Thu Oct 23 21:32:13 2014

At 1 o'clock AM, Day of the Great Gods, 26th of the Month of the Winter Wolf
on the Theran calendar Ashmon perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	shaman
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	EMPIRE, the Empire
Age:	81
Hours:	489

I feel both sad and relieved that I won't have more time as Ashmon.
CF can be pretty intense. Thanks to everyone who were part of the
experience, players and imms alike.

For the first 300 hours I felt basically clueless. I was the teenager
who had sneaked in on his older brother's party, was allowed to stay,
but who was just oogling in the corner, not really doing anything.

I like the thrill of PK, but it is difficult actually doing it right.
There is a lot of rock, paper, scissors in CF and sometimes it turns
out someone brought a shotgun. I felt like a hen running around
without a head. Oh, so the Hunt both prevents magical transportation
and gives heavy damage. What, can rangers lag through protective
shield? How can this guy do demolish devastes through sanc?! And so
on and so forth.

Half the time I got so excited by a fight that whatever feeble plan I
had went out the window ;-)

I struggled with group dynamics. When checking your effects is
challenging, it is just easier being alone, because you can only mess
it up for yourself. Most of the time.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to offer advice or tactics and a
belated I am sorry to the allies who were howling in frustration.

I encountered some very neat RP. It's amazing the stories and
subtleties people can conjure. Keep it up! Often I had to use several
minutes to think of an appropriate response to something that was said
or happened and by then it was just too late. Very annoying. So if
Ashmon seemed like an oblivous dead beat it was due to lack of
ability, not lack of interest.

I never wanted to be high priest. I always felt out of the loop wrt
politics and events in general and harmless in PK. So when I was
made high priest I accepted because it was something Ashmon would do
out of duty. After all, he was the single member of the divine sect
at the time ;-)

I tried to at least preach a little and rally the troops spiritually
if not in the flesh. It was a relief when Miralik took over. I felt
the sect was in good hands and we even shared play times. Then
Miralik decided to delete and Ashmon was promoted again! Hellfire!

I think Ashmon would have been better as a tribunal, but I liked the
we are building a better world angle and I thought I would have more
fights as an imperial. Ashmon was probably too close to lawful good,
though.




Some good times:
Getting scolded and set an "impossible" task by the imperial prelate
after being dumb-uncle-Bob-will-aid-anyone. That was so neat. Thanks
for taking the time to do it. I had shivers down my spine the whole
time. I tried to step it up from there.

Getting tatooed by Destuvius. While I certainly tried, I was never
really sure I was doing the right thing, so it was a nice pat on the
back.

Running the gauntlet in Arkham with 4 foes taking turns waiting at the
Arkham healer (had recall there) while trying to retrieve from
outlanders. I still died like a chump, but it felt glorious for the 40
minutes it lasted.

Giving the bloodoath to Mrynjryn, the arial sheriff spy with a fake
mustache. While down right ridiculous I found it very funny. Thanks!

There were some frustrating times as well, but why dwell on the bad stuff?
Thanks for playing everyone.

Well, I'll try to get around to making some specific goodbyes as well.

Not what I consider the typical Imperial.

Lots of fights, and yes rock paper scissors. You were
a very frustrating build to deal with but I think that
after I started working outside of the box against you
I was able to make you at least a bit more nervous.

Good job all around.

When you were with Dolindar you were super scary.
All that raw damage after a dispel. Ouch.

1 on 1 I could prep to deal with the damage and try to lower your strength, but on the other hand I couldn't finish, so it was kind of a draw.

I really liked that you used all those wands later on. It made the fights very interesting.
Ashmon hated felar, but you were almost a redeeming case as you were articulate and rather classy.

You clearly didn't buy into Ashmon's vision of a better world, but I felt I had to try ;-)

Keep up the good work!

Ashmon was enjoyable to watch in both PK and RP. You looked like you grew into your own as the character accumulated hours. You became both more confident and competent. Definitely a lesson for some (not all) of the quick-delete types.

