Sun Sep 5 21:45:09 2004

At 2 o'clock AM, Day of Freedom, 32nd of the Month of the Dragon
on the Theran calendar Trotat perished, never to return.

I have too much schoolwork to do this term and rather than doing that in the evenings after work, I found myself in front of the computer logging into CF saying, “It can wait until tomorrow.” Well, it really can’t. Regular classes are one thing, but two independent studies in mathematics AND one regular class is a workload that shouldn’t be ignored. I sent a note to the Scion IMMs saying that I would not be around as much, but apparently, I couldn’t keep myself away. When you find your life’s plans taking a backseat to a game, it’s time to get your priorities straight.

I really like the binder skills, but damn do they break often. Like in the first two rounds of combat. People who I landed all the bindings on still got away (or killed me, Tinfalin) more than 50% of the time. Missing the blackjack resulted in my death on more than a few occasions (bleh, Golron). Gag helped infinitely in keeping the back-up away (see gag is awesome, above).

Mekantos inducted me into Scion – I don’t think I spent more than 20 hours waiting to get in, but could be wrong. Ranking was pretty easy early on, until the treaty between Empire and Scion dissolved, and then it was nothing short of a nightmare. I was between level 30-35 when Kungkruk deleted and most all the hero Scions decided to auto into oblivion. So, I’m pretty sure that the cabal was just me for a while. Heroing was a nightmare, as always, although 220 hours is a lot better than the 350 it usually takes.

I like Scion. I like how active the immortals are. Would I have liked to see some mortal leadership? Yes, though I think the IMMs are right if they are waiting for someone worthy. But come on. There was pretty much a constant string of leaders up until Jyslin deleted (March ‘04?) and since that time 0 Scions have been worthy of Chancellor or Advisor?! I had it in my role that I was looking for the Advisor position but 1) we had no Chancellor, if that’s even a req. and 2) I don’t think I was enough of a badass to pull it off. But others could have been.

Question for Scion IMMs: Is it in the nature of the nightwalkers not to appreciate the flee/knife tactic for thieves?

I heavily enjoyed being a part of the thief guild politics. I think that having four active guild leaders at one time was awesome and made for some really interesting RP. The Galadon-Hamsah guild war was awesome. At first we were getting tooled, and then Hipsin had that accident and it seemed we were on the upside while he was away. Galadon thieves do not have the combat skills to fight Hamsah thieves straight up, for obvious reasons. They had numbers at first, which made it scary, but that died out.

Oh, and thanks to whoever for the last name. I’ve never had one before. And thank you very much for the interactions with the “dark, shadowy voice.” Still not quite sure what you wanted, other than for me to kill people. Hope you find the perfect location, though.

Onto the goodbyes:

Scion:

Mekantos – I liked you watching us. Glad to see how active you are. Thank you for the induction. Curious as to whether I had a shot in hell for Advisor, seeing as you were the last mortal one. I know it’s secret stuff, so if you’d rather not say, I’ll live with the disappointment. You have my email though, if you want to talk about it.

Kungkruk – Thanks for vouching for me. As I said in your goodbye, I wish I could have ranked up faster. You effectively deleted three or four Scions all by yourself.

Zytanesis, Sashindar – I guess the death of the Taskmaster was more than you could bear. Not much else to say about you.

Sargataneos – No one in the cabal would back me up in killing you. The only reason you lived was because I couldn’t be sure that I would stay inducted had I done the deed. What I thought about you can be summed up in your good-bye posts on both boards.

Corilanth – Good traveling with you. Figured you for Chancellor but had no idea you were dying that much. You were my best ally in the Chasm, I figured, except for that one little outburst after the Jugorath incident that I took exception to.

Aytak/Vezran/Krollos – Good allies. Aytak, you need to have better timing with those shields. If you know a fight is coming and they’re at 6 hours or less, cancel and recast. Good job otherwise, though. Vezran, I thought you made a good ally. Smart, and quick with the spells. Show up more! Krollos, too bad you deleted. Your past experience in the cabal would have carried you far. Sorry you lost interest. I think you three may find my role amusing.

Liateo – Show up more. Loved traveling with you. You’ll hero eventually, I promise. And thanks for not telling about me being soft on Sylnia that one time.

Dreaa/Valkonian/Zhiljean – The new crew. Good luck.

Allies:

Qaledus – I’m sorry it didn’t work out. That was a hell of a scheme they proposed to me. I was stewing about it for days both IC and OOC about what to do and hence the email to you asking on whether a mixed breed could be a guild leader. I’m glad thieves have an active patron now. I have some thoughts and will email you per your request.

