The Portal Activation Centre was an event that began on the 25th of March, 2014 (Year 16) and lasted until the 2nd of April. The event was given a mixture of names, including the Moltara Mystery, and the Random Event Update. It introduced a revamp of the Random Event system.
The story began with an announced sudden increase in Random Events across Neopia. However, Random Events quickly disappeared entirely. Soon after, a static-filled message from a Lutari was broadcast as the only remaining Random Event. The message was fractured, but pieced together, it read:
Can anyone down there hear me? I need supplies to fix the machine. My original workshop is located underground. You'll find what looks like a water tower in Moltara City. You can use the portal there to teleport to my ship. I'll give you further instructions when you arrive. Hurry, would you?
Visitors to the water tower in Moltara found that it was actually a cunningly disguised laboratory with equipment inside that seemed far more advanced than standard Moltaran technology. A robotic laboratory assistant, known as Scintilly instructed visitors that the facility's portal system was powered down, and guided them to a control panel to reactivate it.
Welcome, visitor.
Stepping through the newly activated portal, visitors found themselves teleported to Neopia's orbit, onboard a spaceship named the Coincidence (the same spaceship that can be seen orbiting Neopia on the explore map). The Coincidence was home to the Lutari who had sent the messages, Dr. Landelbrot.
Landelbrot explained that long ago he had created a form of technology known as the Confusionator to create chaos throughout Neopia, viewing it as an important counterpoint to balance. This was the source of the Random Events throughout Neopia. However, the machine was malfunctioning, and Landelbrot needed items to help repair it. After gathering all the required pieces and some passing comets to power it, Landelbrot succeeded in repairing the Confusionator and relaunched Random Events across Neopia to maintain balance.
The storyline of this event later became the basis of the Random Event Machine daily.
Users participated in this event by completing two individual steps. In the first, users tried to activate the portal in Moltara by solving puzzles based on the Lights Out game. The puzzles got progressively larger, but were the same for everyone (and on some days, the exact same puzzle was displayed).
The second step took place onboard Dr. Landelbrot's ship. This was a variant of a standard Faerie Quest. Landelbrot would ask for 3 items in varying quantities, which users would have to return with. The exact items asked for varied, but were typically drawn from 'junk' given out by dailies across Neopia. Upon completing a quest, users would be rewarded with one of ten console pieces for the Random Event Machine. Once all ten were collected, the machine was repaired and the step ended.
Users who did not complete the puzzle during the event are still able to complete one of the control panel puzzles in the Moltaran water tower, will be awarded a Green Apple for doing so, and will then be redirected to the Coincidence daily instead.
Numerous awards were handed out for those who participated:
At the conclusion of the event, final prizes were awarded from revisiting the spaceship interior.
All users who participated were awarded the following avatar:
RANDOM EVENT EVENT AVATAR / Guide
Awarded for participating in the Spaceship Interior event.
Released: March 29, 2014
This page was written by Herdy and last updated on June 20, 2023.
