Test of Beacons

This page is a stub. You can help us by expanding it.

The Test of Beacons
(Test - Worship)
Prerequisites
42 God's favored activities completed this week 2 Medium Ruby 2 Medium Emerald 2 Medium Diamond 2 Medium Sapphire

Seek to attract mystical beacon altars, then attempt the difficult beacon ritual with the help of your neighbors.

The Beacon Ritual

The ritual is comprised of three parts:

1. Attract an altar
2. Perform the anchoring ritual
3. Perform the beacon ritual itself

Either by fortune or by deduction, an altar may be attracted to a priest, appearing by them. Once an altar is attracted, three priests must come and perform the anchoring ritual. Once anchored to this world, they will receive partial visions on how to perform the beacon ritual. Upon correctly determining the beacon ritual's steps and performing it, all three priests will receive credit for that beacon.

Complete seven beacon rituals successfully to pass the test.

Attracting an altar

If all of the following conditions are met, there is a chance that an altar will be attracted:

• Perform the favored activity.
• Have between 1 to 3 other Egyptians nearby.
• Not be at home (based on a percentage threshold of non-public chests and buildings you have access to in the immediate area. Guild built buildings don't count towards this total, and you can be 10 coords away from your buildings and no longer be "at home")
• Not have attracted a beacon successfully in the past teppy/duck-week. - This information is not true, attracted my 2nd beacon inside 3 real life days - Rhaom, Tale7
• Not having successfully completed a ritual in the past teppy/duck-day

Note that satisfying these conditions is no guarantee that you will attract a beacon.

If a beacon has been successfully attracted by fulfilling these conditions, the message "You have done everything you need to attract a beacon altar. If you are lucky, one will appear" will display in Main. This means the beacon has appeared somewhere in the vicinity of all the Egyptians, and requires the anchoring ritual to be performed before it disappears. Regardless of success in anchoring, this will count as successfully attracting a beacon in the teppy/duck-week.

Favored activity

One of the more difficult aspects of the entire test is determining the favored activity, which changes once every Egypt week. Monitor Egypt Today for beacon activity announcements, and please post if you have done few activities and attract (or almost) an altar. The activities could be anything, for example, but not limited to:

• Drinking from an aqueduct tower
• Foraging a herb
• Expedition Travel
• Chariot Travel
• Slaughtering a camel
• Fishing
• Gathering clay
• Gathering wood
• Gathering grass (for example, from a greenhouse)
• Growing flax
• Drinking wine
• Making a lure

A message in main will appear when you attract an altar, or when you "almost" attract a beacon by performing the favored activity but fail to satisfy the other conditions on the list above. Note that it can take up to a REAL hour between performing the activity and attracting (or almost-) an altar.

Possible messages: please correct/update!

• A beacon altar was almost attracted to you, because you did the favored activity in the last hour. However, there are not enough people nearby.
• You have done everything needed to attract a beacon altar. If you are lucky, one will appear.
• A beacon altar was almost attracted to you, because you did the favored activity in the last hour. However, you own too many of the buildings in this area. You are at home.
• A beacon altar was almost attracted to you, because you did the favoured activity in the last hour. However, there are too many people nearby.

Anchoring Ritual

Once visible, the beacon altar will last only a few (at least 4 real minutes) unless it is anchored. Any three people can anchor an altar, even if they have passed the test, even if they have not performed the favored activity, even if they have completed a ritual in the past week, and in fact even if they aren't even signed up for the test!

The ritual is as follows:

• Priest One meditates.
• Priest Two meditates.
• Priest Three meditates.

Upon successfully performing the ritual, the altar will be anchored and will now last 30 minutes before disappearing. Additionally, each priest receives a vision on how to successfully complete the ritual.

Beacon Ritual

An anchored beacon altar will stay for 30 minutes. The three priests that performed the anchoring ritual will obtain a vision on how to perform the beacon ritual. Only these three priests may perform the ritual at the given beacon altar. As a note, the priest order performed for an anchoring ritual has no effect on the order of the priests that perform a beacon ritual. Simply re-choose who will perform each part.

The beacon ritual itself will vary for each beacon. Additionally, the actual ritual will be hidden among the three vision received, as they are intentionally unclear.

The ritual will need two sets of gems from the following list:

• 2 Medium Diamonds
• 2 Medium Rubies
• 2 Medium Emeralds
• 2 Medium Sapphires

The first priest's vision will state which gems are needed (not necessarily in the correct order), the second and third priests visions will each state 4 instructions for placing gems on the altar. Because the vision does not state whether the 2nd or 3rd priest's instructions must be performed first and because the 2nd and 3rd visions refer only to the first gem and second gem, there are 4 possible rituals.

Note that the instructions in the vision refer to left/right pillar or focus. The pillars are the plates set away from the statue, and the foci are the plates held in the statue's hands. Left means the statue's left, or the left side when facing the back of the statue.

