Thu Oct 12 15:28:26 2006

At 10 o'clock PM, Day of the Bull, 29th of the Month of the Grand Struggle
on the Theran calendar Spenner perished, never to return.

Race:	gnome
Class:	shapeshifter
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	TRIBUNAL, the Blood Tribunal
Age:	425
Hours:	362

This character was quite possibly the best time I've had in over ten years. I know I did a lot more exploring with Spenner than anyone else, and I can say preps ARE out there to be found if you are willing to make the time investment to find them. Even with everything I know about ABS etc now, I have to say it's not something I care to spend much of my time on.

The mage quest stuff...Amazing interactions, and a really involved quest that breathed a lot of life into the character for me. Spenner was always playing both ends against the middle. He played the dislike (IC I am certain) between Kiamae and Linolaques to get himself promoted. He didn't ever lie, because that wouldn't have been "right" to his thinking, but he sure used their feud to get himself promoted.

Vindicator powers are really awesome in the right circumstances. I DO think a few things need to be looked at. Blood trail is so far off as to be worthless. Even as high as I had it, I could stand in a room, use it 3 times, and get 3 different answers. Vindi guards were a bit of a disappointment too. I had pre-hero out of range ragers with bloody shackles on them tear through my guards as if they were tissue paper.

Which leads us to the village. I think there needs to be a long hard look at the current berserkers. A lot of them would be fine in other village roles, but are doing things that zerkers aren't supposed to do. I'm leaving it at that and not going to turn this into a flame.

Bulette was awesome for survival. The biggest drawback to it was the boredom factor. It was murder so-and-so then...wait wait wait wait...watching combat scroll by...wait wait wait...REALLY great form and I'm incredibly grateful to have gotten it, big thank you to Nep.

Tribs is, I think, in a much better state now than it was when I went in. I would go for days at a time without seeing another Trib around, in the middle of a one sided war with the village. There are some very skilled Tribs coming up in the ranks.

I think the Trib/Outlander conflict needs some looking at. On the surface things appear equal, but the Tribunal really have a huge disadvantage when it comes to cabal wars with...Well anyone, but especially the Outlanders. If they flee out of the cabal, they are in a protected city. You can't use any of your powers on them unless they are wanted criminals. They can, out of range, turn your guards which could lead to your death. (And in fact once did when I was around lvl 20 and hero outlanders raided.) The Outlander inner maledicts you so bad that even unopposed and fully ABS'd I couldn't even come close to soloing it, even with Bulette.

All in all I have to say this character was a LOT of fun. I was a little disappointed at the lack of response when I was seeking out a con quest. I died some pretty horrific deaths while trying to find preps, and one particular day I lost a good chunk of my con in a very short time. PK wise...Well we'll see when the PBF is up.

Spenner always hated the Fortress, even from his early days. I think it's doubly ironic then that my final death was to a Fortress group.

I'll post goodbies to people who post. I'm going to avoid going down the list of everyone I interacted with because it would be just about everyone.


Thank you to the staff for running such a great quest and such an amazing game. A special thank you to whoever threw out my globals. I have a sneaking suspicion it was Shokai. It had his feel to it.

Ah, Spenner. I remember you as a new Magistrate. Lino, in his glory, had decided that he would take you under his wing. Shortly afterward, I (as a player) realized you were aggravating things between me and Kiamae and couldn't help but chuckle to myself.

These last few weeks, one of Lin's most common refrains had been, "Yes, yes, why won't Spenner just DIE already?!" I had actually considered killing you to end it, but thought that, while evil and appropriate, would have been Way too much of a jerk move. And besides, you "lied" about so many other things that I wasn't sure if one death would actually kill you or not.

You were great at helping keep the Spire afloat while I was having a couple months of connection problems. As always, you helping me rank was really appreciated, and you were great at killing peeps.

Agh, gotta go. Your rp was great, and really made it interesting though difficult for me :) I'm really glad I got to interact with you!

I was really concerned for a while there. You don't KNOW how many times you would be clearly linkless but still connected, and I'd be standing there spamming where and jumping anyone who came near you to keep you alive. Lol.

I liked our interactions, especially when I was moving up in the ranks and getting promotions. I could see you watching me, accessing how much of a threat I was to your own ambitions and plans. It was a really cool dance to get what I wanted without stepping on your toes.

I hope to interact with you again. If you still have connection problems, drop me an email. I've helped a few other people find better net access when they had problems. You're someone I'd like to see more of online.

