Mabar Endless Night Festival

Overview
The Mabar Endless Night Festival is a special event introduced in Update 7 during the Halloween season.

The Mabar Festival allows characters to kill respawning undead in the Delera's Graveyard and harvest collectables to buy / upgrade festival-specific unique weapons and items with a flavor of undeath. By turning in collectibles you can first craft then upgrade the items of your choice.

When players trade in 10,000 collectables (has been 20,000 in previous years), the Summoning Chamber opens and players fight an Undead Spectral dragon named Eternity. After killing the dragon, you are rewarded with a Spectral Dragon Scale.

All weaponry and items unique to the Festival are Bound to Character on Acquire, upgraded or not. Collectibles are freely tradeable.

Mabar also Decorates part of the Dungeons and Dragons Online world in halloween themes:
 * Pumpkin Training Dummies
 * Pumpking Beholders (any beholder has a small chance to spawn with a pumpkin mask on)
 * Delera's Graveyard and Entrance to it get decorated with themed pumpkin sign traders and mind flayers with pumpkins on their head

Delera's Graveyard


Update 7 modified Delera's Graveyard into a public area. Free to Play accounts may enter the graveyard and participate in the event, but remained restricted from accessing the Delera's Tomb quests inside the area without purchasing the Adventure Pack.

Items that can be collected from killing undead:


 * Collectables (trade in for Motes of Night, the basic "currency" to purchase special event items. Motes do not count towards the 20,000 total turn-ins needed to open the Spectral Dragon Summoning Chamber)
 * Burnt-out Black Opal (generated 1 to 23 Motes) - Unbound
 * Chipped Skull (generated 4 to 25 Motes) - Unbound
 * Cursed Fingerbone (generated 15 to 66 Motes) - Unbound
 * Collectables used in item upgrades
 * Spectral Dragon Scales: Acquired by defeating Eternity in the summoning chamber or purchased for 10,000 Motes from the event vendor. A scale is needed for each of the third, fourth, and fifth tier item upgrades. - Bound to Account
 * Vampire Fangs: These drop only when killing vampires, and are needed for the fourth tier upgrade - Unbound [Oct 2013 event update: Vampire Fangs no longer drop in the slayer area; it must be obtained by trading in Motes of Night (100).]
 * Lich Dust: This drops only when killing a lich, and is needed for the fifth tier upgrade - Unbound [Oct 2013 event update: Lich Dust no longer drops in the slayer area; it must be obtained by trading in Motes of Night (200).]
 * Other
 * Ethereal Key. This is needed to enter the Summoning Chamber when enough collectibles have been turned in. These drop from undead, but they can also be purchased from the DDO store for 50 TP, or from the Mote of Night Collector for 1000 Motes of Night. Ethereal Keys are BtA.

Everything other than Motes go into your Collectables Bag under "Festivals / Mabar Items". Motes go into your Ingredients Bag. Ethereal Keys and Spectral Dragon Scales are Bound to Account, all the rest are unbound (including Motes).

Farming strategies
The level of the undead that spawn is dependent on either your level, or the level of your party leader. To get higher CR enemies to spawn, the leader of the party should be the highest level. Certain kinds of enemies will only spawn when the CR is high enough (Vampires, Lichs, Whelps, Giant Skeletons etc). Fighting enemies of a higher CR increase the quality of the drops. Also, fighting enemies that are more than 2 CR levels below you will result in "Enemy was too weak" message and no drops.

There are some good places to farm; These areas have the most spawn points as well as the largest mob spawns. Joining a raid party will also increase your likelihood of getting a drop because the kills are shared between the whole party, and you can take on larger mobs.
 * By the pond at the bottom of the hill near the Delera's Tomb
 * On the hill above Joe Lantern and the entrance to the summoning chamber
 * Around the stone bridge to the south from Joe Lantern

It is not confirmed whether using AoE spell reduce the number of collectible drops, but party members seem to get more drops when the bulk of the fighting is done hand to hand. Drops seem to be more likely when you are physically closer to the enemies when they die.

You can increase the number of motes that you receive by buying a Item:Draught of Midnight from the store (25 TP) or the Mote of Night collector (500 motes). Buying from the store makes more sense, because you will not necessarily get 500 extra motes with the use of the 1 hour potion.

