I come at coldest winter to bite and gnash and gnaw. People of the Fremennik, fear me. I am Hati, and I will devour the moon, and my brother, Sköll, the sun, and thus will begin the End of Things.

– Fremennik folk tale

It’s winter again, and the legendary wolf Hati stalks the Fremennik forests and fjords as he did last year. This time, the Fremennik have a plan – they also plan to lure his brother Sköll to Gielinor by building a blaze as bright as the sun, and defeating him as well.

After speaking to the Fremennik citizen outside Rellekka, you’ll be able to fight Hati, who will appear regularly in the woods to the south east. To fight Sköll, speak to Vitharr far to the west of Rellekka.

When defeated, Hati drops a set of gloves which, when worn, doubles Attack, Strength, Defence, Ranged and Magic XP earned during combat over a set amount of cumulative XP gain, based upon your levels in those skills. He also drops a cosmetic hood and cloak made of white wolf fur. If you contribute to the kill you can pick up these rewards, although you’ll only be able to get one of each. If you have the gloves from last year, you will receive a recharge of your bonus XP allowance, although you don’t need to be wearing the gloves for this to happen.

Those helping to defeat Sköll, either by fighting or by helping to build the fire, will receive a set of boots that double Woodcutting and/or Agility XP; again, for a set amount of XP gain based upon your current levels.

These XP boosts can be spread across the available skills in any proportion. Just wear the gloves or boots when you’re training the skill you want to be boosted.

All but the very strongest adventurers will need to bring friends or team up with others in the area to face Hati and Sköll, as both are formidable foes – come prepared to die!

May fate favour you this day.

Please note: Hati and Sköll will remain in-game for one month. The XP boost allowance on the two items must be used before the 16th of May 2012. You’ll keep the items after this time, but they’ll be cosmetic items only.

Mod Drew

To join the fight against Hati & Sköll:

To fight Hati, speak to the Fremennik citizen, just outside the gates of Rellekka. You can teleport to Rellekka for free by speaking to the wolf hunter in the Barbarian Village (Gunnarsgrunn), although he’ll lose his temper if you ask him too many times!

Speak to Vitharr on the coast far to the west of the Rellekka gates for details of how to build the fire and lure Sköll to Gielinor.

Requirements:

You must be a member to face Hati and Sköll.

Anyone can attack Hati and Sköll, but as they’re level 654 and 672 monsters it’s a good idea to team up with other players to do so.

You’ll need a hatchet to chop the wood you’ll need to summon Sköll, but Vitharr can provide you with a basic one.

In Other News

Along with Hati and Sköll’s appearance, packs of wolves are roaming freely across Gielinor:

Visit our dedicated thread here, where our vigilant P-Mods will be keeping the community apprised of wolf activity and recruiting hardy souls to join the hunt. Feel free to use this thread if you’d like to organise groups of your own.

You can also look for a group by joining Mod Crow’s friends’ chat channel.

If you’re on Twitter, let your friends know you need help or are going hunting, using the hashtag #midwinter. Selected tweets will be made live on the forum thread, and we’ll be using this to tweet up to date pictures and information about the community’s efforts against the lupine threat.

We’ve made a few changes that will aid your day-to-day adventuring. Click a skill on your ‘Stats’ tab to view the updated skill advance guide: here you can easily navigate from one skill to another, check what activities are possible at your level, and view skill ‘milestones’ - popular or important activities to aim for in each skill.

When you gain a level, you will see our new level up messages at the top of your screen, complete with fireworks and succinct indications of what you can now train on. Additionally, XP pop-ups will rise from your avatar whenever you complete a skill activity. These can be toggled by right-clicking on the XP globe near your minimap.

We have removed the limit on the number of pets that can be owned at one time (the limit was previously determined by your Summoning level). You are still limited to owning one of each type of pet, however; for example, you cannot own more than one bulldog.