23.3.1.5 Antiquated Sceptre

A VENANTIUM SCEPTRE OF HISTRIONICS
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This antiquated sceptre grants a variety of powers that can be used to enhance your roleplaying and dramatic
flair.

Antiquated artifact salvage may sometimes be made available as part of a promotion. This salvage can be taken to Qeddwyn in Esterport, who will either work the salvage into an antiquated artifact or upgrade the level of an existing antiquated artifact you own.

Commands:
ASK QEDDWYN EXCHANGE <type>
This will turn a piece of artifact salvage into the specified antiquated artifact type (level 1). Only the person whose mark the salvage bears can exchange it for an antiquated artifact.

ASK QEDDWYN UPGRADE <item>
Upgrades an antiquated artifact you already possess to the next level. You do not need to be the owner of the salvage to do this.


Level 1:
- Grants the ability to create most of the same props as the Weaving Facsimile ability.
- Syntax: SCEPTRE FACSIMILE <type>
- Types: Cup, chair, table, cane, rock, chest, sword, pole, ladder, barrel, or fence.
- You can only have five props in existence at once, and they decay after an hour.

Level 2:
- Your sceptre can be host to a specific type of fruit, occasionally bearing its particular bounty. You can periodically SHAKE the sceptre to drop that fruit to the ground.
- Syntax: SCEPTRE GROW <fruit>
- Valid fruits: greenapple, redapple, orange, lemon, pear, pomegranate, fig, passionfruit, lime, mango, juniper, apricot, plum, cherry, blueberry, strawberry, cloudberry, blackberry, grape, banana, or pineapple.
- Your sceptre's appearance will change slightly based on the fruit picked.
- You can SCEPTRE PRUNE to return to the default.

Level 3:
Change outfits with flair! When using the outfits system, you can specify a method that will change the message seen when you change.
- Syntax: OUTFIT WEAR <outfit> <style>
- Valid styles: hurriedly, flashily, unabashedly, methodically, haphazardly, elegantly, absent-mindedly, nervously.

Level 4:
- You can choose a different way for your name to appear in a news post's 'From:' field (not retroactive) and change the 'Penned by my hand' signoff line.
- Syntax: SCEPTRE SIGNATURE <type>
- You can pick from the following types:
  * office     - 'From: the office of <your name>'
                 'Officially released on'
  * scribe     - 'From: the scribe <your name>'
                 'Transcribed by my scribe on'
  * desk       - 'From: the desk of <your name>'
                 'Composed at my desk on'
  * advocate   - 'From: the legal representation of <your name>'
               - 'Entered into the public record on behalf of our client on'
  * campaigner - 'From: a campaigner employed by <your name>'
                 'Issued for immediate release on'

Level 5:
- Grants the ability to set a custom message for your mail delivery, which affects what recipients see when receiving a letter from you. For example, 'A swarm of locusts deposits a letter into your hands.' This does not change the message you see when doing the MAIL command; it only changes what the recipient sees upon arrival.
- Syntax: MAILMSG
- Subject to admin approval. Restrictions/guidelines:
  * 200 characters or less.
  * Must contain the $(letter$) tag in both 1p/3p messages.
  * Use $(name$), $(his$), $(he$), or $(him$) in the 3p message to refer to the recipient.
  * If magical in nature, it must fit within the boundaries defined by current class skills.
  * You cannot mention Gods or other notable entities (e.g. the Triad).
  * Your mailmsg won't activate if sending a forged letter.

Level 6:
- You can now emote in a specific direction, and anybody in the room in that direction will see the emote as if you were standing there. People present with you will not see it.
- Syntax: EMOTEDIR <dir> <emote>
- This will cost you 4 seconds of balance and equilibrium and cannot be done past walls or doors.
- The in-character explanation for this is that you're projecting your image - you are not actually influencing the adjacent location in any manner.

Level 7:
- You can now partition your current room into either halves or quadrants, creating boundaries for people to mingle.
- Syntax: SCEPTRE PARTITION <HALVES|QUADRANTS>
This means you can only hear/see says and emotes in the same section of the partition as the person doing the action. This ONLY affects says/emotes; all other actions will remain room-wide.
- People can MINGLE <dir> to change which section they're in (north, east, south or west).
- This lasts for an hour and has a cooldown of an hour.

