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< Trivia

[edit] Non-members' quests

[edit] Black Knights' Fortress

The quest point requirement was added to discourage players from creating new accounts to do the quest and transfer the 2500 coins to their main characters. At the time the quest was first released, 2,500 coins was considered very valuable.
At first, the quest gave around 250 Thieving experience as a reward. Thieving was in the skill menu at the time, but had not been programmed yet. The skill was later removed and added back in 2002, but the quest no longer gives Thieving experience.
When you ask Sir Amik Varze for the quest, he says: "Your Mission, if you decide to accept it", and gives you a dossier which self-destructs, directly referencing the Mission: Impossible TV series and movies.
In the black knight HQ in Taverley Dungeon there is a grill in which you can listen in to hear the same thing you hear in the black knight outpost's grill.
If a player uses a cabbage from Draynor Manor with the hole, you will get the message, "That's the wrong kind of cabbage! I'm not supposed to be helping the witch you know."

[edit] Demon Slayer

Denath appears briefly in a cutscene during this Quest. When he sees you with Silverlight, he mumbles that he shouldn't be there and flees.
This was also the first cutscene in RuneScape 2 Beta, which didn't quite have the impact Jagex had hoped for.

[edit] Dragon Slayer

In RuneScape Classic, Telekinetic Grab was the only way to complete the quest after some quest items were made untradeable. Players with level 1 magic who can wear the rune platebody (called "pure plate pkers") are very rare, if they still exist.
If you attack the dragon one time and then teleport off Crandor Isle and return back, you do not see the cutscene in which Elvarg attacks your ship.

Before the Crandor isle update, there were no cut-scenes of Elvarg at all. The dragon never set fire to the ship, but rather, the captain who sailed it said he made a "Wrong turn". Strangely enough, there is no mention of the cabin boy after you sail out to Crandor. Also, as soon as you kill Elvarg the dragon, she simply dies, you do not behead the dragon, and the quest was formerly complete after the dragon was slain.

[edit] Pirate's Treasure

When the quest was first released, Karamja rum was tradeable and the bottles would not break if players tried to teleport. Some players simply bought a whole load of rum and sold it to players doing the quest, allowing them to skip a large part of it. When this was posted on fan forums, a Jagex developer saw it and the problem was soon corrected.

[edit] Shield of Arrav

Originally, when a player and the player's partner both collected their half of the shield, one of them had to give his half to the other so he could make it a whole shield by using the two parts on each other and give the whole shield to the museum to receive both the certificates. This wasn't very safe because quite often the person who received the certificates didn't give one of the certificates to the other but instead he would sell it for a high price to other players. The problem was solved after several complaints.
Similarly, it was also possible to complete the quest without even starting it. If a certificate was obtained (either through trading or finding it dropped), it could be handed in to complete the quest regardless of their progress through it.

[edit] Members' Quests

[edit] Another Slice of H.A.M.

Sigmund ties Zanik to a railway track. This is a classic scenario from old silent films and cartoons, such as The Perils of Pauline and Charlie Chaplin films from the 1920s (hence the music in this scene: Slice of Silent Movie).
The quest page had a different spoiler message on the first day of release. Instead of the usual message it said "Stop! H.A.M. time! No spoilers for you, this day." This refers to "Stop! Hammertime!" from the song "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer.

[edit] As a First Resort...

On the first day of release, when a player clicked to see spoilers it said "The ogresses' customer relations has not yet incorporated this information into their incentivised pre-warning development plans. Please return when they have re-envisioned their interfacing and fed back to us."
While talking to the Chef, you refer to the common misconception that your thumb is not a finger. (The thumb is considered one of the 5 fingers.)
This quest has many Australian references in it, such as Eucalyptus logs, and unlocking platypi (plural of Platypus) as a pet after the quest.
Balnea's name probably has something to do with balneology - one of the most common spa methods. Baleum means Bath in Latin, which there are 6 of in Oo'glog.
The Davy kebbit hat, which can be unlocked by talking to Frawd and asking her to make one from a diseased kebbit pelt, is a reference to a Davy Crockett hat, or better known as a Coonskin cap.
When the ogre calls another creature stupid, the player mentions something about pots and kettles which refers to the idiom Pot calling the kettle black.

