Banquet of Symphony Vol. 2

Amazing Summer Race Results

With the introduction of our Halloween Event, it’s also time to say goodbye to our Summer festivities (in November, we know!). As usual, the NPCs to exchange your tokens will stay around for a little longer. Be sure to do it quickly though, as they won’t be there forever!

Furthermore, we’d like to announce the Fast Five winners who will all receive a Rune Helm Costume:

• Rayssss
• BlacklistHunter
• Cassidy
• Maltez
• Restless

Congratulations everyone! Please DM Seiren on Discord to claim your prize. And see you again next year!

TamTam’s Odyssey

Given that we’ve had maintenance a week ago that introduced a new Monthly Box, we will only be updating TamTam’s Odyssey this time around.

This month the region will be Hugel Fields and Abyss Lake!

Halloween Event

Hallowed greetings be unto thee! Welcome to another year at Melodia, home of the Melodia Academy, the magical place where Talon Tales and the Melodians host the annual Haunted Festival for the season of Halloween!

Centuries ago, Melodia was founded by two prodigal wizards of their era, and has flourished significantly through the ages. The doors to Melodia and its academy were first opened to outsiders during the 2018 year as part of the Halloween festival, with numerous new students flocking in and becoming a student of the Melodia Academy. By enrolling in one of the four houses of Melodia Academy, students competed against each other in a friendly competition.

The yearly Haunted Festival in the world of Talon Tales is never without its theatrical highlights – one could and would easily believe that one of the houses of Melodia Academy is to be blamed for contributing to the annual misadventures. The year 2021 saw the joint venture of both Melodia Academy and its rival Cuisinia Academy, in conjunction with the celebration of the Haunted Festival, organized a tournament as well as a series of friendly competitions among the students of both schools.

Despite the unforeseen circumstances during the tournament last year, both academies have agreed to a do-over for the tournament. Headmaster of Cuisinia Academy, Lady Delicia has once again appointed her three (3) best students as school champions; Chisu, Miruku and Bata will re-enter the tournament – this time without the menace of Mummy Spaghetti!

On the side of Melodia Academy, election votes for the new Grandmaster had been tallied – Zarevok will now hold the said position with his landslide victory against the other candidates. As the Melodians welcome Grandmaster Zarevok to his office, so shall Sammy Belmont be entrusted with the responsibilities of the Town Guardian to protect the native people against the dangers of the Racas Forest.

Students returning to Melodia this year will find familiar faces from Cuisinia, be it friends, rivals or both. Participate and find out what Melodia and Cuisinia has to offer this year for Halloween, from the school to the manor, from the town to the forest; enjoy them all in this year’s episode of Halloween: Banquet of Symphony Vol. 2!

A visit to Melodia brings you a unique opportunity to play together with your friends, engage in competitive mini games, embark on a spooky quest, and as always – win fantastic prizes! To begin, simply find and talk to the Ferryman NPC in Prontera and he will ferry you to Melodia Academy. That is where your adventure truly begins!

2022 Updates

While the event is strongly based on last year’s event, we have made many updates that will improve your gameplay experience. Here’s a quick rundown on what was changed:

• The House Quest now allows you to pick which recipe ingredients you want to obtain from the NPCs found around Melodia. In addition to that, you can find Sous-chef Kevin next to Chef Johnson who can exchange certain quality ingredients to a higher quality version. These changes should make the quest a lot more doable than it was last year. On top of that, we’ve introduced a brand new (account-bound) reward for finishing the quest!
• Lowered the difficulty of the Instance and made the choice of fighting Mummy Spaghetti more clear. Also added new rewards!
• Removed the Goblin Infiltrators minigame.
• Reshuffled the Labyrinth rooms and made a few tweaks to some of the minigames inside.
• Introduced a brand new Secret Quest to find Error. He now also has a variety of new rewards. Can you unravel the mystery?!
• Added new rewards to nearly all gameplay elements, including Deviruchiling Quest, Costume Raffle, Trick or Treat Boxes, Racas Forest monsters and more!
• Disabled Perfect Hide in Zombie Run.
• Halloween Tickets now emit a yellow light when dropped.
• Monsters in the Nightmare version of Racas Forest now give you more House Points.
• And much more!

House Competition

The Halloween festival at Melodia has been and will always be a competition among the houses of Melodia Academy. As such, participating in the competition requires you to be assigned into one of the four noble houses. 

House Windsor Led by Remy

House Guile Led by Faa

House Sorin Led by Sola

House Emure Led by Sydo

Begin the enrollment process by speaking to Monny (The Grand Monemus) in Melodia Academy.

• You can find Monny in the left wing of the academy building, which is where you are first teleported by the Ferryman.

While your preferences may be weighed in, Monny is ultimately responsible for sorting you into a fitting house, and will pick for you based on what it believes your capabilities can offer.

