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Thank you for asking, Sal! I will tell you how we're doing with pleasure! The Canting Away Citadel is coming back. We're still three days away from the tick, but we've already had 22 members of Canting come in through the gate. Many of those have chopped wood for us, which means that our upkeep is already secured. Moreover, we have cut enough to build a mining plot next week and update the tree. The keep itself has already upgraded to tier 2. We're close to completing the weapon's rack that was first ordered in tier 4, but then sat soaking up excess. We haven't come close to filling it in weeks, but I honestly think it'll be there next week! Moreover the storehouse is just awaiting the appearance of the mining plot, before we can build it. We already have the wood. Grief came in and managed to get his whole effigy done, from 91 runecrafting, through 93 herblore, 95 construction and 97 cooking. There were only four of us at the tree at the time, but we had the levels between us to cover him. Those helping out are claiming their gold stars from any of the admins. The clan chat is lighting up like a constellation, as more and more gold stars appear. These are the heroes and heroines of our citadel and they are wonderful. This is the story so far this week: Thanks everyone! Less than three to you all!! Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner!

My first attempt at doing a mashup song. Comments? SONG

I've been pondering how I feel about today's major Jagex news (Control of Jagex Shifts to New York City). Part of me just wants to dismiss it. The takeover happened months ago and the only real thing that's changed now is the fact that we know about it. But then I think about those creeping little annoyances, that have entered the game since the money men gained control, and it does feel ominous. I didn't always agree with Andrew Gower's decisions - I seriously resented the end of free trade and cheered its return - but I always felt that he did have a game related reason behind it all. Making me happy was not his priority; making a brilliant game was right there at number one. I don't trust an equity firm to have the same ethos. Their job is to stimulate profits, which isn't always the same as creating the best end product that they possibly can. It's a position with which I can thoroughly empathise. I was only whining along those lines yesterday, when I blogged elsewhere that the best articles you could expect from me are probably history related. The ones that bring home the bread and butter are about Justin Bieber and Beyonce. It's business. My problem is when their business clashes with my leisure. Runescape remains the single arena in my life where hard work equates reward. If I need a crafting level, I train crafting and get that level. If I want a quest cape, I do the quests and get the cape. It's a simple and very cathartic process, when real life has too many variables and other factors influencing the same. If I want a job, I get the qualifications and experience, apply and still go up against a billion over people after the same job. I work my mammary glands off in real life for hope and prayers; then I log onto Runescape and unwind with clear and achievable results. It's psychological. It stops being such a sanity saver when unsavoury elements start slithering in. It's distasteful to watch the squeeze on my F2P friends, who, no matter what anyone says, are coming under more pressure than ever before to buy membership. I hated seeing them lose their place in the hiscores. It's one thing to not miss what you don't know, but to have it taken away is worse. That reward thing, that I just mentioned above, suddenly became ostensibly denied to them. If players are still F2P, even after so much aggressive marketing, then it has to be deduced that a fair number of them can't afford membership. I dislike real world economics being used to punish people. I see too much of that in reality - cousins unable to afford a higher education; American friends suffering health issues for want of free medical care. It's all on the same scale to my mind - very much opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of severity, but still on the same scale. The attitudes it reveals are so very Victorian. Such things niggle away at my enjoyment of the game, especially when I spot a really nasty situation just waiting to explode. Has anyone joined the dots between the citadels, clan sizes and the worth of F2P yet? It's going to take just a few more months, maybe a year or two, before we find the largest clan owners ejecting their F2P members. You heard it here first. Though let me state one thing very vehemently and very clearly - no free playing member will ever be kicked out of Canting Away over their lack of ability to help in the citadel. It will happen over my dead body. I would rather see the Canting citadel fall to the ground in ruins than lose a single member of my clan over real world finances. Moreover, we will welcome any F2P player ejected by other clans. That is my promise. In you come. All of this is merely observation. I've paid my membership since 2007, not even bothering to stop it during the year that I went AWOL. Jagex have made easy money off me in the past, but I don't begrudge them a penny. I enjoy their game to the utmost, even when they chuck the likes of Nomad and Vanstrom into my path. Then my fun wavers somewhat, but never totally evaporates. I've a lot to thank this game for in friendships, distraction, sanity and employment. My subscription has shielded me from the worst of the marketing, but it hasn't left me immune. I've missed out on items in-game, because I didn't cancel my standing order and buy my membership more expensively through game cards. I have friends who tried to keep up and found themselves overlapping with the special offers. Their membership, purchased at inflated costs, now runs well into next year. The six month offer hadn't run out before the three month was introduced. Can we expect more of this? They are the micro-transactions that everyone keeps hoping won't turn up. They're already here. For the truly rich, we can also include the in-game items that derived from buying a Runefest ticket each year. Real world finances reaching its insidious finger right into the game again and again. Don't buy; don't get - fair enough. It's at ignorable levels right now. Anyone can turn a blind eye, if they really want, but my worry comes from reviewing the recent past and extending that run into the future. Let's just say that I have a bad feeling about all of this. I really, truly hope that I'm proved wrong.

