Were having a tomb-tastic August with the release of Tombs of Amascut! In other news, well be discussing the Wilderness Boss Rework, an update to the proposed Mobile UI changes, and some rather cryptic notes
Lets jump in!
Released Content
Tombs of Amascut
It's finally here! Old School's third raid, Tombs of Amascut has launched, and what a launch it was. Weve seen incredible triumphs and some truly F inducing defeats. Its been great watching you enjoy such a highly-anticipated chunk of content, especially since we tried a few new things: mechanics, accessibility options, and a more narrative-driven raiding experience.
This weeks update has already brought a slew of feedback changes, but were not stopping there! The team will continue to discuss your feedback over the coming weeks, making any changes we feel are necessary.
Were also still deciding how you lot are going to earn the Ornament Kits for Avas Assembler, Elidinis Ward, the Max Cape and Osmumtens Fang, something we hope to share in early September. Not long to go now!
As for the World Firsts, were happy to announce that both winning teams have been verified by our Anti-Cheating Team, so a massive congratulations to the following players:
World First - Tombs of Amascut Normal Mode
- 54n Kappa
- Animeme
- HardeSnikkel
- Kanao
- OBLV Poenari
- OBLV YUMMI
- Rovint
World First - Tombs of Amascut Expert Mode
- OBLV Jraze
All the winners will automatically receive 12 months of Membership, which well confirm via your Player Inbox.
For those of you who tagged a friend when the trailer for Tombs dropped a few weeks ago, don't think we forgot about you! We'll also be selecting one pair per platform to also receive 12 months of Membership, so keep an eye on your associated inboxes for a message from either the Official Old School pages or Mod Sarnie.
Lastly, our most recent livestream focused on the countdown to ToA. If you missed it, you can catch up with the video below:
Activity Adviser
The Activity Adviser is live, in-game, and currently being tested by a lucky handful of players to see what kind of impact it has.
The testing phase is nearly over now, so depending on the results, it could go live any time in the next few weeks! Well have more information in September, so keep an eye out for further details soon.
Leadership Livestream
We recently had another Leadership Livestream, featuring Mods Markos, Kieren and Ayiza. They discussed lots of different topics ranging from the future of the game, account security and even the current Old School Team. If you missed it, you can catch up via the video below.
We plan to have more consistent Leadership Livestreams happen throughout the year so that you can hear about the bigger, top-level updates as well as our content and feature pieces.
Upcoming Content
Wilderness Boss Rework
Its HAPPENING! Those of you who have read our Design Blog will already know that the long-awaited Wilderness Boss Rework is finally coming to the game.
For those who missed it, heres the TL;DR: Callisto, Venenatis and Vetion are being reworked to deliver a proper multi-combat group boss experience, with exciting mechanics, the ability to keep topped up between kills in case of PvP, and epic rewards that make fighting these big ol beasties a risk worth taking.
Each of the three bosses now has their own lair within a big scary cave, filled with winding passages where you can chase or escape from your fellow players.
If multi-combat isnt your thing, alternative, single-way versions of the bosses will also be made available but theyre not completely risk free! Prepare for potential attacks with switches, freezes, and plenty of supplies on hand, at the cost of reduced drop rates and GP per hour.
We plan to deliver this update later this year, and well update you on our progress through September. For now though, heres a little teaser for you all:
Quest Speedrunning
True to form, Quest Speedrunning is coming up fast! The team have been working to ensure that the launch has just enough content for everyone to dip their toes into the exciting world of speedrunning, while leaving room to grow and add new quests over the five months after launch.
Mod Light recently released a blog explain everything you need to know about this thrilling new mode, which you can catch up on here!
Updated Mobile UI & New Client Features
The Mobile UI Blog has been updated to address your feedback.
As we mentioned in the blog, this is a key project because it means well be able to deliver even more client features to your mobile device. Were ready to proceed with the work and we estimate that itll be ready just in time for another new client feature the highly anticipated Loot Tools!
2022 and Beyond
Last Gazette, we teased that we are at a critical stage of determining the direction for the rest of the year and onward into 2023. This is nearly complete, the final decisions are being made and we are super excited about what we already have agreed to work on. Whilst we could say more about some content, we want to ensure we are confident in delivering our commited projects before we reveal all.
We've also got another Game Jam coming up in November, so you can look forward to more ideas coming from that. Please stay tuned for more updates regarding the rest of the year in the near future.
by Mod Sarnie
Hey there, scapers! Hope alls going well and your grinds are plentiful! For those of you who arent aware, one of my favourite things (apart from a nice sarnie of course) is puzzles. Whether solving or creating them, I just love a good, cryptic brainteaser.
