Early Halloween Shopping

 

By Gemma Cleanslate

 Halloween looms. In one chat I heard the other day someone said they saw a store full and posted a slurl. Another remarked ,”I had better check my Christmas decorations” Well, it is not around the corner but Halloween shopping has opened at various popular stores so it is time to start looking. I flew over to one of my favorite Halloween shops I knew would be open to look . There is so much! Dench is a shop where I always find cute décor for any holiday.

 The Halloween shop is massive as usual. Before you enter the building itself check the outside lawns filled with outdoor décor for your parcels. Inside find skellies , wanderers, wearable spooky dancers that you can try out by sitting on them, and so much more. Check out the ghouls and goblins and lots of pumpkins.Some moan, or groan and add to the spookiness. How about getting a full avatar for the holiday. There are always gifts for group members and so many bargains! There is a whole wall full of 5L decorations. Large and small . Do not miss it!!

 

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rookery/20/33/222

I have a friend who always gives me a rezzday or Christmas gift that she created from a collection of fun things. I finally asked her where she gets the pieces she puts together so well with animation and sound sometimes. She pointed me to full perm places to look at the offerings. I went over to two just to see what was available. The places are amazing ! The walls of both full perm sites were full of items that could be used to build a display of your liking. Some of the stores have vendors on the wall that are collected for the holiday or type. Others are spread around all the walls. So searching for Halloween or autumn related items takes a while. Caming is necessary. I did see a couple of shoppers flying to be closer to choose what they wanted. Regular builders probably are used to this and have no problem. That is not me . Go take a look though if you love to combine items or pass them along to others .

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Optimal/230/244/21  

 

Also, there is the Sweetlips store which had great pumpkins!!

I love the name of this place, Meshed Potato.
 

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Graybar/135/93/21

There are many more autumn and Halloween sales to check out and I will be back with a few more.

Gemma Cleanslate

Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt For Halloween 2023

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

 A year ago, the Newser reported on the Ghostbusters-themed Ghost Hunt in the pony-themed Luna's Empire sim. A year later, the game is back. It's gotten some improvements, which make for more interesting gameplay. 

As before, the game isn't just for ponies, but open for just about all avatars to play (the very large and those smaller than tinies will likely have trouble). A board in the entrance room gives some instructions on how to play.

Just outside are more instructions about how to use the HUD, and explaining one change to the game: classes of ghost hunters. You can choose to be a "Binder" whose shots slow down ghosts. You can be a Hunter, whose capture of a number of regular ghosts can bring on a boss ghost. And finally you can be a Cleaner, whose shots can clean slime off other players.

Clicking the instructions outside, you get a hud, a map, two guns (one for ponies and the other made for human and anthro avies) and an emitter.

One other change in the game this year, the ghosts can slime you. The slime bar on your HUD goes up, and your screen appears streaked with good. Besides feeling icky, this can reduce the candy you get for busting ghosts. The more you're slimed, the less candy you get. To clean off the slime, you need to either bathe in the fountain near where you get the HUD and gear, or another player on "Cleaner" mode uses his gun to zap it away. Sometimes there's always a cleaner around to help you, and other times you wait for a while and end up walking to the fountain to wash up on your own. 

Most of the ghosts are regular ones, with one or two circles over their heads. 

 

They just take several seconds to zap, weaken, and trap. Just don't be too close so they won't charge, touch, and slime you. A typical reward is ten candies.

Some of the regular ghosts do look like "Slimer" from "Ghostbusters" (hard to see in this picture).

Less common are those with three, four, or five circles over them.

These boss ghosts are tougher, and will need multiple people to take down. Fortunately, you can call for help, and others will see a red "X" on the map where you did. The result will be people closing on the boss ghost to bust it to get a share of it's greater candy prize. 

 

About every couple hours, a much more powerful boss ghost will appear. You can't just simply zap him, but apparently one will need to take out some pillars around the pond he appears in first. 

It also throws splotches of slime around, which hunters will need to zap and clean up. 

Taking down this bad boy takes effort, and likely getting slimmed and cleaned up a lot. But the rewards are great. For helping out, I got 1000 pieces of candy.

 

 What to do with all that candy? One can use it to buy prizes. The majority of them are for ponies, but not every single one.

There is a scoreboard for the top players. Some guys and girls have done a lot of 'bustin. 

 

Going around, there's a variety of players.

There's also plenty of Halloweenish scenery (G-rated) in the sim.