What I know about player killing can be written on the back of a very small postage stamp. Should any of you find said stamp and turn it over, you will read the words, 'Ask Gri3f'. PKing has never been my thing. The courage, strategies and vastness of it all boggles my mind, especially when large, inexperienced clans have to be led into battle against each other. This is the work of military generals. Fortunately, both Sal's and Canting had brilliant leaders for this clash; and I want to start with talking about them. I was surprised to learn (via Tabt) that this was the first major event that Micael Fatia had organised for Sal's Realm. From my point of view, he approached it all with a confidence, clarity and diplomacy that smacked of professionalism. Despite my ignorance about the subject, I never once found myself in a position where I didn't know what was going on. As soon as Micael took the helm, he came into Canting and introduced himself. PKing might make me nervous, but my chat channel is home territory, which helped put me at ease. He was polite, good-humoured and patient, when I had to go and look things up. I actually felt quite important engaging in these negotiations with him! Less welcome, from my highly biased perspective, was how well he rallied his troops and kept them tight, as we did battle in Clan Wars. In fact, that was downright scary! Sal's Realm should love him for it; Canting certainly didn't! <_< Nevertheless, I appreciated how honourable he was throughout, even when he was obviously our main target during every bout. Finally, he took the time to come and thank us all for the event. While chatting to Canting, someone complained to him about some of the bad language that Sal's members had used to insult us. Micael graciously apologised on behalf of Sal's Realm. It's a big clan and everyone was excited. Things get said in the heat of the moment that might cross the boundaries of fun, but he had spoken up if he spotted it at the time.* All in all, I was very impressed with Micael Fatia. He was a credit to Sal's last night and they are in for big things, if this was just the start of his forum career. (*I've heard no complaints, but if this also happened in the opposite direction, then you have my apology on behalf of Canting too. This is for all of the same reasons that Micael gave for Sal's Realm. Our clans were there in good nature and remain friends. Let's face it, half of Canting are Slammers too! I'm the clan owner and I'm a Sal's woman through and through. :P) Leading Canting against them was Gri3f. I never cease to be impressed by his mind, but last night took that to a whole new level. Last year, Sal's Realm had not been organised and we decimated them from start to finish. This year, they had Micael Fatia. As soon as the first round had started, it was apparent that Gri3f's strategy, so highly successful last year, was not going to work as well now. I watched him do the cerebral equivalent of turning on a sixpence. He devised a whole Plan B in about a second. His orders were short and simple, so that even noobs like me could follow them. I've never seen Canting as disciplined, as when Gri3f is leading us. It's now completely etched into our psyche. Later on, outside Clan Wars and in a different place, Gri3f gave a command and every Canting member present just did it! He's a natural born leader, I swear. It should also be noted that both Micael Fatia and Gri3f weren't taking experienced PKers into this fight. These weren't clans honed to battle perfection by hours in the Wilderness. We haven't the lexicon of the great PKing legends - half of us wouldn't know what a PJer is, let alone how to form a DD. The likes of me and Msclick are more likely to hurt ourselves with a sword than anyone else. These are the people whom Micael and Gri3f formed into battle-ready forces, directed only by their respective strategies. No rehearsals, many of us turning up just minutes before the battle began. I think they both did brilliantly. So what was the result? The bare facts are here: Round One: Sal's Realm decimated Canting Away. Round Two: Sal's Realm beat Canting, but we lasted a lot longer and took some of them with us. Round Three: Canting Away beat Sal's Realm (NB Some Slammers had defected to Canting.) Round Four: No show from Sal's Realm resulted in an automatic victory for Canting. Round Five: Canting Away decimated Sal's Realm. Round Six: Canting Away decimated Sal's Realm. It ended there, as Micael Fatia informed us that he was no longer able to form an army. Too many people had left the battle and gone to do something else (or become turncoats and started fighting for Canting), so the mechanics of Clan Wars would not allow him in. This was apparently also the issue during round four, though enough came back for the final two bouts. The final tally was Canting 4 - Sal's Realm 2. Canting met in Varrock West Bank. It was supposed to be at 8pm, with the Clan Wars battle starting at half past, but many of us were there early. Gri3f was the first person present and he did a great job of checking armour and inventories. I think that every individual in a Canting clan cloak had some personal attention from our PKing leader. He moved amongst us encouraging here and reassuring there, as the situation demanded it. Occasionally there would be a cry of 'fall in'! At the time, I thought this was so he could keep up with the headcount and know how many he was taking into the arena. In retrospect, I think it was also him getting us used to 'falling in', as this was a huge part of keeping us in order once the battle started. 'Fall in' or 'FI' meant that we all had to follow him, thus turning into a mobile death dot. I personally never had any intention of 'falling out' long enough to have to FI! I was going to cling onto Gri3f until it was all over! I got into trouble with Gri3f in Varrock. *Ashamed face* Last year, I'd bought a full set of corrupt dragon armour for the same fight then. It's been sitting in my bank ever since. I took it out and popped it on, checking my worn inventory to see how I looked. Stylish! Suddenly there's Gri3f yelling across the bank, "Merch Gwyar! Get that armour off!" When I missed it, he repeated it in both Canting and Old Canting, then again in game. I finally got the message and immediately removed it. I thought that it wasn't appropriate this time or something, but he soon reappraised me of that one. Corrupt dragon armour degrades into nothing, as you wear it. Putting it on half an hour before the fight would render it dust by the time you actually got in there! Oops! The funny thing was that, despite carrying it into all six fights, I never put it on again. I'm much happier as a ranger, plus I'd read Gri3f's guide on PKing with range or mage. I spent the entire event in green dhide, firing my arrows like some latter day Legolas. Unless I was obeying the command to FI, I tried to act like a real PKer, hugging walls and firing arrows over fences. On one occasion, I had IAmKitten targeting me. He was fighting with melee and I was taking a lot of damage. I didn't panic (which is my usual strategy in those situations), instead I recalled Gri3f's guide. I didn't attempt to fight back immediately. I hugged a wall and dashed around the back of it, in a tight manoeuvre. IAmKitten got trapped behind it! There was a hole in the wall, through which I let off a volley of arrows. I won!! Me! I took down IAmKitten! I think that surely makes me a proper PKer now. I should get a hat with my kill count on, so I can turn into one of those scary statues that Sal's members kept being to intimidate us in the waiting room. Rawr! But that was all in the future. For now, I was taking the corrupt dragon armour off and cringing at being naughty. I took my dragonhide out and packed some addy arrows. I only had 100. I've got 1000s of rune arrows, plus dragon and loads of God arrows. I was going to ask Gri3f if I should take them instead, but he was checking the next person's inventory. I looked it up. Maple bows are the highest you can use in F2P and they won't allow anything higher than addy. :( I added my Sight to the maple bow and fell in behind our esteemed leader. He was worried. He didn't actually come out and say, "Oh dear, we're going to get slaughtered," because he knew that would freak me out. But I could tell from the way that he kept asking for more people that he was slightly concerned by our numbers. We had about a dozen. Sal's had the capacity to bring 100s. I wasn't as concerned. We'd had the same situation last year and we'd won hands down. Besides history is full of small armies defeating massive ones. I was only on about Puebla last week, when a tiny Mexican army defeated Napoleon's huge, highly experienced, unbeaten-for-50-years invasion force. Plus Owain Glyndwr did it for two decades. Ok, he had Welsh archers on his side, but so *touches bow* did Gri3f. He'd had me put on my private chat, which I never do because I tend to get inundated with messages. He wanted to check who in chat was a Canting member and who was a Sal's Realm spy (that went both ways too; Micael was doing the same - and Tabt was very busy kicking our lot out of their clan chat LOL). I suddenly had a hearty hello from xNightSpeedX, who had once been a Canting general before going to pastures new. I was anxiously reading Gri3f's latest, 'anyone else coming?', so my response was less a 'ohai Nightspeed, how are you?' and more a 'Come and fight for Canting!! Varrock West Bank, w61!!' Bless him, he didn't even ask any more details. He just came to the location, where he could converse with Gri3f, then grab his sword. Actually, thinking about it, Nightspeed knows me well enough to know that he'd gain a better picture asking Gri3f than wasting time questioning me. :P As more Canters flooded in, Gri3f appeared more relaxed. Well, he never seems stressed, but I'm talking on the Gri3f scale here. It's all relative. He finally announced that he wasn't worried any more, which proved that he had been. Once we were ready, he led us on a walk to somewhere north of Falador. I had no idea where we were going, because I still thought that Clan War was in the Wilderness, but I didn't question it. I just enjoyed the trek. It was great! We were practising our blood-curdling rawrs all the way there. :D We entered the waiting room and regrouped on the other side of the door. A barrage of banter went up, as we spied the waiting Slammers. I smiled. You see, we were in tight formation, having all fallen in behind Gri3f. We looked like two people - Gri3f followed by a single dot of fighters. You'd have to right-click us to realise there were loads of people following him. I didn't count us, but I reckon there were about 20 Canters representing all sides of the combat triangle. Our levels took in the whole range from single figures to maxed. My smile was in surveying the opposition. There were Slammers everywhere! They might be more numerous, but they were scattered throughout the waiting room. Gri3f had told us last year that Canting won because we were organised and they were not. This looked and smelt like an action replay. Of course, we didn't know at that point about the strategies of Micael Fatia. :( Enter my one and only instance of minor panic. We were all in Old Canting, not the new one, so were fighting through that channel. Gri3f is an admin in new Canting and a general in the old one, but not under that name. Gri3f has about a billion PKing accounts and used to regularly change which one had the mod powers in Old Canting. It was left with 'Grief', as opposed to 'Gri3f', having control in there. When Micael stepped forward to challenge us, Gri3f couldn't accept. He calmly instructed me to do so on behalf of Canting. O.O Me?! I only own the place!! This would involve the nitty-gritty of terms and things! It would mean ticking boxes that only the likes of Micael and Gri3f understand! I could inadvertently condemn Canting to pain and instant death before we ever took the field! "Or make me a general," Gri3f added. I rushed into the settings. It's been over a year since I've been in there, I'm used to the new clan settings and these didn't look the same. I had to find Grief on my friends list and remove him. I had to add Gri3f and make him a general. It took me a couple of minutes to do all of that, then another minute for him to show up as gaining the status. I was so aware of time ticking on, and Micael and Gri3f standing there, both of our clans pumped up and waiting. We were in. I huddled behind Gri3f, in the midst of a death dot of my friends and comrades. He gave short commands, so easy to follow - 'Pot Up', 'Fall In', 'Pile Micael'. Unfortunately, it appears that Micael was doing exactly the same thing over there, because Sal's Realm piled Gri3f and there were more of them! The like of Zach and Coss kept their heads and adapted; but the rest of us scattered and were quickly picked off one by one. All Gri3f could do was call from the prison saying, 'Take the magers and rangers first'. All I heard was, 'OhCachi!I'maRangerAndMicaelKnowsWhatHe'sDoing!' I was soon dead. As the prison filled up, Gri3f wryly commented, "Sal's got organised." It broke the tension before I could even work myself up into a decent panic. LOL By the second battle, Gri3f had gone. My jaw dropped. I hadn't even realised until we were inside the arena. I let instinct take over and clung to Zach instead, as did half of Canting. There was confusion just inside that door, not just with me. Half of Canting followed my lead and attached ourselves to Zach. A couple of others just stood there looking for Gri3f; more attached themselves to Coss. Then something strange happened. I felt a dead calm take over me, which never happens in these situations. I typed, 'I'll lead us into battle', but I didn't send it because Zach had just given an order instead. We were to form behind Randomdude89. We weren't to worry. Gri3f was going to be piled as a priority, so this would throw Sal's Realm into confusion. I'd never freaking heard of Randomdude, but I knew that our lot were dragging in friends to help us. I figured that he was probably some famous PKer, who had come to help out Gri3f. In many regards, that was absolutely true. As Zach and Coss rushed to stand behind Randomdude, I did the same. The rest of Canting were also falling in. The whole incident had taken about 30 seconds and we were a tightly formed clan again. It took us a few minutes to start fighting though. It seemed that Randomdude and Micael were thinking along the same lines. Both had their clans hiding out in some dead foliage, waiting for the other side to initiate the first attack. It was only as tactics were being whispered into Old Canting that I finally sussed something. Randomdude sounded an awful lot like Gri3f... Suddenly Sal's Realm were there, as tightly formed behind Micael as we were behind Randomdude. The order came to take out Micael Fatia. We rushed, but as we were piling him, he started moving away. It rendered us stretched thin and divided. I was just thinking how clever that was, when I realised I was under attack. I ran! Freaking MFI was on my back and I rushed off into the foliage, no longer even watching for what Randomdude was saying. This was an error. It left me separated from the rest of my clan, shoving anchovy pizzas down my throat There was also the surreal aspect of MFI being in a Skype call with me. I was berating him verbally with, 'get off me!' and bemoaning the lack of panic sharks in F2P. MFI was laughing in my ear, as he pursued me, then giving me friendly advice like using my panic swordfish instead of the pizzas, as they were only one bite instead of two. This is what I mean about Canting and Sal's Realm usually being indivisible. My PKer was also my friend and one-time general of Canting. He was teaching me how to survive, even as he was trying to kill me. <3 MFI's screenshot present to me. My response was, 'Msclick does rock!!' I died eventually, but not before I'd found the rest of Canting and shot a lot more arrows. I'm not sure if I shook MFI off or if he gave me a minute or so's break. I know that I eventually thought I was safe and rushed around a pond to fire arrows at whomever Randomdude called to target. Then MFI was back and I was dead. >:( I joined a prison that was slowly filling up with Canters. It wasn't as fast as the first round, but it was still a decimation. I think that MFI and Tabt felt sorry for us then. They're often the champions of the underdog, so they defected and brought at least two other Slammers with them. Our cause also received a boost by the fact that some of Sal's Realm appear to have the endurance capabilities of small fleas. They wandered off, leaving us with a much more equal playing field in terms of numbers. Round three was a much more closely fought match. We didn't run off, when the orders came. MFI and Tabt were delighting in attacking Micael Fatia anyway, which left the rest of the clan for us. I watched carefully what Randomdude said and followed my orders. I hugged walls and stood behind fences. I was out there for ages! The final result was never certain until the closing shots, but then it was a morale boosting win for Canting. Our clan chat erupted into cheers! We were back! On the other side, I believe that Slammers were realising that the odds were now not so firmly stacked in their favour. So many left that Micael was unable to field an army after accepting the challenge. Canting stood inside the arena watching the countdown happening. One Slammer did come in, then left immediately. Ten... Nine... Eight... no Slammers in the arena... Seven... Six... "We're going to win by default?"... Five... Four... "Woot!"... Three.. Two... Still no-one for Sal's Realm... One! OMG! 2-2! Canting had won without a shot fired! Micael apologised once we were out. He explained that he hadn't been able to get enough people to represent Sal's Realm in time. Judging by Randomdude's responses, I don't think he really counted this as a win, being too schooled in PK etiquette, honour and stuff like that. Not so the rest of Canting. We were dancing around like over-excited happy people, screaming 2-2 to anyone who'd listen! Whatever Micael had said to his clan in the meantime caused a sudden influx back. It wasn't the sheer numbers of before (and some of his best fighters were now turning out for Canting), but it was enough for two more battles. These lasted longer than any that had gone before. Randomdude seriously had to step up his game. His strategies were coming thick and fast. We had to return to a certain spot in between each piling of a player. Everyone did. We watched his pronouncements like hawks! Moreover, we also knew the chain of command. As soon as Randomdude was killed, he called out for Zach to take over. I'd actually been brave enough to issue the challenges in these rounds, so I had the little bubble to work. I switched Randomdude's name to Zach's. All that needed to be said was prominently displayed on our screens. The real PKers would probably laugh themselves hoarse, but I felt like we were a really tight clan in those final two battles. We also won both very decisively. It was over when Micael could no longer persuade enough Slammers to fight for Sal's Realm. He came into Canting and thanked us all for a great event. I went into Sal's Realm and did the same. It really had been a lot of fun! We retired to my house in Yanille, where a party was scheduled anyway in half an hour. We just started early. I'd invited all of Sal's to join us. Martinofc took us up on the offer and it was great to see him there. Thank you Sal's Realm for another great Christmas Clan Wars fight. See you next year for the third clash? <3

