Thu Sep 29 19:33:23 2011

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

Asked in log boards, but seems it's not going to pop-up there.

I've seen you used numbing grip a lot of times (especially in the log where Vinq was sleeping before centurions). Why this spell? Does it lags, or what?

Your post: http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=53&topic_id=2638&mesg_id=2677&page=

My Reply: http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=53&topic_id=2638&mesg_id=2680&page=

Thought there was some trick. You never used crushing hand wands?

But, what is the lag from crushing (on you and on opponent)? AFAIK, it can't permalag (there is no chance that it will lag you for, say, 2 rounds and opponent for 3 rounds)?

They'll never be lagged longer than you, and if they can make the saving throw they won't be lagged at all.

And cool that you were an evil leader in a non-abusive way. The threat of being trampled by unicorns was enough to instill fear in anyone...

But then you got Mummy and there just wasn't a way to finish you off anymore...

I enjoyed our interactions for what it is worth, except when you called in douchebag human scion dagger warrior (I can't remember the name) to gang me in Arkham.... Not because he looted or Olum died or whatever, but rather just because you made me interact with him in any way and that was a pain way worse than death.

...at that stage of the game, there had been more than a few accidents where I was fighting more than one Villager. And with you slept, it wouldn't even be considered accidental, it'd be downright fair game.

Also I couldn't land a damn spell on you to save my life. I was out of mana or nearly when we finally attacked. Damn save vs. spell.

But not that it actually happened, or at least that it actually happened with Olum directly involved. Perhaps your definition of "fighting" is different than mine, but as I said, no hard feeling either way, I just didn't want to have to deal with that douchebag...

I definitely felt little to no fear from direct damage spells as Olum... spellbane + assorted edges + resist magic is a potent combination.

I've been away, with limited access to these forums, and I don't have the energy right now to read this entire thread, but I'm going to weigh in with my thoughts.

I can't imagine that anyone didn't know this was Twist. Powerful characters this classy only come in a few colors.

Knowing that this was Twist I can't believe that there was even a single accusation of cheating. What the ####?

I think it boils down to the question of "Was Tavlin OP." Of course he was, but I promise you that in my hands (with the same rewards) he would not have been. Once we start decrying certain players as being overpowered we go down a road that ends at "Harrison Bergeron." Screw that.

All in all, I loved fighting Tavlin as Shinju, even though I considered myself lucky to survive the plague/scourge and had exactly a .001% chance of killing you during any given encounter (I figure there was a .001% chance that you would be felled by a congenital heart defect during the fight.)

I also really dug the thing with the chicken.

I assumed I had more time to do some fun stuff with you, but ah well.

Can't say I'm shocked to find out who this player is. As soon as you told me your story I started running through a short list of names that would be able to rattle off those First Age names you so casually discussed. Although, I suppose an astute player could have just grabbed some names from Balator/Lyceum and made up stories, but I didn't think anyone but a true old-schooler would have found it particularly fun to do so.

I always want to thank the folks with good stories and interesting things to say for including Heralds in their roleplaying fun. I'm sad though, that the hell trip you mentioned never happened (or if it did, that it didn't end up including me.)

And, of course, there WILL be a Post article about Tavlin. I'm already having fun interviewing folks who have come up with very distinctly different stories/theories about what they think happened to Tavlin.

Oh, and I wasn't just being cheap about that information about the undead. I had already put my feelers out to the Outlanders/Fortress and had come up with what I believed was most of the information you would have given me anyways. (Which still wasn't enough to write a real article about the new undead. Ah well.)

By the time I made that offer, I'd found 3 of the 4 and had a good idea from seeing them fight what they could do. I was going to detail that all out for you. And where to buy the elixir deal and what it really did.

Ah well.

The Hell trip did happen, you weren't around and I invited Allysia but she declined because it was a suicide trip (which was sorta true but I got what I wanted and the two who did go with each got something pretty decent IIRC in terms of gear. I know one did, not sure if both did.)

Doh! You *told* me you had two, and Outlanders had told me about one and someone else had told me about another. I also already learned about the elixir and where to buy it and how to use it so I figured there was a good chance I'd be paying for nothing or almost nothing.

I was tempted to pay anyways.. I should have!

Sorry I wasn't around for the Hell trip. Due to my arrangement of an almost risk-free PK situation, I've plenty of con and am usually up for anything suicidal exploration-wise, if I have the time for it (which is unfortunately rare.)

For while I was a bit annoyed at you, since you blew me off once or twice, but then you eventually gave me a very quick and painless induction, which was nice.

We did not get to interact very much, since we'd both be out killing people when we were on, but you always felt, to me, like someone powerful and badass, but approachable. Definitely a good thing, in my opinion. You made it seem like everyone was just throwing themselves at you, though, while I am out scouring the world for someone, which made me jealous.

I am very disappointed the ritual never happened, at least the one I was around for. I had something pretty cool planned for it.

You mentioned you found a use for dissolution. Could you explain?

>For while I was a bit annoyed at you, since you blew me off
>once or twice, but then you eventually gave me a very quick
>and painless induction, which was nice.

Yeah I think we were full when you first caught my eye, but then when we had an opening I could never find you, our playtimes just didn't match up. And I was saving a spot for you.

>We did not get to interact very much, since we'd both be out
>killing people when we were on, but you always felt, to me,
>like someone powerful and badass, but approachable.
>Definitely a good thing, in my opinion. You made it seem like
>everyone was just throwing themselves at you, though, while I
>am out scouring the world for someone, which made me jealous.
>

Sometimes it seemed that way.

>I am very disappointed the ritual never happened, at least the
>one I was around for. I had something pretty cool planned for
>it.

Yeah I ended up doing it with 1 Scion and 2 apps (who both made it in due to the fact that we had 2 openings and they showed up and performed admirably).

>You mentioned you found a use for dissolution. Could you
>explain?

I cast it in a room full of mutual enemies who were already fighting each other, ala a bard singing grand nocturne at market square. Was fun.

Thanks for letting me into Scion. I was super-not-deathful for a Scion but I did manage to protect the scepter a lot and aid in a number of raids.

