| Miss Alaska | |
|---|---|
| |
| Clan Quest | |
| Positions | |
| Guilds | |
| Joined Clan | 24th April 2012 |
| Gaming Info | |
| RuneScape Username |
Miss Alaska |
| Steam Username |
Rincewind |
| Personal Info | |
| Name | Alana |
| Age | 25 |
| Sex | Female |
| Occupation | Software Developer |
| Location | Australia |
Overview
Early Days
Miss Alaska (or Alaska for short) began RuneScape one evening after school thinking that whatever game this was, it sounded pretty neat. It ran slow on the dial-up connection, but that didn't matter. Some time later, Tutorial Island was complete and The Restless Ghost had begun.
What follows is the generic origins of a RuneScape player in 2008 with just the basics of free-to-play. Talk to some NPCs, kill some giant rats, mine some copper, kill some goblins, try to equip the goblin mail, realise you can't. Getting lost north of Falador, end up in Barbarian Village, find out about the home teleport, arrive back at Lumbridge. Pick up some more quests, finish some more quests, purchase a gnomecopter ride and see all the members world content. Finish the Halloween event and get a pet spider. Gain skill levels, acquire new equipment, accumulate more gold pieces. Do some more quests. Chop down the trees, create fire lines down Draynor Village. Kill cows, acquire the pair of fancy boots, look for more quests. Finish the quests, read the Varrock newspaper. Gain more skill levels, complete Dragon Slayer.
Upgrade
Turns out Dragon Slayer was the last free-to-play quest left for Alaska. She hadn't bought membership for RuneScape before, but it was pretty tempting now. Over a hundred new stories to delve into, and she was keen to take off into it. So in 2010 Alaska purchased RuneScape membership and walked through the gate to Taverley. Her first members-only quest was Wolf Whistle. Given the upgrade now and having the rest of the game's content unlocked, achieving quest cape became the new goal. Traversing through Gielinor and continuing storylines that had begun in the free-to-play world, or starting entirely new arcs altogether. The first two years preceding this had been just the tip of the iceberg, and now the world of RuneScape had grown much larger for Alaska.
Clan Quest
Going at it solo can get lonesome. In free-to-play Alaska had participated in Clan Wars, staking out at the wilderness lobby with various friends chats (then clan chats) that formed and disbanded across a dozen war challenges existing only for the temporary game sessions. Her first real clan was an events clan found while trying to get help with the Penguin Hide & Seek D&D. Alaska had spent some time here during the early days of having RuneScape membership, before later exiting.
Seeking out a clan that matched interests more closely, Alaska stumbled across 'The Questing Clan of RuneScape', otherwise known as Clan Quest. After spending some preliminary time in the clan, it became quite obvious this was the right place for an avid quester. Many others in Clan Quest appreciated RuneScape's lore and quests and there would be many an opportunity to discuss the game's stories and new quest content in earnest. After a few weeks hanging out in the clan, Alaska knew she would be resting here for a while yet. She was sponsored by Panda in Luv, Viperxk, and Bigg Doggg and invited officially by Skills2Quest on the 24th of April 2012.
Back in RuneScape itself meanwhile, Alaska was honing in on the much-desired quest cape. With a few remaining quests - The Void Stares Back, While Guthix Sleeps, Nomad's Requiem and Ritual of the Mahjarrat - the end was in sight. On the 13th of July 2012, Miss Alaska wrapped up Ritual of the Mahjarrat with Sir Tiffy and claimed the Quest Point cape from the Wise Old Man.
Skilling & Killing
Following on from the primary goal of obtaining Quest Point cape, Alaska turned to improving skills and combat capability in the game. Her first 99 was agility, achieved on 22nd March 2013 after running many laps around all the various courses in RuneScape. In between the grind for 99 skill milestones and taking on some more challenging slayer monsters, Miss Alaska would pick out some random goals to break up the monotony. Some games of Fish Flingers to work on the champion's tackle box, unlocking dungeoneering rewards and new floors, joining friends chats to face Wilderness Warbands for that lucrative XP reward, doing a complete renovation on her Player-Owned House, games of Trouble Brewing with clanmates to collect all the outfit rewards, her first run of Fight Kiln, and all the new and wonderful quests of the sixth age that began with The World Wakes. At the beginning of 2014, Alaska was also lucky enough to receive a black Santa hat from pulling Christmas crackers - twice. She kept one and sold the other.