No-one can ever say that Canting Away aren't hardcore. Yet another 24 hour pixel party passed in fun, companionship, the discovery of new things and the proof that we can band together into glory and greatness. We covered the length and breadth of Gielinor, sampling often forgotten realms of entertainment laid on by Jagex; or creating our own. There were moments of poignancy and sadness, there were many more of laughter and pride. Days like this one show me why I'm a member of Canting Away. Days like this one show me while I'll always be a member of my clan. But, before we launch into all that happened, there has to be a special mention for the most hardcore of us all. Elias Erebus! I take my pointy green hat off to you and incline my head in respect! Elias was there for the launch. Elias was there for all of it! While the rest of us stopped for sleep in the middle, he merely dozed off during a single event, then shook himself awake and just carried on going. While the rest of us took an hour or two off for noms, he quickly dived into his kitchen for lunch and was back within minutes. Canting as a whole might be feeling smug that we can pull off a 24 hour party, to cover all timezones, but Elias was the real thing. (I'm suspecting that Party Pete is worrying for his job over in Falador.) 00.00: F2P: Launch! It's become traditional to meet in the Lumbridge cowfield three times a day during the Canting festivals. At midnight, noon and midnight again (GMT), all of our people put down their axes, swords and wands to rush to that famous field. (It's our version of Glastonbury now. >.>) It's always in F2P, so that no-one is excluded here. But what happens next differs from year to year, festival to festival. Even I didn't know what we were going to do. Kayla had rushed to volunteer to host the launch event, so I merely had to show up. Arcturus was already there and so I can say with certainty that the first Canting person partying this year was him. We weren't alone for long. Armmadylo turned up mid-conversation, so we quickly switched from speaking in Welsh to speaking in English. It would have been rude not to (and besides, Arct is much more fluent than I am). The field quickly filled up with people, greeting each other with absolute delight. I love watching that. We chat with each other every day and we'd just been doing just that in the cc for hours, but once we're in that field, it's like we haven't seen each other for years! It is different meeting up in the pixels though. You get to look at people's combat levels and gasp, "OMG! Look how you've grown! I remember when you were in bronze!" And stuff like that. After ten minutes or so synchronising emotes, it became obvious that Kayla wasn't coming. Zach texted her IRL and received an immediate response. We'd all guessed what had happened. The date was December 28th, but only in Britain and eastwards. She was all the way west, still in December 27th (it takes a while for the Americas to catch up). I usually put a countdown timer on the schedule, but I'd forgotten this year. Kayla texted back a shocked apology and said she'd rush to get online. In the meantime, Zach happily led the event. We walked in a parade all of the way to Varrock to storm the castle. This was Occupy Varrock! Zach led us in the chanting of 'we are the 99%!', as we entered the courtyard, waving our vexiliums. The king had stationed a row of guards on the steps, but they were no match for us. We'd soon taken every room of the castle, while Elias had grabbed the throne room itself! With Occupy Varrock such a success, we marched in procession to our next stop. Occupy Falador Square! This we accomplished without any opposition at all. After about five minutes in occupation, someone suggested that we suicide the Giant Mole, just for the lulz. We darted into the bank to strip of and grab torches, then hurried to Falador Park to dig down into the burrows beneath. The 'suicide' part failed, on account of us repeatedly pwning said mole, though that was helped greatly by the fact that Armmadylo had arrived in full armour, clutching weaponry. I like to think that my kicks did a bit of damage, but I'm suspecting that Armma did a whole lot more. I got a moleskin out of it though! :P 01.00: F2P: Luos Rebbur Memorial Event. As the hour struck, Zach and I were debating what to do about the next event. Kayla was also hosting this, as she and Luos Rebbur had been close friends. I was willing to cover for her, but I didn't want Kayla to actually miss it. Zach had also volunteered, but was waivering for the same reason. We were just veering towards postponing this event until later in the day, when a slightly breathless Kayla rushed into Canting, "I'm here!!" She had made it to her computer. Woot! We all climbed out of the mole's lair and hurried to the bank to dust of the earth and get dressed. But the gathering outside was notably devoid of any Kayla. Strange. Nevertheless, we lined up behind Zach and waited for her to take the helm. There was a <_< face above Zach's head. "Kayla's had a power cut. She's asked me to run the event." Awwww! All credit to Zach, as this wasn't the easiest of slots to take over at the last minute. I offered to do it, as I knew he was a little nervous about it. He responded that Kayla had asked him and it was a point of respect that he honoured that request. He was quite quiet as he led us to Lumbridge Fish Pond, no doubt musing over precisely what he was going to say. The Canting veterans all rushed to start chopping trees, lighting fires, fishing and cooking our catch. With such a large influx of newcomers to our clan this year, there were quite a few present who had no idea what was going on, why we were there or, more to the point, who was Luos Rebbur. Zach was brilliant. He's a natural story-teller anyway and he did Luos, Kayla and our clan proud as he talked about her. For those who don't know, Luos Rebbur was a member of Canting. She quickly settled in and she was well loved by everyone she met. In particular, she and Kayla became great friends. In November 2010, our clan was stunned to learn that there are certain situations in which you don't respawn in Lumbridge, when you die. IRL leukaemia is one of them. This fish-pond, in north Lumbridge, was one of Luos's favourite places. She could do so much here. Out there was a hospital bed. In here was a a pretty pond, with trees and fish, and a chat channel full of good friends. Once a year, Canting gathers to hang out at her fish pond. Just because she didn't come back, it doesn't mean that we can't and we'll train her skills on her behalf. At the end of Zach's story, you could have heard a pin drop. Coss and I were in Skype at the time. Coss commented that Zach did that very well and I had to agree. When he called the minute's silence, it was observed; not just in-game, but in our call too. Canting remembered Luos Rebbur, our friend and clanmate. But the last thing that Luos would have wanted was for any of us to be morose, especially not in her name! As soon as the silence was up, we immediately lined up at the shores of her pond and we synchronised the 'jump for joy' emote. That, I believe, was far more fitting a tribute to her than feeling sad. Even towards the end, she was never unhappy; and even in pain, she always had a cheery word in chat. So I ask you, when you next log on, after reading this, please do the 'jump for joy' emote for Luos, then carry on. It's all good. 01.50: Last Minute Ninja-ed in Event We were all sitting around chatting by Luos's fish pond, when branches started appearing beneath our feet. It was patently an evil tree somewhere in the vicinity. I leapt to my feet and rushed down to the spot near to the swamp wall. The root was there to be nutured! Within seconds, the rest of Canting had joined me. We tended that root, until it burst into full life - an elder tree! Unfortunately, this counted out 70% of those there, as it required a high woodcutting level to cut. The rest of us stayed though. We met W77 there, who was so lovely that we kept him. He got an instant invitation to our clan and turned up to enjoy many more events in our festival. Once the tree was dead, I said my goodnights, slightly perturbed by the fact that Fred hadn't been seen. Zach reassured me that he'd just bump his own 3am event up to 2am and it would all be good. I haven't heard anything about the events that happened between 2am and 8am, but no doubt Elias could fill us in. He was at them all. For that matter, Zach probably hosted them all, the way he was going! :( As for Castle Wars (8am-9am), it turned out that D1D had quit Runescape last week. He'd probably forgotten that he'd agreed to take this event. There was no problem, Elias just stepped into the breach and led Canting into the minigame. The reports that I've had were that it was fun. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, they were just several games of Castle Wars. Thank you for that, Elias! As for me, I was firmly tucked up in my bed, snoozing away until my alarm told me that it was time to get up for my house party.

