Adventurers of Alyria!

Winter is coming to an end and soon the land will be alive with the many-hued greens of spring. To prepare for the upcoming time of fertility and growth, there will be a day when weddings and handfastings are reduced in price. This day will be held to honor my past love Lady Saresyn and encourage the QuestMasters around the world to have their Adventurers' help inspire love whever they travel. You can get into the spirit by visiting me in Rune to accept a special quest, check Agatha's seasonal items or just take some time to do some shopping or dining at one of Rune's fine restaurant or bar.

- Lord Agrippa

Skills

• Made Regenerate Cartilage work 25% better underwater/in floods.
• Made Lay Hands affect Leech Conduit.
• Fixed a bug that made blindness remove all defenses.
• Made Strike Match not work on lights that are equipped.
• Made Strike Match deal double damage from infinite lights.
• Added new spells Sandblast, Damnation, Spider Incubator.
• Made waterspouting while webbed deal significant damage to its caster.

Runs

• Added 2 new bosses.
• Made Stargazer all PK and psychotic.
• Made distinct boss kills alter their killers' alignment by 10% of their alignment, eg killing Yourban for the first time would grant +100 alignment.
• Added a method to get back past Kessarian's Gatekeeper, available from a new source nearby Kessarian.
• Increased the lifespan on Kessarian's gems from 50 minutes to 24 hours.

Areas

• Added a new, higher-value Bar to bankers: octarine-gold, worth 9.9M gold.
• Added a dragonslayer-dagger option.
• Made witch Guild pins removeable-in-safe, instead of noremove/nouncurse.
• Added a statue in the Strange Ruins that will destroy 7 standard, bound Relics and create a new, random relic.
• Fixed and streamlined some issues with Banker trading.
• Fixed Ganuk Jr's display of the Mayor's chosen destination.
• Made it so that a no-outside-noise room inside of a no-outside-noise area will make the two negate each other, permitting outside sound where there normally isn't (most useful for BUILT homes, when most estates are no-outside-noise areas)

Change Changes

• Per anti-Santa, removed all rapid-regen from bosses. This will likely be applied to select individual bosses at some point in the future.

Rankings

• Made gold not scale infinitely for Rank.

Commands

• Added SHIP RENAME, available at a cost of 5000 tourmalines.
• Added MARK WHERE command to find marks obtainable in the nearby area within the player's current class or lower.
• Added area information (where marks may be obtained) to MARK command output.

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching animal breeding experiments, in attempts to produce faster, more efficient, leaner, tauter animals. His latest experiments have focused on Lord Vendredi's prized pack animals, south Auryn reindeer. Magically tampering with their physical and mental prowess has produced very interesting results. An original sixteen reindeer were selected for the breeding program, with half as the control group. The other eight were made nine, after one of the control group proved himself too intelligent and rowdy to be tricked by pine wands, rather than yew. They were experimented on over a course of months, finally producing three quarters of a dozen super reindeer. The test was a success, producing capable, strong, responsible reindeer for towing Vendredi about the winter solstice nights, as he traditionally delivers all of his year's work worth of toys to children around Alyria.

In fact, not only was it a success, breeding the smartest, strongest reindeer possible, but it was too successful, allowing the reindeer to see their inbred inferiority and subjugation by the humans. Although never Lord Vendredi's intent, it was indeed true. The last test subject from the program, Charles, led a revolt among his fellow enhanced reindeer. Up, they levitated into the night sky, as they always have, only without their master's sleigh. Feeling vindicated, free of their social, zoological and physical bonds, they also freed their lesser kin, the hundreds of other reindeer raised in captivity since the start of the domestication of the animals. The original nine led their brethren through the sky, dispersing themselves back into the lands whence they came.

However, many had only known city life for their entire upbringing, particularly the young, and quickly gravitated towards the respective city centers of the continents they landed on. Viewing it as a temporary setback, rather than a fundamental flaw in their plan for freedom, the nine followed them into the towns, to help them adjust to life beyond the feedbag. Professor Silax, the director of the experiments, now needs help in gathering the creatures, to bring them back into captivity.

He has come up with a magical trap for the reindeer, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the reindeer and magically teleport their organic matter back to Sigil, where they can be chained once more. To receive credit for their captures, their original laboratory tags will fall to the ground after their teleportation, and the tags may be redeemed by Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the reindeer, attempting to corral the beasts. The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract them is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST, and may purchase the one best suited for the type of reindeer you will be catching.

A special lure, the reindeer moss, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver reindeer, the fastest reindeer bred that did not receive neural enhancements.

The reindeer have been cleared from Sigil using the traps, but the Townes of Xaventry (where you will find reindeer for levels 11-60), New Rigel (where you will find reindeer for levels 61-120), Rune (where you will find reindeer for levels 121-180), and Tellerium (where you will find reindeer for levels 181-241) are still plagued with the antlered beasts.

Keep on the lookout for the lead reindeer, Charles Billingsworth III, and his fellow conspirators, Temper, Stamper, Doughnut, Mitten, Tulip, Steelwool, Stupid, and Pigeon. They have managed to make themselves immune to Professor Silax's traps and therefore must be fought to quell the reindeer resistance.

If you wish to change your class after receiving your trap, and need a new trap to accomodate this change, you may sayto Professor Silax "Exchange my trap", and he will give you a new one.

If you'd like to help Professor Silax, try saying to him, "I will help recover the missing reindeer".

As the Yule season begins each year, talk inevitably turns to the Bearded Gnome. While this has been a tradition in some areas for many years, he has been celebrated mostly in the countryside--the traditions only recently making their way to Alyria's cities and towns.

With five clockwork winged mules pulling his flying sleigh, the Bearded Gnome sneaks into denizens' homes during the Yule holiday, leaving behind gifts for the owner of the house. It is traditional in the Alyrian countryside to leave snacks out for him, as legend says his gifts are better if his stomach is full of cookies and milk. Some even leave presents of oil for his clockwork mules.

A letter from the office of Professor Silax:

My friends! I have wonderful news that I am just too eager to relay to you all!

I'm sure you are all aware of the work currently taking place in my research laboratories in Sigil: my work on the Seven League Boots has caused a bit of publicity over the last few years, and we all remember the incident with Charles Billingsworth III and the other south Auryn reindeer last year. I'll have you all notice that we've had no such incidents in the last 6 months... a record for our facilities! To celebrate and reveal some of the mystery behind the Silax Labs, I will be hosting a reception and conference at my facilities in Sigil (across the street from the Alyrian Chronicle Offices). Normally, a strong illusion spell prevents people from seeing our building, but we will lift this veil shortly before the event, which will start promptly at noon system time of the 23rd of December, 2011.

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! It seems that a mad turkey has escaped Strecht's carving knife, and isn't too happy about the pending massacre! Turkeys have been disappearing from butchers' storehouses for weeks, with nary a trace of their whereabouts... but it looks as though the Mad Turkey has been gathering them for a full attack on the citizens of Alyria! Fortunately, the Adventurers do not stand alone in their protection of the world's citizens. The renowned Turkey Huntress has been brought out of retirement, and is currently holding court in Rune. Should any adventurers care to help her bring down the threat against our populace posed by the feathered foes, she should be consulted. Due to her long travels, however, she has not eaten in several days, nor have the Beltan refugees she was in the midst of rescuing when this global threat arrived. Should any food be found in the course of the battle, it would likely be appreciated most by the pilgrims new to Sepharia's shores.

Spies have uncovered the following information about the locations of specific turkeys:

Levels 2-35: a tiny turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 36-60: a small turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 61-120: a medium-sized turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 121-180: a large turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 181-239: a huge turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 240: a plump turkey, appearing in Maldra's Keep, Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 241: a champion-sized tom, appearing in Hellbent Mountain and Maldra's Keep

This global quest will last from approximately 4pm (CST) Thursday, November 24th, to 12pm Saturday, November 26th.

* Daily quest limits will not be implemented for this global until next year, due to timing and season.

It seems that a Mad Turkey has escaped Strecht's carving knife, and isn't too happy about the pending massacre! Turkeys have been disappearing from butchers' storehouses for weeks, with nary a trace of their whereabouts... but it looks as though the Mad Turkey has been gathering them for a full attack on the citizens of Alyria!

Join us Thursday, November 24th at approximately 4pm until Saturday, November 26th at 12pm for an Alyrian Turkey Hunt!

As the world of Alyria enters the dark half of the year, join the denizens of Sepharia, Beltane, Auryn, and Avros from eight pm October 29th through the late evening of November 5th as they celebrate the cycling of the seasons...

See the Druids of the realm as they allow their ceremonial solstice ritual to be viewed for only the second time ever by outsiders... Guard the land from the evil that seeks to enter when the veil between worlds is thinnest... And when you're done (if you are still alive), go trick o' treating in the Townes of Alyria.

Six armies have invaded our peaceful realm. The townes of Tellerium, Sigil, Rune, New Rigel, Pirates Cove, Decara have all been affected. In each towne there is General who, protected by the evil powers he serves, sends his minions to reek havok in the land. You must help destroy these creatures of the dark, and protect our land!

Ravens fly throughout the realm, carrying mesages to the armies. Kill these dark birds and you will gain information on how to find the Overlord. If you are strong of heart and mind, journey to the Druids and return to them the items needed for their ritual and you will be taken to kill the evil fiend who has masterminded this attack. The location of their ceremonies this year is unknown, but some careful sleuthing should produce results.

Regardless of your strength or skill, all adventurers are needed. Enter the portals found in the invaded towns to find the evil minions who do not fear you. Slay them and return their equipment to the young druids found in the townes, so they may destroy it.

LEVEL GROUP: ARCHONS Located in Decara

LEVEL GROUP: 181-240 Located in Pirates Cove

LEVEL GROUP: 121-180 Located in New Rigel

LEVEL GROUP: 61-120 Located In Rune

LEVEL GROUP: 10-60 Located in Sigil

The All Spirits' Eve Global begins at approximately eight o'clock p.m. On Saturday, October 29th, and will last through late evening on Saturday, November 5th.

Changes to look forward to in v4.4:

• A new race of humanoid shark-people, the dangerous Sahuagin
• The new thief class Knave, masters of deceit and dirty tricks
• Many new archon-level marks and bosses
• Over fifty new skills and spells, distributed to all classes, including 4 new combat commands
• Hundreds of new items, available from new villages
• Dozens of small-to-intermediate bugfixes across the board
• Several new mechanics, such as drowning changes 'ominous' and 'psychotic' combat changes; and per-skill bonuses that alter spells' and proficiencies' behavior
• Race remorts for existing characters that want to play as Sahuagin and/or Knave without recreating a new character
• ...and many more. For further details, see the site changelog.

In addition, to welcome back returning players who have not signed on for over a month, their expired contribution items will be automatically renewed for a day for every two weeks they were gone, up to 5 days.

If you would like to beta test v4.4 with your character before release, contact Duende during afternoons PST. See you in 4.4!

We are pleased to announce that player referral rewards are available!

By referring a new player to Materia Magica, adventurers may gain credit towards fame, fortune and new experiences! To gain credit for referring a new player, simply sayto Lord Agrippa 'refer ' just before their character is created. Credit may be gained up to three times per referred player, at level 100, 200 and archon level 80.

Several unique reward tiers provide incentives and novel benefits!

Rewards are as follows:

3: 3500 build points
OR 60M experience
OR 7K archon points
OR a gold renewal token

8: 84 rewardunits
OR 10000 build points
OR 10 betters, distributed among your choice of skill(s)

16: Design a new object named after you and receive it
OR Receive a Super Dreadnaught

30: Design a new spell and receive it
OR All NPCs in Rune will greet and/or fear you presence

50: A shrine will be erected in your honor and filled with worshipers in Xaventry
OR A global will be thrown in your honor

75: Paid airfare and accommodations from anywhere in the continental US to be the guest of honor at Vassago's next Halloween Party
OR Receive a full equipment set of any current items in the game

For more information, see HELP REFERRAL from within the game.

The next batch of the new rewardunit items, Evolving Items, are growing and are Dazzling Eggs, available for 25 rewardunits. Available until |Rnoon, July 31st, 2011|X, these special eggs will evolve four times, with a new form every two weeks. Be sure to buy them now, because once they start transforming, they won't be purchasable from shops! When the egg reaches its final phase it will settle into a final, special item, where it will remain stable and usable forever.

Adventurers!

The growing season is well under way. Farmers across the land are pleased as their crops are starting to thrive and the wonderful weather we have had has increased the population of animal life. The Druids of Xaventry will now be concentrating their magic these next couple of months to give the land that extra boost for the growing season.

To take part in these summer festivities, the Council of Seven will be handing out special quests. The Druids need help with their rituals in Xaventry. If the mid summer ceremony does not go according to plan, the growing season could fall into jeopardy. Seek out unique rewards from the Council of Seven quest masters by completing summer tasks.

