This week sees the release of Mod Ed's latest grandmaster quest: Song of the Elves!
Song of the Elves
Congratulations to K 80 for winning the 'Elven Story So Far' video competition!
Spoiler Warning: below is a summary of the elven questline.
Our story begins with you, the hero, answering the call to adventure when Edmond, a resident of Ardougne, asks for your aid. By rescuing his daughter Elena from Plague City, the quarantined West Ardougne, you begin to unravel the mystery surrounding the disease. With her help, you discover the plague is a hoax - a plot by King Lathas to section off the West Ardougne. By confronting him, you find out this was done to protect the rest of Gielinor from the threat in the elven lands.
The king sends you on a mission to travel through the Underground Pass and help his ally, Lord Iorwerth, in eradicating his brother King Tyras who threatens to revive the mysterious Dark Lord. After an arduous journey through the pass, you meet with Iorwerth and his forces to end Tyras' evil once and for all.
Upon your return to Lathas you are intercepted by Arianwyn, a rebel elf who opposes Lord Iorwerth. He informs you of Lathas and Iorwerth's deception. They manipulated you into removing their final opposition and were now free to bring the Dark Lord back to Gielinor for their own intentions. You work with the elven rebellion to discover the purpose of the plague was to disguise the digsite of the long lost Temple of Light. An ancient place that is key to bringing back the Dark Lord.
To make amends for your past mistakes and put a halt in King Lathas' and Lord Iorwerth's plans, you solve the intricate light puzzle designed to protect the Death altar within the temple. After sealing off the temple and preventing the return of the Dark Lord, it's now time to turn your attention to King Lathas Lord Iorwerth and end their schemes once and for all in Song of the Elves.
These are the minimum unboosted stat requirements.
Prifddinas
Those of you who complete the quest will gain access to the legendary crystal city of Prifddinas! The elven capital has been quietly waiting on the Old School map since 2004 and now the gates are finally being opened for the first time. Prifddinas is bursting with extra content for you to enjoy, the main features of which are brand new PvM and skilling challenges: The Gauntlet and Zalcano.
Mod Ry and Mod West were the designers of the layout and architecture of the city.
The thriving city comes to life with a number of unique shops and characters. The full glory of elven architecture is on display at the city's center in the form of the Tower of Voices. There is also the magnificent Grand Library for those who wish to delve into the history of Gielinor.
Each zone, owned by one of the eight elven clans, has its own feel based on the clan's specialty. For example, the city features a unique Agility course, courtesy of the Hefin clan. For the Mining and Smithing experts among you, the mines beneath the Trahaern clan area may take your fancy.
We have taken this opportunity to expand on the area around Prifddinas too. The new elven town of Gwenith has been added to the north east to add to the depth of the elven part of Gielinor.
The Gauntlet
The newest challenge for PvM is finally here. We present to you, The Gauntlet. This training ground was designed by the elves to train their mightiest warriors during the God Wars will be open to anyone who proves their worth and unlocks the city. Inside, you enter a race against time to collect the materials you need to prepare youself for the final fight. Forge your own crystal armour and weaponry by defeating crystalline monsters and gathering resources before facing the terrifying crystalline Hunllef. A huge shoutout goes to Mod Lenny whose development of a system to randomly generate rooms as you explore was key to making the Gauntlet happen.
This challenge is open to Ultimate Ironman accounts - an NPC at the Gauntlet entrance will hold your items for you and return them at the end of your attempt. Hardcore Ironman accounts beware: deaths in the Gauntlet will remove your Hardcore status!
The Crystalline Hunllef designed by Mod Ghost
Defeating the boss offers you a chance to receive crystal armour for use outside of the Gauntlet or even the powerful Blade of Saeldor. Open the drop down menus below for a further look at the stats and effects of both of these rewards:
Crystal armour created by Mod Gee and the Blade of Saeldor created by Mod Ry
Click here for details about crystal armour
Completing the Gauntlet will provide a chance of gaining tradeable Crystal armour seeds. These can be combined with Crystal shards to create pieces of the new ranged crystal armour set. This requires 70 Defence and 50 Agility to equip.
Crystal armour will degrade into an uncharged version, however its stats won’t decrease until it is uncharged. Charges will be lost as hits are taken while wearing the armour; each hit removes one charge. Charges can be added by using Crystal shards on either charged or uncharged versions of the armour. Each shard provides 100 charges with each armour piece holding up to 5,000 charges. Each piece of freshly made armour starts with 2,500 charges. Both charged and uncharged pieces of armour can be dismantled at any time. Doing so will return the crystal armour seed but any Crystal shards will be lost.
