LAST August everyone in Webkinz World was looking for charms. The twenty-four physical charms had been released, and a minimum of eight allowed you to search for virtual charms in the Charm Forest, an enchanted place occupied by good fairies with plaited red hair, led by the lissome Alyssa, and bad fairies with dark hair and an even darker laugh, led by the nefarious Nefaria (first encountered in the arcade game Tulip Trouble 2).
Then the Chinese-lead-paint scandal exploded. Ganz never came out and said the charms had lead in them, but all of a sudden the charms dwindled and they eventually disappeared.
Now, once you find all the virtual charms, the Charm Forest is just a place to go to get laughed at by Nafaria, gather charm candy or special food, or to get the occasional W100 gold coin or duplicate charm which will get you W100. Otherwise, the challenge was gone.
Well, there's a new challenge in the Forest, "Alyssa's Star Challenge." Like Arte's Gem Search, this can be done once a day. You search a sky full of Webkinz constellations, clicking the tip of the pole of your star net on a colored star. The net swings and you either "catch" or "miss" a star which may have the shape of a triangle or square, or be in the image of a pawprint or other Webkinz-associated shape. Alyssa will offer you Kinzcash for your acquisition or you can keep it in a revolving star-keeper. If you gather all the stars, you get a special prize. There are also shooting stars, which pay off in cookies or in various parts of a space suit.
So far I have two stars and the pants part of the space suit.
From the Depths of the Forest