[edit] Back to my Roots

On the first day of release if players clicked to see the spoilers they received the message, "Good quest spoilers need time to take root. Come back when they're in season."

When speaking to Garth about preserving the vine root, he will mention Wizard Cromperty is a "wonderful wizard", and then he and your character will take turns saying "because" a few times. This is a reference to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

When speaking with Horacio at the start of the quest the player will say that he will be "off to see the wizard". This is another Wizard of Oz reference.

This quest has 72 Woodcutting as a requirement, which was the highest skill requirement in any quest at that time, surpassing Grim Tales's requirement of 71 Woodcutting. This has since been surpassed by While Guthix Sleeps which has a Magic level requirement of 75.

This quest also gives 40 000 Woodcutting experience as a reward, also breaking a record in quest experience given in a single skill as a reward. The previous record holder was Monkey Madness, which gave 35 000 experience in 2 combat skills of the player's choice. This has also been beaten by While Guthix Sleeps which provides a total of 400 000xp (4 lots of 100 000).

Players must have all required skill levels to start quest; temporary skill boosts will not help.

The quest's Master status probably resulted from the high skill level requirements to start the quest. The quest itself is fairly short and the greatest challenge seems to be the vine maze.

After burying Clarence in the miniquest, the Robe Store Owner says "...he was...a member of a society within the Guild called the New Order Occult Bookists..." Their acronym would be NOOB! If you enter the God Wars Dungeon you will see a frozen person that looks vaguely wizardish. By the frozen man engraved in the ground is the word NOOB. Coincidence? This could be a reference to Douglas Adams' book, 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe', when Ford and Arthur discover the face and inscription of Slartibartfast in the fjords of Norway.

After opening the R.P.D.T. smelly package to find the hand, Wizard Cromperty later refers to the player as a handy person.

After being told by Wizard Cromperty to get a pot lid, your character puns: Sure, some people make pottery to urn a living, but not me: I just run errands for potty wizards... Urn, a type of pot, is used instead of earn as a homophone. Also the term 'potty wizards' could be a reference to Harry Potter.

Horacio states about the Jade Vine: If you let this species get wild by leaving it unpruned, it will attack anything. Some closely related species that can pop up pretty much anywhere has a large purple fruit, you've probably seen it. See Strange plant.

During the burial of Clarence, one of the wizards says "one foot in the grave" a reference to the British sitcom One Foot in the Grave, the player replies with a pun "footing the bill," and another says "rest in pieces." Yet more examples of Jagex's humour.

When talking to Zavistic Rarve after handing him Clarence's body bits, he offers to teleport you to Sandy's house on the island of Karamja, he jokingly says "click your heels together three times", then he says "only joking it sometimes fools them, only the other day a girl came along she clicked her heels three times and it actually worked." This is yet again a reference to Dorothy and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

After defeating the vine, your character will say to Horacio Oh, stop vining. This is a replacement of the word whining.

[edit] Between a Rock...

After the quests, you may attempt to make an offer to buy Dondakan's Granite boots, but no matter how much you offer, he will never sell them.
The name of the quest may be a reference to the idiom "Between a rock and a hard place."

[edit] Catapult Construction

Instead of wearing a sailor's hat to get the metal parts from the drunk dwarf, you can wear a tricorn hat, obtained from Trouble Brewing.
On the first day of release, if players clicked to see the spoilers, they received the message, "Alas, it seems the Tyras guard looking after the reward list has misplaced it. Check back tomorrow."
On the day of release of the quest, all servers failed due to unknown reasons, and the forum post rate went up to more than 1000 posts per second.
After the server crashes, some people got "404 error" when they tried to get to a server log-in screen.
When examining the drunken sailor outside the Port Sarim inn, it says, 'shave his belly with a rusty razor!', referring to the classic song, 'What do we do with a drunken sailor'.

[edit] Regicide

The name of the author of the Big Book O' Bangs is "Mel Achy", an anagram of "Alchemy".

[edit] Dealing with Scabaras

The lead archaeologist remarks that she would not want to 'have a ghastly death marked on a makeshift grave', referring back to the recent update of gravestones.
When the quest first came out the spoiler said :

"Alas, the scarabs have eaten the scroll with the rewards. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for us to find the spare."

