Wed Apr 25 12:34:39 2012

At 9 o'clock PM, Day of Freedom, 11th of the Month of the Dragon
on the Theran calendar Vallinane perished, never to return.

Race:	elf
Class:	thief
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	936
Hours:	827

I thought you played a strong fort leader and really acted like a maran. Also I enjoyed the fact you didn't steal prep bags with my non ragers.

I kind of feel bad about the number of times you ended up eating pincers in my quest to get Eachinnen.

Honestly, I was pretty burned out at 500 hours, but I kept going almost solely because I promised Baer I would stick it out to age death. Fortunately, I managed to renew my interest in him for awhile longer, but a lot of real life things hit all at once. Which was only fair, because I had been putting them off for a long while in favor of 800 hours in Vallinane. Yeowch.

Sorry Fortress, I feel like the last 100 or so hours of Vallinane's life replaced happy-go-lucky Vallinane with caustic, bitter Vallinane. I felt particularly guilty because when combined with my lack of presence, I didn't feel like a very good leader during those last few hours with you guys. At least, I didn't feel like I had the same leadership quality then that I did during the first five hundred hours of Vallinane's life.

I am a serial fort player. My last character of any note was Kelstrane, for those who are interested.

Vallinane was my first leader and my first tatted follower of... anybody. I originally rolled him planning to be an underpowered chew toy for Sivyh's overpowered empire and Tavlin's overpowered chasm, two major forces which were dominating at the time, but it turned out that for much of Vallinane's life, Fort was the dominant power, to the point where killing people in the other cabals felt almost unfair.

In addition, to my complete astonishment, I was able to make Vallinane's build work in pvp, to the point where I felt fairly overpowered in a lot of situations. That was an interesting experience for me, considering I was expecting the absolute opposite when I decided to roll up an elf thief. Then again, there were a lot of people I could do absolutely nothing to. So I guess it balances out in the end.

More detailed goodbyes and comments on Vallinane's build and experiences to come. Because I love writing goodbyes.

You made what could have been a really boring time in Fort a lot of fun with your witty banter.

Was a pleasure running with you.

Glad you enjoyed my wit as much as I enjoyed using it. I was really, really tempted to hit you up for the RP perma you were pushing, since RP is generally my primary focus in CF, but honestly I didn't even have the spare time or energy to finish up Vallinane, let alone start a new character for RPing.

Oh well.

Laesron was fun as hell to work with, and I thought we had a great time messing around. Glad you took my request in good humor.

Interacted with you with a few Characters, always thought you were classy. Especially as Zaan where you could have just taken my fiddle a few times but didn't, it was always appreciated. Well played.

And also one of my favorite targets.

Hee hee.

I didn't find you as much as I would have liked, but I did enjoy our banter and interactions.

I'm also fairly certain your lowbie fire giant instakilled me with armageddon in a single round (was that you?). After that... I just sort of avoided him and took the first chance I got for some revenge. Sorry if that rubbed you the wrong way, but I sure as hell wasn't going to get that guy any other way. You were at level 27 for months :P

Yeah that was my fire giant Pyrox. I did level sit but also I was playing Zaan at the same time so he was just for me to let off steam. Yeah I wasn't thrilled when a Paladin who challenged me to an honorable duel, continues fighting me while I have a super decked thief jump me, I kill the thief, he barely finishes me and then loots Armageddon because the Captain told him to. Was kind of like why is the captain of Fort trolling me, but makes sense forgot I had killed you with it.

And my induction came after killing Pyrox and taking Armageddon per your request. I truly came to love this char and came back with all four-reincarnates due to the level of rp and pk knowledge you possessed and I craved. I do hope you enjoyed these characters. I have so many questions I'd like to ask you especially about thief builds. I thoroughly enjoyed your char, and it was crazy how you appeared frail but in the right situation you could turn the tides of a raid, re-raid or simple brawl. You taught me that living to fight another day is by far more important than going all out. And now I actually need to carry this knowledge over into my next char. Once again thank you so much for adding to the rich atmosphere of CF. GLWYN and if you're by chance willing to answer some questions for me do tell the best way to reach you. ^.^

Vallinane went full binder, who took points in cheapshot, scrolls, knife, and a few miscellaneous utility skills such as advanced picklock and improved hide. He did not take shadow drag.

Because of the peculiarities of Vallinane's build, in group fights I was actually more of a fragile support character. I'd set up the fight the best I could beforehand, trying to split the enemy up and knock one or two of them out before the fight began. And then I would dispel and trip people down while my allies did all the damage and most of the tanking.

