In Zaikhal a defector from the renegade Virindi band has come with a mission for those adventurers with steely nerves who are willing to trust him. His tales lend credence to the rumblings that the Virindi have begun to establish a New Singularity, here on Dereth. He warns that if they are not successful that the renegades will win and bring this Singularity here, washing away life as they have come to know it. He provides them with a chisel and imparts knowledge of the storage facilities that contain the renegade's materials. Armed with this new understanding, warriors heed this latest call and strike deep in the heart of the Virindi onslaught, hoping to make this the final blow. The Isparians will prevail at all costs.

Alchemists, cooks, and mages, having deciphered old riddles and found new delights, have opened their shops to all and happily display the new wares that they have to offer. Alchemists have enhanced their already potent tonics that restore Mana and close grievous wounds. Cooks display and sell new candied items. Those with a penchant for sweets have been made to smile once more. Mages have fortified the stones that can be used to store Mana so that they break less often and have also, with the help of tailors, rewoven the magical aspect of apprentice's robes to be wholly beneficial to their wearer.

After seeing the success of the Zaikhal Arcanum in forging houses befitting Dereth's defenders, Queen Strathelar has commissioned a refurbishment of the pyreal to have a brighter appeal to the masses. New shops selling furniture and other wares have opened, their patrons stand ready to collect the new pyreal in exchange for the goods and services.

In towns all across Dereth inhabitants display festival masks in a show of strength in the face of adversity. The Virindi war seems to be winding to an end and the Isparians are rejoicing.

Yet new portals have opened. Something about these differs from the portals once forged through the magical might of Asheron. These have a sense of being made by another, as a way to coax the Isparians somewhere else. Who has forged them and for what purpose?

In fact, this month players with the proper training in Alchemy will actually be able to create their own Heath and Mana elixirs (Stamina elixirs are around the corner, too). There are some new cooking ingredients for the chefs of Dereth to experiment with and some exciting changes to Mana stones. We are also bringing back our October tradition of monster masks, with some new twists. And as for storyline. . . well, let's just say there are some very compelling quests this month.

Tomorrow's downtime will be slightly extended to compensate for our final preparations for Asheron's Call Dark Majesty; players should expect an extended download, much like September's. With this download comes the final pieces for Asheron's Call Dark Majesty as well as our regular monthly update.

We know there are a lot of questions about housing. One of the most important is how are we avoiding a “first come, first served” housing availability issue? This was one of our main concerns as we designed our housing system. We didn't want the sole criterion for house ownership to be who bought the expansion the fastest.

As a result, we created a number of different dynamics that will help to spread out, over time, the availability of our houses. First, the housing availability for the month of October will happen in three “waves.” The first wave will be timed to coincide with the release of Asheron's Call Dark Majesty. The second and third waves will be opened to the players at times yet to be determined in between the release and the day of the November event. It is only when the houses have been made available that players will be able to see what items they need to purchase that house, so that people will generally be unable to stockpile items in preparation beforehand. In some cases it will be downright impossible.

Most importantly, we are dedicated to adding additional housing as part of our monthly updates to ensure there will be numerous future opportunities to purchase a house.

We also have some exciting things coming in November with the mansions on the landscape. Initially, these large structures will not be available for sale. Coming in the month of November however, most will open up with a further allegiance requirement. In addition to that requirement, there will also be some allegiance-specific commands tied to it that you will only have with these allegiance houses.

This is indeed a very exciting time in Dereth and the entire AC Team would like to take this opportunity to thank all the players for making Asheron's Call the success it is today. It is because of you that we are able to give you this incredible month, and we are certain you will enjoy some of the additions to come in the following months.

--The Asheron's Call Team

• The Virindi redefine ruthlessness as they complete the last stages necessary to build their New Singularity.
  
• Writs of Refuge can be found, offering the chance for household ownership.
  
• Furniture vendors have also appeared, hawking everything from tables and chairs to art and candelabras.
  
• Alchemists can now develop Health and Mana elixirs.
  
• New cooking ingredients lead to new and tasty recipes.
  
• Autumn treats for everyone.
  
• Holiday masks return! The doomed creatures of Dereth have already begun to hide their hunted heads in terror.
  
  With the deepening of fall and celebration of the autumn season, the Virindi have renewed their campaign to wipe Dereth clean of all humanity. Be sure to check the Developers Notes for October, as well as the State of the Network, to learn more details of “The Widening Gyre”event. Join us as we continue the ongoing saga of Asherons Call, and well see you in Dereth!

• All Mana stones now destroy themselves at a flat 10% rate, regardless of their efficiency.
• Advanced alchemists can now craft their own versions of Health and Mana elixirs.
• The pyreal gets an icon makeover.
• The Olthoi have a new look. . .
• A bug causing a situation known as “Green Link Lag,” where players clients were receiving data but unable to output data back to the server, has been identified and fixed.
• A bug with the @fillcomps command has been fixed so that when a player switches between characters on the same account, the correct values for that character are displayed instead of those of the previous character.
• A bug introduced last month where the camera angle was skewed slightly has been fixed. The camera angle should be back to where it was before Septembers event.
• The bug where trying to stretch the enlarged chat UI box caused a crash of the client has been fixed.
• There was a bug where the Dread Ursuin was not dropping its trophy item at all. It is now dropping at the correct percentage.
• Apprentice Mage Robes have had the “Inept spells” removed, their Mana burn rate reduced, and their Mana tank total boosted to 250.
• Xarabydun gems “Impulse spell” has had its duration boosted from twenty minutes to three hours.
• There is now an exit portal in the Swamp Gardens.
• Upon leveling, characters immediately replenish HP, Mana, and Stamina totals.
• New characters now start with 500 pyreals instead of 100.
• New characters that have the Bow or Crossbow skill now start with 250 arrows or quarrels instead of 100.
• New characters that begin with magic skills now start with five of each starting component instead of one.
• The Soldier template now trains Crossbow instead of Bow, and specializes in Arcane Lore instead of training in it.
• The Bow Hunter template has new starting attribute values: 40/30/100/100/50/10, and a new set of skills, specializing in Bow, Melee Defense, and Arcane Lore, and training in Item.
• Each template now has a set of “recommended skills” which are listed in the description for each template in character generation.
  

Minor Details

• The locked gate in the subway dungeon has been removed.
• The North Exit portal in the North Black Claw dungeon now actually leads to the North Exit instead of the South Exit.
• The destination for the random landscape portal: “Mid Direlands Portal” is now, surprisingly enough, in the Mid Direlands instead of somewhere in Northern Osteth.
• There was a bug where a quest flag was not working for the Laboratory Key to the Sylsfear Chest. This has been fixed. The quest flag for this key is now two weeks.
• Players can no longer recall through portals created by the various portal gems (to the nine newbie towns and three archmages)
• Stats have been slightly tweaked on the weaker bows in the game to make them more similar with respect to one another: Longbow, Shortbow, Yag, Nayin, and Shouyumi.
• @help fillcomps now refers to the different types of component categories.
• The description of the Simulacra Helm now correctly refers to itself as a "helm" instead of a "shield."
• Fixed a bug where Gromnies were not always able to successfully attack players if the players were on uneven terrain. This has been fixed.
• Fixed a minor typo in creating Diluted Health Infusions where text referred to “fire” instead of “health.”
• Robe of the Tundra now covers the head.
• The icons for the starting Soldier template during character generation now display axes instead of swords.