Mysterious Old Man

The Mysterious Old Man is a former RuneScape random event. As his name suggests, he behaves rather oddly and has an eccentric nature.

He has since retired from his job of randomly abducting adventurers to his maze and took up residence in a house in Draynor Village (on 12 February 2013). He can be chatted to learn about his history and where other Random Event characters can be found. If talked to about abductions, Evil Bob appears and teleports him away, allowing players to gain access to his basement.

Biography
As a child, he was abandoned and left on the doorstep of a house on the opposite side of Draynor Bank. His adoptive parents decided to name him "Mysterious Baby Boy", but he had it changed at adulthood and was henceforth known by his current moniker. At some point of time in his life, he met with other individuals whom he calls his "random" friends and together they decided to host random events to keep players active and give them pleasant distractions, in return for small rewards. However, the events he and his friends hosted were under coercive circumstances, involving the abduction of players against their will or by giving them a Strange box from the Eastern lands which multiplied in their inventory if they ignored or tried to get rid of without solving the puzzle therein.

After retirement, he was forced to reside in another house as the Wise Old Man has taken residence in his old family home. One noteworthy feature of his current residence is a basement with items from the discontinued Random events, but access to it is restricted while the Mysterious Old Man is around, and he remains secretive on the nature of the basement. One can gain temporary access to the basement by asking him about abductions, in which he will summon Evil Bob and get teleported to ScapeRune.

Talking to the Mysterious Old Man
The Mysterious Old Man would appear but not talk to players. When players spoke to him he would reward them with a random item, wave, then teleport away. Players who failed to talk to him got teleported to a random location and all notable items in their inventory were noted.

Other Events
The Mysterious Old Man would also sometimes appear and transport players to the Mime, Pinball, and Surprise Exam! events. In the Pinball event he appeared to be its master, while the other events are controlled (coordinated) by other characters, such as the Mime or Mr. Mordaut.

Maze
Sometimes the man would appear and send players into a maze. Players who quickly found their way to the centre of the maze would be given a prize and be teleported back to where they originally were. The faster they were, the better the prize. There were chests throughout the maze which had items inside and time could be spent to search for them but the final prize was a lot larger. Also, the man followed you all around the maze telling you which doors do not take you to the centre of the maze when you try to open them, and served the same purpose as a Deposit Box during the event when you talked to him, so you could deposit items that you got from the chests or that you had in your inventory before being teleported to the maze. That way you could make space for the items you got from the chests or from the final prize.

Strange box
The Mysterious Old Man used to give players a strange box. If opened, a simple question of matching the number/shape to the shape/number on the box would be given and if answered correctly, a mystery prize would be given (usually coins or gems). If the question was answered incorrectly, another mystery box would appear. Over time, if the box had not been opened, the box would multiply and eventually fill a player's inventory. The maximum number of boxes a player could have at any given time is 28, 1 in each free inventory slot and then all the rest in the final box slot. It could not be dropped and if attempted to; the original box would stay and another would appear in the player's inventory. Attempting to bank the box or perform Low or High Level Alchemy on it would also cause it to duplicate. Only the original mystery box contained a prize. Many players complained about this random event, because it gave bad rewards and consumed time. The box may contain
 * Coins (20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640)
 * Uncut diamond
 * Uncut ruby
 * Uncut emerald
 * Uncut sapphire
 * Half of a key
 * Cosmic talisman

Quests
The Mysterious Old Man plays a minor role in Recipe for Disaster by giving Duke Horacio one of his special puzzleboxes, unintentionally saving him from the Culinoromancer.

In Eagle's Peak, the Mysterious Old Man is mentioned in the journal of Arthur Artimus, where it is strongly implied that he abducted Arthur and his Bandits of the Golden Claw.

Random event ideas
In the twentieth edition of the Postbag, the Old man conceived several new random events.

The Land Before Mime
In The Land Before Mime, an unsuspecting mug would be teleported to a parallel dimension in which mimes do not exist. They must convince the people in the dimension that being a mime is a distinguished hobby. The reward was to have your name changed to Nigel. Its name was a reference to the movie series The Land Before Time.

The Feeble-minded Squirrel of Just-Right-of-Falador
In The Feeble-minded Squirrel of Just-Right-of-Falador, an unsuspecting mug has to convince a squirrel, that the Mysterious Old Man had captured, that he was actually a yew tree. The reward was that the Spaniel of Unimaginable Horror would be unleashed upon the player.

Mime Racing
In Mime Racing, an unsuspecting mug would have to jump onto a mime and pretend to whip it, as the mime jumped over invisible obstacles and took pit stops. The reward was to be turned inside out.

Oh, Postie Pete!
In Oh, Postie Pete!, an unsuspecting mug would find themselves in a poorly written sitcom about a postman that is a skull. He must laugh whenever Postie Pete has a misunderstanding with the elderly neighbour, trips over pavement, or gets himself into a situation that is embarrassing and entertaining. The reward was the Mysterious Old Man's slippers.

Rusk
In Rusk, an unsuspecting mug have to send their troops out to capture large swaths of biscuit. The reward was that the player would have bragging rights for 4.3 minutes.

Where's Jad?
In Where's Jad?, an unsuspecting mug would be blindfolded and led into a room. He must find TzTok-Jad among the brightly coloured furniture. The task is made harder because owls are tied to the player's limbs. The reward was Jad's toenail clippings, which are awe-inspiringly powerful.

Trivia

 * The mystery box used to feature colours, but people with colour blindness were unable to complete the event so Jagex changed it to only feature shapes and numbers.
 * Since the Mysterious Old Man followed you during the maze random event, it was possible to encounter other Mysterious Old Man NPCs who were following other players doing the maze. If you caught up to one and talked to him, he said "Sorry, this is not the mysterious old man you're looking for", which could be a reference to the famous "These are not the droids you're looking for" line from Star Wars.
 * The previous female and male occupant of the house the Mysterious Old Man is currently residing in has relocated to the nearby building with the two log spawns.
 * If asked about abductions, he will get abducted after summoning Evil Bob through the letters ' CIS ', which is the fairy ring code to ScapeRune.
 * He is one of the few, if not the only random event character, to be ' abducted ' by another random event.
 * His new examine text references the Weird Old Man, Odd Old Man and Wise Old Man.