Darkfall Travelogues

The First Voyages

2012-01-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

The first weeks with Team Stormfront went by in a rush. Everything that I struggled to do on my own became so easy. There was a bounty of reagents in our clan bank, we had weapons and armor to spare, we even began to gather enough materials to start crafting our own wares. Piratejim made weapons, I made armor, Pangalactic studied enchanting, but dabbled in just about everything. Publius took to potions, but soon got wrapped up in a secret project.

Each time we ventured out into the world, there was still the fear of death, but the fear of losing all our hard earned loot was blunted by the knowledge that our vault was full of replacement gear. And so, we became bold.

Using our old raft, we took to the sea and explored all the far off islands we couldn't reach before. Some were plentiful with ore, and I marked these places down for future reference. Such out of the way mining spots were hard to come by. Other islands held small villages or hamlets. We saw one island far away to the east with an ancient Nithron fortress built on top of it, patrolled by reanimated guardians. Atop this castle was a glowing purple portal. I marked this island down on my sea chart as well, curious to explore. But the islands we spent our most time on were patrolled by hulking behemoths called golems.

One morning, Redham and I were out sailing when I spotted one close to shore. I shouted for Redham to steer away. He saw the golem and a familiar madness crept into his eyes. "I bet we could bring it down," he said slowly; already anchoring the raft.

I looked at the huge metal beast, shaking the earth with each step. "There's no way, not with just the two of us. And I'm not abandoning the raft!" Piratejim merely shrugged and hopped into the water. "I'll keep the sails up for a quick retreat," I called after him, but he didn't turn; just continued swimming.

Piratejim had a staff, and some bone and leather armor. Nothing more. Before him a giant hulk of a creature paced about the island. It was three times the height of a human, and looked to be made of a solid mass of seamless metal, in a vaguely human shape. From the bushes, the mad pirate fired off a flimsy manna missle. It impacted the monster, and the fight was on.

I watched in amazement as my ally ran circles around the golem, blasting it in the back at every chance. The golem tried to keep up, and even fired some spells back in return now and then, but they hit the trees Piratejim was ducking behind far more often than Piratehim himself. If he did become too hurt he simply ducked out of sight, or went down into the water for a time. He worked at the golem tirelessly and sooner than I would have expected, the monster was down and Piratejim was jogging back over to the raft with a sack full of materials he'd cut off the monster's corpse.

I was in stunned silence as he took the wheel of the raft and set sail back towards our home. I think I remained so until we were well out to ocean. When I finally came to, a torrent of barely coherent words poured from my mouth, "Fool! Fluke! Luck! Lunatic! Divine intervention!" Piratejim smiled and whistled as we sailed home.

The illusions of the world were beginning to crumble as tasks we once thought impossible were opened to us. Team Stormfront began to regularly raid the golem islands, and reap their rewards. All throughout these excursions, we were rarely bothered by others. The sea was vast, and within it breadth, safety and wealth.

We attacked the golems relentlessly, and drove them back from civilized lands.

The next time we were all back at the Mirdain city we called our home, Blarggy took the resources we'd gathered and crafted them into dangerous new weapons called Battlespikes. "Do you know what we could do with these?" he said, waving the small explosive in front of a very nervous looking Publius. "We can attack some of the coastal villages! If we control of those villages then we can get a nice flow of gold from taxes!"

It sounded like a good plan, one that would take all of us to execute. We geared up in our finest, with our packs full of these spiked metal balls of fire and death. We sailed around Agon, waiting for one of the coastal villages to be left unguarded. After a half hour of scouting we found our target. The village of Eltaria.

Team Stormfront crept silently into the city from different directions, searching for any hidden defenders. Pangalactic gave the all clear and we set ourselves up in vantage points overlooking the central stone of the village. I piled my battlespikes before me and took a calming breath. "You just throw them?" I asked. Blarggy nodded and raised his hand in the air, held it there briefly, and brought it down.

"Fire!"

The sound was deafening as six battlespikes smashed into the stone before us. The ringing had hardly faded before more explosions ripped through the echoes of the last ones. We continued throwing. Bits and pieces of the stone was breaking off. The magical field protecting the village began to weaken. I threw until my arm burned, trying to quickly grab more battlespikes without stabbing my own hand, or worse, dropping any. We were all tense, knowing that the sounds of our attack would bring any murderers within a mile right down on top of us. But we had chosen our village well, none came.

With a final explosion the rock crumbled and the magic field dissipated. The village belonged to Team Stormfront. "Haha! See, nothing to it!" Blarggy shouted. I ran off to look at some of the houses with Publius while the others packed the remaining battlespikes. Most of the doors were locked but one house was open and inside we found a strange machine. It had a slot for gold coins a wheel with rotating symbols on it. Pub tossed some coins in, the pictures whirled, and when they stopped more coins came out!

"Let me try, move move!" I shoved Publius aside, but wasn't as lucky. The machine ate my newly earned money quickly, returning none of it, and Publius tried to pull me off. I had to keep going, pouring more of our winnings into the machine, until I came out with a profit. It wasn't my greatest idea but I was still elated from our victory and I didn't want the day marred by a run of bad luck. Eventually, I managed to come away with more gold won than lost, but the rest of the clan banned me from using the device ever again, said I had a "problem" or something. I don't think anyone actually minded that day; winnings in hand, we sailed for home.

The Forming of Team Stormfront

2011-09-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

It took days for me to work my way back to Mercia from the shores of Mirendil. I kept off the roads, more out of habit than the want to be careful. I spent much of the time in a daze, worrying over the Ul Tanneks, trying to puzzle out their motives, their goals; what could they have possibly accomplished with their slaughter? What troubled me even more was the sudden betrayal. It had been so easy for people to turn on each other. It wasn't even just Humans killing Alfar, everyone was in a blind fury, killing anyone they could. They had been working so well together, some were even acting friendly, getting along, drinking. But I guess I should just resign myself to the fact that they were after all, mercenaries, and it shouldn't be unexpected that their motives were ruled by treasure. Agon wasn't a land for being idealistic.

I pondered these things until reached my current home, Hildershall. To take my mind off the trouble in the East I asked around for work, but no one was offering any jobs. Frustrated, I geared up and went out on my own to hone my sword skill against some of the local scum.

I cut my way through the kobolds on the beaches, chasing them into the tall grass. Some of their smaller fighters would duck in the reeds while their allies blindly fired in, but it wasn't enough. In an hours time, the camp was empty of kobolds, and I began working northward through the wilderness, eventually reaching a river. It was running swiftly, the current powerful, I recognized it as the one that fed into Chillborne. I decided to stop by the city to drop off some loot. Fortunately, there was a merchant in the area looking for a fighter. He offered me some armor if I'd go out past the cemetery and kill some of the local undead, some trolls, and other undesirables. I just absently nodded and accepted the work.

I knew the graveyard area well, having been killed there several times by Ork raiding parties. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. A lot of the raw recruits around Sandbrook and Monkfield had whispered about it, calling it the new Britain Cemetery, whatever that meant. Even knowing this, I did not try to hide. I cut through the zombies and skeletons with old swords I'd collected from outlaws, then fought to the troll camp. The silence was weighing heavy on my mind. He'd seen no one, and other than the merchants in the towns, and talked to no one, in a very long time.

The trolls proved to be a challenge. Their spell casting and mob mentality was frustrating. As they swarmed me all at once I began to hack at them in a rage, wishing they'd just stand still, to no avail. I tried fighting back with my own meager spell capabilities but that didn't help the situation at all. Occasionally I managed to pin one by itself and cut it down, but there were long rests after each kill, because as I killed one, the others would stab for the weak places in my armor. Before long my potions and food were running out. It was during one of these rests that I encountered someone entirely unexpected.

I saw him first, a fighter dressed in bone armor. With a zeal that hadn't been there moments before I pulled myself out my apathetic stupor and charged him with my sword high. He spun around, arcane energy already swirling around him and then stopped. "Signus? Wait!"

I checked my swing when I got a look at him. Behind the bone mask, was the face of Publius. "Pub, what are you doing here?"

He let his spell dissipate and scolded me. "Is this a thing you do now, attack random people trying to get through swamps? You've fallen to pieces without me."

"I..wasn't thinking clearly. But really, where have you been?"

We caught up as he joined me in my task against the trolls, who were now entirely outmatched.

He'd been wandering Ork lands and as far north as the Dwarven shore, not sure what to do after the clan fell apart. After a while he traveled south, trying to track down Redham or anyone else.

"Well, did you hear from him?"

"Yes, actually. He's trying to pull us all back together. I think he sent a message for you, probably to Sandbrook, but he never heard back. He has a plan, but he wants us all to meet in Mirdain territory."

"Ugh, I just came from there, did he give a reason?"

"It's the land of milk and honey! Lots of scum to kill, lots of treasure to collect, and very few murderers to worry about. But that's only part of the plan, you'll have to come there with me for the rest."

Two days later, we were on our way west to meet with Redham and whoever else he'd gathered to him.

Charybdis, the Mirdain capital city. While I had just passed through this territory recently, I never stopped to look around. It was a beautiful land, seemingly untouched by the war that ravaged the rest of Agon. The trees were massive, beyond anything I'd seen in Mercia. Vines wound around the buildings, which themselves seemed to grow out of the landscape. They were crafted with a sinuous grace that blended them into the surrounding flora. But the strangest thing was how old everything felt. The leaves were green, the branches supple, the buildings gleaming, yet it all seemed ancient, preserved perhaps. It was here that I found Piratejim again, sitting on the banks of the great river that ran through the city. Sitting with him, were three others. I recognized them as those who went on the trip to Yssam before the group fell apart. The raft crew.

The closest figure was the dwarf who called himself Llemon; he was polishing the two longknives that he usually fought with. Beside him was Pangalactic, the burgeoning fire wizard. And getting to his feet, was the recruit who joined up with the clan on Yssam before vanished into the forest to join Necessary Evil, Blarggy. He was different now, he looked much stronger, and his eyes sparked with energy, reflecting hard work with arcane powers. The change was large, and startling.

Piratejim had gotten to his feet too, though it wasn't him that spoke. Blarggy led things off. "Well we're all finally here, we can get down to the business at hand. I've been talking to Redham, and we've decided that the six of us should form an organized clan. If we pool our resources and all work together, we could become a force to be reckoned with. And, I've learned a few things with Necessary Evil that I'll be able to pass along. There it is short and sweet, so what do you say?"

Pub took the suddenness of the speech in stride and threw in his lot with the plan right away. I had to admit to myself, the idea made a lot of sense. I knew these folks, some of them quite well. I could depend on most of them. But still, I dug in my heels. I felt my decision had already been made for me, which rankled, so I tried to hash out a few more details before we sealed the deal.

A half hour later, all that was left to decide was the name. Pangalactic offered a solution "Well, the goal is, by the end of this, to be like a terrible force of nature, right? Why not use those old names we joked around with back when we were new to Agon? Team Stormfront, wind, thunder, lightning?" Llemon looked confused but Pub and I quietly laughing to ourselves, remembering the old joke.

"Ok, yes, that's perfect. If we ever build a name for ourselves I'll laugh every time our enemies use it, and no one else will get it."

"I don't get it" Llemon chimed it. "Doesn't really sound funny at all, actually."

Pub started chuckling again, "One of those 'you had to be there' things Llemon. I think the name sounds great. So, it's official then? Team Stormfront?"

I like to believe that we didn't all jump into the air and cheer. But that's a lie.

Ul Tannek (Part 2)

2011-08-10T05:23:00.000-07:00

The tension was palpable as I left. No one was bold enough to draw steel within the city, but as defenders and attackers declared their sides, tempers began to flare. I slipped out quietly an hour early hoping to escape the worst of the inevitable conflict.

I picked a random road and started to head East, knowing I should at least make towards Rubaiyat. I was lightly armed, hoping to avoid any fights on the way. But mere minutes of travel convinced me that that wasn't going to be possible. The countryside looked like a kicked anthill. Small groups of warriors were swarming in every direction. Some waved at one another, others clashed. There were people in robes, riding horses, riding bears, drakes; there were Mahirim, Alfar, Dwarves, every type of person imaginable. And none of them knew exactly where to go.

I left the road and took the wooded paths towards the beach. The few people that spotted me were too busy trying to figure out what to do to bother with me. Eventually I reached the coast, where I paused to wonder how I'd get across the water. Perhaps there'd be a raft to nab a ride from? Before I could make any decision, another human trotted out of the woods and onto the beach. Seeing me, he gave a smile and wandered closer.

"Glad to see another human all the way out here. What are you doing standing out on the beach by yourself? Not very safe." There was no threat in his tone.

I shrugged and said, "I have nothing worth taking. I was here to enlist for the caravan, but.. I'm not sure how to find it."

The man gave me a strange look. "Well half the folks around here are convinced it's leaving from the Great Pyramid across the sea." He paused, considering me. "But of course, they're headed to the wrong place."