Calheil – Great job. I liked traveling with you and interacting with you. You made a good kingpin to the point that I was OOC pissed that my role involved trying to dethrone you. In the end, events were such that it couldn’t happen, and I was secretly relieved by that fact. Hearsay is that you referred to me as your “b1tch” when you got aggressive toward the other Scions. I didn’t mind looking the other way, but ouch. :-P

Hipsin – You were a good fence, that’s for sure. A great place to unload all of my ‘goodie-only’ wands, even if I knew they’d be going right back to where I got them. Sorry about what happened with your shoulder and then your plan. And sorry for decimating your ranks while you were away.

Polmier – I’ll put you down here for the 1,000 gold you paid me. Little did you know that I was planning on extorting more from you later. I liked fighting you, though I didn’t like the fact that whenever you did get me out and robbed me blind, you quit. I don’t mind losing and I don’t mind getting stolen from, but the quitting was a letdown.

Enemies:

Those lucky few who made it onto my “Do not f#ck with” list, all for various reasons: Blitzenturt, Lothorectred (as a mummy), Acaga, Rouchvien.

Blitz – Early interaction: “Is there any reason you have not taken the Bloodoath, Trotat?” Reply – “The Taskmaster would have my hide if I did, Excellency.” Later interaction: I hate that power. Enough said.

Urog – I liked our “agreement.” You have no idea how hard it was not to back up my cabal mates when they were like “I saw Urog on Eastern,” or “Urog is near the Village.”

I hope you didn’t seriously think that I would have betrayed the Chasm in order to join the Empire. Come to think of it, I probably would have done it for Shadow Lord, but not via an offer from you, even as Emperor. Likely you’d have anathe’d me right away out of spite. If Blitzenturt had thought to offer it to me, I probably would have, subsequently making most of the Shadows (including you) anathema in the process. Heh, I thought a lot about my options while bored at work and tried to keep them open IC but this one wasn’t going to pan out.

Jhishesh – Saying “Take the Bloodoath,” after killing someone is not going to win you many converts. I was serious when I told you to put more effort into it. Out of all the imperials, Urog was the only on who put more than a two-bit effort into swaying me.

Assorted Empire lowbie shadows/blades/blacks/divines – It was fun tormenting you. Other than Rakk. Ouch.

Arcaloh – I have a log I’ll post of you, a fire AP and an orc trying to gang me. It was pretty sad. Other than that, it was fun killing you.

Rouchvien – I don’t like that ‘counter’ virtue. Nothing like 3 ***DEMOLISHES*** to brighten up one’s day. Thank God you couldn’t lag me.

Golron – I hate stun. Nice job two-rounding me after I missed the blackjack, too. No, I had no idea what your legacies were. And even if I did, I’d still try to blackjack you. What else am I going to do?

Yethil, Marelin – See your good-bye. Good job.

Elsworth – Both fights I thought I was winning until you killed me. Impressive.

Kak – How could you have let me go like that? I’ll post the log. Very disappointing, not that I minded getting away one bit. Maybe you are just bad at PK, but you don’t even try it seems. Hearsay is that no one is worried about dying to you, just that you steal.

Sylnia – I left you for dead all tied up on the North Road and happened to wander back just in time to see you wake up and hop around like a little kid. I can’t even put into words how good that made me feel as a person (not character) to see that. Had to really stretch my role to do it, but I’m very glad I didn’t kill you. I hope it made your day – it made mine. Yes everyone, I’m a sorry, bleeding-heart sap.

Ailon – Good job. I could tell you were new. I had no RP reason whatsoever to spare you, but even playing an evil bastard I can’t bring myself to keep killing a new guy. I’m surprised I didn’t get booted for writing a note to Scion strongly suggesting to leave you alone. I think the mere 4 deaths you had to the cabal is testament to that.

Acaga – You are a sick giant. A touch shady, too, which I liked immensely. I enjoyed hiding from you. Respected you very much. I’m glad you didn’t bitch about me ganging you, because I think we both knew damn well that I wasn’t going to take you down solo.

Tinfalin – I respect you as well. I don’t think I ever killed you, but you sent me packing more than enough times. Great character. Even when joined in on a thumping, you still got away. I want to see what your legacies are. I hate fighting dagger specs. I’ll still call our matches a draw overall. For my bruised ego.

Tonri – I wanted a shot at you one on one. You always seemed to have someone to untie you, or worse, wake you. Unfortunately, I had pressure coming from two different places to make you a corpse. Thus bringing the odds. Acrobatics is a trip, man. (pun intended)

Mia – Rank up there. I enjoyed our fights in the mid-30s.

