Fjords and Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th! Nothing unfortunate has befallen us, at least not yet, but it did make me think back fondly to Halloween and all the fun we had on Star Stable. Galloper's Keep and the rest of the spooky festivities kept going strong through November 3. We enjoyed them to the full!

Alas, the mystery surrounding the paranormal activity on South Hoof remains a mystery.

The October bazaar featured 4 different breeds that all come in some appropriate-for-Halloween coats:

Criollo for 617 star coins

Jorvik Friesian for 475 star coins

Friesian Sport Horse for 655 star coins

Jorvik Wild Horse for 535 star coins

Since we already own a horse in each of these models (either "normal" or magical), we let this one go by. We could've easily bought one of each, though. All 4 are great breeds and were quite discounted! 

One more noteworthy new feature on the final week of the festival: a daily summoning activity with Nancy, a Saltus witch ghost. 

We had to light the candles in a particular order to summon certain objects to the stone platform in the middle. This proved to be more of a challenge for us than it sounds, as it was all too easy to forget the pattern/get a little disoriented as you're riding your horse to each at ground level.

We were hoping Nancy would do something with all of the summoned objects (mirror, dead flowers, book, bones, etc.) at the end of the week. Nope. Oh well, maybe next year.

During the final week, we could also go searching for a rogue ghost each day and convince it to return to the Keep with us. The quests seemed to be unchanged from previous years, but the ghosts themselves got glow-ups.

heading up a mountain to the highest point on Jorvik

The "find the ghost pony" quest seemed to be glitched for us - we wandered around South Hoof for quite some time with no sign of any wild Welshies, live or ghostly. Many thanks to the person who posted the ghost pony's coordinates online. We'd never have found her without help.

On our way back to the Keep after finding the ghost pony, we finally saw the live Welshies, which obviously have not been updated yet.

Due to time constraints, Clara and Starboard ended up participating in the Fort Pinta championship with a ghost girl trailing behind them. Good times.

Here's a look at the updated ghost doggie. So cute! I sure wish we could've kept him rather than returning him to the Keep.

We came really close to never returning the final ghost from Goldenhills. We tried every trick we could think of to get her to follow us into the portal you see here, but she refused! We'd given up and were going about other business in the Keep, and then finally the game registered her re-entry and let us finish the quest. Whew!

Another weird thing for us this year: the ghosts would not go into their fancy chamber in the brick fortress. The newest ghost would go stand just outside it, while any gathered on previous days just lined up outside. Whatever, we're just glad we got them all back in time!

We saved the Haunted Trail Ride for last on the final day of the event. Here are Clara and Inky saying their fond farewells to the final cave beasts, the red-eyed bears.

It's been fun, Galloper! Until next year!

As much fun as the Halloween Event was, it's a relief to be playing at a slower pace now without FOMO. Star Stable has given us plenty of reason to keep on returning daily, however. We have a new trailblazer track to complete, this time a cozy Fjord-themed set.

The plushie Fjord details are adorable! The outfit isn't really my style (I'd have preferred pants and no cold shoulders on the sweater), but I love the theme.

Hooray for max stat horseshoes and the free stable care coupons too! Thanks, Star Stable! <3

On top of the trailblazer track, we also had another weeklong Style Riders Show to participate in, this time with autumn themes.

It seemed like - on our server anyway - more players participated than have in these events previously. It was an entertaining but lengthy task to click through everybody's entries and thumbs up our favorites. There are lots of fashionistas out there... and also lots of players who just submit random stuff that doesn't suit the theme.

We stick to the theme and also avoid using too many pieces from the same set. That's gotten us through to the final round in previous iterations, and it worked again this time. Here are our submissions, for the record:

an excuse to haul out our pumpkin helmet and bright orange pants

So many Friesians came out for this one, which makes sense.

We went with our grullo Artie instead so that all the black accessories would stand out.

We thought this was appropriately cozy and classy, and that Vanilla would enjoy a tea party.

We opted to take this as literally as we could, because when we have a carrot shirt and that pumpkin helmet, why not?

Our entry for the final! We didn't have any great rain hats, so we opted for winter storm.

And finally, our prizes: black and gold participation ribbon and the "you made it to the finals" t-shirt!

With the lull in time-consuming events, we've moved our home stable back to Valedale. Last weekend, we finally finished all of the Paths! So, from now on, we can bank all the light all we want, and sell it for shillings whenever we want. Not sure how much of this we'll do, but it's cool that we have the option now!

The last noteworthy piece of news is a big one: Star Stable released an updated Fjord Horse this week! They're awesome!

Another bonus of a home base in Valedale: we can easily visit these cuties!

We're so excited to have one of these in our herd someday. It's one of my favorite breeds in real life, and it so deserved this update! I have no idea how we're going to decide on a coat color or a mane style when the time comes. There are so many wonderful options! Below are a few of our favorite mane styles, but there are quite a few more than this.

the classic

little braids

natural

hearts

stars

We love them, Star Stable! Keep up the fantastic work! <3

The Thin Veil

We're well into October now, and man, we can't remember a better one weather-wise. If all Octobers were like this, I'd totally jump on board the "fall is awesome" boat with Lily and Bethany. Record-breaking amounts of sunshine, highs mostly in the 60's with occasional outliers, leaves taking their sweet time to turn and fall off, no hard frost yet to kill the flowers... In summary, it's been just about ideal.

We're well into the Halloween festivities on Star Stable! I wouldn't quite call it ideal, at least not by my personal standards, but it has still been loads of fun. Our stable was automatically spookified with appropriate decorations, and a few ghost horses come and go.

To fully embrace the season, we temporarily changed our stable's total look. Because as long as we only go with the free options, why not?

