Just got back from a long break from rs (since about the start of november). All I have are the new prayers and the xmas event rewards. What's been happening and are there any things I need to know that would affect me?

Big time. If you're a fan of slayer, there's a new master called Kuradal, she has her own dungeon in the Ancient Caverns, along with another fairy ring in there. The monsters in her dungeon have a drop called the Ferocious ring, it acts as a ring of life, deals 4 more damage per hit, and something else while in the dungeon. Also, the Strykewyrms were released a little while ago. They can only be found when you have their task, and they drop a staff of light, hexcrest, and focus sight. There's other stuff, but these are the major things.

Check Tip.It's prayer guide on info about new prayers. I've heard the only really useful ones come at level 92 and 95 though.

Big time. If you're a fan of slayer, there's a new master called Kuradal, she has her own dungeon in the Ancient Caverns, along with another fairy ring in there. The monsters in her dungeon have a drop called the Ferocious ring, it acts as a ring of life, deals 4 more damage per hit, and something else while in the dungeon. Also, the Strykewyrms were released a little while ago. They can only be found when you have their task, and they drop a staff of light, hexcrest, and focus sight. There's other stuff, but these are the major things.

The ring does nothing else in the dungeon, but it does give you the ability to teleport directly to Kuradel.

 

There is a big list of things that has happened, i suggest to go look on runescape.com and look at the recent updates. Or just hop back into the game and ask people, if they aren't jerks they'll give you an answer.

Also, Kuradal's tasks are larger than Duradel's -- some of Kuradal's tasks can be as many as 250, meaning more time spent actually slaying as opposed to going back for tasks. It's not a huge difference in time, but I like spending more time on task than between tasks. I wouldn't recommend using a different master once you can use Kuradal -- by the time you get the levels to do her tasks (75 slayer and 110 combat), you'll have no trouble taking down her tasks. Also, her dungeon is simply amazing -- no campers (which can be a problem for abyssal demons, blue, iron, and steel dragons depending on location) and the Ferocious Ring gives +4 to every single hit in the dungeon, which makes it pretty much the best place to kill anything in the dungeon (only exception I can think of is hellhounds, which are better killed with a cannon in Taverly)