Below are the stats of crystal armour. It also has a set effect: when all three pieces are worn, you will receive a 15% damage boost and a 30% accuracy boost to the Crystal bow. This applies partially when wearing individual pieces of the set. This means a 3% damage boost is given for each item worn with an extra 6% if the full set is worn, giving 15% in total. Similarly, a 6% accuracy boost is given for each piece worn with an extra 12% if the full set is worn, giving 30% in total.
Because crystal armour is untradeable and can only be made in Prifddinas, it requires Song of the Elves to equip. A dangerous death in PvP will cause crystal armour pieces to revert to their seeds which would then be dropped for the killer. Any Crystal shards will be lost.
The table below shows the requirements to create crystal armour. Players who do not meet the level requirements can pay an elf in Prifddinas to create the armour for them at a cost of 60 additional Crystal shards per piece of armour.
Click here for details about the Blade of Saeldor
Completing the Gauntlet also offers a rare chance of receiving the Blade of Saeldor, the slash weapon equivalent of the Ghrazi rapier, in it's broken state. This form is tradeable but unusable and can only be repaired with Crystal shards. Each Crystal shard grants 25 charges up to a limit of 2,500 charges. Once repaired, it will slowly degrade, losing a charge with each attack.
If lost in PvP, the broken blade will be dropped and all shards will be lost. The blade requires 75 attack to equip and has an attack speed of 4 (in line with other swords). Its stats are shown below:
Zalcano
The Hunllef is not the only powerful foe that lies beneath the city. The skillers among you who want to put your Mining, Smithing and Runecraft skills to the test may do so by facing Zalcano. Defeating her will offer you rewards in the form of skilling resources. She also has a rare chance to drop Crystal tool seeds which can be used to make Crystal picks, axes and harpoons.
Zalcano is a powerful demon trapped by the elves at the time of the God Wars.
If you are interested in learning more about Zalcano and how she came to be trapped by the Trahaearn clan, visit the Grand Library to uncover her past. For more information on the crystal tools, open the drop down menu below:
Click here for details about the crystal tools
Zalcano is designed to be a challenge for earning new rewards rather than a new training method and as such only grants token amounts of experience. Her loot table contains gems, ores and a unique item: the Crystal tool seed.
Crystal tool seeds may be combined with Crystal shards to create three new pieces of equipment. Crystal tool seeds are tradeable but the equipment itself is not.
The three new tools are the Crystal pickaxe, Crystal axe and Crystal harpoon. Each one is made by combining a crystal tool seed with 120 Crystal shards and the corresponding piece of dragon equipment. Doing this requires 76 Smithing and 76 Crafting. Players who do not meet the level requirements may pay an elf in Prifddinas to create the tools for them. This will cost 60 additional Crystal shards per tool.
These new items require level 71 in the respective skills to use and offer faster gathering speeds than their dragon counterparts. The items require 70 Attack and 50 Agility to equip and retain the equipped stats and special attacks of their dragon counterparts.
Crystal tools degrade in the same way crystal armour does, eventually reverting into an uncharged version. You can add more charges by using Crystal shards on either charged or uncharged versions of the tools. Each Crystal shard provides 100 charges and each tool holds up to 20,000 charges in total. A freshly made tool starts with 10,000 charges. Charges are lost as items are gathered, with each item removing one charge (for example, mining one ore removes one charge). This doesn’t include extra items obtained through bonuses like the Varrock Armour. Both charged and uncharged tools can be dismantled at any time. Doing so will return the Crystal tool seed and relevant dragon item but any Crystal shards will be lost.
Crystal Pickaxe: this has a 1/4 chance to mine an ore one tick faster than the Rune pickaxe (up from 1/6 for the Dragon pickaxe)
Crystal Axe: this is 15% more efficient at chopping logs than the Rune axe (up from 10% for the Dragon axe)
Crystal Harpoon: this has a 35% faster catch rate when fishing at a harpoon fishing spot (up from 20% for the Dragon harpoon)
Because crystal tools are untradeable and can only be made in Prifddinas, they require completion of Song of the Elves to use.
A dangerous death in PvP causes Crystal tools to revert to their dragon equivalents which are then be dropped for the killer. Any Crystal shards will be lost.
