In this news update is the announcement of our next storyline prompt, Tone of the Bells, and of our dragon-themed event, packed full of contests and activities!

Want to catch up on the story? Visit our Current Storyline Hub!

Story

"You weigh the options on where to go next, and figure it’s better to find answers about the serpent trinket before chasing it across the island. The Great Sycamore, the gargantuan tree that stakes down from the heavens into the horizon, is your next destination. The area is rumoured to be haunted, but that doesn’t stop you as you trudge through the dense underbrush.

"Eyes, ears, and whiskers alert, you watch for any signs of a clue towards the extinct primlin race, but nothing emerges from the underbrush or hints at a civilization from before your time. It is just silence, where even the wind’s breath on the trees is faint. The closer you get to the Great Sycamore, the more still the world becomes, as if the forest itself has died. Although as a thorned vine snares your paw, you realize the plants are doing fine. More than fine, in fact. They are thriving, rivaling even the sky. The element of Life drowning out the Air.

"You look around uneasily. This is no place for a Water-aligned species such as yourself, but you choose to stay. There is no reason to turn tail now; you’ve been afraid before, but you can sense you're getting closer to unraveling this mystery. It’ll just take a little bit of searching.

—————

"Lake Tide huddled herself into the corner of her room, surrounding herself in a shelter of her work: dozens of messages and conferences recorded onto many different types of stone tablets, tax reports from the bazaar shops, lists of new hatched ‘loxes quickly growing too old to remain in the Shelter. Lake Tide picked up one dusty slab and began to read.

"Then a knock came from the entryway of the doorless room. She lifted her head to see a pastel aqualox peeking around the edge of the doorway.

"'Percival?'

“'Hello, Miss Lake Tide,' his voice barely reached Lake’s ears. 'Romulus was hoping you were available for a meeting in the southern chapel.'

“'Did he say for what reason?'

“'He did not, Miss.'

“'So we can assume the matter may be trivial?” Lake returned to her tablet. “He is like that, you know. Taking other’s time as though he is Aysu herself, although we all have strong ties to our goddess.'

"Percival said nothing, and Lake looked up from the tablet again.

“'That includes you, Percival.'

“'My connection to Her Greatness pales compared to Romulus’, and even more so your own.'

"Lake withheld a scoff. 'You are simply inexperienced. I’d give it a few more years before writing yourself off.'

“'You seem to believe strongly in us.'

“'We live our lives as priests, Percival. It is our job to have faith.'

“'And if we do not?'

"Lake remained quiet, staring into the horizon veiled by the marble stone wall.

“'Tell Romulus I will be down in an hour.'

“'I will see to it.'

"Percival, who still stood in the shadow of the doorway, bowed and turned down the hall. As his footsteps faded, Lake Tide sighed, setting aside the tablet she had grown too distracted to read. Something tugged on the threads of her mind and plucked along her whiskers like a harpist. The air was amiss, and she began to truly wonder for what reason Romulus’ was requesting her so late in the evening. She stood up with a stretch and then began to slowly make her way to the chapel.

—————

"You kicked a clod of mud into the air, sending it plummeting into the river with a scattering splash. You’ve been searching ceaselessly for any type of clue to the primlins, drifting as far as the river beds of upstream Seville Creek, but you have found nothing. No sliver of writing, no fragment of a charm, not even the eroded remnants of a building. It’s as if whatever Lost in the Currents sent you to find has simply evaporated. You’ve scoured the underbrush and fished through the fourth dimension with your whiskers, but you are now really beginning to believe the library deity has steered you wrong.

"Panting, you suddenly realize just how tired you are. When was the last time you slept? Legs trembling like a withered sapling, eyes blinking into a blur, you slowly trod to the base of a nearby tree and slump into the embrace of the surfacing roots. Your breathing evens and your heart slows as you slip into a deep, dreamless slumber.

"Something shifts in the bushes, and you jolt back into waking. From within the glowing underbrush, a glimmer of light catches your eye. As the creature emerges, a memory does as well. You are able to recognize this golden creature as a Bellji. It stares at you with its single, glowing eye, but you remain level-headed. Maybe the sleep has yet to fully waft out the windows of your woken mind.

"The Bellji tilts its head, revering you for a moment. It then shakes itself rapidly, freeing a pair of objects from the cavity of its mask-esque face. The Bellji adjusts them on the ground in front of you, pushing one away from the other. It then returns to the center, plopping down onto the earth, each object an equal space away. It looks at you, unwavering and unbreathing. You glance down at the two objects.

"To your left is a tangled thread, like a strand of fishing line scrambled into a misconfigured nest. Hidden deep within the entanglement seems to be some kind of charm.

"Meanwhile, the object to the right is a perfectly round fruit, no bigger than one of the digits on your paw. The sun-golden yellow berry carries the aroma of a ripe peach.

"The Bellji looks patiently at you, its eye flickering like a candle. Does it… want you to take an object?"

Updates

We're back again, Island Dwellers!

Our storyline keeps moving along, answers seemingly just around the corner, but yet another choice has been placed before you. But as you are deciding what item the Bellji offered to you, trouble is brewing between the Central Shores and Midland Marshes. Hopefully, you're not in too deep over your head! There's no turning back now, so let's focus on what's been presented before us in the next storyline prompt, Tone of the Bells.

But the storyline's not all that's happening this month...

"Here be dragons" event

What's there not to love about oversized lizards? Someone emerged from the deep, and with him came flocks of these fantastical beasts! Welcome to our "Here Be Dragons" event! For now, we have three prompts at the ready. From a DTA (Draw-to-Adopt), to a Design a Pet contest, to our (naturally) dragon-themed Activity Corner, there's much to do, but still so much more to come! We hope you're ready for fire-breathing beasts around every corner during the month of August.

UPdates on site features

We reached our 50-member milestone at the start of July! For it promised features to improve your hoards, including on-site trade listings, hoard wishlists, and a donation shop. Sadly, these are still in the works, but we promise they'll come along soon! Our goal is early- or mid-August, but keep an eye on our Dev Logs for more updates. Our first mini-game, Minesweeper, also falls into this category (delayed due to a lack of preventative measures for cheating, which we are addressing). As always, we thank you for your patience!

The Shelter

We've found a flaw with our Shelter feature, where there was little incentive to donate Safirans. We have updated the approval process to grant Friendship Florins alongside Opals. This means that all designs surrendered to the Shelter will receive the estimated Opal value in addition to one (1) Friendship Florin, which can be used to purchase a Shelter Safiran. Shelter Safirans will also no longer be able to be purchased for Opals unless the design has been in the Shelter for more than one (1) month. And one final note: all surrenders to the Shelter will also award your account a special patch as an additional thank you!

We hope these changes make surrendering designs more fair, but we're still very much open to hearing your suggestions!

REMINDERS

• Our monthly prompts, Generous Spirit and Poco Discovery, have both been refreshed for the month of August.
• The Activity Corner has been refreshed as well, this time around featuring a free-choice dragon theme for the "Here Be Dragons" event!
• With our Shelter update, keep an eye out for this month for batches of dragon-themed aqualoxes that may appear.