Summoning Chamber


When players trade in 10,000 collectables (20,000 in previous years), the DM announces it to everyone in Delera's Graveyard and the Summoning Chamber will open. The dungeon entrance is near Joe Lantern. You cannot select difficulty, you are automatically assigned to an instance depending on your level. Level spreads are:


 * Levels 1 through 8 (Summoning Chamber A)
 * Levels 9 through 14 (Summoning Chamber B)
 * Levels 15 through 19 (Summoning Chamber C)
 * Levels 20 through 25 (Summoning Chamber D)
 * Levels 26 through 30 (Summoning Chamber E)

If you are in a party with someone already inside the chamber for your level range, you will join them in that instance of the chamber. If no one in your party is already in the right level chamber for you, you will be loaded into the highest instance number that exists (or if the highest instance has more than X? players already, a new instance will be created for you). If you load into a high instance with too few players, you may want to leave the instance and join party with a player in a lower instance with more players, then re-enter to join their instance. You can see which instance number a player is in by searching for their name in the Who tab of the Social panel (or type /who playername), or in the mouse-over list in the Grouping tab's LFM entry: for example, the first instance for the level 20-25 characters will show as Summoning Chamber D:1.

You need an Ethereal Key to enter the Summoning Chamber. It must be in your inventory, not in a Collectables bag. It is consumed when you enter the Summoning Chamber, and is supposed to be returned if you leave via the door or if the quest fails (it is not returned if you are dead when the quest fails). You will spawn randomly in one of the 4 corners of the map.

When the Summoning Chamber opens, a 41 minute timer starts before more collectable turn-ins will count toward the next opening, and during that 41 minutes the groups inside need to complete:
 * 10 minutes after the Summoning Chamber opens, the doors shut an no more players may enter. Starting then, you have 30 minutes to click all 4 altars to summon the dragon and kill the dragon.
 * 25 minutes after the Summoning Chamber opens, you get this warning (regardless of the altars being clicked yet or not; this means you have 15 minutes remaining to click the altars if they haven't been already and kill the dragon):
 * (Dungeon Master): In 15 minutes, the summoning ritual will dissipate and the Spectral Dragon will escape.


 * 30 minutes after the Summoning Chamber opens, you get this warning (regardless of the altars being clicked yet or not; this means you have 10 minutes remaining to click the altars if they haven't been already and kill the dragon):
 * (Dungeon Master): In 10 minutes, the summoning ritual will dissipate and the Spectral Dragon will escape.


 * 35 minutes after the Summoning Chamber opens, you get this warning (regardless of the altars being clicked yet or not; this means you have 5 minutes remaining to click the altars if they haven't been already and kill the dragon):
 * (Dungeon Master): In 5 minutes, the summoning ritual will dissipate and the Spectral Dragon will escape.


 * 39 minutes after the Summoning Chamber opens, you get this warning (regardless of the altars being clicked yet or not; this means you have 1 minute remaining to click the altars if they haven't been already and kill the dragon):
 * (Dungeon Master): In 1 minute, the summoning ritual will dissipate and the Spectral Dragon will escape.


 * 40 minutes after the Summoning Chamber opens, you get this warning and are ejected from the Summoning Chamber:
 * (Dungeon Master): The summoning ritual has dissipated and the Spectral Dragon escaped -- you have failed! Your Ethereal Key is returned to you upon your exit.


 * 41 minutes after the Summoning Chamber opens, the collectable turn-in counter restarts and you can begin turning in collectables to count for starting the next round.

Players must get organized and cover eight positions on the map - two in each corner:
 * Altar room
 * Lever room

Communication with other players in the Summoning Chamber is done by using General Chat.

In the first 10 minutes, get organized and cover all 8 spots by self-sufficient characters or teams. Forming a raid party to talk to each other helps. However, each instance of the dungeon will have its own general chat channel, allowing communication that way.

There is no penalty to clicking the altars after the doors lock, and waiting 5 to 20 minutes may offset your group from the other's that are working at the same time and reduce the lag from all of the groups completing/failing at the same time. Clicking the altars before the doors lock does not seal them any faster, and more players may still enter after the altars are clicked (but before the doors are locked).

After the 10 minute introduction, the fun (and/or lag) starts. Once all 4 altars are activated, Eternity appears in one of the altar rooms; generally, this will be the room with the fewest people in it. After a while Eternity will teleport to a different altar room. Additionally, gargoyles spawn in both altar rooms and lever rooms. These are the priorities:


 * Protect the altar. Gargoyles attack it. Destroyed altar = game over, you fail.
 * Activate the levers when the dragon is in that room: this will light up the altar room. When the dragon is in an unlit room, it gets much stronger, gaining DR, etc. Gargoyles in the lever room will deactivate the lever if it is active (they will not spawn if it is not active).
 * Kill the dragon.

If you die within the Summoning Chamber, you have 2 minutes to be resurrected or you will be automatically released to your bind point. You don't have a soul stone, so you can run to other players if needed (if you aren't completely frozen due to lag). If you release out or if the quest fails while you are dead you do not regain your Ethereal Key. If the quest completes while you are dead (but before you are released automatically), you are automatically resurrected and you receive you rewards as normal.

