Ebon Gate primer - Caligos Isle

An Ebon Gate Primer by Luxelle for the TownCrier.

Introduction

Ebon Gate is a huge, multi-faceted annual Festival Event in GemStone. The 2017 Ebon Gate was the first time it took place the entire month of October, and the format is back for 2018. This is a large SimuCoin event at a venue outside of the regularly accessible areas of GemStoneIV. You can buy the SimuCoin pass for just the kind of activities you wish to attend: Shopping, or Merchants/Services/Raffles, or Digging and games (by the week). There is no cut off date for the passes - they are sold up to the last day, and there is no maximum number of attendees. Everyone can come. Anyone will be able to access the Festival Grounds at Caligos Isle without purchasing anything at all. Doing things ... that's going to require the appropriate SimuCoin item.

1. The first rule of Ebon Gate: Bookmark the wiki page and the shopping page. It saves you time later. They will be regularly updated with new Ebon Gate information as it becomes available. The wiki team has already created the pages, and will update them with new info. (Also - check with the wiki team and find out if you can help with the documentation of the Festival. There's a Lich script that does a lot the heavy lifting for you.)
   • Main Info Page: Ebon Gate 2018
   • Shops' Inventory Page: Ebon Gate 2018 shop listing
   • Pro Tip: Keep the two pages open in your browser tabs for the duration
2. The second rule of Ebon Gate: Prepare. Prepare. Prepare.
3. The third rule of Ebon Gate: ;tune TownCrier to pick up important breaking news
4. The fourth rule: Give the wiki team a day or five to map and inventory every shop. If you'd like it finished faster, study the Help:Festshop script page for the script and instructions about how YOU can painlessly help to document the festival via a great Lich script. In 2015, for instance, there were 141 shops! That's a great deal of work.

We expect Deep Sea Diving for the companion event to Ebon Gate again this year. Like Delirium Manor it is available to everyone. You will need to purchase the ticket item/pass in the SimuCoin shop for dives. These are sold individually, and not part of the other Ebon Gate access items that are sold.

A first for 2017 continues this year: The shops will be open for window shopping and wiki-fy-ing during the first week of October. This is the time when the storyline will take place, too. The shops open October 6.

Shopping and Merchants:

There are so many shops at the Ebon Gate Festival; new scripts and items are often introduced at this festival. Previews and teasers trickle out for weeks before the event opens. Some of the shops have wares that are only available once a year during this time. There are multiple appearances by multiple merchants during the festival. Sometimes you may even see them simultaneously and you'll have to make a QUICK decision which merchant to find. The merchant appearances are often general services (GALD: General Alterations, Lightening, or Deepening); sometimes only one or two of those things; sometimes unlockings only, or in addition. There could merchants who will provide custom tattoos, customize your features, and other special offerings. Some merchants might only work on their own things. Some merchants you dare not ever ask them to alter something they've made, remember to read all the signs. Rare unlocking and services can sometimes be found during the festival time.

Pro Tip: Remember to read all the signage. I am not responsible for your safety when you ask Kyrinthe for something in pink.

Schedule: Stay tuned to the main Ebon Gate page for exact games, raffles, services, and merchant schedules. Some will be announced in advance so that you can plan for them, some will just happen. The all new plan for our Month-Long EG is:

• The 1st week - Oct 1-5: Storyline and Window Shopping, starts at 9PM on the 1st
• The 2nd week - Oct 5-10: Live Games Week in Plat (Opens ~9pm eastern on the 5th)
• The 2nd week - Oct 5-31: in both games: (Opens ~9pm eastern on the 5th)
  • and all of these are open for the rest of the month: Oct 5-31
  • Shops open for business
  • Digging and Games begin, including fishing, digging up crates on the beach, and the mini-games
  • Deep Sea Diving, the companion event
• The 3rd week - Oct 12-19: Platinum's Merchant Week
• The 3rd week - Oct 12-17: Live Games Week in Prime (see below for examples)
• The 4th week - Oct 19-26: Merchant Week in Prime! There are SO many merchants. It usually includes:
  • Live Merchant sessions for GALD
  • Live Merchant sessions for Unlocking things
  • Misc. Merchant appearances for features, tattoos, imbedding, flares, signature verbs, and more
  • Specialized Merchant appearances for Weighting/Padding/Sighting (bring all the money)
  • Specialized Merchant appearances for script swapping, attribute stripping (spikes, weighting, padding, whatever, and other hoped-for rare services)
  • Raffles - so many raffles. Many of these raffles have prizes that are offered only once or twice a year! Remember these require silvers, not notes, and read all the signage
• The last week - Oct 27-31: Finish your diving, shopping, and games, the party will be over soon.

