Invasion

Invasion was a large-scale, crossover server event between Gentle Earth and HubrisCraft (a fan-made spinoff of the Jadusable ARG), two ARG-driven Minecraft servers.

The main plot of the event was a battle between BEN and IntelligentMan for control of the Gentle Earth 'world'.

Pre-Event
The event was first leaked subtly to a few key players of both communities to arouse hype. The idea was concocted by Zimmeh and MFGreth to help broaden interest in GECraft, while also reinvigorating some player interest in HubrisCraft.

During the week leading up to it, MFGreth would drop small hints here and there in-game, though these largely went unnoticed by players. Hints included 'YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT' written in the sea via an island made of stone blocks (now removed), a 'grave' left near Tower One that said 'Here lies Greth, BEN was mad that he left him' (now removed). The final clue were copies of the book 'BEN DROWNED' and 'thetruth.rtf' left in the bookshelves of the Abandoned Cabin in place of Colour Out of Space and Micromegas. These copies were word for word the same as the original creepypasta and the original document, but have since been deleted from the server files.

Twenty four hours prior to the event, this song was embedded to play (and loop) in select pages on the website, including Home, the Rules/Contact page, and the Donate page. A countdown timer displaying 'INVASION' was also embedded on the front page, counting down to 9PM EST on August 12th, 2011.

The next morning (the morning of the event), the website's background changed to display what was apparently black, swirling mists. However, when a player right clicked the image and clicked 'View Background Image' (or downloaded the image), they found that background actually had BEN staring at the player in the middle. This would normally not be seen as the website would be covering that portion. If a player was really keen, however, they could outline the blackest areas around BEN and realize that IntelligentMan's face was hidden in the picture.



The final website change was the removal of the Twitter link to add a page entitled '???', which when opened, embed/looped this song, which was the infamous Song of Unhealing from the creepypasta. The page contained a Caesarian Shift cipher, which when decoded, said:

You shouldn't have hidden from me. You shouldn't have done that. Now it is mine.

All that was left was for the event timer to countdown and the event to begin.

During the Event
Not two minutes after the clock stroke 9PM EST, BEN (as Statueofelegy, nick'd BEN) came online. MFGreth and Zimmeh were both deop'd, and BEN immediately began taunting players and commenting on the player built town (Deepshore). The server reset, and when players came back on, they found that various 'artifacts' from the current and previous HC servers had been 'glitched' into Deepshore, including giant sprite arts of both BEN and Majora's Mask, the Church of BEN, the chapel tower, the Clock Tower from Hyrule (HC Map 1), the Clock Tower from HC Map 3 (Tazmily), Calypso Cove (Map 3), the Invictus Ship, Fate's End, Waymeet 1 (Map 2), Waymeet 2 (Map 3) and the MOON from Map 3, among other things.

After spending some time in this 'glitchworld', players were then transported to the HubrisCraft map one, also known as Hyrule. After examining the old map, and after some more taunting and 'games' with BEN, they then moved onto Map 2, aka Termina. More time was spent here playing BEN's 'games' (like BEN says), before they finally moved onto Map 3, Tazmily. It was at this time BEN proclaimed 'this was now his permanent home', fully intending to 'own' Gentle Earth, and replace it with a new verison of HubrisCraft. During this time IntelligentMan logged on, and immediately began to act violently (though calm) towards BEN, causing destruction to the town. Infuriated, BEN tried to retaliate in vain.

IntelligentMan then, unusual for him (up to that point), openly mocked BEN, transported all the players to the top of the 'MOON', and carved a giant slice in the middle, much to BEN's infuriation and hopelessness. BEN reacted with rage, and transported everyone to the 'skyworld' a map unseen by and player thus far, and akin to the 'moon' from Majora's Mask. BEN ran to the end of the interconnected islands that floated in the 'void', with IntelligentMan and the players on his heels. When reaching the end, the players tried to lecture BEN as IntelligentMan stripped away his power. The AI then attempted to imprison BEN in the giant tree, but with a last ditch effort, they were all warped back to 'glitchworld'. Using this opportunity, BEN temporarily regained his strength, and took it out on the players. However, IntelligentMan had other ideas.

In an act of open challenge and defiance, he used a massive quantity of TNT to blow up the giant BEN face, while making him and all the players watch from atop Tower One. Ben tried one last time to fight back, by nuking the players, but it was to no avail. IntelligentMan re-stripped BEN of his power, and let the players beat on him. Finally, BEN was evacuated from the server. At the end, they were all transported, by IntelligentMan, back to the map as it was before the event. Commenting on the situation (and how BEN had called the players his 'toys'), IntelligentMan left with the quote ..."Don't you see? You are not his playthings. You are not his toys... you are mine." He then logged off.

Post Event
Niklos soon came on afterwards. He did not know of the events that had happened, although he did say he saw a 'mass of system information.' Players there were explaining to him who BEN was, although he still seemed confused about it. He did say, however, that 'this BEN needs to find the end of his existance, peaceful or not.'

Afterwards, he said he could 'feel' partial data fields from the glitched world. Theories were presented about this being a computer world, although denied by Niklos, saying everything physically exists. He said that using mathematical equations, he could bring things from the glitched world back, due to 'attachments to the physical realm.' He brought Fate's End and the ship Invictus back this way.

After which, he spoke of the owner of the Abandoned Cabin, David. He revealed his name here, and warned of his unstability. However, he said that David knows the truth, being the first to arrive. Then he spoke of Scienziato, saying that they are the same, 'of a sort,' but that they do not see eye to eye at all. Niklos then spoke of the beta chamber, now known as Tower Three, warning of the test. Finally, he revealed canyouhearme.net via peeling open a corner of a diary and pulling out a piece of paper with it written on it, then left.