Level 8:
- Syntax: SCEPTRE FACSIMILE <type>
- You can now create more advanced illusory props, each with a minor interaction.
- Types:
  * fireplace - increases the temperature in the room and can be STOKEd with wood.
  * statue - it's a statue of yourself! POLISH it to feel good about yourself. Others can PUSH it over to shatter it.
  * podium - You can APPROACH PODIUM. If in a partitioned location, all partitions will hear you speak and see you emote. You LEAVE PODIUM when finished.
  * anchor - It's incredibly heavy. See how long you can LIFT it before your arms give out!
  * trapdoor - OPEN it, and then you can FALL dramatically through it after a short channel, moving you into a random adjacent room.
  * dummy - It's a training dummy you can hit with your PvE attacks. It might complain about it, though.
  * bottle - You can SPIN BOTTLE to make it point at a random person in the room. What do you do with that information...?

Level 9:
- Summon a small animal to your room based on the environment you are currently standing in. Not all environments will work for this, but the most common ones should!
- Syntax: SCEPTRE ATTRACT
You can only have one animal present in this manner. Doing it again will cause the first one to roam off.
- While not loyal to you, you can still make the animal emote via way of ORDER <animal> EMOTE.

Level 10:
- Once per hour, you can obtain a temporary defence that lets you emote in colour, like the resplendence token.
- Syntax: SCEPTRE RESPLENDENCE
          EMOTE <colour> <text>
- The defence has three uses before it fades, but it won't get used up if you do a normal emote.
- If using extended colours, you must use the colour number instead of its name.

Level 11:
- You can now create a pseudonym to post in the news and author books.
- Syntax: PSEUDONYM CREATE <name>
- This can be multiple words but, at most, 20 characters long.
- The initial name is free but will cost you 500,000 gold to change your pseudonym.
- The name must be appropriate to the game and not designed to make people think you're a particular player (e.g. you can't call yourself Razmael's Scribe for an obvious example).
- The Grand Library reserves the right to reveal the actual name of any pseudonym and revoke the privilege should anybody use this as a feature to anonymously and continually harass someone.
- Posting as your pseudonym to the news has a charge of 10,000 gold.
- To post as your pseudonym, you can use WRITEAS PSEUDONYM, where you usually enter WRITE. The WRITE command will be disabled once you have created a pseudonym. You must WRITEAS MYSELF instead.
- Authoring a book as a pseudonym can only be done at the publishing stage. You can PUBLISH <book> AS PSEUDONYM.
- The custom news signature set by the SCEPTRE SIGNATURE command will not apply when posting under a pseudonym.

Level 12:
- You can now use two words when using expressiveness (HELP EXPRESSIVENESS).
- Wrap your two words in asterisks like so: ct *with gusto* I love it here!

Level 13:
- You can now send an emote across the entire area, but only once per hour.
- EMOTEAREA <emote>
- This will cost you 15 seconds of balance and equilibrium, as well as 50% willpower.
- The in-character explanation for this is that you're projecting your image - you are not actually influencing the area in any manner.

Level 14:
- Syntax: SCEPTRE FACSIMILE <type>
- You can now create expert illusory props. Only a single expert-level prop can exist in a room at once.
- Types:
  * crowd - A crowd of people that you can encourage to cheer, boo or chant. Probe them for instructions.
  * herald - The herald will announce your presence as soon as it is summoned and promptly disappear.
  * orchestra - You can ASK ORCHESTRA PLAY a style from an epic, waltz, folk, overture, or symphony.
  * stage - This is a partition-wide version of the podium. You can POSITION it in a specific partition to allow people in the room's other partitions to see all emotes/says happening at the stage's partition. You must DRAW STAGE CURTAINS to enable this effect or CLOSE STAGE CURTAINS to disable it again.
  * gallows - You can APPROACH GALLOWS to hang yourself, resulting in a fake death to fool the crowd. You can also APPROACH GALLOWS FATALLY if you wish to commit to the bit and die for real...
  * catapult - Sit in the catapult, and then FIRE it to launch yourself. Note that this is dangerous and has a chance to kill you. But otherwise, it's fun!
  * limelight - You can ANGLE LIMELIGHT <target> to highlight their presence in the room description in a different colour.