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Hostilities are brewing between the KNIGHT and TRIBUNAL forces, follwing Knight Faurnin's forced recruitment of a vast part of the Val Miran populace. Yet has the Knight recruited them to let them die in his army or to save them from a fate far worse? The goblin zombies which were trudging through Val Miran's street are suddenly gone without a trace. Or are they? Mysterious portals have opened just beyond the city's gates, creating a focal point just over the commons. Meanwhile, the Savants have been busy to save their crumbling tower, yet will moving it be enough, and will moving it be successful? While the Maelbrim population so far has not had many people following the Knights conscription efforts, troop movements have started in the city of Miruvhor. One of history's biggest heists has been committed, ridding Ghregory of all of his detect trap scrolls as well as the master scroll. But to what effort? Boats make ready to launch, armies gather. All the while a mysterious illness has left tiny corpses scattered along the main trade routes. Some take a back-seat, watching, assessing. Some plot and plan, to rescue them all or kill them all? Where will you stand? Choose your stance wisely.

I’m playing a DK and figured they needed a boost. Just watching out for myself. ......

Hot Change Date: 12/29/2018 Race/Class Changes: Duergar can now be Dark-knights Dwarves can now be Paladins Score (do_score) changes Real hitroll is now visible Ethos line combined with 'Align' line Size is now visible Smoking Herbs is now in line with Potion and Scroll use, resulting in 8 pulses of lag when done More to come in the next couple of days. View full hot change

I have honestly had enough. Every single one of us is an adult. Light-hearted ribbing is one thing. Insulting each other to the point of vitriol and hatred is some playground BS. I really want you all to take a good long, hard look at the recent trend of forum behavior and ask yourselves if that is the type of behavior you'd tolerate from people you know in person. If somebody said those things to your face. Look, people disagree all the time. It's part of being a person. You have opinions and beliefs. Everyone does. And that's the point. The opinions and beliefs of others may not coincide with your own. And that's fine. That's great, actually. Different perspectives are a great learning tool. But the recent air in the forums is not trying to learn from differing opinions, but trashing the people who aren't beholden to your own. That has to stop. Part of being an adult is knowing when to employ tact. Knowing when and how to take a step back and take the high road. You can disagree with and dislike each other all you want. But the moment those feelings turn into open hostility, you are reverting to behavior one could expect from a small child. Have you ever tried to argue with a child? Like I said before, we are all adults. We need to do a better job of acting like it. I really don't like being the bad guy with my finger on the warning button. I don't like the angry messages on here and discord when the person doesn't agree with my decision. I don't like depriving people of a way to converse with each other. But lately I have had to step in multiple times on both the forums and discord to police conversation because it gets out of hand. Don't keep making me be the bad guy. Please.

Myran Dammel is done. Quite a few items have been upgraded, a few compeltely changed, some downgraded, check it out.

Hot Change Date: 11/18/2018 AC diminishing returns have been reworked and are much less noticeable and require a much higher AC to begin diminishing returns. The returns are also less abrasive, resulting in roughly 25% diminishing returns after reaching -450ac or above. The formula: At -450AC, this applies: --- ((AC + 450) / 2) - 450 --- Previous formula diminished AC at -300 AC and did it by 47%, for comparison. Berserker's are capped with Hitroll and Damroll again, but at slightly higher than other classes. View full hot change

You will now get prompts if something fails to be uncursed, or if you're not carrying what you're attempting to uncurse, so you're not needlessly wasting gold if you're possibly mistyping.

After we've received a lot of feedback from you (thanks guys! This is very welcome and appreciated!), we've decided to change the weight of saves somewhat. I'm editing the post above so the first post is again valid. Change: 1 sv spell: 4 points -> 2.5 points 1 sv in a single category: 1 point -> 0.75 points I will edit the blackwatch area when I have the time to do this and let you know so you can update pastebin. All items with saves will change again. Also, fyi several other areas are now being worked on by different staff members (thanks guys! Very happy this does not have to be an effort of only 1-2 imms!). We'll update here when the areas are done.

Hey @F-3000, I think it goes without saying that a lot of people are perplexed. First, you're trying to compare apples to oranges, here. Webhotel is web hosting - and you're paying more than you should be ($75 a year?! for a single website?!). You could easily get very affordable, 99.9% up-time webhosting for ~$28 a year, and have resources available to host a small to medium size traffic'd website. That said, web hosting is shared hosting - you share an IP. You share a single (or sometimes several IPs) between 10-50 different customers (if it's done right). If it's done wrong, you're sharing an IP between hundreds of other customers, which means one thing - stability goes down into the shithole. FL is hosted on a Centos7.6 server, Cloud virtualization built on OpenStack. This means that resources, especially disk access, is guaranteed over something like Shared Hosting or VPS hosting. In the end, it's blazingly fast with SSD drives, (150GB in this case, but FL take sup around 20GB, so we have room), 6GB of RAM, premium 12TB of bandwidth, and a Skylake Intel Core Processor with 6 cores dedicated to resources we'll be using specifically. We're not sharing a damn thing. What a lot of people don't realize is that FL has, in the past, been hosted over seas at companies which boast MUD hosting for ~$20 to $30 a month. That equates to around $120 cheaper than what we normally paid in the past. However, the big seller here is DDoS protection. We have LVL 7 filtering that will prevent DDoSing (especially against our IPspace) from causing outages. Sure, things may slow down *a little bit*, but all traffic is filtered by Voxility, (which is expensive in its own) and then routed back to the server IF we're DDoS'd - does anyone remember several years ago when some script kiddie asshole DDoS'd the hell out of us and we had to whitelist people to play? That won't be necessary, ever. That - and I have full control of the server. I don't answer to anyone. Our resources, as explained, are not shared. Consider this a Desktop that's virtualized, sitting in a Datacenter manned 24/7 by technicians day and night - hardware isn't an issue, and software definitely isn't and never will be. Downtime is essentially non-existent save for a natural disaster - but even then, our data being in the Cloud can easily be transferred to another stack a thousand miles away in minutes, and back online on the same IP space. Long story short - let's not compare Web hosting with our server. For what it's worth - the forum host, theforsakenlands.com, is hosted on my Personal VPS that costs nothing to me, and is provided to me from work at no extra charge - so we're not paying for webhosting at all. Perks of working in the field, I guess

Happy new year, get well there if you're not there yet, have fun. Wish you and your families health and success with whatever you're trying to achieve.

You can now create your own customized armor via rp points, and upgrade it twice. If you wish to make such an item and have the rp points necessary, send a short application to immortal detailing your chosen stats and description. As we have an established point system now, we will adjust this to the point system, which results in a few changed values (I'm leaving the original below for reference purposes only). 10 hp, 20 mana, 30 moves: 1 pts svspell: 2.5 pts sv vs one category: 0.75 pts ac -10: 1 pts 1 hr or 1 dr: 1 pts Level 1: 50 rp - 2 pts Level 2: 50 rp - 2 pts Level 3: 50 rp + 1 luck + 1 word colored + ownered allowed pts for a level 3 item: 1 (base, so you get a total base of 5 for a level 50 item) + rare value 1 pts for multiple slots (wrist, neck) / 2 pts for single slot (in accordance with the rare values of the eq rebalancing system) So, for a level 3 item, cost 150 rp, you get a total of 6 pts for an item with multiple slots and 7 pts for an item with only a single slot. This will allow you for example an earring with 7 hr or 8 saves vs one category and ac -10 or an ac -70 earring. Armor only - no weapons allowed. No base ac values given. No longer valid, before eq rebalancing system: each of the following stats gets 1 point: hp 10, mana 15, move 20, svspell -1, hr 1, dr 1, ac -10, svaffl/mental/mal/breath -3 YOU, the player can choose your own stats: LEVEL 1: cost 50 rp points you get 2 points to spend total, the item is ownered and nosac, burnproof, not rare (so it's really nice for moderates too), you can choose the body spot yourself, you can choose the description yourself (no color) LEVEL 2: cost 50 rp points gets you an additional 2 points to spend LEVEL 3: cost 50 rp points gets you an additional 2 points, plus you can choose one word colored, item is rare now, it also gets + 1 luck If you want to do a second piece of eq after you are done with the 3rd upgrade, all costs double in rp points, tripple for the third item, etc. This way if someone wants really a ton of customized armor, they need to pull up some GREAT rp, and then, they earned it. Be advised not to flood / spam us with notes or journals of little content. We need to check these all and if the content is lacking you might find yourself with negative rp points as a reward. Disclaimer: we reserve the right to change requirements, costs, and stats if we notice any balance issues.

Hey everyone, First, we would like to thank those who've come forward and communicated with the Immortal Staff in regards to the matters set out below - you know who you are, and we appreciate you. If anyone has anything they want to add, they are welcome to communicate with us via the Prayer Forum. It has come to our attention that there are some players who have taken the source code that we made public and have opened their own version of the Forsaken Lands. This is not an issue, and in fact, we are happy for you to run your own world, particularly if you'd like to contribute in the furthering of our code, and making Aabahran a better place. What is not okay, however, is using our community, literature and communicative tools (such as the Discord Server and the Forum at https://theforsakenlands.com) to pressure players to leave Forsaken Lands, poach ideas from the current player-base and Immortals, disparage our game, and intentionally spread negativity. We have always encouraged open discussion about our game and, more recently, open discussion and explanation of the source code of our beautiful world. However, engaging in the above behaviour with the goal of running FL down or enticing players to leave is disrespectful and rude (to both staff and players) and it is not something the staff is prepared to tolerate. We genuinely wish the players who have started this new endeavor all the best, and we hope they achieve their goals in making a unique world that is just as beautiful and dangerous as the Forsaken Lands. We do ask that they show us and the players some courtesy by adopting the following suggestions: 1. Share your copy of the code. Not only is this generally the right thing to do, having started your endeavor with our recent code, but it is also stated in the license that this source code was released with. Any changes you make should be public and well-documented. For instance, setting up a “gitea” is a piece of cake for any webmaster, as is making use of GitHub. 2. Use your own content. Original areas like the Volcano, Maelbrim, Val Miran, Gear and others are the intellectual property of the Forsaken Lands. They were written by our players and you do not have permission to use them in your game. Please do not do so. 3. Further to the above - create your own Wiki. The Wiki that is currently up on your website is an obvious copy-paste of the FL Wiki and a lot of the content currently hosted by you is similarly a copy paste of FL help files with your own Immortal names inserted. Be original, and don’t start your game by stealing the work of others who have poured countless hours into creating that content, managing it and updating it. If you are one of the few who were involved in creating this new world and are involved in building, coding or admin we implore you to make this your own world. There are plenty of resources available to you to recruit and gather players. Pressuring players to leave FL based on minor disagreements with the current issues with FL will foster an unstable and negative atmosphere and beginning for your new world. Finally, those who are involved with the new version of Forsaken Lands that have been engaging in the negative behavior we have mentioned above are currently muted on both the Forum and here on Discord. They are still more than welcome to communicate directly with the Immortal Staff, but we are not going to allow them to continue to disparage our community. With love, The FL Staff.

