Haunted Houses (Free-to-Play and Members)

It's that time of year again: the veil between worlds waxes thin and restless souls wander the night.

No-one's happier about that than Brother Heinous. This mad monk's planning to collect the essence of these ghosts to fuel a curse against Falador and Varrock, and he needs a horde of unscrupulous minions to help him gather ectoplasm for his vile ritual. The only foil to his foul plan is Brother Righteous: a Saradominist monk who's also seeking ectoplasm to strengthen the magical barriers protecting the two towns.

This is where you come in. Once you've reported to your chosen monk in either Falador or Varrock, listen out for the global announcements in your chat window every 2 hours, indicating spectral incursions across Gielinor. When this happens, ghosts will spawn in houses across the world. They're easily exorcised with a right-click and reduced to ectoplasm, but you'll have to find them first! Speak to the monks for clues, work together with your friends, and get hunting for those haunted houses!

Bring back enough ectoplasm and you'll not only increase the score of your chosen side - which will be tracked throughout the event by our Community Team - but you'll also earn points to spend on robes to show off your allegiance to Team Heinous or Team Righteous. The robes' colours can be switched on the fly, for the morally flexible among you.

Collect the whole set, and you'll earn the right to buy an ectoplasmator. This strange device will give you Prayer XP for each ghost you kill, much as a bonecrusher would for a creature that drops bones. You can only claim the item while wearing a full set of robes, of a colour linked to the side you're claiming the item from: wear the unhallowed version to claim it from Brother Heinous, or the hallowed version to claim it from Brother Righteous.

It's going to be the side with the most support that prevails, so get involved with the community to further your chosen cause! The RuneScape Community Team are running dual campaigns for the duration of this event: Mod Sabre representing the cackling hordes of Team Heinous and Mod Mike the dewy-eyed defenders of Team Righteous. Visit your thread of choice to pledge your support.

Mod Wilson

How to start seeking out Haunted Houses

Speak to Brother Heinous or Brother Righteous, in either Varrock Square or Falador Park.

Listen out for announcements every 2 hours and seek out ghosts in the houses of Gielinor. Speak to the monks for clues.

The ghosts can only be seen from close up, and will only spawn in buildings in built-up areas. Team up to find them!

Requirements

Free players and members alike can participate and claim the cape, but you must be on a members' world to claim the full set and the ectoplasmator.

Behind the Scenes Video

If you haven't already, take a tour of Haunted Houses with our latest Behind the Scenes Video:

In Other News

• From Friday, there'll be a range of spooky delights available on the Squeal of Fortune. These include creepy candy that'd give a zombie a sugar rush, a ghoulish mask that can turn you into an incorporeal entity, and much more!
• Solomon's selling an infernally amazing range of armour and weapon reskins inspired by that hellacious lord of the Abyss, K'ril Tsutsaroth. If you like your gear spiky, dark and just plain spectacular, indulge in a set or two at Solomon's General Store.
• Random events will no longer activate in the game:
  • If you are in an event upon log-in, you will still need to complete the event.
  • It is no longer possible to obtain points towards random event costumes and emotes. You will still be able to spend any remaining points for the immediate future, and we encourage you to do so.
  • Another method of obtaining the costumes and emotes will be introduced to the game in the near future.
  • All music tracks linked to random events will be automatically unlocked.

The patch notes archive can be seen here.