I perked up. "You know where to find the caravan? How?"

The man smiled. "There are rumors going around everywhere. A clan called Dune currently holds position on top of the Pyramid. They're fighting off hundreds of other soldiers, all of them hell bent on looting the caravan when it emerges. Someone let slip that a powerful artifact from the Knights of Malregard is on board. Even more armies are marching home, believing the false tale that Dune has already destroyed and looted the caravan." He touched his nose and winked. "But I have a man named Ninogan on the with the caravan even now, sending me updates on its location. The Ul Tannek's are clever, probably planted a few rumors themselves. They sneaked by the carnage and are already on a ship bound for this very coast. Care to join us?"

I quickly agreed, this was my best shot to get close to the Ul Tanneks and figure out what they were up to. The man provided me with a drake and told me to follow close. We galloped off north along the course, racing to meet the caravan as it docked and continued on its way. It was tough going, and there were some dodgy parts where we ran into local beasts, but we made it to the beach just as the ship docked and the caravan was disembarking with its defenders.

The Ul Tanneks themselves waved as we joined the group. They were dressed differently from anyone else I'd seen on Agon, they wore dark bronze armor and had striped cloth draped over their heads, worn in the style of the old Pharaohs. I had expected a wooden wagon train, but instead the caravan was in the form of a massive steel hovering battle platform, a warhulk. This particular one was called The Battle Ark.

The Family announced that they'd be traveling northeast, towards the center of Agon. They'd be meeting some wealthy Ork merchants there, and the warriors that made sure they got there safely would get a grand reward. "An eternal reward", one of the Ul Tanneks sniggered.

The traveling was not quick going, the Ark was slow and ponderous, getting stuck on fences and rocks from time to time. The craft was loaded with defenders and more trailed behind on mounts. The surroundings remained quiet as we marched through the forests, but we were all alert and waiting for the first sign of attack. We had outriders scouting the perimeter, but so far there was nothing to find.

Our first skirmishes were small scale, local wildlife and that ilk. They fell swiftly to our numbers. The victories served to dull our paranoia, and boost our confidence.

Before long, many of the defenders had become relaxed. They openly chatted with the Family as if on a pleasant ride through the gardens. The Ul Tanneks were friendly enough, but something appeared to be bothering them. Now and again they'd stare out at the hills and then frown at one another. I tried to keep in mind why I was here, tried to remind myself that the Ul Tanneks were in league with an evil cult. The longer I stayed defending the caravan though, the more I lost sight of that.

Before long we received a report that the conflict at the Pyramid had concluded. Dune had realized the caravan was gone, and they were not pleased with the deception. They were making their way towards us with fury. This put everybody's hackles back up, and we tried to hurry the caravan along. But instead, the Ark seemed to slow down, weaving around and crashing into trees. I rode closer to the warhulk and saw that the driver was getting drunk with a few dwarves! I was about to dismount and storm into the Ark when the first enemies appeared.

Our outriders had warned us about some enemies spotted to the east. Most of our force charged off immediately in that direction, leaving the caravan exposed. The defenders were lost with blood lust. I couldn't even see the enemy supposedly attacking us, but there must have been someone. The man who recruited me back on the beach rode by and gave me some bone covered armor. "Here, wear this. You're going to get yourself killed if you stay in that chain. Be careful and stay sharp!" He rode off towards the hills where all the fireballs and spells were flying.

When he rode back there was some blood on him and he proudly declared the threat was dealt with.

More messages arrived, Dune was catching up. The caravan moved slower and slower. My worry grew. "Well never even make it out of this damn forest at this rate, much less make it across Agon!" one man shouted. Others grumbled and agreed. Other riders were putting their heads together trying to figure out which clans were in Dune and who to watch out for. It was difficult keeping track of who was a defender and attacker when most of us were just clustered together from various other clans. Suddenly, fire erupted from within the Ark. Someone screamed. "They're assassinating the Ul Tanneks!"

Healing spells were being poured into the driver's area of the Ark, fires were being put out, steel sang from within. In seconds, a name came out. "ANG tried to kill the driver!"

No one waited to see if the words were true. Every ANG member was culled immediately. It was a manhunt. Some tried to flee on mounts only to have them peppered with arrows and blasted out from under them. It was over in seconds, no living member of ANG remained with the caravan. The driver shakily thanked us for saving him, the other Ul Tanneks shared a worried look. Back then I assumed they were worried about possible traitors in the ranks, but I realize now what that shared look meant.

This process repeated a second time. Attackers in the hills were devastated by hundreds of spells almost as soon as they were spotted, and another assassination attempt was put down. This time members of Black Company screamed "They BEGGED us to stab them!" as they were being cut down. Dune got closer. The Ark got caught on another tree. People were shouting now "let me drive, come on!". More nervous looks between the Ul Tanneks.

Finally the driver stopped and the Family shouted for everyone to leave the Ark. They evacuated all the defenders and then stepped out themselves.

"Defenders, gather around me." The Ul Tannek family leader stood tall, surrounded by hundreds of warriors. "I think it's past time that you all find out what you've been guarding." He held up a sheathed greatsword, and slowly, unveiled it.

I was shocked, the sword they held was Lightbringer! This must have been the artifact stolen from the Knights of Malregard, their ancestral treasure. Someone was going to pay dearly for taking this. There was no other blade of its kind in all of Agon, and here it was, mere feet away from me.

OOC:Lightbringer behind held by a dwarf

I lost myself in fantasies of prising the sword from a lifeless hand, using it to cut my way to freedom, winning glory with that blade..the booming voice of the Ul Tannek patriarch cut my daydream short.

"You defended us well friends, too well I fear! The God, the Red Pharaoh demanded BLOOD! You prevented battle at every turn! But no more, our god will be appeased! And now, for your prize. THE REWARD IS ON OUR BODIES! WE WILL SACRIFICE OUR LIVES TO THE PHARAO! THE STRONGEST MAY GET THEM! ATTACK!"

The world went mad. The cluster of soldiers surrounding the Family erupted into fire and chaos. Bodies, whole and in pieces, flew through the air as walls of fire erupted from the Ul Tanneks. The Family was screaming and laughing as men and women crisped and burned before their eyes. The shaky alliance of the defenders was shattered, blades and staves came out. Horses and drakes sprinted in different directions, swords cut into backs, spells sapped life energy, everywhere people died. I booted my drake and tore off for the woods.

It made sense now. All the stalling, all the worried glances, the "assassinations". The Ul Tanneks never wanted to reach the Orks. Chaos was everywhere, and I needed to escape, to warn someone about the Ul Tanneks as soon as I could. An arrow caught my mount behind the head and it went down in a heap. I kept sprinting and hopped onto a riderless horse, getting a bit closer to the woods. I chopped awkwardly down on an Ork as I rode by, clearing a path for myself. I didn't make it far, a barrage of fireballs made my mount rear, sending me tumbling down to the earth. I rolled and came down next to a body. I paused to grab the expensive looking sword from the dead mahirim, spinning to defend myself. I turned only in time to see an axe come down on my face.

Darkness took me.

OOC: This has been, to date, my favorite Darkfall event. The week long buildup, with the vague in character posts by liaisons, the in game quests and GMs playing as NPCs and roleplaying with the players really pulled me into the fun. I kept up with the rumors flying around the forums all week. Some players made in character posts about their interactions with the GMs, and the quests that they were sent out on (one of which was the theft of Lightbringer from the Knights of Malregard). What's more, these quests were reflected in the game world, albeit in a small way. The theft of the sword is referenced in a few quest texts in specific cities for various factions in Darkfall even to this day.

The day of the event though, was endless drama, which is good, and bad. Not everyone shared my enthusiasm for the dynamic event. It was unpredictable and vague, and largely changed based on what the players did, as a dynamic event should. The devs thought that the caravan would die within minutes, but the defenders, shockingly managed to fight off the small attack groups, while the main attack group was left wandering confused in Rubaiyat, having fallen for one of the false rumors. Some people never found the event, others complained that all the gear they lost wasn't worth the PvP. (those particular people who are more concerned with min maxing than having fun, I just do not understand.)

There was roleplaying around the Ark, people getting along without slaughtering one another for once, cooperation between enemy clans, some decent PvP, and a fantastic FFA bloodbath with high stakes loot. I loved the lore, the mystery, and the GM interaction. AV has, sadly, largely dropped the Ul Tannek plot line. Whether they're waiting for 2.0 to continue it, or if the "end of the world" event they hinted at will tie into it, I don't know. I just wish we'd get more events like this. It's far too easy to make a quick little "Meet here at x for a chance to win y". That's not memorable. While that's certainly not bad, I hope they continue with some of the more elaborate dynamic events, like this one. It's fine if not everyone knows what's going on, it's part of the fun!

For anyone interested in reading more about the first Darkfall event, there's the following links:

The forum thread that people posted in while the event happened. The Dune propagated rumor that the caravan was already down starts on page 18ish. Link

Here is a fan video from Ninogan depicting the adventure.(finally, a video set to good music too) Link

And lastly, the official Aventurine video for the event. And here

Ul Tannek (Part 1)

2011-07-30T13:55:00.001-07:00

OOC: Some context. This was Darkfall's very first live event. It had been built up all week with mini events: GMs handing out little quests in the game world if you happened upon them. In one of these GM quests, a few players stole a powerful artifact from the NPC faction The Knights of Malregard The only screenshots that exist are from my xfire, which have the UI, something I think you can all live with for the sake of recounting this historic time. It was, in my opinion, the most confusing, and best event Aventurine has ever done. In fact, the confusion and misinformation directly led to a lot of the fun. What's more, the result of the event impacted the game world in a few subtle ways. The folks stealing the artifact are mentioned in a few quest lines in the game. And now, we start.

I'd ventured far afield exploring Agon's north. It was far more ruthless than I was used to. The further I traveled the more I began to feel that the summer lands of Mercia had been coddling me. In the north, entire cities were in ruins. The dead walked in every graveyard, in every temple. Strange demons patrolled cities that were once thriving. Volcanoes and acidic pits dotted the landscape.

I pushed farther forward, and reached Morak, the land of the Orks.

I knew no lore for these places. I had no context. The only knowledge I had was that a goblin revolution occurred. They threw off the shackles of their Ork master and and became burdens for everyone in Agon. After seeing some of the landscapes, it became clear why Orks were such fearsome warriors. The world they knew was fire rock and blood, and it shaped them thus.

Eventually I reached the cold Northlands. With little to look forward to but deep snow drifts and frozen landscapes, I decided to turn back south east. I was edging closer to the center of Agon, where the great Pall was.

I stopped in towns that weren't overrun by monsters, picking up bits and pieces of world gossip. It was in a human settlement that I heard some folks mention a familiar name.

"They stole it right out of their vault. The Knights of Malregard are wroth, it was their most powerful relic."
Another voice answered "And does anyone know who is behind it?"
"Some merchant family, the Ul Tanneks, that's the name on everyone's lips."

I remembered the Knights. They'd conquered the native Imric tribes when the Mercians came from across the sea. They were the strongest warrior guild in all of Agon. Who would be powerful enough to steal from them?

I followed the trail, asking from town to town, and story became clearer. The Ul Tanneks were a wealthy family based in Rubiyat. They had some kind of connection to the cult that worshiped the Red Pharaoh. That cult had many times tried to find ways to open doors to the great Pyramid and bring their sleeping Demi-God, Ur-Khamset, back into the world. This was clearly not a family to be trusted, and the knowledge that they were stealing powerful weapons didn't settle well for me.

As days passed the family was spoken of more and more frequently. There was a different story in almost every town, but one fact was always the same. The Ul Tanneks were seeking warriors to escort their caravan sometime in the near future. I knew I needed to get to Rubiyat, though it was almost an entire world away.

I rode every day, staying off the roads as much as time allowed, only pausing to rest and to bind in new cities along the way. Hard riding had rubbed the skin on my legs raw and made every muscle ache, but I at least made it to the western shores of Agon, ready to head to Rubiyat.

In one of the free Elven cities on the coast there was a great gathering of people, trading all information they knew about the Ul Tanneks. Many were swayed by the promise of gold and favor, and determined to find and protect the caravan. Another large group swore that they'd destroy this caravan before it even had a chance to set out. Nobody was entirely sure where the caravan would leave from. It seems the Ul Tanneks had wisely planted a few rumors to get their enemies headed in the wrong direction. But their protectors didn't know where to go either.

I was still uneasy about the whole situation. The cult that the Ul Tannek's belonged to could not be anything but evil. I decided it was within my best interest to get close to this family and try to discern their true agenda. I signed on with the defenders and when the awaited day came, I set off to try to find the caravan.