Recently, we put together a series of puzzles for Tombs of Amascut to give you all a glimpse at some of the Invocations you can now see for yourself in the raid. You know, those really weird tweets you saw a couple of weeks ago?
We thought it might be neat to explain each of the puzzles for those of you who missed the opportunity to solve them before the raid. After all, there are sure to be plenty more treasure hunts to come!
The most important thing to me is that teasers like these require players to work for them in some capacity its way more fun to discover something yourself than have it handed to you. That said, the biggest thing for my first set of puzzles, back in Leagues IIIs Relic Hunt, was accessibility. We needed the main areas of discovery and exploration to be something that everyone could access, and they had to be safe, too. The last thing I or the company would want is to have people accidentally start downloading random files from shady websites!
So thats why we hit upon the idea of newsposts as a way of delivering these puzzles theyre accessible to everyone, and familiar to Old School players.
The first round of puzzles was a fun experiment, something wed never really tried before. I was surprised by how many people got involved! It was an extremely joyous feeling, seeing the theories and methods being thrown around to solve the original set even if some steps were a bit cheesy...
All our learnings from the Relic Hunt went into creating these puzzles and making them extra challenging and extra fun!
So, that brings us to the Invocation puzzles. Before we dive in, its important to note that a lot of the puzzles involve common encoding or decoding techniques. Again, thats something anyone can learn, or solve using the help of code-solving websites and Wikipedia.
Puzzle #1 - W҉h҉a҉t҉ ҉d҉o҉e҉s҉ ҉i҉t҉ ҉m҉e҉a҉n҉.҉.҉.҉ - CLICK TO EXPAND
Ill admit, this first puzzle had a small mistake on it. Nothing that affected the solution, but it wouldve made it a lot cleaner!
If youre unfamiliar, the above image is Morse Code. Decoding it should reveal the Latin for Beneath Cursed Sands, but the Sands part decodes to English! My bad.
So, if you head to the Beneath Cursed Sands launch post, youll see a few random letters sprinkled throughout with links leading to pages like:
- https://osrs.game/XIX
- https://osrs.game/XVI
- https://osrs.game/XVIII
Players familiar with our socials know that this is our official shortened link (osrs.game), but clicking the links takes you to the Old School homepage, because officially those URLs dont exist. What now then?
Well, each URL contains a roman numeral. Take the numerical value of each (for example XIX = 19) in the order the links appear in the post and youll get the sequence: 1916189142061518920. Plug that into the shortened URL, and youll be whisked away to Monkey Madness II?
Again, nothing looks out of the ordinary, but take a closer look and youll notice all the ba particles in the newspost have been bolded and capitalised, and clicking one of them will take you to the Everything You Need to Know newspost. I wonder which monkey with Ba in her name also appears in this blog?
Click the image of Ba-Ba, and youll get your first Invocation reveal.
Youll notice that newsposts and shortened URLs are a common theme in these puzzles. Thats something we wanted to get people familiar with straight away.
Puzzle #2 - f̷̵̫̞̉͢i̵͓͙̱͚̎͟n̷̶̯͉̊̽̐ͦ͘d̸̡̩͍̔ͥ͜y̯̤͑́́̓́ȍ̸̢̢̮͚̐̚û̶͙̽̿͆̈r̶̷̲͍̭͐̾̀͟ẅ̷̷̢̟͇͈̒ă̶̸̝ͦ͊̿͋͞y̯̤͑́́̓́t̴͕͖͓̀h̶̯̰̝̻̿̓͢r̶̷̲͍̭͐̾̀͟ȍ̸̢̢̮͚̐̚û̶͙̽̿͆̈g̴̶̛̮̣͙͠h̶̯̰̝̻̿̓͢t̴͕͖͓̀h̶̯̰̝̻̿̓͢ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊m̶̷ͪ̽͡ă̶̸̝ͦ͊̿͋͞z͕͓̼̼̽̃͘ę̷̵̧̖̫̗̆̊t̼͈̮̯͚̘̤̄̄͠y͇̪̫̗̤͚̒͟w̸͉͉̬̎͂ơ̹̥̎͛͗d̹̜̼̝̝ͯ͟ - CLICK TO EXPAND
A maze with no real middle, and a Trout what could this mean? The trick is that neither of these eye-catching elements will help you initially, but something else will.
