Comfy blanket

comfy blanket Although it is a bit measly in size (it would fit in quite a small box), it will be no less influential in keeping you warm at night. Have you spoken to your mother lately? You should call her, eh? Cannot be discarded (In-game plural: comfy blankets)

View metadata Item number: 1311 Description ID: 426024809 View in-game: view View market statistics refreshedit data

Obtained From

Obsoleted Areas/Methods

Cristobal Colon

Given to certain players via KMail

The Mall of Loathing (1 Meat and later 100 Meat)

Notes

• When resting in your campground, the blanket gives about 50 more HP when resting, which is doubled when Grimace is full, giving the following message:

Your comfy blanket keeps you extra warm.

• The blanket made its first appearance on Columbus Day 2005. Jick said -cough- after his news posting on October 11, and also mentioned that "nothing else interesting happened". It has been speculated that Jick had been stricken with a nasty cold during the week of October 11th.
• Cristobal Colon (#1492) was giving them out a few hours after rollover, and put 200 of them in his store for 1 meat each (1/day limit). A few hours after that he sold them again, but this time at 100 meat each (1/day limit). Also, those who received a comfy blanket in their kmail received the following message:

From Cristobal Colon (#1492)
Date: $date

Hail there, fellow Adventurer!

I am a traveller from Distant Lands, and landed on the shores of your
Kingdom just yesterday. Sadly, I've met with a cold reception thus far.
Your Kingdom seems to be overrun with brutes!

I offer you this gift as a sign of my goodwill and desire to coexist
peacefully with you and your kin. I hope that it will help warm you in the
cold Loathing nights.

Fare thee well!

You acquire an item: comfy blanket

• The items were purported to be diseased. People observed the gray message -cough- appended to the end of their chat message. However, even people without a blanket were seen coughing occasionally, demonstrating that the disease was contagious. No concrete details on the disease's proliferation were revealed, but it has been suspected that the disease could spread from member to member through K-mail or a Blue Message. (The disease is known as, among other things, The Gray Plague)
• The plague could be cured by Doc's Miracle Cure, though it was possible to be re-infected.
• The plague was completely wiped out through the use of the loaded serum blowgun.
• The comfy blanket no longer infects players.

References

• This item is a reference to European colonization of North America. While there are (disputed) tales of other incidents, there is only a single documented incident in which British soldiers attempted to infect Native Americans with blankets that had been exposed to smallpox. It is not known whether they succeeded, since smallpox was already in the area and could have reached the Native Americans by other means. See Native American depopulation: Deliberate infection? for details.
• The description of the item is filled with disease puns:
  • "... a bit measly in size" (measles)
  • "... small box" (smallpox)
  • "... no less influential" (influenza)
  • "... call her, eh" (cholera)
• The item icon is also a joke, as it is similar to the filthy hippy poncho icon turned on its side
• This could also have been inspired by the September 2005 "plague" which affected the online game World of Warcraft.
  • 10/13/2005 CNet article 9/22/2005 BBC article

See Also

• HP Restorers

Collection

"1311" does not have an RSS file (yet?) for the collection database.