Thu Apr 8 07:20:28 2004


At 9 o'clock AM, Day of the Moon, 21st of the Month of the Long Shadows
on the Theran calendar Kwalin perished, never to return.

I had a lot of fun with Kwalin. Scion is a great cabal and invokers are by far my favorite class. This obviously wasn’t my first invoker hero but it certainly was both my most powerful and most fun.

A few words about myself first. I was sphere Vanity, I hated to look poor and I always carried around a ton of gold and tried to appear opulent more often than not. I was in many ways trying to play a running contradiction because while I wanted to appear opulent and rich I also wanted to remain unseen and unnoticed. This translated into the fact that I spent the vast majority of my time alone. I also carried a lot of grudges with the character. I hated several scions and displayed this in several ways but tried to keep it discrete. As in I simply wouldn’t talk to you or I’d try to stay perm improved-invis if you couldn’t see me. It’d be like pulling teeth to get me to rank or help re-gear a few of you. I also largely tried to avoid any and all immteraction. I wrote no role but I did have a few ideas as to how I intended the character to live as stated above and I think I followed through with them. Whenever I saw a god of any sort I did as little as I thought I could get away with without drawing their eye. Both IC and OOC I have a great deal of respect for the immortals and their power. Also most of my interactions with immortals have come out in such a way that I generally wish I had never opened my big mouth. Anyway I do want to say you guys make a great game and I am very grateful for your efforts. I’ve played other muds but CF just blows just about any other ROM mud out of the water.


Good-Byes

Immortals:

Valguarnera: Never saw you, never talked to you, but am glad that you’re around.

Beroxxus: Saw you on, but never talked to you, think I heard you once and for Kwalin it was more than enough. The orcs certainly regret it I do hope I get the chance to actually interact with future characters.

Mekantos: I absolutely hated your guts while you were a mortal. I did everything I possibly could to avoid doing your will. I’d ignore you when I thought I could get away with it and I even sabotagued a few of your re-gearing runs. You didn’t think I accidentally forget a few certain shields did you? From the get go I was more or less in Foslin’s pocket and from your slights to her to not showing up to defend a few times it really got under my skin. You do that well, getting under peoples skin that is. I do not dislike you out of character. I’ve seen a few logs of you on the other board and you seemed like you had a decent head on your shoulders and could handle yourself in a fight. As an immortal I have very little to complain about and I’m damned surprised you didn’t kick me that time on the rainbow bridge. I was grasping for straws rather than saying anything really intelligent there, it was far from my finest moment. I probably would have kicked me. I am grateful that you didn’t as I probably would have deleted on the spot and missed all the good time I had since then.

To the rest of you guys’n gals: Rarely saw you and stayed far, far away.

To the area writers: You all kick so much ass. I’d kiss up more but it’d just get nauseauting. Good Job

Scion:

I’d say scion is possibly the deepest cabal in terms of roleplay. There is so much to know about scion and it’s all so mysterious yet accommodating in what it will allow. There are so many references to it in areas and I made it a significant portion of my chars life mission to figuring out all he could about scion and the um darker powers per say. I will definitely be back. Scion is by far the most fun cabal I’ve played and I’ve been in most of them. I can’t figure out why everyone goes empire when there’s scion.

Foslin: You were a real class act. Thanks for the induct, I always respected you and liked you.

Etarekoth: Liked you too from the moment you geared me up in arkham way back in the day. You were a great chancellor and we nailed a lot of enemies together.

Ilivarra: Yes, keep your enemies close and your “allies” closer . Sure worked for me. You were by far my favorite ally the sheer number of corpses we left behind us was crazy. You do a good job of playing your cards close to your chest and you had an impressive, intimidating, and gruesome presence. I look forward to meeting your next.

Vanar: It was always good to have you by my side during a raid.

Ghuishoc: Heh, glad you died to enjoy the sword of ****** After leading you down there, only a fool would assume I DIDN’T know what the heck it did when I gave it to you.

Jyslin: Always nice to have a healer to explore with. You were useful enough to tolerate Good luck with the chancellorship.

Zwick: You were the coolest mute around.

Daranor/Kazadan: Wish you guys lasted longer trannies are always nice to have around.

Jiro: You had an impressive and unorthodox combo, was always a pleasure.

Battle: I hated fighting you guys. If I could at all avoid fighting the village I generally would. Never the less, we did have a few good brawls.