Once the dragon is killed, you will get a victory message. After a few seconds, everyone is booted from the instance and a Spectral Dragon Scale appears in your backpack. Anecdotal evidence suggests the person who landed the actual killing blow may get two Scales. It has been confirmed, however, that anywhere between one and three scales will be awarded regardless of who strikes the killing blow.

A Signet of the Endless Night will also be awarded if it was your character's first successful run that day. Limit one Signet of the Endless Night/character/day: ✅, same as the Daily Challenge Tokens.

Note that the Scale and/or Signet are bestowed when your character is ejected from the instance, not when the message appears claiming you were given them. Do not close the client before you are ejected or you will not get the rewards.

Halloween 2010

 * During the first run of the Festival, a serious glitch that would make kobolds appear occurred that caused the event to be stopped before the scheduled end. The glitch was fixed for later runs.
 * At least one major tweak has been a massive reduction in the drop rate of vampire fangs, which drop less regularly.
 * In earlier iterations, a glitch left players unable to gather 10,000 Motes of Night to purchase a Spectral Dragon Scale from the event vendor. The 9,999 stack limit on motes was since raised to 10,000 in later sessions.
 * Wheeps seem to be tossing around level drains and their 10 minute fear debuffs much less frequently.
 * Mass banning around Dragon Chamber exploit forum thread

Halloween 2011

 * Oct 2011 version: Summoning Chamber maintains party make-up (within level restrictions), so Summoning Chamber D:1 (the first instance of the level 20 version of the Summoning Chamber) gets a lot more players than later instances, because the first players in the door will bring their entire parties with them. You can also move to a desired instance by joining a party that is already in that instance before you enter the door (or exit and re-enter to join their instance before the door closes). Every player could be shuffled into a single instance quite easily, but players should avoid over-filling a single instance (around 40-60 players can work OK, but 100+ basically froze the instance for 20 minutes until all the summons expired and some of the players died and got dumped out of the instance).
 * In October 2011, the event returned for "a special sneak peek" from the morning on Wednesday October 19th through Thursday October 20th (ending the morning of the 21st) (link to announcement), and the Halloween weekend from the morning on Thursday October 27th through the evening on Wednesday November 2nd (emailed announcement and dev confirmation).
 * Ran from October 27th - November 2nd as well after the sneak peek on the 19th/20th.

Halloween 2012
Tolero: Post script, we do intend to extend the festival once we call in the Kobold exterminators to make up for lost time. 
 * It was announced in U15.1 and 15.2 that changes would be made to Mabar to accommodate epic levels (new monsters and loot, changes to the Summoning Chamber).
 * On Thursday, September 27, there was a preview of the changes on the Lamannia server.
 * Mabar was launched on October 25, planned to run until November 4. However, issues caused it to be shut down - kobolds spawned instead of undead.
 * On October 30, a Hotfix restored the event.


 * On November 2, mob spawn rates on Epic (level 20-25) instances have been reduced by 75%, due to some performance issues. This has had a significant impact on the number of Motes of Night which epic-level players can gather. Other level range instances are unaffected.


 * On November 2, Mabar Schedule. The Festival will end on Tuesday evening, November 6th.  There will be an encore of the festival closer to the Thanksgiving holiday - while pumpkins are still fashionable before Festivult time rolls into town.  Mabar II 2012 spans  November 21, 2012 and extends until November 27, 2012.

Halloween 2013

 * It was announced in 19.2 that changes would be made to Mabar to accommodate players level 26+ (new L26-30 instances of the graveyard and the Summoning Chamber). Giant Skeletons were removed, and replaced with new monsters for levels 21+, and Draughts of Midnight would grant motes for non-undead monsters in Delera's Graveyard.  BtC Signets of the Endless Night were also introduced, which players can earn once per day (from the first successful dragon fight); forum posts revealed that this was per character, not per server.   These can be used to purchase new cosmetic helms, +5 tomes (limited to one per character), and new Ruby augments.  19.3 brought still more changes, notably monsters in a level-banded instance counting as of appropriate level for rewards, as long as the player isn't over the maximum level.  Additionally, Vampire Fangs and Lich Dust will no longer drop from monsters; the only source for these will now be from other players or from the Mote of Night trader; the cost for fangs and dust were "significantly reduced".  It was also announced that failed Spectral Dragon runs (due to an altar being destroyed) will return players' Ethereal Keys.
 * Opened for a 6-hour preview on Tuesday, September 24th, from 6 PM to Midnight Eastern.
 * If you destroy too many undead too many levels below your own level, you will get a warning from the Greater Powers, Mabar's Notice. If you persist, you'll be punished for your actions with Mabar's Interest, then with Mabar's Anger, then with death.
 * The Festival opened on October 24, 2013 and was originally scheduled to run through November 11. However, DDO spokesperson Cordovan announced on October 28 that the Festival will close after October 31 to resolve possible lag and performance issues throughout the game while they resolve issues for another time.