Skull (status)

The Skull is a status effect caused by attacking another player in the Wilderness, or by entering Abyss. Upon leaving the location that caused the skull effect a 10 or 20 (only 20 when it comes to attacking another player in the Wilderness) minute timer starts after which the effect will be removed. If a player dies while Skulled they will lose all of the items they are carrying as opposed to keeping the three most valuable. Players may save one item upon death when skulled by using the Protect Item prayer/curse.

If a player is skulled and remains in the location where he got his skull, he will still be unskulled after 20 minutes.

If a player is already skulled and meets the conditions to be skulled again, the skull timer is restarted. For example, if a player who is skulled initiates combat in the Wilderness against another player, the skull counter will be reset (had they not been skulled before they initiated combat, they would be now).

Removing the Skull
There are only a few ways to remove the skulled status: Many players may choose to purposely die (either without items or in an Activity) to remove an unwanted skull.
 * Die
 * Die in a safe Activity, such as the Duel Arena or Clan Wars
 * Wait 20 minutes for the skull to disappear

Red skull
The Red skull is a status effect which players will gain after winning a round of the TzHaar Fight Pits. The red skull does not appear outside the Fight Pits, and disappears if the player with it leaves the Fight Pits or switches worlds. It will also disappear if another player wins the next round of the Fight Pits. Players with a red skull will not lose their items if they die, as the Fight Pits is a "safe" activity. The only way to have the red skull outside the fight pits is with a glitch.

This glitch appeared again some time after an update on 21 June 2011. This has still not been fixed as of 24/6/11.