Mon Mar 27 01:22:04 2017

At 3 o'clock AM, Day of the Bull, 22nd of the Month of the Winter Wolf
on the Theran calendar Fithgrummr perished, never to return.

So a bit of an preface to the miniscule goodbyes I have for the short life (relatively speaking) of this character. I was introduced to CF in 97/98 by my D&D friends and fell in love pretty quickly. The only caveat was that my play time was sporadic and I was never able to put in consistent time towards learning the game. Items and areas were always of limited knowledge for me so I could never get any of my concepts off the ground because I really sucked. Fast forward to 2000/2001 where I moved and mudding was a bit more accessible (consistently). Introduced my friend to CF and mudding, spent alot of time at his place playing (we were in the country and he had a dedicated line for dialup). Started making progress as a player. Out of the blue he shows me this Star Wars mud that he found. It's different, but neat. Hard emphasis on RP, PK is restricted and harder to pull off. We went all in on this new mud, and (probably due to a smaller playerbase at the time) we actually were able to get around the learning curve for that mud with relative ease. As we moved out to go to college we started hitting up the SW:RiP more and more.

I Always looked to the forums of CF fondly and there were times when I followed it pretty closely through logs and such. Still, I got pretty good on RiP and became one of the stronger PKers on that mud, so I didn't feel the need to come back to this mud where I still sucked a lot. At the end of 2004 SW:RiP went down and I came back to CF. Still sucked. Had no friends OOC in the game anymore (that I knew of, anyway) so I kind of stagnated right where I was in experience and with the advent of WoW I started sinking time into that #### abyss. At the end of last year I started playing D&D again with a new group of people. Craving some Roleplaying between sessions about a month and a half ago I decided to log on to CF and see what was up. It took some time to remember where the hell anything was (except for the Academy, I started enough characters that I pretty much had that on autopilot) but once a bunch of it came back I felt a bit better about sticking out the learning curve this time. And here I am, one of the early year noobs back, and still a noob. I'm much older now though, so I feel like learning the game is going to be much easier now. Not easy, mind, but easier than when I had a permanent erection, hormonally speaking.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back. The game seems to have changed a bit, the pbase is smaller, but for the most part the idea is still the same. A smaller pbase actually makes it easier for a noob to learn stuff without being jumped every 10 minutes, but at the same time being jumped teaches you to be alert always, which is a winning strategum in and of itself.

Anyways, to my goodbye's:
Fortress-
Thaedan, thank you for the induct. I think it's important that new players don't feel like they shouldn't be trying to join a cabal as a new player, so I commend you for the task you set me to. Most players would laugh, but I actually god something important out of it. Keep up the good work as Captain, and congratulations on going so long with your wanted flag. I probably would have sudoku'ed on a mob just to get rid of it after the first week.

Barafel- I'm sorry for deleting so soon after you spent 4+ hours with me getting me to hero and grabbing some gear. It was difficult playing this character when I messed up so much so early. I could have spent a bunch of time perfecting some abilities to make it more viable, but I purposely didn't make a role etc. for this guy because I wanted him to be disposable. You'll see me again, just not in the same skin.

Illaeth- Tough being the only active Acolyte, but I believe in you. You are a boon to the hearts and minds of the Fortress.

Taeluin- Thanks for the Mummy rescue, wish more folks like you would have stuck around.

Most of the others that were active during Fith's lifetime have already deleted, but I just want to say the the Fortress as a whole was a great environment for such a raw recruit such as myself. Thanks to you all for that.

Outlander:
I almost ended up rolling with you guys and abandoning my apirations for Fort, after talking alot with Tsigu. Ultimately I felt that it might be too much to take on all at once (barter exclusive) and kept trucking as a paragon of good that doesn't really mind civilization so much. I'll likely end up trying for the tree at some point here, once I'm climatized.

Empire:
Kotu- Eff you! Only technically got me once, but you were a constant threat and pain in my side. Made me wish I had gone axe spec.

Polzar- Having enemies that aren't total jerks is nice for a noob, and you seemed to be one. That line "You've been avoiding me." just then was perfect. My own stupidity in running myself into a corner. I learned some stuff about shamans at least, and you weren't a jerk about it. The trend of honorable opponents has been nice, expected or not.

Heliosa- Fun banter. I kind of used our skirmishes as a training battle to learn how to get away when your opponent clearly outclasses you. It seemed from your own battlefield thread that things were rough for you, just keep coming back. I had fun with you, even though my stoic good guy RP wouldn't allow me to get too chummy with the enemy.

Glik and the rest of the Imperial Crew- Glad I never ran into you, from what I understand it would not have ended well for me.

