Niami DenMother quickly scanned the letter that had just arrived, then let out a squee of pleasure. "Och! Agnor, forget that dusty recipe research frae a day or twa! Can ye fix up four bronto sandwiches, twa meat pies, a tiger shrimp salad, twa dozen o' those xegonberry cookies, an' three jumjum pies in a travel pack?" Mum thought for a moment, then added, "Oh, an' fill another pack wi' something frae yuirself tae eat today, o' course. I'll go visit th' cold storage an' grab a jug o' cider frae me, an' a jug o' beer frae ye."

Without waiting for a reply, Mum accessed the portal for her Everfrost summer home and entered the room that was only "cold", and grabbed the proper jugs. (One of the other rooms had extra enchantments on it to keep food frozen, but she didn't need anything from there today.) Then she grabbed a couple of the tinkered thingamabobs that were supposed to be "reflective insulation" and stuffed each jug into one. Kritta swore that the durn things no longer had a chance to backfire, and would keep cold things cold and hot things hot, so Mum was willing to give them one last time. Just in case, she'd best remind her apprentice to point the bottle away from himself when opening it later, unless he really wanted a warm beer bath.

Upon returning, she found that the stoic coldain had already packed a nearly-overflowing pack for her, and a significantly less-filled one for himself. Without a word, he took the two maybe-insulated jugs and packed them into the proper packs. Only a raised eyebrow indicated his curiousity at the preparations.

"We're going tae check out Tinkerfest, lad. I know ye're nae keen on fireworks an' other noisy explosions an' such, sae I'll check out th' goings-on at Gnomeland while ye do some cog-collecting at th' remote sites frae th' crafting. I was thinking that ye might want tae combine it wi' a visit tae Thurgadin tae see yuir family an' friends, since there's bound tae be a party on th' docks wi' th' gnomish pirates."

He'd nobly controlled a wince as Mum had started talking, due to the headaches that he often got when there was too much noise about. However, as the exuberant redhead continued, his spirits raised considerably. This might actually be a bit of fun, providing he could avoid his matchmaking sister while he was in Thurgadin.

"Afore we go, howe'er, let's swing by th' Qeynos house tae grab th' cogs I collected last year, an' catch up on th' news at th' Ironforge Exchange. We have nae been back since they started giving th' city a facelift, an' it will be guid tae check in now that th' chaos hae settled a bit."

Nodding, he shouldered his pack and followed Niami through the portal to her Qeynos library.

Mum kept up a stream of running commentary as she rooted through the holiday storage depot, located the shiny Tinkerfest cogs, and headed for the front door of the library. "I'm down tae aboot 400 cogs right now, an' shopping always takes up some o' that, sae make sure tae grab as many as ye can. If ye find tae much competition at one spot, try another. I'd nae recommend trying Freeport or Neriak, mind ye, but there should be cogs in Qeynos, Gorowyn, Kelethin, th' Dropship Landing area o' th' Moors o' Ykesha, th' docks o' Thurgadin, th' crash site in Bonemire, an' e'en some in Solusek's Eye. In each case, look frae a concentration o' gnomes, and ye're likely tae find th' right spot frae th' cogs. They only appear frae a bit o'er one week o' th' year, sae we need to scrounge lots an' lots. If ye think ye hae plenty, double it."

Agnor gently guided the chattering halfling back onto a sidewalk that had been moved several feet to the left since their last visit to the city. He knew she was so deep in plotting out what she'd do in the time available that she wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings as she moved along quickly. "Careful, Mum, things have changed a bit since we were last here."

Her blue eyes glinting, Niami turned to grin at him as she continued to scurry along. "Pffft, they may hae done a facelift, but I know these streets like -- och!"

Agnor barely managed to catch her in time as she tripped over a cog on the ground and almost fell headfirst into some odd gnomish contraption-platform-thingie that hadn't been in North Qeynos the last time that they had visited. However, he was still off-balance from the quick save when some fireworks went off almost in his ear, and he ended up in a heap on the ground."

"Och lad, ye need tae be more careful," Mum chided absently, eyes intent on all the shiny cogs on the ground. She seemed to be totally oblivious to the irony of her comment as she dove for one glittering shiny after another, tripping up passers-by and other would-be cog gatherers.

