Sun Jul 28 13:54:54 2002


12 o''clock PM, Day of Freedom, 32nd of the Month of the Grand Struggle on the Theran calendar Persumal perished, never to return.

Race:	storm
Class:	paladin
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	None, None
Age:	247
Hours:	152
PK Ratio:	0% (closer to 100% is better)

Gah! Well, looks like I was a little too late. I received your note just now, and I'd like to apologize. It's not your fault that you never received any attention, or virtues for that matter. The past 2-3 months I've been really inactive, due to my job. Things are somewhat better now, and you were high on my to-do list, but apparently I wasn't able to find you before you decided to delete. I hope you still had fun with the character regardless, and wish things would've worked out a little better, but sometimes that's just what life gives us, I guess.

I was just getting frustrated by everything. So this, I'm afraid, is colored by that.

THANKS:

I appreciated the empowerment. I was afraid that you would not like that I played someone who was a vivimancy sphere but conceptualised the paladin code and most things in life via fire. I thought maybe the reason I got no immteraction was this. Had I known you were just not around I'd probably have stuck it out. I deleted as soon as I wrote that note because I considered the note to be ooc, and wouldn't have thought it right for it to affect me ic.

Whoever spoke to me just before I deleted, I have no idea who you were, because I was stuck in the dark without a light. Hence I didn't know what to say really.

GRIPES:

I felt like this character was jinxed from the start. My group was led into the cavefisher while I had no connection, and I died. Had the pleasure of managing to reconnect just in time to see myself being tripped, and I never got up from that. Then my group was led into a deathtrap I specifically warned about before going afk, and we died again.

No cabal, so when I got the sceptre I couldn't do anything with it. Only rager willing to take it was evil, so I couldn't give it to him. Others wouldn't take it. Not being able to raid effectively for 150 hours was one of my major frustrations.

Ragers were too busy to help raid scions because of the rites but somehow managed to raid the undefended warlocks instead, which meant that instead of fighting alongside them against scions I ended up fighting against them for the warlocks while the scions kept their sceptre. (That was because of my religious views if any ragers wondered.)

Goodies often wouldn't hunt a lich with no zombies even five on one if there was an element of risk.

Being held by arcanes was really getting to me because half the time it was a bug that got me held or kept me held. There were six enemy arcanes in my range so the chances of meeting any enemies alone was miniscule. Ultimately the only way I could see of killing anyone without virtues was to gang, because otherwise they ran until they outnumbered me. And I don't really like ganging. I like it even less since Amora killed my gang. :(

Anyway, after getting stuck in hell for 24 hours playing time, but no one being able to mount a rescue because it was closed off, having half my gear crumble only for it to repop half an hour later on mobs I couldn't kill for rp reasons... Then I got my group killed in Thar acacia a few hours later. Finally I spent quite a while helping to gear a couple of people and we promptly lost the whole lot to our own incompetance in a pk.

EMBARASSMENT THAT WAS MY PK:

the pk of 0% doesn't really tell the whole picture. Plenty of times did the hard work but never got the killing blow. I thought that statistic might be what was holding me back from getting anywhere, and I thought it counted for nothing that I was the one who tried to motivate everyone into actually doing something.

my first character with less than a 50% pk ratio, out of maybe 30 now. But 0% for a 150 hour paladin is humiliating! Still, I learnt a lot with him. Couple of quests and a new area (not counting hell).

For my two groupmates who were so impressed that I got to hell's sixth circle alone -- I told you it wasn't impressive. Now you can find out why. I took a gamble and the result was getting sent to hell, only to rot for a day before suiciding. I was hoping for some immteraction just to go out fighting with a devil or something. I hate suiciding.

FAREWELLS

Anyway, I don't have many mentions, so here's just a few.

Dwoggurd: I really admired the way you stuck in there, whether alone or not. Enigma is a great legacy, and since I've seen you gathering your potions I know you make the most of it. Out of interest, is your lore skill good? If not, wondering how you solved the problem of things looking alike.