Hidden on top of the maze, in the white space, is a barely-visible message reading 9th Birthday. Drawing on your previous puzzling experience, youll know right away that this message is telling you to go check out the 9th Birthday newspost, where youll find another Trout.
Click that fish and youll find your first puzzle piece:
Off to find more Trouts, then! Looking through desert newsposts, including Tombs of Amascut ones, nets you seven more. Click em, put the puzzle pieces together, and youll be left with an image that reads OVERLY DRAINING, with two holes.
Overlay this image with the maze from the original post and youll highlight parts of the maze that give you two five-number sequences: 25343 and 52445.
Now, remember what I said about code solving? A handy tip for solving any puzzle or ARG (Augmented Reality Game) is to check common ciphers like Shift Ciphers and Binary against the mysterious numbers youve got. In this case, the cipher were looking for is called Vigenere.
The Vigenere method uses a key to convert a string of characters into something else. Find the key and the associated text, and you can translate it to find the answer to your puzzle. In this case, though, I didnt want you to decode something I wanted you to encode it. Use a Vigenere cipher with 0123456789 and the key to the numbers we found (2534352445) and you can convert OVERLYDRAINING to FP7KDS5K4CECF0, the URL where youll find the Invocation reveal!
Puzzle #3 - 01110010 01100101 01101101 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110010 01110000 01100101 00100000 - CLICK TO EXPAND
This puzzle was tweeted with three grape emojis. Well put those aside for now, because its BINARY TIME!
The image text translates to:
Journey back to where you are rewarded,with silver and magic,to survive the scorching sun
Some more text, remove the octothorp gives you your next steps. Head back to the Beneath Cursed Sands newspost, and youll see a new image appear:
The 2x3 sections of dots reference Braille, but translating it gives you two strings of characters that make no sense and theyll continue to make no sense, because this is a red herring.
If you instead look at the middle six dots, youll see they spell out DEHYDRATION the name of your next Invocation!
But thats not all. The dots that spell out each letter of DEHYDRATION actually have a numerical code which references each dots position:
Use that as a base and spell out each letter with the number sequence, and youll have a third URL, and a third Invocation under your belt.
Puzzle #4 - ꁲꋪꏹꂖꁏꌈꌚꌈꇃꇃꏹꏹꂡꀤꋊꁍ? - CLICK TO EXPAND
Theres nothing hidden in the post text of this puzzle instead, the numbers in the Curry are key. Theyre actually the total poll votes and results of the Warding Poll from July 2019.
Head to the post, and youll be greeted with a 3-4 digit code such as 818. That tells you the month (August) and the year (2018) of your next stop on the newspost trail! Follow it, and youll ultimately wind up at Halloween 2017.
Now put all those numbers together (you did save them, right?) including the month and year of the Warding newspost, and youll get a code which translates to: I AM THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
Thats my way of telling you to look at the beginning of each newspost. Like, right at the beginning. Like, the first letter.
Put together, those letters spell WALKTHEPATH, which is your final URL for this puzzle.
Puzzle #5 - ᔕᗝᒪᒪIᑕI丅ᗩ丅ᑌᑎᗪIɊᑌᗴ - CLICK TO EXPAND
Those of you whove taken on Old Schools most hardcore challenge will instantly understand the first step of this puzzle. Rearrange the 3x3 squares to get the Hardcore Ironman symbol, and then head to the Hardcore Ironman newspost.
Clicking the header of that newspost will take you to your next clue, a string of letters. If you look closely, youll see that the letters of the alphabet go in sequence with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd characters in the sequence - barring one U, which was supposed to be a V. Sorry folks!
Use a shift cipher on the position of each group of three letters (for example, SVO = 1, TWP = 2) spells out Run.
Enter Hardcore+Run as the URL, and youll get another puzzle! What, you think wed make it easy?
On this page, youll see coloured dots. Connect the matching ones and it spells out MMCMXCIX. In Roman numerals, thats 3999. Add it to an URL, and youve got the second-to-last Invocation.
Puzzle #6 - Where is it? - CLICK TO EXPAND
Second-to-last? Yes, there was a cheeky hidden Invocation which I thought wed let you all find on your own. Remember the grapes from the third puzzle? Well, if you hadnt noticed, the last five puzzles all had some kind of food item involved.
- Puzzle #1 - Cake in the Background of the post
- Puzzle #2 - Trout that help you find the pieces
- Puzzle #3 - Grape Emojis in the post.
- Puzzle #4 - Curry with the numbers in.
- Puzzle #5 - A Lizardkicker hidden in the bottom right.