Gently, he guided her towards the shining portal that was beside the platform contraption. "Why don't we head for Steamfont, Mum. You can see what you want to spend cogs on this year, and give me a target number for gathering, and then I can go gather while you catch up on their new crafting techniques. Meanwhile, he was offering up a mental prayer. Please oh please, Brell, let me get away from these fools setting off gnomish fireworks before my skull explodes.

"Right! What are we waiting frae? Time's a-wastin'!" Mum scurried to the teleporter, while Agnor followed with a carefully-repressed sigh. Mum was a dear lady to work for, but when there were special events that involved crafting, she tended to get very, easily distracted as she tried to take in everything at once. At least this time, he managed to find out what she wanted him to be doing before she got too badly distracted.

Once they arrived at Gnomeland Security, he could already see her attention wandering towards some explosions that seemed to be happening down below. He gently nudged away from the ledge, following the trail of cogs to where a pair of gnomes were selling all sorts of gears, gizmos, recipe books, cloaks and more.

The third time that Mum had her attention waver in the middle of counting (which, of course, meant she had to start counting all over again), he put a hand on her arm. "Give me the numbers, Mum, and I'll add them up."

"Um. A set o' recipe books frae a relative, including th' master books. Fifty. Mayhaps one o' th' discs fra another. Three hundred. Oooh, shiny! At least a dozen o' those at twa cogs each. Builing blocks?!?! Um ... another one hundred, at th' least, frae those, but twa hundred would be better. Shiny! Hrm. Wings? Possibly. If sae, another five hundred, but Puffin may ne'er forgive me if I do. Shiny! Spares frae crafting during th' year, best make it another eight hundred or so. Gnorma said something aboot needing tae redo part o' her skiff. Shiny! Och! Almost forgot tae send th' pony oot frae more supplies."

She let out a shrill whistle, and her pack pony, Qhodependent, appeared in a puff of illogic, before he was sent off to scrounge in the Thundering Steppes for her. "An' mind ye, nae tormenting th' centaurs this time. I'll nae be free tae bail ye oot o' trouble this time!"

"What's th' damage, Agnor?"

The stocky coldain struggled to keep his traditional impassive manner as he replied, "One thousand, eight hundred and seventy-four. I'm not sure if we can --"

Mum flapped her hand at him. "We may need tae come back again tomorrow an' th' next day, an' I'll help wi' th' count as well. Jus' do what ye can, lad, an' I'll be helping oot around here tae earn a few more as well." As if they had a life of their own, Mum's feet were edging back towards the muffled sounds of explosions. "It looks like yon druid is aboot tae open a portal. Why do ye nae take it tae check oot Thurgain afore ye wander as needed. I think I need tae help oot down below frae a few."

Before he could get in a word edgewise, she whirled and was running off.

Just as he stepped through the druid portal, he overheard a stray comment that caused him a bit of thought over the next few hours. "There goes Mum. Let's start a betting pool for how long she's at it this year."

Somehow, he got the feeling that they weren't talking about cog collecting, either. Ah well, it couldn't be any worse than the candy corn brouhaha that he'd heard happened a few months before he started to work for her ... could it?

No matter. He had a job to do.

A couple of his coldain friends had stopped out to visit, and were following him around, chatting, as he collected cogs, and life was good. He was back in his homeland, he was catching up on all the recent news and he was discharging his job admirably.

All that came to a screeching halt, however, as he heard his sister Aggie's voice drawing nearer. " ... pretty quiet and all, but that can be a good thing. And he's got a great job apprenticed to the Master Crafter Ni-"

Pure panic washed over him as he realized the girls were going to have him cornered at the edge of the dock in a few more moments. He shoved a pouch into Timbok's hands and hissed at both him and Draxnor, "Collect for me for a few, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Both coldain snickered as he jumped on the nearby port pad leading to the aether races. Aggi's attempts at matchmaking for her bachelor brother were infamous, and they'd suspected that it was part of the reason Agnor had left the area several months before, seeking an apprenticeship elsewhere. However, since they also knew that he'd never been too keen on flying, they guessed he was feeling pretty hounded indeed if he'd voluntarily join a flying race.