Have fun ghostbusting.

 

 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunas%20empire%20events/215/26/14

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

 

 Various communities in Second Life are having some Halloween fun in various ways. For the Pony community of Luna's Empire, they've set up a "Ghostbusters" style game: Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt. It's not just ponies that are invited to take part, but it's open to all.

 

To take part, head to the Luna's Empire Events sim. In front of you are a few panels explaining the game, and a map of the sim. Between the two panels on the right is a proton pack and ghostbusting gun giver. Touch it, and you'll get guns made for both ponies and humans/furs, as well as backpack units (the later are just for show). 

 

 

The ghosts come in two main varieties, normal level and boss level. Normal level ghosts come either slow, which look like sheets, or fast, which look like "Slimer" from the movie and cartoon. Both have a single star over them. Just aim the gun a little above them, or right at them if you're a pony, and fire. Before long the ghosts are captured and you get a few points. As the guns were originally made for pony avatars, those adapted for humans and furs may misfire if not aimed just right over the spooks.

 

Less common but tougher are the boss ghosts. A single proton gun won't be enough to stop them. They have multiple stars over them, which is the number of players it takes to stop them. The zombie ponies need just a few. But Nightmare Moon needs several players all firing on her at once to take down. When finally busted, both give all players involved a larger amount of points. 

 

The points are good for more than just bragging rights. In front of the town hall are a number of prizes they can be exchanged for. Most are made in mind for pony avatars. Unlike the Caledon Downs Ghost Hunt, there are no actual Linden dollars up for grabs. 

The sim itself has been decorated for Halloween, giving it a cartoony spooky fun (some use the term "spoopy") look. At night, a few glowing wisps move about. And oh yeah, occasionally you'll hear something shout "BOO!" behind you. But when you turn, there's nothing there ... nothing you can see anyway.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunas%20empire%20events/215/26/14

Bixyl Shuftan

Halloween Attractions at Caledon

By Bixyl Shuftan

Earlier, the Newser reported on a Halloween party held at the steampunk-themed community of Caledon. For fans of the area and people who missed on the event or are looking for more fun there, or are just looking around for more spooky fun, there's more fun and games to be found there.

Cynthia Farshore's Caledon Downs has a few games that residents looking for spook-tacular fun. One is a Skull hunt courtesy of Shockwave Yareach. To start, look for one of three large "giver skulls" that will hnd you instructions, as well as a basket. "There are nineskulls hidden about, here and there.  When you find one, simply touch it (note: you must be within 20m).  The picture of a skull will appear in your basket, showing how many you have found.  Try to find all nine skulls and put their souls to rest.  But don't think this too easy.  Not to give anything away right now, but keep in mind as you search that the dead are not resting right now.  Just keep that thought in mind."

The skulls could be "in any public building, gun placement, tower, runway, hanger...  If you don't have to cam to go there, it can be there." They will not be underwater, inside vehicles, in trees, or private homes.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/99/90/32

Also at Caledon Downs, in the northwest corner of the sim, is a Haunted Steeplechase. To run it, go to the starting gate, touch it to start, and run the course as it goes up and down a nearby hill, jumping over obstacles. The best times are posted on the board. I saw no sign of a horse rezzer, so you'll have to provide your own steed.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/43/156/23

To the east, there's a shooting gallery. To play, press the sign to get the spider gun in your inventory, then click on it and select "add." You then press the green button to start a round, shooting spiders at the various monsters and ghosts. When you're done, your score is displayed.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Downs/202/81/44

To the south of Caledon Downs is Caledon SouthEnd. Here, you'll find a spooky amusement park in three parts. There are a number of rides to go on, notably four rides through haunts. The "Orphan Asylum" ride was busted, but the other three were working. Probably the scariest of these was a demonic-themed one which the maker felt they needed to add a disclaimer on.

There were also games to play, such as a "wack-a-mole" type game with witches popping out of nine pumpkins. There was another shooting gallery game, in which one was to shoot the zombies while avoiding hitting the human. In another shooting game, one shoots at witches, ghosts, black cats, etc. while avoiding hitting the pumpkin, "we need it for the pie." For those wanting a break from the spooky, there are regular rides such as a ferris wheel.

The main parcel of the carnival is at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20SouthEnd/129/41/23

Caledon is a big place, so there's likely to be a Halloween attraction I missed. But the ones I found are worth stopping by to look.