Yakov – Pathetic. Stop crying and take it like a man.

I don’t doubt I forgot more than a few faces, but if I did, sorry. This good-bye is way too long. Post, and I’ll reply.

Trotat aka Nivek

none

>I have too much schoolwork to do this term and rather than
>doing that in the evenings after work, I found myself in front
>of the computer logging into CF saying, “It can wait until
>tomorrow.” Well, it really can’t. Regular classes are one
>thing, but two independent studies in mathematics AND one
>regular class is a workload that shouldn’t be ignored. I sent
>a note to the Scion IMMs saying that I would not be around as
>much, but apparently, I couldn’t keep myself away. When you
>find your life’s plans taking a backseat to a game, it’s time
>to get your priorities straight.

I actually have an interest in that field as well. Well, they always say...great minds think alike. I'll try to remember to post a way to get in touch when I die off, always good to have more contacts in the field.

>I really like the binder skills, but damn do they break often.
> Like in the first two rounds of combat. People who I landed
>all the bindings on still got away (or killed me, Tinfalin)
>more than 50% of the time. Missing the blackjack resulted in
>my death on more than a few occasions (bleh, Golron). Gag
>helped infinitely in keeping the back-up away (see gag is
>awesome, above).

Agreed, agreed, and agreed. Though I think, after my four hundred hours of frustration, I've finally figured out how to use the bindings properly. Now if I just had enemies who I could get solo. People always seemed to get a help call off before I got them gagged.

>I heavily enjoyed being a part of the thief guild politics. I
>think that having four active guild leaders at one time was
>awesome and made for some really interesting RP. The
>Galadon-Hamsah guild war was awesome. At first we were
>getting tooled, and then Hipsin had that accident and it
>seemed we were on the upside while he was away. Galadon
>thieves do not have the combat skills to fight Hamsah thieves
>straight up, for obvious reasons. They had numbers at first,
>which made it scary, but that died out.

Yes, having more than just Galadon has made things alot more fun, and I knew there were a lot of people itching for a war like that. Just finally ended up with a reason Calheil'd accept. I wish you'd have taken up one of the random positions I'd created in the Guild, but I know it's more of a RP thing, and it's hard to take time to do that when you're either trying to kill/avoid being killed by half of Thera.

>Oh, and thanks to whoever for the last name. I’ve never had
>one before. And thank you very much for the interactions with
>the “dark, shadowy voice.” Still not quite sure what you
>wanted, other than for me to kill people. Hope you find the
>perfect location, though.

*snicker* I think I actually figured that one out. You've no idea how much Immteraction-for-other-people I wander into.

>Qaledus – I’m sorry it didn’t work out. That was a hell of a
>scheme they proposed to me. I was stewing about it for days
>both IC and OOC about what to do and hence the email to you
>asking on whether a mixed breed could be a guild leader. I’m
>glad thieves have an active patron now. I have some thoughts
>and will email you per your request.

>Calheil – Great job. I liked traveling with you and
>interacting with you. You made a good kingpin to the point
>that I was OOC pissed that my role involved trying to dethrone
>you. In the end, events were such that it couldn’t happen,
>and I was secretly relieved by that fact. Hearsay is that you
>referred to me as your “b1tch” when you got aggressive toward
>the other Scions. I didn’t mind looking the other way, but
>ouch. :-P

Heh, down to what I really wanted to reply for. I actually heard about that plan...though I can't remember if it ended up being you who told me. I know you said he offered, but you didn't admit to wanting to try it *smirk*. It was a sign of how much I liked Trotat that I never even brought it up or warned you about it. If it had succeeded...given the occurances at the time, I as a player would have understood, and given Calheil's role, I think he'd have taken the lump and gone on, as long as you didn't immediately blackball me. As to when I got aggressive with the Scions, if anyone took whatever I said, it was never meant that way. I'd explain further, but it probably would impact current players, so I won't even if they deserve it.

Needless to say, I was always happy to see you logged in, because I knew I had someone who had my back. Much of what I did in Guild politics revolved around *your* word, as you were both my #2 on the rosters, and representative of much of the Guild in many things. Anyways, this is still going on and on, so I'll cut it short. I enjoyed having Trotat around like few other characters, and hope to see you back in the Fields when school's done.

Calheil en'Sariyah the Bandit King

>
>I actually have an interest in that field as well. Well, they
>always say...great minds think alike. I'll try to remember to
>post a way to get in touch when I die off, always good to have
>more contacts in the field.