Ah, Spenner, I absolutely adored you =)
I always imagined him as looking like a jawa from
starwars for some reason, which got me chuckling just
about every time we met. I loved our deep philosophical
debates (whining sessions)as well. Like you said our
characters had an odd balance to them that almost never
failed to get me laughing. There was a turning
point for the Spire, and it pretty much started when
you got into swing. My favourite, blame monkey.
I actually saw your death speil on my new character and
felt like running to the Spire and biting your nose or
something. Have as much fun with your next =)

Ducktrainer.

When Kiamae died, a lot of the fun went out of the character for me. I loved having you around.

I don't know if you check Dios forums or not, but if you missed it your PBF is paid for and up. I'm going to start doing this for characters that to me stand out as well roleplayed. You more than qualified.

Never changed my opinion of the character or the player. Forum egos and flaming aside, you play some damn fine characters man. And know I never take what happens on this forum or that other one into the game with me. If that was true, I'd really only group with two people. Lightmage and Nepenthe. And Vandrylon, damn her soul!

Thats why I never minded helping you rank. You knew your #### and never left me with my ass hanging out when we were together. Spenner counted you as one of his few true friends.

A vlad! Me and you sometimes got the nemesis thingy going on the unofficials with our handles, but Spenner I loved. What I didn't like was you taking your deaths to ooc forums, sure that village gank was crap, but let it be man. More from me when I croak.

I'm trying to ease off on the forums. They are constantly my downfall. I loved having you around, because I always knew I had someone competant to watch my back and jump into the thick of things with me. I'm going to miss you.

Even if you did share in my remains right in front of me, you vulture you. :P

Hrm, Ragers are one thing. Bloody Shackles is pretty amazing against normal people. Sequester(no magical escape), EVIS on step and lagged movement, makes getting away tough, and than you get a big -dex and hit dam making it harder to stay. Though I got tooled all around, I really had no business fighting you. Good job.

People could still vanish/quaff while shackled, which I think may need to be looked at. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not.

I felt kind of bad fighting Orau, because it was just one of those really horrible mismatches, and I know you were always going to hang in there till the end. I tore one of the Magistrates a new one one day for talking about going to kill you right after you unghosted from my counter-raid on the Tree and you dying. It wasn't entirely IC of me, but damn man you have heart and I hate that kind of "lets kick him when he's down" mentality.

Really good fights.

I'm sorry about pincering you that one time when you unshifted right in front of me. I even gave it a couple of seconds for you to realize and run. Crushing axe + trapping + pincer + blunt vuln didn't look pretty. Still, you got away as I figured you would. We didn't get to fight much more often than that. The few we had were good, though. You seemed a capable Vindicator (as you'd have to be to get the position).

The Outlander/Trib conflict, I wouldn't be averse to Tribs being able to attack known Outlanders in town, so long as guards didn't get involved unless the Outlanders were wanted. Tribunals have a lot of power in their cities and in the tower so long as they're around. When they're not, Tribunal inner is easy to raid. I think the Outlander inner is as powerful and its supposed to be because of the Empire, who can bring all sorts of nasty powers into play and tear the Spirit apart. Makes it hard on Tribs, but game balance can't be perfect.

Good luck with your next. Great character from what I saw. :)

I would have pincered me too if I were you. I liked fighting you, since you weren't generic evil felar outlander number 34956. I hope you change your mind about CF. You're a great player.

I'll start by saying there was a lot to like about this character and a lot to dislike. It was easy to see how he could be both loved and hated by different people. I'm sure my PBF comments reflect both sides of this.

There were moments when Spenner seemed really, visciously evil to me, but overall I think he did a good job of walking the line of neutrality in a way that seemed to fit the character. It's not an easy alignment to play well over a long term.

I'm going to go ahead and give you some advice. I realize there's a certain arrogance inherent in that, but, there you go:

First, the general piece that probably a lot of us could use: try to learn to count to ten or whatever calms you immediately after you die. Or at least, try not to talk to anyone for a minute or two. It only does you so much good to play a cool character most of the time if you come off like a super-bozo right after you die. It's the latter people always seem to remember.

Second, the bit relating to your forum and what not persona. Over the years, you've had what I'd call on better days a tendency to exaggerate and on worse days a tendency to just lie about ####. My advice to you is to just try to put that behind you and play it straight. Don't bust people down for stuff you do. Don't put on one face for one crowd and a different one for another. Just play it straight up, man.

You've produced some really cool characters. Overall, I think their quality is increasing over the years. More, there's a pretty good variety in the roles you've played well, something even a lot of the better players can't or don't do. It's a little painful to see that overshadowed by your OOC persona, but it's always going to be to a large degree unless you choose to make it otherwise.

