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. For the first time, 2017 marks the year when Ebon Gate happens the entire month of October. It 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 (by the week). There is no cut off date - they are sold up to the last day, and there is no maximum number of attendees. Everyone can come. For the first time ever, in 2017, anyone will be able to access the brand new 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_2017
   • Shops Inventory Page: Ebon_Gate_2017_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, join the GSWiki room on the Gemstone IV Slack channel for the script and instructions how YOU can painlessly help document the festival via a great Lich script. Last year there were 143 shops! That's a great deal of work.

This year there will be a companion event to Ebon Gate, Deep Sea Diving. Like Delirium Manor it is available to everyone. You will need to purchase the ticketing item in the SimuCoin shop for each dive. These are sold individually, and not part of the other Ebon Gate access items that are sold.

Also a first for 2017 and this new venue: The shops will be open for window shopping only during the first week of October. This is the time when the storyline will take place.

Shopping and Merchants:

There are so many shops at the Ebon Gate Festival (around 140 in 2015, 79 in 2016); new scripts and items are often introduced at this festival. Some of the shops have wares that are only available once a year at this festival. 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 are 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. Rare unlockings 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 1-6: Storyline and Window Shopping
• The 2nd week - Oct 7-31: For the rest of the month:
  • Shops open for business
  • Digging and Games begin
  • Probably the companion event, Deep Sea Diving will start (but I'm guessing about that at this point)
• The 3rd week - Oct 13-20: Platinum's Merchant Week
• The 4th week - Oct 20-27: 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
  • Specalized Merchant appearances for Weighting/Padding/Sighting (bring all the money)
  • Specialized Merchant appearances for script swapping, attribute stripping (spikes, weighting, padding, whatever)
  • Live Games with a GM Host for all manner of fun. See the details below. GHULE is like Bingo. Farain could host almost anything, and I'll bet Miss Goblyn has a few fun and games up her sleeve/s. We may have to wait and see how many of the favorites linked at the first of this line item return to the new Caligos Isle.
  • 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
  • A Costume Contest - and some of these participants are serious text cosplay
  • Storytelling Contest - it might be spooky! Bring your best stuff
  • and so much more!
• To see how many services you have received, use the MERCHANT EBON command
• The last week - Oct 28-31: Finish your diving, shopping, and games, the party will be over soon.

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 games at that Information Page (only).
• Also see the schedule under the FESTIVAL command within GemStone
• GHOUL Games (BINGO) are a confirmed return to the Festival Schedule during the second week of Ebon Gate.
• Midway games: pick from fun little automatic games of chance that run 24/7 during the last week of Ebon Gate. Win tickets and prizes. Keep collecting tickets and pick from one of the many Midway Prizes in the prize rooms.
• If you complete the Carousel Quest, there's a carousel ride at the end of the Midway that you can get to to collect tickets and prizes, in addition to the Midway ones.
• 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 second 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.

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. At the end, for everyone that was there on the right night(s?) you select a gift. NOTE: GS crashed almost every night during storyline time in 2015 and several in 2016. When the announcement came for this, I gathered my things, went somewhere safe, and logged off for a bit.
• The Necropolis was for the previous venue. We'll have to see what sort of adventuring quest takes its place. Is it related to the seaweed we've been finding in treasure chests?
• There is a little quest for an attuned intricately painted tin carousel that can be used once a month for a realms teleport. (Ta'Vaalor to Teras, anywhere to anywhere else, basically). Your carousel works every year, you don't need to do this every time. Pro Tip for playing this game: TAKE NOTES of where you are when who sends you for what from Someone Else at Some Place, because you'll work your way backwards, and your brain will melt. SPOILER ALERT, there is a walk-through of the Key To the Midway quest for the painted carousel: [1] and also at: [2] both walk-throughs are good guides that can help you from your note-taking, but the order of things can get mixed up from year to year. Which is why you took notes, right? (first room #) (Person) (What they need) (From whom) (at destination room #)

Special Features:

• There's a slab generator that costs 25,000 silvers per chance, and will randomly generate metal slabs for weapon forging. Some may be far more useful to forgers than others. I watched Aetheri spend millions there, and most of them were not keepers. Here and sometimes at Duskruin are the only times that raw metal is available to forgers. At what it costs to find vultite, it's a small miracle forged weapons do not cost more.
• The Fusion Shaman is available only at Ebon Gate to turn your favorite enhancive into a permanent enhancive orb for affixing into Fusion Gear.

Getting Ready for The Festival:

General Tips

• Plan your fusion orbing carefully. It's costly.
• 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 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
• Create a list of what you need worked on and keep the lists open in your text editor. Update this when you buy stuff at the fest!
  • A list of what needs altering, with the alteration idea/s ready to go. Have double what you hope for. Did I mention already there are SO MANY MERCHANTS at Ebon Gate?
  • A list of what needs deepening
  • A list of what needs lightening
  • A list of what needs unlocking

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 ;raffle or ;draffle (It's newer and supports the new duskruin raffles, I understand) 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 your names: 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 ;digger.lic - it might help with the repetitive digging tasks. OR … does that work? I didn’t understand digging last year and never did it, let alone looked for a script.
• LICH: Download ;gearinfo to keep a quick notation of the items you need work on, then update it each time you lighten/deepen/unlock something.
• LICH: Download ;roomorder to make just a little clearer sense of where you are in line. It tells you what GAZE LINE should.

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…)

Reference Lists

• Make a list of what needs unlocking 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
  • Make a list of what needs lightening. And keep the item with you. Seconds count at a Merchant appearance.
  • Make a list of what needs deepening, and keep the container 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 ;wishlist!
• 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)

During The Festival:

Locations

Ebon Gate 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.
• Shop for general things during the first week so you never miss a merchant or forget to buy something that second week
• Not sure what a new item you bought does? Ask a bard to sing. Wonder about that THING you won, you dug up, you found at the new Delirium Manor? Ask a bard!

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.

Contribute with ;chat on towncrier to submit or ask about other lingo that you think needs defining!

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

(Written for Ebon Gate 5116)