I really enjoyed the trip to get the mask.

I think this is the first character of yours I knowingly interacted with. You were really fun to be around, you have a great sense of humor and the character was well role-played.

I also appreciate you showing me around so much. You really taught me a lot. Wish I knew what half that gear you were wearing was though Dunno if you knew it was me or not. I tend to think I show through in my characters

Thanks again, good luck on the next.
Haeg/Rade

I know you weren't deathful (something I got some crap for, inducting someone not deathful), but god dammit you had gumption. And good RP. And it wasn't like you were leaving piles of Haeg corpses lying around. You just didn't kill like Mharlndarn. Or, you know, Brom. 20-4 Brom or whatever his record was.

But you rocked the house when it came to that Hell trip. RP on the way, yet no screwups, did everything exactly right...

I was disappointed when you deleted.

Thanks. That means a lot. I often logged in about an hour before you. Dunno if you ever snooped me as Twist but I tried to be aggressive and would often run up against Cotzibue and crew without you.

I'm working on that whole "actually killing someone" part. I tend to do pretty well with combat classes through the mid-ranks but I have a hard time with muters (the only thing I've heroed). Oh well, hopefully it'll go better next time.

You're right that one day we sure tore it up. I figured this was you a few momths ago due your hours and overall badassery. I generally tried to avoid associating with you at all in the beginning due to Lisos being a bit of a loner. I would let you know where people were or i would call on you if i knew i couldn't handle someone i had garrotted alone.

Im pretty sure you know who the player is here. The two of us together always end up to be a near unstoppable team. Running with you the other night while we were outnumbered reminded me if ozr empire days.

Can't wait for your next.

...but in Scion it seems like if there are two of you, that's a gang of another cabal, so being a loner really works there.

Every character you have ever made seems to be on the opposite align/ethos spectrum as whatever I have at the time.

I wanted to interact more with this character, but I'm glad we at least had a few decent battles. I was going to make a role entry all about you, actually, as you were a ready-made, perfect target for Ozrek's hatred of necromancy.

About that little dance in the desert with Llarilin and Vallinane: All of us really thought you were going down. The timing was perfect, as Llarilin had just lagged you with vibrato, then Vallinane came and tripped a round later. It was all just staggering lag at that point, but I suspect the anti-gang code probably would have saved you!

For those few who ever reach the level of power you had with Tavlin, I say just stick it out. The natural cycle of the game will take its course and eventually, with luck, you will go down in a blaze of glory. I truly think it would happen this way but for one thing: the continued popularity of neutral characters, such as gnome shifters. If everyone had to pick good or evil, man...what fun we'd have!

from the time you helped me with roriack to Goratha you were helpful and fun. You seemed to not even fear fighting me. You were kinda like oh its a villager lets try and kill him without my army. Then some assassin came and you just came and destroyed me. I wish i could of helped you more with Roriack though. Quick question does Twist hate scions?

I've got a single #### to give...and it's just for you.

He just doesn't trust them and won't associate with them.

Thanks for the RP you sent my way. And I really love "information" act. I think you got 3-4 kills out of that. Thank you once again.



GLWYN

And I'm pretty sure the main reason was because I never bugged you about it after I pledged. Rasay was meant to explore, and pledging Scion was a whimsy. Didn't have a roll to speak of and from the Imm comment on my PBF they got it right. However being in Scion, the times we got to run around together, and the times I got to run around with others of the Chasm made Rasay my most favorite character. I deleted because my play times got lowered and really wanted to see Scion do good with more active players.

Thanks for the induct and GLWYN

You were always on, as an applicant, and you never pestered me. So when we had an opening I decided to talk to you and you didn't suck so in you went.

I don't think any other character has made me chuckle as many times as you did. I wish I could remember specific instances as examples, but I know many a time over CB you'd comment on something and it would crack me up.

Man I hope you enjoyed how many times I just walked right into you and died. I had NO idea how to beat you. THe only time I came close, I think you had just gotten Mummy and I had a healer with me and we got you to run. I thought for a few minutes that I might be able to take you as the mummy. Man was I ever wrong.

Oh and the whole fleeing with Eyes thing, I knew that before you used it on me, so I wasn't about to stick around and let you kill me with it. At least that one didn't work. not that you needed it on me.

Overall, I think Tavlin was a good character, but Man I just didn't know how to beat you. Even if we tried to gang, it just never worked.

And for the Record, I have a log somewhere of killing those zombies from HLK. 3000+ HP's on them makes it just this side of impossible for a 1v1 battle to be successful for me. Hope you have fun with whaterver you do next and don't listen to the haters.

I look up to just about every character you play with admiration. This one bled IMM like it was going out of style. I didn't feel like Scion was a huge impact on Thera, but rather Tavlin was a huge impact on anyone to get in his way. I know you have a reputation to uphold, but this one really rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know why, I can't put my finger on it, but I felt like the sheep in wolves clothing was about to shed and turn into Cabdru. I was waiting for the moment you emerge from a journey with an IMM mob holding your hand and donning a charge building neck piece.

It all felt like this was more about numbers and rubbing our faces in it it, but that's just me.

I really do like everything you do, don't get me wrong. Tavlin was great on paper and I acknowledge that, but I didn't like it. The Zune is not for me, but it works great I hear.

Is that why you and each of your alts that I kill send me borderline offensive OOC tells afterward? Even if I didn't already know that they were your alts, your post-death tells SCREAMED it.

Oy.

I felt abused.

Looking back, it was borderline psychotic to take a game that seriously, but I hate what I'm playing right now. It upsets me how ####ty the characters are and it bleeds through. Whether people think the roles are good, but ruined by the player *me*.

I'm sorry for saying what I did. Verbal abuse is never the answer and it was an immature thing to do.

Being called a skull####er as a necro is almost IC, heh.

I'm only playing what I am now for exploration, or the hope of exploration. But it's really not for me.

Again, sorry for acting like a child.

Good luck with your next, kind sir.

When you raided I would rather strike at the nightwalker just because I knew if I did not I would not be able to do so in a day or so due to the maledictions.
When you defended I knew that going inn was a 20/80 chance without protective wands. A 50/50 chance with protective wands due to pwk and random stuff from the "army".