- Lord Agrippa

Ithrix & Glyph

• The Glyph, a mysterious race of blue-skinned, tattooed humanoids, have traveled to Alyria to assist in warding off the Ithrix menace.
• The Glyph's technomagical Pylons inhibit Ithrix rifting, causing Archon Hunters to struggle for up to a minute before rifting in for attacks.
• The Glyph's Pylons are scattered around Alyria, causing some consternation with their powerful and little-understood technomagical affects.

Miniquests

• Made skill manuals give +1-3% in their skill.
• Added bouncers to Thornstangg Glyffrukk
• an octopus blacksmith will, when given a chipped Orb of Vandemaar, crush it to splinters.

Religion, Clans & Politics

• Added a new mayor power: the mayor may journey to a room and designate it as a custom Iron Worm destination. Its use is restricted to safeguard citizens, and it does not cost any mayoral influence points.
• Added a new mayor power: remove NPK/no-regen from the stone ledge above Rune Temple to bring forth a universal trainer, with 50 sessions/skill that restocks once per RL week.
• Clan merging is now available again.
• Enabled the ability for the Mayor of Rune to add Luzzardo Malvenu there.
• Fixed a bunch of incorrectly-set rooms in Shrines.

Skills & Spells

• Added a new "class resex" command, which allows players to changes sex and associated classes.
• Granted paladins the new spell 'searing touch'.
• Traded rangers' 'fireball' for 'flintstrike'.
• Reduced the cooldown on Channel Faith from 60 seconds to 7, as an experiment.
• Made it so kicking while mounted while fighting against someone who is not mounted will kick them in the head, not the leg. Courtesy Maglor(?)
• Updated the Awaken spell: If you are slept while affected by awaken, sleep has an (awaken level * 80 / sleep level)% chance of being resisted entirely, and if that check fails, sleep's duration is reduced to 2. If cast on someone who is already sleeping, if cast on someone who is already sleeping, awaken will reduce the duration by (3 + class #).
• Reworked color spray: color spray resistance is (victim's sunlight resistance - caster's sunlight damage). Color spray has a (20 * (100 - res / 100))% chance to blind for 1 less duration than level-equivalent blind.
• made telekinetic explosion, bash, slash and pierce take both mental + lightning/bash/slash/pierce resistance into account, respectively.
• Doubled herald 's death efficacy, to restore 4% of a target's max hp.
• Made irritation take both mental + disease resistance into account when calculating duration.
• Made landslide deal earth damage, and bash damage if the victim is slammed through a door.
• Added new spell, cover of darkness.
• Made stone skin, haste, etc be recastable again.

Building

• Fully added 'buildpoints' as possible quest system quest reward.
• Added 'free build' areas in Rune and Lasler, where you can try buildpoint settings out for free, or just build something temporary for fun (no buildpoint or clan gemstone cost, area is reset weekly).

Marks

• Fixed the mark of abjuration
• Made the mark of strength level-scale experience rewards.

Items

• Fixed a significant bug in the animate sceptre of songs
• Made the flanged flail of Ragradorg only affect artifacts held in the hand.

Misc

• Fixed various typos, such as the little dog plushie and the Garbool island.
• Added a bunch of help entries.
• Added self-explanatory new stats healing-others-prcnt and healing- self-prcnt.
• Added a new stat, musical-appreciation, which increases instrument complexity at a 1:1 rate.
• Added 'arct' as a permanent abbreviation for the 'archon talk' command.
• Fixed missing 'clantalk' default setting for Court clan types, for the Courtier rank.

Adventurers!

I bring thee fine news from some men who say they are scientists, regarding happy fun party times and some class-related stuff!

Using a pair of device they have so modestly named "The Insideoutifier" and "The Whoooaaadoggy wouldjalookathat Machine", it is now possible for ordinary citizens to switch sexes!

Tokens necessary to run the devices are available from the van Pelt family members, and may be used with the "class resex" command, or in conjunction with class remorting, if changing to Valkyrie as a male or Cavalier as a female.

I foresee exciting times at the next New Rigelian Royal Ball!

- Lord Vashir

The next batch of the new rewardunit items, Evolving Items, are growing and are Priceless Eggs, available for 25 rewardunits. Available until |Rnoon, July 1st, 2011|X, these special eggs will evolve four times, with a new form every two weeks. Be sure to buy them now, because once they start transforming, they won't be purchasable from shops! When the egg reaches its final phase it will settle into a final, special item, where it will remain stable and usable forever.

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching the great jumping ability of the hare and potential applications for use in designing magical apparatus to enhance humans' jumping ability, perhaps producing a real pair of Seven League Boots. Fraudulent versions of the boots exist in the world, but none can actually send the wearer seven leagues in a given direction. Rumors have been circulating that the Professor had produced a prototype pair that could send the wearer four leagues, but not the full seven leagues as required by the specification.

Due to this end the Professor has been experimenting on hares, giving some of them unusual powers as a result. Thieves and vandals from an organization calling themselves "The Alliance for Animal Rights" recently broke into Silax Labs in Sigil and stole several rare hare specimens and released them into the wild.

Unfortunately, hares are renowned for their fecundity - and especially these hares, who had been magically enhanced - and in no time at all had reproduced and reproduced and are now spreading to many of the major Townes, causing no end of trouble to the residents, who are partially to blame for the spread of the hares off the continent of Auryn. Many people thought them cute, and would take them home, only to discover that in a few weeks they had several dozen hares when they only wanted the original two.

Professor Silax has come up with a magical trap for the hares, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the hares and transform them into small baubles of varying power, which may then be given to Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the hares.

The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract the hares is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST. Buy the one most appropriate for your level. Place the lure in the trap and then set the trap on the ground. There can only be one baited trap placed per location.

A special lure, silver clover, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver hare, a magically mutated version of the previous hares. This hare will turn into a pair of two, three, four, or five-league boots when he is captured. If you should happen to stumble across a pair of these two, three, four, or five-League boots, take advantage of them while you can! They will last about a week maximum before the magical field sustaining them wears out.

Professor Silax had a second experiment underway with some of these unique hares that allows them to produce, of all things, brightly- colored eggs. The purpose of this experiment has yet to be understood by anyone outside the magio-scientific community, but the Professor has made it clear that he will reward adventurers who, should they run across one of these special eggs, return them to him or one of his assistants.

Unfortunately the eggs are extremely frail and reactive to their environment. A slight trip or lapse of concentration while carrying one of these eggs will almost instantly cause the egg to shatter. The special hares that produce these eggs have mixed in with the others, so it's anyone's guess as to where the eggs will appear, but you can bet there will be hares nearby!

A letter from the office of Professor Silax:

I have awful news! Just awful! Thieves and vandals from an organization calling themselves 'The Alliance for Animal Rights' have broken into Silax Labs in Sigil (Just across from the Alyrian Chronicle Building) and stolen several rare hare specimens from our testing facilities. It is unknown how they managed to get inside the building, as normally a strong Illusion Spell prevents people from seeing it.

Over the past five weeks, we've added many improvements, fixes, adjustments, and content to Materia Magica. Changes were made to the Airship Inconvenience, Religion, Questing, Items, Runs, Spells, and general bug fixes.

The following isn't an exhaustive list, but it covers the major items. Read and enjoy!

- The Administrators

The next batch of the new rewardunit items, Evolving Items, are growing and will soon transform!

Available at Rewardunit shoppes, adventurers may purchase fragrant eggs for 25 rewardunits. Available until noon, March 15th, 2011, these special eggs will evolve four times, with a new form every two weeks. Be sure to buy them now, because once they start transforming, they won't be purchasable from shops! Once the egg reaches its final phase, at which point it will settle into a final, special item, where it will remain stable and usable forever.

This new item is helpful to players of all levels, and each level will bemore valuable and useful than the stage previous, ending with an item far more valuable and rare than its original investment. Buy three today, because they are available for one more week!

Get your eggs from the RU shops before they transform at noon, March 15th, 2011!

Very soon, the Van Pelt family will be selling Class Remort tokens!

Using the CLASS command, players will be able to change one class in their path to another class available to them; for example, a fey psionic would be able to CLASS RECLASS PSIONIC WIZARD, and become a wizard.

When a class is reclassed, the player loses all of that class' exclusive skills, and gains all of the new class' skills. Unlike full remorts, no levels are lost and the character's attributes are recalculated based on the class' primary stats.

Class Remort tokens will be available at a 25% discount for the first 3 days of their existence, so make sure to get them while you can!

With our most recent reboot, we are pleased to announce updates to all old characters who may not have benefited from (now rather dated) changes to the way stats work.

This includes both players who did not benefit from getting a third primary stat bonus from their first class, as well as players whose characters were older than certain racial stat changes (elf strength, fey sanity, etc)

If your character was modified, you will have been sent a parchment via IMail, detailing this change.

-the Administrators

We play text. It's pretty sweet. Let's see some text in motion.

The following video inspired me to create a typographical video+dramatic reading contest. For the lazy, a video/mp3 of a dramatic reading should be sufficient. Content must be from MM logs + source, or from MB posts. See Video

Prizes will include a Bloodline quest completion, and 3 of any evolving eggs.

Materia Magica's new website is live! Please let us know your thoughts in the new forums. There are a few issues we are currently working out, but the vast majority of the site content is available. We will be upgrading servers in the coming weeks as well, to resolve any page load time issues you may be experiencing.

Adventurers may purchase adoption certificates from wedding clerics in Rune, Sigil and Templeton. Adoptions require the participation of two parents, both of whose signatures are required on the certificate. A third field on the certificate specifies the name of the child being adoped: note that this field is the name of a new player that will be created within the next 15 RL minutes. Once the certificate has both signatures and the name of the player being created, it may be given to the cleric. If the child is created within 15 RL minutes, they will enter Alyria as the adopted child of both signatories to the adoption; if not, the adoption will be canceled and the certificate refunded.

As the child levels, different incentives are provided;

• at level 60, the child receives 250,000 gold.
• at level 120, the child receives 500,000 gold.
• at level 180, the child receives 750,000 gold.
• at level 241, the child receives 1,500,000 gold.

Provided an initial outlay of the 1,250,000 gold cost of the adoption certificate, the family unit starts profiting from the child's progress past level 180. Furthermore, once the child reaches level 241, their bloodline affects grow stronger, as does that of both of their adopted parents'. This is the case whether or not any of the affected family members have completed their bloodline quest yet. Note that adoptions automatically count as an automatic referral for the first parent listed on the adoption certificate.

***IMPORTANT***: Any given character may only adopt a maximum of three children within their lifetimes.

Journey to a Magical World with this Calendar

Special Edition 2011 calendar with full color illustrations from the hit fantasy roleplaying online game in a massively multiplayer online experience. Celebrate each month of the year with this stunning tribute to the world of Alyria. Follow the adventures of an inquisitive gnome through a land filled with dragons, elves, wily wizards, brave warriors and dark dungeons.

Ready to be printed in a countless number of colors, this high quality, full-color, full-bleed printed calendar is splendid for you and for your friends and family. Original and vibrant, this particular calendar will be carefully printed using highly advanced custom calendar production technique that will create the illustrations with the utmost quality.

Click here to get yours now!

An independent study group headquartered in Xaventry composed of Ilandrama researchers and led by the Ageless One has discovered a predilection for powerful personal traits to be passed down hereditarily, or by association when fostered from a young age . Everyone in the world has traits passed down through their bloodline, varying in their nature and methodology, but all possibly evoked with the proper training and magic. While the Ageless One has announced that she has discovered how to imbue adventurers with the traits of the bloodline, it is costly and difficult. In order to limit the adventurers seeking such enhancement, she is implementing a quest to encourage adventurers to get in touch with their roots and the history of Alyria. Those who satisfy her prerequisites will gain significant power and fame.

To start on your own bloodline quest, purchase and use a vial of your blood from a Questmaster or the RU shop.

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! It seems that a mad turkey has escaped Strecht's carving knife, and isn't too happy about the pending massacre! Turkeys have been disappearing from butchers' storehouses for weeks, with nary a trace of their whereabouts... but it looks as though the Mad Turkey has been gathering them for a full attack on the citizens of Alyria! Fortunately, the Adventurers do not stand alone in their protection of the world's citizens. The renowned Turkey Huntress has been brought out of retirement, and is currently holding court in Rune. Should any adventurers care to help her bring down the threat against our populace posed by the feathered foes, she should be consulted. Due to her long travels, however, she has not eaten in several days, nor have the Beltan refugees she was in the midst of rescuing when this global threat arrived. Should any food be found in the course of the battle, it would likely be appreciated most by the pilgrims new to Sepharia's shores.

Spies have uncovered the following information about the locations of specific turkeys:

Levels 2-35: a tiny turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 36-60: a small turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 61-120: a medium-sized turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 121-180: a large turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 181-239: a huge turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 240: a plump turkey, appearing in Maldra's Keep, Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 241: a champion-sized tom, appearing in Hellbent Mountain and Maldra's Keep

This global quest will last from 3am Thursday, November 25, to 2pm Friday, November 26th.

