During the great god wars, many smaller battles were fought between the followers of different deities. Sometimes these battles were fought for strategic advantage, many for items of power and others due to age-old enmities. One battle was fought over the possession of an extremely powerful weapon: the godsword.

History has it that the aviantese were protectors of the godsword and, when attacked by followers of Zamorak, several other gods came to their aid; fighting to stop the sword falling into the hands of the one they call the Usurper. The followers of Armadyl, Bandos and Saradomin struggled against an army of Zamorakians and, during this battle, the sword became shattered. Both sides cast powerful spells, attempting to destroy their enemies and freeze them into solid statues of ice. Now, after aeons have passed, the path is clear to explore these caves, but beware: the denizens of the caves are thawing out!

Any adventurer brave, strong or foolish enough can explore the caves, finding rich rewards for their efforts. Aside from the godsword - a two-handed weapon that allows you to change the hilt once it has been reforged, using a variety of special attacks - there is a new set of melee armour, a level 70 Ranged and a combination battlestaff for mages. It is also rumoured that one of the new Slayer creatures in the dungeon may be in possession of a pair of dragon boots!

The dungeon complex itself covers four mapsquares and contains a new race, four boss-monsters, new Slayer creatures and a host of old enemies for you to fight. Keep in mind that these creatures hark back to a different, harsher time when only the fittest survived. Expect, then, to find that your adversaries are slightly more powerful than their modern-day counterparts!

Summary

In other news...

The introductory offer that Thessalia, Reinald and the Hairdresser were giving to players for changing their clothing and hairstyles has ended. While they love doing what they do and are happy to assist in your fashion needs, they still need to earn some money!

We've removed the obstruction from Guthix's eye, so any tears shed in the Tears of Guthix minigame will be vivid colours once more, instead of the grey they've been for the last few weeks.

Trouble has been averted in the Trouble Brewing minigame. Players can no longer trade torches with each other in this game. This was making the sabotage of the bamboo pipes, water pump and boiler easier than intended. Rest assured, you can still set fire to all of these to slow the progress of the other team.

We've also fixed a minor issue with the various chat icons at the bottom of the screen. They should update correctly when you have read the messages in your 'All' channel.

We've just added a new column to the World Select screen to help you find a world for your favourite activities. We know that it's often more fun to do things as part of a group, so we've added this list to help like-minded people find each other.

To make the list we quite simply looked at the worlds that you already use! If you regularly go air running or play Trouble Brewing, you'll already know which worlds you go to, but now anyone else who wants to do the same will be able to join in the fun. Of course, we'll be checking frequently to see if any worlds get full regularly and updating the list when necessary.

Having said all this, you don't have to do the named activity on these worlds - no one should have to do anything just because of the world they're on. The list is simply a guideline for people looking for a specific activity. You can also still do any of these on any world, but if you want the largest games or more company you might want to check out one of the suggested worlds.

We haven't assigned an activity for Worlds 1 and 2 because they already get enough traffic from being at the top of the list. Anyone looking for a busy world won't have any difficulty spotting them.

The player kit update brings you a whole new selection of outfits and customisations for your character that you can choose from. If you have ever felt the need for a new set of clothes or a funky new hairstyle then you will be pleased to know that you can now visit Thessalia in Varrock and the Hairdresser in Falador to add that special touch to your appearance. Members can also visit Reinald in Keldagrim for a new selection of armguards!

At Thessalia's clothes shop, you will find a new range of styles for both men's and women's clothes, ranging from the highly tailored princely outfits down to the ragged clothing of the local peasantry. Visiting the Hairdresser in Falador, you will be able to sculpt your hair into fascinating new styles including braids, ponytails and more. If you are of the male persuasion, give yourself a fancy new beard or moustache style such as the 'Vizier' or even the 'Dali'! Reinald offers a range of designs for your wrists, in both silver and gold, so you can accessorise to go with your favourite clothes.

Most importantly, it can be a hard task to find the right clothing fashion and hairstyles to suit you, so for the first week Thessalia, Reinald and the Hairdresser will allow you to change your kit for free!

In other news...

We've updated the "Trade" tab at the bottom of the screen. While you're trading with someone, that tab will now display chat messages from your trade partner. This ought to make trading a little easier in crowded places!

Multi-target Ancient Magicks will now work against multiple players when fighting in a player-owned house combat ring.