As for taking down a mummy as a shapeshifter, Id say that is pretty much a one way street. One drain mana halfs the time you can be in form, one scourge ensures that the shapeshifter has to withdraw when he/she has around 300 mana left or risk being "forgotten" and is then stuck in form until Death. And the army ensures that you cannot out damage you. Sort of a no win street. Sadly.

I must say I did enjoy your attempted interactions as difficult they are when dealing with shapeshifters. Its one of the things I find frustrating with shapeshifters is all the non-communication.

As a balancing act for mummies however you could remove Word of recall, you are now after all "cursed with undeath" and as with any curse it could have the consequence of not being able to recall. Still teleport but it would sufficiently decrease the mobility of a mummy/lich and make them more managable. Just a thought.

Great to see imms playing Mortals. Been a fan since 95-96 I think. So many years and breaks.! Well played char!

Cheers Umnys.

I, for the life of me... can't fathom how you escaped the two of us
except for the best luck I've ever seen. I failed my misdirect and I
was following Telax, you fled, he walked east, and I typed it at the
same time. With the misdirect lag I overshot you, after what I thought
was you dying, and couldn't come back to attack you fast enough. I
don't know if you remember the fight, but tell me... were you close to
death there?

Me=Kelarix

...and I just did. See for yourself.

So many people talk about how strong certain chars are and I'll admit
that at times... it sure is annoying to see them that way. But I'm
always reminded of the Lich Faq, by Zorz, who I used to fight back in
the day, saying something about... is the player of the lich really that
good, and he said, No, they are really just that bad. If I had landed
that kill, I would have been one of the High points of Kelarix life, but
even so.. It was still a fond memory, of the time that the big one got

Away.

IMO, Ignore the flack, only a few people can make a char that everyone
wants a piece of, and even fewer can take them down, and that is one of
the best things about this game.

ps.
212... from 2200+... FML!

Well when I log in to play for a couple hours I always stay, I appreciate you not multi killing me the few times you could have hehehehe.

And dang it that was a lucky tick for you at the Big D, I waited till after you rescued then got the entwine off and got you all the way down to writhing/convulsing (though that was still probably like 600hp) and i was like HELL YEAH I ALMOST BEAT TAVLIN. Then you proceeded to take like 2-3 con from me over the next week ehheheh.

You were an overall scary beast to deal with, even If I did get a pull off you always seemed to flee just the right way and come back with the zombie army...that time in galadon when you summoned me into the locked room with no zombies i should have given it a go but was a few seconds to slow.

Well don't let the haters get you down I think the problem now with a char like this is that there is not 40 people online in the hero pk to pool together and take you down like with istendil and the others so its just hard to play when you know for sure you will loose the fight...plus the anti-ganging code, Oh well sometimes you just WIN at cf and that is all there is to it.

Tontik

p.s. Make a villager next...no worrying about zombies, wand locations, wording while cursed......nothing but non prepping goodness ahahahahhahha

Over several characters, all below level 30, you initiated conversations with them in a very well-played manner. Even today or yesterday when my newbie was trying to flee past the warg in the weald...way to go dude, stuff like that is what makes CF.

You generally deserve the rewards you get, namely for the fact that you play the game for fun, play your roles extremely well, and usually wind up as a major presence.

Balrahd might be my favorite player, probably just because we go way back, but you're quickly becoming 1b.

Can't wait for the next!

I was like "####, would Tavlin really vamp this warg that is tracking a newbie? Seems awful paladin-y."

But then I'm like "Yeah but that newbie might be a true noob and decide CF sucks and never come back, so maybe I can spin saving his ass with something about how the yelling of that beast was irritating or something..."

(If I had known it was you I might have just let it eat you. Nothing personal, I just know you wouldn't let that sour you on CF. )

Because I was at work on Isildur's freeshell unix account porting over to the mud on telnet - basically, telnet plus bad lag.

So, essentially, you did keep someone from being soured.

But still, well played re: roleplay.

I absolutely LOVED every single second of roleplaying with Tavlin.

I also absolutely hated every single fight that we ever had. I stood no chance, but my rp was to try it alone, to best you by myself if I could, which I couldn't.

But man, the RP was awesome.

Play a Herald. That way no one will hate you.

>Play a Herald. That way no one will hate you.

Goddamn it is SO unfair that some characters get LOADED UP on mudsexx0r skills! How can I compete with Looopydoodle the Herald when Iunna hacked his pfile and gave him a 20 inch superphallus with regeneration?

I hate this game!

NT

bummer.

Could you give me some tips and pointers as to what my build (my favorite paladin build) can possibly do against liches/mummies? You just steamrolled the #### out of me, not just on this paladin but the one before it, and if you connected the dots with your interactions with Caerdryn I am sure you can guess who that was.

My only tactic at the time I fought you was simply to charge as fully protected as I could be. I had no idea what would work and what wouldn't so I tried all out assault first. One time it worked, when you weren't fully prepared, but you still came right back around and stomped me into the ground within minutes of the initial assault.

After an agonizing six to ten attempts and different tactics I ran out of ideas.

So, any advice?

If you want a necro to leave his zombies out of the fight, switch to striking them with your uber-wrath skills. Yes, you'll end up having to run because you can't take 7 undead with a necro casting at you, but you might kill one or make it really wounded, and if you get out after doing so, you "win" that round.

Whenever people realized that, I generally would leave the zombies at home and fight them straight up.

Also save vs. spell.

Tried that a few times, you always brought the boys anyway. The tough part was trying to figure out what songs would work on you and what wouldn't. Fiend seemed to be my only trump card because Echoes and str/dex stuff didn't seem to work. Amazed how many big fiends I got off on you, did you have low int/wis? I was proud that I got you twice with help and up until a few days ago you never got one of your PWK or sleeps off on me.

Actually most of your songs work on undead, AFAIK.

As for the "kill the zombies" that isn't the recommendation I'd make to the Zaan. It was the recommendation I'd make to Fort Paladin who is rocking lots of stuff zombies are vuln to.