Other Activities
Completing activities around Prifddinas will reward you with Crystal shards. These are used to charge various pieces of equipment but more on that later! The drop down menus below give further details about the smaller activities you can try out around the city. Also make sure to look out for easter eggs and extra content hidden in the city and surrounding areas!
Click here for details about the Agility course
The Hefin clan have a strong focus on harmony and their time is often spent meditating. However, through their teachings on bettering oneself, they also focus on improving their body through Strength and Agility. To help train their agility, the Hefin clan has created a new Agility course that works different to the ones found throughout Gielinor.
For completing the quest, they want to offer you the chance to use their new agility course. The course requires 75 Agility and offers approximately 56k Agility xp/hr at level 90 Agility. It features shortcuts that bypass small sections. However, the available shortcut moves each lap and will be different for every player. These shortcuts increase the maximum potential xp/hr at level 90 to 62k.
Click here for details about the Iorwerth Dungeon
The Iorwerth clan are a clan of warriors and slayers. As such, they have a unique training dungeon that allows them to train whenever they want. For completing the quest, they will offer you access to their elite training dungeon. Once you have gained access to this dungeon, Konar will be able to assign Slayer tasks there. This dungeon is not slayer task only, but it is single way combat and allows cannons. There are multiple rooms containing the following:
9 Dark Beasts
12 Kurasks
9 Nechryaels
9 Bloodvelds
12 Waterfiends
6 Moss Giants
The Dark Beasts in the Kourend Catacombs have been removed for thematic reasons.Click here for details about the Crystal tree patch
The Crwys clan are expert farmers and woodcutters. They help provide much of the food needed in Prifddinas and help to supply other plant based resources such as wood. After stumbling upon a Crystal acorn, the Crwys clan found new ways to gain Crystal shards through farming.
For completing the quest, they want to offer you the opportunity to farm your own Crystal trees. This unique Crystal tree farming patch will require a Crystal acorn and 74 Farming to plant. Crystal acorns are untradeable but can be obtained from a nearby NPC in exchange for other crystal seeds. They can be stored in the Seed Vault. This NPC will accept the following:
Crystal tool seeds
Crystal armour seeds
Crystal weapon seed ("Crystal seeds" in game)
Note: the Crystal teleport seeds (formerly "Tiny elf crystals") were removed from the list for balancing.
Crystal trees take roughly 8 hours to grow and have no chance of becoming diseased or dying. Once fully grown, they can be harvested with an axe. This will empty the patch, granting Crystal shards and occasional nests. It will offer the chance to obtain the Farming skill pet.
The tree grants 126 Farming XP when planted and 13,240 Farming XP when harvested.Click here for details about the enhanced crystal chest
When the Trahaearn clan aren't studying the demon Zalcano, they are creating new items and weapons through the means of smithing. They've figured out that you can take an existing Crystal key and upgrade it with Crystal shards through smithing and crafting to unlock some extra rewards.
For completing the quest, they want to teach you their elite blacksmithing ways in order for you to access an upgraded version of the Crystal Chest with higher value rewards found in Prifddinas. Like the Taverley chest, this new Crystal Chest will always give an Uncut dragonstone and some extra items (armour, runes, coins, gems). To open it, you will need an enhanced Crystal key. This can be made by combining a normal Crystal key with 10 Crystal shards requiring 80 Smithing and 80 Crafting. If you don't meet these requirements you can pay a nearby elf 15 Crystal shards to make one for you.
Click here for details about the Crystal implings
Being the expert hunters that the Cadarn clan are, they have spotted a wild impling that is only attracted to the crystal structures inside Prifddinas. As a friend of the elves for completing the quest, they want to offer you a chance to catch this rare Crystal impling. It will only spawn in Prifddinas, requiring 80 Hunter to catch with a net or 90 Hunter to catch barehanded. They have their own loot table of elven themed items including a unique reward - the Elven Signet.
The Elven Signet is a new tradeable ring that when worn, offers a 5% chance to not use a charge when using crystal items (armour, tools weapons, etc.). The ring's effect will not apply to the Blade of Saeldor described later in the post.
Click here for details about divine potions
The Meilyr clan are a clan of chefs, scientists, and explorers. They experiment heavily with the produce provided by other clans to create potions, foods, and other supplies for the city. In a recent experiment, the Meilyr clan found that by grinding up Crystal shards and adding them to various potions, they could create concoctions they like to call "Divine Potions".
