Jagex’s Update

Experienced adventurers will be familiar with Fremennik rites of passage, and the difficulties they present. It’s little wonder, then, that Fremennik children are always on the lookout for an easier path to adulthood, and Erjolf is no exception. Full of enthusiasm but short on skills, Erjolf will need your assistance if he is going to impress his kinsfolk.

Join him in his quest for a trophy, unravel the puzzling story behind a curious corpse, and discover the dark secrets of one of the most fearsome races to ever walk in Gielinor. You may find one or two useful allies along the way, who are willing to lend a helping hand.

It’s been great to work on a quest that involves one of RuneScape’s most mysterious races, and develop a plotline that’s been around since the early days of RuneScape. This is the first part of a new quest series, and paves the way for following quests.

Mod Roderick
RuneScape Content Developer

And about time too …

Summary:

Where to start Tale of the Muspah:
Talk to Erjolf, north-east of Rellekka, at a cave halfway up a snow-covered mountain path.

Requirements to begin Tale of the Muspah:
10 Magic
10 Woodcutting
8 Mining
6 Firemaking
20 Crafting would be an advantage

In Other News…

Picking from a tree or bush has been sped up.

By a lot …

Several items that previously damaged you when used can no longer kill you. Don’t worry, though – you can still use them to reduce your Hitpoints if you want to.

Me thinks Jagex doesn’t want to invoke suicide into one’s everyday life …

The Easter 2009 update has now been removed, and the associated music unlocked for all.

A pity none of us got any chocolate from it … nice emote though …

Alex’s Analysis

Rather then simply talk about it in the Lore and Histories section, Jagex decided to open a couple more doors behind the mysterious Mahjarrat race by including a new quest based directly off of them. While I appreciate them starting off a new series with a bit of a back-drop quest leaving us to think of what will happen in the future, I am still rather disappointed at the direct simplicity of the quest itself. It starts off with a seemingly difficult puzzle to begin with, but then it just gets easier and easier, with you having to identify a creature’s body parts, move around halfway across Runescape, and finally complete the quest by having one of Runescape’s most feared, mysterious races follow you around as you search for a cavern with nothing out of the ordinary inside. I spent the most of my time in this quest with the ice-melting puzzle, and everything from then on simply became gradually easier.

Unfortunately, that’s not how you do a quest. It starts off nice and simple to get you into the questing routine, develops a story, and throws in the big puzzle when you know for sure something big is about to happen. It was a good quest for the storyline, but there was no proper experience behind it. It felt too artificial, or not artificial enough, depending on what you believe quests to be. In fact, if it didn’t reference the Mahjarrat, which was curiously mysterious enough as they were, it would’ve been a complete flop of a quest. Sort of like Devious Minds, which I truly hated not because of the requirements, but because I screwed up a religion to my favorite god Saradomin and now I’m left in a seemingly endless cliffhanger waiting for word that something is going to happen.

Ah, but enough droning. It’s still a quest, it’s still got some answers, and it still introduces us to a few fun characters. I’ll give this quest a mercy rating of 6 out of 10 just for that and the good puzzle at the beginning. I just expected a little more progressive work with the boat puzzle, that’s all (using those flame-boats to clear a platform for Jhallad in a new cave, for example).

So, now that all that’s over with, time for an almost unnecessary (as they all are) quest guide.

Almost unnecessary quest guide.

You start the quest off by climbing that icy mountain for a few previous quests (there’s a Fairy Ring right there) and chat with the kid outside. After a back-and-forth, he’ll lead you in and show you the large icy cavern.

He’ll then proceed to walk you though the schematics of the great puzzle in which you really don’t have much immediate inspiration to do (except the false promise of spiky armor – reference to Bandos).

If you need tools, the kid will supply them.

There are two primary methods to doing this. First off, before tackling a wall, you want to make sure there’s only 1 open water output section, to which you will drop the rafts off from the shore adjacent to that. In other words, you want the rafts to float off in a straight line without any annoying diagonal issues with a second output.

Two of the walls are simply gotten by directly floating the rafts over as you walk along the corresponding shore. Let them move and get stuck on the ice bube and you’ll see those large icicles melt to show you’ve hit it.

Two of the walls have rocks blocking the way, so you’ll want to grab and construct several rafts. You will float them alongside the wall so they’ll get stuck on a rock, and then pile them on each other to ignite the entire wall with a line-up of rafts.

Once that’s all done, you will get a good look at the ice cube. There’s no armor, but instead a creature inside. Memorize the creature, because you’ll need to recall all distinctive features, like the # of arms, its legs, tail type, head type, color, and hand type.

Chat with Erjolf, and then head up north along the eastern coast of the ice hunting area to find the explorer who might know something about it. Should be hard to miss, since his explorer’s uniform makes him incredibly distinct.

Upon describing the creature, you are now, for some reason, to head over to the desert. If you have your house in Pollnivneach, consider yourself lucky, because it’s an incredible shortcut. From the house portal, head up northeast along the river until you encounter this large obvious sand pile. Dig it up.

Ali the Wise will encounter you and tell you about the creature, called the Muspah. I’ll leave the story to your own findings, and just tell you you’ll need runes to enchant 8 sapphire jeweleries (8 water and 8 cosmic runes – I know it says 4, bring 8 instead) as well as 4 sapphires (if you don’t have any, bring a pickaxe and chisel to the ice cavern, as there are a series of sapphire rocks).

He’ll hand over a Camelot teletab to help you get back. Bank and grab yourself a hatchet and knife, you’ll need it later.

Return to the cavern, and you’ll find the kid has built a makeshift bridge to the creature. Click the cube twice and watch as your character jabs in sapphires and enchants them to free the Muspah.

Upon release, the Muspah will scare off the kid and reveal its true form: a Mahjarrat named Jhallan, who has the power to shapeshift (he says they all do, but I have my doubts). He’ll tell you a story, and after some debate, request your assistance.

Head outside, chat with your little friend, and head back out north across the thin path along the west coast. You’ll find the kid and a great big log. Have a chat and whack it with your hatchet. You won’t need to bring anything specific other then the 4 sapphires, enchantment runes, and knife, so go ahead and canoe over.

Jhallan will be standing there. He’s weak from expending all his power to maintain a form while sleeping, so it’s your task to lead him through the caverns to one that doesn’t bear any significant traits. Just a snowy room, nothing more. No water streams, rocky walls, or jellies, just a nice empty room.

Once you find one, enter and chat with him, and he’ll settle in. Stick the sapphires in the ground, negotiate a trophy from him, and put him back to sleep. Return to the kid to complete the quest.

QUEST COMPLETE:

For extra rewards, talk with the explorer in the snowy area for an experience lamp, and chat with Ali the Wise in north Nardah to lay off all you know about the Mahjarrat into a big summarization. Also, take note that the cavern you encased Jhallan in is swarming with jellies. A good slayer training area.

Cheers, cannoneers!