As the world of Alyria enters the dark half of the year, join the denizens of Sepharia, Beltane, Auryn, and Avros after 12 o'clock p.m. system time on Saturday, October 30th, through late evening Sunday, October 31st, as they celebrate the cycling of the seasons... See the Druids of Xaventry as they allow their ceremonial solstice ritual to be viewed by outsiders in an extremely rare event... Guard the land from the evil that seeks to enter when the veil between worlds is thinnest... and when you're done (if you are still alive), go trick o' treating in the Townes of Rune, Xaventry, Tellerium, New Rigel, and Sigil.

In anticipation of our upcoming Bloodlines and Adoption features, new skills have been added to cavaliers, barbarians, valkyries and bards. An addition to rogues is pending. These skills are all low complexity, and are available in Lasler, to add more active participation to non-mages in early- level combat. The additions are as follows:

Cavaliers: Charge - When wielding a long-range melee weapon, cavaliers can charge on their mounts into an opposing formation, dealing increasing amounts of damage per to every formation member standing in front of or behind the target.

Barbarians: Sweep - When wielding a slashing weapon, barbarians can rake their weapon across every member of an opposing form that is not hidden behind another formation member, dealing gradually less damage per target hit.

Valkyries: Herald Death - In combat, valkyries may 'herald death' an opponent for one minute: if the opponent dies while affected by herald death, the valkyrie regains a fraction her hp.

Herald Bloodthirst - In combat, valkyries may 'herald bloodthirst', gaining +damage and +damage-kick as a fraction of her total level, for a short time.

Bards: Plodding Fugue: This new song will cause an opponent to lose armor on their legs and to regenerate stamina more slowly.

We hope you like these new additions, and as always, welcome feedback and criticism on the boards.

Enjoy!
-The Immortals

Good news, everyone!

We are trialing a new method for players to get Reward Units, which can be spent on amazing items, called SuperReward Points. These points can be obtained through completing third-party offers, about 40% of which do not require a purchase (filling out surveys and the like). We're happy to make this available now, to see how everyone likes it.

The offers change frequently, so be sure to check back frequently to see if there's some that work for you. The purchase-required offers may be useful for those who were thinking of getting some particular product or service anyway, but hadn't made the plunge - if you get them through the SuperRewards Points interface you will earn SuperRewards Points which will be directly turned into RewardUnits in-game (the ratio is about 75 SRP = 1 RU).

You may find more information about SuperRewards Points, as well as all the currently-available offers, click here.

If you are under the age of 18, get permission from your parents or guardian before signing up for any of these offers. Players age 12 and under are not eligible.

** Read this please! **

* Materia Magica and Ingenii Interactive Co. are not responsible for the results of any offers accepted

* Read the offers - and the small print at the bottom of the offer page - carefully and consider all possible ramifications before completing any offers.

* Be especially careful of the offers that require use of your mobile or telephone number, as it may involve charging you a monthly fee (this should be mentioned in the small print, which is why you need to read it carefully)

* You must use real information, or you will most likely not receive the SuperRewards Points reward. However, do not use your standard email address. It's recommended that you create an email account using a free service (such as gmail, ymail, or hotmail), or use a temporary or disposable email account using a free service (such as spam.la, mailinator, or 10minutemail) and use that email account for any offers completed. While Ingenii Interactive Co. and Materia Magica will never give out your email address or personal information, the offer companies may if you provide it to them.

* Please let us know of any particularly odd or suspicious offers. We can filter these out if we know about them.

Happy Adventuring,
The Administrators of Materia Magica

Adventurers,

I am pleased to announce our impending success against Kapek and his automaton army. This would-be megalomaniac has brought Alyria to a standstill for nearly two weeks, by far the longest any such global phenomena has lasted. Our destroyers of mechanical men are wiping out the final batches of insurrection and attempted violence, and hopefully life shall resume as normal.

As regular life begins to resume, I wish to announce a pleasing discovery by our leading magigenealogical researchers. In a curious piece of geneological heredity, it turns out that racial and familial attributes can, in some cases, be passed down via bloodlines and passively boost the power of the beneficiary Adventurer.

Due to the expense and time required to provide these benefits to Adventurers, access to one's is not guaranteed by virtue of citizenship, but must be earned. As befits her stature, the Ageless one of Xaventry shall adjudicate the process: when adventurers are able to access their bloodlines and commensurate benefits, a royal proclamation shall be made. Updates are pending.

Faithfully yours,
Lady Undya

Adventurers,

As you know, all of Alyria is beset by the Kapek's plague of creations. We have been under an onslaught for over 36 hours, and defenses are barely holding. Since the invasion started, I have been in council with the Archwizard Glacius, considering our options. We believe we have finally found a way to bring this invasion to a close.

I, Tristan, have selected the finest recruit on the Runic armies, and fitted him with the best armor and weapons available. Glacius has provided him with extensive psionic training. Now, with this training, we are sending this vanguard forth, to telepathically sense Kapek's location and disrupt his mind. This mental shroud should be enough to reduce the invasion's duration by a significant amount. We will find Kapek, and bring him to justice.

You may hear Kapek offering rewards for the death of this Vanguard. I beg of you, ignore his petty attempts at bribery, and help your fellow Alyrians.

Combatants and citizens alike,

Couriers of my court bring me news, ill and good alike. That dastardly Kapek and his automaton army are being repulsed, and they are strong. Many adventurers have been seduced by his seditious lies, and have turned in enough cores to turn this into a long war of attrition. My strategists estimate that the battles will drag out past the weekend, if not longer. It is possible, even, that further adventurers turning in more cores to power the defeated robots would cause the global struggle to last even longer.

Morbid as it may seem, I am pleased to announce that the following developments have occurred: since the start of this bloody and oily invasion, over 18000 robots have been slain, and adventurers have gained over 94000 buildpoints, over 37,000,000 gold, over 7800 practices, and over 103,000 quest points.

My wizard Balthazar reports that the Powers are so impressed with the battle prowess on display, They have taken to Marking all adventurers who manage to slay 300 automatons. However, in a frankly stunning display of the potential avarice of the elements, the Powers are also Marking all adventurers who retrieve for Kapek's henchman each of the 7 power cores spread around the world.

To end on a bit of good news, Sir Tristan is enacting a plan, currently top secret, that hopefully willy cut this invasion short. More news shall be forthcoming.

Yours in battle,
Lord Agrippa

Adventurers,
Phineas Kapek has begun his invasion of Alyrian towns, and it is an opportunity for danger and reward for every player. His mechanical golems are wreaking havoc, and both the Council of Seven and Kapek himself are doing all they can to win this battle. To reiterate, here is where each adventurer should go:

Archons: The Towne of Decara
Levels 180-240: Templeton
Levels 120-179: Pirate's Cove
Levels 60-119: The Towne of Xaventry
Levels 35-59: The Towne of Sigil
Levels 1-34: The Towne of New Rigel

The Council of Seven is rewarding players who manage to slay the automatons with practices, quest points, gold, and building points. Further, the Council will provide additional rewards at certain benchmarks, such as slaying 100 of Kapek's automated creations. Each player can extend the global by turning in one of Kapek's cores to his henchman at Rune Temple. It is currently set to last four days, through the weekend, so bring your friends and help eliminate the menace!

Dear Adventurers,

I must admit a great mistake. Several months ago, every Lord and Lady on the Council of Seven received a threat. It made preposterous demands for gold, and stated that if each and every one of us did not comply, there would be grave consequences. It was signed Phineas Kapek, a name unfamiliar to most, but known to the Council of the Arcane. Kapek was famous, decades ago, as one of the most promising gnomish inventor in Alyrian history, rivaling the talent of Vandemaar himself. After a personal tragedy and a psychotic break, he left the council and has not been seen since.

We did not take this threat seriously, and discarded it with the other numerous threats we receive. Now, our scouts have found the unthinkable: Kapek lives, and is following through with his threat. He is sending an army - automatons, golems, and even unholy hybrids of life and metal - against us. Tristan has informed me that while Rune has adequate defenses, our fellow towns do not. The Council of Seven requires assistance, and our scouts have provided us with accurate information on the varied force Kapek marshals against us.

For those joining in the effort, our war council recommends the following assignments:

• Archons: The Towne of Decara
• Level 180-240: The Towne of Templeton
• Level 120-179: The Towne of Pirate's Cove
• Level 60-119: The Towne of Xaventry
• Level 35-59: The Towne of Sigil
• Level 1-34: The Towne of New Rigel

At this rate, Kapek's armies are expected to reach our towns by Wednesday night. Unfortunately, we cannot say when the invasion will end. Our spies tell us that Kapek is attempting to enlist adventurers to covertly power his creations. The more adventurers that help him, the longer his awful attacks will last. We hope that, with perseverance and fortitude, we can defeat this menace once and for all.

Yours,
Lord Cornelius Agrippa

RELIGION/QUESTS

• Fixed/changed the behavior when requesting a new religion - if you type RELIGION INFO it will display the religion that is accepting free members, which will be the lowest popularity religion. If there's more than one it will choose one of these.
• Fixed a bug in the "Placate Bajang" quest.
• Added item identify information to quests that grant item rewards (the items will now be identified in quest info, beyond their short descriptions), if you do not have BRIEF environment setting ON.
• Added a new quest item, the sceptre of songs.
• Added "reagents" and "reagents" keywords to reagent bags from Lord Vashir.
• Fixed a typo in golden-spurred boots that would cause the target to see duplicate messages.

• Added new BP-enabled housing in PC, Tellerium and Xaventry. Maps of this housing are available on "help map of housing"; only the NE quadrant is enabled now. Portals to these sections are each realty's entrance.
• Added a new invasion type: automatons!
• Added clan and alliance announcement info to clan/alliance info for members of that clan or alliance.
• Added information to WHERE indicating which alliance calls the area their hometown.
• Added an alternative (and shorter) method of getting to Abacax.
• Made new build-enabled house keys work on home containers (like chests and trophy cases). These keys (which everyone should be using to unlock their homes now) are now required to open the chests.
• Added a few missing clan log additions for alliance war/peace declarations, and alliance kick.
• Changed door passphrases so they will open non-spell magic-locked doors.
• Clan 'transfer' permission was set automatically for the top two ranks in clans, when the ranks are assigned. Removed it from the second-to-top rank, so it's only set automatically for the top rank.
• Fixed a bug with passproof doors, once set on build homes, not having the door setting reset until reboot.

• After years of renovation, reopened The Rusty Blade weapon shop on Irda.
• Added the wandering Airship Inconvenience.
• Added "The Southwest Passage" to the Oceanus Decarus, linking The Chattering Skull Tavern and the back entrance to Three-Bearded Jake's.
• Revamped hint system. Added more hints, and separated hints into Local (area) and Global. Random hints will select from both of these.
• Shifting into a castle janitor will fool Templeton's castle guards into letting adventurers by as well as a janitor's patch does.
• Changed level-adjusted items so they will adjust on pick up and drop, as well as equip and unequip, and removed antimagic room restrictions on the initial adjustment.
• Added a method to temporarily destroy the magic-suppressing obelisks in Tellerium.
• Fixed a bug that rendered Mr. Simes spookable.
• Fixed the bug with A lost bit of the Wizard's knowledge that prevented it from working as intended.
• Made the way out of the deep forest in Chanctonbury more obvious. Make sure to read room descriptions.
• Fixed issue with 'Kessler' NPC so he will now properly offer TRAINing services along with practicing.
• Added special weapon properties (flaming, dispelling, etc.) so they will also be activated by the "throw" command, when throwing a weapon.
• Enabled asking Death who the best pkers are.
• Fixed sturdy boots of balance always triggering.

• Made Thadus Trax only accept properly-bound weapons.
• Readded the (very rewarding) mark of Battle to Raymatus.
• Buffed Raymatus' ring of the hegemon and Raymatus' battle lantern.
• Removed timers from in-Arbaces items (removes the need to force a repop if those npcs haven't been killed in a few weeks)
• Expanded the functionality of the mask of a sorceror of infamy and ill repute.
• Increased the timers on Super Yourban's eq by 8-12x.
• Added survey strings to Hydra's Den and made itdoable by players of all levels.
• Added survey points for The Black Lodge, the Stronghold of the Garbool Tribe and The Coventry of Kalywak. Added survey points to The Sacred Temple of the Tentacle Cult of Metonychoseuthis, with Swiveling Hooks and Dr. Gnekow's lair.
• Made Archon Hunter Masters count as bosses, with loot.
• Added a method to make Megalith Peulvan a bit easier.
• Added additional, very significant rewards if everyone fighting Megafather, from full health to death, is affected by Malice.
• Doubled the rewards for the orc pursuer.