Fate of the Starborne Aabahran is a world of strife and conflict. Its peculiar combination of planar forces make it a battleground for powers that span the multiverse. Some of them are bent on destroying all that is good, and it is in the face of these threats that the Knight's Castle and its former commander, Ivesianna Starborne, stand. For years a secret war has raged hidden from the populace. A legendary force of warriors known as the Shadow Hunters have paid in blood to keep chaos at bay - but they are losing ground. So it was that they approached Ivesianna Starborne for aid. A known ally, she would galvanize the power of the Knights and bring war to their enemy on their own turf. We have come to the crucial juncture. The path to Aabahran has been opened, defended by a brave few. Word of the conflict now spreads and dark agents race to abuse it toward their own ends. What will the story's conclusion? What will be the fate of Ivesianna Starborne and the world that she protects? The heroes - and villains - of Aabahran will be the ones to decide. ------------------------------------ Development of Beyond the Portal began in earnest in February of 2018. It is the brainchild of our own Ali_G, who designed everything from the setting, to loot, to boss mechanics. The youtube video above was created entirely by him in a dazzling display of talent. As is typical with projects like this, the area underwent several iterations and changes, along with a few stops and starts. However, after many hours of dedicated effort Beyond the Portal is now available for players to explore. But be warned, this was designed to be FL's most difficult encounter to date. It is punishing, unforgiving and yet rewarding. Attempt to survive within the Rift at your own peril. In addition to the general difficulty it is also the single most OLC intensive area I have ever been involved in. To help visualize how ambitious this is, consider these numbers; - 88 rooms split between good and evil areas - 70+ mobs - 60+ objects - 120+ mobile progs - 40+ object progs - 20+ room progs Of course with ambition comes risk. Despite extensive testing Things will break and issues will arise. Some may take time to address and fix, so I beg patience as these bugs crop up. As always record them with as much detail as you can and post them in the bug forum as they arise. Neither FL or myself are responsible for any mental breakdowns that occur as a result of my poor coding. With that, enjoy yourselves as Aabahran takes its first foray beyond the portal and into the Rift!

You can see in the first post, edited in blue, what we've been working on for the last week. A big thank you to Kass for being available for hours of discussion until we came to this result. We calculated dozens of weapons, starting with different values, giving different points for different things to see what would be the end result. Goal of this change was: - to keep it simple for everyone who does area changes - to battle power creep in weapons which has been going on for years and is a reason for the power discrepancy of mage-melee as well as some cabal imbalance (why should someone go Knight/Nexus if they can get an av 31 anywhere) - to keep both low and high level weapons viable - to avoid imbalanced weapons This also means that the areas already done will be revisited. Do not expect everything to follow these guidelines immeditately, it will take a bit of time and work. Revising some of the points value for weapons. After discussion, this is where we stand: Check uniques to see if unique flag is warranted. If not, they become rare. Unique flag gives 3 points on weapons. Defense +prof increase to 0.5/1 from 0.25/0.5. Two anti-aligns is worth only -1 points. Count 0.5 points per point after 15 average instead of 17. All fire nouns must be fire material and vice versa. Damage caps (can be lower if desired): Common: avg 27 Rare: avg 27 Unique: avg 30 Vuln: avg 24 Paralyze: avg 27 Flaming: avg 27 Noremove: avg 27 Socketable: avg 27 Paralyze cannot be on a socket or on a weapon with noremove, flaming or socketable.

Alright, after some discussion, Anume and I have decided it's best (along with a majority vote of our other Immortals) that we should make the code publicly viewable. You can see it here: https://gitlab.theforsakenlands.net/Erelei/the-forsaken-lands You do not need an account. To fork, or request a merge (or any other git commands, etc) you'll need to create an account. Account creation, however, is disabled at this time. In time, snippet coders will be given their own accounts to fork and send merge requests as we give them tasks and snippets to create.

SUMMARY Bards are a versatile hybrid class that boasts a frankly incredible number of absolutely unique class mechanics. Often described as “jack of all trades, master of none,” bards really can do it all – the question of how well stems from a combination of factors, including race, repertoire/vogue, and cabal selections. From singing songs to building instruments, bards offer a complex variety of options that make them well-suited to meeting most challenges that Aabahran has to offer. So without further ado, let’s dive in. PLAYABLE RACES Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Drow, Avian, Faerie, Halfling, Gnome Perfectly Average If bards are a “jack of all trades, master of none,” then humans are their racial counterpart. Good at everything, but great at nothing, humans have average stats across the board, with a maximum of 20 for strength, intelligence, wisdom, and constitution, and a maximum of 21 in the bard’s primary attribute of dexterity. Musical Nerds Of the available bard races, a few shine through in particular with regard to their above average wisdom and intelligence. These races will benefit from fewer practices needed to learn each skill/song, a larger end-game mana pool, and a whole host of other benefits related to their inherent smarts. Faeries, elves, and gnomes all fit into this category, and bards of these races will likely find themselves relying less on the brute force of their instrument’s melee attacks and more on their songs to debuff, damage, and destroy their opponents. Speed Singers The remainder of the selectable races for the bard class are primarily dexterity based. Their naturally higher armor class will benefit them in battles against melee opponents that seek to bash, bodyslam, and otherwise stomp out the bard’s scintillating serenades before they can take hold. What they gain in extra defensive ability, they lose in mental capacity, and so halfling, half-elf, half-drow, and avian bards may focus more on melee advantage or true hybrid playstyles to be successful at the height of their power. SKILLS/SONGS Bards have a wealth of skills and songs – so many, in fact, that they’re tied with healers for first place as the most ability-heavy class in the game. What does that mean for you? Well, for starters, it means that you could be training for a while to boost proficiency in a fair number of your utility skills. But also, on a very basic level it means that the bard class requires more practices to become proficient in all of your abilities than most other classes. Therefore, consider wisely when choosing your race and/or whether or not to select adventurer as a starting point. With all of that said, let’s talk about the core abilities of the class: SKILLS Instrument Crafting Mining/Harvest: These two abilities sit at the core of successful construction of a viable instrument. Mining (which requires a pickaxe) and harvesting (which requires a lumber axe) are how you will develop a collection of source materials from which you can build your instrument. Note that farming for higher caliber materials is based on two core factors – your proficiency in the relevant gathering skill and your “luck” stat. Therefore reaching 100% (or more, via items) on your skill proficiency, and maximizing your luck, are key to building up a stockpile of the very best materials. A complete listing of materials and their effects during instrument composition can be found here: https://wiki.theforsakenlands.com/Information/Materials Note: Materials that have a score of 7 or higher in the weapon type that you are trying to create will fashion a weapon that is rare. These weapons never crumble. Compositionalist Learned at level 15, compositionalist is perhaps the most important ability in your entire repertoire as a bard, because many of your songs and skills rely on you having an instrument in hand at all times. This skill lets you construct instruments out of the materials you collect throughout Aabahran in one of four categories: strings, brass, winds, and percussion. Each instrument category is tied to a repertoire and vogue (mastery-type ability), and to its own spectrum of materials. A material that is top-notch for one instrument type may be mediocre at best for another type, so it’s important to reference the materials chart above when thinking about what type of instrument(s) to craft. Weapons can be further enhanced using the "maintain" ability. Maintaining a weapon can be done twice and adds enhancements to the weapon based on the material used. What enhancements are added with each material can be found in the same material chart listed above. Ventriloquate A long-standing hallmark of the bardic repertoire, ventriloquate allows the bard to throw their voice and mimic the sound of another's. When successful, doing so can make it seem as though someone else is in the room and speaking. Analyze This ability is completely unique to bards in that it can use the bard's knowledge of mythos, lore, and history to "analyze" any opponent and identify their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. It's a great tool for new adventurers to get some helpful information on how to defeat some of the realm's more elusive player and non-player enemies. Bardic Skills Bards have some substantial vulnerabilities as a hybrid rogue-type class, but they've developed certain skills to help compensate for these weaknesses. Bardic Student, Bardic Expert, and Bardic Mastery each provide, at mastery, a chance for a bard to evade attacks of a certain type. Bardic Student helps the bard avoid thrown items (such as daggers and shurikens), Bardic Expert gives the bard a chance to dodge out of the way of kicked dirt, and Bardic Master can cause bashes, bodyslams, and other lag attacks to fail. Duet Simultaneously the most and least useful in a bard's repertoire, Duet is a phenomenal ability... but it requires the cooperation of a second bard to pull off. When you duet, each bard can still sing any song they like as normal (with a slight exception for four seasons). Both bards will sing a verse of the song, however, and the effect of the song will be doubled. For example, if two bards are dueting, they can each sing a "Reverberate" every round, which would yield a total of four reverberate effects. The same goes for healing songs. Refrain The refrain ability allows a bard to play a song without thought, freeing them up for other things in battle. The only song that can be refrained, currently, is reverberate. Refraining the song will sing it once initially, and then again in combat shortly thereafter. Note: Other songs cannot be sung until after the refrain is complete. Tune A tuned weapon, at first glance, may appear to only increase the "luck" modifier on that weapon. But in reality, a tune weapon does so much more. Tuning your weapon increases the "spell level" of your songs, causing them to be substantially more effective. It also cuts their mana cost in half. Brawl At home in the cities of Aabahran, bards can use their natural environment to their advantage in combat. A brawling bard will attack their enemy with greater strength and fervor, increasing the number of attacks they get each round. The bard will also defend better, using terrain and their environment to dodge out of the way of attacks that might have punished them outside the city's walls. This skill functions very similarly to a warrior's pugil, but is confined to only working in City-zoned areas. Taunt Bards can use their exceptional ability with words to taunt their opponents in battle. This can result in an intimidating fear-like effect for the opponent; but it can also backfire and send the opponent into a wild fit of anger. Uppercut This ability is also unique to bards and comes with a whole host of useful potential outcomes. An uppercut can do three things to an opponent: Dislocate their jaw, causing a silence-like affect (deals no damage in this case), stun the opponent and deal a modest amount of damage, or even knock the opponent out cold. Dissonance Dissonance is a particularly unique ability for the bard. It damages the bard's opponents with a sharp, discordant sound that causes them to double over in pain and be stunned for a brief time. But the ability comes at a cost: damage to your instrument. Repertoire & Vogue The bard's repertoire and vogue are their defining abilities. The equivalent to the ranger or berserker's path, or a warrior's mastery, a bard's vogue is a defining ability at their pinnacle; however, the path is decided with the repertoire skill at Level 5, so some planning may be required. Repertoire | Instrument Type | Vogue | Ability Jocular | Wind | Piercing Note | Massive Damage, 2 Round Lag, damages opponents armor, causes damage to non-wind instruments Calamitous | Percussion | Drumroll | Group Haste, drains the user if not using percussion Majestic | String | Powerchord | Moderate Damage, can cause opponents to rage Amorous | Brass | Resonance | Moderate damage, low chance to cause opponents to forget their spells Other Skills Bards get a number of other skills, many of which are fairly self-explanatory or commonplace. Those skills will be summarized in brief here. Weapons* - Sword, Staff, Dagger, Mace, H2H, Instrument *Note: Bards will almost never use any of these weapons; however, they play an important role in the bard's ability to defend against their use. Peek/Steal - Allows you to see an opponent's inventory and steal items from them Sneak - Causes you to move quietly, so you can't be seen walking from room to room. Fired Weapons - Like warriors, rangers, and ninjas, bards can use ranged weapons to fire projectiles at their opponents Tarot Cards - Bards can draw from a deck of tarot cards; depending on the card drawn, a random affect will be added to the bard temporarily. Unlucky tarot readings can be detrimental and even deadly. Disguise - Bards can choose to don the mantle of another class, confusing their opponents and allowing them to slip past guild guards. SONGS An important note about songs, before I provide the effects. ALL bard songs, unless otherwise noted, are "area of effect" - meaning that an offensive song, both damage and debuff, will affect (and therefore draw aggro) from any player or non-player entity in the room. Water to Wine - Converts a container full of water to a container full of wine or other alcoholic beverages Marriage Song - RP only, this song has no combat effect but can be used in roleplayed marriage ceremonies Ballad to the March - Refresh-like effect, restoring moves for the bard and their party Leviathan's Passing - Creates a spring that the bard and anyone else nearby can drink from Battaglia - Causes a frenzy-like battle affect for the bard and their party. Will also cause an enemy to start targeting the bard, if they're targeting another member of the bard's party. Totem's Canticle - Grants a blessing-like affect to the bard and their party. Suledin Nadas - Heals the bard and their party for a moderate amount of HP. Lullaby - Attempts to put any non-undead, non-grouped players and mobs in the room to sleep. Arduous Regret - Applies a weaken-like affect to the bard's enemies. Pastoral of Mind - Restores the mana of the bard and their party for a moderate amount. Tranquil Ballad - Calms any enemies in the room the bard is currently in. A King's Feast - Can be used on food items in the bard's inventory to increase both the longevity of the food and the rate at which it fills the eater's stomach. Let It Be Known - Improves the bard's reputation, causing their haggle skill to work better and more often. Elegy of Solitude - Isolates the bard's foes, instantly sending any pets, charmies, and zombies packing. Bagatelle of Bravado - Increases the armor and luck of the bard and their party. Carol of Lethargy - Causes a slow affect when used on the bard's enemies, causing them to hit less frequently and be less defensive, but also increasing their regeneration like a normal slow affect. Reverberate - One of the bard's primary damage spells, reverberate causes just one round of lag for substantial damage to the bard's enemies. Is easily saved against, though, so may not work on very well-equipped opponents. Divertimento of Horror - Causes the bard's opponents to flee in terror from combat. Chorus of the Revealed - Creates a faerie fog-like affect that will make hidden enemies glow. Flight of the Condor - Temporarily gives the bard and their party the ability of flight, meaning they can walk over water and fly through the air. DOES NOT grant protection from tripping or any other benefits (i.e. movement reduction) of the actual flight spell. Rest in Peace - Like the lullaby, this song causes opponents of an undead nature to fall asleep. Rhapsody of Delusion - Creates a veil of darkness-like effect for the bard's opponents, causing them to be trapped in a delusion where they can only see their immediate surroundings. Enemies affected by the Rhapsody cannot effectively use "where" and may lose track of what room they're in. Lamented Tears - This song removes the ability of the bard's enemy to see status affects, the condition of the bard, and other useful information that may be indicators of when to retreat from combat. Echoed Voices - Causes a blur-like affect that is localized on the bard's enemy, forcing the enemy to swing wildly and miss the bard often. Remembrance - Forces the listener to remember any spells they may have forgotten. Fairly useless. Four Seasons - The bard's capstone song, this ability does damage to an opponent PK STRATEGIES Many of the successful bard's PK strategies vary depending on both their repertoire/vogue choice (and therefore their instrument choice) and their race/cabal combo. Here are some examples of approaches a bard could take to be successful in player vs player combat: 1) Attrition Bards have access to both HP and mana restoring songs. Therefore, a bard can injure their opponents with melee damage and offensive songs, then retreat and heal. This tactic can be accentuated with the use of weapons that cause "bleed" and "poison" procs in battle, which would prevent their opponent from taking advantage of that downtime to heal themselves. 2) Debuffs As a hybrid class, bards have a unique blend of melee combat ability, damaging skills and songs, self-buffs, and debuffs. When it comes to the latter in particular, bards can excel when they get the jump on their opponent. One of the best combat tactics a bard has at their disposal is to put their opponent to sleep (using lullaby, or rest in peace for undead). Once knocked out, the bard can start layering these crippling songs to make their opponent much easier to beat. The debuff songs that should be applied in pretty much every case are: Arduous Regret, Tranquil Ballad, Rhapsody of Delusion, Lamented Tears, and Echoed Voices. Carol of Lethargy is a judgment call, in these situations - the slow affect can great improve a bard's combat standing against the opponent, but they can also grant the opponent higher regeneration. Therefore, the Carol should be used sparingly on opponents that likewise rely on attrition, or the song could backfire and grant the opponent an advantage. 3) Straight Damage Using either drumroll for its haste or piercing note for its massive damage, along with the damage of Four Seasons and a damage-focused instrument, a bard can quickly pile on the hurt in combat. This tactic is especially useful against mages that rely on a long, drawn-out battle to overcome their foe. It may not be as effective, however, on opponents such as warriors and blademasters as these opponents will often still have the upper hand in a pure melee battle. OTHER TIPS - One of the bard's greatest limiting factors is their mana. A low intelligence bard with a small mana pool may have a very difficult time maintaining enough mana to sing their songs, use their vogue, and keep up with an attrition-oriented opponent. In these cases, it is likely best for a dumber-yet-stronger bard to focus on their melee capabilities. - All bards are going to require, to some extent, a decent amount of melee capacity to be truly successful. Therefore, when considering equipment my recommended order of priority would be to focus on hitroll/damroll first, then saves and -AC depending on what enemies you typically find yourself fighting. +HP and +Mana gear are a nice addition if your equipment list has room to add them in. - As most successful PK strategies for a bard will involve some amount of attrition, I would strongly recommend obtaining the "Strong Mind" and "Restful Body" RP edges, as these will enhance your base regeneration. Beyond that, I would recommend finding some +hitgain and +managain gear to synergize with all of your other armors, as they will greatly enhance your ability to wear down your foe while not entering dangerous territory on your own.

