Brightbeam, Clouds, and Rainbows

The month of June has been flying by! So did the experience levels for Magicmirror.

The main quest line brought Clara to an exclusive meeting of the Druid Council. The way to get there is top secret and involved a magic portal, naturally.

Fripp the magical blue squirrel seems to be their leader, or at least quite high-ranking. =)

He seemed to be ok with Clara's presence, but at least one of the dudes in dementor-like apparel, not so much. 

Fortunately, Elizabeth Sunbeam, a druid who lives in Valedale, vouched for her. 

Clara did make 4 stones glow with pink symbols once a while back, and it turns out this is a big deal. 

Even Mr. Dementor thought so.

How do you like them apples, Alex and Linda? XD 

I'm kind of glad Alex and Linda are the Soul Riders we've met so far. Both Lisa (Western rider and amazing singer) and Anne (dressage superstar) sound intimidatingly awesome. Felicity's convinced they are going to be super annoying and is joking that she'd prefer they stay lost. At least I think she's joking...

Even more monumental to us than being part of this big wig meeting was the final week of the bazaar. The two final breeds to be offered at a steep discount were the Haflinger and the American Paint Horse.

The Haflinger is awfully cute... 

...but we only had eyes for the APHs.

All of them are works of art, but we eventually narrowed the choices down to the buckskin tobiano and the dapple gray tobiano.

We had almost decided on the dapple gray. As much as we love buckskin tobianos, there are many Jorvik Warmbloods with this coloring around already. (The pinto starter horse that isn't Frostflight is frequently made into a buckskin.) But then, on the second-to-last evening of the festival, when we exited our stable to go buy him, there stood - you guessed it - a dapple gray tobiano APH (and its rider.) We also noticed that from a distance in reduced lighting, its unique facial markings seemed rather skull-like. We took both as signs we should go with the buckskin instead.

...so we did!

Meet Brightbeam!

She doesn't nod off all the time like the Appys or keep her head super low like the AQH, both definite pluses. Her markings are gorgeous. She is not as chipper-looking as the other equines, however: she usually has her ears out to the side. We weren't sure about her that first night because of her somewhat melancholy look, but she's grown on us since then. We think of her as chill, unflappable, and a bit lazy now. =)

Brightbeam hasn't had much chill time yet, though. She's been Clara's mount for The Rainbow Festival. Rainbow-themed decorations are out in full force, and there's a Cloud Kingdom players can visit via a hot air balloon. 

As the plot line goes, when Clara first arrived in the Cloud Kingdom, the world was all in black and white: all of the 7 colors of the rainbow were sadly missing. Additionally, it had started to snow in Jorvik, where it's supposed to be summer. The likely suspect: Katja, a highly unpleasant, violin-playing version of Elsa.

Clara gradually located and restored the 7 rainbow fragments, one color at a time. She also helped Mica, one of the explorers with the hot air balloon, locate gear she had misplaced. She had to do both twice, actually, since Katja was persistent and Mica seems to be very careless with her stuff.

So much happier with full color!

Galloping on clouds and rainbows... early childhood dreams come true. =)

Pico, Mica's balaclava-clad frog, was a big help with locating Mica's missing gear. (He sort of plays hot or cold with you as you near a piece.) We confess we still had some trouble finding them all, though, and had to resort to YouTube for some additional help.

I like Disney's version better...

Like Sabine, Katja has an intimidating, super fast horse. Players can race her once a day from Moorland beach to Fort Pinta beach to receive a few tokens to use in the Cloud Kingdom. We never come anywhere near catching her and end up sliding off ice into the water frequently, but it's still fun.

We've also earned tokens by helping a sobbing little cloud get its lost cloud friends back to the cloud kingdom...

...and participating in the rainbow race. We routinely fall off the rainbows and clouds, but fortunately the race pops you back on and allows you to carry on after a few seconds' delay. =)

From time to time, to span the distances between clouds, horses magically sprout wings and fly for a few seconds. It's quite entertaining because the horses still keep galloping full speed with their legs while they're flying...

Two cloud-dwelling equines and their raven companions are available for sale:

We resisted them, but as you have likely noticed, we did buy some rainbow-themed horse accessories. 

Most of the items for sale for rainbow tokens are western-themed, so we're not super into them. We were way more excited about the new terrier with a rainbow bandana and saved up tokens for her instead. She has grey mixed in with the tan in her coat but does look a lot like Scout. Maybe they are siblings? We're still trying to decide on a name for her.

Another fun rainbow festival activity: chasing rainbows! They appear for short windows of time at various locations, and if you can find the end of the rainbow, you can search for rainbow gold in various little piles nearby. Save up enough gold, and you can then trade it for gifts from the leprechaun waiting at the end of the rainbow. 

His gifts are all practical: "rainbow chaser" gear for the horse and rider. So far, we've received pastel rainbow polo wraps, a pastel tie die crop top, a sky blue with clouds western saddle and matching cowboy boots, pastel-lensed glasses, and multiple duplicates of the polos and boots. 

We're really hoping if we save up enough and trade for a bunch of items from the leprechaun at once, we won't be so apt to get duplicates, and we'll get the matching saddle pad and bridle. Fingers crossed!

It's been quite fun, all in all! Take one last look at Clara, because she will soon be having an identity crisis! By our next post, she will look like a whole new person, as the game is totally changing the look of its player characters. Will it be for the better or for the worse? We'll see! 

 

Horse #4!

The summer sizzle has come early to the Mitten this year. It hasn't rained in weeks, and high temps have been in the 90's over the last few days! So strange for late spring here, and we feel sorry for all the plants. The ones living in our yard are getting sprinkled, at least. 