Full Terms! The terms of the 2011 battle have just been agreed between myself for Canting and Micael Fatia for Sal's. They are: - Each side will wear their respective clan capes (available from the clan camp, south of Falador). - The war will be on world 61 on 28th December 2011. We will meet at 8:00pm GMT and then start the battle at 8:30pm GMT. - The arena will be the Classic clan wars arena, all multi-combat except for a few squares around the entrance portals. - Returning after death will not be allowed. - Any items (including Gravite, Corrupt Dragon, etc.) will be allowed, all combat styles (Magic, Ranged and Melee) will also be allowed. - The war will be held on a F2P world. ;) :P ;) :) ;) ;) ;) Last year, a horribly outnumbered Canting Away managed to completely decimate the hordes of Sal's Realm in Clan Wars. We naturally haven't ever let them forget it. This year, the challenge is on again! Will the Slammers claw back their dignity? Or will the underdogs shine through again? Find out at 8pm tomorrow night! Canting will be meeting beforehand, at Varrock West Bank, where we will tool up and practice saying 'Rawr' in a blood-curdling way. In 2010, we were led to victory by one of our greatest fighters - the hero of Canting and the scourge of PKers everywhere - Gri3f! He was convinced before we even went into battle that we could win. We followed his strategy to the utmost and we did indeed win. This year, he has agreed to organise us into a terrifying force to be reckoned with again! Canting take heed. Here are Gri3f's instructions (illustrated by me, with help from the GE)! Gri3f's personal outfit for tomorrow. General Guidelines for War: >If you're under 40 defence just bring pure mage (best combat spell, binds, GOP robes>blue wizzy robes, power ammy and swordfish/anchovy pizzas) Gri3f said: Super strength pots don't work in f2p, bring normal ones 1st pic needs runes/a staff >Over 40 defence: If you have 90+ ranged,decent melee stats or mage: equipt: rune plate, skirt, full helm, addy arrows, explorers ring, power ammy, berserker shield and rune bax/a gravite wep invy: sighted maple bow>maple short, green dhide body, str pot, anchovy pizzas Gri3f said: Super strength pots dont work in f2p, bring normal ones 2nd pic needs a green dhide body/a f2p bow to use High mage + melee stats, low ranged: equipt: rune plate, skirt, full helm, explorers ring, power ammy, berserker shield and rune bax/a gravite wep invy: robe set (GOP>blue wizzy), staff, fireblasts, strength pot, rest anchovy pizzas If low melee stats: Bring Mage only or ranged only, basically maximise your ranged/mage bonuses so you'll deal lots of damage. Maximising range. Gri3f disdained the above picture entirely and came to meet me to sort this one out. Here is the proper maximising range picture, as directed by Himself. Strategy: We'll set a caller, and he/she will make calls in the cc (telling you who to attack on Sal's side) we'll then attack them as a group and ko them. Listen to the caller, stay with the main group of canters. If you get piled (attacked by a group of Sal-ers) throw on your highest defence gear and run around trying to lose them on obstacles. If you have a explorers ring use it to run like you're Usain Bolt. If you're not being attacked and you have mage, use it if we're piling someone in rune and in general remember the combat triangle when tanking/attacking. In addition, there's all the advice from last year. It worked then! Plus here is Micael's thread about it for intelligence gathering/spying purposes: Click me! Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner! ---------------- Now playing: Choirboys - Walking In The Air via FoxyTunes

