NeoDex - User contributions [en]

The Tale of Woe

2006-11-01T08:52:06Z

207.53.228.191: /* The Deep Woods */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

===Resolution===

With the potion brewed, Bruno drank it down... and was infused with the Spirit of Slumber. "Why have you summoned me in this way?", he asked.

"I want you to reverse the spell you cast on Neovia", Sophie told him.

"So be it", he answered, with a grin.

Sophie and Gilly followed the possessed Bruno back to the center of Neovia. Along the way, Sophie reassured Gilly that werelupes aren't normally seen in the woods around Neovia. Then she looked sadly at her locket; the locket whose charred remains started the adventure.

"It's really pretty", Gilly said.

"My mother gave it to me when I was little."

"You'll have to introduce me to her when we cure the town."

"I don't know... this might not work. What if we don't succeed?"

"I'm sure we will."

The Spirit of Slumber took Bruno's body to the center of Neovia's town square, and raised his borrowed hands above his head. With a flash of magic, he intoned, "Let the spell be undone!" In an instant, the inhabitants of Neovia were restored to material form and wakefulness. As Sophie spotted the rest of her family...

"Mom? Dad? Reggie?"

... her Gelert brother fell to the cobblestones.

"Bruno!"

"Did... did it work?"

"Yes, we did it! And our family is here!"

"Um, Sophie?", came the small voice of Gilly.

"What?"

Sophie turned... and watched in horror as the Neovians began to shift and transform, regaining the altered shapes they'd been in when she'd seen them hunting her brother. Then further, into twisted, monstrous shapes. Even her mother, father and brother Reginald became monstrous as she watched.

"The Spirit of Slumber only undid his spell", Gilly realized. "Not the potion!"

For a moment longer, Sophie stood, frozen in horror... until, with a scream, she bolted for the woods.

"Sophie!", Gilly called. "Wait!"

But Sophie was gone. And the mutated inhabitants of Neovia drew closer to tiny, frightened Gilly and the exhausted Bruno...

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In this segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. There is a cliff at the break, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the rope becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two of the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

===Potion Mixing===

With Bruno as the volunteer, it's time to mix the potion that will allow the Spirit of Slumber to inhabit his body. Upon arriving at Sophie's Shack, the user receives a conversation in which Sophie reveals that, while her book has a general description of the required potion, it has no specific list of ingredients or amounts. She simply has to experiment.

In this activity, the user has a series of ingredients to mix in order to arrive at a specific color of potion. The colors of potion are defined in steps, as follows:

*Red
*Green
*Blue
*Purple
*Gray
*Pink
*Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue
*Mint Green with Yellow Streaks
*Sparkling Purple
*Silver and Red

The ingredients the user starts with are:

*Bumroot
*Leafy Slorgblossom
*Crushed Jurpleberries

The activity is constructed as a maze of sorts: Starting from Red, the user must "navigate" to a series of "destinations", correlating to different colors. Complicating matters, the "navigation" must contain no more than a maximum number of "steps", defined as an indivudal ingredient being added to the cauldron. If the maximum step number is exceeded, the potion turns to black sludge, and the user must start over. (This is mildly similar to the "Fetch!" game, used earlier in the plot, in which a set number of life points are expended with each move.)

The first potion destination is Purple within three steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and all of his fur grows long and shaggy.

("I suppose you think this is funny?" -- Bruno)

For the second attempt, Salt is added to the list of ingredients. The second potion destination is Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue, within five steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and shrinks to a size smaller than the potion bottle.

("I always wanted a little brother." -- Sophie)

("I live solely for your amusement, sister." -- Bruno.)

For the final attempt, Bronze Sansam is added to the ingredients list. The third potion destination is Silver and Red within nine steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion...

("I just hope I don't explode..." -- Bruno)

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.
*Upon the closing of the name-finding activity, a dialogue appeared at the Caretaker's Shack in which Gilly revealed the name to Sophie: Jubart Igig. "Doesn't sound like most of the other names we found. Maybe it's an anagram of something... Nah." This is a small in-joke reference to Gilly's original home in the game, "The Castle of Eliv Thade".

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-11-01T08:49:05Z

207.53.228.191: /* The High Woods */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

===Resolution===

With the potion brewed, Bruno drank it down... and was infused with the Spirit of Slumber. "Why have you summoned me in this way?", he asked.

"I want you to reverse the spell you cast on Neovia", Sophie told him.

"So be it", he answered, with a grin.

Sophie and Gilly followed the possessed Bruno back to the center of Neovia. Along the way, Sophie reassured Gilly that werelupes aren't normally seen in the woods around Neovia. Then she looked sadly at her locket; the locket whose charred remains started the adventure.

"It's really pretty", Gilly said.

"My mother gave it to me when I was little."

"You'll have to introduce me to her when we cure the town."

"I don't know... this might not work. What if we don't succeed?"

"I'm sure we will."

The Spirit of Slumber took Bruno's body to the center of Neovia's town square, and raised his borrowed hands above his head. With a flash of magic, he intoned, "Let the spell be undone!" In an instant, the inhabitants of Neovia were restored to material form and wakefulness. As Sophie spotted the rest of her family...

"Mom? Dad? Reggie?"

... her Gelert brother fell to the cobblestones.

"Bruno!"

"Did... did it work?"

"Yes, we did it! And our family is here!"

"Um, Sophie?", came the small voice of Gilly.

"What?"

Sophie turned... and watched in horror as the Neovians began to shift and transform, regaining the altered shapes they'd been in when she'd seen them hunting her brother. Then further, into twisted, monstrous shapes. Even her mother, father and brother Reginald became monstrous as she watched.

"The Spirit of Slumber only undid his spell", Gilly realized. "Not the potion!"

For a moment longer, Sophie stood, frozen in horror... until, with a scream, she bolted for the woods.

"Sophie!", Gilly called. "Wait!"

But Sophie was gone. And the mutated inhabitants of Neovia drew closer to tiny, frightened Gilly and the exhausted Bruno...

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In this segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. There is a cliff at the break, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the rope becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

===Potion Mixing===

With Bruno as the volunteer, it's time to mix the potion that will allow the Spirit of Slumber to inhabit his body. Upon arriving at Sophie's Shack, the user receives a conversation in which Sophie reveals that, while her book has a general description of the required potion, it has no specific list of ingredients or amounts. She simply has to experiment.

