Xurdones

Xurdones
Clan Quest
Positions	Moderators Guild Council (RS3) Honor Council (RS3)
Guilds	Questing Clan of RuneScape
Joined Clan	June 26, 2020
Gaming Info
Runescape Username Join Date Quest Points	Xurdones September, 2004 450
Personal Info
Age	31
Sex	Male
Occupation	Software Developer
Location	Ontario, Canada
Signatures

Xurdones is a current member of Clan Quest. He joined the clan on June 26th, 2020^[1], and is currently a member of the Questing Clan of RuneScape Guild Council, Questing Clan of RuneScape Honour Council, and Server Moderators. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Questaholic.

Runescape History

Early History

Xurdones' RuneScape journey began in mid-2004 (the exact date has been lost to history). One of his school friends was playing it, and encouraged their entire group to try it out. Xurdones - not yet going by that name - did, and was immediately enamoured by the game. Unfortunately he couldn't figure out what to do once leaving Tutorial Island, so he created another account to do the tutorial again. And again, and again. The names of these early accounts have also been lost to history.

Finally, the account named Xurdones was created, and it was this account, with the assistance of another schoolfriend who had progressed quite a bit further, that began journeying beyond Tutorial Island. From the very beginning, Xurdones loved quests: they were, to him, the only content worth exploring, and he never trained his skills very far, unless it was to meet a quest requirement. Consequently, his skills were very low.

Membership

Initially restricting his journey to the free lands, Xurdones became a paying member in approximately 2006. He quickly set about completing the new quests that had opened up to him, and it was around this time that he became aware of the Quest Point Cape. Acquiring that cape quickly became his primary motivation, but unfortunately many quests were beyond his skills at that time, so achieving the goal seemed unlikely at best.

With the pool of eligible quests dwindled to nothing, and the prospect of grinding up to the remaining requirements losing its lustre, Xurdones slowly abandoned the game around 2008.

The First Return

Xurdones was drawn back into the game in late 2010 by a new friend, Ice Wolf. Though they spent little time together in-game, since Ice Wolf was maxed and Xurdones was very much not maxed, two years worth of new content enticed him back into training and questing. Although the release of Nomad's Requiem made the goal of a Quest Point Cape seem less attainable than ever, he enjoyed the new quests that had been released during his absence, and those older quests he was now able to complete with his higher levels.

He would remain a semi-active player until 2013, and the release of The World Wakes. Xurdones had never quite gotten the hang of the new combat system, which had been added to the game in 2012, but for his purposes at the time it hadn't been necessary to learn it. However, attempting The World Wakes proved to stretch his limited knowledge of boss mechanics to its breaking point, and he gave up after dying for the third time to the Automaton's special attack. Disillusioned, and feeling like the game had left him behind, his activity dwindled again and he soon stopped playing once again.

The Second Return

Many times over the years, Xurdones would feel the urge to return to Runescape and see what had happened in it. He resisted those urges until December 2019, when curiosity finally got the better of him and he logged back in. Finding the game world less populated than he remembered, but much prettier, he was soon sucked back in. Finding skill training to be easier now, whether due to the game itself being easier or due to his own growing experience with video games he didn't know, he once again set his sights on the elusive Quest Point Cape, and attempted some quests that he had previously thought beyond his reach.

Quest Point Cape Achieved

Nomad, the Pest and Dagannoth Queens, the assault on Guthix in The World Wakes; all were easily bested by a Xurdones with greater skills and a far greater understanding of combat mechanics (the introduction of Revolution mode in his absence helped tremendously as well). Finally, only three quests remained between him and his goal: Nomad's Elegy, Sliske's Endgame and Curse of the Black Stone.

Elegy proved not to be as difficult as he had feared, until the third phase of the final battle against Nomad, in which two Nomads are spawned simultaneously, and both must be killed. At that time Xurdones' knowledge of PVM mechanics was still rudimentary, and the challenge once more felt impossible. Fortunately, an item had been introduced to ease these challenges: the Deathtouched Dart. Desperate, Xurdones waited for the Travelling Merchant to get them in stock, and used one to bypass this phase of the battle.