Wusses! Viri's response rang true to me though; if you are a level 30/40 and only protected from being utterly crushed by the leader of the most evil, demonic organization in the world by divine providence (aka PK level protection), you PROBABLY shouldn't be pissing that person off. To a certain extent, I'd even vote for making everyone killable by everyone, with VERY strict rules on higher-level people killing lower-level people without a very good reason, but that requires an extremely mature playerbase.

Hey guys, I promised I'd make a post explaining why we moved to a different IP, so here we are. As some of you know, my job is essentially managing servers for hundreds of thousands of clients either on VPS, Cloud KVM stacks, or Dedicated Servers. I've been doing this now for roughly 2.5 years and I've been excelling my career pretty steadily. Simply put, this is my dream job and I absolutely love what I do. Things are just looking up and up and up for me. Before, we were paying $540 a year, which roughly equates to $45/mo for our server. My job has allowed me the pleasure of creating my own VM stack and I've done just that. Now that I have a working stack that I personally built, all I'm paying for is the internet connection and the IP, +a permanently routed voxility / DDoS protected IP for $156 a year, which equates to something like $13/mo. What this means is that I don't need to worry about our donations going to hosting anymore - I will pay for it exclusively. I'm absolutely fine paying the monthly premium and not requiring or requesting it from our player base. Of course, you guys are still more than welcome to donate if you want, but it won't be going to the MUD for hosting, but something more pertinent like our Forum Software and other things like advertising if needed. I'm extremely happy so far with what I've built. I'm sorry I've been kind of 'not here' lately - this is what I've been working on. That, plus I got a big promotion at work, so my time coding has been declining for awhile while I've been focusing on my job - this doesn't mean I'm not coding anymore though; it just means I had my focus elsewhere for several months. Things should settle down soon within the next month and I can focus more here. Anyway, what does all of this mean? Well, unfortunately, it means a new IP as you guys know. Our permanently DDoS protected IP is 170.249.233.19 - in the event that we suddenly get DDoS'd, our main IP will be null-routed in intervals of 30 minutes at a time. If this happens, I'll manually switch the listening IP to our DDoS filtered IP which will increase latency, but will stay online all the same. If you guys have any questions let me know. PS: FWIW, since we paid $540 already, this means we have a surplus of ~3 years of hosting until we need to begin paying for hosting fees again. As I mentioned, I'll take care of those moving forward. Our website (forum, etc) is still free. Our domain names (theforsakenlands.com, theforsakenlands.org, theforsakenlands.net) are not free, though, and are $12/year each. Help in this regard would be nice yearly. I already renewed these last week or so, so we have a year for these as well.

Blackwatch is done.

Hot Change Date: 10/07/2018 Bugs / Fixes / Changes - Added a code check for altar screams, rather than depending on a mob prog which could break due to a number of factors. Every hour, if a cabal altar is fighting against someone, it will echo to the altar's cabal that it's happening. - When mobs that are hunting other mobs have their target killed (aggressive only mobs) they will no longer disappear unless it's a player they've been hunting and the player dies. - Spell forged items are automatically removed when remorted, now, to prevent issues with added spells or skills. - Weapons that poison should no longer stack poison against their target. - When a Warmaster is put to sleep by insomnia, they properly step out of stance now. - Several Cabal skills/spells fixed that were charging more CP than intended during specific cirumstances. - You can no longer continually put someone to sleep as a necromancer, even if they're forced awake by other means. The timer will remain until it expires naturally. - Ninja decoys now check owner level against attacker level, and will not blow up against those out of the owner's PK range. - Asphyxiate spell for Syndicate has been fixed (it's been broken for a long, long, long, long, long time. We won't mention who actually initially broke it in 2012.. - hint, it wasn't me!) - Mobs now yell when zapped or brandished against while in a lawful city. - Power Expertise shouldn't double up on berserkers anymore. - Shoulder smash for Crusaders slightly updated (spiked/barbed specific) - Socket names shouldn't cause enormous spaces in short or long descriptions, or name fields anymore. - Note # matching issue fixed. - Quest "To find a Lost Boy" in Drkshtyre now actually gives you rewards for completing it. - Syndicate portals fixed and now connect to correct, connected areas. Typos - Minister echo FINALLY fixed. (.. no more seremons..!) - "Armaggedon Smash" updated to reflect the correct "Armageddon" spelling. - Invoke skill "severly" typo updated to "severely" - Rhapsody of Delusion description now has an added 'Y' at the end of 'majest'. Now it's spelled correctly. (butter fingers.. I swear) - Rust echo no longer causes your "possesions" spelling to annoy you. (updated to "possessions") - Ammo depleting echo updated to be more gramatically correct. - Demonpelt Trousers are correctly "haphazardly" sewn together now. - Some fried eggplant can be eaten correctly now. (thanks to Magick for all of these!) View full hot change

Hot Change Date: 03/04/2018 Bugs submitted via the "bug" command, and applications submitted from within the game are now copied into the forum for Immortals to review. This will keep detailed, permanent record of both so neither fall off the list, and allow Immortals to stay on top of apps and bug reports. View full hot change

Hot Change Date: 08/17/2017 Cabal Leaders and Cabal Elders can now use 'clan allow' to allow clan members to apply to their clan's cabal. View full hot change

Hot Change Date: 07/01/2017 Experimental - Removed the legitimate coded feature that allowed melees and mages to sometimes get 'double rounds' on casters who opened with a spell that didn't do any defined damage. We'll see how this turns the tides. Please post any Bugs as you come across them - including if a double round does indeed occur on spell_cast of a mental/mal that doesn't do any initial damage. View full hot change

Hot Change Date: 03/07/2017 You can now see all the above commands in the replay says buffers. View full hot change

I just got ganged by Lloth and Ithric. I quit.