• Removed level restrictions on the marks of conformity, transience, pride, lamentation, alchemy, friendship and discovery. Note that any applicable current-class restrictions remain for non-archons.
• Disambiguated all redundant marks; credit from duplicate marks is granted towards the easiest method of acquisition. For example, the 5 methods of gaining the mark of Fire are now 4 other marks and the standard 'Kill Vyst'. Credit & hard work are Basselu.
• Fixed the mark of Abjuration so it would work.
• Increased the odds of getting the mark of Dignity from Old Armageddon from 40%->100%.
• Removed level limits for quest # marks: Adventure, Exploration, Chance, and Traveler.
• Fixed the Oil Well mark.

• Accelerated the palpitating items' timetable a bit: their third and fourth phases will last one week each, and reach their final phase at noon, Tues, Aug 31st.
• Fixed the price of ankh of Sir Adroit and Cunning..

• Added death insurance vouchers and Mercantile guild vouchers, redeemable for credit at shops within the Bazaar.
• Fixed daily rewards not binding..
• Removed blackjack vouchers worth 500 gold from Daily Rewards, and added chipped orbs of Vandemaar.
• 'a fragment of an orb of Vandemaar' is now redundant to 'a shard of an Orb of Vandemaar', and the former can be placed in 'a chipped orb of Vandemaar' just like the latter. BUGS & SYSTEM STUFF
• Fixed an issue with portals not registering quests and certain other entry events.
• Doing "use fnargh score show room" while playing Fnargh will no longer reset your score.
• Moved "MXP vX ENABLED" and "MCCP 2 ENABLED" messages so they come after you enter the game.
• 'Martial arts' proficiency accuracy bonus will now show up on 'equipment' command information.
• Changed 'chess cancel' so games cannot be cancelled before the first move, unless you are the one who initiated the game.
• Added information to HELP TRADE about what items cannot be traded.
• Fixed a bug with "put in" messages sometimes displaying twice.

• Update to silence change #3210: It's set so if the player casting the spell has 1 second or less left on the cast, they won't have the spell interrupted, to make room for the "two spells finishing at the same time" issue.
• 'Silence' spell, on a successful land, now stops spells on the target that are in the process of being cast.
• Fixed an issue with "sleep" affect not stopping special actions.
• Made 'chain lightning', 'ice whip' and 'water evocation' all drop 'elemental shield'.
• Fixed some issues with 'waterspout' in relation to certain rooms and exits.
• Fixed a bug in quicksand-ed rooms that was causing it to fail 100% of the time, regardless of agility score.
• Significantly increased the non-lethal damage dealt by 'kill'.
• Fixed an issue with familiars (such as shadow golems) not realizing you are dead and autoforming with you.
• Fixed a bug with buffet and its exit blocking effect.
• Ferrymen Uther and Gallow should be yelling when they dock now.
• Fixed issues with tremor and thunderclap that was causing them not to work in combat.
• Added a descriptive message to the player upon successful cast of 'blink'.
• Fixed a bug in mount ordering/formation NPC ordering (wasn't working unless the NPC was in your formation).
• Reduced class-specific complexities for numerous proficiencies to 10%; for more information, see post.
• Fixed an issue with mounts/transport items not being subject to the same checks from quicksanded rooms.

As always, to discuss these changes, any upcoming ones, or anything else, join the community in the Message Board.

While Materia Magica v4.3 is still fresh and new, the immortals are hard at work, bringing new content, greater accessibility and more goodies with each reboot.

Keep abreast of the changes as they are written and posted on the Change log.

Recent highlights include:

• Fresh new items obtainable from the Daily Rewards!
• A new method to bypass the watchguards in Templeton castle!
• Numerous religion-related functionality changes and buffs!
• A brand-new method of transportation, a wandering airship!
• A third type of marauding invader to menace towne-defending alliances: robots!
• Rendered many low-level marks accessible to archons, including Dungeon Odious and Hydra's Den!
• Set house keys to unlock house chests and other relevant containers!

...and dozens more!

The Administrators of Materia Magica are pleased to announce OPERATION FIXOPPOTAMUS.

Dedicating the first half of July to fixing bugs, the Immortals will be extending missing functionality, adding hints and generally improving existing content and mechanisms. OPERATION FIXOPPOTAMUS offers players of all levels an opportunity to provide input on what features and content they would like to see really polished and improved upon.

To provide suggestions, ideas and feedback, please visit this message board thread.

All,

In order to perform some maintenance on the servers, we will be down Tuesday evening from 9pm up to potentially 11pm, but hopefully it will not take the full two hours.

We appreciate your patience and understanding :)

Thank you,
The Administrators of Materia Magica

Adventurers,

The time has come for an announcement, an announcement that is hopefully correctly timed due to its sensitive nature. The rest of the Council of Seven and I, in conjunction with Archwizard Glacius' Council of the Arcane, feel that now is the proper time to reveal to the good people of Alyria long- standing plans that are coming to fruition.

The past decades have been tortuous, as adventurers, citizens and others the world over grow, prosper and explore the world. These times are frequently dramatic on their own, and are punctuated by the all-too-frequent invasions of our fertile, attractive land. Cross-planar demons, avaricious witches, mutated avian beasts and the cursed Ithrix all seek to see us fall; my own beloved Lady Saresyn was a victim of one of these attacks. These continual onslaughts only grow in frequency and strength, and support the negative forces of chaos and entropy.

Over the past few years, discoveries and motions have been made by the Councils of Seven and the Arcane to combat these invasions, and ensure that our world remains safe. These actions have taken place in secret, to deprive our world's enemies of knowledge that might allow them to circumvent said plans. In short order, explorers discovered a vast cavern system full of primitive, simple creatures below Sigil. Small colonies of explorers and first responders have been set up, and Shrines built in secret to each of the five Powers and their associated deities, worshiped the world over by nearly every race, class and specification.

High priests of nearly every religion, at our request, came together in a summit of the most powerful clerics of the world, and a complex, expensive sacrifice culminated in what they said was an unprecedented, extraordinary display of each of their respective deities and Powers paying attention to Alyria's citizenry as one. Responding to their followers' prayers for greater might with which to combat the demonic and domestic forces threatening our world, the clerics determined that great power may be gained by great sacrifices. Those sacrifices, now subsumed in the past, permit religions' followers access to new, awesome magical spell.

The Shrines built to the five Powers remain where they were built, in the Sigil Underground. Many tunnels dug to access that subterranean geology were hidden, and can now be revealed. Mariquesh, the cleric project leader in charge of Shrines, has dictated that religious combat games shall take place in them with some frequency, to sate the blood-loving deities, to keep followers in shape, and as practice to know how to properly fight the real threats to our world.

This is not to say that we are safe- there is speculation that this current period of relative calm is simply leading up to even more violent surprises, that we may or may not know about, that may or may not ever occur. Stay vigilant, adventurers, for this gradual war is in continual escalation, and we must never stop fearing.

-Lord Agrippa

For more information, see this message forum thread.

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching the great jumping ability of the hare and potential applications for use in designing magical apparatus to enhance humans' jumping ability, perhaps producing a real pair of Seven League Boots. Fraudulent versions of the boots exist in the world, but none can actually send the wearer seven leagues in a given direction. Rumors have been circulating that the Professor had produced a prototype pair that could send the wearer four leagues, but not the full seven leagues as required by the specification.

Due to this end the Professor has been experimenting on hares, giving some of them unusual powers as a result. Thieves and vandals from an organization calling themselves "The Alliance for Animal Rights" recently broke into Silax Labs in Sigil and stole several rare hare specimens and released them into the wild.

Unfortunately, hares are renowned for their fecundity - and especially these hares, who had been magically enhanced - and in no time at all had reproduced and reproduced and are now spreading to many of the major Townes, causing no end of trouble to the residents, who are partially to blame for the spread of the hares off the continent of Auryn. Many people thought them cute, and would take them home, only to discover that in a few weeks they had several dozen hares when they only wanted the original two.

Professor Silax has come up with a magical trap for the hares, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the hares and transform them into small baubles of varying power, which may then be given to Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the hares. The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract the hares is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST. Buy the one most appropriate for your level. Place the lure in the trap and then set the trap on the ground. There can only be one baited trap placed per location.

A special lure, silver clover, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver hare, a magically mutated version of the previous hares. This hare will turn into a pair of two, three, four, or five-league boots when he is captured. If you should happen to stumble across a pair of these two, three, four, or five-League boots, take advantage of them while you can! They will last about a week maximum before the magical field sustaining them wears out.

Professor Silax had a second experiment underway with some of these unique hares that allows them to produce, of all things, brightly- colored eggs. The purpose of this experiment has yet to be understood by anyone outside the magio-scientific community, but the Professor has made it clear that he will reward adventurers who, should they run across one of these special eggs, return them to him or one of his assistants.

Unfortunately the eggs are extremely frail and reactive to their environment. A slight trip or lapse of concentration while carrying one of these eggs will almost instantly cause the egg to shatter. The special hares that produce these eggs have mixed in with the others, so it's anyone's guess as to where the eggs will appear, but you can bet there will be hares nearby!

The hares have been cleared from Sigil using the traps, but the Townes of Xaventry (where you will find hares for levels 11-60), New Rigel (where you will find hares for levels 61-120), Rune (where you will find hares for levels 121-180), and Vospire (where you will find hares for levels 181-241) yet remain hare-ified.

If you'd like to help Professor Silax, try finding him in Sigil and saying to him, "I will help recover the missing hares". If you'd like Professor Silax to exchange your trap (if, for instance, due to multiclassing your current trap is no longer appropriate), try finding him in Sigil and saying to him "Exchange my trap". It is expected that it will take until Monday, 4/5/2010, 10am CST to recover all of the hares.

At the request of the Lords and Ladies of the land all traps have been upgraded to reduce clean up time. If a trap that sits with a bauble in it for an extended length of time, it will be moved to a designated lost and found location depending on the town. Xaventry's "lost and found" is Towne Bulletin Boards, New Rigel's "lost and found" is New Rigel's Visitor Information Center, Rune's "lost and found" is the Towne Dump, and finally Vospire's "lost and found" is Abdalla's Pawn Shop.

The hare recovery will begin at 10am CST on Sunday, April 4th.

A letter from the office of Professor Silax:

I have awful news! Just awful! Thieves and vandals from an organization calling themselves 'The Alliance for Animal Rights' have broken into Silax Labs in Sigil (Just across from the Alyrian Chronicle Building) and stolen several rare hare specimens from our testing facilities. It is unknown how they managed to get inside the building, as normally a strong Illusion Spell prevents people from seeing it.

Worse yet, the Alliance has threatened that if I do not release the remaining hares soon (ed: by Sunday, April the 4th at 10AM CST, 2010) - that they will do it for me!

Naturally I have enlisted the aid of the Sigil City Council and they have assigned highly-trained guards to defend Silax Labs around the clock until these culprits can be brought to justice.

I wish to assure the denizens of Sigil that their beloved city is in no danger from the ensuing chaos that would undoubtedly occur should these special hares be released into the wild.

Sincerely,
Professor Silax

In the approaching version 4.3, we will be adding a new beta feature, Religion. To read more about it and discuss this feature, go here.

Happy New Year to all and thank you for playing! We expect 2010 to be an exciting year, with a new website, new game features, new zones, storyline additions, and lots of other fun new things for you to experience.

Happy Adventuring,
The Immortals of Materia Magica

Clan Whisper is pleased to announce its new website, which is dedicated to getting the most our of the world of Alyria. The site includes clan bios and history. They offer numerous area maps including some exotic locations and one of the most detailed World maps available. They have their own guide to romance, where you can plan out the best locations to take a date or have a honeymoon. Check out their growing Alyria Dictionary, see their clannies at their nakedest, and read their MM comic strip "#connect". Have fun, enjoy yourself, and remember not to push the red button!

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching animal breeding experiments, in attempts to produce faster, more efficient, leaner, tauter animals. His latest experiments have focused on Lord Vendredi's prized pack animals, south Auryn reindeer. Magically tampering with their physical and mental prowess has produced very interesting results. An original sixteen reindeer were selected for the breeding program, with half as the control group. The other eight were made nine, after one of the control group proved himself too intelligent and rowdy to be tricked by pine wands, rather than yew. They were experimented on over a course of months, finally producing three quarters of a dozen super reindeer. The test was a success, producing capable, strong, responsible reindeer for towing Vendredi about the winter solstice nights, as he traditionally delivers all of his year's work worth of toys to children around Alyria.

In fact, not only was it a success, breeding the smartest, strongest reindeer possible, but it was too successful, allowing the reindeer to see their inbred inferiority and subjugation by the humans. Although never Lord Vendredi's intent, it was indeed true. The last test subject from the program, Charles, led a revolt among his fellow enhanced reindeer. Up, they levitated into the night sky, as they always have, only without their master's sleigh. Feeling vindicated, free of their social, zoological and physical bonds, they also freed their lesser kin, the hundreds of other reindeer raised in captivity since the start of the domestication of the animals. The original nine led their brethren through the sky, dispersing themselves back into the lands whence they came.

