you ask them to withdraw items from the bank, unless you've already entered it since you logged in. Ava's Attractor and Accumulator will no longer work on non-members' worlds. Rings of recoil and rings of forging have a handy new feature. If you right-click on them via the Worn Items interface and choose the "Operate" option, they will tell you how many more charges they've got.

1 February 2007 - Behind the Scenes - February

Welcome to the February BTS article.

Starting this month, we will bring you the islands of Jatizso & Neitiznot, ruled over by two brothers and a rather unpleasant Troll King. Now, normally, you’d expect two strong and noble Fremennik clans to unite together and defeat the yak-eating, bone crunching trolls, but the years of petty name calling and abuse have meant both brothers fear each other more than the creatures that rule the linking islands between them.

Settling such a dispute won’t be easy, especially as you will have to work with both of them eventually. You’ll be chopping up new arctic pines, fashioning bridges, collecting taxes, creating new armours, donning disguises to spy on important meetings and eventually find a way to test the might of the ice trolls. While attempting all of that, you’ll also be helping out the villagers as you try to equip them for the coming troubles... AND keeping the two clans away from each other. You might even get to try a spot of grudge-fixing on the way round these Fremennik Isles.

Elsewhere, Osman has been miserably staring into his empty glass of sq’irk juice. For years he was able to deal directly with the sorceress to provide his favourite tipple, before their disagreement over prices. Since then, Osman has tried desperately to find out how she grows them, but the secret is so well kept that not even Al Kharid's spymaster can find it. Osman will soon be forced into adopting a more devious approach; and for that he will need your help. Once you work out how to get into the concealed garden, it will be up to you to watch the patrolling guards and sneak past for the fruity rewards. Different seasons will affect each of the gardens, and you’ll find that more experienced thieves will have access to the more bountiful sq’irk trees. You will also be able to grab handfuls of herbs on the way - if you’re not interested in supplying Osman with his favourite thirst-quenching treat.

The seers have been nervous recently following the discovery of some rather disturbing predictions in Phantuwti’s proverbial tea leaves. Apparently, deep in the darkness, something, or several somethings, are beginning to move. Great powers are once again beginning to shift... but towards what?

This admittedly doesn't make much sense, but the seers, as usual, are merely cryptic messengers and very unlikely to be much more help. If these predictions are as ominous as they sound, though, it will be worth keeping your eyes peeled for the unusual over the coming weeks and months.

The second quest of the month will focus on a newly built tower south of Ardougne... well, almost newly built. You see, the crew hired to build the place have been struggling to come to terms with some really rather odd occurrences and missing tools - either that or the constructors' union has just decided to call a particularly long tea break. The mages due to live in the tower are growing impatient as they have pressing research regarding the true nature of magic and logic – and all the arguments that exist in-between. No doubt you’ll find yourself wrapped up in such an experiment, especially if it’s so big it requires an entire tower to be built. Exciting new puzzles, new outfits and a rather novel training dungeon await...

The Knowledge Base will also be contributing with a slightly more eclectic batch of additions this month. You’ll see all of the normal Postbag from the Hedge, Players’ Gallery and new Area Guides to support the month's updates, but several of our existing articles are also being updated to contain even more useful information and advice. Check it out regularly to see all of the interesting additions; you’re bound to find something useful.

Enjoy!