Oh my, oh my… what a ride. What started off as an experiment with felar thieves and the push path evolved into what I thought would be the eternal squire of the Fortress. Then one day out of the blue Jirash is named Maran and from there on it was all a big rollercoaster ride, more or less. There were ups and there were downs, little doubt about that.

Jirash was a thug thief, all the way. I got to use all of the skills granted I had at least once with one exception: nimble fingers which was the last skill I was able to get at Hero. I was probably the only thief in Thera who didn’t have the ordinary blackjack-skill and instead relied on weaponbutt blackjack, which worked fairly well. I used mostly spears and the odd mace for dealing with assassins and don’t think I was worse off for it. Daggers more or less became a second priority to have, as I seldom used them to their full potential.
My favourite skill though was not the most powerful one, but definitely the one I enjoyed the most: bribe mercenary. Seeing the faces on lowbie raiders/retrievers when their mercenaries walked off and was released was priceless.

As for fighting, alone and in groups, Jirash didn’t mind fighting along two friends if it meant the job would be done. He also did walk alone into some rough fights, barely escaping some times, dying others. If you only saw the “ganging” side, look harder.
What often made me laugh the most though was the issue of looting. More than a few times I’d have fire giants and duergars telling me “You’re going to take all my things just like that?”
Let’s see: Felar. 17 Strength. I want to keep a low weight to be able to dodge well. I have trouble enough as it is with my own gear and stuff. Yes, damn right I’m going to loot your 500 pound set, including all the rafts, since it’s those I have the most use for. Think people, think before you tell. (That being said, I don’t claim to be a genius, but sometimes it just gets ridiculous)

The time as Captain was fun and challenging, the only thing I have to say there is a big thank you to Shokai for letting me wear the title as first non-warrior, non-paladin Captain. As a side note to applicants I interviewed: If I ever seemed bored, it might have been just that. There were many who made it interesting, others the words had to be dragged out of, something I never found very enjoyable.

All in all, Jirash was a pleasant experience and I can only hope he put wrenches in the wheels for all the evil sneakies out there, sure seemed like it from time to time. I’m sure I had more to say, but it’ll have to wait a few days or something. On to the farewells:


IMMORTALS

Shokai – Thanks for making me a Maran, I never thought it’d happen so I was more than a little surprised. Keep trucking

Vynmylak – Glad to see that you’re back. Your words of encouragement was always very appreciated.

Velkurah – Thank you for seeing me off.

Sevarecan – Watcher: Sevarecan is raiding. *Run to fort* *gut shot falcon* *falcon flies off*
Rinse and repeat until you Immed. Immensely frustrating, yet the only option for you many times so kudos for that. Though it happened so often that some times people didn’t even bother running back to the fort as they knew you wouldn’t finish it.


FORTRESS

Erenthell – Thank you for inducting me back then, I was more or less certain you’d send me away at first instead of helping me through it all.

Gorthalon – The one who gave me a recommendation, then keeps on living, and living, and living and… you know how it goes. Well done nonetheless.

Calisha – The sneaky fela with the deadly sting. I enjoyed your company a lot and was really impressed with some of the things you’d manage to pull off, well done.

Anadriewien – My healing friend that poofed off to hero when I couldn’t be around for a day or two

Sarkarian – Where’d you go off to? One day you were there, then the other you were just gone.

Gwyythinniel – I’ve known your past creations, and I knew this one as well, was a blast whenever we’d be able to go hunt together.

Rogardian – I knew you best as a mortal, so I’ll put you here. Whenever you came on my heart lifted as I knew the tide was turning. Watching you fight with that sword made me cringe.

Lariya – My friend in the council. Stout paladin from what I saw. Fighting beside you was just like standing next to Rogardian, sometimes I felt I could just sneak off and the difference would be minimal as far as damage output went

Beltantis – Another paladin I enjoyed seeing around, you’d always figure out some way to put a thorn in our enemies arses.

Jaedren – You stuck to the code through it all, even when it meant going into an impossible situation to try and get my fuzzy hide out of there, well played.

Obaznuk – I’m so pushing you around and throwing you into the water when we go fishing. Solid fighter and crazy like few, good luck in the heavens.

Vorondel – The Cardinal I knew, an invaluable friend on more occasions that I can count. Your spells and presence helped a lot, thank you and keep it up.

Jallas – Keep trucking and it was nice to have you around for the last.

Kyrissa – Only felar left in the fort I think, keep an eye on the dwarves for me

There were countless others in the Fort that I knew, fought beside and enjoyed being together with, but I fail to remember all, so I’ll just thank you all and hope you’ll do well out there.



HERALD

The Inn guard – Feh on you. I didn’t fight that much in the bar, honest!


BATTLE

Fought beside you a few times and against you on a few others.

Zylundak – The delay in grouping you that last time was all because I didn’t want you to see the transmuter I had grouped and had to ask leaving first

Kackrik – Now that was an interesting one. Got you once in Barovia, after that I did my best to stay away from you as I wasn’t too keen on the idea on getting an axe planted in my forehead. We fought some, talked some, all enjoyable. Toots

Flaerglum – Poisoners are icky, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the wrong side of that rag you put over people’s faces.


SCION

The chasm has it rough, many enemies and few allies, yet somehow manage to stay alive.

Etarekoth – Wanted to fight you on a few times, but every time I’d spot you in a place other than the chasm you’d be gone before I could get a second “where” through.

Vanar – I got you once, and I wasn’t about to accept that challenge for a duel. Engulf/geyser is just not pretty when you’re a felar and on the wrong end of those spells.

