Halloween In The Haunted Woods

     For most of Neopia, Halloween is a fun holiday of trick-or-treating, costume parties, and getting in touch with your scary side. But in the Haunted Woods its Halloween all the time! Unhealthy treats, outlandish clothes, and horrors are all common sights and occurrences. While they celebrate it in some capacity, what do the residents actual think of and do anything different for:

     MAIN WOODS:

     The Brain Tree

     "BAH! Halloween does nothing but bring noisy Neopians as far as I’m concerned. Oh sure, a batch of them do my quests so I get important knowledge, but that’s just as many as I need to reward. Usually that’s not a problem, but many of them have the GALL to be UPSET with MY rewards! It’s not MY fault the reward doesn’t equal to what THEY spent; THEY should go complain to the ESOPHAGOR about his GLUTTONOUS demands! ... Though all this pales in comparison to a more dire threat. I normally wouldn’t say anything, but nowadays everyone seems to know about it: the Beast (Editor’s Note: The Brain Tree is talking about the monster only known as ‘The Beast That Lurks Behind the Tree’). Something about Halloween makes the Beast more active, more powerful, and more daring. I still can fight it back but on that night it removes much of my bark. Reporter, MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL! Tell your readers on Halloween if I’m GRUMPY than I SHOULDN’T be bothered, I’m likely dealing with the Beast and preventing it from ENGULFING ALL OF NEOPIA IN DARKNESS!"

     The Esophagor

     "Hallloweeenn is greeaaatt! Alll the CAAANDEE and Neoopiians willling tooo give mee their CAAANNDEE, durring annny time of the yeear it is when I feeel my FULLLEST. Aand mmost of the tiime they onlly waantt the ANNSWERRSS tooo the Braaiin Treees UUUSELESSS reccorrrds. They leeave mee allonne affter that... BUT some commme back aand COMMPLAAAIIN abbout my quesstss beeing more exxppensivve than theirr rewaaard. COMMPLAAIIINN TOOO THE BRAAAIINN TREEE ABBOUTT HIISSS SELLFISSHHNESSS, II ONNLLY PRROVVIDDE THEE ANSSSWERRSS! BBut be qquick abbout itt, I can SENNSE movvement in the grrounnd, THOUUUSANDSS of mootionnlesss graavess stiiir as their occcupannt DIGGS uup to the ssurfface. Nnot evenn Thee Awwakkenned caausse THISS mmanee tooo rrise."

     Edna

     "So that’s what all the yelling is about, I can hear the Brain Tree and the Esophagor moaning from here. What are my thoughts of Halloween? It’s a good time to stock up on supplies and get rid of old food I have rotting around. But the increased quest giving does get in my way of potion brewing, and of course during the most important part of the year. Why so important I brew these potions on Halloween? Oh you naive child, thinking that day is about running around in silly costumes and gathering sweets. Halloween is when the boundary of the living world and after life is at its weakest; furthermore the Haunted Woods is where the boundary is the thinnest. The supernatural and magical content reaches its peak during the witching hour, at this time even the most difficult potions become an ease to brew. What are some of these potions? NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! Like you could understand the significance of tongue hair grower! *Slams door shut*"

     Eliv Thade (translated for reader’s convenience)

     "Heehee, oh I love Halloween. I just put a jack-o-lantern here, a bat garland there, and voila! I have new guests to solve my puzzles. Sure at first they kick and scream at the door, BUT THAT’S BECAUSE THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND MY BRILLIANCE! What’s the point of doing a puzzle if your life isn’t on the line? When they’re done NOT PLAYING and finally start running through my maze is when the fun begins. Jack-o-lanterns and bat garlands aren’t the only thing I set up on Halloween; I created an illusion using moonlight to make it seem the house has rearranged itself. One second you’re walking through the living room into the hall but end up in the bathroom! When you try leaving the way you came you’re now in the kitchen, and try leaving the kitchen to enter the master bedroom. IT DRIVES THEM UP THE WALL, HAHAHAH! Of course it all depends how much moonlight there is, less moonlight the less rearranging and if there’s none you’re absolutely stuck! Though no matter how many come by and never leave, there’s that ONE I REALLY WANT but she never walks by anymore; she now spends all her time with that SWAMP WITCH. AWWRRRRRGGGHH!"

     Kau Fortune Teller

     "Yes, come in, come in. I saw your arrival even before you entered the Haunted Woods. You talked with the Brain Tree, the Esophagor, Edna, and Eliv Thade already, no? I saw it all in my crystal ball. Spying? Not exactly, more like watching what you do. But you don’t want to know about that; you want to know about the Gypsy Camp on Halloween. For years we who are called ‘gypsies’ do not partake in festivities of the dead, we celebrate life and honor the dead by letting their spirits rest. On Halloween we eat merrily, sing loud, wildly dance, play games, tell stories, and give off an aura of life that it wards off even the creeping shadows of the Haunted Woods. If you are ever wandering the Haunted Wood at Halloween and see the Gypsy Camp don’t be afraid to join in. The more living souls the stronger the aura of life."