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The excitement is bubbling; the questions are coming thick and fast; the time is ticking on, will it happen? YES! IT WILL! :) Ladies, gentlemen, gnomes and squirrels, CANTING WINTER SOLSTICE FESTIVAL IS ON THE WAY! :/ Here is how it happened last year. The format has worked for years, so we might as well run with it again. 24 hours party people? Unless otherwise stated: F2p World: 61 P2p World: 77 Wednesday 28th December 2011 (all times in GMT; other timezones added as people work them out and let me know :)): 00.00: F2P: Launch! Kayla will be leading the opening event. Meet at Lumbridge Cowfield (over the River Lum), through the gate and right up the back. (US Central Time: 18:00 (27th); US ES Time: 19:00 (27th)) 01.00: F2P: Luos Rebbur Memorial Event. Kayla will lead us in something honouring our IRL fallen fellow Canter. (US Central Time: 19:00 (27th); US ES Time: 20:00 (27th)) MERCH'S GONE TO BED. PLEASE SEE ZACH'S BLOG FOR URGENT MESSAGES; OR LOG INTO CANTING; OR ASSUME THAT THE PROGRAMME IS RUNNING AS PLANNED. HAPPY PARTYING ALL! 02.00: P2P: Treasure Trail! Fred Gwyar will be taking us on a treasure hunt through Gielinor. (US Central Time: 20:00 (27th); US ES Time: 21:00 (27th)) 03.00: F2P: Surprise Event! Zach will be organising a surprise event! (Well, the content is a surprise. We know the time and all.) (US Central Time: 21:00 (27th); US ES Time: 22:00 (27th)) 04.00: (US Central Time: 22:00 (27th); US ES Time: 23:00 (27th)) 05.00: (US Central Time: 23:00 (27th); US ES Time: 24:00 (27th)) 06.00: (US Central Time: 24:00 (27th); US ES Time: 01:00 (28th)) 07:00: (US Central Time: 01:00 (28th); US ES Time: 02:00 (28th)) 08:00: P2P: Castle Wars! D1D is taking us to Castle Wars. (US Central Time: 02:00 (28th); US ES Time: 03:00 (28th)) 09:00: P2P: Castle Wars! See above, this is a two hour slot. (US Central Time: 03:00 (28th); US ES Time: 04:00 (28th)) 10:00: P2P: Merch Gwyar's house party. My private chat will be set to public. My house will be open. As for the facilities in the house read this entry for ideas on what to bring. (US Central Time: 04:00 (28th); US ES Time: 05:00 (28th)) 11:00: P2P: Citadel time is now! Teacuptime, Merch and others will be leading the chopping around the tree in the Canting Citadel. Expect fun and music. :/ (US Central Time: 05:00 (28th); US ES Time: 06:00 (28th)) 12.00 Noon: F2P World 62: Mid-point Event! Pub crawl! We'll be touring the hostelries of F2P Gielinor and having trying all of the local brews. (US Central Time: 06:00 (28th); US ES Time: 07:00 (28th)) 13:00: P2P: Fight Pits! Orix is taking us fighting in Karamja volcano (US Central Time: 07:00 (28th); US ES Time: 08:00 (28th)) 14:00: P2P: Citadel time part two is now! (US Central Time: 08:00 (28th); US ES Time: 09:00 (28th)) 15:00: P2P: Blast Furnace! Helm Larder said, "I take everybody who cares to one of the less appreciated spots in RuneScape, to try out an event that is great for a spot of cash as well as good smithing xp! You'll need 60 Smithing to use the anvils (or pay some sort of toll-see the wiki) and to have started The Giant Dwarf to get into Keldagrim. Please bring coal, your preferred smithing ore, and some cash: one of the dwarves un-notes stuff for you, and since you need half as much coal as usual in a furnace here, it's cheaper than normal." (US Central Time: 09:00 (28th); US ES Time: 10:00 (28th)) 16:00: P2P: Trouble Brewing! We're off with Tanyakins to make us some rum! (US Central Time: 10:00 (28th); US ES Time: 11:00 (28th)) 17:00: P2P: Barrows Event. Cossack (aka Canting) is taking us to Barrows. (US Central Time: 11:00 (28th); US ES Time: 12:00 (28th)) 18:00: P2P: Barrows Event. See above. (US Central Time: 12:00 (28th); US ES Time: 13:00 (28th)) 19:00: F2P: Fires Around Varrock! We will attempt to encircle Varrock in a ring of fire! (US Central Time: 13:00 (28th); US ES Time: 14:00 (28th)) 20:00: F2P: Canting versus Sal's Realm Clan Wars Challenge! Gri3f will be taking us to war! Canting will fight Sal's Realm clan, in f2p Clan Wars (safe fight). Canting to meet at Varrock West Bank. (US Central Time: 14:00 (28th); US ES Time: 15:00 (28th)) 21:00: F2P: See above. We're going for two hours on this one. (US Central Time: 15:00 (28th); US ES Time: 16:00 (28th)) 22:00: P2P: Merch Gwyar's house party. My private chat will be set to public. My house will be open. As for the facilities in the house read this entry for ideas on what to bring. (US Central Time: 16:00 (28th); US ES Time: 17:00 (28th)) 23:00: F2P/P2P?: Wilderness Adventure! Arcturus is taking us into the Wild, 'dressed as chickens. will take on the chaos ele, attack random people and generally cause chaos.' (NB Don't bring any chicken outfits that you aren't prepared to lose.) (US Central Time: 17:00 (28th); US ES Time: 18:00 (28th)) 24:00: F2P: Close-down event. (US Central Time: 18:00 (28th); US ES Time: 19:00 (28th))

There is little doubt that Jagex messed up on the clan citadels. The issue was acutely identified by Teacuptime, just as soon as he'd done the maths in those opening days. He quietly tipped me off, but I prayed to Guthix that it would turn out alright. Canting is, after all, probably the most laid back clan in Gielinor. We all do our own thing. We have PKers, skillers, maxed out players and noobs; our people can just as easily be chatting from the inside of a monster's lair, as standing before a willow tree chopping it down. We've never been big on events, but when we host one, it's done in style. Everyone puts down their axes, whips and fashion accessories and joins in. None of us can fall, without a band of friends rushing to pick us up. What we have in spades is community, co-operation and friendliness. Those things, if they could be measured at all, would be in the tonnage. The citadel relies on all of these things, so we should have been alright. But that fatal flaw was still written into it. The citadel will only ever appeal to skillers. It has a battlefield, which can reveal some surprising bonuses as regards effigies (more on that later), but the bulk of both the attractions and the work will be done by skillers. Moreover, it can only be done by those skillers willing to work on over-ranked basic skills for less XP than they can get elsewhere. The grand prize will be far in the future, when the citadel XP overtakes that available in the rest of Gielinor. So what is in it for the PKers, the PvMers and the combat orientated individuals? This still wasn't the flaw highlighted by Teacuptime to me in week one. That was that there would come a time when the amount of resources + the headcount through the door would outstrip the novelty factor of the citadel. In short, in order to keep even the maintenance going on that tier, we would need more assistance than we'd probably be able to secure. Then all Hell would break loose. It did. Kicker and I smithing at the height of the Canting Citadel We're only a small clan, so it was always going to take some effort to get all of the way to tier 7. Teacuptime provided the figures and even I winced. My faith in my clan is usually unshakeable, but it's realistic too. I generally pitch my optimism slightly higher than the majority might, but I've never been wrong yet. Canting, when we set our mind to it, can and consistently does achieve greatness. It might be small time, compared to some of the legendary PKing clans, but it's nonetheless great. We had an extremely low level beat Elvarg the other day. I took down Vanstrom. Things like this count for a lot. The Canting Citadel made it all of the way to tier 4 and so we began the push for tier 5. 30,000 Timber, 27,500 Stone, 25,000 Metal Bars, 12,000 Precious Bars, plus twenty people through the door. Teacuptime's calculator told us that it would never happen in one week. Those hard at work there squirrelled away resources to the limit of our carry over stock, but we didn't get enough people to make up the headcount. That's the rub. The skillers can work our pixel fingers down to nubs, but if no-one else bothers to even step foot in the reception portal, then leave, we're sunk. Canting has never been a place for forcing our people into doing anything. I don't have to go to God Wars. Grief doesn't have to train crafting. Nobody uninterested in the citadel needs to come near to it. That's the way it is. Not to mention the fact that we have a large number of F2P members, who would desperately love to help out in the citadel. They can't and our asking just rubs the salt of that in their wounds. It took a long time for the citadel to collapse. It's now all the way back to tier 1, with a single low level tree and a basic keep. That's not the worst it could have been. If that decayed, then we'd have one last week of seeing our work utterly destroyed, then the citadel would be locked. Last night, Zach entered it for the first time in ages and he was visibly shocked. He hadn't realised it had fallen so far, because the Citadel Posse (the likes of me, MsClick and Teacuptime), hadn't told anyone. In the spirit of not forcing anyone to do anything that they didn't like to do, we'd announce that we were in there. We'd invite people to join us. We'd not make a huge song and dance out of it. Zach knew that it was in trouble. He'd assumed that we'd lost maybe a single tier or a piece of decoration. He was the one who suggested that I finally blog about this and tell it as it is. He also said something that was incorrect. It wasn't a lie, because he believed it as he said it. Nevertheless, it is wrong to say that the citadel wasn't falling down, when Ritster caused such a stir over it. When I first heard that Ritster had been driving people mad over coming to the citadel, I'll admit that my first reaction was to silently cheer. Ok, boundaries got passed and things were said which are still sending ripples through the chat channel now. That wasn't the best way to go about it. But here and now I'll say that Ritster's concerns were fundamentally right. He had done the maths and he could see right in front of his eyes that things were starting to go wrong in the citadel. He was witnessing the moment when the number of people needed in there had just tipped in favour of the number who didn't want to help out. In the furore that followed, others stopped coming. I learned last week that, 'Ritster ruined the citadel forever'. That's why I flipped. That's why I stepped out of my own clan to calm down and not say things that I was going to regret. Because this is what I'd witnessed - tier four decaying because not enough people simply entered the citadel that week, then left; tier four becoming delapidated, despite a last minute rallying party in which five of us collected every resource necessary to just keep it stable; tier four disappearing. The same cycle repeating week in and week out, until we were back to basics. This can be maintained by the Citadel Posse. We've been quietly fighting to keep it alive throughout. The flag of my clan goes on, even if it's just a vexillum stuck into the ground. I remember Ariel walking through, while tier three was teetering. He worked through to his cap, then explored the damage. "Even the hedge is delapidated," was his depressed report. Msclick and I just burst out laughing, because it was better than the alternative. All around us, the proud Canting flag was in tatters; the weapons in the racks had no heads, just sticks hanging haphazardly out of a grimy holder; the smithy was there, but unable to be worked. We did our best. We really did our best. We thought we'd saved it! We'd got 100% on the resources for general upkeep, even if we couldn't progress, we thought we couldn't fall further. The cheers from that last minute rescue party, mining and chopping hours before the tick, were immense, as I made the announcement. It was emotional. We'd done it! But post-Ritster outburst Canting was sending few to help us. We didn't meet the headcount and we lost the third tier. I hadn't thought of that bit. We'd needed just ten people to show up. We got seven. That should have been enough to secure the second tier, but it wasn't. Teacuptime, Msclick, SpecOps01 and I didn't add up to five people. We watched that crumble too, through decay into delapidation and gone. SpecOps01 is Mr Msclick by the way, married to the beautiful and hard-working new Canting adminstrator. That's how much Msclick really wanted to save this citadel. She asked her husband to join Canting and he weekly logs in to chop away until he reaches his cap. I love him for that. For those only just waking up to this story, then you are very welcome to join us. In a moment, I will tell you what prizes await from the top tiers (probably in a separate blog, as that's the future and this is the past). They're big enough to have had me hesitate over the latest of the frequent invitations to jump ship to Sal's Realm. They did keep it up and you can view what ours could look like by teleporting from the Canting citadel signpost into Sal's citadel. I took Josh on a visit there a few weeks back, so he could see. He responded by spam inviting dozens of new people into Canting, in the hope that one or two of them might also join the Citadel Posse. They didn't. It was worth a try. In the past two weeks, there's been a resurgance of interest in the Canting Citadel. Those of us who watched it fall from tier four to tier one have bonded over a bleak kind of Blitz spirit, which explains our delight, when another person comes to join us. We kept the place from being shut down and locked; and that's the best we could do. We've repeated over and over again that we each wish we could mine, smith, chop and burn beyond our cap. Jagex put that cap in to stop the likes of us carrying the whole clan. They wanted to force us to merge into bigger clans instead, though it was dressed up in flowery language like 'promoting co-operation'. We're not a clan, unless we're working together and all of that. Yes, we are. Canting are very much a clan. We just don't all like the same things. I've not wanted to force anyone into the citadel, who doesn't want to be there; which is why I've never even opened the new mechanism that Jagex gave me. As clan owner, I can tell at the click of some buttons precisely who has and hasn't been in the citadel that week. I know what they did or didn't collect for the stockroom, while they were in there. I don't care. I only want those who really want to help to be in our citadel, because then it truly is ours. We did the work and shouldered the disappointments. We kept our morale up, when all the world was crashing down around us. We've had the stamina to keep on going, even as apathy or antipathy engulfed the rest of our clan. For those who rode this journey to date, it's been an absolute honour to be beside you. Msclick being awarded an admin key, in Canting Away, for services to the citadel (and being all round amazing). Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner!