However, many had only known city life for their entire upbringing, particularly the young, and quickly gravitated towards the respective city centers of the continents they landed on. Viewing it as a temporary setback, rather than a fundamental flaw in their plan for freedom, the nine followed them into the towns, to help them adjust to life beyond the feedbag. Professor Silax, the director of the experiments, now needs help in gathering the creatures, to bring them back into captivity.

He has come up with a magical trap for the reindeer, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the reindeer and magically teleport their organic matter back to Sigil, where they can be chained once ore. To receive credit for their captures, their original laboratory tags will fall to the ground after their teleportation, and the tags may be redeemed by Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the reindeer, attempting to corral the beasts. The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract them is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST, and may purchase the one best suited for the type of reindeer you will be catching.

A special lure, the reindeer moss, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver reindeer, the fastest reindeer bred that did not receive neural enhancements.

The reindeer have been cleared from Sigil using the traps, but the Townes of Xaventry (where you will find reindeer for levels 11-60), New Rigel (where you will find reindeer for levels 61-120), Rune (where you will find reindeer for levels 121-180), and Tellerium (where you will find reindeer for levels 181-241) are still plagued with the antlered beasts.

Keep on the lookout for the lead reindeer, Charles Billingsworth III, and his fellow conspirators, Temper, Stamper, Doughnut, Mitten, Tulip, Steelwool, Stupid, and Pigeon. They have managed to make themselves immune to Professor Silax's traps and therefore must be fought to quell the reindeer resistance.

If you wish to change your class after receiving your trap, and need a new trap to accomodate this change, you may sayto Professor Silax "Exchange my trap", and he will give you a new one.

If you'd like to help Professor Silax, try saying to him, "I will help recover the missing reindeer".

Be sure to join us December 26th at around 2:00pm CST for an Alyrian Yule Global Event, lasting until December 27th at 2:00pm CST. Details to follow!

As the Yule season begins each year, talk inevitably turns to the Bearded Gnome. While this has been a tradition in some areas for many years, he has been celebrated mostly in the countryside--the traditions only recently making their way to Alyria's cities and towns.

With five clockwork winged mules pulling his flying sleigh, the Bearded Gnome sneaks into denizens' homes during the Yule holiday, leaving behind gifts for the owner of the house. It is traditional in the Alyrian countryside to leave snacks out for him, as legend says his gifts are better if his stomach is full of cookies and milk. Some even leave presents of oil for his clockwork mules.

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! It seems that a mad turkey has escaped Strecht's carving knife, and isn't too happy about the pending massacre! Turkeys have been disappearing from butchers' storehouses for weeks, with nary a trace of their whereabouts... but it looks as though the Mad Turkey has been gathering them for a full attack on the citizens of Alyria! Fortunately, the Adventurers do not stand alone in their protection of the world's citizens. The renowned Turkey Huntress has been brought out of retirement, and is currently holding court in Rune. Should any adventurers care to help her bring down the threat against our populace posed by the feathered foes, she should be consulted. Due to her long travels, however, she has not eaten in several days, nor have the Beltan refugees she was in the midst of rescuing when this global threat arrived. Should any food be found in the course of the battle, it would likely be appreciated most by the pilgrims new to Sepharia's shores.

Spies have uncovered the following information about the locations of specific turkeys:

Levels 2-35: a tiny turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 36-60: a small turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 61-120: a medium-sized turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 121-180: a large turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 181-239: a huge turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 240: a plump turkey, appearing in Maldra's Keep, Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 241: a champion-sized tom, appearing in Hellbent Mountain and Maldra's Keep

Adventurer, it is with mixed feelings that I write this proclamation today:

It has been over five years since the cowardly & rapacious Lady Bane acquired the so-called bag of infinite depth. Our entire world was thrown into turmoil, but through the courage and strength of adventurers just like you, her dastardly plans were thwarted and the status quo was maintained. Curious, confusing artifacts mysteriously populated our realm that day; many dangerous, many foreign, many simply alien.

While Archmage Glacius and the Council of the Arcane did their part to contain the potential dangers of what was released into our world from the bag that day, the Council of Seven and I rallied troops, researchers, cartographers and many more into public service, to properly document the nature of these things and places. When this documentation had been properly made, and the mage council was assured that it was safe, we have released the objects, lands and inhabitants from their quarantine; it is now their reality as much as it is ours.

Some things, like the dimension-traversing Wandering Sidhe, are rational and easily-understood: it was relatively rapidly secured, written up, and released for public consumption. Their tourism rates are now the envy of half the planet, as I understand it. Other new 'acquisitions' from the bag, while less sensical, were small enough to be contained and perused as necessary, such as the gnomish oil derricks in the south seas, were quickly deemed safe, so long as adventurers did not stray too near the sirens that overtook the original inhabitants. Frequent armed transports now carry away the crude oil the Wells produce, a revolution in productivity, danger be damned.

While we have nearly completed our interminable task, discovering what the bag hath wrought, the responsibility grows greater and the requirements more stringent, as the easy parts are completed and the difficult elements grow more monumental. Our tireless workers have finished documenting and declared safe one of the most dangerous remnants of that fateful day. While the records themselves are secret, you may now explore it for yourself; I am pleased to announce that after five long years of secret quarantine. you may go forth and explore a large, chaotic wilderness not just from another world, but from our very past, a past in which the meteor never struck Alyria, and the catastrophe never demolished sizable chunks of the world.

Adventurers, I bid thee welcome to Chanctonbury Wood.

As the world of Alyria enters the dark half of the year, join the denizens of Sepharia, Beltane, Auryn, and Avros all day and into the night (9pm October 30th through 9am November 1st, Central Standard Time) as they celebrate the cycling of the seasons... See the Druids of Xaventry as they allow their ceremonial solstice ritual to be viewed by outsiders in an extremely rare event... Guard the land from the evil that seeks to enter when the veil between worlds is thinnest... and when you're done (if you are still alive), go trick o' treating in the Townes of Rune, Xaventry, Tellerium, New Rigel, and Sigil.

Six armies have invaded our peaceful realm. The townes of Tellerium, Rune, Decara, Pirate's Cove, Seelie Castle, and the Palace of Diocletian have all been affected. In each towne there is a General who, protected by the evil powers he serves, sends his minions to reek havok in the land. You must help destroy these creatures of the dark, and protect our land!

Ravens fly throughout the realm, carrying mesages to the armies. Kill these dark birds and you will gain information on how to find the Overlord. If you are strong of heart and mind, journey to the Druids and return to them the items needed for their ritual and you will be taken to kill the evil fiend who has masterminded this attack. The location of the Druids' ceremonies this year is unknown, but some careful sleuthing should produce results.

Regardless of your strength or skill, all adventurers are needed. Enter the portals found in the invaded towns to find the evil minions who do not fear you. Slay them and return their equipment to the young druids found in the townes, so they may destroy it.

Other unusual characters, brought out due to the time of year, wander the streets and may offer you special rewards for assisting them with their tasks.

LEVEL GROUP: ARCHONS
A dark opalescent candle
A dark opalescent spellbook
A dark opalescent spangenhelm

LEVEL GROUP: 181-240
A dark opalescent bracelet
A dark opalescent whip
A dark opalescent amulet

LEVEL GROUP: 121-180
A dark opalescent kite shield
A dark opalescent belt
A dark opalescent band

LEVEL GROUP: 61-120
A dark opalescent gauntlets
A dark opalescent sleeves
A dark opalescent ring

LEVEL GROUP: 10-60
A dark opalescent leg plates
A dark opalescent boots
A dark opalescent platemail

We're pleased to announce that the long-awaited 4.2 version of the I-MOTION server, Materia Magica's back end, is now live!

The update implements hundreds of changes, additions, and player suggestions. For details on what was changed, added, or otherwise updated, please see HELP SYSTEM UPDATES.

King Cronus has just released an official proclamation from the Throne of Lowangen:

Adventurers of Alyria, I address you now not on behalf of Lowangen, but friends of our city who have decided to reveal themselves. They are not exotic creatures, nor powerful sorcerers. No, they are a group of monks who live plain, uncomplicated lives. Indeed, their belief in an ascetic life is so strong that they isolated themselves from the outside world. These beliefs have held up, but they have finally decided to open their gates to look for additional trading partners. If any explorers wish to visit, look for a humble monastery tucked between my town and Thorne Desert. I agreed to relay this message for them because I admire the restraint and discipline with which they live. I implore any visitors to treat them with the respect they have earned."

As the world of Alyria enters the dark half of the year, join the denizens of Sepharia, Beltane, Auryn, and Avros all day and into the night (9am October 31st through 9am November 1st, Central Standard Time) on October 31st as they celebrate the cycling of the seasons... See the Druids of Xaventry as they allow their ceremonial solstice ritual to be viewed by outsiders in an extremely rare event... Guard the land from the evil that seeks to enter when the veil between worlds is thinnest... and when you're done (if you are still alive), go trick o' treating in the Townes of Rune, Xaventry, Tellerium, New Rigel, and Sigil.

We're pleased to present these new, free Materia Magica mini-posters. Want to help bring new, interesting people into the world of Alyria? If you have access to a bulletin board or other public poster/bulletin display area, download and print out these high quality (PDF format) mini-posters to tell everyone where to find Materia Magica. (Right click on the link for the poster version(s) you want, and select "Save Target/Link As..." to save the PDF to your desktop, or wherever you'll be able to easily locate it later).

A new help entry has been added for sight-impaired players, with some tips and tricks for integrating into Materia Magica and the world of Alyria. Type 'HELP SIGHT-IMPAIRED' from within the game, for additional information, or click here.

Help support Materia Magica by linking your website, forum signature, or weblog back to us with a text link or with one of our many attractive banners and buttons, featured here.

Also, those of you who would like to help publicize the game are invited to download and print out the fine mini-posters (color and black and white available) and post them on bulletin boards at your schools or other public display areas. These posters can be downloaded here .

SPECIAL LIMITED-TIME BONUSES!

- Give us a permanent link on your pre-existing website or blog, and we'll give you 5 reward units!

- If you print out and post our posters, we'll give you 6 reward units if you send us a picture of the poster where it is placed!

* Subject to approval/validation. Limit 50 rewardunits per player without prior approval. Please contact us to request approval/verification. Posters must remain placed for at least 30 days and websites must retain link for at least 8 months.

Changes since last reboot, also viewable here.

• Lasler's level max has been raised from level 10 to 15. A few new creatures have been added to accommodate the new level ranges.
• The timers and repop rates on hands, frosty eggs, egg-laying and thumbs in Sea Hag have been improved, to make the new content (#2522, June 8, 09) easier.
• Multiclassing to second class will grant adventurers a chipped orb of Vandemaar, which fragments of an orb of Vandemaar can be stuck into, to make a complete orb of Vandemaar. This joins the current multiclass incentives of class-specific leggings and certificates of excellence (free level ups) for second classers, and dusty relics (random relics) for third classers multiing to fourth.
• Neverwhen equipment, gained in the Wandering Sidhe, can now be renewed a maximum of three times, but its resistances have been reduced by 20%, from 25% resistance to 20% resistance.
• A few issues in chat have been addressed, to remove the onset of hunger/thirst while in Social.
• A new story passage has been added to the Alyrian history section of the Materia Magica website.

After months of instability and other server issues, the administrators at MM-associated Community Website Alyria Online are proud to announce that they have successfully migrated their site over to a new host that is providing the fastest and best service Alyria Online has ever seen. As such, functionality that had to be disabled previously due to server issues has been restored and new features and accessibility options have been launched, including:

AO is always accepting player updates on changes to content listed on our pages. If you see something you'd like added or updated, feel free to post it to the forums or email the administrators. Updates are usually posted within 24 hours.

Happy Travels!
Alyria Online

All,

We are pleased to announce the release of a new contribution item, a small gold MINOR RENEWAL token. Similar to the standard small gold RENEWAL token, the new, smaller versions will renew donation items for 1/12 of their original lifespan, up to 30 days. As usual, these minor renewal tokens are located at the Reward Unit shops run by the Van Pelt siblings.

Ideal for giving as gifts, as an emergency renewal measure during a cash crunch, or for players re-discovering the world of Materia Magica after time away, minor renewal tokens are a fantastic deal and a great way to make your way around the world. Buy five today!

In an effort to provide affordable gaming to the masses and spread the influence of Uath, the God of Luck, the followers of Uath have lowered the price of their Fnargh game and have also added a new Solitaire set to their list of wares. These games can be purchased at your local REWARD UNIT shop.

For those who have already purchased Fnargh for the previous price, the followers of Uath are providing a Solitaire set free of charge.

In addition to the price decreases, the followers of Uath have institued the office of the High Score Priest of Uath. The High Score Priest is responsible for maintaining the high scores for these games on behalf of Uath. The High Score Priest performs this function from the brand new Temple of Uath in Sigil and is ready and eager to share the contents of these lists with any interested party.

