Alex 43

Heyo, it’s Alex again with another update analysis. Just want to say SPOILER ALERT to some quests, though I’ll try to keep it clean.

This one is a relatively simple life-helper. It’s a quest list! … or rather, a mini-quest list! A list of mini-quests. All the in-game mini-quests… in a nice big list… along with the regular quests. Like they are regular quests. … which they sort of aren’t and are. I’ll explain.

Mini-quests, unlike regular quests, do not usually affect the player’s progress through the whole questing series. Rather, they are quite often small branching side-quests that are too straightforward and simple to be considered worthy of giving out quest points. Instead, it’s a simple task that rewards the player with either a sort of secondary reward, or some extra lore on the side.

Usually, mini-quests were naturally found as the player sort of wandered around post-quest, curious to see what happened to certain NPCs in the aftermath (eg: Desert Slayer Well). Sometimes they were just directly presented to the player right after the quest completed, using the quest itself as a sort of guide (eg: Rag and Bone Man). There were even times where the miniquests just… existed out of sight and out of mind, and only when certain conditions were met, did players even discover that such a miniquest existed.

At least, that’s how it used to be. Nowadays the miniquests are required for the Master Quest Cape, and the internet happens very much, so once a mini-quest appears, it’s usually quick to find and quicker to complete.

But back then, miniquests were quests in their own special way. It wasn’t just fulfilling the miniquest; it was the discovery!

Take one of the first hidden miniquests: the Curse of Zaros. To start it, you need to equip a ring of visiblity and find a ghost wandering Glarial’s Tomb. Simple, right?

Except nobody mentions this. There are no added NPCs, there are no additional landmarks, and when you do get the ring of visibility from Desert Treasure, its sole purpose is immediately fulfilled when the player finds the hidden ladder to the Shadow Gem. And since the ring doesn’t otherwise do anything, it’s often just discarded. Therefore, it was several days before word spread that there was, in fact, some extra hidden lore.

And Zaros was still a huge mystery back then, so it was very VERY well received.

Since then, hidden mini-quests have appeared now and then. General’s Shadow, for example (involving Khazard), which basically extended the rewards from the Curse of Zaros. In fact, the Curse of Zaros is a prerequisite. A miniquest SERIES, if you will! Hopespear’s Will is another. And if you browse the miniquest list, you will find the requirements for these all include the ring of visibility. Yes, this ring became a super popular item back them. I myself even favored wearing it over a ring of life or wealth.

Now, in my opinion, the greatest minigame of the bunch was the Wandering Ga’al. No competition. Scroll to the bottom of the miniquest list, and you’ll see it labelled under “Elsewhere”.

This miniquest goes like this. You use a ring of visibility on a ring of stone with 625 obsidian shards in your inventory after you donate to the coffers. Then you talk to the Ga’al. Boom, you get lore pertaining to the second Elder God known to exist after Jas. It’s the first time anyone has ever learned the name “Ful”.

… that’s it. That’s all you do. Use an item, talk to an NPC. Done. A freaking Elder God happens.

Now, what if I told you… that the miniquest was known to exist… but nobody, and I mean NOBODY (who wasn’t a specific Jagex Mod) knew these super-specific requirements? Nobody knew to have exactly 625 shards in their inventory, or use a ring of visibility on a ring of stone, or to have donated to the coffers? NOW you have a challenge!

I had the honor of being a follower of the avid group of players who sought out this wandering Ga’al and the requirements, theorizing different things from in-game clues and potential ideas, with the occasional assistance and question answering from the aforementioned specific Jagex Mod. The whole ordeal lasted months. MONTHS! This single miniquest took up over two months to complete! And when we finally got it, there was rejoicing all over the world as the name Ful became known to some of the greatest lorehounds I had the honor of working alongside.

It was perhaps the greatest out-of-game mini-quest in Runescape!

I do hope they do something like that again one day. Hide a mini-quest with some secret requirements that involve a lot of puzzle-solving to answer. Might not be easy with this new mini-quest list telling us about all the hidden features. … or, perhaps, just perhaps, it will be one of the easiest things to get started once again. A secret requirement, and the clues are already laid out in front of us. I foresee great things in store for us now that we have a list to point us in the right direction.

Good luck, everyone…

Until next time,

Cheers, cannoneers!