Skip to main content

Fall 2023 Update: The Moonlit Circus

Welcome, Thainites, to the Moonlit Circus!  Our mostly-annual Halloween event in which a haunted circus takes up residence on our beloved island, bringing revelry and fright!  The Moonlit Circus will be open through November.

The Moonlit Circus offers a custom soundtrack, for those who prefer to keep in-game music on.  See the trailer and the page below for information on what lies ahead!

 

 

 

 

The Moonlit Circus

As summer turns to autumn, rumors fly from within the elven settlement of Feywood – the leader of the Feywood council, the elven prince Casimir, has fallen ill.  He is sequestered now in the council chambers, and the elven healers have been unable to wake him.

 

At the same time, the townsfolk of Hamley speak of strange sounds coming from the Adumbral wood.  Revelry and lights shine out of the woods that do not belong to such a dark place.  Those who have dared to venture inside return with strange and conflicting stories.  Some speak of corpses or spiders, others find nothing at all.  Yet a rare few speak of the Moonlit Circus, a mysterious realm nestled among the mists…

 

Among the elves and humans alike, many speculate that there is a connection between the two.  The sickness of the prince, and the strange revelry within the Wood.  Some say Casimir has fallen under a curse of the fey, who now celebrate his demise.  But why?

To find the circus, players can make their way into the adumbral woods, along the northern roads.  Follow the light of the gourds and the white flames.  For the worthy, the circus awaits.  

 

The Autumn Theater

Within the circus stands the Autumn Theater, where strange masked performers weave a tale for all to hear.  Those who attend the circus and have earned a circus ticket are able to choose a performance for the theater to play out.

The performances at the Autumn Theater are unique – no mere stage shows, the magic of the theater is said to bring the viewers into moments of history.  Within the theater, the past unfolds, just as it once occurred.  And audiences are equal parts delighted and horrified by what they see.

The Moonlit Race

At a booth within the circus grounds awaits the Gourdomancer, a strange creature who wields all manner of pumpkin-related magic.  His greatest work is the Moonlit Race, a race within the grounds run each day by the Gourd-Spiders, who compete to finish first.

Of course, audiences may also join in the race.  The Gourdomancer will reward tickets to those who can outrun his spiders.  Though to enter the course requires allowing the Gourdomancer to give you a few additional legs.

  • Run a Moonlit race as a gourd spider!
  • White lights will give the player who runs through them a speed boost.
  • Red lights will knock down the nearest player, slowing them down.
  • Purple lights will shield the player who runs through them, preventing them from being harmed.
  • Race against your friends or the Gourdomancer’s spiders!
  • Earn tickets if you win!

Carrion’s Maze

A returning attraction from previous years, the maze is the work of the horrifying scarecrow known as Carrion – a powerful fey creature who delights in mortal suffering.  It is filled with all manner of darkened horrors, but offers great rewards to those who brave its depths!

To complete the maze, the player must light the lanterns they find within the halls. The more lanterns a player is able to light, the greater their rewards.  The assortment of weapons Carrion sells in his booth has proven a strong temptation for some to brave the maze, though wiser creatures know the dangers of holding the dark Scarecrow’s attention for too long.

The Challenge of Champions

A returning attraction, The Challenge of Champions allows players to challenge the Circus’s three famed announcers to a challenging battle.  The Circus staff offers a variety of challenges, while bonebats and shrieking monsters cheer from the crowd.

In this challenge, a player and their party must battle three ever-changing opponents at once upon a grand stage.  This fight is a theatrical performance as much as a battle.  Players can select a difficulty for the battle based on the size of their party and their capabilities, with higher difficulties earning greater ticket rewards.

Treasures and Weapons

For those who earn enough tickets in the circus attractions, Carrion offers all manner of valuable prizes and rewards.  The ticket booth offers all manner of treasure, from shape-shifting masks to unique weapon visuals to rare adventuring gear.  Most valuable of all is the assortment of unique and specialized weapons, ancient fey-changed weapons that can only be earned at the Moonlit Circus. 

