Sun May 27 14:08:17 2012

At 4 o'clock AM, Day of Freedom, 11th of the Month of the Shadows
on the Theran calendar Djetmai perished, never to return.

Race:	svirfnebli
Class:	thief
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	BATTLE, the BattleRagers, Haters of Magic
Age:	318
Hours:	306

I liked Djetmai as a character, other than his reluctance to give up the club exotic to the HPM berserker who could have made a real difference with it :P

Heh. Can't remember the name of the char but I know exactly what you're talking about. I actually never had that club before and wanted to get a feel for what whallop could do. It didn't take me long to realize it wasn't worth much to me, but you happened to be around during that brief window where I wanted to keep it. I could tell you wanted it-- you should have just tried to do some bargaining! Djetmai was always open for business. Funny thing was, I kept coming across the damned thing immediately after that and had carried two of them for a while to give to you, but we didn't seem to cross paths again that I can recall.

Welp, that was a blast. This character held many firsts for me—my first thief, my first Villager, my first last name, my first role-contest runner-up, and my first con-death. This was my second hero and my only character of any relevance at all thus far, although I clearly have a long way to go to really become noteworthy. I learned a ton with this one, explored a lot, and felt like I finally started to get over the ridiculous learning curve that is CF.

Role: Chaotic/Neutral. Sphere war. Djetmai was at war with himself and the world. He had both good and bad in his heart, and did what he could to resist “temptation” as a thief. He tried to take only what was needed and earned, but was not always able to control himself. He was a bit of a wild card and mostly a loner. He hated most “common thieves” (vultures/looters especially so) and any others who gave in to convenient desires (like magic). Yet he was sporadic in his behaviors, at times reckless. He tried to be reliable and did his best to fight with honor and respect. The never-ending war, and the pervasiveness of magic in general, began to wear on him and carrying powerful magic caused his dark side to emerge—a sort of subconscious conflict about the temptations of magic (I had intentions of expanding on this aspect of my role but simply ran out of con/time). He also hated those who were foolish enough to protect the magi and saw the Tribunal and the Empire as a bunch of tools and would have warred with them far more if it didn’t mean “losing his focus” and thus falling back into temptations that made one weak in body, mind, and soul. To Djetmai, the war had no end and really not even much of a purpose other than to prove oneself, to show your art and determination, to demonstrate your honor through combat, focus and perseverance.

Build: Binder/poisoner. Berserker. I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this build when I first started out. I just knew I wanted to try a binder, hoping to be reasonably good at PK and to focus heavily on RP and exploring. Being a svirfnebli thief berserker did not really go as planned, and I was terribly mismatched against so many enemies. But occasionally I’d kick some butt, which kept me going, and over time I learned the fights I could win (few and far between) and those that I would surely lose (more than I’d like to admit). The size difference issue gave me all kinds of problems—giants, minotaur, many shifter forms, and those smart enough to alter their size really limited my options. I had some fun with the binder skills, although I found them to be ridiculously inconsistent and unreliable when I needed them most—rarely did I have a time when things went perfectly, and even when it did people seemed to be able to run off far too easily when bound up. In the end, that was my major downfall—I couldn’t seal the kill and had a real lack of ability to do much of anything in so many one-on-one fights other than stand there, kicking or whatever, and hope to hit some DBs. At times I could be a force in raids and defending, but I never really got the hang of how to use my poisons; I found all kinds of ingredients but didn’t ever get the strategy down to use them effectively to my advantage. Regardless of my incoherent build, I had a lot of fun and did most of what I set out to do (mainly explore, RP, and get my timing down in melee combat).

Battle: I loved my experience with the Village. I had no idea of the depth there, and the skills and RP that I witnessed were great. Participating in the Rites was great even if I got whooped (that was expected). I had an absolute blast running around with you, Salyeris, and it was great to watch you rise from a bard that hadn’t been able to slay your first magi into the force that you’ve become. Absolutely phenomenal job as Commander. We had some great adventures and I almost had you with my kick in the arena there at the end! Caitlyan as well, it was an honor to watch you both in action and to see my first Twist character from a nearby perspective. So many others that came and went- never had a problem with anyone--I outlived nearly all of them it seems. I’ll be back again at some point and will have a MUCH better idea of how to design a functional build, thief or otherwise. Being a scout would have made much more sense in my case, build-wise, but regardless it was a lot of fun.