Dubious Recruiters and Wanderlust

2011-07-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

I'd walked south for a change of scenery and to visit some nostalgic places. The half sunken Nithron towers were still poking out of the swamps. The sarlids and the spiders swarmed around the base of Hildershall's mountain, just as they had in my greener days. But, in Hildershall itself, I saw something quite new.

There were two men in the city talking together. I watched as they began sneaking up behind a person working the city forge. I stood on the rooftops, not wanting to get caught up in what was to happen.

Together they cast spells on the crafter and launched him backwards into a wall. I looked up at the guard towers, but they remained silent. No lightning came down to smite the two men. Puzzling. Their victim was equally surprised it seemed. He stared at his assailants, and they simply stood there and smiled back at him. There was nothing left for him to do but try to get back to his work. As he approached the forge, the men once again hit him with spells, and this time he shot a fireball back at them. Immediately the guard towers awoke.

Blue blasts of energy forked down from the towers, frying the craftsman where he stood. The two men laughed and looted his body with a quickness. Then they saw me.

"Hoy, you there! I recognize you from around Sandbrook, Signus yeah?" The man was wearing very little, and only had the most basic magical staff, but his intelligent eyes seemed menacing. "Would you care to join us? We could always use another hand, we run a very lucrative business." His partner chuckled at that.

"What exactly do you do?" Once again, despite knowing it'd be best just to leave, I was too curious to let it alone.

Very bluntly, he gave me his pitch. "Well, my friends and I go around from village to village and uh, weed out the foolish ones. We like to provoke folks a bit and if we find a particularly thickheaded one, we find a loophole in the laws and get them to attack us, then reap the rewards. Very simple!" He must have seen the look on my face; he appealed to me. "Now come on, they deserve it for being so careless. Asides, we do it to everyone, not just the new recruits, hell we don't even stick to just humans. We're a very liberal clan!" He tried to give a winning smile.

Truthfully, I considered it. I'd left most of my friends behind, I couldn't really accomplish anything on my own, and I wasn't doing anything of worth. I had no direction. Maybe this clan is what I needed? I could limit myself to just raiding the Alfar or some scum down south even, if my conscience plagued me too much.

"I'll consider it" I told the man. "Let me go back to Sandbrook and settle some affairs first. I'll be in touch." The man nodded and walked off. I had no business left in Sandbrook but I needed some time to think, and I feared what these people would do if I refused them. They left out the front gates ahead of me and began to harass another traveler. I took the long way home while I thought about my future in Agon.

I got to Sandbrook and paused at my vault, not sure what to do next. I looked around. The bright light sparkling against the water looked inviting, so I grabbed my fishing rod and ran to the shore. I sat for a long while just relaxing in the sun, counting my catches.

Before long I found myself wishing for a boat, which reminded me of Piratejim, and the crew of our last vessel. My mood was ruined, so after I dragged my haul back to town, I set out again to wander.

I walked along the shores of the south sea until I came upon a lighthouse. It was an ancient building, but man made. It lacked the freakish height of the Nithron ruins. Perhaps it was built by the Chal d Eans before the Plague and Flood? The fire at its top still burned, but nobody manned the tower, no buildings surrounded it. Agon still held many mysteries.

I sat on the shore until the sun started setting, then began to move north. I walked with the lighthouse still on my mind, and as light faded entirely from the sky, I made up my mind. There was still too much to see in Agon to mope around familiar hunting grounds. I would travel again, as I hadn't done since first landing here. I was already walking north and decided to keep that course. I'd never been very far that way, since my brief run in with the Fire Dragon, and for fear of Ork patrols. But now, I was ready. With the stars in the sky and a new moon rising, I started again.

The Stamping Grounds

2011-06-30T15:05:00.001-07:00

The sun was low in the sky when I finally made it back to the mainland of Agon. I was so drained and disenchanted by the last month's events that I didn't even care to stay out of sight; I took the raft straight up the river; the same river that had originally carried me to this land. The sails pulled me upstream and eventually I docked in Sandbrook. I had come full circle, now a little stronger and wiser, but once again alone and directionless.

I walked around my old haunts, seeing new recruits killing goblins and skeletons on the beaches and in the woods. I tried to help them, gave them a few tips here and there where I could, handed out some of my old gear, but it was painfully obvious that Sandbrook was no longer a home to me. I had outgrown the frontier village. There was little I could accomplish, and few I could help by staying longer. That's what I thought anyway, but I was soon proven wrong.

I was sitting by the Vault in Sandbrook, passing time by going through the very modest wealth I'd accumulated, when I saw a ragged and bloody man stumble by. This wasn't an uncommon sight in Sandbrook, as recruits were often bested by goblins and sent back to their bind stones. But then three more walked by, and another two again. Something was clearly wrong.

I stopped the last woman as she limped past me and asked what had happened. "There's a murderer out there hiding in the woods. He came out of nowhere while I was looting a goblin and killed me. I need to get back out there and see if he left any of my gear, excuse me!" I assumed the story was the same for the others wandering by. Excited by the prospect of being able to help the town I strapped on my best scale armor and slipped out the back gate of Sandbrook.

I didn't have very high hopes for the battle. Until now, in almost every fight I'd had with murderers, I'd been forced to run. In the rare cases where I didn't flee for my life, I had the upper hand somehow. Now it was just me, no plan or backup, striking against someone who was likely much more powerful than myself. I crept through the bushes and waited, observing the recruits pushing back the constant stream of goblins. One woman wandered off by herself and leaned back behind a tree after a brutal fight, trying to avoid more goblin arrows. If ever there was a time for this murderer to strike, it was now.

I didn't have to wait for more than a few seconds; a human wearing leather armor coated in bones sprayed a giant stream of fire at the recruit, blasting her backwards into a tree. Light gathered in his hands and then a spear of electric energy lanced out towards the prone recruit. He drew a spiked greatsword from a sheath on his back to finish off his stunned victim.

I saw my chance, and sprang from my hiding place. I cut into the aggressor's back, breaking off pieces of his bone armor, but getting my blade caught at the same time. He spun around with a rictus snarl on his face, almost wrenching the sword from my hand.

"What are you doing!" he hissed, holding his sword before him. "These men are ruthless killers! I must stop them, and you're getting in the way!"

I was shocked. Usually the only sounds I heard out of these murderers was laughter or taunts. This man though, had a light of madness in his eyes. "Who do you think you're protecting?" I asked him. The bone covered man blinked in genuine confusion. The recruit he had attacked scrambled to her feet and ran back towards the city.

"The goblin tribes.. They're being relentlessly hunted for sport! Every time they try to rebuild more men come and invade their homes!" I slowly pulled my sword away from him, but didn't sheath it. He stood quivering before me, not seeming to notice the oozing gash in his back.

"But the goblins are invaders... this is Mercian land, they kill the people here." I wasn't sure why I was trying to reason with him, but I couldn't help myself.

"No, the goblins only kill those who enter or come near their homes. Do they try to steal from the humans? No! So much of Mercia is empty, why don't they let the goblins have some?" No immediate answer came to my head, so he continued. "They're escaped slaves, you know. They ran from Ork oppression, weakening human enemies, but they're met with hate everywhere they go! Tell me, do they chase you after you leave their villages? Hunt humans down?"

"They've invaded Sandbrook so often the walls had to be rebuilt!"

"Did you ever actually see goblins invading?"

"I-" He was right... I hadn't. Not once did I ever see a goblin leave it's own village area. "You hunt your own kind, how are you any better?"

The madness returned, "I am their savior! They chose me and my fellow warriors to deliver them from injustice!"

"There's more of you?" I found myself hoping that the rest were just simple old fashioned marauders and that there wasn't more than one nutter under the same flag.

"Of course, the Goblin Preservation Society. We kill humans because the goblins can't do it themselves. Now leave this goblin home, or I will make you leave."

Confused, but feeling bold, I raised my scimitar, and the fight began. I held my own for a while, primarily using my blade to hack bits and pieces off the goblin-sympathizer, but every now and then he'd speed off to duck behind a tree, and cast a few spells on himself. Then he'd charge back entirely refreshed, or fire his bow at me from his hiding spot.

I didn't know any of these healing spells and soon our fight became one of attrition, and without magic, I was losing badly.

The battle though, had attracted some interest. The local goblin tribes had slunk down from their huts and were now firing arrows into the fray, aiming for both of us.

I was in a bad way, armor scorched from my enemy's spells, dozens of cuts around my arms and thighs, and a few fresh arrows sticking out of my calf and hip. My opponent was ever fresh. I downed my last potion and started to look for a way to escape, maybe lure the madman back to the guard towers. But, it soon became unnecessary. Some of the new recruits had heard the fighting, and recognizing the man who had killed and robbed them just moments ago, gathered together and rushed to join the battle as one. As unskilled as they were, sheer numbers began to wear my enemy down, and with fear in his eyes, he fled the field, only to be only to be further shot by his own goblins.

I caught up to him and with a few quick swings and a powerful stab I brought him to the ground. I left him there bleeding out, and soon the recruits found him and pushed past one another to be the first to finish him off. They gave a cheer and set about looting the fresh body as quickly as they could. One man ran back to town swinging a the spiked two handed sword, another walked away wearing some of the bone armor. I went back to Sandbrook, my mood slightly uplifted, but still not much improved.

Relaunch

2011-01-21T12:54:00.000-08:00

Big things are in the works for Darkfall. I know I left the Travelogues on a "cliff hanger" of sorts. I do have about 2-3 stories saved as drafts on the website, and the screenshots to put with them, but I think I'm going to hold onto them for now. I was extremely busy over the past few months, and this year won't be much better. But! Within the next month or two, I plan to relaunch my efforts into this blog, hoping to coincide with the patches leading up to the next Darkfall expansion, maybe bring some new readers into the fold.

So, don't worry, I'm not dead. The remaining stories, and new ones are indeed coming, and they will be more regular after the relaunch as I settle myself back into Darkfall. I hope you've enjoyed reading these stories so far, I've enjoyed writing them. So until next time!

A Necessary Evil

2010-10-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

And so our group was assimilated into a clan of folks called Necessary Evil. Quite a fitting name.

As new recruits, we were hardly treated any better than we had been when we were living in the wild. We still slept in the mud, and instead of having free reign, we had to gather raw materials for the clan, an initiation fee. We were allowed a fire though.

Before we could be trusted as true members of Necessary Evil, we had to muster up 100 pieces of timber, and 100 iron ingots. This turned out to be a much easier job than before, as we now had large stretches of safe land to harvest from. But working to make these marauders even wealthier disturbed me. I figured it was something I'd just have to get used to though. I didn't exactly have to go with them on their killing sprees, maybe not everyone in the clan was a raider.

As we assimilated into clan life, our tight knit group of friends that had formed on the mainland soon began to unravel and go its separate ways.

Redham took to the seas, to no one's surprise, and manned cannons on voyages to hunt massive beasts called krakens. He wouldn't get much of the treasure haul from successful trips, but he said he enjoyed himself nonetheless. It sounded like good fun, and I regret not going with him.

Publius would accompany him on many of these outings, but he soon fell victim to routine. Each day I'd see him rise, spar in the city with other members of the clan, then he would be required to get on board a ship and head out to hunt the same beasts over and over again. Sometimes at the day's end he'd talk to me about the other folks he was meeting at sea, but never with much enthusiasm. It seemed to me he enjoyed his time with Necessary Evil less and less. Then one day, he was simply gone. No one knew where he went, or why, but I had my guesses.

The others soon vanished as well. Clan life didn't quite fit them here on this exotic island. Some began to miss the mainland, other's missed their freedom and independence. Some were just outright disturbed by the activities the clan was involved in.

There was one of us though, who seemed to benefit the most.

The dissenter, the one who first suggested we join with these men, took to the killing easily. He reveled in it. Before long he was training day and night. Sometimes I'd join him while he sat and listened for hours to the clan leaders. They'd ramble on about how best to kill, where to find the most vulnerable people, and the fastest way to get gold. It didn't settle well with me, and ignored most of it, but from the look on my friend's face, he was absorbing every last word. With disturbing quickness, he became a different person. Or, I wonder now, perhaps he was always that way, and he just needed to be put in the right environment.

I worried a little, that such a person could have been so closely involved in our own group, that I hadn't seen this side. How much did I really know my other allies? I tried to console myself by reminding myself that I wasn't the one who recruited all of them. But the words meant little, when faced with the reality that I had lost my allies to this clan. What's worse, as time went on, and I got a sense of the bigger picture, of the politics of clans all over Agon, the one we had rashly sided with was fairly unimportant and poor. I'd had enough.

After about a month enduring time with the barbarians, and watching my friends vanish one by one, I decided it was time to leave. Redham tried to convince me to stay, but he quickly gave up, as even he could hardly stand to be on Yssam any longer. But when it came time for me to leave, he decided to remain behind. I took the wood I had gathered for our clan leaders, and fashioned it into a raft. Gathering my best possessions, I set out back for Mercia.

