We took home our spotted mule on the last day of the bazaar. Even though our Evie is a "near leopard" and the spotted blanket appy would've been more different, in the end, the leopard appaloosa mule still won out. There's bound to be another appaloosa-spotted equine in our future that can be one of the other patterns. (There had better be!)
Here she is, our very own wildly-spotted mule mare, Cookietime!
Not a bit shy, this one!
It was a super quick "buy and log off" because we had a very busy Tuesday evening. She looks cute bareback...
...but also great in tack. Here they are modeling the final prizes from the Western Style Riders event, the ribbon and coordinating t-shirt.
When mules level up, they buck rather than rear. This would not have been our choice, but I will admit it's an interesting change of pace.
Much more endearing is her floppy groove, a happy walk where her ears flop.
We were expecting all of this, but we weren't expecting her to be so vocal! She brays a TON when idling. We don't mind it, but thank goodness the horses and ponies are quieter.
The day after we took home Cookie, Star Stable launched its special 15th birthday celebration event. Well done, Star Stable, for enduring so long!
We met up with all four Soul Riders and had the honor of unlocking the ceremonial gate to the festival. (We really ought to get going with the main quest line already, so that it would make sense for Lisa and Anne to be around...)
The massive birthday cake is its centerpiece, and yes, we can jump onto it for photos.
We've only been playing for about 3 of Star Stable's 15 years so don't have the history that many others do, but even we have been appreciating some of the nostalgic stuff the event brought back. For example, there's a scrapbook you can rifle through with some NPCs, super old now-retired horse models you can take for a spin around the festival area, and some displays where you can view before and after shots of some of the revamped iconic buildings.
Oof, the horses have come such a long way in 15 years!
By far the best part of the event has been the birthday horse!!! On day 1, we logged on without reading the game news. Even so, we figured out pretty quickly that something must be going on: so many other players all riding black tobiano warmbloods.
At first glance, I thought they were Selle Francais pintos like Nightnimbus. But no, it's a brand new black tobiano version of one of SSO's most loved new breeds, the Hanoverian. And for the whole week, each player could claim one totally free! We could hardly believe it.
After we'd finished our daily activities on Cookie, we immediately went to claim ours!
Here he is, our big, bold Hanoverian!
The randomly-generated name suggestion was so good we almost used it. It went on our list for later, though, because we think he looks even more like a name we've had on standby for a while.
Meet Inksplash!
Here he is next to Nightnimbus for comparison.
No mistaking them for each other up close, but you can see how it could happen from a distance.
It's been awesome having two new equines to take turns riding through all the special activities. It will probably never happen again, so we're thoroughly enjoying it.
Speaking of those special activities, it's high time I got around to that. The Soul Riders honorarily joined different NPC clubs for the event: Linda to the Bulldogz, Anne to the Bobcats, Lisa to the Stampeding Stars, and Alex to the Flying Foxes. Unfortunately, Clara could not join any of those clubs and was expected to participate in a player-led club. Fortunately, during the Western Festival, someone sent her a club request that we accepted, so even though we've never talked to anybody in the club, we technically are in one.
The player-led clubs can unlock rewards by doing certain tasks to earn points during the event, with a new batch of rewards revealed each week. Alas, it would be a huge challenge to earn all the rewards in a solo or tiny club - it's possible but would involve major repetitive activity while in a group. A club with at least a few other active members really is key.
During week 1, Clara could participate in 5 special activities: one with each club, and one race against a bus.
The Bulldogz send us forth to answer trivia questions in two different regions of Jorvik.
So far, there have been some repeat questions, but there has been a wider repertoire of them than we were expecting.
The Bobcats have set up a fancy cross country race through the Moorland/Fort Pinta area.
They went all out with the decorations! Good thing SSO horses do not spook.
The Flying Foxes have set up logic puzzle boxes. You have to figure out which box has the prize inside from the clues. Could be two are true and one is false, or vis-versa.
Though confusing, usually we can figure them out. If not, just repeat 1-2 times more and get there anyway by process of elimination. This one was particularly memorable because the second box had no statement. We assumed that meant we had to have one true and one false. Sure enough, box #2 had the prize!
The Stampeding Stars' challenge for us is to remember the sequence of 3-6 bleating sheep.
We find we can remember 4 without issue, but our memory gets dicey with any more than that. XD So far the game has had mercy on us and given a shorter sequence on the re-try if we fail a long one.
The Wheels on the Bus Race is not sponsored by any particular club but also lots of fun.
It's a little tricky in its early stages thanks to the party bus. Once we've gotten a good lead on it, it's smooth sailing. That's gotten easier as Cookie and Inky level up.
In week 2, the Dark Riders arrived late to the party and tried to show up the clubs/Soul Riders with their own activities.
Jessica alters the appearance of a random NPC in the festival area (reverts them back to original, pre-updated version) and challenges us to figure out who. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to figure out, but we've been stumped a few times.
This one was obvious!
I'm assuming the goal is to update all of the NPCs eventually, as it's a non-cohesive mixture right now.
Sabine transformed the Bobcats' race into a challenging nighttime one - good fun, and no getting zapped with lightning or anything.
Erissa has brought back a creepy voodoo doll version of the "mirror the monkey's path" task we did once in the mine.
And finally, Katja messes up scrapbook photos and challenges us to find the difference. Sometimes they're pretty obvious, while other times we are really glad we have taken before and after screenshots.
This was one of the easiest ones. :)
As you can probably tell from the length of this post, we're having a great time and wanted to make sure we can look back on all this fondly later. 10/10 from us, Star Stable, and happy birthday! =^)
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