     Krell Vitor

     "Team Haunted Woods is always invited to the central Halloween festival. Not only do we get to meet our fans or other Yooyuball and Altador Cup fans, but hopefully our status keeps visiting Neopians in the central Halloween festival. Do I need to tell you the Haunted Woods isn’t safe on Halloween? Not even the Main Woods are safe, at least not without the main residence providing assistance in guarding it. We’re surprised how successful we’ve been, but accidents still happen usually outside our control. There was that time the woods was filled with ghosts due to the heroes of Neovia digging up all their graves, or that year Faerieland fell and became our neighbor, and then that time a monster who entered a food eating contest went on a rampage. Keeping the central Halloween festival safe can be pretty hard sometimes, though what’s harder is convincing Neopians to stay there. Come on now, not only is there trick-or-treating, costume parties, and other spooky fun but you get to hand out with Team Haunted Woods! What better time are you looking for?"

     DESERTED FAIRGROUNDS:

     Sidney

     "All of uss in the Dessserted Fairgroundsss look forward to Halloween. We’re not too far from the cccentral Halloween fessstival sso plenty of Neopiansss come to play our gamesss. They don’t let a ssilly ssstory keep them from winning big, hehe. Why yessss, I am talking about the ssstory of not ssstaying in the fairgroundsss after midnight. There’ss no problem about coming here before midnight, jussst don’t sstay. Why? Well, the story. It’ss plenty true. You don’t want to be in the fairgroundsss after midnight. We ssstandeesss don’t ssstay, and neither doess the ssshopkeepersss who sset sshop here. Eleven we clossse sshop, gatesss closssess at midnight, ssix in the morning it opensss. Don’t know what happensss beyond the closssed gatesss, but better quessstion is do you want to? Hehehe."

     Spooky Food Shopkeeper

     "Bleh, I suppose the increase in sales is nice, but not what has to be done to get it. I’d rather close shop on Halloween, or better yet sell out of everything before night time. Huh? Oh I couldn’t care about going to that Halloween festival; I just don’t want to be around my possessed inventory. On Halloween all my food items come to life and try to eat each other, my customers, or me. I have to put the food in cages or tie them up in chains, and then I have to remove most of them from the cages and chains when Halloween is over, bleh! And it’s not just me, Spooky Furniture and Haunted Weaponry has the same problem though on a bigger and more dangerous scale. We check on each other every hour to make sure one of us didn’t get trapped or needs a healing potion. If we didn’t make a lot of NP on Halloween we wouldn’t bother opening, but of course that’s when we get a sudden boost in customers *sigh*"

     MAGAX

     "With Nox constantly haunting me I decided to take over his castle, though oddly enough I think that shortened the amounts of haunts. Which is worrying, oh sure, you may have heard one or two stories where Nox and I have acted friendly towards one another since his passing, but let’s not forget he’s still evil. You want to know what I do on my Halloween night? I’m somewhere in the deep woods trying to stop Nox’s next evil plan that would resurrect him and take over Neopia. And let’s not forget all the minions he summons to try and stop me: ghosts, zombies, Werelupes, vampires, elementals. Not that they’re hard to find, they’re all over the place during Halloween. And of course there’s than the mazes and traps I need to fight throOOOOOooooo..." *As MAGAX was speaking a trap door opened underneath him*"

     (Ghost of) Hubrid Nox

     "HAHA! Worked like a charm! Sorry to interrupt, but surely you’d want to hear my side of the story? Yes, since my death my recent plans have been involved resurrecting myself, I actually don’t do world conquering schemes on Halloween. Aside from it being cliché, there’s also too many other evils doing their world conquering schemes on Halloween. But what those fools don’t realize is that by doing so their counteracting each other and straining the dark magic thin. A dark spell to take over Neopia is theoretically possible, but you’d need all the dark magic in the Haunted Woods during Halloween at the witching hour and good luck with pulling that off! HA! No, evil masters like me know that it’s best to prepare for your world conquest plan on Halloween; I personally focus building up my undead army with a little potent spell casting and potion mixing. Oh, and now trying to resurrect myself, but that’s just a small misstep, *gives a sinister smile* and may have even helped me..."

     Suddenly a green energy blast knocks Nox back. MAGAX comes flying in with a green energy axe in hand.

     MAGAX: Did you forget I can fly, Nox?

     Hubrid Nox: Did you forget who taught you how to?

     MAGAX: Then why did you think a spike pit trap would do me in?

     Hubrid Nox: Just testing a death trap for next Halloween.