Dranolian: Hmm, can't believe you still tried to kill me and Gorach after we were put to sleep by someone 25 levels under us. You must have thought that was buggy. Otherwise thought you did a decent job. Dying to your hold even though Dullameh dispelled it was my first pk death. But only by about 10 minutes when I died naked. Don't blame you guys for the full loot. I'd full loot a lich as a paladin, so I don't mind a lich full looting me.

Dullameh: God, I don't know how you keep going. I found it bad enough having no one to fight outside of a gang. You have it twenty times worse!

Gorach: I think you were probably Persumal's best friend. However, sometimes I was not in a tolerant mood and at those times you wound me up something awful. Walking us into the deathtrap was one. :)
Anyway, I'm told you saved my ass a couple of times when I lost connection just after initiating attacks on the nightwalker, but stayed active in the game. That happened to Persumal over half-a-dozen times. I could never work it out; it seems to be a new thing.

Wasarbre: You seemed to have a good in depth role, but I really did feel you avoided confrontation with lichs (except when things looked good). I'm sure this was just my impression, and I would have felt differently normally. However, I've known you as another character who ranked up with you and I felt similarly then.

Amora: Very tough druid. I suspect you have a few things up your sleeve, because normally I'd expect you to have a double wrath vuln, yet my wrath only scratched you. Same with the geyser that was annihilating the others in the room. That fight on eastern really annoyed me because sanc fell as the fight started and I got stuck in my own group's quicksand. Stuck in quicksand when your groupmates are an invoker with shields and an arcance with flight; that should never happen. Stupidly my last command was to word. IT never went through but even if it had it would have been wasted.


This all sounds like a bit of a "pat the scions on the back, but berate the goods" and it isn't meant to be. It is just that the good aligns efforts are not co-ordinated properly. I really hope that the ice-drake's legion rectifies this. (cabal channel, somewhere to store enemy cabal items.) As it is if one good sleeps an evil another good runs in and wakes him, meaning to help. Done it myself.

If I've forgotten you, sorry. As I said, much of my experience with this character became extremely frustrating, which was why he started to get bad tempered. I even had to make an addition to his role to explain his bad temper IC :(.

I've since gone for a character who doesn't have to put up with lvl 20's asking him to get them stuff from the barrow-wight etc. That didn't help my temper either. For god's sake lowbies, a basic set of gear is normally enough to get yourself the better stuff in a pk (provided you pk better than Persumal did!).

Vivimancy is probably one of the most underused spheres for my religion, or at least it has been. To date I can't think of any tattooed followers from it yet, and no other empowerees except you (there might be one or two I'm forgetting). Fire and Magic are much more popular, even though Magic has more limits in who can realistically follow that route. Mostly I'd say the choice of Vivimancy vs Fire (or Magic) just has more to do with what emphasis you put on things, whether the symbol of Fire itself, or the Life-force that it's symbolizing. Choosing vivimancy doesn't mean needing to not use the symbol of fire, I guess I could say.

As far as different approaches, like most imms I'm open to other ideas, though you'll find that unusual approaches will make it a bit harder to gain a tattoo if that's what you're after, but empowerment and all the rest just depends on how well you play what you've designed, mostly.

-Dranolian: Hmm, can't believe you still tried to kill me and Gorach after we were put to sleep by someone 25 levels under us. You must have thought that was buggy. Otherwise thought you did a decent job. Dying to your hold even though Dullameh dispelled it was my first pk death. But only by about 10 minutes when I died naked. Don't blame you guys for the full loot. I'd full loot a lich as a paladin, so I don't mind a lich full looting me.