Read The Situation with the Canting Citadel first, if you wish to have the context. How do you answer something like that? Especially when you'd stormed out of your clan the day before, because someone had stated that Canting weren't interested in the citadel anymore. And when you had members of Sal's clan, in Skype, telling you that the best crafting XP in the game is in the citadel loom. And when you'd just spent weeks watching your hard work crumble all the way back to tier one. You say nothing. You screenshot the conversation, because that's your instinct when you're a Runescape blogger. You really wish that you'd set your clan ring to smithing, during those glorious couple of weeks before the smithy died. You dream about having a clan, which was willing to build a citadel all the way to the loom. Then you go on smelting gold for a third less XP than the two women with you are getting. The clan ring is lovely. You get it for collecting 100 of any resource in the citadel. It can then be bound to a certain skilling spot for bonus XP back out in the wider world. Bind it to the tree for extra woodcutting experience; to the mine for mining, the smithy for smithing, the charcoal burner for firemaking, the loom for crafting and so on. I watched Choco achieve his clan ring yesterday and I went with him to get it. He bound it to woodcutting and learned what this ring would bring him: I was pleased for him. I also daydreamed about getting my own clan ring bound to the smithy or the loom. I believe that the bonus XP relies upon current level in each skill, so mine would be higher than that afforded to Choco. It would be a lovely addition to my training efficiency. Over in Sal's Citadel, one of their biggest problems is getting everyone off the loom long enough to gather all of the other resources too. Best crafting XP in the game, I've been told. I've been to see it. I tried putting my vexilum down and claiming it for Canting, but you aren't allowed to do things like that in other people's citadels. Even if you have got a flag. I am able to take advantage of another of their features though. In the battlefield, you can set up zoomy portal things on the floor, which temporarily boosts every skill in the game. I didn't have the Summoning level to open my effigy. I did after I'd been led by Sal's insiders to their Summoning boost. I could not only get into my effigy, but I gained the XP for doing so too. I was so impressed that I made a note of it. As soon as Canting gets a battlefield back, we're having some of those! No more waiting around world 117 Daemonheim, or hoping one of the high levels in Canting isn't maxed. We just visit our Citadel and open our own damn effigies. Every skill. Every boost. Every effigy. I loved the power training in the citadel. Even at tier four, it was good, as each tier steps up the amount you get. It was on a grimy mining stack where I hit level 91 Mining. That was fortituous, because a week later, the mining patch was unusable. The week after that, it had gone. Enough of being morose! We've had fun these past two Sundays. Hang around the citadel around midnight GMT and you'll find a bit of a party forming. We're all around the tree, doing what we do best - canting! Last week, everyone there had YouTube open too and we took turns to suggest music to listen to. I discovered some bands that I'd never even heard of, let alone heard a tune. We skipped from Necrominicon to Susan Boyle, from Weird Al to Leanne Rimes, from dubstep to thrash metal. I only ninja-ed one Manic Street Preachers in there. I tried to vary my own choices, when it was my turn. YouTube featured this week too. Jaarnriel was one of those chopping the tree with us and he shared his channel. Here is his most viewed video, under which he left a note to mark our watching it from the Canting Citadel. Go and give him some love! He's one of ours! We also had a very special moment. In general conversation, Choco had expressed his surprise that Msclick wasn't already a Canting administrator. It's occured to me several times before, but I get so busy and I do like to hold elections on such things. Just on it, Zach arrived in the citadel for the first time in ages. I took him off around the keep for a conflab. We decided that, as owner and deputy owner, we'd sod democracy for once. Msclick has been a stalwart in keeping that citadel alive for weeks on end. If it hadn't been for her and her husband, the whole place would have been locked and destroyed. We took the executive decision to just do it. Those chopping at the tree got to witness our asking if she would consent to become an administrator of Canting away. She was so shocked, as she'd just nipped off when Choco had spoken up for her. There was no dissent at all from those watching here, just cheers and congratulations. Msclick graciously accepted the highest clan honour that we could give her. I was so glad. She'll make a brilliant administrator! The rest of Canting appeared to agree, as soon as it was announced in the chat itself. There were even comments of, 'I thought she was already one!' Thank you, Msclick, for all that you do and for being a true heroine of our citadel. Zach and I promoting Msclick to Canting Administrator. However, we realise that even these benefits might not be desirable to some members of Canting. Therefore, Zach and I came to a decision last night. Those who consistently and demonstrably help out in the citadel will be promoted to generals in Canting Away. The rank won't come with any special responsibilities within the chat channel, but it will be a signal to the world that you are part of the famed and heroic Citadel Posse. Your name will wear a gold star beside it, whenever you enter Canting. If you feel that you deserve that star, then let myself or Zach know, either on Sal's or in-game. We will check that you've helped out in the citadel that week (finally using the mechanism that Jagex put in to check such things). This will be up to date and can be removed, just like a quest cape. If a spot check reveals that you've stopped helping out each week, then the gold star will be replaced by the silver one again. If the citadel starts teetering, then I'll check every single general and gold stars will be lost. There will be no other comeback from me. You haven't got your gold star, then fair enough. You don't want to be part of the citadel. Carry on, as you were, you'll still have the silver star and no pressure. Of course, those who have the gold star will also have my thanks. You're helping me get one step closer to that smithing clan ring and that loom. Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner!

I'm getting so sick of this: It was happening for most of Wednesday. Then fine again until now. I can be in the game fine for ten minutes, then it'll happen. Other times, I'm barely in and its crashed again. Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner!

