The Faeries' Ruin

This article documents a current event. Information may update rapidly as the event progresses.

The Faeries' Ruin is a plot that started on 20 September, 2010 (publicly announced on the 21st) where during the Faerie Festival, all the Faeries in the world mysteriously turned to stone. It stars several characters who have appeared in previous plots, including Jazan of Lost Desert Plot fame and King Altador, as well as several new characters. During the course of the plot, all activities that involve faeries have been suspended - from the games and shops on Faerieland to the Neggery and the Cooking Pot, due to the faeries' condition.

Like The Cyodrake's Gaze plot, this plot makes use the the technique of unreliable narrators.

Plot summary

At the Faerie Festival, Hanso the Ixi was looking for things to steal. Whatever jewellery the Faeries were wearing was turned to stone with them, but plenty of their possessions were not on their person and were left unaltered. Hanso was not the only visitor to the Festival - shortly after Hanso arrived, King Altador and his guards, and Brynn, who was sent by King Hagan, arrived on the scene to investigate the curse. Hanso revealed himself and tried to sell them information, closely followed by King Jazan, who revealed he had been tailing Hanso after he saw him stealing from the fossilised faeries. Jazan accused Hanso of being involved in the curse.

Altador asked if Jazan was there to free the faeries from the curse, to which hesitantly responded he was. Although Jazan did not trust him, Brynn reminded Altador that Hanso was their only lead, and they agreed to hear him out.

Hanso explained that he was on the way to the festival - "You mean you were going to steal from the faeries at their festival." - he saw Hubrid Nox, who was holding a shiny artefact and chanting an incantation. After a blinding flash of light, Nox had vanished and all the faeries were stone. Although Jazan and Altador doubted Hubrid Nox would be powerful enough to affect all the faeries, Brynn vouched that he would have no reason to lie, and that the artefact Hanso claimed to have seen may have something to do with it.

The group headed in to Faerie City to see Xandra, a Xweetok who too was investigating the curse. On seeing Hanso, however, she became enraged - he had stolen several valuable artefacts from her hut earlier.

Hanso confessed that while he didn't lie about seeing Hubrid Nox, it wasn't the whole truth - he had broken into Xandra's hut, too. "It's a pretty good story, actually..."

Hanso explained that after he had stolen from Xandra, he put the word out that he had four magical artefacts to fence. He was contacted by a buyer who wanted to meet in Faerieland - Hubrid Nox. Nox was only interested in one of the artefacts, and Hanso tailed him to see what he would do with it: as Hanso had already explained, he chanted, there was a flash of light, and all the faeries turned to stone. Xandra still didn't trust Hanso's word, but Brynn and Altador were convinced, and went to recover the artefact from Nox before he could do any more damage with it.

The group - Hanso under guard - arrived at Castle Nox in the Haunted Woods. As they formed their plan to storm the stronghold, Hanso slipped away. Brynn went after him - as Nox could appear any second, they couldn't afford to delay their plan.

Brynn found Hanso climbing over the wall away from the front gates - he said that he would find his own way in.

“And how do I know you're not going in there to tip him off?”

“Well, if you don't trust me, you could always stop me.”

As soon as Hanso snuck in through one of the castle windows, he was spotted by Nox. Hanso asked Nox about the artefact - but Nox didn't seem to know what he was talking about. At that moment, an alarm went off, and Nox saw through his crystal ball Altador and the others storming the gates. Nox opened a secret passageway, threw the crystal ball, and made good his escape.

Brynn rushed in and the door sealed behind her - through the crystal ball, Hanso and Brynn could see the others were sealed in as well. The pair followed the secret passageway Nox escaped through - Brynn all the while berating Hanso for letting Nox escape - and found a strange wooden control board.

Meanwhile, out in the Haunted Woods, Hubrid Nox ran away from his castle, gloating over his escape - before running straight into another Hubrid Nox, who blasted him to the ground.

Plot participation

The player can participate in this plot, like in the Tale of Woe, by solving puzzles that are released after certain chapters of the story. Solving puzzles, and solving them in specific ways, earns the player achievements called Fearless Deeds.

The first puzzle was linked to at the bottom of the second chapter. The second puzzle, by contrast, had to by found in the Deserted Fairground of the Haunted Woods, like the puzzles in the Tale of Woe plot.

Xandra's Library

The first task the user is asked to do is to guide Hanso in a 'retelling' of his first encounter with Xandra. The player must move Hanso around the library and pick up the four artefacts - which are each glowing green - and then make it to the exit, without Xandra shooting Hanso with magic.

If Hanso is hit, or if he leaves the library without getting all the artefacts, it is presented as an error in the story - Xandra or Hanso will say that that wasn't how it happened, and the user can try again.

Also in the library are three items that are not glowing. These are bonus items, and can be collected in addition to the artefacts. If Hanso escapes with all the artefacts and with one or more of these bonus items, the bonus items will appear in the player's inventory.

The player moves Hanso by clicking a square adjacent to him that is not blocked by a table, a bookshelf, a wall, Xandra, or a pile of rubble. The player then clicks anywhere on the map to see what Xandra's move was - she may shout at the player, run after him, teleport to a random location in the library, or shoot a blast of magic across the map. Unlike Hanso, she does not run diagonally, and nor can she shoot her magic diagonally.

