Just a couple of brief updates from the battle lines in the Gael Serran...

First, in a tragic turn of events, local wandering medicine man Mekdawa was found dead south of Valeia last week. Apparently, he'd been hanging around the wrong crowd of toads and found himself caught up in the middle of a gang fight of some sort. Blades were flying left and right, and Mekdawa didn't look any different from any other toad, and was slain. Police have no suspects, but are looking for the small group of people who sold six bottles of "Toad Special Potion", reputedly an aphrodisiac, to the wizards' guild. Mekdawa was the only known street source for the potion, although rumour had it that the Temple was known to assist him on occasion.

Second, in an amazing feat of strength, a party of adventurers actually pushed a crate through a wall in the Serpent Temple! [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img] Seems they were pushing and shoving, trying to get a robe that was in the crate, when they suddenly pushed the crate through the wall. No damage has been noted to the wall, and it has been confirmed that the crate is indeed gone. David Copperfield has apparently tried to contact the wandering group of adventurers, seeking to employ them as consultants for his next show.

Third, the coffers at the Serpent Temple are starting to run dry. Dowry priests, those who collect the tithes and offerings from other priests and the general public, have been dying left and right with no apparent cause. Every dead priest has been found in a doorway, though, and some have questioned whether low-level temple priests have been pushing the dowry priests into doorways, allowing them to be crushed by the temple's new automatic doors, in hopes of a promotion. Elyssia, High Priestess, has scoffed at this suggestion, calling it nonsense in a press release that stated that only those priests worthy of the honor could become dowry priests.

In a related story, Temple Chief Financial Officer Kreug has placed an ad in the latest Gael Serran Examiner, offering to train individuals interested in becoming dowry priests for a small fee of 10,000 gold. No word yet on how paying money makes you more worthy of priesthood than faith and works, but this reporter will keep searching.

It was also reported to the Examiner that even those folks who like to play it "safe" and protect themselves from attacking innocent townspeople and the like are finding themselves with problems in the Serpent Temple, where out-of-town adventurers like Bloodrunt, a barbarian, noted that while he was able to protect himself from attacking other people, in the Serpent Temple, their weapons were not afforded any such protection. In other words, the person could be protected from an accidental sword blow, but their weapons could not. No word yet on how this will affect the attitudes of those priests who like to walk around with their staves.... either giving strikes or receiving them.

And in the final item in today's journal, a strange new pink and purple message spread across the Gael Serran tonight, reading "OLISTXZ<> Bound Error!" The Temple has been consulted, but they have been unable to determine the origins of the phrase or its meaning. Research will continue...

Adventurers have seen the mystical message in the skies over the tropical XP lands, as well as over the frigid tundra of '98.

Astrologists feel that the message signifies a stray pointer writing past the end of a static buffer declared auto in a procedure.

Lord Cet, it would seem, is smashing the stack! Call Stackman!

HUrrah!!!

Nothing like having the latest news to start the day! :D :D

Any pictures - particularly of the crate going into/through the wall??

Great one, Bungleau!!!

The crate went through the wall so quickly that I had no chance to do anything. I had built my stairs to get up to the belfry in the Serpent Temple, and when I was done, I smashed the crates. There was a robe in one, so I clicked on it. When the party went to get it automatically, the crates were pushed, and suddenly, it was gone (from all the lives it left its mark upon).

Discovered another strange non-protection thing last night, too. In addition to the priests' staves not being protected, neither was Elyssia's mask! The cursor turned into a red cross-hair on the staff and mask, but into a red "don't attack" circle on everything else. Does it do this for anyone else? And in any place other than the serpent temple? I'm curious now...

Nothing major in last night's gaming. The pixie mage converted to bard, and she's going to be my first real bard for a long time (perhaps forever). Got several instruments... now, to see how useful they are.

We made it all the way through the Serpent Temple to Elyssia before getting into any priest fights, which was pretty cool. Killing the dowry priests second-hand is pretty cool, and make the whole thing a lot easier. Lessee... I took out a number of them with doors, one with an elevator, and one with the floor in Kreug's library and chambers! That was pretty fun :D

Noticed one quirk of the dowry priests... when they don't care about you, they stay in one place. When they want money, they follow you around. So when I inadvertently pushed one into a bad spot, I just had to come back later (when he wanted more money) and let him follow me to where I want him to go. Had to be careful with the Kreug's Floor priest, though... I didn't want to go in there myself.