In this activity, the user has a series of ingredients to mix in order to arrive at a specific color of potion. The colors of potion are defined in steps, as follows:

*Red
*Green
*Blue
*Purple
*Gray
*Pink
*Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue
*Mint Green with Yellow Streaks
*Sparkling Purple
*Silver and Red

The ingredients the user starts with are:

*Bumroot
*Leafy Slorgblossom
*Crushed Jurpleberries

The activity is constructed as a maze of sorts: Starting from Red, the user must "navigate" to a series of "destinations", correlating to different colors. Complicating matters, the "navigation" must contain no more than a maximum number of "steps", defined as an indivudal ingredient being added to the cauldron. If the maximum step number is exceeded, the potion turns to black sludge, and the user must start over. (This is mildly similar to the "Fetch!" game, used earlier in the plot, in which a set number of life points are expended with each move.)

The first potion destination is Purple within three steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and all of his fur grows long and shaggy.

("I suppose you think this is funny?" -- Bruno)

For the second attempt, Salt is added to the list of ingredients. The second potion destination is Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue, within five steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and shrinks to a size smaller than the potion bottle.

("I always wanted a little brother." -- Sophie)

("I live solely for your amusement, sister." -- Bruno.)

For the final attempt, Bronze Sansam is added to the ingredients list. The third potion destination is Silver and Red within nine steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion...

("I just hope I don't explode..." -- Bruno)

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.
*Upon the closing of the name-finding activity, a dialogue appeared at the Caretaker's Shack in which Gilly revealed the name to Sophie: Jubart Igig. "Doesn't sound like most of the other names we found. Maybe it's an anagram of something... Nah." This is a small in-joke reference to Gilly's original home in the game, "The Castle of Eliv Thade".

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-11-01T08:33:42Z

207.53.228.191: /* A Name To Conjure By */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

===Resolution===

With the potion brewed, Bruno drank it down... and was infused with the Spirit of Slumber. "Why have you summoned me in this way?", he asked.

"I want you to reverse the spell you cast on Neovia", Sophie told him.

"So be it", he answered, with a grin.

Sophie and Gilly followed the possessed Bruno back to the center of Neovia. Along the way, Sophie reassured Gilly that werelupes aren't normally seen in the woods around Neovia. Then she looked sadly at her locket; the locket whose charred remains started the adventure.

"It's really pretty", Gilly said.

"My mother gave it to me when I was little."

"You'll have to introduce me to her when we cure the town."

"I don't know... this might not work. What if we don't succeed?"

"I'm sure we will."

The Spirit of Slumber took Bruno's body to the center of Neovia's town square, and raised his borrowed hands above his head. With a flash of magic, he intoned, "Let the spell be undone!" In an instant, the inhabitants of Neovia were restored to material form and wakefulness. As Sophie spotted the rest of her family...

"Mom? Dad? Reggie?"

... her Gelert brother fell to the cobblestones.

"Bruno!"

"Did... did it work?"

"Yes, we did it! And our family is here!"

"Um, Sophie?", came the small voice of Gilly.

"What?"

Sophie turned... and watched in horror as the Neovians began to shift and transform, regaining the altered shapes they'd been in when she'd seen them hunting her brother. Then further, into twisted, monstrous shapes. Even her mother, father and brother Reginald became monstrous as she watched.

"The Spirit of Slumber only undid his spell", Gilly realized. "Not the potion!"

For a moment longer, Sophie stood, frozen in horror... until, with a scream, she bolted for the woods.

"Sophie!", Gilly called. "Wait!"

But Sophie was gone. And the mutated inhabitants of Neovia drew closer to tiny, frightened Gilly and the exhausted Bruno...

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

===Potion Mixing===

With Bruno as the volunteer, it's time to mix the potion that will allow the Spirit of Slumber to inhabit his body. Upon arriving at Sophie's Shack, the user receives a conversation in which Sophie reveals that, while her book has a general description of the required potion, it has no specific list of ingredients or amounts. She simply has to experiment.

In this activity, the user has a series of ingredients to mix in order to arrive at a specific color of potion. The colors of potion are defined in steps, as follows:

*Red
*Green
*Blue
*Purple
*Gray
*Pink
*Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue
*Mint Green with Yellow Streaks
*Sparkling Purple
*Silver and Red

The ingredients the user starts with are:

*Bumroot
*Leafy Slorgblossom
*Crushed Jurpleberries

The activity is constructed as a maze of sorts: Starting from Red, the user must "navigate" to a series of "destinations", correlating to different colors. Complicating matters, the "navigation" must contain no more than a maximum number of "steps", defined as an indivudal ingredient being added to the cauldron. If the maximum step number is exceeded, the potion turns to black sludge, and the user must start over. (This is mildly similar to the "Fetch!" game, used earlier in the plot, in which a set number of life points are expended with each move.)

The first potion destination is Purple within three steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and all of his fur grows long and shaggy.

("I suppose you think this is funny?" -- Bruno)

For the second attempt, Salt is added to the list of ingredients. The second potion destination is Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue, within five steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and shrinks to a size smaller than the potion bottle.

("I always wanted a little brother." -- Sophie)

("I live solely for your amusement, sister." -- Bruno.)

For the final attempt, Bronze Sansam is added to the ingredients list. The third potion destination is Silver and Red within nine steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion...

("I just hope I don't explode..." -- Bruno)

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.
*Upon the closing of the name-finding activity, a dialogue appeared at the Caretaker's Shack in which Gilly revealed the name to Sophie: Jubart Igig. "Doesn't sound like most of the other names we found. Maybe it's an anagram of something... Nah." This is a small in-joke reference to Gilly's original home in the game, "The Castle of Eliv Thade".

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-29T09:55:21Z

207.53.228.212: /* Potion Mixing */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

===Potion Mixing===

With Bruno as the volunteer, it's time to mix the potion that will allow the Spirit of Slumber to inhabit his body. Upon arriving at Sophie's Shack, the user receives a conversation in which Sophie reveals that, while her book has a general description of the required potion, it has no specific list of ingredients or amounts. She simply has to experiment.

In this activity, the user has a series of ingredients to mix in order to arrive at a specific color of potion. The colors of potion are defined in steps, as follows:

*Red
*Green
*Blue
*Purple
*Gray
*Pink
*Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue
*Mint Green with Yellow Streaks
*Sparkling Purple
*Silver and Red

The ingredients the user starts with are:

*Bumroot
*Leafy Slorgblossom
*Crushed Jurpleberries

The activity is constructed as a maze of sorts: Starting from Red, the user must "navigate" to a series of "destinations", correlating to different colors. Complicating matters, the "navigation" must contain no more than a maximum number of "steps", defined as an indivudal ingredient being added to the cauldron. If the maximum step number is exceeded, the potion turns to black sludge, and the user must start over. (This is mildly similar to the "Fetch!" game, used earlier in the plot, in which a set number of life points are expended with each move.)

The first potion destination is Purple within three steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and all of his fur grows long and shaggy.