Prelude: Garacci and Natalia were married, then Natalia died of the plague, which Garacci tried to hinder, not accepting that her time had come. Natalia cursed him for this and he tried to make amends serving Anume for the next couple of centuries. Natalia was later reborn (three times actually,) and (on the third incarnation) given as a sacrifice to Anume as a babe. Anume rescued her and let her become an acolyte and later on even the High Priestess of the Scourge. Natalia regained her memories of Garacci only very recently. [231] Garacci: Entry Twenty-Four: A Confession Sat Oct 25 22:57:42 2014 To: Immortal It is ridiculous. How can ONE woman have such an effect upon me? Everything seems... Sharper. Clearer. Dare I use the word... *the next word is scrawled, showing great displeasure* BRIGHTER. Going about, I find myself suddenly humming centuries old melodies, dreaming of the past with my eyes wide open, .. Even *there's a noticeable difference in the slant of the writing, making it obvious the author paused before writing the next word. * _smiling_. For no reason. Not a normal smile, but a stupid GRIN. This can't possibly be healthy. I dare not say it to her. But is it possible, I'm finally... Happy? Natalia tells you 'My love, we must talk.' Garacci> You tell Natalia 'What perfect timing!' Garacci> You grumble distractedly to yourself. Natalia tells you 'And you have also been on my mind almost constantly.' Garacci> A vampire bat grumbles to himself, 'Idiot..' * Garacci waits for night to fall.* Garacci> You tell Natalia 'A day has never felt so long.' Natalia tells you 'Time passes all too fast.' Garacci> You tell Natalia 'I disagree.' Natalia tells you 'Not for long.' Garacci> You tell Natalia 'For centuries I have felt as though time stood still.' Garacci> You tell Natalia 'How it is possible it seems to move even slower still, when I must wait for nightfall to see you.' *Night falls and Garacci goes to Natalia.* The Shrine of Death's Scourge You are standing within a small room covered from wall to wall with blood and gore. In the center of the room stands a small shrine covered in equal gore. Surrounding this shrine are pale men in black wool robes worshipping upon the ground. Behind the altar is a fragile old man wearing the frock of a priest who seems to have collapsed upon the shrine. [Exits: north] (Humming) A large shrine covered in flesh and dried blood pulsates here. A young woman is here, dressed in the robes of a Priestess of the Scourge. Garacci grins broadly. Natalia hugs you. Garacci% l natal Garacci> A young woman is here, dressed in fine black robes, a thin golden belt with a sacrificial dagger wrapped around her slender waist. Her long hair glides down her back in a glossy rich mass, making her already beautiful appearance truly stunning. She stands in silence amidst the darkness of the shrine, courting a bored expression. Natalia is in excellent condition. Natalia is using: <worn on finger> a small bleached interlocking ring of bone (*grisly little detail: this ring is fashioned out of the bones of Garacci&Natlia’s dead child*) Natalia hugs you with a fierceness that seems to be oddly out of place. Natalia says 'There's an elf nearby.' You frown disapprovingly. Natalia frowns. Garacci wraps his arms about you. Garacci> You chuckle politely. Garacci% whe Garacci> Citadel of Kaer Banor is [NEXUS] controlled. Players near you: Eluon Iron Barges <PK> Garacci (WANTED) The Shrine of Death's Scourge Garacci> You say 'Do not concern yourself with the little Psi.' Garacci> You say 'He will not linger near me, I'm sure.' Natalia lets go of you and starts pacing looking worried. Natalia turns the ring around on her finger, then looks up at you. Garacci furrows his brow slightly, lips pursed, watching you silently. Garacci> You say 'What concerns you, My Dear?' Natalia says 'I've told you before...' Natalia shakes her head. Natalia says 'We all follow orders in the end, don't we, my love?' Garacci shrugs helplessly. Garacci> You say 'Not all of us.' Garacci gives a polite little chuckle. Natalia sighs, hopping up on the altar, watching you. Natalia says 'I was given to the dark Queen as a sacrifice, when I was little more than a babe.' Garacci nods. Natalia says 'Yet she singled me out to become her acolyte and later on her priestess.' Natalia says 'Why, is the question.' Garacci smiles darkly. Natalia says 'She recognized my essence, knew that it would be a way to get at you, bad or good.' Garacci> You say 'She has always had a knack for targeting a weak spot.' Natalia sighs, looking at you unhappily. Garacci glides silently next to you. Garacci says 'Do not fret so.' Natalia says 'If her High Pristess must not follow HER orders, then who.' Natalia says 'And still...' Garacci raises an eyebrow. Garacci says 'What has she commanded that you struggle to perform?' Natalia turns her head into your shoulder, her whole body shaking as she burrows herself into you. A somewhat shocked expression crosses Garaccis' face. Natalia hugs you again, with an almost desperate fierceness. Garacci wraps an arm around your shoulders and pulls you a little closer. Garacci says 'Natalia?' Natalia says 'We've found each other again only so recently.' Natalia says 'Why did you not jog my memory?' Natalia says 'Why did you wait so long.' Natalia says 'So long and now so little time is left.' Garacci says 'Why?' Garacci steps back, his hand bracing your shoulder. Garacci says with a stern tone, ''What has happened? Natalia says 'Why, I asked you. Why did you wait so long.' [MERCHANT]: 'Arms Dealer Lillithiri has joined the fray.' *Lillithiri had been abducted and subsequently charmed by Garacci to allow Natalia to examine her. Lillithiri had been instructed to not remember any of it unless in the Shrine of Death’s Scourge.* [MERCHANT] (Arms Dealer) Lillithiri: 'Hello' Garacci says 'I..' Garacci says 'You know why.' Natalia says 'If I knew I would not ask.' Garacci> You tell Lillithiri 'Hello, My Pet.' Garacci> Lillithiri tells you 'Your... pet?!' Garacci> You tell Lillithiri 'The term seems apt, no?' Garacci> Lillithiri tells you 'Just because you lead the syndicate I am certainly not your pet.' Garacci says 'Well.' Garacci says 'Your final words of parting were not..' Natalia sighs, watching you. Garacci says 'They didn't leave much room for hope.' Natalia runs her hand through her hair, shaking her head. Natalia says 'You were a fool then,...' Natalia says 'And so was I.' Garacci says 'I have worked for centuries in order to fix it.' Garacci says 'But I was never sure how you would react.' Natalia says 'Ah, fix it.' Natalia snorts derisively. Natalia says 'The gods use us all, as they please.' Natalia sighs, shaking her head again. Natalia says 'We've wasted so much time.' Garacci says, 'I promised that we, all of us, would be together again.' *This includes their dead daughter Dyphrita.* Natalia fingers her ring, a wobbly smile on her face. Garacci adds quietly, 'We promised.' Natalia says 'Our little moon will save you in the end.' Garacci smiles weakly. Garacci says 'She already has.' Natalia shakes her head. Garacci places a taloned gauntlet gently under your chin and lifts your head to meet his gaze. Garacci says 'She gave me the hope to continue on until now. Until I found you again.' Natalia sighs. Natalia says 'You've waited too long, my love.' Natalia says 'Far too long.' Natalia stands up, walking straight into your personal comfort zone, looking up at you. A small, simple, smile graces Garacci's lips, eyebrows raised, Garacci looks at you adoringly. Natalia says 'I do not know what you have done exactly, but you have displeased Her, apparently.' Garacci's brows suddenly shoot into a furrow. Garacci says 'What do you mean?' Natalia says 'What HAVE you done?!' Garacci purses his lips, brows still furrowed. Garacci says 'The Dark Queen is displeased?' Natalia turns her back on you, rubbing at her eyes. Natalia says softly, still turned away from you, 'You know she wants to create a Corimak of her own, don't you. Garacci rakes a taloned gauntlet through his curly locks. Garacci says 'Of course.' Natalia says softly, still turned away from you, 'By using YOUR essence. Garacci says 'It was my idea, decades...CENTURIES ago.' Natalia turns back on you, now furious. Garacci looks at you, a stupid expression on his face, 'What?' Natalia drums her fists against your chest, 'What HAVE you done?! Natalia says 'Do you know what she ordered me to do?!' Natalia says 'To use you as the conduit, like a lamb lead to the slaughter.' Garacci quickly grabs your wrists and halts you. Natalia starts to sob. The door north of you opens. Garacci says in a dark, flat tone, 'What?' Natalia says 'Ah there you are Eluon. I have been waiting for you!' Eluon hands a note to Natalia. Natalia blinks. Natalia closes the door north of you. Natalia says 'I hate elves.' Garacci raises an eyebrow at Natalia. Garacci says 'Now what was THAT about.' Natalia says 'I have no idea.' Garacci says 'What do you have to do with Eluon?' Natalia says 'He was sent here by his guild master apparently.' Garacci says 'Don't tell me,' Garacci mimics you with a higher voice and a flail of his left wrist, 'I have no idea.' Natalia shakes her head, coming back to what is more important. Natalia frowns at what you did. Natalia says 'Stop that foolishness and listen.' Garacci furrows his brow with a scowl on his face, glaring. Garacci says 'What.' Garacci> You say 'What.' Natalia says 'The shard we have created, out of Ilthrias' souls.' Garacci nods. Natalia says 'It's holy.' Garacci raises an eyebrow. Natalia says 'It will separate HER essence from you, and allow her to reclaim it.' Garacci says 'Holy..' Natalia says 'It will also separate your soul from your body and damn it forever.' Garacci's eyes suddenly dance back and forth, his mind racing. Natalia looks at you, her heart in her eyes. Then she says softly, 'But I won't do it. Garacci's head suddenly shoots up. Garacci says 'What?' Natalia says 'I love you, Garacci. I've always loved you.' Natalia says 'I will not damn your soul.' Garacci looks at you sternly. Garacci> You say 'Wait.' Garacci says 'Just stop a minute.' Garacci rakes a taloned gauntlet across his face, drawing a line of blood on his cheek. Garacci says 'Just let me think.' Garacci covers his mouth with one gauntlet, fingers wrapped about his chin. Garacci> Anume appears right behind you. Anume raises an eyebrow at Natalia's weird actions. Anume says 'I'd have thought my orders were quite clear.' Garacci suddenly freezes in midplace. Anume says 'What exactly are you waiting for, what do you feel you need to discuss?' Garacci> You tell Natalia 'Move away from me Natalia.' Anume says 'The half-elf is around.' Anume says 'There is no reason to wait any longer.' Garacci suddenly drops to his knees in front of Anume. Garacci> You kneel before her. Anume peers intently at Natalia. Garacci speaks reverently, 'Hello, My Queen.' Natalia says 'N.. nothing.' Garacci tells you 'Be careful, Natalia.' Natalia says 'I was just waiting to see if you wished to bear witness, My Queen.' Anume snorts derisively. Anume says 'Is that so.' Anume allows her form to grow more substantial. Anume peers at you intently. Garacci> Feeling Anume's gaze upon him, Garacci bows his head just a little lower. Garacci> Anume lets her fingernail elongate into a slender blade, lifting your head to force your eyes to meet the endless swirling abyss that are Anume's eyes. Anume says softly, 'At first, I thought you redeemable. Natalia clenches her hands, then puts them behind her back. Garacci speaks haltingly, 'Yes, My Queen.' Anume says 'Sitting for a century or some such where you had no reason to be at all.' Anume says 'Waiting for who knows what.' Anume says 'Your duties? Did you care about them at all?' Anume snorts derisively. Anume says 'And even now, that you've returned.' Garacci says 'I did My Queen.' Anume says 'Your presence is felt only sparingly, and no longer is your name whispered in fear.' Anume says 'Insurrection and slights even from your own.' Anume pushes her fingernail into the first layers of skin over your throat. Anume says 'You, Garacci, I have given more than anyone.' Anume says 'I've given you a part of myself.' Anume says 'My very essence.' Garacci's eyes widen, and he tries to stop himself from swallowing. Anume says 'And you've proven unworthy.' Garacci says 'I..' Anume's face shifts in a very unhuman-like fashion into a smile. 'And so, I'll have it back. Garacci's eyes dart to Natalia and back. Anume turns to Natalia. Garacci says 'Am sorry, My Queen.' Anume says 'Get the half-elf.' Natalia nods, murmuring a few syllables and painting some runes into the air. Lillithiri arrives from a puff of smoke. A large mammoth arrives from a puff of smoke. A large spotted leopard arrives from a puff of smoke. Lillithiri's Bodyguard arrives from a puff of smoke. Garacci pushes his neck a little more onto Anume's fingernail. Lillithiri looks around with surprise. Garacci says 'My Queen.' Lillithiri says 'What...?' Garacci says 'It can be righted.' Lillithiri says 'What is going on h....' Lillithiri trails off, her eyes glazing over as she becomes more aware of where she is. Lillithiri turns to Garacci, 'What is your wish, Master? Anume snorts derisively. Garacci affixes his eyes on Anume. Garacci says 'My Queen.' Anume makes a subtle gesture and a red rune appears, fixing the half-elf in place. Anume freezes Lillithiri's Bodyguard with a glance and shatters the frozen body into tiny shards. Lillithiri's Bodyguard's foot is ripped from his leg. Garacci says 'If nothing else, these centuries show that I AM indeed, redeemable.' Specks of blood hit your face as Anume rips through a large mammoth's chest pulling out her beating heart. A large mammoth splatters blood on your armor. A claw extends from Anume's hand as she calmly slits a large spotted leopard's throat. You hear a large spotted leopard's death cry. Garacci> The Shrine of Death's Scourge You are standing within a small room covered from wall to wall with blood and gore. In the center of the room stands a small shrine covered in equal gore. Surrounding this shrine are pale men in black wool robes worshipping upon the ground. Behind the altar is a fragile old man wearing the frock of a priest who seems to have collapsed upon the shrine. [Exits: none] The corpse of a large spotted leopard is lying here. The corpse of a large mammoth is lying here. The corpse of Lillithiri's Bodyguard is lying here. The sliced-off foot of Lillithiri's Bodyguard is lying here. (Humming) A large shrine covered in flesh and dried blood pulsates here. Lillithiri is here. A female figure wrapped in silk and shadow is here. A young woman is here, dressed in the robes of a Priestess of the Scourge. Lillithiri ignores the slaughter around her, though immobile now, her eyes only focussed on Garacci. The corpse of Lillithiri's Bodyguard decays into dust. Garacci speaks with a more confident tone, 'You have been pleased with me in times past, My Queen.' Anume says 'In times LONG past.' Anume says 'You've had your chances.' Anume says 'More than one.' Anume says 'And I am done giving you chances, MY property.' Anume says 'To do with, as - I - please.' Garacci manages to cover the tremble in his voice to sound confident, but his eyes are just a little too wide. Anume makes another subtle gesture and you suddenly end up standing in front of Lillithiri, your back touching her front side. Anume says 'Proceed, Natalia.' Garacci tries to speak, but no words come out. Lillithiri makes a little muffled sound but is unable to move. Garacci> Garacci finally moves his eyes off of Anume to Natalia, then back again. Anume turns to Natalia, her eyes getting even more furious. 'Proceed. Natalia says 'Of course, My Queen.' Natalia turns towards you and Lillithiri, her back to Anume. Natalia holds a glowing white shard in her hand. Garacci says haltingly, a strange twist to his lips, 'Its...kay..' Natalia makes a slightly exaggerated gesture, drawing the white orb in a way that is sure to catch Anume's eye. Natalia stops using a glowing white shard. The corners of Garacci's lips quiver as his face suddenly turns red and his legs stiffen. Then, Natalia puts the shard in front of her so it is removed from Anume's sight. She twists the ring off her finger. Natalia stops using a small bleached interlocking ring of bone. Garacci looks again back at Natalia, and tries to shake his head. With a very slight movement, she lets the ring glide over the shard. Garacci gurgles with haltingly, 'D..don...t' The glow around the shard shifts, as it absorbs the ring's energy and the ring itself. Anume snorts. 'Too late now for don'ts. Garacci's eyes dart wildly from Natalia back to Anume Natalia gives you a little, very private smile, a single tear gliding down from the corner of her eyes. Garacci struggles slightly, obviously stuck in place, 'No, Nat..nt..don..' Natalia says 'He is standing up too high for me to hit the child through him, My Lady.' Anume makes a slight, impatient gesture and you are forced on your knees, your back against Lillithiri's rounded stomach. Garacci's eyes dart repeatedly from Anume to Natalia. Lillithiri gasps slightly, but cannot move, her eyes are still glazed though less so than before. Garacci says 'Cca...rrf' Natalia nods. Natalia puts her hand over the shard, shielding it from Anume's sight with her body. Garacci looks at Natalia, horror written across his face, and his eyes begin to redden. Natalia tells you 'Hush. I will not allow your soul to be damned, I told you, my Love.' Blood begins to seep from Garacci’s tear ducts and pool at the edges of his eyes. Natalia tells you 'And I will wait for you.' Natalia tells you 'I will wait this time. However long it takes.' Natalia steps closer to you and Lillithiri, her body still between the shard and Anume. Tears of blood begin to leak out of the corners of Garacci's eyes and slowly run down his horror-stricken face. Garacci says 'Nno..n..n..' Garacci writhes and shakes in place, unable to move. Natalia closes her hand around the shard, hard enough to let her blood be drawn and be consumed by the shard. Garacci's eyes continue to dart back and forth between Anume and Natalia's hands. Slowly, the shard changes, its glow darkening to the darker power, its form elongating. Garacci's eyes continue to dart back and forth between Anume and Natalia's hands. Garacci> Garacci's eyes continue to dart back and forth between Anume and Natalia's hands. [sYNDICATE]: 'Collector Grezath has joined the fray.' Anume leans against the altar, watching it all with the enjoyment of a cat watching a mouse. [MERCHANT] (Arms Dealer) Lillithiri: 'Mmmm ffff!!' Natalia holds a darkly glowing rod in her hand. Seeing the look of pleasure upon Anume's face, Garacci suddenly ceases his struggling. Natalia holds the changed rod, still shielding it from Anume's sight with her body. Natalia tells you 'This will not damn your soul. It will draw it right into the child.' Natalia says softly, so only you can hear, 'Forgive me my love. Garacci stares, a longing expression evident through the pain in his face, at Anume for one long moment, blinks once, then affixes his gaze wholly upon Natalia. Garacci looks deeply into Natlia's eyes and the edges of his lips quiver upwards, almost into a half smile. Anume holds up her hand. Anume says 'Ah, but don't let him die stupid.' Anume chuckles politely. Anume says 'I'll explain to you what will happen.' Anume stretches, again catlike, enjoying to torment her victim. Anume says 'The shard fashioned out of Ilthrias' soul and essence, will open a direct conduit to the child.' Anume says 'All of your evilness and wickedness will flow right into it.' Anume grins evilly. Anume says 'Yet MY essence will be too strong for the conduit, and thus, it will dissipate, coming back to me again, as it should.' Anume says 'And your soul, Garacci...' Anume grins evilly at you. Hmmm. Better keep your distance. Anume says 'Or what is left of it after all these centuries.' Anume says 'It will be interesting to see what happens.' Anume says 'I am not entirely sure myself! ' Anume says 'Isn't that exiting?' Anume says 'It may get fully destroyed in the process.' Anume says 'As Ilthrias hated you with a passion, the conduit will never take it.' Anume smirks. Garacci's eyes remain fixed solely on Natalia's face, seemingly trying to say something with his eyes. Anume says 'Maybe it will be left, as my plaything.' Anume says 'If so, I think I'll let you share with Morchial.' Anume says 'A lot of room in that nice little statue.' Anume chortles mischieviously. Anume waves her hand at Natalia. Anume says 'Proceed my dear. Proceed.' Natalia gives you a slight smile, rubbing at her finger, which is now ringless. Garacci's eyes dart to Anume for a second, his brows quivering, and jaw clenched, then glances back to Natalia. Natalia tells you 'Yet our little moon did love you.' Natalia tells you 'I will wait for you.' Garacci blinks once, then raises his eyebrows, and stares at Natalia, looking completely helpless. Great drops of blood continue pouring down his face as tears stream from Garacci's eyes. Natalia leans forward, piercing your heart with the rod, burying it so deeply it breaks the skin on your backside, then pierces the half-elves stomach behind your heart. Garacci> You feel your essence being drained away. Oddly enough, there is no blood. Garacci's eyes flare wide and his mouth gapes open, as if he's trying to inhale breath. Natalia watches you, tears streaming from her own eyes. Garacci> With a flash of dark power, something separates itself from you. A dark shadow flows towards Anume, merging with her. Lillithiri gasps. Garacci convulses his back arching, his head being twisted at a terrible angle. Garacci> You feel your essence being drained away, then something unexpectedly happens. Through the convulsions, Garacci is obviously trying to keep his eyes affixed to Natalia. Garacci> As close to Lillithiri as you are, you suddenly hear the baby's heartbeat double. Anume gives Lillithiri a quizzical gaze. Anume says 'I thought there was only one babe?' Anume raises an eyebrow at Natalia's weird actions. Natalia says 'I may have been mistaken, My Queen, it was in the early stage of pregnancy then.' Anume says 'Hrmm.' Garacci> Garacci's face tightens, and his eyes seem to almost grow even wider if that were possible, his eyes now darting again to Anume, terror stricken across his face. Lillithiri inhales sharply as her stomach is widened suddenly to accommodate two children. Garacci> More and more of your essence flows through the conduit, and your awareness slowly fades... no.. changes. Garacci> Warm. Red. Your mothers heart is beating too fast, she is upset. Garacci looks up at Anume, trying to read her face. Garacci> Your brother's little foot hits the side of your shoulder, space is tight. Garacci turns his gaze back to Natalia, and with tremoring hands, tries to reach out to her. Garacci> Slowly, the last piece of awareness drains away from what was once your body. Garacci blinks rapidly, as if his vision were blurring. Garacci> THUMP THUMP, your mother's heart accelerates yet again. Garacci suddenly slumps to the ground, hand outstretched, eyes glazed and staring towards Natalia. Still. Natalia turns the rod around in the wound, then pulls it out, letting Garacci's body fall to the floor, where it disintegrates. Natalia turns the rod around in the wound, then pulls it out, letting Garacci's body fall to the floor, where it disintegrates. You hear Garacci's death cry. Garacci's body disintegrates into dust. Garacci> You have died due to failing health. The Shrine of Death's Scourge Vnum:2718 Citadel of Kaer Banor: l The Shrine of Death's Scourge [Room 2718] You are standing within a small room covered from wall to wall with blood and gore. In the center of the room stands a small shrine covered in equal gore. Surrounding this shrine are pale men in black wool robes worshipping upon the ground. Behind the altar is a fragile old man wearing the frock of a priest who seems to have collapsed upon the shrine. [Exits: (north)] A large decomposed eye which radiates an aura of fear and terror. ( 2) (Glowing) (Humming) A bracelet emanating a taint of eternal lies is laying here. (Humming) A huge golden medallion ..shimmering with greatness and power is here. (Humming) A repulsive mask is here, pulsating with vile evil energy. (Glowing) (Humming) creaming) the Clutches of Anume's Judgement adorned with a black sapphire gleams on the ground here. (Glowing) (Humming) racci's Abnegatum adorned with a sinister-looking charm of some strange material is here. (Glowing) A tiny jeweled ring of coral lay in the dirt here. A bladed, mean-looking wheel has been discarded here. (Glowing) (Humming) Some armplates etched with pure acid are here. ( 2) (Glowing) A long rod of starstone lies here. ( 3) A sturdy backpack is lying here. A hollowed fingerbone has been fashioned in to a ring. (Humming) A pair of huge legs with various gears and levers sticking out. A small barrel with a tiny bellow on either side is here. Some black chain armor lies here. (Glowing) (Humming) Burning Sheath of Acid adorned with a black sapphire gleams on the ground here. A barb designed for torture lies here. (Glowing) (Humming) A black ring made of dragonscale is here. (Glowing) (Humming) A shield basking in its aura of darkness rests here. A long bony claw glistens with poison. A plain leather belt with numerous loops is here (Glowing) (Humming) A necklace bearing the charm of a black mask is here. (Glowing) (Humming) A small silver locket attached to a strained choker chain is here. (Humming) The Dragon Slayer rests here in the dust. ancient sceptre adorned with a large glowing ember smokes on the ground. (Humming) An enormous sharp-looking claw has been discarded here. (Glowing) (Humming) e Bracer of Serpents adorned with a black sapphire gleams on the ground here. (Humming) Some large oak boots are here, unclaimed. ( 3) A pile of gold coins. (Humming) A large shrine covered in flesh and dried blood pulsates here. Lillithiri the Vengeance of the Forest is here. A young woman is here, dressed in the robes of a Priestess of the Scourge. [sYNDICATE] (Collector) Grezath: 'What...' [MERCHANT] (Arms Dealer) Lillithiri: 'AaaaaaaaahH!' [MERCHANT] (Arms Dealer) Lillithiri: 'Help!' The door north of you opens. Grezath enters the room. A stone golem enters the room. A flesh golem enters the room. Grezath gasps in astonishment. Lillithiri slumps as the magic holding her up dissipates. Grezath gets 56727 gold coins. Anume raises her eyebrow at Grezath. Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' he is gone? Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' ahh Anume says 'Come to pay your last respects?' Grezath drops some gold. Anume smirks. Grezath agrees absolutely. Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' gone...for good? Anume says 'Take what trinkets you like, they do not interest me.' Lillithiri gasps in pain as her body convulses. Grezath gasps in astonishment. Anume says 'Just in time to witness the birth of the next Corimaks.' Anume smirks. Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' oh how DEVious Lillithiri screams in pain. Anume says 'Silence.' Anume makes a small gesture and Lillithiri's screams become silent. Anume says 'This belt you have there, sacrifice it.' Anume says 'It should not be in this world.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' of scrolls... Grezath sacrifices a belt of scrolls in the name of Death. Grezath sacrifices a scroll of missile immunity in the name of Death. (haha) Grezath sacrifices a scroll of missile immunity in the name of Death. Anume continues to watch the half-elf giving birth with a little smile on her face. Grezath's hollow eyes almost seem to ignite with his devilish grin. Anume says 'And two little Corimaks.' Anume says 'I was so certain it was only one.' Anume frowns. Anume raises an eyebrow at Natalia's weird actions. Natalia shrugs helplessly. Anume gets a small silver locket attached to a strained choker chain. Anume says 'Hmm.' Anume says 'I think I'll just have these two till I am certain what is going on here.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' a FINE mother you will BE Grezath's hollow eyes almost seem to ignite with his devilish grin. Natalia looks up with an expression resembling absolute panic, but quickly hides the feeling. Lillithiri growls at everyone silently, sweat streaming from her forehead. Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' it has been LONG since I've rejoiced in the bearing of LIFE The first of the twins is finally born. Anume gets a small dark skinned baby with white hair. The second soon follows after. Anume gets a small tanned skinned baby with dark hair. A flesh golem drools all over itself -- making a TERRIBLE mess! Anume smirks. Anume is gone with a malicious chuckle. Grezath's hollow eyes almost seem to ignite with his devilish grin. Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' well DONE Grezath says 'AhHAHA' Natalia looks worried. Natalia says softly, 'He'll be fine. Grezath says 'You were not worried about ME' Grezath> You peer intently at Natalia. Natalia continues to repeat these words over and over, very softly, more to herself than anyone present. Lillithiri breaths in sharply. Slowly, the glaze fades away from Lillithiri's eyes. Lillithiri looks around, then looks in horror at the pile of dust in front of her and the blood all around her. Lillithiri says 'What...?' Lillithiri says 'My.. where is my baby?' Grezath looks at Lillithiri closely. Lillithiri scans all around. Lillithiri yells 'Where is my son? ' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' are you...aware of what just HAPpened? Lillithiri says 'I... how did I get here?' A look of indifference sets in Grezath's expression. Lillithiri says 'Why is my baby gone?' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' I stumbled upon you by CHANCE Lillithiri says 'Did you take him?' Grezath glares at you, slowly shaking his head. Grezath peers up to the heavens Grezath> You point at Natalia. Grezath speaks with a subtle lisp ' SHE knows Lillithiri says 'Natalia, what happened to my son?' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' oh and... Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' there were TWO Natalia says 'He'll be fine.' Grezath> Natalia frowns at what you did. Grezath holds two fingers up 'Two sons! Natalia says 'You were pregnant only with one child, as you well know dear.' Natalia says 'Ignore this.. trespasser.' Grezath> You peer intently at Natalia. Natalia says 'And he is save.' Lillithiri says 'But.. where?' Natalia says 'Anume took him, but she did not kill him. He is fine, little one.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' ...yet Lillithiri says 'Why did she take my son?!' Grezath's hollow eyes almost seem to ignite with his devilish grin. Natalia makes a small gesture, a dark rune appearing in front of her. Grezath> A bolt from the heavens smites you! Grezath winces in agony. Natalia grins evilly at you. Hmmm. Better keep your distance. Natalia says 'He'll be returned to you in time, no doubt.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' arggh, I'll leave YOU to to discuss Natalia says 'I'll ask the Lady herself to do it.' Grezath nods. Grezath> You nod. *Grezath leaves Natalia and Lillithiri alone* *Lillithiri whines at Natalia a bit more, but exhausted from giving birth, can’t really do anything much anyway, so rests (=quits out).* Natalia tells Grezath 'My husband carried a lot of soul orbs, starstone and vellum.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' i did not take them Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' SHE made it all disappear Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' Garacci...was your husband? Grezath blinks slowly... Natalia says 'That he was.' Na talia says 'Before I died.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' but i thought... Natalia says 'And was reborn thrice.' *Natalia has a look where the backpacks went, upon finding them:* You have quiet transferred Grezath. Natalia says 'Ah there you are.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' powerful Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' take these to Haakon Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' ? Natalia says 'These were my husband's.' Grezath nods. Natalia says 'Only the vellum, starstone and soul orbs.' Natalia says 'The rest, I do not care about.' Slowly turning his bulbous, monocled eye, Grezath utters ' as you WISH