Our Graphics team has been working hard on fixing a whole range of graphical glitches. They've fixed a huge number of trees that had recently started hovering above the ground, although we're aware that there are plenty more trees awaiting their attention. They've also fixed some buggy models, such as the slightly transparent Guthan chainskirt and the gnome goggles' strap that was changing its colour depending on the owner's hair colour!

Finally, although it was not meant to be possible to kill oneself by eating the Recipe for Disaster rockcake, determined players had still achieved it by spam-clicking. Since we don't really need any more accidental deaths-by-rockcake, we've updated that rockcake to ignore spam-clicking.

This week we are pleased to announce the long-awaited release of Clan Chat for RuneScape.

Now, both Members and Free Players can have their very own channel for chatting to friends and talking as a group, and can even assign each other ranks. Players can setup and name their channel and, once up and running, other players can join in the fun. Joining someone's channel is as simple as typing their username in!

Like private chat, Clan Chat works whether you and your friends are on the same game world or all spread across many different worlds.

The new Clan Chat interface can be accessed by clicking on the two smiley faces at the bottom-left of your in-game controls.

To get a proper understanding of the Clan Chat system, we advise you to read the Knowledge Base article here.

You may well notice, in addition to the Clan Chat, that the interfaces have had a tidy up. The dwarves of Keldagrim have produced a fine new tablet in place of the chat scroll, there are more chat filters at the bottom of the screen, and the general controls have been improved, making your day-to-day RuneScaping that much smoother and easier to look at.

In other news...

The King's Ransom music was playing correctly but not turning green when it was unlocked. This has been rectified.

Various items and objects which were previously causing graphical glitches or looking a little bit funny have been adjusted. This includes gems, food and several bits of armour and clothing that were being affected by each other.

The Items Kept on Death interface has been adjusted and should now be clearer as to what you'll keep and lose at that particular moment.

The price of cloth from the sawmill in Varrock has been adjusted so the price doesn't vary. For the last couple of weeks, when buying several pieces, the price was fluctuating more than intended.

Players can no longer get stuck at the end of the Fishing Trawler minigame. Abandon ship!

August will begin with a new feature we're sure you'll all love: Clan Chat! You'll be able to set up your own chat channel that you and your clan-mates can use to keep in touch with each other, as well as being able to rank the members in your chat channel, control who can talk, and much, much more. It's an entirely new feature for RuneScape, but we have no doubt that you'll all take to it like fish to water.

Other updates this month include a few more of our small improvement projects. You’ll be seeing better examine descriptions on some items (which should help establish where they come from) and also some graphical changes, making potentially dangerous game areas LOOK more dangerous.

The second improvement project this month concentrates on some old friends. Ever grow tired of the selection of haircuts and base-outfits in the game? Ever wondered what those odd silver arm guards are that some people have? Ever been jealous of Romeo's great hair? Well, you too can have the “foppish” look and all sorts of other styles besides, when later this month we release a player kit update. During the first week or so of launch we will make all costume, haircut and arm guard changes totally free, just so you can have a bit of fun without it denting your pocket.

We will also be adding some information to the world select screen about “themed” servers. As you all know, it’s often much more fun to train and play minigames with other people, especially those team-based events like Trouble Brewing. Because of this, we decided that we would add a new column to the world select screen highlighting those worlds with associated activities. Naturally, you’ll still be able to play the content anywhere you like, but if you want to find people with similar ideas, then you’ll know where to look.

August's game updates will be complete with perhaps the most intense update of the year as we take a peek into the past... and into the God Wars Dungeon. For many centuries, legions of unique creatures lay frozen in time, locked in a battle that began back in the Third Age of RuneScape. Recent tectonic movement in the Wilderness has caused hot springs to surface in the dungeon, thawing the occupants, with potentially devastating effects. Inside their icy tomb, relics from the most destructive period of history have defrosted and resumed their grisly battle... Incredible loot, ancient boss-monsters, extinct species and one of the most graphically intensive updates of the year will leave you begging for a nice simple goblin* to kill. Don’t worry! There are even some of them in there, with the rest of the Bandos army. Yes, we said army. Oh, and Armadyl, too. Remember him? You soon will when one of his avian troops swoops down and disembowels you. Believe us.

We'll also be adding the usual website extras like the Postbag from the Hedge and the Players' Gallery, as well as a brand new Development Diary.

That’s all folks!

* No goblins were harmed during the writing of this Behind the Scenes document. Well, maybe a few. But they did call us names.