Separate high score boards are maintained for different time intervals. Currently for the games mentioned above, there are separate boards displaying the high scores achieved throughout all time, within the past year, and within the past month (Alyrian time).

Apparently, Uath has also begun to reward players who perform well in these games, awarding practices for achieving high ranks among the high scores. Uath currently favors the yearly and monthly high score boards.

For more information about Solitaire, see HELP SOLITAIRE and HELP RAKSHASA SOLITAIRE. For more information about Fnargh, see HELP FNARGH.

Attention Alyrian scholars!

In an effort to provide players with more direct access to important information regarding the myriad spells and proficiencies in use on Alyria, their respective help entries have been amended to contain an abundance of additional information.

Each skill now provides a list of its competent classes, if any, and the comprehension required to practice it.

Both proficiencies and spells now make note of any circumstance in which they may not be used, or situations in which their nature renders them especially relevant. These include previously unpublished declarations of the formation positions from which a skill may not be used, alignment penalties that may be incurred through repeated use and the precise nature of any draining affect incurred when maintained.

We hope that this expanded information will be of benefit to you, novice or old hand.

Keep in the loop on special announcements and changes to the realm of Materia Magica by connecting with us on Twitter and Facebook!

Receive special updates and connect with friends on the two social networking websites by subscribing to us at:

• Become a Fan on Facebook!
• Follow Site and Game Updates on Twitter!
• Follow Changes, Updates, and Additions to the realm on Twitter!

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching the great jumping ability of the hare and potential applications for use in designing magical apparatus to enhance humans' jumping ability, perhaps producing a real pair of Seven League Boots. Fraudulent versions of the boots exist in the world, but none can actually send the wearer seven leagues in a given direction. Rumors have been circulating that the Professor had produced a prototype pair that could send the wearer four leagues, but not the full seven leagues as required by the specification.

Due to this end the Professor has been experimenting on hares, giving some of them unusual powers as a result. Thieves and vandals from an organization calling themselves "The Alliance for Animal Rights" recently broke into Silax Labs in Sigil and stole several rare hare specimens and released them into the wild.

Unfortunately, hares are renowned for their fecundity - and especially these hares, who had been magically enhanced - and in no time at all had reproduced and reproduced and are now spreading to many of the major Townes, causing no end of trouble to the residents, who are partially to blame for the spread of the hares off the continent of Auryn. Many people thought them cute, and would take them home, only to discover that in a few weeks they had several dozen hares when they only wanted the original two.

Professor Silax has come up with a magical trap for the hares, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the hares and transform them into small baubles of varying power, which may then be given to Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the hares. The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract the hares is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST. Buy the one most appropriate for your level. Place the lure in the trap and then set the trap on the ground. There can only be one baited trap placed per location.

A special lure, silver clover, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver hare, a magically mutated version of the previous hares. This hare will turn into a pair of two, three, four, or five-league boots when he is captured. If you should happen to stumble across a pair of these two, three, four, or five-League boots, take advantage of them while you can! They will last about a week maximum before the magical field sustaining them wears out.

Professor Silax had a second experiment underway with some of these unique hares that allows them to produce, of all things, brightly-colored eggs. The purpose of this experiment has yet to be understood by anyone outside the magio-scientific community, but the Professor has made it clear that he will reward adventurers who, should they run across one of these special eggs, return them to him or one of his assistants.

Unfortunately the eggs are extremely frail and reactive to their environment. A slight trip or lapse of concentration while carrying one of these eggs will almost instantly cause the egg to shatter. The special hares that produce these eggs have mixed in with the others, so it's anyone's guess as to where the eggs will appear, but you can bet there will be hares nearby!

The hares have been cleared from Sigil using the traps, but the Townes of Xaventry (where you will find hares for levels 11-60), New Rigel (where you will find hares for levels 61-120), Rune (where you will find hares for levels 121-180), and Vospire (where you will find hares for levels 181-241) yet remain hare-ified.

If you'd like to help Professor Silax, try finding him in Sigil and saying to him, "I will help recover the missing hares". If you'd like Professor Silax to exchange your trap (if, for instance, due to multiclassing your current trap is no longer appropriate), try finding him in Sigil and saying to him "Exchange my trap". It is expected that it will take until Monday, 4/13/2009, 10am CST to recover all of the hares.

At the request of the Lords and Ladies of the land all traps have been upgraded to reduce clean up time. If a trap that sits with a bauble in it for an extended length of time, it will be moved to a designated lost and found location depending on the town. Xaventry's "lost and found" is Towne Bulletin Boards, New Rigel's "lost and found" is New Rigel's Visitor Information Center, Rune's "lost and found" is the Towne Dump, and finally Vospire's "lost and found" is Abdalla's Pawn Shop.

The hare recovery will begin at 10am CST on Sunday, April 12th.

To discuss this global quest, please see this thread.

Attention all Alyrians!

It's time to grab your weapons, and dust off your equipment! There will be a bracketed PK tournament on Saturday April 4th, at 5:30 p.m. system time. This tournament is going to be held in the name a great player and fallen friend, Spizy. So come out, have fun, bash some heads, and try to survive to the end. There will be prizes for every class.

Rules for the tournament are:

• No use of tanzanite cabochons.
• No use of any item that has 'multiply magic' cast on it.
• No use of rare scrolls such as 'firebolt' scrolls, or "special" (scripted or possibly scripted) items, such as pain spheres.
• You are not allowed to use herbal mixtures unless you are a monk or ranger.
• No spells requiring astral reagents may be used.
• No smoke bombs, use of the 'calm' spell, or use of the 'flee' command.
• No use of combat-assisting NPCs, such as toy soldiers or wizards, summoned elementals, summoned imps or shadow golems.

Please see this message board thread for discussion and additional information.

Adventurers of Sepharia, and other lands:

Lady Undya has offered to allow me access to her increased public visibility to announce a special new storefront recently opened by the associated guilds of Alyria!

Gaston's furniture shop offers a variety of clanhall-appropriate goods, from the ever-popular mailman automaton to the barber with the mathematical mind.

He accepts the sought-after maleficarum roots as payment, and only from the owner of the purchasing clan! Visit Gaston's shop today, conveniently located on Dargon Walk!

-King Cronus

Attention one and all,

As you all may know, I had the life of my beloved Lady Saresyn snatched out of my hands by the dastardly actions of Lady Bane, Vortex, and Baba Yaga! I have considered this issue long and hard, trying to determine a proper tribute honoring the memory Lady Saresyn. I, Cornelius Agrippa, Lord of Rune, do hereby declare an official holiday - Lady Saresyn Day. This day shall be used as a memorial in celebration of the love that we all shared for her. It is my wish that all Adventurers, the denizens of Rune and the outlying areas spend this day with the one they love.

Sincerely, Lord Cornelius Agrippa

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching animal breeding experiments, in attempts to produce faster, more efficient, leaner, tauter animals. His latest experiments have focused on Lord Vendredi's prized pack animals, south Auryn reindeer. Magically tampering with their physical and mental prowess has produced very interesting results. An original sixteen reindeer were selected for the breeding program, with half as the control group. The other eight were made nine, after one of the control group proved himself too intelligent and rowdy to be tricked by pine wands, rather than yew. They were experimented on over a course of months, finally producing three quarters of a dozen super reindeer. The test was a success, producing capable, strong, responsible reindeer for towing Vendredi about the winter solstice nights, as he traditionally delivers all of his year's work worth of toys to children around Alyria.

In fact, not only was it a success, breeding the smartest, strongest reindeer possible, but it was too successful, allowing the reindeer to see their inbred inferiority and subjugation by the humans. Although never Lord Vendredi's intent, it was indeed true. The last test subject from the program, Charles, led a revolt among his fellow enhanced reindeer. Up, they levitated into the night sky, as they always have, only without their master's sleigh. Feeling vindicated, free of their social, zoological and physical bonds, they also freed their lesser kin, the hundreds of other reindeer raised in captivity since the start of the domestication of the animals. The original nine led their brethren through the sky, dispersing themselves back into the lands whence they came.

However, many had only known city life for their entire upbringing, particularly the young, and quickly gravitated towards the respective city centers of the continents they landed on. Viewing it as a temporary setback, rather than a fundamental flaw in their plan for freedom, the nine followed them into the towns, to help them adjust to life beyond the feedbag. Professor Silax, the director of the experiments, now needs help in gathering the creatures, to bring them back into captivity.

He has come up with a magical trap for the reindeer, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the reindeer and magically teleport their organic matter back to Sigil, where they can be chained once more. To receive credit for their captures, their original laboratory tags will fall to the ground after their teleportation, and the tags may be redeemed by Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the reindeer, attempting to corral the beasts. The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract them is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST, and may purchase the one best suited for the type of reindeer you will be catching.

A special lure, the reindeer moss, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver reindeer, the fastest reindeer bred that did not receive neural enhancements.

The reindeer have been cleared from Sigil using the traps, but the Townes of Xaventry (where you will find reindeer for levels 11-60), New Rigel (where you will find reindeer for levels 61-120), Rune (where you will find reindeer for levels 121-180), and Tellerium (where you will find reindeer for levels 181-241) are still plagued with the antlered beasts.

Keep on the lookout for the lead reindeer, Charles Billingsworth III, and his fellow conspirators, Temper, Stamper, Doughnut, Mitten, Tulip, Steelwool, Stupid, and Pigeon. They have managed to make themselves immune to Professor Silax's traps and therefore must be fought to quell the reindeer resistance.

If you wish to change your class after receiving your trap, and need a new trap to accomodate this change, you may sayto Professor Silax "Exchange my trap", and he will give you a new one.

If you'd like to help Professor Silax, try saying to him, "I will help recover the missing reindeer".

It has come to the attention of this humble reporter for the Alyrian Chronicle that Professor Silax intends to open his research laboratory to the public on December 24th at 2:00pm (System Time) for a demonstration of his most recent technological developments. This reporter and most of the staff of the Chronicle are a bit concerned about the mishap that occurred last year when someone mistakenly unleashed a herd of magical reindeer, and earlier this year the serious bungle that released a plague of rabbits upon Alyria.

Although concerned that such a disaster may be repeated, this reporter wishes to give the esteemed Professor Silax a chance to redeem himself. According to the Professor's assistants, security has been tightened this year and we have been assured that the disaster of last year will not be repeated. Lord Vendredi has sent word that he is excited to see what new innovations the Professor has come up with to aid the citizens of Alyria, and will personally view the demonstration this year. The Professor's assistants have all confirmed that they will be present during the demonstrations to help with crowd control for the masses of people, who will no doubt be drawn by the incredible mixture of science and magick.

I speak for the majority of the staff at the Alyrian Chronicle, save those out on special assignments, that this will surely be an event to remember, and I for one, won't miss it.

-- Phalandrius Roost, Staff Reporter, Alyrian Chronicle

As the Yule season begins each year, talk inevitably turns to the Bearded Gnome. While this has been a tradition in some areas for many years, he has been celebrated mostly in the countryside--the traditions only recently making their way to Alyria's cities and towns.

With five clockwork winged mules pulling his flying sleigh, the Bearded Gnome sneaks into denizens' homes during the Yule holiday, leaving behind gifts for the owner of the house. It is traditional in the Alyrian countryside to leave snacks out for him, as legend says his gifts are better if his stomach is full of cookies and milk. Some even leave presents of oil for his clockwork mules.

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! It seems that a mad turkey has escaped Strecht's carving knife, and isn't too happy about the pending massacre! Turkeys have been disappearing from butchers' storehouses for weeks, with nary a trace of their whereabouts... but it looks as though the Mad Turkey has been gathering them for a full attack on the citizens of Alyria! Fortunately, the Adventurers do not stand alone in their protection of the world's citizens. The renowned Turkey Huntress has been brought out of retirement, and is currently holding court in Rune. Should any adventurers care to help her bring down the threat against our populace posed by the feathered foes, she should be consulted. Due to her long travels, however, she has not eaten in several days, nor have the Beltan refugees she was in the midst of rescuing when this global threat arrived. Should any food be found in the course of the battle, it would likely be appreciated most by the pilgrims new to Sepharia's shores.

Spies have uncovered the following information about the locations of specific turkeys:

Levels 2-35: a tiny turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 36-60: a small turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 61-120: a medium-sized turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 121-180: a large turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 181-239: a huge turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 240: a plump turkey, appearing in Maldra's Keep, Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 241: a champion-sized tom, appearing in Hellbent Mountain and Maldra's Keep

It has been reported that turkeys have been vanishing for the past several weeks from various farms across Alyria. While the Mad Turkey and his rafter uprising was defeated last year, it is rumored that one of his many offspring, who went into hiding after the failed attacks on several major townes were thwarted by the Adventurers of Alyria and the Turkey Huntress, may be gathering for another attempt at conquest.

All Adventurers should be on the lookout for these savage birds, and should another uprising occur, dispatch them with haste. It is believed an attack could occur as early as tomorrow morning around 10am, CST (Central Sorcery Time).