("I suppose you think this is funny?" -- Bruno)

For the second attempt, Salt is added to the list of ingredients. The second potion destination is Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue, within five steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and shrinks to a size smaller than the potion bottle.

("I always wanted a little brother." -- Sophie)

("I live solely for your amusement, sister." -- Bruno.)

For the final attempt, Bronze Sansam is added to the ingredients list. The third potion destination is Silver and Red within nine steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion...

("I just hope I don't explode..." -- Bruno)

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.
*Upon the closing of the name-finding activity, a dialogue appeared at the Caretaker's Shack in which Gilly revealed the name to Sophie: Jubart Igig. "Doesn't sound like most of the other names we found. Maybe it's an anagram of something... Nah." This is a small in-joke reference to Gilly's original home in the game, "The Castle of Eliv Thade".

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-29T09:49:39Z

207.53.228.212: /* Back to the Graveyards */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

===Potion Mixing===

With Bruno as the volunteer, it's time to mix the potion that will allow the Spirit of Slumber to inhabit his body. Upon arriving at Sophie's Shack, the user receives a conversation in which Sophie reveals that, while her book has a general description of the required potion, it has no specific list of ingredients or amounts. She simply has to experiment.

In this activity, the user has a series of ingredients to mix in order to arrive at a specific color of potion. The colors of potion are defined in steps, as follows:

*Red
*Green
*Blue
*Purple
*Gray
*Pink
*Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue
*Mint Green with Yellow Streaks
*Sparkling Purple
*Silver and Red

The ingredients the user starts with are:

*Bumroot
*Leafy Slorgblossom
*Crushed Jurpleberries

The activity is constructed as a maze of sorts: Starting from Red, the user must "navigate" to a series of "destinations", correlating to different colors. Complicating matters, the "navigation" must contain no more than a maximum number of "steps", defined as an indivudal ingredient being added to the cauldron. If the maximum step number is exceeded, the potion turns to black sludge, and the user must start over. (This is mildly similar to the "Fetch!" game, used earlier in the plot, in which a set number of life points are expended with each move.)

The first potion destination is Purple within three steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and all of his fur grows long and shaggy. ("I suppose you think this is funny?" -- Bruno)

For the second attempt, Salt is added to the list of ingredients. The second potion destination is Swirl: Red-Yellow-Blue, within five steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion... and shrinks to a size smaller than the potion bottle. ("I always wanted a little brother." -- Sophie) ("I live solely for your amusement, sister." -- Bruno.)

For the final attempt, Bronze Sansam is added to the ingredients list. The third potion destination is Silver and Red within nine steps. Once arrived at, Bruno drinks the potion...

("I just hope I don't explode..." -- Bruno)

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.
*Upon the closing of the name-finding activity, a dialogue appeared at the Caretaker's Shack in which Gilly revealed the name to Sophie: Jubart Igig. "Doesn't sound like most of the other names we found. Maybe it's an anagram of something... Nah." This is a small in-joke reference to Gilly's original home in the game, "The Castle of Eliv Thade".

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-28T06:07:34Z

207.53.228.229: /* Trivia */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.
*Upon the closing of the name-finding activity, a dialogue appeared at the Caretaker's Shack in which Gilly revealed the name to Sophie: Jubart Igig. "Doesn't sound like most of the other names we found. Maybe it's an anagram of something... Nah." This is a small in-joke reference to Gilly's original home in the game, "The Castle of Eliv Thade".

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-28T06:03:56Z

207.53.228.229: /* Trivia */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.
*Upon the closing of the name-finding activity, a dialogue appeared at the Caretaker's Shack in which Gilly revealed the name to Sophie: Jubart Igig. "Doesn't sound like most of the other names I found. Maybe it's an anagram of something... Nah." This is a small in-joke reference to Gilly's original hom in the game, "The Castle of Eliv Thade".

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-28T05:55:09Z

207.53.228.229: /* Back to the Graveyards */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

This activity has now been closed. It ended 28 October, 2006.

With the bones found, it was time to eliminate all the names that were not the Spirit of Slumber. The user had to go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone would then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it had been noted. As before, new graveyards were added to the list as old ones were marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-28T05:52:10Z

207.53.228.229: /* A Name To Conjure By */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I can't lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

With the bones found, now it's time to eliminate all the names that are not the Spirit of Slumber. The user must go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone will then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it has been noted. As before, new graveyards will be added to the list as old ones are marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-28T05:47:11Z

207.53.228.229: /* Seeking the Spirit's Name */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jagged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

===A Name To Conjure By===

With the name finally found, our three heroes were joyful. Now that they had his name, they could conjure the Spirit of Slumber and ask him to undo how work upon the citizens of Neovia. As Bruno tousled Gilly's headfur, Sophie pored over her book...

Sophie slammed the book. "It won't work", she said. The only way to use the potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber was for someone to drink it, allowing the spirit to inhabit their body.

Bruno volunteered. To Sophie's heartfelt objections, he simply pointed out that he was the only choice; Gilly was too small, and Sophie was needed to work the magic. "I don't want to lose you again", Sophie sobbed quietly. "It's the only way to bring back Neovia", Bruno reminded her. "To bring back our family."

"Trust me."

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

With the bones found, now it's time to eliminate all the names that are not the Spirit of Slumber. The user must go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone will then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it has been noted. As before, new graveyards will be added to the list as old ones are marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets TCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the TCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-26T11:36:53Z

207.53.228.54: /* Back to the Graveyards */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jaged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

With the bones found, now it's time to eliminate all the names that are not the Spirit of Slumber. The user must go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone will then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it has been noted. As before, new graveyards will be added to the list as old ones are marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-26T11:35:40Z

207.53.228.54: /* Seeking the Spirit */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

===Seeking the Spirit's Name===

The three heroes arrived at the Caretaker's Shack to find that the Caretaker's indices had been stolen; without them, no list of graveyards or graves could be made, and thus no search. After an extended hunt through a maze (corresponding to the plot action of the Fetch! game), the indices were recovered and "borrowed" by Sophie.

True enough, Bruno did have to dig up just about every grave in the Haunted Woods; but finally, much to the relief of all concerned, the bones of the Spirit of Slumber were located. "Which grave did these come from?", Sophie asked Gilly in excitement. Gilly turned and pointed to...

... the jaged remains of a headstone. The name section had been smashed to rubble. After all that work, our adventurers now found they needed to go back through every single graveyard, marking the legible names out in the indices as they went! This, of course, did not please the Caretaker, as he was not too keen on the permanent "borrowing" of his indices...