Endgame was hard-fought, but with the assistance of a guide on the Runescape subreddit^[2], he killed Sliske in only three attempts.

That left only Curse of the Black Stone, which required completion of the three Elite Dungeons. The task seemed impossible, but bolstered by his past successes Xurdones pressed on. Over the course of weeks, he slowly chipped away at the dungeons on story mode, until all that remained was the final battle with the Ambassador. After reading about his mechanics on the official wiki, as well as watching some Youtube guides, Xurdones decided "fuck this noise." Fortunately a promotion was being run on Treasure Hunter that awarded Deathtouched darts, so with a bit of luck (and purchasing some additional keys with Oddments), he acquired one and used it to destroy the Ambassador, completing the quest.

At long last, in March 2020, Xurdones had completed his childhood goal: become the owner of the Quest Point Cape. Understanding that not having a goal would cause him to eventually lose interest in the game once again, he refocused on a new target: the Master Quest Cape. This would prove an even greater challenge than the Quest Point Cape had been.

Joining Clan Quest

On June 25th, 2020, Runescape began what was meant to be a general Q&A livestream on its Twitch account. Because of scheduling conflicts, that topic was abandoned and replaced with an introduction to the newest member of the Runescape Community Management team, Mod Hooli. At one point in the Twitch Chat, Idiotonastic and Santa Ends began asking Mod Hooli, who had expressed a love of Runescape's quests, if he would be interested in joining the Questing Clan of Runescape, or Clan Quest.

Xurdones was watching this stream, and had been contemplating clans for a few weeks. The game had become far less sociable than he remembered from childhood, and the prospect of playing with friends again had some appeal. After skimming the clan's official website, Xurdones was convinced, and submitted an application thread. It was soon accepted, and Questcaping formally added Xurdones to Clan Quest.

Xurdtwos

In July 2020^[3], out of a desire to re-experience the quests he hadn't played in over a decade, and to experience the story in a more proper order, Xurdones created his questing alt, Xurdtwos. Xurdtwos, or "Twoie" as she would sometimes be called on account of it being easier to type, would continue to quest sporadically alongside Xurdones' training for the Master Quest Cape.

Mastery of Quests and Skills

After over a year of grinding skills and killing bosses and monsters for rare drops, on June 21st 2021 Xurdones finally achieved his second long-term goal: the Master Quest Cape^[4]. The final requirement was the City of Senntisten quest, which had been released that day, and which was being streamed by Questcaping for the Clan Quest Twitch Channel. Purchasing the cape on-stream was something of a happy accident, since he had completed the last other requirement the day before, about twelve hours before the quest was released.

That accomplishment complete, he turned his attention towards maxing, something he'd been putting off until the MQC grind was complete. Only three skills, Divination, Hunter, and Agility, remained between him and the elusive Max cape. Divination and Hunter fell rather easily, but Agility proved more of a chore. But not an insurmountable one, and on July 6 2021, welcomed by Derparnieux, Xurdones finally entered the Max Guild for the first time.

Endgame

After maxing, Xurdones turned his attention to the next logical goal: the Completionist Cape. Luckily, because the Completionist and Master Quest Capes shared many of the same requirements, this would be an easier task than the others. Predictably, the limiting factor was reaching level 120 Herblore, but after getting the Herblore skilling pet and resolving to dump every bit of non-pet-granting experience sources into the skill, Xurdones achieved both 120 Herblore and the Completionist cape on the same day: December 10th, 2021^[5]

On April 28, 2023, Xurdones purchased the Trimmed Completionist cape for the first time^[6]

Fresh Start and Xurdfours

In September 2022, Xurdones decided to participate in the upcoming "Fresh Start Worlds temporary game mode, with the goal of achieving yet another Quest Point Cape - this time with inverted colours. Creating yet another alt account, this one named Xurdfours, the race began on September 26, 2022, with the launch of the game mode.