Good luck with your next.

but I figured I would just regret it later on.

Shaman is very sturdy, so it made it possible
to both seek out fights and survive getting surprised.

For what it is worth, I only ran into you a handful of times and you always seemed like you had it together. If there was uncertainty or a lack of confidence present, I sure didn't see it.

Good luck with the next.

You did good! I really do think that, but then again, there were quite a few things you could've done differently that most likely would've ended my life quite a few times.

You were very classy when you got me, and I tried to pay that back to you as well.

I hope to see you soon again on the fields.

I had hoped to fight outlanders with Ashmon,
but apart from May there weren't really that many who shared my play times.
Then enter spiffy Liantae who were always up for some ass kicking!

Before you got insect swarm I think it was pretty even, in so far
as if one got the upper hand, the other just walked/recalled away.

I am sure I could have done better, but I didn't really see how after you had insect swarm.
If I was super prepped you would merely walk away, so if I wanted you to stay I faced a very real risk of dying. Damn disembowel!

Anyway, keep kicking ass :-)

Destuvius. Thanks for everything.

I did struggle with your tasks, but that's on me.
D:"Kill 4 outlanders".
A:"Nice and simple, see you soon!"
40 hours later...I killed one...I think?

I spent a fair amount of time on my first essay, but it was just kinda
bleh. Especially compared to some of the stuff in The Asylum.
Actually, it was neat that you left IC stuff from your followers in
the Asylum. Since we didn't get to chat that much, it helped me to
figure out how to approach the religion.

I also appreciate that you offline empowered me even though I didn't
realize it at the time!

I know I was a push over. I just struggled with the dominence
part. When I don't have half a clue myself, it is difficult to boss
people around! I will leave it to the leader guys to take charge.

Speaking of which...Greghon, I would normally say good luck, but it is
clear you got it all planned out.

Jarlduz.
Wow. Good tactics, good communication, easy on the gear and advice.
Inspiring on every level. A true leader.

Rahzeez.
Good imperial blade RP.
That time you had knocked Nueria out. Heheh
R: "Knocked out"
A: "I'll rescue you. BRT!"
c fearf nue
Nueria flies away
R: "Uhm..."
A: "Did I err?"

Tralgdar.
You are a nice guy, always just taking things in stride and
out there mixing it up. I liked the laid back attitude on one hand, even
though it felt like the player some times ;-)
Thanks for trying to save Ash after the coup. That was clearly ooc, but a nice
touch!

Ilune.
Heheh. I guess your patience ran out after all. Amazing PK skills.

Daphrdan.
I always felt out of my depth when dealing with you. On one
hand you were very forthcoming, on the other I felt manipulated at
times. But you sure knew your CF lore. I also got the impression I was
talking to a real person. Well done! Best of luck with your plans.

Reegun
You obviously knew your stuff, but we didn't share play times,
so I felt kinda guilty when I was high priest. I was glad to give you
the promotion to priestess, at least.

Ancantu.
Good luck with everything. Got a nice Destuvian vibe from
you, even if Ashmon disliked blacks. Dark feast *shudder*

Natlos.
You ran out of steam, I guess. It started well though.

Streizhar, did you plan for wight all along?! Anyway, I found your
post wight RP very neat. That last fight we had was a real nail
biter. I had forgotten I had bartered my silver rapier and Cabaq had
just broken my other weapon. If I had had parry it might have gone
differently ;-)

Hrakesh
We should have done more together! The one time we did team
up was a great raid on the outlanders even though you had to hold my
hand ;-)

H:"Plan is to dispel their wind walk so they get stuck in quicksand"
A:"Dispel. Got it"
A:"Muhuhaha. Time to feel fear, outlanders!"
c 'fearful' outl
!
!
!
H: "Uhm...Dispel?"
A: "Ah, yes"


Ainaele the High Herald.
Nice char. I really liked our trip to that portal area. It felt like
a real adventure in so far that you allowed us to look around and rp a
bit. Thanks! In contrast some guys took me through Throthon, but it
felt bleh, because there was no story, just "say 'blah'", "look hump",
etc. Btw I don't blame those guys - I was grateful to be allowed on the trip -
it must be kinda going through the motions the 10th time.