What even Agnor hadn't realized was that a lot of his dislike of flying came from the constant racket made by the gryphons that were the preferred mode of flight in the Great Divide. Shrieks, clacks, more shrieks, chirps, and more shrieks. It was enough to make his head explode. While the clatter of the flying device was a bit noisy, it was nowhere near as shrill as a gryphon, and about halfway through the race, Agnor actually found himself enjoying the flight so much that he took some extra loops and dives, just to celebrate being able to swoop around without all the extra screeches and shrieks. Of course this messed up his race time, but he could always race again, right? He could even justify it as earning tokens, if at a much slower rate than just scrounging them off the ground.

Naturally, the moment that he landed, his sister was right there waiting for him, with another coldain lass in tow. With a mumbled, "Sorry, sis, I need to earn tokens for my boss. I'll try to swing by later!" he was off again. Hopefully the girls would get bored after a run or two, and he could always go elsewhere to farm tokens if need be.

Five races later, he settled to ground again, and found his friends doing more gossiping than cog collecting. They stopped dead at the sight of a huge grin on Agnor's normally impassive face, and Timbok went as far as dropping the cog-pouch on the ground in surprise. Agnor just wasn't the smiling sort, and to call them surprised would be an understatement.

"Sorry, man, we didn't get many cogs gathered. We had to fend off your sister for a bit, and -"

"That's fine. I'll collect more soon. First, I'm going to check out the race in Lavastorm, and maybe the one in Tenebrous, too, before I head somewhere quiet to gather. Thanks for running interference." And with that, he was off, leaving behind him two very dumbfounded friends.

So intent was he on getting to the other race areas, that he didn't even hear Draxnor's comment, "Wow, that halfing boss of his is really rubbing off on him. Old granite-face cracked a smile!"

A couple hours later, a badly windburned Agnor was finally cog collecting with a vengeance. Since he'd spent far longer than planned on the races, he ended up bribing several children with baked goodies in return for their help collecting cogs.

He was still a bit behind on his desired cog count when something the children were saying to each other caught his ear.

"Yeah, well my da says she was at it blowing up clockworks for three and a half hours the first year, and almost five hours the second year. He figures he can win the betting pool with a guess of seven this year."

"Yeah, but did you see the size of the pack she had stuffed full of food this year? Pop says that it should last her a good twelve hours before she runs out of energy!"

Suddenly, things clicked into place. Mum's distraction at the sound of the explosions near Gnomeland Security, the amount of food she wanted packed, the stray comments.

An idea began to form as he did the math on how long that much food would last Mum on a normal day, then some division based on exertion and excitement. Eyeing the position of the sun, he quickly headed to Gnomeland Security.

Mum was still going strong, zipping along, cackling and making clockworks go *BOOM*

He found the area where some hot and heavy betting was going on, and found a few folks willing to make bets with cogs instead of gold.

Each of the people he bet with, mind you, thought he was insane to bet that she'd be too wiped to do more in another half an hour (leaving the grand total time Mum spent exploding clockworks at 8.25 hours), since she seemed to be going full steam ahead. However, since he was only betting cogs, not gold, they didn't feel too badly about taking his bet. One could always use more cogs somewhere, after all!

Sure enough, half an hour later, Mum was not only out of food, but out of "oomph" and ready to call it a day. Her red hair had escaped her braid and was flying every which way, her face was almost as red as her hair from the exercise, and there was a manic grin on her soot-stained face as she suddenly sat down on the grass and fanned herself.

"That was grand fun," she panted heavily. "But th' rest will hae to wait until th' morrow, methinks."

It was hard for Agnor to suppress a smile as he went to collect his cog winnings. If Mum was planning on more explosive antics on the morrow, it meant he'd not only have enough cogs to make Niami happy, despite his racing distractions, but he could get in some more racing and cog collecting himself, and maybe, just maybe, get a pair of flying kajiggers for some noise free flight. He could even justify the expense as a work-related expense, right? After all, Mum did send him off traveling on errands, and he couldn't keep borrowing her grumpy gryphon, right?

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Story lovers! For the story behind Mum's explosion mania, see the stories in the Tinkerfest 2010 preview and the Tinkerfest 2011 preview. For the story behind Agnor's past escapades with Mum's gryphon, check out the GU63 preview.

Welcome to the Tinkerfest 2012 preview! This gnomish celebration of things that go click, whirr, ping and boom is scheduled to run from Sunday, July 29, 2012 through Sunday, August 12, 2012. (Note that the end date has been extended from the 8th to the 12th!)