• Note that your house assignment will apply to all characters within your master account. We highly recommend consolidating your individual participation to one character – so you can maximize your earned points and prizes more effectively!

Once you have been assigned into a house, you can embark on this year’s Halloween quest by speaking with your house leader. Work together with your friends from other houses and discover what dark forces have been lurking around unseen.

The Ferryman will then offer to send you to the town of Melodia, the academy or the Melodia manor at your request! Complimenting the Ferryman’s services will be a House Sorin student, Eileen — give her some Lucky Candy and she will be more than happy to send you to various locations as well! You will receive an achievement and a title upon joining a house! To equip the title once you earn the achievement for joining your house, do the following:

• If your status menu (aka icons) is not already open, do so by clicking the tiny down arrow right under the Status UI.
• Go to the bottom left and select the Achievement Challenges Trophy Icon.
• While in the Achievements UI, select the Adventure tab.
• Navigate to the Achievement you just earned, go to the bottom right, and click the Collect button.
• If not already opened, access your Equipment Window by pressing [ALT + Q], and make your way to the right most tab at the top, “Title”.
• You’ll see the name of the house you just got sorted to here (Windsor, Guile, Sorin, Emure). Equip it by double clicking it, and that’s that!

Activities

Festivals are about having fun and letting excitement run wild. Melodia brings back all of the mini games from last year’s festival except for Goblin Infiltrators which has been retired.

Visit the Melodia Manor at the east side of the town and discover multiple rooms of mini games available. Melodia Academy has partnered with the lord of the manor to host competitive games here. Take note though, the butler will always be watching you.

• Blackjack & Guess the Number
  • The Melodia Haunted Casino is open for business! Play special party-based rounds of Blackjack rotating alongside a haunted Guess the Number mini game. Strike it rich for your opportunity to win tickets!
  • This micro event will be available during the festival, and recommended for when you’re waiting in between hourly rounds of other events!
• Halloween Challenge
  • Even the students of Melodia Academy recall this classic Halloween game involving candy – a favorite! Fight through traps and snares and pitfalls as you work your way to collect Candy Bags. Find as many as you can for a higher reward!
• The Labyrinth
  • Once open (in the second week of the event), the Labyrinth is the home of some truly foul magic and energy, and it will be up to you and your friends to follow Kirkena’s suggestions as you navigate through the challenge.
  • The goal of the Labyrinth is to guide your party of four through the maze as fast as possible successfully!
• Amazing Ragna-Race
  • Participate with a group of players in a race up the spiraling hill.
  • There will be Horong Booster to increase your speed when ran into temporarily, but watch out for those random Ankle Snares as well!
  • You will find Item Boxes along the race track – these will greatly aid you by giving a boost or slowing everybody else down. If you’re lucky, you might even swap position with another racer ahead of you or slow everybody else down!
  • The fastest three racers to cross the finishing line on the bridge at the hilltop will be crowned as winners. Winning 1st place will earn points for your house! This is definitely not a casual stroll up a hill.
• Shadow Tag
  • In this team based game, all 4 houses in a free for all setting are assigned to kill a Doom Troop named after their house.
  • However, not every Doom Troop is fond of being attacked. They can retaliate by disrupting your attacks.
  • First person to take down his/her team’s Doom Troop will win some house points and all members of the winning house participating in the game can walk away with some Halloween tickets and bragging rights.
  • If on rotation still and a Doom Troop is defeated. There is a short cooldown before they spawn again and another round begins.
  • If the time runs out before any Doom Troop has been taken down, the team with the lowest Doom Troop health will be declared the winning team.
  • But keep in mind! If you keep winning too often, your Doom Troop keeps getting harder to take down. You’ll have to bring all your house members to keep up the pace!
  • Throw curses at your opposing houses to disrupt their Doom Troop killing spree. Simply talk to the referee to see how you can be up to no good.
• Whack-A-Ghostring
  • A squadron of Ghostrings will appear in this mini game for you to whack.
  • Whacking the correct Ghostring will earn you some points but be cautious though, whacking the wrong one will cost you points. Keep an eye out on the emoticons used by the Ghostrings!
  • Whack your way to victory by becoming the person who belts the most Ghostring correctly in 5 minutes.
• Walk of Life
  • An exciting minigame introduced last year based on the Red Light Green Light game.
  • Equip the Green Jogging Suit item given to you at the start of the game and find the new Board Walk skill in your skill list. Use the skill’s various skill levels (check the description!) to move around the map. Regular movement does not work!
  • Only walk when the game says Green Light and STOP walking when it says Red Light. Players who are caught walking during a red light will be eliminated.
  • The first three players who reach the finish line win!
• Zombie Run
  • A classic survival game where you and your teammates have to survive against waves of zombies.
  • Fast Movement skills as well as Healing Skills and Items do not work. You have to work together to survive. Only during certain intervals, a Doctor will appear to heal you.
  • Get rewards for every minute you survive as well as special coffins spread around the map.
     