     MAGAX: That I’m now prepared for.

     Hubrid Nox: Are you? Who knows where I may place these pits, you’d have to be flying all the time to ignore them. But you’ll also need every bit of your energy when you face me. You don’t have enough energy to do both. Toodaloo MAGAX, toodaloo reporter, I have preparations to make. *Fades out while maniacally laughing*

     MAGAX: So this Halloween is a game of paranoia and energy reserving. Got to go reporter, Nox thinks he has me on the ropes but he’s forgotten that I’ve been exploring this castle and its secrets, his secrets.

     NEOVIA:

     Reginald

     "Halloween is a good ol’ time! Neovia somehow evades most of the bad stuff the Haunted Woods is known for; well aside when we all got cursed and vanished off the face of Neopia for ten years, but other than that we’ve been lucky. Past Halloweens have felt odd, especially with Sophie being older than me now, though we all adjusted. I remember when Sophie was little she was so excited to go around trick-or-treating, seeing she became so grumpy and cynical makes me sad. It’s Ilere’s fault! I trusted Sophie to her and she than abandons her! If I could I would wallop that Faerie witch, but I know I’d just b the one to get walloped. Oh, sorry! This is about Halloween! *Put on a smile* While we know about the central festival, Neovia has its own Halloween celebration. Some would say more traditional. We try spicing things up like with a Spooky Food Eating Contest, but everyone knows how that turned out. Guess the effect of the Haunted Woods is finally getting to us." *Gives a nervous laugh*

     Tippens

     "Blast that Scarlet, or whatever that monster may be called. The Spooky Food Eating Contest was going to be our headlining annual event each Halloween. But ever since the first one resulted in a monster rampage we haven’t been able to get approval for another one. Thankfully this hasn’t squandered the Spooky Shindig Society’s reputation; we still do plenty of private parties, especially on Halloween. That said I’ve invested in monster attack insurance, I hate to say it but Neovia just isn’t the little peaceful town it once was. But we must prevail, and the Spooky Shindig Society is doing our part by planning a new event to hopefully be our annual headliner: a relay race from Neovia to the main wood’s central Halloween festival! It’ll follow the main path that connects Neovia to the main woods so should be safe, I haven’t heard that many having vanished on that path, at least not in a group..."

     The Appreciation of Toes

     "GRR, THE CULTS ACTIVITIES ARE SECRET TO MEMBERS ONLY!" "Haha, settle done. We wouldn’t want to scare away new members." "*Sigh* Whatever." "Haha, welcome! We are The Appreciation of Toes, an organization dedicated to philosophizing the body’s lower digits." "GRR, WE’RE A CULT THAT STARES AT OUR TOES!" "*Sigh* Toes are okay." "GRR, NOW THAT YOU KNOW GET OUT!" "Haha, but we haven’t told them our Halloween custom. Every Halloween we gather below in the Neovian’s vaults where we stand in a circle and observe all our toes at once!" "GRR, STOP TALKING TO HIM! NEXT YOU’LL REVEAL WE CAN PREDICT THE FUTURE!" "*Sigh* Like we do anything with it." "GRR, YOU MADE ME REVEAL OUR SECRET!" "Haha, it’s alright, we didn’t tell him what we knew. And we do use the knowledge for personal expansion." "*Sigh* We profit from Neopia’s troubles." "Haha, if you want to look at it that way. So, would you like to join? Every member gets a robe and sandals." "GRR, IT’S CLEAR HE JUST WANTS TO STEAL OUR SECRETS! GET OUT! LET YOUR FILTHY TOES BLUR YOUR VISION!"

     DEEP WOODS (FORBIDDEN AREA - ENTER AT OWN PERIL):

     Saskia

     "I love Halloween, of course I do, I am a mask connoisseur. Those past Halloweens I was able to enlist Neopia’s help to test out my new masks were a great learning experience, even if the cursed or mind control ones didn’t work as I hope they would. But these last few Halloweens I’ve been spending my time rebuilding my collection. That little gluttonous monster not only wrecked my cart but nearly my entire mask collections, including the new ones I made that year. I can’t just make magical masks from scratch; I need other magical masks as a base and they’re not easy to come by. Thankfully on Halloween I can track down more in one night than I could the entire year. I also rebuilt my cart with a steel frame so can’t get smashed as easily. I’ll be back soon enough; I’m not going to deprive Neopia of my frightening face facades. *Winks*"

     Sophie

     "Oh, Halloween brings back such wonderful memories, like when my family, friends, and entire hometown became cursed and vanished off the face of Neopia for nearly ten years. Or how about when Ilere dumped me at what’s not my cabin to fend for myself unless I really needed help, like on verge of the death. And then all the times after that I painstakingly and desperately tried lifting the curse only to fail each and every time and slowly watch my loved ones vanish for another year. Halloween is a GREAT time for me. But, that’s the past, Neovia is back. While bad memories keep me from moving back I do visit it occasionally, and one of those days is Halloween. For me it’s more of a time to catch-up though Reginald and Gilly, who also visits, try to get us to participate in whatever Halloween thing that Spooky Something Society planned that year. But not too long I get that feeling I don’t quite belong and set home. On the upside sometimes I leave early enough that I can catch the witching hour and brew some special potions. On the downside sometimes Gilly tags along. Gilly’s a frien-err, good acquaintance, but I kind of want to be alone and Gilly is sociably awkward to put it kindly. Plus the girl can’t mix a potion to save her life."

