2009 Christmas event

The 2009 Christmas event, also known as A Christmas Warble, is a Holiday Event released by Jagex on 21 December 2009.

Walkthrough



 * You can start the event by either going to your snow imp straight away, or talking to the Queen of Snow. She is located inside the tent to the north of the tables. All of the yellow dots are either partygoers, guests, or your imp (when he's not following you).


 * Head east into Ebenezer Scourge's house. He is in the western room; you must speak to him to continue or he will yell when you touch anything.


 * Search the cupboard located in the same room for bedsheets, and then head to the dining room in the eastern section of the house and find (in another cupboard) a needle and some thread. You will find chains in a barrel in the scullery in the northern section of the house. You should also have found a bucket in the northern cupboard or the other barrels (you can take more than one bucket), along with cabbage. You do not need the cabbage as it has no use, but keep the bucket as it will prove to be useful to have later on.


 * Use the needle, thread, and the chains on the bed sheet and you will have a set of Christmas ghost armour.


 * Wear the three pieces of the Christmas ghost armour, which will begin a dialogue with the snow imp.


 * Now, you must return to camp and speak with the Queen. If she does not appear to have a prompt that states: "Talk about Scourge", talk to your Imp yet again and ask what to do, which shall be to talk to the Queen; she will then have that prompt ready for you. She then tells the player that she used to be in love with Ebenezer. Your Imp will then say that you can return to the house and go upstairs. If there are many Partygoers, it's advised to use right-click if the area is crowded.


 * Travel back to Scourge's house and up the stairs to scare Ebenezer. The player will have a rather brief conversation in an attempt to convey him, but will fail to do so. Ebenezer Scourge will then be annoyed and will cast a curse of magical fire on the partygoers. In the cutscene, the victims cursed will each glow in red fire in a specific order which is known as "The Red Flame Pattern". (write the order down)
 * There is a specific order to unfreeze the guests, and it is always the opposite of the order in the cutscene. The order is different for everyone who participates in the event, but the final person you should free is always Tiny Thom. (if you are incorrect, the red fire sequence will replay, again, write it down). Unfreeze the guests by using a bucket on the fountain south of the tables to fill it with freezing water, then use it on the guests in your order.


 * Go back to Ebenezer. The player will accuse him of ruining someone's Christmas. After the Snow imp summons Tiny Thom, Ebenezer will show more resentment towards the player, leaving no choice but for the player to return downstairs once again.
 * Have a chat with your snow imp and go back upstairs. You must say nothing to Ebenezer and do the Angry emote, Scare emote, and lastly, do the Dramatic Point emote to scare him into releasing Santa.
 * Head back to the feast and talk with Santa near the front of the tent. Then head south-east towards the Christmas Tree. Open the green present with the red ribbons in front of the Christmas Tree to claim your reward.

Congratulations, you have finished the event!


 * Once you have completed the mini-quest/event, Ebenezer can be found enjoying the Christmas Feast, apparently a changed man. When you talk to him in your Christmas Ghost set, he will tell you that his ways have changed. If you talk to him without wearing any of the Christmas Ghost gear, he tells you he's enjoying all of the merriment and also wishes you a Merry Christmas.

Rewards



 * Christmas ghost set
 * Candy cane, which when wielded has the option to "Spin". When spun, your character will throw it into the air. The Candy Cane will then rotate 360 degrees mid-air before being caught again by the player.
 * The Dramatic Point emote.
 * If not already unlocked, players would find the emotes Freeze and Melt and Snowman Dance also unlocked.
 * After the event, players can take the following from the feast tables: Turkey drumstick, Roast potatoes, Yule log and Mulled Wine. Players can't take the food out of the Land of Snow, however. Players may also choose to store the food in the cornucopia, but not the wine.

Music
Music tracks unlocked:
 * Silent Knight
 * Ghost of Christmas Presents
 * Smorgasbord

Development
The event was developed mainly in September and October of 2009 and is the first project developed by Mod Edam. Mod Ajd has said that the Christmas event will be better than last year's, but Jagex will "leave [it up to] the players to decide that one." A new particles graphics effect will be added with the event in the form of snow. It will be the first time that players will see this in RuneScape.