My int and wis were at their racial max, which was better than when I was human. Keep in mind that I really had no way to get resist mental unless I wanted to remove supergroovymask. And screw that, I'll deal with a fiend now and then to avoid thieves making that target number one.

> Keep in mind that I really had no way to get resist mental

Potion.

And if you say I could've used abstraction to don flesh and then quaff a potion I'll bonk you.

Didn't know mummies couldn't quaff. Knew they couldn't eat or drink.

Lag too bad when donning flesh?

You cast abstraction, and then have to vamp (I think) an amount of damage equal to your hp - i.e. you have to suck flesh off your victims and onto you.

And then you can be knocked out, poisoned, etc. for like 80 ticks or something. And have to eat/drink.

So yeah, I used abstraction only a few times, and almost every time was so I could enter Organia.

When you have abstraction, and plagued/scourged, you cannot heal it in temples or via pills. They just do not work. So you can get uncuring plage for 50+ hours.

You used to do this to me as Brom and it drove me nuts!

Wondered if anyone did it back to you lol

...but keep in mind a mummy has a few more tricks to make it not work. The best trick, for me, was to find where they were summoning them to and go there and kill them.

If nothing else, to damage his army and/or make the army flee.

I realize most of this is simply my explanation or refuting of things people believe, and it won't likely change the minds of the rabid. But I can't control that.

Original FB Post:
Time to roll up a necro? the Archmage of Eternal Night: The Omens foretell the dark horror of the grave. The next Advisor will be a necromancer, but there are none that have pledged themselves to our cause of that guild. Be watchful for signs, my scholars.

Like • • Reshare • March 15 at 11:14am2 people like this..

Euan Cathro Well, most of it depends is Mharlndarn's player is having a drunk day or not. They might get inducted quick or they might get the quick boot!
March 15 at 12:09pm • Like.

Graham Cameron twist is rolling a necro?
March 15 at 3:26pm • Like.

Michael Cherry Sounds like a good time for Palan to come out of retirement
March 15 at 5:53pm • Like.

Robbie Bobbie Moonshine My immediate thought to seeing this is I like the idea but unless you remove the chancellor its a lost cause
March 16 at 7:06am • Like.

Tim Friese There is no reason for that low of numbers. I can't believe an imm hasn't pressed harder or appointed an advisor already that can induct.


*** Heh. I didn't even notice Graham's comment until I went back to dig up this post. That's funny. ***


FB Post when I got Advisor'd
What's going on in the world of CF? Scion has a new leader, that's what! A big congrats to: (28 Human Nec) Tavlin the Apprentice Summoner, Advisor to the Chancellor

Euan Cathro Poor sod, I have seen many a corpse of his lying about.
April 12 at 6:03am • Like • 1 person.

Rob Lighthall ‎28? Methinks that this leader will have a hell of a time trying to rank with those laurels hanging around his shoulders.
April 12 at 8:49am • Like • 1 person.

Billy Vanderbrook Grats Tavlin.
April 12 at 10:44am • Like.

James A Flatt Quite a niche he has carved for himself.
April 12 at 4:34pm • Like.


*** Hah I wouldn't say MANY, Abernyte. But plenty, for me. I hadn't played a necro since Golibedadi, 10 years or more ago. Took me a while to get a feel. ***


Cheating insinuations and accusations:

"Unfair early rewards." - I admit freely that I didn't expect to be inducted into Scion as early as I was. I figured I'd have to prove myself a bit, first. Possibly if I'd rolled Tavlin up immediately after the FB post, I would have. But it was a month later, and poor Reksah *still* didn't have anyone rolling anything up for him. I had deleted Brom, was deciding what to roll next, and went for it.

Other than the early induct and early Advisordom, I didn't get early rewards.

As for other rewards this character got:
1. RC 1st place winner prize was 2 edges. One I could have picked myself, one a cabal edge.
2. Reksah tattoo which was nice but definitely not OP compared to other tattoos I've had. Maybe it does more and Reksah never clued Tavlin in on how to activate it.
3. RoC from Davarrah (covered above).
4. Title, long description.
5. Role xp, and some xp for roleplay with Zosi I think.

To ORB: That talisman has the same prog it always has. It has always had a chance to rarely blind or soften on acid, cause immolate on fire, and freeze on ice. It was extremely rare for me to see it happen also. Plus, I don't think you see the blinding when it hits your own victim - there isn't an echo to the caster. Looking at that Mubs log from my end, I didn't notice it blind him.

Akith'weh is a great replacement for ghoul. But it is quite a bit weaker and hits less strongly. And of course doesn't freeze people when you fight them. I can't believe you complained about getting spores on a cloud giant rager. Who fled with 333 mana, crimson scourge, and 55 hp. Really? Spores?

Ritual of Abominations probably wouldn't even work on a mummy. Ritual of Cannabalia is intended for use on both liches and mummies. It does not give phylacteries. It has a small chance to increase your CON by 1 point. Tavlin gained 2 or 3 CON through it while getting about 20 PKwins or so. This raised him from 16 (with eq to take him to max) to 19 (with the same eq, so still max). At the time I gained RoC, I still had 31 practices saved up in case I started hemmorhaging CON. It didn't ever happen.

Tavlin payed 2,000 gold to get the ritual from Davarrah. Cotzibue got it for free. Cotzibue needed it far more desperately. For Tavlin it was essentially a RP device, if a dangerous one. The lag on RoC is about 12 rounds, it seems, though it seems longer when you're sitting there and notice your wraithform just dropped and you're in a locked room in Galadon with a paladin in PK who has Defiance and passdoor potions.

For all of you gibberlings who thought I had phylacteries because I had hidden zombies, help UMBRA.

Game crash. That log makes it look like I somehow crashed the mud to avoid dying.
At that point in the fight I had well over 1000hp left, I believe full ABS, and had entered "c word" immediately after failing to flee due to Ozrek's STSF. Dying would've been quite unlikely (but not impossible). However, no way in hell would I ever crash the mud to avoid such. Even if I WERE powergamer/cheatz0rr ultraextreme (I'm not), I wouldn't ever risk losing ALL my eq by having the crash happen after I died or something similar. Stupid. I was actually swearing when it crashed because I lost 4-5 of my charmie army to it (they save across crashes, but only if you are in the same room as them) and it was the third time it had happened recently. Oh and on a side note, to those speculating whether or not an IMP COULD cause a crash, yes, we can. Just logging onto the box and killing the CF process. However, this would be logged.

