Evil gnomes randomly appeared

This just happened to me. My Sim does not have an ailment and there are no NPCs on the lot. I also haven't received any notice as to why they are there. My Sim was "Pleading for forgiveness" many times and they can not be appeased. 

Why this post doesn't have a "Vote" button available? 

Ok. Well I've tested this in a vanilla game every which way I could imagine, but... all that I can say is: Upon occasion a gang of gnomes will randomly show up and either be evil, repair or - one time - protective and I don't know why. 

They show up. It's random. 

I've had to sell the toilets a couple times because the repair/upgrade gnomes add the composting upgrade and then my sims catch on fire. Can I say: "Boy that burns my bottom?" 🤣  

The only thing I wish for is that there were some sort of warning. A bit of gnome music to say "They're here!" Otherwise it sort of amuses me.

I kept going to a fairy to get my ailments fixed so I can see them getting pranked a little

The gnomes were insane for a bit, I'm so glad they turned ailment frequency down. I know none of my Sims at the time had one, but I think someone visiting did

In hindsight it was hilarious, but at the time I was so scared they would come back and electrocute my Sims again

I think one of the Sims visiting might have had an ailment

I don't know. 

Personal opinion: 

• If they appear on community lots: Probably intended. I know I had them spawn in the Naturopath career when ill Sims came over.
• If they appear your apartment when the NPCs did not enter you lot: I would report that as bug. 

I've created a new vanilla TS4 folder. Going to move a copy of my Spellcaster family into the same SM apt and see what happens. Will move them around to different apts and some multi-family r-rentals, as well. Also testing with a new non-occult family following behind on the same route. Someone who looks through code could probably figure this out faster, but I'm just a field researcher.

I'm kinda leaning towards this being a plague brought on by an NPC. I traveled to my sims retail lot with the infected waitress and - tho it took a while - the evil gnomes did show up. Seems like if an infected sim were lingering near - but not on - a played lot, then only place they have to appear is the played lot. Is that a bug or just to be expected? Not a clue.

No idea about relationships between gnomes and spellcasters. Maybe ask in the discussion forums ? 

You could test a non-spellcaster household in san myshuno to see if it happens there too.

Yes, the neighbors do visit. Baako and Billie Jang are goofballs - so come in and make themselves at home. But, I have not observed them in my sims apt while visually sick. Mostly I see them with visual ailments in the lobby or when complaining about the noise.  

None of my Sims have gotten sick.  Which seems odd. At least one should have a chance of getting an ailment over the 2 sim weeks I've been playing. Especially because they interact with the sick neighbors. I don't have ailments/luck disabled. 

The restaurant was NPC owned. I assume that the gnomes invading the restaurant because of a sick waiter was normal for EBN. 

This is the first SM apartment I've played since EBN. I haven't played a r-rental setup yet. 

I'm not sure what the range is for ailment effects. Apartment and r-rental work differently from normal lots so maybe the effects are spilling into my sims apt from the one next door. Need to do some more playing in a different apt.  and some r-rental. 

If it keeps happening in other SM apartments or r-rentals, I'll make a bug report. 

Adding: It seems to me that when I was playing my test game right after EBN came out, my Sim got some sort of warning about making the gnomes angry. Do gnomes not like Spellcasters using Magic? Do they keep showing up because my Sims use magic. 🤷‍♀️