This year gave us 12 new quests:

In Pyre Need
The Chosen Commander
Glorious Memories
Tale of the Muspah
Missing my Mummy
The Hunt for Red Raktuber
The Curse of Arrav
Fur ‘n’ Seek
Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf
Within the Light
The Temple at Senntisten
Blood Runs Deep

10 quests continued story lines while 2 new story lines were created.

In Pyre Need was a quest releasing a new familiar and a new pet. The phoenix was the requested pet to be added by the Guaranteed Poll that was held in 2008. This quest is also the first of the year to start up a new story line. To start this quest, you need to talk to the Priest of Guthix that is standing outside of a cave entrance, south-west of the Piscatoris Fishing Colony. He will explain that the Phoenix is residing in the cave that has burnt wood and fire everywhere outside of the cave. He tells you that you need to help the Phoenix in reaching the end of its lifespan. You are asked to perform the ritual and gather the ingredients needed to do that ritual. You will need Secateurs (Magic Secateurs can be used), a knife and a tinderbox The quest reward was a very good reward. We got access to a new summoning familiar, the phoenix, and two new pets, the cute and mean phoenix eggling. With Firemaking, Fletching and Crafting xp given. It was a good quest to do, and the fact that you can go back each day, go through the 5 rooms, get more Firemaking, Fletching and Crafting xp, along with 5 phoenix feathers, the secondary ingredient for the phoenix pouch, it is a good quest to do as the rewards are worth it.

The Chosen Commander started with you helping Zanik… again, but that’s a little later on. You start off needing to help out the guards of Dorgesh’ kaan as the children are getting sick. After asking around, you find out that some of the local food was making them sick. You go down to the sellers and they tell you they got their ingredients from some human sellers, you interrogate the human sellers until you find the person who was responsible for poisoning the children. you are about to face you doom when out of nowhere, Zanik some popping in and helps you fight the human seller. you succeed and you find out what happened to Zanik after she was whisked away in the last quest. Now hopefully that you got thrilled about the quest as it only gets better from there. But I don’t want to spoil too much so I will end it here. The reward for the quest isn’t that great. Good xp you get, a good crossbow which only uses bone bolts and access to a new area to train agility, strength and ranged or just your combat skills. The better part of the quest is the after part. Where you fight the final boss is now an area to train your combat, while also hoping for a granite maul, or you can train you agility, strength and ranged where you climbed around before is an agility course, you get little agility xp so it’s not recommended for training, but if you want free ~250 xp ranged and strength xp per run, then it’s an area for you to train at. It’s not as good as the In Pyre Need quest reward but is still a good reward.

Glorious Memories continues on after Dream Mentor, and it explains how King Vargus got turned into a Yeti. You learn all about King Vargus, Brundt the Chieftain and Mawnis Burrowgar and another adventurer that is along with them on their journey. Really what happens is Brundt the Chieftain is having a birthday party and he wants you to invite King Vargus of Miscellanea and Mawnis Burrowgar of Neitiznot. They say no and you are sent on a journey to find out what really happened to the 5 of them back in the old days. You relive what they experienced in real time and you help an old friend out of misery. The reward for this quest is very little. 10k Magic and 5k Herblore xp, The Tomb of Glorious Deeds which gives 3X5k xp to a combat skill (excluding summoning), and an unfinished astral rune which can be taken to Baba Yaga on lunar isle for a further reward. That further reward, you will get a lamp which gives 2500 xp to any skill over 35 and a prophecy tablet which you can bring to Historian Minas at the Varrock Museum and receive 10 kudos for it. This quest is really done for the story line and to be able to continue on with the story line, not really for the reward.

Tale of the Muspah is the second of all the quests this year the start up a new quest line. It is a really easy quest that required no fighting so bring items that make you light, as you will be going a lot of running. To start this quest, you need to talk to Erjolf who can be found on the mountain north-east of Rellekka beside a new cave he found and is excited to bring you in and see what is inside. Cross over the water and Erjolf thinks he has spotted some frozen armour that he wants to use to help him complete The Fremennik Trials. He wants you to help me get to the armour so you need to make Fire rafts to melt the ice and make a path to the frozen armour. Once all of that is done, something you both didn’t expect is in the ice, but that is something you will want to look at when you do the quest. 3300 xp overall, 3100 from the quest and 200 from the Natural Historian. That is all the quest gives you. Even thou this is an easy quest, it is like Glorious Memories, you need to do this quest to get background for the future quests that come out, as this is not only a starter quest, but a quest pack full with info. Ali the Wise after the quest will also tell you about the Mahjarrat if you go and talk to him.