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

With the bones found, now it's time to eliminate all the names that are not the Spirit of Slumber. The user must go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone will then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it has been noted. As before, new graveyards will bee added to the list as old ones are marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-26T11:25:21Z

207.53.228.54: /* Finding Ingredients */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

===Back to the Graveyards===

With the bones found, now it's time to eliminate all the names that are not the Spirit of Slumber. The user must go back through the graveyards, clicking on gravestones to add the name to the list of checked stones; the stone will then receive a red mark at the upper right to signify that it has been noted. As before, new graveyards will bee added to the list as old ones are marked off.

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who roamed around the Haunted Woods recieved the following [[Random Event]]s, with different [[Ghost]] [[Neopets]]:
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-24T08:59:50Z

207.53.228.21: /* Grave Digging */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
[[Image:Sophies shack.gif|frame|left|Sophie's Shack.]]
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===
[[Image:Ileres tree.gif|frame|right|Ilere's residence, deep in the Haunted Woods.]]
After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

This section of the plot began October 20, 2006, and was completed October 23, 2006. The graveyards are no longer active.

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button brought the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard was divided up into many squares. The square the user was currently on was shown by a black border around the square. The user moved around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user could only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares contained gravestones. If the gravestone had a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signified that the digging was underway. If there was a large section of dirt in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and empty. If there was a large section of dirt with bones in front of it, it signified that the grave was open and the coffin exposed. If there was no dirt in front of it, digging had yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user had to be on a square adjacent to one, then click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there had to be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then had to dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there had to be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" was to be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the users clicked the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items could be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these were '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s could also be found, and there were claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es had been dug up also.

If you were not quick enough in digging, you could be kicked out of the digging team. If this happened, or if you chose to leave the digging team once you had joined, you were unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin had been successfully exhumed, the user became exhausted and had to wait several minutes before they could dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Due to a shortened time limit, however, dialup users experienced difficulty, as their page load times could exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard could be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This took the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user took some potion from the control panel, entered the graveyard and found an open grave. The user could "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin was exhumed to test it, as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user was first to the coffin with the potion, they were asked to "Continue", and were then given the mass and volume of one of the bones. They were then asked to decide how many drops of potion, up to 250, were needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed was: ((mass/volume)^2)*25, that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result was to be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user saw whether or not the bone was the Spirit's. If it wasn't, the user gained 150 [[NP]] and had to wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user could return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they were unable to, or did not wish to, test a bone. They would not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option was to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She would give you the name of the ingredient, and the user would then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returned to Sophie, and was rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There were no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URL for each unlabeled ingredient was an ID number. The ID conformed to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches were:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 19''': Unknown
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*On October 23, 2006 around 6:25 NST, the following message appeared when any user tried to access the graveyards or any other related pages along with an [http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/graveyard/femur_glow_edbd8280f3.gif image of a glowing bone]...<blockquote>''heavenest found the Spirit of Slumber's bones!'' ''The bones glow with an unearthly silver light.''</blockquote>
It is currently believed the user ''heavenest'' found the bones, and as such there is no reason to continue searching graves. About 1 hour after this, users who visit the Haunted Woods get the following [[Random Event]]...
{|align=center width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0"
|-style="background:orange"
!colspan=2| Something has haunted!
|-
|http://images.neopets.com/pets/angry/koi_ghost_baby.gif || '''BOO!''' Uh oh! It looks like all that digging up of graves has disturbed some of the more... eerie denizens of the Haunted Woods. A peace offering would be nice... or perhaps you should just RUN!!
|}
It's unknown what will come from this, and what the ghosts of the defiled graves will do in the Haunted Woods.
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T08:09:55Z

207.53.228.207: /* The High Woods */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine added should be removed, and a vine from the next pile included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T08:06:59Z

207.53.228.207: /* Finding the Locket */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T08:03:11Z

207.53.228.207: /* Bruno's Cave */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and sister, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T07:55:27Z

207.53.228.207: /* Finding Ilere */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and daughter, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak as she had thought; when prompted by Sophie, she told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T07:51:36Z

207.53.228.207: /* Seeking the Spirit */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and daughter, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak and she had thought, and, when prompted by Sophie, told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell them his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T07:49:13Z

207.53.228.207: /* The Graveyard */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and daughter, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak and she had thought, and, when prompted by Sophie, told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell him his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now..." button, the Fetch! game is over; when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, the Yurble will be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T07:43:15Z

207.53.228.207: /* Trivia */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and daughter, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak and she had thought, and, when prompted by Sophie, told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell him his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now.." button, the Fetch! game is over and when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, he'll be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The keen-eyed user may note that Krawley's potion bottles are seen on the card, "Hissi Oil".
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-23T04:02:35Z

207.53.228.106: /* Finding Ingredients */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and daughter, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak and she had thought, and, when prompted by Sophie, told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell him his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now.." button, the Fetch! game is over and when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, he'll be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 8''': Alyseth
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-22T12:16:27Z

207.53.228.134: /* Digging Up Graves */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and daughter, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak and she had thought, and, when prompted by Sophie, told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell him his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now.." button, the Fetch! game is over and when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, he'll be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, there must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each user's turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Halloween [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again. (This is similar to an activity in the Lost Desert Plot, as remarked by many users. Those users who experienced the Lost Desert Plot should be warned, however, that this activity's time limit is tighter and stricter than previously. Also, dialup users have been experiencing difficulty, as their page load times may exceed the time limit, causing them to be removed from their digging team on their first or second click.)

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

Foreman

2006-10-22T10:34:06Z

207.53.228.134: /* Trivia */

{| align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/desert/ldp/sr/sr_foreman_angry.gif
|}
The grumpy [[Yurble]] made his debut during the [[Lost Desert Plot]]. After the plot was completed, he reappeared as the janitor of the ''Hall of Heroes'' in the [[Altador Plot]].

==Plot Summaries==
===Lost Desert Plot===
:''Main Article: [[Lost Desert Plot]]''

''...to be added...''