Mask of Anazu: I tried to get the Mask by myself 4 times, I think. I "escaped" a few of those times (fleeing past Styx Devils into the tower and even getting to die to the Furies once) but it became clear via those tries exactly what I would need, to win. I needed bigger zombies than I had been making, which required a transmuter to make them translucent, I needed invoker shields for them all (and me), and I needed Anazu to be softened and decalcified. All of that just to have a chance. I don't want to give EVERYTHING away, but I will say that I had a way to inflict decent damage that didn't require being able to cast, and that really made the difference between winning and having to flee. Also we got the mask and then I managed to accidentally fall into a deathtrap, so yeah I rock.

Oh I never meant that you had some secret word to make it do that or something. I just thought it was super rare because Mubs was complaining about it like it did it all the time.

That which does not kill us,
makes us stronger.

And you're right, it is rare - it involves failing a save that I think is pretty easy to save against.

But to be fair, like I said, you the person with the amulet don't actually see when you get the blind/soften/immolate/frozen affect. You see the effects of it after (like running around on fire, or you notice you're suddenly doing more damage, or whatever) but not the echo that it happened.

So it may have happened more times than you realized. Or not!

It's kind of a pain when the only real way I could cure your scourge was with my own poultice, that despite being cabal edged never freaking worked. Being so close to a certain shrine and not being to use it to cure your scourge...arg! Spores eating away 50+ mana a tick and poultice failing quite a bit with my feeble cloud brain...I got I think two tries before I died. So yeah, spores did actually end it for me (I could heal with berserk/warcry pretty decently and probably could have ran back to the village but I had no mana to do either or poultice anymore).

I can understand a new pet doing something cool being nice but spores is one of the core abilities of another class. It just seemed a bit much to add in another way to "drain". Its really a personal gripe that as more and more new stuff gets added to the game that the power level of chars gets stronger and stronger. Think of things like Silent Tower and how it made the top tier chars that much more deadly - giving a mummy a way to fear or get spores just made you that more scary and you really don't need to be

As I said in my goodbye, I really hope it didn't come across as that big of a rant. It was just a ####ty day for me and dying so fast and seeing ritual made me get a bit caustic. Sorry about that.

...I've been in those moods myself.

As for the fight in particular, I was surprised you didn't thirst and run for the border, especially since I was manacled and wouldn't have been able to chase very well. Esp. once you were blinded by the amulet - that should have been a saving grace for you, not a downside - you're skilled enough to run from Aryth Ocean to the Village blind.

One, scourge from a level 51 necro is nigh impossible to cure. With anything other than healing sleep. Seriously, I burned through 24 gold once when Tavlin scourged me, and I have horrid memories of failing about 90 com 'cure disease' from Nysrogh's scourges.

And two, I'm 90% positive mummies can get a fear affect from one of their core class skills/spells.

nt

>One, scourge from a level 51 necro is nigh impossible to
>cure. With anything other than healing sleep. Seriously, I
>burned through 24 gold once when Tavlin scourged me, and I
>have horrid memories of failing about 90 com 'cure disease'
>from Nysrogh's scourges.
>

With Nererial (drow shaman), I could almost always cure lich scourge before my mana ran out, and that was before I got the edge to help it. After getting the edge, I could normally cure it in a few attempts at most.

I've found that it is hard to cure it at a healer, but it seems to make a noticeable difference which healer you go to. But also, I guess I consider 24 gold to cure lich scourge as "not that bad". It definitely beats not being able to cure it at all.

And there are paladins who can pretty much remove it at will. My last one could, for example. It was what made a virtue I thought was weak, actually pretty cool.

If I'm not playing a villager or someone that can cure disease, my normal tactic is to hole up somewhere safe from scions and keep my hp up, rather than go for the cure. i.e. Wait it out.

>And two, I'm 90% positive mummies can get a fear affect from
>one of their core class skills/spells.

...it was quite frustrating actually.

>With Nererial (drow shaman), I could almost always cure lich
>scourge before my mana ran out

Not everybody's a shaman.

>I've found that it is hard to cure it at a healer, but it
>seems to make a noticeable difference which healer you go to.

Agreed. I found one that was "great". Other than that one, the next best batch took 10-12 attempts before they could cure it. The really bad ones were totally worthless.

>If I'm not playing a villager or someone that can cure
>disease, my normal tactic is to hole up somewhere safe from
>scions and keep my hp up, rather than go for the cure.

Sight of the Damned FTW, no? Keeping your hp up also requires the ability to heal yourself and/or mana. Or, failing those, the ability to cure blindness. And - oh yeah - level 51 blindness is really hard to cure as well. Even more annoyingly so if you're evil since the optimal cure blindness preps are off limits or exceedingly hard to get.

>Sight of the Damned FTW, no?

You should read help sight of the damned to get a very good hint as to how to avoid being found by it. Or maybe you already know, but if so I can't think you'd use this argument...?

Doesn't tell me anything other than "don't be around the accursed". Maybe don't be in civilized areas, but that's a total guess.

There's also the issue that when you teleport from a necromancer you're at the mercy of teleport and the number of potions you're carrying. Or, alternately, the number of times you can cast the spell before running out of mana (if you remember how to cast spells).

...and we have as many areas as we do, you have really good odds that you'll be somewhere that doesn't have ANYONE near you, let alone someone who is accursed.

It doesn't work that often, even with the cabal edge that boosts it.

And there are plenty of ways to make sure that even if it works, there's little most scions can do. If they see I'm in a cave, or in a hallway... it's not that helpful. The added bonus is that some caves and hallways are in places you can't gate or tess to, or spot from the air.

Also, if you reread the post I reply to, his statement was that only healing sleep could do anything about it. A shaman was simply one counterexample. A paladin was another.