Many users on the RuneScape Forums have commented on the delay of the release of the event. The 2006, 2007, and 2008 Christmas events were all released on either the 16th or the 18th of December, but the 2009 Christmas event was released on 21 December.

Blogs
The 2009 Christmas event was first announced in the news item "Christmas Cards and Blog". It linked to a developer blog written by the developer of the event, Mod Edam. In the developer blog, titled "Holiday Event: A Christmas Warble", Mod Edam gave a few details about what the event would be like.

Mod Edam stated that he wanted the graphics of the event to "have a "Christmassy" atmosphere," and said that he was "really pleased with what was produced." . To add to the "Christmassy" atmosphere, Jagex will be releasing a new particle system in RuneScape that will include a more realistic look of snow.

Players will see it coming out of a wardrobe, a possible reference to the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. At least some of the event will take place in the Land of Snow, where a "surprise" will be seen. This year, the entrance to the Land of Snow will be in the wardrobe mentioned above.

New characters will be released with the event, but Jack Frost and snow imps, characters seen in a previous Christmas event, will have small cameos. Santa Claus will presumably appear, based on Christmas cards that represent the event. The event's plot will be based on a traditional Christmas story, but will have some changes.

Mod Edam has also confirmed that the rewards of the event will not be the same as the rewards from previous events, and that they will not be tradeable either.

He has also said that the new rewards of the event will not give any player any notable advantage over another, but will still be fun and somewhat useful.



Player speculation
The title of the first blog by Edam is "A Christmas Warble", "warble" being a variation of the word carol (i.e. A Christmas Carol). The caption for one of the pictures posted on Edam's blog stated, "Beware of the Humbug", "humbug" being a well-known word that Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol's main character, often says in the book. One of the Christmas cards released at the same time as the "Christmas Cards and Blog" news post is titled "A Christmas Warble" and captioned, "Santa brings a Hint of Christmas Future in this festive card." The picture is of Santa Claus, an old man:Scourge and a young boy: Tiny Thom, hinted by the crutch under his right arm. Furthermore, "Christmas Cards and Blog" makes a reference to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who is one of the four ghosts that visits Scrooge in the novel: "Like the Ghost of Christmas Future we're here to offer a hint of what's to come this Christmas, in the form of a new Christmas card and developer blog."

Glitches

 * While holding the candy cane, players could select to 'operate' it, and throwing it into the air. Players would quickly, after pressing operate, switch to their inventory and click on a weapon, and it would take the place of the candy cane. This made it look like the weapon was spinning in a 360 degree motion instead of the candy cane.