Some of the kids still in schools without air conditioning had their last few days of the school year cancelled! How weird it would be to end a grade that way! 

Things are as green as ever in Jorvik. Two different awesome breeds were on a steep discount during week two of the Star Stable bazaar: the American Quarter Horse and the Shire!

Can you guess which one became our equine #4?

The American Quarter Horse is amazing. Julie's beloved Allegro is one, as was Mom's favorite lesson horse back in the day. We were tempted by them, especially since they come in some beautiful coat colors on Star Stable. However, the Star Stable AQH's are very... Western. Probably the most so of Star Stable's breeds. This includes them keeping their heads very low most of the time, both while in motion and while idle. This is desirable for Western riding for a variety of reasons, but my sisters and I think it gives them kind of a tired, sad look we just don't love. 

No AQH for Clara, at least not for now. Which means... yes, she is now the proud owner of an impractically gigantic drafty. =^)

The Shire is the largest breed of horse, and we think it's so cool that they are represented on Star Stable. (Clydesdales, which look similar, seem to get a lot more attention.)

We admired all the color variations. Bay, seal brown, and black are what we think of when we picture Shires, but we unanimously fell for the stunning steel gray. With those pale eyelashes and sprinkling of star-like flecks in her coat, there was something almost magical about her. Hence, we named her Magicmirror. (The corner of the first screenshot gave it away, if you were looking closely. XD)

You don't want to know how much time we've spent on this screen experimenting with name combos... and (in Felicity's case) also trying to randomly generate the most amusing clunker of a name possible...

Magicmirror is as huge as we hoped. Clara looks so little when riding her, and when she gets off, she sort of hovers a few inches above the ground for a split second before descending to ground level. 

As you can see, Shires can wear the tack that only Desertdash could wear previously, so it will now get more use. Yay!

We also bought a saddle pad from the bazaar. It pairs well with our Clara's yellow shirt from the festival, and it was so pretty we couldn't resist. Seemed meant to be, because shortly after, we were rewarded with a blue and black saddle after completing a quest - more on that later.

Scout didn't pop out of the saddlebag at all on the Friday night we bought Magicmirror. I can see why - it's a long way down, and those are some massive hooves! XD He's gotten braver since.

The appearance/layout of the various functions on the screen has undergone significant changes with the latest update, which has taken some getting used to. We've also been experiencing a few weird glitches, one of which was this:

With this update came a revamped horse leveling up experience. Since Frosty, Tiger, and Des are already all the way leveled up, it doesn't affect them, other than that their stall nameplates are now sparkly, but it's been interesting with Magicmirror. Sparkling and sparkly noises occur every time you complete a training session or otherwise gain horsey experience, and there's a dramatic flash of light and a rear when a horse goes up a level:

Well, the name of the game is Star Stable! We wouldn't have asked for it but don't mind it. 

As a horse progresses through the levels, more options are unlocked, including "follow me" and "lead." Lead could use a bit more work, ha ha, but it's fun it's an option. Makes me think of non-equestrian models attempting to lead somewhat unwilling horses for a photoshoot.

Here is Magicmirror posing next to some Irish Cobs, another hairy breed we love. 

Quite a difference between the two size-wise!

And here is Clara with all 4 equines! 

What a cute bunch! We're so happy with our choices! (Also, how how fun that the game allows you to have multiple equines out of their stalls at once!)

In other news, some of our Memorial Day weekend quests were more Halloween-themed.

Strangely, Ydris tasked Clara with finding 5-leaf clovers, which she was able to do...

...and then had her deliver them to this witch, who proceeded to fly away on a broom right in front of her.

Then she got to clean up graffiti on Silverglade's riding arena, some of which was blood red...

...and deliver a not-so-scary dog to guard said arena.

Scout wasn't his biggest fan. 

He probably would've stayed in the saddlebag the whole time if we hadn't deliberately taken him out, and even then, he kept his distance. XD

This last one is a little more appropriate for Memorial Day, if you take the holiday in the broader context of remembering all those who have passed.

Ever since Clara last went up a game level, this flickering ghost NPC has been parked up by the abandoned farm in Nilmer's Highland. Not going to lie, it rather creeped us out the first time we noticed it while racing by during a training session. (It was dark, and we'd never seen anything like this on the game before.) We've left him alone, but curiosity eventually got the better of us.

The unhappy ghost did not believe he was dead and was waiting for his wife.

Asking around eventually led to the Silverglade library, where Clara discovered an old newspaper article that shed light on the situation:

Yikes. What a way to go! This is the same bridge Clara helped repair early in the game.

Why am I not surprised GED was responsible for this? The councilman then directed Clara to Firgrove, where Mrs. Hill moved after Mr. Hill's death. It's quite a hike to get there, but Magicmirror was up for it.

They found Mrs. Hill, alright, who also was not willing to accept she was dead. 

It took Clara finding and presenting their engagement rings to each to convince them of the truth. Then, she had to locate their secluded gravesite (both are buried under the tree where they first met) and bury the rings there. 

Mrs. Hill found her way there no problem, but Mr. Hill needed yet another in-person visit from Clara.

So many long rides! No taking it easy on the new horse.

Whew, together again at long last!

In thanks, Mrs. Hill let Clara know she was welcome to her dressage saddle, which she'd left in the attic of the abandoned house in Nilmer's Highland. (So, yet another long ride!)

I can't say it looks especially dressage-like, but it is a great match for the night sky saddle pad we'd just bought! Thanks, Mrs. Hill! Clara will use it well.