[Bertram Anders]

-Over 50 new items have been added to merchants and treasure, and many of these have with special powers that aren't just your standard enchantment forge options! You can view the complete list and description of these new items here. Please note that in some cases an item's Item Properties may not seem that impressive, but if you read the description of the item you can find out what special abilities occur when using an item's unique power or by simply equipping it 



-Several of the more unique items to call out are:

1. Merchant in a Bottle - A Djinni merchant can be called forth from this bottle once per actual in-game day to buy and sell items. He possesses almost all of the new items that have been added in this update

2. Ring Gate - This can be used to instantaneously transfer items in your inventory to anyone else who possesses a Ring Gate

3. Aspect Mirror - This is a pretty neat tool that will create an ethereal image of you and a person you are speaking with, no matter where you are at. It's a great IC way to truly hold an IC discussion when you aren't in the same location as someone else

4. Wings of Flying, Winged Boots, & Lesser Wings Boots - These will allow flight a limited number of times, or times per day

5. Panic Button - This is a single-use item that casts darkness, then haste and invisibility on the user. Very useful if you're in a tough spot…

6. Sapphire Shards of Dead Magic - Extremely dangerous to friends and foes alike; these dead-magic-imbued sapphire shards will temporarily turn whatever area they are activated in to a dead magic zone where spells and magic will not function, and all magical items will have their properties stripped from them while in the area

7. Iron Flask - Can be used to capture and recall any outsider. Beware though; any attempt to recapture the same outsider is more difficult than the first attempt

8. Staff of Convictions - A quarterstaff that, when equipped, creates a powerful holy or unholy aura on its wielder against opponents of opposite alignment. In addition, it can cast a fireball/lightning combination spell numerous times per day

9. Shifting Staff - Up to three times per day this quarterstaff will polymorph its wielder into one of ~100 random creatures - from a chicken up to a dragon!

10. Incense of the Gorgon - Creates a very short-lived fog that can transform any within it to stone

11. Tovar's Instant Well - When used it creates a well at nearly any location from which you can then refill your water flask

12. Boots of Striding and Springing & Gloves of Swimming and Climbing - Provide +5 bonuses to the corresponding movement skills. For example, if you can't swim across that river, equip the Gloves of Swimming and Climbing to help you out

13. Gauntlets of the Heartfelt Blows - These gloves provide a damage bonus equal to the wearer's Charisma modifier (+1 minimum)



-In addition, the Miniature Steam Golem of Distraction has been updated to make it more useful, and cheaper. New versions of this item now have 25 charges, and each time you use it (which costs one charge) you will be protected from assassins until the next server reset. Using the Miniature Steam Golem of Distraction if it has already been activated since the last server reset will tell you so, and not take a charge away.

This change means that if you dislike Thay's automated NPC assassin system, you can use a Miniature Steam Golem of Distraction to essentially 'turn it off' every time you login



-For those of you who prefer to enchant your own items, there is also good news -

Almost all of the On Hit item properties can now be added to ammunition, thrown weapons, melee weapons, and armor at the Enchantment Forges!  While some (such as On Hit: Vorpal) are only available to DMs, nearly all of these 22 newly added On Hit properties can be selected by characters as they become more notorious



-Two new planar areas can be accessed from Dillomat's Tower: Cania and Nishrek.

1. Cania is a frozen level of the Nine Hells, inhabited by devils. Be sure you are dressed very warmly for its extremely bitter cold, or possess magic, to help survive the cold weather effects that you will face there

2. Nishrek is a realm of perpetual battle for orc-kind, and the home of the Orc pantheon. Very similar to Warrior's Rest, you can expect to be swept up into the never-ending battles that rage there



-Poison has been updated so that even if a PC succeeds on the saving throw to avoid a poison's secondary effect at the end of a turn, it will still be active on them. The PC still can, however, overcome the poison on the subsequent turn(s) by succeeding against the initial effect saving throw that will occur at the beginning of each turn (which in your combat logs will appear immediately after the secondary effect saving throw, as one turn ends and another begins)



-Druids and Rangers receive a bonus to their cooking skill when cooking over a campfire. Barbarians receive half that bonus when cooking over a campfire. In addition, every time any PC successfully cooks something, it will be tracked and the total number of those attempts will be used as a modifier to your cooking skill. So it is now possible to get better at cooking if you do it often enough and occasionally succeed



-7 new oozes has been added to the encounter system. Watch out for large and huge Aballin, flaming conflagration oozes, and the powerful Arcane Ooze which will drain spells from anyone who gets too close to it!



-Estates and estate interiors for all zulkirs are complete. Nevron and Yaphll now have their estates finished in High Thay, Druxus Rhym's estate is complete in northern Tyraturos, and Lauzoril has his hidden home created...somewhere...as well



-Within any zulkir, noble estate, or otherwise restricted area (such as in parts of the Tharchioness' Palace, the House of Oversight, etc), creatures and NPCs in those locations will go, or remain, hostile to any PC without the proper key. But if someone does have a key to one of these restricted areas, the NPCs will recognize them and anyone else in that person's party who is also in the area, and either go, or remain, non-hostile to that PC and their party 'guests'



-The following bugs have been fixed:

1. Undead creatures can no longer be killed or affect by the poison layer (4th color) of a prismatic sphere