Then I mentioned the hp thing. And since I mentioned "not a villager" the ability to heal yourself isn't major. It does rely on you curing blind (which several other characters can do -- via cancellation, say). Also, having one healing potion in your inventory can buy you some extra time to wait out the blindness. After that it's a few speckled pills or some equivalent for those with no magic or supps whatsoever.

Overall, I would say that more than 50% of characters should be able to survive a scourge more than 90% of the time. That's a far cry from "only healing sleep".

I'd put the number lower than that, but yeah- it's better than "only healing sleep".

When I got slept it was curse, blind, plague, poison, scourge then wait for those to whittle down hp. By the time I'd teleport away I'd have half health. Bind wounds would cure the plague, but that would still leave me blind, cursed and with poison and scourge. If my cure blindness potions worked then I was golden, since I carried pills. If not then I was screwed.

Said healing sleep was the best way to cure it.

I haven't died to scourge since Kruuank.

>So yeah, spores did actually end it for me (I
>could heal with berserk/warcry pretty decently and probably
>could have ran back to the village but I had no mana to do
>either or poultice anymore).

Well, look at it this way: would, say, half a dozen rounds of lag instead of the spores have ended it for you? If so, you're not really worse off than a ghoul would be.

There's also a couple limitations to the Akith Weh (which might not have helped you in this case) that I think will be discovered over time.

...greater undead on Gameplay.

Have difficulties finding them? Was Ghoul a better option than most?

Maybe just a few that day I located. I was actually ranking with you and considered you a friend with an offense/air shifter who's name I cannot even remember as I lost interest when I could never find Mharlndarn about and by the time you were advisor and a high enough rank, there were loads of scions apparently and I could never find them online to kill them and gain greater favour. I had the lynx and shikra forms and later at 43 I rolled jaguar for grizzly bear. Still can't remember the name!

Deathful as ####, dressed to the ####, you were a scary ass mofo. I'm glad when I had Urushugol I got to be on your side. It's crazy the difference of toughness between you and Cotzibue even when she was dread lady.

Anyways, fun character, funny yet evil RP. Quite a memorable one.

I'm deleting partly due to the angst I seem to be causing to the playerbase and partly because I was growing tired of the character. I try to play my mortals not just for my fun (and it has been fun), but for others to enjoy them as well. I think some of you still enjoyed Tavlin, but enough of you seemed to be put out about his "massive cheating" (see below) that I decided to give in to the fact that I was starting to contemplate deletion anyways. I had a goal in mind of breaking Hunsobo's PKwin count of 386 (or even Mharlndarn's maybe?) but it seems like it is time for Tavlin to go.

Tavlin's role was originally intended as a conjurer one - his being transported here due to a weird tesseract - but then I realized that's stupid, conjurers didn't exist in the First Age (only "mages"). So necro made as much sense as conjurer.

The general gist was a guy who was at the top of his power level in the First Age who tries a ritual to give him even more power and extend his life and somehow ends up in the Fifth Age as a weakling with no power who is young again. He decides to try to figure out what happened and maybe even get back to his former Age (and power level). The rest is in his role, and was written as things happened to him in-game. I knew that the knowledge Tavlin had of the First Age would be like a giant (IMM) flag, but I decided "Screw it, I don't care, it is a role I think would be fun to play." So I did. And it was fun. Thanks to everyone who made it so.

Re: Mummy Quest: I was originally trying for a Lich quest. I tried for roughly 2 weeks, I think. But by that time, I believe Reksah had an inkling (or downright knew) that I was Twist, and was hesitant to give me one. Also having never done one probably didn't help, as well as being busy. Also to do one you need to have help from one of the higher level imms. After a while I decided it would be better for everyone (including me, re: accusations) if I just used the automated undeath method, despite it being "weaker."

In the end, I agree with what Daevryn told me long ago - Mummy recovers from death a lot better than Lich, but Lich can become a big unkillable machine. Honestly I'd probably have deleted Tavlin earlier than this if he were a Lich - if he were more powerful than he already was, people would be even more angsty about it by now.

I'll agree with Cotzibue - 47 Necro to Hero Mummy is a huge power jump. It made the pain and agony of 47 Necro with no allies to speak of worth it.

Goodbyes:

Reksah - Thanks for everything, esp. at the start of Tavlin's life. Seems like you got really busy over the summer, so the interactions dropped off considerably, but honestly you gave me plenty so no regrets there. Hope my deletion doesn't let you down, but Obregon is awesome and I think you've got some strong presences in Scion now anyways.

Thror - Thanks for the RC rewards. Glad you enjoyed the role.

Scarabaeus - Thanks for RoC. I was tempted to say no, to avoid further controversy, but I figured that isn't what *Tavlin* would do - the guy who covets Knowledge above all else turning down an offer to buy a secret ritual? Meh. Plus, I knew it wouldn't really affect anything, power-game-wise.

Other Imms - It may sound self-serving to thank you all for everything you do for CF, but it really isn't. I'm not talking about what *I* do, I'm talking about you all. You guys are great to work with and even if we have our differences about some things, at the end of the day I know I'm not the only one who appreciates each of you.

Mharlndarn - Thanks for the stuff you gave me at various times. People who said you didn't take chances are idiots, IMO. You don't get over 400 pkwins without taking a lot of chances.

Obregon - You're rocking as Advisor from what I've seen, even if our playtimes rarely aligned. Keep it up.

Other Scions - I inducted all of you but Volker, and none of you have made me regret it. Others have (I'm looking at you, Hayooi).

Rhone - You suck. That is all.

Gurzgred - See Rhone.

Eachainn - You're doing well - one of few to actually come at me. You had a lot better chance to kill/bother me than a lot of others, because of that.

Garwern - See Eachainn.

Ozrek/Llarilin/Vallinane - I'm lumping you three elves together because you are all A: annoying to try to fight, B: smart enough to generally not stay and fight alone against me, and C: doing well as steadfast Fort-dudes.

Angynn - Class act, keep up the good work.

Other Fort - I generally saw nothing bad about any of you and quite a number of good things.

Mubs - You had a rough time against me. A surprising number of spells managed to get through your spellbane as compared to other ragers I fought. Yet you were generally not afraid to fight me one v. one. Respect.