The purpose of this post is to clarify artifact quests, since there are often questions about what they are and how they work. What is an artifact quest? An artifact quest is a quest line that is customized to your character, purchasable with RP points. The intent of the quest is to give you an opportunity to explore and expand on the personal roleplay of your character, with a tangible reward at the end as a lasting embodiment of your accomplishment in completing that quest. Artifact quests can be difficult. They are likely to be more difficult than any other quest in the game, in part due to the fact that they originate and exist for the exclusive purpose of use by your character. Therefore, no one has ever completed your artifact quest before, so no one else will have any answers or guidance to offer you toward their completion. An artifact quest is a bona fide, in-game quest line. It is typically prog based, so once complete, you will be able to tackle the quest without immortal intervention, just like a real world quest. How much does an artifact quest cost? 100 roleplay points. Note: We will not approve an artifact quest if you have 100 RP points and a quest class/cabal slot that requires you to maintain a minimum RP threshold. What's the process? Step 1: Apply in game using an application to Immortal, with Artifact Quest somewhere in the title. This application does not have to be long, but it should be in character. Step 2: Patience. Just like any application, we will discuss (briefly in this case) whether we should approve or deny the application. Note: Purchasing an artifact quest through RP points gained through non-RP means (assisting other players in ranking, quests, etc.) will likely be looked on less favorably than an artifact quest purchased with RP points earned through RP means (journals, notes, logs, etc). An artifact quest implies and builds on the fact that your character has a solid RP foundation, which we need to be able to build out a meaningful quest. Step 3: More patience. If your application is approved, that is an indication that your artifact quest will begin -- not that it has already begin. The reason for this second round of patience is that once we have approved the application, it takes some time to plan out the storyline of your quest and, of course, to actually build the quest itself. Step 4: The quest begins. You will receive a permanent quest (like any normal quest) and a clue of some kind to give you an indication of where/how to begin. From there, it's on you to figure out the next step and begin solving the riddles, finding the puzzle pieces, and putting everything together. Step 5: Quest complete! Collect your reward! What's the reward? The reward for an RP quest is completely unique to the character. It is customized, thematic, and RP-focused. Typically (but not always) this is a restrung, owner only cabal item -- something you would use anyway -- with an added use to it. These will not be overwhelmingly PK-oriented rewards, but rather will be small, thematic enhancements to your character. If you have questions, please feel free to ask -- but note that as most artifact quests and rewards are highly customized, this should cover many of the standard facets of the quest/process. A lot of the substance is variable, so we won't be able to give tremendously more specific answers, in that regard. Hope that helps!

