Welcome to your first PK death!

I enjoyed watching you from the start, as you seem to be an experienced mudder and learned the basics quite easily here. CF can be an intense and violent experience - both PK and RPwise.

"Recently I had fought my way to L11 as a newbie, and was quite pleased with my progress so far. Upon being asked to group with someone else who was L7, I was happy to do so--not only to help him out, but to get myself some exp too."

Choose your friends wisely. Remember that there are deceptive or evil characters that will try to take advantage of you. Some characters just want to kill you without any provocation. On the other hand, there are characters that WILL sacrifice their lives to help you -- so don't let these evil characters taint your view of the CF world. For example, a Paladin or elf healer would behave quite differently.

"However, upon reaching the desired location and exping for a little my "teammate" became very belligerent and overly rude. He seemed to be VERY well-versed in the game and was getting impatient at my slow attacks and bad EQ; I advised him that I would be leaving and he could be rude to someone else. Threats followed, and he ran to the door of the building we were standing in. If I attempted to open it, he would close it with a trigger."

This doesn't sound like a good group. Depending on the nature of the altercation, it is sometimes better to call things off. You may have made things worse by exchanging words with this person. A quiet and peaceful departure would probably have prevented this death.

The door-closing phenomenon is something you'll learn to overcome through experience. For example, it can be defeated in the way Nepenthe suggested. It could also have been avoided if you had a means of transporting yourself away from the danger.

"I attempted to look for another door, and was suddenly attacked by another player three levels higher than me. I fled back to the door only to be met with the same behavior from the L7. Eventually the L14 managed to chase me around the building and kill me. I couldn't fight, I couldn't leave, and I couldn't execute any commands without being pounced and subsequently tripped. Upon explaining this to the "Father of Anger" (an IMM, apparently), he tells me all is fair and good then goes invis."

What you experienced is quite familiar to most of us. Out-of PK assistance is part of the game (i.e. another character healing your opponent). Tripping is a way of disrupting your opponent's commands. Now you know better than to stay in a confined area without means of escape.

Don't take any deaths you experience at this phase to heart. In fact, you SHOULD be dying a lot. Now that you experienced this sort of groupmate betrayal, you are that much closer to becoming a seasoned veteran.

That being said, there are races/classes that are better designed to rank without depending on others, or are skilled at avoidance (hiding/invis/camo). For instance, had you been an arial warrior, you would not have been tripped so easily. Try experimenting.

"I have elected to quit playing this MUD, and have put my character in the one-week deletion process as of today. I liked the general MUD atmosphere, and enjoyed the class-system but Father of Anger's advice of "learn from the experience" has hit home: don't play this MUD. The L7 veteran is CLEARLY abusing his noPK flag and DIRECTLY, INTENTIONALLY involving himself in PK. He prevents me from leaving knowing I can't kill him to make him stop, calls in another player bigger than me, and sends tells gloating the whole time that I'm being chased around and beaten. I don't see how his abuse of the "game mechanics" involving divine protection is any different than others who apparently drop their link during PK so as to avoid death (HELP PK).

This was a simple case of seasoned players bending good-intentioned rules to make someone else miserable for not putting up with rudeness. I find it hard to believe that someone could consider this situation and find that this is a "good" MUD environment. It seems to me that it just teaches players to find ways to abuse mechanics and bend rules to their benefit."

You should not play something that fails to provide enjoyment for you. CF has been around for 10+ years and has been constantly improving itself to make for a deeper, more intense, and more challenging experience. If you cull through the message boards, you'll see a concerted effort by the IMMs to make things harder for veterans to abuse, and newbie-friendlier. However, good old fashioned beatings are here to stay. We could certainly try to prohibit cruel behaviour, but the game wouldn't be called Carrion Fields anymore. In fact, there are many characters that will do far worse things to you.

If you strongly believe you are the victim of harrassment or cheating, you can pray like you did. Based on the IMM's observation, there was nothing that indicated cheating or harrassment had taken place. If the characters were sending you tells like "I'm gonna multi-kill you, newb," that would be a different story. Or, if a good-aligned character committed the above acts, an IMM would probably take a closer look.

I am sorry that your experience was so negative. However, don't let the actions of the few reflect upon the whole. Characters like the ones you mentioned rarely survive, as people catch wind of their schemes. With experience, you can learn many tricks to help turn the tables. Don't be afraid to die, since death doesn't matter. Take pride in the fact that it took TWO to bring a newbie like you down!