Bixyl Shuftan

Furry Fashion's Halloween Area

By Bixyl Shuftan

Furry Fashion is going all-out for Halloween. Besides being part of the "Quest Fur Cover" shopping hunt, they also have a special Halloween area above the sim. Besides the frightfully fun scenery, it also offers a Halloween Hunt with thirty items to find.

I had a few words with the owner of Furry Fashion, Amethysia (Amethyst Crystal), about their display. She told me, "Albright and I are both pagan and adore Halloween, witchcraft, etc. And we went to the occult shopping event a few months back and got the idea from buying way too much there, heh. Then she managed to get hold of a rare DRD mansion from a gacha that was just perfect as a witch house. And we just built around the house using it as the centrepiece. Over the years we've done everything fr a sim wide maze to a zombie game map to a asylum so we wanted something we hadn't done before. It's getting quite difficult to come up with new ideas after so many years.

"There's not only the witch house, but a skeleton basement (decorated by Klomonx), and a graveyard and a maze hidden under the basement. The hunt objects are red balloons - inspiration taken from the new "It" movie and encouragement from FF Admin I might add. And as usual QFC and Sim Merchants got offered free shops too for displaying their Halloween/fall products on top of the hunt. We'll be having a full weekend of Halloween parties in the Halloween area for the final October weekend."

Asking about the influence of the movie "It," Amethyst told me, "Yeah, 'It' is the new remake of the Stephen King movie. (I'm) not a clown fan myself, but several of the staff got hyped about it and when the suggestion of balloons was made for the hunt item, I was encouraged to use it, heh."

So what was the feedback from those who braved the area? "Most enjoy it," Amethyst answered, "Some say it's too scary, especially with windlight, heh. I plan to add extra prizes towards the end of the month as we get closer to Halloween too. Security have been doing shifts up there to make sure cheaters don't win. They've got to dress up in  Halloween avatars and outfits, and I think enjoy it." I asked what kind of Halloween avatars, and she pointed to the small avatar near me, "Rick behind you has been making Halloween stuff too. That's a mod he made that he's wearing right now. It's a Halloween pup version of the Crux. Rick's one of my staff leads." The pup's ears showed a definite Crux style, but the modded avatar was less strange and more cute in appearance, "He might even get me to wear it," Amethyst told me with a smile.

Amethyst reminded me as a business, Furry Fashion had multiple openings for jobs, "I've been pretty busy anyway. We're open for every position right now, and all staff are pitching in (smile). (It) always gets this way for Halloween. It's our favorite time of the year. I'll do a Xmas thing as expected, but Halloween is everything for me." Amethyst stated she wouldn't play Christmas music until well into December, "I was in catering, in a hotel kitchen, the same Xmas CD on repeat Oct to Jan., 7AM to Midnight every day..." One of Amethyst's staff spoke up, and that led to a conversation on the subject that lasted a few minutes.

Finally someone came over inquiring about where to find the Halloween area. Amethyst mentioned of the people doing the Halloween hunt, "we've had over 500 hunters so far." She offered to show me the place. Looking around, what I noticed the most was the darkness and fog, which gave the place an erie spooky air. There were various stalls, made to look like old buildings, where various merchants had their goods, outfits, avatar mods, and other goods.

There was also the witch house, which had a few cats and a "broom parking" area on the outside, in addition to a spooky cemetery next to it. One could open the door and to inside, looking among the rooms. Some rooms were stranger than others, one room full of books, another with ingredients, another with scrolls. Underneath was the cellar, which had a few skeletons and the entrance to the maze. I had my headphones on, and could hear various barks in the distance, screams, cries for help, and near the witch house cats meowing.

In places were various tombstones of the Furry Fashion staff. The first I noticed was Amethyst's: "I told you I was sick." I asked her about it, "Yeah, I let all staff pick their own graves, heh." She pointed to the one for Minty Melody: "Rainbow Overdose." Amethyst explained, "Minty is a unicorn in SL and rainbow addicted." She showed me a few others, which included, "should have gotten decaf." Amethyst grined, "I take no blame for the sayings, they all picked their own." She did say they tried to be fairly PG about their epitaths. Other than that, they all had a free hand with them.

Remember, there are 30 red balloons around the Halloween area to find, each with a free item. Looking around I found a number in less than a half hour. While many are just for women, some can be used by the guys. So visitors get some treats along with the tricks.

To get to the Halloween area, head to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Furry/217/197/3501.

Happy Halloween from Furry Fashion,

Bixyl Shuftan