Please do.

>Agreed, agreed, and agreed. Though I think, after my four
>hundred hours of frustration, I've finally figured out how to
>use the bindings properly. Now if I just had enemies who I
>could get solo. People always seemed to get a help call off
>before I got them gagged.

I would be interested in discussing what you've found out.


>Yes, having more than just Galadon has made things alot more
>fun, and I knew there were a lot of people itching for a war
>like that. Just finally ended up with a reason Calheil'd
>accept. I wish you'd have taken up one of the random
>positions I'd created in the Guild, but I know it's more of a
>RP thing, and it's hard to take time to do that when you're
>either trying to kill/avoid being killed by half of Thera.

Glad you realized that there was no way I could take you up on any of your guild positions. I had IC reason to kill people in every single cabal and the galadon thief guild, so there was no position I could really take.

>Heh, down to what I really wanted to reply for. I actually
>heard about that plan...though I can't remember if it ended up
>being you who told me. I know you said he offered, but you
>didn't admit to wanting to try it *smirk*. It was a sign of
>how much I liked Trotat that I never even brought it up or
>warned you about it. If it had succeeded...given the
>occurances at the time, I as a player would have understood,
>and given Calheil's role, I think he'd have taken the lump and
>gone on, as long as you didn't immediately blackball me. As
>to when I got aggressive with the Scions, if anyone took
>whatever I said, it was never meant that way. I'd explain
>further, but it probably would impact current players, so I
>won't even if they deserve it.

Yes, I did end up telling you about the plan. Figured I should bring it to light so that in the very unlikely event that concerned parties ever got it back on track, I could do something fitting of the devious bastard I really was. Hope that was cryptic enough for the rest of them - I know you know what I'm talking about. And for the record, blackballing you would have been unlikely given the condition of the guild at that time.

>Needless to say, I was always happy to see you logged in,
>because I knew I had someone who had my back. Much of what I
>did in Guild politics revolved around *your* word, as you were
>both my #2 on the rosters, and representative of much of the
>Guild in many things. Anyways, this is still going on and on,
>so I'll cut it short. I enjoyed having Trotat around like few
>other characters, and hope to see you back in the Fields when
>school's done.

I am pleased to hear how much power I actually wielded in guild politics. I did what I could to exert that power, but I really didn't see many of the younger thieves around. I felt I was a more of a representative to those outside the guild, namely those punks from the wrong side of Eastern Road.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

>Calheil en'Sariyah the Bandit King

Trotat Dur-Chai the Hand of the Unseen.

Heh, I'm still curious about the time you stole from me and then gave me stuff back that was downright bizarre or so Iborenn felt.. anyway
Like you as a enemy I was always careful because though in direct fights I'd smash you, once you got me Bj'ed it was over most of the time

I would rather see a dead Imperial than a dead Villager. I stole a frostbrand from you which you'd have needed to kill that fire giant, so I gave it back. Don't worry, I would have jumped the winner of the fight anyway.

The only times I fought you were near the cabals, which meant in gangs. I echo everyone else when they say props for sticking it out like you have. I'm no judge but hopefully what you've done is worthy of the pillar.

Nivek

Yeah, I gotta give myself some leverage when there are two of you after me constantly. For awhile there if it wasn't you and Calheil, itw as you and Nazzryn or liateo. Yes, acrobatics is the only way to go if you can't fly and you are a rager. Otherwise, I'd die a lot more than I do. I hated fighting you just because I know I can't kill you the normal way I do most people!

Good job, luck with school.
Tonri

Had to run from four scions on easter, including corilanth and Aytak, and you managed to catch me in hamsah to finish me off. That's the one time I think you managed to kill me. Well done on the character, good luck with school.

I knew you would seek more money, but I had so much it did not matter and it fit my role since being enemies was costing me so much money.

Also me quiting was merrily a quisedance I assure you. I can recall doing it only twice and it was because I had to depart not to avoid you. For I played 530 hours in like 4 months. Not logging on was never my problem.

There goes one of the last enemies I respected. frownie. Well I thought you made a... well. Good scion I guess. You were always willing to jump in on a gank but you still respected me in fair fights often enough (Cause often ganks just got you killed anyways heh) Anyhow, good job and I'll see you in the fields.

There goes my #2. Enjoyed having you around, always knew you'd be off wreaking havoc that I could join in on if I wanted. I always let you take the blame for a lot of stuff too, just because people wanted to kill you anyways. Ah well, you'll be missed. I'm off to berate Liateo now too.