That was incredibly fun and but for one real disappointment, fulfilled many of my cf-related goals. I rolled this character in direct response to a conversation that took place in IRC a couple months ago where several people emphatically stated that a scout could not be a pk'er like a berserker, and getting kills as a berserker is due to the cheap killing of deathblow, and overpoweredness of the berserker path. I said scouts (and defenders, but I focused on scouts) could be be just as big a killer, and in fact die less than a berserker. They didn't believe. And so Azilaph was born, and I believe I've proved my point, killing at all levels, almost always alone, often against bad odds, and in almost every area of the game, from Seantryn and the deserts outside Trothon, to Barovia and the Outlander cabal, to the chess tower and arboria and of course to hell.

Having rolled him, I had three other goals, aside from the primary scout-as-killer. First, I'd never had a warrior with more than the two legacies. Not only did I get one extra, but two, for which I am very grateful. I might have chosen ward of blades or balance of the sisters rather than outcry of steel, Lyr, but I'm not greedy, I was happy to get anything. Thank you very much for that. And thank you Nep for Fortress of the Mind, it was very helpful against the bards, but more important it was very role appropriate, keeping Azilaph's mind strong against potential mage intrusion philosophically. You can see in my role what I'm talking about. So thank you for that again.

Second, I wanted to be a sort of soldier villager, not one gunning for leader or drillmaster and not really one to correct others, not really looking for glory. As an example, I don't know if any of the other ragers or imms noticed, but I pretty much never announced kills on cb. I think I was the only one ever in the history of cf to do that. :P Generally speaking, caballed characters announce kills of their enemies on the cb, for a variety of reasons. But Azilaph didn't. I bet some of the rager players are very surprised at my pk kill numbers now, because they didn't really hear or see me being a killer, as I obviously was to some extent. The point was, for Azilaph, that doing the job was it's own reward, and needed doing, you don't have to announce it for glory or vanity. I had no problems letting others lead or make decisions when I didn't feel I was best suited for the job. But at the same time I had no problems telling someone they were wrong if it was something directly affecting me. In any event, I was made a veteran at the end and while I deleted not too long after, I felt like I had succeded here, too.

Third, I had an Arvam character before, and despite a couple hundred hours of what I thought as both good and consistent roleplay, I didn't get his tat then, and so I very much wanted to try again. Three hundred+ hours later, I yet again didn't get it. Arvam, if you are reading this, I would appreciate if you could let me know what I did wrong. I really thought I did a good job being a follower and not breaking role, making role-related decisions, etc. I believed I earned the tat, but evidently you disagreed and so if you could tell me why, I'd like to learn from the experience. Thanks in advance.

As to the life of the character, I had a very cabdru-esque experience with Azilaph, in the way Nep described that when something could go either way, it generally went in my favor. As an example, I had pretty much the same set of eq for over 200 hours. Most of the times I died I was away from anyone, and the few times I died to pk there seemed to be lucky circumstances - they were blind, too much -dex/str, or other friends to loot me before enemies did. The one or two times I really thought I'd just lose it all - like Draktel in Balator - they just didn't, which was a pleasant surprise.

But that luck extended beyond simple equ or looting into timing and events. I had no idea what was going on when I rolled him but as became clear it was during the heady days of the end of the third age. Good immxperience is one of the best parts of the game, and so I tried to throw myself into any part of the various quests that I could - which was also part of the Arvam "be at the front of events, participating, not at the edge looking in" - and that went very well. I was somewhat disappointed by several people I would kill during events, as though being a rager, being someone who hates and looks to kill them, should somehow stop acting that way and just let them do what they want. Like a free pass until the mobs stop talking to them. That's just silly talk. But those were few enough that I wasn't discouraged and contined to participate either as a gadfly to the mages/fortress groups, or as a participant/leader in the rager side of events. Some of the best times I've had in the 10+ years in the game were had during those events. So thanks again to all the imms who participated, either directly with me or just in the background making it all go relatively smoothly.

In respect of the traditional farewells, I've generally found that if someone is motivated to write on a thread, they will, and so I will not write individual goodbyes here, but rather respond dutifully and quickly to anyone who posts. Those of you who were mages that I fought can see in my role that I would never talk to any mages, so please don't post saying you were upset I didn't talk to you. I've never really understood the belief that someone who despises you so much that he wants to kill you and everything you stand for would somehow engage in conversation with you, particularly after you were just in mortal combat. That's just me. But with this char I made it part of his role so that there would never be one of those conversations that degenerate into "You're a bad rager" "You're weak and pathetic." Blah blah blah. I enjoyed that immensely. For the rest, I'd say about 85% were solid and enjoyable to interact with. There were definitely two or three characters that I thought were, well, less than stellar. But as they say, it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round, so I'll just leave it at that.

Azilaph

a/k/a Graatch

p.s. Pro, who did you think it was? Obviously not me. I've never had a char use "lad" liberally like this before. It's fun.

p.p.s. I have most (perhaps 90 or so) of my kills and most of my deaths logged. Where is a good place on these fora to post them? Part of this thread?