If the ritual is performed successfully, a pop-up message will congratulate you. If you perform all actions correctly, it will take 4 attempts at most. All three participants will receive credit for the successful ritual; complete 7 to pass the test.

An example of the Beacon Ritual

Players Alpha, Beta and Gamma anchor an altar.

Alpha's vision indicates that Diamonds and Emeralds are the gem for this ritual, and that Priest Three must meditate at the end of the ritual.

Beta's vision says:

• Priest two puts the first item on the right focus
• Priest one puts the second item on the left focus
• Priest three takes the second item from the left focus
• Priest three takes the first item from the right focus

Gamma's vision says:

• Priest three puts the first item on the left focus
• Priest three puts the second item on the right focus
• Priest two takes the first item from the left focus
• Priest one takes the second item from the right focus

Based on this information, there are four rituals which could be correct. After a few attempts, they succeed in the ritual by doing the following:

Alpha, Beta and Gamma decide that they will be priest One, Two and Three respectively. They could as easily have chosen any other order; the visions do not indicate which participant is which priest.

• Priest three puts the diamond on the left focus (plate in statue's left hand, as looking from behind)
• Priest three puts the emerald on the right focus
• Priest two takes the diamond from the left focus
• Priest one takes the emerald from the right focus

• Priest two puts the diamond on the right focus
• Priest one puts the emerald on the left focus
• Priest three takes the emerald from the left focus
• Priest three takes the diamond from the right focus

• Priest three meditates

At the conclusion of the last action a pop-up informs the three players that they have successfully completed the ritual.

The order of visions could have been inverted; item one could easily have been the emerald and item two the diamond. Through trial and error, the players discovered the correct method.

Beacon Ritual Generators

An online beacon ritual generator has been developed. This tool is provided by Sabuli.

Possible Beacon Activities

Agriculture, Flowers

Crossbred
Fertilized
Planted
Removed

Agriculture, Grew

Barley
Cabbage
Carrots
Cucumbers
Eggplants
Flax
Garlic
Herbs
Leeks
Onions
Wheat

Agriculture, Other

Beehive, checked
Beehive, collected honey/wax
Citrus tree, Mulched
Citrus tree, Gathered honey
Citrus tree, Gathered fruit
Fertilized a date tree
Nicked a tree

Gathered

Cactus Sap
Chicken
Clay
Coconuts
Dates
Egg
Flint
Limestone
Moss
Mud
Mushrooms
Palm Frond
Papyrus
Red Sand
Resin
Sand
Sheep, wild
Silt
Soda
Sulfurous Water
Tadpoles
Thorns
Water
White Sand
Wood

Livestock, fed

Beetles
Camels, straw
Camels, honey
Chickens
Rabbits
Sheep
Snakes

Livestock, killed

Beetles
Chickens
Camels
Sheep in a pen
Sheep, Wild (successfully)
Sheep, Wild (failed)
Snakes
Rabbits

Skill-based

Carved
Dowsed
Fished
Foraged an herb (successfully)
Foraged an herb (failed)
Lit a firepit
Made a stone blade
Mechanics
Mined
Mounted a fish
Prospected for marble

Skill-based, Ecology

Acidity, tested for
Heavy metals, tested for
Phosphorous, tested for
Soot, tested for

Structures, Used: General

Acid Bath
Alembic
Anvil
Beer Kettle
Brick rack
Carpentry shop
Casting Box
Charcoal Hearth/Oven
Chest
Forge
Glazier's Bench
Grain Oven
Kettle
Kiln
Malting Tray
Mason's Bench
Pigment Laboratory
Pottery Wheel
Quarry
Raeli Oven
Reactory
Rock Saw
Star Rack
Tub
Watermine
Wood Plane

Structures, Kitchen Activities

Ate a meal
Cooked a meal
Cracked a coconut
Crushed a cabbage
Crushed seeds into oil
Made fertilizer
Shredded a carrot

Structures, Miscellaneous

Drank from an Aqueduct
Maintained a structure
Salvaged a structure

Judged a(n)...

Artwork
Beetle Garden
Empty Hand Puzzle
Mosaic
Pathmaker
Raeli Gliderport (heh)
Venery

Test-Related

Acro, taught facet
Mushroom, eaten from the earth
Shrine, tithed at

Travel

Chariot, Free travel
Chariot, Regular
Expedition Travel
Navigated to a waypoint
Spousewarped

Vintner's Craft

Tended grapes
Crushed grapes
Bottled wine
Drank wine

Miscellaneous Other

belly danced
poked another player with a sharpened stick
ate an herb off the ground
lit a firework
lit a ritual torch
registered as a watcher at a star lab
polished a stone phoenix
meditated at a common altar
smoked a hookah