This year's celebration will feature four aether races (Great Divide, Butcherblock, Lavastorm, and Tenebrous Tangle

Home cities have cog-bestrewn celebration areas (Due to revamps since last year, Freeport's will be at Inventor's Outlook and Qeynos's will be in Capitol District at Inventor's Threshold). Additional areas can be found in Solusek's Eye, the Moors of Ykesha, and the Thurgadin docks. As in past years, each of these spots will feature a one-way portal to the main Tinkerfest celebration in Gnomeland Security.

NPC Tarly in Gnomeland will carry the items and recipe books from past Tinkerfest celebrations, and Myron will carry this year's vendor offerings. (See below for the items crafted from his new recipe books, as well as the new vendor-only items.) Note that most of the items on both vendors will require the "shiny tinkerfest cog" ground spawn as currency. These items are harvested using the gathering skill in the locations mentioned in the paragraph above this one. NOTE: Ample Harvest works on cogs, allowing folks with the proper tradeskill AA ability to have a chance to harvest two cogs instead of one. You might also want to make sure that you also are using harvesting tools that reduce gathering time.

Several quests will be returning this year: �Tinkerfest Cheer�(Repeatable), �If They Only Had a Brain� (Repeatable once every year), "Great Balls of Fire� (Repeatable up to 35 times), �The Legend of the Geargobbler� (Repeatable once every year), �Friendly Competition� (Repeatable once every year), and the �Tinkered Parts Collection� (One-time only, as is usual with collections). Note that some of the appearance items from the new Master Tinkerer Companion 2.0 require primary ingredients from the quest rewards. (The Legend of the Geargobbler lets you choose one of the two shields, among other items, and If They Only Had a Brain offers your choice of one of the two blades, among other items. If memory serves, Friendly Competition might also have something among the quest reward options, but I may be misremembering.)

Without further ado, on to the goodies!

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Tinkerfest Blueprints 4.0

This no-trade book requires level 25 tinkering to scribe.

Block of Impacted Metal	Half Block of Impacted Metal	Narrow Divider of Impacted Metal
Railing of Impacted Metal	Rounded Tile of Impacted Metal	Short Column of Impacted Metal
Stair of Impacted Metal	Tall Column of Impacted Metal	Tall Divider of Impacted Metal
Block of Rhodium	Half Block of Rhodium	Narrow Divider of Rhodium
Railing of Impacted Metal	Rounded Tile of Impacted Metal	Short Column of Rhodium
Stair of Rhodium	Tall Column of Rhodium	Tall Divider of Rhodium
Tinkered Titanium Gear Shaft	Tinkerer's Conburnable Chamber	Tinkerer's Large Conburnable Chamber
Tinkerer's Open Coal Box	Titanium Hexagon Gasket	Weight Bearing Tinkered Titanium Gear

New Vendor-Only Offerings

The items from past years are returning as well (sold on Tarly), but the below are the new buy-only offerings on Myron.

Blue Canvas Oscillating Kajiggers (Level 85 crafter or adventurer to use) 500 cogs	Dark Canvas Oscillating Kajiggers (Level 85 crafter or adventurer to use) 500 cogs	Tan Canvas Oscillating Kajiggers (Level 85 crafter or adventurer to use) 500 cogs
Myron's Combustible Gearskif Ground Mount, 300 cogs	Myron's Energized Gearskif Ground Mount, 300 cogs	Myron's Illuminated Gearskif Ground Mount, 300 cogs
Rusty Powered Wrench	Tinkered Electro Gyro-Sphere	Horizontal Xegonite Sprocket (Active) (animated)
Horizontal Xegonite Sprocket (Inactive)	Tinkered Xegonite Drill (Active) (animated)	Tinkered Xegonite Drill (Inactive)
Vertical Xegonite Sprocket (Active) (animated)	Vertical Xegonite Sprocket (Inactive)

Master Tinkerer Blueprints 2.0

This no-trade book requires 400 tinkering to scribe. Four of these no-trade appearance-only items require primary ingredients that are quest reward options from Tinkerfest quests, and one, the rusty powered wrench, that is sold on Myron at Gnomeland Security, for 10 shiny tinkerfest cogs.

Tinkered Buckler of the Great Gear	Tinkered Buzzblade
Tinkered Mechanized Blade	Tinkered Powered Wrench
Tinkered Shield of the Great Gear