===Altador Plot===
:''Main Article: [[Altador Plot]]''

In the [[Altador Plot]], the Foreman has yet to serve any particular purpose in the plot: the only time visiting him was necessary so far was to push the button next to him in order to open the celing. He has, however, said some interesting things during this plot:

*Before you turn on the lights in the Hall of Heroes, he says, ''"You know, maybe the gears have just gotten dirty or seized up, it's been so long since the button was used. If there were some way to grease the gears, the button might do something again."''
*After you turn on the lights in the Hall of Heroes, he says, ''"Argh! Now it's light and I'll have to go back to mopping instead of guarding this button! Curse you!"''
*Right after you join the Astronomy Club, he says, ''"Hm, so you joined an Astronomy Club, eh? That sounds like fun. I wish I had the time to join a club."''
*After you form the Sleeper constellation, he says, ''"HEY! Stop leaving the lights on in the observatory! It's wasteful! I CAN'T STAND WASTEFULNESS!! RAAARGHH!!"''
[[Image:Foreman janitor angry.gif|frame|A very angry Janitor.]]
*After you form the Dreamer constellation, he says, ''"Those lights above each statue sure are pretty when they light up. I wonder what they mean?" He shakes his head. "Oh well, too much cleaning to do, no time to figure it out."''
*After you form The First to Rise constellation, he says, ''"HEY! What's the big idea putting your grubby hands all over the windowsill?! I have to clean those things, you know! Were you raised in a barn?!"''
*After you form the Farmer constellation, he says, ''"It sure is interesting watching those lights on the ceiling light up. What are you getting up to in that observatory, anyway?"''
*After you form the Dancer constellation, he says, ''"My favorite underground dance club got closed down by that stinkin' Archivist! GRAARGH, THAT MAKES ME SO ANGRY!!!" He hurls his mop to the floor and stamps his feet.''
*After you form the Wave constellation, he says, ''"Ah, you lit up the gems above Marak, the Wave. It's so soothing going down to the seaside and watching the ocean. Just the thing I need when I descend into uncontrollable rage."''
*After you form the Gladiator constellation, he says, ''"Punch Club?! You went to Punch Club without me?! RAARGHHR! I LOVE PUNCH!! I WISH I HAD SOME RIGHT NOW!!!" He foams at the mouth and growls incoherently.''
*After you form the Collector constellation, he says, ''"I've been reading this great book, '101 Ways to Calm an Infuriated Yurble.' It has a lot of good ideas for keeping my cool when I get upset about something. Although some of the ideas AREN'T SO GREAT!!" he shouts. "Whew, almost blew my top there."''
*After you form the Thief constellation, he hurls a book of Lenny Conundrums to the floor and shouts, ''"RARRRGHH!! THESE CONUNDRUMS ARE TOO HARD!! I'LL CRUSH THAT LENNY IF I SEE HIM!!"''
*After you form the Gatherer constellation, he says, ''"Wow, it's getting really bright in here with all these gems lighting up on the ceiling. Only two left! I wonder if anything special happens when all of them are lit up. Now that would be something to see."''
*After you form the Protector constellation, the janitor shouts, "HEY!! Why are the lights off?! I was having fun looking at them, all shiny and stuff... RAAARGHH!! IT REALLY MAKES ME ANGRY WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OFF!!"
*Halfway through The Hunter constellation, the janitor will say, "I saw you almost fall out of the observatory! That reminds me, I've been thinking about closing the ceiling again. Our heating costs have gone way up, now that we have all this extra air to keep warm. We keep our boilers in the basement, y'see. I keep having to go down there and adjust the settings. It's a real pain and MAKES ME ANGRY!" He coughs. "Sorry. Been taking some medication to keep me calm. Anyway, if you want to go down to the basement and take a look, just let me know."

==Trivia==
*When the [[LDP]] prizes were released and the winners revealed, it was said the Foreman's toenail polish was missing, stolen by thieves. The hunt is still on for the dastardly villains responsible, and those who have any information are to contact the ''Sakhmet Royal Guards'' immediately.
*In [[Random Contest]] #35, users were asked to draw images of the Foreman doing something that relaxed him.
*A [[Plushie]] has been made of him, and his Cudgel is available for use in the [[Battledome]]. Both of which were prizes from the Lost Desert Plot.
*On May 4, 2006, The Foreman (called the ''Yurble Janitor'') was featured in [[Better Than You]] in the game [[Attack of the Slorgs]] with a score of 1500. The prize was a '''Pink Slorg Back Pack'''. Quoted saying...<blockquote>''Argh! Disgusting Slorgs! They've ruined my herb garden for the last time! How am I supposed to enjoy the relaxing scent of lavender now? ARGH! *splat* *splat*''</blockquote>
*On May 27, an [[Avatar]] showing the Foreman in his three forms (foreman, cook, and janitor) was released.
*One of the Avatars showing the Foreman is the "Forefitor" avatar; while this has been used as a name for the Foreman in some stories, it's actually a compound of FOReman/chEF/janITOR.

==External Links==
*[http://www.neopets.com/random_contest.phtml?place=35 Random Contest #35]

[[category: To Do List]]
[[Category: Characters]]
[[Category: Yurbles]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-22T08:35:56Z

207.53.228.134: /* Finding Ingredients */

{{currentevent}}
{|align=right
|http://images.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy/gypsy_camp_8f1a24bbcd.gif
|}
'''The Tale of Woe''' is a [[plot]] based in the [[Haunted Woods]] and entails the release of [[Neovia]]. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with [[Wikipedia:Halloween|Halloween]]. The plot follows the travels of [[Gilly]], who first appeared as the star of [[The Castle of Eliv Thade]].

==Plot Summary==
{{spoiler}}
===The Gypsy Camp===
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a [[Gypsy Camp]], where a Pink [[Elephante]] greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of [[Gilly]], when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...

===The Legend of Neovia===
The Elephante began his tale of a family of [[Edmund]] and [[Alice]], and their three children: sons [[Bruno]] and [[Reginald]], and daughter [[Sophie]] (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in [[Neovia]], and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of [[Lily]], but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by [[Oscar]], Lily's current protective companion.

After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon [[Mr. Krawley]], who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few [[Neopoints]]. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.

Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by [[Mr. Krawley]], he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. With the testimonials of Bruno and his father, word of the potions spread quickly. When Reginald took a potion as well, increasing his intelligence and knowledge, the popularity of the elixir was assured. Before long, everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, beauty and youth - granted with a single swig, and only the innocent, such as [[Sophie]], refrained from drinking the potion.

The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness... but as the days passed, the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicious of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for [[Mr. Krawley]], only to find he had disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.

Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered [[Ilere]], who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods outside of town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.

Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon [[The Spirit of Slumber]], who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...

===The Ruins of Neovia===
[[Image:Tow locket1.gif|frame|The locket that was found in the ghost town.]]
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.

Gilly headed to the [[Deserted Fairground]] and took the locket to [[Lyanka]], of the [[Cork Gun Gallery]]; [[Leeroy]], of the [[Coconut Shy]]; [[Harker]], of the [[Bagatelle]] stall; and [[Ssidney]], of [[Ssidney's Scratch Cards]]. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.

===Bruno's Cave===
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.

Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angrily, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.

Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, had indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.

Sophie explained that some days after she had settled into the hut, she returned to Neovia to find only deserted buildings. Sophie returned several times in the weeks that followed, but there was no sign of what had happened to the residents - until she visited the town on Halloween night.