Let me comment first on the pipe thing. I am alone defending against a preped out paladin and a bard. I am looking through my things seeing how I can prep myself out against all of the attacks that are about to come my way. Saw the pipe. Rembered some old log of send the newbie out with the pipe ect. Rest is history. Neither of you died. Notice your first command was setting your wimpy as high as it would go. Even tho the imms feel its for game balance you can only bounce someone around enough before the hold wears off and they word. Second. When I was with Dullameh it was just us. Dullameh did not even have mobs and you guys just sat in that warded room while we devised diffrent plans on how we were going to kill, escape, ect. We should have both died to that horde. Instead your assassin wanders off alone. Break them up spell them up and we win. Going through your bag/backpack/pouchs helped me learn of ALOT of preps. You were one of the only paladins I had concern for because I had seen what tricks you could have up er in your backpack.

-Dranolian

you did exactly as I expected there. I was just pointing out that when Dullameh was trying to dispel my haste etc he actually dispelled your hold, but the effects lasted and I couldn't flee when I should have.

You'd have no way of knowing that, so I don't have a problem with it. Plus, in the heat of battle I wouldn't expect someone to come to a decision not to benefit from this even if they did know.

Your defense was a good one btw. Also btw, you were the only arcane I knew that I could use locate object to find. :)

I didn't have much interaction with you, but in the short bits that I did, you seemed to be pretty much what I consider to be a good paladin. Well spoken, proud, arrogant even, etc etc.

This post isn't helping your image, though. Easy on the whining. The opium pipe has been that way for years. I don't think it's a bug (do correct me if I'm wrong).

Didn't know you didn't have any virtues. That's rough.

Good work, or something. I'm out of things to say :P

thanks. you seemed to have a good handle on your religion. I've pretty much given up on image.

regarding the whining, yeah, it is whining. It wasn't so much not hearing from anyone (though I've now discovered the two imms connected with Persumal are both coming back after long absence). It was that I felt like I was failing rp-wise but didn't know how. Meanwhile little things that others did that seemed unpaladin'y were getting to me more than they should do, because it is very easy to see the flaws in others and be blind to your own.

I am surprised at your comments about me avoiding conflict with liches.....*shakes his head* The lich has killed me more times than I can remember, and I have never avoided confrontation with anyone. I have however learnt from my earlier deaths, when i would run into the lich & arcane, or lich & dwoggurd (uglier), or lich & invoker, combinations. I am always trying to rally people to fight the lich if he is about. Your pk ratio may have been better if you had learnt from your defeats and improved on them. When ever you fell, I would try to rally an attack on the group that killed you to help get your things back.

**I am curious as to the other charactor I traveled with of yours.**

I agree with your comment about being more coordinated though. I am terrible in large group fights, because I miss half of what is going on due to the large streams of text blasting past me. *grin*

Bah, I am touchy....anyhow......take care;-)

well, I never made the same mistake twice. Except for when I decided to rejoin you for a rush on the lich and died again. I think what I was getting at is that avoiding lich and all the combos meant not fighting him half the time, because a lot of the time he was with one of them. probably 60% of my fights resulted in the enemy running, and I couldn't stop the flee-teleport tactic. It would have been 95% but I was the one running a lot in later life.

I think the only person to get me twice other than Dullameh above was Amora. First time my enlarge, haste, and protection all dropped on the same tick and the treant bashed me so I never got a command off. Yes, I could have waited and renewed them but then I may never have managed to fight her. Second time she just overwhelmed us with raw power, my sanc dropped as the fight started (and that time I did want to hold off to renew it), and none of us reacted as we should.

In summary, I made use of virtually every way of killing myself that the mud offers. Honestly, if I add up the previous 30 chars ways of dying, Persumal encompassed them all, apart from getting assassinated. The most annoying was going back to my corpse, getting a certain hood, and dying from starvation because I put it on just on the tick so had no time to eat the food I had.

I know what you mean about the text. I've died more than a few times because I couldn't spot my hp.

Anyway, I'm sorry I said what I did. As I said, my view of everything became tainted, and it is easy to find fault with others while being blind to your own. I do remember your rp being consistent from my one character to the next.