There was a mistake for the level entry where it said you need a Agility level higher on the main website, but in the quest journal it was 5 levels lower.
Originally there was a mistake on the website saying that you now had access to a new slayer monster. Scabarite minions may be assigned by a slayer master after this quest, but have no slayer skill level requirement to kill them.

[edit] In Pyre Need

On the first day of release, players looking at the spoilers were told:

"The rewards are hidden behind a thick layer of ash. Perhaps a timely gust of wind will reveal them tomorrow."

[edit] Monkey Madness

If you talk to Zeke, the scimitar seller of Al Kharid, and ask him for a Dragon scimitar, he will respond, "The banana-brained nitwits who make them would never sell any to me. Seriously, you'll be a monkey's uncle before you hold a Dragon Scimitar." Obviously this is a reference to this quest, since you are required to pretend to be the Monkey Child's Uncle to obtain a Monkey talisman. Your player will reply with, "Funny you should say that".

The 35 000 combat experience you get twice for completing the quest was the most experience in a single skill given as a quest reward until Back to my Roots was released.

Originally, G.L.O. Caranock said the word damn in his dialogue. This was later removed.

[edit] Grim Tales

The entire quest, including the name, is a reference to the well known Grimm's Fairy Tales. A few tales are referenced throughout the quest such as getting a feather from a griffin by telling stories, climbing Rupert's beard (a parody of Rapunzel) and climbing a magic beanstalk for a golden reward.
On the first day of release when you clicked to see the rewards you got the message, "Spoilers are only given on the day of release in fairy tales."
After the player names the gnome in the story with Grimgnash, Grimgnash gets upset. He claims "You shouldn't name food! If Human had a carrot, would Human call it Jasper?" This is a reference to the British Comedian Jasper Carrot.
The silent "q" in the princess' name (Miazrqa) is a reference to the book shop sketch by Monty Python.
When trying to pronounce the princess' name, your character says "...Marzipan?" - a sugar and almond confection.
Glod, the quest's final boss, resembles The Hulk in many ways. Both are bare-chested, both have discoloured skin, both have a similar face and hairstyle, and Glod even yells "GLOD SMASH!", just like the Hulk.
Glod may possibly be named after characters in Norse mythology, Glut, who was a particularly evil giant, and Hod, the god who guarded the Bifrost Bridge, who is similar in build to Glod.
The shrinking potion is a reference to Alice in Wonderland. after this part of the quest is also either a reference to a shrinking potion you drink in the online game, AdventureQuest, or AdventureQuest is a reference to it.
If you take the 'd' off the end of Rupert the beard, you're left with Rupert The Bear, a once popular fictional character Rubert Bear. It's also the name of Stewie Griffin's teddy bear (from Family Guy).
This quest had the highest skill level requirement of any other quest at the time, with Woodcutting at level 71. The release of Back To My Roots surpassed this record by having a 72 Woodcutting requirement.
When a player is in the mouse hole, if he/she kills a mouse, the mouse's drops (bones, coins, and cheese) will be larger then normal. If the player picks them up, they will appear as "normal" in the player's inventory.