>The mage quest stuff...Amazing interactions, and a really
>involved quest that breathed a lot of life into the character
>for me.

Glad you enjoyed it; I think we've all had fun running it so far!

There's no question that you lucked out in that you happened to be playing the right kind of character to really get involved as it first started going, but a lot of people had the same luck and didn't make of it what you did. Nice job there.

>Vindicator powers are really awesome in the right
>circumstances. I DO think a few things need to be looked at.
>Blood trail is so far off as to be worthless. Even as high as
>I had it, I could stand in a room, use it 3 times, and get 3
>different answers. Vindi guards were a bit of a disappointment
>too. I had pre-hero out of range ragers with bloody shackles
>on them tear through my guards as if they were tissue paper.

Yeah, blood trail is pretty iffy. I mean to have another look at that one of these days. Vindicator guards are weaker than Magistrate guards, yeah. The combination of them and shackles can be brutal, but they're also not the "I win" button people occasionally make them out to be, as I'm sure you got to see.

>Bulette was awesome for survival. The biggest drawback to it
>was the boredom factor. It was murder so-and-so then...wait
>wait wait wait...watching combat scroll by...wait wait
>wait...REALLY great form and I'm incredibly grateful to have
>gotten it, big thank you to Nep.

You're welcome. Really, Spenner did a lot for the Consortium; it made sense that they'd try to do a lot for him back.

With bulette I think I'd still do a lot with orangutan etc. in a lot of cases. No matter what quest form you get, it's a good bet that at the very least both of your major forms are better than it at SOMEthing.

>I think the Trib/Outlander conflict needs some looking at. On
>the surface things appear equal, but the Tribunal really have
>a huge disadvantage when it comes to cabal wars with...Well
>anyone,

I'll give you that... it sucks to be Tribunal in a cabal war with anyone but Outlander.

>but especially the Outlanders.

There, I disagree. More detail to follow!

>If they flee out of the
>cabal, they are in a protected city. You can't use any of your
>powers on them unless they are wanted criminals.

Almost. It depends to some degree what flavor of Tribunal you are, but in all cases you can at least use your guards in fights to prevent retrievals.

Obviously, most Outlanders are going to be wanted a lot of the time, especially since they can't generally raid Tribunal without being wanted. Having played both sides at hero a fair bit in the last couple years I think it washes out better than you might think.

Outlander is similar to Battle in the sense that both cabals give up a lot that any other character can take for granted, as well as in that it can take a good chunk of time playing either cabal to really "get" the full extent of their weaknesses and how to exploit them.

>They can, out
>of range, turn your guards which could lead to your death.
>(And in fact once did when I was around lvl 20 and hero
>outlanders raided.)

True! But, equally, a hero Tribunal can easily maul down a level 20 Outlander (or anyone) if wanted. Much more easily than you can maul someone to death with subvert, at least.

>The Outlander inner maledicts you so bad
>that even unopposed and fully ABS'd I couldn't even come close
>to soloing it, even with Bulette.

Yeah, bulette probably isn't the best form for that. The Spirit's pretty rough on some kinds of characters, no question.

>All in all I have to say this character was a LOT of fun. I
>was a little disappointed at the lack of response when I was
>seeking out a con quest.

I'm not sure how closely you were keeping track, but you were awarded a decent amount of con throughout Giant Mage Quest. In a sense, that was your con quest.

>There were moments when Spenner seemed really, visciously evil
>to me, but overall I think he did a good job of walking
>the line of neutrality in a way that seemed to fit the
>character. It's not an easy alignment to play well over a
>long term.

Thanks, this means a lot to me.

>
>I'm going to go ahead and give you some advice. I realize
>there's a certain arrogance inherent in that, but, there you
>go:

Ehh, I'd accept your advice sooner than a lot of other people.

>First, the general piece that probably a lot of us could use:
>try to learn to count to ten or whatever calms you immediately
>after you die. Or at least, try not to talk to anyone for a
>minute or two. It only does you so much good to play a cool
>character most of the time if you come off like a super-bozo
>right after you die. It's the latter people always seem to
>remember.

Yeah I'm working on that. The thing is, when I lose my cool it's generally not the other person I'm pissed off at it's myself. I realize this.

>Second, the bit relating to your forum and what not persona.
>Over the years, you've had what I'd call on better days a
>tendency to exaggerate and on worse days a tendency to just
>lie about ####. My advice to you is to just try to put that
>behind you and play it straight. Don't bust people down for
>stuff you do. Don't put on one face for one crowd and a
>different one for another. Just play it straight up, man.

