The Ectophial (a portmanteau of the words ectoplasm, which is what it contains, and phial) is a reward for completing the Ghosts Ahoy quest. It is described as 'a bright green vial of ectoplasm' and the Ectofuntus is said to be the source of its power. When emptied the Ectophial provides an instant teleport to the Ectofuntus, outside of Port Phasmatys; the adventurer will automatically refill it upon arriving at the Ectofuntus. Like with most teleports, it cannot be used beyond level 20 Wilderness. If lost the Ectophial can be regained without cost from Velorina in the northern-most house in Port Phasmatys (amulet of ghostspeak or the cramulet is required to be able to speak to her.) Players can only have one Ectophial at a time.
Because the Ectophial is free upon completion of Ghosts Ahoy, can be regained unlimited times, automatically refills itself, takes only one inventory slot, and needs only one click to activate, it is popular as not only a quick teleport to Port Phasmatys (and indeed, much of Morytania itself), but as an emergency teleport. The bank at Port Phasmatys is located on the opposite corner of the city and the player must first negotiate through one of the city's gates to get into the city. This puts the bank a fair distance from a player teleporting in with low life and poisoned to the point that a player could die before getting the situation taken care of. A player still can die in transit or shortly after arriving and lose all dropped items as there is no easy way to get back to Port Phasmatys. A player should not count on their grave being blessed or repaired at this location as it is fairly far off the main avenues of travel and a player capable of repairing or blessing may not travel through or be willing to help before the grave times out. It should be noted that while the teleportation animation spans a couple of seconds, players cannot be hit by attacks that are made against them while the animation is active. However, with the hub update a player can now choose to protect the Ectophial and teleback to the gravestone.
The Ectophial's teleport animation.
The Ectophial is a valued teleportation item as it provides the only fast transport to the Port Phasmatys area. Inside Port Phasmatys is a bank, and a charter ship rests at the docks on the eastern edge of town. An allotment, an herb patch and a flower patch are also nearby, making the Ectophial a valuable tool for farmers. Furthermore, a fairy ring (code ALQ) is not far from the farming area, providing access to Zanaris and the fairy network. However, Tokkul-Zo and the ring of slaying are faster.
On 5 January 2009, the Ectophial's teleport animation was updated to make it similar to the animation of many other teleports, only with a green teleport spiral instead of blue. On the same date, the Ectophial was also given the destroy option (giving it a warning message if wanting to drop/destroy it), to replace the drop option.
An update on 10 February 2009 added a feature wherein the Ectophial automatically refills itself after arriving at the Ectofuntus. Before the update, the Ectophial had to be manually refilled. Players who wished to leave their Ectophial empty could simply walk away from the Ectofuntus immediately upon arrival in order to interrupt the automatically triggered refilling, or do one of the following: clean a herb, drop one or more items, eat something, teleport from Ape Atoll while wielding a greegree or get frozen immediately upon arrival. You can still obtain an empty ectophial by using the ectophial to teleport, then immediately start worshipping the Ectofuntus, switching weapons immedietly, digging a spade rapidly during and after the teleport, or losing connection (disconnecting). Quickly moving away by pre-selecting a point to walk to as you are telporting in also prevents the character from filling the ectophial upon arrival.
Before an update on 7 February 2012 the Ectophial was never kept on death.
Trivia
- Although the ectophial teleport description states "You empty the ectoplasm onto the floor...", it can not be refilled from the pool of slime, which is ectoplasm.
- Trying to use it on the Ectofuntus makes the nearby ghost disciples angry. This may mean it proves lethal to them. This only happens when the ectophial is full and the disciples also get angry if a bucket is used on the Ectofuntus.