The party is running the "gauntlet" area just outside Ishad N'ha-ha-ha... those three or four rows of back-and-forth passages. It's a great place to pick up some XP, especially for a brand-new Bard [img]smile.gif[/img]

Fortunately, we haven't cleaned out the entire serpent temple yet. I forgot that the first priest quest in Ishad N'ha was to slay the naga... 'twould have been a pity, had we not been able to get that quest. That's up on tonight's gaming, after the bard picks up a couple more levels.

Sounds like someone's Christmas holidays have started early! I haven't even got around to installing W&W on my new computer yet!

Well, the holidays haven't started, but the need to game has already begun :D

Last night, the crew took out Mother Xydussssa with a long-distance firestorm and meteorstorm. Hardest thing was actually finding her... :D Four out of six went up levels (with some 14k XP each), and the bard went up a couple of levels. Darn, but I hate missing training opportunities!

They then went to retrieve the orb of clarity, and the priest upgraded to paladin. They then returned the orb and she was 500XP closer to her first level.

Returning to Ishad N'ha, she made that first level with the 1000 XP from the temple quest, and everyone else has signed up for the other guild quests.

And Bards can definitely learn fiend spells and train fiend levels. I'm still checking to see about whether it's a native school or not; I should have an answer soon, since she's now level 7 fiend.

Now for some more gauntlet running and finally to meet those sweet, sweet salads of the Gael Serran's middle course... :D

Bards learn one fiend spell on ascention, and the realm is then open to them. But it is still not a native one. I suppose it was originally planned so, since it is the only time in the game that a character learns an opening spell of realm, when the realm is still not open to him or her.

Trust me; Stackman's high level bard still only has up to level 6 fiend spells.

[ 12-22-2004, 10:04 AM: Message edited by: bsftcs ]

Who am I to quibble with the great Stackman? :D

Tonight's updates...

Has anyone else noticed that when you leave Ishad N'ha for Shurugeon Castle and parts north, it's almost always at night time? We were finally ready to go take on the salads, and it was the middle of the night! I really don't fancy taking them on in the dark, but I wasn't willing to wait around monk-style until it was morning.

I'm sure this is in Best Tips, but the salads spawn in the lake north of the burned-out hut. The little passage north that's just west of the hut is actually a great place to find them, most times. The party, wizard and bard armed with *storm spells, proceeded to this little passageway, only to discover it occupied by a pack of worgurs. Rather than change spells, the wizard let loose with a firestorm... when lo and behold, a salad showed up in the damage listings!

Enough info for us... we ran!

Then we came back, checking to see where he was. Problem was that he found us at the same time we found him :( Another storm spell fired off, and we ran away. The paladin started healing everyone up and curing poison when we got the good news -- the salad had died.

We went back for the second one and repeated the process. This time, Spunky the pixie bard barely survived -- her red HP line was *maybe* two pixels high -- and a couple of folks had leveled up, so we ran back to town to train.

Headed back out because I seem to recall there being a third salad, and sure enough, there in the same passageway, was he. Again, he saw us when we saw him, spells were cast, running was done, and he died.

Now, IIRC having a high Will increases your resistance to magic and stuff like that... like salad breath, for example. The entire party is at 18, with the possible exception of a couple of characters. IMNSHO, it didn't do a lick of difference. :( The salad came, it saw, it breathed, and we ran, screaming like ninnies, as its breath ate away at us. Perhaps there's a bigger boost when your WIL is over 20...

We ran over to Torin to give him the dragon arrows (and buy them back), so the first guild quest is complete at the dojo. The second involves the Boogre Caves, so we're going to hold off on that one for a bit.

L'Yessa the elven wizard has switched to Warlock, which means we're going to be running the gauntlet again for a while. She was the last one to change from her original class, primarily because she started with sun magic and hadn't gotten all her stone level 7 spells yet. Once she's ready, it's off to the Castle.

I've really been enjoying the bard, though, more than I thought I would. That Lute of Tranquility really rocks! I never thought that sleep spells could be so much fun! The Lute of Blessing has been a waste so far, but the Pipes of Poison were pretty cool. Only downside is that she seems to be consuming mana at a really fast pace... perhaps that will slow down when she gets a higher music skill (currently 5).

I don't know if I'll get more gaming in before Christmas, but if I do, the Castle is next, with a quick trip to the stout mines afterwards. I think I want all three barbarians at guild level 5 before I make a ranger or two...