Dragon Festival 2007

The Dragon Festival 2007 is an event taking place over the weekend of July 6, 2007. It was announced in the Guild Wars login announcements:

Cantha Commemorates the Dragon Festival

''This weekend, Canthans celebrate the historic Dragon Festival. Enjoy quests and games and prizes, oh my! Visit the Boardwalk, jump into the Dragon Arena, score cool prizes, too. The event takes place in Shing Jea Monastery starting at Noon Pacific (-7 GMT) on Friday, July 6 and it wraps up at 11:59 PM Pacific on Sunday, July 8.''

The main prize is called the Demon Mask.

Mission and finale times
All times are PDT (GMT-7).

Mission giver: Captain Rujiyo in Shing Jea Monastery

Redecorated Towns

 * Shing Jea Monastery
 * Kaineng Center

Quests
Imperial Guard Hanso (in Shing Jea Monastery)
 * The Rampaging Yetis
 * The Shrine of Maat
 * A Strange Request
 * Darkness at Kaitan

(NOTE: The rewards from all 4 quests gives a total of 240 Victory Tokens, just 10 shy of the 250 required for a Demon Mask)

Minigames

 * Dragon Arena
 * Rollerbeetle Racing
 * Shing Jea Boardwalk
 * Dragon Nest
 * Nine Rings
 * Rings of Fortune

The Emperor's Visits (Finale)


On the last day, every two hours the emperor will visit Shing Jea Monastery. He will begin walking from Linnok Courtyard, and stop near the storage. Immediately when he stops, Honsu will announce the Emperor, Kisu, and Kisu himself will make a few comments. After he is done, if you have 250 Victory Tokens in your inventory, they are automatically exchanged for a Demon Mask. You need only be in the district at the right time for your mask to be awarded. The Imperial Supplymaster will remain for a week after the 8th of July to exchange masks for those who did not get to see the Emperor.

This period where you can exchange for the mask is quite short. Immediately afterwards is a mini-game. A group of actors dressed as Grasps called "Grasps of Insanity" will attack the monastery with "The Fury" leading them. Everybody in the monastery must collect Celestial Charges and bring them to a nearby Imperial Sorcerer. These sorcerers stand around in various places around the monastery, and when you pick up an orb, yellow flares on your map will indicate their location. For every charge delivered, Cantha scores a point. For every person caught by a "grasp", the "grasps" score a point. Also, whenever a charge is delivered, the person who delivers it get 1 Victory Token.

The Grasp: Grasps will hunt out those who are holding Celestial Charges, much like the Grenth minions did at the winter festivals. If one of them touch you while you are holding a celestial charge, you will instantly die. Do not worry, you will be resurrected soon! To avoid the "grasps", it is good to do a few things in certain situations. A) Drop the charge when they come near. They will wander away to find someone else. When they are a safe distance, pick it up again and run. B) Only pick up a charge if there are no grasps around. Also, make sure there are no grasps in between you and the particular Imperial Sorcerer you are targeting. Often times there will be an alternative Sorcerer you can reach safely. C) Finally, to better fulfill A and B, keep an eye on the map and look for moving green triangles. They are the grasps, and you should never pick up a charge with one in your aggro circle. The Grasps sometimes will touch a charge laying at it's spawn point, thus  they will destroy it and the enemies will gain 1 point.  The best way to avoid this it to quickly pick up the charge, then drop it right away. Additionally, grasps seem to run faster than normal. Eating sugary items will put you up to their speed.

Note: These deaths do not count as real deaths and will not affect your Survivor title.

The mini-game will last 15 minutes. After which, fireworks will go off, and Boardwalk Prizes will spawn randomly for roughly 15 minutes. In the spirit of the festival, be kind to your neighbor and try to make sure everybody gets at least one prize. If the Canthans lose the mini-game, then the Grasps will run around the outpost killing every player they can get their hands on. If you find yourself in such a district, the simplest way to avoid death is to move to another, hopefully more successful, district.

After this period of Festival Prize spawning, the emperor will take his leave. The Emperor's visit lasts about 40-45 minutes, which means his next visit will be in an hour and 15 minutes after he leaves.