For completing the quest, they want to offer you the ability to use a pestle and mortar on Crystal shards to create Crystal dust for 10 dust per shard. This dust can be used on various potions to create their 'Divine' versions at a very low XP rate of 0.5 XP per potion dose made or 2XP per potion. Divine potions have the same effects as the base potion but renew it's effect every 15 seconds for 5 minutes.
They drain 10 Hitpoints when drunk, and the damage will not be healed at the end of the 5 minutes. When the potion effect expires, you will be put straight back to base level. The potions are tradeable but the dust is not.
Below is an example of how the Divine potion's renewal effect works:
Provided that your Strength level is 99, drinking a divine super combat potion will boost that level to 118. The renew effect will ensure that it won’t drop below 118 for 5 minutes. If, however, the stat is reduced by either an NPC, spell, or a potion such as a Saradomin brew, the effect won’t renew the stat back to 118, and will instead begin renewing the stat at the level it’s been lowered to.
If a Saradomin brew reduced the strength level from 118 to 105. The renewal effect will now begin renewing to level 105 but won’t renew higher than that unless drinking another strength stat boosting potion.
Drinking a restore or Sanfew serum potion will not boost the stat any higher after it has been reduced. However, it is possible to maintain the renewal effect by drinking another potion that boosts the stat, and if this happens the renewal timer will continue and expire after the 5 minutes. This will not extend the original timer.
The effects of Divine potions would not be sharable via the Boost Potion Share spell on the Lunar spellbook.
The available divine potions are:
Divine Super Attack Potion - 70 Herblore
Divine Super Strength Potion - 70 Herblore
Divine Super Defence Potion - 70 Herblore
Divine Ranging Potion - 74 Herblore
Divine Magic Potion - 78 Herblore
Divine Super combat Potion - 97 Herblore
Click here for details about infinite teleport crystals
The Amlodd clan are a clan of mystics. Though their magical prowess means that many of them will fight as part of the military, they prefer to use their abilities in more non-combat roles. As such, they discovered a way to create an Infinite teleport crystal and have given these to all the elves in Prifddinas. However, these elves won't give up their infinite teleport crystals so easily.
After completing the quest, if you want to get your hands on an Inifite teleport crystal you will have to kill or pickpocket the elves, to have a rare chance of them providing the Infinite teleport crystal. This will be tradeable but can only be used if you have completed Song of the Elves.
Crystal Weaponry
In the second poll for Song of the Elves, we offer the following change which subsequently passed and will go live with this update:
"Should stat degradation be removed from crystal bows, shields and halberds? This would mean that normal crystal weapons will act like imbued versions. Crystal weapon imbues will be removed from the Nightmare Zone shop if this question passes. Crystal seeds will be removed from Zulrah's drop table regardless of the outcome of this question."
Upon logging in, existing crystal items will be converted to a new system. This means that any crystal bows, shields and halberds in your bank will be converted to crystal weapon seeds, which can then be traded to Ilfeen for the relevant item back with its charges. Any nightmare zone points lost in the process will be refunded. All crystal items outside of the bank should convert naturally.
Competitions
Update: Now that the quest has been completed and the Gauntlet has been bested, we can reveal that there's another competition. We had kept the Corrupted Gauntlet as a secret. We're delighted to announce that the player with the fastest Corrupted Gauntlet time after two weeks will also receive a GTOmega Old School RuneScape gaming chair!
Earlier this month we ran three competitions to celebrate the release of Song of the Elves. They were the lore video, login screen and lore writing. We received many entries for each competition and want to thank everyone for their amazing submissions!
Lore Video
We tasked both established and budding content creators to make a video themed around the elven questline building up to Song of the Elves. We received a wide range of entries from comedic to informative and greatly enjoyed watching them all. The prizewinners are:
1st place: K 80 - who submitted a hilarious animated short which is featured at the top of this post.
2nd place: Turtletale - who entered a narrative of the hero's story from the perspective of an elven citizen of Prifddinas.
3rd place: DrPickle - whose comedic video was a series of elven questline themed shows and ads.
Check out the videos submitted by our winners above by clicking on their display names! You can also see the videos of the players below who we'd like to give a special mention:
Player artists were challenged with designing the login screen for this release earlier this month. The competition was fierce and the Old School team had a difficult time picking their favourites. After we picked our top four, they were polled in game and the players have spoken:
1st place: God Of Onion
2nd place: Dagna
3rd place: Player Owned
4th place: FaydeneDore
A special congratulations goes to God Of Onion for winning two login screen competitions in a row! Their previous artwork featured Mount Karuulm for the launch of the Kebos Lowlands.