After Hanso has escaped, the library task may be replayed to obtain other achievements or the rest of the bonus items.

Fearless Deeds

• The Artefact Thief - Hanso, a well-known rogue and thief, breaks into an old library inhabited by Xandra, a renowned scholar, and steals several valuable artefacts.

Complete the puzzle by escaping with all four artefacts.

• Ooh, Shiny! - Pick up the artefact that started this whole mess.

Pick up the mirror artefact - the player doesn't need to escape with it.

• The Task at Hand - Avoid being distracted by irrelevant fripperies.

Escape with all the glowing artefacts but without any bonus items - this is also earnt if the puzzle is completed after all the bonus items have been taken on previous play-throughs.

• Proximity Warning - Narrowly escape Xandra's scholarly wrath.

Be at some point within one square of Xandra but still escape.

Castle Nox

The second task bridges chapter four and chapter five - the player is asked to solve a puzzle using Nox's control panel to allow the rest of the adventurers, who are locked in the castle, to escape. The other heroes are divided into three groups, distributed across the the four floors - second, first, ground, and basement - of the castle. They must be guided to the front door on the ground floor.

The layout of each of the floors is randomised each time the puzzle is played. The location of each group is denoted by a risen bronze peg. The doorways between the rooms are colour-coded red, green, or blue. They player can open all the red doors, or all the green doors, or all the blue doors, at once. If some of the heroes are in a room where one of the doors open, they will go through it into a different room.

The player has to choose five colours at a time, which then open in sequence. The player chooses these colours by clicking the light bulbs at the bottom of the control panel. The brass arrow cycles through the three colour choices as the player clicks. Once all five colours have been assigned, the doors open sequential left to right. Only one set of coloured doors can be open at a time - opening the green doors after you've opened the red doors will shut all the red doors.

In certain room are staircases - when a group enters a room with a staircase, they will immediately go up or down it and out of the room at the other end. In other rooms, there are certain traps, as denoted by small grey tiles on the control panel. These traps - from Wadjets - "Why did it have to be Wadjets?" - to scarabs (a reference to the Lost Desert Plot) - cause the group affected to miss whatever door opens next. Three of the tiles are not traps - one is a gold key, which must be found and used to unlock the front door - one is a room full of Usukis, and one is a room full of ice cream.

If two or more pegs reach the same room, the groups will join up and be represented as only one peg. This new group will stay together from then on. The group who found the key - or whatever group they eventually joined up with - must reach the front door first to unlock it for themselves and the others.

If a group is in a room where more than one door opens, they may not necessarily go into the room the player intended. Certain doors seem to take priority in certain rooms - if a turn in the sequence is wasted by opening a door colour that isn't present in the room, the priority between two doors of the same colour can change.

This puzzle can also be played more than once to achieve all the Fearless Deeds.

Fearless Deeds

• Nox's Locks - The heroes are trapped in Nox's castle! But Hanso and Brynn have found some kind of strange machine that might let them help the others escape.

Collect the key and get all three characters to the exit. Due to a bug when this puzzle was first released, it may not have been achieved when the puzzle was completed successfully, although this was later fixed.

• We All Scream - Everyone loves an ice-cold bowl of Chintzy Mynci... even Hubrid Nox.

All three characters, together or separately, must pass through the ice cream room and escape. This gives the player the Spooky Food Giant Tub of Ice Cream.

• Fort Nox - There's gold in them thar halls!

One of the rooms with no more than two different coloured doors will trigger this when a group is in it and a colour not represented by the doors is selected - e.g. in a room with red and blue doors, choosing green causes a 'secret' door to open, visible to the group in the maze, with the treasure in. Which room it is, and which colour door must be opened, is random. This gives the player the toy item Hubrid Nox Treasure Chest, which can be opened to obtain a Spooky Petpet.

• And One For All - "After you." "No, after you." "No, I insist! After you."

Exit through the gold doors with all three characters together.

Neocash component

The Faeries' Ruin is the first plot to include an additional Neocash element. However, The Neopets Team reported that "[i]t in no way affects your plot score" [1].

Users can buy Key Packs for Neocash that supply keys used to enter the Corridor of Chance in Castle Nox. Each key purchased allows one use of the Transfabulator found there. The Transfabulator returns an item the user's Neopet is wearing to the Closet and replaces it with an exclusive wearable. It may also grant the Neopet an effect, which lasts for five days.

Once the lever on the Transfabulator is pulled, the key used to enter the Corridor is used up.

Trivia

• During the plot, the Healing Springs had some "residual magic" to be used at the user's own risk.
• The Soup Kitchen was still usable during the plot, as the Soup Faerie had made an extra large cauldron of soup.
• The shops both at the Healing Springs and the Hidden Tower remained open without their owners present, presumably relying on an honesty-box system.
• Reference was made in the plot to the fate of The Darkest Faerie.
• The Commonwealth English spelling of artefact is used throughout the plot, although artifact is used elsewhere on the site.

External Links

• Plot page: The Faeries' Ruin
• Plot locations: Xandra's Library, Nox's Castle
• Castle Nox - Corridor of Chance Help