2009 Christmas event

A Christmas Warble





The 2009 Christmas event is a holiday event released by Jagex on 21 December 2009.

Walkthrough
You can start A Christmas Warble in either Draynor, Falador or Varrock.

To start the event, enter a wardrobe in any of these locations.

The Draynor cupboard is situated just outside Aggie's house. The Varrock cupboard is located in Varrock Square. The Falador cupboard is located just outside the north entrance. You can start the event by talking to the Queen of Snow. She is located in north, west of Jack Frost . After talking to her, have a talk with the snow imp east of her. Head to the snow imp near the ice sculptures and Jack Frost in the northeastern area. Go East into Ebenezer Scrouge'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 for Bedsheets, 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. Next, use the needle, thread, and the chains on the bed sheet and you will have a set of Christmas ghost Armour. Leave Ebenezer Scourge's house and talk to the Queen of Snow, who resides in the small tent by her reindeers. Then, you will be able to head upstairs in Scourge's house.

'''Note: The area may be crowded and you may not be able to see the Queen of Snow. Right-click in front of the Queen's throne and you will be able to select "talk" to the Queen.'''

Walk up the stairs to scare Scourge. The player will have a rather brief conversation in an attempt to convey Scrouge, but will fail to do so. The Scrouge would then be annoyed and will cast a curse a magical fire on the partygoers. In the cutscene, the victims cursed will each glow in red fire in a specific order. The order that the fires flash is the OPPOSITE order in which you must unlock the guests. Before you leave the house, search around some of the cupboards or barrels for a few buckets. When you get back, fill the buckets at the large fountain to the South and use one on any guest. The order is different for everyone who participates in the event, but the final person you should unfreeze is always Tiny Thom.

Go back to Scourge. The player will consult Scrouge of ruining somone's Christmas. After the Snow imp summons Tiny Thom, Scrouge will show more resent towards the player, leaving no choice but for the player to return downstairs once again.

Have a chat with your snow imp; and then go back upstairs. The player will then say nothing to Scrouge and will do the angry emote, scare and last one, drametic points to terrify Scrouge into releasing Santa. Head back to the feast and talk with Santa in front of the tent. Then head south-east towards the Christmas Tree. Open the green present in front of the Christmas Tree to claim your reward.

'''Congratulations, you've finished the event! '''





Reward

 * Christmas ghost hood
 * Christmas ghost top
 * Christmas ghost bottoms
 * Candy cane, which when wielded has the option to "Spin". When spun, your character will throw it into the air, it will rotate 360 degrees and then be caught.
 * You also get the Dramatic Point emote.
 * You can get food of the table: Turkey drumstick, Roast potatoes, Yule log and Mulled Wine. You can't take the food out of the land of snow, but you can fight guards and quickly go into the Land of Snow to use it as a healing method.
 * If you have not already, you will unlock the Freeze and Snowman Dance emotes you got it when completing.



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 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.

History
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 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 confirmed that the rewards of the event will not be the same as the rewards from previous events, and they will not be tradeable. 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.

Some players have speculated that the traditional Christmas story that Mod Edam is basing the event on will be Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but this has not been confirmed. 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 (speculated to be Scrooge) and a young boy (speculated to be Tiny Tim, 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."

Based on a screenshot from the event, it may also involve Jack Frost freezing living things into what look like ice sculptures like he did last year. This idea is also supported by the fact that if you summon your snow imp after the event, it talks about Jack still creating ice sculptures, but this time, he is making the real ones instead of freezing them.

Trivia

 * Tiny Thom and Ebenezer Scourge are also in the Land of Snow. Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge were characters in the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, which most of the event is based on.
 * You say "I'm the Ghost of the past.", "I'm Ghost of Christmas Present" when you wake him, also a reference from the carol. Also Ebenezer guesses you are the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. You say nothing, like the carol.
 * The idea of going through a wardrobe to the Land of Snow is similar to the concept from The Chronicles of Narnia.
 * When you log in the queen of snow tells the feast is a Yuletide feast. Yuletide is similar to the swedish word "Juletid" which means "Chrismas time".
 * You can talk to the camel with a camulet for humorous conversations throughout the event and after.
 * The bottom of Scourge's bedsheet is black.
 * 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 had a 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.
 * There is a glitch were a player can spin any item using the Candy cane if the player right clicks it while wielding it, presses the F1 key, and clicks "Spin" and quickly switches to another weapon. Some weapons experience texture glitches while doing this, while others do not, but reveal a gap in the weapon's sprite where the player's hand would normally be.
 * 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 had started 'Recipe For Disaster', your character would have mentioned that the fire spell that Ebenezer Scourge had casted was similar to what the Culiomancer 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!"