A modern iconic quest: The Underground Pass

[grim shell]

When we were kids playing this game, quests like Monkey Madness, Desert Treasure, and Dragon Slayer were iconically difficult. The tense feeling of the Monkey Madness dungeon, fighting Elvarg, battling the desert treasure bosses. Now-a-days, those quests are fairly straight forward. But Jagex has released Monkey Madness 2, Dragon Slayer 2, and Desert Treasure 2 - quests that were designed with the player base's current skillset and knowledge.

These quests all do a really good job of allowing us to relive the experience we had. Monkey Madness 2 throws us through an extremely complex dungeon, Dragon Slayer 2 has us slaying complex dragon bosses, and Desert Treasure 2 throws us into 4 difficult puzzles and intimidating boss battles, plus so much more modernization.

Jagex has knocked it out of the park in terms of creating a modern version of these iconic quests, and re-introducing that feeling of intensity, distress, and difficulty for the player base today.

There's one missing, iconic quest that has not yet seen a modern version however: The Underground Pass.

While the original quest line of Underground Pass is complete since Song of the Elves, it stands out as one iconic quest concept that has not yet been modernized or recaptured in any way.

Underground Pass as a quest concept is simple: get through the dungeon. That's the whole quest.

When the quest was released, and for a long time throughout the 2000s, it was seen as an incredibly difficult, frustrating, and stressful quest where the player encounters weird puzzles traversing a complex dungeon, filled with lore and, at the time, some ground-breaking designs for a dungeon. This quest was released in 2003 and really pushed players into a feeling of dread, traversing a rather corrupt dungeon and making the player feel themselves corrupt over time.

The suggestion: A quest modeled after underground pass, but designed for the modern end-game quester in 2025.

Possible quest-lines/lore where this idea could fit well:

-Arposandra/glouphrie quest line
-Anywhere in Kourend/Zeah, possibly continuing after Kingdom Divided
-Some sort of undiscovered sailing island that initiates the quest

[worn mauve]

would be perfect for arposandra

[balmy gull]

do you want 1 tunnel to take 3 hours to get through without banking? it's a funny idea for sure

[grim shell]

Yeah! I'm sure they could come up with mechanics where banking isn't quite necessary, for example throw in safe zones where you can restock, or checkpoints. Maybe the quest doesn't let you bring in outside items, and it's a completely contained experience.

I'm thinking a total modernization, elevation, and recreation of that feeling we had when underground pass was a new quest.

Create a quest where you're in a ridiculous dungeon, complex to navigate, full of puzzles, tough on resources, and tons of deep lore. Really deliver on that "wtf is going on down here" feeling.

[grim shell]

Agree, fits in really well thematically.

[solar geyser]

While were at it One Smaller Favor

[rain meteor]

I've had the idea of "Another Small Favor" running in the back of my mind.
It's a romp around Zeah instead of the main continent. And this time, instead of going in a line and going back, it's a circle, where the final dude in a chain is like "well, I need a small favor, ask the first dude" and then you need to go to the first dude and go around the circle again.