[edit] The Fremennik Isles

The window tax was also a British glass tax during 1696-1851.
The beard tax of 1698 was one of a series of measures enacted by Tsar Peter I to westernise the appearance of his subjects.
Neitiznot is a German/English mixture for "No it's not" or "Nay, 'tis not".
Jatizso is German/English mixture for "Ya, 'tis so" or "Yes it is"
The choice of password to give to Slug, Colorless green ideas sleep furiously, is a reference to that sentence devised by linguist Noam Chomsky.
The watchtowers between the two islands have a surprise cut scene. The guards are yelling insults to each other which are quotes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "Your mother was a hamster. ... And your father smelled of winterberries."
- The Jatizso guard also shouts "Our king's better than your burgher." This is a possible reference to the fast-food chain Burger King.
When the quest was introduced, if players lost the jester outfit, they were unable to get another. This bug was later fixed.
When the quest was introduced, the troll cave where a player needed to kill 10 trolls was a easier place to get drops as the NPCs were helping to lower troll's HPs. This area was later closed. The west entrance remains open for the other cave areas.
The Helm of Neitiznot quest reward initially was untradeable. This was changed after a complaints from PK-ers on the RuneScape forums.
The Ice Trolls used to have fairly decent drops. The rune items (kite and warhammer) are the few remaining items that players with high level smithing can sell in modest volume. Their complaints resulted in a significant downgrade of the drop list from Ice Trolls.
Bring an Amulet of Catspeak if you want to hear what the king's cat is saying.
Morten Holdstrom (near main gate to Neitiznot) eats surströmming, a Swedish delicacy consisting of fermented Baltic herring.
In the music 'Norse Code' (playing while in Jatizso), the high pitch flute plays the Morse code letters for 'RuneScape'. The short notes are the dits and the long notes are the dahs: dit-dah-dit: R, dit-dit-dah: U, dah-dit: N, dit: E, dit-dit-dit: S, dah-dit-dah-dit: C, dit-dah: A, dit-dah-dah-dit: P, dit: E.
The NPC in Jatizso named "Keepa Kettilon" is a play on words for "Keep the kettle on". Surprisingly, Keepa is also a chef.
When the quest was first released, one of the NPCs used the word damn, which some people consider offensive. It was later changed to blasted.
Several of the quest's NPCs (in particular the ones on Jatizso) are copies from the NPCs of Fremennik Trials. e.g., 'Hring Hring' the armour salesman is a copy of Sigli the huntsman and Mord Gunnars is a copy of Sailor who takes you to Miscellania.
Some of the quest is similar to the epic Scandinavian story Beowulf, as you have to cut off the head of the Troll King in the quest, but in the story Beowulf had to cut off the head of the monster Grendel and its mother.

[edit] Death to the Dorgeshuun

Near the end of the quest, where the player and Zanik are fighting Sigmund, if you examined Zanik, it said "She's kicking HAM ass." This was changed to "A goblin fighting for her tribe", as some people may have considered it offensive.

[edit] Kennith's Concerns

On the first day of release if players clicked to see the spoilers they received the message, "There are no spoilers for you here. Come back later, when 'the work' is finished."
At the end of the quest Kennith says "The Queen is coming for you!". This is a possible reference to a future quest in the series.
In the end, Ezekial Lovecraft says "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you". This is a very old joke from military security workplaces, and has been used in movies.

[edit] Enlightened Journey

The quest gives several references to the Star Trek series:

The collar of Auguste looks like the one of a Star Trek: The Next Generation uniform, with three pips denoting the rank of commander.
He also looks a bit like Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Auguste says "to explore new frontiers" and your character replies "And to boldy go where no-one has gone before!", which are part of the opening credits voiceover for Star Trek.
He also refers to his business as his 'enterprise' a lot, which is the name of the main Star Trek spaceship.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry named his Jean-Luc Picard after Jean Felix Piccard, noted scientist and high-altitude balloonist of the 1930s. RuneScape's Auguste may be named for Auguste Piccard, the twin brother of Jean Felix, who was likewise a noted scientist and high-altitude balloonist.

[edit] Meeting History

If you examine the Portal of Life during Roger's cut scene, it will read, "There's cake through here, apparently." This is an obvious reference to Portal.

[edit] The Great Brain Robbery

In the cutscene where you attempt to smuggle Dr. Fenkenstrain to Mos Le' Harmless, you tell a werewolf who thinks your wooden cats may be dead that they are simply 'pining'. This is a blatant reference to the Monty Python 'Dead Parrot Sketch'.
The kitten scene is the same as that used in Rum Deal.
The title of this quest comes from the book, movie, and actual historical event all entitled, "The Great Train Robbery."
There is a board game of the same name designed by James Earnest.

[edit] Ratcatchers

In the section where you kill the rats in the barn for Hook-nosed Jack, your cat kills a 'King Rat'. This is a reference to the story of Dick Whittington.

[edit] Temple of Ikov

If you try to attack Lucien before the end of the quest, if you side with him, he says "You do not want to attack me. I am your friend." He then waves his hand similar to the Star Wars Jedi mind trick. It then says "You decide not to attack Lucien. He is your friend."

[edit] Miniquests (Members)

[edit] Ghostly robes (miniquest)

If you speak to Valdez without a Ghostspeak amulet, your character says "all your base are belong to us" a reference to a popular translation error in the game Zero Wing.

If you lose any part of your ghostly robe set, you will have to go back to the ghost that you got it from.