Click here to see other entries that made the shortlist
We would also like to thank the following players who made the shortlist for their submissions:
Gamez X
Runezilla
Rushlash
Tamara
UIM Herblore
Lore Submissions
We also want to thank the many players who submitted their lore suggestions! We received so many that unfortuantely not all of them could be added but we would like to highlight the following players whose entries have become canon and are now featured in the Grand Library:
AesirWarrior
Bob1010102
Chapeau_42
Kushcleric
Mr Farenheit
Rallis
Spineweilder
Sundays
Thaumar
Each of these authors are credited in the Tower of Voices itself as a means of thanks for their submissions.
The Gauntlet
As of now, the final competition has begun. As a race against time, this PvM challenge seemed fitting for our final competition. So in our Song of the Elves progress blog, we announced the Gauntlet race. The three players with the top personal best Gauntlet completion times within two weeks of launch will be crowned the winners. Good luck to everyone who will be competing for the grand prize of the custom Old School RuneScape GT Omega Pro Gaming Chair!
Congratulations again to all of our winners and thank you to everyone who entered. Current winners can expect to be contacted regarding their prizes in the coming days and the Gauntlet competition winners will hear from us shortly after it closes.
Special Thanks
In addition to our competition entrants and lore writers, we would like to extend some additional thanks. These namely go to players who play tested Song of the Elves and helped us reach our vision for the quest. These thanks go to:
7i
Adwam
Ayiza
Cloud Badass
Fiaria
GingerBeardie
Jakeyosaurus
Knightenator
Luthien T2
MmorpgRS
DKHO
OVLScotsman
Settled
Sick Nerd
Skiddler
Sonic
Sorrowspell
Thurco
We would also like to especially thank Mod Ian, Mod Surma, and Mod Slippers, the Audio Designers who helped bring the content to life with their music tracks and sound effects throughout the quest and Prifddinas. The same thanks are extended to all the Mods who support the Old School team, which allows us to create content such as Song of the Elves.
Lastly, we'd like to thank you, the players. Enjoy the quest.
~ The Song of the Elves team, Mods Curse, Ed, Gee, Ghost, Lenny, Ry, and West
The Merch Store
To celebrate the launch of the quest, we're adding a range of elven goodies in our merch store!
The latest designs from AngelsScapes are now available and include the Crystal Halberd Keyring, Crystal Bow Pin, Trimmed and Untrimmed Ranged Skill Cape Keyrings and Ardougne Max Cape.
For those complete the quest, why not celebrate by equipping your own Quest Cape IRL by snag one of the Untrimmed Quest Cape Keyrings launching this month to join the already popular Trimmed Quest Capes!
We're also releasing two new skillcape keyrings: Ranged and trimmed Ranged. You will now find these in addition to the Song of the Elves merch above in the store. Keep an eye on our Twitter @OldSchoolRS and other social channels for other additions coming soon such as our RuneFest 2019 hoodies and tees which will be available for pre-order shortly.
On the topic of future merch, we may also release a line of Old School themed mugs if there is sufficient demand. Let us know what you think of the idea and vote for your favourite from these concepts in this poll.
Other News
The PvP World Rota is switching over to Period A. On the east of the Atlantic, host the Bounty Hunter world (W318, UK) and the High Risk PvP world (W343, Germany). On the west of the Atlantic, host the Standard PvP world (W324, USA) and the F2P PvP world (W417, USA).
A bug affecting mobile users setting a display name in the tutorial was fixed.
One of Sherlock's challenges has had its instructions clarified.
Damage from the Haunted Mine boss fight scenery will no longer be applied to players who've left the room.
In the Last Man Standing beta, the supplies have been adjusted. The Ancient staff is no longer given; instead, players are given Ahrim's staff and an Occult necklace. Death no longer causes deletion of spare diamond bolts.
Let us know your feedback on the quest and surrounding content on the official forums, the community-led 2007Scape Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #song-of-the-elves channel. For reference on the above content, check out the official Wiki.
Mods Acorn, Archie, Ash, Bruno, Curse, Ed, Gambit, Gee, Ghost, Husky, John C, Kieren, Lenny, Lottie, Maz, Nasty, Roq, Ry, Sween, Tide, Weath, West & Wolf The Old School Team
Song of the Elves