• Live Games with a GM Host for all manner of fun. See the details below. The schedule is usually posted and updated on the main Ebon Gate page
  • GHOUL is like Bingo. Farain could host almost anything, and I'll bet Miss Goblyn has a few fun and games up her sleeve/s. See schedule above for the Plat vs. Prime schedule for them.
  • A Costume Contest might return this year - and some of the participants from years past bring serious text cosplay!
  • Storytelling Contest has been done in the past.
  • and so much more!
• To see how many services you have received, use the MERCHANT EBON command

Games and Fun:

• There are live games hosted by a GM. Look below "Feywrot Favorites" on the Ebon Gate Information Page. There are brief descriptions of almost all of the previous games at that Information Page. We'll have to see what Caligos Isle brings us!
• Also see the schedule under the FESTIVAL command within GemStone
• GHOUL Games (BINGO) are a favorite and expected to return during Live Games week
• Mini games: pick from fun little automatic games of chance that run 24/7 during the last week of Ebon Gate. Win seashells and prizes. Keep collecting seashells for some exclusive shopping.
• Keep Eyes Open at this festival, all the time! You never know what's going to happen when.
• Raffles - there will be many raffles held during the merchant week. Read.The.Signs.
• Digging is sort of like Duskruin Dig. You buy your shovels for silvers, and dig around for tickets and/or loot! The dig is open the second week until the 31st.
• Fishing - In 2017 the Fishing game was open to all without a pass, but it did cost seashells to enter.

Questing:

• There is a storyline the first week of Ebon Gate. As near as I can explain, you follow the hints to listen/watch for a small storyline that progresses night by night. Someone might need your help, there might be a mystery to solve. Many, many people will attend these, so be courteous of 'noise' you may make.

Special Features:

• The PERM-ifier - look for the obelisks to turn your favorite perfume, cologne, or other "fluffy" item that uses up doses into a bottomless one.

Getting Ready for The Festival:

General Tips

• Japhrimel's interview, Hacking Merchant Week with Japhrimel, is a collection of amazing information and tips he learned from previous Ebon Gate Festivals. It's worth a read, and a re-read every year. Japhrimel is an Ebon Gate Pro. He has this down to a science.
• Consolidate your shopping money in the bank of the city you'll be attending from. Ebon Gate bank draws from the city you enter from.
• Consolidate the gear/items you want worked on in the locker of the city you will be attending from. It'll be closer when you need it.
• Pro Tip: Keep an eye out on SHOW SERVICE for Merchants. They’ll appear in Monsterbold, so they will stick out a bit. A few merchants do not announce, but use this method.
• Pro Tip: Stay tuned to GS Twitter - they might not use it for much of anything else, but they do sometimes use it for the pay Festivals. Just read the fine print since they mix plat and prime stuff up on the same channel (Don’t get me started about that…)
• Remember that you can now use ANALYZE on things for sale in shops at a festival.
• Unsure about the properties of something you have? Or something you buy at the Festival? Ask a bard to listen to the item sing. Look for one on SERVICE SHOW

Inventory Management

• Have a Festival-specific large container you can drag around with you for all the things you want worked on by Merchants. You can quickly exchange it with the one in your locker of your usual stuff for a fast hunt or 6. (Lumnis happens whether Ebon Gate is open or not, after all.)
• Gather all the special materials you need for the alterations you want. Keep them in your Merchant Bag.
• Bring a standing cane for those times you are too loaded down and need to get back up. And they will happen. Sometimes carrying your full merchant bag around, sometimes trying to get to a merchant or a raffle with all the silvers in your pocket.

Lich Preparations

• LICH: download ;traffle to keep track of ALL the raffles that are about to happen. use the command alone at a raffle table to register it - then use the command anywhere for a list of upcoming raffles. It does NOT keep track of whether you bought the ticket or not, and does not notify you since the raffles usually do.
• LICH: download ;wishlist to start your window shopping. Look in lich/logs/wishlist.log for the saved list of what you noted; the room number and shop room name appears with the text you add: EX: > ;wishlist I think I really need the slim dark blue pants. They have pockets and are scripted with the flashy pants script
• LICH: download ;itemnotes to make notes about your alteration and ideas, too
• LICH: download ;egdigger.lic or ;digger.lic - it might help with the repetitive digging tasks. Be patient, the scripts may need to be updated for the new year!
• LICH: Download ;roomorder to make just a little clearer sense of where you are in line. It tells you what GAZE LINE should.
• LICH: Download ;testme to do zest tests and more. Be sure you read the script for the options! When I say more, really, it's pretty feature laden.
• LICH: Consider ;prettiernum to make all those long numbers more readable with commas. DISCLAIMER: You may need to turn it off for some other scripts to work.
• LICH: Download ;whatis to help you with abbreviations, initials, and all that special LINGO
• LICH: ;tune towncrier for both the Ebon Gate headlines and announcements from the festival grounds of events.