Outside the manor, you can find town games being hosted by Melodia residents as well.

• Poring Seek
  • Mischievous Porionettes roam around the town when this mini game begins – can you be the one to kill the most within five minutes? You’ll race against the clock and one another to see who will win the round, plus the house with the most wins will win additional team-wide points!
• Simon Says
  • Copy the movements exactly as ordered – or else, you’re out! Be sure to follow the instructions carefully in this minigame which is harder than it looks. If you win, points and tickets await – plus the house with the most wins will win additional team-wide points!
• Simon’s Sequence
  • You’ve obeyed Simon, but can you find all the Simons in this meta-Simon experience?! If so, follow the sequence closely and run around the Festival for a chance to earn points for you and your house.
     

At the west side of Melodia, Sammy Belmont guards the entrance to the Racas Forest. Speak to her to gain access and venture into the woods surrounding the town of Melodia.

• Hunting Grounds
  • Hunting Grounds are open all the time. Tickets only drop during Happy Hour. Read below for details.
  • Embark on an exploration into The Racas Forest by choosing one of the three difficulties available. Choose a difficulty that best suits what you can handle!
    • Easy : Relatively approachable for just about anybody. This difficulty does not have an MvP monster roaming inside it! However, it has the lowest ticket rate and experience rates.
    • Intermediate : A step up from Easy, meant for the middle of the road adventurer. An MvP will spawn here! The ticket rate, experience, and drops here are very suitable for the intended skill level.
    • Nightmare : Meant for the most hardcore of adventurers. The experience, drops, and ticket rates are all excellent here and are definitely worth the time and effort. However, the monsters are very difficult and the MvP here is especially difficult. If you can, try to bring a party here, preferably with fellow house members!
  • You can expect a Happy Hour Mechanic which is enabled while Black Jack and Guess The Number are down. During this happy hour, monsters have an X% chance (based on chosen difficulty) to drop tickets when killed. Depending on the chosen difficulty you can drop a set amount of tickets per happy hour session:
    • Easy : 20 Tickets
    • Intermediate : 25 Tickets
    • Nightmare : 30 Tickets
  • While the Happy Hour is enabled, monster kills will grant you points. These points will be tallied at the end of the Happy Hour. The House with the most earned points will win that Happy Hour and earn points toward the final score for their house this year! The way points are distributed are as follows. The amount varies depending on difficulty.:
    • Every 3 normal monster kills.
    • Killing an MvP rewards a massive amount of points.
  • All three difficulties are purely PvM orientated.

Halloween Instance

Upon completion of the Halloween quest, you will gain access to two instances.

• Practice Melodia Tournament Instance
  • After completing the main Halloween quest, you can talk to Chisu, Miruku, or Bata outside of the Academy. They will be waiting for you in front of the Seymour the Stone statue above the stairs. Speaking with them allows you to practice against them for the main event which opens after the first week of the event. While you won’t earn any Halloween Tickets or gain Monster Drops here, you can occasionally earn a Magic Quill to gain access to the main instance later, and furthermore, earn points for your house!
• Melodia Tournament Instance (Full)
  • This is the real deal tournament which opens up after a week has passed during the festival. This is a do-over from last year as it was previously interrupted after the first round due to an unforeseen circumstance. In this instance, you will fight Chisu, Miruku, and Bata in a random order. After the 1st round, additional HP is added for the next opponent. Furthermore, your party will receive a random penalty which lasts for the remainder of that round. Finally, each party member has a death limit of 5. If at any point you die 5 times, it’s game over for that player! Of course, this death limit is reset after each round.
  • Possible Rewards that users could earn during this instance:
    • Shadow Staff [2]
    • Thief Handcuffs [1]
    • Prisoner Uniform [1]
    • Earring [1]
    • Brooch [1]
    • Ring [1]
    • Guillotine Katar [1]
    • Wrench
    • Young Twig
    • Leak Claw
    • Ice Pick [1]
    • Mummy Spaghetti Egg
    • Beating all 3 Rounds: 18 Halloween Tickets (per member)

Competitions

Competitions are the essence of the Halloween festival! The competitive activities offered by Melodia pits all four houses against each other through a huge variety of mini games, designed to test your skills, proficiency and perhaps luck as well. Be certain to try out all of them to experience everything Melodia has to offer you, and also earn points for your house and tickets for yourself.

House Competition

House Points will determine which of the four houses will emerge as victorious this year. House points can be earned by anyone for their team through participating in the Halloween mini games. The Melodia Academy registrar will be keeping a record of the scores hidden until the end of the Halloween festival, when the winning house and runner-up house will be announced!