Jagex seemed to have a field day yesterday, adding things left, right and centre. The big theme of the day seemed to be extra bank space. While I was killing Vyrewatch, Elias Erebus was exploring all of the new goodies. After all of the gasps and urrrggghhhs, he came up with a final figure. If members utilised all of the spaces in the toolbar and pouch, as well as 30 extra spaces we got as a present, we would have around 69 free bank spaces. Nothing to sneeze at there! The only people in the game not desperate for bank space are those running the runecrafting route from ZMI to Moonclan. I certainly loved the toolbelt. I experimentally put a tinderbox on it, then lit a log. I didn't have to have a tinderbox in my inventory at all. It just automatically set fire to that log from my toolbelt. Win! Brettm, a player who was watching the pyrotechnics, commented that it will be invaluable for accessing Brimhaven Dungeon. The bronze axe on the belt will cut through the vines. Just about everyone in Canting was rushing to fill their belts by the end of it. A few of us noted that we completed the 'Sheer Convenience Task', when we added our shears. Elias mysteriously gained 200k gp for buying a pair from the Lumbridge general store. We worked out that he must have passed a set number of tasks, because it definitely wasn't working for anyone else! The only bizarre thing about the belt is the exclusion of the sextant. The watch and chart are both there, which will help greatly with doing treasure trails, so why not the sextant? Very strange. Unless it's the fact that you're technically supposed to use that (as opposed to using the Tip It Co-Ordinates Locator, as everyone really does), so it's necessary to have it in your inventory. The other two are really just pixels in your bag. I'm finding the money pouch to be annoying. I can see its use for picking up money drops, while out and about slaughtering monsters. I can also see how useful it would be for random boat rides. No more rushing back to the bank, as you'll have your fare right there. What's doing my head in is the fact that all money goes into that pouch, adding another layer of clicks to every transaction. For example, I habitually buy my battlestaves in Varrock, then sell them in the GE. In the old days, I'd take the money from the bank, buy the staves, shove them into the GE, take my sales money and dump that into the bank. A very quick and simple daily routine. Until, that is, the money pouches arrived. Now I have to take the money from the bank, remove the money from my pouch, buy the staves, shove them into the GE, take my sales money, remove my money from my pouch, dump it into the bank. I've tried left-clicks, right-click and looked for any toggle. You can't stop this happening. It's really doing my head in. However, nothing did my head in more than having to download Google Chrome, in order to gain the Chrome Goggles. This is for a limited time only. If you log onto Runescape in Google Chrome (which everyone in Jagex Towers does, boys and girls! We love it! Use Chrome! Do it!), then you get some fancy eyewear. These will be rares. You can't trade them. Only the people who do this right now will ever be able to get these goggles, in the entire history of everness. Ok! I get the hint. Jagex got some kind of big advertising deal with Google. They want us all to try out the merchandise. All Jagex has to do is design and code a few pixels and presumably some large cheque will be in the post. The principle of the thing alone is annoying. It is advertising. I've paid my membership fee not to have that, but this is a backdoor route into using me as a targetted audience for advertising Google Chrome. Fair enough, I don't have to do it. I could refuse to try Google's merchandise and Jagex won't have made a penny in advertisement fees off me. But I'm a Runescape junkie. I want my goggles. They're not only rares, but they're filling a spot in the toy box of my POV. So I downloaded Google Chrome, just as Jagex knew I likely would. I probably wouldn't mind so much if this was in isolation, but it's becoming a bit of a habit. You can only get 'x' item, if you go to Runefest. You can only get such and such, if you buy a 6 month or 3 month membership card. I pay my membership by direct debit from my bank every month, so why can't I have those items? I'm not going to buy additional membership to superimpose over the top. Also, as Jethraw pointed out, the six months weren't up from that offer, before the 3 months card offer was launched. Were the completitionists supposed to double up on their membership there too? Anyway, instead of buying membership in a different way, I just had to download Chrome. I did that and I was immediately told that I had to close Firefox. Chrome doesn't like another browser being open at the same time. Aggressive marketing there, Mr Cutts. So I closed Firefox and tried to log onto Runescape. I couldn't, because my Java wasn't installed. It's installed on Firefox, but not on Chrome. Ok. So I downloaded and installed Java for Chrome. I was finally in the same and my goggles were in my bank. I would have fetched them out immediately, but I was too busy staring in disbelief at how Runescape looks in Chrome. Beyond all of that graphics wreckage, the game lagged like lagging was going out of fashion. It didn't help that I was in the GE, but it took an age to do anything! I've never been more glad to flee back to Firefox in my life. There, of course, everything worked perfectly. Why on Earth did Google and Jagex think that this would be a good introduction to using the brower? As for the goggles that caused all of this hassle, here are two pictures. The first from Chrome and the second from Firefox: It's now in my toy box, just two up from the 'hood that I'll never be able to get, as I wasn't in the country during Runefest 2011. So yes - love the toolbelt, annoyed by the money pouch, loving the extra bankspace and both irritated and incredulous over the Google Chrome thing. Meanwhile, for those of you busy making your Excel sheets, there's another section up: Part 3: Calculating XP to Next Level in your Runescape Excel Hiscores Tracker. Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner!

I've just published a blog, walking people through making an Excel workbook to track Runescape hiscores. The trouble is that it's sometimes too easy to miss a step, when you know what you're doing. Would anyone be up for testing my guide? I mean only doing what I've told you to do in the article. I want to see if I've covered each step and if the end result is the same as my end result. In short, if I've explained it like a 1337 pro or a noob. The link is here: How to Make a Runescape Hiscores Tracker in Excel Pt 1. <_< to anyone testing this out for me. <3

MFI put me onto this and it's well worth watching. Simon and James from Runeshark and the film-maker Born_for_PvM set out to get a Godsword from nothing. There are several episodes (I've watched up 'til the end of 8 so far) and they are really entertaining. Merci beaucoup, Fred, for the banner!

I have just heard, via Fred's blog, that a valued member of Canting Away has died IRL. Luos Rebbur was enticed onto Runescape, and into Canting, by her real life friend, Kayla (aka Cougarsrule9, aka Kayalalyak). I didn't get to cant with her much, as we belonged in different timezones. Even so, it was obvious how well-liked and respected she was. The few occasions when I was there, when she entered, I saw a massive outpouring of greetings. Those who knew her well were always glad to see her. In our scant conversations, she did seem to have a vibrancy and vitality, that made her a lovely personality within the ensuing conversations. It's sometimes difficult to get the measure of an individual via pixels. This is especially true when they are one of 100s of people floating in and out of Canting, at any given time. However, Kayla knew her IRL. She held her in such regard that she hunted me down with a request. Kayla was prepared to give up her generalship (which she'd held from the beginning) and her place on my friend's list (which had been secure since the days when I only had about 20 people on there), in order to let Luos Rebbur get her silver star. That made my jaw drop right there. (I got her a star from elsewhere. I made it a priority.) I wish that I'd known her better than I did. I know that a lot of Canting members did. My heart goes out to Luos Rebbur's family and friends. This is for Luos Rebbur. A classic track from 'Rubber Soul':

Is anyone else constantly getting a blackscreen, as they manoeuvre through the game? I'm wondering if I should report it, or if it's well known and Jagex are on it.

It was a great pleasure working alongside ArielB, MsClick, There, Daz Rhyfelwr and iCross today. We entered a delapidated citadel with just 800 logs to our name. We left with every resource gathered to the maximum of our caps and the upkeep on every building and plot well covered. We own! Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! The current situation is that we believe the citadel didn't meet the upkeep resources last week, hence it started to ruin. The six of us have pulled it back this week (along with others who must have been in, as there was a count of 11 on the door), but ArielB is doing maths to see if we can upgrade anything. He already had a reccy and found that even the hedge says 'delapidated', while the weapons in the rack are missing heads and things. I nipped out for a cuppa, while he had his calculator out and haven't made it back in yet. I'll do that now and find out what the plan of action is. I would urge all Canting members to visit the citadel this week though, just in case the head count means something. Teacuptime says that if you can only do it once in the next 7 days, then wait until after the tick. (So after Saturday.) Thanks! As for the rescue party, that was fun! I'm so proud to have been part of it. Thank you again all. Update from Teacuptime in-game: He's checked the settings and we've definitely saved the citadel. For Canting people going in today and tomorrow, it's basically a free for all, pre-paying for tier 4 of the stronghold. We need your head-count too definitely, so please step in there, even if you leave immediately afterwards. Also, thank you to Teacuptime, who also maxed out his cap this week, before the rest of us even starting panicking! Update 2: I've checked out the Sal's citadel and the delapidated thing isn't Hallowe'en. I bumped into Dimosthimise, Call Me Beck and DJ Hausmarke, all chopping away at their tree. Their citadel is teetering on the brink of tier 6 and looks pretty enough. However, there are definitely some hidden dangers there. I worry for them.

I was just doing a spot of gardening in Catherby, when Daz Rhyfelwr gasped. I thought nothing of it, until he spoke up, "Have you seen our citadel recently?" I'll be honest. After that fortnight sipping mojitos under palm trees, I've not ventured over there. I've done more work on Death's Citadel than my own this week. "Nope, why?" "I don't know if this is a Hallowe'en thing or not, but the place is falling down." "What?!" I dropped everything and ran. So yes, litter wardens of Catherby, those squashed tomatos were me. Sorry. I zapped over to the citadel and walked in. My knees went from under me and I dropped, and stared. My citadel. My lovely citadel. In ruins. I naturally sounded the SOS in Canting. iCross, There and ArielB rushed over to help me and Daz quickly gather resources. It's all being done to my maths this week *bites lip* because Fred can't get into the game and Zach's gone AWOL. Some IRL storms have gone over his 'hood, so that's a bit worrying, though D1D reckons that he saw Zach a couple of days ago. Otherwise, I think Teacuptime and Warlock can change the allocation. Warlock has been AWOL for a while and I don't know about Teacuptime. In truth, I don't actually know who sets our tasks in the citadel. It just magically happens by the time I step into there. Presumably at the hand of someone who speaks maths. Anyway, here is the blogged SOS as well. Your Canting citadel needs you! It's nowhere near to the upkeep level at the minute, though there are currently five of us in there working hard on getting it there. Come and help us! Please! Now MsClick has come to help.