MMORP.ORG

2010-09-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

I've posted my next Travelogue over at Brando's new website for roleplayers. It's a bridge story without pictures, mostly due to my lack of internet for the past 2 months. This won't be a regular thing, but I thought, if any of my readers aren't aware of the new site yet, they should be!

There's a thread with an explanation over at the official Darkfall forums.

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=4524717#post4524717

and here is the link to the bridge story on the new website.

http://www.mmorp.org/entry.php?13-Darkfall-Travelogues-Ending-of-an-Era

And once again, I encourage you guys to give any feedback on these Travelogues. I love comments, and if you've got any things in game you want me to check out/post about, say so here!

Edit: For continuity's sake, I'll stick the "exclusive" story here.

That was how my first chapter in the land of Agon ended.

Our habits and lifestyles changed over the next month just as radically as our surroundings had. For the first few days, we kept quiet, only traveling at night, avoiding areas that looked like they might hold some dangerous creatures or men. The encounter with the raptors had left us shaken, and the other wildlife on Yssam was truly fearsome. There was an old beauty as well though. We discovered great elementals of fire and earth marching about the land, gods only knowing how many years they'd seen.

One of our more eager recruits wanted to do battle with the creatures, and refused to be talked down. I allowed him to make the attempt, but told him the rest of us wouldn't be around to help. We heard shouts of pain mere minutes later, and the recruit came running back to camp looking very battered and more than a little singed.

As we became more and more comfortable on Yssam, it became harder to maintain our low profile. Soon we had discovered actual cities, much like the ones back on the mainland, but the laws were different in each one, and they all seemed to attract the worst sorts of individuals.

We lived off the foreign land as well as we could. Many of the plants didn't appear to be edible, but the few that were tasted like they came from heaven itself, or that's how I felt anyway. Redham didn't quite care of eating "rabbit food".

However, our simple life as wandering adventurers did not last, and was soon changed forever.

One of the largest threats on Yssam was not the exotic creatures or poisonous wildlife, but the people that lived there. They were a cutthroat bunch that would rather shoot first than ask you why you were trespassing. It's a harsh world, and it's understandable that behavior like this would develop. But some went further than just defending their land. Some groups rode out in force, hunting other humans, laughing as they sliced.

I took great pains to avoid these lunatics, but the resolve of the company with me was not as strong. While the men were undoubtedly monsters, they were wealthy monsters. The land they controlled was extensive, and rich with farms and mines.

One morning, as I was laying in the mud with Redham Publius and the others, avoiding yet another raiding party, a recruit finally called it quits.

"I'm sick of being hunted like an animal, I'm sick of eating these foul smelling plants, and I'm sick of being cold all the time. You won't even allow us a fire!"

I raised my head to glance around, thanking the gods that the raiding party wasn't within earshot of the outburst. "Keep your voice down, they're hardly even over that hill! We don't have a fire because it would draw these murderers right to us!"

"You call them murderers but they're not that different from you or I" he responded coldly.

I sat up slowly, not sure how to react. "We aren't the ones riding around slaying anything that moves! And how would you know anyway? It's not like you can get one of them to talk, save when you hear their taunts as they run you through."

The recruit looked a bit unsure, but soon hooves were heard in the mud again and we all ducked back down. This seemed to steel his resolve and he angrily hissed "Yes, I did meet with one of them. He ran into me when he was on patrol. You know, we don't HAVE to fight eachother!"

Face pressed to the mud I glared, "You call THIS fighting?"

Getting more and more determined the recruit nearly shouted, "He offered for us to join them! We could live in houses, share the wealth from their raids, eat cooked meat again!"

I had no words to respond, the proposal was mad, I was aghast, but the others weren't quite so taken aback, and soon they appeared interested in hearing more from the recruit. We had a full blown discussion right there in the muck. It was clear within the first five minutes what the outcome would be. I fought as long as I could, but even Redham was against me. I implored them all to think about it throughout the day and then sleep on it, and the matter was put aside for a bit longer.

Before the night was even a quarter through, a thunderstorm kicked up, and our company, soaked and cold decided enough was enough. I reluctantly agreed, and that very night we gathered all our belongings and marched towards the lands of the marauders. The days that followed were every bit as bad as I feared they would be.

Run Through the Jungle

2010-08-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

My foot was hooked by a wine vine and with a great crash I fell face down in the sucking mud. I tried pushing myself back onto my feet, but my arms just slipped out from under me and I collapsed again. I gave up the struggle and just lay still. I was too exhausted and scared to move. The only sound was my labored breathing into the grime and the loud plinking of rain hammering into the back of my armor.

I had been running for what felt like hours. I had little clue as to where I was. The coast was somewhere behind me. I was drenched in rain sweat and mud. I had lost the others almost immediately after reaching the shore. Once again, our shoddy planning had gotten us into a mess.

After we had secured the raft we started off at a quiet run through the dense jungle. The plant life was unlike anything I'd seen before. Great red fungi stood around the base of massive trees. Everything was brimming with life and I had a great desire to examine such foreign beauty, but we weren't in safe lands and Piratejim reminded us we needed to continue moving.

We ran unopposed for the first 5 minutes or so, but soon out of the darkness came the whistle of arrows. If the foliage hadn't been so thick, I think that would have been the end right there, but our attackers were only tracking us by sound. Even so within seconds I had several arrows sticking out of various bits of my armor. None bit deeply, but not everyone was as well armored as I. Llemon cursed and reached for a potion as one arrow punched into his ribs and Redham suffered one to his shoulder.

We all ducked into the brush and tried to stay as still as possible. Publius told us all to stay down while he took a quick look around. Every instinct in my body was screaming for me to run. The danger wasn't greater than any of the other challenges I'd faced, yet the terror was entirely different. It wasn't the deep brooding darkness like I had felt from the Guardian, it was the simple animalistic terror of not being able to see your attacker, not knowing where and when the final blow may come from.

Soon the arrows stopped, and Publius returned informing the rest of us that our attackers had gone off to the east.

"Anyone too hurt to run?" Redham asked. Not waiting for a reply he continued, "whoever controls this place now knows that we're here. Our best chance is to stick together, and we do not stop running, got it? Let's go!" We rose and began a dead spring northward, where we knew a bindstone would be waiting for us.

We hardly made it another minute before we hit our next snag, a very hungry and angry snag.

All our heads swiveled to stare at the creature that had thundered through the brush ahead of us. It was a living raptor, something I thought I'd never see. It was just like the pictures I remember, from the sharp teeth to the hooked toe claws, and the far too intelligent reptilian eyes. It screeched to the sky and from the jungle all around us came answering cries, maybe half a dozen of them. That was too much for me and I gave into instinct and tore off blindly by myself.

That should have sealed my fate, separating myself from the group with a pack of hungry predators around me, but by some miracle our old attackers had returned and fired upon us again. It was a perfect storm of chaos. Tails and teeth flashed as the raptors tore off in different directions. Some went after the bowmen, some after my friends, who were now all running in different directions. I bolted north, praying to come across the bindstone before a raptor decided to follow me.

As I ran a heavy rain started, and it became difficult to carry on, my heavy armor causing my feet to sink deep into the mud. If anyone had decided to come after me I wouldn't have had a chance. Hopefully the others were having similar good fortune.

I didn't stop running, not even when I saw a lone rider on a horse. Under normal circumstances I would have considered sneaking up on this man to get a closer look, maybe even try to steal his horse, but my fight of flight responses were continually screaming flight. Between my heavy armor and heavy breathing, the rider had no trouble hearing me, and soon it gave chase, calling something out to me. Wish blood pounding in my ears, and the rain pouring down on me, I could hear nothing. Drawing on my last reserves of endurance I changed course and ran straight into the dense jungle hoping the horseman wouldn't be able to follow.

Perhaps it wasn't luck. Whoever was ruling my fate just wanted to see me struggle a little bit longer before I was inevitably hunted down. It was here that I collapsed into the mud, with no strength to rise. I sat in terrified silence, listening to the occasional thunder rumble through the sky. I silently prayed that I wouldn't be found on the ground, covered in mud amidst the flora. Soon though, it became clear that my wishes were not going to be granted. Through the rain I heard the snort of the horse and the sound of its shod feet plodding through the mud. The squelches got closer as the horseman walked his mount up to my body. I tightened the grip on my sword, preparing to strike when the man got too close. It was about all I could hope to do, I was already utterly spent.

"I never took you for a coward, Signus. Are you going to get up or am I going to have to tie you to the horse?" I rolled onto my back and when I wiped the muck from my helm I could see Publius sitting atop a horse, shaking his head at me. "Come on and get up, there's another horse at the edge of the wood you can use... What?" I had begun laughing at him. Slowly at first, but soon I had fully lost control of myself and was laughing so hard that I was choking for air. The ridiculousness of the situation just had me entirely bewildered. I could not even begin to imagine a situation where Publius would have ended up here with me, with two horses, sitting there calm as can be. "Stop laughing like an idiot and get over here, it isn't exactly safe in case you hadn't noticed."

Still laughing I followed Publius to the other horse and we took off at a gallop northwards. Before long we saw the tell tale sign of a bindstone, a bright ray of white light shooting into the sky. We made it the rest of the way without incident and bound ourselves to Yssam. The rest of the crew was there well ahead of me, and said they were about to send someone out looking for me and Publius. With relief I removed my armor and placed it inside small camp's vault and quickly fell asleep right there in the dirt.

The Open Seas

2010-08-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

When I finally saw Piratejim again, he was nearly bouncing with excitement. Clearly he had some good news for me, and before our drinks even arrived at the bar in Sanguine, he was raving about the things that had happened to him while I was gone. Amidst his adventures, he apparently found two new recruits for our group of adventurers, and better yet, secured enough materials to construct our first raft.

"So it's finally happening, you get to be a real pirate?"

"It's not much, just a raft, but it's a start. And I already am a real pirate! Maybe we can use it to board some stray merchant vessel or..." he rambled on, outlining several profitable scenarios and ways to build his own fleet. I smiled and started in on the drink that had finally arrived. I let him finish telling me of the ship and the new recruits before I got started on my visit to Sandstone.

Recalling that night, the Darkness crept into my mind again, and I decided to leave out the part about the guardian speaking to me. It was proving difficult to forget.

"Hunting these artifacts sounds like a pretty big deal, maybe something we can take on in the future, but not yet," I finished.

"Mm, I suppose you're right. Besides, there's no water near Sandstone! We need to get our new vessel out on the waves as soon as possible! And, I know just the place to take it to." Redham ordered more drinks and we talked well into the night, until finally, drowsy from too much ale, I staggered up the stairs to get some sleep. Redham continued to drink long into the night, chatting up the local patrons.

A few days later, the new group stood along the shore waiting for Piratejim to arrive with our hard earned raft. We took our best armor and weapons with us, and plenty of supplies, in case we ran into trouble on the water. We didn't want to lose the raft to some random band of pirates, that was supposed to be our job, as Redham continually reminded us.

Beside me stood Publius, and next to him the two new recruits, Pangalactic, a fire wizard, and Llemon, a dwarf, the first I'd seen! Very strange folks, but they fit in with the group all the better for it.

Another hour passed, and Piratejim at last came floating down the river on our very first raft.

It was small and quaint, but it was ours. We all quickly boarded and shoved off towards deeper waters and the open sea. The water frothed around the sides and as we got closer to the ocean I heard the cry of gulls. The salt from the waves collected on my burnished steel armor.

Redham couldn't be happier, and I finally believed that at some point he must have been a pirate, because he handled the craft and the sail well and with familiar hands.

When we got out to open water the rest of us got our fishing poles out and cast them deep into the ocean's waters. Soon it became a competition to see who could catch the most swordfish. It turned out to be a great way to get to know Llemon and Pangalactic, because when the waters are calm and the fish are biting your almost forced into a jovial and talkative mood. Only Piratejim stayed quiet as he guided our ship to unknown lands.

The journey was long, and after a time even fishing began to lose its appeal (that, and we were beginning to run out of room to store our catch) So with the sun setting and little else to do, we turned to sparring on the tiny vessel.

The results were about as good as anyone could have expected. The fighting was good natured, but it soon got carried away and someone ended up overboard, trying to stay afloat in their heavy armor, chasing after the raft as it sailed away. It was good for a laugh, until we saw fins poke out of the foam in the distance.

"Redham, stop the boat, Publius is overboard and there are sharks!"

"Damnit guys, I just wanted one trip without someone dying! This is why we can't have nice things!" Piratejim shouted as he dropped the sail and tried to steer the boat around. Publius was in full panic now trying to crawl up the ramp and back into the boat, slipping over the wet hardwood.

Where once there were two fins, now there were three, as other predators gathered to see what was causing the commotion. Llemon took out a shortbow and began firing into the water, but the blood just attracted more beasts and drove them into a frenzy.