Along the way, Xurdfours became a founding member of the FSW clan "Fresh Quest", started by Shane as a way to centralize in-game communications for participating members of both the Clan Quest and RSBandB communities.

Though he missed the World First by almost a month, with the completion of Pieces of Hate Xurdfours became the first member of Clan Quest to obtain an Inverted Quest Point Cape on November 11.

RuneScape Milestones

Capes of Accomplishment

Cape of Accomplishment	Date Achieved
Quest Points	March 2020
Farming	September 9, 2020
Mining	October 18, 2020
Smithing	October 25, 2020
Crafting	November 6, 2020
Archaeology	December 2, 2020
Invention	December 7, 2020
Dungeoneering	December 9, 2020
Slayer	December 23, 2020
Constitution	December 25, 2020
Defence	February 9, 2021
Runecrafting	February 13, 2021
Fishing	February 14, 2021
Thieving	February 18, 2021
Herblore	February 19, 2021
Fletching	February 19, 2021
Summoning	February 19, 2021
Cooking	February 19, 2021
Attack	February 19, 2021
Construction	February 21, 2021
Strength	February 23, 2021
Firemaking	February 24, 2021
Ranged	March 22, 2021
Magic	March 26, 2021
Woodcutting	April 29, 2021
Prayer	June 3, 2021
Divination	June 22, 2021
Hunter	June 29, 2021
Agility	July 6, 2021
Inverted Quest Points	November 11, 2022
Necromancy	August 17, 2023

Master Capes of Accomplishment

Master Cape	Date Achieved
Invention	April 11, 2021
Archaeology	April 29, 2021
Farming	June 14, 2021
Master Quest Cape	June 21, 2021
Dungeoneering	August 12, 2021
Slayer	October 6, 2021
Herblore	December 10, 2021
Magic	December 27, 2022
Constitution	April 19, 2023
Ranged	May 24, 2023
Necromancy	February 12, 2024

Skilling Pets

Pet Name	Skill	Date	XP
Rocky	Mining	May-June 2020	~5m
Smithy	Smithing	August 7-17, 2020	5.3m
Brains	Farming	August 25, 2020	7.5m
Archie	Archaeology	August 27, 2020	2.6m
Ramsay	Cooking	September 21, 2020	6.9m
Sifu	Attack	September 30, 2020	5.5m
Gemi	Crafting	October 21, 2020	11.4m
Malcolm	Invention	October 25, 2020	21m
Morty	Constitution	December 23, 2020	11.7m
Wallace	Defence	February 9, 2021	12.9m
Bubbles	Fishing	February 12, 2021	12.1m
Kangali	Strength	February 21, 2021	10.9m
Woody	Woodcutting	February 25, 2021	9.5m
Sparky	Ranged	March 27, 2021	13.2m
Rue	Runecrafting	June 3, 2021	14.7m
Ace	Hunter	June 27, 2021	10.8m
Crabbe	Slayer	July 24, 2021	55.3m
Baby Yaga's House	Construction	September 12, 2021	18.9m
Newton	Magic	October 1, 2021	60.5m
Herbert	Herblore	November 8, 2021	54.8m
Gordie	Dungeoneering	November 17, 2021	107m
Ralph	Thieving	January 4, 2022	28.4m
Willow	Divination	December 20, 2022	29.4m
Omen	Necromancy	August 28, 2023	42.6m
Flo	Fletching	March 18, 2024	44.2m

Boss Pets

Pet Name	Boss	Date	KC
Vindiddy	Vindicta	June 2, 2021	52
King Black Dragonling	KBD	September 21, 2021	137
Rawrvek	Vindicta	April 7, 2023	321
Queen Black Dragonling	QBD	April 25, 2023	200
Kalphite Grublet	Kalphite Queen	April 12, 2024	907

Boss Logs

Boss	Date	Kill Count	Last item
King Black Dragon	April 5, 2024	2159	Dragon kite ornament kit (or)
Kalphite Queen	April 12, 2024	907	Kalphite egg (pet item)

Clan Quest History

Xurdones joined Clan Quest in June 2020^[1]. He was featured in the August 2020 issue of Questaholic^[7], and began a semi-regular column in September 2020^[8].