Zhelrantix: Damn you were a beast. Well done. Those flurries were hideous.

Vex: you were damn slippery. There were several times where you should have died but didn’t. Well played.

Tyrkul: you always had a knack for showing up at precisely the WRONG time. Well done.

Sardinthal: Resident punching bag. You seemed to take an awful lot of punishment with your combo.

Haljunei: Another beast. I don’t think I ever won a fight against you.

Baielko: Again well done, you surprised me with some of your whip moves much to my chagrin.

Flaerglum: Poison Defender? You gave me nightmares you did. Never ran into a more annoying thief than you.

Mauchelle: Dunno why but you were another resident punching bag as far as I was concerned. Still you had plenty of heart.

Slathigern/Juktar/Sharidum/Zylundak/Jaalek/Betraal/Thrakadan: Good fights all.

Fortress: I don’t get it but it seems playing on team good usually tends to make you play like an idiot as far as pk is concerned. I think I died all of once – and I was naked at the time – to you guys and I should have died way more. I tried playing team good and I was a miserable failure too.

Lariya: More overpowered than I was. Pain in the ass to fight but for me hardly deadly.

Nhiala: See above.

Tcatama: good fights, always one sided. Took a lot of beatings but you sure had a lot of heart.

Gradaelus/Vorondel: Good fights. Surprised neither of you ever got me.

Skallgrim/Brulig/Manethrall/Hykroln/Jhumthe/Umarojn/Gorthalon/Aemelius – good fights all of you.

Empire: Rarely interacted with you. Liked it that way.

Tribunal: You guys are something else.

Baendra: I’ll reply to your post.

Daemar: … what the heck happened?
Sylvan/Outlander: see empire.

Ekibuttan/Arthakar/other uncaballed that I forgot thanks for the good times.

That’s all folks,
Kwalin.

Mekantos: I absolutely hated your guts while you were a mortal. I did everything I possibly could to avoid doing your will. I’d ignore you when I thought I could get away with it and I even sabotagued a few of your re-gearing runs. You didn’t think I accidentally forget a few certain shields did you? From the get go I was more or less in Foslin’s pocket and from your slights to her to not showing up to defend a few times it really got under my skin. You do that well, getting under peoples skin that is. I do not dislike you out of character. I’ve seen a few logs of you on the other board and you seemed like you had a decent head on your shoulders and could handle yourself in a fight. As an immortal I have very little to complain about and I’m damned surprised you didn’t kick me that time on the rainbow bridge. I was grasping for straws rather than saying anything really intelligent there, it was far from my finest moment. I probably would have kicked me. I am grateful that you didn’t as I probably would have deleted on the spot and missed all the good time I had since then.

You were not as sly as you thought you were pal . I was going to kill
you while I was a mortal, and then probably uninduct you, but moving
to Asgaard changed that, obviously. The whole cabal was basically
divided between people who were cool with me, and people who were cool
with Foslin, with very few in between. I admit Foslin probably had
more allies, but it was never a popularity contest in my book. As far
as getting under people's skins, well, all I can say is that I tend
not to relent from whatever I am pursuing when I am in character...to
do that would be to cheapen my experience as well as whoever is
affected by me in any way. About the rainbow bridge grilling that I
gave you...there was a bit more to that than you ever knew, but I am
sure a certain someone will reveal that now .

Needless to say, Kwalin and Mekantos were like oil and water in the
same bucket. It just didn't work, so I tried to keep things as business
like as possible and let the mortal leadership handle you however they
saw fit. Fortunately you were smart enough to never really push the
envelope with me, at least not verbally, which is commendable because
I know you wanted to.

Lastly, I always wanted to apologize for that time you died to the
Destructor when you tried to grab my weapon for me. I thought your
preps were at their max, as well as your health. Oops!

Good luck with the next, and I do mean that. Come back to Scion if you
think you can handle me

-Mek

God damn you were good. Every time we went out and killed folks I
felt like I was using a toothpick while you were wading in there
with an electro-2000 ultra chainsaw. Of course that didnt mean I
didn't kill any, just a comparison of our relative deathfulnesses.
All in all I wanted to last, but as I said I wanted to learn more
about Scion and I kinda hit a roadblock. Even then, with my gripes
about Scions ability to bring doom upon the land, I also agree that
it is still an awesome cabal, beats any other. I can't say I haven't
been close to re-rolling a new Scion, but I know I'll just want
more than it does out of it so I always keep from doing it.

