Thank you, general vague was all I was looking for. I thought the assassin had to be in the room, not just in the same area, and there was both some confusion for me tactically while alone and also when my character was talking to others.

One further question:
When do characters like an assassin or warriors with the observation legacy lose the benefit of observation? Is there some sort of timer on that? Even a vague answer will suffice, because I don't have any idea.

rack: refers to a standard allocation in the MUD database. E.g., 'where' usually checks the players whose location is on the rack. It's sometimes used instead of 'area' because very large areas in MUDS can compose several 'racks'. In a different MUD, people might say Stone's Embrace and Akan are the same area, but different racks. This term has no relevance for Carrion Field forums discussion, I just made a mistake by using it by believing the term was more general than it is.