This list is still a work in progress, as 2020 is not over yet and there are still some goodies on the way. But it's always nice to look on a year in retrospect -- thanks to @Erelei, @Lloth, @Kassieti and the rest of the staff for your leadership and dedication in getting so much amazing work done even during this crazy year! Class Changes Adventurers can now advance to level 50. Bards now sing at level 51 when tuned (down from 60) and level 53 when dueting. Bard THAC0 has been reduced by 2 (improving their melee ability). Psionicists must once again memorize certain higher level spells in order to cast them. Auto Shield Bash will no longer lag opponents mid-round. Shield Bash (the manual command) will have a chance to lag if the user has the Shield Bash edge. Dark-Knights will now receive a bonus for killing antithetical characters (similar to the bonus that Crusaders receive). Dark-Knights and Crusaders in Tribunal will now receive equivalent living weapon experience for capturing an enemy as they would for killing them (the same abuse check to prevent multi-capturing is in place as for multi-killing). Race Changes Gnomes no longer have a mental vulnerability. Storm Giants can now be Paladins. Fire Giants can now be Dark-Knights. Frost Giants are now available (currently on a seasonal basis) as a quest race (NOTE: in order to play as a frost giant, at least for the time being, you will need to roll a fire giant and APPLY to become a frost giant, similar to a restring. Cabal Changes Warmaster forms will now cast their maledictions at a more appropriate level. Duergars in REAVER can no longer summon water Chaos Blades. The victim of Eye of Nature will now be notified (subtly) that they are being watched from afar. Cabal armies (attackers and defenders) will now be stronger when closer to the cabal. The CHURCH Cabal has opened its doors to followers of the One God. General Changes The leather quiver in Everwild will no longer defy gravity/physics. Custom RP armor system has been adjusted to be more in line with the Equipment Balance system. The Strong Mind edge has been adjusted to be more in line with Restful Body -- a variable bonus to regeneration based on the character's current HP as it relates to their max HP; he lower the percentage of the maximum, the higher the bonus. The Strong Legs edge has been adjusted to be more in line with Restful Body. Several wands, including the Wand of Wind, will now cast more appropriate spells and/or cast at a more appropriate level. The Faeries of Aabahran have gone extinct. Time ripples have appeared throughout the lands describing the fate and memories of the tiny winged race -- can the heroes of Aabahran find a way to restore the Fae? Will they bother? The Savant Tower has been teleported once more, landing in the mountains near the Temple of Sreyb. Silence is now a mental spell instead of being unclassified, meaning it will also check against mental saves. The current Forsaken Lands codebase has been made open source. The staff has implemented a new global content release that will feature quarterly updates. Q1 (October 2020) -- Torments and Wraiths are pouring out of the Forsaken Lands and assailing the Great Wall of Aabahran. The Ford and Miruvhor are also under attack, and the Citadel of Kaer Banor and the Mountain Trail have been overrun. Kesrick calls for aid from all heroes -- but will it arrive in time? Equipment level restrictions were implemented, but have now been reverted. The Strong of Flesh, Unshaken Believer, and Stalwart of Faith edges have had their potency reduced (each will now reduce spell level for the spell type by -3). The cost of the Unshaken Believer edge has been reduced to 50. Bug Fixes Blood Vow will no longer cause a weapon to retain the properties of a socket after the blood vow affect ends. Blood Vowed weapons will no longer fire their weapon procs twice. Ice Shield & Fire Shield now correctly apply the appropriate vulnerabilities and resistances. Same-type resistances and vulnerabilities will now default to a vulnerability, as opposed to a resistance. Warmasters can now be zapped correctly by offensive wands. Crusader holy weapon "brandweapon" will no longer remove barbed/spiked modification from the weapon. Asphyxiate will now correctly strip insomnia. Footwork skill will now work correctly. A long-time bug causing everyone (not just vampires at night) to cast three levels higher has been identified and fixed. Carry weight will no longer stack above your carry weight in regard to bash/bodyslam chance reduction. Rest in Peace will no longer remove insomnia from the singer, but will remove it from the victim correctly. Echoed voices will now notify both the victim and singer when the affect fades. Critical strikes for Diaphragm and Solar Plexus will now lag the victim correctly when not in Deathweaver (and will not lag the victim at all when in Deathweaver). Piercing Note will no longer damage burnproof armor. Mind Thrust will now correctly display a message when it wears off. Suledin Nadas will now correctly have a small chance to cure an embraced victim. Echoed Voices will now correctly sing at a higher level when an instrument is tuned. Majestic Solo will now correctly check against the victim's breath saves, instead of mental saves. Majestic Solo can no longer be stacked. Wands will no longer cause "double deaths" when zapped mid-round. Unholy Strength will no longer remove calm just by being cast. Items can no longer be "targeted" with wands. Ventriloquate success will now calculate correctly (and therefore succeed more often). The quest to destroy the ritual focus in Xymerria now works correctly. The Stablemaster in the Elven Kingdom will now actually give you a mount when purchased. Socketed items will now correctly display encumbrance. Reveal Hidden will correctly display PK tiers. Ninja decoy long descriptions will now match the ninja's long description when viewed in "brief" mode. Maformed items will no longer trigger a "too many rares" warning on log out. Stone giants will now throw thematically correct boulders in the LAVA and SNOW sectors (no more icy boulders when standing in lava). Many bugs have been fixed in the Asylum, including the ability to successfully face and defeat Patient V without being automatically killed at the end. Elf and Drow blademasters will now receive the correct bonus to their anatomy checks in combat. Shatter will now correctly display a damage descriptor. Un-owned mobs can no longer be released. Silly... Lich phylacteries will now correctly drop to 50% power upon death, instead of 0%. Dancing blades will no longer absorb their sockets and create extra socket slots. Comprehend languages will now correctly affect overheard chatter through the Spy skill. Final parting will now correctly fire when an opponent flees but does not leave the room. The druid in Drkshtyre will now correctly reward the hero for saving the lost boy. Werebeast Vulture werepower will now correctly have a chance to poison the enemy. Werebeast Badger werepower will notify the victim that their spellcasting has been disrupted. The artificer perk will now correctly apply a bonus to the leveling of crusader weapons and malforms. OLC Changes A brand new MUD School has been opened to welcome new players to Aabahran. (Credit: @EllaThePuppy) Beyond The Portal, a new end game area, brings the story of the Starborne family to the people of Aabahran. (Credit: @Ali_gmud and @Volgathras) After years of turmoil following the destruction of the JUSTICE cabal, New Ofcol has opened its gates to the people of Aabahran. (Credit: @Zoichan) The Underground Reservoir has replaced the Sewers below Miruvhor thanks to the explosive efforts of Tribunal and Warmaster. (Credit: @EllaThePuppy) The Kringlewitz Toy Factory has been released as the first in a line of seasonal dungeons. (Credit: @Gifnab) You can no longer teleport to Order. The keys to release order have been made rare (to prevent hoarding) and will no longer disappear on world shift and log out. Equipment has been rebalanced in the following areas: Desolation Dischord Gear Isle of Exile Temple of Sreyb Northern Passage The Ford Avalon Elium Forest The Elven Kingdom Miruvhor The Isle of Souls Dragon Road Elderwood The Blasted Plains The Barren Highlands Crystalmir Lake Escimir E'gal The Forsaken Lands Haon Dor Kashangal New Decobru The Swamp The Caverns of Shudde M'ell The Glass Spires The Institute Willow Palm Cloud Kingdom In The Clouds Ofcol Deliverance In The Clouds Beyond The Portal Sea Elf Cay Mahn-Tor's Dungeon Drkshtyre Wood