When Sophie returned to Neovia that night, its streets bustled with life again. She noticed something was wrong, however. The Neovian's faces were blank, they walked about doing their daily actions in silence - no speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned townsmen, she put her hand straight through him. Sophie quickly concluded that they were not physically there, and returned to her hut to work on a cure. The next day, however, the town was once again deserted. For ten years, Sophie revealed, she had been working to cure the Neovians, and had little else left to try.

Gilly, almost forgotten in the exchange between brother and daughter, spoke up, remembering the Gypsy Elephante's story. She explained the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story - while the spirit restored them to their forms before their use of Mr Krawley's potion, the residents of Neovia were no longer aware of themselves, unable to enjoy their restoration. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's even more reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents, providing Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."

===Finding Ilere===

After much searching, the trio finally found their way to Ilere's home - a large and admittedly spooky tree, deep in the heart of the woods. They inquired within, and Ilere acknowledged Sophie. Sophie explained that they needed her help to restore the people of Neovia, and Gilly explained that it was a spell cast by the Spirit of Slumber.

Ilere claimed that the Spirit of Slumber had power "not to be trifled with", and that her visitors should abandon their efforts before they got hurt.

Suddenly, an enraged Bruno attacked Ilere, who brought up a shield of green magic. Before anything further could develop, Sophie caught the Faerie and her brother in a magical spell. Bruno explained that he could feel Ilere's power, and it was great; yet she had done nothing to help Neovia ten years ago, and refused to even give a helping word.

Ilere acknowledged that the three were not as weak and she had thought, and, when prompted by Sophie, told them that the Spirit of Slumber was an ancient, powerful spirit of a Neopet that had died long ago. The Earth Faerie said that there were others in the Haunted Woods that would be better versed on the legends surrounding the creature.

As the trio turned to leave, Ilere spoke once more. "Sophie... for your own sake... I hope you fail."

===Seeking the Spirit===

As Bruno groused over Ilere's lack of help, Gilly had an idea; since they needed to know who the Spirit of Slumber was, why not ask the Brain Tree? Sophie refused; she said that she had had a bad experience with the Brain Tree, and refused to elaborate. Gilly, brimming with enthusiasm, started dragging her along, only to receive a blast of Sophie's magic as a blatant refusal.

Bruno rebuked her - Gilly was only a little girl, after all, and the Brain Tree likely had information they needed. Blasting her was completely uncalled for. Reluctantly apologizing, Sophie finally accepted their new destination.

The Brain Tree offered the trio the Spirit's name, but required its date of death before hand. On visiting the Esophagor (as users do on Brain Tree Quests, and over Sophie's considerably-milder objection) in order to find the date of death, the Esophagor pleaded ignorance; because the Spirit of Slumber had not truly died, he required the name in order to give the date.

This stymied Gilly, as it created a circular paradox; they needed the name to get the date, and the date to get the name. Sophie, however, had an idea; if they could find the Spirit of Slumber's earthly bones, she could brew a potion that would tell him his date of death. In answer to Bruno's observation that, without the Spirit's name, they couldn't know which grave was his, Sophie answered, "It's obvious; we'll have to dig up every grave in the Haunted Woods." Her brother and Gilly gulped in understandable fear at the thought.

==Plot Solution==

===Finding the Locket===

In [[Neovia]], the user must visit the burnt-down, although fairly structurally intact, house in the lower right section of the [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml Neovia map]. At this point in the plot, this house is the only visitable place in the town.

Every co-ordinate of the map is linked, but only certain key co-ordinates produce an individual result. These co-ordinates are:

*(67,201) -- Chair
*(80,135) -- Fireplace
*(147,218) -- Couch End
*(150,115) -- Bookcase
*(175,145) -- Crack in the Wall
*(186,186) -- Sofa Couch
*(210,130) -- Broken Staircase
*(235,232) -- Broken Boards
*(308,199) -- Pillow Spring
*(364,195) -- Table Leg

The co-ordinates exist in the URL of the links. The structure of the URL used in conjunction with the locations in the map follow the following format: '''<nowiki>http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=</nowiki>''[House Code Identifier]''?''[x,y]''''' thus the co-ordinates can be manipulated by changing them at the end of the URL link. This makes hopping to the above locations very easy.

When visiting the locations above, there will be one of the ten (which is random for each user) where Gilly finds the charred silver locket. A form button that will appear beneath the locket, which when clicked will add the locket to the Quest Inventory.

===At the Fairground===

After the locket has been gained, the user must head to the [[Deserted Fairground]], where the following four characters will talk to Gilly about the locket she has found:

*Harker the [[Lupe]], at the Bagatelle stall.
*Lyanka the [[Aisha]], at the Cork Gun Gallery.
*Leeroy the [[Quiggle]], at the Coconut Shy.
*Ssidney the [[Nimmo]], at Ssidney's Scratch Cards.

The conversations appear bellow the games themselves. There have been some bugs where the conversations do not appear. Methods of rectifying it include clearing one's cache, refreshing, or playing one of the four games.

Each of the characters will give a different conversation, and while these are four set characters, it is random for each user which character has which conversation. Each conversation starts with one of the following opening lines:

*"Why, certainly, little miss... Well, what a pretty little trinket this is. I haven't seen one like it in years."
*"Amazing! I haven't seen such metalwork in, oh, must be ten years. Where did you say you found it?"
*"That piece of junk? It looks like a hundred other lockets I've seen."
*"It looks familiar... where did you get it? I know someone who'd pay a thousand Neopoints for that locket, though. At least, I used to. Haven't seen her in ages."

When the characters are visited so that the conversations appear in the above order, Gilly will decide that nobody will help her there. Back in Neovia, a small path that leads away from the town becomes hyperlinked to a new site, Sophie's Shack.

===At the Cave===

After visiting Sophie's Shack, Sophie will run the user off. Clicking the form button bellow, "Flee in Terror", will bring Gilly to a dark cave. Clicking the "Go into the scary cave..." button will send Gilly inside.

The cave is unique to everyone, but consists of a 3 x 3 grid of rooms, which all have at least one doorway into them. In the cave, there are several items, some of which can be carried and some of which can't. The chest and the table cannot be picked up, but the lamppost, chair, mirror, rotten food, and key can. Additionally, at least one of the rooms will have a pool of moonlight in the centre.

The user can pick up one object at a time, and can be placed down at a certain co-ordinate in the same way as the user searched for the locket in Neovia.

When moving about the cave, occasionally the message "Something seems to be following you..." will appear under the picture of the room. It will eventually catch up with you, and it will scare Gilly into a random room. By placing the Rotten Food object on the ground in one of the rooms, when the monster passes through it, they will, instead of scaring Gilly into a random location, stop and eat. They will then become disoriented and run off to a random room.

