Contagion

Contagion was the 2016 Halloween event on DragCave.

Dragons are coming down with a strange malady that makes them seem like zombies.

General Event Credits

Organizers: Fiona BlueFire
Scroll Badges: Munin
Event Banner & Icon: Munin
Contagion Home Screen Art: Munin

Users - Cure	Users - Spread

Gameplay

If your dragon was infected, there was a sprite change on your scroll, and the following message would appear on their page:

This dragon is infected!
Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen. See the event page for more information.

Eggs could be infected as well so long as at least one of the breeding parents was carrying the contagion.

An infected egg sprite

An infected hatchling sprite

An infected adult sprite

This mini-game worked in a similar fashion to the popular Minesweeper game. Official instructions on how to play are listed below- the meter on the home screen showed which side had been gaining the most support, and ultimately the Cure won.

Show/Hide Official Descriptions

“

A strange malady has begun to affect the dragons of Galsreim. It seemed harmless enough at first; just a few puddles of oozing goo that appeared on the floors of some remote caves. However, dragons who encounter the ooze become lethargic. Though not technically dead they become cold to the touch and their normal sharp intelligence is blunted. In the initial phases they tend to lie around all the time, deeply asleep. Worse, once a dragon has passed the initial lethargy, new pools of ooze appear in the dragon’s vicinity and nearby dragons begin to show signs of infection; clearly the malady is contagious.

Research into the contagion show that it is curable, though only with effort. The puddles of goo must be carefully uncovered and collected. Too much force on the goo denatures it, so the spreading pools need to be marked for special handling.

Once research and collection of an area of contagion is finished though, there is a choice to be made. There are those who would like to see the effect spread, to see if the dragons infected become true zombies once the disease has run its full course. Others would like to see the contagion eradicated.

You, the player, have been recruited into the research teams. You are now faced with a choice. Will you play the research game and seek to aid the cure of the zombie-dized dragons? Or will you try to help the malady spread further?

The meter measures the progress of the contagion across all of Galsreim. As the marker moves to the right, the more sick dragons become. As the marker moves to the left, dragons are cured of the dreaded malady

To join in, play the mini-game to uncover and contain the contagion so it can be used for research. Once you’ve successfully completed a game you’ll have a choice. Do you want to spread the contagion further? Or would you like to help spread the cure? You can play the game as much as you want, but can only submit a win for research every ten minutes.

Playing the game and submitting points toward research will gain you the event badge. Your badge will vary based on whether or not you choose to help spread or cure the disease.

Note: No dragons will be permanently affected by the infection. All dragons will eventually recover. Maybe when the event is over...

– Event Description

“

Click anywhere on the board to start.

The numbers on numbered squares indicate how many virus squares they touch. A 1 is surrounded by only one virus, a 2 is surrounded by two viruses, and so on. Use this information to figure out where the viruses are. A good starting point is if there is a square labeled “1” that is only surrounded by one hidden square, as that square is definitely a virus.

The counter at the top tells you how many viruses are hidden, and decreases as you mark viruses. You can mark where you think the viruses are hidden one of two ways: either right click on the square you think hides the virus, or click on the icon in the upper right of the board and then click on the square you want to mark. Be aware that you need to click the icon each time you want to mark a square. If you mistakenly place a marker you can either right or left click on the marked square to remove the marker. Click squares that you think do not contain the virus to reveal what they hide. It’s ok if you hit a virus square and lose, you can play as many times as you’d like.

There will probably be times when the numbers do not give you any clue about which squares in an area hide the virus. If you’re absolutely sure you can’t figure out any clue from the numbers in an area, just guess. But before you guess, look at the rest of the board to make sure that attacking a connected area won’t reveal new information about the impossible region. The virus counter may also give you a clue.

If the game is too easy, try varying your starting square for different challenges (revealing a corner first will likely be harder than revealing the center of the board).

You win by uncovering all the squares that do not contain viruses. When you win you will be given a choice which side to help. Choose to spread or cure the virus based on which side you want to win. You can play as often as you like, but you can only help your chosen side once every 10 minutes.

– Game Instructions

An unofficial story ending was provided via the forums courtesy of Pokemonfan13 and SockPuppet Strangler:

“

Hurrah!

Those fighting valiantly for the cure are clearly making progress against the contagion, which they have discovered seems to have roots in an unfortunate interaction between dark mana and a usually benign virus. Their careful, relentless work of cleaning up the ooze and treating those afflicted is overwhelming the efforts those who had hoped to continue the natural spread of the affliction. Soon every dragon will be cured of this strange malady - many are looking well rested already! - and it will be wiped from the land of Galsreim. Those who hoped to see if the strange disease would create zombies will never know because others were simply too conscientious of dragon lives to let this possible scourge remain. Hopefully the health of the dragons will prevail and none will take it upon themselves to attempt to re-create this strange illness. Those fighting for the cure will likely continue to look for a more permanent solution to avoid any possible future outbreaks.

– Pokemonfan13 ^{(Forum Post)}

Gallery

Event home screen

Plain game board

Example of a game win

Example of a game loss

Sprites	Artist(s)
	TCA
	JOTB
	Fiona BlueFire

Trivia

• It is possible to click on a random tile and auto-win the game.
• Originally, the event banner said that two-headed dragons would also be receiving sub-type specific Undead Dragon sprites.
• There is a bug on the site currently changing adult Spitfire Dragons on user's scrolls into Thalassa Xenowyrm eggs with a 4th stage crack when they become infected with the contagion.
• The dragon featured in the game's home screen is a young Red Dragon that has been infected and weakened for a few days.
• The game's meter was set up such that if no one did anything, spread would naturally win. This mechanism was removed on the final day of the game.
• This event's banner title originally said "Congation" instead of "Contagion". This was quickly fixed with an image update.