Tracing backwards from the e-mail sent to me, I learn that the phisher is Lithuanian. And this is their site (translated into English): Just waiting for my Lithuanian speaking friend to log on, so we can REALLY play nicely. UPDATE: So far followed this dude back to the Ukraine. Seeing where this leads me. Also sent a complaint to the hosting companies involved.

Just to let you know that Shelley is packed; the potions are wrapped in yak hide; a pile of hand cooked sharks are in the noms bag; and I'm off to have an IRL adventure. I'll probably be seeing a lot of him: And dancing . Cya in two weeks. Don't do anything that I would do. <3

I nearly had a heart-attack. This was before my first cuppa and it was the first unread e-mail. The title was ominous too, 'Your account has received an infraction.' I opened up the e-mail and stared in shock. I'd been banned for macroing. WHAT?! There was a place to appeal. Of course I was going to appeal! I've never even considered downloading a bot, let alone actually running one! The closest I've ever come to cheating is to secretly wish that Jagex instigated a mechanism, whereby someone else could work your avatar for a restricted period. That's only because I'd send Zach to kill Jad for me or Empty Entity to pwn Vanstrom. I'd do some Runecrafting on their accounts in return. But that's not going to happen! Love my boys to bits, but none of us are daft enough to share our passwords. And none of us are daft enough to go macroing, including me! I shakily opened up the appeal link, wanting to see this evidence, and wondering about the best way to appeal. I mean, would Amnesty International consider this important enough? The offence was gone. My account was clear. I'd been banned and then I wasn't, all within the same half an hour by the look of it. 'Offence Quashed - Jagex error' read the notes. And I started to breathe again. Ok, back to that first cuppa of the day situation. I'm still shaking!

I love my clan. After reading yesterday's initial fiasco, when I was stupid enough to allow my Runescape account to become briefly compromised, Canting kicked in. They all knew that I'd now changed my password, after sweeping my computer for keyloggers, but they also knew that someone had impersonated me. My blog, as well as my comments in chat, asked them to ensure that they were talking to me. Front line protection from the best! By best, I mean it. I logged in last night and said hello. I was immediately asked a question about an obscure piece of 6th century Welsh history. I don't know what makes me more proud - the fact that I could answer it easily, or the fact that Arcturus knew to ask it. Either way, it was clear that unless an interloper was going to become an expert in a) the Welsh language, b) Cymric mythology and c) the history of all pre-Saxon countries encapsulated by the modern day Cymru, then they going to struggle under these random questions. D1D professed to not being convinced by that. A whole slew of questions followed, punctuated by the word *suspicious*, which I was happy to answer. He eventually gave up and agreed to believe it was me, when my Welsh out-stripped his Welsh. (Though Caerdydd is a very fine word to know, especially when the crystal gates of Prifddinas are eventually opened to reveal the Torchwood hub. We all know it's behind there.) Others asked questions regarding our shared in-game history. In short, Canting Away had my back and it was wonderful.

(or Hanna Lisa, if you prefer) It is the height of stupidity to allow your boyfriend Amar (or Aggass, his (bless him) 'hacker' name) to use your computer to make his phishing videos. Do you not realise that, when he gets into trouble, it's going to implicate you too? After all, the evidence will be on your hard-drive now, not his. Woman to woman, let me advise you to make him use his own PC for this. Leave your own for perusing Veoh and listening to Dil Khush Kar. See what he's led you into? You would be amazed just how much information we have on both of you now. This morning, he tried to take over my Runescape account. When that failed, as I changed my password, he attempted again this evening to do the same thing. He didn't use the same header twice, which was amusing, as we were already well into tracking him by then. This second e-mail gave us much more to go on. Good fight, cariad. And, of course, with whatever happens next, I should wish you good luck. yours Merch Gwyar, Audioworm and Fatalysm xxxxx PS Please let Aggass know that Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition renders him just one step up from a script kiddie. Decent enough programming, but still ridiculously noobish. PPS Seeing as you will have followed this link from the e-mail that I just sent you, may I be the first to say ^_^ PPPS Please stop telling people that your website is down for maintenance. It's not. You can't afford to renew the domain, so it's currently in the redemption period before someone else can snap it right up in front of your eyes. PPPPS We won't be joining you at Yahoo-warez.net forum, though we did watch him playing there earlier. Goodnight.

A couple of hours ago, the first proper Canting Away Chronicle was published on-line. This picked up all of the blogs in our Twitterfeed, as well as any other links published on @CantingAway or Tweeted used the hashtag #CantingAway. I'm quite pleased with the breadth of the articles! It's also given us an opportunity to see how things get automatically included, under the mechanisms of Paper.li. This can be useful in getting our stuff ninja-ed into future editions. Here are my notes: * Articles: As expected, everyone's blogs turned up there as articles. There were fifteen of them in all, so I nice spread of stories for people to read. I do have one tip for everyone though - when blogging, include pictures! Originally the featured article was one of mine, but I wanted to highlight other people's blogs instead. I manually moved the next one up to be featured. This was a blog entry by Helm Lardar, but there was no picture. It looked a bit lost as a feature. So I promoted one of Wolfhe's instead. No picture. Finally Fred's story about Kr'ill did have a picture, so that made it as our headline. If you want to be in for a chance of writing our main story, then please include a screenshot or other image in your blog entries. Thank you! * Blog entry frequency: One day I posted two blog entries in the same day. Twitterfeed only picked up one, so the other didn't end up in the paper. Something to watch out for. * Videos: I have been so confused as to how we get videos in there. I did experiment by having a Grace Petrie video in a blog once, but it never turned up in the Paper.li newsletter. Then one just did! The Renault advert was highly amusing, but it took some digging to trace it to the source. It was Simple! She posted just the video, no other content (like text etc), in a blog entry. So that's the way to do it! * Pictures: I experimentally linked to a picture on @CantingAway and it's appeared in our newsletter. For my next experiment, I'm going to see what happens when we Tweet a picture link and add #CantingAway. I think it'll turn up too. * Link to one of my non-RS articles: I have no idea why that's there. There's nothing in the background suggesting why it should be and I've not posted it there. Still working on that one.

Thank you to Kemosabe and Lilshu, who jumped onto this so quickly. If it hadn't been for that blog entry, and their comments, then I wouldn't have even realised my stupidity, unti lit was too late. This morning, I woke to find that 'Jagex' had e-mailed me over a macro offence. As you saw in my last blog entry, I was downright indignant about this. I don't cheat in this game and all of my accomplishments are mine (however tempting the getting someone to pwn Vanstrom for me thing is). I clicked the link, then marched into the site to appeal my ban. It all looked so official. The e-mail and the site looked exactly like Jagex/Runescape respectively. I can't believe that I logged into it. I can't get my head around the fact that I was that stupid! Someone had accessed my account. This IP address is not mine and I had not logged into Runescape until that moment. I was still standing in Miscellania, which is where I'd left myself, and I had nothing missing. My bank PIN had blocked their way. All I had on me was an Ardy cape, glory and pointy green hat and they were still there. I opened my bank to shove them in anyway and I got a message that someone had tried to remove my PIN code. My entire bank was intact, but then I realised the secondary stupidity of actually logging into it, while I may have a key-logger on my hard-drive. ^_^ I nipped into Canting and told them what happened. They are aware that I might be impersonated because my account has been haXX0red. Canting, use your common sense, when speaking with me. You know the sort of things that I know and don't know. If you are unsure, ask the question. If it's me, I'll commend you on your security awareness and answer correctly. No offence taken and all gratitude due to you watching my back. If it's not me, then the answers will be incorrect or vague. Let us assume that our phisher has no Welsh, so that's one way of testing if it's me. Or you could ask about my great PKing record. I'd be thrilled to give you those details! Then I logged off and ran superantispyware. The first time, I got 102 tracking cookies. This was really scary, because I'd only run it the night before and it was clean after that. I removed those cookies and restarted my computer. I ran it again and got this: Satisfied that I was now clean, I changed my Runescape password and reported the e-mail phishing on the forum. Now for the fun part. I have an IP address, a virus scan log and a website address; and THIS is personal. Good luck, Phishers.