The Tale of Woe
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The Tale of Woe is a plot based in the Haunted Woods and entails the release of Neovia. It began on October 2, 2006, and appears to be designed to coincide with Halloween. The plot follows the travels of Gilly, who first appeared as the star of The Castle of Eliv Thade.
Plot Summary
The Gypsy Camp
Deep within the Haunted Woods users happen upon a Gypsy Camp, where a Pink Elephante greets and warns them of the dangers of the woods - "[...] Trees and creatures roam the night, and they can swallow the unwary. It's no accident that so many legends and myths surround this place [...]" - and reads the user a story of Gilly, when she visited the Camp and heard the story of Neovia...
The Legend of Neovia
The Elephante began his tale of a family of Edmund and Alice, and their three children: sons Bruno and Reginald, and daughter Sophie (who the Elephante avoids mentioning until his story is almost over). They lived in Neovia, and had many troubles. Bruno sought the affection of Lily, but lacked the charm and strength to court her, and was not helped in his attempts by Oscar, Lily's current protective companion.
After Oscar hit Bruno for talking to Lilly, Bruno resigned to his fate but stumbled upon Mr. Krawley, who offered him a potion which would make all his troubles go away for only a few Neopoints. After drinking the potion, the very next day he was handsome, strong and much more presentable to Lily.
Edmund claimed Bruno was foolish to take such an action, complaining that one must work for success. However, when he was offered the potion by Mr Krawley, he reluctantly took it to resolve the family's financial hardship. Like Bruno, the elixir worked and he became rich within the next few days. Soon after Reginald took a potion as well, becoming extremely intelligent, and word of the potions began to spread. Soon everyone was taking the potions to have their wishes - such things as height, vanity, and youth - granted with a simple potion, and only the innocent such as Sophie refrained from drinking the potion.
The potion seemed to give everyone in Neovia happiness, but as the days passed the effects of the potion continued to make their wishes more twisted. Edmund became suspicous of everyone, carefully guarding over his fortune. Bruno became a muscular, deformed monster. Reginald became lonely, seeking refuge in his books when people couldn't stand to talk to him and his great intellect. Curses like this spread to everyone who drank the potion, and the angry town joined together and searched for Mr. Krawley, but he disappeared. They then decided to put the blame on the family which advertised the elixir, and attacked Edmund's home.
Bruno ran outside to distract the villagers while Reginald and Sophie sneaked out the back and ran for the woods. In the forest, they encountered Ilere, who said Sophie had no where else to go but in her care. Reginald refused such an action, but relented when Sophie went of her own free will, saying she felt safe with Ilere. Returning back to Neovia, Reginald saw Bruno being chased into the woods town, and escorted his parents to an abandoned mansion on the other side of town, used in the past for games of hide-and-seek.
Bruno lost those chasing him in the forest, and when the towns people returned they attacked, determined for retribution. Suddenly, the Mayor of the town stopped them, realizing they must be cured before they can hold those responsible to account. The Neovians summon The Spirit of Slumber, who cures them with magic, but extracts a terrible price...
The Ruins of Neovia
The story ends and Gilly goes to sleep, and after a night's rest she sets out into the woods and stumbles upon Neovia itself. The small town is in ruins, but after looking through a burnt wreck of a house she found a strange silver locket hidden, with the picture inside decayed beyond recognition.
Gilly headed to the Deserted Fairground and took the locket to Lyanka, of the Cork Gun Gallery; Leeroy, of the Coconut Shy; Harker, of the Bagatelle stall; and Ssidney, of Ssidney's Scratch Cards. None of them knew who the owner was, although some seemed impressed with the metalwork and one mentioned they were quite popular a long time ago. Heading back to Neovia for more information, she discovers a path leading to a hut in the swampy part of the woods.
Bruno's Cave
At the hut, Gilly met the adult Sophie, who snatched the locket and shouted for the Usul to leave and not to disturb her. Gilly ran off through the rain and took shelter in a cave. Inside, amongst strange, old artifacts, she was stalked by a dark creature. By arranging a mirror, a broken lamp post, and a chair around a pile of food for bait, Gilly managed to get the monster to eat some of the food, leap back from its own reflection, and stumble across the lamp post and into the chair, where it banged its head and fell into the moonlight, revealing itself to be the horribly disfigured Bruno.
Taking pity on Bruno for her actions, even though he was trying to scare her, Gilly approached him, only to be chased outside of the cave. Gilly ran all the way back to Sophie's hut, asking to be let in from the chasing Bruno, and Sophie answered the door angerly, but calmed into shock when she saw Bruno was alive.
Exposition ensues as brother and sister relate their stories: Bruno, hiding from the townspeople, had hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Haunted Woods, never daring to return to Neovia. Sophie, on the other hand, has indeed gone with Ilere... only to be given a chest with "all you need to survive", as well as the hut, and effectively left to fend for herself.
Some years later, an older Sophie finally returned to Neovia, but found only deserted buildings. Day and night she returned, but no sign of life remained.
Until Halloween night.
On Halloween, when Sophie returned to Neovia, its streets bustled with life again... but a quiet, eerie life. No speech, no play, no desire or thought or emotion: Just action, without need. Upon accidentally touching one of the returned Neovians, she put her hand straight through him... the townspeople weren't even physically present! Quickly, she returned to her hut to work on a cure... but in the morning, Neovia was deserted again, as before. The town only returned to life on Halloween, and only for one night at a time.
For ten years, Sophie struggled to find a way to break whatever power held the Neovians captive, without success...
... and Gilly, almost forgotten in all this, soeaks up, remembering the story the Pink Elephante told her back at the Gypsy Camp. She quickly explains the Spirit of Slumber's involvement, realizing that this must be the "terrible price" mentioned in the story: The people of Neovia will be alive, but not alive; present, but not aware; restored to normal, yet unable to enjoy it. Sophie is skeptical that this will help at all, but finally elects to try for information from Ilere. She's *more* reluctant to bring Gilly along, but Bruno pleads the Usul's case; she relents... as long as Gilly won't "... get in the way. Got it."
To be continued...
Plot Solution
Finding the Locket
...to be added...
At the Fairground
...to be added...
At the Cave
...to be added...
Quest Inventory
This plot brought in a feature called the Quest Inventory, where items discovered in the plot are stored. Items in this inventory cannot be used, traded, or stolen in the way items in the Inventory can, like previous plot quest items in the past.
Trivia
- An Aisha resembling Megan can be seen in images of the Gypsy camp.
- This plot seems to be based off the movie/book Something Wicked This Way Comes.
- When part 3 of the plot was released on October 13, 2006, the new section of the plot came upon many database issues, requiring The Neopets Team to move the database, replacing all pages relating to the plot with the following texts (as the errors were happening more than once)
- TEMPORARY DB MOVE - WILL BE BACK SHORTLY
- MORE DATABASE ISSUES -- GEEZ THERE'S A LOT OF YOU GUYS -- DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH
External Links
- Plot Info: The Gypsy Camp, The Tale of Woe (comic), Neovia, Sophie's Shack, Burned-down House, Bruno's Cave
- Quest Inventory
- Neopets TCG: