This information has been gathered during the beta testing phase of GU109. Things WILL change, and more items are being added to the vendors, and so on. Please keep in mind the changing nature of testing when reading this, and expect frequent updates.

March 16, 2019 will see the rise of much mischief afoot -- and a lovely new feature for crafters! I will only touch briefly on the adventuring side of things, with the blurbs from the official announcement, then I will dive into the crafting side of things and the requisite eye-candy!

Runnyeye Fabled

As is the nature of Bolgin Serilis' disaster-inducing creation – the goblin – wherever they go, mayhem follows. And nowhere on Norrath, or on any other known (and quite possibly unknown) plane of existence, is this more evident than within their underground citadel of Runnyeye. However, it's not just the Runnyeye clan of goblins causing a raucous heard as far away as The Fool's Gold. Oh no, they've decided to throw a party! A great gathering of goblins, from every nook and cranny, have descended into the dungy depths of Runnyeye, and are just waiting for someone to crash their party. That someone might as well be you, brave adventurers!

And as is typical of goblins, they couldn't decide on a theme for their gathering, so you get your choice of parties to crash! If you're the [Solo] type, then brave the stench on your own or with one other. If you want to bring your own clan (up to 6), then cause an even greater stink in their [Heroic] gathering! But why stop there? Three tiers of unruly goblin [Heroic] gatherings and their hoards of treasure await your rummaging, so get in there and cause a riot. Those goblins won't know the difference! You can reach their Fabled citadel from the Prophecy Portal Gallery within Myrist, the Great Library.

Castle Mischief (Raid)

Long thought to have been lost, Castle Mischief sits nestled into the rocky cliffs of the Cobalt Scar... or at least it does for now. It is rumored that the castle can exist anywhere Bristlebane wills it to be, giving him access to anywhere in Norrath and beyond! The castle was recently discovered by an ex-boatmaster for the New Combine when excavating an abandoned mine in the area. Inside the mine, strange architecture and odd creatures were discovered, but they dared not enter the castle without the proper force to watch their backs. That is where you come in, dear adventurer!

Explore the castle, figure out its mysteries, and deduce just what Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane has been up to for so long. See what strange creatures he commands and see for yourself how far Bristlebane’s reach can go... though you may just find yourself in a familiar place with no idea how you got there, and no idea how to get home. If you do manage to make it through the twisted halls and back, you're sure to discover new items and puzzles.

Castle Mischief is only available as a raid for four groups of players. However, the difficulty rests toward the low to medium difficulty so that everyone, even pick up groups, can join in on the mischief!

The Anchorage ... and Public Tradeskill Apprentices

You will note that the Castle Mischief blurb mentions someone excavating an abandoned mine in the area. Wellllll, crafters play their part in some of that digging as well!

While the armies of Qeynos and Freeport are no longer united under the banner of the New Combine, not all dreams of unity are gone. Whilhelm Nam’terin, formerly a dockmaster for the New Combine, wants to create a global research society to discover new and unique curiosities. This group will be called The Anchorage, and it will be a place for skilled artisans to gather and pool their knowledge and research.

You, my bold crafter, are needed in order to help that dream become a reality. From helping to clear out and old mine in Cobalt Scar, to recruiting specific skilled artisans/researchers, you will be an active part of making the Anchorage a reality.

Your part is not complete once the Anchorage is up and running, either! The four NPC's that you recruited, accompanied by their trusty assistants, will need your help in order to speed up their research.

Yes, research, but on a global scale, instead of some personal assistant in your home. These four NPCs, representing four different research groups (Hammer, Feyiron Skillets, Ak'Anon's Finest, and All's Eye) will take up posts inside the newly-cleared mine alongside their assistants. Once the set up their research areas there, you will be able to do daily missions for all four of them, speeding up their research times a little and earning you the Anchorage Chit currency that can be spent within the Anchorage.

Research?

Each of the four researchers has a list of items to research. You have no control over this list or the order in which they research, but you DO have some input on how fast their recipes unlock for the entire server. Every 45 minutes, you and any other crafters on your server who have access to the Anchorage will be able to fill requisitions from each of these NPCs, speeding up their research time and earning you chits that can be used to buy various items. (More on that below.) These requisitions will require that you go harvest resources from any Chaos Descending overland zone, then craft an item for them. Handing in the requisition speeds up that researcher's studies a bit more, giving them further progress on the recipe that they are researching. When research is done, they will begin research on the next recipe on their list, while their assistant will then have the completed recipe for sale amidst their other offerings.

Over time, much like our personal tradeskill apprentices, the researchers will also gain rank, progressing from their initial rank 1 status, to rank 2 and then to rank 3. (I don't know how many ranks there are, but I know there are at least three.) With each additional rank, their assistants will also unlock more items to sell.

To make this totally clear: You, and every other player on your server who has access to the Anchorage can each do four requisitions every 45 minutes - one for each researcher. In order to unlock your access to the Anchorage for your account, you will need to be a level 110 crafter who has completed The Scrivener's Tale (CD crafting timeline).

Items to Buy?

When first starting out, the assistants will each have only a few items for sale. Included among those items will be "A Mischievous Castle" house item that acts as a port to Cobalt Scar for those accounts who have completed the new questline to account flag them for the Anchorage. (More on the questline in the quest article linked at the bottom of the page.) As recipes are researched and unlocked, they will also be sold on the vendor and will be Artisan recipes (not tied to a specific crafting class). As researchers rank up, more buyables will be added to their assistants. Who knows? Maybe they'll even spruce up the Anchorage a bit after they get settled in a bit more? :D

While all we have seen so far for items on these vendors have been house items, other items will be on there as well. They are still incoming on beta, so we have no details regarding them yet.

At last check the plan was to make the recipes be 5-charge recipes. (The original plan was 3, but we talked them up to 5.) The fear was/is that if the recipes were unlimited use, folks would only help until the items that they wanted were researched and then no longer participate. This way, they will have a reason to keep helping the researchers and earning chits.

Keep in mind that those of us who tested this only got to see the initial offerings on the vendors, plus some of the researched house items. Details on one segment of the questline are intentionally sketchy -- the devs don't want everything "spoiled" before the GU even goes live.

You can find the available quest details here.

You can find the available eye-candy here.

You can find the master research list, including non-furniture items here.

Last, but not least, you can find the preview videos here:

• Mirt's Illuminating Beam
• Vendor-Only Furniture
• Researched House Items