A special prize will also go to all adventurers who are affiliated with the winning houses!

The house that places first will win one of these at its member’s own choice:

• Blessing of Angels Costume (20444)
• Halloween Poring Bag Costume (21292)
• Garling Egg
• Papare Egg
• Wooden Fairy Egg
• Big Magic Book Costume (30090) NEW

The house that places second will win one of the following:

• Halloween Poring Bag Costume
• Garling Egg
• Papare Egg

Player Competitions

Special Honorary Degrees will be awarded to the thirteen (13) most intrepid adventurers who have helped to settle this year’s tie. Individual prizes will be handed out to winners of various mini games who have demonstrated that their skills are on par with the best-in-class students of each house! Those individuals with the most points at the end of the entire Halloween festival will be announced and receive a special, exclusive prize!

• Note that top-performance is character driven – so to compete in this area, we recommend participating in the Haunted Festival using a single character of your choice, as points are not tallied across all characters in your master account.
• Overall, thirteen (13) players will win for top performance in each of the following categories:
  • The top-three (3) Town-Wide minigame / Limited Capacity minigame winners by accumulated points.
    • Performance will be based on the number of points accumulated on your character for: Halloween Challenge, Whack-A-Ghostring, Poring Seek, Simon Says, and Simon’s Sequence. Points accumulated through Blackjack will NOT count toward this individual performance total.
  • The top-three (3) Hunting minigame killers by accumulated points:
    • Performance is based on the number of monsters killed in Racas Forest as well as Zombie Run performance.
    • This score is cumulative across all three difficulties, so you are highly recommended to play in all modes to earn the maximum amount of points in this category!
  • The top-three (3)Amazing Ragna Race, Walk Of Life and Shadow Tag winners.
    • In the Amazing Ragna Race and Walk Of Life, the Top 3 will gain points towards this competition. Of course, the better you do, the higher your score!
    • For Shadow Tag, every time you kill your MVP, you will gain points for the competition!
  • The single fastest party of four (4) in the Labyrinth when this mini game is made available.
    • Be on the lookout for the Labyrinth mini game during the Haunted Festival. You’ll be able to form parties of four (4) players for this mini game.
    • The party of four (4) with the fastest completion time in the Labyrinth will win a Degree Award this year as well!
• In recognition of outstanding efforts, each of this year’s thirteen Degree recipients will receive:
  • A unique, account-bound Kiel D-01 Egg.
  • Your choice of MVP Card!
    • Cards eligible for this prize are those currently available from the Talon Shop.
    • Maya Purple is furthermore excluded from this list.
       

In-game rewards

The main currency of the Halloween Event is the Halloween Ticket. You can obtain these through nearly every activity in the event, be it the Racas Forest, Minigames or quests. Use it at the Halloween Prize NPC located near the docks in Melodia on amazing prizes such as the classic Trick or Treat Box, the Costume Raffle and much more!

Looking for some food and drinks? Perhaps you’re in the mood for something seasonal? While exploring the brand new, never before seen lands of Melodia Town, perhaps you should make your way to the Melodia Bar or Melodia Academy’s Cafeteria and perhaps you can treat yourself to a Halloweenie Special or Melodia Matchan! Octelli and Carlisle give it two thumbs up! Simply have some Lucky Candy on hand and they’ll be more than willing to share their pride and joy when it comes to the culinary world!

There’s much more to explore in the world of Melodia. Who knows, you might just unravel a secret quest or NPC that will reward you with some cool goodies!

In Conclusion

The musical town of Melodia is packed with many exciting features and challenging mini games. We can’t wait to see you plunging into the festival, but we also want to give you a quick highlight of the important rules, guidelines and dates that are in place – so you can make the most out of your Halloween adventure. Be sure to review the list below so that you’re well-prepared to return to Melodia!

• The use of multiple Master Accounts during this event, or possession of such multiple accounts at any time on Talon Tales, is forbidden and is a ban-worthy offense.
• A status bulletin board is available in both Melodia and Melodia Academy to remind you of your house affiliation, as well as a readout of what the current hourly minigame will be (or the next one, if one is currently not in progress).
  • The colors of the game type correspond to color-themed map markers, available on your minimap.
  • The board also features some fun news and weather across Melodia (just pack accordingly if you see any dangerous activity!)
• This year’s episode of Halloween: Banquet of Symphony Vol. 2 will end on Friday, November 18th, and within a few days after that, the winning house will be announced, along with this year’s house prizes and Degree Award recipients!

We hope that you enjoy what Melodia has to offer this year and we hope that you’ll emerge as one of this year’s Degree Award winners! We also hope that this will be a memorable and fun autumn season for you as we look forward to the months ahead of us.

As always, thank you for supporting Talon Tales and happy gaming! Musica est vita!