Tontik - See Mubs, except for my spells getting through to you.

Other Battle - I typically didn't see much of any of you. A few here and there.

Sivyh - You weren't the only one that Tavlin gave advice to. It was something he did as part of his "evil scholar" bit - try to create a bit of dissension amongst his enemies.
I doubt it worked on anyone, including you.

Otuerghad - You deserved Shadow Lord a long time ago, IMO, if only due to your constant presence. And constant offering of the Oath.

Lohoq - Assassinated me twice. Bastard. It was good to have you on my side, if only for a short bit.

Zaanzorbarus - I was pretty happy to finally get the amulet from you. That amulet is a lot more nasty on a char with 2300hp than one with 1300.

Cotzibue - I kinda felt like you were a little too obsessed with proving you were just as badass as Tavlin. Tavlin IC found it mildly amusing with a bit of irritating. Once
you got Anathed, I pretty much just left you alone - you had enough enemies at that point.

Other Imperials - Generally a good job being all Imperial at me. I definitely had to avoid the horde a few times.

Ghuanrrak - You mentioned in your goodbyes that you could handle my army but not my spells. I can't remember ever actually fighting you, though.

Zosi - You rock. Great banter back and forth.

Rasst - You're scary. That is all.

Other Outlanders - For a guy who could see hidden and invis and track down people pretty well via a cabal power, you guys were generally not worth the trouble when you had powers. Seeing me enter the area, you'd generally become the only people in the game that I couldn't see. I would do the same thing in your position.

Hwelntook - Very horrible timing. Enjoy the sword.

Jitleph - You should let them make you a Provincial. Or you should demand Vindicator as the guy who took down Tavlin once (even if Hwelntook got the last hit because I worded from you with 15 hp left).

Other Tribs - I almost never hunted Tribs unless I was WANTED. I tried to make it just as much (or more) of a pain for you when I was wanted as it was for me.

Puhguly/Zenze/Allysia - We generally arrived at a form of agreement by the end, there, and it was mostly mutually beneficial.

Other Nexuns - I didn't hunt Nexuns unless they had attacked me or the Chasm. I treated it almost like a wanted flag - if you attacked me, I hunted you until I killed you and then dropped it. It didn't always work out that way, but mostly.

Skeeta - Keep rocking the Heraldic Post. You're awesome. Hopefully I make the next issue.

Lisos - It was fun running with you. That one evening we really were inspiring some dread, despite being heavily outnumbered to begin with. Rock on.

Dvalygg - Good luck with the thing in the place with the stuff. You know what I mean.

Others - I know there are probably 100 characters that I interacted with in some shape or form that were not specifically called out here. Sorry. Many it isn't that I forgot, it's just simply that I had to try to keep this from being ridiculously long. Post if you'd like and I will reply.

I had some thoughts to take you down. The closest I got I think was in Hamsah, you were mid-writhing and I was very hurt(when we were bouncing around the towers.)

And yeah, you were totally right when you called me out on that one thing. Thanks for being cool about it.

Regardless, I'm sure you know that I held you in high regard as an enemy and all my dwarven ire was good natured. Excellent job, excellent character. Though I honestly wish you didn't delete. Light is too powerful right now.

I liked Tavlin alot. Scary, yet somewhat restrained when you could have killed people and didn't. Definately rolled with some smooth rp which I appreciated.

On a side note I posted as my name and not my character even though I had the Anon field set with my characters name. Would be nice if updating the message fixed that.

>I'm deleting partly due to the angst I seem to be causing to
>the playerbase and partly because I was growing tired of the
>character. I try to play my mortals not just for my fun (and
>it has been fun), but for others to enjoy them as well. I
>think some of you still enjoyed Tavlin, but enough of you
>seemed to be put out about his "massive cheating" (see below)
>that I decided to give in to the fact that I was starting to
>contemplate deletion anyways.

Its a sad day when the crybabies can make yet another great character go away. Valg said it best in Zorszaul's deletion thread and I think it is still true.

"There is a small, yet vocal minority of our playerbase who has trouble congratulating the guy who just slammed home the winning basket for the other team".

As a player I am sad to see this deletion and even more sad because the peer group of CF complainers seemed to have a hand in this.

From a char standpoint...I saw you moving up the ranks with Uhariz and I knew I wanted to befriend you IC. Then I saw you much later with another character and you still had the domed skull brooch! The irony of this is that I was hooking Tavlin up with Uhariz (Not that you needed it) only to have to fight you every damned day with Kharvud

My last character also had a huge reason to befriend you as well though I feel you still owe said character a story and with that said you have an idea who it was.


Great char. Make another, make ten of them, and don't let the crybaby haters get you down.

He's an evil bastard, that prick. Tried going back to his own Age and renigged on his debt. I'm pretty sure he failed and died horribly though.

But seriously thanks for that and the stuff you did with the various chars I interacted with!

....you're like... the one of the biggest crybabies ever. Ever. When did you become normal? I like it.

You know, if you hadn't brushed me off as Uhariz, you probably would have been Reksah's first avatar.

You did a great job with this character. I enjoyed traveling with you. I just wish I was not so lazy and had better roleplay myself.

I enjoyed you with Illeryia and my current.

Well done as always.

Not everyone around is a hater. The game needs power characters to shot for. Makes the game more fun.

I liked this character a lot from an RP stand point and our banter, from a PK you became very hard to face, and I even took zombie fighter just to fight you. Sadly with those beastly hasted zombies it didn't do much.

On the other stuff, you are probably one of the best players still around if not thee. You bring a ton to the game and are a great presence however sometimes It can feel to the rest of us like you are the older brother stealing all the power ups in Mario bros. before we can get to them. I know it's not your fault you are better and that the other Imms subconsciously might be more apt to throw something your way, but to the people on the other side of it, can be a bit meh. I know when I saw you walk in the Mummy who has been Scion leader since his 30's and the first to discover a new cool God with their tat, whatever cool things you got from winning the role contest, fancy new undead and the mask I was just about to lead a trip to get before ya nabbed it(by yourself?), and your cool custom desc and what I thought was ritual of abominations(guess I was wrong some other perk) and the Imm is offering you a tour of that unnamed place right after the chasm gets first crack at that other thing in the works, I was like this is getting a little Monty Hall. Anyway I really did like Tavlin even if I was jealous, GLWYN and come Imperial we could definitely use then help.