Elium, Isle of Exile, Temple of Sreyb, The Dark Observatory, Labyrinth and the Northern Passage have all been finished/redone.

Hot Change Date: 02/16/2020 Mana gain has been changed to be in line with Hit gain (as per the edge 'Restful Mind'. View full hot change

Doesn't it level-adjust though? Lessens the pain a bit. I -vaguely- recall getting hit by it nearly a decade ago and complaining (I was around level 40), and Viri basically saying 'don't piss off Nexus leaders' 😂

Demon pit is done. Info: I've only checked the finished weapons as the unfinished ones are not used anyway. I've treated all finished weapons as uniques without actually giving them the flag so they continue to not count towards your rare count (they are still commons). ALL of the weapons have become slightly cooler, the pole is now magical. I'd be very interested in some feedback as to those weapon types which are currently not really used. I've tried to make them all interesting now. (feedback welcome on prayer)

Asylum done. OMG. I hope there is not another area with that much stuff. (Ty Volg, very fun stuff there)

About half of asylum done, will see if I manage to finish tomorrow.

Bunch safe items done: torso: steel plated torso, ice armor, horrific skin, eog bodyarmor - each in their respective save category -12 neck: moonstone pendant, ice amulet, amulet of Lloth, onyx cross - each in their respecitve save category -10 As these items are now all unique and their count has been adjusted accordingly, some crumbling will occur if the item is overcount and you die. This unfortunately can't be avoided and will happen from time to time during the item rebalancing.

For an OLC change: Proposal, make disarm great again. Give noremove weapons an average damage cap, 25 or something and anything over that cap can't be noremove. This will introduce a high risk, high reward system for weapon choice. You can choose to use a high damage weapon with a chance to be disarmed or go for a safer option but deal less damage but more consistent.

Void leggings have been renamed to the Boots of Endless Void. For real...who wears leggings on their feet? Thanks @Grim_Reefer for the new name.

All RP necklaces have had their -saving spell reduced(increased?) from -8 to -5.

Dear Santa, Can stone giants get bonuses with mundane weapons like ogres do with magic and fire giants with fire?

Hot Change Date: 04/14/2018 Added the option to replay 'faction chat'. All replays will now persist after reboot. View full hot change