The user must set up a trap in a moonlit room in order to illuminate the creature. To do this, the following items must be placed at the following co-ordinates of a room with a pool of moonlight in the centre:

*Mirror at (240,330).
*Lamppost at (240,215).
*Chair at (235,160), or sometimes (225,155).
*Rotten Food at (330,325).

When the monster follows Gilly into the room, it will eat the bait, see its reflection in the mirror, stumble backwards over the lamppost, crack its head on the chair and collapse into the light.

===Into the Woods===

When the user returns to Sophie's Shack, a section of dialogue will be visible of the troupe - Gilly, Sophie and Bruno - where they decide to head out to find Ilere.

There are three sections to find Ilere, each section works in a similar way. Each section is a [[Wikipedia:Adobe Flash|Flash]] maze, where you will see a screen with several paths leading from it. One of these (except for the first screen of each maze) will take the user back to the previous screen. In each section, there is an item, or several items, that must be collected to advance.

====The Swamp====

In the first section, there is a two-headed [[Hissi]] blocking one of the paths. When the user clicks on him, they are told that one of the Hissi's heads will always speak the truth, and the other will always lie. The Hissi is too busy arguing with himself to listen to any questions you give it, so the problem cannot be solved simply by using logic.

The user must find a stick in the maze, and click on it to bring it into their Quest Inventory. The user must then return to the Hissi and, by clicking on the stick in the inventory then on the Neopet, prod it. One of the Hissi's heads will deny that you poked it, so the other head must be telling the truth. This opens the way into the next section.

====The High Woods====

In the section segment, there is a clearing somewhere in the woods where there is a break in the trees. This is where there is a cliff, and to proceed, you must descend it.

Around the maze are five types of vine, six of each, which can be picked up in the same manner as the stick in the previous section. These vines must be assembled in a combination, random to each person, to construct a rope for a descent of the cliff.

An effective way of determining which combination to use is to drop all vines at the clearing by clicking them in the inventory and clicking on the terrain, putting them into piles of type, and then trying with six of each in one's inventory until the user is shown a cutscene of the cliff, where the rope is too short. The user should add a vine from the next pile to the inventory, and continue doing so, testing after each vine, until the vine becomes too weak or the bottom is reached. In the former event, the last vine should be removed and a vine from the next pile be included, with the process continuing.

Once the vine-rope reaches the base of the cliff, the three Neopets will climb down, and the next section will start. Note that it is possible to construct a rope with more than three sets of vines, but inadvisable; the rope will then be snatched away by a monster, and the vines scattered through the woods again.

====The Deep Woods====

In this maze, the object is to collect the seven ghost [[Meepits]], and then use them to open the lock to Ilere's tree residence.

When the user first encounters a Meepit in the forest, it will run away. After this happens, the user must play [[Meepit Juice Break]] and send a score of 400 points or more. This will place a glass of Meepit Juice into the Quest Inventory. The next time a Meepit is encountered, clicking on this in the inventory, then clicking on the Meepit, will offer the juice to the [[Petpet]]. The juice will splash through it, however, and it will run off. Sophie will turn the Meepit Juice into Ghost Meepit Juice, and when the above procedure is repeated, this time the Meepit will become entranced and follow as part of the Quest Inventory.

Once all seven Meepits are collected, Ilere's tree must be found. It is covered by a stone barricade, engraved with runes, and seven spots of light sit on the floor in front of it. Clicking on the Meepit picture in the Quest Inventory, then on the floor, will cause the seven Meepits to hop onto the spots. The Meepits must be rearranged, by clicking two adjacent the Ghost Meepits (which will exchange their positions), until all the Meepits are dancing. Visual hints make this relatively simple:

* Happy Meepits are one space from their proper position.
* Staring Meepits are two spaces from their proper position.
* Sad Meepits are more than two spaces from their proper position.

As there are only seven positions, this reduces the possibilities to two for each Meepit.

When all the Meepits dance, the stone door will move and Ilere's home will be open.

===The Graveyard===

The user next needs to find the graveyard of the Spirit. At the [[Game Graveyard]], there is a new picture of The Caretaker's Vault: click on it to enter.

The Caretaker (an easily-angered blue Yurble) angrily informs the user that his indices are missing. Without them, he cannot locate a the graveyard or grave of anyone.

The books must be found. If the user plays [[Fetch!]] on hard difficulty, they will find somewhere in the maze a pile of books. When the user reaches it, as it's certainly not what the Master asked for, you'll be told to "Flee", with that being the only button on the page.

After clicking the "Fleeing sounds pretty good right now.." button, the Fetch! game is over and when the user returns to the Caretaker's vault, he'll be happy to see the return of his records.

===Grave Digging===

With the indices carefully checked, the user then must begin to search for the correct grave. There are three different tasks to perform as part of this section: digging up the graves, retrieving potion ingredients to increase the drops of potion available, and using the potion on dug up bones in order to determine if it is a bone from the Spirit of Slumber.

These tasks are not performed in sequence and finished in the same way as finding Ilere. Every single grave from a multitude of graveyards must be dug up, and every single grave tested with the potion. It is a dauntingly huge task, but fortunately, every user working on the plot works together, much like working on the repository of the [[Lost Desert Plot]].

To start searching for the Spirit's mortal body, the user must visit the Caretaker's Vault again and click the "Examine the graveyards list" button. Then, a graveyard must be selected from a list of graveyard designations, and the user is brought up to the graveyard's control panel, where each task can be selected.

====Digging Up Graves====

Clicking the 'Enter graveyard' button will bring the user to a map of the graveyard. The graveyard is divided up into many squares. The square the user is currently on is shown by a black border on square. The user moves around the graveyard by clicking other squares to go to them (the user can only click on squares they could reach from their current position without walking over graves or barriers).

Many of the squares will contain gravestones. If the gravestone has a small pile of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the digging is underway. If there is a large section of dirt in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and empty. If there is a large section of dirt with bones in in front of it, it signifies that the grave is open and coffin exposed. If there is no dirt in front of it, digging has yet to begin (although diggers may be waiting to commence).

To interact with a grave, the user must be on a square adjacent to one, then the user must click the grave's square.

To dig up a grave, their must be four users (represented by their active Neopet) at the grave site, which then dig in sequence, each users turn indicated to them by a pink highlight around their Neopet. To join a digging team, there must be at least one empty space, shown by a question mark instead of a Neopet's image, around the grave, and then the form button "Join the diggers" must be clicked. Between their turns at digging, the user clicks the "Wait" form button.

While digging, several items can be found by the users in the dirt. Most commonly, these are '''Spooky Doughnut'''s or '''Ghost Marshmallows''', but '''Fetch! Stamp'''s, '''Meowclops Statue'''s and '''Sludgy'''s can also be found, and there are claims that '''Haunted [[Paint Brush]]'''es have been dug up also.