Be cautious, however, for the new Mad Turkey, as he is so-titled in honor of his father, is reportedly using potions obtained from the break-in that occurred in Silax Laboratories this summer to increase the turkeys' size, speed, and strength.

Yours in troubled times,
Lord Agrippa

Adventurers, a brief word of warning:

Earlier this evening, one of my constituents, Bjorn Irontooth, was kidnapped from his home in the bowels of the famed ship run aground on the western archipelago, the Magencia.

Some of you may mutter about the 'contested land' and 'accursed Agrippa', but to you, I say shut up. The attention-whore prince of Sepharia did not perpetrate this wicked deed; indeed, my crack team of Djinn were able to wish him home, and he is now safely back where he belongs. He has attested that no scurrilous son of Agrippa abducted him. Bjorn attested that a strange creature with metal skin and the voice of man sought him for slave labor, a curious situation without easy explanation.

This is not news of a solved crime, or even a fulfilled investigation, but a warning to report suspicious activity and be wary of your surroundings. The abductor's usage of the nexus spell narrows the list of known suspects considerably, yet simutaneously broadens the avenue of danger and vulnerability to future kidnappings. If you hear of anything strange occurring, be careful!

-Lord Maldra

Adventurers, I have a request for anyone anticipating travel in the unpopulated regions of Beltane in the near future.

Distinctly later than appropriate, Emperor Dicoletian has informed me of a mission undertaken by some of his elite warriors, several years back, to seek out and slay a pair of mythical dragons said to reside in the area. He has not heard back from them since their departure, many years ago. This information was recently declassified by his inner circle, as their fate has become clear by their prolonged absence.

If you happen across the dragons in the area, run away; if you happen across the remains of the Diocletian warriors, the Emperor wishes to give them a proper burial. That is all, thank you for your time.

-Lord Vendredi

Loyal adventurers-

It has taken a significant amount of resources and investigation, but the Council of the Arcane is finally nearing the end of its research into the nature, opportunities posed by, threats pertinent to, and details of those entities brought into our universe by the tumult surrounding the bag of infinite depth.

Most recently, Archmage Glacius and his legion have combed through a vast mechanical monstrosity of the sort that the gnomes produce, but danker and darker and filthier. Churning unrefined petroleum out of the ocean bed south of Avros, when Glacius arrived, those months ago, the twin stations were empty, but for the corpses of their workers. The investigative team discovered the murderers, but refrained from doing anything about them.

In any case, those vast machines have been cleared of any possible negative trans-dimensional effects, and as such, they are now available for exploration. Glacius has declared him a neutral entity in this instance, and has left the matter of bringing the murderers to justice to the lords and ladies of Alyria, and our adventurers.

I hope that this news finds you well, and that you possess the strength and fortitude to survive the internal machinations of the steel beasts, should you journey there!

-Lord Agrippa

Attention, inhabitants of our fine town of New Rigel, and people of everywhere else!

In these economic boom times, most of us are doing well, but unfortunately, not all of us! Even on the streets of New Rigel, alongside merchants who are milking the bear and the bull for all they are worth, i see otherwise beautiful women, too malnourished to properly fill out their wonderful, er, parts; too poor to buy the makeup they so desperately need!

Even our small business owners are falling behind! This very last weekend, i was attending a conference on the, uh, well, a meeting on the, hmm. Scribe, cross this out, both last lines. Start the paragraph over. Even our small business owners are falling behind! One of my favorite former residents, Lady Solamentara, who emigrated southward some years ago, cannot fill her inn rooms each night, and has been forced to take on other, er, jobs on the side!

I would just like to take one moment to request all of you spend an minute of your day contemplating the sacrifices and hardships taken on by the poor women of our town, the poor girls that will one day grow into beautiful women, the old hags that with only a bit of spending money could become attractive, the poor husbands required to breed more beautiful women, and most of all, the poor business owners who ought be spending less time wondering where their next mortgage payment will come from, and more time visitng the finest parts of New Rigel, busy on tourism duty, if you know what I mean.

Feed the homeless, remember the undertrodden who drive our economy, and spend an evening at the beautiful tavern owned by Lady Solamentara!

-Lord Vashir

The evil armies have been repelled and the forces of the dark neutralized, by the actions of the citizens of Alyria, who rose up to defend their land during the invasion. Congratulations to everyone who participated!

As the world of Alyria enters the dark half of the year, join the denizens of Sepharia, Beltane, Auryn, and Avros all day and into the night (9am October 31st through 12pm November 1st, Central Standard Time) on October 31st as they celebrate the cycling of the seasons... See the Druids of Xaventry as they allow their ceremonial solstice ritual to be viewed by outsiders in an extremely rare event... Guard the land from the evil that seeks to enter when the veil between worlds is thinnest... and when you're done (if you are still alive), go trick o' treating in the Townes of Rune, Xaventry, Tellerium, New Rigel, and Sigil.

Six armies have invaded our peaceful realm. The townes of Tellerium, Rune, Decara, Pirate's Cove, Seelie Castle, and the Palace of Diocletian have all been affected. In each towne there is a General who, protected by the evil powers he serves, sends his minions to reek havok in the land. You must help destroy these creatures of the dark, and protect our land!

Ravens fly throughout the realm, carrying mesages to the armies. Kill these dark birds and you will gain information on how to find the Overlord. If you are strong of heart and mind, journey to the Druids and return to them the items needed for their ritual and you will be taken to kill the evil fiend who has masterminded this attack. The location of the Druids' ceremonies this year is unknown, but some careful sleuthing should produce results.

Regardless of your strength or skill, all adventurers are needed. Enter the portals found in the invaded towns to find the evil minions who do not fear you. Slay them and return their equipment to the young druids found in the townes, so they may destroy it.

Other unusual characters, brought out due to the time of year, wander the streets and may offer you special rewards for assisting them with their tasks.

LEVEL GROUP: ARCHONS
A dark opalescent candle
A dark opalescent spellbook
A dark opalescent spangenhelm

LEVEL GROUP: 181-240
A dark opalescent bracelet
A dark opalescent whip
A dark opalescent amulet

LEVEL GROUP: 121-180
A dark opalescent kite shield
A dark opalescent belt
A dark opalescent band

LEVEL GROUP: 61-120
A dark opalescent gauntlets
A dark opalescent sleeves
A dark opalescent ring

LEVEL GROUP: 10-60
A dark opalescent leg plates
A dark opalescent boots
A dark opalescent platemail

Adventurers,

Very recently, one of your fellow explorers was deep in the lair of the Dracolich, seeking to end the spiritual tyranny imposed by the dastardly witch Pogonip Vseth that the undead dragon harbors there. The adventurer nearly managed to kill her, but was repelled by a combination of her hexes and a new, previously unseen spell, whereby she cured her wounds without relying upon her necromantic leeching powers.

The adventurer reported the news immediately to Lady Undya, but simultaneous reports were coming in from explorers and mercenaries and fledging witches alike, from around the world.

Scrying performed by Glacius, Grand Master of the Council of the Arcane, has confirmed that the new magical abilities that witches can now perform effortlessly are not unprecedented. Dark forces are growing, canvassing on a nearby plane of existence, perhaps preparing for an invasion. Such things have occurred before, and we must be on the lookout. Adventurers among you, be careful of the necromantic mysteries the future days may hold, and allied witches, research your new powers carefully, we will all need them in the coming days of danger.

May this message find you in good health,

Lord Agrippa

The 2008 Materia Magica Halloween Extravaganza (Zombie Stomp 2008) took place on October 25th at 7pm until around 3am, in Austin, Texas at Vassago's (the Head Game Administrator's) private house in the suburbs. This was our fifth biennial party, with the first one being held in New Orleans over eight years ago.

The event was fully catered with a chef and a server. A bartender provided free-flowing beverages and food. An expert Zola-trained fortune-teller was on hand to divine party guests' deepest questions about the future. Guests also participated in an unusual party game known as "Zombie", which was created for the event. Gift bags full of candy and other tidbits were also given out to all attendees, featuring a special Materia Magica-themed Gnomish Miner's Bag.

Around 45 people attended. Many got together before the party and afterwards to hang out. It was a rousing success!

Check out party pics from the event!

As the world of Alyria enters the dark half of the year, join the denizens of Sepharia, Beltane, Auryn, and Avros all day and into the night (9am October 31st through 9am November 1st, Central Standard Time) on October 31st as they celebrate the cycling of the seasons... See the Druids of Xaventry as they allow their ceremonial solstice ritual to be viewed by outsiders in an extremely rare event... Guard the land from the evil that seeks to enter when the veil between worlds is thinnest... and when you're done (if you are still alive), go trick o' treating in the Townes of Rune, Xaventry, Tellerium, New Rigel, and Sigil.

Help support Materia Magica by linking your website, forum signature, or weblog back to us with a text link or with one of our many attractive banners and buttons, featured here.

Also, those of you who would like to help publicize the game are invited to download and print out the fine mini-posters (color and black and white available) available for posting on bulletin boards at your schools or other public display areas. These posters can be downloaded here.

High-quality, full-color, glossy posters of the Lord Agrippa coat of arms advertisement (suitable for framing) are, of course, available from the Materia Magica Merchandise Shop for your pleasure.

SPECIAL LIMITED-TIME BONUSES!

- Give us a permanent link on your pre-existing website or blog, and we'll give you 5 reward units!

- If you print out and post our posters, we'll give you 7 reward units if you send us a picture of the poster where it is placed!

* Subject to approval/validation. Limit 40 rewardunits per player without prior approval. Please contact us to request approval/verification. Posters must remain placed for at least 45 days and websites must retain link for at least 8 months.

You are invited!

The Materia Magica Halloween Extravaganza (Zombie Stomp 2008) is scheduled for Saturday, October 25th at 7pm until whenever, in Austin, Texas at Vassago's (the Head Game Administrator's) private house in the suburbs. All Materia Magica players 18 years of age and older, past, present, and future, as well as their friends and well-wishers, are invited to join in the celebration as we bid welcome to our thirteenth year as an escape from reality. This will also be our fifth biennial party, with the first one being held in New Orleans over eight years ago.

The event will be fully catered, with free-flowing hot and cold beverages (alcoholic and not, must be 21 for alcohol) and food. We'll have an expert Zola-trained fortune-teller on hand to divine your deepest questions about the future, as well as an additional surprise guest and a couple of unusual party games. Gift bags are also given out to all attendees, featuring special Materia Magica-themed memorabilia you won't find anywhere else.

Anywhere from 35-60 people are expected. Groups tend to get together the entire weekend (often staying in the same hotels), both before and after the party, to hang out, swap stories, and have a good time, although some out-of-state (and/or country) people fly in for the party and fly back out afterward. Costumes are appreciated but optional - the attendee with the best costume will receive a unique reward.

Bring your friends or come alone, it's all good, just remember to R.S.V.P.! Come incognito or reveal to others who your character(s) are. Please contact us if you have questions about group accomodations, good deals on airfare or hotels, etc. R.S.V.P. if you plan on attending, and we will add you to the Evite list.

Information and photos from past events can be found here.

Please see the Event Discussion Thread.

Splendid news, everyone! The Council of Seven, composed of Lords Vashir, Agrippa, Vendredi, Telleri, and Maldra, and Lady Undya and myself, is please to announce the completion of a long-standing project!

A number of years ago, archaeologists digging near a corrupted worldgate location uncovered a treasure trove of unspeakably rare, nigh unto priceless historical artifacts. After being catalogued and researched, we Lords and Ladies of the realm commissioned the Council of the Arcane to manufacture replicas for us, so that we may disburse them to our loyal adventurers to help them help us. Among the artifacts were the personal belongings of one knight of lore, a dreaded villain of indefinite mortality, and others.

I recommend taking a moment to look over these items - these artifacts possess unusual and powerful powers, not always evident at the first glance.

- Lady Templeton

The Alyrian Questmasters have held a private meeting amongst themselves at which they discussed their individual strengths and weaknesses. The consensus amongst them was that, unless truly unique, there is no need for further quests for levels 10 through 119 at any of their locations. Lord Agrippa, appearing rather smug, announced he had no need for any new quests of any level in his town.

The remaining Lords and Ladies of the land are seeking quest submissions as follows: Lady Undya and Lord Telleri - levels 61 through Archon; Lord Maldra - level 120 through Archon; Lady Templeton - levels 121 through Archon; and finally Lords Vashir and Vendredi are seeking only Archon level submissions at this time.

However, an exception exists. The Questmasters were also interested in so-called Epic Quests, which can be done only once each and a mark and/or item reward is received upon completion. These are sought for any level at any Questmaster.

Please see Earning Reward Units and the Quest Submission Guidelines for information on submitting quests.