Change Date: 04/01/2018 Important Change? Yes Key Changes Feb 26 17 Undead & Arrows - Undead will take damage from arrows which hit their vulnerability. Jan 30 17 Escort Guards - Guards called by escort no longer scavenge items from the ground. Mar 07 17 Replays - pmote, smote, and emote can all be seen in replay buffers, now. Mar 08 17 Sleeping & Fighting - You won't try to sleep if you're currently fighting. This fixes: Mid-combat bruised affect. Mid-combat sleep or hypnosis dropping stance and causing bruised affect. Mar 11 17 Cabal Numbers Command - "cabal numbers" has been added to show total, active, and inactive players within all 8 cabals. Inactive means longer than 3 days without logging into the MUD. Mar 17 17 Barter - Fixed an issue where non-caballed characters could crash the mud by offering an item they did not have. Characters not in a cabal will now receive a 100,000 gold fine instead. Ninja Weapon Proficiencies - Fixed a bug where some ninja weapon proficiencies returned half of what they should have been. Mud was considering all weapons aside from swords and spears as two-handed when they weren't. Mar 19 17 Hours Requirements - Hours requirements for quest classes and quest races removed entirely. Mar 06 17 Racial Perks - Halflings: Now deal increased damage with daggers and swords. - Half-elves: Receive +1 wisdom, +1 constitution - Stone Giants: Receive +1 dexterity - Duergar: Receive +1 intelligence, +1 dexterity, +1 constitution - Dwarves & Duergar: Receive the alcoholic perk for free as an innate racial perk - Gnomes & Halflings: Receive the addict perk for free as an innate racial perk - Faeries: Thief traps now have +2 spell levels - Gnomes: Learn brambus needler for free as a thief mechanism Automaster ranger staff, bowyer, and fletchery skills (103% max) Mar 28 17 Shield Bash - Made shield bash more damaging when used (not auto-shield bash, though) - Made auto shield bash more useful (more affects) - Auto shield bash is no longer piercing dam_type, and is now bashing dam_type. May 02 17 Replay Clear - You can now clear your replay buffers: Syntax: replay clear [tells|group|says|clan|cabal] May 25 17 Bard Titles (24 + 41) - Bard had same title for two different ranks (reported by f0xx) 41st rank has been renamed to "Master Sonneteer" from "Master Poet" Jun 04 17 Undead Corpses - Undead now get a brief, no-sacrifice corpse, unless you're hardcore. Jun 25 17 Power Expertise - Usefulness of Power Expertise increased. Jul 01 17 Offensive Spells & Multi-hit - Removed "coded feature" that allowed for characters to get double rounds on mages or communers whom opened with spells that did not cause any damage. Jul 05 17 Psienhance - Psionicists can psi-enhance all they want, and at their leisure without worry of trading armors, now. (spell becomes innert when touched by a non-psion) Jul 15 17 Werebeast Berserkers - Werebeasts now use weapon_cleave, shield_cleave, and charge while transformed. Additional bonuses (for weapon type, etc) are not applied when transformed, however. Jul 28 17 Archer's in End-Game Areas - Archers can now shoot other players in End-Game areas without receiving the message "x is too hardened to be bothered by your arrows" Aug 06 17 Assign Command - You can now assign nicknames to containers. See HELP ASSIGN Mar 07 17 Berserker Diminishing Returns - Diminishing returns for berserkers regarding hitroll has been greatly reduced. Damroll returns have been slightly reduced. Lock Picks - New item type: lockpick. No thief, ninja, or bard around to unlock those lockboxes? No problem! Aug 11 17 Flying + Landing - When using land on an auto-fly race, you will stay grounded unless you fly again, now. Aug 17 17 Clan Allow - Cabal Leaders and Cabal Elders can now use 'clan allow' on members to allow them to apply to the cabal. Aug 18 17 Cabal Promote - Cabal Leaders and Cabal Elders can now use 'cabal promote' on members to promote them within the cabal. Leaders can promote up to 'trusted' rank and Elders can promote up to 'veteran' rank. Sep 02 17 Paralyze & Undead - Undead characters (vampires, liche, undead) are now subject to the same saves_check as every other race, now. Before, undead could be paralyzed with no saves check, leading to almost permanent paralysis. Nov 03 17 Undead, DKNs, Halflings, and Bards - DKNs do not receive penalty to maledictive spells anymore. - Halflings lose VULN to weapons. - Halflings can no longer choose the blademaster class. - Undead loses IMMUNITY to pierce dam_type - Undead gain IMMUNITY to all arrows, except vuln arrows. - Brds get +3 spell level to songs. Dec 09 17 Service "Heal uncurse" - You will now get prompts if something fails to be uncursed or if you're not carrying said item to uncurse. Dec 09 17 Bard Changes - Maintain: Reduced maintain from 4 to 3. - Refrain: Song "four seasons" can no longer be refrained. - Bardic Master / Expert / Student: The blindness spell can no longer be avoided. - Dissonance: Ths skill once again damages your weapon when used. - Third attack has been removed. - Songs: Lullaby chance greatly improved. Rhapsody of Delusion affect hinders opponents further. Carol of Lethargy greatly improved. Arduous Regret greatly improved. Tranquil Ballad greatly improved. Lamented Tears greatly improved. Echoed Voices tremendously improved. Dec 27 17 Whirlwind, Abduct and Petrify - You can no longer use the spell "whirlwind" or skill "abduct" against petrified opponents. Feb 08 18 Null yelling - Created mobs in OLC now by default use 'common' unless otherwise specified, so newly created mobs will not use 'none' anymore. Feb 19 18 Fury Berserkers and Arrows - Arrows no longer have 100% chance to be blocked. While raged, this chance is increased, but still not 100%. - Assault no longer does more damage than average damage of their weapon. Assault does even less damage when wielding one-handed weapons. Mar 04 18 Bugs and Apps - Bugs and applications submitted in game will be posted in the forum through REST API, now. Mar 05 18 Fletchery and Petrify - Fletchery reducing from over 100% chance on login no longer occurs. - Petrify has been modified slightly. Mar 12 18 Bounties and Archers - Bounties have increased minimum gold requirements. If victim > level 50, 100K gold, or 100cp. If victim is an elder in a cabal, 200K gold or 200cp. If victim is a leader in a cabal, 300K gold or 300cp. If victim is < level 50, 50K gold, or 30cp. - Archers have increased chance to shoot through missile shield now. - You cannot use missile shield and shoot back through a missile shield from another room, unless you're an archer. Mar 17 18 Restores and Bounty Bags - Restores now check rare_count before restore is done, and strip non-restorable items before restore occurs. - Bounty items no longer go to bounty collector - only the placer. - Syndicate now have a special head bag. Go visit Pete. Mar 18 18 Aliases - The "$" character has been removed as a placeholder due to logging issues. Please use "#" as a place holder for all new aliases, as "$" will no longer work. See HELP ALIAS. Mar 27 18 Cabal Pits - Nexus, Herald and Knight pit offerings will now hold items when bodies of members decompose, rather then all of the items going to the floor. Mar 28 18 Amorphous Parasite - Will no longer infect out-of-range characters of the original caster. Mar 29 18 Throw (ninja, bard, ranger) - Throw will actually hit a vulnerability if it exists as the material of the item, now, as designed. Additional, non-disclosed Changes January 2017 - Caltraps no longer reduce dexterity. Still continues to stop regen for flying opponents, and takes more moves away when moving when not flying. - Ikuzachi now does -2dex per successful cast and non-save. - Wish no longer heals as much as it did before. - You can no longer endure while blessed. You can no longer be blessed while endured. - Crusader's no longer become completely full when crusading and food is given to them by mobs. - Jutsu is similar to a 'half-way' pugil, now. - Fixed an issue where shield lore didn't reduce lag correctly when bashed, and were made to be unlaggable. - Confiscate allowing tribunals to take too many items has been fixed. - Timer added to hypnosis (similar to sleep) - Endure adjusted to be more in-line with bless/warcry. - Transform has been adjusted to keep mobs from using the skill. - Note to City added again. Only Heralds, Royals, and Nobles can do this. Bards, Elders/Leaders cannot. (used by: note to miruvhor city, note to ValMiran city, etc) - Modification of transform to prevent loss of short_descr and damage nouns. - Sense motion for monks and ferals adjusted/ fixed. You no longer see: "So and so walks in. So and so enters the room." You only see "So and so enters the room." if they're sneaking, or using quiet movement, or otherwise moving silently. - Graft weapon is dispelled when successfully disarmed by exotic lore warriors, and dragon monks. Blademasters cannot 'iron arm' a grafted weapon. - Shield of Thorns changed to no longer damage attacks per round. Similar to bone wall, which damages attackers when they get too close. - Recalculated haggle so that if you have max luck, and max haggle, you don't always get the same reduction in cost. It is random now with a ceiling of 90% off cost. - Tsunami able to be cast indoors, with a spring, or thunderstorm has been changed. You can only cast it in water rooms, now. - Haggle further modified to be random decreases in cost which increase as your haggle skill reaches 100. Reputation is also a factor now (Thanks Zoichan and Acele for the idea). If you have a terrible reputation, shop keep may increase the cost instead. - Blood Guards have a 50% chance to be countered/not-countered now. No more lowbie blademasters perm-meditating and destroying your mob. - Escort guards can no longer carry items. - Berserker hp_gain per level has been changed. (for the better, obviously) February 2017 - Chii reduced to monk values for ninjas. March 2017 - Dark-Knights exp loss on weapon removed completely from both mobs and players. May 2017 - Duet crash bug fixed. (Who uses this damn skill anyway?!) June 2017 - Stone golem and Flesh golem cool downs reducing with higher proficiency + spell tap going below 0 (causing perm cool downs) has been fixed. July 2017 - Mobs can't be affected by insect swarm anymore (it caused crashes) due to the way the spell functions. August 2017 - A bug allowing unlimited color restrings without being charged 60 rp points has been fixed. - Better checks when excluding races and classes from items introduced. - Added additional reporting so bugs in pfiles could be quickly found. September 2017 - Dump object into object mud crashing bug found and fixed, which caused memory out of bounds errors. - Behead skill slightly modified to be better. October 2017 - Virtuous light has been made much better. - Innate racial skills, when removed, won't return when character logs back in. - Using "tome hugenumberhere" caused the mud to crash, since it exceeded MAX_TOME. How this wasn't found years and years ago is beyond me. November 2017 - Selective psi skills not being able to be selected later in psionicist circles since they were essentially already learned has been fixed. - Base saves check reduced slightly. (-40 to -30: no, this won't be explained) December 2017 - You can delete at level 50 again. - Replay says does not record mobs talking anymore. - Items no longer fall away into the lowbie arena. - Rhapsody of Delusion song changed slightly to be more in line with dark-knight's 'veil of darkness' duration. - You can't sing when gagged anymore (no more ventriloquist singers! HAH!) - Dissonance lag increased when bard mastery is mastered, when bard expert is mastered, and when bard student is mastered. March 2018 - Duplicate changed to not allow mobs above level 51 to be used. - Critical strikes bonus for elves and drow reduced from +35 to skill to +10 to skill. - TRIG_SPEECH won't be triggered by the mob that the trigger is on from speaking, now. Bug Fixes January 2017 - Locker count bug fixed. (Thanks Anume) - Ferals not sensing camouflaged druids fixed. (Thanks f0xx) - Mud crash involving windmill fixed. (Thanks mya) - Haggle bug receiving the same price over and over, fixed. (Thanks mya) February 2017 - Bug which allows stacking of Dragon Blood fixed. (Thanks f0xx) - Locker bug count counting sockets that are already attached, fixed. (Thanks Tantangel) March 2017 - Shield equip bug which increased -AC gradually, fixed. - Apprehend overriding strangle on Blood Guards, fixed. (Thanks f0xx) - Mud crash involving shield bash fixed. (Thanks f0xx) - "fly" command not working with flying wereforms fixed. (Thanks Wade) May 2017 - Mud crash involving Dragon Blood fixed. (Thanks f0xx) - Note list bug not showing when used on another character fixed. *imm bug* June 2017 - Psionicist remort bug fixed. (Thanks Archbisoph Monk) - Bug with defenses cap on melee characters fixed. (Thanks hotspring monkey) July 2017 - Xymmeria mounts not working correctly fixed. (Thanks Unknown Criminal) - AC issues with increasing -AC or decreasing -AC randomly on quit, fixed. - Bug with update_pos fixed. (Thanks Unknown Criminal) - Socket bug with multiple sockets that repeat on long description, fixed. - Psionicist spell persisting after challenge end, fixed. (Thanks Venom) August 2017 - Avatars turning undead when bitten by a vampire fixed. (Thanks Anume) - Quest in Elium fixed regarding Garmex & Torilar (Thanks Tantangel) - Lifedrain and Paralyze persisting after death fixed. (Thanks Cephirus) September 2017 - Bug with dump_obj and extract_char causing mud crash, fixed. (Thanks Tantangel) October 2017 - Missed thrusts causing skills to fire has been fixed. (Thanks Mmm Beer) - Bug causing extremely OP items to be able to be created has been fixed. (Thanks Zhurong) - Typo in Blissful Falls fixed. (Thanks MasterOfPie) November 2017 - Multiple typos fixed. (Thanks Magick) - Ayluin's Quest bug fixed. (Thanks tassinvegeta) - Tempora Machina bug fixed. (Thanks Fool_hardy) December 2017 - Syndicate travel bug fixed. (Thanks Wade) - Presents / Lockbox bug fixed. (Thanks Tantangel) January 2018 - Remove magic on Psions groupmates bug fixed. (Thanks someone) - Lich keeping Necromancer abilities fixed. (Thanks someone) February 2018 - Bug with 'remote brain extractions' fixed. (Thanks Magick) - Long description bugs with sockets being too long, fixed. (Thanks Magick) - Illithids not understanding all languages fixed. (Thanks Magick) - Mud crash caused by a certain golem fixed. (Thanks Archbishop Monk) - Bug with remorting with spellforged items fixed (Thanks Fridge) - Werebeasts losing too many stats when allowing transform to end at its longest duration fixed. (Thanks egreir) March 2018 - Holy hands stacking fixed. (Thanks Unknown Criminal) - Undead's still not having corpses when killed -finally- fixed. (Thanks Knifelife) - Steal not bringing you out of Shadowform fixed. (Thanks Anume) - RP necklace bug fixed. (Thanks Unknown Brother) - Werebeast vulture damage_noun bug fixed. (Thanks Archbisop Monk) - Psionicist bug causing petrify to be permanent fixed. (Thanks Archibiship Monk) - Bounty bag bug fixed. (Thanks Ulmusdorn) - Wraith swarm not having a message when successful fixed. (Thanks Unknown Criminal) OLC Changes Additional Information View full change

The Siege is over, Val Miran's Western Gate is destroyed and the Eastern Gate has been breached. As more and more forces are converging on the City, some openly, some hidden from everyone, it is time to make YOUR move. To the West, WATCHER forces have entered the city alongside the Ratmen, fighting the combined Tribunal Forces of the Righteous Palm and Crimson Fist in the street. WARMASTER banners are flying just outside the gate, but so far they have made no move to join the conflict. To the East, the Feral Nation got tired of waiting and besieging, and simply stormed the Eastern Gate and the City's Wall one night, suffering heavy losses but gaining access to the city. The KNIGHT forces have reached the crossroad, but just like the WARMASTERS they have yet to commit to battle. On silent feet, elven assassins have entered the city, answering to the KNIGHTs call. Far to the east, a self-crowned Emperor is scheming, while to the south of Miruvhor, Elementals are charging up with the Power of Time and getting ready. For what though? The Tribunal forces are busy trying to defend Val Miran, though so far none of the Officers has undertaken any great efforts to hold the city or even throw back the attackers. The Segregation of Miruvhor has been mostly ignored. A few zombies have been seen, rigged up with explosives, taking out a part of the feral forces as well as most of the KNIGHT cavalry. In Fort Blackwatch, refugees are amassing and first efforts to better their situation have been undertaken, though the road north is blocked to them by roaming zombies, some of them former KNIGHTS. KNIGHT has not seen fit to deal with this situation yet, maybe hesitant to dispatch their own former Praetorians. Dwarven masons and MERCHANTS have arrived in Blackwatch, giving the refugees some hope for a better future, or a future for them at all. Some of the refugees have taken on the MERCHANT Princess' offer and have started on the long and dangerous track to Raladria to hopefully find a new home there. Hidden from all, an un-assuming man watches it all, waiting for JUST the right time to get his own plans into motion. And somewhere else completely, yet another Rune of Holding breaks. A pair of glowing eyes open, slowly. WHAT WILL BE YOUR MOVE? TIME IS RUNNING, MAKE IT BEFORE IT'S RUN OUT.

Hot Change Date: 03/28/2017 Made shield bash more damaging when used (not auto shield bash). Made auto shield bash more useful (several affects, random, provided defensively not offensively). Auto shield bash is now no longer piercing damage, and is back to bashing damage (undeads can be harmed by it now) View full hot change

... We're all effectively f'd...

Help files in.

Hi all, It's been quite some time since I've been around, so how has everyone been? Seems awfully quiet around here, but I'm hoping it's more because everyone is doing great IRL. Me - I'm still busy with the Foreign Service, and am getting sent off to Vietnam next. Don't worry, I'll do my best not to start any wars or anything; I figure we already got enough on our plate. Hoping everyone is doing well; I'm often thinking of y'all. Here's a picture from a recent trip to Alaska I just made. Cheers all! Fondly, Raargant

Updated as of 5/31/17 -- * Added Flying Citadel * Added Tribunal Cabal * Connected Sunken Ship to Dune Sea [Thanks Magick for noticing these were missing] Map Middle-mouse click to pan around it more easily (I think most computers will do this). If I forgot anything, please let me know and I'll keep it up to date. Made with Adobe Illustrator.

Take it from someone who has been there many times: if you're still posting on the forum, you're not gone, and you will be playing again sooner rather than later. The only way I've ever seen someone stop playing for a significant period of time is when they aren't forum active either.

Let's recap: Thulgan, the character, is deleted. The character went through an RP session with Morlhach and Anume. During this RP, for those that were not there, Anume had nearly killed Morlhach to reclaim the powers of Death from him. In order to keep himself from dissipating and dying completely, Morlhach took over Thulgan's body and sent Thulgan's soul to the Cycle when he did so. All the Warmasters grouped up and attacked Thulgan, who was really Morlhach in a new vessel. When they finally succeeded in killing Thulgan(Morlhach's vessel), Morlhach had little else to cling to in Aabahran and died with the mortal vessel. Thulgan and Morlhach both died in this event. Morlhach, the PLAYER/IMM, is still active, but the character is gone. Thulgan, the PLAYER, is still active, but the character is gone. It is my assumption that Morlhach is now the player of Erelei as Erelei's presence was officially acknowledged and seen following Morlhach's death. Also, Morlhach was a level 59 IMM and now Erelei is a level 59 IMM. Erelei is the new Avatar IMM as well.

Yaa.. after I had my fun watching you struggle I decided I should probably make the quest completable. Thaaaanks!