It is possible to have more than one set of ghostly robes. Players would need to drop the part that they wanted extras of and talk to the ghost again. (NOTE: You must not have any of the robes that you want in your bank) Therefore, the most sets of robes you can get at once is 5 (4 in your inventory and wearing 1 because it takes 6 inventory spaces each set) NOTE you cannot use familiars to store the robes.

When speaking to Rennard, your player says "I ain't scared of no ghost," a possible spin-off of "I ain't afraid of no ghost" from the Ghostbusters theme song.

If you have 99 magic, when talking to Ghalak he will ask you "Be you some mighty sorcerer to bind me or so?" and you will reply "Well, I don't mean to brag, but I guess I am with my 99 magic..."

[edit] Shadow Sword (miniquest)

When Khazard hands you the severed leg, your player says something like: "At least it's not a hand." This is a reference to the Hand in the sand quest.
Shadow Sword was released without the usual Update announcement (also called "hidden updates"). It was mentioned in the Update:Behind the Scenes - February (2007); the 2 seers paragraphs between the Osman and second quest references.
The Shadow Sword is part of the Ghostly robes which was also released without announcement. Ghosts are invisible, so Jagex had planned it again to have no announcement and wait for the ghost item to be discovered.
To get another Shadow Sword, go back to the cave and talk to the ghost there.
At one point there was a glitch with the shadow sword, where if you attempt to hit a combat stone using the "defensive" attack option, it would say "You can only use melee attacks on the stone." This has since been fixed. The shadow sword also sounds completely different from all other Two-Handed Swords.
The final ghost you inform gives you a message to give to Khazard and adds on the statement: "The messenger is Pavlov," probably referring to Pavlov's dogs and Khazard's dog Bouncer.
When throwing the severed leg in the final battle, you automatically say "Away, darn spot!" Besides being a play on the famous dog name "Spot", this is a reference to the classic line from Shakespeare's play Macbeth wherein Lady Macbeth utters the phrase "Out, damned spot!" when she is sleepwalking, and feeling guilty for helping to murder the Scottish king.
The ghost that appears after defeating the Bouncer, which you can retrieve your sword from, appears to be wearing a Cape of Legends.
The desert scout wears a Lunar helm.

[edit] Chaos Tunnels: The Hunt for Surok

"Bork" is a reference to the Borg, a race in Star Trek that seeks to forcefully add other species into their collective. When fighting the Ork Legions that Bork summons, they may shout phrases like "We are the collective!" "Resistance is futile!", references to the Borg in Star Trek.

"The Hunt for Surok" is a pun for another Star Trek movie titled: "The Search for Spock".

"Bork" is a portmanteau of the two words 'Big and 'Ork'. This is noticeable as his examine states "That's one Big ork."

Interestingly, Members who have completed What Lies Below can start the miniquest on free to play servers. They can encounter Surok near the entrance, and see the cutscene where he enters the tunnels. However, the player cannot enter the tunnel itself, thereby preventing the miniquest from progressing further

In the news article about this miniquest, there is a line that states "for there are worse things than simple orks in the dark places of this world." This is taken from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring when they go into the Mines of Moria.

[edit] Knight Waves Training Grounds

Sir Gawain wields a halberd, but if you are safespotting him with a halberd, he will not be able to attack you, even though all halberds have a two-square reach.

If the player tries to talk to Merlin NPC that appears on the roof to give you your reward, after he gives you your reward, you get in response the text 'nothing interesting happens'.

[edit] The Lair of Tarn Razorlor

With the release of Tarn Razorlor and his lair, all skeletons, ghosts, zombies and most undead creatures had a graphics makeover.
If a player has completed Smoking Kills, he or she may bypass having to navigate the dungeon and teleport directly to Tarn using a Slayer ring.

[edit] Varrock Museum

Upon completion of The Golem quest, the golem statue display will be vacant. This is the handiwork of the player concerned, as the statue must be stolen during the quest.
The song 'Looking Back' is an adaptation of the song 'Scape Original'.
The RuneScape Knowledge Base page gives the image of the lamp as yellow, while in-game it is red.
The Staff of Armadyl in the Museum display had an unannounced graphic makeover and now looks similar to the staff wielded by Lucien during the While Guthix Sleeps quest.

Trivia/Quest