Wed Dec 13 00:11:18 2006

At 11 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 9th of the Month of the Shadows
on the Theran calendar Eltain perished, never to return.

Race:	gnome
Class:	shapeshifter
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	None, None
Age:	177
Hours:	119

Eltain was a cookie-cutter wise gnome, sphere knowledge. Of accomplishments, Eltain was my first character to explore inside Hell. Eltain had few enemies, almost next to none. Eltain was my third cobra, a strong skirmisher form but it has problems in finishing people with the clockwork damage and all. My other form, manta ray wasn't very good against warriors(compared to the walrus). Sure, you can stalk your prey in water areas and move undetected as manta, but how often will you find someone in bad position to nail? Not to mention that manta moves like a tick in a tar when camouflaged. One of my few enemies being in water to be stalked just didn't happen. The third tier forms spider and otter were fantastic.

Eltain was originally rolled to join the new mage cabal, creation of which was quite predictable. I anticipated the cabal to be the Eldritch Consortium and chose orderly ethos to be better able to negotiate with Destanin if needed. Eltain's (unwritten) role was that he had been sent to investigate the mage plague and find a cure for it as the weird things that were going on with magic. The hidden reason for sending Eltain on a mission was his romance with the daughter of the Headmaster of the Hillcrest Magical Academy. Thus, Eltain was sent on a hard, long mission conveniently far away from Hillcrest.

I considered joining Tribunal, but didn't bother to apply(and Eltain wasn't very highly motivated, gnomes being more important than foreign cities). Thus, Eltains path to deletion due to gnomish PK boredom was clear. As for values, Eltain considered gnomicide to be worst of all crimes.

Some goodbyes:

Solceh: Nice travels in the end. Your new alliances would have made very interesting situations if Eltain had chosen to join Spire(and naturally would have worked to hold the friendship intact).

Trurkrag: Mace specs are shifter's bane. You were too tough for me to beat alone in the end. Maybe it's because you hurt me too much and didn't stick around when I had to hide to heal.

Others: It was nice to know you all(nothing comes to mind right now, but I'll respond to those forgotten who have something to say).

Eltain

We only had one interaction that I can think of, but I sent your poetry game to the Heralds. Hopefully I'll be able to write out a more complete version of it soon, as I certainly enjoyed it. I wish you'd made some of my discussions. I could sure use more stereotypical Gnomes there. Good luck with your next.

Weren't most of your discussions in American evening (aka the hours I do not play) or something? Anyways, I'm a bit of a casual player and don't keep a track of in-game events that well. Eltain was a remnant of the Third Age who saw the reckoning and rising of Nexus, so that gave him some fun geezerhood despite the low hours and such.

Try to get the poetry game well-known. I liked the idea and would like to hold an event of that sort one day with my next Herald.

I liked the fact that you were always willing to fight outisde the inner guardian. Was damn cool cause you know the inners are a bitch for even two ragers to deal with. Thanks for come into all the fights, for the spars, for accepting my challenges and stuff. You are one of those enemies that made loggin in fun and worth while. I know there wasn't much you could do against me even with barrier. Some heavy tactics and luck I had to resort to in that quicksand fight. I'll miss you for all the to and fro fights, specially cause all my fights are now... get scion voker to writhing, get imperial to writhing, get maran to writhing...eventually die to someone who I walk into with thirst. DAMN! Respect.

Todger man Trurk, Legend of War and Whorehouses.

What can I say? Thank god that you were a slow chaser(though sometimes it was annoying to wait, but not when you whooped my ass once again). I never found you from the whorehouses, though. As for fighting at the inner or inners, at whose inners could I have fought at(since I was too orderly to join Nexus *grumble*)? I had that barrier once and it totally wrecked my regen, so I decided not to use it again.

Anyway, you didn't leave much room for long fights and proper use of regen tactics and often left before I was healed up. To and fro is the cobra tactic. I think I stayed to fight you too long at times, as too long a healing run often made you run into the Village. That quicksand fight was a grave error on my part, by chasing you into the Village where I never should have gone to. I think I posted the closest call or second closest call. One of them was that I fled convulsing, forestblended and waited for you to run away in the next room(I never recalled away from you to avoid the long). Kind of makes you hope that hunger doesn't find you when there's that mad rager standing in there when you have like 60 hp left. Anyway, I never recalled from you in those fights near the Village and the correct answer was always: He's hiding in a nearby forest.

Hey! Sorry to see you go! It was you that convinced me of the power of water forms! I loved mine! I have new found respect for them (I never used to go under water to see them). To bad you left, I think you could have taught me alot, though i was taking notes like a fiend while we traveled trying to remember everything you were showing me! Well good luck with your next char! See you in the fields.

After you spectated my duel with the alligator/rattlesnake guy, I think. I liked teaching young gnomes and Eltain saw Solceh as a pupil of sorts, though a graduated one when you heroed(That's why I made a number out of it). Eltain would have continued to keep the friendship even if he had joined Spire. Gnomes were more important.

Now some PK speculation on our fights with the Imperials:

My PK tip for you is more decisive chasing(I admit that our situation was an odd one and that I was the indecisive one for the lack of proper casus belli against Empire). The element of surprise is often important, especially for a shifter. When we found those Imperials, you could have struck at them quickly. Eltain was orderly and hesitated to attack them, but he would have stood by his fellow gnome. It kind of made me snicker to see how the shaman and warrior worded in the mount when we walked in. But we kind of foiled our chances of getting a kill by stumbling around indecicively in the sea battle. The thing to blame is that they were your enemies, not Eltain's. So you led while Eltain hesitated. One smart plan could have been sneaking in as manta and trying to catch them with their pants down. Or just charge in without resorting to camo and high camo lag. I think that two manta would have been pretty scary there.