Marlaine’s Musings

Update for February 25, 2009 – a new Distractions and Diversions event that will help you up your firemaking and woodcutting skills twice a day. You can either nurture or attack two evil trees per day.

How to start nurturing or hacking down evil trees:
Direct quote from Jagex –

Evil trees sprout around common Woodcutting areas and close to major paths, but are not terribly obvious until they reach maturity (at which point their terrifying visage makes them difficult to miss). If you are passing by an area in which one is growing, you may notice a small root burst from the ground and attempt to grab your ankles. Aside from being a malicious thing to do, this is an indication that one is close by.

You can also talk to the spirit trees to discover where one is likely to be, and when it has reached maturity, they will offer to teleport you directly to the arborist’s nightmare.

The first stage of an evil tree’s growth is as a sapling (which is entirely unsurprising: it may well be wicked and vicious, but it is still a tree). During this time, the leprechaun will merrily wander about asking passing adventurers to help nurture it. Anyone with the required Farming level can nurture the sapling without any tools simply by clicking on it.

There are five growth stages before the sapling expresses its true nature, at which point you should discover that its thrashing roots prevent you from directly harming the tree itself. In order to get access to the tree, you will need to use an axe to hack the roots away.

Each set of roots cut back will become kindling, which you can then use to set a fire at the base of the tree. The roots will grow back after some time, knocking back anyone attacking the tree nearby.

When the tree is denuded of some of its roots, you can set fires as noted above or use your axe to hack into its bark. Harming a tree in either way requires a Woodcutting or Firemaking level

You can ask spirit trees where an evil tree might be lurking and they will be willing to tele you right to the dastardly greenery. But it has to be close to the time the tree is about to mature I think because I talked to a lot of people waiting around the spirit tree and none of them got the tree to talk about anything but where would you like to travel. When it finally talked to me, it only gave me hints about where it might be – so it must still have been immature. When I got to Seers it said “A root springs from the ground by your feet. What could have caused that?” When I returned to the spirit tree at the GE, it then asked if I wanted to go to the Evil Tree – so it must have matured. When it has matured and you can whack it with an axe, save the kindling for firemaking xp. There are 26 specific locations for the evil trees but – heck – I don’t know the exact locations yet. I did not take long from the point where the spirit tree said nothing new to the point where it offered to send me to the evil tree – maybe 5 minutes max.

It seems most types of trees can become evil trees – Normal, Oak, Willow, Maple, Yew, Magic – or the new Elder Evil Tree. After a group effort of hacking at the thrashing roots and flailing bits of tree, it will die and all who took part in it’s down fall (or fall down – timber!) will receive special rewards from its comedownnance. The rewards include xp earned while cutting it down, and may also include noted logs of the evil tree’s type (elder trees offer noted yew, magic, teak or mahogany logs), tree seeds, bird’s nests, items like key halves and Treasure Trail clues, or gold. You will also receive 5 to 30 minutes of continued banking of logs if your inventory is already full. It will also extend the cutting time on any of the above mentioned types of trees but not while cutting trees you have planted yourself.

Right after I finished the evil tree, I got a oak seed, 42 gp, and 4 noted oak logs. Then there was a system update. I did not get a chance to see my stuff shuffled to the bank when my inventory was full – I had one empty spot when the update logged me out! Sigh…………….

We will just have to wait to see if this is worth the effort – I probably got there late because I decided to go buy my battlestaffs instead of stand around waiting …… The vine didn’t seem worth it to me at first but now I appreciate it.

I wish you better luck than I had!

Added note: Nothing was visibly changed after the system update but I noticed they made a whole lot of changes in Soul Wars in their Other News under the Evil Tree in the updates……. too bad I got tired of it before they nerfed it!

I did get an elder tree next and ended up with 34 noted yew logs, 9 kindling, I don’t remember how much gp and a maple tree seed – plus 19 minutes of logs being sent to the bank for me when my inventory is too full. Just a heads up here – use the kindling on the evil tree because you can’t light them later. I did get about 20k xp woodcutting while working on the Elder Evil Tree, too.

Ok I am doing the penguin peeking now and I’ll list them where I actually saw them myself. As always, Penguins_W60 clan chat right on the game is an incredible help in finding them fast and easy! If you hunt the penguins on world 60 while logged into the chat, everyone’s purple dot will show up on the mini-map and watching for the dots will help you find the penguin you seek.

One of the penguins is at the dreaded deep wildy by the lever transporter but before the web that needs to be cut to enter wildy. As far as I could tell, lots of people are having a bad time finding the hut that has the transport lever in Ardougne to wildy. I’ll go back and get a screenie of that. (Wouldn’t you know it? Not one purple dot is showing on the mini-map – tisk! But all those people are headed to the wildy from the Ardougne hut.)

From what I’ve been reading, the penguin around Eagle’s peak has been moving from the Phoenix’s den, to the river, to the falcon’s area, to who knows how far to the east and west of Eagle’s peak. I spotted it near Eagle’s Peak on the river bank east of the peak.

So here is this week’s Penguin peeking list:

Week 27: 25 Feb 2009 – 05 March 2009
• 1. Entrana – in the chicken pen – Barrel – 1 point
• 2. Mort Myre – behind Canifis pub – Toadstool – 2 points
• 3. Canifis – south of the slayer tower fense – Crate – 2 points
• 4. Netiznot – across the eastern bridge in troll territory – Bush – 2 points
• 5. Barbarian outpost – just south of Otto’s hut – Bush – 1 point
• 6. Gnome Stronghold – north of gnome ball field – Bush – 1 point
• 7. Wilderness – near the lever point – Rock – 2 points
• 8. Southern Desert – in camel pen Pollnivneach Cactus – 1 point
• 9. Southern Desert – in camel pen Pollnivneach Cactus – 2 points
• 10. Eagle’s Peak – north east of peak by river but moving lots – Bush – 1 point

Have fun and spend your penguin points wisely!