There came a tipping point where Max Cape was on the horizon, and Completionist cape was quick to follow, given all the random side tasks completed along the way. Alaska also saw a steady build in her involvement with PvM. Beginning with simple stuff like a trip to Corporeal Beast with Viperxk. Later down the track - Nex, Kalphite King, Legiones. With help from PvM friends, Alaska would eventually see her first shot at mauling Vorago (13/4/14) and her first Rise of the Six kill (23/4/14). She did hit quite the roadblock on release of Araxxor though - prayer switches were never her forte. After steadily knocking off each 99 skill, Alaska had just one remaining. She reached 99 divination on 11/11/14 and was able to claim the Max Cape following this. Early in 2015, after finishing Livid Farm and hard mode dungeoneering floors, Alaska upgraded to the Completionist Cape on 8/1/15. The year ahead was filled with hours upon hours of hunting Champion Scrolls, slow but steady progress on the PoH Dahmaroc statue, a brief stopover to RS Classic, a carry on her first hard mode Vorago kill, her first kills of Beastmaster Durzag and Yakamaru, collecting some missing journals from dungeoneering, playing the very outdated Mobilising Armies for the trim requirement, racing Denniz for the jogre champion scroll (and winning by just a few hours), and travelling down the long road that is the Castle Wars trim requirement. At least some great friends were made along the way in the Cwafkers friends chat. On the 6th of December 2015, Alaska hunted her final chompy bird and achieved her goal of obtaining the Trimmed Completionist cape.
RuneFest
Alaska had always seen the snapshots of RuneFest in videos and highlights and thought it would be awesome to attend one of these events one day. In 2015, during her first year of university, an announcement was made for the date of RuneFest that year and by coincidence it landed on Alaska's birthday. Given that the timing also situated around a study break, Alaska didn't spend much longer deciding and began organising. After managing to pull together a quick plan for a three week holiday with all the necessary transport and accommodation arranged, Alaska travelled to London. This was both her first time flying on a plane and travelling internationally! Her initial two weeks in London were occupied by a lot of sightseeing, visits to landmarks and museums, and some single-day trips to Edinburgh and Paris that she managed to squeeze in. Some favourite items on the itinerary were the bus tour around London, the boat trip down the Thames to visit Greenwich, touring Kensington Palace, riding the London Eye and wandering about the south bank, seeing Richard II performed at Shakespeare's Globe, the bus tour around Paris with a brief stop-off at the Eiffel Tower, and seeing the Tower of London with Draziw and Vodka B.
By the close of the week, the Night Before party had arrived. A little nervous going in alone to begin with, Alaska got to meet some nice RuneScape players while queuing alongside her for entry, and their welcome nature put everything at ease. She would later find out from the trailer shown at RuneFest that these two players were the couple featured in RuneScape: 15 Years of Adventure. Alaska was able to find her clanmates in the crowd at Namco Funscape - meeting Draziw and Vodka B again, followed by Protoman807. The evening was a lot of fun; mostly talking and getting to know each other better beyond RS, enjoying the good music, playing table tennis, queuing for drinks and catching photos with JMods and players. By the end of it all, everyone was getting along fantastically.
Finally RuneFest 2015 had arrived. Alaska had received help from a family friend to craft a Lucien costume to wear at the event, paying homage to an iconic quest villain. Geared up in the costume, Alaska ran into Teezkut and other attendees staying at the same hotel she'd checked into for the RuneFest weekend, and shared a breakfast with them. She then went to the Tobacco Dock and and was welcomed by all the sights and sounds of the day, seeing JMods and players dressed up and just as excited for what was ahead. The day was filled with ecstatic hellos and compliments on cosplays, group photos, greeting JMods and thanking them for all the favourite things going into RuneScape. Meeting clanmates, members of Cwafkers and other RS friends for the first time in person, and making new friends along the way. There were some craft activities that acted as a nice chill out during the half way point, a RuneFest skilling chip scavenger hunt, demos for Chronicle, NXT and a VR tour of some RuneScape environments. And of course the usual signature wall to write your RSN on. There was even a life-size Stone of Jas acting as a centrepiece for the main floor of the venue. The most anticipated moments of the day - besides meeting clanmates, was attending the presentations hosted by JMods. The day was busy and Alaska managed to make it to two of these - the Quest Q&A and the main stage RS3 Reveals announcing the 2016 line-up. Alaska stayed with the group long into the evening for the after-party dinner and entertainment (including the traditional balloon drop) and a hang-out with friends chatting over drinks.
Only a few days remained for the London trip. The Sunday after RuneFest, Alaska caught up with clanmates and the new friends made at RuneFest for a casual pub lunch and visit to Hyde Park. Draziw made some balloon animals. She also caught up on Skype with Alex 43 while staying at her second host home, who interviewed her on the RuneFest experience for the RSBANDBUpdate! that week. After the weekend came to a close, Alaska checked off a few more items on her personal itinerary and made a last minute decision to see The Book of Mormon at West End (a decision she came to fully appreciate after laughing non-stop throughout her new favourite musical). She travelled home on her flight with Monty the Duck sitting alongside her and later claimed her in-game gift, the RuneFest dragonling.