They began throwing themselves at the boat, sometimes attempting to bite it, not acting like any sharks I had ever heard of. The crew was pretty terrified and we began tossing fish overboard to try to sate our pursuers.

Piratejim turned the sail and it caught a good gust, pulling us ahead of the feasting sharks. The crew cheered as we left the fins behind. No one poked so much as a toe over the side of the boat for the rest of the journey, and things went smoothly for a time.

We weren't safe yet though. Piratejim called to us when he saw land drawing close on the horizon. We were coming up on Yssam, a jungle island much further north than we'd ever traveled. It was a place full of terrible beasts and even more dangerous people. We approached the beach under cover of night, praying no one had spotted us as we ghosted to the sand.

"Once we hit the beach we're going to have to charge into the jungle in a dead sprint. There's a vault and a bindstone north through the jungle, if we get killed before you make it there, that's the end of the raft, and we'll have no way to come back." As Redham gave instructions to the recruits I marveled at how life could still be so incredibly difficult despite being unable to actually die. If I was killed and PirateJim didn't we'd be split off with an entire continent between us. Little chance of seeing one another again after that, and our small guild would die an early death.

"So as soon as the raft is secure, I want everyone to follow me through the jungle, stay as quiet as possible, but do not stop for anything."
"Quiet? Sprinting in this? How?" Publius said, knocking on his metal breastplate.

"Just don't make more noise than you have to, and don't be stupid!" There were nods all around, and Piratejim turned back to the wheel to guide is in. I took a steadying breath and got ready to charge.

The Nithron Return

2010-07-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

The sun was shining brightly over Hildershall when I returned through its gates, triumphant and proud. In my mind, I could hear the horns of heralds welcoming me back.

Iain Deepwode was at his usual spot, working at his desk. His face lit up when I strode up to him, but I figured it wasn't due to my safe return. His eyes were transfixed upon the crown I held before me.

Taking it carefully from my hands and inspecting it, he whispered to himself "This is not exactly how the Diadem was described in the books..." It was true, the Crown didn't look as magnificent as Iain implied it would be. In fact, it looked fairly mundane, and very faded with age. "Well Signus, you did a good job. Our mages will determine if this is the real Diadem. Its power may not yet be fully awakened. Someone will be along to pay you shortly, but I imagine now you wish me to tell you what this is all about?"

Iain spun a long tale about Agon, centuries ago, and how, somewhere between the fall of the Chaldean Empire and the present day, a race of golden skinned beings called the Nithron reigned over the land.

They were tall, giants by the standards of men, and possessed powerful magical abilities, not least of which was immortality. Death was possible through combat it seemed, as all the Nithron remains found on Agon bore the marks of a violent death.

They were few in number for whatever reason, and lived more as lords rather than a race unto themselves. They ruled over the lesser beings of Agon and used them as tools of war in a game against other Nithron leaders, and forced them to construct colossal buildings and monuments. Some were still around, and as Iain described them, I realized I had seen some before just outside of Sandbrook.

But just as suddenly as they appeared, they died off, taking their magic and secrets with them.

"But now Signus, the dungeons and caches and burial chambers which stored their wealth have begun to fill with terrible monsters again. Guardians. Sealed off from the outside world and gathering dust for centuries, these tombs are now alive, and the artifacts within glow with power. Something is returning, and our organization, the Sons of Riada, seek to use this power. Will you help us track down more artifacts?"

Throughout the story had I sat in wonder. Until now, it seemed all the great events and deeds of the world were long in the past, buried in history books. Now Agon had become a place of perpetual war without meaning, with not even death as an escape. The Usurper Gods that once drove the conflict have long since become silent. How could I not jump at a chance to be a part of real history?

But, I still felt something was wrong. A light was burning in Iain's eyes, a lust not for scholarly mysteries, but for power. Was I right to help this man? Well, maybe this magic would finally give the Humans an edge over our enemies and free us from this purgatory. It would be worth it then, certainly?

A day later I stood outside the ruins of Sandstone, a city that Iain said was once ruled over by a great Nithron King. When he died his central treasure, the Dragontorc, vanished with him. The Sons of Riada were hoping that it had returned to the mortal plane as the Diadem of Dawn had. It was my job to look for it.

The city was dark and decayed, the stagnant air was filled with grit and sand. Most of the stone buildings had long since collapse, but a few impressive temples remained. Along the edges of some of the buildings were great pits. It was not difficult to imagine prisoners getting tossed inside them to fight for sport in a time long passed. Between the buildings, where there was once ground, now existed only shallow sea of mud, as if the entire city were sinking, or perhaps, rising again.

I searched the temples first and it wasn't long before I found the treasure chest I was looking for. Upon opening the chest however, I discovered only some commonplace loot that would hardly be fit for a new recruit.

Baffled, I continued my search. These ruins had no life to them, no creatures or defenders, no magic. I was beginning to think that the Nithron hadn't returned to this particular city. As night fell however, my mind was changed. After hours of silent searching, I felt a wave of energy pass through air and my hair stood on end. I stopped moving to try to hear around me. Silent, save for the occasional gurgle of the mud. I was about to continue my search when I felt a second pulse immediately followed by hissing all around me. Still, I saw nothing, but an overwhelming sense of dread settled over me.

From out of the darkness crept a large number of skeletons, and one cyclopean monster. The sword it held in its skeletal hands was almost twice the length of my entire body. And then, It spoke to me.

"Trespasser." It whispered. The voice felt slimy and rotten, and oozed out over my mind. It was almost enough to make me wretch. My vision darkened and my breathing slowed, and I was transfixed. It took step towards me, arcane energy swirling around its body. "You walk on sacred ground. Here rest the gods you shall not disturb. I keep the land pure for their return. Thou must be purified."

And then, It leveled a blast of energy at my body. I flew backwards into the wall, my body instantly feeling weak. Smaller skeletons swarmed towards me, while their dark master simply walked away. I pushed myself to my feet, quaffed a potion. Feeling strengthened I pushed by the minions and charged straight at the retreating monster.

A bubbling hissing noise came from Its mouth as it turned to engage me. It was laughing, and as I drew closer, I didn't blame It. I may as well have been running headlong into a fortified keep. It towered over me, blocking the moon and stars. "The land must be pure, the Dragon must return."

I thrust my sword forward, and hit an invisible force, slowing my swing. Again I struck, this time pushing through the barrier and lodging the sword into the leg of the monster. Hissing laughter again came from it's mouth, and my sword was stuck. It's bones creaked as it raised it's great weapon above its head. I took cover behind my shield, but Its swing easily split the flimsy defense in half, and the blade bit deep into my bones. Screaming, blood pouring from my body, I fell backwards as the sword came down again. Hissing bubbling laughter, and then all was black.

My second "death". It felt worse than the last, much worse. I rose again at the Hildershall bind stone, sick and weak. When I had recovered somewhat, I returned to Iain Deepwode and told him I had decided to abandon the search for the Dragontorc. He was not pleased, but as I told him my story, he understood why. Instead of looking disturbed though, the hunger for power returned to his eyes. He dismissed me, but instructed me to return again some day, with help.

The encounter left me deeply unsettled. I could still hear the voice in my head, making me feel sick and disturbed. I was not yet ready to deal with immortals and Demi gods. Not even mentally. My best option was simply to return to Sanguine and see what Redham would have to say. My time in Hildershall was at an end for now, but from that day a shadow stayed on my mind. Agon had suddenly become something much darker.

The Mystery of the Nithron

2010-06-08T11:36:00.000-07:00

With Publius in our ranks, our fortunes continued to increase. We built a name for ourselves in Sandbrook and more and more citizens began requesting tasks from us. We escorted merchants, recovered valuable items, scouted out and brought back word from other cities, and even took out a rather powerful goblin encampment. One of the poor goblins had gotten it into his head that he was a noble, and called himself the Duke of Stabby. Truth be told he was quite a challenge, but he fell like the rest.

Soon, the larger threats of Sandbrook had been dealt with, and we felt it was time to move on to a town that needed us more, our task was still to drive back the evil creeping across the land. We thought this would be best accomplished by splitting up and exploring. So with an agreement to meet at the pub in Sanguine after a week of exploring, the three of us set out on our own.

It was good to be traveling my own path again. I didn't stray very far from Sandbrook while I was with Piratejim, and I quickly felt the wanderlust building the further from the Sandbrook I got. But even as I looked forward to the trail, fear crept back into my mind. I had grown too comfortable in the company of my friends, care would have to be taken to make sure I didn't end up on the wrong end of an Ork's greataxe or being hounded by an Alfar raiding party.

As I traveled I found ruins and cities occupied by beasts, evidence of the decay of civilization. I even found a proud Mirdain city completely infested by hivekins.

I bit further south I came to a great mountain rising up next to the river that had originally carried me into Agon. To my surprise, there was a fortified city nestled on the other side of it. Judging from the beam of light coming from it, the city also had a bind stone. The sun was fading quickly, so stopping here to rest and ask around seemed like a logical thing to do.

Apparently my name had traveled a good distance, because the folks of the town were familiar with me, and I was quickly pointed to one Iian Deepwode who had work he needed someone to take care of. After a little searching, I found the man idling by a desk at the far end of town. As I approached he stood and addressed me.

"Ah, so this is the fighter from Sandbrook I heard so much about? I hear that you've come to Hildershall looking for work!"

"It is true, sir," I replied, pleased my reputation had indeed carried outside of town. "Sandbrook can handle itself on it's own for now, and new recruits are coming in soon, so I sought to put my skills to the test elsewhere."

"Well then you've come to the right place, recruit" Iian said grinning. "I have a task of great import that needs to be completed. Something troubling has resurfaced." Suddenly he stopped, and eyed my silently for a few moments. I shuffled my feet and waited. At last he shook his head and continued, "skilled though you may be, I think I need to see it first hand to be sure you can handle my assignment."

"There are important things stirring in the world, things rising again which have not been seen for centuries. If you want to join history in the making you must first prove yourself to me. Outside this city there's a cluster of ghost spiders and a sarlid camp. They have a symbiotic relationship, wherever one shows, the other group is quick to follow. They trouble us little behind our great walls in Hildershall, but travelers are getting torn apart. Take care of them for me, and then we'll talk again." With that he abruptly sat back down at his desk began writing, as if I were already gone.

I wasn't sure how to react. I was a bit insulted, dealing with spiders for a town that isn't even threatened by them? But my curiosity proved to be stronger than my pride. I immediately left out the city gates into the darkening wilderness, planning to tackle the problem before the sun rose again.

I found the spiders easily enough, they glowed green and winked in and out of sight like large fireflies. They were killed easily enough.

The sarlids, however, were a bit of a challenge. They had a strong pack mentality. Whenever I managed to corner one, the others would blast me with magic, weakening and slowing my body, and then they'd close in. It was all I could do to keep their vicious swords for tearing me to ribbons in my weakened state.

However, with a few potions and some ranged fighting, eventually the sarlids and spiders were both finished. Exhausted, I returned to Iian, ready to hear the rest of his tale. He was quite surprised to see me so soon. His surprise only grew when I dropped a bag full of spider legs and sarlid swords on his desk. He looked through the bag, nodded, and stood once more.

"I see you are a hard working recruit, Signus, as well as skilled. Perhaps you are right for this job, though I'm still not convinced you can handle it on your own. What of the other recruits I heard you traveled with?"

"We've gone seperate ways, for now. Whatever you have in mind for me, I'm sure I can handle on my own."

At this Iian frowned and scratched his chin, scrutinizing me. "We shall see. You are strong and bold, but perhaps stealth may be a greater ally in the task to come. This will be your final test, and if you return to me, I will reveal all I know to you." He paused to clear his throat and then continued. "I have a team of archaeologists digging somewhere out west, and they have recently discovered an important tomb. Inside was a legendary crown, the Diadem of Dawn. I had it shipped here immediately, but the caravan was ambushed by troll lords and they took it off to their hovel to the south of here. Recover the Diadem from them, and return it to me."

I wasted no more time. History is a particular weakness of mine. I had never actually heard of the Diadem of Dawn, but I was very eager to learn more. It wasn't far to the hovel, though I could smell it before I saw it. It was a great ditch in the earth, with stone huts and pools of muck inside, a typical place for trolls. With very little thought, I charged straight into the hovel, planning to slay all the beasts and claim the crown from the carnage. I had dealt with trolls before.

I had not, however, dealt with troll lords.

They are massive terrifying beasts, with axes that could easily split a man in half. It did not take longer fighting one before I realized I was completely and utterly outmatched. Like a coward I fled, and continued running, hearing growls behind me. I finally hit the ocean, and collapsed panting and bleeding into the surf. I camped nearby for the night, and in the morning, approached the situation with a much better plan.

After crunching on some very human looking bones, some trolls had drifted off to sleep, and I crept into the camp. I decided to check the small cave like structure in the heart of the hovel first.