Missing My Mummy was the next quest to come out, and if the second quest in Mahjarrat series, coming out right after Tale of the Muspah. Instead of going into the snowy mountains of the Freminnik lands, you are going into the Desert to search around in a new pyramid south of the Uzer. Leela in Draynor wants you to resurrect a mummy in the pyramid south of the Uzer. You will need to go all over the pyramid, fighting monsters that can only be hurt by one type of attack, and solving a hard puzzle, that could possible kill you if you don’t have any food. The Scroll of Dead is your friend when rebuilding the mummy and 75% is the mark to leave at, but 100% looks so much better. This quest gives you a lot of xp, over a fair amount of different skills. In the end you will need to have completely restored the mummy so it will be worth it to just complete it now. In the temple there is also an altar that will give you extra prayer points at the cost of some hitpoints. This quest was a fun quest to do and, even if it doesn’t seem like it is a part of the Mahjarrat, it is. It is just take it from a different point of view. It is a nice quest that gives info for future quests so is one to do for sure.

The Hunt for Red Raktuber continues on penguin series. You start off by having to talk to Larry, but something is different this time. When you see him, he is in a straightjacket because the other zookeepers think he has gone insane. After scratching his nose, he tells you to go to Witchaven and look around. You go there and you find a GIANT PENGUIN SHAPED FOOTPRINT. You go back to Larry, tell him he isn’t insane, then go and tell the head zookeeper. The 3 of you go into a cut scene and Larry has his straightjacket removed. So like all other Larry quests, you are going to be heading to the penguin lands so bring your penguin suit. Action, Suspense, parts relating to movies happen and you find out about the PBJ. The xp is alright, the highest amount of xp given is 3k, but the bigger part of this quest is the fact that you can now find one polar bear in the Penguin Hide and Seek minigame. The polar bear is located in a well and cannot move from there. It’s a good quest to do as one penguin point could give you a fair amount of xp in the minigame.

The Curse of Arrav was one of the harder quests released this year. It is the third quest in the Mahjarrat series and tells the story of Arrav. Under what he looks like, he doesn’t like where he is and wants you to help him. When you start the quest, Ali the Wise tells you about a tunnel that will bring you to a castle that Arrav is in. Mining your way through the tunnel, attack Arrav and find some needed items for attacking a base, getting Arrav’s heart back. The reward for this quest is very good, a lot of xp is gained over all the skills you use during the quest. Throughout the quest, you will get items that you think won’t be useful, but they are. The 4 tablets you got from the tunnel (hopefully) and the 2 notes of the Mahjarrat names are given to Ali the Wise and he will tell you more info about a fair amount of quests that relate to this quest, and come of the quests in this series. It’s a good quest to do and is something that will give a lot of xp and info given to you by Ali the Wise is very useful for future quests.

Fur ‘n’ Seek is just like Rag and Bone Man but instead of getting bones, you are getting furs. The Odd Old Man wants you to get furs, and a shell, from the Freminnik lands. The Varrock Museum wants the Odd Old Man to get furs from the Freminnik land, but he is too busy talking to his bonesack so he needs you to get the furs for him. Run/Teleport/somehow get to the Freminnik lands, get the hides and get back, salt them and that’s it, give them to him and you’re done. Some simple xp is given to you but, like Rag and Bone Man, there is a wish list. High skill levels are needed, and the reward is alright. 10k slayer xp and 7k prayer xp for the xp side of the reward, an enchanted bonesack/ram skull helm and each week you get to fight what you create and you get some xp. Overall the wish list and the quest were fun, but the wish list was a little better, as you need to fight higher level monsters (General Graardor for example) and you need high level skills to fight those monsters. It’s a good quest to do for the xp you can get after the wish list.

Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf is the next quest in Rise of the Red Axe series, behind Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf (released ~4 years ago). With this quest, the DRAGON PICKAXE was released. This quest was detailed in Dev blogs by Mod John A. 6 Dev blogs were released and each one tells how it was created, and how most quests are created. But no more about how quests are created, or about the Dev blog for this quest, it’s time for the review. Commander Veldaban needs your help. The Red Axe hasn’t been heard of for some time and Chaos dwarfs have been heard of more and more recently. Missing person reports have been flooding in and Commander Veldaban wants to see what is happening with chaos dwarves, but the Black Guard Supreme Commander doesn’t want that, so he wants you to check it out. You go and check it out and you find a Chaos dwarf hand cannoneer attacking you, you kill it and a note it dropped, you show Commander Veldaban and he goes crazy, and the Black Guard Supreme Commander will make him leave, so he can get back to normal, but what he wants doesn’t change. He wants the Chaos Dwarf gone, so you and him do what you can to get rid of the Chaos Dwarves, and find out the truth of the Red Axe’s. 90k xp over 3 skills is this reward, along with the ability to access the Chaos Dwarf Battlefield and the North Keldagrim mining area. In the Chaos Dwarf Battlefield, you have the ability to get the Dragon Pickaxe as a drop from Dwogres or Chaos Dwarf Hand Cannoneers. The mining area has 2 runite ore, 10 adamantite ore and 8 gold ore. It is relativity close to a bank and has good ore. This quest was a good quest to do, it brought back an old series and brought a new Dragon item, which has been a big hit. It’s a good quest to do, along with a fun one.