Nexus: So many good fights. Arigan, we would have been great friends in another life. Iklahn- you always had my number and somehow I was dumb enough to fight you on your terms several times, which did not go well. Solec- I always respected you and died SO many frickin times to the manticore. It would have been fun to do a little more RP but such is the life of a shifter, I guess. Kii- we had some fun fights and interesting interactions earlier on, then hardly saw you. Xong- man you were a nightmare of a mismatch for me. I’ve tried two Islanders in the past (Szetekha, my first char, and Dondatda, my only other hero)…it was enlightening to see things from the other side.

Scions: Your majority of your powers are still a complete mystery to me, for the most part (even after my miserable failure as a brief Scion with Ndamakun). Narrisorin—I really enjoyed what I saw of you. Man you have some good forms and seem to be becoming quite the powerhouse.

Empire: Alannah—I always tried to work with other thief guildleaders, and to help younger thieves for that matter. The RP aspects of the thief guildleader thing are great and you were the one Imperial that Djetmai actually liked. Kheorr- I would have loved to get my revenge on you but never really got the chance.

Immortals: I intended to RP heavy and was a follower Iunna early on. She quickly went dormant after our first discussion, but I appreciated that interaction and was psyched to see you again right before my end. Kinda came around full circle in that way. Whiysdan, you were awesome; thanks for getting me back in the Inn. Thror- I wish you were around or visible more because you clearly bring a lot to the game. In general, thanks for all you do as immortals to keep the game going and growing. Given that Iunna was dormant for my life, I felt I got my fair attention (albeit always anonymously from above) and a few rewards for RP that were greatly appreciated, and I really do thank you for that as well. I'd be grateful for any tips for greater success in the future.

I’ll be around, but winter is really my time to shine with CF. I’m an outdoors person and work gets busy this time of year. My wife and I + dog are into hiking, camping, biking, running, etc...so I haven’t as much time to dedicate lately and that’s why things fizzled out a little bit at the end.

So that’s it for now. Thanks all for the fun times and I’ll see you in the fields.

Sorry things didn't work out this time around, I'm just now trying
to get back into the swing of things but it's pretty slow going.
Good job with sticking it out and here's hoping to see you later
this year.

I liked watching Djetmai because I've had a thug/binder berserker build in mind for a while now (even though I know what a difficult road that is likely to be.) AFAIK non-Defender Battle thief has absolutely no way to heal himself other than time, rest and sleep (right?)

I really dug Djetmai and I'm glad you had a good time with him.

It seems that periodically the Battle cabal really, really shines and even though I have gotten a huge share of that, it looks like you got a mega-dose. Being able to contribute to that and share in that is what CF is all about.

See you in the winter.

Now I have the feeling that I'm stupid. You second hero and Djetmai? Maybe it's better for me to get dormant! :D
I thought you are a skilled experienced player in CF from the first interaction. You killed two mages in a row when I first saw you (You were about rank 25) and You did it very good. You are talented it seems!
I liked Djetmai when he was around both as Qush and Gorb.

GLWYN

I also really liked Qush and Gorb, although Gorb not talking made it difficult to interact as much.

I felt like Qush and I were just getting into some fun exploring when he died. I'm always on the lookout for people that are somewhat new but reasonably knowledgable that want to go exploring and trade some secrets. Hopefully in our next lives we'll cross paths again and can continue to learn from each other. I suspect we are at a similar phase in our learning because Gorb came off as a veteran to me early as well.

I really appreciate the complement. It means a lot coming from such a quality player. I had the utmost respect for Mauz and learned a lot watching you in action, especially after trying an assassin a while back and finding that it was not nearly as easy as it looks in skilled hands.

My one tip if you do try that build is to do the binder path first so you can master those skills early on. Get up through binding hands and then master those skills before you do anything else. And even still plan on spending a lot of time training before you rise up the ranks. If you do it right and get up through third attack with the thug path, I think it could work quite well because you'd have damage and -stat skills to throw in during combat and some better means for keeping people from fleeing than I ever had.

