This month will begin with an important change that you are all aware of: unbalanced trade will be removed on Wednesday, 2nd of January. As you may have read in the Development Diary: RuneScape vs Real-world Trading, this will be a change that reduces the threat of bots, gold sellers and scammers dramatically. With a fatal blow delivered to real-world trading, we can focus more on updates like three quests in one month!

We will be relaxing our trade limitations on the same day as unbalanced trade removal. Thanks to your feedback, we will be basing our new limits on how many Quest Points you have. This will give you increased flexibility when trading.

Our first quest this month continues the desert storyline and introduces a bit of an insect theme in January. One of your allies met an untimely demise at the pincers of a large and aggressive bad guy in the Contact! quest. Will you seek revenge and cleanse the world of bugs like a big can of insect repellent? Or will you take the advice of the local priest and try to talk your way out, man-to-mandible? It might just be the lesser of two weevils. Creep and crawl through the desert, raid deserted dungeons and fight louse-y beasties, but remember - insects have feelings too! Especially when you squish ‘em.

Some way north-west of Sophanem, there is a bit of a buzz in the quiet town of Taverley. For one, Guthix has seen fit to give his loyal subjects some crisp new robes, and their rocky buildings a bit of a wax. For two, some strange growlings have been coming from Pikkupstix's house. In the second of this month's quests, you will be roped into dealing with a rabbit-wolf-reindeer-bird-type...thing. But how do you defeat rabbit-wolf-reindeer-bird-type...things? A clue may be found in the title of this Wolf Whistle quest, which introduces key aspects of our next update...

What has 110 eyes, 5 horns, a pair of antlers and a fishbowl? The Chaos Elemental's girlfriend? No, it's Summoning! That's right, the stampede is coming, with scores of animals for you to pet, raise, fight and befriend! We don't want to go into any more detail than the Development Diaries have, but, needless to say, whether you are a skiller or a combat-fiend, Summoning will offer you a familiar for every occasion...

...and what better occasion than the opening of a huge multiway combat dungeon, brimming with a huge range of beasties? Bring your combat familiar so that you can use their Steel of Legends or Insane Ferocity to chew through ranks of creatures and speed you on your way towards that Summoning skillcape! Watch out, though - the area is littered with misfiring portals that are about as reliable as a cartful of Morrisanes.

You would be forgiven for thinking that January is just for Summoning. Oh no,no,no - Hunter will get a look in too! Budding trappers will find many treats within the Summoning skill itself, but they will also find an extension to their skill in Isafdar, with the introduction of the grenwall and pawya creatures. These are two high-level Hunter creatures that give a boost to Ranged and Farming - if you can catch them, of course.

Your Hunter, alongside your Woodcutting and Firemaking, will be called upon in our third and final January quest. In it, you will be asking yourself several questions. How do I clear a mud bath of flies? Why am I sleeping on a pork chop? Is an ogre massage a good idea? And what are platypodes? Take time out from your adventuring to help an entrepreneur set up a spa resort deep in ogre country. There might even be a mudpack in it for you.

There's hardly room in the month to tuck in some popular website offerings. Expect the last of our Summoning Development Diaries and wallpapers, a Lores and Histories, a Castle Wars wallpaper and the customary Players' Gallery and Postbag from the Hedge, sprinkled liberally amongst the updates above. It really is a January to get excited about!