I will freely admit to allowing some enemies to escape ganks or traps that they otherwise would have no chance of surviving, simply because I felt bad for them. This happened a lot when they had already died a few times in that particular login. I also admit to allowing a lot of enemies to escape because I never stole their prep bags where they kept teleport and return potions or staves or what have you. I didn't like abusing the steal skill too much and besides, I always kept too much crap in my own inventory to worry about stealing others so cleanly :P

The good:

Anybody whom Vallinane could knockout, he could potentially kill. A lot of characters whom few others could really threaten alone, Vallinane was effective against. High damredux characters like invokers, conjurors, anti-paladins, bards, and a few others had a lot of trouble against him. Some conjies more than others, depending on the familiar.

light of heaven/earthbind scroll + trip + cheap shot = big threat. This alone was my contribution to large group vs group fights. Killed a lot of people just on the virtue of knowing where and when to trip, and where and when to flee and let your allies take it instead.

Working with talented and experienced PKers like Eachainn, Vozmuir, Illanthos, and Garwern was so crazy. Could stand off the most ridiculous odds, and made the lives of solo enemies a living hell. Fort had a lot of talent come and go in Vallinane's time. Reliable forties with full maran/acolyte powers had an incomparable presence that no other cabal can match - anywhere one person is, several others can get to really quickly, if they're coordinated in advance.

Looting, with the notable exception of Tzaritzawah, was awesome. I died a lot more than I should have, at least 60~70 deaths - and I managed to keep my expertly balanced practice dagger for all 827 hours of Vallinane. Its a sign that CF is changing for the better.

The bad:

The Binder class was basically all about how perfect the situation came to be. If all your key bindings hit, and your enemy had no allies coming, you could set up the most absolutely ridiculous situations from which there could be no possible escape. On the other hand, with just one other reliable ally nearby, and a fast typing speed on the keys, a binder could do very little to most opponents. I think I managed to swing a flawless bind about 5 times - ever - in Vallinane's life, where every binding connected, no ally came to save him, and I controlled every instance of the fight, from the terrain to the preparation. When you consider that I garrotted thousands of PCs over 800 hours, well... Yeah. Binders are incredibly dangerous in theory, but in reality a perfect bind is like a once in a lifetime thing, and usually on someone you'd have killed anyway. I was expecting the binder class to be a lot more... reliable, especially in solo fights.

Bashers ate me up. Stoopid bashers. Garrotte only works on people who are in bash range of you. It means you can't reduce and garrotte a giant - you have to stay within one size of him, which means any time you try and garrotte him, you are bashable. And if you miss, you're almost guaranteed dead. If you hit the garrotte - no guarantees, garrotte is wonky on size differences - there's no guarantee he won't have a groupmate nearby to wake him, or have some other trick up his sleeve to wake up early.

Worst part of playing Fort? The forties. I swear to god, I would have easily at least tripled my kill numbers if we count all the sure kills that someone on Fortress completely screwed up. Its annoying when your enemies come and save each other, but thats a rational and understandable part of the game. There is just no worse feeling than when your ALLIES come in and unintentionally save your enemies. And when they get you killed. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've made my share of newbie mistakes on Vallinane and before Vallinane, but it was especially painful on a fragile elf binder. One miscalculation or early spammed command and paladin wrathbot #53847184718 loses you the easy kill and possibly hands the enemy group the victory once he wakes up the bard. One panic flee at the wrong moment from our tank means we're both caught in permalag and death, where all of us would have easily survived, otherwise.

EDIT: It also particularly pisses me off when lowbie forties with word of recall don't come to help save their buddies, especially when their hero allies are vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Grrrr. Pet peeve.

"If all your key bindings hit, and your enemy had no allies coming, you could set up the most absolutely ridiculous situations from which there could be no possible escape."

I think Krunk "escaped" one of these when your amulet or something fired and took you away before you could seal the kill.

Thanks for never stealing prep bags.

I don't think you will believe this, but of all the forties, I think Krunk probably "feared" you the most, after the one time where you were waiting for him to go get his favorite slave, he got a lot more cautious around that. You also got a sweet kill (not the killing blow, but who cares) with that light of heaven nonsense. Totally didn't see that coming and straight failed to adapt to it even when I saw what had happened.

A well liked and respected enemy. Good luck with whatever is next, the Clan is always breeding... One nice thing about playing an orc, you can pretty much guarantee your allies won't screw up your kills... You won't have any :)

Me? Talented and experienced PKer? Nah... I just play support really, really well.

That one time against Krunk that I couldnt word you? The stacking -morale penalties he was laying on you were enough to screw with your trust, preventing me from whisking you away as per the usual.