'getting a certain hood, and dying from starvation because I put it on just on the tick so had no time to eat the food I had.'

That reminds me that one time me and somene else killed aljern .. he rushes back to his corpse and takes a fiery ring (or something else) out .. and he burns himself to death .. hehe.. that is something that happens to almost everyone though .. including me .. I also remember this young one sitting at the pit who took these burning logs out of the pit .. he dies and he starts spamming 'get all corpse' ... hilarious ..

n/t

but as he had no enemies at all, I shelved him for an indefinite period, and may delete him without using him again, because his life was very dull.

'I am terrible in large group fights, because I miss half of what is going on due to the large streams of text blasting past me. *grin*'




I wouldn't be amazed if you're playing this game when you'r completely wasted }>

We "grew up" together, I think I first met you in the early twenties when we were both seeking to become Marans. I wish you would have stuck it out, because it would have been nice to see you in our Grey halls. I know how frustrating it can get, and I must say that you had to wait much longer than I did. Well, good luck with your next character, and I am sad to see you go.

along with Ulthur.

Glad you made it into the Maran. I was expecting you to appear on this board one day with the title "Last of the Maran", to be honest. Anyway, I hope you get some company in their soon.

Ulthur, you were the formative person in Persumal's life. When I was first created we spoke of the unbroken blade, and I decided it wasn't quite my take on life. You also gave me a two-handed sword to get started with. Thanks. Enjoyed our trip through the Pyramid.

That was a good talk, that's the stuff I like best on CF. Did you rank up real quick, or was it just me? Seems like one day we talked and a week later you were in hero range. I think you even hero'd before I did, and this is the quickest I have EVER hero'd a character before. Anyway, good luck. The massive ranks of paladins is starting to thin out!

.ulthur

I did hero before you.

Basically because when I was the only one on, I knew where I could solo kills for about 600exp to 1000 exp a time, with no need to rest, no risk of dying, and little downtime waiting for repops.

That meant that in any session I could gain at least three ranks without much effort.

I was so impressed with your talk that I wrote a similar parable for every aspect of the paladin code, using some aspect of fire as a medium for teaching.

Only ever used a couple. The people seemed quite impressed, but hey, they might have just been sucking up.

Gorach: I think you were probably Persumal's best friend. However, sometimes I was not in a tolerant mood and at those times you wound me up something awful. Walking us into the deathtrap was one.
Anyway, I'm told you saved my ass a couple of times when I lost connection just after initiating attacks on the nightwalker, but stayed active in the game. That happened to Persumal over half-a-dozen times. I could never work it out; it seems to be a new thing.




Well I must say Gorach liked Persumal a lot too .. only .. Persumal NEVER EVER rushed into ANY fight (be it pk's or not) unless he is COMPLETELY prepared and everything is mulled over a hundred times (so to speak). Very wise and I admit it saved my ass too some times (like that opium pipe fight - that was REALLY insane, also because I had to face Dranolian AND all his shawtabies alone while you were still sleeping, ya lazy ass :p).. but also very annoying at times: you looked at everything very rationally thinking about things first before doing .. Gorach is not stupid when it comes to pk'ing (I normally have loads of scrolls, potions, herbs, staves and the such), but she is very impatient and very eager .. sometimes crossing the border of stupidity too .. Anyways, I liked being around you very much though .. I had a good laugh, too.. me causing your first two deaths by my own stupidity, especially that one time in Thar-Acacia }>...

About that losing connection .. happens to me a lot too .. I have no idea what it is .. and yeah .. I did save your ass some times .. but he .. you saved mine too eh .. and yeah .. I have been fighting that druid three times now with that protection of hers .. it's just crazy, really crazy.. I understand your frustration about that.. anyways, see you in the fields .. and uhm .. let it be a goodie eh .. we need people like you (although people think differently when they see your ratio :p)