Ghuljun – I was so close it was icky to getting you that time on Eastern, can’t have been many hitpoints left. On all other occasions you tooled me utterly, as I would expect


TRIBUNAL

Morrilion – Now you were a big, big annoyance. On the other hand, one could always count on you swooping down when you weren’t in town. Don’t think it ever resulted in a death on either side, but was fun fights.

Kelrizza – Didn’t like you aiding the imperials, even though I can understand why a trib would want to. Made it all the harder to go up against the Palace with you around.


SYLVAN


Was always wary around your bunch, one could never count on what would happen if you spotted a foe that was a friend of mine (read: Warlocks), even so, the few times I got to fight beside you, it was always appreciated aid, mostly to get the Orb/Sapling back.


WARLOCK

Azharadon – Solid invoker, a great friend and ally. Invokers in the right hands are just scary and you proved it, well done.


And the best for last, or well… just kidding.

EMPIRE

Now this bunch of characters… was probably the ones I hated and loved to hate the most. Also, they were the ones I fought the most through the past months. Thus, there are a lot of you but we’ll see how many I remember.

BLADE SECT

Heketool – Sorry, Heketul. The only evil bard I’ve seen use fire and ice on a felar maran. You grew more and more slippery though, so I’ll give you that.

Khalizad – A beast that I had the not so pleasant experience on seeing the axes of. Somehow the amount of hurting you could put out was just icky.

Dryzzel – Icky to fight.

Fire giant warriors – There’s other weapons to use than axes out there.

Jestopeia – I’ll give you a special mention only because of one thing, confirming why I dislike many imperials :

Jestopeia tells you '####in ass '
Jestopeia tells you 'you keep all my swords'
Jestopeia tells you 'your such a #### have to have the bard up your ass all the time or you run like a bithc'
You tell Jestopeia 'If... you knew what you were talking about, you'd be grateful, duergar'
Jestopeia tells you '#### you bitch'
Jestopeia tells you 'you know better than to fight me alone '

Had I been you, I’d be more than grateful to get anything back, considering Empire’s full looting policies at times. (There are exceptions to this and I believe you know who you are)

SHADOW SECT

Hmm... where’d you all go? When ranking up, I saw a lot of you, then as soon as I hit hero, you were more or less gone. Even so..

Yanacek – Poisoners are still icky. Getting slept, then damned to oblivion to finish off with a rot from Zhenzar wasn’t fun, but even so we managed to get a few good fights off.

Menzaen – How you pulled it off, I don’t know, but getting back into the Empire must be proof of something, even if I can’t name it.


DIVINE SECT

Izuvererus – Keep your whining IC and you just might actually get a respectful response. As a tip for the future: Don’t make people think you are Thornarcrull’s player, only anguish will come of it.

Various duergar shamans – Feh on you. Playing summon-the-thief-into-my-fire-giant-buddy-with-axes never appealed to me, even though I know I managed to catch some of you alone sometime I generally didn’t stick around if there was people with you.

Healers – Always an annoyance.

BLACK SECT

Kogefibo – The first imperial necromancer that I fought as I ranked up and who kept coming back even though you disappeared a while before coming into the hero-range.

The other necromancer, S-something (Dread-lord) – Was fun fighting

Astilamos – That time you fell to me and Calisha made my day and following week, I’ll freely admit that. Other than that, axes are bad, very bad. Especially coupled with a summoner who can see you.


OTHERS

Illademn – A good friend that stuck with me all the time, was always comforting to have you around. That last tell went through 2 seconds before my timer went out though, so sorry to leave you hanging like that

Zentilsh & Gradaelus – Thanks for the battles the last few days, was fun fighting beside you.

Dralith – I was more or less convinced you’d be a scarab after that first long talk we had, but never seemed to happen. Fought you a few times, always seeming to end with one or the other running.



Well, that’s it suppose. Jirash lived a long time (think I rolled sometime back in June 2003), so I’m forgetting a lot of people here, but holler up and I’ll respond if I can. See you in the fields, toots.

Jirash has left the building.



Warriors Of The World United
http://www.manowar.com/chronicles.php?idsong=76

Here Our Soldiers Stand From All Around The World
Waiting In A Line To Hear The Battle Cry
All Are Gathered Here Victory Is Near
The Sound Will Fill The Hall Bringing Power To Us All

We Alone Are Fighting For Metal That Is True
We Own The Right To Live The Fight We’re Here For All Of You
Now Swear The Blood Upon Your Steel Will Never Dry
Stand And Fight Together Beneath The Metal Sky

Brothers Everywhere
Raise Your Hands Into The Air
We’re Warriors
Warriors Of The World
Like Thunder From The Sky
Sworn To Fight And Die
We’re Warriors
Warriors Of The World

Many Stand Against Us But They Will Never Win
We Said We Would Return And Here We Are Again
To Bring Them All Destruction Suffering And Pain
We Are The Hammer Of The Gods We Are Thunder Wind And Rain

There They Wait In Fear With Swords In Feeble Hands
With Dreams To Be A King First One Should Be A Man
I Call Them Out And Charge Them All With A Life That Is A Lie
And In Their Final Hour They Shall Confess Before They Die

Brothers Everywhere
Raise Your Hands Into The Air
We’re Warriors
Warriors Of The World
Like Thunder From The Sky
Sworn To Fight And Die
We’re Warriors
Warriors Of The World

If I Should Fall In Battle My Brothers Who Fight By My Side
Gather My Horse And Weapons Tell My Family How I Died
Until Then I Will Be Strong I Will Fight For All That Is Real
All Who Stand In My Way Will Die By Steel

Brothers Everywhere
Raise Your Hands Into The Air
We’re Warriors
Warriors Of The World
Like Thunder From The Sky
Sworn To Fight And Die
We’re Warriors
Warriors Of The World


Good song, inspired me more than a number of times *wisenod*

Jirash, really leaving the building.