Over the years, I have received innumerable requests about purchasing
the Crystal Leaf Inn. I felt that a mere bidding war was not an adequate
criterion for awarding such a prestigious location, so it has remained
independent until now.

I hereby announce a Grand Contest, the prize of which shall be ownership
of the Crystal Leaf Inn! In addition, I will redecorate, rename, and/or
rebuild the Inn to the winner's specification (within reason).

The winner of the contest will be the individual or group who submits
the best (as determined by Me) of any or all of the following original
artwork:

- An introductory text page for Aetolia (currently a box encircling
Aetolia's name and some statistics, the thing you see when first
connecting to aetolia.com port 23). The page may consist of any viewable
8-bit ASCII characters (no bells or ANSI sequences), and should contain
within it the full name of the game (Aetolia, the Midnight Age), our web
site address, telnet address (216.194.99.13 port 23), and the e-mail
address support@aetolia.com. The page should be no longer than 40 lines
and should attempt to characterize the atmosphere of Aetolia as
described on our web site.

- A web banner for Aetolia. The banner may be in JPG or GIF format and
may be animated, but please keep the file size smaller than about 50k.
It should be no wider than 500 pixels, no taller than 72 pixels and, of
course, should characterize the atmosphere of Aetolia to potential new
players. Humor is fine, but remember the target audience is people who
have never played Aetolia. An example of a current banner can be seen at
http://www.mudconnector.com/ads/aetolia-anim.GIF.

- A skin for our Java client. The best way to go about this is probably
just to take a screenshot of our current Java client skin (click Play
Now from www.aetolia.com) and modify that. The skin comprises the
graphical window of the client except for the text display box, text
entry box, and the two small buttons just above and to the right of the
text entry box. The four large buttons at the top right of the window
can show two states: normal and depressed, so you could simply submit
two images showing the buttons in the normal state and in the depressed
state.

As the Crystal Leaf Inn is a highly social place, I view this as a
social contest. The winner(s) will be the person or organization who
submits the one best skin, the one best intro text page, the multiple
best web banners, or all of the above. Naturally, as these are different
categories and somewhat different skill sets, your best bet for winning
is with a combined entry. I anticipate that the winner will be the
person or group best able to seek out capable artists and convince them
to produce quality images on the entrant's behalf.

You may submit as many different versions of the above as you wish by
e-mailing them to contest@aetolia.com. IMPORTANT: Your e-mail must
mention on whose behalf the submission is being made. Submissions must
be received by end of day March 31st, 2003. Good luck!

PS: The two fonts used in Aetolia's logo are called Zothique and
Papyrus.

Penned by my hand on the 8th of Slyphian, in the year 94 MA.