Trivia

 * Tiny Thom and Ebenezer Scourge are based on Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge, characters in the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, as much of the event is based on the novel.
 * After completing the event, the Adventurer Log reads: "Using imp-like cunning I bested Scourge and saved Christmas!"
 * The idea of travelling through a wardrobe to a parallel world blanketed in snow is similar to that seen in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the second novel (in reading order) within the Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis
 * When you log in the Queen of Snow tells players that they are invited to a Yuletide feast. Yuletide is similar to the Danish/Swedish word "Juletid" which means "Christmas time".
 * You can talk to Louis the Camel with a camulet for humorous conversations throughout the event and after you complete it.
 * The music Smorgasbord (actually spelled smörgåsbord) is Swedish for "dining table full of food".
 * At the time of this event, the penguins from Penguin Hide and Seek featured a sleek, new costume, like during the Hallowe'en events, only this time they're dressed as snowmen instead of Jack 'o Lanterns.
 * The Candy Cane was an option for a reward in the Christmas Guaranteed Content Poll (July 2008), though it lost to the Santa Suit. It was known as 'Candy Cane Cane', suggesting that it was a cane (like the Treasure Trail rewards) and it was of a Candy Cane.
 * This is the first update which uses the new and upcoming graphical feature; Particles. (As mentioned in the Developer's Blog: Particles by Mod Woody dated 18 December 2009)
 * If you have started or completed 'Recipe for Disaster' your character would mention that the fire spell that Ebenezer Scourge had casted was similar to what the Culinaromancer did to the people at the feast in Lumbridge.
 * Many players consider the candy cane a fun weapon even though it has positive stats.
 * If you use a snowball on your Snow imp it eats it and says "Yum, snow, my favourite!". When you attempt to use anything else on him he says: "Oi! Don't use that on me!", instead of the traditional Nothing interesting happens. If you use it on a imp that isn't following you, you will yield "Nothing interesting happens."
 * Sir Amik Varze seems to be wearing a Santa hat and a gold-trimmed green cape at the party, however, the cape in question does not currently exist.
 * After you come out of The Land of Snow and have a bucket of icy water in your inventory, the ice melts and turns into normal bucket of water.
 * The ice dragon sculpture resembles the frozen version of dragon from Unstable Foundations quest.
 * There are piles of snow that can be used to create snowballs, that can be wielded and pelted at people. This is similar to the snowballs gained from the Snow globe of the 2007 Christmas event.
 * Players aren't require to have any Crafting abilities to create the Ghost costumes, instead, it is just implied that the player just "knows how" to make the Ghost costume.
 * Only the Queen of Snow, Santa Claus, and some of the partygoers really fall for the Ghost costume at all. Scourge doesn't really seem phased at first and everyone else in and outside that area is able to recognise you straight away.
 * When passing the barrier or logging in with the Ghost costume on in Port Phasmatys, players may receive a message saying, "The ghosts eye you suspiciously and recognise that you are masquerading as one of them."
 * Tiny Thom, when talked to after the event, exclaims that he's received a lump of coal as reference to the honorary Christmas tradition, but the difference residing in that Tiny Thom retorts that it's valuable via the Grand Exchange, proving Santa's punishment to be useless.
 * In this quest players have the opportunity to witness new facial expressions when talking to NPCs.
 * It is impossible to examine Scourge during the three ghost cutscenes; instead the player will be given the option to examine Scourge's bed.
 * The ice sculptures on display are reminiscent of the frozen creatures within God Wars Dungeon, and as such, probably resemble naughty or evil figurines.
 * After you drink the Mulled wine, you don't receive any glass cups in return.
 * If your imp interacts with an imp of the same name, they'll call each other "bro's".
 * When the player is given the option to use the (non-existent) "Scare" emote, they'll perform the "Trick" emote, obtained from previous Halloween events, even if they haven't unlocked it yet.
 * The song "Silent Knight" refers to the holiday song "Silent Night".
 * If the enchanted flame spell that Scourge casts on the party guests is related to the one the Culinaromancer uses during Recipe for Disaster, then that would be twice that Sir Amik Varze and the Goblin Generals have been frozen.
 * When a male player wears the Christmas Ghost costumes, they look the same as female players
 * When you speak to Jack Frost while wearing the Ghost costume, he will say in return: "I'm not talking to you while you're in those bedsheets," referring to Scrouge/Scourge's stubbornness and unwillingness to talk to the Ghosts of Christmas Past.
 * The fire the guests are surrounded in employ use of the recently established Particle-effects.
 * Before you enter the gates to Scourge's property, his house appears to be located to the East. However, once you enter the gates, his house is situated to the North.
 * You can light logs in the Land of Snow during this event. However, it was not possible to light logs on snow or on ice in the previous event and during the quest Myths of the White Lands.
 * The Snow Imps seem to be able to teleport other beings.
 * When talking to the Cook of Lumbridge in the Land Of Snow, he says to the player that he could have cooked the feast if the player had not rescued Santa Claus.
 * While logging into RuneScape at the time of the event, players were treated to holiday music instead of the standard login music.
 * When speaking to Ebenezer Scourge as the ghost of Christmas Present, "your" had been misspelled to "yout" on several occasions.
 * It is possible to bank snowballs and keep them.
 * (Funny glitch) If you feed snow balls to another other player's imps, strangely enough you end up feeding the snow ball back to your own imp (even though it is clear that you have fed the snowball to another player's imp) -- this is evident when you feed another player's imp/s, your own imp's name is above the dialogue when it talks.