Quest Cape Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
Around the middle of 2015, feeling a bit sedentary after obtaining Trimmed Completionist, Alaska looked back to her biggest passion in RuneScape - quests. With no way to replay the majority of quests through her main account of Miss Alaska, she made the decision to start again. Thus, Ellok the adventurer came into existence and set off on a new journey after returning to the start with The Restless Ghost. Ellok more or less followed a similar path as Miss Alaska, with his own differences in choice along the way. He started off as a 'quest alt', a means of replaying quests that had long escaped Alaska's memory and affording her the chance to relive all the RuneScape stories. Over time though, Ellok grew into a character of his own and became just as cherished by his player as the 'main', Miss Alaska. Much of Ellok's adventures are recorded so that the questing memories can be anchored more permanently this time. Videos for each quest completed by Ellok are posted to Alaska RS on YouTube.
Ellok obtained the Quest Point cape for the first time on the 25th of January 2017. He was recruited as a member of Clan Quest in-game for a significant time during his questing journey, existing as an alternate account for Alaska. When Ellok had reached the quest cape and was less active, Alaska decided to remove the account from the clan in-game. Upon returning to the game in mid-2020 after a break, Alaska resumed quest playthroughs on Ellok and even carried this on to Old School RuneScape, seeking to obtain the quest cape here with Ellok.
Boss Practice
Also running alongside the alt account questing venture, Alaska took a deeper dive into bossing to fill the gap left behind after Trimmed Completionist. With a beginner-level background in PvM and only briefly dabbling in some of the harder bosses, Alaska took part in PvM sessions for Vorago, Rise of the Six and occasional Mazcab raids with help from PvM focused friends - both within Clan Quest and outside of it. She reached an obstacle on the release of Telos and struggled to achieve a 100% enrage kill at Telos for a time before finally managing it on the 30th of December 2016. On the release of Nex: Angel of Death, Alaska took part in some kills with PvM friends and mutals. She continued working on improving at Telos, Vorago trios and Rise of the Six prior to the start of her break in 2017.
A Break
Having played RuneScape consistently for 8 years, Alaska had never really been far from the game. By mid-2017, her activity lessened on RuneScape and at the close of the year she allowed her membership to expire. The reduced number of quests and a desire to try out different games that had been on the 'must-play' list were factors. Focusing on other things besides RuneScape, Alaska would still drop into the game (on a free-to-play world) once in a while to make sure things were all ok and to say hello to the clan. She briefly resumed membership gameplay for three weeks in 2019, before once again departing from the game.
The Road Goes Ever On
Feeling the pull to see how things were going with RuneScape and the clan, Alaska dropped in again on a free-to-play world around the end of June, 2020. Seeing familiar faces again (and some new ones), Alaska was reminded why she'd spent so many hours in RuneScape. Testing the waters and being shown the new content by friend and clanmate Kexy, it seemed the right time to renew membership for a little while. Overwhelmed by all the new content in the game, Alaska stuck with what was most familiar. She worked on completeing all the new quests released during her break - not as many as she had hoped for, but a decent amount. She also familiarised with archaeology and grew to love the skill, especially the lore attached to it. When it came to Curse of the Black Stone, Alaska wanted to go at it authentically. She received assistance from some clanmates to complete normal mode runs of each Elite Dungeon and had a lot of fun during the bout of PvM, keen to revisit the dungeons again after the quest.
Alaska's commitment to RuneScape was solidified after Desperate Measures, first enjoying the quest as an observer in the Clan Quest playthrough stream on its release and then later playing through it on her main account and quest alt properly. With a new favourite quest added to her list, she was keen to see where the next chapter of the RuneScape story would take things. Hanging around for Azzanadra's Quest, Battle of the Monolith and City of Senntisten, and all the rich editions to the RS narrative from the Orthen digsite, Effigy Incubator, Senntisten digsite and the Elder God Wars Dungeon, she found that excitement for updates in RuneScape reignited.
In between the story-focused updates, Alaska spent more of her time getting acquainted with PvM again. She dipped some hours into each of the Elite Dungeons, particularly Shadow Reef. She also sought to work on some of the other bosses with clanmates - Vorago, Rise of the Six and Nex: Angel of Death to name a few. With the release of the Elder Gods Wars Dungeon and each new front bringing forth new story chapters and PvM encounters, combat was becoming a significant part of Alaska's time in RuneScape. But as usual, the quests are what pin her down properly.
Clan Contributions
Recruitment Razzers
Alaska volunteered to assist with the Recruitment Razzer subgroup some time after her entry into the clan in 2012. Her role involved responding to any questers posting in the 'looking for a clan' section of the official RS forums, bumping the Clan Quest recruitment thread on the official forums, and processing new applications for players looking to join Clan Quest.
