Subjunctive KoL: ColumbusDaySpoilers

On Columbus Day 2005, a new character named Cristobal Colon (#1492) appeared on the scene. He handed out a new item: a "comfy blanket" which made resting much more comfortable (and effective). Some of the blankets were randomly sent to people, while others were offered in his store for a short period of time.

However, the blanket came with a downside: people who used it started coughing in chat. Furthermore, the disease was transmissible even to those who had not used a blanket themselves. The exact means of transmission is unclear, but it appears to be mainly through k-mails.

As time went on, the effects of the plague became worse: some people were not only coughing, but also shuddering. Furthermore, the text of infected players began to fade towards gray in the chat, with your text becoming lighter the longer you had been infected.

The Suspicious-Looking Guy in the Wrong Side of the Tracks offered a palliative: if you visited him, he would give you a pair of rose-colored glasses, which, when worn, would make your text in chat look perfectly robust and healthy to you. However, they did nothing to cure the underlying problem.

The "Grey Plague" continued to spread throughout the Kingdom; Doc Galaktik started displaying his tally of infected players on the front page, with the number being about 20,000.

Eventually, Doc Galaktik stepped in with something to help. If you obtained a blood flower from the Icy Peak, a plastic passion fruit from the Lemon Party Slot, or a lovecat tail from a questionable taco obtained from South of the Border, and gave it to him, he would give you Doc's Miracle Cure, which would cure your disease. (Note: Fittingly enough, the three items are all references to songs by the Cure.) However, only a small number of players obtained the cure, and so those players were quickly reinfected by those players who had not bothered to cure themselves.

Finally, on November 2, with the number of infected players above 30,000 and climbing, after the TemporalRifts had appeared in the Kingdom and you could travel through them to fight against zombies 28 Days Later (see ZombieSpoilers), Doc Galaktik discovered a way to turn the zombie pineal glands into a permanent cure. By trading in zombie pineal glands, you could obtain a loaded serum blowgun, which you could use on yourself or on someone else infected with the plague to cure them (obtaining an empty blowgun in the process). This very rapidly cut down the number of people infected, and the plague was completely eliminated within a few days.

After the plague had been eradicated from the Kingdom, the temporal rift to 28 Days Later closed and the new adventures listed below disappeared.

New Adventures:

• at the Icy Peak: Altogether Fitting and Proper (blood flower)
• at South of the Border: Questionable Tactics (questionable taco, -30 Meat)
• at the Lemon Party Slot in the Thatched-Roofed Casino: malfunction (happens randomly regardless of what your spin is) (plastic passion fruit)

New items:

• comfy blanket (item; improves effectiveness of resting but may infect you)
• rose-colored glasses (accessory; make your own text look black)
• blood flower (item; can be traded to Doc Galaktik)
• plastic passion fruit (item; can be traded to Doc Galaktik)
• questionable taco (food; 3-4 Adventures, lovecat tail, 3 fullness)
• lovecat tail (item; can be traded to Doc Galaktik)
• Doc's Miracle Cure (item; cures you of the disease)
• zombie pineal gland (item; can be traded to Doc Galaktik)
• loaded serum blowgun (item; can be used on yourself or others to cure and immunize against the disease)
• empty blowgun (item; obtained by using the loaded blowgun)