The Legend of Xurdtwos

In June 2020, not long after joining, Xurdones created his second safekeep^[9]. Initially the story of his questing alt, the imaginatively-named "Xurdtwos", the safekeep soon evolved into more of a quest review blog, featuring his thoughts on game design and narrative direction of RuneScape 3's quests. In an effort to make the series accessible to a broader audience, it was gradually moved to the Wiki beginning in February 2021, where it would continue to be sporadically updated.

Questaholic and the Content Coordinators

In July 2020, responding to a plea from then-Editor in Chief Evilphan for help with the magazine, Xurdones joined the Content Editors team^[10]. His first assignment was to create a tool to automatically compile and format the "RS3 Achievements" recurring article in Questaholic. Unfortunately, after a poll of Questaholic readers found it to be a less-than-popular feature, the decision was made to discontinue the Achievements section and Xurdones' tool was shelved after only one use.

After Questaholic wound down in November 2020, Xurdones shifted his focus to the group that would soon become the Content Coordinators team, first by assisting in the creation of the first Clan Quest Advent Calendar and later by creating tools to assist Cireon in the creation of the Monthly Digest. He would also continue creating content to be featured in the Digest, including continuing The Legend of Xurdtwos and infrequent installments of his film review column from Questaholic.

Beginning in January 2021, Xurdones became an occasional presence on the Clan Quest Twitch Channel, where he appears in release day streams of Runescape 3 content, hosted by Questcaping, and on rare occasions serves as back-up host.

However, Xurdones continued to work on the Magazine under its new (old) Editor-in-Chief, Choto 3000, primarily by bringing the magazine back to the Clan Quest wiki, where it can be enjoyed by a wider audience. He also began a semi-regular column, Xurdones Reviews, in the September 2020 issue, where he reviewed films new (occasionally) and old (mostly).

In February 2022, Choto 3000 approached Xurdones about the prospect of reviving Questaholic, which had been in limbo since Choto himself stepped down as Editor-in-Chief in 2020. Though initially hesitant, wary of falling into the same traps that had plagued the previous run, Xurdones warmed to the idea and agreed. The revival would be announced at the State of the Union meeting later that month.

Clan Leadership

On November 20th, 2020, following a nomination from Shiro_Shana, Xurdones was promoted to the Questing Clan of RuneScape Guild Council, where he serves to this day.

After the previous Questing Clan of RuneScape Honour Council was dissolved in January 2022, Miss Alaska nominated Xurdones to replace Cireon as the Head of Honour Council, a nomination he humbly accepted. Though he ultimately lost the election, Darkestnight would ultimately select him as one of her two assistants, alongside Miss Alaska, to form the tenth Honour Council.

On December 31st, 2021, Xurdones was promoted to the Moderators team^[11].

In February 2023, Darkestnight moved to dissolve the existing Honour Council. Nominated for a second time, Xurdones would go on to win the ensuing election to become Head of Honour Council, selecting Moesen natha and Spy whoman to form the eleventh Honour Council.

RSBandB

Xurdones began listening to the RSBandB podcast shortly after joining the clan and becoming introduced to it. In October 2021, Shane invited him to help produce a supplemental episode on the future of the then-current Elder God Wars storyline. After participating in the production and recording of that episode, he would appear as an occasional host in the regular weekly episodes, most often discussing quest/lore and completionist content.

The Name

The name "Xurdones" was chosen by a school friend back in Xurdones' early days of Runescape. He was one of a trio of friends, and one of them had the idea that they should all play together as a sort of D&D adventuring party, one warrior, one ranger, one mage, and he had devised names for their characters. "Xurdones" was one of those names.

How is it pronounced?

As the name is - to the best of anyone's knowledge - a completely made-up word with no real-world usage or meaning, it has no "correct" pronunciation, and it has been pronounced in different ways by different people. Example pronunciations include:

• zur-DOH-nz
• tzur-DOH-nz
• zur-doh-KNEES

References