Once again, the veil between the living and dead has thinned enough to allow access to the spooky Galloper's Keep! 

Some improvements this year include a larger sale horse island, updated ghost characters, and a portal that links directly to our stable.

Not sure how a horse fits through this, but it's a magic portal, after all.

(Sidenote: this was what our stable looked like before being Halloween-ified)

The familiar Halloween-themed races and activities we enjoyed in previous years have returned.

we've got Galloper's race down, but we still sometimes get zapped in the Scarecrow Hill race

The pumpkin hunt isn't so bad this year. 

We've memorized the pre-hunt pumpkin locations, and the big pink boundary bubble keeps us from roaming too far.

Come along, little gourds.

The only downside to the pink bubble: you can't quick complete the pumpkin hunt and then go race in the Goldenhills Championship right after. We learned this the hard way and got transported back to the Keep against our will mid-race (as soon as we left the bubble).

Probably our favorite daily Halloween activity, the Haunted Trail Ride, was also available from day 1.

sometimes we still can't resist pausing to pet the ghost animals

Whe we have time, we also enjoy going back to the cave beast's lair after outrunning it.

(It always give up trying to get us after we've successfully made it through the pass.)

Are these supposed to be the giant cat's kittens? Or are they just its oversized cat followers?

Back in the Keep, the little ghosties are still hanging out.

this year, they make cute little noises <3

Scott Buttergood kept us busy with his lengthy werewolf hunt quest. 

So much set up... and of course Clara and her steed do all the work for him.

posing with the friendly teen werewolf

werewolf quest complete, we can now go on much shorter, more straightforward daily hunts for other cryptids (only to photograph them, never fear!)

It's kind of amazing how many details of Galloper Thompson's story we had forgotten. We were happy to go through that whole quest line again. 

posing with Galloper and Morrigan mid-quest

yay, no brush this year when bonding with Morrigan

on the way to let Broderick cross over

As engrossing as all of the returning stuff is, we were also excited to have some new activities to do, such as...

a daily "find the spider pig" challenge

a new season of Halloween-themed Champion Ranks

Teddy got tons of championship experience while undergoing training!

Here are various iterations of "the ghost ribbon." As we've said before, we liked it way better when each was a unique stand-alone ribbon rather than just fancifying the same one over and over, but at least this series has a cute ghost on it.

...well, he was cute until his eyes turned red

The biggest disappointment of the event for me was the reward in Igor's quest. All of our efforts to amass unbroken bones etc. on the haunted trail ride, and no reanimated pets to show for it. :( 

what we got instead: a non-functional "summoning kit" to fill up our saddle bag boringly - and - creepy button eyes for Clara.

We went through all the effort anyway for the sake of progressing on the task board, but both will do nothing but collect dust in our wardrobe.

It wasn't a total strike out on free pets. After our first pumpkin hunt, we were gifted a skeleton-themed gourd. 

he goes great with Kitekey and Clara's new cauldron-brewed skeleton costume

We're so glad for our little collection of free Halloween pets from the last 3 years. They're probably happy there is only one new one vying for saddlebag time.

Okay, enough dwelling on pets. Back to more new activities! When riding near that old barn on the way from Moorland to Fort Pinta, Clara and horse sometimes get spooked by haunting song coming from inside.

We had Clara go in to investigate, and it was this creepy little girl singing the Glue Man ditty.

It could've been way worse. XD

After getting spooked, the graphics settings change slightly but noticeably until we log off and back in.

Higher contrast maybe? It gives things a more stark, less happy vibe, at any rate.

A new daily activity with its own portal: ghost hunting on South Hoof. Normally South Hoof is sunny with upbeat Irish-sounding music in the background, but not so for this!

we wander around in the gloom in search of high EMF readings: signs of ghostly activity

Sometimes it's objects, sometimes it seems to be coming from underground, sometimes it's agitated "soul flames," and sometimes it's fully-formed ghosts. Right now, the mystery of what's going on - and if the wild horses of the peninsula are safe - remains a mystery.

The new race this year takes place totally within the Keep! 

To get agitated soul flames to leave Tom the ghost kitty alone, we encourage them to race with us, which satisfies them until the next day.

The jumps are all appropriately Keep-themed. This one is my favorite, for obvious reasons.

Finally, here's a quick look at this year's new Halloween horses.

Both Lycan the werewolf horse and Pharoah the mummy horse look quite at home in the Keep. Lycan's base model is the Jorvik Mountain Horse, and Pharoah's is the Belgian Warmblood, for the record.

As Lily indicated last time, we weren't (and still aren't) planning to purchase any additional Halloween horses this year. Tombhoof and Duskgrim are our clear favorites, and we took home both last year. It was rather amusing to us to ride around Teddy (a happy, golden brown, cuddly Curly) for the first third or so of the Halloween event. Teddy had a great time, though, and he certainly stood out from the crowd.

he may not be scary, but he looks great in autumn-themed gear and scenery

We did see one other Curly in a championship once, but they have not been common!

here he is doing his final level-up sparkle

...and here he is on his final haunted trail ride, before all of the horses went back in our rotation.

Love you, ghost donkey!

Other than ending up in some confusing Jorvik locations after leaving the Keep, and the pink bubble issue I mentioned earlier, our game play has been pretty smooth. I will conclude with a few amusing bugs, though.

return of the x-ray pumpkin hunt!

Occasionally, all of Jorvik (rather than just the area by a portal) goes dark for us!

almost-invisible ghost

Morrigan rocking Kitekey's stripes in the Galloper's memories race

Overall, it's been a great event so far! We miss being able to save and spend tokens, but we certainly haven't been lacking for things to do or items to spend our shillings on. We're eager to see what the final week will hold!