Scarab:
Undaraxyl- You were the only Scarab that I knew was a Scarab. One was enough. I wasn't sure at first if you were just semi-trailing me or full out hunting because of the level discrepency, well that got sorted out quick. At that point I did not know the shortcut into Hamsah when the gates were closed. In retrospect I may have been able to escape and hook up with Taeluin, but it is what it is. I know it now

Battle:
Outside of ranking with a few of you sporadically and keeping an eye out for AP's and Necros for you guys we didn't interact much. Once I start to learn where some decent gear is without a magic flag I will probably test my arm at earning a hut, though.

Herald:
Aiya- Thanks for the memories. I can remember stopping in to the Inn for the academy quest and meeting you. You were enthusiastic and encouraging. Then a week or two later we were learning together with that damage bot cloud rager. Not too long after that you pulled ahead again and hit hero while I was still trailing. In any event, the kindness and willingness to help with my learning task was appreciated. The last time we talked things were a bit busy, sorry for partially ignoring you.

Entropy:
Delia- Thanks for everything, I mean it. I know I was a bit on the rude side when you came and killed Aynri, but RPwise I felt I had to. He was a goodie that I was grouped with and you attacked him unprovoked. I wouldn't be worth my salt as a squire if I didn't at least object and shun you some. That said I really appreciate you taking the time to help out new players. Fith isn't the only one of mine that you've helped so far and those kinds of behaviors are very conducive to keeping people around.

I didn't have very many goals with Fithgrummr. Exploration was one, and so was getting into Fort. I got into Fort and did a bunch of exploring, but as time grew I think I started to like my build less and less. Couple that with some early mistakes like only practicing the weapons that I wanted to spec in, and I just didn't feel like continuing with such a poor concept. I realize it's a bit different at hero, but when I consider a mob and the perfect matches at 44 are giving me so much trouble it soon felt like an effort in futility.

Already enjoying my next more than this, so look out for me on the fields.

No worries, I completely understand. Hope you managed to learn a bit from the brief amount I was able to show you.

Best of luck to your future characters! I'll point out though as you gain more and more ranks, considering mobs is rather deceiving. Just because it says perfect match doesn't mean that it'll be at all easy to kill.

Forgot Tribunal, mostly because outside of Aynri my experience with you guys was being summoned into a three way. It was my first, though, so there's always that.

Aynri- I like your character and you seem to be doing rather well. Sorry I couldn't have done more when Delia came after you. I felt bad because she was coming there to help me out and it got you killed in turn. Also ruined the levelling fun but RP takes precedent. Keep being that beacon in the darkness (You and Aeleki) that is the spire right now. I imagine it can be lonely sometimes, but as Fithgrummr found out Ishuli is always watching.

Orsil- Grats on HeroImm! I was just getting going as you were winding up, but I enjoyed our interaction as limited as it was. Right when you ascended I was going to send you a congratulations but realized that I was on an alt and you wouldn't have known me.

Hey thanks!

And congrats to you too on your first hero! It is an exciting time when that happens. Keep on trucking and learning and who knows! Maybe one day you will be a follower of my religion once I get to that point.

I am glad you enjoyed your experience not only with Orsil but the game as a whole.

GLWYN and great job with Fithgrummr!

You are so much better than my first hero ever was.

The Delia thing was annoying, but bound to happen eventually. No hard feelings. You were an absolutely beastly ranking partner.

Something you touched on regarding the smaller playerbase these days, and if I had to guess I suspect a greater percentage of rolled characters hero these days, but it creates a great sense of lived history when your lowbie groupmates are still around at hero.

Good luck with the next!

Congratulations on your first hero! Really enjoyed our interactions, you gave me a lot of time when I was trying to find a way into the Fortress and I appreciated our conversations. I was looking forward to see more of you but not to be! Either way, I'm glad to hear your onto your next character and enjoying it. Good luck with your next.

Doh! Was pulling for you. Hopefully that "task" I gave you pre-induct was helpful. That was certainly the intent.

It was! Knowing when is something I'm figuring out as I go. Don't worry, I just deleted Fith because I didn't feel like I made the best decisions early on for him and never really went back and took the steps to iron those out. I was going to delete before seeking induction, actually, but that drow shaman did me the courtesy of running herself onto my blade, and being as that was a requirement of becoming a squire I felt I should run with it anyway. I will be back in a slightly more experienced capacity playing something I have a bit more confidence in (as a character, the player still needs lots of work, heh). I actually appreciated that task much more than some other things you could have done because it got me out exploring some, and interacting to find out the things I wasn't just finding.

Keep up the good work.