Put them in order of their appearance and youll get one final puzzle! Using methods you should, by now, be familiar with, and the numerical code for AMASCUT, youll find the final Invocation.
Wasnt that a wild ride? Hopefully, you now have some insight into the wonderful world of puzzle solving, and the creative process that goes into creating each one. We do thoroughly enjoy setting these puzzles, and we dont intend to stop any time soon so keep an eye out!
If you enjoyed this, I highly recommend the Runestone Hunters Discord, a place for like-minded scapers who love a good puzzle or two. Since the Leagues III Runestones first appeared, Ive watched it slowly grow from a handful of intrigued puzzle enthusiasts to a collective of fantastic individuals ready to help people with both puzzles and Old School in general. Theyve even got their own clan now!
Ive learned a lot from them myself, and thats definitely going to help with future puzzle events. We just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated, as it genuinely makes us smile watching you all solve our puzzles!
One final note. The Medal winners werent the only ones to receive a strange, coded message recently I cant say what was left at the office, but we have our instructions and I dont want to think what might happen if we dont follow them. The only thing Im allowed to say is that it wont all be for nothing.
Thanks so much for reading, and have a wonderful rest of your day!
Hello everyone! Im afraid I havent done much postie-ing this time. Last month, I was asked to deliver a letter to Maisa in the desert, and then actually I dont remember what happened next! All I know is that last week I woke up in the scariest pyramid Ive ever seen, and got out of there sharpish!
Enough about my adventures though lets take a look at this months post!
Hang on a minute... what's this letter here? That definitely wasn't there a minute ago. What does it say...?
On 16 Ire of Phyrrys, a challenge. Your services will be required soon.
How mysterious! If that's your letter - or if you have any idea who might have sent it - you can contact me via the usual channels. Or just come and say hello!
I have a funny feeling we'll be hearing more from this puzzling post-sender soon... until then, let's have a look at your letters!
Dear Dagannoth Rex,
Every time we meet you vehemently refuse to step foot in the water, no matter how many magic spells my friends and I pelt you with. Is it because you're afraid of water? It seems pretty silly that one of the kings of WATERbirth island would be afraid of getting wet.
Or maybe you just like the tingly sensation of Slayer Dart?
Yours truly, DarkfireX34
Dear DarkfireX34,
Im not scared of the water! Who told you that?! Was it Prime? Hes always bullying me
Anyway, I never see you and your horrible mates swimming around in there. If youre so brave, why dont you take a dip? See how you like it?
Thats what I thought.
See you (and your puny Slayer Darts) soon,
Dagannoth Rex
Dear Kril Tsutsaroth,
After a long day of YARRRRRRR! ing my Prayer Points away, what does a great and powerful demon like yourself do to unwind? Surely you cant be that angry all the time, what do you do to rekindle all that rage?
Strength through Chaos,
LuitenantDan
PS: What brand of toothpaste do you use to keep those pearly whites pearly and white?
PPS: Whod you commission your dual blades from? I could use a new sword.
Greetings, mortal!
Hmm, thats a tough question. After millennia trapped in this frozen dungeon, Ive developed quite a few hobbies. Curling, snowboarding, flaying my enemies, ice sculpture youd be amazed how much there is to do around here. When all else fails, a good bit of primal screaming always restores our morale. Here, you have a go:
YARRRRRRRRR!
May chaos rend your foes asunder,
Kril
P.S. The only paste I use is the stuff that used to be my enemies!
P.P.S. I get them delivered from the pits of infernus. They do next day delivery!
To Ignisia, Grand Master of the Order of the Sacred Flame,
Good day Ignisia,
It has been a while since I last paid a visit to the Pyromancers. The last time I was there, I... just wanted to check on the cute little toad at your camp. Definitely did not pour anything on the Doors of Dinh.
Regardless, I have a couple of burning questions I would like to ask you.
- In order to serve the Order, you had to pass something called the Trials of Fire. Could you tell me more about these trials?
- Would it be possible for a mortal such as myself to undertake the Trials, to prove myself to the Order?
- How did you become Grand Master of the Order?
- Have you heard of a hot young man (pun not intended, he seems to light fires every moment of every waking hour, and his hands are stained with ash) by the name of Ignatius Vulcan? I was surprised to learn he was the master of Firemaking, when you seem to be a much better fit for the role!
I hope you can answer at least some of my questions!
Sincerely, u/YoshiFan12 , fellow master of Firemaking
P.S. - What do rejuvenation potions taste like? I would have had a sip myself during my time subduing the Wintertodt, but the well-being of the other pyromancers was more important.