I'm not going to really get into this. I'll email you about this, since I want to avoid turning this into my usual long winded argument.

>You've produced some really cool characters. Overall, I think
>their quality is increasing over the years. More, there's a
>pretty good variety in the roles you've played well, something
>even a lot of the better players can't or don't do. It's a
>little painful to see that overshadowed by your OOC persona,
>but it's always going to be to a large degree unless you
>choose to make it otherwise.

Yeah, it's tough to really get into a character and immerse yourself in it, and then just shrug off certain things. I'm working on it, and on my forum presence. I realized a lot of the time I sounded really ungrateful, and I'm NOT by any means. I love CF and appreciate the staff that maintains it.

>There's no question that you lucked out in that you happened
>to be playing the right kind of character to really get
>involved as it first started going, but a lot of people had
>the same luck and didn't make of it what you did. Nice job
>there.

Thanks. I have a knack for "right place right time" situations. I'm going to be afraid to see how much imm XP I had, and how many comments.

>
>Yeah, blood trail is pretty iffy. I mean to have another look
>at that one of these days. Vindicator guards are
>weaker than Magistrate guards, yeah. The combination of them
>and shackles can be brutal, but they're also not the "I win"
>button people occasionally make them out to be, as I'm sure
>you got to see.

Yep. In all honesty I think if the guards were tweaked up just a tiny bit it would be good.

>With bulette I think I'd still do a lot with orangutan etc. in
>a lot of cases. No matter what quest form you get, it's a
>good bet that at the very least both of your major forms are
>better than it at SOMEthing.

Yeah, bulette was #### for raiding with, or chasing down criminals, but great for retrievals or taking on people I knew wouldn't run.

>>
>Obviously, most Outlanders are going to be wanted a lot of the
>time, especially since they can't generally raid Tribunal
>without being wanted. Having played both sides at hero a fair
>bit in the last couple years I think it washes out better than
>you might think.

It would if they raided at less cherry picked times more often. When I first rolled up, OUtlanders raided and got flagged and all was good. Nowadays they want till nobody is on to flag them before they come, so things are different.

>True! But, equally, a hero Tribunal can easily maul down a
>level 20 Outlander (or anyone) if wanted. Much more easily
>than you can maul someone to death with subvert, at least.

If wanted. They can use their powers anytime, anywhere.

>Yeah, bulette probably isn't the best form for that. The
>Spirit's pretty rough on some kinds of characters, no
>question.

Even orangutan could get it to gushing at most, with full ABS (Which I very seldom had) before either withdrawing or dying, sometimes both.

>I'm not sure how closely you were keeping track, but you were
>awarded a decent amount of con throughout Giant Mage Quest.
>In a sense, that was your con quest.

Yeah, I noticed 3 extra con once. I was really hoping to get a full on con quest, especially the last few days with one death left on me. To be honest I doubt I would have left the Spire for Nexus, I REALLY was into the role of Vindicator. I was just trying to tough it out till the whole thing was done and hoping for a little con boost. Exploring and mob deaths really kicked my con in the junk, especially when I played from work.

Thanks for the advice. Most of what you said was spot on. I'll email you about the rest to keep the forums from being filled with my usual invective.

And again, thanks for everything involving Spenner.

Before anything, I guess I'll start off by saying that my ####ish attitude towards the end is nowhere near OOC; it's pure IC. Yes, I know it's easy to say that, but really, it is, and I can't go any further than that. Solid char, though, I thought you really did pull the Spire together now and then.

Oh, and if you're Vlad, then I'm pretty sure that I was in the same cabal with a certain elf paladin of yours some time ago...but I heard you play a lot of goodies, so that probably doesn't really say anything much.

Spenner was itching for you to get tossed so he could kick your ass. lol. I never really interacted much with you, our times were pretty different. And yes odds are you were in a cabal with an elf paladin of mine. Rumor has it thats all I play. ;)

It does seem that at one point everyone wants to get everyone else tossed.

If for nothing else than the recognition that when I tried to kill your group mates and put in effort to not kill you, you noticed it and weren't just pissed that I was ####ing up your ranking.

You played one hell of a quality character, and if someone else hadsn't paidf for your PBF already I would have. Characters like yours deserve to be noticed for the things they do and don't do. You were awesome.

Totally annoying and arrogant and full of hatred in game. Meaning totally well done.

Fight in the underdark was a good one, if I had done one thing differently I think I could have made it out alive, too. But oh well, no guts no glory.

Good luck and all that.