Djetmai was certainly a good ally to have, you were usually up for anything and never backed down from anything. I think you and Rydeni were the only two who were villagers before me, so it is a shame to lose that kind of char that you've known so long. But hey, in Battle nobody lives forever.

The kick was hilarious by the way, I started laughing when I saw you pull out that finishing move attempt. If that had ended me it would have been one of my more memorable defeats. Course I lived, thankfully, since it would have been a little humiliating for me to fall to a kick :)

Glad you had fun, hope to see you back in the fields again some time.

Not to die before I came back?! Well I cant say much because my death thread is right above yours. Enjoyed the times we did have and the fights. See you in the fields if I return....when...

**** Nexus: So many good fights. Arigan, we would have been great friends in another life. Iklahn- you always had my number and somehow I was dumb enough to fight you on your terms several times, which did not go well. Solec- I always respected you and died SO many frickin times to the manticore. It would have been fun to do a little more RP but such is the life of a shifter, I guess. Kii- we had some fun fights and interesting interactions earlier on, then hardly saw you. Xong- man you were a nightmare of a mismatch for me. I’ve tried two Islanders in the past (Szetekha, my first char, and Dondatda, my only other hero)…it was enlightening to see things from the other side.

You were a scary foe. As a berserker thief you had a chance to get in and try to screw things up without having to play the normal hide and strike when it's best to strike type style and I liked it. It did get you killed a lot more than most thieves would, but it was fun to play against you.

By the way, seeing that list of Nexus characters, I know I interacted with Dondatda on one of my characters, whether it was Grelgich, Daligia, Screltch, or Arigan. Good luck with the next.

At first, Djetmai was nothing to deal with. Then you started using poisons that kept me trapped in the Village. I hate not walking in the directions you enter. Not only did the poisons improve your potency, but you seemed to become more comfortable with the build.

I really liked Djetmai, with the exception of the one interaction that destroyed this character for me. When you allowed Iepnier to assassinate me during our battle on Eastern. I was furious, and it was the only time (I believe) that I broke role on a freak out. I know my AIM list sure heard about it. And from then on, I was going to hunt you down first and foremost until you called Iepnier to the Circle. But cest la vie.

In my eyes, other then that one moment, you played an amazing character. Had you been a Scout, you would have been so much more formiddable. You would have torn me apart with critical strike.

It was always very hard to tell when my neurological poison actually had an impact. Fear poison was almost laughable in that as soon as I forgot that I was wielding a fear-poisoned weapon it would hit (mob or pk) exactly when I didn't want it to.

So in that particular situation, I was indeed running like hell to the Village and probably would have died to the manticore had Iepnier not assassinated you. Still, Iepnier knew I was "falling back", you were likely close to healthy (I would guess), so he jumped in and it became his fight. Obviously that's highly debatable as to whether it was appropriate to the village code, parity, honor, etc. Per RP, some would let others die for honor, some would not be able to do it, some would do whatever they feel for power or shinies so long as they didn't get caught.

I can understand your frustration there. And you didn't go OOC on me really so I'm not accusing you of anything, but one thing I definitely saw a lot was people who had a very cookie-cutter view of what a Villager should be or do in a certain situation-- parity and all that, but also certain perspectives on things like fighting the Tribunal when flagged, etc. that would get kind of pissed when you didn't do what they thought was a Villager thing to do. That's fine from the Commander, the Drillmaster, the Immortals or even other Villagers to a degree, but otherwise Djetmai didn't care about others interpretations of the rules. Don't get me wrong, there should be limitations within the bounds of a char's RP and enforcement of cabal policies, but I think some people need to understand that there is a broad spectrum of roles that can fall into the Village. Not to mention different (subjective) interpretations of specific situations, or even "mistakes" that are within RP. Some are very strict on the honor aspect and it drives them but others are much less so.

Anyhow, we had some great fights. I started to get the hang of fighting you toward the end and think I even chased you off a few times. I never got the kill but (much like surviving a fight with Krunk) it was a victory for me just to get out of there alive sometimes.

Sad day, I guess. I've always been big about trying to work the political angle as well as everything else, and it was good to have someone to play that game with. Just glanced at your pfile, you weren't very lethal which surprised me :) I couldn't tell it was just your second hero, but kudos for sticking it out and con dying, it's always fun to do that.

GLWYN.