Your Front End Prep

Whether it is Stormfront, Avalon, Wizard, Profanity, or something else, they can very likely make some things easier for you!

• Color code merchant names in unique highlighting color/s so you don’t walk right by one. (Been there, done that, missed the service…)
• Make sure your links are turned on in Stormfront so that those nested containers and rooms full of similar containers are easy to use by just clicking. ALT L toggles this in Windows. On a Mac, look for it in the Options button under advanced.
• SET DESC ON so you miss nothing in rooms
• Turn on logging in case you forget/lose/find a bug. ;log works great

Reference Lists

• Create lists of what you need worked on and keep the lists open in your text editor. Update this when you buy stuff at the fest!
  • Make a list of what needs unlocking, the name of the script/merchant, and it’s current status - as well as it’s max status. Not all unlocking lingo is the same, this sometimes takes a trip to the wiki to unravel. As always, keep the items on you.
  • Have a list of items you want altered with several different versions of alterations for that item. Just in case one gets turned down, you have options to fall back on. via Cleric of Ta’Vaalor on Twitter
  • Put more things on your list of alterations than you think you need. Did I mention already that there are so many merchants at Ebon Gate?
  • Make a list of what needs lightening. And keep the items with you. Seconds count at a Merchant appearance.
  • Make a list of what needs deepening, and keep the containers with you.
  • keep a list in notepad or something of what items you buy in what store and what the merchant is so when the merchant pops in, you know what item to grab. I use ;itemnotes
• As you buy things at the festival keep notes about what NEW things will need to be unlocked while the merchant/s are at the festival. (Or Lightened or Deepened)
• Use the Gownifier when you need alteration ideas - even when it is not for a gown. This is a brilliant web page from Fenog's Regulars.

During The Festival:

Locations

Use QUEST TRANSPORT EBON from most places in cities.

Ebon Gate Traditional Entrance locations:

• Icemule Trace - Icemule Temple, Foyer - Lich ;go2 2334
• River's Rest - River Road - Lich ;go2 10841
• Solhaven - Liabo Plaza - Lich ;go2 1484
• Ta'Illistim - Shimmarglin Var - Lich ;go2 29
• Ta'Vaalor - Amaranth Court -
• Teras Isle (Kharam-Dzu) - Vaalin Street, Temple District - Lich ;go2 1978
• Wehnimer's Landing - Town Square, Southeast - Lich ;go2 282
• Zul Logoth - Hall of Arches - Lich ;go2 9408
• Four Winds Isle - Oleander and Daisy - Lich ;go2 3650

General Tips

• Use the first week to figure out who each shop's merchant is (if there is any signage) so you'll know if a merchant announcement mentions the shop you are interested by merchant name only. It can happen either way.
• TIP For Raffles: look at the ticket carefully AND read the sign on the raffle table. This will tell you if you need to be present in the room when the raffle draws or just in the game somewhere.
• Do your general shopping before Merchant Week so you never miss a merchant or forget to buy something after the Merchants and Games wear you out
• Not sure what a new item you bought does? Ask a bard to sing. Wonder about that THING you won, you dug up, or you found Deep Sea Diving? Ask a bard!
• Read.All.The.Signage at shops, merchants, raffles, and games.

The LINGO

• New to GemStone and/or Ebon Gate? There's a rash of lingo that's about to be thrown at you.
  • GALD or General Merchant Services means: General Alteration, Lightening, or Deepening.
  • the ANALYZE command will give you overall altering info and unlock status about most items.
  • Familiarize yourself with the rules under the ALTER verb, too.
  • EG is how everyone will abbreviate the event, both in and out of character.

Merchants

• READ ALL THE SIGNS near a merchant. Some of the shops will have the signs up even if the merchant is not working right then. (Don't be the one asking for a pink thing from Kyrinthe!) Read all the signs.
• Become familiar with alteration rules if you're going to have that type of work done. The command ALTER in GemStone goes over lots of what you need to know in great detail. Ask for help if you need on LNet, and if alterations are just NOT one of your life-skills, never fret about asking the merchant for help. Give the merchant an idea of what you want, maybe why you want it in some circumstances, and then give them your trust.
• Use the wiki to plan your shopping!
• Merchants will pick various methods to determine what order, or how many people they will be able to help.

Page Version Info

(Updated for Ebon Gate 5118)