Anyways, good luck with your next,

- Kazadan

I seem to recall you were griping about a lack of immortal driven rp opportunities that were present while you played Kazadan. I just wanted to say that counting on immortals in - any - cabal on - any - mud to be pushing the rp along all the time is just unrealistic. Often the best roleplay you will find will be both player initiated and player maintained. I know I have had a lot of great roleplay and character development that was totally devoid of immortal interference. You can do it!

Also regarding your comments about scions not getting anywhere along the lines of bringing doom upon the land.... have you done any exploring lately? I have, and I have seen a lot of evidence of scion related work at hand in multiple areas, especially new ones. The results were not pretty. I'd say that sort of destruction is probably the closest you're likely or should expect to find short of some staged rp event before they shut the mud down or something. I did and am continuing to have a lot of fun finding new... "things"... to do and read in these areas. I urge you to try exploring more with your next scion. The helpfile says:

To a Scion, the word "forbidden" holds no meaning, for they realize that their stab for power will require any and all methods at hand. Masters of manipulation, cunning scholars of the ancient, they are said to lurk in every shadow, keepers of secrets most would dread to read

investigation into these things is practically an unspoken duty and I had a lot of fun doing it. The only cabals that I noticed that really competed with scion in regard to their themes being incorporated into areas were battle and empire with scion being more prevalent than both if you really looked.

I am not saying all this with intent to knock you down or ridicule you but rather to inspire you to explore a part of the game that you may have been neglecting. I hope you're still playing the game and having fun while you're at it. Thanks for the props and all the best to you and yours.

That's why I still give props to Scion despite the gripe. It still
is the best. Just still feels like being ooky spooky with paper hats
on. I mean, if someone really had to fear Scion due to them losing
touch with some of their magics because of a certain "reversible"
Scion ritual, or causing mobiles of certain areas to perhaps become
defiled and run rampant, or a Scion ritual that causes it to be dark
indefinitely until its reversed by a group of Fortresser's, or an
Empire equivelant being controlling certain cities' guards of towns
they can overrun (and take from Tribunals), then I'd feel the power
of the Scion/Empire/Other Cabal.

Just to backtrack a little, now that I mentioned all that above,
I know the Empire thing isn't feasible unless done really carefully
since it would turn into a 'Oh lets take back Hamsah today, Imperials!
The Tribunals just took control today!', and it would switch hands
back and forth and end up pretty gay and corny after awhile, but there
are some things that could be relatively easy to code in re: ritual
thing up above.

I mean the room descriptions and exploring stuff and finding things
Scion related is cool and all, but I'd equate that to the English
government asserting that it controls the entire European Union by
having its citizens place English flags everywhere. Sure it may
remind you of England, but if everybody you know still has a dentist,
and you're not finding too hard to locate a nice restaurant with some
decent food, then you really don't get the complete 'I've been invaded
by England' experience.

As far as "new" areas having Scion-related stuff in them, I couldn't
exactly say 'The Plains of Takawakaka were much better when the Scion
plagues weren't infesting it' because I never knew a non-Scion'd
'Plains of Takawakaka'. It's as if Saddam Hussein went out and
invaded Antarctica... it's like... um... oh darn, now we can't use it
for... oh wait, no, we can club seals in Alaska. Ah well, he can have
it, I guess.

Of course, I can't sit here and pretend I don't care considering I
just wrote a bunch of paragraphs on this. But I can't help it, I like
this mud, and I do care and want to see if I can persuade someone to
make me like it even more. I haven't ever gotten an IMM response on
this saying 'your idea blows and here's why', so yeah, I'm kinda
curious.

- Kazadan

**Everyone had thought that Kwalin had deleted, then he
**logs on after I had gotten Chancellor and rebuilt
**Scion. I get a tell from Mekantos to come to the entrance
**of Asgaard and remain hidden. Was having zMud problems,
**it crashes when you try to save too large a buffer, so
**this is the only part of the conversation I was able
**to salvage.

Mekantos says with a rasp 'Tell me.'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'How do you feel about your new Chancellor?'

Kwalin says 'You could not ask for one more dedicated. I respect his intelligence.'

Mekantos nods.

Mekantos says with a rasp 'Would you defend him with your life, I wonder?'