Each weapon Carrion sells has a unique model and ability, with appearances that cannot be found anywhere else in the game.  These weapons will only be available during the circus, so make sure to earn any you are interested in before the circus closes!

Something More?

Among the revelry and attractions, rumors speak of something darker.  Beneath the underbelly of the circus, deep within Carrion’s backstage realms, something has hidden the truth away.

 

What is truly behind the curse upon Prince Casimir?  What darkness might await those who would discover the secrets the circus tries to hide?

 

A mystery awaits, for those brave enough to find their way into the dark.

Updated Class: Pale Master

The Pale Master class been updated with new abilities!  

Pale Master has long felt a little bit underwhelming on Thain.  The base-game abilities do their job of making caster characters tankier, but fail to really get across the feeling of an undead summoner.  In the past, we’ve made changes to PM to improve their summoning capability by allowing them to sustain multiple summons, but we wanted to turn that up to 11 here by offering a new set of PM-specific powers based around summoning and negative energy.

 

Deathless Servants (gained at level 1)

For 4 rounds after dealing negative enery damage to an enemy with one of your spells or spell-like abilities, that enemy gains Negative Damage Vulnerability equal to your Pale Master Level *5%.

If the enemies dies while under this effect, they are raised as a risen servant under your control. You may have a number of these Deathless Servants equal to your Pale Master Level, in addition to any other summons you can normally conjure. Deathless servants bear lesser necrobombs, dealing a small amount of negative energy damage around them when they die.

 

Undead Graft (gained at level 6)

Through an often horrible or bizarre ritual, the caster replaces their arm with one imbued with the powers of the grave. This arm is capable of withering enemies, and with practice and time, even draining the life from them.

On a successful touch attack, the arm deals Pale Master * d10 Negative Energy Damage to the target, marking them as a potential Deathless Servant when it is used. At level 8 the damage is dealt in a small radius around the target as well.  This ability has no uses/day limit, but has a 1 minute cooldown between uses. 

Chill of the Grave: The damage caused by Deathless Master Touch can be split between negative energy damage and the cold touch of the beyond: By using the chat command “/graftdmg|XX%”, where XX is the number, the caster can dedicate a percentage of the total damage caused by this arm as Cold Damage instead of Negative.

 

Deathless Master Touch (gained at level 10)

The Pale Master’s control over the negative energies they have filled their body with has culminated in a deadly weapon – a hand capable of taking the very life from a foe. On a successful touch attack, the target must make a DC 17 fortitude saving throw or die instantly. Targets that pass this saving throw take 10 negative energy damage per level of Pale Master and gain a Deathless Servant mark. This ability has no uses/day limit, but has a 1 minute cooldown between uses.  Works with Chill of the Grave above.

 

New Chat Commands

The following new chat commands have been added, which may be useful for Pale Masters with their many new summons.

/graftdmg – Sets what % of PM arm damage is cold.

/pmsummons – Disables / Enables deathless servants for Pale Masters

/comall – Move all summoned creatures to the chosen point.

/comallstop – Stop all summoned creatures from attacking.

/comallatk – Make all summoned creatures attack chosen target.

Player Event Feature: /setareamusic

In instanced areas or player houses, players will now be able to use the /setareamusic command to bring up a dialog menu.  This dialog menu will allow them to select from almost all of Thain’s custom music selection (minus a few tracks that may bring spoilers.)

We believe in the importance of music in games, and we hope this tool will enable our players to bring their scenes to life and set the tone of the most emotional moments.

 

We hope everyone enjoys this update, and we look forward to seeing you all in-game!

 

Trick-or-Treat Bags

Until Halloween, you can send trick-or-treat bags to other players! These bags contain a small set of circus rewards and prizes, and may contain more powerful items on occasion!

Type /trickortreat <character name> to send a trick or treat bag to another player.  You can also use their player name. This has a cooldown of a few hours per player exchange – so you must wait a few hours between giving a trick-or-treat bag to a specific player, but other accounts may still give that player bags with a separate cooldown. 

We encourage sending trick or treat bags to anyone you see doing especially cool stuff!

Close Menu
Direct Connect: thain.no-ip.org