Vall was a pretty awesome fellow. Always up for a chat, a great leader... You definitely helped inspire better RP in those you interacted with.

Sorry about battering Raegahn awake that one time he gated to us! My fingers immediately rattled out 'batt rae' before it even registered that you had him garrotted the second he popped in.

Illanthos will wait patiently to be reunited with his old friend.

GLWYN


PS: For people inquiring as to my lack of presence, starting a new job that consumes 12+ hours of my day makes logging on hard. Shoot me an ingame missive if you need to get a hold of me.

Hehehe I still think that time Demon in the Woodpile actually pulled through for me and I killed you in two face eating bashes with Kragg was probably my best achievement. You'd probably killed me three times and finally I avoided the garrote and flattened you. I escaped you when you had me bound only one time and it actually ended with me having to sit until the binding on my hands fell off so I could unbind the rest. You may not have stolen prep bags, but orcs always got the potions they stash in their guts!

Good Times

Well, I represent one of those Wrath Spamming pallys, and I will tell you, I had the opportunity to fight with you with at least two characters. You did a lot to help me understand group on group tactics. Your lecture at induct about what to do when you see two people in a fight is something I'll keep for a long long time. I have tried to learn to look first after fighting with you and a few others before running into a room, not perfect, but I think getting better.

If I had anything to say bad it would be the one or two times, when things were hairy for me and having you there would have made a difference and you were off with Baer, doing some RP. One of those times I ate a death for it. I remember our conversation later about it, you felt bad and all, but it was par for the course, that if you were off talking with Baer, I learned to not rely on you coming in. The other thing I learned was when to say no with you. You were pretty agressive, We got Seiserold together I think once, and then eleagra came in. I think I had like 300 mana left. You said summon, and I did, and bash bash bash later, I was dead. Should have told you no, but man it was just too fun running with you.

Other than that, you were awesome with every other thing. Dragging me to get defiance like 8 times with two different characters.

Vallinane was more about the RP than anything else, but I will be the first to admit that I simply cannot maintain the entire picture-perfect mask for hundreds of hours. So I probably hit the edge of OOC a few times. Especially in the latter part of Vallinane's life, where I got really, really, REALLY burned out. Sorry to people who might have hit the sharper edge of my tongue, particularly Shaendath and Tairneach. It was never personal, just a combination of frustration and burnout that made me a bit nastier than I really should have been, and far more than you really deserved.

Started out sort of a vanilla Baer follower idea, got bored of that HELLA quick, before I even hit hero, so I just started throwing in random personality quirks and stuff until I found a happy medium that entertained me, and kept running with it as I suddenly found myself a tattooed cabal leader with one of the least powerful builds I could think of.

The best part of playing Fortress are the forties. I love the fort banter and closeness, I like almost everyone who plays fort, and I always have. I gave away as much help as I could to forties who asked, and gave as much RP as I could. Again, I apologize to the Fortress who signed on later - I found it much more difficult to maintain the same standards of RP, banter, leadership, and attention in the latter months of Vallinane's life, as I was majorly, majorly burned out of CF. Fort is always one of my favorite places to be.

It seems you were there a lot when I was lower ranked, and then I took over the guild and was lucky you weren't there to stop me. I was looking forward to the drama that would have unfolded with a Maran leader and a Shadow Lord occupying the same guild, especially since you had an interest in talking instead of just killing. A pity, but quality character from what I've seen across a few characters, so glwyn.

This will be one of the few I remember playing with forever. This group includes Dupmas, Mundin, Radik, Balta, Solec, and Fjodir. You always seemed happy which is refreshing. I remember missing 22 energy drains in a row with you..that was a little rediculous. GLWYN and congrats on lasting so long.

IMMS

Baer - Thanks for making Vallinane so much damn fun. I blame you for single-handedly addicting me thoroughly to CF (again). Believe it or not, I originally rolled up Vallinane partially because I wanted to give following you a serious shot, after my last serious religious project (Destim) failed to live up to his potential. The fact that you were behind me all the way led me to really step it up and try a lot harder, and go a lot farther than I otherwise could have. I wasn't quite as excellent as I could have been, but I think I got pretty close. Interacting with Baer was always the highlight of my day, so I always came back even when I had no idea what I was doing. Hope that didn't annoy you too much :)

Rayihn - It was hilarious how you kept each persona separate, and our interactions always made me laugh. Thanks for the crossbow and the valentine and a few of the other crazy things that were tons of fun.

Whiysdan - SORRY about that list. Believe it or not, its about 90% done in a text file on my other computer, I just kept putting off finishing it for ages. Stupid Vallinane.