Kwalin sits down and thinks deeply.

Taking note of every detail, Mekantos scrutinizes Kwalin closely.

Kwalin says 'that remains to be seen.'

Kwalin says 'I think he may be worth it if my death would ensure his survival'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'But you will have many opportunities to prove it because.....?'

Kwalin says 'generally my dieing would not save him.'

Kwalin says 'I would risk my life to save him, certainly.'

Mekantos nods.

Mekantos says with a rasp 'Be on your way, and do not forget your warning.'

Kwalin nods.

Kwalin says 'until we meet again, my lord'

Kwalin bows deeply.

Mekantos nods.

Kwalin utters the words, 'hzrzsafh'.
Kwalin vanishes!

Mekantos says to you 'Use him as a shield, if need be. He is little more than a pawn.'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'His worth as a scholar is extremely poor.'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'All that remains is the sum of his various spells.'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'You see...'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'This is exactly what I spoke to you about.'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'The inability to grasp the intangible...'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'It is as much of a debilitation as losing an arm...a leg...or being born dullwitted.'

Mekantos says with a rasp 'Keep him close. As close as an enemy.'


Well, what can I say, I liked Kwalin and had no wish to boot you at that incident. You knew your #### and I respected that. For all I knew, you could have had #### go down in real life that coincided with all the scion deletions which prevented you from playing, so I saw no reason to boot you based on #### which might have been beyond your control, as it were.

I thought we complemented eachother VERY well, you would basically beat the #### out of any non-rager and against ragers you would buy me enough time to assassinate. Ranak and Shean come to mind in that last category, though I am sure there were others.

Romanul.

That much was certain. Out of all Invokers that Arthakar has come across so far, Kwalin was easily the one with the better skill, the greater experience and last but not least the most of his own unique style. To be able to run with a character like this as a first time hero was a stimulating experience.

Arthakar respected and admired Kwalin quite alot indeed, and perhaps that was not unlike how an ordinary felar tends to have inherent respect for one showing good skills with knives. The two of them made a mighty little team at times (if I may be so bold), and because of that I regret that our playing times matched as poorly as they usually did. It feels as if certain things will remain left undone now.


Either way, very well done Kwalin.

The faithful serpent.

Hey,

Yeah, I was pretty slippery...sneaking all the time, not yelling when you're attacked, and having a legacy that makes it easy for me to escape all helped. Plus I wasn't that worried about saving my colleagues if I was going to die. I think we both got pretty bored with the 'hurl th kw, entw' 'kwalin rolls his eyes/sneers in disgust' 'artery, stab, stab' 'kwalin's spell of deathfulness KICKS YOUR ASS! You sure are bleeding!' 'flee' that happened so often.

"Zwick: You were the coolest mute around."

Jerk, thanks a lot! Uh, and technically, Zwick wasn't a mute. He could speak, but didn't. So I think I win by default then. Sad. But, yeah, I admit that Zwick was a lot more mysterious and smoove than me.

Thanks for keeping your post positive, and have fun with your next.

Simply kickass. Kinda like the Aiekooso of the Scion team. You made life very hard for the poor Maran Thanks for the fun few fights and interactions.

See you around,

Vorondel

Relating to Kwalin was interesting. I knew you with a different character from when you were a scion applicant, and despite me killing you we got on well. I also slept you as Baendra, which led to us coming to our agreement.

I liked Kwalin because he was a pragmatist. He didn't carry grudges where he could do better to foster an understanding. I think our relationship was very profitable to both of us, though I still haven't acted on the second part of the information you gave me.

That said, whilst I would have kept peace with Kwalin had you given me what I wanted from the start, the reason I didn't kill you that time I slept you was actually because I only had about 300 mana when I attacked. Etarekoth came to save you before I could land a single spell on you besides sleep if I recall. I didn't spare you to facilitate a deal (though I would have in hindsight), I spared you because I had no choice, and then when you offered the deal saw that as preferable to trying to get your (very nice) gear.

Hope your next character is on my side. Kwalin was the kind of ally I liked.

I figured you would have killed me if you could have. I'm just glad Etarekoth was around to bail me out. I think I would have been just fine though as I believe I had a teleport staff in my inventory. Funny that you could land sleep 1st try but nothing else.

Anyway I think we served each others interests well. Look forward to seeing you again in the fields.