If you are not quick enough in digging, you may be kicked out of the digging team. If this happens, or if you choose to leave the digging team once you have joined, you will be unable to dig for some minutes. After a coffin has been successfully exhumed, the user becomes exhausted and must wait several minutes before they can dig up graves again.

The graveyard can be left by leaving through the gate the user arrived next to. This will take the user back to the control panel.

====Testing the Bones====

In order to test whether the dug up bones are those of the Spirit of Slumber, the user must take some potion from the control panel, enter the graveyard and find an open grave. The user can "Wait" at a grave being dug up until the coffin is exhumed to test it as well as looking for a coffin already available.

If the user is first to the coffin with the potion, they will be asked to "Continue", and will then be given the mass and the volume of one of the bones and be asked to decide how many, up to 250, drops are needed to test the bone correctly. The formula for working out the number of droplets needed is: '''25(mass/volume)^2''', that is, the mass divided by the volume, squared, times 25. The result should be rounded to its nearest whole number.

After testing a bone, the user sees whether or not the bone is the Spirits. If it isn't, the user gains 150 [[NP]] and must wait a while before being able to test a bone again. The user can return the potion to Sophie on the control panel after taking it if they are unable, or do not wish to, test a bone. They will not be able to use the potion again for a few minutes.

====Finding Ingredients====

On the control panel, the third option is to retrieve ingredients for Sophie. She will give you the name of the ingredient, and the user must then visit her Shack (entering it by clicking on the door) and retrieve the appropriate ingredient. The user returns to Sophie, and is rewarded 50 NP if the vial is correct.

There are no labels on the potions in Sophie's Shack, however. At the end of the URLs for each unlabeled ingredient is an ID number. The ID conforms to a certain ingredient. The known ID and ingredient matches are:

*'''ID 1''': Bagguss Juice
*'''ID 2''': Juppie Extract
*'''ID 3''': Kadoatie Essence
*'''ID 4''': Tanglevine Sap
*'''ID 5''': Liquid Chokato Mould
*'''ID 6''': Moonwater
*'''ID 7''': Liquid meepit
*'''ID 9''': Bloatershroom Extract
*'''ID 10''': Liquified Bumroot
*'''ID 11''': Crushweed juice
*'''ID 12''': Boiled tree bark
*'''ID 13''': Worm snot
*'''ID 14''': Soaked Babaa Wool
*'''ID 15''': Spicy Mortogberry
*'''ID 16''': Jurple butter
*'''ID 17''': Boiled Meowclops Saliva
*'''ID 18''': Barkroot Dew
*'''ID 20''': Grundo Goo
*'''ID 21''': Powdered Bloodfern
*'''ID 22''': Pureed sharpgrass
*'''ID 23''': Mutant Gruel
*'''ID 24''': Evaporated Snorkle Juice
*'''ID 25''': Ghostbeef Essence
*'''ID 26''': Zomutt Mucus

==Quest Inventory==
This plot brought in a feature called the '''Quest Inventory''', where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the [[Inventory]] can, like previous plot quest items in the past.

==Trivia==
*An [[Aisha]] resembling [[Megan]] can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
*This plot seems to be based off the movie/book [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes_%281983_movie%29 Something Wicked This Way Comes].
*When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring [[The Neopets Team]] to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
**'''TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY'''
**'''MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH'''
*The name "Mr. Krawley", given to the Krawk with the potions, is taken from the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; in the actual plot, the Krawk has not yet been named.
*There are considerable differences between the plot's information and the flavor text of the Haunted Woods Expansion Set for the Neopets CCG; while characters, names and settings remain constant, the "plague" mentioned on the card, "Curing the Plague" (which depicts a slightly-altered Spirit of Slumber, who appears to be a blue Lupe with an earring) is nowhere to be found. Likewise, Ilere is a Villain in the CCG, but a reluctant aide in the plot.
*The Caretaker in the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to [[The Foreman]], a character in the Lost Desert Plot, who likewise bears a strong resemblance to the Janitor in the Altador Plot. The only difference is, the Caretaker is a blue Yurble, while the other two are orange Yurbles.

==External Links==
*'''Plot Info:''' [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/gypsy_camp.phtml The Gypsy Camp], [http://neopets.com/halloween/hwp/comic.phtml The Tale of Woe (comic)], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml? Neovia], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/shack.phtml Sophie's Shack], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/neovia.phtml?hvh=7e82eb43e7bf50a688a9c729ab116780 Burned-down House], [http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/cave.phtml Bruno's Cave]
*[http://www.neopets.com/halloween/hwp/quest_inv.phtml Quest Inventory]
*'''Neopets TCG:'''

[[Category: Plots]]

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-21T06:47:19Z

207.53.228.235: /* The Search for the Spirit of Slumber */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-21T06:32:03Z

207.53.228.235: /* The Search for the Spirit of Slumber */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-21T05:54:48Z

207.53.228.235: /* The Search for the Spirit of Slumber */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-21T05:49:05Z

207.53.228.235: /* The Graveyard */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-20T05:56:37Z

207.53.228.30: /* The Deep Woods */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-20T05:49:46Z

207.53.228.30: /* At the Cave */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-20T05:38:43Z

207.53.228.30: /* Trivia */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-20T05:34:24Z

207.53.228.30: /* The Graveyard */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T10:04:29Z

207.53.228.6: /* Trivia */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T09:23:17Z

207.53.228.6: /* Trivia */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T09:08:16Z

207.53.228.6: /* The Deep Woods */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T09:06:19Z

207.53.228.6: /* The Legend of Neovia */

Mr. Krawley

2006-10-19T08:59:20Z

207.53.228.6:

A mysterious [[Krawk]] whose potions first blessed, then cursed, the small town of Neovia. Unnamed in the Haunted Woods plot; the name given is from the relevant card in the Haunted Woods Expansion Set of the Neopets CCG.

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T08:00:28Z

207.53.228.6: /* The Deep Woods */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T07:53:50Z

207.53.228.6: /* The Deep Woods */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T07:46:25Z

207.53.228.6: /* The High Woods */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T07:40:14Z

207.53.228.6: /* At the Fairground */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-19T07:24:48Z

207.53.228.6: /* Finding Ilere */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-18T09:09:43Z

207.53.228.110: /* Bruno's Cave */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-18T08:37:47Z

207.53.228.110: /* Into the Woods */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-18T08:27:14Z

207.53.228.110: /* Into the Woods */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-17T09:32:17Z

207.53.228.152: /* At the Cave */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-17T09:14:15Z

207.53.228.152: /* At the Fairground */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-17T09:08:03Z

207.53.228.152: /* At the Fairground */

The Tale of Woe

2006-10-16T10:46:39Z

207.53.228.98: /* Bruno's Cave */