Greetings, YoshiFan12,
Thats a rather specific thing to deny, isnt it? Im starting to think you did do something to the Doors! But that would be ridiculous.
I cant tell you much about the Trials of Fire. We keep the details hidden from non-initiates, and in any case, its been centuries since I underwent them myself! Although if youre interested, youd be very welcome to apply! I was a mortal myself when I first joined, and we have lots of mortal recruits although they dont tend to last very long.
Those were dark days for our Order and for all of Kourend. Our previous Grand Master was my mentor. A brave woman, indeed. One terrible day, she was summoned to a meeting with Xeric. She never returned. I have no doubt that she was loyal to our Order until the last. There was some turmoil not everyone shared my dedication to the cause but in the end, I was elected by unanimous vote. Normally Grand Master is a lifetime position, but after the Ascent of Arceuus, my role was made permanent.
Ignatius Vulcan? That does sound like a name a pyromancer might take. But it doesnt ring a bell. Recruits fail the Trials all the time normally due to a lack of true magical talent. Others simply cant handle the pressure. Perhaps this Ignatius person is one of those? Hes certainly welcome to try again, if hes truly a master of the art.
As for Rejuvenation Potions theyre certainly not to my taste. Bruma Herb sets off my allergies. Ironic, isnt it?
Anyway, please dont drink them. Theyre strictly for Pyromancers.
May the sacred flame guide you,
Ignisia
Greetings Alec,
As a member of the Myths' Guild, I continue to seek out myths and tales to fill the Library of Knowledge. As such, I am looking for possible leads on one of the most elusive animals in Gielinor.
As the headmaster of the guild, surely there is some information you know of about the mythical horse, whose traces of its existence have been strewn about the world and yet has no known confirmed sightings. Its also been referred to as a hornless unicorn, though I'm confident that is just a rare genetic mutation among unicorns, which are a totally different species than a horse.
My best lead, Hajedy and Vigroy, claim to offer cart rides between Brimhaven and Shilo Village in Karamja via horse, and yet I was not able to witness these horses in action.
Additionally, Diango sells a children's toy called toy horseys. I can only assume that the nonsensical word "neigh" that I hear children shout while playing with them is some fanciful reference to the mystical sounds these creatures must make. However, the word may just be the product of the over-active imagination of children.
If you have anything additional leads, I'd love to hear about them in pursuit of expanding the Library of Knowledge!
Thanks in advance, Spineweilder
Dear Spineweilder,
Horses, eh? Most would call you a loon for believing in such fairy tales. Here at the Myths Guild, though, fairy tales are our business! Youd be surprised at how often even the wildest stories hide a kernel of truth.
Your instincts are strong. We have ourselves dispatched agents to the Karamjan Jungle to keep an eye on Mr Hajedys activities, but we are yet to witness these horses for ourselves. We can only assume it must be some sort of marketing tactic although that doesnt explain how the carts actually move.
Its true that the traditional depiction of horses looks a bit like a unicorn, but our research suggests the resemblance is purely superficial. Youve already noted the lack of horns, and the ancient texts weve studied suggest that horses could be ridden in order to cross great distances more like a camel, if anything. Lets hope theyre less bad-tempered!
Freya has an interesting theory on the subject. She claims to have seen evidence that horses once roamed the wilds of Acheron. If thats true, these creatures may be far more dangerous than your average ungulate. Perhaps its best we leave them well alone
Yours,
Alec Kincade
Guildmaster of the Myths Guild
We're back with another batch of your biggest and best pieces of creative work! Everyone featured in the Gazette will receive three months of free membership as thanks for their superb efforts, so keep an eye on the linked social accounts Inbox for more details on how to grab your reward!
If you want to be featured in the next Gazette then make sure to submit your creations through our Player Showcase Gallery Form and state what Gazette youd like it to feature in. We look forward to seeing more of your incredible talents!
Mods Arcane, Archie, Argo, Ash, Ayiza, Boko, Brow, Bruno, Curse, Daizong, Ditto, Dylan, Ed, Elena, Errol, Fed, Gecko, Goblin, Grub, Halo, Havik, Hornet, Husky, Jalo, John C, Kandosii, Kieren, Kirby, Kurotou, Lenny, Light, Lottie, Mack, Matheus, Maylea, Markos, Meat, Moogle, Morty, Nin, Nylu, Regent, Redfield, Roq, Ry, Sarnie, Sigma, Skylark, Soffan, Sova, Squid, Steve W, Tide, Torrance, Veda, Vegard, West & Wolfy
The Old School Team
