October is now over, and giftbags have left us. The arena lottery will be drawn in one week, so all of you that still have tickets floating around have a chance to turn them in.

For November, our promotion is antiquated artifacts! For every 100 credits you purchase (excluding No-Brainer credits), you'll received 1x antiquated artifact salvage. What's that, you ask? Keep reading!

Antiquated artifacts are old artifacts once utilized by the Ankyrean Order and rediscovered in recent times. Unlike the modern artifacts Qeddwyn makes, antiquated artifacts contain levels of power beyond the standard artifacts, using techniques now lost to time.

Antiquated artifact salvage can be taken to Qeddwyn in Esterport, who will either work the salvage into an antiquated artifact, or will upgrade the level of an existing antiquated artifact you own. When at Qeddwyn's shop in Esterport, use the commands ASK QEDDWYN EXCHANGE GAUNTLET to create your level 1 gauntlet, and ASK QEDDWYN UPGRADE GAUNTLET to upgrade it another level. Only the owner of the salvage can exchange it for the artifact, but salvage can be traded and used for upgrading by anyone who owns one of the antiquated artifacts.

This month's antiquated artifact is: "an ornate venantium-chased gauntlet". I am also grandfathering in the riding crop artifact (announce post #2357) into this system, so you can also choose to put your salvage towards that as well.

The ornate venantium-chased gauntlet functions like the currently available ylem-binding gauntlets and contains the following powers at each level. The gauntlet must be worn in order for its powers to work.

LEVEL 1:
There is a 10% chance that you'll gain two mists instead of one when using ABSORB YLEM.

LEVEL 2:
You can now ABSORB YLEM while off balance/equilibrium, and it'll no longer take any equilibrium to use.

LEVEL 3:
The Refining Irradiance passive skill now refills your ylem reserves 50% more than it normally does.

LEVEL 4:
Your damage done against elds is increased by 15%.

LEVEL 5:
You can now GRAB ELD with your gauntlet to instantly kill it, once every three hours. The eld will turn into three random mists that you can absorb on death. Some stronger eld may be immune to this (generally ones that can't be shackled).

LEVEL 6:
The time to fully bring a focus under your control with Refining Control when contesting an active extraction is decreased by 20%.

LEVEL 7:
You will gain 1 free Manipulation transmute charge, which will be used in place of the normal gold cost. Charges will replenish six hours after it is used.

LEVEL 8:
Your chance to gain two mists instead of one has been increased to 25% when using ABSORB YLEM.

LEVEL 9:
You can now DRAIN GAUNTLET once every 24 hours to instantly gain back 50% of your ylem reserves.

LEVEL 10:
You can now INFUSE PYLON when at your city's pylon to give your city 1,000 ylem. Can only be done once per Howling.

LEVEL 11:
The CITY PORTALS command no longer costs equilibrium. Additionally, CITY PORTALS can now be used outside of your city, but has a 4 second channel.

LEVEL 12:
New Manipulation: MANIPULATE YLEM FOR SCATTERING. For the next five minutes, mobs have a 100% chance to spawn ylem mist on death. Costs 30% ylem reserves.

LEVEL 13:
The cooldown on GRAB ELD is decreased to one hour.

LEVEL 14:
You gain another free Manipulation transmute charge, for a total of 2. Each charge will replenish on a separate timer.

LEVEL 15:
New Manipulation: MANIPULATE YLEM FOR SHACKLING. Instantly shackles all restrainable eld in room. Costs 15% ylem reserves.
New Manipulation: MANIPULATE YLEM FOR FREEDOM. Instantly frees all shackled eld in room. Costs 15% ylem reserves.

LEVEL 16:
The time to fully bring a focus under your control with Refining Control when contesting an active extraction is decreased by another 20%, for a 40% total reduction in time.

LEVEL 17:
Your damage done against elds is now increased by another 25%, for a total bonus of 40%.

LEVEL 18:
You gain another free Manipulation transmute charge, for a total of 3. Each charge will replenish on a separate timer.

LEVEL 19:
New Manipulation: MANIPULATE YLEM FOR ELEMENT <element>. Increases your resistance against that element (excluding shadow/spirit) by 10% for one hour. Costs 40% ylem reserves.

LEVEL 20:
The cooldown on DRAIN GAUNTLET is reduced to five hours, and will now refill your reserves to 100%.

Some standard ability restrictions and balance/equilibrium costs may apply to some of the powers. Information contained in this post will be later found in HELP ANTIQUATED ARTIFACTS.

Penned by my hand on Closday, the 22nd of Slyphian, in the year 454 MA.