Iunna - Where'd you go? So active with that awesome quest line, then disappeared again? Sadface.

Lian - Those motes of light were awesome (a little bit confusing, at first!) and a great, GREAT RP device.

Scarabeus - That's you behind the Davarrah/Xaelobran questline, right? Was a lot of fun, and getting thrown alone into that plane full of nightwalkers and nightgaunts was actually a really awesome experience. And when that trader started talking to me, I put my head between my hands and laughed. Damn you for making me try so hard to remember the torture that was high school latin class, and realizing that I never will.

EDIT: Twist - I'll talk more to you in my mortal goodbyes, but yes, definitely burned out on CF real hard.

Will do more goodbyes later, gotta go.

Cause you have this strange knack
As the glow to my black
As you chase it all away


Enjoyed every single minute with Vall, even the ones where you'd not have anything to say and just wanted to hang out. You really pushed Baer in a different direction, one that she sorely needed to go down.

But *my god* you made me break (or almost break/fudge the lines of) RP so many times. You'd say something inappropriate, wanting to bandy with me and I'd have the PERFECT sassy, cheeky, naughty response and I'd be like...no Baer would not say that, not ever. And thus there would be a tolerante-Baer-eye-rolling while I bit my tongue and shook my fist at the monitor. WHY weren't you a Rayihn follower?? Ray is me with seashells! Anyways. It got even worse when Enlilth would send me fuzzy blankets and jars of pickles while we were role playing.

It was always fun to be on with Rayihn and you'd chat me up and I'd start making fun of Baer. She's just such an easy target. Anyways!

When you get the itch to play again - and I know you will - I hope you'll follow me again. You had some weak moments when your temper would get the best of you, but all in all this was an amazing character with serious depth. The Fort loved you, your enemies loved you, I loved you...pretty much everyone but Nexus liked you.

Good luck with everything.

- M

There will be no white flag above my door. - Dido

This was (I think) the first mortal character I history'd and wizinvis-stalked. I was quite predisposed against you after reading the history because they glowed with positivity like a white hot sun and I am an envious and small-minded person by nature, but I watched you and was quite impressed.

You are one of the relatively few gutsy people in this game I would love to have as an enemy. You made things happen and were surprisingly adept at overcoming tough predicaments. You also exuded a certain aura of leadership. The one suggestion I can make - and this is not something I'm capable of myself - that would make your next character even better is to articulate instruction to others in a critcal situation. It's like I could see you had it in you to mold the newer players into shape in a non-douchebag way (which honestly is how most people come across when they do this), but it seemed you'd stop just short for whatever reason. Maybe frustration thinking no one would listen anyway.

But the thing is, it doesn't matter if no one listens. If you can do it in a non-douchebag way, as a leader char, you'll make the whole environment that much more immersive IMO. You COULD be in that like ultra rare 2% that could pull it off.

Anyway good job, Man, had fun watching and GL with the next :)

Honestly, I wanted to come kill you a few different times, but Baer always had your back. I would have at least liked to see what you put together before you deleted :( Glad you had some fun!

=w=

Eritne nobis aliqua saltem spes?

That being said, I think this character was classy, awesome, and badass. I just wish I could have seen it from the side of an ally, rather than a foe all the time. I am sure I missed out on some fantastic RP, I don't doubt that for a second.

Superbly done.

I loved interacting with you as Fjodir. At first Fjodir really saw you as an ally and friend, and over time, he started to abuse you.

That time in the "mists" was great! Great ally/friend/enemy.

And you managed to get a really nice bind off on Foratha, draging me away and finishing me. I had totally forgot you were in town, and figured you wouldn't dare to come after me. Hubris ftw!


Great char! Keep them coming! Join the dark side for once, we'd love to have you!

The good times we had, but how am I gonna get a ton of gold in a few hours now? It'll take me forever :P ah well, I can understand getting burned out.

GLWYN

I was always disappointed when Vallinane wasn't online and I was.

Bohvik had more in-depth and interesting roleplay threads happening with a lot of other Fort characters, but Vallinane was the one Maran I didn't feel like I had to be ideologically "on my toes" around. Since Acolytes are meant to keep Maran in check that way, that was really nice. That and all the humour made for a very easy friendship. Anyway, I couldn't let a well-roleplayed character pass without notice - GLWYN, and thanks for all the pocketwatches. :)

Well, I definitely missed you when I deleted. You were overall a great character, and one of the things I missed the most as Lethmitel as talking to you. Hope you don't get the problem I'm having with rolling another, CF needs players like you.

GLWYN