After an early-morning ambush was set by Lady Bane, the Decaran witch who, through some means, came to possess the universe-holding bag of infinite depth. Her demonic armies waged a pre-emptive war to delay the forces of good long enough for her to figure out how the bag worked, but were slowly and surely vanquished. Her commanders slain and her forces in disarray, a formation composed of the fearless archons Asphyx, Santino, Sensi, Brutl, Storrm, Hastur, Phaustix and Yagami stormed into Lady Bane's chamber. While they managed to upset her plans and save the universes, the bag of infinite depth was disturbed, and paradoxically fell into itself, disappearing. The contents of every universe in the bag, including ours, was shaken together, resulting in many changes throughout Alyria. While the Council is investigating these, the alterations to reality are so numerous that help is needed in identifying all of them. To assist interested explorers in their travails, the following information is provided:

According to witnesses at the scene, the following occurred:

Reality starts to shake again, and in Alyria and elsewhere, you see endless universes colliding catastrophically.

A dusty town from an Alyria so different as to be unrecognizable appears, its intentions and nature unknown.

Knights, mercenaries, couriers, and explorers of all types have been sent out to investigate these developments. All participating adventurers, are encouraged to join them, or clean up the remnants of Bane's army- she has been destroyed, but her forces remain, unable to retreat. Congratulations on winning the battle, and continue keeping our land safe from these scourges.

Signed,

Lord Cornelius Agrippa

Grand Master Glacius

During another meeting of the Council of Seven, the Lords and Ladies of Alyria discussed at great length the current state of clans throughout the realm. Below is a prepared statement from Lady Undya to all Adventurers of Alyria on the topic of yet another of the changes.

During a recent meeting of the Council of Seven, the Lords and Ladies of Alyria discussed at great length the current state of clans throughout the realm. Below is a prepared statement from Lord Vendredi to all Adventurers of Alyria on the topic of one of the changes.

Great Adventurers,

With the deepest regards,
Lord Vendredi

In the interests of spicing up the game and PK in ways that will have a minimal impact on non-PK activities, the Administration has made a number of changes to the PK system and PK clans. Four specific changes have been made to change the landscape. Concisely, these are:

"Panic" Affects: Most methods of leaving combat that don't result in a death will incur a new affect, 'panic'. You will become panicked after fleeing, throwing a smoke bomb, casting momentary darkness, and calming. Panic's duration is very low, but while affected by it, you will be unable to use teleportation magics and items - recall, gohall, and so forth.

PK Clan Combat Level Restriction: A level restriction has been added to combat between PK clans in non-PK rooms. Combat between PK clan members may only be initiated or participated in by enemies within 61 levels of each other, inclusive. This means that an archon and a level 180 could start combat with each other and fight each other out of PK, but an archon and a 179 could not.

"Calm" Modifications: The spell 'calm' has been tweaked so it no longer depends on personality to succeed. Instead, it makes a saving throw vs. spell.

Reputation System Modifications: The reputation system has been tweaked; reputation will not be lost when the killer and victim are within 60 levels of each other, inclusive. Reputation loss has been increased between combatants with a more significant level difference. Reputation loss, where applicable, has been reduced by 1/4 for combat in Maldra's Keep. Additionally, you will now receive notification when your reputation has been negatively impacted.

For more information, please see: this Message Board discussion thread.

The Professor has left the town of Sigil (much to the relief of Lord Vendredi who had it up to *ear* with hares) and has gone back to his secret laboratory. His assistants are remaining behind to clean up the rest of the mess and reward Adventurers for their diligence for a bit, then they will return to their research as well.

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching the great jumping ability of the hare and potential applications for use in designing magical apparatus to enhance humans' jumping ability, perhaps producing a real pair of Seven League Boots. Fraudulent versions of the boots exist in the world, but none can actually send the wearer seven leagues in a given direction. Rumors have been circulating that the Professor had produced a prototype pair that could send the wearer four leagues, but not the full seven leagues as required by the specification.

Due to this end the Professor has been experimenting on hares, giving some of them unusual powers as a result. Thieves and vandals from an organization calling themselves "The Alliance for Animal Rights" recently broke into Silax Labs in Sigil and stole several rare hare specimens and released them into the wild.

Unfortunately, hares are renowned for their fecundity - and especially these hares, who had been magically enhanced - and in no time at all had reproduced and reproduced and are now spreading to many of the major Townes, causing no end of trouble to the residents, who are partially to blame for the spread of the hares off the continent of Auryn. Many people thought them cute, and would take them home, only to discover that in a few weeks they had several dozen hares when they only wanted the original two.

Professor Silax has come up with a magical trap for the hares, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the hares and transform them into small baubles of varying power, which may then be given to Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the hares. The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract the hares is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST. Buy the one most appropriate for your level. Place the lure in the trap and then set the trap on the ground. There can only be one baited trap placed per location.

A special lure, silver clover, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver hare, a magically mutated version of the previous hares. This hare will turn into a pair of two, three, four, or five-league boots when he is captured. If you should happen to stumble across a pair of these two, three, four, or five-League boots, take advantage of them while you can! They will last about a week maximum before the magical field sustaining them wears out.

Professor Silax had a second experiment underway with some of these unique hares that allows them to produce, of all things, brightly- colored eggs. The purpose of this experiment has yet to be understood by anyone outside the magio-scientific community, but the Professor has made it clear that he will reward adventurers who, should they run across one of these special eggs, return them to him or one of his assistants.

Unfortunately the eggs are extremely frail and reactive to their environment. A slight trip or lapse of concentration while carrying one of these eggs will almost instantly cause the egg to shatter. The special hares that produce these eggs have mixed in with the others, so it's anyone's guess as to where the eggs will appear, but you can bet there will be hares nearby!

The hares have been cleared from Sigil using the traps, but the Townes of Xaventry (where you will find hares for levels 11-60), New Rigel (where you will find hares for levels 61-120), Rune (where you will find hares for levels 121-180), and Vospire (where you will find hares for levels 181-241) yet remain hare-ified.

If you'd like to help Professor Silax, try finding him in Sigil and saying to him, "I will help recover the missing hares". It is expected that it will take until Monday, 3/24/2008, 10am CST to recover all of the hares.

To discuss this global quest, please see this thread.

On behalf of Professor Silax himself, you are cordially invited to attend a special event:

TODAY
AT SILAX LABS IN THE MAGICAL TOWNE OF SIGIL
FOR A DEMONSTRATION AND TOUR OF THE WORK AT SILAX LABS
AT 2:00pm SYSTEM TIME

As the Yule season begins each year, talk inevitably turns to the Bearded Gnome. While this has been a tradition in some areas for many years, he has been celebrated mostly in the countryside--the traditions only recently making their way to Alyria's cities and towns.

With five clockwork winged mules pulling his flying sleigh, the Bearded Gnome sneaks into denizens' homes during the Yule holiday, leaving behind gifts for the owner of the house. It is traditional in the Alyrian countryside to leave snacks out for him, as legend says his gifts are better if his belly is full of cookies and milk. Some even leave presents of oil for his clockwork mules.

Professor Silax is a fairly obscure magical scientist from the Towne of Sigil. Funded by a grant from the Council of the Arcane, he has been researching animal breeding experiments, in attempts to produce faster, more efficient, leaner, tauter animals. His latest experiments have focused on Lord Vendredi's prized pack animals, south Auryn reindeer. Magically tampering with their physical and mental prowess has produced very interesting results. An original sixteen reindeer were selected for the breeding program, with half as the control group. The other eight were made nine, after one of the control group proved himself too intelligent and rowdy to be tricked by pine wands, rather than yew. They were experimented on over a course of months, finally producing three quarters of a dozen super reindeer. The test was a success, producing capable, strong, responsible reindeer for towing Vendredi about the winter solstice nights, as he traditionally delivers all of his year's work worth of toys to children around Alyria.

In fact, not only was it a success, breeding the smartest, strongest reindeer possible, but it was too successful, allowing the reindeer to see their inbred inferiority and subjugation by the humans. Although never Lord Vendredi's intent, it was indeed true. The last test subject from the program, Charles, led a revolt among his fellow enhanced reindeer. Up, they levitated into the night sky, as they always have, only without their master's sleigh. Feeling vindicated, free of their social, zoological and physical bonds, they also freed their lesser kin, the hundreds of other reindeer raised in captivity since the start of the domestication of the animals. The original nine led their brethren through the sky, dispersing themselves back into the lands whence they came.

However, many had only known city life for their entire upbringing, particularly the young, and quickly gravitated towards the respective city centers of the continents they landed on. Viewing it as a temporary setback, rather than a fundamental flaw in their plan for freedom, the nine followed them into the towns, to help them adjust to life beyond the feedbag. Professor Silax, the director of the experiments, now needs help in gathering the creatures, to bring them back into captivity.

He has come up with a magical trap for the reindeer, which he has been giving out to anyone who offers to help him. The trap - operating under an alchemical spell - will attract the reindeer and magically teleport their organic matter back to Sigil, where they can be chained once more. To receive credit for their captures, their original laboratory tags will fall to the ground after their teleportation, and the tags may be redeemed by Professor Silax's assistants Snide, Bide, Wide, and Pride, who are located in the townes with the reindeer, attempting to corral the beasts. The trap must be outfitted with a special lure to work, however, and the list of lures that will attract them is somewhat limited. Professor Silax will sell you lure. You can see the various lures by typing SHOP LIST, and may purchase the one best suited for the type of reindeer you will be catching.

A special lure, the reindeer moss, is offered to help brave adventurers capture the illustrious silver reindeer, the fastest reindeer bred that did not receive neural enhancements.

The reindeer have been cleared from Sigil using the traps, but the Townes of Xaventry (where you will find reindeer for levels 11-60), New Rigel (where you will find reindeer for levels 61-120), Rune (where you will find reindeer for levels 121-180), and Tellerium (where you will find reindeer for levels 181-241) are still plagued with the antlered beasts.

Keep on the lookout for the lead reindeer, Charles Billingsworth III, and his fellow conspirators, Temper, Stamper, Doughnut, Mitten, Tulip, Steelwool, Stupid, and Pigeon. They have managed to make themselves immune to Professor Silax's traps and therefore must be fought to quell the reindeer resistance.

If you wish to change your class after receiving your trap, and need a new trap to accomodate this change, you may sayto Professor Silax "Exchange my trap", and he will give you a new one.

If you'd like to help Professor Silax, try saying to him, "I will help recover the missing reindeer".

A review has been posted about Materia Magica on The Mud Connector. This is The Mud Connector's first official review in four years.

Be sure to join us December 23rd at around 2:00pm CST for an Alyrian Yuletime Global Quest, lasting until December 24th at 2:00pm CST. Details to follow!

Spell up, pack away your CPK gear, and stock up on reagents and potions! Do whatever it takes to be prepared for

The Alyrian Rumble
Thursday, December 6th 2007 at 8:00 pm (System Time)

Hosted by Kaelian, and sponsored by the Immortals of Materia Magica, this 1 vs. 1 bracketed PK tournament will have the most fearless killers of Alyria in one place.

Brackets will be by class level (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, archon), with prizes for first and second place.

For rules, preregistration information, and entry fees, check out the thread on the Materia Magica message board [here].

Good luck!

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! It seems that a mad turkey has escaped Strecht's carving knife, and isn't too happy about the pending massacre! Turkeys have been disappearing from butchers' storehouses for weeks, with nary a trace of their whereabouts... but it looks as though the Mad Turkey has been gathering them for a full attack on the citizens of Alyria! Fortunately, the adventurers do not stand alone in their protection of the world's citizens. The renowned Turkey Huntress has been brought out of retirement, and is currently holding court in Rune. Should any adventurers care to help her bring down the threat against our populace posed by the feathered foes, she should be consulted. Due to her long travels, however, she has not eaten in several days, nor have the Beltan refugees she was in the midst of rescuing when this global threat arrived. Should any food be found in the course of the battle, it would likely be appreciated most by the pilgrims new to Sepharia's shores.

Spies have uncovered the following information about the locations of specific turkeys:

Levels 2-29: a tiny turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 30-60: a small turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 61-120: a medium-sized turkey, appearing in Rune Forest, Sigil, Xaventry, and Tellerium

Level 121-180: a large turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 181-239: a huge turkey, appearing in Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 240: a plump turkey, appearing in Maldra's Keep, Pirate's Cove, Diocletian, and Atlantis

Level 241: a champion-sized tom, appearing in Hellbent Mountain and Maldra's Keep

It is expected to take until Friday, November 23rd at noon CST to restore order to Sepharia. Every Adventurer should do what he or she can!

To discuss tips and strategies, or for other commentary regarding this quest, please see this thread.

To assist with holiday gift-giving, reward unit vouchers have been added back to the Van Pelt's Reward Emporium (the largest one - featuring fun items for home decorating - is located to the west of the Towne of Rune, and the smaller Emporiums in all major townes), in denominations of 10, 25, 50, and 100 rewardunits. For more information on reward units (including how to get them), please see this. Give a great gift and support Materia Magica at the same time! What more could one want?

To view the entrants' costumes and themes in full, please check out this thread in the Towne Hall Message Boards.