Jero.
Super neat battle rager. You were tenacious and a good sport. I was so
impressed with one of your retrievals. One of my early favorite foes.

Kwoalewei.
Dying horribly to you after Niji assured me that there could be no
possible problem with raiding the scarabs was painful. After that I
tried to have as much save vs. paralysis as I could. It helped,
fortunately, for you were often lurking around at the most inopportune
times. I had no idea how to deal with you beyond that, though.
All that shadow stuff was very intriquing. I think it is great
that you can have such story lines in the game.

Ulamette.
We got off to a bad start, which could have developed neatly. Strife
always make for more interesting stories. Though I regret the total
RP fail on my part before and after the incident where I botched your
kill on Ciondanh. I was a moron, which made me agree with your
assesment, but hey no way Ashmon should have done that.
Later on you were a tough nut as Anathema and you knew it.

Aiyanatuin. It was humbling to face you.
I tried different stuff, but I couldn't figure a way to stand against
you, much less beat you. You also gave me some nasty surprises. Well done!
Call healing aiy
!
WTF _I_ got healing cursed?!

Aha, she is all offense now. I'll just dispel and win. Muhahah. Hey, my sanc got dispelled. Angel bashes?! Uh oh.



Leirianis. Nice chats :-)

I guess my favourite enemies were Liantae, Dolindar, Cabaq and Eialanthius
but in general there were a lot of cool foes.

Thanks for all the thrills!

You were pretty much everything that I could have hoped for out of a follower. Yes, you could have probably been a little more 'harsh' to people who you were supposed to be, but thats ok. Your RP was top notch on every level and it was a genuine pleasure to get to interact with you (both as an imm and as a fellow mort).

I am glad to hear that having the player submissions in the shrine helped out with things. Its part of the reason they are there, the other part is that I know how cool it is so to see something you created be immortalized/built into CF lore.

Im glad you had such a good time with the character and I hope you continue to in the future.

I'll write more once I am gone, but believe it or not one of the reasons I rolled Tralgdar was to run with Ashmon, even though our times and vacations didn't seem to mesh as well as they thought they would. I was a huge Ashmon fan, so I didn't want to see him go down in flames for something he had nothing to do with.

About Ashmon:
I have had a bit of interaction with you, mostly as allies. I never thought anything else, other than powerhouse RP. About the PK, I never understand PK shaman well. So I didn't know if you are doing right or wrong. Your RP was to a level that I would have bet you will end the Emperor at a point.

About Natlos:
I always thought that I might like shaman class. After playing Natlos, I found out that I love shaman class! But there were problems preventing me a bit. Empire's rising power, My own crappy connection, Getting a bit busy IRL and so on. I will make a shaman imperial one day, again.

GLWYN

Ahhh, sad to see this.

As I wrote in my goodbyes, I was clueless on what to do, as I felt like a newbie on many levels. Ashmon was one to look up to.

Well done, your RP was ten levels above mine!! :)

You're welcome, on off hours I snoop in on Empire and other folks return the favor for me in Battle. I caught the thing with Ashmon and those clowns and decided to have some fun. It wasn't tooooootally impossible, but it wasn't an easy task. Glad it injected a little adrenaline.

I liked Ashmon, you were a trucker, kept on keeping on no matter what came your way. I like that, and I like seeing someone slowly get the feel for a class they are new at.

Solid Empire presence.

Some good talks, some good fights. Ashmon was a great char from my perspective. Enjoy the break, hope you're back soon.

I thought you did well! The RP especially.

I was trying to wrap my head around you. I sensed you were very polite, but couldn't shake the feeling there was something else going on behind that politeness. I don't know. Sacrificing of kittens or something. :)

You're right it's too bad we could not have done that combination more. Maybe some actual exploration.

All in all a very good contributer to CF!

Good luck with your next one.