Within the Light, another quest that brought back an old quest series. Within the Light was also a quest that came out 4 years later after the last quest in the series. It is a short quest that finally bring you close enough to almost getting into Prifddinas you can see the light. Anyway, to the quest. 4 years and it’s time to head back to the temple. Thurgel needs some help seeing there is a threat to the temple of lights security! Arianwyn wants to go and help, but he will never be able to get in, so he needs you to enchant an elf crystal to get him there. He teaches you the art of crystal enchanting, and you do well, but you can’t enchant your own elf teleport crystals yet, so just get it enchanted and get Arianwyn there. Energizing yourself atop the Death alter, puzzles very hard to figure out at a first glance, and finally finding a way to Prifddinas is what comes in this quest, and is something you will need to get to yourself. 95k xp for this reward over 4 skills, all used in this quest. The ability to change where your teleport crystals will teleport you (In front of the Temple of light, or the original Lletya teleport) and knowledge about Prifddinas you get from this quest.

The Temple at Senntisten, the last quest that came this year in the Mahjarrrat series. In this quest, Azzanadra (who is a Zarosian Mahjarrat and who you met in Desert Treasure when you released him) needs your help in restoring an altar that will help him contact Zaros, but you don’t know that you’re doing that until at the end. Running to the Barrows brothers tombs, looting an icon that sucks the prayer of peoples, the doing a complete flip of the map and surviving in the high wilderness , killing waterfiends, icefiends and an Ice demon, that is what The Temple at Senntisten has to offer. Reward time! 64k xp, Access to the Alter of Zaros, where you can switch your prayers to the Ancient Curses after you have read the Ancient Hymnal, a new area to slay Iron and Steel Dragons and the fact that since you got rid of the Barrows icon, when you do the barrows your prayer will no longer be drained. The Temple at Senntisten equals one of the must do quests out there, no way around it, you need to do it. This quest has one of the best rewards this year.

And the final quest is Blood Runs Deep. The quest that comes after Glorious Memories and explained explains what happened to King Vargus after he turned back into a human. Baba Yaga found someone washed up on the shores of Lunar Isle and she wants you to help get him back on his feet. Nothing works and she suggests going into his dreams and see what is going on. You look around and find out that the man is Silas, and he is working with the Dagannoth Mother to attack Rellekka, and will soon attack Jatizso and Neitiznot. Baba Yaga suggests getting back to the real world. Baba Yaga needs to find a lectern and suggests moving on. Silas is lying on the floor in the next room and the lectern is also there, so talk to Silas then read the lectern, but it isn’t working. Baba Yaga needs to fix it, but the Dagannoth Mother finds out your there and send troops out to kill you. Baba will give you the power of Vengeance and occasionally cast Heal Other during the fight. There is no need to fight the Dagannoths as they will respawn each time you kill one. After a few minutes she will fix it and get you both out of there. But now that you know the plan on attacking Rellekka, you need to get back and help them out, but it’ll take too long to get back there. Fortunately Baba knows how to get you back, but that’s for you to find out. So, with the brief review done, it’s REWARD TIME! Remember While Guthix Sleep, 400k to 4 skills? Well, this quest now has the new best xp reward for a quest, 150k xp 3 times to any combat skill minus summoning! That equals 450k xp! That xp however has a limit, and combat skill over 75 you can use it on, so be wise, Prayer is one that has been used most for so get your prayer to 75 if you’re going to use it. You also get to keep the Balmung that Queen Sigrid gave you. This is a must do quest. Continues on the story line that has brought very good rewards in the past. Well worth doing.

That’s it for this year. Two more months until I have been on the Informer for a year and I hope to be around for a couple more. Hope you like the review of all the quests that came out this year. It was fun to do a review for almost all of them as articles that came out when the quest came out. This is all I have to say for now.

Have a Happy Holiday and a Happy New Year.

Tim Out for 2009!