As I sneaked into the main chamber and gazed at the skeletons hanging from the ceiling, the gravity of the situation hit me. In this small room was a sleeping troll lord. If I woke him, one shout and the others would come flooding down the tunnels, and there'd be no room to escape. My journey would come to a swift and sudden end.

Shaking slightly, I moved further into the room, and had to stifle a burst of laughter. The chest holding the Diadem of Dawn was sticking out plain as day, and it was right infront of me. They even put it up on a pedestal.

Worry quickly leaving my mind, I opened the chest, grabbed the Diadem, and sprinted out the way I came, all idea of stealth cast aside. There was a great roar from inside the cave as my fleeing footsteps woke the troll and he and saw he'd been robbed. His friends began throwing rocks my way and grabbing their weapons, but it was too late. I was out of the pit and out across the plains laughing to myself before most of them could even wake.

And with that, I took off for Hildershall.

The Enemy of My Enemy

2010-04-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Redham was right, of course. I needed to get my mind off of this bizarre turn of events. I didn't quite believe it yet, but there was no reason for the old man to be lying to me. Grumbling, I followed Redham to the vault area and put on some fresh gear. "So, what was this you were saying about Centaurs? You don't mean that tribe to the south we were watching, do you?"

"Mm, the very same actually. Seems like there could be a bit of cash in it for us, and we've been wanting to get a closer look at those fancy lookin' centaur weapons."

I frowned at the prospect of facing those bows and swords. "Yes, but we decided we couldn't take them on by ourselves, remember?"

"Ah, right you are. Good to see death didn't rattle your memory too badly." he said with a taunting smile. "I've met someone recently who I think might be able to join us. He's a raw recruit, like we were, but he shows promise. With him, we might be able to take these centaurs, and it gives the new guy a chance to show his mettle, eh? Besides, if we die, we just end up back here."

Sighing I said "Yes well, even if that is true, death is not a process I'd like to go through again, it was endless agony last time." Quickly trying to forget, I said, "So, where are we to meet this mysterious recruit?" I continued to strap on some pauldrons and shin guards.

"He's going to meet me a little outside of town, and you're going to go on ahead to scout the centaur camp. We'll catch you there at midday." And with that, Redham took off jogging towards the city gate. With no other options left to me, I discarded some of my heavier armor for a stealthier set, took out a bow, and left via the south gate.

The area around the centaur camp was beautiful, the azure blue lake and emerald trees giving off a feeling of serenity. The centaurs themselves looked at peace here, like they weren't out to hurt anyone. I knew better. The beauty was a thin veil for this particularly vicious tribe. They quite enjoyed robbing people along the roads. In this camp, there were some rangers, some armored brutes, and in the center, with an ornate sword and shield, was the chief. Doubts over whether or not we could handle these beasts once against pushed themselves to the front of my mind. They had size, speed, and numbers over us. Hopefully Redham had a plan.

"Ok, so, the three of us will sneak as close as we can, and open fire on the nearest centaur, and hopefully drop him before he gets to us." Piratejim announced to the group as we stood under a nearby tree.

In a heated and hushed voice, the new recruit Publius exclaimed, "That's the plan? And what happens if this plan should fail?" I was starting to appreciate the new guy, he seemed to have more sense than Redham, at least.

Redham looked my way and said "What our plan always is when things don't go well. Run! And live to fight another day!" Leaving no room for objection, he tore off into the glade. I shared a nervous glance with Publius, and reluctantly followed Redham with my bow in hand.

It went about as well as could be expected with such a brilliant plan. After the first arrows flew, they were returned ten fold, as the beasts galloped towards our position, our clever cover unsurprisingly proved to be a poor hiding place. We did manage to split some of them up, and I got a few good hits in with my short sword, but it was quickly apparent that we had to break off or be killed. The centaurs didn't chase too far, and contented themselves with firing at our backs as we fled to the shore.

When we collapsed in a thicket catching our breath, I rounded on Redham "That went well, have any other brilliant plans?" I probably shouldn't have blamed him so much, but I wasn't in the best of moods. Redham opened his mouth to speak but paused when the sound of heavy hooves thundered nearby.

Publius looked around, "Centaurs?" I shook my head, it was too heavy for centaurs, and now that it was closer, I wasn't sure it was hooves that I heard. Poking my head out of our hiding spot, I looked around long enough to see something that turned my blood cold. Two alfar in full scalemail armor, riding drakes were heading quickly towards our hiding place.

"We need to leave, right now, Alfar are coming!" I hissed to the rest. A dark look fell across Publius' face, but he nodded resolutely.

"You two run," he whispered, "I have an idea. Try to get in some arrow shots when you can, but keep your distance. Meet me at the river in 10 minutes" Publius then jumped into the road, and with a savage cry the Alfar were upon him. He zig zagged through the trees with the drakes hot on his heels.

"What is that fool doing?!" Piratejim gasped with wide eyes.

Taking out my bow I answered, "It's a trap, this is a smart recruit, I think. Hopefully those Alfar don't kill him off too soon." I took out my bow and fired at the pursuing Alfar, landing a few hits into the flanks of the monsters they were riding. As I figured, Publius led them straight into the centaur camp, and raised hell. The Alfar halted, surprised by the sudden appearance of a dozen centaur, but they didn't even have time to move before scores of arrows peppered their mounts and armor. They were huge targets. In the confusion, Publius slipped away. I got off a few more shots and killed one of the drakes before fleeing back towards the meeting place.

I don't know if the Alfar survived or not, but wounded and unhorsed, they weren't going to be bothering us.

I met with Redham quickly enough, and we waited nervously for Publius to show up. Sure enough, we soon saw him stealing through the trees towards us, and he dropped down, a bit breathless, next to us. Redham embraced him cheering, while I gave him a thump on the back, saying "welcome to our group of madmen, Publius. I think you'll fit in well.

We didn't come away with any loot, but it had been a good learning experience. Soon after, we left towards Sandbrook with one last glance at the our unlikely saviors.

Making Sense of the Mystic

2010-03-20T20:13:00.001-07:00

Red spread across my vision, my body became weightless.

Darkness took me and it felt like I was floating in limbo. Some force was trying to pull me onward, but the sound of several voices were calling me back. They grew in number and volume. Return, remain, never leave.

Each passing moment was stretched and warped, and the void around me began to feel heavy.

With a sound of rushing winds, the tempo of voices increased and I felt myself physically dragged back, and slammed back down into the earth. I had a body again, hands, face, eyes. When I opened mine, my vision was blurred, and my hearing muted. The objects around me soon slipped into focus... the crane, the water wheel, the bind stone, I was standing back in Sandbrook. And there was Piratejim standing before me. Sound returned, he was calling my name...

"Signus! Are you with us again mate?" He was looking at me with concern, but I could tell that he himself was not feeling too steady. He was stripped to the waist and covered in blood, though I could see no wounds on him, swaying on his feet.

"What just happened? Did we get hit by some sort of teleporting spell? And where's all our stuff?" For once Redham had no answers, but someone else was willing to supply one.

"You've both just experienced your first death," a voice said very matter of factly. A tall bearded old man wearing robes stepped forward from his overhang near the bind stone. "For those unfamiliar with how things work on Agon, it can be a bit shocking during the initial experience."

"I'm sorry... but I don't think I heard you correctly. Are you trying to tell me that I was just killed? I don't feel dead." I was not buying the answer, and I whispered a comment about senile old folks to Piratejim.

"But Signus, this is the local Councillor. He's the elder of Sandbrook. I'm surprised you haven't met him already. If he says we died, well then... somehow, we must have." Redham looked over at the Councillor and smiled apologetically.

The old man cleared his throat and continued, "Allow me to explain. Here on Agon, each warrior that swears himself in service here has his soul bound to the land at focus points like this bind stone. When you are slain in battle, your soul returns here, and you are in a way, reborn." I raised an eyebrow, but the man continued. "It was originally a ah... technology of sorts, developed by the Mirdain to try to hold back the Alfar. But alas, as war tends to go, it was quickly leaked to everyone else. Now we are fighting in a perpetual purgatory." He shook his head sadly. "People still age, and there are other ways to remove someone from the world for good, but it is not so simple as it once was. Only warriors are allowed to bind themselves here."

I gazed at the stone with suspicion, "that sounds like a very convoluted system. Why hasn't it been improved upon, or spread further?"

Piratejim raised his hand "Ah, I may be able to help with that. I can't speak for other bindstones, but this 'un here looks like it was slapped together by the Chaldeans. Many of their secrets were lost when the Alfar broke their Empire. Perhaps no one else knows how to work it?" He looked over at the Councillor who gave an affirming nod.

"Yeah, I'm not buying this, at all. It was a teleport spell, wasn't it?" The old man grumbled and tugged his beard.

"Believe whatever you want, believe a flying hivekin the size of a dragon beamed you here for all I care. But you will keep coming back to this spot, so don't squander the gift." And with that the Councillor began to walk back to his little wooden box by the road.

Piratejim put his hand on my shoulder and started leading me off to the vault to get some replacement gear. "Come on, let's get back out there. I've got a friend who wants some seasoned fighters to help him reclaim something from a band of centaurs. Perhaps we needed that loss, we were getting pretty full of ourselves..."

I just shrugged and continued on, trying to ignore the fact that my perception of reality had just been entirely shifted. Redham seemed to be accomplishing that with ease. Maybe some centaur hunting is exactly what I needed...

Catching Up

2010-03-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

In the time since my first adventure, I had grown considerably more experienced in combat. Redham became a constant companion. Occasionally other adventurers joined us in our outings, but they left as often as they came.

I got a feel for this new land of Mercia. There were many settlements, but the main gathering points for all us conscripted fighters were Sandbrook, Monkfield, and The Heart of Eanna. Small frontier towns, hastily set up with wooden walls, and with us conscripts striving to keep the nasties at bay. In the middle of them all rose the great capital Fortress of the Human race, Sanguine.

I met many strangers there, including some of the other races who were allied with the Humans. There are the lithe dexterous Mirdain. They seem to mostly prefer to live in the woods, hunting with bows and worshiping their peculiar gods. I even heard rumor that those elven gods were in some way responsible for the creation of the hated Alfar. I dare not bring it up with the elves themselves, but I never entirely trusted them after hearing it.

Then there are the dwarves. Not many of them are seen outside their lands in the far north. They labor with a constant fervor, always building, according to a writ handed down by their own deity. Some do cast aside the dwarven lifestyle and seek out adventures, and they are hardy fighters.

Redham had taken up armor smithing, and I had taken up the study of magic. We were already both accomplished fighters, and needed something to do in our down time. Our wealth was growing steadily with our conquests against the nearby beasts. We hunted goblins, rebels, fire salamanders, lizard men, trolls, and even those undead that I once feared so greatly. They proved to be weaker even than the goblins! I admit now, I was getting quite big headed, envisioning myself signing up to a professional army soon, and Piratejim was lost in fantasies of being able to buy his boat. We began to laugh at both pain and danger. Redham did so quite literally. I still don't know if he's fully sane.

In full war kit, confidence soaring, we set out from Sandbrook to some new location. Piratejim assured me that it was a place of great wealth, and that he was able to handle it by himself. "With the two of us, we might even make enough for me to buy a raft!"

We set out North West from Monkfield and crossed a river. A small mountain stood before us, and we had to do quite a bit of climbing. Finally at the summit, I looked down upon a derelict village built over the water, with an extensive bridge system. We had arrived in Darkmoore.

We climbed higher still, but to me all the buildings seemed abandoned. I voiced my concern to Redham, but he simply put a finger to his lips and motioned onward. I had learned to trust in his instinct by now. There at last over the next rise, were men and women in dark robes. They were chanting amongst themselves, performing dark rituals. I could feel some of the power surging from the area. 'Pah' I thought, 'they aren't even wearing armor. We've dealt with mages before.'

"Be careful with these, they're nastier than goblin shamans. Don't be afraid to take cover when you need to." Redham uttered these instructions while drawing his bow. I gritted my teeth and ran in with a warcry, holding my shield before me, and a freshly crafted swordaxe over my head.

A hooded mage spun around, leveled his staff at me, and all before me was set aflame. The heat was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. The air became heavy, burning my throat, and my armor became like a sweltering prison. Another blast knocked me off my feet. I tumbled behind a box and pulled a potion from my bag, drinking it eagerly. The heat and pain ebbed, but I was locked down by heavy fire. I was repeating my mistake with the goblins all over again.

The steady twang of Redham's bow suddenly stopped and was replaced by his screams. "MY EYES! Everything is WHITE! SIGNUS?!" I looked over to see him clawing at his helm, a woman in a black cowl standing over him cackling. I set aside my swordaxe and took a staff out, sending a ray of healing at Redham. He shook himself and then thrust his sword into the woman before him.