Questaholic
Alaska produced various articles and content for Questaholic across its run and acted as an interview host on a dozen occasions. Her early contributions were segments called 'That Sounds Familiar...' which spotlighted the real-world references hidden in RuneScape. She produced quest series summaries for both Rise of the Red Axe and the desert quests as new entries for these series were arriving in-game. She also edited the front covers for a number of editions.
Low Council
On the 15th of January 2013, Alaska was nominated for a position in the Low Council by Lizbeth. After winning the vote, she was initiated into the Low Council and began working alongside its members to manage day-to-day operations and improvements within Clan Quest. On the 12th of May 2014, Alaska was elected and made Head of Low Council after continued work within the governing body. She held the placement for 10 months before choosing to retire from the position.
Combat Marshals
Upon formation of the Combat Marshals, Alaska became an active member of the group. She coordinated PvM sessions for clanmates alongside fellow Combat Marshals and reported on bossing activity happening for the clan in-game. Her involvement with the Combat Marshals came at a time when Alaska and other members of Clan Quest were growing interested in taking on more challenging PvM encounters.
Guild Council
Around late September 2020, Shane contacted Alaska and extended an invitation to exit emeritus status and return as an active councillor within the remodelled RuneScape Guild (adapted from the Low Council). Feeling comfortable with her place in RuneScape again, Alaska accepted the offer and took up the mantle again as a councillor in Clan Quest.
At the close of Shane's tenure as Head of RuneScape Guild Council in July 2021, Alaska was nominated by Kebabthief for the position. She ran against the hefty competition of Questcaping and Xurdones during the election. After winning the vote by guild councillors, Alaska was made Head of RuneScape Guild Council on the 15th of July 2021. Her opening address to the guild can be found here.
Honour Council
On the 18th January 2022, Darkestnight was elected as Head of the RuneScape Honour Council. A day later, she asked Alaska to accompany her in the Honour Council as a deputy, along with Xurdones. Alaska accepted the invitation, and became an Honour Councillor within the RuneScape Guild on the 19th January 2022. She maintained her position as Head of RuneScape Guild Council at this time.
Characters
Miss Alaska
Miss Alaska is the original account created by Alaska in 2008 when she found RuneScape. It's considered her 'main' account and has the most playtime overall, with most of Alaska's history in Clan Quest associated with this RS account. The name was originally intended to be just 'Alaska' because she found there was a nice sound to it. But of course that wasn't available in 2008. A temp name she had used while messing about with Oliverbot (an AI chatbot that was popular back then) was 'Miss Universe', so with that in recent memory Alaska borrowed the title to create her RuneScape character name.
Alaska has changed outfits a number of times across the years, resting on quest cape and flared pants at one point and then untrimmed agility cape and sailor's hat for a time. Present day she normally sports a black Santa hat and a Trimmed Completionist cape.
AlaskaNub
Created as a new account to participate in the Clan Cup quest events. AlaskaNub was part of the team that aimed to get as many quest points as possible in a set time frame. Each member in the clan's team received a bond to grant temporary membership, opening the pool of quests available.
Ellok
An alternate account made by Alaska in 2015 with the purpose of replaying all RuneScape quests for fun. Having forgotten much of the experience had on her main account after so many years had passed, Alaska sought to refresh her memories and relive all her favourite quests again, this time preserving the runs more permanently with recorded video capture.
OzanFangirl
An account with a not-so-serious name conjured in about 5 seconds. OzanFangirl was made to participate in Clan Quest's group quest playthrough events that began in late 2020. Participating clan members made new alternate accounts and played through some of the free-to-play quests together as a trip down memory lane.
Gallery
Playing through Ritual of the Mahjarrat on Miss Alaska.
Alaska obtains the Quest Point cape.
Alaska achieves her first 99 skill.
L-R: Protoman807, Vodka B, Draziw and Alaska at the Night Before party in 2015.
Protoman807 and Miss Alaska playing table tennis at the Night Before party.
Alaska cosplaying Lucien at RuneFest 2015.
Andrew Gower and Alaska at RuneFest 2015.
Alaska, Protoman807 and JMods around the Stone of Jas at RuneFest 2015.
Alaska and Draziw at RuneFest 2015.
Hanging out with clanmates and RS friends at the end of RuneFest 2015.
L-R: Avisto, Vodka B, Gyromancy, Alaska, Protoman807, Draziw and Sethron 666 at RuneFest 2015.
Alaska claims the Trimmed Completionist cape.
Alaska playing Azzanadra's Quest.
Alaska playing Desperate Times on Ellok.
Ellok and Miss Alaska.
Earth, Shiro Shana, Alaska, Borosouro and Ytse welcoming new councillors, Zodiac and Denniz, to the RuneScape Guild.