     Professor Vinsjin

     "Good aim, Bren! Glyn, calibrate the capture unit while I talk with this reporter. Hello! Sorry I can’t talk long, even before Halloween the ghouls are getting riled up. Halloween is a very busy time for the Ghoul Catchers, much like other undead the ghouls are at their most powerful and plentiful. We’re capturing as many ghouls as we can right now to get our equipment ready to handle the load. Halloween used to worry us, I’d admit I dreaded when Halloween came around, but thanks to our new equipment developed by Glyn I’ve actually become excited to see what information we could gather. Any other questions? Hm, weren’t I and the other Ghoul Catchers dead? Well as it turned out, the ghouls cursed us with a spell that made us think we’re dead. But after that eating contest monster incident it broke a batch of curses down in the Neovian vaults, including the ones on us! Just shows how tricky those ghouls can be."

     Ilere

     "Halloween means nothing to me. Nothing to celebrate anyway. Whoever is enjoying themselves in the Haunted Woods during Halloween is naïve. It’s a night of misery, curses, and death. The main woods try to make it ‘safe’ so they can have tourists come and spend their NP. Stupid fools, everyone involved. What am I doing? Staying in my hollow, strengthening my protective seal, keeping an eye on every shadow so it doesn’t attack. I don’t need that foul night’s magic to brew potent potions or cast strong spells. If anything, it needs me. Well, you have your answer, now go."

     Balthazar

     "HA! Halloween is the greatest holiday of them all! I feel like a kid does when they go trick-or-treating. But I ain’t begging for candy, I’m hunting Faeries! Faeries don’t like Halloween, not many know this but Faerie magic is at its weakest on Halloween. It’s the easiest time to capture them, not that I need them weakened but I do catch more when they’re weak and can’t run away easily or escape my traps. Of course the only exceptions are the Dark Faeries, they compensate their weak Faerie magic with Halloween’s dark magic, but I just need to wait till Christmas to fill out my Dark Faerie supply. But for the remaining types they shouldn’t get too comfortable where they’re hiding, for old Balthazar will find them and give them a new hiding spot: a bottle in my cupboard with all their other sisters! RAHAHAHOO!"

     Vira

     "Halloween makes me sick. Neopians intentionally dressing up to look disgusting or some who decide it’s the perfect time to flaunt their beauty. All feel like they’re MOCKING ME! Why shouldn’t I cause them grief on Halloween? Batch of kids collected a lot of candy? One swoop and it’s my candy now; they can feed on their salty tears. A young woman came dressed as a princess for a masquerade party? Dump the candy bag in a bog and emptied the now filthy and sticky candy all over her; that’ll teach her! But not before I taught the Esophagor with it. While I’m at it might as well buzz around the Brain Tree and knock on every window of Edna’s tower. I DON’T CARE! They can’t do anything worse to me that I haven’t experienced! Though MAGAX gave it a good shot, wasn’t even that big of a prank but the wacko still came after me with his axe. Balthazar can’t take a joke either, though at least he can’t fly. Wait, why am I telling you all this? GO AWAY! HISS!"

     The Spider Grundo

     "Halloween is one of my favorite hunting days. So many morsels walking around, not paying attention to what’s in front of them, so willingly to walk right into my web. The more complex the costume the better, either too heavy for them to struggle or they entangle themselves up further! The only bad part is the leftover candy, I don’t mind an after meal mint but all the other sugary stuff? YUCK! I get enough sugar from the ones who had begun eating their candy haul early. Kids, don’t eat the candy before you’re finished trick-or-treating, you don’t know what could be in it. Remember whatever you eat I’m going to be eating too, unless you have a fast metabolism. Now take a step to the right... no, that’s your left... don’t jump over that! Hey, get back here! GET BACK HEEEEERrrreee...!"

     Phew! Remember junior reporters, always wear stick-proof shoes that you can run comfortably in. Wasn’t expecting so many split opinions about Halloween from the Haunted Woods, but like the deep woods themselves the Haunted Woods residents hold many surprises. If you’re planning on going to the Haunted Woods for this Halloween be careful with who you bump into, it may be the difference between getting a treat or a trick (and maybe your last trick)!