We fought on for a while longer, and each mage we felled carried a bag of rich with magical reagents and gold. But soon more and more black acolytes began to run down at us from hidden higher levels. My supply of potions was running low, and I was scorched and battered. Redham wasn't in much better shape. "Come on Sig, we can drive them off!" He shouted to me. Steeling myself for one final rush I charged up the ramp at a cluster of them, and flames consumed my vision... I saw no more.

Many Meetings

2010-02-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

"You look like you could use some lizard on a stick, I happen to have some extra here!"

It must have been the blood loss, but this statement didn't seem in any way odd to me. The stranger sat down beside me, and we ate together. The arrow was removed from my shoulder and with the help of the roasted lizard I was offered, surprisingly, it wasn't long before I felt better.

"Thanks for the help, I got in a little over my head there. What's your name?"

"Piratejim Redham, from Monkfield," he said smiling, gnawing on his meat. He must have seen the perplexed expression on my face, because before I could say anything he went on. "At least, that's what I call myself. I know, the name seems peculiar, but I hope to have a ship of my own one day and live out at sea. It's hard going, many want the same thing, but are willing to do more..unsavory things to achieve it faster."

Was he refering to the murderers I had heard of before? Redham helped me to my feet as I thanked him. "My name is Signus, I'm a new charge in Sandbrook, and I need to get back to killing goblins. It's why I'm here after all."

"Goblins? I know something better to hunt than that, and mayhaps we'll get some good treasure too." By now I was half convinced he was crazy, living some pirate fantasy with booty and scallywags and plank walking. "You don't look like a bad fighter, Signus, just a foolish one. But you'll learn. Follow me, to Buckleburry Ferry!"

A strange strange man. But still, I followed him.

Buckleburry wasn't marked anywhere on the map, nor indeed was that it's proper name, but that's how I came to call it ever since. We ran north a ways along the coast, crossed the river via the ferry, and came to a hidden beach.

All scattered along the shore were hordes of reanimated dead. The sight of them froze my blood, for I feared having to fight those decaying soldiers. I had never seen their like before. But mercifully, Redham led me on past them, until, sneaking through the wood we came upon a camp of men. There was a sign nearby reading "Beware" in what looked like blood.

"Who are these folk?" I asked my guide, as we spied on a group of rough looking humans sitting about a campfire.

"Outlaws, murderers." Came a whispered reply as Redham pulled out a bow and began to knock an arrow. I was wary, despite having no reason to distrust this new friend, attacking a random group of men by surprise didn't feel right, and I still wasn't sure of Redham's sanity. My inhibitions soon vanished when I heard a shout and great mocking laughter. The camp had found us out!

An arrow flew by me, as Redham desperately fired, trying to kill some of the outlaws before they could gather their weapons. I gripped my sword and charged out of the brush, only to be knocked back by a man in full metal armor. It was then that my greed for that bright armor overcame my cowardice. I closed in, and to my surprise the warrior fell quickly beneath my swings. The hunters and other outlaws however, proved to be more of a problem. They broke and ran in every direction, firing from hidden vantage points. We struggled on for hours, tracking them all down, and by the end of it, we both came away sore, wounded, but far wealthier than we had been.

As we rested, Redham said, "I think it's time we returned to Sandbrook, friend. This loot will make us savory targets to stronger warriors, and that is not a small number of people! We are not so high on the food chain, and not all murderers show themselves as openly as these did."

With that we took off back towards the ferry, once again crossing that dreaded beach of zombies. Only... now there weren't any zombies about. In our first passing we had seen new adventurers much like ourselves fighting them and stealing up the rusted pieces of armor. Now however we were greeted by a very different sight. The adventurers were fleeing, screaming in some cases, as a Warband of men on horses and drakes tore down the beach, slicing apart anyone they could reach.

I watched in fascinated horror as the victims banded together and tried to resist the war machine that was plowing towards them. A few volleys of arrows and a short skirmish later, and they were fleeing again, but the adventurers had dropped one of the plated marauders to the ground. Wounded and moaning, he clutched at the arrow in his chest while his wicked allies continued to harry the helpless adventurers.

With a fury I leaped from my hiding place and ran to the wounded murderer. I heard Redham hiss as he came up behind me. "He's an Alfar! An evil race bred beneath the earth! See you the blue color of his skin? Dispatch him quickly, before his friends return!" Agreeing, and remembering those other poor men, I stabbed my blade into his heart. His horrible scream echoed down the beach, and some of the marauders turned back to see me and Redham stripping their fallen man of his loot. Arrows and fireballs flew in our direction, as the other Alfar turned towards us, anger and vengeance in their eyes, and not the least, some humiliation too.

We fled.

Sprinting as much as I could laden with my treasures, we made through the woods towards the ferry, but still our enemies pursued us. I took a fireball to the back, and Redham was ignoring an arrow that had hammered into his armor. Soon it became apparent that we'd have to get creative, or our adventures would be at an end. We turned from the ferry and dove into the river, swimming towards the bottom. Some arrows harmlessly slipped into the water around us, as with swam with the stream back towards Sandbrook. I held by breath as long as I dared, and when we surfaced again, the Alfar were gone.

Safe at last, we waded towards shore and examined our riches, laughing at all that had passed.

Birth of a Warrior

2010-02-15T08:49:00.000-08:00

All my life I had dreamed of adventure.

In my homeland I was deemed too young to wield a weapon. It was a peaceful place, fancies of heroics and adventures were for fools. If there was fighting that needed to be done, the older men would do it. I was expected to remain sedentary do what I was told. Well, it was a good life. I loved my home, and the people around me, but I prepared for more. I trained with one of the old veterans, and he taught me enough about blades to keep me from stabbing myself. I appreciated him humoring me, and I listened to the great stories he'd tell me from his days out campaigning.

As time passed, I began to settle in and dreams of adventure were pushed aside for much more real concerns, like making sure the crops grow in proper, or settling down with someone in the village. I still trained, but not with much enthusiasm. I hadn't totally given up, but there really were just no adventures to be had.

But the day came when strangers came into town. They were seeking strong young fighters to defend Mercia, in a land called Agon. It was a place I had heard of, it was across the sea and many people from our land had gone there a millennia ago to colonize it. Without much thought at all, I immediately agreed to travel with them. I said goodbye to my loved ones and joined the caravan of fellow adventurers. Eventually we took to the docks, and set sail for Agon.

My orders were to report to a town called Sandbrook. It was one of the many innocent towns under threat from a global goblin rebellion. Apparently the goblins were tired of being pushed around by the Orks and had seized control of their own lives. I can't say that I'm against that, but they weren't harming just Orks, but humans too. The veterans made them sound so simple and cowardly on the raft ride into Sandbrook, that soon my confidence soared.

We touched down next to an incomplete siege tower, oddly placed, and a quaint watermill. The place reminded me of home. For a brief moment I felt homesick, but I had a job to do now, I'd finally get the adventure I craved.

With the standard issue blade I charged into the wild. Some of the men around town had told me to watch out for murderers, but I assumed at the time that they meant the goblins. I had a rough map of the area, and I knew where one of the lairs was supposed to be. I crept up quietly, not so overconfident as to forget my training. Soon, the vile critters came into sight. Fear begin to creep into my mind as I eyed their sharp blades.

I slipped inside their camp and found one of the goblins wandering off on his own, bow in one hand, scratching himself with the other. The whole camp had the musty stench of filth and decaying hide. Who had allowed them to set up like this?

I got fairly close to the lone goblin, but stopped. Did I really want to strike from the shadows like this? The stories I heard never spoke of heroes creeping through long grass, especially not for mere goblins. But before I could even stand up, the goblin spun and loosed and arrow right at me.

I jumped to my feet and charged at him, "For Mercia!" The goblin grunted, pulled out a sword and took a few steps back. My swing was weak, but on target, I cut into his chest. Immediately the goblin fled. Laughing I chased him, making swipes at his back. It was then that I felt the sharp stab of an arrow punching through my shoulder. I fell back and saw two more goblins firing at me, and a third circling around behind me, armed with a shield and dagger. I had allowed myself to be trapped, a foolish mistake. But I knew my story wouldn't end here.

I fled, faster than I ever had before. I had gone into this fight all wrong. The goblins gave chase, more arrows whistling over my head. But soon the commotion stopped. I turned back to see other new recruits charging into the camp, eager to fight. Not me, I kept running until blood loss made me weary, and I was sitting outside the hastily erected walls of Sandbrook. It was there, that I met Redham.

Action and Adventure

2009-12-13T12:14:00.000-08:00

About a week later, I again logged into my new addiction. Beta was really ramping up and release wasn't too far off. More and more people were starting to show up in beta, and you could tell, both in and out of game. If you want to skip another rant about forum hysteria, then skip ahead to under the picture!

On the forums, the story wasn't so pleasant. Opinions were obviously mixed about the game at that stage, but there were a few specific posters who were going out of their way to not only derail threads, and not to just troll, but spread misinformation. This ties into the Forum Hysteria I commented on in my first post. Well these specific posters ended up doing some actual damage before they were removed from the beta program (again, not because they had differing opinions, many had differing opinions and were arguing them vehemently, these people were there purely to bring chaos). This damage, resulted in the first big forum hysteria.

It started with the guard towers. The intention of the developer team was to put guard towers at a few newbie quest hubs outside of the newbie cities. The vast majority of these were within sight of the newbie cities, sometimes even just a 30 second run from them. However, by mistake, ONE guard tower (just one) was placed in the middle of nowhere, deep in the wilds of Agon. One person reported this issue on the forums, and soon, it was taken up by the dedicated chaos bringers. They began to spam post after post, topic after topic about these new "wilderness towers". They claimed there were dozens and dozens of these, spread thick throughout the world, and that PvP was literally impossible now, because EVERYONE could just run 20 seconds and be within tower range. No one could get in game and check at this time, because it was down for patching, but that didn't stop people from commenting as if they had seen it themselves.

Soon the forums were on fire with rage posts about these dubbed "wilderness towers" and how they are the death of the game, and how Aventurine is turning their back on the PvPers, making the game carebear, lying, ect ect ect. All the while, the truth of the matter was, there was only 1 guard tower that was in the middle of nowhere. A developer (Claus maybe?) posted that this tower has been removed in the patch, and that it was purely a developer error, all was again ok with the world. This post was utterly ignored. People raved over these wilderness towers, not just for days, but for over a month, even bleeding into the regular forums once the NDA was dropped. It's a myth that lived on for a shockingly long time, considering how fast it was cleaned up. Just another example of forums gone wrong.

Anyway, enough rant, now for the fun.

These are Alfar. If you run into them in the wild, chances are, they're going to try to kill you, and very likely succeed. This is the story of my first run in with them.

As I mentioned above, beta was in full swing by now, there were more and more players in the world. I ventured out of my home in Sandbrook and checked out the immediate goblin spawns. I noticed a great number of people being flagged grey accidentally hitting others, and like rabid animals, if someone went grey, the entire camp of players descended on them to finish them off. A terrible sight to behold, but this is Darkfall.

The camp was not just inhabited by new players though, the first newbie gankers were showing up. This was not such a good idea with such a large newb population. One character charging into camp wearing full banded armor and tried to kill someone at low health. The ENTIRE camp of newbies dropped what they were doing and charged the ganker, blood lust in their eyes, drunk off the prospect of getting banded armor from this thug. He didn't stand a chance, he was dragged down and butchered by the waves of new players. Someone had hit the wrong person in this melee, and he too was cut down where he stood.

I decided that it was not a wise choice to kill goblins today. Picking a random direction I set off south towards Hildershall. I stopped at a few camps to test them out, hivekins, sarlids (would soon become my favorite mobs for the swords they dropped)

Sarlid Swords!

But the real treat was when I found this massive NPC city filled with rebel Mercians. I noted that some of the guardsmen were wearing banded armor. It was still my deepest desire to get banded armor, after being robbed of the chance to get some from troll lords. I tried several times on my own before realizing they were just too hard and too many to kill. Then made the horrible mistake to ask for help over global chat.

While I waited for a response, I explored. Not too far away, I found one of the coolest things I've seen in an MMO. There a medium sized hill with an ornate stonework platform atop some stairs. The platform looked like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, like a part was missing. It didn't take long for me to find out what was missing. A floating crystal platform came down from the heavens and connected with the hill platform. It waited for about 10 seconds before taking off again. Away into the sky it floated before reaching a giant island in the sky. Oh sweet Eru this was the coolest thing ever. But I would explore that later, for now, it was back to business.

After about 15 minutes of waiting at the Mercians, I noticed another player. He wasn't moving, just standing there, so I began to type to him, asking if he wanted to join me. That's when I noticed the blue shade of his skin, and my heart sank....

