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May I have your attention please? Hello?
I am ChiefFirstClassBioLabAssistant Mizzlo. Anyone remember me? 11 years
ago the AoE-sponsored Help-a-gnome-in-his-lifequest program, together
with the inhabitants of these realms helped me catalog butterflies in the
UltimateButterflyEncyclopediaOfTheGenesisDonut. Now... due to a slight
accident in the labs involving a small, but kind of big, explosion the
UltimateButterflyEncyclopediaOfTheGenesisDonut was vaporized, including
all the poor butterflies. So... uhm... We need to do it again. Sorry!
So once again I am seeking brave volunteers to aid me in cataloging the
various butterfly species of the Genesis Donut, as, sadly, I have been
born highly agarophobic, and despite vigorous counselling I still cannot
leave my biology laboratory to travel the world under the horribly open
sky (except for very brief periods).
The Arch of Events team of Genesis have agreed to help us with rebuilding
our labs and also sponsor the brave adventurers of the realms with wonderful
prizes for helping us out. Thankfully, it is soon spring, and the butterfly
population is expected to reach its peak during two weeks, starting...
...Sunday March 13 at exactly 22:00 GT (Game Time).
INSTRUCTIONS
At this time all interested should proceed to the nearest common room and
obtain the proper enthomologic gear there from the wonderful Equipment
Exporter. Should you survive your contact with the Exporter, please bear in
mind the following:
1) Neither I, Mizzlo, nor the AoE team takes any implied or direct
responsibility for the terryfying events that may befall you once you
venture into the outside world (yes, that means beyond the biology lab).
2) Please take care to store only healthy, complete and properly caught
with a net butterflies in your stasis box. Incomplete butterflies,
or dead ones, are of no interest to me. Plain butterflies will do,
but examples of higher quality will make for a much grander entry in
TheUltimateButterflyEncyclopediaOfTheGenesisDonut, and also reward you
more points in the competition.
3) Feel free to trade the butterflies, we are providing a special trade box
for you to hold your spare butterflies in safe conditions (unless of course
something devours you AND the box in the nightmarish outside world).
4) Should you lose any equipment, feel free to visit The Exporter again.
5) Most, but not all common rooms will contain the equipment. After the lab
accident we can only provide a limited number of Exporters, so should there
be none at your common room of choice, please visit another nearby common
room.
6) The Faeries of the realms have informated me in a very serious letter that
they are NOT butterflies, and wish to be left in peace this time. (Sorry
again for last time.)
Thank you kindly. I hope that together we can complete the task promptly
as the butterfly population peak comes to an end at...
...Sunday March 27 at 22:00 GT. (Yes, our calculations are THAT exact).
SCORING
When you catch a butterfly it will be stored in your trade box. This does
NOT give you any points though. You can keep it alive there for trading
purposes, but to receive points you need to transfer the butterfly to your
STASIS box. Once you do, you will be awarded points in the event.
More rare butterflies gives more points. Royal butterflies are the most rare,
followed by extravagant, vibrant and plain. You only get points for one type
though, so if you have a plain butterfly of a particular species, and you find
a vibrant of the same species you can upgrade your collection by storing the
more rare one in your stasis box instead, replacing the old one. However if
you have a vibrant already, you cannot store a plain of the same species as
you already have a more rare version of the same butterfly. You cannot store
for example two vibrant of the same species either, so to get more points
for that species you need to find an extravagant or royal and upgrade your
collection.
Finding a royal gives maximum points for that species, and it does not matter
if you immidiately find a royal, or first find a plain and upgrade it several
times. You still get the same amount of points.
Based on old recovered and mostly burnt pages from the previous version of the
UltimateButterflyEncyclopediaOfTheGenesisDonut, we know there are most likely
100 unique butterfly species in the realms, so the best possible score in the
event is finding 100 royal butterflies. (Good luck with that!)
You only get points for one butterfly of each species but you can store as
many duplicates as you want in your trade box to trade with other hunters, or
simply release them if you do not want to keep them.
Thanks to gnomish engineering sprinkled with some AoE magic your hunting
equipment and all your collected butterflies will be saved when you leave
the realms. So, you can safely take breaks in your hunting knowing you cannot
lose the butterflies you have gathered. Unless there is a horrible malfunction
of course. But that (almost) never happens. But IF it does happen, which it
(probably) won't, you can get new equipment at the common board. And your
butterfly collection will still remain!
PRIZES
Now, the AoE has informed me that the prizes for this event will be quite
spectacular, and that the 20 most successful butterfly catchers will recieve
rewards in the form of quest and general experience. In addition the top 3
will recieve a special and wonderfullly powerful item, created by us in our
(hopefully) rebuilt labs. We can't promise exactly what this reward will be,
since all our blueprints also were vaporized in the accident, but as with
anything gnomish it will be both fantastic and reliable, meaning it will last
for at least 30 days.
Also, one such item will be RANDOMLY drawn from a pot with everyone who finds
at least 1 rare ROYAL butterfly during the event. Regardless of how many other
butterflies you find, if you find a royal, you're in the draw!
There will also be bonus prizes to the best junior butterfly hunters (below
expert in mortal level). The AoE also reserves the right to hand out more
bonus prizes to hunters that do something extra-ordinary during the event.
So it's never too late to join the butterfly-hunting fun!
Oh, and there will of course be fun titles for the top hunters!
Cherek in the AoE team has kindly volunteered to handle any questions or
concerns in this matter while we focus on rebuilding our lab and library.
SincerelyWithMuchRegardAndGoodLuck!
- Mizzlo the Enthomologist