Spit them out and give them back to me, village boy. :P

That was seriously one of the ballsiest things I've ever been a party to. If my group had had it's head a little less up it's ass it would have gone differently, but since things were what they were you got the win before you died. Major props.

Hallo Spenner,

Didn't know you well but I liked what I saw. Had a nice welcome at the Inn when you said you'd bite my face off if I spit in your drink. Made me laugh.

Zaph

Again, great job. Just a question though, I'd like to know what you think I dropped the ball on Trib wise. As for the Hamsah incident, did you actually see it the way it was explained to me in game, or was that Spenner trying to screw Jeir? That was the only of lots of accusations against Jeir from his enemies that came to anything. Hope your next is even more on my side then old Spenner was. Good luck on the next.

The Hamsah incident, to my eyes, went down just as I described it. I don't know what you were told, but it happened just as I said.

Overall, I saw a few crimes go by with Jeir in a city that were committed by Forties and Jeir didn't act on them. Being a Vindi by now this wasn't of much concern to Spenner, since he didn't think it was his job to judge guilty or innocent anymore, just to punish the criminals. He only got mad after the Hamsah incident, and started to do things to undermine Jeirs position in the spire.

I knew that there was a respect between us and it was fun running around with you. Empire is on its way back up, but for a long time you and a few others outside of the Empire were the only people in my range that didn't want me dead! :) Good luck with whatever is next.

I wanted to do more actively with you, but it was really against my role to spend too much time with any one person. Kiamae was different because she helped offset some of Spenners nastier personality traits. Like Nep said there were a few times I did some really REALLY viciously evil things, I couldn't risk spending too much time being buddy buddy with the Emperor. We could have done a LOT of damage. *sigh*

FYI I'm pretty critical of Empire players, and let me say you're doing a GREAT job with being Emperor. Keep it up. Maybe my next will be an Imperial. ;)

I lost more than I won, I think, but they were still fun. You double teamed me, I double teamed you...no worries there.

Never really interacted with you other than fighting, but you must've done something right to get bulette. See ya in the fields.

Pre-Bulette our fights were a lot closer than I would have liked. I just couldn't f'ing hit you worth a damn unless you were a criminal. Drow dagger specs in the right hands, are scary. You were scary. I loved fighting with you. I never griped about the tag teaming with you because you weren't a zerker.

The funniest fight we ever had was on eastern road. You me and Nefla all attacking each other round robin. I have to see if I have the log, that was a really funny fight. I'm hoping I wasn't at work for that one, since I don't log at work.

I had a thing for you when I played Crulvane. Seeing this poor little gnome sitting around in his guild in Hamsah for hour after hour. I would always try to drop by from time to time to talk or whatever. Tribs can be a pretty dull place to be.

Then with Deeag I also made the effort to be around you a bit, although at this point in your life you were too damn occupied with Trib business.

You never seemed to avoid conflict and from what I saw liked to mix it up. Con dying a gnome! Hell that is an effort in itself.

See you again in the future I am sure.

I think food items should be able to be held. I was going to do an eq freeze wearing a hat with a feather in it, and a steak of the huntress, but I couldn't "hold my meat". Very disappointing.

You play a damn good character, plenty of RP and always doing what you should be. My hat is off to you. Good luck with the next and see you in the fields.

I'm trying to ease off on my forum "persona". I don't intentionally start off being a ####, I just tend to say things bluntly, then someone reacts badly, and I get pissed and things just rapidly go downhill. I'm trying to curb that.

We have been pissing on each other off and on for what? how many years now? well except for when I havent played for long periods of time.
if I didnt have that when I went to qhcf, I likely wouldnt go there even to look at logs anymore.
damnit.
You had alot of balls, but I have said before, you didnt take care of your char.
I dont think I ever saw you with full a/b/s.
and could you have imagined full a/b/s on that bullet?
nothing would do more than scratches or grazes.
#### without it was hard to damage it.
Sit there and have it slowed with all that fighting things, and hell yeah.
eheh
ohw ell
is just me.

You hit so damn hard you wore down even the bulette. I looked for chances to nail you, just because you were such a hard kill. Not JUST because you hit hard either, but you know your enviornment. Being driven or dragged to the giant meant it was time for me to get out of dodge.

ABS...I seldom had. I always had shield (kisses Neps tosies for that one) and generally had aura, but I think I had maybe two barrier wands in my whole life. I looked in literally hundreds of places and just never found one. Not even my sleeks. I died, and I #### you not 7 times in one afternoon trying to kill one mob to see if, as I suspected, it had my sleek barrier. I'd get the sumbitch worn down and then he'd bust out some #### and kill me.