He pulled out a serrated two handed sword and took a swing at me. I was drawing my own weapon to fight back when I noticed 8 other Alfar tearing towards me from behind him. Well I did the only obvious thing, I ran. I sprinted as fast as I could, dodging and weaving, spells were flying over my head, arrows hitting me in the back, I thought I was going to die, with all the loot I had gathered today exploring! As I got to the crest of the next rise, I saw the floating platform. It was coming down back to the ground. It was my only chance. What follows sounds like a load of BS even to myself, but it did happen. You can probably already guess.

I charged towards the hill with a squad of Alfar behind me, one was JUST behind me, the others a bit farther off. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. I got to the top of the stairs just as the crystal platform was leaving, with a leap of faith I JUST landed on the edge and was sailing to safety. Or so I thought.

The enemy had landed on the platform with me, the one with the two handed sword. His companions were left underneath us, firing futile spells in our direction. Me and the alfar circle eachother for a bit, swinging now and again, he with his great sword, and I with my shortsword and shield. Knowing that this battle had to be quick, I charged. The battle was fierce and close, but in the end, I stood over my foe, his blood on my sword, staining the pristine crystal we stood upon. I took his expensive armor and reagants and stepped off the platform onto the floating island, safe at last. Then, I took the cowards way out, and logged off.

So ends my series on my beta impressions of the game. This serves to give a feel for the game as a whole rather than getting into the specific mechanics of the game. It's been 11 months since that adventure on the floating platform, and a great many features have been adding to the game, but the feeling you get from the game, has not. That's what these early adventures are to show, just what is possible in the game, and why I support it so heavily.

In the coming weeks, I will be adding a lot of different things to this blog site, and taking input from anyone reading as to what you want me to do in the future. Primarily this will serve as a site for Travelogues, first person stories from a new character in Darkfall, but I am open to suggestions.

This is Signus, signing off for a while, have fun out there.

More Beta Tales(and woes)

2009-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well I was now back at college, reading the beta forums constantly, while trying not to totally ignore my professor talking about the formation of stars. It was difficult, because I could think of nothing else but getting back into Agon and going on another adventure. Indeed I already had my adventure for the day planned out.

I spend a good amount of time in IRC, being a mod and all that. There was a lot of traffic going through with people asking about beta, release, and all that good stuff. I had to resist the temptation to tell them all to stop panicking, that the game was great fun and would be out soon! Meanwhile, I was sending messages to other folks in knew in beta who were waiting for the server to go up. Jonkar, leader of a RP Merc clan gave me a little hint about a place it might be possible to get some great loot. The loot in question was scaled or plate armor of some sort, the location in question... was deep in Alfar territory, on an island in a lake, with horrible skeletons guarding the treasure. We couldn't do this alone.

Messages requesting help were sent out to those we could reach, and before long, we had a group of hardy humans willing to march to battle to try to be some of the first players to get this armor (ok, well we thought we were the first).

There were about 8 of us, 2 I didn't know. The two set off ahead instead of waiting for the whole group, constantly firing manna missle into the sky and never responding to group chat. I would find out later these two min maxers who felt it necessary to give away our position every 2 seconds, had tried to swing the majority of the group into killing me and a few others for no real reason. Jonkar, thankfully, told them to shove it. Considering how they were acting, it honestly didn't surprise me.

We ran for about an hour, seeing many camps and monsters on the way. We found a clan city (I marked it on my paper map) and an underground fortress with a great lake in the center. There was not much to be seen here at the time, but we looked forward to coming back when the camps would be populated.

Eventually, we found a tower in the wastes filled with troll lords. We needed to go through in order to get to our lake, so we decided to fight them. This was our first group PvE experience. The trolls were firing things at us, darts of some kind, doing minor damage. We managed to trap one and melee it down quickly. It had dropped what I thought might be a breastplate of sorts, but someone else looted it before I could even move my mouse. We were about to move onward, but a second came upon us. At this point I was low on health and we all ran into the tower to hide. Mistake.

Well, from the Lord's room came yet another troll charging down the stairs at us. We managed to off this one too, but we were seriously hurting and starting to get overwhelmed. At the top of the tower, a third troll lord trapped us. I jumped out a window, landing on a rock spire and started running for safety. No one had a heal spell they could use at that point, so I knew my only chance was to get out of range. Just when I thought I could get away, I got insta killed and sent all the way back to Sandbrook.

So ended my first real adventures in beta. The rest of my group went onwards towards the hidden skeleton lake, but ran into Alfar instead. The fight was fierce, from what I heard with humans winning out, but more Alfar on the way. The brewings of a great battle was taking place as the call to other humans was sent out to bring aid. Before the two forces could clash a second time though...the server went down... but it was the first large fight in the Darkfall beta, and it was often talked about about on the beta boards for the next few days.

Well, that was my last group encounter in beta, as school began to rule my life and I found little time to log in, but there are a few more beta memories to share. In the next post, I'll talk about my first run in with the bloodthirsty Alfar.

Uncertain First Steps

2009-12-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

As it is right now, I am not sure how to proceed. It was always my intention to get my own website up to do the whole travelogue thing, but due to lack of time or html experience, I had to settle for a blogspot website. This makes organization difficult, unless I am missing something. If there was an easy way to split my posts between ramblings and travelogues I would. As it is now, I think I will just post about my first and fondest memories of Darkfall, and once I am out of University, I will begin anew with my freshly remade character on NA1. The journey will be from the point of view of this new character and the various adventures he goes on.

It was the tail end of January before I got into the Darkfall Online beta. I had been waiting, as I'm sure many others were, for what felt like centuries. I had about three days left of Winter Break, then it was back to college. I was desperate to get into the game. I downloaded the client, fired up the patcher, and waited.

And waited... and waited.

It wasn't that the wait FELT long, it WAS long. For some reason, many folks were having major issues downloading the game. Well, few hotfixes later, and almost everyone got in fine, except me... Thankfully, community to the rescue. A torrent was circulated amongst some folks (got mine from BcB) and I was able to torrent the game and get in with a day to spare.

Slowly, the game loaded, I got to the character creation screen, blew through all the options (there weren't a ton at that time) and was given a choice of three starter towns to pick from. After looking at the map, I picked the town on the outskirts of civilization by the water, because even then I knew I wanted my character to be a sea faring adventurer. I chose Sandbrook, and my adventure in Darkfall began.

I entered the world with a strange crunching noise(which I'm sure most of us have grown fond of), and looked around me. There was an impressive waterwheel and a flowing river directly infront of me. Around were cranes and crates, big city walls, a glowing stone shooting a beacon into the sky, and many new players like myself taking in the sights. I was overwhelmed. I couldn't believe I was finally here! After years of watching videos, reading interviews, reading dev posts, dealing with vaporware trolls, studying the lore, and counting the days... I had finally made it into Agon.

I took to the controls quickly, they were very much like Morrowind's. I had also read as much as I could about them while downloading the game. I ran up to William for my first quest. Killing goblins, I'd finally get to see these beasties that had been so often raved about. Hmm... the quests were marked on the mini map, kind of annoying, but I guess necessary for newbie quests. I was one of those madmen who would have rather had a static map than one that follows you. This is mainly due to habit, being raised on MMOs that did not have any sort of map. In retrospect, the Darkall world is so much bigger and more detailed than those early MMOs, that not having some sort of map would have made things difficult indeed.

I ran off into the wilderness, already fearful of my surroundings, I missed this rush. I was very careful not to leave cover, and to always know which way to run back to guard tower range. I ran to the closest marked camp and... there was nothing there. No goblins, no people. Huh.

I ran to the second camp, nothing here either. Had someone already killed them? The chat quickly told me that a lot of spawns were turned off or bugged. Glumly, I started walking back to town, only to be set upon by a madman with a leafblade. I was terrified. We fought for a while, but man, I was getting my butt kicked. I couldn't understand why, we were both new characters without any gear. On one end, I was frustrated, on the other, I was overjoyed that player skill played this large of a role in game. I managed to make it within tower range once I realized staying and fighting would result in my death, and he got gunned down in the water attempting to follow me. I tried to loot his grave, but it vanished. Guess he had nothing. Aw..

Venturing out to the last camp marked on my map, and hear combat noises. Wow, you can really hear them far off, and so detailed! I sneaked towards the camp, and saw... no one. Weird. Again the area was desolate. But hey, there was a cave! I approach this cave, entering excitedly. I walk in a little ways and eventually reach the far wall inside when shadows fall across my character as the light from the mouth of the cave is blocked. I turn to see another person standing in the entrance. He begins to fire a bow at me. I race towards him, and he draws his sword, blocking my escape. We fought for a good 3 minutes or so, back and forth blocking and dodging. I jumped on a rock and hopped over his head and hit him in the back, he wedged me into a tree branch, until, both of us were out of stamina. I couldn't do anything. He hit me a few more times before he was out too. Then, he did quite a silly thing. He ran straight for the guard towers. I guess he was afraid of me killing him, but instead, he just killed himself. I quickly stuffed all his loot into my bag, reveling at the feeling of taking this killer's ill gotten gains. Even more paranoid now that I had something to lose, I ran into town to bank this gear, and reflect on all that had happened... This was going to be a fun day.

Later that day I discovered that Monkfield had working goblin spawns. I made the dangerous journey northward to where the REAL bulk of human players were.

I went tree to tree, always wary of player killers. I could hear some heavy fighting going on. Someone in chat was spamming "LoD are killing people, look out!". Now I had heard of LoD, their reputation preceded them a bit. I became even more frightened. I took the long path 'round to Monkfield, coming on the goblin camp from the north. I finally found LoD and there were indeed a lot of them. They had't made a clan yet, but each of them had LoD in their character name. Darkfall's very first zerg guild had hit and they were having some good fun killing anyone they could. They would trick people into making themselves go gray, and then wipe them out and steal their loot. I was about to confront one of them trying to steal my goblin kills when the server went down for the day. Lucky for them! I was a force to be reckoned with!... well not really.

A good first day, and I could not wait for more. But now it was time to pack up and return to college and the real world, Darkfall would have to wait for a little bit.

Forum Hysteria Allegory

2009-12-08T11:44:00.001-08:00

Early January of 2008, I was on Christmas break, spending time with friends and family, shoveling endless amounts of snow, and spending a good deal of my time in IRC waiting for any news of the imminent Darkfall release. I was not alone, the IRC was bursting with activity, and things were quite out of hand. I had been following the game for about 3 years at that point, and tried to give clarity to certain aspects of the game where some people were confused.

For whatever reason, I was recruited to become one of the IRC mods. Suddenly, I couldn't talk much about the game I was excited about, because despite the indicator under my forum name, people took my word as official. I still popped into the forums, at times of extreme boredom, and at times where "Forum Hysteria" would hit. A change would happen, one person would have a bad experience, post about it, and mass panic would spread. The first instance of this is when a dev mistakenly placed a guard tower in the middle of nowhere. Someone found it, made a thread, and everyone assumed these towers were everywhere. Later that night, the devs made a post that the tower was a bug, and had been removed in a hotfix, but the threads continued. I kept linking people to the dev announcement about it, but it did little to stem the hysteria.

I am very familiar with Forum Hysteria. Oddly enough, a VERY similar thing happened with Asheron's Call 1, with what is happening on the Darkfall forums now. I listened to a former Turbine developer talk about their system of weaknesses and resistances once on a podcast. Once upon a time, there was apparently this mob, called a lightning rat. Well, it used electric attacks, which were strong against people wearing chainmail. One forum goer had found this mob in game and been killed very quickly. In his shock he posted about how overpowered the mobs were. A few others confirmed his post and soon mass hysteria occured. Threads were popping up like crazy demanding these rats be removed from the game or patched.

Among all the crying and hysteria, a few people had discovered that all you had to do, was wear armor that had lightning resistance. Lightning rat, makes sense. These posts were BURIED under all the whining, which started pouring from people who hadn't even fought the rats yet. There was outrage when Turbine didn't patch the rats until slowly, people began to realize what was happening. Some weren't happy that they had to wear leather armor or enchanted chain for a specific mob, but it helped at more depth to the system, that's how all of Asheron's Call worked anyway.

I find it kind of funny, considering almost the same thing is happening in Darkfall at the moment with the revamped Monster AI and the resist/weakness system. Personally, what I think needs to be done is have the system reflect better what was said in the spotlight article. (original article here)

Mobs with resistances would take much longer to kill, but would be possible. The resistant damage wouldn't be something insane like 1 (which it isn't now, after the patch) and most other damage types are neutral, with the mob having a weakness, which you could optionally exploit for better productivity. Now people have the option of seeking out monsters they are strong against, or grouping up with friends to take out harder mobs than they would normally be able to handle. We're quickly getting there, I just hope Aventurine doesn't revert back to the mindless AI we had before.

Probably not the best subject to bring up in my first post, as it seems highly controversial between the people who want a deeper more fleshed out PvE system, and those that are offended the devs are putting any time into an aspect of the game they have no interest in, and making their income harder to earn.

Anyway, my first impressions of Darkfall, progress from beta to Conquer the Seas, and the Travelogues will be coming soon.