"On the accusations".

One thing I didn't mention in that post is being offered a tour - just FYI, other chars have already gone there, some told Tavlin about it over a month ago. So not really anything new.

I don't know what "other thing in the works" the chasm was getting first crack at, unless it had to do with the circumstances of Tavlin getting RoC.

You bastard, you took the easy way out!

I rolled my current simply to take you down and I didn't even get the chance to fight you once...

You were so freaking Cabdru-esk (can I coin that?) in that the moment you logged on, the entire landscape of the mud changed. And it always seemed to change just for you! Allies would make excuses and log off in fear of the majestic Unicorn army marching hidden down eastern road, all you could hear was their hooves beating to the tune of impending doom.

I had this pegged as you from the start, then you started to steam roll everyone as a necromancer (not very twisty ) and your description written in that format... started believing the rumors about Tavlin being Nep. Either way you were a freaking force, and your rp was pristine.

No more deleting characters, only age and con dieing from now on despite the nay-sayers.

p.s. No more rebooting cf either! (I kid I kid!)

People didn't seem to understand a few things about necros, and zombies in particular, that I meant to clear up with my goodbye post.

1. You can generally pick up an embalmed corpse that is from a mob that was human sized or smaller. They typically weigh about 45 pounds. Then you can identify the corpse. That tells you what level it is.

2. Zombie power is based SOLELY ON THE LEVEL OF THE CORPSE. The factors that change are number of hp and dam/hitrolls. Maybe other things like saves I'm not sure, but definitely the first two. So a corpse from a level 63 unicorn is always better than a corpse from a level 57 Elite Storm Giant. Even though the giant's zombie is a size larger. (Unless you take things like parry/dodge/etc. maybe being affected by size).

Personally I liked human-size zombies because the giant ones kept failing to follow me through human-sized doors like on the way to the Village.

3. You can stick embalmed corpses into a container if it is big enough and you can carry the weight. These corpses remain with you through logout/login (as does anything embalmed) with the timer at the same point as when you logged out.

4. If you're REALLY quick, you can login, get 3.corpse girdle, drop corpse, c 'animate dead' corpse, and then do the 2.corpse 24 ticks later, and then do the 1.corpse 24 ticks after that, JUST before it crumbles.

5. Items 3 and 4 above meant that when I logged in, while everyone hunting me went straight to HLK, I calmly made a lesser/greater undead and zombie and started doing what needed done. Then I'd make another zombie, THEN head to HLK. Sometimes. I tried to mix it up.

Cotzibue told me this same thing...

But as Uhariz with the master animator edge I saw DIFFERENT level zombies, so I am going to have to disagree because with that edge I saw different zombie levels from the exact same corpses...





cons zo
Your best guess is that he is a zombie.
A zombie of an elite storm giant soldier shows you his razor-sharp teeth.
A zombie of an elite storm giant soldier is much larger than you.
He grins evilly with you.

(prompt) civilized graveyard indoor waning 8 PM cons 2.zo
Your best guess is that he is a zombie.
A few lucky blows would kill him.
A zombie of an elite storm giant soldier is much larger than you.
He grins evilly with you.

(prompt) civilized graveyard indoor waning 8 PM cons 3.zo
Your best guess is that he is a zombie.
An ominous, hooded figure waits patiently nearby.
A burnt zombie of an elite storm giant soldier is much larger than you.
He grins evilly with you.

A zombie from a level 65 mob will always give you a better starting point than a zombie from a level 60 mob.

The master animator edge gives you a better chance of having your zombie rise AT or only slightly BELOW the level of the corpse.

Without the master animator edge, you're guaranteed to (I think) never reach the level of the corpse.

Yes you'll get varying degrees still, so for instance if I animated 5 unicorns, I might see level 60, 59, 60, 61, and 58. But I always stand a better chance than a lower level corpse.

After I deleted I thought back, and knowing what I knew about Tavlin and Twist the player, I put 2 and 2 together.

Was funny, looking back. Your RP was really the best I've seen from any of your chars in the last couple years. A shame you let some speculation mess with you.

...I played under the assumption that most vets knew that by about 2 months ago or so.

What bothered me enough to follow through on deleting (and let me be clear - deleting was something I'd been considering for a while, so this isn't a sob story about how the playerbase made me delete boo hoo) was that it wasn't fair to the Imms who gave me rewards.

Nobody would've really batted an eye at the rewards I got if it were their own character. In fact some players I know would have likely bitched and deleted after "only" getting two edges for taking 1st place in the RC.

But since Tavlin was played by an Imm, and a lot of folks knew/guessed it, ANYthing that ANY imm did for him was clearly cheating, and that just wasn't cool, to me.

Even before I knew it was you.

I mean, honestly, you had a really good hook with your story. And the knowledge/skill to pull it off.

And yes, it's not fair to the IMMs. But that's the culture that CF currently exists in. You have a vocal minority of the playerbase that believe many of the current IMMs play for themselves and cheat/build their characters to dominate. These players also have the tendency to play only for themselves.

I'm not sure what a solution to this is.

PS I'm almost positive you weren't the first to use those zombies, either. Can't remember who else did, but I swear someone else did.

PPS You boob. Seriously though, you didn't tell me one dirty joke during my IC rants at you. I'm disappointed.

PPPS I'm proud to declare you gained another victory over one of my chars. That makes you roughly 2192929129-1 against me (rough estimates).

>PPS You boob. Seriously though, you didn't tell me one dirty
>joke during my IC rants at you. I'm disappointed.

Possibly the most difficult thing about playing Tavlin. Tavlin was the anti-Dupmasione. No dirty jokes, no innuendos. Do you have any idea how many Scions say something like "I will join you once I find my rod."? Argh. Resisting any comment to that was harder than trying to jump 3 RBW's on Eastern.